TRPG General Chat

00:01

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

BESW

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

00:10

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

00:35

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

00:59

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

Adeptus

01:11

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

01:33

@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

02:17

@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

02:53

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

03:05

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

03:13

@Miniman So close, and yet so far.

doppelgreener

04:32

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

04:53

@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

05:26

> 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

05:43

@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

06:17

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

06:28

> ...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

06:32

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

06:46

@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

06:56

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

07:13

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

doppelgreener

07:47

which bits?

and certainly, creative license! \o/

BESW

08:04

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

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

4

Pureferret

08:34

@BESW that's f'tagntastic

7

BESW

Thank you.

BESW

08:49

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

doppelgreener

11:43

@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

oh wow :D

excellent!!

sillyputty

12:21

hullo all.

BESW

Yo.

sillyputty

That sticker makes me happy and sad all at the same time! =D...=(

BESW

I think that means it was a success?

sillyputty

Yea that sounds about right.

Aaron

12:48

Morning

David Reeve

it means that it was a success but we're doomed anyway

sillyputty

\o

sillyputty

13:11

http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/61736/sorcerer-rogue-multiclass-dd-3-5

kinda unclear, yeah?

Miniman

It would be, if the answer wasn't so obviously "Don't throw your character away multiclassing for no reason!"

:P

sillyputty

heh. =P yea, but the point is to balance out an already overpower, overleveled character with the rest of the party. seems like a noble cause if i do say so myself haha

Aaron

My sides hurt

Chris Pratt Bloopers, All Outtakes | Parks and Recreation

►

I lost it when he threw the briefcase.

Miniman

13:29

Is there any better formatting available for this sort of thing?

sillyputty

Seems very clear to me.

wax eagle

13:41

@Miniman not really

you could put it in a code box so it scrolls, but that's less than ideal since it's not code

Miniman

Ah, well. It's ugly, but it'll have to do I guess.

RobertF

13:53

@waxeagle - Question about the Fireball spell in 5e - if I cast Fireball on the square where my wizard is standing, does he suffer damage as well?

David Reeve

yes

wax eagle

@RobertF normally yes, but as an evocation wizard, you can exclude up to 1+spell level creatures from the normal area

RobertF

@waxeagle - I'm considering one spell strategy is the "death blossom" (to borrow from the film The Last Starfighter :) ). Lure the enemy in so that they cluster around my wizard & then detonate a series of Fireball spells.

wax eagle

@RobertF it's resource intensive and you're kind of squishy, but it's not a bad thought. Since you can exclude anyone though, you could employ that strategem using one of the stouter characters as the centerpiece

RobertF

14:09

@waxeagle Wow, by 6th level the wizard is incredibly powerful in 5e. With spells like Invisibility, Fly, and Fireball, I wonder if a 6th level wizard could take on the bullywug fort by himself in our campaign. If things get too tight, I cast Fly to escape, replenish my spells, then return to finish off the garrison.

wax eagle

14:26

@RobertF possible...though keep in mind that bullywogs aren't the only danger present ;)

RobertF

@waxeagle - Right - the dragon...

sillyputty

14:41

Is there any template anyone knows about on custom ship and/or vessel creation in 4e D&D? The idea is to make a cool airship that is almost like a character in and of itself.

RobertF

@sillyputty - A Warforged airship!

Well, warforged is 3.5e, not 4e.

wax eagle

@sillyputty I don't think so, maybe in DMG2?

@RobertF they're a PC race in 4e too

@sillyputty what exactly would you want to do with it? I mean you could probably reflavor something that's there, but 4e sort of expects the DM to put most of the effort in for something like that

sillyputty

Hrm. @RobertF Haha yea, the Warforged are already a thing, but maybe I could use something there... @waxeagle It would be the players' main....*thing*. Like, they're privateers, and use their ship in combat and such. Do you think it would work if I modeled the ship as though it were a player character, and let the PC's level it up as they went along?

