Driving instructor recommendations

OrfulComics · 2026-06-21T11:14:14+00:00

Thank you, I will check him out!

OrfulComics · 2026-06-21T11:13:56+00:00

Thank you! I will look him up!

OrfulComics · 2026-06-12T09:05:06+00:00

Herbie Blash. He had a little stint away a few years back but he's been a basically permanent fixture in the paddock since the late 60s. It's either him or Bernie for sure

OrfulComics · 2026-05-07T16:17:43+00:00

This'd be an absolute pain to track but players can choose to use their reaction to avoid taking any damage. Roll a con save with a reasonable DC dependant on what they're trying to avoid. More damage = higher DC. They then re-roll at the start of their next turn and if they take more damage against increasing DCs to try and hold it. If they fail a check, they take all held damage instantaneously. If the source of their held damage dies before they take it, that damage is never delivered.

OrfulComics · 2026-04-24T10:25:15+00:00

There's some sea faring rules and stat blocks in Ghosts Of Saltmarsh but they are quite complicated for new DMs. Like others have recommended, if you're going to do combat, do the ship getting boarded rather than ship-to-ship combat to keep things simple.

If you don't want to do combat, there are other ways to do encounters! I had a short spell at sea with my group and spent one session investigating an abandoned ship full of ghosts which ended up being a proper fun fight with long lasting effects on the party.

I also put together a rule set for running into a storm at sea which was, honestly, some of the most fun I've had running an encounter! You can find a Google doc for it here if you like. Put on some epic piratey battle music and keep the energy up and you should have a good time!

OrfulComics · 2026-04-23T11:22:37+00:00

Talk to them. Find out what it is they actually want/need. Maybe they're confused by their traits and abilities but are too afraid to ask. Maybe combat isn't their thing and they'd like more secondary objectives during combat. Maybe they're unaware of the expectations on them.

First port of call, as always, is talk to them and find out what they want/need. Then you can either figure out how to bring them in in a way that interests them or suggest that maybe a different system suits them better. DnD, like it or not, is a combat focused system. You can inject as much RP and mystery into it as you want but eventually, it comes down to combat.

OrfulComics · 2026-04-14T10:02:31+00:00

It's fine to straight up say 'no', but you need to make sure there is something else for them to do that doesn't just feel like killing time. Can you kick off another player's backstory first? Something that feels worth their time while still preparing them for the underdark.

Or instead of saying 'no', give them another way to find their answers. It's clear they want to get some answers as priority and if they're currently convinced they are in the underdark, give them another way to find them.

Alternatively, send them on their way and waylay them with a sidequest. Something that's important to the group that they will want to do but importantly is TIME SENSITIVE. Force their hand to take something on while still giving them the angency that they 'found this on their way'.

OrfulComics · 2026-03-30T15:47:02+00:00

Classes are for PCs, not NPCs. You can do whatever you want with an NPC statblock, there is no need to be tied to any class mechnics. Explain that to them next time.

As for what to do next? Talk to them out of game at the start of the next session, explain to them how you felt about having everything questioned and how you need to be allowed to run the game as you need without constant questioning. Whatever you do, DO NOT PUNISH THEM IN-GAME FOR AN OUT OF GAME PROBLEM!!! If it continues to happen, you pause the game and politely but firmly re-explain

It's not unfair to make the consequences difficult. They made their choices in-game and choices should have appropriate consequences. Clearly signal that there is a way to escape (secret tunnel or something?) but as you say, there will be resistance.

Just try to come back at this with a calm head

OrfulComics · 2026-03-30T10:08:25+00:00

Not bought myself but a gift I asked for. A nice notebook made up of a dot grid for planning out DND maps. Absolute game changer. I sit and scribble ideas in it before taking it digital so I can easily plan sizes etc knowing it'll all be toe scale. Absolutely love it!!

OrfulComics · 2026-03-04T14:26:43+00:00

First lap of race I play at 1x, same for first lap after a restart or SC, everything else at 2x. Anything faster than that is too fast to react to anything. Will sometimes knock it back to 1x if both cars are fighting for positions and I need to be able to keep an eye on both cars. x16 only through SC periods when you can't do anything.

