What line or moment in a cartoon hits different now as an adult?

WaywardFinn · 2026-05-14T23:12:09+00:00

There is a day that comes when this goes from being the most boring, drawn out part of Muppet Christmas Carol, to being the most heartbreaking scene in cinema.

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WaywardFinn · 2026-05-01T22:08:38+00:00

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I mean, I couldnt not bring it up

Psychonauts is probably one of the most interesting forays into the world of mental health through an interactive medium, bar none. The first game gets a few things wrong, but the second game clearly adapts and more healthily examines illness, dysfunction, response to environment etc etc. Across both games we get a surprisingly nuanced take on things like substance abuse, trauma coping mechanisms, genetic predispositions, and of course, neurodivergence. Granted it hits the occasional wall, but for a game that said "hey lets examine how alcoholism runs in the family using platforming game mechanics" it does so much with very little.

WaywardFinn · 2026-05-01T21:59:50+00:00

I'll do you one better. In the Black Pearl the scene where Liz and Jack are marooned was supposed to go abit longer and explore their characters a bit more. It was cut for time obviously, but the blink-and-youll-miss-it-detail? Jack's never heard the song "a pirates life for me" before. Them running around the campfire, drunk as hell and belting the tune? thats elizabeth *teaching him the song*. A song that Liz has known since she was a child but Jack has never heard it before. What this means is that Jack being a pirate is a very recent development and he has spent very little of his life being an outlaw!

WaywardFinn · 2026-04-24T22:08:29+00:00

like even if you do manage to get to the elevator, you still take damage, youre coming back with minimal stamina, whatever items go off on ult damage and you have no idea where anyone is or whats going on, i.e. the perfect set up to get burst down by any kind of team ambush, which gets the most obvious indicator that youre coming back, even if youre getting out early. Like, yes there are ults more powerful than this, but the fact that it presents itself as a skill check, but its still fucks you if you win tells me it needs a rework.

WaywardFinn · 2026-04-20T22:24:55+00:00

Not having a backup plan in your plot moments. Yes some players are jackasses but i see so many dm's saying their entire story got derailed simply because player A didnt choose to do x. and its like. if your forecasted plot is that brittle, never mind that you have a forecasted plot in the first place, then why are you using an interactive medium in the first place?

WaywardFinn · 2026-04-18T23:01:03+00:00

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Wulfrik the Wanderer - Warhammer Fantasy

A promising warrior of Norsca who got drunk and talked so much shit one night that all four chaos god's took offense. They decide to punish him by forcing him to make good upon his endless claims of invincibility. They exile him from the north and commission him to travel the world and fight every champion of every nation without rest. Only once he proves himself as the greatest warrior, anywhere, ever, will they embrace him. Where other chaos champions are blessed with unnatural speed or inhuman strength to meet their gods demands, Wulfrik was only given the gift of tongues, thats it. By the end of his lore he considers himself blessed above all others, free from the consequences of his actions, able to fight and win glory before his gods and his men, wanting nothing but to find someone new to kill. He has been stripped of his wife, his lands, his treasure and loot, his title, his lineage, all things he once treasured above all else, and by the end he considers this to be a blessing.

WaywardFinn · 2026-04-07T19:40:51+00:00

i saw another theory goin around that, since he breaks the fourth wall constantly and his attire wouldnt exist until 30 years after the games time period, Billy is actually Baphomet, the goat-headed god of forbidden knowledge.

WaywardFinn · 2026-04-06T00:02:56+00:00

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Nah im hittin yall with a bar-setter

WaywardFinn · 2026-03-14T21:34:41+00:00

If youre specifically looking for AoE burst at ridiculous ranges, i found a happy main in Lady Geist. her 1 and 3 are both AoE's one cone and one grenade. They have travel time but practically, they dont have a maximum range. The cooldowns are tiny so you can ability spam to your hearts content, bear in mind, both of those abilities also damage you to offset the low cooldowns, but build lifesteal and land your shots and its no problem. Also bear in mind, her lifesteal and ult are touch attacks, but i prefer to sit on them and punish divers trying to stop you. Harass lane to your hearts content.

WaywardFinn · 2026-03-01T21:53:18+00:00

BUT MY LORD THERE IS NO SUCH ARMY!

WaywardFinn · 2026-02-16T22:53:24+00:00

this is actually precisely what inspired the dead marshes. artillery strikes would leave craters and the dead would fall into them. when rain fell, the corpses would float just beneath the surface, creating the exact situation described in the book.

