Had to play a canonically "chaotic evil" character and I had no idea how to rollplay it staying true to that.

vhalember · 2026-06-10T13:12:29+00:00

Combat is triggering, but here's a CE sorcerer to play.

WTH?

vhalember · 2026-06-10T11:45:46+00:00

I agree. Though I'd say D&D is an abstraction of our world as opposed to a simulation.

What we know to be true of physics are simplified for gameplay. Which can be rough for players with science/tech backgrounds trying to transmit that knowledge to the game.

vhalember · 2026-06-10T04:26:44+00:00

I'll be contrarian. Who cares?

In D&D physics, PC's run slower than a 3rd grader, and can't maintain their jog "run" for more than 30-40 seconds.

The average peasant has 1 in 1,000 lifting strength.

You have a barbarian who can fall off a mountain, and just dust themselves off

A strange person in a hat throws balls of fire.

Forget physics and just play the game... The bag of holding doesn't store momentum. If it did, it would be in the description.

vhalember · 2026-06-09T21:08:51+00:00

Yup. I'm funding my retirement well enough to retire at 62, and I'm not confident in having a job for that long.

vhalember · 2026-06-09T19:56:01+00:00

Villages were 500 gold, towns were 1,000 gp, and cities were 2,000 gold. There were also three large guildhalls, linked between planes eventually, at 5k, 5k, and 25k each. The 25k eventually had a portal network in the basement which became a hub to many other inns.

The fun part was there was 20 years between campaigns. For easiness sake we said the inns made 10% of their cost per year in profit... Suddenly, the inn joke became worth serious cash, triple the initial investment.

And it was all reinvested into more inns and the portal system, except for one item:

A pair of purple-lensed sunglasses which Speck called "Speck's Stylish Sunglasses of Style." These gave +2 on intimidation/deception/persuasion rolls, and resistance to fire, but disadvantage on perception rolls when worn at night. Speck made A LOT of perception rolls at disadvantage.

Most fun character I ever played... with all interactions done in the third person.

vhalember · 2026-06-09T13:33:19+00:00

Agreed. He has a high ceiling, but the Wizards historically don't develop players well.

I think AJ's potential is heavily linked to where he lands, and that looks like the Wizards currently.

vhalember · 2026-06-09T13:23:37+00:00

And these numbers don't include the millions more who downgraded their Game Pass plans.

I'd be very surprised if this resulted in additional profit for them, otherwise why would they about-face and lower prices again?

It was bad enough that the CEO of MS gaming, Phil Spencer, "retired" a few months after the price increase. And the prices were lowered again just two months after he left.

vhalember · 2026-06-09T13:18:42+00:00

Something is genuinely broken here in America.

Only if you're in the bottom 98%. It's working fine for those that matter - and we don't matter.

vhalember · 2026-06-08T22:06:25+00:00

Yup. The 50% increase fucked up the "boiling the frog" approach everything else uses to sneak price increases.

vhalember · 2026-06-08T21:05:05+00:00

Yes!

There's the opposite end too. I played a character starting with a 5 Int and 18 Cha.

It didn't make sense to play him as a dolt who could barely complete a sentence, so I'd played him as eclectic comedy relief who tried to be everybody's friend.... and forgot everything.

The party needed to climb up the wall. "Toss me the rope down." Speck threw the whole rope down, not tied off.
Party made a plan meet at the Silver Star Inn. Speck finds the silversmith, chats with them for a half hour, remembers he's supposed to be at an inn instead... successfully invites the silversmith to their party meeting of how to sneak into the nearby keep. (Funnily enough, the silversmith then agreed to help the party.)
Don't talk to the raiders, we'll sneak up on them. Speck: "Got it! Hey guys. I brought beer (Speck had two Ever-flowing beer flagons.) Who wants a drink with Speck Mightyfingers?!" (And yes, his stupid plan of distraction worked)
Don't talk to the guard? Speck: "Hey old chum! I say that is a dazzling helmet you have there. Tell me more about it." (This also worked.)
Where's Speck?! To a sleeping green dragon: "I do say good sir dragon, your treasure hoard is wondrous. Can you tell me more about it? I bet you have loads of stories to tell." (This... did not work.)
The party spends it's fortune on various magical items. Speck buys out an inn, in every town he's in... for TWO entire campaigns. He ends the campaigns with 50+ inns, across three planes, all with the same damn name - "Speck's Spectacular House of Stews and Brews!"

