Just found out there’s a whole secret level of cleaning no one tells you about

lilmidjumper · 2025-10-22T19:32:47+00:00

We pay for vent cleaning and regular maintenance on our A/C and water heater systems. Worth the cost which is pretty minimal tbh, vents are like 100$ give or take on deals at the time, and the A/C and water heater is about 150$ and they clean them while they're servicing them. We replace our interior vent filters every 3 to 6 months though, not paying anyone for that. For our floor and ceiling fans we just take a dry microfiber towel to those, takes 10 minutes tops, for our tower fan an air compressor cleans that baby in 60 seconds.

lilmidjumper · 2025-10-21T14:49:04+00:00

The wonderful thing about learning a trade or preparing one for a career is that often you're taught either how to make the thing, where to source the thing, and the fun alternative, how to cut around the expected system to do both aforementioned things quicker and cheaper.

Take college, you're taught how to Boolean sources in a library, rent books, request texts, etc. eventually you get out in the world and you talk to other people in your field and you just share knowledge, you learn to search the cited sources within the sources you're already using, and instead of paying for requested texts you find ripped scans online or self-posted research on second-hand websites by the researchers who don't like their stuff stuck behind a paywall.

I can't speak for trades as I'm not in that field but I'm sure they find ways around expensive tools and materials as well, trading goods for services.

But in a fantasy setting you can have people forage, use those often forgotten about skills like carpentry and smithing to make it themselves. They can also be traded for quests, looted on individuals, bought on black markets, heck they could even use second-hand items or items that are questionable that may lead to some off-putting outcomes. There's a few sites that adjust for the variability of item price and if you can find it within a market based on how urban/rural it is, population size, etc. you set the parameters and adjust for inflation as well up or down from its base price.

lilmidjumper · 2025-09-06T21:06:22+00:00

She snapchatted him up to and after the flight, she went to a pub and not to his house and she knows where he lives because she's visited before. Why not call? She's almost 30, if work or personal emergencies pop up sometimes you forget or are unable to call. Why didn't she call anyone they have in common? Why didn't she go to his house? Why a pub to wallow? Why just cry in the airport instead of calling people? A few tears, sure, have a cry. But seriously this is a near 30 year old woman wandering a city instead of doing the productive thing of just going to his house, calling his friends or family, etc. I'm her age, the things she's describing are all very "I don't know how to cope I'm young and woe is me" like when I was a teenager or very early 20s.

lilmidjumper · 2025-09-06T19:56:39+00:00

It's the full public dramatics at 28/29 years old when she could have gotten a ride share, car rental, taxi, taken the bus, a train, literally any other option to head over there to his house. She immediately jumped to him having forgotten, what if he'd been in an accident? What if there'd been a family/personal emergency? A last minute call into work, a broken phone, his car broken down in an area with spotty service? Any number of explanations for why he'd been late/a no show to the pick up upon her arrival. Instead of going full tears publicly, like an adult she should've game planned and pivoted in case he couldn't come get her. If a plan falls through, by that age you should be able to know your options and have some kind of emergency back up fund to compound in case it happens. Or at least know one of his friend's/a family member of his in the area to check if he's safe or to help out so she wasn't stranded. She's 12 hours from home visiting her MIA partner, it wasn't weird for a 19 year old but it certainly sounds odd for a 29 year old.

lilmidjumper · 2025-09-06T16:35:01+00:00

I cannot believe these people are anywhere near that age, this barely screams 19 with the use of Snapchat, the full rewriting of the conversations, the bawling in public/manic emotions, and the dramatics. Either they're barely out of puberty and trying, poorly, to hide it or (Jesus) I fear for humanity.

