TRPG General Chat

BESW

00:23

@nitsua60 I feel like there's a duplicate "How does one develop a hook for a group of misfit adventurers that all have different goals?" out there, but I can't find it today as I'm teaching a class.

nitsua60

@BESW It's also a strange amalgam of "hook for unaligned characters" and "starting a new campaign with same characters," I think.

Shalvenay

00:54

@nitsua60 hey again

BESW

nitsua60

@Shalvenay hiya.

Ugh... I'm having to evaluate a classmate's evaluation of a lesson plan drawn up by a third party. It just starts to feel like gossip at some point....

Ben

04:33

Right, I have an idea - but it is only preliminary, and needs some assistance to balance it out

Shalvenay

@Ben hey there -- you think you'll be around this weekend? (and share it here -- even though I have to go, I might be able to review it some other time)

Ben

@Shalvenay I shall endeavour to. All my workloads shall have vanished by Saturday. Finally!

So my idea is a mechanic for a Character with Multiple Personality Disorder

Step 1: create a base character. Fill out a character sheet. Pick race, class, equipment, etc.
Step 2: create a whole new character - class, race etc. Catch #1 - this character shares all the racial traits, and physical stats (eg. health, size, etc) of your base character, and the same starting equipment.
Step 3: Gameplay - on a regular interval (once a day maybe?) you roll a die to determine which character you play as.
Step 4: Levelling - only the character (or "personality" that you are playing as, gets xp when xp is gained. However, when levelling up, everyone shares the same amount of …

Optional: at a certain level, you can choose to take on an additional class (develop a new "personality") at the average level of all your other classes (eg, you have a level 1 and a level 5 - make a new level 3 character)

BESW

[squint] Make sure your group's cool with that. Also, I'd suggest presenting the concept as something other than an actual real-life mental illness it's nothing like.

Ben

For the record - I am in no way intending to "make fun/light of" mental illness. I respect that this is a serious issue, and intend no offense.

I have yet to come up with an alternate title though

BESW

04:49

Invent some kind of doubling curse justification?

Ben

Some kind of illusion curse?

BESW

Also--depending on your system, you'll find it difficult to define some features and traits as obviously "physical" or "mental" or purposes of determining if both characters benefit from them. eg, muscle memory.

Ben

I'll say perhaps use d&d 5e as a starting system

In terms of character stats: str, dex etc. How would that pan out?

BESW

...yeah.

Ben

Argument could be made for most of them other than strength? It's all down to a matter of thought. A Ranger knows how to move, or a Rogue knows how to use their fingers...

A Bard knows how to sing, how to woo a crowd

But then again I would argue that just because you might be physically strong, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to use it?

BESW

04:59

Yup. You've come up with a concept the system was never designed to model, and that's gonna be messy.

Ben

I have only just come up with this, so there are a lot of things to consider. I haven't even compared this with the character creation system yet. Just going off memory

BESW

05:40

**[Timely RPGery](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nKltjD1HJ954pS3QZZL-E_ckNaKEeedxMKn7XwdFiio/edit?usp=sharing "Click for full source doc; please suggest items to pin!"):**
[BoH](https://bundleofholding.com "Buy RPGs cheap in bulk, support charities & indie designers!");
[UScons](http://casualgamerevolution.com/blog/2016/01/2016-tabletop-gaming-conventions-a-comprehensive-list "List of RPG conventions in the US.");
[UKcons](http://www.philmasters.org.uk/RPGs/conventions.htm "List of RPG conventions in the UK.").

Fibericon

So after looking around, and asking around, it doesn't seem like the idea of rolling for attributes or HP is very popular outside of D&D, even in other OGL games.

BESW

Yup. It's a legacy/tradition thing, and that's about it.

lisardggY

Yo

BESW

Yopp.

BESW

09:01

Tonight's Random Fact: In the 1930s a Japanese artist invented a portable version of Palauan traditional building art, so Palauans could sell it to tourists.

(PDF describing the history of the Palauan storyboard.)

trogdor

huh

BESW

@Scrollreader [wave]

@KyTySon Hi! You'll need 20+ rep on any SE site to type in chat, but you're welcome to hang out until then.

BESW

09:32

@Nox Yawp.

