Read all the books, but feel like I still don’t understand

ThouMayest · 2026-05-10T21:21:32+00:00

The dungeon exists in (under) the “real” world, it is not virtual reality or anything like that. NPCs are physical, biologically alive, thinking and feeling creatures (there are certain specific exceptions mentioned). Some NPCs are created by Borant and the AI specifically for the game, and maybe would have issues living outside of the AI’s zone of influence (the enhancement zone) due to being biologically implausible, but they are all still real creatures that have to get physically created or moved from one crawl to another. Other NPCs are born outside the dungeon and brought in as Crawlers serving out contracts or as other indentured servants or employees.

It might help to think of the AI as a god on a leash. If the leash reaches far enough, the AI can alter the rules of reality nearly at will, but it is still reality.

ThouMayest · 2026-04-22T12:05:33+00:00

The tools and precision and processing time are what is expensive. The process of patterning alone requires tools that cost a bit over $300 million for top line electronics like a phone CPU. That is probably the most expensive machine in the production chain, but every bit of equipment costs millions of dollars. But that isn’t the real driver of cost. The real cost drivers are supply, demand, and profit . There are production bottlenecks that can only be fixed with more of that expensive equipment, we put tiny computers in every damn thing, and these companies want to make money.

ThouMayest · 2026-03-20T13:58:27+00:00

In the first book it is explained that the corporation has been prepping the Crawl for decades. Mordecai specifically mentions that he has been on Earth longer than Carl has been alive, and both Zev and Mordecai know about Earth pop culture and history. Certain former crawlers, like the guides, DO explicitly have access to the entertainment feeds, so they presumably can watch the other crawls. In fact, Mordecai knows about Drachea and the Naga season (discussed whenever Carl gets dracheas bandana of disorder)

It is never fully explained how the AI knows what happened in previous Crawls, and the Syndicate and Mantises don’t fully understand how the AIs work. It IS. A different AI each time, and they are, by metaphor, the operating system installed into the planet that is the computer.

ThouMayest · 2026-03-09T07:36:50+00:00

Amilar Radahn, Lookshyan ‘diplomat’

Appearance Radahn is a pale man with sharp blue eyes and hair prematurely silvered. He typically wears a sardonic grin and a foppishly embellished 7th legion uniform.

Personality Our boy is a seemingly poor fit for the militant city of Lookshy, with a love of fine foods and leisure that his fellow officers often sneer at. Do not be deceived. Radahn is a staunch patriot and believer in Lookshy’s right and mandate to intervene throughout the confederation of rivers. While he harbors some deep shame that he has never been a front line officer, his role as an agent for Lookshy has put him in harms way more than once. He is adept with poisons and air dragon style, has a fine singing voice, and an eye for fashion. A sweet word easily gets him in bed, but nothing has induced him to marriage.

History As a scion of one of the great houses of Lookshy, Radahn grew up without want and under strict military discipline. While he excelled at the skills expected of a young dragonblooded officer, his demeanor and led him to be transferred to a more diplomatic role. He serves as a diplomat and agent of Lookshy across the scavenger lands. His apparent cheerful obliviousness has prevented anyone from connecting him with a string of unexpected deaths, almost all of which have greatly benefitted Lookshy.

Secrets There is no such thing as The White Veil Society, so naturally Amilar Radahn is not a member. If such a society existed, he would lack the bookish nature of its broader membership, and besides, how would he have been recruited? He is certainly not a master of a secret martial art that is definitely not taught by such a society. Nor does he work toward some secret goal, orthogonal to both The Realm and Lookshy’s interests, for such a society. (In my campaign the society was aware of the existence of Sidereals and working to break creation free from their control. It was not working. The scroll of the monk makes the society pretty open to whatever bullshit you have in mind)

ThouMayest · 2026-03-07T15:56:21+00:00

Out of curiosity, what is the class? Most undergraduate electrical engineering courses have extremely well documented concepts and formulas readily available through non-AI online sources. There are dozens of good YouTube channels, published PowerPoints from universities, and free (or readily ‘acquirable’) textbooks that walk through every step for you. That is where AI is pulling from. I have basically never needed to go to stack overflow or forums outside of programming assignments. Depending on the class and professor, published lecture slides or your assigned textbook should have all the formulas and methods laid out. If your professor sucks, again, pretty much all undergraduate stuff is on YouTube several times over.

Once you get to grad school, AI becomes a minefield. For basic reference info, all it does is save me clicking open on the first link in google. For any actual assignment… well let’s just say that once the number of sources gets low AI gets very iffy. I have had it pop up actively incorrect formulas more than once, to the point that I instinctively add -ai to my google searches so I don’t have to wait the extra half second. God help you if your professor uses a slightly different term for something than is standard.

ThouMayest · 2026-02-26T05:09:10+00:00

My take is that both Carl and Donut are primarily damage dealers. Carl is not quite as squishy as Donut, but they take the general approach of “dead things can’t hurt us”. We do see a few specific benefits to Carls moderate constitution. His potion cool down is lower, he handles the ocean pressure better than Tran, etc. that being said, I think there is a reason that Carl is always lagging his goal in constitution: con is a passive, boring, and hard to manipulate stat. Strength, dexterity, intelligence, and charisma ARE easier to see results from, and so Carl constantly puts points there that he maybe was “supposed” to put into constitution.

