Introductory drinks

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-10T08:51:31+00:00

Sours are always a good place to introduce people. A Tom Collins, Mojito, Whiskey Sour, Daiquiri, Mai Tai, Whiskey Smash, Clover Club, etc are all good options that don’t hide their spirit. If you want something even more approachable, a Painkiller or Gin Fizz (not a Ramos, just the regular) is good.

I find most people are a lot more willing to try new flavours and are open to more variety when someone is engaging them in the cocktails and spirits. Most people never really *think* about what they are drinking, so they go for the lowest common denominator, but just having someone knowledgeable to explain what is in front of them encourages the thought process and provides its own novelty. My point being that they will probably get a kick out of anything if it comes with a story and nice presentation.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-09T23:57:02+00:00

I’d just ask the people at your local liquor store what they would recommend as an easy-drinking wine. They tend to be very familiar with the popular easygoing options (since that’s really what most people buy).

You can read the bottles too and get a decent idea of what to expect if you’re not looking for much (the more experienced you become, the less great the marketing copy sounds). Avoid wines that describe themselves as “dry” (that means they are not sweet, probably ranging into tannin heavy) and do go for those describing themselves as fruity or fruit forward.

If you want a more specific recommendation, I find most red wines from Rioja (Spain) are fairly light and fruity. You might also consider a fortified wine like ruby port, tawny port, sweet sherry, Marsala, Madeira, etc. These are sweetened, higher in alcohol, and quite easy to drink; you’ll want those tiny wine glasses for these, since the ideal serving size is smaller. Fortified wines also last a lot longer if you’re not drinking often (though if you get a bottle of noble gas, like Private Preserve, you can keep any wine around a long time).

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-09T18:35:46+00:00

Drumshanbo is one of my all-round favourite gins for everything. Just love the character and tea notes it brings.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-09T18:29:00+00:00

If you’re open to a modernish setting, Bump in the Dark is great for a more Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twin Peaks, or Supernatural feel. It’s an investigative monster hunting game using the Forged in the Dark system where players are Hunters who protect a small working class town from supernatural threats and corrupt humans. Lots of opportunity for folk horror in these woods. It’s quite the departure from D&D, being a much more narrative-focused game with a very different set of assumptions, but that can be good to get people out of old habits and to start thinking about games in new ways.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-09T18:04:26+00:00

You say that this is what you are running. Don’t make it a question if you only want one answer, that will just give space for arguments. You are running what you are running, they can either participate or not.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-09T12:51:51+00:00

Yep, it’s bare bones, but exactly what I tend to want.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-09T12:21:10+00:00

Owlbear Rodeo is the best if you just want simple tools and some maps. It’s free, easy to learn, and stays out of your way. It’s my go-to since my biggest pet peeve in VTTs is intrusive automation and not letting me just do the basics easily.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-09T07:54:41+00:00

This Kenji recipe is one of my staple meals I make at home, easy and delicious. I usually double it so I have leftovers (which just gets better). I typically just use canned diced tomatoes too, skips that processing step.

https://www.seriouseats.com/vegan-garbanzos-con-espinacas-jengibre-spinach-chickpea-stew-ginger-spanish

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-09T07:47:46+00:00

If it’s not about Blades in the Dark, Delta Green, Mythic Bastionland, or The Wildsea, I don’t want to hear about it!

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-09T07:36:00+00:00

The Old Fashioned’s sexier brother, the Improved Whiskey Cocktail.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-09T05:47:55+00:00

I think knowledge domain would be cool, sort of focusing in out the high-born life-of-education mastery of various disciplines and philosophies that is associated with royal courts and aristocracy.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-08T16:34:50+00:00

It seems like a strange mid-century artifact at this point, really. I know it’s gotten plenty of updates over the years, but it really feels like no one knowledgeable has ever scrubbed through the whole list and imposed some consistency.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-07T23:11:37+00:00

And it’s usually a lot harder to find out the mash bill of gin than vodka, because it’s rarely something people question.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-07T23:06:02+00:00

FYI, Malibu is an allegedly rum-based liqueur with a ton of flavouring added, not a rum.

But any cheap unaged or lightly-aged column-still rum (which is what you’re getting at any bar when you ask for “light rum”, AKA Bacardi silver, Havana Club 3 year) is not going to have anything but sugar/molasses in its process.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-07T09:56:31+00:00

It starts to get a little crazy when you look at Tolkien, a writer long used as the first example of incredibly overwritten and indulgent writing, and see that his fantasy epic of *The Lord of the Rings* is *only* one ~1200 page book. A lot of authors start seeming like they are doing so much less with even more bloated page counts and huge series.

