TRPG General Chat

BESW

00:11

I feel like this is inviting discussion. thoughts?

[wry grin]

BESW

00:31

I'm starting to think not everyone on twitter is that smart.

Tweeted by lizzwinstead on March 26, 2014 at 12:15 AM

doppelgreener

01:25

BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG

Tweeted by big_ben_clock on March 26, 2014 at 12:00 AM

and that's what Big Ben has to say about that

BESW

[snerk]

Paul A. Clayton

02:24

Is there any place that collects clever uses of magic, particularly illusions? That would seem to be interesting reading and I was wondering if anyone had thought of things like using silent image as a weak substitute for faerie fire to revel enemies the caster (but not others) can see—a glowing mist on the ground which envelopes each enemy (still one 'object')—or a 2000 cu.ft. signal fire 400ft. in the air which could be seen for miles.

3

Metool

02:37

@BESW Can you retract a vote to close?

BESW

@PaulA.Clayton, @MiharuDante Hi!

@Metool Yes.

Votes to close "fall off" naturally after a period of time if they don't accumulate enough to actually close a question, and you can retract your own manually before then--but once you've voted to close and then retracted, you can't go back and vote to close again.

Paul A. Clayton

@BESW Hello. (I will probably be leaving this room soon and check back tomorrow to see if anyone has responded to my question. From your profile it looks like you are a Fantasy RPGer, have you ever seen such an ideas page? [I would not be surprised if there was a Usenet thread on this; perhaps I should actually trying searching.☺ ])

BESW

@PaulA.Clayton It sounds like the kind of thing that's been done on various forums, but I don't spend much time with online RPG communities outside the Stack Exchange. I'll try to pass your question on to SE citizens who would be better positioned to know.

Alex P

@PaulA.Clayton Posting it on RPGnet, especially in the context of "tell me your cool stories," will probably get you at least some interesting replies. Try their D&D forum.

Paul A. Clayton

@BESW Thanks (assuming such would not be bothering those others—it was something of a casual question, as evidenced that I did not even try Googling first.)

Alex P

02:50

There are other more specific communities around as well.

BESW

@PaulA.Clayton It's very much the kind of thing this chat will find interesting! You've just hit us at a bit of a lull.

Paul A. Clayton

@AlexP Thanks, Alex. I might try that even though my query was very casual (I just thought of the faerie fire-like idea and wondered if there was some tiny chance that it was actually original; it is relatively useless generally but for a GM or a PC in a defensive position there might be an instance where it makes sense.).

BESW

I can relate my own story of a pair of outclassed PCs who used prestidigitation, faerie fire, and ghost hand to scare away a group of tough guards by pretending the area was haunted.

Paul A. Clayton

@BESW A nice thing about ghosts is that they are expected to be ethereal—weapons passing through without effect—, so that method of interacting is less likely to cancel the illusion as proven false. Ordinary people who see a semi-transparent figure passing through solid objects would tend to be freaked out.

BESW

I believe this was mostly "floating candles and weird noises" based on exploiting a successful Knowledge check for local ghost lore.

Paul A. Clayton

03:03

Another aspect of illusions is that the visual deception is probably easier with magic; some audio effects are somewhat easy to generate mechanically (experience in a theater might give an illusionist certain advantages), though, of course, that assumes a defensive use where such preparations can be made. Even using rotting animal flesh to give an atmosphere appropriate for undead could be helpful.

BESW

When I played in a handful of single-player campaigns with a GM who wasn't very good at determining appropriate challenges, I regularly "summoned" Terrifying Monsters From Beneath The Ground to scare off my enemies.

Alex P

@BESW Didn't you and @trogdor have a sci-fi game with a lot of hologram trickery?

BESW

"Oh, no, it's eating me! Aaaaaah!" [cracks open eye] "Are they gone yet?"

@AlexP Oh, yes. Let me dig that up...

Aeon Wave session 1

Jan 2 at 12:31, 13 minutes total – 11 messages, 2 users, 0 stars

Bookmarked 37 secs ago by BESW

Aeon Wave session 2

Jan 5 at 8:02, 1 minute total – 15 messages, 2 users, 0 stars

Bookmarked 9 secs ago by BESW

He spent nearly the entire two-session game disguised as one of the assassins sent to kill him, and got to his goal by pretending to be searching for himself, planting evidence that he'd broken into the place he needed to go so he'd get clearance to go in after himself.

2

Paul A. Clayton

@BESW In some ways it would be nice if knowledge and imagination of the illusion caster were considered in the believability of the illusion. DiVinci could probably imagine more believable flying angels than the average bookworm magician.

@BESW Clever!

BESW

@PaulA.Clayton I generally consider illusions to be part of some kind of check, like giving a bonus to an intimidate or disguise attempt, or the like.

Sometimes the fictional positioning of "I can make illusions" gives a bonus to an otherwise difficult check, and other times it makes otherwise impossible checks possible.

For example, a great towering column of light would make a Spot check to find you almost un-fail-able.