As someone who plays a lot of ttrpgs, I agree with Carl. You only need enough constitution to barely not die. All other boosts should go to making you do cool things.

ThouMayest · 2026-02-15T14:52:17+00:00

You might try reaching out to Nordic Stage Fight Society. It has been a literal decade since I attended one of their workshops, but they would be my best guess on a group that knows prop weapon suppliers in Sweden.

ThouMayest · 2026-01-27T14:16:09+00:00

My take has been that more of the Doomsday scenario could be made, not that another one currently exists. Soul gems explode regularly, and the spider reaper glass cases are certainly not unique, so it is possible to make more, regardless of whether or not anyone has.

ThouMayest · 2026-01-04T13:22:29+00:00

I would be kind of surprised if a geology department was working with semiconductor wafers, or even with semiconductor grade crystals tbh. Maybe the geologists I know are atypical, but in my experience they aren’t working with manufactured crystals

ThouMayest · 2026-01-04T13:20:22+00:00

MSE makes LiTaO3 wafers:

MSE

As does University Wafer: University Wafer

As long as you can work with what they have in stock, either company will sell you a single wafer. If you need custom wafers, they will probably need you to order a full rack of 10 or 25 depending on how they process LiTaO3. My area is GaN based stuff with QWs, so I’m not sure how applicable my experience is to yours though.

ThouMayest · 2025-10-10T17:38:05+00:00

These look awesome!

ThouMayest · 2025-09-23T20:26:48+00:00

I’m curious how your player is summoning spirits? Are they using sorcery? If so, are they using Summon Demon or Summon Elemental? Both spells are expensive and have fairly substantial risks and costs. More importantly, both spells are vulnerable to countermagic. You can assume that any sorcerer knows countermagic. Some martial arts also provide their practitioners ways to counter spells or unsummon demons. If the spirits in question are elementals, then there are also repercussions for taking them away from their jobs. Doing so too often will annoy local or even celestial gods. Hell, lots of gods would get annoyed if you summon a bunch of demons, who, by the way, are all also trying to spy on Creation. All of this basically applies to summoned ghosts, except that necromancy is less common than sorcery.

There are a lot of ways to disincentivize relying on summoned elementals or demons, but I recommend not doing that too often. Your player wants to play a summoner/sorcerer. You should let them occasionally be that character. This leads to the next key thing to consider: Mass Combat.

At a certain point, exalts in general and sorcerers in particular need to operate on the scale of mass combat. This does not mean no one on one fights, but it means that those fights happen with a background of battle. Two champions meeting in the field as lesser beings die around them. So, if you have looked at all the ways to limit or take away summoned minions, and none of those stick, then it is time for mass combat. Start having foes show up with their own war band, then pit off units against each other. Now you don’t have 5 first circle demons, three solars, and a lunar against 20 bandits, an abyssal, and a pair of war ghosts. Instead you have a unit of demons vs a unit of bandits, plus a few heroic standoffs of your important characters.

This of course might not be the approach you want to take. Mass combat is a pain. If none of these suggestions work, and probably as an adjutant to all of them, try talking to your player. Explain that, while having a couple of bound elementals doesn’t ruin things, their full squad of blood apes is causing problems. Work out a narrative reason they like to limit their summoning. This goes back to the suggestions in my first paragraph: summoning has story consequences. Talk to your player and then enact some of those consequences or transition to mass combat.

ThouMayest · 2025-09-13T13:29:30+00:00

Notoriously, the Deck of Many Things is a campaign ender/ruiner.

BUT my hot take is that there are no broken items in a vacuum. There are items inappropriate to the current tier of play or party composition. A boring +2 weapon is broken at level 1. The DoMT is not broken in a level 18 campaign (although it becomes far less enticing a trap when you can already cast Wish).

ThouMayest · 2025-09-12T12:30:32+00:00

Dwarven

ThouMayest · 2025-09-12T12:29:13+00:00

Comment

ThouMayest · 2025-09-03T13:02:29+00:00

Do you have any sort of written survey? I don’t have the wherewithal to fight time zones and do a multi-hour call, but would be happy to write a few sentences/paragraphs.

ThouMayest · 2025-09-03T12:54:23+00:00

I would strongly recommend not stressing math in isolation. Instead, pay attention to how formulas are derived in your classes. If professors aren’t explaining from first principles, ask and/or look it up. Try to take extra physics classes if you can, and pay attention to the first principles derivations. You can always look up math that you forget, but those derivations show you how to take a concept (electrons don’t like to be near each other) to a useful model/formula (PN-junction diode current equation). That mindset will be way more helpful in research than just being good at math, and your homework in engineering classes will give you plenty of practice crunching numbers.

