@Lord_Gareth I'd like to say I really appreciate you recognizing the difference between SE and a forum, and the honest effort I see you exerting as part of this community. It's not often easy to do that kind of code-shifting, and you're a real sport. I know I'm not the only one who's seen this.

^_^ I try. @KRyan said I might've been annoying Brian and I've been making an effort to not do that.

Brian's got to have the Gruff Mod Face and call us on our junk.

He's very good at it, and at knowing when he needs to step back and take a deep breath, or when we do.

(Usually it's us.)

But yeah, SE is a very different beast from forums, and the learning curve when someone with an aggressive forum background comes in here for the first time can be rough on some of us who are here because we don't want that forum drama.

When I first joined SE I was pretty clueless, and got in a couple tussles I didn't have to. It was a meta post about strategies for responding to bad questions as "good citizens" that helped it click for me.

And I know I'm still figuring it out. I've told Brian specifically to let me know the instant I cross the line.

@BESW I just answered this question -> rpg.stackexchange.com/q/20106/6172 <-Which sparked from the discussion between @LitheOhm and I. Would you mind checking it over for tone/making sense?

Reading it already. [grin]

Great tone, makes sense. Two things, though. First--although you do say which books you're generally using for sources, it'd be nice to have specific citations for the fluff and rules you're looking at.

Second, and on an entirely different level of "hm?", I'm curious how you feel the 50% magic rule interacts with this.

The 50% magic rule talks about magical spells and magical weapons, but numerous exceptions exist for specific effects and also trans-dimensional effects, the most obvious example of which is the Trans-Dimensional Spell feat

But also including spells like Wall of Force and Forcecage

Well, force effects explicitly work on the Ethereal Plane as well as the Material, if cast from the Material plane.

But like, a plain +1 magic sword has a 50% chance of hitting a ghost normally.

Indeed.

I suppose I'm missing the essence of your question.

Can you clarify it?

How does that information fit in with / enhance / contradict the Weird Fluff?

Well, it sort of reinforces the idea that the manifestations we see on the Prime are made of /something/, but it doesn't solve the debate of if that something is matter or not.

Sigh.

Since one could make a very reasonable argument that they're "made of magic" and that's why magic swords in general have a chance

Alongside "A Wizard Did It," we also have "The Wizards of the Coast Did It."

See also TSR Did It

I'm wringing my researcher for his sources now, but I started a brief citation at the bottom of the post just for the sake of not having to work it into sentences

Yeah, I think that's sufficient if you can't get more from him.

Citation isn't about proving you aren't making things up, nor is it about preventing plagiarism.

Citation is about line of evidence and context: if I want to know more, I need to know where to look.

Well, I put a line in the citation saying that if he divulges more of his sources I'll edit them in.

Thanks.

If I were still running 3.5, I'd be very interested in doing more research, and that line you added gives me a place to start.

@Lord_Gareth Is Libris Mortis a source book that clicks in with the rest of the canon just fine, unlike Ghostwalk?

@JonathanHobbs You are not going to like the answer, because the answer is, "Sort of, what section of the book are you talking about?"

@Lord_Gareth the Ghost Shroud and Shadow Veil armor sections. :)

Unprecedented. However, 'ghost blood' has been a component for some arcane or divine rituals and item crafting since at least 2e, and the idea that ghosts themselves have a physical body on the Ethereal was a 2e conceit that ported to 3e

So there's no reason it cannot click into the canon

It just wasn't part of it beforehand

I take it you just read my answer?

I did!

Very good one too.

Yay ^_^

I really was not expecting to learn that both sides of my debate with her were essentially asking the wrong question >.>

But I trust Afroakuma's words on planar interactions and D&D history the way I trust that water is wet.

I wouldn't be so sure, there's probably a subatomic physicist about to invent dry water.

Did you know they recently worked out how to create matter that was below absolute zero kelvin?

Worked out in theory, or they did it?

Actually did it in practice

It's only "a few billionths of a Kelvin below zero", but it's below zero

Well that is some trippy stuff.

I am not even sure what that implies. Have they really created matter that contains less than no energy?

Yeah, that's one way to put it.

Well, the statement 'below absolute zero' is slightly misleading

But they did bring it to the point where it started doing psychotic things to conventional physics, yes

@Lord_Gareth All in a day's work for subatomic physics!

