TRPG General Chat

Chemus

5:00 AM

<<< Cnat tpye rof beans

Miniman

@Chemus Snaeb?

Chemus

@Miniman Herpaps

godskook

@Miniman, break anything for me?

Miniman

@godskook Nah, I stopped looking.

godskook

Fair enough.

Miniman

5:02 AM

The Psion is the best I've got.

godskook

OooooOOOoooh?

Chemus

How d'ya break a Psion more in gestalt E6?

Miniman

Apr 24 at 0:52, by Miniman

It's not broken exactly, but psionics quickly outscales spellcasting, and probably everything else, too.

Ben

@Chemus That's going to drive me nuts. I knw the pattern has changed ("Cnat" instead of "tnac")

I just can't pick it.

Miniman

Apr 24 at 0:54, by Miniman

While they can't get high-level powers, psionic powers scale with power points invested by augmenting, and a psionic character will end up with a very large pool of power points.

godskook

5:03 AM

Idk, but that's why I ask others.

Uhm

Chemus

@Ben It's a patternless set of typos instead of drawkcab.

godskook

@Miniman, you do realize, Manifester Level still caps power-point investments.

Ben

So you spelled it wrong too..?

Chemus

@Ben Less teh spelling and more teh typing; I don't touch type, so my errors persist longer before I see 'em.

godskook

@Miniman, or are you just suggesting that having PP to burn makes their actions/turn notably strong?

Miniman

5:05 AM

@godskook I thought there was a limitation like this but couldn't find it.

Chemus

@godskook That's what I see; the extra PP feat gets increasing

numbers of PP per each time it's taken

godskook

So, they'll still be capped at ~roughly 6 PP per power manifested.

Chemus

Yep, but they have so much more to nova with.

Miniman

@godskook Yep, sorry, found it.

godskook

Eh, no worries.

It comforts me to know that people can't break the ruleset that hard.

Ben

5:08 AM

@godskook [picks up ruleset]

[snaps it over my knee]

How d'ya like them apples

godskook

@Ben, you're welcome to try.

Miniman

@godskook I mean, I'm sure there's cheese to be found. I'm just not skilled enough or motivated enough to find it :)

godskook

RARE cheese is always a good indicator.

Chemus

@godskook Confused by this:"Skill points - You gain skill points equal to the flat amount listed under your class, x4 if this is your first level in that class." in the gestalt/Multi-class bit

Ben

I apologise. I've now had too much coffee to make up for my earlier lack thereof... following my "Arth Maul" mishap

godskook

5:10 AM

Why does that confuse you?

Chemus

Suggests that Skillpoints stack form gestalt

godskook

Yup

Chemus

Ahh. So you can put 4 pts in Spellcraft at Wiz1 whenever you take taht?

godskook

Every other "fix" to 3.5 deletes skills EVERYWHERE

I just give more skill points.

Miniman

@Chemus They don't normally, but godskook's variant is focussed on progression.

godskook

5:12 AM

I also use the Faerun Knowledge(Local: region) rules.

Miniman

@Chemus But only up to a maximum of 9 ranks, regardless of when you take Wiz 1.

Chemus

Yeah, I saw that the save and BAB progression was the thing

Yeah I got that 9 ranks...

godskook

@Miniman, you editing sneak, you!

Miniman

@godskook You saw nothing.

Chemus

@Miniman Nope. Nothing to see here. these aren't the droids we're moving for. Look along. Look along.

godskook

5:14 AM

I finally settled on my first story arc of the summer in this game. Now I'm exited.

Or at least, the plot seeds of said story.

Ben

I seem to have hit a snag.

godskook

Oh?

Miniman

@Ben You should eat it, not hit it.

Chemus

@Miniman Is this some arcane use of snag that I'm unaware of? I don't eat trees much, even really old dead ones.

Ben

I was running a "side-campaign" to introduce a friend into a new D&D game... was not meant to be anything fantastic... not even meant to be "canon" (applying it to the current campaign's universe)... then they went and decided to make it a character backstory.