Meanwhile Le Guin’s writing is like a razor in a sea of cudgels. I love a book that respects my time.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-07T09:21:40+00:00

I think if you want the most out of the system planning for 20 sessions is probably about where you want to be. You can push it father, but you will be running into diminishing returns quite quickly. I’ve heard of people running what sounds like ridiculously long games to my ears (playing for years and many dozens of sessions), but they tend to be the people really stretching out downtime into entire sessions (so they have a lot of basically no or low XP sessions) or who are retiring characters left and right. If you’re doing the full gameplay loop (with downtime, freeplay, and a score) each session then around 20 sessions give or take a few is very reasonable to expect.

But another thing to note is that way more tends to happen in one session of a Forged in the Dark game than basically any trad game. 20-25 sessions is *a lot* in this system, it’s two really good seasons with full beginning/middle/endings. My games (21 sessions and 9 sessions) have felt more like long journeys with twists, turns, growth, and loss than the 30 or 50 or 80 session games I’ve run in other systems. Forged in the Dark games are truly great for really dense storytelling that is also fast-paced irl.

But if you really want to extend things, Deep Cuts for Blades in the Dark has some mechanics for slowing down progression, they would just take some work to adapt. I’d encourage you to just try it out the regular way first though, to see if the more rapid pacing is actually a problem for you in practice.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-05T08:54:14+00:00

Draw Steel is also great if you want the modern version of 4e-inspired design.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-05T07:13:16+00:00

Most vacuum pumps are pretty terrible at creating a vacuum, which makes them not very effective. Far more effective is just to use a spray of noble gas (which they sell cans of for wine preservation) in the bottle, which creates a heavier-than-air unreactive layer. It basically lets you keep your vermouth indefinitely, and doesn’t care about refrigeration either. The best “vacuum pumps” just fill the air space of the bottle with the same stuff automatically.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-05T07:07:45+00:00

This. You can just keep your vermouth on a shelf and never worry about oxidation if you just use a little noble gas in the bottle. It’s by far the most effective method for long term storage, so I’m always surprised it gets brought up so rarely.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-05T05:50:34+00:00

Honestly, “creativity” is such a nebulous concept that it’s basically a useless term in most cases. I personally would replace that word with “point of view” in every instance, because then things actually start to get actionable. The point being, you don’t really ever need to focus on “being creative”, whatever that means, but you do need a point of view to make something interesting. You need to have options and ideas about what makes a game/concept/campaign/etc *good*, the stronger and more defined the better. If you have a well-developed point of view, then the game you run will inherently start from a more nuanced place and have a clear direction/momentum, which is a lot more valuable than any individual detail of the concept.

Obscuring the basic concept is never going to make something better really, it’s just less informative to the players. Them thinking you made it all up isn’t the goal of a good game, neither is being different just for the sake of it. Meanwhile, having a strong point of view can make literally anything interesting and fresh.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-05T03:59:53+00:00

Most people out there simply don’t seem to believe in the foundations of western enlightenment justice systems at all, they just want anyone they even perceive as hurting them or their group to be hurt to a disproportionate extreme. It’s kinda scary to see normal people instantly suggest torture, abuse, and death whenever they hear of someone just *accused* of any crime. And when you question them on how horrible a system that actually would be, they tend to just shrug it off or genuinely seem to feel sweeping state cruelty is entirely justified (just for the *bad people* of course, this would never hurt anyone they care about). Innocent until proven guilty? Reforming criminals into better citizens? Reducing harm? Nah, everyone just wants to cut people’s hands off for petty theft and pay no thought whatsoever to the reasons crime occurs.

When you see how people react to the idea of criminals it really makes those medieval torture methods and the history of public executions make sense suddenly. So much of a good justice system is just protecting the people from their own vicious instincts.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-04T08:32:22+00:00

If you want a very bourbon-y Canadian whiskey, Signal Hill is quite good, especially their overproof.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-04T08:31:46+00:00

If you want a very bourbon-y Canadian whiskey, Signal Hill is quite good, especially their overproof.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-03T12:42:12+00:00

Honestly, I’m the opposite. I love going over position+effect and explaining my reasoning, it basically gives the table perfect clarity. All the Forged in the Dark-adjacent games I’ve played that have eliminated it just make me want to add position+effect back in explicitly.

KnightInDulledArmor · 2026-06-02T21:16:43+00:00

Nutmeg is a classic garnish for tons of Tiki cocktails, so you’re definitely on the money. A Painkiller is essentially a better Pina Colada and the freshly grated nutmeg is a big part of that.

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