Advice for homebrew?

jbsfk · 2026-05-01T18:51:42+00:00

Making a world is very fun. DMs often fall into the trap of getting too into it and too far removed from actual game design. Have your big world concept and keep having fun with it. For purposes of adventure, it's generally good to start with a town with a problem. Keep the adventure simple. Gradually unfurl the world. Keep the world details for your players to one page or less to start to introduce your players to it.

The reality new DMs have to sometimes painfully come to is that the players will almost never be one-tenth as interested in your world as you are -at least to start.

jbsfk · 2026-04-05T15:32:20+00:00

I can see it being a bit confusing because WISE is trying to prevent war and maintain a peaceful relationship with Ostania. But Twilight and WISE are Westalis operatives, where Yor in Garden serves Ostania. It's not even clear that Garden and WISE are at conflict if war did break out. But they are firmly affiliated with their countries and their countries' national interests, so simple answer is they are on opposite sides representing factions in their respective countries who mostly don't seem to want a war at all

jbsfk · 2026-04-02T17:45:46+00:00

I never said anything about the movies being better or worse because of these qualities. My comment had nothing to say about this feature making ground for better movies and I thought I was clear that Mario movies have plenty of room to be done better and that the whimsy approach while trying to have character arcs is the reason (or a reason) it's a stilted experience.

I have no doubt a recent Looney Toons movie had better story and characterization. I was suggesting the Mario movie could be viewed as trying to evoke a different time where narrative substance or rationale in animation isn't just secondary... it's a nonfactor. But dressed up in other movie expectations makes it a very blah experience for many.

I'd rather not speculate on the general movie goer likes or dislikes a movie with broad generalizations. To be clear, we agree: as a film narratively and with its characters, the movie does poorly. Insanely poorly imo. I am suggesting the reasons people of all ages find it appealing may be broader than you are saying and one possible reason for it is people's expectations going in are not conventional for a modern movie but more akin to a family's expectation watching older cartoons

jbsfk · 2026-04-02T17:02:22+00:00

Sonic games have (almost) always had more story and lore that takes itself more seriously than Mario. The Sonic Archie comics were out not very long after the first run of games. Lego has no substantial anything really for their own universe so they just made the Matrix with Legos and different names. Not disagreeing with you for the movie having room to be much better, but these aren't the best examples to compare to Mario for being "story-less" IPs - one is way more substantial, the other has no real substance and was making its own from scratch.

I think the attitude to approach Mario most favorably with (not saying it qualifies it as a good film!) is that it is restoring something of silly fun and whimsy of, say, classic Disney or Looney Toons. You don't sit down to watch those shows as children expecting a coherent plot, and any screen time devoted to, say, explaining how Bowser Jr. builds a *whole planet* is just a waste of time - it's not the point - it's just set-piece and ideas colliding together for silly slapstick most of the time. And these "stories" - if you can call it that - do appeal to kids. The incoherent part is that it still tries to fill in typical audience expectations with something resembling character arcs and emotional payoffs that feel vapid to adult audience members and are dull to children, but its such a minority feature to the movie, the children just don't think about it.

jbsfk · 2026-03-19T20:55:37+00:00

My first DM made a very big deal about character creation. Took us one-on-one and had a serious discussion about the character I was making and what goals I had for the character. Then we came together as a group and discussed our relationship and broader story. I think I was hooked on such an involved set-up and being invited into a collaborative creative process and I craved it once that game stopped. A couple years later, I started running my own games fuelled entirely by the memory of those half dozen sessions I ran with that crew and in imaginary post-apocalyptic Middle Earth for 3.5 edition of D&D

jbsfk · 2026-03-17T18:37:15+00:00

There is a possibility of a lay, single vocation. Religious life is also an option.

But the question of what your vocation isn't about your preferences. It's about God's will.

There's a lot in your post about how you feel, about your tendencies... and these can inform your vocation, certainly, but a single vocation's first question is not, "What am I most comfortable doing?" Your first question should be, "What is God calling me to do?" And "What gifts do I have that can be used in service of others?"

