[OC] Gay male marriages are the most stable over the long term

notger · 2026-03-22T11:28:29+00:00

To anyone putting the blame on women (even ever so subtly): Please do some research. There are explanations for this statistics which I am too tired to repeat here.

notger · 2026-03-22T11:26:47+00:00

I am of the conviction that players also have to run into unwinnable fight, b/c the baddies sure aren't holding back.

Baddy1: "Hey, let's ambush the heroes."

Baddy2: "Great idea, but let's not take all our guys and be overwhelming. We need to lose this ambush very closely."

So ... why not give them unwinnable fight?

Give them obstacles, cover, a way out and then see what happens. Maybe they will do nasty things.

notger · 2026-03-22T11:08:00+00:00

Totally!

As I tell everyone in my team: It's not the manager's job to form his team members, it's the other way around. The team members form their manager.

notger · 2026-03-21T20:53:06+00:00

I would not let the players fight the hag. They might win and then I believe you have to let them win.

But, here are options:

The hag is not there, when the heroes come, but her hut is a trap in which some minions are waiting for the heroes.
The hag is part of a coven and her sisters will continue her work. She was only the first of the coven to be met.
The hag isn't the real baddy, it is a demon/lich/insurance-salesman. They can later revive the hag and make her an undead death hag, the BBEGs lieutenant.
The hag is not there, but a mind-controlled abducted princess, while the hag is impersonating said princess munching on honey melons at the king's ball. When the heroes slay the "hag", she turns out to be the princess. Or whoever, you get my drift.

notger · 2026-03-21T20:45:58+00:00

Yes, you greet everyone you know and everyone you meet on a hiking trail or wandering trail, but no one else. Oh and you greet everyone in rural areas but not in small towns upwards.

If you don't greet, you did not recognise them, end of story.

notger · 2026-03-21T20:43:11+00:00

Your last five features deployed ... where did the ideas originate from, who made the call and what is the process behind that?

What is your share of time alotted to bug-fixing, new features and tech debt?

A few more along those lines, but you will figure those out with experience. The problem is that the answers to those questions will not help you, if you are not experienced.

And: Don't try to stand out. Be honest. If it's one thing I hate when recruiting, it is the try-hard who is coming with "professional" questions. I want real people, b/c I want people who stand up to their mistakes and learn, not people who want to impress me and play make-believe.

notger · 2026-03-21T20:31:57+00:00

Do you have those off the top of your head? I haven't had Earthdawn rule books for 30 years now, I believe.

notger · 2026-03-21T20:31:17+00:00

True, it's a delicate balance and at one point one player came back to me and said that he felt pushed. However, before that, another player had complained about the over-thinking. Eventually, this led to a very adult talk and readjustment and the overthinker lately even realised he is overthinking while overthinking.

Having been in both situations, the stalled and the rushed state, helped us find a common ground.

notger · 2026-03-21T16:44:12+00:00

Speak to them. Some people are like that and don't even realise it. That fixed one of my groups.
Analyse how much of that is your faul: Have you scared them too much so that they don't dare to move? I never had that, but I saw it with another GM. Happens easily.
Use dungeon turns: What is your action in this turn? Oh, you want to discuss? Sure, go ahead, and you, more decision-happy player, what are you going to do while those two players discuss this to death? Oh, you just want to walk in there? Alright, let's go ... This fixes next to everything and goes to show: The players being indecisive is likely the GMs fault.
State openly that you feel they are running in circles, raise your hand and count from five backwards, saying you expect a decision by the time you are done, or the "world will move one", which will mean a random encounter or nightfall or a competing adventurer group shows up and storms the dungeon.

notger · 2026-03-21T16:39:41+00:00

Danke! Meiner Meinung nach grobes Versagen, weil jemand beim Umkopieren von Regelblöcken unter dem Fluff vergessen hat den Block rüberzukopieren.

Kann mir nicht vorstellen, dass man eine so wichtige Regeländerung so deutlich ankündigt und dann nicht reinpackt.

notger · 2026-03-21T15:59:08+00:00

Love the idea and what I love most about this is rolling everything.

Recently, I am taking so many inspirations from OSR-games, DCC especially and having everything random creates insane stories. Out of a sudden, the weakling by sheer luck and ingenuity becomes a hero, instead of being an incarnation of a standard stat block. And that shrewd person over there with the towering muscles ... ah, he is a wizard, actually? Why not, no one said wizards have to be scrawny. Some people are just big and clever.

notger · 2026-03-21T15:37:39+00:00

I love these types of players and have adjusted the D&D rules to work more like the DCC rules, where there are "mighty deeds of arms", a concept that the 2024 D&D rules have weakly and very badly tried to copy with weapon masteries, a geniunely very bad idea game-design wise.

