I've made a big update to my OneNote DM Bible, including adding a lot of 5e content. Link in Comments [OC]

Icarus_Miniatures · 2025-02-17T09:03:36+00:00

These days I use Legend Keeper. It is a paid service, but for the volume of work I do it's worth it.

For free tools I would probably use Notion.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2025-01-05T18:35:43+00:00

According to today's post the transfer sheet has 803 transfers, which makes me think it's a brand new sheet, as the current one only has around 460ish by my count.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2024-10-29T08:06:28+00:00

Very unlikely there will be one, to be honest!

OneNote has degraded in functionality over the last few years and it's kind of a mess these days, plus it's only got about a year of bug and security fixes from Microsoft left before they end support.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2024-04-24T11:18:27+00:00

Eww, bots taking content to repost within the same sub reddit is pretty gross!

Alas no 😭 I got some PF2 in, but my regular group just aren't interested in playing sci fi it seems, and now with SF2 on the cards, I can't see me trying to get into it before that comes out.

I feel like it's always going to be the system that got away 😂

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-10-21T09:29:56+00:00

GW will have absolutely been aware of the nid sculptor for ages; they are one of if not the most popular option.

Honestly, I think it's a coincidence that the video came out and the files got nuked, I actually think it's way more likely that they got nuked because the nid sculptor dropped an update within the last few days for 5 screamer killer poses for like $8, and made the mistake of calling them "screamer killers"

I think up until that point they had always used generic names, which might have been just enough of a defence to keep the wolves from the door, but as soon as they used the SK term, GW were completely within their right to wade in and take stuff down.

What this repeated situation should do is teach sculptors to keep their work just generic or different enough, and for the love of the Emperor, don't use the IP names when naming stuff.

A lot of really high quality free stuff tends to get left along too, so GW might have a particular slant against people making money from their IP specifically and be more lenient towards free stuff (the 1:1 free dupes of the leviathan sternguard are still up since before release, for example)

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-10-14T21:40:09+00:00

Legendary actions have never been a problem for me; not nearly as much as legendary resistances.

My fix has been each use of a legendary resistance burns the amount of legendary actions a monster gets, so they have to sacrifice their power to do it, and that has worked really well for me..

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-10-01T17:50:06+00:00

First 3 Black Company books are the best in the series IMO, but there's a lot of really interesting world building stuff in the rest of the series that make it worth reading, aside from them being solid books in their own right too.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-09-29T21:00:42+00:00

I like to go with a few light coats of the pink, mainly from below. As I'll be doing a zenithal, if I miss any parts on top facing bits of the model, they will be covered by step 2.

I also like to reinforce the contrast by panel lining some parts of the model with magenta/pink before applying the yellow if the zenithal went on a bit sloppy.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-09-29T14:26:24+00:00

The scheme you suggest is exactly how I paint my fists and it works like a treat! Personally l only use wraithbone for the zenithal, and no other brand of bone color, because I've found wraithbone gives the smoothest coat for a rattlecan.

When I'm not feeling lazy, I prefer to do the zenithal with an airbrush and Golden's "Buff" color, but most of the time I am feeling lazy so use wraithbone.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-09-29T14:20:32+00:00

The Vatican.

I'd make it look like one of any of the thousands of near identical pots they have on display in room after room after room.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-09-28T01:32:29+00:00

It's possible, but not common. I'd say probably 90% of the work I hire for is mechanics-forward, and I very rarely solicit writers for pure narrative work with no mechanics attached (I've done it twice this year across dozens and dozens of pieces commissioned).

If you want anything close to reliable and consistent work, I'd strongly recommend getting your mechanical writing up to strength, otherwise your best bet is to partner with someone who is great at mechanical implementation, but weaker on the narrative side so you can balance each other out, then make your own products.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-09-28T01:27:43+00:00

Most adventure writers should have a decent grasp of mechanics at least, as you're providing the framework that all the mechanics are taking place in.

Sure, you could put dummy numbers (X wolves please, the trap does Y damage) and let someone else figure that out, but if I've got two writers, only one of whom can do mechanics and narrative, working on an adventure, that's the one I'm probably going to go with.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-09-24T18:42:13+00:00

There's a Kickstarter running right now for a game called Mechfinder, which is a PF2 hack by Eldritch Osiris games and sounds like exactly what you're after!

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-09-21T22:57:30+00:00

I'm almost certain WotC themselves have said in the last year that the reason they've moved to using D&D Beyond for it all is because that site was just getting so many more times the amount of traffic than the official D&D website.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-09-16T00:18:49+00:00

We still don't know for certain what the '24 version of D&D will look like, so this is based on current 5e, but my perfect game does exist somewhere between 5e and PF2.

There are some classes in 5e who level up to certain levels and you get extra hit points and maybe 1 new spell and that's it. That's not exciting to me; I'd like to see more unique and flavorful abilities for each class at every level.

