TRPG General Chat

wax eagle

00:34

@JoshuaAslanSmith coming soon: Pizza field rations (no really, it's in R&D right now)

Zachiel

01:09

@waxeagle /shaves, leaving only a moustache/ Heresy!!!

Joshua Aslan Smith

01:21

@waxeagle no I saw and it totally makes sense, most of the MREs are comfort foods of one kind or another

chili max and cheese and jambalaya were always favorites of mine

BESW

02:03

@AlexM. Hi!

Alex M.

hiya

uh, I kinda clicked the link to the chat because I was curious, I never really played pen & paper RPGs

BESW

Ah, cool.

Is there anything in particular you're curious about?

Alex M.

just looking around; is the site and chatroom fully focused on pen & paper RPGs?

ToEE, BG and IWD are very close to my heart (among the PC games)

BESW

Generally, yes. There are variants on the topic which we also cover.

Like live-action RP (LARP) and play-by-post (forum-based or email-based) RPGs.

Generally if it's a storytelling game where decision options and action resolution are determined by people instead of by a computer program, it's probably in our bailiwick.

And like most chat rooms we happily deviate from our primary topic pretty often.

Alex M.

I see

BESW

02:09

@AlexM. Alas, I'm not actually very familiar with PC RPGs.

Alex M.

and I'm not very familiar with the base rules, hah. I limited myself to a shallow understanding which allowed me to immediately enjoy the story and overall gameplay

afaik ToEE is the most faithful rendition of the AD&D 3.5 rules on the PC to date

I liked that one because of the fully turn based combat for example

BESW

Most 'traditional' tabletop RPGs are built on the model where every player represents/controls a single main character, except for one player who adjudicates the rest of the world (environment, enemies, etc). They work together to tell stories about the main characters, using rules and some form of randomisation (like dice) to determine the success or failure of important actions.

But there are literally thousands of RPG systems and many of them deviate from that model in minor or major ways.

Alex M.

so a single player decides the fate of everyone?

I guess it must take a serious level of seriousness to make the game fair for everyone

BESW

It can, and that's one reason the rules are there.

Alex P

Hey folks.

Alex M.

02:13

hiya

BESW

The "game master" is often in charge of determining what kind of encounters the players have, and how the world responds to the players' actions.

How much the GM is simply an avatar of the unfeeling rules, and how much he simply uses the rules when necessary as tools for helping the group tell interesting stories, depends on the RPG system and the desires of the group.

There are also GMless game systems where everyone shares the responsibility.

(We have a lot of questions about the role and responsibilities of the GM.)

Alex M.

is there some sort of quickstart thing for D&D pen & paper?

or even better, an online game where people play it

BESW

Yes, although it's not quite that simple.

For starters, D&D has gone through a half-dozen different "editions," most of which are so very different from each other that the one you choose has a major impact on the kind of game you wind up playing.

And even within an edition, because the rules aren't enforced by a machine every group has its own interpretations and house-rule variants. So yes, there are starter packages for most of the D&D editions, but the experience isn't homogenous.

And yes, there are several online communities/tools for play over the Internet. I'm not the right guy to ask for recommendations, but Roll20 is the one I've heard the most about.

Alex P

(I'll butt in if I actually have something useful to add. But I don't at the moment.)

Alex M.

roll 20 seems interesting

and well built

BESW

02:25

D&D is on the high end of system complexity. You've got experience with it through CRPG systems inspired by the game, which is helpful, but there are other RPG systems which require much less study before beginning play. Unfortunately, because D&D is the highest-profile RPG around, it's the default system people usually start with and it's the easiest to find existing groups for.

Alex P

@BESW Though not that this varies by region. Like, in Germany, D&D is significantly less popular because there's a D&D-like German game (The Dark Eye) that has existed for a long time.

BESW

(I played D&D for eight+ years, and have recently moved on to simpler, less study-heavy systems that focus more on non-combat kinds of conflict.)

@AlexP Oh, very cool. Know anything about the Romanian RPG scene?

