I might be able to sometimes join you and Dan from the States if your Internet's up then, but it's unlikely that the other Guamanians will be able to join also.
@BESW 13th Age is based on d20/OGL? PCGen won't include the rules, but you can enter them yourself as "homebrew". Or find someone else on the net who has done so already... Fate, probably not. PCGen is rather d20-centric at the moment, though they're working on expanding it to other mechanics.
Interesting. Someone has made an output sheet for PCGen that is in the right format for kindlegen to read it. So in a couple of steps, you can have your PCGen character sheet on your Kindle.
> [PCGen](http://pcgen.org/) is a FREE multi-platform Open Source character generator and maintenance program for role-playing games. It supports the d20 RPG system and includes data sets based on material from Wizards of the Coast (D&D), Paizo Publishing, and many other publishers. See the Features page for more information.
@BESW I'd say, it can't yet, and maybe never will. They're just starting to expand to non-d20 systems, but are very much built around data lists. Race: choose one from the list. Class: choose one from the list. Feats: choose (as many as you are allowed by your race/class/level) from the list (filtered by prerequisites). etc...
I don't think it would support Fate's "write a descriptive phrase" style
@Grubermensch It's a project I've had variously on and off stand-by for a while whilst life has been life to me.
I want to make something that is to Fate what Roll 20 is to D&D
i.e. a pretty great set of tools for playing it online
it has become variously more or less simple over the course of the project and me throwing things out
next iteration will just be: make something super simple, start using it in our games, figure out where to go from there instead of trying to solve EVERY PROBLEM all at once right at the beginning
@Adeptus Your answer first read like you thought you were answering a 3.5e question.
And to an onlooker, you might've been doing exactly that. The whole "I get you're playing 4e and there's nothing in there, let me suggest an alternative" preface was important.
Much faster into and through. One of my games my players worked out what we wanted in the space of a couple of hours and then did character creation and then watched a movie then played the next week.
I haven't much used campaign management tools though, preferring not to like... have anything large enough I need that kind of thing.
One of the things I often struggle with is building up session and plot elements and recurring characters, and trying to keep it all together in a way that I can figure out which pieces to pick up and use as the game is going along. And then once I get a good place for that myself, I want to be able to share much but not all of it with my players and it's just hopeless.
At the moment we just record some history about what happened and if there's holes in our records, that's an opportunity to make something up.
@Grubermensch one of the solutions that's tentatively on the roadmap for Fate Looms (tentatively insofaras there might be a better way) is a concept of having multiple drawers that you can put cards into or take cards out of
like, for a certain town or faction, you might have a drawer that keeps all the cards for characters there
(this may be better solved by, say, a concept of tags, so that something can be in multiple tags as opposed to just one drawer)
the idea being some could also be hidden so just you see them
so you can just have your drawers full of GM bits you dump down on the table when you want to reveal them.
I definitely think it's interesting to think about what the best use is for the "tabletop"
Roll20 kind of has this very obvious decision to throw down a battle grid, because the games that it was designed for like that kind of tactical layouting
But in Fate, this isn't really so true, and then what should happen on the "tabletop" is murkier
I'd almost say Fate is a lot about information, and so this cards metaphor is very intriguing.
yeah. we've been working with google docs to share information. that's worked splendidly, and i only need to build on the concept of a text editor slightly before we have something powerful going on.
in an early iteration i was going to have the same thing as Power2ools (if you've used that) - cards laid out spatially, each of them full of information. This makes no sense for Fate, where (a) it's inconvenient for people with small monitors, and (b) the spatial aspect is only an unimportant artefact of the physical medium those rituals are done in.
@Grubermensch The cards metaphor comes from how many Fate systems describe the literal gametable experience: each fractal gets an index card that sits on the table where everyone can see it.
In the "smaller" iterations of Fate, we even use index cards for PC sheets: the entire game's bookkeeping can be done with fractals on cards, and some cheap plastic poker chips.
Ah I see. I've been having trouble understanding how to run limited information in my Fate game. I take it then that your method is to let the players know all the aspects from the get-go, but require the characters to work for it before that knowledge is actionable.
