TRPG General Chat

doppelgreener

00:11

@BESW Dr Dinosaur theory: the make-up of his brain is just so radically different from ours he appears entirely incoherent because from his point of view that is coherent. It also lets him understand CRYSTALS.

Lord_Gareth

@Magician, @BESW - We'll need reply emails from ya to get the legalities out of the way. @doppelgreener, I hear you're iiiiinterested

doppelgreener

@Lord_Gareth I am - I'm going to do some reading of the subject matter, and I'd like to talk to you to learn a bit about the specifics, and then I can decide whether this is right for me.

Lord_Gareth

@doppelgreener Have @BESW sling you my email address when you're ready.

doppelgreener

00:34

@Lord_Gareth Sure; given our timing differences and what I'm up to presently that may be this weekend

Lord_Gareth

Or @BESW can sling you my email address and we can talk over email :p

doppelgreener

Oh yeah, that'd work. @BESW Email me his email address when you get the chance?

doppelgreener

01:18

Putting this here again for users who pay attention to Puzzling.SE:

3

Q: Empuzzler: A user script for hiding comments and answers until you want to see them

I've created a user script that hides comments and answers on Puzzling.SE's main site by default, and reveals them only when you want them revealed. I've done this because I'm the sort of person who dislikes having potential spoilers or answers in view or at risk of being in view whilst I'm mull...

discussion

trogdor

@doppelgreener is that literally an SE for Puzzles?

doppelgreener

@trogdor that is literally an SE for Puzzles

trogdor

mk then

spoilers for puzzles are certainly a thing

doppelgreener

indeed, and I'm the kind of person who is immensely tempted to look at them

i have to resize my browser window, etc

(not because i want to know the answer, just because I want to read what's there, and then attempting to blank out that part of the screen takes effort I'd rather be devoting to puzzle)

trogdor

01:40

I don't personally go in for puzzles too much

they can be fun for sure though

sometimes I do stuff like Sudoku, or play chess against a computer.

I suppose that counts, in some ways

doppelgreener

I think those count, yeah.

Some of these are riddles; some are logic puzzles or require lateral thinking. I mostly enjoy the latter kinds, and I think sudoku is a cousin of that kind of puzzle, and chess might be too.

trogdor

the thing with chess is, there is another party involved

BESW

Sudoku is not lateral thinking; it's pure pattern analysis.

Adeptus

@trogdor unless it's something like the Knight's Tour

trogdor

mm

true

there are literally chess puzzles

BESW

01:49

Compare the crossword puzzle, which is built around requiring your brain to create unusual associations between normally disconnected concepts.

Adeptus

@BESW Are you talking about regular or cryptic crosswords?

BESW

Both.

Simple crosswords requiring associating orthography with meaning in ways which most people don't: cross-referencing a word's non-signifying quality (number of characters) with its signifying quality (meaning).

Cryptic crosswords add even more layers of cross-referencing normally disassociated contexts.

(I've done a little bit of research into the usefulness of various kinds of puzzles as mental health exercises, for my dad.)

doppelgreener

@BESW i mean they're logic puzzles :)

BESW

Fair enough.

(Although good riddles are also a form of lateral thinking puzzle.)

doppelgreener

at least i think they're something in that near vicinity

BESW

02:01

Does 5e have "don't call for a roll if you can't handle both success and failure" anywhere in it?

Bradd Szonye

@BESW I don’t think so, but it’s sort of implied, which is why I asked the question.

I didn’t lay out all of the possible ways I could have handled that into the question, although I was tempted.

Lord_Gareth

gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/…

2

BESW

Personally I think if there's an all-encompassing Rule 0 which can be applied to every RPG ever, it's "don't touch the randomiser unless you're okay with any result it might spit out."

5

Bradd Szonye

Heheh.

In this case, unfortunately I just assumed that the guy would make the roll, so I was totally caught flat-footed when he didn’t.

