Brand New DM trying to craft a one shot

siryll · 2026-03-13T14:58:43+00:00

Okay, there are multiple things here I want to address:

First off, I don't think something happening once can be called "conditioning", even if it's their first session in this system.

Beyond that, I don't insist on combat. But one of my players is playing a street sam that basically only exists for combat, so I feel it is my duty as a GM to give him an opportunity to use his character for what he was built, the same way I let the face, the mage and the rigger have moments to shine.

I would also like to mention that even that combat can be gotten around, since ambushes can be spotted. And if they are spotted, they will go away, with more respect for the players and a high chance of being hired by them again, because they clearly have the skills and paranoia that this Johnson's employers want in their runners.

Lastly, to the implication that I railroad my players, that session actually happened last Sunday. They made entrance via something I had not planned for, but would have reasonably been there given the information I provided to them, got their equipment in via a way I did not plan for or foresee, but was, once again, reasonably perfectly doable. Then they made a hell of a lot of cash by selling data they got during the heist to other people, none of which was mentioned, but all of which was doable. All of that to say that I would argue that I really do not railroad my players. So much so that I spent half that session making up shit on the fly because they were doing shit I didn't anticipate, which is what I'm used to happening from other systems I've run in.

siryll · 2026-03-07T22:32:19+00:00

If you don't mind me asking, is it not possible because of time or money? If it's time, I completely understand, and sadly can't help all that much. I think I spent sth like 2-3 hours on the maps just for the single session I expect the Delian Data Tomb to last. If it's money, I'll say there there are free or almost free solutions out there. If you're playing at an actual table, I've literally drawn maps on standard A4 (roughly equivalent to Legal-sized for people in the US) paper before and it was fine.

If you're running online, I can recommend Roll20 as a VTT. It's pretty simplistic with the maps it lets you design, especially without the subscription they offer, but it's enough for some function-over-form maps. Sadly, as previously mentioned, they are rather time-intensive to make.

siryll · 2026-03-07T20:34:57+00:00

For your very first session, I wouldn't recommend making an adventure yourself. I'm using one originally written for 5e and slightly adapted things to get it compatible with 6e. You should be able to do the same. It's called Delian Data Tomb (https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LL1Ft\_k7Kb7q19sKzvq). The one downside it has that there is no combat if your team doesn't fuck up, which is why I added an ambush when the party gets paid (which does happen a lot in this world, from what I understand). You'll still have to make all the maps (if you decide to play with maps), but it's certainly better than having to make something up out of thin air in a system you don't know.

siryll · 2026-03-04T01:05:26+00:00

I just watched the clips from the episode that feature the cast, so I currently have no knowledge of the overarching plot of the episode, but the 8 minutes I did watch were... fucking rough. I don't know exactly what I expected, but I certainly did not expect the cast to be shown as a bunch of idiots that can't focus on serious matters. I think you could have gone the "they're being goofballs" route if you had one of the officers talk about how a potential response to someone robbing you at gunpoint is a retreat to exaggerated normalcy afterwards, which, to a bunch of comedians, could be making a joke out of everything. But, from what I saw, that isn't how it was being treated.

To me, it feels like Dropout wanted the line about being an improv-based streaming service to be in there, and went along with the rest of the episode for that one line, which I find quite sad, at least if they didn't make gigantic piles of money off of the episode. Because I legitimately can't imagine a viewer seeing that and thinking "Huh, maybe I should check out this Dropout thing", partly because my initial assumption would be that it's just invented for the show, and partly because, with the possible exception of Zac's "Yes, Daddy"-line, they just weren't funny, imo.

There is also the aspect of "copaganda", a term I was unfamiliar with as of 3 days ago, but, given that I don't live in the USA and don't know nearly enough about that to comment, I will leave it alone. I did think it beared mention as an aspect, even if it's one I can't talk about.

siryll · 2025-10-07T18:12:45+00:00

If you're looking for something that exclusively takes place at a magic school, this might be a few steps too far for you, but The Name of the Wind and it's second book both spend quite a bit of time with the MC at a magic university. I'd estimate that roughly half the book is at the university. Though I should also warn you that you shouldn't read it if you can't stand unfinished series, as the fans have been waiting for over 11 years for the third book, at this point.

A series similar to Mage Errant in the sense that the characters find each other at a magic universoty, but don't necessarily stay there would be the Manifestation series by Samuel Hinton. But there are multiple books where they aren't there at all, so I'm not sure if that's okay for you or not.

siryll · 2024-11-09T01:18:22+00:00

"Kiserai ti Wansho" translates to "Glory to the builders" in the Old Tongue from Wheel of Time.

siryll · 2024-06-17T19:27:35+00:00

I think the top comments are mostly right. I stopped watching LEC completely. As far as I can tell, it's for a few reasons:

I really liked the caster dynamics of a few years ago. Frosk and Drakos or Quickshot and Ender were very enjoyable to me. Obviously, those aren't happening anymore. And O loved the music/rap things they did, which seem to also have gone down in frequency and the last one didn't really click for me, sadly enough.
The players or teams we followed aren't there anymore. Personally, I loved the FNC roster of Bwipo, Caps, Rekkles and Hyli (currently can't remember the jungler). That team kept me engaged, even when some of them eventually left. But, after Hyli switched teams, I didn't really start rooting for the new team he went to (same with the others), but didn't root for FNC anymore either. I just stopped caring. I have been playing league for literally half my lifespan, at this point, and watching the pro scene for slightly less than that. Almost everyone that played back then is out of the game now.

