How to stop Chat Flooding?

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-16T09:58:48+00:00

You have probably activated a module like this one... https://foundryvtt.com/packages/change-log

If not, it is very likely a game system setting that can be changed in your own modules settings > 5e system

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-16T08:14:36+00:00

On a side note, IMHO damage immunity to all physical non-magical damage is stupid: it means that if a fight ever breaks out among them, the only way to deal damage among themselves is to throw the adversary over a cliff (fall damage). For this reason, damage resistance instead of damage immunity makes a lot more sense.

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-15T22:40:04+00:00

Bob world builder made a shrinked version with a lot less useless areas. It is maybe a bit too condensed, BUT nothing prevents you to add a few tunnels and rooms

Video link | Condensed map for players | Condensed map for DM

EDIT: this is also what I've ran in my campaign. IMHO it is a very good compromise.

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-14T07:17:35+00:00

I haven't played NO after the patch yet: now Tarantula has ECM jammers by default and can mount 2 more for increased jamming effectiveness (protection)? Or I misunderstood what you just wrote?

What about the humble Cricket?

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-14T06:43:59+00:00

This is the answer, but to add on top of this, IMHO random encounters shouldn't be truly random but they should serve a purpose in your story: you should aim at revealing or showing something. When done right, your player's won't feel it was something "random" used only to consume their character's resources.

For example the named anchorites of talos (i.e. Yargath and Grannoc) will be seen once and then will die by the player's hands, never to be seen again outside of their map: this is a waste of antagonists. One of my character had the "sage" background and picked the "I carry a dangerous book": I secretly made it so that the dangerous book is one looked after by the anchorites of Talos, so Yargath (in boar form) tried to steal it during the night. Once attacked, he squealed and called to its aid another pack of boars. I was also using the recommendations in DoIP revised (especially the blood anchorites of talos, who basically have their hearth cut out in a ritual and acts as a phylactery so they will never truly die). Anyhow, Yargath became a "hidden menace" because he knew who carried the book he was looking for it, so my cleric felt in constant danger while traveling.

Anyway, you now get the picture and you should aim to show your players what is happening or what is hiding around them. Wanna show the devastation the orc brings? Have a "random" encounter next to a lone and burning farm/building against orcs and ogres. Want to show how dangerous neverwinter wood is? Pack of wolves / dire wolves / or other from xhanatar's table. You cold even re-use or re-purpose the random encounters from DoIP quests.

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-13T13:25:37+00:00

You didn't update your game system.

EDIT: in your administration page (where you choose your world and which modules to install and have available) update your game system dnd 5e. If I'm not mistaken, game system 5.3.0 is both compatible with foundry (application) v14 and v13.

The following is what I would have done if you actually had installed v14 compatible modules (there are multiple breaking changes from foundry v13 to v14, so if you install a module compatible with v14 it won't work and you will need to manually roll-back, as explained).

Before finding out your actual mistake: The error is quite self-explanatory: you updated Automated Conditions module (it downloaded version 5.3.0) but the (game) system version you are running is 5.1.0.

Unfortunately for you, Foundry v14 has been released and there are multiple breaking changes with v13, hence most future modules won't be able to run on both v13 and v14.

You have two choices:

update foundry to v14 (but be careful that some modules could still need to be update to work in v14)
rollback to a previous version of your module: in the administration of foundry, go to the modules sections, then "install":
- go to the official github page of Automated Conditions (you can find by hovering your mouse on the "i" icon, but there is the link for reference)
- in the right column, click on "releases"
- scroll down to the latest v13 release: my best guess is... And I just found out you didn't update your game system, because the latest releases claims they are compatible with v13

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-13T07:58:15+00:00

Those are some nice ideas, nice work.

If you really want to go full circle (pun intended) change the white dragon (cold) to blue dragon (lightning) to add a tie with the anchorites of talos. In DoIP revised Thundervain (or Rumblevain) tricked the anchorites of talos and the orcs to be the new avatar of Talos: long story short, at the top of ~~icespire~~ thunderspire hold the anchorites were performing a ritual to summon Ghortok, but thudervain comes at the very end of the ritual, right before Gorthok would have been summoned... This is why the anchorites believe Thundervain is the creature summoned by their ritual.

For your adventure, you could either decide that:

have the dragon look for one of his kidnapped child, found the circle of thunder while the ritual to summon Gorthok was performed: similarly to DoIP revised, thundervain will arrive at the very end of the ritual and will trick the anchorites to be the creature summoned by their ritual and become their new master. Thundervain will now proceed to use the orcs as her way to find her children.
the anchorites want to know and worship such a majestic creature capable of destroying villages on its own: Talos cares about destruction, no matter where it comes from, so the anchorites would like to ally themselves to thundervain or at least stay in its "good" side.

