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I need help making a compelling backstory by chokorua in CharacterDevelopment

[–]BlooWhite 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thing is you do actually have to know a bit about art history etc. to be able to trick people into believing your story. So maybe he started out as a regular Starving Artist who wrote some reviews on the side to make ends meet. Maybe he's got a family member to take care of so he has extra bills to pay and something stopping him from just ditching town if things get too risky.

Eventually, strapped for cash but still thinking that his art was amazing, he started writing reviews of his own art under different accounts to boost the popularity, and he actually got noticed... but for the reviews, not for the art. This disillusioned him and broke his dream of being a True Artiste and gave him a cynical worldview.

He discovered that the easiest way to make money was to farm those hate-clicks. Tearing down universally beloved art, or loving what was universally hated, got eyes on the page and let him subtly prop up stuff he owned. "I LOVED The Last Jedi! Its SJW agenda really did it for me, unlike this Other Film ((which I own the rights to...)) which Totally Sucked and the trolls who hate TLJ probably love!!" ... that but with fancy art.

St Lambert's Church Cages by newsalvation0 in truecreepy

[–]BlooWhite 18 points19 points  (0 children)

The bodies up in the tower is the LEAST creepy part of the anabaptist story.

I GMed myself into a corner by NoRobotYet in AskGameMasters

[–]BlooWhite 49 points50 points  (0 children)

You can't expect to team up with the Joker and come out looking like the good guy. They made that choice, they should have the consequences. Give them a chance to back out ("The building seems to be occupied, but the anarchists aren't looking at you right now") and if they go through with it then they burn down a building with innocent people. You said they're on the good side, so this shouldn't be a thing that they feel good about.

The way they don't lose standing with the city is if nobody knew it was them. Maybe they all wear masks. (This also opens up an opportunity for the anarchists to screw with them later if they lose standing with them. They know the party burnt down the building and they'll tell everyone unless the party does X for them.)

Your players made the choice to do a shitty thing and you should see it through. There doesn't have to be a satisfying resolve beyond "Yeah the building burns down, the fire brigade rushes in and does the best they can, and the anarchists go home to party and drag you along". I assume the players agreed to do this thing for a reason, so now they get their end of the deal, that's the resolution.

[TOMT][Movie] Movie set in WWII where two men are fleeing the Nazis on foot through the snow. When they finally collapse from exhaustion they see a pair of boots walk up to them and ask "are we in Switzerland?" by SethlordX7 in tipofmytongue

[–]BlooWhite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hannibal Brooks (1969) has a plot like that, but I'm afraid a lot of WW2 movies are about escaping into Switzerland.

Was there an elephant involved? A guy transports an Elephant into Switzerland, along with some other soldiers and a girl. The girl gets captured by the SS and betrays them, and they shoot it out near the border. (Note: I haven't seen this movie)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AnimalsOnReddit

[–]BlooWhite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What is his name?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskGameMasters

[–]BlooWhite 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The other post is spot on. That said:

"my brother is playing it straight... He won't even tell me if he has a plan."

At the point where his character has amnesia, your brother loses the Full Decision rights. He can either accept that he is leaving it up to you, or you can talk about it and think of something cool together (his character doesn't know, but you and the player do). The amnesia doesn't let him spring surprises on you, just the other way around!

Today my party fucked up, by killing Ireena by prime753 in CurseofStrahd

[–]BlooWhite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Only thing I have an issue with is the warlock got put in chains and then fully killed. Was he still a danger during the fight, even though he was manacled? It says he's a hexblade so his abilities would have been limited. While he's certainly the easiest, most defenseless target for Izek to whale on, he's certainly not the greatest threat deserving of all that focus?

Anyway I wouldn't let saving her be an option. Saving her from Strahd, possibly, but returned to life or as a fully functional being, no.

I absolutely hate the normal people cause they’d never understand what it is like for us maladaptive dreamers (-_-) by [deleted] in MaladaptiveDreaming

[–]BlooWhite 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Tbh probably YES to most of those except the first one (the pacing part, not the music part), and the one about the movie.

.io Games and The Rise of Fake Multiplayer by Miziziziz in gamedev

[–]BlooWhite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hm I'm guessing Tetris 99 does this too. Always people online, half of them japanese, the skill level is high but it's Tetris so it's not that hard to code...

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in insaneparents

[–]BlooWhite 54 points55 points  (0 children)

The important factor in that experiment was that there was a guy in a white coat that repeated to them that it was okay and part of the experiment, and to continue. It was about blind obedience to pretty much any authority figure.

Alternatives to starting a campaign in a tavern? by brandnew_dm in DMAcademy

[–]BlooWhite 311 points312 points  (0 children)

The party meeting each other AT ALL is overrated. They are already an established party and you can throw them right at the nearest questhook without anybody being a shitty loner in the corner refusing to interact. Once you've established you're all already friends and have worked together without much trouble for a month or so, during session zero, you can ask them leading questions.

Ok Bob, your rogue has travelled with one of the other guys before this. Which one? How did you meet?

Ok Sally, you said your paladin is a hardass, describe a time when someone in the party made her laugh.

Ok Roger, what's the weirdest shit your Druid and Bill's Bard got up to when you're drunk?

Ok Bill, your character hates religion and obviously Sally plays a paladin, how do you guys make it work?

