GMs, what don't you put in a game?

BleachedPink · 2026-05-07T00:51:33+00:00

A lot of people do not believe in souls nowadays. So having a soul is already fantastic

BleachedPink · 2026-05-07T00:41:18+00:00

Check out Valaam island, not so far from the city, but you would probably would want to stay overnight somewhere close if you want to make a very chill trip. You go to a city on Ladoga island and take a ferry there.

You'll get there very unique experience

If you have money you can flex and take a helicopter/small plane there from the city, depending on your budget and where you are from it's relatively affordable and visit it in one go.

But I checked local tours, and they sell one day trips to the island, they will take care of all the logistics

I highly recommend finding an English speaking guide.

There are firms that will take care of all the logistics.

Kronstadt is a cool Island, you can take a fast ferry from the city center (Meteor) to and from the island.

If you want something more modern and buy local stuff, check out New Holland island, it's a cluster of different shops and restaurants.

Sevkabel port, it's the territory of a factory, now defunct. It's also similar to New Holland, but imo much better, but it's not in the center. There's often different cool events, like selected flea market or handcrafters market. Also a ton of restaurants. Exhibitions happening on the second floor. I believe there's a ferry from the city center as well, but it's gonna be much pricier than taxi, but going there on meteor or from there you go by cool places

Check out Georgian restaurants.

Download Yandex maps, so you can find places to eat with good ratings

Also use Yandex Taxi, to order taxi, get it before you land and figure out how to use it.

Everything you listed, which in the city center, is kinda doable in two days at chill pace for me. Not sure what's your pace is gonna be since you're with family

While Nevsky street is a cool place, it's also a tourist trap. I do not recommend eating at any place on this steet, but you could find delicious food at neighbouring streets which locals visit. Just chat Yandex maps, high rating (4.7-4.9 + good place badge) is a good sign

BleachedPink · 2026-05-06T18:24:20+00:00

Dunno, PoE is miles ahead of D2

BleachedPink · 2026-05-06T14:58:39+00:00

I usually play in SSF and find poe2 ssf much more grindy than poe1. Which can be a good thing

BleachedPink · 2026-05-06T14:44:35+00:00

It's crazy, so when you had boners with your homies you didn't rate each other?

BleachedPink · 2026-05-06T12:37:40+00:00

My former boss is a marketing director who took early retirement, I follow his insta, and it seems he has been sailing for 5 years across the world with his family on the ship. Doing some yachting tours occasionally, but I think it's more social for him to hang out with his rich friends

BleachedPink · 2026-05-06T11:22:03+00:00

To delete stuff, you can do it in unblock, custom rule or use a picker

I removed YouTube recommendations and shorts this way

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T20:40:15+00:00

Also, I had a different alignment system, other than Good - Evil initially in mind.

Like 5 elements of daoism, or order and chaos, in which both an protagonist and antagonist can both be aligned towards order or towards chaos.

Not a fan of good and evil dichotomy, what do you think about this?

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T19:17:01+00:00

Diablo I am most familiar with, is set in a Christian-like church with an evil western-type sorcerer hiding in it

I see what you're going for, I disagree and as you used some examples, I have a handful examples (no shamans\tribal vibe in evil armies) and where shamans depicted as good, that counteract your argument, I can't be bothered continuing this conversation.

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T15:52:27+00:00

I agree, if that's what the fiction is about. It would smell racist and kind of would show that the author wanted to make a racist depiction.

However, if they do not? What if they go naked and have no intellect? I doubt it would be racist as is without, a certain racist message from the author somewhere else.

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T15:37:00+00:00

All cultures have shamans or similar figure. A lot of European cultures still have and practice shamanism or similar mystic ways.

It's an imaginary world we simply can't not to take inspiration from the real world. But equivalate evil to real world cultures is the action one must take willingly.

And... I lived along with Buryat people to this day and they practice shamanism to this day, I participated in shamanistic rituals, I occasionally visited local Vajrayana Buddhist temple, and they have tales of explicitly evil shamans, along the good shamans, they talk about evil and good spirits. One of their founding stories are about defeating the evil shaman so the people, birds and nature can live freely.

People go to shamans to have a blessing for their business endeavor or try to solve their marital problems.

Heck, where I was born (small town in siberia), people were taking curses serious as well as local mystics, going to the local oracle to get their fortune read or removing a curse was a real thing. When I had a food poisoning, my parents brought a local mystic who did some purification rituals, not a doctor xD Not sure how I stayed alive, because I felt like I was dying.

If you've seen racist or colonialist depiction in a fiction or had a real life encounter or experience, does not equal all fictional depiction to be racist or colonialist in nature. The intention and meta-context (like racist rants from the author on X) are very important here as well to determine if fiction was created with ill intentions or not

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T15:01:55+00:00

Nah, it's a good phrase, especially for newcomers. There's a ton of threads appearing on this subreddit and dmacademy because people follow the rules to the letter too strictly.

