TRPG General Chat

1:33 AM

@SimonGill See, that's the thing. This would include full and free use of tons of minis, mats, maps, props, dungeon tiles, the works. For those who want all the bells, but can't afford or don't have the space for it all.

@BrianBallsun-Stanton This will be in the Columbia MD area. That's half way between Baltimore and DC. Aside from that I don't have a location picked out yet.

DForck42

2:25 AM

@waxeagle so i think improved initiative will be my next feat for my chaladin

nm, changing batltewise for imperious majesty

BESW

3:00 AM

Hmm. I just realized that the area around my university would be ideal for a focused-location DFRPG campaign.

Nestled among neighborhoods of varying demographics, churches on one side and a cemetery on the other, built on a very high water table, a nearby tourist city that's obviously infested with White Court, tiny rural settlements a short drive away, and centuries of history of repression and resentment.

And of course a university with all the supernatural fun that can entail.

BESW

3:34 AM

I have no idea what tags I should be using on this question.

BESW

3:51 AM

...it occurs to me that "college pranks" is just about the perfect catch-all coverup for supernatural shenanigans.

BESW

4:20 AM

Hmmm.

Anybody have experience running a game in a setting that one person knows really well and the others aren't familiar with at all?

Magician

One of the players, you mean?

BESW

In this case, the GM.

Magician

That should be fairly common, GMs run homebrew settings all the time

Which no one else knows anything about to start with

BESW

Yar.

Magician

So I suppose I have that experience, why?

BESW

4:25 AM

I'm trying to wrap my head around the potential implications/complications/fallout of setting DFRPG in my college town that none of the other players are familiar with.

@Retrosaur Hi!

Retrosaur

Hello!

Magician

@BESW I reckon that would make a decent question ;)

BESW

@Magician I think the answer is "Go read chapter three."

@Retrosaur How's it going? What brings you to our illustriously silly chat?

Retrosaur

Just browsing around different places

Lord_Gareth

6:15 AM

OH GOD YES FINALLY A nWoD QUESTION!

W0000000

doppelgreener

7:53 AM

I'm wondering - what would the impact be of having a rune system in 4e? Instead of that magic sword, you get a regular sword and pay a rune carver a handsome fee. Bam, your sword is now mechanically that magical sword. When you use up its encounter power, the rune ceases to glow for a while. But what about when you add a second or third rune?

Cool factor aside I imagine it would break the game with the force of an atom bomb.

(That's D&D 4e)

And because I'm on a phone and can't edit - I didn't mention the rune gets inscribed on the sword.

BESW

Mechanically, that'd be allowing multiple enchantments on one item.

In 3.5, it's just a different flavor on the existing mechanics. 4e....

doppelgreener

Precisely, yes.

Oh man, that's making me laugh.

Glad to hear it.

Evening @BESW

@Lord_Gareth Hafa.

8:03 AM

Contemplating dropping a few WoD questions, unsure if I should. They're sorta subjectivish, sorta houserulish

BESW

Feb 10 at 3:16, by Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Standing, Good Subjective, Framing Problem

Lord_Gareth

Oh, no, that's not my issue. Here, how familiar are you with nWoD at all?

BESW

[bwahahah]

What little I know about WoD is old-school.

Lord_Gareth

Hrm. I'll need you to put on this rope coat and stand next to that stake while I get some oil, then.

BESW

I had a D&D player whose previous RPG experience was as an old-school Storyteller. I played one session in his Mage game, and I learned enough to help him adjust to D&D. That's it.

Lord_Gareth

8:07 AM

Speaking as someone who spent three years in oWoD and loved it while I played it, oWoD is a hideous affliction which will, blessedly, leave us as the generation of hostile grognards still keeping its decaying corpse animate finally die off

BESW

(And I've been told since that his methods were highly unorthodox.)

Lord_Gareth

With the distance of hindsight, I can finally acknowledge that there was essentially nothing good about that entire system, including the fluff, unless you wrote your own.

Which is sad commentary indeed.

But you may be able to help me frame this/these questions anyway, @BESW, if you're willing to sit through some Almighty Context

BESW

I can read over my shoulder while I wash these dishes.

Lord_Gareth

SLAY THE DISHES WITH CLEANSING FIRE!

