TRPG General Chat

hey there @Powerdork, hwo're things going?

@Powerdork You used to be GuidingLight who used to be Metool, right?

Powerdork

@Miniman Correct!

@Shalvenay Been better, been worse.

How are things with y'all?

Good!

[wave]

With any luck, we'll be playing Fate tonight for the first time in many months.

12:30 AM

@Powerdork See starred content on the side. I'm thinking about getting back to the Legend chat in order to ask for players. Last time I left a bit offended but this topic shouldn't provoke replies I don't like, or at least I hope so.

Powerdork

@Zachiel You'll never know unless you try!

What's the pitch?

@Powerdork It's the classical fourthcore adventure Crucible of the Gods. In a setting that looks like a mashup of every place Indiana Jones has ever been, offended and cruel gods gave a last chance to humanity: every 25 years, the champions of that generation (level 1 characters!) have to beat the god-made dungeon in under three hours or doom their civilization to death by saltwater flood.

Ah, dang.

@Powerdork What?

Not my style.

12:41 AM

Not many people's style, or so I get told.

Should I ever do some D&D with more story online, it won't be for a play by forum. I'm placing my bets on Fourthcore because the dungeons are pretty short.

@Zachiel, whats your pic from btw?

@Powerdork alright here

@Zachiel -- yeah, roll20 or the likes might be a better bet

@user507974 It is a portrait of one of my D&D characters that this person on deviantArt gifted me. They keep saying that it's a collab because I provided the character.

@Zachiel -- if you were to do a more story-oriented game (not necessarily D&D), what system would you be running?

1:07 AM

@Shalvenay mmmmh that's a hard question. I don't really feel comfortable with any of the games I've tried to GM, even if I liked them enough to learn the rules. Trollbabe never really worked and Dogs in the Vineyard requires me to be a very quick thinker Speaking about GMless games, my Fiasco scenes are too sloppy, same for Montsegur 1422 I guess, and Blood Red Sands did not work the time we tried it.

I think I could go with Great Ork Gods, but I have no idea how much It'd be fun for me.

@Zachiel ah. only reason I ask is because I'd be down for something not-Fourthcore with you (mostly that my brain doesn't get along particularly well with 70s era dungeon design, that and I just couldn't figure out how 4e characters work last time I tried)

I'm curious about the GMless oneshot Fragment.

Even GMing Lady Blackbird was not that fun, despitre expectations.

yeah, LB would be...weird for me, I suspect. I might try it someday, but I don't have particularly high expectations of it working well in my case

@Zachiel -- are you comfortable DMing D&D 3.5e for that matter?

@Shalvenay Comfortable, yes. Willing to prepare for it... not really.

1:19 AM

@Zachiel aaah.

are there any systems you'd like to try DMing but haven't gotten the chance to?

@Shalvenay Not really. Some I'd like to DM if I only were confident about being able to DM them properly (most PbtA)

Oh, I successfully GMed Anima Prime

@Zachiel ah.

@Zachiel what's that system like btw?

@Shalvenay it's a dice pool system where you have a pool of resources and you roll dice to assign it to regular or special attack pools

@Zachiel hrm. as to the setting?

think early final fantasy

1:25 AM

doesn't help much

the (standard) setting proper is a barren land with monsters comeing from rifts that connect this world to a space-like one

the players are, IIRC, people involved in the conflict, and the army doesn't want them to mess with the thing. This might be just the examples, though.

1:53 AM

ah, hmm.

2:50 AM

hey there @nitsua60

nitsua60

@Shalvenay hiya

VTC advice solicitation

3:44 AM

@doppelgreener I'd avoid a God of Crafts specifically due to the rule that you can start out with whatever equipment you want, but it explicitly won't help you. This also ends up with a double god tax, as you'd need Artefacts to use nearly anything you made in the first place.

@BESW If that's not a reference to the Thursday Next books, it darn well should be

@JoelHarmon Of course it is.

if only spontaneously acted complete renditions of plays happened like that

@user507974 perhaps you're referring to Lasers and Feelings, or Roll For Shoes?

