u/Thijz — reddlx

Suggested changes to The Spider's Web

I'm a first time DM running Phandelver & Below, but I'm a bit disappointed in Chapter 3: The Spider's Web. To me, the sidequests don't feel connected to the main story at all, let alone to The Spider. It does not feel like a web.

Here's my situation:

My players completed Redbrand Hideout by either chasing out or killing all of the Redbrands.
Glasstaff escaped, they didn't even get a look at him because they spent a ton of time in his workshop while he made a run for it. They have figured out he's Iarno Albrek, he's betrayed the Lord's Alliance and is in cahoots with The Spider.
They picked up the Agatha, Old Owl Well and Wyvern Tor sidequests (didn't really change the description of these yet, although I've kept it very general) and are looking to do them in our next session.
They know the Wyvern Tor bandits might have an Ogre so they're kind of antsy about it, but they're confident they can complete the Agatha quest by trading the silver comb. They have no idea what to expect at Old Owl Well.
They haven't heard about Thundertree yet, although I put a warning sign on the notice board that a dragon has been sighted around the Neverwinter Woods.
They have no idea where Cragmaw Castle is yet.

So, what I'm looking for is to basically tie these loose ends together or at least give parts of it a better connection the overall story. I remember reading some blog with tips on how to make Kost a bit more integral to the story, but I can't find it any more.

I also kinda want to bring Glasstaff back into the story sooner rather than later. He feels like a threat now so I want to keep it that way.

Any and all ideas are welcome!

reddit.com

u/Thijz — 8 days ago

▲ 137 r/DnDminiatures

Worked up the courage to do a Beholder

I've been painting DnD mini's for a couple of months now. Started off with a box of cheap Wildspire mini's to get some practice hours in, but I bought this Beholder figurine at a renfaire this weekend and I decided to just give it a go. This one mini was worth 10x the average Wildspire mini though, so I was definitely a bit nervous.

I only used slapchop so far, as that seemed the easiest way to get started and get some cool results. The Wildspires I bought were unprimed anyway so I just primed them all black and took it from there.

This one however, was already primed a very light grey so I decided to just skip the black primer + drybrush and just go straight in with the speedpaints.

I'm especially happy with the green to purple gradient on the eye stalks. With the paint being so liquid it was actually easier to blend those colors than I'd thought.

u/Thijz — 2 months ago

▲ 251 r/fantasybooks

Help pick my next read

Currently reading The Dark Elf trilogy by R.A. Salvatore, because of my recent obsession with D&D and everything related to it. However, I'm now looking ahead at what to read next. Had my eye on these four in the image, but I'm open to any and all suggestions.

What I've recently read and liked / didn't like:

The First Law / Great Leveller / Age of Madness - Joe Abercrombie
Loved the dark humor, characters, world building. Top tier read for me.

The Devils - Joe Abercrombie
Fun little sidequest but ultimately felt a bit try-hard.

Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Up until the most recent one. I enjoyed these, but it's been a while and it's such a huge story/world that I feel like I need to start over before starting the fifth book. Also not too fond of the main characters basically turning into gods at this point.

Mistborn (Era One) - Brandon Sanderson
Reads like an action movie, had a bit of the same feeling as Stormlight though. Vin was basically a godlike entity towards the end.

Broken Earth trilogy - N.K. Jemisin
Liked the first one, didn't like the second one as much, struggled finishing the third one. Again; didn't like the way the characters and their powers progressed into ridiculous territories. Travelling super speed by blending into the earth? Meh.

The Witcher books - Andrzej Sapkowski
Love the character Geralt and the European fantasy-folklore setting.

Other things that I've already read in rough order of how much I liked them:
The Lord of the Rings (obviously)
A Song of Ice and Fire
The Dark Tower
City of Last Chances
Children of Time
Gentleman Bastard trilogy
The Shadow of What Was Lost (didn't feel like reading beyond the first book, not sure why)
Kingkiller Chronicles (not sure if I'll even bother with #3, should it ever release)
Priory of the Orange Tree
Babel
Katabasis

Probably missing a few here, but this is what comes to mind.

u/Thijz — 3 months ago

▲ 17 r/systemofadown

Did anyone take my picture/video? (Smoke flare during Toxicity circle pit, Düsseldorf Golden Circle)

I was in the Golden Circle on the Düsseldorf show last night. Quite a bit to the back and just right of the center (looking at the stage).

There were guys next to me who brought smoke flares (not the bright red flares, just red smoke). They pulled out the first one during Lost in Hollywood, but also did one during the crazy moshpit part on Toxicity.

We were in the middle of the circlepit when he started it, so I picked him up and lifted him above the crowd for almost the entire duration of the flare. My wife and friend said it looked mental, but they were in the circle pit as well so didn't take any pictures.

I was wondering if any of you guys were there and took a picture or video of this. Would love to see how that looked!

(Pic attached is the one they fired during Lost in Hollywood)

u/Thijz — 3 months ago

▲ 135 r/DnDminiatures

First weeks of progress

I started painting mini's for my D&D campaigns a while ago. Decided to go for the Slap Chop method first, as that seemed like the easiest and quickest way to get going.
I bought a big box of Wildspire mini's to get started. They include several of the same models, so it's easy to experiment and compare. The thief on the left is one of my first attempts from a couple of weeks ago. The one on the right is what I did yesterday.

Any pointers or tips for me? I might want to branch out into normal painting techniques at some point, but the Slap Chop / Speedpaint thing is working great for now, I think.

Bonus pic is a Ghoul that I've turned into a Nothic using Green Stuff, thanks to a Redditor in a different thread.

u/Thijz — 3 months ago

▲ 4 r/JapanTravelTips

Hiroshima on a short stop?

Tomorrow me and my wife are traveling from Kyoto to Miyajima. Our shinkansen arrives around 11.38 at Hiroshima Station and we're expected to check in to our ryokan on Miyajima before 17:00.

As far as I can see, travel from Hiroshima Station to our place on Miyajima will take about an hour as well, so that leaves us with about 3 to 4 hours to spare.

We're wondering if it's worth it to visit the memorial / peace museum in that short time window. We do want to see it, but we also don't want to rush such a historical place.
We're already planning on coming back to Japan in the next couple of years so it might also just go to the top of our itinerary for next time.

What do you guys think? Worth it, or keep it for next trip when we have more time?

reddit.com

u/Thijz — 5 months ago

▲ 51 r/TIdaL

Offline Mode / Downloads are a nightmare

I had a 12 hour flight last week and recently switched to Tidal, so the week before I downloaded some of my favorite albums to be able to listen to them on the plane.
Imagine my surprise when I'm in the air, I open the app and almost all of it is fucked? Half of my albums only had 2 songs downloaded. Out of the other half, the majority just wouldn't play or would stop playing a few songs in. The play button would turn into this loading icon and nothing happened.
Out of the 20ish albums I had downloaded, only like 3 or 4 would play without issues front to back.

I tried to re-download some of the albums on my hotel Wi-Fi, but that's actually worse? Now it says I have downloaded it, but when I turn 'Offline Mode' on and try to play it from my Downloaded list, it will say "You are currently in offline mode". Yeah no shit Sherlock, that's why I spent 2 hours yesterday downloading this shit!?

At this point I'm ready to return to Spotify. I don't agree with their business morals but at least their app works (and remembers what I was listening to when I took out my Airpods five fucking minutes ago).

reddit.com

u/Thijz — 5 months ago