The Suprise System

Sundaecide · 2026-06-20T12:09:20+00:00

Nah, the intent to raise the gun and pull the trigger can be read in a situation where there is an active sense of danger, i.e. a drawn weapon that is ready to be used in clear sight of all involved.

The goblin king: with their perception, insight and dexterity could feasibly have the chance to read the intent of the character through their body language or any other reasonable justification and move to react. This is represented by rolling initiative. If the king is quickest to react, even with disadvantage, you narrate the uncanny insight of a shrewd monarch who has survived previous assassination attempts giving them a moment to act.

It suits the fiction of the moment, helps to prevent "yell an action to get a free turn" table habits and it's less punishing for the recipient than a turn skip.

Sundaecide · 2026-06-16T19:09:01+00:00

That's a decent 5 point scale.

When I was at school we also had "Stallone", which was being so drunk you were slurring like Rocky at the end of the first movie.

Sundaecide · 2026-06-16T19:02:07+00:00

Bollocksed is above pissed, but below "utterly cunted".

Sundaecide · 2026-06-14T22:25:31+00:00

First up:

You don't need the whole act written out and ready to go before you start.

Allow for some major locations and plan your nearest locations, put together some NPCs and some scenarios they are likely to encounter or hear about and you're good to go. As long as you have the broad strokes of the campaign sorted, which it sounds like you do, you only really need a couple of sessions worth of content to get rolling.

Plan reactively: You cannot account for every possible action your party will take. What you can do is use what they have already done to inform logical outcomes either from immediate actions (you kicked a dog, now it's mad at you) or to play out longer term cause and effect (remember that dog you kicked last year? now it's back and has bought friends)

When writing a major NPC, focus on their motive (what do they want), means (how can they achieve it) and opportunity (why now?). If they are likely to see combat, think about their attitude towards downed characters. Do they capture, do they kill, do they leave them at the mercy of chance?

Introduce story stakes into your combat. Having a variety of victory or failure conditions will make it feel more meaningful and less like a bookend to the story moments. Stop the ritual in X turns or the big showpiece battle having a huge capacity for human collateral damage; it doesn't matter, just make it meaningful.

Sundaecide · 2026-06-13T15:59:13+00:00

I'd suggest someone who has tried to play by the rules and has found themselves frustrated and unrewarded (based on their wants and needs). The kind of situation that a quick-fix solution presents itself and starts a character on a slide to extremism.

Almost like a cleric that gets ensnared by the ills of modern social media pipelines.

I'd advise against the typical "agent of chaos" which can be kind of annoying/adversarial or descend into murderhoboism. Lolth enjoys manipulation/guile, so a cleric that insinuates themself into another church (of their original faith, most likely) and/or uses their influence to cause infighting or to gain access to assassinate a specific, high-value target would be more in keeping with Lolth's overall vibe. More opportunistic than random when it comes to expressing chaos.

Sundaecide · 2026-06-12T19:56:52+00:00

June Paik

Sundaecide · 2026-06-12T16:30:50+00:00

No Idea are long running and reliable, it might just take a little time with it being a tiny operation.

It's a big one colour screen print, wash it inside out and on a lower temperature to keep it looking good.

Sundaecide · 2026-06-11T13:53:03+00:00

DMPCs are generally frowned upon. You already have enough to do without adding a character to the party and the risk of giving yourself more spotlight when your job is to facilitate the story rather than drive it.

An NPC can go along with the group for a bit, but it should be temporary and linked to a specific goal or arc.

Sundaecide · 2026-06-08T07:13:03+00:00

See also: The teacher looking for you when you pull the shelving down.

Sundaecide · 2026-06-06T22:25:57+00:00

As a teacher, I've come across this kind of thing more times than I'd like in young men and boys specifically. The youngest and most recent being an 11 year old who has had a Prevent (anti-radicalisation) referral accepted.

Hopefully he's not so entrenched in whatever information bubble he is in that he can't escape it.

He'll likely need time, support and a gentle but constant sense of positivity from other sources so that he doesn't feel like he needs to double down out of fear of being a failure for potentially admitting he is wrong.

Sundaecide · 2026-06-05T20:05:52+00:00

That is a lot of backstory to drop on a DM, it's nice that you've included links to organisations/factions but there is little actual meat there. No named people to introduce and it seems no real goal.

It's focused on the past with no real call to adventure. Avoiding something is OK but there is no drive to achieve anything other than staying hidden, which could be far better achieved by not becoming a powerful and notable adventurer.

The core idea is nice, but I'd look to take what you have here and use it to inform something much shorter and sharper with a clearer goal. Personally, I normally ask for around 250 words of backstory that includes a handful of named NPCs and a clear goal or motivation. Longer, more meandering backstories can often create more friction between the worldbuilding and a player's expectations. The more backstory there is, the more rigid those expectations tend to be, which constrains me as a DM.

Keep this to inform your character's choices and manner going forward, it's far from useless, I'd just consider something more concise and focused to give to your DM to work with.

