TRPG General Chat

doppelgreener

00:32

@BESW I'd love to hear it! I'll poke you in the morning :D

BESW

It's mostly just a spattering of notions about the difference between competence modes and resolution conditions, which you've probably already thought of.

Adeptus

01:46

@doppelgreener And fit in a pocket easier

Adeptus

03:07

I wanted some giant beetle miniatures for my D&D game. I found a mixed bag of toys at a thrift shop, that had a few beetles, a couple grasshoppers, a scorpion, some lizards, and assorted dinosaurs. The beetles are slightly bigger than a 25mm square, so they're close enough to count as medium. The rest (except for the dinosaurs) are either medium or large. Not bad for $4

daze413

04:17

Would a question about effective 'gates' at various PC levels be on topic or too broad?

i.e. "What do I need for this door to be impassable at x, y, z levels?

what do I need to line the walls of a vault with to foil any attempt to steal inside the vault through magic?

Miniman

@daze413 System?

daze413

@Miniman dnd-5e

I think it's too broad but it would be so useful :p

Miniman

@daze413 If you asked it for a single level, I think it'd be specific enough.

And specified that you're not interested in "it's impassable because story".

daze413

@Miniman It would, but then I'd have to make a bajillion questions per level.

or just 10... heh

Joel Harmon

If anyone with 3.5 experience is available, I'd appreciate a review of this answer I gave

I got panned, and I'm not certain why. When I tried to fix it, I feel like I just ended up wordy.

Miniman

04:25

@JoelHarmon If I'm a Dwarf Wizard 1/Rogue 5, a penalty is applied to all the experience I gain. Tracking XP totals separately for my wizard and rogue levels doesn't do anything to help me calculate the penalty or anything else.

Joel Harmon

Yes, but it does help track things like "did I count the XP for that troll last week?"

Miniman

@JoelHarmon Ah, I see what you're getting at.

But to do that, you'd have to track XP for every level. E.g. When I was a wizard 1, I gained X XP. When I was a wizard 1/rogue 1, I gained Y XP. When I was a wizard 1/rogue 2, I gained Z XP. And so on.

Joel Harmon

Phrased differenlty, my XP is 11k, yours is 10k. We did the same stuff. How can we validate our respective totals are correct?

Miniman

@daze413 That's a point - maybe something like "At each level of spells the PCs have access to, what is required to make a gate secure?"

Joel Harmon

As another perspective, the only real answer to "these guys are doing their counting weirdly. Why?" is to go ask those guys. Since I have previously tracked XP in a master list by session, which referred to margin notes in my campaign notes for individual encounter XP, this kind of tracking makes sense to me.

Perhaps I'm just reading into this too much?

Miniman

04:31

@JoelHarmon I mean, that does make sense! But what they're doing doesn't make sense - it's not detailed enough to mean anything.

And yeah, I agree with you that "Why are these people doing X thing?" is an inherently problematic question.

daze413

@Miniman In my mind, it's still a bit unfocused. I'll mull it over for now but that helped a lot. Thanks!

Joel Harmon

@Miniman Unless the answer is "because these rules <citation> say so", I agree.

Miniman

@daze413 Glad I could help! Just remember, (almost) every spell is 5e is dispellable from level 5 onwards, so beyond that point no spell (except Prismatic Wall) will provide real security.

Joel Harmon

@Miniman Perhaps if I just leave it alone for a few hours, I'll have an epiphany while re-reading it. Until then, thanks for being a sounding board.

Miniman

05:11

@nitsua60 In case you didn't see it, this question could use your attention.

Miniman

05:51

(As an expert on the topic, that is, not as a mod.)

BESW

08:43

The Cthulhu Dark RPG kickstarter is here: http://kck.st/2qu1jco I am excited by this one!

Tweeted by GenericGamesNZ on May 29, 2017 at 8:13 AM

Magician

@BESW 15 pounds for an expanded pdf of a book based on 2-page free ruleset is a bit... eh.

There's generally 2 types of RPG kickstarters: "Here, have 10+ pdfs of stuff we'll be writing for the next few years for $10", and "Here, have a pdf for the price of a physical book. Forget about physical book, shipping it to Australia will double the cost."

BESW

Given the insight into the process of creating RPG horror that the original Keeper's guide showcased, I'm cautiously optimistic and will look at the samples they're offering before rendering judgement.

Magician

Oh, it may well be worth it, but it's a tough sell compared to the former category of KSs.

