@BESW Our shaman has that charge power. And we have a slayer and a paladin with an at will power that counts as a basic attack during charges

@Zachiel Oh, man. Combining MBA-granting/triggered features from 4e Core with MBA-equivalent powers from Essentials.

Easiest, most spammable cheese ever.

@BESW And then they make D&D 4e the MMO and taunting works nothing like the tabletop game

"Why? Because neener, that's why."

(Actually, it's because "forcing bad choices" is an awful mechanic to use against an AI.)

@BESW and this I wanted to tell you even if you had not said that: having an elite duergar divine challenged and in the right position to attack the strike three times and shoving him into the fireplace blocking the exit at the same time? Let's take these 8 damage. (That lead to the Warlock using Roaring Storm of Cania to move the duergars from the front of the fireplace, which was tactically awesome)

@BESW True, but instead of being "hit me or you get penalties" it was "get penalties until you hit me", and who to hit was decided by looking at damage dealt or at some hard taunt powers WoW style

@Zachiel Oh, absolutely.

...I'm imagining the pitch for the song "Lose Your Love."

"What? That's the song.

oh @BESW! it has recently been pointed out to me that our status with respect to voting in the US Federal government are now equivalent

since I moved to DC

@KRyan I guess the proper tank, armor-class wise, in my last D&D 3.0 campaign was the cleric. But the damage dealer, the melee man, the one who I could easily hit for both AC an positioning (and the one I was more interested in stopping) was the barbarian, with his huge bag of HP. Sad feelings.

@KRyan Grats?

(I'm pretty sure you can still vote for the President, though.)

@BESW just sort of seemed interesting

@BESW huh, then the protestors were misinformed

we can; they just thought you could too

wow, that sucks :/

We've both got non-voting Congressional Delegates rather than Congressmen, though.

@BESW that's what they were talking about, yeah

but they did refer to things as equivalent across the board

also, rather than being ignored, we're Congress's guinea pig

since they directly control the city and we can't vote them out if it goes badly

Whereas Guam gets treated like that by the military.

@BESW ouch

Why is that? Is the state too small to have an elector?

But yes! Welcome to the Land of Partial Disenfranchisement!

@Zachiel Neither Washington DC nor Guam are technically states in the union.

They are "territories."

I thought DC was one and Guam was part of one

Never think too much

Nope. DC isn't a state because someone wisely noticed it was a bad idea for the federal government to be hosted by a state.

Guam isn't a state... largely because it's more convenient for the US if we aren't.

@BESW they also unwisely assumed that everyone in DC would be from some other state that they'd go home to

or, more accurately, those who didn't didn't count

@BESW do you have the population to be even if there were no other barriers?

Depends on how many islands get pulled into it.

I'm not sure what the population bar is, though.

@BESW I could have sworn there was one but now I'm not finding one

Guam's got almost 160,000 people.

it is pointed out that no proper petition for statehood has ever been denied and it would be politically dicey to try to block one, if Guam was clearly pushing for it

@BESW yeah, I'm pretty certain that's more than enough

Add the rest of our island chain and you get over 213,000.

Throw in American Samoa for another 55k.

And then there's the Trust Territories --Marshalls, Palau, FSM--which are almost another 200k.

@KRyan It's still highly unlikely; we're strongly divided on Guam about whether statehood or independence is preferable.

If the issue were forced, I think we'd go for statehood by a large margin. But while we have the option to remain a territory, the debate is strong enough to keep us from pushing for statehood on our own.

@BESW sounds similar to Puerto Rico

who in 2012 voted strongly to "change their status" but then mostly left the question asking how to change their status unanswered -.-

Aye.

And the military is going to give strong pushback on either choice; we're ideally positioned for them.

@BESW if there were a strong, clear, solid petition, I don't think that position would be tenable for them nor do I think they'd have the clout to make it happen if they stuck to it

but then I hate politics and could easily be hopelessly naive there

@KRyan Right. But they're in a position to keep that petition from happening in the first place.

Explanation of the American Empire if anyone is interested:

@BESW aaaah, yeah.

time to go sleeee-yawn.

I yawned. My tongue is stuck in position. Help. (I'm joking, but it almost happened)

Sleeee-yawn is a protectorate of the Mighty Raxacoricofallapatorian Councilate.

