Khrux @ Khrux @ttrpg.network

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2 yr. ago

A soon as I started typing I realised it's probably not too exciting. I think it's always had that mythic element growing up near it of imagining the amount of work needed for lots of cups of tea to be made at the same time.

There's a power station in snowdonia, Wales nicknamed Electric Mountain, that just pumps water up the mountain all year round to drop it at optimum times. The cliche examples given are the world cup final half time and after a Dr Who finale. At that point they just drop all the stored water over their turbines to counter the massive surge. I'm sure equivalents of this are common all over the world but it feels so uniquely British.

I swear my spelling is getting worse every day.

I played a modpack about 7 years ago that basically removed a lot of official content including most hostle mobs, villages and villagers, and a bunch of other content, but replaced it with lots of non-fantastical creatures, a wider range of materials, different medieval era weapons etc. It really felt like you were alone in an untouched world, in a way that Minecraft already really does, except that the existence of zombies and villages juxtaposes that.

Then on the flipside, it had the Twilight forest mod, perhaps the aether mod (I don't really remember) and this general idea that if you want epic fantasy and magic, you need to leave the overworked, which felt narrativly really nice to do, I think it populated the nether with skeletons and and endermen before official Minecraft did too, I don't clearly remember.

I've longed for that game ever since but I don't know what the modpack was called, and I've never found it again.

I'm amazed anybody is against solar at all, it's the least obtrusive energy regardless of anything else. I'm genuinely happy to see wind power but I also respect people who feel it's a necessary eyesore, as that's basically taste, but who has ever seen a solar panel and been unhappy without the person being a crazy radicalised person who isn't taken seriously anyway.

Also Sim City is old, maybe those costs were more true back then? Either way I think people are generally learning that green energy can be more cost effective now.

My boot drive is too small for 11 but has always been fine for 10, which is a blessing for me as I have loads of other drive space that isn't being considered. An unexpected update would make me so sad.

This isn't just your world, meticulous planning, even with preparation to be fluid is often worse than pure improv. When your players know that there isn't much lined up ahead, they start to contribute lore and tone, and they seek adventure instead of reacting to it. Players may be enjoying a TV show, book or game at the moment and want to echo something they enjoy, either a character or even just a vibe, oftentimes a game that encourages that to come forth is more fun.

I have a beloved campaign setting that between last time I used it and now, I've made thousands of changes and improvements and I'm truly excited to run it, but after I next run it, I'm going to shelve it indefinitely until running it for my children one day, if I have any. Instead I'll just sit down in session 0 and ask people what tones and fiction touchstones they're enjoyjng, and then build the setting then and there with them, vetoing options that I'd not enjoy running but keeping things open. From there, I'll encourage them to build the world with me, a player will care more about the kingdom they named or the wandering superweapon automaton that they suggested than anything I could come up with, not because they're better writers but because people do just care about the things they enjoy more.

It's like when players are overly invested in their own backstory over the plot, it's not because your plot is bad but because they have daydreamed about that and are keen to explore it above all else, not all players love to make a complex backstory character but the majority who won't may still enjoy collaborative worldbuilding and be excited to explore the parts they build, as a GM your role is to keep things concise and develop the through line that allows all these factions and locations to shine, while even keeping that flexible and casual.

TTRPGs are often about escapism and having fun often outweighs having something meaningful, players will remember the session they smiled through more than the session with well achieved complexity or good writing. Get those dice off the shelf and have another go, and remember to have fun first. It's always fun to build your setting and story, and it's a great way to enjoy this game away from the table, but your players don't share in that enjoyment, and if you need them to have the most fun for you to have fun too, then remember that the times you have fun daydreaming about your world without them are moments that may be fun to have together.

I'd recommend Photopea for casual use that's not miserable to use. It's in browser only and is basically a photoshop clone with slightly less features, but it's amazingly close to Photoshop when I need it to be, even with things like using a pen or a really specific option menu.

It does generate it's revenue via banner ads but I've never seen them with my adblock, if I'm needing to quickly whip something up and utilise my Photoshop familiarity, it's my go to.

I didn't realise Skyrim blocked achievements when modding, I'd definitely didn't back in the day, it's one of the few games that I have all achievements on and I've modded it to hell basically every time.

I do agree, and generally I don't want everything to be a franchise or a verse. However I feel that a trilogy although generally profit driven can expand a film in a nice way, such as the original star wars or Indiana Jones trilogies.

I used to boot it up and just play through that one repeatable painting heist that was optionally 4 player, although I'd do it by myself.

I have a huge soft spot for the second and third pirates films. I think looking at the first and thinking it could make a great trilogy is totally valid and although they're definitely much more long winded than the first with less lovable characters, they're good films and if I ever revisit the first, I generally revisit the second and third too.

I watched the Dungeons and Dragons movie when it came out and really enjoyed it, but it definitely felt like I was watching a marvel movie, albeit a well written one, Pirates may be the last YA action adventure franchise that isn't just the re-skinned marvel formula, which makes it far more watchable than 80% of the genre since.

Also Pirates 3 is basically the creator of the horrible pressure CGI artists have suffered under for the past 15 years, so take that as you may.

Unity spent a long time being unplayable in an are where that was unforgivable than it is now. I picked it up just before the big patch where they also threw in the first DLC for free as an apology and I ran pretty well on my device, but nobody cared because nobody was playing it.

I feel it also had a pretty lackluster story, I opened strongly but generally but then just became blander as it progressed. I really wanted to like the characters, but they never landed for me.

The last game that I feel had a great plot was black flag, largely because everything since origins has been enormous in scope in a way that's just directly detrimental to a linear cutscene style story. Also as historical RPGs they're good but Assassin's Creed has something really special that has been forgotten, and I was hoping this game would reignite it, but it seems not.

I could absolutely see a cleric having the roll of coroner / mortician being able to perform holy rights for the body, and preserving it via gentle repose but also being able to use spells like speak with dead for investigation.

Coroner is a really interesting position, with it's etymology lying in the word crown (i.e. Corona). This is due to its position being appointed by the crown, a position that's hard to fill due to a wide range of expertise being required, from law to medicine to funerary rites etc.

In a setting or region of a setting with either a joined church and state or where the church are active in the legal proceedings of their community, perhaps the role of investor and coroner is a single position performed by a grave cleric, as long as they take long naps of course.

I'm keeping Spotify because I already split a family account (£18.99 per month I think) between 6 people. I pay for a few other subscription services like something for D&D and my phone bill but they are things that I feel I require.

I haven't paid for any streaming, gaming or other services for at least a year or two. As soon as I started sailing the high seas for specific content not on the big services, I realised that it's so little extra work for infinite free content.

Funnily enough, my partner and I have been considering picking up a £10 Photoshop subscription that's currently about, just because she uses an up to date Photoshop at work and swapping between the 2023 and 2020 versions is a small pain.

Although I could probably fix it, this also plagues me on android, just not quite enough to do anything about it.

Aw man I completely forgot about Graham?

How did the subrace work? Resistance to bludgeoning damage and a +50 to all charisma checks?

That reminds me of the damage thresholds on vehicles in 5e. Thanks for the idea it's a really cool way to make them feel like the forces of nature that they're supposed to be!

As controversial as it is, this might be my favourite AI assistant name; it's a fun phrasing that explains it's intended use well.

I still won't use it of course, but that's just because I don't care.