TRPG General Chat

wax eagle

00:00

@Tritium21 actually yes

check out foodiedice.com

trogdor

@lisardggY lol

BESW

00:14

An Ouroboros of puppetry!

wax eagle

40K! woo...

BESW

Grats!

I just passed 28k. [chugs along]

Tritium21

00:52

@waxeagle I had a friend roll me up dinner. It came back Chinese

wax eagle

01:27

Got the Star Wars Edge of the Empire beginner box today, looks like a nice game

BESW

Cool.

What stands out about it so far?

wax eagle

01:58

Flipping through fairly quickly, each skill is assigned either a number of green or green and yellow dice which govern successes, difficulty is assigned a number of purple or red dice which govern failure chances. It seems like an interesting dice pool mechanic

granted it uses custom dice (Which I find annoying, but understandable given the resolution mechanics)

focusing mainly on the resolution mechanics (As that's about as deep as I got on the first dive), it seems fairly elegant, but goblin dicy

(though not nearly as swingy as a d20 system)

BESW

Is it set up to use the goblin dice well?

wax eagle

I guess, better said, it uses very few rolls, but it's not very swingy, which is good. And every roll has the possibility of stress or consequences it seems like

There is a mechanic for boosting/adding complications that I haven't quite comprehended yet

the green d8s have success, success, 2x success, success+, success+, 2x success+, success + and success, and a blank side. The purple dice are same in reverse (fail/fail+ basically). success and fail cancel out and you're result is the net (if you have at least one success you succeed).

BESW

Interesting.

wax eagle

need to read the rules again a couple of times to figure out quite how it works all the way

definitely impressed with the quick start guide though. Very nice production values

BESW

Nice.

wax eagle

02:15

Want to play it a few times, but it might actually be my go to game/box for folks new to RPGs. It's set up well for new player and GMs, and has clear instructions of what to read, nice folios for the characters. Narratively focused, but has tokens and maps so you can have some ready props for Totm combat. If it works it seems like a very nice gateway into the hobby

(being in an established universe that people are very familiar with has it's perks too)

BESW

Shiny.

Dorian

Wazzit? [pounces on the shiny]

Ello all.

Also... This Dunkin Donuts thermos is bloody amazing. A full 24 hours after putting fresh hot coffee in it and sitting on a cold basement floor (with 60 degree weather lately) it's STILL FREAKING WARM

Like, I don't even know how that's possible!

Must be magic!

trogdor

02:33

good insulation is a lot like magic

Dorian

Ikr?

The thermos is pretty big too, held about 2/3 to 3/4 of a full pot of coffee after I put alot of creamer/espresso in it.

And the best part, I got the thing for free! Some dude left it behind at my work when he left. It was still on his desk, which was to become mine after I finished training.

trogdor

does it have open air in between the inside holding the liquids, and the outside that you yourself hold?

Dorian

This thing is easily a good 20 dollar thermos.

I believe so. Feels like it anyways. Metal outside, metal inside, and air insulation.

trogdor

mk

most good ones do have that

Dorian

almost exactly like that, but it has two ribs on it to hold a black rubber grip with the dunkin donuts logo

BESW

02:38

Oh, looks like it's easy to clean too. That's a major problem with most thermoses.

Dorian

Yeah, it's all stainless steel.

even the cap (which has a pourer button in it so you don't have to remove it to pour) comes apart for cleaning

the cap and cup are probably the hardest to clean (grooves in the cup's threads, and the cap of course because of all the parts) but a good soaking usually handles that unless you let something sit on it too much

BESW

It's a similar design to the REI thermoses we use.

Dorian

REI?

BESW

REI

Recreational Equipment Inc., commonly known as REI, is a privately held American retail corporation organized as a consumers' cooperative, selling outdoor recreation gear, sporting goods, and clothing via some 135 retail stores in 32 states, catalogs, and the Internet. The company opens four to six new stores each year. REI's sales exceeded US$2.0 billion in 2013. == History == Lloyd and Mary Anderson founded REI in Seattle, Washington in 1938. The Andersons imported an Akadem Pickel ice axe from Austria for themselves, and decided to set up a cooperative to help outdoor enthusiasts acquire good...

