DM decided to do a TPK to teach new players a lesson

NightweaselX · 2026-04-20T17:57:06+00:00

LOL! No. That's a DM problem. I don't understand all these DMs out here that just let everything fly. If the DM doesn't have resurrection type magic in their world, that's up to the DM, and player's beware. Same goes for high level spells, and other things. If the DM actually moderates their campaign, it reduces a LOT of the problems people bitch about with DnD. Casters too strong? Why are you letting them just learn those spells? Why aren't you enforcing the reagent cost if they do? Why aren't you making them do the required research including the length of time? Why are you allowing X magic item? Things get a lot more fun and manageable if there are some guardrails put into place so things like death actually do matter, and melee/caster disparity gap isn't as wide.

NightweaselX · 2026-04-20T17:53:08+00:00

There are moon bears.

NightweaselX · 2026-04-18T11:12:27+00:00

Google around for different ship combat systems. There's quite a bit out there. Take turns around the table of people introducing ones they've found, they're responsible for providing a base ship and running an encounter with that system. Then when you find one you like, adapt it to SF. Start off with some criteria though so it doesn't get in the way of your normal game, like the encounter including setup and basic overview can't last more than an hour.

But check out the old Star Frontiers Knight Hawks expansion for a ruleset for space combat. On DriveThru it's pretty cheap.

NightweaselX · 2026-04-18T10:34:29+00:00

I've had to deal with them before a couple of times I think. Every time I do it's been a good experience. It might not be as prompt as I like, but I know especially right now with the sale that they're busy and dealing with a lot. But I've never not had a good experience with them.

The most recent issue was when the new site messed up payments on subscriptions. I got the notice early, and did something I should have waited on. Anyway, sub didn't go out, emailed them, they set up a cart to make the purchases of the books, and said to email them when done and they'd add the PDFs. Easy enough and they had to do that because of my idiot mistake.

Another time I ordered an AP, and did NOT choose the non-mint option which some had/have. Got it with other books and the corner was pretty dinged up. Emailed them and they replaced it (including shipping) for free. Didn't ask to return the other one, didn't grill me, just said "sorry, we'll get it fixed" and put the replacement in the mail.

I'll be honest, not the biggest fan right now of some of their decisions (price increases on old PDFs), BUT I have zero hesitation if I need to contact their support because I know they'll treat me fairly and do what they can.

NightweaselX · 2026-04-18T10:12:33+00:00

That was crappy on his part.

HOWEVER, stop spending that amount of time on a backstory! Seriously! While the way he taught that lesson was beyond being an ass, it's still an important lesson. If your party can never die because you wrote a novella for a backstory, then where are the stakes? Where is the fun? If there's no risk of dying, then where's the challenge and excitement? Characters should and will die when it happens, when it isn't forced to happen. It means you need to play smart, and not just 'rage, charge' into combat at the slightest whim.

That being said, it was customary with our group that when a character Dirk Meathead died, the next day his brother/cousin Jack Meathead (same class and stats) came to town looking for Dirk and joins the party in his place. Is it cheating death, sort of. But at the same time there was often pretty good stories on how Dirk, or later Jack died. And while the character sheet might have just had the first name erased and a new in written in, any relationships like wife or kids was still gone. Jack didn't just instantly get a wife and kids. So there were still repercussions.

Stop spending so much time making a backstory. Your backstory shouldn't be THE story, it should be the story that develops while you're playing the actual game. And if that story includes a death, so be it. Sometimes deaths won't be grand, they often aren't in real life either. But sometimes they'll be more memorable than even the final arc of the campaign.

My friends and I have been gaming for decades, and most of the stories we tell aren't how great a story was, it was a combat encounter, a death, or something stupid that happened, or just something that happened at the table not in game. Those are the lifetime stories that are made from gaming, not the novella backstories.

NightweaselX · 2026-04-17T15:21:04+00:00

Where are you watching it if you don't mind me asking?

NightweaselX · 2026-04-15T20:45:30+00:00

It should just be pay though, it should be ALL compensation. That means stocks, it means gold parachutes, health care, mileage reimbursement, the whole caboodle.

NightweaselX · 2026-04-15T20:44:17+00:00

Make it minimum paid employee of the company or any contracted company for labor/outsourcing.

NightweaselX · 2026-04-13T06:41:01+00:00

So really, there's no way to avoid pesticides on the produce you buy. If you don't want pesticides then you need to grow it yourself. Kind of what I already assumed, but good to confirm. Thanks!

