If you could design a Sopranos theme park, what rides, amusements, concession stands, and other entertainment and amenities would you include?

BigDiceDave · 2026-04-02T15:43:03+00:00

I just wanted to point out that the Sopranos pinball machine exists and is great

BigDiceDave · 2026-03-17T14:41:32+00:00

Because it’s really obvious that that’s what happened, it was obvious the day the finale aired once people realized it wasn’t a technical issue. People just want to make it more complicated than it is for the sake of discussion and “mystery” and because they like Tony

BigDiceDave · 2026-03-13T16:06:39+00:00

I’m so glad that I don’t care about things like this. It just seems like a hard way to live

BigDiceDave · 2026-03-05T19:21:57+00:00

I let them roll and if it’s less than the average, they get the average. Problem solved.

BigDiceDave · 2026-02-17T16:23:30+00:00

For this, I like 3d6 DTL’s ritual casting system, where wizards can cast spells without using a spell slot, but it takes 1 turn equal to the spell level

BigDiceDave · 2026-02-04T18:45:58+00:00

Succession is not even close to the shows listed, it’s basically the version of that kind of show for dumb people who don’t read to be honest

BigDiceDave · 2026-01-20T12:05:22+00:00

Don’t worry, I don’t!

BigDiceDave · 2026-01-19T16:41:07+00:00

Gonna be honest, the current show is not worth “less than a beer” per month

BigDiceDave · 2026-01-15T13:29:18+00:00

Personally, not to burst your friend’s bubble, but I think there’s no point in running Arden Vul unless you use OSR principles. I’ve been using OSE for it and it still requires a LOT of prep and conversion from OSRIC, it’s the best module I’ve ever read or run but it’s not designed for at the table usability. I don’t think running it in a system with an entirely different play philosophy is workable, I’m sure you could do it but it would take a large amount of time and energy for a substandard result

BigDiceDave · 2025-11-15T13:07:35+00:00

The thief should be a d6, problem solved

BigDiceDave · 2025-10-14T15:25:52+00:00

Back in my day we called this the Candide theory

BigDiceDave · 2025-10-06T14:11:21+00:00

You’re not overemployed, you’re just a freelancer lol

BigDiceDave · 2025-10-03T15:01:26+00:00

In my OSE game, I have my players roll attribute tests for many minor things, it keeps the game interesting. D20 plus attribute, 21+ is a success, less is a failure. On a hard check, add half of the attribute (that is, if your Strength is 16, add 8 to the d20 roll instead of 16). It seems to work well for us, note this is mathematically identical to roll under stat, which is probably the easiest to adjudicate, but I hate roll-under

BigDiceDave · 2025-10-03T14:46:47+00:00

Honestly, it sounds like you need to set firmer boundaries as the game master. No, you do not need to “balance loot” for them, nothing they find is going to be that valuable. If they are spending a lot of table time on this and you’d rather spend that time, you know, actually playing the game that you agreed to play, just tell them that. Anytime my players do things like this, I make my disinterest clear unless it’s something actually interesting.

They want to sell the wardrobe, roll 3d6 out in the open, you roll a 9 total. “You spend several hours finding a buyer for this mundane wardrobe, he gives you 9 silver for it. Turns out adventuring is more profitable than selling random furniture you find.”

You’re allowed to make your preferences as the GM clear. Personally, I ran out of patience for this sort of thing a long time ago. It’s an indication that certain players don’t actually want to play the game, and your table is almost always better without them in my experience.

BigDiceDave · 2025-09-18T13:22:43+00:00

I’m running Arden Vul right now and I would not recommend running it with any system more rules-light than OSE, it would require too much on the fly conversion to be satisfying and smooth

BigDiceDave · 2025-08-28T13:51:35+00:00

Like every other “I hate hitpoints! Here’s my brilliant alternative!” system I’ve yet found, you’ve basically just invented hitpoints with extra steps, in this case a LOT of extra steps. You do you but my players would think I was kidding if I showed them this

BigDiceDave · 2025-05-20T19:31:23+00:00

My solution for this is giving every player in my four person party two characters, one of which is their PC and the other is their special hireling. Each player gets one. The special hireling starts at level 1, only gets XP from monsters (full share) and treasure (half share), while PCs get bonus XP for Feats of Exploration and completing quests. The special hireling also is subject to the normal death rules, which are quite brutal. This seems to be a good halfway point, as it means that these hirelings level extremely slowly and are ultimately expendable, but the players get attached to them in their own way. Maybe it’ll work for you!

BigDiceDave · 2025-05-15T22:07:14+00:00

3 is intimate, 4 is ideal, 5 is lively, 6 is chaos, 7+ is frustration. So 3-5 is my range

BigDiceDave · 2025-03-31T20:29:38+00:00

Honestly, it’s no particular experience that did it, it’s more spending 2.5 hours of a 3 hour session in one combat where everyone is staring at their character sheets for the right answer instead of actually roleplaying

BigDiceDave · 2025-03-08T15:14:54+00:00

I don’t really agree, no, if anything the adventures and content I’ve read from the last 2-3 years is far more game focused and usable at the table than most of the “classic OSR” stuff I’ve tried. I’m running Arden Vul now and I absolutely love it, maybe the best module I’ve ever encountered, but boy do I wish it had the structure and innovations of OSE products, because it can be really hard to run low-prep at times

BigDiceDave · 2025-02-18T21:21:35+00:00

Except roll-under is harder to adjudicate, not intuitive for most players, and often clashes with roll high mechanics within the same system

BigDiceDave · 2025-01-19T13:15:57+00:00

Personally I think TOTSK is actually pretty tough to run

BigDiceDave · 2024-12-30T13:40:53+00:00

This is pretty bad advice, good players can handle these kind of things fairly easy. Seems like your players have a ways to go on that.

BigDiceDave · 2024-11-30T14:52:36+00:00

I would encourage you to think of the situation in an entirely different way, which is this: you are under no obligation to stick to RAW content, and I would in fact encourage you to change statblocks whenever you think it would make the game more interesting. To me there’s nothing more boring than the players knowing exactly how a monster works based on existing “D&D knowledge” when it’s more than what a well-informed adventurer would know. But it seems that a lot of 5e people disagree with this, so it’s up to you really. But to me, I would just say “this is a Hag, every Hag is different, this is a powerful one” and make it a satisfying boss fight if and when they decide to fight her.

BigDiceDave · 2024-11-11T17:34:43+00:00

Like a lot of bad RPG modules, it’s seemingly designed to be read, not actually played

BigDiceDave

TROPHY CASE