So my answer wasn't hard to understand? I was worried about that, I had to ask for clarification like five times when I was talking to 'Fro

@Lord_Gareth Nope, I get the gist quite well, and I don't even know much about the planes. Here's my understanding of 3.5e's planes: there's positive and negative energy planes, life is positive energy and unlife (e.g. undead) is negative energy, and there's planes for all the elements and stuff (which was so plain I hated it, so I love 4e's approach to the planes)

Negative energy unmakes life and heals unlife, positive energy does the inverse.

Which is almost perfectly right. The distinction is very, very fine.

Oh, and things can travel between planes.

The Positive Energy Plane (PEP) is the source of animation, light, energy, motion, etc. Its relationship to life relates to life being an expression of animation, energy, and motion

The negative energy plane relates to destruction, consumption, entropy, corruption, and annihilation

Aha okay.

Its relationship to death and undeath is a direct expression of those concepts

You're also missing out on the majesty (and hilarity) of the Outer Planes

If you're interested I can give you a brief run-down of the planes and how they relate to each other.

And I do mean breif

brief**

So coming from that position, here's what I understand about your answer: There's an Ethereal plane. Ghosts "exist" on the ethereal plane in exactly the same way that material exists on the material plane. If they could fully travel here such that they left the Ethereal plane and were 100% here, they would be here in as real a sense as an Elemental from the Earth plane would be.

Correct. The only reason they don't is because their true form can't ever leave the Ethereal

Unless they manage to die again for real

Aaaand I need to edit my answer real quick because I got a detail wrong and the correct version is HORRIFYING

They aren't 100% here, so the sphere of annihilation doesn't really ever touch them. However, some of them possess an ability which lets them interact with things on the Material plane in a very physical way - which means something on the Material plane can interact with them in a very physical way. Schloop! Into the sphere.

nah, that's the Voidstone

I'm not clear on this once you start talking about how they're not all there on the negative energy plane: the ghost either gets sucked through it entirely and deposited in the Negative Energy plane, or the ghost is now half in the Ethereal plane or half in the Negative Energy plane.

Ah okay

Okay, lemme give you the run-down

The Ethereal Plane is what's called a Transitive Plane - it exists "between" multiple planes, touching all of them

Specifically, the Ethereal Plane touches the Astral, Inner, Prime Material and Shadow planes

Right.

(The Inner Planes are Fire/Water/Earth/Air/Positive/Negative

Which means those are the planes where ghosts can appear?

ALL incorporeal undead, ghosts included, are at least partially Ethereal

Ghosts can naturally manifest on the Prime Material plane, and that manifestation can travel (magically or mundanely) to any other plane that connects to the Ethereal, yes

Other Incorporeal undead travel freely and can even leave to planes that don't connect to the Ethereal

Though at that point they start going...wrong.

Well, they're undead so they're wrong already

But they go MUCH MORE wrong

[starts singing] "Oh, the... Shadow Plane's connected to the --Astral Plane! Astral Plane's connected to the --Prime Plane! Prime Plane's connected to..."

So an Incorporeal undead like a ghost, a wraith, or a nightwalker that is "on" the Negative Energy Plane is 70% Ethereal, and the other 30 (the part killing you) is on the NEP

Make sense?

@BESW "my... wrist-watch! Uh oh."

(and so the planar expert Borovich is never heard from again)

In most campaigns that other 30% (again, the part killing you) is on the Prime Material Plane, usually busy killing oyu

So the reason Voidstone doesn't affect them is that they never 'touch' it

Because their physical essence is in that 70% that's in the Ethereal

The Sphere of Annihilation, however, gives less than a damn about that because it attacks the plane it's on and anything "close" on a bordering plane as well - anything near a Sphere that is on the Prime gets affected

I once tormented a group by having them explore the repercussions of using a Bag of Holding to store an object that was 50% of the way between the Ethereal plane and the Prime plane, while they (and thus the Bag) were only 30% of the way between the two.

@BESW I don't want to think about that.

So beings in the Border Ethereal (like the true essence of incorporeal undead, or hapless travelers) or the Shadow Plane (which overlaps the Prime) near the Sphere get sucked in and obliterated because that's what the Sphere does - it shreds reality and planar boundaries

AFK a moment, but when I get back I can give you the cosmic connections if you want 'em

@BESW apropos of nothing, while they were storing 120% real matter created through a shadow conjuration?

