TRPG General Chat - 2017-10-29

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1:07 AM

@doppelspooker Weird Agents: you get 10 skill dice instead of 9 to divide between Academics, Athletics, Technology, and Contacts. Any you don't assign become Cool dice (only Weird Agents can begin the game with Cool dice). You don't get a Talent, but you can use your skills to perform whatever Weird Powers it makes sense for your Agent to have--however, you must always add a Cool die to your roll when using a Weird Power.

and that spends it too right?

Right.

and you can't get franchise dice

quite pricey

In addition to getting Cool dice during play by rolling 6-lowest on Stress rolls, the team can add franchise dice to your Cool pool at the end of a job as if your Cool pool were one of the company's assets.

And yeah, you never gain franchise dice from high rolls on the job.

There can only be one Weird Agent working on each job, but you can have multiple Weird Agents in the company by rotating out which Agent is assigned to a job each time you start a new game.

yeah, and no wonder you suggested not using one

that game would have been at least maybe twice as long

though to be fair it was pretty short as it was

1:12 AM

Yeeah. I think the designer expects us to spend more time on scenes not specifically related to the job, but whatever.

ah

1:42 AM

Next time I'll have a better sense of the game's pacing.

2:31 AM

Downside of running a [D&D] campaign off a single sheet (double-sided) of paper: it's a lot easier to misplace your campaign =\

hey there @nitsua60

hiya

how're things going?

3:03 AM

Alrighty--got a 5mi road race tomorrow, so heading off to bed soon. You?

@nitsua60 alright here

3:26 AM

hello there @Raeven0

3:55 AM

@Shalvenay howdy!

welcome to the RPG.SE lair :) what's up?

it's the weekend and I have lasagna, so things are looking up ^_^

alright here, weekly campaign is taking a detour

the players, or the characters?

@Raeven0 both

4:22 AM

sounds like fun!

2 hours later…

6:19 AM

@BESW I think we're getting story, goals, and tactics mixed up.

Tactics, or any action, are more fun if they're tied to story.

3 hours later…

8:52 AM

Aspect looking for a character: I break everything I touch.

lol

what about I BURNINATE everything I touch, that sounds a lot better :P

2 hours later…

10:47 AM

I make everything I touch impossible to break.

Try making an omelette now.

3 hours later…

1:32 PM

@BESW A toddler.

2:11 PM

nice

I may not have found the best dupe-target on this question. If someone finds one better please feel free to VtRO/comment/ping me here. There's a tickle in the back of my brain that says there's a better target out there, but search-fu fails me.

2:40 PM

@nitsua60 Spending time with infants and toddlers gave me a much greater appreciation for the spell Mage Hand.

hey there @JoelHarmon

hey @Shalv

how're things going?

and hello again @Raeven0

Pretty good. We're planning a trip to a FLGS today

How about you?

alright here

3:00 PM

I just read most of Lovecraftesque and most of Night Witches. I'm not sure which is worse – the deep horror of an ignorant, uncaring, maybe actively malevolent universe, or the real decisions actual people in a specific system made that lead to those real horrors. And even though neither is fun to me in the Paida sense, I'm looking forward to trying out both of them.

hey there @Anaphory

Which is a first, so far those have been themes I have more been avoiding.

@Shalvenay Hi, about to be gone again, a friend just texted me that they are going bouldering.

ah

Sorry I'm so often ignoring your pings, because I switch this on and then go do something else and then come back and it's half a day later and I don't have anything r🐘 to say.

3:21 PM

@JoelHarmon Spending time with infants gave me a serious appreciation for how much can be accomplished with just my off-hand pinky.

(I'm not saying I ever typed up an answer one-fingered on a tablet in the middle of the night while pacing with a crying infant....)

2 hours later…

5:32 PM

@nitsua60 I've definitely become more adept at using my off hand while balancing with an extra weight at chest level.

5:48 PM

@nitsua60 Slamming my off-hand against the wall while bouldering an hour ago has now made me think how many tasks do involve that finger even only slightly, because it got overstretched a bit in the process and now has one comfortable position and doesn't like moving.

hey there @Anaphory, how're things otherwise?

@Shalvenay Good! And now I'm actually here and talkative! (Well, as talkative as I get.)

How are you?

alright here, got a game starting soon though :D

Nice! I haven't played anything this week.

(I have finally read a few things, though!)

6:05 PM

oh hey there @ZwiQ

Hi @Shalvenay

how're things going?

Too many things - working even in the weekends. How about you?

@ZwiQ alright here. got a game starting in two shakes so will be afkish but still able to talk at a slow pace I suppose

@ZwiQ or is now not a good time for you to talk to begin with?

Well, have fun! :-) And how could I be of help?

It is the best time we can get today, though I need to leave in about 15 minutes

6:09 PM

@ZwiQ ah, we were going to talk about how a Lawful Neutral deity's followers could gain a reckless disregard for due process of law

Well, yes. What exactly is bothering you?

my only theory is "they put the law of Azuth above the law of mortals" but that gnaws at me around the edges a bit...was wondering if you had any better suggestions

I would claim there are many LN people who do not necessarily follow due process.

Are you from the US?

I am asking since due process is very important there.

yes, I indeed am

So it might be difficult for you to imagine how things are in different parts of the world.

And due process is not as strongly applied.

6:11 PM

@ZwiQ somewhat, I suppose. my notion of "Lawful" is definitely weighted towards process-of-law, that is certain

Just as an example, think of the dystopia in Judge Dredd

Do you see that as a lawful society?

