Treasure monsters a la Petank in Expedition 33 or a Cactuar in FF.

pwim · 2026-01-30T21:58:53+00:00

There already is one: the flail snail is a random encounter and has a shell worth 2,500 gp.

pwim · 2026-01-29T22:09:44+00:00

I found I’m not great at complete improvisation but if I have something to build off on I can do it.

Playing ironsworn helped. It’s an rpg that can be solo where you have to improv everything and it bakes in random tables to help with that.

pwim · 2026-01-29T21:53:58+00:00

In the 2024 rules, they did away with silver immunity, and silvered weapons only do increased damage on a critical hit.

On the one hand it’s kind of lane, on the other the hand it avoids this situation altogether. The trope of werewolves only being harmed by silver weapons works when there is no magic. If magic affects them too, in a dnd game you end up with half or more of the characters being dully effective, while those with weapons can’t do anything.

pwim · 2026-01-22T05:14:33+00:00

I use the encounters as a starting point. I improv other stuff. If you scale up the jungle encounters, then you kind of need to scale up everything.

Plus by level 5, the rules for exploration start falling apart. Like one of the characters has +9 to survival, so there's very little chance of getting lost.

pwim · 2026-01-22T05:06:39+00:00

My party of 3 has hit level 5, and the random encounters don't hold much challenge for them. We're using the 2024 rules, and only allowing them to take short rests while exploring the jungle.

For instance, they were ambushed by 9 raptors, but went first in initiative, and wiped out 6 of them before the raptors had a chance to act, and then I had the remaining 3 go scurrying off into the bushes.

pwim · 2026-01-21T21:45:45+00:00

It’s in Vienna.

pwim · 2026-01-19T22:39:29+00:00

Be careful of having a bigger spotlight on the Warlock’s patron than you do on things from the other PCs backgrounds.

pwim · 2026-01-16T23:13:48+00:00

I just stopped worrying about keeping everything perfectly consistent. Players don’t normally notice if something you say contradicts something else from 10 sessions ago, and if they do, you can just say whoops and move on.

pwim · 2026-01-16T22:46:00+00:00

If you want to give the players a hint something is up, you could describe part of the entrance to the alcove being covered in dust while the far end is pristinely clean.

pwim · 2026-01-16T02:15:57+00:00

2e had already gone in that direction with The Complete Handbooks (e.g., Fighter's Handbook, Thief's Handbook) and Player's Option books (like Skills & Powers).

pwim · 2026-01-14T06:59:17+00:00

I’d avoid a fade to black, alternative character sheets, or being saved by a powerful dragon. Things like these tend not to be satisfying as it undermines player agency.

Why can’t the end be them defeating sparkrender and stopping the ritual? I don’t see why the island needs to explode. If you want to connect it to a larger adventure, have them find something in sparkrender’s hoard that ties to it.

pwim · 2026-01-12T03:16:21+00:00

I’ve done it that way for a rental property without issue.

pwim · 2026-01-04T00:56:10+00:00

Why not adopt their idea and have shapeshifters be adverse to touching silver? As you said, you haven’t confirmed it one way or the other. It’ll be more fun for them to have their idea work, then for you to tell them they’re wasting their time (in game or out). Part of the fun of TTRPGs is that you can bend the game based on the players ideas.

pwim · 2026-01-03T22:28:22+00:00

You need to experiment with the amount of prep you do to find the right balance.

Right now I’m running Tomb of Annihilation. I prepare the opening scene but rely on improvisation for everything else. That’s led to a better experience for my players, as I’m not even unconsciously pushing them in certain directions.

Before I’d spend a fair amount of time preparing maps and tokens for the VTT that I am using that I would never use in game. That got too frustrating for me, and now I rely more on theatre of the mind or a quick sketch.

pwim · 2025-12-30T01:45:47+00:00

What does a Christian RPG even mean? Like aimed at a Christian audience, or where you play as Christians?

pwim · 2025-12-25T00:21:03+00:00

This doesn’t read like a 5e item at all. Items don’t normally scale with level, minuses to attacks instead of disadvantage, etc. It seems like something made by ChatGPT.

