TRPG General Chat

Alex P

12:03 AM

BESW

1:13 AM

"Lolth is the only god who doesn't want me dead! I plan to fix that by the end of this trip!" --@UrsulaV #dnd

Tweeted by lasrina on April 22, 2014 at 12:46 AM

BESW

1:48 AM

In my ongoing search for ways to make elves elf-y without making them inhuman, I have stumbled over meaningful hairstyles.

doppelgreener

@BESW Do tell!

BESW

Well, it's just a quick notion right now, but...

In modern Western culture hairstyle gives impressions but it doesn't actually have cultural mores associated with it.

In other cultures throughout history though, there have been very strict rules about who can or should wear their hair certain ways.

doppelgreener

Aha, yes

BESW

It separated the high caste from the low, defined your age and your profession.

I don't want to create a big complicated hair-based status structure, but some basic notions like reserving long hair for the rich, and having elaborate braiding styles to indicate noble families (kind of like clan tartans).

doppelgreener

@BESW That does sound lovely.

There's also the concept of Japan's top-knot.

BESW

1:52 AM

Right. Chamorro warriors had a similar hairstyle going for them.

Using hair as a culturally-mandated way to indicate status, rank, and profession seems elf-y, doesn't it?

Wearing the wrong kind of hair would be taboo.

doppelgreener

Might be worth having something that indicates being a warrior. Unless that'll overcomplicate things! Alternately, particularly high-ranking warriors have their own hairstyle, or warriors just have another form of braids.

It comes to mind; if each of the noble families have a braiding style, warriors themselves may have one too. Warriors may only ever wear their warrior braiding style, in order to indicate that they belong to no clan but to everyone, or they may be able to wear both styles at once (thus every noble family's braiding style has a warrior variant).

e.g. the warrior braid could simply be a thick braid along either side of the head.

It's distinct, and leaves room to work around it.

@BESW It does.

BESW

Sounds good.

I'll leave the details for showing up in play as needed.

(I'm sure my costume-designer player will have ideas.)

(That's one reason I thought of doing this; I'm trying to provide more fodder for him, since he always sketches the characters.)

doppelgreener

@BESW Sure, that works well too ;)

BESW

I like having potential categories and styles, I just don't want to match them and set them in stone yet.

doppelgreener

2:09 AM

Yeah, that's a good idea.

BESW

So that's something I need to do for prep which I haven't done for a while--make lists of things.

Names, hairstyles, things that I can just reach for when I need a new one.

doppelgreener

2:42 AM

@BESW Clothing styles (including casual, formal, and armored), weaponry, food and drinks?

BESW

Aye, whatever I think I'll want suddenly but not want to totally improvise on the spot.

doppelgreener

A list of lists to make lists out of. Excellent!

BESW

How fractal.

doppelgreener

Much fractal, so fate

I googled something and was not remotely disappointed

3

BESW

3:10 AM

Hmm. Was it you, @JonathanHobbs, who had the idea for a campaign with a setting that was temporally unstable?

Kyle Sykes

3:22 AM

Evening @BESW @JonathanHobbs

BESW

[wave] What's new?

Magician

Hello

Kyle Sykes

Not much really. Tossing around campaign ideas since my wife is getting the itch to play something soon. She's pushing for D&D, but I find myself disappointed with it more often than not. I really want them to consider playing FATE again

I've been wanting to run something a campaign around something I read in a book series. A group of deliverymen who travel through other magical planes to get from point A to point B in a quick time, only they generally have permission/are not wanted in said magical planes and everything generally goes to shit as soon as they get going.

BESW

Could be interesting; it's got a built-in motive/plot hook right there in the conceit.

Of course, the players have buy into making characters who work for the delivery company.

Magician

That does sound like a Fate game, yeah. Or, rather, Fate would likely allow for more shenanigans than D&D.

Kyle Sykes

3:28 AM

The motivation is shitloads of money, generally. Everyone who works for a team is an equal shareholder of the profits, and it's an expensive service.

But the line of work is about the most dangerous you can hope for, in theory.

doppelgreener

3:40 AM

@BESW I believe I had an idea along those lines. What comes to mind was a setting where things were stable wherever there were people to observe it, and things elsewhere... changed. Travelling paths change, little by little. The places nobody goes are in a state of flux until someone goes there. People can return to the kingdom they were exiled from a decade earlier and find a century of ruin.

