TRPG General Chat

Adeptus

00:02

@BESW Beauty is in the eye of the bee-holder

3

Miniman

00:33

@BESW This just became one of my all-time favourite facts.

Miniman

02:12

@Adeptus Much shilling. Very self-promotion. Wow.

nitsua60

02:24

is there any way to search your own comments? I've had an answer accepted after 4 minutes, and need to re-post a friendly reminder that it's not insane to wait, say, hours to accept. (If not days.) But I find that comment gets a little less friendly each time I have to re-craft it, and I should probably be copy-pasting....

Miniman

@nitsua60 rpg.stackexchange.com/users/23970/nitsua60?tab=activity

doppelgreener

@nitsua60 You can view your comment history from your profile, here's a magic link to your own: rpg.stackexchange.com/users/… However, you may like to pick up the pro-forma comments addon:

311

Q: AutoReviewComments - Pro-forma comments for SE

No more re-typing the same comments over and over! This script adds a little 'auto' link next to all comments boxes. When you click the link, you see a popup with 6 configurable auto-comments (canned responses), which you can easily click to insert. This script was inspired by answers to thi...

@Miniman You can replace the user ID and username slug with "current" to make a magic profile link for whoever it is that clicks it. :)

nitsua60

thanks @Miniman @doppelgreener

Miniman

@nitsua60 Note that that allows you to browse your comments, not search them. To search them, you need to use data.se.

nitsua60

@Miniman right--not too heinous to CTRL-F them this time, and I'm poking around on the AutoScript @doppelgreener linked next. That'll be a lifesaver!

Miniman

02:49

@nitsua60 If you know SQL at all, it's worth checking out data.se when you've got some spare time. It's pretty amazing.

Adeptus

@Miniman I blame that Miniman guy :P

Miniman

@Adeptus Yeah, he's the worst. We should go flag all his posts as spam.

nitsua60

@Miniman we'll have to enlist a lot of sock-puppets, though: isn't each user limited to 25 flags per day? With over four hundred posts that'll be [counts on fingers...] lots of users!

doppelgreener

@nitsua60 i see this scheme as akin to an army running with war trumpets head-first into a brick wall, which then collapses on top of them.

nitsua60

@doppelgreener Were you in the US on Friday night? 'Cause that sounds exactly like how my high-schoolers play D&D!

doppelgreener

03:04

@nitsua60 I may have been ~~making them dance like puppets~~ providing advice to them secretly via teleconference.

nitsua60

(A few weeks back there was a party split when, faced with a city in full-scale riot and a colliseum collapsing on top of them, half decided to stay and loot the bodies of the commoners who'd been killed by falling masonry....

"Those who stayed in the arena found the following when looting 17 deceased common people: torn, bloodied clothing; scraps of food amounting to two meals; eight small belt knives; an enormous scale, perhaps from a dragon; a tiny silver icon of a raven; a small, curiously-light stone block; two toy soldiers, one missing a head; a copper badge in the shape of a five-pointed star; an iron holy symbol devoted to an unknown god; and a glob of very sticky, bad-smelling incense.")

Miniman

Wow, you were way more generous than I would have been.

doppelgreener

@nitsua60 I will always be concerned by finding "scraps of food" where a whole lot of people have been killed messily, due to potential uncertainty over what would've been classifiable as food before the whole ordeal.

nitsua60

This is the same party--containing a druid, a forest/beast ranger, and a green paladin--that only aimed at horses during Friday night's chase scene.

doppelgreener

that would be one area where D&D alignments might portray it as not-good, but fantasy heroes on the good side of things have done plenty of that.

nitsua60

03:12

Spike Growth, cast directly in front of a four-in-harness at full gallop, can be devastating.

@doppelgreener sure. But the glee with which they did it....

Random bit of advice-seeking: I've been advised at my FLGS that a standing mid-campaign party is newly in need of a DM, and they've asked me if I might consider it. Crazy idea? Great idea? Obvious red flags to watch out for? Good/bad experiences in this sort of situation?

Adeptus

@nitsua60 Their DM left mid-campaign? Could be a red flag...

(could also be unrelated issues)

nitsua60

@Adeptus good point. My vague impression from the store employee was that it was RL concerns, but worth asking about directly.