Anyway, in nWoD most of the splats (Vampire, Hunter, Changeling, etc) have a merit that is some variant or another on "You own and operate a location that is beneficial to you." These merits are measured in four or more categories that represent what benefits you have, how useful they are, the size of the location, its security/secrecy/both, and other factors

For example, a Changeling's Hollow is measured (generally) by Doors (entrances and egresses to and from the Hedge and mortal realm), Wards (security), Size (duh) and Amenities (magical comforts and bonuses, from tables that produce lavish feasts to otherworldly videogames that change themselves on every sickle moon)

BESW

Are these places controlled individually or by groups/the race as a whole?

Lord_Gareth

8:14 AM

Yes

BESW

I assume they're basically demesnes?

Lord_Gareth

Yes and no. In concept they're essentially the same, in detail different

These "home" merits can be purchased individually (expensive) or by groups (cheap, but vulnerable to people walking out or failing to maintain their part)

To keep with the Changeling example, personal Hollows are a fairly accepted idea (and often kept secret), but so are Hollows owned by an entire Motley, or maintained for the use of a whole Court

BESW

Purchased in-game, or purchased with meta currency?

Lord_Gareth

Again, yes. You can purchase them at character creation with merit points (representing off-screen effort to gain those resources); gaining a Hollow in-character involves first finding or creating one and then spending Merits as one goes along. Likewise with Havens, Demenses, Haunts, etc

BESW

Okay, carry on.

Lord_Gareth

8:17 AM

One uses XP to represent the effort taken to cement one's hold on the location and resources it represents

Alright, so what I'd wanted to ask and converse about was the various forms of security. Hunter: the Vigil has a great system going for its genre in the form of the Traps aspect, which represents one or more traps rigged into the Safehouse that form unpleasant surprises for supernaturals that would invade it

BESW

(Demesne, in the more generic sense I meant.)

Lord_Gareth

Unfortunately, Hunter is the only system with such robust representation. Changeling, Mage, Geist, Vampire, etc use a generic "security" (or Wards) system that boils down to + Initiative for you, - Initiative for the other guy

And unlike, say, Amenities which got an entire half chapter's worth of expansion in Rites of Spring

Nothing anywhere provides alternate systems for spicing up one's own security with something less insipidly generic

Especially for Changeling and Vampire, I feel this is a thing that should be explored; both games have heavy themes of paranoia and a lack of personal safety, often expressed through home invasion

BESW

So... you want to ask about the possibilities and/or complications of creating custom defenses in other systems.

Lord_Gareth

Certainly the fluff talks about goblin locks, sliding panels, hostile Contracts woven into the woodwork, swinging scythes at head-height and angry hobgoblins bound to Hollows with black oaths of slavery

Aye, and hopefully to get some ideas on how to implement those defenses mechanically

BESW

"How do I create Traps-like mechanics for other WoD systems, and what should I be aware of in doing so?"

Lord_Gareth

8:23 AM

Hrm

A good start, I think, but the resources available to vamps and changelings (and everyone else, for that matter) tend to skew towards the magical and away from the mundane, which makes Traps itself a bad fit

Or I'd just use Traps

Hunters rig shotguns pointing at the door

Changelings rig axes made of spiders

Angry, angry spiders

Vampires can favor hellhounds and blood sorcery

Et cetera, so forth

BESW

Traps-like in function, not in flavor.

Lord_Gareth

Well, the point being that the Hunter system of Traps, which focuses on automatic damage

Doesn't really capture the resources available to magically empowered paranoid bastards hopped up on elemental magics

A Darkling, for example, is very unlikely to kill you

And is highly likely to capture you in some kind of self-replicating slime that devours your happiness until you're too lethargic to move

BESW

So... you want to create a mechanic that achieves the purpose of traps, but customized to the specific system's predilections.

Lord_Gareth

Yes!

BESW

Hence, "Traps-like mechanics," and you get to explicate in the text.

Lord_Gareth

8:27 AM

...Duh. Now I feel all derp

BESW

@Lord_Gareth griffsnuff.deviantart.com/art/Derpy-Hooves-269500401

Lord_Gareth

Hahahaha

Mods are asleep, post pony questions!

....Wait

Legend produced an unofficial My Little Pony supplement

I could actually do that.

BESW

I've found two different independent attempts at MLP PnP RPGs.