Monsters come from the places people do not frequent, and it is for this reason they are so different from the creatures of the known, safe, and stable civilised world.

@KyleSykes @Magician Hi!

BESW

@JonathanHobbs You like weird real-life natural places. Go do an image search for "Blood Falls."

doppelgreener

@KyleSykes I remember this. The deliverymen arrive on the other side with the carriage on fire, and fewer people than they entered with.

@BESW Oh goodness I've heard of this.

Kyle Sykes

@JonathanHobbs Yes! I must've thrown this idea out there before.

doppelgreener

IIRC the blood falls have their appearance in part because of the bacteria there, which - startlingly - are sulfur-based life forms. Or something like that.

The wikipedia page appears not to go into it, but part of the bacteria ecosystem down there is not carbon-based.

BESW

Well, the color is just iron oxides--rust--but yes, the bacteria in it are seriously weird and unique.

BESW

4:24 AM

[squint] A guy just revised his question so much that I was considering deleting my answer as no longer relephant, and then he accepted my answer.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

4:50 AM

@BESW Okay, so it's not just me.

I'm really really tempted to nuke the question from orbit, since it's the only way to be sure.

BESW

It's got a seriously weird vibe going on.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Like, he's talking about "no online purchases" and "online play only"

hell, I don't even think my answer fits well

BESW

Mhm, the "online play" bit totally re-frames the question.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Ugh, none of the answers address remote play.

yes.

BESW

I had literally just decided the best thing to do was delete my answer and maybe try again, when I got the +15 rep from his accepting it.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

4:52 AM

It's not a bad reframing, and arguably gets it out of strict-dupe territory.

Meh. Nuclear strike it is.

BESW

Yeah. I think the question can be a good one, but....

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Can you edit the Q while I break out the flamethrower?

BESW

What about this?

Suggest that because his edits have so drastically re-framed the question, it would do better as a new question entirely and let this one die a dignified death?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

No, because then these answers will hang around being ... odd

BESW

Fair enough.

Mjodnir it is.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

4:55 AM

commenting on the answers to say "hey, some of these aren't bad, go answer X"

BESW

I'm still not sure what he's asking though.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

"
flag
To clarify if people wonder where I get my game stuff, there's a local Hastings where most 4-e stuff is out of stock, online as well so I can't order, and I don't buy online. – DraconeKing 36 mins ago edit"

BESW

Because of the "4e unpopular" line, which makes it sound like he's asking what other D&D edition he should look into for online play and what resources he should get for them.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

... so... to my reading...

Okay, if we kill that line and presume that he's a teenager asking what dead-tree stuff he can buy for local bookseller to play 4e online...

does that seem to fit what he's asking?

BESW

Where'd you get the local bookseller from?

"Most 4e stuff is out of stock" makes that sound like an obstacle.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

4:59 AM

....

okay, yeah, I'm completely confused.

BESW

It seems like there's a really simple question in there somewhere, but clarity is absent.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Would you like to have the honour of self-deleting, or shall I simply include you in the CPoE of my orbital strike?

well, it'll stay closed until we get to it.

BESW

@BrianBallsun-Stanton I cannot delete an accepted answer.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

blam.

do you think my last comment is sufficiently pellucid?

BESW

The second sentence scans a little awkwardly.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

5:03 AM

yeah

just noticed that

BESW

Otherwise it looks okay.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

better?

BESW

Better.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Yay.

And I'm off.

BESW

Dai.

Magician

5:10 AM

Chapter 7 of my novel-or-something is up. That'll be my last mention of the subject here.

BESW

5:23 AM

There's an idea I run into sometimes, in a lot of weird places--Lovecraft and Chalion, among others--of beings outside space which cannot affect matter except by using the living as finger puppets.

Often it's tied to the "human soul" or something that like, but the basic concept is that people are the only doors for these beings--that gods can only work miracles through men who surrender their will to them, or that demons can only wreak havoc by influencing mortal minds.

I rather like this idea, thematically; it places people in an important place in the cosmos, but it refrains from trivialising the notion of Bigger Things.

From a practical RPG perspective it's useful, too: a great and terrible threat divided into mortal-sized chunks for concrete interaction, moral dilemma, and the need for creativity to hit the root of the problem.

The problem with gods and horrors is that when we give them stats they become less god-like or less horrific. By giving stats to the thralls and saints we can interact with effable fragments of the ineffable without trivialising their essential unknowableness.

