TRPG General Chat

Anaphory

00:13

Hi!

Shalvenay

hey there @Anaphory, how're things going?

Anaphory

@BESW Lovecraftesque was decent, and I'm willing to play it again.

BESW

That seems reasonable.

Anaphory

@Shalvenay Good, just coming in to … dunno, unwind? … and say two sentences about the RPG today before heading to bed because it's really late for a weekday.

I think we could have had more distinct scenes, and my co-players were not thrilled by the lack of a GM with a mystery to uncover, but took it in good spirit, and the story was mostly worth it.

Mostly worth it, as in, the things happening were horrifying to us onlookers, but less so for the Witness, which may be the wrong way round.

BESW

That's interesting.

trogdor

00:22

That feels very topsy turvy

It was definitely the other way around when we played that

Not that that is a problem. Just odd to me

Anaphory

Our witness gave quite willingly in to becoming part of the sea mind that had already absorbed her brother, essentially dissolving in the bay, because she was drawn in there by the remains of his mind that were not fully dissolved into uniformity yet.

trogdor

That is extra scary just because I have siblings

Not sure I would do that in that scenario but not sure I wouldn't either

Thankfully I am rather certain it won't come up XD

BESW

00:47

I ordered a phone case and screen covers from Amazon in late July. They just arrived.

KorvinStarmast

It's a slow boat from Brazil. (Or was that the fast boat?) 8^D

BESW

They predicted I'd get it in early August. Then late August. Then the USPS tracking site just gave up and said "It's on its way, don't ask us."

A month for shipping something is... not unusual. Not as common as it was when I was a kid, but still not surprising.

Miniman

@BESW I mean, at least they were honest about it. I see a fair bit of "Package has been delivered", in total defiance of reality.

BESW

I paid for air mail shipping.

USPS: Your package is in Richmond!
BESW: ...oh no you don't. [face/palm]

(If a package destined for Guam goes to Richmond, that means it's going on a boat next.)

Oh, well. Now I can take the adhesive felt off the back of my phone.

Miniman

@BESW That's pretty crappy. Did you send a complaint?

Anaphory

00:56

@BESW Aw. I had the opposite, pleasant, surprise today with the physical Lovecraftesque book arriving on my doorstep this midday, when I had only remotely hoped it would be here before I go to a con in two weeks time.

BESW

@Miniman Not this time. I've long since given up trying to go through Amazon with complaints about their third-party shippers.

I just try to order from other stores whenever possible.

@Anaphory Cool!

trogdor

Amazon is pretty bad here

BESW

They won't even ship a lot of electronics or software to us.

trogdor

I have had them say that living here meant they simply couldn't possibly send over a camera

BESW

They refused to send us a DVD of tax software.

Anaphory

00:59

Wha? Why?

BESW

Something about state lines and international shipping of electronic goods or some such nonsense.

trogdor

They seem to think we are not in America

BESW

At least they're usually okay with us not having street addresses.

trogdor

And while, yeah we are not in America,... Their reasoning is also tied into American specific shipping laws

nitsua60

@Shalvenay hiya

Anaphory

01:01

[It's way past my bed time, I should ask what your addresses look like some other time.] TTFN!

doppelspooker

@trogdor @BESW I saw Thor Ragnarok finally this evening. It was amazing.

BESW

@Anaphory Usually PO Boxes.

doppelspooker

(Seeing Stranger Things on the weekend w/ a friend ran overtime so I missed my moviegoing opportunity then. It was worth it though.)

BESW

I still haven't seen past the first episode of ST s02.

trogdor

The biggest problem seems to be that they treat us as not America and as America at the same time

Which is almost apt except we get treated badly on that basis enough already thank you

BESW

01:03

A lot of online stores really don't like that UPS can't drive to Guam.

trogdor

@doppelspooker nice grats on that

doppelspooker

@trogdor ty!!!

trogdor

It is a fine film

doppelspooker

that it is

Miniman

@trogdor Wow, spoilers.

