TRPG General Chat

BESW

1:45 AM

@Magician For your next 13th Age monster write-up, I have a suggestion or two...

They say no man is an island, but I know what I saw out there. Islandman is real.

Tweeted by ceejoyner on June 12, 2013 at 12:52 PM

.@ceejoyner @tef You misheard. It’s Norman. Norman is an island.

Tweeted by CoralineAda on November 13, 2014 at 3:50 PM in reply to ceejoyner

nitsua60

@BESW in case you hadn't seen it yet:

A schism between the pro-panhandle and anti-panhandle factions eventually led to war, but both sides spent too much time working on their flag designs to actually do much fighting.

BESW

I'm more concerned about how the graphic designers appear to have flooded Canada and Mexico, and created man-made islands in the shape of Alaska and Hawaii on the shoals of what used to be Mexico.

nitsua60

@BESW I assumed that was the civil engineers. They saw this (grey-line) map on a wall somewhere and took it as instruction =)

Shalvenay

hey there @nitsua60

nitsua60

Hiya.

Shalvenay

1:55 AM

how're things going?

nitsua60

Aviation question that you or @KorvinStarmast might have some insight into: I saw "VTOL or vectored thrust systems" mentioned in an answer and was confused. Isn't that redundant? Isn't all VTOL some form of vectored thrust? Or is vectored thrust a term of art only applying to the use of louvers to redirect normally-forward thrust in a different direction?

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 hrm, mind linking the answer? could use a bit of context here

nitsua60

(In other news, I really like saying the word "louver" out loud.)

Though perhaps I mean cowling, rather than louver? Day of the Cheetah's been a long time reading.

15

A: Why can't you ditch your aircraft in the sea?

First, I'm taking this to be about fighter jet aircraft and similar. Airliners, general aviation jet aircraft, and others, are different, and there have been plenty of examples of jet aircraft ditching in water and everyone surviving. US Airways flight 1549 is a relatively recent (January 2009) e...

Shalvenay

aaah. jetborne VTOL is basically a special-case of thrust vectoring

the primary difference is in the range of operation if you will

nitsua60

VTOL being the classic "rotate the whole thing 60 or even 90 degrees," while vectored thrust operates over a smaller range?

BESW

2:01 AM

@nitsua60 I grew up in a house with louvered windows!

nitsua60

Did you louve them?

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 exactly

the Harrier's nozzles actually go slightly past the 90deg mark, but can't go up past 0 deg

nitsua60

Aug 22 at 5:47, by daze413

Aug 11 at 3:55, by Miniman

2 days ago, by daze413

Jun 16 at 2:57, by Miniman

20 mins ago, by BESW

2 days ago, by nitsua60

@JoelHarmon feature-request "groan" button next to "star" button.

Shalvenay

while in maneuvering thrust vectoring, it'll be like +15 to -15 or smth like that

nitsua60

@Shalvenay So it'll ~~fly~~ thrust backward, but not down?

Shalvenay

2:03 AM

@nitsua60 you probably could get a Harrier to fly backwards slowly in a jetborne state, but the main use of pointing your nozzles that far down is for braking on landing

the net effect is similar to thrust reversers (the Harrier has relatively wimpy brakes and no wing spoilers)

nitsua60

2:32 AM

USA vs. Japan giant robot battle right now. (With thanks to @Zyera for the link.)

user61230

:]

Shalvenay

hey there @Zyera, how're things going?

user61230

Busy, very busy

Shalvenay

ah. a bit on the quiet side here atm, although I do have a question for you

also @nitsua60 -- mind if I ping you on Discord?

user61230

What's up?

nitsua60

2:36 AM

@Shalvenay do it. Though much of my attention will be on the mecha-sumo match =)

Shalvenay

@Zyera re: that swordsman from that Burning Wheel game you mentioned, who hadn't gotten into an actual fight yet -- what degree of training does that char have/is that char asusmed to have?

user61230

@Shalvenay He's not a swordsman - he's a sorcerer. And... has no sword training.

Shalvenay

@Zyera sheesh.

why does he even carry the thing? haha

user61230

Someone put a sword in his hands, and it would have been rude to refuse.

user61230

Also, he has to at least pretend like he can defend himself without sorcery, because sorcery is heresy.

trogdor

2:37 AM

@nitsua60 ah ##%$$%ing &&#%&$(## right in the middle of my work day

user61230

And, um. He was doing work for the church at the time.

Shalvenay

ah, haha

trogdor

I would so be watching that right now

nitsua60

Wow. That was a little lame.

