• 0 Posts
  • 39 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: November 7th, 2024

help-circle



  • Are we counting old-school expansions as DLC? If so, then, aside from the infamous Horse Armor, the Elder Scrolls series seriously raised the bar for what to expect from RPG add-ons. Tribunal and Bloodmoon were massive expansions that set the standard early on.

    Knights of the Nine might’ve been a bit weaker, but Shivering Isles is one of the GOAT expansions and is arguably better than the base game.

    Skyrim kept the momentum going with Dawnguard and Dragonborn, both of which added tons of new content.

    The series is straight-up GOATed when it comes to expansions that are actually expansive: new locations packed with quests, items, monsters, spells, etc. They take already huge games and somehow make them even bigger.







  • TNG and DS9 are the only two series that I really know well enough to make these recommendations for.

    I would highly recommend watching TNG before DS9, even if she likes DS9 better. TNG and DS9 work best as companion shows, with TNG building up a lot of DS9 plot-lines in its latter seasons. I would also highly recommend against starting with any episodes involving Q or the Borg, or any of the series “highlights”. Let those plots build, and you don’t want to spoil some of the best episodes in a sampler. My go-to TNG introduction picks are:

    -Cause and Effect

    -Darmok

    -Measure of a Man

    DS9 can be harder to pick introductory episodes for. Its more serialized nature means that a lot of later episodes have a lot of spoilers. I would highly recommend against picking any episodes that highly involve the Dominion or the Dominion War, let that plot build itself up. That does however, leave us with a lot fewer options. My DS9 introduction picks are:

    -Duet

    -Past Tense

    -Bar Association










  • Look, I’ve been DMing for going on 20 years, and I like to think most of my players have had a good time. D&D isn’t about adhiring strictly to the rules, it’s about forging an entertaining adventure with your group. 90% of the time, I use the numbers I roll, but sometimes fudging those die can serve to make the game more enjoyable.

    Is a boss battle not quite packing the oomph I intended it to? Maybe give the baddie a few good licks in to keep the players on their toes. Has someone been having a really rough time with an encounter and seems frustrated? Maybe just ignore that crit I just rolled. As long as you’re not killing players, there’s no harm in fudging the dice every once in a while.