@Shalvenay Or ones that complicate your objectives rather than necessarily penalizing you specifically. Since I'm on the subject of Dishonored anyway, one mission had a logic puzzle where you had to figure out which of three sisters you were actually supposed to eliminate in the first place
@RobertF Ah yes, I think I know which one you mean. I like the XKCD version even more though (three guards: one always speaks the truth, the other always lies, and the third one always stabs people who ask complex questions)
And you either had to solve the puzzle, steal the solution from someone, or just shrug and give in to your urge to worship the Blood God 'cause once you start killing people in this party you gotta kill everyone before the target escapes
I tried dishonored and just couldn't get into it. not sure why. I also never got into the bioshock games (which is a shame, because a buddy of mine was the lead AI-guy...i think)
Was nice chatting with you. It's getting late here and I still need to go pick up a few caches if I am ever to catch up with my SO who is far more devoted to the hobby than I am.
@NautArch I mean, obviously not every game is for every person. I liked the narratives of both and enjoyed the gameplay challenge of planning a route through the environment, overcoming traps and guards nonlethally, and solving puzzles in a difficult and dangerous environment
"What do you mean a lone assailant attacked and disabled fifty of you."
"Explain to me how this happens in the world I live in."
@NautArch That's somewhat more understandable? The TES series changes mechanics in a big way from game to game, and coupled with differing tones, narratives, etc
I mean, you can't argue with a straight face that the stories of Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim have even the same taste on the mind
Pros: Spike traps, locked doors. Cons: Berk is to never be near the firepit in an emergency ever again. Lets perhaps not leave out gold and treasures unattended.
(In a similar vein, security guard debriefs in Deus Ex be like, "And then we all woke up in the air ducts. Getting out was a bit of a problem and I was elbowed repeatedly in the nads, sir.")
I think the falling vending machine we could understand. It's the fact that seven men are dead in the same area to the same vending machine that concerns us.
@Yuuki More like, "I didn't kill him, I just electrocuted him until he became incapable of performing any kind of serious math or innovation, yet fully aware of everything he lost and all the wonders he wanted to create."
@ShadowKras The biggest question I have is not that he kneecapped that guard but the fact that he punched through a window when the door is clearly open.
People often ask 'if the Abyss has infinite demons why hasn't it won the Blood War' and the answer is 'most everyone in the Abyss spends their time avoiding the Blood War while Hell invests force at all levels to it', and one of the ways Hell invests is in the form of the Dark Eight
they were once the Dark Nine before their leader got his skin nailed to a wall by a paladin, and out of respect for their fallen peer and his legacy, they have left his seat empty in genuine mourning of him
Man, that's gotta be a brutal marketing department. "Okay, third quarter soul counts are up, but we've got increasing mortal interference due to lack of understanding what the Blood War is..... Guys we're gonna have to direct-market this..."
@MadMAxJr It's not just a liason department though, it's marketing for Hell. Mortal Relations spends its time doing things like campaigning for increased influences of Law in societies, promoting anti-demonic activities, pushing for a perception of Hell as a beneficial evil in comparison to its enemies
Demon stomps into the middle of town. "MORTALS. I BRING YOU A MESSAGE." Then sets up his projector screen and projector, as the reel-to-reel video starts, "The Blood War and YOU!"
(There is also a Ministry of Immortal Relations which is widely considered the single most difficult, dangerous, and thankless job in all of Hell to the point where even heartless wretches like Belial don't mess with the guy because there's nothing they can do to make his life worse than it already is)
"Ugh. Okay, look we don't do the whole 'sell your soul' thing anymore. What we do is take your soul and make an IPO. You keep controlling shares of your soul, but the rest we sell off... Uh. Does your village have a quartermaster or financier? He might understand and explain this better."
"Local Chosen One is born, soul prices expected to fluxuate...."
"Frankly we'd normally just bring a legion through here and dominate you mortals, but it's just not in the budget and would dent the ten year forecast. So instead we're setting up business."
"Alright, here's your infernal slate, it should have a signal as long as you're with a good five or six-hundred meters of the hellgate. It's got a few apps to help you get started with this."
Somewhere a very oldschool devil complains, "Back in my day we ATE souls for power and sustenance you know."
