TRPG General Chat

AncientSwordRage

1:08 AM

Y'all making me hungry

Hot RPG Questions

7

Q: How do you determine a dragon's gender?

How do you determine the gender of a dragon, without resorting to asking them? A number of published D&D adventures have dragons in them that are clearly identified as male or female. However, there is no information on how people know the gender of a dragon. I'm asking about the Forgotten Realms...

Bardic Wizard

1:34 AM

@HotRPGQuestions we were just talking about this question earlier! (Who wants to bet now it’s an HNQ it’s gonna get some transphobic troll coming in and being a jerk?)

Hot RPG Questions

4

Q: How does the Flames of Phlegethos racial feat interact with the sorcerer's Metamagic option Empowered Spell?

If I have both the Flames of Phlegethos feat and the sorcerer's Metamagic option Empowered Spell, can I re-roll the same die twice? The description of the second benefit of the Flames of Phlegethos tiefling racial feat says (XGtE, p. 74): When you roll fire damage for a spell you cast, you can r...

dnd-5e feats sorcerer metamagic

BESW

@BardicWizard We've got a pretty good history of kicking out the obvious HNQ creepiness. It's the "just asking questions" strategy that we sometimes let go too far.

Bardic Wizard

@BESW fair

KorvinStarmast

2:14 AM

@BardicWizard we have tools to deal with that, like delete votes and flags. And we use them, because moderation is a community effort. Be not afraid. 😎

3

Hot RPG Questions

2:29 AM

6

Q: Does my character know he's ill while incubating a disease?

My character was bitten by a Dire Rat and through accidental meta-gaming reasons, I know he's incubating Filth Fever. I want to ask the Paladin in our party to remove it before it can affect my stats, however, I don't really know if my character would know he's ill before the stat damage occurs. ...

dnd-3.5e metagaming disease

4

Q: What happens if a kalashtar eats a dream pastry?

According to Eberron: Rising from the Last War: Kalashtar sleep, but they don't connect to the plane of dreams as other creatures do. Instead, their minds draw from the memories of their otherworldly spirit while they sleep. As such, you are immune to spells and other magical effects that requir...

dnd-5e eberron curse-of-strahd

Bardic Wizard

4:28 AM

My mantra today is apparently “there’s always homebrew”

A friend and I are discussing d&d character concepts

Bardic Wizard

4:43 AM

Anyone got any opinions on the unofficial blood hunter class, especially order of the lycan?

This friend wants to do a shapeshifter where shifting has a cost that’s more severe than a limit in uses, so we’re thinking order of the lycan blood hunter but with the once per rest limit on shifting replaced by “every time after the first in a day you use this feature, gain a level of exhaustion”

How balanced would this be?

BESW

5:58 AM

This answer is self-admitted pure unsupported speculation.

doppelgreener

9:16 AM

@AncientSwordRage apology yes, "just" no.

i don't know how to convey that a company that has fully enabled a pervasive culture of LGBT-phobias under its watch through action and inaction and tacit endorsement for the better part of ten years needs to do a bit more than say "oops, we're sorry about that."

The turnaround to protect trans people from misgendering last year was the start of resolving that. The outpouring of hate we saw in main meta last year was the side effect of the culture they cultivated, not an individual isolated event unrelated to any other.

if some of this is the stuff you've missed, then, this is it

AncientSwordRage

@doppelgreener possibly

When I say 'just' I didn't see any evidence of them actively changing that toxic culture

besides some parts of the new CoC

doppelgreener

yeah, we need a lot more than an apology, we need stack exchange to do consistent work to change the culture they're in charge of

Sorry, that original message from me might've been unnecessarily snarky. I've got trauma wrapped up in this, and so do many other LGBT people present in the community or who never want to come back because of what they experienced.

AncientSwordRage

@doppelgreener that's how I read your message, with the baggage from SO not any other malice/snark

KorvinStarmast

12:02 PM

@NautArch The physics emulation question isn't just a dupe, I was tempted to VtC for opinion based as well ...

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast Yeah, i could ssee that, too. But i'm feeling confident that it's a dupe, too.

KorvinStarmast

@BardicWizard My take on BH is "too many fiddly bits" but I do enjoy using the NPC version as a monster/bad guy.

NautArch

@BardicWizard I was briefly in a group with someone who was playing one and it was underwhelming. And the whole self-harm thing is weird.

