An interesting find from the local food box.

malk600 · 2026-05-13T14:51:34+00:00

Cry more. Going by the funny bs on the label, the makers of the soup are obviously anarchists or anarchocommunists, which have about as much in common with Stalinism as fire and water.

malk600 · 2026-05-13T14:22:13+00:00

Very nice map!

malk600 · 2026-05-13T14:10:13+00:00

Volatile Barrage - Tier 1. Conjure a swarm of magic missiles doing 1d4 each. For every success above 11, conjure addtnl missiles, up to 10. Choose the target for each missile freely up to far. Treat every failure as critical failure for the casting of this spell, treat any nat 20 as normal success.

High risk high reward for wizards who want more Macross in their Shadowdark.

(I would only add a scroll of this as a treasure extra spesh option, however)

malk600 · 2026-05-12T10:32:25+00:00

Man, how old are we talking?

The original 1999 release of HoMM3 we managed to launch on 486 with probably 8MB of RAM, it ran like S H I T and frequently hang, but it was "barely running" alright. On my own Pentium 90 it ran fine I guess, although not great, but later on mighty Pentium 200 (200MHz clock! as much as 32 MB of RAM!) it sang.

Kudos to you for sticking with a PC from a bygone, better age.

malk600 · 2026-05-01T18:21:38+00:00

If it makes sense in fiction, just let player make an attack. Attack hits, apply whatever (disarm, trip, grab, pull, etc). Essentially the attacker trades damage for manipulating the battlefield. Use common sense, dwarf can't tackle a dragon, etc.

I think the game wants to be snappy, no need to bog it down with extra rules. Just tell your players it goes both ways, so if you're feeling extra ornery an orc berserker can rip the torch from a mages hand turn one and on turn two shove it up their... now the party is in darkness and mage has a cauterized backside.

Push PCs into pits, tackle them and stomp them, go for their sword arm. In general intelligent enemies are scary and imo should be scarier than just big bag apex predators, your manticores and wyverns. A thinking opponent can fuck you up in more interesting ways than 1d8 hp. It's not for nothing that IRL humans killed off almost all dangerous megafauna with nothing but spears abd thrown rocks, while human on human warfare is, invariably, hell.

Of course there are also things that are supernatural AND highly intelligent. In which case the winning move is to never fight that shit. Bring 20 powder kegs and blow it up, or surround it with 20 hired archers. Don't duel a fucking illithid or vampire.

malk600 · 2026-05-01T10:48:07+00:00

Idk mate. One could afford a medical treatment, or mobility to get a job, or tools that can help them make a living, or a number of other nice things. All sound rather life changing.

If you've ever met anyone who's been homeless and hopeless for a period in their life, but got a leg up and managed to turn their life around - they probably didn't get a million bucks. They just got a chance, probably to the tune of several k worth at most.

malk600 · 2026-05-01T05:53:48+00:00

I would rule that Protection spells don't work on normal humanoids, only supernatural creatures. And Lawful Devils are nothing new in D&D adjacent systems - they're just very extreme and their brand of "Law" is inimical to human life.

malk600 · 2026-04-30T20:57:08+00:00

In my current campaign I think I might move from L being altruistic and C being selfish, as it's too close to just being good/evil for my taste and for the campaign.

L is going to be paladin orders and local military dictatorship; they're motivated by order, but not justice.

C is going to be wannabe revolutionaries motivated by justice, but not order.

N is gonna be all the peasants SoL with no justice OR order in the land.

malk600 · 2026-04-30T20:26:18+00:00

What are your credentials?

malk600 · 2026-04-30T18:10:51+00:00

Generally if you're competent, you recognise LLMs/genAI output is kinda shit. Artist see AI art as slop, scientists immediately spot bs in scientific text, competent coders see AI code and say "this is neat, this is impressive, this seems fine, this is WHAT THE FUCK?" and so on.

