TRPG General Chat - 2014-10-08 (page 1 of 2)

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12:01 AM

@trogdor oh wow xD

I haven't played much of Prime myself :) Just Metroid Fusion and the original Metroid

the speedruns are fun though

there are various speedrun categories and challenges, one of which is reverse boss order

which is what it sounds like (except for the final boss, who is beaten last as normal)

I've only played Hunters, but it rocked

Especially the multiplayer, which I expected would suck

Of the 3 answers posted by our newest user, so far I can't understand any of them.

@Miniman they're making general story suggestions for how the asker could handle what they're doing

unfortunately, they are doing this in questions requesting the rules handling of the situation

though... that light suggestion asks "what's the advantage of casting light on someone?" and i am not sure if that question isn't too broad

I meant more that their answers are confusingly disconnected. Not 'I don't understand how it answers the question', but 'I have no idea what you're trying to say'

@doppelgreener I think that question is specific enough if you consider that they were asking what mechanical benefit is offered by the rules

Light answer: Walk past a guard, cast light on his armor, pretend you are some being powerful enough to have cursed his armor - or being a simpleton, he has no idea the Light spell exists and comes to that conclusion himself. / Planes answer: Vague statements about how planes are shaped by the will of the ruler or the people, or not, depending, and other stuff that is equally vague.

12:18 AM

@doppelgreener I am once again impressed at your ability to extract meaning from any source.

When I find a way to tune in to the mind of Cthulu, I'll be giving you a call about interpreting it.

@Miniman that is a bit of an overstatement; for example I couldn't understand GLANTH

(actually then again I had less patience to read his stuff)

@Miniman Yes sir, no direct contact though please, and if you have tentacles sprouting from any part of your body we may assume the deal is off.

@doppelgreener Should I be worried that I could?

Maus employs this thing I like to call "sentences," and accompanies it with a little style trick called "capitalisation and punctuation." Makes it a lot easier to not go mad from trying to understand.

@BESW Yes! It is much more pleasant to read.

@Miniman Maybe! Or maybe you just had the patience to read past the spilled punctuation. 8)

@doppelgreener Much as it annoys me, I find writing with bad spelling and grammar much easier to understand than incoherent vagueness.

@doppelgreener How about pre-existing tentacles from before I developed Cthulu-pathy?

12:25 AM

I'm reminded of the explosm forums... where if you're the kind of person who only uses one kind of punctuation... and it's this kind... you get suspended for dropping your dots so that you have time for picking them up again...

I mean, if I was an intelligent octopus, I'd be pretty offended by your anti-tentacle bias.

@Miniman will require a medical certificate to prove they existed beforehand

@Miniman aha, i am the opposite, i suppose the latter better qualifies me as an elder god interpreter

And possibly a decent liaison for Dr. Dinosaur.

@doppelgreener Of course! I have no doubt Cthulu's writing is perfect.

@BESW Yes! \o/ I can do this.

12:27 AM

> Dr. Dinosaur: That is for me to know and for you to die!
Robo: That's not even a sentence.
Dr. Dinosaur: The simple mammalian subject and predicate were both represented! I challenge your claim.

@BESW oh god this cracked me up

@doppelgreener Me too, it's definitely a properly constructed sentence, and that is all I've got.

> Dr. Dinosaur: I hacked your mainframe and downloaded your itinerary. Yes! All of your computerized scheduling secrets are now mine!
Atomic Robo: You joined our newsletter!
Dr. Dinosaur: You can't prove that!

I'm starting to think I should look up Atomic Robo.

A not-insignificant number of its comics are free on the site.

Including the first full issue!

The Free Comic Book Day ones are usually a little... wilder... than the main issue comics, though.

Lots more Dr. Dinosaur.

12:37 AM

Oh boy!

You may enjoy Why Atomic Robo Hates Dr. Dinosaur, for example.

In Which His Origin Story Is Deconstructed And He Doesn't Care.

12:51 AM

@doppelgreener Dr. Dinosaur says hilarious things

@BESW I can't seem to make the first issue work

Hmm. Neither can I.

[pokes around] I suspect that comixology just changed their address structure.

...bah, looks like only the first issue is free now.

one of my local comic stores stocks atomic robo \o/

Woo!