@PaulA.Clayton In the final fight with the villain and the villain's lackey, he wrestled with the lackey and disguised himself to look like the guy, then tricked the villain into killing the lackey and discussing his plans with the PC who he thought was the lackey.

Paul A. Clayton

03:15

@BESW That makes sense. I could see an issue of increased complexity if the GM tried to factor in all possible considerations (Javil the Mage studied the frescoes of Makin the Bold fighting the Chimera of Salisan, so should make a more believable Chimera illusion—at least to those exposed to the same visualizations/stories—, but Javil failed his anatomical studies class, so if the illusory Chimera moved it would look less like an animal's movements.).

BESW

@PaulA.Clayton Make an appropriate Knowledge check to create a good-looking illusion, which in turn grants a bonus to the Diplomacy check to impress the Empress of All that you're buddies with a chimera.

RPGs are all about abstraction, and choosing where to draw the line on the abstraction is a major part of choosing a system and adjudicating it.

In a Dresden Files RPG game, it'd be drawn out much more: you use the Create Advantage actions to recall your research to mind, gather the appropriate tools, perform the right rituals, and establish that you once had a chimera chase you so you know what they look like close-up.

Each of those would give you a bonus to summoning and controlling the power needed to successfully cast the spell.

Paul A. Clayton

@BESW My near complete inability to make quick decisions is one reason why I would be a bad GM. (I could probably write fiction or even develop much of the content for a game setting, but I like hard rules such that I know I am not making a mistake.)

BESW

@PaulA.Clayton Being quick on the toes is a very good quality for a GM to have. Sufficient preparation can help compensate, but you might be interested in Lady Blackbird style GMing.

There's a subset of RPG systems, including Lady Blackbird, where the GM's role is not to decide what happens next, but to pry that information out of the players.

The GM asks leading questions like "Does anyone try to stop you from leaving the ship?" and "The fire probably spreads out of control, doesn't it?" and "How do you react to this attack on the woman you're supposed to be protecting?"

Paul A. Clayton

In some ways, illusions are like a Green Lantern ring without the overpowering physical component (but also without the vulnerability to #2 pencils [Big Bang Theory reference]). They are extremely powerful when used with imagination but can be easily thwarted.

BESW

And then based on the players' responses, you determine whether rolls are called for to determine outcomes or if there's just one interesting thing that could happen (in which case it does), and you decide whether Bad Things (Injured, Tired, Hungry) are happening as a result.

Paul A. Clayton

03:26

@BESW If I wasn't so lazy I could do preparation (one problem—for me—would be that not knowing how much is enough, it becomes difficult to be motivated to do sufficient preparation).

BESW

@PaulA.Clayton When I started GMing (my first time in RPGs--I didn't get to run a PC until months after I started GMing) I came to the table with a great stack of notes, which I threw out half an hour in because everyone was doing other, more interesting things.

Sep 4 '13 at 15:50, by BESW

Often, I don't even have a plot anymore. Just a setting, and NPCs with goals, plans, and backups and contingencies depending on how smart and resourceful they are.

Sep 4 '13 at 15:51, by BESW

Then I let the PCs roll through like a lopsided bowling ball knocking down the NPCs' pins, catching attention from various personalities. What the players pay attention to, pays attention right back.

Paul A. Clayton

@BESW Yeah, I am not certain I would have the good character to enjoy a good game when the players "ruined" my clever plans.

Alex P

Don't plan!

It's scary but what happens is amazing.

BESW

Lady Blackbird is an extreme example of this, in which the GM's main role is to help the players figure out what happens.

Paul A. Clayton

@AlexP "Don't plan!" Spoken as someone who does not have OCD tendencies, I take it.

BESW

03:31

Fate Core is a less extreme version, where a lot of the prep is done cooperatively, and much of the rest can be done on the fly as needed, with the traditional power of the GM as Creator of the World being distributed somewhat to the players through game currency which lets them take control.

Alex P

@PaulA.Clayton You can channel that into more useful stuff. Daydream a bunch (just hold ideas loosely). Prep bits you might want later, like a list of names.

BESW

Pilgrims of the Flying Temple abdicates the role of GM entirely. When it's your turn you discover through randomness and choice whether your character helps people or gets in trouble. If she helps people, you get to describe it; if she gets in trouble, everyone else describes it collectively.

Lists are great! When I was in D&D, I always had lists of "blank characters," just stats that I could add flavour to as needed. Names, places, motives...

Paul A. Clayton

I think I would be better off first learning how to play (role playing can be fun, but competitive feeling and not feeling I am contributing are not fun—I did a little RPG playing decades ago when I was more depressed than I am now, I was really not fun to play with then). Anyway, it is almost tomorrow here, so I am leaving this room. Bye.

doppelgreener

Goodnight!

BESW

@PaulA.Clayton Cooperation-focused RPGs are much more commonly available now, you might like to look into some of them. Goodnight.

Alex P

03:36

'Night.

BESW

Hope to see you again some time.

Magician

Tweets to Campaign By would like to hear your suggestions on improving this Wild West Hockey game.

2

As always, no matter what happens in this game, the shootout is bullshit and I hate it.

