TRPG General Chat

Chemus

4:01 AM

[FakeNortheasternUSAccent] Don' worry aboudd it! [/FNEUSA]

trogdor

lol

Chemus

Oh wow, we need TextToSpeech and the ability to put accents in it! That'd be fun! (and pretty useful in PBP games)

BESW

4:46 AM

eeee! @trogdor Yohancé materials have started coming in. I've got the comics.

trogdor

cool

BESW

I'll read 'em this week and hand them over to you at Geek Night.

trogdor

that is pretty exciting

Ben

docs.google.com/document/d/…

trogdor

@BESW how dare you :P

Miniman

4:46 AM

@BESW Yohancé Bastian Bark?

Ben

"A Minecraft Love story" - A short story, written by me, in about 45 mins

BESW

@Miniman Yohancé: The Ekangeni Crystal, by Paul Louise-Julie.

trogdor

by the way, I guess it doesn't matter so much since Yohance came in first apparently, but which one between that and The Pack did you want to read first?

BESW

Oh, The Pack comics came in the same package.

trogdor

oh ok

Yuuki

6:11 AM

> My favorite GM "clue": In a modern era game, the PCs are driving to Chicago to follow up on a lead that exists only in their heads. The GM said, "As you drive the new hit song comes on the radio 'There is Nothing for You in Chicago'"

Adeptus

lol

BESW

[snerk]

Adeptus

My version:
Player: I search for secret doors.
DM: OK, roll search.
Player: [rolls dice]
DM: <before dice has stopped rolling> You don't find anything...

Chemus

Yeah, sometimes getting hit by the clue-by-four can be funny...

BESW

Last time somebody wanted to search for a secret door I didn't have planned, I just had them tell me what it led to.

Chemus

6:17 AM

@BESW :D

BESW

We found a posh club-room for a secret society.

Chemus

With posh secret socialites?

BESW

No, but their security system was still active. We got attacked by suits of armor.

Chemus

Helmed Horrors!? Horrors!

BESW

It was more of a Little Witch Academia sort of setting.

Chemus

6:21 AM

I can see how your method should be relatively easy to balance; if the player gets greedy or Mary Sue about it, you just up the ante. Sort of a lose-lose/win-win...

BESW

"Yes, and"/"Yes, but" is a powerful tool in a GM's arsenal; it encourages creativity and empowers the players to contribute actively to the setting, while reducing the concern that it might trivialise challenges.

Yuuki

So I have encountered a pickle I did not expect in figuratively dragging my friends kicking and screaming to my first campaign as DM.

BESW

I hope it's a bread and butter pickle.

Chemus

@Yuuki figurative or literal pickle?

BESW

"Literal pickle" is more fun to say.

Chemus

6:23 AM

@BESW friggin spellthieves.

Yuuki

So one of the guys has not played D&D before. As such, I went ahead and did a session 0 with him, walking through chargen and basic use.

He decided to make a Dragonborn Samurai because he thought that was super cool.

All is well.

Chemus

@Yuuki ...3.5 CW Samurai?

Yuuki

Today, I find out that one of my more experienced players wanted to essentially remake one of their old characters. Still all is fine.

Miniman

@Yuuki Holy hell, it's like you summoned @trogdor just by saying that.

4

trogdor

@Miniman TROOOOOGDOOOOOOOOOORRR

XD

Yuuki

6:25 AM

Except that this player's old character is also Dragonborn and this player likes being a unique race in the party.

Chemus

@trogdor the burninator?

Miniman

@trogdor I know what to do next time I want to talk to you, at least :P

Yuuki

@Chemus 5e UA Fighter Samurai.

trogdor

@Miniman XD

Yuuki

It's probably minor and I might not even bring it up, but I'm incredibly wary about anything that throw a wrench into this.

Chemus

6:27 AM

@Yuuki Uh... how old is this oldster? Not to be a prick, but this seems kinda...childish.

Yuuki

@Chemus I'm the youngest in this group of friends.

Chemus

@Yuuki First, don't borrow trouble; unless there's obv. gonna be bad blood, just let this happen

Adeptus

Tell him what the new player has chosen. Then it's his choice - either don't remake this character, or don't be a unique race.

