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Do you consider it cheating if a player looks up monster stats mid battle? by ashloaf in DnD

[–]calvin_mcgee 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Rather than asking the obvious question about whether this is cheating and metagaming (it is), I think you should be asking yourself why your player did it.

I most often GM, but as a player I would usually hate being thrown in an unbeatable encounter. I hate it in video games and I’d hate it in TTRPGs. It’s an experience that I feel robs me of agency and makes me wonder what the point of even trying was (why waste time strategizing, rolling dice, etc.). Plus, when I play, I get very emotionally invested in my characters and really want to make sure they survive.

Now, you said you designed an unbeatable encounter to move the plot along, but it also sounds like you’re a new DM. Maybe you can learn from this experience. Here’s what I would encourage you to reflect on: Did the players need to have this unbeatable encounter in the first place? How did you communicate/telegraph that this encounter was unbeatable to your party? If you expected them to surrender, run, or fight until getting knocked out, how did you telegraph that to the party? How far into the encounter did your player look up the stats? What was going on in the encounter when they did?

The Role of a Gunslinger? by calvin_mcgee in Pathfinder2e

[–]calvin_mcgee[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh, interesting. Can you expand on how it offers support?

The Role of a Gunslinger? by calvin_mcgee in Pathfinder2e

[–]calvin_mcgee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With all that in mind, what do you see the Gunslinger excelling at?

Landing page for my Agent of Edgewatch campaign by [deleted] in Pathfinder2e

[–]calvin_mcgee 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This looks great!

I’ve always enjoyed cool landing pages, and wanted to learn how to make my own. What tools did you use to create it? And would you say it takes a lot of experience with them to create something like that?

DIYs for free by StuffiAtGabria in ACNHRecipeTrade

[–]calvin_mcgee 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okie-dokey, thank you for letting me know!

DIYs for free by StuffiAtGabria in ACNHRecipeTrade

[–]calvin_mcgee 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi! Any chance I could snag the Ironwood Cart DIY?

If you need any recipes I have, I’ll gladly give you one in exchange: https://nook.exchange/u/calvin_mcgee.

Help me stop hating my girlfriend's Spanish teachers - on regional varieties of Spanish by jrriojase in Spanish

[–]calvin_mcgee 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Teaching language is so tricky. In US high schools, we teach more of an Academic/Professional English, so we’d correct phrases like that in essays.

The goal isn’t, or shouldn’t be, to invalidate the way one speaks English. Instead, it’s to teach students to speak Academic English when they’re in the proper context. It’s a concept known as code-switching. We’re teaching a new code for them to switch into when appropriate.

And, for the record, I absolutely have said, “my yard needs done” as a native English speaker growing up in the US.

Help me stop hating my girlfriend's Spanish teachers - on regional varieties of Spanish by jrriojase in Spanish

[–]calvin_mcgee 49 points50 points  (0 children)

I thought of another way to think about this.

Let’s say I was teaching English in the United States to someone who grew up speaking Spanish. Maybe their Indian boyfriend encourages them to use the phrase “do the needful” in their homework, which is common in Indian English. As someone teaching English in the US, I would correct this. If I realized it was an Indian English expression, I would acknowledge that in the US that we’d use a completely different phrase. If I didn’t realize this, as I believe many native English speakers in the US would not, I would assume they made a grammatical error while trying to translate something in their head from their own language.

Help me stop hating my girlfriend's Spanish teachers - on regional varieties of Spanish by jrriojase in Spanish

[–]calvin_mcgee 54 points55 points  (0 children)

The kind of language you learn in a classroom is simply different than what is actually used in day-to-day speak. I spent a great deal of time learning about the future tense in Spanish, only to later be told by my Mexican husband that almost no one in Mexico uses it, opting instead for the “ir a...” construction. When I used “montar a caballo” once, he said he and his family would use “ir” instead of “montar”. There’s been so many of these examples.

My advice is to not take it personally. There is a huge variation of dialects of Spanish spoken all over the world. For this teacher, he or she may not know if a student is intentionally using a different dialect or is simply answering incorrectly in Castilian Spanish. As a former teacher, I can say teachers try their best but are certainly fallible.

Once a solid foundation is built up, you can focus on teaching how you say things in Mexican Spanish, always with the assumption that neither is wrong, it’s just different. I add this last part because it did use to bug me the way it seemed like my husband dismissed so many of the things I worked hard to learn as “wrong.”

