TRPG General Chat

BESW

12:01 AM

. @_TheGeoff @evilrooster And you get a 3 movie deal with SyFy for "OctoChimp!".

Tweeted by Spkr2Managers on May 27, 2014 at 8:44 PM in reply to _TheGeoff

Metool

That'd probably make up for the shortfall in government funding.

BESW

And maybe you can offer walk-on parts to the ethics committee.

BESW

12:22 AM

[saves for future use]

LessPop_MoreFizz

1:29 AM

►

ARE YOU READY TO R. P. G.????

TryHardNinja

2:03 AM

Sorry my dad got personal didnt he

BESW

Well, he said that you're a six-year-old pretending to be a high school student, who was born when he was 15 and apparently has better typing skills than a Marine captain. That seems a little personal. But the suspension was because both you and he--assuming you're different people--have shown no interest in this chat's main topic and instead actively derail ongoing conversations about that topic to talk about yourself/selves.

TryHardNinja

2:19 AM

What is your favorite rpg tabletop i love dungeons and dragons!

Joshua Aslan Smith

lol

Oblivious Sage

points for effort, kid

6

points for effort

lisardggY

5:14 AM

I have a sort of ambiguous opinion of The Big Bang Theory, which sometimes laughs with geeks and sometimes at them, sometimes from the inside, sometimes from outside. But the bits where they most feel artificial is when they say Dungeons and Dragons. Nobody I know ever says Dungeons and Dragons. Only D&D (or, more properly, DnD).

Hearing them say the full name every time (for obvious licensing reasons) is like hearing someone say out the full name of a Microsoft enteprise product (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition) every time.

BESW

Heh.

I feel like the first point--about with vs at--gets more troublesome as the series progresses.

But yes, the D&D stuff is... really stiff.

lisardggY

So the ninja is simply going to have to try harder. :)

Also, on an entirely different note, I have recently ran into a trope name on TVTropes that's the opposite of Jumping the Shark, which amused me. The name is Growing the Beard, and I think many here would recognize the trope-naming reference.

BESW

Oh, yes.

I think SG-1 grew a beard at the end of its first season, for example.

lisardggY

I zoned out during your SG discussion yesterday/earlier. Never watched any of the shows.

BESW

Fair enough.

lisardggY

5:21 AM

My wife started watching SG-1 last year when she was in the hospital, but she said that she was surprised at the blatant sexism and gave up after a couple of episodes.

BESW

Yeah, the first season is... troublesome...

They're trying, but they try too hard with too little clue.

lisardggY

Well, they obviously got the clue at some point. 10 seasons and two spinoffs don't come easy.

BESW

And two TV movies.

(And an animated TV series, and a dozen attempts at games most of which died on the table.)

But yeah, the film hit a kind of gestalt nerve which the show eventually figured out how to tap into.

On a more contemporary note, I'm not sure if Arrow is growing a beard or not.

lisardggY

Haven't watched that either, though I heard some cautious optimism about it.

BESW

At best, I will be cautiously non-cynical.

The writers are getting better, but the first season demonstrated colossal cluelessness in their handling of major themes and character development.

And I'm not sure if the primary actor is really stiff, or if the director won't let him use more expressions.

Still, some of the side actors are good and it's doing some interesting--if clumsy--things with storytelling that I want to see how pan out.

lisardggY

5:31 AM

"Expressions are for dramatists! This is a superhero show! Imagine you're drawn in a panel on a piece of paper!"

BESW

I think someone--actor, director, I dunno--thinks "stoic, expressionless angst" is a good default setting for a main character.

They might be trying for some kind of PTSD stereotype?

lisardggY

Ah, yes. Either the square-jawed stoic or the sensitive introvert, both don't work on screen very well.

BESW

It's especially unhelpful when coupled with the first season's tendency to have the main character casually murder handfuls of nameless mooks with only the Designated Conflict Cop complaining about it.

Oliver Queen does not start out as an easy character to like--that's kinda part of the point of his canonical character arc--but the show isn't going out of its way to help us root for him.

Instead we get a bizarre cognitive whiplash; the music and the framing and filming tell us he's the hero, but he does awful things which are only called out by the people opposing him.

And based on the rest of the show's quality of writing and storytelling, I'm not quite charitable enough to assume the cognitive dissonance is deliberate.

Still, I'm interested enough from a "what will they do with this?" standpoint to keep watching.

