TRPG General Chat

2:00 PM

So you are saying that I should try hard to murder the players' characters in my GW game (if i go with that system)?

@JonathanHobbs Is it good or bad that the person who taught me the most about mercy & restraint is also the kind of person who staples poisonous leaves to people because she feels they've behaved without class?

lisardggY

By the way, if anyone isn't familiar with the post-apocalyptic system deadEarth, this is the write-up that had be giggling uncontrollably at work for over an hour.

Aaron

@Lord_Gareth Just because someone doesn't use restraint doesn't mean they don't have it... Maybe. Did she really do that?

MC_Hambone

everyone has their breaking point @Lord_Gareth... some times the kind people go overboard in their breaks

BESW

@VladimirVasilev Hi!

Lord_Gareth

2:02 PM

@Aaron She says she did. Waited until he was blind drunk and then POISON IVY LEAVES.

He woke up all pissed off.

Aaron

@lisardggY I can't find an option to decrease the spacing.

lisardggY

@Aaron That's because it's not spacing, but paragraph breaks. An Enter inserts paragraph breaks, not line breaks.

You should avoid explicit line breaks, using bullets to make lists.

doppelgreener

@Lord_Gareth Is this the riot girl?

Aaron

@lisardggY so I should just put a lot of spaces or? The issue with that is if someone with a different zoom looks at the page it will look all kinds of weird.

lisardggY

@Aaron No, never. Never spacing.

If you want a list, use an element that's explicitly a list, either numbered or bulleted.

Lord_Gareth

2:06 PM

@JonathanHobbs Yes

lisardggY

If you really want a line-break, use shift-enter, which should insert a line-break without a paragraph break.

Joshua Aslan Smith

yeah

doppelgreener

@Lord_Gareth It's good. From what I understand she has a deep compassion for the value of life. But she also chooses how to apply that compassion selectively, and thus where to show mercy and restraint.

i.e. she will stab people who pull a gun on her, but she does so after training enough she knows how to not kill them for it.

it's complex but her understanding of where mercy and restraint is warranted seems pretty well summed up by that scenario on its own.

Joshua Aslan Smith

If a surgeon enjoys the sight of blood does it make them a less apt surgeon?

Aaron

@lisardggY There. I used bullets and it does look better. acfreak.wordpress.com

Joshua Aslan Smith

2:10 PM

ie you can enjoy hurting people who deserve it and not become a bully yourself

MC_Hambone

Ok, guys I really do think I am gonna go to sleep now. @Lord_Gareth I gave you like 2 more hours than I thought possible... but I like literally just fell alseep at my desk... and now I have no idea whats going on in here but I think there are 3-4 simultaneous conversations and it's hurting my mind parts

lisardggY

@Aaron It does indeed. Cool.

doppelgreener

@MC_Hambone Goodnight!

lisardggY

@MC_Hambone G'night, then!

MC_Hambone

cya laters, adios, guten nacht, arevadercci, other languase in which I say good bye...

Trajan

2:12 PM

@MC_Hambone bonne nuit

lisardggY

@Aaron One tiny niggly point, though - I might push the Early On and Advanced Allowed sections one indentation inwards, so that they're automatically beneath the Equipment bullet.

(But that's might just be my personal brand of OCD)

@MC_Hambone לילה טוב.

Lord_Gareth

@JonathanHobbs That's a relief. Ira worries me sometimes. She's like the inside-out version of one of those 'inner city teacher' movies; instead of rising above violence she kinda functionally embraced it.

And on the one hand she's a raging badass and on the other hand it's kinda weird to hear her cracking puns while she's wiping the switchblade clean.

Aaron

Wordpress is hard to navigate.

Inbar Rose

@lisardggY That is pretty funny (read just the first character)

lisardggY

@InbarRose Keep going. They get worse.

@InbarRose Also, I like how a game that bills itself as "mercilessly realistic, grounded in science" has mutations (ok, ok, "radiations") like "Play God - allows you to take control of the environment and change it retroactively".

Inbar Rose

2:17 PM

@lisardggY Spoilers :P

lisardggY

@InbarRose It's not actually in any of the characters, just one I found when I randomly opened a table.

Inbar Rose

Oh

I think the most ridiculous "radiation" was "hemorrhoids" ... that's not something you get from radiation... that's a normal thing... especially in an apocalyptic world...

Someone had to think to himself "hmmm, what radiation should I add to the game? I know! hemorrhoids!"

lisardggY

> RTS2-75 Lethal gene. Your genes have altered in a way that may kill you. Roll percentiles. if you roll 50 or below, you are dead.

Straight and to the point.

