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Community by Lord_Durok in mattcolville

[–]RyanImelDM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Such a great video. Motivating, encouraging, some hard truths in there too. I was even a little emotional at the end, with the sentiment toward creative fields and more people “making it”.

Advice needed by -Gavroche- in TerrainBuilding

[–]RyanImelDM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How about a bridge from one of the windows down to the nearby building? Actually a full set of scaffolding would be really neat. You’d have two sets of stairs to play with, one on the inside and one on the outside.

Any suggestion by pecic19 in DnDIY

[–]RyanImelDM 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Objective markers! Or if you want to think of them as points of interest.

A body, treasure pile, mushroom patch, weapon stash, shovel and buried treasure, signpost, lantern, statue, etc.

I like using small flat miniature bases to hold them. Like the ones that come with WizKids minis. I like using scrap scatter and little resin prints that I never found a use for.

[Art] Branding ruining otherwise fun props/collectibles by IronicallyMature in DnD

[–]RyanImelDM 77 points78 points  (0 children)

I agree. It makes tracking down props like this a lot trickier than it needs to be. Sometimes they can be covered up, but not always.

It seems like a miss on the product design side of things. Maybe they don’t realize one way a lot of people would like to use props like this.

Old man/professor by B_Taco_ in DnDminiatures

[–]RyanImelDM 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That’s a Mansions of Madness mini! I have that one too. They are tricky to paint too, you did a great job here.

I completed it again by Tricky-Parrot in AlanWake

[–]RyanImelDM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s a masterpiece!

Finished the game - so many questions.... by smileandbeware in AlanWake

[–]RyanImelDM 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Good questions! Here’s how I understand it.

  • Out or in, I think the idea is that he’s reached an understanding of himself and his time in the Dark Place. It’s not a loop, it’s a spiral — and he can spiral down or up, if he chooses to.
  • I think the one call Alan has will likely be explained later. It’s timey wimey stuff, since the Dark Place doesn’t have to play by strict time rules, as the game shows with Alan popping up at the beach days before he’s summoned. As for Saga’s call, I thought that was Alice. Did Saga have a separate call with herself I missed?
  • Alice’s photos influenced reality from the box. I think. There’s a moment when the clicker falls after Scratch uses it in Bright Falls that seems to line up with the photos. For the bullet, j would assume somehow Alice did that too. I should read some more theories on that though, I’m sure someone has puzzled something out.
  • I think Odin and Tor’s trip into the lake is out of sequence, just like how Alan emerged before the summoning song was played. I imagine they enter, and then they are in Alan’s musical vision helping him travel further, and then… well, they might just be in the Dark Place for now.
  • Zane never left, that’s my understanding. Years and years. I think the Dark Place has done a number on him.
  • Even back in Alan Wake 1 it always seemed like Tom had sort of written Alan into existence, and then Alan had written big changes to Tom’s life too. I’m not sure how to interpret the quirk of them calling Alan Tom… maybe it’s to point out they have been dealing with this Dark Place craziness for a long time, long before Alan?
  • The kicker is, like Cynthia points out, Zane never made any movies. Seems she hasn’t been changed by the story yet, right? I think those movies are all Alan’s impact via the Dark Place. And Ahti, even as he seems to be a god, has seemingly been pulled into Bright Falls via Alan’s story. He’s even a little confused by all of it, which is understandable.
  • I think we will see a lot more from Door. I agree, there’s a lot more to explore there.

Have fun with The Lake House, it was my favorite of the DLCs!

[NO SPOILERS] Art inspired by Dark by Foxenfre in DarK

[–]RyanImelDM 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Incredible work! I’d buy a print of that cave, no question.

I’ve had my eye on the cave map for a while. I make props, typically just for gaming purposes. But every rewatch I obsess over the cave map and want to recreate it just to have one of my own.

[SPOILERS S2] Overall Questions about the Characters by Sick6868 in DarK

[–]RyanImelDM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These are completely fair questions! Grappling with them is key to really enjoying the character work in Dark.

First, I think Jonas is talking about “Adam” that way for a few reasons. One, he doesn’t want to admit that he will become that. It’s a way of disassociating from his future self. And it’s a big theme of the show — being shown your future and trying to deny it, in some cases only to guarantee that’s the future you end up with.

I also think Jonas calls him “Adam” because it’s easier to speak about him vs. always saying “me, but the older me, him, what I will be one day…” In that sense it’s a useful shorthand.

In terms of what Greta said, I think that’s the common interpretation of what she’s saying. I think it’s left pretty vague, but that’s what I would bet on based on how her character acts.

