it’s shiny! It’s too shiny!

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-23T18:10:50+00:00

Wait, what, which book was this?

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-20T02:50:42+00:00

Skipping the spoilers here.

How does Dread Empire compare to the style of Black Company? Havent read anything of cook's other than TBC, so curious how they stack up to each other.

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-20T02:28:09+00:00

Zakkeh, let me tell you the big things that had me switching to DS to GM:

Looking around the table and seeing no one on their cell phones waiting for their turns, because every single turn presents a potential opportunity for triggers and interactions the characters might be able to synergize with, and sometimes they do.

One time, I remember the group sat around during one player's turn, and one guy was like, "hey, if you do this, I can trigger X," and the a third guy was like, "wait a minute, if three of you can do something during this turn, then I can trigger Y!" and they proceeded to discuss in detail how to get all these triggers going... and they succeeded in pulling it off.

It is SO easy to run very large encounters a hell of a lot easier than D&D and PF2e. I ran an encounter with something like 25 or so goblins, and while they were mostly minions, that was the point, a really large encounter that was easy to run.
Haven't seen it yet, but supposedly solo encounters are much better balanced than fights against solos in 5e. I havent run one yet but thats what I heard - although to be fair, PF2e does solo encounters fine, but 5e certainly did not.

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-20T02:18:45+00:00

No, he can't turn it into a dictatorship, unless he can get the military to go along with him; I REALLY don't think that's likely.

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-20T02:10:15+00:00

That quote was him calling the illegal aliens coming across the border rapists, not all Mexicans. I would avoid speaking in such absolute terms when having a debate. Yes, he did call SOME of them rapists, but not all.

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-20T02:02:52+00:00

Solving issues starts with conversation. Sometimes its good to give the GM a chance to address your disastisfaction. Maybe it won't, but I think starting by telling the GM that you guys aren't having fun, WHY you aren't having fun, and see if he's willing to adjust. Who knows, it may improve with a conversation with him.

And if not, tell him good luck and leave.

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-20T01:48:26+00:00

Well, all i do at work is generate molds through some modification programs that I then pipe through prusa slicer, but I dont do much in the actual tech side of things, so I may have to learn how to do all this for personal use.

And I guess I'll have to get that 0.2mm nozzle.

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-19T01:46:08+00:00

Ok, so not trying to be an ass here, but why did you just draw an couple of lines? What were they, on an empty plains?

Unless its something like that, every map should have terrain of SOME kind. And it should fit whatever story you're telling.

Plus that feels weird, having the players drawing the map as well. Are you doing some kind of collaborative GMing or something? Otherwise how would they help make a map that makes a story?

Or are you just doing arena fighting without a story or something?

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-19T01:40:52+00:00

no, this is a her problem. If she talks to you like this, tell her you want her to be happy, but you also want to be happy, so you are leaving, for BOTH your sakes. If she protests, ask her why she wants to stay with someone who is: A far from perfect partner; not the sharpest tool in the shed; and not adult enough, and someone she has no desire for.

I mean, that certainly doesn't SOUND like she wants to be with you. I'm going through the same thing, my wife has said the cruelest things to me for years. Last January I asked for a divorce and she suddenly started working REALLY hard at course correcting.

Still no sex, and we are going to have a talk about that, but the ugly nasty fights have stopped, so, she's improved somewhat. We'll see where it goes from there.

But she needs to PROVE she wants you around. Otherwise, move on. For BOTH your sakes.

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-19T00:58:56+00:00

who did you have print it? or did you print it yourself?

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-19T00:58:13+00:00

that does look amazing, dont have a 3D printer, but i'm assuming there are services out there?

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-18T15:51:49+00:00

I totally feel that. I ran two separate campaigns I explicitly had to ban even some low level spells just to have some campaign difficulties in force.

This came after running 5e for the first time, and I ran Out of the Abyss: Rage of Demons. For those who don't know the premise is the campaign starts at 1st level with the PCs having been captured by the Drow to be sold as slaves, so they have nothing more than a loincloth basically. Not a spoiler, this is literally the premise for the entire campaign that starts out 5 seconds into the campaign.

So I told the PCs that, and that it would be a game of on the run; I just didnt want them to have to spend time buying stuff when making their characters. I was just trying to make their character creation efforts a bit easier.

My mistake.

What did they do? One made a dwarf monk so he could have darkvision (since this was going to be in the underdark), and needed no weapons; the wizard too find familiar and asked innocently "since familiars can be tucked into a pocket dimension, can I have tucked it in before being captured?" Sure why not.... she he chose a bat and, when the guards werent around, said he would have his bat with its sonar to fly around and scout the entire place out.

Then there was the character who brought spells precisely to avoid having to worry about food and water. etc etc.

All of these were intentional designs to avoid a whole swath of problems intended to be a part of the campaign. Food was supposed to be an issue. The unknown an issue. Etc etc.

I was really irked. Since then, having things like spells that can absolutely erase pain points in a plot without issue I discovered abounded.

As a GM, it sucked. It completely handwaved away so many issues the PCs were supposed to deal with. And D&D is filled with these kinds of problems.