Miniman

@Chemus I dunno, having players be unique races makes for a nice spotlight moment when something to do with that race happens.

Adeptus

Who knows, it could end up a party full of dragonborn!

BESW

6:29 AM

If I think oldster is likely to resent it, I'd probably go to 'em and say "Hey, [new guy] has made a dragonborn too, so if you want to have the only character of a certain race you'll want to fiddle with your concept." (And I'd make a note to cultivate a more mutual group dynamic going forward, to help oldster be happy about other peoples' happiness.)

Chemus

@Miniman cc @Yuuki True. I really had the impression that there were different flavors of DB in 5th. Since he's a Samurai, you could cliche` the heck out of it and make the Newb a Lung DB.

Yuuki

Well, oldster knows about it already, which is why it was mentioned to me although I think it was more an aside than an actual complaint.

But I 'unno.

Miniman

@Chemus Or a NoSQL DB!

Chemus

urgh [grimace-smile] Yep. That could work...

Adeptus

@Miniman I query your choice of races...

Yuuki

6:33 AM

@Chemus I think Dragonborn is the only race without a subrace. Their draconic ancestry is the "choose your own adventure" customization feature.

Miniman

@Adeptus Ooof, nice.

Chemus

@Yuuki Eeeexactry!

Miniman

@Yuuki That's not true; even within PHB, the tiefling and half-orc have no subraces.

Yuuki

I'll leave it alone for now.

Miniman

You could always just point out how much cooler Lizardmen are than Dragonborn!

trogdor

6:35 AM

hehehe

BESW

When I did a one-on-one character creation for a new player, in D&D 3.5, he wound up a half-dragon minotaur barbarian.

Chemus

I once played an ersatz (changeling) lizardman paladin for... 18 levels.

@BESW That's some massive LA.

BESW

Yes. Yes, it is.

Miniman

Plus 6 RHD...were you starting at level > 12?

Chemus

He was pre-powerLeveled

BESW

6:37 AM

I was running a single-player campaign for him, so it didn't matter.

Miniman

Ah, right.

Ben

I am yet to get a PC past level 5 :/

Miniman

@Ben Ouch.

Ben

The games keep ending

Nothing to do with PC death

Miniman

@Ben Oh, I took that for granted. Hence "ouch".

Ben

6:40 AM

I have a Dragonborn Fighter, A Human Fighter (Both 5e), a Techpriest (RT), whom was re-made (DH), and a Glaive (Numenera)

But, I have a friend that is drawing my PCs for me. She's very good, if a little slow. Lol

Adeptus

One of my groups in highschool/university played a lot of one-shots. So, I have a folder of played-once characters. Some were high levels, but they started that way.

Chemus

@Ben Hey! Be nice! ;)

Ben

@Chemus Oh. Wow

I simply meant she's taking a long time to finish the work

Chemus

I know. But if it's possible to misinterpret, I try to.

Plus...the winkmoticon

Ben

"Toby"

Adeptus

6:49 AM

And then there was the party where we had the Dwarf of Treasure Finding... We were playing one of the megadungeons in 2e - can't remember if it was Undermountain or Myth Drannor. We'd been going cautiously through the dungeon for a while, until the Dwarf's player started getting bored. So, he started rolling dice to decide which way to go. He led us around all the encounters, straight to a treasure room.

Chemus

@Ben The games keep ending because of charsheet jealousy, man. That's it.

Ben

@Chemus ?

Adeptus

We were using the (optional?) rule that you get 1XP per GP of treasure found. My rogue went straight from level 3(?) to level 17.

Chemus

You have porttaits like that...they're envious of your sheet, man.

Ben

@Chemus Oh, well like I said, she's still not finished. Lol. So I only get screen caps

Chemus

6:52 AM

@Adeptus Yep, in 2e that's an optional rule. And rogues had the best XP table. Gnome Cleric/Rogue anyone?

Ben

So, I have a habit of giving rather simple names to my PCs - A Dragonborn named Toby, a Dwarf-raised Human named Doug, and a Cyborg named Dunn.

