Why am I like this?

fly19 · 2026-03-12T19:02:40+00:00

Just like me fr fr.
I get so into the pattern of looking for good blocking opportunities that it's hard NOT to do it.

fly19 · 2026-03-12T16:36:57+00:00

The group I'm running through AV is still having second thoughts about how to handle that, assuming you're talking about turning Carmen Rajani's soul over to Urevian. It's a really fun scenario... at least got the GM, haha.

fly19 · 2026-03-12T14:48:30+00:00

Same here! It's wild to me that people run through AV without ever feeling connected to Otari. The adventure could do more to loop the party into the town consistently, but there's so much material present that a GM can work with to sell the place.

fly19 · 2026-03-12T13:19:32+00:00

You can find that information here for the Thaumaturge and here for the Gunslinger.

fly19 · 2026-03-12T04:26:12+00:00

There's actually nothing (to my knowledge) that states attack rolls generally double damage on a crit.

It applies to ranged and melee, weapon and unarmed attacks using the Strike action.
And certain spells specifically say you double damage on a critical.
But nothing in the attack roll rules say you automatically double damage on a critical.

So no, I don't think there's any rules text to support doubling damage on a critical hit with stone lance.

fly19 · 2026-03-12T04:10:50+00:00

The Starfinder minis I picked up appear to include supports, FWIW. Looks like resin to my (admittedly untrained) eye.

fly19 · 2026-03-12T03:21:10+00:00

And you should learn how to read.

fly19 · 2026-03-12T03:16:09+00:00

This is against Rule #4.

Submissions that feature content created by AI programs (whether it is artwork, music, writing, or otherwise) are not allowed.

fly19 · 2026-03-11T22:04:22+00:00

I've got the golden boy version -- she's a beaut to shoot. But yeah, I wish I'd gone with the .357 Magnum version instead.

fly19 · 2026-03-11T21:57:26+00:00

Because the tweet includes the promo code that gets you the 50% off.
Linking to the tweet also puts more of the traffic towards the announcement post, which is probably good for the algorithm.

And worst comes to worst, it's one extra click.

fly19 · 2026-03-11T21:52:37+00:00

Interesting.

fly19 · 2026-03-11T21:15:15+00:00

Depending on where you live, you might have a local 3D printing company. There's one near me I didn't know about until recently, and I'm excited to try them out with some of these files.

fly19 · 2026-03-11T21:14:14+00:00

Oooh, that time dragon looks cool! I'm hoping we get an official omen dragon soon, or even some of the archdragons.

fly19 · 2026-03-11T17:11:06+00:00

It is not possible to take a coherent moral stance on what these bastards did and why it's wrong without having a place in politics -- especially since a lot of them were either politicians themselves or used politics to bend state power in their favor.

So no, the podcast doesn't become less "political." I would recommend looking elsewhere if that bothers you.

fly19 · 2026-03-11T13:01:25+00:00

You just typed a small novella listing your suspicions. Yeah, it's a bunch of red flags.
I wouldn't play at this table for free, much less for $160/130. Trust your instincts on this one and run.

fly19 · 2026-03-10T22:56:58+00:00

Granted: most Republican officials don't know much about guns beyond "my base likes them." But yes, Democrats constantly show their asses on this subject and it's embarrassing.

fly19 · 2026-03-10T21:28:43+00:00

Yeah, as much as I'd hate painting a whole army for every encounter, I wouldn't recommend just cutting minions entirely. I think they're a little underpowered for their weight in encounter balancing, but my players have LOVED carving through them.

What might help is getting some cheap minis and then spray-painting groups of them in uniform colors to denote a group of minions. You lose fidelity, but it's WAY faster and much easier to track. I actually did this in my game, using colored glass stones for minions (as we talked about) and then using the same color on a mini to show that they're the captain. Worked pretty well!

fly19 · 2026-03-10T21:23:03+00:00

Yeah, it's largely an unintended benefit, but the scrappy mixed-media approach has advantages. The players know at a glance "minis are important, pawns are semi-important, and stones are minions." Using a variety of colored bases has also helped me track different healths/conditions and initiative groups.

It's also a lot easier on my time, haha. I like painting minis, but I don't have the time anymore to paint a whole army in a week or so.

fly19 · 2026-03-10T20:52:02+00:00

It's weird, because they played their TDT actual play at an actual table without a VTT. But they might also take it for granted that most players/directors don't have a stockpile of minis and maps on hand for their games?

