TRPG General Chat

12:01 AM

@MarkWells In theory, perhaps. But a lot of D&D-like games encode failure-as-nothing into their bones with concepts like "taking ten" and "taking twenty" which represent rolling for outcomes with low/no-risk failure conditions so you can just keep trying until you succeed. The d20 System made it explicit that this was just shorthand for "you could keep rolling until you get a 20 but nobody wants to sit around while you do it" situations.

Whereas games like Fate and Goblin Court only allow the randomizer when something's at risk.

If nothing's risked, just narrate the success.

And as we see above with Taylor's situation, there's still an implicit culture of using the randomizer even when only one outcome is going to be interesting.

Concepts like "let it ride" and "fail forward" are still unembraced, or even completely unknown, at a lot of tables; we see this in the kinds of questions we get at rpg.se.

Mark Wells

@BESW Taking 10/20 is just a slightly more fine-grained version of "narrate the success". It's saying "yeah, you'd get the door open eventually, so skip to that point".

The more intractable issue with D&D is attack rolls, which really are failure-as-nothing.

BESW

I think there's a hair which needs to be split there, because there's a BIG difference between "you could roll the dice but it'll be boring so here's an alternative" and "don't roll the dice, ever, if it'd be boring."

Mark Wells

Which one is presented as the default? Yeah, that's a meaningful distinction.

BESW

And while I agree that failed attack rolls are underwhelming, they do represent a passive cost (lost action economy) which taking 10/20 does not.

I prefer active costs to passive ones but that's a matter of scale rather than a matter of kind.

@Rubiksmoose I'm gonna sit on that idea for a while and see what percolates out of it. It'd be a significant thematic shift that I need to talk with people about.

Making goblins incapable of failing to achieve an action might actually make the game even more grim, in the vein of Cthulhu Dark, because they'd still be struggling to achieve their goals despite being hypercompetent--which bulks up the perceived power of the opposition.

Adeptus

1:20 AM

Troll Lord Games is currently offering 2 Castles & Crusades books for free - the Players Handbook and Monsters & Treasures

mystic will

1:30 AM

anyone want to play off brand fortnite i will be bad tho because i'm playing on my chromebook.

BESW

1:51 AM

Hi! I think you may be confusing us with The Bridge. This chat is mostly about tabletop (physical, pen-and-paper, person-led) role playing games, not games whose narrative experience is mediated by software.

linksassin

@BESW "narrative experience is mediated by software" lol.

Adeptus

@KorvinStarmast (resisting the urge to post Muppets Treasure Island clip...)

"off brand fortnite" - now I'm wondering if there's a game called "two weeks"...

V2Blast

3:45 AM

About to stream our D&D 5e actual-play podcast, Planeslip: Echoes of Creation, in around 15 minutes: https://www.twitch.tv/bigdredwun

In a universe adjacent to our own lies a world known as Runia. This world, once peaceful and idyllic, is now threatened by a monstrous being from its prehistory. A group of adventurers known as Whiskey Company have risen up to do what they can to fight this entity known only as Nagat. They have trekked far across the mortal realms in search of the shards of Barrinoth, the Titan of Justice, in hopes of returning him to his full power - and now they finally ha…

the finale approacheth

Ben

@V2Blast Did i miss it?

V2Blast

5 minutes till it starts

(well technically a little longer)

:P

Ben

Oh ok.

Oh right, Iread my clock wrong

Hot RPG Questions

4:22 AM

3

Q: Are there any Bad Dream disadvantages

So in my campaign I'm planning on having my "big bad" mess with one of my player's head a bit, while they sleep. He's a very powerful witch-king type person (the big bad). He is going to be trying to discourage the player in their quest. Specifics of the dream The player will start in a dungeo...

dnd-5e

linksassin

@Rubiksmoose Congrats on the appointment to the mod council. You'll do us proud!

2

Rubiksmoose

4:35 AM

Daww thanks! I hope so :)

Ben

6:14 AM

I think my biggest struggle in RP history is finding someone to run a Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader campaign.

I'd even be interested in a Wrath & Glory game... the issue is that people "don't do Grim Dark"

"Don't do". That's english for you. :P

kviiri

We discussed grim dark every now and then in my former group, but it was never a serious discussion. Maintaining a grim dark atmosphere in a group full of jest is hard.

