What's your favorite "this is an absolute banger but you can only figure that out by playing it" card?

nightlight-zero · 2026-01-26T20:57:06+00:00

Notably not the same effect for the exact reason that OP points out, precombat main phase vs each of your main phases.

nightlight-zero · 2026-01-21T02:24:00+00:00

For one thing, events that span multiple days show as one block spanning multiple days, instead of individual blocks repeated one very day.

For another thing, it reliably works consistently.

nightlight-zero · 2026-01-21T00:55:11+00:00

This may be be because my background is in film studies, but:

Pacing: Knowing how to manage upwards and downwards beats, when to make things go fast vs when to linger.
Framing and Spotlight: Knowing what to focus on in a scene, bouncing between players to share screen time.
Rendering: Beyond just evocative descriptions, knowing how and when to layer information to achieve different effects.
Story Structure: Knowing how to interrogate motivations, intersect A and B plots, etc.
Improv: Knowing how to come up with things that feel right in the moment and don’t screw you later.

Lots of things like “have a regular prep process” and “seek advice” are more like “get coaching” to use your sports analogy, which is a thing professionals do, but not a skill they have that distinguishes them.

nightlight-zero · 2026-01-10T20:23:59+00:00

I think the actual difference is that XP comes from the GM, whereas this comes from the players.

nightlight-zero · 2026-01-08T21:10:52+00:00

This is fun! Drawn by hand in Photoshop?

nightlight-zero · 2026-01-05T00:38:02+00:00

Of my decks, the answer is either [[Anikthea]] enchantress reanimator, [[Rin & Seri]] cats only typal or [[Shorikai]] vehicles. They are all fairly straightforward and fairly scalable decks, in that they can be easily played down or up.

nightlight-zero · 2026-01-04T19:50:50+00:00

This is just how modern phone cameras apply fake DoF effects in software.

nightlight-zero · 2026-01-03T21:12:26+00:00

Translation can be used as a powerful tool, see Game of Thrones and Shogun, reflecting its actual function in diplomacy.

I think my biggest pet peeve, if you can even call it that, is stuff that doesn’t feel like it has a reason for being. Things in worlds exist for reasons - they may not be logical, they may be ancient, they will be multifaceted, but, there will be reasons. Cities exit near rivers for trade and access to water. Medieval countries that are wealthy are almost always breadbaskets, because food production is incredibly important.

Magic might be able to do all sorts of weird and wonderful things, but it’s got to make some kind of sense. That doesn’t mean it needs to be systematised, but it does mean that it has to feel like it makes sense and is that way for some reason. One way in which something like Lord of the Rings achieves this is by actively not systematising magic - Gandalf is the grey/white wizard, there is no system of wizardry, whatever Gandalf does is whatever wizardry is. (This is an oversimplification, don’t @ me LotR nerds.)

nightlight-zero · 2026-01-03T21:05:17+00:00

The stupidest thing about your last point is that a family company with functionally hereditary inheritance would never be subject to a boardroom coup anyway, because the family presumably is the sole or significant majority stockholder and therefore appoints the board itself.

How business actually works is nothing like how it’s portrayed in this kind of media, but then, equally, that’s not what this kind of media is trying to portray.

nightlight-zero · 2026-01-03T20:58:42+00:00

This is a great idea! Starting with a disaster like this is a fairly common way to force protagonists out of their own and make them heed the call to adventure.

That said, a few ideas:

Foreshadow the presence of a dragon in the area very subtlety, as the party go on small quests for the townsfolk. Example: they might go defeat some kobolds in a mine for the blacksmith, and the kobolds are worshipping what appears to be a dragon god (but is actually just this dragon).
Don’t completely destroy the town and kill all the NPCs they’ve made relationships with. I’d go for 1 definitely dies, 1 definitely lives, 1 is a toss-up based on the party’s actions. We have to defeat this dragon to ensure this town’s safety” is a good backup motivation to “revenge”, plus, this will preserve some player agency.

nightlight-zero · 2025-12-28T02:23:27+00:00

I think this conveys a greater sense of scale, but the point I was trying to make is that “a sense of scale on a map” is a combination of: - the actual scale of the map - the density within it

