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00:17
Hail unto thee @BESW
In our current 4e party, both female characters (slayer and sorc) have high Str while male characters (feylock, chaladin and shaman) have low Str. So we had a laugh at the classical trope subversion and I asked the Slayer's palyer if the character is buffed.
Turns out that no, she has a lot of nervous strenght. Me miming her weightlifting her fullblade with a snatch technique ensued and we ended telling weird anecdotes about her strength.
> She does not open eggs for breakfast. She directly opens the hen [mimes cracking one with both hands, thumbs on top]. Then drinks hen juice.
3
I'm a little bit scared by our slayer, now.
Just found out that Wilder!supplement will be DSP's first psionic release - except for UltPsi - in nearly a year
But no pressure right
[Bites nails bloody]
@Lord_Gareth "a power-pop song with feels" Seems legit.
@Lord_Gareth / Lord_League I'm now listening to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_ujGY_5ukA
Seems like a good and satisfying way to spend my free time, where do I sign up for getting to such a skill level?
00:38
@Lord_Gareth Power's out at my house. I'm at a coffee shop for a little while to get food and catch up on Internet Things.
Hopefully it'll be back on in time for my meeting this afternoon and my game this evening...
@BESW Want surprisingly quality League music?
@Lord_Gareth You've been linking it regularly.
Indeed
@Andrey Hi!
So I shall do it again!
00:39
And the quality is really good.
The guy has a knack for mimicking styles. See Alestorm's style Gangplank song "Kill! Drink! Kill!"
@waxeagle Didn't 3.5 have that? Also, WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAS YOUR AVATAR DONE WITH BAD HORSE.
hassle - castle - bison - horizon. Sick rhymes are so rad.
@Zachiel Veigar's rap had a serious density of game references
@Lord_Gareth Yeah, I liked that
goodnight, people
(I dash. Can somepony please rainbow after me?)
The neighbors appear to be having a drum circle.
[starts plotting Cthulhu Dark adventure]
I should be heading back soon; my dad's probably coming back from the movies and I should be there when he does.
01:09
@BESW Man, for a hero I never took seriously Veigar's portion of this rap really freaking kills it
"Think me small? Think my ambitions meager? Think thee my equal? None rival Veigar."
Huzzah, power's on at home!
 
1 hour later…
02:30
Haruum. Turns out the player who can only show up every other week wants to attend via Skype on the off weeks.
I wish he'd mentioned this sooner than 6 hours before the session.
@BESW lol, not sure about that. (no 3.5 exp here). And yeah, time for a change, and cute pictures of kids win
So far, my experience with Skype is that two rooms of players Skyping with each other can be manageable, especially if the room on the other end has a small number of players. But multiple Skypers quickly gets out of hand, not least because it introduces a LOT of non-RPG-related variables.
My focus becomes more on the tech-tech of the interface and less on my job as GM, compromising the quality of the game.
It's similar to why I've always preferred--from a pure GM standpoint, other factors aside--to show up at someone else's house and run games there.
02:54
I've had success with Google Hangouts for voice chat.
I also find that using a smartphone instead of a laptop provides much better audio quality.
The main problem with Hangouts over Skype was that I couldn't figure out any way for the video to do a two-screen view instead of flipping back and forth between the two screens.
We need to see each other for effective gaming, I've found, unless the group is really small (I managed a three-player game with one player with me, one on Skype video, and one on Skype audio).
Interesting.
I usually shut off video because it tends to get sad, but I use a VTT for game info.
And so far the best audio quality is with my laptop on a stool pointed at the couches, so its video cam can see all of us and we can see them on the screen. I run an audio line from the laptop to my TV for my audio output.
For game info, we use Gdocs on a tablet when straight-up verbal communication isn't enough (it usually is, since we're in Fate).
I mainly use the VTT for scene maps.
(I've also run Cthulhu Dark games with this method, and that worked great too.)
I haven't needed more map than a napkin sketch in... a year or more... and I'm pretty glad of it.
03:01
Yeah tbh I wish the VTT was more minimal for mapping.
I'd prefer to just sketch some outlines and plop in some tokens and be done with it, but Roll20 makes such a labor out of the whole set-up
I think it got tailored far too much towards D&D 3.X/4 style strict grid play
I'm more of a "yeah sure that looks close enough" kind of GM
Indeed.
