TRPG General Chat

Miniman

00:09

@BESW Force Awakens spoilers all over the damn place.

BESW

Oh. Yeah.

BESW

03:46

A silent princess is trying to kill chess.

Tweeted by MagicRealismBot on December 23, 2015 at 3:40 AM

Miniman

@BESW Huh?

BESW

@Miniman The Magical Realism Bot is kinda awesome.

BESW

04:49

@doppelgreener Grim Jim.

BESW

05:20

Aaand added a pursuit stunt.

doppelgreener

05:47

@BESW I read "Ignore physical obstacles, but weak against metaphorical barriers" at first.

BESW

He's weak against metaphors, too.

Dogs don't do symbolism really well.

trogdor

so are you just done with Jessie?

or do you just have the same problem I do? XD

BESW

I saw a PC concept and I had to make it.

trogdor

mk

then pretty much the second one

doppelgreener

trogdor

05:51

well, I would say you are right, but I don't like how my playing multiple characters means less time for each of them

though yeah, strictly speaking making a lot of characters in itself is not a problem

but for me playing at least more than just 1 seems to come as part of the package

doppelgreener

yeah, i'm going to feel that screen time pinch with Stellata & the alchemist girl

BESW

If someone else wants to take Grim Jim for a spin, that'd be fine.

(And remember, @doppelgreener, you're free to take a turn with Jessie.)

doppelgreener

@BESW Oh yeah! \o/ I'd forgotten.

BESW

Dan says he might enjoy using Grim Jim.

BESW

06:30

The stockings were hung by the lakeside with care, In hopes the Xmas Axolotl soon would be there. https://t.co/EXuUrXdw1c

Tweeted by UrsulaV on December 23, 2015 at 6:29 AM

Pixie

07:05

Dec 3 '14 at 9:45, by Pixie

@trogdor Problem? What problem? [three more characters fall out of my coat]

2

trogdor

lol

doppelgreener

@Pixie greetings, darth pixie!

(or pixie ren? idk)

trogdor

huh

doppelgreener

@trogdor come join me in the star wars spoilerfest for such a matter, if you like

trogdor

removed that stuff just in case it is something people don't want to know

I don't know how big it is but better not to leave it there

Pixie

07:15

Avoiding spoilers for now, though not aggressively so. Happy that this chat is so good about spoilers though. xD

(I have not actually seen anything but the very first Star Wars.)

BESW

I figure we should keep it spoiler-free for about a month after the film hit the open market.

trogdor

sorry if you saw any of that that I posted up there. just a name slip but still

doppelgreener

@Pixie Be careful with the hot network questions sidebar. Apparently it's pretty prone to spoilers at the moment. (I almost wrote spone to proilers.)

Pixie

@trogdor Nothing to worry about.

I'm not overly concerned with Star Wars, and whatever significance that had was lost on me. I just appreciate the effort. xD

doppelgreener

@Pixie are you likely to see the movie?

Pixie

07:20

@doppelgreener I haven't decided yet. It's a possibility.

doppelgreener

@Pixie for me it was quite enjoyable and i enjoy the series a lot so it was nice to be able to actually see one of the movies in cinema for the first time! in the grand scheme of things, it's Just Another Movie though. 'cept one people will be talking about a lot.

BESW

We took a friend who knows almost nothing about Star Wars to see it, and she had a good time.

trogdor

she asked a lot of questions and got silly answers

Pixie

The trailers looked good, most people I know enjoyed it, and I hear that you don't really need to know much. A friend's friend was in my boat (had only seen the first), and he said she did fine. I'm a bit of a completionist, granted, but I also don't know if I care enough to watch the rest of them and might just go ahead and see it sometime anyway. :x

trogdor

that is fine

even just seeing the first one is more than enough, I think

Pixie

07:29

That's been more than 10 years, but I think I remember it well enough, especially because it's frequently reinforced by pop culture references. xD

trogdor

you will know who all but one of the old characters is (we have no idea who he is either, I suspect either Expanded universe or too minor a character for me to remember)

doppelgreener

@Pixie the original trilogy of 4-6 were very good films, so is this one. the later prequels, episodes 1-3, were largely regarded as very much not-good.

if you've never seen them, there's some popular ways to do it, like Machete Order: 4 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 6.