3

Magician

(I didn't have much to add, so I simply starred it)

BESW

5:38 AM

(This is directly related to spoiler-tastic ideas for my upcoming campaign.)

Magician

It's a good setting concept. Magic and magic creatures need such limitations, to avoid the kitchen sink feel of D&D.

Not even limitations, a unified structure.

BESW

5:50 AM

I'm setting out different magic systems for each culture: one uses crafting magic, based on the idea that the ability to make things is itself inherently magic, and the master craftsmen are magicians who work the magic which sustains civilisations.

Magician

Actually, that's a thought worth unpacking. D&D is based on, and is used to emulate, a variety of folklore, literary and pop culture sources. Naturally, they are not internally consistent, as so neither can D&D be. Not only is it focused on a small slice of a fantasy world, adventurers, but it also lacks a unified foundation by design. Any attempts at making the larger D&D world make sense are doomed to fail.

And that is also why using any kind of logic, real world or otherwise, to dictate why element A is more powerful than element B, is futile. Element A is awesome in source A, element B is awesome in source B. The only logic that applies is the logic of the subset of D&D created by the group itself, that finds the common ground on which to stand.

BESW

Another culture in my setting relies on communal rites--it is almost impossible for a single person to perform magic. They cast spells in groups.

Magician

@BESW Hm. But do other cultures that don't consider making things to be an act of magic, still "use it" to sustain their civilizations?

BESW

It's kind of a matter of perspective.

Each culture's magic rises from what it values.

The lizardfolk, recently-freed slaves who live on the edge of savagery, see that without the ability to make knives and pots and houses they would not be a civilisation.

The elves take knives and pots and houses for granted; they value ancestry and the accumulation of power.

doppelgreener

@jason_c_o and @Anna - I think you two have stepped into chat before, so I hope contacting you here works. Just FYI, we have some magic links you can use in comments (but only comments): [help] links to the help center, and [about] links to the about/tour page. So you can say: "Check out our [about] for more info", and it'll come out with the word "about" linked fancily.

BESW

6:02 AM

So among the lizardfolk, their crafters are the magicians and magic is performed through the making of things.

Magician

@BESW Does that mean that any activity has the potential to be magical, provided there's a cultural consensus or even individual belief it is?

BESW

But among the elves, magic is something you come into through your ancestry or through accumulation of knowledge.

@Magician It probably does, but that may be the wrong direction to look at it from.

Magician

Probably. I tend to try and generalize things...

BESW

It isn't the belief or the culture which makes the magic, but rather that each culture finds the magic in whatever it's focusing on.

The elves value ancestry, so magical research and discovery will be ancestry-focused.

The lizardfolk value craftsmanship, so that's the direction they take their magic.

doppelgreener

FYI 10K users: the 10K flag queue has gone away. Completely, without replacement. There wasn't much reason for it to stick around any longer, since all that appeared there was Not An Answer flags, which had their own issues. NAA flags now get routed to the Low Quality review queue instead.

83

Q: Let's get rid of the 10K flag queue

The 10K tools are pretty cool... You get a birds-eye view of activity on the site, a "dashboard" view of what's happening. Some of the individual tools haven't scaled particularly well with Stack Overflow's growth, but the concept behind them is still sound: we trust you to enough to be a bee wat...

BESW

6:22 AM

Also, and somewhat related to my above topic, The Doom That Came to Gotham is pretty awesome and has great concepts/visuals for Lovecraftian elements.

(Though the ending's a little disappointing, as such things tend to be.)

Shaamaan

6:43 AM

Good day.

Anyone here playing Vampire: Masquerade by chance? I could use a tip or two regarding character progression...

BESW

Hmm. None of the top users in that tag spend a lot of time in chat.

Shaamaan

Bummer.

BESW

Doesn't mean some of us here haven't played it, of course. Alas, I can say for sure that I haven't.

Shaamaan

Well, then I'll ask, and hopefully someone will answer. ;)

My character in a Vampire game is a young necromancer (Giovanni), a scientist at heart. His stats and abilities reflect this.

However, I found I'm at a bit of a disadvantage. During our sessions, any social actions tend to be role-played (which is excellent), but this means stats are somewhat less useful.

In combat however, rolls are the "go to" mechanism.

Thus, I found my character to be extremely poor in fights, while only mediocre in social situations.

