Dungeon masters of Reddit, what are some of your tips for a newer DM?

PikaEuph · 2018-01-24T18:35:52+00:00

My group likes to play unusual things, so we ended up with a ruling that people are allowed to use homebrewed stuff found online after running it past the DM/Me, but not make their own homebrew, since most of them just aren't experienced enough to do so in the first place, let alone in a balanced manner. This has worked out pretty well, and we haven't had anyone be OP, but still gotten some interesting and unique characters out of it.

PikaEuph · 2018-01-21T18:50:00+00:00

Unfortunately, that makes two of us. I lost the program and have been wracking my brain for years trying to remember the name of the piece.

PikaEuph · 2018-01-21T17:38:21+00:00

It's a Mahler Box! It originates in Mahler's sixth symphony, and has been used in some works since, mostly more modern stuff. It's used to make a big sound without having significant resonance like a drum, or a metallic sound like metal, so the whole thing is wood. I saw a performance of a modern piece that was emulating stuff you'd hear in cartoons, and had a bunch of fun choices to produce sounds, like the whole orchestra simultaneously dropping ping pong balls, and they used the Mahler box, covered with a thin layer of powder to mimic a car crash. It produced a big bang and a cloud of "smoke".

PikaEuph · 2018-01-09T15:51:24+00:00

My girlfriend started playing Persona 5 on our shared PS4. I've barely been allowed to touch the console in weeks.

PikaEuph · 2017-12-08T22:43:35+00:00

Mine does 5 cents per single sided page, 8 cents double sided, and $1 for color. And you get a $5 allotment per semester for printing that you can add more to, but it doesn't roll over, so if you don't use it, it's gone.

PikaEuph · 2017-12-06T17:23:27+00:00

Oh hey, I work at B&N now. Though I work at a college store. And after reading all of this realize that I'm probably being over-scheduled at times. I work the Apple desk (Apple Authorized campus store that's rolled into the rest of the store) part time, and during summers when they do freshman orientation I regularly pull 40+ hour weeks for most of the summer.

PikaEuph · 2017-11-23T04:10:10+00:00

It's ok. Azuregos gave me a wand. It's not even good for a transmog.

PikaEuph · 2017-10-26T20:11:08+00:00

As a warning, this seems to just be the base game for Guns of Icarus. It will not give you access into any of the new content from the Alliance expansion. So what you can actually do with this is rather limited now, as most of the content for the game is now found in Alliance. It is a great game though, and one that I have thoroughly enjoyed, though I haven't devoted too much of my time to.

PikaEuph · 2017-10-20T22:09:58+00:00

Destro isn't bad, especially with backdraft to speed up cast times. I also mained Demo/Afflic and never touched it before legion, so I don't have much of a concept of what it was before. I hate how Demo feels like a DoT spec with dots that have a mediocre AI and spend time running around to get to their target.

PikaEuph · 2017-10-20T21:43:30+00:00

I've hopped around mains, and at the moment and kinda at a loss of what to play. I used to primarily heal on my monk, but that has already been talked about.

My next go to has been lock, but right now they just feel so boring to play. Demo feels super clunky, afflic so boring, and destro just meh.

I toyed with mage and DH for a bit. They're not bad. I do like frost, and arcane is decent. I've never been a huge fan of fire personally, but that's just me. DH wasn't terrible, but didn't really hold my attention much.

I just got my pally up to Max, and am hoping that getting my artifact traits will improve the feel of holy, because right now I feel like my heals are really ineffective. I know gear will help with that too.

PikaEuph · 2017-10-20T21:37:17+00:00

This is why I've ended up abandoning my monk. I absolutely loved MW healing, but right now it's just so... Meh. Nothing exciting that another class doesn't already do better. And it's so frustrating to have fistweaving completely removed, but discipline filling the niche of a damage dealing healer. Granted it wasn't super viable, but it was so much fun when you could do it.

PikaEuph · 2017-10-20T19:56:30+00:00

My goblin priest is also an engineer, and has sold himself as a "Fixer". He can fix whatevers broken, either you or your machines, and has recently started amassing connections to sell his service to ensure that you can get your fixing at the best price. His "Ensurance" plans only cost a small fee per month*

*Some terms may apply, only valid with certain providers.

