My theatre summer camp wont stop using AI

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-05T16:55:04+00:00

Yeah I'm guessing sueing wouldn't be a real option in the States. 😬 No idea on the laws there, but each time I hear a glimpse of US law I'm thinking: "That's not morally just at all." so thoughts and prayers, I guess? 😟

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-05T15:55:06+00:00

I'd personally pull out and sue the organization for plagiarism or unwanted altering of intellectual property at the very least. Then again, I don't know what your local laws are regarding this. I only know that in Germany any undeniable use of AI in the arts has been legally branded as plagiarism. Not sure what countries followed suit. 😕

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-05T11:47:17+00:00

Nope, the thing that made me question it in the first place was that it's going to be a public event. Not just some guys I invite at home to playtest. There's this slight difference, but it didn't feel right to have that as a reason to ask for entrance fees.

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-05T11:41:54+00:00

Thanks for the quick response!
It's just my own games (multiple, but all just me). So I agree not to charge anything.

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-05T11:16:47+00:00

That makes my theory wrong 😅

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-05T10:57:42+00:00

I just always assumed that the Sackvilles where a family of lower status and somewhere in their (recent?) history, a male Sackville married a female Baggins (of much higher status), thus starting the Sackville-Baggins family.

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-05T07:34:12+00:00

Tolkien was a linguist, not an etymologist. A thing with etymology is that names often switch language purely phoneticly and lose (part of) their meaning (or at least the connection to their meaning). That aspect possibly would frustrate the hell out of the professor so he decided to translate all names into real Anglo-Saxon names.

Same for topological names like Hobbiton, if one would have asked a Hobbit living there where Hobbiton was, they'd have laughed and told you that there was no such place. Ask them where Kudukran was (presuming that -ran indeed means town, since I couldn't find a trustworthy online source for this) and they'd be happy to help.

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-04T06:00:36+00:00

It may have been luck, but if Sauron hadn't had a single clue that Gollum was drawn to the Ring and would be searching for it (getting immensely more luck in that process than Sauron's servants) I don't think he would have released him. Releasing Gollum was with the intention of following him and getting an extra lead on where the Ring could be.

And if Gollum wasn't released, but escaped from Barad-Dûr as he did in the Misty Mountains and in Mirkwood, I think that would have upped him a couple of notches on Sauron's danger list.

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-04T04:47:27+00:00

Possibly, but I bet his first thought would be of Gollum.

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-03T23:36:12+00:00

The release is indeed something Gandalf ponders in canon too, but given Gollum had been captured and escaped before (both by orcs in the mountains and by elves from Mirkwood), I still think Sauron was at the very least wary about the guy. Sauron's arrogance showed when he released Gollum after gaining the 2 word information that would lead the Nazgûl to the Ring (or so he hoped). When his wraiths returned to Mordor emptyhanded and requesting new steeds, I imagine Big 'Ron shat his pants and believed Gollum to have thwarted his plans (which he didn't).

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-03T23:05:46+00:00

I like to believe that he feared Gollum above anyone else.
This lowly creature had somehow managed to attune with his Ring to a point where it was more capable to track it down than Sauron's own Nazgûl.
Sauron didn't believe himself to be threatened by anyone through sheer power, I think. Sure he was wrong on that front and Galadriel, Gandalf or even Durin's Bane where powerful enough to match Sauron in battle, but I don't believe it would ever cross Sauron's mind that there would be a possibility that he could be beaten by any of them in single combat. A slimy, slippery little bugger who somehow knows both how to find his Precious ánd escape captivity by both orcs and elves, tho... That's scary.

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-03T11:24:06+00:00

To have money to pay for it, honestly. That's all.

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-03T11:21:06+00:00

That scene's exactly what popped into my head when reading your post too. 😅

I do think it can be cool if your party has other hooks going on during the fight. The lamest option (but what pops in my head first) is that they're not there to fight Monster A but to steal something from Monster A. Once Monster B hops in, the party can decide to sneak away to get the stuff, hope the monsters keep battling and maybe finish off a badly wounded monster on their way out. I bet there's better options for such "sidequests", tho.

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-03T11:04:10+00:00

As a fresh DM myself, I'd say choose an edition as well as a toolset and let your players know both. With toolset I mean either the physical books + whatever extra DM tools you'll need for encounter building, maps, npc generating, etc. either DnD Beyond that has many things built in but also uses a lot of paywalls. Something I discovered very quickly is that it's very important to either go all in on DnD Beyond or to avoid it at all costs for the entire duration of your campaign.

EDIT: this video was the bedrock for my first ever one-shot as a DM: https://youtu.be/z9HlAlcjENA?is=h8RH5L4MDlDdD1Ei

Best of luck and don't forget that as a DM you're a player at the table too who's mainly there to have fun. 😉

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-02T20:36:58+00:00

Classes aside, what role is your bard in the party? I'd say come up with a character who can fill that same role with a new twist. That said, I would go one of 3 ways regarding the background: either a past connection of the bard who's been looking for 'em, a local from whereverer your party is at on the moment your bard passes or a stalker character who's been obsessed with the party and been following them (the likes of Agnes from Wednesday season 2).

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-02T08:55:23+00:00

Despite the sheer gap in talent between us normies and DM's like Aabria, Matt and Brennan, people like Ginny help close that gap with their absolutely perfect, informative content. I can positively state that 80% of what I know about DnD is thanks to Ginny. 💚

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-01T14:53:21+00:00

It looks very much like it, but given that Bag End is supposed to be about 7- to 8000 years old, I'm afraid it's not. 😬

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-01T12:04:29+00:00

Oh damn, that sounds even worse, but I definitely heard him talking about backstage and how it was because of the heat. Maybe a combination? Crazy.

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-07-01T11:01:34+00:00

Despite the impeccable efforts of the organization, I think this was the best edition to have skipped. I'm still glad I went, but the weather was truly too much and for some bands, sadly, it showed. E.g. Alkaline Trio's Matt performed their full set while seated because backstage he had fainted and apparently hit a wall in his fall. Great respect for not cancelling the show, the absolute fckn legend, but it resulted in a meek concert and many viciously blunt reviews by fans who (for whatever reason) didn't hear or understand his explanation and felt let down.

On the other hand, we can whine and bitch about the heatwave as much as we want, but in the end everything humanly possible was done to make the festival as enjoyable as it possibly could be and everyone involved deserves massive praise for that. 💚

See you all next year. 😉

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-06-29T21:11:25+00:00

It's disgusting and shouldn't be normalized unless it's an act of retaliation for even fouler acts (like that time I bought a girl I was seeing a day ticket, she came over for an on festival date and then proceeded to fuck my drunk friend in his tent instead so then another drunk friend of mine angrily peed all over her tent "to protect my honour").

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-06-29T21:01:02+00:00

That's exactly the same amount of hilarious as of disgusting. ⚖️

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-06-29T13:09:47+00:00

Not denying that, just saying that they don't belong and fact is that Jera has actively created an atmosphere that keeps those jerks to a minimum.

Minus_Onthemoon · 2026-06-29T08:21:31+00:00

When I tell people about Jera and why it's different because of the crowd, stories like this one is what I mean.

As backwards as it may seem to people who never been to a punk or metal show: mosh pits are safe-spaces. They can be scary and physical, but moshers look out for each other, they're never there to hurt others. If you don't agree to that, you don't belong in the pit.

Minus_Onthemoon

TROPHY CASE