Only for attack rolls. Ability checks and saves do not crit fail (or succeed) and reliable talent treats rolls for ability checks that add proficiency bonus as 10 at the lowest regardless, so even if a 1 were a crit fail, it wouldn’t matter.

Agreed, Laserllama did most of 5e’s classes a kindness. I prefer those to the PHB content.

It tends to make more sense in mid-to-low magic campaigns where the item you want might not be readily available, but 5e’s rules around magic items are notoriously underbaked. The reason they gave is that 5e is built around not needing magic items, but I’ve never played a game that doesn’t use them.

Vumans get a feat, which is arguably one of the strongest abilities. Base humans are notoriously weak though.

I think they’re both winners.

Found the elf.

Fuck, ain’t that the truth?

I knew this year’s awards were a joke the second I saw Starfield nominated for (and subsequently winning) ‘most innovative gameplay.’

I’ve heard “because I like the sound of dice hitting the table.”

The thing I hate about this game, one of the biggest fundamental differences between it and any other BGS title is that it isn’t compelling to go explore a planet that has copies of the content on all the other planets, and astoundingly little at that, the same way it is to just pick a direction in Skyrim or Fallout and walk, and end up stumbling on some shit going down in a cave or abandoned building just off the beaten path. Even if you remove the loading screens and add vehicles on planets to minimize the amount of time between engaging set pieces, it’s still the same abandoned factory populated with the same pirates guarding the same generic fetch quest objective. It is such an aggressive, unrewarding waste of time with so few redeeming qualities that I’m a little shocked anyone at Bethesda thought this should merit any amount of hard-earned money, let alone seventy fucking dollars. Didn’t they know? Didn’t they know?

Also the shmutz on that student’s desk.

Well, a lot of the time, it’s difficult to know who will be a problem player before any actual play has occurred, but there are always a couple red flags you can look out for:

• Ask the player what kind of character they want to run in your game. If they give you a description that’s in stark contrast to the setting you’ve described, the two of you may have clashing expectations pertaining to the campaign you want to run, and you and that player might struggle to tell and enjoy a coherent story. Offer a few suggestions to help that character better fit the setting, if possible, and if it’s just way out of left field, ask if there’s maybe another character they’d want to play that fits the tone of the campaign. If they’re unwilling to compromise, they’re probably not a good fit for your group.

• During session 0, pay attention to how they interact with the other members of the group. Are they making inappropriate or off-putting jokes? Do they talk down on other players, or their character ideas? Do you just get a weird vibe? If you’re closer friends with another member of the group, bring it up after the fact - just ask what they thought of the new guy. If you feel like something’s up, you’ll likely hear it from other people too.

• Following session 0 and the commitment to create characters prior to session 1, ensure that your player responds in a timely manner. If you’re closing in on session time (24-48 hours or so beforehand) and you still don’t have a sheet, ask if they need any help with character creation. Sometimes they do genuinely need the assistance figuring out features or setting something up in a VTT, and on rare occasions you might get a reasonable excuse from the player for not being prepared or able to make session 1 - life comes before the game, after all - but if you get a lukewarm response from them or an apology and some vague pledge to be ready by game time, take it with a grain of salt; those players tend to be very flaky, and even if they make session 1, you may have attendance issues down the line.