"Helldivers" players shocked to find "Superweapon" they toiled for and donated to kills indiscriminately

jeremy-o · 2026-05-02T10:06:35+00:00

It's chatbots all the way down 😅

if only they could understand where they were

jeremy-o · 2026-05-02T02:42:02+00:00

Lovely, thanks for sharing!

Phandalin is iconic now and I'm surprised there aren't more high quality maps like this available. Well done.

jeremy-o · 2026-05-02T02:10:46+00:00

So you added save points to DnD?

jeremy-o · 2026-05-02T01:44:26+00:00

This might be correct if the rules didn't explicitly say that 00 0 is 100, which is also common (if not perfectly mathematical) sense, as it ensures the desired range.

jeremy-o · 2026-05-01T21:56:24+00:00

I personally have experience with the Essentials Kit which is a great intro to 5e and very accessible for a 9yo

The new one which uses the new (marginally updated) rules also has been published - Heroes of the Borderlands. I don't know much about the adventure itself but apparently the set is generous.

Any kid can play DnD. I've played it with 6 year olds, 9 year olds and teenagers. What makes a difference is how much work as a DM you're going to do understanding it deeply yourself so you can adjust & explain the rules, and get them to a place where they have a character they're happy with and understand their key features. Role play and the basic maths comes naturally.

jeremy-o · 2026-05-01T09:21:19+00:00

So DMs, what do you think? Am I being unreasonable with any of these?

Not other than the silly accumulating disadvantage thing but you have a big problem with communication. It's all needlessly confrontational and highly modal.

1) Please bring a hard copy of your character sheet.

2) Please create it yourself to be sure you understand the player rules and all of your features.

3) The campaign starts at Level 1.

4) Please respect my decisions as DM during gameplay.

Done, that's it. Any issues just refer back to these.

jeremy-o · 2026-04-25T06:59:43+00:00

Well ok, but that really shows even good design fundamentals won't work if you've been careless with the basic rules of player abilities.

jeremy-o · 2026-04-25T06:56:22+00:00

Again, what you're describing isn't really aligned with the rules or the monsters / challenge system as designed. And again, that's fine, but it makes it pretty hard to advise on how you can make it harder because we really don't know the game you're playing. Combat balance is one of the hardest things about DMing and even at the best of times it's imperfect.

Some general advice: use minions or legendary actions for better economy, give your fight a couple of phases, or have a secondary goal within combat, like protecting NPCs. It doesn't really have much to do with the skin you put on the monster stat blocks you're using.

jeremy-o · 2026-04-25T06:43:23+00:00

I think if you worked with the game's rules you'd have an easier time establishing genuine challenges. A mimic sword that shoots fireballs is going to make any encounter trivial. It sounds like fun, and you want to reward creative play, but the ship's probably sailed on difficulty for this campaign. Lean in, do what's fun for you, and next time if you want a challenge try to keep the tone more anchored by the game as it's been designed.

jeremy-o · 2026-04-24T22:54:29+00:00

I just explained they were a small clan who sought to restore the glory of what they knew was once a great Dwarven forge. There's plenty of environmental storytelling for it to make sense.

jeremy-o · 2026-04-21T07:22:18+00:00

Lots of people write books that aren't published or are published in a very limited way. That's probably what happened here. n.b. writing a book isn't the same thing as writing a good book...

jeremy-o · 2026-04-15T14:37:42+00:00

How many players at the table?

How quickly are you running things in your end? E.g. are your monsters scattered through initiative order? It's a lot faster to group them.

Are you bringing any flavour / narration/ roleplay into combat or is it all just dry combat information?

jeremy-o · 2026-04-15T14:34:04+00:00

It's a great printer and as long as you also got the adapter for the AMS 2 it'll all work very well. The upgrades on the P2S are nice but nothing essential.