Para 5:

The Sphere is a planar gap to the Negative Energy plane. Ethereals get sucked in too and destroyed, even though they're only 30% there, because the other 70% is close enough. Thankfully the sphere can't be sent to the Ethereal plane to destroy Ethereals that are not on the boundary, because the process of sending it through makes it destroy itself.

The bit about how the Sphere of Annihilation was made from Voidstone and ghosts can't touch Voidstone confused me and made me think they can't touch the SoA either.

@JonathanHobbs - that's correct. The bit about how the SoA was made from Voidstone was relevant flavor and doesn't necessarily affect the mechanics. You have my apologies for the confusion. However, Paragraph 3 deals with how Incorporeal creatures are also Ethereal creatures.

If that makes sense

All Incorps are ethereal, not all ethereals are incorps

@Lord_Gareth It makes sense. Ethereals who are not busy manifesting in the material plane are not incorporeal.

And not all Ethereal beings manifest in that fashion.

Ethereal Stalkers, for example, travel physically to other planes if they leave the Ethereal

Only incorporeal undead exist in both at the same time.

@BrianBallsun-Stanton Wibbles

And if it makes you feel any better this whole thing was frying my brain too. WotC and TSR did not rank internal consistency high on their list of priorities when they made worlds

"Learning" D&D's fluff is largely a practice in learning how to cobble together a coherent canon out of contradictory evidence and explain how it is that one bit or another is false in your world

Did I kill chat?

You didn't, I was just captivated by a glitch in the Awesome Games Done Quick marathon.

They just finished the Awesome Games Done Quick section and are now starting the Awful Games Done Quick section. :D

Oh god

Beginning with Sonic 06, one of the worst games of all time.

@Lord_Gareth Getting back to your answer, I understand now and it's neato. I don't know if my confusion was caused by my newb understanding of the planes, but maybe your answer could be made clearer? Either way everything important is there.

Could be either/or, really. The Planes can be trippy and there's a lot of data to go through on 'em. Even my "cosomology for beginners" lecture is...well, complicated

@JonathanHobbs rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/20149/… <-You might want to bring your perspective here

Or just upvote me if you agree with mine :P

Yep, I think you got it spot on. A roleplaying game involves roleplaying.

Tell me, have you ever heard of Dread?

I have heard of it through some answers here. I'm not sure about the details of the setting, but I know that you have to pull bricks from a jenga tower in order to succeed in things, so ultimately the game is doomed.

not quite, but you're right about the Jenga tower. Dread isn't like 3.5e or 4e in assuming a specific world.

In Dread, one player takes the role of a serial killer or supernatural slasher and the others are heroes/potential victims

When you want to do something, you pull a block from the tower. If it stays up, you succeed. If the tower falls, you fail. Opposed checks that tie, tie - both parties succeed a little.

HOWEVER

There is another option

You can declare an action and then knock the tower over, ensuring your success but also killing you in the process

Every time the tower falls it gets completely rebuilt, giving survivors breathing room

The slasher wins a session of Dread if everyone else is dead at the end; the heroes win if they defeat, imprison, or destroy the slasher

It's rules-lite as hell but my god is it a great spooky party game

Oh wow. So the longer the game progresses between failures, the more challenging it gets to succeed at something?

Correct

Like the way a horror movie builds up desperation and tension

Dread is also proof there isn't really any specific mechanic that defines an RPG. I was going to mention earlier "well you have stats and stuff", but then I remembered you can have an RPG that has no stats, and that's just videogames that define RPGs that way.

Indeed!

Everyone is John is another great example of an RPG with minimal or no stats

(Players take on the role of the voices in John's head)

Oh wow, that sounds great.

Lemme get you the rules sheet, it's like 1 page long and simple as hell

Everyone is John is a one-drink minimum kind of game unless you've got a very flexible sense of humor, though

wso.williams.edu/~msulliva/campaigns/john <-Everyone is John. Learn it love it live it.

Alright, I gotta hit bed. G'night, @JonathanHobbs

@Lord_Gareth Goodnight. :D

Ey up

@BrianBallsun-Stanton Alas, no, but if it helps it was 1/7th of the Rod of Seven Parts.

@Lord_Gareth So... it's like being a Doctor Who fan.

@Lord_Gareth How many Jenga sets do you need to play Dread?