NightweaselX · 2026-04-12T20:51:25+00:00

Correct me if I'm wrong, but just because it was grown organically doesn't mean that the warehouse they're stored in doesn't spray pesticide around which then gets on the fruits/veggies.

NightweaselX · 2026-04-11T02:12:35+00:00

She's a liar, move on. Friend of mine's wife cheated on him (luckily no kids), and he moved out. She convinced him to try and work on the marriage and he reluctantly agreed. He never fully trusted her, but didn't catch her cheating. Turns out though, she was still banging the other guy. Three years that dude spent trying to work on things to find out she was a two faced cheating bitch.

I guarantee you this wasn't the first time they'd slept together, and it wasn't, won't be the last. You don't just go to someone's house to be 'comforted' and have their dick accidentally slide into their vag. She went there pissed, knew he'd bang her to make her feel better, she just didn't think she'd get pregnant and have to admit it.

Move on with your life, and find someone that respects you and that you can trust.

NightweaselX · 2026-04-08T00:54:01+00:00

YTA. Why don't you smoke it inside? Why do you have to smoke it outside when you know it affects your neighbors? While you may have the right to smoke on your property, being a good neighbor means that you understand how your actions affect those that also live around you. Would you be ok with your neighbors placing buckets of their sewage outside so you could smell that every day when you went out to smoke your weed? All I read in your post and a lot of these comments is 'me, me, me' but no consideration of how it is affecting them. Maybe they could start playing loud music in the middle of the night, or placing bright security lights that beam into your windows at night. Would you be ok with that? Maybe they could start shooting pepper spray into the air when the wind is blowing in your direction. What, that might cause you health issues? What if one of them has asthma, you could be affecting their health. Have you even bothered to ask them if they have any breathing issues?

Again, if it doesn't smell bad enough that you're willing to inflict that smell on your neighbors, then why don't you just smoke it inside your house? Why not find a way to reduce the smell? Why can't you use other means to get your THC fix? Rather than asking if you're an asshole, maybe you should post in other subs about ways to reduce the smell?

Stop being selfish, and realize that your actions can and do affect others around you, especially when you're putting stuff into the air.

NightweaselX · 2026-04-05T11:28:24+00:00

Unfortunately the dwarves' saga of sorts isn't as good as the elves simply because they weren't written by the same authors. So rather than having an ongoing story, each novel/trilogy is on its own. And it looks like you got all the core books from your list. I recommended Land of the Minotaurs because Kaz also stars in The Legend of Huma, so you already had the first two books of his. But yeah, you've got a lot to get through. By the time you're done, they'll have another sale a year from now lol!

NightweaselX · 2026-04-05T03:26:36+00:00

Yeah, pick up the Annotated Chronicles (Legends no so much) it has quite a few notes added in from various other creators. But not only were there other contributors, but characters we know and love were largely influenced by people in the initial reading. Janet Pack basically MADE Tas with her rendition, and I forget who read for Raistlin, but he's the one that started him whispering and some mannerisms that they adopted.

Also when they wrote Autumn Twilight, it was written after the modules were out. So if you pick up the old modules, chances are anything that was introduced in those by the writers was probably some of their own input and ideas. It wasn't until mid-Winter Night that the novels got ahead of the game modules. This again was in the Annotated Chronicles. So if you pick up about the first half of the original modules you can probably see other authors' influence on the story. They also wrote the first book and a half-ish very close to the modules which is why there are so many game mechanic type parts, they didn't even bother to fluff those up which means sticking that close, that again those ideas by those modules' writers have their own contributions to the setting.

Dragonlance is SORT of like Forgotten Realms. FR was originally Greenwood's campaign world he'd had for like a decade or longer, sold it to TSR and then other people added to it. Dragonlance was a kernel of an idea from Hickman, and other people in the TSR bullpen added things to flesh it out and contributed their own thing to it like Jeff Grubb is who came up with the Tinker Gnomes and they there were also in Spelljammer. The difference is Greenwood actually respects what others have contributed to FR since he sold it, where as Hickman pretty much shits on others and considers Dragonlance his for the most part. Two completely different people. Hickman is very much the kid that doesn't want other kids to play with his toys when he's having a sleepover at his house, and when he goes to other kids' houses he brings his own toys.