1:09 AM

that is pretty awesome

Okay, look at this stunt on Edison's write-up:

> THERE ARE NO RULES: Once per scene, when you invoke one of your aspects, instead of getting a bonus or a reroll, you may swap out a Fate die for a regular six-sided die—the kind that are numbered one through six.

yeah

I saw that

@BESW Nope there are still quite a few free ones: comixology.com/Atomic-Robo/comics-series/…

Great series.

@RedRiderX just scroll down to "Issues"

Just the Free Comic Book Day one-shot issues, which are also available on the Atomic Robo site.

@BESW Yeah I guess so

WAIT THEY HAVE AN FATE SETTING FOR ATOMIC ROBO

1:22 AM

yes

they do

GREAT GALOSHES.

they have a whole book of rules for it

It's the crunchiest iteration of Fate I've seen yet, and I'm loving what they've done with it.

Really feels like Evil Hat's hit their stride with Fate and can make it dance.

@BESW It feels like a relief, and a very wonderful thing, that you can say that

because on one hand: I am still wrapping my head around this strange system and trying to figure out how to use it well, and thank goodness the authors are only just now hitting their stride with it

A lot of the clunkiness in both terminology and implementation is stripped away.

1:34 AM

because that means i wasn't the only one having trouble understanding how to master it

Like, "high concept" is now just "concept," and "trouble" is gone in favour of encouraging all character aspects to be double-edged. And no more Refresh!

and on the other hand: it's human that they might not have understood what they'd created well either, and it's wonderful that they've finally worked away at understanding it and sculpting it to what works best that they're hitting their stride.

@BESW I like thing about doing away with the trouble; at a certain point it began to seem unnecessary

Aye. Far too often I've found that it was easier and more natural to repeatedly compel some other aspects.

"so i have a bunch of aspects that should be invoked and compelled in my favour and not in my favour, but one of them is called the trouble?"

@BESW yeah!

harold's most engaging and used aspects are not his trouble

his trouble has not even been touched, though it has served as a wonderful part of the story

(his trouble has been used well from a narrative point of view, but it hasn't been mechanically used yet)

meanwhile, I would not feel comfortable calling his territorial aspect a 'trouble', because that's not what it is.

1:53 AM

i think the trouble played an important role in reminding you that your aspects should not totally be good for you, and guaranteed the GM had an aspect that wasn't

but: you can just remind players to make sure their aspects are double-edged anyway, and well it doesn't necessarily work out that way for the last bit

Troubles are useful for some kinds of Fate games.

For example, I think your hack-and-slash hack would benefit from them.

How so?

(I ask that from the POV of always having trouble coming up with good troubles)

Well, hack-and-slash is about creating gameplay that's less character-driven in favour of action-driven.

One common convention of the action genre is that a character really just has one flaw which gets in the way of his goals, while everything else about him is basically beneficial.

For example, my example of Abraxus of the Burning Hate has only two aspects which can easily be compelled to obstruct his goals.

Since H&S is thinking about using aspects to model "how I fight" and "what I fight with" more than "how I connect to the world around me," making double-edged aspects becomes... well, basically it's going to revolve around having flawed weapons most of the time, isn't it?

Sometimes. Or it might be about poor physique, so that you can't as easily escape or be acrobatic or physical. It might be about having a major weakness, e.g. a Vampire's trouble would be related to its myriad weaknesses and constraints.

For a character with a code of conduct, it could be that, though those might be better avoided.

2:15 AM

Right, and how many of these are we going to pile onto each character? Limiting the number of contexts for drama limits the number of hooks for drama.

@Grubermensch not tomorrow night, Thursday night as normal. I got my days mixed up

that being said

I have seen some TV shows that thought injecting drama every 30 seconds was the best way to make a good show

which I do not agree with

but in Fate, to be fair, there is usually not enough drama unless you look for it with your aspects

Drama is generally good, but overusing or underusing it can make it bad

Wow... old news

abc.net.au/news/2014-10-06/…

right, the number of dramatic events per se in our DFAE games have been very few

yeah, but that is an issue all our Fate games have had

2:22 AM

@Adeptus the rest of the world is slowly catching up

@trogdor I think it's an okay thing though, I'm not saying there's anything bad with that. It was fun!

It has been very fun. :)

and so the number of dramatic events required to make a session fun is not necessarily high.

@doppelgreener Anyone whose sole source of news is the ABC will never catch up. (To anything.)