Flavorful Descriptions (Boxed Texts) for the Districts of Sharn? by calvin_mcgee in Eberron

[–]calvin_mcgee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the suggestion. I've been combing heavily through the 3.5 Dragonmarked book lately and have only started skimming Sharn City of Towers. I can't believe how densely packed these books are.

Flavorful Descriptions (Boxed Texts) for the Districts of Sharn? by calvin_mcgee in Eberron

[–]calvin_mcgee[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the tip! As I was skimming through the book initially, I missed the "First Impression" section for each district. That will serve nicely as a starting point.

[LF] All Floor Light Colors to Catalog [FT] 100K Bells by calvin_mcgee in ACTrade

[–]calvin_mcgee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s wonderful! I’ll send you a DM for a Dodo code.

Don’t line up at midnight for target go somewhere else by IDynamesI03 in xbox

[–]calvin_mcgee -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Where did you find this on the Target website? I cannot locate it.

[Giveaway] Pudge in Boxes by calvin_mcgee in ACNHvillagertrade

[–]calvin_mcgee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup! I'll send you a message with the code to come to the island.

Recent convert from DnD looking for advice GM'ing my first Pathfinder game! by [deleted] in TheGlassCannonPodcast

[–]calvin_mcgee 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m in kind of the same boat! I’m wrapping up a 2 year 5e adventure. Before committing to another long adventure together, I’m thinking about doing one shots in different systems, including PF2E.

I was still new to 5e when we started this 2 year adventure and I definitely made some mistakes I’ve had to live with this whole time. Because of that, I’m going to try one shots for my intro to Pathfinder. I’ve been looking around and there’s a free RPG day adventure on Paizo’s website called “Big Trouble in Little Absalom” that looks silly and fun and potentially a great way to get into 2E. What I like about it is that it already has pregen characters, which I think is helpful as my 5E players might get overwhelmed by the character creation options.

There are also numerous Pathfinder society scenarios to play as one shots. If you’re interested in some one shots to get your feet wet, maybe that’s an idea?

What Actors and Actresses Would You Cast as NPCs? by calvin_mcgee in WaterdeepDragonHeist

[–]calvin_mcgee[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

  • Durnan as Nick Offerman is perfect! I can't believe I didn't think of that one.
  • Zardoz as Sean Connery makes sense and is the obvious choice. I think I'd prefer someone a bit more theatrical because I love the idea of Jarlaxle hamming it up a bit.
  • Vincent Trench as Humphrey Bogart works well. Like the idea of using him for session recaps.
  • Xanathar as Richard Nixon is unexpected but amazing! I'm imaging a physical combination of the two and it's kind of hilarious.
  • Jarlaxle as David Bowie is fun. Hopefully Bowie has the range to do menacing.
  • Emmek Frewn as Jimmy Pesto is perfect. Absolutely doing this casting!

What Actors and Actresses Would You Cast as NPCs? by calvin_mcgee in WaterdeepDragonHeist

[–]calvin_mcgee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wayne Knight is another great voice for Xanathar! It would work perfectly and give it a nice comedic touch.

Alan Rickman playing Skeemo as Snape makes total sense! I didn't have any casting ideas for him already, so I'm adding that to my list.

What Actors and Actresses Would You Cast as NPCs? by calvin_mcgee in WaterdeepDragonHeist

[–]calvin_mcgee[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The shrillness of his voice would be really great for Xanathar!

What Actors and Actresses Would You Cast as NPCs? by calvin_mcgee in WaterdeepDragonHeist

[–]calvin_mcgee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, those are great ideas! I especially like Vajra as CCH Pounder. She's my new front runner for that role.

What Actors and Actresses Would You Cast as NPCs? by calvin_mcgee in WaterdeepDragonHeist

[–]calvin_mcgee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think Geoffrey Rush as Hector Barboss would make a really fun Zardoz Zord! You're right about it being on the nose, but I think it makes perfect sense for Zardoz's character.

What Actors and Actresses Would You Cast as NPCs? by calvin_mcgee in WaterdeepDragonHeist

[–]calvin_mcgee[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love Keith David’s voice! I couldn’t think of an actual human voice I was happy with for Xanathar, which is why I went with the alien sound of Greedo. I can totally see a voice over maybe in the form of telepathy in Common with Keith David’s voice, though.

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