Reminds me of what-if.xkcd.com/5

trogdor

What happened?

user61230

2:45 AM

I'M LAUGHING, SO HARD.

user61230

The US made this giant steel structure with a machine gun and cannons.

user61230

Japan made a robot that had a giant fist.

user61230

Japan's bot drove forward and booped the US bot in the nose.

user61230

It fell over. That was the match. I'm giggling so hard.

user61230

boop

nitsua60

2:47 AM

The tale of the tape: US 6 tons, 15' tall, 25 HP motor, top speed 2.5 mph. Japan 6.5 tons, 13' tall, 87 HP motor, top speed 18 mph. It seemed like an obvious lopsided fight.

trogdor

OK $#@%#$% me then I guess

Bright side is I didn't miss much

user61230

I mean the US bot just looks overengineered.

user61230

nitsua60

I do take umbrage, as a long-time robotics coach, at their use of the term "robot" for these machines.

THE ROBOT SPAWNED ANOTHER ROBOT!

user61230

Wow, okay

user61230

2:54 AM

IT BROKE JAPANBOT'S FINGERS?

user61230

US also: [punches a car]

BESW

Okay, let's stop taunting Troggy.

nitsua60

OMG THEY BURNINATED EVERYTHING!!! It's a giant flying dragon robot with one big punching arm!!!

(Okay, I'm done.)

trogdor

@nitsua60 you will regret these words sir :P

nitsua60

@Zyera We had a robotics competition once where the "main" robot had to deploy an auciliary robot capable of climbing a bare steel pole and triggering a sensor. Our team made a minibot that went so fast up the pole its momentum when it hit the top flipped the lightswitch to reverse the motors. Like, a standard lightswitch.

Imagine throwing one of those things hard enough at a wall to flip it!

user61230

3:01 AM

@nitsua60 I was in that one, I think! FRC... 2013?

nitsua60

@Zyera One of those years--yeah. Endgame was the FTC minibot.

@Zyera in as a student or mentor?

user61230

Yeah! There was a team in SD that had a minibot light and fragile enough that it'd slam into the beacon and literally fall to pieces.

user61230

Student, though I was software for FTC and FRC. (FTC was also my higher priority.)

nitsua60

Was the minibot Logomotion? (The one with the 4 basketballs was endgame balancing on the giant ramp, the one with the frisbees was climbing the pyramid....) Or was logomotion a climbing endgame. Minibot wasn't the soccer one, or the "moon rock" year....

Joel Harmon

This whole conversation makes me sad that I missed out on building robots in school.

trogdor

3:06 AM

I was gonna link an image of the trogdor arcade machine coming to life but can't do so on my phone or on the comp at work

user61230

My first one was Logomotion, and it was the minibot year, yeah.

user61230

I wasn't actually super involved in FRC that year. We were going to nationals for FTC (and did really well).

trogdor

Sooo instead I'll just say "oooooga boooga booooga"

nitsua60

@Zyera So was that a dual-endgame year? Because I thought I remembered something about our robot being able to do a pull-up in the endgame that was important. I guess that must have been a different year, huh.

user61230

I think it was a different year, yeah.

nitsua60

3:08 AM

No, that was the frisbee year--we must have done a pull-up from the lowest rung of the pyramid to get off the ground for minimal endgame points.

user61230

Yeah, that.

nitsua60

Okay--gotta head out. Night, all. Thanks again for the link, @Zyera!

user61230

'night! Rest well!

Shalvenay

hey there @JoelHarmon

Joel Harmon

hey there, @Shalvenay

how's life?

Shalvenay

3:14 AM

@Zyera -- you'll have to let me know how your sorcerer's first swordfight goes btw

alright here, as for you? still haven't seen Reibello around sadly

OTOH -- came up with another short-form dungeon

user61230

He is doing a good job of being afraid of getting into a swordfight, given a total lack of experience.

Shalvenay

@Zyera haha

user61230

It might be the case that if he does fight he'll end up using sorcery, which would be its own... interesting problem.

Shalvenay

@Zyera that is a point, yes

at least their church doesn't have to deal with mild aasimar warlock mindbendiness

user61230

yes

user61230

3:17 AM

this world is human

user61230

(and spirit with a sprinkling of deity)

Joel Harmon

@Shalvenay I rather think that depends on who or what the patron is.

Shalvenay

@JoelHarmon serious, but good natured fey (the universe in question's equivalent of Oberon)

Joel Harmon

you could make a solid case that your angelic parent is the patron (if you can find one that fits, that is)

Shalvenay

@JoelHarmon heheh. decided to roll with feylock to keep things simple

Joel Harmon

3:18 AM

Fairy nough :)

Shalvenay

speaking of mild mindbendiness, I'm still wondering how I go about porting my gnoll monk-priestess (of St. Cuthbert, natch) to 5e from 2e

Joel Harmon

Depending on how much you want to go one way or the other, you might be able to get away with an interesting Background and go single class.