Tweeted by wilw on March 26, 2014 at 1:51 AM

BESW

03:54

@Roflo Hi!

Roflo

04:27

@BESW Hi!

BESW

Thanks for putting up with my stubborn confusion.

Roflo

No worries, I find it very interesting to exchange opinions..

So anyway.. you did left me wondering.. is it that "fairness" is too strong a concept for speaking of character death?

BESW

It's the idea that penalising someone for having their character die is somehow "fair."

I mean, your character's dead. You probably miss out on the rest of the session while you roll a new one, but it's not like you won something.

And more than that, there's this idea I'm seeing in it that the fictional positioning of the world is more important than what's happening at the table.

Wait, no, that's not the right way to say it.

[thinks]

Roflo

I think I get that.. but I'm lacking words to state that there must be consecuences. And that in the end it also affects other players.

Lord_Gareth

@BESW - If I told you that my wife was wanting to run a play-by-post god game with a mostly freeform set of rules, wherein the players take on the role of nascent deities cooperatively & competitively shaping a solar system, would you be interested in playing?

BESW

04:34

My character died, so my next character gets shafted. That makes no sense in the world of the game, but at the same time it says something about the value of myself as a part of the group: I screwed up, so I get punished?

Like I've said, I totally understand the other reasons for death penalties. It's the "fairness" bit that throws me.

@Lord_Gareth That sounds intriguing. What's the frequency commitment like?

Also, @Lord_Gareth, you came to mind on this.

Roflo

Uhmm.. and back to my last comment: If we call it "balance" instead of "fairness", does it feel at least like a first step in the right direction?

Lord_Gareth

@BESW The DM - AO - will update once every 2-3 days. You may post as often or as little as you like during that time; you receive new ACTS (the resources of divine influence) every update.

BESW

@Roflo Kinda, yeah. "Fairness" implies that to not impose a penalty would be unjust, unfair, to some individual. "Balance" instead invokes the notion that there's an equilibrium which must be maintained.

"Balance" isn't a morality call, "fairness" is.

Roflo

Okay.. "morality" is the key word here, I guess I am getting the point.

BESW

Balance is also about the system, not about the individual participants.

Lord_Gareth

04:41

@BESW - We're kinda shopping the game together right now if you wanna learn more. Do you remember the mibbit chat that I pointed you at? Drop into #godgame on the gamesurge server.

BESW

Saying "fair" makes me ask "Fair to whom?"

@Lord_Gareth Unfortunately, I'm currently cobbling together a poster draft that I must take to a client in under an hour and a half.

Lord_Gareth

Then I'll collect what we come up with

Roflo

Yeah. Now I see it. And as I reread the comments, it makes more sense.

BESW

Many of the justifications are still bizarre to me because of the RPG environment I prefer--about the only argument I can really support is "death needs to be meaningful"--but it's more comprehensible now.

Roflo

Ok... you convinced me. Anyway, I did a minor edit. It's probably just barely a start, but I have to call it a night.

BESW

04:48

In particular, I take issue with the idea that a resource which relies on my players dedicating dozens of hours of real-life time and effort should be casually negated by in-game actions which may have been the result of random chance, or may have been really cool.

@Roflo Thanks again for your patience and help.

Lord_Gareth

@BESW One thing to keep in mind about my wife is that she sometimes lets her enthusiasm run away with her when making descriptions; she may pitch something without, say, important supplementary information.

Roflo

@BESW Thanks to you. Like I said, I like to be given something to think about. And you have. Good night.

BESW

I don't like trivialising the fact that my players carve out a lot of time every week to spend with me and my worlds.

3

Lord_Gareth

@BESW Excuse me, I need to make a million alts so I can star this more.

That right there is why I hate the 'old school' thought of DMing, why I hate the Pathfinder culture that trivializing a character is okay and the player should just deal with it.

Getting four solid hours is hard as hell.

Telling someone they don't get to play now is bullshit

BESW

Gamers aren't highschool and college guys anymore. Gamers have jobs and kids and social lives outside of casting magic missile at the darkness.

If I'd known four years ago what I know now, I think I'd have a much larger group.

My group dissipated in no small part because the commitment expected of them was too much with too little reward, and that's because I was stuck in D&D 3.5 mechanics and atmospheres.

Lord_Gareth

05:01

@BESW - Your input is desired as to the potential scope of ze game.

BESW

I have submitted my opinion, heavily influenced by the pile of lackluster bile that is The Amber Spyglass.

Lord_Gareth

@BESW Yeah, Pullman and Lewis both got really preachy and lazy towards the end of their respective projects.

BESW

@Lord_Gareth "Toward the end"? Pullman lost it after The Golden Compass.

Lord_Gareth

@BESW There were concepts in The Subtle Knife that were legitimately awesome.

BESW

Compass was and still is one of the best AU fantasy works I've ever read. Everything after is bitter bile: whatever cool concepts and characters he might have had were made subservient to his anger and agenda.

Lord_Gareth

05:06

@BESW Admittedly I felt the exact same anger when Narnia started getting preachy.

