DM of the Rings Remaster XVII: Of Dubious Value

By Bay Posted Sunday Apr 30, 2023

Filed under: DM of the Rings Remaster 6 comments

One of the things I loved to do in our campaigns was give out magical items which were interesting but mostly useless. We’ve been trained by movies that if you find some seemingly unimportant bauble, then the story will later create a situation where it will be the key to solving a problem in an unexpected way.

My favorite was a rope I gave them that untied itself the moment you let go of the knot. It was pointless, but enough of a novelty that they hung onto it. Another was a chalice that would purify any water you put into it. It was sort of a magical water filter which could turn a glass of swamp sludge into mineral water in about five minutes. Another was a magic staff which had only one property: It could be placed tip-down on the floor and it would keep itself balanced.

Once in a while they would haul out one of these magical booby prizes and actually put the thing to some unexpected use. I always loved when they did that.

–  Shamus, Monday Oct 16, 2006

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Sims 4 Overthinking: Last Minute Changes

By Bay Posted Friday Apr 28, 2023

Filed under: Epilogue, The Sims Overthinking 18 comments

The baby room is finished, the new washer and dryer are set up, and Lorretta can finally breath a sigh of relief. They did it, they managed in time, and with even time to spare. It’s five days till Kelly’s due date, and Michael is jumping every time his phone rings. He can’t stay with her at her dad’s house, which has seemed sillier and sillier a rule as she’s gotten more and more visibly pregnant. What’s he gonna do? Knock her up?

Four days from her due date, he gets the call in the middle of the night, and she’s headed to the hospital. Michael and Lorretta throw clothes into bags in a rush, and Lorretta calls her boss to let him know she won’t be making it to work that day. They arrive just in time to meet Kelly leaving the building. False alarm, the doctors are sending her home.
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DM of the Rings Remaster XVI: Teamwork

By Bay Posted Sunday Apr 23, 2023

Filed under: DM of the Rings Remaster 22 comments

Welcome to this special edition of DM of the Rings with special behind-the-scenes director’s commentary…

An alternate joke I wanted to use here was that the other players were not afraid of the monster per se, but afraid of getting involved in a battle which would require knowledge of the grapple system as well as the byzantine system of attacks of opportunity, and they were terrified of trying to wrap their heads around all of this while fighting a many-tentacled creature.

The gist was that they were fearful of spending the next four hours leafing through the rulebook trying to figure out how to wrestle with this thing. There is some truth (and thus humor) in this idea, but I couldn’t figure out how to deliver the comedic payload.

So instead you got this.

–  Shamus, Wednesday Oct 11, 2006

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Sims 4 Overthinking: The Baby Room

By Bay Posted Friday Apr 21, 2023

Filed under: Epilogue, The Sims Overthinking 8 comments

Lorretta and Michael only have two weeks left, and even that hinges on Kelly not going into labor before her due date. It’s Kelly’s first baby, meaning that Lorretta is hopeful they actually do have that long, if not a bit longer.

In that time, they have to finish the nursery, and ideally Lorretta would like to put in a new washer and dryer. The current appliances are rattling in an alarming way, and the washer is leaking water at random intervals with seemingly no correlation to what happens around it. If it only spat water when overloaded, or when put on a certain setting, it would be easier to live with or even implement a rushed fix. As it is, it’s simply dubbed temperamental, and will need replaced.

We haven’t been furnishing the house so far. I usually don’t furnish in these projects until I land on whatever the houses ‘current’ state is, that’s when I put in furniture and actually make the sims that live there. But…there’s new baby furniture I want to check out, so let’s do it.
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DM of the Rings Remaster XV: Riddle me This

By Bay Posted Sunday Apr 16, 2023

Filed under: DM of the Rings Remaster 30 comments

 

No matter how difficult or absurd you make a puzzle, your players will find an even more impossible and preposterous way of solving it.

–  Shamus, Monday Oct 9, 2006

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Sims 4 Overthinking: Tradition

By Bay Posted Friday Apr 14, 2023

Filed under: Epilogue, The Sims Overthinking 19 comments

Our family has two months left to entirely finish the house in time for the baby to arrive. The bathroom is next, then the kitchen, then the laundry room if they have time. The bathroom is not bad, and Lorretta is tempted to keep the vintage façade…except for the moldy grout. The Sims has no good way to show it, but that pink tile was put in nearly a century ago, without ventilation, with only one bathroom to the entire house. That grout is black.

They try to save the tile by removing it carefully, but by the time the fifth one disintegrates in their hands, it’s clear that won’t be happening; this is a reno.
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DM of the Rings Remaster XIV: Boring Distractions

By Bay Posted Sunday Apr 9, 2023

Filed under: DM of the Rings Remaster 16 comments

D&D is a sort of simulation. A simulation of living in a fantasy world where fearless heroes and dreadful monsters clash daily in spectacular battles. A world where you are a great champion, and the creator of the universe is frequently disorganized, highly distractable, and alarmingly vague on the rules of the universe he’s trying to run.

–  Shamus, Friday Oct 6, 2006

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