Tennant is going to be a great actor in a decade or so.

He's got little flashes of brilliance. Once or twice he was a Hamlet I really wanted to watch.

@BESW I've got nothing to compare it too.. this is the first time, I've watched or read the whole thing.

But sometimes he was Ten in a trendy T-shirt whinging about Rose again.

@BESW Yeah, that I've noticed. I keep expecting him to pull out the screwdriver and swap into RUN! mode.

...that's not the right clip. There we go.

But yeah, Hamlet can be good. Heck, the Ethan Hawk and the Mel Gibson were better.

(Everybody loved the Branagh, but I just couldn't stop laughing at it.)

@SimonGill I hate NLP. Especially when it's done on me to convince me I'm the one who wants to work more.

And now I want to try Path of Exile

bye!

Ta!

@SimonGill If you haven't seen the Reduced Shakespeare Company's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), I think you might enjoy it.

You miss a lot of the quick jokes if you don't know the specific plays, but it's still actually a wonderful primer for Shakespeare. Their Hamlet is quite amazing.

@BESW I'm sure I've seen a fragment in the past.

@SimonGill Isn't NLP pretty much quackery?

It's about as neurological as Rule 0 is a rule.

@BESW Some of it. What gets sold for many thousands of pounds/dollars as a quick fix manipulation technique isn't very useful.

@BESW There is some helpful stuff in there though. Anchoring is one, modalities is a second and representation is another.

I haven't paid much attention to it, so can't speak to specifics.

I generally need to learn more about self-effacement and providing space for others in a conversation.

@BESW Hehe, fair enough.

This is probably one reason I usually wind up as a GM.

@BESW Not something NLP could help you with really :P

Action, reflection, planning.

@BESW Not the fact that you are good at preparing stories and improvising within the system?

@SimonGill That helps.

I actually got into RPGs because I was doing a dramatic reading from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead for some friends, and one guy announced that I would make a great DM.

@BESW hehe, that's a different introduction than many people have.

I was given the 3.5 core books to read over winter break, and a month later I was watching dwarves kill themselves with heat exhaustion.

@SimonGill I'd been curious about it in high school, but the people I knew played were not people I wanted to associate with.

@BESW Silly dwarves. Armor is for fighting.

@BESW That explains why many people learn some interesting habits from their early career.

@SimonGill Yup!

"Play with unsavory types," or "Don't play at all."

Zachiel's been taught some very sad assumptions about the basic nature of the genre that way.

@BESW I think they've combined with some assumptions that he brought that have coloured his experience too.

@SimonGill Yes, his social experiences outside RPGs definitely colour it.

But his players are obviously taking advantage of that.

@BESW And the other players in his online game.

@SimonGill From what I gather, they aren't so much taking advantage of him as playing a game he doesn't have the skillset or context to play.

And are deluding themselves (and thus him) about what kind of game they're actually playing.

@BESW That too.

It's like if he got invited to play polo, and showed up in his swimsuit only to be told "Sorry, we meant with horses."

@BESW Or still hasn't been told at all.

But they let him play in his swimsuit anyway.

Personally, I'd consider "must buy your way into epic levels" to be suitable warning that they aren't actually playing 3.5. But yes, it hasn't been made explicit that his swimsuit just isn't regulation gear.

@BESW Wait? Buy yourself into epic levels? As in real-world cash?

No, in-game cash.

Ah, I remember now. Cash you mostly get from assets that are really GM handouts.

And I just got a malware warning from the chat archive.

@BESW Bizarre...

@BESW Also bizarre.

This is why I had to brave his second "I'll punch you in your face" to figure out that his last problem was with his online game. Trying to work out what is going on in his stories gets very hard if you don't know which game he's on about.

Even at their best, PbP and tabletop experiences are worlds apart.

@BESW Completely.

There is a huge difference between sitting opposite somebody and going through a scene, and sending text at people in some other room.

I haven't been in a PbP myself, but I've seen them second- and third-hand and I've done a Skype + OpenRPG game.

I suck at text-post games.

@BESW I played an online sidereal game for a little while. On rpol.net, in fact. That didn't go so well since it was highly focused.

The forum-based freeform l5r RPG game worked much better though :)

There's a new question you might be able to help with.

I have a silly question. Do players gain more permanent aspects (rather than changing the ones they start with) under any conditions?

