• 483 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • A single session should be doable with one or two pages. I like the style the Mausritter community uses a lot. For an example, see the Stumpsville adventure in the base game.

    A larger good example is The Waking of Willowby Hall. Multiple pages describing every room in a big mansion.

    • There should be a single paragraph intro which can be given to players in advance (so no spoilers!).
    • An image is great to convey the mood and style.
    • A map is usually useful but think broadly. The map of Stumpsville is more like a picture from the side. Still good enough to say "you are here in now".
    • Offering multiple plot hooks is great to embed it into a larger campaign.
    • Lots of bullet point lists and bold text parts to optimize orientation during play.
    • To avoid going "off rails", just state a clear goal. If they go "off rails" then it is a short session.
    • Something I miss in many adventures (especially if sandbox style modules) is a sense of urgency. Work some kind of timer into your adventure. Willowby Hall has an escalation mechanism built in which increases danger essentially because time passes. In other words, don't just "rescue the princess" but also "she gets sacrificed in three hours" and it should be possible to reach her too late.

    What I don't need is a showdown scene. In general, I prefer "adventure sites" rather than "adventure stories".


  • There seems to be a lot of attention on WotC actions, so I guess people are concerned that it might work to turn D&D in this dreaded "lifestyle brand?" Statements like the "it won't work" in the title serve to convince yourself then.

    I don't care about WotC. There is no threat to anything I'm playing. If they destroy the D&D brand, so be it.

    Could it still affect me negatively? Maybe indirectly. If D&D blows up, then RPG community probably shrinks and fewer people join. The most popular game is the entry game for many after all. So it will hurt the many small indie creatives too. Maybe there will be a painful correction. On the other hand, it probably results in a more healthy and resilient community afterwards. Still, I would feel sorry for the people who live on a small RPG business now which might not survive a D&D implosion.


  • Nothing is wrong with just saying it. In practice, it sometimes doesn't work out though.

    For a very public drastic example, look at the Far Verona rape:

    The reaction of the other players at the table while the scene plays out is telling. It appears that no one expected this storyline to go where it went.

    Yet, nobody said "I don't like where this is going."

    To be clear: I don't blame them for not saying it. Probably, I probably would have been quiet in that situation too. I believe that safety/communication tools are usually not necessary but in rare cases they are. Thus, it is a good practice in general and worth some overhead.



  • According to forecasts from Counterpoint Research, China will have 1mn cars with so-called Level 3 technology — which means drivers can remove their hands from the steering wheel — by 2026, and these vehicles will account for about 10 per cent of new cars by 2028.

    Oh, here the author is not quite right. I assume he refers to SAE level 3. This is not about "remove their hands from the steering wheel". If you still have to "constantly supervise" the car, you are still level 2. Some call "hands-off" as level 2.5, but it certainly isn't enough for level 3.

    So far, actual level 3 cars are only made by Honda, Mercedes, and BMW. The upgrade costs thousands of dollars and is only available in few luxury cars.

    I can imagine 1mn "hands-off" cars in 2026 but not "level 3".