TRPG General Chat

SPArchaeologist

1:00 PM

BESW

@SPArchaeologist That's the setting I used for my first campaign ever.

Alex Mitan

looks around for filthy Wizards SOMEONE STOLE MY IDEA

SPArchaeologist

@BESW Death Gate in general or just the air world? Anyway, nice - I am pretty fond of that cycle of books.

Alex Mitan

...where could I find resources about this?

BESW

@AlexMitan It's a series of seven novels, the Death Gate Cycle.

@SPArchaeologist Arianus in particular. I like the whole series and was open to them eventually exploring other worlds, but we spent the whole time in Arianus.

Alex Mitan

1:05 PM

Oh, it's literature?

BESW

@AlexMitan Well, there's a very old and odd video game based on it?

@SPArchaeologist I did modify the setting a bit, since we were using D&D 3.5. Also I changed some of the conflict details so the story could be about the PCs.

But then...

Island explodes, everybody falls.

Jul 5 '13 at 2:43, 20 minutes total – 62 messages, 4 users, 0 stars

Bookmarked Aug 16 at 9:45 by BESW

We spent the last third of the campaign on the dwarven continent in the Maelstrom, and led a rebellion against the elves.

SPArchaeologist

@BESW there is, I spent a lot of time looking for it. Back then, I found only the Shannara one. Pretty depressing ending it had.

BESW

I was never very interested in the game, but I ran across it when looking for resources.

(I still want a nice recording of the Hand of Flame song.)

@MatthewRock Hi!

Alex Mitan

Do you mind linking me to the books and/or games about it? I love the idea for the setting and I could really inspire myself from it..

MatthewRock

@BESW Hello.

BESW

1:12 PM

The Death Gate Cycle

The Death Gate Cycle is a seven-part series (heptalogy) of fantasy novels written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The main conflict is between two powerful races, the Sartan and the Patryns, which branched off from humans following a nuclear/anti-matter holocaust. Centuries prior to the events of the series, the Sartan attempted to end the conflict by sundering the Earth into four elemental realms, and imprisoning the Patryns in a fifth prison world, the Labyrinth. The Sartan took up stewardship of the elemental realms, but soon mysteriously lost contact with each other and disappeared. Centuries...

Alex Mitan

@BESW Do I miss out if I only read Arianus?

Or..

BESW

@AlexMitan Well, I like the whole series. And you do revisit Arianus a couple times in the last books.

But the primary world-of-air worldbuilding is in the first book.

Alex Mitan

What does the Kickey-Winsey run on?

BESW

Umm. Steam, and probably other things.

SPArchaeologist

btw, if you like the idea of a world of sky islands, you can have also a look at Skies of Arcadia as a game or Last Exile as an anime.

BESW

1:21 PM

It's never made exactly clear how the thing works mechanically; it's not important to the story (just what it does) and the dwarves who run it have no clue.

SPArchaeologist

@BESW Seem to remember they also said there was magic involved in some part of it, but I can be wrong.

BESW

@SPArchaeologist Given that it's spoiler, it'd be hard for it NOT to be partially magical.

Anyway, sleep now. ttfn

Joshua Aslan Smith

@Pixie @waxeagle got the job

SPArchaeologist

@BESW Sorry, poorly worded on my side. What I meant is that I seem to remember someone in the books stating that steam/coal engines where not the main energy source it used - something about the main power source begin magic (and that that magic was also getting weaker with the time)

Joshua Aslan Smith

PEAK MAGIC

Alex Mitan

1:31 PM

I'm so excited, my friend is in the country, she comes back one of these days

Joshua Aslan Smith

Im now picturing Magic Mad Max

Alex Mitan

I hope I'll be competent enough to do it well

doppelgreener

@Miniman The above conversation involves multiple flying islands. You may be interested.

Miniman

@doppelgreener Heh, I was keeping an eye on it.

Alex Mitan

Are you a fellow floating island fetishist?

Miniman

1:39 PM

I have a bit of a thing for floating islands, yep.

Alex Mitan

I'd suggest that for my first FAE game one of the next few days, but I'm as anxious as ever

I hope I can be evocative enough through language and such, there's a lot I'm worrying about again

Should the worldbuilding session be separate from the first one?

I mean I'll have enough time for worldbuilding and session 1, but should there be a break between? Immediately after?

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith yeah! Happy for you and the missus!

Joshua Aslan Smith

toats

they also gave me my salary ask, just waiting to here back today if they are open to giving me a signing bonus (accepted their offer but countered with can I also get a sign bonus)

wax eagle

Nice.

