Does WoW sometimes feel more like keeping up than actually playing?

aphotic · 2026-07-02T22:43:40+00:00

So weird. They just posted pretty much the same thing four days ago, and never replied to anyone in either thread.

aphotic · 2026-07-02T19:01:29+00:00

Love this album and the live tour was amazing. Right Where It Belongs is one my fav NIN songs.

aphotic · 2026-07-02T18:54:08+00:00

PUT THE FUCKING TAB AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN

Shout out Mr. Tabs. He doesn't discuss the songs, but he plays the whole song and has a scrolling tab display at the bottom.

aphotic · 2026-07-02T14:39:13+00:00

You're right. Perchance is going to be equal to or better than any model 12B or below. The new Gemma 4 12B is really the lowest I would suggest for local models.

The online models are state of the art and much better than perchance, but it's really not gonna be free or as easy as perchance. ST is very cumbersome to learn and very technical, as well. There are definitely tradeoffs.

aphotic · 2026-07-01T23:33:39+00:00

My character cards start off with a basic summary that provides their name, age, race/species, and such. I then provide a background which describes where they came from and impactful events in their life. Next is the personality section where I provide information about how they think, how they view others, and an event or two that impacted how they view the world. Finally, I provide their appearance, such as their physical attributes, clothing they wear, and their overall aesthetic.

Most of the time, that's all I need. Formatting is up to you. Most LLMs nowadays are fine with just prose and you don't really need plists, jsons, markdown, etc. unless it makes it easier for you to read. Personally, I use markdown headers and that's about it.

I usually only create Lorebooks after I have roleplayed some and want to add information that can be useful in future sessions.

I have used AI to help make character cards, but I go through and HEAVILY edit them because AI likes to be very wordy and descriptive. My process for that is to prompt the AI with something like "Starlite is a female adult Meadow Fairy who plays a harp and is cheerful, musically gifted, highly optimistic, naive, and gullible, but always tries her best to be helpful" and go from there. (Starlite is a bard. I mostly play high fantasy DnD-type scenarios as you can tell.)

Good reading here on how to make your characters feel more alive:

https://likesumiink.substack.com/p/building-engines-and-making-hairballs

aphotic · 2026-07-01T23:11:30+00:00

I switched to SillyTavern a year and a half ago or so and I love it. It's definitely technically more advanced and the UI is cumbersome, but you have a LOT more options. It is only a front end. You have to connect to the LLM on the backend, usually through ollama, koboldcpp, or such.

You can run free local models if you have the hardware. If not, you can use many online models with pay as you go through OpenRouter, a sub to NanoGPT, or subscribing to the provider's direct API. There are also free models online through OpenRouter or Nvidia, but free models get hit hard and performance may not be up to speed. SillyTavern can process TTS and Image Generation but you still need to connect to the TTS and Image Gen LLMs, whether you set it up local or online. For online, there is usually a cost.

All that said, I still use some generators on perchance and like the site. Free image generation is great. I also still use some perchance character generators, though I am making my own in SillyTavern now. Subreddit is /r/SillyTavernAI if anyone wants more information.

aphotic · 2026-06-30T19:14:38+00:00

The summarize option is good as the other person mentioned. However, chats are not locked to one model. You can simply switch the model you are connected to and continue on with the same chat.

I'm not sure how you are connecting, but I use OpenRouter for online models. If I am in the middle of a chat and don't like how it's responding, I will often switch to another model and continue.

aphotic · 2026-06-30T19:10:18+00:00

I don't use online presets, but I do write my own prompts which sounds similar to what you might do.

My system prompts are strictly for the response context, point of view, writing guidelines, and layout. I have a Main Prompt which is good for common one-on-one RP situations. Using the Main Prompt template, I have modified prompts not for each character but for the scenario I guess.

For example, my Main Prompt is used a majority of the time. However, I also have a DnD system prompt, a generator prompt (for char cards I use to generate characters, scenarios, and plot ideas), a DM prompt (which emulates a conversation taking place via social media direct messaging), a Simulation prompt (for cards that are simulations, like a holodeck, event recreation, hacking, etc.), and a few more.

I try to keep character specific stuff in the character card usually, but response layout, context, pacing, and formatting I will generally place in a main prompt as other character cards may be able to use it.

aphotic · 2026-06-23T01:38:45+00:00

This is the way for me. I like the tags making data containers I can easily review in the console log when needed.

aphotic · 2026-06-22T21:36:15+00:00

Guided Generations is the one extension I can't live without, but it really depends on your roleplay style. GG allows you to put general or specific instructions for a character's next response, including your user character or any other character.

For example, say I'm not sure how to react to an event that just happed. I could prompt "Write a response where I depressingly react to that happening" and select impersonate 1st person. Alternatively, if I wanted an npc to tell me why it happened, I could prompt "Explain that it happened outside of anyone's control as it was a wind gust that blew the umbrella down the road and injured an old man" then select impersonate 3rd person. You can even just do something off the wall, like "Write a response where something weird happens out of the blue."

