TRPG General Chat

12:01 AM

@Metool Yeah, he's offline now. When he's online I just see a big blank space on the user list.

It's always been that way since he started posting, and I've got all my scripts and tracker blocking disabled for icons on this site.

Ahah! Found it; I had to go several layers down in Ghostery.

Aaron

12:50 AM

So we have a spell we are arguing about. A team member says there is a spell that maximizes all physical damage a character deals. I cannot find this anywhere any of you guys know of it? Pathfinder of course

Metool

That would be insane, and probably third-party.

Aaron

I can't find it anywhere

Metool

Are they searching for it as well?

(wait)

Aaron

@Metool He isn't here.

I was just reminded of it so I thought I would ask if any of you knew of it.

Forrestfire

I can't find it on d20pfsrd, at least

Aaron

1:05 AM

Thanks for looking guys. I think he must have mis read something

Forrestfire

definitely not 3.5, in any case

hrm

lemme just google

is it the Kensai Magus' Perfect Strike ability?

Metool

If it is, "This affects only the weapon’s base damage dice, not additional damage from sneak attack, magical weapon properties, spellstrike, or critical hits. If the kensai confirms a critical hit, he can instead spend 2 points from his arcane pool to increase his weapon’s critical multiplier by 1. "

Aaron

1:26 AM

Where did you fnd that?

Metool

1:40 AM

Magus archetypes, perhaps in a search for maximum damage.

Aaron

@Metool Ok. I will take a look. Thanks

Metool

@Aaron Forrest there got the class feature named, I just quoted the limitation on it.

Aaron

@Forrestfire Thanks for the find. It is what I was looking for

BESW

2:00 AM

[sits up straight like a pointer dog] Somebody willing to duck into the Spoil-Lair with me for a bit?

MC_Hambone

@Zachiel my 9 people is really only 7 (but i could still stand to give up 2 for a nice group of 5) 2 of my players can only play very sporadically due to work and school schedules :(

BESW

Oh, only seven. That's different then.

user61230

@BESW Get StackEx to send you to an RPG conference!

MC_Hambone

@BESW I haven't consciously decided on "heat of the moment" fights, I just leave it up to the players. When our Warlord shows up he is good at strategy and getting people to do the "smart" thing.

@BESW I am not sure what I can so to correct my lack of avatar... not sure if I uploaded my image directly to the rpg.se site or if i linked with my facebook

BESW

@MC_Hambone Eh, it turned out to be a problem on my end.

@Emracool [blink] No way they're going to pay for my travel.

Why me specifically, anyway?

MC_Hambone

2:10 AM

ahh ok. I wanted to make sure it wasnt me... 'tis my family crest! and I must keep it displayed at all times! hahaha

user61230

Iunno, @BESW. Just seems like you're a bit of a community leader 'round these parts.

user61230

Plus, flights are expensive from islands.

BESW

Just because I talk a lot...

@Emracool yeah, I don't think they'd spring for that bill.

user61230

I honestly think Stack Exchange would be amenable.

user61230

/shrug. Up to you! Worth a shot, at least.

BESW

2:20 AM

Thanks for the tip. I'll give it some thought.

Practically speaking, it's unlikely I'd leave my mother taking care of my dad on her own. But I'll think about it.

Maybe it can be rolled into some other trip.

If anyone's still interested in following the development of my Knave Port/yuan-ti campaign, I just dumped a summary of the development so far, and a new idea for the villain of the piece, into the Spoil-Lair.

BESW's Spoil-Lair

CAUTION: High chance of plot. Not for BESW's players.

MC_Hambone

2:41 AM

that chat room seems a lot like the word document I have that "summarizes" my D&D adventures

BESW

I find that I brainstorm better with an audience.

MC_Hambone

I have a problem with that document tho, the more I write up narrative recaps of what happens in our sessions the more i get better at writing, and the better I get the longer the recaps get

BESW

And happily, some few people are willing to be my audience here.

MC_Hambone

...hmmm maybe I ought to start my own room like that XD.

for the past few months I have only kept my WoW account active to log in and talk to a friend on there about D&D

but yea, my latest "recap" of a D&D session is currently 4 pages long in times new roman 12 point font, SINGLE SPACED and I have only covered like 2 of 13 bullet points for that session...

BESW

In college I had a friend who I bounced ideas off of every week. When I came back home, my campaign quality declined because it was just me.

