TRPG General Chat

Althis

00:15

@Sandwich Shall I start stocking for permafrost, then?

Sandwich

@Althis Here's hoping!

Althis

Says you, @Sandwich. Honestly, of all apocalyptic scenarios, Day After Tomorrow is not my favorite one.

That would probably be "Magic is Back".

Followed by "Kitten Overlords".

Sandwich

Magic is back is great

Kitten overlords would probably be awful

Because cats are lazy and we'd be forced to do all of the work

Althis

The thing to realize about Kitten Overlords, is that it has pretty much happened already.

Not much would really change.

BESW

trogdor

00:25

@BESW I am living this right now

Althis

@BESW U s, o,[trddrf nu uoit sno;oyu yp gomf tr;rbsmy [ovyitrd

Dang it. My hands were slightly misplaced...

Lets try that again...

@BESW I am impressed by your ability to find relevant pictures

for whatever the outrageous topic we are currently discussing.,

trogdor

you are not the first person to say that

Althis

@trogdor You are playing Warkitten 9K?

trogdor

well, I am watching 2 different houses with cats in them

Althis

@trogdor But I bet I am the first person to say that, except one letter to the left!

trogdor

00:31

cleaning litter and feeding them and such

Althis

@trogdor You mean... you are doing a stake out?

trogdor

yeah sure

we can go with that

Althis

...

I am not sure I want to know more about this.

trogdor

lol

Althis

I might get tangled with some serious interpol business.

I will have to change cities, get a new identity and grow my mustache.

Again...

trogdor

00:33

I doubt Interpol does much around here

Althis

So, you are with "the other side" then...

trogdor

if anyone other than the local authorities shows up it is generally the FBI

I am not, in fact

Althis

And there we go with too much knowledge again!

I will go back to loading 10 hours of Nyan Cat and staring at it very intently.

trogdor

fine by me

don't let that change you too much XD

Althis

Just so no more confidential information can enter my brain, and hopefully the confidential information already inside can have it's chance to turn to mush.

If you organization ever need to erase the records.

Please warn them that I have already been very thorough with erasing myself.

trogdor

00:36

I don't think that will influence them much :P

Althis

And if another organization finds the need to erase your organization, please confide to them that I simply do not exist as they erase yourself.

trogdor

01:09

I find all of that hard to believe as a plausible power play

my organization is not worth that kind of work XD

Shalvenay

01:43

10

Q: How to distinguish between arcane and divine spellcasters?

I'm making a setting where there's a large cultural importance placed on whether you're a divine or arcane caster. I was wondering if detect magic (or any other plausible and simple method) could determine whether the caster in question is divine or arcane without them having cast a spell first. ...

I'm rather surprised that it seems nobody has taken note of the comment I left on that question -- because arcane/divine multiclass spellcasters certainly exist!

Miniman

01:56

@Shalvenay Well, you did leave it 9 months after the last activity on that question.

Pixie

Magician

6

Althis

02:30

Man vs Dice made me laugh.

doppelgreener

02:45

@Pixie this dog is probably feeling the way people feel when a cat is resting on them.

"cannot... move... tell food-person I loved them."

Althis

@doppelgreener Except cats know no such concept as love.

doppelgreener

@Althis ok, so the dog is more comforted because the birds probably love him and will even fly away so he can go eat something?

Althis

Either that or they will become food.

trogdor

lol

Sandwich

03:11

Lol

Man vs. Dice

That's good

Althis

I know, right?!

So true!

Sandwich

Especially with my luck

1d6

Dice Service

•

Althis

Specially with your luck.

Sandwich

I haven't rolled above a three in like five days of doing that

doppelgreener

03:12

do it one more time

Althis

You know, someone who consistently rolls badly, can at least find solace in their on consistency.

doppelgreener

@Althis someone who was once in BESW and trogdor's group rolled so poorly so consistently they made him a lazy warlord/shaman who never had to roll and just granted other people actions.

BESW

13

A: How to help players who roll really badly?

Talk to the players. There are mechanics and practices you can use to soften this up, but randomization will inevitably lead to occasional failure. I've got some links at the bottom of this post that you might be able to use in specific situations, but ultimately this is just a hazard of the dic...

Sandwich

1d

Dice Service

•

Sandwich

03:16

Should I do it again or is that not enough proof

I would be a god among men in a "Lowest die wins" kind of game

doppelgreener

XD

@BESW What was that Hammer Rhythm exploit?

