TRPG General Chat - 2014-08-12 (page 1 of 3)

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12:01 AM

Idea for a twisted as frick character... Gnome, with Monkey Grip and Strongarm Bracers... Wielding a Large Sized Greatsword. Or perhaps a Large Scythe... Or other Large weapon because lulz.

Also, making a Half-Giant with Monkey Grip and Strongarm Bracers... Would effectively mean they can wield weapons of three size categories larger than them for a measly -2.

I think halflings get better "my size doesn't matter" options, but I could be wrong.

And yes, I've done the half-giant + monkey grip + [at least two other questionable cheese sizing options] thing.

IDK what options halflings get.

I thought there were only three sizing options.

Strong Build, Strongarm Bracers, and Monkey Grip.

As amusing as it all was, the gnome shadow illusionist wizard still made them all weep with his 95%-real illusions of evocation spells.

Ooh. Dwarf. Even just a Dwarf with Monkey Grip and Strongarm Bracers and Warblade Stone Dragon maneuvers would be killer to play.

WHAT DID YE SAY BOUT MAH HAMMAR?!

I don't think monkey grip stacks with strongarm bracers?

Also, shillelagh spell.

12:06 AM

It doesn't say it doesn't :P

@BESW D'you know if KRyan uses Not A Bar?

Something in the wording makes it so they do the same thing IIRC

@doppelgreener He did several months ago.

Oh wait, the bracers don't stack with Powerful Build.

Oh well.

@doppelgreener try @-KRyan-ing him there, If autocomplete works, he does.

12:07 AM

Can still DWARF WITH GIANT HAMMAR

And then pop Ring of Enlarge Person and demolish cities with one swing of the HAMMAR

@Dorian I once played alongside an unarmed-combat dwarf who called himself the Hammer of Moradin. When we reached a point in the campaign where we needed a tool of the gods to re-forge a broken artifact, we just paralysed him in the shape of a hammer with his fists extended as the head of it and polymorphed another PC into a titan to wield him.

I want to make a dwarf locksmith (thief) - preferably in AD&D 2e, where I can min-max him to 100% Open Locks skill by level 2... also because nobody expects a dwarf to be a thiefly type.

(He had optimised DR, so it didn't hurt him to be used as a hammer.)

@BESW That is awesome

Yes.

The GM laughed bitterly as his plan for us to storm the gates of Erackinor and steal Moradin's actual hammer dissolved.

(I think we had a priest of Moradin bless the dwarf, too? I can't recall.)

12:14 AM

lulz

@Zachiel Ah, thanks, guess not.

@KRyan I'm gonna leave some chat in Not A Bar so as to not fill up that answer with more comments and also to not disrupt the current conversations in here

This brings to light some interesting ideas...

Tinkerbell, would you say she's Tiny, or Diminutive?

Diminutive.

Tiny is more like a cubit tall.

tiny is 1-2 ft

so yeah.

but, a light weapon in the hands of a creature a size category smaller than it is a 1h weapon correct?

Urgh, that gets messy fast and I can't remember.

12:23 AM

Alright, says the normal in the disc for Monkey Grip

Say a Small char wielding a Medium Rapier (a 1h weapon) would need to wield it with 2h, and take a -2

Now say a Diminutive creature with Monkey Grip and Strongarm Bracers wields a Medium Rapier. That's 3 size categories higher. She wouldn't be able to use it effectively, but taking say a -4 and wielding it in two hands...

Tinkerbell vs Hook explained with D&D rules.

What's the damage, though?

The damage would be as a medium rapier still.

The damage didn't change because the size of the weapon is still the same.

She can't use Dex for attack or damage. Enjoy your Str penalty on top of your attack penalty.

True, but Tinkerbell didn't really do much for damage when fighting Hook, scared the shit outta him when she took his sword and turned it against him though.

Which I'm pretty sure was the point.

(pun not intended)

I ran a Quarterling for a while, and... [does math]

A rapier is 2/3 of the average pixie's total carrying capacity.

