Redheaded ADHD Shenanigans and other geeky things

This is the old Familiar Enhancer spells that were first published in Dragon Magazine 181 written by Len Carpenter.

Clockwork Alchemist

Just Finished up My Alchemist Class! I have to give a Huge thank you to https://bloodshot9001.tumblr.com/, Who was gracious enough to let me work whit him on this one. We each have our own “final” version of this class, and his is available here

I should probably clarify that this is not my FMA style Alchemist class. For anyone desperately hanging on the edge of their seat waiting for that, I’m sorry to say that the time hasn’t come quite yet. That project is still in the works under the working title of the “alchemancer” (pm me if you can think of something better), but has been put on the back-burner while I focus on paid work. This Alchemist is based around crafting unique concoctions including potions, poisons, and bombs. It is designed to be a “Spell-less” alchemist, in response to the seeming overabundance of “Potion wizards” that seem to be so common.

There’s still some playtesting to do on this one, but it should be ready to go for the most part.

Hot off the heels of my last brew, this is my final commission for this round. Thanks to everyone who's commissioned something from me, it was great working with you all! I'll be taking more on in the future once I'm in a better place to do so, so keep an eye out when I start again.

Like I said, this was a commission. It's a conversion of the demon summoning mechanics from some of the old Shin Megami Tensei games and by Gond did it get complicated FAST. Still though, super happy with how it turned out. Now I will say, I would be careful with this one. It has a LOT going on and a ton of bells and whistles so it could be a little broken. I think I fixed many of the biggest problems with the first iteration but as always there could definitely be some unforeseen jank once it sees play. As always with anything I make, let me know if anything breaks and I'll get it fixed when I can.

Enjoy my work? Consider supporting me on Patreon! Patrons gain access to high quality PDFs for all of my content, weekly updates, early access, discounts on commissions, and more!

Hey all! Unbelievably excited for this one. Been a while since I've had a class here. I've been wanting to do a rework of my Mourner from the moment I started playing it. I pretty quickly figured out there were some major problems with its base mechanics and there were a few other little things I wanted to change as well. But the longer I played and the more I looked at it, the more I felt it was in desperate need of a complete overhaul as a whole.

But after months of playtesting and heavy revisions, the class is now in a VASTLY better place. I'm so incredibly happy with this overhaul and look forward to playing it more in the future. Interesting thing of note, this was always meant to be a conversion but this rework has made it even closer to the Unhallowed version than before, both mechanically and in spirit.

I was originally going to do a full changelog that details everything that's changed with this new version but I don't hate myself that much so I'll give y'all the highlights:

Most obviously is the aesthetic. I've learned how to do custom styles since the original and I think I picked a pretty damn fitting one. Also all the art is greyscale now to fit the theme better.

Saves and skills have been changed to be a little more fitting.

Death Trance has been overhauled. This was where things started going wrong when I first started playing the class. The basics were there but it wasn't very well written and it had a lot of problems.

Many of the features got rolled into one super-feature called Guild Training. It works like the Ranger additions from Tasha's; you get some stuff at 1st level and pick more things later on. This gives you some more flexibility in what abilities you get and is also how Unhallowed does its class features.

You can now use most of your abilities on creatures that aren't undead! This was a HUGE problem with the original and it made the whole class feel pretty underwhelming. I was trying to stick too hard to the original and I was a fool for doing so as the class suffered for it. Now, you can take some downtime to study a creature type, which then lets you use your stuff on creatures of the chosen type. SO much better than the old version.

Medium was rebuilt from the ground up to be, uh, not utterly fucking useless. No, seriously, I hate myself for writing the original medium. Not a single one of their abilities had any value whatsoever outside of very specific scenarios and they didn't fit D&D at all. Now, you get your Second Sight at 3rd and get to choose from an enormous list of powers as you level, most of which are either from Unhallowed, Libris Mortis, or Ghostwalk. It's got a whole new feel to it and WAY more utility. Of all the changes I've made this is the best one IMO.

Anyway, those are the big changes but EVERYTHING got touched up in some way at the very least. When I say overhaul, I mean it. Hope y'all love it as much as I did making it. This was truly a labor of love and I hope that it shows. Unhallowed is one of my favorite worlds and this has definitely become my favorite class to play as of late. Anyway, stay safe and don't forget to love each other.

Enjoy my work? Consider supporting me on Patreon! Patrons gain access to high quality PDFs for all of my content, weekly updates, early access, discounts on commissions, and more!

Been working on this for a while now, here is some homebrew rogue subclasses for a futuristic or space based campaign. 

Plane Stalker You are becoming one with time and space itself, and are hide yourself in the spaces between worlds. You have mastered the art of stealth to the point where you are now able to slip between planes of existence, becoming completely invisible, and gaining the ability to move into spaces you wouldn’t normally be able to reach.