BESW

I had the same thing happen to me a couple weeks ago.

doppelgreener

02:06

@Lord_Gareth any reason for linking that? :D

Bradd Szonye

And I hadn’t yet seen the rule “progress with a setback” rule which is totally normal for Fate but wouldn’t have even occurred to me for D&D.

Lord_Gareth

@doppelgreener It's awesome.

doppelgreener

@Lord_Gareth it is

trogdor

@BESW this is an issue when any result of not touching the randomizer is bad or means you don't do anything at all.

Lord_Gareth

@BraddSzonye Ahahaha, hahahaha, HA! You expect pity from the bloodstained Throne of Gygax?

Bradd Szonye

02:07

There’s an earlier lock in that adventure that implies some retrying is possible, as the lock becomes frozen if you botch the roll badly enough.

Lord_Gareth

In a system explicitly designed to harken back to the olden days of players sacrificed on the DM's altar?

Bradd Szonye

Well, it’s sort of more like modern game design sensibility applied to old school rules.

Which I gather is popular these days.

Dorian

@BraddSzonye In the case of locks, think about it. Your thief is jamming thin metal rods into a lock made of tiny and fragile metal pieces. How often has a single flake of metal in the wrong spot ruined a modern lock?

Lord_Gareth

On a scale of 1-10 in terms of design quality, 5e is a unicycle made entirely of half-melted fudge

Bradd Szonye

@Lord_Gareth Please don’t troll. I like the game.

BESW

02:10

Ancient locks have fewer fiddly bits to get jammed up, actually. But since most D&D adventures I've seen assume turning doorknobs, historical realism re: locks seems like a misplaced assumption.

Bradd Szonye

In any case, there’s a lock that says you pick it if you roll 15, and you cannot pick it if you roll under 10, so that still leaves a big case where ... what do you do with it?

Dorian

You could rule that they make some progress (ie, 2 out of 4 tumblers are locked in place and don't reset on the player) but there is a minor setback (ie, the tip of your pick chipped and isn't as precise, incur a -X penalty to future rolls until you repair the pick)

Lord_Gareth

@BraddSzonye Not saying anything I haven't said before - and quite openly - in this chat.

BESW

D&D 5e Overflow

For when main chat wants to talk about other things too.

wax eagle

@Lord_Gareth have you actually read or played 5e yet?

Dorian

02:12

If you don't want to go that far, you could say a piece of the lock jams a bit and makes the next tumblers harder to set, the DC increases by +X but the player doesn't know that. You tell them to re-roll, and when they do it seems less responsive than it did before. They could still beat it, but it's harder.

doppelgreener

You wake up in an empty room. There is a fudge unicycle in the corner of the room, half-melted onto its stand. What do you do?

Adeptus

oooh, I'm almost an "established user"

wax eagle

very nice!

Dorian

And of course you could make the DC increase with each successive failure, up to the point where the lock jams completely and the BSF needs to use his "lockpicking" skill on it.

BESW

→ 1 message moved to D&D 5e Debate Room

doppelgreener

02:14

@Adeptus and now you are one

Dorian

You following @BraddSzonye?

doppelgreener

I think in a situation where the GM wants the player to succeed, making the roll fail then become more difficult would be not a good reaction.

Bradd Szonye

Bleah, I don’t really want to debate, or even discuss the merits of D&D5 here.

Adeptus

@doppelgreener Woo! I shall celebrate by counting votes in a gallery chat room of my own creation! (or not...)

Bradd Szonye

@doppelgreener And yes, that was exactly my conundrum! I wanted them to get in that door.

doppelgreener

02:16

@Adeptus twelve! twelve upvotes! ah, ah, ah.

4

Bradd Szonye

I like the avoidance of Goblin Dice but I really am not prepared for it in practice.

wax eagle

@BraddSzonye The easy out is that the second attempt attracts attention

Generally. give your players picking a lock a surprise round. If they fail the first time, they lose it. If they fail a second time, someone answers the door.

