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nitsua60
nitsua60
3:00 AM
@Miniman you'll like this: my L4 sharpshooter came 3hp away from taking out a fire giant singlehandedly tonight. If we'd have had time to play out its retreat a bit, I think I'd have had it easily. But FLGS needed to close up... =(
 
Shalvenay
Shalvenay
nice
hey there @nitsua60
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
@Shalvenay (I feel a little cheated out of the kill, but really I should just be happy that my L4 character took 3 29-damage boulder shots and never got insta-killed.)
@JoelHarmon News on the baby-front?
 
Miniman
Miniman
@nitsua60 With a 600-foot range, what does "retreat" even mean?
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
@Miniman Well, with the giant dashing away at 60' per round (and starting at a good 150' range) and me only able to pursue at 30' per round while firing off shots... we didn't do the counting to see how many shots I'd actually get because the store'd already issued last call.
(Looks like it should have been 5 shots; we SWAGged it at 3 and I rolled them, missing two and critting on the third.)
I need more ways to get advantage. There's another battle-master fighter in the party; we may have to start doubling up and using distracting strike to help each other out.
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
3:25 AM
@Shalvenay hey
@nitsua60 yes, the most excellent kind of news: everyone is now home safely
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
Wonderful! Congratulations!!!
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
thanks
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
Do you need anything? I've got lots of hand-me-down clothes, blankets, crib sheets... I could drive it down this weekend =)
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
now I just need to figure out how to operate on multiple 2-3 hour sleep periods in one day, and it'll be perfect
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
Luckily (if my experience is any guide) you don't actually have to figure out how to operate... you just have to survive the next few years of it.
(years depending on how many you-all end up bringing into your lives)
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
3:30 AM
Thanks, but no thanks. First, we are fortunate enough to have plenty of hand-me-downs. Second, I wouldn't want to make anyone drive 8-12 hours for something like that
(each way)
 
Shalvenay
Shalvenay
hey there @JoelHarmon -- how're things going?
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
generally wonderful, but sleep deprived. You?
 
Shalvenay
Shalvenay
@JoelHarmon alright here, the DW game got off to a reasonably decent start despite the fact that the way I play Druids is a bit of a mismatch with the DW take on them
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
Yeah, I've been loosely following chat today. On your druid, are you looking to deliberately subvert the usual trope?
or are you attempting to apply something closer to your usual fluff to the stated rules?
 
Shalvenay
Shalvenay
4:00 AM
@JoelHarmon more or less the latter -- I just don't get the usual trope in a sense
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
I think much of that would come from consuming the common media, and you simply don't do that
but while you don't seem to have an intuitive sense for what the tropes are, I'm sure you can read up on them to understand them intellectually
 
Shalvenay
Shalvenay
@JoelHarmon I think it's a bit deeper than that -- the idea that one can be attuned to nature purely through animist means seems to me to be a recipe for a quite incomplete understanding of nature itself
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
presuming that nature is not inherently animist, I'd agree with you. Presuming some fantasy world wherein nature is fundamentally animist, you'd of course be wrong
or perhaps that should be "you'd presumably be wrong"
it's a fantasy world, hard to tell
I also observe that incomplete understanding of things does not preclude useful interaction
examples include the economy, other people, physics, math, computers, etc.
 
Shalvenay
Shalvenay
@JoelHarmon yeah, the holes created by the animist view wind up creating interaction/consistency problems though.
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
the holes created by a scientific view wind up creating interaction/consistency problems, too. See particle/wave duality.
I can't say too much about an animist view promoted by DW, because as I recall it leaves details of 'how' up to the table
 
Shalvenay
Shalvenay
4:14 AM
@JoelHarmon ...quantum mechanics is an interesting beast, yes
@JoelHarmon yeah -- I think I'll wind up growing more into the class as the game goes on and I get more comfortable with the base moves in DW, too
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
you're level 1, I should hope
 
Shalvenay
Shalvenay
@JoelHarmon indeed
(although progressing quite slowly)
(much of it is that I'm kinda struggling to invoke base moves)
(that, and the spotlight and me get along ...not well. I find myself most comfortable being in a hide-and-snatch mode, where my character is basically hanging back and trying to stay out of the spotlight until something comes up where they seem to be needed and BAM they insert themselves out of the blue)
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
the only player I know to actively avoid the spotlight is very introverted as a person
my next line of questioning would revolve around the personality of your druid, not just their belief system about the world, but I should be attempting to sleep
 
Shalvenay
Shalvenay
@JoelHarmon it is true that I am somewhat introverted-by-default IRL, but that can change in a heartbeat...and I need zzz's too
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
talk to you later, then.
 