@ZwiQ I'm not someone who picks up on media references, so it's probably better to explain what you're talking about

Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character who appears in British comic books published by Rebellion Developments, as well as in a number of movie and video game adaptations. He was created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra, and first appeared in the second issue of 2000 AD (1977), a weekly science-fiction anthology comic. He is the magazine's longest-running character. Joseph Dredd is a law enforcement and judicial officer in the dystopian future city of Mega-City One, which covers most of the east coast of in North America. He is a "street judge", empowered to summarily arrest...

The movie had Slyvester Stallone in it.

ah. a world where law-enforcement is the law

Yes, exactly.

6:16 PM

yeah, that's not what I was envisioning for the surrounding society

Now many kingdoms/city states in Faerun are not like that. And in your world, it might also be different.

@ZwiQ yeah. I'm more asking how the cult would get that way even though society-at-large is more due-process-oriented

But I am trying to give you this as an example, you should not confine your thinking to the modern societies where due process is a critical part of the law of the land.

Hmm

In that case, your cult will also need to play around the rules as needed.

They might have friendly judges in their pockets?

After all they are a religious cult.

They need to apply the law of the gods before puny mortal laws.

I'm thinking they'd have some allies within gov't

When these disagree, people need to be convinced that they actually don't. :-)

These warlocks are a bane to the lawful members of the society as well.

They are dabbling with otherworldly patrons.

Who knows when those patrons will just claim their souls and use them as pawns to leash havoc?

6:21 PM

@ZwiQ yeah, that could be an argument -- sort of an appeal to religion?

Sure. But beyond that warlocks could be described as enemy combatants.

People to which you can do apply exceptions to the due process.

@ZwiQ interesting. how would that be done if they weren't actually doing something that was a threat to society? playing up sort of a religious-terror aspect?

For national security, or in this case for the security of the whole world.

Yes.

Consider a warlock whose otherworldly patron is something like Cthulhu

@ZwiQ ah. a Great Old One IOW. I was thinking more fey patrons.

Wouldn't it be possible to describe them as a potential threat to the society?

We don't know who the fey patrons are? Do we? Yes, some of the warlocks might have benign patrons, but the overall profession is dangerous.

6:26 PM

@ZwiQ probably yes, at least from the cult's standpoint. basically playing up a fear of the unknown, no?

Of course this argument is not going to convince some sections of the society, or certain factions within the Azuthian church.

But still fear is a strong motivator

@ZwiQ yeah. that would give a good propaganda angle

People tend to sell freedom for safety.

Yes, excellent propaganda angle.

@ZwiQ that is a point, yes

Actually I think this would even be possible to play in our campaign's Faerun.

There are heretical cults in various published FR books.

And clergy in those cults kept receiving their spells.

6:32 PM

so yeah, Azuthian propagandists it is :D

Another way: Some "deep" cult members could apply extraordinary rendition and get warlocks in front of judges that are favorable to their cause.

I think as in any real world cult, there should a large number of lay followers who are unaware of these extralegal activities.

@ZwiQ probably very true

By the way, to be honest, I think your question was an excellent campaign idea.

@ZwiQ cool :D

The more I thought about it, the more excited I got about it.

I want to do a very similar thing in one of my own campaigns.

6:35 PM

awesome

I am afraid this is all I can think of for now. I am not sure if it is all satisfactory, but I feel as we game, it will naturally fit.

@ZwiQ no worries, it was quite helpful

@Shalvenay: Glad to hear that.

Gotta leave now.

Hope to see you around. And if you develop these ideas further, I would love to hear what you do in your campaign - I might apply some of them to ours.

2 hours later…

8:16 PM

@Shalvenay re: acceptable targets: ninjas. You see ten people swoop in out of nowhere with masks covering their faces, they're clearly up to no good. Kill away!

@nitsua60 hahahaha :P

9:10 PM

hey there @Trish

9:20 PM

hey @Zachiel

hey

how're things going?

I'm a little low for D&D reasons, but I shouldn't talk about it here in the open until tomorrow. I can talk about it in our roll20 chat if you'd like

@Zachiel ah. I'm in a D&D game myself so now isn't the greatest time to talk.

NP, maybe tomorrow then - I'll be doing a character creation session, tho', so maybe I won't be there. Let's say wednesday and call it a day. (For it is a day)

9:24 PM

@Zachiel hopefully we can touch base this upcoming weekend actually?

@Shalvenay touch base?

@Zachiel as in, talk

Fine

9:52 PM

Hey @EvilHatOfficial check out this #BladesoftheDark random score generator http://bit.ly/BladesScoreGenerator #indierpg

Tweeted by Cute_life on October 29, 2017 at 12:21 PM

10:12 PM

@Erics I'm saying that tactics for their own sake are difficult to sustain long term. It's an adversarial relationship between GM and players, wherein players are working to find the most efficient solution for the most possible situations while the GM is trying to force them to adapt and change constantly. The "winner" is whoever's better at the system mastery metagame.

Story-driven tactics are more sustainable.

I'm assuming here that "tactics" means "modifying your strategy to creatively respond to new situations." If by "tactics" you mean "finding the hammer that pounds in everything whether it's a nail or not," then using combat mechanics to force combat tactics (eg, "what spell is best for encouraging tactical play") is a good match for your goals.... because eventually the players will find the strategy which can blow through 98% of combat mechanics, and they'll just stick to that.

10:58 PM

1

Q: Can I ask self-answered questions about obscure games?

I play an obscure game that has very little Web presence. Over the years, the group that I play with has struggled through many questions about rules, implementation, DMing, etc. for this game. Can I ask and self-answer some of the questions we've dealt with, in the hope of sparing possible fut...

discussion self-answering

11:39 PM

hey there @nitsua60

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Oct '1729

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