TRPG General Chat

12:44 AM

[sigh] The local university bought a jumbotron to "better connect with the students and use technology to enhance their college experience," but they don't have a spreadsheet of their graduating students.

trogdor

nice

this is pretty representative of some of the ideas I have seen from them

not all, but certainly some

BESW

I think the students would rather have a computer lab with a reliable printer and useful hours of operation, than a hard-to-read jumbotron.

Or, you know, the ability to drop one class without having other classes secretly dropped too.

These are also ways to use technology to enhance their college experience.

trogdor

yes

I don't disagree

disapointment in my voice was not readable

nor the sarcasm when I said "nice"

there are several similarly disappointing institutional ideas that fail to address real problems that that happened while I was still going there

though this one is kinda unique in that it is trying to introduce such a huge piece of equipment, mostly at least.

it is still consistent with the habit of making big gestures in an apparent attempt to fix very specific seeming problems

to be fair, I can hardly remember what any of the other instances were in a detailed way, but I certainly recall thinking "this looks really silly/wasteful" on a number of occasions

BESW

1:08 AM

Mmm. UOG seems to be suffering from chronic "Do things that make us superficially look like a mainland college," and is baffled by the students' lack of "engagement" when resources are going into that instead of what this demographic needs.

It's compounded by a conviction that the students don't know what they need and it'd be pointless asking what would improve their college experience.

trogdor

yeah

that is something that I am pretty sure is a problem in more places than just UOG (IE, systemic issue in a lot of institutions, most likely all over the dang planet)

but UOG itself is a good example

a lot of people in positions of decision making/ and or authority believe they have all the answers themselves. or within a small circle of people they consult,.... it's not a great way to think

(and that discounts like, all the myriad forms of malice and willful ignorance that most certainly exist at least on occasion, but can't necessarily be pinned down in every case)

nitsua60

@DForck42 It'd be good to pick @Miniman's brain on this one, too. He usually thinks of about four times as many interactions/implications as I do..

@BESW I serve on the technology committee at our school. We are explicit about what portion of our budget is going to improve the program, and what part is going to conspicuous spending to improve the marketing. Sometimes it's refreshing to be involved with such honesty, sometimes it's a little soul-deadening.

BESW

1:24 AM

I think the administration may honestly think a jumbotron is going to improve the students' experience more than computer labs which open before the first class starts.

trogdor

yeah, I think they honestly believe that too

that they believe it, I mean

XD

I went to classes there, and I found quite a bit of annoyance and obstruction on the part of built in systems and ideas there,... and a certain amount of obscuration of information that would have been helpful for me to know

not anything that seemed intentional though

I even had classes I had signed up to because they were labeled as something else

and in some cases it even turned out that I had taken the class before

nitsua60

@trogdor That's rough.

trogdor

it wasn't cool, that's for sure XD

I can laugh about it now, but it was seriously embarrassing for my fragile psyche at the time

cause the only way I found out was by walking into the class and being told by the professor, while class was in

I get my existential social dread from my mom's side of the family

Miniman

1:52 AM

@nitsua60 @DForck42 Honestly, this is such a minor thing that it's hard to imagine it causing issues. There are some other things I could nitpick, but this seems fine.

Ben

2:33 AM

Has any one ever played a "Play-by-post" game before? A few friends and I have started a game, and at the moment it's a bit clunky, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to them :)

Oblivious Sage

I'm not sure it's possible to have a play-by-post that isn't somewhat clunky.

Ben

Yeah. We've introduced some methods like an "initiative order" for general RP, so that we don't get lost in posts. For example, We enter a room, and we get a "post initiative". The first player in the initiative order makes there action, and the DM responds accordingly. Then the next player posts, and so on. This is pretty much the same as combat initiative. It just helps the clutter

Oblivious Sage

That's a good system. The only real advice I can give is to make potentially unnecessary dice rolls along with the actions that might require them. Doing something that might require a skill check? Go ahead and include the die roll for it in the post so the DM doesn't have to ask you to roll. Making an attack? Roll damage at the same time.

