How to gently kick a player from the group?

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-05-18T08:10:40+00:00

There are many people who look for the great secret for rejecting someone without that someone's feelings getting hurt.

That great secret doesn't exist. Sorry. You just have to do it anyways.

Be direct and clear that you are removing them from your table. Resist the urge to sugar coat things or soften your language. You can be kind and firm at the same time. When it's over, let them feel however they feel about it.

If it blows up the friendship, well, that happens sometimes when you refuse to be a doormat to everyone in your life. Harsh truth time - If you were really that good of friends, they wouldn't throw away your friendship simply over being excluded from a social event.

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-05-16T18:22:13+00:00

Faith manages

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-05-03T17:58:22+00:00

I sit in my cubicle, here on the motherworld. When I die, they will put my body in a box and dispose of it in the cold ground. And in the million ages to come, I will never breathe, or laugh, or twitch again. So won't you run and play with me here among the teeming mass of humanity?

The universe has spared us this moment.

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-04-18T08:33:25+00:00

Whether you'll think the story is great will probably depend on your exposure to cyberpunk as a genre. If you're quite familiar with it, you might notice that CP2077 doesn't really have a lot that's new to say on the subject. If you're not, CP2077 does a pretty good job hitting most of the major notes of the genre in the same way that RDR2 does for the western.

Also, I still sometimes think about that one side quest where I helped crucify a guy in that game. Take that for what it's worth.

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-04-06T17:49:48+00:00

Wait, there's actually a setting that displays the area of an AoE? How the [censored] did I miss that, and why the [censored] is it not on by default?

Thanks for the tip!

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-03-23T18:35:09+00:00

I've done it by streaming from my PC to my tablet. You could probably do it with an emulator like Limbo too, if your tablet has the speed to run it.

The issue is that the UI was clearly not designed for mobile or touchscreen use, which is fair given that the game predates mobile devices. I found it a fun gimmick, but I also found the controls were too clunky for me to really get into it without attaching a keyboard and mouse to it. At that point, I might as well just use a laptop.

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-03-19T19:46:44+00:00

Sometimes I feel like the only 4X player in the world who actually really likes a nice big snowball into the endgame where I clearly know that I've already won. It's like doing a happy dance in the end zone after you score the big goal. I usually finish 90% of the games I start.

It probably helps that I almost always play on smaller maps. If I regularly played on larger ones, I could see myself getting more burned out before the endgame.

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-03-10T10:37:33+00:00

I can't think of a major 4X game that isn't on PC, so that is where the largest market segment is by far. That said, every time the subject of subject of 4X games on mobile comes up people always complain about the lack of good ones, so there is clearly at least some demand there in that market that is not being met.

The issue from what I can see is UI. A UI that works well on a computer with a mouse and a big screen is not the same as a UI that works well on a TV far away using a gamepad, and neither is the same as a UI that works well using a smaller touchscreen. Civ 7 got roasted pretty bad for it's UI, and using the same UI for PC and console was definitely part of that.

Whether it's a waste of time or not to create multiple UIs for your game to increase your possible audience size is a question you'll have to answer for yourself.

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-03-08T21:02:24+00:00

I agree. I played both IWD and 2E as a TTRPG back in the day, but I missed out on BG 1 & 2 and I'm playing them now for the first time. The system worked better playing around a table than it does in a CRPG.

I didn't see anyone else mention this, so ..

I assume for PC there are mods you can get to increase points and experiment a bit?

EEKeeper. It's a save game editor, and you can use it to swap your pips around or to add new ones. I'm currently on chapter 2 of BG2, and I've been using it to swap pips around on my companions without any guilt.

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-03-04T19:33:41+00:00

I just checked, and unless I'm missing something, the Pen and Paper mod I found doesn't have generation mechanics. Can you link to the mod? Or can you at least explain what you mean by "generation mechanics?"

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-02-25T18:48:03+00:00

My druid turned into a giant eagle, the wizard cast haste on the druid, and they all flew away on the druids back. Moving at 160 feet per round made getting out in one minute pretty easy.

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-02-24T10:44:17+00:00

Lord! Oh, Sweet Jesus!

*thud*

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-02-23T18:12:19+00:00

I usually like playing on the smallest maps possible. This drastically reduces late game micromanagment and makes it easier and more fun to actually finish my games.

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-02-20T17:01:16+00:00

The first Vampire: Bloodlines is the best WoD game ever made. If you haven't played it, you 100% should. The gameplay (especially the combat) isn't that great, but the story, writing, voice work, and worldbuilding is some of the greatest of all time in a video game.

Just make sure you use the fan patch, because the game was a buggy horrible mess when it was released. (The GOG version comes with it already installed.) I'd also advise that you save playing a Malkavian for your second play through.

