I like offering the players the opportunity to narrate the results of their actions--perhaps have the God's player narrate failures, and the Ork's player narrate successes.
I'm trying to catch up on my horrendous backlog of design work, and lit.se chat keeps distracting me by finally actually being interested in stuff I know about.
The current list of integrated (we call this onebox, or oneboxing, ala search engines) sites is:
Stack Exchange sites: Questions / Answers / Users / Comments
Stack Exchange Chat: Messages / Rooms / Bookmarked conversations
Area 51 proposals
Posts from the Stack Exchange blog, the Server Fault b...
Ugh. Having skimmed the discussion in the comments of that post, he seems to say that flawed characters make bad decisions because that's just the decisions that their players make, through roleplaying. And that's different from bad decisions players force on their characters through aspects. Or something. Ugh.
Speaking of bad decisions, though, here's a curious observation. When a character does something terrible in Fate as a result of a compel, the rest of the group tend to be more understanding of this than when a similar action is taken in another system. Because in Fate, you see what compelled the character to do that, and know there's mechanics involved. Whereas in other games, it's just the character choosing to do something terrible.
And thus they could choose to do the same again at any moment.
In 4e, we'd sometimes have someone stop and explain why he was going to do something sub-optimal, and we'd get a glimpse into the PC's thoughts.
But there was no mechanic to encourage or support it, and it was just plain "bad for tactics, good for story," where in Fate we could literally see the player receive a token to use for good tactics later.
Fate also spreads the responsibility for bad decisions to the GM. It's an explicit offer.
And because everyone's not just stuck in the headspace of their character at all times, the group tends to be more willing to work together towards a satisfying story. Not just draw lines in the sand at the first provocation.
A role-playing game has each player advocating for the character they play, jockeying for the best outcomes within that character's ability to accomplish.
A story game has each player advocating for the narrative in which their character participates, jockeying for the most satisfying events and resolutions within the group's ability to accomplish.
...I wonder how Lovecraftesque falls into this dichotomy.
In a past week I saw so many "what if" questions at wb.se asked from curiosity in a no way connected to WB. And I'm not the one who think so. There was comments about questions off-topicness, but nobody cares. Worldbuilding on its way to become fancy Q&A about plausibility of anything.
@BESW Yeah, I know that it was discussed several times in this chat and I'm not the first to say such thing. But lately it's just blatant off-topic launched into hot network questions.
Actually, this reminded me about SO flags. On one hand there are a lot of talk about site purity, even with massive burninating campaigns. On the other, little-old question, violates rules, litters the site, but any flag "aged away". And no one gives a damn, that it's a first result in google for some querries.
wb.se should be idea-generation.se
There is software-recommendation.se. I think idea-generation could be a thing too.
@RollingFeles Hm. Potential WB.SE policy for its meta: questions that are just asking for verification of plain real world facts without requiring any world building are not on topic.
Ville can you frame your question out a bit? As it stands this is simply a question on existing technology which isn't really what we do here on WB. Check out the help center for more details on writing questions and feel free to visit Worldbuilding Chat and discuss — James15 hours ago
@BESW I'm not satisfied with that definition because it means any game where you control only one person and try to win in some form is an RPG, including first-person shooter stuff like Halo.
Unfortunately, I don't have a better definition than "I know it when I see it"
There's a kind of tag-cloud of qualities, none of them necessary nor sufficient, but when you get a certain critical mass of them together then you can confidently say, "That's an RPG" or "That's the Doctor."
I'm not a big fan of dice rolling trays, in general. I would be interested in dice boxes/storage, though. I've been a fan of Elderwood Academy for a little more than a year now.
I bought my groomsmen each a custom hex chest for helping out with my wedding last year.
@eimyr That's my primary gripe about them. They look cool... but for $100 for a decorative item that serves minimal functional purpose I'd rather buy a few books or bundle of minis.
I bought a pico projector two weeks ago and mounted it to the ceiling for projecting maps onto the table, but I also have a large vinyl battle mat for portability if I'm going to DM at a friend's house.
@LegendaryDude Craft table idea: one with a matte translucent surface (matted ivory-tinted plexi does the trick, otherwise a pane of glass with high quality print paper (not stock) behind it, preferably supported by another pane. Then you put your Pico underneath it and project mirror image.
benefit - matte map, no annoying shadows, gentle illumination of the table, no projector shine from above, no projecting over minis
it's also relatively easy because you can buy a rimless clear glass table, cut clear plexi to shape and put matte paper between. Glue at edges and you're done in 4 hours tops
if youre feeling super fancy you can even buy a matte-clear silicone and spread it between glass panes for super-high-quality matte effect with minimal light intensity loss
I can't get that wide an image with the ceiling mount. Right now it's about 100cm from the ceiling, and I'd have less distance to work with if I were to rear-project from below.
100cm wide image, with the projector on the ceiling, I mean.
In regards to this question: Should a player know their mount's exact HP?
I'm hesitant to upvote this. I agree with it completely, but feel it doesn't answer the question as fully as my own.
Meaning, from my experience the player should know the HP, but in the grand scheme of things, I feel co...
Oh oops someone accidentally took a screen cap from Fred's workstation hmm weird must have been some sort of magica… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/826539488176320513
In regards to this question: Should a player know their mount's exact HP?
I'm hesitant to upvote this. I agree with it completely, but feel it doesn't answer the question as fully as my own.
Meaning, from my experience the player should know the HP, but in the grand scheme of things, I feel co...