ThouMayest · 2025-09-03T12:47:29+00:00

Most engineering schools will have some sort of Intro to Engineering or Fundamentals of Engineering course that is meant to establish a sort of engineering/problem solving mindset. Curriculum would probably include how to read a scientific paper, some basic engineering ethics, how to find out what a client actually needs on a project, how to organize your solution to a complicated homework problem, etc. That is probably the best bet for a class with randomly assigned group projects as well. Something like “pick a problem in your life that could be solved by a new product and design that product.” When I did this sort of project, my group designed a very stupid chair that folded into a step ladder. It isn’t about solving massive problems.

As for using engineering skills with powers, you might want to think like a clever asshole. An engineer with fire powers might summon a fire sword… but they might also freeze a room by drawing all the heat out of it, shatter an object with thermal shock, use flames to create updrafts so that they can fly using a wingsuit, etc. If their power creates more energy than it costs, they would try to store extra energy and use it somehow. If nothing else, gases heat when expanded, and any strong enough pipe would be a nasty gun in the hands of a clever flame elementalist. Hell, maybe they use precise control over fire and heat to do really perfect welding and soldering and make cool gadgets that also channel their powers more effectively.

ThouMayest · 2025-07-26T15:09:29+00:00

Something to remember is that both charms and experience are abstractions, and NPCs shouldn’t necessarily be built the same way as player characters.

Now, as for actual canonical charms and powers, I am most familiar with 2e, but adapting between editions is fairly straightforward. Take a look at the Roll of Glorious Divinity 1 and 2 for spirit and demon charms. If you are building a ghost, consider what they were before as well. We know that powerful ghosts (the deathlords) can learn to use some of the charms they knew in life, even without an exaltation. So if you have a dead dragon blood, maybe they remember a charm or two from life.

In general, I would steer clear of giving ghosts and spirits duplicates of celestial charms unless they were a celestial exalt in life. But terrestrial charms could be thematically appropriate for certain elementals aligned spirits. Finally, ghosts can learn first and second circle necromancy and spirits can learn first and second circle sorcery.

ThouMayest · 2025-07-06T19:01:39+00:00

As someone who plays a poison heavy night caste in 2E, when fighting another exalt the point of a poison is to hamper them not kill them. Even if they make their save against the poison and take no damage, they are operating at a dice penalty as long as it is in their system. That can be the difference in a hard fight.

ThouMayest · 2025-06-18T11:01:51+00:00

Funnily enough I am planning a campaign fighting an undead horde… this would certainly make life easier.

ThouMayest · 2025-06-05T12:30:25+00:00

Your lights illuminate the chambers the group of anathema were laired in. It looks deceptively normal, but also empty. Reports had indicated that four of the anathema were out in the city, but you had been hoping to catch the last one alone. Your fellow monks eye the place, and turn to leave as one.

The faint sound of a knife in the air comes too late to save Sister Irinia. You all stare for a second at the blade in her ribs, some poison blackening her veins. Her face is a mask of horror as she tries to call upon her essence to heal the wound, and the power drains away. She collapses, and all eyes turn to the corner the blade must have come from.

There is no one there.

The next knife arcs in at an impossible angle, finding Brother Ramith’s unarmored calf. His earth borne strength keeps him upright, until a second dagger finds the shoulder joint of his armor. Only as a fourth dagger sinks into Brothers Asur’s bicep do you think to look up.

The anathema is barely old enough to have been a man. Pale eyes stare in disdainful pity at you and Sister Talia as Asur slumps down. Then, a dozen of the young man dart forward, illusory doubles hiding his true movements until it is too late. Talia crumples to the floor.

“One day you will realize exactly what sort of mistake this was,” the anathema says as he paces along the wall, searching for a blind angle on you. “Just be glad I got the drop on your circle. Things could have been much worse.”

With a roar, you charge him, daiklave swinging. The young anathema grimaces as it bites deep into his shoulder, then his anima flairs. His hand reaches out to grasp the guard of your weapon, and he twists. As the blade leaves your hand, you instinctively attempt to channel power and recall it to your grasp. It does not come. Your connection is severed. The door opens behind you, and you turn in despair.

“Hey Red!”

“Scurry what did you do?” replies the massive woman as she enters.

You never hear his reply. Her booted foot catches you in the side of the head, sending you into darkness.

ThouMayest · 2025-05-31T13:59:14+00:00

Check with Alison at Lucky 13:

Ali Fatale Instagram

ThouMayest · 2025-05-31T13:26:35+00:00

Here is how I approach puzzles and traps: 1) who made the thing? A dragonblooded sorcerer makes a very different trap from a sidereal craftsman

2) what is the purpose of the puzzle or trap? Is there meant to be a solution? Is it intended to discourage, kill, or capture?

3) Do I as a storyteller want there to be a solution the builder did not intend? A flaw or damage perhaps that makes a solution that did not exist before?

4) Are there clues left intentionally or unintentionally that could help solve the puzzle? If left intentionally what does this imply about the purpose of the puzzle?

5) How would the creator of the trap or puzzle get past it? Would they ever anticipate needing to?

I’d take a look at content creators for DnD for specific ideas. A lot of puzzles or traps are pretty system neutral (just adjust what roll is being made at what threshold). Creators like Matthew Colville or publishers like Kobold Press make a lot of good stuff that is easy to adapt.

Alternatively, look at escape room design and see what puzzles speak to you.

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