TRPG General Chat

BESW

00:00

@Grubermensch Aye. Unfortunately a lot of RPG thought starts at that point, because the flagship entry point into the medium doesn't trust its players.

(And that in addition to the simple human inclination of designers to feel that the consumers of their product won't understand it.)

The Forge tried to shuck that notion by trusting its players, but it went too far the other way in assuming that all its players would be well-versed in Forgeite discourse. So instead they created a clique of "only good players will be able to play this game" elitism.

Grubermensch

@BESW This whole thing speaks to me, as a recovering architectural design student.

BESW

Yeah, these aren't problems unique to the RPG world.

Grubermensch

I like a middle ground, you've got to be able to trust the players somewhat, but it's also good to give them something to work off of.

Too much vacuum, and you're only going to get absurd things.

A la RFS

BESW

What Mr. Waturi would call a "flexible frame."

Grubermensch

This is for example why I'm not interested in the organized play user space that @JoshuaAslanSmith often talks about.

The trust there is basically nonexistant, and rightly so. But it's not an interesting problem to solve, to me.

BESW

00:08

Agreed. It's something that intrigues me on a theoretical environment-building level, but not something I'd go out of my way to be part of.

Some people I've talked to about Fate say that its framework is built in the wrong areas for their groups.

That its structure is primarily narrative, while their players create narrative without the need for structure.

Metool

Augh, carefully worded wish spells.

By which I mean spell effects that call for such. [absconds]

Adeptus

@BESW In Numenera, the GM awards a point of XP when he "introduces a complexity" (I think that was the phrase), and that player also gets to award 1XP to another player. Basically, "I'm making life harder for you, so here's an XP to compensate"

BESW

@Metool Blurgh. Most wish abuses can be avoided by careful reading of the wish spell itself, but a lot of the official D&D material relating to wish doesn't seem to have done that reading.

@Adeptus That sounds a lot like Fate points, but I'm intrigued by the "that player also gets to award 1XP to another player" bit. Also, what does Numenera do with XP?

Grubermensch

@Adeptus Does the player have to award immediately, or just larer in the session?

Adeptus

I've only read through the rules a couple times, so my answers may not be 100% accurate... but, from memory, you spend XP on improving your stats & skills, and once you've spent enough, you reach the next level (or Tier, I think it calls them).

I'm going to have to re-read the rules...

Experience points (XP) are rewards given to players when
the GM intrudes on the story (this is called GM intrusion)
with a new and unexpected challenge. For example, in the
middle of combat, the GM might inform the player that
he drops his weapon. However, to intrude in this manner,
the GM must award the player 2 XP. The rewarded player,
in turn, must immediately give one of those XP to another
player and justify the gift (perhaps the other player had
a good idea, told a funny joke, performed an action that

BESW

00:26

Interesting!

I like the communal aspect of it, but it can't scale well with group size.

Grubermensch

i really should have a look at numenara

BESW

I'm on the fence about currencies which force choices between temporary boosts and permanent boosts.

Adeptus

I like the way it doesn't reward XP for combat, but for discovery instead

BESW

I'm hoping to find some way to incorporate the "key" advancement mechanic from Lady Blackbird.

Adeptus

Do you guys know about Bundle of Holding? It's a bundle of RPG PDFs at a special price, with part profits going to charity. They have a new bundle every couple of weeks. (It's where I got Numenera from).

BESW

00:35

@Adeptus Invert the [] and () and add http://

@Adeptus I try not to look at it too often or I'll spend too much money.

Zachiel

@BESW You should also read the Solar System or The Shadow of Yesterday

Adeptus

I've only bought the one bundle so far. Almost bought the Paranoia one, but was indecisive & then it expired...

Zachiel

Where the key mechanic stems off

BESW

@Zachiel I should, then!

(Lady Blackbird isn't very forthcoming about its engine's origins.)

Zachiel

It's a Solar System hack. TSoY is to SS what Dresden Files is to Fate

BESW

00:50

[investigates]

Zachiel

[goes sleeping]

BESW

[confused]

"Solar System uses FUDGE dice in the base mechanics."

