TRPG General Chat

Dr R Dizzle

11:16

Has anybody ever ran a boat vs boat combat encounter before?

My players are sailing to an island in a Mad Max style race with other teams of recruits, and I was wondering how people might have run it.

BESW

11:28

I'd probably model it as a series of competing skill tests. Each boat's captain makes the main roll after the team's crew makes supplementary rolls to give bonuses to the main roll.

First to get... three successes? five? wins.

Ties change the environmental conditions of the race.

(This is an amalgam of experience with 4e skill challenges, Fate contests, and a few other things.)

Dr R Dizzle

OK, interesting.

BESW

Encourage creative actions, like rolling to penalise another boat's roll, and creative skill uses, like Performing a stirring sea shanty to get the whole crew in rhythm.

Dr R Dizzle

So my players would have a choice between using their turn to attack enemy boats/sailors, and helping the captain (an NPC) sail the ship.

Anne Aunyme

what is your game system?

Dr R Dizzle

5E

Anne Aunyme

11:35

@BESW it seems like 4E has a similar rule called "skill contests"

personally I would put the boats on a track, with something like 10 squares

Dr R Dizzle

Also, one question I do have - the upcoming session(s) I'm running has my players in a Hunger Games esque competition with multiple other groups of people. Should I be playing those enemies as NPCs (so, rolling characters for them including class, race etc), or is there a more efficient way to do that?

Anne Aunyme

you start at square 1, and each turn each PC can attempt one action

Usually I only make a full character sheet for important NPCs, for the other ones I take a pre-existing one and only modify one or two features

BESW

@AnneAunyme I recommend Stalker0's skill challenge variant.

(Not his full re-working of the concept, just his hack on the original model.)

Oh, and I'd use a floor for rolls, where no matter what anybody else got if your captaining roll is under X, it counts as a failure.

@DrRDizzle I'd model each NPC group as a single entity.

Dr R Dizzle

@BESW I don't understand what that means.

BESW

You only need to break it down into individuals if there's a prolonged scene with 'em.

Anne Aunyme

11:41

personally I don't like at all the fact that everyone's actions are only giving a bonus to the captain

(that's the biggest reproach I have to FATE)

I like it when everyone can be doing something different

BESW

@AnneAunyme Everyone is doing something different. For those who are doing a thing which directly helps the ship win the race, that's represented by their successful roll adding to the captain's.

Anne Aunyme

yes, I agree

but it's easy to fall in the trap of encouraging the situation where everyone only helps the captain

BESW

It's not some abstract "I do nothing to give you a bonus" thing, it's narrating what you're doing, rolling to see how well you do it, and narrating how that affects the boat's chances of success--which is in turn represented by a bonus to the captain.

"Only helps the captain." I don't get what you mean.

If the bard is giving everyone a rhythm, the fighter is holding the rudder firm in choppy water, and the druid is reading the currents to find an advantageous route, that's "everyone can be doing something different." And each different thing gives a bonus to the captain's roll which represents the overall cumulative effect of their different efforts.

Anne Aunyme

ok, I played FATE, maybe with a bad GM (I never read the rules myself so I don't know how well he followed them), but basically we were against several enemies.

Each had an armor significatively high

so someone hitting them had a very poor chance of hitting

BESW

And I'm not describing a Fate (it's not been FATE for about ten years) mechanic, I'm suggesting a mechanic that's part Fate, part 4e, part... a few other things.

Anne Aunyme

11:48

I know, I am just giving an example

as we couldn't hit the monsters, we had to synchronize, and basically each turn was something like:

player A: create aspect

doppelgreener

FWIW, I've found it's pretty easy and common for new-to-Fate players (GM included in this "players" group) to mostly focus on playing Fate in a combat-oriented D&D-ish way, which falls flat in Fate. But at least you'll recognise it fell flat and know why.

Anne Aunyme

player B: create aspect

player C: hit

the combats weren't really important for the story

but they were hard, so we had to take implication in the strategy

BESW

If the combats weren't important for the story, a Fate game shouldn't have used full conflict mechanics.

