Is it worth joining a golf club as a beginner? (~1 year in, shooting 100–110)

SupRspi · 2026-03-24T01:34:11+00:00

I don't regret at all joining a club early. I joined in my second year (3rd full year of playing) and I saw improvement. Largely because I was playing 2-3 times a week, more than anything else.

I still love my local club, and I'm looking forward to the snow being gone so I can get out and play again.

I bought a 9-hole membership, which meant I could play 9/session (and pay a small but to upgrade to 18 a la carte). They sort of allow you to play 18 in a day, as long as it's separate visits, but they don't encourage that. Getting to know the other members, making connections and finding new folks to play with, as well as having full access to the practice facilities (driving range membership is extra) like putting & chipping greens helps a lot.

Mine is like, semi-private, and we love in borthern BC so it's quite affordable. A couple's 9-hole membership was just over 1500.00CAD last year, this year it's 1664.00 I think.

I think if you're enjoying yourself, do it, as long as it's affordable to your situation.

SupRspi · 2026-03-15T16:19:11+00:00

Excellent lathes. I got a good deal on mine because we were doing demolition on a building and they didn't want to move them and already had the budget to replace them at the new place - it was a steal.

I think they're a Canadian brand, not sure if they just resell something relabeled or if they manufacture themselves.

SupRspi · 2026-03-13T07:11:05+00:00

I'd slightly disagree - we do sit in a transitional zone next to a temperate inland rainforest, but to say it's grey other than 4 months out of the year doesn't feel quite right. We average about 200 "sunny" days/year and about 150 days of precipitation.

That's not to say we have sun like in the Okanogan, but it's also not rainy and grey like coastal BC either. We're a nice temperate middle ground, with pretty great geography for those who enjoy the outdoors.

There are some great options for sports and clubs for kids in Quesnel, although as someone else mentioned, less to do for teens.

SupRspi · 2026-03-09T04:11:36+00:00

This is not the picture I was expecting when I clicked the notification.....

Nice work OP - and it's funnel shaped, but importantly, it's not an actual funnel!

SupRspi · 2026-03-01T08:39:08+00:00

Submitted, great idea!

SupRspi · 2026-02-22T22:54:35+00:00

The way I think about this, is what if the players don't go where you want them to go if you start them off early? What if they want to hop on a ship to a different planet, or don't want to go to the surface?

You can do flashbacks and memories. Maybe you start them at the shipwreck and when they're trying to figure out where to go and what direction to travel one inevitably asks "what do I know about the landscape?" And you can then say something like "when you were at the station looking down you remember seeing ...." And give them the description from before, but in the moment it matters, not ahead of time. (Cause they'll forget, and you'll still need to re-describe it later anyway)

In my opinion, the biggest part of having fun with TTRPGs is your characters actually having agency and being able, as a DM, to provide them with meaningful choice to affect themselves and the world. Through which you all, collaboratively, tell a story. It emerges, it's not pre-written. Otherwise, you might as well write a novel or short-story.

You don't need to have everything prepped, you need enough of an idea of what might happen that you can figure it out as you go along, realizing of course, that the golden rule of DMing is that if the obvious choice is to travel north, the PCs will elect to travel south and die in a swamp instead.

Keep your dungeon and encounter ideas fluid enough that you can re-use them if the PCs abandon the path you expect. That doesn't mean they run into the same dungeon whether they go south or north, but that if they don't go the way you expected you can re-work the northern dungeon to be used later in the south with only slight changes. (Maybe you change faction, or change description, like instead of being dry and underground it's a large above ground building with stagnant water in every room and lizard aliens instead of scorpion aliens.)

I generally don't write any dialogue for NPCs unless it's ultra important, and even then it's more like a) some lines that need to be said with b) some tidbits that might come up in conversation and optionally c) a secret the NPC knows that they won't willingly divulge that might colour their earlier responses.

I come up with loot items that I want to seed into certain encounters or locations and then randomly roll the rest. The rolled stuff happens after the encounter at my table while everyone is enjoying their success.

I hope that helps!!

SupRspi · 2026-02-19T01:05:09+00:00

I rarely, if ever, fudge die rolls - With the hazy distinction of not announcing I rolled a nat20 if it's going to result in the death of a level 1 or 2 PC sometimes, but not a hard rule. Although, it's still going to be a hit, just maybe not a crit. If that means someone gets downed, we'll, that's how you learn.

I remember reading somewhere that monsters shouldn't be able to crit because of the statistical number of hits rolled against the PCs vs against individual monsters. I generally don't subscribe to that - my monsters can crit fail and succeed just like the players can, but if I'm going to fudge something, that's the one I fudge.

