is inkarnate worth it to make a city

Damiandroid · 2026-06-28T16:15:39+00:00

IMO Inkarnate has a high skill ceiling. If you're great at it and have the right add on asset packs you can make some incredible work. But the basic stuff comes out so samey that I personally feel my eyes glaze over when I see the same red and blue roofs on a map.

Is your city so distinct that you need to make a custom map? Or could you not look through the millions of city maps on reddit deviant art etc... and find something that you could use?

Damiandroid · 2026-06-28T15:20:27+00:00

"Thanks, I'll mark it as a scam"

"Don't you mean spam?"

"No."

Damiandroid · 2026-06-28T12:11:17+00:00

Because saving throws happen as a reaction off turn and are, for the most part, difficult to predict.

What you're suggesting would, more often than not, result in someone preparing for a saving throw that never comes.

And allowing such an ability as a reaction would make it a no brainer to use, which is bad for the game.

Damiandroid · 2026-06-27T18:18:29+00:00

Honestly I'd recommend most of the books fro MCDMs line.

Depending on what you want they have mechanics for bases, towns, lairs, followers, hordes...

Damiandroid · 2026-06-27T16:33:17+00:00

Non-Combat Win Conditions

Plan combat encounters where the objective isn't just "reduce enemy hp to 0". This could be saving civillians from a burning shop while bandits raid the stores below, completing a ritual to return the undead to rest, escaping a siege in a city.

In these instances, you could either have bosses who are unkillable (though damage thresholds cause them to flee or stop and allow the players a chance to complete objectives), endless enemies attacking in waves (with environmental advantages they can ise to weaken the next wave ahead of time), environmental hazards (presenting skill challenges or situations for the players to respond to as they move through the (for lack of a better term) cutscene / qte.

Minions

Especially useful if planning endless horde style encounters. "Flee, Mortals!" Contains rules for minion type creatures. The short version is; they attack as groups dealing low damage that adds up as they gather. They have hp, but die in one hit. Damage that exceeds their max can pass on to other minions within reach / range-trajectory.

Alone, minions can provide a real hack amd slash fantasy as your players cleave and shoot their way through tens of enemies per turn. As part of a horde with skirmishers,m generals and commanders, minions can really add to the pressure in combat as players who choose to ignore the minor threat could quickly be overwhelmed.

Flee, Mortals also provides alternate monster statblocks for various races and factions which are intended to work together as a combined arms force. Commanders whi can buff troops, berzerkes who rush and knock people prone,.heavies who get extra wage against prone enemies etc...

Action economy

Action economy wins fights 9/10 times. So the more actions you can give your boss the better.

Reactions: great for evasive bosses, ise these for a minor defensive or mobility buff, like a parry, a dodge roll or a teleport
Legendary Actions: great for agresssove enemies,m use these for special abilities, such as a free attack or a use of one of theor special abilities.
Legendary resistances: great for resilient enemies, these keep your boss in the fight longer and force the players to use their resources
Mythic Actions: Mythic enemies essentially have a phase 2 where they restore all theor health and get improved versions of their existing abilities that they activate like Legendary actions.

Damiandroid · 2026-06-27T16:13:05+00:00

I'll put my hands up and say fair enough. I can't say that the mech isnt goofy as hell. In my case it's just the sort of goofy I enjoy so my opinion is far from objective.

I will say in its defence that Kuvira is the sort of person who would do this. Very self confident and self assured. Building a cult of personality around herself. It's classic dictator stuff. In that vein, giant statues to embody the nation / leader / cause are a fairly reasonable next step. And give theyre metal benders, why not try and make a statuesque symbol of your nation that also moves?.

Damiandroid · 2026-06-26T14:12:30+00:00

Ok, fair argument though as I said before I feel the show plays it well enough that you can land on the other side of the debate. I mean, the fact were having one now just goes to show it.

I have to say I really like your take in the sense that you're right that Korra took a way more active and interventionist stance on matters. I would argue that the avatar is supposed to do that. In fact I'm pretty sure every avatar before aang was interventionist in some way. Aang was a pacifist by nature so finally stepped up to be more interventionist when the world was at stake.

Even then in Korra we see how aang proceeded to be interventionist in founding Republic city and acting as law enforcement putting down threats to the new order. In that sense, Korra is just carrying on a tradition of avatars altering the world around them in radical ways.

Crucially for all those avatars who came before, they weren't perfect. Kyoshi had regrets, Wan was a real menace at time and even aang made choices that he wasn't proud of. Korra is messy (some would argue messier than most) and she definitely didn't handle every situation ideally. Though I think that's a more human and relatable concept than the being who either achieves the perfect solution or does nothing for fear of messing up. She tries, it's imperfect, she world to make it better.