Anne Aunyme

and the best strategy being always the same became quickly boring

BESW

Fate scales the mechanic complexity of its scenes the narrative weight of their content.

But it also sounds like you may have been facing some of the same problems this group did, with some of the same solutions maybe being relephant.

The atomic action mindset is useful to recognise as just a mindset, use it consciously and deliberately, and step away from it as needed.

doppelgreener

11:53

It is also common that people decide "oh, this is a physical confrontation, I should use the Conflict rules" -- when a goodly portion of physical confrontations are better off resolved by a Challenge or by a single roll or by narrating them as a difficulty factor in other things you're trying to do that are more important than simply beating anyone up.

Anne Aunyme

This campaign is actually on pause since several years, so I don't think we will ever play this again.

doppelgreener

The Conflict framework is kind of boring, so I'd only really dish it out if it was really, really worth it and necessary.

BESW

Some games (like UnWritten) cut the Attack action out of Fate altogether.

Anne Aunyme

And the reason we stopped is basically a school case of what you shouldn't do as a GM if your scenario needs a bit of railroad

(basically there was a doomsday machine, and by a combination of luck and perfect teamwork we managed to stop it. The GM told us: "Ok, then I need a break to rewrite my campaign, everything I planned was relying on you not stopping the doomsday machine")

BESW

Fate... does not railroad well.

nitsua60

12:04

@BESW what's the other half?

BESW

I mean, I managed to completely derail a D&D 3.5 campaign by having the physically most inept PC of the group grab the villain's power source out of his hands during his opening session monologue, so it's not like other systems are immune to going off the rails.

But Fate's pretty aggressive about chewing up railroads and spitting the ties at fleeing plot points.

Anne Aunyme

@BESW Actually just making us know it was possible to survive the activation of the doomsday machine would have been enough to make us not attempt to stop it

but here the only thing that was pointing in this direction was the insane difficulty of the thing

nitsua60

@DrRDizzle D&D? No. IRL? Yes. =)

Anne Aunyme

and considering how difficult were the previous session we were quite vaccinated to that

To come back to the Hunger Race problems: I recommend you to use a track of something like 10 squares, and put a pawn for each boat in the first one. Each turn each PC can take an action and then each boat goes forward a certain number of squares depending on their results.

nitsua60

@DrRDizzle Have you played with the DMG's chase rules? I'd certainly mine them if I were trying to do overwater combat.

There's also an AL module, "Bane of the Tradeways," which has combat-on-galloping-horses-and-some-carts developed within it--it's a nice model for how to add some simple "standard" combat actions to simulate that experience. Could be pretty easily re-skinned?

Dr R Dizzle

12:12

@nitsua60 I'll take a look.

nitsua60

5

A: Train chase sequence

DDEX3-5, "Bane of the Tradeways," has what you need, at pp.11-13. You can purchase it at Dungeon Master's Guild for a few bucks, or if you're an Adventurer's League GM you can still (Jan 2016) download it for free as usual. The module features an extended chase+combat scene, jumping from carria...

(for slightly more info, and a link.)

Dr R Dizzle

Thanks!

doppelgreener

12:28

@AnneAunyme to your credit it's quite reasonable to assume that nobody would survive the activation of a doomsday machine

BESW

> If he was responsible for calling something a Doomsday Device, he wasn't the kind of guy to name it in a fit of post-modernist self-referential irony.
- "Lust Over Pendle," AJ Hall

@nitsua60 Half elf, half dwarf.

nitsua60

@BESW Ahh... I had read it as "humans are (some of them) half-elf, (some others of them) half-dwarf," not "each human is one-half elf, one-half dwarf." Makes sense now. And is awesome =)

Do you ditch "standard" half-elves?

BESW

"Half-elf" is a polite fiction to describe elves with one dwarven grandparent.

(This actually came out of thinking too hard about a bit of 4e lore by which dragonborn are speculated to be based on a humanoid template loaned to the dragon god Io by Moradin.)

Anne Aunyme

the thing wasn't called officially a doomsday device/machine

but it was really easy to think it was one

BESW

Well of course not. That's just tacky these days. Nobody could get away with calling it a "doomsday device" since the 1940s.

