TRPG General Chat

12:00 AM

ah.

I personally prefer 5e over 3.5 or PF as far as D&D goes -- D&D 3.x is the most breakage-prone system I know

I think that it's the consistently scaling numbers taht broke it. And that 'reasonability' was one reason I switched in 2k

Shalvenay

it's only reasonable to use 3.5e or PF if you want a high-power, high-magic game where you can fairly safely embrace the breakage

otherwise, you're better off in another system which won't gash you nearly as often with jagged edges

Chemus

I really like playing 3.5 in the e6 format :)

Shalvenay

(well -- E6 is its own beast :)

hey there @Emrakul

user61230

'ello, @Shalvenay!

Shalvenay

12:04 AM

how're things going?

user61230

Going alright! Kind of busy, but hey, what's new

user61230

You?

Shalvenay

alright here. trying to wrap my head around a couple of NPCs I want to put together, but am not 100% sure how

first is an elf wizard who thinks he's a ranger

and I'm not sure if I should go with pure Wizard, Wiz/Rgr, or Wiz/some other class (Ftr or Rog?)

(this is all in D&D 5e btw)

Chemus

How does he 'think he's a ranger', and how does this affect what he does?

Part of what I mean is 'Is he competent, or deluded, or what?'

Shalvenay

@Chemus woodsman-style life (vs being cloistered up in a tower) -- decent archer and some melee ability, some survival skills, but none of the nature magic (his casting is all arcane, even though it may have nature themes) or beast affinity stuff that a full on ranger gets (I plan to give him a Cloaker for a traveling-companion-of-sorts actually :)

Chemus

12:12 AM

@Shalvenay OK, so why is he a wizard acting like a ranger? Is this dichotomy story, or all mechanical?

Shalvenay

@Chemus probably somewhat deluded -- he's not a total incompetent, but no Strider either

user61230

Is this for a game you're running?

Shalvenay

@Emrakul will be, yeah -- got another short-form idea I want to use as a more combat heavy one

user61230

Since it's for a GM's perspective, I think the operative question is, how can you tie their decision into relevance to the story / PCs?

Shalvenay

@Emrakul their decision to pretend to be a ranger? come to think of it, I think "necessity" might be the best answer -- perhaps he was studying wizardry on the side while working a job that required him to travel a lot?

Chemus

12:22 AM

@Magician Try, try, try to understand, he's a magic man, Mama...

@Shalvenay I'm gonna say that for the mechanical aspect, it will hinge on what effect you want to produce; a martial woodsman, or a skilled hunter/tracker or what? Starting from the desired effects and abilities might inform your decisionmaking for the class mix.

Shalvenay

@Chemus yeah -- I think that's going to be the key there

nitsua60

12:46 AM

Today was going to an on-campus event where there were bouncy-houses and a mechanical bull, a BBQ food truck and fried dough. Two of three children are in full-on Chernobyl-style meltdowns.
We're taking the family to Disney next month. This does *not* bode well =\

hey there @nitsua60

hiya

how're things going?

gotta run--somehow contain fallout and get kids to sleep.... Back in, oh, prolly half an hour.

Shalvenay

will be around later tonight, maybe -- got some dungeon-y stuff I want to bounce off ya, k?

BESW

1:17 AM

@SPavel There's an official SG-1 game system, but the engine they chose is a very bad mismatch for the kind of stories SG-1 tells. So we're playing with a homebrew Fate mashup that uses a FAE base with Dresden Files Accelerated approaches, Masters of Umdaar stunt formulas, and the Atomic Robo refresh variant. I'm also thinking about bringing in Doctor Who initiative.

For the campaign, it's an adaptation of a story line I developed about eleven years ago and never ran because the SG-1 RPG system didn't work for it.

Ben

3:49 AM

@BESW So played a couple proper games of KoM and SURGADORES

BESW

Yey!

I played a few games of King of Monsters last night and made some changes--mostly clarity edits.

What are your impressions/feedback? Questions, comments, compliments, complaints?

Ben

KoM feedback - Good game, easy, quick to catch on. Only downside - the level of difference between the possibilities. For example, we had 1 player that rolled a 6 on all tables (in just the original variant), and the rest of us only had two features.

IMO, it was ok - it wasn't too difficult to take them on, if you used strategy, but it did become the 1vAll version very quickly

BESW

Interesting.