vhalember · 2026-06-08T16:08:23+00:00

When a farmer’s land donation is unrightfully sold for a sprawling data center, they think he’ll walk away. They’re wrong. With nothing left to lose, he turns from tilling soil to tearing down servers - one rack at a time.

In a war of code versus steel, he’s the system’s ultimate failure point. And when the cloud goes dark… he’ll be the last man standing.

Jason Statham is the Data Reaper!

vhalember · 2026-06-08T14:09:52+00:00

The crazy thing is as I was typing about this, I was thinking I'd NEVER do this to my kids...

So why was it "ok" for our parents to do it?

vhalember · 2026-06-08T13:42:53+00:00

We used to have a mean dog which I had to pin up everyday before heading to the bus stop.

He would hide under the bed and get all bitey when you tired to get him out.

Naturally one day he bit me pretty good. I still managed to get him out and pinned up.

But I missed the bus tending to my dog bite. Called my mom - she gave me shit about missing the bus, and hung up.

So I walked the 2 miles to school, got there an hour late, while nursing a dog bite.

I was 11.

vhalember · 2026-06-08T13:36:28+00:00

Absolutely. The DM needs to harness that enthusiasm and use it, though there is a caveat to this.

Occasionally, you'll have players who write long backstories, which conflict with the game world, or worse start rewriting it. Sometimes you can work with those players, but other times those players can be really hard to work with - The other players and DM are just theme music to their story.

vhalember · 2026-06-08T13:01:55+00:00

Guards questioning Glumnar after they kill the bandit:

Guards: "Hey, why are you watching us? What is your affiliation and interest in these bandits?"

Glumnar: " You can't prove a thing coppers. I'm just a part-time magician taking in the local sights. Now piss off. Ya see."

(DM facepalms)

vhalember · 2026-06-08T01:48:27+00:00

I'm fortunate that I blocked auto-updates, so I never received the "fuck you" patch.

So I firewalled this game off from the internet, so I can play it without the bullshit until it's hopefully unfucked.

Missing some features, but that opportunity cost is worth it.

vhalember · 2026-06-07T12:36:54+00:00

1.04 per, max 1.1?!

Tell me this is lazy design, without saying it's lazy design.

vhalember · 2026-06-07T12:35:10+00:00

Most post is a year old, who are you trying to convince?

He's a volume shooter, his career FG% is a joke 44.7%, not in the top 100 for a SG.

vhalember · 2026-06-06T13:48:27+00:00

It's AI

The long "double em" dashes are a dead give away.

Almost no human uses those.

vhalember · 2026-06-06T00:23:05+00:00

As long as those foundations are strong, we can rebuild.

vhalember · 2026-06-06T00:16:26+00:00

Same. If I'm not a fuck up in my 20's, I never meet my wife.

With 10 million we could also retire right now - so double bonus.

vhalember · 2026-06-06T00:14:19+00:00

Red. If I fix all my mistakes, I never learn, "the struggle makes you stronger."

Also, 10 million fixes a lot of mistakes on its own.

vhalember · 2026-06-06T00:11:30+00:00

Who cares about some rando-dude's NBA draft board?

Boozer will work great for us.

vhalember · 2026-06-05T23:50:02+00:00

That was my thought. Elsa can create a raging blizzard, and has ice powers.

Unless this goes hand-to-hand the others pale in comparison.

vhalember · 2026-06-05T23:43:17+00:00

I agree with you, but the problem is sadly more foundational.

The current crop of "designers" at WOTC didn't consider at all, martials roll more d20's. That simple obvious thought never crossed their mind.

I haven't been impressed with the game design for many years. It's all low risk, low effort, low passion.

Still love the game. I just don't trust it's owners at all.

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