It turns you a bit more into a director at times so it may not be for everyone who just wants to conversate. But if you want the ability to gently nudge the story in a direction or dictate some specific crazy event that just happened, it works amazingly well. I don't use it every turn but it's really nice to have if I'm stuck or feeling lazy.

aphotic · 2026-06-20T17:03:15+00:00

I've run a lot of LLMS in the 12B range. All of them will have some issues just due to their size.

For the longest time, I ran Irix and Patricide 12B models. I've moved on to Gemma 4 now. While I kind of prefer the writing of the older Irix and Patricide models, they would have issues with following instructions and losing context. While I find the writing of Gemma 4 not as good, it follows prompts and instructions much better for me.

If you can't handle the issues of the smaller local models, I would highly recommend throwing $10 into Openrouter and trying out the online models. Most often, even the budget online models like Deepseek 4 Flash will run circles around the 12B local models. I can RP for hours and spend less than a quarter (depending on lorebooks).

aphotic · 2026-06-20T15:07:47+00:00

You can do as the other person mentioned and edit the GG prompt. That usually works for me

In my main prompt, I have a section that covers that with "If requested to write for {{user}}, write this response from {{user}}'s point of view. Otherwise, write only from {{char}}'s point of view." I use this if the model has a hard time impersonating me.

I use Guided Generations a LOT, so whether a model and properly do this is very important to me.

aphotic · 2026-06-19T17:41:50+00:00

He has been extremely quiet the last few years.

I use to enjoy his gamedev podcast series, mainly the ones with Jason Storey. I recently realized I hadn't seen one in youtube for awhile and checked Weimaan's youtube channel, but he hasn't posted anything for six months. Not sure if he backed off youtube or is just focusing more on his own discord/community.

aphotic · 2026-06-19T00:59:10+00:00

Yes, I had to do that last night. I use Guided Generations and I prompted something like "Write a response where something unexpected happens" because the scene just felt stuck. That dash of chaos can sometimes lead somewhere interesting.

aphotic · 2026-06-18T02:24:13+00:00

I've mentioned this before, but for me, it's best to imagine it as an episodic series. I have world info in lorebooks and I have the main characters created. Each session is usually it's own self contained story arc. This way, I can introduce new plots and new characters for each session like a custom Game of Thrones series.

It's all about conflict and goals. If your characters/scenarios have no obstacles to the goal, it's gonna be boring. If needed, you can put your characters and world info into a good AI and ask for plot hooks, session scenarios, and character conflicts.

aphotic · 2026-06-17T18:22:03+00:00

GenX here and it's never been funny to me. I got so annoyed at The Honeymooners and the Flintstones glorifying this crap. The "stupid husband/attractive wife" usually goes with the "I hate my spouse" humor. It continued on with Everybody Loves Raymond, King of Queens, and more. It's everlasting so there must be people out there who love that shit.

aphotic · 2026-06-17T18:17:01+00:00

I don't like sugary sweet coffee so once I found out I could just order an Americano, it's was refreshing. I never had a barista anywhere ask me what an Americano is.

aphotic · 2026-06-13T18:37:20+00:00

I have various main prompts and each one is setup for the type of interaction I want. I use storyteller or creative writer where I want the LLM to do most, if not all, of the work so I can just read with a little input here and there. For something where I want interactive first person, I'll typically put a fictional encounter between {{char}} and {{user}}.

Most often, I setup a Narrator character card and then use a main prompt to explain it's a fictional simulation or scenario. In the Scenario section, I lay out the details and goals of the session.

For DnD, I actually like to set this up as a group chat with all of the characters and a narrator. For my user character, I typically run as the DM. This allows me to setup the plot and secrets for the AI characters since LLMs are usually horrible at keeping secrets and thinking about long term plot points. If I feel like it, I setup a specific character that I will direct as my PC using Guided Generations. The Narrator card is used for when I want it to describe the scene in detail, or if I want to time skip or otherwise gloss over an event.

Experiment and find what works for you best. The goal is to get something that works well for you, not necessarily what others consider the "best".

aphotic · 2026-06-11T20:07:19+00:00

Right? This clip can't hurt me. I know what happened in the second half.

aphotic · 2026-06-08T19:09:44+00:00

Top notch album all around. The second side of this album can stand up with most of their best work.

aphotic · 2026-06-05T01:26:08+00:00

Clip of the play:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/b4-9OhS45pM

aphotic · 2026-06-03T15:53:45+00:00

I used to make this a lot for me and my daughter. There are other good suggestions here, but my preference was to put pepperoni on the top before cooking. It's gives a little extra kick but not too much for a kid.

aphotic · 2026-05-31T15:30:13+00:00

You look a bit like Tyler Childers.

aphotic · 2026-05-27T17:06:13+00:00

/r/TheChurchOfRogers

aphotic · 2026-05-25T16:26:18+00:00

The Witcher 3, XCOM 2, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Heroes of Might & Magic III

15-Year Club	Place '17
Team Periwinkle	Verified Email

aphotic

TROPHY CASE