TRPG General Chat

12:11 AM

Well, it wasn't competitive, but yeah, some characters had the most ridiculous Combo Platter Power sets.

12:21 AM

Freeform would work better with a few rules: "Include the other players" "Posts must move the story forward" "No controlling other's characters", etc.

doppelgreener

12:46 AM

Does the site have another fate overcome question somewhere?

I just created the latter tag on the basis people have started asking us about specific actions

BESW

Not unless it's very recent.

I created the other Fate action tags a couple months ago, and specifically left out overcome because there wasn't anything it made sense to tag that with.

doppelgreener

@BESW Alright :)

I guess we have just the one for now

BESW

1:46 AM

I'm not sure this question should have the problem-players tag, but I'm surprised it doesn't.

David Wilkins

2:02 AM

@JohnP any luck with FR?

Grubermensch

2:52 AM

@waxeagle ping

wax eagle

@Grubermensch hiya

Grubermensch

how do you want to do this? gchat?

or did you want to do voice?

wax eagle

@Grubermensch was thinking a gallery room here if that works?

anyone can see, only we can talk?

Grubermensch

that's fine

wax eagle

♦ HOTDQ Side Session

BESW

3:01 AM

.@SamuelLJackson you up?

Tweeted by BronxZoosCobra on February 19, 2015 at 2:44 AM

doppelgreener

4:19 AM

@BESW say what?

@BESW because they're not coming from a perspective of the players being the entire problem :)

"my GMing is great but these guys suck! what do I do?" would be more like problem-players

this question is "these guys are causing a problem, I don't think I'm handling it well either. what should I do about it?", coming from a perspective of wanting improvement of their own GM skills rather than merely making the people stop a thing.

BESW

I'm glad I was able to give an answer he seems to find useful.

It's the basic "Make your players your co-conspirators" stuff, with an extra helping of "But in horror you have to really mean it."

doppelgreener

I have not yet been able to read it in full.

BESW

It's not perfectly polished yet, but it's hopefully a decent primer on getting horror started off on the right foot.

doppelgreener

i am thrilled we have experience in this sort of thing

like, playing horror games that are actually confronting or a little scary

that is a cool thing as far as i am concerned

BESW

Yeah. And I've been drawing on my reading into horror RPGs a lot for other stuff too.

Because horror gaming is so fragile, treatises on it touch on elements of role-playing dynamics that other guides and studies often brush past.

Oh! I'm looking into that TV show Forever Adeptus mentioned. Its title character is a 200-year-old immortal who is perpetually 40 years old, and one of the secondary characters is his 70-year-old adopted son.

@doppelgreener The dynamic between young immortal father figure and aged mortal child made me think that there might be interesting potential for similar inverted dynamics in some of your characters.

doppelgreener

4:40 AM

That does sound like an interesting dynamic.

What's on your mind re: implementing it in our game?

BESW

I don't have anything in particular in mind, just that we're dealing with PCs who have unusual relationships to time and family and age.

There's a bit of it in the Doctor Light/Stellata dynamic already, with the daughter outstripping the father socially.

doppelgreener

Experiences that define my enjoyable experience at stack overflow:

-1

Q: How can I get NVDA and JAWS to read out the Hans Hillen datepicker correctly in Chrome in forms mode?

A while ago, a fellow named Hans Hillen created some accessible versions of the jQuery UI controls. The popup version of his accessible jQuery UI datepicker has been implemented in a prototype I'm reviewing for WCAG 2.0 compliance, and the popup version of the date picker is not behaving well in ...

BESW

There might be potential, if you want to go there, for PAL to have some sort of odd relationship as well.

Adeptus

What do you think of it so far? After 2 episodes, I think it has potential, but could get old quick (ironically) if some aspects keep recurring.

doppelgreener

have problem, request help. guy tells me to give up based on citing something inconclusive from over a year ago that is outdated, and shown to be outdated based on information available in my question. i tell him that's unhelpful, and downvote his answer. i get a downvote on my question a minute later.