Bradd Szonye

@waxeagle Right. Which was laid out very clearly with one lock in the adventure. Basically if you screwed the roll badly enough, you’d need to break down a gate, drawing lots of attention.

Wow, people are jumping all over that question.

I think the main practical problem I’m running into is that D&D used to have specific rules and costs and times for trying stuff like this, so there were emergent behaviors that worked. And now they have changed some of the design philosophy, and I’m not sure how to adapt to the new context.

wax eagle

02:33

@BraddSzonye well...we still don't have a DMG so we might still see them. But yeah, there's no explicit "a thievery check takes 1 minute" type codification

Bradd Szonye

@waxeagle Right, I suspect that this is the sort of question the DMG is designed to answer. But that’s a couple months away, so practical advice in the interim is helpful.

Dorian

@BraddSzonye tfw I gave practical advice and was completely ignored.

Magician

@Lord_Gareth Suddenly paralyzed by the simple task of writing a few words.

Lord_Gareth

@Magician You can do it!

BESW

@Magician Check your keyboard for paralytics!

trogdor

02:41

lol

Magician

Save made.

BESW

I am disappointed that the official acronym for Atomic Robo: the Roleplaying Game appears to be ARRPG, and not ARRG.

trogdor

lol

@BESW you are just a wishful thinker is all

BESW

I have a dream of onomatopoedic RPG acronyms!

Bradd Szonye

@Dorian Sorry, was distracted.

Also, I really don’t want to turn every lock check into a case of “re-roll until you succeed or the lock breaks” either.

For one thing, because this isn’t just about locks.

Dorian

02:52

You gave one example, I work with what I'm given.

Also, in the case of locks... That's kind of how it would work in real life.

Even the best lockpick breaks locks if he's unlucky.

BESW

In some contexts, that could be the success-at-cost: "The lock's open! But it'll never lock again, and anyone walking past can tell it's broken. Better be quick."

Bradd Szonye

Yeah, there are really lots of ways opening a lock could fail.

Or succeed at a cost.

And I already had an example from the adventure of succeed-or-break, that wasn’t really applicable in the other situations.

The second time, “succeed or attract attention” was a more likely outcome.

Or perhaps “succeed or frighten the people hiding inside”

BESW

►

Bradd Szonye

Ha, good one BESW.

The manacle case is actually an interesting one.

Because they give you at least three ways to get out of it.

BESW

►

Bradd Szonye

02:59

With the manacles, it’s easy for me to say, you can’t pick this, you’ll need to wriggle out, or break the chain. But then what to do when they fail all three checks?

I could say, you now need to wait for help from somebody else. Or I guess I could say, you can wriggle out if you’re willing to injure yourself.

I just feel kind of at sea at that point.

wax eagle

@BraddSzonye the latter. Success with consequence on the third failure

they've got disadvantage on their melee/ranged attacks going forward until they see someone about it/get it treated

BESW

Personally: I try to never ask for a re-roll of the same exact same type.

Bradd Szonye

Yeah, something like that. I am just not used to running D&D that way. It’s weird.

I suppose I could say, do you want to succeed with this consequence? Or do you want to find a different way to do it?

wax eagle

thats definitely an option and provides agency :)

BESW

"You failed to pick the handcuffs. Okay, how else can you get out of them?"
"...I can dislocate my thumb."
"Brutal! I'll give you the escape for free, at a cost of -2 to everything you do with that hand until you get it treated. But I think we need a Con check to avoid screaming while you do it."

Bradd Szonye

03:02

Actually I think I should edit that aspect into the question.

BESW

In essence: If you succeed on a roll, you're considered to continue to succeed at that thing until circumstances change and you need to roll again. The inverse is that if you fail a roll, you can't try again until circumstances change either.

Bradd Szonye

Yeah, I’ve seen several RPGs take that approach to success and failure.