You should tell your DM about that approach before actually putting it into use, of course.

Ben

So for example, we all get our Initiative.
Player 1: "I search the room" *dm asks for perception check*
DM: "You notice *several items of interest*"
Player 1: "I check them out"
[that continues until player 1 is happy. If other players have input, they can make comments, but they generally stay out of it.]
Player 2: "I want to check for traps"
etc...

Oblivious Sage

Otherwise they'll get confused about what you're rolling all those dice for.

Ben

2:46 AM

WE also have a split rp/meta post section. That way, the gameplay stays in one place, and any other discussion happens outside of that, making it easier to keep track of play.

Oblivious Sage

Generally speaking the less your posts require responses/rolls from others, the better the game will flow.

That's also a good idea.

Ben

Yeah. The players state what they want to do, and the DM is in charge of asking for rolls. If the DM says an action needs a roll, he will ask, otherwise we don't need to roll.

Oblivious Sage

No, what I'm suggesting is that you talk with the DM about the DM not having to ask for a roll.

BESW

Depends a lot on the structure you're using. Technically Storium is play-by-post, as is an email chain, a forum thread, and an LJ RP.

Oblivious Sage

If you include a roll in every post, then the DM never has to ask for one. If you did something that needs a roll, there it is in the post, and the DM can tell you the result immediately; if nothing you did ended up requiring a roll, well, it's not like you wasted anything.

Ben

2:49 AM

@BESW D&D 5e

BESW

And there are systems better and worse suited for PBP flow.

@Ben That's your system, the game mechanics. I'm more talking about the interface, the way you communicate.

Ben

@ObliviousSage Ohhhh, ok. I follow. Yeah that could work.

BESW

It sounds like you're using a tradition-style forum.

Ben

@BESW Ahh right. Currently we're using Facebook and Messenger (A group page for RP, and Messenger for discussion

BESW

Ahah.

Oblivious Sage

2:52 AM

Instead of 4 posts to do something and see the result (1 = PC action, 2 = DM prompt for roll, 3 = PC roll, 4 = DM result) you only need 2 posts (1 = PC action & roll, 2 = DM result), which in turn speeds up play (especially asynchronous play, where you're not all playing at the same time).

Ben

Each Encounter is a new post to the page. Players comment on the post. When the encounter ends, a new post is put up

BESW

But yes, D&D tends to expect more back-and-forth-ery for each action than PBP is really graceful about.

The best PBP games I've seen had no formal mechanics at all.

...they also tended to be massive lived-worlds on LJ, with no GMs as such.

As a rule of thumb, the more players have freedom to narrate world truths and determine outcomes themselves, the smoother a PBP game goes--if and only if there's sufficient common understanding amongst the group about what kind of game is being played.

Ben

LJ?

BESW

LiveJournal.

Oblivious Sage

LiveJournal, presumably.

Ben

2:57 AM

@BESW The more you play, the smoother it goes usually

BESW

About twelve years ago I saw some amazingly epic Harry Potter RP done across dozens of character accounts with moderate supervision by a handful of folks who were there mostly to keep things from getting out of control.

There were no mechanics as such; it was freeform RP with an explicit social contract and enforcers of the contract instead of GMs.

@Ben Yeah, often because players are subconsciously learning the group consensus.

Ben

One concern I do have is the rolls.

Mainly managing cheating

If players are in charge, they could simply re-roll, then post a preferential roll

BESW

If you don't trust your players not to cheat, cheating is the least of your problems.

Ben

If the DM manages the rolls, then there's possible preferential treatment or vice versa

Oblivious Sage

You aren't using a post medium with built-in rolling support?

BESW

3:06 AM

@ObliviousSage Facebook.

There are, however, a handful of browser-based third-party verification roller services.