And maybe The Flash will learn from Arrow's mistakes... Maybe.

lisardggY

Is the Arrow/Flash continuity linked to the upcoming Superman/Batman/JLA movies?

BESW

Oh, and the Flashback Hair is hilarious.

@lisardggY I'm unsure. It's been said that they're loosely connected to the Nolan Batman universe.

lisardggY

5:40 AM

So they probably haven't gone full Marvel yet.

BESW

In terms of aesthetics and tech level, that's certainly true.

Their tech level is the military-hardware equivalent to CSI's "five seconds in the future," and I don't think anything outright supernatural or alien has shown up in Arrow yet.

lisardggY

I read somewhere - and hadn't noticed until then - that the MCU is, so far, 100% technological/scientific. No magic.

Which makes the upcoming Doctor Strange movie interesting.

BESW

You mean the MMU?

lisardggY

?

BESW

[confused by all the acronyms] I can't keep up.

lisardggY

5:43 AM

Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Earth-19999.

BESW

Oh, gotcha.

lisardggY

QAQZ`21

BESW

Well.... hrm. Thor's kinda sciency-magicky-handwavery.

lisardggY

sorry, baby on keyboard

BESW

@lisardggY Best random keyboard hitting I've seen in a long time.

GMNoob

5:45 AM

RPG.SE is a bad place for homebrew class suggestions right?

BESW

@GMNoob You'd have to be really specific about your needs.

It can be done, but it's not encouraged because it's hard to narrow down your needs enough for the site's format to handle.

GMNoob

how specific is really specific? My wife wants to port her WFRP Alchemist charachter over to D&D 5e.

lisardggY

Asgardians in the MCU are explicitly stated to be technologically advanced, not magic or gods.

BESW

@GMNoob Check out homebrew?

GMNoob

So, I know she is going to need some incideary bombs, and ways of getting high and making various poisons that currently don't exist in the game. And also some minor magic casting abilities. So, it's basically building a new class from scratch. Is that too opinionanted by nature?

BESW

5:48 AM

I'm not sure, but it sounds possible enough that a meta question about it might be in order.

@lisardggY I guess if they're going to introduce magic, they might as well go all the way down the rabbit hole.

Rip off the band-aid, if you will.

lisardggY

@BESW Yes, though a press release kept it vague whether Doctor Strange will2rtttttttghbn

Hmpf. Baby

whether Doctor Strange will be scientifized/rationalized.

BESW

I think it's very likely in any Doctor Strange property that he will, at least for a little while, 2rtttttttghbn.

GMNoob

@BESW Not a bad idea. Ok thanks.

Any magic is just insufficiently understood tech. I don't see the problem

@BESW Ha!

lisardggY

@GMNoob That's the basis of the Asgardians in the MCU, but in the main Marvel continuity, magic explicitly exists.

@BESW Heheh. He.

BESW

> Any sufficiently advanced society will mistakenly believe all magic to be unknown technology.

GMNoob

5:53 AM

@BESW Genius! Make that up yourself?

BESW

Alas, no, I cribbed it from the Skin Horse comments.

lisardggY

@BESW I googled it now, and hte first hit was the transcript of this here chat room. I was amazed it was indexed so quickly until I saw it was from last October.

BESW

As for the problem with magic... setting aside the MU's magical continuity, there's a distinct perceptive difference in the way magic and advanced tech work in fiction.

LessPop_MoreFizz

So, tonight my 13th Age Campaign learned that most Kobolds in Drakkenhall are Democratic Socialists. They are slowly gaining power, and will probably run the city within a few years. The local Hobgoblin population is rather affluent and leans more libertarian; they feel very threatened.

lisardggY

@BESW True. With tech, you need a scientician-type standing in the background handwaving the technobabble to give it credenc.

e

LessPop_MoreFizz

5:56 AM

I love montaging out shit and giving players the ability to make batshit nonsense up.

BESW

While we know that technobabble is no more rigorous than mumbo-jumbo, the sense that magic need not make sense separates it from the need for advanced tech to at least pretend it makes sense.

And that alienates a large percentage of audiences, who --without the comforting blanket of technobabble-- realise that the writers can just jerk them around.

In our current sociotechnological context, throwing yourself into the arms of a magical story requires more trust and more aggressive suspension of disbelief.

lisardggY

@BESW Excellently said.

BESW

It doesn't matter that from a behind-the-scenes point of view, the writers treat them both basically the same.

