TRPG General Chat

Rubiksmoose

11:21

hm I just retagged a 6+ year old question with a system tag

103

When I started my first D&D campaign as a DM, I accidentally rolled and confirmed a crit on a PC from a goblin. It was an instant kill as our campaign had no cleric. That time I decided to fudge the dice. Now, there's a similar problem, but this time the PCs are at 3rd level and they are dealing ...

I'm not sure how it escaped getting one originally, but those were early days on the stack.

BESW

@Rubiksmoose When playing Fate.

Rubiksmoose

I actually thought of PbtA first, but then realized that the DM doesn't ever roll dice in that.

So it would be very hard to fudge.

@BESW Do-over: hah! That is very clever!

I really want to play Fate at the very least because I have all these very pretty looking Fudge dice sitting on my desk and I can't use them for anything else!

Carcer

@Ben You've pinged them again now. The cycle will never end

V2Blast

@Carcer it's pings all the way down

BESW

11:38

I'd love to run a game for you some time.
[dead stare into middle distance]
some.
time.

Rubiksmoose

12:10

@BESW Yesss. I'd very much be down for this. You know. Some time.

BESW

@Rubiksmoose Is there any particular version of Fate you've got your eye on, or specific qualities of the system you're especially interested in focus on?

Rubiksmoose

12:28

I don't at this point. I'd be certainly open to suggestions. One thing I would not want to pay is D&D style high fantasy though. I've had my fill of that for a good while.

BESW

Gotcha.

...do you want a la carte Fate (served out of the box, "as it's supposed to be,") or the chef's special BESW blend?

Rubiksmoose

I'm honestly not that familiar with what is out there for Fate. I know it's a very flexible system.

@BESW I'm guessing you wouldn't have changed things if you didn't think they made things more fun. Part of my goal would be to get a feel for things so I'd be able to eventually run something for my group in it, but as long as we could talk about the modifications you made I think that sounds like a blast.

trogdor

we could also do something in GSS

Rubiksmoose

:O that also sounds incredible.

@BESW Important question: which do you recommend? Do you think the BESW special is a strict upgrade for all porpoises (besides learning the base rules) or do they each have their strong areas?

Sdjz

12:59

Can I get someone else to take a look at this? I might be biased because I have an answer there but I feel this edit should not be done like this (editing in follow-up question)

2

Q: Can you move, and then use Ready to move again later in the round? What about adding Dash as a Bonus Action?

The Ready action is described as follows: First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your reaction. Then, you choose the action you will take in response to that trigger, or you choose to move up to your speed in response to it. Question I: Is there anything preventing you...

dnd-5e movement actions readied-action

Well nevermind the asker took take of it

goodguy5

13:29

@Rubiksmoose for <s>President</s> Moderator

forking markdown

Rubiksmoose

13:45

@goodguy5 hahaha

Please no. I'd be an awful president.

goodguy5

@Rubiksmoose I mean..... comparatively.....

Rubiksmoose

Well. Yeah...

GcL

14:01

You could be an El Presidente.

vicky_molokh

Tsktsktsk, two articles in a row.

Rubiksmoose

@GcL It's a tasty drink!

GcL

You could be a tasty drink

Rubiksmoose

@vicky_molokh It's ok they haven't exceeded their daily article limit yet

Ben

Anyone on EST?

Rubiksmoose

14:08

If someone wanted to read over that moderator questionnaire/novel and give me some feedback I would appreciate it whenever they have time. Just feedback on improving the post not mod-worthiness.

@Ben [raises hand]

Ben

Can I ask what time is it?

Rubiksmoose

you may.

;)

10:09 am

Ben

Well thank you.

vicky_molokh

Something broke: new candidates stopped spawning.

Ben

I'm a little concerned then. Lol. Waiting on a response from an American company. Should have done by now :/

Oh well

GcL

14:19

@Ben It was a holiday weekend. People were off for three or four days. Was your contact with them on Friday?

Rubiksmoose

^that's a very good point

Derpy

@GcL Actually, Amazon did reply during the weekend.