 
1 hour later…
BESW
BESW
5:39 AM
#200WordRPG of the day http://schirduans.com/david/2016/09/colonypunk-a-resistance-assimilation-game.html
Tweeted by 200WordRPG on September 22, 2016 at 9:56 PM
4
That was fun to write.
 
trogdor
trogdor
nice
 
BESW
BESW
I've fiddled with the text a little since that submission, but only for clarity.
 
 
3 hours later…
kviiri
kviiri
8:33 AM
@BESW Venture City sounds cool.
 
BESW
BESW
I probably wouldn't play it on its own, but it's a great toolkit to add to my burgeoning collection of Fate strategies.
 
kviiri
kviiri
It might be of the kind I'd just scavenge for ideas.
Which isn't bad, of course.
 
BESW
BESW
Yeah, I've recommended it as inspiration material for folks doing supers in totally different systems.
 
kviiri
kviiri
Fate might be a good system for roleplaying superheroes without a clearly defined pool of powers, in general.
 
BESW
BESW
See: Masters of Umdaar.
 
Ravn
Ravn
8:50 AM
Hello!
 
BESW
BESW
[wave] What's new?
 
Ravn
Ravn
I have a question about D&D 4th edition that I'm pretty sure has been asked on the site, but I couldn't find anything about it: what is the point of gradually increasing PC ability scores through levels 1-30 when skills check DCs and monster defenses also increase? It doesn't seem like you get better
- at doing stuff, because doing stuff gets harder as you get better.
 
BESW
BESW
I'm not sure I've actually seen a question like that.
My answer would be, "Legacy."
The actual increase in capacity comes from progressively more casual access to increasingly powerful features.
 
kviiri
kviiri
@BESW Best answer here.
 
Ravn
Ravn
9:11 AM
Yeah okay, I can see that you actually do get better as you progress with all the feats and powers. But then there's really no reason to increase ability scores or make monsters' stats bigger?
 
BESW
BESW
Well, there are two reasons to do it.
First, it widens the scope of potential combat. You can fight littler guys and mop the floor with them to feel good, and you can face massive enemies that are nigh impossible but still don't one-shot you.
Second, getting bigger numbers makes the players feel good.
 
Ravn
Ravn
Alright, thanks for the good answer as always! :)
 
Miniman
Miniman
9:25 AM
Using Leadership to improve quarterstaff damage is like using Skynet to mine bitcoins.
4
 
BESW
BESW
9:47 AM
@Miniman They aren't even doing it right; a Bard cohort should be stacking UMD to use the wand, and maybe getting low-level followers to aid him if he doesn't have the bonuses for it yet.
 
Miniman
Miniman
@BESW Alternatively, his full-casting cohort would have access to 7th-level spells - off the top of my head I can't remember, but there has to be something better than +6 damage.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
10:04 AM
@BESW i recall at some point you went with Level 1 Equivalent Damage
 
BESW
BESW
@doppelgreener Yes, indeed.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
Makes me think of things like DW, where the numbers just get a little better here and there, and Fate, where "the protagonists are now far more powerful" is better accomplished by giving littler guys smaller numbers than they might've had in the beginning, while giving equal-level threats the same mehcanical numbers equal-level threats had a long time ago.
 
BESW
BESW
But L1E damage is, if anything, more redundant than the default progression.
In the default progression, HP pools quickly outstrip damage as you level up, so adding numbers as you level actually changes the flow of the game.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
In Fate, a novice adventuring party has a skill cap of +3 and are facing Goblins who often act at +3. An experienced adventuring party has a skill cap of +4 and is facing Hill Trolls who are at +4, while the Goblins are now at +1.
 
BESW
BESW
L1E takes away what little substantial numerical change 4e's incremental leveling provides.
@doppelgreener In 4e, this is accomplished by changing an enemy's type, rather than its level: solo, elite, standard, and minion.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
10:13 AM
@BESW yes! and i love that little system.
Hobgoblins might be Elite or Solo at one point and Minions a few levels later
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
@Ravn asking about 4th like that - you may know that 5th is capped
3rd isn't, but has some serious problems
 
trogdor
trogdor
@BESW yeah, one of the many little things I liked about 4E was that your numbers went up every two levels
sometimes more numbers went up every few more levels, but you always either got more powers or more numbers, and both also happened
it was a feel good time to level up for sure
@doppelgreener yeah not my favorite thing about Fate to be honest, plenty of things I like about the system, but this is one of the things I am less enthusiastic about
I'm not entirely proud of it, but I am a sucker for mechanical progression, in a crunchy system like 4E
I like that I can enjoy that kind of thing, but I also wish less crunchy systems were more enjoyable, they aren't without enjoyment for me, but I feel them lacking something sometimes
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
@trogdor What do you mean by "crunchy"?
And also hello (:
 
trogdor
trogdor
@RollingFeles what I mean is the difference between a system like 4E, where you have a lot of numbers and accessories added onto your character
and Fate, for example, where there are fewer numbers, which are generally lower
and you get "Aspects" and "Stunts" instead of 'Abilities" "Powers" and "Feats, and "items"
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
I see. Thanks.
 
