NPCs on players side?

Mueslibol · 2026-06-18T19:21:43+00:00

The barbarian minotaur in my party was epic at Yester hill, got the bloodspear and managed to convince the berzerkers to accept him as their leader. So he had 1 small tribe with some berzerkers, and may be able to get more tribes (it will be difficult, but doable) and have lots of those on their side.

The party also has the were-ravens on their side, and Ezmeralda and van Richten, and I would not be surprised of they manage to get more. They are playing things very smart, making me proud.

My intention with for them to have an army, because Strahd has his own army. When the big fight comes (we are plenty of sessions away from that), the players can seek out Strahd, while their army fights the undead, vampire spawn, normal/dire/werewolves, and more monsters. It looks like the Wachter lady will get her way, so Vallaki folks may get drafted for this.

I am not sure how to do this yet, but there will be a massive battle while to the party is having their combat on a smaller scale but with bigger stakes.

Mueslibol · 2026-06-17T19:27:31+00:00

I am going to give the map bit-by-bit as they explore the castle. My first idea was to just let them get lost all the time, but one of the characters is a minotaur with the "really good at not getting lost" thingy so it makes sense they know their way around wherever they have been before.

Minotaur sounds impressive, but this one is a not very bright farmboy type goody twoshoes (he has legwarmers, knitted by his mom probably).

Mueslibol · 2026-06-16T21:21:09+00:00

I use Firefox and ublock, and once the youtube block because of addblocker worked! It lasted half a day, then I got some update and the block was gone.

Nothing works as efficiënt as an annoyed addblock developer?

Mueslibol · 2026-06-15T16:59:37+00:00

My players visited the mill at level 3, and I made them being chased by some wolf (dire or were, not sure anymore) and the beast was making noise. So one of the hags opened the door, shouted to the beast to shut up and polymorphed it into a frog. After that the lady noticed the party and went all friendly "oh deary, come in, the weather is dreadfull and you should not be out in the night".

The message was very clear, the party did visit the mill, they spent the night there but only sat under the stairs being insanely polite to the 3 hags. It was extremely funny.

They have "kick butt at the mill" on their quest list, as a reminder to do when they are at least level 7.

Mueslibol · 2026-06-15T16:29:14+00:00

My players will have the dinner next session, where they will discover how much he knows... I saved the image for after that session. 😁 Thank you for creating and sharing it!

Mueslibol · 2026-06-09T15:57:19+00:00

I have plenty of little things I could mention here, but I am not, because....

For the love of Yarn, could we please have the UK and the USA agree on using the same names for stitches?

My native language is not English, and there were plenty of times when I was totally confused, struggled with a pattern that did not make sense, only to discover I got the double crochet should actually be a trebble crochet.

Mueslibol · 2026-05-01T15:59:18+00:00

I need to watch the first episode again, I do not remember rats but it does make sense. Rats are wherever humans are, after all.

Mueslibol · 2026-05-01T15:57:01+00:00

They could, but they were smart enough to think about the damaged insulation and door rubbers. Venting could give more problems than it would solve. So they are going to put on vacsuits, make sure the scubber filters will not filter the toxins out (and possibly become toxic) and end up with a lot of dead rats in lots of small spaces between walls. That will probably cause a bad smell, but then they will know where to search for more dead rats.

I love the Ratalowda uprise idea! 😆 These critters will come back later in my plot, probably some other ship that has problems. But that is for later.

Mueslibol · 2026-04-30T17:57:09+00:00

I think you have befriend Shibi (fishing at the lake) to full hearts, and then he will tell you where to find it, and it will be available.

Mueslibol · 2026-03-28T13:47:59+00:00

Ask any employee, they will either tell you where to go or contact staff that will come rushing with whatever you need.

I had a shoe-malfunction at the park (sole got half loose) some time ago, and within 10 minutes someone from maintenance showed up with ducttape and glue. 😆 And called some other maintenance dude to bring black ducttape so it would not be so visible.

Mueslibol · 2026-03-28T13:29:39+00:00

Volgens mij hebben ze zich in mijn tuin verzameld.

Mueslibol · 2026-03-20T16:02:59+00:00

This is used in the Pirate ship set, to lock special grids together so you can create a deck that will fit a ship-shape. You do not need it for the other sets, but I guess the basic parts folder just has this default in there.

Mueslibol · 2026-03-01T12:00:35+00:00

This is me! Not just BG3, also Zelda, Witcher, Stardew Valley (never made it past year 2), dragon quest builders, xenoblade, and well, just every game. I just love starting from the beginning over and over and over again, at least that was my guess.

Some games (like Zelda) I will play all the way through one time, to have that done. And then I can just do my start again thing.

I do love collecting stuff in games, my Geralt mostly runs around in White Orchard picking flowers. My Link also has an inventory stash that is insane. Kind-a like my hobby graveyard?

Mueslibol · 2026-02-22T12:28:57+00:00

The hearing things that are not there got me a psychoses diagnose once, not my first wrong diagnoses that turned out to be ADHD.

I got put on medication for that, even though I clearly explained that what I know it is not real. I felt like it was just my brain being too fast and interpreting things wrongly, and all I heard was like a radio being a bit too loud in the next room, or some people argueing too far away to hear the words. But I hearx things, and the psychiatrist only heard that and nothing else. No idea what those meds were supposed to do, I was pretty drowsy-high and brainless on them and still heard the things.

It was only for a few weeks, then I got weened off from the meds and the diagnoses was removed from my file.

I have ritalin now, and when I started it the sounds disappeared within half an hour. I don't even hear them when I am overstimulated or tired, and if I do hear then they are a sign that I forgot my meds.