@BESW my big hangup about that series is it goes from a world with that in it (along with the playwright-based street gangs), to one where most people are functionally illiterate with no explanation. On the other hand, the character of Acheron Hades entirely makes up for that and then some.

4:05 AM

I ran a D&D 3.5 game with a version of Acheron Hades where he was a half-dragon ogre mage collecting all the artifacts with random chance in their effects, to try and control fate itself.

he's my go-to example of evil for evil's sake

Hades was my... third-favourite 3.5 villain that I actually got to hit the table.

well now I'm curious

4:44 AM

@JoelHarmon Well, the lich who wanted to just be left alone, so he orchestrated a thousand-year war to keep everyone busy.

Gave him plenty of time to practice pottery using the dust from disintegrating anyone who wandered to close to his castle.

@JoelHarmon Sadly, the series went downhill after Something Rotten.

And then there was Master Moloch, the evil overlord of this campaign.

@Miniman have you read his Shades of Grey?

There are a few villains I probably would've liked even more if they'd ever gotten screen time.

The Goa'uld Isis would've been so much fun.

@BESW that's the usual problem with any ideas for games; not enough time to play them all

4:50 AM

I still might get to run Isis someday. She's central to the early parts of my SG-1 campaign.

would that be similar to the Intellect Devourer?

hm?

there's a 5e monster that is basically a brain with legs; it eats yours and takes over your body

I'm familiar with it.

Not sure what you're asking.

reminds me very much of old school Goa'uld

4:52 AM

Ah.

Yeah, kinda.

I was using the official SG-1 RPG that runs off d20 Spycraft, and it did not work at all.

I've still got all the notes and someday want to run the campaign in a more appropriate system.

mismatch between the system and the desired play style?

or is the system itself broken?

(I'm familiar with d20, but certainly not all its myriad variants)

The system isn't... broken... but it's clunky as all get-out with waaaay too many unncessary fiddly bookkeeping bits.

And then, yes, it's a total mismatch for the franchise.

@JoelHarmon Nope, what's it like?

Also it's got a few good illustrations of how the d20 System is very unaware of whether it meets its own goals.

@Miniman Dystopian future. Social cast is defined by the color you can see, and everyone is at least partially color blind. Greys are, of course, the lowest rung. There are very strict, but poorly written laws. For example, law says there has to be a spoon for everyone, but doesn't provide ways of making spoons. That creates a population cap, and destroying a spoon reduces the human population permanently.

5:02 AM

Hmmm, interesting.

it's a standalone novel, if that helps

Sounds like a Paranoia splat.

that's... not wrong

Heck, you could even keep Paranoia's colour-coded security layers.

Except they're even worse.

particularly because the color-seeing folks have a kind of separate-but-equal thing going on

marriage laws based on the color spectrum, that kind of thing

suffice to say, this is one of the (many) books that live on our loaner shelf

That's it for me; talk to you guys later.

5:12 AM

ttfn

Cya

[sigh] I really want to make that SG-1 campaign work.

I don't know too much about either, but could ARRPG work for that?

yeah, or maybe an even lighter version of Fate.

The show is mostly character-driven.

My challenge, therefore, lies in lacking a consistent group of moderate size.

The campaign is predicated on having a small team of relatively consistent composition.

Ah, right. I was trying to figure out the sticking point.

Can't help you with that one.

5:27 AM

The basic conceit of the franchise is that you've got small teams of military and science professionals going through the Stargate to other worlds on missions with specific goals.

The story would follow one of those teams over a number of missions.

I designed the campaign to accommodate people unfamiliar with the franchise, so the first adventure is an ordinary non-Stargate military team investigating something which turns out to be SG-related.

Then anyone who wants to keep their character can have them be inducted into the SGC on virtue of how they handed of that mission, and anyone else can roll up an established SG operative.

6:06 AM

There is a strategy I've thought of, but we've only done it once or twice and I don't know how clunky it'd be: every team member is there in the story every session, and for players who don't show up their PC is reduced to the high concept which can be invoked and compelled for them to do things but otherwise they're in the background of the 'episode.'

