TRPG General Chat

Joshua

12:36 AM

Anybody wanna try some stupid D&D puzzles?

Ben

What flavour--uh... I mean...

:P

Do we need a char? What level

Joshua

L3 spellcasters

Ben

Hmm... ok

Joshua

anyway I'm sitting in the back room but should I create another room?

Ben

I think that is the room for it..?

MikeQ

12:41 AM

I assume this is a one time thing. How many players are you looking for?

Joshua

about 2

Ben

I have a level 3 gnommish druid

Joshua

should be usable

linksassin

1:19 AM

@Ben That's often the case with some haunts. Purely due to the randomness some are completely imbalanced. But it is impossible to predict what combination of players and items you might have when the haunt happens.

Worst thing that ever happened to us was failing the second haunt roll. Got a haunt that required specific rooms and we only had revealed 3 rooms at that point.

Ben

@linksassin For us it was just the lack of knowledge of what either party was trying to accomplish. There were two in the basement, and one came straight up the the upper landing, so i thought maybe I should deal with her first... but that backfired, so i decided to just go back to destroying the boat.

@linksassin on a separate note, it seems I kinda fumbled the "continuous" Bardic Inspiration question.

The idea was to basically simulate the "power song", which lasts for a shorter time, but is constant. People are getting rather confused by the question though

linksassin

@Ben I got the concept you were going for but you need to do some work on the balance of it. As I said in my answer, that is how it worked in pathfinder.

BESW

Sometimes getting unexpected misunderstandings is the best way to figure out what we really want to ask.

Hot RPG Questions

4:29 AM

10

Q: Do Githyanki lay eggs in 5E?

The chapter "Citadel of Gith Reborn" from the 2nd edition adventure book Vortex of Madness says that Githyanki lay eggs despite being humanoid. The 5e Monster Manual entry for Githyanki doesn't say much about their methods of reproduction. Is there any 5e material that addresses this issue?

BESW

4:49 AM

I just recommended another feed for our ticker.

(I discovered it because it linked to Goblin Court, so you know they've got good taste.)

linksassin

@BESW Looks good. Always love something that promotes lesser known rpgs.

Ben

5:28 AM

A little while back there was a user that was "threatening" to spam the page because they were unable to delete their post, and "remove all traces" of their presence on the site. Does anyone know which question that was?

linksassin

Meta or main site?

Ben

Main

It took a lot of us to convince the user that their efforts were pointless, since the site retained all "rights" to the posts on the site. Even if they were deleted they remained on the site. They were threatening to create dummy accounts to just spam the site since taking the issue to the SE owners would be fruitless.

I'd say the comments and everything related to the conversation would have been removed.

linksassin

Unlikely we will be able to find it then. Why do you need it?

BESW

5:45 AM

The Stack Exchange discourages users from re-hashing users' misbehaviours, as it creates an environment that makes rehabilitation even more difficult than it has to be.

Miniman

Good point, sorry I didn't think about it.

linksassin

@Ben I'm guessing you want it for an example for something? I don't think having an exact link will help your argument and it can be harmful.

Ben

@linksassin No, I'm not intending to use it as a direct example.

linksassin

@Ben Isn't that what I just said? I'm confused. Just describe the situation, adding a link only helps identify users which doesn't aid whatever point you are trying to make.

BESW

Ping me in Discord with what this is about, I can provide receipts if you need without doing it in public.

Ben

6:19 AM

All good. sorry to bring up bad memories

V2Blast

6:33 AM

Anyone know anything about the Tiny Dungeon RPG or the TinyD6 system?

5

Q: Do enemies Test attacks at 2d6 or 3d6?

I'm going to be running my first TinyD6 (Tiny Dungeon 2e) adventure, and I've run into a question that I can't quite figure out: Are monsters masters of their weapons? Example: Assassins. Are Assassins masters of their weapons? Just proficient? Bumbling incompetents? I would think that they...

tiny-dungeon

this question originally had the d6-system tag on it, but that seems to be about West End Games' d6 System

Tiny Dungeon is apparently based on the TinyD6 ruleset, which I'm not sure is related to WEG's d6 System

According to OP, they're not the same, but I just wanted to confirm from someone who might be familiar with either/both

(correspondingly, I'm also not sure if the question involves an aspect of the ruleset common to other TinyD6-based games, and/or whether TinyD6 warrants its own tag)

LizWeir

8:17 AM

re the continuous bard song question: would an answer looking into mechanics that exist in the system that might allow a player to build a character around that sort of flavour be useful?

(I'm conscious that I tend a little more "this isn't answering the question that you asked but it does answer what I think you might want" than the site norm, and this thought is out on the far end of that, so I figured I'd ask.)

linksassin

@LizWeir I'm guessing you talking about some sort of reskinned paladin or similar? I wouldn't downvote an answer like that. So long as you justify why it is a better solution than the one in the question.

StuperUser

8:32 AM

Morning all

doppelgreener

Morning!

StuperUser

Hope everyone's safe and well

My google-fu is failing me to try to find a copy of a sheet that had a whole list of content topics that had a red, yellow, green check boxes for whether people were happy with them, but can't find it again.