Ben

So maybe define some form of limit unless you are playing the variant?

As for SURGADORES, well the group wasn't too fond of it, but that was primarily because they didn't really lean into the silliness of it. The only feedback they had was that it was a good bit of silliness, just needed a bit more alcohol involved

However, at the end, it's very much a 50/50 chance whether you win or lose - there is one player left, with one portion of their mask left, and they need to get a pass on the dice. If they don't; game over, everyone lost.

So maybe there should be a rule where other SURGADORES that have completed their masks can assist in some way?

BESW

[ponders] Thank you very much, that's useful experience.

Ben

4:03 AM

I do intend to play a bit more, with some other people to get more testing. I do want to play the variants of KoM too.

Oh! that was one thing - the "Parts of your mask", there was a comment made on this on the draft already; have you come up with an alternative way to explain this yet?

Because some people literally divided there face mask into 3 sections, whereas others added additional "parts", like the face mask, a head mirror, and mybe some glasses

BESW

I figure some pictures are probably best.

Ben

@BESW That would be the best I think :)

BESW

Last night we played with Collateral Damage and Mecha variants.

Mecha still needs a lot of fine tuning, but Collateral got fixed and I think I'll generally treat it as a default part of the system unless I'm testing something which it'd get in the way of.

It's just not a monster fight if landmarks aren't being turned to rubble.

2

Ben

@BESW Precisely :P

trogdor

yeah, and the Collateral damage makes the game not take too long

BESW

4:14 AM

Aye, it actually turns overpowered monsters into time bombs.

trogdor

because sometimes you will have monsters that have too much defense and no attack

Ben

Well, the base version only went for 20 minutes :)

trogdor

that is fine too, I don't think it is bad if it only takes 20 minutes

but the option to put a timer on the game is something I am sure a lot of people will appreciate

BESW

And even if nobody wins, there's something satisfyingly epic about losing because your struggles destroyed Monster Island.

trogdor

well, not lose, just tied with everyone

I personally don't find that quite similar to a loss

Ben

4:19 AM

@trogdor If nobody won, no one lost

trogdor

yeah

BESW

6:10 AM

@JoelHarmon This tumblr post is quoting 14.

trogdor

6:27 AM

"are they all dead?" XD

I guess you die before you reach 18, and then live again when you reach 18, and then die after 35

XD

@BESW anyway, yeah one of the only thing 14 did wrong was women who had more to them than,... well you know

BESW

Frankly all the characters were pretty much just boring one-dimensional cut-outs of oblivious tropes, and the author thought they were so interesting.

The book's ideas were good. The characters... not.

trogdor

this is true

but if he defined women less as objects it would be more excusable that every character was technically boring

BESW

Yeah.

The Fold was a bit better. Not great, but better.

trogdor

and for me, the characters didn't need to be great when I was actually wrapped up in the core mystery

and later the [redacted]

BESW

14 reads like he's proud of himself for improving on the Isaac Asimov School of Character Design.

trogdor

6:33 AM

@BESW well, the Fold did have the Mary Sue main character

Ben

@BESW Oh! What about a variation of the Macha "Charge Points"? If you wish to spend points, you can buy additional features, or use them to spend instead of losing features?

trogdor

I don't think the points are supposed to be able to buy features though

like, I think they would be pretty broken or too complicated for this game if they were able to do that

Ben

@trogdor Well that was one issue we had last night when we played - we had one monster that rolled a 6 on all tables, and was super op vs the rest of us, with only two features each.

trogdor

that is kinda part of the game though

it was most definitely not built with balance in mind

Ben

It was very unbalanced for the Base version

Ohh ok

Well that just doesn't seem fair lol

trogdor

6:40 AM

I am sure something could be done to hack for balance, but the base game is not balanced, and I doubt it was ever intended to be so

trogdor

7:02 AM

I do get wanting balance, but I also know how fun it is when a game randomly swings things in your favor too

like when we played our last game of it yesterday, I rolled SuperMegaProtoHydraZoid

that was fantastic

Ben

@trogdor Did you win?

trogdor

(and then monster island got destroyed because too many people missed attacks XD)

@Ben nope

no one did

Ben

Oh, well yeah since it was the Collateral Variant.

trogdor

I might very well have won if it was not

but part of it was, all my features were Regenerate and Voracious learner

I had no bonuses

(and my special feature was transform)

Ben

However, in our game it turned into the Revolution Variant, simply because of the massive imbalance.