One of them had some pretty good ideas, but they were both clearly My First Game Design.

Lord_Gareth

Yeah, this was very definitely a supplement. A lot (all) of the tracks have been cannibalized for use in the upcoming monster guide

But it was the origin of the Elemental tracks, as well as the Winged Beast (Pegasus) and Divine Beast (Unicorn) ones

So some long-term good for the system emerged from it

BESW

Cool.

I liked the one that had Primary Attributes of Body, Mind, and Heart, then Secondary Attributes of Health, Energy, and Courage.

The other one tries to use the Elements of Harmony as the core attributes, and it... doesn't really work.

Lord_Gareth

8:37 AM

Yeeeaaaah

BESW

I could see a FATE mod with stunts reflecting the different races' specialties; most unicorn magic is just allowing a mental skill to substitute for a physical one.

Lord_Gareth

Well, eh, I'm leery of that for the most part, since the whole world has a giant smudge over the "How do they work without thumbs?" issue

BESW

One moment, I have that link.

►

Lord_Gareth

Yeah no :p

BESW

Pinkie Pie is made of coffee grounds and party balloons. What about this doesn't make sense?

Lord_Gareth

8:46 AM

Well, you see

There's the bit where Applejack is not made of either

BESW

Applejack is made of solid stubbornness.

At any rate, a FiM RPG would have to be firmly grounded in social conflict as the core of its functionality. The relationship between ponies would be the basis for success, failure, and advancement.

@Rob Hi.

doppelgreener

> If Bob has aspects relating to Mary and Joan, but Mike is there tonight and Joan isn't, it seems to me like Bob's got an aspect drifting in the wind.

@BESW Do you mean Mary?

Rob

Hey @BESW morning and all thank

BESW

@JonathanHobbs Did I mean Mary instead of which name in what part of the sentence?

It'd be interesting to create a system where notable success is only possible by the fusion of at least two ponies' abilities.

doppelgreener

@BESW You used Mary and Joan, then Mike and Joan, then referred to only having a single aspect drifting in the wind.

BESW

8:50 AM

Sure, I guess that'd make it simpler.

Lord_Gareth

@BESW I think I agree with you in principal. However, it does sort of crap all over some concepts that do have precedent in the show, like Rainbow Dash

BESW

I meant to say that a new guy showed up so Bob, Mary, and Mike are there but Joan isn't.

Lord_Gareth

Like, the episode with Mare Do Well is an example of conflict that is both physical and social

A. Stop people from dying B. Deal with loss of fame and glory

BESW

@Lord_Gareth Physical conflict resolution is almost always successful only through by the cooperation of two parties, unless the character is operating exactly and specifically within their particular cutie mark specialty.

Lord_Gareth

Hrm, perhaps. I'm not entirely sold, but perhaps.

BESW

8:53 AM

And keep in mind, even RD couldn't make a sonic rainboom reliably until Fluttershy was in danger.

@Magician Hi!

Magician

@BESW Hello again

Lord_Gareth

Indeed, but there is a world of difference between writing for a static show and writing for a dynamic game. Imagine, for a moment, if the chase between Applejack and the rest of the ponies in Dodge Junction had been a conflict scene between two groups of players

How fun is it to realize that attempting to run away is doomed to fail since you're by yourself?

BESW

Since the point of the episode is that Applejack is going against her nature and will learn a lesson, in the game it would only occur because her player chose that story.

That'd be the other side of the mechanic system: something that prevents or discourages ponies from working together by pitting their neuroses against each other.

Lord_Gareth

Seems artificial to me

Or, rather, the implication seems artificial to me

Many systems do encourage players working with storytellers/GMs about the sorts of themes and ideas they want to work with, and that's great, but they still leave the exact situation open because in the end games are supposed to be living.

BESW

The game would have to lay out its goals very carefully: In order for show-like scenarios to appear, the goal of the game must be to create interpersonal or internal strife and then resolve it through cooperation.

Lord_Gareth

8:57 AM

If you determine the outcome to begin with, why play a game?

BESW

Take a look at MLWM Actual Play accounts to learn that.

Lord_Gareth

Take a look at what the hell now?