For the most part, I just say they're nicknames, so it gives me a bit of time to come up with proper names (Like Tobrinn, and Durrhoug).

But for Dunn, well, he's not the brightest spark, so I came up with the story last night that the guy that re-built him, switched him on, and said "Aaaand... Done!"

BESW

I went through several stages of elaborate naming conventions before settling down on using real-world names and words, on the grounds they're easier to remember and pronounce and have built-in meaning and connotations.

Ben

So he named himself "Done", except he often has issues with spelling.

BESW

That's cute.

@doppelgreener I feel like this is a moment from your alchemist's family history.

Ben

7:07 AM

Here's the FB page of the artist that's doing my PC portraits facebook.com/ValWingArt

Adeptus

7:35 AM

@Ben NSFW warning: contains nude drawings

Ben

7:56 AM

@Adeptus Ah. Yeah...

My B guys

BESW

Twenty lashes with a wet noodle!

Ben

Chicken or Beef?

Erik

Is there a difference?

trogdor

both, no punishment is too harsh after all

Ben

Well, it could be vegetarian

Erik

8:01 AM

I think Chicken and Beef noodles are both vegetarian

It just describes what you're supposed to imagine it tasting like, right?

trogdor

vegetarians get no special treatment here, it's the lash for all criminals all the same XD

BESW

We do, however, respect gluten allergies. Rice noodles available on request.

trogdor

lol

we aren't monsters, of course

doppelgreener

10:47 AM

@BESW I am very confused. And I am sure they would be too by the painting.

BESW

10:57 AM

Heheh.

doppelgreener

11:37 AM

@BESW They probably have minor disagreements every now and then about what really happened.

BESW

They make up afterward by sifting through the rubble and house-hunting for a new mansion.

doppelgreener

@BESW Hahaha! Finding new real estate has become a bonding exercise for them.

BESW

12:52 PM

@TomDacre [wave]

Hello.

top o the morn!

hello!

Dear layout designers: I don't care how cyberpunk your game is, don't pick a font that makes "DOC" and "OOC" effectively indistinguishable.

NautArch

@Papayaman1000 I wouldn't be too worried about which episode of He-Man to watch :) It's an 80s cartoon so it's basically junk food cartoons built to sell toys. If anything, just begin at the beginning and watch the storyline.

ugh, i love it when someone feels the need to edit your answer into language that isn't clear

Adam

1:08 PM

@NautArch Good thing stack gives you rollback powers

NautArch

@Adam Heh. yeah. I made an edit after it and didn't notice until this morning.

NautArch

1:19 PM

is there a way to mordenkainen's mansion permanent?

@NautArch Edition?

5e

Nope.

@BESW Oh, no... oh no. That sounds awful.

NautArch

dang, although i guess i could hand-waive it. Was thinking about a campaign wher eyou are trapped in one and trying to figure out how to get out.

doppelgreener

1:21 PM

(Also, just don't pick a font that makes "D" and "O" look indistinguishable. Legibility is important.)

NautArch

*short campaign

the idea of being locked inside a spectral mansion, having to investigate it and running into all those unseen servants (and probably them messing with the party) as well as mosnters, etc. just seems cool.

Erik

Reminds me of the most successful adventure I've made to date, about investigating a dimensional-prison mansion.

NautArch

@Erik that's basically what I'm thinking of. It's acting as a prison and they have to 'break out' by figuring out what's going on, who did it, and how to get out.

doppelgreener

@NautArch Give an NPC a "Permanent Mordenkainen's Mansion" power. It's 5e; monsters don't follow the same rules as PCs and can have spells they cannot have.

NautArch

@doppelgreener yeah, it'll just be a hand-waive :)

handwave?

doppelgreener

1:32 PM

(either works)

NautArch

i'm trying to figure out what's interesting for my group. We don't really do RP, there's a couple of rogues who I want ot give a chance to shine with rogueiness, and we do like puzzles (although we generally take way too long figuring them out, but that's often caused by altered states)

it's mostly about combat, but I think creating a mansion that you have to explore, understand and solve would be fun - with traps, combat, weirdness, etc.

