You didn't have to like Monty Python, you just had to know the shibboleth. Now we've got a shibboleth without a purpose but generations of emotion built up around it as a sign of belonging.
(I agree that while there's still some good stuff in there, a lot of the sketches are now largely inaccessible except as nostalgia or historical reference.)
@kviiri I can't really recommend it. It's cruel, cynical, bigoted, simultaneously smug and self-loathing, and perhaps worst of all is that it's only got about three joke formats so by the end of the first book it's distractingly obvious when he's winding up for a punchline.
The author himself mostly hated it and kept trying to write such terrible sequels that they wouldn't want him to write more, but the publishers kept offering him more money than he could refuse.
I recommend just watching some of the Doctor Who he wrote scripts for.
Tom Baker delivers his style of dialogue very nicely, and there was a whole team of people to curb the worst of Douglas's excesses and encourage his strengths.
I've noticed that some fandoms are really proud of stoning particular devils in their target despite being often ill-receptive of dissenting opinions in other parts of the works
A real-life conversation I had with a Trekkie made abundantly clear that any unfortunate implications any episode'd have were either my imagination or subtle satire that I'd missed (yeah, satire episodes in an otherwise straight scifi show, why not)
At the same time, any criticism of Wesley Crusher was not only ok but welcomed with a laugh
(I know more people who'd pass as Trekkies who would disagree with this Trekkie in either, so it's hardly universal)
I think Star Trek suffers a LOT from people wanting its aspirational goals to be realized more than they actually are.
@Rubiksmoose I... think I enjoyed at least the first book, but I was 15 and hadn't read much like it before and had been told it was good by a person who was very influential on impressionable teen BESW.
When I re-read them later, I was still impressed by some of the talent and creativity, but it didn't overshadow the other stuff for me.
Unarmored Movement, a monk feature, says...
Starting at 2nd level, your speed increases by 10 feet while you are not wearing armor or wielding a shield. This bonus increases when you reach certain monk levels, as shown in the Monk table.
... so clearly your speed stays at its base level if ...
because its an ill-defined, idea generation question that is only asking for ideas (an endless list) and gives almost no idea of what they are looking for.
Everything about the way it is phrased right now is going to attract bad answers.
The situation:
The last session ended with the party's bard on a stage, exchanging insults with an NPC bard. The NPC bard has something the party wants, and the party has something this NPC wants. The party is expecting the next sessions to start with a "rap battle", and I want to give them one....
@DX101 I think if you made a few smaller changes and added some information about what you actually want (some requirements) it could be a good stackable question.
But that's entirely up to you. And I don't know if you had any requirements in mind.
@Someone_Evil Majority, though that's overriden if an elected mod's vote-reason is different. I.e. it displays an elected mod's reason if present, then checks for majority. Plurality, actually, I guess, because in the rare case of 2-1-1-1 it does display the twice-chosen reason.
The other thing I'll note though is that you don't have to delete it! Unless you are getting downvoted, normally leaving questions up (especially duplicates) is actually helpful for us.
@DX101 and just for reference it is completely up to you, so no pressure. And I don't want you to accumulate downvotes for no reason. What is good for the Stack is not always the best for the individual :)
@Someone_Evil I feel like I've seen one once or twice. Maybe. When I've gone to close-vote from the queue and seen four separate [1]s next to four reasons....
Things like "I want to play a good utility caster in D&D" can very quickly grab votes in each of unclear, POB, too broad, and someone taking the time to type in an "other...".
@DX101 I feel like there was a scenario in Storm King's Thunder where the party had to pull off performing an a tavern to get a boon from an NPC, and it had ways for the whole party to chip in either on-stage or off. Anyone run it recently who can verify that?
@DX101 man I would have a decent answer for this but I do have to go. And it involves a homebrew mechanic my DM came up with. Probably one of the most fun parts of that one-shot was the Battle of the Bards scene we did.
In past campaigns, the DM has had a habit of stealing from our characters while they sleep impulsively without any sort of story reason. And not just regular stealing either, they manage to remove all our items, including worn such as clothes and armor. All based on beating our listen check minus...
If you see a question that's worthy of HNQ but isn't on there, consider posting it in RPG.SE HNQ Worthy Questions to help tune the HNQ algorithm. Use your personal judgement. This won't make it reach HNQ but it will help provide positive feedback to staff. (Along with the negative feedback that occurs when a diamond removes a question from HNQ.)