It reminded me of the X-card posts

Carcer

same page tool?

MikeQ

Sounds more like an in-game safety tool.

StuperUser

no, it was explicitly for content types, whether romance would be set to fade to black, blood, vomit, gaslighting

Carcer

8:35 AM

ah

StuperUser

It was like getting the presets for people's x-cards

linksassin

Hmm... I wonder if that would be effective though. I worry it might lead to cases of "well you said you were ok with this". Or that it might not cover enough topics.

Carcer

docs.google.com/document/d/…

?

@linksassin generally the accompanying verbiage for stuff like this emphasises that people can change their minds at any time

StuperUser

@Carcer similar to that, it was linked off of an article, it had a phrase that "the default was no" and "you don't have to explain why it's no"

BESW

I think I know what you're talking about, but the link died a while back. One moment.

StuperUser

8:39 AM

@linksassin yeah, if the DM is being childish about it. I keep my games edge-free because exploring those themes can be worthy, but the writing needs tact and thought that you can't really get with improv

linksassin

@StuperUser Fair, I was playing devils advocate.

StuperUser

@linkassin Oh for sure, some people could easily miss the point and rules lawyer that list. But there was a good intro about it to mitigate that, so it wasn't toothless or right on

LizWeir

@linksassin I was thinking Bard and focusing on careful choice of spells - Bless, Divine Favour and the like all work well themed as songs - but I need to look through a few things and you're right, Paladin has some good options.

BESW

@StuperUser You're probably looking for Consent in Gaming from Monte Cook Games, though it's possible you mean The Support Flower (I strongly advise against using The Support Flower). I recommend checking out the TTRPG Safety Toolkit, which is a collection of safety and consent resources, to see what tools and techniques fit your group the best.

Safety tools aren't replacements for goodwill and open conversation at the table, and no single tool can be universally good for all people at all tables.

2

StuperUser

One of my players faints at blood, so want to make sure I don't set him off.

@BESW perfect, it was the consent in gaming checklist. Thank you.

BESW

8:45 AM

Personally, I often use Script Change as a starting place with most of my groups.

Carcer

the consent checklist thing I linked was apparently adapted from consent in gaming anyway

StuperUser

@linksassin you're absolutely right, it could easily be put in place and be ineffective, if people don't use it well

BESW

Safety tools are like seatbelts. Installing them doesn't mean everybody's gonna use 'em, and using 'em doesn't mean you can just drive off a cliff. But if you don't have seatbelts in your car, I'm not gonna go with you to whatever cool place you wanna take me.

StuperUser

@carcer yes, it looks like a form to capture all of that

linksassin

@StuperUser That's true for all safety tools though.

BESW

8:50 AM

The devil doesn't really need an advocate. I think everybody knows that h*ckholes are gonna sabotage social groups and in those cases, the best kind of safety tool is the one which helps everyone else kick 'em out.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW mental note, bring safety tools if I ever meet up with @BESW

Carcer

@AncientSwordRage approach BESW with caution, he is slightly radioactive

BESW

AncientSwordRage

@Carcer Just like all the best superheros then

BESW

@StuperUser The form Carcer linked was made by Lauren Bryant-Monk and is included in the Tools and Resources folder of the TTRPG Safety Kit. You can get the form without the guide here (link is set to prompt for making your own copy). Both versions include a few of Lauren's own table-specific variations.

3

StuperUser

9:06 AM

WELCOME STRONGEST RPGSTACKEXCHANGE USER

BESW

You provided very good details for the search!

And safety tools are kind of a focus of mine.

kviiri

pbs.twimg.com/media/EX4h_1MXgAApf77?format=jpg&name=large

Lord of the Rings character combination chart.

Carcer

9:24 AM

@BESW I got to it by remembering editing a link to the TTRPG safety kit into this answer (at your suggestion, I think)

doppelgreener

Safety tools that work before the game (such as lines & veils) work really well for establishing broad strokes and that's extremely valuable. Game elements during play can still combine in unforeseeable ways to make us uncomfortable, so maintaining conversation during play and having tools that can be used during play are super important.

Consent, comfort, and safety are things that are continuously maintained, not established once at the start and then never checked again.

Combining both ahead-of-time tools and in-game tools is quite effective

Equally valuable to lines & veils is finding out what people want to see, and among those things, what they want to focus on a lot vs what they want to see only a little of or not be a big focus. That will help your gameplay focus on what people actually find fun! If lines & veils are about finding and avoiding un-fun, this is the counterpart of finding where the fun is so you can stay there.

BESW

That's one reason I like to use Script Change as a baseline, it includes elements for before, during, and after the formal storytime part of play.

I really should work on that calibration tool, eh.

doppelgreener

When you talk about what you want to see in the game—not just assuming "well we're playing fantasy so obviously it involves all these things and we don't need to talk about that"—it will help give you interesting creative directions which is great for gameplay, but it also means that if someone says they want something that would be uncomfortable for another person, that helps you adjust the lines and veils.