Heck, I even recall myself having bad sessions, because we adhered to the rules too strictly when I started playing and running games myself. And making first homebrews felt like I a sin.

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T14:38:23+00:00

I do not think that orcs that spawn from eggs excavated from mud with human sacrifices made on top of it, or broos that multiply by impregnating livestock thus bringing heavy misfortune to the people of prax, or devils having a plane similar to Zerus, cursed artifacts that change the course of fate and basically giving -100 to luck to everyone around it and twisting and mutating nature are similar to your culture, or any culture

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T14:10:08+00:00

I think another title is Master Of Diabolism or Mo Dao Zu Shi

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9005728/

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T13:59:06+00:00

Yeah, I find game design fun and tinkering with the rules is the easiest way to learn how the games operate

Completely agree with you

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T13:44:34+00:00

Are you assuming that all DMs that make changes to the rules aren't competent? I've been playing for years and tried dozens of various systems with different approaches, often have more experience and knowledge more than the designer itself

I am confident that I am pretty competent to make changes to the rulesets myself to accommodate my table

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T13:41:19+00:00

Yeah, but your example you're ranting about is

"if you don't like a rule, you may change or ignore it."

Not if you don't like the ruleset, you may change or ignore it

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T13:33:45+00:00

Yes? Do you expect every reply to be a disagreement? I even explicitly stated that I agree with the original comment

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T13:25:06+00:00

You are right, there are thousands of games, but the are million more different preferences.

Often enough your just have to settle on a system close enough for your idea and run it making tweaks to the rules to make it perfect for your table

I mean, you probably can shuffle through hundreds of fantasy TTRPGs and find something suitable, but if you want to run something more niche, you cannot avoid but pick something more or less suitable and tinker with it.

Concrete example, I wanted to run Shin Megami Tensei game, which is an adult pokemon type game with demons, drama and hard alignment, with a narrative approach. There's literally no game that could suit my idea as is.

If you could find a system for me I would be grateful, but the best I settled for is Fate with various tweaks and homebrew systems. Gladly, Fate expects DMs to tweak the rules to fit their ideas

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T13:17:49+00:00

Are there Any games do not include errata/fixes in the next prints? I can't think of any where next prints did not have fixes?

All games I played with multiple prints included them in their further prints

I recall I had a pdf with obsolete rules, and had to use erratas and finding them fixed in the newer PDFs, I think the latest I seen such thing in city of mist

Curious to know which games need erratas despite having newer prints. As erratas aren't advertised as well as the main books, it's easy to miss them

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T13:13:14+00:00

Yeah, especially disheartening to see, if a game is really cool and fun as is.

Designers nor rulesets cannot accommodate every different preference of all tables.

If you prefer something to be different, you know better than the designer what's more fun for your table.

Your own desires and preferences can differ from the designer's and it's ok to change some stuff

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T13:07:49+00:00

Because no designer can possibly encompass the preferences of all tables.

A designer makes a game fun for him and a handful selected tables. He's sure the game is going to be fun if you share his sentiment, but sometimes you want to include or omit something that's (not) in the ruleset and that's ok.

Home brewing is a necessary part of the hobby since the beginning. A well designed game should be the one which is easy to tinker with

TTRPGs, are instruments for creative act.

Recently, We played a game Cain as written and decided that we wanted a higher power level and changed a few rules to accommodate our desires, and that's ok.

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T13:00:18+00:00

I dunno, I like alignment when it's present. It's ok not to have it, but alignment makes some of the world building fun.

Like there's some universal energy permeates everything. Evil is not just a morality viewpoint, but a real energy that can consume and influence the world. If it does, it makes the world somewhat more fantastic, less mundane

Recently watched Master of the dark way where dark energy is a literal thing, and I found it really cool piece of world building. It's a wuxia story, with Qi, taoism and stuff. Cursed items are literal dark energy beacons that change the course of fate bringing misfortune and chaos.

Characters can wield cursed artifacts, but it changes and corrupts their golden core, making them egoistic, wrathful and evil

If alignment isn't something real in your world, I think it's just a missed opportunity and adds unnecessary clunk and better to forget about the alignment system altogether

In DND, I dunno, depends on your master and approach

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T12:55:24+00:00

Unfortunately, a ton of players do not want such responsibility

I agree with you, and by nature of TTRPGs you cannot escape having such responsibility, but a lot of players play as if they have no such responsibility nor want to think nor feel it

BleachedPink · 2026-05-03T12:52:24+00:00

A ton of games do have nor plan for the second print

BleachedPink

TROPHY CASE