(And, honestly, writers often don't, feeling a different --and often looser-- set of constraints on consistency and narrative justification with magical stories.)

@LessPop_MoreFizz Hee. I discovered that early on and I need to remember to do it more often.

LessPop_MoreFizz

@BESW Also, the number of hells is fluid; it is inverse to their current population.

Thus, as more people are in hell, suffering is maximized via overcrowding. Fewer, via isolation.

Fantasy Improv with a GM that's willing to give up authorship is much more fun.

Also, RE star list, @BESW I assume you've seen All Outta Bubble Gum, The RPG?

3

BESW

I had not! [amused]

lisardggY

6:07 AM

@GMNoob I gave you an answer, though probably not one you'd be glad to get.

LessPop_MoreFizz

One of these days, i will remember to save a local copy of that, because every time I am reminded of it, it takes me like 10 minutes to find a mirror.

The Oracle

0

Q: Is RPG.SE able to answer questions related to the creation of homebrew classes?

I have a character from WFRP that I want to port over to D&D 5e. The character is a dwarven alchemist, with some bombs, poisons, magic abilities (like casting knock) and really good healing abilities, really good armor, good health, but not so good with weapons. I know that to port over the cha...

discussion

GMNoob

@lisardggY Yeah, I don't like the answer because there is tons of homebrew classes out there for 5e allready. Those people may not yet visit this site, but I'm currently using 3 homebrew subclasses in our game.

The basic class design and structure has been out for almost a year already :) And they aren't going to be changing that.

lisardggY

@GMNoob In that case, bring them on.

I'm all for good subjective answers. I do think the questions would fit, just the answers are risky.

I'll clarify.

GMNoob

Now if the question was about homebrew monsters, I'd agree with you.

lisardggY

6:13 AM

@GMNoob A year to a very limited crowd. Still a very small homebrew community compared to other systems.

GMNoob

@lisardggY According to Wotc PR people, it's been a year to about 170,000 people :P

BESW

Meh. I'm one of those 170 thousand, and I lost interest after the second packet.

Never actually played the test once.

lisardggY

@BESW Hey, I was about to write almost exactly the same thing, "meh" included.

(Only I did play one session)

GMNoob

@BESW Did you fill out survey responses? Because if you didn't you aren't one of the 170,000

@BESW I was active with the first 2 or 3 packages then lost interest until the last one. I've only be active since the playtest officially closed.

I came to a very sad realization that I can judge a homebrew class as balanced or not, but I'm not very good at creating them.

Is there a good way to word that into my question?

BESW

Exactly like that?

lisardggY

6:23 AM

I also wonder if the recent "Post your character sheet" thread, which got a rather lukewarm reception but wasn't deemed off-topic, is a chance to revisit the old "Prestige Class Contest" idea, maybe for homebrew 5e classes, as part of the 5e push.

It was deemed off-topic last time, but maybe the char-sheet thread shows that opinions have changed.

BESW

I think the difference between a share and a contest might be too much.

But it's worth a shot.

Especially since it'd be framed as a one-time deal...

GMNoob

Sounds like a good idea

maybe even create a banner for sigs :P

Where is the "post your char sheet" thread?

lisardggY

11

Q: Show off your Character Sheet Designs

Notice: This thread has a associated meta-thread, If you want to discuss if it is on topic please do so there. This is a chance to show off the great character sheets you have created. Rules: 1 Character sheet per answer Only character sheets you have designed. This means you are welcome to ...

character-sheets design just-for-fun

Metool

@LessPop_MoreFizz Oh man, it got rehosted?

GMNoob

Oh nice. Maybe I'll post my WFRP google doc

lisardggY

6:43 AM

So my upcoming Ars Magica session was converted to a flashback session for a new character basing his backstory with an existing one.

So it seems I'll be skipping that session and instead going to Jerusalem to visit my newborn niece.

Inbar Rose

8:54 AM

Good Late Morning

GMNoob

9:20 AM

grumble... There is this odd attitude I can't put my finger on which really annoys me. :(

Metool

9:50 AM

[pat]

BESW

[cookie]

GMNoob

10:28 AM

I'm getting really tired of people saying that since a book has not been published, it's impossible to know what plenty of people already know.

wax eagle

@GMNoob here's the thing, we don't know what's what. The play tests were pretty disparate, especially for the classes

GMNoob

@waxeagle How do "we" not know what's what?