@BESW Not that I can think of.

There's nothing in Advancement, and any other created aspect (ie. Poisoned) should have an end condition.

Okay, cool. That's... interesting.

Um. this is totally irrelephant but I had to share:

Amig@: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…

(Apparently the chat doesn't accomodate #links.)

@BESW Odd... I suppose the presence of the @ symbol on keyboards has given people options when they look for new letters.

And then I just found a sentence on Wikipedia that uses the word "edition" as a synonym for "editing."

@Phil Hi!

Hey

Yo Phil :)

some interesting Dresden questions coming up atm

So, today I am going into my D&D session with only this: docs.google.com/document/d/…

Nothing else. If the party engages in combat, I win instantly.

Brave

@Phil yeah! One of them's even mine...

:)

The party's purpose is to RP their way through a negotiation.

@BESW Should be interesting then ;)

I hope to hear some good stories.

If I have time I'll prep for a simple combat afterward.

@Phil It might all mean I can boost a game I really enjoy up to my top 4 tags by rep ;)

@SimonGill [ching]

bah, I can't find any PbP games I want to play in :(

This is a great question, but it has one hiccough that I'm curious about: the title.

In the DF novels that I've read, potions are always something that one drinks voluntarily for a "buff" type effect.

Sleeping potions.....?

I totally believe they exist, but how would you model that?

@BESW I'd say it was something like an ingested poison.

@BESW Heya

@Lord_Gareth hi!

@SimonGill Does DFRPG model that, or is it more of an SotC thing?

logically it makes sense

an involuntarily taken potion = ingested poison

You could use it in an infiltration, where the alchemist uses a skill to create the aspect "Sleeping Guards", which the second-story guys job can tag for a bonus.

@BESW Well, I suppose this is the big question - is there anything stopping the potion from having a hostile effect on its user? Because if not, then the "self-buff" thing is more of a convention than anything.

@BESW That's the narrative model.

@Lord_Gareth For that matter, he might be creating a sleeping potion to help someone avoid nightmares.

@SimonGill A fair enough proposition.

I think I may have misinterpreted your question though @BESW. Was that helpful?

@SimonGill I think so, yes....

It leaves the act of getting the poison into the target up for situational adjudication (social, stealth, etc), and then... treats the ingesting as an attack?

Or is the act of getting the poison into the guard the attack, and ingesting is the fluff around the aspect?

@BESW Yeah. It's a little weird - there's creating the potion, which is one action and using the potion which is the attack.

@BESW You've got it there.

That wording sounds really really formal

@Lord_Gareth Well, we are trying to work out the mechanics behind the action.

What seems unusually formal about it?

The attack can be done with many different skills though - charming, sleight of hand, disguise (here's your pizza, duuuude. What, no tip?)

You could also use fists to represent holding someone down and forcing a potion down them, but that seems counter to the goal.

@BESW - Well, only from what I can gather based on context, the phrase "aspect" whispers to me of 4e-like ruling formalization where, say, "Sword" is an at-will power

@SimonGill I would totally play a character who thought that was the best way to approach the problem.

@Lord_Gareth Nothing like that at all.

@Lord_Gareth In FATE an Aspect is a short pithy phrase that describes something about the person/object/place it is attached to.

If you narrate part of your action so that an aspect is relevant, you can pay game currency to get a bonus on your action.

An Aspect can be used to provide bonuses and penalties and effects when it is relephant to the actions being taken.

So dropping "Sleeping Like A Baby" on a guard can give you a bonus to sneak past him.

You get that currency when you act in accordance with one of your aspects. The GM can also push you to do something a certain way in accordance with one of your aspects by giving you a piece of currency.

For example, someone who is a "Always A Target for Dumb Bullies" would be able to get bonuses when they do something clever based on knowledge or logic - but could be compelled to avoid physical confrontation.

Whereas someone who is "Too Smart For His Own Good" could be compelled to seek over-complicated solutions that focus on his own speciality.

...I have just invented a minion that will drive the party mad.

@BESW Oh?

@SimonGill docs.google.com/document/d/…

These guys are going to flood the city when the Way is first Opened; they'll be used in a fight as soon as the party unfreezes itself after the city flash-freezes.

@BESW Yes. That would drive me mad.

At least they aren't around to get in the way of movement much.