Anne Aunyme

12:43

So what is the accredited way to call them, sir?

BESW

These days it's all about terse nouns. The Spark, or Decision Day.

Keep it coy, keep them guessing. It is a doomsday device, or a committee picnic?

Modern heroes don't spook easy, direct threats don't work anymore. You've gotta get into their heads.

Anne Aunyme

Is "Our Project" a good one?

(it's the literal translation of what the new President of my country claims to aim for)

nitsua60

13:00

@BESW "Doomsday Device!?" Okay, lemme call grandpa, see if his de-Frob-inator is still hanging around....

doppelgreener

14:35

@BESW Taco Tuesday! For the Kragle!

nitsua60

15:00

On a Friday!?

(That movie had me bawling, hugging my son too-tight on my lap.)

doppelgreener

I thought it was really lovely. :D

NautArch

@nitsua60 have you seen the lego batman movie?

nitsua60

not yet

We've currently got Moana looping in the nitsua house.

NautArch

been there. I basically wake up each morning to a song from Moana.

batman is fantastic - enormous amounts of jokes only nerdy parents will get. My wife looked at me every time she didn't get a joke.

Yuuki

We must all consider the coconut on this blessed day.

doppelgreener

15:12

@nitsua60 I need to see that. And the lego batman movie.

NautArch

@BESW can probably provide more context, but the Kakamora may not have been a nice thing disney did

Yuuki

I'm not saying that we have to accept Disney's mangling of cultural adaptations, but this sort of reaction feels very much like being trapped between a rock and a hard place.

NautArch

normally, i think a lot of "cultural appropriation" is usually an excuse to complain. Butin this case, it seems pretty legit.

GreySage

@NautArch Having read that article, it feels like people are trying to hold a disney movie up as an educational tool, and complaining that it falls short

Yuuki

These days if you're going to do some movie involving a non-Caucasian culture, you have to be perfect or else there's going to be tons of Internet backdraft. Oh and you can't spend the time to do it perfectly either because every second your movie isn't out is another second where the industry is only making movies about white people.

2

GreySage

15:24

Disney movies are supposed to be entertaining, not educational.

NautArch

It's not about perfect, in this case it's about using the physical traits of a culture and bridging that with a deragotory term for that culture.

Yuuki

Also, they provide a highly visible waypoint into these cultures. Your kid liked Moana? Oh, maybe they'll search up "Maui" on Google because they're interested and now they can read up on the original Polynesian mythology and see how it differs from Disney's adaptation.

NautArch

But yes, that's an example of why it's okay not to be perfect - but there's a difference between perfect and rude. The Kakamora was kind of rude.

nitsua60

I just wish the collective conversation could move away from the "you have a responsibility to improve X"/"I have a responsibility to shareholders" argument and more toward the "you have an opportunity to improve X" paradigm. I feel like telling others what their responsibility is can't help but come off pedantic, while coming to someone with an opportunity might be much more fruitful.

(Not saying anyone here's being pedantic. Other than me, as is my idiom. And profession.)

doppelgreener

The opportunity thing is more inviting and engaging too.

NautArch

15:28

The other issues in the article I don't really agree with.

GreySage

@NautArch I haven't seen the movie, but DIsney does have a bit of a history when it comes to unfavourable characterizations of non-white people

Yuuki

@NautArch Fair enough but they also appeared for like five minutes.

nitsua60

@doppelgreener I see the need for it everywhere--politics, town library council, religious work, ....

Yuuki

Which I guess means that Disney didn't really need to include them either.

nitsua60

@Yuuki Eh, characterization required Maui start moving toward a grudging respect of Moana, so they needed an obstacle.

It didn't need to be that obstacle, but whatever hey chose was like to suffer the same fate.

NautArch

15:30

@Yuuki Yeah, it's kind of an edge-case. I mean, it's not Song of the South level of racist.

Yuuki

@nitsua60 I dunno, they could've run into Vikings?

doppelgreener

Vikings in Hawaii would be a good name for a band.

nitsua60

@Yuuki I thought Dreamworks had the market on them?

