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00:00 - 23:0023:00 - 00:00

12:04 AM
Yes! And Monroe is still the show's heart and soul.
 
Help me @BESW-won-Kenobi, you're my only hope
I'm about to run a Hunter game and it's my first running-for-a-group game in over a year >.>
 
@BESW and David Giuntoli still can't act
 
@Lord_Gareth Aaaaand I can help with White Wolf because?
@C.Ross But he's so earnest when he tries!
 
You understand story structure and narrative tropes
We go over this every time >.>
 
I think I've played more WW than @BEWS >.>
 
12:15 AM
I'm not restricting the help :p
Okay, so, quick summary:
 
@BESW it's not painful like Brett Dalton (Agent Grant Ward on MAoS)
 
@C.Ross That is not a high hurdle, and Giuntoli clears it easily.
 
Setting is the semi-fictional city of New Avalon, which has replaced modern-day Baltimore. City theme is "Wasted potential", city mood is "frustration." New Avalon is a city of 'should have, but didn't'. Building the new subway system should have solved traffic problems but everyone is too scared to use it. Ousting the corrupt mayor should have cleaned up government but it didn't.
New Avalon is full of opportunities wasted by circumstance or insufficient planning.
We currently have two intrepid heroes
 
@Lord_Gareth or complete madmen, depending on your point of view
you are playing Hunter right?
 
The one is formerly from New Orleans and works with the Lucifuge, an ancient order that specializes in demon hunting (note: supernatural is secret in this setting). Her former team went down fighting nearly a month ago and she's been ordered point-blank to assemble a new one (the other PC(s))
@C.Ross Touche
The other is a fresh, possibly unblooded Hunter working with the Ascending Ones (alchemists and drug dealers; the Ascending Ones do not specialize in a particular kind of monster, and use mystical elixers to aid their hunts), recruited first to make their drugs for them. Inducted into the Vigil when bad stuff went down during a drug buy
I can spend part of this first session just introducing them and getting some of the Mexican standoffs out of the way
New Avalon is currently experiencing a thus-far-successful attempt at reviving the Candle Compact (in short: hunters agree to hunt monsters, not each other) but things are still tense between various organizations and freebooters
Part of the reason our Luci girl is being ordered to reassemble her team
 
12:25 AM
what are you struggling with?
 
An opening story/conflict. I'm comfortable with them being ordered or requested into it; the Luci is struggling with grief and the other one is unblooded and in any event I intend on playing up the idea that working with Conspiracies means jumping through hoops
But I'm not entirely certain where to /go/ where the org can identify a threat without handing out all the info
 
They need to be fighting monsters, right?
 
@BESW for some value of monsters ...
 
@BESW - Or resolving conflicts whose roots or tools are supernatural in nature
For example, identifying a cursed doll as the source of paranormal happenings in a house and removing/destroying it
Closing a gate to the Underworld
Etc
 
Wasted potential and frustration... obviously, someone's plan went awry and something (monster, spell, whatever) ran amok.
The running-amok is obvious to the PCs, but its origin (the plan, or whose plan it was, or both) is not.
 
12:30 AM
Hrm. nWoD in general does have a giant running subtheme of people summoning things they can't control.
 
Perhaps they run into a spell-fueled street riot, or a rampaging monster that just looks like an unusually powerful guy.
Once they subdue the immediate crisis and preserve the veil, they need to figure out what caused it so it doesn't happen again.
 
@Lord_Gareth and protecting the masquerade ...
 
Could do something with a slasher that turns out to be an idiot summoner possessed by the thing he called. When they put him down or exorcise it the killings start up again in the exact same pattern.
 
That would make sense. Give the "thing" an agenda that hints at something else you want them to uncover.
 
And Luci girl is looking for whoever lured her cell into the trap that killed their friends
She/they went after what they thought was a poltergeist, turned out to be an elder demon
It ended badly
So the idea of a supernatural being with an agenda will fire her up
In case it's related
So what is it? A demon is too easy and it's not their M.O. anyway
Ghost called out of the Underworld when the idiot summoner was looking for a 'demon'? Murder spirit?
 