Adeptus

4:46 AM

@doppelgreener I've upvoted the Q, downvoted the A. For great justice!

BESW

@Adeptus It's got enough flexibility that it could stay fresh for a while, so long as it doesn't settle. The characters have enough depth and breadth to be explored and grown.

doppelgreener

@Adeptus thank you for the upvote

BESW

The flashbacks could get tedious (see: Arrow) and they've set themselves up for a brick wall when they write themselves into discovering more about his immortality.

Also the ADR is awful and the procedural elements are 1980s levels of sloppy TV drama, not quite up to par for a modern CSI-raised audience.

Overall, I think it'd be best as a miniseries with a little less realism, rather than a full multi-season series.

Adeptus

5:02 AM

@BESW I think the procedural sloppiness is at least partly intended - he's supposed to know so much about death & injury that he can leap to (correct) conclusions from minor clues... or am I just being charitable to the writers?

BESW

@Adeptus I'm fine with him being all Sherlock Holmes "I always leap to the right conclusions from insufficient evidence just because I'm me." But they're playing awfully fast and loose with the actual procedures of law. Chain of custody on evidence is seriously compromised every week.

Most of his "solved" cases will get thrown out of court in a heartbeat.

I'm equally eager to see an episode where they actually deal with that, and to see an episode where they find the place all his clothing goes every time he dies.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@BESW up for light brainstorming on that horror question?

(probably not in main chat, but whatever.)

BESW

Will probably be very lite, but 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

Adeptus

5:26 AM

@BESW Ha yes, I commented on that. He must spend a fortune on clothes!

BESW

@Adeptus I assume this is why he doesn't have a cell phone.

Adeptus

@BESW He had one once, then he died, and it vanished?

BESW

Expense aside, setting up a new phone just takes too long.

Yanno, I'm getting lots of Forever Knight vibes off this show.

Adeptus

@BESW Yep, picked that one up.

BESW

6:15 AM

[amused] A 200-year-old guy just heard an unusual word, and immediately interpreted it for the meaning that's only 30 years old.

Unless he's a brony, or a Piers Anthony fan, Henry Morgan should think "unicorn's horn," not "winged unicorn," when he hears "alicorn."

Iron Heart

6:57 AM

unrelated:

ONE DOUBLE OHHHHHHH

@BESW Where's this?

BESW

@IronHeart Forever.

BESW

7:16 AM

This is a great answer: nice range of prevention steps, and good advice on not forcing tone, too. — Dewi Morgan 14 mins ago

[purrr]

user61230

I know that feelin'. Like bein' skrich't behind th'ears, 'tis.

STT LCU

7:35 AM

@DavidReeve @Aaron Yeah I'm just a Player, not the GM. I'll be more assertive this friday session, and we'll see how it goes.

trogdor

7:50 AM

@doppelgreener I actually have thought of this a bit

there was a point when Ira asked me in character why Dr Light and Stellata looked so different, and I replied in character that she took after her mother,.....

after that, I thought that answer could have a couple different/conflicting meanings

I was not sure I wanted to do anything other than quietly make a couple different scenarios it COULD be as long as no one else was entirely interested in this back-story. for one thing, this is important back-story for someone else's character that I didn't want to decide on my own

also, it did not seem too important at the time, and I never did more than a little bit of speculation into it

doppelgreener

8:07 AM

@BESW also sorry i got distracted by the stack overflow thing and that is a good point

@trogdor ok, cool. :) i forgot about that mother reference.

trogdor

so did I more or less

doppelgreener

i think it'll say something about stellata and be important to her backstory, but i think it will also say an awful lot about doctor light!

trogdor

then you pinged me and I finally noticed that you pinged me a half hour ago

and I remembered that I had put a small amount of thought into it already

trogdor

9:10 AM

so I would be fine with just cooking something up for that, but it had plenty enough to do with Stellata that I figured that if I did do anything I would give you the option to collaborate on it first.