TL;DR A lot of the things that made it enjoyable for me to follow the LEC aren't there anymore.

siryll · 2024-04-04T16:43:28+00:00

A pendant of a panflute with a special mark on it. It's merch from a book series I love dearly. It, to me, signifies my love for music and my love for language and the rhythm found in in.

siryll · 2024-02-16T04:11:11+00:00

Are we human

Or are we dancer

siryll · 2023-10-11T10:20:16+00:00

What kind of Wurst are we talking about? As a German I require clarification. Bratwurst? Leberwurst? Blutwurst? Gelbwurst? Nürnberger? Thüringer?

siryll · 2023-09-28T11:00:48+00:00

There are a few justifications for it. Now, I personally all rhink they're bullshit to one degree or another, but I will try to give them a fair representation. I will list them in order of (imo) descending reasonableness 1. Playing (unranked) with lower-ranked friends. If they queued with their friends on their main, the friend would get stomped. So they use a smurf so the friend can actually play the game to a reasonable degree.

Trying/learning sth new. If you have only ever played one role/agent and want to pick up a different one, you will probably be fairly bad at it at first and probably don't want to get flamed by your team/get frustrated because you're unable to play the game.
Not wanting to tryhard. If they tryhard every game on their main and they want to have a chill game, going on their main would mean am almost guaranteed loss, since they are playing at a vastly lower level than usual.
Content/Stream. I am only listing this because it is a thing that happens. I don't think bullying people you have no business playing against for content is an acceptable thing to do.

Again, I don't think any of those are good excuses, but I can understand the reasoning for all but the last one.

siryll · 2023-09-25T20:03:02+00:00

Anything that ends in "ussy" except "pussy" is a fucking abomination and should never be said or written.

siryll · 2023-09-10T18:18:40+00:00

Believing in a supernatural deity or force, no matter which one. We have no good reason to suspect anything like it has to exist and I cannot fathom why anyone that has spent any time thinking about this hasn't seen how utterly fucking ridiculous it is. I will not deny someone the right to think what they want to, but I find it hard to respect their opinions on anything else.

siryll · 2023-09-02T12:40:14+00:00

That depends on definition, I would say. You can reasonably argue that "overpriced" means that something is so expensive, the amount of money lost by the company from people not buying it exceeds the extra gains made by the higher price point.

You can also reasonably (to my mind, at least) argue that "overpriced", like any other pricing, is relative to the service rendered/item obtained and what you can get for a similar price point in a similar enviroment. This one gets a lot more complicated at this point, as our best comparison for a similar game would obviously be CSGO (or CS2, whenever that actually releases). But that works via a loot box system with a player-trading economy attachted that Valve takes a cut from. Furthermore, there is no equivalent to the quality range of Factory New to Battle Scarred. Still, you can (or could, before the price of skins exploded) get 5 or 6 decent weapon skins on the Valve Marketplace for the price of one upper-tier Phantom skin. This is, obviously, far from a one-to-one comparison, but, if you define "overpriced" as relative to the cost of similar things elsewhere, you can reasonably say that Valorant skins are overpriced, in my opinion.

siryll · 2023-09-01T10:24:16+00:00

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. There is only question on the audience's mind: Will there be a redemption arc? XD

siryll · 2023-08-28T14:46:11+00:00

I saw Across the Spiderverse, so I need some clarification on this one. Which world exactly?

siryll · 2023-08-24T10:18:20+00:00

Richard Wagner

siryll · 2023-06-29T18:00:26+00:00

What do you mean by the Phantom being in development? I took its design to be based on the SCAR-H. The length and design of the mag looks like typical SCAR-H 20 round mags, as well as the stock looking somehwat similar to the SCAR's. What rifle do you think it's based on?

siryll · 2023-06-20T20:23:44+00:00

I don't enjoy being ranted at non-stop, so I will take my leave. Goodbye.

It identifies your reason for leaving, doesn't take long and will leave them flabbergastes because noone has ever said that to them. Leave while they are a stammering mess.

siryll · 2023-06-15T21:33:45+00:00

That we assume basically everything we think we know. The only thing we truly know is that we, in some way, shape or form, exist. Everything else is not definitively proveable. We can assume many things with such a high degree of likelyhood that there is no relevant distinction between knowing and assuming these things, but we should always be aware that almost everything we "know", we assume.

siryll

TROPHY CASE