@SimonGill [snerk]

@BESW Well, either they are dead, or somebody just missed with an AoE :P

Anyway, I suppose sleep would be good. Also, reading. Catch you guys later.

Anyone in here a Pathfinder fan?

@BESW, perhaps?

@Lord_Gareth Not even familiar with its differences from 3.5.

I believe @Cat is PF, but I haven't seen her for a while.

Okay, so: Party shows up at Vor Kragal with a document giving the Lords a stretch of land that Arkhosia just decisively won, to get the Lords' attention.

Party is very polite, and asks nothing except that the Lords take the Far Realm threat seriously and keep their eyes open.

The Lords are very very suspicious.

The Baron pretends to believe the party, just to take the piss out of the Twins for not knowing about it already, but the Twins turn it back by calling him a fool for listening.

The Matron's minotaur zombie avatar was amused, and mostly kept quiet.

The party finally cottoned on to the fact that the lords had NO IDEA how to react to a negotiation without demands, bribes, or other traditional elements.

So they got together out of character and realized a) they didn't need to get the Lords to believe them, just to act like it;

b) they could probably get at least two of the three Houses to work together against the third;

c) they had the perfect way to manipulate the Lords:

The Twins had the ministry of espionage and the Baron wanted it. If the Twins failed to anticipate the attack and the Baron handled it, neither party would be happy, so it should be easy to convince both groups to prepare for the attack.

So... the PC tiefling whose desertion from their House had brought shame on the Twins (who the Twins had earlier called "The Shame,") said, "Wouldn't it be a shame if our House wasn't there and this did happen?"

Silence. Then the Baron goes, "MMMMMMMM," savoring the delicious burn.

The Twins both start shouting and frothing at the mouth, and the Matron's minotaur looks like she wants to give the tiefling a thumbs up.

At that point I ended the scene with the Lords squabbling over who got to take which PC to their lair, as the party had achieved their goal: both the Baron and the Twins will probably be working very hard to be ready for the attack if it comes.

@BESW Well done to them! That sounds like an excellent session.

@SimonGill Yes!

The party loved the NPCs.

They instantly took a liking to the Matron, while finding her the scariest of the bunch.

The Baron's "mmmmm"ing brought down the house every time.

(The idea that he, as a greedy vampire, spoke to everyone "the way a fat kid talks to a chocolate cake," was well received.)

And the twins' incestual and apparently telepathic bond, combined with their constant sniping with the Baron, gave them a good presence. The party enjoyed the way the sister hardly ever mentioned herself, and speculated if she said things like "My brother would like you to pass me the salt."

When the tiefling PC let out his "our House" burn, the game ground to a halt for at least ten minutes from the laughing and the kudos.

When we got back to the game, the Matron's mouthpiece leaned over while the other Lords were shouting at each other and said "Well done. I believe you have achieved your goal nicely." Then looking at the revenant PC, "I'll be working with you shortly."

Then went over to the bickering Lords and said "I'll take the tiefling." This immediately caused a whole new set of squabbling, with the Matron finally 'conceding' to take the revenant.

The party was knocked out and divvied up, and we had "escape from bondage" scenes for the three groups. This included the Matron having a nice conversation with the revenant while wrist-deep in his guts to find out more about the 26 Stain he'd acquired, and the goblin being dangled by his feet over a crucible of molten bronze.

(The revenant makes between three and eight attacks per round, so he racks up a lot of Stain from critting on aberrants.)

@Lord_Gareth We play a lot of PF

@BESW Haha, excellent!

@SimonGill One of my players is talking about building a Pure Mortal MacGyver.

@BESW He'll certainly have plenty of FATE points to throw around for that.

@SimonGill Yeah. I'm trying to track down if DFRPG's got anything specific about equipment --especially ammo.

I suspect it's a "You run out when it's narratively amusing" situation.

@BESW It's certainly an option as a mild consequence - "Out of Ammo!"

@SimonGill I did find that on a more generic FATE website.

But I was confused because it offered mechanics for removing the consequence much more quickly and easily than I thought was balanced.

@BESW Mild consequences drop the scene after the scene it was applied. That seems pretty quick and easy to me.

@SimonGill I thought they dropped the scene after the scene in which recovery began.

@BESW Sorry, yes, you're right.

I'm sure it's usually the same thing.

@BESW For mild consequences, probably. Get some bandages on, or go hunting for that missing clip.