Bah, whenever I figured out it's a dream and get control of it, the monster or whatever is always a step ahead of whatever I figure out.

whenever I figure out I am dreaming I wake up

and generally I don't end up with a dream with a monster that isn't hiding from me

it doesn't mean I never knew what they were or what they looked like,.... but I never actually saw them

I don't dream (or at least, I don't remember my dreams) and I think that is one of the reasons I am so drawn to role playing games.

Kind of sad really.

@InbarRose I'm in the same boat I think.

I rarely remember mine

but they usually are interesting enough to make up for it

Hmmm. Question to @BESW or anyone else who knows Fate. Is this a relevant description of aspects: faterpg.com/dl/df/aspects.html , or is it outdated?

this seems good

not done reading it yet, but o far it is an apt description

Cool. I suspect it's from Dresden Files, going by URL alone, but as long as it's roughly the same still, all is good.

mk

Thanks!

as I recall, aspects were the same in DFRPG, even if a few other things were quite different

man, this is actually pretty long

yeah, seems to be a proper excerpt from the rules

I am not sure it mentioned the fact that you can ignore a reasonable compel by spending a Fate Point yet

but it might be in there/I might have glazed over it

@Magician That's definitely DFRPG language, which means it's probably got a few differences from Core.

Looking.

there is a lot in there

I am still reading it

but your assistance is appreciated

Aye, okay. Core simplifies a LOT of this. The difference between declarations and assessments is now purely fluff, and they are mechanically the same as each other and tagging." The mechanic is now called "create advantage."

"Tag" is a needless extra bit of specialized terminology, and tags are now called "free invocations."

Escalation is gone.

"Invoking for effect" is needlessly confusing, and is now simple a kind of compel.

mk

I had not heard of Escalation before

(Compels are now just divided into "decision" and "event" compels.")

Right, outdated rules then. Hrm.

I'm just after a link with a simple description of what aspects are.

mm

Let me take a look.

well this definitely isn't simple

regardless of the fact that it is also outdated

I figured it was sorta ok, but BESW knows this better than me

It's got a lot of bits that are simplified or gone, mostly restrictions.

Escalation seems like it could be fun, but overall I think it probably is too complicated

and I can't see it being used properly in a campaign any more than one time really

The first bit of this blog post is great, right up until he says "Here is how they are used." At which point it gets DFRPG-y.

This review does a good job of talking about Fate Core aspects, but I don't think it sits down and defines them.

Wait, no, it does. Okay.

And then there's Fate Accelerated Edition.

> An aspect is a word, phrase, or sentence that describes something centrally important to your character. It can be a motto your character lives by, a personality quirk, a description of a relationship you have with another character, an important possession or bit of equipment your character has, or any other part of your character that is vitally important.

> Aspects allow you to change the story in ways that tie in with your character’s tendencies, skills, or problems. You can also use them to establish facts about the setting, such as the presence of magic or the existence of a useful ally, dangerous enemy, or secret organization.

it does seem a little bit of a problem to use them to mention a useful ally or dangerous enemy

those seem a little bit narrow and one sided

Well, like making an event-based compel to say that your friend shows up in the nick of time.

yeah

Or if you're talking about an aspect itself, then think about Teddy's Friends in the City Watch aspect.

but this is one sided

ah yes

ok

I can obviously invoke it to get good stuff, but I can just as easily be compelled by people who don't like the Watch or my associate with it, or by having a Watch friend show up and require a favor.

it can imply that your friend makes you some enemies by default, or you enemy makes you some friends

and the favor thing, though I don't see an enemy showing up asking for one

unless they are a frenemy

"Hey, Doctor, it's the High Council of Gallifrey. We've dumped you on a planet in the middle of a radioactive civil war and won't pick you up until you commit pre-emptive genocide."

well see

I actually got turned around in what I meant

(and also, that kinda does count as frenemy)

(after all,.... murder was likely an alternate option to exile)

I was thinking that there wasn't much you could compel having a particular enemy as a good thing for

Ah.

but then I thought that you can have one of that enemie's enemies show up

Well, the Seventh Doctor said "You can always judge a man by the quality of his enemies."

"you can always judge a doctor by whether or not he is 7"

Also true.

"Trogdor, just now"

anyway, I think I am gonna get some sleep now

ttfn

G'night!

good night

and to all an unburninated thatched roof,... for now

@Magician How about I make you an "Aspect Briefing" gdoc?

@BESW An interesting idea. I think one of those reviews will do me just fine (this is, of course, for the blog), not like anyone clicks those links. But if you want to write up an intro to aspects, that could be useful in general

Honestly, it'd be hard not to just copy-paste bits from pages 25 through 29 of FAE.

...1400 words, nowhere near done, and that's after 1000 words of fluffy intro of the previous post. gah.

Have I given you the "voyage out, voyage back" talk?

Hmm? I don't think so?

Good advice.

I've found writing an essay to be very different from creative writing in terms of effort required per wordcount. Given inspiration, I can sit down and put a thousand words on the screen in a couple of hours, just exploring that idea. But for an essay... I've spent basically the entirety of today on those same thousand words. It just doesn't flow quite so freely. Maybe I'm trying to write too "cleanly" from the start...