Inbar Rose

@lisardggY Why not just flip a coin.

lisardggY

And this is separate from this, by the way:

> RTS2-80 Lethal mutation. You have mutated in a way that may kill you. Roll percentiles. If youroll above 50, remove lethal mutation and add a cross-mutation of your choice of any type to your list; if you roll 50 or below, you are dead.

Inbar Rose

2:21 PM

sigh

Zachiel

@Lord_Gareth: what if I need to downsize a 1d10 weapon? d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/…

lisardggY

Another mutation that shows they're firmly grounded in science:

> 165 Sync. There is a 25% chance that you will take on the radiation effects of the people around you, good or bad.

doppelgreener

@Lord_Gareth Well... I'll put it this way: it takes a rare kind of compassion and responsibility for life to pull a weapon out on someone with every intent to use it, and every intent to not let them die.

Lord_Gareth

@Zachiel AFAIK it downsizes to 1d8 but don't use the table on Child, check the die step table itself

Zachiel

@Lord_Gareth at least she's still alive an' kickin'

lisardggY

2:24 PM

I seriously cannot get tired of this.

> 169 Flaming death. You burst into flames in 3D6 hours, killing yourself and doing 4D6 damage to anyone within 20 feet of you.

Note, this is 3D6 hours from character creation.

Zachiel

@MC_Hambone "arrivederci", FYI

Lord_Gareth

@Zachiel Man you don't even know. Her company purchased this new kind of body armor that's essentially scale mail made of kevlar and ceramic because of some deal with the manufacturer where they get to have it at cost in exchange for being the beta testers.

Guess who was the psychotic freak that jumped in front of a shotgun blast to test it out?

[Sighs, gets bi-yearly updates from this girl that are each more worrying than the last]

Zachiel

I can only wish I was that badass

At the point where I am, I can't even roleplay such a character.

lisardggY

Seriously, the game's introduction page (called "Read This Or Die" is a lovely summary of everything wrong with this system.

Lord_Gareth

I wish she was less reckless, myself. Girl's gonna get herself killed when she meets someone who isn't shocked or surprised by her tactics.

It only takes one guy who doesn't panic

doppelgreener

2:28 PM

@lisardggY Wh... which game is this!?

Zachiel

Unless she's still better at fighting than him, which could be true

Lord_Gareth

@Zachiel Leaping screaming at a guy holding a gun is asking to get shot in your soft, unprotected face.

lisardggY

@JonathanHobbs deadEarth

Zachiel

However, yeah, that'll be a sad day.

Lord_Gareth

Surprise counts for a lot more than skill.

doppelgreener

2:29 PM

@lisardggY is this a game about creating characters who will die imminently?

lisardggY

@JonathanHobbs Allow me to quote abundandtly:

> Premise
The world of deadEarth, the ideas that go into it, and the thought that created it all stem from one belief:"That which does not kill us, makes us stronger."-Friedrich Nietzsche

> Your goal as a player of this game, a reader of the stories surrounding it, and a believer in its truths is to survive. Life is a game, survival is the key and there are no rules. Play hard! Play to win!

So apparently their premise is that for Nietzsche's quote to be relevant, things must be constantly trying to kill us.

Lord_Gareth

The sad thing is, she's the one who taught me - and demonstrated to me - how valuable simple reflexes are to a lethal combat. You don't have to be a warrior to survive; all you've really got to be is a killer.

lisardggY

(Also, the "there are no rules" line is in the preface, after which comes a whole book full of rules).

Lord_Gareth

Freeze and die.

She's very good at what she does, and it helps that her head is like half a foot below everyone's line of fire

But...

She's gonna get hurt.

lisardggY

Some more quotes:

> If it seems too easy to die in deadEarth, that's because it is.

Some GM advice:

> if a player steps out of line warn him/her. If the player does it again, treat him/her cruelly and without mercy. If the player persists, destroy him/her.

Zachiel

2:33 PM

@Lord_Gareth All I can hope for her is that when something stops her it just takes her to such a physical state she needs to stop working, instead of being plain dead. Which is probably what she'd find the most painful experience ever I guess, but leaves you and other people the chance to have her around for a longer time.

doppelgreener

I am suddenly reminded of this from a thread wherein people posted secrets about their D&D characters...

Jul 9 '13 at 0:31, by Jonathan Hobbs

> my character is on fire at all times. nobody has tried to touch them or asked what they look like.

Lord_Gareth

@Zachiel Honestly, I think she'd prefer to be dead. Ira's joy, the part that makes her happiness so infectious and wonderful, is her vibrancy. She doesn't sit still if she can move. She doesn't stay indoors if she could be out having a riot (literal or figurative). She dances when people aren't watching.

