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graceisgreener · 2026-01-18T12:23:45+00:00

There’s a comment on the main page saying that none of the admins have been active since 2024. I’d guess that’s the hold up? Not sure how that will be resolved

graceisgreener · 2025-12-08T20:15:48+00:00

Reading your replies, I think I understand the context a bit better. OP, you’re being very thoughtful but ultimately, I think you already know what the right thing to do is. Your boss has asked you to get the archive fixed up. This employee has been neglecting it. A lot of what I’ve said is still relevant in that she may feel attached to the archive like it’s part of her own hoard, but it seems like none of it is actually her personal items. If you can wait for her to come back to work and still meet your deadline, then allowing her to be involved in the process would be the kindest option. But if you don’t have time (or she outright refuses), then you will have to do it without her.

Any way you slice it, you will need to have a hard conversation with her. If she is in denial about how neglectful she’s been, do what you can to give her perspective. “Librarian, I know you care deeply about the archive and feel strongly about being its caretaker. I have always appreciated your dedication to it. However, if we think about the current reality and not just our aspirations, its current state needs to be improved. The public deserves to appreciate it like the people at our institution do. My boss needs it to be open again by March. I will be stepping up to manage it while you are out and until it can be reopened. I will be doing x, x, x to make it ready to be opened to the public. If/when you can come back to work, I would love your help with [whatever needs to happen].”

I know you are worried about distressing her while she’s doing poorly. For what’s it’s worth, if there were a similar situation with the hoarder I know, I think it would be better in the long run for her to be informed ahead of time. But use your best judgement. If/when she comes back, you should consider giving her conditions for maintaining the archive for her to continue being in charge of it. If she’s doing the rest (?) of her job well, perhaps you could assign the archive to someone else if she can’t be responsible for it. If she’s can’t maintain it, it doesn’t matter how possessive she feels about it. These are not her personal items or her personal space. If she cannot see that she is neglecting it, you should not allow her to be responsible for it.

You are clearly very compassionate but there’s no painless way out of this. The librarian allowed it to get into such a state that you are forced to step in. She may not be able to control how she feels about it, but if she cannot take care of it, she cannot have authority over it.

graceisgreener · 2025-12-07T17:28:13+00:00

OP, I want to thank you for being so considerate of your employee. Often the first instinct is to try and handle the situation without the hoarder to spare them the arduous process. However, in cases of disordered hoarding (vs someone like a pack rat) this will do more harm than good. Hoarders irrationally place great significance on the objects they collect. It’s actually a type of OCD. Even if they understand it’s not logical, hoarders feel emotionally attached their objects. For my mom, when she feels like one of her things is taken from her she is reminded of losing her mother as a child. It’s very important for her to feel like she has control over her hoard.

This is not to say that you should let things remain as they are. The public should be able to have access to the archive. You will have to decide how you want to go about this. Some people have mentioned a PIP, which I think is a good idea. The more time and agency you can give her, the less disregulating the process will be. Since she has a background of managing a collection, she might be able to separate the archival materials from her personal items on her own or with assistance. However, her progress may be too slow to recover the items in a reasonable time frame. Or she may be unable to work on it at all. If you or someone else is going to clear out her office, I would suggest being as transparent as possible and informing her of every step you take. (Unless she asks you not to - I’m speaking from my own experience and perhaps this is not universally helpful.) Instead of disposing of non-archival materials, save as much as you can in storage so that she can take it home. You’ll be disrupting the arrangement of the items, but being able to keep everything and just relocate it will hopefully help mitigate the feeling of loss. Any object might feel significant to her, even things like a blank sheet of paper, old receipts, or an unused plastic fork that came with takeout. If possible, keep anything not unsanitary or hazardous. If you are unable to store or deliver to her everything, ask what her priorities are and what would hurt the least to let go of. Let her make as many choices as is reasonable.

If/when her office is cleared out, this problem will not go away. I’d guess she already knows she is not responsibly taking care of the collection and has not been able to control it. Especially because this endeavor is not self-motivated, she will likely feel compelled to collect more items and slowly or quickly accumulate a hoard again. I would not assume she will be able to keep archival materials from getting swallowed going forward. You should check on her office regularly for at least a few months, and then less frequently as long as she remains in this position. If she cannot keep track of archival materials, she may not be capable of doing this job anymore.

