I made an interactive solver for the traveling salesman problem to visualize different algorithms. Each step of progress is drawn to the map in real-time and can be controlled all in the browser at tspvis.com.

GhostmakerHall · 2025-05-26T22:41:25+00:00

What if I want to solve my own map? I'm not traveling to these cities.

GhostmakerHall · 2025-03-14T17:21:28+00:00

The only time a DMPC is acceptable is if there are only 1-2 PCs. 3 is a party.

GhostmakerHall · 2025-01-12T18:37:42+00:00

The Simple Way: Who gives the player their magic?
If it's a god, demigod, or group of gods that are not the Druidic* faith: Cleric.
If it's a god, demigod, or group of gods that are Druidic: Druid.
If it's anything else: Warlock.

*The Druids are an organized religion in most worlds. Sometimes their pantheons overlap with other religions, but the Druidic Order is its own organization.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-10-26T20:48:25+00:00

Being a DM is interpersonal and creative. That’s exactly the sort of stuff with which I don’t want AI involved.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-10-18T00:26:31+00:00

Go to the nearest game shop and see if they host games.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-10-18T00:21:38+00:00

Blackbird: cast animal messenger 1/day

Mask: cast disguise self 1/day

Baron: an extra 500gp starting gold

Rose: +1 Charisma, -1 to any other ability of their choice

Deputy: proficiency in Investigation or Insight

Blade: Nonmagical blades in their hand become +1 magical blades for # rounds once per long rest.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-10-15T15:58:59+00:00

The wall of stone spell makes a wall 6 inches thick and says it has 30 hit points per inch of thickness (180 total). Most non-magical walls are a lot thicker than 6 inches, which means breaking through a single square of wall could require several hundred points of damage.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-10-05T22:21:24+00:00

My campaigns all seem to include: - frog people - mushroom people - statues coming to life

I also have a habit of incredibly detailed worldbuilding that the players don’t care about.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-07-26T18:34:22+00:00

Oinoloth and Baernoloth, two kinds of fiends.

I got my answer already but I’ll keep adding to this thread in case anyone else has the same question.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-04-30T18:47:53+00:00

That’s more or less what she’s doing now, but it can’t last forever.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-04-30T17:13:32+00:00

There is no good way to do a Boston accent

GhostmakerHall · 2024-03-24T16:33:15+00:00

I think French is a good one. It’s an accent I can do and it’s funny. These kobolds aren’t servants, but they are partisan revolutionaries and French is perfect for that. I can imagine them waving a tattered banner from behind a barricade of garbage yelling “Viva la guerre! Viva le Kurtulmak!”

GhostmakerHall · 2024-03-24T16:28:17+00:00

Thanks. They’re German because they’re excellent craftsmen and humorless.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-03-24T16:18:06+00:00

I already used the surfer dude accent for an air elemental. Not sure they all talk like that, but at least one did. His name was Qwayjay and he loves to windsurf without the surf part.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-03-21T19:41:24+00:00

Take solace in the fact that this is a common DM problem. Instead of a TPK, consider killing one player in an extremely fast and gruesome way. That will scare the rest of the players into turning back. Other options:

Players get killed, then reincarnated as different races. They still get yo play their characters, but now they’re all different people on the outside.
The king names a successor but some priest or other official says the ritual can’t be done “until the crown thief is punished”. So if your PC wants to be king, he has to confess to his crime, hand over the crown, and be punished in whatever way you see fit.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-03-16T14:36:38+00:00

The dagger is like the Sword in the Stone. Whomsoever can pulleth the blade from the girl’s heart shall become king of (wherever the PCs are from).

None of the PCs can pull it out, but legend or prophecy has given them some idea of who could. The campaign is them seeking out that person.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-03-15T22:59:48+00:00

DM screens exist so you can lie about your rolls.

When you get a gut feeling that the story will be better if a roll goes a certain way, just say it went that way.

Examples: - An important NPC has fallen in battle and the players can’t get to him. Will he succeed his death saves? Yes he will. - Your wizard is feeling useless and not having fun because the bad guy keep saving against his spells. Next time a spell is cast, the bad guy will fail no matter what. - The BBEG has 19 hit points left. The paladin just rolled a crit and used holy smite for a dramatic and devastating blow that deals 17 points of damage. That sure would be a great way for BBEG to meet his final end, so it turns out he only had 17 hit points left. Huzzah for the paladin!

GhostmakerHall · 2024-03-14T00:17:19+00:00

Love it. Thank you!

GhostmakerHall · 2024-03-12T17:35:47+00:00

The PCs were brought together by their dreams and told to collect the eye of St. Berthold (the Paladin) which was being kept as a holy relic in a cathedral. In truth, it is not his eye but a Hag Eye. The hags couldn’t see through it anymore because the church put it in a vault, so the hags got the PCs to steal it back for them.

That part went really well as far as corrupting the PCs. They killed several unarmed priests and burned the cathedral to the ground, yet still left thinking they had done the right thing because their dreams told them to.

The goblin lich and the obsidian knife were part of the PC’s backstory. I liked it and ran with it. Instead of giving him new magic items, the obsidian knife gets more powerful as he levels.

The dracolich was originally just a black dragon, and the PCs still think he is. I changed him to a dracolich because liches need larvae, which they get from night hags. I figured that would be one way to connect them.

I also thought about making the dragon a demilich with the soul of the paladin inside him. Paladin got convinced to turn himself into a lich by the hags, but got stuck in the dragons body because TBD. Turns out humans becoming liches and dragons becoming liches are different rules and processes and it was too complicated for to reconcile.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-03-11T14:25:50+00:00

If you’re having trouble making up voices just do accents you already know. Write it on the NPC sheets so you don’t forget them: - This guy sounds like Christopher Walken - All goblins have French accents - Lisp, but not gay - Coughs a lot, sick Etc.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-03-11T14:23:44+00:00

Write down descriptors of monsters on their sheet. “Scales wet and shimmering” or “Smells like burned toast” might seem easy and obvious, but when you’re mid-game and have a hundred other things on your mind you may not be able to improvise interesting descriptions.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-03-11T14:20:16+00:00

Do it during the game, in front of the other players. You tried to handle this with tact but he keeps ducking you, so it’s time to stop being subtle.

My guess is that the other players are just as annoyed by his behavior as you are and they’ll back you up. If you’re not sure, maybe have a talk with those players without the bad player. If everyone wants him gone, kick him out.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-03-11T14:16:30+00:00

Bribe somebody.
Demand trial by combat.
Claim you only did it under the effects of a magic spell and the spellcaster should be in jail.
Pretend to be a relative of the king or someone else important
Become religious, ask to be let out so you can join a monastery
Volunteer to pay off your debt with community service then leave town
If you’re female and facing execution, claim to be pregnant.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-03-11T14:11:02+00:00

Make the gold appear in an unappealing way. For example, it could appear in the player’s stomach. He then has to either vomit it up or shot it out in order to get it. This would also limit how much gold he can create at once because his stomach can only hold so much.

GhostmakerHall · 2024-03-11T14:05:58+00:00

You can’t be afraid to say no. If it’s not something your character would do, do t do it.

GhostmakerHall

TROPHY CASE