[making list]

doppelgreener

@nitsua60 Get in touch with the former DM if you can. Learn about the players and the story they were running from them. Find out if they left for red-flag reasons ("this group is terrible!") or good reasons ("I'm not a good fit but they're a good bunch" or "I'm moving to another state" or etc).

Understand you'll be meeting total strangers who have a story they want to experience. There will be an adjustment period wherein they may expect you to behave like your GM did, and run the game like your GM was. Alternately, the things you do may be a breath of fresh air and a noticeable improvement. Just take care to not generalise and look at the specifics: different players will feel differently about different things.

nitsua60

all my DM exp. has been either close, personal groups (already friends, family, co-workers) or AL Expeditions where the expectations are explicitly scoped to a four-hour window. This feels like some different middle-ground. As in, if things go badly in any way we don't have the moderating effect of many other interactions nor the easy out of "I'll just wait an hour and it's over."

doppelgreener

There may be one thing you do that rubs one player the wrong way, that won't necessarily be all players and won't necessarily reflect upon all things. Since you'll have to think on your feet and won't have the mental capacity for deep thought, it might be good to take a note and reflect after the session on what happened.

BESW

03:25

@nitsua60 See also:

9

Q: We could use some more pro-forma comments

I'd like to brainstorm some possibilities for the modal comment-interventions that we tend to do: Welcome to the site, but your question needs work because reasons Welcome to the site, but your answer needs work because reasons Please stop arguing in comments! Please don't answer in comments. R...

discussion comments

nitsua60

@BESW thanks.

BESW

...I should update my comments in that post.

Miniman

05:43

@nitsua60 I gotta say, the information in those books really is scattered all over the place. That's not the first question we've had where the answer is there but difficult to find, and it probably won't be the last.

Of course, a fair amount of information is just plain missing, too.

nitsua60

@Miniman Yeah, it seems like sometimes the 3rd-party vendors have tried to take Gary's/TSR's/WotC's famous inability to organize text and run with it!

Miniman

@nitsua60 Princes of the Apocalypse doesn't seem to have the same problem (so far, at least).

nitsua60

@Miniman on the other hand, some information is well placed. Approximately 1cm below the picture I snagged it says "permission granted to print and photocopy for personal use only." I pulled down the screenshot.

Miniman

@nitsua60 Yeah, but I bet the author wasn't responsible for putting that in.

nitsua60

@Miniman I like PotA. I haven't been able to run it yet--just played. But it feels like one you could run really sandbox-y, which I like. (A sandbox where, if you don't engage with the expected plot elements, the sand will shift!)

Miniman

05:53

@nitsua60 It's been fun so far! Although the random encounter tables could definitely use some tweaking. Or possibly just not being used.

nitsua60

are you running it now? playing?

Miniman

@nitsua60 Running.

nitsua60

I've got a six or seven-session arc coming up this spring and I'm wavering between running some of the early stuff (Red Larch & hills) as a bit of a sandbox, or up-converting an old 1e tournament module.

@Miniman I always try to remember that the encounter tables are just a really concise bit of setting/exposition

(IMO)

Miniman

@nitsua60 It can lead to some interesting results, though. My players are firmly convinced that there is a vast and powerful conspiracy of shepherds subtly controlling events with a velvet glove.

nitsua60

I like, I like.

@Miniman How far along are they/what have they done & seen?

Miniman

05:59

They've cleared the Haunted Keeps, the first of the temples, and the sidequests that I found interesting enough to bother running.

nitsua60

@Miniman Well I hope you keep having fun with it. Have a nice day, and goodnight.

Miniman

@nitsua60 Ttyl!

BESW

06:37

Ask Lovecraft interviews a hobgoblin.

BESW

08:06

Sometimes I want to be able to bounty questions.

2

[mashes upvote button]

Miniman

@BESW I often feel the same way. Every time I see a question in my field of expertise that I have absolutely no clue what the answer is I want to reward it in some way.

BESW

I'm pretty sure that together the pictured dice are legitimately called "percentile dice." But just the ten's place die? [expansive shrug]

@Miniman Did you leave a comment while I was typing one?

Miniman

08:37

@BESW Er...no?

BESW

Okay. There was a comment, and I was responding, and then a new comment popped up and when I clicked to see it they both vanished.