Yeah but back in your day, grandpa, you could go to college for the price of a single nobleman's soul and buy a house with an easy down payment of three peasant souls. The economy is different now.
Half of all recently graduated devils can't find gainful employment.
The top 1% own 90% of the souls. It's unsustainable, grandpa.
Normally when you build your circle of protection, summon, and trap a devil in order to talk with it, you get a devil. Now I get his damned secretary and she just asks if I have an appointment. Now I need another goat.
And now Time-Warner Circle trying to strong-arm the FCC (Fiend Communications Commission) into loosening regulations on summoning circle neutrality to make it even harder for small start-ups to challenge big soul gathering corporations.
"We've been working on our image.. Classical definitions have flagged us 'Lawful Evil'.. We're hoping to rebrand as 'Corporate Evil'. It helps show our emphasis on corporate community and interests. Also it looks better on our business cards and has show a 33% better response rate in test markets.
@Yuuki They do always show up with all hope drained from their eyes, staring in uncomprehending sorrow at whatever new misery you've created for them...
I really don't need to attend an 'Underworld Sensitivity Training' seminar just because I lumped all Devils as 'originating from hell'. Now they're gonna make me learn the various layers of hell, their names, the kinds of devils that inhabit each, their roles, their history.. uggghhhh.
Then again after years of leaning how to pick my chicken there's very little I can't get away with in that store
This happened the other day: "Why are you calling that courtesy clerk William?" Me: "Well, that's my dad's name, and like my dad that clerk leaves my life whenever I need him most."
Customer I'm serving has to hold himself up on the counter to stop from falling over laughing
Management is looking at me like 'what witchcraft is this'
A little over a month ago I was laid off. It sucked, but whatever. After 4 weeks of sending out applications I got hired, and I've worked here for 1.5 weeks. A company that I sent an application to 4+ weeks ago JUST sent me an email saying they don't want to interview me.
It doesn't really matter, but if I were actually counting on the job or something, I'd be pretty ticked off that it took them a month to say no.
@GreySage Uncertainty, having to perform, sheer volume, life literally hanging on it — those are all big stressors by themselves, so roll them up together and it's a big drain.
@NautArch Not replying at all is common and accepted, and usually they straight up tell you in the job description that only people selected for interviews will be contacted. Just the fact that it apparently took them a month to even look at all the applications is whats ridiculous.
@HazyKingdom Yeah, it helps that I live in a very tech-centric area, and my grads are really good (I'm just out of University).
@NautArch Sounds like you got it together. I had one company tell me they were going to send over an offer package by the end of the week. I didn't hear back after three weeks and two follow ups. Then, I get an email at 12:40 AM my time to set up a call to tell me I didn't get the job.
Very glad I didn't quit my current job. haha
@GreySage Nice, yep, that always helps fresh out of school. Good industry to study into that's for sure. :)
We are probably on very different markets. But here, software-related universities does not teach you anything relevant to software development (i know, its funny).
I know my experience is one among thousands, but in the last two companies i worked, the guys who came from software engineering or development universities had to start from scratch.
@HazyKingdom A friend of mine tells the story about a nearly-graduated fellow student in a CompSci bachelor's degree who asked him what a compiler was.
people who develop as a hobby or have been part of open source development communities are far more familiarized with working on a team of developers, best practices, version control, documentation techniques, etc. All of which are more important than knowing a specific language, in my opinion.
It's one of those universities where they focus on graduate studies and research programs (and are very good at those), and the undergraduate students are just sources of money.
Im not saying you shouldnt get a degree on development, i realize the importance of the paper with your name on it, im just confused about people actually looking at your grades.
@ShadowKras Part of it could be less of looking at the grades, and more of looking at the classes taken (assuming one provides their transcript, and the transcript is course names and not just course #'s); seeing that they took a class on Real-Time systems could help show that they have at least some experience a similar thing to what you're doing.
With a possible check to see that they actually passed, so you can assume the potential at least learned something about it at some point (and probably ask about it in an interview)
@ShadowKras Exactly; "We're looking for someone to do some Python work on Real-Time Computing systems, HR staff; find me someone" ... Transcript: "Python 101, Advanced Python, Real-Time Systems"; Looks good!
Now, if im looking for someone with a degree in computer science, i must have a general idea of what that person is capable of, since he has a degree and im looking for it. Checking grades would be a waste of time, he could have barely passed on a specific topic but has several abilities not listed on that degree, like working well with a team.
