u/KarlyFr1es

Lily Sugar & Cream has been my go-to for a couple decades, and now I can’t reliably find it. I’m open to a good option that isn’t the same brand, and I really hope some fellow crafters spot this.

Since JoAnn’s closed, I’ve had the worst time finding all cotton yarn for my projects. Michael’s has a small selection and very small skeins, and Amazon is really hit or miss on carrying colors and mostly sells six-packs of yarn skeins. Where are you all finding resources around the TV now?

I’m getting close to starting year 19 in teaching, and honestly it’s been really rough for the last several years. Here’s what it’s come down to: I like my subject and the content and skills I teach, and I like probably 85-90% of my students in any given year, but we have such weak leadership that anything beyond the door of my classroom is instantly frustrating and beyond stupid. Admin have no follow-through on behavior consequences for kids, they do not plan any meaningful PD but instead keep going circles around learning intentions and success criteria (those phrases trigger instant rage in me at this point), and they genuinely don’t seem to understand their damn job positions when I compare them to the previous and very functional admins I’ve worked with.

I don’t really know what to do with this. I’ve wanted to be a teacher for basically my entire life, and I love so many parts of this job, but the laziness and incompetency in leadership is making everything much harder than it needs to be. Do I let the lack of leadership drive my choice? Do I hold out hope that I can outlast two crappy admins?

There isn’t much available as far as simply switching schools, and there are very few quality administrators left in my area (likely because my State is hot garbage water for educators). So what now??

On a whim, I started messing with thematic homebrewing for a few subclasses and a little bit of gear, which I sent to my current DM to get some feedback since he’s been playing since the 80s and has extensive knowledge (wanting to know if anything is too much, not enough, or outright nonsense, the usual). We got to chatting and co-constructing a world and central conflict and now…it’s shaping up to sound really fun. Have any of you run a campaign with a pair of DMs rather than only one?

I’ve DMd a campaign (Waterdeep) and I’ve played several, but it’s always been the standard one person behind the screen and the rest PCs. Anyone try it another way? How might it work? Thank you for any guidance you might be able to offer.

The background: Right now I’m working on some custom subclasses and backgrounds that fit well with the raw emotionality, performance, intuition, and aesthetics of the band. Not all players have chosen their characters’ classes yet, but I’ve been tinkering with Cleric, Paladin, and Warlock so far. I’m sure I’ll have a Bard or Rogue as well, but I haven’t even begun to work on that. I’ll also be looking to add gear (weapons armor, trinkets, etc) that works well with the world of Arcadia.

For the Big Bad, I’m thinking a corrupted aasimar or celestial who leads a cult devoted to a sort of…I guess I’d say sameness. The cult seeks to return Arcadia to its former glory by removing all the dark, tragic past from the environment but also from the minds of all its inhabitants, and creating a polished present and future devoid of dwelling on what was and what was lost. (If no one remembers the tragedy and loss, did it even happen?) I want to mess with the ideas of grief vs apathy and dark vs light, and the combo pack of light/apathy thinks they’re the good guys.

Our heroes would be trying to save Arcadia—a crumbling kingdom long past its prime—from succumbing to apathy and prevent the destruction of knowledge of the past.

Here’s where you come in: HELP. What about the rough idea needs tweaked? What holes are you seeing? What other conflicts might fit along the way that help my brain plan a rough roadmap? Are there other characters or elements you see fitting in well?

TLDR: I’m looking for a sounding board to help me create ideas for a D&D campaign set in Arcadia with an inverted conflict of dark vs light (where the light is not goodness but rather apathy)

I was re-watching the 1991 Disney animated version of Beauty & the Beast for the hundredth time or so and while I know there is supposed to be inspo there for ACOTAR, I really can’t see Feyre in Belle at all. Buckle up because she sounds more like a combo Gaston + Enchantress.

1. Belle is clever and reads voraciously while Feyre is often making exceptionally stupid choices and isn’t even literate in the first book. You know who is illiterate and makes dumb and terrible choices? Gaston. He and Feyre are also both good hunters (despite the fact Feyre is starving, but whatever). If anyone is going to shoot a wolf, it’s Gaston, not Belle.
2. Belle has a loving, albeit odd, father who is the reason she briefly leaves the Beast. Feyre’s father is awful and no one should leave a sandwich for him, let alone someone they’re falling in love with.
3. The Enchantress tests Prince Adam, ultimately making him the Beast when he fails her test. This leads to him destroying the west wing, which Belle is later forbidden from. Feyre tests Tamlin often, especially once he thinks she’s been kidnapped by his friend-turned-enemy and his illiterate fiancée is suddenly writing notes? He fails the test and destroys her room.
4. Feyre doesn’t cure Spring of any curse really, she leaves it in ruin as the Enchantress did with the castle, grounds, and entire staff.

All this to say, our Beast is cursed by Feyre and hasn’t found his Belle yet. How long he has before he’s consumed by his loss, grief, and self-loathing? I don’t know. And Amarantha? Just a flat, static villain.