BESW

Aye.

And to be honest I've gotten so much out of the six free pages, I'm not too unhappy about paying a little more than I would otherwise.

Magician

That's fair. Whereas I'm backing the Cortex Prime kickstarter, with the literal "$10 pdfs of everything" tier, in the vain hopes of maybe doing something with this version of Cortex.

10 hours to go!

BESW

08:51

Isn't Cortex Prime the system where you're free to do whatever you like with it so long as you only publish it on the DTRPG community page?

Magician

They do seem to try and suggest others use it to publish their own stuff, but I haven't looked into their licensing.

I meant that I'd backed Cortex Plus kickstarter previously, and only briefly browsed through the files...

It's very Fate-like, if aspects were dice, graded by size.

BESW

I know some friends were looking to design something with Cortex because it looked like the right engine for their needs, but dropped it because of restricted licensing.

Meanwhile, Ki Khanga is in printing and will probably ship in the next month or so.

My T-shirts from the Kickstarter for Yohancé and The Pack will probably be delayed until the end of the summer.

The Shadowcraft Missions Manual is suffering a delay due to critical failure-to-exist on the part of the designer's computer.

Katanas & Trenchcoats is in real life delay, but hopes to be done by the end of the year for tax reasons.

Follow came through on time. Ankur might actually happen someday, which is more than I ever expected (hence my $1 pledge).

BESW

10:35

Oh, my, that "gamers vs reality" article is hilarious on so many levels.

Miniman

@BESW Link?

BESW

From our ticker feed: Gamers vs. Reality: Who Wins?

Miniman

Ah, thanks.

BESW

Both the articles quoted and the ENW response act like this has debate didn't happen point-for-point with TV... comics... movies... radio... novels...

It's almost like they haven't even read 18th-century opinion pieces about the effect of romance novels on a wife's homemaking.

(Or more to the point, the Seduction of the Innocent and the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency.)

Miniman

@BESW Or any of the xkcd comics summarising the repetition of this phenomenon.

BESW

10:50

Besides, everybody knows this month's reason young people will destroy us all is fidget spinners.

...hm. There's a "Cards Against Humanity" knockoff concept in that.

Miniman

@BESW Penny Arcade mentioned that, but I haven't heard of it anywhere else.

BESW

What’s The Deal With Fidget Spinners?

►

(I hadn't heard of fidget spinners until my mother got me one for my birthday; her college students were using a lot of fidget devices.)

(Then in the following week suddenly I was hearing and seeing them everywhere.)

Shalvenay

12:38

hey there @Anaphory and @ShadowKras

Anaphory

Heya!

Shalvenay

how're things going?

Anaphory

Nicely, but I need to come up with a mission for my Mouse Guard game this evening while also doing work.

How'sa you?

Shalvenay

alright here, chillin' out. going to eat soon I reckon thugh

doppelgreener

@BESW whaaaat? what's this?

Cool RPG Stuff: WotC's Stream of Annihilation (June 2+3, 10am-10pm, short summary by Tycho‌), Cthulhu Dark Kickstarter.

5

@BESW The Cool Pin is resurrected! (for now)

BESW

13:19

@doppelgreener I keep getting startled that Penny Arcade is still a relephant thing in the Geekosphere; they're complete non-entities in my quadrant.

nitsua60

Insanely stupid question: when talking about software versions, does the "v" get a period? Like "RPGSE v.2.1.6"? Or is is "RPGSE v2.1.6"?

I think the first is right, but it seems like a lotta periods.

@BESW This is true. But not for the reasons people think. It's because we're training a generation that will grow up actually understanding gyroscopic forces. Once they've unlocked that, all the eldritch mysteries of the universe unfold before them.

BESW

@nitsua60 Semantic versioning doesn't seem to use either notation.

nitsua60

Okay, I should have provided context. I'm trying to reference a D&D AL document, and they're named by season. So I was going to call it the AL DMG v.SKT, or AL DMG vSKT, but neither looks good. I'll just expand the reference.

BESW

For consistency's sake, I'd say use periods if you're already using periods but don't add periods if you don't already have some.

eg, v.2.1.6 but vSKT

doppelgreener

@nitsua60 Under American English rules, abbreviations sometimes get periods (such as "Dr." and "Mr.") which could justify making it "v." However Since "v" is not actually a version particle (it's version 2.1.6, not version v.2.1.6) it's weird to me putting them together like that.

I'd say "v 2.1.6" or "v2.1.6" or "version 2.1.6".