I was hoping someone could give me some tips on a potentially fitting necromancer path so I wouldn't suck so bad in combat. ;)

...or is this worthy a full and official question?

Magician

It probably is.

Shaamaan

6:55 AM

OK, will do.

Magician

I haven't played VtM, so can't comment on that, but what you describe is an approach to rpgs I'm somewhat familiar with. In it, social skills are used mostly to inform players and GM as to the manner in which a character might interact with others. At its most primitive, low Int might limit you to monosyllabic utterances, for instance.

Shaamaan

It's actually even more vague than that.

Magician

If you feel that your stats are not useful, it's absolutely something worth discussing with the GM, though it's a tricky topic. I wouldn't expect them to go "yeah, social stuff is RP only, don't put skill points into it."

Shaamaan

Your core description is absolutely fitting, but I think the GM and players would only start to look those stats up in social situations if / when someone tried to do something really "out there".

It's not usually enforced, is what I'm trying to say.

On the FLIP side, the social aspect thus far has been the core of our sessions. There was only ONE fight up until now, and that happened only recently. It's just that I was really really bad at it. -_-

Magician

@Shaamaan Yup. So the social stats are there to fit a character concept. Negotiator? Have some diplomacy. In this case, perhaps only paying token respect to it is worthwhile, whatever that translates to in VtM. The rest of the character resources should be spent on something that'll actually make use of them.

lisardggY

7:03 AM

@Shaamaan What usually works for me when I play characters that aren't combat oriented is to put myself into a support/auxiliary/comic-relief role in combat. This is even better when combat isn't central to the game, as you say it is.

In effect, if the expected goal in combat is "to do damage and win", I simply redefine my goal.

The party's goal may be "to win the fight", but mine could be, as a player, "to make the fight more memorable for the entire party".

That way I can leverage my character's non-combat skills and orientation and use them to advance the story, even if I don't advance the fight, per se.

I believe that sucking in combat is good and natural, because not sucking in combat is, by necessity, putting focus on aspects of your character that might not be the ones you had in mind.

Magician

@lisardggY Good advice in general, but this bit is potentially problematic, I think. It really depends on the game, and is something to be discussed. Combat may not be a central part of the game, but it may still be an unstated assumption that PCs will win it when it does occur.

lisardggY

@Magician I agree, but just like some characters will prefer to take a back seat in social situations and conflicts because that's not their primary role in the party, some other character should be able to take a back seat in combat situations.

Magician

In fact, lately I've fond that the bulk of my RPG advice can be summarized in a single sentence: "Talk about it."

lisardggY

Especially in games that don't put as much focus on finely-balanced encounters that are mathemitically tuned to a party's expected capabilities and power-levels.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't help in combat, but you shouldn't be expected to do as much heavy lifting as, well, the heavy lifters.

Magician

@lisardggY True. The only problem is if everyone's made an "optimized roleplaying build" (caution, memes from another RPG resource bleeding through), and can't do anything.

lisardggY

7:09 AM

Focus on combat capabilities that fit in with your character concept and learn to be creative is applying them to combat, but don't expect to be able to dish the same damage.

Shaamaan

Well, given that my character is fairly intelligent and could access some abilities, Im thinking I COULD be of at least some use in combat.

lisardggY

@Magician If that sort of party gets involved a lot in combat, I'd say that's a problem of expectations. Which leads right back to your universal advice: talk about it.

Shaamaan

@Magician HA! The majority of the party IS composed of more "socially adept" characters, with only one heavy hitter. It's just that the other players have at least some abilities useful in combat, while I have none.

lisardggY

My last Pathfinder game started with 4 1st level characters, all spellcasters (oracle, wizard, sorcerer, alchemist). We were hopeless in combat. That's why the GM made a point of making the combat work for us, rather than making us change our characters for combats.

@Shaamaan There's a rather common expectation in many RPGs (especially D&D and its spiritual descendants) that combat is a sort of mini-game, or subsystem, embedded inside the larger game, but where thing work differently.

You could be a diffident and hesitant scholarly wizard out of combat, but you're expected, in combat, to blast away with the magic missiles with all the tactical finesse you could muster.

Shaamaan

Well, our GM is fairly good. He didn't wipe the floor with us (albeit he probably could), making it all pretty balanced.

It's just that I hate this feeling of being useless in a party in a critical situation.

lisardggY

7:14 AM

It's certainly possible, even common, for roleplayers to extend their characterization and, well, role-playing into combat as well. But equally common for it to be suspended.