I also sometimes have fun by showing them aspects which have an obvious meaning... and a non-obvious meaning which will become apparent later.
But overall I find that outright hiding mechanics from players reduces fun.
Games are most exciting when the players are like the movie audience who knows the bomb is under the table, despite no one in the scene (the characters) being aware of it.
My players, at least, are eager to conspire for drama and humour. They can do it better when they know what's actually going on and orchestrate their characters into situations which the characters don't know are dramatic or humorous.
In Fate, genuine surprise and shock are found easily enough through compels and the unexpected combination of story elements, rather than through scripted reveals by the GM.
Fate's brand of surprise can, therefore, also surprise the GM.
I'm still feeling my way into the system, and I feel I probably erred in railroading my setup in the group's first session, which didn't go as well as I had hoped.
I'd probably be inclined to talk to the player and lay it out, get buy-in, perhaps even offer a Fate point for accepting the loss.
I will often tell a player "You obviously have enough Fate points to get out of this, but I think you'll have more fun if you let it happen. And I'll give you another Fate point for it."
....this once caused a PC to become mind-controlled and turn on the rest of the party.
We instead ran into this awkward problem where the thief was trying to escape, which was turning into a contest, but the initial area still had adversaries in it, so the conflict wasn't ended.
@BESW In this particular mind-control scenario: The Nestene Consciousness attempted to assert mind control over Leela. The player gathered up a hefty handful of fate points, ready to dump them down on resisting the attempt. BESW said offered them a single fate point, saying they're going to have much more fun under mind control. Player put back all the fate points, and took the extra, and Leela was mind controlled.
Later she speared the doctor and killed him under its influence, forcing him to regenerate.
This led to my attempt to split the party, and left some of the players frustrated. Also, an unclear understanding of consequences as far as how much they should impede the thief's escape (one of the PCs got a wicked shot off that forced him to take his -6 consequence). She then was frustrated that mechanically this didn't prevent him from successfully fleeing the one PC that was in the contest.
I'll pretend you're the player who wants to chase the thief.
If the other NPCs don't care/know about the thief, it may be a reasonable choice to concede that conflict, let them have something they want whilst avoiding the worst parts of failing that conflict, then running after the thief. This should have bite, and you should get fate points.
If it's someone screaming at you for a refund on a perfectly good toaster, this might involve losing it and shouting: "FINE! TAKE THIS MONEY! Now GET OUT OF MY SHOP." Lose money, lose a customer, possibly has repercussions, but thief is more important and worth the loss in the short term.
Alternate take, from the top: Instead of making it a conflict in the first place, make the whole thing a contest, with the thief's combatant friends using combat skills to create advantages and passing the free invokes to the thief's Overcome roll in the contest.
If they are trying to stop you - maybe they're guards working with the thief, or the thief is escaping into a private property and the guards don't care about the thief but do want to keep you out of those very same property - then it could be sensible to turn the escape into a contest, just like that.
Like, you're not conceding the conflict because then they'd get to stop you (maybe). You're not winning the conflict, probably, because you don't have time to properly subdue them. You're just trying to escape the conflict altogether.
Yes! Not every fight has to be modelled as a conflict, after all.
some like a boxing match might even be more suitable as something else
have a five-round challenge between two boxers, players and NPCs can spend fate points and do other stuff to help the two fighters.
For now, marbles should work pretty well and I don't need spellcasting
Problem with Grease though is that idk if anyone in the party can cast it and it will also affect me.
Hrm though I suppose getting an infinite use magic item that lets me cast grease wouldn't be that pricey...
only problem is muh action economy lol
Do you actually need a UMD check to use like command word activated items that you already know what the command is though? I've always been confused on that part.