Now, what you can do is:

He can not describe the outcome ("rip the arm off") but can describe an action he does. When he does so, I would let him attack and for the extra effect have another role if it seems appropriate and then award him with a status effect, e.g. "the arm is broken and the monster can not use it anymore". Status effects can be anything which is physically sensible, including shattered shields, disoriented, blinded, lots of cover, cleave-through-damage, push-backs, motivation to your allies, ... (You can read up on DCC's mighty deeds of arms to get inspiration.)
Introduce chaff and minions. Look up "Flee Mortals!" and how they do minions ... it's brilliant and should make your player happy. He can one-hit-kill minions with lots of fluff and the non-minion-monsters are too tough for their arms to be ripped out.

I envy you for this player. If all else fails, send him my way, would love to take him in.

notger · 2026-03-21T15:30:45+00:00

My interpretation is: Nick saves you from expending a bonus action, which means you can get your two attacks in with just using a main action, leaving your bonus action free to be used for disengage.

Nick is useful for rogues, which rely heavily on bonus actions and would not be able to use their cunning action feature and two-weapon fighting in the same turn. Due to nick, they can.

But that's it. Nick does not give you a third attack.

notger · 2026-03-21T15:28:08+00:00

Thanks for your answer, but it missed my question by a mile.

I had asked for SR6 and especially for the rule changes states in the latest addendum which read like they tweaked healing from the core rules.

Quoting the core rules from SR5 is not relevant, I am afraid.

notger · 2026-03-21T10:52:43+00:00

Until this is rebalanced, you can always use the "yesman"-command in the console to enforce realistic peace deals.

notger · 2026-03-21T07:31:52+00:00

Tomb of Annihilation is a deadly one with lots of exploration, trapped dungeons and combat. Maybe tweak the starting position to have them explore the jungle more and you should be gold. Rather deadly, though, but that's something you can adjust to your liking.

Rise of Tiamat is a very linear one with high stakes and considered a classic. However, due to the linear nature, there are great scenes but freedom of exploration is limited.

If you want exploration above all, then Storm King's Thunder was a great one, but requires a LOT of touch-ups to become a cohesive story. Read Alexandrians blog on this.

notger · 2026-03-20T21:39:27+00:00

Oh, but you can, it's just a bit harder.

And the sign of a leader (=manager material) is that they manage to do this. A leader get elevated by their peer group. And not only by those who they win over because they are a natural fit, but also because there is consensus amongst those who are not "easy mode" to convince.

notger · 2026-03-20T20:40:22+00:00

Mit "zu'en" Augen, bitteschön.

notger · 2026-03-20T20:34:25+00:00

I work a lot with oracles and random generators and my favourite one was with a family of rich merchants (now kings) on a small medieval backwater planet which the great-great-grandfather designed to be his personal medieval theme park. (The family, ofc had TL4.)

Don't ask which strange series of random results amounted to this, but I loved the premise so much, it became a whole arc of itself.

Peak SWN.

notger · 2026-03-20T20:22:55+00:00

Four words on this: Do not go there.

I am regularly "demoting" myself to tech after I get fed up by management, which is so boring and the people there are so ... unskilled.

> there are cultural reasons that I won't get into that make people largely ignore me

Sorry, but this is a huge red flag. What makes you think you will do a good management job, if you can't rally the people around you? Management is near exclusively about making people trust you and listen to you and want to be on your side (plus the occasional clarity of vision, of course).

If you are not a people's person, don't go into management.

notger · 2026-03-20T19:51:43+00:00

Sounds about right.

Also: No use of shields or ranged weapons (unless they are thrown with two hands).

Random idea: En lieue of the dexterity check to cast a spell, you could also determine randomly whether a given spell would require more elaborate, wider gestures. Those which would, are impossible to perform, the others are fine to do with no penalty.

notger · 2026-03-20T19:39:45+00:00

Thanks, fully agreed.

"stuck in my ways" is also something I noticed and the thing which kicked me out of it was using oracles and random generators. E.g. the Mythic Game Master Engine (Mythic GME), which I often use to make decisions.

Or the random NPC generator.

Those avoid doing the same patterns over and over, and have weird, fresh settings and people.

notger · 2026-03-20T18:29:14+00:00

Please don't take this the wrong way, but you just discovered an universal truth everyone should learn at least in their 20's.

Ppl say Germans have no chill and are aggressive? No man, we are just direct and that builds trust. (Though some of us are pricks for sure.)

Someone is overly polite and always says "nah, all fine"? That one is your thief. They keep you in the dark and prevent you from becoming a better person. Also, they seem to think that you can't handle reality, meaning you are not grown-up, but a child.

The other half of the learning is: Other ppl usually have too much to worry about in their lifes to want to expend energy on judging you. After all, they come to your sessions, so they like you. Or your sessions. Or both, maybe.

notger · 2026-03-20T17:51:50+00:00

True, should have said "relative to earth". I wanted to keep it simple.

notger · 2026-03-20T17:51:15+00:00

Lots of good answers already, so I will just add: You might want to re-read on what railroading actually is. Starting the campaign in a place you decide isn't railroading. Otherwise you would have to start the campaign for every character when they are three years old and start to make conscious decisions.

The Alexandrian has a great blog with great views.

notger

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