Alex P

Nope. >.>

Alex M.

I played Drakensang, regarding The Dark Eye, on the PC

not sure how much that helps, although it's supposed to be a faithful rendition of the rules

BESW

If we have any other Romanian citizens who drop by the chat, I don't know it. Italian, Russian, Dutch...

Alex M.

02:29

not sure we've got any pen and papers in Romania...

although we do have a board game shop which also lets players gather and play stuff

though I'd rather play online first, especially if there's something managed by the CPU

Alex P

If you're playing online, the difference between games that use a battle map and games that don't is pretty significant. The first kind use dedicated software like Roll20. The one that don't need a battlemap you can play by chat or Google Docs or other formats.

Alex M.

I wouldn't join anyone without proper knowledge

BESW

We have some examples of chat-based mapless games that we've run around here, using systems like Roll for Shoes and Fate Accelerated Editions.

@AlexM. If the game's resolution mechanics are moderated by a computer, it's not really the same thing.

Alex M.

yeah I guess that's right

BESW

@AlexM. Most people learn by joining a group which teaches them the game as they play.

The real joy of tabletop RPGs, for many people, lies in the knowledge that because you're working with real people instead of pre-programmed responses, you never have to worry that what you want to do is impossible just because the game designer didn't think of it.

The other people at the table can roll with the unexpected and incorporate it into the story, making up new rules or ignoring existing rules as the group feels is appropriate.

Cooperative, improvisational storytelling.

Alex M.

02:37

I might try to find a group of players local to my area on the web then

BESW

Also try your local board game shop; they might know where/who to ask.

Alex M.

not sure I'll enjoy the games because of the fact that I'm playing with people, but you never know, since I never played before

BESW

(A lot of gaming or comic shops serve as nerd networking hubs.)

Alex M.

during BG for example the biggest pleasure came from me spam reloading the game until my awesome entangle/sleep/fireball combos worked on all bosses

I remember not being able to beat a boss, but being able to entangle it on the nth try

for some reason, running away felt like an accomplishment there

Alex P

@AlexM. I remember trying to get the Staff of the Magi as early as possible in BG2. Using tricks to kill the boss group that you have to fight to get it. :)

BESW

02:40

Here's a story of a D&D exchange that someone told me when I first got interested in RPGs:

Alex M.

when I played BG2 at first I was like "meh, BG1 had better boss fights"

but then I got to that alternate dimension level thing (can't remember well, I didn't play BG2 for more than a few hours) and I went "yeah, this is what I'm talking about!"

BESW

A group of adventurers is fighting through a goblin-infested dungeon. Their scout reports that the next room is filled with tough-looking goblin soldiers. They need a plan for this battle.
The gnome speaks up: "Send the minotaur in first! He's expendable."
The minotaur looks down at the gnome, his brow furrowed in puzzlement. "What's 'expendable' mean?"
The gnome stares up into the minotaur's dumb brown eyes and explains, "It means 'very brave.'"
"Oh, okay." The minotaur is happy, and they continue to plan.

Alex M.

I think I spent 80% of my playtime in that area, trying to beat the bosses and underlings

BESW

The plan does wind up involving the minotaur entering the room first, naturally. He charges through the door, screeches to a halt in the middle of the goblin horde, and thunders: "FIGHT ME! I'M EXPENDABLE!"

Alex P

So, one awesome thing about pen-and-paper RPGs is that there's a huge variety of games. Not just different approaches to one style of game but, like, games about different things. Think about, like, the difference between a tactical-focused CRPG and a "story"-focused CRPG, but, like, magnified 10 times.

Alex M.

02:43

@BESW I lol'd

BESW

In the last six months I've participated in games about: a subsistence hunter turned werecat priest of Bastet in ancient Egypt, struggling to learn the politics of priesthood; a homeless shaman ex-P.I in a medieval steampunk city who stumbles onto a terrible crime; a trickster changeling in a South Carolina college town where kids' toys are coming to life;

...a bionics-enhanced spy who unleashes an all-powerful artificial intelligence hoping that it will save the world from humanity's technological excess; a spider-like alien detective blackmailing a CEO to save his favourite asteroid-based coffee shop; a pair of young temple orphans who save a girl and her cat who were swallowed by a whale; and a circus acrobat forced to steal technology from a highly secured private vault in the house of a man who blames him for ruining his life.

