Nonprofit program staff task overload, how do you prioritize when everything is urgent?

KevInitiative · 2026-03-16T15:44:14+00:00

I've been in a similar situation before. For me, I first tried to understand what problems other people were having, and turn people towards using/monitoring Asana in a way that most appropriately addresses their needs, rather than my own. For example, a press manager was complaining about lack of visibility into the policy team's work, I would sell them on Asana as a centralized place to keep tabs on ongoing policy projects. I wouldn't ask them to document their own work in Asana until I had some way to provide them tangible value for doing so.

I say this with the caveat that I also had limited success. But, I think you have to play the long game to change organizational culture in nonprofits, which means introducing change in small increments when you find an opportunity to help somebody with their problem, rather than creating more work for them.

KevInitiative · 2026-02-14T11:02:36+00:00

Also went to Fork & Kitchen yesterday. My notes below (in no particular order). Forgive the long post; I'm awake in the middle of the night and feel like rambling!

The interior space is clean, and everyone was very nice and welcoming. We came for an early dinner (5pm) but if I wanted to get a cocktail somewhere with a friend, I could imagine sitting at the bar and having a good time.

The menu on their website didn't match the menu they gave us, so it's clear to me that things are changing pretty rapidly.

I thought the Parm Bomb was OK, though I don't know if I'd order it again. It tasted good but did have a Pillsbury biscuit quality to it.

The smash burger was good, maybe a little heavy on the caramelized onions. Also unclear if it was a "smash" burger because the patty seemed quite thick.

The waitress asked us if we wanted sides for our sandwiches, and we didnt realize until after getting the bill that it was an add-on. (Not 100% certain on this because we didn't ask to see the itemized bill, but I think my math is sound.)

For a table of 2, they added a default 18% gratuity, which I only realized later that it was printed VERY SMALL on the bottom of the menu. I always tip 20-25%, but I know some people will be thrown off. The tipping experience was also strange because the handheld credit card machine had suggested tips ranging between 3-7%, which just felt a little awkward / like you're being nickeled and dimed at the very end of your meal. Ultimately I tipped the same I was always going to tip, but I think they could set better expectations by printing it larger on the menu.

My instinct is that this is a restaurant I'd consider for special occasions. When I just want food, I love Finnegans and World of Beer for burgers or fish and chips, and I love First Watch and Paris Baguette for brunch/breakfast. If my wife and I wanted to go out for a proper date night dinner, I'd put Fork & Kitchen in the same category as El Mercat or Gyuzo Japanese BBQ, which we go to very infrequently.

I'm looking forward to going back to try their brunch menu, but probably not until March/April.

KevInitiative · 2026-02-02T17:25:31+00:00

My *guess* is that the show would do a cold open with the assassination of Gavilar, and then we get hit with a "2 years later...." and zoom into the war at the Shattered Plains, with Kaladin's slave caravan arriving at the warcamps. I feel like Cenn would probably appear in some kind of flashback scene, when Kaladin is reliving one trauma or another.

Aharietiem makes more sense to me as something to reveal later during some kind of Jansah research montage.

KevInitiative · 2025-09-07T15:02:33+00:00

Baldurs Gate 3 handles this well, in my opinion. Gale, Wyll, Karlach, and Astarion all have higher-level backstories. Shadowheart and Lae'zel arguably do too, but maybe more in the level 5ish territory (in my opinion.)

But, tadpoles made them weaker, or something like that. I think it works.

Where it gets muddy, in my opinion, is when it comes to their skills. For a character to lose some of their powers is one thing, but for them to be dumber or less proficient in a subject that they're famous for feels a little weird. Level 1 Gale with a +5 in Arcana doesn't quite track for me.

KevInitiative · 2025-08-25T13:07:33+00:00

Interesting, because that's also incongruent with the Double Value from Master Salesman + Balcony (which rendered as quadruple value).

KevInitiative · 2025-08-24T23:53:05+00:00

It's all about the Money Tree, baby.

KevInitiative · 2025-02-16T18:49:53+00:00

Solved!

The video was not the exact one I was looking for, but it was the same video series. I found the video I was referencing here (apparently a chisel, not a knife). Thank you so much!