Grubermensch

What's confusing?

BESW

Zachiel says Lady Blackbird is a Solar System hack, but Lady Blackbird uses pools of ordinary d6s rather than Fudge dice.

Which seems, on the face of it, like it would have a bigger impact on the system than "hack" implies.

Grubermensch

possibly

it looks like the pools work like RFS

so it seems like it just gives a bigger range of outcomes

oh wow i just realized i ran RFS completely wrong

BESW

01:06

?

Grubermensch

for some reason i had it in my head that the outcome of a roll in RFS was to take the max rolled

and i just looked it up and it's actually to sum all dice

BESW

Ah, yeah.

Grubermensch

i dunno where i got the other idea from....

too much 5e perhaps

BESW

@Grubermensch It's a common enough concept; Cthulhu Dark uses it.

(You get to roll between one and three dice when you try something, and you use the highest of the dice to determine your degree of success.)

doppelgreener

@BESW what is that mechanic?

BESW

01:16

@JonathanHobbs Each character has "keys," which are things their characters do, like this:

> Key of the Daredevil
You thrive in dangerous situations. Hit your key when you do something cool that is risky or reckless (especially piloting stunts).
Buyoff: Be very very careful.
Key of Conscience
You don’t like to see anyone suffer, even enemies. Hit your key when you help someone who is in trouble or when you change someone’s life for the better
Buyoff: Ignore a request for help.
Key of Banter
You have a knack for snappy comments. Hit your key when Snargle says something that makes the other players laugh or when you explain something using your pilot techno jargon.

Grubermensch

@JonathanHobbs solarwiki.janus-design.it/en/book/…

BESW

Whenever you "hit your key," you can get 1XP or add a die to your pool.

You can always add dice from your pool to a roll, so it's something like your pool of Fate points.

XP can be spent five at a time to gain new abilities and specialties.

You can "buy off" a key any time you act against it, and earn the equivalent of TEN XP worth of advancement all at once.

(You can get new keys by spending 5 XP, so you could even buy off a key to get two more!)

doppelgreener

@BESW How do I buy it off? (And what's to stop me just cycling through keys all the time by always acting against them?)

BESW

(This is the Lady Blackbird version of the system; I don't know the others yet.)

@JonathanHobbs Any time you act against your key, you can choose to buy it off. So there has to be narrative justification to, say, stop having daredevilry be a major component of your character.

Grubermensch

Buying off is a permanent nullification of the key.

BESW

01:22

And there's nothing to stop you cycling through keys except a) you need to actually hit a moment in the story when you act against the key, and b) everyone else at the table will look at you funny.

(What's to keep you from compelling your trouble all the time in Fate?)

doppelgreener

Ah, so this is a narrative-first thing where the others would be like: "okay, we need to put this schizophrenic fellow in the lock-up until we can get him some professional help." And, y'know, if you're actually playing your character, their personality isn't going to be changing all the time, and your sympathetic character becoming hardened and not so concerned about other peoples' happiness is a major change and milestone, not something that's going to be another minute in their life.

BESW

Eeyup.

The action resolution mechanic for Lady Blackbird is elegant in play, but looks difficult for character creation.

Each character has Traits like "Mechanic" or "Ex-Slave" or "Cunning," with "tags" associated.

For example, the Mechanic might have the tags Repair, Engines, Efficiency, Spare Parts, Sabotage.

doppelgreener

So it's not: "hey, you could get ten sweet experience points' worth if you get this but act against it!" It's: "hey, when your character has a massive point of change of this nature, you can replace this key to change their nature permanently, and you'll get a bunch of XP for your growth."

BESW

When you're going to roll an action you pick which Trait you're using and roll 1d6, plus 1d6 for every tag in that trait which is relephant.

Count every die which comes up 4 or higher and compare that to the GM's target number.

@JonathanHobbs Yes.

Grubermensch

Oooff that does sound nasty for character creation.

Lots of little things

Magician

01:33

Reminds me of the way Marvel Heroic Roleplaying (and probably other Cortex+ builds) do milestones.

