TRPG General Chat

BESW

12:01 AM

@quarridors 4chan is currently waging a trolling war on Tumblr and I fear Doctor Who spoilers will be weaponized.

Tweeted by NowWeAreAllTom on July 7, 2014 at 11:21 PM in reply to quarridors

Zachiel

So, now that we are all Tom, who's gonna secretly rule over us?

BESW

The Dave Conspiracy is in tatters!

Zachiel

Exactly!

Or maybe some Tom is secretly Dave

Mmmh I wish this guy could teach me some skills. rpg.stackexchange.com/a/42042/4173

BESW

Heh.

Zachiel

I really wish he could.

BESW

12:07 AM

I disagree with his last point--I refuse to assume that people are incorrigible until proven otherwise on an individual basis.

But yes, I've seen GMs like that, and groups which consider it worthwhile to stay in their games because the railroads are so shiny.

Zachiel

I'm also not sure watching the session later is any useful

Even in the event you get railroaded to the max, there's still more fun in being there

BESW

@Zachiel Agreed.

RPGs are very much an "in the moment" medium.

Hence the Wannabe Vampire.

Zachiel

@BESW I probably am a DM like that, but when someone tries to go outside the tracks I just mutter some curses and then try to make a speech about why it's not a really good idea to do that.

doppelgreener

rpg.stackexchange.com/q/42043/1204 Anyone wanna demonstrate how totally broken in terms of realism D&D 3.5e is?

Zachiel

I like the idea of people doing unexpected things, I just don't know what to do when it happens.

@JonathanHobbs No, not much, I see why level 6. Counterargument? Spells.

BESW

12:11 AM

Mmm. Define "reality" and its limits.

Zachiel

I mean, it's level 6 with the usual caveat: we choose to believe.

doppelgreener

@BESW real world, current known human limits

BESW

Then talk about spells, but also: magical and intelligent species, the economy, the multiverse, provable gods...

Zachiel

But the gods are over level 6!

BESW

I mean, seriously. "Zombies exist and I can repel them with the strength of my faith."

Zachiel

12:13 AM

repel/control

BESW

I think the scope of what counts as "reality" and where it breaks needs to be more sharply defined for this question to be usefully answered. "Zombies exist and I can control them with the power of my faith" refutes the premise, as does "Elves," "spells," and "an adventure-based economy." — BESW 22 secs ago

doppelgreener

@BESW good comment

Oxinabox

It has been weeks since i mentioned how incredibly much i appreciate
SevenSidedDie's edits.

SevenSidedDie is a amazing editor

3

wax eagle

@Oxinabox one of the best we have.

doppelgreener

@waxeagle also one of our most prolific data.stackexchange.com/rpg/query/6627/… (though this query only counts when they're the most recent editor of any given question, meaning the results are conservative and actual numbers are higher)

Grubermensch

12:27 AM

@JonathanHobbs Though technically what that does suggest is that SSD produces highly definitive edits.

doppelgreener

@Grubermensch that is true :D

Grubermensch

Heh there were two answers just posted to the realism question and both reference E6

C. Ross

3:52 AM

@waxeagle et al, I remember there being a meta-discussion about "content creation" questions such as "design me a homebrew sword". Do you know if I'm imagining things or where I might find such a question.

Also, I'm amazed at how D&D 5e is selling. My FLGS sold out and so did their distributer.

BESW

11

Q: How should I stat very powerful artifacts that the party acquires too early?

A few weeks ago I started DMing a campaign that involves five divine artifacts that all of the gods' powers are filtered through. I planned on the paragon level quest being collecting these in order to either destroy or protect them. Unfortunately, one of my players rolled a natural 20 on Thiever...

Maybe this?

C. Ross

@BESW the discussion in question was much older, pre 2013, and featured ... no effective constraints, leading to a list feel

BESW

Some systems, like DFRPG, attract them more than others but in more understandable ways.

C. Ross

@BESW There's a common theme of ... "help me create X to solve Y problem", usually where the questioner has an intent, but doesn't know how to map it to the mechanics. That's well and good.

This was more: "Give me a list of ideas for swords"

BESW

Ah.

C. Ross

3:57 AM

It may have explicitly a list question ...

BESW

[digs deeper]

Well, there's this:

5

Q: Handy spells to have on scrolls for a specific scenario?

My situation: I'm rolling up a 10th level Pathfinder witch, using all Paizo products standard starting wealth (62K GP) plus and the ability to choose Scribe Scroll if it turns out to be worth the cost of a feat a ratling familiar (with the ability to cast any spell of any class/level from a scr...

pathfinder

C. Ross

@BESW dunno ...

BESW

Yeah, probably not.

Unfortunately I can't keep looking.

I was doing searches for likely keywords ("weapon," "idea," "list," etc) with is:question closed:yes.

C. Ross

No worries, I can't find it either

things going alright in your world?

BESW

@C.Ross Hanging in there. Some fun RPG stuff, at least.

