The problem I'm struggling with is combat that's too easy. I usually have 6 or 7 players and battles are written for 4 or 5. At some point the sheer action economy means the fights are too easy. So I'm looking for a way to make fights more dangerous without straight up killing low level adventurers (going unconscious is fine, I just generally don't kill players until mid levels) and without making combat take a long time.

So far I've tried;

Extra HP, which turned into a slap fight. Players and baddies just rolling to hit over and over. It takes longer and is boring.

Adding Enemies, this can induce a feeling of danger but as with the extra HP it takes longer because the party still has to chew through the extra HP.

Extra Damage, the most promising so far but very hard to balance. It's easy to overtune it and make a fight impossible for a party. But it doesn't affect time as much and it's been the most popular so far.

Ideas I want to try include;

Replacing a baddie with a spellcaster or adding one. This would hopefully not drag the fight out, but would require dynamic thinking, especially if extra damage is in play for the martial enemies.

Wave fights, it's easier to control for time, and I could delay a wave to give them healing time. If things are going long the extra waves just don't appear.

Control as swarms, this could probably really cut time down but if one roll misses than all attacks from the grouping miss. Which might play into the action economy problem I'm already facing.

3 round anti heroes, choose one or several enemies to stay up for 3 rounds no matter what. Record their damage and kill them off as they get hit in the fourth round if they hit zero. But allow them to remain conscious for 3 rounds. But I wouldn't be able to give updates on their health to the players. Maybe I could communicate they special status instead, like glowing eyes, or an aura of zeal.

Any other ideas are welcome!

A CBS News investigation found dozens of law enforcement leaders — sheriffs, captains, lieutenants, chiefs of police — buying and illegally selling firearms, even weapons of war, across 23 U.S. states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., from the Deep South to the Midwest, Northeast and California coast. 

A CBS News investigation found dozens of law enforcement leaders — sheriffs, captains, lieutenants, chiefs of police — buying and illegally selling firearms, even weapons of war, across 23 U.S. states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., from the Deep South to the Midwest, Northeast and California coast.

That's it, include a link of course but otherwise it's unchanged.

Several people pointed out that our rules for behavior weren't immediately apparent. While I would say this shouldn't be an issue in a community about posting new communities, I have been proven wrong on multiple occasions. So I have made the list in our sidebar. These are a paraphrasing of Mastodon.World's rules. So there is no functional change. We will continue to use their rules as a master list. But they boil down to being civil. If you don't like something or someone and have no constructive criticism, then you just move on.

I'm going to put changes here as well so people on apps can see them easier.

The rules for behavior are a straight carry over of Mastodon.World’s rules. You can click the link but we’ve reposted them here in brief, as a guideline. We will continue to use the Mastodon.World rules as the master list. Over all, be nice to each other and remember this isn’t a community built around debate. For the rules about formatting your posts, scroll down to number 2.

1. Follow the rules of Mastodon.world, which can be found here.(link)

A. Provide an inclusive and supportive environment. This means if it isn’t rule breaking and we can’t be supportive to them then we probably shouldn’t engage.

B. No illegal content.

C. Use content warnings where appropriate. This means mark your submissions NSFW if need be.

D. No uncivil behavior. This includes, but is not limited to: Name Calling; Bullying; Trolling; Disruptive Commenting; or Personal Criticisms.

E. No Harrassment. As an example in relation to Transgender people this includes, deadnaming, misgendering, and promotion of conversion therapy. Similarly Misogyny, Misandry, and Racism are also banned here.

Guys I understand there's big stuff going on in the world. This community though is really just about finding other communities. For now, on the theory that people kind of forgot where they were, some temp bans were handed out. I have no pretensions of this being c/news or something. But I also have no pretensions of this being c/news. It is absolutely beyond the pale to post your political broadsides here while people are trying to figure out the best place to have their community. The only way politics is acceptable here is if you're talking about opening or moving a community about politics or because of politics. And it should absolutely remain civil. A simple, "I don't like your ideology", is enough here.

Here we go again.

The Biden administration wants to set up a deconfliction line with China in much the same way they set one up with Russia during the Cold War. They're also signaling that future cooperation may come in the financial sector or by refining sanctions by tapping the Treasury Secretary as one of the next US officials to meet with Chinese leaders. The Commerce Secretary may also be about looking for a ways to offset the US bringing chip production home.