Alex M.

that's quite diverse

BESW

And nearly all of them used the Fate system, which is one reason I like that particular game engine.

Systems like D&D and World of Darkness are pretty closely tied to a setting; other systems like Fate are "setting-agnostic," meaning they can be put to use in nearly any setting with minimal (if any) modification.

Alex M.

fantasy-ish settings like those in D&D sort of appeal to me more

the purer the game seems, the better

BESW

"pure"?

Alex M.

02:53

as in, it doesn't mix multiple sort of opposite things, not sure how to explain

like how Arcanum (PC Game) mixed fantasy with steampunk

BESW

The D&D setting started out as a haphazard collection of pop culture that a half-dozen guys 40 years ago liked.

Alex M.

or Might and Magic mixed fantasy with futuristic SF

everything Forgotten Realms seemed pure to me

Alex P

Over the past six months I've only played one game, a viking adventure in fantasy-historical Europe. Like, 30 sessions of it, though. :)

Alex M.

Tolkien's Middle Earth is another example of a "pure" setting that I like

it's really just high fantasy

BESW

It's a mix of Greek, Hindu, and British mythologies with Hammer films and Kolchak: the Night Stalker, Lord of the Rings and Three Hearts and three Lions...

Sources and influences on the development of Dungeons & Dragons

Sources and influences on the development of Dungeons & Dragons include fantasy fiction, mythology, and wargaming rules among others. An immediate predecessor of Dungeons & Dragons was a set of medieval miniature rules written by Jeff Perren. These were expanded by Gary Gygax, whose additions included a fantasy supplement, before the game was published as Chainmail. When Dave Wesely entered the service in 1970, his friend and fellow Napoleonics wargamer Dave Arneson began a medieval variation of Wesely's Braunstein games, where players control individuals instead of armies. Arneson used...

@AlexM. Middle Earth is largely rooted in Norse mythology, but it, too, borrows from a hodgepodge of sources--more focused than D&D, because it's mostly British and Northern European, but no less derivative and patched together.

J. R. R. Tolkien's influences

While highly creative, the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien was influenced by a number of sources. Tolkien was inspired by his academic fields of philology and early Germanic literature, especially poetry and mythology, as well as a wide range of other beliefs, culture, and experiences. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings The Lord of the Rings is a sequel to The Hobbit and so shares influences with it. At the same time, it is a novel which is much greater in scale and scope and so encompasses many other influences as well. Religious influences Tolkien once described The Lord of the Ring...

Alex M.

02:57

yup, but it remains in the medieval area thingy

what I meant is

it's hard for me to swallow running into battle with an axe and a fireball spell while there are zeppelins, trains and guns all over the place

combining anything that's not medieval with fantasy seems inappropriate to me

that's what I meant :D

BESW

Oh, you mean Eberron.

Alex M.

I remember that

on the PC there's Dragonshard set in Eberron

Alex P

@AlexM. I sympathize. :)

BESW

LotR is more internally coherent, yes.

But D&D has never really even tried to make sense in that kind of fashion.

Really simple example: In the real world, and especially in the medieval period, salt has always been a major influence on economics and politics. Salt lets you preserve food for a very long time, making it easier to travel, letting you survive famines, and allowing commerce of perishable goods.

Alex M.

@AlexP considering I spent a lot of my childhood with HoMM, when I heard, later on, that in the universe itself there has always been a cross between fantasy and futuristic SF to the point of laser beams vs spears

I really didn't know what to feel lol

BESW

03:02

D&D has a level 0 spell which makes salt utterly irrelephant.

Alex M.

only started playing the M&M games recently

BESW

Travel, trade, the strength of nations and the exchange of cultures, all suddenly changes in ways we can't even begin to understand, just because every tiny hamlet probably has access to the ability to keep food fresh.

