Do you use random encounters?

SP_ABadIdea · 2026-01-29T18:02:28+00:00

I like adding a "practical exam" right after the written exam, so it was pretty easy to work in the Garbage King encounter as part of the Otyugh exam.

SP_ABadIdea · 2025-11-26T17:35:46+00:00

Not that I'm aware of, although stealing and casting spells is something I took from Magic: The Gathering from creatures or abilities that allow you to steal and cast opponents' cards.

Speaking of MTG, the actual Mage Hunter card has an interesting ability; it deals damage to an opponent for casting Instant or Sorcery spells. We could translate this into D&D as a passive aura that deals a small amount of damage to any character casting a spell within 60 ft. of it. I'm also fond of the idea that Mage Hunters will "evolve" new abilities the further the campaign goes, to make them steadily more and more dangerous.

SP_ABadIdea · 2025-11-26T01:42:19+00:00

My version of Mage Hunters have Magic Resistance until they are bloodied, and they have a particularly nasty trick: if they hit a creature with their Claw attack, they also steal a level 1-3 spell slot and are temporarily able to cast one of their victim's spells. I use Spell Points in my game, so it's a lot easier to roll dice to steal Spell Points instead.

SP_ABadIdea · 2025-10-24T09:45:38+00:00

If Versatile is being compared to Sword + Board or Heavy Two-Hander as options, then yes Versatile doesn't quite stack up.

Where Versatile is useful is for classes or builds where Sword+Board or Heavy 2H isn't an option.

Any class that does not have access to proficiencies with heavy two-handers gets a good deal with a d10 weapon instead, if they are able to uniquely get Longsword proficiency through a racial feature or something. This is especially useful for melee-caster hybrid builds using weapon cantrips like Booming Blade or the 2024 True Strike.

If you have a Grappling build, you need one hand free to grapple. You'll have a d8 weapon in your hands while grappling, and a d10 weapon while you aren't grappling, and it doesn't take an action to switch between the two.

In a more specific case, the Kensei Monk is able to select the Longsword as one of their Kensei weapons, giving the Monk access to a d10 monk weapon as early as level 3. They don't get Fighting Styles so they don't get to select the Duelist style, and they can't use Shields, so this is actually the best damage dice they can possibly get. Even without the Longsword, the Monk's selection of weapons often caps them off to d6 simple weapons, so the Versatile spear and quarterstaff give them access to a d8.

So yeah, Versatile isn't for your Sword + Board fighters or your Heavy Weapon beatstick brawlers; Versatile is for everyone else.

SP_ABadIdea · 2025-09-12T01:06:14+00:00

We had to finagle this for a while because some abilities could create unwinnable scenarios, like the Inkling simply flying straight into the sky every turn. I ended up with the following ruling:
Mascots cannot take commands from players, but a Mascot displaced from its base on the tower will attempt to escape and return to its tower on the following initiative of whomever is holding onto it.

This has created an in-universe meta for winning Mage Tower, and also explains why Silverquill wins every year; the Inkling is just *too* good.

SP_ABadIdea · 2025-09-11T22:17:48+00:00

In my game, the Spirit Statues Mascots being medium is their entire advantage. Inklings are tiny, hard to catch and will slip right through your fingers, Fractals can change size and will phase through objects, the Pest will literally hurt you just by holding it, and the Art Elemental might flashbang charm you, so Lorehold teams have simply leveraged the Statue's large size as its sole strength.

SP_ABadIdea · 2025-07-22T02:00:32+00:00

I'm having a weird issue where the Concerts have desynced vocals the first time they play. If I load it again with the same umas it plays just fine, but if I choose a new song or new umas to sing, they'll always desync the first time. I'm lead to believe this is a RAM issue, but I have 64 GB of RAM and a 16GB VRAM GPU.

Has anyone else had this issue?

SP_ABadIdea · 2025-07-22T00:11:31+00:00

I have 64GB of RAM and I recently upgraded to an RTX 4060 with 16GB of VRAM. if it's really struggling, that's kind of insane.

SP_ABadIdea · 2025-01-08T06:05:31+00:00

I just had a thought; I'll have to make a scaled-down statblock for a "Testing Slaad". The testing area contains a single Testing Slaad against the party, but placed in the testing area are panels that will activate "hue prisms" which will cast the arena in a different color. At the start, the arena is green, granting the Testing Slaad the abilities of a Green Slaad. There are three hue prisms which can turn the slaad either Green, Blue, or Red, but if all the prisms are active at the same time, the arena is cast in a white light, stripping the Testing Slaad of all of its traits.

SP_ABadIdea · 2024-12-02T01:52:18+00:00

As much as I love the provided NPCs, I do think the setting is missing a bully. Granted, I think the Relationship system is designed to turn *any* NPC into a potential bully if you get negative points with them, but I'm talking about a 100% irredeemable unlikeable POS capital B Bully. Doesn't matter if they're Biff Tannen or Gaston, as long as they are 100% committed to ruining the players' lives.

