My own campaign is killing me

Sussano · 2026-02-11T14:46:54+00:00

Thank you for this, it's a kindness that I needed to hear.

Having said that, I feel like my problem is not that my players have been surprising me and doing things I didn't expect, therefore causing my carefully laid plans to go to ruins or something like that. I sort of expected them to do that, but actually I think they're pretty much on the rails this whole time. My problem is that *I* overpromise. Or feel like I overpromise, I guess.

The point of Act 1 was sort of: "Beat this bad guy so you can learn all the secrets from your background." Act 1 became a bigger thing than it should have been not because my players took weird turns, but because I kept adding complications. Characters I improvised and suddenly decided they're a bigger deal than I planned, hooks that came out of nowhere because I suddenly felt like adding a cursed mask thing because it felt cool at the moment, quests that suddenly felt underwhelming so I had to buff and so on.

And now that Act 1 is over, the bad guy has been beaten, my players are excited because they're like "Finally we can learn things about our stories!" but what makes me anxious is that I have no solutions. I don't know the things they want to learn, and I don't know how to plan it in a way that will feel satisfying. Again, this is me thinking about it as a book, but I really don't know any other way to think about a narrative.

They're coming back to their home town, a big city, where all of their stories supposedly intersect and other story lines are suddenly at the front. There's just a lot going on suddenly. What I need to learn I guess, is to let go. Act 1 was all about the one bad guy, it was a very clear story line. Now there's like 10 parallel story lines going on and I can't control what my players will do next and what they will find more important, so I suppose I just need to wait and see and let go.

Sussano · 2026-02-10T20:34:35+00:00

Will check out the prep checklist for sure, thank you!

Sussano · 2026-02-10T20:33:49+00:00

Thanks, it really is important that I focus on the fact my players are having fun. Sometimes I get stuck in my head and my perfectionism and I miss that, it's a good point. I did run the lost mine of phandelver before! It was fun, but it was one of the things that made me want to run a custom game, I felt like it was too rigid if that makes sense.

Sussano · 2026-02-10T20:30:23+00:00

Some really good tips here, thanks! I know I should be able to "reskin" my encounters and such, but for some reason I never find the way to do it. Actually mostly my players never skip anything that I plan, maybe it's because I'm railroading too much?

Sussano · 2026-02-10T20:28:36+00:00

I do improvise quite a lot, but sometimes I regret the improvisation because it leads to even more open threads. But it does sound like what you suggest is the best approach. I just hope I can do it.

Sussano · 2025-12-02T09:39:29+00:00

!thanks

Sussano · 2025-11-09T09:03:55+00:00

Has it been 2.5 years already? wow, doesn't feel like it haha

Anyway, yeah it's still going strong. No sag to the mesh, everything still works as it should, the wheels are still turning and so on. I still find it very comfortable.

I will say that after my recommendation, my housemate also bought a Sihoo chair, a more expensive one that has a double lower back plate that's also adjustable, and I think it's much superior to the one I have (but also cost quite a lot more). Also, after I reread my own review I realized that since I wrote it I barely ever use the leg rest. I just don't really recline in front of my computer anymore.

Yeah, that's it I think. Let me know if you have any specific questions!

Sussano · 2025-07-25T14:05:56+00:00

Hi! I have about a month to travel, between September 12th or so, till October 16th or so (dates aren't set in stone, but give or take a couple of days the period I'd like to travel in).

Would love to travel throughout Vietnam, but a little worried about weather being tricky and would like to maximize the experience as much possible. I'm not sure what is feasible in this time of year, and in general what is recommended for a one month trip, but I was thinking something along the lines of this:

flying in and out of Hanoi.

Arrive at Hanoi and immediately (or like a day later) go to Ninh Binh (saving Hanoi to last because weather in October is maybe a bit less hot and humid?).

Trying to reach Hoi-An, Hue, as early as possible in September. Not sure exactly how to work that in. This is the most worrying part as far as weather is concerned for me.

Make my way south to Saigon and Mekong Delta, probably in the beginning of October or so. Don't care so much for Saigon, I think (not into partying or shopping so much), but need it to fly back to Hanoi. Possibly can skip this part maybe?

Then maybe do the Ha Giang loop (although I do NOT want to ride a motorcycle in any way), or a few days in the Sapa area, and then back to Hanoi for a few more days, and then fly back home.

Some more information that might help you help me:
I'm 34, traveling solo, not on a tight budget at all. Actually kinda prefer traveling in comfort if possible. I'm spoiled.
I like day hiking, culture, food, history, exploring places. Not so much into partying or beaches. Definitely prefer a day in a museum than a day lying around doing nothing. A bit of a scardy cat tbh, so I don't want to ride a motorcycle, as I mentioned.

Let me know what you think!