There are three articles about the changes to the classes from the latest playtest package.

"we" have been playing the game for quite a while now. We know the monk is really strong at lower levels and so-so at higher levels. We know the ranger is weaker than other classes. We know what sort of affect the spells have in the game, and which features give small mechanical bonuses which result in major changes. All of this is known through experience.

Preston Fitzgerald

10:52 AM

0_0

GMNoob

11:16 AM

@waxeagle Honestly, it's like saying you can never know how to make a homebrew class until all the errata that ever will be published has been published.

BESW

@GMNoob Frankly, I just don't trust the articles to be accurate to the final product.

Similar, probably.

But I fully expect them to make whatever changes they deem necessary regardless of any promises they've made; it's their privilege and probably their duty. So I wouldn't say we can "know" anything about things for which all we have is pre-prod and some chatty articles. We can make intelligent guesses, but we can't say anything absolutely.

We know a lot about the game's structure thus far in its development, and that's probably good enough for most purposes.

TryHardNinja

What is your favorite rpg

Magician

@BESW Agreed. The devil is very much in the details. A subtle shift of balance could mean something that looks reasonable in final playtest rules is entirely out of whack in the released version.

BESW

11:32 AM

@TryHardNinja Fate Core, but interrupting an ongoing RPG conversation for a second conversation is no less disruptive and only marginally more acceptable if the new topic is also RPG-related.

BESW

12:04 PM

Harebrained Idea of the Day: a Storium game inspired by Bob Dylan songs.

Aaron

Good Morning

BESW

Hi.

Aaron

So I like Eric's answer on this question is there any reason I shouldn't accept it over Mxy's?

6

Q: Benefits for eating good food

I have designed a character to be able to cook just about anything and make it taste great. This was done mainly for RP purposes but I was curious if there is any system that adds benefits for eating fresh good food. Maybe something like a moral bonus. I am aware of the racial trail rations and m...

pathfinder

wax eagle

@Aaron no, at this point your choosing between two different homebrew rulesets, chose the one you'd use

GMNoob

12:21 PM

@BESW Fine, but I don't trust the final product to not have errata. So you will never know the final form of the product until they stop producing errata.

wax eagle

@GMNoob a playtest to publish is a big difference from publication to errata

GMNoob

@waxeagle No it's not. See MM3

BESW

Fair enough. I guess it's the level of trust a person's comfortable with. For me, I'm not comfortable treating a WotC article with much seriousness at all, regardless of its topic.

wax eagle

I'm not willing to base something that is aiming to build for the published version off a playtest document. Too much uncertainty. We've seen in the evolution of the playtest how much changes from version to version

GMNoob

I can not begin to express how insulting it is for someone to say that a game I am currently playing is "too hypothetical"

wax eagle

12:24 PM

It's still a playtest

that doesn't mean your game isn't real, it simply means it's playing with a beta version of the rules

GMNoob

@waxeagle Did you look at the differnce between the playtest in September and the playtest in October?

BESW

@GMNoob I don't know what the specific statement you're railing against actually said, but I wouldn't make that claim; I'd say that we don't know how the system you're using now will compare to the system which will be published.

GMNoob

You know what, you are right. I'll just get my answers from other websites. Screw rpg.se

BESW

Educated guesses can be made, which will probably be sufficiently accurate.

wax eagle

@BESW I'm guessing this: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/38251/…

GMNoob

12:27 PM

@BESW You don't know. But "We" do. There have been very clearly expressed statements as to how it will compare.

wax eagle

@GMNoob I've got a copy of October, and August, I don't have Sept.

GMNoob

Because honestly, if the game is sufficiently different as to be unable to create a homebrew class based on the current information, then my question will just be taged for the D&D playtest version XYZ rather than whatever new tag you create.

@waxeagle Look at the "last modified" date on the pdfs in the October playtest

BESW

@waxeagle It kinda feels like there's unnecessary hairsplitting going on.

Whether or not the homebrew(s) provided will be workable in the final product, can't the question's answers be useful at least until then?

GMNoob

Sorry, I got my months confused. I meant the November packet compared to the October one.

October, November and September, are pretty much all the same content, with very minor tweaks, except for two classes.

wax eagle

@BESW it could be

GMNoob

12:38 PM

@BESW And it will be useful after the publication of the books as well. I don't know why you have such a high distrust of the people working on the game, to be able to tell you what changes they are making.