Pixie

@doppelgreener When I say first I mean first made, not first chronologically, I should clarify. I am definitely familiar with the reception of the two. If I do watch more, I will likely just watch them in the order they were made.

trogdor

@doppelgreener 1-3 could have been good if they had thrown out a couple things and,or executed some things better

doppelgreener

@trogdor that in general sums it up, except in a larger volume.

trogdor

07:32

as is,... they were fun at points, but they were entirely mixed bags

doppelgreener

part of the discourse of the prequel movies is about how they never needed to be the stories they were: darth vader was a part of luke's story, he didn't need his own story, is one position. alternately, they could've told wildly different stories about Anikin & Obi-wan, and that position takes the actual prequel movies as virtually unsalvagable, you'd just have an entirely different movie instead.

BESW

Personally I think the same story from a different perspective (and obviously with better writing and directing) would have made for pretty compelling film.

doppelgreener

@BESW oh yeah?

what d'you mean as the different perspective?

BESW

There's a very interesting theme buried under the story of Anakin, and it provides interesting commentary on the original trilogy.

A change in how the film was shot and what events were focused on would have unearthed that theme.

The prequels are a cautionary tale about the danger of trusting destiny over common sense.

The Jedi Council, especially Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, acted according to prophecy in defiance of common sense. Anakin grew up being told that he was a special person destined to do good things, but also kept on a tight leash and prevented from making his own choices.

The Council ignored the obvious and totally understandable ego and authority problems that cultivated.

Because... he's the Chosen One. It'll all work out.

So when someone else comes along and feeds the Chosen One narrative with a "do what you want" twist, naturally Anakin is going to bite the hook.

The prequels would have been much more interesting if they'd been about the three-way fight for Anakin Skywalker between the Sith, the Jedi, and Padme.

The story doesn't have to change, just the way it's told. It's a struggle between ego, love, and sacrifice.

The Jedi say "Sacrifice yourself for others, eschewing love and ego!" The Sith say "Sacrifice others for your self-love, indulging in your ego!" And Padme offers a way to sacrifice for love without utterly denying the ego.

doppelgreener

Those do sound like some compelling tones to set the story around.

BESW

07:46

The wars and politics would take a back seat to the struggle over Anakin, who's positioned as the lynchpin of the narrative because of the prophecy--not because it's true, but because so many people believe it.

And crucially, because Anakin believes that as the Chosen One whatever choice he makes will be the right one. He can't be wrong.

doppelgreener

I think they'd have to present a whole lot of very different things for that though. Like, for a start they never got to show grown up Anikin as a good and agreeable person, the good friend Obi-wan mentioned - or mentioned it but then contradicted it in action.

BESW

@doppelgreener Right. Again, the same story would have to be told very differently. Mostly just more competently.

And it would cast Luke's journey in a new light: Luke isn't destined for anything. He just wants adventure; he was ready to join the Empire when we first met him!

But then Obi-Wan, who contributed to Anakin's destruction by feeding the Chosen One conceit, pops in and does it again.

Obi-Wan outright lies about Luke's father and Vader, feeding him a revenge narrative to manipulate Luke into becoming his new weapon in the fight against the Empire.

He feeds Luke another "It is your destiny" line, but this time he's making it up out of whole cloth to try and fix his previous mistake and he even seems to believe his own pitch.

Then Yoda tries to support the narrative, telling Luke to stay on Dagobah to train instead of running off half-cocked to save the people he loves. They're treating him like a new Anakin and making all the same mistakes.