I got through the first four books and then Dawn Treader happened

BESW

Everything and everyone was merely a finger puppet for him to vent his wildly outmoded and narrow-minded frustrations.

Lord_Gareth

And it was like, "NO!"

BESW

I would have been fine with his agenda if he'd been able to actually tell a story too.

But when nothing makes sense except in light of the allegory the author needs to tell... I'm out.

Alex P

@BESW I laughed when they made The Golden Compass a movie. First because it was poorly done. Second because they cut off the storyline right before the book's ending.

BESW

yeeeah.

Alex P

05:07

So the second movie (which they never filmed, because the first one tanked) would either greatly depart from the books or have to start off with, you know, a dead kid.

BESW

Wooo?

Alex P

Also I thought the movie really brought out how much of a mishmash the setting was.

Independent of the film just being kinda bad on its own.

BESW

The setting had some... PoC issues.

Which the film exaggerated.

(As they do.)

Alex P

Often my reaction to an adaptation of something isn't "Oh noes, they ruined it!" but "This makes me like the original less because its flaws are more obvious now."

(Viz. revisiting Game of Thrones through not-teenage eyes.)

doppelgreener

@BESW What does PoC stand for here?

BESW

05:10

@JonathanHobbs People of Colour.

doppelgreener

@BESW <- this makes a bit more sense now

Alex P

Way too many fantasy series: "Have some weird gypsy caricatures!" "Oh, that is delightfully Old World! So magical!"

doppelgreener

But At Least It's Not FATAL™

4

BESW

@AlexP Admittedly, I drew heavily on the Gyptians for my halfling cultures.

Alex P

@JonathanHobbs You just say that because you haven't seen RaHoWa.

doppelgreener

05:12

@AlexP rahowahawhatsit?

BESW

(Yes, my dwarves were Imperialist and Soviet Russians, and my halflings were boat people.)

Alex P

RaHoWa is the Racial Holy War RPG.

It is for neo-Nazis by neo-Nazis.

BESW

Is it also about neo-Nazis?

Alex P

It is about fighting people of color to secure the future for white children or whatever. So yes.

Anyway the rules are terrible like FATAL, though with less of a chart fetish.

Also the game is kinda funny in the sense that all of the enemies have, you know, magic powers. Super strength, mind control, &c.

doppelgreener

@AlexP Because they're Vegans?

Alex P

05:16

Which just leaves you wondering... If white people are supposed to be the best, how come they are just so objectively inferior in the world of this game?

Lord_Gareth

@JonathanHobbs I...I think I love you

doppelgreener

D'aw. C:

Lord_Gareth

[Sighs] This is what starting our planning session at midnight gets us. >.>

Metool

Oh goodness, looking at my old freeform RP logs...

Lord_Gareth

@Metool I have this feel often.

doppelgreener

05:18

Oh goodness. I just remembered the other day I visited the fitness store to get some vegan-friendly protein powder for my housemate. There was one other customer in the store, and he turned to me and said: "Sorry mate, forgive my ignorance, but I've heard that vegans get supernatural powers, is that true?" To which I responded with a straight face: "Yes."

Metool

@Lord_Gareth Which feel?

doppelgreener

(I consider myself privileged that that situation happened)

BESW

Augh. Words just escaped me. What's the wire fence that has diamond-mech holes?

Lord_Gareth

@Metool "Sweet Asmodeus I actually wrote this. O God, if You are just, strike me dead and destroy this work that no other eyes might be offended by it."

Metool

@Lord_Gareth Actually, I feel like I've gotten worse over time.

doppelgreener

05:20

@Lord_Gareth A sufficiently powerful lightning bolt might actually simultaneously obliterate you and wipe your hard drives simply through EMP.

S'all about the efficiency when you're a god.

Alex P

@BESW Chain link?

Lord_Gareth

@JonathanHobbs It is pretty tough to be a god.

Metool

Certainly I was more active...

BESW

@AlexP Yes!

Alex P

Anyway, if you ever feel the urge to look at FATAL for any reason, just pick up Synibarr or Dead Earth. They are also nuts but won't make you feel bad about yourself.

Lord_Gareth

05:23

@Metool - If you wanna get your hand back in on freeform or semi-freeform my wife is starting a god game. She's looking for 4-5 players and may have open slots.

Poke 'er sometime when she's on

Alex P

night

Wait, wait. Here's some Synibarr.

BESW

05:42

Okay, poster done.

Well, shoddy draft proof-of-concept poster done.

But there's no way I'm dragging the model into the sunlight for a re-shoot and then making two dozen individual guasåli objects for a design that might get rejected out of hand.

Metool

05:54

@Lord_Gareth No, see, I had all sorts of wacky ideas back then, or else why would I utter "Ready the giant donut costume, and the bear traps"?

BESW

@Metool Because you were channeling an episode of Animaniacs?

Metool

"Do we really need that?" "On second thought, you're right. Forget the traps. Get the giant mug."

BESW

"Are you pondering what I'm pondering, Barbarian?"

"I think so, Wizard, but where are we going to get a portable hole at this time of night?"