In a very recent game my group talked what we wanted to focus on. We wanted to have a wild world, not a tamed one. Because we were low level, we wanted to focus on the cities, and we didn't really want to spend lots of focus on travel. That conversation turned into deciding the (mostly-fantasy) world had a major train network, and in fact one of the major opportunities for mercenary work was to maintain that network and fight whatever monsters might block the tracks.

LizWeir

9:41 AM

I am extremely here for all of care and attention to player wellbeing, discussing what people want out of a game, and FANTASY TRAINS <3

Carcer

Metro 1035

doppelgreener

That gave us interesting complications to work with and a kind of unique setting, helped inform the kinds of technology we wanted. For now we'd mostly stay safe in travel (unless we thought it would be interesting to get stranded because a big monster derailed or broke the train, which happens sometimes) and it let us establish that while the wilds are very scary, that doesn't mean travel is impossible for us.

Meanwhile the wilds being very scary informs us what civilisation is like: tightly bound, highly protected, probably fairly authoritarian, ripe for corruption, etc.

Also hell yeah fantasy trains

AncientSwordRage

@doppelgreener hell yeah

BESW

Apropos of fantasy trains: The short story "The Tomato Thief" by Ursula Vernon (something like a sequel to "Jackalope Wives" which was give a dramatic reading by LeVar Burton) has train-priests and a train-god.

LizWeir

you have my attention

I have a bit of a thing about industrial religion in my fantasy :-D

BESW

9:56 AM

Then you may also like her Clocktaur War novels, written under the name T Kingfisher.

LizWeir

yeah, huge fan of those - a friend pointed me at them last year!

need to read the newer paladin book

doppelgreener

10:09 AM

@LizWeir There's something fun you might like from a setting I built a decade ago.

BESW

Yeah, I haven't read Paladin's Grace yet either. I'm currently re-reading all the Murderbot stories before I read the newest one.

doppelgreener

There was a city built in the caldera of a volcano, with a volcanic lake producing heavier-than-air sulphur gases that, until recently, smothered the region and made it uninhabitable. The people of this city now keep the lake ringed in perpetual fire to burn away the gases. There's an observation platform high up on the ridge of the volcano where you get to look down and see the fire shimmer across the lake as clouds catch alight.

BESW

Oh yeah, that was a fun setting to work on with you! Good times.

doppelgreener

It was!

It was so fun developing it with you :D

AncientSwordRage

Are people here big readers of Ursula Vernon/T Kingfisher?

doppelgreener

10:12 AM

Because the fire is the one thing standing between them and sulphur gases filling the city and killing everybody, they keep it burning very diligently. Over time that became a religious observation connected to their worship of the sun god Pelor, who they also began to revere as a god of fire.

Meanwhile, they used the enormous quantities of ash and charcoal produced by the wood burning in order to filter and purify the water coming out of the caldera, meaning the rivers running through the land were now remarkably clean and safe. The water filtration facilities were extraordinarily well-developed and occupied tunnels that ran beneath the city itself.

BESW

@AncientSwordRage Several of us are!

AncientSwordRage

I got my wife her re-telling of Beauty and the Beast, but the ending didn't got over very well

Carcer

@doppelgreener science

AncientSwordRage

She disliked the fact Beast stayed a beast (IIRC) and some of the bits around the roses

I'm wondering if other books would follow suit in tone, or if it's worth giving other books a go

doppelgreener

(As part of the broader campaign plot, technically this land was on temporary loan to them by the elves of the forest nearby, a loan the elves were happy to extend sort of indefinitely because of the work the city was continuously performing to purify the air and water. The logging they were doing to fuel the fire was starting to become a problem though.)

trogdor

10:18 AM

I too read some Ursula Vernon stuff XD

BESW

@AncientSwordRage Well, she's definitely subversive whenever something like "being beautiful is a reward for being good" crops up.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW Having been a long time follower of her art I should have known

BESW

Your wife would probably REALLY not appreciate the ending to Summer in Orcus.

Without spoiling too much, this is from that book's afterward, and I think the first line really sums up most of her attitude toward writing:

> I wanted to write a story where someone acted at least a little like I would. I knew that meant that the climax could not be a battle scene. Summer was not going to become a hardened warrior in a few weeks. And we’ve had plenty of literary battle scenes already and I didn’t feel the need to add another one.

She takes the bones of a story we know, and she asks "What if someone like me were at the center of it?" where "someone like me" is a person who values social mores, tends to be kinder to others than to herself, is deeply practical about everyday needs, and doesn't suffer fools gladly but isn't sure how to not suffer fools without making them feel bad.

LizWeir

10:35 AM

@doppelgreener oh, getting purity and cleanliness in there too is just glorious

I really like the vibe of taking the waste product that would normally be the smokey pollution thing and going "no, actually, we can do something with this too."

doppelgreener

same! that was fun

doppelgreener

10:51 AM

also gave me a fun excuse to put dwarves into the story: they predominantly maintained the filtration tunnels and worked in other deep places below the city, and the filtration mechanisms came together from the ingenuity of dwarves, humans, and entirely other kinds of people putting their heads together

AncientSwordRage

@BESW See that feels DEEPLY like my wife, which is why I was a little confused in her reaction to the book

BESW

@doppelgreener If you ever want to try rebuilding that setting with some of the values and perspectives we have now, let me know.