@Miniman [slaps my knee]

Miniman

5:18 AM

@Chemus In Australia, "snag" can be used to mean "sausage".

godskook

@Ben, was there anything difficult to incorporate about it?

Chemus

@Miniman Yep, I just got there via gooble.

Ben

Anyway, I decided to play along, develop the story a little, and it was going well. However, now the other player has decided to get romantically involved with my character, and is far more invested in developing that, than following the actual storyline

Chemus

@Ben 'Player[s]' <-- Whelp. There's yer problem right there!

Ben

And now I've lost interest in it, more out of not wanting to go along with the romance, than finishing the story

@Chemus It's just her and myself. Like I said, was only meant to be introudctory

This is essentially a 1-player campaign

Chemus

5:22 AM

@Ben Umm... she's already involved with ya, right (IRL)? If so, I'm guessing she's trying to make fantasy mirror reality?

Ben

I do have a story arc ready to go... I just don't want to deal with the romance. She just dives so deeply into the relationship that the story often gets dropped entirely.

Chemus

Umm any way to try a balance?

Ben

@Chemus Yeah, to some degree. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with it... but it's just more that I'm trying to develop the story, and she doesn't want to... she just wants to "RP"

Chemus

It's been ca. 20y since I had a girlfriend trying to get into my RPG hobby, but if she's new to it...has she played any CRPG's?

Ben

I'm starting to think this might be a question for the site

@Chemus "CRPG"?

Chemus

5:24 AM

"How do I get my GF to do the quest instead of my char?"

@Ben Computer RPG

Ben

@Chemus Oh. Yeah she's a huge fan. Neverwinter, Skyrim... etc.

She has often made the same character in those games to match the character in this game too.

Chemus

Yeah, well I bet she did all the romance sidequests in both games. What's your quest in-game? Can you place an in-game sense of urgency to it? Make the big-bad telegraph a bit that there's not a lot of time?

Ben

Current situation: Ran into the Big Bad. Clearly it's too powerful for us... so we need to investigate who/what they are, and how to deal with them.

Chemus

@godskook What's yer plot?

Ben

Kill the Big Bad Guy

Not overly complex. Lol

Chemus

5:31 AM

Investigation... well drop hints that the Big Bad is starting a rampage; delay will have consequences, etc?

godskook

**Plot Seed**
I've got Mind Flayers in the setting that are doing their darndest to stay undetected by the Kintarrans that coincidentally live roughly above them while simultaneously trying to breed the Emerald Legion.

**Story**

One group has succeeded in finally getting a Werebat Troll to breed true, but drew a bunch of attention in the process.

Chemus

@Ben Just thought: have the Big bad kidnap your character in a way that lets her char be the one to effect rescue! She might get her romance and you might get your action

Yuuki

Okay, I'm really enjoying arcana.io so far for holding character info and homebrew stuff.

Ben

@Chemus That is not a bad idea.

Miniman

@Yuuki My mind went straight to the fantasy RPG version of slither.io and agar.io. No idea what it would look like, but I hope to find out someday.

godskook

5:33 AM

I haven't figured otu what angles I want to allow the PCs to know when I give them the "dossier", or if I want them to think they're just raiding a Slave/Gladitorial black market.

Chemus

@Ben No need to sound so surprised. Jerk. ;)

Ben

The BBG is after her character, and so far the only reason they escaped is cos my character managed a lucky hit.

Without going into too much detail, there's enough of a seed to make that work.

@Chemus The surprise is more at me. I'm tired and was not looking forward to running this much longer.

Chemus

@godskook The Emerald Legion just needs to get an Aleax at its base; already immune to damage except from its target. If you can make an imaginary target, it's immune to damge. As for story...I dunno yet. What's the Plus or minus for each scenario?

godskook

Plus or minus?

"each" scenario?

Chemus

4 mins ago, by godskook

I haven't figured otu what angles I want to allow the PCs to know when I give them the "dossier", or if I want them to think they're just raiding a Slave/Gladitorial black market.

godskook

5:38 AM

Ah right. Derp

If they're going in for the "Slave/Gladiatorial" stuff, that ties into a PC's backstory.