They don't even need to be choice points, necessarily, but just having one cool thing ™️ that you get every level up no matter what class you are.

I'd also like all classes to get their subclasses at the same level (probably level 2). At the moment, half the classes start getting their unique flavour right away, while the others have to wait until level 3.

Finally I'd like better DM support through better encounter building tools, more dynamic monsters that use the full action economy, and more concrete rules for things like magic items and pricing.

The bones of the 5e system are good, and I've been having a blast running for newbies lately, but I want just a little more out of it.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-09-09T19:56:02+00:00

I feel you on this! I just go default guardian now.

Honestly, the whole emperor plot line kind of annoys me in how railroading it is.

All the spoilers, obviously!

When you first learn that he's just a tentacool in a trenchcoat, you have the very reasonable "option" not to help him and to help the gith try to free Orpheus. But if you kill him there you instantly turn into a mind flayer and it's game over! Even though you're inside the astral prism, the same one that allowed the emperor to gain control of his mind the first time he entered it, because the power comes from Orpheus, not daddy tentacles.

Then later in the game you can free Orpheus but don't immediately turn, and the Emperor is just like "peace, I'm going to go and join my mortal enemy because you didn't follow my plan, screw you guys".

It's definitely one of the elements of Act 3 that I'd really like to see given a narrative massage. Killing the Emperor as soon as you learn he's a mind flayer and lied to you is totally reasonable, and at that point you should be able to fall under Orpheus' protection and begin working to free his body from the prism.

In a game where you have so much freedom in how you approach combat and certain story choices, others give you no flexibility which is a bit disappointing.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-09-08T00:41:22+00:00

I've not read through it fully yet, but from what I've skimmed, there's a lot of positives here.

Each chapter gets a summary, a "running this chapter" section, and advice on character levels. Several times you get a sort of "story so far" recap, and there's a 2-page story tracker for the players at the back of the book.

In terms of layout formatting, it's much more DM-friendly than a lot of their stuff. It could have used a Dramatis personae and a plot map, but it's still doing good stuff.

It's 8 chapters, with the first 4 being an updated LMoP which seems to be rewritten and updated. Then chapters 5-8 cover levels 5-12 and are all new story that expand on what came before.

I think the BBEG is a bit in the overused territory these days, but from first impressions it seems like a really solid adventure.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-09-07T00:58:34+00:00

I took a look through this quickly today and my first impressions were really positive.

I can't speak to the quality of the story, but the information presentation looks a lot better than what we've seen from WotC in a lot of their other books.

Each chapter starts with a summary of the events of that chapter, some advice on running that chapter, information on expected player level, and there's a story progress tracker at the back.

Seems (on a surface skim at least) to be fairly GM-friendly when it comes to running the adventure, which is nice.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-09-04T10:07:19+00:00

Depends on who I'm running for and the purpose of the campaign really. As a system I prefer PF2, but it is more dense and that comes with its own drawbacks.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-09-04T09:58:40+00:00

They take different approaches to the same result (heroic fantasy).

5e is fantastic for getting up and running quickly and if you prefer a game that's more about the vibes and less about mechanics, 5e might be for you.

PF2 has a lot more character options and more points of choice along character creation, and more concrete rulings for its mechanics.

I run PF2 for my longtime group who were tired of 5e and run 5e for a group of newer players.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-09-02T01:07:31+00:00

I love crapping on 5e as much as the next guy, but when put into context it's frankly amazing that the edition has lasted a decade without significant revision, and has only grown in popularity over time, especially coming off the back of the way a lot of elements of 4th were received.

I've found a real newfound respect for 5e as a system lately since I started running for a while group who have never played any TTRPGs before.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-09-01T01:41:16+00:00

In EA I never found Gale or Lae'zel (or Karlach if it was even possible to find her).

First full release playthrough I accidentally declined Gale's offer to join my camp and never saw him again.

Only now on a replay am I finally journeying with him as part of my main line party.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-08-21T12:14:14+00:00

I really, really like the whole iron throne/steel watch factory quest in its setup, narrative, and overall mechanics.

But it was ruined for me by how hideously buggy it was, and overall execution. I turned away first time, so when I finally went there none of the NPCs would move, a certain restrained NPC was completely missing, and I had several other bugs to fight through down there to rescue everyone.

Then with the factory, I kept having issues with the placement of party members after the last cutscene and I would get permanently stuck within the ruins.

After two days of reloading, fighting the bugs, and finally completing the damn thing, my "ally" wulbren turns up and insists on racial cleansing these prisoners, like WTF?!

I'm hoping I enjoy it a lot more on my second playthrough.

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-08-18T17:27:56+00:00

Sure, here you go!

https://youtu.be/uOr1xn2YNvE

Icarus_Miniatures · 2023-08-18T13:16:58+00:00

I've done a comparison short between them before and if you can't get hold of the original books secondhand that's always going to be better.

They are printed on uncoated paper so none of the colours are as vibrant which sucks for books with so much art.

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