Luke gets the hand-chopped-off thing, starts wearing black and going all mind-control-y on people in Jabba's palace. These are parallels that the prequel has but doesn't really utilise.

doppelgreener

That's actually why Machete order exists: episode 4, then 2 and 3, then 5 and 6. It illustrates the parallels, and you see Luke going through some of the same motions.

BESW

In the prequels we learn that Obi-Wan and Yoda didn't learn anything. It's Luke's trust in his friends that ultimately wins the day (the Death Star was going boom and Vader and the Emperor were dust anyway, he trusted his friends to actually finish that most important job while he tried to save his father's soul), and the inevitable conclusion is that Anakin just needed more friends.

@doppelgreener Aye. And the films would be better if they'd actually examined those ideas.

Anakin's turn was explained but not examined; it was the outline of a compelling fall from grace, but we didn't get to see the grace or the fall as a story. More of a bullet point list.

doppelgreener

@BESW They sure tried! There's a lot of behind-the-scenes in which Lucas was acknowledging he was trying to make the films correlate and follow the same rhythm.

@BESW Yeah, we just sorta caught him at the bottom of the slippery dip.

BESW

08:09

@doppelgreener Yeeeah, so, here's the thing. There's a big difference between what happens and the story being told.

Like, we could have the same events in Roll For Shoes and Cthulhu Dark but they'd be a totally different experience.

Die Hard would be a thrilling suspense film if it were shot to never show us anything McClane didn't know about; instead it's a romping adventure film because the audience is shown more than any single character ever knows.

Lucas didn't film the prequels to fit the story he was trying to tell, despite having the raw event material.

Even "I hate sand" didn't have to be removed! It's actually a great character note, if executed properly.

doppelgreener

it was pretty awful but i could buy that if it's about him being awful at romance

I would also vote that the Sith & Jedi mottos not be what they are

because like....

BESW

Well, yes.

doppelgreener

the Sith motto resonates with me more than the Jedi one. The Sith motto's all about having the power to set oneself free of their own bonds.

BESW

I suspect another challenge Lucas faced with the prequels is that he seems to actually think the Jedi values are reasonably cool.

doppelgreener

That's a good thing! Having passion, strength and freedom is a good thing!

BESW

08:17

They're both toxic extremes, and in the prequels Padme was positioned to be the desirable moderate choice.

doppelgreener

The Jedi are just weird, unemotional, sexless, detached, and otherwise entirely unrelateable.

At least buddhist monks are happy to laugh and play pranks, and many sects of buddhism view love and romance and sexual desire as healthy things, so long as one's aware of their nature. (Though, some sects of buddhism do see sexual desire as a problem.)

BESW

@doppelgreener The trick is, the Jedi mottos are pretty starkly about what they're about. The Sith mottos are... not telling the entire story of their philosophy.

The Sith are about indulgence and egotism. Their idea of power comes at the expense of others.

doppelgreener

@BESW Right, yeah. They go too far with their motto into the twisted & evil end of things.

BESW

Jedi phrases are mantras for the initiated. Sith phrases are recruiting slogans.

3

doppelgreener

09:17

@BESW that makes sense

BESW

10:25

Today's Doctor doesn't like being called Bones. [waits for chat avatar to change]

trogdor

lol

I had that issue earlier today too,... it takes way too long T.T

BESW

10:39

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[Epimas game bundles](http://www.worldswithoutmaster.com/epimas/ "Each bundle is gifted to a friend on Christmas, too!");
[Fantastic Locations](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1298145716/sly-flourishs-fantastic-locations "Fantastic locations to drop into your fantasy roleplaying game");
[Calidar "Beyond the Skies"](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ambreville/calidar-beyond-the-skies "Calidar Compendium of the Gods").

Hah. Avatar achieved.

trogdor

nice

Derpy

You could go "meta" and use this one as an avatar someday

BESW

10:57

...hm. Dr. Honeycutt.

...is so obscure that googling him without his franchise yields no TMNT results.

Although he's more often "Professor" than "Doctor" so I may not use him anyway.

Anaphory

11:12

@Derpy Some instance of Doctor Faustus might not be bad.