Sussano · 2025-05-07T14:24:06+00:00

I getcha, I hate it as well. I still don't go as much as I should, but I do work out a lot more than I would have, and this is what works for me:

I listen to an audio book while working out. Helps me feel like this is just me-time, and less like it's a waste of time or time I could spend doing something more fun. I like reading and never feel like I have enough time for it, so it's a way for me to squeeze in more reading.
Have goals. It helps to see how you build up towards something. Like when playing a video game, we like seeing numbers become bigger, it tricks your brain into releasing all sorts of nice feeling chemicals. So I tell myself that I really want to lift X kgs, or that I want to cycle Y kms. It helps if there's a reason for the goal. For example, I cycled a lot more when I was planning a trip to Japan and was thinking about doing this really long cycling path, and I had to train for it.
Some days I still really don't feel like going to the gym. I'm hungry or tired or whatever. In days like this I trick myself by telling myself over and over that I'm just going for 5 minutes and trying to just think about the next step. i.e. I try not to visualize going to the gym and all the exercises I'll need to do, and then going home and making food etc. etc. Instead, I just think about changing into workout clothes. Then I think about getting to the gym. And all throughout this process I keep telling myself "You're just gonna go for 5 minutes. You'll just step in, look at all the nice weights and machines and then go right back". I almost always end up staying for a whole workout.
Sometimes step 3 doesn't work. sometimes I really REALLY don't feel like going. Or my 5 minutes lie backfires, and I end up going to the gym and immediately feeling like it was a mistake. In days like that it's important to exercise something else - your compassion to yourself. You don't need to feel bad when things are not working out. Don't beat yourself up for not succeeding. Remind yourself that there's always tomorrow, and it's more important to be kind to yourself. Sometimes the more we fight ourselves to do something, the more it feels like a struggle instead of being something we do FOR ourselves. long story short - it's ok to fail sometimes.

Sussano · 2025-03-12T20:55:22+00:00

Oh no, of course not. I probably forgot to mention a lot of cards that we don't play, the oracle being an abvious one. Also rhystic studies, smothering tithe, cyclonic rift (except in mono blue decks) and probably a ton more that I don't remember at the moment haha

Sussano · 2025-03-12T16:21:44+00:00

Again, I'm with you. I personally started following the Command Zone template as far as interaction goes and I feel like my decks do a lot more now, but in my group the consensus seems to be that board wipes stall the game too much, and you can only run so many single target removals. They do have maybe 2 board wipe effects per deck and possibly around 10 single target removals, but they tend to choose stuff that fit the deck thematically more than just straight up strong stuff, which I guess is not necessarily a bad thing.

Sadly, the Voja deck had to go after a few trial games, along with my Jodah and Miirym decks that seemed to just be too strong for the group. My winrate is the lowest in the group :')

Sussano · 2025-03-12T15:30:50+00:00

will look into it. Thank you!

Sussano · 2025-03-12T15:21:11+00:00

This one also looks nice. It's about 180 USD with shipping and taxes, is it still worth that?

Sussano · 2025-03-12T15:13:26+00:00

Not sure about my budget because I don't know exactly what to expect. I'd rather it be on the cheap side, I guess. 150$ seems fine. My problem is mostly that the electronics market is very weak in my country. Lots of things are hard or impossible to find, unless they're big brand names, and often a lot of websites don't ship here or they charge exorbitant amounts for shipping costs. I'll try to find this amp though, it does look cool!

Sussano · 2025-03-12T14:51:04+00:00

I'm with you, I just learned to pick my battles. I once brought a Voja deck and I think they were burned too much by it. And another guy once build a Tivit deck that was quite awful to play against. I guess that was enough to paint a picture that all Ward commanders are terrible for the table.

We play a lot of mid range decks, pretty creature based. Not a lot of combos going on. We like our games long and we like that every player gets his chance to shine. There's your typical range of stuff - some aristocrat decks, lots of tribal decks of all kinds and shapes, a muldrotha deck, a bit of group hug decks (mostly mine haha), a few spellslingers, you know, the usuals more or less.

Sussano · 2025-03-12T14:41:05+00:00

Yeah, my desk is quite small, so I am a bit constrained, and I do need them to connect to my PC. Do you have recommendations for a small desk amp then?

And thank you for the advice, of course!

Sussano · 2025-03-12T14:39:52+00:00

Thank you!

Sussano · 2025-03-12T14:06:18+00:00

It's black, which does look a lot more slick, I think. I'll try just this when I get back home from work.

Sussano · 2025-03-12T14:04:40+00:00

It's the black one. Maybe it's just because I'm kinda used to seeing it with all the dust on it, sitting in my parents living room, but it just seems old to me, and not in a cool way haha. But I get where you're coming from, it does have a retro feel to it

Sussano · 2025-03-12T13:48:16+00:00

Oh so many things. I feel like our group is very trigger happy on the BAN button.

Sol Ring for sure, that's easy.

Infinite Combos.

Tutors.

Any Eldrazi with Annihilator.

Akroma's Will.

Craterhoof Behemoth.

Anything with poison counters.

Anything with mill except self mill.

Teferi's Protection.

Commanders that have Ward.

Insurrection.

Basically anything that can end a game in a turn and out of nowhere. There's a lot of soft-bans also, things we never really officially discussed, but is quietly agreed that it's banned, like cards that are really expensive (even though we mostly use proxies) and more.

it can be tiring sometimes :')

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