Probably the case.

@Magician Is this too much, too little, too copypasta?

Hm. Doesn't have the bit about creating aspects in game, which is something i talk about in the post. But that might be too much/too complex for an overview

Other than that, looks pretty good.

Situation Aspects and Boosts mentions the possibility.

mm, true.

I can add a reference to the Create Advantage action.

Should I talk more about how long different aspects last?

Nah, I'm just mentioning Fate as one of several games that use cooperative storytelling mechanics. I'll link to your page for some further details now :)

Thank you!

My pleasure.

I hope it's actually useful to someone.

So, I was in a Ruhi group yesterday talking about the things that divide and unite people, and I latched onto the reason that Fate cannot, in its native form, work for me as an MLP engine.

At the center of the system is still the assumption that when one person wins, another loses.

In order for friendship to truly be magic, the system needs a third option.

I need a mutual benefit outcome.

I need it to be difficult, but rewarding.

Interesting. Can you provide an example of such an outcome?

A manticore was angered and provoked by the evil Nightmare Moon, and now vents its rage on the Mane Six.

Most of the ponies attack it, kicking and flying and flinging magic at it, but it shrugs off their attacks and disables them.

Fluttershy observes that it is in pain from a thorn in its paw, and soothes the beast long enough to remove the object--which dissolves into mist, as it was the magic of Nightmare Moon.

The manticore and the Mane Six have achieved pleasing outcomes, although not the outcomes they probably imagined when they entered the conflict.

Hmmmm. The true enemy, then, is the thorn.

Babs Seed, bullied at school, visits her cousins on the farm. When she discovers that her cousin is also the target of bullying, she joins the bullies.

Her cousin, hurt and dismayed, attempts to get revenge but nearly kills Babs in the process.

When she learns that Babs was the target of bullying and understands that they are both becoming bullies because they were bullied, she risk her own life to save Babs. In the aftermath they agree to stop bullying each other and "start over" on their friendship.

Again, the actual enemy is the trauma. That seems to fit: you struggle not against your friends, but against their pain or fear or misconceptions which cause them to act out.

And the Silver Rule could be used here, I think. The central issue gets stats.

Style-obsessed Rarity is very jealous when her good friend Fluttershy is asked to be a model for a famous fashion photographer instead of herself, but Rarity selflessly encourages Fluttershy to take the job. Fluttershy has no interest in being a model, but takes it because it will make Rarity happy.

The job makes Fluttershy increasingly miserable, and Rarity is increasingly jealous, but neither will tell the other because they think their friend is happy with the situation.

Each makes great sacrifices to maintain this awful position so their friend will be happy, before finally telling each other the truth and ending the awful masquerade.

A side plot is their mutual friend Twilight Sparkle being the confidant of both, but sworn to secrecy; she knows she can end their pain, but to do so would betray their trust in her.

@Magician I suppose so.

But, like, what stats would Babs' and her cousin Apple Bloom's trauma have? Would it be a consequence they have to figure out how to address, while it's being compelled to make them act poorly?

If it has its own stress track like "Babs' Trauma," what constitutes attacks and what consequences would it take?

Hello

@BESW Hrm. Discovering what the issue is actually about is half the problem. Understanding what drives others. Consequences could be revealed (or dictated?) insights. As I'm only approximately familiar with Fate, I may be speaking nonesense :)

@GMNoob Hi!

Any of you good at dice math? :)

@GMNoob Somewhat, though anydice.com solves many dice problems on its own.

@Magician Although some of it takes a while to figure out how to write out in a way the program understands.

@GMNoob Hi!

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to use anydice :)

What's the conundrum?

I'm trying to make an excel sheet for my DM friend for WFRPG

first edition

Combat works as follows roll a perctile dice, if you hit, roll a d6, if you get a 6 roll a d6 again

pretty straight forward, but I can't figure out how to get that outputed as a relevant table

Okay, I knew how to do that three months ago.

[pokes anydice]

How do you determine hit?

What I have so far is [explode] d6 if 1d100 < 30

but it doesn't like that :)

each monster/charachter has a BS or a WS (balistic skill or weapon skill)

if my BS is 30, then rolling 29 or lower hits

Okay.

What I need to do next, is also figure out how many rounds a monster is likely to survive

which will be the output of that table, minus Toughness, subtracted from wounds

[explode]d6 * 30% doesn't seem to work either :(

I'm hitting up against a named-variable wall that I always do.

I'm not a coder or a programmer, and this is written for people with a tiny bit more basic knowledge of such things than I have.

So there's some simple thing somewhere I'm missing because it's assumed I know it.

does this produce what you want?

Mmm, I don't think it does because he wants misses in the table too.

it does provide 71% of 0 damage

hmm

Magician, that looks correct

one step further :)

but what does it mean? :)

@BESW It seems to only like capitalized variable names

Welp, I was going totally the wrong direction.

what direction where you going in?

Someone wants help with coding?

:)

agh, wait, no

I can't figure out how to turn a die's output into something a boolean can take.