Derpy

@Anaphory yep, but the joke was about using the book instead of the character :P

BESW

11:44

OH GOD WHAT TRAIN AM I ON https://t.co/gkR0hTvkYU

Tweeted by swabl on December 22, 2015 at 11:53 PM

trogdor

what a glorious error

I don't even really know what else to say honestly

I,.... just got a secret hat for some reason?

wat?

doppelgreener

@trogdor you voted!

trogdor

voted on what?

that isn't a secret hat, just voting once today got me a non secret one

I like,.. just received one that isn't on the list

doppelgreener

flip-flop is a secret hat that seems to just come from doing... something... today.

like voting.

trogdor

oh

it hasn't been awarded until today specifically?

that seems kinda odd

and what I did most recently was post something

I voted a while ago

unless UTC just turned over and you mean the day after the one I am thinking of? XD

Derpy

11:59

@doppelgreener today?? Wasn't it supposed to be a 22 December only thing?

doppelgreener

@Derpy this year, Winterbash days seem to go for ~48 hours, i.e. 24 hours either side of what UTC thinks, so as to give people more of a chance.

trogdor

ooooh

that seems pretty nice actually

Derpy

@doppelgreener 48? strange. All the others seemed to be +12/-12 UTC

trogdor

one of them is even listed as that

+12/-12 I mean

eimyr

BEHOLD THE HIPSTER CTHULHU

BESW

12:06

I counter with Rastathulhu.

eimyr

fhtagn.

trogdor

nice

that one fits pretty well too

oh,.. and this one I just got comes in several different colors,.. seemingly just one different one for everyone

how odd

some people got blue (like I did) and some got white,..

I wonder how that is decided

Derpy

Random.

No more than random

trogdor

ah

eimyr

blue and black, white and gold...

Derpy

12:13

Pops told that to me (in a pretty direct way...)

in David's hat store, yesterday, by Pops

@Derpy The downside of me staying up so late is that I get up late, too. And then it takes a while after I get up before I get around to checking this room. To answer your question, technically, yes, there is a rule for Flip Flop color, but it's not based on anything you can see. So you might as well stop guessing, or if you insist on continuing, you should at least stop looking for data, in that particular instance.

Anaphory

I'm still disappointed the hat colour depends on the user who has the hat and not the user who looks at the hat, given the reference.

doppelgreener

@Anaphory ha! that would be fantastic

trogdor

I have no idea what it is referencing

Derpy

@Anaphory Had also hinted that.

doppelgreener

The dress (viral phenomenon)

The dress, also known as Dressgate and associated with the hashtags #thedress, #whiteandgold, and #blackandblue, is a viral photo and meme which became popular on 26 February 2015. The meme originated from a washed-out photograph of a dress posted on the social networking service Tumblr, and a dispute over whether the dress pictured was blue and black, or white and gold. In the first week after the surfacing of the image alone, more than 10 million tweets mentioned the dress. Although the dress colour was confirmed to be blue and black, the image prompted discussions surrounding the matter across...

Anaphory

12:20

@trogdor knowyourmeme.com/memes/thedress-what-color-is-this-dress

doppelgreener

This white-balance illusion hit so hard because it felt like someone had been playing through the Monty Hall scenario and opened their chosen door, only to find there was unexpectedly disagreement over whether the thing they'd revealed was a goat or a car.

trogdor

huh

people will argue over the strangest things

Derpy

Yep, they surely will.

trogdor

then again, I could see people actually seeing different colors on it,.. but arguing so strenuously over it still seems strange

doppelgreener

@trogdor well, imagine if a large portion of the MLP fan population was convinced that rainbow dash was white, not blue

trogdor

12:32

yeah but, some people see color differently

doppelgreener

people wouldn't necessarily argue but imagine calling your housemate into the room to say "help me settle this, she's blue, right?" "uh who? that one looks white"

BESW

Temperamentally, it's Someone is Wrong on the Internet.