@KRyan Put it this way: the military is currently pushing a bill to turn an ancient village/burial ground/holy site into a live-fire training ground. There's strong opposition to the bill, but its chances failing are minimal.

@BESW I throw stinky bombs at them

@BESW wow. :(

@doppelgreener On the other hand, talk about an AFMBE campaign hook.

@BESW oh yeah.

[glances around for enraged taotaomo'na]

(Since I'm apparently saturated in 1980s music today, my Twitter feed is obliging.)

ttfn

@Zachiel Ta.

@BESW [uses guampedia]

afk putting tea in my hair

wat.

@JoshuaAslanSmith my DM just discovered that every link he can find to the 4e errata doc is broken due to WotC's terrible webmasters

do you know where to find that doc?

@KRyan replace the 'www' in the URL with 'archive' if the link is broken and you probably have a decent chance

i.e.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/updatesarchive

turns into

http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/updatesarchive
          ^

which works: archive.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/updatesarchive

@doppelgreener the link we had didn't have www in it so I wasn't sure how to apply that rule

thanks though

@Zachiel While the slayer is capable of massive amounts of damage it...doesn't get a whole lot else

later folks

@KRyan Tea is a conditioner and gentle/unobtrusive dye.

I'm using it mostly because the only other conditioner I've found useful against our hard water is vinegar, but also to see if I can make the grey in my hair a little less obvious.

Hmm, is this too broad?

@Metool Yes, because it doesn't include design goals.

Hmm. I just realised something.

Sometimes when I'm writing a comment on a question I've flagged or voted to close, it's to explain what's going on the querent and what they can do to fix it.

But quite often, I'm also/instead writing to other potential voters/flaggers explaining why they should do so.

Both are reasonable, but I'd never really thought about the difference in audience before.

'I never thought watching fish vomit could be this much fun!'

@BESW Bah. I accidentally a preposition.

@BESW But it's still a valid sentence, even if it's not what you intended.

@JohnMcDonald Hello!

Hrm.

it doesn't help for me that they have a gif of Tennant crying

that is not a sad thing for me

I think they've got something right about the underlying character of the Doctor, but they're reading a lot more into the specific scripts than I think is actually there.

@Oxinabox Hi.

Trying Roll for Shoes with my home playgroup.

My dicebot keeps rolling people 1s.

It clearly hates them.

:(

BESW: hi

quiet on the site these last few days

back to work now

Mmm, sorry, getting ready for my game tonight.

Final Doctor Who FAE pre-made characters as pdfs.

@BESW You've outdone yourself :)

[bow, flourish]

@doppelgreener So, Trogdor's having some trouble getting Hangouts on his computer 'cause he doesn't use Chrome. Might you be available?

You just have to be in a video chat with me, mostly, so I have access to the options.

[sigh] I'm really tempted to just try it with Skype this time, and get Hangouts sorted out over the week.

@BESW I will be soon

Aight.

I didn't use Chrome either

What did you use?

Firefox; it came with a plugin installer

...oh, I found the page now.

@trogdor Try this?

Also, @doppelgreener, do you have any idea if Dan or your other friend might be joining us?

mk

@BESW Dan ought to be

argh! neither of them have fate dice though

Dan leaves his fate dice here

This is one reason to use Hangouts; I'm pretty sure it had a fudge dice app.

oh wow.

well

Other friend says he's interested in sitting in, but he doesn't feel like participating

That's cool.

one reason I wish you were here then. I brought extra dice XD

And here's an online fudge dice roller, and another.

@Emrakul that resets the dice inputs to blank each time :'(

This right here seems to be the best so far.

Yup, that's what we'll use.

@Emrakul How so?

Success can create plot too. Success can mean placing a "He's the vampire!" aspect, for instance.

@doppelgreener Trogdor and I are heading out to get food. Back in a bit.

@BESW Sure

I should really

Go read up on the FATE system some time.

^.^

@LymiaAluysia You can download the Fate Core or Fate Accelerated Edition rules for free from the publisher's website, and there's an online SRD for both

@Emrakul An Investigate or Notice attempt could pin such an aspect on the opponent even without Fate points

I'm not sure how my group will react, but, we'll see~

It sounds interesting.

See also:

Yeah. Still not sure how my usual playgroup's gonna react. :P

@LymiaAluysia "WE'RE MEEELTIIING! MEEEEEELTIIIIING!!"

Roll for shoes didn't go the best.

