Remember when all those internet duds were mad that Dragon Age 2 was "sHoVinG tHe gAy aGeNdA dOwN oUr tHroAts!!!!!" because the NPCs would romance the PC regardless of gender? And they absolutely lost their shit that Anders might express interest and, if you're not interested, you'd have to politely turn him down once?
Those are the worst sort of people and I frankly wish them ill.
I dunno. problems, mysteries, and war aren't usually portrayed realistically in video games, either.
I never got far in stardew, so maybe?
I think that you can just give them gifts until they're horny for you is like the quintessential example of poorly done video game romance.
Half-assed sex scenes (no pun intended) are probably worse than ones that are well done.
I still think a lot about one of the beats in a DA:I romance. But like... all the ones from DA:O were kind of bad. But also the one I played in DA:V was so PG-13 and sterile it wasn't any fun at all.
An advanced technique: ask your players to make shit up.
Like, the players decided to go to the wizard university the wizard PC graduated from. So I ask him, "what's their entrance hall like?" and let him just riff on it for a while. Players feel more engaged with the world, and it's a little less work for me.
Warlock is trying to commune with his patron. I ask, "what is your patron usually like?" and the player is delighted to describe "the great sculpin" in detail. This then inspires me further.
Note that some players are very much "just tell me a story" and don't want any input, and won't like this. Some players are also shy and don't think well on their feet. And some players are just really bad at staying on theme. But if you know your players , this can be a powerful technique.
Something with "lil" like "lil'un" (little one) maybe?
The damage will last for decades.
The republicans should be stopped.
I would probably make spells easier to interrupt like they were in 3e.
https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/castingSpells.htm
These two things were key:
Now casting when the orc warlord is up in your face is a lot riskier.
I think I get why they got rid of this system. It was more to think about, and I think they wanted the game to generally be easier so more players could enjoy it. Certain classes of player don't want to think about tactics and positioning. They want to cast fireball. But as a result, the whole game is kind of shallower sometimes.
For mages countering mages, I'd probably give it a rework. It shouldn't just be its own spell. It should be an action. Maybe have a separate check to identify the spell, or maybe just tell the player to skip double rolls. Then make some sort of opposed check. Use the spell level delta (and if you had them roll to identify, how thematically opposite the spell is. Like a fire and ice spell, or shield v magic missile).
Everyone saying "they can evacuate" clearly doesn't remember how bad the covid response was.
There will be anti-space conspiracy theorists. The ownership class would demand people continue working until the last possible minute (and beyond). It would be politicized, because some people are unbelievably stupid, cruel, and selfish, and enough people are so stupid they'll buy in.
Now, if we could make the meteor fall on a location occupied solely by the people who don't believe in science...
Anyone who seriously proposes privatizing the US postal service should be removed from power. They're either trying to harm the US, or are too stupid to be trusted with anything more dangerous than a paper towel.
I do this.
I also will delete someone's number and archive the messages. If they text me, it'll pop up. But it makes it harder for me to initiate contact.