12:36 AM
Relate it to whatever you want them to do next.
 
Hrm. Well, it kinda sounds like I could be building up to a campaign theme of 'dumbass summoners'
Which eventually leads them to the people who are spreading around this crap
And I can worry about who, what, or why is trying to call things from various other dimensions later
Why the walls between worlds need to be thinned for Mysterious Undefined Villain Person
 
Who benefits from a sudden proliferation of dumb summoners and then resultant chaos and rampant supernatural powers?
 
Depends on who you're asking, really. Fanatical Sin Eaters would want it, certain factions in the Underworld would be creaming their pants, the spirits of the Shadow are always trying to break through, Hell likewise
The forces of the Abyss want the walls of reality thin so they can turn 'something' into 'nothing'
A nascent godling might want to feast on the glut of energy
Or a sorcerer who thinks she knows what she's doing
 
My default would be to have a person or group on this side who have petty reasons for doing it, which are being exploited by a being or group on the other side who have more ambitious reasons.
 
The cult/god relationship, for example
Cult is in it for power
God is in it for MANIFESTING IN THE WORLD OF FLESH
Okay, so I can build up the story into confronting a splinter of the cult eventually
 
12:43 AM
Yeah, but the cult kinda knows what it's getting into usually.
 
Which will lead the PCs to the core cabal of supernaturals that serve and worship whatever this thing is
And eventually into containing or destroying it
Has room to incorporate non-hostile interactions with the supernatural and to try to preserve, or destroy, the Candle Compact as they seek allies against the spread of supernatural power in a city rife for exploitation
 
Example of what I'm thinking of (not WoD-based): a group of sorcerers use their powers to trick rich non-magicals into thinking they're being getting magic through terrible rituals and sacrifices, when it's really just a scam to get rich and powerful people in compromising situations so the sorcerers can manipulate them.
However, the rituals and sacrifices attract the attention of an ancient local spirit who had lain dormant for centuries, and is now rising to kill everyone--magical and mundane--who is trespassing on its land.
 
Nods
I think in this case I wanna play up the conflict with something more deliberately malevolent, partially because I have issues helping these folks into a 'Hunter' mindset
They lack vengeful urges >.>
 
Fair enough.
 
So by making the impetus more clearly malevolent I avoid having to deal with derailing the primary conflict
 
12:49 AM
You know my reaction is "If you have to work to keep them from playing the kind of game they normally play, why aren't you instead helping them play that game?"
 
They always say they want to play a Hunter game about hunting monsters and always end up trying to redeem villains.
 
But if they want to play a more vengeful game and have asked for your aid in helping them do so... go for it.
 
And they complain when I present them with more gentle game concepts
 
A bundle of kittens?
 
A bundle of half-goblin kittens that have "usually chaotic evil" in their alignment line!
 
12:56 AM
Treasure Type Q
 
[Dusts off his accepted answer]
Simple questions for the win
Danke for the help, @BESW, @C.Ross
I'll be back later when I'm trying to define the 'core' cult and whatever freakish god they worship
 
Oooh, cults are fun!
... er... in RPGs, I mean, of course.
Kool-Aid, anybody?
 
[Puts on 'Voodoo' by Godsmack, because it's required listening for cult stories]
 
@Lord_Gareth Lunatic Fringe by Red Rider?
 
1:42 AM
You know I have always felt that I should try listening to that band...
No idea why...
 
@RedRiderX :-)
 
2:10 AM
6d6
 
 
1d6
 
 
1d20
 
2:13 AM
1d100
Aww
1d3
Really?
1d4
 
Ah there we go
 
@RedRiderX just the standard set, and we were explicitly told no more
 
Ah I see.
 
