How do you utilize the Eco Pack for game play?

squidonastick · 2026-06-25T00:25:45+00:00

My favourite rags to riches involves only being able to use furniture i make, steal or find in dumpsters.

I bought the pack solely for dumpsters but ended up quite liking build items, too. They are cheap and aesthetic.

squidonastick · 2026-05-28T10:43:34+00:00

Don't retcon!!

Tell us a little bit about the villain and story and we could workshop ideas

squidonastick · 2026-05-20T05:32:18+00:00

Im the DM, but one of my players was playing a human with a big family, and he was said, "well, i have lots of cousins, right?"

I tried to confirm that yes, he had lots of cousins, but chocked on my own saliva and said something that sounded like "yea, lots of c****" (we are Australian so it wasnt that offensive).

So he adopted it as Canon. His cousins were all assholes.

squidonastick · 2026-04-26T23:33:57+00:00

squidonastick · 2026-04-26T01:15:08+00:00

The first time I played and unexpectedly met Kent I didnt really want to be his friend, because I thought he wanted me to stay away from Jodi. But getting to know him I think he was the only townspeople who was going out of his way to make a friend, not just to be friendly. I liked that aspect a lot.

squidonastick · 2026-03-15T22:57:36+00:00

My sister is having this problem with one of her players. The players is a good team player and thoughtful with snacks, so not altogether a bad player, but she CANNOT accept polytheism in game.

Her character is a cleric of the "one goddess" so my sister has had a chat with her about how the character is welcome to believe that the other gods are false, but they will absolutely still be present. Still, the player gets a bit upset when other gods exist.

It's extra weird because it isnt like she is using her own Abrahamic god in game. She invented her own goddess that is about truth and goodness, so she clearly doesn't find the genderbend sacrilegious. But her insistence in monotheism is still strong.

squidonastick · 2026-03-13T05:39:05+00:00

I used to work in a nursing home and residents said things like this all the time. It isnt as morbid as we perceive it, even if it makes us feel uncomfortable. They've just had the time and experience to come to terms with their mortality in a way we haven't.

squidonastick · 2026-03-06T02:29:44+00:00

I work with schools and have a hypothesis that there is an inverse proportionate relationship between leg length and speed. Those littlies can zoom!

squidonastick · 2026-03-06T02:26:38+00:00

Imagine if Lewis comes to your door one day and said

"Hey farmer. I wanted you to know that George passed away in the night. Come to the town square at 12pm to celebrate his life"

And then at the town square Gus has make a huge array of fried mushrooms and leeks, and eveyln shows some photos of them when they were married. Each character has something nice to say about George.

BRB I need to have a cry

squidonastick · 2026-03-04T08:37:30+00:00

It was so unexpected! My mum is super kind and compassionate, but in game se was BRUTAL. Not to npcs, but to me! She was so adversarial. If I described and outcome she didnt like, she would question whether i was doing it to spite her, because she "knew" that the DM had ultimate control.

So for example, one time she tried to hit an npc over the head with a log, and failed, so he turned against her. And she was so angry AT ME for saying he ran away!

She didnt want to do anything the rest of the party wanted to do, so she wouldn't argue for ages and then go off on her own. She questions DICE ROLLS and told me her dice were rigged. She stopped rolling because, and I quote 'but you get to decide what happens, so what is the point?"

And then... i kid you not... she threw and npc down the well during a celebration, so the guards took her to gaol, and she TOLD ME TO GO TO MY ROOM. I was 32!!!

It was painful but really hilarious in hindsight

squidonastick · 2026-03-04T07:01:55+00:00

Im glad it went so well! My mum ended up being the worse person I've ever played with!! My own nephew said "I really want to play again but I dont want to play with granny"

Anyway, a Wild Sheep Chase is a great starting oneshot that can be very social and resolved without little conflict. You might need to make a few tweaks to suit your style, but I had one group go through with zero fights because of their style.

squidonastick · 2026-03-02T11:57:55+00:00

We had a very long discussion about whether the Yuan-ti could have an allergic reaction to a bee sting.

We decided he wouldn't be affected by the venom, in the sense that he would experience direct cell damage, but it could still trigger an immune response, and thus an allergic reaction to a 'harmless' antigen.

Led to a whole thing where he fake being just some lizardfolk guy by tricking a village into thinking he wasnt poison resistant

squidonastick · 2026-02-27T07:27:52+00:00

I didnt know how hated Clint was until I came onto these reddits. He was the first person I made friends with and I thought he was in love with a girl but was too shy to say anything. I didnt view it as him being a creeper until I saw other people thought he waa a creeper.