Needs more freehand sketch mode.
@BESW what are your thoughts on the tarrasque question?
Speculative and non-actionable as written.
03:16
Do we really consider a question "speculative" just because it doesn't say "This afternoon my players..."?
Quite often, yes. I don't have enough 2e knowledge to hold forth expertly, so I haven't actually pitched in on the voting or debate--but you asked, and I answered.
It looks to me like debate fodder.
"For all we know it might have happened once in some group somewhere" doesn't make it less of a "What if ______ happened?" question. If there's a regeneration rule which covers this in 2e, that'd make it more answerable, but then wouldn't it just be a "look at page XXX" answer? We don't like "look this thing up for me" questions. I don't know 2e so I can't know which it is.
If I'm charitable, I can assume they're asking because being the tarrasque makes it some kind of corner-pocket edge case (or it'd just be a "look things up for me" question), in which case it's either a rules-interpretation question (valid) or a "speculate for me because the rules don't cover this" question (discussion/opinion).
If it's a rules-interpretation question, then maybe the question should be modified to specify which rules they're asking for interpretation on.
If it's a "speculate for me" question, then I think it needs a LOT more information and criteria to judge answers by before answers can meet GS/BS standards.
Fair points
In summary: non-actionable as written.
I read it as an edge case on regeneration, because normally cutting something in half would kill it outright before regeneration could take effect, but the Tarrasque is crazy so this might not be the case.
I suspect you're right.
03:30
May I condense your sentiments into a comment suggesting how the OP could fix the question?
Sure.
I don't know 2e well enough to do so.
I would try an answer, but my books are currently in a UPS truck somewhere.
An answer after it's reopened of course.
04:17
manifests
[Demonstrates this chat's cultural habit of using brackets for actions]
(Put a group of roleplayers together for long enough and we will create a way to emote)
4
Hello folks
Hail unto thee, Dread Lord
Vhat has brought you to this place, Lord Afroakuma?
Brain-stealing
Then you will want @BESW
04:21
@Lord_Gareth That's Brian-stealing. Totally different.
seizes BESW regardless
KRyan suggested I pop in to consult on a game I'm planning on running
or rather, its system
If anyone has the time and the interest, that is
I'm technically in a meeting via Skype right now, but I'll keep an eye on the chat.
We've got a ton of system theorists at any given time here.
well I can also come back at another time, it's not like I'm particularly on a clock here :P
It does seem oddly quiet in here tonight. Lord Potatothulu must be slumbering heavily.
04:29
It's edging into the weekend.
aye, and after bedtime for the east coasties
(at least those with sane schedules)
@waxeagle Sanity is for the weak
So, go ahead and talk. Others can see it later if they miss out.
I used to have access to the system designer
but he's vanished
which is kind of annoying since he left a generally functional system with a few critical questions
What's the system for your campaign, what's the goal playstyle/tone/theme/genre? How many players, how long are sessions...?
04:32
It's an indie system called VeloCITY
the general style is pretty loose and freeform; the central mechanics mainly measure how well you do tasks, rather than whether or not you can accomplish them
Kinda like Cthulhu Dark?
not familiar, but this is a game without either Cthulhus or Darkness, really
the system is based on Jet Set Radio and the anime series Air Gear
(In CD, rolls indicate degree of success from "barely" to "brilliant." The possibility of failure only comes into play if someone at the table specifically requests it for a roll--and even then it's unlikely if you're willing to risk your sanity to succeed.)
ah
In VeloCITY it's definitely possible to fail a task
but most of the mechanics exist to allow players to fudge rolls
there are some similarities to Legends of the Wulin
though it goes off and does its own thing
Gotcha.
So, a graduated success-prone resolution system.
04:41
there's also the FATE-like component wherein players design "perks" which add to their dice pool in certain narrowly-defined situations
Fate pleases us.
so basically, for any given task you take the relevant skill and roll that many d10s
which is typically 1-5
then you look at the set of rolls and pick one result
the frequency of that result becomes the tens digit of your roll
the result itself becomes the ones digit
so a roll of 3 3 7 gives you a result of 23
Sounds a little like Cthulhutech, but more lenient. (Cthulhutech has you roll a specialisation-determined pool of d10s, but before the roll you choose whether to determine success by highest single die, highest straight, or most duplicate numbers.)