Thank @Balpha for what we have
 
2:14 AM
Ah okay
 
we did a chat script to make dF, it's linked somewhere I'm sure
 
Morning!
 
evening
 
2:31 AM
Night!
1d12
 
Oh, good, that one works.
 
3:23 AM
d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20.
3
Up to 9 of any one die at a time, but you can mix expressions.
If you leave off the number of dice, it defaults to 1.
If you leave off the number of faces, the default is 6.
D20
 
d
 
 
4d
 
 
3:26 AM
5d4 2d8
 
1
1
2
4
1
6
1
 
4:06 AM
If anyone wants the dF script I can scrounge it up again.
 
4:20 AM
I CANT EVEN COPE ANYMORE 😂 http://t.co/D4iJsfjqy2
user image
2
 
4:46 AM
Players successfully stopped possessed man from sawing his own arms off
 
Sounds like a win.
 
Also got him medical assistance in time to get the one arm re-attached
They've gotten a glimpse of the thing
After agonizing between 'ghost' and 'animistic spirit' I went, 'Wait, if I just make it a Geist I can have the best of both worlds!'
 
5:02 AM
And the best bit is that since there's no defined rules for incarnate Geists and in any event zero of my players have read that book
I have UNLIMITED POWER
[Immediately goes mad with power]
 
5:13 AM
0
Q: How can I help my players get into a vengeful mindset?

Lord_GarethI've often attempted to run Hunter: the Vigil (part of the New World of Darkness gameline) for my players. Unfortunately I frequently run into the same problem; namely, when I set up villains with the tiniest shred of moral ambiguity ("It doesn't mean to hurt people, it has to feed..") they break...

You have no idea how tempting it was to title that question, "How can I help my players START being murderous cretins?"
 
 
5 hours later…
10:54 AM
@Lord_Gareth i can see how tempting that would be 8) but it would also be confusing, so i'm glad you didn't
 
 
2 hours later…
12:28 PM
0
Q: what was the effect of the Japanese attack on fighting slavery in US?

andre-lUS slavery was worst and must brutal system of slavery in all the history of mankind. What was the effect of the japanese attack on fighting slavery in US?

The hell?
 
@lisardggY Hmmm....
This should be interesting...
If it's not just an abandoned troll post.
 
History.SE draws conspiracy theorists like moths to a flame, but this doesn't seem like one of those.
 
@lisardggY Yeah mostly because it makes literally no sense.
I know all the words you're using I just don't know what they are supposed to mean put together like that.
 
@RedRiderX "What part did the Mongols under Gengis Khan play in the civil rights movement in the 60's. If possible, cite live interviews".
3
 
@lisardggY Would upvote
 
12:34 PM
Me, I feel like upvoting the original question ironically. But I shall resist the urge.
 
@lisardggY Upvote then flag
 
12:47 PM
@Lord_Gareth I've been reading backlogs right now. Up to this line my reply to your questions about morality would have been "have them play D&D murderhobos", so... I guess we're on the same line.
 
1:36 PM
Just watched Time of the Doctor with Trogdor.
 
Conclusion: It is an encapsulation of Moffat's run producing Doctor Who. Whatever you liked about Eleven's series, or disliked about them, is contained therein.
Tasha Lem is not River Song, but I can see why people are confused: Moffat accidentally wrote the same character again.
Time is probably one of Smith's strongest performances as the Doctor, and he made it worth my while. I've always best loved Smith's Doctor when he's being So Very Old or In His Second Childhood, and he got to do both very well.
 
@BESW Very true.
 
Moffat's weakness writing women is very obvious in Time, as is his insatiable need to Always Go Bigger.
 
I'd have to wonder why he suddenly started getting older looking over these 300+ years and not the x00+ years before that.
 
1:42 PM
@RedRiderX There are two partially-compatible answers to that.
 
Oh?
 
...well, there's also a third that just makes the other two irrelephant: 300 of whose years?
 
11th's
 
Trenzalore years? Earth years? Gallifrey years?
 