Polyducks

09:18

Hey gang-a-lang

BESW

Yo, duck-a-muck.

Polyducks

Just been off for a week sick - back in the office again and nobody has really noticed

feels_good.png

BESW

Sorry to hear about the illness.

Polyducks

so I'm back in chat for social quality time

Thanks BESW :)

I'm not really recovered but it was so boring at home

BESW

Well, you picked a good time to come online; in a couple hours we'll hit one of the most active parts of the week.

(Monday morning for the Americas, I think.)

Polyducks

09:20

Oh! TIL!

I'll likely just sit back and watch the burbles

BESW

You can see the daily/weekly activity averages here.

Polyducks

I've been pretty burnt out on DMing this week. Finally got the chance to play a character in a 5E game. It was fun and now I have a taste for blood and making some other DM's life hell.

(looking)

BESW

Heheh.

Polyducks

That is a big peak!

BESW

I'm looking forward to playing a PC more often in the upcoming months; Greener's going to run something next week, then me for a few weeks, and then Troggy has an arc that he'll be sprinkling into whatever else we do, and Greener also has some ideas.

Polyducks

09:23

That's quite exciting :)

BESW

This whole "everybody can GM the campaign if they want" thing is awesome for my not getting burnt out.

Polyducks

Any idea on the type of character you'll play?

BESW

Well, for next week it's Áquila Grove-Daughter.

Polyducks

Oh, is it a furry campaign?

BESW

My main PC for this game has been Major Jessie Farman, though I also had a lot of fun playing Captain's Fancy Valentine Sweetheart.

Polyducks

09:25

Good choice of name

eimyr

Hello.

Polyducks

Hey @eimyr

BESW

@Polyducks Right now we're on a four-thousand-year-old Atlantean colony ship, which has (due to crystal radiation from the leaky engines) become a Thundercats/He-Man homage.

eimyr

Hi @Polyducks, what's up?

Polyducks

I finally succumbed to the illness I was repairing my girlfriend from

BESW

09:26

@eimyr [wave]

Polyducks

@BESW haha that's far-out

eimyr

That's a shame, is she better though

?

Polyducks

Yeah. Still a bit snotty

Wish she'd take care of me!

I should be so lucky

BESW

Our main campaign is modern Earth circa 2012, where until recently Weird Things (mad science and magic) kept to the shadows, but have just now gotten out of control.

The PCs are members of an ancient Japanese cult whose motto is Using Weird things so Weird things don't use you.

(Regular PCs include two plant people, a Jedi knight, a freaky-good hacker, and a retired FBI agent with latent psychic powers.)

(The plant people are a scientist who turned himself into the Swamp Thing, and the tree that he elevated to a sapient humanoid as a beta test before he used the technology on himself.)

eimyr

@Polyducks How's the game going?

Polyducks

09:32

I LOVE plant people. Easily the best invention of modern fiction.

@eimyr I've put it on haitus due to burnout. It's just so exhausting to run while being sick and busy with work.

I finish work, then go home and work, then barely sleep and work again. I don't have time to be sick and DM.

Thankfully one of the other players has stepped in to DM

doppelgreener

@BESW Dan's been coming up with some great ideas for a Humansville story.

Polyducks

and I've taken on a druid with a massive enthusiasm for plants. I've teamed up with another player and we're playing a pair of druids that are slowly turning the campaign into 'garderner's world'.

BESW

eimyr

By the name of Titchmarsh.

BESW

(Garden Knight vs Kudzubeast.)

Polyducks

09:36

Thanks for the new desktop background

BESW

For gardener-inspired fantasy, Ursula Vernon is hard to beat.

doppelgreener

@Polyducks Trogdor plays the scientist who turned himself into a plant. I play the plant he turned into a plant person. Funnily enough, next character I'm making, I'm going to play an alchemist. He's going to be playing something my character created - a golem. We're both looking forward to having some fun with the reversal, I think.

BESW

In a game several years ago, Trogdor played an undead warrior animated by his brother's necromancer. His undead turned out to be a lot better at planning than the necromancer.

It was pretty amusing as their archvillain boss slowly stopped telling the necromancer about the missions, and briefed the "zombie" instead.

Polyducks

@BESW Ursula Vernon is your equivalent to the NHS's paracetamol

you prescribe it for everything

BESW

Don't knock it if it works.