Ben

@ObliviousSage No, not at the moment

Oblivious Sage

Ah, yeah, Facebook is certainly convenient, but that's not really what it was built for so it's lacking some useful features.

Ben

We are just using Facebook at the moment because of mobile accessibility.

Not everyone has regular PC access

Magician

An easy solution (which may help with pacing as well) is to have the GM roll everything.

BESW

4 mins ago, by Ben

If the DM manages the rolls, then there's possible preferential treatment or vice versa

There's apparently some crosswise trust issues.

Magician

3:11 AM

Er. As in, the GM cheats? Um.

Ben

Also it can be a lot of work to roll everything and try and follow everyone's actions

@BESW Well... possible

Oblivious Sage

That's why I would recommend moving to a platform that supports rolling as part of the post. You just include a command in the post and the platform automatically generates a random number and includes it in the post.

I think this chatroom has that, even.

/d6

Magician

I get not knowing if random people on the Internet are cheating. But if you can't trust the GM, whether they are a random person from the Internet themselves or not, you can't play. "Preferential treatment" easily extends beyond dice rolls.

Oblivious Sage

If I could remember the command for it...

BESW

@ObliviousSage No slash.

Ben

3:13 AM

@ObliviousSage it's just 'd6'

d6

Dice Service

•

BESW

...my fudge script is still on, so that's a minus.

Miniman

That would have been funnier with a number greater than 3.

Er, greater than 4 I mean.

Ben

@ObliviousSage Do you know of any (other than this one) that works on mobile?

Android and iOS

BESW

Search "dice roller verification" and check which sites work on mobile.

Oblivious Sage

3:17 AM

@Ben Not off the top of my head, but it's built into a lot of play by post forums. If you're content with accessing it through a normal web browser, you could probably just host your own standard BBCode web forum.

BESW

Some of them have links you can copy-paste to share the result, some send email verification...

Discord has dice scripts, which I think you have to run off a desktop but can be used on mobile by others.

Ben

3:31 AM

Ok, cool. I'll keep that in mind :)

d8

1

d6

•

Didn't we submit a request a while back to alter the d6 so that they weren't pips, but rather numerals? For accessibility?

3

Hmm

11

Q: Can we make the dice bot more accessible?

I've recently learned that d4, 8, 10, 12, and 20 interface well with screen readers, but that the d6 reads as "bullets." Presumably, that's the interpretation given to pips. Can we change the d6 to be numerically-represented, rather than displaying pips? This strikes me as a no-brainer as it dis...

Apparently by "we" we mean "I."

There are sixty-four questions tagged feature-request but with no status indication. (27 feature requests with some indication of status.) Looks like we need to get cracking!

Joel Harmon

3:44 AM

@nitsua60 yeah, that came up for VI

also, on the cone thing: your suggestion to look at the diagram on PHB 204 is good, but the diagram is.. special.

the line I presume to be the axis fades out before reaching the origin, and it also stops exactly on the (apparent) oval that is the base of the cone, which could imply the line is along the outside surface of the cone, not its core

Ben

@nitsua60 Just so I follow, the second post is suggesting something that should be applied to the site by mods, or something that users can employ?

nitsua60

@JoelHarmon Yeah, it definitely looks to be drawn along the lateral surface, rather than axially.

I could forgive the fade-out-back-in as actually reflective of highlight along that lateral surface "washing out" some of the line on that surface, but it struck me as really thin evidence for anything.

But I thought I'd mention it.

@Ben I don't know nearly enough about this site nor the underlying HTML/CSS to know what-all would have to be done by whom.

Joel Harmon

overall, it's pretty sketchy

nitsua60

@JoelHarmon Literally!

[/rimshot]

Joel Harmon

I assumed someone would appreciate that

nitsua60

3:51 AM

@Ben I just know that--to a complete neophyte like me--making both the visual representation and the "alternate" representation a numeral, just like every other die, would seem to make sense.