Erik

Yeah. In my game the players were accidentally shut in it. The idea of the mansion was that the old owner used it to torment bad people, he would create a torment room for them, then push that room into an extra-dimensional space linked to a mirror, then create a normal fake room to cover it over. If you looked into the mirror, you could see the prison dimension. If you broke the mirror, the fake-covering room would vanish and the prison room would return to the normal dimension.

Except the magic was wonky and there were some crazy interactions between things that were trapped (existing primarily in the other dimension) and things that were just visiting, like the players (existing primarily in the normal dimension)

NautArch

hmm, that's pretty cool, too. I was thinking more of a traditional magic mansion that someone traps the players in. Servants are moving things around, setting traps behind the scenes, creating mischief by sending monsters their way, etc.

doppelgreener

@Erik Oh dear. Sounds like the wizard didn't work out the buggy edge cases in his spellwriting. I'll raise some tickets with the QA department of the wizard tower.

NautArch

clearly, there has to be a hidden room they discover which will hold the key

Erik

1:36 PM

Yeah, the Wizard didn't work out some edge cases indeed. That bastard made me come up with solutions on the fly every time the players tried something he hadn't planned for.

Fortunately it all worked out in the end.

Adam

@NautArch Reminds me of an adventure I played once called "The Mad Manor of Astabar" Where a wizard was experimenting with a wand of wonder, and it eventually flung him into the ethereal plane and cursed his manor so that each room embodied a different effect from the wand

NautArch

@Adam THAT is super cool. I may include some of that.

i need to think of a fun way to put it on a table. was thinking about using a Clue board, but I'm thinking multi-level is a good idea (more than one clue board?)

doppelgreener

If you want to get super properly weird, ask @BESW about the times he made his players deal with Slaads in D&D 4e.

NautArch

I did Slaads earlier :)

They were thoroughly tricked. One infected, but got it out.

That was my slaad/yugoloth campaign. It was nasty. The arcanaloth nearly TPK'd them.

Yuuki

Speaking of magical manors, one of the things I've always wanted to remake in D&D is the Karazhan dungeon from World of Warcraft.

Of course being WoW, it's heavy on combat encounters but less so on other things.

NautArch

1:49 PM

@Yuuki tell me more!

Yuuki

@NautArch So Karazhan used to be the home of a mage of a line called the Guardians of Tirisfal. There was only ever one Guardian at a time and each was considered the most powerful mage of their time.

They were already strong in their own right, but what truly made them powerful was that a group of very capable mages called the Tirisgarde would invest part of their own arcane strength into a singular chosen Guardian.

NautArch

@Yuuki so this could have been created by, let's say, a lich?

Yuuki

Now why invest so much magical energy into one person? The Guardian of Tirisfal was supposed to be the planet's champion against extraplanetary, interdimensional, and extraplanar invasion.

@NautArch Possible, yes.

Although liches are part of the Scourge which is something else entirely.

Well, kinda related if you squint at it I guess.

Anyways, the previous Guardian was a women named Aegwynn. She defeated an avatar of the most powerful "demon" (it's a long story) Sargeras.

But this was part of Sargeras's plan. In his defeat, he implanted a mote of his essence into Aegwynn and she began to distrust the mages of the Tirisgarde.

She felt that they were growing suspicious of her for reasons unknown and decided to bear a child who she would make the next Guardian. This was unheard of as the Guardian was usually chosen by the members of the Tirisgarde, it wasn't a hereditary position.

Anyways, she has a child named Medivh who was incredibly strong with magic. Unfortunately, he was also imbued with the essence of Sargeras.

Seeing that I'm getting a bit long-winded, Medivh becomes the Guardian, eventually gets possessed almost entirely by Sargeras, helps begin an invasion of demonically-empowered orcs, is killed, and the release of fel and arcane energy from his death devastates the land surrounding Karazhan.

Now, given that Karazhan was both the home of the most powerful wizard in the existence and the site of his very violent death, a lot of crazy stuff was left behind.

Echoes of his memories are infused throughout the tower, ranging from a ghost of his father, his head manservant who has become undead, magically-empowered chess pieces, and even an opera stage.