Dorian

aah

Dorian

03:13

So, ditching most the templates, taking White Dragonspawn and Feral templates only, taking Precocious Apprentice. Considering a level in the Half-Fey template class or the Phrenic template class I found somewhere but those will be later. Might still take a bloodline level for buffing Hellfire Warlock. Kobold Yoda chara might not be even coming into play though, because the party would have found him in the desert when they went back, and my archer didn't go with them.... (cont)

But now there's something in the desert that might just pique his interest enough to investigate. Or not. He'd be curious, but survival instinct would probably keep him from checking it out now that I think about it. Hmm... I wonder if the UFO hit the temple full of orcs we're trying to kill...

Would be quite amusing if it did.

Building for Hellfire Warlock and Eldritch Theurge. Because BLASTOMANCY

Dorian

03:29

I just realized I need a videogame that I can play a dragon-like or lizard-like race besides Skyrim and their Argonians...

BESW

@Dorian @trogdor is probably your guy for that.

Dorian

Wish they made a GOOD D&D vidya (like... D&D but with ALL THE POTENTIAL that Elder Scrolls has)

trogdor

@BESW lol

Dorian

Does trogdor make videogames or something? :P

trogdor

no

but BESW knows that I not only play videogames

but I love dragons

Dorian

03:32

Aah

[nods sagely]

Well, got any you'd recommend by chance?

trogdor

it's pretty old, but I loved it. one I can remember is Breath of Fire 3

Dorian

Might be worth taking a look at least (if I can pony up the gold)

Oh I love the Breath of Fire series!

trogdor

mk

BESW

Wizardry is the only one I can think of.

Dorian

I keep forgetting those... Need to get them again... because my disks are long gone and my backup ISO's got corrupted I think... :(

Wizardry?

Lord_Gareth

03:35

SOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLS

Dorian

@Lord_Gareth eh?

Lord_Gareth

What wretched villain has revived the accursed Monk question?

Dorian

lol

BESW

Eh, it's just one guy re-editing his answer over and over.

Wizardry

Wizardry is a series of role-playing video games, developed by Sir-Tech, which were highly influential in the evolution of modern console and computer role-playing games. The original Wizardry was a significant influence on early console RPGs such as Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy. Originally made for the Apple II, the games were later ported to other platforms. The last official game in the series by Sir-Tech, Wizardry 8, was originally released for Microsoft Windows and is currently available for play on Mac and Linux via bundled emulation. There have since been various spin-off titles released...

Dorian

03:54

hrumm....

question, if noone answers a question you put a bounty on, does the bounty expire and return to the person who placed it?

I wanna guess the answer is "no" but I'm not sure.

BESW

The bounty expires and vanishes into nothingness.

The person who places a bounty never gets that rep returned.

Dorian

Thought as much. [sighs a bit] was hoping to give it to someone who actually pulled a good answer.

Lord_Gareth

►

Miniman

@BESW Ehrmagerd I legit started my 4th playthrough of Wizardry 8 just the other day. Still one of my favourite RPGs.

BESW

First and only CRPG I ever played through, mostly because my best friend was playing it too.

Miniman

04:08

@BESW Not my first, nor my only. But probably the best example of how MAD classes can still be awesome.

BESW

@Lord_Gareth ....Meanwhile I'm listening to Lupe Fiasco.

BESW

06:31

@lisardggY, @Magician [wave]

Magician

Hello!

I'm writing a Fate question.

BESW

Oooer.

I'm re-tagging Fate questions (slowly; I don't want to spam the stack during slow weekend turnover).

lisardggY

@BESW Hola.

BESW

Having invented the fate-points tag, I then noticed that stress, aspects, and some others are missing from a number of questions that should really have them.

I think generic mechanic tags help connect the very disconnected set of system-specific Fate questions.

@lisardggY What's new?

lisardggY

@BESW Gotta write my Castle Falkenstein game this holiday weekend.