Culturally, it's about perspective and the ability to believe you might not have the whole picture.

When faced with a differing idea about something we believe to be objectively true, a lot of people are conditioned to automatically reject it: things incompatible with their worldview simply aren't possible, so there's no need to investigate such claims.

People who don't understand how ambient lighting affects our perception of colour generally don't know they don't understand it, so for a subset of those people who also are conditioned to reject what they don't understand... the idea that a dress can look a colour it's not--much less that some other people will be able to tell what colour it would appear under "neutral" lighting--is simply not compatible with their understanding of the world. Thus it is wrong.

It's a kind of learned belligerent incuriosity.

We see it all the time, but the dress blew up because it wasn't particular to a specific interest or subculture, nor was it one of the hot-button topics that most people learn to avoid arguing about.

It was such a big thing precisely because it seemed so innocuous and simple that the red flags for "do not engage" or "you're missing some context" never raised.

trogdor

12:51

that sounds almost insidious

doppelgreener

trogdor

lol

gold star my friend you win all the internets

BESW

@doppelgreener ...what does that nice senator have to do with anything?

doppelgreener

@BESW palpatine's behind it all

BESW

And yes, belligerent incuriosity is insidious.

We see it on RPG.SE when, eg, someone engages with an Apocalypse World question as if it were D&D and tells the querent how they're doing things wrong (instead of taking the divergence from D&D behaviours as a sign that they're missing something about the context).

doppelgreener

13:01

@BESW that's a remarkably apt choice of comparison

given D&D's culture also lends itself to its players thinking there couldn't possibly be another way for RPGs to work

BESW

"You're saying something that doesn't fit how I think things work, therefore you are wrong."

Derpy

13:15

@doppelgreener very bad example.

Super / Ascended Rainbow Dash is indeed white.

doppelgreener

what do you mean, she looks blue to me ???

trogdor

lol

yeah she doesn't look any different to me either

I still see a rainbow

Derpy

Like I wasn't expecting this reply...

Well played, @doppelgreener, well played.

Aaron

@Derpy That actually looks pretty cool

doppelgreener

@Aaron i agree

Derpy

13:22

Probably, it was all caused from the Sonic/Tails <-> Rainbow Dash/Scootaloo comparison many made.

You have Super Sonic, the fandom made Super Dash.

doppelgreener

@Derpy that's a pretty great creation, i like it

trogdor

it is pretty cool

I used to like Sonic too,.... but over time I couldn't get over all the horrid games

Anaphory

Trying to translate some character sheets and playbooks to German: Why is English so much shorter than German, in particular – it feels – in Medieval/Fantasy vocabulary? (Armor vs. Rüstung, Lore vs. Überlieferung, Fatigue vs. Erschöpfung, Ally vs. Verbündeter, etc.)

Derpy

@trogdor be thankful, you could be a Megaman fan.

doppelgreener

13:37

@Anaphory i see this in magic card name translations

trogdor

@Derpy that probably wouldn't help the situation

doppelgreener

"Angriffslustiger Peitschenschwanz" vs "Belligerant Whiptail"

(one of those words is about as long as the full English name)

Derpy

^ ?

Anaphory

Plus, declension. Even if German had cognates in those meaning slots, it would still be „Belligerenter Wippenzagel“ or something like that, costing a few letters.

doppelgreener

i guess there are advantages to the fact English was crafted from the combination of many different languages; our forebears picked the words people could bother writing and saying

Anaphory

13:46

@Derpy Tutor does exist but does not have the same connotations, but the previous resentment still applies.

Derpy

@Anaphory ok, what about this then?

doppelgreener

@Derpy "Demonic Tutor" in English, for those curious.

Derpy

If you were arguing about the length of the text, then this is better. The rules on the English version of the card are far shorter.

I can understand why it may be a problem, but I think that goes with whatever translation.

Sometime it can be worse.

Think of Japanese, not having a clear gender/number distinction in many situations.

