On Steam, click your username in the top bar, and select “profile” from the dropdown menu. On the profile page, there’s an “edit profile” button near the top right corner, underneath your level. In the “General” tab, the field “real name” should be the second one down

Not a right-wing source in and of itself, but Corey Robin’s The Reactionary Mind explores the history and philosophical underpinnings of conservative thought from Burke/Hobbes on through the 21st century, on a variety of different topics. It’s a serious engagement with the ideas, and attempt to understand them and their origins

Oh absolutely! I’ve heard the term “power gamer” used to describe people who love building the perfect, 100% optimal character that is multiclassed just so with such and such items, who can do X amount of damage per round, and so on. I think some people use that as a derogatory term but I don’t see it that way. It’s just how some people like to play, just as some people like to play characters who are this race with this color hair and an elaborate backstory, stats be damned.

There are absolutely people out there like what you’re asking for. Lots of combat, exploration, puzzles, and roleplay is restricted to basic narration (“my character asks where the bad guy is” “ok, roll persuasion”). They have a presence online as well, for example r/3d6 on Reddit, but it’s a bit smaller/less vocal than the RP folks I think.

There’s a decent chance you might not be missing anything, it’s just not for you. Minecraft and Terraria are beloved titles that people put thousands of hours into, but I never got into them myself.

A turn-based CRPG is a very old-fashioned thing (the C stands for Computer), and it’s a pretty faithful adaption of a TT (tabletop, so pen-and-paper) RPG, which is even older (though the current ruleset for DnD is pretty new). I can definitely understand how Skyrim appeals to you but something like BG3 doesn’t; they’re fundamentally different games, and Skyrim is much faster-paced

I like this concept, and I think at a table where players are more likely to just put random rings on and see what happens it could be a lot of fun. I also like the concept of losing fingers and how that might impact a character. Maybe it eventually imposes disadvantage on attacks for a melee character, or affects a spellcaster’s ability to use spells with material components. You could specify in the description if you like, but a DM could also have some fun figuring out the exact consequences

I see some important bits of info you should add:

1. Is it an action or bonus action? Magic items in 5e will specify. So the description would read something like, “as an action, the wearer points the digit wearing the ring at a target within range, causing the ring to glow as it focuses its energy. On the wearer’s next turn…” Alternatively, if you don’t think it should require an action, you could say “When the finger wearing the ring is pointed at the target (no action required)…”

2. What’s the range? The various spells have different ranges as written, but perhaps setting them all to one high value would be fitting for a legendary item

3. What’s the spellcasting ability used? This informs the hit bonus/saving throw DC. For example, I as a DM would need to know what a target has to roll on their DEX save against that fireball.

That’s an interesting idea, and I can definitely see some groups liking that, but I don’t think it’s for my table. It would end up buffing enemies and skew balance towards casters. I do think it could be an interesting trait for a boss though, to represent especially potent spellcasting ability

Yeah from what I know it’s one of the more commonly banned spells. Personally I just don’t like the idea of banning published content. Making an effort to keep things mysterious until the spell is actually taking effect is a bit cleaner of a solution, and I do like the teamwork aspect of a RAW spell identification + counterspell

Yeah I’m not against using it as a means of tweaking balance in encounters, like if a particular character is trivializing or dominating every encounter with certain spells

Oh now that’s an interesting house rule. That actually gives me an idea for situations where you upcast counterspell but it still requires a check RAW: adding a bonus for the level of the upcast. So if a 6th level spell is cast, and a 5th level counterspell comes out in response, the counterspell caster can add another +2 to their D20 + spellcasting ability check

Yeah this would potentially be a nice solution; I do think it’s fair that if you see someone casting a spell you yourself can cast, you’ll recognize what it is. The one drawback I can see is that it requires me to have everyone’s spell list memorized, which increases the chances I miss one of the matches.

The more I think about the arcana check, the more I’m interested in it; initially I was worried adding additional checks every time somebody casts a spell could slow combat down too much, but maybe I’m overthinking that.

Yeah waiving the reaction cost for that could be a good solution. Did it not affect the flow of combat too much in your experience?

Yeah where are those descriptions coming from? Also mentions “the strike workers’ strike” and repeats “politics” twice

True, although I feel like requiring proper resource management would encourage the same sort of creativity. Maybe you want to keep that 3rd level spell slot available in case you need a counterspell, or to cast Fly for exploration later on

Yeah I’ve traditionally waived it myself, and both as a player and DM haven’t ever noticed any issues with that. As it stands I see no real reason to enforce it, but I always try to really understand the reason for a rule before I decide to ignore it

When I was a player, my DM would print out whatever battle maps he needed and laminate them for the dry erase marker. An even more adaptable version of that would be a clear plastic sleeve or cover placed over the paper, so you could have a variety of maps handy and swap them out as needed.

Now as a DM myself I use my iPad and the procreate app, which works fairly well. I can have a ton of maps ready to go for both battle and exploration, and a bonus is that I also have an easy way to hide and reveal parts of the map using layers. There’s an iPad app called encounter+ that’s specifically for running combats off of an iPad, but it has some features locked behind a paywall and a bit of a learning curve, so I haven’t used it myself.

Oooh ok good to know. CoS caught my eye in any case and one of the employees at a local game store has run it multiple times since the 90’s (including in 5e), so I’d have a great source of advice there

Yeah I looked at it a bit when it released but nothing more. I’ll check it out!

Ahh I see now

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I think OP means in 2001, not in the 80s