trogdor
trogdor
10:26 AM
no problem
not that Fate isn't good, it just focuses on different things
and it honestly benifits the cooperative telling of a story a lot more than 4E
 
BESW
BESW
Yeah, moving to a group dynamic where folks can come and go however they need to from week to week meant moving away from systems which require a lot of homework and mastery.
 
trogdor
trogdor
but sometimes, to me, it feels just a little less like a game
@BESW and this is fair, I am not disputing that in the slightest
just mentioning that I do miss that kind of thing
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
@trogdor conversely, 4e is better at combat simulationism than Fate
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@JoelHarmon kind of yes because simulationism is pointedly not one of fate's goals
 
trogdor
trogdor
@JoelHarmon yes, Fate is hardly even really trying for that
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
10:30 AM
whereas 4e explicitly leaves RP stuff to be made up by the GM and players
 
BESW
BESW
It would be interesting to run a tactical combat-focused Fate game.
 
trogdor
trogdor
and it isn't even really to say I actually like 4E LESS or MORE than Fate, but they both definitely scratch a different itch
 
BESW
BESW
@doppelgreener Maybe some time you can bust out Bastion.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
Thing that came up in my head: GNS.
 
trogdor
trogdor
also, to be fair, last time I played 4E it had balance issues even in the area it did well in
 
BESW
BESW
10:31 AM
@RollingFeles Gnomes Need Shoes.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
@BESW good name for a band, or another RP system.
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
@trogdor I don't even compare them like that. I take a food metaphor: it is ok to like both lasagna and stir fry
 
trogdor
trogdor
@JoelHarmon yeah, that is fair enough
they are different enough things that liking one doesn't exclude liking the other
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
and both can be done well or poorly
 
trogdor
trogdor
but also different enough that most people wouldn't blink at you liking one and not the other
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
10:33 AM
yep
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
@trogdor and when two things is similar enough, does it force exclusive liking? :)
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
except really, who doesn't like lasagna? :P
 
trogdor
trogdor
@RollingFeles depends how similar
 
BESW
BESW
@JoelHarmon [raises hand]
 
trogdor
trogdor
some people would find the small things to complain about XD
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
10:35 AM
If someone want to complain, they will find the excuse one way or another :)
 
BESW
BESW
Nightshades do awful things to my stomach in large amounts.
 
trogdor
trogdor
so I guess it also depends on the person
@BESW ah, I thought you would object more specifically to the kind of meat that is usually in them
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@BESW maybe i caaaaannn....
 
trogdor
trogdor
which Bastion is that?
 
BESW
BESW
@trogdor Greener's old 4e setting, only lightly used.
 
trogdor
trogdor
10:37 AM
ah
I would not object to that
I have to play devils advocate for a minute and ask how it would fix our groups particualr problems with running 4E though
 
BESW
BESW
One of his very first OMG moments with Fate was the realisation that Fate would let him run the big final level 30 boss confrontation straight out of the package with base-statted Fate PCs, just by jogging the level of awesome each +1 represents.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
@trogdor First thing that came up in my head: emergency place in case Caelondia would be destroyed in Calamity :)
 
BESW
BESW
@trogdor In large part, because it'd probably not be an extended campaign.
 
trogdor
trogdor
@RollingFeles hehe, I have to admit that that game popped up in my head as well
@BESW ah, fair enough
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
I developed this plot I was interested in delving into, the kind where the players are wholly empowered to say how the dice falls, and developed some really fun setpieces for it. Some of the setpieces were very, very powerful, so clearly this had to be a campaign that stretched from level 1-ish (so we could get our footing in the system) to some level between 20 or 30.
that also meant it would take a lot of time, so i had better have an awful lot of content for it.
 
BESW
BESW
10:41 AM
It was the classic "Padding to level you up for the cool stuff" problem.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
yep
 
BESW
BESW
To keep the padding from being just filler, he had to make the world and the story increasingly complex.
And it got to the point where it was groaning under its own weight.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
all that levelling also meant a lot of experience, so i'd better have an awful lot of combat for it. but we found combat boring. i think that's half because combat just simply wasn't actually interesting to have at the early points in the story we went through -- the system just told me I had to have it or I wasn't Doing It Right -- and half because I didn't know how to make good, interesting combat encounters.
all that combat means less time on the actual interesting things.
 
