TRPG General Chat

doppelgreener

00:16

@Pureferret yes, got closed and removed

Pureferret

@doppelgreener Woot

SevenSidedDie

00:30

One of those "can't tell if this is many problems mashed together or one problem poked with multiple questions" things:

0

Q: Command word activation questions

I was working on a Pathfinder Character build for the whole 20 levels. As a monk you really have no ability with casting spells (with minor exceptions using the new Unchained rules and the one archtype which grants a couple of spells) or with Use Magic Device. I had considered taking a level of R...

Brain looked at it and went on strike, so I'm off to make dinner.

If someone can give it a descriptive title that doesn't have the word "questions" in it, my inner editor would also be very grateful.

doppelgreener

@SevenSidedDie three different questions. dude just wants to make some magic items.

doppelgreener

00:45

This needs to be three different questions, I think. They're not inter-related or inter-dependent and don't require going over the same concepts. They just all happen to be command word questions. One's a question about using magic items, another's a question about crafting them, the last is a question about activation in another way that doesn't cover the same ground as the others. — doppelgreener 38 secs ago

SevenSidedDie

@doppelgreener *nod* That seems about right, now it's put into words.

BESW

01:25

Dr. Dinosaur's Perfectly Ordinary Coffee.

This article from Scientific American contains the phrase "an unprecedented chance to watch extreme physics in action."

doppelgreener

@BESW I love the attention to detail. Even the label is scratched up!

BESW

HOW TO RIDE KURATAS (A very big robot) in HD 720p

►

@doppelgreener It is not scratched by CRYSTALS though. Why would you say such a thing?

BESW

01:50

And one last thing: a campaign seed for a story about Alan Moore bringing about a Lovecraftian apocalypse.

Oh, and I should leave this for @trogdor and @doppelgreener: "Plants are wild. And some of them are evil."

doppelgreener

@BESW oh sweet.

SevenSidedDie

@Pureferret Before deleting they thanked enthusiastically for the pointer to some discussion forums since they didn't know they existed. And success: forum.rpg.net/…

BESW

Sweet, we've added a new service to our site!

Miniman

Yeah, that post was a great call.

doppelgreener

@BESW If there were a plant community, they'd have local legends about the pale-leaves, or the sunless, or etc, if they're stigmatised or predators. Or it'd be seen as unfortunate.

@BESW @Miniman Which one where what?

BESW

02:04

22

Q: I've been told my question is better suited to a forum, but where should I go?

I asked a question that got closed for not being suited for the Q&A format that RPG.SE uses, and was told that my question would work better on a roleplaying games forum. Where can I find an RPG forum? Guidance for answers This should be a curated list of directions a question-asker could go...

discussion faq

See this comment and its response.

doppelgreener

Oh! So the service is just being able to point people to the right forums?

BESW

Yup.

doppelgreener

Rad.

BESW

It is not trivial.

doppelgreener

It is not.

BESW

02:09

Oooh, new Stiltbeast video.

user61230

BESW

...Dagon will not be pleased.

SevenSidedDie

@BESW Or have another satisfied customer.

BESW

I'm reasonably sure that's not a restaurant.

A brothel, maybe.

Shalvenay

02:40

HOLY @($*@)!$*@!)$* Greenbound Summoning is absurd

user61230

Whenever someone stars out swear words, I like to read it as "grumbleclop."

SevenSidedDie

10

Q: Is the Greenbound Summoning Feat as powerful as it looks, or am I missing something?

Druids have a feat called Greenbound Summoning (Lost Empires of Faerun, p. 8), which has the following benefit: "All animals that you summon using summon nature's ally acquire the greenbound template (see page 173) for as long as the summoning spell lasts." The Greenbound template can be found h...

dnd-3.5e feats druid

@Emrakul That's a nice habit. It's always rendered in my inner reading voice as "HOLY *noisenoisenoise*…" which doesn't flow nearly as well.

Shalvenay

@SevenSidedDie yeah, I read that -- it doesn't look like much, until you read the template, and then you're like "whoa"

BESW

Heck, just "is a plant" one its own would be sufficient to make it an awesome feat.

Shalvenay

yeah

user61230

02:46

@Seven Ehehe. Noisenoisenoise gets a giggle, though.