Althis

That is some serious mojo up there.

doppelgreener

Was that Kamola?

BESW

No, Hammer Rhythm was BBS's brainchild when I asked for help designing a one-shot PC for Kamola's character.

Hammer Rhythm lets you deal damage on a miss.

Brian stacked "when you deal damage" bonuses to damage rather than "when you hit with an attack" bonuses to damage.

I can't remember all the details--might be able to dig it up.

But basically it didn't matter if you hit or missed, you were dealing the same damage either way.

Althis

@Sandwich I don't think you understand the Curse of Rolling Badly.

Sandwich

03:28

How do you figure?

Althis

@BESW, that makes a lot more sense in my opinion.

BESW

Basically he just rolled to check for critical hits.

Oh, and if he hit, his future attacks dealt more damage until the end of his next turn.

And he was attacking several times a turn.

Althis

@Sandwich As stated by it's originators aeons ago, the curse affects those who find luck in love, by making them always roll badly in dice games.

Not low. Badly.

Sandwich

I don't have any luck in love though

doppelgreener

@BESW This is beautiful.

Althis

03:30

@BESW Did this effect lower the anticipation for each roll?

Speaking psychologically, there might be games where you might want to keep high anxiety.

BESW

@Althis Rather, but it sped things up and the point was that he didn't want to have his rolls matter.

He specifically requested a character where bad rolls didn't matter.

Althis

@BESW The rolls still kinda matter because of what you said about attacking several times, though, right?

doppelgreener

The point was to have the results of the rolls not matter, because they would usually be bad.

BESW

Well.

He used an at-will which had him roll the same attack three times. If no attack hit, he dealt damage because of Hammer Rhythm. If one attack hit, he dealt damage because he hit. If two or more attacks hit, the target also fell prone.

[looking it up now]

Althis

Hm... Before this goes much further, which system are we in, again?

trogdor

03:34

4E

BESW

Hmm. It's looking different than I remembered, but I can't look up all the details in the Compendium anymore.

Althis

Ok.

It seems like a wonderful idea for a system.

I would love to use it some time.

BESW

So here's how I'm reading it:

Althis

But I can see where it would fail.

Not that there is any problem with that.

BESW

He rolled three times for the same attack. If all three missed, he dealt Con mod radiant damage because of a feat. If one attack hit, he dealt Con mod radiant damage because it was a hit and the target gained vulnerability 10 radiant until the end of his next turn and he gained temp hp. If two or more attacks hit, he also knocked the target prone. If the target granted combat advantage, bonus damage.

He ignored resistance on target he'd marked, dealt AoE radiant damage (with bonus damage) when he used certain utility powers, and was generally amusing.

And generally stacked bonuses to radiant damage so all of that was awesome.

But the damage thing--because his at-will traded damage dice for "roll three times," his miss damage and his hit damage were the same.

So it was "roll 3d20 and check if extra awesome happens."

Sandwich

04:16

Sounds like pretty cool mechonics

He'd get to challenjour for sure

doppelgreener

I'm suddenly wondering what diceless RPG combat looks like.

I know there are plenty of diceless systems. Savage Worlds uses cards from what I can recall, and I imagine you can do that easily - play a card to say what your result is, then draw a card. Make sure you use low cards sometimes, because otherwise you'll eventually just have a hand full of low cards when you need high cards most, but you get to choose when the low cards happen.

trogdor

@doppelgreener that sounds refreshing

you are guaranteed to get a certain number of high and low and can choose when to use each?

that is pretty cool

doppelgreener

Dungeon World makes dice matter less because you generally succeed at what you're doing, but it's a question of whether certain other desirable or undesirable extra effects do or do not happen.

trogdor

that being said

doppelgreener

@trogdor I am not sure if what I described is what Savage Worlds does, but that's a viable way to handle it! And I can imagine various buffs and debuffs playing around with peoples' hands.

trogdor

04:22

I do still think I prefer Fudge dice mixed with the Fate Point economy

I have seen no system I like outright better, at the very least

not too many that are even as good for what I want balance wise

doppelgreener

- Discard your lowest card, draw two more.
- Give a card of your choice to a player of your choice. Draw one more.
- Another player (not you) may discard a card and draw another.
- Pick a character. Their player discards their highest card.
- Take a card from someone's hand.

trogdor

4E was ok, in some ways, but it still used D20 rolls,... and there were certainly broken builds in it

@doppelgreener neat

doppelgreener

(just some thoughts on what you could do. penny arcade's artist created a game that had the concept of 'wound' cards which are just dead cards, and healers were there to let you discard them from your hand or even to remove them from your deck.)

