W_T_D_

I committed to it for the first time last year, and while I mostly watched shitty movies, it was fun. I'll be doing it again this year (and furthering my goal of watching at least one film every day this year).

For 31 Days of Halloween, I only pick stuff I haven't seen before and while I do make a list, it changes throughout the month. No idea what it will look like this time.

Scream + Ready or Not = fun and blood

Halloween + The Changeling = wildly influential icons from (almost) the same year

Evil Dead + Dead Alive = excessively fantastic blood and guts

Hellraiser + Eraserhead = to make you say "what the fuck" and "that's awesome"

TCM + Tesis = two very different films that are brutal, yet relatively bloodless

Poltergeist + Fright Night = '80s fun

And to throw in another, The Thing + The Blob (both 80s) to get the 1A and 1B of practical effects and 80s reboots that are way better than their 50s originals.

I keep currency consistent, and revised a few items and expenses in the PHB/DMG where the prices made no sense when calculating the gold-USD equivalency and comparing them. I also make use of downtime, so my players have plenty to spend on.

I've always found the idea of adventurers getting paid thousands of gold to do simple jobs ridiculous, and it's rare that I'll have NPCs pay more than a few hundred in total. It just makes zero sense for a commoner to be able to spend what would logically take them decades to accumulate to get rid of a few goblins. Yeah, it's a fantasy game and nothing's realistic, but when you hand gold out like candy and the PCs are as wealthy as entire cities, it's a bit ridiculous and makes the entire thing useless bookkeeping. Why bother at that point, is my line of thinking.

For those curious, I stick to the 1 gold = $20 idea, which lines up as what the guideline was originally when you look at everything. Gold stacks up quickly. 100 pieces is the equivalent of $2000. That's a lot, and probably double what a commoner would be making in a decent city. 100 gold paid to each party member from a dangerous job for a noble? Probably makes sense and doesn't happen often. 10 gold each to help a farmer transport their goods? Sure, that's a lot to the farmer. I like things to be reasonable, and then when the player's do get to a point where they can make thousands of gold, it's suddenly a massive deal and a lot more tempting to accept something high risk, like going after a dragon or braving a dungeon from which no one has ever returned. Now it's not just another payday, it's a lifechanging event that might earn them enough to retire.