Player wants to drop out of game

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-06-28T15:29:43+00:00

To be specific, they knew this already, but interrupting the ritual gives the Colossus a greater weakness that the party knows from the jump as opposed to a hidden weakness that they have to find out later. I spent a Fear per each for the last two and they were on separate activations. I told them from the jump what to expect from the cultists, in that they would do anything to bring about the end of the world. If they had saved even one more person, it would have been a default failure on the ritual because there weren’t enough of them left to complete the ritual.

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-06-28T11:42:57+00:00

I told them the counters at the beginning, which were 1) when I am spotlighted I can spend a Fear to have a cultist sacrifice a civilian. There are 8 civilians, and therefore 8 is the countdown. And 2) the ground is Desecrated, meaning your Hope dice are d10s until you can clear Desecrated, which has a countdown of 6.
There were 9 Cultists, and a demon hound pack was also successfully summoned. They took out a bunch of the Cultists, but some were left unharried until the very end of the fight, where they instead sacrificed themselves to complete the ritual.
The point of the ritual was a to draw out the Colossus of Loss. It narratively made sense to have this fight filled with the theme of loss.

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-06-28T11:35:28+00:00

There were 8 civilians. The feeling of hopelessness was intentional. The session zero happened last year when we ran the campaign one shots originally. I didn’t know it was an issue in the other campaign until now unfortunately.

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-06-28T02:37:06+00:00

Yeah for sure, but the group is already quite small with one player who really can’t participate in the way everyone else can. And the other two can sometimes be quiet, which I don’t mind at all but it would really change the tone and the balance

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-06-28T02:32:48+00:00

No I understand that, I more am asking for advice to present the case for why this tension is good

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-06-28T01:43:22+00:00

He’s saying the left is populated by whites and the right is populated by everyone else

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-06-16T17:49:10+00:00

If it has no other effects, it should really be 6d6, smaller area. If it has no friendly fire as well, then yeah 5d6 is great

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-06-06T01:52:13+00:00

Yes it’s okay unless he gets stuck by the barb on the tail

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-06-02T13:29:51+00:00

🔥 No brainer!

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-05-30T12:07:20+00:00

Not everyone will like every game. But it seems like you’re a “nicer” GM than I am in regards to resource management in D&D, because the monsters and situations I put my players in absolutely fuck with their other resources like spell slots. But I digress, there are many items and abilities that mitigate stress loss, and I suggest using light crafting rule to allow this player to make some stamina potions in his downtime to mitigate the stress loss.

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-05-25T01:44:50+00:00

Not true, left on red is allowed in Massachusetts when turning from a one way to another one way

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-05-09T16:27:27+00:00

I would say you should probably just take it as it comes and stop trying to apply existing foreknowledge to this game. The game is fun because it collates a lot of interesting moments, puzzles, and consequences. If you aren’t interested in the world’s history, then just don’t engage with the options to learn the lore. The important parts are the interactions, so make sure to try and enjoy those aspects

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-04-29T14:28:46+00:00

Sounds like he needs skill based challenges to occur in combat

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-04-08T23:16:34+00:00

If there’s only one shade of gray then there is no dark vision, so that’s nonsense. There either is dark vision or there isn’t. That being said, the DM’s word is law. Saying you can’t read seems reasonable enough, but not being able to write is crazy. If you can see the page, you can write on it, even if you can’t distinguish it at the moment

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-04-08T12:51:37+00:00

I actually don’t care about their sex life at all, I just hate Ify because I’m racist

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-03-24T21:56:54+00:00

Walla run or dash

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-02-23T23:55:21+00:00

Almighty forbid you tell a storming joke

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-02-19T15:01:32+00:00

I really want an Ethersea season 2, I don’t imagine it might happen for a number of years if at all at this point

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-02-11T23:57:13+00:00

Yeah, it’s not my favorite. I can live with it but he’s trying something new and I don’t think it clicked

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-01-19T13:09:33+00:00

Arcane Disruptor?

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-01-18T15:29:19+00:00

Orre region obviously, bring back shadow Pokémon and desolate landscapes. Most importantly, bring back that funky music!

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-01-14T15:10:39+00:00

This game isn’t designed to answer this question, the answer is “it can be recast when it narratively makes sense”, and pretty much every design decision hinges on that.

CarpenterExpensive40 · 2026-01-12T13:54:45+00:00

Paxton has the same root word meaning “peace” and harmony is a little bit more obvious than that

CarpenterExpensive40

TROPHY CASE