I’dsay that’s a feature, not a bug. DnD wants you to play as cool badasses, with everybody being somewhat equally badass, so it’s designed in that way. Which is good. I remember tons of systems where you could end up with characters that have zero adventuring skills (how often did ”animal husbandry” and “calligraphy”…

Yeah, I admit I got a bit of a twitchy eye when reading about the character - if everybody loves that tone, great, that’s fine, but if the rest is going for a more serious adventure, please don’t. I’ve met way too many Malkavians/Kender/Gnomes who just had to insult the powerful NPC, “accidentally” drop something…

Did their design budget run out after the arms and they decided to just use old cardboard cutouts for the head? That is a weird combination.

As someone who lived in Düsseldorf, I feel morally obliged to smear Kölsch (too thin!) and recommend Altbier (Düsseldorf and Köln have one of those city rivalries going).

It’s amazing how active you still are! That’s great to hear.

Concerning letter three, my sister-in-law didn’t want to get married, because to her, marriage was this old-fashioned thing with a lot of negative connotations attached to it. But because being married has a lot of practical upsides like tax refunds, health care, and other legal things, so they became “registered…

Well, more than 6 million people watched the games with the German team here in Germany. Of course, interest in the men team’s world cup is higher at about 30 million (that is every third German), but compared to other sport events, it’s still high. The Formula 1, also pretty popular here, reached about 4.5 million…

Thank you for your kind words. I try to not let my mind spiral into imagining the worst possible outcomes, but it’s not easy. I’ll see if there are groups or meetups of parents in similar situations nearby, maybe that'll help. 

The party sounds lovely! Sleeping during pregnancy can be super annoying, I had insomnia sometimes. Let me sleep as long as I still can!

The massage tables sound like heaven. I blew out my back with baby one while still breastfeeding, and so got massages while they were extra sensitive. That was not fun. 

A a German, I can think of Sophie, for Sophie Scholl, a university student and political activist who fought against the nazis in the “White Rose”. Or Rosa, for Rosa Luxemburg, a famous socialist philosopher. Both were murdered, though, so maybe not the happiest names. Or Chaika Grossman, a Jewish Polish partisan,…

Here in Germany, you have twelve weeks of postpartum care by a certified midwife paid by the state. It is extremely helpful, not only because they check on the babies health, but also because they answer every silly question and help you to master the normal childcare stuff, and maybe most important, they check for…

That is some serious movie-prop level of craftsmanship! I wonder if there are some wip videos.

Hello! Great to hear you feel better! I remember last week you wrote about some coworkers scaring you with postpartum tales of tiredness, and I wanted to share some ideas on how to deal from my own experience, but then I was too busy. So here they are, I hope it’s helpful!

It pains me to say it, but Ultima VIII is nearly good when compared to the 3D horror that was Ultima IX. That was probably the worst game I ever finished, and I cried disappointed tears of nostalgia while doing it. It was so bad, I can’t remember anything about the plot, but I have a vivid memory of RULE BRITANNIA…

Take your star for the PbtA-reference, and make a Hard Move. 

Japan is very safe for a solo traveler, and had great public transportation, though keep in mind that Japan is reeeeally hot and humid in summer. Spring or Fall is a nicer travel time.

Rick is clearly the character the GM made for themselves “because they never get to play”, and who solves every problem while the PCs are allowed to watch.

You can get a long breastfeeding pillow. I got one during my first pregnancy, and put it between my legs, under the belly, and under my head, which worked pretty well. In addition, it’s super useful once the baby is here for hands-free breastfeeding, so not that much of a splurge.

Takashi Miike’s adaption of the Ace Attorney games fully embraces the cartoony nature of their source material, and gets pretty weird (not as weird as Detective Pikachu could be, though). I’d rank it as one of the best video game movies, low as that bar might be.