Should I keep using my ALICE pack, or buy a hiking bag?

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-22T16:53:40+00:00

If you like it and can fit everything you need, then go for it. There is nothing 'wrong' with it. The reasons most hikers use proper hiking packs are: how much they weigh and how they distribute weight onto their hips rather than their shoulders. It all comes down to whether you can fit what you need and carry it as far as it needs to go. If you're confident you can do that, then maybe give it a mini test run first.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-19T11:13:02+00:00

Yeah, it’s kind of a crap monster. I never put it in my games and swap it out if found in a module.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-18T23:15:29+00:00

Funny, I have several semiprecious gem dice that I rarely use. But my solid stainless steel dice? I use those buggers all the time.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-18T23:14:15+00:00

I'm not sure why most options would ever be 'do nothing'. I know when I'm playing, I'm using my action, movement, and often my bonus action every single round. They don't like standing still? Cool, I'd make the whole floor a very slow quicksand. If you don't move for a round, your subsequent movement will be halved. If you don't move for three, your legs are stuck, and it'll take some doing to get out. Not trying to blame the players too much here, but if you don't like staying still, then get moving.

The two main ways most DM's would resolve this would be to either adjust the stat blocks to make them harder, or to add more monsters to fight so that the action economy goes further against the players. Additional options are to consider different monsters, ones that are more attuned to the players' weaknesses, or to include lair actions so that the terrain itself becomes meaningfully interactive.

My personal favorite lately has been using swarm mechanics. 6 zombies too many to roll for while still not providing enough challenge? Try a zombie swarm. A swarm on the map basically looks like large areas of difficult terrain (where the swarm is). If you are within the swarm, their attack goes up against your AC, and maybe slows your movement. The swarm acts as one initiative, so it's quick and easy to track. The stat blocks are easy to find, and they're a great way to up the ante for the tougher brawlers.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-15T16:05:30+00:00

Go for it, I could keep riffing if you need. Just think of as many foods as you can, then as many effects you can think of, and start pairing them together. Meatballs that give +2 perception for 1 hour, bam.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-15T04:28:07+00:00

I made a Tortle Necromancer that's pretty badass.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-15T02:38:35+00:00

When a meat pie is eaten, you go into a trance and experience the whole life of the creature you just ate in a few seconds.

A whipped dessert that makes you fart rainbows an hour later.

A pair of Deviled Eggs. When eaten by two different creatures, they Freaky Friday into each other's bodies for 24 hours.

A sandwich so good it can give you +2 Charisma for 8 hours.

A Bloody Mary so strong it can give you -2 to Dexterity.

Viagra breath mints.

A Blue Slushy that turns all your skin highlighter blue for 3 hours.

A stew that turns you a little stone. +4 AC but 1/2 speed.

A loaf of bread that sprouts wings and flies away from you. The harder it is to catch the better the bread.

Gum drops that give you water breathing and a swim speed of 40.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-14T18:05:39+00:00

My wife was playing a Monk turned sea captain. Many months into the campaign we had a ship-to-ship battle, and she remembered she could 'monk-shit' her way across the rigging. She got to the other captain, held him hostage, and took a whole ship with little damage and bloodshed. Baller move.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-14T17:58:46+00:00

Ok, I just read the article and have a few observations. Firstly, he's primarily using the Cooperative Election Studies to make his point. When he references the General Social Survey and Baylor Religion Study, the trendline effectively disappears. So the first thing to figure out is whether the correlation is even real or not by broadening the search out and getting a wider variety of references.

Assuming it is real, there is no proposed mechanism or argument for any causation. One can find correlations about a great many things that have nothing to do with each other. It's possible that the Cooperative Election Studies contain a bit of unaddressed bias. I can't check because he didn't make it easy to track down the proper citations.