MC_Hambone

2:46 AM

i feel that, man... I accidentally backed myself into having my group solve a mystery recently. I had a few busy weeks and had no time to prepare stuff so I adlibbed a few sessions

BESW

@MC_Hambone The next writing skill you may need to hone, then, is summarisation: the ability to identify which bits are the important ones and which can be safely excluded.

MC_Hambone

basically my group went to the theater and destroyed a Immolith and now they are searching for who summoned it and why

BESW

I recently realised that a great deal of my ability to summarise comes from watching Mathnet as a kid.

MC_Hambone

i was at a loss for what to say and I implicated Vecna since he was a bad guy i could remember the name of that night... and i had no way to back out it later

in response to summarizing writing that 4page thing made me realize that I like writing the story too much to hone it in, so now instead of posting that recap to my FB group i just do bullet points

then at the end of a quest or "chapter" i post the word document for everyone to read if they want

BESW

Cool.

I once had a player who kept his own notes. It was great.

Alex P

2:51 AM

@MC_Hambone Consider your priorities when "recapping." I sometimes get trapped down a rabbithole of exposition and go back and just cut it all.

MC_Hambone

but yea my buddy on WoW helped me tie my Vecna bit into my main plot involving Tiamat. He clarifyed that Vecna is all about secrets and that the people trying to summon Vecna (and accidentally got an immolith instead) could have been trying to contact Vecna in order to get info about how to ressurrect Tiamat (as she is dead in my universe)

BESW

True.

A lazier way out would be to say that Vecna would never actually let someone figure out that he was involved in something so easily, so it must be a red herring.

MC_Hambone

@AlexP when the entire session was 1-2 pages my players seemed to read and enjoy the narrative, but once they started becoming 3+ it was a bit much for them, and now that i have 4 pages for what was like 15 min of play time, i have decided to just use a list format with no real flower description

@BESW well, mentioning Vecna wasn't planned in the first place so yeah, that could have worked :D

BESW

My island setting has, as its primary god, Wee Jas.

MC_Hambone

still, the weakened immolith fight was one of my better adlibbed fights to be honest, the theater almost burned down and before the actress being used as the sacrafice turned into a firey deamon hell bent on destruction she vomited out like 40 ghost like spirits that possessed the people in the crowd

BESW

2:56 AM

Portfolios: Magic, Death, Vanity, and Law. IE, she can justify being involved in just about anything.

Alex P

Wee Jas is pretty exciting.

BESW

I'm divorcing the setting from unnecessary D&D roots, but I'm keeping her.

Alex P

One of the better-designed D&D gods, I think.

MC_Hambone

pretty solid! is it a home brew world or are you actually in Greyhawk?

BESW

@MC_Hambone It was originally designed as a homebrew D&D setting, which I'm now revising for use in Fate.

One big challenge has been identifying the bits that I put in only because it was D&D, as opposed to the bits I actually like. I'm basically making "D&D: The Bits BESW Likes."

MC_Hambone

2:58 AM

very cool. My universe was originally created for a comic book i am writing, then when i started this D&D game i figured I had this whole big world filled with magic, all I needed was to roll the time back to medieval times

@BESW i can dig that. i basically just co opted the D&D pantheon of gods

...and monsters

BESW

I generally dislike the D&D gods, because they make no sense.

MC_Hambone

...and class system

Alex P

@BESW Some of the original Greyhawk stuff does hold together. They just got cast aside because a lot of them were a bit boring by adventure-story standards.

MC_Hambone

I was just too lazy to create my own pantheon for my world.

BESW

12

A: How would an Unaligned Vecna worshiper refrain from being/becoming Evil

The D&D gods are a pantheon I'll get into Vecna's personal issues later and how they make this weird, but a common mistake in trying to get a handle on the D&D pantheon is forgetting that pantheistic cultures have much more complicated relationships with their gods than monotheistic cultures. A...

Alex P

3:00 AM

Gods of rain and field and such.

MC_Hambone

if I had it prepared i would have used my own stuff over the D&D stuff.... i basically am just using the D&D rolling system because at the time it was all i knew

BESW

For this setting I want to treat gods more like old-school Christian saints: more different saints than you can shake a stick at, some local and some universal, with random weird overlapping portfolios, with strong competition between their adherents but also a sense that they all fit together and cooperate in the larger picture.

It fits nicely with Fate's laid-back attitude toward setting and canon, letting players invent new gods as appropriate without feeling like they're going to mess up some carefully designed structure.