How to Train Your Dragon (film)

How to Train Your Dragon is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated action-fantasy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures.1 Loosely based on the British book series of the same name by Cressida Cowell, the film was directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, the duo who directed Disney's Lilo & Stitch. It stars the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. The story takes place in a mythical Viking world where a young Viking teenager named Hiccup aspires to follow...

NautArch

They could have still used the Kakamora, just not utilized the coconut theme. I"m on the fence on the smaller stature thing.

Yuuki

2 was all right. I still have some gripes over the resolution (or lack thereof) of Valka's arc.

Adam

15:34

@NautArch (unrelated) Never saw the whole thing, but the scenes that I have watched from Song of the South didn't seem as bad as its reputation made it sound like it would be

Granted, that doesn't mean that the film itself isn't racist or deserving of its reputation, just that we've done a pretty good job burying the worst of it

Or, more likely, that I didn't put in very much effort in looking it up

Yuuki

Why not both?

Adam

Because nothing on the internet is buried if you have the drive to look for it

Yuuki

I mean, just because you can dig up anything doesn't mean there wasn't a good job done in burying it.

MadMAxJr

17:16

@nitsua60@BESW ColonyPunk looks fun, but sadly that is right smack dab on top of my Rise of the Runelords table. I would totally pitch a rant about how the foreign power has a not-entirely-defined power setup and that there is potentially outside cultist influence promoting dark agendas that my nation has a problem with.

At the very least that 200 word RPG is a fun thinking exercise.

WrongOnTheInternet

19:54

New concept that I think I'm going to add to most medium-large dungeons in the future: multiple triggers that when activated, change the dungeon permanently in interesting ways.

Lots of Zelda dungeons have things like that, and I'm surprised they aren't more common in D&Dish content.

Yuuki

@WrongOnTheInternet As far as I know, no Zelda dungeon changes permanently. There's always a reset to allow for backtracking.

Or if it does change, there's still a way to backtrack to previous rooms.

Adam

@WrongOnTheInternet I've heard that a sort of permanence was intended in some of the earlier editions. That is, every adventure that you would ever run would take place in the same world. So if you ever ran multiple groups through the same world, they would see each other's work happening around them

WrongOnTheInternet

@Yuuki I meant the "large overarching change" bit, not necessarily the "permanent" bit.

Yuuki

And for most of them, the dungeon itself doesn't change but rather your ability to traverse it.

Usually, the dungeon where you get the Bow doesn't really change all that much, but you gain the ability to flip switches remotely which greatly affects the rooms you have access to.

Something which might be a bit hard to replicate in a D&D dungeon.

Adam

Large triggered changes are really cool when you both see the changes and you know that there were other options that would have caused a different outcome. They can still be cool without both of those being met, but there is fundamentally no difference between a party setting off one particular set of triggers, but not another, and then leaving forever versus you having made that first set they triggered just "what is supposed to happen when you reach this spot"

I can play Zelda as many times as I want to see all of the different ways that the rooms can change and be manipulated. But my party rarely ever goes back into a dungeon once we are done with it. So, for as the DM I think it's cool that there are all these potential changes, and in theory the players do to. But they will very rarely ever get to see them.

So, unless the dungeon is released for public use, or run over and over again, it's a lot of work that you don't get to see pay off to its fullest potential.

WrongOnTheInternet

20:05

@Adam My group tends to do multiple forays into the dungeons, since they're fairly large and have multiple paths to approach through. Typically, there's multiple goals or the ever-present goal of "get money"

@Adam What size are your dungeons? More importantly, how are they structured?

Adam

I could see that, in that case, making a dungeon with large changes would probably pay off more than mine. My long winded post was really more about why you don't see it in D&D very much. It's just a lot of work that many group won't end up witnessing.

GreySage

@Adam Perhaps be more clear in what the changes will be, so that the players can actively choose which they trigger?

Papayaman1000

Well

Adam

@WrongOnTheInternet Well, My perspective is heavily based on being a player over a DM. Very very rarely do I get the chance to DM. So, I tend not to bother creating my own dungeons.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Adam I think there's a larger problem with published D&D dungeons there though, and that's that a lot of them are just plain bad.

