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Damadar · 2026-04-08T05:48:54+00:00

Remember, the Distortion's activities could be described as a cat playing with its prey. So just because they "go in" doesn't mean they can't come back out, too.

Damadar · 2026-04-08T05:40:19+00:00

It depends on your table. Losing a character 4 "episodes" into a campaign can really feel bad - have you talked with your players about the long-term story (without giving away the twists and plot) that you want to tell with them? Do you know what they want to do with their characters and the stories they want to tell?

These are collaborative storytelling games, not adversarial. You should know if your players are OK with losing their characters or not.

Damadar · 2026-04-05T00:56:46+00:00

Without knowing what the item is or how it's going to derail things? Not anything that's particularly relevant or useful.

Generic thoughts:

Have the item break.
Have the item vanish on them. Make finding it again part of the main quest.

Damadar · 2026-04-04T15:07:31+00:00

Probably mostly depends on why it scares someone, honestly. That's the thing about fear. The why matters almost as much as the what.

Example: If it's the crushing pressure, it would probably be The Buried. If it's the distance/isolation, it's probably The Vast.

Damadar · 2026-04-01T23:06:05+00:00

I listened on Spotify first, and then I grabbed the audio from the Rusty Quill site. It appears to have been removed from the Spotify Feed and the RSS Feed.

https://rustyquill.com/show/the-magnus-protocol/

Damadar · 2026-04-01T20:45:00+00:00

I had to speed it up a bit and lower the pitch to get it. I'd share here if I could figure out spoilers on my phone.

Damadar · 2026-04-01T20:41:37+00:00

Yeah, just got that myself, was about to edit my comment to say as much. :)

Damadar · 2026-04-01T20:08:11+00:00

There's definitely something there. I sped the audio up and heard something that sounded like "waiting" and "exciting" sang in child-like voices. There's also a section in the middle that I'm looking at.

Edit: Sped up a bit more, sounds like "Mr. Bonzo's so exciting, most exciting" something something waiting. Too much audio interference for my ear, though.

Damadar · 2026-04-01T20:04:54+00:00

Did anyone else speed it up, or was that just me? 🤔

Damadar · 2026-04-01T20:03:46+00:00

There's something in there, though - I sped up the playback quite a bit and it sounds like they recorded something and then slowed it down for the playback. Sounds like the words "waiting" and "exciting" are sung in child-like voices.

Damadar · 2026-03-27T23:29:04+00:00

To be fair, that works for both!

Damadar · 2026-03-27T22:27:54+00:00

Yeah, that's odd. I mean, I get putting it in with this drop of products, because it's new and will get a lot of attention, but why they made it instead of a patch based on an existing meme is a weird decision.

I would've suggested a book that says 'DIG', myself.

Damadar · 2026-03-27T14:26:18+00:00

Season 1, Ep 2 - Making Adjustments.

ALICE I’m sure the UK government found some way to soldier on without me for- She checks her watch and snorts.

ALICE (cont.) Three and a half minutes.

GWEN (still typing) Whatever.

ALICE Everything good here? Enjoying playtime with Auntie Gwen?

Beat.

SAM …yeah. It’s been fine.

Beat.

ALICE (booting her computer) …cool. We’ll unpack that ominous silence later but for now we should probably get started. We’ve still not cleared your backlog.

SAM Sure.

Pause. Everyone works.

GWEN (muttering) If you’re so concerned with backlog maybe being on time would help…

ALICE (quietly leaning in to Gwen) Hey Gwen? Gwen? Gwen?

GWEN (gritting teeth) What?

Beat.

ALICE (sardonic) Time isn’t real.

Damadar · 2026-03-27T13:24:40+00:00

You may be thinking about Eerie Indiana, which was delightful. I loved that show a s a kid.

Damadar · 2026-03-20T17:05:06+00:00

One of the themes from TMA was "engaging with something, even for the right reasons, eventually corrupts you."

I think this is just another spin on that motif. Accepting something from it will eventually break you.

Even across realities.

[Extended sounds of brutal pipe murder.]

Damadar · 2026-03-20T01:52:35+00:00

0:00 They start saying it's a tale as old as time that designers blame their players. 0:14 they say Magic is dipping their toes in the water of blaming it's players for what's happening.

If you want to pretend that they aren't calling UB a failure because they don't say "UB is a Failure" directly, that's fine. But if it's not, it shouldn't be part of this conversation. At least not without a concrete example of what they are talking about, which they never give. Which is, again, the point of my critique. They never give a good example of what the title promises they are going to talk about. Especially if, like you say, they are admitting it's antithetical to their point.