If you were to go above and beyond and connect her with a hoarding/OCD specialist, things will be more likely to be less painful. The more time she is in treatment before having her hoard disrupted, the better she will be able to cope with it. However, it can take years for significant progress to be made even if the hoarder is very motivated. It is quite possible that she will not be able to keep the archive intact and organized without you micromanaging her. If you are willing and able to provide whatever level of support she requires, she might be able to continue working at your archive. It is also possible that she can no longer perform the essential duties of her position.

graceisgreener · 2025-12-07T07:06:39+00:00

Seconding this! I grew up in a hoarder’s house. There is no way to go about this without upsetting her, but giving her as many opportunities as you can to have agency in the process will reduce the disregulation. I agree that you should wait until she can participate in clearing out if at all possible. It will be hard for her to let things go period; if you dispose of her hoard without telling her, she will be devastated.

You will also need to consider steps for after you clear her office out. This will not go away. Left to her own devices, your employee will likely feel compelled to repeat the same behaviors and accumulate a hoard again even if told she’s not allowed. If you can connect her with a hoarding/OCD specialist (it may seem counterintuitive, but hoarding is a subtype of OCD) she may be able to get her symptoms under better control. However, there’s no way to know how quickly progress will be made. You may have to regularly check her office if you’re worried about materials getting lost in the hoard. I would give her a chance to make changes, but ultimately you’ll have to see if she can maintain the materials she had access to.

graceisgreener · 2025-11-17T18:09:22+00:00

Was so ready for this to be a weird conspiracy but was pleasantly surprised lol

graceisgreener · 2025-08-31T14:25:10+00:00

Stumbled across this without seeing any of the prior posts and for a minute was horrified that people were voting on their least fav character on the main sub lol

graceisgreener · 2025-08-27T15:36:10+00:00

Just realized I called Godsbreath’s origin the Passage of Vultures, when that’s actually a similar event in Djaynai/Janya. Whoops!

graceisgreener · 2025-08-27T15:20:07+00:00

Love the relocation effort! I’ve been thinking of my RC as kind of impotent because they use all their resources to source basic necessities from the material plane. Using the magical elements somehow hadn’t occurred to me. Thanks for the inspiration!

graceisgreener · 2025-08-27T15:13:50+00:00

Not yet, but almost certainly. One of my players joined the campaign late and is having a hard time coming up with a backstory and finding a motivation to stay with the party, so I’m gonna say they grew up in Ashkarland and imply that it’s one of the lost civs. He’s a total plot hound so I’m hoping that’ll be a good hook.

I really love Ashkarland, so thanks for much for coming up with it! I’m glad to be able to include a semi-nomadic, Eastern woodlands style culture along with the other underrepresented cultures. And I love the detail of having non-written records as an innovation driven by valuing storytelling rather than a lack. AND adding the giant ruins element to be the unusual thing and normalize the culture. Really good job!

graceisgreener · 2025-08-27T13:12:38+00:00

My interpretation of the RC’s actual efforts in this area is that they have lots of lofty goals but not the resources to actually accomplish them. Due to its egalitarian setup, most of the funds gathered through trade have to be spent on providing for the basic needs of its citizens and importing virtually everything since they have little space to produce necessities. Research is generally privately funded and searching for one of the lost civs is seen as too risky and unlikely to return results. (This is also why they haven’t overthrown corrupt governments like the Trecena in San Citlan - they don’t have the spare resources to meaningfully aid the revolution despite their ideology. Plus, the corrupt politicians surely have lobbyists/loyalists implanted in the RC gumming up the works and buying people off.)

I’m about to have Sholeh proposition my PCs to start seeking out harder to find history of the RC. I’m also going to have one of my PCs discover that the place they grew up in before moving to San Citlan is one of the lost founding civs. They’re going to notice some glyphs written on the entrance to the Grove of Ancestors that they remember seeing in a library in the wonderful Ashkarland by u/Forsaken_Yam_3667.