Shalvenay

because not only is she a gnoll, for which WotC has not released a PC race for (yet?), but she wasn't actually multi-classed originally -- she was dual classed

Joel Harmon

.... I see.

I only tried 2e once (didn't inhale, I swear!) so I always need to refresh myself on dual class vs. multi class. I just forget how dual advanced both at once.

Shalvenay

@JoelHarmon 50/50 XP split

hey there btw @Magician

Joel Harmon

3:21 AM

Right, because XP was different for different classes (for some reason)

Shalvenay

@JoelHarmon don't ask me why :)

Joel Harmon

I read once that Gygax didn't like casters (who would be some wimpy caster when you could be Conan?!?!) and so he made casters worse.

[citation needed]

Shalvenay

@JoelHarmon lulz. and then 3.x happened and casters got their revenge

Magician

Hi

Shalvenay

@Magician -- maybe you'd be someone who could entertain some system-suggestion-for-campaign questions?

Joel Harmon

3:24 AM

then also 4 happened, and everything balanced nicely mechanically. But a 3.x caster playing friend of mine hated 4e because there was no mechanical difference between the classes. He really just wants a resource pool to manage.

Magician

@Shalvenay Er, I could try? Though I'm not quite here atm.

Shalvenay

@JoelHarmon and then 5e happened, and it seems that class balance has reached a relatively nice point

Joel Harmon

@Shalvenay There haven't been enough splat books to ruin it too much. I remain cautiously optimistic.

Also, I love how 5e rolled prestige classes into base classes.

Shalvenay

@Magician basically -- I'm chewing on a campaign concept that's centered around relief and rebuilding in the wake of a wide-scale natural disaster. setting's a modest-powered medieval fantasy, with the prime races being Hobgoblins and Elves...they've been in a cold war state for a while, and then the Elves just get rocked by said disaster

trogdor

@JoelHarmon I am guessing this friend didn't dig into the actual mechanics of 4e much then

Joel Harmon

3:28 AM

@Shalvenay What about the world do you want to emphasize? Scavenging bands? Diplomatic ties? S&R? Rebuilding?

@trogdor I think he got reasonably far in. His complaint was everyone got basically the same dailies and encounters, so they didn't mechanically feel different enough.

Shalvenay

and the Hobgoblins, out of a sense of honor and respect if you will, march in to help pull the Elves back to their feet. the PCs are a mixed/conjoined scouting party of sorts (part Hobgoblin-side and part Elf-side) and have to help rescue and organize, as well as manage their own logistics and some conflicts (with disaster profiteers, power-grabbers, and other such corrupt folk trying to use the disaster to not-good ends)

trogdor

There are superficial and bbasic things that all classes have in common, they have a lot of mechanical difference

@JoelHarmon if so he was not looking quite hard enough

Joel Harmon

@trogdor I haven't looked at it in some time now, and I don't recall if their psionics expansion (phb3, as I recall) had anything with power points.

user61230

"Tell a scary story!" "OK. The dead no longer wander on Halloween." "Why?" "Something scared them away." "What?" "Nobody knows. Good night."

Tweeted by MicroSFF on October 17, 2017 at 10:59 PM

user61230

(RPG campaign seed)

trogdor

3:31 AM

There actually were power points in psionic classes

Shalvenay

@JoelHarmon 5e's basics are at least reasonably well balanced, which is a good sign. it means that curtailing material will actually limit breakage, unlike with 3.5e where the worst balance problems were right there in the PHB

trogdor

To be fair, maybe this friend saw a way earlier version of 4e than I did

Joel Harmon

@trogdor Do you have a more specific example? It seemed most of the powers were attack <stat> for <damage>, with <riders>. [at-will|encounter|daily].

@trogdor I'd guess he only saw core.

Shalvenay

@JoelHarmon so yeah -- living off the land to some degree + organizing rebuilding with some S&R in early parts of the game, with a later phase that's more of a diplomatic/political rebuilding affair as immediate needs are fulfilled

trogdor

Well the powers riders actually made a difference though

Joel Harmon

3:34 AM

@Shalvenay I'm generally concerned about casters, because spell slots are fundamentally more options than fighters have. 20 spells known means picking the best 20 from whatever books. Fighters tend to only get one or two weapons at a time, and have to switch out (spending gold on each separately)

trogdor

Not counting the huge difference in range and area of attack for each power

Joel Harmon

@trogdor Sure did. But not enough of a difference for him to feel the classes had a distinct enough flavor.

