TRPG General Chat

BESW

08:07

@Derpy ...wait, I could charge?

trogdor

money!

XD

$$$$$$$

Derpy

@BESW well, I basically used you as a text reviewer there....

so either I should pay you for the service, or you should pay me for the damage since the question was badly received :P

(^ note: Obviously I am joking and I think that is pretty evident but... just in case)

(to be fair, I am quite happy with the result since it showed me how different I think from many other Meta users)

On an unrelated notice, it seems Tails of Equestria (also known as Fate With Ponies) was recently localized in my country. I could actually try to get a copy if the opportunity shows up.

vicky_molokh

08:26

@Derpy Elaborate?

@Derpy Depending on the country, I may know a person who might be interested.

Derpy

@vicky_molokh I think it was simply ported to Europe, so it is probably now available in most of the main languages there.

@vicky_molokh I can if you are interested, but maybe it is better if we move to the other room. Short version: apparently some words that to me appear to be quite ill-chosen at best are actually not a big problem for many other users. So either my "be nice" standards are "too high" for what the community is ready for or I have a problem and I am trying to forcefully be "too much nice" to the point I see rudeness even when there is no friendship problem to be worried about.

Either way, I know that I will have to act differently now.

V2Blast

10:00

War of the Spark Official Trailer – Magic: The Gathering

►

well, this is certainly the last place I expected to hear a Linkin Park song cover

BESW

10:19

@V2Blast Quite likely! But there's also this, if it helps:

TableTop: Wil Wheaton Plays FATE CORE w/ Felicia Day, John Rogers, & Ryan Macklin

►

Generalized rules of copyright in tabletop spaces thread: -Game mechanics are not trademarks or copyrights and they can't be (thanks MtG for proving that by trying to trademark "tap" back in the day). -Setting information, characters, logos and brands ARE. Do not touch.

Tweeted by FreyjaErlings on April 2, 2019 at 11:22 AM

trogdor

@BESW I "think" I watched this and they got a couple rules wrong, but it's mostly good?

BESW

I've linked it a lot, you probably have.

You can play Pack of Strays for free with the PDF at https://goo.gl/iPuDN7; more content is in Codex - Beasts & Codex - Moonlight at the @GauntletRPG DriveThruRPG store: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/12676/The-Gauntlet

Tweeted by pawper on April 3, 2019 at 8:14 AM in reply to pawper

The @GauntletRPG is the best place to play indie TTRPGs online! There are hundreds of games happening every month. I want to highlight some games with open slots in April that you can sign up to play FOR FREE. A thread!

Tweeted by michaelgbarford on April 2, 2019 at 7:53 PM

Sdjz

@BESW 12 times now :)

BESW

It's useful!

trogdor

it is

I do think the owlbear they use to correct themselves shows up for the few little inaccuracies they use

but even if not I think it wasn't a huge deal

BESW

10:29

Hmm.

trogdor

I think at worst they explained the rules properly and did one or two things wrong in the heat of the game

if this is the one I remember

BESW

I have plugged goblin dice 23 times; okapi butts 15 times;

influence maps six times...

Hot RPG Questions

4

Q: How would I stat a creature to be immune to everything but the Magic Missile spell? (just for fun)

My DM has, for the sake of adding some light-hearted fun to our campaign, introduced a magic chicken that has 1HP but can only die due to the magic missile spell. My question is, if we were to create this using templated rules text that does not simply say "immune to everything but magic missile...

BESW

...Gnome Stew print-and-fold minis 21 times, papercraft dice tower eight times...

...consequences as positive currency and level 1 equivalent damage nine times each... oh, just read this.

Aug 11 '14 at 1:58, by BESW

USEFUL/INTERESTING LINKS: [Worldbuilding and the Okapi's Butt](http://www.redwombatstudio.com/blog/2013/03/25/worldbuilding-and-the-okapis-butt/); [Making the Tough Decisions](http://www.giantitp.com/articles/tll307KmEm4H9k6efFP.html); [Goblin dice](http://magbonch.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/goblin-dice/); [abstractions are leaky](http://rpg.stackexchange.com/a/35305/4398); [customizable print-and-fold minis](http://www.gnomestew.com/print-and-fold-gnome-miniatures/); [single page papercraft dice tower](http://tektonten.blogspot.com/2009/03/single-page-paper-dice-tower.html); [Consequences as…

Sdjz

@BESW Not a Bar 25 times due to all the message moving

BESW

10:38

Of course.

trogdor

lol

BESW

@vicky_molokh I don't want to seem like I'm picking on you by going back to this, but I realized that we'd been talking at cross-purposes: belief and doubt aspects don't take away personal characterization, because they're beliefs and doubts: you have them even when you're not around people who share or oppose them.

And you have total freedom to come up with whatever beliefs or doubts your character would have, within the confines of either (a) it's shared by someone else and (b) it grinds against someone else. This is not making bonds between characters deeper at the expense of the characters themselves. It is creating the characters themselves in a way that adds value when other characters are present, without subtracting value when the characters are alone.

vicky_molokh

I don't feel picked on, don't worry. And thanks for elaborating.

