U Know As Long As We Are On The Subject Of Holocaust Remembrance Day... Everyone Go Read That Smithsonian

u know as long as we are on the subject of holocaust remembrance day... everyone go read that smithsonian mag article on anne frank again 🙃

How To Be A Somewhat Successful DM - Part 1 - Writing A Campaign In 10 Easy Steps

Step 1: Get an idea. Your idea doesn’t have to be super specific, it can be as simple as “hey, pirates are cool, what if I made a campaign with some pirates”. 

Step 2: Get yourself a notebook to scribble your idea in. This is the breeding ground of idiocy and genius alike. I have two notebooks because I’m insane and write too many campaigns 

Step 3: Develop that idea from earlier. You want pirates? What do the pirates want? Are they good or bad? And why do the players care? What is their quest? Most importantly,  come up with an end objective for the campaign. You want a goal for the players to aim for. Even if you don’t reveal the true goal immediately, you’ll need one to plan around.

Step 4: Vomit up all your general ideas and notions about what you might like in the campaign. Just take a page in your notebook and write a list of everything you think you might include. Plot points, monsters, loot, whatever, just put it down on paper. You can sort through it later. This is what my idea page looks like (censored in some places for spoiler reasons):

Step 5: How to get from the start to the end. You’ve got the end point, the Big Bad, but you need some slightly smaller bads along the way. I usually plan around 5 or 6 lower level villains to defeat before the players reach the Main Fight. These fights are best connected to the end goal, where we get major story progression. Between these fights have a variety of smaller challenges, some story related and some more in the ranks of random encounters. 

Step 6: Develop a world. It can be anything you like but make sure that you establish the rules and stick to them. Consistency is important. Figure kingdoms/cities/planets or whatever and how they all work together in your plot.

Step 7: Make some NPCs. This is the fun part in my opinion. Give them some depth, an actual personality and motives of their own. How do they serve the plot? Why do the players need them? Do they get to join the party? They can be an ally, a villain, a betrayer, anything. Just so long as you give them a purpose.

Step 8: Detail time. Time to flesh out those enemies. Give them appearances, abilities, personality. The Big Bad needs a purpose and a way it can be defeated. If you want to make your own monsters as well, I’d advise thinking of one or two traits that make you Uncomfortable and adding those. If you want a monster to be scary, be descriptive. If it makes your skin crawl, it will probably do the same to the players.

Step 9: Time to start writing sessions. Don’t write anything too specific or detailed, the players aren’t about to cooperate with that. Just write the most important points of what will happen, notes to yourself of what you need to mention and the stats of monsters or characters that are relevant. You’ve got to be prepared to improvise.

Step 10: Finishing touches. Get yourself a list of loot. Get the backstories of your players so you can add finer details to the campaign to give them a personal stake. Make a map (and let no one touch it). Figure out how you’re going to hook your players into the story. Make yourself a roll20 or discord or what have you. Find some music. Then you can play. 

i never blog about taz grad because it truly is a losing game no matter what you do. if I want to criticize it, either for minor story things (like how fitzroy losing his magic should have been a cool arc since he originally blamed his magic for his failure and now he wants it back but instead of grappling that he just rolls twice for self confidence and does hard drugs in the woods) or for major “this podcast is made by four cishet white guys and it shows” problem things (rainer’s introduction being incredibly performative allyship, the entire centaur arc has some wildly uncomfortable white savior overtones, teacher takes students into woods to do hard drugs and it’s played as a joke) you’ll get creeps who personally blame travis for everything wrong with mbmbam and taz jumping up to agree with you and drowning out your points with just vicious travis hate. you then get the people who are annoyed by those people jumping down your throat to be like “OH TRAV HAS ADHD AND NPD HE’S TRYING YOU’RE SO TOXIC.” and. neither of you see the fucking point.

at the same time, if you want to talk about things you like in grad (like the characters or them destroying capitalism as a cool plot point or Cool Gary the best npc) or just in general that you’re sick of people dunking on it by decrying every minor DM problem as the biggest problem in the world or just making fun of travis’s adhd, you’ll get people going “UGH CLASSIC NO BUMMERS FANDOM IGNORING ALL THE PROBLEMS OF THE MCELROYS” and there’s just… no… winning…

Some things it is A-OK to say to your doctor:

No

Wait

Stop 

(These are full sentences! You do not need to say any more) 

I am not comfortable. 

I am not comfortable, I would like… 

you to wait a moment.

another person in the room. 

everyone else out of the room. 

a doctor/nurse of my same gender to preform this test/procedure. 

the person who came with me to this appointment in the room. 

you to explain everything before you begin. 

you to tell me what you are doing as you go. 

to do this another day. 

I want to get a second opinion before we proceed.

I don’t understand, please repeat that. 

I don’t understand, please explain more simply. 

Please say that slower/spell that, I want to do some research myself.

I would like to talk to [someone in my life, ie my parents to SO] before making this decision. 

No, I do not need to talk to [anyone] before making this decision, I am confidant on my own and am ready to proceed. 

What are the side effects of this medication/procedure? What are the potential complications? 

Why are you recommending/prescribing this specific thing? 

What other treatment options are there? Why are you choosing this?

Would your treatment plan be different if I were a man/woman older/younger had kids, etc? Why are you choosing this one then?

IS there anything I should know about this treatment you have not yet told me?  

I understand you say not to, but If I choose to do X, against medical advice, what risks am I running? (ie taking recreational drugs while on medication)

How much will this cost? 

Are there any less expensive options/tests we can run first? 

Is there a generic of this medication you can prescribe instead?

I think you are not understanding me, I said…

You are not listening to me, please let me finish describing my symptoms. 

You are not understanding how much pain I am in, let me clarify… 

I do not think it is anxiety/depression/my weight/etc, what else could it potentially be? 

I think by assuming it is anxiety/depression/my weight/etc you are ignoring some symptoms. Please listen again and let’s discuss what else it could be. 

Please write in my chart that you are not testing for X and why not. 

I am in enough pain/this is detrimental enough to my life that non-treatment is not an option. If you can not treat this/figure out what is wrong, to whom can you refer me?

Please write (or help me write) a summary of what we did today so I don’t forget 

What are our next steps? 

If [what you are recommending] is ineffective, what would my next steps be? What other doctor should I talk to? 

What is the best way to contact you if I have additional questions or issues? 

Remember, a doctor is a person YOU pay because they know a lot about bodies in general, to help you figure out whats best for YOUR body. It is still your body, not theirs! They know about medicine but you are the expert in your body. Don’t let them act like they own you. Don’t leave if you’ve still got questions, don’t stay if you’re uncomfortable, and feel free to insist on ANY information you want. 

I'm not at all an editor but I was gripped with the need to make this