BESW

It's not something which previous editions of D&D have embraced, and I don't know 5e well enough to know if it's changed its mind.

wax eagle

4e had elements of it...specific things couldn't be retried (Forcing a door was one). I don't think 5e is any different on that I'd have to reread the skills section

Bradd Szonye

The ability checks stuff is a lot more fast and loose and general than it used to be in D&D.

wax eagle

03:09

yeah, they're definitely attempting to be more rules light there...

Bradd Szonye

That’s part of the struggle I’m having. While it’s not actually saying, “Hey, you can’t just keep trying the same thing over and over,” it also isn’t giving much in the way of guidance in the case that the players actually want to do that.

Like, once upon a time in D&D, if you screwed something up you just couldn’t try again.

Usually, not until you gained a level.

But lots of people objected to that, so instead they gave costs and times for each attempt, in great detail. But that is kinda boring.

So know I think they are trying to head in the direction of, only roll this once, or it gets boring, but we don’t yet have the DM’s advice for what to do instead.

wax eagle

Yes, and I'm not sure how much we'll really even see in the DMG (hopefully a good bit, but I get the sense this may be a different DMG than we're used to)

bedtime

Miniman

@waxeagle So many questions waiting on the DMG...

Stupidest book to be releasing last.

BESW

I'm still not exactly clear why they stagger the releases at all.

Bradd Szonye

I suspect it’s tricky logistically to produce and distribute three products with very high demand.

There are probably some market effects too.

Miniman

03:19

@BESW My unfounded and cynical assumption is that it's a purely marketing-driven decision

Bradd Szonye

Hm, I want to edit my question to add a little more detail and direction, but I’m not sure how.

doppelgreener

@Miniman it's probably the worst book to release first though

Miniman

@doppelgreener True, but at the least it should have come before the Monster Manual.

doppelgreener

@BESW Money. Secure basic income now, then a little more later, then a little more later. Rather than leaving them all until December and making no money at all until then. That's what motivated the agile release schedule that made Amazon rule, and this is more or less that.

Miniman

In fact, this sort of goes back to a simultaneous release making a lot more sense

Bradd Szonye

03:29

The Monster Manual was the first AD&D book, if I recall correctly.

Miniman

@doppelgreener Also, a lot of people will be more willing to spend $50 every 3 months but wouldn't spend $150 in one go. And releasing them together makes it seem like they're a package deal.

Dorian

I'm really hoping that the Breath of Fire 6 game doesn't suck like Dragon Quarter did >.<

Bradd Szonye

OK, I expanded my question a little.

> For example, suppose that a manacled player tries to pick the lock and fails the DC 15 Dexterity check. Now, the player could try to pick it again, or he could try one of the other escape methods, or he could wait for somebody else to rescue him, or he could simply succeed with some setback like a minor injury. How do I choose how to proceed?

Dorian

Sorry for the off-topic, but I was just looking to see if Dragon Quarter was really the last one that came out... Was hoping I missed another installment somewhere because I was out of touch with gaming for a while.

@BraddSzonye Do you allow your characters to always have a basic lockpick on them at all times, even when they get all their stuff taken away?

Miniman

@Dorian 'all their stuff' would imply that they're left naked with nothing hidden on their person, so I think you mean when they have their equipment taken?

Bradd Szonye

03:35

In any case, that really isn’t the point I’m concerned about!

Dorian

@Miniman No, I mean all their stuff

Miniman

@Dorian Then they couldn't have anything. That's what ALL means

Dorian

@BraddSzonye Lighten up a bit man.

@Miniman You're obviously missing the joke.

Bradd Szonye

There’s a joke?

Dorian

The joke: In Elder Scrolls games you always have a lockpick.

It's a bit of a running gag in some fancomics too.

Because where the heck was it?!

Miniman

03:37

@Dorian I thought about saying something about how 'all their stuff' could include arms, legs, genitals, hair, ears...but it didn't seem worth it.

Bradd Szonye

I don’t recall that from playing ES games.