Is there ever a reason to pick a number that isn't the most frequent?
yes, actually
you're allowed to store a surplus result as Momentum
which, after you make a roll, can be used in place of any of those results
so if you could pass a challenge with your 17, you might bank the 23 to use later on for a more difficult task
That's kinda cool!
A clever way to not waste a uselessly awesome roll.
04:50
the only rule is that you have to have empty Momentum in order to bank a new result
and you cannot empty & bank in the same action
VeloCITY measures degrees of success, defined as 5 points above the DC of the task
if I exceed a DC by 17, I have three degrees of success
That seems like a good tactical complication.
and whatever I'm doing is three steps more awesome than the task normally is
if I don't need to be that awesome just now, I can bank degrees of success in another way
this is Style, and it holds degrees of success that can be spent on a later roll
you can keep adding to your Style as long as you don't "wipe out," which is unfortunately not a defined term but suggests failing at a task or bailing out of completing the next in a series of difficult tasks
however, when you spend it, it's all spent at once
In terms of rewarding super-awesome rolls, it's similar to Fate's "with style" for banking excess success for future use, albeit Fate's is a bit more capped.
so between Momentum and Style, you can fudge yourself into achieving ridiculous feats in fields you have no talent in normally
@afroakuma That sounds something like the process and risk of stacking successes in DFRPG's ritual casting mechanic.
04:54
Again, unfamiliar, but if there's a defined parameter for risk then I should definitely take a look
The DFRPG casting mechanic uses two stats: one for gathering power and one for controlling it.
intriguing
When you're casting "on the fly," you can only use as much power as you can get from on "gathering power" roll. If that power exceeds your "controlling power" roll, you either let ALL the power of the spell loose as chaotic environmental damage (and the spell fails), or you take that much damage yourself and the spell still succeeds.
If you're doing a ritual, however, you can use multiple smaller "gathering" rolls to build up a ton more power than you'd normally be able to, and you only have to roll to control each turn's worth of power.
indeed
However, if for some reason you ever lose control of that power, you lose control of ALL the ritual's stockpiled power at once.
04:59
annnnnd melt into a puddle of carbon?
If you want the ritual to even possibly still work.
Otherwise, you unleash the energy on the immediate surroundings as uncontrolled chaos, which usually means explosions. You don't take damage directly from the magic in that case, but you're probably now in the middle of a collapsing building.
So it sounds like in your system a character can stack Style until he either uses it, or fails a roll or changes his focus.
indeed
my concern is with none of these mechanics
Okay. Go on.
(If you want to look into DFRPG more without buying the books, look in my profile for a link to Rick Neal's excellent explanatory blog entries on the subject.)
duly noted!
@trogdor [wave] Any further thoughts on your own hard copy of Atomic Robo?
05:05
VeloCITY has two stats for your well-being and capacity to act
Health, which is basically HP
and Energy, which in addition to serving as a reserve HP pool, can also be spent to improve your rolls
@BESW uh, if you are getting a copy already, I don't suppose I need my own
Energy can be spent to adjust as roll upward on a 1:1 basis
and I definitely don't if you can share a PDF
or, with some perks, you can spend 5 Energy at a time to add an additional die to your roll
problem is, mathematically speaking, an extra die is only worth about 2~3 points
and there's nothing distinguishing an active perk from a passive one except that you decided to waste Energy buying dice instead of just improving your roll
@BESW I thought that I would want my own copy at first, but I have made my mind up that it isn't worth it for 20 some dollars after you are already getting one
I assume I can read as much of that copy as I need to
05:10
@trogdor Aight. I'll order it now.
@afroakuma It sounds like an active perk should be more widely applicable than a passive one.
IE, you can get the extra dice in a wider set of contexts, at the cost of it not being free each time.
Indeed. Even then, though, the math still doesn't work out, because it's never worth it to buy the extra die as opposed to just spending Energy directly to improve your roll.
That's awkward, then.
Indeed. It feels like the designer omitted something important.
So I've been trying to track him down, but he's been offline.
