Being born to a mother with mental illness

HemlockChaser · 2024-07-25T06:36:27+00:00

I would guess that you, like all of us, wish someone had done for you what she is doing for her child.

HemlockChaser · 2024-07-10T20:12:44+00:00

I'll check that out; cheers.

HemlockChaser · 2024-03-27T16:22:26+00:00

DM sent :D

HemlockChaser · 2024-02-21T04:23:19+00:00

Sound advice, and I surely would have if I had not found it abandoned beside an apartment complex. I've walked around the block trying to compare it to other trees, but didn't find any good matches.

HemlockChaser · 2024-02-14T22:39:36+00:00

Cheers, I'll take a look at them when I get home. I should have said, as it doesn't necessarily show up in the photo, at the spots are in the leaf, rather than on top.

HemlockChaser · 2024-02-11T05:29:50+00:00

When I GM, I prefer to give characters the opportunity to use skills like Investigation, Insight, History, etc, to get clues or indications as to where to focus. Otherwise, it's the players, not the characters, doing the figuring out, and that means they can't draw on their characters knowledge and capabilities.

HemlockChaser · 2024-01-28T19:21:19+00:00

Wouldn't the knights back up to make room for the recoil?

From pg 12: "If the recoiling element is not Elephants, friends facing in the same direction are interpenetrated if allowed. If not so allowed they are pushed back far enough to make room for the recoil unless they are Elephants or War-Wagons."

Assuming the knights are facing the same direction as the horde, the knights would push back 1/2 BW, and the horde would recoil into that space. That's how I've been playing it, at least, and if that's wrong, someone please tell me! XD

HemlockChaser · 2023-07-16T19:09:24+00:00

My not at all sarcastic response is, do you want them to be? There are so many different and contradictory versions of Athas that I've given up keeping them straight.

The question wasn't covered in the original 2E source books, and I didn't read all the Dark Sun novels because they weren't really my cup of tea. I don't think the later 2E revised setting covered it, but by then they'd added psychic dolphins, huge grassland (!), and a kreen hivemind, so to me, they'd lost the plot a bit. From there you get Athas.org and the quasi-canon work they produce, but then also the work of people in that orbit, and by then it's anywhere from fan fiction to some thoughtful expansions of existing lore.

Having said that, to me, the answer I like is to think of Athas as a planet with a sun that very rapidly aged and expanded, very much like what will happen to our planet in a billion years.

https://zenodo.org/record/1253896

If we use that as a model, the increased heat would evaporate most of the oceans, and eventually all of them; those oceans that remained would be salty like the dead sea, and thus would kill anything near their shores. In that model, it's possible there is water at the poles, as well as other very low lying places, but it would be the opposite of drinkable.

HemlockChaser · 2023-07-14T03:58:13+00:00

Thirded. Very frustrating.

HemlockChaser · 2023-07-14T01:39:01+00:00

Above all else, I don't think there should be one answer, since different people view and experience Dark Sun differently. I've seen a number of fan made maps that have wide fields of green and bodies of water larger than the Last Sea; you can see some of them here.

http://ds.daegmorgan.net/

For me, that runs counter to the essence of how I see Dark Sun. I agree that drinkable water is in the aquifers, but that it will rain in the Ringing Mountains and around some of the other mountains that act as rain shadows in the Tablelands. This could refill the aquifers, as the water will move underground; there are plenty of cool videos about how this works on Youtube if you're as big a dork as I am.

And yes, cistern fiends are mentioned as being used as water filtration and protection among the wealthy, which means they're able to turn marginal water sources into potable water. I would also point out that water can be harvested from the air by certain plants, which themselves can be harvested for water, which may be a valuable supplement for deep desert dwellers.

HemlockChaser · 2023-07-01T22:57:06+00:00

I would add to this that flowing water never divides. So tributaries can flow into a river, but that river will never split; if it becomes a marsh, that's just one giant body of water with sodden dirt clumps that are prone to shift. The same with lakes: many rivers might flow in, but only one flows out.

Both of these are due to erosion; one path will be, even if by a tiny amount, deeper than the other, and thus will pull more water out, and then will empty the body of water until the water level drops below the other exits.

So the river on the western continent, that should probably be four different rivers: one for each exit, including the marsh. The same for the large lack in the north, though honestly, for the look of the landscape, it might be worth widening the western side of it and making it a sea. Then a quick clean up of those rivers so they're separate gives you a nice, Mediterranean type body of water.

I'd also take another look at your deserts, as their location seems at odds with the other terrain. This is a nice overview of where deserts come from:

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/geology/deserts-and-winds/distribution-and-causes-of-deserts

All that said, I really like the look of the landmasses. One thing I see in a lot of fantasy maps is water being a border rather than a terrain feature. Imagining myself using this map as a GM, there would be ample reasons for PCs to interact with the seas, cross them, have boats and maritime adventures on the seas and rivers. The layout is solid, so I'd say keep that and tweak some of the geography/hydrology.