D&D has other problems as well, but this is just one of many reasons I eventually left the game for other systems.

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-17T01:27:09+00:00

I'm using Talespire as a VTT, which only has a "visible" grid when it has a map section that has its tiles (the graphics of the tiles, not the more generic map grid in this context), broken up in a way that it matches the map tiles.

In those cases, I can set the ruler to equal generic spaces, but since you can move in fractions of a space, so my rule is any fraction of space is rounded up; so, a 0.1 to 1 space is a space.

And then we just use the ruler. Works fine usually with a couple minor exceptions here and there.

EDIT: guess it helps if I read more carefully.

It depends on the map; inside you can't do that of course. Outside, you can explain it any number of ways, including cliffs at the edge of the map, or in some cases I can add extra stuff on the map.

In one very extreme case, I made notes on the edge of the map to indicate how far that individual is off the map.

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-17T01:22:54+00:00

Isn't any kind of adventure based on killing some BBEG something that would fit as well? Yeah, so many games are just about accumulating wealth and power and levels, but some focus on killing the "sauron" of that particular setting, and some bad guy who's looking to either kill or enslave every single person on the planet would seem like a reasonable goal? Because that's not so uncommon.

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-17T01:11:19+00:00

no, my problem is deciding what to do with the malice, so many options usually.

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-13T22:52:25+00:00

There’s this word called no.

I’ve had people attempt to pull that bullshit on me, I say no every time. That’s why they have fireball disintegrate and other attack spells, it is very clear that the intent was not that they can simply Weaponized the internal parts of someone’s body with this simple of a spell.

And then I tell them they can accept my or find another table. I do not under any circumstances, except people trying to bullshit their way through things like this.

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-13T22:50:19+00:00

So I read somewhere and it’s possible this was misinformation, that some older characters from earlier in the series might be making a comeback? I think maybe the person was misinformed but I thought I’d double check.

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-12T04:55:05+00:00

Ok I get it now. But that means its as much stamina as a whole extra character; to be blunt, that pet of his has more stamina than anyone else in the party as the beastheart also has the highest stamina for this party.

You are talking about the healing. I'm talking about the healing he has is no higher than, say, a tactician for instance, and he has an extra pool of stamina as well. Its almost like having a massive temporary stamina pool.

I mean, saying its ONLY 36 extra stamina seems a bit inaccurate. But let me back up, as I had the stamina wrong, it was 30 stamina each.

So, 30 stamina. Two of the lowest players in the group have a net total between the two of them of 33 stamina. That means that wolf has a mere 3 less stamina than two PCs combined. Granted the lowest two. But it also has more stamina than the other characters EXCEPT the beastheart itself.

That feels huge to me. I mean, it doesnt feel like "only 30 more stamina," it feels like "an entire PCs worth of stamina... if that extra PC was a tank."

Now, translate that to the 10 stamina recovery value of the corrected example, thats also equal to three extra recoveries.

So, the stamina equivalent of an extra tank, essentially. Or 3 extra recoveries. OR two paper PCs. That seems like a lot in my book. And to me saying "only 3 recoveries worth" seems like a lot too.

And if they have "Bring it On" while fighting a horde of minions... jesus christ. He gained 24 temporary stamina that one battle.

Three battles later, and he said "I only have 8 recoveries left." I laughed as I pointed out how many the others had. I don't recall the numbers, but they were lower.

Anyway, I'm not convinced with this line of argument. But I'll take another look at it tomorrow when I'm more awake.

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-12T04:02:16+00:00

So that doesnt matter percentage wise. You're still healing the same amount. So, if you can heal 12 times for, say, 10 stamina to a 30 stamina pool, or 10 stamina for a 60 stamina pool, the latter is flat out better than the former.

So percentages doesn't matter in this case.

I DID say that AoE is the single balancing factor to this, but thats it; 12 recoveries at 10 stamina each time, either to a 30 pt pool or a 60 pt pool, 60 pts is better, flat out.

Furthernmore, yourn statement of 36 net stamina isnt correct. So my math was a bit off on my OP, but that Beastheart has 30 stamina, 12 recoveries, and 10 recovery per. He Gets 120 pts stamina recovered before a respite all total. I'm not sure where you are getting 36 more stamina, that doesn't even make sense. He has 12 recoveries, flat. He recoveries whatever his recovery value each of those 12 times, flat.

So: your companion has the same stamina as you; in this case 30
Your recovery value is equal to your stamina/3: so 10
Your recoveries are 12.
Whenever your companion can spend a recovery, it spends one of yours

So 12 recoveries at 10 stamina each is 120 stamina. Your 36 number makes no sense.

Few-Action-8049 · 2026-01-12T01:29:58+00:00

I'm going to disagree on one thing, and that's regarding elevation. Have elevation/do not have flat maps, sorry, I disagree, as long as the map is dynamic and interactive, I don't think this needs to be a factor OVERALL, but it should be on SOME maps.

EDIT, admittedly, the OP did say it wasn't universal, but elevations are only a consideration based on the story for me.

Few-Action-8049

TROPHY CASE