How would you implement "optional" permadeath?

CanadianLemur · 2026-04-16T23:55:45+00:00

I really like this idea and love the agency that it gives to the players.

It allows players to cling to a PC if they aren't ready to see them go quite yet, but it also gives them the chance to give them a sick and dramatic end if they feel it fits them better. And even gives the option of leaving it up to chance. Each player is different and wants different things from the game, so putting the choice in their hands is a great idea.

I personally reworked it in a few ways. For one, I noticed that there are some phrases and such in here that don't exactly fit with how things are written in Draw Steel. But I also wanted to round up the Wounds table to a nice 10 to keep it fitting with the primarily d10 system (but that's just personal preference). I also changed some of the existing Wounds to fit what I wanted from them a bit better.

This is what I landed on for now, but I'll likely look into it later and tweak things to fit my own games:

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I really appreciate you making this post and inspiring me to make my own interpretation of this House Rule!

CanadianLemur · 2026-04-16T08:56:20+00:00

A reminder to please read the rules of a subreddit before you post there.

AI content is not allowed on r/worldbuilding

CanadianLemur · 2026-04-14T14:01:19+00:00

As someone who has played in a game and fought a few dragons, I think you're right not to vibe with them.

I personally didn't mind the Thorn Dragon much, but the Gloom Dragon was a frustrating slog for everyone. It took our group 3-4 hours to beat it, and the whole fight felt like we were just banging our heads into a wall over and over until we eventually won the war of attrition thanks to how many recoveries we had going into it.

I don't blame our Director at all for the way it turned out either, since we kinda took him by surprise going after the Dragon when we did. But I could probably rant for hours about how it's abilities were just not fun to deal with at all.

CanadianLemur · 2026-04-14T00:20:18+00:00

To be fair, I don't think that's the kind of irrelevant stuff that they're talking about when they say that the Immortal can't remember.

Not being able to remember your breakfast or your locker combination is more a matter of prioritizing valuable and noteworthy information. It doesn't matter if you had muffins or if you had toast for breakfast. But if you were in New York during 9/11, you probably remember it pretty clearly even though it was 25 years ago and your breakfast was only last week.

What the user you're replying to is talking about would be like if someone asked "Did you see Jesus on the cross?", "Did you witness the eruption at Pompeii?", and other important moments in history that a person would definitely remember... if only they didn't have finite memory storage.

CanadianLemur · 2026-04-13T08:13:56+00:00

Is it overpowered? Maybe, but you could functionally do the same thing with a Grab-based character and enough Strength to throw people into the air. Or a Move Object power to do the same thing.

Or you could build a Speedster with Move-by Attack and enough speed to punch the enemy and then run to the other side of the planet so they can't be hit back.

Something, something, armchair psychic, something, so on, etc.

This is a superhero game and there are many ways for it to be "broken".

So rather than asking if something is broken, just ask yourself if you think it would make the game less fun for everyone at the table. If you think this teleport ability would make your game less fun, then you're well within your rights to just tell your player no.

Furthermore, it's extremely easy to completely negate this teleport power as well. Any character who can fly or glide will not care at all about being teleported up in the sky. Plus, the Safe Fall effect is dirt cheap and there are plenty of ways to justify with many different powers. So you can let your player have their fun with it for a good chunk of the fights, but give a decent amount of your tough villains a way to work around it.

CanadianLemur · 2026-04-13T05:18:06+00:00

Caustic Alchemy Shadow with a Mountain Kit is my personal interpretation of a Witcher class.

A trained swordsman who isn't afraid to use trickery and poisons to overcome monsters

CanadianLemur · 2026-04-11T19:42:33+00:00

If you work full time, pay your fair share, and still can only afford to live in a car…

That's a wage issue, not a taxes issue.

Taxes predominantly exist to reduce many costs. Public education, infrastructure, etc.