Inbar Rose

@lisardggY I am now 100% convinced the creator was a 12 year old.

Lord_Gareth

Girl was born with three people's worth of energy

lisardggY

@InbarRose What convinced you, the oh-so-mature treatment of women's physiology?

@InbarRose This was published. In two editions!

Inbar Rose

2:35 PM

@lisardggY Does not mean it wasn't created by a 12 year old.

Zachiel

@JonathanHobbs Jumping from one conversation to the other, I fondly recall that handrail of doom that's in spoiler. Like if any of the players would ever describe touching it or not unless asked, which of course is a massive indicator of the need to stay away from that.

doppelgreener

@Zachiel Oh wow xD

Zachiel

@Lord_Gareth You know what? I like to see that in people, but usually those who are born with it just loathe me for being lazy and inproductive and stay the hell away from me like they needed to live their life somewhere more active, with people sharing their vibrancy, to be happy. I don't know who said we all like what we can't get but I wish he didn't remind me it's true with an Internet Meme. :p

@JonathanHobbs I guess it's all about describing this elaborate, demonic metal piece and hoping the halfling rogue wants to find out if the demon faces have gems in their eyes or something.

(which, in a game where literally everything could be a monster waiting to attack you, is not the sane thing to do if you still have a tiny bit of character advocacy left)

BTW, it's strange how the topic being Ira and the specific recklessness in today's news about her relates to my morning's toughts on RPG. In the Planescape game I'm in, whenever players go questing, DMs write out a sort of debrief which is then commented. It serves various purposes including documenting who's getting too much games in proportion, discussing how one is playing his faction dogma, giving tactical insights and dividing treasure.

This morning I've been reading one I'm not involved in (I'm worse than BMX Bandit, I don't go questing)... so, it was about two Cyphers and one not being enough of a Cypher because he was worrying too much about consequences.

Lord_Gareth

3:22 PM

@Zachiel Ira's...never been like that. She never had many close friends. The ones she did keep around were more passive, cautious people who could sometimes let her know that her latest idea was more stupid than normal.

Sometimes she even listens.

Aaron

Does anyone know how pathfinders math before the high levels works? 3.5 used a simple add 1000 more each level but pathfinder has a much higher progression.

Lord_Gareth

@Aaron Imagine an insane non-Euclidean hellscape such as Lovecraft might have written of. Then change nothing.

Zachiel

@Lord_Gareth How sensible of her. :)

Aaron

@Lord_Gareth So there is no math? They just decided the numbers themselves?

Lord_Gareth

@Zachiel Heh, not quite. She also slept with most of them. She likes quiet, intellectual types because, and I quote, "They're always so...considerate. It's really nice to wake up in the morning to breakfast, the seat being down, and someone who's happy to see me."

@Aaron I actually don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me. Lemme look.

Aaron

3:29 PM

@Lord_Gareth d20pfsrd.com/classes/character-advancement

I have been trying with little luck to find a formula that fits.

Lord_Gareth

Ask @KRyan, he's a math whiz.

Inbar Rose

Formula for what?

Lord_Gareth

Doin' a League match now

Zachiel

Has PF still that "the lower your level the more XP you get" thing going?

Aaron

@Lord_Gareth Figured it out

They multiply the xp needed to gain the level before last by 2

lvl 2 takes 2k xp so lvl 4 takes 4k

lvl 6 takes 8

ect

That scale is brutal the higher the levels get.

Inbar Rose

3:34 PM

@Aaron That's not what I am seeing.

Lord_Gareth

Sweet zombies no wonder PF games never get to higher levels, they rigged the friggen system

Those scumbags

Aaron

@InbarRose Don't look at the xp but the differences between them.

let me try to get a better worded example

@InbarRose This is how much xp is needed between levels. See the pattern now?

1 free
2 2k
3 3k
4 4k
5 6k
6 8k
7 12k
8 16k

lvl would be 1.5k if it cost anything))

Zachiel

@Lord_Gareth They need to engineer a plan to stop people from starting games at higher level and the goddamn "unplayiable at high levels" fame will be solved.

Aaron

@Lord_Gareth Rigged the system?

Lord_Gareth

@Aaron The advancement in 3.5 stayed pretty consistent with XP rewards based on level. I've been doing nothing but design monsters for the last month; PF's is slow, even on 'fast'.

Aaron

3:49 PM

@Lord_Gareth I noticed this issue. My group plans on advancing well into past the 20s maybe even to the 30s or 40s so this progression they setup is gonna kill us.

