TRPG General Chat

doppelgreener

00:39

@BardicWizard i don't know what the comment contains but i've raised a flag on the question itself just to draw mod attention to the comment in case they want to take further action. the flag on the comment would've auto-resolved upon it getting deleted, but the flag on the question itself will stick around until a mod sees it and actions it.

BESW

@AncientSwordRage Wanderhome, Monster Care Squad, Arc, Jiangshi.

Game A Month 2020 A collection by ehronlime.

BESW

01:11

@AncientSwordRage I'm a little salty that Wanderhome made the cut and Mnemonic didn't, thought.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW they all look great

@BESW this one?

Aug 16 at 1:37, by BESW

The Mnemonic: A Weaver's Almanac Kickstarter includes links to previews of the core rules and the setting guide.

BESW

Yuuup.

Bardic Wizard

@doppelgreener it’s been dealt with afaik and @Someone_Evil (alongside a number of non-mods) has been consistently stepping in and keeping stuff civil. Thanks though!

BESW

They were kickstarted simultaneously and there was a social media... thing... where people tried to pit them against each other (because you can only support one queer indie TRPG at a time, there's a quota doncha know), and Mnemonic suffered tangibly for it.

AncientSwordRage

There're too many decent games in the world to play at once

2

Someone_Evil

01:29

@doppelgreener Thank you for pointing it out, and I'm sorry for anyone else who had the displeasure of reading it

BESW

Definitely. But attacking a game by comparing Southeast Asian budgets to North American budgets without taking into account the vastly different economies, or checking with the creators to see if they're happy with what they're being paid... yeah, it wasn't actively malicious, but it was patronizing and presumptuous.

Sep 6 at 13:38, by BESW

One reason I've been pushing Mnemomic more than a lot of other Kickstarters is that it's very notable as a Kickstarter that is gonna be putting money into the pockets of TRPG creative professionals who live in countries where they literally cannot run Kickstarters themselves.

Aug 25 at 2:28, by BESW

Dee Pennyway wrote a twitter thread about "stuff that Mnemonic does that DISRUPTS the tabletop industry."

Wanderhome's great, and supports marginalized creators, but Dee built Mnemonic from the ground up to challenge ideas about what TRPGs can/should be both at the table and in the industry. And the response from a vocal part of the TRPG space was to shout that Dee was taking advantage of SEA creators, without checking in on the creators first.

So I love Wanderhome but I'll shout about Mnemonic.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW oh wow, I actual started writing that before your post, and now it reads completely differently

Shalvenay

02:02

@BESW yeah, I don't get why people seem to get up in arms about pay numbers while not normalizing them to cost of living in a particular place

BESW

@Shalvenay Honestly they should've just DMed the creators and said "Hey, I'm worried about the numbers here, are you okay with it and if not what would you like me to do?" rather than go white-knighting without permission.

Shalvenay

@BESW yeah, that's definitely a better approach

BESW

Math or not, you get the person's permission before you advocate for them.

2

BESW

02:48

Transpunk-2020 Sale A sale hosted by ThatAceGal. You can now get all my trans-narrative games for 30% off. OR you can buy this bundle for a total of five dollars. That's under an eight of the price they would normally be! Check them out, I've been told they're "Hella trans."

LIGHT Jam Hosted by Gila RPGs. LIGHT is a rules-lite RPG inspired by the video game Destiny. More importantly, LIGHT is modular. It's built out of pieces, rather than being a whole. You build the experience you want with LIGHT by including and excluding whatever modules you want. So, what do you say we make some things for the game? This jam is for any and all things LIGHT.

SmokeDetector

03:13

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Potentially bad keyword in answer, potentially bad keyword in username, blacklisted user (73): Is there a legal way to get D&D 5e core rulebook PDFs? by Pro Gamer Tips on rpg.SE (@Rubiksmoose)

Bardic Wizard

Dinner today appears to be a game of Fortunately/Unfortunately (did anyone else play that on long car rides as kids? It used to be a favorite of mine)

Fortunately, we’re at my grandfather’s house for dinner. Unfortunately, dinner is posole from my bisabuela’s recipe. Fortunately, it’s vegetarian. Unfortunately, I get to hear my grandfather and mother talk about how Bisa’s recipe used to include pig feet. Fortunately, there’s no actual pigs feet. Unfortunately... well, you get the picture

It has been a cringe-filled dinner for me as a vegetarian

TheDragonOfFlame

03:33

@BardicWizard Yikes. Also I love that game

trogdor

oh gods pigs feet

please no

XD

Bardic Wizard

04:41

@trogdor also a vegetarian? Or just not a fan of pigs’ feet?

trogdor

no not a vegetarian but despite liking meat I still think pigs feet is,... not actual food

Bardic Wizard

04:56

@trogdor my non vegetarian siblings agree with you.

trogdor

lol

I don't want to rain on the parade of anyone who actually eats them, but I do want to rain on the parade of anyone who wants to make me eat them

Hot RPG Questions

05:55

2

Q: Does Natural Explorer's double proficiency apply to perception checks while keeping watch?

