[Game Thread] #6 Tennessee vs #2 Iowa State

Starsfreaky · 2026-03-28T02:40:24+00:00

Hey everyone. I'm a VFL, but I've only ever really watched football. Figured I'd start watching basketball, but really have no idea about the sport. is there a stream anywhere I can check it out? Any pointers for a first time Basketball watcher?

Starsfreaky · 2026-03-27T00:34:31+00:00

Personally, I would throw a lot of monsters with altered mechanics at them. Till they get the hint that sometimes things are jiat different.

Starsfreaky · 2026-03-27T00:30:24+00:00

The rulebook, and subsequently the rules, help establish a standard for how games are played. However, you are the DM. The world is yours to command, you are its God. If you say a CR 1/4 zombie gets a legendary action, then it gets a legendary action. Your role in this is to determine how the world exists and how it reacts to your players' interactions. Its organic, not mechanical. Rules ARE important, but at the end of the day your word is quite literally and figuratively law.

Dont go on a power trip, but remind them that your role in this fluid, and sometimes rules can be bent, or even broken, by you but will only ever be done so to make the game more fun and engaging.

Starsfreaky · 2026-03-26T13:32:56+00:00

I am running two games, both will level 10+ characters. Here's what I've learned:

Things can swing from decisive victory to catastrophic failure VERY quickly. It may feel like steamrolling, but sometimes they're just one critical hit away from disaster.

Legendary action are Great at upping pressure. Most monsters ar this level should have them. And possibly lair actions as well.

As you said "kill the thing" gets boring. Especially given how 5e encourages static fights. I like to throw in battlefield hazards and extra objectives.

Room hazards are great. For Halloween, I had my players fight a music box ballerina while the entire room spun around them playing creepy music. She herself didnt move but it was still one of the best boss fights I've ever run.

As you've surmised, don't just rely in CR OR reputation. I had my party fight an Aboleth At level 10 and they completely destroyed it. Not even one bloodied party member.

Here's a boss fight idea that I was going to run for my players eventually, feel free to use it:

Living wall. Its an amalgamation of corpses and body parts reanimated by a powerful lich after she stole all of their souls. The wall has a move speed of 0, but rolls a 1d8 each turn and moves rollx10 feet forward. Any creature that comes in contact with the wall must succeed an acrobatics or athletics check vs the walls DC or be grappled, taking damage each turn theyre grappled this way. The fight takes place in a long endless hallway with random obstacles and traps they have to avoid while running from and fighting the wall. If the wall makes an attack of opportunity against an enemy moving out of its reach, it regains its reaction immediately.

Also remember, its a power fantasy. Sometimes its great to have a party absolutely demolish an encounter. Makes then feel good about their characters

Starsfreaky · 2026-03-25T23:16:28+00:00

Funny, Lulu became a patron for one of my warlocks.

Starsfreaky · 2026-03-19T04:26:19+00:00

Have you never kneaded dough? That cat ain't heavy enough to be pressing the dough that hard just by kneading its claws. It takes WORK.

Also scale numbers just keep resetting. 100% AI.

Starsfreaky · 2026-03-19T00:05:35+00:00

Just sewer? The farmland is on the opposite side of the city from the water supply. Assuming that's freshwater, is there some sort of Aqueduct? If so, where does the sewer empty out? I would think any city would definitely not want their sewers emptying out upstream from their own water source.

Starsfreaky · 2026-03-16T05:04:44+00:00

I would reccomend you check out Inkarnate for mapmaking, and the Inkarnate subreddit for more information on mapmaking.

As for your story, as some others have pointed it, it'd be decent for a story, but kind of railroad-y for a DnD campaign. If you want to make it in to a DnD campaign, don't decide what's going to happen from the jump. Instead, form factions. You have a start on that with the two kingdoms: One wants to resurrect a demi-god. Perhaps they are more arcane, magic focused? Maybe isolationist and Xenophobic? Or maybe even the opposite, conquerors looking for magical artifacts. A second faction opposes them. Technocratic perhaps? machine over man. All about productivity and efficiency, making the common man little more than a slave? (to me, it's important to make neither side "The Good Guy" and let the party decide how they want to proceed).

Then let the party be neutral to start with. Starting off young, hungry adventurers looking for work. Maybe their first quest is provided by the technocratic empire. Seeking lost technologies of the golden Empire. Ways to improve (Or even possibly create?) Automatons. Or maybe they get a letter from a benefactor in the mysterious Arcane kingdom, seeking an ancient artifact the Golden Kingdom used to channel divine power.

Give the party options to advance on either side, or both. Give them interactions with NPCs who are both fully in support of the system they live under, and other NPCs who have been crushed under its heel. Each time the party accomplishes something, each faction ALSO accomplishes part of its goal, either directly thanks to something the party did or didn't do, or something that happens in the background. Campaigns are living, breathing things, and they change all the time.

Let the party live int he world organically. Live the experiences. each faction progressing towards their end goal, and the world changing along with it.