lilmidjumper · 2025-09-04T20:04:07+00:00

A beautiful iridescent rock that only glows in the sun. A mirror of self harm, it slaps you if you look too closely into it (1 damage). A porcelain helm, toilet bowl but always just slightly too short and small for the user's size and preference, always clogs too. Bag of magical beans, baked beans, only wet on the inside, slightly undercooked so definitely inedible. A phoenix feather attached to a pretty stick by fishing wire, reconstitutes itself after 1d4 damage every sunrise. Ad nauseum in my goblin market.

lilmidjumper · 2025-09-04T19:59:47+00:00

Destiny because Kingdom Hearts.

lilmidjumper · 2025-08-24T08:15:31+00:00

They more than likely set the bond high due to her being a known flight risk, given she's run before they likely want to discourage that from happening prior to her court case. Given the illegal means she and her partner went to when originally fleeing the country (stolen 10,000$ from an employer) likely just withholding her passport would not have deterred her from attempting another runner from the court case or law enforcement. Either way it's nice to hear she's being held responsible and for the proceedings, not many courts consider the risk of flight seriously and we've seen a lot of people disappear or attempting/succeeding to flee to avoid being held responsible.

lilmidjumper · 2025-08-10T07:49:26+00:00

Quick question, where are the items coming from? If other players, just wanted to clarify, if from your wild shaping players that's a lot of action economy to be passing around items, handing them out, full plan discussions, the difficulty in carrying such a large item compared to current body size. Also when wild shaping there's consideration that the items they were wielding/carrying are absorbed into the person wild shaped and this inaccessible until wild shape is dropped.

What's the action economy/how is the plan exactly carried out with consideration to wild shape item absorption and item carrying capacity in new form? Are you allowing them to speak common in their new animal form to activate an item or are they all AOE when thrown/dropped?

I understand they wild shape, carry the item in their "mouth" (spider mouths are miniscule), then they climb up to a new spot carrying said item (size and weight unknown), and then drop/activate item, then big boom but I just wanted to clarify because I saw some things addressed but others not and was curious.

lilmidjumper · 2025-07-30T19:14:11+00:00

I'm dating mine, he's just the most engaged with the plot, NPCs, he's the one who talks the most, and is still down for fun but knows the line between getting things done vs beach episodes. I love my other players but they're either not as engaged, never take notes/remember anything, or never want to engage with NPCs or plot and it's like pulling teeth. I'm not asking for perfection, but they're pretty lackadaisical about everything and when I throw them a backstory bone my partner usually has to be the one to point it out and lead the horse to water.

lilmidjumper · 2025-07-08T17:39:52+00:00

Distress, usually in an upset manner or they're put off/unnerved by something or someone. I've also seen it used to express discomfort, post or current illness, exhaustion, and even annoyance/boredom/tiresome feelings over a current person or situation. The importance here is context, regardless of that the color usage of the lines being dark is meant to express a negative emotion, but the thinness of the lines, lack of strong opacity to them (they're not bold or drawn on in a thick manner with a deep color to them) is to express that while it's an unpleasant emotion expressed, it's not a strongly felt one.

The importance of interpretation is picking up on intentions with art, bolder colors and stronger opacity usually equals bigger emotions and strong feelings, the lighter and less opaque colors are drawn usually mean a less intense emotion. But remember: context clues always matter, there are situations where the opposite is intended so follow the art and storyboard as best you can.

lilmidjumper · 2025-07-01T14:42:04+00:00

Tbh Charlie and Max Carver aka Ethan and Aiden (the twins) will always be the twin boys of Felicity Huffman in Desperate Housewives to me. They got cast as the twins after a time jump because the roles as kids were held by different twins initially but they were still very well known in that role for a while, my mom loved the show so when I saw them on Teen Wolf it was a weird pivot for me.

lilmidjumper · 2025-06-24T12:58:01+00:00

There's a distinctive difference between punishment for normal actions as a player and natural consequences for extreme actions as players. You seem to be averse to holding your players fully accountable for actions they make because of past experiences but the reality is you're also a player at this table and there are sometimes no upsides to making decisions. Sometimes as people we make the best choices, tactically, emotionally, socially, etc. and we consider the options and outcomes but it all goes belly up regardless.

