TRPG General Chat

KorvinStarmast

00:07

@doppelgreener I'm just saying how it is looking back from this end of the timeline Yeah, like rotary dial phones. :)

doppelgreener

@KorvinStarmast those are a delight to use! more that it goes against a more recent construct that's been taken on as a widespread norm, where race and class are defined as separate categories. the notion of having dwarves and elves and magic-users and clerics and fighters as the choices sure very likely made sense at the time before the race/class divide came along.

KorvinStarmast

Yeah. In time that seems also to be what the fan based liked ... @eimyr Alternative earth type stuff?

Shalvenay

hey there @KorvinStarmast

KorvinStarmast

00:47

@Shalvenay hullo. My copy of XGtE has disappeared. I am prettysure the dogs did not eat it.

Shalvenay

@KorvinStarmast drat :/ that reminds me. I will probably need to pick one up at a FLGS here in the not-so-distant future

Ben

@KorvinStarmast Ohnoes!

KorvinStarmast

Our FLGS does not sell D&D products. I kid you not.

Shalvenay

@KorvinStarmast wow, do they not do any TTRPG stuff at all?

KorvinStarmast

Warhammer 40k mostly, and for a while an AL game on wednesdays, which my wife vetoed me playing int.

They do sell dice, lotsof MTG stuff

Some PF minis...

Ben

01:37

So... One thing we can all agree on is that DM'ing is (at least) 1/3 math. Sure, there's world building, and encounter and storyline management, and building the game for your group etc, but the fundamental part of it is math. DC and CR calculations, balancing, all that.

KorvinStarmast

There's also a thing called improvisation.

Ben

Being the person I am, I don't quite understand things until I understand the underlying formulae. It's annoying. I've been told that a homebrew monster is a special thing, there's CR balancing, HP balancing, Damage balancing all that, and all of these things seem to have some kind of underlying formula.

People have helped me with this - "Your monster should do (x) damage, have (y) HP, and (z) AC", which is great, but I haven't been able to understand the math behind that

@KorvinStarmast True. I am great at this (once ran a campaign that was completely improve... somehow did not crash and burn spectacularly)

Not saying I'm bad at math. I'm the guy that people ask "what's x times y?" so math itself isn't the problem. It's not knowing the formula that I am having issues with. Like "How did I get 56?"

Uhhh... I don't know? Did you multiply it? Or are we dealing with Timezones??

Miniman

@Ben Have you looked at the DMG section on it?

Ben

I knew I was missing something

Miniman

01:54

Sorry, I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not.

Ben

No really lol. I do have the DMG, but For some reason my brain doesn't think "Hmm, if I'm looking to start DMing, I should probably read the DMG"

My brain just goes "Obviously these guys have done this before, and know the secrets passed down through the generations"

Miniman

@Ben Ah, right. Then yeah, there's a section on building monsters, calculating CR, and so on.

Ben

Awesome. I'll start there :)

KorvinStarmast

02:42

It's almost as though it's a guide for Dungeon Masters. :)

Shalvenay

hey again @KorvinStarmast

KorvinStarmast

Hi, been reading more ODD74 posts on the old pre D&D history.

Shalvenay

ah, interesting

KorvinStarmast

Have been in correspondence with a guy who knew the EPT author personally. Quite interesting, given the time I spent running EPT in the late 70's.

Prof Barker was an incredibly talented man. Quite the renaissance mane

man

SOrry, Empire of the Petal Throne. Setting = Tekumel.

Combination of Maya, Persian, and who knows what else.

Shalvenay

ah yeah

Ben

02:56

By the by, sorry @miniman and @daze. You guys have told me in the past to read the DMG. I'm not ignoring that - I'm just terrible at remembering, and sometimes I get a bit deaf when I get advice that doesn't directly solve the problem I'm having (really bad... I know).

Miniman

@Ben Nothing to apologise for - I'm not exactly the biggest fan of the DMG myself. If I've ever told you to read it, it wasn't in a "just go read the thing" way - I only ever refer people to specific (actually-useful) sections.