Oh right.
Good point
 
1:44 PM
First, if we take the Doctor's statements about his age at face value, he's averaged roughly 100 years per body.
 
But then again whose years were we counting before?
 
@RedRiderX Exactly. It's all rather wibbly.
 
Yeah but he was already in this body like 400 years before TotD right?
 
Ten got less than fifty years out of his body, if I recall correctly.
@RedRiderX Right.
 
Some say 5 but yeah it could be 50
 
1:45 PM
So he nearly doubled the time spent in that body while he was on Trenzalore.
 
Apparently "Uncle Grumpy" was in his body for quite some time.
 
@ProfessorLokiCaprion That.... is hard to pin down.
If we take Ten's statement about his age at face value, he lost years compared to the last time he'd made a definitive statement about his age on screen (Seven, I think).
 
Well so is the period after 300 on Trenzalore.
 
So here's the second point, which is much easier to discuss than the astonishingly elusive subject of the Doctor's age (Moffat says the Doctor's totally forgotten, actually, and is just making up numbers):
We have some small evidence that Time Lords in their last regeneration go to pot.
 
@BESW Right that is a good point.
@BESW Ooooh that's right!
 
1:48 PM
@BESW ... I'm not familiar with this turn of phrase.
 
@ProfessorLokiCaprion Go bad, get ruined.
The Master in Old Who ran out of regenerations during the Fourth Doctor's era.
 
@BESW AH! Got you. So you're not saying they get hooked on marijuana.
 
He wound up looking like a hobo dipped in a volcano.
 
Wasn't Smith supposedly the last, though?
 
The Master spent several stories trying to get more regenerations (his plots ranged from "hug a black hole" to "take over a solar system of reality-bending psychics") before he gave up and just possessed a non-Gallifreyan's body.
So Eleven, being at the end of his last regeneration, may have suffered similar accelerated aging toward the end of his life.
 
1:53 PM
Sounds about right!
I know this may sound weird, but I'm most eager to see Capaldi-Doctor's chosen outfit.
 
Hee.
 
What do we call him? 12? 13? 1b?
 
@ProfessorLokiCaprion 12
 
"Twelve" is probably going to be the standard.
Although I like "1b."
 
that's what 11 called him
@BESW Hah yeah I wonder if they'll bring up more about that.
This being a second set and what not.
 
1:57 PM
It's rather amusing: Doctor Who wikis across the Internet watched Day of the Doctor, considered whether or not to edit thousands of entries to reflect an updated numbering sequence, and simultaneously went "Nah."
> It was the first time I've ever seen a fandom look at debatable minutia and go "You know what? Screw this."
 
Haha! It's not even that much to renumber, honestly... just Eccleston, Tennant and Smith.
If they inserted one before Hartnell, that'd be something different.
 
@ProfessorLokiCaprion Imagine having to edit every page on tardis.wikia.com that mentions Eccleston, Tennant, or Smith.
@ProfessorLokiCaprion I'm still holding out for the Other.
 
There was a nice chart I saw a few days back...
 
So John Hurt is the Warth Doctor, Richard E. Grant is the Shalka Doctor, Eccleston is Ninth, Tennant is Tenth and Meta-Crisis, Smith is Eleventh, and Capaldi is Twelfth.
 
1B!
Wait, wasn't there an episode of Classic Who that said Hartness wasn't the first?
 
2:03 PM
There we go
@ProfessorLokiCaprion Take a look at the chart.
 
@ProfessorLokiCaprion Kinda sorta implied-ish.
 
There was the Brain of Morbius sort of thing right?
 