MC_Hambone

I have a very loosely defined relationship of Gods and mortals in my universe (in the 'present day' comic version all the gods are dead). For the RPG game I am running I kinda took D&D's idea that primordials created the planets the Gods fought the primordials and shaped the planets/gave them life/created mortals/etc

gods like Vecna would have around later to interfere with the mortals

BESW

I'd like to take a moment to appreciate how much less messy and contradictory 4e's cosmology and eschatology is, without in the slightest reducing the GM's license to just Make Stuff Up.

Points of Light is the only D&D setting I ever actually ran.

MC_Hambone

a writer/creator at heart I have never bought into running any official setting

Lord_Gareth

3:10 AM

Ugh. I am so freaking tired of optimization haters >.<

MC_Hambone

min/maxing takes away from RP!! XD

Metool

Exactly that!

Lord_Gareth

@MC_Hambone I will flay your soul down to tatters and throw the screaming ashes into the yawning gate of Hell.

Metool

But you need to dial it back a bit, Knives.

MC_Hambone

honestly I dont care, it all depends on the game and character to be honest

min maxing can be RP especially if the character is all about being the greates combatant in the realms

BESW

3:12 AM

Remember, a lot of min/max hate comes from their feeling that they have be defensive about their choice not to. Going on the warpath just reinforces that notion and perpetuates the cycle.

Lord_Gareth

@MC_Hambone Or I could optimize for, say, keen senses, stealth, & hit-and-run ranged tactics and be the greatest scout

MC_Hambone

but other characters like my idea for a creepy "swarm" druid equivalant in a possible 3.5 game i might play in would really benefit from the Vow of Poverty option

we talked about VoP last night and the guys were saying it "isnt that great" but I really liked the idea for my vagabond creepy as hell druid that summons bug hordes and has a giant cockroach companion

Lord_Gareth

@MC_Hambone That'd be called optimizing for a concept and it's also a kind of optimization.

BESW

I used VoP regularly as a player to create low-maintenance PCs.

Lord_Gareth

@BESW I use it to send lootless, tougher monsters at evil PCs

Because I'm a sick fiend like that

BESW

3:16 AM

Did that once.

I believe it was a naked epic-level VoP tattooed monk.

Lord_Gareth

@BESW I slap it on celestials

BESW

Somebody threw a monk in the Black Cauldron, and he Came Out Wrong.

Lord_Gareth

The look on their face is always worth it.

BESW

(As is the nature of things you throw in the Black Cauldron.)

MC_Hambone

ewwww a naked monk... was his fighting style Greco Roman wrestling?

BESW

3:18 AM

More "crazed berserker."

Any living person placed in the Black Cauldron dies instantly. Any dead person placed in it becomes a deathless soldier loyal to the owner of the Cauldron.

(If that sounds familiar, it may be because The Mouse, in its finite wisdom, thought it'd make a great animated adventure.)

MC_Hambone

i think i know what you are alluding to.... is it Fantasia?

if it is a disney movie and more recent than the first Toy Story I probably havent seen it

BESW

The Black Cauldron (film)

The Black Cauldron is a 1985 American animated dark fantasy-adventure film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. The 25th film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, it is loosely based on the first two books in The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, a series of five novels which in turn is based on Welsh mythology. It is also known as Taran and the Magic Cauldron. The film centers around the evil Horned King who hopes to secure the magical Black Cauldron and rule the world with its aid. He is opposed by the youths Taran and Princess Eilonwy, the bard Fflewddur Fflam, and a wil...

MC_Hambone

ahhh, nope never saw that one either

BESW

The Chronicles of Prydain are awesome: imagine LotR if it were based in Welsh rather than Nordic mythology, and focused on the characters instead of the world.

MC_Hambone

i doubt my parents thought it was appropriate for little kids XD

BESW

3:25 AM

The film... meh.

Alex P

@BESW LotR does sad, sad things to Norse and Saxon and Germanic mythology.

Well, I don't much care about the straight-up Germanic mythology anyway.

Lord_Gareth

LotR is just sad is what it is. Like most pioneering works it's kinda garbage by modern standards, in this case because Tolkein never did learn how to shut the hell up.

I do not need to know anything about the mead in the goddamn tavern except maybe its quality.

I certainly did not need eight paragraphs on it.

Get on with the story

MC_Hambone

but

its mead!

you neeeeeeed to know its brewing techniques and ingredients, where the water comes from for the distilling who made it and when and if they were having a shitty day that day they started the process

BESW

@Lord_Gareth This is one reason Lloyd Alexander does much better.