Thomas Markov

@BardicWizard The friend wants it to have a cost? Cuz there's nothing wrong with the changeling as written.

Hot RPG Questions

2

Q: Is the Wield Oversized Weapon epic feat as bad as it looks?

Wield Oversized Weapon [Epic] is on pg 153 of Complete Warrior. Compared to Monkey Grip on pg 103 (shown below WOW), it looks like all you get for 25 STR and 21 BAB is +2 to hit and the ability to use large double weapons or large weapons in offhand. Is this for real, or am I missing something he...

dnd-3.5e feats

NautArch

12:13 PM

@BardicWizard What do you mean by shapeshifting?

Hot RPG Questions

12:39 PM

3

Q: "Dee-twenty" and "die-twenty" pronunciations

(I asked this question recently on reddit, and got a mixed assortment of not-quite answers.) Most gamers pronounce, e.g., 'd20' as "dee-twenty", or '3d6' as "three dee-six". But a certain contingent of (mainly older) gamers pronounce them "die-twenty" and "three die-six", respectively. Does anyon...

dice terminology

Thomas Markov

12:49 PM

Not gonna lie, "three-die-six" makes me cringe for some reason.

See, it hurts me so much I wrote "dee" instead of "die" trying to explain it.

NautArch

pronunciation questions are weird

Thomas Markov

Question for meta: "How do you pronounce NautArch? Cite your sources."

NautArch

Not.

Thomas Markov

The Arch is silent?

NautArch

yep

i'm just not.

:P

Rubiksmoose

12:57 PM

Obviously it is pronounced Nawt-arqwehcb [guttural throat noises]

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

Just use IPA. It's got a symbol for each of those noises!

Rubiksmoose

Thought about it, then weighed the effort that would take against the quality of the "joke" and just went for it lol

Bardic Wizard

@NautArch werewolf-like shifting, basically it’s a curse that gives multiple forms to shift into and there’s minor effects over the short term but if it’s used too much, a couple days later it’s serious and could kill/harm them.

BESW

What change to the table experience are you looking to make?

Bardic Wizard

@ThomasMarkov it’s werewolf shifting more than changeling shifting, but they want multiple forms at least for the fluff

NautArch

1:05 PM

How does the world perceive these shapeshifters?

BESW

That is, what's the behaviour or feeling you want to create or change at the table with this shapeshifting mechanic?

NautArch

and what new abilities do they get?

AncientSwordRage

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica ɴɒtʼəɹʞ

Someone_Evil

@ThomasMarkov Nøttark

Bardic Wizard

@NautArch New abilities are basically multiple forms to shift to (in fluff at least, it’s ok if they all have the same bonuses), but it’s a curse reflavored at least to be from a powerful magic item that imposes drawbacks on shifting that are worse over the long term than the short term (the original idea was “I impulsively shift going it’s fine but two weeks later I’m like oh bleep”)

@BESW the feeling is basically they want a curse that means there’s consequences to shapeshifting, where it makes them think more when they shift than like a druid

BESW

1:14 PM

Hmm. Is the goal "think more carefully about choosing to shift" and negative consequences are just the solution you're using to get that, or are negative consequences really part of the goal?

Bardic Wizard

@NautArch the gm says it fits into the world as a blessing/curse from a god, straight up lycanthropy, or run of the mill cursed item

@BESW negative consequences are part of the goal I believe. They originally asked whether it was possible to add a curse to shapeshifting because “even if not necessary a curse attached to the power would be cool”

BESW

Are they gonna be spending a lot of time in the wilderness surrounded only by people who know they're a shapeshifter?

Bardic Wizard

Well, this is with our usual group but a different game (that two shot I’m building a bard for) and so “New York City but with horror monsters everywhere” is the setting as far as we know

BESW

Here's why I'm asking: if being identified as a shapeshifter is a significant obstacle in their lives, then you can just have the curse be "the more you shapeshift, the more you get residual evidences of it" like pointy teeth or fur instead of hair on your human form.

BAM, nice flavor, interesting choices, no need to balance.

Rubiksmoose

Gradually like your steaks rarer and rarer lol

Bardic Wizard

1:23 PM

It’s going to be a cursed mask for the flavor whatever they do mechanically, and part of the curse is that it’s already permanent but it gets harder to hide and more impossible to take off the more they shift

Rubiksmoose

Sounds like a smokin' idea

@BardicWizard What do you mean by it's already permanent?