Chemus

I never put two ideas in one post that have...non sequiteur

godskook

And then the mindflayers will be more of a bonus mission and/or sidequest thing.

If they're going for the mindflayers, the PC's backstory still will get backburnered.

There's probably ways to weave it to various middle-of-the-road results too.

Chemus

I'd say that they'd be more motivated to play the game if their backstory was highlighted, and the MF's are the Slavers anyway, no?

godskook

Oh, the Flayer would be "behind it" either way. Its just about what I'm highlighting and what I'm letting them find if they push the game.

Cause I won't really know how they'll approach this until they hear the mission.

Chemus

Drop hints that look like they weren't meant to be found... Unfortunately, I dunno what the PC's could notice that MF's would leave in this shceme.

godskook

5:42 AM

Maybe they'll go full frontal assault, maybe they'll sneak in, or maybe they'll disguise themselves as merchants.

Chemus

Wait. Duh. Have a [mindflayer gooslave template] there as the slave-pit boss. they can't fail to notice that.

godskook

lol

Which reminds me, I need to whip up some voidminds for this too.

Ben

godskook

lol

Yuuki

That could be an interesting flavor for a legendary-ish weapon.

Chemus

5:46 AM

@godskook The template is actually intended for infiltration anyway; if they kill or investigate it, they will (or should) see that it's related to MF's. They might know or be able to learn about voidminds, etc.

Yuuki

Hilt made from the bone of a saint or other well-known Good individual.

Chemus

@Yuuki ReliquaryBlade, huh?

Yuuki

Tempted to name it <individual>'s Righteous Arm.

Chemus

@Yuuki Chuckled :)

Ben

@Yuuki Left-eous Arm?

Chemus

5:48 AM

@Ben Righteous Left Arm?

Ben

Actually, I like the name I gave my PC's sword.

Chemus

@Yuuki Uhh. Any idea why those carved skulls and bone handled sword are on a firepit grate?

Yuuki

@Chemus I think it's just a rack.

Ben

The PC is a 6'4" Human Fighter, that was raised by Dwarves. He was nicknamed "The Dwarven Giant". Anyway. The story of his sword is that due to his size, and his preference to wield a greatsword, the Dwarves decided to simply re-forge 5 dwarven swords into one big one for him

Chemus

@Yuuki OK, that's alright then. Wouldn't do to barbecue something that you couldn't eat very well.

Ben

5:52 AM

They called it "Hrunuus tallomirfiv" or "Hruunstallv" for short, which simply means "One blade forged from 5"

Chemus

@Ben Whosey which what? Is this related to your story?

Ben

@Chemus Nah just general backstory stuff. Adds a bit of flavour to the character.

I just like the simplicity of it.

Yuuki

arcana.io/item/686

Hmm... the sheathed effect might be too strong though it does come at the cost of requiring the weapon to be sheathed.

But then again, I guess someone could just use it like a statstick, carrying it on their back just for the sheathed effect and never actually using it.

godskook

G'night guys. Thanks for the help.

Chemus

Attuned legendary item... as an unused weapon?

@godskook Nightey night

Miniman

6:03 AM

@Yuuki Yeah, no one's ever going to draw that if they can help it.

Chemus

@Yuuki Make it 'Each ally...has Advantage on one save per round'

Magician

@Papayaman1000 Indeed

Yuuki

Shoot, now that I made one magic item on a whim, I have an idea for another one.

Chemus

@Yuuki Oh noes! ...Wait. Why is that bad? also, even 1/rd may be too much...but 1/ engcounter may be too little.

Miniman

@Yuuki To go with the Righteous Arm...Parson's Nose?

Yuuki

6:12 AM

Because it's getting late and I should go to sleep.

@Chemus 2-3/rest?

Chemus

@Yuuki I dunno, but that's not bad. making it an unlimited resource is kinda strong.

Yuuki

To be fair, it's a legendary weapon.

But I don't want to make it too legendary.

