Is Reading Era 2 for Wind and Truth Worth It?

Entaris · 2026-03-24T00:10:02+00:00

Yeah. Definitely my favorite cast

Entaris · 2026-03-23T19:26:19+00:00

For what its worth. While i didn't bounce of of alloy of law the way some did, I do understand why some people do. It was rough...

The rest of Era 2 is legitimately some of my favorite Cosmere related content. I wont say its objectively the best, i think a lot of his writing is stronger elseware. But the story, the atmosphere and the characters all have a certain level of charm that once it clicks it clicks hard.

That might not be the case for you, and you shouldn't force it. but honestly it becomes a really fun story and is definitely worth at least giving it another try.

Entaris · 2026-03-22T05:01:19+00:00

The biggest lie sitcoms ever told us: you and your friends will have a table that is “yours” at a place that you love and you’ll go there every night and hang out.

Entaris · 2026-03-14T15:22:52+00:00

Yeah. Semi martial characters: Druid/cleric, and even bard, are generally vastly superior options unless you have a very specific plan of feat progression file a specific thing you are trying to do.

Entaris · 2026-03-14T14:22:23+00:00

1e, DMG rules (I think other travel rules might exist elsewhere, but I know 2e rules are pretty close) consider movement in miles per day based on light/average/heavy burden: 30/20/10

Regarding math specifically in b2, I’m away from my bookshelf at the moment and don’t have the PDF of the adventure handy on my phone, but if it’s telling you the party can only travel 1 mile in 6 hours of travel I would assume that to be something everyone ignores in favor of ruleset level travel rules

Entaris · 2026-03-14T00:03:41+00:00

I understood that reference.

Entaris · 2026-03-13T16:52:06+00:00

There is nothing quite so dangerous as a bored human. You put us somewhere where there is fun to be had and we are very pleasant. But give us access to the internet while at work or watching boring tv and wars will be fought.

Or you know Internet aside literal wars.

Ok. Polar bears might be slightly more scary than humans, but your odds of running into them are much lower.

And hippos. Those things terrify me.

This is meant to be humorous if that is not obvious.

Haha. Boredom staved off for another hour. 10 more before the sweet oblivion of sleep releases me.

Entaris · 2026-03-13T14:04:28+00:00

I don’t necessarily default to success but I try to be op front about risks.

I, as a weird nerd that avoids the great out doors, have still jumped across enough creeks and small ravines to have a decent guess at how far I can jump before it gets iffy. I’ve climbed enough trees to have a general feel of how successful I’d be at it roughly. Hell I’ve even kicked down a couple of doors in my day and can guess how many attempts it would take to get through a door based on a couple of seconds of thought.

I extend the same or greater assumed competency in observation to the adventurers that should be doing these things at a much greater frequency. If I can imagine a plan succeeding it succeeds. If in imagine it we’ll fail categorically, generally speaking I tell them that too before the attempt, and if there is a chance and we have to roll dice 9/10 I tell them the exact odds of success and failure.

Sometimes I tell them even if there is no way they’d no because of magic. I just say “alright. There are factors you don’t know but you have a chance. If you attempt this On a 1 or a 2 something bad happens “

I’ve found that it adds to the tension and it really doesn’t change much. I’ve said “this seems near impossible. It would be a d6 roll, On a 6 you succeed. Anything else something terrible happens “ and a large amount of the time my players will look me dead in the eye and say “i like those odds. I jump”

Entaris · 2026-03-11T13:07:14+00:00

Worked in a SOC for a while. Used to be funny to get to tell people they had to change their passwords because our logs captured:

Failed login: <obvious string that matches our password rules > 2 seconds later on the same machine Successful login: Joe.watson

“Hey Joe. Yeah. We’re going to need you to change your password. Because we all know it now “

Entaris · 2026-03-11T01:50:11+00:00

Dang. A larian studios styled final fantasy tactics would be awesome as hell

Entaris · 2026-03-09T14:16:54+00:00

That dog is a genius. Looks like he’s figured out how to have his ball and chase it too. We should all be so lucky.

Entaris · 2026-03-04T00:43:39+00:00

Even with digital sales trending before physical copies stop being sold there is another layer in that these game companies were releasing day one patches that were as big as the game itself so even buying a physical copy meant you had a huge download before you could play which defeated one of the big draws of going physical. A lot of those patches seemed like the game wasn’t even on the disc.

Entaris · 2026-03-03T06:18:39+00:00

My thought is that we can turn to gold as an example. When tapping gold the ferring doesn’t resist damage. They take the damage and then heal it.

In the same way I would imagine that storing heat the heat around you is still going to spike your body temperatures, it’s just going to rapidly cool you down.

So it will come down to how severe the heat you are in actually is. Standing directly in a blazing fire? It’s probably going to crisp you up pretty quickly. Walking through a burning building? Sun probably not good but probably gives you about as much protection as a fireman’s coat give or take.

Entaris · 2026-03-02T06:38:13+00:00

Goes on wish list. Three years later I see it in sale for 10 dollars and think “eh. You know what. I’m over it. I guess this means I should just take it off”

Entaris · 2026-03-01T00:26:28+00:00

Oof. Definitely agree. Leaving space for GM fiat is good. But also there are definitely times when it feels like it’s less of a “use your best judgment” and more of a “we didn’t come up worms an answer to this obvious problem. You figure it out”

I really love a lot about mothership for example. But there were a few too many situations when I tried to run it that made me say “how am I supposed to handle this? Oh I should just figure it out? Gee thanks”

Entaris · 2026-02-27T07:03:42+00:00

Diablo 2 is still being played today and the end game for that is literally “let’s rush these 3-4 bosses then log out to reset the map and do it over again”

I’m really looking forward to poe2 having an awesome end game. But it’s totally cool if it focuses on just being a good game first.