But I come from a background of British & Australian English where we do not give abbreviations periods at the end‌.

BESW

13:28

See also:

> AL DMG vs SKT -- FIGHT!

nitsua60

@BESW =D

@Miniman I hadn't seen it--thanks for the pointer!

BESW

Speaking of silly vs fights, on Saturday we played a game of Long Live the King of Monsters featuring Hypnomole, Basic Hypnotoad, Chargo, and Kid Cthulhu.

nitsua60

@daze413 I wold love this question. I'm gearing up to try my hand at creating an Angry Megadungeon, but I'm not nearly as smart as him. I don't think you'd need to go every level, perhaps start with tier-breaks? Or {3, 5, 11}? {3, 5, 7, 9, 11}?

Shalvenay

hey there @nitsua60 and @Chemus

nitsua60

@Shalvenay Hiya--any Memorial Day funsies going on in your area?

Chemus

13:36

@Shalvenay Hi hi

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 probably going to have a quiet Memorial Day today

how're things going?

nitsua60

@Shalvenay Heading out to the small-town parade in about five minutes.

ShadowKras

Hey @Shalvenay

Shalvenay

how're things going?

ShadowKras

doing good, the day will be really busy however

Shalvenay

13:41

ah

NautArch

14:58

Howdy @Shalvenay

Shalvenay

hey there @NautArch, how're things going?

NautArch

Not bad, about to go into the office for a few hours work, can multi-task :)

Shalvenay

will you be around tonight to continue our dungeon?

NautArch

What time?

Shalvenay

really depends on when you, Daze, and Papayaman are available

NautArch

15:12

Heading to a neighbor's tonight, probably free around 10 eastern

Too bad we're not here now @daze413 and @Papayaman1000

Shalvenay

ah

Premier Bromanov

16:11

Trying to write a question, cant remember the monster from Volo's guide, the ones with the huge gaping mouths that are servants of Orcus, with symbols carved in their chests

and the book is elsewhere

be back in a bit

kviiri

@PremierBromanov Bodak?

I had my worst RPG screwup yesterday. Completely unrelated to the game itself, at least, but serious hiccups anyway...

I had been out of town for the weekend, and we were returning home for my game. Didn't make it in time - missed it by almost an hour. And I'm the GM...

Also, I forgot to make reservations for the club room we usually play in, so we had to relocate the game too.

Finally, because my poor sense of timing though I would have time to shower at home before the game, I didn't take a morning shower (it's of little point before a long car ride on a hot, dry, dusty day) so I also arrived sweaty amd filthy. Yay me!

Shalvenay

oho my

Papayaman1000

16:29

Oh dear.

Shalvenay

hey there @Papayaman1000

and hello as well @Khashir

Khashir

heya!

just hopped in for a sec, heading back to thesis writing =P

Shalvenay

aaah, what's the thesis on?

Khashir

got some really great answers to my question, but will take some time to work through them

psychology of poverty

Papayaman1000

Oh? Sounds interesting!

Khashir

16:31

I hope so!

should be at the final stages, unless my supervisor strongly dislikes the last draft I sent

=|

Shalvenay

@Khashir interesting indeed -- sounds like there's some definite meat there that could be useful to helping people help themselves (because handouts clearly aren't the fix they're intended to be -- leaving people unanchored and purposeless isn't a very good idea either)

Khashir

lol, anyway, back to work :-).

Shalvenay

@Papayaman1000 -- will you be around tonight btw?

(or perhaps this afternoon even -- it depends on if Daze and Naut can make it)

Papayaman1000

@Shalvenay Around 10pm eastern, it sounds like? I might be a bit late to that one, but I could be there within that timeframe.

Shalvenay

@Papayaman1000 yeah -- it'll have to be a shorter session than our last couple, but we could get some progress made

Khashir

16:34

@Shalvenay thanks :-). yes, it's intended to bridge two approaches: the institutional and the cognitive. so, pairing political-economic measures with more unconventional interventions.

Papayaman1000

Or this afternoon, I'd probably need to step out around 9:30, should it extend that long.

Khashir

anyway, take care folks!

Papayaman1000

Thanks, you too, Khashir!

kviiri

I also screwed up one of my plotlines... I gave my players an offhand plothook about a thieves' guild that's trying to take over a poor but large town from its currently useless government. My party's fought enough mundanes for now, they need more interesting foes...

Papayaman1000

Basically I'll be unavailable for around half an hour between 9:30 and 11.