@AncientSwordRage Maybe expectations were going unmet and it was unsettling?

AncientSwordRage

@BESW it might be more that the beast staying the beast was too squicky for her, or that she wanted more escapism than realism

doppelgreener

11:13 AM

@BESW in fact i was just thinking about that as i talked about this—first time in ages it's even been on my mind

it's an artifact of where i was at several years ago, and i'm quite sure nowadays i would produce the setting quite differently

"hmm, that's not how i'd do it nowadays, but it is part of how it was. i wonder how i'd handle that now?"

LizWeir

that's a mood!

BESW

Yeah, that was... seven, eight years ago?

Back when D&D was still a game I played.

We were both rather different people then.

Maurycy

11:41 AM

Well well well, it's been a long time since I last visited here. I am not sure if recommend-a-system questions are still welcome on this SE, so I figure I'll just rant-and-ask here. Essentally we're slowly wrapping up a campaign we play in FATE Core, except we pretty much not use any rules at all ever. We get on average 0.3 roll per session and for the most part we're happy with that.

And while I don't care that much about mechanical solutions to narrative problems, I do miss some good old mechanical complexity for combat that DnD or The Riddle of Steel provided.

Carcer

game rec questions are now considered off-topic for the stack, yeah

Maurycy

At the same time, DnD has just too much number crunching and TRoS was slightly too deadly. I wanna run a high-fantasy epic next

It seems I want DnD but with bell curves and less math :)

Carcer

11:57 AM

what's the last version of D&D you played? 5e is quite a bit less numbery than predecessors.

NautArch

howdy howdy

kviiri

@NautArch hi o/

NautArch

@kviiri Had another good foray into the Doomvault last night. Players slowly starting to come up with a plan. But they're still murderhoboing the Thayans and not trying to get any information out of them.

kviiri

@NautArch Hmm, what's a Doomvault?

NautArch

@kviiri AH, sorry. From Dead in Thay. The doomvault is a massive structure that was originally used to create an extraplanar storage vault for their phylacteries. It's now been used for that purpose by a new Lich, but also doing some other nefarious stuff. The story is the party is working with Thayan rebels to destroy him and have to figure out how.

kviiri

12:09 PM

ooh

I don't know much or any of this but sounds fun

NautArch

I'm absolutely loving it. Would love it more with a less murdery party, but the group is big enough that they actually may be able to murder their way through.

It'll just take longer.

I wonder what'll happen if quarantine ends and we're not done yet.

Maurycy

@Carcer Mostly 3.5e, but played one short campaign in 5e and liked bits and pieces of it. I wouldn't mind playing it, and I guess I could just hack bell-curve rolls on top of it. I don't care super much about balance because my players are fine with it being adapted on the spot

kviiri

@Maurycy I've started reading 13th Age during the ongoing quarantines etc, and it seems like a really nice "DnD but not"

Carcer

@Maurycy yeah, you could sub 2d10/3d6 into the d20 system relatively easily I guess, albeit some care about critical hit mechanics required since they're an important part of some classes.

NautArch

@kviiri I haven't started reading it yet, too much time trying to understand the dungeon.

Maurycy

12:18 PM

Well crap, 13th age won't work because there isn't Polish translation but from a quick skim I love the idea of the escalation die

What will likely happen is we'll just hack something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike DnD on top of DnD

kviiri

@Maurycy The escalation die is nice, and is explicitly given as a "steal this idea for your game" concept. The game uses it for a variety of auxilary purposes, eg. some attacks work better if the escalation die has at most a certain value (or odd/even, or somesuch)

Maurycy

Backgrounds seems a bit like aspects in Fate, also nice

BESW

You might want to look at 6e.

kviiri

I might also want to look at 6e

BESW

No Polish translation, but probably simple enough to translate oneself?

yesterday, by BESW

@trogdor 6.4E is a module by John Erwin for the 6e Game Jam. The jam is for marginalized creators to use Jared Sinclair's PbtA system 6e (which is kind of a speculative next-gen D&D-like) as a jumping-off point to explore how they'd like a D&D-like game to be. 6.4E, in particular, is an addon for using 4e-like powers in 6e.

Maurycy

12:22 PM

@BESW For a second there I thought it's DnD 6e

BESW

I'd also suggest looking at Cortex Prime and/or Faith Corps.

(Faith Corps is a mashup partway between Cortex Prime and Fate Core)

Or just look at the crunchiest possible versions of Fate, like Atomic Robo or War of Ashes?