Hmm... I might actually be able to turn the opera from a combat encounter to a noncombat encounter...

NautArch

memory echoes....

i can use that :)

hmm...what if the mansion is sort of like the Cube movie from the sci-fi channel? It's rearranging constantly, but there is a trick to figuring out the path out?

that might be too complicated to run

Yuuki

2:06 PM

Well, you could have it so that most rooms move except a few. All rooms are connected to at least one other. While most connections can swap around, every room has one connection that doesn't change.

Erik

It might work if you use dungeon tiles, and you keep a copy of the actual layout behind your screen

So you can swap out segments when players realize they've changed

Yuuki

So for example, while the kitchen may appear on the first floor and then the third floor five minutes later and while it may connect to the dining room one minute and the attic another minute, it's always connected to the opera room.

NautArch

hmm, just searched dungeon tiles...those are pretty cool.

eimyr

@AnneAunyme Hi! Did you manage to play anything?

NautArch

i like the idea of a "master map" that shows the rooms that always are connected and create a system where the other rooms shift. It's a neat effect to upset their view, and maybe try and use it as a red herring to understanding how to escape.

Yuuki

2:16 PM

2

NautArch

hahaha

Yuuki

2:47 PM

> How do you motivate players to do things between sessions (write some backstory, etc.)?
>
> Only very very few players have bothered answering between session questions. My regular group now knows: If you don't answer me on questions I'll write it for you. In 5 minutes. Your father is now named Pavel and your mother is named Pavelina. Your sister Paveliska enjoys playing with your dog Paveloso. Their background? Farmers. They grow potatoes. Nothing remotely exciting has happened in your village in 1500 years. It's interesting how quickly people start preparing all their stuff.

Erik

Most players I know would be perfectly content with that. Some would claim that's better than what they would come up with...

NautArch

we often write backstories...and never use them. nor does the DM. ever.

Yuuki

I should work in the kitchen so I can line-of-sight names.

"Oh, your animal companion that you have yet to name after 5 sessions? Its name is Velveeta now."

2

Adam

@NautArch One of my players in a one shot had a backstory that his tribe was attacked, pillaged, and scattered by frost giants. I always wanted to go back to that story to explore his revenge. Everyone else was "I'm an elf and got bored and decided to leave my hovel" or "I'm a tabaxi bard, and I got bored and decided to leave my hovel" or "I like books and got tired of reading the same ones over and over again, so I got bored and left my hovel...I mean library."

Anne Aunyme

@eimyr The conditions weren't good and the result was disappointing. I'm not sure I can conclude anything from this test

Yuuki

2:55 PM

"I killed someone and my hovel left me. I am now a homicidal destitute."

Anne Aunyme

I didn't find 6 players to test, we were only 4, and many ex-aequo raised during votes

godskook

@NautArch, my last 3+current adventures:
3.Ending a war between nations involving a dragon nursery, relevant to a Kobold player's background. (He was from a dragon nursery himself)
2.Stopping a fallen angel from abusing a god-birth artifact to open a demon-portal. Artifact contained 1 charge left for PCs, save for deific ascension(2 characters had relevant backgrounds. The "wrong" one drank)

1.Vampires in London. Nothing backgroundy.

Adam

@Yuuki At least with that I can explore why hovels are disappearing when you murder someone! What am I supposed to do with "My backstory is that I'm a bard. Bards travel around...I guess. I'm a cat person too so I can be, like super annoying, right? Look at me! I dont' care about anything because I'm a cat!"

godskook

Now.Going to kill/capture the master of a slave-black-market who previously owned another PC.

Yuuki

@godskook Were there werewolves?

godskook

2:58 PM

@Yuuki, no.

Yuuki

And did Kid Rock make an appearance only to get mauled?

godskook

@Adam, Foodbringer the Bard is an AWESOME backstory I want to run at least once. Maybe as a PC, but probably as an NPC.

Adam

MEOW

►

That's his bard in a nutshell

CM_Dayton

Cat Bard. Least popular super hero in the Gotham.

godskook

@Adam, Foodbringer was a member of a village that he thought was just a normal peaceful village. He one day learned of a cult that basically defined most of the other villagers' lives, and involved bringing about the end of days. And they were CLOSE to finishing the ritual.

