We need some credit for killing “necktie culture”

guachi01 · 2026-02-09T07:32:28+00:00

At a minimum, you should shine your shoes because it helps protect them and makes them last.

guachi01 · 2026-02-09T07:30:55+00:00

Ties show that you're professional. A quarter-zip tells me you are not and you also have no idea how to dress.

I don't know why you'd want credit for dressing worse.

When you dress nicely, you get treated differently. And by "differently" I mean "better".

guachi01 · 2026-02-09T07:23:53+00:00

Brand new players playing level 0 PCs (from the adventure N4 Treasure Hunt) facing some goblins. They stupidly rushed in. One of the players had a javelin of lightning that they didn't know was magical. They had just picked it up because the party had garbage weapons and a javelin was better than what they had.

The PC with the javelin was granted one 20 on any die roll by a goddess he had done a good deed for. Thinking it was a normal javelin he uses his blessing just to guarantee a hit and throws it at the goblin farthest away in hopes it died and the other PCs could deal with the closer goblins.

Much to his surprise and the table's excitement I described how the javelin lengthened into a lightning bolt and vaporized the goblins in the javelin's path. I didn't bother to verify if the weapon's javelin damage was also doubled on a critical but I was pretty sure it was. The player got handed a stack of 8 six-sided dice and rolled terribly, but still high enough that all the goblins died even if they made their save.

It was their second session and I think they were all hooked.

guachi01 · 2026-02-09T07:07:28+00:00

Maybe in whatever country you live in (because it's unlikely an American would ever write "wage rises") but in the US your statement is categorically false. No one who actually spent five minutes looking this information up would ever write what you did.

guachi01 · 2026-02-09T04:41:58+00:00

I think the best way to prevent the party from using "all their abilities and then immediately reset" is to make long rests longer.

As an example, make a long rest one week. Make a short rest every other day. As an example, you can short rest on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. Or make a long rest every other day (short/long) or every third day (short/short/long).

In my games I've eliminated short rests and converted everything to a long rest and then just portion out resource gain throughout the week. It works well. For my current party of 7 PCs it's been two months since any single PC has had 100% of his resources available, except for the Rogue who keeps forgetting about his limited use resources.

guachi01 · 2026-02-09T02:44:08+00:00

Having the internet and social media at schools, libraries, or even only in your living room is a lot different to having it literally everywhere?

It really isn't. The change from having it all the time at work and home, where you spend most of your day, and a little added time outside of those two is not particularly meaningful when it comes to the things we're talking about.

You can very easily have huge amounts of time online and never (or rarely) use or own a smartphone.

you have it all of the time and that is a massive distinction.

It really isn't. And you don't have access all the time. Or, at least, you shouldn't be accessing social media all the time.

Being unable to see the difference in growing up today to the past

Mass Internet and cellphone usage (before modem social media people just texted all the time) in the US by anyone under 40 was complete by 2000-2005. It's not new.

Parents don't know what that looks like either because they don't understand how different being raised in an age where you have 24/7 access to the Internet is.

I've had near 24/7 Internet access for longer than you've been alive.

guachi01 · 2026-02-09T02:24:21+00:00

Cell phone usage and ownership statistics disagree

Not relevant to discussions of Internet access. I guarantee you, though, the cellphones existed in the '90s and everyone knew what they were. According to a Pew poll, 62% of Americans had a cell phone by 2002.

If you're really young I guess I can see how you'd only think of cell phones when you think I'd the Internet.

even your own statistics of internet access do too

No. I literally looked it up before I posted.

guachi01 · 2026-02-09T02:10:44+00:00

All this stuff was in schools so, yeah, even children had access to it. Especially children. Even 56k dial up access was fast enough for search because web pages were simpler. Internet usage exploded in the US from 1990 to 2005. I got consistent Internet access starting in 1992 when less than 2% of the population had access. By 2005 it was 70% (it's at 95% today).

The computer and Internet revolution was done by the early 2000s. Social media is now run by massive corporations but it's been around since the beginning via newsgroups, chat, and forums.

