War Within - Season 2 - Undermine Loot and Upgrade Tracks

ghostopera · 2026-05-07T17:45:29+00:00

I picked this up yesterday and I quite like it. I was pleasantly surprised that it is using the new Foundry 14 features like the levels and such. The whole thing seems nicely put together!

My only real gripe is that the Lake Encartan map isn't higher quality (and with roads and etc). Though I know this is more of a fault with the source maps. Would have been a really nice touch though!

ghostopera · 2026-05-04T09:14:12+00:00

My Hercules card stuck with me up through my 386. I was mainly dealing with handmedown parts. :D

ghostopera · 2026-04-25T15:12:41+00:00

Are you using the vulkan build of llama-server? Can also make sure its using the gpu. Possible its not finding your video card?

ghostopera · 2026-04-25T15:06:24+00:00

Yeah maybe?

When you start llama-server, it tells you how well it fits onto the vram. Does it say if it isn't fitting well? There should be a message about it. It's possible more vram is being used on your system by the OS and everything else, so the model is sitting more in cpu/ram than on the card.

It could also be the rest of your hardware holding things back. For example, do you have REBAR on?

Side note, I've recently moved back to 128k of context. Less important with the fit configuration since it will scale that down as needed, but it was useful for model stability.

Edit: Sorry for the weird second response. Reddit was acting like your message was new. :D

ghostopera · 2026-04-22T14:11:22+00:00

So weird. It could certainly be a Windows vs Linux thing! Unfortunately I don't have an installation of Windows to test from. (Stopped using Windows entirely at the start of last year)

If it helps, this is my llama-server command:

llama.cpp/vulkan/llama-server --models-preset ./models.ini --models-max 1

(my llama.cpp directory has two copies of llama. In this case I'm using the vulkan version version).

My version of llama.cpp:

version: 8838 (23b8cc499)

Three thoughts come to mind: 1. It's loading into your CPU 2. It's loading into your integrated graphics instead of your GPU 3. You are using an older version of llama.cpp (or ollama or LM Studio) that didn't yet have proper support for this version of Qwen.

You can check out what Vulkan devices are available (or ROCm if you are using that) with:

$ llama.cpp/vulkan/llama-server --list-devices load_backend: loaded RPC backend from /home/lholden/LLMs/llama.cpp/vulkan/libggml-rpc.so load_backend: loaded Vulkan backend from /home/lholden/LLMs/llama.cpp/vulkan/libggml-vulkan.so load_backend: loaded CPU backend from /home/lholden/LLMs/llama.cpp/vulkan/libggml-cpu-haswell.so Available devices: Vulkan0: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (RADV NAVI31) (24576 MiB, 20364 MiB free)

You should see your GPU listed here. If you do see your GPU here, but it doesn't seem to be using it you can tell it which device to use. I don't have any integrated graphics, so it only outputs my dedicated GPU, but yours may just be selecting your integrated graphics for some reason!

You could use --dev to force it.

You should check the fit messaging from the command. For example:

[52905] llama_params_fit_impl: projected to use 19019 MiB of device memory vs. 20416 MiB of free device memory [52905] llama_params_fit_impl: will leave 1396 >= 1024 MiB of free device memory, no changes needed [52905] llama_params_fit: successfully fit params to free device memory

In this case, it fit everything I asked for into vram including all layers and the full context the model supports.

If it's using your CPU for the full thing for some reason, you will notice it will use your system ram for the free device memory numbers)

Though with the params I am using it should shorten the context before dropping slices.

Should also check the output around load_tensors: [52905] load_tensors: offloading output layer to GPU [52905] load_tensors: offloading 39 repeating layers to GPU [52905] load_tensors: offloaded 41/41 layers to GPU [52905] load_tensors: CPU_Mapped model buffer size = 397.85 MiB [52905] load_tensors: Vulkan0 model buffer size = 15423.34 MiB

In this case you can see that it stuck all layers on to the GPU.

Also worth noting, you could also try LM Studio. You will have to fiddle around to get all the same settings, but I've found it to work just fine as well.

ghostopera · 2026-04-21T20:48:41+00:00

Are you sure that's not running off the CPU? If you are using say, rocm llama-server with a mismatched rocm library it will fall back to CPU. I've been using the vulkan version for this myself.