BESW

11:34 AM

The last weekend of this month will come during the Baha'i gift-giving/hospitality/charity holidays, and I'd like to do something festive for my RPG group that Saturday. Open to ideas.

trogdor

so, is the plan for it to still be a game...?

BESW

Unless you guys want to do something else!

But yeah, I figured I'd just do something with a festive twist.

Iron Heart

12:21 PM

@BESW Do you figure the one answer deserves the bounty, unrelated?

BESW

On the Endgame question?

No.

It's your call, but I think it's not backed up sufficiently to be good yet.

Iron Heart

Didn't think so. Poke me if it becomes such.

BESW

Eh, the guy's given up.

One similar "Just houserule it" answer, albeit less formed, was already deleted from the question last month.

Joshua Aslan Smith

1:03 PM

mornign

BESW

Or thereabouts.

Aaron

Morning

David Wilkins

Arrrrghoooouuughphlarb

I feel like my brain has been scrambled

Joshua Aslan Smith

lol

@Grubermensch untouched.... right

Mourdos

1:42 PM

Morning

BESW

So many mornings.

Mourdos

Well, it is afternoon here, I was just on autopilot.

David Wilkins

2:09 PM

All of the mornings

ITS ONLY 9 ?!?!?! :( sigh

Joshua Aslan Smith

2:25 PM

@besw ^

JohnP

2:50 PM

Well, well, well. It's almost 8, guess it's time to start the day.

I think everyone should ping @BESW at least once or twice in the next couple hours.

David Wilkins

Why are we pinging @BESW ? Oh hey @JohnP did you get a chance to check for the FR books?

JohnP

Not yet. I have all day off tomorrow, so I will head by there. I need to pick up new paint as well, it's on the way.

David Wilkins

3:06 PM

coolness

Joshua Aslan Smith

I ping besw whenever the whim catches me but it is in response to his ds"so many mornings" comment

JohnP

Shoot me another pic of the cover, didn't screen shot it the last time.

@JoshuaAslanSmith I just want @BESW to log on and see a red number like 55 or something.

Joshua Aslan Smith

lol

David Wilkins

JohnP

So third edition. Got it.

David Wilkins

3:42 PM

Yes, I was going to say anything for AD&D would work, I really want the 3rd edition book

Joshua Aslan Smith

4:03 PM

The realmz

they be forgotten

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Anyone got some thoughts on Magery and the spell system in GURPS? I've read several places that it isn't the best, but I'm not 100% sure why.

Joshua Aslan Smith

4:37 PM

@sevensidedie my only contention to updating 5e questions is that in the meta discussion about tagging for 5e and next it was stated that next specific questions would be retagged but left as-is and that their timestamp would be what distinguishes them as next questions

Next is still wildly available and it has specific rule differences, I honestly think it should be a sub-tag

RobertF

5:45 PM

@William'MindWorX'Mariager - GURPS Magic is very different from the Vancian system in D&D. Some RPGers may not like the spellcasting limitations in GURPS - as I recall spellcasters burn fatigue pts to cast a spell, so that casting a big fireball spell could exhaust a wizard. The magic in GURPS is also very "generic" as might be expected. Fewer imaginative names and oddball spells than D&D.

Grubermensch

6:17 PM

@JoshuaAslanSmith I have no idea whatsoever of what you might be implying. 0:-)

Joshua Aslan Smith

@Grubermensch are you actually advocating for you org in character or are you just like saying, "hey I got these friends, they totally could take care of them"

Grubermensch

@JoshuaAslanSmith I was actually going to offer that we store them in my grandfather's vaults in Baldur's Gate. It's a secure place.

Joshua Aslan Smith

hmmmmm

Grubermensch

TBH I'm not actually sure what I want to do, but I definitely don't want to give them to somebody else.

Joshua Aslan Smith

hahahaha

was it 2 or 3 black dragon eggs?