I think there could've been alleviating factors, though. People have less of that "everything's a joke" energy when sessions are more frequent

But still, setting the proper tone is much harder than breaking it.

Miniman

@kviiri I'm in my third Warhammer campaign with essentially the same group, and I'd argue that the "everything's a joke" attitude is vital.

Because, well. The entire Warhammer setting is basically a parody of itself.

kviiri

@Miniman Yep, it's totally true for many tables and types of games.

@Miniman "Hot Shots is a parody of Top Gun, which is a parody of Top Gun" :)

Ben

Well, yeah. We have a running joke (even to this day, 5 years after our last session) that everyone remembers and still laughs at - but at the same time we remember other things in the same moment as being badass, gory or just straight up brutal, which were all good things

kviiri

But yeah, I think there are some things that click much better when treated with a thick veneer of jest and none-too-serious treatment. Eg. I still that my best DnD campaign so far was one that with some humor, some seriousness elevated tropes of DnD and heroic fantasy in general to be in-universe properties.

Kinda like what Goblins the webcomic does.

Miniman

6:27 AM

We play the actual game pretty straight. But we don't hesitate to spend 5 minutes making jokes out of character when, e.g., my dwarf's leg turned into a bird leg.

Ben

Character also helps, and DH/RT sets that tone well I think.

kviiri

It wasn't all frolic though, eg. while the idea that adventurers know their class and level and might be decorated upon level-up might seem a bit silly, there are also serious angles to that

Ben

Actually, that's something the GM did; he would just randomly drop an "Oh damn!" moment every now and then.

I once got mugged, and instead of stealing my wallet they blew my leg off.

kviiri

Goblins did that quite a lot, eg. when the eponymous goblins decide to take adventurer levels and form a party they at first get reactions like "that's so against tradition, you'll be heretics"

Miniman

@kviiri Yeah, I was talking with a friend about that concept (but in a videogame world) recently. "So in this world, you are measurably less likely to die if you kill things, but you don't want to fight anything dangerous. So why doesn't everyone spend all their time killing the lowest level enemies over and over again?" Then I realised that I'd basically just described exercise in real life, and that's honestly pretty depressing.

kviiri

6:30 AM

(my frequent mentioning of the comic shouldn't be taken as an endorsement. It's got its good moments but overall is... a very peculiar auteur product)

Ben

Being a Techpriest, and in service of an Inquisitor, it didn't make it too difficult to get a mechanical leg. It was sort of just a reminder of the enviromnent we were in

One off idea: W&G game based on the Astartes Series

Miniman

@Ben Seems like a pretty clear Black Crusade game

Oh, you want to play as the Space Marines :P

kviiri

@Miniman I also found that it significantly eased people's attitudes about the whole in-character vs out-of-character debate. Didn't need to think about metagaming that much, which resulted in more of what I'd actually consider interesting role-playing :)

Ben

Bit of fun, straightforward.

@Miniman Of course :P

kviiri

Oh, the adventurers in SSSS are almost in Joensuu! They're really in the sticks this time.

Miniman

6:40 AM

@kviiri I think that applies to the "grimdark taken lightly" attitude we were talking about, too - laughing at the misfortunes of the characters makes it far easier not to worry about that kind of thing.

Ben

7:40 AM

@BESW it arrived! (A month late, but hey, to be expected)

V2Blast

8:25 AM

Nice!

Ben

9:01 AM

Just had a read through, it looks really good! Should be heaps of fun 😁

BESW

Awesome!

Ben

I'm already getting excited haha

BESW

9:39 AM

Playtest release: Fur One Night Only! by LuchaLibris is a free one-shot party RPG for 3+ fans of musicals and/or cats, about cats who sing and dance.

Ben

The Funniest Wolf Howls Are Lazy Ones

►

I identify with this hahaha

Hot RPG Questions

10:48 AM

4

Q: Is it reasonable to let Inquisitive Rogues get advantage on Perception and Investigation outside combat?