Hacker

Your knowledge of modern technology and the magic that influences it allows you to gain access computer systems and modern devices. You have also learned to harness these magics to influence technology itself.

Say it with flowers 🌻🌷

Go and exercise. Get all of that energy out and away from the people you love.

Get a hang of when you're winding up to a rage and learn to tell people that you need to step away. I will warn you that the first time that someone refuses to let you go once you learn this skill will spook the hell out of you if you don't have a backup skill, so figure out ahead of time what you're gonna do if they won't let you leave.

Learn to set boundaries. One of the best things I ever did for my anger issues was tell people that I can't deal with people stealing food off my plate. Second best was when I'm mad, telling people not to touch me. I spook easily when I'm already angry.

Get a pack of pencils and if nothing is working, break one. Sometimes you really do need to break something in order to feel better, and pencils are cheap.

Don't cook with a knife when you're mad. If you get too much adrenaline, the knife can slip and hurt you.

If you have anger issues that pop up without any seeming reason and frighten you, I would strongly recommend going over the situation and over your mental health. If there's anything consistent with a mental health condition or with something particular happening to trigger it, seek to eliminate the trigger or treat the issue. Depression, anxiety, trauma, you name it, it can probably present as anger issues under the right circumstances.

Some quick notes for people without anger issues that want to help someone who has anger issues:

Fear transmutes into anger really, really well if someone's fear response is "fight". One of my guesses for why so many men have anger issues is that we're told we're not men if we have any other response to fear. However, this issue is far from exclusive to men.

Don't box people in when you're arguing with them or soothing them. If someone is backed up against a wall and upset, then getting closer to them without permission is a bad call for your safety and for their soothing, because that removes the ability to get away from you. Ask before getting close. This goes double if someone is injured or otherwise vulnerable.

Teaching angry people that are distressed about being angry the pencil trick on the spot is really easy and works more often than you can think.

Respect people's requests and boundaries. A lot of people think that some of the boundaries I set up are silly or that once we're pals, they can ignore them. No, because a lot of my boundaries are related to trauma, and crossing them will trigger me and bring up my anger.

All of this goes for children with anger issues as well. I was a child with anger issues, and a lot of disrespect for my boundaries and needs was because my anger was dismissed because I was a child. Respect children's anger.

Walking on eggshells is not and will never be a good way to treat anger issues. Recognizing that people with anger issues deserve to have their boundaries respected and to be treated like human beings is.

An end note: Anger issues are not the same thing as being abusive, because emotions are not abusive. Someone with anger issues can become abusive if they take them out on people, but so can someone with suicidal thoughts who takes them out on people. The issue is targeting another person in order to feel better, not having a mental health issue.

“Shake my hand in character”

Still, the kid’s thumb will have difficulty reaching both so rapid switches are not possible. On the left hand of the switch the stick is above and the dpad below, and the opposite is true on the right. This is a direct consequence of how a kid might use the controller. In most games the left hand controls movement - meaning an analog stick - and the right hand controls discreet inputs - meaning the dpad/button diamond.

Children’s also struggle to reach shoulder buttons and have lower grip width, so the natural gamer grip in which two fingers are resting on the shoulder buttons does not work at all for children. They usually have to use all four fingers to hold up a heavy device. The shoulder buttons go from being the most easily accessed buttons on the controller to the most difficult.

A child’s grip strength is lower, and thus so is their ability to hold a heavy controller comfortably, especially one not designed for their hand size. A single joycon in sideways mode, often used in child’s party games on the switch, is a far better controller size for a child while it is uncomfortably cramped for an adult.

It is not a coincidence that the Switch, which is marketed as a family console, comes prepacked with the controllers that are kid friendly and adult friendly controllers are a secondary purchase.

There are more things you can point out, but in a practical sense you can see these design principles applied by comparing something like Kirby vs Metroid Dread.

Kirby is almost entirely controlled through the face buttons, with only the rarely used defense button mapped to the shoulder buttons, and you can really get by with never using it. The triggers are not used at all. You rarely have to combination press anything. If my memory is correct, the shoulder buttons are never used for any temporary transformation abilities. The difficulty of using new abilities should not be compounded by hard to reach buttons.

Dread on the other hand uses combination presses a lot and ties three critical abilities (free aim, missile use, and sliding) to the shoulder buttons. The omega cannon, a rarely used but critical and time sensitive ability, is tied to the shoulder buttons for the easiest and most intuitive possible use. The stress of defeating an emmi should not be compounded by fumbling with controls.

Autistic Inertia is an autism experience that makes it hard to start, stop, and switch tasks.

It somehow doesn't get talked about enough - so I made this comic!

YouTube • Instagram • Twitter

And the update