I made another assumption which may be missing the mark in this context.

BESW

Put it this way: if you looked at a character with belief and doubt aspects independently, you probably wouldn't notice that they're designed to hook into the rest of the party. But if you put two characters together, you'll see the synergy.

vicky_molokh

@BESW Yeah, I probably overestimated the amount of 'this is about the other character'-ness in such Aspects based on an incomplete understanding of your description.

BESW

10:50

(Contrast Masters of Umdaar, which dedicates one aspect to describing your relationship with another character in the party, specifically and by name.)

So it sort of boggled my mind that I was proposing something less tied to specific other characters and you were objecting on the grounds that it was eating up aspect slots for lonely development.

vicky_molokh

I've messed up yet another conversation. I apologise.

BESW

To the point that I didn't even notice that was what was actually going on.

It's okay. But I think you might want to sit with the idea that if all we have to say is "I disagree," it's often better to listen more before speaking up.

@Nnedi When coming into Uganda, we were taught the “art of sitting” which basically meant you don’t need to ask questions starting out. Just sit and be a part of whatever you’re invited to and then eventually you’ll have the right questions at the right time.

Tweeted by emtakestheworld on March 31, 2019 at 8:33 PM in reply to Nnedi

vicky_molokh

I indeed somehow misinterpreted those Aspects as being more externally-focused, not less. And that went downhill from there.

BESW

And you're right that a lot of Fate concepts can be floated to other systems pretty easily; that's the nature of the beast. But I prefer to work within a system at first rather than start from scratch; that way if I do need to invent something from whole cloth, I've already thought carefully about the needs of the idea AND I've learned something important about implementation because I know why a particular system doesn't work.

So I always start with an existing system I'm moderately familiar with which seems like an approximate fit.

linksassin

11:05

Anyone have any advice on how to deal with the "D&D magic should follow the laws of physics" argument more succinctly? Had a thread on my answer and it would be good if there was a nice meta or something I could link to to quickly shut that kind of conversation down. It seems to come up a lot

vicky_molokh

My reasoning for not making those into Aspects is not even about sharing the benefits to other systems, so much as not seeing much benefit to systemifying (Aspectifying) PC-PC relationships, much in how many people prefer not to systemify roleplaying in general. I maybe coming from a different perspective than you and thus not coming to the same conclusions.

(Not seeing. Edited.)

BESW

14

A: Creating Poison Cheaply - Potato Tea?

There is no rule inconsistency; it is a disconnect between game logic and real-life experience. D&D is not a reality simulator; its mechanics are abstracted and --as you've noticed-- the value of things are proportionate to their use in adventuring rather than the difficulty in making them or th...

Feb 9 '16 at 22:57, by BESW

So, to come back to your original question: Arguments from real-world physics are only unassailable in games which explicitly prioritise real-world physics. They're defensible but arguable in games which don't give any indication either way, and in games that actively defy real-world physics, arguments rooted in those laws are about as helpful as oysters to a panda.

linksassin

@BESW Your ability to find things like that so quickly astounds me. I know you wrote it but I don't think I could find anything I wrote 6 months ago that quickly and I don't have anywhere near the amount of content you do

BESW

Jul 19 '15 at 2:04, by BESW

An RPG that was able to simulate physics accurately in every potential scenario would need to draw on a better understanding of the world than humanity currently has, and it would take a very long time for actions to resolve.

@linksassin It's pretty simple.

linksassin

@BESW It may be, but knowing where to search for that sort of thing and remembering that it exists is impressive.

The Oracle

11:18

0

Q: My question was marked as shopping when it isn't. How do I get it reopened?

My question was wrongly put on hold as shopping. It is a finding online resources question and, as far as I can tell, seems to be no different than other questions that weren't closed. It's not asking for what's best or any kind of recommendations and from my perspective its not too broad. I trie...

support specific-question

BESW

Thank you, but I don't remember. I just searched a keyword that seemed like it would bring up some useful stuff, because I know I've usually already said things about certain topics and would like to see what I've said before I open my mouth again.

(Especially on D&D and physics. Whoo boy that's a topic.)

Apr 2 '13 at 2:56, by Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@BESW I suggest an annual Don't mention Monks, Vow of Poverty, or physics... year.

Derpy

@BESW .... a very long time for action to resolve....

Were you speaking about Rolemaster :P?

Also know as "Tables, Tables and more Tables"?

BESW

Also, this "does a cold spell freeze water" sort of things are where a game like Lady Blackbird or Fate would come into its own as a narrative-driven engine.

27

A: How to avoid arguments with a player about what "should" happen?

I think there are some good generic answers here, so I'm not going to cover that. What I am going to cover is Lady Blackbird. Lady Blackbird is specifically built around the idea of the players and GM developing the world as the story progresses. In fact, I've never had more fun with Lady Blackbi...

(10k+ rep users: check out all those deleted answers!)

linksassin

@BESW I'll come back and look at it in 250 rep. Almost at the 10k barrier

BESW

Almost grats!

I remember being fascinated by all the "how do rules interact with experience-based expectations" interplay in games like D&D.