Ben

I agree with that

Joel Harmon

they'd have had to add special logic for the d6, I should think

Ben

@JoelHarmon Well, no? Simply apply the same logic as the rest of the die? I think the posts on the meta are simply a method of how to change the physical representation of the number

Joel Harmon

Maybe I was unclear; for any non-d6, when you select it as text, you highlight a number (this is literally why screen readers can handle it; they 'see' it as text). For the d6, you get some number of dot characters. That is, the d6 has special display logic compared to the other die

LegendaryDude

4:08 AM

The pips on the d6 are literally bullet characters: •

And screen readers read them as that

Not as numbers

nitsua60

@JoelHarmon naively, I assume they'd have to remove the special logic that already exists for the d6. (Replacing it with the existing logic from the d4/8/10/12/20)

BESW

I can't decide whether to go with the Great Expectations or My Little Pony reference here.

nitsua60

MLP FTW

('Cause no-one's going to grok "GE FTW")

Also, because I feel like MLP conversations used to be daily occurrences around here, and that seems to have gone by the wayside.

BESW

4:25 AM

In more horrifying news, some woodpeckers crack open chicks' heads and slurp up their brains (article contains thankfully non-auto-playing video).

Joel Harmon

@nitsua60 I think my grammar might have been confusing; "they'd have had" meaning they previously needed to do something (add in logic); removing that special logic was implied

trogdor

4:41 AM

@nitsua60 I dunno about daily occurance

BESW

@nitsua60 I'm pretty sure GEFTW is the sound a Klingon makes when he gets punched in the teeth.

CTWind

Question regarding a potential answer to this question: Let's say I was curious and built a table that maps 'Character's effective CR' to 'Medium difficulty encounter CR', purely using a combination of the official CR calculation guidelines (mentioned in a couple answers), a sample character, and the encounter building guidelines.

Would an answer describing that table & its use in combination with calculating a character's CR be passable as it's using purely a combination of official calculation guidelines and standard character building, or bad-subjective because it hasn't been used in actual experience? Hypothetically, of course. Definitely didn't spend an hour or two building that table after the footnote in my original answer for fun/out of curiousity, no sirree. >_>

BESW

I'd go with "good answer provided it makes clear what it is and isn't based on, can't puncture the barrier to great without play experience."

Joel Harmon

as described, it's a direct application of the official rules in the DMG, which seems apropos

CTWind

Alright cool, I'll give it a shot and see what comes out of it.

BESW

4:45 AM

My only objection would be how doubt regarding useful the DMG actually is in determining these things.

But for folks willing to trust Wizards devs to balance broad categories of feature against each other, it sounds solid.

Just because I personally wouldn't trust a team of Wiz devs to keep a Weeble upright doesn't mean there aren't a lot of others who'd be okay with that answer.

Alex Agapov

7:03 AM

hey folks! I've messaged here recently, asking for a forum to post my questions regarding a campaign I'm making. as BESW suggested, I posted those to Giants forum; here's the link: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?511632-lizards-and-kobolds-storyline-development

I just wanted to know: how long does it usually take to get a reply there? I didn't, and it might have something I've done wrong - I'm not very experienced with forums :)

and if someone feels like reading that post and commenting on the topic here - that would be appreciated, too

BESW

I'll take a look at the post, but I don't know anything about GitP response times.

RPG.SE is the only online RPG community I interact with at all, and none of the ones I lurk around are traditional forums.

Alex Agapov

I'm so sleepy I actually checked rpg.se right now :D

BESW

I'd ask you some questions like "How long is your campaign going to last?" and "What tone are you aiming for with the story?" and "How much are you playing to discover a story in a world you've designed, vs playing out a story you've designed?"

Good generic design questions are "What is your game about?" "How does your game do this?" "How does your game encourage / reward this?" and "How do you make this fun?"

It's intended for system designers, but I use it for campaigns too.