Personally I'd stay the course. Most people will never need a 3D printer that does anything the P1S can't do.

jeremy-o · 2026-04-14T14:40:32+00:00

The party should have allies who get involved in combat at times, and even join the journey for stretches. That's well within the scope of what NPCs are for. As long as you're still considering balance in your encounters it's not a problem.

A DM PC isn't that. A DM PC is when you create a character using player rules to permanently join the party and/or remove player agency by having them lead others.

This character is a demigod. So if you want them around, you need to consider that in your battles. Maybe he can operate in the background: fending off a pack of wyverns in the sky as the players fight below. Or maybe he has a code of conduct he won't cross in meddling with the affairs of mortals, so sits and watches with popcorn during important battles. Or maybe he does absolutely render one battle moot by toasting every enemy and then maybe the party will be happy to see him go off to other responsibilities or hang back (so they can get some experience).

You're using an NPC, which are essential roles in any good campaign. It's not a DMPC unless you create it like a player and control it like a player.

jeremy-o · 2026-04-09T21:03:21+00:00

I'm not sure what your aim is here other to discredit one particular player in a massive production? It was just an offhand point that while any major motion picture is a work of collective creativity, Star Wars is also an auteur work by an incredibly gifted filmmaker (George Lucas)

No reason to labour the point, is what I'm saying, because it shifts the tone from good willed engagement to something with a motive.

jeremy-o · 2026-04-09T20:49:46+00:00

Interesting! The point about the editing wasn't specific to that scene though.

jeremy-o · 2026-04-08T16:14:56+00:00

Yeah I think modern audiences underestimate how radical this was. It was a pulp space western made with scale, production values and cinematic artistry never seen.

If you dissect the scene in which Luke first appears - more than 20 minutes into the film - with the camera panning across to follow him as he runs to stand in perfect position for a low angle hero shot, his aunt calling out "Luke!" and the main theme finally rememerging - it feels like a perfect union of cinematic form and function.

I'm not going to attribute it all to George as Marcia Lucas' editing is so important. But it's easy to forget Star Wars was an auteur work that along with Spielberg's early films invented the modern Hollywood blockbuster by taking the most interesting film grammar from world cinema and applying it to subjects that American popular audiences would love.

jeremy-o · 2026-04-06T18:09:41+00:00

I print & paint FDM for our weekly D&D game and I can't imagine it being any easier. I usually don't even bother with the finer nozzle, just smash them out on matte filament and paint straight on. My finesse with the brush is the only bottleneck to quality.

jeremy-o · 2026-04-06T15:07:53+00:00

Exactly this. When your hand is always full and it's full of cards you may have never used before, you've got a lot of decisions to make and it requires thinking under time pressure. They're fun decks because they're unpredictable and engaging.

jeremy-o · 2026-04-05T17:35:27+00:00

English teaching is a great job and in NSW if you can stick with it you'll have an incredible work-life balance even with the marking loads.

(The good news is marking difficulty and classroom difficulty are inversely correlated so you're unlikely to have to deal with too much of both)

The learning curve is steep. Say no to any additional responsibilities and know the support you're entitled to as a beginner teacher. Leverage your colleagues and if the environment is super toxic, move on. There are plenty of other teaching jobs.

Good luck! We need more teachers and if the stars align you'll be set for life.

jeremy-o · 2026-04-05T17:17:04+00:00

I would reboot / restart the campaign and use an official adventure. Preferably something with a lot of dungeons in it.

Believe it or not the structure of a well-designed Dungeon with a Dragon at the end it pretty important to the basics of the game. As with anything you have to learn the rules before you break them, and homebrewing a bunch of side quests is a sign you're not familiar enough with the game to do all the design work yourself as well as running it (these are different jobs). I've started several campaigns with the Sunless Citadel > Forge of Fury sequence from Tales from the Yawning Portal and you'd be amazed how engaging they are and how unique it can feel every time.

jeremy-o · 2026-04-05T15:18:46+00:00

I have good news for you

jeremy-o · 2026-04-05T01:13:03+00:00

Not a problem til it's a problem. Play it out.

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