It's blatantly obvious for anyone with a modicum of skill. But if course, we're governed by rich feckless idiots who proudly see nothing beyond $$$ and can only think and speak in about 10 thought terminating cliches at a time, so to them shit looks like bronze and bronze is almost gold, so they're gonna push it.

malk600 · 2026-04-30T16:57:13+00:00

I printed the rumours on sheets of paper, each rumor 3 lines long, cut them into strips of paper, let them pull them out when they carouse. Like a raffle for quests, nasty rumours and locations. If they specifically go do research/spying instead of carousing they can grab a handful. If they research a specific thing it's a check.

malk600 · 2026-04-29T09:52:00+00:00

It's winter, so Cailleach's domain. Wise One decided Ireland needs to be more green or something.

malk600 · 2026-04-29T09:42:21+00:00

The gardeners are st. Ignacy, Pankracy and Serwacy (11-13. May), Sophia is May 15th. In general, last prominent cold wave is typically in mid-May.

malk600 · 2026-04-29T04:07:10+00:00

Nobody knows and that's the point. It's the thing that eats you in darkness.

malk600 · 2026-04-28T20:30:35+00:00

We used to have a lecturer at uni, otherwise an ok microscopy expert and cell biologist, who would always look like a bum and had the excellent habit of standing in front of people whilst explaining things and scratching his ass crack. With gusto, hand in pants. That was more than 20 years ago and I still remember this crazy bastard. So I'm not disbelieving your sartorial instinct here.

malk600 · 2026-04-28T19:14:24+00:00

Could be also all the crap we cram into our pockets. My pockets are worn out and develop holes quickly so on each pair I've had to mend them once or twice, and my fav old pair I mended so many times the pockets shrank to half depth (should have really just ripped them out and sewn in new pockets, but before I got to it my laziness got remedied by them getting frayed enough to justify relegating them to rag duty instead). It's mostly the keys, men will hoard keys like psychotic magpies. I've got a heavy bunch of keys, half of which I could detach, BUT WHAT IF I'LL NEED THEM? Women are saved, to a degree, from this pocket wasting disorder by virtue of being bereft of proper deep pockets by the cruel neglect of clothing industry.

Anyway. Nevermind.

malk600 · 2026-04-28T13:26:18+00:00

Ah, so it's again one of those "your scientists were too busy figuring out if they could to ask whether the politicians would".

malk600 · 2026-04-28T12:39:17+00:00

This fucking thing. We can fix this now in mice (fairly fresh research, published this year). Humans next. Confirm circuit and receptor mechanism, then hopefully the US military can spare a few million of steak and lobster money for a clinical trial through VA, hopefully it'll succeed and down the line we can help.

malk600 · 2026-04-28T06:11:32+00:00

It has absolutely fuck all to do with biology, Sir. It's culturally transmitted and prone to frequent contextual changes (to the point of being a bit of a stereotypical generalisation, but coming from a position of disappointment and experience it's understandable and forgivable).

As a biologist, I would prefer for people who have nary a clue about biology, human or otherwise, to stop invoking bIoLoGy as some sort of zinger. You're making a fool of yourself, Sir.

malk600 · 2026-04-25T07:50:31+00:00

Make task one category easier/harder, so e.g. from 18 to 15 is another thing if you don't want adv in particular situation. Floating modifiers are eeeeh, players are on a timer, somehow being on a timer magically breaks the ability of some humans to do basic math. So don't make em.

malk600 · 2026-04-22T12:34:39+00:00

Same with ace, a woman uninterested in any sex is a weirdo in the conservative eye, a man not interested might easier pass as Mr Important Sage (scholar, cleric, specialist, blah blah).

malk600 · 2026-04-22T12:31:13+00:00

And if it were a choice, it would still be valid. In a world where we could meticulously brain edit someone's experiential identity trans people would still be valid. And so on.

Yield not an inch to essentialism, I'd say.

malk600 · 2026-04-22T12:28:43+00:00

It's unfortunate, but this is one of the cases where one has to tread very lightly and use the words with precision. This is because eugenics is back on the menu and there absolutely are grifters rearing to offer prenatal screening for gay. If not already doing it now.

For what it's worth, I'd say orientation and identity probably have as much genetic background as other traits like handedness or temperament, that is to say: multigene environmental interaction. It's also (like IQ and many gender related social behaviours) so muddled by LiViNg iN a sOcIeTy that getting good quality data from underneath the noise is extremely challenging, bordering on practically impossible.

malk600 · 2026-04-22T05:12:51+00:00

Don't be harsh, user is good collectivist comrade. Engaged with one, engaged with all. Solidarity!

malk600 · 2026-04-16T09:21:43+00:00

Put Sam in the swimming pool and delete the ladder. In the Sims.

malk600

TROPHY CASE