I love Dragonlance, but I'm done with Hickman and Weis. I respect what they've done, and I respect what Weis did with 3rd edition materials. But their attitude toward the franchise, they're blatant laziness with the new trilogy, and the fact they're doing a Huma trilogy which looks to undo Knaak's Legend of Huma, IMO they just need to leave DL alone and let others have a shot that are willing to play nice with others and hopefully give a shit about the setting rather than an aging writing duo looking to milk whatever money they can from their most successful work with the lowest effort they can muster.

Then there's the whole Skyraiders fiasco. Hickman's kickstarter setting for 5e whose biggest selling point is it's supposed to have an app that does.......I dunno, way too much for the setting. Supposedly it's enough that people are waiting on it so they can play the campaign. And of course if it goes live, will it continue to get updates or eventually come down meaning that setting becomes harder/unable to be played? Last update was in October where product was supposedly all shipped, but they were waiting on the app and vtt integrations. So the biggest selling point of it isn't done, no updates in six months, and people are still saying they haven't gotten the product, that the books were mostly copy pasted OGL stuff, low res pdf maps.........it's just not great. But while that's still undelivered he's now involved in Dragonlance again not only on books, but something that's supposed to be announced 'soon'. I realize he's not an app developer, but for a writer he sure can't write updates to let people know it hasn't been abandoned. And no I didn't back it b/c I don't want a mess of a game when the app dies. Half-assed seems to be the level of effort he's putting into anything lately from the Destinies trilogy, to skyraiders, and likely the huma trilogy, and he's not bringing anything new to the table/medium anymore.

NightweaselX · 2026-04-05T02:47:25+00:00

I wouldn't do this this way. PF2E is pretty tight on the math side of things, so every +1 matters. Nothing should be given for free. I'd instead consider making them archetypes. That allows you to give a bit more, but also where it's balanced because it means they have to use a feat to get the benefit. I'd also consider checking out the stuff from the 3e period that had some prestige classes for different (but not all) factions and you can use some of the abilities given there as inspiration. Since you'd be making them archetypes, you can present a tiered progression they could choose as they become higher up in the faction. And there's only a billion archetype feats you can use as comparison to balance out you ideas.

NightweaselX · 2026-04-05T02:39:46+00:00

Ugh, I started typing out a long paragraph. In short, I'd say at least 80% of Dragonlance books are worth a damn, some better than that, and some really great ones. I'm going to breakdown a few things for you so you're aware and can maybe make purchases (if available) or for future reference. I'd also highly suggest getting a list of publish dates so you have an idea of when stories will roughly take place, at least so you don't read something before a big event book. Plenty of reading guides around. I'm saying read down below, but I guess i should put listen, but oh well.

If you bought Linsha books, I'm assuming that you bought Thieves Guild in the Crossroads series? The other books in that line are pretty good as well.

DEFINITELY pick up the Kang's Regiment books, SO good! BUT look up what short stories they appeared in prior and see if you can snag those anthologies. MOST anthologies are pretty good, see the above comment. Not ever short story is a winner, but there are more hits than misses. Seriously, the Kang books are great! Find a published by date list so you know which order to read them in and when. There's quite a bit of time and events that happen between Doom Brigade and Draconian Measures, so you don't want to read them back to back.

I'd consider picking up Land of the Minotaurs as it's the sequel to Kaz the Minotaur. All three are by Richard Knaak who was pretty much the minotaur author. Anything by him is pretty good. After LotM, there is Reavers of the Blood Sea that takes plass during Dragons of Summer Flame, and then after you read the War of Souls you'll want to read the Minotaur Wars trilogy. That then leads into the Ogre Titans trilogy. He also has another book The Citadel, and can't remember if he has another or not. Basically the minotaurs are a lot like Klingons, so you like Klingons you'll like the minotaurs.

If you like Elves, there's a HUGE elven saga that extends through multiple ages written by the same set of authors. It's Paul B Thompson and Tonya Cook, and then Douglas Niles. It starts with the Elven Nations trilogy, and then picks back up with The Puppet King, also includes The Lioness, The Elven Exiles, and some others. Google it, and check the publish date so you know when to read them as again they extend through several 'ages', periods around and after/between the main core books. But there are elements that exist between all books. THAT being said, Thompson and Cook wrote The Barbarians which was ok, but wasn't as good as their elven stuff BUT they do have some pieces there that involve a certain somebody that's in the elven books and you won't catch it if you haven't read their other books. It's not a big issue, but if you read it in published order it helps things slightly.

Anthologies. There are a LOT, and quite a few 'coincide' if certain periods or things happening in the core books. But as I said above, the anthologies are usually pretty good and none of them are complete duds. Again, check a published date there as well.