They only barely lost (it was 1v1 at the end), and they only lost due to a bad string of rolls

trogdor

7:06 AM

the only reason SuperMegaProtoHydraZoid got strong was because when I got attacked people couldn't resist hitting my body to see which features I would replace regenerate with

Ben

And we had no intention of playing it that way

trogdor

was it fun though?

Ben

@trogdor Yeah... but I can see people not enjoying playing like that. Being ganged up on unintentionally, purely because you're the most dangerous, isn't as fun as a free-for-all

trogdor

that is fair yeah

Ben

Especially when the rest of the party only have two features, and you have 6. It's really a huge difference

trogdor

7:15 AM

I do get that, I prefer balance in games as much as possible myself, but I also find that a game like this that doesn't even pretend to be balanced is fun sometimes too

Ben

@trogdor I see the updated version specifies the imbalance is part of the game

trogdor

yep

Ben

7:45 AM

IIS CAN GO SHOVE ITS DIRTY LITTLE [expletive] UP ITS [unpleasant place] AND BURN FOR ALL I CARE

Ben

8:04 AM

user61230

10:01 AM

Campaign inspiration:

user61230

(HD) Japanese industrial area -深夜の首都高神奈川6号川崎線（2013ver.）-

►

BESW

11:49 AM

...I just got the Announcer badger for a question I think I only ever linked once, four years ago.

doppelgreener

12:06 PM

@BESW i've gotten a couple of announcer badgers for questions i'm not even sure i linked anywhere

doppelgreener

12:31 PM

@Emrakul this person has some really cool videos

BESW

> Say my name. The first time someone says your name in a scene --even if you are not present in the scene-- you may place the boost Sudden thunder on the scene.

doppelgreener

@BESW niiiice.

Shalvenay

2:15 PM

hey there @Zachiel and @WeirdFrog

Heya

Hey

how're things going?

2:50 PM

@Shalvenay Internet crashing, logic rendition of D&D 3.5e character calculations failing.

RollingFeles

3:57 PM

Two hours ago finished another session. Introduced The Abbot to my players. Old man, who runs criminal organization which runs almost everything in the city. He blamed for cruelty and methods his lieutenants and said that he himself try to make better world. He offered big reward if players will find and bring him very strong magical artifact. Players asked for his one of the best lieutenants life(One of players has a deal with the Death, that he will kill this lieutenant).

And the oldman didn't hesitate for too long and they striked the deal.

I loved how they slowly came to comparison of this character with Palpatin.

ShadowKras

4:25 PM

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Anaphory

Hello there!

Shalvenay

5:28 PM

hey there @RollingFeles and @ShadowKras

Zachiel

I was trying to write a reply to https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/99829/player-abusing-narrative-freedom, but what do I know?
_I_ am the player with the power fantasies, and as a DM what I have done lately was just "the rules of the game do not support this. Also, stop trying to create evil characters. What about this good deity instead, and a story of being trying to reject your dark past? Oh, you've created an evil character who follows the good deity. OK, it's not like this will matter in my game anyway..."

I should also resiste this urge to talk about my "errors" without even trying to fix them.

Shalvenay

yeah -- my problem is that I get into situations where I'm using the rules of the game to support the power level I want over folks who are trying to use world lore and narrative convention to trump what the rules are implying about power level

like if someone started trying to play a super-gritty setting in 3.5e but left the core classes in -- I'd be pretty flatly telling the DM to go find a system that supports their game upfront, and if they refuse, I'd be in Cleric or Druid mode showing them what they apparently missed about what I was saying upfront

Zachiel

I know the feeling. As usual, I'm a bit of the opposite, building characters with the potential to be strong but who refuse to do this or that because it's not how I envisioned them.

Anyway, I'm baffled, sometimes, at how some of my players don't seem interested in roleplaying. I mean, they sure like thinking that their character is cool and can, for example, bluff the guards at the gate to let the whole party pass, but they don't want to make the effort to tell me how that happens.