12:30 AM

And? It's not like she's going to KEEP it :P

Plus, I doubt she was an "average" pixie.

Probably had some sort of strength bonus. Did you see all dem succeeded grapple checks?

12:43 AM

Oh no, Robin Williams died today. :( Wonder if he was still playing D&D in his later years?

12:56 AM

@BESW She can swap out str for wis if she's good, tho' (exalted feat)

mmmh maybe that's just for natural weapons...

@Dorian Escape Artist ranks?

@Zachiel Tinkerbell is so far from Good...

@BESW Maybe she's from planescape (or she's epic) there's a feat or two where you use Int instead of Str

1:19 AM

I suddenly want to make Red X as a D&D 3.x character

1:44 AM

@doppelgreener So I was looking up a little more about Nibiru during a sanity break last night, and I found this (warning: profanity, rap, conspiracy theories).

@BESW i can't youtubes very well at the moment! but ok

2:03 AM

Sooo, for the Populist badge, when does it check the voting? At the moment of acceptance?

'cause this answer was accepted when it had a vote of 8.

@BESW Naw, you'll get it later.

It does check periodically, so if scores change, you can suddenly receive your populist badge

Then I shall probably receive two gold badgers this week, doubling my badgers.

Mind you, that answer has to reach 11 upvotes before you get the badge.

> Highest scoring answer that outscored an accepted answer with score of more than 10 by more than 2x. This badge can be awarded multiple times.

Those two 'more thans' trip a lot of people up.

Because it means the absolute minimum is 11 and 23.

Ahah.

Easily solved!

2:11 AM

@BESW Now you're eligible, so you might get the badge anytime in the next day or two. Not sure how often the check runs. (So: congrats in advance!)

8

Q: Does roleplaying inherently put you at a disadvantage?

My friend is going to be DMing DnD 3.5 with me and 4 other new players. I want to be the best player I can be. One thing I have always struggled with is roleplaying. I am an analytical, competitive person by nature; I want to WIN. When looking at other games & posts on here, I see amazing & cre...

dnd-3.5e optimization new-players roleplaying

Just got it!

I am become sad by this.

@BESW Woo! \o/

My 1:2 silver:bronze ratio is down by 8 bronze, but I'm becoming resigned to that streak not having been sustainable.

Still, with gold it's now roughly a 1:20:40 ratio, which is something.

2:18 AM

@Grubermensch The answer of "don't play a game that encourages you to be a murderhobo if you don't want to be one" seems appropriate enough.

(1 : 21.25 : 40.5, to be precise.)

@Magician I'm mostly sad that we have an extremely popular system that leads people to ask this sort of question.

3 hours ago, by BESW

I'm pretty sure that's D&D's pitchline. "Travel the world, see exotic creatures, stab them until they bleed magic items."

2:36 AM

Speaking of which, I'm finding the fine line for cthulhu-dark's "If you fight any creature you meet, you will die" rule.

Basically the way it's working out in my games is this:
- If you attempt to harm a Mythos-influenced creature directly, you automagically die.
- If you attempt to *interfere* with a Mythos-influenced creature (like distract it so others can flee), I'll roll a failure chance against you and failure may kill you.
- If you just stand there, I'll force you to roll to avoid getting diced; failure probably *will* kill you.

- However, if you're rolling to escape (run/hide), I'll still roll failure against you but your failure is not likely to kill you instantly.

A friend of mine was pretty satisfied with that rule when I explained the system to him: he says that after all, the least of what the Cthulhu mythos has to offer is the Shoggoth, and trying to fight that is like using fisticuffs on a tank.

@doppelgreener Aye, though I think he's missing some of the nuance of the Mythos.

Fishmen and the Un-Dead, for example.

I think the CD fight = death rule is less about accurately modelling the horrors Investigators face, and more about accurately modelling the kind of people Investigators are.