Feb 9 '16 at 22:49, by BESW

I'm personally much happier now that I'm aware of the rules-first bubble and can choose consciously to spend most of my game time outside of it.

kviiri

11:34

We were just discussing Dungeon World, elsewhere, and I noted with somber realization that it's still too DnD to my taste :(

BESW

@kviiri Yuuuup. It's got different mechanics but the underlying principles of setting/tone/theme are deliberately preserved --diegetically and non-diegetically-- which means no amount of "be a fan of your players" is gonna override its essential D&Dness.

What's too D&D for you about it, if I may ask?

kviiri

@BESW That's going to be a tough one to answer. I think overall it has to do with the fact that by trying to look and feel like DnD, it winds up pushing towards the same kinds of stories and resolutions DnD does.

...and that's a shame, because the one thing I really like about DnD (in addition to having deep piles of monster lore and generally good art in 5e) is building and playing encounters in the combat engine --- which DW lacks.

I mean, I guess what I'd want of Dungeon World is a high fantasy adventuring game. But it feels more like a DnD adventuring game --- a certain related genre, but not quite the same.

BESW

11:49

Hmmm interesting.

Rubiksmoose

12:12

@BESW hey I get a lot of this better now that I have started listening to an LB actual play

But man, those deleted answers...

goodguy5

@BESW thanks for rubbing in my rep deficiency

Rubiksmoose

12:47

So how's everyone doing?

kviiri

Quite happy here o/

How about you?

BESW

Today I finished a book cover and a poster, and am going over a training manual draft that's really really confusing.

Rubiksmoose

@kviiri today much better than the last few days (just got another kidney stone :( ) (I've not been terribly lucky these last couple weeks I guess)

@kviiri glad to hear it!

@BESW are you an artist?

kviiri

My research code produced results quite fast this time and I feel greatly un-stressed about it

Rubiksmoose

(if you don't mind me asking)

BESW

12:50

2 days ago, by BESW

@Ben I'm a freelance graphic designer with a specialty in print media and an indigenous intersectionality focus.

goodguy5

75% good
5% recovering from baby .... growth spurt?

20% at work

Rubiksmoose

@kviiri heck yeah!

goodguy5

@BESW is it rude if I don't know what those words all mean together?

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 isn't it a bit late for you to be having a baby growth spurt? ;)

goodguy5

like, I know what they mean separately

Rubiksmoose

12:53

Hehehe

vicky_molokh

At work: grumpily chasing three bugs in a regrettable process of multitasking.
At the hobby: taking gradual steps towards becoming comfortable with Aspect Permissions in actual play; adapting to changes in player rosters in two campaigns; engaging in attempts to shift to a more proactive style in a campaign which was very mission-based before; planning events for upcoming sessions as a GM.

doppelgreener

O/

Doing well. Work's going okay. I have multiple good songs stuck in my head.

I've been playing (and enjoying!) Magic again recently for the first time in a bit over a year, and enjoying it for the first time in a period that's a bit longer than that.

Rubiksmoose

@vicky_molokh boo for bugs, but yay for more RPG understanding! Fate is on my list for my next medium-length system to learn/introduce to my group so I have been loosely following the discussion only mostly confused lol

Derpy

At work - just got a natural 21 on a D20 dice roll for an "Escape yet another no-source-control SharePoint project" check
At SE: delusional
At life: waiting for MLP season 9 to start and not knowing if I should be excited or scared.

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener Now, does multiple good songs stuck in your head at once = multiple good songs or one terrible cacophony?

GcL

12:57

@Derpy What's a share point project? Are the artifacts text?

doppelgreener

@Rubiksmoose they're alternating

at times it's Danny Don't You Know, at other times it's Cool Patrol, at yet others it's Release the Kraken

Rubiksmoose

hahaha that is quite the combo [looks up Release the Kraken]

doppelgreener

Release the Kraken - Ninja Sex Party

►

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener nice! I'll take advantage of being home to be able to watch a video someone posts here for once lol

GcL

They make great songs about dinosaurs in space

@Rubiksmoose What's the fiber isp downtown? and are you in their service area?

Rubiksmoose

13:02

@GcL when I moved here I don't think I was and I haven't heard anything about moving in. I'm actually with Wow! (ugh) ISP and am very happy with them.

@doppelgreener this is rocking!

GcL

@Rubiksmoose Found it. Not Jets... that's pizza. Rocket is the isp

goodguy5

@doppelgreener Well, that's given me a campaign idea.

I just need to decide if it's going to be the hyper-magic-tech city that the players haven't been to yet, or the alien city they found early on.

Rubiksmoose

@GcL ah yeah

I'll have to look them up and see.

GcL

I don't think they cover east english village yet. When they do i'm buying a house there.

Rubiksmoose

@BESW or anybody else that knows Lady Blackbird. I have a question about the second example in this answer. Is that a legitimate way to handle a success in the system? As far as I can tell there is really no rules on it, but it seems weird to me from the standpoint of coming from my last narrative system Masks/PbtA that a successful roll could have really bad consequences.