Papayaman1000

20:11

I'm locked out right now.

@WrongOnTheInternet And how. Ever notice you only ever hear of a few of them, outside of full-blown settings? There's why.

Adam

Plus, I'm about as creative as a paper clip. And while thinking about what I would do is a lot of fun, it's typically a waste of my energy to bother building my own stuff since 9 times out of 10 it won't get used.

Papayaman1000

hey there @ShadowKras

WrongOnTheInternet

@GreySage Telegraphing is always a fine idea.

ShadowKras

hey

Papayaman1000

Do you, by ay chance, know how to get into a house? That you left the keys for inside of?

WrongOnTheInternet

20:14

@Papayaman1000 Are they in the door?

Papayaman1000

My SO will be home in an hour or so, but right now I'm locked out,

Yuuki

I should use more riddle doors.

nitsua60

@Adam This is it, I think. Page-space and writer-time are pretty valuable to just write out of the adventure.

Papayaman1000

They are on the couch. I think. They must've fallen out of my coat this morning.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 Do you have a door with a deadbolt and an excitable dog?

nitsua60

20:15

@Papayaman1000 Perchance you've got an Australian sheepdog that you've trained to recognize a few dozen words, like "keys"?

Papayaman1000

@WrongOnTheInternet Yes, yes, no, no.

@nitsua60 No.

nitsua60

(That worked for a college friend once.)

NautArch

@Papayaman1000 check all your first floor windows

one might be open

Papayaman1000

I have an air conditioner in the only unlocked window. On the second floor.

Adam

Trivial solution is to break a window. I do not recommend this though.

NautArch

20:16

@Papayaman1000 are you positive the rest ARE locked?

Papayaman1000

And my garage is locked. With the ladder in it.

@NautArch Yep.

Yuuki

> A: "Which weighs more: a pound of gold or a pound of feathers?"
> B: "They weigh the same."
> A: "Wrong, the feathers weigh more because precious metals are typically measured using Troy weight not avoirdupois weight and a Troy pound is roughly 370g while an avoirdupois pound is about 450g."

4

ShadowKras

@Papayaman1000 i happen to know a few tricks.

NautArch

@Adam I concur with NOT breaking a window. An hour isn't long to wait. Fixing a broken window is costly and you may hurt yourself.

Papayaman1000

I knew I should've saved a level-2 spell slot!

Adam

20:17

@Papayaman1000 Do you have a neighbor that has a spare key, or a ladder that you can borrow?

Papayaman1000

@ShadowKras Like the credit card thing? I haven't been able to do the credit card thing.

@Adam No, and probably not.

NautArch

NOw, i"m not saying that in high school when my parents were away I locked myself out and proceeded to kick in a window to get my keys so I could get to my football game (you know for marching band). And I definitely may or may not have cut my ankle doing said kicking.

Papayaman1000

@NautArch Not at all... not at all.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Adam Put it in a bin labeled "For future use". There are very few things you can't reuse.

ShadowKras

the credit card trick will not work if this lock is anything newer than 10 years old.

WrongOnTheInternet

20:20

@Papayaman1000 Do you have any outside doors with visible hinges from your side?

Papayaman1000

At least the gas station is only a 1/4 mile walk...

NautArch

@Papayaman1000 how's the weather?

Papayaman1000

@WrongOnTheInternet Nope. Except one, which leads into a sort of foyer, which itself is locked with no visible hinges.

@NautArch Sunny. Beautiful, really. And obviously I can get WiFi.

NautArch

@Papayaman1000 just chill on the steps until your SO comes home :) Enjoy the day!

2

ShadowKras

@Papayaman1000 what are the chances you can get a locksmith to open the door for you?

normally they will not do it unless it is your house.

NautArch

20:22

@ShadowKras bloody unlikely they'll beat his SO to his house.

Papayaman1000

@ShadowKras By the time they get here, my SO will be home, and pissed at me for spending a good $150 on a locksmith when they beat them to the house.