Anyway, must go to client meeting. Ta.

doppelgreener

@BESW Bye!

doppelgreener

06:12

@Metool i am scared and intrigued

Metool

@JonathanHobbs Unfortunately, I was called out of the session shortly after that, and since it was a freeform RP channel, the idea was dropped. Four years have passed.

Metool

06:59

Alicornification.

Augh.

Inbar Rose

07:47

Good Morning.

Metool

Morning, @InbarRose.

MC_Hambone

08:41

Hey there guys!

BESW

08:53

[wave]

MC_Hambone

So I ordered a copy of Spaceship Zero last tuesday and it still has not gotten to me via standard US post.... I wonder if they are playing it...

BESW

And you live in the mainland, so the usual reasons for delay that my packages have don't apply.

(The Hawaii postal warehouse apparently operates on a LIFO principle.)

MC_Hambone

yep! it's only 3K miles from CA to PA where I live, which is only like a 4 day drive... I can't believe it's not here yet

shouldda paid for air mail :(

BESW

So, my second player thinks he can come this Saturday, and he's enthused about doing either the Knave Port campaign or the alien spider detective one.

MC_Hambone

the alien spider is the detective?

either way I think that sounds pretty fun

BESW

09:01

Yes. I'll track down the picture when I'm off my tablet in a few minutes.

> Name: Samson
> High Concept: Spider alien detective
> Trouble: Ask questions first, shoot later
> I'd do anything for Astrid's Diner
> Eyes on Taurus
> Dames are blabbermouths

MC_Hambone

lol "dames are Blabbermouths"

what system are you guys using? Fate?

BESW

This guy was a player with a 3.5 group I ran several years ago, and he's recently been able to start showing up again erratically.

Yes, we're using Fate now, which makes it a lot easier to handle players coming and going.

I've currently only got one regular player.

MC_Hambone

whats the population in your area? I took a look at a map and that island seems kinda small

BESW

The island's got about 160k people.

Concentrated mostly in the central and north.

I spent most of my life in the (rural) south, and I'm currently living centrally.

doppelgreener

The stuff people come up with when trying to find congruence between D&D and real life physics is beautiful.

MC_Hambone

09:11

oh wow, I dunno why but I thought there would be less people there

@JonathanHobbs example?

BESW

2

Q: Practical aspects of fire immunity

Fire immunity certainly defends the creature against magic attacks with fire description. But I'm curious about natural hazards. How does a fire immune creature react to a extremely high temperature? Suppose we find a way to put the creature into high-temperature plasma. Rules preserves that cre...

doppelgreener

yes that one

2

Q: Are there speed limits on thrown objects in D&D?

There was an interesting question about the maximum speed of a character, with an even more interesting answer that a properly optimized character can break the speed of light. (So, isn't general relativity present in D&D, and is there no time dilation, etc.?) If someone can reach such ludicrous...

dnd-3.5e

8

Q: In 3.5 does movement speed add damage or attack power to weapons?

I have a character who has managed to get herself a movement speed of 100'. She is a centaur, and as such specializes in lance based combat and charges. Now in the real world a lance moving faster would have more power behind it. With this centaur moving at 56 MPH and putting her 1473 pounds behi...

dnd-3.5e pathfinder damage

BESW

There's an infamous deleted question which is basically a physics workbook question about a goblin using spaces of indefinite article to launch himself into space.

MC_Hambone

BESW

("Spaces of indefinite article" are what I call the extradimensional areas one finds in bags of holding, cloaks of deep pockets, portable holes, etc: they're always "an" extradimensional space.)

@MC_Hambone Yeah, it's a little crowded here. But the RPG community is very small, very transient, and very old-school.

The majority of the RPG community is military, so they're only here so long as they're stationed here. And the rest, well.

One of them threw away his $100 worth of 4e books within half an hour of purchasing them.

Another, when I said Fate Core was radically different from the D&D 3.5 system she's used to, responded, "Oh, like Pathfinder!"

I know another group that refuses to have anything to do with games made in the 21st century.

MC_Hambone

09:25

Wow

thats a bummer, why do people have to scoff at things because they are new?

BESW

Well, that's not how they put it, but it's effectively how they behave.

MC_Hambone

games are games, some will be good others will be bad, and i think we should all try stuff at least once

BESW

I can't feel too superior, because I believed the anti-4e propaganda for five years.

It wasn't until the flaws in 3.5 so significantly outweighed the bits we liked that it was becoming actually drudgesome to play a session that I finally caved in and looked at 4e as a serious alternative.

MC_Hambone

I was never anti 4e... then again i didnt start playing Table Top RPGs until well after it's release

BESW

And notice, please, I still wasn't looking outside the D&D sphere.

MC_Hambone

09:29

So they think it's gotta be AD&D or nothin?

BESW

Pretty much.

MC_Hambone

yikes

I can't speak for the GM side of things but I really like the players side of 7th Sea

it's a d10 ten system where if you roll a 10 you roll another die, and if it's a 10 you roll another, and so on until you don't roll a 10

runs of luck can make impossible things possible

doppelgreener

exploding dice! nice \o/

MC_Hambone

It's SO FUN! :D

BESW

Yeah, one thing I miss playing Fate is the giant handful of dice.