Dorian

@BraddSzonye Then you've never been arrested my friend.

Bradd Szonye

I seem to recall carrying big stacks of lockpicks actually.

Dorian

The only way you can be without any lockpicks is if you deliberately drop them all. And even then, you'll magically get a lockpick when you're arrested, even though you literally lost everything else.

BESW

Bobby pins; where can't you find one?

doppelgreener

03:46

@BESW Magneto's prison. (But it's only a matter of time.)

BESW

I was going to counter with plastic bobby pins, but they wouldn't be very useful as lockpicks.

Bradd Szonye

Huh, my question hit the Hot Questions list. That might be a first for me.

Dorian

There's a hot questions list?

BESW

Grats!

Miniman

@Dorian Hot Network Questions, on the right side of the screen.

BESW

03:48

@Dorian Main page, scroll down, look on the right. "Hot Network Questions."

Below the tag banks.

Dorian

Aah, that explains it. I never scroll down on the main page, and rarely even look at the main page.

BESW

It's also there on the Questions page.

Miniman

@BESW And when you're looking at a question.

Dorian

@BESW Never really look at that either.

BESW

@Miniman Oh, hey.

Dorian

03:50

@Miniman And when I look at a question, that's all I look at, idgaf what's on the side XD

Too used to ignoring adds on the side of the screen.

Miniman

@BESW Hey, sup?

BESW

I hadn't noticed it on those pages, I guess.

Dorian

[Deliberately fails his spot check for anything outside of his main focus on a page, due to annoying ads.]

Miniman

@Dorian Can you do that?

Dorian

@Miniman In game or IRL? (irrelevant, the answer is YES)

Miniman

03:55

@Dorian In game, can you deliberately fail a skill check.

Dorian

@Miniman Oh yes. You can also pass on skill checks (or just not roll them). You can deliberately fail saves as well.

The hulk in our party deliberately failed his reflex save to avoid getting struck by lightning one time... just because he wanted to see what would happen.

He took a ton of damage, and a worg skull which he was wearing got permanently fused to his head.

I don't think the DM gave him a mechanical effect with that, but we like to believe that the worg skull adds circumstance bonuses to intimidate checks lol

Miniman

@Dorian That one was reasonably contentious - see this question

Well, in 5e, at least. You might've meant 3.5, I dunno

Adeptus

@BESW I think the stated reason was quality control. Easier to ensure quality when only doing one at a time. The actual reason? Who knows.

BESW

I suspect it's got a lot to do with staggering profits over quarters, with a side order of not being overwhelmed by bookkeeping and shipping/storage concerns, and then various other issues.

Dorian

I did mean 3.5. I have no experience with 5e, and little with 4e. Either way, I see passing/deliberately failing/etc to be an option in every case except subconscious reaction (such as resisting poison or disease)

BESW

04:16

@trogdor In our discussion of ARRPG stunt budgets, I forgot to mention that you can voluntarily take more weaknesses/costs than you have to, in which case you aren't giving the GM's reserve as many Fate points.

trogdor

@BESW mk

good to know I suppose

BESW

You might like using that to explore Doctor Light (RNP)'s drawbacks, both as a plant monster and a not-quite-mad scientist.

trogdor

Muahahahahaha!

I have been considering what do do with weaknesses related to stunts

I do have some ideas

Miniman

Trying for the self-learner badge as the first thing you do on this site seems very ambitious.

BESW

Heh, yeah.

His analysis of the rules was sound, but his conclusions were a little heavy-handed.

Miniman

04:28

Also, if you're going to make definitive statements about RAI you're going to need serious backup.

Actually, looking at it I don't think he means RAI at all.

BESW

04:46

While the rules analysis seems quite sound, the two conclusions you present as following from that analysis are extreme opposite ends of a spectrum. This leaves no room for reasoned middle ground, and you frame the conclusion you dislike in blatant straw man terms ("game-breaking or not" isn't the only consideration in making a rules choice). Can you dial back the extremism and present conclusions which don't presume a purely dichotomous set of options? — BESW 5 mins ago

@Tack Hi!