BESW

06:34

Ooer. Whazzat?

lisardggY

In the upcoming con next week we're having a "Games from the Attic" project, where various people run games using old, defunct, obsolete and nostalgic systems.

I decided to dig up my old Castle Falkenstein book and run a fast-paced Victorian magi-steampunk adventure.

BESW

Cool!

I've never heard of Castle Falkenstein, so... I guess that fits the theme.

lisardggY

I forgot that I haven't written or run a con game in over a decade.

Castle Falkenstein (role-playing game)

Castle Falkenstein (abbreviated CF) is a steampunk-themed fantasy role-playing game (RPG) designed by Mike Pondsmith and originally published by R. Talsorian Games. The game is named for a legendary unbuilt castle in the Bavarian Alps. Players play the roles of gallant adventurers, facing the intrigue and derring-do of Victorian adventures such as The Prisoner of Zenda. Rules and setting are presented in the form of diaries of a number of characters within the game, the main being the author's alter-ego "Tom Olam", a game designer from our world magically transported in New Europa. == Awards... ==

It enjoyed some interest in the mid-90's and then pretty much vanished.

It had a very nice card-based system, instead of dice (under the premise that a Victorian gentleman wouldn't sully his hands with dice)

BESW

[snerk]

I like that.

lisardggY

Played a CF campaign around '96-'97 that generated many memorable scenes for me, and seeing as I was messing around with steampunk and *punk themes anyway, it seemed appropriate.

Metool

06:42

@BESW Have you seen Kill the Moon yet?

BESW

Yes.

lisardggY

I haven't.

Metool

You do that Tumblr thing on occasion, yeah?

BESW

Me? I haven't for a while.

Metool

Hmm.

doppelgreener

06:58

time to run but first i'll leave y'all with this

BESW

@doppelgreener [amused]

@Magician I gave an answer. It may not be the one you were hoping for.

Magician

@doppelgreener Feels more 40k than Star Wars.

@BESW So, when you say "the extra grants the PC(s) access to ally stunts and aspects, gives a bonus to PC rolls as if using Teamwork with ally skills, and lets PCs use the ally Fate point pool"...

BESW

Basically make the ally a sock puppet for the PC.

Magician

I'm trying to figure out the extent of sockiness here. Say, the ally is a shadow-shaping heroine, with a complete stat block and everything. Which part of said stat-block do I hand over?

BESW

"As much as you think is appropriate" is the best answer. For a more crunchy response, we'd have to hash out the level of extra power you want the ally to add to the encounter.

As a baseline:

- +1 to PC's skill for every skill the ally has at +1 or better.
- Access to the ally's stunts as if they were the PC's own.
- Ally's high concept can be invoked and compelled as if it were the PC's own.

Magician

07:13

It's the access to stunts that trips me up a bit. Given that stunts (read:powers) in our game are so distinct... For instance, said shadow shaper, Weaver, has several stunts that lets her use Provoke to, well, shape shadows: as an attack, to create advantage, etc. It won't make much sense to have PCs use same skill for that - they may not even have it!

BESW

I've added a paragraph about that, but it basically says "make it up as needed."

For chat, I can be more specific with this example.

Magician

@BESW Heh, fair enough.

BESW

If shadowshaping is the main point of the ally, then I'd say the extra focuses on it.

Instead of the generic Teamwork bonus, grant the PC with the extra access to the Provoke skill at the ally's ranking, and all its associated stunts.

Magician

Here's what I think I'll do, based on your answer: write up each ally on an index card and lay them out. Any PC can claim them to get a +1 Teamwork bonus, flipping them over for the turn. The PC is the actor and the ally is the assistant, it's on the player to describe how the ally helps. Alternatively, any PC can choose to be an assistant for the turn and have the ally be an actor (likely because they want to do something only said ally can accomplish), in which case they roll for the ally.

BESW

I like that!

You should totally write that up as a separate answer.

Magician

07:24

Guess so :)

lisardggY

Oh, I finally got around to playing a Fate game. Just a one-shot pre-made Dresden Files adventure (using most Fate Core rules and glossing over most of the magic rules), but it was nice to finally try it out.

