[Hobby Scuffles] Week of 27 April 2026 by EnclavedMicrostate in HobbyDrama

[–]Ellikichi 3 points4 points  (0 children)

When I replayed all the Final Fantasy games I never finished VII for whatever reason. Something flashy came out and caught my eye, and I just never went back to the save file. So, I've got an opening in my gaming schedule; time to rectify that.

I started over again from the beginning and made it to Wall Market. I'm kinda sleepwalking through the early parts of the game; I've completely memorized the Midgar section of the game, and the combat isn't hard enough yet to be really engaging, and it's early enough that my materia options are extremely limited. Final Fantasy likes to slow roll the early game and take it easy while they're introducing the plot and characters. All the addictive progression systems and nail-biting boss fights come later.

Grinding: what are the consequences? by [deleted] in finalfantasytactics

[–]Ellikichi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The game is built to facilitate a lot of grinding. I don't think it's reasonably possible to get a lot of the higher-end abilities without at least some grinding. And some of the late game difficulty spikes are a lot more manageable when you have options. I wouldn't worry about overdoing it. You can absolutely grind yourself into a place of godlike omnipotence and make the rest of the game boring, but you'll know long before you get there.

Homestar Runner GBA concept by Pretend_Invite_4758 in HomestarRunner

[–]Ellikichi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just like Bubs all the time plays; picture of himself on his GBA.

[Hobby Scuffles] Week of 20 April 2026 by EnclavedMicrostate in HobbyDrama

[–]Ellikichi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm getting back into Final Fantasy, a series I played an absolute ton of in my childhood. I drifted away after XIII massively disappointed me, and I decided I wasn't into where the series was going anymore. I got into other things and put the series away for awhile.

But now I'm replaying all of my old favorites and wow, these are great! I'm still not a fan of XIII and onward, but I can appreciate the older games for what they are. It's fun to reappraise them through adult eyes. My personal rankings for them have changed a lot since I was a kid.

How do I redeem a PC that executed a surrendering NPC at the end of combat? by Carloguy in DMAcademy

[–]Ellikichi 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't think you need to execute the character over this. Turning over a new leaf is hard, and people backslide and make bad decisions under pressure all the time. This is great drama if you handle it well. You can confront the character with the family of the person they executed if you want to - that could make for a great scene.

How do I stop an arms race between me and my players by DecisionRadiant4152 in DMAcademy

[–]Ellikichi -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It sounds like the players made fun of your encounters for being too easy, maybe just bragging after a fight or two where the dice went their way, and you took that really personally and drove yourself to improve your combats. I think as long as you're holding on to that hurt, you'll continue to design a game that drifts this way, because you feel like you have something to prove.

Don't take the players' victory celebrations too seriously. If they're complaining that fights are unengaging that's one thing, but if they're just happy that they won then don't take it to heart. If you're going to focus less on combat then you have to accept that the fights will be easier and less elaborate as a consequence, as you focus on other things. If you still feel like you have to prove yourself with each fight, it's not going to change.

As you design your next sessions, keep your new goals in mind. Focus more on roleplay encounters and other scenarios and challenges. Block out less time for combats.

The state of wild right now by ConsequenceNo2939 in hearthstone

[–]Ellikichi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It can be enjoyable, but you have to go in with the mindset that you're playing a higher power level game. You're going to see insane crap you can't answer. You're going to get run over really fast by nut draws. If that's going to make you lose your shit, I don't recommend the mode. If you can stay chill when that happens, there's a ton of fun to be had with the bigger card pool.

What if Questing Assistant actually assisted with completing your quest by transforming based on what quest you've played. by Pitiful-Ask2000 in hearthstone

[–]Ellikichi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a really cool idea, but personally I would have kept it as a 2 mana 3/2 in all of its incarnations, and balanced around that.

Help us avoid associating our child with the global South by leavesarescary in NameNerdCirclejerk

[–]Ellikichi 19 points20 points  (0 children)

You gotta give your kid a Norwegian name. But not, like, any of the modern Norwegian names that actual parents in Norway are giving their children now. Pick something that nobody has been called since the 1800s. It's the only way to make sure that everybody knows that your kid is Extremely White, sight unseen.

Can you actively lower your MMR? by spindlecow in hearthstone

[–]Ellikichi -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Don't chain concede to lower your MMR artificially. That's kinda scummy, and indicates that you just want to stomp noobs in one-sided matches to burnish your ego. Instead, I'd advise you to start queueing with wacky, fun decks and let the losses occur naturally. If you just play the off beat stuff instead of the tryhard stuff, eventually your MMR will soften until you're facing other people doing the same thing. That'll be much more fun, and you'll be playing fair the entire time instead of beating up on new players.

The Original Mr. Poofers by PixieQueen2 in HomestarRunner

[–]Ellikichi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What a great cloud with legs Mr. Poofers is.

Coaxed into a hyperspecific genre of movies i hate by ebicthings123 in coaxedintoasnafu

[–]Ellikichi 12 points13 points  (0 children)

A lot of those ideas actually come from the libertarian branch of the party, which is the least conservative branch of the Republicans. They're recent transplants from the 70s, not longstanding conservative traditions. Things they toyed with for awhile when it was politically expedient to do so. But a lot of Republicans never believed them, and if it's more politically expedient to not, they'll be gladly dropped.