Premier Bromanov

16:49

@kviiri That was it, thanks! I went to the place where the book resides lol

kviiri

@PremierBromanov I never face the threats of suburban geocaching without my trusty copy of Volo's Guide to Monsters™!

Premier Bromanov

lol

kviiri

17:05

Any experienced GMs of DnD5e around? I've been pondering about surprise rounds. What we've usually done is, when the party has a chance to ambush monsters, our GMs including me let them make stealth checks against the target's passive perception (modified by obscurement) and those who pass the check get a surprise round. Is this a commonly used way?

doppelgreener

1

Q: Where can I find symbols of Demon lords?

Was reading Volo's Guide to Monsters and came across the Bodak. The book says A worshipper of Orcus can take ritual vows while carving the demon lord's symbol on its chest over the heart... I've found Orcus' stat block in (potential spoilers?) but no symbol related to him. I'd like to ...

Now there's a question title that would set off a riot during the 1980's/1990's.

ShadowKras

I was about to answer, then i saw the 5ed tag

so i put down my necronomicon

doppelgreener

that's fair, it isn't a real life research question & it's probably best for all our health that it isn't

Garnet & Steven - "I have to burn this."

►

Premier Bromanov

@ShadowKras It's been updated to accept past editions in the absence of 5e. But by no means would an answer about past editions be considered a bad answer :)

Shalvenay

@doppelgreener yes...that'd be a bad age to be...anything.

hey there @JuneShores

JuneShores

17:18

Hi hi.

Shalvenay

how're things going?

doppelgreener

OH! @June I'll PM you what BESW sent my way.

JuneShores

Please do.

nitsua60

17:32

@kviiri I showed up to my first class as a TA in grad school having not showered in two days, twigs and leaves still in my beard and hair, dried blood in various spots, fresh off hitching back across a couple of (large, square) states through the night to make it there. I'm normally a suit-and-tie kinda guy =\

Turns out: people will forgive almost anything.

BESW

18:32

Speaking of fidget spinners: Spin Dice: Fidget Spinner + Dice

nitsua60

@BESW Ugh... my son was timing his spinner's spin-down time this morning, and it reliably clocks in at over a minute. I'm not sure I need that delay baked into my game.

BESW

@nitsua60 I was thinking that, yes.

nitsua60

(Also, I'd be much more impressed if they'd whipped up a universal polyhedral spinner--one spinner, all dice represented.)

[Fights temptation to whip up the scheme for that, then back KS, then suggest universal as "next spinner"]

BESW

Looks like they're thinking more about board/party gamers than tabletoppers.

nitsua60

@BESW Someone suggested a spinnable point-counter?

BESW

18:37

Just looking at the spinners they're offering.

nitsua60

It's been a while since I played M:tG, but I'm pretty sure I don't want to randomize my life points.

BESW

Oh, look at this recent comment:

nitsua60

(Well, unless I'm losing badly, I suppose.)

BESW

> Integrating all the different D4-D20 designs into a single, double-sided one would enormously improve the economies of scale, because instead of having to create the tooling for three dice and switch between them for smaller order volumes, one dice spinner would be produced in larger quantities.

nitsua60

If only I knew someone good at graphic design who might be able to cast this scheme into an easily-understood radial presentation... =)

nitsua60

18:52

@doppelgreener I'm not sure what you mean by this comment. I'm sure it's unclear, I'm just not sure how =)

BESW

@nitsua60 For starters, I have no idea what "d4: d20 mod 4" means.

nitsua60

ah... "if you want a d4, roll a d20 and take modulus-4"

I can see that's a little... terse =)

BESW

[googles modulus]

Okay, I know what an absolute value is.

nitsua60

it's actually a little sloppy--it's not quite mod-4, anyway.

Basically, think remainder-after-division.

BESW

But I don't see how absolute value comes into play.

kviiri

18:59

@nitsua60 I find the hygiene bit to be secondary to being over an hour late and necessitating a player to accommodate us at her home.

nwp

mod4 + 1 would be more correct and probably also more confusing

nitsua60

(But sometimes that remainder would be zero, and we should treat those as 4s.)

BESW

Yeah, I'm still lost.

nitsua60

d20

Dice Service

6

nitsua60

18:59

that's a 2

(you divide by 4 and get a remainder of 2)

d20

Dice Service

9

nitsua60

thassa 1.