[grin]

doppelgreener

09:45

Tonight's dinner will be rice with a sauce of beef mince infused with mustard and mint leaf, red onion, spring onion, lenticchie lentils, some kinda' leaves that taste like rocket and cauliflower, and turmeric, all brewed in tomato soup. I am still contemplating adding the tin of actual diced tomatoes.

This may sound like a peculiar recipe, but it is a great traditional recipe called "I'd better use up all these vegetables in my fridge before they go off, also I guess these will go well with it, oh wait this mince is infused with mustard and mint I'd forgotten about that, well I'd better roll with this and see what happens."

BESW

@doppelgreener That sounds like a recipe from my book.

doppelgreener

It does, doesn't it? I just had that tin of lentils lying around and decided to use it.

BESW

Most of my meals start with "What's about to spoil?"

eimyr

@Polyducks LOL

Polyducks

Sounds like a good recipe

I'd certainly eat it. Good choice!

doppelgreener

09:52

@BESW This sounds like how I play Alphabear.

Polyducks

Fry the beef mince separately, drain of fat or it'll taste really grainy

serve over spaghetti, freeze remainder

I made a soup last night. Sweet potato, butternut squash, potato, leek, celery, cumin

I'm hoping my girlfriend likes it. I'm really struggling to find her vegetables to eat.

BESW

Sounds starchy!

Polyducks

I wouldn't mind continuing this culinary conversation over at not a bar if anyone else is up for it?

@BESW is starchy bad?

BESW

I certainly hope not!

eimyr

@polyducks chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/27542122#27542122

Polyducks

09:59

@eimyr haha

Yeah, you can mock creatures to death. It's ridiculous.

God damn spoony bards.

eimyr

But the best part was that the group didn't know Vicious Mockery deals damage.

They thought I'm a useless twit who wastes an action to impose disadvantage on goblins.

I mocked a sneaky goblin saying "Show yourself, you cowardly ill-faced cur" and rolled 4 on 1d4 damage.

doppelgreener

eimyr

Everyone is pretty shaken about how the damage bit works.

And the GM says: "You can see the goblin is clearly disheartened. His feelings are hurt and he says >>You so mean!<< in goblin."

Then it's the paladin's turn and he casts a mighty Fire Bolt on the same goblin. A flash of fire dashes to him, engulfing him in a momentary explosion of heat.

2 damage. The table erupts in laughter.

Polyducks

damage report?

haha nice

doppelgreener

@eimyr Looks like that goblin got... a sick burn

eimyr

10:04

Then the same goblin runs away, the rogue chases him... and it's my turn! I mock him as he leaves, with a Yo Momma so fat joke. 1 dmg, but enough to drop him.

Cue headscratching how it actually works.

Polyducks

Psychic damage, right?

eimyr

Eventually, the GM ruled he got distracted, turned his head to explain what he thinks of MY mother... tripped and smashed his skull on a rock.

Psychic damage.

BESW

Does 5e specify death for losing all your hp? And is it different for PCs and NPCs?

eimyr

I don't know if 5e specifies it, but my GM did.

You don't wanna kill, you declare nonlethal attack. I certainly didn't, even if just for shits and giggles.

BESW

(For example, there are strict rules in 4e about what negative HP mean, and how many of them you need before you die... but only for PCs. For NPCs, it's "when an NPC hits 0, the player who dealt the final blow gets to decide what it means.")

4e doesn't have called nonlethal damage; it just lets you decide what happens if you get the last shot in.

eimyr

10:07

Also, sleep is REALLY powerful. With no save, 1 minute duration and 5d8 target HP affecting 2-3 enemies is a piece of cake.

Miniman

@eimyr 5e says when you reduce a creature to 0 hp with a melee attack you can declare that you just knocked it out rather than killing it.

doppelgreener

> Dropping to 0 hit points: When you drop to 0 hit points, you either die outright or fall unconscious, as explained in the following sections.

> If damage reduces you to 0 hit points and fails to kill you, you fall unconscious (see appendix A). This unconsciousness ends if you regain any hit points.

> MONSTERS AND DEATH

Most DMs have a monster die the instant it drops to 0 hit points, rather than having it fall unconscious and make death saving throws.

