TRPG General Chat

12:01 AM

That was kinda the idea with giving them tasks during the encounter.

My 4e campaign had a dramatic conclusion in which they faced off against Allabar: a moon-sized Far Realm monstrosity. He was literally impossible to defeat through normal combat.

So they re-purposed a Despair Cannon (designed to make enemy troops stop mid-march and cry) to attack him with Feelings Of Reality, Hope, And The Vitality Of Mortal Life. Choosing moments from the campaign to remember was required, and role-playing them was encouraged.

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Sounds amazing

But that's definitely an option. There's this mage tinkerer who could have a secret thing up his sleeve.

Miniman

@BESW For some reason this reminds me of Red Dwarf (specifically Back to Reality.)

BESW

@Miniman It may have been a subconscious influence.

Not quite the same, but possible re-purposeable: I ran a relatively long session where each encounter featured a lot of ghosts (one-shot minions) that spawned in increasing numbers and then, at a certain count, were consumed by the main enemies for power-ups.

So the PCs developed the tactic of running around 'killing' the ghosts before they hit critical mass to buff the bad guy.

Each time a PC dropped a ghost, I gave that player the mini to keep.

Miniman

@BESW Nonono. You have to eat the powerup so that you can eat the ghosts, not the other way round!

BESW

12:10 AM

In the final battle, the minis were redeemable for power-ups to make the PCs more of a match for the demi-god final boss.

(The flavour was that they were fighting through a horrifying afterlife, and the ghosts they rescued from being consumed by their devil tormentors would then help the PCs defeat the ruler of the realm.)

@William'MindWorX'Mariager Perhaps the PCs can be scrambling to do something--perform an improvised ritual, perhaps--to make the demons more "real" so that the armies can actually damage them?

That way you still have "It takes armies to defeat these guys!" but you also get "Armies would mean nothing without the PCs."

Grubermensch

12:35 AM

Wow PAX already sold out.

I was not expecting to have to be this on top of it to get a ticket.

I guess there's next year...

wax eagle

yeah, it tends to sell out in a few hours

Grubermensch

That's absurd

Also, the fact that they don't seem to forecast the opening of registration

Just plain unprofessional

I'm used to Otakon where I'd have like two months to register

And they announce the timetable around the time that the previous year's con wraps up

There's a news post on the PAX site that says "hey guys you can stop refreshing obsessively, because now we'll tell you that we won't be opening reg in the month of April"

And honestly reading that from staff makes me less want to go

wax eagle

12:59 AM

@Grubermensch @RobertF @Shalvenay @JoshuaAslanSmith plus.google.com/hangouts/_/gu7icokwqpk4syrbtcoaqn5bbya

Adeptus

1:11 AM

I'm running Forge of Fury at the moment, set in a fallen dwarf stronghold. In some places, items are marked with "Durgeddin's smith mark" - presumably, something like a signature. But also presumably, not just Durgeddin written in Dwarvish. So it got me thinking, maybe Dwarvish runes represent syllables rather than letters. So then Durgeddin's mark would be (Dur)+(Ged)+(Din) in some stylised combined rune.

If Dwarvish worked this way, how many runes would their alphabet need? For example, how many different syllables (phonemes?) does English have?

Miniman

@Adeptus You may want to take a look at hiragana to get an idea of how this works. Japanese has a lot less syllables than English, but it's still a complete language.

(46 characters, incidentally.)

@Adeptus Also this

BESW

Tangentially, it's common for a craftsman's mark to be unrelated to letters and sounds at all.

A family crest or workshop logo, or just that particular crafter's unique drawing of his tools.

And most commonly, it's some combination of an initial/name and a symbol.

This is Fabergé's mark:

Adeptus

1:33 AM

@BESW In this case, it's implied that characters can recognise his mark as long as they can read Dwarvish. So it must at least contain his name.

BESW

Or it's so famous that anybody who knows Dwarven has heard of him.

But yes, name is likely.

Paul Revere also used several versions of "P.R." in his marks, sometimes curly, always in a box--sometimes the box had crenellations.

My own vision of Dwarven society would have each family with a crest or similar symbol that all other Dwarves recognised; stamping that would be as good as stamping a name.