Played Roll For Shoes last Saturday; our first roll of the game was to find out whether Loud Bear was actually a bear.

C. Ross

4:11 AM

:-)

BESW

(He was.)

C. Ross

We played FAE TMNT a couple weeks ago ... it reached some new levels of absurdity

BESW

Oh, my!

That sounds glorious.

C. Ross

certainly memorable

BESW

I'm still searching for a simple escalation mechanic to make my pony engine functional.

The other day I remembered Cthulhu Dark's Insanity die, and I want to try running some sessions of that to see what it's like.

Magician

4:16 AM

Greetings

BESW

Heyo.

Magician

Tell me about the Insanity die, if you would :)

BESW

So, Cthulhu Dark uses d6s. Everybody's got three. One of them is green, and that's your insanity die.

To do something, you roll dice: one if it's within human capabilities, one if it's within your occupational expertise, and one if you will risk your sanity to succeed.

The highest die of your roll determines the level of your success; you always succeed unless someone else challenges you because they think failure would be interesting, but low numbers represent minimal success that probably causes more problems while higher numbers indicate brilliant success.

Magician

1. Can you always risk your sanity, even in mundane tasks? 2. What does it cost/get you to challenge someone?

BESW

But whenever your Insanity die rolls higher than your current Insanity, you roll it again (roll it also any time something Disturbing happens to you). If it gets higher than your Insanity again (Insanity starts at 1), your Insanity increases by 1. When you hit 5 Insanity you can start suppressing Mythos knowledge--like burning books--and roll to decrease your Insanity. At 6 Insanity, your character goes incurably insane and is retired as soon as gracelessly possible.

There does not appear to be a cost or reward for challenging; I'd probably re-examine that if I used the system.

As for risking insanity on mundane tasks, they leave that to the group.

Cthulhu Dark's rules don't fully cover a page front and back.

Magician

4:30 AM

A cute little system, then.

BESW

Aye.

Aside from some re-rolling and cooperation/pvp paragraphs, I've basically told you the system.

thievesoftime.bigcartel.com/cthulhu-dark

Magician

And so are ponies going to decide to risk their sanity, too?

BESW

Maybe a Freakout Die.

Or if I could somehow rejigger it to be a Friendship die, that'd be shiny.

Friendship starts at 6 and you roll the die when you're willing to risk your friendship to succeed...

Magician

But isn't Friendship between people, er, ponies? As in, not your personal stat.

You'd need Friendship for every other character (which isn't a problem).

BESW

Aye, I need to play Cthulhu Dark a few times and ruminate.

It's the escalation mechanic I'm really hung up on with this pony engine.

Magician

4:42 AM

What's the purpose of this mechanic? For PCs to risk their sanity/relationships/freaking out in order to achieve something?

BESW

To escalate interpony tension/drama until it comes to a climax and a catharsis.

Magician

Steal from DRYH, maybe?

BESW

Hmm. I'll have to read that again.

Cliff's Notes version?

Magician

Basic conflict resolution mechanics are: roll a dice pool, count 1-3 as successes, compare to the Pain die pool counting the same. However! Your die pool consists of 3 types of dice: Discipline, Exhaustion and Madness, and whichever gets the highest value dominates, which colors the scene and has further effects.

Discipline you always have 3 of (until you start really going mad), that's what normal people rely on. But you're not normal people, you've gone beyond being tired and into the mad fugue-state of hyper-clarity. You can increase the number of Exhaustion dice you have by 1 with any roll - you start with 0. These are sort of your hit points, as Pain dominating may also increase them. If you hit 6, you fall asleep and that's Bad.

And Madness you can add at any point, any amount. You have to use Madness to utilize your Madness talent (or are those called Insanity?), something supernatural and freaky which lets you do awesome things. The greater the effect, the more dice you have to add, up to 6. But you can just use them.

Madness dominating means you get a permanent Madness die. If you get 6, you lose 1 Discipline and replace it with Madness.

Exhaustion dominating also means you get 1 extra exhaustion.

So there's a steadily increasing die pool you have, and you can always increase it, but each time you roll you dread it.

Also, I could be messing up small bits of it, but that's the general idea.

BESW

I like it.

It defies one of my desired design elements, but I've long suspected I'd have to ditch that.

(Ideally the game only needs 5d6 to be played.)

Magician

4:52 AM

Eventually, it builds up to you running around with lots of Exhaustion and Madness, facing nightmarish things on equal footing. You basically have to accomplish your goal before you implode.

BESW

(5d6 is the number of dice in a Yahtzee set, meaning a non-RPG household could easily rustle up that many dice from board and dice games.)

Must dash! Taking some friends on a tour of the West side of the island. Kite flying, sunset, etc. ttfn

Magician

Have fun!

Metool

5:38 AM

> Trinket 83: A bit of folded cloth that, when unfolded, turns into a stylish cap.

Thank you, D&D. I needed something to complete my dwarf wizard, and that was it.

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