(Which is noticeably different kind of person than Investigators in CoC are.)

I'm considering some more and less violent/deadly narrative variants for individual CD scenarios.

@BESW that is true

2:51 AM

It might be interesting to play a game where Insanity is used as an HP equivalent as well; perhaps the monster can't physically hurt you but its attacks buffet your mind.

Or a zombie horde where you can automatically succeed at destroying a zombie at the cost of 1 Insanity... but there are so many it's not a winning strategy in the long run.

Alternately: a violent and deadly scenario where getting your Investigator to 6 Insanity before he dies is a triumph.

Somewhat related experiment: for a shorter game, start the party at 2 or 3 Insanity and dump them into layer 2 or 3 of the Descent.

All of these sound like great experiments ;)

3:10 AM

I'd also like to be a player some time...

@BESW Ooo! Oo! [puts hand up, waves it around] Ooo!

Yes, the green one in the black mask, you have something to say?

@BESW Yes! I do! I can play in highly dangerous experiments! Pick me!

I am an expert at participating in them! That's how I turned green!

@doppelgreener I thank you for your participation and hope we can count on you for another round of tests.

user image

Hmm... I think my current NWoD Storyteller's cynical and slightly sadistic attitude is rubbing off on me. Feels good. Probably the best GM I've ever played under too.

I can also already hear his response. "It's good for ya!"

3:29 AM

@BESW [Salutes!] Of course! Just so long as they're not mantis-man tests.

@Dorian I think it is, if you're a GM. c(:

I was a GM a few times, and I aim to be a GM again in the future.

@Dorian I am in the inverse situation!

The main issue is designing every detail of a campaign, and then restraining myself from wanting to play in it.

I like to build the castle(big picture mostly, winging the small details) and play in it. I'm not too fond of running it in minute detail. I've done it a few times but I generally wound up slipping and having an NPC become so recurring that they might as well have been part of the party.

Thankfully only one of my players objected to it back in the day, and he was a bit of an ass anyways and had very strong disdain for DMPC's. But I did restrain myself more after he called me on it.

I'm generally better off as a GM than as a player, for many reasons, but it's important to spend some time on the other side of things for perspective and insight, and so I can make funny noises.

I have to say though, my favorite shallow GM spook tactics still include the two very cliche
>"Are you sure you want to do that?"
and
>*GM rolls dice behind the screen and makes some sort of negative or pitying remark or action* (even though the dice-roll meant nothing at all)

3:51 AM

@BESW I am simultaneously good and not good as GM: I have anxiety, which means I have mental roadblocks between me and just GMing. Mental energy I can spend thinking about my players is spent absorbed being concerned about myself instead.

But! I am good with people and the imaginations and the running things and the getting things done. And it's good for me to confront my anxiety. :D

Ayuh.

Well, I'd be happy to help you prep and you can run things for my group on Saturday nights most any time you'd like.

@BESW Thanks! :)

(I'm pretty good at playing through stuff I've been spoilt on, I think.)

for now I just can't wait to do this researcher's archives thing 8)

Hm?

4:02 AM

@BESW I may even run with that, and put you in a position where your character knows a lot more than the others', but can't tell them. ;D

@BESW the next mission in the Gates of Tartarus story that's been on hold for weeks.

Ah.

M'rr. Internet's kicking out randomly.

Got a meeting soon anyway.

@BESW Have fun :D

4:30 AM

Weird news of the day. Week old, but whatever. A very dwarven thing to do.

3

@Magician Resuming a game 100 years later? Except in the case of dwarves, the original players would likely still be alive

Ayup. Wars happened, world changed, but the game has to be finished. Some are dead and replaced by their children, others are kings and still come.

"Oh look, a conspicuously placed sword in a statue on the wall. Oh hey, it's just about the size of my own sword. Naah, must be a coincidence...."

4:50 AM

@Dorian ... are you suggesting time travel?

Sorry. For context, I'm playing Devil May Cry

@Dorian Oh my ;D Are you at the part of getting a brand new sword?