Grubermensch

2:17 AM

@Adeptus Japanese has ~45 phonetic characters (11 consonants and five vowels) with again as many formed by adding a special mark that changes the consonant (so ~90 overall). Chinese has I think around 100 syllables, but also incorporates four tones which brings the total distinct syllables to about 300. (If the math seems wrong, in both languages there are certain combinations that are invalid).

BESW

2:53 AM

It's time for roleplaying! Come watch live Atomic Robo RPG #FateCore on Twitch http://twitch.tv/thursdayknights

Tweeted by ThursdayKnights on May 8, 2015 at 2:37 AM

Pixie

3:05 AM

Doing some casual warmup for an SotC game. We decided to play one we had prepped for and ultimately didn't do a while back, but someone couldn't make it tonight, so the real thing will probably be tomorrow.

Adeptus

SotC?

Pixie

Spirit of the Century, sorry. I have a terrible habit of abbreviating.

Miniman

@Pixie YHATHOA? MT!

Pixie

@Miniman I can only presume that MT stands for "many tortoises."

Miniman

@Pixie Turtles, actually.

Pixie

3:13 AM

@Miniman So close, and yet so far.

doppelgreener

4:32 AM

It is my birthday in exactly one week today.

And maybe I will get a landline internet connection to my house within a week of that date. I am looking forward to this date more. :D

BESW

@doppelgreener Many happy returns of our day!

Adeptus

@doppelgreener Happy internet to you, happy internet to you...

doppelgreener

4:53 AM

@Adeptus haha!

@BESW Heck yeah! \o/ I will make a point of having at least one non-alcoholic beverage that night as a sort of cheers to you for your birthday.

BESW

Heheh.

doppelgreener

(You don't have to do the inverse, haha)

BESW

5:26 AM

> While a crew of astronauts on Mars waits for a ship that will return them to Earth, one discovers a strain of bacteria that turns humans into killers.

"Hey, guys! I found a strain of bacteria that turns humans into killers!"
"Gosh, you should be careful with that."
"Of course, I'm observing careful quarantine protocols like we always do. Really I'm hurt you thought you had to remind me."
"You're right, I'm sorry. Hey, there's the ship that will return us to Earth!"
- END -

Miniman

@BESW Following quarantine protocols would cut an awfully large number of movies short. My personal theory is that the characters don't because they want something exciting that they can put in their biography.

doppelgreener

@BESW This is the best sci fi story I've read recently.

BESW

@doppelgreener It's a gripping character drama.

And here's a film synopsis that apparently has no film attached to it:

> When the sun strikes an altar hidden within the ancient Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico, it creates a beacon that triggers an alien blitzkrieg.

(It's associated with The Asylum's Age of Tomorrow, but the film has no Mexican pyramids.)

Miniman

5:43 AM

@BESW Maybe the aliens are so fast that there's not enough time to make a movie?

I mean, the shortest movie possible would still be a twelfth of a second.

BESW

Plus production logos and end credits, so half an hour.

Miniman

Well played...

Adeptus

@BESW In the cinema, including the ads & trailers, an hour.

doppelgreener

That makes it feature length! Score!

detly

6:17 AM

So, so many movies could be fundamentally changed by the simple application of OH&S guidelines.

"Someone hit the interlock on the garbage compactor!"

"Oh, that must be where the princess is. Fish the idiots out."

doppelgreener

"Sir, the garbage compactor won't run. Our safety systems detected life signs in there." "Send a medic squad to investigate. Bring some first aid equipment."

BESW

'course, they already had a dianoga in there.

detly

"Your majesty, this is appropriate personal protective equipment for recreation on hard surfaces, and here is a list of professional sporting non-slip footwear. Just make sure Anna and Elsa wear it while playing. I recommend a harness and clip system in addition."

"Thanks Pabbie. Oh, material safety data sheets and cryogenic first aid guidelines too. You're too kind."

doppelgreener

@BESW And it would've been found and... um... dealt with somehow way beforehand. Much safer!