The Natural Explorer class feature is sort of vague about what skill checks count When you make an Intelligence or Wisdom check related to your favored terrain, your proficiency bonus is doubled if you are using a skill that you’re proficient in. I emphasized related to, because it doesn't say "...

Hot RPG Questions

07:10

5

Q: As a monk, if I throw a dart with my action, can I make an unarmed strike using my bonus action?

As a monk, after failing to hit someone with a dart throw, can I make an unarmed strike against an enemy close to me using my bonus action?

dnd-5e monk unarmed-combat bonus-action

Hot RPG Questions

08:51

1

Q: What magic items from the DMG give a +1 to saving throws?

My DM gave a few magic items to the party after a particularly rough encounter with a dragon a month or so ago. One player was absent, so we only had 3, and another player's character died. The result of this is that my greedy gnome criminal and the guileless half-orc fighter were the only 2 char...

dnd-5e magic-items saving-throw

AncientSwordRage

13:15

@BardicWizard I don't think I ever tried them before becoming Muslim, bit I'm not sure if want to...

Hot RPG Questions

18:54

4

Q: Does Dispel Magic work on a self-targeting spell cast by an artifact and emanating from within an antimagic field?

A character has a sentient artifact able to cast Holy Aura. Another character casts Antimagic Field and the two effects overlap, so that the origins of both spells are within both spell effects. Can someone cast Dispel Magic on the Holy Aura effect since its radius (30ft) exceeds that of the Anti...

dnd-5e spells magic antimagic-field

AncientSwordRage

19:26

@HotRPGQuestions I didn't realise there was the artifact/diety clause on the AMF

I get the deity part, but not the artifact bit

doppelgreener

19:49

@Someone_Evil thanks for checking in :)

AncientSwordRage

A wild DG appears

doppelgreener

\\o/////

AncientSwordRage

20:10

DG used mirror image, it was super super super effective

How's tricks?

doppelgreener

playing a sonic TRPG with some friends!

AncientSwordRage

That sounds awsome

I'm looking at the Urban Shadows 2E kick start and finding it very hard to resist...

Anyone in here played the 1E?

It looks like a mix of Shadowrun and (n)Wod/Co(f)D

Bardic Wizard

20:33

@AncientSwordRage don’t. The last time I actually had them (as opposed to hearing my mom and grandfather remember them) was about a year before Bisa died, so I was probably around 4 years old, and I remember taking one bite and being absolutely sure they were going to poison me. They were absolutely gross (I was not even that picky an eater as a 4yo, to be clear)

@doppelgreener how do you play a ttrpg involving sound? Sonic is either a type of energy or an adjective describing something involving sound, I thought, and that doesn’t sound like a game at all?

Someone_Evil

I assumed it was referring to the discoloured hedgehog in this instance

Bardic Wizard

@Someone_Evil What does a discolored hedgehog have to do with the word sonic? Am I missing some kind of cultural context?

TheDragonOfFlame

Sonic is a video game character who is a blue hedgehog who runs super fast

AncientSwordRage

@Glazius paging you about Urban Shadows

doppelgreener

20:53

@BardicWizard the entire thing is played with sound we project and receive!

@Someone_Evil also yes!

Bardic Wizard

21:06

@doppelgreener I mean, that probably describes every rpg ever, except for pbp or solo rpgs... so maybe not all rpgs

i was confused. I don’t play video games so that’s probably why

Glazius

21:41

Haven't been following the 2E kickstarter, sorry.

1E is an urban fantasy landscape where the PCs are power brokers in a web of favors - it's one of those Apocalypse World style systems where they're not necessarily playing Happy Families all the time.

AncientSwordRage

@Glazius have you played WoD or Shadowrun to compare?

Glazius

Too long ago to be useful, I fear. What elements of them are you trying to compare?

(BRB emptying dryer)

AncientSwordRage

22:00

@Glazius just the general feel/aesthetics of the game play? I like dice pool systems, and I like d20 systems, but I've not gotten on with 2d6 systems in the past (mainly just in-nomine)

trogdor

@BardicWizard I'm not sure there have been any sonic games even released in the last couple years anyway (I could also be wrong though)

Glazius

Oh, you've never played a PBTA game?