Move up to higher-level spells like the ability to travel instantly anywhere, and to take large amounts of goods or people with you, and compare it to the advances and changes in the world brought about by trains.

Alex M.

it's more that the trains don't fit in... visually

I'm fine with explaining everything by something like "it's magic"

it doesn't really break the immersion that way

BESW

D&D is a setting about, and for, and exclusively interested in, adventurers who run around killing people and looting stuff. Everything else is window dressing. The economy is run on how useful a thing is to an adventurer in a dungeon. The social hierarchy makes no sense.

@AlexM. So it's a magic train?

[grin]

Alex P

@AlexM. Like "genre purity."

Alex M.

03:08

as long as the magic train is made of wood and looks like a big multiple-wagon carriage, sure :D

@AlexP yeah I think that's one way to put it

BESW

Also of note: a lot of the things we consider necessary to a medieval setting... well, someone of that period would find it very odd.

Alex M.

I must have become too accustomed to Tolkien's idea of fantasy

BESW

Our ideas about what the period (which is an insanely long period stretched over a massive geographic region) was like are very inaccurate.

Alex P

@BESW The game my wife and I are playing is about purposefully trying to undo that. To play "1020 with myth and magic" instead of "600-1650 with myth and magic."

BESW

@AlexP No tobacco, sofas, or potatoes?

@AlexM. Don't get me wrong, Tolkien's world is interesting and mostly coherent. But it's been sadly used as a baseline for other writers who try to tie their worlds more closely to actual history.

Alex P

03:16

@BESW Also no knightly orders, no jester hats, no particolor clothing, no corsets.

BESW

@AlexP And no underwear!

afk a while, lunching.

Alex P

Depending on how you define underwear.

@AlexM. I played a lot of HOMM3 as a kid. Later, Age of Wonders. I was also really into the D&D-based CRPGs (Baldur's Gate, Torment).

Alex M.

awesome

I liked HoMM 4 better, but I played and still play the third almost equally

I am playing Planescape Torment at the moment, never got to before

Alex P

HOMM3 is kinda crazy. In a good way, but still crazy. 687 Archangels attacking 9999 Skeletons crazy.

Alex P

03:34

So, as far as RPG stuff, something you might find informative/entertaining (or might not, it really depends on circumstances) is "actual play," transcripts or write-ups of people playing. Here's a recent game of Do: Temple of the Flying Pilgrims in chat, it's a lightweight game about fantastical travelers helping people.

Here's a set of writeups of my kinda-long-running Burning Wheel game (preemptive apology: at one point we go to what-is-now-Romania and it is not very accurately researched at all).

Alex M.

Either the address you are accessing this site from has been banned for previous malicious behavior or the action you attempted is considered to be hostile to the proper functioning of this system.

The detected reason(s) you were blocked are:
RDSNET is a constant source of spam and attacks (HN-0090).

apparently my ISP is hated lol

(on the pages you posted)

Alex P

Ouch.

Alex M.

well, Romanians love to play the hackers I guess

every now and then there's this Romanian high schooler breaking NASA's website for the lulz

Alex P

@AlexM. I posted most of the same content on a different site.

Alex M.

that one works :D

Alex P

03:40

Like I said, I'm not sure how useful/interesting that'll be, exactly, but I offered.

Alex M.

much appreciated for sure

I might have to save it for next evening though, I've got an exam in 3 hours or so

and I'd do some more exercises until then

I'll drop by later, cya

Alex P

@AlexM. Good luck.

LessPop_MoreFizz

Making evil characters that aren't cartoons is hard.

Alex P

@LessPop_MoreFizz Are you making a villain (i.e. an enemy for a PC / set of PCs) or some other kind of character?

LessPop_MoreFizz

@AlexP PC Villain; I got roped into a Way of the Wicked campaign.

Alex P

03:47

@LessPop_MoreFizz Is that one of those "all the protagonists are evil guys" kind of setups?

