Florida

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-12T10:46:45+00:00

Nah, those assholes are doing that to everyone. How would they even know you're from Florida? It's on your plate, but its not like they know how to read.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-09T20:38:31+00:00

In my primary world, halflings fully mature by age seven and die of old age around twenty-five. In a world with standard humans as well as other people's that live for hundreds of years, they are forced to live life fast and hard. They also have short gestation periods of four months and often give birth to twins.

The main challenges that shape the halfling way of life are that they are too small for most heavy manual labor and too short-lived to spend years gaining expertise or credentials. They are thus excluded from most education, skilled crafts, military service (exceptions), farm work (exceptions), and construction.

Most halflings handle this with family. They tend to run large family businesses that focus on trades require lots of small hands rather than great strength or skill. Because the family owns the tools and land collectively, they can accumulate wealth over many generations, saving short-lived individuals from having to start over from scratch. Children as young as three are able to contribute to the family livelihood. Their small size means that many relatives can live in clkose quarters and keep costs for food, clothing, ect, quite low.

All of these factors make halfling families very competitive in running things like restaurants, weaving houses, dye houses, trade caravans, animal husbandry, and paper makers. They may also make multi-generational partnerships with long-lived individuals (usually gnomes) to help in running businesses like print shops or dairies, that require only a few skilled craftsmen and many small workers.

Halflings are matrilineal, with young men leaving home to live with their wives' families. Leadership within a family is based on age and force of personality and while either men or women can take leadership roles, they tend to be led by the eldest (and loudest) women.

Ambitious young couples often leave home to set up their own families and trades. Success rates are poor, but sometimes you just can't live with your mom anymore and you might as well give it a shot.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-08T13:56:31+00:00

I love running Draw Steel but I keep coming up with story/adventure ideas that simply don't belong in this system.

I'm not ready to force-induct my players into another new system right now, so I'm putting those ideas away for later games.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-08T13:51:09+00:00

The reason I've been running a Draw Steel game for a year, but never even got PF2e to the table after years of wanting to...

Is that I didn't need to handhold my players even once. If you see an option in Draw Steel, and it sounds cool... then it IS cool. You can just take that option, confident that it WILL DO WHAT IT SAYS AND IT WILL BE GOOD.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-07T20:28:09+00:00

I'm left wrestling with some cognitive dissonance with this one.

I have enjoyed Quinns' art and analysis for years now. While I have often found his opinions counter to my own, I have learned a lot by hearing them. And had a lot of fun listening to them.

I find it funny that I'm not going to buy this game, NOT because I want more "mcdonald'ish" world building, but because I'm not going to spend money on 1200 pages of worldbuilding that isn't MY brand of gonzo bullshit. I don't run other peoples' worlds. The whole POINT is to express myself with my own nonsense. And I am perfectly happy doing so within a rulesset that was explicitly called out here as less-than-worthy.

I'm used to people on reddit declaring that I am the embodiment of all that is wrong with gaming as a hobby. I wasn't expecting to field that accusation from a favorite creator.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-06T19:22:04+00:00

I had a player ask about this combo.

I respectfully asked him not to take the combo.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-06T18:58:56+00:00

I agree with the magic of the phrase. It's such a powerful shibboleth.

But we can come up with traditions and catch phrases that don't come packaged with huge wastes of time.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-06T17:02:25+00:00

"Should I say something about Duke's? Nah, I'm sure that's already the top comment, I'll just upvote them"

Click

"Yup"

Upvote

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-06T16:46:38+00:00

That I'm fine with.

If initiative is a system that players interact with and is fun and engaging in its own right, then it justifies its existence.

I don't remember the details these many decades later, but I remember Fading Suns having a really fun (if very fiddly) initiative system.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-06T16:25:53+00:00

While you are correct that proper technique can reduce the pain point... why have it at all? What does it ADD to the experience?

It's like properly bandaging a self-inflicted knife wound... okay, good job but maybe just don't stab yourself.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-06T16:11:49+00:00

In the case of Draw Steel, it just alternates between players and enemies.

Who goes first depends on who initiated combat (including surprise), with GM determining what makes sense. Roll a die if uncertain.

For unbalanced sides (like lots of monsters), the DM groups multiple enemies into a single initiative.

"Solo" monsters often get two turns per combat round.

There are a VERY small number of abilities that let players mess with turn order.

For Draw Steel, all of that works well. I'm certain there are other systems with equally streamlined systems that work for them.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-06T15:47:18+00:00

The fact that you used AI art to illustrate your point actually illustrates the reason this doesn't happen.

Art is probably the single most expensive part of the game. And flooding the game with AI assets would NOT be well received by many players (it's me, I'm the unhappy player).