Joshua Aslan Smith

WOTC has a long history of not really doing what they said they would

Furthermore because WOTC is part of Hasbro the usual corporate stuff could always occur. Lastly even if everyone has the best of intentions there are things they can and cannot say before release and so they by obfuscate a bit in the leadup to the product's release simply because they have to.

GMNoob

@JoshuaAslanSmith Do you think that applies to explicit statements about class design?

Meh, I was right the first time, October and September. The november packet was from 2012 mutter

Joshua Aslan Smith

until books are rolling of the printing presses, yes I think it does. They can always change their mind/have it changed by an editior

GMNoob

@JoshuaAslanSmith So far, for the past year, I've seen WoTC doing exactly what they said they were going to do.

Joshua Aslan Smith

see the thing is theres 3 different versions of the game's ruleset and we dont actually know what the differences are really going to be

GMNoob

12:51 PM

@JoshuaAslanSmith And you think thats a reasonable position to take? I mean sure, the moon could crash into the earth and the game will never be published.

@JoshuaAslanSmith facepalm

Joshua Aslan Smith

game is gettign published, finished product within said publishing is what I question, Im not being paranoid, I'm just very knowledgeable about the stuff that occurs in the shadows of any creative commercial enterprise.

I think youd get answers to your question but that they'd be very guessy

GMNoob

The Class structure has been set since November of 2013. It has not changed. It is not going to change in the next 2 months. It is not going to change between July and August, and it's not going to change between August and November 2014.

Joshua Aslan Smith

we also dont know what class balance changes will occur as a result of the final playtest feedback. Fighter's balance changed drastically over last summer when everyone cried about 2nd wind.

im not saying the core classes are going to somehow be different classes

but that balance

which is taking in sum total all available options and rules, will be different if they made even one tweak change.

GMNoob

Those types of changes will happen throughout the existence of the products life, as errata and new features are published.

So apparently it's never possible to know until the product gets canceled.

And Monster balance betweeen Monster Manual 2 and Monster Manual 3 in 4e is a perfect example of that happening.

Joshua Aslan Smith

eh? more like balance is a moment to moment thing, you seem to want people to talk about balance for 5e basic based on the playtest which is what I am contesting

wait until 5e releases then you can balance your homebrew against the published 5e basic rules and classes

GMNoob

12:58 PM

No, I want help creating a homebrew class from scratch based on all we currently know about dnd 5e which includes the playtest material, tweets, and legend and lore articles

My game will not have just the 4 basic classes, so that's a silly benchmark.

It's not like when the books get published, suddenly everything I allready have is going to dissapear and no longer be used in my games.

Joshua Aslan Smith

So are you using other homebrews right now in your dndnext games?

BESW

@GMNoob So, it looks to me like a very simple misunderstanding started this: the mistaken impression that you were asking for something other than what you actually want.

Can we roll back to that and leave the tangential discussion? Because it's gotten a little poisonous, but I think the underlying confusion is easily defused.

Joshua Aslan Smith

okay lets put previous discussion aside, honestly I think you'd have better luck on a forum or other community site focusing on 5e homebrew. I don't think you question makes it clear what is and what is not a good/best answer.

GMNoob

@JoshuaAslanSmith Yes

@BESW What do you think I was asking for and what do you think I want?

@BESW Honestly, it's not so tangential. Because every single time I think of something interesting to do, I'm told not to do it because the book hasn't been published yet. It's an annoying mantra that just won't shut up.

BESW

It looks to me like you were asking for something balanced for 5e as it currently exists, and instead some people thought you were asking for something balanced for 5e as it will be published.

wax eagle

1:06 PM

I definitely misread your comment on the meta question. If you're looking for something to play with now, go right ahead. My wariness comes from hoping something you design now will be balanced with the published material. You're looking for something that works now, go ahead. Though my recommendation is to narrow your question significantly, asking for a whole class is too broad here.

GMNoob

@BESW Those are exactly the same thing. Unless ofcourse you ignore the Legend and lores articles which say that prof bonus starts with a +2 and pretend you don't know that, then you'll end up being confused and unbalanced when the books get published.

BESW

@GMNoob Apparently not everyone sees it so clearly as you do, but it doesn't matter if they agree with you on that point if they understand you're asking for a contemporary game based on the current rules available.

GMNoob

@BESW And if I specified the contemporary game they would likely give level 1 a +1 bonus instead of a +2, because they would likely think I'm talking about the latest playtest packet as released.