Alex Agapov

those questions seem on-point.
- we're not really limited time-wise, and I imagine we could end this particular adventure in 4-5 sessions including the ones we already completed
- I'm not a fan of epic epicness, if that's what you're asking. medium-scale adventures, influencing a small part of the world, nothing bigger. I have some thoughts about the players stopping the necromancer, going (for some reason I don't have planned out yet) to human cities and continuing with their generic adventurer lives there

as for myself, I'm fascinated with the idea of creating new locations and giving them a unique look and feel so that the players would immerse themselves in the world. that doesn't guarantee the fun, of course, so that has to be taken care of separately

Miniman

7:21 AM

@AlexAgapov Once it's off the front page, you're highly unlikely to ever see a reply unless you bump it.

GitP is busy enough that things can slide off the front page unnoticed, and, well...this:

Let me just scroll down and check behind that rock. Annnnd ... nope, page copyright year starts with '19'. Oh God, is this a WEBRING?

Alex Agapov

@Miniman I see, thank you for the heads up :)

I think it's even better that way - I get to write down a list of design questions BESW provided, add some of my own and start sculpting the thing from the very beginning, all instead of coming to the community empty-handed and expecting assistance

Miniman

I'm not suggesting you should repost it - just reply to it with all that extra information so it'll jump back to to the top of the list.

Alex Agapov

by the way I actually found an answer on page 2 some time ago. It was a topic that mass-produced irrelevant results, and the relevant one was down below because me and Google apparently think in a different way

I see what you mean. might do that later, thanks

alright, I've got to go. thank you for your replies and good luck!

BESW

ttfn

Miniman

@AlexAgapov Good luck with your question! I love your avatar by the way.

BESW

7:33 AM

Evil Hat's Kaiju Incorporated RPG and card game are both on pre-order, if anybody's interested.

@SevenSidedDie "Because sockpuppets" sounds like Sheri Lewis's raison d'être.

BESW

8:33 AM

I just remembered a novel which might be good source material for a "just running a store" campaign, like we talked about in chat a while ago: Tales of the Starbuck Avenger.

A major premise of the novel is, superheroes and similar things exist among us but we don't notice because there's a Coverup. No organisation or group or faction is orchestrating the Coverup: reality itself arranges for people to sneeze or check their watches when a superhero walks by, or a tornado to take the same path as an alien proton cannon blast before the authorities can show up.

Folks who get out of alignment with the Coverup and start noticing things... well, coincidences stop working in their favour. This is why the only people who talk about wild and weird stuff are the people nobody believes: it's almost literally impossible to be a respectable member of society and notice the Coverup. Because that's part of the Coverup.

So what do you do if you're unCovered but not a super? Well, some people start little hole-in-the-wall shops, because supers can't go to McDonald's. There'll be a grease fire in the kitchen or something, big franchise places just freak out around the obviously Weird.

And not all supers are big on heroics or villainy either. Some just want to be as normal as possible despite being unCovered.

trogdor

@BESW heck yes on this last thing

BESW

So, campaign idea: PCs are unCovered (powered or not) who don't want to be part of the big drama of heroes and villains. They work at a little sandwich-and-coffee joint which serves the weird and inexplicable folks nobody else notices. Sometimes the drama comes to the shop, but mostly it's just normal restaurant stuff but with an extra side of weirdness in both the kinds of problems you get and the kinds of solutions you might be able to leverage.

trogdor

I am sure I mentioned before that my favorite superpower is invisibility

@BESW doesn't that mean that only unCovered people can go there?

because otherwise bad stuff happens

BESW

And you have to deal with the extra complication of being unCovered. That means luck is rarely in your favour, circumstances conspire against you, and often the authorities --or even your own family-- are prevented from even noticing major parts of your life.

@trogdor If a Coverup person manages to notice the shop, they'll have a totally normal time there but probably never come back.

Unfortunately, their totally normal time may mean a nightmare for the shop to clean up after.

trogdor

oh wait, because no one with powers is likely to use those there

I see

@BESW oh, or that, either way

XD

BESW

8:44 AM

And if somebody uses their powers in front of a Covered person, reality will conspire for the Covered person to not notice.

trogdor

yeah

BESW

The more dramatic the powers, the more reality may have to mess with things in order to get the Covered person to not notice... and that might mean a mess for the shop.