BESW

@Grubermensch Yeah, and getting the right balance of "how many" and "how specific" must be difficult.

Grubermensch

It seems like the sort of thing that could work in a computer game.

Magician

MHR doesn't do character creation by default, you just pick from the pregen'd marvel characters. I think Annihilation offers more solid advice, but I haven't read it yet. Each character has two milestones, and there are several scenario milestones they can pick to replace either of them. They go something like this...

Grubermensch

Too much complexity for meatspace.

Magician

...And What I Do Isn't Very Nice
1 XP when you first choose to inflict physical stress in a Scene.
3 XP when another hero rebukes you for your violence or you threaten another hero with violence.
10 XP when you kill someone in front of innocents or recover from your berserker rage in front of innocents without having inflicted trauma on anyone.

But I think I like these keys more, they can actually do something in-game, not just give you xp

Adeptus

01:52

Numenera characters are created as "an adjective noun who verbs"

doppelgreener

02:02

@Adeptus i have heard a bit about this, and would very much like to try out this game

I also read about Dungeons of Fate, which is a dungeon crawling hack for Fate which has something it says is inspired by Numenera: every monster or NPC is created simply by saying something like "level 3 Orc", "level 4 troll", "level 5 giant", etc.

Everything that monster does is at its level. The Orc has 3 stress boxes, attacks for 3, and defends at 3, and does anything that makes sense for an orc.

In Dungeons of Fate at least, the levels become exponentially harder. Level 1 or 2 is a pushover, but levels 6+ are going to be near impossible to beat. (Level 7 or 8 is appropriate for describing gods.)

Adeptus

Numenera has all dice rolls made by the players. So if the PC attacks, they roll to hit. If the enemy attacks, they roll to defend. Target numbers are all based on the enemy's level, but can be reduced by using Edge & Effort. (I think they're exponential as well)

Magician

I've read conflicting reviews of Numenera. Some people like it, some really don't. Guess that goes for almost anything.

doppelgreener

Ah yes that's right - DoF has that NPC thing because the players are the only ones who ever roll.

@Adeptus I like this way of doing things a lot.

@Magician Yup! It's for people like me, and probably not for people who love GURPS to bits and can't wait to open up their collection of books to craft their new rifle or hammer or car or whatever.

Magician

@JonathanHobbs Have you played it? I'd like to hear an opinion of an actual person.

doppelgreener

@Magician I have not yet, nor have I read much about it yet, but everything I keep hearing about it on here sounds pretty nice. I got the PDFs through Bundle of Holding a while ago.

Adeptus

02:15

I haven't actually played it but it sounds interesting. The setting is way different from anything I've played before too. Far distant future, after civilisation has risen & fallen several times. In some ways it's almost medieval fantasy, but replacing magic with Arthur C Clarke's "sufficiently advanced technology" :)

@JonathanHobbs Same. I've read through the players guide a couple of times, & skimmed the GM's guide

C. Ross

02:26

@Adeptus I've run the adventure in the book ... it just didn't work for my group ...

We play both Fantasy and Sci-Fi but ... this hodgepodge just didn't feel right

Magician

Was it the setting, then, that put you off, not the system?

C. Ross

02:38

@Magician mainly. The system was ... streamlined d20.

Anyway, night y'all.

Magician

G'night!

Adeptus

03:15

4

A: How can we protect a ship from magical rain of Acid?

Spend 40 or 44k on a "living figurehead" of a black, green, or copper dragon (depending on the alignment you wish to feign and the nominal mood you want it to express.) It can function once a week for 10 minutes, but gets your ship an adequate breath weapon and complete immunity to acid. Or buy a...

epic levels are scary

"Our ship is getting damaged by rains of acid" "Just turn your ship into mithral" O.O

doppelgreener

03:42

Do we have some kind of meta Q&A to the effect of: "if your answer is calling someone else's version of fun bad, it is not a good answer"?

nevermind, i left a comment without it

lisardggY

04:14

@JonathanHobbs Where did that come up recently?

doppelgreener

@lisardggY In the Were-Tyrannosaurus question, where someone seemed to read a whole lot more into the situation than there was

lisardggY

Oh, I liked that question. It was very sweet. "This player was being awesome and made everyone else have fun and he wants to be a dinosaur so can he, can he, can he?"

doppelgreener

Yeah, so I think it's just a type-of-fun mismatch

@BESW Hi!