Miniman

@doppelgreener Better? Worse?

@doppelgreener That's a much better answer, it's got my vote.

doppelgreener

@Miniman thanks; that's the kind of stuff I think needs to be poked at.

because, well, knowing a cantrip is an awesome thing. if we were able to prepare them, we'd have to use up prepared spells and spell slots on them. (note that the cantrip definition doesn't say they always get cast without slots, they just can be used that way, which is part of what I'm trying to get at in my own answer - it's weird if you open up this possibility)

but knowing them lets you do them all the time for free. that's great.

Miniman

@doppelgreener I agree, and I always prefer answers with rules references. Unfortunately in my current situation my access to my books is mutually exclusive with my access to the net.

doppelgreener

@Miniman aha, fair nuff

that's why i used the basic rules ;)

(in my situation, I have 100% access to the net perpetually, and 0 books :D)

so I don't think appealing to the fact there are mechanisms for learning cantrips is sufficient: being able to prepare them doesn't undermine those, because it's weaker than simply knowing them.

Miniman

@doppelgreener Yep, I did fix my answer to take that into account.

Although it's still strictly inferior to yours :P

doppelgreener

05:03

@Miniman ... it sounds pigheaded but I agree XD only because I think the real issue is the rules I'm poking at in my own

actually yeah I like your latest revision.

Miniman

@doppelgreener Hey, thanks! Even reversed the downvote ;)

Can I get a 5e-aware higher power to look at this question? It really seems way too broad to me, and the answers back me up. (One is about increasing damage, one is about increasing number of attacks.)

doppelgreener

@Miniman Is there a clear objective definition of "highest melee weapon attack"?

If so, it's a char-op question. "What's the most damage I can possibly do?" is a good one, but I'm not sure if that's what they're asking.

If not, it's an unclear char-op question.

Miniman

@doppelgreener That's the sort of thing I mean. Unless I'm missing something, it seems to be 'make my melee better for great good'

Adeptus

@Miniman "Move ZIG. For great justice."

4

Miniman

05:18

@Adeptus Still makes me lol every time.

trogdor

05:53

all your base are belong to us

BESW

06:23

@doppelgreener Did you ever get a chance to sink your teeth into The Spoilers?

trogdor

what spoilers are these?

BESW

Spoilery spoilers of spoilage.

trogdor

ah so they would happen to be ones I should not know or don't want to know?

BESW

Yeah, you probably don't want them.

trogdor

mk

BESW

06:27

I've recruited him to help me with the upcoming Doctor Who Accelerated sessions.

doppelgreener

06:40

@BESW many chances not taken, but I read some of it. I'll see if I can sink my teeth in this weekend.

BESW

Fair enough.

trogdor

@BESW ah ok

doppelgreener

My concentration is shot at the moment but I have things I want to concentrate on. :(

BESW

Understood.

doppelgreener

Oh, I just mean at the moment, as in it has been for a few minutes or hours.

That was just a general complaint/vent

doppelgreener

07:07

A close friend of mine with ADD has noticed I share a lot of the characteristics of her ADD, though I've never really been formally tested for it so I don't know if I have it. But, I do have a bunch of characteristics - and sometimes it's difficult to manage and my concentration just leaves my control altogether and becomes like a bullet ricocheting around a room in a cartoon, among the thoughts and stimulus available.

(and spending equally long at any particular spot)

At that point it takes some effort to wrangle enough concentration to focus on anything, and the rest of my thought process is like static and unavailable except more distracting.

Thankfully that doesn't happen too often and I seem to be getting better at calming it down...

doppelgreener

07:23

I have found a wonderful quote about the troubles of humans having to remember passwords:

> Humans are incapable of securely storing high-quality cryptographic keys, and they have unacceptably slow speed and accuracy when performing cryptographic operations. (They are also large, expensive to maintain, difficult to manage, and they pollute the environment. It is astonishing that these devices continue to be manufactured and deployed. But they are sufficiently pervasive that we must design our protocols around their limitations.)

