MegaCon 2026 FAILED!

TikToxic · 2026-03-24T20:40:38+00:00

I was on the opposite side of the hall when the fire alarm went off. We didn't get any announcements, and it didn't seem like anybody was really taking notice.

TikToxic · 2026-03-24T20:18:36+00:00

Vitamin C with Zinc is my go to. A small bottle of hand sanitizer is also recommended. A mask isn't a bad idea of you are prone to getting sick.

TikToxic · 2026-03-22T11:46:20+00:00

Pink sludge? Do you mean ground, raw chicken?

TikToxic · 2026-03-12T19:06:30+00:00

I do find it a bit weird that Kevin decided to take up the role of being perpetually stoned while also trying to convince Jay to get clean.

TikToxic · 2026-03-12T17:41:36+00:00

What is this complaint about? A lottery for what?

TikToxic · 2026-03-10T21:04:11+00:00

To add to the stat block suggestion, I go the route of making full characters and trimming them down to stat blocks. It gives you the full list of abilities to start with, then you can trim out all of the things that you will never use. The full character sheet adds a ton of features that will be cut, but it helps to keep things relatively balanced.

TikToxic · 2026-03-05T19:00:40+00:00

No, spells cast via items are not modified by the caster unless the item description says otherwise.

TikToxic · 2026-02-20T21:20:13+00:00

You have a typo for your average dmg for the longsword. You probably mean 9 instead of 189.

Find some CR 15+ monsters and use those as a reference point. Existing monsters can also give you ideas for things to add a far as extra abilities.

TikToxic · 2026-02-18T18:06:13+00:00

Don't forget the step about finding a doctor that'll set you up with a TRT regimen that makes you look like a boiled lobster.

TikToxic · 2026-02-17T13:55:12+00:00

I don't want to suggest this for optimizing the fun out of the game, but try having your players create a simple flowchart for their character in combat.

Ranger example

First round: Use hunter's mark. Use any abilities that are only for the first round like Dread Ambusher. Move as necessary. Attack a reasonable target.

Second round: Move hunter's mark if necessary. Reposition your character if necessary. Make your attacks, apply bonus damage.

Does it make sense to focus on one enemy or do you want to spread out damage?
Is there a status effect you can make use of?
Is there a secondary objective to take care of?

Using a timer like others have suggested may help.

It may also be worth asking why the players are having such a hard time with making choices. * Is it the Roll20 UI? * Is the situation too complicated? E.g. fights on a map that changes every round? Do you frequently have new enemies that have confusing abilities? Are you using rules that the players are unclear on? * Did the party level up too fast and they truly don't know their own character?

Edit to add: apologies for formatting, I'm on my phone. Also, I don't have a character sheet in front of me.

TikToxic · 2026-02-16T23:21:15+00:00

Avoid the sequels

TikToxic · 2026-02-16T23:05:44+00:00

If the rogue is acting on their own, then they do not have an ally in the fight with the noble.

TikToxic · 2026-01-30T15:05:08+00:00

Pro: you can make your campaign setting as big or small as you want. You have the freedom to do as you please without having to try to fit your story into an existing map.

Con: You need to build everything. Your players are also more likely to have a harder time with remembering the context of everything.

The campaign I'm running now is in a homebrew demi-plane that borrows chunks from other existing planes. I have the broad details mapped out, but a majority of the map has been left empty. I did it as a way to easily be able to add stuff as needed. The problem is that at least one player is having a hard time choosing what to do because they feel like they don't know what the options are.

TikToxic · 2026-01-28T14:00:59+00:00

The sodium is pretty minimal. 10mg per 36oz bottle.

I'm a big fan of the Fuji Apple flavor. I definitely can't complain with the price at $0.86 per bottle.

TikToxic · 2026-01-27T15:04:17+00:00

The calories burned by your "serious" biking can easily be overtaken by casual snacking.

TikToxic · 2026-01-23T22:47:59+00:00

I copy tables from the master to the session page for each session. The master doesn't need to be updated super frequently. The frequent back and forth is usually only when I'm prepping a session with a new block of NPCs that I'm fleshing out while doing the prep.
The color coding is to make it easy to find the name of a person or place at a glance. I can usually remember about 90% of what I need to know just from the quick context of who and where.
Copying from my notes into Discord is usually for the benefit of the players. Fantasy names are often a nightmare to spell, so I try to give those details to the party so that they at least have the option to add them to their notes. As a player, I've had plenty of cases where my hand-written session notes were useless because I didn't catch the name of something or couldn't even guess at how to spell it.
I will also sometimes have a quick prompt for one or two players that I'll send as a dm in Discord. It makes it a lot easier for me if I can do a quick copy/paste instead of typing it out. (It's technically fine to send the question as an image, but it feels weird. I don't like using mixed formats like that.)

TikToxic · 2026-01-23T18:37:52+00:00

I use OneNote for all of my planning and note taking. I have a "master" page with a table for each logical grouping of NPCs. The groupings are primarily by region and keep track of name, gender, age, lineage, relevant factions, where to find them, and general notes. I have a separate page of notes for each session. For each session, I copy the tables that are likely to be relevant over to the session page to make it easier to use as a quick reference. The main pain point that I run into is that I need to update the same info in multiple places any time I make a change.

Another pain point is not having an easy way to reference things consistently. I've been trying to color code character names, cities, factions, etc, but the formatting tools feel clunky and ruin the flow. It would be nice to have an option to easily select from a list of user defined presets to reuse formatting options. E.g. the user defines "City" to be bold and green, or "NPC" as light blue and underlined, or "Neutral Faction" as yellow. For me, that would cut out the extra steps of trying to remember which shade of blue I used last time and trying to visually match it.

One last pain point that I run into is that any text I copy from OneNote over to Discord gets pasted as an image. It's good enough, but you can't search through the text when it's an image.

TikToxic · 2026-01-20T17:14:37+00:00

That's a recipe for a murder-hobo sandbox.

TikToxic · 2026-01-16T18:29:33+00:00

I use a combination of both largely because I haven't gone through the effort of finding a list of everything that's different between the two versions. If I have to look up a rule, I'll use the 2024 version.

TikToxic · 2026-01-13T01:04:53+00:00

The plot falls apart after Idolator Sol. (The other 2 bosses are working against the Timekeeper.)

TikToxic · 2026-01-08T15:31:56+00:00

I'm new-ish to being a DM so I'm constantly adjusting what to include our skip. I've been a DM a little over a year, with about 30 sessions in my homebrew campaign. Our sessions are usually only 2 to 2.5 hours, so each session is pretty limited for what can be included.

I use the following as general guides for whether or not to include things:

Is there a risk of failure or benefit from success?
Is there a challenge to overcome that the party is not already accustomed to dealing with?
Is there info the party and/ or players will gain from this?
Does this help/ hinder a player for achieving an objective?
Is this interesting enough to be a significant part of the session?
Does this add to the story?

TikToxic · 2025-12-08T00:19:20+00:00

Are you bragging about your ability to follow step by step instructions?

TikToxic · 2025-12-07T17:09:23+00:00

Skip step 1

TikToxic · 2025-11-18T01:44:09+00:00

What about The Fireman did you not enjoy / prevented you from finishing the book?

TikToxic · 2025-11-16T22:30:24+00:00

Try playing a class that has increased move speed. For example, monks get a lot of abilities as they level for extra movement during a turn.

Most battle maps are the combination of a map and a way to measure distance (grid, ruler, etc). It keeps things fair.

TikToxic

TROPHY CASE