(wild guess, might not actually be how they react)

Because of "You gain an XP when you fail a roll"

And one particular player.

(Who my dicebot hated and piled 1 rolls on)

Ouch.

XP isn't the advancement mechanic, though. It's a compensation for not advancing.

Advancement is via rolls of 6 on every dice; XP can be used to replace a dice face with a 6 (exclusively for the purpose of advancement, it doesn't change your actual score)

or was that player just advancing at lightspeed or something?

I think my dicebot was in the right to hate that bot personally. He decided to make rolls for little things nobody else would roll for. :(

(i.e. trying to farm XP)

@LymiaAluysia If he does little things not worth rolling for, you don't need to roll for them

We usually have players initiate rolls, so. I suppose that is incompatible with RFS

Or, well. We do when it's something like RTD

@doppelgreener Is this understanding of RFS correct? The player rolls for something they want to happen, and another player or the GM can contest that roll with what /they/ want to happen. When someone fails a roll against anybody, they gain an XP?

@LymiaAluysia Yes. And, yeah, players can initiate actions, RFS's rules have no opinion on the matter of what you should and shouldn't roll for. But you could also talk to someone when they're making rolls for lots of trivial things. You could also simply not oppose their action, if failure isn't interesting.

kk. People's sleepy times sorta interrupted that game, so. :P

We intend to try again tomorrow. Yeah, I think it's a simple question of the players reading the tag wiki differently from me.

@LymiaAluysia The tag wiki has a link to the original forum post talking about it. Maybe that could contribute something?

This is your group, so you know them best, but rolling for a billion little things sounds like it'd slow down the game a bit. Your friend's character would then also begin to excel at... lots of very little things.

@doppelgreener I'll have to explain it better to them then, rather than just linking a wiki page then. Only thing I'm confused about now is how many dice the DM rolls when they contest something other than an action directed at a character. ^.^

Simplest thing seems to be treating the world as a character anyway.

@doppelgreener It's over the internet, and we have a dicebot, so. If it was in-person with physical dice, they probabbly wouldn't be rolling so much.

BESW uses this method:

2 dice, right?

Yeah.

Actually, maybe he meant score.

I've been rolling with "the world is a character with at least Do Anything 1, Resist Changes to Reality 2".

@BESW Was it base difficulty of 2 +/- amounts, not dice?

@doppelgreener I don't think that'd be the most useful thing. It's just them not quite understanding what exactly "and what you want to happen" implies.

@LymiaAluysia It implies everything, it's just a matter of determining that sometimes it's not worthwhile to roll.

that's an art not a science though

The "nonsense" rolls went as "I do X" without exactly pointing out what you they wanted to happen.

@doppelgreener I was using 2 dice as a base difficulty.

Also, we're just waiting for one guy to show up. If you want to start Hanging Out...

Show up to what?

:P

@LymiaAluysia BESW and I are playing an online game soon.

Ah.

... Fate looks a bit difficult to do online ^.^

Fate point tracking, mostly.

Ahoyhoy.

@waxeagle What else do you need to be a competent striker?

@Emrakul neck got heated and expanded enough for the dice to pass by?

Isn't the most typical way to do such tricks by inserting the object inside a half-finished bottle and shaping the neck afterwards?

Possibly

@LymiaAluysia Have a piece of paper with player names and the number of their points.

Not quite as elegant for player-player interactions, that's all.

:P

@LymiaAluysia Oh, if the problem is just letting all players look at each player's number of points have a google doc open with the list.

Sketching custom moves on the Apocalypse World engine for a Hitman-themed game.

@Oxinabox Was it a nonmagical, medium club before? I'm too lazy to determine its previous number of damage per hit... uhm, I mean, games per week.

heheh

I will have to content myself with a downvote til i hit the 3K rep here.

It can be reopened once his other linked question is answered.

Sound good for a Hitman-esque game?

Sounds coo,l

@doppelgreener : We are getting though the new-gm things are getting better

Another new move for the Hitman game:

On 6-, the disguise is flawed and may be seen through at any point.

I'd let the players roll that when they first enter the site (if they bring a disguise along) or whenever acquiring new clothes on-site.

Oh, got to go. Sauna time.

Oh, man. Doctor Who game was amazing.

Leela got mind controlled by the Nestene Consciousness and stabbed the Doctor until he had to regenerate, while the Brigadier reversed the polarity of its mind control device and exploded the Consciousness.