Shalvenay

5:44 PM

I've done intentional deopts for IC reasons before, but that was actually a case where the folks who were complaining about character power found it to be not nearly enough of a deoptimization for their taste -- (I will admit that part of their problem was that they objected to the psychology of my character ,if you will)

@Zachiel some people just don't care for details (I ran head-on into that quite often with the more...technical stuff -- most folks don't care enough about avoiding handwavium to want to do homework as part of their RP)

@Zachiel what happened is that in those situations, my characters will fall into a "twilight zone" or "uncanny valley" -- too optimized (esp. psychologically) for narrative-driven RPers (I have a bad habit of "squeezing" out the internal conflicts within my chars for the most part, which tends to leave a very flat character behind in their eyes), while at the same time not mechanically optimized enough for the hardcore charopt folks because I do hold lore to bind where mechanics don't

anyhow -- @Zachiel -- do you recall that dungeon I was DMing for you a while ago, but we never finished?

@KorvinStarmast hey btw

Zachiel

6:11 PM

@Shalvenay Yes, I remember it.

Shalvenay

@Zachiel do you want to finish it up now?

Zachiel

@Shalvenay Sadly, no. I had two or three hours where I could, earlier today, but I'm usually pretty busy when you happen to be online. Busy or asleep, I mean.

Shalvenay

@Zachiel yeah. we'll see how this week looks k?

Zachiel

I'd like to be able to tell you a date, but I don't even know when I will be available. Not friday for sure.

Shalvenay

@Zachiel ah

Zachiel

6:18 PM

I will most probably have 1 hour about 3 days and 2 hours from now

I'm swamped by other games except when, suddenly, I'm not.

Shalvenay

haha

RollingFeles

6:43 PM

@Shalvenay hello! How're things going?

Shalvenay

alright here, got some time for a dungeon run if you're up for it, as for you?

nitsua60

@Shalvenay btw, sorry I never came back last night. Out cold at 9:30. (Which felt really good.) I'm probably around tonight if you wanna talk dungeon-stuff.

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 sure thing -- got some ideas for a combat heavy dungeon rattling around my head that could use some serious refining

nitsua60

[prepares furnace and crucibles]

RollingFeles

@SevenSidedDie oooh, the wise one, I'm in dire need of your advice. I'm struggling with conversations in DW. I've read ask nicely and non-antogonistic convo and I try to keep it in mind, but while I try to reveal something lorewise I often slip into freeform social action :( It moves narrative forward, but it doesn't look like something like examples in these posts.

I'd be very grateful for your advice how to approach this kind of things?

@Shalvenay nay, sorry. I run today 5 hour game and now it's 2 a.m. here and I wanna sleep.

@nitsua60 hello!

Shalvenay

6:51 PM

@RollingFeles ah, yeah. catch you some other time then :) (I should have plenty of it this upcoming week)

@nitsua60 [gets flux and reducing agent out]

nitsua60

@RollingFeles Hello! Get some sleep! =D

RollingFeles

@nitsua60 On my way! ;)

Ciao, rpg.se chat! Happy playing!

Shalvenay

7:11 PM

hey there @Christopher

Christopher

@Shalvenay hi

Shalvenay

how're things going?

Christopher

Good

Finishing season 14 of Red Vs Blue on YT

Shalvenay

alright here. chillin' out for the most part -- was hoping to catch up to someone today, but that may not be a thing

Christopher

ah nice gl

Anaphory

7:22 PM

Hello, good stackizens!

Shalvenay

hey there @ThomasWard and @Anaphory

Anaphory

Heya @Shalvenay!

Shalvenay

how're things going?

Anaphory

Good! Also, this month appears quite stress-free, definitely in comparison!

Although that reminds me, I still need to stat a fox before the game tomorrow.

And the town it terrorizes.

Shalvenay

good to hear. I'm doing OK here, chillin' atm. and what system if I may ask?

Anaphory

7:23 PM

Mouse Guard!

Shalvenay

ah.

I've wanted to try a Burning Wheel shortform sometime or the other just to see what that sort of system is like...

Anaphory

So it's actually less statting it – “Fox Nature 7: Fast learner, Predator, Trickster”, done – but more thinking what it might do to the town and how that might complicate the life of the Patrol.

Shalvenay

or perhaps you can tell me more about it? (IIRC, isn't Mouse Guard a Burning Wheel hack, or am I remembering wrong?)