@doppelgreener Trouble: Has trouble coming up with good troubles

@doppelgreener yeah, I think we just need to work out some kinks as a group

@Adeptus More like... Trouble: I don't know what to put here

(and let that be the actual trouble)

for my part, I don't think I necessarily self compel enough

2:24 AM

hmm.

from my perspective things are okay, but then again I played the character where everything happening was personal.

I shouldn't try to self compel every minute, but I think I hardly ever have

if at all

I don't think you have yet

@doppelgreener the only issue my character has had is that his job just traveled to another dimension

@doppelgreener I might have at some point before you became part of our gaming group

but I also might not have

@trogdor he's going to have more issues now; he has an iron sword. and so far our campaign has not really confronted him with modern technology, so that opportunity for compels is missing.

@trogdor oh, you're talking in general? i was just talking about our DFAE game

I think I "might" have self compelled during our groups first DFRPG game, and my Ajani campaign

@doppelgreener yeah

in general was what I meant

if I was talking DFAE I am pretty sure the answer is "I have not"

2:30 AM

Yeah, environment-based troubles are harder to find compels for every session.

I don't know if I should change mine or not

It does a good job of describing one of his character issues, but it has not been compelled yet. I think the reason being that it requires extra work and is actually hard to compel in his situation

he isn't trying to use computers or drive cars or anything

he is just trying to keep one person from getting murdered

2:51 AM

and I don't want to change it into something related to Ryu, at least at the moment

it would be hard to compel for it's own reasons

This brings to light a trouble with troubles which ARRPG seems to have solved well: three of your five aspects are about your three modes, so it's likely that in addition to your concept, at least one of your aspects will be relephant to anything you do.

Dr. Dinosaur, for example, has the modes Dinosaur, Crystals, and Action:

> CONCEPT: Time-Traveling Velociraptor (Or Not)
DINOSAUR: Vastly Superior Reptilian Intelligence
CRYSTALS: Is There Anything They Can’t Do?
ACTION: As Seen in Jurassic Park
OMEGA: Frequent Victim of Mammalian Treachery

so if I made "Dr Light" RNP as I invision him atm

he would probly be

Concept: Tesladynes resident botanist

Mutant: plant like mutation.

Science: Energy and You

Action/Intrigue: something or other

Omega: Obsessed With The Sun

a rough draft at best right now, but none of that is technically a trouble aspect

Aside from maybe switching "resident" to something more descriptive, I like it.

yeah

like I said, I know it needs a little tweaking

For example, Tesladyne's wildest botanist.

3:03 AM

lol

or Tesladynes mutant botanist

or crazy

and plant like mutation will probably become something a little more descriptive/exciting

the science one might be ok, and obviously Action/Intrigue something or other is a placeholder

the Omega I don't think necessarily needs to change at all

Energy and You is great.

It really helps define how Doctor Light sciences.

He's not just a person who manipulates energy; he's a person who applies energy directly to the people around him.

yeah XD

and to himself

Invokes for lightning guns.

@BESW lol

that is a good point

Mutant: Stop calling me Groot.

3:13 AM

certainly an option

Mutant: I'm NOT Groot

I guess one thing to consider is how much his mutant powers are Swamp Thing/Groot, and how much they're Poison Ivy/Floronic Man.

IE: while he is a plant monster, is the focus of his powers "I'm a plant," or is it "I manipulate plants"?

I was thinking along the lines of "I'm a plant"

cause he uses science to manipulate plants in a lab

I'm imagining him with some kind of bionic energy gun that stimulates and controls rapid plant growth.

(Energy and You!)

@trogdor I still have to take a look at Atomic Robo, but BESW suggested that I had the option of bringing back Stellata as one of Doctor Light's Weird Science experiments

now that I learn he is a plant monster mutant thing, this seems even better

I was thinking I wanted him to look in some ways like a plant, and also gain some physical benefits that he can be compelled to lose if he has not been getting enough Sunlight

3:18 AM

@doppelgreener Trogdor's idea is that Stellata was the proof-of-concept prototype before he applied the tech to himself.

and probably water and such

@BESW it's just an option, but it I think it is at least a good starting idea

@BESW just to make sure a living plant creature could be created and survive?

@doppelgreener Yup!

"I can turn a plant into a person! Now I shall turn myself into a plant!"

Haha!