@GcL we're actually looking to buy a house somewhere around here soonish. Thank you for reminding me to check ISPs lol

goodguy5

13:09

that's so exciting!!!

Keep basements in mind. If the area is prone to flooding, etc.

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 oh it is, and definitely will do. I had a leaky basement growing up. Never again.

GcL

If you can get something built in the 40's the bones are usually pretty solid.

goodguy5

I bought a house on top (ish) of the hill with a finished basement. doubles the effective sqft of the house.

GcL

Is it a walkout basement?

goodguy5

@GcL I wish

GcL

13:12

I think those are mixed blessings... you have to include the basement in the formal sq. ft of the house then.

Rubiksmoose

@GcL most of the ones we're looking at are 20's-40's

doppelgreener

@Rubiksmoose it is!

consider also:

Cool Patrol - Ninja Sex Party

►

GcL

@Rubiksmoose Oooo... 20's era construction would be very cool. I would not recommend trying to demo the bathroom though.

Rubiksmoose

@GcL asbestos?

GcL

Did that in grosse point once... would not do again.

goodguy5

13:13

@Rubiksmoose the only other non-intuitive thing is sewer laterals. If the place isn't on septic (shudder), then it has a pipe running to the sewer, which you're responsible for the upkeep of.

Generally not an issue, but a lot of townships are putting in effort to make sure that nearby sewer laterals are up to code.

GcL

No. Two inches of cement on metal mesh for the walls with the tiles set directly into the cement

Apparently, that was "how it was done" in that area at the time.

Rubiksmoose

@GcL oh wow. Yeah that sounds extremely not fun to modify lol

Yuuki

@GcL Well, there were fewer compunctions about building on top of Native American graveyards in the 40s.

GcL

A little shy of 3500 pounds of cement in a small space.

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 ohhhh man that is something I would have never thought of. This is going to be very educational journey lol

GcL

13:15

@Yuuki Poltergeists are free energy. If they existed an enterprising engineer would have figured out how to get them to make steam or turn a turbine directly.

@Rubiksmoose Unlikely to be septic field anywhere around downtown.

Rubiksmoose

ah yeah true

goodguy5

@Rubiksmoose most people can get away with just not worrying about it. But it could be worth a call to the townships you're looking at if they plan on doing any sewer lateral work.

I would only expect it to come up if you're looking at a suburb.

Rubiksmoose

I'm looking to avoid any combination of "sewer" and "come up" for sure ;)

GcL

I like the idea of calling the city and getting a useful response. What's the skill and DC check for horribly understaffed and broken bureaucracy ?

Navigation? Survival? Performance?

@Rubiksmoose I see what you did there. I'm entertained.

goodguy5

@GcL it varies wildly from borough to borough. Sometimes it's not even a check. Sometimes it's a skill contest.

GcL

13:21

I feel like the risk of failure includes psychic damage.

Derpy

@GcL SharePoint is a collaboration platform (think of a company intranet document repository web site with built in collaboration functionalities - but that is oversimplifying it) made by Microsoft. It is also a bit of a mess to work with because it is pretty evident that it has accumulated a lot of "technical debt" over the years

I would guess that due to some form of executive meddling the actual developers of the platform at Microsoft were forced to add feature after feature while not getting the time they needed to rework the application architecture to support them. The results show. Badly documented and such

Anyway, it is weird you mentioned "Artifact" since the components in a SharePoint solution (== a custom functionality you as a dev built on top of Sharepoint) are indeed called Artifacts

GcL

Are the components at least written in text? or are there some old school visual studio style bs where some of the setting and required parts are helpfully compiled into a mangled package or binary?

BESW

13:36

@Rubiksmoose It's an uncharitable but understandable reading of "Say yes, look for the obstacles" from the GM advice. I wouldn't do it.

@goodguy5 Probably not rude, no! If you want to talk about it we should adjourn to the NAB though.

Rubiksmoose

@BESW Ah ok, I guess the fact that it didn't quite feel right might have been on point (oddly even the answer acknowledged it).

kviiri

@Rubiksmoose Any news from the airline/credit company?

Rubiksmoose

That is one of the reasons I love PbtA's dice resolution system. It lets the DM and players know when to throw in complications and so everyone is on the same page expectation-wise.

@kviiri Alas, not yet :-/ I actually expected to hear something back before now.

kviiri

@Rubiksmoose aw :(

Rubiksmoose

@kviiri actually looking at my bank records, it looks like they may have reversed the charges. Though they did say that they might do that temporarily until the investigation is complete and that they might be reversed upon completion. Still...progress?

Sir Cinnamon

13:46

tenatively good news!

kviiri

@Rubiksmoose Oh, neat. Let's hope it sticks

Still sad that your holiday got blown, though :/

Hot RPG Questions

2

Q: How can the positive/negative planes be described?

Unlike the other planes, the positive and negative planes are notoriously sparsely described. In fact, I figured that it wasn't even possible to go there until recently, when I read the description of the Wand of Orcus in the DMG: Destroying the Wand. Destroying the Wand of Orcus requires tha...

dnd-5e planes artifacts

Rubiksmoose

@kviiri thanks! :( We're working to make the best of it. I appreciate all y'all's commiseration and support :)

Derpy

14:10

@HotRPGQuestions this deserves a lame pun.

