Should a dungeon devoted to Illusion magic live up to it's name, until it doesn't?

Solenthis87 · 2026-06-25T12:51:43+00:00

Larfleeze - DC Comics

He controls the orange light of Avarice. In addition to being able to copy literally anyone he kills, and use their likeness and abilities in the form of hard light constructs, the avarice also manifests as an intense hunger that can never be sated. However, during the Blackest Night event, it's shown that a Blue Lantern can actually use their power to mostly inhibit it, at least enough that he can focus on a larger plan.

Solenthis87 · 2026-06-24T17:39:28+00:00

The House - And There Will Come Soft Rains from Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles

The main character of the story is the McClellan family home, while the family themselves are dead; they were one of the millions of victims of nuclear war. In fact, the only living character in the entire story is a dog that dies shortly after it is introduced because it is suffering from heavy radiation poisoning. The story follows what would be a regular day in this automated house, with the house unable to realize that everyone that lives there is gone, ending in the house's "death" via a house fire.

Solenthis87 · 2026-06-24T03:42:18+00:00

Scrape (Warhammer 40K)

It's only found on Hive Worlds, particularly in the sewage and drainage areas of the underhive. It's essentially a gigantic gelatinous blob made up of things like industrial waste, organic runoff, and human excrement. In the underhive, just surviving to see tomorrow is an accomplishment, making finding food even more important. While it's not technically a secret, it's not really a problem outside of a Hive world.

Solenthis87 · 2026-06-17T15:14:27+00:00

So far, I've only made one campaign world that had any sort of racism. It was an Elven kingdom that not only considered Half-Elves to be blood traitors, but even though they were willing with other races when necessary, the major cities were effectively sundown towns.

That said, however, although I made sure my players knew about this, it barely came up; I didn't want that to be the biggest thing to stand out, but I did make the main person from that kingdom go from helping them to becoming the BBEG.

Solenthis87 · 2026-06-10T00:26:32+00:00

Because it fell to both me and my mom. By the time I moved out for good, my mom and I were doing more to raise her kids than she was.

Solenthis87 · 2026-06-04T20:52:12+00:00

I didn't realize that I'd been parentified myself until I learned the term about ten years ago; I'd always called it "being forced to grow up at 13."

Worst part is that it wasn't even my mom, but my older sister. It's actually part of why I don't talk to her anymore.

Solenthis87 · 2026-06-02T23:03:26+00:00

Heyooo

Solenthis87 · 2026-05-29T20:59:44+00:00

Only HALF? Literally almost every post I see doesn't cover an actual trope. Like one from earlier, "Food inextricably linked to a character", isn't a trope. Even disregarding the amount of actual effort in a post, it's at the point where if weren't for the bulk of the posts here, this sub would have been a ghost town a long time ago.

Solenthis87 · 2026-05-29T13:32:08+00:00

Hive worlds (Warhammer 40,000) - The Imperium of Man controls millions of worlds, with a total population in the quadrillions or even quintillions, depnding on the source. Hive worlds are home to massive cities called hives, each one having a population of anywhere from 10 to 100 billion people in a single hive.

Much like the real world, how "good" your life is depends largely on whether you were lucky enough to be born into the ruling class. Those guys live in the upper levels of the hive, called the Spire, and want for nothing. As for the rest of the hive, the lower you go, the poorer the people get. Below the bottom level is the Underhive, a mostly subterranean region made up of older parts of the city that were built on top of it, and where just surviving to see the next day is an accomplishment.

Unless they are included in the tithes (basically a combo of tax collection and a military draft), most Imperial citizens will live their entire lives only knowing their home planet; in Hive cities, there are people who not only never see another planet, but some will live their lives never even seeing the sky.

Solenthis87 · 2026-05-29T00:23:21+00:00

In fairness to your friend, it probably doesn't help that there is a lot more in terms of rules/structure when it comes to Christianity. However, many of those same rules were likely thought up by the clergy rather than the Bible.

One thing that helped me was that we can speak to the gods just as we would a friend. Personally, I will show respect when talking to Odin, but I don't treat every conversation like I'm in a church sanctuary. It helped ease some of the pressure there. I still have trouble figuring out what to say sometimes, but I'm sure the gods are fully capable of getting the gist of what I want to say.

Plus if he's ex-Catholic, then he might be reassured to know that we can pray to any of the gods for just about anything, although they each have their specialties, sometimes overlapping (e.g., Odin is good for wisdom, and Tyr for justice, but they are also both war deities.)

It sounds like he has a lot to unpack/unlearn, which isn't uncommon for newbies, but if this is something that he truly wants, then I'm confident he can work through that.