Although I admit to a certain amount of bias because I really like heart-on-the-sleeve storytelling.

The Black Cauldron has a character with a really tragic plotline and a very moving portrayal of heel realisation.

In the film, they smushed The Book of Three and The Black Cauldron together, and in order to make room they took that character out completely... and gave his role in the story to the comic relief.

Alex P

I think Tolkien's problem is that he's so hooked on Beowulf but, well, Beowulf is just better.

BESW

3:40 AM

Tolkien had a lot of... challenges...

Making your language first and then coming up with a world to explain it and then making up stories for the world to have... is not the way I'd recommend to come up with compelling narrative, and it gives great temptation to talk about the world instead of the characters or the story.

Alex P

Well, "world-building" is a huge thing in fantasy.

I personally kinda hate it.

BESW

If you're there for the setting, Tolkien's your guy.

If not... may I suggest Lloyd Alexander, or Lawrence Yep, or Patricia C. Wrede, or Lois McMaster Bujold...

Alex P

@BESW if you can deal with his setting.

As I get older, I don't see much room for me in it. For how I live and what I value. And also the kinds of people I want to learn more about.

BESW

I do think he gets a bit more grief than is strictly just, because many of his critics hold him to standards that wouldn't exist until others took advantage of what he laid down. But that doesn't make his work objectively any better.

MC_Hambone

All i know is that in high school I tried reading The Hobbit but had to give up because it was too wordy and bogged down in inaction

Lord_Gareth

3:46 AM

@BESW I didn't start the froth-mouthed hatred of Tolkein until I read the Silmarillion and went "THEN WHY WAS ALL OF THIS CRAP IN LORD OF THE RINGS?"

My hate was without end

Now it is without pity

MC_Hambone

:D

BESW

@Lord_Gareth Your hate is unbounded in a seemingly limitless variety of ways.

You might want to get that looked at. It can't be healthy.

Alex P

I think Tolkien's problem is that once I looked into the history he loved, Tolkien himself had nothing to offer me. Because he can't help stuff his books with his own (kinda stodgy, strongly Christian, and terribly aristocratic) viewpoint that's just less interesting than the mythology he's plucking to create his "legendarium."

BESW

Don't forget blindingly white.

Alex P

Well, Beowulf is white-people stories, too.

Though Tolkien does take it to another level.

BESW

3:52 AM

Ethiopians illustrated in an 11th-century copy of Beowulf.

Lord_Gareth

@BESW Don't you remember? Hate is the engine that makes me run.

Metool

@BESW Is that a ^.- face?

BESW

@Metool Old manuscript illustrations have the best faces.

Alex P

My hat of d02 know no limit.

BESW

I mean, yes, Beowulf is still a White Guy Story, but I feel that's like comparing early Hergé to Wolsung.

Lord_Gareth

3:58 AM

Hrm, it appears that GenCrawl is on the verge of a TPK

doppelgreener

@KRyan BESW meta.rpg.stackexchange.com/q/3382/1204

if you want to chime in on this situation, since you approved the edit, there's the meta link ^

BESW

@JonathanHobbs [wave] Check out the Spoil-Lair? I've got some new ideas in there.

doppelgreener

@BESW Sure!

Brb though I have some gargoyles to attempt to kill

BESW

@JonathanHobbs Meh. I feel like I did that too quickly and without much thought, so I don't have any defence of my actions.

Alex P

@BESW You're talking about the steampunk game with all the race problems?

BESW

4:03 AM

Yeah.

Alex P

Yeah.

BESW

(Apologies for any PTSD I may have triggered by reminding people of that game.)

doppelgreener

@BESW Which one?

BESW

@JonathanHobbs Wolsung.

doppelgreener

I don't know this one!

Alex P

4:06 AM

@JonathanHobbs Bankuei covers it well: 1

And 2

BESW

You can also find this chat's conversations by searching for the name.

doppelgreener

Oh dear.

That's a bit of an unfortunate... thing to happen

BESW

It's not F.A.T.A.L., but yeah.

Alex P

4:41 AM

Oh, while we're beating the corpses of dead (white male) fantasy writers: Robert E. Howard was such a fucking racist.

It's kinda embarrassing how often he comes up in conversation without, like, dealing with that part.

BESW

Really? I must be in classier parts of the Internet, because I hardly ever see him mentioned at all.

Alex P

He comes up when discussing D&D roots.

BESW

Ah.

Alex P

He's a pretty good writer, at times.