You mean once they use it once they already have irrevocable effects?

Bardic Wizard

@Rubiksmoose can’t be taken off but no effects unless it’s used

And the effects get worse the more times it’s used. that’s what we’re trying to figure out, what mechanical effects we can use to balance at will shapeshifting with a curse

BESW

...I once gave somebody a boon/curse that they could get more uses of per day, and increases to its numbers, by making it harder and harder to get rid of.

The catch was, the bonuses to some skills were also penalties to other skills.

Bardic Wizard

@BESW how’d that feel for them as a player?

BESW

He liked it, but I'd made it very specifically for that person who I'd known for a long time.

Bardic Wizard

1:31 PM

@BESW that certainly makes it easier

BESW

It was a power that dealt damage and produced a gem of value proportional to the damage dealt. Every day you made a check, and if you failed then you got +1 use of the power, and +1 to all thief-related skills, and -1 to all other skills.

If you succeeded on the check, you got -1 use, -1 thief, +1 other skills.

If you ever zeroed out your use number, the effect went away forever.

You could choose to fail the check.

Bardic Wizard

That’s ... wow.

BESW

(Oh, and the power added your stealing skill modifier to the damage.)

It was a curse for robbing the tomb of a thief-god's high priest.

Bardic Wizard

That might be similar to what they want but the conversation went on for an hour after I went to bed so I’d have to check and see if there was a conclusion (the player in question, who’s our usual rogue, and the usual gm and I were brainstorming as a group)

BESW

I knew that the player took great joy in min/max balancing and extreme specialization at the expense of general ability.

(and he could use all that money he was getting, to buy remove curse which would remove one or more layers of the curse per cast.)

AncientSwordRage

1:36 PM

sounds like it could be 'cursed with awesome'

BESW

Well, when you've got +40 to all your thief actions and -40 all other actions, you start to question your ability to survive from one thieving opportunity to the next.

Bardic Wizard

@BESW knowing players is very important; they have this image of a shifter in their head but not really much practice with d&d (blood hunter they said didn’t look too hard but Druid stats were different every time and druids have spellcasting so they don’t want to figure that out every session especially not for a two shot)

BESW

I'd be inclined to take a page from Shadowcraft, where overuse of animal magic slowly turns you into an animal-like being in both body and thought, but you can spend time doing things that remind you of yourself (eat a favorite meal, hang out with friends, go to worship) to recenter your identity.

AncientSwordRage

Reminds me of Mouseguard nature

a mouse of max/min nature is essentially retired (but you are motivated against that)

Bardic Wizard

@BESW hmm... I’ll bring that up

BESW

1:44 PM

Like... a good consequence, from a story perspective, isn't something that reduces the things you can do, it's something that changes what you do or how you do it.

doppelgreener

Howl's moving castle has magic that works sorta like that for some people

Bardic Wizard

@BESW I think our group may not have been coming at this from the right perspective, bc we’re looking at “what mechanics can we add” instead of “how do we give this a story that we can all play into”

which would make it so that maybe my bard mentions an old legend about the itemic shifters, who gained power from their curses, and that gives the character some kind of idea. Or maybe the usual GM’s ranger will have met someone that used the curse to kill and that warns the character away from that path

BESW

@BardicWizard That's valid!

Bardic Wizard

(Speaking of the usual gm, looks like he and the artificer have figured out a compromise — he’ll stop deliberately making npcs that are designed to counter the party and the artificer is going to make it a habit to think about whether he’s interrupting before he talks)

(We’re still doing a session 0 next week)

CollinB

2:41 PM

E

NautArch

L

CollinB

Understandabl

e

kviiri

3:06 PM

@doppelgreener I just watched the film actually, it's been a while since the last time and as usual I was visually stunned by its beauty and I think I got some of its messages way better this time

goodguy5

3:31 PM

New job officially underway. AND I have the most coveted of rights on my laptop....

admin rights

NautArch

@goodguy5 muahahaahahahahaaha

goodguy5

without talking about any of the politics surrounding this statement right now:

"Mice die in mouse traps because they do not understand why the cheese is free."

What is that? The word that came to mind immediately was "parable", but I don't think that's right

AncientSwordRage

@goodguy5 goodadmin

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