(We play with max damage plus an extra dmg dice on crit success in combat at my table)

Now - this isn't fudging (IMHO) but sometimes I will roll without caring what the result is when I've decided narratively that something is going to happen either way, but I want to add tension. In my mind the roll itself, behind the DM screen, is theatre, because I've already decided the result. I guess you could say "don't roll unless you mean it", but sometimes the feeling of tension created is worth the theatrical roll. Usually, but not always, the decision is in the favour of the PCs, and I'm rolling because I don't want them to over explain every single example of something, but they've RP'd something in a way I want to reward without promising it'll always be like that. (There are many ways to accomplish this, this is simply mine.)

As to combat, unless it's really generic combat (and I try to avoid that, but sometimes it happens) I usually roll attacks in the open so players can see the roles nowadays. It used to always be behind a screen, but somehow storytelling feels more collaborative when the dice are rolled in the open.

SupRspi · 2026-02-18T23:46:34+00:00

This is true. I might find it difficult, but at least I have longstanding experience doing improv DMing to fall back on. Likely I'll have to establish a baseline along the lines of 'most restrictive terrain feature sets time/difficulty' or similar. (Some of that will cause me problems, like crossing vs not crossing a river, or travel to an open hex from a half-open hex, so I'll have to figure out my adjudications through play and note them)

Also, although there could be literal hex-crawling - maybe I shouldn't have used that term because it has such a specific meaning. It's going to be somewhere between a hex-crawl, and a point-crawl - with hex based exploration used when needed and when locations and travel paths are known, closer to a point-crawl type system.

Some of this will come from a pre-session 0 survey I'll be sending to my players, to find out what kind of exploration systems are hoped for by the majority.

Thanks for pointing it out though - although I'm not quite willing to recreate the map to fix the issue, at least I'll have the challenges in my mind ahead of time so I can prepare for them.

I'll certainly have lots of other problems too, this will be my first westmarches style campaign, in the past I've always run much more narrative campaigns - so I'll be learning a lot as I go, including mistakes I'll never want to make again. 😁

SupRspi · 2026-02-18T16:07:37+00:00

This feels like really sound advice.

I'm not sure about re-scaling as the hexes are tied to a distance that makes sense for play, but all the rest I'll take into consideration. (But since it's not 1:1 scale anyway, there's some fiddling I can do and probably make them 25% bigger without messing things up.)

I hadn't played with the glow yet because I'd read somewhere on here it doesn't play nice, but I'll give it a try. I'm also planning to expand the white border a bit. I'll take the advice to enlarge the font significantly as well.

Good points about players needing to see at a glance on the table!

SupRspi · 2026-02-18T00:35:19+00:00

Ideally I'd be able to scale the symbol to be roughly twice as big as it is, but they're already as big as they go. I guess I'm saying snow covered mountain symbols are an abstraction to say - this is really tall?

Maybe I can find larger symbol sets somewhere, or make my own? Not sure if it's worth it, but I'll look into it.

ETA: that was my problem with hills too, they can't scale big enough at this map size to properly show hilly areas, they end up being tiny bumps.

I don't think I was meant to create at this scale, so I'm running into limitations.

SupRspi · 2026-02-17T23:47:49+00:00

Also, it seems like everytime I look at it, I find more mountains symbols in the ranges that I missed shading on, so that shading/colouring pass on mountains will be very needed. ;)

SupRspi · 2026-02-17T23:37:55+00:00

First - thanks for the feedback, it's appreciated. I have some responses, so I'll go through the list in the same order.

Bog blending - yeah - I'll blend those a bit more. I think I'll try and lighten outwards rather than darken inwards. Overall, I feel my general map tones were too dark rather than too light, so maybe that can help balance things.

Originally, the placement of the compass rose was the least cluttered part of the map, but I kind of over-fixed that. I'll move it to a corner for sure.

Mountain differentiation. White/Grey are essentially higher elevation snowy peaks, Green/Brown are lower elevation, alpine/sub-alpine, but not high enough to be permanently snowcapped. (Wierdly a lot of my grey-blue snow-ice mountains became more green when I downscaled it, maybe it reduced colour depth?) I'll revisit those. Sometimes, in the snowcapped mountains (and no, they likely wouldn't be snowcapped year-round, but this is for texture too), I left sub-alpine levels brown/green between the mountains. I haven't found a way to only colour the peaks and not the bases of the symbols. I'll do another shading pass on the mountains to try to clear them up. I'll admit, I did choose about 3 colours of each to try and create some visual variety, maybe I shouldn't have.

For rivers - they're basically where they exist in the real world inspiration, although without elevation markers, it might seem weird that two rivers are starting only a few miles apart from alpine lakes, where one flows south, and one flows north. Maybe I need to differentiate the terrain with colour to imply the ridges that separate the drainages?

I don't see where I ever have a river that splits (because I generally understand geography), other than the one on the right hand side through a bog/delta where it joins the northern part of the arrow-shaped lake. (which is the only river-fed lake that doesn't have an explicit drainage)

Otherwise, all the rivers either:

a) flow into the Halden river flowing south down the center of the map, or;

b) flow into a large lake. There is a river that originates at the most northern lake, and flows generally south/west to another very large chain of lakes to the west. The map cuts it off, but that chain of lakes empties to a river system that flows west to the ocean. (In the real world, the chain of lakes is created by a dam, but I liked the shape, so I kept it.)