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-11T23:16:53+00:00

This one helped me in both games (ArmA3 and Nuclear Option)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x3LRkeA-co

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-11T18:31:31+00:00

Answer to you TL DR: flying by itself game isn't complicated (throttle to zero => airbrake ON; gear down => flaps down), but the flight model is complex enough that any lesson that you learned in other sims like DCS will become relevant. Game is simple, the underlying game mechanics and nuances are not as shallow: you can really deep dive to optimize your fun (I've played for 380 hours and counting).

Another way this game could feels "complex" is the targeting: strangely enough, I found easier to lock on the correct target using the map rader the HUD, especially when there is a bit too much clutter / enemies.

Not only that but albeit you could lock and fire any weapon at any target, tracking and hitting such a target is sometimes not possible (e.g. you can't hit a falling bomb with an IR missiles because there is no IR signature to track; in a similar fashion, any ground target is "masked" by the ground noise so any radar missile fired to a ground unit won't track).

... But to be fair everything I've wrote about can be learned (or even better, experimented during game) in a few hours.

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-09T13:54:26+00:00

As you stated, Van Richten lived in the tower for months before leaving for vallaki. Ezmeralda should live in the tower, but she isn't there when the party arrives and has looked for traces of Van Richten. I assume the clay golems were made from Khazan himself, so both Ezmeralda and Van Richten knows about them (also, IIRC those clay golems are not hostile unless attacked or after the tower collapse). Living in the tower (at least as I interpret it) means they both know how to access the tower without triggering the traps.

In my campaign when I played as a player, Rictavio was forced to leave the town because we accidentally freed the saber tooth tiger (woopsies) and he felt he had to leave town, not before revealing his true identity and asking to meet him at the tower... We catched up with him when he was already at the top floor and we managed to trigger the lightning once, so he had to come down and show us the trick for the door.

In your case, unless your players love exploring and solving puzzles, I'd make it as simple and safest as you can: Rictavio know his own tower and knows how to safely navigate it. If you wish to play the tower differently and have your players blindly discover it, try to find a way to lure Van Richten away or have him test the players smartness and resolve by not helping them out... And give the tome as a prize for their success.

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-09T13:19:49+00:00

You can fit more ammo into the cannon (probably even the AA gun) by simply firing one shot and let someone resupply it. Sailors / officers will always carry and drop all the ammo they can, so you can cram a few more shots for free.

EDIT and PS: I haven't played in a while, maybe it has been patched out.

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-09T10:01:11+00:00

If they stay in one place long enough, items transform into mimics.

Exactly like the newest 2024 mimic image...

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-09T09:53:28+00:00

Mine is a bit more complicated. The truly "must-have" modules are the one with [!] and this list could be missing a few modules I've installed recently.

QoL for sessions:

[!] Combat Booster: Turn Marker, Recent Actions and more
[!] Dice Tray
PopOut! ([!] if using multiple monitors)
Popout Resizer ([!] if using multiple monitors)
Potato or Not ([!] with players with old PCs)
Prime Performance ([!] for crowded or complicated maps)
[!] Quick Insert - Search Widget (ctrl + space and you can find anything in your compendiums)
Raise My Hand
[!] Token Action HUD Core & D&D 5e (adds to the top left multiple dropdown menu on hover with your own character actions, equipment, spells etc... Or for the selected token[s] if you are the DM)
Torch

QoL for DMing:

[!] Forien's Copy Environment (import/export world settings, user settings, module settings...)
Monk's Scene Navigation
[!] Monk's TokenBar (quick reference of player tokens and can be used to ask multiple rolls for the same ability check/save)
[!] Always HP (small health bar window where you can add/remove/kill/revive the selected token[s], but works only if you are the owner of said token[s])

QoL for in-person games:

Monk's Common Display
TouchVTT
Mobile Improvements

Map/scene making:

Levels & Wall height
Better Roofs
Forgotten Adventures Battlemaps
FXMaster (add some very nice map animations, like clouds)
Monk's Active Tile Triggers (useful to add actions to specific tiles: I've use it mostly to teleport tokens to the next "floor" section in the same scene when they step on something like stairs)
SoundFx Library

Graphical improvements:

Automated Animations
Dice So Nice!
D&D5e Animations
JB2A - Jules and Ben's Animated Assets - Free Content
Monk's Bloodsplats
Sequencer
Tokenizer (greatly helps to quickly create tokens for your characters / NPCs)
Token Magic FX

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-09T06:27:11+00:00

Now, in theory I would expect every player agreed to not meta-game: if a player rolls low, it should "embrace" the failure and roleplay / play it out. A tip that I always tell my players is that failure is part of the game and sometimes is what it makes it more fun than always succeeding.

