roleplaying – The Daily SPUF

How to Hit More Shots in Call of Cthulhu

January 9, 2026January 14, 2026 aabicus 0 Comments accuracy, advice, Call of Cthulhu, grenades, guide, guns, roleplay, roleplaying, weapons

One of the reasons combat builds aren’t recommended in Call of Cthulhu is that the odds are pretty much always stacked against you, even in the areas you’ve specced yourself out to excel. A starting character cannot have more than 75% in any given stat, meaning even if you max yourself out in something (which, let’s be real, is a gigantic stake of skillpoints to expend on a single skill), you’re still gonna fail a quarter of the time! And nowhere is this more visible then when your “WWI veteran sniper” constantly misses more shots than a member of The A-Team.… [Continue Reading]

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What’s the BEST Commoner You Can Make in D&D 5e?

August 10, 2025November 29, 2025 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, d&d, dnd, Dungeons & Dragons, dungeons and dragons, Filler, gaming, math, roleplaying, rpg, ttrpg

This is the sort of dumbass question I love to wrap my head around instead of interacting with my hobbies in an even remotely normal way. Meet the Commoner. Has to be probably the saddest statblock you ever did see. Zeroes in every ability, no skills or proficiencies, a single weapon and its the worst one in the game… D&D 5e has a pretty sorry opinion on the most basic building block of any medieval setting. While there are plenty of things to say about the developers’ rather reductive attitude towards a group of historically quite hardy individuals (I bet… [Continue Reading]

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How to Not Die in Call of Cthulhu

May 14, 2025May 22, 2025 aabicus 0 Comments advice, Call of Cthulhu, guide, health, list, roleplay, roleplaying, survival

This is a sister article to my previous on mitigating Sanity loss, and equally not-recommended because dying horribly should be the expectation (not the exception) in Call of Cthulhu. The whole point is that your characters are delving into things mankind is neither supposed nor equipped to know, and the system is built to run your party ragged and then spit them out as chewed-up gibbering husks. That’s half the fun! However, I’m not gonna pretend there aren’t ways to spec your character out for a bit more survivability than the average joe. I checked the internet to see if… [Continue Reading]

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D&D Druid: 5 Wildshapes Your Dungeon Master Will Not Allow

June 4, 2024June 6, 2024 aabicus 0 Comments animals, d&d, Druid, Dungeons & Dragons, dungeons and dragons, Filler, roleplay, roleplaying

It’s not happening. All of these are completely rules-legal, but you’re still not gonna get to play as them. There’s no way your GM will sign off on them, unless they’re going for a completely nonsensical setting or don’t mind crippling power disparities. Look upon these Wildshapes, ye mighty, and despair: 1. The Haungharassk Starting with this one because I talked about it in a previous article! This giant snail has a golden shell and even shinier stats, able to carry 9 passengers, climb walls, grant temporary hitpoints and remove curses with a single touch. It is hideously overpowered for… [Continue Reading]

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5 More Great Weapons in Call of Cthulhu

June 18, 2023May 11, 2024 aabicus 0 Comments advice, ammo, Call of Cthulhu, grenades, lists, melee, roleplay, roleplaying, shotgun, weapons

Last year I covered five (really six) of my favorite weapons in the Call of Cthulhu RPG system. Since then, I’ve gotten to play more campaigns and more characters, and I’ve found some additional combat options that I think really hold their own. Whether raiding eldritch tombs or staking out satanic speakeasies, here are some effective personal defense options I think you should consider: 1. Sawed-off Shotgun The famous double-barrel boomstick is the archetypical survivalist’s weapon, and it should have made the first article for its laundry list of positive traits. It can fire twice a round and each shot… [Continue Reading]

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D&D 5e: A Complete Guide to Sidekicks

May 22, 2023December 14, 2023 aabicus 0 Comments d&d, Dungeons & Dragons, dungeons and dragons, guide, roleplay, roleplaying, rules, sidekick

Pelor help me, I’ve fallen down another rabbit hole of obscure D&D mechanics. And these are even less likely than usual to ever happen in my actual games. But I don’t care because the sidekick rules are honestly really cool and revolve around one of my favorite concepts: playable NPC/monsters! Introduced in Dragon of Icespire Peak (and heavily fleshed out in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything), the sidekick rules are a system whereby a normally-unplayable creature can gain its own class levels that let it grow stronger alongside a party of regular PCs. There are three Sidekick classes (Warrior, Expert, and Spellcaster)… [Continue Reading]

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The 5 Best Weapons in D&D 5e (That You Can’t Use)

May 17, 2023April 19, 2025 aabicus 0 Comments d&d, Dungeons & Dragons, dungeons and dragons, Filler, list, npc, roleplay, roleplaying, weapons

D&D 5th Edition simplified the weapon tables to an extreme degree compared to its predecessors. Gone are Exotic Weapon Proficiencies, or most subqualities like “keen” or “masterwork”, and most of the surviving options differ only in damage type or dice. And for the most part, martial NPCs/monsters honor these categories and follow the same rules for their own loadouts. But sometimes they don’t. Occasionally, a certain official monster or villain carries some seriously cool racial weapon with unique stats, and every GM just knows the party’s gonna ask if they can loot it from the corpse and use it themselves.… [Continue Reading]

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D&D 5e: A Guide to Throwing Weapons

April 13, 2023May 16, 2023 aabicus 0 Comments d&d, Dungeons & Dragons, dungeons and dragons, guide, melee, roleplay, roleplaying, throwing weapons, thrown weapons, weapons

There are a few playstyles in 5e that don’t really receive enough developer support, in my humble opinion. Strength-based unarmed builds, for one, as well as single-wielding one-handed weapons without a corresponding shield. But throwing builds are probably the most-maligned on the list. Unless you stretch all the way into archery, non-spellcasters unfortunately aren’t going to hold their own in ranged combat. In today’s article, I want to discuss a few of the reasons why, and what an enterprising player can do to mitigate the issues. Problem #1: Action Economy Martial characters (except rogues) gain more attacks as they level… [Continue Reading]

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Why You Should Try D&D 1st Edition

April 5, 2023July 2, 2023 aabicus 0 Comments 1st edition, 1st edition D&D, cleric, d&d, Dungeons & Dragons, dungeons and dragons, gary mack, OD&D, roleplay, roleplaying

Dungeons & Dragons has come a long way from its early days. When OD&D first came out in 1974, it quickly caught fire and spread throughout the wargaming community. Almost five decades later, it’s still recognizably the game we love, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t also massively evolved. My only goal with this article is to encourage you to seize any opportunity to experience the singular wildness of old-school D&D. How? No idea, that’s probably the hardest part. I’ve only ever had one opportunity, and it was in 2011, while I was a professional Traveller GM for Strategicon. One… [Continue Reading]

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