Joshua Aslan Smith

super excited for the rest of my lifes (what it feels like lol)

wax eagle

1:48 PM

Lol, yeah.

doppelgreener

@AlexMitan Enormous floating island can be declared in media res at some point when you feel you're ready for it.

Alex Mitan

@doppelgreener As in "you walk for several hours aaaand you reach the edge of the continent"?

Not that poorly, sure, but as an idea, that?

I like it, but I'm not super certain about it, maybe they love or hate floating islands, and in either case I should know in the beginning

doppelgreener

@AlexMitan naw, just suggest at a dramatically appropriate point that the land they're in is really a floating island. or if it complicates something they're doing, offer it as a compel to the party (one fate point each).

SPArchaeologist

@AlexMitan "You know when in old ages, people used to think that their world was just a flat disk floating in the space? Well, seem those legend were true"

doppelgreener

they don't have to see the edge, they could spend the whole story to that point inside one village. but you can suggest at some point the world's a floating island, and then if the players are happy with that (which I'd say they should be for something like this), so it is and their characters know that. (of course it's a floating island, what else would it be?)

(no need to say what is beneath the floating island. maybe the planet and they're just a ways up into the air, maybe something else.)

SPArchaeologist

2:02 PM

Well, in Cave Story for the fist hours in the game you see just caves.

Alex Mitan

CAVE STORY has FLOATING ISLANDS? I played only a bit of it

doppelgreener

yep.

let's leave the rest of this part of cave story unmentioned and a surprise shall we? ;)

SPArchaeologist

I always forget that most of the cave story players never actually got to read the original plot info (in Japanese) or the story provided with the newer releases (a story that I hope include those details)

Sorry

doppelgreener

that's fine!! :D good teaser~

SPArchaeologist

have to go for a while. Later

Alex Mitan

2:12 PM

What's Gamestorming?

Okay, have a nice day/night, @SPArchaeologist!

Do you ever see a picture and you just go... "Damn, I wish I was good enough with my words as a GM to evoke something similar in mood..."

doppelgreener

2:31 PM

@AlexMitan could you link to the deviantart image? that appears to be a version on google's servers which... won't necessarily load.

Alex Mitan

flaviobolla.deviantart.com/art/OSMADTH-Freedom-s-Call-390936092

doppelgreener

Oh boy.

That looks beautiful.

Probably something that would be crafted with my players over time :) I wouldn't expect to be able to describe all of that at once...

Alex Mitan

2:50 PM

I'd love it if on a longer campaign my players would start having a place of their own in the world

Like a small island of their own to build up on, with maybe drop-in-drop-out type of storylines to go around that hub

doppelgreener

Home places would be fun if they find a place to form that kind of attachment!

Alex Mitan

That may be more of a thing for me, it's very ingrained in me as a person to want a place of my own to coze off in, and that's usually made MMORPGs hit-or-miss for me

as a kid, I would always end up going to games that allow me to have a kind of HQ of my own

doppelgreener

Yeah, it may be a thing they want or not. You could play and see how things develop, and actually ask them if they want a place to call home base and what they might want it to be like or what they might want from it.

Alex Mitan

3:16 PM

I think I'll have a problem not with setting, but with action...

As in, okay, this is the setting, you are here, now what

doppelgreener

3:32 PM

@AlexMitan fate-srd.com/fate-core/find-problems#problems-and-aspect-pairs

find two things that could be dramatic if put in conflict, put them in conflict, let the players respond, and you may have a story for a session.

in early sessions though you're all just stretching your legs and figuring things out.

Alex Mitan

4:34 PM

@doppelgreener I know, I know, but I'm just concerned as one would be about their first session

I hope it won't lag or something

With them just staring at me and expecting something..

BESW

9:08 PM

@AlexMitan Practice!

Pick a piece of that image and try describing it. Try using different styles, even.

Don't start with the whole thing, it's complicated.

Like...

> A flock of white birds wheels and calls around a flying ship. Although the ship is shaped like a sailing ship, it looks like a chunk of earth lifted from the ground and took flight: bare rock is exposed along its sides and keel, with a dozen short heavy canvas rudders and foils sprouting from its edges like ruffled feathers.
The top of the ship --its "deck"-- is green with grass and trees and where a normal ship's mainsail would rise up, instead a rocky hill just up from the greenery with banners flying from its summit.

That's more flowery than I'd usually use in play, though, so I look at it and see what I can whittle down.

> You see a flying ship that looks like someone lifted up a chunk of forest and the bedrock beneath, slapped some sails on the sides, and hollowed it out for living space.