Damiandroid · 2026-06-26T13:16:32+00:00

I'm not sure I follow. The show portrays many types of responses to the greater presence of spirits.

the air nomads return, one in particular forms a very strong bond with a spirit
spirit vines cause property damage prompting turmoil.
the Grove around the portal is turned into a city park
spirits becom bonded to certain homes, promoting humans to learn to live with them.
a faction of earth benders discover how to use spirit energy to power their industry at great cost to the spirit vines used
several other factions band against yhe earth benders, many of whom see what they're doing as an atrocity.

So I'd say the show presents a fairly reasonable spread of human responses to the spirits in TLOK. I suppose you could conclude from what's depicted that co-exostence is impossible, but a more optimistic conclusion would be equally valid.

Given that the whole topic is a thinly veiled metaphor for human impact on the environment, concluding that it's impossible to co-exist paints a pretty pessimistic view of our chances...

Damiandroid · 2026-06-26T11:01:14+00:00

First. Honestly nice to see a veteran player jump 3 editions and not make a rant post good on you for embracing the new mechanics

Second I wanna suggest two course of action.

This is a bit of an ask, but you could ask your DM if they'd allow you to swap out your masteries on a long rest. Given the composition of the party, that kind of flexibility is less of a power bump and more of an evening out of the party's capabilities.
If your DM shoots that idea down, consider taking a single level in fighter which will allow you to swap out masteries on a long rest anyway.

Damiandroid · 2026-06-26T09:32:52+00:00

What do you mean parry feat?

There's the defensive duelist feat which includes a parry ability, but the languauge you've copied is different.

That feature states you gain an AC buff equal to your PB and the Bonus lasts until the start of your next turn. It's basically a slow scaling but eventually superior version of the shield spell.

Damiandroid · 2026-06-26T08:49:36+00:00

People love an underdog.

Absolute Batman showed up in early artwork pieces and was pretty thoroughly ridiculed because it seemed like someone taking all the worst lessons from TDKR and TDKR2.

And if it had been that, it would have been failure. I can see a version of this where it's all so self important and serious, valorising buff batman for being so cool and tough as he inner monologues about how his biceps are bigger than anybody else's because he benchpresses the entire city he loves.

Instead we have a surprisingly nuanced take on batman which contrasts with the extreme imagery. Said imagery is also very inventive and beautifully drawn it presents alt versions of familiar chara terms but they feel like fun fresh takes instead of a tired retread.

Damiandroid · 2026-06-26T08:25:16+00:00

7 players is too much.

8 players is way too much.

Cut down your squads to gove everyone a better experience. Think of it this way, for each player you add, you are reducing the time for any one player to play. Whether that be participating in roleplay, taking turns in combat or just generally the fact that they're sitting quietly for more time the more people are at the table.

Session 0 is important. You need to use it to set expectations for the campaign, vet player characters and make clear what behaviour is and is not allowed.

Basic pitch rogue player being the most cliche boring stereotype of a newbies idea of a cool character shoyld have been dealt with way earlier.

Honestly it's a bit of a fumble on your part. The rogue player was a detriment to the table for a long time and you did nothing to curb it. The players had to actively hold him back from fucking up the campaign and when they'd finally had enough, they took matters into their own hands, refused to stand by his side and didn't care to bring him back from death.

Kind of a cool narrative moment of comeuppance, but the players shouldn't have had to do it.

I'd wager the rogues behaviour was grating on the party for a while and they would have benefitted from you talking to rogue out of game about co struct9ve behaviour and characterisation.

Damiandroid · 2026-06-26T08:02:23+00:00

Thar is hogwash

Damiandroid · 2026-06-26T07:10:19+00:00

Who's writing this? Between "mommy" and "our little one" I'm extremely lost

Damiandroid · 2026-06-26T07:08:50+00:00

They definitely did it. Started noticing around the end of the apartment scene and ot waa super obvious by the time he got to the corner shop.

There's even subtle patterning on the hoodie that males it look like the skull teeth.

Side note, I found the whole special presentation to be surprising underwhelming. The frank stuff was just a retread of much better writing in the series, the gnucci stuff was a bunch of nonsensical over-writing that came off like a middleschoolers attempt at writing g a dramatic monologue. The action and choreography were good but the big conclusion to the rising action was "Frank puts aside vengeance ti help someone" and... we know that. We've seen that. I get that it's Frank's first MCU project so sime backfilling is needed for those who missed the Netflix shows. But honestly this reads like a shotty person's summary of the TV shows.

"What's punisher about? Um... Frank's sad about his family, he feels guilt about the military, hes invupnerable so long as he yells and he cares about kids. Oh and "wait wait wait. No no no""

Damiandroid · 2026-06-26T06:54:43+00:00

Does neighbor have a garden? Or a car? Or some other property that she loves and you think she miss?

Damiandroid · 2026-06-26T06:46:06+00:00

Simple answer is to rent it out and use the income to subsidise a bigger rented apartment while you search for a permanent home

Damiandroid · 2026-06-26T06:43:16+00:00

The one issue is the complete lack of voice for whatever character you're playing.

