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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

You definitely misunderstood me. I was not remotely suggesting rapiers were anti armour weapons, quite the opposite. I have a dim memory of reading that as guns became more common armour became less common, and its usage changed, opening up a reason to make a sword like a rapier.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Yeah this got really bad in limited over the last few years. I can literally track the change over time. First turn advantage got way too high largely off the back of how much value cards generate nowadays.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

They take a bite at ADHD about once every ten years or so. Eugenisists are predictable in their bullshit.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Gear up? They never geared down. They use any ground gained against one vulnerable group to feed attacks on the others.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

That is so cool! You nailed the simpler, more impactful, style.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The thing is, it's rarely circular, it's just really enthusiastic, if you catch my drift. They get really into it, no matter what it is, doesn't even have to be planning. It's quite impressive.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Ah that's not my issue. Not to over do the metaphor but they just really like discussing the type of bread the crumbs are made of. Never been a scenario hook they can't dissect for a good 20 mins. 😅 For every 5 mins of prep I make they can find an hour of play.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This sounds like sorcery. No matter how I prep a session, no quest has ever lasted just one. My players always manage to make it two or more, in ever more fascinating ways.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Oh that's so much better. I saw the model and knew you'd have opinions.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I really liked the AoS design but this, this is even better.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

That trans voters should vote for people who argue for the stripping trans people of their rights just because they have D by their name. Now for the tedious dance where you pretend this isn't true by being obtuse. Which makes you either a bad faith actor or a dimly lit clown. Your call.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Less lethal pays off in so many ways too. Makes even "throwaway" NPCs feel more real, builds connections between PCs and villains over time, and it makes the "to the death" enemies like religious fanatics or mindless undead more meaningful and scary.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I think they did flag one of PF2es design flaws, in how rules are nested. Take climbing, you climb 5 feet on a success (per 20 feet of move speed), on a CS you get an extra 5 feet. On a CF you fall; not fall 5 feet, fall to the ground but you can Catch an Edge, a separate rule in a different place.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

It's odd, just something about the critique doesn't quite land. Best way I can think to put it is they only acknowledge crit failures but not crit successes. There was some point there I understood but it was seemingly based on the idea you had to play out scenarios in only one way.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

I see, I confused post-roman to mean right after the romans, when yeah it covers everything after. I chose Napoleonic deliberately, because as you say, fantasy is very eurocentric; even when it comes to including other places, we get: 13C monogolia, 16C mesoamerica, and 17C japan concurrently.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Do they even do that. Modern "generic" fantasy mashes together early, mid and late middle ages seemingly at random with odd splashes of early modern and even napoleonic era but not all inclusively, it's weirdly specific about what is accepted and what gets rejected.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

I am always partial to a few other combos: elves with elaborate and ornate, precision rifles; orcs/ogres with hand cannons; hobgoblins going full pile and shot; gnomes with ever more minaturised pistols; goblins/halflings getting really into blackpowder artillery.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

I might be wrong but I have a dim memory that guns also allowed rapiers to even be viable. Guns changed the nature of armour designs, rapiers work because of those changes to armour. Beforehand a rapier would have been less effective on the kinds of armour commonly used.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

That is stunning. One of my favourite birds.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Those are so cool! Love a good page of trees!

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Same people behind it too; eugenicists. They won't tolerate the existence of people who aren't "normal".

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

That's more of a meme than the reality. Take one look at Ukraine to see why.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

I heard it described that one of the best aspects of that is that democracies are able to shuffle around their command staff with far less trouble. If a general isn't the right one for the job, they're fired, and a new one has a go. No shooting scapegoats, and fewer desperate grasps to keep power.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Not that bad a game perhaps but a very poor RPG, and a poor Fallout RPG too.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

I see what you mean. I'd argue they fit the tone of a battle for existence. And, had the ending been a culmination of your decisions as it could have been it would have worked. Knowing you could have done better had you tried to save Rex or brokered a peace on Rannoch, would have felt meaningful.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

I'm not following how that counts as a forced hard choice though? Despite taking loses from the war before you arrive. Both sides come out of it stronger than they did going in, in that, the Geth have Legion's upgrades, and the Quarians have their home world back and the assistance of the Geth.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

You can save both. That's kinda the point. If the player actually tried to understand the conflict in ME2 and then tries to end it peacefully in ME3 you can save both Quarians and Geth from the other. Legion dies, sacrificing themself in order to free the Geth from the Reapers control.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Going in to the ending the player can have a complete refutation of the Reaper's entire position. They are wrong ethically, morally, and factually. But instead of having the opportunity to argue that, you are forced to accept the Reaper's assertions as fact. Is that enough media literacy?

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

The genophage missions break down the ethics of cruel solutions for the greater good. The geth vs quarian missions show that synthetic and biological life can make peace so long as both sides believe in it. Thesia breaks down the ideas of assumed superiority, and the manipulation of lesser races.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

In Mass Effect 3 we learn that the Repears are running a galactic scale, millenia long, experiment to study and solve the conflict between synthetic and biological life. The plot deconstructs their argument mission by mission. Except the ending, where you are forced to prove them right.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Ah, I am used to a different definition of written, in this context; Written as in scripted vs written as in prepared.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

I think it's best not to read these as literal necessities but as a litmus test to more evocative world building. A lot of world building ends up largely being a wiki on the most dramatic and exceptional parts of the history of the world without any thought to the mundane everyday world of people.

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Reposted by Dead Herring Designs

arr @arr.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

english isn't for cowards. if you're not saying 'torpify,' that's a skill issue. there's no Académie Française telling you what to do. if you try to type 'pallific' and freak out when you see a little red underline, maybe you're not ready to roll with the big dogs.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

More classic sealioning. You're quite good at it, did you take a course or just practice a lot?

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Your designs are never not spectacular. But those kobolds are just *chef's kiss*.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

I'd add, after running a dozen or so DS combats is, that slow isn't the opposite of fun. I've had 3 hour combats in DS that were more energetic, dynamic, and fun that 30 min combats in other games. Not yet had things fall into a repetitive slog, no matter the time they take.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Truly one of my favourite aspects of their RPGs which is not a short list.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

It's not a jack of any trades, it does nothing well and isn't even easy to learn. It takes a lot of work on the end user's behalf to achieve anything close to what other games do out of the box. Most of which are easier to learn and play.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

IME when people say X game is superior to DnD it's in the context of a style of play. Draw Steel does Heroic games better; PF2e does attational games better; Daggerheart does narritive better; CoC does horror better; 5e is worse for any given style of play, and it's not even simpler for it.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

My other is: prewritten adventures should be a collusion between the designer and the person who's going to run it. Let them in on the secrets that are going to come up; tell them why you've designed things the way you have.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Sandboxes are easier to prep and run than linear plots, and it's not even close.

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Dead Herring Designs @deadherringdesigns.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

I've heard it described as having a Disneyland aesthetic. Things exist for the player's enjoyment rather than having any deeper thought put into them.

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