He had no time to summon Paladins. The best he could do is make a pact with a nearby Necromancer for a single Wight.

He hid the wight in town, and as quickly as he could, lured key cultists to it.

Soon, it got out of hand and wiped out the town.

The Wight colony still tells legends of Foodbringer, and that Bard has been running from his own legacy ever since.

Adam

3:05 PM

Or...Instead you could play cat bard! His backstory is "Meow, I like yarn" :p

In all seriousness though, Foodbringer the bard does have a really interesting backstory with a lot to hook into.

NautArch

@godskook my last one was a necromancer driven wizard of oz. Had to defeat each of the main minions of the necromancer on the way to his castle. Only to discover the necromancer was making a philosopher stone (Fullmetal alchemist style) using hte local population. Turns out, designing a moral question with Neutral characters was bad idea.

Yuuki

That's not really Neutral behavior, imo.

It's bit annoying when people view Neutral as a license to play Evil.

CM_Dayton

My halfling wizard had to leave his shire, because his cooking skills were weak. He was a discredit to his family (a long line of chefs).

Yuuki

S'why I've been liking to play Lawful Good recently. DMs seem to love throwing moral quandaries at Lawful Good characters and those are always fun to think about.

Erik

"Neutral just means I can do whatever I want, right?"

CM_Dayton

3:11 PM

"I always say, there's nothing you can't accomplish if you don't know whether you prefer good or evil."

Yuuki

@Erik It's why I really want to replace Good-Evil with Altruistic-Selfish.

godskook

Neutral means Jane from Firefly on his "LG" days.

eimyr

@AnneAunyme Well, a 50/50 split means the takeover attempt fails

Erik

The last I was a player, I made a LG character and the (first time) DM asked if I was crazy and then if I was going to be Paladin-like character

NautArch

@Yuuki yeah, i didn't think so either. But they get all in a twist when I did it and told them the consequence. the party had been committing evil-ish acts for awhile,so rather than pretending we're good I thought I'd make a scenario that what i thought was cut and dry.

Erik

3:13 PM

I was actually playing a swindling merchant, he was not expecting that I guess.

Yuuki

@Erik :|

godskook

@NautArch, TN/LN moral quandries end up being very "Cabin in the Woods" esque.

NautArch

and move us into an evil territory officially. one guy (True Neutral) rally took offense. Even though it was his peoples (including his family) that he let die.

all they had to do was unlock and open a door.

Adam

"Their screams bring me such joy...WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M EVIL NOW?"

"I'm a !@#$ing saint!"

Yuuki

@NautArch Wow, I don't see how anyone can argue that sacrificing your family on an altar so that you can get an artifact of alchemical power to use for yourself is not an Evil action.

NautArch

3:16 PM

@Adam pretty much.

CM_Dayton

Philosophy must be really weird in a magical world where someone can literally cast Know Alignment rather than ponder whether they're evil or good...

NautArch

yeah, i thought it was pretty clear.

Yuuki

Whether or not you're the red-headed middle stepchild and whether or not your family decided to send you to military academy instead of art school, that's still out-and-out Evil.

godskook

Tangential: Guy in a forum complained that his DM refusing Evil alignments was "hampering his creativity". I pointed out that such characters would be immediately executed by the plot-starting Paladins in my setting. The retort? "Who says being evil means I've done something wrong"

Adam

@CM_Dayton Not to mention that Celestia and the Nine Hells are real places that your soul will go to when you die

godskook

3:17 PM

Being Evil says that, man. Being Evil says that.

Yuuki

This is why I really want to move from Good-Evil to Altruistic-Selfish. You can still run a campaign with a Chaotic Selfish character.

Adam

You know, dying must not really be all that scary in a D&D world, since there is proof that something comes afterward

Yuuki

Good and evil should enforced through NPC reactions.

@Adam Depends on what the something afterwards is, I guess.

godskook

I can play a "selfish" LG character, @Yuuki

Erik

Yeah... the fear is probably that the thing afterwards is not a good thing.