Also, I am now thinking of an argument that the Munchkin card game is an RPG.

(It's silly and doesn't hold up against some tests, but it's arguable.)

@BESW Just one Jenga set for Dread

I might try to track that down some time. I do have Jenga.

I've not played it myself; but it sounds rather good

Hooph. Hobbs and I totally tore apart my awesome dragon encounter to make it better, but now I have to start building the mechanics from scratch again.

Start with hats

All good cults need hats

the dragonpope has the biggest hat of them all

the cult leader steals his hat

now the cult leader is more powerufl

and is the dragonpeop

and says "yes now i am the dragonpop"

and then the city explodes and he laugh

and teh dragonpop sends the players back in tim eto stop them taking his hat

so the players punch the leader

and the day is saved

The credits roll as the cast dances into boom mics in outakes

@JonathanHobbs We keep passing like ships in the dark today.

@BESW I dunno, I am sure ships in the dark would not even realise they'd passed each other

I suppose so.

It's a weird expression.

I'm still having trouble with how to open.

Give them a cutscene of the Golden One in battle and being struck down by a Disturbance in the Force?

Start with the Golden One yanking them back from their well-deserved afterlife?

Also one PC has actually been alive these 79 years. He's got an immortality ED that's already kicked in.

(And wasn't there for the Chair of Death.)

@BESW Wow, I wonder what he's been up to.

The player is willing to say "Stuff" and leave it at that.

@BESW Generally I just pick a spot, work forwards (and backwards) from there, and if a better place to start shows itself, pick that. If you have several options you can't pick between, work out your goals (do you want them in the fast-paced action straight away, or after some slower-paced storytelling?) then find which ones meet them. If you still can't pick, you have several options that are all equally good and that means there's no wrong choices.

Haroom.

Trying to rebuild it here if you want to watch me fumble. docs.google.com/document/d/…

Fumbling around is the most important part of writing, so ok :D

Input is welcome.

here or there or Skype, whatever.

You are in a twisty turny maze of passages, all alike.

Openers: Dramatic fight and info in book; old relative dies and tells a tale (que cutscene), big monster fight and monster is hired/cohort of pre-emptive strike by cult as they consider players potential threat, higher power asks them to deal with it, fortune cookie "You will destroy a cult"

@Vi hi!

So, what are people up to?

Reading Robin Laws and doing C++ tests

No project until monday

@Rob Nice.

Yarp. How's everyone?

My brain is in revolt about having to do this book design and epic D&D encounters at the same time.

But right now I have a York Peppermint Patty and I'm listening to Stablefree's jazz remix of Discord. So things are good.

Oooo Peppermint Patty, yum yum

Well; if you need non-system ideas, just ask

4e, I know nowt, but I can improv

Well, okay, here's something that is upcoming.

[deep breath]

The party receives a cryptic warning that an otherworldly horror is going to enter the world. They don't know where or when, just "soon."

And that it's easily a world-ending event.

I'm going to have it be in a particular location:

The mirror-tower at the edge of the enemy capital.

(Some noble went mad and lined his entire tower stronghold with mirrors, then quietly vanished. Nobody goes there anymore, but it occasionally seems to be inhabited.)

The city is defined by its three remaining noble houses, each of which is a major part of the war machine: one house does necromancy, one does sanguimancy, and one does elemancy.

The players need to sneak into and through the city to get to the Tower of Mirrors.

I need ideas about what that might be like in three sessions or less, with each session being one long encounter or two very short.

Does this encounter list include doing the tower of mirror dealy as well?

No, though I'd welcome ideas there I have some of my own.

The city doesn't sound a particularly friendly place

At the moment I've got... well, right now my idea is for the party to do a ritual that gets them into the sanguimancy house's laboratories and sneak/fight their way out of that (one of their previous members left a lot of blood back there and it'd be easy to use that for sympathetic magic to get back into the Blood Labyrinth).

@Rob Yeah, its upper crust are magic-saturated humans who have twisted into tieflings due to ancestral pacts with devils. The middle and lower classes are humans who believe the tieflings are running a Great and Bountiful Human Empire, and all other races are slaves.

Well, I'm not married to the lab idea.

(This party has one tiefling and no humans.)