BESW

Yey!

Which pre-made?

lisardggY

Hmm. Dunno its name. The proprietress of a café in Baltimore got kidnapped and we, the café regulars, were on the case.

BESW

Ah, right. Neutral Grounds.

lisardggY

Yeah, that.

It was a very simple storyline, which was good, since we were mostly interested in checking out the rules.

I didn't feel we entirely managed to steer the plot, since we mostly manipulated aspects on a local, micro level. But that's fine. It takes getting used to.

BESW

07:34

My group's still getting used to that.

I hope Atomic Robo will help; its Brainstorming mechanic is designed to FORCE the players to tell me what's happening in the plot.

BTW, the Fate game room has a guy with Fate point economy problems, if anyone wants to go talk to him.

Fate chat and game room

Good questions raised here should hit the main site too! Fudge...

lisardggY

Since it's a one shot, we didn't get to actually create the city and our backgrounds, but it comes with a series of questions for each character to establish some backstory, and it really worked well - one character turned out, due to the establishing questions, to be a sort of father figure to two of the other characters.

He put it in as an aspect, and we managed to invoke it a couple of times, on him.

BESW

Awesome.

lisardggY

Once I used it on an Athletics roll to jump between him and a ghoul, and I think he used it for Guns at some point, too.

BESW

One thing I'm finding is that trouble aspects are more trouble than they're worth: it's better and more narratively flowing to have ALL aspects be moderately compellable.

lisardggY

Although, I don't know if we were missing something in the rules or whether this scenario is deliberately high-powered, but I felt that it was very easy to get very high number of successes in your favored skills. I had +4 in Conviction, for instance, and +1 from my Focus, making even a single Aspect invoked enough to get +6/+7 using magic.

BESW

07:55

I haven't run Neutral Grounds, but DFRPG is super high-powered in general.

The starting Refresh scores on the lowest levels of the game are roughly Fate Core's default starting stats.

...except that you're spending Refresh on powers, which are stronger than stunts, and if you're just using stunts then you start with 2 more Refresh.

So Fate Core's default starting point is slightly lower than DFRPG's, and you were using Neutral Grounds, which I think is one or two ranks up DFRPG's starting-level ladder.

lisardggY

08:21

Yeah, the power level, according to the field on the character sheets, was "Up to your waist". Which I think is a lot?

The base refresh was 7, and I had 4 due to powers.

BESW

It's... roughly equivalent to Fate Core after you've played enough to get five significant milestones and one major milestone.

But with a little more poweredness tacked on because of DFRPG's "powers are better than stunts" thing.

Aaron

12:24

Morning

trogdor

morning

Aaron

Welcome @That_Knight_Guy

That_Knight_Guy

@Aaron Good morning!

BESW

[wave]

wax eagle

morning folks

BESW

12:31

I'm actually an evening folk.

lisardggY

I'm morning folks. Plural.

I contain multitudes.

trogdor

I am an evenign folk as well

BESW

Your yawp isn't nearly barbaric enough to be Walt Whitman.

lisardggY

*burp*.

I think this has been the second Whitman reference we caught between us, isn't it?

BESW

At least; I make them semi-regularly.

BESW

12:45

THERE ARE 10 KINDS OF PEOPLE. THOSE WHO CAN READ BINARY, THOSE WHO CAN'T, AND THEN EIGHT MORE KINDS. I HAVE A LIST BUT TWITTER'S CHAR COUN

Tweeted by Dr_Dinosaur on July 22, 2013 at 6:30 PM

2

lisardggY

@BESW Heh.

BESW

I HAVE BEEN TO EUROPE FOR A WEEK NOW AND IT IS ALMOST NOTHING LIKE THE GAME OF THRONES.

Tweeted by Dr_Dinosaur on May 28, 2013 at 2:13 PM

Joshua Aslan Smith

13:11

haha

im back from my looking for a job staycation

wax eagle

was wondering where you were off to :)

any luck?