LessPop_MoreFizz

@AlexP Yeah, it's a published campaign/AP for 1-20 built for Lawful Evil characters.

(There's a strong emphasis on being part of, and eventually operating an Evil Organization that's supposed to suppress the most egregious party infighting.)

Alex P

I had a fairly successful Evil-themed D&D game based on the idea of, like, having characters willing to "sell their souls" for something they valued more than conventional ethics and morality.

LessPop_MoreFizz

I'm thinking Alchemist - start out as a shady, sort of mob/back alley 'medical doctor'/amateur anatomist sort ("You need a kidney? I can get you a kidney.") and then evolve it towards more Mad Science as he levels up.

Alex P

I could see that being pretty successful with the right underlying motivation.

BESW

I think this is a good example of the limitations that the D&D alignment system imposes: the implication that people who do bad things must enjoy doing them.

LessPop_MoreFizz

03:51

@AlexP Yeah, I did, years and years and years ago; a short campaign in which the party was evil but under a strict Geas from a powerful outsider to do his bidding and never betray each other.

BESW

The "evil" alignment curtails a lot of the more nuanced characterisations of people who do evil things.

LessPop_MoreFizz

We completed the first Big Overarching Mission that fulfilled the geas, and the wizard promptly cast a fireball into the center of the rest of the party.

But that was basically a pack of traveling mustache twirling murder hobos who weren't allowed to stab each other.

Alex P

@LessPop_MoreFizz In our case the idea was that they were all part of the same army (then immediately became secret agents together instead), so their goals were always pretty similar. But they all went to different extremes for them -- becoming possessed, becoming an undead creature consumed by hatred, becoming an unfeeling robot, &c.

LessPop_MoreFizz

And I understand that this is meant, (at least, as the GM is pitching it), to be a bit more sophisticated.

Alex P

The least likable guy managed to stay Neutral. That's kinda what made him unlikable: he didn't lose and sacrifice as much. He didn't seem to care as much as the others as a result.

LessPop_MoreFizz

03:54

@BESW Yeah, this is definitely true.

Alex P

@LessPop_MoreFizz You might want to bring up the "What level of cooperation/opposition is appropriate for this game?" question from Same Page Tool. So everyone's clear on the acceptable level of "bickering."

2

LessPop_MoreFizz

It also probably helps/hurts that I just binged my way through season 2 of House of Cards, so I have a whole lot of different faces of scheming evil floating through my head right now.

Alex P

@BESW The way we dealt with it at the time was that "Evil" was "You're damned and you know it."

BESW

04:05

The most successful Evil D&D game I ever participated in had only two players, so out-of-character cooperation was a lot easier.

In that game, @trogdor was a soldier who wanted to become immortal, so he had a necromancer (played by his brother) turn him into a necropolitan (the 3.5 template which makes you undead with the fewest changes to your character otherwise).

Alex P

Really there are a lot of people who could be called D&D Evil that are still, like, acceptable as people. At least to their friends.

trogdor

lol

BESW

Because the necromancer was the Igor-like henchman of an extremely powerful warlock, the soldier wound up also being the warlock's servant.

And they were sent on missions to help further the warlock's goals and obstruct the group of four unlikely friends who kept showing up to defeat his plans.

Alex P

@BESW That brings to mind another important point: D&D Evil Party plays very different depending on whether it's "We're the party, but Evil!" or "We are foils for good guys in a world of good-guy parties."

(Not that these are your only options per se.)

BESW

@AlexP Yes, I was once a player in the first kind of Evil Party, and it... ended better than I expected?

Forrestfire

04:10

I'm currently DMing a game that /started/ as an Evil Campaign

BESW

Everyone ran away and left each other to hang the instant things looked grim. But we didn't backstab each other!

Forrestfire

and turned into a neutral campaign

BESW

@Forrestfire Cool. Also, hi.

Forrestfire

because the players kept being reasonable and the NPCs, well, had to respond reasonably...

(hi)

no idea what the etiquette for jumping into chat here is, so I just did

BESW

It seemed to have worked!