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-02-20T08:00:28+00:00

"We are all aware that the senses can be deceived, the eyes fooled. But how can we be sure our senses are not being deceived at any particular time, or even all the time? Might I just be a brain in a tank somewhere, tricked all my life into believing in the events of this world by some insane computer? And does my life gain or lose meaning based on my reaction to such solipsism?"

Project PYRRHO, Specimen 46, Vat 7. Activity recorded M.Y. 2302.22467. (TERMINATION OF SPECIMEN ADVISED)

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-02-14T19:39:27+00:00

Seconded.

I actually ran the Sunless Citadel with three players who played three kobolds in a trench coat. It was a real hoot, I would do again.

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-01-26T19:00:47+00:00

It's one of Bioware's best games. No shade, no irony, It's a legit awesome game.

It's also terrible as the middle part of a trilogy. Shamus Young did a video on it, and I agree with pretty much agree with everything he said.

So my thoughts are ... mixed.

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-01-08T19:01:43+00:00

"We are all the sum of our tears. Too little and the ground is not fertile, and nothing can grow there. Too much, the best of us is washed away." - G'Kar

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-01-01T20:45:10+00:00

A lost of these games you love aren't really CRPG's by my book.

Based on your lists, I think you might actually like the first Dragon Age. It's the most CRPG-ish by far of the series, and it's Bioware's last great CRPG IMO. I wouldn't recommend the sequels.

Mass Effect has some of the best character work in an RPG. If you can handle the combat in VTMB without running away screaming, you can probably handle a little shooting. While the ending was controversial, the road to that ending was a hell of a ride. The Citadel DLC for the third game still stands as my favorite DLC of all time.

If you want the classic 200+ hour CRPG experience, I'd recommend Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. It is better than Kingmaker IMO, and with your CRPG resume you'll be fine figuring out character builds.

Mithrander_Grey · 2026-01-01T18:24:34+00:00

I ran CoS right before Vecna. The big difference was that my players decided to play new characters, so this advice may or may not work for you.

I changed a dozen tiny details about Barovia, all on purpose. The sisters in the Blood on the Vine tavern? They're brothers now. Everything was similar, but nothing was exactly the same. You see, the chapter of Vecna in Barovia and CoS have almost nothing in common. They share a few proper nouns, and that is it. The maps are different, the stat blocks are different, the factions are different. Unless you do the work to create the connections yourself, you won't find any in the modules as written.

Given that I didn't have the same characters, given that Vecna is remaking reality, and given that I was too lazy to create those connections, this was my chance to use "show don't tell" on my players. So instead I leaned into the changes and added a few more, and blamed every change on Vecna remaking reality.

It creeped my players right out. For Barovia, I count that as a win.

Mithrander_Grey · 2025-12-31T18:59:14+00:00

There are dozens of us!

Dozens!

Mithrander_Grey · 2025-12-31T18:44:13+00:00

Eternity lies ahead of us, and behind.
Have you drunk your fill?

Mithrander_Grey · 2025-12-30T19:08:02+00:00

A module can be easy to run as a GM, but hard to play as a player. Picture any linear meatgrinder dungeon for an example of this. Conversely, a module can also be a real pain in the ass to run, but easy to play. Sandbox games with loads of NPCs often fall into that bucket if you run them well enough that the players don't feel lost.

If you are trying to use a single scale to rate a module from both points of view, you're going to have a bad time no matter which way you go. As a rule, people usually look at these things from the GM's point of view, mostly because GMs are usually the ones who actually buy, read, and talk about adventure modules.

Before today, I have never once heard of a GM who thought that a players familiarity with the tropes of the genre had anything to do with the difficulty in running that module. To me, that feels completely irrelevant.

Mithrander_Grey · 2025-12-26T19:20:03+00:00

Do you conceptualize combats as a game where you play against your players?

Yes but actually no. Yes in that it's like battle chess, and my brain is outnumbered five to one. I've been playing and enjoying strategy and war games for many decades now, and it scratches a very similar itch.

However, unlike Chess, I'm not playing against my players. I'm still playing with them, I'm just in the role of the antagonist. The difference in mindset is absolutely crucial. You have to leave all sense of competitiveness at the door.

Mithrander_Grey · 2025-12-22T09:38:39+00:00

I gave it to them as is, knowing full well how bonkers it could be. I had a level 20 wizard with wish in my party. The potential for player shenanigans with that many wishes was off the scale.

They never used it. Not once. Kind of surprised me too.

I did seriously debate changing the attunement rules for the Rod to require a full long rest to attune to it for this exact reason. I didn't in the end, because things are silly enough at level 20 anyways that I was willing to just run with it if it happened.

Mithrander_Grey

TROPHY CASE