ShadowKras

People do that all the time around here, different country though.

Adam

@WrongOnTheInternet I've told myself that before, but it just isn't enough motivation.

ShadowKras

150 sounds like the cost of a new lock.

actually, a lock might be much cheaper than that.

Papayaman1000

@ShadowKras They are. But the door that'll come with the lock and knob when I rip them out costs a good deal more.

Adam

20:24

@NautArch I was going to suggest going for a walk around the neighborhood, but that works too.

ShadowKras

Okay, then simply go somewhere else for an hour.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 How is the Foyer door locked?

Papayaman1000

@ShadowKras Well, this is the somewhere else.

@WrongOnTheInternet Same deadbolt as my front door and my breezeway.

ShadowKras

i would get two paper clips and train my lockpicking skills.

Papayaman1000

@ShadowKras The funny thing is I actually have a lockpicking kit only six feet and some brick wall away.

Adam

20:26

@ShadowKras Snobby neighbors might call the police. Especially if they don't like you or if they don't see you very much

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 does the deadbolt handle extend over the doorcrack?

Papayaman1000

@WrongOnTheInternet Nope.

ShadowKras

@Adam if its my home, i could care less.

Papayaman1000

I was a tad paranoid when I first bought the house. It came back to bite me for... the third time this month.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 How do your windows lock?

Papayaman1000

20:27

I don't even know why I was so paranoid; I live in a virtually crimeless suburb.

NautArch

@Papayaman1000 The house is biting you? Did you buy a gigantic Mimic?

Papayaman1000

@WrongOnTheInternet From the inside.

@NautArch Yes. I call it "Eesleepoo".

Adam

@WrongOnTheInternet Some people can create material just for the fun of it. I just can't. I need a purpose to do it. And not a "some day" purpose, but a concrete "on this day, I'm going to need this" purpose.

ShadowKras

Well, i would start by carrying this lockpicking kit in my car

WrongOnTheInternet

How to open a locked window under 20 sec

►

Papayaman1000

20:29

@ShadowKras I can't tell you how many times I've thought "this would be a great job for my lockpi--- right."

@WrongOnTheInternet I... wow. If only I had modern locks. I'd sooner have luck with a neodymium magnet.

Oh, hey, there's the trash guy!

...And he's off.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 Well, what are those window locks then?

Papayaman1000

WAIT I COULD'VE ASKED HIM IF HE HAD NEODYMIUM MAGNETS

@WrongOnTheInternet Those spin-crank ones. You know what I mean?

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 Ah yeah. Those are tough.

Papayaman1000

You see, if my SO and I had our own individual cars, I wouldn't be worried about this. But no, why buy a scond car when it's only a two-mile walk to work?

(Hint: Because those are expensive.)

WrongOnTheInternet

Hmm... B&E is easy, but E without the B is way harder.

Papayaman1000

20:37

Come to think of it, I hope my SO is here after getting off work. They sometimes spend an extra hour or two running small errands... oi.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 Give them a call or a text or something.

Papayaman1000

In the meantime, hi, Chat.RPG.SE! I'm going to talk about tabletop games while pretending I'm on my couch!

@WrongOnTheInternet The phone also fell out of my pocket this morning, it seems. With my keys.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 Are you wearing a coat or jacket?

Papayaman1000

@WrongOnTheInternet I didn't know there was a difference.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 Might be a regional thing, I think. Jacket = Light, Coat = Heavier

Papayaman1000

20:39

Google says coats are usually longer.

WrongOnTheInternet

Huh. Well, one of those?

Papayaman1000

@WrongOnTheInternet Yeah, same here, but if you call it a "jacket", "coat" is a perfectly fine synonym; conversely, if you specify "winter jacket", it's interchangeable with "coat".

@WrongOnTheInternet But light coat/jacket/windbreaker, yeah.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 They're not in those pockets, are they?

Papayaman1000

@WrongOnTheInternet They were. Pretty sure they fell out this morning, though. The pockets zip up, but sometimes I don't pay much heed to that at 5:30am.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 Makes sense. You're typing this on a laptop?