BESW

My Life With Master.

bbl, dinner.

doppelgreener

@F.RandallFarmer "Though moving more than one square passed a creature (as in your example to flank) would trigger an Opportunity Attack (unless it is a legal shift.)" Whilst that's (mostly) true, the way you've worded it, that's not the way the OA gets triggered. The player leaves a threatened square without shifting, and that's the trigger. The way you wrote that, I could interpret that I can move one square past the creature, then move away from it without triggering an OA.

I've edited that into my post to be explicit about the trigger. I'm doing this mainly because there is a lot of confusion about how opportunity attacks work and what triggers them, and there is at least one new member currently confused about that.

Spoony, an AD&D player who has a video blog, recently commented on the fact he once joined a group who it'd turned out had played for years thinking that OAs were triggered just by moving into a space. Approaching anyone to attack them meant an OA!

(This was in an entry in which he talked about just how often it is people are totally confused about one part or another - often many parts - of how OAs work.)

BESW

We had a ton of trouble with OAs, largely because Combat Challenge confused our fighter to no end when we began the system.

Magician

9:12 AM

@JonathanHobbs I never understood this. Sure, rules for OAs or 3.5 grapple could get tricky. But then we'd actually read them again, and find how they apply. The only times we misinterpreted the rules was when we thought we knew them, and didn't care enough to check.

BESW

@Magician That'd do it.

> “It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.”

5

Lord_Gareth

Mmmhmm

amen

doppelgreener

@Magician That's pretty much all it takes, yeah. I once thought OAs stopped movement, then someone took a look in the book and said "wait a minute." I'm not sure why I thought they stopped movement, but I did.

BESW

@JonathanHobbs Because they do, for fighters.

doppelgreener

@BESW I had never played with a fighter before this point.

Lord_Gareth

9:16 AM

In 3.X AoOs are pretty easy...until you start taking resources that let you take advantage of them to a greater extent.

Magician

But that means that genuinely confusing yet important rules are less likely to be misunderstood, as players would pull out their books all the time, until they do understand them.

Lord_Gareth

Then a whole mess of complicated boils forth like pus from a throbbing blister

doppelgreener

Maybe I'd seen a fighter in my D&D 3.5e game. Maybe I'd just never seen anyone running past someone and taking OAs and continuing anyway.

@Magician Yes. The ones that seem really simple are the ones that lull us into our false sense of security that we understand how they work. OAs: really simple, one movement. Grappling: get out your flowchart, and everyone's fully aware they don't know a damn thing about how it works.

BESW

And it makes a lot of sense that you get to stab someone who's coming at you.

Lord_Gareth

Except where it stops making sense

I gotta tell you, as someone deeply into CARPs, stabbing someone while they're running screaming at you is harder than it sounds

BESW

9:20 AM

(That's the biggest downfall of 4e mechanics; they make sense or not at the whim of streamlined game balance.)

doppelgreener

@BESW It does, unless you realise that OAs are more about someone being unable to pay attention to defending themselves properly (can't hold your shield up whilst drawing your bow or waving your glowy hands)

BESW

@JonathanHobbs Right, but it makes enough sense that it doesn't trigger the "maybe we should look this up" button in our brains.

Magician

@BESW Eh. With complex games, you're better off going strictly by the rules if you care to follow them at all. Applying logic to game design doesn't get you very far.

BESW

@Magician I agree entirely, but especially in a system with a simulationist legacy it results in not knowing that you're wrong.

Lord_Gareth

@BESW Every time someone says D&D has a simulationist legacy, a kitten dies. Not an easy death either, it slowly swells up and then explodes into spiders

D&D has a convoluted and contradictory legacy with simulationist elements, yes

Magician

9:23 AM

@Lord_Gareth I went on a rant a few days ago, explaining why D&D doesn't exist :D

Lord_Gareth

But almost all of the "simulationist legacy" is cultural inertia from various groups combined with Ed Greenwood's influence on the game in the form of Oh God Why Did They Publish It Realms

BESW

D&D has a simulationist legacy because a great many of its players think its rules should "make sense" in terms of imagining a physical reality. It gets that legacy whether it wants or deserves it.

3

Lord_Gareth

That answer I'll accept.

But its rules systems have never been truly simulationist, at best projecting a cardboard facade over a shifting base of convenience, "balance", and ill-thought revisions

BESW

No argument there.