There's a scene in The Brain of Morbius which implies that the Doctor had previous faces, but it wasn't explicit.
And then there's the Cartmel Masterplan, which never got implemented because the show was cancelled, but heavy hints were being laid in Seven's era.
The Masterplan would've revealed that the Doctor had a whole previous life as one of the founders of Time Lord Society, alongside Rassilon and Omega, and that the Hartnell Doctor is a kind of miraculous throwback/reincarnation of that "Other" historical figure.
@RedRiderX I think the Valeyard should actually go between Tennant and Smith.
It makes more sense, for a lot of reasons, not least of which is that it fits neatly into the Time Lord Triumphant concept.
Mr. "I don't want to go" splitting off a personality to sabotage his own past and steal the regenerations for a do-over would make a lot of sense.
(As a side note, someday I hope they figure out a way to re-canonize the Shalka Doctor.)
 
@BESW Hmm well since it hasn't been nailed down either way it seems like that's probably the safest bet right now.
 
2:14 PM
(I was actually rather sad that they had Grant play the Neutered Intelligence; it was a double letdown.)
 
@BESW Yeah that would be nice.
 
Shalka Doctor is "my" Doctor.
 
It would have been crazy if he was the War Doctor or something...
@BESW There were never any other stories with him were there?
 
@RedRiderX There's a weird short story which is of questionable canonicity even in the Shalka Doctor spinoff universe: it's written by the Shalka Doctor writer, but it's basically authorial fanfic.
 
@BESW Oh wow
I've wanted to watch the Shalka show but I was never sure how...
I guess I'll see if it's "on the internet"
I don't know how I would watch those original flash files...
Or shockwave or whatever.
 
2:18 PM
Ah, my bad. Not by the Shalka writer.
Anyway, here's the short story.
And here's The Scream of the Shalka on BBC.
Some episodes are in .mp4, some are in .avi.
They can't even be arsed to standardize the file formats, that's how little they care.
But it's nice of them to keep hosting the files, so I shan't complain too much.
 
> You will need Flash to see the animations.
Hmm where would I find the direct links?
 
I just downloaded them and used vlc.
 
Oh never mind "fullscreen" seems to work
 
Hmm. I can't recall; I downloaded them ages ago and just have them on the computer.
 
Thanks I'll try watching these tonight.
Oh early 2000's webtv, what a time.
 
2:23 PM
Derek Jakobi as the Master is great (he played Professor Yana in New Who), and you'll hear an uncredited single-line cameo by Tennant.
 
Yeah I heard about all the cameos
 
(Tennant was in the studio recording something else, heard they were doing a Doctor Who thing, and groveled until they gave him a line.)
 
Liz-10 is the companion right?
@BESW Bwahahaha
 
@RedRiderX Yup.
 
@RedRiderX Well I guess they're all retrospectively cameos...
None of these people were in DW before right?
 
2:31 PM
@RedRiderX I don't think so. I'd have to double-check.
(Especially if you're including the audio plays.)
 
Oh right yeah it's hard to say then...
 
I'm pretty shaky on my audio play trivia.
 
But yeah looking back it's a very interesting artifact.
 
Even without the historical curiosity, the Shalka Doctor is my favorite Doctor, hands-down.
 
@BESW He does seem neat.
 
2:33 PM
There are other Doctors I love, and only two that regularly make me grit my teeth, but Shalka is mine.
 
Judging by appearance anyway.
@BESW Loving a now non-canon doctor is a hard path to walk. :P
 
Prime: What are you?
Shalka Doctor: No, it's HOW are you. And how are you?
 
Heh
 
He's more pop culture literate than previous Doctors, but not as comfortable in pop culture as Ten or Eleven.
 
@BESW Hmm Eleven doesn't seem to comfortable...
 
2:36 PM
@RedRiderX Cup-A-Soup?
 
Every Twitter reference is very awkward feeling.
@BESW Oh well yeah there is that.
 
And there's a hint that the Shalka Doctor is doing a Season 6b thing, which would've been really interesting.
 
Oh okay.
 
Season 6b is the fan theory that between the Second Doctor being tried for his crimes by the Time Lords and his sentence being carried out, he and Jaimie spent time doing "community service" for the Time Lords.
 
@BESW Wow
That would be crazy
 
2:39 PM
They'd be sent out on missions like a cross between a community service program and a black ops teams.
 