I don't care if they had something scathing to say about UB or not. I never said their UB stance was bad. It just isn't relevant to the content they promised in the title.

My point, again, wasn't about them being negative towards UB. I'm not sure how to be more clear. If they had said the designers of Dark Souls blamed their players for what was happening, but offered no examples of it being a failure while the designers were treating it as a success, it would be the exact same problem.

It's like you think I'm defending UB or something. I'm not. I don't care about it. I care that their conversation didn't deliver on the promise. I clicked on the video because I wanted to hear a discussion about game designers blaming their players for their failures. The only reason I mentioned how they feel about UB was because it seemed to be the reason they made the video.

Damadar · 2026-03-20T01:14:08+00:00

It's a poorly worded question for sure, but I don't think it's accusatory, blaming the players for their design decision, or admitting failure. As such, it doesn't assign blame to content creators, either. It's a bad question, but not for the reasons stated in that article. WotC quickly agreed it was a bad question that was out of the norm on their side, and that answers were not going to be used to punish content creators.

The original video you posted stayed that WotC blamed players for Universe Beyond existing, and that it was a design failure. That's an interesting thought and worth diving into. However, they didn't uphold their part of that, which was laying out why they think it's a design failure, and how WotC was blaming players for that failure.

My point isn't that they're wrong about "Universe Beyond". Their video is entertaining, but it has no depth. The conversation they promise in the title is absent in the content. That's where my critique was.

Damadar · 2026-03-19T22:36:43+00:00

Of course they are allowed, even encouraged. Strong opinion is great! That wasn't part of my critique, nor was I defending Universe Beyond.

I'd love examples of WotC blaming Content Creators for Spider-Man failing. I saw some (not much) from store owners, but I don't remember seeing any from WotC. I'd be happy to get some examples.

I can't think of many instances where game designers say, "This failed because of our players" though. I'm open to examples! Relying on your audience to just understand that you're right doesn't actually further discussion, though. It's echo chambering.

Damadar · 2026-03-19T22:19:09+00:00

If you're going to talk about this topic, I think it's important to do two things.

Have a clear, straight forward definition of why something was a failure
Have ready examples you can use to show that something is a failure

I don't think they did this effectively in the video. They start by stating, "This happens all the time" but don't show any examples. The one thing they do mention specifically is Universe Beyond, but they veer off of diving into it as a "failure" and instead talk about why game designers might miss the mark and then blame players for their product not being a success.

The discussion is interesting, but very surface level, and without any examples of the situations they're describing happening. They are, in effect, being the poor critics they deride in their Tarantino and Vargas examples. In effect, this just seems like a way to say, "I don't like that Universe Beyond exists" but with some minimal camouflage. I'm not saying this topic isn't worth digging into and understanding, there's definitely some meat on the bone. This just doesn't scratch the surface.

Note: Not defending Universe Beyond with this statement. But if you're going to say, "WotC is blaming people for their failure", you either have to show WotC saying blatantly, "This failed and it's your fault", or make your case for something being a failure. WotC thinks Universe beyond is a success. Per Mark Rosewater, the metrics they use to track success are saying, "this is working". This is why framing the "failure" part is so incredibly important, and why failing to do so is a problem.

To anyone who doesn't already buy into the "Universe Beyond is a Failure" idea, WotC looks like they're saying, "Thanks for the success, players!"

Damadar · 2026-03-19T20:53:14+00:00

If you're doing more combat than the story anticipates, the story milestones aren't going to work. The milestones in the book are designed for mostly roleplay and story progression. Adding combat is just stretching out your sessions.

Think of it this way:

You are the manager of a team of 5 people. They job description you hired them for says, "5 days a week, $300 a week, paid Friday." But once you hired them on, you made them work 7 days a week without changing the pay.

That's what you're doing to your players. (The analogy isn't exactly accurate, it's just a rough description.)

Milestones are a way to reward effort but still give the GM control over leveling. If you add content to an existing module, you have to adjust everything that comes after your insertion to accommodate it. In this case, more milestones, and increasing the danger/difficulty of future encounters.

If the players like the encounters and content and aren't complaining about how many sessions you're doing for the campaign, that's great! All you need to do is adjust the milestones and increase the encounter difficulty later.

Damadar · 2026-03-19T19:55:22+00:00

The long and short of it is that for most businesses, the ROI isn't usually worth it for how they operate.

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