Nox

10:33

Oh hello. Opened the chat at work and didn't have time to look at it till now.

lisardggY

11:21

@Nox Browsed past this tab, and my eye caught on "Opened the cat at work". Took me a second to read it properly.

BESW

Hmm. I'm thinking about re-writing Danger Patrol to be less... confuzzling.

But I should probably do a fancy layout (inspired by storyboards?) for Colonypunk instead.

lisardggY

@BESW Don't you fear that in doing so, it might become less... dangerous?

BESW

VTC game rec

@lisardggY Oh, if anything I think it'll be more dangerous. Certainly my first game had a lot fewer threat dice running around than it should have, because I didn't understand the rules.

BESW

12:01

@Aether [wave]

Aether

@BESW [waves back]

BESW

I trust you're enjoying the ability to see vote counts. [grin]

Aether

I'm sure I very much would be, but they don't seem to work on the mobile site!

BESW

Aw!

Aether

Thanks for the accept, though. :)

BESW

12:05

...the expanded usercard probably doesn't work on mobile either.

Aether

When's your creation session?

BESW

@Aether Thanks for the answer! Google My Maps wins in large part because it does everything altogether and doesn't need me to bring in any other service, software, or app to supplement the process.

@Aether I'm gonna talk with the group Saturday night.

Sorta depends on who shows up; attendance is erratic.

Aether

Yep. Only things about it are lack of real time sync (still sad to find that out...), and I feel like the Google Drawing answer has more wide-spread use (because you can use things that aren't real-world locations)

But for this exact situation? I like My Maps.

BESW

Yeah. Answers like Ringo's are useful to read, but I just don't get them: DFRPG's city creation process is all ABOUT overlaying an existing city with fantastic elements, so saying "don't use existing maps" seems.... weird.

Aether

Hmm... I assumed that the idea was to just take a screenshot of a map and put that down first as the base layer... but it doesn't say that... :P

But you'd have the advantage of being able to pull in other types of maps, drawn maps, fantasy maps, not-a-map maps...

BESW

12:20

At any rate, last weekend a few of us did a test run on it and it worked awesomely. The players were definitely inspired by having something real to build on.

Aether

Awesome. :)

BESW

[rummages for link]

@Aether Test run on using Google My Maps to create a DFRPG-esque setting using my old college neighbourhood: One Hot Summer.

Aether

@BESW That's actually great, because with the real map, you can just zoom in to see what is there in real life for inspiration of what might be nearby, or things to replace it with, or magical things that hide behind mundane reality...

BESW

Exactly!

Like, there's a road of half-finished houses which Doppelgreener decided remained unfinished because it was the site of an old Indian burial ground.

Aether

@BESW Looking good... I love the Jessie Jones description!!

BESW

12:27

I seeded the map with some real-life places and descriptions, and then let Greener and his friend run wild for a while.

All the Faces are their work.

Aether

Did you go to Coastal Carolina?

BESW

I did.

Aether

Cool... I only know of it in passing, as there was an NFL player from there a while back, which I understand is unusual for that college...

BESW

The whole area has a very strange atmosphere. It's a swamp, just barely above the waterline--if you dig a foot down, the hole fills up. Plagued by mosquitoes and alligators, with little useful farming land or natural resources, neither the native Americans nor the pioneer settlers wanted to live there. It wasn't until a railroad baron decided to throw money at the place until it turned into a tourist resort that more than two generations of settlers lived there consecutively.

The city of Myrtle Beach is that tourist resort. It was named in a public contest... which the railroad baron's wife just happened to win.

Aether

Huh, who'd have guessed...

Should have just raised the whole area...

3

BESW

12:33

The general feeling is, it's a place that people love to visit but nobody lives there if they can leave.

My cousin grew up in Myrtle Beach, and left as soon as she was able, saying "Myrtle Beach sucks your soul!"

Aether

I'd have thought that if the locals want to leave, it wouldn't be a very nice place to visit, either...

BESW

Throw in a century of race/class tensions, some entrenched government corruption and dynastic business powers, and there's great fodder for inventing dramatic fantastical reasons it's the way it is.

@Aether Yes, well. MB can't decide what it wants to be: a retirement community, a wholesome family vacation town, an international golfing destination, or a strip club capital for biker gangs and adulterous businessmen.

And once you leave MB, you quickly hit places like Aynor (tobacco town whose size and poor education makes it the punchline for jokes) and Conway (once-prosperous railway town clinging desperately to its faded glory).