BESW

[waves distractedly]

doppelgreener

The person who wrote that answer is quite possibly answer-banned however, since 5/7 of their answers are downvoted (a couple very severely)

wax eagle

04:21

ok, just got back from guardians of the galaxy...seriously fun movie

lisardggY

@JonathanHobbs Yeah. I think that's what I liked about the question, the absence of the confrontational/zero-sum-game aspect that many players come to the table with.

doppelgreener

@waxeagle yes. but let's not do the spoiling it on the internet thing here. but yes.

BESW

@waxeagle I'll be going to see it ASAP.

lisardggY

@JonathanHobbs I agree. My wife saw it on Saturday, but I'll only get to it on Wednesday.

BESW

@Mtn_Wolf Hi!

lisardggY

04:22

Reviews are good, it sounds like fun.

wax eagle

@JonathanHobbs yeah no spoilers, but definitely a different tone than anything since Iron Man 1

(re marvel movies)

lisardggY

@waxeagle That's very high praise.

Other than Iron Man, the movies do tend to take themselves a bit too seriously.

Adeptus

@waxeagle Some of my friends are already making costumes of the characters. Because that's what they do...

lisardggY

Ooh, my mother-in-law's here to take care of the baby. I'm off.

*wave*.

BESW

@Magician I'll suggest DoF as a possible Thing To Try for my group in the upcoming weeks.

wax eagle

04:27

@lisardggY yeah, GotG definitely doesn't (then again, it's not a spoiler to mention that two of the main characters are a tree and a racoon)

we went to our local drive in to see it, was a bit disappointed the kids didn't fall asleep (Baby did, but not until nearly all the way through the movie), so we didn't stay for the second feature (Cap 2), would have liked to see that one again.

now it's time for bed though

BESW

@Magician I'm... not very interested in running Numenera, though.

Magician

@BESW DoF?..

BESW

Dungeons of Fate.

Magician

Ah. It sounds interesting as an experimental mechanic, but I'm not sure why I'd choose that over DW or 13th Age if I'm to do dungeoneering.

And yeah, I don't even recall anymore what put me off Numenera, but I got a distinct impression it wasn't for me.

Also, total agreement on Guardians of the Galaxy being awesome.

doppelgreener

@Magician Oh! Was this DoF, or Numenera?

I have tried the Dungeons of Fate NPC thing in a Fate Core game, but I haven't played full Dungeons of Fate yet.

Magician

04:35

@JonathanHobbs Numenera. Just because I currently don't think I'd enjoy it, doesn't mean I can't change my mind or am not interested in mechanics :)

BESW

@Magician Yeah, I expect something similar, but as my gaming group is so erratic... do DW or 13A support low-prep fast-char-gen short-form games with players who don't have time to study the rules?

Magician

@BESW DW more so, I'd say, as it's the same very simple (for the players at least) AW core.

13th Age supports fast prep for the GM, but probably still requires players to understand the rules.

BESW

But as a GM, is it low-prep? And do its mechanics assume long-form campaigns?

Magician

Both games go to level 10 (at least I think DW does too), but there's no obligation. I think DW, again as all AWE games, thrives on a few sessions where you build the world up around the players using their input.

And yes, both games can be run with nearly zero prep for the GM.

13th Age starts with everyone rolling their Icon relationships each session, to see which ones come up today. That can already be used to kickstart the plot.

I haven't run DW, but I've run tremulus mini-campaigns two times now, lasting five and three sessions. The second campaign I've purposefully started with zero prep, relying on tremulus' framework generator. I'd say about half an hour to ponder after the players help generate the framework would have been ideal.