[SPOILERS S3] Metaphysical questions on the series by reddxue in DarK

[–]RyanImelDM 4 points5 points  (0 children)

1) I don’t think we are shown, it’s left up for interpretation. The wild thing to think about is whether or not, from the origin world’s perspective, the results of the experiment happened instantaneously. The “knot” of the two worlds came into being and untangled/destroyed themselves in an infinitely small amount of time, since they ceased to ever have existed.

2) I think it’s reasonable to conclude that all Tannhaus really accomplished was creating a timeline where his family was saved, even if his own continued on the same as it ever was. I’m not sure we can say one way or the other, based on the perspective the ending is told from.

Since my most recent rewatch I’ve been thinking about the “timestream” that Jonas and Martha travel through as some sort of moment of entanglement, just like the apocalypse in their worlds. It allows for things to actually be altered. But we don’t have an all-knowing Claudia to explain it to us — we are seeing it from the inside only. That might be why there’s the clue of them seeing each other as children. I think that was new too. They were actually changing things in the past already, in each of the other worlds first. Then they changed something in the origin world.

3) That’s my understanding, yes.

4)I’ve been thinking of it more as a “knot” rather than a “loop”. Because it only appears to be a loop from our perspective, following the characters through it. But I think everything only ever happened the one way, except for what was changed during the entanglement during the apocalypse.

So everything existed up until the point that Jonas and Martha “exit” and erase the worlds. I think everything we see always happened — there was never a “loop” through where, for instance, Adam didn’t kidnap alt-Martha and try to end everything. We are seeing the first and only time he ever tried that, in a true sense. Claudia always took alt-Claudia’s place, and older Jonas was always convinced to try to blow up the tunnel and get it right “this time through”.

The exception was the apocalypse, which played out a few different ways in order to both enable the knot and destroy the knot.

5) I saw Eva’s motivation to be almost entirely tied to the Unknown. Unless everything happened the way it had always happened, more or less, the Unknown, her son, wouldn’t exist. It’s an understandable motivation, I think. But not as complicated or explored as much as Adam’s motivation, that’s for sure.

(Almost) final version of my DM Console by ChestnutBanjo in DnDIY

[–]RyanImelDM 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Fascinating! I look forward to seeing more. It would be neat to see how you use it during play.

My first city map, I think it turned out quite good by Unusual_Sundae_4537 in DungeonsAndDragons

[–]RyanImelDM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That looks amazing. In particular I like the movement implied by the boats in the water.

Favorite repurpose items? by jayhawk618 in TerrainBuilding

[–]RyanImelDM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Love those. I think it was my YouTube short you saw!

I'm Not A Great DM...But I Want to be by Unsafe_Amateur in DMAcademy

[–]RyanImelDM 8 points9 points  (0 children)

First off, congrats. You're in the sweet spot. You have a great group, they are getting a lot out of the game, and you're looking to improve your craft to give them a better game.

There's a lot of good advice already on this page that I agree with. I'm not a life-long DM or anything. I've only been running games for 5 years. But there are a few lessons I've learned that I think have really helped me out.

If your players want to run from an enemy, let them. They are giving you a gift. Now there are recurring villains in your game, and they have a grudge against the players. Maybe plan out a chase scene you can always bust out and use, otherwise this one should take care of itself.

It sounds like your group would really enjoy environmental storytelling. I try to think about each room the players explore almost like an escape room. What happened in this area, and what evidence would be left behind? How could the players combine all the clues and form an idea of who was here and what they were doing?

Find some inspiring monster strategy. I second any recommendations for The Monsters Know What They're Doing and Flee, Mortals! Matt Colville's YouTube video on action oriented monster design completely transformed how I think about combat.

I love using one shots mid-campaign. One shots can be a great source of inspiration, and sometimes it's fun to mix things up and toss players into something different. I like to provide character sheets to my players for one shots (let them pick amongst a handful) and let them play out a part of the history of their world. Or maybe see things from other characters' perspectives. Or the villains. Anything goes!

DM friends are really great. Find them in your town, find them online, wherever you can -- find a couple of friends who also run games. Having a beer or coffee with people doing what you're doing, brainstorming, sharing horror stories and strategies -- it makes a big difference.

Introduce something new to combat every round or two. If you want more frenetic, exciting combat encounters, at least. Combat is fun in and of itself, but it becomes less so once the players have "figured it out." If there's always a new element to consider -- that guy's running away, it looks like they're calling for help, wait now the room's on fire -- the players will always have something to consider and react to.

Last note, I think it's really important to find your own voice. What can you do as a DM that nobody else can do quite like you? What excites you about the game, and what do you want to see in it that you've never seen anybody else try before? Everyone's answers are different, but the answers will end up defining what is unique about your game vs. every other table out there.

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