@BESW I don't think anybody would send 2 out on a black-ops anything.
 
It fills in several plot holes, including the time during which they were scooped up for The Five Doctors.
@RedRiderX He's quite good at infiltration, amusingly.
Anyway, I must to bed. goodnight!
 
I must admit I'm not that well acquainted with the Second Doctor.
Night!
 
3:23 PM
I am very randomly and very eclectically watching OldWho stories.
Just watched City of Death today.
 
Argh Who fans >.>
<.<
 
Oh, the rest of the Whovians are off? Fine. I won't bore those who aren't. :)
 
I can't certify that there are no Who fans online at the moment.
I can only certify that Dr. Who discussion makes me load my musket
2
 
Fair enough.
Since I do not wish to be musketted, I shall refrain.
 
Tell me, have I pimped GenCrawl at you yet?
 
3:30 PM
You have not.
 
wildwestscifi.net/gencrawlgaiden/10117 <-GenCrawl's the bastard child of a webcomic and a roguelike. A friend of mine draws/writes it. Once you get to the latest page you can leave commands (in the format "-> CHARACTERNAME: DO A THING") for the next update
Play by democracy
 
Cool.
 
Dalek fighter pod
@lisardggY Same here
But they are proving hard to source.
 
@RedRiderX Careful! Musket!
 
There will be death unending amongst the people, and when the last dying wretch looks up at his impotent god and croaks, 'Why?' I will lean down and whisper, 'Screw Dr. Who.'
 
3:38 PM
@Lord_Gareth And then, with his last dying breath, he shall exclaim "Wait, which Doctor? Because I agree with you about 11, but I think 9 is seriously underrated"
 
@lisardggY And the poor bastard will never understand why I kill him in that moment.
 
@lisardggY Eeep!
 
3:52 PM
[Mutters darkly as he goes about his business]
 
 
6 hours later…
9:54 PM
@Lord_Gareth the subtle reference to the doctor wielding a screwdriver must be completely non-intentional.
 
@lisardggY I'm here now!
 
mh, ok, so. Nobody I really want to play with in my play by chat game, tired of fishing winter event in my mmorpg of choice, finished reading all the webcomics I'm in, no D&D session until next year. Yawn.
 
Time to write fanfic!
 
writing outside of a chat or forum... for no xp reward? Madness
 
You could become a BNF, with minions!
 
10:05 PM
I might try a session of convincing myself that persisted spells and move + complete attack are not that necessary in D&D
@BESW the Baranof airport?
 
10:49 PM
Just finished watching Scream of the Shalka.
The Master being the Doctor's new pet robot of sorts was amusing to no end.
 
@RedRiderX So many interesting hints at backstory and stories to come.
 
@BESW Oh yes that was such a tease
A bit of a rough cut but it has potential.
OH MY GOSH SHADA IS ON HERE
 
Yes, but which?
 
THE 8TH DOCTOR AND PRESIDENT ROMONA!
OHMIGOSH
 
Ooh, nice.
It's rather superior to the one that uses Tom Baker to narrate the gaps between the existing footage.
(And anything which references Baker's hilarious stock-footage scene in The Five Doctors gets bonus points in my book.)
 
10:54 PM
Heh
 
(The Fish Doctor joke about it had me rolling on the floor.)
 
But where was Tennant in Shalka?
I didn't recognize him anywhere
 
When the zombies were shambling toward the military compound, one of the off-screen voices of the guards... let me track it down.
 
@BESW Oh okay.
 
Ah, not the military compound, I don't think.
Beginning of Episode 5: "We're locked up for the weekend! Go away, there's nothing here!"
 
10:56 PM
The dump shack thing?
Oh that was him?
That did go by pretty fast
 
Yeah. He got taken out by sonic zombies.
 
lol
sonic zombies
 
Oh he was the one that got choked first
okay
 
And the accent is closer to his actual accent than Ten's RP.
 
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