@Shalvenay just ran a Darkest Dungeon game yesterday night. Ended pretty late so I'm still feeling sleepy :p The 2 guys who showed had fun tho. Too bad they couldnt take on a boss-quest coz they would have been doomed, being only the 2 of them...
I basically said: not enough party members, go back! lol
@daze413 heheh, part of the reason I didn't feel comfortable doing the playtests with less than 3 -- too easy to get overwhelmed in some parts of that dungeon I reckon
@Shalvenay IKR? I felt so anxious: "please don't die, please don't die..." I gave em the high ground and a chance to prepare for the fight, so that helped a lot, tho
Grading is like broadcast-spawning: you throw out hundreds of comments and suggestions and corrections in the hope that one or two make it into the brain of the recipient....
Sorry, room. That ended up kinda a grossly-mixed metaphor =(
I'm making a quiz-style thing, and each link leads to the next question (or the end), and clicking the correct answer also increments a variable stored in window.sessionStorage.
At least, that's the goal.
But the sessionStorage item remains at 0, the value it's initialized to. I'm not sure if the value carries over or if it resets on each page. I'll have to check in a moment.
So, I haven't done a lot of scripting lately, but couldn't you have the answer just be a button with link css that increments a variable and then go to the next page?
@JuneShores mine were too, so I was thinking a college/university setting would work better. It'd also make life somewhat easier for my character concept in that Gnolls grow up like weeds xD (a 15-20 year old gnoll is well into adulthood)
@Shalvenay College may not work. The high school setting is basically a secondary antagonist in the setting, since it throws everybody together into an oppressive environment. College is nowhere near as bad.
@JuneShores ah. mind expanding more on the "oppressive environment" aspect of the Monsterhearts setting and how it fails to comport with your HS experience? I'm curious, partly because my HS experience was viewed through IDEA-colored glasses...xD
@Shalvenay My high school experience lasted half a year until I went back to home schooling. I just haven't had enough high school experience to internalize the setting.
@Shalvenay I was being crushed under the weight of the expectations of a magnet program and honors English as well as undiagnosed learning disabilities.
I'll have to ask around a bit I suppose. Does Monsterhearts elaborate at all as to what it's seeking from its setting, beyond the "oppressive, communal environment" already mentioned?
Page 157 has some advice for playing older characters.
Or rather, in settings besides high school.
"While the immediate social context can shift, it still needs to echo the emotional realities of high school. The main characters need to be in the midst of an uncomfortable life transition, experiencing alienation both within their skin and from the world at large. They need to get sucked into petty social politics, and have it be difficult to simply walk away from dysfunctional relationships. They need to be talked down to by most of the adults in their lives, despite the fact that they are capable and powerful in their own right.
@JuneShores So, Dog Eat Dog is a short-form RPG about colonialism and assimilation. One participant plays all the people associated with the Occupying group, and each other participant plays a single Native.
Scenes revolve around the Natives trying to carry on their lives while navigating the unspoken rules of the Occupiers, the first of which is always "The Natives are inferior to the Occupiers." At the end of each scene the Natives define a new rule about how they're expected to relate to the Occupiers, and both natives and Occupiers gain or lose tokens depending on how well they followed those rules of conduct.
The key is that the deck is completely stacked for the Occupiers. They lose a token if they don't show up in a scene, and once they're in a scene the scene is all about them.
And I'm thinking about how that'd play out in the context of the American school system being originally designed in the 1800s as an engine for cultural assimilation of the children of immigrants, and how it retains that skeletal structure today.
There's a particular school on Guam which advertizes itself as a prep school for kids who want to go to the best mainland colleges. In practice it turns my friends into elitist jerks who think they have to act like they're super affluent even if they aren't.
@Shalvenay I'm playing a game based on quarter-hour cartoon shows that a friend and I are designing, and I'm gearing up for a short, Fate based Pokemon campaign starting this weekend. I'm generally down for Apocalypse World games and of course I'm all about Cortex.
@JuneShores ah. I tend to swing somewhat simulationist myself (mainly for not "getting it" re: the way a lot of narrative things work as I didn't learn well about the whys of narrative structure in school, and don't get that stuff from my reading partly due to my hypertechnical reading tastes)
@JuneShores ah. that would work better than MH then for giving us an idea of how feasible online (voice chat) PbtA play would be then. Say, what times would work well for you? (I also want to loop @nitsua60 in on this if at all possible)
@Shalvenay I have some misgivings about DW, though. Mostly in the weak setup. Eac character class in Monsterhearts changes the setting quite a bit and that's missing in DW. I'd want to hack that back in.
@JuneShores Ever played Monster of the Week? I'm curious how it stacks up compared to other PbtA games, since it's the first one I played and it seems to be non-standard in several ways I don't understand.