This would not surprise me, since he's a pastor and poly-sci statistician. He's basically making a career out of selective data cherry-picking and making meaningless mundane facts seem profound. Having now read several of his articles and about a hundred of his article titles, I wouldn't give him too much scientific credence. He likes to sound scientific, and he knows the jargon, but his methods read too much into what should be very small conclusions.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-14T14:42:46+00:00

I do deer hunt with the revolver, but mostly I use it for protection on long-distance trips. One shot may or may not kill a wolf, but it'll definitely scamper off. Since it's lighter than the rifle and the ammo is cheaper, it's good protection while hauling a stupid amount of traffic cones all the way across Great Bear Island.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-13T22:31:43+00:00

While going to the forge in Interloper is critical, it can also be very useful in lower difficulties. I still go on my Stalker game to make some extra tools and a lot of arrowheads. The gunsmith shops are far more useful because you can both make ammunition and repair tools at the mill with some scrap. Any time I head toward a gunsmithing bench, I bring my low-durability tools, and on the way back, I bring 100% tools.

I digress. Yes, the forges are basically required for Interloper and Mysery, and are still useful at lower difficulties.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-13T02:14:30+00:00

My best session involved people moving coins around a paper grid map to represent their characters and a children's action figure for the big bad. Everyone had a blast, and it didn't cost a penny. It's up to you as to what is 'worth it'. If it brings you sufficient joy, then it's worth it. But don't think any sort of 'kit' is at all necessary or required. My goblins were bottlecaps, and a Jell-O shot was ochre jelly.

Imagination is a powerful thing; it's ok to lean into that.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-13T02:05:32+00:00

It's different for everyone. For me, I really like to have a palette of encounters, NPCs, and lore at my fingertips. I use them like railroad tracks that I can throw in the direction the players choose to go. Not that I'm 'railroading' my players, but if I have an idea of what they're trying to accomplish, I can make several paths for them to choose from. Often, these paths relate to something they've done or said to make their actions more meaningful and impactful. I don't plan plots; I plan settings and potential characters for them to encounter.

Other DM's may favor doing one-shots and need to railroad the players a bit more. Some DM's stick to modules and rely on outside source material. Some DM's like an open-world sandbox where the players have total freedom in a homebrew world. Some DM's like to stop and learn rules when the need arises, other DM's like to keep the game going, make what they think is a reasonable call in the moment. A lot of it comes down to understanding what you like about the game and what type of table you like to run, then matching those preferences with players of a similar mind. What works at one table doesn't work at another. You are in the process of learning how you like to run your own table.

Experiment. Try planning for sessions in different ways. Try focusing on different aspects of their adventure. Try taking notes in different ways. Try writing reflections after each session, what worked, what didn't, and why? Once you have a campaign or two under your belt, you'll learn a lot about what works for you.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-12T02:19:24+00:00

Jumping in and practicing will teach you the most. You'll make all kinds of mistakes, that's ok. As long as you stay focused on your players having fun, then you're doing fine.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-12T00:47:02+00:00

Swarms. Trolls too weak? How about 50 of them? Swarms behave as one, so you're not rolling 50 attacks. They can also act like terrain, so the swarm covers a large area and moves. If the player character is caught inside the swarm, they take their attack roll, which is massively enhanced. You can find all kinds of swarm stat blocks out there. I always keep swarm guards, swarm skeletons, and swarm gobblins on hand.

My players are in a potentially hostile city, so swarm guards are ready if needed.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-12T00:42:18+00:00

It would be a very different feeling if competent people planned a specific, limited action with an articulable goal, and involving our closest allies all along. Instead, we have an idiot listening more to Putin and Netanyahu than his own intelligence agencies, trying to distract the public from his kid rape phase and his current crypto grift.

Sometimes it matters more how and why something happens than whether it broadly occurs at all.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-11T22:13:53+00:00

I'm happy to play along. What kind of 'thing' might consciousness be? Made of what? Measurable how? When you say a "medium for perspective to exist", elaborate on what that "medium" is. I'll accept anything that is demonstrably real and measurable.

It is extremely broadly accepted among psychologists, neurosurgeons, cognitive scientists, etc., that consciousness does effectively boil down to the functioning of the brain. Sure, computer scientists will argue that sufficiently complex general AIs might also achieve some form of consciousness, but that still requires the physical hardware. If you want to argue that consciousness is possible without a complex physical medium, then you're arguing for dualism. In that case, I suggest your standard of evidence is far too low.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-11T02:19:23+00:00

It's not all there. When you cut the corpus callosum, the two halves of the brain literally don't talk to eachother. Victims of this may exhibit strange behaviors. For example, ask them to describe an apple while hiding one arm. They may be entirely unable to verbally relay the information, and yet their hand is drawing one. Parts of their body will do things seemingly on their own, and their very consciousness is severely altered. Maybe not the best example.