Weird Science doesn't mean ignoring all the safety protocols.

4

3:21 AM

Just most of them

Quercus stellata

Quercus stellata (post oak) is an oak in the white oak section. It is a small tree, typically 10–15 m tall and 30–60 cm trunk diameter, though occasional specimens reach 30 m tall and 140 cm diameter. It is native to the eastern United States, from Connecticut in the northeast, west to southern Iowa, southwest to central Texas, and southeast to northern Florida. It is one of the most common oaks in the southern part of the eastern prairies, such as in the Cross Timbers. The leaves have a very distinctive shape, with three perpendicular terminal lobes, shaped much like a Maltese Cross. They are...

> The name refers to the use of the wood of this tree for fence posts. Its wood, like that of the other white oaks, is hard, tough and rot-resistant.

The second sentence sounds splendid for her. Probably do not tell her the first.

[exercises the Edit privilege]

Perfection.

@Metool \o/

Jolly good stuff!

@Metool It's a good feeling

@Miniman I don't know what you mean

(I do)

@BESW <- @trogdor I like this because it leaves plenty of room for the two of them to turn out very differently. He only trialed the basic principles, but not what it would mean for himself.

@doppelgreener Heh. You know what they say about too much of a good thing.

IT'S AN ADDICTION.

3:27 AM

So his plant-person-ness has every excuse to be radically different from her own.

@doppelgreener Tesladyne has a company-wide policy that all experiments must have a "reverse polarity" setting. It was implemented by Atomic Robo in 1999 after a quantum gravity experiment accidentally accessed one of the Vampire Dimensions.

@Miniman to be fair I've had... 819 days visited on the site to date, and that amounts to ~2.1 revisions a day, which makes sense - I edit one or two posts most days, sometimes they are very minor, and any of my own answers have several revisions each

@doppelgreener (I was joking.)

And sometimes you go on re-tagging sprees.

@BESW Sometimes I do! :D

3:30 AM

@BESW Speaking of that - does this need actioning or some more attention?

@BESW ........ what would that mean for Stellata and Doctor Light?

@Miniman I figure the mods have noticed it and are giving it a week or so for people to say "Nay!"

@doppelgreener It means that the machinery which caused their mutations had an "abort/undo" button if the process went catastrophic. The results of the experiment (themselves) probably don't have this, but I'm sure Tesladyne is keeping an eye on them. Regular psych and physical evaluations are mandatory for ALL Tesladyne employees/subjects.

user image

^ ooer

@doppelgreener It's a sign.

user image

3:35 AM

Tesladyne is about staying on the "thinking outside the box" side of the Weird Science spectrum, and avoiding the "cackling as you use New York City to channel a previous un-proven force through your body using a crystal skull as a focusing medium" end of things.

Hi @Room :(

@BESW Oh phew, so there's no button labelled "Undo Stellata's existence", but she's still vulnerable to the regular sort of... dead-ness.

@doppelgreener Yes. Also they may be working on experimental anti-psychotics that work on plants.

Those physical examinations must be interesting, given her being a plant and all

@stizzle84 Sorry, no user here by that name.

3:36 AM

@Miniman lol

@BESW For all the piranha plants, right?

@doppelgreener this was part of why I suggested it

@doppelgreener And maybe for Doctor Light.

(what's an anti-psychotic do again? or when would they use it?)

[notices John Hacker]

3:38 AM

@BESW this may or may not have happened before he joined

Antipsychotics are drugs for managing delusions, hallucinations, and other forms of disordered thought. Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc.

IE, taking the "mad" out of the "mad scientist," if necessary.

@Metool Yeeeah. I'm having trouble getting into that headspace.

they may very well have decided they need to "fix" his brain

my concept of him leaves him, at the very least, looking like his is a bit insane and unstable

who's John Hacker?

@doppelgreener This guy.

@BESW That sounds incredibly necessary in Tesladyne

3:41 AM

though he has professed no inclination to overun the world with plant life, or irradiate its surface in UV,.... if he went over the edge he might attempt to do those things

or if he had evil or insane alternate dimension clones, or just plain clones

,... they would not be hard to explain as people who would want to do those things

@BESW People keep commenting my comments as I'm writing them! [shakes fist]

3

[takes notes]

@Miniman Yo dawg. I heard you like comments.