-- Charlie Kaufman, Radia Perlman, Mike Speciner, Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World.

3

trogdor

lol

I thin that is a little heavy handed in some ways though :P

kviiri

07:39

Hello o/

BESW

[wave]

afk shopping

BESW

10:51

@Magician [wave]

Magician

11:16

@BESW Hello

Magician

11:54

Ohh. The lock question is on the hot questions list. That's why my blog got 140ish clicks so far today.

wax eagle

lol happy to drive you some traffic :)

Magician

@waxeagle Appreciated :)

BESW

12:35

[sigh] Yet another person who doesn't come to chat with a cool question they couldn't make work mainsite.

Aaron

Good morning

BESW

Hey.

Joshua Aslan Smith

12:58

whud up gangstas

wax eagle

nada mucho

BESW

Lots of discussion-as-question today!

Joshua Aslan Smith

o rly

not seeing anything in review

ping me if you need close votes

BESW

Oh, they've been getting stomped on pretty hard.

Joshua Aslan Smith

very nice

Aaron

13:02

So I have a question for everyone

BESW

We had "How does X mechanic work?" which turned out to be "I want to have a discussion in which people tell me I'm right that this mechanic sucks."

Magician

BESW

And we just saw "Tell me stories about your RPG drinking games!"

Magician

The only owlbear orly I could find. Disappointing.

Joshua Aslan Smith

@besw do you have a link to both of them?

would love to see them

BESW

13:04

This one is still open.

This one is deleted by owner.

Joshua Aslan Smith

oh man

that self answer

BESW

Mmm. See, the question which is actually asked is fine and dandy, and the self-answer deals with it nicely.

It's the "MY STRAW MAN, LET ME SHOW YOU HIM" bits which take it into another level altogether. Enjoy the comments on Doppelgreener's answer.

Joshua Aslan Smith

haha

Aaron

Has anyone made automated Google docs spreadsheets before?

wax eagle

@Aaron automated how?

Joshua Aslan Smith

13:09

For whatever reason his answer made me think of harvey dent with a coin

in BTAS

Aaron

@waxeagle Like character sheets.

wax eagle

@Aaron like with formulas that autofill when you change things etc?

Joshua Aslan Smith

which lead me to this gif, which I am declaring the unofficial mascot of RPG.SE

Aaron

@waxeagle Yup

Joshua Aslan Smith

The ultimate answer to DM Fiat

BESW

13:10

11 hours ago, by BESW

Personally I think if there's an all-encompassing Rule 0 which can be applied to every RPG ever, it's "don't touch the randomiser unless you're okay with any result it might spit out."

Joshua Aslan Smith

Its true you can ultimately go in the other direction where everything in your game is RNG determined

both are pitalls on the road to good roleplay

The golden mean is of course to introduce chance when Chance would make sense and in a wider context that botht he players and GM have accepted together

Aaron

I can do the automating and such myself just seeing if anyone had tips on how to pretty it up.

wax eagle

@Aaron yeah I'm no help there

Aaron

@JoshuaAslanSmith I don't know why but watching this bugs me. How can he talk with his face like that

I understand it's CGI.

Joshua Aslan Smith

willful suspension of disbelief

harvey dent as two face has always retained full functionality despite his injuries

when his eye is probably the one thing that would probably be most likely to be irreversibly damaged.

Aaron

13:16

Right. A burnt eye with no eye lid. It would be unusable if not deadly due to infection.

BESW

@Aaron "Court is adjourned while the prosecution washes off his false cheek. Again. Mr. Dent, can you please ask your doctor to help you find one which doesn't fall out so easily? And in the meantime, try to say it, not spray it."

