TRPG General Chat

9:03 PM

I'm having trouble with the search feature right now. Can anyone point me to questions/answers for running games for smaller than usual party sizes? Specifics would be 3 players for 5e

Never been in or run a game for a party that small.

One of my players is bailing on the oneshot for family reasons and I want to adapt what I've got to them

David Coffron

@Axoren I love 3-player parties personally

Axoren

@DavidCoffron How do you setup encounters for them in a way that doesn't overrun them in action economy?

Do you just use XP budget?

Carcer

just use less enemies?

David Coffron

@Axoren Hm? XP Budget should be fine. Just don't put in way too many monsters

Xirema

@Axoren Reduce the numbers. That's pretty much it. If you create an encounter with more than 6 creatures, treat them as a swarm.

Or at least some of them as a swarm.

Axoren

9:11 PM

Alright, good idea.

Stuff like combining Bandits

BESW

Does 5e have 4e-style minions?

Normal attacks and defenses for the level, deal a flat non-rolled slightly-lower-than-average amount of damage, very few extra abilities... one hit point.

MikeQ

No, but nothing stops the DM from giving a difficulty-appropriate NPC 1 hit point

BESW

In 4e, four minions are roughly equivalent to one standard enemy of the same level. Very useful for filling the map and making characters feel awesome but harassed.

David Coffron

Alright. Guess what this is ^

V2Blast

math

what do I win

Axoren

9:21 PM

@BESW I can always add 1 HP minions

I do like those ideas

Xirema

I'm guessing if I ask Wolfram Alpha to graph that, it'll do something fun?

David Coffron

@Xirema I doubt it, but I'd be curious

@V2Blast A chuckle from me xD

@Xirema Although there are 2 undefined, so maybe it won't work? (Idk how Wolfram Alpha works)

Xirema

I can see the bit in the formula that appears to have taken my input, but otherwise I'm stumped.

David Coffron

For those of you on the edge of your seats, it's...

5

Q: What is the formula behind each level spell slot progression that I can use in a spreadsheet?

I have been trying to find a way to find the formula behind spell slot progression on the multiclass caster table, to add a spell slot table to this sheet with the best example being on the last table group at the end of the second page and there seems to be a pattern, but I can’t seem to find wh...

I engineered it to fit the table

It is utterly useless, but it was fun

I'll leave an answer once I have the time to explain where the formula comes from and what the parts mean

Sir Cinnamon

Nice, thats pretty neat!

github gist?

David Coffron

9:29 PM

Here's the spreadsheet version for anyone who wants to test it (D$3 is the spell level, and $C4 is the character level):

anydice.com/program/14785

@SirCinnamon I might put it on a shirt (you know how people do the caffeine chemical formula and stuff)

I'd have to find a way to make it look a bit prettier though

Sir Cinnamon

@DavidCoffron comic sans\

David Coffron

Oh no! I forgot an "if" xD

Xirema

@SirCinnamon Comic Sans is a good font. Fight me.

BESW

Jan 15 '13 at 9:21, by BESW

@Rob Honestly both Comic Sans and Papyrus are not bad fonts. Papyrus is criminally low-resolution, but both of them are valuable and right to use in their contexts. They've just been plucked out of their contexts and smeared across unsuitable applications so generically that they've become the typographic equivalent of letter-by-letter typewriter-noise animation in PowerPoint.

Rubiksmoose

@DavidCoffron ohhhhhhhhhhh

Ilmari Karonen

9:35 PM

@DavidCoffron o_O You do know pastebin exists, right?

Rubiksmoose

@BESW IIRC Comic Sans actually has a very high legibility score.

David Coffron

@IlmariKaronen I always forget about things like that

Carcer

@IlmariKaronen do you have some sort of alerter set up for people mentioning anydice?

BESW

@Rubiksmoose The font's ubiquity is actually a result of its effectiveness: it was originally designed as the system font for Microsoft Bob, which was an attempt to create an OS that was friendly and welcoming and non-threatening to new casual computer users.