Derpy

14:22

and now I guess it is a good time like another to switch the discussion to negative spaces in maps.

Sep 18 '15 at 10:57, by BESW

Oh, and you may find "negative space" a useful concept.

goodguy5

15:15

why did that show up twice? anyone else for that dropdown.

Derpy

... what?

goodguy5

the new question dropdown?

The one about starfinder?

It duplicated for me.

Derpy

Oh, got what you meant now, nope didn't notice if it was duplicated

Someone_Evil

for me too, doesn't seem to be anything going on, so probably just ignore as an anomoly

doppelgreener

same

they both go to the same page

kviiri

15:19

Why is everything so springy

goodguy5

huh?

are you high?

kviiri

Sun is shining at this hour, snow is melting, some people even smile

goodguy5

ooooh. that spring

Hot RPG Questions

3

Q: Can my sorcerer use a spellbook only to collect spells and scribe scrolls, not cast?

I have been playing a sorcerer that went to wizard school as part of his backstory and often refers to himself as a terrible wizard. So he has a spellbook that I’ve spent time and gold on. He is not a multi class and so he can’t directly cast from said spellbook. But the rules are slightly loo...

dnd-5e spells magic-items equipment sorcerer

6

Q: What's the in-universe reasoning behind sorcerers needing material components?

Sorcerers are "spontaneous" spell casters. They don't "learn spells" the way a wizard does; their spells aren't granted by a powerful extraplanar entity the way a cleric's, paladin's, or warlock's are, they aren't drawn from nature like a druid's or ranger's. They have the same names, because t...

dnd-5e magic sorcerer lore

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 high on life!

At some point we are going to have to talk about gm-techniques. I think it is really overused and I'm not sure if that is an issue or not. To me, it seems like the use it is being put to has watered it down to the point of uselessness though...

goodguy5

15:33

I mean....

What are the categories of GM questions?

problem GM
problem player
idea generation (off topic!)
pickle removal
pickle prevention

right?

GreySage

@goodguy5 Why would anyone want to remove pickles? They're delicious and nutritious!

3

goodguy5

"GM in a pickle"

Sir Cinnamon

Technique: eat your way out

goodguy5

At any rate, arguably, GM technique shouldn't be any of those in order to be useful.

Rubiksmoose

As a GM I will always welcome a player bringing me a delicious kosher dill pickle.

goodguy5

15:38

or should be explicitly one of those

and we already have problem tags

gm-techniques seems to me to most closely resemble my idea of pickle-prevention

Rubiksmoose

good points.

goodguy5

"How can I prevent X problem from happening?"

I don't know the best tag for "X has happened and I don't know how to solve it"

GreySage

@goodguy5 Also things like "how can I act better to bring out the setting/characters?", and "how do I use this tool/what is a tool for accomplishing X (where X isn't a problem, just something they want to improve on)?"

goodguy5

"How do I prevent characters and settings from sucking"

I don't have a witty comeback for the tool one.

GreySage

Maybe a little tangential, but "How do I run X scenario/tool from Y module" might fit too?

doppelgreener

15:53

@Rubiksmoose You're not the first to have considered that either:

5

Q: Is it possible for us to refine [gm-techniques]?

While going through some of the gm questions (which I've previously taken issue with), I've noticed that we tend to have a catch-all tag for gamemastery questions: gm-techniques. In my efforts to clean up the gm tag, it's come to my attention that really all I'm doing is, for the most part, retag...

discussion tags

Rubiksmoose

There you go. I think we have certainly strayed from SSD's suggestions.

(though that explanation is a good one!)

doppelgreener

I have a vague recollection that even SSD was also interested in splitting it up, but I can't find it, so maybe I'm wrong.

Note we also have gm-preparation.

And gm-burnout!

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener I think SSD alluded briefly to discontentment about the tag very recently in a meta about something else.

Not sure if that is what you might be thinking of (probably not though)

Glazius

16:18

@BESW So has someone linked her the She-Ra inspired Masters of Umdaar character sheet yet?

Ah, whoop. Missed the followup discussion.

doppelgreener

@Rubiksmoose that might be it

Rubiksmoose

Ah this is what I was thinking of.

doppelgreener

16:33

encounter-design, campaign-development, monster-design, dungeon-design...

Glazius

...and since campaign aspects are a thing, turning your phase trio into a campaign aspect makes sense? Or maybe a Robo-style booster experience.

Rubiksmoose

heads-up we have a problematic question here that people might want to keep an eye on.

3 (IMO) low quality answers in the first few minutes of posting. 2 now self-deleted after being (appropriately) downvoted (good job community).

I'm not sure if they question is at fault here (or, if so, if it can be corrected).

(worth noting that this particular querent is also having a bit of a hard time adapting to our format)

Glazius

16:58

@kviiri Consider Fellowship? It downplays the back and forth of combat.

kviiri

17:37

@Glazius Never heard of it. What's it like? I'm tentatively interested, even though free time to play currently eludes me.