War of Ashes is the D&D-est of all Fates, so far as I can tell.

nitsua60

12:37 PM

@Carcer I actually like d12+d8 as a sub for d20 better :shrug:

It's a pleasant trapezoid =)

doppelgreener

I wonder if Dungeon World has been translated to Polish

NautArch

While I'm bummed to see @nitsua60 and @doppelgreener step down from moderator duties, I do enjoy seeing them more often here in chat :)

3

@linksassin Nice write-up for your self-nom!

kviiri

12:54 PM

I think we have a great mod team ATM, so I'm a bit sad to see both nitsua and doppel leave, but at the same time I'm happy they're doing what they want to do

NautArch

I just selfishly missed their presence

kviiri

And I mean, hopefully not "leave" but just stop being mods x)

doppelgreener

it's nice to be around :)

nitsua60

@kviiri definitely =)

doppelgreener

i am feeling a lot better already having announced that resignation, it's been a weight on my shoulders and now that's disappearing

nitsua60

12:58 PM

@NautArch Part of that, frankly, is probably my month-long freakout during March =\

@doppelgreener :thumbsup:

kviiri

I kinda feel like running, but I have about four, five times as much "do not want" feels x)

NautArch

@doppelgreener hugs!

doppelgreener

<3

@kviiri that's completely valid. it's not for everyone, and it's still extraordinarily valuable to have active senior members who are specifically not moderators

kviiri

@doppelgreener Senior Chatizen <3

But yeah, I think it's the best if I skip – I have lots of other things to do in life atm, and I have a bit of a temper that I still want to work on before accepting responsibility for online communities. And what you say about senior users is very true as well!

doppelgreener

as someone who used to have anger management issues i can understand and empathize. the idea of combining that with a position of power can be a bit daunting

kviiri

1:12 PM

Mellow fellows

doppelgreener

:D

kviiri

To give some credit for myself, though, I've systematically solved many of the long-term issues keeping me from being the person I'd like to be over the past few years, and good things are happening day by day! So things are definitely looking up and nice!

BESW

@kviiri Yey!

doppelgreener

that's fantastic news!!

Carcer

1:28 PM

I really don't feel like being in a position of responsibility for an online community

I did a lot of that in my late teens and twenties and I'm completely burnt out on the idea generally

though admittedly rpg.se's userbase seems a lot more sedate and agreeable than the ones I managed

Rubiksmoose

@kviiri Me too 😭

nitsua60

2:19 PM

15

A: Does Brian Ballsun-Stanton have a book published yet?

No*, I don't, cause I like eating ... and paying rent. At present, I can't afford to take the month or two to write a book on the philosophy of role-playing. While I just got my doctorate, I'm trying to find a job at various universities. On the other hand, if there's some level of community fun...

Man, it'd be neat to see the result of a word-cloud applied to some prolific users' posts.

Hell, imagine if SE implemented that as a part of one's profile?

(Can't imagine the computational resource required, though.)

Shalvenay

hey there @nitsua60, how're things going?

nitsua60

@Shalvenay Pretty good, thanks. You?

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 alright here, myself

Medix2

I wonder how (in what ways) word clouds would vary by what game(s) a user most asks/answers about

nitsua60

@Shalvenay Excited to be "turning a leaf," so to say. Announcing my (long-planned) resignation the same week I started a podcast feels very... liminal.

Shalvenay

2:35 PM

@nitsua60 trying to get some backlogged junk cleaned up now that I have some time on my hands to do so though

nitsua60

@Shalvenay I know the feeling. Spring break usually occasions some spring cleaning... this "eternal spring" has me bringing truckloads of stuff out of my basement--much of which predates my residence here!--most weeks.

@Shalvenay Is "time on my hands" a feature of less social commitments, or have work-things changed?

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 temporary changes to work things is probably the best way to put it

nitsua60

Gotcha. Sorry to hear it.

Shalvenay

2:55 PM

@nitsua60 yeah, I think it'll work out in the end. I'm just hoping I don't have to dig myself out from under a blizzard of emails when I get back

(partly because we've been having issues with automated-notification-spam)

KorvinStarmast

3:10 PM

@NautArch I wonder if my reach exceeds Hadar's grasp. I have some HG / EB shennanigans in a question that I think is answerable.

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast What do you mean?

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch I have a new question up and it might be shennanigans, but it might work.

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast Ah, i'm pretty sure that's an ask your DM question.

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch I am hoping for a mechanical basis for the answer, as I was looking at the combat section and how movement and everything "is sort of happening at once" and the move attack move thing is a valid way to break up a PC's bit of the action economy. In the back of my mind, I have a vague notion that you have to be in a grapple to pull off a stunt like this usually ...

NautArch

3:26 PM

@KorvinStarmast Yeah, I think a grapple would do it, but that's a different mechanic. Ifyou want this, it could happen, but up to DM.

Szega has a good answer

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch yeah, I'll see what my brother says, and it does feel a little bit cheesey ... In the comments under Szega's answer we figured out that a Sorc/Lock combo can try this with a Quicken Meta Magic and a Grapple.

LizWeir

Szega's is solid but I don't think it addresses that specific idea about movement and actions all happening at once, hence dropping mine in there - I see I got a downvote, is this something people would usually handle in a comment on the other answer?

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch That gives EB as a bonus action, then grapple action, and move. If I fly 10' over the dire wolf. (But I think I get a movement penalty with large creature/weight unless I also pumped strength)

@LizWeir I can't see why anyone down voted your answer. I already gave it a +1, and I am mystified by the negative reaction.