MC_Hambone

09:34

I am not too big a fan about the class feel, but I also don't know much about the world, or looked at anything other than my particular class. So I won't say anything too negative about it. For what it's worth I do like the fact that I can actually use a lute to advance plot points in the game

My character in 7th is a "less macho Indiana Jones" who plays a lute. I use really subtle magic too that draws upon old english legends (ie I have a spell that increases my Bow shot accuracy when I invoke the power of robin hood)

BESW

Cool.

MC_Hambone

but my profession is I adventure for the sole purpose to learn things about other cultures and find atrifacts I can take back to england, then I study then and Teach at a university while not adventuring... and for fun while I am traveling I make side money as a bard :D

BESW

So you're totally Indiana Jones.

MC_Hambone

(plays off me IRL as I have played guitar for 12 years)

BESW

I am envious.

I love music, I have music on whenever possible, I was in a dance group as a teen, but I cannot keep a beat for the life of me.

When I danced, I had to force the beat into my muscle memory and if I lost track I couldn't pick it up from the music.

MC_Hambone

09:40

that is unfortunate, I have naturally good rhythm. If I was more coordinated I would learn to play the drums

BESW

The fancraft is probably a good third of the reason I consider myself a brony.

They make some durn good musics.

MC_Hambone

hahahaha nice

doppelgreener

like this one?

►

(also: completely amazing in its own right whether you like MLP or not)

BESW

Not exactly what I had in mind.

More like The Moon Rises or Discord or Homework Blues?

MC_Hambone

I...

have no words

BESW

09:47

(Picking a variety of styles.)

MC_Hambone

that youtube video made me kinda uncomfortable

which is REALLY hard to do

BESW

It is a little weird.

Try The Moon Rises as a palette cleanser?

MC_Hambone

yea just watched that.... it's darker than I expected from a show for little girls

;)

BESW

The music and visuals are fan-made, but the story they tell is the origin story for the villain of the show's pilot two-parter.

MC_Hambone

gotta say I am diggin Discord

oh there are words!

BESW

09:52

Princess Luna, jealous of her older sister Princess Celestia's popularity, became the evil Nightmare Moon and attempted to bring about eternal night. Celestia was forced to banish Nightmare Moon to the moon for a thousand years. The TV show opens with the thousand years being up and Nightmare Moon returning to once more bring about night everlasting.

MC_Hambone

are the ponies immortal or something?

because 1000 years is a super long time

BESW

The Princesses (who combine the features of all three pony types--regular, pegasus, and unicorn) appear to be extremely long-lived compared to ordinary ponies.

There's a lot left unexplained in the show, which I'm totally cool with.

MC_Hambone

fertile ground for all that fan fic i see floating around various internet black holes like tumblr

BESW

It probably has to do with them being the stewards of the Sun and Moon.

@MC_Hambone Yeah, I generally don't take the time to wade through fanfic to find the gems, though there's one author of ponyfic who I really like.

He also writes Skin Horse, which despite its name has nothing to do with ponies.

(It's about black ops social service workers who serve the sapient creations of mad scientists.)

MC_Hambone

Yea, I noticed that... then I got distracted when I noticed one of the writers has the same name as me

BESW

10:00

Heh.

MC_Hambone

So to quickly switch back to an earlier topic... I just check the package tracking for that PG rules book I ordered and it says it is here in town at the post office... yet I know my dad went to the post office yesterday to get the mail....

something fishy is a foot

...and it's not my feet this time!

BESW

Does it just say the package arrived?

MC_Hambone

"available for pick up" March 24 (it is now 6AM on the 26th)

BESW

Because there are between two and four steps that tracking services can track inside a facility once it arrives, leading up to its actually being in your box.

Ah. That is different.

MC_Hambone

It's not like I'll be able to really sink my teeth into it any time soon, but I have been burned ordering things on line before (lost $40 ordering a real wiccan wand for a friend as a christmas gift one year for him since he was playing a wizard in our D&D game)

BESW

10:06

[squint] I'm sorry, "real" Wiccan?

MC_Hambone

hahaha

yea it was like a wand that is made specifically for Wiccan ceremony or whatever

BESW

To the extent that Wicca is real because it exists (rather than because its claims to an illustrious history spanning more than 70 years have any validity) how does one separate it from fake Wicca?

MC_Hambone

supposed to have been made from custom woods I chose and all sorts of stuff what was supposed to reflect the personality of the person who it was for.... I don't subscribe to that mysticism, but it was a site reccomended to me by a wiccan friend

I wasnt spending the $40 becasue of the wiccan thing, i was willing to spend that much money because when I looked up pricing for the woods used and the craftsman ship for the handle and the engravings it seemed worth it

BESW

Fair enough.

MC_Hambone

whether it was "real" or not made no difference as the buddy I bought it for is not a Wiccan

doppelgreener

10:10

@BESW Those were pretty good!