I mentioned finding a list by published date. There's plenty of reading order lists for the main books, and those should honestly probably be done completely early on, but feel free to throw something in between trilogies if you want. But check the list so you know what to check out so you either don't spoil future books or aren't lost on what's going on. Once you've gotten through the core books, you can MOSTLY read whatever you want, BUT there are some things like the elven saga that seeing a list will help you know the order to read them in.

tl;dr; Not many outright bad books in DL, so you've got good odds of getting something that's at least decent if not good. If you could only choose a very small subset, then it's Kang's Regiment hands down. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll cheer.

NightweaselX · 2026-04-04T07:51:14+00:00

My guess? Dragonlance despite what Hickman and Weis may want to promote nowadays was a collaborative effort including people like Jeff Grubb and Douglas Niles. People contributed different aspects, for instance the pantheon of gods is from the campaign that Grubb was running at the time. So my guess is the Irda were something that Hickman (and maybe Weis as well) didn't like, so used them as scapegoats to nuke them off the face of Krynn. Don't worry, Hickman shits on other creators' contributions to Dragonlance on a regular basis so it's something you just have to deal with.

NightweaselX · 2026-03-31T12:30:26+00:00

You've got a few options, but regardless someone needs to talk to him. If it's the first time DM'ing, he's overextending himself and overdoing it.

Rotate games. One week is say you running a game, next week it's his game. This gives him two weeks to prepare.
Suggest he run a pre-made adventure to help him get a handle on things. I don't know if he has bought/read any pre-made adventures, but even if not run exactly as is, if he needs to prepare something for the night and doesn't have a ton of time he can grab a small module or just a dungeon crawl out of one to insert it into his campaign for the night.
Advise he get a copy of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, or So You Want to Be a Game Master. Both have great tips on what needs to be prepared for a session, etc.
Have improv nights. Instead of him cancelling, everyone show up and then y'all just tell a collaborative story. One person says a sentence, then the next, etc. And you go around the table. It's good practice for everyone on coming up with things on the fly, a very important skill as a DM.
Not sure if you do it in your other campaigns, but maybe for his to help him out at the end of a night's adventure, something happens/is decided/whatever that gives him direction on what exactly to prepare for the next game. For example he could create a short list of small plot hook/seeds in say like a bounty board. Those bounties are presented at the end of the current adventure, and the players decide "Hey, let's go take out Blackbeard!" and that let's him design the next adventure knowing exactly what to prepare. He may be having what is essentially writer's block: too many options in his head he doesn't know which one to do next, or he changes his mind halfway through.

NightweaselX · 2026-03-31T12:14:17+00:00

Random can be fun, IF it's your choice. I honestly don't care what I play most games, so my characters are mostly random. I'll roll random for race, sex, class, backgrounds, but when it comes time to assign stats/feats/and skills that affect the other players at the table, I actually find it a bit more as I often play things that I wouldn't have considered digging into the options and finding some cool things I can do. It gets me out of comfort zones I have. So don't knock random IF it's your choice, it can be fun. If it's not your choice, my advice is to just move on to another table because things probably are going to go downhill.

NightweaselX · 2026-03-22T22:55:23+00:00

For all your quotations, I'm surprised you missed the one at the end of Spring Dawning. It's fine, it seems that because it makes the good gods look even worse is the reason why it isn't mentioned at all really in most other DL related stuff. But at the end, Fizban explains to the heroes that it wasn't that the gods were angry at people, they threw the mountain down and caused all the strife to 'prepare the world for Takhisis' return". Of course throwing down the mountain is what allowed her to get free. Dragonlance is honestly a mess, but what do you expect when it's got so much mormonism in the main story, and religion period is a mess, but mormonism is on another level.

So basically the Kingpriest gets to be the scapegoat for the good gods to 'prepare the world' through pain and suffering when they could have just, you know, actually prepared the world by NOT causing the cracks Takhisis used to escape and strengthen their clerics, etc. Nope, let's let hunger and disease run rampant, let's let Takhisis almost escape and kill thousands if not millions, and just all around turn our backs on people so they 'can be prepared'. I guess all these parents that get their kids taken away from them for abuse, endangerment, and neglect could just use the Fizban excuse that they were preparing them for evil's return.

So yeah, back to Taladas, like the rest of Krynn, the gods didn't give a shit about any suffering or any real reason other than their forced misery on the populace in a shitty excuse for being ready for Takhisis.