Though a lot of his work is cranked out for a paycheck and, well, there's nothing dishonorable about that inherently, but it doesn't get a lot of polish put into it.

But he's embarrassingly racist even for 1930.

BESW

I understand that Lovecraft and Howard got along swimmingly.

Alex P

4:48 AM

Howard's work actually has kind of a Lovecraftian thing going.

See Worms of the Earth.

This idea of degeneration into subhuman forms.

Howard's fantasy stuff paints a picture of the cycles of history as the ascendancy and decline of various racial groups.

Which is itself a screwy position, but not, like, a white-supremacist one per se.

I don't think he'd say he thinks whites are inherently superior. At least during most periods of his life.

But his work ends up painting that picture.

BESW

@AlexP [cough]

I refer you to his letters. (trigger warning for unapologetic racism, racist language, and references to racist violence.)

Alex P

His stories are about as bad as this.

Black cannibal slaves. Conan saving white ladies from rape by savage black people. Belit's crew of nameless interchangeable black pirates.

BESW

I have great respect for Hergé because he didn't just tone things down later on, he actively went out of his way to reverse his own trends while simultaneously taking responsibility for his earlier racist work.

Alex P

You have to, really. Otherwise it just lingers.

BESW

That's pretty much exactly what he said when he was asked why he still wanted his earlier works published.

Alex P

5:00 AM

Okay, my favorite thing about Howard. Because it's funny and fans get super-upset about this.

So, he wrote for Weird Tales, right?

At the time, Weird Tales' editor was really into bondage and would take pretty much any excuse to slap some bondage-y art on the cover.

BESW

As you do.

Alex P

So a ton of Conan stories are full of entirely shoehorned "I will tie you up and whip you to get you to tell me your secrets!" scenes between two ladies.

2

It's really half-assed but enough to get on the cover.

BESW

Heh. Tricksy Howard.

"We panders to them, we does!"

Okay, time to head out. I might be around erratically later today: party at Trogdor's, and then Microscope at his place, but I'm bringing my tablet.

ttfn

Alex P

bye

Lord_Gareth

8:42 AM

@BESW Lovecraft eventually got better, but it was much after he stopped writing fiction. Sadly it's still very easy to look at his published work and assume he died the bitter, ignorant cur that wrote them.

Julix

9:57 AM

Hi @BESW

BESW

Hey. Lull in the party. What's up?

Julix

Just ended a really really long session with two of my Goblin players. I had more players but they bailed and so we just went on without them the last two weeks and a one shot took us 3 weeks. Today we finished the module and moved beyond it. It's quite amazing. They're changing elements of the setting, but that seems to make them more integrated with it, as though it's their world too. Quite an interesting experience.

BESW

Awesome. What system, again?

Julix

Pathfinder

Started with We Be Goblins

BESW

I'm discovering the joys of collaborative dynamic worldbuilding, but my main player kind of prefers to leave it to me.

Julix

10:04 AM

yeah, it's effortful, but I managed to train them to do it :D

I would ask "what do you want the DC to be? what seems fair to you?" when I was too lazy to look it up or it wouldn't be something you can look up

so it started with gamey things

Julix

10:15 AM

and once they understood I'm not out to kill them they opened up more. I saved their character's asses by openly fudging dice once, or changing NPC monster behavior to something more interesting than things causing death (e.g. instead of a killing bite PC was swallowed hole and got to cut his way out of a frog while being digested) and saved their pride by having them beat the one shot adventure designed for four players with just two. They understood the goal is fun.

BESW

V. cool.

Julix

Ran into a bit of the "good drow" syndrome - not alignment related yet, but like wanting to be different than the race ususally is

in my case they're interested in writing and reading - and the one shot included a guy who got run out of the village and tortured for the "crime" of writing... the alchemist has a great backstory for it. the ranger just seems to be a loner and since he's not from this tribe I can sort of get it. I think it could work without actually breaking the setting.

it's at odds with what I was expecting, but I'm working on letting go of expectations and following the flow

like the "yes and" style.

BESW

10:34 AM

I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Julix

11:17 AM

One thing that troubles me is finding appropriate encounters... how does CR work with a party with only 2 people?

BESW

Challenge ratings are... not precise... in that system.

Professor Caprion

11:35 AM

That's a mild way to phrase it

And good morning!