Hot RPG Questions

2

Q: What method can I use to design a dungeon difficult enough that the PCs can't make it through without killing them?

The first 'round' of my campaign will end with the deaths (and resurrections) of all of the players. Their role before catastrophe strikes is as teachers in a philanthropically funded school in an impoverished, war-torn province in a crumbling kingdom. There will be at least one dungeon in this r...

dnd-5e gm-techniques monsters encounter-design difficulty

SmokeDetector

18:09

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer, bad keyword with email in answer, email in answer, pattern-matching email in answer (345): How do spells that require an ability check vs. the caster's spell save DC work? by Krystal D Thompson on rpg.SE (@doppelgreener)

GreySage

@SmokeDetector I love finding out just how ridiculous spam can be. That one was a dozie.

Rubiksmoose

18:26

So I did some number crunching about HNQs because I was curious how many of our posts went HNQ and how many of them were 5e related (because sometimes it sure seems like all of them go hot) here are my results:

3

(this is for last month)

Xirema

That's definitely a high percentage.

Rubiksmoose

It also means we have an average of 6.8 HNQs per day

@Xirema indeed! Some of those were probably pretty ephemeral, but still.

Someone_Evil

About one per three hours doesn't seem that high, how long do they stay there (typically)?

GreySage

@Rubiksmoose Hot

Rubiksmoose

@Someone_Evil i don't know if I can find that out because there is no flag for when posts drop off the HNQ list. only added to it.

Xirema

18:32

Incidentally, I was wondering about the traffic to this stack: I've apparently reached 222K people via my (over 400) posts on Stack Overflow, and comparatively, I've reached about 392K people via my (about 200) posts on RPG, in about a third of the time.

Now, there's a lot of confounding factors: SO gets a massively larger quantity of posts, so it's easier for individual posts to get buried. But it's pretty clear that individual posts here get a lot more attention and scrutiny than over there.

Rubiksmoose

@Xirema (you have enough rep to actually view some of the traffic stats to the site here btw, if you didn't know that already)

Someone_Evil

This stack is probably more browsable, as it's less "solving a specific problem", so you get more views => "reach"

Xirema

@Rubiksmoose Mm, not quite. I need 25K just from RPG.SE, and on this stack I'm only at 23K.

goodguy5

@Rubiksmoose overall 50% hotness seems extreme

Xirema

The 38K is split across this and SO.

Rubiksmoose

18:35

@Xirema ohhhhh your chat icon I forget displays rep from your parent user?

@Xirema gotcha

@goodguy5 don't forget we do have a lot of questions get closed. That percentage only is counting posts that remain open right now

goodguy5

@Rubiksmoose if anything, that makes it more extreme

kviiri

@Rubiksmoose I think it's actually network total

goodguy5

50% of valid items being "hot" devalues the hotness

Rubiksmoose

We had 91 questions created last month that are now closed fwiw

@kviiri ah ok that makes sense, thanks

@goodguy5 I would tend to agree...

even including closed Q's gives us an overall hotness of 41% (assuming I'm doing everything correctly)

Carcer

I wonder if there's any stack where the traffic sources analytics thing isn't useless

Rubiksmoose

18:41

Here is the SEDE script I modified to get the HNQ data btw.

@Carcer hah! I doubt it.

Carcer

"Unsurprisingly, your number 1 referrer is yourself, and the other popular referrers are every other stack exchange site listed in decreasing order of popularity"

Rubiksmoose

@Carcer don't forget the vital information that Google is also the number one traffic source for search engines! Who would have guessed?

Carcer

I had always heard rumours that google had a monopolistic dominance over the online search sector but I never quite believed it was true

kviiri

18:57

Well, it isn't really.

Hot RPG Questions

5

Q: What mechanic is there to disable a threat instead of killing it?

Is there a built-in mechanic in D&D5e for when the players choose to disable or neutralize a threat as opposed to kill outright?

dnd-5e combat

kviiri

Google is pretty dominant in the West, but Yandex is dominant in Russia and her former satellites, and Baidu in China.

Glazius

19:17

@kviiri You can see the playbooks and the basic moves at tinyurl.com/FellowshipPlaybooks but it's modeling the journey of a band of adventurers to defeat the Overlord (and in the sequel, overthrow the Empire or chase the Horizon). It plays up the cinematic importance of creating openings and following up on them.

kviiri

@Glazius Thanks! Gonna take a look

KorvinStarmast

@Shalvenay pirates and dragons is a one dice game (d6 only) that I got the other day and that I hope one day we can try out. it has "doubloons" that are tokens that can be used to mitigate some die rolls. Might be a better fit for a game with your parents.

Plus, pirates!

kviiri

Sid Meier's Pirates! was an awesome game back in the days

(the original one, although I presume the 2000's remake ain't too shabby either)

It was in the heyday of the Microprose minigame-oriented game design... an easy way to pack some variety in games, even if individual minigames weren't always that special

I feel pretentiously poetic saying this yet I'll say it anyway: I'm glad those days are gone, but I'm also glad they happened.