Lord_Gareth

I mean, hell, I remember how 2e had references to 'morale checks' everywhere, but no rules for morale checks. Gygax was still assuming that anyone playing his game had a war game background and would therefor have a system in place already for morale

BESW

9:28 AM

(D&D also gets the simulationist legacy because so many of its developers seemed to think it should be or was a simulationist system.)

Lord_Gareth

(So many of its developers were idiots. I would also like to note that Paizo inherited a bunch of that crowd, and WotC just fired the big Kahuna of it)

BESW

I don't really care about the internal politics of it; I'm concerned with what's on the page and what's at the table. Intent and internal politics are only relephant when they impact my ability to read between the lines of RAW.

(You shouldn't need to listen to the author's interviews and read his biography in order to appreciate his novel.)

Lord_Gareth

Oh, trust me, I'm deeply in love with the idea of The Death of the Author

Magician

Gah. Has anyone else here recently read a post on history of D&D, explaining how there was no real "original" D&D, as it was experience created by local gaming groups? Can't find the link...

Lord_Gareth

However, I don't wish to discount the reasons for design decisions because I feel that those reasons add or subtract legitimacy to those decisions

Great example is spiked chain vs. PF vow of poverty. "Why is spiked chain so good?" is answered by "well, because it costs a feat". Legitimate reason.

"Why is PF VoP so insulting?" was answered by "Screw you being poor is supposed to suck"

BESW

9:33 AM

@Lord_Gareth I'm not exactly a DotA guy, but I feel like the reasoning behind a work should generally be gleaned from the work itself. ESPECIALLY when the work is a how-to manual.

Lord_Gareth

Illegitimate reason

Magician

@BESW That sentence took a while to parse. DotA is an acronym that usually means an entirely different thing :P

BESW

@Magician [grin]

I am unrepentant in my ambiguous acronyming.

I'm not a DotA guy either.

Lord_Gareth

I'm not an AotD guy

I find it ruins my day

(Arrival of the Dragon)

So @BESW, question

BESW

@Lord_Gareth Answer.

Lord_Gareth

9:47 AM

Based on your experiences and reading, what single rule or set of related rules most commonly causes headaches at 4e tables?

BESW

Hoorf. Let me think.

Lord_Gareth

/me has an inkling that it might be stealth

Magician

@Lord_Gareth I'm inclined to agree immediately.

BESW

We didn't do a lot with stealth, so that wasn't it in my group.

And the Rules of Hidden Club neatly clear up just about any problem that might arise.

Magician

On second place would be bazillion different marks and what they all mean to a given monster.

BESW

9:49 AM

Action types would be high on my list for common headaches at the table.

Immediate action, immediate interrupt, immediate reaction, opportunity action, opportunity attack, no action, free action...

Lord_Gareth

By action types we refer to immediate/swift/move/standard/full round/attack action/attack of opportunity/free action/part of [X] action?

BESW

You can make as many free actions as you like, but only one free-action attack per turn... or is it per round? Immediate interrupts and immediate reactions are subsets of the immediate action, which is like an opportunity action but their times-per-round you can use them are different. All opportunity attacks are opportunity actions that are treated like immediate reactions, but not all opportunity actions are opportunity attacks OR immediate reactions...

"Shift" is both a movement type and a move action, but not always both at once.

There are no such thing as swift actions or full round actions in 4e.

You get the picture. It's a nightmare to keep track of, not least because they all have such similar names, and then when you get three of them stacking on top of each other I start getting flashbacks to M:tG's LIFO.

Does a no action triggered by an immediate interrupt happen before or after the immediate reaction triggered by the same immediate interrupt, and does anyone have an item or feature that's going to play merry havoc with this? Yes.

[cough] Rant done.

Lord_Gareth

Sweet zombies, sounds horrible

And yet, infinitely cleaner than 3.X RAW

BESW

@Lord_Gareth I know, right?

Lord_Gareth

(I wrote, "All Hope Abandon, Ye Who Enter Here," on the inside cover of my friend's PHB)

BESW

9:58 AM

The ultimate irony I had to contend with while running 4e was that every time something mind-bogglingly stupid or obstructionist came up, it was still better than 3.5.

[eye twitches]

Lord_Gareth

BLACK GODS OF HELL HOW LONG IS THIS SONG BY TOOL?

NINE MINUTES?