Julix

I'm using roll20.net for running the games and when I prep macros it's good fast play, but when I didn't prep the enemies I feel too slow.

good morning Prof

MC_Hambone

11:47 AM

just looked at that website and it looks pretty cool... how is it for environment interactions?

i love to tip over braziers and set things on fire....

also @Julix ... is roll20 truely system agnostic or is it only for d20 games?

Phil

it's system agnostic

MC_Hambone

sometimes I run All Flesh Must be Eaten (zombie survival RPG) and I want to use minis like we do for D&D but a lack of zombie minis kinda stunts that game play... but it's a d10 system not d20

so roll20 can do d10 games?

Phil

I'Yes

I've used it for Dungeon World

Others for Savage Worlds

It has generic dice rolling etc

MC_Hambone

very cool. I'll have to talk to my players about doing that once or twice, maybe LAN party style

Phil

Can take a little while to set macros up at the start, but after that its dead easy to use

MC_Hambone

11:52 AM

do you know anything about my afforemention environment interaction question?\

Phil

which one is that?

MC_Hambone

to me that is one of the biggest advantages table top games have over the video games

like can you tip over brazers, cut down chandeliers, knock over book cases etc

this week when we played All Flesh my group decided to shove a filing cabinet down the stairs and crush some zombies. I wouldnt want the programming of a website to limit that functionality

Phil

I've not delved that deeply into it - all the maps I had were improvised and drawn freehand. There are a shedload of tilesets you can use though, and if you're prepared it would simply be a case of placing the appropriate tile/icon on the screen. You can also freehand draw on top of a tileset map

It's grid based, for snapping objects to locations and lining up

but you can turn that off if needed

MC_Hambone

i wanna say I saw a youtube video of people using this to play some D&D next recently

Phil

animations are limited/non-existant and only really available in a very limited fashion to subscribers

MC_Hambone

11:56 AM

mehhh, animations are nice, but not necessary, it's not like the minis we use in our 4e game have movable parts

Phil

there are loads of twitch/you tube recordings available to get a feel of how it works, but given that it's free, the best way is to register and have a play around in a test campaign of your own

the wiki is pretty good at pointing you in the right direction

there are good intro tutorials etc

MC_Hambone

I'll definitely have to check it out some more. especially if my group seems receptive to the idea.

Phil

its got integrated voice/video, or there's google hangout integration too

MC_Hambone

cool beans, i assume you can do audio only? I dont have a webcam

and i never used google hangouts

Phil

yeah you can

MC_Hambone

12:01 PM

this is very exciting... why did i have to check the chat here before bed?!

now I dont want to sleep

Phil

:o)

MC_Hambone

i wanna learn about roll20

ok...I'm off to either sleep or make a roll20 account, not sure which

but i likely wont be back here for 8-10 hours

peace out folks!

Phil

cya

Zachiel

12:55 PM

Heya

Professor Caprion

Zhallo

BESW

Trogdor and I are playing Microscope using Janelle Monae's concept albums as inspiration.

Professor Caprion

Not sure what Microscope is, but I like that Janelle Monae is involvd.

Zachiel

Should I get a D&D 3.5 engine that lets me easily get my new BAB, AC and saves every time I polymorph, alter self or other transmutations, what would you suggest? (That could be a Q:, maybe later it will, now I'm in a 1 hour hurry)

BESW

6

A: I want to run an RPG inspired by Monáe's 'Metropolis' concept series

If I understand this correctly, Metropolis is really a collection of ideas and concepts rather than a formal setting. In that case, I'll suggest a system that might just be perfect for your game: Microscope. Microscope is a GM-less game where all players collaborate to create and flesh out the h...

Zachiel

1:16 PM

VTC on the last feed? I've stated my reasons in the comment, see if you agree or not.

BESW

1:39 PM

@Zachiel Done.

GamerJosh

Bundle of holding appears to have fate books right now... bundleofholding.com/index/current

Johnny

Oh noes, not my question ... not again!

BESW

Yeah, sorry. You're asking the kind of thing it could take a whole book or class to appropriately address.

You're asking about general principles, not a specific challenge you're facing.

If you whittle it down to an actual problem you're having, that's much more likely to be answerable in this context.

Johnny

On the other hand ... what do you want to see in the question? I could specify the setting ... but for a method of determining the proper way of deriving the attributes, for that I'm still wishing

BESW

In the Stack Exchange context, it's better to ask about the real problem you're actually facing. Often the answer will provide you with information that can be generalised to similar situations.

Keeping it vague sounds like it'd make the answers more useful to others, but it generally just produces poor-quality answers.