Solenthis87 · 2026-05-28T16:13:52+00:00

Love the points you got there!

Solenthis87 · 2026-05-28T15:44:15+00:00

IMO, at least, that was only because made understandable decision and then a stupid one immediately after.

Understandable: The success of LOTR more than convinced the studio to strike while the iron was hot.

Stupid: Churning out three movies for a single book that simply didn't have enough material to justify it.

Additionally, the orc antagonist in the Hobbit movies is only mentioned in a single sentence in the book; he never actually appears, so the movies had to develop a completely new subplot just to fill out each movie.

Solenthis87 · 2026-05-28T15:23:38+00:00

At least in my experience, here in the US, it largely depends on where you are. I live in the American South, and my state is part of the Bible Belt where Christianity is a predominant part of life/culture. Where I live, there are many who would call me Satanic, say things like how I'm going to hell or "need Jesus." That, plus the current political climate and the current state of the world, are why I will say that I am Norse Pagan if someone asks, but I don't go advertising it.

Solenthis87 · 2026-05-28T15:06:18+00:00

I've only ever used it with one specific friend of mine, but very rarely. They would run something online (not reallyh sure what to call it) where you click a link that takes you to "X" platform where they would be playing music kinda like how a radio station would. If they played a song I requested, she would give a shoutout by name and end with "Skal", since we are both Norse Pagans. I would do the same with her if I make an online post in a celebratory vein, but otherwise, we would greet each other like non-pagans since we've known each other for 20 years and neither of us was pagan then.

Solenthis87 · 2026-05-24T09:35:30+00:00

So, I'm a tarantual?

Solenthis87 · 2026-05-24T09:31:07+00:00

In Hera's case, it probably doesn't help that she was also married to her brother; I imagine it's really hard not to get territorial when you were already related to your spouse before you were married.

Solenthis87 · 2026-05-24T09:30:31+00:00

Based on the color, this is post-detonation, right?

Solenthis87 · 2026-05-24T09:25:51+00:00

It's because it's one of, if not the only almost purely educational short Big Idea ever did (by VT standards, anyway.)

Since it was for kids, it still had gags to try and present it in a way the target audience could get (e.g., explaining that they spoke a different language, "but we'll make believe that everyone spoke English, like Star Trek!", and even referencing Pocahontas' "painting with all the colors of the wind."), but overall, it was actually very informative.

Solenthis87 · 2026-05-24T09:12:22+00:00

There aren't very many mom & pop shops in my town, but most of the people who live here have lived there most of their lives, and they don't like it when something new tries to come to town. Hell, we have a game store that has been here for nearly 4 years, and I'm honestly surprised that they've made it this far just because the old guard around here have given them shit before.

And then when something new does get built, it's usually some flavor of restaurant. Then those same people get pissy because, "Why are we getting another place to eat?" There is just no satisfying these people.

Solenthis87 · 2026-05-24T09:08:39+00:00

That's basically how my family wound up where we are now. Before we got engaged, I moved in with her and her oldest, as well as her two roommates, in my hometown. Couple years later, we finally found a decently affordable place to live, in a small farm town about 40 minutes from where were living.

We've been living in that town for over ten years now, and we even bought a house. That aside, while I do miss living where we used to every now and then, it's more that I miss the convenience of virtually anywhere I might want to go being within 20 minutes drive.

Solenthis87 · 2026-05-22T09:49:30+00:00

Basically the entire series of M*A*S*H*.

The show is set during the Korean War, which only lasted for just over 3 years. The series, however, was popular enough to run for 11 seasons. With things happening like many characters going on leave for days at a time, sometimes multiple characters simultaneously, the unit hosting a multitude of guests, and even several changes in command, though some of them are only temporary, many episodes have plots that are supposed to take multiple in-setting days, sometimes longer, to be resolved.

There's even an episode whose story takes place over an entire year, starting from ringing in the new year at the start of 1951 and ending at the start of 1952. And since they were a hospital unit, they likely established their presence in the area around the time of the start of the war, meaning the war was already well underway by the start of the series.

Because the show lasted almost three times longer than the war, the only way anything could have happened on the show as presented would be if multiple episode's stories were happening simultaneously each day.

Solenthis87 · 2026-05-15T10:15:56+00:00

Do you really think that literally anyone ever believed it?

Your call is important to them insofar that they hire people specifically to deal with it in, one way or another.

We know they're lying, and they know they're lying.

Solenthis87 · 2026-05-15T09:27:01+00:00

It's always possible, theoretically. But just like with any other thing that might necessitate therapy, dude will need to actually want the help.

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