GcL

19:37

I also liked pirates. I think it's available on GoG.

Speaking of microprose... Moo2 is available on GoG.

goodguy5

?

I glanced at the google result and it told me nothing

kviiri

@GcL I've never played Master of Orion 2, but I love the first one. I think it's a masterpiece of great game design

And not only that, it was made in a time when game design was commonly an afterthought. If it was a thought at all.

GcL

Good Old Games (gog) is a video game reseller.

Similar to steam, but for old games. The good old games.

kviiri

Except they aren't really old-exclusive are they

They don't do intrusive DRM though which is nice

goodguy5

@GcL that one I know. It's moo2 I don't know

GcL

19:47

Oh. Masters of Orion

goodguy5

ah

doppelgreener

20:07

@Xirema one thing i've noticed is that RPG.SE consistently has a very high fraction of questions i can understand, and a very high fraction of questions i actually find useful, out of the total number of questions i see.

if i look at RPG.SE's first few pages i can probably understand almost all the questions, find some of them entertaining to read, find a handful useful to me. contrast on stack overflow i will understand almost none of them, find no entertainment in any of them, and maybe one will contain something useful among the small few i can actually understand.

that means questions just get read more.

i think it's also responsible for our high vote counts: we can read, understand, like/dislike things, and most importantly we can actually care about them.

GreySage

@doppelgreener It helps that RPG discussions are generally more interesting than syntax bugs. Reading about how a group is experiencing problems or a rules question (even in a system I don't play/know) is more interesting than reading 20 lines of code in a language I've never seen, trying to find the bug.

Rubiksmoose

@GreySage also more relatable!

doppelgreener

20:22

also all true

V2Blast

20:43

Not to suddenly throw discourse onto an otherwise innocuous tweet, but I can't wait for a #dnd book to actually tackle Asian-inspired fantasy written by actual Asian/Asian-American (etc.) authors. And, uh, not be called Oriental freaking Adventures. https://twitter.com/GHC_and_Tacos/status/1113487129596833792

Tweeted by jamesjhaeck on April 3, 2019 at 5:10 PM

@jamesjhaeck Hi! South Asian writer here, writing about Sarzameen, a 5E South Asian fantasy setting 👋🏽, and running a patreon to fund it: https://www.patreon.com/mariamahmad

Tweeted by media_junkie on April 3, 2019 at 7:50 PM in reply to jamesjhaeck

seems like a cool thing

BESW

I'd be okay with just giving up on trying to make D&D woke, because it'd need to change so much it'd stop being recognizably D&D to most people.

We can make other games, just let D&D stop being the flagship.

user15026

nods Just take the good bits and the learning, and do it different/better. :)

Rubiksmoose

@BESW its flaws really run deep :-/

BESW

extremely not a fan of the essentialising of race & yes it is That Deep

Tweeted by ofmarginalia on April 1, 2019 at 8:56 PM in reply to ofmarginalia

GcL

I'm totally for getting rid of abstractions in D&D 6e. No races. No species. Just 16S ribosomal sequence similarities and differences. You want to talk about accuracy... full on reference sequences published for every single creature. /S

Xirema

20:59

I think part of the issue is that "Race" in D&D doesn't actually mean "Race", it means "Species". But we keep using the word "Race" when describing this stuff.

GcL

Both are abstractions... sometimes useful... sometimes harmful.

BESW

No, it means race. The way the concept is handled, the tropes they use, it maps directly to real-life race essentialism.

Xirema

Like, if you had the choice between playing a Dog (just, you know, a dog) in D&D, or a Cat (just a Cat), nobody would dispute that you'd expect them to have different mechanical capabilities. But if you called the choice "choosing your race", you'd get side-eyed.

trogdor

@BESW yeah I would love it if more games basically got to have pieces of DND's fame

GcL

@Xirema But what if I want to play as the most recent common ancestor of felines and canines?! /S

Xirema

21:01

And for good reason: because what exactly makes Orcs different from humans, other than

- Arbitrary cultural differences
- different physical appearance

An orc is much less different from a human than a cat from a human.

But D&D still gamifies the differences between an orc and a human.

GcL

Can we agree most players are closer to cats than dogs? Cats really are adorable cuddly murder hobos.

Xirema

And it decides, appropos of nothing [...other than a long history of vague, nominally racist tropes] that these two races are completely culturally distinct.

BESW

Anyway, there are a number of games already out there with SEA representation that aren't D&D.

GcL

@BESW There's at least 7 of them ;-)

BESW

7th Sea, for example, has Asia/Oceania/Pasifika content without needing to invent non-humans, written by a Filipino-American.

GcL

21:05

Don't ruin my play on words with facts!

Xirema

Speaking as someone who is, philosphically, a skeptic, my question ends up being: is it possible to maintain the mechanical conventions of D&D while divorcing itself from the racist tropes those mechanical conventions often uphold?

BESW

@GcL I think Dungeons & Doggos would disagree.