Anaphory

True. And if I were doing this more often, I would have a better feeling for alternative phrasings that might shorten it again.

doppelgreener

@Derpy Clone, original version, again for those curious

Derpy

13:56

@Anaphory It is not uncommon for manga localization to interfere wrong gender for characters that were just referenced but not yet shown.

Anaphory

I can see that.

@Derpy Some reordering and grammaticalisation has happened. The German text could have been made shorter if necessary.

But even then, not by a third.

Shalvenay

14:39

hey @eimyr

Joshua Aslan Smith

15:16

old mtg art lol

@Anaphory there is a distinct lack of Deutsche newpaper style compound words and portmanteaus

Anaphory

„Originalkreatur“?

The only one I see.

Joshua Aslan Smith

right

Anaphory

Anyway, I have now finished translating the front page of the Torchbearer character sheets.

Joshua Aslan Smith

Freundschaftsbezeigungen

indeed

nitsua60

15:39

hey @Shalvenay

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 hey there, how're things going?

doppelgreener

@JoshuaAslanSmith I'm just now reminded of something I learned in high school during german class: german is one of the world's only modular languages (or the only?), wherein you can just indefinitely combine words onto each other. The result is considered just one word, but it could be the equivalent of a full English sentence.

nitsua60

good--lots of wrapping and santa's workshop-ping going on these days. Three little ones at home, and they all want to "make" things for mommy for Christmas =P

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 ah :D setting up to work on a project myself

Anaphory

@doppelgreener Getting verb meanings in there is hard, and it's not really practical for most purposes, but yes, it's done to shorten things. Such that the short title for the „Gesetz zur Übertragung der Aufgaben für die Überwachung der Rinderkennzeichnung und Rindfleischetikettierung“ (which contains some compounds already, and means “Law on delegation of duties for supervision of cattle marking and beef labeling”) became one word expressing all of that.

„Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz”, recognised as the longest word in German use.

Normally we stop at, like, four components or earlier. Legalese is the exception.

And it's not as if llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is that much shorter.

Derpy

15:58

@Anaphory Is this one Gaelic?

I recognize the "Goch" at the end.

Anaphory

@Derpy It's the name of a famous railway station in Wales.

(Famous nearly exclusively for the name, which was IIRC invented for tourism reasons)

doppelgreener

Liam Dutton nails pronouncing Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

►

Joshua Aslan Smith

Unfounded anthropological reason is my head for German compounds are kennings

Derpy

If the spelling is actually right, this man deserves a prize.

Anaphory

@JoshuaAslanSmith What do you want to say?

doppelgreener

16:20

@Derpy there are some comments that suggest he got it right

like someone saying: "I am a Finn who has no connection to Wales, but I can still pronounce this correctly. After reading some of the comments, I feel like a superhero."

Axoren

17:33

Is it just me? Or does anyone else hate the number font in on RPG.SE? Small numbers and 0s that look like Os.

Anaphory

17:47

@Axoren I like old-style figures.

Sometimes, I even use OSFs in my hand writing...

Dorian

20:28

I have a decision to make regarding a campaign world I'm creating where flight is at the very least common among people with power.

Is there some sort of special solid substance that either levitates or has immense fuel potential (a la many sky pirate media)? Or is it some sort of ambient energy within the world causing things to fly (a la eureka 7 or something)? Or perhaps some sort of fluctuational gravity? Maybe massive portions of the world are extremely hazardous to travel through no matter the safety precautions so flying over or traveling around are your best bet? Or is the reason something else entirely?

A buddy of mine recommended something like sonic&knuckles, rocks that when heated or powered naturally levitate/antigrav.

Anaphory

20:49

@Dorian Not all these ideas are created equal, the last is not really a reason (unless you go really deep into evolutionarily re-inventing life forms and danger)

Fluctuational gravity is either very hard to pull off (hard-scifi-wise) or nouthing much different from “some sort of ambient energy”.

So, from the physics, your options seem to boil down to something that feels like buoyancy vs. something that feels like upward thrust.