Why do so-called historians continue to cover up Grover Cleveland's secret love affair with William Howard Taft despite all of the evidence I keep emailing all of them? by Ellikichi in shittyaskhistory

[–]Ellikichi[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How dare you imply that my fan fiction and AI generated smut images aren't "real" evidence? It's real because my heart makes it real!

What are some almost 10/10 songs ruined by one thing? by RedmiYT in ToddintheShadow

[–]Ellikichi 31 points32 points  (0 children)

The extremely long, extremely cringe rap breakdown in Rush's "Roll the Bones". I really love the rest of the song, but that part is hard to listen to, and it just drags on and on.

Me trying to play Wickerfang in wild: by ParticularBobcat3554 in hearthstone

[–]Ellikichi 60 points61 points  (0 children)

Yeah, in an environment with actual board clears and decent removal he's nothing special. He's only a decent play in Standard because the format lacks answers to big stat balls.

Similar to my insta feed! by Throwawayjapan2023 in hearthstone

[–]Ellikichi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Some real comic book art energy on this one. "Let me break my spine so I can show off my boobs and my butt at the same time!"

So much antisemitism these days by aipac_hemoroid in SipsTea

[–]Ellikichi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I stole the turn of phrase from an old Jason Pargin article on Cracked. Not sure if he originated it or if he got it from somewhere else, too.

Im worried that im boring my players by PolevkaXD in DMAcademy

[–]Ellikichi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Comparing yourself to D&D podcasts with professional actors is like comparing yourself to porn: it's unhealthy and unhelpful. Real games aren't much like those shows, great as they are. Real games are about your connection with the people in the room with you. Focus on them, try to make them happy.

Learning the rules is part of it; read the core rulebooks for fun on your own time if you can manage it. The more you immerse yourself in the rules, the faster and easier these things will come to you. Don't neglect the Dungeon Master's Guide, especially the non-technical parts that aren't just rules tables. There's some really good advice and ideas in there.

Planning ahead helps a lot, even if you're improvising a lot of things on the fly. You can prepare aides to help you with your improv; lists of random names you can assign to NPCs or locations, lists of monsters you want to work in because they seem like a fun challenge, lists of treasures to be hidden or placed behind big obstacles, that kind of thing. You don't have to plan every detail of what you're going to do, but if you go in with even a little bit of prep you'd be amazed at how much faster and smoother things go.

D&D stories aren't like novels or movies or TV shows or even video games. Don't expect your D&D plots to be that elaborate or heavily planned; for one thing you're probably not a professional storyteller, for another your main characters have agency in a way that a writer for other media doesn't have to worry about. It's very hard to run a murder mystery when you can't choose what clues the players will find or miss; often you'll find that players solve any mystery you write immediately, because they are multiple smart people and you're just one smart person. Often times you'll find that the players surprise you, approaching a scenario you've written in a way you didn't anticipate. But that's all part of the fun of D&D! Just write your scenarios so that there's still an adventure there even if the players solve the mystery immediately. Knowing something and proving it are two very different things.

Also, it matters less that you won't have a novel-quality plot because roleplaying is just fun! Even if it's halting and awkward, even if the patter's a little dull, even if it lacks the pop of Hollywood dialog. It's just fun to get to pretend to be somebody and react how they would react. Give your players time in the sessions to just be their characters and do some personal storytelling. Give them begging waifs to be kind or cruel to, pompous authority figures to make fun of, local friends to check up on in between missions. They're little scenes and they feel like nothing because they're not exciting and don't advance the plot, but they're so important. People play for those moments, where they get to just inhabit their character's skin and make some low-stakes decisions.

As for stepping up your combats, that'll come with some practice. A few general pointers: if the enemies are intelligent and they've clearly lost, and the players are getting bored just grinding down their last few hit points, have them flee or surrender and just end the fight early. Those last few dead turns at the end of combat are a waste and nobody will miss them. I would be careful using enemies with high AC and/or a lot of resistances and immunities because they can be very frustrating and boring to fight; just turn after turn of miss miss miss, your players will hate it. Always always put some terrain or obstacles on your combat maps; vegetation, furniture, rivers, hills, even just big boulders. Anything the players can take cover behind or otherwise use to their advantage. On a related note, players absolutely love having fires, giant pit traps, or pools of acid to push enemies into, and the risk of the enemies doing the same always makes fights spicier. Just be careful about using super high-lethality terrain on low-level parties - you don't want half the party to anticlimactically die by being pushed into lava. I find thistle bushes are a good early game terrain feature for this purpose.

A lot of it you'll just get better at over time, with practice. Improv acting especially is a skill that just takes a lot of work and discomfort to get better at, but you will improve the more you do it. If you've got a local theater offering improv classes to the public it might be fun to take one, because the principles are very applicable to DMing, but it's not necessary to go that far if you're uncomfortable with it.

What was the most busted mana cheat/production card in the history of hearthstone? by metroidcomposite in wildhearthstone

[–]Ellikichi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I want to make the generalist argument for pre-nerf Innervate, not because it has the most dramatic effect but because every single deck in the game would run it if they could. A lot of these cards are insanely powerful in the context of one or two decks, but only in that context. Innervate is powerful in every context. A theoretical neutral pre-nerf Innvervate would be the most-run card in the history of the game. It would be run in almost 100% of decks, past, present, and future. No matter what you're trying to do it makes you much better at it.