There's a notice and everything.

nitsua60

01:05

Srsly.

trogdor

@Miniman why didn't you jump on it when I mentioned what the first 5 minutes was roughly about? :P

Miniman

@trogdor I guess I wasn't paying attention?

(Also, I've seen it.)

trogdor

(If anyone is searching for that, first shame on you, second it is in not a bar, not here)

@Miniman oh I see how it is, hypocrite XP

Miniman

@trogdor Wait, it's a spoiler that I've seen it?

trogdor

@Miniman it makes as much sense as "it is a fine film" ;P

BESW

01:12

Miniman

Said the Grinch to Christmas. - The Big Bang Theory - QuoteShare

►

trogdor

@Miniman I can't look at that for about 5 hours

XD

BESW

01:28

@GailSimone How useful is Thor’s hammer, really? It doesn’t even have a claw on it for removing nails.

Tweeted by NeKap on November 6, 2017 at 10:44 PM in reply to GailSimone

Ben

01:43

Morning all!

Can someone please point me in the direction of a stat block editor for 5e monsters?

I have a monster to create

Shalvenay

hey there @Ben, how're things going otherwise?

nitsua60

@Ben homebrewery.naturalcrit.com

Ben

Hey @Shalv, honestly it's a real roller coaster ride. But, I'm holding on and haven't been thrown off the side yet so I can't complain :)

@nitsua60 Dang this firewall!

trogdor

@Ben my firewall allowed that

But sure, no tiny YouTube clips

Ben

Reason this site was blocked: "Alcohol not allowed"

...what??

nitsua60

01:52

@Ben Looks like (six messages up) GailSimone's got a hammer that could punch through that firewall.

@Ben "brewery"

Ben

Seriously...

trogdor

@nitsua60 Well it also literally asks if you want to buy the guy a beer

The Oracle

02:15

1

Q: What should we do when a querent doesn't understand the full breadth of the material they're asking about

The question that triggered this for me was: is there a class/achetype/pestige class/feat that can absorb the lifeforce of its ennemy to fuel it's power ? Sometimes a querent wants to know how to do X thing in Y system. That's usually fine; there's often not more than three or four ways to do a...

0

Q: Do we really need all of these closure-related tags?

We have a LOT of tags that are basically about closure. Can we synonymize some of those? close-reasons, closed-questions, vote-to-close, and closing-questions can't all be sufficiently independent, can they? I do see that except for closed-questions they are all pretty close in terms of usage ...

discussion tags synonymization

Shalvenay

02:32

hey there @Nyoze, how're things going?

Nyoze

Good thanks Shal, how about you?

Shalvenay

alright here. slowly letting ideas for yet another convention dungeon congeal in my head while working on other stuff

Nyoze

Procrastinating is apparantly a habit of the super-succesful, so you're on the right path!

Shalvenay

02:47

@Nyoze -- say, what have you been getting up to game-wise as of late?

Nyoze

Nothing much really. Been completely out of the swing of things, and haven't had any luck talking my partner into anything, so just the last couple of weeks, trying to find an online game to ease into things

Shalvenay

@Nyoze hrm I suppose I could run a 1on1 with you sometime in the near future if that'd help :)

Ben

AHA! I got it!

nitsua60

a-ha - Take On Me (Official Video)

►

Ben

03:04

Quick question: average speed for a human?

5e

Nyoze

30' p/round?

Pathfinder/3.5 anyway

trogdor

Do they keep the 3.5 speed rules?

Miniman

@Ben Yep, 30 feet.

Ben

Ta

Thought it was something around there. Just needed to double check :)

nitsua60

576 ft/round, if falling.

(IIRC)

Ben

03:07

@nitsua60 I think we spoke about that - there is only so much you can travel in a 6-second time frame. We spoke about that when I was talking about the "Jump" spell.

nitsua60

Wait, are you crazies going to try to tell me that a D&D human who falls out of a weather balloon will only fall 30' per round, because that's their speed?