Papayaman1000

20:43

@WrongOnTheInternet Netbook, but yeah.

Hence why WiFi was mentioned.

WrongOnTheInternet

Do you have a basement?

Papayaman1000

@WrongOnTheInternet Yes. That's locked behind a door, behind an old, beat-up, unlocked door.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 Said basement has windows?

Papayaman1000

@WrongOnTheInternet The block windows. There are a couple little narrow windows that open, but Mr. Fat Neckbeard here can't squeeze through those, much less do so and land uninjured after the ten foot drop that would succeed such.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 Ah, I see.

Papayaman1000

20:45

As an aside, I do not seem to have any pole-vault-worthy sticks in my backyard.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 I'd say to push out that air conditioner after climbing up, but that sounds like a huge pain in the ass

Papayaman1000

@WrongOnTheInternet Especially considering it took like three hours to set up last week

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 Yeah. Does the netbook have a microphone?

You could use that to skype your SO.

Papayaman1000

@WrongOnTheInternet Yep. I cannot, however, Skype (or slack or google hangouts or discord or...) my SO right now. We don't exactly use smartphones.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 Ah. Neighbors?

Papayaman1000

20:50

@WrongOnTheInternet Barely know 'em, and everyone on this street just sorta hates people in general.

There's a reason we all live recessed into the back of the woods :P

NautArch

@Papayaman1000 Just go introduce yourself! "Hi, I'm Papayaman1000, I definitely do not chat online with any Mindflayers."

Papayaman1000

@NautArch I'd be surprised if I could get close enough to do that before the warning shot.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 Now I'm trying to figure out which state that is.

Papayaman1000

"Hey, neighbor! I'm WHOA that's a nice arrow maybe I'll just step out okaythanksbyefriend"

@WrongOnTheInternet Northeast Ohio, incidentally. Suburbs, even. There's just a lot of people who like archery in this city. Probably the other reason we all live recessed into the back of the woods.

And also probably why our crime rate is so low.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 Ah. Not one of my top guesses. I was thinking "What state hates people but loves guns?"

Papayaman1000

20:55

@WrongOnTheInternet Not many guns here, actually. Well, so long as you stay away from East Cleveland. But archers? A dime a dozen.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 I'll have to remember that.

Adam

@NautArch Everybody knows Illithids stay off of stack exchange chats

Papayaman1000

@WrongOnTheInternet There are way too many deer here. The city put a bounty on them. They stopped after three days. It's a pretty wealthy city, too.

Twenty bucks a buck. Just keep what you kill. Fought with the state a bit about the hunting limits. The state backed down.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 Alright, you're in a wooded area? Dodge between trees until you can get to near their yard, then make a dash for their door while zigzagging. Once there, knock and ask to use their phone.

Papayaman1000

As a side note, that was the best week for venison I've ever seen.

@WrongOnTheInternet *thk* *thk* WAiT *thkthkthk* I JUST NEED TO BORROW YOUR *thk* PHONE FOR A *thk* MINUTE

WrongOnTheInternet

20:59

@Papayaman1000 Last time I checked, bows don't work so good up close. Probably would still hurt, but wouldn't kill you/send you to the hospital (most likely).

Papayaman1000

If this were the Dresdenverse or the Fallen London verse, they probably would give me the hospitality, if for just long enough to finish the call.

@WrongOnTheInternet Have you ever been to McDonald's and heard the local archery nuts talking about how they'd focus on kneecapping in the event of a trespasser? No? I hear it every time my son wants McNuggets.

And please, if I die, don't let it be while repeating a Skyrim meme.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 "Local man takes arrows to kneecaps, takes job as security guard."

@Papayaman1000 You live in an interesting place.

Papayaman1000

@WrongOnTheInternet "...unfortunately, he could not be reached for comment. After our top journalists made it through the fourth volley of arrows, he screeched at them and began to flee into the pines."

@WrongOnTheInternet Not half as interesting as the bipolar weather here.

OH SHIT A COP

I SWEAR I LIVE HERE

MadMAxJr

So I only recently discovered that McCree... Er.. Matt Mercer is an accomplished GM. He has some general advice I think all GMS would benefit from.