BESW

> - 8-sided Hit Dice.
- Base attack bonus equal to ¾ total Hit Dice (as cleric).
- Good Fortitude saves.
- Low-light vision.
- Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects).
- Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, polymorph, and stunning.
- Not subject to critical hits.

That's just "is plant."

Shalvenay

although the immunity to poison makes me want to dump a barrel of glyphosate on someone's head :P

Miniman

@BESW To be fair, very little of that is particularly meaningful when we're talking about disposable summoned creatures.

Pixie

Ooh. I could use this if I ever played Flainn in 3.5 (Sylvari in GW2, bramble brewer half-elf in Pathfinder).

Sylvari hound. :D

Miniman

Yeah, that looks an awful lot like a Greenbound Dire Wolf.

Shalvenay

02:50

yep, sure does

cuddles the Sylvari hound, pets

SevenSidedDie

@Shalvenay D&D plants are immune to glyphosate, because undifferentiated-poison-trope.

Shalvenay

yep. silly trope, if you ask me, but D&D doesn't really have time to deal with the intricacies of poisons :P

Miniman

Given how complicated poisons are, that trope is actually pretty sensible.

Pixie

@Miniman Also remind me of Leafy/Tropical Dog from Monster Rancher.

SevenSidedDie

@Shalvenay Other games do (a bit more), so that's an artistic choice.

Shalvenay

02:53

aye

Miniman

@SevenSidedDie I wasn't sure about slapping a VTC on that one, since my 4e knowledge is about 0.5 / 100, so it's nice to see you agreed with me :)

Shalvenay

hrm...I wonder what a D&D campaign would be like where all gods or deity-related things were categorically evil

SevenSidedDie

@Miniman I think the rules-y stuff is pretty straightforward, but it's really unclear what they're trying to do. Maybe they have a straightforward question like "How do weapon properties apply to double weapons?" and want to post a self-answer? Or maybe they've mistaken this for a forum. Since a valid question could be inferred, it's good to get their purpose clear before answerers act on inference and there's a mess to clean up.

Miniman

@Shalvenay Well, deities in D&D wield real power, so if the adventurers ever did something an evil god didn't like, there are no good gods to keep the evil ones in check, and the adventurers would just die.

SevenSidedDie

@Miniman Yeah, you'd have to alter the mundane/divine interface to pull it off.

Pixie

02:59

Depends on if they're categorically evil and keen to take advantage of their status or if they're categorically evil but mostly disinterested and how you balance the deities with players.

SevenSidedDie

But that hiccup aside, you'd just get Sword & Sorcery, I think.

Miniman

Or it would have to be balanced around the evil gods not liking each other, and conflicting in ways that keep each other occupied. In which case it's probably more of a "you thought you were thwarting villain 1's evil plan, but you were actually just part of villain 2's even more evil plan" sort of campaign.

SevenSidedDie

The darker end of that genre, I mean, where corruption extends to the gods as well as the mortal-powerful.

Pixie

True. There are different sorts of evil, after all.

Shalvenay

@Miniman -- I like that approach, actually :)

although where this originally started was trying to think of a reason a Good-aligned char would pick up an unholy weapon and start swinging it knowing it was an unholy weapon

Miniman

03:02

@Shalvenay Done right, it makes for really great stories, but you have to be careful about how it makes the players feel

Pixie

@Shalvenay Can they do good things with the unholy weapon?

Shalvenay

yeah, I can tell that there are some agency risks there

doppelgreener

@Emrakul haha, i will remember this one like i remember using 'boing'.

Shalvenay

@Pixie -- well put. I'd be inclined to say yes -- but I'm sure that there are quite a few DMs who would strongly disagree, saying the weapon is inherently evil and corrupts all it touches

Pixie

@Shalvenay That would be my first thought in justification, especially in (in D&D terms) a Chaotic Good character. But it depends on the nature of the weapon.

Magician

03:04

@Miniman In my main campaign setting, there's an insane evil god with many aspects constantly warring with each other. Each of them on their own is, well, god-like at intrigue. But put together, his servants just kinda stumble about half the time, constantly ruining his own plans. It does mean that whatever you're doing, it's probably furthering his goals, though.

Shalvenay

actually, I'm almost leaning towards a world where the concept of religion itself is evil...which would be very weird to try to run using D&D

doppelgreener

@Shalvenay definitely kinda fundamentally incompatible with the usual settings

especially since we're not dealing with evil as a value judgement but evil as a fundamental force as in gravity

Shalvenay

yeah, Clerics go faceplant

(Paladins can be salvaged, although the class probably looks a bit odd as a result)

Magician

Well, Dark Sun managed not having clerics just fine.

doppelgreener

@Shalvenay Clerics go "wait, how did I actually choose this class again?"