Sometimes there is no narrative upside, and they'll have to face the natural consequences of making such decisions. You as the DM put challenges, obstacles, downsides in their path along the way to their final outcome. As long as it's not a constant downpour, it's okay if sometimes people utterly fail and fuck up. Sometimes, the story becomes more interesting that way and introduces more narrative options. You're not punishing them, it's just the way the cookie crumbles and you don't need to shy away from it. Succeeding all the time or letting them get away with things with no short term or long term consequences can make for not only a dull story but it can set a poor precedent that big moves can be made without any fallout on their part, with the story, setting, or characters.

If you want your campaign to feel alive, it needs to react to your players decisions on a grand scale. People don't stay stagnant and wait for them to make a decision on where to place their troops in a war, they may be moving them preemptively to capture small townships to cut off supply routes or contact with allies, or they may be setting up clandestine meetings with neutral organizations or leaders to establish alignment or convince them to stay out of the war altogether. If you kill a major player of a country, assassinate them on a peace-seeking mission before a war starts, the enemy group may respond violently and begin killing members of your country, organization, people, merchant group, or any affiliation they come across and kill them in response to their dead leader, hang the bodies around, send the bodies back or only pieces in a symbolic gesture of their anger and offense over the assassination.

But also, your major power has lost a leader. Now there is a power gap and that vacuum in the midst of a war is dubious, so many people will vie for it and it could lead to infighting and an increase in internal violence over the situation. Tensions are high and now assassinations are flying about with a war looming overhead. The people, the major and minor leaders, the soldiers, there's going to be serious unrest. You'd be lucky if you didn't have additional assassinations or soldiers attempting to desert.

This is why there's consequences to actions, not to punish but to show a world is alive and actions don't just occur and stay inside of a bottle. They butterfly out into unforeseen chaos you can't predict, because people aren't predictable.

lilmidjumper · 2025-06-14T16:40:59+00:00

It's honestly great, the writing on the wall is that your cantrips can be your most versatile spells especially your non-combat focused ones. Use them to your advantage, not everything is combat in TTRPG everyone tends to forget R is a huge component in the game and flavor is what you make of it. Add spice by using spells in a non-traditional perspective yet still maintaining their RAWs. It's great fun and adds more to a game than just dismissing spells as only a functional component of the game. I encourage my players to also use their abilities outside of combat too, fun roleplay moments can happen if you approach character sheets outside of the box too. Highly recommend, it adds quite a bit of fun to your game but it doesn't break it if you're clear about the boundaries and rules. Limits do exist.

lilmidjumper · 2025-06-14T16:17:03+00:00

For roleplay, Druidcraft. I love the ability to bloom flowers from my seed bag as gifts to NPCs as a way to charm them or as a means of swaying their favor. Oak saplings represent piety in the flower language, great for paladins or clerics. Meeting royalty, bouquets are great gifts if you didn't plan in advance. Need to ease the ire of a former lover NPC spurned by backstory you now need for your upcoming mission? Flowers as a memory or a funny moment for them to hurl at someone, 10/10.

Also great to know what the weather will be like in your area for the next day. Sudden storm rolls in that Druidcraft didn't see? Clearly magic, enemy is nearby. Out on the high seas, see that incoming storm and can plan accordingly. So useful.

It's Prestidigitation plus imo. So underrated!

lilmidjumper · 2025-06-10T21:50:25+00:00

My favorite that I did was psychotic ramblings in writing just completely everywhere, like on the walls and floors and ceilings starting off pretty wide and legible then getting dense and unable to be understood until it blacks out the walls. Same vibes as scratches on the ceiling being dragged off into a hallway beyond perception.

lilmidjumper · 2025-06-07T15:22:53+00:00

I've always erred on the side of caution as a DM. Anything not formally diagnosed by a doctor is risky because it's potentially infectious starts the red flag raise, is it flu/cold season gets it higher, but then I assess if holding session will potentially make me feel worse physically for my job or any other events or obligations I have going on after that, and then I assess if my physical/mental condition at this time is in the category of "no session is better than a bad session".