Improv and the Unexpected (GM Tips w/ Matt Mercer)

►

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 I'm beginning to wonder if bipolar weather just affects the central U.S. equally.

Papayaman1000

21:05

ok he just passed by

Adam

@Papayaman1000 Reminds me of a story I heard about a guy who shot a kid when the kid pulled into his driveway. Turned out the kid was just lost on a way to a friend's house and pulled into the wrong place. Dude was rather shocked that he was being arrested for manslaughter.

Papayaman1000

@Adam The part about the warning shot was kind of a joke.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Adam "I thought this was America!"

Papayaman1000

@WrongOnTheInternet Now that reminds me of Simon from Old Man Henderson.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Papayaman1000 Was that the spy character?

Papayaman1000

21:07

@WrongOnTheInternet Yeah.

Adam

@MadMAxJr Matt Mercer is pretty entertaining, and is very good at sharing his experience. I learned a lot from watching him and Matt Coleville.

Papayaman1000

"...and given your hilariously liberal gun laws..."

Cons: Locked outside of house, neighbors probably doomsday preppers.
Pros: Have a bag of cherry sours, a 2L of diet pepsi, and a five minute walk to the gas station.

Things could be worse.

Oh, and wifi.

Adam

@Papayaman1000 I was reminded of it because if you sit down every day with your friends saying "I'm going do this when somebody trespasses on my property..." and you drill that into your head over lunch every weekend, somebody is going to come down your driveway with the most innocent of intentions, and if you aren't very clear minded, it could end in disaster

Papayaman1000

Hey, my SO is here! Huzzah!

Later guys

WrongOnTheInternet

So long

Adam

21:09

@Papayaman1000 later. Take care!

ShadowKras

i still havent figured out what is his "SO". Safety/Security Officer? System Operator?

NautArch

Shamanistic Operator, duh.

Significant Other @ShadowKras

ShadowKras

Sacrificial Offering

NautArch

Gender Neutral. Possible Illithid.

ShadowKras

So he was worried his fiancee would get mad at him?

NautArch

21:18

If he called a locksmith rather than wait an hour for her to get home.

ShadowKras

Unless he comes home with a box of chocolate, that is bound to happen.

I see, in the end, while he figured a way to get in, she got there and saved his day.

NautArch

his SO is Mighty Mouse?

Adam

@NautArch You can't prove anything!

NautArch

Yuuki

Sesquipedalian Orthographer.

Adam

21:31

Squid-faced Orator?

Shalvenay

22:05

hey there @Yuuki

MadMAxJr

@BESW I think you recommended the Tabletop episode of Fate to me. Finally saw it, have a great idea of the basics now. Their startup method is way better than the one in the book.

BESW

Yeah, I've used several different startup methods and Core's default mode is... not great.

MadMAxJr

I think that may be the spark I needed. Throw away that part where you build party relations, let that develop at the table.

Make half the character sheet, not all of it.

BESW

22:21

I'm a massive fan of half-made characters.

MadMAxJr

Easier to throw part of the rules away when I see one of the creators do it. :D

BESW

Our most recent Fate campaign started with characters who were pretty much just high concepts and approach rankings. We came up with aspects that reflected how the players portrayed the characters as the portrayals happened, or that helped us do things we needed to do.

So when we realised Major Cooper should be trained in social graces and subtle conversational tactics, we wrote down that he's of the Boston Coopers.

@MadMAxJr I guess I "saw one of the creators do it" by reading so many different versions of Fate implementations.

@EvilHatOfficial DRESDEN FILES ACCELERATED character creation every hour on the hour! (45 minutes of fun in its own… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/869678373248745473

Tweeted by IPRTweets on May 30, 2017 at 10:14 PM in reply to IPRTweets

BESW

23:15

Kickstarter for Big Bad Con in the California Bay Area.

nitsua60

23:42

@Papayaman1000 So, I get that it sucks for you that you were locked out (and might still be--I'm catching up), but you're really providing some lolfigsl-worthy entertainment =)

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