I haven't looked at it because I don't normally run written adventures, but apparently the one in the back of the core 13th Age book is a good example of a plot where the situation is set up, but the actors are determined by the Icon rolls.

Joshua Aslan Smith

@besw @grubermensch catching up on your conversation in which I was referenced. I assume you're talking about my experience at my local game store?

hello late night peeps I rarely see

Magician

04:49

Greetings.

doppelgreener

@JoshuaAslanSmith ello!

it is still 2:50pm, what late night is it that you are talking about here?

Joshua Aslan Smith

EST

BESW

@JoshuaAslanSmith I'm guessing that's what he meant, yes.

Joshua Aslan Smith

05:07

Ill have to ask him I guess next time hes on

Magician

Fan-made character tracker for 13th Age, with an example character.

Looks quite handy.

doppelgreener

@Magician Oh, wow, this reminds me - I'm going to get back into Fate Looms pretty soon as my schedule finally becomes more relaxed, and I've been looking into how to handle character cards again.

Magician

Barbarians (like the sample character) are on the "simple" side of the scale in 13th Age. Those who've played 4e can more or less run a character based on that page.

@JonathanHobbs Fate Looms is relevant to my interests now, I await updates :)

doppelgreener

The original design for Fate Looms is just to have a table you drag and drop character cards around on in free-form, but there's two problems with that:
1. character cards can get pretty big! there's a lot of things on them, and when you add a single Extra things go nuts. So I'm going to have to have compact versions which need to be friendly toward being expanded somehow.
2. the bigness makes being able to drag and drop and rearrange them, whilst still maintaining integrity of viewing, an issue.

especially, consider the situation where the players have considerably different screen sizes. One has a 19" screen, another is on a 17" laptop, the other has a great big 24" monitor. These people are going to have a tough time navigating the same tabletop: the guy with the 24" monitor is going to have trouble understanding how to not inconvenience the 17" person, and preferences being made for the 17" user means the 24" guy can't really utilise his screen estate.

I am pretty sure I need to drop the idea of truly simulating the tabletop, since that only works on a real tabletop that is arbitrarily large and has lots and lots of room to spread things out on. Screens are cramped.

BESW

[reads examples through 13'' laptop screen]

doppelgreener

05:14

@BESW yes, there you go

So what I will probably do instead is have some ordering and free rearrangement of character cards, just like these powers here.

I'll experiment with that. I need to find out some things:
1. Should I have one big list, or should I have multiple panes? Should the characters and NPCs all get dumped in together? Should I have one list for characters, and one list for NPCs, viewed side by side?
2. How should viewing these cards work, bearing in mind they're going to be in a fairly compact mode most of the time? I _think_ I will have a Viewing area that opens up in the left or right: click on a card to view it in full, and something will fly out somewhere showing the fully expanded card. Or, you click on the card, and it …

3. Should it be a left-to-right kind of thing, where the left is the primary position and peripheral things go further to the right? Or should it be something that is inclined toward having the important stuff at the center, where you put more peripheral things off to the left and right?

lisardggY

...and with a flourish, he returns.

doppelgreener

@lisardggY Hi!

BESW

@lisardggY Did you bring enough flourish to share with everyone?

lisardggY

@BESW I did but then I ate all of it.

BESW

[tsk]

Magician

05:21

So that's why the discussion here is withering.

doppelgreener

[deploys name change]

I'm going to do a draft compact character sheet when I get home.

BESW

@doppelgreener [observes suspiciously] Say something only Hobbs would say.

Magician

@doppelgreener You still show as Hobbs. Your deception is successful.

doppelgreener

@Magician excellent

@BESW uh... uh... [panics] g'day?

Magician

Even I know it's "g'day, mate".

doppelgreener

05:25

blast!

[absconds out of a window]

Magician

This reminds me. At the end of the last game, one of the PCs began a conversation with professor Von Bat, who has a micronation in the Australian outback. They insisted his greeting was "Velcome, mate".

BESW

@Magician Given the reputation of Australia as the consolation prize in world domination, how does an Australian micronation rank?