Miniman

@nitsua60 I mean, who knows. Looking forward to finding out, though.

Ben

Something along the lines of a creature affected by jump can move up to (STRxSpeed or something), but, they are incapable of completing the full movement in a single round

Nyoze

Well, unless you have Featherfall and slow yourself down, does it really matter? You'll be dead anyway :O

nitsua60

@Ben Yeah, I'm known for ~~crazy~~ ~~perfectly sensible~~ unusual views on that one.

Ben

03:10

Alright... next question - slightly trickier: Basic resistances/immunities for Undead creatures

Nyoze

Mind-Altering Effects.

I know PF dumped SA immunity, I don't know if 5e kept it or not?

Shalvenay

SA?

Nyoze

Sneak Attack

Miniman

@Nyoze Nah, it's dead.

Nyoze

Undead in 3.5 were immune to Sneak Attack

Ben

03:12

I know Slashing, Piercing, and cold... is poison one?

nitsua60

10

Q: Is my Half Orc Barbarian invulnerable to death by falling?

Forgive me if I've botched any math, but here's the situation I've found myself in (assuming 4th level): Falling damage caps out at 20d6 at terminal velocity. Kronan the Barbarian has 55 Max HP currently. (+3 CON mod, three great HP rolls at level-up.) That means that from Max HP, a fall of any ...

dnd-5e damage barbarian damage-resistance

Miniman

@Ben It varies from undead to undead, but slashing, piercing, and cold work perfectly well on most undead.

Ben

Well, to be specific then: Skeletons

Miniman

All zombies are immune to poison damage and poisoned condition.

Skeletons are vulnerable to bludgeoning, immune to poison and exhaustion.

nitsua60

@Ben immune to poison. For the reasons covered in this article

Ben

03:15

@nitsua60 Unfortunately another victim of the firewall

But it makes sense - no flesh or organs, so nothing to infect

nitsua60

> "What's puzzling about this," Cambridge University archaeologist Sir Ian Edmund-White said, "is that skeletons would not benefit from harvested crops, as any food taken orally would immediately fall through the hole behind the jaw and down through the rib cage, eventually hitting the ground."

Ben

@nitsua60 A skeleton walks into a pub, and orders a rum, and a mop

Shalvenay

@Nyoze -- ah. undead in 5e are not immune to sneak attacks. this also is partly due to sneak attack being reworked in 5e

Nyoze

Well, as I have 0 5e experience, I'm just guessing lol

Ben

@BESW I have read this three times, and only just got it.

Shalvenay

03:18

(5e sneak attack runs off gaining advantage on the attack, which means it's easier to trigger in 5e vs. 3.x)

@Nyoze -- would you like to give 5e a whirl?

Miniman

@Shalvenay (It's easier because it's triggered by adjacency, if it was advantage it'd be harder than it was in 3.5)

Shalvenay

@Miniman ah, yeah, adjacency or advantage

Nyoze

@Shalvenay At some point, I wouldn't mind it. Let me get back into the swing of things with a system I know how it works though :)

Shalvenay

@Nyoze ah, so you'd want to play some 3.5 first or?

Ben

what's the average of a d8?

Nyoze

03:24

Probably Pathfinder. I'm just crusing RPOL looking for games atm :)

Shalvenay

@Nyoze ah

nitsua60

@Ben [facepalm] prompted by you, just re-read enough to get that there's an 'it' to get, and then finally got it.

@Ben 4.5

(assuming it's fair)

@Miniman another two days or so...

Shalvenay

@Nyoze I actually tried to get into a PF campaign, but it fell apart shortly after starting

nitsua60

(I've been watching the all-time rep list.)

Ben

It's a d8+2, for an enemy attack, so I rounded it down to 4+2

Miniman

03:26

@nitsua60 Oh, right.