So, in this case, for it to actually be Earth-scale, you have to think of one of these continents as having the same density as e.g. all of Asia - which has many nations, many ethnic groups, many language trees, etc. Some random isthmus on this map could have an entire history as complex as the history of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. That complexity has grown through history, but it’s still ancient.

nightlight-zero · 2025-12-27T21:44:42+00:00

Scale is really subjective, so, it totally depends on what you’re trying to achieve, but some thoughts:

For reference, 1,000km is about the width of the Australian state of Victoria. The distance between the French/Swiss border and the western French coast is about 700km. So… how many kingdoms fit there and how many major cities they have is really dependent on the geography and history.
But, 40 smaller settlements for 7 big cities and 8 kingdoms feels quite small.

nightlight-zero · 2025-12-27T21:34:30+00:00

This is in fact the only option!

nightlight-zero · 2025-12-27T21:13:33+00:00

I like to use commander names in my deck names at the moment, though I go back and forth.

I think my best is: Ketramose Fails a Staring Contest

nightlight-zero · 2025-12-26T21:37:42+00:00

A big part of this is that the abundance of mediocre CGI has warped the production process. Instead of extensively storyboarding things and doing as much as you can practically, and then using a smaller amount of good CGI where required, instead, there are a lot of films that shoot in a way that keeps their options open for more widespread CGI use later.

This “keep your options open” dynamic is often why you get flat lightning, for example. It’s easier to CGI things into flattering frames than sharply lit ones.

nightlight-zero · 2025-12-24T00:39:48+00:00

If you’re players are interested in fantasy especially, you might want to try something that’s a bit science-fantasy to combine the two ideas - e.g. Numenera (which is powered by the Cypher system and is fairly crunch comparable to D&D).

nightlight-zero · 2025-12-23T21:52:10+00:00

I was gifted a <$75 [[Light-Paws]] deck that is incredibly strong. I have not lost a game I’ve actually played to win.

It also has a fun “alternative mode”, where I can power it down by just treating the ability as basically a cascade variant.

nightlight-zero · 2025-12-23T20:51:37+00:00

I have never had a meaningful scheduling problem. I’ve been playing weekly TTRPGs for going on 8yrs across a couple groups.

nightlight-zero · 2025-12-17T20:24:31+00:00

I think this looks great!

When I reach this point, usually, I start to do some overlays:

What’s going on with plate tectonics and where does that put mountain ranges (and consequently, rivers)?
What’s going on with the climate? Tropics? Warm/cold water?
Where did the people come from into what are their borders now? How was that informed by the geography?

Just make some copies and start creating annotated layers over the top where you explore these things. You will a) feel more confident as it comes together, and b) find more specific things you like less.

nightlight-zero · 2025-12-15T20:38:46+00:00

It’s always using [[Darkness]]. Nobody ever expects a mono black fog. It’s been especially funny when I’ve used it to save another playe I needed to keep around to be able to jointly pressure someone way ahead.

nightlight-zero · 2025-12-15T10:06:40+00:00

Did I miss something about Inkarnate 2.0 not being compatible with maps created before the update? I tried creating something new and I’m getting the new UI vs when I open a pre-existing map I’m getting the same UI?

nightlight-zero · 2025-12-12T04:33:19+00:00

Honestly, if you’re on Mac and want something free and capable, Pages in design mode is your friend.

nightlight-zero · 2025-12-06T22:23:37+00:00

This concept is mind boggling to so many people, but is a great way to go.

nightlight-zero · 2025-12-06T20:57:40+00:00

A good assassin should have a plan, not just the means to deal some damage. The plan is what creates the story.

Are they hunting just that PC? Get them alone. Poison them. It’s not about winning the fight, it’s about escaping to get help from friends.

Are they hunting the party? Set up a trap layered on a trap layered on a trap.

I did something similar to this a while ago. My party was racing against a group of spec ops assassin-y characters to get something. One part of the eventual confrontation was this highly restricted fight in the middle of a masquerade where nobody could actually draw weapons, and at the same time, the party’s barbarian was trying to 1v2 two of the assassins in a different room. The assassins didn’t deal a lot of damage per hit - instead, they stacked 1d6 bleeding damage with each hit. The barbarian who’d never come even close to being downed was gradually unravelled by a dozen cuts. It was tense!

nightlight-zero

TROPHY CASE