Possibility: Necromancy house wants something from blood house; ally with them (vampire -> blood) and do over the sanguimancy house, the necromancer people then shift you through shadows to the edge of the mirror house

(The one tiefling is a turncoat who used to be a desk jockey for this city's CIA, and is also a minor member of the elemancy house.)

Then; CIA approach the Tief with a redemption chance; if he can get them one over on the elemancy house on some (illegal thing) then the CIA will get them to the mirror tower

The party's hostile to this whole place; they're on the other side of the War. It's the enemy capital.

Any underground resistance? That's another possible way in

The non-human alliance

Actually.... there's the Friendlies.

Enemy capital; the friendlies can give them a chance to start a house war in the city, said war will give them the chaos they need to get to the mirror towel without any trouble

One of the early players who hasn't been able to join us for months saved and adopted a goblin who has, by this time, fathered and inspired an entire clan of undercover freedom fighters.

Double win for the nice team

That's a definate link then! Freedom for goblins!

They're called the Friendlies, they're all goblinoids, and they set up as ordinary goblins in an enemy area and then make friends with the locals to set up a resistance group.

It's reasonable enough of them would be captured slaves in the capital to have some small influence.

Free the slaves, the slaves know how to get to the tower

I don't generally design encounters, in truth. I tell the players "There's the enemy city, you need to get to the tower. Now what do you do?"

And react

I'm generally the same. This campaign is really weird for me.

Is 4e more encounter than freeform based then? I really should give it a try, just to see.

It can work either way.

Due to my starting with premade adventures that I just reskinned, because I wasn't comfortable with the system yet, and to the railroad nature of the game, I've been doing a lot more premade encounters.

But I have run parts of the campaign where I make the NPCs I expect to need and establish the likely terrain/hazards and just arrange them into encounters as needed.

You know, "I have everyone and everything in this area statted, so whatever you do I won't need more than 5 minutes to have the combat ready and I can improv anything non-combat."

Summon something, get it to rampage through the city, use the distraction to get to the tower

Go through the sewers under the city, beat up a variety of things in there until you're under the tower

One thing I would like is to have some kind of homing / teleport ritual that they use to get close to where the Thing will come through, and OHCRAP it's the enemy capital.

Or use the teleporter: youtube.com/watch?v=JnoIclboPFY

Make one up then :)

Part of my problem is that this is a campaign I'm massively speeding up.

I had an entire adventure planned for infiltrating the capital for a different reason and am kinda trying to shove the basic experience in here.

I am very tired. Shall sleep on this. Thanks! Definitely gonna bring in the Friendlies.

@BESW I wish I had that problem. XD

@Vi Since it's because most of his players are leaving, I don't think you do.

That's why is it? Downer :(

@SimonGill Oh right, eash. Unfortunately I do know what that is like as it happened to the last two or three campaigns I've been in. I have a 3.5 elf stuck up a rope over a pit, another elf just standing around somewhere, and the last one stopped in the middle of combat.

Play by post suuuuucks

Unless you get invested in exactly the right game with exactly the right DM and players who are really invested

Then it's great.

But otherwise. Eash

One day I will get past level two.....

@Vi Even if you have to start at level 3 :P

@Vi He's got enough time to wind down though, so it's not going to end mid-encounter like that. Sucks when that happens!

@SimonGill Hell yes. That would be a big step up

@SimonGill Yeah, your guy is perpetually about to deal 2d6 damage (or something) to some goblin until the end of time. You just hang around waiting for the DM to resolve it. Weeks sometimes. But eventually you realise you are the only one still refreshing that damn page. :P

Happens in combat way too often

The one about standing around was right after a big fight

@Vi Ah yeah. Play by post does often have that problem.

It seems like there is no adequate way of staging a battle on a forum unless you are ALL online at the same time

But at the same time play by post has a lot of advantages over tabletop

It's way easyer to be a character and think about what you want to say

Sigh

I need a sword that is +5 vs timewasters

XP

@Vi Not really no.

Am I missing something? It seems to me that the top answer here is the worst answer. It seems to suggest that all co-op games are RPGs and that RPGs can't be zero-sum.

@DampeS8N A board game is generally over within a day unless it is Monopoly

That's my answer. XD

@Vi The title and actual question are not the same, unfortunately

@DampeS8N I would say the difference is the level of acting required. You can play black or white in chess but nobody wonders what the Knight's motivation is..or how big the wheels are on the castles.

