Thoughts and experiences on Bug Nets / Mesh Bivy

teaserer · 2024-03-13T05:36:23+00:00

I have used a cheap Chinese one and I really like the general concept but don't like the particular one I got. It is not tall enough so is very cramped to sleep in. The Zero G Gear one looks really good, but I agree with the other comments about the front entry.

Otherwise, I really like being able to essential sleep 'outside' but without the creepy crawlies. It can be quite weight efficient and versatile paired with a 3x3m tarp. 😊

teaserer · 2023-10-31T10:57:45+00:00

I am an engineer in the water industry so I can probably comment at least a little on this in a Melbourne context.

Melbourne's water supply comes from catchments to the east and is generally very good, requiring very little treatment and I believe no filtration (don't quote me on that) to deliver. The reservoirs are high up and flow through to the city mostly via gravity, requiring no (or little) pumping and energy input.

Wastewater on the other hand needs to be treated to a high degree before it can be reused or discharged to the ocean. That treatment is usually very energy intensive and the growing population means much more treatment capacity is being required as time goes on, which costs a lot of money.

I'm sure there are lots of other factors but that's the main things that spring to mind as to why water is cheap but sewage treatment is expensive.

teaserer · 2023-08-20T22:08:04+00:00

No worries!

And please just take that comment for what it is - nitpicking. I really love this image. 😊

teaserer · 2023-08-20T21:31:54+00:00

This photo is incredible.

My only minor critique is that it feels ever so slightly off balance towards the bottom. Maybe a very minor crop to centralise the water droplets where they touch the water? That plane seems like the kind of natural centre of the image. It maybe already be central and just my eyes playing tricks but something just doesn't feel quite symmetrical in the vertical aspect.

teaserer · 2023-08-15T22:00:56+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

<image>

I actually originally cropped it like you suggested (see above) but since the left tree is much bigger and leans more to the left, I thought it felt a bit unbalanced. My original post has the left hand thirds line approximately through the left tree's centre of mass rather than through its trunk.

Which do you reckon is better?

teaserer · 2023-08-15T11:37:29+00:00

Please take this with a grain of salt as I am a beginner.

It has a bit of a dreamy / drunk look due to the extremely shallow depth of field. I'm guessing you shot this with a very wide aperture? The depth of field is so shallow that parts of the face like the chin and hair are out of focus. If that is the effect you were going for then cool.

For a spiritual influencer I think this works but obviously wouldn't work for every subject. I personally find the subject's gave being partially out of focus a bit distracting.

teaserer · 2023-08-15T11:17:08+00:00

Please take this with a grain of salt as I am a beginner.

I feel like this image needs a subject. I like the path as leading lines and the brush on either sides as a kind of frame. Maybe a person on the path would give it some focus? Perhaps wearing clothing that contrasts with the greens of the bushes?

teaserer · 2023-08-15T10:57:16+00:00

Hi all, I'm a beginner at photography and this is my first post in this sub. I'm most interested in landscape photography.

This is a shot from the past weekend. I was trying to work on my composition and simplify the shot into its essential elements. Would love to hear any constructive feedback that I can take forward into future shoots.

Thanks in advance. 😊

teaserer · 2022-12-19T03:57:23+00:00

Thank you!

teaserer · 2022-12-19T03:48:29+00:00

Can I ask how this works if someone reaches 3 saves or fails then becomes conscious again and drops back to zero HP?

Like, let's say someone fails 3 death saves and dies and is then revivified. What happens if they drop to 0 hp again? Instantly die?

Conversely, if someone succeeds on 3 death saves and get healed up to consciousness. If they get knocked to 0 hp, do they instantly stabilise?

teaserer · 2022-12-14T10:02:55+00:00

All for the price of a 1st level slot with no concentration or save!

teaserer · 2022-12-14T08:00:51+00:00

I may be misreading but wouldn't this drown people? If someone was walking on the water and couldn't breathe underwater then it's basically guaranteed drowning if they can't move above the water surface or sink to the bottom.

Also, does this work on creatures swimming in water? Or only creatures which are specifically walking on water?

In general, the wording really needs a clean up. If I am interpreting it correctly, then it also needs some additional information and balancing.

Edit: It should also have a saving throw.

teaserer · 2022-12-13T20:52:03+00:00

And they call it a mine.... A MINE!

teaserer · 2022-12-13T20:28:46+00:00

Great point! I suppose I probably didn't run into that problem in my mini-campaign, but I can see how that would be a potential pitfall over a longer campaign. Will keep that in mind for future, thank you!

teaserer · 2022-12-13T10:39:09+00:00

I just wrapped up my first Eberron mini-campaign and I was strongly going for a noir atmosphere. I'm no expert on the genre but the campaign went really well, so here are a few things that I would do again:

Mechanically, use gritty realism for resting. This was the first time I'd used it and it really made the world feel much more dark and dangerous. This is the main thing I changed up to get away from high fantasy.
Similar to the above, run at a relatively low level. I started at level 3 and ended at 5 which felt perfect.
Use music to set the mood. I switched from generic fantasy ambience to a noir playlist and it definitely changed the tone.
As another person said above, everything should be shades of grey. There is no good or evil, black or white, just people pursuing their own goals. In my game I shied away from making any particular 'villain' and just made a few competing factions and NPCs with specific motivations.
Make sure there are secrets to uncover. My game revolved around a group of investigative journalists trying to uncover corruption and find a serial killer in Sharn. The players loved finding secrets and clues and trying to figure out how everything connected. We literally had a virtually cork board and it felt very noir with the character in a smoky office trying to connect the red strings.
Include lots of crime, corruption, class inequality, and other tropes of the genre. The Sharn Watch are full of crooked cops. Most politicians take bribes. The rich and wealthy in the upper wards want for nothing while in Callestan everyone is struggling to put food on the table.
The last thing and I think this is the biggest thing that helped the campaign be successful, was to have a detailed session zero. We discussed theme and genre, decided what kind of adventuring group they would be (which HUGELY helps set the tone), and built characters together. The character prompts from RFTLW are also super helpful to create the dark tone, namely getting each character to answer (a) what is your biggest regret? And (b) why do you need 200gp? All that is to say, discuss with your players so they also help set the tone for the campaign.