BESW

...where in the world is "divide by four" implied in your notation?

nitsua60

I can see it needs rewriting. In its defense the facutal errors in it were probably obscured by its illegibility =) (cc:@nwp)

@BESW modular arithmetic is all about remainders.

BESW

Oh, modular arthimetic.

nitsua60

19:02

So "9 mod 4" is shorthand for divide 9 by 4, consider the remainder.

BESW

See, you say "modulus" and I Google "modulus" and it tells me that means absolute value.

nitsua60

Ahh... different contexts.

Modulo operation

In computing, the modulo operation finds the remainder after division of one number by another (sometimes called modulus). Given two positive numbers, a (the dividend) and n (the divisor), a modulo n (abbreviated as a mod n) is the remainder of the Euclidean division of a by n. For example, the expression "5 mod 2" would evaluate to 1 because 5 divided by 2 leaves a quotient of 2 and a remainder of 1, while "9 mod 3" would evaluate to 0 because the division of 9 by 3 has a quotient of 3 and leaves a remainder of 0; there is nothing to subtract from 9 after multiplying 3 times 3. (Note that doing...

BESW

If you're using programming-specific terminology, assume I don't know it.

JuneShores

I recognized it as the process for programming symbol "%" which stands for "modul--

Yeah, that.

BESW

"Modulo operation" isn't even on the Wiki disambiguation page for modulus.

doppelgreener

19:05

@BESW <- @nitsua60 This. It's a pile of mathematical operations and ifs and colons. Use some plain English, like the description you provided in response to this.

BESW

@doppelgreener It's not even math! It's programming! That's where I was tripping up; I can usually at least recognize math.

JuneShores

"Modulus" confused me too.

nitsua60

@BESW it's the fifth bullet.

BESW

Ah, yes. My point: I'm not going to look in "physics and engineering" for the notation to a dice problem.

nitsua60

@BESW I accept that as an apology =D

(Seriously, though: you're all right. That answer's super-obtuse, and unnecessarily so. And incorrect in parts.)

It seems to me what that disambiguation is saying is "physicists and engineers may be known to improperly use this term thusly."

BESW

19:09

I already have to deal with Stack users assuming everyone on the Stack is familiar with HTML, C++, and Pokémon.

3

doppelgreener

I should point out that "divide by 5 and take the remainder" is a harder operation than "roll d6, reroll 5's and 6's", and more time consuming even if i get 5-6 a couple of times.

Papayaman1000

@BESW You're... you're not? </s>

BESW

Of the three, I'm most familiar with HTML.

And even then, "familiar" is stretching a point past its elasticity.

Also, apparently TeX is the answer to all design layout problems ever.

Papayaman1000

@BESW So, "I know that <words> means something but otherwise you could really improve your answer", I guess

nitsua60

@BESW amen.

Papayaman1000

19:12

@BESW Is it... is it not? </s>

BESW

The edges of the Stack network really demonstrate that "if all you have is a hammer" thing.

nitsua60

(It's also the cause of twice as many, but those ones at least do the courtesy of looking like programming problems.)

Papayaman1000

@BESW Let's not forget the JQuery meme for that.

nitsua60

@BESW edges? tex.SE is how I got here =)

BESW

I could never forget something I've never known.

Papayaman1000

19:14

BESW

@nitsua60 That's kinda my point; the hub sites of the Stack network is filled with a particular skill set, and users who migrate from there to its edges assume that everyone else at the edges followed the same path and thus share the same skill set.

JuneShores

Oh my gosh, that's hilarious!

Papayaman1000

@BESW I started with RPG and then rediscovered the network when I got into code.

So, uh...

I guess I do tend to assume a bit _too_ often that everyone on SO knows tabletop dice notation.

BESW

I started with RPG because a fellow RPGer saw it in the HNQ while using programming-related Stacks, and pointed me at it.

(There was a question he knew I could answer, which went a long way to my having a positive first experience with the Stack network.)

doppelgreener

I am very thankful he did that.

3

BESW

19:20

As am I.

What else would I do after helping my dad at 3 in the morning when I can't get back to sleep?

Papayaman1000

I propose a toast for "random SE user who pointed out RPG.SE to BESW".

BESW

Melon

1.7k 8 18

dnd-3.5e gm-techniques pathfinder system-agnostic social-contract spells group-dynamics

Papayaman1000

@BESW Yeah, that guy, I guess

doppelgreener

@BESW 🍺\o

BESW

@doppelgreener You missed meeting him by about six months, I think.

doppelgreener

19:25

@BESW I think we bumped into each other briefly in chat once or twice.