Xirema

I want to say yes, because ostensibly we managed to do that with Gender: earlier editions of D&D gendered their character classes something fierce. >_<

But Gender and Race aren't the same thing.

trogdor

I don't think they even have gotten gender entirely right yet though

Xirema

@trogdor Mechanically, they've solved it. Lore-wise... Drow. =/

trogdor

21:11

at the very least they should be using more diverse examples of gender if we are to say they get that right

BESW

As a society, I don't think we're at a point where it's possible to make a game with fantasy races which doesn't at least result in a Giant Robot of Offense that's missing its head. Even Fate of Agaptus, which is trying really hard, succumbs to race essentialism.

Xirema

The thing is, Lore is easy to rewrite/change. I mean, it's hard to rewrite/change because people don't want to do it, but it's just flavor text that can be handwaved if someone's willing to suffer the backlash.

Mechanics are different though. You can't have a statblock that says Orcs: +2STR, +1CON without implicitly making a statement about what you think being an Orc means.

trogdor

@BESW oh yeah I mean, I wasn't trying to say I expect it to happen soon just that by most standards of doing gender "right" I would definitely expect DND (and other things too) to do it better than they do still

Rubiksmoose

[nods]

user15026

@trogdor that would be nice but I just kinda assume I won't see myself in that sense in games

trogdor

21:14

and I don't even claim to entirely know how they should do it, but even I know it certainly isn't perfect

@Ash I mean, that's the problem right there though, that's what I mean

they don't even leave you with much hope about it atm

that aint cool

user15026

nods It isn't but I have kinda just gotten used to it as a thing because it's like "oh well how would you play that to like indicate it in any meaningful way" and stuff, because just letting us do things isn't enough

Rubiksmoose

@BESW That is a really neat article. I like the metaphor(?) being used.

user15026

I am starting, at least, to see more explorations of gender in romance novels at least so that helps, at least something I like to spend time in is tryign.

trogdor

@Ash yeah I just,... I had to bring it up :(

user15026

@trogdor It's all good, if I sound extra spoon low sad about it, it's not your fault, I am just doing the very small and tired human thing today

trogdor

21:18

@Ash no it's fine, this is your life and I brought up something that isn't cool that immediately touches it

BESW

Yeah, let's avoid going down theoretical rabbit-holes. There's a lot of material on this:

The links at the bottom of this article are a good place to start, and I found Jemisin's "The Unbearable Baggage of Orcing" very helpful...

2

...and of course Christopher Chinn has written specifically about "Reclaiming Problematic Material" in RPGs.

Xirema

It feels like a bandaid solution, but I wonder if removing Racial features and bundling them in with Backgrounds would have solved a lot of problems.

Although then you have the problem where a single choice confers like 10 mechanical consequences.

BESW

Personally I usually find myself sharing Jemisin's idea that while reclaiming material can be cathartic, it still perpetuates the conversation about the problematic material and gives it power. There's room for people hurt by material to explore it in their games, but I'm not one of those people so I'm going to seek out games which are making space for different conversations that don't give air to bad ideas--even to refute them.

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer, bad keyword with email in answer, email in answer, messaging number in answer, pattern-matching email in answer, +1 more (434): When must you decide when casting a spell at a lower caster level? by licky on rpg.SE (@doppelgreener)

BESW

@Xirema More granular background choices (pick three qualities with smaller mechanics in each) are a good way to respect cultural context without saying "everyone from X is Y." I'd probably also fold it into a personality matrix.

Xirema

21:29

@BESW Hmm. I like that.

BESW

But it'd still require care to make sure they're actually things which are influenced by societal context, and it'd be important to break them open so everyone has access to everything because people and cultures are complicated and messy.

However, I think a thoughtful granular approach would be a much better approach for multicultural characters than "half" anything.

V2Blast

@BESW true true

BESW

It would also open up background choices to change as characters grow over the course of the story.

When you move to a new place, it's an important character note whether and how you choose to integrate into the local community.

Tangentially related:

"Safety and Calibration tools," a resource by Big Bad Con.

2

"Here's where you can find analog games," on itch.io.

KorvinStarmast

21:50

@kviiri I may still have a copy of that. My son liked it for a while.

@Xirema a year or so ago, Crawford was discussing he he'd like to see D&D move from "race" to "culture" as a possible classifier or contrast mechanism. I think it was a youtube 'talk to jeremy' thing.

@Xirema Not a bad direction to try ... but I do not know if D&D can get out from under some of its long standing conventions. Given the number of things that have been tried, why not try that?

Xirema

@KorvinStarmast Like @BESW implied though, you still have to deal with the Semiotics issue. Like you can call it whatever you want, but if any word you use for it still boils down to the same basic "Racial Essentializing", then you don't really fix the issue.

KorvinStarmast

@Xirema The first game I played that had backgrounds and skills embedded in the character was ... Empire of the Petal throne. They also used aliens, not humanoid races, as some of the core foes. And they did feel very alien. They also had numerous human nations in conflict with each other as part of the game setting.

Xirema

Like, I'm quibbling on the "Species" vs "Race" terminology because I do think the semiotics of that distinction helps a little bit. But if you decide Orcs are a "Species" instead of a "Race", but still define their lore and culture using the semiotics of Race, you've solved nothing.

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