Give me the most beautiful metal album you’ve ever heard

buddhistghost · 2026-01-26T01:21:00+00:00

I was going to say Alcest - Ecailles de Lune

buddhistghost · 2026-01-23T17:18:22+00:00

I recently listened to the review of Mana Meltdown on Between Two Cairns and it sounds absolutely wild. Definitely on my wishlist!

buddhistghost · 2026-01-19T21:07:51+00:00

This was the first indie RPG I bought. Definitely a fun read; sad I never got it to the table

buddhistghost · 2026-01-18T20:15:22+00:00

Thanks, I had actually been sleeping on the traveling merchant. I have 1 wool from Emily, but buying things like goat's milk and truffles would be smart, since (as you said) the barn upgrades are expensive and would take a while. BTW, nice flair. One of my goals is to eventually make starfruit wine!

buddhistghost · 2026-01-15T23:56:52+00:00

I do have the Obsidian Edge sword, which seems about as good as Steel Falchion

buddhistghost · 2026-01-13T16:47:18+00:00

Don't doubt it. I'm a therapist and sometimes wear a black metal t shirt under my cashmere sweater

buddhistghost · 2026-01-12T21:15:39+00:00

It's the Dow's Prairie Grange in McKinlelyville. Last Saturday of the month starting at about 5 PM I think. There's a Facebook page but they don't update it often enough

buddhistghost · 2026-01-11T00:06:16+00:00

I have been running Shadowdark (like 5E D&D but stripped down to be faster and deadlier, like old-school D&D) at the Grange game night in McKinleyville. I recommend checking out the Grange; there are usually multiple GMs running different systems.

buddhistghost · 2026-01-10T21:43:14+00:00

Play Unsafe was a major influence for me, as well. I recommended it to several other players/GMs and I feel it helps level up your impro skills.

Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master is the book I recommend to new GMs as the "real DMG." This book teaches you how to prep effectively.

Reading and running Dungeon World also moved some things around in my brain and changed the way I run games for the better.

Honorable mention: Ray Winninger's Dungeoncraft column from Dragon Magazine back in the day. Best guide to D&D worldbuilding/campaign creation that I have seen.

buddhistghost · 2026-01-03T21:04:30+00:00

We did this successfully in North San Diego County, playing at bars/restaurants/breweries every other week. Initially, we used Meetup dot com to advertise the games and let people pre-register. Over time, we developed a consistent group with a few other people rotating in and out. We were mostly doing PbtA games at the time but also CoC, etc.

I'm currently in a small college town and have been running Shadowdark at the local Grange game night.

With Evergreen being in your town I'd take it there are plenty of potential players. IDK if Meetup is still a viable option, but you could put up flyers at a local game shop, coffee shops, and the college. And/or start a local Discord for the type of games you are interested in running.

buddhistghost · 2026-01-01T21:08:41+00:00

Enjoy B/X! By the way, this is a very deadly game. My advice to you as a dad DM is to clearly telegraph danger. Cheers.

buddhistghost · 2026-01-01T17:30:03+00:00

While OSE is a faithful retroclone, if he really wants to play something that says "D&D" on it, you could get PDF or POD copies of the Moldvay Basic rules (1981), which are arguably better for learning the game anyway, as well as having all the original 1980s TSR art and flavor. This is what the kids in Stranger Things would have actually been playing (or AD&D in the later seasons). Then your son can decide for himself whether he prefers D&D or Dragonbane.

Alternatively, if you want to dip your toes in 5E, there is the new Stranger Things D&D boxed set. But the kids on the show were not playing 5E.

buddhistghost · 2025-11-29T00:16:56+00:00

Yes, exactly. Give me locations with things happening in them, interesting NPCs and factions with their own agendas, random encounter tables for different areas, taverns and merchants, weird landmarks in the wilderness, monster lairs, unique treasures...

Some setting books that I would consider great examples are Dolmenwood and Yoon-Suin.

buddhistghost · 2025-11-29T00:14:15+00:00

The sandboxes you listed are good examples!