MC_Hambone

it was a gift to reflect his choice to play a wizard instead of the rouge he played in literally every game ever, video-, table top or otherwise

BESW

When I left college to go back home, my D&D group gave me a letter opener with a plaster dragon-bedecked stand-up desk sheath, with the blade inscribed DM SWORD.

(The DM Sword was a long-running joke about the most powerful artifact in the multiverse, which gave you the power to control reality itself.)

MC_Hambone

that is pretty flippin awesome

doppelgreener

that is pretty flippin' awesome

MC_Hambone

I am lucky if my players buy donuts for games around holidays or my birthday

BESW

10:16

I had an awesome group. What success I had learning to GM, especially in that 3.5 environment, came down to their willingness to learn with me, forgive me, trust me, and throw the rules to the wolves in the name of Cool Stuff when necessary.

We're talking about a group that let me capture and torture their characters, giving them physical injuries which lasted the rest of their lives, because they trusted I was going to make it worthwhile and they'd get an awesome story out of it.

A group that, when two players wound up with characters going head-to-head in an all-out burn-the-forest-to-the-ground ideological battle to the death, let me take them to the side and suggest we have the PCs fight off into the sunset and just roll up new ones.

And they did, and everything was fine, and the ensuing forest fire became a conflagration which destroyed a key plot point and totally ruined the villain's plans.

MC_Hambone

when my group doubled in size from 4 - 9 players one of the original members wanted his character to buy passage on a ship to travel to his home island, even though he wanted to see his character's story to the end I explained that with 8 other people I didn't think running a seperate 1 player story during our sessions was fair to everyone else and he agreed to make a new character

but thats about as close to a good group as I have

XD

BESW

That is pretty good.

MC_Hambone

most are in their early 20s and "just wanna smash stuff"

BESW

It shows that they're thinking --at least on some level-- about themselves and you working together as friends to have fun, rather than as players and GM pitted against each other.

I always try to remember my mother's mantra from working with summer camp kids: Is everyone safe? If yes, is everyone happy? If yes, then we can start worrying about what's actually happening.

MC_Hambone

to which I replied I run a game that is equal parts story, non combat encounters and combat... they are ok with it to a point, and normally I would work with my players more to tailor a game to their style... but again with 9 players I am just running a game how I want to play it and dont care if I lose some players

BESW

10:23

A key stumbling block I've seen in groups is the (very strange, to me) notion that it's okay to make real-life people unhappy if it makes sense for the fiction of the game.

@MC_Hambone I've been able to hold together six players, but above that it usually falls into chaos. Even with five or six, the Hedgehog of Discourse makes regular appearances.

MC_Hambone

agreed that makes no sense, and I want to say i did do everything I could to find a way for him to play out his fighter's story

BESW

Of course, now I'm learning the tricks and stratagems of gaming twosies.

@MC_Hambone I have occasionally offered to meet with a player at another time, in real life or online, to play out a side quest.

MC_Hambone

yea thats what I did, and he declined

BESW

Depending on the group, I've also tried things like:

MC_Hambone

we have had to split the party before for a session here or there and that's why he was cool with me asking him to make a new character. he remembered being bored when his character was not in the current scene

BESW

10:27

- Just saying "whatever, they can deal" and running the one-on-one session in front of everyone. If it's entertaining enough, it can work.

- Assigning each other player an NPC role in the one-on-one session.

- Appointing someone else co-GM to run one session while I run the other.

doppelgreener

@BESW Why is this a Hedgehog in particular?

BESW

@JonathanHobbs It was originally a giraffe, but I don't know where the giraffe is now so I picked up a hedgehog.

MC_Hambone

I want a Sonic Plushie

doppelgreener

@BESW Ah! The toy you pass around so that only the person with it may speak!

BESW

Right.

It needs to be between 6 and 12 inches at the largest dimension, with no hard bits (not even button eyes), squishy, not too entertaining, and without squeaker.

A small pillow could work, but for some reason a stuffed animal seems to work better.

The size is so it's obvious who has it without it getting cumbersome; the hard bits are because it's going to get thrown around whether you want it to or not; it shouldn't be distractingly amusing on its own; and nobody can resist making a squeaky toy squeak, which is very disruptive, so don't give them the temptation.

2

MC_Hambone

10:32

got it a giant carnival teddy bear made out of granite that has an air raid siren

;)

BESW

Perfect.

Just sit it behind one of the chairs and everyone trades places.

MC_Hambone

like musical chairs!

who ever doesnt get a seat takes damage

BESW

Actually, most of the time the mere presence of the <Animal> of Discourse is sufficient to keep a group mostly in line, talking-wise.

I think one reason it needs to be a stuffed animal is that it's fun, but also the teensiest bit humiliating.

So if it's necessary, we can have fun with it. But we'd rather not have to clutch a stuffed animal in order to have permission to speak, so just pulling the thing out and standing it next to my dice is often enough.

MC_Hambone

I will have to consider that if the talking gets out of hand, I actually havent noticed much talking overlap

doppelgreener

@MC_Hambone oh my god this is hilarious in my mind

MC_Hambone

10:39

but we have really only run 2 games with ALL the players there, generally its just 6 or 7

@JonathanHobbs imagining people throwing it at each other?

