TRPG General Chat - 2019-04-04 (page 1 of 3)

« first day (3108 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (1850 days later) »

12:00 AM

GSS makes surprised an attribute you can add to someone, instead of being able to get physically violent

So you can scare off bullies or distract someone

Bubblegumshoe assume people are usually fighting beyond a youthful scuffle, and it frames its concepts within that assumption.

If you're looking for stuff that calls it something other than nonleathal

user image

alright, I think that's enough of me adding the tag to old questions for now :)

I joked about launching a #rpg anthology of food micro #games as an April Fool's product joke. That was two days ago. After a HEAPING spoonful of responses it's officially going to be a real thing. 💀✨🌺 #rpg #gamedev #indiedev #larp https://twitter.com/SwordsnFlowers/status/1113440909767532546

Tweeted by SwordsnFlowers on April 3, 2019 at 2:03 PM

12:14 AM

@BESW YES

Instead of Fools, can April first be Checking To See If There's An Audience For A Thing We Aren't Confident Enough In To Float Without Defending It As A Joke Day?

6

@BESW hah! Literally anything would be better than what we have.

[thinks about current state of world] Er. Almost anything

Good catch.

12:39 AM

@BESW yeah that's a good change

@Rubiksmoose yeah I mean, it's bad as it is but could also be much worse

It could be explicitly called "kill some via heart attack day"

I use that as an example only because I'm sure it's happened

:(

yeah I'm sure it has. :(

Morning all

@Shalvenay Historical infrastructure rant:

@Ben g'day how's it going?

Nella Explains Aaron Burr

12:52 AM

@linksassin Shoulder is sore due to Vitamin D deficiency, spent yesterday bingeing Friends, I am in week 4 of the past 14 days (time has passed in an odd fashion), and I am excited to be patching my Diablo campaign together finally, but my brain is more intent on bingeing Friends.

Hopefully this weekend should shift the gears a bit lol.

How's yourself going?

Ah well I can't fault your choice of television.

I've never watched friends

Fight me XD

I started watching Seinfeld actually. That only lasted 5 episodes.

I'm not too bad, work is mostly interesting at the moment. Though it has been nearly a week since I played an RPG so withdrawal is setting in

@trogdor In that case I can fault your choice of television.

I just feel like the claim to fame; "one of the best sitcoms of all time" is a bit pretentious. Let me decide that.

12:56 AM

I've technically seen more Sienfeld than friends anyway

@Ben Seinfeld was before my time, I saw a few episodes here and there but never caught on.

user15026

I never really got into either Seinfeld or Friends

Like I can see the appeal and know what it gets the acclaim it does but it wasn't for me.

@Ash Same

@linksassin I played my first session in over a month this week. That was a good feeling. Very little dice rolling, more just a "recap" session, which was a good re-introduction

12:57 AM

I've barely watched any of that kind of show

At all really

I think I've watched two episodes of Sienfeld and not even all the way through

I can't think of a time I've even watched a single minute of Friends though

@Ben Ouch, I had a month off in February when I got married. I didn't know what to do with all the rpg thoughts I had

@trogdor Is there a reason why not? It's not really a problem, I don't want a lot of television these days. I grew up on friends and m.a.s.h though.

Friends, HIMYIM, Seinfeld, Brooklyn Nine Nine. The first two were ruined by old acquaintances bingeing them non stop. And Seinfeld is well, refer above. B99 is my go to, but I;ve binged that enough. It needs a break so I don't ruin that for myself as well.

@linksassin Wait, this year? Congrats!

@linksassin I think it's two things, the format didn't grab me and it wasn't a fantasy or scifi story

@Ben Thanks man, yeah still getting used to it.

Pretty much, at least as the summarized reason

1:01 AM

@trogdor True fantasy is more interesting, but very few t.v. shows do it well

Speaking of - Merlin was also one I watched.

Yeah

That's definitely fair

These days the only things I binge as live action roleplay and the occasional netflix series (Dragon Prince)

And the ol' faithfuls - Hercules and Xena.

My wife loves merlin, I missed that one though.

1:02 AM

Those were the ones that mum and dad set out the table cloth on the floor in front of the TV and we'd watch them while eating dinner.