GcL

@Derpy but they're a "global" company.

David Coffron

@Ben I think that is the most complex question that has been asked in a correlary to Stack Exchange :P

Ben

14:36

@GcL Yeah they said they'd be back on Wednesday

GcL

@Ben Seems reasonable. Maybe they're hung over today

Ben

Wait...

Yeah I don't remember now lol

Carcer

15:00

@Sdjz it's a confusing question, a little

Sdjz

@Carcer Oh I was actually concerned with the edit that added a second question but the asker has since rolled back the question and asked it separately

Carcer

that edit question is confusing

they seem to be very concerned that a rogue can go fast

ah, I see from comment it was predicated on an assumption you can't take the dash action twice, and they thought that readying was a way to loophole around that

Rubiksmoose

@Carcer yeah which also makes it basically not a dupe IMO (though very very close)

Carcer

nobody tell them about the tabaxi

Rubiksmoose

15:19

or monks? Monks can go faster right?

Carcer

monks do get a movement speed increase yes

but tabaxi have the ability to double their speeds for a round

Rubiksmoose

ah yeah, that would do it

Carcer

and it's a doubling of speed, directly, not adding extra movement, so it stacks multiplicatively with dashing (as does monk fast movement)

nitsua60

@goodguy5 three consecutive hyphens'll do it: ---strike--- renders as ~~strike~~.

Carcer

I have a tabaxi scout rogue with Mobility who can move 240ft in a round if he double dashes

Rubiksmoose

15:25

@Carcer very nice.

Carcer

240ft in a turn, even! He can go 255 in a round if he gets to use reaction for skirmisher and move an extra 15 if an enemy ends turn next to him.

Rubiksmoose

:O

ridiculous

Xirema

Regarding this question: how critical are we about spoiler tags? I can understand wanting to avoid spoiling players to adventure module content, but the question mostly concerns the backfill story of the Tomb of Annihilation and the history of the rulers of Chult, are those things super important to keep hidden from players?

Rubiksmoose

15:40

I do feel like we've gone a bit spoiler happy in both questions and answers lately. And this coming from someone who is just about as strict about spoilers as you get.

Sir Cinnamon

I dont think theres a real issue with being too careful

at least not in that question. Also i just learned you can click the spoiler box to "lock" it open

Rubiksmoose

Well it definitely adversely affects readability, but usually the harm is pretty low.

Xirema

@Rubiksmoose The readability is kind of my thought: it was really difficult to keep all the relevant information in my head at the same time with only one spoiler box open at a time (It now helps we can 'click' to keep them open, @SirCinnamon).

Sir Cinnamon

@Xirema I was going to say the question looks like it would be tedious to read if you have to hover to read it all - but given the click feature it doesnt bother me nearly as much

Rubiksmoose

If you have the SOX script you can unspoiler it all at once. But we shouldn't be considering that option for the sake of general readability for obvious reasons

@Xirema I didn't remember that you could do that either.

Sir Cinnamon

15:45

I think they maybe split the spoilers into too many boxes -> Text from book + censored summary of text from book + key for censored summary is kind of overkill

might be better as: Entire spoilered block from book + entired unspoilered but censored summary and then a full key afterward?

Xirema

@SirCinnamon Well, it's a lot of different sections though. Some is from a paragraph in the adventure itself, some is from the blurb attached to an item, and it's all from different parts of the module.

Sir Cinnamon

@Xirema It can still be formatted that way within a single spoiler block though, correct?

Xirema

@SirCinnamon I believe so; I'm just pointing out that quoting five discontinuous sections in a single quote block has its own issues, spoiler tags or not.

Sir Cinnamon

@Xirema right, but that's mostly just backing material for the censored timeline the asker constructed

Xirema

16:17

So digging into the question, I've realized that the OP elided the actual person whose age needs to be interrogated. Person D's age can be very easily explained and justified within a plausible range for normal female fertility—but not Nepartak's immediate parent. =O

She's the ten-year-old Granddaughter of a woman who died 90 years prior to her birth.

Sir Cinnamon

@Xirema My understanding is that that person is dead

they are being referred to as 10 years old because they were that old when they died

Unless....

