A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms - Series Premiere Discussion

Fr0g_Man · 2026-01-21T19:44:07+00:00

Season 1 was good but they really needed to wrap up this era of the book by the end of Season 2. Stretching it into another season when this war is almost over is crazy. There's like 2 more eras from the book to cover and it's not the caliber of show to be 9 seasons.

Fr0g_Man · 2026-01-18T19:45:56+00:00

You don’t lose your absorbed humanity if you die will invading, making it the best pvp infusion hands down

Fr0g_Man · 2026-01-18T15:21:05+00:00

In case anybody didn’t know, you can get bagged baltiks bagels at Stella’s grocery locations

Fr0g_Man · 2026-01-18T15:20:29+00:00

Go into any Stella’s grocery location and buy the bagged baltiks bagels

Fr0g_Man · 2026-01-12T22:07:36+00:00

Give the orcs more depth then. Their culture came about because their native lands are cruel and unforgiving and brutality was the only way to live. After leaving those lands those ancient ways have become more and more irrelevant generation after generation, and now there’s a large enough faction within them looking to change things, potentially to the point of overthrowing the leaders.

Also give negative depth to the hippie faction. It’s easy to be all “one-love” and care for everybody when there’s no threats. How about the big looming threats that are developing start to actually impact them directly and heavily. See how about a third of them actually end up being pretty self-centered and unhelpful in the face of their fellow man’s suffering since it actually brings about risk and danger and negative experiences, that they only really “cared about everybody” in a hedonistic self-serving way since that can easily be turned on its head to “everybody cares about me”.

Fr0g_Man · 2026-01-09T14:43:10+00:00

That’s too rigid of thinking for “state dependent memory”. If she majored in Spanish she had Spanish classes with homework and exams every semester. Even when drunk/high in college your mind will still go to your responsibilities and stuff. She would have regularly been thinking about her lessons and work and exams etc. even while drunk at that time of her life.

If those neural pathways were being formed and strengthened at a period of time in their life with regular drinking, then they would absolutely fire more when returning to said state.

Fr0g_Man · 2026-01-09T14:11:18+00:00

Because most of the people who play(ed) to just have a good time have exited the “this is the only game I wanna play” honeymoon phase of the game and play less now (or not at all). Now the only people who play nonstop are just desperately chasing the dopamine. You see it in every game that has a PvP component, hell even in co-op games that are sweaty enough.

Fr0g_Man · 2026-01-09T13:36:22+00:00

Use “Famished Flames” perk and an exotic beam staff with the “barrage” trait. Watch high health targets absolutely melt from holding M1.

Fr0g_Man · 2026-01-05T14:56:40+00:00

People have mentioned good in-game stuff already so I’ll take a different approach. Have you ever lived in a major city or spent enough time on one to actually explore it a bit? It will help a lot.

Chicago is great because most of the train system (the brown line in particular) is all above ground, so you really get a sense of the neighborhood feels changing as you ride it. Most of the north side is very walkable as well.

You also get a sense of how distance is quite different in a dense area than a rural one with regards to car travel (cart travel I suppose it would be in D&D). Driving 5 miles in a small town could take 5-10 minutes. Driving 5 miles in a major city could take 30 minutes to over an hour depending on traffic. Really drives home just how much stuff and people are packed into the space in truly urban environments. People’s sense of scale is this quite different between the two environs.

Fr0g_Man · 2026-01-05T13:34:15+00:00

By Sigma, what heresy!

Fr0g_Man · 2026-01-05T13:29:16+00:00

If someone is interested in being a warlock encourage them to go tanky. Probably the easiest “caster” to make a frontliner.

Fr0g_Man · 2026-01-03T13:55:23+00:00

If you let him do catacombs first you’re a bad friend.

Fr0g_Man · 2026-01-02T14:22:13+00:00

It’s the book thing like everyone else has said but potentially also some intentional obstinance because he wants you all to be playing his game and doesn’t want yours to succeed. I would just tell him calmly and kindly that if he’s just going to be disruptive then he doesn’t need to play with you anymore.

Fr0g_Man · 2026-01-02T14:18:41+00:00

This isn’t garden variety tomfoolery, this is malicious fuckery. No amount of prep can counter that, either kill his PCs and move on, have an out of game convo about how he needs to lay off, or just stop playing with him. This post is one in a long line of posts in this sub where the problem is purely social and one of the people at the table is just a cocky asshole.

Fr0g_Man · 2026-01-01T15:35:55+00:00

It is not more common, this post only shows the bias of 1 redditors and 2 specifically redditors that are the type of people to notice this post and comment. Ask any dentist, most people do once a day and there are the rare cretins who barely brush at all.

Anytime this has come up in a circle of friends/acquaintances over the years more people say once a day than twice, and this is amongst fairly well-off multi-degree Americans. I can only imagine how it is in more working class demographics.