Shalvenay

@JoelHarmon fighters get more than just weapons in 5e though -- although EK is somewhat underpowered, Battle Master's superiority die system, AIUI, is pretty solid

Joel Harmon

@trogdor You could add area, shape, range, etc. to the basic template that nearly every power fit.

trogdor

The trick to 4e was picking the right class and powers and then building with items, feats, and eventually the branch paths you could pick

Magician

3:36 AM

@JoelHarmon I find that's a common complaint from those who haven't really played the game. It makes a ton of difference in practice.

Joel Harmon

He really just disliked it. Turns out I disagreed with him; I liked the ability to attack different stats (even as a fighter), and produce different effects (even as a fighter).

Magician

All the characters in our game were hugely different, both from core and various splatbooks.

trogdor

I assure you, I managed to make somewhere around 100 very different mechanical character builds

Shalvenay

so yeah, anyone have anything on the system-suggestions front? @JoelHarmon @Magician ?

Joel Harmon

@trogdor And I believe you.

@trogdor I imagine he'd look at 100 different wooden ships and ask why none of them could fly.

Magician

3:38 AM

@Shalvenay I've used Reign as a management addon to sit on top of our system, 4e at the time, when the party founded a city.

trogdor

@JoelHarmon fair enough

Shalvenay

@Magician that sounds useful for the later phase of the game -- early-phase, I was thinking something fairly gritty (Burning Wheel, maybe?)

Magician

Depending on how survival-y you want it to be, maybe even Torchbearer.

trogdor

I don't mind if people didn't like 4e I do mind if people mislable it without trying it out

Joel Harmon

@Shalvenay Would you be willing to switch systems and/or characters partway through?

trogdor

3:40 AM

I personally got sucked into its character creation as a whole separate game

Shalvenay

@JoelHarmon more of an overlay approach would likely be better, as Magician alluded to

a hard switch of systems might be a bit jarring

Joel Harmon

@trogdor That's a vice of mine for most systems I've played.

I'm still really amused that Traveller can theoretically kill your character during chargen.

trogdor

It has happened before though I think 4e was my most serious case of it

Joel Harmon

@Shalvenay I think a good system overall for that would be Fate. In particular, I like the ability to have different types of conflict directly represented; physical, social, and will (as I recall)

And that's it for me. Later, all!

BESW

4:03 AM

The problem with Fate is that the group has to have a pretty solid concept of the setting and themes in order to make the pieces work.

It's not a system that will enforce a particular paradigm beyond the basic "cycle of crisis and victory" concept.

Aspects are only as useful as the group's understanding of them.

Magician

Hmmm. I reckon playing the first half of the campaign on the "ground floor" of the setting would give a solid grasp of its themes, before Fate is introduced.

BESW

@JoelHarmon You should try deadEarth chargen some time (but never the game itself):

in deadEarth: The Chargenning, Jul 6 '14 at 13:09, by BESW

I managed to roll a character who was going to die of liver failure in 1d6 years, reverse-age and die as an embryo in 1d6 weeks, and die of spontaneous combustion in 3d6 hours.

I'm kinda surprised I haven't had a character die in deadEarth chargen yet.

Jul 6 '14 at 13:37, by BESW

My second character also survived! With brain damage and crippling frailty, but a poison spur on his ankle and the ability to create pearls (he appears to be some kind of paraplegic fish-man).

BESW

4:41 AM

Power just went out.

trogdor

Welp I was not island wide

Didn't happen at work at least

I wonder what is causing these little outages lately

Val

Hello, all. just wondering if there is a "how to use this site" page that tells you how to do all of the things, and if so, where to find it.

Also, an in-depth explanation of RPG stack exchange as a whole

trogdor

@BESW ^

Urrrg this phone sucks

Https://chat.stackexchange.com/FAQ

Wow really?!!!

HA!

@Val That should be a good start

Val

4:58 AM

Thank you! Not exactly what I was looking for, but it ended up taking me to the right place anyways ^.^

trogdor

The point was that it should have at least given you the right navigation options

:)

I wasn't sure what everything you were looking for was but that link was the most likely to lead to a lot of it

BESW

I'm on the phone now so it's hard to gather links like I normally would, but faq is a good place to find more site specific policy discussions, beyond the normal help and tour links you can find on the main site.

trogdor

@BESW yeah hence me struggling just to put that single one in

I was hoping it could at least help by being a link portal

trogdor

6:30 AM

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