Groan The ubiqujitous two-level warlock dip - a never ending source of MC shennanigans.

@NautArch As to the tactical situation, a better use of Grasp is to pull the Dire Wolf 10 feet toward me before I move, so that the wolf is moved away from the rogue and no OA when the rogue's turn comes ....

Himitsu_no_Yami

Hey guys, quick question. If you say D&D 5e as Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition, how do you say 3.5e? Third-and-a-half Edition?

MikeQ

I've always heard it as "Three point five"

LizWeir

3:35 PM

I usually say "dee and dee three point five," yeah

Mark Wells

@Himitsu_no_Yami "Three-point-five" is how I usually hear it pronounced. The way I say it is in the tongue of Mordor, which cannot be uttered here.

Shalvenay

@MikeQ me as well

Someone_Evil

@Himitsu_no_Yami "seven-halves edition" :p

Himitsu_no_Yami

@Someone_Evil kek

NautArch

@Himitsu_no_Yami tree-fiddy?

Himitsu_no_Yami

3:38 PM

Oh, hey, @MikeQ since you've seen Overlord. Would you agree that for a creature type Ainz is most comparable to a 3.5 Lich or is there something closer? Trying to answer a question I asked a few days ago on anime.se

MikeQ

In most modern western fantasy I've seen, a skeletal super-wizard is usually called a lich, yeah

Himitsu_no_Yami

I ask cus I'm not familiar with 3.5 and wasn't sure if there was anything slightly closer (ie super-lich or something)

Himitsu_no_Yami

3:51 PM

does 3.5 have a concentration mechanic like 5e?

MikeQ

D&D has always had evil magic liches, even from the original ruleset. (link)

GcL

@Himitsu_no_Yami Yeah. Smacking a caster messes up their spells.

Himitsu_no_Yami

@GcL thinking more along the lines of "can't concentrate on two at once"

LizWeir

I don't think it had that, but it's a long time since I played it.

Himitsu_no_Yami

were there any spells that were mutually exclusive? (If you have the effect of one you can't have the effect of the other?)

GcL

3:54 PM

@Himitsu_no_Yami I don't recall such a restriction. I do recall an intricate mess of things that affected the DC of the concentration check.

MikeQ

Yes, there are paired spells that explicitly counter each other. Bless and Bane, Haste and Slow, etc.

LizWeir

Plus some things like Tome of Battle stances, which weren't spells but did have that "only one at a time" mechanic.

Himitsu_no_Yami

Trying to figure out a reason for Ainz using one spell as opposed to another in a certain fight

MikeQ

While the magic in Overlord is reminiscent of 3.5e's superpoweredness, it's not necessarily using the 3.5e ruleset

Himitsu_no_Yami

This is true but it's the best thing I have to base something off of

Most people when discussing something not explicitly answered have been falling back on game mechanics

MikeQ

3:56 PM

The premise is that it takes place within an MMORPG, so maybe it works like WoW or Everquest. My guess is that it's not any specific existing game, and the author just makes stuff up as they go along.

LizWeir

sounds like the character may well be under such a restriction - "you can only keep a limited number of spells active at once" is a common enough mechanic, even if a particular point of comparison doesn't have it

Himitsu_no_Yami

Can you check a link for me? It mentions 3 different spells from a google search but I can't actually access the site to see if it gives the effect of all 3 at once.

MikeQ

Might be more useful to just list the spells by name

Himitsu_no_Yami

Body of Effulgent Heliodor/Beryl/Aquamarine

GcL

@Himitsu_no_Yami This is a show? I'd say the reason is story telling.

Himitsu_no_Yami

4:01 PM

Trying to figure out why he'd use Beryl instead of Aquamarine when fighting someone with a weapon like this

@GcL But it's more fun to get possible in universe explanations

GcL

Sometimes you get stabbed with a fancy bellows. It happens when you're a lich. Live long enough and you see some weird stuff.

@Himitsu_no_Yami It was the closest spell he had in mind. Sometimes you just react with what you were just thinking about or whatever is closest mentally on hand.

Himitsu_no_Yami

Body of Effulgent Beryl reduces bludgeoning damage. Aquamarine does the same for piercing.

@GcL this was a pre-fight cast

GcL

@Himitsu_no_Yami Skeletons are already resistant to piercing, but take double damage from bludgeoning.

Himitsu_no_Yami

@GcL uhh what? That's not what I saw when I was looking into this

GcL

Few worry about stabbing a bone... most worry about breaking them. Without all that cumbersome but nicely padding meat weighing you down you've got to prepare the best you can.

@Himitsu_no_Yami Skeletons from like AD&D on were always less affected by piercing. I think 5e was the first to change that trope... unless 4e did. I never played 4e.