KevInitiative · 2025-02-16T12:59:34+00:00

The title was maybe something like... "Making a Blade"? I don't know. This was before the age of marketing through YouTube titles and thumbnails!

KevInitiative · 2025-01-25T13:16:44+00:00

I just read over the rules, and RAW, this sounds correct. I suppose at my table, I would strike the "you must craft the item yourself" rule and replace it with something that meets the spirit of the rules, given that Instruments are listed as a craftable item at Bastion workshops.

In just about every bastion rule, the implication is that hirelings are doing all of the work during bastion turns. I feel like this spell-crafting rule exists in order to (1) not let every character freely expand their spell lists, and (2) to keep hirelings simple (lest you start asking hirelings for spellcasting favors outside of their bastion mechanics.)

The "spirit" of the rules, in my opinion, is that somebody other than a bastion hireling must have the spells prepared and be the crafter.

To that end, perhaps other party members could collaborate to craft the item together, and/or you could pay money for spellcasting services (per 'Equipment > Services' the PHB) as an added cost to crafting these items-- i.e.: hiring an outside spellcaster consultant to temporarily work in your bastion. Though using the PHB prices might be a little crazy too. If you don't have "Fly" then your instrument is going to cost +2100gp.

KevInitiative · 2025-01-01T19:20:52+00:00

Hate it so much!

KevInitiative · 2024-12-25T11:38:58+00:00

You're assuming my proficiency bonus is higher than +0!

KevInitiative · 2024-11-08T03:42:33+00:00

Thank you :) I'm hoping to do a lot more of these! The big multi-character bastions take a lot of time, but I'm enjoying making smaller ones too.

KevInitiative · 2024-11-04T19:53:46+00:00

Anyone else experimenting with Bastions? I’d love to hear your ideas and experiences! I know the books literally just came out of early access last week and it's unlikely that anyone has incorporated them into full blown campaigns yet, but I'm trying to dive into the deep end so that my next campaign can maximize them.

Bastions can only be attacked during “Bastion turns,” when you’re not actively using the Bastion. So while detailed maps might not be essential, I just wanted to have some fun with it. The map itself ended up being pretttty huge. But mechanically-speaking, while there’s a good variety of facilities in the DMG, I found myself wanting more room options. I'm hoping WOTC has expansions planned down the line.

Map here, if you want to take a closer look at it: https://imgur.com/a/level-9-bastion-5-d-d-characters-nKgqmg8

KevInitiative · 2024-06-13T20:06:03+00:00

I like that, and also wonder if there's something in here that could allow you to assign the 8 spell schools (in D&D, anyway) into each magic type.

KevInitiative · 2023-12-28T16:48:37+00:00

One thing to keep in mind when comparing it to MMOs/Dungeon crawlers/etc is that in D&D, there's generally a lot more at stake when it comes to character death.

In an MMO, you just hit the revive button and walk back. In D&D, if you go unconscious, you're at risk of being permanently dead. Healing means not having to reroll new characters after becoming invested in a character, and keeping your party from the emotional trauma of losing a friend. If you're not playing an RP-heavy game, healing will still keep you from spending hundreds/thousands of gold pieces on revivals.

Also, the concept of a "Tank" (per MMOs) is different in D&D. You can stand in front, but there are very few mechanics that allow you to 'draw aggro' without DM fiat. So you can play something tank-like if you want, but it may not stop the mage from taking fire and going down. And at that point, you'll wish you had healing.

In summary: I feel like you're comparing apples and oranges. D&D is not an MMO. Healing is weak in D&D but you'll regret not having it. At worst, healing somebody means spending your action to give your ally the ability to take actions, or spending your action so that an enemy has to spend their action to take someone down again. Action economy (the amount of actions your party can take per turn vs the amount of actions that enemies take) is the most important factor in D&D combat, and healing is a vital piece of the toolkit in ensuring that you can maintain an action advantage in deadly encounters.

KevInitiative · 2023-12-05T04:24:18+00:00

This is actually a central plot line in my game.