BESW

@Lord_Gareth Most Tool songs are pretty long.

Lord_Gareth

Oh god there is no words for my hate right now

I just ran out of skips on my Pandora

Hate Tool so much

BESW

"Right in Two"?

"The Grudge"?

Magician

That's... Not that long

Lord_Gareth

10:01 AM

Something with an "L"

BESW

Wings For Marie is a two-part song for a total of 17:30 minutes.

Lord_Gareth

@Magician If a song is lasting longer than five freaking minutes it'd better be an orchestral composition, Weird Al or a goddamn saga

BESW

Lateralus.

Lord_Gareth

That's the one

BESW

@Lord_Gareth So you'd approve of this.

►

14 minutes of power metal about the Illiad.

I really like Tool as a whole, but it often feels like they carefully craft each album so that nobody likes all the songs on it.

Which, I must admit, seems to add to their charm.

BESW

10:51 AM

....does the Dresdenverse offer any insight into what happens if a White Court vampire is bitten/infected by a Red Court vampire?

BESW

12:02 PM

@AvnerShahar-Kashtan I'm interested in your reaction to the Brows Held High link, when you have the chance to watch it.

Avner Shahar-Kashtan

@BESW Haven't yet, I'm afraid, but I'm keeping the tab open. :)

helo every one :)

@SunishthaSingh Hi!

@BESW helo :)

@SunishthaSingh What's up? What brings you to our illustriously silly chat?

Avner Shahar-Kashtan

12:04 PM

Meanwhile, @BESW, your improv question has gathered a bunch of really good answers.

Not to mention extremely friendly comments. One big happy family. :)

Sunishtha Singh

@BESW nothing new, just like that :) :P

BESW

@AvnerShahar-Kashtan I think it struck a cord.

Most of us feel like uncreative hacks at one point or another, especially when the genres we usually play in are so extensively mined in other media already.

@SunishthaSingh Anything on your mind we might be able to touch on?

Also, Delhi? Awesome.

@Rob Welcome back.

Rob

hey @BESW how is?

Avner Shahar-Kashtan

My current Pathfinder GM is also a semi-pro improv comedian, and in the last several conventions he's been giving lectures/workshops on Improv-for-GMs (and for players, too).

Very popular.

Rob

@AvnerShahar-Kashtan Nice; any tips you can add to that improv question?

BESW

12:10 PM

@Rob I am trying to figure out what kind of Dresdenverse supernatural groups one would find around Myrtle Beach, SC. Aside from White Court, obv.

Avner Shahar-Kashtan

@Rob Better than that, I'm going to get him to come and add his answers.

Rob

@BESW I'm afraid I've only just started on book three, so can't suggest much :)

@AvnerShahar-Kashtan Fantastic; nice one! :)

All the talk of improv just makes me want to play Baron Münchhausen again....

BESW

@AvnerShahar-Kashtan [Thermian clap]

Avner Shahar-Kashtan

Ah, haven't played a good Baron game in years.

Rob

Best played with a large bottle of Port

Avner Shahar-Kashtan

12:17 PM

I actually had a couple of disappointing games a while back that kind of soured me on it. I need some corrective experiences with good players.

(Soured me on the game, yes? Not port. Port is just fine)

Rob

Lunchtime, sadly not Port time, bbl

BESW

Ta.

Simon Gill

1:49 PM

"The works" is going to mean different things to different people. For a D&D 4 player, it might mean that they every table has access to all possible minis/counters for all possible enemies. For someone who enjoys Spirit of the Century - there's only one book you can possibly buy but some unusual dice are needed.

Who is your primary market? Students? 20-somethings in shift-work? 20/30-somethings in 9-5 work? Older roleplayers? Each of those segments is going to have different needs and value your offering differently - which means the price they are willing to pay is going to change massiv…

BESW

4e players will also want to be able to access the DDI and print character sheets from it.

...nearly everyone will want character sheets of some type.

Simon Gill

@BESW Also true... that just proves that getting into the deep detail of the primary market is the important thing - as well as figuring out how to deal with the outliers (somebody demanding to play 1st edition Bunnies and Burrows? Now what?)

BESW

Aye.

FATE players will probably want index cards, whiteboards, that kind of thing.

And what about all the groups that like to use background music? Will there be premade mix tapes for various ambiances available? Can I bring my own and plug it into the system?