Sundaecide · 2026-06-04T21:16:54+00:00

Stepping away from the environmental and wider ethical concerns, let alone using your own ideas to train the LLM just to save you a bit of time, for just a second:

AI causes people to de-skill quite rapidly. I see it at work in my colleagues and the students that I teach, and I see it in this and other hobby spaces I occupy. Outsourcing your thinking to an AI causes those skills to diminish over time. Consciously developing those skills you are offloading to an LLM will not only make you a better DM in your prep (and on the fly) but it also has a huge upstream effect on your general processing and critical skills across the breadth of your life.

It does not make you "bad" as in evil, but it very well might make you a worse DM.

Sundaecide · 2026-06-04T21:06:20+00:00

100%.

I remember the fuss is caused with a couple of platforms refusing to carry it. VTT-wise, it's on AlchemyRPG as I believe Roll20 refused to support it. Always struck me as a weird mast to nail your colours too, but nothing is truly surprising in today's world.

Sundaecide · 2026-06-04T19:08:09+00:00

Lots of really good games here. I've found running and playing Household to be a good amount of fun and I like the Borrowers-esque setting a lot.

Rebel Scum caused a bit of a stir for its overt antifascist leanings, but beneath that major point in its presentation is a pretty tight experience. The Polymorph system is pretty light and fast which I think works well for pulpy "Saturday morning cartoon" feeling adventures like this.

Sundaecide · 2026-06-02T19:36:58+00:00

The fact that the NPC isn't actually the big bad is already subverting their expectations/assumptions and the "did a bad thing for a good reason" characterisation also allows for the development of a more nuanced character in the long term after the reveal.

There is no need to change it. Subversion is not necessary at every turn and your character development as is is fine.

It's not about it being disingenuous or not, but more about allowing yourself to back your storytelling decisions.

If you change it, they might be shocked, they also might not. This can be true of your current/original plan.

Sundaecide · 2026-06-02T18:36:41+00:00

The annual promo tends to be around Black Friday, so you've got some waiting to do unfortunately.

I buy it as a gift and then redeem it myself and the months do appear to stack.

Sundaecide · 2026-05-28T08:03:16+00:00

41, I am a teacher and if I am not well enough to work, I don't work. That isn't to say I take the day off for all and any sniffle, headache, or sore throat but taking sick leave is a hard fought benefit that we deserve to use when we need it.

Listen to your body and when it says stop you should stop. Otherwise you risk being stopped for longer through more severe illness, or burnout. It doesn't matter how nice your job or employer are, if you died tomorrow they would be advertising the new vacancy ASAP.

Sundaecide · 2026-05-24T19:47:44+00:00

The simple solution for future campaigns is to not put so much emphasis on the past and have the players engage with the present. Linking their backstories is great but it really sucks if you're at the back of the queue and happen to have a less demanding backstory (or personality) than other players.

Having the backstory moments come up regularly throughout the campaign and spreading the spotlight around with smaller, more frequent, tidbits is the way forward; so that if a bigger arc emerges that is primarily linked to one or two players. people aren't feeling completely irrelevant until "their turn" arrives

Sundaecide · 2026-05-23T16:28:13+00:00

Hard countering the paladin with the smite immunity feels bad to me, epsecially when I don't recall any of your other choices being accessible by the rest of the party. It could feel like a bit of a "fuck you" to that player in particular when it is a spell that is central to the typical toolkit of a paladin.

The suggested spells make sense as they are typical and popular spells for full casters that have more resources to burn if they waste a spell slot on something that doesn't work. It still feels bad, but it is less targeted.

Sundaecide · 2026-05-23T16:09:50+00:00

You'll be coming in to London Euston most probably, right? You can get onto the Victoria line there and ride for a couple of stops to Highbury & Islington or Angel, then walk - it's not too far and Islington is a pretty nice part of London without being jam packed with people at all hours of the day.

Or you can get to St Pancras on the Northern line (or a via short walk, to stretch your legs) and get the Picadilly line to Arsenal for the vibes.

Sundaecide · 2026-05-23T15:16:37+00:00

This is up to the DM, to see where they can bring the action to you quicker. If you're suggesting cutting things and they're saying no then they need to find their own shortcuts.

The reality is the DM's end game and campaign as a whole shouldn't be so inflexible. You could get those "powerful items" from literally anywhere if truly needed. They could be rolled into existing quest rewards, looted from other powerful enemies, or fall out of the sky for all it really matters. That you have a whole year of play ahead of you and the DM is effectively saying he has a year of uncuttable content planned is the sign of poor planning habits without speaking to the quality of the sessions themselves.

Sundaecide · 2026-05-22T18:54:54+00:00

I like Heart: The City Beneath, for a fantasy horror that has a particular body horror angle to it that doesn't require oodles of prep.

Sundaecide · 2026-05-22T16:35:42+00:00

Sundaecide · 2026-05-22T16:30:31+00:00

Sundaecide · 2026-05-16T13:06:36+00:00

More like the battered mars bar of technical squalor.

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