@doppelgreener post-edit

IIRC low-power portals to alternate dimensions generally result in somewhere more or less the same as here right?

but I think @Miniman's edit was accurate

3:44 AM

@doppelgreener yes

@KRyan All else aside, I'm pretty sure we have a question for this already anyway.

the issue is that if it is low power enough, the place you get isn't gonna be nearly different enough to be worth your effort

@doppelgreener Usually. But the zorth dimension isn't really a well-documented field of science.

@Miniman entirely possible, but I do not immediately recall one

@KRyan Added in a comment, the flag option seems to have gone missing

3:46 AM

1

Q: How does metamagic feats interact with each type of casters?

Wizards Wizards must choose to apply the metamagic feat to their spells while preparing the spell? If yes, can they just cast spells with the metamagic feat this way? Sorcerers and Bards When sorcerers and bards cast a spell using a metamagic feat, they use a full-round action. That is ok. Will...

dnd-3.5e spells feats magic

huh

Point three looks like it encompasses the new question in its entirety, assuming the edit is accurate.

@BESW I feel oddly happy about finding it first :P

Hee.

nice

3:48 AM

You're learning well, young apprentice.

that is a damn fine question, and pair of answers

upvotes all around there

I hadn't seen that

Dope. Just worked out why I couldn't flag as duplicate - it was already closed.

anyway, I agree that it's a duplicate if @Miniman's edit is accurate

I searched cleric AND metamagic is:question and got it easy.

@Miniman actually, the flag option is still there for me

3:49 AM

@KRyan Me too, but limited options i.e. no duplicate flag

@BESW is the AND option actually necessary?

I dunno, I used it reflexively.

@KRyan It restricts results as opposed to just prioritising them

@Miniman sure, but since the AND'd results appear first, I wouldn't normally care that other results appear later

though I can see plenty of use-cases for it

I use the search function rarely

cuz uh

I tend to remember what I'm looking for

so I just search for text I remember from the question title or whatever

@KRyan Me neither, I was explaining from a mechanical point of view.

3:52 AM

I like using it because it tells me the upper limit of how many results I'm going to be searching.

@BESW I went to ask 'Is there a way to have each question show up in search results once?' and then realised the is:question you added would do that

@doppelgreener It's depressingly easy to open a portal to a Vampire Dimension, apparently. It's been done accidentally at least twice.

@BESW So things are either about the same, a little bit different, or vampires

Although it's still possible that the first time wasn't actually a dimensional portal; Tesla was trying to examine sub-atomic structures, and it's possible he discovered that the subatomic world is filled with vampires too.

lol

3:56 AM

@doppelgreener No, actually! Things are either about the same, vampires, or the Earth is not where it should be and you have opened a portal to deep space.

"A little bit different" doesn't seem nearly so common as might be expected.

They have yet to discover a dimension where Nazis rule the world, and frankly if they did it would be a welcome relief.

@BESW I love the idea of Dracuson particles whizzing around and sucking the Charm out of quarks.

even Nazis are more reasonable than flesh hungry canable monsters,... and the cold vacuum of space

@Miniman "We've discovered a new subatomic rotation! Some particles rotate Belaward."

"...No, no, not 'Bella.' 'Bela.' As in 'Lugosi.' Idiot."

Oops, my bad

I suspect we're never going to see John Hacker again

@Miniman that's possible, though it's only been half an hour

4:09 AM

@doppelgreener True, I forget not everyone is sitting at work with nothing to do

Please critique my science fiction. I would like it to be "as authentic" as possible in a dungeons and dragons setting. Hopefully that makes sense...

drive.google.com/file/d/0B0e8R4h9Fk5NVEhqd1hlTzZwWDA/…

I had asked it as a question, but took the advice of Brian and deleted it, and am proceeding in the chat.

@Ruut I read it, but I think you might need the opinion of someone with some background in science

(I call it: Aunty Beeb gets Maya.)

Background information on the "character" that wrote it: Necromancer 10/Necrophage 10/Fleshwarper 10/Archmage 5/Human Paragon 3. Concentrates in Knowledge: Anatomy and the Heal Skill. Major area of concern are Grafts and Augmentation of Undead and Golems. Has a "Plastic Surgery" practice and teaches anatomy in a university.

@Miniman Well, like I had said in the question, my friends and players, unfortunately are not as educated as I am. It's not their fault - just not their area of expertise.