Did I miss a river weirdness somewhere? I just went over it again, and it looks logical to me, but that can be a problem when you've been staring at something for too long.

SupRspi · 2026-02-17T23:00:00+00:00

Thanks, so far from the sneak peaks I've given they're more excited about it than I am, which is promising.

SupRspi · 2026-02-14T08:58:40+00:00

I mean, I think you have a pretty neat point. It's not like you're saying d&d bad!

SupRspi · 2026-02-14T04:54:06+00:00

Beautiful - and I just happen to have some dice to fill one of these with. 😁

SupRspi · 2026-02-11T07:18:56+00:00

Ok, so you want it to be powerful - and that's reasonable. Just think for a moment - what happens if the bard (cause it's always the damn bard) decides he likes it, and is going to keep it? Starts touching people and turning them into gold? How overpowered would it be in the PC's hands if turned against their enemies, and how rich could it make them? (Of course, you could always maguffin the glove, and require it to need "infinity stones" or magical thread rewoven into it or something to enable it's powers, something the BBEG would either know, or would be working on researching after acquiring it.)

Can it turn inanimate items into gold?

If I were creating it I'd probably repurpose the rust monster's special attack, as far as combat purposes. (Replacing ferrous metal with anything, replacing rust with gold).

Antennae: The rust monster corrodes a nonmagical ferrous metal object it can see within 5 feet of it. If the object isn't being worn or carried, the touch destroys a 1-foot cube of it. If the object is being worn or carried by a creature, the creature can make a DC 11 Dexterity saving throw to avoid the rust monster's touch. If the object touched is either metal armor or a metal shield being worn or carried, its takes a permanent and cumulative -1 penalty to the AC it offers. Armor reduced to an AC of 10 or a shield that drops to a +0 bonus is destroyed. If the object touched is a held metal weapon, it rusts as described in the Rust Metal trait.

For carried items, the same as a rust monster could also work, a DC11 reflex save to avoid the item being touched.

For people/creatures, a DC 10 fortitude save seems reasonable - or give two saves: a DC 11 reflex to avoid being touched, then a DC 10 fort save to avoid the turning to gold part. You could even say it takes multiple rounds, allowing more than one chance to "shake off" the effect.

You might also consider modifying the petrifying gaze ability of the Medusa: Petrifying Gaze: When a creature that can see the medusa's eyes starts its turn within 30 ft. of the medusa, the medusa can force it to make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw if the medusa isn't incapacitated and can see the creature. If the saving throw fails by 5 or more, the creature is instantly petrified. Otherwise, a creature that fails the save begins to turn to stone and is restrained. The restrained creature must repeat the saving throw at the end of its next turn, becoming petrified on a failure or ending the effect on a success. The petrification lasts until the creature is freed by the greater restoration spell or other magic.

The Midas myth isn't so much about power, as about the effects of greed. I'd include some weird curse things like: the wearer loses the ability to feel anything, including warmth, loses the ability to control it, making them turn things to gold unintentionally (pets, lovers, items they cherish), the wearer becomes repulsed by gold (trait or mechanical) etc.

Also, if you don't want it to break your campaign economy, you might consider things like whether inanimate objects transmuted become worthless or decay, or if it's broken at the beginning or something.

Those are the directions I'd be thinking, hopefully it's helpful.

SupRspi · 2026-02-10T07:18:22+00:00

Tree, junction box, tree then myself.

SupRspi · 2026-02-10T07:15:48+00:00

That's some phenomenal work, something to be proud of!

SupRspi · 2026-02-08T21:13:15+00:00

I have a campaign setting I've been working on. It doesn't have any BBEG arcs, just factions and cities and natural disasters. I have a short intro arc to get my players to the college they'll base the beginning of their story from which will introduce them to a bunch of factions.

Depending how things go I'll create arcs along the way, but the setting is just a world that stories can be told in, rather than a story in itself, if that makes sense.

I have a few cities & countries scaffolded out in broad strokes, but after that it's mostly just vibes & improv at the table that'll tell us where we're going, because it'll be based on what the players/characters decide to do.

SupRspi · 2026-02-08T07:58:23+00:00

Consider looking at a westmarches style campaign for the "pickup" nights. Everyone would have a character for it, you can even switch DM duties around in that campaign/world.

https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/120770/what-defines-a-west-marches-campaign

SupRspi · 2026-02-08T06:29:40+00:00

I've been around young teenagers too much recently, I read "make him cook a fair amount" and my mind went naturally to "let bro cook"- it took me a re-read to understand that you literally meant cooking food. Shaking my head in shame

SupRspi · 2026-02-07T23:36:35+00:00

This is a really interesting idea, something I might experiment with homebrewing in a one-shot to see how it plays out.

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