Anaphory

Yes, it is!

Shalvenay

ah. perhaps you can tell me more about Burning Wheel then?

Anaphory

7:27 PM

I can't tell you more about BW than I know from reading the core rules once, a while ago, but about Mouse Guard I can tell you from play experience.

Torchbearer I have played once, as well, that's a Mouse Guard derivative for dungeon delving.

Shalvenay

ah, interesting. Torchbearer might be a fun one actually -- what's Burning Wheel intended for btw?

Thomas Ward

Greetings to thee.

sorry for slow reply, I be busy :)

Anaphory

Epic dramatic fantasy stories, I believe. Torchbearer has very strong resource mechanics for rations, carrying capacity and light, that's what makes it about dungeon delving instead of fantasy in general.

Shalvenay

@Anaphory ah.

yeah -- I tend to gloss over some of that (esp. lighting, because my typical assumption is that the locals need light just as much as the guests do ;)

but yeah, either Burning Wheel or Torchbearer would work for what I want to do -- are they workable for short-form stuff, or is it something you really need a campaign to experience properly?

Anaphory

BW character creation is lifepath-based with a huge variety of different life path stages. Torchbearer is Pick a Class/Race combination and then customize, Mouse Guard is pick relations (parents, mentors, …) and skills through them and then customize.

I think Luke Crane very much enjoys rewarding system mastery, which is strongly correlated with playing multiple sessions. It wouldn't surprise me if Burning Wheel strongly depends on multiple sessions to grow into Beliefs, Goals and Instincts before struggling with them and discarding them, and that's one of the core drivers of story in those games.

nitsua60

7:34 PM

So, I've got to step out for a bit. In the interests of a fast hold-reopen cycle (esp. for new users) would you-all mind keeping a corner of the eye on this question and reopen-voting (or pinging a diamond) if/when system is specified? Thanks.

Anaphory

Torchbearer worked okay for a single session dungeon crawl, but if you have multiple sessions, you have more choice of abandon quest/retry/press on, which I think wants to be a core part of it.

Shalvenay

@Anaphory yeah -- I'm ok with a 3-4 session sort of short-form thing and am willing to try a campaign, but scheduling tends to work against me for the latter

Anaphory

I have run MG several times as convention games or one-shots and while it has some of the Belief/Goal/Instinct mechanics I mention and they only come up mid-term really (starting in session 2 for the MG campaign I'm running at the moment), I have seen it work well enough as a one-shot taster.

Shalvenay

@Anaphory yeah -- I think Torchbearer or BW would be better for me thematically than Mouse Guard

Anaphory

Having heard some of your preferences and issues, I think the traits/checks (I don't know whether BW has it) system and the scripted fighting (which is in all 3) might be difficult for you to come to terms with:

In MG and Tb, there are GM turns, where the GM exerts pressure and drains resources, and Player turns where the PCs recover.

You gain the chance to do actions in the Player turn by playing out the negative sides of traits (one- or two-word character descriptors)

Once you run out of checks, you can maybe still narrate attempts to try recovery, but never succeed

Conflicts (fights, riddles, podium discussions, chases, whatever) work always by creating a disposition and conflict goal for each side in the conflict, and then chunks of secretly planning 3 actions from a limited pool (Attack, Maneuver, Feint, Defend) in advance, before revealing them step by step and executing them.

This “script, then reveal, then decide what skill to use, roll, then interpret the combination of Acton, skill and result in a narration, knowing that the next action is already scripted independent of what you do now” most people I played with found quite difficult to wrap their heads round the first (and maybe even the second and third) time.

Shalvenay

7:46 PM

@Anaphory yeah, it's definitely a rather different system than most

hey there @CTWind

Anaphory

Yes, and part of that is that it quite explicitly wants to reward system mastery and OOC strategic thinking, while keeping a strong moment of “fog of war”

Shalvenay

@Anaphory yes -- I can definitely tell that it'd interact rather poorly with the way I design dungeons as a DM

for instance, it doesn't seem to acknowledge the Goldbergian concept that a trap may be there not to drain the party's resources but to serve as the actuation means for some other apparatus (such as an audit system)

CTWind

Hello

Anaphory

@Shalvenay Oh, maybe it actually does. Tb encourages you to design consistent dungeons. The “drain resources” is more a metagaming interpretation than anything, it can just be ticking down the “torch burn” timer while the players find out that it's part of an audit system and connected to other bits somewhere else.