Magician

@Shaamaan And that's another big thing: having fun. If your fun hinges on meaningfully contributing to the overall success, you'll need to adjust your character.

BESW

Have you talked to the group about this "feeling useless"?

It's amazing how often problems vanish in a puff of clarity if a group can talk about them maturely. Not every group can do this, or wants to, though.

3

Shaamaan

I did talk to the GM, albeit briefly. I don't feel like this is a chat for the whole group - they did well. ;P

Which brings me to the place where I'm at right now - I have the exp, I can take on some more abilities.

lisardggY

I would recommend talking with everyone, if you feel comfortable. It's not about doing well or not, it's just that the whole group can and should affect the atmosphere of the table.

Shaamaan

I just don't know what would be good - thus my initial question. ;)

Magician

7:17 AM

@Shaamaan Is your question, then, "here's my current build, how can I improve it's combat capabilities"?

lisardggY

@Shaamaan That's also a good question, even if we focused on other aspects. :)

Shaamaan

@Magician That was the initial gist of it, yeah. ;)

lisardggY

@Shaamaan I would probably try to phrase it along the lines of "I have a character that's focused on X/Y/Z. How can I improve his combat abilities without sacrificing the character concept or theme".

Shaamaan

@lisardggY Well I haven't written an official question just yet. But, very true, that's what I'll be aiming for.

lisardggY

I probably won't be able to help you, though. The last time I played Vampire was in 1998. :)

Shaamaan

7:22 AM

I guess there's a "double" problem. On one hand it's the way the sessions are played out (in the sense I described, where social situations revolve far less around dice than combat). But this means combat was only bad for me because of my current build, which I feel could be improved significantly for combat with the selection of a proper ability.

:)

No problem - hopefully there are vampire fanatics out there.

They're probably using some invisibility powers at the moment tho.

lisardggY

There are a couple of hundred questions tagged world-of-darkness on the site, so I wouldn't worry too much. There are folks out there.

BESW

That's a good analysis, and it means there are two non-exclusive ways to address the issue: changing the way the game is played at your table, and changing the way your character is designed.

lisardggY

Well, a hundred and some.

BESW

Whether modifying practices or mechanics is preferable (and to what extent each should play a role) is something only your group can determine--together--but mechanical options are definitely something the RPG.SE site should be able to help with... and I'm sure there are several existing questions which could help with having that discussion with your group.

Inbar Rose

Morning.

lisardggY

7:30 AM

Yo.

Inbar Rose

How were the holidays?

lisardggY

Delightful. Were you in any of the conventions over Passover?

Inbar Rose

Yes, I was at giborim.

Only for 1 game though.

lisardggY

I was at Olamot, and didn't manage to squeeze over there too.

No RPGs for me, only scifi.

Inbar Rose

:)

Lord_Gareth

7:43 AM

I meditated on the power of hate. Alternately, I had a fairly average time involving an exceptional meal at the in-laws that was bookended by boredom and frustration.

lisardggY

@Lord_Gareth Better as bookends than as the books themselves.

Inbar Rose

@Lord_Gareth Sounds just like the holidays.

Lord_Gareth

On the other hand, I have discovered that this League of Legends rap collaboration has some badass lyrics and music, especially for Viktor, the Mad Scientist

Inbar Rose

That is a very other hand :)

lisardggY

@InbarRose Same hand, entirely different arm.

Lord_Gareth

7:47 AM

"Science will destroy you, it will build you anew/The gifts I offer now - eternal power, a new point of view/Steel will fix all your flaws!/You will rise above human laws!/You will mock them made of meat, they will drop to worship at your feet!"

Inbar Rose

@lisardggY A hand with multiple arms? Intriguing.

Lord_Gareth

And now bedtime

[Retreats into the innermost pits of Hell]

lisardggY

G'night.

BESW

9:54 AM

Hey, Netflix, you're slipping even further. You recommended the exact same film twice in one recommendation category scroll.

lisardggY

"So good, you should watch it twice"

Inbar Rose

Once for each eyeball.

With all your complaining about a faulty feature on an Amazing service. We don't even have Netflix at all here.

BESW

We didn't get the streaming part of it until relatively recently, and the DVDs are shipped from Hawaii if we're lucky.

Because I watched Star Trek: The Animated Series, I might like... to watch every single Power Rangers show and film ever, apparently. Also Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries (which I nominate for the Awkward Title Award), and... The Karate Kid.