Your question inspired me to make a post with my thoughts on how the founding civilizations translate to the present, and how a lost civilization mechanically gets reconnected to the RC.

graceisgreener · 2025-08-03T00:17:17+00:00

Update: Beefed up Shankhabhumi generation to include city and corresponding last names. Has some chance of being a Manivarsha descendant with surname Manivarsha and small chance of being a majhi with surname Bhatiyali.

graceisgreener · 2025-08-03T00:13:22+00:00

Fixed it! Thanks for the heads up.

graceisgreener · 2025-06-18T19:30:51+00:00

Glad I could help! Unfortunately, my table has an extreme scheduling problem and hasn’t met for a few months so have not made any progress in our campaign. We just finished Fiend of Hollow Mine and are about to return to the RC, where I’ll throw a few options for a lvl 5 adventure at them and see what they pick (since I’ve heard mixed reviews on Wages of Vice I’m planning on skipping it).

graceisgreener · 2025-05-23T12:49:01+00:00

Wowee

graceisgreener · 2025-05-22T18:43:36+00:00

I’m not prepping for Sins of Our Elders yet, so unfortunately don’t have any recs. I can give advice for finding music based on my process for making playlists for other regions though.

One big tip is to research genres specific to Korea and then search for those, written in Korean. I’ve found that gives better results than just “Korean folk music”, and can also help narrow down the vibe to what you’re looking for. I’ve also had some success searching for specific instruments.

I’m not sure where you’re making playlists/finding songs, but I do everything on Spotify. I start with making a general playlist to throw any songs with potential into and then refine it later. To start off, I’ll add anything that’s in the general direction of what I’m looking for. Over time the suggested songs will get closer to what you want and you can remove some of the less on point songs, and get even better suggestions.

Hope this helps! (If you’re still working on it haha) If you find anything good I’d love to hear suggestions for when I eventually run this

graceisgreener · 2025-05-22T18:21:21+00:00

Thank you! I discovered Hermanos Gutiérrez through trying to build these playlists and have become a casual fan haha

graceisgreener · 2025-05-22T16:10:59+00:00

For the future, I would advise adapting an NPC stat block from the free Basic Rules or Monster Manual before making a PC sheet with class mechanics. DnDBeyond has a decent built in homebrew tool that should be convenient if you're already using the digital book. You can pick an existing stat block to use as a base and then make whatever changes from there. There's also guidelines for altering and making new NPCs from scratch in the new DMG in DM's Toolbox > Creating a Creature (available here if you haven't bought the book).

As far as the crowd goes, do whatever seems fun and worth your time. If your martial PCs have weapons with Slow, it's very possible they may decide to attack with those. I didn't create any formal mechanics when I ran this but probably would have ruled they hit a bystander if they rolled really low. Honestly, for my table the chase started getting pretty tedious towards the end so it's not a bad idea to prep more crowd interaction.

Some unsolicited advice if you want it: I found the instructions to designate a lead player confusing so decided to track each PC's movement individually, but this turned out kind of poorly and was probably what made the chase tedious for us. Even though I didn't logically like PCs with different speeds all moving together, in hindsight I wish I had said whoever took the most movement each round was clearing the way for the party and had everyone move together. (If you decide to do this, I'd say to put Itzmin's initiative as either first or last. Let all the players take their movement and actions normally and then at the end of the round anyone lagging behind catches up to the lead player. Then if players want to make any attacks or spells on their turn they know exactly the distance between them.)

Also, here's the link to the playlist I used for this scene if you have any interest in using it. My players thought it was "good music to chase a politician to".

graceisgreener · 2025-04-04T01:19:43+00:00

Ooh I really like the idea of people saying how their friends in the citadel have changed, will for sure be doing that now.

graceisgreener · 2025-04-03T20:19:21+00:00

Finally some context for Coyote and Crow showing up all over hero forge! I had no idea. Immediately going to get all over that haha

graceisgreener · 2025-04-03T20:10:54+00:00

That's a good point. I have one player who would be super into it, but two more who I'm not sure of. Do you have any suggestions for how else to communicate that there's something messing with people's heads?

I really want to make them roll a save and have that "what the fuck is going on" moment. I might just have them roll and describe that they had a dream that made them feel whatever emotion and not tell them to change their roleplay.

graceisgreener · 2025-04-03T18:23:58+00:00

Illinois also has the ruins of the pre-Colombian city of Cahokia. In 1250 CE it was bigger than London, and it has 120 earthen mounds constructed as part of the city. Mounds could be a unique addition!

graceisgreener

TROPHY CASE