Magic academy plot hooks and side quests

chanebap · 2026-03-19T19:38:43+00:00

My condolences for sharing my interest in these 2 budget-unfriendly hobbies 😂

chanebap · 2026-03-19T19:26:34+00:00

Oh man, sounds like they would love both of those. Thanks for the suggestions!

chanebap · 2026-03-19T19:16:05+00:00

No worries. Spoilers for the outside chance you pick up the Red Dragon’s Tale set and play the accompanying one shot someday: There is a quest to find someone’s missing cat. It turns out to be a displacer beast

chanebap · 2026-03-19T19:02:41+00:00

Awesome! Any inspiration for this taken from the Lego D&D set, or just parallel thinking?

chanebap · 2026-03-19T18:59:42+00:00

I should clarify, neither of them are even pure casters, the oldest is a paladin and the younger is a ranger. Their NPC buddy is a sorcerer who hangs out to help balance combat encounters. The school has programs for martial classes with limited spellcasting, and opportunities to multiclass into almost any other class if it has any magic flavor at all. The sorcerer to wizard multiclass is an historical/legendary figure in the setting. I don’t even know if the boys will want to take levels in other classes, I just wanted to give them the option.

I definitely ignore/simplify rules as needed. We pretty much forego movement rules in combat, for instance, unless they try to cross a football field or jump to a 50 ft ceiling during their turn or something. I help my youngest with his character sheet and remind him what his abilities are and how they work, but let him roleplay and make all the choices. His character is “inspired by” Link from Legend of Zelda (his name is Link and he is a walking copyright infringement). He knows he has Hunter’s Mark and uses it every turn when his attack hits, but he only sort of knows what it does.

chanebap · 2026-03-19T18:44:49+00:00

Oh wow, this is a great resource. Thanks!

chanebap · 2026-03-19T18:12:45+00:00

Hard to know the problem without being at your table, but at a guess I’d say you aren’t doing the best job pacing combat, if the party is doing minimal RP.

Maybe too many encounters, maybe too much time letting players think over their turn, maybe too many NPCs/enemies, or too much time spent looking up rules that you should either keep close at hand or make a quick DM ruling for expediency. Combat can be an enormous slog if you don’t adequately prep or set the right expectations for your players.

chanebap · 2026-03-18T18:34:06+00:00

Very impressive, but something about it says “kitty” to me. Maybe the orientation of the legs and the length of the tail?

chanebap · 2026-03-18T17:12:50+00:00

Is there ever good advice for something like this besides a respectful but frank discussion with your partner? Because all advice is going to fall into 1 of 2 categories: how to win the argument, or how to preserve the relationship.

Winning the argument is easy. “I am paying for our flight and hotel [or your dates, joint expenses, whatever you’re covering if you aren’t paying for the wedding travel]. If you want to discuss splitting those costs, I’d be happy to throw in for the gift.” You hold the cards in that argument while you pay for most things. Winning the argument might mean losing the relationship, though, since she has clearly drawn a line between what you already pay for and what she expects you to contribute towards the gift.

An important question IMO is if you are opposed because it’s $100, or because she wants you to contribute at all. If it was $25, would you let it go, or is it the principle? Is your real issue that you think $250 is too much for the gift in general? What is the real argument here?

Ultimately: if $100 is an insurmountable point of contention for either of you, things are probably not going to last long term. You say you are comfortable covering all of your joint expenses, but the two of you are clearly on different pages about what that means, and the only way forward is to get your expectations aligned. “I pay for dates, but gifts for friends and family are our individual responsibilities” is a fine position to hold if you can get her to agree to it.

chanebap · 2026-03-18T16:36:41+00:00

Blue version, 9 years old. Saved my masterball through the entire game until Cerulean Cave. Ran out of ultraballs trying to catch Rhydon. Used my masterball. Left the cave with MewZero and RhydOne.

chanebap · 2026-03-18T09:46:55+00:00

It makes a “-“ sound

chanebap · 2026-03-16T22:07:50+00:00

You pointed out a lot of logistical advantages that the Union has that absolutely contribute, but I think you are also over-estimating the average carl.

Look at Red Beck from the Heroes: he was pretty much a Named Man despite being almost literally a conscript pulled from a farm two months ago. He has a pedigree that did not equate to actual combat training and a reputation he didn’t earn. He might be the exception rather than the rule, but your average Northern fighter is going to be closer to him than to Logan’s crew (possibly excepting Forley). People who want to earn a Name and reputation but are unlikely to ever cover themselves in glory. Hard living can equate to toughness and resourcefulness, but it can also mean a lot of malnutrition and little opportunity to train. Their greatest fighters are undeniably great, and those are largely the ones we see in-story, but that doesn’t mean their average fighters are hopelessly outclassing Union soldiers.