AncientSwordRage

I also like the setting, and the different vampire/Mage factions (never got my head around Werewolf factions)

@Glazius nope

I really like some of the crunchier bits of both systems I played albeit only briefly

Glazius

Okay, cool. Well, the first feature of PbtA games is that they stop trying to point you with a story idea and hoping you'll choose to align yourself with it and instead say: "here are your stories, pick one".

AncientSwordRage

"point you with a story idea"?

As in drop clues?

"here are your stories, pick one" does sound appealing to me, but maybe it would be in game

I like clues in a game

Glazius

22:12

If you're a mortal, you're either the paranormal investigator levering a web of contacts to understand the new-to-you dark side that's always been there, the hunter out to take down the supernatural menaces, or a former power player who still has ambition but is much more vulnerable than they're used to.

Sorry, point you "at" a story idea.

Like how in Shadowrun you could write yourself to be a former corporate hitman who went rogue after one dark day but there was really nothing to play that out of character creation, you were the same bundle of skills, attributes, and cyberware as everyone else?

If you're the former power player and the GM introduces a new face, you can always choose to go "hello, old friend" instead of using your general faction knowledge to find out what they are, and if you do that, you roll +mind (2d6 and add your mind stat, a number between -2 and +3).

Get a 7 or more and they'll take risks to help you. Get a 6 or less and you tell the GM why they want you dead.

(on a 7-9, you also owe them a Debt, the game's social currency which they can leverage to put you in a spot with their demands)

The 2d6 PbtA systems are usually about simple rolls with few modifiers that are extremely impactful, and will involve a bit of narrative setup just to hash out the stakes.

AncientSwordRage

@Glazius are these codified in the rules for most PbtA games? I know the numbers are, but I mean the results

@Glazius so not like the other two where you could be slinging around handfuls of dice every round....

Glazius

22:32

The 7+ results are usually codified, yes. A 10+ is as good as you can hope for, a 7-9 is a compromise. The 6- is often left up to the GM to play with a setback that fits the mood at hand, but sometimes the direction things should go is so obvious the move points it out.

(Note that "they want you dead" doesn't necessarily mean that you're kill-on-sight. The city's seedy occult underbelly is full of people who'd kill each other if they could get away with it, but usually there's something more important to worry about.)

AncientSwordRage

Sounds like it could be a lot of fun but not a close replacement for either game.

Glazius

That said, while the rules are intended to cover most of the situations that show up in play at a genre-fiction sort of level, they'll usually include a rules grammar and guidance for writing your own as you run into circumstances that rise above the general. Like there's a general move for making a getaway because it all the time comes up in urban fantasy that things come to a head and one character is at a disadvantage so they try to bolt.

But if the Wild Hunt's picked up your scent or there's a citywide manhunt out for you, those things are more dramatic than just "make an escape roll and you're gone", so when those things become threats the GM can do some prep to refine that general move.

It's absolutely not a replacement for the fun you have with dice pools, or if you expect to find some drama in dicing back and forth to get something done.

Hot RPG Questions

4

Q: Is it ok to use the type of monsters in table top RPG for commercial use in writing?

Some types like "Vampire" are obviously public domain but what about the more obscure ones like "Duergar", "Drow", "Boggards", etc. Are these also public domain? How can you tell if it's not public domain?

publishing intellectual-property

Glazius

But if you're really into the urban fantasy genre and you want to play its big stars and do the big star things, that's what it's built for.

AncientSwordRage

Yeah sounds like I might look into getting it

TheDragonOfFlame

23:43

@BardicWizard honestly surprised you haven’t heard of Sonic: The Hedgehog (r) though. Have you heard of Mario Brothers, or Pokemon? It’s about as big as those..

You are American right?

kviiri

I'd argue Sonic is historically big but undergone significant decay

TheDragonOfFlame

True

But typically most people know what you are referring too when you say sonic (also there was that movie)

Sonic The Hedgehog (2020) - New Official Trailer - Paramount Pictures

►

kviiri

At one time it was a flagship mascot for Sega which did what Nintendidn't. Including discontinuing their consoles due to poor sales.

TheDragonOfFlame

Does saga even exist anymore

Because sonic is in Super Smash Bro’s which means he belongs to Nintendo now..

kviiri

Sega does exist, yes. They lost the console wars and cozied up with Nintendo, now only making games instead of consoles.

Bardic Wizard

23:57

@TheDragonOfFlame yes; my parents are not fans of video games and neither am I.

If it came from a video game that I didn’t hear of from a friend, wasn’t educational, or that I didn’t program myself in middle school computer science, I’ve likely never heard of it

kviiri

@TheDragonOfFlame Nintendo doesn't really own all the characters in Smash, though. Many of them are just partnerships of some degree

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