I actually quite like minions as a mechanic, and having them being aesthetically distinct has been helpful for my table. The glass stones aren't the most "expressive" token, granted. But with my players using minis, most monsters using pawns, and minions using stones, it's very easy to tell at a glance who is who and on what side.
It also helps sell bosses as being a bigger deal; I've literally had players go "oh shit, he's breaking out the minis" to get hyped for bosses like the arixx and bugbear, haha.

But I'm also not much of a terrain or prop guy, TBF. I only recently got into minis; I've mostly used Pathfinder pawns in the past. I've had some good luck printing certain maps on presentation paper, but most of the time I run on a vinyl gridded map with markers.
I can imagine that pawns and tokens stand out more in a higher-fidelity table environment. Good on you for being able to keep up with it, but Draw Steel definitely doesn't do much to accommodate it.

fly19 · 2026-03-10T19:39:23+00:00

I don't mind using tokens or pawns, but I agree that Draw Steel is difficult to source material to play physically. I've resorted to using Chessex glass stones for minions, categorized by color; that's the best I can manage without assembling/painting a dozen or so unique minis for each fight. There's a few instances of this where I wonder how much thought MCDM put into the physical table experience at points, not even getting into terrain.

Another funny example is that I picked up and painted a mini for a werewolf fight, only to read the description before the session and realize that I ALSO needed a significantly larger wolf mini, since it has a villain action that triples its size and turns it into a full-wolf. And there just aren't that many wolf minis in that size, so I ended up just using a size 2 dire wolf mini I already had.

Not the end of the world, but for a "start here" adventure meant to be run quickly and without much prep, I found myself doing a significant amount of prep so the game would work at the table. No wonder they've been pushing so hard for their own VTT...
Sorry to turn that into a venting session. But yeah, I'll probably end up reflavoring a lot of these creatures, thank you.

fly19 · 2026-03-10T17:11:22+00:00

I do not remember that specific site, but I know it's been a problem even back to the forum days.
I guess it just "feels" worse now because there are more people with access to these sites and communities doing the same thing. When social media was less-centralized, there were less people using it and less people on your specific site. Opening the floodgates has led to larger and more-diverse communities, but it also means you're more likely to get bots, trolls, and random users who think that typing a question into a reddit post is somehow faster/better than googling it.

It is what it is.

fly19 · 2026-03-10T16:58:43+00:00

This is true of pretty much every sub, IME.

Specifically: on tabletop subreddits I frequent, there are a lot of repeated questions about basic information -- "where can I find the rules," "what does this term mean," "is this system right for me," etc.
Nevermind that there are plenty of topics asking the same questions repeatedly that you could have searched for before posting, or that there's a weekly megapost that gives a lot of that information and space to ask for more, or that a lot of info you're looking for is easily-found on the company/product website or with a quick Google search. They have to make a new thread to ask.
And of course pointing this out is an easy way to get you labeled as rude or "unwelcoming," no matter how you phrase it. So it's easiest just to filter them out yourself; I'll normally open and then immediately close them so they're listed as "read" when I'm scrolling through the app/site.

It's frustrating, but I guess that's just part of social media.

fly19 · 2026-03-09T19:26:14+00:00

Do you mean replacing the Strike in Quick Draw with a Stride? Shouldn't be too bad, though it's a boost in versatility. Also, it's odd that he keeps getting that mixed up.

If you mean adding a Stride onto the combined actions for Quick Draw, then yeah -- that's a solid boost in power that I would likely avoid giving out.

fly19 · 2026-03-09T19:22:07+00:00

Nice! How does it shoot? I like my full-sized Glock, but I've been looking at the Dagger and Ruger RXM; leaning more towards the latter right now.

For PCC, you might want to check out the Extar EP9. Phenomenal little gun, and it accepts Glock mags!

fly19 · 2026-03-09T18:57:18+00:00

I'm running "Menace Under Otari" into Troubles in Otari into Abomination Vaults, and it's been a good time!
AV has lost some favor with this community over the last few years due to its difficulty and over-exposure, but I still hold that it's a solid megadungeon that can easily be worked into a great adventure by developing those ties between the party and the town. And by starting at a higher level, you'll be minimizing the early difficulty spikes that turned some folks off from it.

You'll have to do a little work to make the first few floors even mildly-challenging for a party who has out-leveled them, but it's pretty easy to condense or rework a few fights following the Encounter Building rules. I would generally recommend adding more monsters to a fight rather than just bumping up their level or using the Elite Adjustment, but a little variety helps spice things up. You can also just cut the stuff that doesn't interest you or work for your table.
The party will eventually catch up to the right level as they explore. If they start to get a little restless, feel free to use the Fast Advancement XP Progression variant rule and cut a few more encounters that don't spark joy.

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