Apparently a lot of its rule explanation assumes you already know PbtA from some other source, which was problematic for my group using it was an introduction to the engine.
But I think some of the classes do that same "we change the world by our presence" thing you're talking about.
@BESW Yep. Great AW games define the world by the characters and their conflicts as much as the core object of play. So both the moves and the world lock in sync to create character conflict.
A couple pages into this doc are the character sheets. Each class (or rather, playbook) has all its rules on the sheet, right there. That's not the setting changing part, it's just neat. https://buriedwithoutceremonyblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/reference-sheets-and-core-skins.pdf
First there's the Origins. Each one says something about how you came to be, and so that implies things about how all monsters like you come to be.
There are also certain moves, like the Infernal's _Soul Debt_ or the Queen's _The Clique,_ which define NPCs.
@Shalvenay DW doesn't have very much of this. The core character classes don't influence the setting at all, they're more about various D&D-like competencies.
@JuneShores I see, yeah -- even the DW Immolator is a self-contained entity so to speak. Contrast this with D&D 5e's emphasis on pact and patron in defining the Warlock...
@Shalvenay That may get tricky, considering the tone of the game. Always being a hulking dog kid makes normal peoples' reactions an issue, since being a monster is assumed to be unnatural to muggles. People don't know that werewolves exist, so a real life werewolf is terrifying. If it's normalized, that messes with the core assumptions of the game.
My first character was a fairy, but I ended up playing her super awkwardly since I basically did the same thing you're proposing, reskinned a class to fit the concept. The whole game was a series of record scratches whenever I had the spotlight.
I'd recommend taking a playbook, not changing a thing, and drawing out a character concept from the class. It'll go much smoother.
@Shalvenay Yeah. My best advice would be to set aside any expectations about what your character will be like, look at the "Playing the ____" section, and see what concept catches your eye. Then fill out the character sheet at the table with everybody else and see where it goes.
@Shalvenay That's okay. It happens as a matter of course. Usually, RPGs require you to come in with a concept and expect you to build to one. Apocalypse World games tend to have a lot of juicy concepts baked into each playbook though. Like a section of a campaign setting guide, but with blanks. The best thing would be to find the blanks and bend there.
@Chemus nods I think it's more "hiding from the monster within" in that char's case -- the default Gnoll is extremely CE in most D&D setting incarnations (to the point where it's the only race that Volo's gives a chapter to, but no PC racial info)
@Miniman I'm in this weird state where I get said to be both "too attached" and "too detached"
I picked that char as it seemed to speak to me about the whole "misfit in a modern world" theme that the concept behind Monsterhearts as I understood it was pointing me towards
@Shalvenay Yeah, ever since I can recall, gnolls have been straight-up two-legged hyaenas. Not even having any extra coats of paint or polish, just a Furry in DND form. So yeah, I can see not showing them as PCs. It's unimaginative, but not outta step with DND History.
@Shalvenay It's hard to explain why this is a problem, but I'd really encourage you to make a new character for each campaign you play in, and, as much as I struggle with it, making them different to the characters you've played before.
In particular, when you're looking at a new system, it's going to be a lot more fun for you in the long-term if you make a character whose concept grows out of that system, rather than coming in with a concept and trying to make it work within the system.
@Miniman the problem with that becomes a sheer bookkeeping one -- I do spin off lots of chars and char concepts, even, but if I go too far in the direction of spinning up chars, I'll wind up losing track of stuff all over the place and the resulting RP becomes a bit of a mishmash
@Miniman that's the thing -- I don't know what concepts the system really embodies until I've been playing in it for a little while
so trying to build a character for the first play of a system whose concept grows out of the system winds up putting the cart before the horse, oops!
@Shalvenay If you're playing in so many campaigns simultaneously that you can't keep track of your characters, you'd be having this problem anyway. Worse, really, since instead of remembering "half-orc barbarian with a drinking problem" and "nerdy, clumsy, librarian", you're remembering "Jherala" and "Jherala, but at level 7 instead of 9".
@Shalvenay You read stuff before you start playing, right?
@Miniman more precisely -- what happens is that I'll wind up with characters that sort of systematically evolve instead of organically developing, at best. even when I'm trying to be an adversary to my own characters, its extremely hard for me to sort of...displace them significantly, if you will, despite being able to throw them around like ragdolls in sickening ways
@Miniman I've run into it in spades in my past experiences in the persistent-world sphere
@Shalvenay With this, up above, you were reading about the Hollow and went "nah, this is someone trying to escape their past, not the concept I'm trying to make". All that I'm talking about is reading the Hollow and going "OK, this is a character who's trying to escape their past", then building from that.
@Shalvenay Yup. Just like with other social animals they adopt you as their pack. You're not a hyena, you're either food, enemy or scenery. Still not outta CE territory, though a lotta that is perception of ignobility that their rep as scavengers engender(ed).