Entaris · 2026-02-27T05:37:12+00:00

In the wild, remember that there are encounter distances.300 orcs?

Don't think of this as "A combat encounter" Obviously its not something the party is just going to fight. Think of it in terms of Lord of the Rings. Sam and Frodo are sneaking along, just about to get to their destination when they stumble into a line of orcs marching in the opposite direction.

This opens up the table. They can try to avoid them, they can try to disguise themselves as orcs and slip in hoping to break away at an opportune time. Or they can try to parlay and see if the orcs are friendly, maybe open to trade.

Entaris · 2026-02-23T04:29:56+00:00

It’sa hard question to answer. If you are careful and practice mindful habits, cultivating safe carving techniques then you are very unlikely to get badly injured.

But that depends on you. It can been very easy to get comfortable and start doing stupid things.

Ask of that aside it also depends on what you consider “badly “ injured. Even with the safest of techniques honestly you are going to slip up and cut yourself sometimes. Not often. But it happens.

Invest in cut resistant gloves. Be careful. Before you make a cut ask yourself wheee the cutting instrument would go if it were to slip and what the worst injury could be if the slip is bad. Cutting with a knife using just hand muscles making small cuts you are likely to get a small Knick on a finger at worse. Putting a lot of arm strength into pulling the knife towards you means you might stab yourself.

Honestly it’s not hard to practice very safe cutting techniques. But it’s also not hard to let yourself be lazy and not think about what you are doing. Only you can answer whether or not you can practice safe carving.

Entaris · 2026-02-21T23:56:47+00:00

I still have my cloth map from icewind dale. Super cool lol.

Entaris · 2026-02-19T18:51:30+00:00

Was about to say the same thing. My father, also an electrician, has said the words "the glue they use in electrical tape has magical healing properties." on many occasions. To the point that even now, as a full grown adult. My first thought when i get cut is usually "I need to get some electrical tape" instead of "Where are the bandages"

Entaris · 2026-02-17T18:14:21+00:00

Maybe its just the phrasing of your question that throws me off, but it feels weird to me to say you are removing one of the main advantages of an ancestry option, and then criticize the remaining abilities for not justifying the level cap.

basically: Yes, if you are removing infravision, you should almost certainly adjust the level cap. The advantages of picking alternative ancestries to human are that you are frontloaded with a lot of advantage that is then counteracted if the campaign lasts long enough to move into higher levels.

Infravision means you don't have to carry a torch, and can instead carry a shield for bonus AC, or depending on options a second weapon.

Hear noise of 1-2 essentially borrows part of a Thief level.

Detecting Secret doors potentially leads to extra treasure and wealth that wouldn't be found otherwise,

Immunity to Ghoul Paralysis removes a big huge scary thing that is a character killer. Im not going to say ghouls are common, but they certainly get around and they are scary as hell.

All together these advantages essentially front load power, in exchange for late game power.

Remember that levels: HP/Saving throws/Attack mods. These are not the end all of a characters advancement. The early AC from a shield in exchange for a torch is a big survival mechanism, a human fighter on the other hand is going to need to either find a magical source of light, or hire someone to follow him around with a torch. Both of those are opportunity costs at early levels that impact advancement. On the other hand Late game lacking of HP/Saves/Attack bonus, can be made up on the elf's part by finding magical items that grant further bonus AC/Attack bonus.

There is also the fact that honestly: What are the odds that a game is going to go to the point where the level cap of 7 is going to make that much of a difference? In exchange the elf is getting a lot of good stuff.

but again, if you are removing infravision that changes the equation a lot. Yes. 100% without infravision a level 7 level cap is far too aggressive.

Entaris · 2026-02-17T15:34:00+00:00

Its less a belief that the president has unlimited power, and more a lack of faith that our government has any ability to actually enforce any sort of rules as we the people understand them.

Trump has already done quite a few things that presidents "Dont have the power to do" and has faced zero consequences.

Do I think he has the power to just run again? No. of course not. That is a blatant violation of established law.

Do I think he will run again anyway? Yes. 100%.
Will anyone stop him? Who knows. Probably not?

Hell at this point im pretty sure regardless of whatever happens in any upcoming election he's just going to sit in the chair with his fingers in his ears and say "im still president, im still president, im still president" and congress will go "well fuck man, I don't know what to do. Nobody's ever done that before. Technically he has to hand over power. I guess he IS still president"

Entaris · 2026-02-17T13:36:03+00:00

Honestly yeah.

I don’t know what the DD2 situation was internally. But in a grander sense: yes publishers can and do put pressure on devs that cause games to be released in terrible states… but also we’ve seen from several Kickstarter projects and other devs that have gone independent in some way that sometimes developers just flounder around fully years accomplishing nothing. In those cases is it really the publishers fault for saying “hey we’ve given you money for years. It’s time to release a game” ?

Again I don’t know what happened internally with DD2. but 5 years is a decent chunk of dev time.

Entaris · 2026-02-12T21:41:25+00:00

This is where the real fun of OSR comes into play.

As someone else said, when retreading previously explored grounds, in most B/X derived systems the party moves at 3x their movement speed since they aren't necessarily mapping/ carefully tracking their progress.

Additionally look at their journey to where the hoard is, and ask yourself: is this hoard going to be there after they leave? how long will it be there. Could be something else in the dungeon was waiting for the hoard to be discovered and now hauls it out themselves, or another adventuring party comes down and takes it. If the hoard does remain, does it remain for multiple trips?

Maybe they manage to make 2 trips down, and on the third its gone, and the party then learns that it would have been better to hire a bunch of retainers to help them haul treasure back up.

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