Shalvenay

(I'd like to get into some games further afield -- want to do DW again, and take GURPS and Fiasco for spins)

Nyoze

I'd love to get into some Chronicles of Darkness games at some point as well. Always had an obsession with VtM, and MtA

Miniman

@nitsua60 Atm I'm thinking way more about Marshal, I've been 2 flags off for days now.

post spam plz

Shalvenay

@Nyoze my relationship with that stuff is...weird. I have some Vampire headcanon-char-bits I could toss into a game, but at the same time, I have a tendency to normalize the supernatural that'd probably clash with most Chronicles tables, never mind M:tA's reality-by-belief system (which makes for the ultimate in no-data worlds)

nitsua60

[sends note to other mods not to handle the next two of miniman's flags that come across our bow]

Shalvenay

03:29

@Miniman :P comment flags count for Marshal I believe

nitsua60

[cackles/bleats villainously]

Shalvenay

so just find a couple of comments that need cleanup

although maybe you want to save that for next month to get the hat?

Miniman

@Shalvenay I mean, I could, but I don't want to force it after all this time.

@Shalvenay Oh damn. I hadn't even thought of that.

Nyoze

I've been 20 points off of 2k Rep for about a week now... But I just can't find any questions I want to answer lol

Get the hat?

Shalvenay

@Nyoze hatmas is only a month out

Nyoze

03:31

What is hatmas? :P

Shalvenay

I actually wish I could stop earning bronze badges on RPG.SE

nitsua60

@Shalvenay nice catch!

Shalvenay

as I put far more effort into DIY.SE but don't get the bronze-badge rewards

primarily because my primary active tags there are rather light on the voting activity

Miniman

@Nyoze I can't find a link that explains it, but basically, through December (and January?) SE adds for-fun badges represented by hats that you can wear on your avatar.

Nyoze

Ohhh

Interesting :)

nitsua60

03:33

598

Q: Winter Bash 2016 - All Hats

I decided to start the traditional secret hats post, but instead of just another "here is how you get the secret hats" post, to also add in all the hats. There are two answers: one for the secret hats, and one for the regular hats. Some notes about secret hats: A secret hat for correctly gue...

discussion winterbash secret-hats winterbash-2016

Miniman

@Nyoze So Shal is suggesting that I hold off on 2 flags until the event starts, because there's generally a hat for getting a gold badge during the event, and it's pretty hard to do organically.

Nyoze

I never heard about Hatmas before... Must of missed it when I was here.

Shalvenay

@Miniman I'm trying to pick it up on a tag badge believe it or not

for my gold badge for Hatmas

I'm believe it or slurp it two answer upvotes away from that milestone

Miniman

@Shalvenay Nice - it's another one that's somewhat controllable.

nitsua60

I went a little crazy during hatmas last year--this year I'm'a try to just play it cool and see what happens. (Will still contribute to the photo album, though.)

Shalvenay

03:35

(it is posing the challenge that I need to make 150rep by the end of this month without the use of my primary tag)

(over on DIY, not here, tho. trying to get to 20k rep by the end of the year)

Miniman

@nitsua60 Interesting, last year (I think we talked about this) I sort of skipped hatmas.

nitsua60

@Nyoze behind the scenes it's a mix of SE staff trying to just share a little fun with people and testing out possibilities for new badges.

Dec 23 '16 at 0:11, by Miniman

Also, hatmas this year is acting as a perverse disincentive to participating in the site for me.

Ben

Miniman

@nitsua60 From memory, that's where Refiner came from.

Ben

Well that went wacky...

Miniman

03:39

@Ben I think you've got AC and HP the wrong way round.

If not, that's amazing.

Ben

Lol... AC is meant to be 15

This is a CR 1 creature

Nyoze

Magic Missle and AOE are the only things that can touch it? :P

Miniman

Also, imuunity to poison damage?

Ben

@Miniman Should that only be a resistance?

Miniman

@Ben No, I meant, shouldn't he have it?

Ben

03:42

... He does..?

Well, Condition Immunity anyway

Shalvenay

@Ben he needs immunity to Poison damage as well as immunity to the Poisoned condition

Miniman

Yep, most skeletons are immune to poison damage as well.