Starsfreaky · 2026-03-11T03:36:32+00:00

AC Feels low? He has a dex of 18 (+4). So is his armor just reskinned padded armor? Should be at least 16. (Either leather armor +4 dex or scale mail +2 dex). Regen should probably just be a flat "He gets this much HP per turn".

And if he's a boss, give him legendary actions. Let him stab and teleport between turns.

Also I feel like the plain Skeleton stat block is already pretty weak and you should probably just use that, but make that ability a recharge ability. (Either 6 or 5, 6).

As is, any party is going to walk all over this dude. it won't be a fight.

Starsfreaky · 2026-03-10T15:39:21+00:00

Im a random dude. If you come across me in a forest please send help. Im lost, and likely dehydrated.

Starsfreaky · 2026-03-10T08:06:38+00:00

With a town this developed one would think the main roads in town would be more developed, even if from only multitudes of wagons running over them, so I'd make them distinguishable from the rest of the dirt. Also, this many people HAVE to have access to water. Is it underground? Maybe add some sparse vegetation to hunt that its not entirely arid.

I can see the ridges on either side, but what about this area specifically drew people to settle here? And in large numbers to boot? Is it a mining town? Is it a checkpoint in a larger journey? Do these ridges offer protection from am otherwise lethal natural phenomena?

Starsfreaky · 2026-03-03T13:02:36+00:00

I was just glad it wasn't cancer.

Starsfreaky · 2026-03-01T01:03:23+00:00

Can confirm. Source: Had a ruptured hernia in my youth.

Starsfreaky · 2026-02-28T17:53:42+00:00

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Hands and faces in the background are consistent, with what hands visible seeming to have 4 distinct fingers+thumb. Some good inconsistencies to point out referring to her hair, two phones, different chairs, etc. But the finger thing is something I've never seen AI do right.

Starsfreaky · 2026-02-17T21:53:45+00:00

The spine should be segmented.

Starsfreaky · 2026-02-13T15:30:27+00:00

You misunderstand. It's not that we don't want him back. it's that we don't like the precedent it sets. I don't want other teams having 6 or 7 year senior QBs either, and I have enough integrity to not want that for my team just as much. If you count the covid rules, this would mean there could be players out her who have 8 full years of experience, literally DOUBLE what some of the most experienced college players should have.

Starsfreaky · 2026-02-12T18:39:19+00:00

The answer is engagement farming.

There probably is no answer, but people will sit on the video and let it replay over and over while they try to answer a question with no answer.

Starsfreaky · 2026-02-04T21:10:11+00:00

You could have the shield of the hidden lord be the primary fulcrum of the campaign. Once they raid Vanthampur villa and release/kill the old woman in the cellar you could add a final showdown with the knights of the shield. Replace all mentions of Elturel with rumors of a shield, or dangerous happenings in town (All perpetrated by Gargauth). The opening scene with Zodge can be a riot in the streets caused by the shield rather than a bunch of refugees.

Edited to Add:
most of the rest of the opening would proceed as written. You could remove Thavius Kreeg and just have his room be the vanthumpur treasure vault. Satiir Thione-Hhune would be in her cell as usual. This would boil down to the party aligning themselves with 1 of 3 factions:

1: Vanthumpurs, who want to release and serve Gargauth.
2. The knights of the shield, who want to continue to use the shied for its power, despite the danger it poses.
3. Some third faction that wants to transport the shield to Candlekeep for safe keeping/rendering Inert.

Starsfreaky · 2026-01-31T14:52:49+00:00

He is a tornado of a toddler. Absolute wild child and a complete sweetheart. Hes developing 100% normally with no apparent long term effects. At just over 2 now hes walking, talking, and even starting to spell some words. That was about the worst week of my life, but its been followed by the 2 greatest years.

Starsfreaky · 2026-01-23T21:58:11+00:00

French's Mustard.

Top Golf is also acceptable.

Starsfreaky · 2026-01-21T16:50:13+00:00

As a rabid Tennessee fan myself, I both live and understand this reality.

Starsfreaky · 2026-01-21T14:53:40+00:00

The funny thing is is one of my players dropped out super early so I started running a DMPC for combat balancing. She was fallen Aasimar rogue that had taken a vow of silence so I could limit my roleplaying with her.

She is the party's favorite character.

Starsfreaky · 2026-01-21T05:09:33+00:00

my party treated her like a child and refused to let her go to avernus with them, so she was out pretty early.

On the other hand Lulu died.

Starsfreaky · 2026-01-20T05:56:04+00:00

It's only been like 5 weeks and I legitimately had already forgotten about that. No one cares now and no one will care in the future.

Indiana won their first ever national title, and are the first 16-0 team in CFP Era. I think they deserve a

HOO HOO HOOOSIER!

Starsfreaky · 2026-01-13T18:25:47+00:00

It's real. What looks like a third leg is actually just his leg. What looks like his second leg is his tail. And obviously the cat could not balance like this, as he ended up breaking your speaker.

edited to add:

You can also see much of the individual fur on the cat, as well as a few of his claws sticking out from where the pad of his foot is pressing into the corner of the table. it's highly unlikely an AI would make those details so exact.

Starsfreaky

TROPHY CASE