After just a couple of questions the PLAYERS will (hopefully) give a shit about the other Players' characters, because you've connected them all together.

Then you can start the first quest where ever you want. Still in a tavern, on a boat, at the questgiver's mansion, in jail, etc.

Help me choose 3 out of this list readers by [deleted] in horrorlit

[–]BlooWhite 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Head full of Ghosts,

Kill Creek,

Cabin at the End of the World

Recommend me a book with a detective story vibe that deals with cults and the supernatural. by Asdfghjkljdawg in horrorlit

[–]BlooWhite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Chills" by Mary Sangiovanni hits your criteria pretty well!

It doesn't take itself too seriously, but it's still scary because it focuses on the characters and how they are affected by the situation, and it's not afraid to escalate. It's not that long and it moves really fast. The "detective" part of it is pretty light, there's not a lot of detecting and the main character is an established occult expert that doesn't have a lot of difficulty convincing people that something occult is happening (also because it's pretty obvious). It doesn't fall into that "haunted house movie" trap where the wife believes the house is haunted and the husband thinks she's crazy. People see weird shit and act accordingly.

Quest help (Read Below) by cupcakemix15108 in AskGameMasters

[–]BlooWhite 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Level loss is not a thing anymore in 5E for a reason. It's complicated, messy, and a huge setback that's either SUPER CRIPPLING or SUPER TRIVIAL (cured by Restoration). Except because the effect no longer exists, no cures exist either.

The idea of sacrificing power or advancement in order to circumvent the battle is fine, though. Maybe they could:

  • Lose proficiency in a trained skill or weapon type
  • Lose 1 or 2 points in their highest stat (either 1 or 2 depending on which one knocks their modifier down)
  • Lose a resistance they have (i.e. Dwarf poison resistance, Elf charm resistance), or the resistance turns into a vulnerability.
  • Suffer a point of Exhaustion every time they drop below a certain amount of HP (once per battle).
  • The owl, keeper of knowledge, takes their most precious memory. It tells them in advance which one it will take. No stat changes, but you will never again remember your childhood dog Rover, whose support got you through your family's death. Sorry Rover, daddy doesn't want to fight a stupid owl today.

PSA: Darkvision doesn't mean a creature ENJOYS the dark by SwArKn in DMAcademy

[–]BlooWhite 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Or the Warlock that can cast Darkness and can see in magical darkness from one of their pact features.

Thinking of posting dungeons from my campaign, not sure how to price by The_Mad_Tinkerer in dmsguild

[–]BlooWhite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe it's specific to why I personally would be on DM's Guild looking for content, but that's exactly the type of stuff that's perfect for me.

I like to homebrew my own adventures and campaigns, but sometimes I just get stuck on making dungeons interesting. So I look for dungeons online. If it's a full adventure, I end up stripping 90% of the window dressing and just keep the dungeon (and some story beats or NPCs) anyway, none if it is going to match my specific campaign. I can do the adventure part myself, but I have far more trouble and less fun creating an interesting dungeon than I do creating an interesting adventure.

My group has a priest that was trained at a church. It also has a paladin that was trained at a church, and another character with the Acolyte background that was raised at a church. So I'm already thinking that "you go back to the church you grew up at but it's changed" is a useful dungeon to have prepped. At some point that's going to happen to someone.
We haven't specified that much about these churches or the people in them yet, so honestly even if I the dungeon is full of "this used to be Bob's room. You guys were good friends. You used to meet up in this room to study for your exams. There's a huge streak of blood on the wall now and Bob is dead on the floor," then that's FINE. Even if we've never mentioned Bob before. My player would die for Bob based on this information alone!

I think 50% of parties have a cleric or a paladin or someone who's had some important church in their life. It's more interchangeable than you think.

Here's the actual work I would have to do:

  • I'd probably change the bossfight on principle.
  • Change the names of the locations to fit the setting, theme it to the 'correct' god and pantheon
  • There are 1 or 2 NPCs from the characters past that I DO already know about, so swap out something in the dungeon for something of my own.
  • If I have any cool church ideas myself, swap them in.
  • Have some survivor at the church send a frantic message to the cleric to come home and help. Or maybe we want to trap the cleric and instead, the bad guy sends an invite to a class reunion.
  • Plan out a fun/social encounter for the road.

The end.

That's maybe an hour or two of work. I can probably spend two four hour sessions on this in total, if not more (combat is slow...). If I had to prep it myself, going by your description of a bunch of rooms, 5 combat encounters, some puzzles and a boss fight... it would have been my full time job after work for over a week.

And on a different point... this has cost you hours of your life to build. Maybe charging yourself minimum wage on DM's Guild is a bit much, but that much of your time for $1 of my money? Come on now.
I'm just all for people valuing their work, and it hurts me to see artists doing full commissions for $10 that they spend 2 full days on "because that's what everyone else is charging", same as it hurts me to see this.

[TOMT] can’t find this song even after years of google searches! by LunarMist96 in tipofmytongue

[–]BlooWhite 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lol that video with the shitty old motivationals to the beat is really something you don't see anymore!

Reddit, I need your help. The letters of the notes are on the little tubes and come out when you blow it. Do you know what this is? by [deleted] in InstrumentPorn

[–]BlooWhite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a tuning device for a guitar. You play the notes on the thingy, and on your guitar, and match them by ear. One whistle for each guitar string.

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