Lord_Gareth

@Aaron I suggest grabbing SKR and slapping him right in the face.

Just once across each cheek

While screaming, "WHY?"

Aaron

PF is not epic level compatible unless you have months to just gain 1 level DX

wax eagle

4:11 PM

shouldn't XP rewards by level be comensurate with the level? I find 4e's 10 at level encounters/level scheme to be very rewarding

Zachiel

I know some people who think 4e's advancement rate to be too slow. They doubled the XP rewards.

Trajan

4:56 PM

is the order of the tag relevant, when asking a question? I see one of them is used in the page title, can I choose which one, somehow?

@waxeagle maybe? ^

wax eagle

@Trajan they will be ordered by popularity automatically

Trajan

@waxeagle nice to know. I don't find it's a very accurate way to do it though; the most popular tag is not always the more relevant.

wax eagle

@Trajan agreed, but it's an artifact from SO where basically all tags are equal

Trajan

5:12 PM

So in this question, what would you advise me to do? rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/35428/…

Should I keep rules-as-written to indicate I want RAW answers, or remove it to have a better page title?

wax eagle

@Trajan tbh, rules as written isn't a particularly useful tag :)

Trajan

oh, well, I think this SO blog post answers my question

@waxeagle you're right I'll remove it.

wax eagle

@Trajan we've got a few metaish tags that linger around here that need to die

Trajan

I like how this sums it up

> If the tag can’t work as the only tag on a question, it’s probably a meta-tag.

wax eagle

@Trajan yes

Joshua Aslan Smith

7:28 PM

This wont end badly

2

Q: Sensible values for a human child's AC / HP / Ini

To spice up a chapter of Rise of the Runelords, I want to introduce an additional NPC: human child (about 8 to 12 years old). The child should be saved by the PCs and brought back to her parents. What would be good values for armor class, HP etc? I could not find good informations in the Core or ...

pathfinder

also surprised that this isnt an incitement to riot as well

5

Q: Is there a reason to pick AD&D over D&D3, other than nostalgia or a specific module?

Background: I've been playing RPGs for a long time, I've been playing AD&D for years, and I enjoyed both the original D&D and D&D3/3.5/Pathfinder, other than (especially) tons of other games that are not relevant for this question. Is there any reason, besides: nostalgia already knowing the ru...

dungeons-and-dragons

wax eagle

generally this format is good at dealing with potentially thorny subjects

not allowing discussion has big benefits

Phil

unless a comment war develops over a Pathfinder or 3.5 game :)

Joshua Aslan Smith

7:43 PM

im editing his question to come across as more fact findy and less why would anyone ever play that stupid old version

Phil

a good plan indeed

wax eagle

@Phil yeah, those need to be nuked earlier than they have been so far

Phil

I'm much more liberal with my flags to mods than I used to be

wax eagle

@Phil flags are really important and an active flagging community can go a long way to keeping a site clean. Its really hard as a mod to get eyes on everything on a site this big

6

Joshua Aslan Smith

the stat values for a human pc is so on the edge for me

wax eagle

7:50 PM

@JoshuaAslanSmith I don't know the system well enough to know if it's answerable

I know 4e just says "make it a halfling" and moves on

Joshua Aslan Smith

I think its answerable I just think its an incredibly terrible idea

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith see that isn't something a close vote should necessarily judge. downvotes perhaps

Joshua Aslan Smith

yes I know I wasnt going to vote to close Im just deciding whether a big comment on it is worth it/acceptable

hmmm why do we have both game-rec and system-rec as a separate tag?

or has game-recommendation swallowed system recommendation

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith this

Joshua Aslan Smith

?

wax eagle

7:59 PM

sys-rec is a synonym of game-rec so they both show, but anytime you add sys-rec it becomes game-rec

Joshua Aslan Smith

gotcha when did that change?

I just read this on the meta

15

Q: Let's make [game-recommendation] actually be for recommendations of games

We should split game-recommendation up and make it just be for actual recommendations of games. This has come up before, but hear me out, because we only need to create one extra tag to offload all the other stuff in it that isn't recommendations of games, and we're using the tag weirdly to avoid...

discussion tags game-recommendation

wax eagle

here I think:

17

Q: Has [system-recommendation] grown too big for its britches?

We occasionally get adventure/encounter/setting/campaign recommendation questions that are asking for a subjective evaluation, not just objectively-identifiable features. They're infrequent enough that we can sorta overlook them regarding our *-recommendation policy, but present a bit of a taggin...

discussion status-completed tags game-recommendation

thanks wax

9:43 PM

11:06 PM

@Forrestfire Hi!

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