05:14
Speculation: the designer felt (possibly erroneously) that a variable bonus is vastly superior to a fixed bonus.
certainly possible
either that or active perks were meant to be invoked as a prerequisite for activities of some sort
Easy, fast fixes:
- increase the number of dice 5 Energy grants
- decrease the amount of Energy needed to add a die
- increase the amount of Energy needed to get a flat +1 bonus
first one doesn't really take; while the math suggests that on average adding a die is weak, adding multiple can be extraordinarily swingy
second one feels off to me because of the size of one's energy pool; I'd need to do complementary adjustments to make it click
third might be the best choice, really
there's a limit to how much Energy you can spend on one roll
and I was considering a rule that Energy can only push your result to meet the DC, not to exceed it
so if you're angling for degrees of success you need the active perk
That could be good.
it's just difficult because the whole rulebook talks like there's some hidden content just under the surface and then it's not there
I know why, of course, but I'd still love the opportunity to consult with the brain behind it again :P
05:20
[squint] Why won't Evil Hat take my credit card? They only give me a PayPal option!
odd of them
Ahah: "Unfortunately, Paypal is the only payment method we’re able to configure for our webstore at this time. The Paypal site does accept the processing of credit cards and debit cards, I think."
...this is awkward, since my PayPal account is frozen and refuses to take more money until I contact them through a no-longer-extant email address.
Bah.
Anyway, carry on.
I believe that's me done for the moment, actually
late night over here
busy day tomorrow
05:26
Fair enough.
but thanks for the chat!
night
or day, as your case may be
ttfn
05:51
...oh, right. It's not a defunct email; they want me to give them info for an old bank account that's no longer around.
 
2 hours later…
07:31
Morning ?
For me anyway
07:52
8.50am here
so I broadly agree with your outrageous statement
Heh
Outrageous as it may seem, it is the politeness in me that demands such words be said.
 
3 hours later…
11:00
@waxeagle 3.5 definitely had that. The by location/climate tables were in the DMG (covering MM1) and the by CR tables were in each MM.
11:42
Welcome @ThomasE.
(Welp. I always look at the badge number and mistake it for people's reputation)
Hi just found out about the chatroom.....overlooked it for 2 months ^^
Congratulations, you found us. Here's your prize [tacks a pin to his chest] Now, you're one of us. FoReVeR! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
11:58
[Raises hand] I never got a pin.
@InbarRose I'll find another way to draw your blood as proof of you manhood/womanhood/ponyhood
We must know the truth!
Side Note: Can you determine gender based on just a blood sample?
@RedRiderX genetic gender, yes. XX or XY chromosome.
12:13
@Zachiel Yeah I should have been more specific I meant those genetic markers.
Blood doesn't contain DNA afaik
DNA can be found in blood samples, but I think the actual blood cells don't have DNA?
Yup
"Although blood is an excellent source of DNA, the DNA does not come from the red blood cells, as these cells have no nuclei. Rather, the DNA comes chiefly from white blood cells in the blood."
@InbarRose so, a blood sample has DNA (in its white blood cells)
Yes.
For what it's worth.
@ThomasE. Greetings!
12:32
hi Metool
Someone ask a question I can answer - I demand it!
@Phil What is i?
@Phil What's your name?
;op
I get bored with all the D&D questions I can't and have no interest in answering
@Phil you could learn D&D and solve half the problem :p
12:46
I have plenty of pathfinder, nwod, star wars saga,.... questions if needs be but usually ppl give up when I get too much into details :)
chat is friendlier for opinion-swinging and is a good place to concoct good questions for the format
It's also good for complex questions because it's easier to stop someone in his tracks and have him focus on the needed details.
Tonight in the DFAE playtest: we cast a ritual spell to make the medallion we stole from the bad guy get hot if he comes near us. Then he attacked us with a herd of mentally controlled wild boars, and just as we defeated them a troll ripped its way through the walls of reality, took a clip of bullets to the head, and ran into the fae world with two of the PCs tucked under his arm.
Naturally everyone piled into the portal after him before it closed.
dfae?
Dresden Files Accelerated Editions.
It's a stripped-down and simplified version of the Dresden Files RPG, and it's currently in closed alpha playtesting.
I just finished running my second session of the playtest.