trogdor

ah I see

I saw a game that was like that to a degree

there were wound cards and everyone was buying cards, half the cards were basically more purchasing power and the other half were "hitting strength"

but you could get wound cards, which were ususally bad unless you had certain cards that could not only let you discard them but also cards that gave you a bonus for having them

it had a Marvel theme and you were basically playing Sheild, but that was really just a theme

it would not have made a huge difference if a different theme was there really

unless you are just a huge Marvel fan, which now a days is not a far fetched thing to be fair

seeing as most Marvel films (not counting the Fanatstic Flops) are pretty good right now

and probably not counting most Spiderman stuff either to be honest

the X-men stuff is hit or miss, but not all bad either

BESW

04:45

For your amusement, a phrase without context:

Nigel the Anti-Gravity Ferret.

Grubermensch

04:56

Legendary: Markiplier, Allie Brosh, and Brea Grant join Wil Wheaton on Tabletop!

►

^ This is the game @trogdor was remembering.

trogdor

@Grubermensch correct sir

have a cookie

Grubermensch

Om nom nom

Althis

I've played Legendary.

Dominion is better.

trogdor

I am not here to debate that

it was just a game I remembered that had similar mechanics relevant to the conversation at the time

Dominion doesn't have wound cards, as far as I know at least

doppelgreener

Hmm. There's also the idea of eliminating the idea of success, but introducing variance in what moves are available to you at a time. (Also cards. But that's MTG. But that might be viable for something in an RPG.)

BESW

05:10

Do-PotFT does that straight-up as its primary mechanic.

doppelgreener

Oh yeah!

BESW

And MLWM has an "endgame" trigger condition before which endgame actions are unavailable.

And I think technically Apocalypse World works the same way?

doppelgreener

Apocalypse World and Dungeon World work on the same system.

You roll, results determine whether good/bad extra stuff happens, but in general you are successful.

BESW

Specifically the "moves available to you" thing, I mean.

doppelgreener

Oh! In a sense. Your character has a moveset. Anything you do needs to be funnelled through that moveset.

BESW

05:14

As I understand it, *World basically says "moves are unavailable until the narration makes one mandatory."

Althis

@trogdor It does actually. It is called Curse. But it requires you to play with cards that can curse in the stack.

trogdor

well,.. curse is different from wounds

doesn't curse have absolutely no good application for the person who has it?

you just have to try to discard it, if I recall

Althis

There are some cards in expansions that redirect curses.

That is something terrible about most deckbuilding games, though.

Your experience will vary greatly depending on which expansions you are using.

Mice & Mystics Pt. 1: Anne Wheaton, Ryan Wheaton, and Nolan Kopp join Wil Wheaton on Tabletop!

►

This idea of RPG in a box is SO INTRIGUING!

doppelgreener

05:36

@BESW Yes. From what I understand, in DW you narrate your character and your narration may trigger a move. So your available options are limited by the narrative.

BESW

Including the option of not using a mechanic.

I think the narrative can force you to use a mechanic even if you don't want to.

Althis

The rule in DW is that the players must be attentive and call for the move.

And the GM as well, of course.

But in my experience, it is often missed, perhaps because most actions are not decisive enough for anyone at the table to care.

If we caught all necessary rolls, we would be playing a lot less, for a lot longer.

doppelgreener

I seeeeeeeeeee! [grows a beard in order to stroke it]

Althis

A penny for your ponderings, sir.

doppelgreener

Thank you.

BESW

05:49

Hmm. I thought the purpose of moves in *World was to enforce choices mattering.

Althis

You can call moves for a lot of things, though.

And some are very subjective.

Saga of The Icelanders was absolutely plagued by this.

BESW

[steals @doppelgreener's stroking-beard]

doppelgreener

@BESW [replaces it with another, slightly less fabulous one]

Althis

Stroking-beard is not a great name for a band, but I would totally wear one as a hat.

doppelgreener

A winterbash hat: a beard for stroking.

trogdor

06:02

lol

Althis

I would just like to point out something.

A beard hat, is a different thing than a hat beard.

Both, though, actually exist:

BESW

@doppelgreener Not to be confused with a beard for smoking.

doppelgreener

@BESW Absolutely. Black Beard must have had one heck of a beard.

Althis

I wonder if he laced his beard with anything prior to smoking it.

BESW

> fuses made of hemp cord about the thickness of a pencil and dipped in a solution of saltpeter and lime water.