Oh, and in this universe powers are kind of a crapshoot.

trogdor

but what I mean is that exact same thing, if they use their powers something bad could easily happen to cover it up

BESW

Right.

One guy in the novel gets superstrength and superspeed from ordering and drinking a very specific Starbucks coffee, made fresh. Which means he's sorta out of luck if there's not an open Starbucks nearby.

Another character can manifest anything being played on local broadcast TV.

trogdor

oh, so still pretty powerful powers, but sort of random manifestation

BESW

8:49 AM

The Absolvatron is a robot priest who forces people into churches to confess their sins... but a quirk of his programming prevents him from breaking into a church. So if he wants you confess and the nearest church isn't open, he'll beat you against the door until you pass out because it doesn't count if you open the doors.

He also has line-of-sight teleportation powers, from the saint's jawbone embedded in his own jaw.

The main character acquires accelerated healing and hyper-acute track and field skills.

Alex Agapov

9:06 AM

@Miniman who doesn't? :)

BESW

10:49 AM

@ShadowKras [wave]

ShadowKras

Hey

Anaphory

11:01 AM

Hey there!

BESW

What's new?

Anaphory

Had another game with my irregulars (in composition, not time) yesterday, and because it was the same two as last time, plus a new one, but hardly any overlap with the first time we played (Firefly), and I was ill-prepared for anything, we played Dungeon World

Somehow my DW creativity was not flowing as well as it usually has, though.

I somehow messed up the asking of pointy questions in the beginning, and did not take the bait the Fighter gave me either.

ShadowKras

11:19 AM

DW is among my favourite systems to play, not on my high list to GM though

BESW

Pointy questions are hard.

Anaphory

Normally, it feels quite natural. And the Fighter did give me some interesting things to start with even without having to ask explicitly.

But somehow, this time it didn't fly off. I think I was slightly too unprepared.

I have also never before stared at the list of GM moves so often and long as I did yesterday.

BESW

Maybe try practicing with some other games that are more designed to support off-the-cuff play? PbtA kinda expects the GM to put in a decent amount of off-screen thought.

Anaphory

Hmm. In retrospect, it feels more like I wasn't up to GMing yesterday, and should have pulled out a game where the other players can let their creativity flow, because they had some good ideas.

What should I add to my pack for that? (1) GM-less [So not Lady Blackbird] (2) Low amount of rules, so I don't need to be rules expert during play (3) No Serious intentions [So not DeD] (4) Role playing, not world building [So not Microscope]

BESW

11:38 AM

Immediately Pilgrims of the Flying Temple and Fragment come to mind. I've also done Roll For Shoes as semi-GMless.

Great Ork Gods is semi-GMless (players already handle setting difficulties; let each god describe the outcome of their domain's actions and you're practically home free).

Goblin Quest might count, I haven't read it through.

I know it's silly, GMless, and roleplaying, but I'm not sure how much rules expertise is necessary during play.

Wushu needs a "Director," but that person's job is pretty much just "open each scene and play the NPCs." Players get to handle most of the detail work.

Anaphory

Pilgrims sounds like an excellent addition to my pack. I'll have a look at Wushu. I should probably read and try Great Ork Gods at some point, anyway.

BESW

Then there's silly little games like Unbelievable Macho Bull****.

A Penny For My Thoughts isn't very silly.

eimyr

bloop

@Anaphory Goblin Quest is not GM-less, but it doesn't need to be.

BESW

11:53 AM

> In Goblin Quest, the role of Gamesmaster is optional as the rules are designed to work without one. (GQ 11, "Will we need a Gamemaster?")

eimyr

Welp, then you read more of it than I did - but when I played we definitely had a GM

BESW

There's a section on GMing it, yeah.