It's like the 70s threw up on my recommended list, and invited the Power Rangers.

Maybe their next feature will be "Because you hated _____, you might also hate...."

Inbar Rose

ha

"People who hated __ also hated __, if you also hate __, then maybe you will like __ just like them!"

Too much?

BESW

10:10 AM

I think that accurately describes the Netflix recommendation protocol.

lisardggY

"You just liked ____. People who hated ____ will now hate you, too".

BESW

That's their "broadcast on Facebook" feature, already implemented.

Hmm. Maybe they should implement a "classy/unclassy" filter.

They took my interest in "Deja Vu" and "The Italian Job," and produced a list of "exciting movies" which includes "Mega Shark vs Mecha Shark" and a documentary about deadly freshwater animals.

lisardggY

Obviously.

Inbar Rose

As a programmer, it is really interesting for me to try to think how they wrote this. Anything I think of - any method I conceive of - would not have these problems. What the hell were they thinking? (if at all?)

lisardggY

They put a lot - a lot of effort and money into it.

Netflix Prize

The Netflix Prize was an open competition for the best collaborative filtering algorithm to predict user ratings for films, based on previous ratings without any other information about the users or films, i.e. without the users or the films being identified except by numbers assigned for the contest. The competition was held by Netflix, an online DVD-rental service, and was open to anyone not connected with Netflix (current and former employees, agents, close relatives of Netflix employees, etc.) or a resident of Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Burma or Sudan. On 21 September 2009, the gr...

BESW

11:20 AM

►

lisardggY

I, for one, welcome our new etc.

Inbar Rose

11:34 AM

@lisardggY That explains it. They don't consider the movie at all when doing ratings. It is treated as simply an object which is grouped with users ratings and simply doled out when it finds a viable match,.

I would have included the movies category, actors, directors, etc. as well as themes, and tag words (even location, date (in the movie/ of the movie) etc etc.. providing all these factors individually but also in aggregate

lisardggY

The problem with factoring in things like "date" or "actors", you might be making a better algorithms for finding similar movies, but the point here is to find recommended movies, which isn't necessarily the same.

It's not simply a clustering algorithm, but an algorithm that aims to predict user ratings.

Inbar Rose

I understand what it is but that's not what it should be or what people expect it to be

Aaron

12:09 PM

Good Morning

morning

Heyo.

Guten morgen.

@BESW that's awesome, I wish the new program I have to learn was MorpHex instead of MorphX :(

Aaron

If you take levels in two different Psionic classes you combine the class levels to get manefestor level right?

BESW

12:22 PM

@InbarRose I've gotten results which really seem to be based on shared actors/decades/etc.

Metool

1:01 PM

@Aaron No? It's like caster level, where you have a Wizard caster level and a Magus caster level, even though the spellcasting functions almost identically.

[coffees up]

BESW

Clever Treachery of Images jokes will never get old.

Aaron

1:39 PM

@Metool Ok. Thanks

Joshua Aslan Smith

2:03 PM

morning

Metool

"How to chain druid?"

This I've gotta see.

Joshua Aslan Smith

this feels like a question that didn't need to be asked, at least by the user who asked it

3

Q: What books should I bring with me to my first gaming session?

I am interested in joining the role-playing scene, and have an interest in joining a campaign-particularly a Dungeons-and-Dragons campaign. But, with little experience, I'm not sure what I should bring to my first session. What should I be prepared to bring as a new player to my first ever r...

system-agnostic dungeons-and-dragons new-players

Metool

It's been only half a year.

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith thats a lot of rep for someone just joining >:|

Metool

They've been preparing, waiting.

Joshua Aslan Smith

2:09 PM

@waxeagle not sure what you mean

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith I mean, he's got 1000 rep here and hasn't played a session yet?

Joshua Aslan Smith

Id flag it but I feel like my opinions have been devalued by the stand I took on the 4e but not 4e related question last week

which may have been silly

Metool

@waxeagle To be perfectly honest, I haven't played a session proper, either.

Joshua Aslan Smith

but I did it and now I have to live with the consequences

Metool

Me.

