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12:09 AM
Made a breakthorugh with my Random Dungeons app! It now doesn't crash when you have a Big Dungeon! :)
12:19 AM
Grats!
Thanks. I now have to rewrite huge chunks of it to accommodate the changes ...
Isn't that the way.
Always
I think I need to re-write Kapok Hearts to have a more Pilgrims-like epilogue, because I can't figure out any other way to make a story structure fit the ludonarrative.
the who in the what, now?
12:28 AM
I've been writing Kapok Hearts for the last couple days, a small game about being toys.
But right now it doesn't have a motive or narrative structure to kickstart the engine: no reason for the characters to take risky actions.
Nice. Slightly off, but you know Puppetland?
I'm aware of it.
@BESW It seems to lack themes about imagination and storytelling. It seems very literal about toys being toys existing in a human world.
Heard of several con-games where people played toys. One-offs, so can go crazy :)
(As always) need a 'hook'. What do these toys want?
12:31 AM
@MikeQ Do you feel those two observations are related?
Yes, it's not a criticism, lemme think how to articulate this
When kids play with toys, usually they've constructed some imaginary narrative in their head, and they visualize the environment in terms of that narrative - instead of a teddy bear on a tall dresser or crowded closet, it's a ferocious grizzly trekking a mountain or mysterious forest
So what if toys could experience or "tap into" that imagination?
If you read my notes rambling, you'll see that's the conclusion I've eventually come to, with the mechanism of three random tables for the goal, obstacle, and setting of the game the toys are playing. And each toy's preferred playstyle encourages the players to push the story in different directions.
I'm very much into "laser-focus" these days. "You can do whatever you want" doesn't spark anything. Give me a concept, a limitation, and I can work with it
But that means there's a story inside the game which doesn't have any pacing mechanics at all.
The token countdown doesn't match the story being told, so it triggers an epilogue independent of the child's narrative.
@BESW That could be the point, perhaps? The toys of different themes/genres working together, simply because their story-creator (a child's imagination) allows it?
12:37 AM
@MikeQ I like that, but the token mechanic works against it by operating on a much larger scale.
The obvious answer is to go more Pilgrims-y, where the token mechanic triggers an epilogue for the immediate play-story (and the session) and then allows players to decide if their toys meet a fate or simply change and play again later.
But that makes this less Pilgrims-inspired and more of a clumsy Pilgrims drift.
Part of the problem here is, I really like the idea of having the story of the toys' growth taking place interstitially within the story their child is playing with them... but I can only think of one example of that narrative structure, and that's the Lego Movies.
So I don't have a lot touchstones to draw on.
Oh! The epilogue mechanics. If the bond with the child is important to a toy, then that should be reflected. Right now it's all about the toy's self. And very... final?
I mean, The Bear Nobody Wanted counts? But it's so divergent from my vision in every other way that I can't figure out how to draw on it.
Yeah, the finality is important to me, these stories are about mortality--either the toy "dies" before the child grows up, or the child "dies" by growing up.
But I'm coming around to the idea of opening it for more episodic play.
Well, I suppose a story could continue across multiple sessions by saying that the toys passed to a new owner. Or the owner revisits the toys at a later stage in their life.
And that's part of the problem I've written myself into: the epilogue turns a single session of play into the entire span of the toy's life with a child, and that's a scope problem if I also want a session of play to focus on a single play-time story.
Hence writing more than two pages trying to figure out what I value about the game and what just sort of happened but can be tossed.
1:26 AM
@convoliution Shalv sees all
Unrelated:
https://comicbook.com/gaming/2019/07/20/dungeons-and-dragons-tyranny-of-dragons-rerelease/
https://twitter.com/Wizards_DnD/status/1152718673947217920
> Tiamat returns to Dungeons & Dragons this fall. To celebrate the fifth anniversary of its Fifth Edition ruleset, Dungeons & Dragons announced that it would be re-releasing its first Fifth Edition storyline, Tyranny of Dragons, as a single volume this October. Tyranny of Dragons will collect Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat, the two adventures that kicked off D&D's Fifth Edition back in 2014. The adventure pits players against the sinister Cult of the Dragon and their quest to bring back their dangerous god Tiamat back to the Forgotten Realms.
2:26 AM
Lots of Marvel/MCU news: marvel.com/articles/movies/…
the thing I'm most hyped about is Simu Liu as Shang-Chi!
This could be a little out of left field (and I haven't read your game writeup yet), but...
...remember the puppet scenes from *Being John Malkovitch*?
@V2Blast Wow. This is, like, third-level "milk the nostalgia" stuff, here. "We're going to re-sell you the very first adventure <cough>of this edition<cough> we published! (With some fixes because people really didn't like it all that much.)"
@BESW There's a little bit of that in Toy Story, no? And maybe if you just read the first story of Winnie the Pooh and the last story of The House at Pooh Corner as a duet?
2:44 AM
@nitsua60 to be fair, who has nostalgia for HOTDQ/ROT?
@nitsua60 I've not actually seen that film. I've seen the Big Wolf On Campus parody though!
@nitsua60 I've really gotta re-read Pooh...
But Toy Story doesn't really have any character growth through play. Being played with by a child is apotheosis, fulfillment. It's motive, goal, reward, but not a space for progress.
@BESW Reading it to my own kids simultaneously (a) makes me weep and (b) wish Milne had a decent editor.
@BESW Toy Story 2, though? (Stipulating that I last saw it (through tears) in the theater.) Jessie "grows" from discarded/purposeless to finding a new way to be happy?
@nitsua60 Have you read any of his other works, like The Red House Mystery?
Helped along by Sarah McLachlan =)
@BESW Not at all. Just those two, thrice out loud.
@nitsua60 I think that's the TS film it's been longest since I've seen? Not a lot of coherent memories of the plot progression.
Also I really want to avoid Toy Story as a direct inspiration as much as possible.
For a lot of reasons, I guess.
@BESW That's fair.
@BESW Me neither, really. Just fragments, and a strong tearjerk connection to that song.
I like Toy Story, but the films don't really feel like they're in the same space as the kind of stories I want to tell most of the time.
I had a friend in college who was a voice major; she chose that song--having lost her mother young--as the encore piece for her senior recital, and I accompanied her.
I keep going back to The Bear Nobody Wanted and wondering if there's another game I need to write to exorcise that touchstone before I can nail down what I want in Kapok Hearts.
@nitsua60 Oh wow.
2:54 AM
@BESW I've been lucky enough to play in some "impressive" venues and performances, but that one, for about a dozen of her friends/family/professors in the audience, is possibly my proudest. I played it well enough that nobody noticed a thing about the accompaniment, and she felt supported in the singing.
That's awesome.
(Also, there's a whole PhD thesis in Toy Story as religious allegory.)
Does anyone know if there's an existing magic item in d&d 5e that functions basically as a flash bomb?
@DucksGoMooful you mean, like, make a bright light briefly, blinding those in an area?
Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm looking for, thanks :)
Do you think it would be unbalanced to make a mini-version of that, like a one-use thrown grenade?
@Ash I think the first one was the best honestly, but that might just be me
3:09 AM
I don't really do "balance."
3:32 AM
@BESW It's probably the least memorable, too. TS3 is obviously more recent, and the first one is obviously more of a classic. TS2's in that weird "unnecessary sequel" area.
4:05 AM
4
Q: Does the Bracer of Flying Daggers really let a thief make 4 attacks per round?