Shalvenay

@Anaphory ah. I see, I think

Anaphory

7:58 PM

And if the players come to it saying “oh, yet another part of the audit system, we know what it does, so we will do X”, it will ideally give them a boost and not drain resources, but that's again requiring player knowledge and some kind of metagaming in the mix.

Have you encountered The Riddle of Steel/Blade of the Iron Throne? People have described it as “very similar to BW on some abstract level, but utterly different in implementation”.

Shalvenay

@Anaphory I have not

Anaphory

Depending on why you are curious about BW, it might be worth looking at.

Shalvenay

@Anaphory part of it is I want to gain some experience with more realism-oriented approaches to modeling combat, as well as systems that are more generally simulationist (as that's an area of system-space I haven't explored particularly well)

Anaphory

That would be very much a point in favour of Blade and in disfavour of BW, although both of them also have a strong non-simulationist focus, explicitly stating character motivations and making it the GM's task to challenge these motivations (both by giving opportunities and obstacles specific to them)

One of the strong points of Blade appears to be a very realism-oriented combat system. BW's is, as I mentioned, somewhat abstacted with a particular idea in mind.

Shalvenay

@Anaphory yeah -- character goals and motivations are my main weak point I think when it comes to character design: either I wind up operating at this hypermechanistic level that doesn't have any story meaning (i.e. framing goals in terms of specific mechanical gains) or I wind up coming up with goals that draw on the metagame excessively, wanting to influence OOC elements through IC character construction and evolution

or I'll have my character off in left field tinkering

Anaphory

8:09 PM

I think that's a thing I think both these families of games can help with, in particular if you were to find someone good for GM.

Shalvenay

probably has much to do with my relative lack of RL executive reasoning (I'm very much not a goal-oriented person, especially over longer time scales -- I can set goals, but my brain just doesn't have much in the way of wiring to link them to execution)

@Anaphory perhaps -- it'd be worth a shot I think. do you think TRoS/Blade would be a better choice in terms of adapting to its combat system?

Anaphory

I know less about TRoS than about BW, and I had lost track of Blade and didn't notice it was published, but what I gather from reading TRoS (which was not well written, so that's not as helpful as reading BW) I think so, yes.

Shalvenay

@Anaphory nods

also, I decided I want to give Savage Worlds a whirl sometime, for that matter...

do you happen to know that at all?

Anaphory

I might as well buy Blade of the Iron Throne and read it, the B&W PDF is not expensive…

I think I may have played SW once on a con and read some of its rules at some point. Seems to be generic action with a very reasonable, relatively trad rules set, but I haven't paid too much attention.

Anaphory

8:38 PM

Anyway, off to bed now! See you around.

(Still haven't planned the fox adventure for tomorrow.)

BESW

I need to get my SG-13 notes in order so I can start mapping out the campaign based on the first adventure.

Shalvenay

9:17 PM

hey there @Emrakul

Ben

10:25 PM

Mornin all

Shalvenay

hey there @Ben

how're things going?

Ben

Not sure how many caught my little flip out last night...

But I'm better now

Shalvenay

good to hear you're better. I'm fine here, just in need of a bit of 5e help :)

Ben

Oh?

Shalvenay

working on what basically is intended to be a hack-and-slash style dungeon

Ben

10:29 PM

Shalvenay

the conceit is an ancient crypt that's been suffused with necromantic magic that's spontaneously animating the dead

Ben

oooh

Shalvenay

and one of the elements I plan to incorporate is an elf priestess who was mummified and buried there as a tomb guardian of sorts, complete with blade and holy symbol. she gets awakened by the dark magic, and starts to fight against the other undead in there

hey there @JuneShores

JuneShores

Hi hi.

Ben

@Shalvenay Awakened how? Is it like [sniff sniff] "There are evil magics at work" or is it more that the dark magic awakens her by seeping into her?

doppelgreener

10:35 PM

Good evening!

Hi @June!

Chemus

Guys! Shsh, DG's a mod now!

Ben

[hushed whispers]

trogdor

lol

Ben

@doppelgreener You remember our high-5?