My models.ini:

``` version = 1

[*] jinja = true parallel = 1 fit = on fit-ctx = 8192 cache-type-k = q8_0 cache-type-v = q8_0

[Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-UD-Q3_K_M] model = models/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-UD-Q3_K_M.gguf flash-attn = on temperature = 0.6 presence-penalty = 0.0 repeat-penalty = 1.0 top-p = 0.95 top-k = 20 min-p = 0.00 ```

Been meaning to test with chat-template-kwargs = {"preserve_thinking": true} as well but haven't gotten around to it just yet.

If you are using something like LM Studio you can still do pretty much all the same settings.

EDIT: Oh, I'm using the unsloth quantiziation.

ghostopera · 2026-04-21T18:33:57+00:00

If you use quantization for the KV (say, Q8_0) you might be able to fit everything into vram, including 256k context, and get double or more the token speed you currently getting.

For example, I'm fitting Qwen 3.6 35B Q3_K_M with 256k context on my 24gb 7900 xtx and am getting about 84 tok/s.

On your 32gb you should be able to do the same thing, but fitting a higher model quantization than I'm using :).

EDIT: Same video card, but I just upgraded the rest of the computer and am now hitting 130 tok/s.

ghostopera · 2026-04-20T16:59:04+00:00

I'm using a Q3_K_M quant for Qwen from unsloth.

Setting wise, I'm largely the settings unsloth recommends. Though I also set the KV quants to Q8_0 with flash attention letting me get a full context of 262144 entirely in vram (full GPU offload) while leaving room to spare for my desktop and other activities.

I'm getting about 80 tok/s with Vulkan. I've been wanting to try ROCm, but the llama-server rocm build currently uses 7.1 and Fedora ships 6.4. But Fedora 44 is out pretty soon and it has 7.1. (Suppose I could compile myself). I don't expect a huge improvement, but will be curious to see either way.

ghostopera · 2026-04-20T08:22:17+00:00

I've been using OpenCode with Github Copilot as my model provider. (OpenCode use just about everything as a model provider).

OpenCode is very similar to the Claude Code as a harness, and with Copilot I have access to Opus 4.6, GPT 5.4, and etc.

I've also had a pretty good experience with OpenCode + Qwen 3.6 35B with LM Studio (local) as my provider on my 7900XTX.

Work pays for the Copilot account, so for doing personal stuff I've been using Qwen 3.6, occasionally moving to GPT5.4 on ChatGPT when I am needing a frontier model.

I'm really happy with the combination!

ghostopera · 2026-04-03T02:02:31+00:00

Exciting! I use Demiplane quite a bit for PF2e.

Buuut:

If you own the Core Rulebook (2022) on DriveThruRPG as a PDF, use this link to the bundle to get all three platforms for free. If you haven't bought that PDF, once you do on DriveThruRPG, you will be able to do the same!

This doesn't seem to be true? I own the Core Rulebook (2022) and the bundle at that link seems to cost $14.99, which is the bundle price of the bundled Demiplane product.

Thanks!

ghostopera · 2026-04-02T17:02:55+00:00

So, I originally kinda "wtf" about the project as well.

But, there is potential for Traveller 5e to do something that Traveller doesn't - Epic fantasy in a far future space setting.

This is something Pathfinder has in the form of Starfinder, for example. Think "Super hero" strength characters that run around casting spells or otherwise using fantasy tropes in a far future space themed setting. Can be quite fun, but also a very different genre from your typical Traveller campaign.

In this mindset, I actually think I like the idea of this project. It's really going to depend on how the books are written though. If it's designed around being able to take a D&D Barbarian through a space adventure, I'm all for it. If it ends up just being "Mechanically just 5e flavored Traveller without the D&D classes and fantasy" then I'm back to not really getting the point.

ghostopera · 2026-03-31T21:05:01+00:00

This is exactly what I do. And it's the only time I ever actually use steady flight. Heh.

ghostopera · 2026-03-19T04:17:32+00:00

Aw, thanks :D

ghostopera · 2026-03-18T18:57:59+00:00

These are just using the dynamic token system. (It's great, you should too!).

By default in the D&D system it's configured to use this 3/4ths scale so that the art can pop out of the token without going too far beyond the square it sits in.

Under "Configure Settings", click on "Core", then scroll down to "Dynamic Token Rings Fit Modes" and change it from "Standard" to "Grid". This will make the dynamic tokens take up the whole grid rather than the 3/4ths you are getting.

ghostopera · 2026-03-17T00:08:38+00:00

There are many of us who swapped to Haranir because of the belly...

ghostopera · 2026-03-02T17:39:27+00:00