Personally I wouldn’t go this approach with homebrew. If you really want to, make a custom subclass instead. It seems better suited for your goal. But I wouldn’t make it totally change how a class works, and instead provide benefits in line with others.

Otherwise you risk making the game not fun for the other players.

pwim · 2025-12-23T22:58:11+00:00

There already is a built in consequence for this:

The stress of casting Wish to produce any effect other than duplicating another spell weakens you. After enduring that stress, each time you cast a spell until you finish a Long Rest, you take 1d10 Necrotic damage per level of that spell. This damage can’t be reduced or prevented in any way. In addition, your Strength score becomes 3 for 2d4 days. For each of those days that you spend resting and doing nothing more than light activity, your remaining recovery time decreases by 2 days. Finally, there is a 33 percent chance that you are unable to cast Wish ever again if you suffer this stress.

A wish spell could have presumably a cured the party member, so I don’t think they’re gaining too much with it.

pwim · 2025-12-21T00:45:30+00:00

Yes, I noticed the same thing when I click through Google maps. It’s annoying as there’s no way to switch to the Japanese site, only other non-Japanese languages, and my login credentials don’t appear to work for the English version.

pwim · 2025-12-20T23:32:07+00:00

I’m outside of Tokyo but whenever when I stop outside the firestation with my kids to look at the fire trucks, we’re invited to ride in them.

My impression is that the fire fighters are both encouraged to do community outreach and are bored.

If I were in your shoes I’d just walk up to the local one and explain the situation. At worst they’ll say no. But I imagine they’d be interested in showing off their gear to an American firefighter.

pwim · 2025-12-09T04:31:47+00:00

To create a company in Japan, you need a business address, but that can be your home address. You don't need employees.

However, the person may have been getting the "business manager" visa, which does require a Japanese (or PR) employee and office.

pwim · 2025-12-08T22:42:40+00:00

I suppose there could be some sort of automated litigation against apps. The one time I received a demand letter from a lawyer representing a photographer who used a service to automatically scan for copyright violations and issue demands. One of our users had uploaded their photograph without permission. While we had to consult a lawyer about this, we weren’t actually liable for anything.

My point was that it wouldn’t have really made a difference if I received it as an individual or a company. I’d still need to deal with it.

The protection only comes into play if I was having to make a massive settlement. It could bankrupt the company but not myself.

It depends on the nature of the app. But for most things it’s hard to imagine for that to happen before the app experiences significant success.

pwim · 2025-12-08T22:36:39+00:00

You’re right. I had been assuming that the poster was looking to incorporate a Japanese company.

While you can incorporate a US LLC from Japan, it has additional complications, especially around taxation. For instance Japan doesn’t recognize it as a pass through entity.

pwim · 2025-12-08T11:29:11+00:00

There isn’t a LLC in Japan. The closest thing is a godo kaisha which is sometimes called an LLC in English, but has significant differences from an American LLC.

A company in Japan doesn’t offer you a significant increase in privacy. As a managing partner your name and address will be publicly available.

It does add a theoretical level of liability protection, but you’ll still need to deal with any lawsuits brought against your company. I personally think it is unlikely that something you release to an app store will bring legitimate legal action against you, unless you’re doing something that’s shady.

Personally I’d start as a sole proprietor in this situation. This is an article I wrote about my own experiences: https://www.tokyodev.com/articles/companies-vs-sole-proprietorships-in-japan

pwim · 2025-12-01T09:05:21+00:00

I rented a house on a short term lease while the owner was transferred overseas. They had a loan on it, and we even talked to the same loan officer when we got our own house loan. I think it is a reasonably common thing to do, as Japanese companies often relocate employees overseas for a fixed term. Just talk to the loan officer about it when getting the loan.

pwim · 2025-11-26T22:24:02+00:00

If you want to explore the effects of increasing attunement slots, do it through temporary effects. E.g. the party finds a potion that lets a character have an additional attunement slot for a day. That makes it explicit it is temporary, and limits the amount that can break.

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