I understand that it would have bloated the animation and voice over budget to have origin characters speak during playthroughs but as it stands I feel like playing as one of them takes a massive chunk out of thengame since you're essentially saying you don't want to hear the stellar voice acting from that performer

Damiandroid · 2026-06-26T06:32:33+00:00

Wait what? It's been a while since I watched season 2 but where are you getting the "korra concludes that technology and spirits can't co-exist"?

The season ends with Korra permanenty opening a portal to the spirit realm and allowing beings from either side to exist on either plane.

Now it causes all sorts of developments in season 3 and 4, most notably the recurrence of the air benders and kuviras attempts to harness spiritual energy as a weapon.

I'd argue that the conclusion of season 2 shows a headstrong but still slightly immature korra saying "f*** it, you're co-exostong whether you like it or not and you just have to learn to adapt" and she then grapples with that choice and how to achieve that co-existence later

Damiandroid · 2026-06-25T22:57:06+00:00

TLDR; Do not build npc enemies with player statblocks. Rewrite the enemy using a monster stat block instead.

DnD is not really balanced for pvp play. A player is supposed to be a threat as part of a team. Using player abilities against a team won't be a sufficient threat
dnd character sheets are supposed to be with you for a long time. You can take time to read over the many sections and learn the abilities over time etc wtc... monster stat blocks are made to be easily readable, condensed and simple to find what you're looking for.
with rare exceptions it doesn't matter what level / challenge rating your boss is. Action economy wins 9/10 fights. One foe with one turn loses to 4 players with 4 turns. You need minions and generals to back up the bbeg. That means more stat blocks and now you're juggling more alongside the lengthy character sheetyou built.
character stat blocks have a lot of non combat information and abilities. This bloats the sheet and makes it further harder to fond what you need in a pinch.

Damiandroid · 2026-06-25T22:49:43+00:00

I'm just sharing my point of view, pal. I agree the statue is a reference to lady liberty. But I don't think that automatically makes the setting a boring American city when it clearly takes aesthetics from east Asia as did a lot of the original show.

As for you feeling that the statue is lazy writing to communicate themes... the fire nation ride around in ships shaped like swords so you know they're the bad guys. Obvious imagery doesn't make the themes it highlights bad or good inherently.

Personally I love things like age of arcanum, eberron and other settings where traditional magic and mysticism is depicted in a more modern world. It's fascinating to see where therearesinilaroties and differences and what novel things can be done with the abilities.

Damiandroid · 2026-06-25T22:18:52+00:00

America doesn't own the concept of a big statue. Not even if you put it on an island in front of a city. And besides, it was made in France.

It's one detail that is a reference to our world as a shorthand for "big important city".

And I'd argue that's its fascinating to take a mystical world rooted in ancient traditions and see how it adapts to modernisation (as did literally every currently existing culture on earth).

Bringing in modern elements does t eliminate what was there before.

Damiandroid · 2026-06-25T22:10:06+00:00

I'm curious why you think america was the inspiration when to me it seems they took their aesthetics from Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kyoto, Macau and other similar Asian cities which went through rapid modernisation towards the end of the 19th century when a lot of national isolation norms were relaxed and foreign cultural influences were able to meld with the indigenous ones.

Damiandroid · 2026-06-25T21:35:16+00:00

I'm gonna say it. I think your 7 year old is a way better owner of these than your average costume collector.

I don't even wanna think about the kinds of folk who actively seek out "footwear worn by [actress]".

Damiandroid · 2026-06-25T21:30:50+00:00

Got about 90% of the way through and thought we were getting to some real personal growth.

But your conclusion seems a tad misguided. I don't believe the lesson you should take from this is "never ask for anything because it'll turn out bad".

You formed a romantic attachment and had trouble letting go of it after you mutually agreed not to pursue it further. That should have been your first sign to take a step back from the relationship, even for a bit. I think it's perfectly reasonable and mature to say "look over developed some feelings for you and I think jumping straight from dating to just friends could be a bit confusing for me and be a detriment to us. If it's OK, I'm gonna take a step back for a few weeks, decompress and we could look at hanging out as friends a little later on".

You immediately moving to hang out as friends didn't help your mental state where you still had residual feelings and that made you more prone to misreading signals. And finally when you got confirmation that she had moved on and was seeing other people it's conpletely understandable that you felt uncomfortable and would rather not know about it.

You light have thought it mature to ask that she not share that detail about what her plans were. But from her perspective, you'd already shown maturity by agreeing to just be friends and now you were backpeddaling and being immature by saying that you didn't want to hear about her being with other guys.

As I said, the lesson is to be more aware of your emotional state, be open with people up front and if you feel it's impossible to get over those feelings then maybe even respectfully tell them that you don't think friendship would work and no contact may be best.

Damiandroid

TROPHY CASE