Anaphory
Anaphory
Hello!
 
BESW
BESW
@trogdor [gestures upward] That's the other reason Bastion wouldn't be a problem for us: it was a D&D campaign because that was the tool Greener had, not because D&D was the right tool for his goals.
 
trogdor
trogdor
10:44 AM
mm
 
BESW
BESW
Kinda like the Island of the Scale, which I still haven't found a good system for--but Gumshoe is maybe promising.
 
trogdor
trogdor
normal Gumshoe I assume
Bubblegumshoe would be kinda weird in that setting XD
 
BESW
BESW
Normalish, yeah.
I dunno if there's an S&S Gumshoe, but I hope so.
 
trogdor
trogdor
well, yeah I guess I said it that way because Bubblegumshoe is the only one I have tried
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
I had three OMG moments with Fate around this story. BESW mentioned one: "I could actually just start the story at the final climactic encounter!". Before that though, in reverse order, were: "I don't have to do filler or level-grinding! We can just do the important, most fun bits!", and "I don't have to do combat all the time! We can just do story! There's mechanics for that!"
 
Anaphory
Anaphory
10:45 AM
@BESW Diaspora has some of its combat mechanics kind of packaged as separate minigames for generic-you to do that.
 
trogdor
trogdor
@doppelgreener the only problem I see there is not fleshing out and getting used to the "shoes" of really powerful Fate PC's
other than that though, there is no big issue
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
my favourite Fate lightbulb moment (as a player) was when I talked out someone trying to attack me physically
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@BESW D&D 4e's lore nevertheless seeded this story with so many beautiful things; Bastion wouldn't exist without that lore. But yeah, D&D (4e or otherwise) is the wrong system for telling this story.
 
BESW
BESW
@trogdor I have some thoughts about that; I've been lately considering bare-bones Fate options that lean heavily on narrative justification instead of specific mechanics.
 
trogdor
trogdor
@BESW I don't even mean mechanics, I mean getting used to playing a character
it isn't even technically a Fate specific problem
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
10:50 AM
@trogdor If I could do this story properly, I wouldn't actually skip to the final climactic encounter. I'd definitely take the time with my players to do the story justice and give that final encounter gravity and meaning. The idea of just running the final encounter was something BESW suggested as a potential way to test those Fate Hack & Slash rules I was making a while back.
 
trogdor
trogdor
ah, I see
I have no objections concerning it being handled that way
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@BESW A friend of mine suggested that a person's introductory session or two in Fate should involve just aspects and fate points (being spent on story declarations or compels), since those mechanics are at the total heart of the game. later sessions can introduce the other mechanics.
 
BESW
BESW
Pretty much, I'm thinking that's all you need.
Three Rocketeers shows a good way to handle aspect-based roll modifiers.
(It's an elaboration of a Toolkit hack.)
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
do tell?
hm. i'm considering if a new room would be appropriate because I want to braindump & talk about this in more depth & etc.
 
BESW
BESW
@SevenSidedDie Could you please unfreeze the Fate chat?
@doppelgreener Later, am cooking dinner.
Can't do extended.
 
trogdor
trogdor
11:00 AM
yeah, I think an unused room for Fate could easily work XD
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
Would be question about world effect balance be on topic for site?
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
depends on the question
 
BESW
BESW
I'm not sure what "world effect balance" means.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
I want to add something like ley lines in my world: casters would be heavily affected by this. For example: in certain conditions, I want to give casters power to "tap" into ley line and restore spell slot at the cost of hit points. And there are few more effects.
 
BESW
BESW
What system?
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
11:04 AM
dnd 5e
By balance I mean: economy balance between hp cost and power gained.
 
BESW
BESW
I dunno about 5e, but in 3.5 and 4e "power for hit points" was always definitionally broken.
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
in general in RPGs, options = power
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
Not how it would be fair or not to non-caster classes or monsters.
 
BESW
BESW
There's just too many ways to make your character not care about hp loss.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@BESW ok. :)
 
BESW
BESW
11:07 AM
I mean, I once made a character whose gimmick was to run into melee and cast fireball on HIMSELF. Because the damage he took gave him bonuses including temporary hp.
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
@RollingFeles I think asking about homebrew rules is ok, BUT answers need to be backed with experience and no one has played your homebrew
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
Well, the question will be: what's a good cost? e.g. slot level x casters hit die and ways to protect this from exploits.
 
