Although many are loathe to admit it (including myself) porn has helped a lot of people figure out theyre not straight
StrahdVonZarovich
I would first play it a bit unmodded before adding a ton of mods. You're gonna want to experience the game in its natural state before changing it. I do this for any game I mod. Makes you appreciate it all more.
I'm pretty basic, I usually just use google docs. However when I was younger, I found an old typewriter in my attic and got it working. So for a couple of years I would write on a typewriter lol. I looked very pretentious, but I mostly just liked the sound and the novelty of it.
Thats a wonderful story! What a kind stranger. It was pretty much the same with me, but it was a good friend. And looking at the other responses, it seems like thats a commonality. Having people to talk about it with really helps!
I started out playing DnD 5e years ago (almost a decade now I think) and I was quickly given the title of Forever DM. As I got deeper and deeper into the game and my understanding grew I heard some people online talk about 3.5e and how much better it was. I had started to get a bit dissatisfied with 5e and after reading the 3.5e Core Rulebook it was all over. Character creation was more in depth, way more content for players and DMs, every aspect of the game was better. I played 3.5e for several years until I heard about Pathfinder and things got even better. Pathfinder 1e is my absolute favorite ttrpg system. Its everything I want out of an rpg, especially as a DM. In 5e, whenever you try to make new monsters or adjust stats the DMG just tells you to guesstimate. In Pathfinder, everything is supported by math and easy to understand forumulas to help ensure balance. I can increase a monsters hit dice to make them more powerful, give them class levels, add a template (of which there are many), or change their stats around. I love Pathfinder, and if you're still playing 5e I suggest you get out now. Wizards of the Coast is a terrible company that abuses their customers (see OneDnD fiasco and the MtG Pinkerton Incident) and Paizo, the creators of Pathfinder, create more content for the game in one year than WoTC makes for 5e's entire lifetime. IDK if you can PM me, but if you can please do and ill provide you with all the basic Pathfinder books as pdfs. If you like it, then go buy the actual books. Oh also Paizos books dont cost 60 dollars each.
How in the world did shrooms help?
Its one of those stories you read about and wonder why it hasnt been made into a movie. A down on his luck writer finds this schizophrenic guy who wrote this absolutely bizarre piece on his journey to an underground civilization. So the writer takes it, spruces it up, and publishes a really popular science fiction story. You could make it about the ethics of this writer using the paranoid delusions of this poor man to create award winning books. Like Rainman but for science fiction.
Ive had a lot of help lol. Kobold Press' Midgard setting had a few new Derro monsters (Fetal Savant and Dogmoles) and Pathfinder's Golarion setting has a lot of good Derro lore to work with. The most time consuming part is gonna be building all the Derro npc stats and balancing all the encounters. Pathfinder's Derros are also the closest to what their actually based on, which was a fascinating rabbit hole. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sharpe_Shaver
Working on a dungeon for my Pathfinder 1e game. Hidden in the sewers underneath the city is an underground complex of insane Derro (little halfling sized purple-skinned insane humanoids) who have been capturing people for their experiments. I have some fun encounters planned, and I intend to make them really weird and alien. Derro alchemists with sentient tumors, psychic malformed derro babies held aloft in golden cages and used as living war banners, mutated and mind controlled humans from the city above used as muscle and servants, fungus monsters, suicide-bomber homonculi, etc etc. I plan for the big reveal to be that a character they met previously (an elven alchemist who runs a free clinic in the city) to be the mastermind behind the derro lair. He's been buying slaves and experimenting on them for centuries (a la Nazi experiments during ww2) to further his medical knowledge which he uses to help people (and eventually cure death but thats mostly for him). He brought the Derro from the deep underground closer to the surface so he could guide their research towards something more productive (the Derros racial insanity makes it difficult for them to make any lasting progress). Oh also the Derro use their alchemical knowledge to wipe the memories of the people they experiment on before sending them back to the surface. Who knows how many hidden mutants are running around aboveground, and if the nightmares of the seemingly insane are actually resurfacing memories...
Thats what im saying dude
Although I can see the uses in making up terms to define who you're attracted to, I dont like the idea of putting yourself in a box. Ive had straight friends get really confused when they find themselves attracted to the same sex, and gay friends get really confused when they find themselves attracted to the opposite sex. When you "join" a sexuality you dont sign a contract or anything. A while ago I figured out I was bisexual. It was pretty great for a while, cause I was able to figure myself out and feel more free because of it. I didnt feel guilty for having certain thoughts. However, eventually I started to have some problems with the label itself. In this day and age, what even is a man or a woman? Ive found myself being attracted to people that dont identify as either gender. And isnt gender supposed to be a societal construct? In that case, why do we care so much about it in the case of define sexual identities? Im no philosopher or social scientist, so I may just be talking out of my own ass here so forgive my ignorance. Nowadays whenever some asks me my sexuality (which by the way is a very weird thing to ask people you just met in real life) I always say "on a case by case basis".
Since I was a kid, I always loved the Star Wars expanded universe. My favorites of the whole thing are probably the Republic Commando series and the Thrawn Trilogy. Also love the Gotrek and Felix books, and ive been getting into the Dragonlance franchise