TRPG General Chat

doppelgreener

00:36

@BESW there are a few things D&D has done that are gross as hell

BESW

03:20

@JonathanHobbs Yes.

stizzle84

03:50

Guys i just got fae!!

Sorry i mean fate core system! Sorry typo

BESW

Grats.

stizzle84

Thx that d&d pic is so gross

GMNoob

05:11

@waxeagle post is published, feel free to find a better pic

@Grubermensch I was looking for any picture that would make a good cover for my printed 5e rules which I've placed in a 2 ring binder.

Metool

Ooh, this is neat.

GMNoob

05:30

Have you played it?

My experience so far with one page rules have not been successful.

Does this pic come with the pdf and I just missed it?

BESW

@GMNoob With the exception of Pilgrims of the Flying Temple and Roll for Shoes, I agree.

(And Flying Temple is kind of cheating to call it a one-page system.)

It seems like most one-page systems haven't quite figured out where all the dials are and just how far they can get turned. One-page systems have to leave out a lot of dials completely, but choosing which to leave entirely in the group's hands is rough.

@Metool I'm taking notes on that dice mechanic.

GMNoob

@BESW Yeah the dice mechanic is really nice, but I wish it was larger than a d6. Not enough granularity for me.

BESW

05:46

I'll have to see it in action.

I'm thinking it could be very close to what I'm looking for in my MLN system.

(But still, no escalation mechanic. I need more escalation engines to study.)

GMNoob

One thing I don't like about it, is that there is no obvious benefit to picking 3 or 4 as your number.

BESW

Well, sure. If you want to be decent at both.

GMNoob

50% isn't decent IMO

BESW

That's nitpicking; I mean that if you want a character who isn't crippled in one or the other approach, you pick a middling number.

Metool

And then one of my friends tried to use 3.5 as their number.

BESW

05:54

@Metool Congratulations, they have no laser feelings.

GMNoob

06:10

@BESW The point is , I don't find it nitpicking. If I don't have a 70% chance of doing something , I tend to try to avoid rolling the dice, or I recognize that I'm going to not succeed.

BESW

That's a gameplay choice; there's still an obvious reason to pick a 3 or 4: to be equally good at both. Just because you wouldn't doesn't mean it's not a clear option.

Metool

Maaaaaatt.

BESW

[wave]

Matt

Does anyone know when the phb for 5e is coming out?

GMNoob

Auguest 15th

Matt

06:18

Thanks, you guys are amazingly knowledgeable about rpgs

lisardggY

Good morning.

BESW

Hey.

Matt

Speaking of which one of the players in my group wants to try his hand at gming but wanted to use a modern apocalyptic setting. Any recommendations for a high-quality and easy to learn system.

lisardggY

Are we talking relatively realistic "28 Hours Later"-style zombie apocalypse, or more futuristic and fun Fallout-style mutant post-apocalypse?

BESW

Also, how opposed are you to a simple setting-agnostic system which lets you and/or your group define the setting yourselves?

lisardggY

06:29

Days.

28 Days later.

Silly me.

BESW

Your zombie apocalypse is a lot faster.

lisardggY

@BESW "Tired of spending days and weeks tearing down civilization as we know it? Our super-fast zombies will make short work of your city in a matter of hours, or your money back!"

Matt

Well he was thinking about a modern one but he is a big fan of the fallout franchise so a more complex setting with futuristic tech would be good too.

lisardggY

There's a Fallout-based game, but I think it's not officially published, just a fan effort: fallout-pnp-rpg

But apparently an official Fallout d20-based game was planned, then scrapped as an official tie-in and was rereleased generically.

fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Jason_Mical

Matt

Huh that's interesting

lisardggY

06:35

Exodus (role-playing game)

Exodus is a post-apocalyptic role-playing game published by Glutton Creeper Games using the d20/OGL system. Originally the game was licensed in the Fallout universe, but due to legal complications with Interplay and Bethesda Softworks, Fallout's current copyright holder, the publisher decided to continue working on the game with retaining most of its elements and excluding all references to Fallout. History The project of creating the Fallout role-playing game based on d20 Modern system started in 2006 and the publisher obtained an 18-month license from Interplay, the creator of the o...