But any game with a similar weapon system where you "upgrade" your weapon when you find a new one randomly while traveling with a nearly exact sized weapon with some upgraded powers and different aesthetics would qualify lol

And yes.

Awesome.

That game is one of my favourites.

The very first one specifically. (Not the series.)

I always thought the "Conspicuously placed shiny weapon that almost exactly matches your current weapon" tactic was a little lame though

4:54 AM

And contains my favourite boss ever.

(And some of its other bosses are in my favourites list as well.)

freaking scissor reapers...

aah... puppets. annoying but I can handle these guys even on low health.

@Dorian How much is it safe to say about this game's story or mechanics? What is your tolerance level for information you don't already know?

meh

that game has some fun mechanical secrets you might discover later on your own

No major spoilers (like story twists) but mechanics secrets I have no problem with

4:58 AM

@Dorian welp then this may help if you haven't been given an opportunity to notice it already: sufficiently awesome combos result in enemies dropping green orbs

so puppets on low health can even be helpful

dafuq! puppit with a shotgun

also, yeah, I got the whole "higher combos drop better lewt" gist in... huh, prolly the first fight.

:P

Either that, or I knew it before playing, because most of these games do that lol

@Dorian yeah XD

@Dorian well yeah totally ;) though it took me a little while into that game before i found the green orbs thing... probably because it was several years ago and i sucked :D

-shrug- It helps that I've played similar games. Probably also helps that I've played DMC3 because I got it cheap for the ps2 t one point. Problem with it is I could never play it long, had a tendency to overheat my ps2 XD

@Dorian oh right yes xD

that'd help

But yeah, DMC's not the only series that uses that reward model. In fact, most games that have a comboing system will include rewards for high combos

5:10 AM

@Dorian i know, i was just mentioning the green orb thing

'cause then you chop up a bunch of puppets and heal.

lava spider. fun

@Dorian \o/

lava scorpion?

or is it both? lol

@Dorian to this day i think it's best just to call it a 'lava arachnid'

Normally I'd object to that name, sine scorpions aren't arachnids, but this one technically has 8 legs regardless

5:21 AM

@Dorian they are too!

5:56 AM

huh, guess they are. thought the pincers didn't count

dunno if i should sleep or not... meh

6:16 AM

@Dorian well think of it this way: all spiders have a couple of extra little arms located next to their mouth.

and that's also where a scorpion's pincer-arms join its body.

6:30 AM

Good time of day, everyone!

@kviiri It is isn't it!

[wave]

Although I'm toeing the deadline with my client on this project, this will be the first year they're on the right side of the deadline, so they're happy with having hired me.

So yey?

Working on a little practical problem regarding the intro-level RPG event I've been planning. Mostly when I organize something, it's a series marathon or board games. People show up whenever. This time I'd like them to be on time.

@kviiri Ooer. That's rough.

So I put little disclaimers in the public calendar: "Please don't be late, it'll suck to pick up new players every five minutes".

What's even better: the clubhouse we're playing in has (by its rules) three constantly locked doors from outside to the clubhouse itself. I'm not allowed to jam them open. When the doorbell rings I just have to "'scuse me for a moment" and make a rush outside, unlock the door for whoever's coming, wait for them to leave their jackets and shoes etc and then unlock the rest for them.

That's very distracting, even for normal board games.

6:45 AM

Oh, dear.

It used to be far better when I was a freshman - there were only TWO locked doors.

Hrm. I would say plan to start the game half an hour in, don't tell them that's when it starts, organise something for pre-game which allows for people to be late.

But people value their time, and the people who turn up on time may be upset about finding out they were half an hour early. (And some may leave to do something, then come back forty minutes later.)

or appoint a doorman?

While I appreciate such pragmatic solutions, that reminds me too much of the first lecture syndrome I've seen in a few universities

"The first lecture is just repeating the last course" --> people don't show up on the first lecture --> the lecturer can't teach anything vital because a large part of the students is absent.