BESW

Then use your question text to specify "packet plus article updates" or whatever it happens to be?

doppelgreener

I now suddenly want to do an inverse Spire in my campaign.

BESW

1:15 PM

@JonathanHobbs Spire?

doppelgreener

@BESW The Outlands Spire

BESW

Oh, right.

I once had something like that.

doppelgreener

The inverse Spire: A tower wherein the closer you get, the more mundanity breaks down and things become more magical. You cannot reach the tower - nothing reaches the tower - because right near it, reality is breaking down to the point of creating a lethal environment. The tower's outside walls are likely bordering on abstraction; the very inside of it likely does not exist.

BESW

(The inverse version, I mean.)

Aaron

@JonathanHobbs This sounds like a lot of fun.

doppelgreener

1:18 PM

I think so too!!

BESW

There was an epic-level witch queen who accidentally level-drained herself into mundanity by overusing a metamagic mineral which acted like all the metamagic rods, but drained XP per use.

So she built herself a giant "tomb" made of the mineral, which was a natural magnet for magical power. The tomb was shaped so that she would become the centre of a magical vortex which would drain the majority of the world's ambient magical energies into her, force-levelling her back into epic.

By the time the party showed up, the far reaches of the world were almost entirely magicless and the area around her tomb was seething with it.

doppelgreener

Oh, wow.

Aaron

If she drained that much magic wouldn't she pretty much be a deity at that point?

Well then again I am used to high magic settings so I guess setting would be the main factor there.

BESW

@Aaron It was a very sloppy process; she didn't actually get the benefit of more than a tiny fraction of the magical forces involved.

wax eagle

@BESW thats....probably still a lot

BESW

1:23 PM

Yes.

She was something like level 30 when the party faced her, and only the furthest reaches of the world had become completely dry.

Aaron

@BESW Was this a campaign you ran or is it a module?

BESW

The world's magic was concentrating around her area--the whole continent was becoming super-saturated.

@Aaron Oh, I made it out of whole cloth.

The witch queen was a rakshasa, and her whole rakshasa empire drained themselves into magiclessness; the rest of her people became catfolk.

Aaron

@BESW I have never heard that phrase before. Does that mean you made it completely on your own?

BESW

@Aaron Yes; "whole cloth" is a sheet of raw textile that hasn't yet been cut.

"Made from scratch."

Aaron

@BESW Ok. I kinda figured that is what it meant but I have heard phrases that meant the opposite of what I thought so I always ask when I hear a new one.

BESW

1:27 PM

@Aaron Good call.

doppelgreener

The D&D Next playtest only had the four classes right?

BESW

I drew from a lot of sources, fictional and historical, but the result was all mine.

wax eagle

@JonathanHobbs no, final playtest had several more

doppelgreener

@waxeagle ah! oh good

Joshua Aslan Smith

lol

wax eagle

1:29 PM

fighter, cleric, bard, wizard, rogue, monk, warlock, sorcy

(maybe a few more, not sure)

Joshua Aslan Smith

@JonathanHobbs fighter barbarian, paladin, wizard monk, rogue, sorceror, druid, warlock

cleric

Aaron

Anyone here ever use the mythic rules in pathfinder? I have a few questions about them.

wax eagle

ranger too

doppelgreener

excellent; this makes the addition of two more WAY less drastic

GMNoob

Bard, Barbarian, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Rogue, Ranger, Paladin, Wizard, Monk.

Sorcerer and Warlock will be released in the PHB

Joshua Aslan Smith

1:30 PM

oh yeah good point

GMNoob

The sorcerer doesn't look anything at all like the sorcerer in the playtest packet that only existed for one packet.

Joshua Aslan Smith

I thought there was a sorceror in one of the earlier playtets

and I was def wrong abuot warlock in the playtest

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith didn't it show up once too?

BESW

@JonathanHobbs [wave] Skype?

wax eagle

or did they just talk about it

Joshua Aslan Smith

1:32 PM

I dont think the warlock ever showed up, but was discussed a lot

like heres some ideas we have for pacts

GMNoob

They showed up once, and then were quickly removed

Joshua Aslan Smith

oh okay

GMNoob

Warlock existed

Joshua Aslan Smith

then yeah its in the playtest

GMNoob

You got warts when you gained a Charisma boosting spell

and other such malluses when gaining powers from the spell source. It was greatly disliked. It's being replaced with a warlock of 3 types , book, binding, and blade.