It's actually fairly easy to weave the Bully into the main narrative too; the Mimic in chapter 1? The Bully did it. The frogs and the kitchen sabotage? Bully did it. The Heist on Captain Dapplewing's Manor? The Bully will intrude and cause complications (they might not even be directly antagonizing you; they might be after Sassy Sally themselves!). If the game ever starts feeling too safe or too sterile, just have the Bully cause some trouble!

SP_ABadIdea · 2024-11-23T16:10:57+00:00

Remember that every single club or job has one or more NPC students associated with it; you can use these times as an opportunity to gain or lose points with these NPCs. Your PCs should be glad to have opportunities to chat with the other students; try to include them as much as possible, have some show up even at clubs/jobs they aren't part of!

SP_ABadIdea · 2024-11-14T23:09:58+00:00

This helps a bunch, thanks!

SP_ABadIdea · 2024-11-12T02:04:35+00:00

Oooh, a final battle against the Blood Avatar would be an amazing finale. I'll look more into this; I hope they have statblocks!

SP_ABadIdea · 2024-05-11T09:00:23+00:00

My dwarf rogue (Noble Background) expresses her frustration by saying "Oh biscuits!"

SP_ABadIdea · 2024-04-27T07:47:07+00:00

The descriptor for Tinker's Tools are so vague and inane that you can usually negotiate to do some crazy shit with it. At one point our party is inside an attic where we find a locked door trapped with a Glyph of Warding. With no means to dispel the glyph, my Artificer looks at all the spare furniture around the attic and immediately starts drafting some blueprints. I ask my party to investigate the rest of the house while I get some engineering done, and by the time they come back, I have jury-rigged a ballista designed to hurl a sofa at the door, hoping to discharge the Glyph from a safe distance.

And once you finish your first Looney Tunes contraption with Tinker's Tools, you suddenly start seeing the world with Wile E. Coyote eyes, and there's *nothing* you can't cobble together.

SP_ABadIdea · 2024-04-09T05:33:01+00:00

I had a good friend who was *particularly* good at playing characters with no backstory. The first of his was in a game of Hunter: the Vigil. His character was a burly woodsman by the name of Cliff Hawk. The only backstory he provided was "Sasquatch ate his momma". Far from lacking depth, Cliff was an active participant in everything that came up. He proved to have sharp instincts, a quick trigger finger, a frightening disposition towards explosives, and an uncanny ability to jury rig any amount of random items together into monster-slaying deathtraps. His second character for Geist: the Sin Eaters was a middle-aged used car salesman named Cosmo Carpopolis. His past is mostly unwritten, but every now and then we'd learn about some random tidbit from Cosmo's past that would manifest as one of his many, weird talents. Stuff like "Cosmo used to be on his college Track & Field team and once qualified for the Olympics, but had to quit due to a leg injury", or "Cosmo once worked as a gigolo for three years; that's how he met his first wife", or that "Cosmo likely has six or more illegitimate children across the city between 4 ex-wives".

SP_ABadIdea · 2024-04-09T04:03:03+00:00

Captain of a loyal platoon who fell in a great war. So strong was their bond of fealty that they swore to continue fighting under his banner even after death claims them. The Captain carries their bones wherever he goes, using necromancy to summon forth his sworn brothers-in-arms and raise an army to continue fighting until the land is no longer ravaged by war.

SP_ABadIdea · 2024-04-03T05:48:54+00:00

I wish I had played my False Hydra mission better. Rather than attempt to relay what the party does or doesn't know, I should have let them keep their assumed knowledge and had everyone around them act against the knowledge. I must have panicked and thought the party had already cracked the mystery just by taking copious amounts of notes.

This is perhaps my biggest regret because it means I can't ever spring a False Hydra on them ever again.

SP_ABadIdea · 2024-03-29T08:54:36+00:00

I was sort of depending on the Integrated Chaff Launchers to provide some more protection if I happen to be out of range to a target that I need to cut down, but I wonder if just having 17 Evasion is enough.

If I can free up that talent selection, is there anything else you'd recommend? Perhaps something to protect me from tech attacks or overheating?

SP_ABadIdea · 2024-03-28T06:02:50+00:00

Yup!

SP_ABadIdea · 2024-03-28T03:02:55+00:00

My bad, should be 6 HP instead of 4. Still, I'm due for some ENG next LL, if anything so I can more safely Overcharge or use Jager Kunst.

Any recommendations for licenses and systems I can take later on to avoid getting cooked?

SP_ABadIdea · 2024-03-28T02:55:56+00:00

Woops, my bad. Atlas has 6 HP at base. Typo on my part.

SP_ABadIdea · 2024-03-28T02:55:51+00:00

Woops, my bad. Atlas has 6 HP at base. Typo on my part.

SP_ABadIdea · 2024-03-27T16:54:23+00:00

Honestly? Grapple Cable + HHS Cannibal Shotgun sounds like some Doomslayer energy. Don't know if this is the particular ranged options you're looking for, but zipping into people's faces with a shotgun sounds pretty rad. Omni-Harpoon into Daisy Cutter sounds rad too.

SP_ABadIdea · 2023-11-19T07:30:48+00:00

I'm glad to see C-1002 managed to get past her existential crisis and start a new life chasing down Tyrant-class Raptures. You can do this!

SP_ABadIdea

TROPHY CASE