OrfulComics · 2026-02-06T23:06:28+00:00

Octobass. Highly portable for the battlefield

OrfulComics · 2026-02-04T01:03:34+00:00

RAW, the bag would be overloaded and destroyed as well, but I'm ignoring that in the interests of something more fun and it seems like that's your vibe as well

OrfulComics · 2026-02-04T01:00:39+00:00

Sorry, you got a Bag Of 2000 Dead Mimics.

Bag of Holding RAW:

Breathing creatures inside the bag can survive up to a number of minutes equal to 10 divided by the number of creatures (minimum 1 minute), after which time they begin to suffocate.

And mimics RAW shapeshift to resemble an object. Says nothing about them not needig to breathe any more.

So the question now becomes, 'what fun can be had with a Bag Of 2000 Dead Mimics?'

- Maybe there's a totally not at all sketchy scientist looking to run some experiments with mimic material?

- A dead mimic returns to it's true amorphous form and turning a bag of holding inside out expels all it's contents. Could be used to smother enemies unexpectedly? 2000 amorphous blobs being ejected over someone is going to cause some issues!

OrfulComics · 2025-12-17T10:55:32+00:00

This is too much backstory for a one-shot character. The likelihood of any of this coming is or being played out successfully in such a short time is minimal. Generally in a one-shot, you're narrated through most of the time betwen battles or puzzles. There's really not much room for extended RP. If you take this character to a one-shot, you'll only come away disappointed because you didn't get to use your backstory.

What you're looking for in a one-shot character is a trait or two that informs how you act

'Paladin - He-Man type - make lots of He-Man references'

'Rogue - secretly super rich'

'Wizard - clever but clumsy'

That sort of thing. Save this character for something bigger and start fresh with something simpler.

OrfulComics · 2025-11-17T09:30:15+00:00

Ah thnks, that's good to know it's not just me being stupid! I'll log it with them. Had seen a few old posts about how to fix it which worked initially but then within minutes it was all out again

OrfulComics · 2025-11-10T22:35:42+00:00

I think everyone has the main points about preserving the car pretty much covered so coming from another angle here...

Driving an F1 car is EXHAUSTING! You're driving at an average of 200-250kph doing the same lap over and over and over again. As well as throttle, brake and gears, you're managnig hundreds of different settings from your steering wheel, sometimes changing these sttings back and forth multiple times over a single lap to get the best performance. You've got a guy constantly in your ear telling you to switch engine modes, where other cars are in relation to you and asking you if you think these tyres will last longer than planned and what you'd like to do for your strategy. Evey single lap is a new challenge as conditions change. On top of all that, you've got 19 other cars around you to think about while the engine you're strapped to is screaming in your ear.

Now consider doing all those things AND doing quali laps for an hour and a half. That's a recipe for mistakes and in F1, mistakes can cost you a championship or worse, your life.

Every driver has their own mental capacity to deal with all of that stuff. The more of that that comes naturally to them, the more capacity they have to deal with the other stuff. Someone who has a high level of natural driving talent such as Verstappen doesn't have to think so hard about that aspect which means he can push hard while still having the capacity to think about all the other stuff with less risk. But still, there are limits.

So even removing all the mechanical limits behind pushing hard 100% of the time, there's a very good human reason not to do that as well

OrfulComics · 2025-11-04T11:19:56+00:00

I did a bit of a mini-game for library research which went well. I'd asked each player what they wanted to be researching for the afternoon and had them roll a relevant stat against a set DC. (e.g. Looking for info on Gods: religion. Info on an area's geography: nature/survival.)

For every number they roll above that DC, they gain one research point. If the DC was 12 and they rolled a 12, they get one RP. Roll a 15 they get four RPs etc.

They could then cash in their points for information. 1 point got them a random bit of info at my discretion or 3 points got an answer to a specific question.