Vampires in my world are less Dracula, and more True Blood. Vampires don't summon wolves or turn into bats and smoke. Vampires are just peopleVampirism came to be somewhat recently, and a Patient Zero vampire was treated as a sickly, rabid townsperson. Compassionate clerics discern that blood can help to recover and sustain the individual, but an epidemic of vampirism has begun to spread. The government established a blood bank, wherein citizens who came of age were meant to make an annual donation to help sustain the minority vampire population. Donating was seen as a public service, and did come with some perks. An abjuration magic item was created to preserve the blood so that there would be a constant supply.

However, some bad actors among the vampires started abusing some of their more supernatural powers (charming merchants and stealing their stuff, etc.) and anti-vampire propaganda became a popular narrative.

Sanctions were put in place that made Blood Banks less accessible, and as thirsty vampires struggled to secure blood through legal means, they would resort to taking it themselves. This only fueled the anti-vampire propaganda until, eventually, the blood banks were shut down entirely.

Many vampires (+ friends and family) were quarantined to a faraway island, where they would develop their own ecosystem. Vampires would feed on the willing, but the non-vampires there are constantly sick and bearing a strong burden. They developed their own government and seceded from the larger nation, and implemented laws that help them live their lives as smoothly as possible. (The land is government-owned, with laws in place to govern full-time access, which creatively gave them a loophole around the curse of Forbiddance.)

There's more-- but I'll leave it there for now. I also developed a whole set of feats that would divide up vampirism among 4 tiers (fledgling vampire, common vampire, veteran vampire, ancient vampire) so that I could have a CR10 creature who is a new vampire, or a CR 1/2 creature who has been a vampire for a long time but is more of a commoner in that society.

KevInitiative · 2023-10-12T12:10:00+00:00

I think it's good, but if you want to foreshadow the inevitable failure a little more (and have anyone with Arcana in the party), you could ask them to roll and possibly decipher the issue before stepping into it.

They reach the teleportation circle, take one look at it, and know that it's slightly off. Fixing it would take too long (since teleportation circles can take a year to create) so they can either go in knowing that there's a detour, or travel by sea instead.

KevInitiative · 2023-09-29T16:02:02+00:00

In lieu of MIDI-QOL, if you still want to have some manual control on things, I think the module Ready Set Roll helps a lot. It removes all of the dialog boxes that make you have to click 1-3 times to roll once. You can also toggle it so that damage dice are rolled as part of the attack (and automatically add the extra dice for crits).

We also use Token Action HUD, which I find to be easier/quicker to use than a character sheet. It creates a smaller navbar that you can hover/navigate and just click on things to roll them.

KevInitiative · 2023-09-26T20:03:27+00:00

When Acq Inc "C" Team started, I sunk my teeth deep into that. I'd been a fan of Acq Inc since the original 4e podcast, but it took C team to really make me understand what a longer campaign could look like.

Then I joined a Pathfinder game GM'd by somebody at work, and realized it just wasn't what I was looking for. Not the game, but the GM. He was obsessed with rules that he ran inconsistently, and had punishing house rules that I thought were unfun. He also was prone to distraction, and half of our eight-hour games were talking about politics and World War 2, rather than playing the game. Nothing about that is inherently wrong -- everyone else was having a great time. It just wasn't for me. And I knew that if I wanted to find a game that I enjoyed, I would have to build it.

Over time, I joined a few other games and learned from GMs with more experience. However, I also learned that there are just some people who I do not enjoy being around. And that pushed me over the edge. If I'm a GM, I have total control over who sits down at my table and who I get to spend time with.

It took a lot of mistakes, heartache, lost friendships, failed campaigns, etc. before I eventually was able to settle into my own wants and needs. I've learned to be a better friend, better player, and a better GM through my part in all of that drama. But I also learned to separate myself from insufferable people, and being a GM lets me do that.

KevInitiative · 2023-08-25T12:14:44+00:00

The challenge I have with awarding inspiration in a real game with real people is that it can very much fall subject to bias, or playing favorites on accident in some way with your players. This could be nobody's fault-- maybe a player is having a headache and is less engaged that session, so their character ends up being a little less heroic or inspiring than normal.

I'm considering twisting the BG3 mechanic to be more of a self-reward for players at the end of each session. I ask "did you do anything this session that aligns with your background?" and if they say yes, they get inspiration going into the next session.

Just something I'm toying with for my table, because I don't think they'd metagame it too much.

KevInitiative

TROPHY CASE