I am DM in a campaign and recently my players reached level 3. The Rogue chose to take the Inquisitive archetype. I am looking at the Eye for Detail feature, which allows the rogue to make a Perception check to look for hidden things or an Investigation check to uncover or decipher clues as a bo...

dnd-5e class-feature skills rogue advantage-and-disadvantage

nitsua60

1:00 PM

=\

Just updated my profile to formally recognize my complete cessation of gaming.

NautArch

1:11 PM

@nitsua60 WUT?!

goodguy5

1:32 PM

^

NautArch

1:44 PM

I'm gaming significantly more during this quarantine.

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 That's not good. :-(

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

I'm gaming less than the year before, but that has nothing to do with the quarantine. GM just as much though.

NautArch

1:55 PM

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica SO less total gaming, but same percentage of GMing?

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@NautArch Less gaming, but as much GMing.

But less total RPG activities. Probably. I may have begun reading RPGs more in the time gained to compensate, but am not sure about the numbers of hours.

NautArch

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I wasn't GMing before quarantine. Now I'm running a 2/week session.

And recently joined a 1/week as a player.

kviiri

I've been more active in RPGs during these trying times... although only by reading books. Not playing

nitsua60

@NautArch I mean, I don't have anything against gaming generally, it's just not working for me. (And, actually, that-all transpired a month or so ago.)

@KorvinStarmast It's better for me--we tried with my RL groups tried for a week or two to continue, but it wasn't working for me.

But I just happened to notice that my profile mentioned all these games I'm playing or running and I thought, "hmm... that's not true."

Hot RPG Questions

2:12 PM

4

Q: Does the Legion of One Echo Knight ability allow each echo to use Unleash Incarnation?

Unleash Incarnation (EGtW, p. 183)States: Whenever you take the Attack action, you can make one additional melee attack from the echo’s position. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier. Legion of One (EGtW, p. 184) States: You can use a bonus a...

dnd-5e class-feature attack actions fighter

NautArch

2:40 PM

@nitsua60 Is it the pure digital thing? Or just you can't get your mind into it with everthing else going on?

nitsua60

3:09 PM

@NautArch Yes =)

NautArch

@nitsua60 This is really my one escape from it, so it's helping keep me sane.

nitsua60

Digital is less engaging for me than RL. I (personally) most enjoy hanging out with friends, little side-conversations, manipulating tactile elements, making sketches or taking photos of the table setup and play-group. All that's gone in digital.
It turns out that when the rest of my week is normal, it's totally enjoyable to go ahead and game without all of that in order to be able to ~play~ with friends and keep the connection alive, as it were.
But now, when all of my career activities and social activities and (extranuclear) family activities are also suffering those same deficits, I jus…

@NautArch Funnily enough, that's how online change-ringing is working for me.

NautArch

@nitsua60 change-ringing?

nitsua60

I think it might be something to do with context? I'm getting to ~ring~ every week with my DC and NYC and Boston friends, whom I'd usually only get to ring with a handful of times a year. So it's a total win.

Change ringing

Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a tightly controlled manner to produce precise variations in their successive striking sequences, known as "changes". This can be by method ringing in which the ringers commit to memory the rules for generating each change, or by call changes, where the ringers are instructed how to generate each change by instructions from a conductor. This creates a form of bell music which cannot be discerned as a conventional melody, but is a series of mathematical sequences. Change ringing originated following the invention of English full-circle...

NautArch

ohcool!

nitsua60

3:18 PM

Imagine taking eight notes of a scale and challenging yourself to construct measures ("changes," in our terminology) which each differed from the previous and which never repeated. Also, from measure to measure a note cannot move more than one position forward or backward in the rhythm. That's the challenge of composing a method.

Now give one note to each person and they have to memorize the whole composition of when they're supposed to strike. Oh, and to actually do that you have to swing a bell the weight of a car back and forth overhead with millisecond precision =)

It's shockingly fun.

Smith College and me are the two towers closest to you--there are ~48 in North America.

NautArch

and you all coordinate together doing this? that's super cool.

nitsua60

If we were as cool as the Spaniards, we'd do it this way:

El Micalet

►

(~4 min)

My go-to "your ringing practice isn't cool enough" video.