BESW
BESW
That'd be answerable.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
pls also bear in mind that if you can exchange HP for spell slots, you can use those spell slots on spells that restore HP.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
@JoelHarmon I've seen a couple of questions "how to balance this homebrew thing" with pretty good reception. I will find examples later.
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
11:09 AM
the baseline would be Cure and any other healing spell
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
@doppelgreener Yeah, that's the sort of thing I want to know. Thanks! :)
 
BESW
BESW
@JoelHarmon Experience with similar homebrew is fine, so long as it's reasonable to draw comparisons.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
Well, I would be grateful for math/statistics for economical standpoint.
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
or hard system logic, like Cure in this example.
 
BESW
BESW
@RollingFeles My gut feeling from seeing similar things in 3.5 and 4e is that you can't do it. In order to make it harsh enough to not be trivially bypassable, you'd make it so harsh nobody would find it worthwhile.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
11:11 AM
Another thing I'd warn: with the exception of D&D 4e, D&D has traditionally lumped magic users with more, better features and flexibility as they go along to achieve ever more miraculous feats and more of them in the same day, while giving non-magical people... ways to hit people slightly harder with a sword. or stuff like that. D&D 5e also seems to do that.
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
so yes, I was simplifying.
@BESW not necessarily nobody; just the very desperate, which can make a great story
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
this is another feature that only magic users benefit from, which gives them power and flexibility (more stuff in the same day when a primary limitation on their power was always the amount of stuff they could do in one day! wow! who wouldn't want that?) while giving non-magical characters... nothing, like usual.
i would advise non-magical characters should be able to benefit from leylines directly, or there should be a similar offering to non-magical characters.
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
@doppelgreener it does appear to be location limited
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
@BESW I see your point. Still, I don't want use it to as regular mechanic. Ley lines would be something caster will feel, they will be limited with their geographic placement(players could try to draw map for them and invest in world magic-science!) and their activity time: some periodic event when ley lines are blazing with magic.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@JoelHarmon it's still making magical characters even more awesome still, while making non-magical users even more irrelevant for lack of the awesomeness they're given
 
BESW
BESW
11:14 AM
I once offered a similar gimmick in a 3.5 campaign, but instead of hp I tied it to XP.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
If players would consider planing to use it base on it's geography and it's period - it would be great.
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
in summary, we're answering his question, when we should just say "yes, it is on topic"
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
i'm not answering his question on how to do it, i'm warning of potential problems about it
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
@JoelHarmon I'm grateful, because you're giving me topics to consider, so my question would be more "researched" :)
 
BESW
BESW
...and it was a major plot point, as an entire civilisation of sorcerous demon-cats had accidentally level-drained themselves into catmen using it.
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
11:15 AM
"here is where this fails" is an answer...
 
BESW
BESW
@user3229944 Hi.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@JoelHarmon not to "how do i make this work", which i don't know the answer to.
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
research is a fair point, @RollingFeles
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
it's part of an answer at best, and i don't really care if i'm filling out that part of the answer.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
@doppelgreener I've read a lot about liniar fighters, but fighters in 5e are very enjoyable for me :) Also, I'm considering this to be harsh experience for magic users too: wisdom safe throw in order to bear with magic burning in their bodies. The thing is to make risky and interesting.
 
BESW
BESW
11:17 AM
Relephant: the stuff didn't give you more spells. It let you apply metamagic feats to your own spells, even if you didn't have the feats or the higher level slots to use them.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
Great suggestion!
 
BESW
BESW
The more levels worth of metamagic you applied to a spell, the more XP it burnt out of you.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
I'm thinking about just more effective spells too: more damage, duration, targets.
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
that's metamagic
 
BESW
BESW
The thing about HP is that it's easily, trivially restored.
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
11:19 AM
check out the sorcerer
 
BESW
BESW
If loss of HP doesn't kill you in that scene, it probably doesn't matter that you lost any.
3
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
@doppelgreener I'm thinking about non-magical things too. But it's another topic. Any ideas, examples of such gimmicks for fighters are welcome :)
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
kinda; multiple encounters without rest has its own pseudo-hitpoints
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
@BESW well, as always: resource economy.
 
BESW
BESW
@RollingFeles Look at spells, re-flavour them.
Fireball? Whirlwind of blades: the fighter moves so fast he seems to be everywhere at once, attacking everything.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
11:22 AM
And about healing: I think it might very well burn the users during this ley lines activation: everyone are overflowed with magic and then: boom, someone try to fill another flesh with some more and instead of healing, there are burns. But I want to show this to players before they try, otherwise I think it would be frustrating.
 