3

@GamerJosh Ooer, thanks!

[drools messily all over keyboard]

Johnny

1:53 PM

I see. So if I were to tell you that I'm looking for a fitting set of attributes for a postapocalyptic setting that involves a lot of gritty fighting, sneaking, none of the conventional magic, and a tiny bit of steampunk/magitech, with some Jungian occultism of the soul to boot, would that be any good to get an answer (from you)? What say you, dear BESW?

BESW

From me? Not much because I have very little knowledge or experience of designing attribute-based systems. But that sounds like a much more answerable question, if that's what you mean.

Johnny

Let me at least append that clarification to the question and we'll see what happens. The least I can do ...

BESW

Questions about general game design principles are tough to scale for this site's scope; dealing with a specific game design challenge is much more reasonable (although admittedly the citizens of the site are rather heavy on the "user" end rather than the "designer" end of the RPG community).

Professor Caprion

So, @BESW, question; as someone who only plays Fate for my own homebrew systems, do you think it's worth looking at things such as "Spirit of the Century" for inspiration on how I could adapt the system to my own use, or am I better just coming up with things on my own?

Purely an opinion, of course. Just curious of your take on it.

BESW

@ProfessorCaprion Maybe not SotC in particular, but yes.

Professor Caprion

2:04 PM

I was just using SotC because it's the only one I know by name.

BESW

Fair enough.

Yes, looking at various ways people have created Fate-based crunch is quite inspiring.

Professor Caprion

Alright! I shall give these a look.

BESW

This is our Monae Microscope game so far.

Professor Caprion

Haha, awesome!

BESW

The focus of our first round was Caroline Diane; the second round was focused on the capitol riots.

That's as far as we got so far.

Microscope strongly suggests against time travel, but we have an idea about that.

As you can kinda see, Microscope is about building a history anachronistically.

It's my turn to choose the Focus next round, and I think I'll introduce the idea that at some point "the government" becomes an industrial cabal.

Trogdor's gone really deep into the music magic stuff, which I like. I'm focusing on the political stuff.

At one point in her music video Many Moons, there's a vampire.

Since we've banned non-musical magic, that vampire must either be technological... or musical.

I'm not sure which I like more.

BESW

2:36 PM

@MC_Hambone It has not been eight to ten hours.

C. Ross

2:56 PM

Fanatic

lisardggY

@C.Ross Indeed. I find that adding the site to my group of daily bookmarks helped. :)

C. Ross

@lisardggY For me that's mostly the daily "I should check to see if there's spam"

lisardggY

The diamond weighs heavily.

Phil

3:14 PM

3

Q: Roll20 reminded me of a similar program; help me identify it?

I was in chat here on the site and saw mention of an online tabletop gaming website called roll20.net. I have checked it out and it looks pretty promising for online play as it works in the browser, has a rolling tool in it, shows a visual of the battle map, character/monster tokens, etc. It rem...

Too listy/broad? My initial reaction is VTC

lisardggY

@Phil Not too diffferent than the story identification-type questions like you get on SciFi.SE.

He's looking for something very specific, not a list of sites.

Ah, sorry, I missed the last paragraph.

Yes, too listy.

LessPop_MoreFizz

4:09 PM

Welp, time to update the FAQ. RT @grognardsTXT: "Do the 13th Age rules lend themselves well to erotic role-play?"

Tweeted by 13thAge on March 20, 2014 at 1:09 AM

Submitted without comment.

lisardggY

4:36 PM

Dunno if anyone mentioned this here, but there's a Fate-oriented Bundle of Holding up for sale: bundleofholding.com

C. Ross

5:35 PM

@lisardggY Good stuff there, I can vouch for Fate Core, FAE, SotC, and Diaspora

People in my local gaming group also like Legends of Anglerre, but I've never been present for that

In fact I need to do a Fate Core/Diaspora rules combination ...

Heya all

Hey

Hey people

I can neither confirm nor deny that I am people

C. Ross

hi all

Scrollmaster

5:41 PM

First time coming here, but I have a question about whether I should ask a question (so meta)

C. Ross

@Scrollmaster we have Role-playing Games Meta for that

:-)

Scrollmaster

One of my player is a sorcerer with the Starsoul bloodline, which has the following effect "Whenever you cast an evocation spell, targets that fail their saves are dazzled by tiny sparkling starlights for 1 round per level of the spell". He argues that it should work on Magic Missiles, because they have no saves and so it works automatically. I argue that it should work only on spells where you can FAIL a save (duh).