Obviously you can decide otherwise, I just thought I should point it out.

Ben

Ok. Honestly I was thinking his conditions and damage types were getting a bit bulky, so I paraphrased a bit haha

nitsua60

@Ben I did lolfigsl when I read that statblock and saw the AC. I may now have to write up a creature with a triple-digit AC.

Miniman

@nitsua60 Waterowlbear?

Ben

03:44

@nitsua60 Does the Tarrasque not do that well enough? :P

Shalvenay

@Miniman LOL

nitsua60

@Ben The tarrasque shouldn't have a statblock, IMO.

Plus, I want a creature with an AC of 127 but only 7 hp.

Ben

@Miniman Why did I somehow read that as "Growlbear"..? I though "An Owlbear that growls... wait... isn't that just a bear??"

@nitsua60 My friend put it well: A Tarrasque is a Plot Device with a stat block

Miniman

@Ben You know, I still don't know why owlbears are supposed to be more dangerous than regular bears.

Shalvenay

@Ben ...until you find yourself with a Tarrasque PC

nitsua60

03:47

@Miniman I would have thought the same thing, until I saw my neighbor's 10-lb yappy little dog chase a mature black bear out of their yard.

Ben

@Miniman Cos a barbarian looks at a bear and sees a wrestling partner, a druid sees his buddy Frank, the Ranger sees a creature worthy of respect.

But an owlbear is just nope.jpg

nitsua60

I mean, I find the dog annoying, too. But for the bear it'd totally be socially acceptable to slaughter the thing.

Ben

But, all that aside.. what do we think? That guy is pretty much completely custom

Miniman

@nitsua60 Animals are weird like that. Our dog is constantly getting bullied by chickens that he could swallow in a single gulp.

@Ben Pretty cool, and tactically interesting. A lot of moving parts, though.

Ben

@Miniman Yeah... the armour is the most complex.

nitsua60

03:51

@Ben I'd say a little more complex than necessary. The armor bit is flavorful, but mechanically the minion trait serves a lot of the same purpose.

Ben

But I don't want these Boss monsters to just be "Smash the bad guy".

This is being designed for a starter game - pretty much everything is preset - character archetypes, story arc, even up to who dies at the end.

nitsua60

Give him a ranged attack. Let him throw something. That turns into a skeleton.

Ben

For example - I have 6 characters, all of different classes

So none of the monsters can be overpowered by the entire party all at once.

Miniman

@nitsua60 Yaaas.

Or let him throw skellies.

nitsua60

Copy-pasta the "minions" language from the goblin-boss statblock.

@Ben what's his size?

Maybe make the mace force a STR save vs. prone? Or knockback?

The difficulty with a boss is when it gets locked down in melee and all movement stops.

I'm a fan of giving even low-CR bosses legendary/lair actions.

Ben

03:55

@nitsua60 Well, that's what the minions are for. There are 3 "kinds" of skeleton - Warrior (Shortsword/hand axe), Archer, and "mage" - deals fire damage for unarmed attacks, and has a very weak hellish rebuke, which does destroy the skeleton as well. Kind of a self destruct.

@nitsua60 Only slightly larger than average. So not big enough to move up a size category

@nitsua60 This would be the armour, you mean?

nitsua60

@Ben No, actions it can take at the end of a PCs turn. For a CR 1 boss I might go with a pushback, maybe a "commander's strike"?

Ben

@nitsua60 Oh, you are a fan. I misread that

nitsua60

I like things that either physically move things around, that re-shape the battlefield, or that spread the PCs' attention.

Ben

I might do that for the next boss. In truth, everything in this dungeon is very heavily themed, and highly flavoured.

As you may remember, I have been ranting about my Diablo-themed dungeon

nitsua60

Lair action: dancing bones. in a 50' circle around him bones rise from the ground and jitter in the air. This area is difficult terrain, and all skeletons in the area are as under the effect of blur.

Ben

04:01

@nitsua60 But maybe I can make the "action" for the armour a lair action?

nitsua60

(though disadvantaging attacks stinks sometimes--slows things down)

@Ben I don't know Diablo.