Sounds pretty reasonable, particularly if each night is a separate mission so there's minimal lost continuity.

Yeah, I'm not sure how much I can control that or it'd be a LOT easier.

Also, right now my group's got three campaigns on hiatus, at least a half-dozen new games or systems or ideas we want to try, and another half-dozen things we're considering returning to.

SG-13 would require a pretty good chunk of committed time, it's not really designed for dribbles here and there.

(I give all my campaigns titles, so "SG-13.")

6:29 AM

anyone around for a quick bit of advice?

If you don't know how to respond to what someone just told you, ask "How's that working for you?"

@BESW How's that working out for you?

@Miniman Pretty well, actually!

@Asteria Other than BESW's important life tip, was there specific advice you were looking for?

@Miniman in a roll20 dnd game at the moment, and one of the new chars is full on hitting on my char. I have no idea how to handle this at all

6:39 AM

Stop everything, break character, and say "Hey, that's not what the kind of game I'm here to play."

Assuming that it isn't the kind of game you're there to play, obviously.

Well, yes. If you're looking for RP flirting tips we'll need to know who's hitting on you so we can make "A hobbit's hands are the hands of a healer too" jokes if possible.

...the last time I played a flirtatious character, I made a lot of "really hot" jokes at the expense of a very confused fire elemental.

haha nah xD he's played with us before, last char died though

this one is a elf like me, buuut is just creepy

`might have to just stop the game next time he does it, yeah

Yeah, then make it very clear that you-the-player are creeped out and want it to stop.

If you try to deal with it in character, that's just affirmation flirting is a thing the game can encompass.

If this sort of thing happens with any frequency at all--things happening that make some players uncomfortable--consider introducing the x-card.

dealing with it as my char would be difficult anyway, considering the way I've built her she'd be very 'whatever'
I dont really want to break that character either, since I'm trying to keep her impartial to everything

oh the x-card is an interesting read

6:51 AM

I've had games where just knowing the group is okay with using the x-card makes folks more comfortable and we've not actually had to use it yet.

The conversation about the x-card often makes everybody more aware of the issues and more open to addressing them informally.

it'll be less visual, since we're playing online, but it could help with this group

Yeah, our group's on Discord and has talked about just typing X in text chat or speaking up or even writing a script to put up a giant X image.

trogdor

@BESW don't despair, I want that too XD

@BESW it was hilarious XD

7:08 AM

So guys, anybody got tricks of the trade or cheat sheets for their campaign planners or adventure log

9:26 AM

hmmm, am I too close to being "opinioon based" with this question? rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/90033/…

@BESW This... so reminds me of the Red Rule in Exalted...

10:16 AM

slow morning, isn't it?

10:27 AM

Oh man. That FATE group is now aware that there is some link between appearance, ability, and social status. They haven't quite put their finger on the fact that it's all based on money.

10:39 AM

@Fibericon You mean: Appearance can be bought, money buys education and thus ability and social status is all about money and contacts, which in turn are just money in a different shape?

@Trish Oh, it's quite a more literal interpretation than that. If someone's net worth drops, their stats do as well. In a matter of minutes. And then their clothing is spontaneously less nice. You can pickpocket someone and watch them deteriorate.

@Fibericon Whud?! so... a hacker that gets to the sock market can make people turn from bankiers to hillbillies by emptying their portfolios?!

Or someone becomes increasingly ugly when being disrobed?

Well, just taking off the clothing wouldn't do it if you still own the clothing. But your first example? Totally.

Being disrobed. Passive. Someone else takes the clothing off them, like to own it themselves.

Ah, Elder Scrolls pickpocket style. Yeah, that would do it.

10:45 AM

That must be a crapsack world, but at the same time, communism would make people increasingly healthy, well skilled and beautiful. I mean, they ALL own a whole country...

which would make communism (shared ownership) most appealing for people. Whole community's worth = single person's worth = Appearance 1000 on a 1-100 scale.