With my 1000 rep.

wax eagle

2:10 PM

fair enough :)

Joshua Aslan Smith

@waxeagle I feel like if he had asked the question thatd be find but asking and answering your own question with sys angnostic AND the D&D tag with a specific edition is a little vague

wax eagle

yeah

Joshua Aslan Smith

if its 4e Id say buy a rules compendium or a D&D insider sub, but for 3.5 it might be like buy the books related to the classes your going to play

wax eagle

yeah

yeah I missed the part where the question is him setting up a T-Ball tee...weak question for a fairly weak answer IMO

Joshua Aslan Smith

I know on meta all the diamond mods were like "use the tools" but people got annoyed at me flagging that question for being too broad

wax eagle

2:12 PM

(this doesn't seem to me like the kind of thing self answering was invented for)

Joshua Aslan Smith

after my tag edits were removed twice

VTC rather than flag

thanks wax

np

hnmmm need to look up some monster roles for petex's other question which is 4e specific

wax eagle

2:19 PM

@JoshuaAslanSmith now you have an incentive.

Joshua Aslan Smith

0

A: How to get the most out of an encounter by combining foes

Brutes And Soldiers slow down combat A Brute or a Soldier is fine, but more than 1 of either kind is simply going to drag things out. Soldiers tend to have very high defenses so the party will miss more often. Brute's have a lot of health which just takes awhile to drill down. They can often oft...

lol only just noticed your bounty

whew might have to overhaul my answer even further

wax eagle

yeah, that bounty wants a multi-pager :)

Joshua Aslan Smith

yep def going to at least have to add a big ol' section about custom monsters, how to make interesting solo fights, and possibly recurring villians

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith Za....'s Q/A has a history, Brian told hime to ask/self answer, execution is poor so far though. Trying to guide him to better Question and more tailored answer

Joshua Aslan Smith

via comments?

wax eagle

2:32 PM

@JoshuaAslanSmith yeah. He answer the 4e books question, and his answer is now deleted with a recommendation. We gotta get you 10k asap :)

wax eagle

2:57 PM

looks like he's cleaned it up and edited in some much better specificity

Joshua Aslan Smith

3:32 PM

@waxeagle tryin to get there

though I am at the point where my wife has said "no stack exchange" during the evenings when we are home together

theres just been a lot of back and forth (on rpg.se) over certain issues lately and because its the internet slowly responding isnt the best approach

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith that's legit

Joshua Aslan Smith

ill work on that answer I just posted and hopefully make it worthy of the bounty you have thrown at that question

me thinks charts and possibly images are in order

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith SE is a lot like work in that bringing it home is usually bad.

2

Joshua Aslan Smith

hahaha

Metool

Woo, accepted an answer.

Joshua Aslan Smith

3:36 PM

whats the name for that little dagger sign thats used like an asterix?

brian uses it a lot

Metool

3:56 PM

@JoshuaAslanSmith Exactly that, a dagger.

Joshua Aslan Smith

gotcha

found it

alt code 0134

†

@waxeagle made a big edit to my answer still might add images

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith k, I'm not going to award this one til the end anyways.

Joshua Aslan Smith

oh I know

Im just looking for feedback

not you to give me the bounty just cause were friends

Also just tweeted mike mearls for his opinion lol

wax eagle

nice

Joshua Aslan Smith

everyonce in awhile twitter makes sense

wax eagle

4:05 PM

@JoshuaAslanSmith it seriously does.

Joshua Aslan Smith

not so much sense that mainstream media should have a section of the newscast devoted to whats happening on it (looking at you today show)

Carson Daily reporting on twitter (with a giant touch screen called "the twitter wall") is quite possibly funniest and worst bit of journalism I've seen to date

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith sigh :|. One of the places where twitter is the coolest is in sports. Being able to connect more directly with players/personalities there is really nice

Joshua Aslan Smith

not a sports guy but I can definitely see that

its a useful, informal way to ask anyone famous questions

like could I contact mike mearls any other way except talking to him at a con? probably not.

wax eagle

btw I added a comment to bounty question. Lot of focus on solo situations. Which is great (and some great advice being thrown out, Angry DM's boss fight series is excellent), but lets not lose the day to day grind stuff. Cuz building those is almost harder (at least to me it is).