@Dorian Pretty sure UMD is only for items your race/class usually couldn't use, eg wands & scrolls for non-casters. If it's something designed to be used by anyone, eg ring of invisibility, then it just works
Well continuous it works if it's put on, use activated it works if it's "used" in the normal fashion (for example, a magic whistle that has a use activated Silence effect for some reason, you blow it, Silence spell activates). Those I wouldn't believe need a UMD check. But say a Command activated and you don't know the command, you'd need to figure out the Command to activate it
You get a bonus if you've activated it at least once before too (presumably via UMD check and guesswork), but it doesn't say what happens if you know the Command already.
I imagine UMD being pretty much picking up a magic item and going on a list of random actions, words, and etc to guess it.
"Abracadabra! Open Sesame!" -does a stupid dance, waves hands weirdly, does a backflip, sings some lines from a children's rhyme, more nonsense words hoping to find command word-
That's kinda what I picture whenever someone makes a UMD check lmao
> Activate Blindly > Some magic items are activated by special words, thoughts, or actions. You can activate such an item as if you were using the activation word, thought, or action, even when you’re not and even if you don’t know it. You do have to perform some equivalent activity in order to make the check. That is, you must speak, wave the item around, or otherwise attempt to get it to activate. You get a special +2 bonus on your Use Magic Device check if you’ve activated the item in question at least once before. If you fail by 9 or less, you can’t activate the device. If you fail by 1…
The listed uses of UMD are: Activate blindly, Decipher a written spell, Use a scroll, Use a wand, Emulate a class feature, Emulate an ability score, Emulate a race, Emulate an alignment. So presumably, if it doesn't fall into one of those, you don't need to roll
A member of our group moved cross-country, and we'd like to include him in some of our games.
Is it feasible to play a game with some players at the table and another online? If so, how do I, as the GM, ensure everyone feels fully included and can see everything they need to see?
Or is it just ...
Just once I want a film about an android gaining sapience where it listens to the Beatles or Metallica or Ray Charles, instead of a classical orchestral or piano piece.
"Doctor, your experiments have gone too far! That monster is listening to Nickelback now!"
It kind of rubs me the wrong way when I see a question posted with a title that's not actually a (properly formatted) question.
Mild example: Pack Flanking on non Hunter Character?
Worse: Reversing AC rolls?
*cringe*: Magic Jar without a receptacle
I DM for a group of a group of rather intellectual players. They like to discuss the situations at hand and really try to do the right things. I use that a lot by posing them with moral questions and missions where the "good" solution is not always obvious or even contradicts the mission target.
...
I have a group of friends that on occasion play RPGs, but one of the players grates on the nerves of the other players in the group when gaming.
He is kind of a know it all, but without real proof. He in general ruins the experience with complaints about things that other players agree to be tri...
the quality of a duplicate question is not the details of the question, but if the answer to one question also answers the other. I know i should be able to find that
I'm currently running a 6 person World of Darkness campaign, which is heavily social based. 5 of the players I am happy with, but one of them keeps doing stupid things, such as pushing himself to the point of unconsciousness (via a curse the party are under) to prove a point, and then falling unc...
In my campaign (4th edition Dungeons & Dragons, but I've encountered the same problem in other systems) we sometimes arrive at a point where the group should make a decision, for example "should we attack or negotiate?". While some of my players would prefer to handle those decisions at a group l...
I have a good friend playing in my game, but he's done things like:
Killing NPCs which direct the story, effectively ruining the rest of the group's chances.
Spending all of his money on inane items like "appletinis" or "croissants".
Killing civilians and guards without regard for consequences....
@doppelgreener, @trogdor I'm watching The Machine, and it's sparking all sorts of ideas about flashback scenes to the early days of Dr. Light working with the newly-made Stellata.
Clearly a $10 to $300 whip is too much fluctuation, so gold clearly isn't that stable (oh my god gigantic hole logic). So invest in completely safe, stable, goats.
It just pisses me off that these rappers have so much popularity and can influence the people who listen to them and they sing about stupid stuff like how much money they have or how much booty they get.
They sing about that in the same way that country singers sing about driving their truck down back roads while drinking heavily. It's a wish fulfillment thing.
If you analyze it thoroughly, most music that's aimed at people who are below the upper middle class is pretty similar, just tuned for the specific wishes and social norms of that group.