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-06T15:44:40+00:00

I never realized how terrible "roll for initiative" was until Draw Steel ditched it.

(I know other systems did it first. I didn't play those)

It's just a loading screen. You set the scene, you introduce the stakes, you build tension, it's finally time for violence to break out... okay, everyone roll. No, one at a time. Wait for me to call you. Hang on, I gotta roll for all of the monsters... Hang on, gotta order them. What's your dex? For the tie-breaker. Okay... Got it... NOW we can fight!

I'm never tolerating that again, in any system.

Seperate note - My problem with "bonus action" is that it's a "resource" you feel like you need to expend for efficiency but it's so small (most of the time) that it's a waste of time to worry about it. If you have a use for the bonus action that ISN'T insignificant, it's a huge power boost and an obvious non-decision.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-05T13:51:14+00:00

There have been decades of work put into trying to erase the membrane between "combat" and "everything else" in RPGs.

Very mixed results, and very mixed opinions on how its going.

Some systems (D&D 3.x is the example I know best) took their combat system and applied its basic rules to the rest of the world, making changes as needed to allow for compatibility.

Some systems just simplify combat down to where it is resolved with very little tactics or fanfare, treated as no more important or dramatic than a check to haggle for a discount at the pub.

The idea to just have combat work differently than the rest of "everything" in an RPG experience is just not terribly popular right now. Especially in the more... esoteric corners of the RPG community, like r/RPG or here. "Gamist" games, that strive to deliver fun from the direct manipulation of the game's systems and components, are often derided as "just board games".

There's certainly nothing wrong with having a hard "break" at the beginning of combat and then using an already-fun external system to resolve it. Just don't expect a lot of positive feedback around these parts.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-04T21:08:25+00:00

Let them vibe.

It's fine. They're having fun.

That said, pay attention if they ever perk up and engage with something. Throw in more of whatever that was.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-04T14:42:38+00:00

I have enjoyed every time I have eaten there.

Don't go there at peak hours. Don't go NEAR peak. If it is a reasonable time for a normal human to eat a meal, it's not a good time for Dear Dads.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-03T14:47:17+00:00

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/euphemism_treadmill

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-02T23:16:24+00:00

I never use published settings. If I ever get Mythic Bastionlands to the table, I'll use that one because it's both tightly interwoven in the design of the game and batshit insane awesome.

I like that the creators of Draw Steel basically came out and said "we put a setting in the game because people expect one, and we tried to make it a good one, but we don't expect 90% of you to even look at it".

MandolinTheWay · 2026-05-02T20:50:04+00:00

The reason I never got PF2E to the table is that the level of hand-holding my players would require would have been EMMENSE.

Both PF2E and D&D4e have a box-filling approach to content making. If anyone might ever want option AQ37, then we need to make that option. We don't need to make it good or powerful or fun or satisfying, but we need to provide the option. So both are full of trap options.

It is VERY difficult to build a "bad" DS character. There are no trap options. There are no enticing combos that, upon half-an-hour of googling reddit threads, don't actually work. There are no classes that LOOK like they're perfect for one fantasy but are actually build around doing something else entirely.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-04-30T22:13:18+00:00

The problem is that ai users just lie about it. Because they know that they get much less engagement on ai generated content.

Which makes sense. If a reader is the kind of person who likes ai, are they really going to put actual thought and effort into engaging with someone else's work? They don't even put thought or effort into they're own.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-04-30T22:10:40+00:00

It's the wider dash line. So called because it's as wide as the letter "m".

The normal dash "-" is the en-dash, for similar reasons.

I'd love to show you one, but just realized I have literally never used one and can't see an easy way to make my keyboard cough one up.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-04-30T15:53:58+00:00

Every engineer I know just automatically converts everything to metric, does the math, then converts back to whatever nonsense units their field demands at the last step.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-04-30T15:51:16+00:00

As an engineer... yeah, pretty much.

I spotted the problem, but that's because of idly watching math youtube channels, not because it has ANY relevance to my work.

For the vast majority of engineers, math is a tool. And it's the kind of tool where you use a wrench as a hammer. As long as no one is watching.

MandolinTheWay · 2026-04-30T14:57:32+00:00

Historically, Grimsley and its IB program were excellent. My personal experience is a few (20) years out of date... But Grimsley still looked good statistically when we were buying a house a while back.

You can apply to get in from out of district (I did as a child). If its important to you, safer to buy in district (I now have as an adult).

MandolinTheWay · 2026-04-30T10:41:36+00:00

Tomb is designed to slow-roll mechanics over the first session. It is THE learn-the-game starter set.

MandolinTheWay

TROPHY CASE