As recently as 20 years ago, Myrtle Beach literally boarded up its windows during the winter: everyone who could leave, left until the next summer. It's only now that rich folks have been convinced to retire there, that it's got a solid year-round population to staff the service industry for the rich retirees.

Aether

@BESW A common problem with places predicated on seasonal tourism...

BESW

Still, I enjoyed my time at CCU. It had just gotten a football team when I first attended, and was hilariously unsure what to do about suddenly having a sport it was good at.

The first time we won a home game, the CCU crowd ripped up our own goal post and carried it halfway across the campus.

CCU is also where I started playing (well, running) RPGs.

Aether

12:51

@BESW Sounds like... fun?

@BESW And this is definitely fun!

BESW

@Aether I dunno, I don't sport much. I got up the next day and was confused to see the goal post on the lawn while walking to breakfast.

Jan 26 '13 at 0:19, by BESW

I actually got into RPGs because I was doing a dramatic reading from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead for some friends, and one guy announced that I would make a great DM.

Aether

@BESW I'm not familiar with the play, but it sounds very interesting

BESW

@Aether The monologue in question:

> A man breaking his journey between one place and another at a third place of no name, character, population or significance, sees a unicorn cross his path and disappear. That in itself is startling, but there are precedents for mystical encounters of various kinds, or to be less extreme, a choice of persuasions to put it down to fancy; until--"My God," says a second man, "I must be dreaming, I thought I saw a unicorn."
At which point, a dimension is added that makes the experience as alarming as it will ever be. A third witness, you understand, adds no further dimension but only spreads i…

BESW

13:11

@WeckarE. Hi!

Joshua Aslan Smith

14:23

@waxeagle @kmallory @Grubermensch I posted in the Google + group, but also asking here to confirm we are on for game night to night.

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith I can confirm

Joshua Aslan Smith

oh baby, gonna go do something for some peeople from waterdeep to stop the cult in some way somewhere

wax eagle

lol, gotta get through the rest of this tomb :)

may have to be a short sesh tonight, but wanted to get something in before I'm out of town next week

Joshua Aslan Smith

yeah

did we enter the room of averting our eyes or were we about to

we had not, I remember now

we doubled back to explore everything else we could first and fought those ghosts

The Oracle

14:43

0

Q: What do we do with this non-starter question?

Pathfinder explosive runes abuse describes a scenario and the asker (presumably the GM) is unhappy with it, and says: I don't like this in the least bit but I am not sure how can I argue that it won't work. Well... it will work if things go as described, and they're well aware of it, so I'm...

Nox

Out of interest, what is considered starter and non-starter?

I mean: what 'non-starter' means?

Joshua Aslan Smith

I would say in this case a no-go question, the question does not have sufficent merit/worth based on what was written for it to be treated as remotely viable for salvaging

I am reading into it my own opinions

but the tenor and underlying baises of the asker seem to preclude any useful answers

Grubermensch

15:14

Which is to say, it doesn't allow one to start a meaningful response.

Joshua Aslan Smith

@Grubermensch toats mcgoats

nitsua60

17:48

@SevenSidedDie I've got to admit--I don't understand how rpg.stackexchange.com/q/4457/23970 isn't "too broad" but the newest question is.

SevenSidedDie

@nitsua60 It was a tossup between “opinion” and “broad”—generally, when someone comes here with “here's some stuff I'm thinking about, who has ideas about it?” they're looking for a discussion and have mistaken us for a forum. The close might shake out more information that makes their problem visibly suitable to Q&A, or if they do really just want to shoot the breeze and graze off the results for useful tidbits for their situation, they'll profit from using the right tool (forum) for the job.

nitsua60

@SevenSidedDie I guess I see the core of a great question there and started to answer it: "how do I handle a fluctuating group of varied-experience players while still giving them the RP trifecta of combat, exploration, and social?" But on reread you're definitely right: OP's actually presenting "here're some ideas--what do you think?"

SevenSidedDie

@nitsua60 And it could still be a great question! It could also be a great discussion thread OP. I'm looking forward to finding out which. :)

Or both. They could tackle it from both angles.