3

Adeptus

@BESW Hey! Japan wanted us in WWII! :P

doppelgreener

@Magician I like his style.

lisardggY

@Adeptus So you're saying Japan in WWII was the guy in Risk who didn't really want to play and now just wants to burrow somewhere and wait for it to end?

doppelgreener

05:33

@BESW As small world domination currency.

Magician

@BESW We have a few, actually (not officially recognized, of course).

While this no doubt says things about the good professor, he has Will Have His Respect as an aspect for a reason.

BESW

@Adeptus What part of Australasia wasn't Japan planning to conquer in WWII?

Adeptus

@Magician I only know of Hutt River Province. Which, I've heard, is internationally recognised, just not by Australia.

Magician

@Adeptus I have a small book on them. Most rely on an old definition of a nation (or something to that effect), that doesn't get followed in practice.

lisardggY

Wasn't there also the Most Glorious People's Republic of A1?

Magician

05:37

Von Bat got his micronation for helping rebuild Sydney after Captain Atomic's last stand 10 years ago, with his Ordinary Machines for Building, All Terrain, or OMBATS. As opposed from the Weaponized OMBATS the PCs have been fighting.

I'm very much looking forward to getting to say "Vant to know a secret? Zey are ALL VEAPONIZED!"

doppelgreener

@Magician XD

even the OMBATS?

BESW

OMBAT.

Adeptus

Category:Micronations in Australia

Micronations in Australia....

Magician

@doppelgreener All of them!

And there are hundreds in Sydney, still doing construction :D

doppelgreener

@Magician awesome! XD

Principality of Hutt River

The Principality of Hutt River, previously known as the Hutt River Province, is the oldest micronation in Australia. The principality claims to be an independent sovereign state and to have achieved legal status on 21 April 1970, although it remains unrecognised by Australia or other nations. The Principality is located 517 km (354 mi) north of Perth, near the town of Northampton in the state of Western Australia. If considered independent, it is an enclave of Australia. The principality was founded on 21 April 1970 by Leonard George Casley, who styles himself as "Prince Leonard", when he and his...

> Australia is home to almost half of the world's micronations.[2]

lisardggY

05:42

Personally, more than micronations, I'm interested in would-be nations, almost-nations and nations-for-a-second. The US is full of these almost states, which are the focus of an alt-history story I've started writing a while back and have neglected for years.

blog.strawjackal.org/2008/11/935

2

(This would be my blog, with an entry in English, for a change)

BESW

@lisardggY Ah, yes, Sequoya Jones.

Also, your comments look totally broken.

lisardggY

Yeah. That's because it was imported from LiveJournal to Wordpress.

Adeptus

Shadowrun has some of those... Aztlan, CAS...

lisardggY

@Adeptus Yeah, they took a couple of nice ideas. Mostly due to the continental USA fracturing.

doppelgreener

@lisardggY fascinating :)

lisardggY

05:55

@doppelgreener Thanks.

BESW

[sigh] It's time for more What Are You Thinking, Netflix?
- Because of my interest in "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" and "Belphegor: Phantom of the Louvre," I might like "Forrest Gump," "Patriot Games," and "M*A*S*H."
- Because I watched Joss Whedon's home production of "Much Ado About Nothing" and the British "House of Cards," I might like "Parks & Recreation."
- ...and they've yet again managed to track down a Tinkerbell movie to put in "Top Picks for BESW."

(It seems that I've successfully marked all the older Tinkerbell films "not interested," but this one just came out recently so it goes straight onto the auto-generated rec list.)

Magician

@BESW "Do ya believe in fairies, punk?"

...not sure why I went for Clint Eastwood crossover, it wasn't mentioned.

2

BESW

Close enough, it was "The Pirate Fairy."

lisardggY

I actually like Parks and Recreation, but it really has nothing to do with those other two.

Well, maybe House of Cards. Because government.

@Magician Always justified.

BESW

lisardggY

06:05

With Tom Hiddleston, no less.

Magician

@lisardggY I'm under the impression Netflix doesn't match on tags, but on people watching similar things.