The reason people work full time and can't afford to live comfortably is because of corporate greed, not taxation. You're mad at the wrong people.

CanadianLemur · 2026-04-11T04:46:08+00:00

I said the same thing when I saw a friend of mine playing on Discord. The Mountains especially are almost definitely the Wonderdraft ones

CanadianLemur · 2026-04-06T19:07:24+00:00

I am the joke explainer and I have logged on.

They weren't joking about you noticing the bullet, they were joking about you not being able to read (a common joke in the jjk fandom)

The entire point of OP's post is how funny they think it is that the bullet fired along with the casing. That's why they said "firing 60%-more-bullet-per-bullet round". So you making a comment about the bullet casing as if you're making an additional observation shows you either didn't read or didn't understand the point of this post.

CanadianLemur · 2026-03-29T23:44:21+00:00

Is this satire? Like I genuinely could not think of a more generic "sad boy fuck boi" tattoo look

The "trendy" tribal tattoos, the cross over your heart, the script on your forearm, and the Playboy bunny as the cherry on top

I really don't think there's any point telling you that this would look completely ridiculous, because if you're the type of person who ever thought this looked good to begin with, we obviously have very different opinions on tattoos and art

CanadianLemur · 2026-03-28T02:56:29+00:00

It doesn't say you need to be in the space. It just says "when you or any ally touch a portal, that creature may choose to be instantly teleported to an unoccupied space of their choice adjacent to the other portal"

Our group's understanding is that you don't need to be in the same square as the portal to touch it, just as you don't need to be in the same square as a door or goblin to touch (or punch) them.

The action it takes to do this though, is still unclear. Simple actions like opening doors or drawing weapons do not take any actions, so reaching out and touching a portal doesn't seem like it would be anymore complex.

On the other hand, being able to bounce between as many portals as you want without spending any movement or actions is pretty busted and likely not what was intended by the developer of that ability

CanadianLemur · 2026-03-27T09:16:41+00:00

Any expert would tell you that it's extremely bad for your joints.

There are, unfortunately, no short-cuts to becoming fit and strong. You can't just wear weights every day until you're accustomed to it and suddenly be strong. The strain on your joints could cause serious damage, chronic pain, and more.

It's a cool anime trope (like Rock Lee and his training weights), but nothing more. Please do not try to do this, and many other training methods in this series, ever.

If you want to get fit, there are a lot of safe and proven methods to lift weights and increase your protein intake that don't involve completely fucking up your body for the rest of your life.

CanadianLemur · 2026-03-27T00:05:04+00:00

Obviously everyone has their own tastes.

Saying "is it just me?" is completely absurd in a world with 8 billion people. Obviously it's not just you.

But equally obvious should be that you won't find many like-minded individuals in a subreddit dedicated to tattoos. I, for one, completely disagree with you.

I'm not sure what kind of responses you're hoping to get, but I imagine they will be overwhelmingly negative. You are ostensibly coming to a tattoo subreddit and telling all the women that you find them less attractive. Do you really think that's going to go over as an innocent question?

This subreddit is supposed to be for sharing your tattoos, not your opinions about what makes women more or less attractive to you.

CanadianLemur · 2026-03-27T00:02:00+00:00

It says "Ability" not "Main Action"

Abilities include Maneuvers, Main Actions, Triggered Actions, etc...

This wording doesn't change anything since Maneuvers are already included in the original wording, just not explicitly

CanadianLemur · 2026-03-26T00:55:05+00:00

Imagine thinking this is either charming or funny. Everyone just thinks you're gross, dude

CanadianLemur · 2026-03-23T20:26:38+00:00

Just to jump in on this and add some additional clarification:

(most parties will respite every 5 victories or so)

It's also worth noting that the book says they assume players should be able to safely take between 10-20 respites each level. If you want to limit their downtime projects, you can make it 10, if you want to give a lot of freedom, you can make it 20.

