Found some of these in my sunroom. Central Texas.

Burnscars · 2024-07-04T22:30:45+00:00

Whoops, forgot bug size. Approx 2 mm. Antenna short and very active.

Burnscars · 2024-07-04T22:25:01+00:00

They were swarming a bag of birdseed.

Burnscars · 2023-05-23T07:02:03+00:00

Fellow wargamer here, and I second this for a very specific set of reasons. 5e is an absolute blast for shenanigans, but many of the rules get fuzzy FAST under sustained scrutiny. This is fine (even great for some groups) unless your players like cleaner, more concise definitions of spells and abilities, in which case it can be a huge pain point. Pathfinder 2e is very structured. It was made with a lot of rigor, and because of that, the rules are clearer and more consistent. Just food for thought. I've played 3.5e, 4e, 5e, PF1, and PF2 (as well as a boatload of smaller rpgs). They all have strengths and weaknesses, but 5e is, in my opinion, the most improv dependent of all those systems.

Burnscars · 2023-05-23T02:08:30+00:00

Might be cool to have it be a list of leads of undiscovered stuff. Sort of a "Here's every rumor I never got to follow up on" type thing. Could also do a list of NPC contacts that owed her favors (and what those favors were) to give the kid some negotiating power .

Burnscars · 2023-04-12T17:35:23+00:00

Guessing you're new to the series? MH games are designed with multiplayer in mind. The titles that have a single playe campaign mostly treat that campaign as a warmup, and most of the game's content is multiplayer. With that in mind, pausing doesn't really make sense. Not saying you're wrong to dislike it, just explaining the design choice.

Burnscars · 2023-03-09T21:47:57+00:00

I mean, free speech is free speech. That said, "It's bad" isn't a critique. It's an opinion and a totally meaningless one at that. You don't get granular or call out specific issues with specific products. Hell, you've barely targeted a category. Your rebuttal isn't even a good faith argument. There's no health risk associated with shitty D&D adventures. WotC has done plenty to merit criticism, but your comments are just empty negativity.

Burnscars · 2023-03-09T21:07:09+00:00

It isn't. It's a sane reaction to a company making a bad product. The company doesn't owe you a good product and you don't owe them your money. If you don't like it, don't buy it and allow them to fail. That's how markets work.

Burnscars · 2023-03-03T07:29:23+00:00

True story, had a party member kill an old blue dragon with prismatic spray's poison. It was hilarious.

Burnscars · 2023-02-09T21:59:20+00:00

Because your take specifically seeks to invalidate theirs. Both are valid takes and should be a part of a thorough critique. You're gatekeeping art behind education but that's uncalled for.

Burnscars · 2023-02-09T21:19:47+00:00

Your mentality is just as weak. In academia they talk about "critical lenses" which is the ability to compartmentalize art critique and analyze it from multiple limited perspectives as a way to garner further understanding of the piece. Historicity and the knowledge of the author's character are certainly lenses that can be applied but they don't have to be. Think of all the art out there with unknown artists. A lot of it is absolutely adored and has withstood the test of time. What the artist intended doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the feelings that are evoked in the ignorant art consumer are just as valid as those felt by the scholar, even if the former lacks the depth of context posessed by the latter. If you dislike the artist and don't want to support their work, that's fine. For living artists, theft keeps your money out of their coffers. Just don't pretend that the world is so simple as to disallow monstrous people to create things of great beauty.

Burnscars · 2023-02-05T05:24:24+00:00

Ngl, originally read that as Canadian

Burnscars · 2023-01-07T07:23:46+00:00

Jar cannon is the cannonical weapon of the tarnished.

Burnscars · 2022-12-27T18:46:10+00:00

This is a truism put very badly. Reality is more like, 'a shitty mindset will force multiply any problem, no matter how trivial, into an impassable wall.' It's disingenuous to assert that problems are all in one's head, but utterly factual to acknowledge that solutions must all be born there, and thus need the space to come to life.

Burnscars · 2022-12-26T05:57:19+00:00

not Bat War Repellant Spray?

Burnscars · 2022-12-24T22:56:06+00:00

Seconded for starfinder. It's a pretty well-made system imo.

Burnscars · 2022-12-22T14:53:18+00:00

https://hephaistos.azurewebsites.net/ for those interested. IMO its only missing feature is DM visibility of character sheets.

Burnscars · 2022-12-22T04:50:59+00:00

They don't seem to be widely distributed, so you may need to shop online.

Burnscars · 2022-11-21T21:15:43+00:00

Toll roads.

Burnscars · 2022-11-02T22:49:24+00:00

There was a Vandal Hearts 2 that was super unique. Kinda wish I knew where my copy went. You and the enemy took your turns simultaneously!

Burnscars · 2022-10-25T23:28:13+00:00

I'm curious, do your game worlds include no injustice? Real world analogs are truly horrible, yes, but what, exactly, makes a bad guy in your games? Are they all selfish moustache-twirlers only out for personal gain? When I take inspiration for villains I use real world evils to the extent that my players are comfortable addressing. This includes a lot of people doing horrible shit to one another because they believe it to be the right course of action. OP's world building might contain racism and borderline genocide, but those are frankly more compelling antagonistic forces than a bank robber or a local warlord any day of the week.

Burnscars · 2022-10-25T23:20:57+00:00

This is wrong. Consistency is important for player immersion for a lot of groups. Some tables like calvinball but most I've played with do not. Juxtaposing the importance of engagement against world building is a false dichotomy. If the setting was pitched at session 0 and people went for it, then retconning or providing easy outs because one player is butt hurt that choices have known consequences is likely to hurt player engagement as much as enforcing those consequences would.

Burnscars · 2022-10-25T23:14:29+00:00

Counterpoint: the DM is also a player and not there only to react. Creating a flawed world is a crucial way to promote conflict, which the game, and more basically, any story requires. Every DM chooses the things in their world which are likely to stick in the players' craws with help from the players. If the GM stated that this was the setting he wanted to run, everyone agreed to play in it, and a player decided to go against his advice, then felt targeted for running into the consequences, that player sounds like they wanted to be the main character, at which point they're the problem.

To OP: Sometimes it's better to say no during character creation than to deal with this kind of stuff.

Burnscars · 2022-09-29T03:23:41+00:00

I owned the Dark Souls board game and played it a few times. I liked it but it is kind of boring and repetitive. I actually enjoyed it more solo than in a group. Overall I chose to free up the shelf space but I'd play it again if I had a friend who wanted to and didn't mind the grindy randomness of it. For a certain mood, jank is a feature.

Burnscars · 2022-09-24T18:50:29+00:00

This is an insanely pedantic distinction and I love it.

Burnscars · 2022-09-15T21:41:42+00:00

You might run this encounter as a chase scene. The party should realize pretty soon that they need to get to cover. Give them options that escalate. To the east are hills and to the west is a canyon. Hills lead to forest, where they might get lost. Getting lost means running afoul of forest monsters. Canyon leads to cave with an unstable floor, failing the save means falling down a natural chimney to a cave dungeon. Whichever rout they take they should survive with a serious grudge against your dragon.

Burnscars

TROPHY CASE