Mighty villains and special nonplayer characters are common exceptions; the DM might have them fall unconscious and follow the same rules as player characters.

KNOCKING A CREATURE OUT

Sometimes an attacker wants to incapacitate a foe, rather than deal a killing blow. When an attacker reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack, the attacker can knock the creature out. The attacker can make this choice the instant the damag…

(from the player's basic rules)

Polyducks

Useful to know

in our first game with a player-turning-dm they almost wiped out the party of first level characters with a 4th level ranger.

and then blamed us on 'not having enough tactics'

There was a lot of player blaming in that game.

eimyr

Was that Sheo? It sounds like Sheo.

Polyducks

That was Sheo :p

doppelgreener

10:10

The whole "HP is an abstraction" thing falls down a little bit when the ultimate consequence of 0HP is death or being incapacitated, but it's worth remembering that all it really means is "they're not going to fight for quite a while, possibly not ever again".

That goblin going catatonic, passing out in fear, or diving into a goblin-hole to flee are probably also valid responses to 0HP.

Polyducks

The ranger was a high-speed elf too, vs our melee-only party.

Miniman

@Polyducks That...yeah. A 4th level character should be able to kill 2 1st level characters a round, more if they're clever.

Polyducks

@Miniman exactly. Just feels a bit stupid that he didn't tweak the stats mid-fight when he saw it going that way. A small mercy that the ranger had 'blunted arrows'.

Needless to say, my druid now carries sharp sticks for throwing.

eimyr

LOL blunted arrows

Polyducks

I don't even.

eimyr

10:12

What else, cushioned warmace?

Rubber tipped lance?

Polyducks

Anyway, here was me trying to escape into the forest (where a druid feels most at home) and save the party. DM refuses to reward XP at the end of the game.

Miniman

@eimyr I can tell you LARP...

Polyducks

haha

eimyr

Fear the mighty Pillow Ranger!

Favored enemy: clothing moth.

BESW

[stuffs fist in mouth]

doppelgreener

10:17

I am suddenly recalling the Oglaf story about the God of Fakes.

@BESW This is a good kind of recipe. I haven't tasted anything quite like this before. I should try it again.

eimyr

But really, in reenactment arrows are considered weapons of mass destruction. Really, anything less than that is considered forbidden:

@miniman I have never LARPed in my life.

Polyducks

I'd probably give it a go

If Role models taught me anything it's that I should try LARP

and befriend a mouthy little toddler

BESW

@eimyr ...now I want to roll up Quippet in Fate.

eimyr

Role Models?

Quippet?

I don't know what is happening! Someone enlighten me!

BESW

Quippet is (of course) an Ursula Vernon character. He's a member of Wool-Tribe, from the plush but disturbing world of her (still in beta) "Cryptic Stitchings" game.

Quippet hears voices. A lot of voices. And they tell him to do things.

> They said “It’s snowing out, you better wear a hat or you’ll catch your death.”
They said “You should have a hot cup of tea and everything’ll look better in the morning.”
They said “You try to have a nice day now, Quippet.”

Miniman

10:37

@eimyr Huh. I must've been thinking of someone else.

BESW

@Miniman Emrakul, maybe?

Miniman

@BESW Ah! Yes. @eimyr sorry about that, that's what you get for having a name starting with e and an avatar with a black background, I guess.

eimyr

@Miniman I do HEMA though...

Miniman

@eimyr HEMA?

BESW

Sounds like a vampire RPG.

eimyr

10:41

It's still a privilege to be mistaken for a mod

@Miniman Historic European Martial Arts. I hit people with a sword, but not like in the movies.

Miniman

@eimyr Like reenactment groups, or more serious?

eimyr

@Miniman More serious. Reenactors generally learn the proper fighting techniques, but they pull their blows more and use flashier strikes for audiences benefit

They also seem to have a more gamey approach to swordplay, with "lives" and whatnot.

In HEMA it's treated like a sport, using period-specific guides, much like Eastern martial arts - you don't use e.g. punches in judo, you don't use rapier-like grip in 14th century longsword

Miniman

@eimyr So kind of like professional fencing, but with a different fighting technique?

eimyr

@Miniman sort of. Professional fencing has a lot of sports-like influences and rules and is not representative of a fight with sharp weapons. HEMA teaches you swordplay as if the weapon was sharp and fight was lethal.

