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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: October 24th, 2023

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  • Hi! I saw your post about moderating and I think it’s cool that you decided to carry that community for everyone. Thanks for doing that!

    I’ve been taking care of my ancient wizened pet rabbit. She’s like 90 in bunny years (considering large breeds like flemish giants don’t live as long) but here’s an old and young picture of her huge dumbo ears.

    I go to a restaurant store for her because they sell giant bags of cilantro and she mows through it among other things.

    I’ve also been running a tabletop rpg system I wrote and built a setting for, and it’s going pretty well! It’s kind of a science fantasy thing and players are all humans, but they can be terran or from a colony world we build out together. That entails negotiating what adaptations the colonists originally gave their children to thrive on that world and so we ended up with a huge strongman character from a hot high gravity world for example. He has heat venting scales that look like a bush viper all over him and he’s the only one enjoying the desert they’re currently traversing while I throw creatures at them like a tamer version of Scavenger’s Reign.




  • Yeah just start your own instance on a different planet with situations that only provoke your preferred amount of existential dread!

    Barring that you’re going to be stuck identifying the sources of this widespread misery and trying to help people overcome it. For most people that might be difficult but I don’t know your budget so I won’t assume. There’s also the option of interacting with machines that pose as happier humans but your goal overall seems contrary to growing that 80% by adding yourself unless I misread your intent.







  • In dungeons and dragons there is a type of hybrid character you can play called an Artificer who treats magic more like technology, and there are a ton of examples in popular media that others have mentioned. I do think you have to determine how and if you’ll keep them distinct if that’s important to your plot, but if they developed alongside eachother maybe the technology of that world relies on magic to work.

    Or maybe your magic relies on elder gods that don’t like the mortal hubris of critiquing the gods works so attempts to unravel magic gets you cursed or worse.

    I think they can go together and the way you fit them can even become a plot point!




  • Original comment:

    I agree with all of this under the caveat that your DM interpretation of the “what constitutes interaction” in 5e can also have more influence on your success than clever or clumsy play. DMs I’ve played with have varied from very loose discussions about their concerns for balance to self crippling houserules that wind up with illusionist NPCs failing to do anything because of a broomstick and blanket being flailed at them by a fighter. Specifically speak with the DM running the game and come to a common understanding before you start. Find out how interactions and passive checks will work against your illusions ahead of time in that game!

    Edit because I’m turning into a lich and forgetting which editions we’re talking about:

    Major Illusion, Hallucinatory Terrain, and Greater invisibility are amazing staples of illusion and you can look to Shadow Evocation and Shadow Conjuration as patches for any missing features a wizard should have in your party. Other than that I think… take standard wizard spells and ban schools based on your party if you have the chance to plan with them. Also consider the synergy that lies (enchantment) can have with misdirection and see if you can fill that role or support your local lying bard/rogue/beguiler.

    Illusion for gnomes in 3.5 invariably leads to talking about their shadow magic prestige class from Races of Stone and the ability to change what disbelief entails as well as cast evocation and conjurations as shadowy illusion that become more and more real as you progress. This is amazing for high powered campaigns but personally I recommend house ruling metamagic level out of the %realism formula. This prestige class is in no way necessary though as illusion rocks and gets license to make memorable scenes in ways other spell schools don’t!


  • It sounds like they found themselves in a situation they are not prepared to handle, and they are attempting to rush you through a major decision to compensate. It may not be malicious or a scam, and it may be a fluke that is not indicative of the normal pace and handling of their business, but it does not signal a healthy well run organization. If you do choose to proceed, do so with some level of caution and awareness of that fact. Do not give them any money, and if they give you any information that alarms or frightens you, slow the process down to give your self more time to evaluate.




  • In some settings bulettes hate the taste of elves, and maybe that could allow militaristic elves to domesticate them for use as raiding mounts. I’m imagining an elven archer atop a saddle with a bulette-hide shield along the dorsal fin. The shield is sturdy enough that it allows the rider to duck down and be protected while the mount tunnels, as well as providing cover when shooting their bows. I think this could work well for a single scout ambush encounter at level 5+, and as a special siege unit that the party has to defeat later on.

    Maybe they learn about it from a group of wounded soldiers recounting a recent battle where a castle wall collapsed without warning, and in the chaos three mounted land sharks tore through their ranks until they were ordered to retreat.



  • The campaigns my players consistently voice as their favorites are ones where I created an overarching plot, and then incorporated their backstories as significant and impactful portions of that plot. Being the sole input for character motivations for a story (as with a book) makes it easier to end up with a coherent vision and story, but more difficult because of the amount of content you’re responsible for. Conversely a good DM can offload work to players and end up with a result that everyone is personally invested in.

    I will say though that some DMs end up writing thousands of pages over the course of years spent in an ongoing campaign and might cry at your characterization.

    It’s definitely POSSIBLE to run a campaign without ever writing a page, but good luck when your characters get attached to an NPC you forgot about if improvisation isn’t your forte.