Never played it, though, so I can't recommend it. But if you're already familiar with D&D/d20, it should be easy to get into.

BESW

Aye, so--what's the focus of the game? Simple survival? Rebuilding civilisation? Profiteering?

I know you probably can't answer these questions for him, but they're the kind of thing--more than the setting--which defines the best system to use.

Matt

Open world survival

BESW

Is sudden, meaningless death a constant possibility, or is it more about a heroic overcoming against the odds?

(IE, will the players be creating new characters often, or telling the story of a small group of hardy survivors?)

lisardggY

No game does "sudden, meaningless death" better than deadEarth. Usually even before gaming starts.

No, I do not recommend deadEarth. I do recommend reading the review and laughing hysterically.

5

Matt

I'm not him so i can't say for sure, but are dnd campaigns have always been very cutthroat and difficult (largely by the players request) so I'd assume he would want a system where death is always a very real possibility.

Our*

BESW

06:43

Okay, that probably leaves me out; I don't pay a lot of attention to systems where my players may suddenly lose their PCs. I'll thumb through my books, though.

lisardggY

I'm also usually far from the "brutally realistic" style.

BESW

I suppose AFMBE could work, especially if the apocalypse was very recent.

... Call of Cthulhu ...

lisardggY

Twilight 2000 was going for the very harsh and realistic style, back in the day, but IIRC the mechanics were extremely crunchy and I don't know if newer editions were made.

BESW

No, CoC isn't exactly easy to learn.

lisardggY

Twilight 2000

Twilight 2000 is a role-playing game set in the aftermath of World War III (the "Twilight War"). The premise is that the United States/NATO and the Soviet Union/Warsaw Pact have fought a lengthy conventional war, followed by a (limited) nuclear war with all its consequences. Characters in the game are survivors of the war. History The adventures in Twilight 2000 typically involve a military unit which was stranded in Central Europe after the nuclear war and places emphasis on attempting to realistically depict military and social systems after a nuclear war. The manufacturer of the ga...

BESW

06:46

There's Cthulhu Dark; I've never tried it but I have the pdf for some reason. [reads]

lisardggY

/away

BESW

... Cthulhu Dark is not the game you're looking for. Too lightweight.

Yeah, okay, I'd say AFMBE might be a place to start.

All Flesh Must Be Eaten

All Flesh Must Be Eaten or AFMBE (ISBN 1-891153-31-5) is a multiple Origins Award winning and nominated survival horror role-playing game (RPG) produced by Eden Studios, Inc. using the Unisystem game system. AFMBE is derived from the traditional horror movie depictions of zombies who rise from the dead as mindless monsters that consume the living. In addition to producing a revised edition and many RPG supplements, there have been many works of fiction published that take place in one of the game’s many settings. AFMBE is one of the first RPGs to focus on zombies as the main aspect of ...

Matt

Can anybody attest to the quality of the revised edition

trogdor

revised edition of what?

ah, that picture is the revised edition

that is the only edition I have personally played, and I personally liked it, but it was like, maybe a 1-2 hour session during just one day

so I have very little experience with it, and I didn't exactly get to play a full campaign

so all I can give is my opinion, and it is founded on maybe 2 hours of experience

you might want more than that lol

I even have that book somewhere because my brother got it and then left it here

I seem to recall that being the reason anyway

Matt

07:04

Hey that's better then nothing.

BESW

07:14

I've only read the original, I think.

@trogdor If you can find it....

trogdor

mk

took me 2 seconds

BESW

Shiny. Bring it on over some time; while we're in the "experimenting with systems" mindset, might as well give it a shot.

trogdor

mk

keep in mind it isn't likely to be any good for a single PC+Gm game

Matt

07:35

You guys know eachother IRL

trogdor

yep

Matt

Cool

BESW

08:01

@Matt Trogdor is my most reliable--and often only--player.

trogdor

@Matt BESW is also the only person who ever calls me reliable :P

2

BESW

You are reliable. Your situation often imposes unreliableness upon you.

trogdor

I didn't say anyone called me unreliable either

but I certainly don't get called reliable either

BESW

08:48

From a conversation while making dinner:
"'The Free Will of Corn' would be a good name for an agricultural heavy metal band."
"They play their farm implements?"
"Yes."
"And it's Jim-Bob on the threshing machine..."

kviiri

09:11

Good day everyone!

lisardggY

good day, indeed.