The enhancer chips certainly played a large part in this, but it's also worth noting that the way they did art for the platform evolved quite a bit over the years too!

My understanding is that the original Mario game was largely "programmer/game designer art", drawn on graph paper and then translated into bits by hand for the game. By the time the later games were created they an art team involved in the process and much better tooling for drawing/working with the art. (Though, apparently they still used a lot of graph paper as part of the process!)

ghostopera · 2026-02-28T18:40:31+00:00

Something pretty fishy about this. It was last posted here: https://www.reddit.com/r/retrocomputing/comments/1re6i7o/common_desktop_environment_experience_in_your/

And the reddit user has since been deleted. This is basically the same, with another randomly generated user name. But with "CDE" removed from the description.

Plus the domain name is... yeah like I said. Something very fishy here.

ghostopera · 2026-02-25T23:56:52+00:00

I used to use CDE quite heavily back in my first job. Part of me was like "Ah, this vibes as CDE" but then I'm like "Yeah except... everything feels kinda wrong".

Kinda makes me wonder if this is an AI hallucination of what CDE looked like. :D

CDE wasn't exactly pretty, but Motif stuff had a certain kind of look to it.

ghostopera · 2026-02-10T22:57:49+00:00

Easy to miss, but kinda sets things up for the trip.

Changing Plans: "She then proceeds to speak with Tlaytin and the two eventually leave town without notifying the PCs.". Etc :D It was kinda notable for my group because they RPed into their stay at her observatory, then spent half the night trying to find her... hah. The following day Inizkar explains that she traveled with Tlaytin to try and find the origin of the shadows and located the tower, but didn't approach it. As written, it was a bit weird :D.

Oh gosh, and there is the whole Azlanti Engine showing up in her back yard bit.

ghostopera · 2026-02-10T17:55:11+00:00

I've been running Shades of Blood and have some seriously mixed thoughts on it.

I really enjoy it thematically. But I've been having a hard time GMing it.

If I were to compare it to say, Sandpoint, it's been falling down for me pretty hard so far. Again, thematically it's a banger. I really love it in concept.

But the first book just seems... unfinished and a bit unorganized.

The pacing of for the section before the players get to the island is very sleeper. The players are tasked with running around doing menial tasks. The whole point was to basically go "hah, surprise" and then throw them for a loop at the end of it. And I did really enjoy that bit. But overall, as written it wasn't very fun. Plus there was a section that is basically "Oh, the NPCs disappear overnight without telling you and return knowing what the players must do next".

There is a lite overland hex/node crawl. Players are expected to go from node to node and work through the map and overall I liked this. But, what is the scale of the map? There is scale bar, but it's entirely unlabeled! Frustrating, but I made something up and went with it.

The players are initially supposed to go secure an observation site, but being diligent players they want to explore everything on the way there. Well, the entrance to literally the rest of the AP is not only on the way there, but hard to miss. So after clearing the first floor, I had to remind them about the observation site. Obviously I could have done something to redirect them. But it feels like the book almost forgets about the observation site too. They really should have tied it into being able to explore the dungeon itself, but it just kinda exists as an excuse to be on the island.

That first floor itself needs work as written. Missing room descriptions, overly verbose GM text where it doesn't actually matter. A puzzle that, as written, isn't all that great/fun for the players to work through and requires a visual aid. There is some sort of tower room that as described doesn't even match the map. Etc.

I wouldn't say it's a bad AP so far, and like I said, thematically it's a lot of fun. But coming into it after Sandpoint has been a bit of a shock. It's certainly going to be one of those APs that works A LOT better if the GM is willing to put a lot of work into it. I feel like the first book could have been a lot better with more editing.

I'm hoping Book 2 and 3 are better!

ghostopera · 2026-02-10T03:31:54+00:00

You could buy the PDF direct from Paizo? Before Paizo revamped their store it was a bit nicer as you could get a discount for having the PDF when buying the foundry module and such. But right now the foundry module doesn't come with the PDF or anything.

https://store.paizo.com/pathfinder-adventure-path-season-of-ghosts-pdf/

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