4:16 AM

@Ruut If he's a level 38 caster, why is he using such low level methods to obtain information? Why not just use Divination to determine precisely how everything about undead works?

Or just cast Wish - I want a paper detailing the precise anatomical mechanics of the undead.

@Miniman Spsh. At level 38, a 3.5 caster can redefine how everything about being undead works.

Well, this is a "teaching tool" for his university students. If I am to introduce it as a DM for the players to utilize henceforth, I just want it to be as good as possible.

His partner in crime is actually a more powerful caster than he is. We took creative license - his necromancer found the "truename" of necromancy for example. We created "The Final Solution." Essentially zombies that are immune to positive and negative energy effects - with the knowledge of undead my character has, and the knowledge of pure necromancy his partner has.

Our campaign page is here: if anyone would like to know anymore background information: new-avalon-city-of-necromancy.obsidianportal.com

in a nutshell, is heavily borrow elements of Hollowfaust from Sword and Sorcery Games.

The players in real life, are a butcher, a stock clerk, and sales representatives. None of them, literally, have degrees in science or engineering.

Anyone here have a strong science background?

...and the chirping of the cicadas was interrupted only by a coyote in the distance howling at a tumbleweed...

@BESW How so?

@Miniman Well, we do have experts here in various fields, that just happens to not be one of them for the presently online audience.

My brain has soaked up science knowledge like a sponge, but I am not a scientist academically or by profession.

@doppelgreener Especially if you have a cabal of high-level minions, like someone with a magic university does, you can start making spells that re-write reality. The gods will oppose you, but they have hit points.

4:28 AM

@BESW And if they have hit points, you can just take the domain of the gods opposing you once you beat them.

@BESW Epic Spell: Still Less Broken Than Naruto Mechanics

@BESW Have you read any of Barbara Hambly's novels? They mostly contain the plot point of a portal-between-worlds, usually linking a medieval-fantasy world (different one for each series) to modern-day Earth. One pair of novels had the protagonist magicians fleeing from the inquisition at the end of the first novel... and landing in Nazi Germany...

goodreads.com/book/show/176312.The_Rainbow_Abyss

@BESW I'm now imagining him spending his 38 levels trying in vain to study how the undead work, then concluding it is a bunch of incomprehensible nonsense and he can't make heads or tails of it. So then he just decides to write down how they should work, then makes a bunch of spells to rewrite reality so that they work that way. There! Much more straightforward.

2

@doppelgreener I would do this.

@doppelgreener My necromancer did do a lot of that in game. He just wants his students to not have to go through the pains he did.

4:31 AM

(Actually, multiple Doctor Who villains have had this sort of the thing as their motive.)

Of course he has so many grafts on himself he is a living experiment in his own fight.

right*

@Ruut So...he's going to kill them painlessly and have zombie students?

If they don't follow the rules.

Lawful Evil to the extreme.

Transgressors of the rule of law (his law) end up being permanent city servants

@BESW Of course! There is a man presently alive who has studied sleep for fifty years and has concluded: "As far as I know, the only reason we need to sleep that is really, really solid is because we get sleepy."

If a man like that were also a wizard he'd probably decide this is unacceptably silly and set out to right the situation so that it makes sense.

There is also a geneticist who has devoted his life to studying fish, and ultimately concluded that genetically there is no such thing. A tuna fish is more closely related to a camel than it is to a salmon.

@doppelgreener He already did in D&D, why do you think D&D characters don't need to sleep?

4:34 AM

@Miniman Brilliant!

We started roleplaying our epic level necromancers more as governing bodies, because fights were literally - if we won initiative we won the fight that round. If we lost initiative, we prayed we rolled high to on whatever save, to cast time stop and win the fight the next round.

Speaking of portals and other worlds... Our party just briefly went into one. I had plans for it down the road, but they have insisted. And one of them touched a crystal there. Which was hard not to do, as that's what the otherworld is seemingly made of. Due to [censored], it was significant. What I think I'll do now, is give him a "Touched an otherworldly crystal" aspect with a free invoke, and just see what he does with it.

It is really hard to DM epic level content. The stuff in that book is so overpowered for a 21st level character, and trivial for a 30+ level character.

@Magician I love that.

Sounds like you're embracing Fate's "throw it to the players and see what they do"ness.

Trying to. I mean, I know what I would do, but I'm trying to stay away a bit.

