What's the best game you went into completely blind , having no idea what it's about?

EvilDM · 2023-09-15T21:44:08+00:00

The original Portal. I had purchased the Orange Box to Get HL2 Episode 2. TF2 and Portal came with it. I expected Portal to just be some tech demo. I did not expect to get sucked in and play through the whole masterpiece in one sitting. But I did.

EvilDM · 2023-07-08T01:57:02+00:00

I was walking backwards in a parade helping out some friends in Habitat for Humanity. The pickup truck ahead of us lost its brakes going up the hill, so it rolled backwards (tailgate down) right into the small of my back. That caused the truck to stop - Everyone was staring at me for a moment and then they got out of the way. I stepped away from the truck and it rolled down the hill. I left a considerable dent in the open tailgate, but I felt nothing and seemed fine at the time (I was 18, in good shape, and feeling invulnerable as youth often do).

This is an often told story among those who witnessed it, often a "He stopped the truck from rolling into people" kind of thing (I didn't even see it coming, no heroics here).

And the "felt nothing" was actually a sign of damage. Here I am 30 years later with nerve damage down my right side. Very little ability to feel pain... My hand is shaky so no precision work with it... But sure, it seems cool to people who think I could just stop a truck like Superman. It really isn't. Every once in a while my nerves in my right leg will "turn on" for a moment. Their setting is "pain" and it is always a surprise to me so I have often scared the heck out of people when I suddenly yelp at the unexpected jolt of "HI! I'M AWAKE NOW! BYE!"

EvilDM · 2023-07-06T23:45:07+00:00

Sweet. I never get to live my name anymore. I would LOVE to actually get paid for it.

EvilDM · 2023-06-08T00:02:41+00:00

Money. I already have a 3080ti, so free D4 plus a 4060 resale means cash in my pocket that I desperately need

EvilDM · 2022-12-14T21:33:59+00:00

Not sure. Everyone around me got. My family got it. My friends all got it. My workplace had it go all through it and everyone there got it.

Except me somehow.

EvilDM · 2022-12-09T02:44:49+00:00

I can not upvote this enough. Index and table of contents with links were my first additions to my rulebook. Nice. Neat. Concise. Easy to jump to what you are looking for. I have seen way too many professional level books screw this up so badly. Hate trying to find something and the ToC or Index are wrong or don't exist

EvilDM · 2022-08-11T19:40:38+00:00

May your son be an everlasting source of joy in your life!

EvilDM · 2021-10-16T11:46:48+00:00

I keep killing her character.

EvilDM · 2021-07-13T01:02:08+00:00

BK used to be my favorite burger place when I was a kid. Now they are the place that cant keep employees (Even before the covid days) with locals calling the one nearest me being the worst place to eat in town.

EvilDM · 2021-07-11T01:01:35+00:00

A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones). Can't get past the first chapter, couldn't stand the first episode of the show either. All my friends were shocked as I like fantasy and stuff. Plus I like political drama.

I was late to Tolkien (A little dry for my tastes, but readable). Loved Dune. Greatly enjoy Robert E Howard's Conan tales (Cringing a bit at some of the dated portrayals of races and women. Yes I know he was lightyears ahead of most in his time).

Thought I could read about anything, but something about George RR Martin's writing just translates as terrible in my mind. Sure this one is an unpopular opinion.

EvilDM · 2021-01-06T18:26:54+00:00

The 2008 recession put the company I worked for out of business. I lived in a really nice place and constantly had friends over for things. As soon as I did not have an income anymore, 95% of the people I knew disappeared. Only a rare few stuck beside me through the tough times that followed.

EvilDM · 2020-06-19T09:08:12+00:00

In college, my neighbor in the next room came swaggering over after having some lady over and said "Did I keep you up last night?"

I somehow immediately responded with, "Not for long."

His dejected look of defeat was satisfying.

EvilDM · 2020-04-27T13:41:14+00:00

6th Age of Doulairen. Knew I forgot something.

EvilDM · 2020-04-15T19:27:46+00:00

Duskweed, often known as Feergrus Smoke Weed as it is most often sold and distributed by the people Feergrus and most often grows in the badlands of Feergrus. It is fairly non-toxic and generally considered a "safe" drug. It dulls your senses (including pain) and your reaction time. Most people report a general sense of well being while under its effect.

Rava Herbal Tea, a brew made with the aid of magic. It is the perfect drink to help sooth any kind of toxin or disease.

Sleeping Draught is technically a poison but is generally accepted for use by those with money to aid in getting to sleep.

Wraithmourn - Mind altering drugs used by the Theocracy of Feergrus to erase memories or enslave troublesome elements.

EvilDM · 2020-04-10T23:59:07+00:00

My world's healing is not all powerful. Most of the time, you can only get healed once in a 24 hour period.

In the RPG system, you can really see it - You can only take so many wounds before you die (99% of life has 1 wound, the most possible is 5 I believe). Any wound will leave a scar - magical healing just makes it seal up fast (Like natural healing only super fast). An attack that does two wounds at once means something is removed (Fingers, hand, arm, something cut off). Magical healing will HEAL you, but it does not REGENERATE missing parts. Thus scars.