For the purposes of the playtest, I was experimenting with a fight where the party had supernatural clout over mundane opponents (the boars) and a fight where the party was badly outclassed (troll) but had obvious ways to bypass the target's supernatural clout (fey can't bring their supernatural weight class to bear against attacks with iron weapons, and the party had a samurai and a gangster).
What prevents everyone to arm with iron weapons, nullifying the weight class mechanic?
12:59
The troll still attacks at his weight class, and he can squish you. Or knock the sword out of your hand.
Or, if you insist on making this a regular tactic, someone brings along a squad of fairy archers to pincushion you.
DR 10/Cold Iron
...or the Winter Lady says "Oh, really? Use iron against INVISIBLE SCORPIONS IN YOUR BED."
@BESW Sure. Sleep on a bed of iron.
Oh, yes. Please do. I shall compel the pants off you.
@BESW BTW: Last night's skill challenge was not too shabby.
13:02
Oh, my.
@BESW Gives metool its pants back
@Metool The better to stuff invisible scorpions into them. Where they will wait.
@Zachiel Yey!
Sorry I wasn't much help on it.
Oh, don't worry. Turns out what I did was enough. I would have liked to get some extra "if you do this, this option unlocks" tied to what was going on unbeknownst to the characters, but a complexity 1 challenge was easy and fast enough not to need that
Shiny.
Oh, there were shiniest things in the game
I ran a running encounter against overwhelming forces, with a dragon showing up from time to time for time pressure (time time time spam time).
13:08
Nice.
I had to tip them towards victory once (there's a room. It has a door they need to keep shut or one enemy enters each round. It has an exit door they need to open, pass, then close again. And they kept going into the second room then charging back into the first trying to get to 0 enemies in it. Duh.)
(In the end, I suggested using the shaman's spirit to keep the room shut by blocking the door, so that the opposition needed two turns to have one enemy break in.)
Heheh.
"Kill 'em all!" is a hard habit to break in systems where it seems like the easiest and most effective solution.
I described around 50 gnolls and their hyena pets and they're still counting how many are left. (34 currently)
[bemused]
Truth is, there's exactly as many gnolls as I need in that encounter.
13:23
One of my early not-just-a-reskinned-adventure encounters in 4e was an infinite spawn on a countup cycle.
What do you mean, countup cycle?
N per round?
It was an escort mission to get the king out of a city that was actively at that moment being invaded by an entire army, and the party STILL took a few rounds to work out "Hmm. Maybe we can't kill 'em all ourselves, and our objective doesn't require it."
@Zachiel I can't remember the details, but it was something like:
First round: one minion.
Second round: two minions.
Third round: three minions.
Fourth round: one standard.
Fifth round: one standard and one minion...
Most asked question during last session: "BTW, why are we being chased by a warband of gnolls?"
And I was all nitpicky like "A warband of gnolls and a very young but still very dangerous dragon." [smirk]
@Zachiel Heh.
@BESW They just put a fortress of duergar on the run. They're famous. They're looking for some slaves that were sold to gnolls. Gnolls are not stupid.
13:32
....this is still Thunderforge, isn't it?
an extra encounter someone published on a forum, and it's great.
extra points if they now believe the changeling that guided them into the trap is still impersonating the hall guide who is secretly a werewolf and they go trying to kill him. Even if this would prevent him from going Hulk during a crucial encounter.
That's deliciously convoluted.
@BESW spealing of music, to ask me if the encounter was over one of the players asked me if the battle music was still playing or not. XD
(And I didn't use music)
Heh.
13:49
Out of curiosity. A corkscrew unscrews corks from bottles. The same item in Italian would be called a stopper-remover. The tool used to open glass bottles with metal caps is called stopper-remover as well. What is it in English?
(Would it be a good question for English-learning.se?)
A bottle opener is a device that enables the removal of metal bottle caps from bottles. More generally, it might be thought to include corkscrews used to remove cork or plastic stoppers from wine bottles. A metal bottle cap is affixed to the rim of the neck of a bottle by being pleated or ruffled around the rim. A bottle opener is a specialized lever inserted beneath the pleated metalwork, which uses a point on the bottle cap as a fulcrum on which to pivot. == Varieties == There are several distinct designs of such bottle openers. Wall mounted openers are typically found behind bars in pubs, whilst...
