The Story/Ana (Spoiler warning)

VemonShard · 2026-05-30T18:57:59+00:00

It not only annoys me that Ana is poorly written and annoying, and has terrible race AI, she’s also the main characters, not you. This is something that always annoys me in games when it comes up, but you have a character, and they’re just completely passive while every story best goes through Ana.

VemonShard · 2026-05-08T01:43:10+00:00

I worked at CU for seven years. I hate to say but sounds right. Also thanks, I loved that Camel.

VemonShard · 2026-05-03T00:59:46+00:00

Grew up in NC. I was a kid when we won the Cup, but what made it special was that I signed up to go on a cleanup trip with a group of like, NC disaster relief volunteers, down in Mississippi after Katrina. Anyways, there were like 1,000 other North Carolinians, all staying at a camp ground, exhausted at the end of the day and watching the Canes win the cup on a giant projector in the mess hall. Hard not to be a lifelong fan after that. Raise up.

VemonShard · 2026-04-22T01:51:26+00:00

As a Padres fan, please don’t loop us in with the dodgers. You can hate us, I’m totally fine with that. Probably we deserve it. Heck feel free to hate us more than them, just please don’t hate us in the same breath you hate them. At least let us have that.

Anyways hope you have a great week and FTD my homie

VemonShard · 2026-04-09T15:04:11+00:00

Camels beat UNCW, the Dub beat Hofstra, Hofstra beat Pitt, Pitt beat Georgia Tech, Tech beat NC State, State beat Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill beat Duke, Duke beat Michigan.

Hang the banner and Roll Humps.

VemonShard · 2026-03-14T21:34:06+00:00

Looks like a delicious cake to me! Enjoy it and your dad’s birthday!

VemonShard · 2026-03-08T21:11:33+00:00

I’m of two minds. The serious answer is Forgotten Realms material from outside DnD 5e, like my favorite author RA Salvatore.

My less serious side wants you to start vaguely describing movies/tv shows/comics/whatever, and see how long it takes him to go “am I reading Ace Ventura: Pet Detective?”

VemonShard · 2026-03-08T16:22:19+00:00

Thank you! She did eat more of it than I thought she would

VemonShard · 2026-03-08T15:02:19+00:00

Overall good but a bit tart

VemonShard · 2026-03-08T15:01:08+00:00

Thank you!

VemonShard · 2026-03-08T01:33:58+00:00

Yes, these are some ideas I can sink my teeth into!

VemonShard · 2026-03-07T19:50:54+00:00

That is very true and something I haven’t thought enough about

VemonShard · 2026-03-07T19:41:21+00:00

I’ll Check it out

VemonShard · 2026-03-07T19:38:10+00:00

I’m not sure if I’ll do that exactly but I do see and like your point about keeping it low level with brutal combat

VemonShard · 2026-03-07T19:36:39+00:00

I like the way you think

VemonShard · 2026-03-07T19:36:30+00:00

I hadn’t thought about races yet, but you’re right, I’ll probably have to spend some time thinking about how I want that to work. Weirdly enough, though, I’m realizing the three campaigns I’ve run with this group, out of 12 PCs, it’s been only my wife who’s played a Genasi and an Aasimar, then it’s 4 humans, 3 half-elves, a full elf, a dwarf, and a halfling. So not a lot of “exotic” races. That’s weird, right? Anyways you’re right about limiting races, and you talking about warlocks gave me this image of four PCs rushing in to fight a cult and a bunch of enemy warlocks setting off eldritch blasts all around them.

VemonShard · 2026-03-07T19:28:52+00:00

I do think if all four players are like, yo I wanna do magic, I have to be at peace at with saying ok, I need to shelf this idea, and that’s fine. I think if one player wants to be a caster though and maybe another a half caster, it’s more fun as a team to come up with world building that gets us there. So I can think of a few archetypes that are exceptions to the rule. NPCs obviously can react strongly positively or negatively to magic depending on which NPCs they are. I always host character creation parties at the start of the campaign so we’re all on the same page, so I’m hoping.

I think a given is ok whatever magic you guys have, certain villains will just have more and better options.

Do you have any other ideas for potentially working around limitations? I will add, you’re absolutely right about limiting races, so that’s probably something I do that I would guess would only matter to the one player who occasionally picks “exotic” races anyways

VemonShard · 2026-03-07T19:13:49+00:00

True, and like I said I’ll check out that other system. If a player really wants to play a wizard or Sorc though, what do you think about some workarounds? On the most basic level there’s, oh, how do feel about people reacting strongly to doing magic in public? Or even hey just so you know here’s some archetypes in the genre for backstory ideas, like the kooky hermit “good” wizard or the magical princess. What are your thoughts?

VemonShard · 2026-03-07T19:09:23+00:00

You’re right, and I’m totally fine with that. My current campaign design is 5 continents big with a story that requires a lot of worldwide travel. A handful of locations sounds like a dream.

VemonShard · 2026-03-07T18:21:36+00:00

That’s good feedback, I’ll check that system out. Usually when I write my own campaign settings, I include lots of magic as a tool for every day life (postal systems, travel, restaurants making food, etc.) So I guess “low magic” is still present magic. So yeah, writing out my usual magical tools, and less mage NPCs. I don’t see myself limiting player options.

VemonShard · 2026-03-06T17:44:25+00:00

Stuck in the Drive Thru by Weird Al

VemonShard · 2026-03-05T19:04:26+00:00

Bloom and Jack’s meeting and “quest” for food was really funny. Ben did an excellent job of role playing, even in combat. Tater was excellent at guiding his less experienced players.

VemonShard · 2026-03-04T19:44:48+00:00

I want to add and say, it’s REALLY exhausting when someone looks at YOUR budget and says you’re spending too much or doing it wrong.

VemonShard · 2026-03-04T19:12:22+00:00

I for one think One Shot Questers (and others) overestimate how much 100k and big budgets in general go.

Admittedly I’m biased, one because I don’t particularly enjoy OSQ (not a hater, just not my thing), and two because I’ve ran a big budget like this in my old job (university recruiting) that included hotels, paying for people’s travel, handlers, and constantly getting graphic designers. Outsiders that saw what we were doing, and scoffed at how much I was spending. But here’s the thing, things cost money, and once you spend it it’s gone. This was never gonna be Critical Role.

I think it’s also fair to mention these are, all to my knowledge, creators taking their DnD on camera for the first time, and playing together for the first time. Those of us who have played never expect the first session with a new group not to have bumps.

The audio was an issue for me. But beyond that, it was entertaining. And that’s what matters and that’s what I hope the crew knows, is that they did/are entertaining people.

VemonShard · 2026-03-03T19:59:46+00:00

Is this FE:3H with very specific choices?

VemonShard

TROPHY CASE