It's a pretty awful place. I made it a circular city, with what basically amounts to caste rings. The outer ring is... not so great.

the inner ring might know that trick and contractually all own the whole city as a conglomerate to make them all super-potent super-good looking people...

that doesn't stop the infighting fully, but it does reduce it a lot: they don't want to take collateral themselves...

I'm only running a mini-campaign, since we're passing the game around and making worlds we transport the party to for each GM. Before we start, we roll on alignment. I got neutral evil, for the whole world. Someone commented that it would be difficult to pull off because of society's perception of right and wrong, but I think I got this one.

I read the Good/Evil axis as mainly "Altruist/Selfish" and Lawful/Chaothic as "upholds rules/breaks rules"

the later being an "whenever possible

Pretty much. This is a society full of people who will do what they think is in their best interest at any given time and screw everyone else. The law is on their side? Roll with it. The law is against them? Break it, if they think they can get away with it.

12:49 PM

@Fibericon is that money specifically, or wealth overall?

@Trish more interestingly, it means everyone can see how much party leaders are skimming off the top for personal gain. Doesn't stop political favors ("social wealth"), though.

also it would be less appealing if you were considered to own only 1/pouplation portion of the community wealth

1:20 PM

@JoelHarmon Overall wealth. If I give you money and obtain something of equal value, I remain the same.

inflation/deflation would be interesting

Q: How can we improve this community?

1:52 PM

**[Timely RPGery](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nKltjD1HJ954pS3QZZL-E_ckNaKEeedxMKn7XwdFiio/edit?usp=sharing "Click for full source doc; please suggest items to pin!"):**
[BoH](https://bundleofholding.com "Buy RPGs cheap in bulk, support charities & indie designers!");
[RPG bundle](https://www.humblebundle.com/books/fiction-faves-rpg-book-bundle "The Humble RPG Book Bundle: Fiction Faves. Nov 16");
[LCQ comp](http://blackarmada.com/lovecraftesque-competition/ "Write a short (~600 wds) Lovecraftesque scenario and you can win the adulation of your peers and a copy of the game! Nov 07");

The Oracle

4:26 PM

0

As a web developer I frequent a lot of Stack Exchange communities and never have I experienced one with such a community of judgement and nitpicking. Some of these exchanges don't even phrase topics as questions, but if you do that here you risk being down voted, or bombarded in the comments crit...

discussion

Toshinou Kyouko

5:02 PM

@Zachiel thanks :)

Q: How would SCAG Baldur's Gate protect itself against an Ancient Red Dragon?

This is lovely. In response to OpaCitiZen's question (summarised quite aptly in the title), @JoelHarmon points out quite an appropriate way it'd probably pan out:

2

How would Baldur's Gate (the D&D 5e Forgotten Realms city as described in Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide) protect itself / push back against an Ancient Red Dragon? (With the dragon coming out of the blue, kind of like Smaug did in the Hobbit, and there being no random, high-level adventuring part...

dnd-5e dungeons-and-dragons forgotten-realms

If history is any indication, a small and improbable team of extremely powerful people will randomly appear, kill or drive off the dragon, totally disrupt the magic item economy, and randomly disappear without helping with any reconstruction efforts. — Joel Harmon 1 hour ago

Aw. I just turned 27 pages of pdf maps into jpg files, lined them up in inkscape to get a giant map, then saved it as a png and deleted the original files. Just to notice that inkscape only saved a tiny portion of it.

That sounds like a pain. Might try downloading a file recovery tool. No idea which ones are any good, though.

@Zachiel noooooooooooooooooo ;_;

I think I will give up on usoing the pdf map that comes in a 27-page printable and just use the smaller cyanography version that's already in a single file.

8:13 PM

So, my all-around-the-world recruiting for now is: the guy who asked me to GM this game, one guy on the Italian D&D 4e facebook community, one Stack citizen, and maybe one player of my usual D&D group that should not be able to partecipate should I ever do this live.

how are you feeling about it at this stage?