@linksassin yep watching this, it started a but rough but I think it's gotten better

If only they could fix the weird accent dissonance

Apparently the Australian accent is the hardest accent to mimic

@Ben Yeah never heard a convincing one on a show.

@Ben well it's,... A main character has an,... Accent that isn't the same as the people she grew up with?

Why the Aussie accent is so hard | Did You Know?

1:04 AM

Which is just,... You kinda had to try to make that mistake

That one was actually kinda interesting. I learned something after watching that.

@trogdor I had a teacher that had that issue with How to Train your Dragon. Why do the kids have american accents where the adults have scottish

And, I am also Australian, so yeah. Lol

@linksassin Relatability?

Other minor complaints, a possibly neuroatypical character who's weird just cause, and a joke narcoleptic character

Even in Australia, hearing the Australian accent on TV is odd. The American accent is the norm

1:07 AM

@linksassin yeah it's,... Distracting at the least

@trogdor In general I find it to actually be more inclusive than most shows. Avatar was the same. High quality childrens shows with a good message and diverse characters.

Sure the accents was weird for an episode or two, but once I got my wife to stop mimicing it you mostly forget about it.

@linksassin yeah, and they have a badass deaf lady who is the general of the army, and no one once questions she can do the job or any of that BS they could have done

It's good but that doesn't mean I can't call out some of the small things

brb lunch break

And the dark magic using daughter of the villain,.... Is borderline a possibile neuroatypical stereotype

@linksassin Would that not be the time to jump on to the chat room, rather than leave it? Lol

1:10 AM

Which is a problem for me

Also the pirate guy was literally used to make a narcolepsy joke

It's certainly not the worst show I've seen for this kind of thing by far

But I'm still gonna poke that stuff

There may well be people who stop watching at any given point because even these seemingly minor points are too painful somehow, or all together happen to be too much

I do still think it's great though

@BESW good find! also, I am very glad we have public ownership of key utilities around here

And I can't wait to see how the (redacted) making a (redacted) with an unknown (redacted) turns out

I feel like trogdor started talking about The Dragon Prince when linksassin mentioned How to Train Your Dragon...

@V2Blast he mentioned both actually

(electric's through one basically-a-PUD, while water, gas, and sewer are through another. the only thing investors get a bite at is the telcos, and even then, the local cableco is closely held)

1:16 AM

But yes I've been talking about dragon prince for sake of clarity

ah, it was mentioned earlier

lol

(and we are actually going through a major overhaul project of the sewer and storm drain systems here)

@Ben Sounds like it's time to (re)watch Community :P

@Miniman Community! Yes I completely forgot about that.

Btw, I made it to floor 15, although 14 was so brutal that I'm a little concerned.

1:18 AM

I haven't actually seen season 7... at least I don't think I have

Too many shows!

@Ben There isn't a season 7.

I still need to watch community

@trogdor Yes this is a thing you should do.

@Miniman Oh nice. That was where I actually discovered the "New Game" mechanic. Haha

@Miniman Season 6? The last one. After Troy leaves

1:19 AM

@Ben I did that a little earlier to try and get some of the quests I missed.

@Miniman it's on the list but I'm still watching Black lightning and ST DS9

@Ben Yeah.

And whatever I'm forgetting

@Ben I mean, I might have to do it again, but I don't want to if I can avoid it.

(I mostly only did it the first time because it seemed ridiculous not to have fought Leoric.)

Yeah. Of all the PCs, the mage is the most OP. Pump all points into Magic and buff the mage armour spell. Lol.

1:21 AM

Which, speaking of, you'll be pleased to know I got Lachdanan.

Community's a great show

@Miniman I am chuckling at myself for getting giddy at that news. Lol

@Ben My current strategy for fighting Blood Knights is to dump a bunch of firewalls, then stand in them swigging mana pots and waiting for them to die.

I'm also caught up on Black Lightning. Still got a few other shows to catch up on

And to be fair, it works. But I died a few times figuring out how I could kill them.

1:23 AM

@Miniman I did something similar with the horde of Hiddens I ran into. 30+ of them.

@Ben Ah, the Halls of the Blind?

I just spammed my overleveled Firebolt like crazy.