Joshua Aslan Smith

website got a lot more work done

and some applications went out

more ongoing

my dissatisfaction with my current position has peaked

so its a good motivator

BESW

13:29

Doctor Who fans boast their show can go anywhere and do anything, then hate it when it does.

Tweeted by Monster_Maker on October 6, 2014 at 12:13 PM

Joshua Aslan Smith

wish I had been here to answer the dungeon world questions

Aaron

Hasn't this been asked before?

1

Q: What should we do with a Gene-seed?

So uhh... In our travels, we have come across a dead, Deathguard. To protect you, I can't tell you when, where or how. I may already be endangering your lives in telling you this. However, the ships captain is in turmoil over what should be done with the corpse. Seeing as the Gene-seed is still ...

Ah I was thinking of this question nevermind.

1

Q: Are all descendants of a Heretic Gene-seed corrupt?

We have come across a dead Space Marine, Gene-seed apparently still intact (no holes to say it was removed), and for the most part, the party says they want to retrieve the seed and return it to the Chapter for brownie points. However, from the back story of this character, he was a World-Eater...

wh40k

Joshua Aslan Smith

should be closed anyway because its opinion fishing

like it straight belongs on a forum

BESW

13:46

I don't see how answers to this question could be votable in any Stack-Exchange-y kind of way; as written it just looks like an open call for brainstorming. Forums do that quite well, so Stack Exchange isn't interested in duplication that function. If this was not your intention, please edit the question to better reflect the Stack guidelines as outlined in the tour and help center. — BESW 7 secs ago

And voted to close.

Whups, typo. [fixes]

Aaron

I now have an even 1600 rep.

wax eagle

nice

Aaron

I saw someone roll multiple sets of dice on here with one command. anyone know what that command is?

Magician

1d4 2d6 3d8 4d10

Dice Service

4

•

4

6

4

9

wax eagle

13:54

@Aaron just type the dice with a space between, you can roll up to 9 total

and I want to say it's capped at 4 expressions

Aaron

The person rolled more than nine I think. Gonna go search chat.

wax eagle

1d4 2d6 3d8 1d10 2d12

9d4 9d6

Dice Service

2

3

2

4

2

4

•

BESW

You can roll 9dX * 4 dice, I believe.

Dice roller & formatting tests playgr…

The roller supports: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20. You can roll ...

Aaron

Ah yea he typed 9d4 9d4 9d4 9d4 and it rolled 36d4

lisardggY

14:05

I activated the Fudge Dice script recently. Is awesome.

BESW

@lisardggY Isn't it, though? @doppelgreener has made art.

Aaron

14:27

I found a real life example of accelerated drinker

Booze is a potion right? It sure makes people feel better... for a bit at least

doppelgreener

Aw. :) I did have help though - the basics of counting the dots and turning it into a fudge dice was already done by C. Ross (I think) and possibly someone else. I built on that, though I do think I improved it!

I'm glad you like the results, @lisardggY

Though back then there was not colour or toggling per room and the dash character was different and some other things maybe

BESW

@doppelgreener This is not going to bed early. Just so we're clear.

I'm going to bed now, though.

Aaron

15:01

@BESW Hey how do I make the sticky stars things if I own a room?

Oh wait he went to bed

Figured it tout

out*

Joshua Aslan Smith

19:56

If we could get dupe close votes

this has already been covered in multiple questions

0

Q: Can 4th edition D&D be played without using minitures and a grid?

I have inherited all of the 4th ed hardcover books from one of my brother in laws. I am currently reading and trying to familiarize myself with the new 5th edition and i am really liking it. I had asked a question about 4th ed being backwards comparable with 5th and I got some very good answers. ...

dnd-4e

BESW

22:00

@Aaron Dropdown arrow on the left side of a comment -> 'Pin this message.'

It'll stay pinned for a month, then automagically unpin.

doppelgreener

23:54

@BESW yes it isn't (though, technically, I was in bed at that point!)

i have a sleep-procrastination habit I need to kick

4

Fate chat and game room

Dice roller & formatting tests playgr…

Transcript for