Himitsu_no_Yami

4:09 PM

@GcL I looked at 3.5 and there was no mention of piercing on either the skelly or the lich

MikeQ

3.x skeletons had damage reduction 5/bludgeoning, which means damage from non-bludgeoning attacks (i.e, slashing and piercing) is reduced by 5

Himitsu_no_Yami

right and liches had damage reduction 15/bludgeoning and magic

GcL

@Himitsu_no_Yami In 3.5 it would be damage reduction

Himitsu_no_Yami

@GcL right and it wasn't listed on their stat block

LizWeir

your basic 4e skeleton doesn't seem to have anything for either of those - just resist necrotic, vulnerable radiant

GcL

4:14 PM

@Himitsu_no_Yami I'm almost certain it is for a 3.5 skeleton.

Ugh... now I'm going to go downstairs and actually look in a book! The absurdity of it all!

MikeQ

@GcL The 3.5 skeleton and liches indeed mention the DR in their stat blocks.

GcL

@MikeQ Saved the day! I could have gotten a papercut! or accidentally resurrected some of the 3.5 infections in my mind.

Himitsu_no_Yami

Damage Reduction
A skeleton has damage deduction 5/bludgeoning. Skeletons lack flesh or internal organs.

that's all I found

Carcer

... yes?

MikeQ

Right, so DR notation is sort of the opposite of damage resistance in 5e. Instead of listing what kinds of damage are reduced, it lists what types of damage aren't reduced.

GcL

4:19 PM

@Himitsu_no_Yami Excellent. You found it.

MikeQ

"DR 5/bludgeoning" means that the skeleton takes 5 less damage from piercing and slashing weapons

Himitsu_no_Yami

3.5 is weird...

I'm glad I started with 5e

GcL

Oh... I see your confusion. Got it. Relating to a system that you haven't used and don't know is tough... especially 3.5 with all of it's intricate insanity? inanities? complexities?

So why are you trying to cast the show it terms of 3.5 if you're not playing it?

Himitsu_no_Yami

@GcL A lot of the show is based on 3.5

And I get the feeling a lot of my day is about to be based on not being able to type

GcL

What about it makes you think it was specifically based on 3.5? There's a long and great history of jRPGs that aren't D&D based.

Himitsu_no_Yami

4:26 PM

idk it's just what I've heard from a lot of people

Also I was about to say I regret looking at a 3.5 char sheet on Roll20 but then I saw that it has a pronouns section and it gave me an idea on how I might be able to add it to the 5e sheet as an attribute and turn 3 macros into one

MikeQ

4:39 PM

Plenty of MMORPG-themed isekai involves the protagonist gaining power by exploiting a magic system. Yes, 3.5e had a broken magic system that was exploitable, but that doesn't mean we can conclude that any particular manga is written according to 3.5e's rules.

Himitsu_no_Yami

Like I said, I've just heard a lot of people say it mostly follows 3.5 rules

GcL

Plus a character playable lich, of course.

MikeQ

I vaguely recall characters talking about mana pools or magic points or similar, which is more in line with MMORPGs than D&D.

GcL

I never got the 3.5 undead supplement. Maybe there's rules in that one for becoming a lich.

LizWeir

weren't they playable off the DMG? defined LA, player-facing rules for phylacteries in the standard magic item system?

Himitsu_no_Yami

4:45 PM

I don't think any one source gives all of the details but for anyone interested this video pretty much explains everything and sounds really cool to boot

LizWeir

(uh, possibly I mean monster manual)

JohnP

5:09 PM

@LizWeir Not necessarily as a PC, but blueprint for a lich from Dragon mag 26.

Hot RPG Questions

5:23 PM

5

Q: Can Blades in the Dark be played in a custom setting?

I'm looking at systems for my next campaign. Currently I really like the look of Blades in the Dark however I have one concern before I invest in buying the rulebook. Every review of the system I have read talks about how great the setting of Duskvol is and how much of the world building is done...

campaign-development campaign-settings blades-in-the-dark

7

Q: Cutting Words timing when playing online

Lore Bard's Cutting Words feature states the following: Also at 3rd level, you learn how to use your wit to distract, confuse, and otherwise sap the confidence and competence of others. When a creature that you can see within 60 feet of you makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a damage ...

dnd-5e bard reactions online-roleplaying

Himitsu_no_Yami

6:06 PM

I hope my question is something that's actually possible... With my luck it won't be

Mark Wells

@HotRPGQuestions When my Blades in the Dark book arrived, a friend read the first page and immediately declared that it takes place in the haunted, fog-shrouded city of San Francisco. Every time we play, I feel a twinge of regret that we chose to set the campaign in Doskvol instead.

LizWeir

oh, that sounds fantastic

my first Blades experience was listening to Friends at the Table; very much a custom setting there, with quite a different feel in some ways

in a spectacular parallel to some conversation from earlier, it was a city next to the volcano home of the forge god, and the first score had to do with the city's newly-opened railway

Mark Wells

6:41 PM

I've been looking into using Gold-Rush-era San Francisco, and it's basically already a Blades setting. Complex ethnic tensions! Multiple centers of power! Secret societies! The economy is based on a totally unsustainable industry attracting desperate fortune-seekers! The police are just one of the larger and better-armed gangs (there are period sources saying this)!