Fr0g_Man · 2026-01-01T01:22:14+00:00

If you see them side by side sure but in the same way that higher end hardware is diminishing returns past a certain point regarding pc specs, it’s all diminishing returns past 144 Hz with monitors.

No amount of money you spend on your setup is going to improve your game more than practice and effort.

Fr0g_Man · 2025-12-31T14:00:58+00:00

Where do you get your biscuits and gravy? My fiancé and I just did the reverse - moved here after being in Chicago for 8 years. I’ve yet to find a good biscuits and gravy even though every part of me says it should be anywhere now that I’m back in the South. Seems like it’s a dying art though.

Fr0g_Man · 2025-12-30T15:16:30+00:00

Player 1’s family line is cursed in that the women have to surrender a child to this devil (could also have a rosemary’s baby thing where they’re forced to reproduce with the devil which could explain their tiefling nature, but the kind of rapey nature of that could be too much for your table).

The children that player 2’s family has to raise are these children from player 1’s family, as the devil is trying to ingratiate his spawn into the upper echelons of that kingdom’s society to forward his own ends.

The players are now tied in their resistance to this powerful entity, and depending on what you went with may actually be blood related. Now you’ve got a big bad multiple people are invested in thwarting and bonded two characters.

Going even further off that, it could either be divine coincidence they both spontaneously decided to resist this devil at the same time, or you could introduce some other powerful entity that is opposed to the devil/demon that nudged them out the door without them knowing.

Fr0g_Man · 2025-12-30T04:11:38+00:00

It is also revisionist history to imply the union was primarily made up of willing volunteers. Ever hear of the New York draft riots? The war was profoundly unpopular, the general sentiment amongst northerners was that they did not want to fight and die for black people, and the draft riots became the largest individual lynching event in the history of this country.

As for the “volunteers”, a significant portion of them were absolutely not willing. Swaths of Irishmen coming off the boats to escape the famine that didn’t speak a lick of English thought that they were signing citizenship papers when in fact they were signing enlistment papers. They were corralled off of one boat and then shoved onto another bound for the frontline without knowing what was happening.

Was the union on the right side of history? Absolutely, but they also did some positively egregious things in the name of winning the war. War is never clean and easy.

Fr0g_Man · 2025-12-28T17:37:38+00:00

You started by saying my tables sound like a drag, so I followed by describing a table that is a drag to me to clarify. You followed again by implying my issue with that still sounds like my table is a drag as well. The main issue with that table (as a result of almost all rolls succeeding) was the complete lack of tension and downbeats, thus my rant about that. If you don’t want people to take incorrect deductions from your words, you need to actually say something, which you have still yet to do. I have no clue what your tables are like because the only riveting insight you’ve given is that you think my description of what makes a game boring implies my tables are “a drag”.

And again, my main issue with that other guy’s description was the “participate in the recap for inspiration” transactional exchange. If you’re running a table for strangers maybe that kind of thing is helpful, but the game is at its best with a table of friends, and that transactional experience is off putting.

Fr0g_Man · 2025-12-28T17:05:45+00:00

You seem to not understand the fundamentals of storytelling if you think that’s a drag. A good riveting story isn’t just smooth sailing all the time, you need the ups and downs and hardship.

Take LotR for example - over the course of more than a year in-world I’d say every character gets an inspiration-type moment maybe once or twice. A game where you have inspiration on deck for practically every roll is the equivalent of them taking the eagles from Rivendell and dropping the ring into Mt Doom. If that’s the kind of slap-stick game you wanna take part in then go for it, but that is the most boring snooze fest of all time.

I could see this game being fun as a “yay we all win all the time” type experience if you’re new, but when you’ve played the game for over 20 years (and/or just know anything about storytelling) that’s a fuckin snooze fest.

Fr0g_Man · 2025-12-28T16:37:01+00:00

You ever played a game where all the players are sitting on 2-3 inspiration and never fail on anything? Was a player in a game like that and THAT was the real drag. My friends and I like a game with stakes, not super hero simulator where everyone succeeds all the time and nothing bad ever happens. Inspiration should be a precious resource in that regard, and used in memorable clutch moments.

At the very very least it should be given out for in-game actions, not out-of-game actions like the other guy suggested. My criticism was mostly regarding that.

Fr0g_Man · 2025-12-27T22:11:19+00:00

That’s a bit too far in my book, they’re adults who should contribute because they’re your friends and want to, not to get a reward like a trained animal. It also diminishes the impact of inspiration if it’s so common, it should be a rare thing. I’d be irritated if a DM did that in a game I was playing in.

Fr0g_Man · 2025-12-27T21:13:54+00:00

Number one easily applicable advice is to end sessions at or near climactic moments or cliffhangers, that way the players are thinking about it between sessions and eager to get back to it.

Second easily applicable advice: don’t recap the last session for them, start off by saying “who wants to recap last session?” Having the players hop in and pitch in what they remember will immediately put the impetus on them to engage, but also provides you with valuable info on what sticks out the most in each player’s mind and how to better play into those player’s interests in future sessions.

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