BESW
BESW
@RollingFeles Look up the Positive Energy Plane.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@RollingFeles i'd honestly let fighters and other nonmagical characters benefit from leylines themselves, but i'm not sure what mechanic it should grant them.
(@Joel now I guess I definitely am getting into the realm of answering it to some limited extent, but I think this is still healthy talk to have. if we happen to come up with a full solution, whoever's an expert enough to provide it could bring it to main site.)
Here's the flavour I'd dump on it: leylines are fonts of raw magical power, right? And adventurers in this world are around magic constantly; they've almost certainly learned a thing or two about dealing with it, even if they don't know how to make full use of it. Leylines would infuse nonmagical characters with significant power, one way or another.
 
BESW
BESW
I've had several instances where discussions here led direction to Q&A on the mainsite which was basically just boiling down the discussion so one person asked and another answered.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
Spellcasters would have the same happen to them (and they can let that happen), but they're expert enough in funnelling magic they put it to a more useful purpose rather than let it run rampant on their physical being.
 
BESW
BESW
It's meta questions that we shouldn't answer too much here.
Mainsite Qs are fair game so long as they make it back to mainsite eventually.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
11:27 AM
@doppelgreener That's nice! Thanks!
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@RollingFeles Yay!
I imagine how it interacts with each player character might vary, and it might be fun to let the players themselves say how. Some of them might have an "oh no what's happening!!" kinda experience as power just gets shoved on them; for some of them the leyline magic might be guided by their instincts to give them stuff they didn't know they wanted; some of them might be able to consciously guide it to give them roughly something they know they want.
 
BESW
BESW
Anyone who consumes a powersource larger than his head is going to feel it in the morning, one way or another.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
I will think over this. I want either situation where everyone will get some power boost or when caster would be more powerfull, but more vulnarable and with it limit the ways to shield caster. If they tap into activated ley line they won't be able to burn everything, then go away few miles and let cleric heal them, or just take a short rest. I want to make this tough choice.
And in the same time, non-magical users would be safeguards and they will(or it would be better to say: I want to arrange this) shine after caster played his part.
 
BESW
BESW
...wow these sweet potato pancakes are puffy.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
I have a couple of things buzzing through my head: magical creatures who hung around leylines too long and became enormous, horrific monstrosities, and giving leylines no drawback and instead just using the presence of one as an awesome mechanical/plot device for a particular setpiece, like an Epic Battle featuring Magically Empowered Heroes vs Ferociously Powerful Big Bad.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
11:34 AM
Still, the situation: "hey, caster has some neat and dangerous feature and we're better just because we're not affected by cost?" is kinda lame. If I'm not giving them features with ley lines, I want to add it other way.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
(in such a world I'd be tempted to say that the Tarrasque was, I don't know, just some brown bear that happened to be snoozing right on a leyline eruption -- and then it started pursuing other leyline eruptions to consume the power they're just putting out there for the taking, and it's still doing that today.)
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
@doppelgreener I'm thinking about ley hunter monsters or such. Caster who taps in, would become hunter's sweetest desire. So, party can ambush big bad and use ley line activation(they need to predict it's activation) and after the fight caster would be exhausted and vulnerable and party will have to deal with beast who wants him dead.
@doppelgreener that's a curious thought :)
 
BESW
BESW
Heh. "Let's lure the Big Bad Guy toward the ley lines so we can kick his face in!"
"...and have the Arcane Dragon of Doom show up to eat us AND him? No thanks."
"Aw, come on, we can take the dragon too!"
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@RollingFeles I am sure that in a world full of wizard academics for whom leylines would have particular relevance, someone would have started working on a way to forecast leyline activity.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
They have a thing with a npc halfling and his goat. I may give this goat an escape during such thing. They will love it :)
Ley-infused Goatasque.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
11:38 AM
@RollingFeles I love it.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
@doppelgreener Yep! Some lines will be known, some basis for activation forecasting too.
I want to encourage players to study this: map unknown lines and find the way to predict their activation.
"Hey, this Big Bad Guy is marching our way. We can face him now or we can use leyline activation in two days to overcome him. But during this two days we must arrange safe escape for innocent folk from BBG"
 
trogdor
trogdor
@RollingFeles perfection XD
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
I would love to see this.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@RollingFeles oh, cool. continuous plot device?
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
@doppelgreener yep, something like this.
 