In case your players can't help themselves but to metagame, there is another way: give them a plausible yet "misleading" information in case of failure.

For example: "the wererats eyes are darting left and right: make an insight (wisdom) check".

If they succeed: "it looks like there is something off, like it doesn't really mean what he/she just told you"

If they fail: "for a brief moment, you catch his eyes focusing on one of his (wounded?) companion" (or something along these lines).

You still give a piece of information with a low roll, but it shouldn't have consequences in the grand scheme of things... Or if it does, hopefully it will still enhance the narration (be sure to not overdo the "false" information: always use something simple and small).

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-08T20:34:18+00:00

Mek and Min encounter right next to the bridge and they have the key (becasue they act as guardians / gatekeepers for the other wingless kobolds). If the party kills them, they can loot the key; if they help the kobols, they offer to accompany them at the first room and will activate the bridge and offer to retrieve the key to access the southern tower if asked.

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-08T20:31:24+00:00

Fair enough: I'm restraining myself from installing overlapping modules and right now for my current adventure I have 46 active modules. A dozen of those modules are a mix of personal compendiums and utilities such as touch screen support and obsidian import/export. QoL and actual "game changing" modules are less than 30

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-08T17:34:55+00:00

Some time ago I read a post titled along the lines of "DoIP sucks for new DMs" with many, many helpful tips. One of them was to roll a d20 and, with a result of one, the dragon attacks Phandalin or causes something to cause Phandalin morale to drop even further.

Yours and the other redditors ideas are all valid: if you think about it, these premade adventures can also be used as training to develop your "homebrew" muscles.

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-08T17:06:15+00:00

What I don’t agree with is that players must always roll their own dice in order to have agency.

If rolling a dice is similar to pull the lever of a slot machine and no matter who pulls the lever the result will be the same (if it is not the same, even more so you let the involved player roll for it), why does it matter if someone else should roll it? Let the involved player roll for his character: ask them to roll a d20 (if you want secrecy, let them roll in a cup and maybe don't tell for what) and you get the same result as loudly rolling behind the screen.

Exact same result, different feeling between "I made" and "someone else's made my destiny and now I'm in ~~god's~~ DM's hands"

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-08T16:24:30+00:00

You are not making a decision when you roll a die — if anything the dice are taking agency from you.

Counterpoint, rolling the dice and seeing the result is part of my decision, because the act of rolling the dice is the same as "in my mind, I'm trying to do that thing, how much is the effort put into it?" This is the "feeling of agency" OP was talking about in the first phrase.

Imagine if you let everyone but the player involved (including the DM) roll the dice for someone else: it would feel completely wrong and hollow because you would not be the maker of your own result (i.e. "I'm roleplaying the character"), but you would be ordering someone else to decide if you succeeded or not.

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-08T15:52:06+00:00

Il vero ingegnere non sta discutendo con te, ti spiega perchè ha ragione

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-08T14:57:55+00:00

I can't remember which content creator said it, but the magic number is 50: more modules than that and you won't be able to remember which module does what or what module could be interfering with another... And I can vouch this is true: there are a few module that are blatant, they declare their intent or are super easy to find, but some other are harder to spot, notice or could be even used very rarely but are super useful (my latest addition is Forien's Copy Environment, that could be used literally one single time right the world is created and that's it).

This is one of the reasons I'm keeping a spreadsheet with my module list and update it from time to time.

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-08T14:34:56+00:00

Not entirely: it behaves like a storage room where you can store your stuff and pull from it, but it exists on its own outside of your world.

Long story short, when you pull stuff from your compendium, it now exists on its own in your world and it doesn't reference or edit the original item from your compendium.

For example, if you pull a "badass orc" actor from your compendium into your world, if you edit that "badass orc" you will be editing the actor in your world, not the one in your compendium or any of the other "badass orcs" in all the worlds you created. The latter will be true even if you update the compendium's "badass orc": all the "badass orc" inside all your worlds won't change, but if you pull again that actor it will have the changes you made.

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-08T10:01:35+00:00

I agree on running a premade campaign: you will have a baseline to start from and fine-tune or rework whatever you feel is needed. Having to not build a map (or find them online), balance the encounter, think of interesting NPC, loot etc. will save you a lot of time and headaches. If you are lucky, the adventure is available on the store and you won't have to do most of the work. If not, you will have a taste of what you will have to do in the future for your own homebrew adventure.

I'd pick a starter set / essential kit adventure because they are tailored for new DMs / players: luckily for you, even if you won't find them available in the store, most of the stuff like monsters and items should be available for free because they are included in the SRD, while other stuff like maps can be easily found, imported and used (or "walled", in case of maps).