@Miniman Nope, this was just in general. Which was really disconcerting.

And it happened 3 times, not including the halls of the blind. By that point I knew exactly how to handle that situation

@Ben They seem to have a guaranteed stagger when they hit you just after becoming visible, it's really annoying.

@V2Blast I'm extremely all over the place with what I watch, it's partly my own fault but it's Even more largely due to the fact that I watch stuff alone, stuff with my parents, and stuff with @BESW, so at minimum I'm stuck watching 3 things at a time

lol

I was confused by "watch stuff alone" being separate from "by myself only"

1:27 AM

Yeah I'm glad I caught that while I could still edit

@Miniman I used doorways to my advantage. If you get surrounded its game over man

what video game is being talked about?

@V2Blast Diablo 1

ah

Rereleased on GOG, so I've been playing it.

1:32 AM

Lately that's really all I've been talking about, so it's a fair assumption that if I'm talking about characters/games etc, that's what it's about lol

haha

1:49 AM

user image

@Ben Nah I had to leave for a team lunch. I just have the chat open on a side monitor while work is on the others

2:08 AM

Ah, fair enough :)

@Ash same.

@linksassin my wife loved Merlin for about one season.

Merlin was alright

Oh man Merlin

If that's the one I saw it was weird

never really lived up to what it could have been

Which I guess it was supposed to be?

2:17 AM

@trogdor Merlin was a young Squire, Arthur started out as the Prince of Camelot, a bratty stuck-up noble.

Maybe?

Oh, and Gary Oldman was a dragon

There may have been more than one show about that that I am getting mixed up

g.co/kgs/qSGviS

@Ben I dooooont remember that

XD

2:19 AM

@Miniman I tried to down load WC I and II on GoG. GoG customer service sux bad. Still unable to get it ... arrgh.

@KorvinStarmast I had issues with playing Diablo on a guest network. Apparently the system needs to check for/download updates before being able to run at all.

That's not good. :(

@Ben yeah no I never watched this one

My son ran it on his current gaming rig, but I think he opened a DOS window or something.

I must be thinking of older stuff

2:22 AM

@Ben You mean John Hurt?

that's the one I watched, on BBC

@V2Blast Yes. That one.

Gary Oldman would be a very different dragon... now I think of it. Lol

Ollivander vs Sirius

@Ben ok,... To bad though, that would be,... Something

XD

I also have to admit that my brain started a list of weird actors to make dragons and melted down on the first one

John Goodman

XD

2:47 AM

Sean Connery

Lol, it's funny because they did that

Robby Benson

Patrick Stewart

I am actually listing actors who have voiced dragons. Lol

(yes they did this)

( watched it, it was bad)

Oh I know, bennidict cumberbund

Named spelled bad on purpose

2:52 AM

@trogdor Barabus Cucumbernub, yes. That's a big one

Really I don't think I'll ever get over Patrick Stewart dragon

Eddie Murphy

@Ben too soon

Oh! Elijah Wood and Christina Ricci. Lol

Wat

In the same movie or?

2:59 AM

Spyro. Lol

Both of them?

Huh

Gary Oldman and Mark Hamill too

imdb.com/title/tt1228985/fullcredits

Must have been one I didn't play

What is the best Dungeons and Dragons 5e setting/ruleset for a campaign based around moral choices and a shifting/volatile geopolitical landscape (including factional allegiances, battles, etc)

I played the first and maybe the second?

3:05 AM

@trogdor It came out on the 360/ps2

@Regress.arg Can you give an example of what you're looking for?

@Ben That means nothing to me now

@KorvinStarmast Oof, that sucks. Their stuff is normally pretty good (although I have heard horror stories about Linux/Mac). I've never had to deal with their customer service.

XD

@Miniman They do have options for "standalone" installation, but I have not tried it yet.

@Ben imagine the fantasy equivalent of the Syrian Civil War, where a few protests against a despotic kingdom/government metamorphosed into something much larger, bloodier and more tragic. My game would be one in which the players could impact that metamorphosis in a number of different directions.

3:15 AM

@Regress.arg I suppose I meant an example of the ruleset/setting. By my understanding, there is any number of potential answers to this - homebrew primarily

@Ben I'm new to tabletop gaming, so I'm as much fishing for possibilities as I am for suggestions

@Ben

@Regress.arg Honestly, you're probably better off just coming up with your own. The published settings just aren't that nuanced.