The answer seems so obvious that I feel dumb even asking the question here, but at the same time I can't find any reference for it

@C.Ross well, it seems too specific to be useful in meta

Phil

Sounds like a reasonable question to me

The Oracle

0

Q: Are "will this party work" questions allowed?

I want to ask a question about a party. I'm GMing and I want to know if a campaign a particular set of characters would be too hard to run: we are only 4 people (so 3 PCs) and they all want to be a support class. I want to know how to deal with that (so Asking what challenges to use in my adventu...

discussion asking-questions

C. Ross

@Scrollmaster mechanics questions are definitely on topic

But if you want an "official" recommendation, meta is the place

Scrollmaster

5:47 PM

ok

it's mainly that I know the recommandation for "questions you know the answer to" (ask them!) and "questions where the answer is obvious and everyone knows it" (don't ask them!)

and I can't decide in what category it belongs :p

Phil

if you aren't absolutely sure of the answer then its worth asking the question

Scrollmaster

ok :) I'm pretty sure, but I have no way of proving my point. So either I'll ask the question as is, or just ask for the reference in the rules

thanks people

The Oracle

6:16 PM

0

Q: Vote to Close with different reasons make it seem like you agree with majority reason

In the case of this question, there were 3 VTC based on it being a duplicate, 1 VTC based on it being opinion based, and 1 VTC (mine) based on the question being unclear. It was closed as a duplicate; though it had been discussed in the comments about it being unclear, and one of the possible cl...

discussion

Pureferret

7:39 PM

Is anyone here familiar with H:tV

lisardggY

8:01 PM

'fraid not.

Julix

8:26 PM

What civilized race would use goblins as slaves?

Not a factual right/wrong question, just looking for some ideas

Zachiel

civilized?

Drow, I guess

Julix

Evil humans perhaps

Zachiel

Some orcish tribes can be considered civilized

Mind Flayers (sticking to my D&D background)

Yak-folk or whataver they're called.

Julix

I've got 4 goblins that were adopted to the Licktoad tribe after escaping their owners. One of them is a player the other 3 allow me to have good crafters in their starting village to avoid dependence on human settlements before good means of disguise or such are available.

The player wants that one of the other three learned common and writing while they were enslaved... in a yes-and style I added that this goblin did so with a mix of fear and shame. - I like it sofar but I haven't figured out the captors... and it would be a great plot hook / character motivation for the player to later get to take revenge on the owners...

Zachiel

are you playing in an existing setting?

And is this D&D?

Julix

8:36 PM

We Be Goblins (module), Jade Regent: The Brinewall Legacy (adventure path) and Rise of the Runelord: Burnt Offerings (adventure path) all have a little bit of info about the region.

The setting from large to smaller is Golarion -> Inner Sea Region -> Sandpoint Hinterlands -> Brinestump marsh. I have good detailed geographical maps for the latter two, but I haven't studied most of the resources (if any exist) for the regions. Trying to piece it all together, and am not afraid to change things from the setting if what I come up with makes for a better story, but I'm using the setting as inspiration and limiting box to increase my creativity.

Zachiel

I'm not familiar with PF's deities and relative evil cults.

Julix

I'm fine with adopting things from D&D that are appealing to me

and refluffing or finding equivalents in PF

Zachiel

Maybe some interesting and renowned one could have been ok. I'd have suggested a cult of Bane if it was Forgotten Realms.

Julix

looking it up :)

Zachiel

They're basically LN "we want the world to kneel in front of our tyrant lord" cult

Julix

8:47 PM

haven't found it yet - browser crashed :D

alright, found some. - what are D&D's evil dwarfs called again?

Pureferret

9:06 PM

@Julix Druegar ?

Julix

Yes! But I guess their hatred for goblinoids and their love for master craft work makes them unlikely owners of goblin slaves trained to craft weapons and armors.

Zachiel

@Julix Duergar

oooh I know

Ogre magi

or, since fire giants keep trolls and troll keep orcs and orcs keep goblins...

Julix

That could work well! I don't know much about them, only remember killing them in Baldur's Gate :D

Most orcs wouldn't be able to teach writing though, because they have no passion for boring ink on paper... when they could be spending their time shedding blood, right?

I'll look up ogre magi

What about Oni?

do you know anything about them?

Zachiel

9:27 PM

I'm not an expert of Eastern mythology (I guess it's Western for those in the US?)

BESW's Spoil-Lair

Transcript for