Althis

06:08

There you go again with the most outrageous quotes, sir.

Where do you even find such things?!

Pixie

It's great for your image, but killer end damage!

BESW

That one's from a Wikipedia citation.

Althis

@Pixie I am supposing you mean the beard hat.

Not to be confused with a bird hat.

Pixie

Nope, the burning fuses right next to your beard hair.

(I can't see Black Beard being concerned about heat damage and split ends, but I am, gosh darn it.)

Althis

I do actually believe Black Beard was the kind of person to be really concerned about his image.

Pixie

06:13

Looking like a spooky demon probably trumps splits in this case.

Althis

Exactly.

BESW

I'm going to copy out of my physical edition of A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates.

Althis

Also, the smell of burnt hair and/or flesh might be an even stronger motivator!

BESW

> This beard was black, which he suffered to grow of an extravagant length; as to breadth it came up to his eyes. He was accustomed to twist it with ribbons, in small tails, after the manner of our ramilies wigs, and turn them about his ears.
In time of action, he wore a sling over his shoulders with three brace of pistols hanging in holsters like bandaliers, and stuck lighted matches under his hat, which, appearing on each side of his face, his eyes naturally looking fierce and wild, made him altogether such a figure, that imagination cannot form an idea of a fury, from hell, to look more …

Althis

How long did a match use to take to burn out?

BESW

06:17

Probably he was using fuses rather than matches, but matches come in many different lengths and compositions.

Althis

Because either his visage of demon from the depths of hell was very brief, or he actually had a hireling carrying substitute matches and/or fuses in his stead.

BESW

Slow-burning fuses seem most likely.

A General History of Pyrates is great reading, and well-researched for its time, but not really... rigorous.

Althis

I would honestly find it a bit amusing if so.

Because it would look about as ridiculous as a man attaching birthday candles to his hat.

BESW

I have a 1998 reprint of the 1925 third edition of the first volume, which includes the biography of Captain Kidd that was originally in the 1726 second volume.

Althis

Hey.

What do you call those candles that look like incense sticks?

BESW

06:23

...incense sticks?

Althis

BESW

Looks like incense to me.

Althis

There are some candles you put on birthday cakes that are just like them.

But they sparkle, like fuses.

BESW

Oh. Sparklers.

Althis

Or fireworks.

Ah.

BESW

06:25

Sparkler

A sparkler is a type of hand-held firework that burns slowly while emitting colored flames, sparks, and other effects. In the United Kingdom, a sparkler is often used by children at bonfire and fireworks displays on Guy Fawkes Night, the fifth of November, and in the United States on Independence Day (United States). It is called as Phool Jhadi in India and is popular during Diwali festival. == History == Although the history of the invention of the sparkler has not been elucidated, some sources report that the very first sparkler was called a Cherosiphon and it was invented in AD 670 by a citizen...

Althis

...

Makes sense...

Anyway. I just could not respect some one wearing those in his hat.

I would die at his hands, if not from laughter first.

BESW

06:36

Given the confusion about what, exactly, he used, I suspect the effect was more like "OMG that pirate's HAIR IS ON FIRE and he doesn't care!"

It's a similar intimidation tactic to entering battle nude and blue.

Althis

How did he even grow beard fast enough for that to stop being a self defeating exercise?

Pixie

If he doesn't care that he's on fire, what can you do to him that's going to faze him?

Althis

Even if he only raided once a month, beard burns real quick!

BESW

He didn't.

Pixie

That's the point of using hemp fuses.

BESW

06:38

He used fuses or matches to make it look like his beard was on fire.

Pixie

Granted, there's still some risk there. And probably heat damage! But done as intended, it should not catch the beard itself on fire.

Althis

So his beard never actually caught on fire?

From my experience hair is really flammable.

BESW

"Never"? [shrug] How would we know?

Althis

I cannot fathom what he used on it to protect it.

I also imagine spilled grog and bad hygiene would make it an even more risky endeavor!

BESW

Maybe he just went into battle with wet hair.

Althis

06:40

Good idea.

BESW

Remember, history is not a matter of fact; it's a matter of analytical consideration of available sources, with a mind to their limitations and bias.

Althis

I just like imagining the little facts of these peoples lives.

Like:"How to properly set your beard on fire for maximum effect".

Pixie

The fuses are also specifically slow-burning ones. Stick them out from the hair, get things over with quickly enough, and the flame may not ever make it to a point of contact with the hair. But this is all conjecture.