BESW

Swordplay as combat, rather than swordplay as sport or story?

eimyr

10:54

OFC, there are some departures from that ideal and in tournaments you might be incentivised to use more reckless techniques than you would if your life was on the line.

Very much so.

In sport fencing there is "right of way" that prevents you from attacking into an attack, but at the same time, you only have to strike 50ms faster than your opponent to win.

In HEMA what matters is authority of the strike - if you poke me to the calf, but I thrust at your face, you're dead and I'm injured, so I win.

Also, what is practiced is post-strike response. If the opponent catches you with a minor cut, say to the forearm, if you want to live, you need to retaliate with a disabling strike, otherwise you will die in a couple minutes as you are at disadvantage. In sport fencing once blade touches you, you call Touche and start over.

So, HEMA wouldn't work for reenactment, because an average fight is a a couple seconds of tries and feints, followed by a two-three second long resolution. In reenactment one combatant would be dead at this point.

You just witnessed what happens when you ask me about stuff I'm passionate about (even if I just started...)

Mage Ascension, guinea pigs and HEMA are the trigger buttons. Push at your own risk.

Miniman

@eimyr I have to ask...guinea pigs?

eimyr

guinea pigs

Miniman

@eimyr Passionate about them in which sense?

eimyr

I keep them. I rage at people who treat them badly out of ignorance or carelessness.

Miniman

@eimyr Oh, cool. The normal sense.

eimyr

11:08

What did you think it was?

Culinary predispositions? I'm sick of people who have a knee-jerk reaction of "Oh, you have a GP? Did you know people eat them in Peru?"

"No, I didn't know the most widespread factoid about a species I take interest in, also your mom."

doppelgreener

the button, it has been pushed. we know not the un-pushing ritual.

@eimyr Mage Awakening?

BESW

@doppelgreener It's a re-telling of Sleeping Beauty where the princess is a sorceress.

Miniman

@eimyr Wasn't sure, and it's something you don't often hear people express as one of their passions, so I was curious. Didn't mean to be rude.

BESW

(It's not, but it should be.)

trogdor

lol

I was about to say really confused things

XD

BESW

11:15

("Mage Awakening" would also be a good name for a power metal song.)

eimyr

@doppelgreener

doppelgreener

@eimyr I see, I see. [nods in understanding]

trogdor

hee

I think he has had enough

eimyr

@Miniman it's fine, I like to be asked.

BESW

When I think "guinea pig," I think (in no particular order): "I hear there's good money in professional GP contests," "aren't those the ones descended from a ridiculously small breeding population?," "fluffy!" and "at this point we should just give up 'rodent' as a useless category."

eimyr

11:21

@BESW 1: Yes, there is, but care costs more than it's worth. You end up with net loss. Also, its' cruel for the pig - not the one that you've bred and groomed to become a champion, but the ones you didn't.

@BESW 2: Yes, they are. And commercial breeders add to the issue by crossing anything that moves with it's mom. Adopt, don't shop. Also, avoid fancy races - they suffer from extreme congenital issues.

@BESW 3: Yes!

@BESW 4: They are rodents but many argue they shouldn't be. They are genetically closer to mammoths than elephants. Rodents are such a diverse taxon you can't make any assumptions. Also, what do you mean by that?

doppelgreener

Basically all mammals came from a small fuzzy rodent thingy.

BESW

"Rodent" is an archaic classification based on the incorrect assumption that a single gross physical characteristic shared by a wide variety of unrelated species meant they were related.

eimyr

Yep. And GPs don't even have that characteristic (yellow, enlarged, ever growing incisors)

GPs have beautiful white teeth. Unless they're sick

trogdor

yeah plus, Capybaras

I don't know about how genetically close they are to anything, but seriously

grouped with rats?

eimyr

GPs and capybaras are exactly the same, but one is bigger and likes water

all systems work the same way, differences are superficial

not sure about genetic similarities though.

trogdor

11:32

mm mk

BESW

GPs are actually very closely related to capys, if I remember correctly.

trogdor

doesn't change my opinion of them then XD

not that it would have anyway I guess

eimyr

Actually, Capys have yellow rat-like teeth, while white is GPs natural colour

trogdor

I like Cappbaras, I don't think I am so fond of rats

BESW

(I could be wrong.)

eimyr

11:33

Rats are awesome.