the dark wandererThe Bracer of Flying Daggers (from Waterdeep: Dragon Heist) lets you use an action to activate the item to make two normal thrown dagger attacks. There's no limit to the number of times the item can be activated, though it does require attunement. A thief can, at 3rd level, use their Cunning Ac...

 
1 hour later…
5:25 AM
8
Q: Do gauntlets count as armor?

user3731568Do gauntlets count as armor? Specifically, would wearing Gauntlets of Ogre Power negate the AC bonus that barbarians and monks get because they are technically armor? I feel like they wouldn't.

3
Q: Is there a standard frequency for wandering monster checks in a dungeon?

munkIs there a standard or default frequency for wandering monster checks in an underground dungeon? This concerns both dungeons of my own design, and existing modules either by TSR or Judges Guild that do not specify an encounter frequency for the dungeon.

 
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6:29 AM
@nitsua60 As someone who actually did like it, I have no idea how to feel about this.
But I don't think I'll be paying for it again.
@Miniman Haha, I doubt anyone who already owns it will really rebuy it unless they have lots of disposable income and just need to have the alt-cover books. But I can see WotC's perspective in that the errors/issues do drive people away from recommending it and it probably hurts future sales of those adventures, so rereleasing with the fixes and an alt cover incentivizes new people to buy it
@Miniman What did you like about it?
6:53 AM
I think I see HOTDQ/ROT referenced the most out of all the (non-starter)adventures, but also referenced as the worst ones. I guess they're just looking to do a big 'errata' update to it to fix the problems with it. I imagine it's a situation of "Look, this adventure gets a lot of attention as the first one released, but it's also a big drop-off in our new player metrics because of all the issues it has. We're going to do major errata so it's not such a pain point for people picking it up."
7:11 AM
Gosh, imagine if 4e had revised Keep on the Shadowfell so the kobolds weren't hiding on the wrong side of the bushes, and Irontooth didn't feel like a harder boss than the actual boss encounter.
@nitsua60 TS2 definitely has it. I'd argue its theme as a whole is having to make the choice between sheltered fame in immortality and the often fun, often rough fun life where you are pretty much guaranteed to be forgotten at some point but get to mean a lot to those close to you before.
(And have lots of fun while at it)
Woody has a bad experience with Andy (through misunderstanding his intent, as things often go, further amplified by cynical counseling from a friend) and having been hurt, thinks he'd be happier pursuing another life where no one gets close to him ever again.
 