@DampeS8N Likewise cardgames and so on. Even if you play a computer game you know you aren't suposed to think about how that spesific character would act in a given situation

Not usually anyway

@DampeS8N D&D 4E is an RPG but it can be played just like a boardgame (and in fact there are D&D boardgames that use the ruleset).

I'm ALIIIIIVE!

@Lord_Gareth The coffee is working then?

No but the corn dogs for breakfast is

O.O My answer has a +10! Weeee!

Truth is far stranger than fiction - headinjurytheater.com/article80.htm - inspiration for a World of Darkness crazy maybe?

workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/7617/… <-O.o

Hello folks.

@Leezard good afternoon

@Lord_Gareth I echo the eyebrow raising.

@Lord_Gareth good example of how well SE sites do with lit sticks of dynamite

Oh god, I can retag questions now.

I totally won't use this power for evil

Noooope

I've been thinking about a question, maybe a wiki thing. The formula of an adventure. GM technique/theory sort of thing. Any ideas on the subject?

@Leezard sounds like an excellent blog series

not sure how well it would work as a Q&A

It actually might work as a Q&A

Depending on if @Leezard wants to answer it himself, or wants community answers

I'd say there's to elements to the question that should be dealt with seperately

@waxeagle Yeah, that's my issue too. As a Q&A no one person would have a complete answer, at least that's my opinion...

"How can/should I prepare the mechanical aspects of an adventure/plot line?" and then the second part should relate to the story/flavor

That way you get focus on both halves without the two running amok in each other

It seems it would benefit more by all of us adding to it.

Indeed!

@Lord_Gareth yes, broken out into specifics it's probably good as a Q&A series

@Leezard sure, ask, answer make your answer CW, let the community edit at will

@waxeagle indeed, which is what I'm suggesting

in theory this works excellently, in practice probably not all that great, but it's worth a shot

The two questions are related but definitely different

I'm gonna think on it a while. May have time to do it this weekend.

What system(s) do ya play, @Leezard?

@Lord_Gareth currently, Gamma World. I've played older versions of most of the popular games. Just about any system from the 80's and 90's once or twice. Love horror settings.

Coo', coo'

If you don't mind terrible mechanics (and if you play Gamma World I'm going to guess you don't) you might want to check out the New World of Darkness line. The rules are designed with all the skill of a drunken monkey with a paintbrush, but the setting is very well fleshed-out and experiments with many different kinds of personal, impersonal, internal, external, and existential horror.

Guys managed to turn the game about faeries into a lovecraftian tale of gothic madness and urges gone too far.

LOL "drunken monkey with paintbrush"

@Lord_Gareth They aren't that bad :P THey do the job of showing that life is really hard by giving you so many penalties.

Yeah, GW has it's short comings as a system but I love the setting

I love White Wolf but I won't defend their design team, which is spearheaded by an idiot who believes that competent mechanics and good roleplaying are mutually exclusive

@SimonGill I was speaking less of the penalties and thinking more of the mortals slinging 4 15L (automatic damage) shots a turn with a pair of merits and a semiautomatic

@Lord_Gareth If the mortals are picking up guns - something has gone horribly wrong :P

But yes, the mechanics are a little off.

White Wolf does NO balance playtesting for nWoD. They really don't give a damn. Most of the gamelines have a rough semblance of internal balance but once the crossover starts the only thing you have to be thankful for is that they at least designed the rules to be compatible

But yes @Leezard, nWoD does a great job of displaying horror internal, external, and existential in just about every game line, and though a lot of people miss it the setting is actually more hopeful than oWoD ever was for the simple fact that you CAN make a difference

and it can even be a positive difference

STAND BACK, GOING TO ASK MY FIRST QUESTION ONCE I GET IT TYPED UP!

My favorite horror settings have been in line with Beyond Supernatural and Dark Conspiracy and the like. I enjoy the idea of what "normal" humans do against the supernatural. CoC is fun for a short thing but die or go insane it not enough for me long term.

@Leezard Would reducing the sanity losses help with that?

@Leezard Hunter: the Vigil, nWoD. Ordinary humans discover the horrors that dwell amongst us and band together to take a stand against them. Has elements of slasher horror, insanity, "he who fights monsters", conspiracy, paranoia, trust and mistrust, morality, murder, and vigilantism

Hunter is about what happens when you appoint yourself judge, jury, and executioner

@SimonGill yeah but then it doesn't feel like Cthulhu and I love Lovecraft too much to do that.