If I could divide that formula by wounds I would have rounds of survival I think

Don't use that second one, it's incorrect

k

@BESW it only seems to accept that in the output block

Aye, and so the whole direction I was taking kept hitting a rock wall.

because it's not a single die output. d100 produces 1-100 as a range

I was using if/else.

I find it amusing that you are talking about 'code' :)

What would you like me to call it?

@InbarRose Coding dice! All those years at uni have not been wasted.

No, just that I usually idle in the Python chat room on SO, and they rarely talk about coding :P

The last conversation was about cowboys, how manly they are or aren't and baloons.

So I tried using output to give it a name, but that didn't seem to take. There's a step missing somewhere in the documentation that they think is obvious I can intuit it.

Or it's hidden in jargon so I can't recognize it.

Sequences

need to get the result into a sequence

That's the other frustrating thing--even at the basic level this documentation operates at, I have no idea what a lot of the words they're using mean.

Maybe I can help?

anydice.com

Substitute WS and TOUGHNESS values as needed

@GMNoob Do you want the output on a hit to be the d6 sums alone, or the d6 sums in some relation to the d% result?

what does that mean? :P

damage is always between a d6 exploded, and a d6+4 exploded

for all monsters

If you roll 10 on a d% and get a 3 on your d6, is the result 3 or 13?

though, sometimes there is a d6+0

d6+9

3 + some static numbers

Magician, so that table means that with those stats, 14% of the time the target will take 1 damage?

Okay, you're not giving me any context for your numbers now.

I'm trying to figure out what "Combat works as follows roll a perctile dice, if you hit, roll a d6, if you get a 6 roll a d6 again."

Sorry

@GMNoob 1 or more

I can't tell if "d6+9" and "3 + some static numbers" is in response to my example or if they're something else entirely.

D% to Hit. Damage is then an exploded d6 + some number

something else entirely

so it's a 3 not a 13

And for this math, you're interested in the d6 alone, not the static addon number?

I'm not sure yet :)

but I figure that is easy to add later

update to account for strength:

making the numbers less abysmal

I know @Magician has a better block, but...

I'd like to know why mine isn't giving back anything.

Paste the code here?

This feels like it ought to work, but I keep getting back "expected a boolean value" on "if percentile." I think this is because I don't know how to turn a sequence around and use it again.

But it could be because they assume I know how to code booleans.

output doesn't seem to turn anything into a variable. i poked at it a bit, using "named" simply puts a header over the graph

I'm trying to make it a sequence, so that the boolean will accept a single d% result.

Ok, this is looking really good

how do I translate this into an excel table for each monster?

I just find the whole documentation really frustrating because it's got entire blocks that look like the conclusion of something I'd find really useful.

@BESW Yeah, I gave up on booleans. Fortunately, it can be approximated by simply using an inequality in calculations, as (d100 < 30) produces 29 1s and 71 0s

Booleans were one of the first things I learned how to use in BASIC (my only programming experience of any kind), and one of the only I felt comfortable with.

@GMNoob There is an export button which creates something approximating a CSV. I foresee a lot of copy-pasting in your future

:D

What's the relevant number that I want though?

I obviously don't care about the 0.18% chance of doing 18 damage

or do I?

Hey - I am a programmer. Hello. I can help. Tell me what is up?

@BESW Yeah, I basically stumbled through it with iterated attempts at understanding, using the sparse documentation just for function names

Inbar, anydice.com

@InbarRose Scroll up, or start here.

@GMNoob You want an average damage per round type deal, right?

@GMNoob You're probably only really after the average value, which is displayed right after the output name. So, in your case, "Wounds taken (1.21 / 2.55)", 1.21 is your goal

Look at the summary tab; it gives you mean and deviation.

Or that, yeah, that's even better

no, listen. I can make you a program. Don't give me a link to some strange website.

Looks like a mean of 1.21 with a deviation of 2.55.

Aha!

@InbarRose And don't butt in making demands until you know the context?

so 1.21 damage per round, if the guy has 8 wounds, that means 6 rounds of life?

well 6.6

And what does the deviation of 2.55 mean?

that there is a good chance they will take 2 or 3 damage?

@GMNoob Sort of, kind of. A more sophisticated measure would be to then calculate the chances of the guy dying in each round. Given high deviation, there is a chance he will die much sooner or much later.

@GMNoob That although 1.21 is the average damage, it's likely to go as high as 3.76 or as low as 0.

is 2.55 a deviation of 2.55 % or of a range of 2.55?

I think.

k

@InbarRose "What is up" is learning to use anydice.com's coding for a particular purpose. If you ask what is up, you will be told that anydice.com is what is up. If that is not an acceptable answer, you have the tools at your disposal to read the conversation and find out what's up for yourself, or you can clarify why you are asking.

You've been a big help

The props go to @Magician.

how would I calculate the chance of dying each round?

Umm. That'd be a loop, I think.

What's a reasonable Wounds total? 8?

yeah 8

haven't tested this porperly, but

....I was almost there, but again much less elegantly.

Which is probably all sorts of dodgy, but I don't think I can wring much more out of that thing. Next step would be MatLab