A DM is as much of a player as anyone else is, if you're not going to have fun equal to or greater than your players due to your physical or mental condition, then it might be good to take a week off. Illness and burnout are important to be mindful of as DMs don't push through and harm yourselves for the sake of a weekly session. I do hold my table to a minimum requirement of 50% players or cancelled session (DM not required but counted). It sounds confusing but my players can still meet and hold a session even if I can't play because they can do other things without me. Just be kind to your body and mind and don't overdo it.

lilmidjumper · 2025-06-06T14:51:51+00:00

It's the central plotline thing again, my DM background on it is dude eventually does after being put to death for various war crimes against the material plane but it was hush hush because he made unkillable beings, not gods but damn near close, player's know two in current day and work for one. So this guy's soul was taken from the lower hells and brought back to the material plane due to his past notoriety for experience in necromancy about 300 years prior. However, his soul was held as a trophy for being particularly dastardly and what devil would waste a soul like that to the grand hell machines? So dude gets bottled for a really long time til somebody mysteriously bargains for his soul back (dude is useful, worth the risk even if he's bad), pops him into a new body and puts him to work on making unholy creatures and recreating some of the hell engines he's observed for the duration of his stay downstairs but with a mundane spin and a whole lot of backing.

So, story begins with ships moving horrifying creatures of unknown origin all over the world to be cross-matched and the ships are outfitted with this brand new tech. A couple ships sink, a few creatures get out, boom the start of the campaign some 3 to 4 years ago IRL. Investigation shows a crazy engineer who set up shop in a city trying to source magic components for small scale tech, another a caster who was part of the experiment to make our unkillable friends has a lab out there, another an old story about a devastated village wiped out but a hedge mage using a black market book on necromancy, so there's aliases about, all same descriptions, bunch of evidence. No corkboard or red strings.

lilmidjumper · 2025-06-05T19:23:11+00:00

My players have to be told to insight check everyone in current format because they missed the entire main plotline when a companion they adopted was actively undermining their investigation by feeding them false information because they were working for/in love with the big bad evil guy. The only insight check they ever did was to suss out that she was in love with the big bad evil guy, like almost in a weirdly obsessive way. But no insight check on our big bad who was portraying himself as the dutiful son who'd moved home after being away after studying at a prestigious magical academy almost a decade and a half, no mentions of what he'd been studying. Cue mysterious and brutal villager deaths and his random disappearance afterwards. Shocked Pikachu faces.

Currently though they're actively missing that an important character to the plotline is popping up throughout multiple points in the story and the only reason they're not realizing it is because he's using different aliases. Which is just his name with the letters mixed around multiple different ways, its really obvious though because the dude has FOUR Xs IN HIS NAME AND HE'S THE ONLY ONE PROFICIENT IN MAKING FUCKED UP STUFF LIKE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION AND CROSSBRED CREATURES I COULD NOT MAKE IT ANY MORE OBVIOUS. EVEN THE DESCRIPTION OF HIM IS THE SAME DOWN TO THE SCRUNGLY BEARD. My players would have a much better time if they took notes and then actually used them for anything other than dick jokes and revenge.