Ben

Haha. In that case I'll take you at your recommendation. Any other specific areas to look at while I'm there then?

Miniman

Not really. In general it's much more useful to go there looking for a specific thing. Reading it casually is only really useful because the index isn't.

Ben

03:11

Right. Fair enough :)

KorvinStarmast

03:34

Yeah, the index is a bit of an eye roll ...

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 I went through and edited the doppelganger question to reflect the comments OP was writing on answers saying that they would allow damaging options (even though the question said they were not allowed). I hope it looks ok and was the correct thing to do. I asked OP to do it multiple times, but no changes were made.

nitsua60

@Miniman I'm supposedly an expert and I still have about a 30% chance of picking correctly on the first try which "side" of the magic items I'll find my piece of information in.

@Rubiksmoose Looks fine to my quick look-see. It's a hard line to walk, sometimes, between "let OP get the feedback and make the edit, and not everyone's on all the time" and "answers are rolling in and this is going to turn into a steaming heap if it's not clarified quickly.

Luckily that's what holds are designed to help with; in this case you had some info so could edit it in, but don't be shy about throwing close-votes around. It takes four other people to agree with you, so a close-vote with a well-worded comment can be the most useful service anyone provides the site.

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 that's a very good point. I've actually become very unhesitant to the the hold option lately because I've seen what not doing it can do to a question. In fact, I think my change was too little too late on this one as well (OP had over 5 hours to change it) at this point it's calmed down significantly.

Although I also don't think it did that much harm.

Hey @NautArch looks like your moonbeam answer is doing well. I just edited that question so that your answer makes sense and is in line with what OP told you in the comments.

BESW

05:01

> Clairvoyance. You can use Perception to create advantages by seeing the immediate surroundings of people named Claire, no matter where they are. To pinpoint a specific Claire you will need something personal, like a treasured possession or the way she pronounces her full name, to focus on.

Ben

@BESW I had a game like this. I had a cyborg PC, and one of the other PCs had a skull that she communicated with. Through a series of events, I also gained the ability to communicate with this skull (seriously... it was just a skull... nothing special about it).

Eventually, I decided it might be fun to give it one of my cybernetic eyes. After a rather significant event, where it turned out one of the PCs was a clone, the skull dropped itself (yes... this nothing too special skull that projected a non-existent voice into our heads) into the vat that created said clones

From then on, since this cybernetic eye was still connected to me, I could cover my (currently installed) cybernetic eye and see where ever this clone-skull was. (After it got itself a body, it ran off)

BESW

05:57

A while ago @ajitgeorgeSB and I put together a playset for @robertbohl's Misspent Youth kickstarter called India's Daughter. Just today I came across this amazing actual play writeup by @adamdray. Check it out, and maybe give it a spin yourself. http://www.story-games.com/forums/discussion/comment/470241/#Comment_470241

Tweeted by the_strix on February 28, 2018 at 12:50 AM

BESW

06:07

...I really wanna try playing a Misspent Youth game in the Archandroid Suites dystopia.

trogdor

of course you do XD

BESW

I'm so excited about Dirty Computer. Will it tell us more about the connection between Cindi Mayweather and the Electric Lady?

trogdor

I obviously don't know :P

BESW

[bounces eagerly]

trogdor

it's always nice to be excited for something

BESW

10:43

I'm reading Sell Out With Me and O my goodness there's some awesome stuff in here.

trogdor

is that a book or?

BESW

It's a Misspent Youth expansion book, with 18 settings/hacks/alternatives for playing the game.

trogdor

aaahhhhh

ok then

BESW

Like, three games set in real-world scenarios--two contemporary, one historical.

Another three take more traditional RPG scenarios, like superheroes or gangsters, and turns it on its head somehow.

Like people from different gangs uniting to take down a crime boss, or sidekicks overthrowing the superheroes who control the world.

