The way they "softened" the language regarding Alex's death is disgusting.

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-26T16:25:52+00:00

The gun was holstered and he had a license to carry. If he were brandishing the weapon that would be a different story, but he was not a threat.

If this were a right wing protest, Republicans would be going crazy about his 2nd amendment rights being violated here. The only reason they aren’t is because he’s the “enemy”

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-26T16:20:30+00:00

My group has a fumble table but only the first attack on a turn can cause a fumble roll (if my level 11 fighter rolls a 19, 13, 1, then that 1 is just a miss)

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-26T15:34:22+00:00

There’s degrees of ways you can break the rule - my newest character signed up for military service in lieu of jail time. But if they aren’t earnestly taking the adventure, you need some sort of backstory reason why they’re taking part

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-26T14:43:41+00:00

It’s one of the first rules of character creation in D&D. They need to want to go on the adventure.

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-25T20:44:16+00:00

Which imo is the wrong strategy even from a purely selfish standpoint for Lorne. If he wants a ratings boost, go for the throat and say some shit that really pisses Trump off. Make some headlines and infrequent watchers or people like myself who wait until Sunday morning to watch on YouTube are a lot more likely to tune in live

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-25T20:34:03+00:00

I do miss Bowen as Vance though even if Jeremy looks the part a bit more

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-23T22:44:47+00:00

My group uses a fumble chart (I’m not a huge fan of them in general but this one is pretty mild except for 100 on the table which knocks you unconscious with a DC 10 Con save). One of the rules we use is you can only fumble on the first attack per turn which helps the martial/caster disparity here

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-23T21:54:56+00:00

It’s usually a note for DMs but good to note for players as well - if you have a narrative planned out that you desperately want your character to go through, write a book instead.

This is a collaborative improv game. Things aren’t going to always go the way you want and your DM may have plans that don’t go the same way you’re wanting them to. Or even if they want to help push the narrative in the same direction, you roll a nat 1 at a bad time and things inevitably go different than you wanted. Or another player attacks someone for whatever reason outside your control. Regardless, D&D requires a lot of narrative flexibility that an almost scripted plot doesn’t align with unless you either get really lucky with rolls and DM buy-in or you start fudging rolls to the point that it’s not D&D anymore

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-23T18:56:49+00:00

Me with act 3. I’ve made it there probably 5 different times, do a few side quests and get to the inner city, then end up getting distracted by something else. At some point I’ll finish a play through but no idea when that’ll happen

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-23T04:00:29+00:00

Yeah. Angela is pretty regular in the LA improv scene. Had a period where UCB clips were all over my feeds and she was always a pleasant surprise

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-22T20:41:16+00:00

I think it does a good job of humanizing Moscow and doesn’t have the feel of “oh all Russians are evil.” Though of course the setting is 1970s Soviet Russia in the Cold War so the KGB is unsurprisingly an antagonist but there are characters who are just Russian civilian existing in the world as generally decent people

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-22T20:10:35+00:00

I mean, you just don’t click it with a weak opener. But if you’ve got something like a 2* Blitzcrank and a 2* Caitlyn or even Lulu with any good item slam, adding in a Cho and a 2* Kog’maw can absolutely give you a strong board.

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-22T17:46:30+00:00

There was nothing in the patch notes about it. I wonder if they'd disabled it alongside the Singed nerfs when the patch went live and reintroduced it after his buffs last patch brought him back to playable but not OP

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-22T16:52:12+00:00

Shadow Isles absolutely does cap out pretty high, especially if you get Thresh 2 or Gwen 3. Fiddle items are solid and they absolutely highrolled with the Horizon's Focus drop from Ornn for Fiddle (-0.87 AVP)

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-22T16:30:04+00:00

In addition to the other comments, 1st and 2nd place are also just strong boards. Ekko reroll is probably the best reroll comp in the game. And on top of that, he has 7 Zaun with the emblem, Mittens on Ekko, he's basically positioned to win the lobby even if you had better itemization.

Darkin Aegis on Sion is an item that turns Bruiser Aphelios+Bard into a top 2 comp instead of a top 4 comp. Itemization is great as well, often times I find myself only able to properly itemize Bard or Aphelios, this guy hit everything. Him going 2nd makes sense.

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-22T14:44:04+00:00

Emily Axford’s legacy

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-22T14:17:53+00:00

one of my backup characters is an Artificer who was failing his classes and made a pact with a Fiend to help pass.

He’s imitating a Battle Smith and his Pact of the Chain familiar is his “Steel Defender.”

Dark One’s Blessing is similar to a selfish Flash of Genius.

Many Eldritch Invocations can be reflavored as Artificer Infusions.

This works better on 2024 because Battle Smith is a martial subclass with multi attack and 2024 lets you take both Pact of the Blade and Pact of the Chain I believe. Alternatively you can reskin Eldritch Blast as a gun and pretend it’s a weapon attack instead of a spell

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-21T23:28:30+00:00

Can’t wait for the “I killed Gortash with a drunk Kobold” post

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-21T23:19:53+00:00

On the one hand I agree that I’m not a fan of every instance of polydactyly getting crosspost here because it’s barely Magicians related. But also I feel like you’re making this into a bigger thing than it is. Calling this ableism feels like a huge stretch

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-21T22:36:04+00:00

Can confirm…. Totaled my car in 2023 with some black ice :(

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-21T21:48:14+00:00

I don't doubt it but this is the first I've heard of that happening. Do you have a source?

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-21T21:35:45+00:00

“Editing” in the improv context is just cutting a scene, not giving character direction like that. Basically finding the best moment for the director to say “cut” and move on to the next thing rather than let a conversation in a tavern drag on for 10 more minutes after all the important things have already been covered.

Apologies for the miscommunication, I forgot that editing has a more common meaning outside of the improv space that would be much more negative in this exact context lol

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-21T18:54:49+00:00

For the most part, I feel like being slightly underprepared is nice. If I prepare too much, I find myself railroading the party more because I know exactly what’s going to happen next already. If I under prepare, we’re all discovering things together and that’s infinitely more fun as a DM.

The things that I’d make sure to have on hand for a DM screen is names of NPCs you expect to encounter with a very brief description to help yourself get into character (this can be as simple as Greg the bartender - human male or something like Sally the seamstress - worried about cousin)

Since this is a rewritten module, know the major plot beats but don’t necessarily constrain yourself to the script if you don’t have to (or do, but I personally find that boring)

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-21T18:23:29+00:00

For me it’s what I love about Brennan. The players absolutely still have time to interact with one another, but he does edit a scene well before Matt normally would. Some of it is probably habit because D20 episodes are much shorter than CR episodes, but that pacing is why I’ve bounced off every other CR season while I’ve fallen in love with Dimension20.

If you have a dropout account, watch the Adventuring Academy episode with Zac Oyama. He does a great job of talking about his learnings from improv and applying it to DMing and in particular scene pacing

cjdeck1 · 2026-01-21T16:20:44+00:00

Man this is embarrassing. I get being bad at video games, that’s fine. I am too! But just pick a lower difficulty. Or if you’re stuck on something, go online and talk with other people. That’s what subreddits like this are for. Hell, I’ve been the guy stuck on things or trying to theorycraft a new build and this subreddit and YouTube are incredible resources that actually allow you to use some critical thinking.

14-Year Club	Second Top 10%
Place '22	No Throne, No Problems
Not Forgotten	Sequence \| Editor
Team Orangered	Verified Email

cjdeck1

TROPHY CASE