NautArch

3:19 PM

with that ring of mind shield question - i realized i never fully read the description. My bard has it. I'm totally not telling anyone and when he dies and someone wears the ring, BOCEPHUS SHALL LIVE ON!

Adam

@Yuuki I suppose as long as you are good, or potentially even neutral, there isn't a whole lot to worry about

NautArch

(bocephus is my bard)

Yuuki

@godskook Exactly. I'm saying "good" and "evil" shouldn't be something that's part of your character description.

It should be evident in the way that NPCs react to you.

CM_Dayton

We once ran a D&D (3.5e) homebrew campaign where we removed the alignment system entirely. We replaced it with "Karmic Paths." Instead of good or evil, you had 1, 2, or 3 paths. Things like Altruism, Greed, Revenge, etc. (about 20 to pick from). Taking actions that furthered your "journey" on a path earned you XP. Taking actions contrary to your path didn't earn you XP. So if you had Greed, robbing somoene was great for XP. Giving money away was bad.

godskook

@Adam, the scary part of dying is not knowing what happens next -to you-, combined with the finality of not being able to change a poor result.

D&D Cosmology does little to change this, imho.

CM_Dayton

3:21 PM

(In that world, only extra-planar creatures could be pure "Evil" or "Good" in the D&D sense.)

godskook

@Yuuki, I hand-wave alignment in my games because players aren't really "honest" about any of it, or they'd all be CN with a hint of CE or CG depending on if they were a Paladin.

Yuuki

Yeah, I should tell my friend who's doing D&D for the first time to not bother with putting down alignment on his character sheet.

Adam

@godskook I mean the average farm boy might not know about the planes, but any cleric can tell you exactly what happens and where you go. Unless something traps/devours your soul, you move on to the plane that is presided by your patron god, or to the plane that most closely matches your alignment. At least that's how I understand it in the Realms

NautArch

@godskook that was basially the end decision. We are what we are. Character sheet doesnt matter. The plus side is it occurred in basically a pocket universe, so no impact on the real world in terms of NPC interactions for them.

godskook

@Adam, you don't go to the good planes in D&D unless you SUCCEED.

Adam

3:23 PM

Succeed at what? A saving throw?

godskook

lol

CM_Dayton

Succeed at a board game match... with... DEATH!

godskook

@Adam, Good is a set of ethereal moral standards that characters aspire to. The idea of being damned to Hades is not very appealing to anyone.

Admittedly, if you go full purgatory-mode in your cosmology, such that death for the remotely pious is just a longer transition phase into the wonderful afterlife, then yeah, Death's not such a big deal.

Adam

I never read it as anything at all like that. I always read it as, "you go where your alignment tells you to go" full stop

godskook

On the same point, your alignment isn't a "set" thing.

Its supposed to be fluid based on your actions.

You do evil and chaotic things, you become Chaotic Evil, and are damned to the Abyss.

Adam

3:29 PM

It's fluid in the sense that It can change, but in the terms of the world, it's one of a very discrete set of 9 things.

Yes. And people might be afraid of that. All I'm saying is that if you are good, and since alignment is discrete (the world must also have a discrete determination of what is good, neutral, and evil) then you have nothing to fear from dying because your fate afterwards is known. There is no "but what if" in the realms

CM_Dayton

So, given that in real-world, no one is ever the villain of their own story, and given that in D&D, people know if they're evil they go to the Abyss or to Hell...

How does that play out? "Can't wait to be in the Abyss!" ?? What's the motivation there? Do they not think about it? Do they think they'll be a boss in the pit or something?

godskook

@Adam, not only is it supposed to be fluid, but the ability to change from LG to CE is something you should be able to do within a day.

Yuuki

Or upon your death, you are released into the eternal nothingness beyond Arda.

Unless you're an elf, in which your soul is sent to the Halls of Mandos.

Adam

@godskook disagree there, but this is why alignment questions are off topic

@CM_Dayton Exactly. They'll think that they'll be a boss in the Hells, or they will do everything in their power to not die: Lichdom or vampirism for example

godskook

@Adam, that's.....at the very least contrary to the ancient religious lores that D&D is derived from.

Away from book, or I'd check the hard-mechanics involved.