Chemus

@Yuuki Hush little Yuuki, don't say a word...[prepares to cast sleep]\

@Yuuki I'm a big fan of 'no bookkeeping' abilities, but I got no idea other than my orig. nerf of 1/rd. If that's still too much for legendary, make it 1 Wisdom Save/rd or something.

eimyr

9:17 AM

I need a proofreader for a RPG, circa 2k words. Any volunteers?

Anne Aunyme

9:28 AM

I may not read it right now, but later, sure!

eimyr

later... this century?

BESW

Sure, let's go with that.

eimyr

9:45 AM

@AnneAunyme @BESW tentacletheory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/The-Oracle.pdf

BESW

So, just proofing?

Papayaman1000

@Magician As do I.

eimyr

proofing, comments, thoughts, feedback, whatever you feel like doing

maaaaybe apart from "that thing's bad and you should feel bad"

Papayaman1000

@eimyr Aww, but that's my favorite part!

doppelgreener

@eimyr skimming: the illustration on page 13 is jarring because it has nothing to do with its context. (unless people suffer bleeding eyes when yelling 'fie' or reaching consensus?) replace it

eimyr

9:56 AM

@doppelgreener good point, I was going for shouting, but I'm not married to that picture

doppelgreener

thank you for the legible & mood-setting typefaces

@eimyr it looks like his eyes are bleeding, so "shouting at people" is not my first thought, so much as shouting for other potential reasons. (makes me think of one of the Demonic Possession episodes of Doctor Who)

eimyr

@doppelgreener well I guess I'll replace it

Anne Aunyme

10:10 AM

I know that "mundane people" don't know what "1d4" (or "1d100") means if you don't explain it to them. If you plan to target such people maybe it would be better to formulate it as "a die with four sides (a.k.a 1d4)"

eimyr

Nope, no one is going to read it anyway unless they know what RPG is.

Well, no one is really going to read it at all, but nevertheless, this is not an entry-level deal.

Anne Aunyme

yup, I am just commenting as I read

eimyr

:D

Anne Aunyme

another problem: I am at half of the "Perks" chapter and I don't know yet what "to take over" means

(pretty sure it will be explained later, but for now i don't even know if that's a good thing or a bad one)

eimyr

Noted.

eimyr

10:32 AM

Anything else there is, @AnneAunyme?

BESW

10:56 AM

If your book has at least 500 pages, you can never use a page below 100?

> Chances are your roll guided you to a blank page, or one that has too little text on it.

eimyr

Yeah, that appears to be correct. I didn't think anyone would ever need more than a couple hundred

BESW

This makes no sense to me; why is it likely that I'll wind up on a low-text page?

eimyr

Books with pictures, title pages

it's not "likely", but possible

BESW

Then your idiom needs changing.

eimyr

perhaps I need to reword it for clarity

@BESW Ah. I didn't realise it was one.

BESW

10:58 AM

"Chances are" means "it's likely."

eimyr

Noted.

BESW

> Before you start, take your page and divide it into three columns [...]

How do I do anything with my page before I've rolled to know what it is, and how do I divide the page of a book into three columns?

eimyr

I'm marking this as unclear. Thanks.

BESW

Any particular guidance for hyphenated lines?

I rolled it to try it out, and got

> to you when not inebriated by tobacco seems insignifi

How do you figure out who offers the first interpretation?

Miniman

@eimyr You didn't use my suggestion for the name so it sux now :P

But aside from that, it looks good!

eimyr

11:15 AM

Nah, it's supposed to be gibberish. Starting player noted.

KorvinStarmast

11:26 AM

@Miniman I am about now

BESW

> Lead foot. You always start vehicular contests and challenges with one success if you're driving, but you can be compelled to have your need for speed cause problems and complications.

KorvinStarmast

@Miniman And now I am not about again

Miniman

@KorvinStarmast Sorry, I only just got back - it's nothing important, though.

KorvinStarmast

Ok, hit me, what is it?

Miniman

@KorvinStarmast The "line of effect" thing.