@Miniman Very true. There's plenty of discussions in this chat about that lack of nuance...

@Ben I have a week and just writing the campaign by itself using the established rules is a daunting enough task. I'm not sure that's a terribly realistic suggestion. I mean I could always just wing it and write the changes into the plot.'Unforeseen unpredictable consequences' are a theme I'm chasing anyways.

@Ben

@Ben are there any settings that have large scale battle mechanics baked in?

Ooh we're talking TV shows

3:30 AM

@Regress.arg Personally, I've experienced some homebrew systems for "large scale battle", like, 200 people fighting in a single combat, and I've been involved in stories where choices affect what an entire army might do - like skirmishes to reduce numbers, or waste resources, etc, that will affect the overall army. But these were very much "one-off" situations, and like Miniman said, you are probably better off coming up with your own system, primarily because you know what you want out of it.

@Regress.arg You're aiming to write a campaign with complex geopolitics and you only have a week? That's rough.

@MikeQ you can call me a fool lmao. And fortunately the geopolitics element won't enter the game for a few rounds. Those are nuances that can safely be thrown into the narrative/plot arena. But I want to know what I'm doing when the civil war kicks off and the factions crystalize.

@MikeQ Actually Voltron might be another go to

3:51 AM

@Regress.arg Building a campaign from scratch is hard, especially as a beginner DM. Have you discussed with your players about the intended campaign goals and themes?

Yes. I sent them a prospectus of various campaign ideas and what the arcs would look like and had them vote. They were especially intrigued by this one.

For instance, they're aware and are perfectly comfortable with the fact that they are all going to die in the first round. (They will be resurrected)

@MikeQ

@MikeQ do any tips immediately come to mind or pitfalls or things I should avoid or pay attention to?

not to sidetrack, the current conversation, but...

About to stream our D&D 5e actual-play podcast in less than 10 minutes: https://www.twitch.tv/events/eDzdyiRBSHywEGwP0JcmtA

In a universe adjacent to our own lies a world known as Runia. This world, once peaceful and idyllic, is now threatened by a monstrous being from its prehistory. A group of adventurers known as Whiskey Company have risen up to do what they can to fight this entity known only as Nagat. They have trekked far across the mortal realms in search of the shards of Barrinoth, the Titan of Justice, in hopes of returning him to his full power.

@Regress.arg You say "round" do you mean "session"?

@Regress.arg Avoid the temptation to write a narrative where specific events must happen. And if there are events that must happen, have them occur "off screen".

One of my friends decided to re-invigorate my hatred of apple products

user image

4:02 AM

With tabletop RPGs, it's generally assumed that players can affect the game world and story progression, so approaching it like a book or movie or video game RPG may result in taking away control from the players and causing frustration, both to them (because they want to affect outcomes) and you (because they're not behaving how you expected)

@MikeQ round=session. I personally call them episodes, but I wasn't sure whether the nomenclature would be consistent.

@Regress.arg Episodes is fine. Rounds means something in D&D and it's not a good idea to missue game terms.

@Regress.arg Turn>Round>Combat Encounter>Session

>Campaign

@Ben Great, good to know

4:07 AM

Meh, as long as everyone in the group understands the language, it's probably ok

Like how "level" means a few different things

@MikeQ True but it was making it confusing in this chat. Easier if we stick to standard terms.

Yeah, but it is good to learn a more general terminology as well, particularly if you'll be joining a community (i.e. rpg.SE)

Fair enough, they did mention being new to tabletop RPGs

I think I do vaguely remember some kind of... discussion... about the importance of using the right terminology.

Might have been in chat, or on the main site, or just with friends. And it can help when different systems come into play too.

@Regress.arg Re: Large-scale battles, if the scope is still focused on the player characters, then I'd recommend only doing mechanical stuff for whichever NPCs immediately interact with them

e.g. If the skirmish has 200 NPC participants, then maybe have 4-8 NPCs actually on the board, and you narrate the other 190something as background. Or maybe have them arrive in waves.

