TRPG General Chat

Adeptus

00:06

@Pixie I just grabbed the freebies (Pathfinder Player Companion: Inner Sea Primer and Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide) and can't download them, because Paizo's website is getting swamped. Not that I need them in any hurry...

BESW

00:35

**Cool RPG stuff:** [Bundle of Holding](http://bundleofholding.com "buy RPGs cheap in bulk, support charities & indie designers!");
[Conan RPG](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/modiphius/robert-e-howards-conan-roleplaying-game "'the most authentic Conan roleplaying experience yet'");
[7th Sea 2e](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnwickpresents/7th-sea-second-edition "Revised rules, revised Nations, updated for the 21st Century");
[Mourners: Scum of Shatterdown](https://imgur.com/gallery/qsrCH "a fantasy novel by our own @Lord_Gareth!");

Adeptus

I'm kind of tempted to get the $1 tier, just because it's such a great deal. I doubt I'd ever actually use it though - it's not different enough from 3.5 to be unique, but is just different enough to be confusing. (IMO)

KorvinStarmast

01:21

@nitsua60 Yes it is, and that's a texas flag.

nitsua60

@KorvinStarmast (The flag, interpreted as a geotag, is what made me realize they were probably bluebonnets.) I had a stats professor who loved to use data from some studies done on bluebonnets as his examples.

KorvinStarmast

01:43

@nitsua60 They are my wife's favorite wildflower. She's a native Texas gal.

nitsua60

@KorvinStarmast aww... what a romantic. BTW (also in re: having just seen your profile) any time you want to dust off CT and play online, fee lfree to find me. I've recently lost my IRL game.

KorvinStarmast

02:11

@nitsua60 It's been about 3 decades since the last game I was in. My game night has moved to Thursday, beginning next week, as my nephew is starting a 5e campaign as DM. Our previous game blew up last month when the DM's life and job changed drastically. Thanks for the offer, not sure what the next few months look like.

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 CT = ?

doppelgreener

@eimyr "stabbing westward would make a good name for a... wait a minute" [googles] "oh"

Adeptus

@doppelgreener Yep, someone beat you to it ;)

doppelgreener

02:28

@eimyr Something I didn't see mentioned in the ensuing conversation: D&D 4e's based around tactical combat, eschews any notion of pretending it's about much else and mostly just gets out of the way of non-combat stuff to let you roleplay it (other than providing totally awesome rituals I still think are amazing and awesome, and some skills). It also solves a lot of things many people consider a problem, such as the caster/mundane power divide.

BESW

What happens if a question has a tag on my blocked-tag list and a tag on my favourite list? Does the Stack leave a burning bag of chatty comments on my doorstep?

doppelgreener

If you're in D&D for engaging combat that solves various balance problems, you've hit jackpot with 4e. If you're in D&D for other stuff, it may or may not be your thing.

Adeptus

@BESW At the moment, it ignores the favourite list, doesn't it? Not sure about the blocked list.

doppelgreener

@BESW Yes! But also, if you've got it set up to be hidden, the hidden question will still be highlighted, even if it's not there. Promise.

BESW

I'm trying to figure out how to see raw-tagged questions without seeing any other questions tagged with D&D editions.

doppelgreener

02:33

@BESW probably you'll need to turn to a userscript/addon which takes over control of your ignore list to make it work differently.

BESW

Baah.

Smurfton

02:56

@BESW Can you start a term with - to search for those not containing?

BESW

Sure, I can search for 'em any number of ways.

Smurfton

Well then,

BESW

But the only way I know of to control my front-page viewing is through tag filters.

Smurfton

search "[rules-as-written] -[dnd-3e] -[dnd-4e] -[dungeons-and-dragons] -[dnd-5e] -[adnd] -[dnd-3.5e]"

BESW

That would still not give me what I want, even if what I wanted was a search.

Currently when I look at this page it conceals everything tagged [pathfinder], [*l5r*], [*world-of-darkness*], [*shadowrun*], [*gurps*], [*dnd*], [*savage-worlds*], and [*wod*].