Its a confusing quote... is it their skull literally, like out of their head? or is it their skull in terms of posession?>

Rubiksmoose

I always give my 10 year-old skulls to play with.

Xirema

@SirCinnamon Ooooh, that's possible.

Sir Cinnamon

Reading somewhere else that person is turned into a flame skull or something

Sdjz

Yes, that skull is a flame skull so it's definitely dead

Sir Cinnamon

16:23

So i think my timeline in my answer to that Q works out?

Xirema

I suspect English may not be the OP's native language? Could explain some of the genealogical confusion they had.

Sir Cinnamon

@Xirema Oh no you had to cross out so much!!! I feel bad

@Xirema I think this is definitely a factor, although the simpe grandmother vs great grandmother confusion got me as well

Xirema

@SirCinnamon What does it say about me that I saw "this skull belongs to Nepartak, a ten year old girl" and my immediate thought was "Oh, this kid has a skull as one of their prized possessions, sounds about right."

Rubiksmoose

but what if the book was just saying that she was a qualitatively terrific grandmother?

@Xirema oh man, that is confusing

Xirema

I figured that was like "okay, this skull belongs to her; if you bring it back to her, she'll give you a reward", and no part of my brain questioned the possibility that a child princess would have a skull as a favored treasure.

I'm curious if that says something about how I view royalty, or about how I view children.

kviiri

16:36

Well the kids love My Little Boney

Xirema

Also, not in my favor: the full context of the quote makes it pretty clear.

> The skull in the crystal box belongs to Nepartak, the 10-year-old granddaughter of Napaka, the last queen of Omu. The magic of the crystal box preserves her consciousness, but centuries of solitude and horror have caused her mind to blank out the details of her plight.

Yuuki

@Xirema To be fair, children are messed up.

Sir Cinnamon

16:52

@Xirema Yeah that may have been handy to know haha

goodguy5

@nitsua60 bah! thanks ~~for nothing~~

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 I think you meant baaaaaaaaa

goodguy5

XD

Rubiksmoose

Sanity check: in 3.5/PF Delay permanently shifted your initiative yes?

Sdjz

@Rubiksmoose For pathfinder at least yes "When you delay, you voluntarily reduce your own initiative result for the rest of the combat."

Rubiksmoose

17:08

@Sdjz cool thanks!

Sdjz

@Rubiksmoose The 3.5e SRD says a similar thing too

Rubiksmoose

how about 4e? I just realized the question calls that out specifically.

(I'm searching here to try to find that)

Sdjz

@Rubiksmoose 4e: "Perform your actions as desired and adjust your initiative to your new position in the order."

Rubiksmoose

@Sdjz Thanks :) Now to polish up an old question I guess.

nitsua60

@goodguy5 ~~[hums] what can I say, except that~~ you're welcome =) ~~[humming drifts off...]~~

Sir Cinnamon

17:17

@Xirema CENTURIES of solitude

i guess thats just a straight error?

At best you can probably squeeze a little more than a century with some fancy family tree work but i think it's impossible to hit 200 years

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goodguy5

good job hotness bot

Xirema

@SirCinnamon Hoo boy.

Hot RPG Questions

20:04

4

Q: Can you move on your turn, and then use the Ready Action to move again on another creature's turn?

The Ready action is described as follows: First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your reaction. Then, you choose the action you will take in response to that trigger, or you choose to move up to your speed in response to it. So, is there anything preventing you from mo...

dnd-5e movement actions readied-action

BESW

20:31

@Rubiksmoose I like my changes, they make the game more fun for me and focus on what I think is important. But I hesitate to say that makes my changes objectively better for everybody.

V2Blast

21:05

@Xirema Yeah... I thin the user was definitely overzealous with the spoiler tags there. Especially with all the "person A, group B, moment 3" stuff. Best to put it all together in a single spoiler block or two.

@BESW I am curious about Fate as well. I do like to get a sense of a system before experiencing special customizations/homebrew, though.

trogdor

21:20

that's fair

BESW

I'm gonna have to sit down and figure out exactly what my changes are...