BESW

If things get difficult you might also look at this:

13

Q: How to cut back on pre-game joking?

When preparing for a new game (be it a one shot or a campaign) our party, yours truly included, often slips into a humorous mode. It's usually light-hearted fun, and most of us like it, but some, yours truly included again, find it distracting and disruptive for the mood, after a certain unspecif...

gm-techniques system-agnostic social

It's got some good general "keeping things orderly" tips.

doppelgreener

@MC_Hambone imagining someone sitting there and just turning on the air raid siren with a deadpan expression

MC_Hambone

@JonathanHobbs LOL

@BESW in reference to the Title of the question I would say it is actually a good thing for PREgame joking

BESW

It's a pretty good example of the XY Problem, actually.

MC_Hambone

if we played game at someone's house I wouldn't force the game to start immediately when everyone arrives, there would be a buffer for people to hang out and get some of the rowdiness outta their systems

not often, but sometimes there are side conversations (even when there were only 4 players and me)

BESW

10:43

I've always felt that was important. Many times one of the reasons we game is to hang out with friends we otherwise wouldn't schedule time to see regularly.

That should be acknowledged and supported.

(Because it'll happen anyway.)

MC_Hambone

but I think it's partly because those people know eachother and now that we are in college they dont see eachother all day 5 days a week and like to goof off when they see eachother at game

BESW

I like eating beforehand.

MC_Hambone

I would love to do that, I like to cook and making something like a lasagna or whatever would be great

but we dont play at a house

BESW

Eating together bonds a group, minimises the gametime snacking, provides a buffer for people to be early/late without feeling bad, and gives social time with pretty clear "now it's over" signals built in.

MC_Hambone

we sneak into a building on campus on the weekends and use a conference room

BESW

10:45

Can you meet at the Waffle House just off campus first?

MC_Hambone

for the game? or a pregame meal?

BESW

(There's always a Waffle House just off campus, right? because every mainland college I've ever visited...)

@MC_Hambone I was thinking pregame meal.

doppelgreener

@BESW i like the fact that you can say this in general terms and even in Australia I know this to be accurate

MC_Hambone

it might be possible to visit an eatery (not a waffle house though)

doppelgreener

(though it was a Pancake Manor just outside my campus)

MC_Hambone

10:46

you guys are lucky, we have no place like that

BESW

doppelgreener

MC_Hambone

we have 3 burger joints (mcdonalds wendys and burgerking) an arbys and a KFC as far as fast food is concerned

and a subway for healther fast food

BESW

Here on Guam there's ~~two~~ three local diners, a Subway, a KFC, a Dominos Pizza, a Winchell's, and a Thai restaurant that's actually the cook's living room in her own home.

MC_Hambone

everything else is a local owned small family restaurant

just one pizza joint?

BESW

10:48

And that's the stuff that's in semi-reasonable walking distance.

MC_Hambone

for 100k+ people?

oh ok

BESW

@MC_Hambone That's within, like, five minutes' drive of the campus.

MC_Hambone

I was gonna say you should have more than just a dominos

BESW

Psh, no, we've got between three and six each of Pizza Hut and Dominos', a Papa John's, and some ritzy California-y pizza place.

I think the bake-it-yourself place closed down.

The Oracle

0

Q: Edit vs own answer

There were 2 answers for this question, both more than 50% right. I ended up adding my answer, but should I change the other answers? On one hand they contain factual errors, so they should be corrected. On the other hand we will end up with 3 identical answers, what is the point of that? So w...

discussion

BESW

10:51

(Food stamps don't work on take-out food, only for food you cook at home, but they're a pretty Big Thing here due to our economic issues. So one clever place made you a pizza to order and sealed it in a plastic sleeve for you to take home and bake there, or keep it in your fridge for days until you needed it.)

MC_Hambone

that is pretty clever

BESW

It was great for us when we lived in the south, because the furthest south any place would deliver was a fifteen-minute drive north of our house.

So we'd just pick up an uncooked pizza on the way back from work/shopping/whatever and not have to worry about it being cold by the time we got home half an hour later.

MC_Hambone

@BESW at that point it kinda seems like youre doing something illegal "yeah that'll be 2 pepperoni large pizzas, bring it to the park off 7th avenue, I'll be the guy in the sweatshirt and sunglasses carrying a breifcase full of money"

BESW

@MC_Hambone Yeah, pretty much. We'd meet the delivery guy in the parking lot of the Yona 7-Day Supermarket.

(I will never for the life of me understand why nobody's advocated to re-spell Yona as Yo'ña, unless it's because the people of Yona are memetically --and arguably literally-- the toughest, most ready-to-fight people on the island and would not take kindly to someone messing with their village name.)

MC_Hambone

Why would you need the added punctuation in the word?

BESW

10:58

I'll tell you when I get back, must dash.

Friend's dog is injured, no idea how bad.

MC_Hambone

oh no!

Aeon Wave session 1

Aeon Wave session 2

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