A GQ GM is a facilitator, cartographer, and questmaster, but not a plotmaker.

And those jobs can be distributed across the table as well.

eimyr

In taht sense of things, I do agree.

BESW

> You also get to be in charge of goblin deaths, which is always fun.

eimyr

BTW, isn't Fiasco GMless?

BESW

11:59 AM

Yes, but I'm not sure if it's low-rules and its seriousness really varies.

And then there are a lot of games that are easy to make GMless if the group is okay with taking up the mantle as the mood strikes.

Danger Patrol, Ghost/Echo, Roll For Shoes.

Follow is GMless but it's not really out yet.

Entanglements is kind of like Microscope for relationships, which might or might not work for you.

@trogdor What was that weird worldbuilding-as-gods computer game you and your brother played?

trogdor

@BESW were there other descriptors of it?

was it an RPG?

OH

Dominions or something

BESW

More of a strategy game? I think Matt played it too and made unstoppable undead hordes. Faith and belief were major factors.

trogdor

Dominions III I think

wish I still had that

I would still play it every once in a while

BESW

Yeah. @Anaphory Dawn of Worlds is kind of a GMless Dominions Lite RPG. It probably falls under "worldbuilding," except that each participant is actually playing a god competing with other gods for influence over the world which is being created.

trogdor

yeah, Faith was a huge factor, but you could also win without it being,.. a big deal

your god could just be a super powerful wizard, or a brutish melee powerhouse

or you could even just have a god that just buffed your empire itself

which admittedly required pretty powerful faith

I was personally fond of having a god that just sat at the base and researched spells, and who was usually the best enchantment caster

I liked the versatility of styles you could employ in that game XD

ShadowKras

12:11 PM

When every else fails, play Dread.

all else*

Anaphory

@BESW Is DoW the thing where you draw things of given size on a map?

BESW

Yeah.

It's a bit clunky if taken literally.

Anaphory

Oh, I played that last year in NZ and did not like it (from the rules I was taught, the written ones may differ) because it was soooo long, had no idea or guidelines how the gods would behave towards each other, the size thing did not feel very natural, and the table of “doing this thing in this age costs this much” did not really work for me.

BESW

Ooh, there's Community Radio. Everyone except the radio host roleplays a short scene around the city, then the City Council hands down a decree, and finally the host has to do a radio bit announcing the decree and describing what happened in the city that day.

Anaphory

[And so, from just one evening that felt like a failure in GMing only to me, my I-might-want-to-play-this list is about to double once again.]

BESW

12:16 PM

[bwahahahah]

ShadowKras

It usually takes less than that to increase that list, so...

BESW

You could always try my Surgadores playtest.

...what about Arcana Games' Aeon?

Probably too structured.

eimyr

1:00 PM

Peeps.

I have a playtest (not mine) and I'm looking for people interested in playtesting a RPG drinking game about pirates, who are compatible with GMT timezone. Anyone?

Anaphory

How much time in what time frame?

eimyr

about 2 hours or until we can't continue

within next couple weeks on a weekday evening

3-5 people

Anaphory

1:37 PM

Weekday evenings is hard. What type of drinking?

eimyr

adjustable

you get a frequent cue to drink, but anytime you have to drink you can eat a cracker instead

the rules explicitly say that you can ridicule others for taking wimpy, half-full shots of rum, but NOT for choosing crackers instead

You can potentially not drink anything if you so choose.

Anaphory

1:58 PM

@eimyr That's nice!

eimyr

@Anaphory that's amazing. You're up for a try?

nitsua60

2:33 PM

Possible mainsite Q&A:
Q: How many Paladins does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: 2. One to turn it, the other to uphold the light.

4

Anaphory

@eimyr Possibly, currently somewhat time constrained. Ask me again on the weekend, please.