BESW

Yeah.

doppelgreener

That's the guy who had the lazy warlord build once right?

BESW

Yes.

And when he left island too suddenly for a farewell session, I had the warlord get possessed by a ghost that turned his "grant friends extra actions" abilities into "make friends attack each other" abilities.

Papayaman1000

@BESW I... is that sweet, or spiteful?

BESW

@Papayaman1000 It was the ghost of a recurring semi-joke villain who kept trying to force people to be his friend.

Papayaman1000

19:29

"FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC"
"I DON'T CARE GET AWAY FROM ME"
"NO, LITERALLY, YOU WILL BE MY FRIEND, BECAUSE OF MAGIC."
"NOOOOO!!!!"

Zachiel

@BESW Hey, I wanted to play someone like that once.

BESW

At first, he used mind-control so he could make you be his friend. After we defeated him, he turned to necromancy so he could make friends. We killed him, and he came back as a vampire who turned people into "friends" with mind control AND by making them into undead minions. We staked him, and he came back as a ghost to try and break up our friendship by making us kill each other.

JuneShores

This is the best villain ever.

Zachiel

"I'm dominating you just so you can appreciate how kind I am to you while you're not trying to kill me, you silly hero."

BESW

@JuneShores [grin] Who says D&D 4e can't support roleplaying?

Zachiel

19:32

@BESW Roleplaying through combat

Papayaman1000

@Zachiel Roleplay through interpretive dance.

JuneShores

You just gotta choose a class that matches what you want to do.

BESW

One of the PCs had a running thing where he insisted on assuming everyone was friendly until they actively demonstrated aggressive intent. This led to things like this.

So I made a villain who also wanted to make friends.

JuneShores

I love it.

Hey @BESW, I made a thing. docs.google.com/document/d/…

Shalvenay

hey again @NautArch

BESW

19:35

The battle where the friendly villain possessed the warlord and forced us to attack each other, ended when he realised he wouldn't win and killed the warlord:

Mar 27 '14 at 23:29, by BESW

Which led to another character performing an ad-hoc blank-check ritual in mid-combat: "Any power who is listening, if you imprison Davith the Wicked in eternal waking stasis until he forgets how to hate, I will dedicate myself to you!"

@JuneShores Oooooooh.

JuneShores

That's the best oath.

Zachiel

@BESW for some reason I'm imagining the scene and it's within World of Warcraft, with WoW models and voices and style and all. Confirmed: D&D 4e is a MMORPG. XD

Papayaman1000

I feel like it would be interesting if all the "Stress Explosion" things could also be ended by utter failure like the tunnel vision one.

"I WILL DESTROY YOU"
"I like oranges!"
"I give up"

JuneShores

Personally, I'd use it to introduce the most obnxiously cute goddess ever. Like, if Hello Kitty wielded divine power.

Shalvenay

hey there @Zachiel

JuneShores

19:39

@Papayaman1000 Hmmm. Maybe? That seems too easy.

doppelgreener

@JuneShores adorable

Papayaman1000

@JuneShores Is obsessed with glitter and rainbows and happiness but is also a closet sociopath who demands their followers to earn miracles with blood sacrifices

BESW

@JuneShores The check was filled by the goddess of second chances, largely because that was an early step on the PC's own character arc away from being a puffed-up, racist, nationalist bigot.

JuneShores

@BESW That's pretty great.

BESW

She gave him a blessing: once per day he could ask her if a choice was good or bad.

Zachiel

19:40

Aaaaah, what a nice relaxing week I get.
No D&D game next week means that last minute enemy team composition planning will only start next week, as a player I'm in the middle of a fight that I have no idea how to win but at least I don't have to change spells and all is good.

@Shalvenay hey.

Shalvenay

@Zachiel how're things going?

Zachiel

@Shalvenay as above.

Papayaman1000

@JuneShores Neat freak: "[...] when you clean all the things[... or all the things become irreversibly uncleanable]."

Shalvenay

@Zachiel ah. come to think of it, would now be a good time for us to get that dungeon wrapped up?

Papayaman1000

Y'know, unless you want a pony Lady Macbeth.

Zachiel

19:42

@Shalvenay yes! Yes now would be!

Shalvenay

@Papayaman1000 hahaha. spills conc. perchloric acid all over said neat freak's workbench

@Zachiel awesome \o/

JuneShores

On second thought, I think I'd rather rewrite the "utterly fail" clause in Tunnel Vision into "your efforts cause uncontrollable chaos". But that idea for Neat Freak is great!