Combat can get painfully slow when you have too many NPCs, each taking individual turns

4:12 AM

My preferred approach is to give the party a goal that is separate to the battle itself. Maybe it is "slay the captain" maybe is it "steal the thing while they are distracted" actually having the party involved in a large scale war is not something D&D is good at

One system I experienced was basically, the PCs were not directly involved in combat. Instead they made choices of what they wanted to do, which had an impact on the overall combat. There were still rolls involved, but it wasn't "I attack this guy with my [xyz] ability"; it was more "I rally this group of soldiers and from a shield wall"

Actually, Savage Worlds does actually have a "Mass Combat" system reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/comments/9kiofh/…

@Ben That can work but is significant amounts of homebrew to work in 5e. I wouldn't suggest it to a new DM.

True

One thing I get caught up on these days is that "speaking generally" doesn't work anymore

Just sort of, changing the topic.

@Regress.arg My biggest piece of advice for a new DM is to limit the scope of your campaign to begin with. Don't start out with everything homebrew and a bunch of untested rules. Play and learn the core rules until you are comfortable then learn what needs to be modified and how.

Like if I say that "this process is not difficult" speaking generally; yes, there are parts that are fairly difficult, but they are not difficult enough to say that the entire process is hard. Like making a sandwich. Opening a jar of pickles is hard, but that doesn't mean the process of making a pickle sandwich is hard

4:25 AM

@Ben That may be one of the strangest analogies I've ever seen. It's not wrong... just... strange

However, it seems that generally, the response is that people focus on specifics.

In my experience of late, generally speaking, speaking generally is no longer a valid discussion tactic.

@Ben I guess I still don't really even understand what you mean by "speaking generally"

@Rubiksmoose Ok, well in the latest situation where this came up, we were talking about Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Firefighters, Electricians/Mineworkers, etc wear PPE, since their jobs put them in the way of potentially dangerous situations.

sure

My point, speaking generally, is that you should never rely on your PPE to save your life.

Yes, it can save your life, but my point is that you should have practices that you should instead rely on, to keep you out of harm's way, before you rely on your PPE.

The counter argument (before clarifying my point), was that PPE provides better protection than having nothing.

Yes. PPE does provide protection. But I'm speaking generally. PPE is not your first line of defense.

4:32 AM

I mean I'm no safety expert, but it seems to be a fair statement if not a bit broad and in need of elaboration (which your second statement does)

@Ben Ok, but what does "speaking generally" have to do with it. Do you mean that speaking in generalities is less acceptable than it used to be?

^

People seem to focus on the specifics. They don't understand that I am speaking generally, sometimes even after I explain that I am. They don't grasp it

@Ben can we drop the analogy discussion and focus on further tips for a new DM? Ok, so start with the basic mechanics and don't write around expectations of player behavior. Got it. Anything else?

@Regress.arg The chat room isn't limited to one discussion at a time

4:35 AM

@Regress.arg also you hand't spoken in a while. How were we supposed to know you were still here and wanting to talk about it?

@Rubiksmoose I second this

Also, hello @Regress.arg and welcome to RPG chat

Because, generally speaking, I would agree with that. In general, stereotyping, grouping and generalities are frowned upon. Not because there is generally anything wrong with them pre-se. But that generally they stray close to a lot of "-ist" opinions that are generally not what you meant to say but may, generally speaking come across that way. So in general it is better to avoid generalities to avoid offending people by accident. Generally. @Ben

lol

@Regress.arg Another common DM pitfall is to overestimate their communication in-game. If you do miscommunicate something (e.g. an NPC's motives, a trapped floor, a hidden clue, etc), which may happen, don't punish the players for it

@Rubiksmoose I third this. @Regress.arg We're happy to help, but we are capable of two discussions at a time.

4:38 AM

@linksassin Depending on the topic, I would argue. In regards to more political things, I can completely agree with that - I.e. that's the entire point. But in regards to things like PPE, or making a sandwich, that's a different issue?

@Regress.arg Create characters together during the first session, and encourage players to buy into each others' backstories and find common "hooks" for roleplaying. Makes for a more interesting game if your party has a reason to stick together

Remember that D&D is built on a combat engine, and so if a situation or challenge is unclear, there's a decent chance the players will attempt to resolve it via combat

@kviiri ^

@Ben Exactly the problem I was trying to highlight. Speaking in generalities exposes you to talking about things you didn't mean to say but accidentally included in your grouping.