@SirCinnamon I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with a Diegetic justification, no matter how ill-conceived, that the DM would have to be using to explain that campaign.
Like, I've slept in the woods before. I've slept on public benches before. I didn't wake up with all my crap missing.
Like, is this a campaign hook? Is the campaign's BBEG a kleptomaniac who has trained/hypnotized an army of woodland critters to steal everyone's armor/weapons in order to forge their doomsday weapon?
@doppelgreener It is going well if you are trying to build up tension set up the classic 'success at the blink of defeat'. You shouldn't be doing that constantly though, because it won't work.
@Someone_Evil but!!! surely this is the measure of a challenging game!!! and challenging is good therefore this game is a huge success!!!! my players might be frustrated and upset but surely this is just a temporary side effect of the challenge and they are loving the game!!!!! no i don't ask my players for feedback in a post-game discussion, why do you ask???
Don't get me wrong, I think the GM in question has a lot of room to improve. I merely wanted to point out that there are legitimate times for a GM to think that thought/say that line.
The Dungeon of the Mad Mage module book (p. 11) has this to say about secret doors:
A one-way door can be manually opened only from one side (the other side has no handle or hinges). A knock spell or similar magic is needed to open a one-way door from the "wrong" side.
I don't get what othe...
Thanks for all the quick and easy RPG suggestions yesterday! I did eventually look at the ones that were made afte I went AFK, too (Lady Blackbird and Flying Temple Pilgrims) and they both look great, I think I'm just gonna have to print them all and we can have a look at them.
I have another question, even more of a long shot: Do you know of anywhere on the Internet where I could, at short notice, drop in and join in with a bit of text-based RPing? In chat/Roll20/an online game/some other kind of "live" thing, I mean, not forums.
And, here's the kicker: at a British-feasible time of day?
I'm referring to something where something actually happens. Not just people standing in an imaginary bar exchanging small talk.
Failing that, have any of you ever found any way of causing anything to happen in an RP channel in which people stand in an imaginary bar exchanging small talk? Or even how to initiate a conversation in said set-up, when your character is a complete stranger to the other characters? The bastards just all talk to the characters they know already from some other RP and ignore me.
The Not A Game Jam Game Jam is up & live! Make something that would make someone say “that’s not even a ~*Real*~ game” and tag it with #NotAGameJam! Hosted w/ help from @Warupeachi & part of the @rpgdesignfrog monthly game jams! https://itch.io/jam/not-a-game-jam-game-jam
@A.B. I have an entire Discord server for that sort of thing.
Wait a minute, nope, I misread the question.
Nevermind.
But as for "making things happen in an imaginary bar": invoke external events. Character stumbles into the bar, bleeding from deadly wounds. Or some such other thing that hints at a larger world.
@Gcl Yeah, sorry. But when you're actually talking to them in an OOC channel, and a couple of years back you were briefly in these people's guild and did a few RP sessions with them, and you're saying to them you don't know how to start and don't have anyone to talk to, and they nod and smile in OOC and carry on with their private in-jokey conversation... it's hard not to get frustrated! :-P
Recently, I ran into a question about the interaction of two damage modifiers that you can put on a technique. The problem is, I don't know how to tag the entire Ki system, and I don't want to go inventing tags whole cloth if, for example, [spellcasting] will do from a mechanical standpoint.
Ho...
Unexpectedly, our HR office is trying to introduce group-based, extra-work activities, like "who wants to be part of a rock band and play at our annual Xmas dinner?"
And also, if any of us has got any other talents or hobbies, we've been asked to come out in the open.
This looks like the opportunity I was waiting for in order to ask if a lunch-time game of D&D would be a-OK but... for some reason, I'm nervous about the opportunity.
Unarmored Movement, a monk feature, says...
Starting at 2nd level, your speed increases by 10 feet while you are not wearing armor or wielding a shield. This bonus increases when you reach certain monk levels, as shown in the Monk table.
... so clearly your speed stays at its base level if ...
Recently, I ran into a question about the interaction of two damage modifiers that you can put on a technique. The problem is, I don't know how to tag the entire Ki system, and I don't want to go inventing tags whole cloth if, for example, [spellcasting] will do from a mechanical standpoint.
Ho...