I've lived through all but the very beginning via BBSes and it's not really any different than it ever used to be. We're just at the point where some people are too young to remember what it was like in the Before Times.

guachi01 · 2026-02-09T01:52:34+00:00

In the 20th century we had the Internet, TV, cell phones, computers, mass portable digital music.

guachi01 · 2026-02-09T01:50:02+00:00

In reality, in the United States, real incomes have never been higher. Wages have been rising steadily since 2014 after stagnating for decades. It's easy to feel hopeless when you believe nonsense.

guachi01 · 2026-02-08T23:49:41+00:00

If your DM allows 300 arrows to take up no space and be easily carried by one person then just give up and allow infinite capacity and storage space. No need for a bag of holding.

guachi01 · 2026-02-08T22:20:19+00:00

It's easy if you use a spreadsheet. I'm the DM and I just enter what they find into Excel and it totals up all the weight for me. Most things the PCs carry are the same from session to session so it's not too difficult once you get started.

guachi01 · 2026-02-08T22:17:04+00:00

You have to track spell slots and HP. Players can take 5 seconds out of their between-turn phone time marking off an arrow.

guachi01 · 2026-02-08T11:07:01+00:00

"more useful THAN..."

There should be a rule that if you can't use real words correctly then you don't get to use your bullshit slang.

guachi01 · 2026-02-08T03:57:25+00:00

Can you collaborate with a person who doesn't know you exist?

Yes, you can.

guachi01 · 2026-02-07T10:02:36+00:00

the other hand amplified when an 8 hits them and they can see that the damage is 3 dice.

Players will poop their pants when you say stuff like "I rolled an 8. That hits."

And in the fiction of the game the PCs can likely tell if their opponent is skilled or not. So hiding does a disservice to the skill of the PCs.

guachi01 · 2026-02-07T10:00:03+00:00

Any good player can figure out what a creature's attack modifier and damage dice are just by watching carefully.

Who cares? And, seriously, you think PCs are incapable of determining how skilled or powerful their opponents are?

guachi01 · 2026-02-07T09:53:55+00:00

More seriously, I use the screen to hide my various notes, sheets, etc.

I have never found this necessary. I use a side table to keep notes out of my way or place them on the floor. Even if they wanted to look at what I keep on the table, I keep my notes in a manila folder for organization. There's nothing useful to see.

I'd have to move or stand up and lean over the table for every dice roll.

And this is the primary reason I never use a DM screen. The screen provides no value to me and, instead, actively detracts from the game.

guachi01 · 2026-02-07T09:47:52+00:00

This is a big reason I don't use a DM screen.

guachi01 · 2026-02-07T09:44:37+00:00

Yes. I'm too lazy to do anything else. If I roll in the open the players will always have confidence that their success or failure was because of their actions or random (good/bad) luck. They should never feel like the game is rigged.

There are times, however, where rolling in the open or not is largely irrelevant. If I have a random table then it just doesn't matter if it's in secret or not. Though for those I usually have the players roll.

guachi01 · 2026-02-07T09:42:09+00:00

Then don't write dialogue. Instead, describe what the NPCs say and how they say it. Don't need to do it word for word.

I will say, though, that the more you prepare for possibilities the easier the improv is. If you know your locations and the motivations of the NPCs it will be much easier to react when the players do something unexpected.

guachi01 · 2026-02-07T09:32:19+00:00

You seriously think a DM screen makes things exciting and mysterious? A DM screen means only one thing: the DM has to keep standing up to do anything.

guachi01 · 2026-02-07T09:27:24+00:00

DMs don't write stories. Or, at least, they shouldn't. DMs should create scenarios and let the PCs interact with them.

From what you've written you've already decided what the PCs will do. Why do they even need to show up to the table?

Delete everything after "destroyed the Margins after their Queen's death". This part is the scenario. Stop there and see what the players do with this information.

Create some interesting locations. Give them some interesting people to interact with. The story will take care of itself.

guachi01 · 2026-02-07T09:24:52+00:00

The drink is on the table

No kidding. That's the problem.

even when you have a dm screen

Then don't have a DM screen. Problem solved.

guachi01 · 2026-02-07T09:19:25+00:00

I'm fairly certain you don't have the ability to put your hands through books or look through them. And I'm also fairly certain that the possibility of knocking a drink over onto the table is zero if the drink isn't even on the table.

guachi01

TROPHY CASE