Shalvenay

03:06

@doppelgreener LOL

BESW

I am not sure if "You can hardly see the human sacrifices! They're very subtle!" is a selling point or not.

Tweeted by UrsulaV on May 28, 2015 at 3:06 AM

Shalvenay

Druids...hrm. I could see Druids sort-of-working?

doppelgreener

Depends on whether you count reverence of anything as evil.

In which case I'd ask (a) why's that evil, what's the nature of evil such that it is, (b) does this mean nobody can revere a king or idolise another person?

BESW

That's important: why is religion considered evil?

SevenSidedDie

@Shalvenay Easy enough if "Cleric" becomes an NPC/villain-only class.

@BESW Yeah, it would take considerable metaphysical backing to justify.

Miniman

03:09

@BESW That's the question I'm struggling with - historically speaking, it's almost impossible to have the entire world agree on something for any length of time, especially if it's a question of religion or philosophy.

BESW

If it's some emperor who goes "I'm the only power worth venerating!" that's one thing.

Magician

"You shall have no [...] gods [...] . You shall not make for yourself an idol..."

Pixie

Right. Is religion only perceived to be evil, or is it evil because all objects of worship available are evil (so what if you worship something else?), or because (in this world) there is actually something inherently evil or corrupting about practicing religion?

doppelgreener

Not just that we need justification, it's that the nature of why religion is evil will probably fundamentally reshape the setting, and will answer our questions like "what about the druids?".

Magician

A creator deity that goes "I'm leaving, all that's left are evil things, deal".

SevenSidedDie

03:10

Like, mutate the "doing magic weakens the fabric of reality" kind of trope into "the only true god-beings are antithetical to the continued integrity of the universe and all/any worship just strengthens them".

BESW

Because, for example, in 4e druids aren't divine: the arcane/divine dichotomy's been shattered and you have power sources like primal and shadow.

doppelgreener

@SevenSidedDie Nice. That plot give me chills.

Miniman

@Shalvenay Incidentally, with clerics, there's a simple explanation - you can be a cleric of a cause. Like, for example, absolutely devoted to "Religion is evil."

doppelgreener

Theologian: But what about all you druids worshiping nature?
Druids: We're fine, there's no nature god.
(Druidism hits critical mass and a nature god spontaneously manifests on its own.)
Druids: oh noooooooooooo

4

Miniman

If your adherence to that principle is philosophical rather than religious, you have a non-religious cleric.

BESW

03:13

Is it worship that's considered evil? Or deities themselves? Or divine magic? Or...

Miniman

@BESW Well, it used to be dogs, and then there was a printer's error....

BESW

Or is it just a world where Communism took off in a big way?

Shalvenay

@BESW -- eheheheh. Revenge of Karl Marx

(who probably rolled over massively in his grave at what happened to his work)

doppelgreener

MAD MARX: FURY ROAD

SevenSidedDie

Mad Marx: The Class Warrior

Magician

03:18

2

SevenSidedDie

Mad Marx: Beyond Bourgeiosdome

doppelgreener

@Magician awesome xD

SevenSidedDie

@Miniman Cool, it looks like that question's a real question just clouded by presentation issues.

Grubermensch

04:06

@waxeagle game tomorrow?

a computing pun

07:03

oh god, running game in ~1 hour, have done precisely 0 prep

Magician

System/genre?

a computing pun

13th age/fantasy

Magician

Oh, hi, Mr GM. I suggest the party goes on to have a frolicking adventure with puppies and lots of loot.

a computing pun

if you want happy frolicking adventures with puppies and lots of loot, possibly you should've taught me how to run them back when you were GMing. Consider this a lesson in reaping what you sow!

or, y'know, don't, because I can't think of anything for you to reap right now. But I have whole tens of minutes remaining to think!

Tens of minutes!

Magician

07:19

Yup, that's my school of GMing.

Anaphory

09:59

@Pureferret No, on the extended weekend, but somehow it was giving me lasting exhaustion.