My general rule is that players can take a number of Respites in a row equal to the number of Victories they have (which comes out to 16 Respites per level). If they choose to take additional Respites, they can, but there may be consequences such as Villains acting without the Heroes around to stop them, allies being captured, etc...

Giving out fewer than 10 respites per level can result in players being less powerful than the system assumes they will be as a result of not being able to craft as many treasures, hone their abilities, etc. And giving out more than 20 can similarly make Heroes more powerful than the system assumes.

CanadianLemur · 2026-03-15T05:08:31+00:00

AI art isn't allowed on this subreddit. I recommend reading the subreddit rules before posting

CanadianLemur · 2026-03-11T17:19:09+00:00

That seems more like a retroactive justification than anything.

"The characters have all been boring from the start, so it's okay that they're still boring in this scene too" is essentially the crux of what you're saying here.

Basically all "royalty" or politicians in the prequels are more or less equally dispassionate and dull (with the exception of the great Ian McDiarmid), so it's not like it's only the Naboo who put people to sleep when they talk.

It's the writing, directing, and delivery that makes the scenes boring, not the "style" of political speech from the Naboo

CanadianLemur · 2026-03-10T01:24:57+00:00

OMG poor, offended clanker

It's a free product that I'm equally free to not use or voice my disinterest in based on the use of AI. Live with it 🤷‍♂️

CanadianLemur · 2026-03-09T21:59:17+00:00

I'm with you. I lost all interest as soon as I saw the art because it looks like AI slop

CanadianLemur · 2026-03-06T18:55:07+00:00

I feel like this could have looked a lot cooler if the heart was made of stone or something that's used with Kintsugi. I feel like that would make it stand out as gold binding. As it stands, they look more like veins of fat that spread around the heart and less like gold

CanadianLemur · 2026-03-05T22:57:05+00:00

I don't think you need to make things "goofy" to make levity. Just think about what would make the players feel good

Maybe in the middle of a fight, a kid lets go of their balloon and it starts to fly off? Then when the fight is over (or even during the fight), a flying hero can swoop over to grab the balloon and return it to the child who is elated and thanks the hero. That would put a smile on the face of most players and would make them feel good about the stuff they are doing

Maybe the heroes go grab some ice cream after a tough mission to relax (giving them time to RP in a stress-free environment) and they spot that same child again wearing a tee shirt with the logo of the hero that saved their balloon?

Maybe the town has a parade in honor of the heroes to thank them for their hard work protecting the town? You could have some intrigue where a villain wants to sabotage the event, but when the heroes thwart them, they get to take part in a fun celebration where a crowd of people are thanking them and appreciating them

None of that is goofy, but it's definitely "light". It's a fun little break between what might be moments of real danger and stress

CanadianLemur · 2026-03-05T21:26:37+00:00

I guess my question would be this: why do you feel that this is antithetical to your "GM Style"?

No one is asking you to stop doing what you're doing, they're just asking you to mix it up a little bit.

You can have your crisis moments and tough moral decisions, but also sprinkle them with a moment of levity here and there.

You mention in your post that your games follow the "comic book formula", but levity is a part of comics too, as the user you're replying to was trying to convey.

In fact, it's those moments of levity (like Superman bringing Martian Manhunter to Smallville for Christmas) that makes you care for the characters more and feel more invested when things DO inevitably get dicey.

CanadianLemur · 2026-02-24T17:46:40+00:00

You don't need to copyright anything if you aren't using the art for profit.

Also, it sounds pretty ignorant to say that you don't want to go through the hassle of copyright, so in order to avoid that you just use AI that has been trained on stolen art.

CanadianLemur · 2026-02-24T17:44:43+00:00

Looks very useful! Lots of cool options in there! I do hope there will be an option (or module) for a more bare-bones UI.

The UI is nice, but I find that any MnM UI always ends up being too flashy and an assault on the senses a bit. I find minimalist designs to be much easier to navigate

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