LizWeir

ancient and terrible oaths compel me to ask: what are you doing with Attune?

Mark Wells

@LizWeir Exactly as written. :)

LizWeir

SWEET

Mark Wells

The fog is made of ghosts.

That's why in our timeline they moved all the cemeteries out of the city, so they'd have space to bury everyone properly.

Shalvenay

7:12 PM

hey there @StuperUser, welcome to the RPG.SE lair btw :)

Hot RPG Questions

9:11 PM

4

Q: Is it possible for a sorcerer to write all the ritual spells they know in the ritual book of Ritual Caster Feat when they acquire this feat?

I was reading the D&D Beyond about wild magic sorcerer and I was thinking about something when I read the recommended feats, in particular the Ritual Caster Feat. Is it possible for a sorcerer to write all the ritual spells they know in the ritual book of Ritual Caster Feat when they acquire thi...

dnd-5e spells feats sorcerer rituals

BESW

9:32 PM

@nitsua60 I once had somebody use a machine-learning algorithm on my chat messages to generate BESW-like message.

trogdor

10:40 PM

oh god

I would hate that

nitsua60

@BESW woah.

BESW

It was kind of amazing.

> You want to be a part of the community. Why not support your community, with help and advice that you can't get?

nitsua60

That's... much better than the last AI I ran across:

AI recipe

Apr 2 '18 at 2:50, 14 minutes total – 23 messages, 3 users, 0 stars

Bookmarked 23 secs ago by nitsua60

BESW

Recipes are a lot more complex than single lines of contextless dialogue.

(I read You Look Like A Thing And I Love You last week, so I know what I'm talking about now!)

> I'm also trying to make it more likely for you to be able to use the power of the internet and social media to care about issues that really matter to you.

> Yeah. "BESW" is a nice identity on a small scale.

> It's a Baha'i-inspired soda can!

trogdor

jeez

wait that doesn't exist right?

BESW

10:45 PM

Not that I know of.

trogdor

mk

it doesn't seem like something you would do out of respect for the Baha'i faith

soda isn't exactly a glorious thing meant to improve the human condition as it were

Carcer

Markov chain generator?

they're good fun when you can train them on a decent corpus of text

BESW

Not sure, she was using TensorFlow I think.

nitsua60

I'm not sure I would have the psychological fortitude to look into the mirror that would be an AI trained on my text-production.

Carcer

that sounds more complicated than the tools I'm thinking of

nitsua60

10:48 PM

(I definitely wouldn't have the fortitude to face one trained on my verbal production!)

BESW

At first she was training it on the totality of meta.se posts and comments, but it wasn't funny enough.

Carcer

the ones which are trained on a combination of two wildly different bodies of text are the most entertaining

user15026

@BESW That book is so good

BESW

> I am a moderator, and I will, in all seriousness, be offended by any and all comments. If I am going to violate the rules, I will make it clear, and I will have the chance to explain myself.

user15026

@BESW This makes me think of the kombucha bottles I found that had bits of the Baha'i Writings on them.

BESW

10:50 PM

> The new CoC does say: "Transcript and error messages are not required to be upvoted by users." +1, guys.

user15026

These are so fun.

Carcer

King James Programming and The Doom That Came To Puppet are very funny

BESW

@nitsua60 Yeah, it did spit out some doozies.

Since bots have no sense of context or value.

> Pacific Islander history as a distinct, distinct narrative that's rooted in that cultural history is "Pacific Rim."

user15026

I'd be scared to see mine

user15026

@BESW I like the repetition of "distinct" there

trogdor

10:52 PM

@BESW so close, so close to not being horrible

BESW

BESWbot was also very introspective.

> I think it's possible to say "You are free" in the most simple form but I don't know if it's possible to do it in a way that doesn't sound overly formal.

Mark Wells

@Ash It's just so distinct. It's a distinct, distinct thing. The distinctest.

user15026

@MarkWells So much so!

user15026

@BESW It's not wrong, I don't think

BESW

> We're all still struggling with the idea that the idea of friendship is a lot more fundamental than the idea of family.

user15026

10:55 PM

@BESW Oh, that's a thought.

BESW

> When people used their common names, they would write their own names and take care not to leave any traces on the paper or into the world, and without knowing their identity they would be unable to distinguish between the common names and their own personal differences.

> I think you should put a button on the top of your keyboard that says "I WANT" in a column that says "I WANT to be exposed to the humanities."

trogdor

I'm just surprised some of these work as actual sentences

user15026

@BESW This feels like the beginning of some fascinating worldbuidling.

BESW

The bot actually nailed my cadence and sentence structure even when the content was a bit.. off.

Mark Wells

@nitsua60 Same here but I'm morbidly curious if the AI would have the same reaction to meeting me.

BESW

10:59 PM

Even some of my stranger peccadilloes:

> I'm very excited about this, I'm not worried about you, I have no way to get you to care about me, I don't know what to do with you, I don't know what to expect, and I'm not sure how to make it work for you.

user15026

@BESW this is...uncomfortably you-like.

trogdor

yep sounds like you :P

AI recipe

Transcript for