Which brings up the issue of noise: is this a big cafeteria-style layout where everybody's trying to be heard over everyone else? Will it be split into more soundproofed cubicles?

Simon Gill

@BESW Can we even use background music without disturbing others? One big room does have the disadvantage of poor and overlapping acoustics.

@BESW There's good and bad things about hearing other games. A good thing is cross-pollination - it helps bring groups together. A bad thing is that it can override the mood of a game and make it harder for one game to focus.

BESW

I can imagine a Toon game adjacent to a CoC game.

And then there are issues of age and content and liability that I don't want to think about.

Simon Gill

2:02 PM

@BESW Age is an easy one - nobody under age of majority after a certain time.

Content isn't too much of an issue though. So long as people are aware that there are kids around it's usually not a problem. Spoonerizing helps... d4 got turned into the all-purpose swear word at Chimera.

wax eagle

2:30 PM

did mxy just get a shoutout in what-if-xkcd?

Simon Gill

@waxeagle Not this mxy, the mxy from Superman (I think).

BESW

Mister Mxyzptlk

Mister Mxyzptlk ( or ), sometimes called Mxy, is an impish supervillain who appears in DC Comics' Superman comic books. He was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and first appeared in Superman #30 (September 1944). He is usually presented as a trickster, in the classical mythological sense, in that he enjoys tormenting Superman. In most of his appearances in DC Comics, he can be stopped only by tricking him into saying or spelling his own name backwards (Kltpzyxm - "kel-tip-zix-um"), which will return him to his home in the 5th dimension and keep him there for a minimum of 90 day...

wax eagle

@SimonGill yeah I figured it was the more famous of the two ;)

DampeS8N

@SimonGill All very good points. I have not answered all of these questions yet. That is part of what I am doings by asking here what people would pay. So feel free to slot in your game of choice and tell me what you think the works is. And what you'd pay to have access to it? :)

Simon Gill

2:49 PM

@DampeS8N Comfortable chairs, easily reconfigured table space, acoustics that let you speak to people within a few feet without getting overwhelmed by other noise, access to food and drink (cold food, cold and hot drinks), wi-fi, plenty of power sockets. Dice for sale (not borrow, because dice will go missing, ability to order games for purchase, complete collections of Exalted and World of Darkness (old+new) books, a library of indie games (especially the one-shot varieties and multiple copies

of the various FATE rulebooks.

For all of that, I'd pay you 2 Big Mac Meals worth of local cash per month.

DForck42

3:09 PM

mornin

Mornin indeed :)

how goes it?

Not too bad.

have a good weekend?

I read through over 1300 pages of Wheel of Time. SO it was pretty good :)

DForck42

3:33 PM

oh wow

Simon Gill

3:53 PM

Yep, only 900 behind now...

DForck42

that's a lot to read

wow

Simon Gill

There's 11000 pages in the first 13 books. I started on New Years Day and plan to be ready for when I can buy the 14th (and final... thank the Light) for my kindle :)

DForck42

lmao

i coudln't get into the wheel of time

tried reading the first book like 3-4 times, couldn't do it

Simon Gill

@DForck42 Heh, I read the second one first (more fool me).

DForck42

hmm

Simon Gill

4:03 PM

The first few books are alright if you like that kind of thing. Somewhere in Book 6 the number of plot threads and characters start to explode without much resolution.

DForck42

mmm

Simon Gill

Thankfully, 12,13 and 14 do manage to start resolving plots. Sanderson all but takes a flamethrower to the danglers.

DForck42

4:20 PM

@SimonGill lmao

MadMAxJr

5:22 PM

I wonder what the dice say to each other when there are no players around.

DForck42

@MadMAxJr their dreams

Simon Gill

@MadMAxJr I know of one set of dice that have nightmares of a hammer...

I know somebody who actually did follow through on his threats to a dice once. When it kept on rolling badly - he actually got the hammer out, broke it into pieces and showed the remains to the rest of his set.

Seemed to work.

DForck42

lmao

wax eagle

@SimonGill lol.

MadMAxJr

It's like the army, you shame one in front of the others so they shape up.

DForck42

5:31 PM

@MadMAxJr but isntead of shaming, you brutally slaughter them

wax eagle

@DForck42 same basic concept :)