Very intelligent.

trogdor

to be fair, I have never met a Cappy, or a rat, I think

or at least no a rat I saw clearly XD

eimyr

Unfortunately they get a lot of flak from their wild pestilent brothers.

trogdor

mm

I refer to the wild ones that spread disease

I am sure I would have no problems with one that was not about to give me a present in that form that I in no way want XD

BESW

I've only known one domesticated rat, but it was pretty chill.

trogdor

but wild disease spreading ones can go to hell for sure

or at least stay away from me

XD

Polyducks

11:37

All praise the Lord Miasma!

BESW

Hmm. Maybe I should revive the Vermin Lord for an upcoming adventure.

trogdor

that is it

BURNINATE

XD

honestly, no actual objections here

XD

BESW

(The Vermin Lord is a god I invented for D&D games a long time ago; his worshippers are almost all non-sapient vermin, but there are a LOT of them, so his power is strong but diffuse. Every now and then a humanoid seeks to become a Vermin Priest, and then things get real as they lead swarms of rats and roaches and other pests across the land, scouring everything they encounter.)

@nim Hi!

Polyducks

That's...smart. Animal worshippers!

BESW

(These days I'm less inclined to use the "God Needs Worshippers Badly" trope, but the basic concept is still sound.)

nim

11:42

hi!

i dont know what i am doing here :P

BESW

That's reasonable!

This is the general chat for the RPG Stack, dedicated to tabletop role-playing games like D&D. We wander off topic pretty easily though.

You're welcome to stick around and lurk or join as you please.

nim

thanks, and thanks for information :)

eimyr

@besw I'm so tired of "mortal wants to become a God trope" I want to use it myself.

BESW

@eimyr In my 4e campaign, Trogdor's character ascended to become the sapient but formless patron spirit of peaceful multi-cultural coexistence.

My current campaign is deliberately avoiding pinning down anything about divinity, spirituality, or eschatology.

eimyr

@BESW My GM in a PBF had a knack for "the Big Bad became a god" trope and it was central to a couple of his campaigns.

I found it cheesy.

trogdor

11:53

@BESW lol

eimyr

My main Big Bad of many campaigns is practically a god, but he never wanted to be one.

He was just curious.

doppelgreener

@BESW Well what else is all that spare pent-up rodent energy doing? It's got to go somewhere, and they can't all just run it all off. And sometimes whatever that creates needs something else to put its own excess energy into.

trogdor

@BESW ah, I sorta have vague plans for something like that,... but it certainly doesn't tie into any religion I know about that is still being practiced

BESW

I did have the 4e campaign's central villain trying to become a god, but that's because I was using the Tomb of Horrors villain. And the main plot was actually not "stop him from becoming a god" (though we did that) but instead "stop his attempts to become a god from letting in horrors from beyond the multiverse who want to unmake all reality."

trogdor

I don't know if we have a ban on something I should know about though,.....

I did already accidentally step on the spider ban

T.T

eimyr

11:56

Unmake is a word I need to use more often.

BESW

@trogdor We just try not to say there's one way it all works. We've had ghosts and souls and devils and all, but it's more of a "Well, that's how it works here/now/for these folks" thing with a good healthy dose of "and we really don't know what's actually going on here anyway."

Polyducks

Hi, @nim :)

trogdor

@BESW ah ok

that works just fine for me

BESW

(Throw in some crystals and it's all good.)

trogdor

lol

I don't think there are crystals involved, though one thing might sorta be a crystal,...... but not in the right way XD,... it isn't on the right end of things to be even a hand wave kind of explanation

eimyr

11:57

@BESW That's why I like Mage. All that belief crystallizes in actual gods (umbral spirits) and hell, heaven etc. There is even a place, the literal Hell, filled with tormented souls of sinners.

The kicker? These souls are not real, actual souls go to Low Umbra when the host dies. Where do they come from? No one knows.

BESW

"Belief creates itself" is a fun little self-reinforcing loop to explore, but I'm not really fond of it as an underpinning for a universe.

trogdor

mm, the thing I have in mind is a powerful being who may only have been mistaken for a god, but for certain pretty decent reasons

I wish to say no more about it than that

Transcript for