14:11
Modern music, modernistic architecture, new wave RPGs... when will we stop making labels that will get ridiculous in a decade?
14:43
I liiiiive
 
2 hours later…
16:35
Hey.
@Lord_Gareth I had an idea for a character that I want your help putting together, just in case my character in my latest game dies.
@Tarmikos11 Speak, supplicant
I wanna build a Striker-type character who uses (and modifies on a regular basis) a two-bladed sword.
I already know I'm gunna need all the TWF feats for this, and I have some ideas regarding classes.
Also, yes.
Well, Pathfinder, actually.
[Prepares for rage to start building]
Same basic difference, I'm willing to handle conversions myself.
If ToB is enabled, Warblade and Swordsage both have support for two-bladed sword in the Tiger Claw discipline. If PoW is enabled, Thrashing Dragon and Primal Fury have heavy support as well, esp. Thrashing Dragon
16:48
PoW?
Path of War?
Tome of Battle for Pathfinder?
Gareth is writing for it?
I am disappointed that I have not told you this.
I knew Gareth was involved in writing books for these games [pauses to give praise], I just didn't know what the acronym was.
Warlord and Stalker would be the ones
16:50
Eh, the party already has a Warlord. I think I'll go Stalker.
Is Path of War on the srd yet?
It is!
I feel like this is something I've celebrated without internalizing.
Probably.
It's 3pp, right?
Correct
16:57
Damn.
Stalker is Solid.
I might swap the Rogue levels on Abesh for Stalker.
By the way @RedRiderX Ahoy.
Hey howdy
@Tarmikos11 If it's for the game with the demons, Path of War's a go.
It is for the game with Demons.
Right.
I was gunna make Two-Bladed Sword Guy as a Back-up Character.
But, Stalker is Solid, so I might make a Sorcerer for Backup.
Same skill-set, not quite the same amount of skill points, though.
17:23
@Tarmikos11 Eh, skill points are what really matter outside of the lower levels of Pathfinder.
At first it's worth 300% of the ranks you could put in, then 150% at 2nd level, 100% at 3rd, then +75%, +60%, 50%, etc...
17:46
Doesn't applying a point to a class skill you haven't applied skills to before automatically times that point by 4 for most intents and purposes?
Meaning that calculation would be off by a major degree?
@Tarmikos11 I'm talking about the class skill training bonus, which is +3 and is significant at lower levels, not as much at higher levels.
That's what I was talking about as well.
Oh. I understand now. [gets done having derp moment]
18:02
Yeah, I could have been more coherent.
BRB, restarting computer so I can send an email that makes sure that my laptop gets repaired.
18:21
And I'm back.
Ey @BESW
So, what's Guam like?
 
3 hours later…
21:36
@Zachiel What was that about a labyrinth?
@Arkhaic Thunderspire Labyrinth, a D&D 4e adventure spanning from level 4 to level 7
It's set in the ruins left behind by an ancient minotaur civilization, hence the labyrinth.
21:57
@BESW Thunder spire
@Arkhaic Also, I never named a labyrinth lately, where did you get it from?
@Mourdos why/how are you logged twice?
@Tarmikos11 Climate, culture, gaming community...?
General opinion.
Unrelated to that, with regard to Pathfinder, does anyone know whether or not Double Slice would apply dexterity bonus when used in Tandem with Weapon Finesse on a suitable weapon?
Double Slice applies Strength Modifier to off-hand weapon attacks, and Weapon Finesse applies Dexterity modifier in place of strength modifier to Melee attacks.
22:23
@Zachiel By magic
@Zachiel Phone. I asked the same question earlier.
@Mourdos I see. Sorry @Tarmikos11 but I like his answer better XD
@Tarmikos11 Why did you have to ruin my magic? Traitor.
Now its just boring technology.
[Shrugs] Fair enough. Magic is a pretty solid answer for techno-wizardry.
22:37
I just noticed @Tarmikos11's avatar is saying "♪Ladies".
Indeed he is.
Oh no it's not a note, it's a piece of a comic baloon
"{Ladies"
Ah.
Again, indeed.
23:18
He's a randy li'l devil (A term I use despite him being Lawful Good, because that's how I roll.)

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