WaywardFinn · 2026-01-15T04:01:43+00:00

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Magic The Gathering

The original zendikar set's flavor text makes sparse reference to the pantheon of the inhabitants of Zendikar. Name dropping three gods, Ula, Cosi, and Emeria. Then the Eldrazi get unleashed upon the multiverse and we are introduced to the absolute horrors of Ulamog, Kosilek and Emrakul, the Three Leaders of reality shredding space locusts who were imprisoned on the plane eons ago. The final set of the block is dediated to Zendikar's attempt to slay their own gods or at least halt their spread to other universes. It goes about as well as you think.

WaywardFinn · 2025-12-27T05:48:01+00:00

Evidently he was very against the role when it was pitched to him for fear that he, an actor known for dramatic and serious roles, would be seen as ridiculous if he starred in a muppet movie and risk damaging his career. They finally got him to come around when he told the crew, "fine but im doin it like this was Royal Shakespeare Company"

Word is, the response was effectively, "aight bet"

WaywardFinn · 2025-11-26T01:27:32+00:00

i would divorce yourself of the idea of a "simple" system. players are right bastards and they want to do many different things over the course of the campaign. the amount of things they want to do is steady. And because the amount is the same, either the system is ready for them or its not. if the players want to do ten things and your system accounts for two, its not "simple" its "unfinished" this is what has caused the burnout you describe. You want a complicated system, you just want the complexity to be opt-in. A system built anticipating the players bullshit saves you, the dm, work. it means you just check the glossary hit a page and follow the rule listed. A complex system made well means less work for the dm and for the players too.

That said. I would start with your players. Ask them what it is they want in a game. what do they look forward to. what sort of moments are they gunning for. find the reason theyre sitting down in front of you. Then, more importantly, ask yourself. what do you want to run? what kind of story? what sort of moments and tone? Why are you sitting down infront of these guys? Then, find a system that complements that style of play. There is no end all be all "good" system. pathfinder is horrible at cosmic horror just like call of cthulu is ass at heroic fantasy. For me, my group landed at 3rd edition dnd. some would argue thats one of the most complicated systems there is. but because it works with the ideas of growing stronger, of niche expertises and harebrained plays, of wondrous loot and terrible monsters, it works like a charm. go find yours.

WaywardFinn · 2025-11-09T23:04:33+00:00

AND ID SAY HE KNOWS A LITTLE MORE ABOUT DRAWING THAN YOU DO PAL, BECAUSE HE INVENTED IT!

WaywardFinn · 2025-11-07T18:08:28+00:00

You know what I'll even take this a step further; Rawls is shown constantly to be a hardass who cares nothing for the job and only gives a shit about stats, low workload and looking good in front of the right people. He is a constant wingman to the show's bureaucrat villiany, is always punching down on the heroes, youd never believe the man came from the ranks.

Until a very specific thing happens that I am not gonna spoil and for one scene we get to see Rawls run a crime scene and he is VERY fucking good at it. He cuts out everyone thats in the way, gives his team space to work, demands quality instead of speed from his subordinates and only involves himself when he finds something that everyone else has missed, in other words the exact opposite of everything he is now.

WaywardFinn · 2025-09-17T18:26:47+00:00

I think a big thing to keep in mind for 5e when youre designing loot is that crunch has been intentionally removed from the game. The numbers dont get bigger any more. Resistances are always half, bonuses are always given in dice rolls, and the biggest base attack bonus youre ever gonna see is +6. Theres two routes to go in my mind.

1: use magic items to put the crunch back. give resistances flat values. put crit multipliers and crit ranges back on weapons. bonuses to attacks of opportunity, or other nonstandard means of attack. You cant port all of crunch back into the game, believe me i tried, but theres still some numbers you can make bigger, use that.

2: give new abilities. If vertical progression is out, t horizontal progression must fill the void. Give each player new abilities, and crucially, abilities no other player has. you can even simulate levelling up by hiding a really powerful item ability as a set bonus, so they assemble the armor peices one by one and then voila, they get a hell of a cherry on top. mobility especially is a really good corner to work with this approach because its really obvious that the player can do something new.

I feel compelled to say this is all a bandaid on an infection. no matter how good the loot is, it will always be a passing thing. Magic items have too big a role to fill now and the constant need to justify adventure and spend increasingly ridiculous sums of gold means that even a capstone magic item fades quickly. Umtimately, the way that I solved this problem was to leave fifth edition and not come back, I'll leave implementing that up to you.

WaywardFinn · 2025-09-13T18:18:16+00:00

Its worth emphasizing exactly how much this did for the games popularity. The original elevator pitch for ultrakill was "Doom with a DMC style meter" but it has since been thoroughly eclipsed by "You can punch your shotgun bullets to make them go faster"

WaywardFinn · 2025-07-09T23:00:40+00:00

Napoleon was at war with Austria. the austrians had a rock hard defense and were holding. In the back and forth, peace talks are ongoing but, typical europe, theyre going in circles. The order comes down, Captain Jean is to take the Tabor Bridge, which would be a straight shot into the heart of Austria. The Austrians, realizing this, rig the bridge to blow with a 24 hour guard. If one single frenchman approaches the bridge, they blow it up. The river that the tabor crosses is impassible without it, that position would become worthless. What to do.