Alex Mitan

Hm, okay... I should think of it a bit logically I guess

I'm just anxious again

...my friend's gonna be here in a few days

BESW

If there's something I anticipate describing, and I wanna be sure I do it really well, I'll practice several times over the week.

If there's something I need to describe off the top of my head, I picture it and describe the picture.

I try to add at least one other sense, if it's an important thing I'm describing.

Like, sound the white birds make, or the feel of the damp air from the waterfall spray, or the smell of oiled canvas.

Over time, I've gotten better. But sometimes I get complacent and lazy.

Alex Mitan

9:38 PM

Oh... okay, thank you!

I kind of have to go

BESW

ttfn

Alex Mitan

I should really cut down on reading so much though, about RPGs

it's as enjoyable as it is a bit anxiety-inducing

BESW

Yeah... reading other things will also make you better at RPGs, because it'll expand the ideas and context and schema you have available to draw on.

BESW

9:51 PM

@AlexMitan Another thing about descriptions in RPGs: you don't have to front-load an entire description at the start of the scene. Get the important bits out so the players know what's up, and then as they move through the scene you can share more details about what they're interacting with.

This takes practice to figure out what is important enough to need to go at the front. (It depends on what their goals are and how they plan to accomplish them.)

(Adventure modules usually front-load a paragraph of descriptive text, but that's more because of the format of a written adventure than because it's a good practice.)

In Fate, remember that you've also got scene aspects to help with the descriptive lifting.

For example, if I say "Kahuna Kane’s mansion estate is perched on the hillside above Paradise," and write down State of the art security, Indulgently luxurious facilities, and Shady business meetings, now you know a lot about the mansion--and Kahuna Kane!

Alex Mitan

Alright, noted! Thank you very much! I'll try to keep the intense researching down tomorrow... it can get easy to get pulled in

Good night everyone!

trogdor

10:24 PM

good night

Sandwich

Sigh :<

My gold badge never got put in the mail

I'm cry

BESW

11:10 PM

@Sandwich [awards different kind of badge]

And a dramatic re-enactment of your Populist badge's departure.

user61230

Does anyone know what that image is a reference to?

user61230

I feel like I know what it is, but I don't remember the name...

trogdor

some kind of anime?

user61230

definitely, but... hrm.

Pixie

11:16 PM

The figure in front reminds me of Kusanagi Motoko, but that's all I've got.

BESW

Bigfoot vs Bounty Hunter.

(And now I have another RFS plot seed.)

user61230

Hmm. It's titled "Nightfall."

user61230

Not a particularly helpful title.

Sandwich

Thats Attack on Titan

Pixie

Haha, I just realized that.

I opened it up in full and was like "wait... is that... [squints]"

Sandwich

11:23 PM

I prefer this one @BESW

Pixie

Sandwich

Image not found

Or this one @BESW

THIS ONE

BESW

Generally it's a good idea to text-link rather than onebox animated images.

Pixie

@Sandwich The one I linked?

user61230

@Sandwich NO WONDER.

user61230

11:25 PM

THANK YOU

BESW

@Pixie Yeah, no permission.

Sandwich

Yeah it says Image not found @Pixie

Pixie

Strange, loading on my end. I will find another version.

BESW

Clickthrough gives "referral denied."

Pixie

Try this one.

trogdor

11:26 PM

I have not seen any Attack on Titan

but I have repeatedly heard it is good

user61230

I've only seen a couple episodes myself, so it's hard to say.

Pixie

I've seen about half of it. I liked it.

trogdor

it seems like an awesome premise

Sandwich

@Pixie Here's a parody image of that I made

Its a pokeymon

BESW

[blink]

[google]

[snerk]

Pixie

11:33 PM

@Sandwich Attack on Pokemon.

Sandwich

That must be based on the Pokemon Adventures Manga

Pixie

It is.

The original title is Pokemon Special.

BESW

11:49 PM

Hmm.

I think this "influence map" concept might be useful for RPG groups to help understand and coordinate what they want out of games. I'm specifically thinking of using it to help us all be on the same page with our Weird Stuff campaign.

Pixie

Hmm, that could be helpful.

Shalvenay

yeah

it's not much help when you are as far away from most folks influence-wise as I am

BESW

Speaking of influences, here's a line from a tumblr exchange with Ursula Vernon:

> Frogs like they have in the boring current universe. And also frogs with tiny wings, to hunt locusts through the corn, and frogs that ride crows like horses as they build their amphibian civilization, and frogs the size of bulldogs, that croak like children weeping, and eat anything they can fit in their gargantuan mouths…

(source)

Island explodes, everybody falls.

Transcript for