BESW

@lisardggY Yeah, this is less "Why would you recommend that to me?" and more "Why would you recommend that based on those criteria?" Also Tinkerbell.

lisardggY

@Magician One could make the case that people who watch government related shows, would... watch... other shows focused on government? Maybe?

BESW

@lisardggY I know, right? !?

(And I gave "Leroy and Stitch" two stars out of five.)

@lisardggY Similarly I've noticed that many of the recommendations seem to be because the choices share some obscure actor playing secondary characters. Which again--the argument could be made for people watching those shows because they share an actor, but not any more likely than people watching House of Cards and P&R because they're both about government.

That's like saying people watch Hoarders and Alice in Wonderland because they've both got cats in 'em.

(I'm assuming Hoarders has cats. I've never watched it, but the cats seem inevitable.)

2

Magician

Cats are always an inevitability.

That's what one calls multiple cats: an inevitability of cats.

3

BESW

06:11

I thought it was a scheming of cats.

(Actually, one of the traditional collective nouns for cats is "a glaring of cats," and for wild cats it's "a destruction of cats.")

4

Magician

At this rate, it's fit to call them "a starring of cats".

doppelgreener

and thus we have a single engaging conversation and the star log gets renewed in its entirety

Magician

...pun unintended but approved.

lisardggY

@doppelgreener It was feeling stale, anyway.

Stale stars smell.

doppelgreener

@lisardggY it was a bit, it was about time

Adeptus

06:19

@doppelgreener "it was about time"... but now it's about cats

2

trogdor

@BESW I actually listened to a podcast in which one member admited to hoarding coffee mugs, and was jokingly accused by other members of it eventually devolving into cats.

doppelgreener

@Adeptus would you say that makes it... a cat-a-logue of posts?

[prepares medical equipment for emergency treatment for puns]

Magician

I categorically oppose this catastrophe.

lisardggY

*sigh*. We're going to have to deal out some pun-ishment here very soon.

doppelgreener

on that note, I'm going to share this

►

trogdor

06:23

also, tinker bell being related in target audience to FIM and Leroy and stitch makes at least some sense

doppelgreener

it is an absolutely stellar performance

BESW

@Magician That seems like an appawseworthy goal; how can I furrther it?

Magician

@BESW seeing as cat staring has turned the star list on its tail, we have to whisk 'er away. A new catchy topic is required, something to oppose this new-fangled catechism.

BESW

We should avoid fishy subjects which might raise a stink and let our opposition es-scale-ate, though.

Magician

Aye, we definitely can't afford to ape around here. This monkey business has to stop. Apearances have to be maintained.

doppelgreener

06:35

[dies as a survival mechanism]

BESW

@doppelgreener Sorry, this is a grave topic which should be addressed with funereal dignity. Our hearse-terics will be buried at once.

doppelgreener

@BESW [spins in grave]

dresdencodak.com/2010/06/03/dark-science-01 & dresdencodak.com/2010/06/10/dark-science-02

(in that order)

(or reverse order! that's interesting too)

Magician

06:50

@doppelgreener I can only conclude you are a swarm or a colony of some kind.

Adeptus

@Magician As long as the doppelqueen survives, the colony can rebuild!

doppelgreener

@Magician yes. of course. this is the case. absolutely. as a reward for your skills of deduction, you are permitted to watch a humorous video about frogs and peaches.

Magician

@doppelgreener Thank you, friend computer swarm.

Adeptus

07:06

Seeing the question on dice reminds me of a homebrew system a friend of mine used. Character's stats were rolled up on d10s. But not just stat = 1d10. Roll 2d10, and take the most average of the results. Kind of the reverse of 5e's advantage & disadvantage.

5

Q: Why all the dice?

I'm asking more as an outside observer, and not with anyone who has any grievance with how games are played, nor am I judging or criticizing anything. I've just always wondered, why use all the different types of dice? Why a 4 sided die for one thing, three 6 sided dice for another, and a twenty...

dice

doppelgreener

@Adeptus the most average i.e. the closest to 5.5?