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Q: Can a rogue effectively triple their speed by combining Dash and Ready?

This question is a follow-up to: Can you move on your turn, and then use the Ready Action to move again on another creature's turn? The answer to that question is yes. Acting according to the following sequence should then enable a rogue (of at least second level) to triple their maximum moveme...

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BESW

A lot of them are just mashing together bits of Fate that don't usually appear in the same game, and other things are more in my GMing style that isn't strictly not Fate.

Any input, Troggy?

trogdor

you want my input on what your specific changes to Fate are when we haven't played it for,... a year and a half?

maybe two years?

I mean like you said, a lot of it has gotten mashed together in my brain too

take a thing from Atomic Robo and insert it into Umdar, or the other way around

BESW

trogdor

21:32

XD

I think that might be the answer though

one of your trademarks is mashing together different kinds of Fate

like our last ongoing game was Atomic Robo and yet we had a lot of Umdarr characters in it

mechanically and otherwise

Xirema

So one of the players in my new group has committed to playing their Artificer (Alchemist), and I'd like to make their potion crafting experience a bit more interesting/detailed than "I buy 345gp of Potion Ingredients from the apothecary, I'm going to spend the next two weeks crafting these six potions out of it". Are there any good resources for handling this without just devising a Universal Crafting System for 5e?

(They have a lot of experience with video games, especially WoW and similar games, so I have that as a reference for what they will or will not enjoy)

Carcer

I feel sure I have read homebrew rules somewhere about harvesting monster parts for alchemical/crafting purposes

I'm guessing that might be the sort of thing that's up their alley?

V2Blast

yeah, I think the closest official thing is Xanathar's downtime guidelines for crafting a magic item

Xirema

@Carcer Definitely; I also know that certain things (Poison crafting, as an example) referenced in the DMG do allude to this.

KorvinStarmast

@Rubiksmoose That's a lot of words, man. :)

V2Blast

21:46

which basically just defines the prereqs/cost, plus this general hint to the DM:
"You can decide that certain items also require special materials or locations to be created. For example, a character might need alchemist’s supplies to brew a particular potion, or the formula for a Flame Tongue might require that the weapon be forged with lava."

Carcer

mm

V2Blast

(is it any line break within a message that prevents any markdown in it from working?)

KorvinStarmast

@Rubiksmoose Which is great parenting - just ask Hamlet's mom! :)

Carcer

I have a memory of the homebrew I read involving letting a character harvest an amount of material from defeated monsters with an equivalent crafting value based on their CR

and then maybe you can decide that for certain crafting purposes a specific monster's resources are more valuable. Like a red dragon gizzard counts double for a potion of fire breath.

KorvinStarmast

@SirCinnamon There was a book about that...

Carcer

21:49

it seems relatively easy to eyeball fairly as you know the artificer will be devoting some of the money they get to crafting potions; you can just have some reasonable proportion of the treasure you would have the players earn be in the form of stuff to turn into potions

Yuuki

@V2Blast A forgery kit needs to be made in a blacksmith's shop.

3

Carcer

@Yuuki get out

Glazius

@Xirema So is this something you want to say? "You're able to find enough potency for those healing potions, but the end result has too much crimson and we both know what crimson does for healing potions. You'll be spending those two weeks testing local materials to put together the notoriously volatile anti-crimson catalyst."

Xirema

@Glazius I could maybe justify that for when they're learning recipes, but I'd probably want something with less micromanagement for just creating potions.

There's a few things I came up with so far, I wanted to bounce those against other players' homebrew/experience to see whether it would be interesting or annoying.

What I've done so far is declare that, per the normal Magic Item Crafting rules, they need to learn a recipe for whatever they make before they can make it. Potion, Armor, Weapon, whatever. But, as an Artificer, they'll be entitled to "free" potion recipes they learn as they level up, kind of like how Wizards get spells as they level up, but also can copy down additional spells into their spellbook if they find a scroll or some other source in the world.