KorvinStarmast

11:40 AM

I am about to drive in to work, but I can do a quickie

Yeah

Miniman

I think what you're running into is that 5e doesn't use that term, but "clear path" is really fuzzy.

So people use "line of effect" as a shorthand for "assuming clear path means a straight line with nothing in the way".

KorvinStarmast

I understand that, but at least it's an in game turn that one can try to explain. Line of effect is a different edition's thing, dropped for (reasons) ...

I man clear path is the used term.

Miniman

@KorvinStarmast Right, but we don't want to redo the argument about what clear path actually means every time there's a question where it comes into play.

KorvinStarmast

Given how we often get pretty detailed about examining words, how they are used, and what they mean, I am against perpetuating incorrect terminology.

You don't even need to use clear path in the answer, but the longer I looked at it, the question is simply wrong.

Sorry I got frustrated last night, it was late, should probably have been in bed already

Miniman

@KorvinStarmast I also wasn't communicating well - I was unwarrantedly snappy.

Sorry about that.

KorvinStarmast

11:44 AM

No worries, I just got rid of my noise, and markov seems to be happy with the answer.

best wishes to you in having a great day to day. I am off to work.

Miniman

@KorvinStarmast Talk to you later!

Anne Aunyme

@eimyr Sorry, I am back! Just finished to read the rules.

The Oracle

12:09 PM

0

Q: Who should make welcoming comments?

When a new user posts their first question, there is often a need to clarify certain aspects of how this site works. This is usually done by a friendly comment starting with "Welcome to the site" or something similar followed by an explanation such as in this question. I always thought these were...

Anne Aunyme

12:24 PM

Some questions (maybe it's answered somewhere but I read that with "dumb" parameters): should the agendas of everyone be secret or public? Can the same interpretation being taken over multiple time by different persons? By the same person (like by the High Priest)?

eimyr

@AnneAunyme Agendas can be public or secret, it shouldn't matter much, but if everyone reads all the agendas they would be hard to obscure anyway, so I'd go for public.

@AnneAunyme Yes, you can totally Take Over the same interpretation multiple times, even as a regular priest, the only conditions are that the current one needs to threaten your Agenda and you need to gain other players approval - which they might not give you twice.

@BESW I dare you to make a game out of this

doppelgreener

@eimyr Jesus Beats Up All The Romans

eimyr

12:40 PM

@doppelgreener OK, so 1) There's an Adult Swim flash game, which is a brawler depicting bible characters. I daren't link, but it's easy to find. 2) A series of novels by Jacek Piekara depict medieval adventures in a world where Jesus broke the cross and killed the romans. The books are utter garbage, but the idea was interesting.

nitsua60

@eimyr Oh, c'mon. If we're going to dare @BESW to make another sculpture-inspired RPG (a la surgadores), let's at least make it a challenge:

ACuriousMind

@doppelgreener There exists a hack of a wrestling game called "The You Testament".

eimyr

@nitsua60 RPG.SE Chat challenge: post a picture of a sculpture and a title for a RPG that it inspired

Anne Aunyme

12:56 PM

The way of solving unending conflicts seems quite unprecise

eimyr

@AnneAunyme It is. What are your thoughts about that? Do you see that as a problem?

Anne Aunyme

What if one of the players keeps taking over again and again?

it seems like somethings that can be avoided if your players are respectful people, but that's not always the case

eimyr

So if one of the players keeps trying to take over, he can stop getting permission to do so.

doppelgreener

@AnneAunyme (I feel like there should be a game mechanic for defenestration suddenly :D)

eimyr

@AnneAunyme Aaah. Yes, the game is about arguing. If players erupt into a real argument, where they start to value their game objective more than the game itself, then, well, I made a point.

@AnneAunyme I don't know. Do you think there should be some mechanic or comment to address that?

NautArch

1:04 PM

@eimyr if you take the sacrament from that jesus, is it considered a PED?

eimyr

@NautArch Don't know, the bible seems to be fuzzy on the subject.