I'd like to see it reveal everything tagged [rules-as-written] even if such a question also contains one of those blocked tags.

Smurfton

03:01

I see.

If you had a higher priority show thing, maybe

BESW

Right.

But I'm not aware of such a thing.

Hence asking.

Smurfton

Does favorites work?

Another way would be if the disabling allows boolean operators

@BESW So... do you even see anything?

BESW

I currently see 10 out of the 50 most recently active site questions.

Smurfton

More than I expected

SevenSidedDie

@BESW Yeah, that would require a feature request. Myself, I don't set ignored tags to hide them; the result is that they're faded out so I can visually skim past them as needed, but the ones that contain both favourite and ignored tags are a different colour of faded that stands out just enough to get my attention.

Or it would, if the highlighting of favourited tags wasn't currently broken.

4

BESW

03:10

@SevenSidedDie I used to do that, and I was probably more active in site moderation because of it. But skimming past 40 to get to 10, and being largely unable to help or moderate really effectively in the 40 because of ignorance of the material... yeah.

And yes, I'd be more inclined to go back to fading if my faves got highlighted.

Yeah, but I'm not talking about searching for old stuff. I'm talking about seeing the currently active stuff as it happens so I can be more aware of that part of the site's current operation.

nitsua60

@Shalvenay Classic Traveller. KorvinStarmast's profile mentions it as a system he liked but could never seem to get a group coalesced around.

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 ah!

BESW

I was pretty sure it wasn't CthulhuTech.

Smurfton

Idea: subscribe to the tag. You'll get emailed about each one.

If that's not part of the broken favorite thing

Better yet:

As a work-around, you could use Google Alerts to get updates about questions that are relevant to a search query (such as site:stackoverflow.com java javascript for questions that are relevant to Java and Javascript.) — Anderson Green Nov 13 '12 at 19:39

BESW

mmm. An RSS subscription seems to be the most useful answer for me now, but that'd get really annoying really fast.

doppelgreener

04:04

A question just came through on the ticker that was already here and mentioned in it an hour ago...

Shalvenay

04:20

RL steampunk :

EEVblog #854 - B52 Bomber Automatic Astro Compass Teardown

►

doppelgreener

@Shalvenay That's dieselpunk more precisely. Steampunk springs from the Victorian era, i.e. the 1800s. Contrast, dieselpunk is interested in the inventions of 1900-1950 - if your foundational era is that of the two World Wars, and you're focused on diesel-powered inventions, you've probably got Dieselpunk.

Shalvenay

@doppelgreener well, more of the mechanical-clockworky thing in general :)

doppelgreener

Hm, ok. :)

Took a while before the video got into that part.

BESW

06:17

"Five seconds of moral certitude" would be a good name for a micro-RPG.

trogdor

@nitsua60 thank you very much for the insight.

BESW

07:11

[dances the dance of saving 25%+ on a four-digit car repair bill]

BESW

08:32

Happy Ayyám-i-Há!

b_jonas

09:02

Someone asked a really good practical question about a tabletop RPG he is DMing. I'm going to suggest him to post it here.

Polyducks

That's a great idea, @b_jonas :)

@Eimyr You owe me big. Mr Weick is going to answer your question

at the cost of my precious bounty >:C

b_jonas

I keep suggesting people to post certain questions on SE, although I don't think I've ever done it with RPG SE yet.

Polyducks

I'm sometimes not sure if I should ask in the chat or on the forum. The forum obviously is much more strict about what you post there

but the chat doesn't really get exposed to google searches

so it can't help other people

BESW

09:22

You mean main-site?

Maybe I should expand the chat-to-meta carrot to include main-site as well.

BESW

10:01

Atlas is a new humanoid robot. First half of the video: "Someday we will make robots that aren't drunk." Second half of the video: "Someday robots will use this video in the intergalactic trial over their genocide of us."

trogdor

lol

Marc Dingena

10:39

Is there a system that lends itself best to gradually introduce new mechanics?

BESW

Depends on the context and extent.

