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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • The way the party kind of adopted the recurring mini BBEG. He was designed to be a recurring villain , showing up near the end of act 1, and was supposed to be the final boss in act two.

    He had done some truly vile things to various members of the party, but apologized for them each time, spoke to them as equals, and was overall a fairly amicable person, at least if you can discount the kidnapping and torture on one players father, and the murders of another character’s entire tribe.

    Late in act 2, they discovered that he was under a compulsion to serve the whims of the big bad, and I had assumed it was going to lead to a confrontation where they killed him, then went after the BBEG. Instead, they went on a whole redemption arc for the mini BBEG, found a way to break his compulsion, and went on a long quest to free him from the control of the BBEG.

    It was kinda inspiring, again except for the multiple murders and other truly vile things this guy did. It was certainly not the outcome I was expecting in a campaign specifically bent to focus on moral grey areas.


  • I am something of an over planner, but it took me probably 40 hours to get the themes and major plot points nailed down for all three acts. Then, probably another 40 to flesh out act 1 to the point I was ready to bring the players into the sandbox.

    For the first year, I was then spending about 3 hours of prep time per session to tie in all the character backgrounds and weave them into the narrative. After the first year, it was down to probably an hour of prep per session unless they were about to transition between acts, or a major character story was happening.




  • As a DM, there are two reasons I ask this kind of question.

    If it’s a player that I know is comfortable playing their role, then I am trying to get them to lean into the scene to assist with story pacing, or potentially to reveal additional information.

    There are still benefits to asking it though, even if a player is not comfortable playing out the scene. Even without a spotlighted stage, you can still obtain a lot of character development by asking for additional clarity. For instance, did the character want to use a cheesy pickup line, or maybe a humorous anecdote, maybe they want to be really suave.

    I would probably ask some leading questions like the above, but that additional info can still greatly expand the scene without turning it into a night at the improv.








  • I think a lot of people are missing the next step of the plan. First, they push a bill that specifically says it is illegal for non citizens to vote. Assume the bill passes, because why wouldn’t it? You already have to be a citizen to vote. It’s all political theater, after all, so there is no need to pick a fight.

    Then red states come through with a fucked up interpretation of the law that says felons are no longer U.S. citizens. Now it is illegal for felons to ever vote again. The law would be challenged, appealed, and eventually make its way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, that is absolutely going to side with the “States right” to choose what happens to their felons.

    Finally, they use selective enforcement of law combined with aggregate data from any number of sources to build felony cases specifically against political rivals. Then you have red states that can never go blue again.

    This is all fascism 101.