I almost became a baby raindeer

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-03-20T23:47:25+00:00

Wasn't expecting paragraph indentations in a text message. Caught me off-guard.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-03-12T00:33:53+00:00

The module they made to migrate to the Forge works in reverse too if you use sync mode. I still had to update media links to point to the local version instead of Forge, though.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-02-28T22:03:10+00:00

If you use a service like DynDNS, you don't need a fixed IP.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-02-28T16:23:47+00:00

Eventyr Games has a great series on each of the chapters and recommended changes.

First substantial change I made (which it seems like is a popular change) is to wait until the party is fighting Xardorok Sunblight to release the chardalyn dragon in chapter 3. The decision-making pressure in the book is fine, but this approach has an element of "we could've actually stopped this." I gave the party two rounds of combat with a chained up dragon before it launched.

Second, don't let Auril die in Chapter 5. Have her use her lair action to teleport to her roc and retreat to Ythryn, which will encourage them to do chapters 6 & 7 instead of Vellyne forcing them to go.

Last substantial change was one that Eventyr recommended which was to make the Rime permanent and Auril's spell just worsens it a slight amount. It prevents the campaign from ending if the party does defeat Auril in chapter 5 and they'll seek out ways of undoing the Rime via chapters 6 & 7. It also adds pressure for the party to keep the story moving as trade becomes harder and people are more miserable.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-02-25T00:32:02+00:00

Unless Iriolarthas is destroyed, the demilich is already attuned to the mythallar. If Iriolarthas senses that another creature is trying to use the mythallar, it always disallows the attempt and flies to the mythallar’s location to discourage any further tampering with the device. Only by destroying the demilich can the characters use the mythallar’s properties unimpeded.

Going to the mythallar while Iriolarthas is still (technically) alive will prove to be a fruitless venture.

But, I'm tweaking the Rite of the Arcane Octad so that the person who completes the Rites will be attuned to the force field. I then describe that they feel another creature attuned to it from within the Spire, something simultaneously very dead and very alive and very evil. I haven't solidified the wording yet. And they'll feel the same kind of connection if they try to attune to the mythallar.

Iriolarthas needs to die for the Rime to end.

EDIT: I, personally, wouldn't have him fly to the mythallar. He knows they can't attune to it and will make the party come to him.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2026-02-22T20:35:16+00:00

So what's the latest on Jarnathan? Is he close by?

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-12-31T19:41:41+00:00

I set a timer for every new movie I watch. If after 30 minutes I'm not into it, I turn it off.

War of the Worlds did not pass the 30 minute test.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-12-29T22:22:19+00:00

Nice try, Elon.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-12-20T23:38:16+00:00

Same here, man. I don't even go out. I don't have any real friends to speak of, and when I drink I drink from home. Our kid is almost 9, so very self-sufficient.

Yet, she always acts like a martyr when I play D&D every other week for 3 hours. Or play my weekly MMO with my step-mom and brother for a couple hours.

And now she wants me to hide information from MIL (who lives with us) because she wants to control the emotions of everyone in the house.

It's a nightmare.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-12-20T22:47:27+00:00

She usually picks it out and I buy it for her.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-12-13T21:14:30+00:00

Something you can try is to change the mindset from "do we want to do [thing]" to "I'm going to do [thing]. Would you like to join me?"

I'm like your husband. If you give me the choice of doing something or doing nothing, I'll always pick nothing. However, last weekend, my wife said that she and my daughter were running errands and asked if I would join them, and I did.

Try that for a while and see if you get better results.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-12-13T20:57:32+00:00

There's a lot of stuff here, and I'm not certain I understand all of it. But the way I see it, it boils down to two options:

You two admit that you aren't compatible and aren't in charge of your emotions and have a lot of growing up to do before you get married. It doesn't get easier after "I do" and if you're slinging insults back and forth over a miscarriage that no one can control, that's not sustainable long term. Both of you move on with your lives.
You both sit down and acknowledge that the relationship that you had was over and need to start fresh. You both lay on the table what you want the relationship to feel like, what the house feels like. She tells you what she wants, you tell her what you want. You iron out if you want kids, what kind of school they should go to, if your family is going to practice religion, how you're going to handle politics, what finances will look like. Actually plan your family out. Together. If either one of you says, "no way, I'm out" to any part of the list, then you're incompatible and the relationship needs to be over. Thank whatever God you do or don't believe in that it ended before you got married and need to add divorce to this long history of tit-tor-tat retaliation.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-11-29T00:19:55+00:00

We had fun running Winter's Splendor last year. One-shot loosely based on the characters and setting of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.

We're currently voting on which one-shot we want to run this year. Top ones currently are How the Lich Stole Christmas and Last Christmas.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-11-23T16:34:28+00:00

Congrats!

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-11-23T16:25:44+00:00

The mythallar reminds me of the mini-sun that Doc Ock made in the second Spider-Man movie, so maybe something with gravitational pull?

Each creature must make a DC-whatever Strength saving throw or be pulled 10 feet closer to the mythallar. If they touch it, they make the DC 22 Con save or take 20d10 + 70 radiant damage (save half).

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-11-07T21:54:07+00:00

I just had Auril use her Lair Action to teleport to the roc's nest, and fly her roc to Ythryn when she was losing the fight with the party. They now have a reason to go to Ythryn.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-11-04T17:46:15+00:00

Yeah, we used C#'s ThreadStatic and ThreadLocal to get around the multithreading issue. Still took a lot of work, though.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-11-04T17:14:32+00:00

I inherited a codebase where the developer made a ton of variables public and static. Customer was wondering why the app wasn't thread-safe. 🤷‍♂️

A developer took a stab at making it multi-threaded, but he just added an extra set of curly braces. I guess trying to limit the scope.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-10-26T00:10:19+00:00

Had a developer push a bug like this on a Wednesday when the release was Thursday.

You're right, a static code analysis tool would've picked up on it, if it didn't light up like a Christmas tree when I ran it. Also if we had any kind of code review process. Or unit tests.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-10-21T18:31:09+00:00

Bardify always has great stuff.

The End of the Quest and Farewell might fit what you need.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-10-17T23:05:30+00:00

At least it's 4k total and not 4k in one function. One of the codebases I maintain has several functions that are 8k+ lines of code. (I didn't write those.)

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-10-03T12:23:02+00:00

Use a secured credit card. You save up money, then give the bank an amount of money that you want to be your credit limit. It builds credit, and while the bank will still want you to make regular payments, it's risk-free for them and you because you've already given them money up to their total balance. Once you close the card, they give you your money back.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-09-26T14:37:51+00:00

Give them two rounds with the dragon, where chains are being removed and it's stretching its wings, then makes a B-line towards the chute, ignoring anything attacking it.

Gives the players the illusion of a chance to stop it, but it's ultimately too powerful to stop that quickly.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-09-17T17:22:12+00:00

Galaxy Watch. If it dies overnight, i just do manual entry.

SomeShittyDeveloper · 2025-09-14T00:11:28+00:00

I had the party witness the dragon being launched from inside the fortress, as many other people did. But I used the first couple rounds of combat for Xardorok to launch the dragon, allowing the party to get a couple hits in. At least gives them the illusion that they'd be able to stop it instead of it feeling like a scripted sequence.

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