BESW

10:58

Tabletop collective nouns:

6

lisardggY

11:08

Oh, forgot to post it here. :)

It's written and drawn by friends of mine who moved from to Israel to London, and I'm glad they're getting a wider and wider audience. :)

Most strips have a Hebrew version as well. This one, being linguistic in nature, doesn't.

Zachiel

So I discover my grasp on how D&D 3.5e spells work is weak.

trogdor

mine is as well, and I played that system for a few years

Wibbs

11:25

anyone here I can run a question past? I'm a little concerned it may be too broad

BESW

@lisardggY You actually did rec it some time ago; that's how I found it.

lisardggY

Yay for me! :)

BESW

@Wibbs Shoot.

Wibbs

Savage Worlds recently revised the mechanics behind one of the key rules used in the system. The change relates to how the Shaken status works, and at first sight seems relatively small and insignificant.

The old version of the rule was as follows:

Results from making a Spirit roll to recover from being Shaken:
Failure: The character remains Shaken. He can only perform free actions.
Success: The character is no longer Shaken, but can still only perform free actions.
Raise: The character is Shaken and may act normally.

BESW

I dunno SW, but it seems like a question the site can field.

Wibbs

11:31

Cool, I'll post it up and see what happens - thanks :)

wax eagle

11:55

@Grubermensch yes. I'll put an event up, see if we can all make it

Aaron

12:17

Good morning

sillyputty

Hullo everyone. =)

Aaron

12:42

@sillyputty I have completed an excel doc to show the various options of skeletons

@sillyputty docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/…

@sillyputty I made it editable if you reload you can fiddle with the skeleton table

sillyputty

Ruh roh, what's this "base" bit now?

Aaron

@sillyputty I had an idea but scrapped it

sillyputty

So I should ignore it?

Aaron

But pretty much I had a calculation where certain bones multiplied the "base" by 2 or by 1/2.

@sillyputty Yea.

It is still kinda used but not in a significant way.

sillyputty

Ok. And I can still change arms out for an extra head, yea?

I imagine a three headed mage skellie would be very useful.

Aaron

12:45

@sillyputty The chart isn't setup to do that yet but yes you can eventually

Whoops

found a bug

sillyputty

Cool! I really enjoy the idea of this crafting system. It looks really neat. I'm excited to see how well it interacts with both the Memory system and the Enchantment system. =)

Aaron

Yea.

Still trying to decide if I want the Enchantment system to be able to directly effect the stats or not.

@sillyputty I made the doc editable. If you reload the page you can make your own skele

sillyputty

Ohhhh dear. I can see myself getting very into this.

Is there a reason that no race gives a 3 Dexterity? The max DEX score I can ever have is 10

Aaron

@sillyputty I tried to balance out the "base" by spreading the points out to equal 10 for each race

sillyputty

Gotchya.

Aaron

12:56

Hmm

Realizing now that means some bones like the head are unbalanced though

The elf's head has a score total of 7 while human has 6 and orc 5

Meaning Elf is clearly the best choice.

I want to avoid that. Each race should have a balance.

Elfs are smart and slightly quicker. Humans are good at everything. Orcs are durable but not very smart

@sillyputty Oh. Look at that new total row I added. Very unbalanced

Maybe I should just determine the stats of each individual bone instead of using a "base"

@sillyputty Try elf now. It should have a higher dex

sillyputty

Yep, they all equal out to 46 points now.

It's going to take some work to make sure that 46 points spread out in those three particular ways are fairly balanced though.

For example, if being really enchantable makes it so that that skellie is tougher or better than just having a high Con score, then there still isn't a meaningful choice. I'll always build Elf and enchant the hell out of it.

Aaron

I am thinking Enchants will just allow them to have elements associated with either attacks or defense.

So enchants make them stronger against elemental attacks or make them hit with an element. So an elf skeleton would fair better against elemental attacks than an Orc HP wise BUT the Orc strait up has more HP

@sillyputty Hmm.

Maybe change Enchant to a Magic stat that determines the strength of their magic and also enchantablity.

I think this setup is fairly balanced.

Orcs are physically tough and not very good magicwise.
Elfs are magically powerful but physically frail.]

Aaron

13:23

Maybe having memory all in the head isn't such a good idea.

I think I am going to drop memory and make that based on the necro

sillyputty

Worth a try!

Aaron

It will also determine magic defence

Two mages fighting would suck lol

they would be barely hurting eachother

BESW

Amazing Dino Facts, with Dr. Dinosaur.