BESW

Heyo.

trogdor

09:35

as in end of day good day, or start of day good day?

kviiri

Start of day for me (just past noon here).

trogdor

mk

it's about the end of the day here is all

BESW

11:05

@lisardggY I am terribly tempted to roll some deadEarth PCs.

kviiri

11:25

Dying in character creation, seriously?

BESW

@waxeagle [poke]

Would you mind opening up the Back Room?

(No way I'm inflicting deadEarth on the main chat, but it probably doesn't deserve its own room either.)

lisardggY

@BESW A live-chatting the Quick Chargen and Regrettable Death of deadEarth characters can be nice.

Inbar Rose

@BESW trash

lisardggY

Ugh. Went to my dad's place to search, but it seems that my copy of Castle Falkenstein is gone. Now I'll have to start searching for copies on eBay and AbeBooks.

BESW

@InbarRose What?

Inbar Rose

11:36

To talk about DeadEarth

It was a joke.

Anyway... I'm not really here.

BESW

11:46

Okay, I'm impatient.

deadEarth: The Chargenning

Where characters are rolled but never played

kviiri

12:26

Hah, the Apocalypse World Gunlugger has a "move" that makes them a gang in battle (mechanics-wise). A fairly literal one-man army!

BESW

Hee.

wax eagle

@BESW opened

lisardggY

12:47

Reminder: I'm helping @BESW create a deadEarth character over in the deadEarth: the Chargennin room.

We're going to start the dramatic Radiations phase soon.

Zachiel

At my last convention one of my friends wanted to play it (if his Everyone is John session was to end too early) but had some problems translating "envoy" for the Italian speaking crowds. So while he re-read the rules again I went asking a GM who is a professional translator and a sci-fi nerd and it played this way:
him - what game is it, by the way?
me - laser something something
him - aaaah, lasers and feelings! Great game.

@BESW Same mechanic Trollbabe uses

More or less.

@Metool Good luck rolling that on your die.

BESW

13:10

My first deadEarth character survived character creation!

However, he's going to die of liver failure in 1d6 years, reverse-age and die as an embryo in 1d6 weeks, and die of spontaneous combustion in 3d6 hours.

2

That is, if he isn't first killed by one of the animals he invariably drives wild by his mere presence, and assuming he doesn't try to drive any kind of vehicle.

Alas, his plans for being a dictatorial news anchorman will never be realised.

lisardggY

Also, he was a slobbering fool.

BESW

That might have been a small impediment to his plans, yes.

And it goes a long way to explaining why he couldn't drive.

Zachiel

@BESW I have time.

3d6

Dice Service

•

Zachiel

well, 18 hours is more than enough

lisardggY

13:25

@Zachiel Since he starts at 42 years old and ages backwards, 1d6 weeks for 42 years, 18 hours will get him down to... oh,. nevermind.

BESW

13:37

My second character also survived! With brain damage and crippling frailty, but a poison spur on his ankle and the ability to create pearls (he appears to be some kind of paraplegic fish-man).

2

BESW

14:02

My third and final character is a bedridden mentally deficient invalid incapable of accomplishing even the simplest of tasks. All who come into contact with him suffer radiation mutation, and he's so overcome with arrogant pride that he taunts them until they attack him (thus ensuring their mutation). Oh, and his susceptibility to radiation has given him a driving urge to get out of bed.

All of these problems except being bedridden (including the urge to get out of bed) could be cured by a truly remarkable doctor... if anyone could stay in the room long enough without trying to kill him.

So all my characters survived character creation! The brain damaged fish-man seems to have the best chances of continued survival though.

lisardggY

The drooling broadcaster will die in 3d6 hours, then again in 1d6 weeks, and again in 1d6 years. The 60 year old bedridden radiation-carrier ages a year for every month, so he doesn't have much left either.

BESW

No way he lasts a month. He's gonna starve or get strangled by whoever brings him food.

lisardggY

The reason the fish-man isn't dying is that you had to roll up only 6 mutations.

doppelgreener

What kind of game is this!?

BESW

Heck, with -14 Resilience he'd probably just choke on a speck of dust.