Well my current plan is scaring them straight: "We're not likely to have enough games for latecomers". That's true, but unfortunately if everyone comes in time we'd run out in that case as well.

@kviiri How about making it something fun but non-vital?

@BESW That could work.

6:55 AM

And combine it with "latecomers may not get into a game," perhaps by using the pre-game activity as a sorting process.

Microscope, Werewolf, Roll for Shoes...

Not Microscope; it's ESPECIALLY bad at handling Johnny-Come-Latelys.

Ah right.

But RFS's mechanic has a built-in speed-leveling element for latecomers.

Werewolf might be out then.

There was an D&D club I went to for a few weekends which would host several games in various versions simultaneously. One of those times, when I walked in, there was a whole bunch of weaponry and shields and so on lined along one of the walls. No idea what it was for!

6:58 AM

Combat?

Oh hey, Enthusiast badge.

Sometime during the afternoon, an intermission was called, and one guy got up to talk about them. He showed us what various weapons looked like - morning stars, shortswords, longswords, maces, etc, and so on, and how some armor and shields worked.

@kviiri Education!

@kviiri Grats!

He talked a bit about how they were used, and why D&D models them the way it does, in particular why sword X does more damage than sword Y, etc.

and showed us how tiny bucklers were compared to a real shield, etc.

That was pretty fun and cool, and something just anyone could walk in on and sit down and watch and listen to.

Nice, but still kinda filibustery.

Wild idea, mostly to spark other better ones: What about using Roll for Shoes as a kind of lottery?

Oh, one more problem to the mess: even though I didn't intend for people to, a lot of people signed up for certain games in advance. "Dibs on Apocalypse World!"

And being the fool I am, I was like "sure, ok".

7:07 AM

Play RFS for however long, and rank the players by highest skill at the end of the session. Those with the highest skills (likely those who played longest, but not necessarily) get first pick of which game table to join for the main event.

Heh, that sounds fun.

@BESW might encourage people to focus on just one skill as much as possible to their detriment, but that could end up pretty funny.

Players tend to do that anyway.

That's true.

I remember when I wound up running a RFS game here and you picked up Improvisation as a skill

(And... you don't have to tell them in advance if/how the game of RFS is a lottery.)

7:11 AM

(internally I thought: WHAT DOES THAT NOT COVER ARGH)

(and then we came across a situation where it didn't help you and I learned even super general skills only go so far)

Wow, I don't even remember that.

I'm guessing I was trying to test how far the system would go, and simultaneously looking forward to being a disruptive force when things ought to go well by being Bad At Plans.

@BESW The room might've been deleted, but I recall it was just set up some day by someone else and I wound up GMing it. We had an inn being attacked by a few goblins who then called for backup. IIRC we got to the point the inn was being burned down and goblins were charging into the village.

The innkeeper instructed your character - a boy tending to the bar - to stay put, and he rolled 5 or 6 or somethin' on Loyalty

or Obedience? Something like that.

@doppelgreener Found it in the Back Room. Starts here.

@BESW That's it! :D

in The Back Room: Live Tabletop Games, Jun 27 '13 at 0:57, by BESW

I try to think of a plan.

in The Back Room: Live Tabletop Games, Jun 27 '13 at 0:57, by BESW

(Planning is not improvisational.)

7:24 AM

in The Back Room: Live Tabletop Games, Jun 27 '13 at 0:58, by BESW

"AAAAAAAAH! I'M GOING TO HAVE TO CLEAN THAT UP!" I charge out from behind the table and swing at the nearest goblin's head with my club.

in The Back Room: Live Tabletop Games, Jun 27 '13 at 0:58, by Dice Service

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in The Back Room: Live Tabletop Games, Jun 27 '13 at 0:58, by Jonathan Hobbs

The goblin rolls to keep his head intact.

in The Back Room: Live Tabletop Games, Jun 27 '13 at 0:58, by Dice Service

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Oh dear, for all this time I've been here... I hadn't realized you actually PLAY in SE chat as well.