Joshua Aslan Smith

Yep I had lots of general non-solo advice in my post but I can spice up those sections even more

im going to add a section about why MM3 and post essentials monsters are generally the better way to go because they have less health but more damage speeding up fights and also making them more intense

wax eagle

4:17 PM

@JoshuaAslanSmith yep. L1 damage equivalencies are worth a mention too

Joshua Aslan Smith

gotcha

wax eagle

CW autoconversion is dead! blog.stackoverflow.com/2014/04/…

Joshua Aslan Smith

hmmm so I think maybe the monster list im seeing in monster bulder has some erratta going on

im trying to find a perfect example of the differences using lvl 5 brutes or lvl 10 skirmshers but im not seeing it

maybe I should be looking at solos

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith the compendium usually mentions it

Joshua Aslan Smith

right but if petex just has the books or for anyone using the books I want to be able to demonstrate why mm3 and essentials monster math is better

wax eagle

4:22 PM

@JoshuaAslanSmith gotcha

Joshua Aslan Smith

the devs errating the monsters to fix them doesnt help me lol

IN THIS ONE INSTANCE

im glad they have

wax eagle

don't most of the MM3 differences kick in for Paragon/Epic?

(or at least get more noticeable there)

Joshua Aslan Smith

tweeting slyflourish and angry dm while im on the twitterverse

yeah I think you are correct

what did you mean specifically by lvl1 damage equivalence?

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith dmg42.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/…;, the idea is that a monster attack at L30 should do the same proportion of damage (in terms of PC HP) as an attack at L1 did

so if it did 25% at L1, it should do 25% at L30

Joshua Aslan Smith

gotcha reading now

The Oracle

4:35 PM

0

Q: How do we handle it when the asker's problem is just that they're confused?

How do we handle questions when the asker's problem is obviously that they are confused or proceeding under a misconception? Most often the asker can't write a self-aware statement of the actual problem because lacking that self-awareness is their problem in the first place. Sometimes the questio...

discussion

Joshua Aslan Smith

interesting looks like I didnt need to take to meta over petex's hidden rolls question since his other question and an unrelated question have sparked meta over the issues I was going to post in meta bout anyway

wax eagle

5:17 PM

@JoshuaAslanSmith the how do we help someone who doesn't understand how they need to be helped?

Joshua Aslan Smith

I mean my meta was more over how I thought that the question was 4e specfiic even if he didnt think so

but everyone else seemed to disagree withme on that one

so I took a few days break from rpg.se

I guess I have a different view about system agnostic being inappropriate for mechanics related questions than the rpg.se consensus

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith I generally view sys-ag (or absence of system tag, cuz they mean the same damn thing) to be for GM advice stuff that is always portable. I feel like the questions where there has been debate lately have been at the very least D&D specific and more likely system specific. But I'm not sure its worth whining over.

I see SSD's point that people who ignore the D&D tags will miss them, but...duh, they're ignoring the D&D tags, that's their loss.

if you choose to exclude 2/3 of the site's content, expect to miss some interesting stuff

Joshua Aslan Smith

im with Johnathon hobbs on both the meta questions related to this.

wax eagle

I just cast the last cv on it. It became a dupe thanks to the dropping of the system tag

Joshua Aslan Smith

7:16 PM

@zachiel I feel like you should best answer your own answer on that perception check question. You completely answer it and you cited th rules.

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith he wrote it as a self answer so that makes the most sense (typically)

Joshua Aslan Smith

yeah but I mean its a legit question and he foudn the answer before anyone else did

and because hes already given a rules worthy answer it probably wont even get another country

wax eagle

7:35 PM

SSD's meta question got way more interesting when he clarified what he meant

my answer didn't really change much, but the reasoning did so I rewrote it

TRiG

Die collection: imgur.com/gallery/ZmAk3.

Aaron

@TRiG I just got through that.

@TRiG Did you read the Fuck yeah humanity stories?

Joshua Aslan Smith

@waxeagle lazyman link?

wax eagle

7:58 PM

2

Q: How do we handle it when the asker's problem is just that they're confused?

How do we handle questions when the asker's problem is that they are confused or proceeding under a misconception? Most often the asker can't write a self-aware statement of the actual problem because lacking that self-awareness is their problem in the first place. Sometimes the question is logi...

discussion

Joshua Aslan Smith

reading it now

@waxeagle I totally agree, bad questions only beget bad answers (or more to the point, inappropriate answers that are either address the "wrong" question or having to go so off question to answer the real issue that they are bad).

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith exactly. If you have to correct misconceptions before you answer, you should correct the misconceptions in a comment and VTC, or if possible, fix them.

Joshua Aslan Smith

yep

Aaron

8:55 PM