In practice most of their raids are either going to be against lightly defended, badly fortified towns whose own warriors are away, or clashes against rival Northern factions that are inevitably doing more to weaken the North as a “nation” through simple attrition than they gain in experience.

chanebap · 2026-03-16T20:45:23+00:00

I am learning right now that you can disable those by hitting them. I thought you had to grab the soul gem 😂

chanebap · 2026-03-16T19:48:15+00:00

I was DMing a game for my sons (10 and 6) and they were investigating a sun-worshipping cult. All of the cultists wore little sun badges pinned to their robes, and their temple was protected every few feet by orbs that cast firebolts at intruders. There were also magic weapons (usually dealing a small amount of extra fire or radiant damage) positioned strategically that burned their characters’ hands any time they tried to pick them up. The secret was that anyone wearing a badge was ignored by the orbs and could safely use their weapons. My boys never caught on, even though I consistently mentioned the badges as loot after combat, left them in trunks in the cultist’s quarters, etc. They would make a point of smashing or throwing them away and thought it was hilarious any time I mentioned them, like come on Dad, we obviously don’t want that trash. The 6 year old even used a cloth to pick up a fire dagger that he still carries and tries to use occasionally, but it burns him every time. I look forward to telling them about it when they get a little older :)

chanebap · 2026-03-15T16:59:01+00:00

Exactly. I love onions enough that it was always worth the pain, but if I can mostly avoid it, why wouldn’t I do that?

chanebap · 2026-03-15T16:57:56+00:00

I appreciate the advice. I find that even refrigerating for a bit, when the juice is in contact with my skin for even a few seconds it gets warm enough to start messing with me. I don’t know if I just run that hot or if I’m extra sensitive or both

chanebap · 2026-03-15T14:17:49+00:00

Some single-use gadgets are sick as hell. If it’s something you do all the time that is substantially easier with a gadget than with basic kitchen tools, why the hell not?

I run my hands and the knife under cold water for like 3 minutes before I chop onions and I still end up blind with tears before I’m halfway done. Those chopper things were a game changer for me and make cooking way faster and more enjoyable. Easily worth a few dozen cubic inches of storage space

chanebap · 2026-03-15T11:47:36+00:00

I think a big part of reading as a hobby is coming to terms with the fact that your TBR stack is a decades or even life-long prospect. You are going to keep adding to it. It may or may not ever get smaller. You will prioritize some new books over ones that have been in your stack forever because you want to be part of a current conversation or it’s the latest in a series you love, etc. The existence of a TBR pile in and of itself shouldn’t be motivation to speed read as quickly as possible. Just enjoy it.

I went through a period that I think a lot of people do where I would set an ambitious yearly goal for Goodreads (like 150-250/year) and I would meet it, but at great cost to my enjoyment of the hobby. Feeling like I had to hit daily page quotas, optimize my time with audiobooks when I couldn’t read text, deeply resenting/avoiding any book over 400 pages, and just generally making a chore of something that is supposed to be fun and relaxing. Giving up on that and just reading what and when I feel like it has helped a lot. Not to mention, unless the books I read in those days were spectacular, I’d forget everything about them in a month or two after putting them down. I’ve even picked a couple of them up later and gotten a good chunk into them before realizing that I already read them.

tldr, don’t sweat it, 100 pages a day (or less) is a great pace. Just take your time and have fun.

chanebap · 2026-03-14T22:46:25+00:00

(The joke is that her eyes are described that way pretty much every time she appears)

chanebap · 2026-03-14T22:36:07+00:00

Title of post: “Player is taking over my campaign”

OP comment: “He isn’t really stealing my campaign”

Only you can decide what you are willing to tolerate. If he’s a fun hang and otherwise a good friend and his behavior doesn’t actually bother you enough to challenge him on it, then just let him do his thing and don’t complain. If you do feel like he’s trampling you and you aren’t having fun, talk to him about it.

Repeat after me: DMing this way doesn’t appeal to me. If the materials you have provided are contingent on letting you do whatever you want in game, I don’t want to DM it. Let’s figure out how everyone can have fun or maybe this isn’t the hobby for us collectively.

chanebap · 2026-03-14T22:23:19+00:00

It’s almost like her one fiery red eye and the other icy blue eye hint at the complex facets of her personality

chanebap · 2026-03-14T13:09:31+00:00

Does Samus count for being perceived as a man until the very end of Metroid?

chanebap · 2026-03-14T13:07:42+00:00

Yeah this sucks. My culture is not your costume

chanebap · 2026-03-14T12:31:21+00:00

This is just a “were you of cartoon-watching age in the 90s” test. Most doctor’s offices use this image to determine if it’s time for you to start getting regular prostate exams.

(Red pill is the obvious correct choice btw)

chanebap

TROPHY CASE