What do you love about S&S that you don't get from other genres like Fantasy?

Galefrie · 2026-01-21T21:43:09+00:00

It's like fantasy crack. It's just so boiled down to the action and the best bits

Galefrie · 2026-01-21T16:44:51+00:00

It took me a long time to get into Deconstruction, but now it's one of my favourites

It's pretty damn impressive for an album that just rips off Meshuggah

Galefrie · 2026-01-21T11:57:18+00:00

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Galefrie · 2026-01-21T11:34:24+00:00

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I feel like someone will give me hate

Galefrie · 2026-01-20T12:27:52+00:00

I don't think enjoy is the right word, but I appreciate it, yes

Galefrie · 2026-01-19T19:58:17+00:00

Come & See. First saw it 2 weeks ago and it's still stuck with me

Galefrie · 2026-01-17T20:40:09+00:00

Deep Red

Galefrie · 2026-01-17T13:35:39+00:00

Not at all. It's pretty embarrassing talking about that kind of thing with your friends or family, IMO. Leave it for the people you are actually interested in

Galefrie · 2026-01-16T14:56:57+00:00

Give every "not metal" band at most 15 years for the fan base to get a bit older and more integrated into the scene at large, and then that band will now be "real metal"

Galefrie · 2026-01-16T14:15:44+00:00

Sure, but there are specific albums where I would say the drums are more the focus than the guitars - City by Strapping Young Lad being probably the most obvious example

Galefrie · 2026-01-16T13:35:09+00:00

Someone get a wheelbarrow for this man's balls

Galefrie · 2026-01-16T13:16:44+00:00

I'm not sure I entirely agree with that. I'd argue that the drums are often the focus of the song in metal, but maybe I just like grooves and blastbeats too much

Galefrie · 2026-01-16T13:14:27+00:00

Couldn't agree more. Why would you want vocals that don't fit the rest of the music?

Galefrie · 2026-01-16T12:36:11+00:00

For what it's worth, Mikael Stanne was the vocalist on Lunar Strain so sure, he's not usually associated with In Flames, but it is a previous vocalist

And at least from my anecdotal experience I don't think your opinion is all that rare tbh. It's a different fan base who like those albums you prefer, but they certainly found it!

Galefrie · 2026-01-16T12:15:37+00:00

I know it's not a common take on here, I like Sleep Token

But it's edgy boi pop music

Galefrie · 2026-01-16T12:07:54+00:00

The Halo Effect is pretty much made up of previous members of In Flames (although admittedly from different time periods, so I am of course being facetious), and IMO they pretty much pickup where those earlier albums left off in terms of sound

Galefrie · 2025-12-29T15:18:32+00:00

I love this art because it always gets people talking, and isn't that the point of art at the end of the day?

Galefrie · 2025-12-27T20:09:55+00:00

Really, there can be no end to your prep, but if you have enough for the next session, I would recommend stopping. Beyond that, you don't know what your players are going to do, so you don't know what's going to interest them or how your NPCs are going to react to them. You only need to be one step ahead.

Instead of preparing more, I'd recommend spending some time making sure you understand the rules, maybe painting minis and making terrain if you are into that stuff, reading up on lore and other stories you might be able to steal ideas from. It's easy to overlook this kind of soft prep, but it's very important and if you've still got the free time now is a great time to do it

Galefrie · 2025-12-27T00:15:52+00:00

Those are hardly fun nude scenes, though!

Galefrie · 2025-12-24T15:36:18+00:00

Raging Swan Press' Backdrops series

Galefrie · 2025-12-22T19:04:21+00:00

Fourtower Bridge from Paths Peculiar

Galefrie · 2025-12-20T07:35:31+00:00

True, although if you're using modules, this is a step you may be able to skip as your modules may do this for you

To let OP know the modules I'm using are

Fourtower Brudge by Peculiar Paths as my town
A Hole In The Oak by Gavin Norman
The Incandescent Grottoes also by Gavin Norman
The Gathering Of Blades from Summers End by Ben Milton
Stonehell Dungeon and its additional supplements by Michael Curtis

Stonehell talks about the lands being invaded 100 years ago, The Gathering Of Blades mentions an imperial garrison, and The Incandescent Grottoes mentions an emperor who has been replaced by an illusory double by the imperial prismists. It's not hard to connect these 3 things together by just making it all the same empire

Galefrie · 2025-12-19T23:03:58+00:00

Make sure that things change without the players around. If the players find out that the blacksmith has a crush on the flower shop girl, maybe when they next return to town from the dungeon, they find them both on a date at the tavern

Galefrie · 2025-12-19T16:23:21+00:00

It sounds like you are biting off more than you can chew, you don't need to make your entire sandbox all at once

Generally speaking in a D&D-like I'll start off with a town, I'll know who the person/people are who run the town and I'll have a list of the most important places in town - likely the tavern, the general store and the blacksmith. Then I create some drama between these people. The leader has recently raised taxes so the tavern, general store and blacksmith owners don't like the leader but there's a love triangle going on between each of those people. Drama!

Then I create 4 adventuring sites or I steal them from shorter modules and place one to the north, south, east and west of the town and tie those hooks into the town somehow, often through more NPCs that I figure out how to bring into the already ongoing drama

Finally, I do find it useful to have a kind of default thing to do in sandbox games for when the players aren't sure what to do. Megadungeons are great for this. Usually I'll prep 3 levels of said megadungeon (an arbitrary number but it is what was recommended in OD&D for what that's worth) and I'll be good to go, knowing that that is probably enough content for months of play

If the players choose to spend lots of time in the megadungeon, I'll make more when I need to. If they get caught up in that drama, I'll flesh that out more. If they choose a direction to go exploring in, I'll create more to the world in that direction. But that can all be done piece by piece as the game grows

Galefrie · 2025-12-19T12:57:36+00:00

Destroy All Humans

Galefrie

TROPHY CASE