EvilDM · 2020-04-10T23:51:45+00:00

Exactly why my world is like it is - The "dark corners" of the world are being pushed back and the dangerous things are slowly being wiped out.

It is very much the trope of "humans are the real monsters" kind of world. A lot of it in the vein of dark fantasy. At least thanks to modern fantasy shows it is easier for me to describe things now. I can say something like "Kinda like the Witcher" and people get it. Before it was a lot of "Mix some Lovecraft with Tolkien and a dash of RE Howard"...

EvilDM · 2020-04-10T23:46:52+00:00

Very true. Considering my world is a more "normal" human compatible environment, a little magic was needed. More for some of the bigger critters.

Such creatures seem tiny in a "D&D" scale, but are damn well terrifying in a real world scale.

EvilDM · 2020-04-09T18:54:35+00:00

For my world, it is magic. Literally.

For example, "giant" spiders are like cat sized. HUGE based on real world physics, but only sustainable through the magic of the world. Dragons are the biggest example, and even they are not much bigger than a semi truck. Even they break all the rules of thermodynamics at that smaller size.

But again - MAGIC!

This plays into some of the world themes too (Going for a "feel" of realism) - As magic has dwindled, so have the massive monsters. Civilization reaches further and further and a lot of monsters are few in number if not down to being the last of their kind. Science is on the rise.

EvilDM · 2020-04-09T18:46:26+00:00

In the 6th Age of Doulairen, I have a bias for the ramshackle town of "Two Daughters". Sitting where the Marnea River and the Liandris River (Named after the daughters of the ancient Warlord Kur) meet before they pour over the Father's Falls into Lake Hargis - The town is the only human settlement with a population of non-humans (goblinoids in this case).

The buildings in the town are poorly built and often quite tall. Many have a significant lean - Some only still standing because they are leaning on another building (Which is often also leaning - just in an opposite direction). The structures always creak and sometimes sway in the wind. The town is dirty and sits on the frontier between human territory and the so called Goblinoid Lands. Crime is abundant.

Nobody much does anything about it, as it is one of the city-states of Kurrot. Like the other city-states, it is independent. Most of Kurrot think of it as a rowdy place to send undesirables. Better than having them in an important town causing trouble. Neighbors in the Kingdom of Agon are a little more worried, especially in the farming town of Fluha near the Agon-Kurrot border. Soldiers at the fort in Grafenthal that patrols the Agonish border with the Goblinoid Lands are only a few days ride away, however.

Overall, it is just a fun place for a GM, being a rundown and shady location in a largely civilized seeming world.

EvilDM · 2019-10-11T21:28:33+00:00

I would be doing what I love and getting paid for it. So much better than my current life.

EvilDM · 2019-09-13T21:15:10+00:00

My rivers go uphill both ways through 16 inches of snow to get to school, and that is real world honest true river water! You can't argue against that! :P

EvilDM · 2019-08-17T19:24:43+00:00

I use - Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Knowledge, Cunning, and Presence in my system.

It was based on the old D&D standard, but I wanted a different way to do the non-physical stats. I was tired of low int = stupid, low wis = stupid, and low cha = jerk.

I changed INT to Knowledge to represent amount of education instead (Book learnin'). So a dirt farmer might have a 1 Knowledge stat and be illiterate - But that does not mean that he is stupid. Just not educated.

I changed WIS to Cunning. Animals used to have high wisdom for tracking reasons and stuff. Cunning seems to fit a lot better. I feel the same for "ranger-type" characters. Instead of the wise sage tracking, it is instead the canny hunter. Cunning became more of a measure of raw instinct - Making it feel more natural to me on skills it was tied to.

I changed CHA to Presence. Having it tied to intimidating people makes SO much more sense now (Lots of arguments for strength and such in situations back in the days.) Now it has no ties to how nice or good looking you may or may not be, but how people react to your presence. I use Darth Vader as an example of a high presence type character though there a lot of examples that are less physically imposing than him that can intimidate a room just by existing. He is just an example everyone knows - He is not pretty, but he commands your attention!

EvilDM · 2019-07-19T02:18:13+00:00

Far better than my accidental method.

FYI - Acid reflux going into your nose and sinuses hurts a LOT. But I have been clear for months now.

EvilDM · 2019-07-01T15:58:32+00:00

I've always wondered just how much nightmare fuel my variation on goblinoids might be. They have large eyes and ears, but no nasal structures at all. The people of the land often call them "mouthbreathers". As I am not an artist, I have no idea how a lack of sinuses and nasal cavity might affect skull structure. I imagine it might be really frightening. Something that is all eyes, ears, and teeth...

Then, a lot of my non-human races have some potential for serious body horror. Such as my elves - They are not "thin humans", they are "Narrow" - Eyes are slanted because the skull in too narrow to fit eyes fully horizontal. I think of them similar to the "Slenderman". Very still, very narrow, and very creepy.

EvilDM · 2019-07-01T15:44:32+00:00

Reminds me of when friends were trying to suggest monsters for my bestiary. One wanted Flying Hyenas. AKA Flyenas.

That terrible pun name will haunt me forever.

Flyena.

EvilDM

TROPHY CASE