@linksassin Right. I think I skimmed your point, or something didn't sink in properly, which is another issue.

4:40 AM

Try to steer the players away from backstories that are about "me", and towards "we". My experience indicates no matter how cool your backstory is, it's not going to be well-received if it's just something for your character and that has no bearing on the others.

@kviiri yeah that's why some games make that explicitly part of character creation

@Regress.arg ^ @kviiri 's point is good. Importantly you want to encourage the players to make adventurers not loners. They need a reason to stick together, a reason to go on the adventure.

@kviiri Especially backstories that involve keeping secrets from the party, but secrets that you also want the party to ask about.

@linksassin Yeah exactly

@Rubiksmoose I wouldn't encourage a new DM to have secret backstories. That adds a layer of complexity that isn't needed.

4:44 AM

And definitely don't turn the PCs against each other

@MikeQ Why not?

@linksassin I honestly wouldn't encourage an experienced one to either honestly in the vast majority of cases

As for my earlier interjection, I was worried y'all were about to get into a flamewar over a poor choice of words. I needed to break it up

I felt like I did, anyways.

@Regress.arg Because 1. D&D typically expects party cohesion, and 2. unwanted PVP is bad when players expect cooperative play

@Regress.arg because it is a great way to tear a campaign and party apart and is generally not fun.

4:45 AM

Noted then

"Try to steer the players away from backstories that are about "me", and towards "we".

Also is that a secret backstory the player doesn't know? Because that's incredibly bad

@Regress.arg Generally flame-wars don't happen here. We're a pretty tolerant group and will keep things under control.

@kviiri That sounds like a very good idea-could you go into more detail?

In my first DnD game ever we had a really nice player who was also a novelist and not knowing better (no one of us did) he created this fantasy novel protagonist who regularly snuck into the woods to commune with Sehanine or something. It would've cooler if it he had buy-in and participation from us (if it was a bond, not just flavor in "his novel", so to say) and if he didn't step on my cleric's toes doing that

D&D is the most fun when everyone is working together at the table towards the common goal of having fun.

4:46 AM

@linksassin The problem with speaking generally is that it's very broad brush, so it requires the audience to also be on the same page to be able to follow along. Otherwise they get lost amongst all the "generally's"

@Regress.arg Sure thing! Just give me a moment, I have to do a bit of dishes :)

@Ben Agreed.

@Regress.arg This is a nuanced one. Basically, if a story has happened "off screen", then it's sort of like a completely separate adventure that may be irrelevant, or prevent the PC from cooperating well with the other PCs

@kviiri honestly that sounds like it could have been fun with buy in, and handled properly, sounds like that didn't happen though

@Regress.arg Similarly, if a PC's backstory and motives have no connection to the campaign's intended plotlines, there may be difficulty in getting them invested/motivated in the plot

4:50 AM

^ The solution to that is to either have the plot beforehand and have the players create linked backstories. or write backstories that have a link and create the plot from there

The second it by far my favourite option

@linksassin I do like emergent plot, though with a political intrigue story that might be difficult.

@trogdor Aye. I probably would've wanted to object to it, though... I mean, as the cleric, my character was supposed to be the religious one. I had thought about his faith's progression and such, and there comes this L1 Ranger who basically says he's on first name basis with a god. It felt bad to me, but ofc that's all the more reason to discuss it in advance

This is all great feedback btw

@Rubiksmoose true, so the players will need a little more information about the world in order to create stories that link to it

@kviiri yes, the discussion would have made it clear you had an issue with it and what the issue was, and maybe how it could be changed/fixed

4:53 AM

As for big picture stuff, let's see... Avoid planning what will happen. Even if you think the big, mid-game plot twist is really cool, don't bet on it. Instead, control what has happened, and what the major driving forces (NPCs, factions, gods, etc) are trying to do. Then let the player goals drive the rest.