Adam

3:35 PM

@godskook Well, I've hardly read any of them so take everything I say with a grain of salt

godskook

Rich Burlew's take from OotS is pretty spot-on, imho(see Roy's psuedo-trial in heaven)

Adam

And by "grain of salt" I mean "don't listen to me at all I don't know anything about anything"

@CM_Dayton Maybe they could serve an evil deity, and hope, potentially incorrectly, that their faith will grant them a comfortable position in the Hells once they get slain by the PCs...I mean, pass on to the next life

Yuuki

I mean, if a party goes off the rails Evil, I'd probably set up some kind of climactic confrontation and have them reroll new characters whether or not they win. Their new party now has to deal with a group of evil adventurers that has begun to take over the world.

Adam

Would you ever consider letting them play the group of evil adventurers and running an evil campaign?

NautArch

@Yuuki why do they ahve to reroll?

CM_Dayton

3:46 PM

Or perhaps they have to find redemption and atonement, somehow.

Yuuki

@Adam I mean, the climactic confrontation would be part of the evil campaign.

@NautArch Well, the campaign ends when you "win", so to speak.

Okay, replace "begun to take over the world" with "took over the world X years ago".

Anne Aunyme

@eimyr yes, but with only 4 players it means you need everyone to agree with you besides the one making the first proposal for your Take Over to pass

so basically what you should always do as the first player is to build something that will give 2 points to you and one other player (if possible the one currently loosing), and 0 to the two other ones. It's an optimal strategy that is quite quickly figured out

Joshua Aslan Smith

hello

Yuuki

4:06 PM

Hi.

Hmm... I might not be able to make my D&D session tonight but I have no way of contacting my DM.

This is problematic.

CM_Dayton

@Yuuki Can you contact another player to relay the msg?

Joshua Aslan Smith

@Yuuki physical game or online game?

~~markdown test ~~

~~test~~

~test~

Yuuki

@JoshuaAslanSmith Physical.

Joshua Aslan Smith

--test--

Yuuki

@JoshuaAslanSmith If you want strikethrough, it's three dashes.

Joshua Aslan Smith

4:08 PM

@Yuuki could you swing by house/apt and just leave a note?

if you dont have a phone number or digital means of contact

godskook

@Yuuki, do you not have contact info for anyone in the game/

?

Yuuki

And if you want to test markdown, here's the room.

Sandbox

Where you can play with chat features (except flagging) and ch...

3

@JoshuaAslanSmith We play at a local comics store and it is about an hour and a half away from me.

@godskook Nope! :D

godskook

@Yuuki, call the comic store?

CM_Dayton

@Yuuki Can the shop relate the message?

Yuuki

Hmm, maybe.

godskook

4:10 PM

What about facebook?

Yuuki

Lucky or not, my character shouldn't feature for another session or two.

Right now, they're in a town doing a big festival thing and the plan is that my character will join them on their way to the next town.

The festival still has two big events left, each of which should take a session.

For now, I've been playing NPCs during the festivals to get a handle on 5e and easing into the group so it'll be more comfortable to RP.

I'll give the comics shop a call, but my absence shouldn't have any big impact as my character has not yet technically appeared.

Joshua Aslan Smith

@Yuuki I don't always test my code, but when I do, I do it on prod

@Yuuki I concur with CM_Dayton, try calling the shop and asking if they can give the message

Yuuki

The other shoe is that I'm terrible with names and I don't remember my GM's name.

But we're the only group on Tuesday nights, so I don't think there will be much confusion.

CM_Dayton

I'm terrible with names, too. Drives me nuts. It might be a good idea to pass around a contact info sheet at a future session; try to get everyone to share a reliable means of connection (email, phone, FB link, etc.)

Joshua Aslan Smith

4:28 PM

@Yuuki the best part of my old job is we had a public facing staff contact page that had names and photos so if I needed to work on a ticket for someone I only see at yearly functions I could just google it and before annual staff meeting I would study it to refresh

NautArch

4:53 PM

hmm, this question is confusing me: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/99179/…

@Seamus brings up some good points, but I'm not getting the final piece :(

Sandbox

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