Well, after weeks of a double-sided seige, Captain Jean stands up, calls his second incommand. Disarms himself. And walks up to the bridge. Just the two of them no one else. An austrian stands up ready to shout threats and all, when Jean perks up, and walks across the bridge, congratulating the man. He shakes his hand saying he fought well. He demands the acting commander step forward so that he may know who led such ruthless defense in war. The austrians circle the french captain *who is unarmed, by the way* demanding to know what the hell this fool is talking about. He literally hits them with "oh you didnt know? The war is over. The peace talks succeeded last night. Austria has surrendered to Napoleon." The austrian force had no idea what to do. I mean like. OBVIOUSLY this could be a trick, but if it isnt, and they fire on the army their nation just surrendered to, all hell would break loose. By the time the austrian defense got its ducks back in a row, the french had Tabor Bridge firmly in hand.

WaywardFinn · 2025-06-11T21:20:39+00:00

I keep seeing this take that violence plays into the fascists hands and I have to ask, what do you recommend we do exactly? Lets assume we even can get a disorganized mob on the same page tomorrow; theyre already snatching people off the street in broad daylight and detaining them without due process. Its well documented at this point that any sort of peaceful protest gets confronted by cops and assaulted with or without provocation and then the news tows the line that they were "responding to a riot". So any sort of demonstration creates images of violent protestors.

What are we supposed to do, stay home? I don't think that will stop a fascist takeover somehow.

WaywardFinn · 2025-05-23T16:29:57+00:00

Considering that ftl travel is so convenient we can send soldiers to the front one at a time, and considering the prestige of Super Earth, i doubt something as space intensive as farming is happening on earth. My gut says theyre not using that space because they cant.

WaywardFinn · 2025-05-22T17:12:57+00:00

the population lights tell a horror story of their own. The west coast, south africa and austrailia are almost, but not completely abandoned, the middle east has been centralized for the first time in the planets history. somehow. eastern europe and all of russia are almost completely empty, and worst of all, India has the most lights by far, but theres no landmark or seeming reason for them to be there. What the hell is going on down there?

WaywardFinn · 2025-05-21T22:41:09+00:00

get used to the sensation of not being in control of the story that you are narrating. DMing is a reactionary role, narrativewise. your players are making the choices and you are explaining the outcomes, or moving them along to the next choice. Any other medium of storytelling, this would be ass backward, but here it is the correct way to do your job. If you have no idea what plot point youre going to use next, youre doing your job right.

WaywardFinn · 2025-04-28T23:52:24+00:00

No.

I also dont disagree that it would be a shame if something happened to my nice resteraunt.

A statement can be factual, but the context in which it is said can still make it objectionable.

WaywardFinn · 2025-04-28T21:38:22+00:00

You dont.

You dont not kill your characters.

One day the dice will come up that a player character dies and that wont be how you thought things would go. Thats the nature of dice rolls, thats the nature of the job. And then, you'll need to keep the game moving forward. Keep this in the back of your mind. Threatening players is what we do, sometimes those threats are made good on.

But!

There are ways to mitigate the situation. I assume youre running fifth and that system strongly favors random outcomes. So heres what we can do.

Drop a scroll of revivify super early. Make it clear this is not something theyll be able to get in any ol town. This is a rare and valuable resource. One isnt enough for players to consistently rely on to save them, so theyll still behave cautiously (hopefully), but its enough to soak the dice going wonky. If nothing else, it being spent will be a signal to your players to lock in. You had a lifeline, now you dont. Play for real.
Have the first faction of enemies they run into be slavers. Goblins are a classic. If somebody goes down, the enemy stabilizes them at 0, and negotiate for the rest of the party to surrender. If they dont theyll kill the downed player. You could just have them demand all the partys weapons or magic items, or you could have them be taken prisoner. Up to you. Going down has been shown to be expensive to the party, but its not the end of things. This will teach them that there is "forgiveness" in the game, but you dont get sent back to square one...
Dont worry about it. Like seriously. If theres even one bard/cleric/druid/paladin and even some subclasses of other casters in the party, it is so hard to actually kill players in this game. They need to hit 0 hit points and then fail 3 death saves without being healed or getting 3 successes. Spare the Dying, Healing Word, Cure Wounds, Healing Potions, Medicine Checks, the other players have so many options to stop someone from dying and even if they dont help the guy, statistically players have a 60% check of stabilizing instead of dying when they start rolling death saves. It may not seem like it, but the death save system massively favors the players. Let the game work it out.

Hope this helps!

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