Papayaman1000

@JuneShores The uncleansing clause, or the OCD overdrive one

Ah, ok, the first one

Needy: "This character fishes for compliments until they get one."

But I suggest the "utter fail" clause b/c it would be funny for, say, the Wrath one to be targeted at the incredibly saccharine, innocent, and optimistic character, and eventually the Wrath one just gets so fed up with trying to break them that they just have a complete mental breakdown that, somehow, normalizes them.

JuneShores

That wooould be pretty funny.

Papayaman1000

And it all happened because of something ultimately trivial like the optimist accidentally taking their slice of cake or something

Or the Promises one accidentally hanging around some emo pony too much. Yes, they kept that promise. Yes, the results are horrifying and all your fault.

This is why I don't really watch that show

JuneShores

19:50

Yeah. A big weakness of the show is that they never really go beyond the morality play.

For this game, I'm discarding the episodic "friendship problems" in favor of longer term, serial character conflicts.

Papayaman1000

@JuneShores No, the reason I don't watch it is because just these offhanded comments on your (absolutely wonderful, btw) system are far more horrifying and perverse than the R34 ever was for the show

JuneShores

Ha!

Papayaman1000

@JuneShores I like how it's more of a character-based emotional drama than the usual optimistic fun-fest

The former are just more fun to write

JuneShores

Yep.

Papayaman1000

But anyways, as an extension of the "wouldn't it be interesting if all the stress explosions had utter failure clauses", it'd also be neat for them to all have "succeeded in a horrifyingly complete fashion" clauses.

As an example for this for Power Hungry, see this.

JuneShores

19:59

I dunno. This s supposed to be a relatively stable setting. Killing all royalty and taking their stuff might lead to some apocalyptic shenanigans.

BESW

@Papayaman1000 This game is, in part, spurred by conversations with me about my own attempts to write My Little Psyche: Friendship is a Fragile Barrier Holding Back My Seething Neuroses.

Papayaman1000

@JuneShores Yeah, maybe.

@BESW Interesting.

JuneShores

@BESW Yes. Also my own previous attempt at a Ponies RPG, which had the phrase "Your emotions are big, and so is the world, and you're just a very small pony."

Papayaman1000

I'd also like to point out that Double King is your stereotypical murderhobo.

BESW

Ponies are tightly-wound bundles of neuroses, and are too small to contain more than one emotion at a time--whatever they feel, they feel absolutely and utterly to the exclusion of all else.

At one point I toyed with a Cthulhu Dark hack.

JuneShores

20:02

This is true.

Cthulhu Dark? Wow.

How'd that turn out?

BESW

It never quite hit the table.

JuneShores

Alas. That's how the vast majority go.

BESW

I abandoned that line of design in favour of making a game aimed at the show's original target demographic but with nuance for older siblings and parents who'd get wrangled into it.

> Remember, priority statements are about what your character believes, not necessarily how she upholds the abstract virtue.

Is that a reference to the Applejack/Rarity contradiction?

JuneShores

Pretty much, but it's also just a translation of the original mechanic from Smallville.

But yes, it is an attempt to bridge that gap.

Papayaman1000

"On every success[...] or give them an emotional condition."

I could see this having horrifying and cruel consequences.

I also enjoy the built-in systems for "This thing was a huge turning point, so have your character do some soul-searching for a while".

JuneShores

20:21

Horrifying and cruel in what way?

Papayaman1000

@JuneShores Like, say, completely and utterly breaking a character. Better yet, via the Laughter priority and three good rolls.

"THEY JUST DON'T STOP LAUGHING"
> Angry
> Afraid
> Exhausted

Aaaaand cue stress explosion. Preferably the Wrath scenario discussed earlier.

Again, this is why I avoid that show

doppelgreener

20:56

@Papayaman1000 Might be you're not the target audience for the game then?

Papayaman1000

@doppelgreener Oh, I absolutely love the system. But I'm pretty obviously not in the show's target audience and, depending on who you use as an example, probably not in its periphery demographic, either.

JuneShores

21:08

The probabilites are definitely going to need some massaging.

trogdor

@BESW ooooooooooohhhhh

lol

I miss that silly weirdo XP

BESW

As do we.

Misspelling of the day: "Fate Excellerated."

Papayaman1000

21:23

@BESW Somebody forgot their morning coffee. For the past 3 days.