Forrestfire

04:12

Huzzah!

BESW

One reason I'm done with D&D as a system, especially pre-4e, is that alignment always seemed to be a constraint on telling interesting stories, rather than a tool for doing so.

That's only one relatively small reason, but a noticeable pea under the mattress nonetheless.

trogdor

I did like that you could define your character in those terms

but the fact that you HAD to, and the restrictions that came with the alignment system

Forrestfire

Hrm. I've never really seen it as a constraint, but then, it's never been more than incidental in my games...

BESW

@Forrestfire That's the best way to do it, I think, which is why I give 4e a trophy for "Alignment system I can ignore without ripping entire mechanical subsystems out by the roots."

Forrestfire

Specifically, I've always used alignment as something you get from your actions, rather than your actions being something defined or described by alignment. I generally talk to the players to figure out what alignment we think their character is after several sessions worth of playing.

Alex P

04:17

I feel like it's much more obvious of a constraint when you remove some of the other ones. Like, the structure of classes and XP and such tend to hide some of the "Wait, what is the point of this?" factor of alignment.

trogdor

@Forrestfire that reminds me of my first solo game (possibly my first game at all)

LessPop_MoreFizz

Honestly, you could easily erase like... 90% of D&D alignment issues by just removing Paladins and not getting involved with Outsiders. (And the various related antitheses.)

Forrestfire

Although maybe I've just been lucky to have people in my groups who don't play Stupid Evil/good/lawful/etc

(or by changing the paladin code, I guess)

LessPop_MoreFizz

@Forrestfire Well, the code isn't really the problem with Paladins. I mean, it's a problem. But it's orthogonal to their alignment problems.

trogdor

my brother ran a game where I was a neutral fighter, but I let a kid and a good aligned elemental shack up in my brain,.... so my alignment immediately shifted

LessPop_MoreFizz

04:19

(Which is to say, they have an enormous number of mechanical hooks into the alignment system.)

Forrestfire

it is when you have a terrible DM :(

BESW

D&D alignment is hard to talk about because it's utterly unlike real-life discussions of the same topics.

Forrestfire

I like the idea of it. It's a cosmic counter of morality that generally has /absolutely nothing/ to do with actual morality.

D&D's implementation of that idea is pretty bad, though, since that's not really the intended result of Alignment...

BESW

In D&D, alignment is manifestly, demonstrably absolute and has actual influence on the world: it can grant spells, create entire planes of existence, and not only can spells detect its objective presence, they prove that alignment exists in quantifiable units.

Forrestfire

Out of curiosity, how do you italicize in here?

I don't see a menu or anything in the chat

BESW

04:23

Asterisks.

Formatting guide.

Forrestfire

thanks. I shoulda just tracked that down...

LessPop_MoreFizz

@Forrestfire It's basic markdown, same as comments on the main site.

*italics* **bold** ***Both*** [link](http://url)

Forrestfire

Anyway, I think the last time I made a character, I ended up marking down alignment as "Lawful Well-Intentioned"

BESW

We also have dice:

4d6

Dice Service

•

Forrestfire

04:25

hah, neat roller

BESW

The formula is XdY, where X is the number of dice up to 9 and Y is the number of faces (4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20 are supported).

Forrestfire

I gathered.

LessPop_MoreFizz

no d100?

LAME.

Forrestfire

1d%

BESW

We also have a fudge dice script which makes d6s look like fudge dice in the Fate game room.

Forrestfire

04:26

aww

Magician

2d10

Dice Service

1

8

BESW

2d10

Dice Service

4

5

Forrestfire

that works

BESW

04:27

@Magician ....Why do I keep synchronising my brain with Aussies?

Magician

We have similar time zones? ::Throws a rug over the brainswapping machine::

BESW

Hmm.

I made three evil PCs for that first campaign. One of them was a pretty typical bloodthirsty sneak thief trope.

Forrestfire

I'm bad at sticking to playing evil. I always feel guilty afterwards >_>

BESW

He was mechanically interesting --cast reduce person on a halfling, get a quarterling with astonishing sneak modifiers-- but boring as a character.