2

Not regularly, by any means, but yes.

I mean, what else would the dice bot be for?

Rolling deadEarth characters?

Although I guess that counts as RP as well.

[snerk]

7:41 AM

I just lectured some freshmen on the theory of dice in probability context.

Oh, my.

They found it fascinating that if you only have a d6, the only two of the "common" dice you can't simulate are the d20 and d10, both fairly vital.

(where "simulate" implies "with a finite, bounded amount of rolls")

So, alternate ways are needed. Of course, stopwatches are fairly simple for both.

Maths are cool.

Someday I'll get someone who understands anydice to churn out some Cthulhu Dark probabilities.

Yeah, I've been fascinated with probability maths since I was a kid.

In a macabre twist, it was Russian roulette that first caught my serious attention.

Unfortunately I'm not good enough at the actual numbery arithmeticky part of maths to get into the awesomecool stuff where the arithmetic is less all-consuming but it turns into philosophy when you poke it with a stick.

Hmm. A moral argument for 4e bashing?

7:57 AM

for those with greater knowledge of D&D, how should this question really be tagged?

0

Q: Moving through an opponent's occupied square

Can you move through squares occupied from an opponent if he allows you? The rules only says: Moving Through a Square You can move through an unoccupied square without difficulty in most circumstances. ... Opponent: You can't move through a square occupied by an opponent unless...

dnd-4e dnd-3.5e pathfinder dnd-3e

All I know is that I think that's not DnD.

lol

VTC as unclear until clarified please

[checks wording]

It's not 4e...

It's very similar to the 3.5 PHB's wording, but not exactly.

Ding! It's Pathfinder.

Should I tag it so, or wait for them, do you think?

Ah, there, @Phil did it.

Given the wording is so specific to a particular edition, I think it's safe to retag and not wait

I'm inclined to agree.

It's still a poor question though.

@Phil Jinx.

8:14 AM

:p

@BESW will be better with the detail he's just included in the comments

Yes.

Morning.

@BESW I agree, its not the best question in the world. Its one of those where I go "apply common sense" and then find out I'm wrong because there is actually a specific rule governing this.

@Mourdos Welcome to 3.PF, where Common Sense is only useful when the devs haven't gotten around to making a rule against it yet.

3

:o)

Ha

8:41 AM

I was supposed to say that's not DnD 4e but my coemployees came to pick me up for lunch. Heh.

Welp, you were right, it wasn't D&D at all.

It was a Suspiciously Similar Substitute.

9:16 AM

I'm explaining Doctor Who to someone in scifi chat, and I just had to bite my tongue really hard to say "Capaldi is the thirteenth actor to play the Doctor in the TV show since 1963."

lol

Because as untrue as that is, it's true enough and anything more would quickly become unnecessarily convoluted.

As it is, I had to specify "in the TV show" because.... Peter Cushing, Richard E. Grant, an insane number of voice doubles for audio books...

And if I were being completionist there's still the Valeyard, and the Dream Lord, and the Watcher...

Even for a relatively fresh franchise like Harry Potter, all main characters tend to have a dozen or so actors.

And what about the actor who played the Valeyard in disguise?

If the Valeyard counts, Mr. Popplewick should too.

I love Doctor Who so much, but it's almost utterly uncatalogueable.

mm

and yet you try

lol

9:22 AM

Probably for the same reason I roll up deadEarth PCs.

@BESW Oh yeah, a majority of alternative actors (in the same adaptation) are probably "different age flashbacks" or "character in disguise". Of course, even my measly knowledge of Doctor is enough to know that that series is something of an exception.

or a similar reason to why I made several dozen 4e characters that never got used

Oh, hey, there's a guy who played a robot double of the Doctor, which doesn't count--but he also filled in for Hartnell once when he was injured.