Roll For Shoes is all about inventing new skills as you go, but it doesn't have anything else.

Marc Dingena

As in, you introduce players new to tabletop RPG by starting with complete freeform, and then gradually introduce concepts of rolling dice for resolving certain situations, until you are playing (for example) Pathfinder.

Freeform-to-Pathfinder might be a little extreme (or take a long time to just gradually introduce).

Polyducks

11:04

From what I remember of reading 4E, the introduction booklet did this really well

They had you travelling on a cart and then ambushed by goblins etc

It was a mini-session that looks like it played out quite well

BESW

11:25

Fate can do it too, but I've never tried. Aspects, then compels and declarations, then skills and stunts.

Polyducks

The way I tend to bring in new players is I explain that they can do anything they want and tell them the limitations as we go

like if they try to fly, I tell them their character doesn't have that ability - but they could do if they had a ring of flying, for example

Some new players will just start writing the story for you if you let them. You've got to get them into the swing of turns and that they can attempt things, not just outright do them.

Marc Dingena

11:46

I know that many systems support doing it like this. Are there also systems that inherently start like this? I'm interested to see how that system progresses through increasingly complex situations and resolutions.

Rather than build the "tutorial" myself.

CodingFeles

12:01

@BESW Hi (: You surprised me! That was unexpected.

BESW

12:18

@CodingFeles [grin] We like new folks! What brings you to RPG chat?

(Note to self: 15 minutes lag between chat ping and SE app notification.)

Marc Dingena

@BESW I think you get it immediately, unless your browser window is having the chat open. If you don't have anything open, pings are immediate (provided you are still pingable, I think after some time you're not pingable in chat anymore).

CodingFeles

@BESW Curiosity. I like to check RPG.SE regularly for interesting questions and answers(that stuff inspires me). Ocassionaly I'm lurking in the chat.

BESW

@MarcDingena I had the computer in sleep mode, and my phone's app alert me for 15 minutes. That's about right for everything I've observed, including comment/answer pings. (The "out of chat, can't be pinged" thing doesn't kick in for one to two weeks.)

@RollingFeles Shiny. Glad you have you around.

Marc Dingena

@BESW Wow, didn't realize it was that long for you to become unpingable.

BESW

That's just on vague observation. [digs around for specifics]

Marc Dingena

12:33

This is odd... just a moment ago, @RollingFeles was @CodingFeles.

BESW

And had a different avatar.

He changed which of his Stack site accounts is associated with his Stack chat account.

Marc Dingena

I'm Marc Dingena on every stack, I sign up through a Google account. I don't think I have much say in what my username is.

BESW

Nah, you can change it.

I use a Google account that says I'm Eric Merit Fairchild.

wax eagle

@BESW set up a chat room and add it as a feed

BESW

@waxeagle Oooer.

wax eagle

12:35

(that'd probably benefit everyone actually)

BESW

I'm thinking I'll just add it to the NAB.

wax eagle

@BESW I think that works the q volume on that tag isn't insane

RollingFeles

Yep. I switched to RPG.SE as parent stack.

BESW

The Not A Bar will now share all new rules-as-written questions as messages in the chat itself.

7

RollingFeles

@MarcDingena Any change in your profile can be applied either to your current profile(specific for current SE site) or every profile in SE network.

BESW

13:34

@MarcDingena I'm now under the impression the username auto-complete feature is a bit more complex and variable than a flat duration. Sounds like it's roughly "Everyone the chat javascript has had to process since you opened the chat window."

Polyducks

13:51

That's interesting, @BESW - so if you look at really old logs you might pick up ghosts?

Aaron

Good morning.

Polyducks

Also, where's @Eimyr today? I've got Steven Weick - one of the writers of World of Darkness and Mage - to comment on his question.

Hey @Aaron, good afternoon :)

Marc Dingena

14:45

I get the feeling sometimes a question that does very well on this site is put on the Hot Network Questions list, and then attracts answers from people who have no experience in RPG at all.

