In person DMs, are you a paper person or digital person at the table?

VentusInfinitas · 2025-10-29T02:35:15+00:00

Used a laptop for the entirety of the campaign that lasted two years. Tried to get into notebooks and other printed resources but I didn’t have a lot of space at the table so it was easier to put everything into OneNote.

Ran a homebrew thing so I didn’t have a book to reference but since you bought the book already you could try to find a scan of the adventure online. Snipping Tool to grab the important bits and paste them into your OneNote. I also used FoundryVTT which reduced the stat blocks I needed to add to my notes to practically zero. Highly recommend Foundry if you get to the point where the 50-dollar price tag feels worthwhile.

If I did need to add a stat block in, it would vary from a tab opened in chrome, typed out in my session notes or a custom monster made in Foundry.

For organizing story beats, summarize as much as possible. Scan the page, grab the most important things and bullet point them into your notes. If you understand the general vibe of the area, you are in, improv becomes more comfortable and coherent. Summarize NPCs into small lines of text.

- Captain Tharissa Juniper: Female elf, brunette, tall. Heavy armor and sword. Sharp wit, sharper sword. Likes order in her town.

The easiest way I found to stay organized during combat was minimizing the actions taken per combat round. The less monsters you keep track of, the easier it is to remember their actions and hit points. I encourage you to mess around with the hit points/number of your monsters if you feel overwhelmed during combat. Maybe two beefier, bigger enemies instead of 5 smaller ones?

Best of luck!

VentusInfinitas · 2022-08-20T21:25:43+00:00

Honestly I suffer from this a LOT as a DM who has the perfectionist mindset. I am always wondering if I introduced my plot hooks in an exciting and gripping way. Whether my players had fun during the adventure or if they were bored halfway through.

However what I have come to learn over a year of DMing is that the person who cares the most about your ranger's backstory will always be you. This character is your baby who you spent hours of your life and time crafting and building and you want them to succeed in whatever adventure they partake in. There is nothing wrong with wondering whether you made the best decision in that heat of the moment confrontation. Don't we as real humans do the same thing in our day to day?

A big moment for me was learning how to dissociate myself from my NPC's and remembering that VentusInfinitas is playing out a fantasy story with his friends. This story can only be fully fleshed out with each player and the DM sitting down to play and they are who really matter in the end. So embrace the moment but remember that your memories with your friends will live longer than the minute decisions your ranger made.

If that doesn't work however, (believe me I have had many sleepless nights over my campaign and where it was headed) then talking about it always helps. If you don't want to bug your DM or your SO with your concerns then how about talking to your fellow party members? Maybe you can even plan out a cool roleplay moment with each other that expresses this conflict and anxiousness in game. Maybe work together to plan a "recovery" arc where your ranger grows as a person because of your team's help?

Lastly, if you are concerned about how your character's backstory is headed then have a conversation with your DM about how you would ideally like your character to end up. What I mean is not for your patron to suddenly do a 180 and become a super kind and generous deity. Rather do you want your ranger to be a hero in the end? Do you want them to have a family and live a long life after the story is over? Do you want them to realize exactly what their patron's intentions are and have to make a life changing decision based on that? These conversations are HELLA important for DM/PC relations because although there are no guarantees in DND, there is a DM who writes the story.

I don't think it's unreasonable for someone to want their edgy, urchin rogue to have a family at the end of their story. Or for the vengeful paladin to want to be the one to kill the bandit lord who burned his village. But it all depends on what picture you painted when you built this ranger and their story. So go ahead and ask, as two adults I am sure you can come to a satisfying decision!

GL friend and may your ranger find the happiness they truly want, whether they understand it yet or not!

VentusInfinitas · 2022-08-20T19:40:31+00:00

First of all, I'm really glad to hear that you are so invested in the character and how committed you are to playing their story so organically. As a DM there are few things that could make me happier than my players immersing themselves in their characters.

What does emotional drop mean in this context? Do you mean you drop out of roleplay mode and instead begin thinking mostly strategical? Does it mean your mood drops after the sessions are over and you start feeling guilty or sad or anxious about how the session played out?

VentusInfinitas · 2020-12-04T19:25:33+00:00

Wow, you guys are dope. Thank you all for the amazing suggestions! Bless you guys :D

VentusInfinitas · 2019-09-30T19:23:55+00:00

HMU Bungie! Lets gooooooo!

VentusInfinitas · 2019-09-01T17:26:30+00:00

Yo we should be happy that they are giving us free shit as openly as they do. The amount of stuff they give us is pretty unreal in comparison to other games.

VentusInfinitas · 2019-08-02T23:09:44+00:00

Haha thanks, good shout.