@SevenSidedDie I pinged you a while ago with question. I'd be happy, if you could give me some advice sometime later, if you have time and desire for that :)
In my company, there are currently 3 administrators, 2 computer scientists and 2 software developers. Me (an administrator) and a computer scientists are the ones that have to teach the others (3 being seniors on the hierarchy of the team) how to properly develop to follow standards that we agreed to follow, even basic stuff like "dude, document your changes".
@RollingFeles It's really easy to fall into freeform RP. The best antidote I have for it (though, it's not really a problem if it's brief), is to drop some information that the PCs don't have into the conversation. That counts as a super-subtle GM move, usually Unwelcome Truth (if it's info on trouble) or Give Opportunity (if it's something good).
The habit I have most, that I have to fight most in DW, is keeping secrets. I find that DW in-character conversations go much more interestingly when I just have them dump information all over the place, whether it's info on something elsewhere or giving away how the NPC is feeling, thinking, or wanting from the PCs. Just speeds things along nicely, and keeps within the DW GMing method.
@HazyKingdom No worries--I was enjoying all the campaign/party/group-talk and wished I'd been around for it.
@RollingFeles hiya
how's.... [tries to remember if you're the chatizen with a newborn, or the chatizen who just got married, or the chatizen who just got engaged, or none of the above...] life?
@SevenSidedDie I did find with my few forays into DW that exposition/setting developments came out so organically, it was super-fun. Never felt like I had to push any info onto the players, it was always drawn out by them.
@SevenSidedDie yeah, I've noticed that the more info PCs have the more fun the game has. I try to barely cover secrets, so they could see what I'm doing here. Thanks for the tip about the info! I try to think more in terms of GM moves all the time not just in player moves resolving.
@nitsua60 Secrets-keeping is probably a problem particular to my bad GMing habits. :) I have this idea that things will unfold over time, but in an RPG where we play for 2 hours a week, a practical amount of “over time” turns out to be faster than my instincts say it should be.
That said, I've got three separate sets of houseguests coming this weekend, so if my wife and I stay together through that ordeal we're probably set for life =)
@RollingFeles I mean, my sense of plot-development pacing is probably skewed by long novels. The pacing an RPG needs is about an order of magnitude faster, and I'm slowly (taking years!) adjusting what I feel like is ideal pacing towards what seems to actually be appropriate pacing.
@nitsua60 three sperate sets of children(although with only one unit in a set) wasn't enough to be sure that you're set for life? :)
@SevenSidedDie Ah, I see. I hoped for 4h sessions every week. Well, we almost always got 5+ hours and although pretty satisfying, but a little amount content is covered.
@SevenSidedDie thanks again for advice! I'll add it to my notes. I want to follow the rules, try to speed up conversation pace and see how it will feel. I had some advice like "DW is hackable and every table adjust it for itself" but I want to grasp it in a right intended way, before making real adjusting. At the moment I'm just glad that my players and I are happy with the game and have a lot of fun.
I really love how fluent action inspired player creativity. Sometime I'm so happy with plans my player come up with. It's hard not to laugh out loud.
@RollingFeles My golden rule for DW is, if in doubt, add something new to the situation. This is closely followed up by my silver rule that GM moves shouldn't always, or even mostly, be clearly bad — they should just shake things up most of the time, sometimes even in quiet ways.
@RollingFeles Some of my favourite moments was when I made a GM move that added a new problem, but the problem was also an opportunity. The last time my Mage flubbed a spellcasting roll (it's freeform magic), instead of creating an earth spire for the Monk to land on during a big fight, they created it but it broke, so now the Monk was surfing on a giant stone spear heading toward the titan. It was a fantastic moment, that was a “fail” but an awesome one. :D
"I search the crates for suspicious things... and valuables." roll It's a 4. "You find a kitten." "What?" "A kitten." "What? But. Aww man. FINE. I take the kitten." "Really? Why?" "Well I may be here as a vigilante, but I'm not leaving a kitten in a warehouse with guys way worse than me."
I usually describe failed attack rolls as being locked in combat with a foe, clashing blade and claw against one another and simply failing to find a good opening to strike.
