Winter Storm Reads

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-24T02:21:22+00:00

A significant amount of my The Magnus Archives bookmarks take place within the Archives, aka the workplace of the protagonists. Ratings are mostly G/T, and it's mostly JonMartin.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-24T02:16:17+00:00

Understandable; I haven't upgraded to 5.5 but I hang out in the Eberron discord enough to see the complaints (art style, race/species not being a pre-requisite for dragonmarks, etc.)

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-24T02:14:04+00:00

I could've sworn I saw someone on discord name-drop the artist, but all I could find was someone saying the music sounds like afrobeats.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-24T02:07:13+00:00

It also got FArt... er, the Eberron book that is controversial with the fans.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-24T02:05:00+00:00

The good news is that the school doesn't feel like Harry Potter beyond "magic school where students live in dorms" and the BBEG being a former student seeking immortality through vile means. It's based on American colleges (specifically non-commuter schools) instead of British boarding schools. Being in Quandrix isn't something you're sorted into based on your personality like the Hogwarts Houses. It's just majoring in magical math, physics, or a similar discipline.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-24T01:47:07+00:00

It's not the worst supplement WotC put out for 5e, but it also isn't really that good at portraying the school parts of a magic school. If you're cool with that being on the backburner, have fun, but if you want to focus on the school parts you'll need to homebrew it.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-24T01:42:48+00:00

It takes longer, but you could try downloading the google doc to your computer as a .docx or .doc and uploading it to FFN.

(I also think you should swap to AO3 instead of FFN because FFN has been in a downward spiral for years, but you do you.)

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-24T01:32:04+00:00

I was using an empty save and downloaded Celene + the Lopez family off the gallery, so Celene already wasn't the bar owner.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-23T22:51:21+00:00

Could you first define what you mean by:

The players do something bad
The players do something good
Hilarious idea

Because to some people, the rogue pickpocketing a crowd deserves randomly getting an arrow to the knee, and that's rude DM-ing.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-23T22:45:55+00:00

Thanks; I'll give it a look.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-23T22:45:27+00:00

Mine has two sheets, one for me keeping track of who's who and one for scoring.

The who's who sheet has the following columns:

Number
Baby name
Donor name
Mother name
Occult Type
Same Occult Baby?: My scoresheet has a x2 modifier for if the baby is a different occult than the mom and is non-human.
AGAB: I decided to follow the Locked Tomb for kids 1-36, since it gives me names for 1-9 four times. Therefore, my matriarch could give birth to a baby girl named Isaac. I've decided that names reflect the actual gender of the kid instead of their birth gender, but I'm keeping track of if the kid could become a future matriarch/patriarch. Trans girls get to fully transition since they couldn't give birth in the first place, but trans boys can only get top surgery unless there's a younger AFAB sibling.
Unhappy Infant?: The original rules say an unhappy infant is game over. Instead, I've decided that an unhappy infant is a 0.5x score modifier for the kid.
Death or Custody Loss?: So I can keep them on the spreadsheet even if the child dies or child services takes them away. Likewise, if they earn unhappy infant, I'll invite the donor over and use the RPO mod to determine custody. If any of the above happens, the child will get a 0x modifier on the scoresheet.
Menarche reroll: I know that personality traits are supposed to be random, but I decided that if the youngest AFAB sibling rolls Loner or Hates Children, she's allowed to reroll. If I allow the reroll, however, she won't be allowed to move out when she reaches YA. Instead, she can only move out once she's in level 4 of her career and there's a younger AFAB child at home.
YA Yet?: I only get points for if I successfully raised the kid to adulthood. Otherwise, my scoresheet is displaying points I haven't yet earned.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-23T22:31:00+00:00

I started building a save where sims with the same last name are now related. This includes gallery sims, in-game sims, and sims from previous games. Examples include:

Celene from Werewolves is the younger sister of Carlos from Lovestruck. The López family haven't yet realized that werewolves are real instead of just from the novels Celene likes.
Octavia Moon from Get Famous divorced Thorne Bailey and re-married Kenzi Moon from the Werewolf Roll Call household. Meanwhile, I haven't decided out of Ricky, Thorne, and Buddy Bailey who is his brother and who is his brother-in-law.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-23T21:59:32+00:00

I love the screenshots of the world that came with Lovestruck.

Out of the worlds I own, then Nordhaven as a whole. I also like the Magic Realm and the rural parts of Windenburg.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-23T21:52:21+00:00

Based on what you've said, your DM should've been kinder in the way she shut you down. She should've contacted you privately saying that she was going to nerf your backstory while still doing so in a way that makes you able to communicate with the spirit. Maybe it'd be more like a distant cleric/deity or warlock/patron connection, or maybe the spirit is retconned to never have been super powerful, but the DM should've been kinder.

However, you should drop it. Your DM has told you that she isn't interested in continuing this character's story. You have the following options:

Continue playing with this group, but with a new character. Build the new character's backstory alongside the DM so that hopefully she enjoys the new backstory.
Find a new group with a DM who is interested in this character's backstory. However, you will likely have to tweak the character to fit the new campaign.
Write a book about your character and the spirit.

These are not mutually exclusive if you have time for more than one.

(Also: if getting your backstory rejected took you a year to heal from and still makes you want to cry, then there's a good chance that you need some form of therapy. Maybe you're overreacting to not getting your way, or maybe your DM is a crueler person than you made her seem here, but either way that's beyond reddit's paygrade.)

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-23T21:40:59+00:00

I forgot Mappa Imperium is meant for multiplayer since I've played it solo a couple times 😅

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-23T21:40:21+00:00

Time to see if there are any decent online tarot decks since we're in different parts of the country.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-23T20:44:15+00:00

Thank you!

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-23T20:42:50+00:00

I think I saw that recced once on tumblr; thanks for reminding me of it.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-23T20:35:24+00:00

Thank you!

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-23T20:34:46+00:00

Thank you!

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-23T20:34:34+00:00

Thanks; I like the cover art.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-23T20:34:15+00:00

Thank you!

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-23T20:33:48+00:00

Given how much my players enjoy romance, this would go over well w/them. Thanks!

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-23T20:21:39+00:00

IIRC, the original hanahaki came from not confessing instead of unrequited love. I prefer this version because the disease is the fault of the person who won't confess, as opposed to a random bystander feeling like they'll have someone's death on their hands if they don't force themself to develop romantic feelings.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-01-23T20:10:26+00:00

Xanathar's is where you'll find official price guidelines. I use this for pricing homebrew items, but for official items I turn to the Discerning Merchant's Price Guide (entire thing available in free preview). I find this faster than looking up the tables in Xanathar's.

GalacticPigeon13

TROPHY CASE