Recent content by MNblockhead

No, the summaries are useful. But Gemini also tries to determine "action items" or "next steps" based on the conversation. So if you say "I'll talk to greg to get the cost estimates for the new server", Gemini will add a "Get new-server estimate from Greg" (or something similar) to the "Next...

I've not yet used it for a game session but I've used Google Meet's transcript and summary features. It creates a document with two tabs. One is "notes" which give a (usually) one-paragraph summary of the meeting, bulleted "details", and "suggested next steps". The second tab is the full...

No reason to be embarrassed. They are great tools. I would personally like to go back to Google Meet, but my players strongly prefer Discord. If I were doing screen sharing instead of using a VTT for maps, I'd go back to Meet -‑ it is just a cleaner interface IMO. But I'm fine with Discord just...

1. I run long campaigns. My current one will go at least until the end of next year. So I'll be looking for another game system at that time. I like the Crucible Game System, but it currently is half baked and development has been slow, which brings me to point 2... 2. To support Foundry, and...

Testing, configuring, and generally messing around with TTRPG digital tools is almost a second hobby for me. Recently I've cut back and try to stick to the basics and keep my time focused on prepping my games with the tools I have. For World Building, my favorite was RealmWorks, which I really...

The problem I always have when I try to come up with TTRPG rules for another game is that at some point I just either want to just play the card game or just use highly abstracted contested rolls that indicate success in the game over a number of rounds with no real connection to games flavor. I...

Interesting example. This may be an example of how each of us processes things differently. My group convinced me to run a Mage: The Ascension game. I had a very difficult time grokking the rules. I absolutely hated how the book was organized and how the rules were written. I noped out of it...

To me steps listed in the OP are misleading in terms of how complex the game mechanics are. The OP uses the example of combat in D&D, which presents a fairly simple 4-step process for combat. But it can be much more complex than that. Is it a ranged attack? How far away are you shooting from...

If you are referring to Umbran's post, how did you make that jump? There are plenty of instances throughout history of people burning books that contained ideas that they did not agree on, on all sides of just about any political, religious, and cultural debate.

I never played 2e or 3e but 4e still keeps a lot of the camp and puns I loved in 1e. Some of it is subtle, like the silly names of the NPCs, if you know german or latin. Others are obviously based on pop culture. Most of the pop culture easter eggs are still firmly stuck in the 80s. Some of the...

I was going to say the same thing. I remember truckloads of banker boxes when I started my career. Now I can go weeks without touching paper.

1 player + DM play can be very fun...if the adventures are designed for that kind of play. I'm not a fan of trying to power up a single PC to play adventures designed for 4-6 players.

I've played around with ChatGPT project to have it run D&D5e and WFRP4e games for me and three artificial players (personas). It was surprising good and fun and a good way to familiarize yourself with new rulesets. I have no interest in using it much for actually playing. First, I don't enjoy...

One thing I like about Warhammer, which I think I might try to home brew into my game is the Extended Test. Basically you have to get X success levels in order to succeed. So, say you need 5 success level to open a more complex lock. If your skill is 50 and you roll 100, awesome, you open it in...