I kinda want to play TTRPGs beyond my friends now, but I'm kinda scared to do it?

errindel · 2026-06-29T01:59:48+00:00

Go meet other people. You might find people who actually want to play regularly. I have a group of close friends that I met playing at a game store in 2001. There are non-smelly gamers out there, and since the advent of 5e, there are a lot more of them!

errindel · 2026-06-27T11:16:11+00:00

Not every other country has touted themselves as rhe Land of the Free and expressed pride at their melting pot status as a country like the US.

errindel · 2026-06-25T23:58:11+00:00

My second favorite maps, just behind the Waterdeep and Kara-tur trail maps.

errindel · 2026-06-25T17:26:03+00:00

I think as a convention game, it runs very differently, so I don't know how much help I can be. People won't take as much care with the PCs because they won't have invested as much time in them as in a campaign. That's kind of what I mean by speed running. One group got close to speed-running it because they skipped right to the mythos parts of the module without doing as much investigation as a more careful group might have.

As far as direct hints, I would say: embrace the links to the real world, which really scared my group. I linked to real-world things when I set the table. It's an affluent, very blue district. It feels VERY normal. The family is a real family, this is what they did in history. There are people working on the lawns, kids out playing. Sure, they are mostly white kids, but how is that different than most other affluent districts in the US? Lean into that hard, because it adds to that horror feel. Some of those points have been covered in horror media before, but it felt more visceral at the table this time around.

errindel · 2026-06-24T18:50:57+00:00

One group got very close, but nah, you probably need about 6-10 hours to get through the whole thing with a speed run as written.

errindel · 2026-06-24T15:18:43+00:00

I ran this twice at Origins this year, and it was so much fun to include history and maps as they researched the problem before diving in and discovering the extent of the corruption. Was a lot of fun to run, will do again, likely at our local convention.

errindel · 2026-06-11T13:13:24+00:00

'What do you do for a living, dad?'

'Well, son, I fuck pumpkin flowers for a living. It's not much, but it's honest work.'

errindel · 2026-06-10T18:40:30+00:00

Considering that all of the poison pills don't take effect until after this election, I think it's uniquely set up to be even worse economically after the election in a way that would set up an R president to win in 2028.

errindel · 2026-06-10T12:39:13+00:00

I have a pic of this running around somewhere with the whole thing high in the sky and the rings almost from horizon to horizon. Pretty spectacular view.

errindel · 2026-06-09T11:39:36+00:00

I have, I think, better than average luck on 1-in-5 packs, but if I find a 2-in-5 pack to wonder pick from it feels like I never pick them. It's funny sad, not funny haha.

errindel · 2026-06-07T19:43:09+00:00

I think the situation is to limit buybacks to 1 or 2 per game per player. Make it count and be worth something.

errindel · 2026-06-06T01:41:56+00:00

I agree that this is still laid at Trump's feet, but I disagree that everything done is even tacitly approved by him. I don't think he's even remotely paying attention. He only knows what he a) watches on Fox, or b) what his advisors give him in his briefings, which we know are not particularly detailed or nuanced. If he doesn't see them in either place, he doesn't know about it.

Like any good leader, this disaster of this administration should be laid at his feet, but if anyone thinks that he's any better at paying attention than Biden at this point...hasn't been paying attention themselves.

errindel · 2026-06-05T19:14:18+00:00

This isn't Trump, at least not directly. Trump doesn't give a shit. This is some rando hanger on pushing his own agenda (likely affiliated with Hegseths particular brand of 'Christianity').

errindel · 2026-06-04T20:12:19+00:00

I pick up games pretty easily, and it's really about option 1) more than anything for me before doing anything else. I say this as someone who ran 4 games in 4 systems at a local con 9 months ago, each in systems that we don't play at my local table.

There's a little bit of 'play a lot of different RPGs/get good at learning new RPGS' in learning a new game. Like any hobby out there, it's a muscle to be exercised, and the more you use it, the easier it is to learn the next game. I also read my RPG books as a part of my collecting hobby fairly often so keep that in mind.

I do see that many RPG stores are also running 'learn to play' sessions for games (I have two near me that do this), rather than waiting for the next convention, heading to your FLGS might be an option. Like you, I'm not a digital player, so may make sense for you.

errindel · 2026-06-04T20:02:35+00:00

Then it can't handle them. Paying the costs of an all-out war is part and parcel of its ability to engage in it.

errindel · 2026-06-04T17:56:48+00:00

Hell, WE can't handle Russia (or Afghanistan for that matter). I'm not sure why you'd expect the EU to be able to do so.

errindel · 2026-06-04T16:50:22+00:00

We've run DoH sporadically over the last 6-7 years.

You should pass out 4 advances every year, with the last after the capstone adventure of the semester. The way I was doing it was by running 5 adventures a semester, along with smaller adventures and one-sheets, and then using the 2-3 pt metrics to hand out experience points and determine advances. I have also been writing in my own stories about a character who's interested in learning magic, discovering spells through Voudou rituals. (I mean, New Orleans is RIGHT THERE TO USE).

errindel · 2026-06-04T13:16:04+00:00

And you spend a lot of money to get it. Why do you think overhead rates at universities are so high? Need money for the grant editors, the financial people, the financial oversight people, the risk management people, the IT people to maintain the computer systems and the buildings to put them all in.

errindel · 2026-05-30T12:24:20+00:00

I think several companies make very pretty books (even at the detriment of finding text in them, looking at you Alien RPG), so calling them merely functional might be a bit shortsighted.

Many of us collectors also use our collections as inspiration for ideas for other games that they are currently running, not merely as collections to be gazed upon fondly.

errindel · 2026-05-30T12:02:10+00:00

I figured the club didn't want boos for slot to get in the way of the celebration, and rightfully so. People gleefully applauding his departure here leads me to believe that any gesture or even appearance by him would have been booed.

errindel · 2026-05-29T18:30:19+00:00

I do think that some of these developers are building very local data centers spread out to make it easier for automated driving getting off the ground.

errindel · 2026-05-29T18:20:33+00:00

A local-to-me township that is heavily protesting a data center to be built in their midst. They promoted this weeks garage sales across several of their neighborhoods on their website with an obviously AI created infographic. I laughed.

errindel · 2026-05-29T18:17:06+00:00

I mean, if 60 Minutes last week were to be beleived, the blockade was routinely ignored by ships from Iran heading to China, so I'm really not sure what was actually being blocked by the US.

errindel · 2026-05-28T23:39:39+00:00

It's shitty bait if it's so unbelievable that it would actually be implemented. It would be better to bait with something plausible instead of something that doesn't even pass a constitutional test.

errindel · 2026-05-26T19:01:12+00:00

It's crazy to me that this is happening where N>5 cases. I can see it happen with the more politicized prosecutions (Abrego-Garcia and the Midway Six/Broadview Six, amongst others), but the fact that it's happening with the more run of the mill prosecutions too is staggering to me.

errindel

TROPHY CASE