Adeptus

@doppelgreener Closest to 6, I think (to make the characters slightly above average)

Adeptus

07:43

THIS is why my 3.5e DM is saying core books only

4

Q: How are caster levels determined in concert with the feat Master Spellthief?

The first and third benefits of the feat Master Spellthief from page 79 of Complete Scoundrel are pretty straightforward (although the first's a little sad in that it only affects the level of spell one can steal not the entire supernatural ability steal spells). But--whoah--that second benefit.....

dnd-3.5e feats rules-as-written class prestige-class

Effective caster level of 133!

doppelgreener

08:24

@Adeptus alternate solution is appropriating the monster manual to bonk the player gently on the head and say "no! bad! no exploiting astronomically powerful unintended mechanical consequences!"

or, y'know, BESW's rough approach of "are you sure you want the power level of this campaign to involve caster levels in the triple digits?" [i have no idea what he actually says, mind]

BESW

@doppelgreener Usually something along the lines of "Reeeeaalllllleeeee?" [raised eyebrow] [leaning forward] [eagerly bright eyes]

doppelgreener

@BESW hahaha

trogdor

09:06

@doppelgreener trust me, he can be evil about DMing

to be fair, usually only when he needs to reign in his players

BESW

"usually"

Hmm. [pokes about] Tracking down older Scooby-Doo is going to be harder.

(Because I like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," I might like "Rent.")

...if it didn't seem like Daniel's seen it, I'd be very tempted to run a long-form episodic campaign based directly off Mystery Incorporated's two-season arc.

BESW

09:30

doppelgreener

@BESW i would still strongly consider watching this movie

BESW

[sings "Won't you be my galactic neighbour?"]

...or is that reference not part of Australian pop culture?

doppelgreener

@BESW I-I don't know, but I am not exactly an authority on all sections of our pop culture

BESW

►

@kviiri [wave]

kviiri

@BESW Hello!

BESW

09:42

Also @Murch Hi.

doppelgreener

@BESW That's sweet. Mister Rogers was never a part of Australian pop culture, though - we had Sesame Street, Play School and the Wiggles.

BESW

I had Sesame Street, Mister Rogers, 3-2-1 Contact, Reading Rainbow, and Square One TV. Then they replaced SQ1TV with Carmen Sandiego, and I had my first experience with being angry at my TV schedule.

....not too long after that I got glasses and learned the whole world wasn't blurry, just our TV reception.

(They also occasionally played Nova, and Long Ago And Far Away, and some other excellent programs.)

doppelgreener

@BESW haha, nice

kviiri

A new Apocalypse World session today! My party has killed six or seven (depending on who you ask about it) members of the "not-quite-Islam" Crater Cult.

The remaining members are understandably miffed!

Murch

10:43

@BESW Good morning

BESW

What's new?

Murch

I am allowing myself a weekend like day and I like it so far

:)

I also played a twosie as a player about two weeks ago, where we were playing Degenesis and my gm had based the story off of Unforgiven.

Plus some references to Judge Dredd

that was fun

BESW

I'm not familiar with Degenesis.

Do tell!

Murch

It's a postapocalyptic setting where some meteorites striking central Europe have destroyed most of the civilization there.

Some of the survivors have founded different cults. The rules aren't very good and the proposed adventures in the core book make little sense, but it is an interesting background to create your own stories

Think for example "The Road"

There are a few cults deifying previous technology, a fascist military cult that has saved a medical tradition, a cult based on a mixture of Christianity and Islam, and an area firmly in the fist of traveling judges.

Africans (that were less affected) frequently deploy incursions to deport slaves from former Europe

doppelgreener

11:07

@Murch nice inversion there

Murch

there also is a threat of an alien fungus that arrived with the meteorites that has killed and mutated many lifeforms in the area of Poland that is spreading

all in all it has a few very nice ideas

doppelgreener

oh wow.

Murch

As far as I know it is only available in German though

@doppelgreener Yes! ;)

Aaron

11:57

Grumble Grumble Waves

doppelgreener

oh no i've been programmin' prototype stuff without my rad music!

[engages it]

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