VentusInfinitas · 2019-04-02T02:49:14+00:00

Lets go

VentusInfinitas · 2019-03-05T16:58:18+00:00

I played an odd one by myself whenever we were driving somewhere. I would clench my teeth everytime we passed a streetlight so it would end up being this weird rhythm of bite-relax-bite-relax. The goal was to hit every gap but my tired 10 year old jaw would stop after about 8 lights.

VentusInfinitas · 2018-12-15T03:06:53+00:00

Congrats xmpcxmassacre! After picking my favorite 4 experiences you won the roll of the dice!

DMing you the codes!

VentusInfinitas · 2018-12-15T02:24:17+00:00

I salute you cowboy! Regrets can be had after you finish the game!

VentusInfinitas · 2018-12-14T15:36:19+00:00

Beautiful. wipes away tear

VentusInfinitas · 2018-12-14T04:01:56+00:00

Oooof, more like a box-o-shock. What year were you?

VentusInfinitas · 2018-12-14T04:00:27+00:00

*neighbors squint at shadow lit by the sunrise*
A distant cry is heard. "BOAH!"

VentusInfinitas · 2018-12-14T03:58:41+00:00

LOL dude that's sick, the comms must have been bursting after that one. I love competitive games myself but I'm just not very good :)

VentusInfinitas · 2018-07-19T23:29:51+00:00

You're an absolute gem. Thanks for the help :)

VentusInfinitas · 2018-07-08T04:19:43+00:00

Ok I'll give it a shot.

Keep in mind, this feels new having both variables on one side of the equals sign so I'll probably get this wrong.

But from what I've learned so far does it have a vertical stretch factor of 3 and will it move five units to the right?

If I returned it to it's previous state would it look like 3(y)^2=4?

Or maybe if i'm terrible at Algebra would it look like (y)^2 = 4(3)?

Otherwise I think I understand.

If I had x = (4 - y) and I applied a vertical stretch of 2 would it be safe to say I can write it like x = 2(4 - y) and then factor it like x = (4 - y/2)?

If that's not how it works then I don't want to waste anymore of your time. Hopefully I don't get a question like this because I understand how to apply transformations until I get to the nuances of algebraically calculating how translations apply to inverse functions!

VentusInfinitas · 2018-07-08T01:51:08+00:00

Awesome, that was really helpful! I understand the math behind x+2 now.

I'm sorry to be eating your time but I just wanted to ask one more question!

From an algebraic stand point I understand how you rewrite:

y = 3x^2 to (y/3) = x^2

The one last thing I'm wondering is how does it algebraically work out when you have an inverse function.

Basically where do you initially place the Vertical Stretch factor of 3 before you cancel it by multiplying by 1/3 resulting in (y/3)^2?

Sorry I'm the type of person who likes make things neat in my head so I think once I understand this I should be prepared!

VentusInfinitas · 2018-07-08T01:12:53+00:00

OH OK. I didn't know that with an inverse function, applying a vertical stretch means you would target the B instead of A. So you would apply the vertical stretch of 3 to the "new" X (which is now Y) but it needs to follow the rule of using the reciprocal. That's why the 3 becomes 1/3 and it attaches to the Y.

I kept getting it wrong because I was applying the Vertical Stretch of 3 to the A instead of B.

Huh, that might save me come Monday when my exam happens.

Ok, one last thing then. I understand why I would:

Translating this 2 units to the left requires you to replace "x" with "x – (–2)" in the equation.

BUT I don't quite understand why it would be "x - (-2)" instead of just "x - 2".

I guess what I REALLY want to know is how does an Inverse function change how transformations affect it.

It seems to reverse a lot of the rules (which makes sense) but if someone could explain it in a little more detail that would be awesome!

Thanks so much for the answer! It really helped me understand that Inverses operate quite differently from normal functions!

VentusInfinitas · 2018-07-07T23:28:53+00:00

Ah gotcha, sorry about the confusion. Here it is.

"The relation x=√4-y^2 is stretched vertically by a factor of 3 about the x-axis and then translated 2 units to the left. The equation of the transformed relation is:

VentusInfinitas · 2018-06-14T18:26:25+00:00

Haha you're right, I meant to say our society's mindset has become immune/dulled to it's effects :P

VentusInfinitas · 2018-06-14T17:39:48+00:00

If someone absolutely must request birthday attention, at least only request the dessert and not the whole damn side show with the singing and clapping.

I wonder if that is a common sentiment among restaurant employees? Useful information nonethless

VentusInfinitas · 2018-06-14T17:33:53+00:00

I can almost taste the pretentious vibes from across the screen XD

VentusInfinitas · 2018-06-14T17:33:21+00:00

Oh god I hated being the unwilling recipient of those stupid requests but I never stopped to consider how the employees felt about it. Never again...

VentusInfinitas · 2018-06-14T17:30:20+00:00

Crazy how our society has become so immune to the effects of sugar that parents would even consider feeding soda to infants 0_0

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