@Zachiel comeon, I am in a monthly Werefolf Apocalypse game, that has: GMs in Germany, most players anywhere in germany, one player (on hiatus) at the US east coast and a player in Japan. it's running since 10 years. and the player in Japan... he moved there last year.

having players in US, EU and anywhere is no longer that much a problem - if you manage to find convenient timing for anybody.

hey @doppelgreener, whats your favorite workflow to make maps

hey there @Trish and @Zachiel

combat maps and city maps primarily

8:20 PM

@doppelgreener I wish I could find all the players in a single, peaceful place, so that I know that they already stand each other.

@Zachiel have you tried raising the dead, thats a pretty peaceful place

@user507974 I tend to look for "what do I need" in those cases, then work down a folrm follows function.

(And I always fear that some of the people might not be committed enough and that this will be the N-th play by post that dies after a few weeks.)

@Zachiel are you using Roll20 or something of the sort?

@Zachiel -- is there a reason you insist on the play by post form factor?

8:22 PM

@Zachiel well, the WTA game I am in uses irc...

vs play-by-chat (or augmented tools such as roll20, for that matter)?

so it is life sessions of about 6 to 10 hours length...

@Shalvenay the player I'm doing this for has expressed that he doesn't feel ready for play bu chat yet. I think both him and me have the will to stuff this game in small amounts of spare time (me between posting on another play by chat game, him between playing DotA games with the rest of my friends.

@user507974 I'm going to use roll20 for maps and tokens

aaah

That moment when you realize that you would really like to see those theoretical optimization builds in play, but you will never have anything better than practical optimization to play with.

8:34 PM

@Zachiel -- did I ever offer to DM my 3.5e dungeon for you? I don't believe I did...

@Shalvenay I don't think so. What kind of game is it?

@Zachiel it's a fairly wacky one-shot, combat light but trap/puzzle/... heavy, setting is an electropunk magitech smashup :P

@user507974 1. big whiteboard, 2. marker

what kind of map, actually?

are we talking battle map, gridded battle map, or geographic map?

8:53 PM

hey there @nitsua60

nitsua60

@Shalvenay hiya

@nitsua60 how're things going?

nitsua60

programming project... shock analysis....

@nitsua60 ah. saw a nice lecture on home energy performance measurement

Different take on a line of peasants with pikes readied to shove: put them much closer to each other, then one more creature walks up close to the first one. Can they shove that one creature an infinite distance in one round?

(i imagine the answer will live or die on the exact mechanics of Shove, such that one creature must be able to feasibly shove the target past another)

9:08 PM

@doppelgreener that's the old commoner railgun problem.

Except without the problem of speed conservation.

@Zachiel except this lets you shove a creature past the speed of light, which means it implodes into a black hole. :D

I call it the Super Hardcore Pike Obliterator

[pretends physics actually work in this game selectively]

Uhm, is there anyone who is not interested in my game at all that has the right software(s) to extract a bunch of images from a PDF file? I try "copy to clipboard" from Avrobat Reader but it gives me a completely black image.

@Zachiel "copy image from pdf" as a google search provides a bunch of different suggestions

it's possible there's some copy protection

9:24 PM

this one has max size 14M, my file is 31... let's find an online file splitter

10:38 PM

after taking out a vast majority of the pages and the images therein... the file is still 31Mb

@Zachiel o.o. the GIMP can open PDFs and pull in their pages as images, if that helps you at all

@Shalvenay I need the images inside the page, not the page as image. If any service can make me avoid cutting the images one by one, that'd be great.

10:51 PM

hey there @Grubermensch

11:02 PM

dammit! 15Mb

Hello

Heil

how're things going?

oh nvm

thought is said grubermensch

Grubermensch

Decently

Got a session tomorrow and last time one of my players tried to convince a small town to abandon their traditional religious practice of human sacrifice. And the local cult leaders are none too happy about it.

Should be gallons of fun.

Litres, even, for our player in London.

11:16 PM

xD cool

I wonder if we should run a one-shot of rescuing @waxeagle from a dragon sometime @Grubermensch

11:34 PM

@Zachiel Screenshots don't work?

Screenshots work, but it's a lot of work to crop them one by one