Ben

Haha. Well then you may enjoy this dungeon ;)

nitsua60

@Ben I'd go for that. So it's not foregoing an attack.

I'd drop the boosts to con and str, though; refiguring the rest of the stat-block on-the-fly is a pain.

Ben

The only thing though is that the minions technically are something that "gets in the way". Sure, they can ignore the minions to simply attack the King, but they are an extra thing to deal with

Ben

04:24

Behold: The Skeleton king

vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/1/14/…

Ben

04:39

Also - the other thing I want to try and figure out is different Corruption types and their effects. For example, Necrotic corruption would mean skin-deep degeneration (so looking older etc), and then starting to take negatives to their stats as it increases; while perhaps demonic degeneration would mean bloodlust or something like that

I was also thinking about some sort of madness, but I can't think of how that would develop, and I think if I could get one more going that would be good too.

Nyoze

Madness is amazing if done right

Hallucinations, Paranoia, etc :)

@Ben Don't know if you ever played Eternal Darkness? Had some of the best "Sanity Effects" I've ever seen in a game. Definitely worth looking into.

Ben

05:01

Sanity effects would be great :D

Nyoze

05:15

@Ben eternaldarkness.wikia.com/wiki/Sanity_Effects and youtube.com/watch?v=RSXcajQnasc

Ben

@Nyoze Oh... these are nasty

And perfect :D

Nyoze

Honestly, I have never known greater terror then the "Your saves are being deleted" while I was borrowing a friends memory card to play.

Obvs all aren't translatable to Tabletop, but... You could describe most of them pretty easily.

Ben

@Nyoze I'm pretty sure that "Your saves are being deleted" would be an appropriate madness effect haha

Nyoze

Actually, for a Diablo themed dungeon... Could be fun lol

Ben

@Nyoze I could just give them a 1st level player sheet haha

Player: "Wait... this isn't my character?"
Me: "It is now"

Nyoze

05:23

"You feel the knowledge and experience you have gained through your quest being drained from the core of your very being. As you attempt to gather your composure, you realize that your bag contains nothing inside."

Oh my god

That would be perfect.

And just

Ben

Hahahaha

Nyoze

Straight face

"What are you talking about? Of course it's your character"

Ben

[Roll sanity check in-game and RL]

Nyoze

I wish I was part of this now lol

You'd keep your players guessing constantly as to what they're seeing is really there or not.

Ben

@Nyoze And, this allows for me to add my "Closed door" trap

Nyoze

05:31

What's that?

Ben

DM: "You see a wooden door"
P: "I check the door for traps, and if there is none, I open the door"
DM: "Ok, it appears clear of traps, and the door swings open smoothly"
P: "Ok, I step through"
DM: "You bang your head on the door, as the door is closed."
P:"Wait... what? I just opened it"
DM: "You did. But the door is closed"

Also a perfect opener for an ambush, especially depending on how much of the rest of the party get involved in this door... which would be doubly hilarious if they can't see it

Nyoze

Is this being run RL, or online?

It would be amazing online, so that you're messaging the 1 player with the door, and then you message everyone:

Ben

@Nyoze I haven't started it yet. Currently I'm at about 90% done with the structure of the game itself, and I have only completely fleshed out the first level, of what is going to be a 6-level dungeon.

Nyoze

DM: "You see P checking for traps on an unremarkable stretch of dungeon wall, and making odd gestures. After a time, P steps forward and bangs his head directly into the wall"

Ben

I was planning to run it RL first, but depending on how it goes, I'll likely run it again for another group

This was actually inspired by a friend who started it in AFMBE. He is obsessed with Diablo, and the energy he put into the game was really impressive. We only played one session of it, but I was immediately hooked :D

@Nyoze Either that, or this does lead down a corridor. That could be doubly confusing because then it looks like there's some sort of invisible forcefield in place

But, lo and behold - there is none (for the rest of the party)

They open the door, and step through with no issue

Nyoze

05:42

DM: "While you step effortlessly through the door which P opened, you find P seemingly unable to join you, as he seems to be bumping his head on the wall"

Oh wait

Rather then the invisble force field

P"I open the door and step through"
DM: "You open the door, however behind the door, you find a blank stretch of wall."