JuneShores

Hey, @doppelgreener.

Love your new avatar.

doppelgreener

10:37 PM

@Ben oh no! i'm not sure if i do D:

@JuneShores thanks :D

Ben

@doppelgreener I have it somewhere

Shalvenay

@Ben the latter -- the magic itself is what awakens her -- but she was originally mummified with "standing orders" if you will as that part of the idea of mummifying her :) (and she was like a local priestess who tended to the tomb in life)

Ben

@Shalvenay So does the evil magics corrupt her?

Shalvenay

@Ben well, probably not as that'd make it obvious it was evil intent at work and not say wild necromantic magic -- it'd detract from the mystery I want to setup as a sideplot in this

part of the plot is figuring out why the dang thing keeps spewing zombies and shutting it off :)

hey there @YanBarcelos

Ben

@Shalvenay Well... her purpose is still intact... but her mind is clouded, so depending on what the evil magic does to her might cloud her judgement as to what exactly is "evil"

Shalvenay

10:41 PM

@Ben that's an interesting way to look at it. I want it to be ambiguous as to whether she's friend or foe to the party -- and something that's partly within the party's hands at least

Adeptus

So, my game didn't run on Saturday. One couple had car trouble, the other just had a bad week and forgot. Usually we ring to remind them, but it's my wife's friend, and my wife's phone died, so she lost all her phone numbers. (she doesn't trust Google to store them privately and securely)

JuneShores

I'm thinking about using a World of Dungeons-ified Masks: a New Generation to play magical girls.

Yan Barcelos

@Shalvenay Hey!

Shalvenay

@YanBarcelos how're things going?

Yan Barcelos

@Shalvenay Pretty good, how about you?

Shalvenay

10:42 PM

@YanBarcelos alright here

Yan Barcelos

@Shalvenay :)

Shalvenay

what brings you around here?

Yan Barcelos

@Shalvenay I am new to this website.

Shalvenay

ah. welcome then!

Yan Barcelos

@Shalvenay I am just strolling :)

@Shalvenay Thanks!

BESW

10:45 PM

[wave] Welcome!

Yan Barcelos

=)

Ben

@Doppelgreener here

BESW

This chat is dedicated to the Role-playing Games part of the Stack Exchange network; you're quite welcome here, but you may be looking for one of the chat rooms associated with Biology.

Shalvenay

@Ben -- the other part is "what deity would work well?" I was thinking Corellon, but I'm not 100% sure if that'd strike a bit of a dissonant note with the way she was buried (embalmed and given a warrior's burial as a tomb guardian)

doppelgreener

@Ben me @ reading that conversation again:

Jul 8 '15 at 0:38, by doppelgreener

@Chemus I am! I'm a Diamond now!

Shalvenay

10:49 PM

@Ben -- another good question is "how'd she die?"

Ben

@Shalvenay Have you ever played Dark Souls 2? (Probably not, but thought I'd check)

Shalvenay

@Ben I have not

BESW

28

Q: How to handle the magical girl genre in Fate Core?

I'm a newcomer to Fate Core, and working out a magic system is daunting. I have read over the core and glanced through the system toolkit as well, but some experience-based advice would be helpful (particularly from those who have played superhero games in Fate with defined magic systems). I'm ...

JuneShores

Ooh.

Ben

@Shalvenay Yeah no worries. Anyways: There is a character there that was tasked with protecting the grave of his king. The reason is unclear. Is he keeping people out? or keeping his King in? One thing we do know for certain, is that when killed his soul (an item you receive in the game when killing bosses) is a Dark Soul. (Which is as ominous as it sounds)

Shalvenay

10:55 PM

@Ben nods

Ben

So it's entirely possible that she was simply reaching the end of her life, and she was chosen to go beyond death, with this eternal task

Shalvenay

so yeah -- it's two things so far: 1) how'd she die? and 2) how do I sanely give a mummy a few (I was thinking 3?) levels in Cleric

@Ben that is possible, I suppose

Ben

Or perhaps she chose to die, willingly

Shalvenay

@Ben sacrifice, perhaps as a ritual?

Ben

@Shalvenay Sounds reasonable

BESW

10:59 PM

@JuneShores I don't actually know a lot about the genre; I talked with Pixie a lot in chat before writing that answer, and also I'd probably pare it down to something simpler now.