BESW
BESW
11:41 AM
I'm getting fond of the idea that ley lines attract/beget monsters.
That makes them a hazard in and of themselves also.
A ley line could then cause plot problems AND solve plot problems.
An activating ley line means the locals evacuate while the hunters arrive.
Both of which mean extra cool stuff for the PCs to get involved with in addition to whatever the PCs want with the ley line.
[scribbles notes]
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
About monsters: "Hey, we need that ingridient for some very important things. Where can we get this?" "Well, have you ever met ley-infused owlbear?"
@BESW Yep!
 
BESW
BESW
"Ley-infused owbear" would be a good name for an exotic tea.
2
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
I'm going to save permalink for this first message. Gonna go through this and extract most valuable ideas later.
 
BESW
BESW

Ley Lines: a discussion with RollingFeles

45 mins ago, 44 minutes total – 100 messages, 5 users, 0 stars

Bookmarked 10 secs ago by BESW

 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
Neat trick! Thanks!
 
BESW
BESW
11:47 AM
Anybody can do it; use the "room" dropdown and select "create new bookmark."
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
Thanks!
9 mins ago, by BESW
That makes them a hazard in and of themselves also.
Can you please explain phrase "hazard in and of themselves"?
 
BESW
BESW
If monsters are attracted to, created by, and/or barfed forth from, an active ley line, then any active ley line is inherently and automagically dangerous.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
Thanks!
 
BESW
BESW
It means they aren't just a resource to be sought after and fought over; they're an environmental hazard, a menace to society, a source of adventure in and of themselves as well as a thing for other adventures to use.
ANNOUNCEMENT: Badges are now forbidden on the underground. Badgers, though, are still welcome, in fact we encourage badgers.
Tweeted by TlfTravelAlerts on September 29, 2016 at 11:41 AM
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
12:06 PM
@BESW @trogdor The Fate room got unfrozen! Huzzah!

 Fate chat and game room

Good questions raised here should hit the main site too! Fudge...
just as I created a hack & slash room too. i'll talk about it in fate chat instead.
 
BESW
BESW
@doppelgreener Yeah, I finished the pancakes and went to find another mod.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
The more I think about it, the more things came up to my mind. But the problem is: it should be given to players gradually. That's not bad, but it means I will enjoy this much later. I need to think about some neat things that I can play out early. Something to spice up banal dealing with goblins, undead and bandits. I was thinking about rivals(maybe some villain, who is socially untouchable and who gradually irritates players).
Some little drama or tension. Some sparks to add to make a regular sessions memorable.
@BESW Bon Appétit!
 
BESW
BESW
@RollingFeles Tonight's dinner is sweet potato pancakes with potato/onion/veggie dog hash.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
Mmm. Pancakes. Nice!
 
BESW
BESW
French fantasy writer, illustrator Jean Baptiste Monge described the wizard https://t.co/FuYXGe5yPN
Tweeted by CGdrawing on September 28, 2016 at 12:06 PM
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
12:12 PM
Mine dinner would be rice with shrimps.
Well, once more, @BESW, @doppelgreener, @JoelHarmon thank very much for discussion. That was enjoyable. See you all later!
 
BESW
BESW
Always a pleasure. ttfn
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@RollingFeles hooray! ttfn!
 
Shalvenay
Shalvenay
hey there @Anaphory
 
Anaphory
Anaphory
Hey!
 
Shalvenay
Shalvenay
12:27 PM
how're things going?
 
Shalvenay
Shalvenay
12:55 PM
hey there @nitsua60
 
 
1 hour later…
nitsua60
nitsua60
2:10 PM
@Shalvenay hiya
 
Anaphory
Anaphory
2:47 PM
Going well! Programs are finally roughly doing what they should, the weather is finally rainy as it should (not that that's a good thing, I'm not a farmer) and I am slowly gaining social circles!
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
@BESW You know it's against the evil overlord list to consume a power source larger than your head, right?
> in summary, we're answering his question, when we should just say "yes, it is on topic"
side note: how does one quote onself in chat?
I think that came across poorly. I intended to make sure RollingFeles got a clear answer to his original question of whether or not that question was on topic. I did not intend to try to kill that line of conversation.
 