Do you have any experience with nerdcore rap? You might like that better.
I found myself appreciating rap and hiphop more after I found some intelligent critical analysis that helped me understand the context. Also, Lupe Fiasco.
Lyrical content aside, I needed to be handheld through the technical qualities and priorities of good rap because it has a different set of variables than I'm used to listening for.
I edited this question: Does casting a spell from an item allow you to apply class abilities that are used when casting a spell? and placed a bounty. No new answers have been offered. The only person who has really made any contribution is Dyndrilliac who edited prior answers. The OP, although...
@BESW My wife is classically trained in music and a very smart person, and she's developed a taste for rap over the past decade, with a similar experience. If it's not immediately familiar to someone, it seems to often take being educated to begin to appreciate it. (I have yet to absorb this appreciation of rap from her, but it's beginning.)
anyone else think that 'meta-physics' question uses 20 words when 1 would do and is deliberately worded to sound more highbrow than it needs to be for people to understand it?
I also want to note that PvP doesn't depend on a rules-centric playstyle since there are other ways of ensuring a level and comprehensible playing field, but that's not a can of worms I want to open in the comments.
It's the last bit that really throws me: he wants players to look to rules as the framework for action, but he also wants the players to expect GM rulings to be realism-based?
That strikes me as kind of a "Do as I say, not as I do" attitude.
That reminds me; mxy posted an answer to a question recently where he explained what idiographic and nomothetic meant in words that I could clearly understand.
@BESW Darn. And I was just polishing the wording on my question about how to apply transcendental consciousness identities to homebrewing scalable kingdom management rules.
@BESW I need to read that again, a decade on and a partial-philosophy degree later. I remember it being quite enjoyable and I'd probably get even more out of it now.
I'm not against complex compound sentences; I grew up reading religious texts by someone about whom it is joked "He writes three-paragraph sentences instead of three-sentence paragraphs." But it takes a solid grasp of the language's foibles in order to even begin to cultivate an eye for potential misunderstanding and know how to edit for maximum clarity.
I actually think there might be a very short question in there, but I'm not certain my envisioned rewrite would actually mean the same thing since it's hard to tell if I'm missing important nuances from what's currently written.
I'm kinda tempted to put in a full stop at every conjunction and most commas.
I knew a guy in college whose writing style was a victim of reading a lot of Tolkien and having teachers who said, "Put a comma where you'd take a breath." It was a poor combination--especially for essay writing.
I'm thinking of **How do I teach players to play in a rules-first way?** I often like to play in a rules-centric way, where the rules are the "physics" of reality and dictate what can and cannot be true within the fiction. I especially like this for PvP games, which also need all the players to be engaging with the rules to the same degree. Sometimes though, players who seem like they might be receptive to this style of play fail to engage and maintain a fiction-first relationship to the game reality, leading to frustration for them and me.
@BESW I think he's wanting to focus on how-to-teach, which is hard to make more specific. I proposed my edit in any case; maybe that will do the trick.
Mission accomplished on the asker's side! Now to see if voters are also pleased.
A member of our group moved cross-country, and we'd like to include him in some of our games.
Is it feasible to play a game with some players at the table and another online? If so, how do I, as the GM, ensure everyone feels fully included and can see everything they need to see?
Or is it just ...
It kind of rubs me the wrong way when I see a question posted with a title that's not actually a (properly formatted) question.
Mild example: Pack Flanking on non Hunter Character?
Worse: Reversing AC rolls?
*cringe*: Magic Jar without a receptacle
I have a good friend playing in my game, but he's done things like:
Killing NPCs which direct the story, effectively ruining the rest of the group's chances.
Spending all of his money on inane items like "appletinis" or "croissants".
Killing civilians and guards without regard for consequences....
I edited this question: Does casting a spell from an item allow you to apply class abilities that are used when casting a spell? and placed a bounty. No new answers have been offered. The only person who has really made any contribution is Dyndrilliac who edited prior answers. The OP, although...