Aether

There is a question hiding in there somewhere... the current problem is that there's no actual question there...

nitsua60

@Aether It may be that the question is "crap! what do I do now that I told the kids there'll be a D&D club next year!?" A question I also have experience with =)

Aether

18:06

@nitsua60 I think that's one of the questions, but as I look at it, I'm thinking there are multiple questions... some of which have been asked and answered already

nitsua60

The better tier 1 AL modules are what he needs to get his hands on, perhaps.

nitsua60

18:38

@ekendra [wave] almost there on the rep to chat =)

Ladifas

18:55

We don't like 'resource questions' here do we?

0

A: 5e Pregen Characters for Drop-in Sessions

This website has as many pregenerated characters as you could ever want, for every class, specialisation, and level. You can't generate the pregens yourself, but there are so many that I'm sure you will find some you like.

nitsua60

The info box on tool-recommendation has links to the various meta.

Ladifas

Right. VTC?

nitsua60

I suppose "resource-rec" is a small sub-species of tool-rec...?

Ladifas

I think I have seen tool-recs being closed before for that reason.

nitsua60

OTOH, there's this well-received one...

7

Q: Are there more pre-generated characters for the D&D Starter Set available?

I'm about to run the D&D Starter Set adventure for a few of my co-workers, and I foresee having more than 5 players. Is it possible to get extra pre-generated character sheets somewhere in the same format as the starter set ones? How do I deal with having more than 5 players for the starter set...

dnd-5e character-sheets

Ladifas

19:00

Doesn't tool recommendation say 'DO NOT USE'.

And you just edited it on?

nitsua60

Yup.

It's asking for a tool, so it's a tool-rec question. Tool-recs are off-topic, so it'll probably be closed as such.

Ladifas

Ok, sure

Flagged

nitsua60

(I guess I've never read the "DO NOT USE" as applying to the tag's usage--I've read it as "don't ask tool-rec questions." But I might be crazy, on second read.)

It's interesting to compare that tag's guidance to the game-recommendation guidance...

Ladifas

Yes

I always just assumed that no such tags existed...

But then I haven't been around for long

nitsua60

I've just submitted an edit to the tool-rec wiki. We'll see where it goes =)

Later, all.

Ladifas

19:07

bye

Ladifas

19:18

2

Q: 5e: Drop-in sessions for new players: What's essential?

I'm about to run some intro sessions at our school's offline gaming club and there will be people who will rock up just to check out the game and decide whether or not they'd like to invest their time in an actual campaign. Essentially, I'd be developing an experiential advertisement for D&D 5e....

dnd-5e

And perhaps this one is too broad?

Momonga-sama

20:33

Too broad in my point of view.

doppelgreener

21:59

@Nox non-starter isn't any kind of generally-accepted Stack lingo, but i used it in the sense that the question is unactionable under its own merits, with nothing in it to salvage and nothing we can really do with it. (like @Joshua and @Grubermensch quite accurately surmised from my tone)

Aether

It's actually a thing... "Someone or something that will not be effective or successful."

BESW

English! It tries to mean things.

2

(But sometimes that's a non-starter.)

doppelgreener

22:14

@Aether phew, i only saw definitions of "a plan that will fail" or "an animal that does not start in a race". I'll take this definition from there: "someone or something that is not productive or effective". As in, question will not produce meaningful answers.

"My players want to do a thing the game fully empowers them to do. I am unhappy about this."

BESW

@DanB [wave]

BESW

22:51

M'rr. I could've sworn there's an old question about waiting 'til the end of the session to discuss rules questions that came up during play.

Ahah!

18

Q: Is studying rules and pointing out which ones we've stretched or broken ok?

My group is mostly new to Pathfinder (including the GM), and we sometimes take "Accidental Liberties" while playing. For instance, my character has a spear with the "Brace" feature. I had been using that feature in the same round as casting a spell or firing an arrow. I just learned that the r...

system-agnostic new-players problem-players

@Nyakouai Hi!

Shalvenay

23:23

hey there @nitsua60

nitsua60

@Shalvenay Hiya

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 how're things going?

nitsua60

@Shalvenay ugh... required video lectures =\

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 :/ well, trying to figure out my school project still -- and also wondering when you'll be open to kick off our 5e game this upcoming weekend

BESW

23:52

Note to self: go back through old rec questions and see how many can be re-opened by editing to ask "how do I do this?" instead of "what do I use for this?"

4

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