BESW

1:35 PM

@krzyspmac Hi!

@Aaron If you want details about that campaign, I'm always happy to talk about it. I consider it one of the best campaigns I ever ran.

(Due in large part to my awesome players, of course.)

Aaron

@BESW It sounds very interesting. Is there a log of it anywhere?

BESW

@Aaron Alas, no. I might be able to dig up some of my old notes from a hard drive somewhere...

It's "The New World" in my List Of Campaigns.

Aaron

@BESW Want to move to the bar? I actually want to talk to you about a couple things.

BESW

Sure.

Not a bar, but plays one on TV

I'm not a place to unwind after work, but I play one on TV.

2

BESW

1:57 PM

@JoshuaAslanSmith Berengar didn't waffle around with "why" and "how," eh?

Joshua Aslan Smith

2:07 PM

hahahaha

Ricky seemed to intone it would be "a bad thing" if they hunters found them and berengar's last run in with the lizardfolk was less than cordial

BESW

Oh, yes.

I knew that Berengar's stack of Avenge Fallen Comrades would come out sooner or later in blood. Problematic just made it "sooner."

Joshua Aslan Smith

haha

BESW

(I already had the Hunter Sortie card ready; he simply pushed it up on the agenda.)

Joshua Aslan Smith

nice

wax eagle

3:47 PM

just spent the last little bit trying to find information in wizards' forum...makes me ill. Rampant speculation, few facts and no official insights...

would be nice if people who knew stuff were more active on their boards

the infighting and arguing fueled by the lack of hard information is just gravy

Joshua Aslan Smith

4:16 PM

oh yeah

I used to read it

back during the playtest

totally terrible

20 page long threads arguing over the OP's idea of how to make figher's better etc.

wax eagle

this is really useful though

Joshua Aslan Smith

5:22 PM

crickets chirping

@waxeagle yes I saw his update

hello @matt and @bobson got any rpg questions?

wax eagle

btw Kobold Press is doing Tiamat Tuesdays this summer with art updates etc. I'm kind of excited

Joshua Aslan Smith

haha yes

wax eagle

trying to figure out how to get a live group together that's exclusive of my current D&D group to run the Next adventure set with

Aaron

Has anyone here ever ran/played with the mythic Pathfinder rules?

Joshua Aslan Smith

5:44 PM

@waxeagle hmmm yes tricky

if you also end up running an online game let me know, Id be interested to play in it

wax eagle

definitely. I plan to run a starter set game via hangouts/R20 at some point after it comes out (will probably need a week or two to read it/learn the adventure)

Joshua Aslan Smith

@waxeagle cool, you of course will be invited to an online game when I run one, that way we can both get to experience it from the playerside!

Metool

Morning, @Aaron, @Bobson, other people.

Aaron

Mornin

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith sounds great

morning @Metool

Metool

5:49 PM

What's up, waxeagle?

[reads up]

wax eagle

not too much, geeking out reading up on the new D&D, particularly the adventures they announced last week

Bobson

@JoshuaAslanSmith Nah, just idling.

Aaron

Anyone know of any really good hex map builders that allow you to edit the map after creation to make larger/smaller forests, deserts ect?

I know of a really good generator but it doesn't allow editing after generation.

Bobson

Hexographer's decent. You have to change it hex-by-hex after generation, but you can.

What's your generator? I could use a good one.

Aaron

@Bobson Erm. Let me dig up the link.

Bobson

5:58 PM

hexographer.com I forget what the limitations on the free version are (size?)

Aaron

@Bobson axiscity.hexamon.net/users/isomage/wildgen

@Bobson Does it generate maps you can then edit or do you have to build from scratch?

Bobson

Ah, yeah. I've seen that one. I like the maps it generates better than hexographer, but the latter allows editing, adding icons, even "zooming in" (which is just taking a region and making a new map from it at a larger scale).

Hexographer tends to be "streaky" in its generation. Especially on larger maps.

Aaron

Streaky?

Like forests and stuff seem stretched unnaturally far?

Zachiel

Good day to everybody

Bobson

Large clumps of similar terrain, running more-or-less in lines. Let me see if I can find my example.

Aaron

6:01 PM

@Zachiel Hello

wax eagle

hiya

Zachiel

so, DM has ruled that metamorphosis spells get suppressed when you polymorph into something else, because they're modifying your old shape...