Aaron

13:48

@sillyputty Just had a funny idea

Equip a ribcage with nothing but heads to make a mage and then have an Orc hold it like a shield so it can be aimed to cast spells XD. I think that is a little beyond what RPG Maker can do but it would be cool if I can figure it out.

sillyputty

Hahahahah fantastic idea! Maybe something that will happen in a tabletop game of mine! =)

@BESW We are the noble, ever dancing, ever singing *!&@ of the universe? (Hello, 7th grade memories, welcome back.)

Aaron

14:21

@sillyputty Another idea.

Combine-able elements

Maybe not

sillyputty

15:31

@Aaron It's best, I think, to have a solid, functioning base. Then you make exceptions to play with that base. Perhaps, if you really want combinable elements, that can be a talent that a skeleton with a high Memory score can learn.

Aaron

Yea I already dropped the idea for now.

I have added enchantments

BESW

16:21

The Hollow Earth Exploring club has just been formed. It claims that fantastic kingdoms exist far below the Earth's crust. WA1908

Tweeted by TweetsofOld on May 28, 2015 at 2:51 PM

wax eagle

@BESW was Mr Verne by any chance a part of this club?

ah no, couldn't have been, would have been dead already

but Journey would have been over 50 yrs old by that point

BESW

A quick Google reveals this:

> It is the theory of the men planning the trip to the inside of the earth that there's a hole where the north pole ought to be. By means of balloons, submarine boats, gyroscopes and high explosives they expect to slip over the edge of the earth's crust into the inside of the shell and there find continents and kingdoms yet unseen.

wax eagle

16:38

fascinating!

and a great hook

SevenSidedDie

@waxeagle So great it has its own critically-acclaimed RPG: Hollow Earth Expedition!

Wibbs

@SevenSidedDie I completely bodged that rollback. What I should have done is edit yours to remove the reference to previewing, as it has gone further than that now. The forum post you link to relates to the discussion that was had before this:peginc.com/official-shaken-updates-ready-for-download

So basically its now an official errata document

SevenSidedDie

@Wibbs Ah, no, that's my fault. I didn't see the "here" link. My change wasn't really necessary. :)

It looks right now, so if it got there by a slightly messy edit history, it's all good.

Wibbs

yeah, I need a better way of showing links in my questions and answers. 'here' really doesn't do the job :)

BESW

>>> [here] <<<

Wibbs

16:50

:p

SevenSidedDie

@Wibbs Yeah, "here" links tend to get lost in the rest of the text. The practice I use is to put the link on whatever phrase best describes it, like a citation. So maybe on the phrase "recently revised the mechanics"?

Wibbs

I've changed it to 'the official errata document'

looks much clearer

SevenSidedDie

Yeah, that works great.

wax eagle

17:01

@Wibbs if it's SE questions, just paste the link, it will include the title. Otherwise, something descriptive, or a name of your source in parens like you'd do for an inline citation

Zachiel

Quick survey. Some of you might remember my cleric of Nobanion. I need to level up to level 9 in 1 hour or so, and I have no idea if I want some PrC on him

Any of you want to suggest some cleric prestige classes that either have full BAB or lose no casting levels and are useful to a buffer (self and others)?

I can't use the heroic things book, since that seems to contain some popular answers to my question

Aaron

@JohnP and @sillyputty I have bone selection done and enchantments. What do you think? Should I add more to enchantment like special effects or keep it as is? Clicky Link

Miniman

22:32

What is it about Druids?

Shalvenay

22:45

@Miniman -- other than their 3.5e incarnation being wicked powerful (I just took Greenbound Summoning on mine as she just hit level 3), what is it about druids?

SevenSidedDie

@Miniman Yeah, people really want to talk about Druids.

Miniman

I got my second Populist badge - they're both for questions about Druids.

doppelgreener

23:12

@Miniman clearly people like accepting terrible answers about druids ???

or when it comes to druid answers, things are not always as they seem

[unsure how to extrapolate meaning from this]

Miniman

Or possibly druid questions are particularly contentious? It's puzzling.

SolidusVerum

23:33

o/

A question about world building methodology:

I am currently in the process of filling my world with buildings, factions and NPCs, and I am not sure how much detail I should put into the NPCs to start off with. Does anyone here have a way of efficiently going about this: number of NPCs, detail about them, detail about the buildings in the cities, etc.?

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