@Shalvenay No, sorry. I think you're emotionally attached to your characters because you introduce Jherala and your Gnoll Monk to conversations at any opportunity. Or even without any opportunity. And then, thinking about a new system, you were thinking "How can I build my Gnoll Monk in this system?"
And there's nothing wrong with that, but it's something to be aware of.
@Chemus no, as in the campaign they were from was terminated by some unfortunate scheduling mishap, and as a result the character vision is left behind, seeking a campaign to attach to
@daze413 that's the thing -- I can't keep the concept by itself -- it's a vision not a singular concept, and rearranging pieces of the vision is like trying to put a puzzle together wrong.
@daze413 I wouldn't. Which is to say, I would, but I know I shouldn't. The halfling/gnome kleptomaniac wizard that I've made in 3 different campaigns needs to die, and I need to move on.
@Miniman because that can happen for me as well -- I can start throwing characters around like ragdolls to the point where people don't want to keep up with the degree of adversarialness I'm pulling out
and that can easily lead to a character churn situation
@Miniman "halfling", "gnome", "wizard", are all part of the details. I'd keep "kleptomaniac", or "wizard". Basically, strip down to whatever it was that made you wanna play it. Then you can have a skeleton that can fit better
@fectin Personally, I'd say no: RAI means "Even though RAW Monks aren't proficient with their unarmed strike, it's obvious that they are intended to be."
essentially, yes, youd be making a new character but there are just some ideas that you really wanna pull off. I also do get the point of killng your darlings, I think it's a good way to stay sane.
@daze413 I mean, I'm not saying "I'm never going to make a kleptomaniac again". I'm just saying "I should really stop making short people who use magic to steal stuff".
@daze413 there's also the issue that I had in my previous experiences where I had OOC/metagame reasons that I needed to hang onto characters, and that'd cause problems with retiring them.
@Chemus but yes, I know what they mean generally :) I was looking for whether there was some non-obvious distinction in the tag use, under current practices.
I think my Def on RAI up there is kinda considered "Baseline" and nobody needs to search out q's that specify it. RAW separates things as does Designer Reasons
@fectin I'ma mention something that I find funny: 'moot' def. is 'debatable', but everyone everywhere seems to use it for 'settled, or not worth arguing' (Not knocking you @fectin, it's just me...)
Huh, I always thought "moot" was "we don't know, but it doesn't matter". When a bear tries to eat you, whether he is hungry or territorial is a moot point.
@Shalvenay But having a character to emulate is so much easier...
https://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Amoot&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 That search is gooble's def of moot showing that your usage means the point is unsettled :)
@Chemus Tbh, in games which don't talk in-character (all of the ones I've played in), I find it difficult to define personality beyond goals and actions.
Not obsolete exactly, just rare. A moot a governmental body, like a thing, a parliament, or a town council. Not many places use moots anymore (I think there's a place in switzerland?), but its still the current and correct way to refer to those mostly-historic meetings
@Chemus Like, my ex-convict dwarf who's struggling to gain legitimacy through fighting doesn't really have much of a personality beyond that, but based on his actions in-game, he's terse, straightforward, tries to do the right thing but often finds it easier not to, and so on.
Moot as an adjective refers to something which might come before that deliberative body, and carries both of those common meanings (meritorious and irrelevant)
@Miniman the phrase just struck me; I must be on a mind-code/language kick tonight. But trying to gain legitimacy through fighting what? Legit w/ whom? etc.
@Chemus Well, it's not necessarily sensible or rational, but in his eyes, if he's successful enough as a mercenary, that will eclipse the stigma of being an ex-con.
speaking of making characters based off of movies, once had a halfling ranger that was responsible for a stampede that killed a wolf alpha, now he raises the young wolf pup to be chill
@Chemus Reminds me of an urban fantasy I read. Protagonist is a guy who can see ghosts. Ghosts mess up electromagnetic stuff. His box of music cassettes in his car has "protective runes" on them (which are the runes from the Led Zeppelin album). They don't have any actual protective ability, they just help him discourage the ghosts from touching
hey, @Papayaman1000 if you ever wanna hammer out that idea about a GM improv showdown, I think the party room would be a place for that, I'd be more than willing to help. :)
@nitsua60 Reminds me of the Thursday Next books. Every time the big bad's minion Felix dies, the baddie recovers the face to be grafted onto the next minion (who is then renamed Felix). He just really liked the original.
I have a very conservative friend (especially by Finnish standards) who is pretty much the only defender of the general workings (first past the post, two-party system, gerrymandering, winner takes it all, no universal vote for citizens) of American elections among my circles. I think even he only likes it when the Republicans score well.
I still want to play/master a political drama RPG at some point. Exaggerated to a healthy degree, of course. Like Ace Attorney, but with politics instead of legal proceedings.