Then, for each potion recipe I give them, I'm also going to give them a list of discrete ingredients, and some information about where those ingredients can be found. The plan is to declare a few really basic, common ingredients that a lot of potions will all use, and then for each potion, one or two "exotic" ingredients that will either be particularly expensive, or simply difficult to find.

So for example: for a Potion of Greater Healing (considered an Uncommon, consumable magic item of a potion), the ingredients would be 2x Water Wart, and 2x Extract of Goodberry (which I would remind them is cut in half because of their Alchemist specialization). Water Wart, as the name implies, grows in and around rivers, and is generally pretty common, easy to buy and harvest (DC 10 to harvest during downtime).

Extract of Goodberry, on the other hand, would be a bit harder to find, since Goodberries only 'naturally' grow in forests that are infused with fey magic. These aren't super rare,…

Carcer

22:09

my first impressions is that it might be a bit overcomplicated and tedious for every little thing

there'd be a lot to keep track of - it's the kind of thing which maybe works in a computer game where you have a computer to manage your inventory and you can arbitrarily go places in order to harvest resources and it's only your own time that's involved

it might each too much into table time if you require the player to go and individually acquire all the stuff each time they need to, and if you let them abstract it by just saying they go to the alchemist shop and buy the necessary amount of water wart then there's not really any difference to buying X gp worth of alchemical reagents

I think requiring exactly specific components might be something you want to reserve for the especially potent stuff, not (un)common crafts

Xirema

@Carcer I'll justify this by pointing out that there are only two Common quality potions: Potion of Healing, and Potion of Climbing; and when we get to the Uncommon tier, it includes stuff like Potion of Hill Giant's Strength (21 Strength for 1 hour); even at that level, you'd want to put at least modest restrictions on potion obtainability.

Carcer

why? The alchemist's whole deal is that making potions is super easy for them

Xirema

@Carcer I mean, the plan isn't to make stuff like this eat up entire sessions: it's not that difficult to arrange an encounter with a CR5 Hill Giant to get the toenail clippings they'd need for the potion. =D

user15026

@Yuuki no. bad @Yuuki no cookie.

Xirema

> When you drink this potion, your Strength score changes to 21 for 1 hour. The potion has no effect on you if your Strength is equal to or greater than that score. This potion's transparent liquid has floating in it a sliver of fingernail from a hill giant. — DMG, pg. 187

Sorry, Fingernail clipping. My bad. =D

Carcer

22:23

even if it's only brief diversions my gut feeling is that it's a bit excessive for the party to have to go and deliberately hunt out specific creatures constantly for whatever potion it is the alchemist wants to make this week, or it's painfully meta when they just happen to conveniently keep running into the necessary encounter to make whichever potion the alchemist last expressed interest in...

but obviously you know your table and players better than I do, I'm just some random guy on the internet

I guess at least I can say that I personally would probably prefer a system which was a bit more flexible and required less fastidious inventory tracking

trogdor

@Ash lol

but it does

and a blacksmiths shop needs a blacksmiths shop to build

user15026

Very ouroboros of it

nitsua60

22:51

@Carcer AngryGM's been doing a series on that recently.

@trogdor First thing I learned to weld was a welding table....

V2Blast

@trogdor hmmmmmm

trogdor

23:09

Lol

A wizard had to build the first one

But to be a wizard a wizard has to teach you

So a sorcerer taught the first wizard :P

But to a sorcerer you need a dragon in your ancestry

But to be a dragon you need a dragon in your ancestry too

Which came first the dragon or the egg?

Ok I'm done now

XD

user15026

My brain hurts :P

trogdor

:P

Hot RPG Questions

23:46

1

Q: How old was this woman (from Tomb of Annihilation) at her death?

How is it possible? Page 92 of the ToA adventure says: So, group A was killed at moment 1. Okay. Later in the adventure, it says on p. 165: So, person B was killed at the same time. Okay. Page 69 of the adventure says: So person C was born at moment 2. Okay. The same page cont...

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V2Blast

23:56

@HotRPGQuestions Trying to parse all the spoiler blocks and "person A, moment 2" in this question makes my head hurt

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