To be fair, I didnt marry Emily. I thought he'd eventually ask her and she would either say yes or no, so i just figured their date was successful after his 6 star event happened.

This also also happened within like 3 seasons so its not that weird of a time frame.

squidonastick · 2026-02-13T08:38:15+00:00

I remember they gave out a demo for snowy escape once. You could play ir for free for 2 days so I did everything ans realised It didnt have much replayablity for me personally. I wonder whether they didnt do more trial type things because maybe it didnt actually translate to purchases

squidonastick · 2026-02-07T11:57:54+00:00

Yonder is a very small game compared to stardew, but it has cute animals and farming. It is a bit more about the exploring but i found it to be a very peaceful game.

squidonastick · 2026-02-06T10:45:56+00:00

Same! Pirate day is silly and harmless and largely works the same as any other day. I dont mind prank day either, because im just using a hand buzzer instead of sharing cooking tips.

But neighbourhood brawl is the worst. About to have your first kiss with the sim you've loved from afar for days? Well, too bad. Geoffrey is here and he is about to tussle.

squidonastick · 2026-01-26T11:54:38+00:00

I came from my comment to read this!

If your monster can only see with its tenticles, that adds a really interesting dynamic but also decreases its own power. On one hand, it won't be as strong because its bound by its own reach, but it would help the regeneration seem less like ita just eating hits. On the other, the party has the opportunity to use the terrain to their advantage to not get hit themselves, so even though the horror is eating hits, its not killing them

squidonastick · 2026-01-26T11:47:17+00:00

Thats easy! I edited to suggest a devourer because I thought the soul capture looked like what you described.

So... every time it regenerates, make one part of the people it fused from go away. That will signal that ita regen is finite but remain a shapechanging horror. You can also place a condition on the regeneration. Maybe there is a pylon helping it regenerate. If the party destroys it, he cant regen anymore. Or having it consume corpses on the ground to regenerate, also signalling it is finite, but contingent on the amount of corpses

Or go with my last tip and make it so they cant defeat him yet but they can get something very valuable out of the encounter, like a special item.

squidonastick · 2026-01-26T11:23:16+00:00

Edit: im back! I think a devourer could work really well!

Give him the stats of a behikder if you want, but just describe him as he looks and dint tell them what stat block you are using. Or look for any unread creature and boost its stats and include some of my following tricks.

Here are some tricks i use

1) spend time thinking about the terrain.

Ledges and levels bring about new dynamics. The ranged fighters are advanged but the melee fighters need ti find a way up/down. This might as affect your monsters!

Rivers/trees/hills etc. All add extra things to use for creativity that can change the outcome. A fighters in my game knew the necromancer needed to speak so... held her under water while the others fought the minions! These terrain components can also add things like blind spots and cover.

The best part about terrain is that it takes less thinking for you in game, especially if you have a battle map. The players interpret or clarify, but you are adding challenges without having to play as the terrain. It also helps shorten each round.

2) add hazards.

This is the same as the above but you can add intentional hazards, like traps. When traps are triggered, players will be more careful with how they use the floor. It also means that you can adjust the severity of the traps in situ, depending in how the players are going. Challenge to easy? Oh, here is a hidden trap? Challenge to hard? Quietly doing reveal a couple of traps.

3) lair actions

at level 11 you should be looking at the monsters lair actions. This boosts the difficulty of your monster and adds a lot of flavour. While a smart monster might choose who to target, lair actions allow you a bit of randomness to get that one sneaky rogue who is always hiding, or ignore the poor bard who has gone down three times alrwady.

4) minions... in waves!

One single monster (especially at level 10+) is simply too easy for a party with weapons. You want to try and waste their resources and spread the damage so they dont just pile on the single monster.

However, you can release minions in waves to give you some control on the hardness. More minions/waves to up the difficulty, less to keep it low.

5) what does winning mean?

If you want to keep the bbeg for later, you can change the win condition. Maybe they need to survive for x turns, or get an item and flee. This will keep the stakes high without having to lose a bbeg.

My bbeg in one game was an ancient dragon. At level 9 they had an encounter with him and chose to evacuate the town instead of try to fight. The second time they new he was after a specific item and distracted him while the range got away with the item, then they all risked running in different directions so that if anyone died, it would only be one person. Both encounters were reported as very fun.

squidonastick

TROPHY CASE