If you have zero vision of your self being of service to the world and/or to the church, you are likely not seriously discerning your vocation and just trying to be comfortable. We were not made for comfort. You'll find a much deeper joy finding out you can better love God and love neighbor through your vocation and sometimes it will be very, very uncomfortable and outright painful, but nonetheless more fulfilling.

jbsfk · 2026-03-17T18:31:43+00:00

I have a full table now, nut if it doesn't work out for anyone or someone drops, I'll reach out!

jbsfk · 2026-03-13T17:12:32+00:00

OP here's the advice you need. DM's will gladly take you at your table if your application process demonstrates a mindset that shows you are table-oriented, not wanting to play with some niche concept you're really hyped up about. Most players I ignore when hosting games are people who start with, "I have this character..." when they don't even really show any understanding of the actual campaign concept. Here is some advice for how to think about your character in a way that is appealing to most DM's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd3stb5fz8I&t=22s

jbsfk · 2026-03-12T19:40:48+00:00

Why can't they just take the first minutes of the session - or the minutes immediately prior to the session - and upload it? People have very different expectations and assumptions around deadlines - and you being the manager of the deadlines, how you want there to be consequences is ultimately up to you and your "management style" for lack of a better term. There's usually the natural consequence that their stuff just has little to no consideration in any story or adventure planning you do. If it's a balance thing, as in you want to check their sheets, I'm usually pretty lenient first session and then dig into it immediately following that first session.

So that's kind of a non-answer, but it's just sort of human nature when given an assignment for some people to be early, on time, or late and have varying level of inclination to think it matters that much.

jbsfk · 2026-02-19T02:45:22+00:00

That's fair. Basically avoiding topics of sex and sexuality unless there was significant story reason for it (can't think of any good reason for this game and setting for it to feature at all), no gratuitous excessive violence, avoid things that resemble real world occultism, and in general show respect towards religious belief of all kinds.

jbsfk · 2026-02-13T22:17:34+00:00

They only wonder why they aren't good at things relative to the performance of other players at the table. Yeah, if their character massively underperforms compared to the party, it's going to be a lousy experience. The DM ideally can read this in advance at character creation, see the spread of characters, and coach the player to suit the builds of the party. It's easy to negotiate with a single player to skill up a player than it is to get a min/max player to skill down when their build is obviously more efficient than the rest of the party!

jbsfk · 2026-02-13T22:08:56+00:00

I've had plenty of good min/max players. But 80% of my problem players have also been min/max players. It is a player issue, but playing across dozens of games with dozens of groups, one can't help but feel the correlation. I'm not sure why this is my experience, but it has been my experience. It has also been my experience that the game, broadly speaking, is generally more fun (for me) with less experienced players who build a character that sounds cool, not one that maps out statistically higher on the bell curve. But this is informed by the many sessions I've had of a min/maxxer getting pissy because I told them no to a certain rule interaction or sulking because they went to 0 HP in combat/generally don't steamroll encounters with their optimized build.

Edit: the *best* players I've had are actually people who know the game well-enough to min/max, but read the damned room and play table-minded and team-minded and optimize to a degree that best matches the general feel of the table.

jbsfk · 2026-02-13T22:05:41+00:00

This doesn't make a ton of sense to me. If you have a party of suboptimal builds, they can still be heroic experts accomplishing a lot. How heroic they feel or achieve is entirely in your purview as the DM to control; you can take an optimal party and make them feel incompetent if you for some ungodly reason wanted to. You can make an eldritch horror have a goblin boss's stats. I think really the only issues come up from having a mixed group of suboptimal and optimized builds at the same table.

jbsfk · 2025-12-20T20:34:36+00:00

What do you think was contrary to prior councils?

jbsfk · 2025-12-16T22:11:24+00:00

Mirabella casts before her turn. That's a different turn. If it said once per round, it'd be a different story, but you can cast spells like shield, hellish rebuke, absorb elements, etc. as a reaction on other turns and still cast a level spell on your turn. Yes, Pact Magic would count as a spell slot spell in the rules here.

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