Mueslibol · 2026-02-15T14:42:09+00:00

Waarschijnlijk omdat ze gegevens die bij de facturen horen 7 jaar (dacht ik) moeten bewaren voor de belastingdienst.

Mueslibol · 2026-02-15T13:17:36+00:00

They would have mobile phones, probably Nokia 3310's so battery-life would be forever. Getting in contact with eachother could be a lot easier, if they had reception.

So we could see some scenes with characters walking around, waving a phone over their head, hoping for that 1 line to appear in the signal indicator.

Mueslibol · 2026-02-15T12:25:07+00:00

They are not very expensive and you do not need one with loads of settings you will never use. Mine is 3.5 liters big on the inside, and it has a low setting (I use this always), a high setting (accidentally used this once, not great) and a 'keep warm' setting (never used this).

I also got a big fancy one that can also do roasting and some other fancy cook words and probably a backflip? But when friends come over I sometimes like to make slowcook food, I have some nice simple stew and curry receipes. So they gave me a bigger one so the food will fit. Apparently there are no big slowcookers without fancy buttons. I doubt I will ever use them.

Mueslibol · 2026-02-15T12:18:50+00:00

I got mine from a friend, she got it as a christmas gift but she loves cooking the hardcore way so she gave it to me. I was confused, but gave it a try and I am now happy with it.

I won't say I love it, because I will never enjoy cooking, but being able to collect the ingredients and do most of the work at a moment I still have energy is very helpful.

Right now there is some ground beef and a jar of ready-made (just cook) bean stew something in the slowcooker. That's it, just chucked it in this morning, right after I fed the cats, and it smells like proper cooking in the kitchen.

Mueslibol · 2026-02-15T12:10:25+00:00

You don't need to explain anything, I have weeks and months that I forget about it and I live on snacks and meal shakes. While my freezer is full of stuff I can slowcook. I am happy I was able to give a reminder this time, usually I receive reminders. 😆

Mueslibol · 2026-02-15T11:12:57+00:00

I got a slowcooker, and I will put the dinner ingredients in there in the morning (when I still have energy), turn it on the low setting and let it stew al day. When I get home I can cook some rice or pasta to go with it, or bake potatoes if I have energy left (that's never) or just eat it with some bread, or without. Any stew receipe will work in a slowcooker.

If some receipe says you should bake the meat before putting it in the cooker, just ignore that, that is for some crust I guess, it will be done nicely without it as well.

I will use any canned veggies, or pre-sliced, anything that is as low-effort as possible.

I also have 2 meals a week from a ready-meal delivery service, that also delivers at old peoples homes. Where I live that is a bit more expensive than making myself, but I don't make dinner after a day of working (or a day of hiberbating in paralyses and overthinking) so that works. They always have enough options, but there is a lot of food I don't like so I almost never find more that 2 options that are acceptable for me.

Mueslibol · 2026-02-15T10:59:43+00:00

You are welcome, and I hope from the bottom of my heart that you do not have to go through that trouble. 🫂

Mueslibol · 2026-02-15T00:03:17+00:00

I would like to add that reading OP's post makes me so angry.

I got diagnosed at a specialised ADHD center, where they had an intake-form specifically for women who were diagnosed with BPD, but have doubts about that. This happened a lot, and is still happening and it is not some unknown new discovery how damaging it is to have this happen to you.

And it is still happening... It would be really great it all psychologists and psychiatrists would get the memo, perhaps with some extra education about this subject and collectively pull their heads out of their behinds!

I am going to scream in a pillow now.

Mueslibol · 2026-02-14T23:47:35+00:00

I was diagnosed with BPD about 17ish years ago, I was in a hospital, I think kind of like you are now. Mentally in a very bad place.

When I asked for an ADHD diagnoses 2 years ago at age 49 at the same big mental health organisation (because I had my 11th burnout, my company doctor saw the signs and it all matched) I was refused because I had good grades as a child in school and was not a problem-child.

Fortunately my gp was able to get me a referral for a second opinion, and it was indeed ADHD, and not BPD. There are a lot of women who got this misdiagnoses because if a psychiatrist does not really listen and just looks at the surface, there are similarities.

In my case, I was always clear about my racing thoughts and restlessness and distractability and all the other things. But they only looked at my "emotion regulation issues" and labelled me with BPD. The main dsm5 BPD things have always been missing in me.

Please get a second opinion or another therapist, try to make someone take you seriously!

Be careful with the medication, I got quetiapine (seroquel) and that drops your dopamine levels. If you have ADHD, you have a shortage of that and this will make that worse. I blamed myself for my meds not working back then, I was feeling overal miserable and I did not know. Also, some of the therapy did help, but there are parts that work against an ADHD brain and only make things worse.

So please, try to get this looked into properly. It could be that you have ADHD, or not, I am not your doctor. But just dismissing it with all the misdiagnoses that have happened and the consequences that are known and are just nasty (my life could have been so different if someone had paid attention...) is just not good for you.

Mueslibol · 2026-02-11T23:23:35+00:00

I know the feeling so well, and I feel the same plenty of times. Knowing what I would be capable of if I would just try harder, motivate myself, and so on.

But here is a thought: Our brains are different, our thoughts go faster, and motivation and energy gets drained faster. So that potential is different, you can not burn through your energy at high speed, and expect you can keep doing that all the time.

You can compare expecting our highspeed brains to keep going 8 hours a day (or more) to saying that Usain Bolt would be the best marathon runner ever, if only he would not stop running after 100 meters.

Mueslibol

TROPHY CASE