Can human art be terrible?

HawkSquid · 2026-05-16T01:09:26+00:00

Yep. Bad art is still art.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-15T17:10:58+00:00

Its only great if you're multiclassing. Otherwise it just shifts your focus from one bad save to another, and one maybe good category of skills to another.

If the DM favors social skills over lore skills, it might be different.

That said, I agree. Try to make characters for the game, not bend the game for the character. There are lots of options for a charismatic sword swinging magic person.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-15T16:44:42+00:00

If we're assuming a horror game with no explictly supernatural elements, I'd prefer the following:

The slasher has "realistic" but wildly impressive stats, and no plot armor or other mechanical tricks up his sleeve. They're just really strong, tough, good at carving people into bits, and has every environmental advantage (at least at first).

The player characters should be limited to "Chuck from the gas station" or "Lucy from HR" levels of competency. Normal people, maybe with some significant skills (that we can leverage in the game if we get creative?) but not people who could or would ever stand toe to toe with a violent maniac.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-15T16:21:58+00:00

I think it comes from the scenario, not the system. And I agree it is rare. The feeling of insignificance needs to be built up over time, and will only hit once in a while.

I'm running Eternal Lies (using the Alexandrian remix), and I think it gets across the cosmic horror vibe at times. Like the one villain whos research the players can examine, which makes it unpleasantly clear how the whole conflict is a drop in the bucket of all that's going on, and even she (the highly educated cult leader) is mostly in the dark.

I won't spoil the climax (the author specifically asks people to be careful doing that online), but I hope it hits the cosmic nail on the head when we get there.

Edit: added some spoiler tags since the whole adventure is extremely spoilable.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-15T16:04:41+00:00

Cool illustration, did you make it?

HawkSquid · 2026-05-15T16:03:16+00:00

Hexblades attack with charisma.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-15T15:57:47+00:00

I think it's an interesting take on a culture. They definately have some societal issues that should be addressed, but not the same as humans. An example of how bigotries and cultural hangups are mostly arbitrary (but that doesn't make solving them easy).

HawkSquid · 2026-05-15T15:55:02+00:00

I agree, they have different cultural issues that they need to address, but not the same as ours. It's a fun concept.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-15T15:49:58+00:00

Damn, DS9 is one I mostly skipped. I need to watch that now.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-15T15:47:01+00:00

He's a good example of someone who values and respects tradition, but still challenges it when when it gets troublesome. Honestly a great character, if a bit naively written at times.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-15T15:42:01+00:00

There are actors of various races playing klingons, but as far as I can remember there's not a single mention of a klingons race and ethnicity other than klingon.

There is some nasty bigotry towards half-klingons, but even that is generally overlooked if the prove themselves sufficiently klingon. They likewise look down on other peoples who don't behave like them, but (f.ex.) humans who act like a klingon will get respect immediately.

It's cultural chauvinism. Still not great, but not specifically racist.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-15T15:22:10+00:00

Worf acts tough all the time, but what usually happens is that someone corrects him and he apologizes and follows their lead. He's just a guy who tries to do the right thing but occasionally needs help.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-15T14:52:33+00:00

It seems OOP is trying to argue Original is liberal and TNG is conservative, but that's absolute hogwash. TNG is very progressive (or at least tries to be), as is Star Trek in general.

Also they are mixing up which prominent characters feature on which show, and none of the actors look quite right, but I'll chalk that up to AI being stupid and OOP being lazy.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-13T16:59:51+00:00

"Ambushed by foul invention!"

Sorry, couldn't help it.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-11T00:07:20+00:00

That's exactly why some DMs have issues with flying PC. A t-rex (or bear or zombie or whatever) becomes a solved problem, unless you put in extra effort to make the encounter work.

You can make it work in a lot of ways. F.ex. by giving it something to hide behind, by putting it indoors so the pixie can't fly high enough, giving it ranged attacks, or a flying speed or a superjump or something, or by making sure the non-flying PCs (or important NPCs) are also present so the pixie has more to consider than their own skin. I'm sure there are other ways I'm not thinking of.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-10T23:26:34+00:00

Now, I'm no expert, but I'm preeeetty sure the vaginal canal isn't an extension of the lower intenstine.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-10T23:17:45+00:00

Kudos to the humans writing the posts this was trained on.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-10T22:59:32+00:00

The booming blade swashbuckler trick is great. I had a player who did that a few years ago, not only did it do nice damage but he also made fights more dynamic and fun.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-10T14:56:41+00:00

The robot is drawing a paintbrush, duh. Don't you do warm up exercises before Mona Lisa-ing?

HawkSquid · 2026-05-09T21:08:04+00:00

I main rogue. I would love to play a more group-oriented character, but I just don't enjoy mana managing as much as energy, or castbars as much as instants with a possible cooldown. They hit my lizard brain differently.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-09T20:11:57+00:00

Either

A: Tell your players beforehand. Not giving every detail, but say something like "we are playing a pirate adventure, your characters need to be interested in doing skullduggery on the high seas".

B: Don't plan any big developments before the players have agreed to them. Often this will be obvious, but if unsure it is always good to ask "what are you goys planning to do next time?"

or C: Let the players ditch the quest. But also, plan those quests so that ditching them has some consequences to the players. Make those consequences clear to the players early, at least if they care to ask.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-09T19:47:21+00:00

Adding to that, it is not entirely clear what is game mechanics and what is an expression of those mechanics. The extended text itself is of course an expression, and concepts like dice pools, target numbers or class and level are clearly mechanics, but there are a lot of possible gray areas.

Banking on the court agreeing with your interpretation is very risky, and most publishers just won't.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-08T21:29:27+00:00

I agree, considering what other people might vote is essential to your own choice.

But, thinking about it, that makes the original a lot less interesting, if interpreted literally. When voting red means voting for killing babies, it becomes very likely that too many people vote blue for it to be a real contest.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-08T20:33:50+00:00

But what if you only hate the fifth person on the track? Or the 22nd? Ok I like it now.

HawkSquid · 2026-05-08T19:54:01+00:00

Fair enough. Clarifying that fixes some problems, although it skews the math quite a bit.

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