@kviiri The Valeyard is an evil version of the Doctor from a potential future, who travelled to the past to try and steal the Doctor's future so he could become real.

In Harry Potter (sorry it keeps popping up - we rewatched the film series recently) Daniel Radcliffe plays a ton of different characters if we're being really pedantic. All glory to polyjuice potion.

And similarly, Harry Potter (and several other important characters) are played by several actors because of their polyjuice potion adventures.

(rare and difficult-to-make potion, sheesh. By the last book almost everyone's using it)

Heheh, point.

And then there's the frequency with which actors play multiple roles on Doctor Who.

Heck, Richard E. Grant played the Doctor before he was cast as the Great Intelligence. Granted his role as the Ninth Doctor was stripped from canon (one of the only times any canon declaration was ever made about the show) well before his second casting, but...

9:31 AM

@BESW Heh. I see double-ups all the time in British TV series (even though I don't watch them that much). I guess there's only so many actors suitable for any given role on that island.

To be fair, I can't recall when I last saw a Finnish TV drama without Krista Kosonen in it.

It amuses me greatly that Tennant had an uncredited role as an extra in Grant's non-canonical outing as the Ninth Doctor.

Not least because he only got it because he was recording in the same studio, heard they were doing Doctor Who voiceovers next door and just crashed in and begged for a part because he was such a huge fan.

Hah!

Then the TV revival was contracted, Grant's version of the Ninth Doctor got scrapped into noncanon and Eccleston took his place, and Tennant became the Tenth Doctor in that continuity.

....and later on Grant was cast as a major villain from the Second Doctor's era for its return in the Eleventh Doctor's final season.

Oh, and the guy who voiced the Master in Grant's version of Nine? Got to play a memory-wiped version of the Master during Ten's run.

1 hour later…

10:50 AM

0

Q: Synonymize [loot] -> [treasure]

I just noticed we have both a loot tag and a treasure tag. They both mean the same thing - providing or acquiring items - and four questions are tagged with both. Could we make loot a synonym of treasure, thus keeping treasure as the main tag? I don't have any score in either tag, so I can't sug...

11:17 AM

From SF Debris' review of Flash Gordon, excerpts from the Ming the Merciless List (because the Evil Overlord List is for the timid):

> 3. Don’t waste your time on a name that pretends you’re a good man. Why conquer the universe if you’re going to spend the rest of your life being a spin doctor?
4. Morale of the subjects is pointless. You’re an overlord, not their life coach.
5. You can have a daughter so long as you use tough love. Spare the bore worms, spoil the child.
?. Don’t listen to people who think they know how to do your job better. If this advice is so good, why haven’t THEY taken over the universe?
7. Of course annihilating a city to kill one man is impractical. But it’s stylish as hell, and when you’ve conque…

@Oxinabox Hey.

hey

What's new?

I like Stross' Laundry series so much

Fair enough.

that is what is new in my life.
That an I got acess to a screen with resolution 4000x4000

11:24 AM

Oooer.

11:58 AM

Goooood morning. Flops onto nearest couch and starts snoring

[balances manuals upon]

Joshua Aslan Smith

12:13 PM

Greetings earthlings

Earthlings? Where?

Joshua Aslan Smith

just thought Id throw it out there since I saw flash gordon mentioned above

I am Earthling. I am not Alien who was sent to monitor the human race.

Hey dudes. I am totes a normal bald monkey thing like you!

As much as BRIAN BLESSED is capslock personified, I honestly don't actually remember him very much in Flash Gordon. I think the rest of the movie managed to be just as over the top as he was and he fit in perfectly.

One of my past biology teachers told us that humans are actually not bald, but indeed we have more individual hairs than chimpanzees (just shorter and lighter in color, thus less noticeable). I'm not sure if I should trust that though, you know how teachers are.

12:19 PM

I best remember him as King Yrcanos.