Joshua Aslan Smith

in the film nolan does address it a bit though when he does the shot of whiskey when hes on his revenge vignette and some of it just falls out the side of his face.

he only operates as 2 face in the film for a less than 12 hour period of time

BESW

This is a problem with Nolan's Batverse: going gritty and realistic kinda works for Batman. But for his villains? No way! You either turn them into some other character completely (Bane) or make them distractingly improbable compared to everything around them (Two-Face).

Aaron

@JoshuaAslanSmith Heh. Kind of how Barbosa in Pirates of the Caribbean drank from a bottle while in undead form and it poured down his ribs onto his cloths.

Joshua Aslan Smith

yeah

@aaron have you seen the film?

I mean its been a few years to the spoiler moratorium is off anyway

Aaron

13:18

@JoshuaAslanSmith Once when it was released.

Joshua Aslan Smith

yeah so I mean harvey is probably only running aroudn without a face for 8 hours

its possibly mid morning when he gets out of the hospital and its some time in the night when he dies

He was on IV drip

Aaron

@BESW I wonder if they are going to do the faceless joker

Joshua Aslan Smith

so he probably doesnt eat or anything

in that time period

and the eye is probably very dried out/painful in the meantime but hes pretty much on a mission

BESW

@Aaron Pretty sure Nolan's done with the Batverse.

Joshua Aslan Smith

yes

DKR was his last film

the Superman v. Batman: Dawn of Justice is a soft reboot on Batman

folding him in with Snyder's Man of Steel Superman

Aaron

13:21

This guy should do the faceless joker. imgur.com/account/favorites/DEhye

Joshua Aslan Smith

faceless joker was pretty meh in my opinion

Aaron

Ah. So no more of that gritty batman. Probably good idea

@JoshuaAslanSmith I liked the idea. Need to get my hand on the actual comic it happened in so I can read it.

Joshua Aslan Smith

it worked as a shocking thing when the joker disappeared for awhile and then again when he came back, but its just distracting

whatever they do with batman I wont like it as much as the nolan trilogy, but Ill have it for all time

Id rather a soft reboot that I dont like than someone else trying to continue it without the same abilities

BESW

13:51

Haroom. Science fiction-y reasons to travel to the Sun.

Joshua Aslan Smith

searching for a story idea?

BESW

Yeah.

Joshua Aslan Smith

Sun dying, stoke the fires

Gravity slingshot to escape the solar system

Magician

To prevent a solar storm that would wipe out all electronics in the Solar system.

Joshua Aslan Smith

You have the shields to stay near a sun, the sun's output blocks any ability to scan, essentially being close the sun hides your ship from anyone

Magician

13:54

The ever popular storing of dangerous artifact.

BESW

It looks like our Atomic Robo storyline will be about making a ship that can travel to the Sun. So we need a reason that Tesladyne suddenly is interested in supporting the (obviously insanely dangerous and probably impossible) venture.

Joshua Aslan Smith

civilization is transitioning from Kardashev scale 1 to 2 and needs to setup satellites near the sun as part of setting up a solar system wide energy harvesting system

BESW

Setting is contemporary Earth, but with all the Weird Science, Conspiracy, and Adventure dials turned up to Indiana Jones levels.

Magician

Solar storms (I like 'em, what) form a pattern that can only be described as artificial. Is ETI affecting the Sun?

BESW

Solar storms doing Weird Science Things sounds like a good bet!

Joshua Aslan Smith

13:56

Somebody else is tryign to blow up the sun

you need to stop em

Magician

A capsule has been detected in sun's orbit, spiraling ever closer. It has probably been there for millions of years.

wax eagle

@BESW near infinite energy harvesting

BESW

@Magician I like that one, too.

One element I'm liking about the solar storms and capsule ideas is that it says what is happening, in a way which makes it obvious the team must do something, but it leaves why and what they might encounter open-ended.

Joshua Aslan Smith

Thats got a great horror sci-fi bent to it

ooh yeah, the storms seem to be following the capsules orbit

D&D 5e Overflow

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