NautArch

3:33 PM

whoa

nitsua60

This is an accurate representation of what we're doing:

Inside a Bell Tower: Change Ringing at UChicago's 17th century Mitchell Bell Tower.

►

(Though that title's a little... obviously anachronistic.)

Himitsu_no_Yami

4:14 PM

I didn't realize it at first but I edited a 5 year old answer lol just to update the wikipedia link to point to the correct section of the article

NautArch

4:44 PM

@Himitsu_no_Yami is there a badge for that?

Himitsu_no_Yami

"Edit first post that was inactive for 6 months" seems like it but I think that only applies to questions

kviiri

5:23 PM

Happy Walpurgis night to my fellow Nordics and others who swing that way ^^

trogdor

lol

Himitsu_no_Yami

I don't know what that means, last I heard it it was most likely in a (very) different context

kviiri

5:53 PM

@Himitsu_no_Yami It's a folk festival, originally a Christian feast but has different traditions

Here it's associated with labor rights (due to May day) and students (dunno why)

Plus it's usually around the time when the temperatures are not-freezing enough to hang outside

If you want to have a general feeling about what it's like, I think this video in English is a pretty good start youtube.com/watch?v=Boe_rqgNdAM

It weirds me out seeing that crowd in these times of not-crowds :D

trogdor

6:11 PM

lol

I've played a game where a stage was Walpurgis night

I think it had just about 0 to do with the actual Walpurgis night but wtv

XD

kviiri

Well, our Walpurgis night probably also has little to do with anyone else's xD

Except maybe other Nordics

trogdor

7:15 PM

that's also fair

Himitsu_no_Yami

7:28 PM

@NautArch turns out, that badge I mentioned was it and it just took time to actually notice

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer, bad keyword with email in answer, bad phone number in answer, email in answer, messaging number in answer, +1 more (539): What is the difference between 1/3, 1/2, and full casters? by qaouina on rpg.SE

BESW

9:23 PM

Happy twelfth day of Ridvan!

AncientSwordRage

9:42 PM

@BESW woops woop

I wonder how often Ridvan and Ramadan overlap?

user15026

I dunno! I know Ridvan is relatively fixedish in where it occurs in the year.

user15026

(I am still not the best at calendar stuff.)

BESW

Ridvan is always twelve days in late April/early May, it only shifts by two or three days at the most from year to year.

user15026

yeah, I knew it didn't move much. But Ramadan moves more, because it's lunar, right?

BESW

Yeah, my understanding is that the Islamic calendar passes all the way through the Gregorian calendar, rather than shifting back and forth slightly like the Badi calendar does.

user15026

10:03 PM

Ah, so they'd not line up all the time then.

BESW

Yeah. Pretty rarely overall, but right now we've got a couple years in a row where it does happen.

user15026

Neat!

AncientSwordRage

@Ash very neat

One day an Eid will be on Christmas and it's going to blow my mind.

Himitsu_no_Yami

Might be about to DM my first game in a little bit here

BESW

Grats!

Himitsu_no_Yami

10:12 PM

almost done setting everyone up

user15026

@AncientSwordRage laughs Yep, that will be a fascinating overlap.

user15026

@Himitsu_no_Yami Very cool! Have fun!

Himitsu_no_Yami

So far we have me and two players

AncientSwordRage

@Himitsu_no_Yami exciting

Shalvenay

10:41 PM

@Himitsu_no_Yami nice! what do you have planned?

Himitsu_no_Yami

@Shalvenay The Master's Vault module on Roll20

Shalvenay

@Himitsu_no_Yami ah, not familiar with it. what system is it for?

Himitsu_no_Yami

@Shalvenay D&D 5e

Shalvenay

@Himitsu_no_Yami ah

BESW

11:26 PM

Six Slots by Yoon Ha Lee is a a GMless narrative mini-TTRPG of secrets and inventory management in which players create a dungeon, explore it, and uncover each other's secrets.

Himitsu_no_Yami

@BESW you lost me at "inventory management" I'm trash at that

BESW

Hard same but this one looks like it'd actually work for me.

You get six item slots and they're not necessarily physical; one of the slots is for your name, another is for a secret. You take turns leading exploration scenes, and at the end of each scene you must leave something and take something.

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