12:47 PM

Lets talk about how RPGs based on existing material (Eg based on books, movies etc) goes.
I've never actually seen Call of Cthulu played, but I assume it gets by great without people reading source text.
I've seen many games of AdEva played but in most of them most players have watch NG Evangelian, at least before half way though the game.
What else is there that *works* without requring all players to be familar with any of the material?

@Oxinabox Actually, my 6th Ed Call of Cthulhu has the short story "Call of Cthulhu" in its entirety as the first chapter of the manual.

Joshua Aslan Smith

@oxinabox I really really want to get the One Ring RPG

I've never actually played any licensed-property games.

@Oxinabox History books? :)

Joshua: is One Ring RPG the good one? I head there was (one or more) good ones, for LOTRs.

12:49 PM

→ 75 messages moved to Not a bar, but plays one on TV

Joshua Aslan Smith

@oxinabox the One Ring is specifically based on the books

there was an official movie one that is basically a 3.5 rip off in terms of how ludicrously complicated it is

@Oxinabox I'm interested in trying Realm Guard some time...

dnd is historically a massive rip off of LOTR.
as is much of the fansasy genre

@Oxinabox Except for short elves. That always bugged me.

@Oxinabox Heh. I really can't take claims about D&D being based heavily on LotR seriously.

12:53 PM

the whole genre of fantasy is so heavily influenced by it.

[cough]

BESW, and how many of those texts were heavily infulenced by LOTR?

I strongly disagree, especially for the period in which D&D was moulded, and present copious evidence.

Kolchak, Hammer Films horror...

Ok, fair enough. I defer to your clearly superior research.

I will cease making this claim, at least until i have done more of my own.

Many of the novels were more strongly influenced by Le Morte d'Arthur and Conan the Barbarian.

12:55 PM

Anyone ever played Dresden Files when no-one had read the books?

No, but I've read Actual Play accounts of such groups that seemed to get it pretty well.

I might be able to dig up the Philippine-supernaturals-in-California game log...

I managed to run my homebrew Stormlight (brandon sanderson) RPG a few months back. Was good cos I managed to find a full set of players all whom had read at least the first book.

Got it!

DFRPG play report about a campaign where their prior exposure was that one of the players saw a couple episodes of the TV show.

Joshua Aslan Smith

@oxinabox I have played dresden with my only exposure being watching he short lived sci-fi show

and as for the one ring, its very different from D&D because D&D loses all of the unique tolkien storytelling

the one ring focuses on that a lot, a big part of adventures is the traveling through the wilderness (like the books) and a big part of play is characters contending with temptation, using their virtures and trying to avoid failing into their vices and being corrupted by Sauron

1:49 PM

woo, I might actually (finally) get VPN access at home today

Very Purple Nurples?

@BESW virtual private network...insider access to work network from home

I am sad

I just found out Robin Williams died yesterday.

@Aaron aye, very sad day

That made me sad this morning as well

2:04 PM

I never thought a celebrity death would get to me but that man was a great man.

This sums it up well

i.imgur.com/t1JVt1g.png .

imgur.com/gallery/0nLnkg3 . This one is better

Joshua Aslan Smith

i get very meh about celebrity deaths

I think the only time Ive cared about a death of a famousish person in my lifetime was Andrew Breitbart

2:38 PM

You know what else I want to experiment with? A serious game of RFS.

Joshua Aslan Smith

RFS?

roll-for-shoes

Joshua Aslan Smith

@besw I could be down for that

wanna make a room?

Not now, it's 1240am.

Goodnight.

Joshua Aslan Smith

goodnight

Joshua Aslan Smith

3:01 PM

close votes

0

Q: Which game should I buy? (Rifts vs Pathfinder)

I'm looking to purchase my first print edition of a game and I'm not sure which one I should get into. I've narrowed my choice down to two systems, mainly due to budget concerns. The first system, Rifts, is an amazing setting. But I would have to do some conversion to make if fit for my gaming ...

pathfinder game-recommendation system-introduction rifts palladium-system

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