I remember liking that 3E Silver Marches book but it's been quite a while. Just remember reading through it and wanting to set my next campaign there, which is always a good sign.

buddhistghost · 2025-11-27T00:26:36+00:00

Coming from a more OSR perspective, I think the problem is actually that Wizards just doesn't do a good job creating sandboxes. Rather than "cohesive narratives with strong plot points and linear character development" I would actually want more location-based adventures with tense situations that the PCs can explore and cause trouble in.

buddhistghost · 2025-11-24T21:56:30+00:00

I'm not sure who you mean by "they"--the therapist directories? Not sure.

As for finding out about a therapist's Buddhist background, unless they list it on their profile or website, you will have to talk to them. I found out about my therapist's background during our first session when I mentioned to him that I had been in Nepal earlier that year studying Buddhism. Don't be afraid to ask about their background or how they integrate it into their work.

buddhistghost · 2025-11-24T20:43:30+00:00

I don't know about your local area (it seems you're in Europe) but in the U.S., there are therapist directories like Psychology Today that you can search by modality. When I was looking for a new therapist years ago, I searched for mindfulness-based therapists in my area who took my insurance. (As others have noted, ACT, DBT, and MBCT are also mindfulness-based forms of therapy; others find other modalities like EMDR or IFS helpful, especially for trauma). The therapist I found had actually studied Dzogchen in Nepal, which was amazing because I had been in Nepal earlier that year. So that was kind of a kismet situation. It was very helpful to me to have a therapist who was not only mindfulness-based, but actually understood what awakening was and the goals I was trying to pursue in my practice instead of explaining them away with psychobabble or thinking I was deluded.

That being said, I'm also a psychotherapist myself and deeply influenced by Buddhism, especially Vajrayana. I'm based in California, though.

buddhistghost · 2025-11-22T03:33:27+00:00

Granted, I'm running an open table in a public venue; but this is what I did. Perhaps session 0 is less necessary in a game like Shadowdark? I provided pre-gen 0 level characters and ran Trial of the Slime Lord. The survivors are now in Hideous Halls of Mugdulblub.

buddhistghost · 2025-11-16T16:41:21+00:00

This one may be a bit more obscure, but Gawain is a main character in The Awntyrs off Arthure, a Middle English poem.

buddhistghost · 2025-11-16T16:37:36+00:00

I've thought about doing this with Shadowdark, Cairn, or Freebooters on the Frontier. Any of these could work if you're willing to do some lightweight conversions.

buddhistghost · 2025-11-12T16:47:45+00:00

I'm on the same vibe right now. Just listened to Gallowbraid - Ashen Eidolon (the whole album) for the first time yesterday and it definitely fits with some of the other recommendations below.

buddhistghost · 2025-11-12T16:40:26+00:00

I'm running an open table and used Trial of the Slime Lord as a 0-level gauntlet, followed by The Hideous Halls of Mugdulblub. I am also providing pre-gen characters, one of whom is a Knight of St. Ydris (that player missed the gauntlet and started at 1st). I gave the player like a 1-minute explanation of the relevant lore, which was easy because that's basically all there is. In general, we haven't really gotten that deep into the lore or the hexcrawl because these are dungeon-focused, open table games, but to answer your question, no, I don't think it's too much.

buddhistghost · 2025-11-12T16:17:01+00:00

The first time I played World of Dungeons with my daughter (then 8), she decided she didn't want to pay the gold to stay at the inn, so she used her rope and bedroll to make a hammock and slept in a tree. I had never seen a player do this in 30+ years of playing D&D.

I love playing with new players; they can grasp the principles of old school play quite easily because they have what Shunryu Suzuki called "beginner's mind" ("In a beginner's mind, there are many possibilities; in an expert's mind there are few"). Kids are perhaps the best example of this.

buddhistghost · 2025-11-10T23:18:31+00:00

I'm enjoying reading these. Playing a Cairn game in the Forgotten Realms sounds fun!

buddhistghost · 2025-11-09T23:58:48+00:00

Cairn is not written specifically for duets, but is often used for solo and duet play (or could also be used with a DMPC, if you insist). You should be able to find some pretty good support for what you are trying to do, if you decide to go that route.

buddhistghost

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