Rubiksmoose

@BESW huh TIL

David Coffron

9:37 PM

For anyone interested, the first term (4-CEILING(....)) is the cap on spell slots (4 for level 1, 3 for levels 2-6, etc), then the piecewise makes it so slots come online once they are eligible (2 at level 3, 3 at level 5, etc). From there it is just a simple formula to get the basic shape and then the big Sigmas make small adjustments to line it up

BESW

Although the font wasn't ready in time for Bob's release, it was packaged with Microsoft's word processing software.

And it became very very popular... because it's friendly and welcoming and non-threatening, as designed.

Ilmari Karonen

@Carcer No. :D I just randomly joined chat because I wanted to see if there was any interesting discussion going on in the space.SE chat about Beresheet and Falcon Heavy. And then noticed an AnyDice link here and clicked it because I was curious. :P

Carcer

@IlmariKaronen idon'tbelieveyou.gif

I'm pretty sure you're an outsider we summon by talking about anydice.

Ilmari Karonen

@BESW IIRC, it was also carefully designed to be legible on low-resolution screens, unlike just about all other handwriting fonts out there.

Which probably also helped.

BESW

@IlmariKaronen Sounds right!

Which would also be why it doesn't look as good when used in large-font contexts.

Ilmari Karonen

9:41 PM

@Carcer I do actually have this thing set up, so I do get notifications about anydice questions. But not in chat. :D

David Coffron

0

A: What is the formula behind each level spell slot progression that I can use in a spreadsheet?

I engineered a formula that creates the chart, but it says nothing about the design principles that went into it note: I did my best to simplify this formula as far as I could, but someone more well-versed in mathematics may be able to find a simpler form. While I caution reading into this fo...

I decided to post it. I'm not even sure I can adequately explain (in a way anyone but me will understand) how I got to the formula, but I'll try in a later edit

Xirema

@DavidCoffron Verified and upvoted. It might be good to do like I did and post a screenshot of the spreadsheet, so that it's clear how the formula is meant to be applied.

David Coffron

@Xirema Fair point.

Ilmari Karonen

@DavidCoffron What the... I just looked at that formula and it looks like something Mathematica barfed up just before crashing. :P I mean, no offense intended, but... cos(pi 2^floor(s/7)), really?

Xirema

Is it possible to assign temporary variables/temporary values in a spreadsheet formula without just hiding the temporary values in other cells?

Axoren

9:49 PM

@DavidCoffron I see some patterns which might be turnable into a 5-term formula simpler than the suggested answers:

Each of the colored sections have a uniform pattern that can be leveraged within an interval.

nitsua60

@Axoren Hell, there's a polynomial that'll pass through all the points that might be simpler....

Ilmari Karonen

@DavidCoffron BTW, cos(pi 2^floor(*s*/7)) = -1 for 0 < s < 7 and 1 for s >= 7. Just so you know. :p

David Coffron

@IlmariKaronen I had to have something that gave +1 for values 4-6 and -1 for values 7-9

@IlmariKaronen Yep, that was the whole point :)

I thought it looked nicer than another piecewise

Axoren

@nitsua60 Simpler? Sure, a 20-degree polynomial generator function might look simpler if you really hate yourself.

Rubiksmoose

@IlmariKaronen just the way the designers intended ;)

David Coffron

9:54 PM

@Axoren If you can find that formula go for it. I could not (but then again, I am a super-amateur). But that is where I started

Ilmari Karonen

@DavidCoffron Wouldn't (-1)^floor(s / 7) have been simpler? Or an IF()...

David Coffron

@IlmariKaronen IF() is the piecewise I explained (that is the way you show the IF() in math terms AFAIK)

@IlmariKaronen And yes, your -1^FLOOR(....) would be simpler...

nitsua60

github.com/vyznev/chatjax

David Coffron

But it is pretty with the cosine xD

nitsua60

^^ mathjax interpreter for chat, btw

(might come in handy today)

Ilmari Karonen

9:57 PM

@nitsua60 Huh... I actually forgot that \$\LaTeX\$ is enabled on RPG.SE. :P

David Coffron

@nitsua60 I will definitely need that

Thanks

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