Anaphory
Anaphory
@JoelHarmon One doesn't.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
3:03 PM
@JoelHarmon what do you mean by quoting oneself? do you mean like this?:
just now, by doppelgreener
@JoelHarmon what do you mean by quoting oneself? do you mean like this?:
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
@doppelgreener and... chat eats its own tail
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
I do; I suppose I should have thought of linking to a message
and of course it's too late for me to fix that. Ah well.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
@JoelHarmon well, I missed the killing part for sure :)
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
@RollingFeles I suspect I got misinterpreted, based on some other comments above. No big deal either way, as questions got answered.
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
Well, I'm still gona make this question a bit later. I'm very happy with the ideas that came up during discussion.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
3:22 PM
@JoelHarmon mouse over a message and you'll see a yellow dropdown arrow on its left side. click that, and there's a link in the pop-up that says "permalink". copy that permalink, and paste it into a chat message all on its own. shorter version: just right-click on the dropdown arrow and copy its link.
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
I know how to get a permalink, and I know chat shows some links in a special way, like imgur or mainsite; did not occur to me that chat permalinks were the answer. Thanks!
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@BESW woo! :D i just saw this.
@JoelHarmon permalinks are indeed the answer 8)
 
eimyr
eimyr
<shows up>
 
RollingFeles
RollingFeles
3:38 PM
@eimyr hey! =)
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@eimyr o hi
 
eimyr
eimyr
How are things?
@doppelgreener Aren't you on vacation or something?
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
3:51 PM
@eimyr i was! vacation time is over. now i am at work.
 
eimyr
eimyr
Oh I see.
 
 
2 hours later…
nitsua60
nitsua60
6:01 PM
Starting Curse of Strahd tomorrow night with a (HS) student group. Any who've played or (particularly) run it have pointers? Things you'd have changed? Things you hated/loved?
 
Anaphory
Anaphory
6:23 PM
@nitsua60 Is that the old AD&D adventure in the castle of that vampire?
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
it's a new 5e book
 
Anaphory
Anaphory
Ah. The ADnD thing is one of my very few experiences of that family of games.
And one of the better ones.
(Which may be due to the fact that in that case, I explicitly signed up for that playstyle, where in other places it was without reasonable alternative.)
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
"one of the better ones" for what?
 
Anaphory
Anaphory
It was one of my favourite D&D/AD&D/Pathfinder/D20/… experiences.
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
ah, as opposed to the system itself; got it.
I find the most enjoyable games are with the people I enjoy most. They make whatever system I'm playing more fun.
 
Anaphory
Anaphory
6:31 PM
They do help quite a bit!
I don't think I'd have played that much Scion if it weren't for the people, and the two games of Montsegur 1244 I played were different by leagues for the people I played them with.
But it's not everything.
 
Ravn
Ravn
7:09 PM
@JoelHarmon How do you mean it's capped?
 
Joel Harmon
Joel Harmon
7:41 PM
@Ravn I only have about five minutes, so I'll try to be quick
look up (or ask here) about Bounded Accuracy in 5e
in 3.5, at level 20 you could easily have a +30 in a given skill
In 5e, you start with a +3 or +4 in your base stat and generally can't get that over +5. You add Proficiency which scales slowly. So there's an effective cap around +10
since your base attack starts at stat+prof, you're looking at starting at +5 on your attack, and ending at +10 (give or take)
with that, I'm out
 
The Oracle
The Oracle
8:38 PM
0
Q: Tag Burninate Suggestion: [adventure]

Oblivious SageWe need to kill the adventure tag with fire. It's generic to the point of uselessness. Most of the questions that are tagged with it are either asking for recommendations (now considered off-topic), or are much better described by gm-techniques.

discussion tags burninate-request
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
8:58 PM
@Anaphory Joel's got it right. It's the 5e reboot of Ravenloft.
@Anaphory At the risk of sounding like an evangelist, I'd say that if you enjoyed 1e then 5e would be worth a try... if you're looking for fantasy-adventure like you played back then but can't get a 1e game formed. I played BECMI, 1e, 2e, then skipped the whole 3.x/PF/4 evolution and slid into 5e last year with absolutely no trouble.
 
Shalvenay
Shalvenay
hey there @nitsua60
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
@Shalvenay hiya
 
Shalvenay
Shalvenay
how're things going?
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
Just (an hour ago) got second project assigned. It's due in 11 days--on a Monday. (!!!) I'm going to try to get it started tonight.
 
Shalvenay
Shalvenay
@nitsua60 zoinks. good idea. hopefully said project doesn't impinge on our game
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
9:11 PM
@Shalvenay aside from your relationship with your druid, how else do you think Monday's DW session went? Do you feel like other players were well-engaged? Like the adventure's moving forward? Like everyone's having fun?
 
BESW
BESW
9:56 PM
Rare image of a shark stepping on a Lego. https://t.co/xkadJmPkRg
Tweeted by Sonikku_a on September 29, 2016 at 12:23 PM
 
BESW
BESW
10:32 PM
@A.McCurran Hi!
 
trogdor
trogdor
@BESW that is what it looks like, but maybe he is just going for air, it's about time one of them did :P
 

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