@BESW Messily! Bits everywhere.

It was great.

@Oxinabox And yes they are!

Highlights included: Sarah Jane explaining to the shocked crowd that Leela sucker-punching a punk in the middle of a shopping centre was because she'd just had a messy divorce; Kamelion learning to rebroadcast the Nestene signal so he could make all humans within hearing "pause"; and K-9 melting Auton face.

The guy who played the Doctor was only RPing for the second time ever, and did really great.

We had aspects like A normal zombie like you, Power Word: Stop, and Secret double agent.

DRM on books is the worst

[sigh]

Oh, and the mind control radio signal sounded like Old Spice Guy telling you not to worry, to let him take the tough decisions and make everything better.

@BESW which is something I want to look into further! What the heck was with that mind control signal?

why was the Nestene Consciousness trying to mind control actual people?

And who decided to tell the Doctor about it?

And what was the higher-pitched, less calm voice on the mind control wavelength?

Oh--did it feel... I dunno, Doctor Who-y enough?

Trying to get the Doctor Who feel in a one-shot was one of my biggest challenges; usually there's a lot more going on in a story. Which is why I wound up putting two more sessions' worth of story into the background of it.

@BESW Yes. It felt different, but it felt better: it was messy and hands-on, whilst in the shows the doctor has often read the script.

Heh.

The Doctor was not omniscient and couldn't make the plot skip ahead in leaps, but the Doctor did help the plot move forward. Everything was more... mortal. I liked it.

Yey!

I played really fast and loose with the rules--if Ira hadn't been there I might've been more of a stickler for them, but he'd never played Fate before at all so I glossed a lot.

I think it worked really well.

Like, that was super educational for me about what Fate can be like when you remember it is about telling a story first, and it is just a set of tools for helping make the story interesting and have weight.

And we can use those tools how we like.

Running RFS, Cthulhu Dark, and Lady Blackbird have been very helpful for me in figuring that out; tonight's Fate game was substantially different in how I ran it because of my time in those other systems.

Basically, the primary value for Fate in that game, in my eyes, was in having the premade characters.

Their mechanics helped create a Doctor Who-like experience by guiding the players toward Doctor Who-like actions and attitudes.

I think the answer was "yes."

@BESW I totally agree

Everything else we could've fudged in almost any versatile system, I think.

@BESW And I think that played out right. It felt like we actually used the mechanics well, and only when we needed them (which was using them well)

I'm torn about the initiative thing.

On the one hand, it REALLY worked: we got more conversational RP than we would've otherwise, and it reminded everyone of the variety of possible actions at their disposal, and it created a Doctor Who narrative priority for what happened.

On the other hand, I kept losing track of who had gone already.

@BESW This was amazing at that yes

Oh, two related points of interest:

First, the Doctor's player assumed he had the sonic screwdriver despite it not being on the character sheet, and he used it in a very Tennant kind of way.

Second, the TARDIS was always available to the players but it was only once returned to--and then just for its analytical power.

@BESW oh, when was it returned to?

was that to determine where the distress signal came from exactly?

Right.

aha

Nobody ever mentioned going wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey on the plot.

Or using the TARDIS to vworp into the console room in the basement, instead of pretending to be radio zombies.

(I would have set the difficulty astonishingly high if they'd tried; Classic Who's TARDIS has more trouble with pinpoint accuracy over small distances. It's like of like trying to carve an eggshell with a jackhammer.)

i was ok with us not doing that :)

it didn't occur to me at all!! it's not like the TARDIS actually often gets used all that much in the shows' plots anyway

For the same reason: it's frikkin' boring.

Moffat does it more than most other writers/producers, but largely because he's a fanboy who's spent decades thinking about how using the TARDIS would simplify/complicate plots.

@BESW no zombie aspect woulda happened if we'd just pinpointed & moved there in the beginning

....I hope Rueben was entertained watching us. I'd like to get his impressions some time.

@BESW i'll ask him :)

i think he was!

also i must sleep

good night! :D

I should too.

ttfn

you should! ttfn :)

I'm thinking of writing a question along the lines of "How do I write good playtest feedback?" but maybe I should wait until I have the DFA playtest packet?

@BESW Probably; what's your window of opportunity between receiving it and your first feedback being due?

No clue, I assume that'll be in the packet.