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8:32 AM
LMoP is short, PotA is literally 12 dungeon crawls in a row, OotA is just a mess.
The ToD adventures have serious editing problems, but the actual adventure is really fun, and it's good for new players.
I haven't done enough with any of the others to have solid opinions on them.
8:47 AM
I wish I had some brainless dungeon smashing right now
my big brother is having his first DnD sesh ever today
9:04 AM
Good name for a band, Brainless Dungeon Smashing. Or possibly a deodorant.
@CTWind Pretty much
@Miniman I've only played LMOP and HOTDQ (though my DM did some homebrewing to make some parts of that more fun), and part of ToA so far :P
@kviiri Nice!
@BESW "Smashing" might make it too close to "Smashing Pumpkins", though.
so maybe deodorant
@V2Blast He stormed my flat (hasn't visited before, by no fault of his), was really taken by how "huge" place we have, lingered for a cup of tea and then absconded with my dice after pouring a bit on my carpet x)
(he hasn't bought his own dice, so I borrowed him mine)
9:57 AM
@kviiri Ah... Less nice?
@V2Blast Not too un-nice luckily, he's a bit happy-go-lucky I guess :P
I like seeing him though
10:12 AM
that's good
10:36 AM
I was linked this Puzzling.SE post a while back (because it's "historical" and I like history) and I still haven't solved it:
4
Q: Historical puzzle

manweWe have three facts. In reality, there are 13. But in Germany, there are 12. One is Russian, one is French. The thing they've created is spread all around the world. What is it? Edit: One more hint. People sometimes thought these two are only one person. (French and Russian) Edit 2: Fourth ...

Sadly, puzzles of this genre are in a superposition where it's impossible to determine whether they're legitimately tricky good ones or just bad.
(kinda problematic for SE-ish quality evaluation)
10:48 AM
@Carcer I binged another 200 ish pages again, I feel obliged to thank you again for this.
s'cool
didn't really take much effort on my part
:>
Pleasantly there seems to be a new page of Lackadaisy too.
(I don't usually bother with feeds, I'm a luddite that way)
 
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12:07 PM
I am bothered by not being able to use RSS feeds
(why I want to stab tumblr, part 1)
 
2 hours later…
2:33 PM
@Carcer Btw little tidbit: "Onni" means luck, happiness or joy. "Tuuri" also means luck (specifically that). I only noticed the connection between their names yesterday :P
And Lalli shares his name with a legendary axe murderer who killed Bishop Henry of Uppsala.
2:50 PM
@Miniman That's good! I'm glad to hear it.
@V2Blast Interesting. I really liked (and remember) 2 but didn't even remember that I'd seen 3 until, poking around, I saw a screenshot. So it's flip-flop for me.
3:29 PM
@kviiri how'd your big brother's first D&D session go btw?
@Shalvenay I just got word from him they only just started playing :D
@kviiri ah, what are they playing btw? :)
So I take character generation and memery took quite a lot of time
@Shalvenay I think LMoP
@kviiri ah
4:06 PM
They're apparently still playing
4:35 PM
@nitsua60 I did another deep dive and ended up having to change my answer based on Holmes. (AD&D wandering Monster question) Holmes didn't get a lot of attention in our gaming groups since most of us went from OD&D to AD&D without starting over. Glad I still have it.
Ugh, trying to schedule a housewarming party
People are happy to complain particular weekends aren't ok for them but when I create a doodle so people'd tell me which weekends are ok for them, no replies.
@nitsua60 Heh, I still have B7 module in cellophane wrap.
 
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7:35 PM
@kviiri sounds like scheduling RPG sessions
 
3 hours later…
10:23 PM
7
Q: Do you need to have the original move to take a "Replaces:" move?

kdubsWhen leveling in Dungeon World, if you choose a move that has a "Replaces: X", do you need to have the X move? For example, a thief wants to take the move "Dirty Fighter". It states "Replaces: Cheap Shot". Does the thief need to have taken "Cheap Shot", or can he just choose "Dirty Fighter"?

11:01 PM
0
Q: Appropriate response to questioning which version of D&D I'm asking about

munkI play Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (aka 1e) and have for quite some time. Mostly I've been the DM. I've started to ask questions here about the rules to help better understand the game as it was written. When I ask a question, I tag it adnd. The tag description says it refers to 1e. This clar...

11:38 PM
@BelfastBiker Hi!
11:53 PM
hey there @BlackSpike, how're things going?
@BESW Hi! back atcha, first time chatter here.....

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