4:40 AM

I have such a hard time doing that.

ARRPG's brainstorming mechanic will help force me to.

@BESW You do? :O

@doppelgreener I do!

Is it because you delight in filling in the blanks yourself? :)

Yes.

Also because I have the better part of a decade of habit with players who wanted me to have a world pre-made for them to explore.

What seems to work for me is purposefully leaving mysteries in the world, to which I only know half of the answers. Which is hard.

4:45 AM

Both of these would pose a challenge yes 8)

Yeah, I have spent hours upon hours of world building. I have to keep extensive roleplaying journals due to creating content on the fly - due to people wanting to return to it.

@BESW, @doppelgreener, I summon thee to Google hangouts

There are things...things which need discussing...

@Ruut I personally moved to Fate because I wanted to have to spend less time doing it c(:

@Magician Yeeeah.

If you've time, anyway

4:46 AM

In the D&D3.5 game I'm running, the party had finished the module at the end of the previous session, and were following the hook I'd given them for the next one. But because I was really trying to not railroad them (at least, not obviously), they almost went for the next hook, which they need to be 3 levels higher for!

Again, though: ARRPG's brainstorming mechanic means that even if I have a fully-formed idea for what's going on, the players will change it.

I have had to purposefully create more enriching world content to encourage roleplaying. It is extremely easy in 3.5 to min/max and blow through encounters in d4 rounds. I learned that it just isn't worth it to spend a few hours creating an "awesome encounter" because it never goes as planned.

Players inherently will create their own content. I figured out as DM that facilitating the content they create themselves is usually more worth it in the long run.

@BESW I find it a bit easier for one reason: I love the sense of mystery of an abandoned town with no clues as to why it was abandoned. I love the unknown of a monstrosity from who knows where. And I'm interested in learning more about Jing Pang. But I... don't have the inclination to fill in the details, because I enjoy leaving it as a mystery.

Yar. I can do that, but I have to force it.

and I get to journey with my players personally in unravelling it, which is fun.

4:49 AM

It's mostly just a matter of untraining habits.

@Lord_Gareth I could join there in a few hours but not at the moment

Yeah. I tend to look at the greater picture, and see pieces come together, which only requires for the mysteries to have answers I envision. Old habits and all that.

Putting up the link again in case people missed it.

(@Lord_Gareth what's it about anyway?)

drive.google.com/file/d/0B0e8R4h9Fk5NVEhqd1hlTzZwWDA/…

4:50 AM

@doppelgreener Very well. I will contact you at another time.

@doppelgreener I want you and @BESW to write an RPG, potentially

@doppelgreener I can tell you a little about it later. It's in a ballpark adjacent to our H&S hack talks.

@Ruut That sounds like a fun ethos

2

@BESW Okay!

@Lord_Gareth :O

@Lord_Gareth //ears perk up//

I'll also need to get a layout person around, I think...

@Lord_Gareth Like, page layout?

4:52 AM

But I talked it over with The Almighty Bossman and he has an interest, once we can get certain matters of economics and logistics settled

@BESW Aye, for PDF/printing. I have such a person on hand but she's sorta swamped with other work for Da Boss

As in, print-focused graphic design work?

@Lord_Gareth Just use LaTEX - easy, free, and deterministic results

As in, my profession.

When I was writing this, I imagined it was me trying to figure out how a reanimated corpse could see things. So I was thinking of spells and whatnot that could fill in the gaps and answer the questions I had. I didn't want it to be "It is this way because an evil god said so." I wanted it to be, this works like this, and you can see how it works.

Well hellfire, I didn't know that!

Damn. Between the author doing layout and the IP owner being an artist we're just winning all kinds of awards for efficiency in this design team

4:55 AM

i could literally listen to Steven Pinker for hours. I wish I could attend Harvard just to take every class he teaches.

Bossman will be on in about an hour or so, @BESW. If he's willing to do so, would you like to tag a meeting in? That way we can hash things out about your end. The artist/owner will need to be contacted more thoroughly as well...good thing I have tomorrow off

I'd only have a half hour before the caretaker leaves and I'm back on Dad Duty.

@Ruut [makes mental note to check this thing out]

I attended an Origins Project conference that was hosted by Lawrence Krauss and moderated by Steven Pinker. It was a mindblowing intellectual orgasm.

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