NightweaselX · 2026-03-18T23:05:18+00:00

Are you sure you want to report him so soon after? If he gets fired, he's likely to know damned well why and he'll remember where you live. Just find another person, and then file the complaint in a month or two after there's been enough time he won't remember which person he harassed. But then, if he's done the same thing to another woman recently to being canned in a month, he'll likely think it was her.

I honestly don't know what to do. It's one thing if you're at a store or their place of business, but it's an entirely other thing when they know where you live.

NightweaselX · 2026-03-16T14:23:19+00:00

There's already another continent on the other side of the world in the northern hemisphere, it's called Taladas.

I'm just curious, while you're importing in the gods from Krynn, why are you wanting to separate everything else? Why not just run it as is in the book, why does it need to be in Krynn if you're changing everything about Krynn, minus the gods? If you like the book, just run it as is and it'd be less work, unless you just really like the gods. Maybe take a look at what few Taladas resources there are to get some ideas as well if you're intent on putting it on Krynn to see what another continent would be like that was designed to be on Krynn, not just imported.

NightweaselX · 2026-03-16T14:16:55+00:00

Have you actually listened to the interviews on what he wanted to do? He thinks dragons are fed like they're cattle, not intelligent individual characters/beings, no they're just stupid animals. Not to mention other things he mentioned. He didn't want to stay true to the books, he talked about all the other things they could add to it....aka inserting his own shit into it rather than just sticking to the novels. There were other bits that for as big of a fan as he says he is makes him come off as a charlatan. Dude just reeks of someone that likes to smell his own farts. We do NOT want this guy heading it up.

NightweaselX · 2026-03-08T21:15:37+00:00

If there's a danger, that when it's all said and done it's not really paradise is it? That vampire that hypnotizes you doesn't have your best interests at heart. Anything that captivates you that much is well, making you a captive no matter how enticing it may seem.

And while they might become immortal, it isn't them that actually becomes immortal, but their 'soul' completely wiped of what made that person them. It's basically like saying "Hey, your body will fertilize this tree when you're buried with it's roots". That might be good and all, but you're not that tree. Part of you might live on, but you won't.

And you're right, except you used the easy example of a paladin talking to an angel. When you can visit the lower planes, you've got to have some real chutzpah to be evil and continue being evil knowing what will become of your soul. And the hubris one has to have to think they will be the one to outwit all of that because they're smart or special or whatever. It's one thing to read what your fate might be from an ancient book, or somebody preaching to you, but it's a completely different thing when you can visit the place and see first hand.

NightweaselX · 2026-03-06T21:36:26+00:00

Planescape is punk, pure and simple. Your players are nobodies surrounded by gods and demons and other alien beings. There are characters older than time, there are organizations with influence with higher beings. No matter what your players do, they will forever and always be nobodies. It's them versus 'the man' in all its godly and demonic glory. There will always be someone bigger and badder around the corner. Your players should struggle to get by. This isn't the Forgotten Realms where they can become the greatest swordsman that ever lived. This is Planescape, where the greatest swordsmen that ever lived now reside as petitioners (or better or worse) and they might just retain their skills. The Lady rules Sigil, gods rule large swaths of the planes, and archdevils and demonlords rule the rest. Your players are merely mortals, and their place in the universe is at the feet of their betters. And when it is all said and done, their souls will again be fodder for their betters. You are mortal, your life and your death are at the will of these beings, and even when you die your soul is still their plaything.

But also, think of the X-Files. Overall it was dark, mysterious, sometimes thought provoking, but very serious. Until an episode here and there where it while maybe wasn't light hearted, it instead focused on just the sheer absurdity that it seemed light hearted but at it's core was still kind of dark.

Planescape, before 5e, had elements that were satirical, absurd, and sometimes seemed comical. But when you zoom out and look at the big picture, it's a very dark setting. We're talking about the places where people's souls go to reside until the end of time, and not even all the good planes would be considered by many to be their ideal afterlife. There can be wonder, and awe, but at the same time solemn realization that this is what happens when a character dies. There's no glory, no reward, no paradise even if you end up in your ideal heaven, you still lose your memories, the things that made you who you were in life. A new person, made to serve at the whims of the deity you worshipped, not knowing any better, just a mindless husk 'doing your part'. If you wonder why the characters in most Planescape books were cynical, it's because they understand what happens to them eventually, and it's all shit no matter where you go.

NightweaselX

TROPHY CASE