RobertF

BTW can Warforged communicate telepathically with each other? Could a PC play an army of Warforged as a single character?

wax eagle

@sillyputty I'm not sure. You might check out 3rd party modules and see if anyone's implemented anything along that line

rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/2550/… has some LFR adventure refs that might be useful

sillyputty

14:54

@RobertF Not sure about every edition, but I've never read anything that says that Warforged have this ability. @waxeagle Thanks!

wax eagle

@RobertF not in 4e unless I missed something

RobertF

I've never played an Eberron campaign, but playing with Warforged and a magical economy gone wild has always sounded like a lot of fun.

sillyputty

I don't think I've ever played in an actual, factual published D&D setting. Closest I've come is one vaguely based on the Points of Light setting of 4e. But it still varies from that wildly. Part of the fun to me has always been about creating our own worlds collaboratively.

David Reeve

i don't think you should worry about the ship having stats

RobertF

Agreed. A lot of the D&D campaign settings grew out of homebrewed adventures.

wax eagle

15:04

@DavidReeve yeah, just narrate the heck out of it. Even when you get into ship to ship combat situations, you really don't care about the ship, you care about what the pcs are doing

David Reeve

it's just a flying location, stats would overcomplicate things

sillyputty

Hm. Perhaps you guys are right. I may be overthinking it. I would think that if one of them wants to, I dunno, man the cannons, though, that those things should have some consistent damage-dealing abilities.

David Reeve

i had a giant dracolich once that the players were able to stand on, and i started with trying to come up with some reasonable representation for hp and how it can attack, etc.

in the end it was simpler to just make him a big flying dungeon

also the weapons could have stats, but the airship doesn't need them

sillyputty

Hahaha, I'm picturing a giant underground building zooming through the sky.

David Reeve

just use the statistics for siege weapons

sillyputty

15:06

Ohhhhhhhh! SIEGE WEAPON STATS

great idea. Thank you

David Reeve

d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/ship-combat/…

sillyputty

Can't open the link at work, unfortunately.

wax eagle

@sillyputty it's a 3.5 link anyways, but 4e has ballistas and other siege weapon stats available in compendium

sillyputty

@waxeagle Fantastic. Thanks, everyone!

David Reeve

oh doy

i thought pathfinder for some reason

yeah 4e has siege weapon stats somewhere

David Reeve

15:28

@sillyputty community.wizards.com/group/wiki/iomandravariantshiprules

sillyputty

@DavidReeve I appreciate the effort! Still can't open up that link while at work though. =/

wax eagle

16:06

just got a great error...program freaked out because you can't have 102% completion

Grubermensch

That....

what

Why is it reading the completion status back in...

or is this in some input file?

sillyputty

16:40

@waxeagle Sure you can! Just try harder. ;)

wax eagle

@Grubermensch I'm not sure why it's reading it back in. It's not something I wrote...it's handy tool but the errors get weird sometimes

RobertF

17:23

@waxeagle - So any thoughts about running a campaign after the 5e adventure? My vote is for an old school module like Tomb of Horrors or Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. :-) But I have no idea how difficult it would be to adapt 2e modules to the 5e ruleset.

wax eagle

@RobertF that'd be a real challenge. I'd love to do Barrier Peaks at some point, I'm not sure if I can do it justice, but it's been on my radar for a long time

the conversion would take a good bit of time and effort, but it'd be pretty cool

The next official module is based on the old Elemental Evil module, but expanded to a full world level campaign. I've got a copy, but haven't decided with whom I'm going to run it

DuckTapeAl

18:14

I can't help but chuckle when someone trots out the 'GURPS can do anything' misconception in a game rec answer.

PipperChip

18:35

@DuckTapeAl Seems I have a lot of people stumped with my question

SevenSidedDie

18:49

@DuckTapeAl Yeah. It can model any setting, but that's a very specific kind of "do anything" that isn't actually "anything." (And even then, it's going to model the setting in its own way.)

DuckTapeAl

@PipperChip It looks like the comment is gone now, but I really liked when you said that the mechanics should tell the story, not the GM or players, where health is concerned.

@SevenSidedDie Yeah. A friend of mine used to list a couple different examples of things that GURPS simply can't do when people would talk about GURPS doing anything.

Like, if you have 1000 magic points to spend on casting spells, but they never regenerate. You have those 1000, and that's it, forever.

And combat is basically always going to be super deadly unless you houserule it to the point where you're not really using GURPS anymore.