Anne Aunyme

maybe make it impossible to try to take over more than once on one person as long as the interpretation has not changed

NautArch

@doppelgreener one of my favorite words

Anne Aunyme

like if you attempt to take over A, and fail, you can't immediately try again, if B tries too and fails too you still can't again

but if D tries and succeed, and then A takes over back, you could try again (since the interpretation changed when B took over with success)

eimyr

@AnneAunyme I'm seeing this situation. Alice offers an interpretation. B takes over successfully. A takes over successfully. B tries to take over to which C and D vote "no" and immediately scream "FIE!" because they want in too.

Anne Aunyme

1:13 PM

what do you mean by "they want in too"?

eimyr

as in, they are tired of A&B's bull

What can't happen is that A offers an interpretation, B says "Fie!" and tries to take over, but C&D vote "no", then B shouts "Fie!" again. - that's already in the rules.

Anne Aunyme

where is it?

eimyr

just before the crappy bleeding eyes picture

Anne Aunyme

yeah, you have "another player can..."

eimyr

"otherwise, another player can exclaim "Fie!"..."

Anne Aunyme

1:16 PM

but then you have the explanation of how the power of the High Priest interacts with the one of the Keeper of Secrets

that implies the same player can attempt several times

eimyr

hmm

oh.

I think the idea was that the High Priest can use his perk at any time and it "doesn't count" as if he never tried to take over

but that's a good point perhaps I should limit players to 1 Takeover attempt per interpretation

it would still make it possible to have A-B-A-B-A... interpretation-takeover cycle, but that's for C and D to stop, and kinda the point I wanted to illustrate

Anne Aunyme

maybe just make the High Priest's power more explicit?

like precising "even if he already attempted to take over..."

eimyr

I'll think about it. But it's a good spot, thank you very much for pointing this out.

Anne Aunyme

no problem! I didn't see other problems, so the whole thing seems pretty neat!

eimyr

Thanks! Don't hesitate to point out other ones if you spot them anyway.

Anne Aunyme

1:20 PM

I may want to run one game at some point...

If I do I'll be sure to send you a report!

eimyr

But if it's picked up and tried, I'd be really happy :)

I guess I kinda wanted to get this thing from start to finish for once, even if it remains unplayed.

Anne Aunyme

I think the whole thing is playable as written

I have an idea for a variation I may test this weekend

eimyr

what kind?

Anne Aunyme

I'll be at a manga convention, so obviously the lines will have to be picked up from shitty romance mangas

eimyr

huh

you could run a Monster Musume version

Anne Aunyme

1:24 PM

and the PCs will be people trying to hear what is happening in a romm

and make guesses

eimyr

but what is the incentive?

as in, what are the agendas/

Anne Aunyme

dunno :)

I'll have to think about that

NautArch

@AnneAunyme clearly the incentive is all the cheese you can eat. cheese is always a good incentive.

Anne Aunyme

I think about one agenda being "what happens here is perfectly normal, take over if it's too weird/creepy", another one "I want juicy rumors to spread"

"I want a good reason to open the door"

eimyr

@AnneAunyme cool. remember to set up a number of loaded questions to answer first, like "who's the other person" or "should we call the police?"

Anne Aunyme

1:28 PM

yes!

eimyr

if you make the players hotel maids with agendas like "lazy", "in love with the guest", "hates the guest", "wants to get praised by manager" etc. it would be perfectly within the intended use

Anne Aunyme

this seems awesome!

eimyr

glad you like it

Anne Aunyme

so questions like "Who are/is the person(s) behind this door?", "should we open it?" "should we speak to the manager about that?"

eimyr

@AnneAunyme Let me know how it goes if you run it, I'll wrap up your experiences in the final-final version

Anne Aunyme

1:32 PM

"what is the nature of their relation?" (their is here the vaguest possible)

eimyr

@AnneAunyme the trick to the questions is that they need to be such that every agenda has a different set of answers, agreeing with different selection of agendas on each one

so, with every question you want a 3-3 split between agendas, on average, with no two with the same agendas on either side - otherwise the question is redundant

DForck42

1:58 PM

boop

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