Ben

I was thinking more like
DM: "P1 Appears to be struggling moving through the open corridor, as if something is blocking the way"
(P2 investigates, finds no issues, and cautiously steps past the apparent obstacle with no issue)
DM: (To P1) "P2 has stepped in front of you, offering to try and investigate. He opens the door, and steps through. The door closes behind him."

Only players affected by madness would see the door haha

Nyoze

That's awesome :)

Ben

Then they roll a sanity check, and the door vanishes

Or the party can pull them through

Erics

ho @trogdor

trogdor

I mean, I personally would draw the line at trying to make me roll a sanity check IRL

@Erics hello

Ben

05:51

@trogdor Of course. But they would certainly be confused

trogdor

It would be good to make sure your group was OK with something like that

Ben

@trogdor Oh it would only be temporary. After a few minutes of play (or a few objections about their character sheet) I'd give them back their character sheet

trogdor

@Erics are you just saying hi cause I popped in or did you have something to talk about?

Erics

just hi .. saw you joined moments after i joined

trogdor

@Ben yeah but like,.... Prior consent would be good

@Erics fair enough, no objection to that whatsoever:)

Ben

05:54

Disclosure: This game is going to be following your ascent into hell. This will involve some violent images, possibly fear-inducing situations, and some mind-games. If you do not wish to personally be subjected to this, I will restrict to in-game effects only

Nyoze

They're going up to hell? :P

Ben

Correction: Descent*

Haha yeah only just realised that

@Nyoze Actually did you ever play Dead Space 3 multiplayer (as Carver?)

Nyoze

Nope :(

Only ever played about 20 minutes of the first one.

Coincidentally, borrowed from the same friend who loaned me Eternal Darkness.

Ben

@Nyoze That was done really well. Both Isaac (the main protagonist) and Carver (secondary protagonist) were affected by the marker, which caused hallucinations. Occasionally, either Isaac would start seeing a series of flashing markings all over the wall, and would freak out. The person playing Carver would be standing right beside them, and see nothing.

Nyoze

Oh nice lol

Ben

06:04

And occasionally Carver would see his son's favourite toy pop up in places (backstory stuff). Obviously this would attract the player's attention, and they'd just run off in an (apparently) random direction.

The player controlling Isaac wouldn't see anything and would (probably) be forced to just blindly follow

Perhaps that could be another illusion - a crying child or something that only a Mad player could see/hear, drawing the party into an ambush

Haha...
DM: "You see P2's head roll of his shoulders, and hit the ground. For some reason, P2 does not seem overly perturbed by this."
P1: [Rolls sanity check - fails miserably]
DM: "P2's head turns and winks at you. You chuckle. P2 is such a character."

Nyoze

P2: *Ducks below attack from enemy*
P1: "Why duck, you don't have a head?!"

Magician

Ducks Below, new elder god?

Nyoze

Nah, just a demi-god, who strives to follow in the footsteps of Geese-Above.

trogdor

06:27

@Ben this is quite adequate XD

@Ben oooh very good example

I didn't play that but I watched a co-op playthrough

it was a very nice touch to the game

Ben

@trogdor First time I played it with a friend it really messed with our heads haha. I freaked out, which freaked him out cos he had no idea what was going on

trogdor

@Ben it actually doesn't lose tooo much watching it

obviously it isn't quite the same, but the two people communicated very well (they work together often) and when I watched it from the perspective of the Isaac player, the Carter player was freaking out about toys everywhere and it blindsided me

it was great

so I ended up watching both perspectives which made it way better

Ben

And Carver's episodes were just as good, just in a completely different way. Isaac's episodes were violent, but short, whereas Carver's episodes were subtle, yet drawn out

trogdor

Carver's made more of an impression on me honestly

Ben

I feel the same. Isaac's were more "jump-scare"-y. But Carvers' really built up the tension

Erics

06:44

Anyone got any tips on how to keep a distinction between role-play speech and meta-game speech at an in-person table? That is, avoiding the DM asking "uhh ... are you asking me, or is your character actually saying that to the evil wizard, to his face?"