PipperChip

@DuckTapeAl So, if anyone is wondering, that question has arisen because of Extra Credit's "Mechanics as Metaphors" episode, and the realization that most RPG sessions are a cycle of "Mechanical Event -> Interpretation of Event -> Reaction To Interpretation -> Reaction translated into Mechanical Event -> Mechanical Event," and this question is aimed at finding a system to circumvent that cycle, or at least shorten it.

DuckTapeAl

Interesting.

David Reeve

FATE has an interesting take on that

PipperChip

Yes, I've looked somewhat at FATE... I think it's an interesting system

DuckTapeAl

18:59

Have you looked at the *World systems?

PipperChip

FATE's stress and consequences appears to be a variation on simple HP, but I'm not sure if it fully gets at what I'd like.

Nope

Not a look at *World systems

DuckTapeAl

It doesn't meet the criteria for your question, but it has an interesting variation on that cycle, I think.

The Dungeon World rules are available here: book.dwgazetteer.com

I've been told that it's good to read the GM stuff before the player stuff to get a better idea of the system.

PipperChip

Thanks for the advice! I'm going to take a look at that for sure.

mxyzplk

19:19

@PipperChip here

PipperChip

Great!

@mxyzplk So, what parts of the idea of "simulationist" do you have questions about?

mxyzplk

I don't have questions (assuming you mean simulationist like it's generally used) but that its explanation appears to not be effective in keeping the narrativists away on that Q

PipperChip

I don't really think they're inherently contradictory ideas. I think it is hard to have a game which tells vivid stories via mechanics, but that doesn't mean that anyone has not done it yet.

As for the wound boxes... a half destroyed leg (2/4 boxes) does not tell me how it's destroyed, or why it's not up to full fitness. Is it because of cuts? Disease? The boxes themselves tell me nothing. They do not tell a story.

mxyzplk

ok, therefore you must be using simulationist in a different sense than its normal mode. This is tail-chasing a little, if really you are trying to find a game that eliminates the need for dramatic interpretation of mechanics based on that blog post you should say that in the Q instead of making up some new definitions for words and kinda trying to get people to answer that way, IMO

How about Rolemaster style huge ass tables of descriptions of every wound result?

that seems like the only thing that could fit your def'n

PipperChip

If it fits

mxyzplk

19:28

If the Gm isn't allowed to add description themselves

PipperChip

Yes

mxyzplk

(Or, I suppose, a mad libs style wound effect description generator)

"The X shoves your Y in your Z"

PipperChip

I tried to explain what I meant in the question, because I'm sure we don't have an authoritative dictionary for the lingo here. Even the "simulation" tag doesn't have a wiki entry

mxyzplk

Anyway you are asking that question in an extremely circuitous manner and therefore none of the extant answers fit it

no, but it's a word from threefold model/gns world and there's some context there

Aaron

What question is this?

PipperChip

19:32

It seemed the best way to ask this because of the guides in the came-recommendation tag. I needed something which we could hold the proposed games up to. I couldn't just say "Give me games which have mechanics as narratives."

mxyzplk

2

Q: Heroic, HP-less, Simulationist RPG Suggestions

I am looking for an RPG which has the following: This game has "heroic-style" play. This means the characters are special because of the situations they're in, not because of some ability to do stuff. All enemies, even smaller ones, can be deadly unless directly and immediately dealt with. A we...

PipperChip

2

Q: Heroic, HP-less, Simulationist RPG Suggestions

I am looking for an RPG which has the following: This game has "heroic-style" play. This means the characters are special because of the situations they're in, not because of some ability to do stuff. All enemies, even smaller ones, can be deadly unless directly and immediately dealt with. A we...

game-recommendation simulation

mxyzplk

When it comes down to it, you're saying you're lookign for "heroic, simulationist systems" where what you're really asking is "Systems where the game generates the descriptions for the GM without them having to do that"

So all the answers are wrong for what you want, but right for what you're asking.