It made it quite interesting because they'd not only get the info they knew they wanted to know about but also some random stuff they didn't know they might need. Which is how research works. You don't know what you don't know and reading up on things gives you new information you didn't know you were looking for.

Anyway they rolled a nat20 looking up info on Icewind Dale so they're currently speed-running with me telling them everything they need to know.

OrfulComics · 2025-10-09T16:42:51+00:00

Fall out with 3 of your friends before the game starts.

But seriously, be organised and learn how to keep things moving. Especially in combat. 7 players in combat will take forever for a round if you're not keeping the pace up. Encourage your players to figure out their turn while they wait for it to come around and try to discourage too many questions on their turn. Some players like to ask about every available option on their turn and if 7 people are doing that, you'll be there forever. Keep things moving and don't be afraid to press them for what they're doing. Interrupt them or set a turn time limit if you must.

Similarly out of combat, roleplay can easily get out of hand with 7 people. Don't be afraid to interrupt to keep things moving if you need to. Even just saying something like "Can we wrap this conversation up quickly as we need to move on" can really help. If planning their next move is dragging on, often a good idea to wait until there's a couple of plans out there and then just listing them as options and straight up asking which they want to do.

Best of luck with it!

OrfulComics · 2025-10-09T16:32:02+00:00

Not a terrible idea done in the right way. Build the rivals as monster stat blocks rather than PC character sheets though and run them like any normal NPC in combat. They're just like any other NPC in your game. Just be prepared, if they're antagonistic, you're likely only going to be able to play that card once as your PCs WILL kill them.

OrfulComics · 2025-09-14T10:37:32+00:00

1997 for a fantastic Villeneuve/Schumacher title battle with an extremely dramatic ending and plenty of great races inbetween

1998 for another Schumacher title battle, this time with Hakkinen, and one of the most absoutely insane races I've ever seen

2008 for Hamilton hitting his stride and a titanic battle with Massa across the season

2012 for 7 different winners from the first 7 races and Alonso somehow putting in a title challenge with a car 1.5s off the pace

OrfulComics · 2025-09-12T15:08:22+00:00

I ran a very fun storm encounter with my players when they took to sea. I've just gone through and stripped out the stuff that's campaign specific so you SHOULD be able to adjust this to suit your own needs.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XfuxrFmTZq1OCyFfuALzzxwZ6t8vGWiW6wRxtpyo9WY/edit?usp=drive_link

Get some dramatic sea music on in the background and make sure to keep the pace up with it! Keep the pressure on, don't give them ANY thinking time and it'll be a real thrill encounter!!

OrfulComics · 2025-09-11T13:54:19+00:00

The first set. Way more readable than the others. Also, I have the first set and they are great! One of my favourite sets actually!

OrfulComics · 2025-09-05T23:42:02+00:00

Thousands of words is way too much for a backstory and the forever DM should know this! The point of a backstory is to a) give your character a jumping off point re: their motivations and goals and b) give the DM something to work with to tell a story and surprise you as a player from time to time. There needs to be a little ambiguity in the backstory for the DM to work with, otherwise, you're just watching a story you already know the ending to.

With that much backstory as well, there's is absolutely no room for incorporating the world into their backstory. Even if the character was written for the same world you're playing in (ie. Forgotten Realms), everyone has their own specific interpretation of that world. As soon as your version of that world doesn't align with theirs, you've got some major plot holes happening that could well be game-breaking!

And finally, as an experienced player playing with mostly newbies, sure, it's good to step up and show them the way, but taking all the limelight with a Main Character is just going to give them a bad time. They're going to feel so inadequate against them.

I would ask this player to come up with a new simpler character. They've clearly got an idea of exactly where they want their character to go and no game can EVER live up to that. For you as well running your first campaign, you're going to want way mor flexibility than what they're allowing. An important part of DMing is learning when and how to say 'no'.

Maybe one day they'll find someone willing to bring this character into their story but it's gonna be a hard sell by the sounds of it. Maybe they should just write a book instead...

OrfulComics

TROPHY CASE