BESW

You'll notice that the most close-to-contemporary illustrations of Teach with his beard aflame illustrate that.

Pixie

(I find this one kind of hilarious because it makes him look like Pippi Longstocking but with fire.)

BESW

06:44

(Also worth remembering, most of the people writing about Teach, and the people studying those writings, aren't hairdressers. It'd be very easy for them to miss something quite simple about his hairstyle choices and come up with a very wrong interpretation as a result of their ignorance.)

Althis

@Pixie It kinda does, doesn't it?

BESW

Speaking of which, @Pixie, are you the one who was going to try some of those historical hairstyles?

Pixie

@BESW Me? Oh, noooo. I am so bad at doing hair. I can't even put my hair in a bun most of the time.

BESW

Some of them looked super easy.

There's one that actually starts, "This works best if your hair is a mess with lots of bad ends."

And then it's just tying your hair across the top of your head.

Pixie

Link them again? But... even those are likely beyond my capability. xD

BESW

06:49

Janet Stephens, hairstyle archaeologist.

"Aphrodite knot"

►

Pixie

Okay, yes. This would end only in tangles and tears.

I would love to try it, but it would require a second person for sure. xD

BESW

Most of those hairstyles are for thick, curly hair, or I'd be even more tempted to grow my hair out again, just to try them.

Pixie

They would suit my hair type rather well. I am just really, laughably bad at this. There are only four styles in my repertoire: brush it and let it do whatever, ponytail, pigtails, and plaited pigtails.

I can't do a braid behind my head because I can't see what I'm doing and it comes out sideways.

Oxinabox

So I've started thinking again about my conversion of Sanderson's Stormlight Archieve to the Mistborn system.
I'm happy as one of the hugely broken things is now balanced after my work yestrday. (I rebalanced Shardplate to work like kolossblooeded in Alloy of Law).

BESW

I don't know what that means, but it sounds good, so grats!

Pixie

07:05

@BESW Looking at that style in particular, you would probably be able to do it just fine with straighter, finer hair, especially if you teased it and curled it after. Others would depend.

BESW

Once the overall length passes my jawline, the last two or three inches of my hair get aggressively curly. Everything above that is just barely wavey.

And it's very very thin and fine.

Pixie

The fineness could pose a bit of a problem, but that style in particular would probably still work. It just wouldn't be as nice and fluffy without work. Not having curls isn't a problem at all unless it won't hold a curl, which is a much more difficult problem to work around.

BESW

I do frizz really easily.

Pixie

Frizz... [shakes fist]

Pixie

07:38

This is still a very common type of bun. We just call hair bodkins hair sticks instead.

(Or use chopsticks or pencils.)

Althis

Hey.

I was watching the new episode of Tabletop.

Finding the Portal | Chapter 8 | TITANSGRAVE

►

And this is actually pretty good.

Pixie

Wait, Yuri Lowenthal? Nice. xD

Althis

Am I supposed to know him?

His character is pretty amusing.

Pixie

He's a voice actor.

Althis

He does have a great voice.

trogdor

07:50

@Pixie they have a lot of amazing and surprising (surprising as in that they are there) people on the show

Althis

This show makes me wish all other RPGs on youtube had such production values.

It is a doozy to watch. like listening to an audiobook or radio novel.

And they have great artist doing depictions of scenes.

Pixie

Yeah, lots of work went into this.

trogdor

also, they make rule mistakes sometimes, but they almost always fix it in post

Althis

I haven't read the sourcebook for this RPG.

But if you say so, I believe you.

trogdor

I mean in general

not for this specific one

Althis

07:53

Wheaton's GMing is kinda scripted.

But it works wonderfully on this instance.

And players seem to be enjoying themselves a lot.

I am not sure how much is edited out, though.

Might be a lot.

trogdor

I am pretty sure they edit out a lot most of the time

some games they play, I am absolutely sure they are skipping at least an hour of game time overall

Althis

I am talking more about Titansgrave itself.

trogdor

ah

I didn't watch that one yet

Althis

It is good.

trogdor

usually they make some indication that they are skipping something

they don't say how much they are skipping

Althis

07:57

Yeah. Not on Titansgrave.

And I can't know for sure if they are skipping a lot, or if the game plays that well.

I would expect a lot more downtime.

trogdor

I think they tend to aggressively skip down time in the show

just something I think based off of what I have watched from them

especially since I have played some of the games I watch, and those games definitely take longer than they show on average

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