This is where the mutant rats vs city exterminators game comes from.

There's also a game about being old folks who used to be regular Misspent Youth protagonists who overthrew their dystopia... but now the society's broken again and instead of selling out ideals for cynicism they have to reclaim their ideals and overcome their cynicism to fix the Broken Dream.

Aaaaand there it is. There's a hack for the Archandroid Suites, but it's not for the future dystopia, it's for the band that came back in time. interesting.

(The same hack can also be used for Jem and the Holograms, so YMMV.)

Oh, man, I'm loving this hack. It's attacking everything I had misgivings about with Misspent Youth's cynicism and spinning it positive.

doppelgreener

12:17

@BESW What's your monitor display resolution?

BESW

For Geek Night I drop it down to 1280x720 'cause we're looking at it from across the room.

doppelgreener

Could you send me a screenshot? Just clicked for me that I can take a few minutes to make a userscript to make chat friendly to small screens.

(if you want one)

BESW

You want it at the smaller resolution?

doppelgreener

Whichever one you're used to using chat in where its not-being-made-for-small-screens is an issue

BESW

You mean like how I can't see a lot of stars on the star bar? I'm not sure what issue you're talking about.

doppelgreener

12:21

yes, like that

Basic thinking is: fix that "search" bar overlap over the buttons, make stars & channels into tabs, generally fix some spacing issues so things in the sidebar don't take up quite as much space as they do

BESW

It's not as big a problem since I got a widescreen monitor and don't use my laptop so much.

doppelgreener

Oooh

Cool!!

BESW

Sent you a screenshot of the low-res cram and an extreme split-screen cram.

goodguy5

13:19

Morning nerds

nitsua60

15:43

@goodguy5 It's clear, from the 2.5-hour ensuing silence, that nobody here thinks you're addressing them =)

kviiri

I was about to say I just made a contribution to digital culture retention by copying my childhood sharewares and passing them on

Does that make me a nerd? :P

goodguy5

it does

kviiri

16:01

Well

That was to be expected I guess

doppelgreener

18:11

Has anyone noticed the snow?

Tweeted by SoVeryBritish on February 28, 2018 at 9:45 AM

(it is snowing a lot today in the UK)

NautArch

how much is a lot?

doppelgreener

18:54

@NautArch like a few inches

Which to the UK is a lot

NautArch

19:09

@doppelgreener sounds like when the south gets a few and they freak out

GreySage

@doppelgreener We had a foot of snow come out of no where last Friday. Havoc and hilarity ensued.

goodguy5

I had a way harder time figuring out this formula than I should have:
https://rpg.stackexchange.com/a/116436/34716

It's one of those things where I became the meme of the guy with all the symbols, but it was really just like 3 things

KorvinStarmast

19:23

@BESW Is Clairaudience the ability to hear Claire no matter where she is?

BESW

19:45

> Clairaudience. When using Rapport or Contacts to meet with people named Claire, you cannot fail. Treat failed rolls as ties.

KorvinStarmast

Do I get a +1 if I wear a tie, or is Claire not too picky about fashion?

Rubiksmoose

whew, brutal meetings all day today guys. Doesn't look like I missed too much though lol

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose same here, only recently got back online

Rubiksmoose

20:11

Huh interesting Good/Evil question.

doppelgreener

@NautArch correct, the usual amount is "it hit the ground and already melted"

KorvinStarmast

@Rubiksmoose which one? Is it the DM with the good campaign thing?

Rubiksmoose

@KorvinStarmast thats the one

KorvinStarmast

I am not sure it isn't a bullying problem, players vs DM, but that's a guess that may be wrong.

goodguy5

moose, stop sabotaging me. of course I haven't used a jumping houserule in 5e. why would it come up?

trogdor

20:24

@BESW sorry, I would have responded to this but then the power went out, and I just went to sleep shortly after.

Yuuki

Regarding the Good/Evil question, not everyone wants to play a nuanced treatment of morality all the time.