Asking because the ambiguity has slowed down the last couple of sessions so far.

Magician

We use the "time out" gesture to speak out of character.

Erics

And because this DM is a bit of a dick and will take a meta-game comment as an excuse for an in-game nasty

ooh, that sounds good.

Nyoze

Accents are always helpful. When speaking as a character, give your character a funny accent. BESW had a post recently where he'd use bad celebrity impersonations for NPCs, but it could quite easily be applied to your players as well. This way when your talking in your normal voice, people know it's OoG

Ben

26

A: My players are a crude bunch, and I'm having a hard time staying in character among the chatter

There is a time for chatter, there is a time for role playing. And usually these should be reasonably separated. Talk Make sure your players know that you don't mind their sense of humor, but at times it makes your GM work harder. Tell them why, when and how. Some people might not realize just...

Erics

((One time, player A called out to player B, who had gone to the kitchen to fetch a drink, "Bring me a beer will you" ... and the DM then announced that that call echoed around the caves, alerting the goblins to our sneaky infiltration.))

Magician

06:47

Ugh

trogdor

@Ben jump scare is cheap, build up is cool

Erics

@Magician The gesture thing can also get physically tiring if constantly used ... which is a good counter to endless meta-chatter =)

Ben

@Erics There is a comment on the answer I shared - suggesting "wearing a token", and when you intend to speak OoC, you simply cover the token

Erics

Yup, that token thing looks a good idea there, especially given the other roles it played in the situation.

Ben

Actually... just had a brain fart...

What if the Skeleton King had Sweep... but the sweep could target a nearby skeleton as well? So for instance if the Fighter was taking on 2 Skeletons by himself, the Skelton King attacks, Sweeps, And knocks out one of the skeletons?

Would that be too much? It'd be mainly for flavour, obviously - this enemy is meant to be the Resurrected "Mad King"

cc @nitsua60, @Miniman, @trogdor, @Nyoze

Miniman

07:01

@Ben That seems pretty cool.

trogdor

yeah I don't see a problem

very nice flavor there

and I assume it doesn't make a huge impact on the fight for him to occasionally wipe out a minion

Ben

@trogdor Nah, not overly. He has the ability to resurrect his minions (funnily enough) when he deals damage to the PCs.

trogdor

lol

Nyoze

So effectively

trogdor

yeah seems like no big deal here

Nyoze

07:04

Say, he had a bunch of archer minions, and the fighter charged

Ben

In this instance I'd say that if there were less than 5 skeletons, a different one would be resurrected (not the one he just destroyed). If not, nothing happens

Nyoze

He could sweep the fighter, knock out an archer and replace it with a warrior?

Or does he only have a certain number of minions?

Ben

@Nyoze Up to 5 in total

But, the setting is that he's got enough bones of dead warriors to do whatever he wants - just not enough power to control more than 5 at once.

So the turn of events would be:
1. Attack a PC. If he deals damage, he gets to resurrect a skeleton (of whatever type) unless there are already 5 skeletons.
2. Sweep. Knocks out a Skeleton.

Nyoze

So yeah.

It makes sense and could even be to his advantadge if he wants to change his minions around.

Ben

So effectively, he'd end up with 4 skeletons either way

@Nyoze Maybe... but it's too heavily weighted on chance. The only way he can resurrect another skelly is by dealing damage to the PCs

And... I could even go one step further and just make him use the sweep regardless of whether or not he hits a PC - adds more "madness" flavour and "Big-ass mace" flavour. Haha

Though that might be just a little too far

Nyoze

07:34

True

Take it too far :O

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