I really want shapechange but this means not getting lots of other useful spells like visage of the deity and bite of the werebear...

me sad

(and afk)

Bobson

That's the largest map it'll do, I think.

Aaron

@Bobson That does look... Off

Bobson

@Zachiel Makes sense to me.

wax eagle

6:08 PM

from today's shut up and take my money files: kickstarter.com/projects/readingrainbow/…

Aaron

The "Biomes" are not large enough. A single continent usually only has 2-3 wildly different areas. Where this has 5-6

Bobson

Yeah, just a bit. It's really a scaling problem. When I draw a map a quarter that size, it looks the same but there's less hexes per feature, so it's not so bad. It's like it draws it, then just scales hexes on top of it (although I'm sure that's not it)

Joshua Aslan Smith

oh wow

@waxeagle wish I had money to throw at that right now

wax eagle

I'm going to chip in at least $5, figuring out if I can do more

Bobson

You can change the percentages of each terrain, entirely customly. This is just one of the defaults.

And you can control how likely each type is to be next to another type, I think.

Aaron

6:11 PM

@Bobson That would help a lot. Kinda like Minecraft made it so a Snow Biome can't spawn next to a Desert Biome.

Joshua Aslan Smith

anyone read comics here?

wax eagle

I'll pick up an omnibus now and then

Bobson

hexographer.com/instructions/tutorial for manually building a map, inkwellideas.com/2009/06/… for the hybrid wizard, and I can't find an example of the customization screen.

Aaron

@Bobson The Wizard tool looks useful.

Bobson

Yeah. I'm kindof tempted to use the axiscity tool to generate maps, import them into hexographer, and then use the wizard to link them together.

Assuming I don't give up and try using the Civ V map editor. My goal is to run a Pathfinder Kingdom-rule-only campaign, so I need a large map for all the players to have a way to grow their own kingdoms.

Joshua Aslan Smith

6:35 PM

Civ 5 continents plus

Bobson

7:01 PM

@JoshuaAslanSmith - Addon? I'm also not sure how to export the map, but then I haven't tried very hard yet.

Joshua Aslan Smith

no Im saying use continents plus map type

so you know you can save the map itself right?

when you want to save a game you can also just save a continent layout taht civ created for you

theres probably a way to crack that file

Bobson

Yeah, but not what format it comes out in. I stuck with Civ IV, so never really got into V much.

Joshua Aslan Smith

You could also look at the world map zoomed out on the alternate/boardgame view (forget what its called) and turn off all info except terrain

Bobson

But I've heard it recommended for natural, balanced random maps.

Joshua Aslan Smith

honestly I have to recommend civ 5 as a game

Bobson

7:03 PM

I've heard it's improved enormously since I first tried it.

Joshua Aslan Smith

the only thing I wish it had from civ 4 is sort of the accolades/events that occured when you focused on something for a bit, like in civ 4 when you built walls around every city you might get a nice little boost because the populace feel safe

but on the whole its so much better I cant go back to civ 4

especially combat

I never want to encounter a stack of doom ever again

@waxeagle don't know if you do an organized play but did you see this wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd%2Fnews%2Fadventurersleague

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith I did, no FLGS particularly close to me :(

the two card shops in Chat are magic shops, and the only other thing we have close is a Hobby Town USA....there is a real gaming store up in Cleveland but that's over an hour from me :(

(and both magic shops are on the north side of town when I live in the GA boondocks)

Joshua Aslan Smith

hmmm sadness

wax eagle

I know one of the magic shops doesn't do encounters, I haven't been in the other one yet, though I'm planning to pop in on Friday (hoping to find some Bones)

Joshua Aslan Smith

gald to see Dread Gazebo is posting again

wax eagle

7:12 PM

ooh what's Jerry up to?

Joshua Aslan Smith

he jsut posted a big info dump about 5e

talked about winter fantasy con (which is somehwere near wherever he lives)

BESW

8:48 PM

I was wondering what images I'd use for the flying snakes in my Storium game.

Aaron

@BESW Hey I just saw that on Imgur myself.

Noein

10:41 PM

Can I very vaguely describe a tabletop that I'm certain is online somewhere and hope someone here happens to know it and connect it to my description? It's free online, probably was never published, a personal work.

This's emphatically off-topic on the main site (whatever form this question would be allowed in there, what I remember and can tell you about the game is really vague) so I was thinking... maybe here...

Not a bar, but plays one on TV

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