7 hours ago, by lisardggY

No, I do not recommend deadEarth. I do recommend reading the review and laughing hysterically.

lisardggY

14:08

@JonathanHobbs See the review I linked to in the star-list over there.

BESW

Goodnight, y'all.

doppelgreener

Goodnight!

wax eagle

14:37

seems unwise to me to be making 5e supplements when there is no clear license yet: kickstarter.com/projects/necromancergames/…

(though Greenwood is involved so they may have an inside track)

at least they're admitting that the licensing isn't nailed down...but we've been told that won't come til Spring and they're trying to publish in Nov...seems rushed

wax eagle

15:32

If anyone isn't following along, Evil Hat is unboxing the starter slowly (about a post a day), and it's pretty good stuff

lisardggY

16:07

@waxeagle Licensing should be officially published in November, and come into effect early 2015.

@waxeagle Notice how they're very coy with their language. They say "5e", but they never at any point say "D&D" or "Dungeons & Dragons".

In case the licensing doesn't allow it, I expect.

"for the 5th Edition of the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game"

@waxeagle Greenwood, Williams and Ward are all TSR/WotC veterans, but they're content contributors, if I understand it correctly. Not project leaders.

lisardggY

16:28

They migrated a question from History.SE to Sports.SE and now I have 171 rep in a sports site I have absolutely no interest in.

wax eagle

16:52

@lisardggY heh, it's a cool site, I've been there from day 1

@lisardggY lol wow, I hadn't caught that, their disclaimer made me think it was peppered in at least a little bit

@lisardggY yeah, Winter works on Tyranny of Dragons books too (through KP though). But yeah, the aren't involved in the system design, and probably aren't a ticket to resolving licensing issues

@lisardggY yeah, and they've been amazingly tight lipped bout 5e stuff, so we have no idea what thats going to look like

lisardggY

17:44

@waxeagle Except for Mearls' extremely roundabout hint-post.

lisardggY

18:04

Now I feel like some potato salad

Zachiel

18:48

@lisardggY O.o

GMNoob

How is evilhat's unboxing different from the video?

wax eagle

@lisardggY right, and that was basically to say "we've said nothing, there will be something"

@GMNoob He's going quite in depth, and is an outsider POV

(but still within the game design community)

(and he seems to be coming at it tabula rasa)

GMNoob

So I'm very slowly reading the rules and noticed that we missed the woodelf and blindsense in the hidden discussion

Also noticing that everyone seems to have missed the first page of the rules in regards to magician's question :-)

Is he doing a slow review or an unboxung?

wax eagle

19:23

@GMNoob publishing the unboxing slowly

(though it has a strong review undertone to it)

GMNoob

19:42

Link?

wax eagle

20:18

@GMNoob walkingmind.evilhat.com/2014/07/06/… back 2 from here to start

wax eagle

21:33

btw if anyone is following the 5e release and isn't checking out the "Tweets & replies" part of Mearls' twitter feed, there's a bunch of good stuff there

(rules clarifications, designer insights, etc)

Alex P

22:48

Pathfinder people may find this to be of interest:

2

> The new spring 2015 book is Pathfinder Unchained. It is described as the book that the developers got to write without being chained down by something like backwards compatibility. So, a more powerful rogue, a monk with full BAB, a summoner that isn't broken beyond belief. These are the kinds of optional rules they plan to introduce, allowing GMs to swap out pieces of existing rules that they don't like. Sounds interesting.

(Source: paizo.com/threads/… )

(I am not a Pathfinder person.)

Metool

"a summoner that isn't broken beyond belief"

Uh, that's not because of writing for backwards compatability.

BESW

23:39

@Tablesalt Hi!

@trogdor Lego Smaug.

trogdor

lol

BESW

Now this is how to do Mythos horror:

> If you fight any creature you meet, you will die. Thus, in these core rules, there are no combat rules or health levels. Instead, roll to hide or escape.

Also: Cthulhu Dark looks like it might have a simple/elegant escalation mechanic I could borrow.

I'll need to play it to see.

(I think it could work for single-player, maybe?)

But @trogdor, from the 11th to the 27th or so I might be able to do two or three RPG gatherings a week, with you and Adib.

trogdor

mk

deadEarth: The Chargenning

Transcript for