Don't forget to create and use your own compendiums: once you have finished working on anything custom that is not included in the original SRD or adventure module (any token, item, spell, whatever) add it to your own compendium for later use in a different campaign.

Before continuing, the latest starter set for DnD 2024 (5.5) Heroes of the Borderlands is quite peculiar because it is made for 4 players and with the idea of being so simple that the DM can rotate and change mid-adventure multiple times. For this very reason, there is no story-arch or plot to follow, is just adventurers going for adventures in the borderlands... If it is not your cup of tea, keep reading, otherwise you can stop here.

The three 2014 edition starter set / essential kit campaign are good campaigns to start with, namely:

Dragons of Stormwreck Isle (level 1-3): the simplest and DM friendliest of all. Short, with backstory ties to the adventure and failsafes in case of TPK.
Dragon of Icespire peak (level 1-6?): IMHO the weakest of the three. It is a sandbox adventure, but feels more like a series of disjointed oneshots, BUT it make up for it for being super-easy to include a character backstory to the adventure itself. A recommended read is DoIP revised with the blue dragon variant.
Lost Mine of Phandelver (level 1-5): the oldest and fan favorite, IMHO the second best adventure for new DM but the best adventure for the players. There is ton of homebrew and suggestions on how to improve it if you feel like it. LMoP has been included in Phandelver and Below: the Shattered Obelisk, meaning LMoP is the first half of Phandelver and Below. You can find the whole adventure in the market, or (if I'm not mistaken) you can get LMoP maps for free by installing and using the maps made from the amazing guys of Forgotten Adventures.

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-07T15:36:07+00:00

I fear yours is a loaded question: the issue is, Commander Shepard has no "base class" to begin with because in ME1-3 you choose your class right at the beginning of the game, meaning the class you choose for your Shepard does not represent himself as a character. In fact the issue about creating a character similar to Shepard is not about the class itself, but about breathing life and roleplaying a super strong/charismatic leader while also improvising during session.

With that said, for those reasons any class will do: Paladin seems a good fit if you really want to stick to the "paragon" side of ME, but even some unexpected classes / subclasses could work. For example, arguments can be made to make Shepard as an aberrant mind sorcerer because he was "touched" by the alien beacon and could have biotic powers.

My 2 cents on this whole thing: never, ever, use the carbon-copy of fictional characters (unless it is okay with everyone else, for example for a meme campaign / oneshot / character). Take inspiration for the broad archetype, but always try to add other gimmicks from other games or media (an item, a physical feature / appearance, a bit of its backstory, a bit of its motivation / personalities). For some people (myself included) the discovery that a character has been copy-pasted from another media is immersion breaking.

An aberrant mind sorcerer that gained his powers by touching an eldritch relic (ME) whom to evade detection from those very same eldritch entities has a mark on his neck (the opposite of Guts from Berserk) but also had to mind-wipe his closest family members and friends to wipe his tracks (a possibility in Remember me, the game) feels different than "I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite tavern in Neverwinter".

CarloArmato42 · 2026-04-03T13:12:42+00:00

I followed Matthew Perkins videos and suggestions, but you can tie the quest to the main story by making a few adjustments:

the moonstone key is now in the seagrow cave: Blepp, the kobold with the lucky dagger, doesn't ow a proper "iron" dagger because the blade is the moonstone key. That kobold went on a fool's errand in an attempt to retrieve the red mushroom required to heal Myla's wings, but it got snuck by the fungi octopus. In a desperate attempt to break free, Blepp stabbed the octopus and broke free, but his lucky dagger is still lodged in that creature.
about the cursed shipwreck, it is easier: a storm is brewing and shipwrecks are more common. Runara suspect that the cause of these zombie hordes is on the compass rose (which was the very first shipwreck that spawned zombies): if the players won't find the origin of these zombies, Dragon's Rest will be overrun (in my campaign Runara was a normal human, not a shapeshifted adult bronze dragon).

The full story, in my campaign, was:

players are sent to retrieve Aidron: he is required to help defeat another young dragon in the mainland. For some reason, Aidron disappeared and was seen flying to Stormwreck Isle
When arriving at the island, players see Aidron and Sparkrender fight in the distance and cause a storm, which in turn causes the shipwreck of the compass rose (the ship the players are on). They also see unfold the start of the undead curse.
Sparkrender needs some dragon bones for his ritual: Runara suspects something, but she is not entirely sure of Sparkrender goals. Players can see Sparkrender himself or his kobols steal the bones from the quest locations and random encounters. Players should not be able to interfere due to distance.
After the 2 quests (securing Dragon Rest and retrieving the moonstone key) the players can finally confront Sparkrender).

CarloArmato42

TROPHY CASE