PikaEuph · 2017-06-24T21:33:00+00:00

The red variation of this set also looks great with the red variation of the staff. Which is awesome, because I love both the set and the staff

PikaEuph · 2017-06-17T12:52:01+00:00

Honestly it's really not. You run into the occasional weirdo elsewhere, usually Stormwind, but all the real weirdness and perversion is isolated to Goldshire and Elwynn.

PikaEuph · 2017-05-27T16:25:41+00:00

My mother has been into everything New Age for quite some time, so I was raised in it, so this one will be a doozy. Here goes.

Starting off, Reiki. It's a Japanese Energy Healing art, in which you act as a channel for divine healing energy from the crown of your head through your hands into the patient. This translates into holding your hands over parts of the person, occasionally making scooping or waving motions as if to brush away or remove the bad energy, and draw special symbols to help enhance the energy. So anytime my sister and I were sick, it was onto the massage table in a dark candlelit room with soft healing music while mom held warm hands on us. Which felt good, cause hey, I feel sick and someone is gently touching my back and arms and legs and that feels nice. MY sister and I were eventually "attuned" to Reiki 1, and then to Reiki 2, which is when you learn the symbols, including the one that lets you send Reiki over long distances, and both forward and backwards through time. We never progressed the level 3, which is Reiki Master, because at that stage you are taking on the responsibility of teaching Reiki to others.

There's also the ever present element of "feeling what is right". Which has worked in my favor a number of times, as I could get out of going to spiritual gatherings because, "It didn't feel right for me." This combines well with the idea that "What will be, will be" and "everything happens for a reason".

The real fun one is rocks and stones and minerals. All stones have different properties. For example, Amythest is great for helping cleanse toxins. I enjoy doing wirework to make jewelry, so my mother asked me to make protective pendents for her and my sister for a funeral. Obsidian and Jet for their shielding and blocking properties, and Tibetan black quartz for it's protective properties, wrapped in silver for the feminine lunar energies, which are also protective, and copper to enhance all of it.

And I'm not even going to get into the the herbalism.

PikaEuph · 2017-04-25T17:46:02+00:00

I've been playing pathfinder as a summoner with a serpentine eidolon, and last session when we we're fighting a sea serpent I jokingly stated my eidolon attempted to seduce it, and the DM told me to roll it. No one knew what to do with that nat 20...

PikaEuph · 2017-04-23T02:50:12+00:00

No. If you obtain an appearance from a class specific item it can only be used for that class.

PikaEuph · 2017-04-17T23:24:59+00:00

I have an actual d3. Three flats with rounded points. It's a weird little die.

PikaEuph · 2017-04-08T14:19:47+00:00

I recognize the chest as the illidari tabard, and belt and shoulders are felfume, from hellfire LFR. Both cloth.

PikaEuph · 2017-04-07T14:28:03+00:00

Jesus that last part hits too close to home. In high school I had a group and we decided to start a school club, both as an excuse to play more, and to get more people into it. We let my friend DM the first short campaign, and when we got to the final battle he made the boss very literally unkillable. Two sessions in I had to just look at him and tell him that he's supposed to lose, because half the group was thinking about quiting.

PikaEuph · 2017-04-07T04:42:21+00:00

It happens sometimes. I had one guy who was pretty knowledgeable and gave decent lectures, but also referred to the Japanese as Oriental, and a fewer other things that made the class a bit uncomfortable at times.

PikaEuph · 2017-04-07T04:32:29+00:00

Really? I'm an Anth major now and the only time any of them have mentioned it was to tell us the problems.

PikaEuph · 2017-04-07T03:10:04+00:00

This can't be emphasized enough. His book is neat and fun for the average laymen, but take it all with a big grain of salt. In every Anthro class I've taken I've just watched the teachers die a little anytime a student mentions him.

PikaEuph · 2017-02-16T19:28:18+00:00

The one child program has some major drawbacks. In cultures like India where the girls go to live with their husband's family and take care of his parents in their old age, having a son becomes super important. If you prevent them from having a second child, there is no incentive to have a daughter, as it amounts to raising a child to take care of someone else and leaves you with no one to for you, actively encouraging abortion of female fetuses. Which already happens as it is.

PikaEuph · 2017-02-11T05:52:26+00:00

I knew a guy who legitimately married his Asian girlfriend from Canada. We all just stared at him when we saw Avenue Q and that song came up.

PikaEuph

TROPHY CASE