Shalvenay

yeah -- I'm leaning away from the ritual sacrifice thing myself, come to think of it, though. chosen at the end of her life could work, although it's kind of antidramatic at the same time. Perhaps she was felled/sacrificed herself in battle?

JuneShores

That looks like basically a good way to handle it, @BESW. Though my intent is to do this over play-by-post, so Fate may not be the best option. The negotiation around compels and stuff tends to take up a bit too much bandwidth for asynchronous messages to support.

BESW

True.

Ben

@Shalvenay Well, she's an elf right?

Shalvenay

@Ben indeed

Ben

11:02 PM

So they're technically immortal. So there would have to be some reason why her life was cut short

JuneShores

@BESW Thanks though, it does point me in a direction for stuff to consider in whatever I use.

Ben

Battle... sickness...

BESW

I think the core of the concept is focusing on qualities like character traits, relationships, and problem-solving approaches, which apply to the magical girl no matter what context she's in or what tools she has at her disposal.

Ben

Misadventures...

Shalvenay

@Ben yeah -- falling in battle would be appropriate I think but what sort of fight? or yeah, misadventure could be a thing as well

BESW

11:03 PM

She's still the same person, and from what I can tell that's a crucial part of most Magical Girl stories.

....maybe for my next game design project I'll revisit Hounds of God.

Ben

@BESW Hounds of Doge

Shalvenay

setting that aside -- would there be anything significant to consider when giving a mummy a few cleric levels?

Ben

@Shalvenay A misadventure might be that she some how lost her elven longevity?

JuneShores

@BESW That's exactly right.

BESW

It's a structured Fate one-shot adventure inspired by the testimony of Thiess of Kaltenbrun: It is 1692. The good Lutheran peasants of Livonia are like peasants anywhere else: they scrape a living out of the soil, pay taxes, and turn into werewolves to defend their crops from the forces of Satan.

Ben

11:06 PM

@Shalvenay Well, she's technically undead, so you're trying to make an undead cleric?

Shalvenay

@Ben or simply lost her life in misadventure

@Ben yes

Ben

Well IMO, I don't really see any problem with it.

An undead paladin however... well... that's just an oxymoron

Shalvenay

@Ben yeah, my concern would be silliness like self-turning but I don't think that's something I should fret about :) (I can just handwave it)

@Ben I dunno, given the way paladins work in 5e...

Ben

[Sniffs the air] "I smell evil lurking nearby..." [sniffs around a bit more... then starts sniffing their own armpit] "It's me!"

BESW

But since the last time I worked on it, I've played and written a lot of microgames and I'm thinking maybe a full Fate Accelerated treatment is too much.

Ben

11:10 PM

[Proceeds to inflict righteous justice upon themselves]

Shalvenay

so yeah -- one of the other things I need are various flavors of zombies -- i.e. stronger vs weaker. should I just be taking the base Zombie and giving them class levels in...something? or how should I be making these adjustments?

Ben

@Shalvenay Re-skin

Easiest option

Shalvenay

I could reskin the ogre zombie statblock for a superzombie...

Ben

And maybe add "undead fortitude"

I turned a ghoul into a ghoul-zombie once

Made for a good boss monster

Shalvenay

yeah, the ogre zombie reskinned would make a good superzombie

JuneShores

11:19 PM

@BESW I'm thinking the rules for magical girls would be nearly the same for My Little Pony. I'd like friendships to matter and for characters' issues to drive the story. Everything else is window dressing.

BESW

@JuneShores I keep trying to read Misspent Youth because it sounds like useful reference for this kind of thing even if it's not a good fit as-is (and was recommended to me for playing in Monáe's Wundaground), but I think I need to shell out the $5 for the non-Eyebleed version.

JuneShores

@BESW Hmmm. That's an idea.

BESW

Are you familiar with Misspent Youth?

Ben

@JuneShores Left handed pencils

Also an idea

JuneShores

@BESW It was one of the first games I ever bought. I still haven't played it yet.

BESW

11:25 PM

Cool. It looks very interesting, but I'm having a horrible time reading the free version.

JuneShores

@BESW That's understandable.

BESW

...also I don't know anybody who'd want to play Wundaground rebels except because I was excited about it and they're willing to go along for the ride.

Ben