Forrestfire

"quarterling"

I've never heard that one before, hah

BESW

04:34

The next was a ranger who believed that the gods responsible for people dying had quotas to meet. If he killed enough people every day, the gods would never need to take his life to meet their quotas. Simple math.

He was a coward who specialised in filling people with arrows while running away as fast as he could.

The third was a level-draining minotaur, and I gave that sheet to another player because his gnome wizard died mid-session.

The game ended at the end of that session so he didn't get much personality development, but his motive was that he was traveling from one mountain labyrinth to another to visit his grandmother, and he liked having company on the way.

Forrestfire

always a good thing to have

lisardggY

Because even evil level-draining minotaurs like their grandmothers. That's sweet.

Forrestfire

ikr? Best motive.

lisardggY

I can imagine him frolicking in the woods, with a picnic basket of drained life energy he was bringing over to granny.

Because she has the best recipes for them!

Well, those were my five minutes. Now off to work. :)

BESW

I think this is where I link Making the Tough Decisions, because it's a great example of ways to use the contact zone between alignment and the needs of the group to fuel good roleplay by seeking non-obvious character choices.

> Maybe, just maybe, the other PCs are your friends and you are willing to help them just because. Too often that last part is forgotten; I don't think anyone reading this has never spent the night doing something they'd rather not because a friend asked.

lisardggY

04:44

See y'all later.

BESW

ttfn

Forrestfire

My last evil character was... 1/4th evil. Probably.
The character was a ghost made of four souls that got stuck together in one "body" by accident... A glory-hungry barbarian who tried adventuring and got killed by a dragon, a necromancer with a grudge against the world who made an undead army including said barbarian (as an intelligent undead sergeant). Necromancer guy led the army against a major city, and a woman at the city's mage college devised a ritual to break the undead's link to the negative energy plane. She died in the crossfire, as did a sick, bedridden little girl who lived ne…

They averaged out to chaotic neutral-ish

I think.

BESW

Heheh.

Forrestfire

Hilariously fun character to play, in any case, since only one of them had control of ghost at any one time, leading to some interesting conversations.

They ended up sacrificing themselves to hold off a dragon while the party escaped (coincidentally the same dragon that killed the barbarian all those years ago).

BESW

I'm wondering how I'd model that in Fate mechanics...

Forrestfire

04:50

I don't know

BESW

Maybe one stunt per ghost, and different sets of skills.

Forrestfire

It was 3.5, so I used Factotum

and the ghost savage progression

said that the necromancer didn't have access to anything but basic magic, that the little girl was in charge of "pushing stuff" telekinesis, the barbarian got the "throwing stuff" telekinesis, and the librarian (who in life had had zero magical aptitude, and forced her way into a position at the mage college through sheer memorized knowledge stuff) got lots of knowledge skills and Use Magic Device

BESW

Ooh, a telekinesis stunt. How would that go...?

Forrestfire

no idea. I haven't played Fate Core, much to my chagrin

BESW

Because I am telekinetic, I can extend the range of any physical-manipulation action (punching, throwing, tripping, picking a lock, etc.) by two zones.

That's a little broad.

@Forrestfire It's my current favourite thing.

Forrestfire

04:56

It's on my list of things to do.

Sadly, I have no open time slots for games right now, or I'd be in one an acquaintence of mine started a few weeks ago

BESW

Fair enough. I've got nearly a half-dozen people who would be part of our RPG group if they had the time.

If you'd like to see some examples of play, though, the Fate game room conversation tab has many. They're FAE, not Core, but close enough.

Forrestfire

I've seen some.

Man, I'm in way too many games right now

I think I have like... four. Three and a PbP

BESW

Wow.

Forrestfire

My weekends are busy XD

oh wait

two PbPs

BESW

I've got... one, with just one regular player (hi, @trogdor!), and occasionally I play a one-off here on chat.

Forrestfire

04:59

I'm DMing one of them

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