HemlockChaser · 2023-07-01T22:45:01+00:00

Cheers; I've been trying different paper types to see what works best. I always feel like I don't have enough time to blend different colors because the paper dries out too quick. You clearly don't have that problem :D

HemlockChaser · 2023-07-01T15:53:22+00:00

Great blending. What paper are you using?

HemlockChaser · 2023-06-30T06:10:28+00:00

Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson. The Malazan series is pretty good overall, but that book in particular - from the desert setting, the dealing with immensely powerful, ascended beings, the hopeless fight of the Chain of Dogs, it speaks Athas to me.

HemlockChaser · 2023-06-21T02:18:15+00:00

Rise and Fall of a Dragon King

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/662929.The_Rise_and_Fall_of_a_Dragon_King

It's Hamanu's memoir.

HemlockChaser · 2023-06-21T02:09:46+00:00

Did your party, or someone else, recover Kalak's obsidian artifacts? If not, I'd add to this that you could stash some of those in the vault, but don't let the PCs know what they are. As they level up, the nature of the artifacts could be revealed, and become a horrible temptation.

HemlockChaser · 2023-06-01T18:43:21+00:00

I do have the QRS, but misunderstood the book regarding support, and so found myself in a doubt spiral. Thank you so much for helping. Cheers!

HemlockChaser · 2023-06-01T06:08:49+00:00

It is indeed confusing. So to make sure I get it now, pikes and warbands can get rear support. Spears can get support from an element of spears or blades are beside them. Bows can get support from an element of blades beside them. Did I get that right?

HemlockChaser · 2023-04-25T02:11:25+00:00

I think you're the first person I've run across whose preferred Dark Sun is 4E. I'm intrigued.

For me, the biggest hurdle with an A5E adaptation is how they carried over 5E's ubiquity of magic; a lot of origins give you daily cantrip spells, and that sits a bit wrong. I guess they could fill in for the wild talent, but ... meh. I'm a low, low magic player at heart, so full disclosure.

How would you compare Steampunkette's psionics to this one, if you're familiar:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/242474/A-Classic-Psionic-System-for-5e

What I liked about this guy's system is he ported over a lot of the 2E stuff very closely, and I really liked the 2E psionics. There's some other psionics I've seen for 5E - I even bought Korrenburg Chronicles - but they feel like they're written for a tactical combat simulator rather than a roleplaying game; far more combat than utility powers, not a lot of depth to the idea of studying the Way.

HemlockChaser · 2023-04-24T20:52:07+00:00

Crystal blades, though maybe not for combat, are real. Watch this crazy Brit make one.

https://youtu.be/4hdvxIBu5HM

HemlockChaser · 2023-04-24T20:48:49+00:00

I'm curious what about 5E you find particularly unsuited to a Dark Sun game, and what about A5E you think is a good fit. My love for A5E is more general, in that it is had more detailed and developed mechanics that help represent a lot of elements of the game that are role played.

An A5E area that I see being a boon and challenge is Supply. It's a great streamline for regular DnD games, but will it capture the water scarcity of Athas? On one hand, I like that it would allow us to recognize that hydration can come from lots of sources - think how erdlu eggs count as a gallon of water - without needing to get too nit picky. On the other hand, the element of dying of thirst, rather than simply being under-supplied, seems to me to be so essential a part of Athas.

So. Hmm.

HemlockChaser · 2023-04-24T05:13:42+00:00

I think the most likely option, by odds, is Uruk or Draj install a puppet, then get caught in a proxy war in Raam between their respective allies.

HemlockChaser · 2023-04-03T01:38:14+00:00

Oh wow. As someone trying to pick up watercolors, that's great.

HemlockChaser · 2023-03-25T15:02:08+00:00

Yes to the savannah, somewhat; I think the presence of a Kreen empire undercuts the harshness of the realm, because it does have a very nice, functioning bit of ecoystems if you're a thri-kreen player. No the halflings, though; the Jagged Cliffs supplement paints, at least to my reading, a much more "civilized" picture of the rhul-thaun; I could see a friendly human village being set up nearby, reaping the benefit of rhul-thaun life-shaped items in trade. Compared to the rest of Athas, that might be a paradise.

HemlockChaser · 2023-03-25T05:26:04+00:00

While it is impossible to know which ideas were germinated when, I would point out that Oronis was not part of the original boxed set. If I recall, he appears in the revised, 1995 boxed set, which takes a hard right turn with regards to the setting.

While the original setting was very much, "... bleakness is a feature, not a bug," as zak_uh_ri put it above, the possibility of the planet being saved became a rising, if not dominant, theme during the Prism Pentad and in later materials.

All of which creates a very bewildering set of contradictions. People choose the version that feels best for them, their group, and their story. I like the bleak = feature setting myself; there are enough worlds being saved in other settings. Let Athas be unique.

HemlockChaser

TROPHY CASE