(plus maybe something that feels like gliding/winged things).

These can possibly even be combined (Winged peoples and floating rocks?)

Dorian

The last bit was evolutionary for the most part.

Anaphory

What are the assumptions you start from?

Dorian

And there are going to be winged races and such and many people with wings for little reason

This is basically a Pathfinder game based on the idea of getting trapped in an MMO. Since most of the PCs have easy access to mundane flight at level 1 so far I've decided to make it a world theme kinda thing.

Going with a normal landmass based world but with possibly floating islands as well.

Anaphory

Ah. Floating islands are shiny :)

Dorian

There are plenty of "grounded" races, but flight will be a common means of travel, about as common as horse and buggy in medieval worlds. Not exactly expensive but not free either.

Personal flight is a bit of a rarity though, and only the races born with it (which usually has limitations), powerful magic users (also some restrictions and limitations), and rich people (usually via magic) will have it.

Aside from the "Adventurers" of course.

I'm differentiating between "Natives" (aka People of the Land for now) and "Adventurers" (aka gamers that are trapped in the MMO).

Anaphory

21:01

“You get the Flight power at the end of Tutorialville”?

Dorian

Adventurers would all have access to personal flight rather easily. Even builds that normally wouldn't get flight at all (or until a later level) will have some form of personal (albeit somewhat limited) flight.

Somewhat along the lines of Sword Art Online s2

While investing in it either by magic or by way of feats, level progression, or racial choices or something will get you much better flight.

I'll likely even create a handful of homebrew feats to buff the "free flight" ability for builds that wouldn't come anywhere near flight.

I'm going to fluff these wings as some sort of divine power or something I think.

Something that can't be cut off without altering the fundamental nature of the world itself.

Anaphory

The most unconventional setting (as in, I've seen the concept only there and not in many other places) I've encountered is Lady Blackbird's, where Space is breathable, and there's a lot of tiny to small planet things floating around a “star” in the middle.

Dorian

I decided against the "no stable landmass" type of setting, though that does sound like a good one.

BESW

@Dorian Sails Full of Stars features anti-gravity rocks, super-efficient fuel, an ore that's explosive as both powder and oil, and rheoresistant cloth.

The setting isn't designed for personal flight, but rather for interplanetary sailing, but those materials are the standard tropes for what you're describing.

Anaphory

@Dorian You could wrap that all inside a hollow earth, and have the stable landmass on the outside ;)

Dorian

21:12

@BESW So wait, that rock does all of that at once? o.o

BESW

(Actually, several of the Fate Worlds might be interesting reference. Three Rocketeers, for example.)

Dorian

@Anaphory And that would be... confusing at best. I have a lot of stuff to figure out ontop of this, especially considering I kinda haven't run a game in a long time and this is a game where CR is about as meaningless as the phase of the moon on the day we play.

Anaphory

@Dorian I was not really trying to be serious there.

BESW

@Dorian No, lunite is anti-gravity; phlogiston is a super-efficient fuel gas; prometheum is a powder/oil used for artillery and firearms propellant; rheosilk is used for spaceship sails.

Dorian

@BESW Ooh alright. Well, the idea I was told that the rocks themselves are antigrav but only when heated or powered (so hooked up to a battery or with some sort of heatsource or something). Considering this is Pathfinder and an MMORPG type setting I'm leaning towards a bit of a Gaslamp Fantasy (manapunk/steampunk/mild sci-fi/high fantasy) type of setup. Guns Everywhere is a thing too

BESW

21:17

(Sails is an "Age of Exploration" magipunk AU, which means the international struggle over controlling sources of vital goods is an important part of the narrative. So they provide vital goods that tie into the core of the conceit.)

Sails uses lunite to make you/your craft weightless, and then uses phlogiston or rheosilk (depending on whether you're in an atmosphere or not) to move around.

Dorian

@BESW Ah, well then I won't need much of the other fuel sources. The weightless bit is good enough lol

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