Evidenced in their choice of words, mainly.

eimyr

15:54

@Polyducks Eimyr is occupied. Thanks for Wieck, I'll wait patiently.

Polyducks

16:28

@Eimyr I sort of imagine you sitting there at a desk, looking from between steepled fingers.

@MarcDingena Do you have a good example? I always enjoy laughing at normies.

SevenSidedDie

17:29

Am I losing my memory or didn't we have a mystery tag?

KRyan

17:59

seems like a tag we should have

anyway, @SevenSidedDie, I'm going to leave your question unanswered for the moment

just because my lunch break is ending, and I've already used too much company time on this discussion

the line I quote in my answer is one such example, though there were more

I'll come back to it, most likely this evening

SevenSidedDie

@KRyan The line you quote about rules not being enough for it to be about rules-as-written? Yeah, but we're not disagreeing there. You say that a question asking about rules can use the tag. Yes, of course. Talking about rules is necessary but not sufficient condition to be talking about rules through the rules-as-written analysis lens. There are other lenses that rules can be talked about, so the question needs to say more than "I'm talking about rules" to show it's about rules-as-written.

@KRyan Ok, it'll keep!

Mystagogue

20:28

So, I'm reading a lot of posts that say Fate isn't very good for Mystery-based games. Any system recommendations for something that could run a noir setting? GUMSHOE seems neat but there's no core rulebook.

Wibbs

20:49

Any particular era? @Mystagogue

Mystagogue

21:22

Near Future. 2200s maybe?

Wibbs

21:44

Is it just a straight noir game with no wierdness?

Mystagogue

What counts as weirdness? I'm not very genre savvy at all. (I've also never GM'd a game before.)

Wibbs

Magic, superpowers, weird monsters etc

Aliens

that kind of thing

Mystagogue

22:00

Oh, yeah. Everyone has a computer chip in their brain that they use to interface with technology. Augmented reality has mostly ruled out the need for screens.

People can have "Psychic" combat using their implants. Everyone is basically armed with a nonlethal weapon at all times. That, coupled with societal changes, has drastically lowered the violent crime rate.

Wibbs

Can't think of anything offhand that'll meet those requirements off the shelf, but my knowledge of different systems and settings is relatively narrow

Mystagogue

Well, I've basically accepted that the psychic combat will need to be homebrew. I'm just looking for a good investigation based/compatible system.

Wibbs

Well Gumshoe is the go-to for investigative stuff, but as you know, you can't get the system without an associated setting

SevenSidedDie

22:20

@Mystagogue The trouble with Fate and mystery games is pretty particular to Fate and games like it. Most games aren't like it in those ways though. GUMSHOE might be made for mystery games, but you don't need a made-for-mysteries game to avoid the challenges that Fate brings: you just have to pick pretty much any ol' game.

Example: I'm currently running a game with two long-running mysteries that are almost entirely driving the action. (I didn't even set out to run an investigation/mystery game; it just kinda happened.) The system we're playing with is neither good nor bad for it: it doesn't make setting secrets difficult, but it doesn't provide any special tools for running mysteries either.

Wibbs

Bed time for me - nn all

SevenSidedDie

@Wibbs ’Night

Grubermensch

@waxeagle We're not having the game tonight, right?

BESW

22:42

@Mystagogue Hmmm. Have you read Behind the Walls?

wax eagle

@Grubermensch correct :( I'm alabama :(

Grubermensch

Well then I will look forward to your swift reincarnation to human form.

wax eagle

@Grubermensch thanks. :)

hopefully I'll be me again in a couple of hours

BESW

@doppelgreener More Babbage eccentricity!

Odd calling cards: apparently common among computing whizzes! #Babbage from .@sydneypadua & #Turing from .@Dr_Black https://t.co/TtscMC90cI

Tweeted by JohannaPWilson on February 25, 2016 at 2:01 PM

2

Anaphory

23:35

Back in civilization! Hi folks!

Adeptus

@BESW I'd love to have cogs as ~~calling~~ business cards

BESW

@Anaphory [wave]

@Adeptus I'd need reinforced pockets.

Transcript for