BESW

I was hoping it'd be a Fate Accelerated game about the Matter of Britain.

trogdor

22:07

lol

Ben

23:18

Good-24hr-period everybody

trogdor

lol

gooood goooood I have started to condition them XD

Ben

So... I had a rather vivid dream last night, and I'm still working on trying to figure it out, however it's starting to develop an interesting story...

trogdor

oh?

Ben

A man (let's call him Bob) got into some trouble with inter-dimensional forces. Somehow, during his life, one such force has wormed its way into his... being, and is slowly starting to take effect on him.

Over the years, he's come up with ways to handle said force... implants; training; cybernetic enhancements; etc.

But it's getting to the stage where he can no longer control it. Fearing what it would do, he goes for one last Hail Mary, and travels through time.

trogdor

is this still the dream or a story inspired by it?

Ben

23:25

Now, for whatever reason (perhaps one of the effects of the mysterious force) Bob can only exist at one place in time (thus completely avoiding any time travel paradoxes).

@trogdor This is still the dream

trogdor

ah

Ben

But, unbeknownst to him... the force exists outside of time, and therefore is completely unaffected by the travel. Bob, however, is reverted back to an earlier version of himself - without all of his modifications. Therefore; the force wins.

It takes him over... and here is the interesting part

Imagine being broken apart into infinitesimally small portions of your own mind... infinite mini-versions of yourself... then reassembled.

trogdor

I have imagined this before, believe it or not XD

Ben

Now, truth be told, I'm not entirely sure if this was my own brain that came up with this (I mean, I kept envisioning Doctor Strange in this whole series of events)... or if it was inspired

Either way... I was glad I managed to remember it... it was a hell of a trip.

Shalvenay

hey there @Ben

Ben

23:32

o/

Shalvenay

how're things going?

Ben

Up and down.

Life with a child.

Played some Numenera last night too

Shalvenay

@Ben how'd it go?

trogdor

@Ben every once in a while I get a dream like that i remember

it's rare though

Miniman

I never remember my dreams. Sometimes I think I might be better off.

nitsua60

23:37

Hey Stackizens: I and other mods have noticed (though I don't have numbers for--this is purely a gut-feeling thing) an uptick in community moderation in the last month or so: closures with comments, welcoming comments, proactive+helpful edits, flags, pointers to metas, participation in metas I think this is great! It's wonderful to see even more users stepping forward and helping make this "a healthy community full of knowledgable, considerate people."

11

Ben

@Shalvenay Well, for the first time I can remember, the NPCs found it odd that a bunch of nobodies (that is, a very old, rusty Cyborg, a Barbarian, and a 14 yr old girl with a fascination with the dead) was taking part in an investigation that had absolutely nothing to do with them.

nitsua60

(I know that ^^ won't necessarily reach all the people involved--feel free to spread the word.)

Ben

@trogdor This time I think I made an effort to remember. I was sort of in that semi-conscious state, and I kept relaying the information about the dream in my head before it faded. It's worked before

trogdor

@Miniman it's certainly interesting when you remember one

especially since sometimes you just have no idea where it came from

@Ben I can't ever control it at all

Ben

@trogdor I.e. a dream about existential forces and time travel that completely reconstruct a person; both physically and mentally

Miniman

23:41

@trogdor I guess, strictly speaking, it's not quite true - over the course of my life I've remembered, like, 3. One where I was being chased by the Ringwraiths from the animated movie of LotR, one where my high school was overrun by tanks and giant spiders, and one that was about Yavin for some reason.

trogdor

@Ben if I had had a dream like that, I would have thought it came from my own previous thoughts on the subject,.... except the other entity bit

@Miniman still not very many

Ben

@trogdor The last time I spoke to anyone about time travel, it was the whole discussion about the physics of it

trogdor

I can't remember all the dreams I "remembered" after waking up from them

Miniman

@trogdor Yep.

trogdor

there was at least one where I could fly, one where I was stuck underwater, or maybe even was the water (I remember distinctly that it wasn't a big deal being stuck there at all) while dolls ran around under the moonlight

Miniman

23:45

@trogdor Very poetic.

trogdor

@Miniman I never thought of it that way before

I just thought it was weird

but I still remember that particular dream better than any other one I ever remembered

the planet we were all on was also tiny

and the moon was ridiculously close

hardly anything actually like, happened either

but for some reason it sticks in my head even though it was probably about 15 or so years ago

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