PipperChip

Admittedly, the indication of HP=>wounds is a little hyperbole, but I need to get across the idea that the number must clearly represent a real thing, not a vague concept like "damage."

sillyputty

http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/61755/how-to-deal-with-lazy-players

Jeez this group just sounds like a total mess from the start. Unflattering description of his players...

mxyzplk

19:48

gotta work, but my main point is "your question as it stants is ineffective and will not get you the answers you're looking for"

sillyputty

@PipperChip It also seems to me like Fate might be your best option here. I honestly don't know how one would get around the "cycle of mechanics" as described in that "mechanics as metaphor" episode of Extra Credits. In my opinion, the meaning we ascribe to the mechanics is what produces the play experience. I'm just not sure there is something that can exist that satisfies your criteria.

Admittedly, I am not an encyclopedia of different RPG systems.

PipperChip

@mxyzplk I think it will get me what I'm looking for, but thank you for looking into this.

@sillyputty I'm looking at fate, and yes, it has a lot of what I'm looking for but no, it also does not. I really am looking for something that meets those requirements; the main objection to HP (and derivations) is that they do not tell a story. FATE's stress appears to be slightly mutated HP, but I'm investigating it more.

sillyputty

@PipperChip So, from what I gather, you're looking for more of a system that goes something like: roll dice, see if target is hit. If no, nothing. If yes, game provides description of what that damage looks like. Am I on the right track here?

PipperChip

Yes, that would be it. Ideally, the damage description would both be mechanically significant but also be parsed in "natural language," to borrow a computer science term. For instance "a deep gash on the left leg" would be significant to the game and the players, as they both know what that actually means.

sillyputty

Hm. I'm trying to imagine how this system would deal with the...gamey nature of the activity. For example, how many hits until the description reads: death, if ever? How to reconcile a character who is supposed to be naturally tougher, more vivacious, etc.? I'm not saying it can't be done, I just have yet to read or even hear about any system that attempts this without abstraction into a type of hit point like system...

PipperChip

20:04

@sillyputty Yep, that's why I asked.

sillyputty

It might be an interesting experiment to try to concoct such a system. It may necessitate different values being calculated against each other upon being hit, the end result of which would consult a table that describes the effect, but that is similar to how HP is normally thought of anyway.

Example: I'm hit, but I was a "full health", therefore the hit nearly "winds" me, I am slower in the fight going forward. Another hit, I'm reduced to single digit hit points: I was severely wounded, have a gash in my leg, etc.

@PipperChip Yes, and it's a useful question, just not one for which I can anticipate an answer being readily available.

PipperChip

I plan on not accepting an answer for a while, unless some one knows of such a hidden gem.

sillyputty

Good plan.

SevenSidedDie

@PipperChip There's a system-agnostic supplement on DriveThru for a drop-in replacement injury system that details exactly what happened, rather than how much. It replaces the native injury mechanics, be they HP-based or whatever. You might want to check it out if you can't find a suitable game system: Trauma.

sillyputty

20:20

SSD to the rescue!

BESW

21:35

"Trees in Australia had to turn into killing machines just so the animals wouldn’t laugh at them."

5

Anaphory

22:00

And, knowing the usual about Australian animals, the animals still laugh…

Hello, by the way, how are you?

DuckTapeAl

So, in Australia, you can die from bumping into the wrong tree?

Y'know, I thought I had enough reasons to never go to Australia. Turns out I needed another.

BESW

@Anaphory [wave] Not feverish anymore!

Anaphory

Excellent!

BESW

Yourselfness?

Anaphory

22:18

Good! I managed to do some stuff and have played some games this week, and have just watched a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta

Hilarious “HMS Pinaforte”

BESW

Cool.

....I need to expose myself to more G&S.

Anaphory

When I came here to study, there was a big overlap between the local Gaming Society and the local Light Opera Society.

I did not know any G&S before, and now I've seen about six different of their pieces.

Because while that connection was not kept up through new people joining both, I still know some people in LOpSoc.

This production was the most ridiculous one I can remember, although the Sorcerer was quite hilarious as well, and Sweeny Todd is something entirely different (and, of course, not G&S)

BESW

I actually have a somewhat similar connection to the local university's theatre.

BESW

23:17

Today's Fascinating Trivia is the bizarre multipart lifecycle of the salp.

One generation of salp is asexual and individual; the next generation is a collection of physically-connected salps which begin as female and then age into males; the following generation returns to the asexual, individual salp again.

Anaphory

23:32

Much of the stuff evolution, that old tinkerer, has come up with is just ridiculous.

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