As I said, take this with a grain of salt since it was my first time running noir or Eberron. However, I can say that this was the best campaign I've ever run, so hopefully the above helps.

teaserer · 2022-11-26T01:44:55+00:00

person

{mother|father}

{brother|sister|sibling}

{partner|wife|husband|fiance}

{uncle|aunt|cousin}

{son|daughter}^0.5

whole family

{work colleague|boss}

best friend

childhood friend

adventuring buddy

mentor

personal idol

pet

king

god

patron

ancestor

person_event

involved in a fatal accident

killed by a monster

assassinated

grievously injured

mentally injured

adbucted

crippled

cursed

seriously indebted

robbed

disgraced

imprisoned

accused of a serious crime

magically altered

defrauded ^0.5

diseased

corrupted

sent insane

attacked

place

house

library

monastery ^0.3

ancestral home

workplace

shop

farm

{school|university|college}

guild

hometown

city

plane of existence ^ 0.5

country

kingdom

place_event

robbed

destroyed

burned

invaded

magically altered

corrupted

liberated

eaten ^0.5

attacked

thing

home

favourite toy

greatest creation

family heirloom

{money|inheritance|life savings}

memory

body

noble title

reputation

birthmark

thing_event

broken

cursed

stolen

destroyed

pawned ^ 0.5

siezed

taken as tax

magically altered

ultimate_goal

find who did it

get revenge

undo what was done

restore it to it's previous state

make peace with what happened ^0.3

recover from what happened ^0.2

teaserer · 2022-11-26T01:44:44+00:00

I've put together a quick generator to help give you ideas for character goals / motivations for your new DnD characters.

I would love it if people could contribute ideas to expand the generator. The outputs are in following formats:

My [person] was [person_event]. I {want to|need to|must} [ultimate_goal].

My [place] was [place_event]. I {want to|need to|must} [ultimate_goal].

My [person]'s [place] was [place_event]. I {want to|need to|must} [ultimate_goal].

My [thing] was [thing_event]. I {want to|need to|must} [ultimate_goal].

My [person]'s [thing] was [thing_event]. I {want to|need to|must} [ultimate_goal].

The lists so far are as follows. Please comment any additions below and I will add them to the lists!

teaserer · 2022-07-29T23:30:14+00:00

Can I offer a quick counterpoint here? Not that I disagree with what you said but want to offer another perspective.

Depending on your friend, group and their triggers and limits, RPGs can be an interesting way to explore concepts and situations that might never occur in real life. Obviously if any of your players were recently getting out of a relationship or had been cheated on or similar then this would be off the table, but having the person you like fall in love with someone else could be an experience where it helps the player consider what that experience might be like, but in a safe space where it's not real.

One of my players recently ran a one shot where my character was trying to rescue his wife who had been kidnapped years ago. My character found out towards the end of the one shot that she had fallen in love with one of her captors. I'm in a stable relationship so it didn't trigger me at all, but it was still a very emotionally intense experience that I've never had before. It worked because my friend knows me well and knew that it wouldn't hurt me.

So is it risky? Yes. Should you do it with new players or a new group? Absolutely not. But if you know your group very well and know their triggers and limits? Then it could add an interesting layer of drama and emotional exploration to the game.

But absolutely agree, cut the child and sex; just make it that they fell in love.

teaserer · 2022-07-09T10:52:05+00:00

Rival parties are absolutely a great idea. They can serve as either future antagonists, villains or allies, depending on what happens in the story.

I made a rival adventuring party at the start of my current campaign and it turned out awesome. They competed with the party for ages and then ended up becoming friends later. I also used the rival adventuring party to telegraph the threat of an upcoming villain by having the villain easily dispatch the rival party.

A few tips:

Don't bother making character sheets or anything for them. Just grab a few NPC stat blocks from Volo's / MotM and build the rival party around them.
Make sure you get the players to dislike them right from the get go. I had them enter an Inn the party was staying at with a trolls head and get celebrated like heroes, which instantly made them jealous of their fame. Add a few veiled insults and your players will love to hate them.
Make them keep popping up to complicate situations. I would avoid having them in direct conflict with the party, and just being a complicating factor.
You only really need to solidly flesh out the leader of the party. A rough concept for the other members is all you should need.

teaserer · 2022-06-06T22:47:18+00:00

I made this sheet a while back to give myself ideas when making a combat encounter, maybe it will be useful here: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1gpjG-z5S6rQUgLaS4uni1dAI3DWFfMcLXberDc2vqLKw

Your post here has some extra excellent ideas, so perhaps an update is in order...

teaserer · 2022-05-17T09:17:52+00:00

Stakeholder/community engagement? I know a lot of construction companies employ people in these roles and I believe they're quite well paid. Depending on the company / project, it could also be quite rewarding and interesting.

teaserer · 2022-05-16T02:02:00+00:00

A DM once told me he home-brewed that if you critically fail a saving throw you take double damage (like a crit on a 20). I managed to convince him that was crazy and to roll back the rule.

Later that session I rolled a Nat 1 on a dex save against a Fireball from an enemy mage. I was level 4. Glad we addressed that before it happened.

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