The first time, they were wandering the desert looking for a secret pyramid that could be anywhere within 100 miles of a certain point on the map (with a bunch of random stuff that could happen while searching), and found a band of gnolls carrying a group of 11 slaves, they killed the gnolls, escorted the slaves to the closest village and freed them because they are good guys.
The second, they were playing dark sun, they barely had any resources and lived off favors. And some npc who was a slaver (and a villain on a small plot on that adventure, so i had to introduce him sooner or later) walks in with a bunch of slaves, and they reacted negatively about it. But once he told them that each of them (3 being girls) were only 10 gp (the equivalent, in DS it was 10 cp), they bough them immediatelly to obtain all sort of slave work from them (seriously).
@ShadowKras That reminds me about goodness of my guys :) My players didn't care much about npcs and what would happen to them. I accepted that, but decided to show them consequences. After they jokingly ordered one of NPC to take a stance against orcs and saw how he died they felt sorrow. Last session they were a part of an escort, but they needed to steal what they guarded. And they really didn't want to hurt other guards because they were nice NPCs and they decided that they won't harm them.
And the third time was on this campaign they are playing right now. They were trying to pass some diplomacy checks with a local priest of asmodeus (lawful neutral city controlled by hell knights), so he could give them information about a location that was forbidden by the city guards. They fumbled their checks and found out something completely irrelevant, that slaves are not actual slaves, but people paying for a crime and all that stuff. Long story short, bought another slave.
Since this is a town ruled by a strictly lawful organization, i make sure to bring up the most information i can about local laws and crimes whenever they are looking for information about anything, so they are on the edge all the time.
One guy literally had to pay a 5 gp fee for casting Light on a public location that was forbidden to cast spells.
y'all should ask @Pixie the next time you see her about her group's habit of always resolving situations peacefully and nonviolently, even with horrific monstrosities the GM is sure they'll have no choice but to kill.
Sure it's not an attractive plot of land right now, but maybe someone discovers a dungeon nearby and all of sudden the bugbear is jacking up rent prices because so many adventurers want to find magic items.
You gotta look at your rental agreement carefully, man.
And at character levels 1 and 2 they were getting destroyed by this bugbear
they had two encounter combats with him, on both they had to retreat, and two non-combat encounters, where they had a chance to talk to him. On the second, they agreed they would do a certain job for him (kill a spellcaster that is on the lower levels of the dungeon) and they wouldnt try to invade his lair anymore in return.
A combination of bad choices, terrible battleground choices for them (good for him) and even worst rolls, made a CR 3 creature look like it is much stronger than he actually is.
so they put on their heads that they cannot beat him at their current level.
on the first non-combat encounter with him, they agreed they would buy him some slaves if he would let them pass freely. They tried to trick him and kill him, and failed. Which led to the second combat encounter where they lost again and retreated. On the second attempt at lets talk this out they had to explain why slavery is bad to a bugbear
i believe this entire deal with him and his minions took about 4 sessions, against the normal 1-hour combat.
well, i played him like super-sized Mogli that liked the taste of flesh (any flesh), that knew very little about human society other than "they travel inside my forest and carry lots of food, and my goblins like to play with them". So he was a stealthy serial killer (standard bugbear in pathfinder) that had a curiosity on how humans do things.
after that, there was a lot of chatting.
he is still chaotic evil, but he doesnt see them as enemies anymore.
> FB Poster: Maybe it's not about trying to fix something broken. Maybe it's about starting over and creating something better. > Poster's grandmother: And that's why you have a younger sister dear
The question itself seems to have been deleted however
Well, anyway, a bit of backstory: Our weekly RP night usually starts off with a bit of banter, and our GM, whom has had many years experience in the RP world, remembered one detail about a weapon from an old RP he used to play: a sword that dealt "12d1" damage
No that is not a typo
After doing a fair bit of research, (and a helpful hint from another rp.SE user - probably never would have found it without them) I found it: The Gleaming White Sword, from the Burning MUD.
Additionally, the "12d1" damage type is not unique to that weapon, they also have a Dagger that deals the same damage type (11d1), the Pilfered Parang Dagger.
These weapons are apparently used in lower character builds, for the guaranteed damage, but higher level weapons offer a bit more "diversity".
@Ben i believe someone did find that on the question, it was linked on a comment, but i guess you didnt get to see it before it was deleted for being off-topic.