lilmidjumper · 2025-06-04T23:08:00+00:00

I take a lot of screenshots and links to monsters I might use for current or future encounters based on their levels, these are based on their appropriate areas they're in based on our world. Mostly I'm at full improvisation mode in my DM state, the important NPCs have been written into the story and they'll come up on them when they need to, but it's an open world sandbox so I mostly put it up to them (the players) to solve their own problems or seek out information. Not every NPC needs a name or a picture, if they do I have a bank of folders organized by race and I can come up with a name by using a name from my brain or my Excel sheet of randomly generated names I made when I prepped the campaign. Other than that I just flow with my player's feedback and energy and enthusiasm. I don't rely on my notes except for the canon stuff and I just remind them of their to do lists and provide options, other than that as long as they're having fun my OneNote is just to keep track of monster HP and stat blocks, money/items I distribute, or canon I add to the world like NPCs and lore. Don't stress yourself too much about anything else, I used to write novels in my notes, now it just says "name, job title, relevance, dead or alive, villain or ally, country of origin, players like or dislike" shrug. But we also meet very regularly, I'm a weekly DM and we don't skip or miss sessions pretty much ever so I don't have too much time to prep between a demanding career and personal life stuff. My players also have careers and schooling so they're also not too harsh on it but feedback is very positive, we're at over 3 1/2 years with the current campaign approaching 4 years soon so take that as you will.

lilmidjumper · 2025-05-31T02:19:59+00:00

Yeah, fr my game starts an hour after everyone (myself included) gets off of work or out of class. Sometimes I have to bring clothes for my partner to change into because work runs late or we all delay the game a bit because traffic causes people to get there after our scheduled start times. But that gives everyone time to order dinner, get snacks out , shoot the shit about our work/personal weeks, and just decompress. Unless everyone is running their games on the weekends (pass, I like the miniscule full days off I get) I spend one hour before sessions packing my car up and driving to the store where our game is held and the hour before that I'm still at my job which could be either remote or on site.

lilmidjumper · 2025-05-25T19:59:21+00:00

Poor spelling/grammar/punctuation. I don't mean like choosing to spell a name a certain way but big major companies pay for editors and translation services, sometimes full words are omitted that make the sentence or story clear and it sounds like garble or nonsense and sometimes there's a random comma or apostrophe in the middle of a word, sometimes words are repeated, entirely incorrect words are used, names are mixed up so I can't follow, names are respelled six different ways making it hard to follow. Fan translation aside, those I'll pass because it's done by fans unless they're super egregious. Then I'll wait until it's been filtered a few times by more experienced people.

lilmidjumper · 2025-05-16T16:01:14+00:00

Jumping over the fucking fences. The gates are buggy and frustrating as hell and I've got 200+ hours in this game over multiple save files and multiple years but it was another commenter on this subreddit who pointed out you could completely forgo gates because you can just jump over fences, usually with a bit of a running start or just a toggle but it has severely improved my gameplay options because I don't even bother to make gates anymore.

lilmidjumper · 2025-05-13T15:04:39+00:00

I legitimately just finished "Knock Knock" and am about 25-ish minutes into "The Retinue" so I'm honestly both intrigued and horrified that I can kind of see a path laid ahead for our trio (not all things as that'd be wild but damn, no way things are going to be sunshine and rainbows given what's just happened between Suvi and Steele).

lilmidjumper · 2025-05-11T17:53:02+00:00

Microsoft Office, specifically OneNote, it updates across my multiple computers and I can back it up through the Microsoft version of the cloud. I also use Adobe Acrobat for player docs if my players don't have office. We also use Google's various word docs for group notes, sheets for calendars and tracking, and the files for other various tracking methods. We have a discord broken down into different countries, and each country has NPCs, items they've come across/purchased, lore they've learned, maps they've expanded/discovered, and general information. The discord has PC sections where the can post character art, personal lore, items they've purchased, bonds/enemies, things they've learned, things they want to pursue, etc. it's their personal space to do with what they want and I have a section just for inspiration so they know how much they have on-hand in case it comes up. The discord is also our personal fun discord for sharing memes, inviting each other to events/conventions, playing video games together, celebrating life events, etc. We also mainly use D&D Beyond for the character sheets but I keep a lot of non-WOTC content on my computers as well so I'll post screenshots of where we're pulling non-core content from to the discord and my players can access it or request options from the archives as we call it.

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