(honestly, D&D is not a great system for political intrigue IMO. It is going to be one of the harder plots to pull off)

2

I think I'd focus on emergent plot over teasing out intrigue. For me, the interesting part is allowing the players to advance their policies and agendas in the world, as opposed to setting up LoTR or Game of Thrones style chess matches

@kviiri There could have been a great story in a cleric who thought he had a good connection until this ranger came along and showed him he was wrong. Then has to go on a path of discovery to learn what it really means to be close to his god. But as you say, it needed to be discussed in advance.

@Regress.arg So hmm, an example from one our own games is, we once created characters so that each one had a "bond" with another. Eg. my character was a religiously motivated warrior Monk (something like the Assassin's Creed guys, using darker tricks to serve the Good) and one of the other PCs was basically the most morally upright Paladin ever (although not uptight!)

TOO MANY STARS ahhh

4:55 AM

^^^^

Ok, star spamming needs to slow down

Oh sorry dudes, thought it was only preservinig

them for me

The chat's format is incredibly confusing

No worries it is confusing

Haha no, stars aren't like chat upvotes

So we had a brief discussion in char gen how this would show --- my character would, despite having a different way of working, openly admire her knightly sense of honlr

@Regress.arg I agree

4:55 AM

I thought they were just pinning them for my version of the forum

We aren't a too well documented feature

Stars put a message over on the starboard to the right->

Should the character creation be a 1:1 with me and each player, or a group collaborative experience done on the day of the first episode?

@Regress.arg I'm assuming you're on mobile?

@Regress.arg Collaborative. And possibly during a "session zero" before the campaign proper begins, in which you discuss meta-level stuff with players and they provide input.

4:56 AM

No, desktop

@Regress.arg That's completely understandable

@kviiri "Join us in chat [at your own risk]"

Generally we save them for messages that are particularly impactful and will be interesting for people later to come back to if they weren't here for a conversation.

@Regress.arg Yeah, it doesn't work quite like other chat sites. Stars show up for everyone on the right. You can use the "permalink" button to save a link to the post in a notepad or something

See people ask me why I don't just ask certain questions in chat

this is why

4:57 AM

@Regress.arg It's alright, everything is a learning experience. We hope you stick around.

nah don't worry about it. You didn't do anything bad. It really honestly is confusing.\

Will do, glad to be here

Yeah, I like having new faces here :)

@MikeQ Not possibly. Definitely do a session 0.

But once you get the hang of it, chat is a great resource.

4:57 AM

Oh really a session 0?

argh

@linksassin ^this. definitely not optional

I think the whole mechanic works as a whole... erm… generally speaking. Chat is a good place to discuss how to ask questions that might not work in their current format on the main site

It was hard enough getting everyone to agree on a date for a session 1 lol

You could turn session 1 into session 0. Focus on character building and worldbuilding. Then if there's extra time left over, you could maybe roleplay the PCs meeting up, and possibly the opening scenes.

@Regress.arg That session 1 is now a session 0

4:58 AM

The problem is that'll be a 3 hour period with almost no gameplay

yup. There are some good Qs here about session 0 iirc

@Regress.arg It's generally recommended, but in all seriousness, if it's your first time playing, you probably need some time for char gen anyway

I dislike session 0s, only because I'm impatient. Lol

It is absolutely essential. Any campaign I know that didn't have one either fell apart or ended up having one after 4-5 sessions anyway

See he gets it

Ah wait I just realized something

session 1's plot involves a hard reset in the form of a disaster killing the entire party and causing their resurrection

4:59 AM

@Regress.arg but your gameplay will likely be more rewarding for having done it. Just remember that session 0 is just s tarting a conversation that you should be having throughout the whole c ampaign

their participation in the plot of session 1 is explained in the agreed upon background of the plot

@Regress.arg Also, I feel your pain re: scheduling. There's tricks for that too, but they are usually of the "bad tasting medicine" variety :)

every player agreed on the idea they were initially going to the region as teachers for an NGO before whatever happened, happened

« first day (3108 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (1850 days later) »

Transcript for

Apr '194

TRPG General Chat

Main chat room for tabletop role-playing games. Anyone can ask...

dice pen-and-paper roleplaying

join this room
about this room

00:00

06:00

12:00

18:00

all times are UTC

site design / logo © 2024 Stack Exchange Inc; legal

mobile