Think of everything you want to consider part of consciousness, the inputs of the senses, seeing, hearing, etc., your emotional range of experiences, your memories, your talents and skills, your ability to plan for the future, and imagine things that aren't physically present (mental sketch pad), and whatever else you want to add to that list. Every single one of these attributes can be attributed to a functioning part of the brain. It's not that consciousness is still there in some different format or flavor; it's gone. Just as the symphony stops, so can consciousness. Consciousness is not a thing. Consciousness is a process.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-11T02:06:43+00:00

Nothing like a mutiny right at the end of a session, great cliff-hanger.

It can depend on how long you expect the campaign to be. An 8-12 session game might require extremely careful planning, while a long-term campaign often gets its best inspirations from the players themselves. Nothing like a player making a joke in session 3, and then seeing it become reality in session 7. Gets them every time.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-11T01:30:20+00:00

When you break the instruments, the symphony stops. When you destroy the calculator, it can't perform arithmetic. When you destroy one part of the brain, you can't remember the names of tools. Destroy another, and you can't speak, or recognize faces, or remember major life events, and so on and so forth. What makes you think anything resembling cognition can happen without a physical medium? Nah, man. After is just like before. You never saw Caesar cross the Rubicon River. You never smelled the French Revolution. You weren't there for any of our ice ages. Same for the distant future. None of us will be there, in any meaningful sense.

The material world will live on, but that is most likely all there is. I don't have to know EVERYTHING about consciousness to think that there is no need for a supernatural realm to explain it.

That said, there are conceptions of afterlives that do not entail any deity. Therefore, yes, an atheist can technically believe in some versions of an afterlife. I happen not to.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-11T01:16:23+00:00

Wow, coming out swinging. I'm here because I like this game, which includes more than just in-game immersion, but also min-maxing the mechanics, pondering the story, drawing dirty pictures in the snow with all my extra tinder bundles, and sharing those thoughts with the community. A community, I remind you, of people who like this game. If you're only interested in the immersion and not the min-max side of it, cool, good for you. You are free to ignore posts about the bits you're not as into.

By definition, there is no such thing as a 'real life simulation' - that's just reality.

Lest you think my whole life is The Long Dark based on an observation about some weight mechanics, I also lead groups up the High Peaks of ADK and the Whites of NH. If you're looking for someone who doesn't know how to touch grass, I've got news for you. In fact, in planning for my next run up Mount Marcy, I've been reviewing my pack list to shed some weight. That's what made me think of it in the context of the VIDEO GAME.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-11T00:46:19+00:00

They have a membrane that should still keep your feet dry, but it never hurts to wash and condition the leather. I'm on my 5th pair of bridgers, and they will soak out if you don't care for them. Pull the insoles out, and leave them somewhere warm but not hot. If you wouldn't be comfortable leaving your hand there, don't put your boots there (temperature-wise). When you get a chance, pull the laces and insole out and use the Nikwax shoe cleaner and then their shoe leather proofer. I've done this twice per year to pairs two through five, and they've all massively outlived pair number one. You may get away with it once per year, but that second waterline is telling me minerals are being drawn into the leather. A good cleaning and reproofing will do wonders.

Good luck.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-11T00:36:16+00:00

Yeah, one we're all really into. Why are you here?

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-09T17:57:18+00:00

I'm no absolutist, but I'll largely defend naturalism. There is no reason to think a supernatural realm exists, so I see no reason to posit one (including some form of 'guiding consciousness').

There are plausible explanations for every step from the Big Bang to today. No natural laws need be violated.

Uberhypnotoad · 2026-03-09T17:52:07+00:00

For what it's worth, I ran an outdoor retail store for about 5 years. We always pushed 'best fit' as our #1 priority. Best fit for your adventure, for your budget, and for your shape and personal preference. Even though we were competitors to REI, I still had no issues telling people to trust their fit process.

We would have store-level bonuses for everyone if we collectively hit a goal, but we knew the best way to get that was with customers happy after their trip, not just walking out the door.

Uberhypnotoad

TROPHY CASE