@Lord_Gareth Hunter was one I didn't try. I did oWoD, Vamp, Were, Wraith (a bit) and Mage.

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THE BLACK GODS OF THE NINE FLAMING HELLS DON'T PLAY HUNTER: THE RECKONING

Will look at nWoD

DON'T DO IT

I still have trauma flashbacks from oWoD Hunter

As well as the ones from oWoD in general

lol that bad?

@Leezard "Hey gauis we no u haff trubble w/dem monstahs, but h00manz no fight monstah! So we give u angel 2 raep ur mind an' give y00 SUPAH POWAH!"

Hunter: the Reckoning was literally the exact opposite of what it promised to deliver

And even after loading you down with angelic superpowers

You still died every time

@Leezard It's alright, if the only thing you use is the core book.

lol

oWoD in general had huge problems in the flavor, mechanics, worldbuilding, execution - who am I kidding, oWoD had huge problems in the "The designers confessed that they designed the whole game stoned," department

I'm not making it up. They admitted to it.

As oWoD goes, I think Mage was the hardest. Only because the very cool magic system made it hard for unimaginative players/GMs.

Played oWoD for four years, hated nWoD when it came out. Then I read nWoD Changeling, saw the light, and never looked back ever again ever

One of the interpretations of the Mystery they opened the line with (and closed with the whole angelic superpowers, which were kinda Solar shards from Exalted if you believe in the continuity theory) is that it's all the essence of Man being awakened.

Well, oWoD Wraith was hard for me to get into but that may have been because I only played that and never GM'd it

@SimonGill I got to know where the were-slug came into it :D

@Leezard nWoD Geist: the Sin-Eaters is the 'spiritual successor' to Wraith, and deals heavily in ghosts, death, and uncertain morality. Its tagline is "A storytelling game of Second Chances."

heheh great visual, I'll check that out too.

A warning, though

Of all the gamelines except perhaps Mage: the Awakening

Geist has the least-balanced mechanics, and they're skewed in the direction of accidentally creating infinite loops

Sin-Eaters aren't weak, but my god they can be unintentionally strong

infinite loops?

Where they can, for example, gain infinite (technically arbitrary since you have to stop somewhere) resources such as Plasm (their mana-equivalent), ability scores, damage, etc, etc

There's multiple engines that can drive that in the Sin-Eater book and sometimes players find them without meaning to

But if you're willing to houserule when it happens you'll be fine.

The themes of the game are WONDERFUL

Cool, will check it out.

I'ma writin' a question and answer!

Working and keeping an eye out too.

Okay guys

How do I inset this link -> d20srd.org/srd/monsters/devil.htm#erinyes <-Into my post, but have the link say "Erinyes" instead of all that?

@Leezard Vi was looking for weird animals to mix with lycanthropy. God only knows where he pulled slugs from...

@Lord_Gareth rpg.stackexchange.com/editing-help has all the info you need on using MarkDown to write posts.

@Leezard You can get to the original conversation if you hover over it, click the drop down arrow and then click permalink. Context might help you understand. Or not.

@SimonGill Cool, thanks :)

Oh god... I just heard the story about how the Chocolatey project got it's name. No sane person should name a windows version of apt-get, Chocolatey-Nuget...

I don't know much about it, used Power Shell some but never Chocolatey.

@Leezard I'm only just hearing about it now.

rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/20165/… <-I posted it!

@KRyan I posted a question ^_^

@SimonGill "Wait, I'm a level 60 lich? My phylactery is a giant golden neck chain that says PHYLACTERY, and I wear it around my neck while I walk around in public in robes made from skinned children daring any fool in the universe to come at me."

@Lord_Gareth And this relates to a windows package manager how? ::confused::

It doesn't.

I just found the quote and thought you might think it was funny

Ah - it looked like you replied to my entry about only just hearing about Chocolatey :P

Yes, it's amusing.

w00 someone voted my answer up!

@SimonGill - So was that a good Q&A or....?

I only glanced at it - I'm letting Jared von Hindman give me head injuries in his crazed theatre :P

'Kaykay

Looks good to me.

Oh, that's why I'm getting no rep - I hit the cap between midnight and 2 AM this morning