@detly More like: "Here, I've heard of a great children's psychologist. Maybe he should speak to your daughters."

detly

Maybe that's where they were going on that boat

:(

BESW

6:28 AM

> ...they could prove useful, since they served to rid waste of biological material, leaving behind salvageable minerals and metals. Only when a dianoga grew too large was it usually considered a threat... (source)

The Star Wars universe is one singularly unfamiliar with notions of worksite safety or animal cruelty regulations.

a computing pun

@doppelgreener By "dealt with" you of course mean, "its presence noted down on a risk assessment form and then ignored", right? Or is my experience of OH&S practices too cynical?

Miniman

@BESW And don't even get me started on railings...

Adeptus

@BESW It also supports slavery of non-organic lifeforms. If droids are sentient, as they appear to be, why are they treated as possessions not employees?

BESW

@Adeptus Considering how Jabba treated his organic servitors, I'm pretty sure slavery isn't restricted to mechanoids.

Adeptus

@BESW Well, Jabba was a criminal overlord. You can't measure all of society by his example.

detly

6:32 AM

I assume you've seen "Inbox of Nardo Pace, the Empire's Worst Engineer"?

somethingawful.com/news/nardo-design-empire

doppelgreener

@acomputingpun No, no, this is like, exploration of movies if only they had proper OH&S being carried out. So in this case, noted on a risk assessment form, then probably fished out and held in a sturdy fish tank and fed well until the next time they can make a detour past its home planet to drop it off in its native environment again.

Either that or put down and flushed out into a star or something.

@BESW PFFFF screw that out-of-movie retroactive justification, that thing was a danger.

Miniman

@Adeptus The most important step in creating a brand new lifeform is the step that prevents it from being a danger to you.

BESW

So, I'm watching an Aslyum film. A guy named Mark has been knocked out and carried away. The search team finds evidence of this: "Those look like... drag marks."

[face/palm]

Miniman

[Dares to dream] Possibly unintentional?

BESW

It's The Asylum in a film they obviously had fun with instead of just churning out. I'm pretty sure it's intentional.

a computing pun

6:46 AM

@doppelgreener Ohhhh, proper OH&S? ...I can't suspend my disbelief that far. Not even in a utopian science-fiction future.

doppelgreener

@acomputingpun see here and next message

a computing pun

Yeah, I got it, I was attempting humor.

(poorly delivered, admittedly)

Miniman

Text chat is a notoriously bad medium for deadpan humour, sadly.

doppelgreener

indeed

i will spare you, this time, the eldritch star sticker of You Tried But It Was Terrible Anyway

(which is a type of sticker I suddenly wish I had)

BESW

...what kind of font?

doppelgreener

6:56 AM

solid sans-serif letters with straight lines and the lines ending in a circular curve

Text delivered with proper capitalisation and no full stop, with the text line paths either straight or slightly arched upwards like a bridge

BESW

7:13 AM

I... may go a different direction. Also not entirely clear what you mean by some of that.

doppelgreener

7:47 AM

which bits?

and certainly, creative license! \o/

BESW

8:04 AM

Need better colours, which I really can't do right now.

Well, okay, one quick try at more eye-searing colours.

4

Pureferret

8:34 AM

@BESW that's f'tagntastic

7

BESW

Thank you.

BESW

8:49 AM

I considered using my tentacle brush, but that would've been too much.

doppelgreener

11:43 AM

@BESW It's beautiful!

BESW

[bow] Glad you like it.

doppelgreener

Good work :D

does that star come from anything? i get the feeling i've seen a thing like it before

BESW

You said you wanted an eldritch star sticker.

doppelgreener

of course!

BESW

That's one form of the Elder Sign.

Elder Sign

The Elder Sign is an icon in the Cthulhu Mythos, whose stories describe it as a form of protection against evil forces. Although not described in Lovecraft's work, he illustrated it in correspondence as a line with five branches. Mythos writer August Derleth described the Sign as a warped, five-pointed star with a flaming pillar (or eye) in its center, and it is this interpretation which has become the most popular in subsequent Mythos literature. == Description == The Elder Sign is first mentioned in H. P. Lovecraft's 1926 story The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, although it is not described...

doppelgreener

11:51 AM

oh wow :D

excellent!!

Transcript for