@nitsua60 I feel like there is a different retort, the opposite of the psychiatrist's “One, but the bulb has to WANT to change”, given how Lawful and resistent to change Paladins are, but I can't think of a good phrasing right now.

eimyr

2:51 PM

@Anaphory I'll pester you in a bit then.

nitsua60

3:13 PM

Quiet day.

eimyr

3:23 PM

@nitsua60 wanna get wasted?

nitsua60

@eimyr That's kind, but I'm in the middle of my work-day. I did see an e-mail from JF, though, and will share it with my Monday group.

eimyr

Awesome! I'm trying to get some online folks to test it separately

not, like, right now but soon

nitsua60

My time is being devoured by a playtest one of my groups is dong for WotC: we were given something on 1 Jan and asked for feedback by the end of the month, and we're hoping to run through eleven levels. So we've scheduled 4 sessions per week!

Joshua Aslan Smith

lol

@BESW Great picture/tagline on that

nitsua60

3:44 PM

@BESW the only thing I think is missing from Surgadores is a visual of what a(n uncolored) mask might look like.

eimyr

@BESW So in Surgadores, if you've used 3 assets and coloured your mask completely, you can't roll dice, so you're essentially out of the game. Is that correct?

nitsua60

You can still WRESTLE, no?

Because you only have to name an ASSET when OPERATING.

ShadowKras

Q: How many Paladins does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: None, they all fall.

nitsua60

@eimyr NO, I'm wrong. Hmm....

eimyr

You seem to need an asset to do anything.

unless you get like a 1 die roll with no asset, btu that's not spelled out.

nitsua60

3:55 PM

Yeah, it looks like one could be "out" early.

eimyr

that also implies that the game can't be won, because there will be a round in which the last player needs to wrestle death and fill in his mask at the same time.

nitsua60

Not only that, but once N-1 are "out" then the last player automatically loses, no? Because they either choose to wrestle and don't complete their mask, or choose to operate and the patient dies?

(Maybe it's a metaphor.)

"Last one out, turn off the lights."

Anaphory

@JoshuaAslanSmith The picture was actually the start of the whole thing, IIRC.

nitsua60

IIRC it's on the exterior wall of the Department of Health of some county in... Georgia?

eimyr

@JoshuaAslanSmith and the tagline was one of the imminent jokes.

Anaphory

4:03 PM

@nitsua60 I did see it somewhere else recently independently, with source. Should be findable…

Fulton County Dept. of Health and Wellness, Atlanta, Georgia. Apparently there is a second one: decoarchitecture.tumblr.com/post/6340631829/…

eimyr

google.co.uk/maps/search/…

Joshua Aslan Smith

The figure on the right's face is like Abraham lincoln as emperor of time

eimyr

PC Master Race rescues old folks from Time itself.

perhaps @BESW's game needs a sequel

Anaphory

@eimyr … definitely “masks” are still on topic.

eimyr

what's up with that lady sword though? WTH is that?

doppelgreener

4:30 PM

d10

Dice Service

5

Joshua Aslan Smith

A respectable roll

@eimyr FIGHT ME *rolls for initiative * d20

d20

Dice Service

12

eimyr

Initiative? D&D peasant.

Joshua Aslan Smith

but seriously 5 is no great but Id take a 5 on a damage die or a hitpoint die

eimyr

4:34 PM

I bemoan the fact d20 is so rarely used outside DnD context. d20 and s12 are my favourite dice

my favourite games, however, use d6, dF and d10s

@JoshuaAslanSmith I guess. I tend to think with WoD's "on a d10 you need a 6" paradigm

Joshua Aslan Smith

d100

alas

eimyr

dF

doppelgreener

Hooray! Rewrote my dice accessibility suggestion completely (only the first 3 paragraphs of the first revision survived) and I'm much happier with it.

14

A: Can we make the dice bot more accessible?

(Foreword so I can actually sound trustworthy as I write about this: I've been an accessibility developer for the past few years doing things exactly like this.) We don't actually have to change the appearance of the dice. Since we're dealing with screen readers, we can also make a change that t...

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