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 First, if you are actually upset by it I will remove it for sure.

trogdor

@BESW what does that do to the system then, if it isn't about the dystopia itself?

goodguy5

haha not upset at all

was just funnin

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 ok lol. That was the way I read it at first. Then I realized you could be being serious (no way to tell from just the text). So I was just making sure that I was respecting that possibility.

Yuuki

20:26

I mean, figuring out what you want from a game is why Session 0 exists. If the players want one thing and the DM wants another and nobody wants to budge, then maybe you shouldn't continue with that game.

goodguy5

@Rubiksmoose you're right. I should have used more emojis

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 :)

@goodguy5 to answer your question though, I actually left that comment not really for you (I was 99.999% sure neither you or anybody else has used such a rule before), but as a possible flag for other possible answers.

KorvinStarmast

@Yuuki good points.

goodguy5

@Rubiksmoose I suspected.

Rubiksmoose

It was something I read on meta recently about voting and how the community should police answers with houserules that aren't playtested or experienced.

I'm not sure it was actually the right thing to do there, or helpful, or anything really but there you have it.

goodguy5

20:29

I'm a bit concerned about him trying to game the system in some way, but I can't imagine what way he'd be doing it. "I am making a character that will be able to make very big jumps, and was curious about the possibilities involved."

But I left in the line about "you should work with the GM ..."

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 Yeah I'm not exactly sure what he's thinking. But since there is no rule, there's nothing really for him to game per se.

And honestly, I cannot really think of any way to exploit jumping from a RAW perspective. From a holes in the rules perspective maybe.

goodguy5

a 20th level barbarian with jump cast on them could jump 30 feet in the air, which is cool

but other than that, hell if I know

Maybe he's making a 13-y-o Halo player?

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 With the teabagging class feature?

goodguy5

of course

"You have advantage on your first attack against the target enemy after they respawn"

doppelgreener

@goodguy5 13 year olds who play halo can jump 30 feet into the air?

goodguy5

20:37

@doppelgreener while playing halo, yes

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener only while playing halo

@goodguy5 you beat me to it lol

goodguy5

ugh, reading those two responses adjacent to each other is disoirenting

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener I'm curious, do you think the current attitude of the stack is that houserules proposed in answers should be supported by experiencial evidence, or is it just something that is nice to have?

trogdor

lol

ah Halo, I loved that game too much

the first one, didn't play any of the others

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose Curious to know as well, but I believe it is generally recommended otherwise you're just making stuff up :) but not sure how they'd know.

goodguy5

20:42

I saw a post about Chicken Infestation (bad 3.5 drawback), which lead to some silly conversations. Which then led me to wanting a 5e Beastmaster with a Chicken Companion....... which led me to wondering: "What kind of armor would a chicken wear?" Obvious jokes about breastplates aside.....

Rubiksmoose

@KorvinStarmast but yeah I'm not sure either. But the first thing I thought of was that as a DM I want to build a world for everyone to have fun in. But I always make sure before I start planning/building that everyone knows and agress to setting/tone/etc, in a session 0.

doppelgreener

22

A: Is homebrew an acceptable answer to a question?

If, after well articulated research, you can reasonably suggest there's something missing for what's being sought in the originating system, and the querent doesn't explicitly forbid homebrew, you can answer with a "Your system doesn't support your request, but here is some homebrew I wrote, and ...

If it's not in books that say it works, you should be able to point to experience that says it works

Rubiksmoose

(I always feel so silly for asking questions instead of/before searching meta)

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose silly moose

goodguy5

tbh, I forget meta exists.

BESW

20:47

@trogdor It's the most aggressively modified hack in the book, with a rival band instead of a dystopian authority, and facing fears instead of selling out principles.

goodguy5

across all SEs

trogdor

@BESW cool

doppelgreener

Most answers give a solid impression they know what they're talking about which is indicative enough, then there's answers that say (effectively if not in words) "here try this, I've never tried it or anything like it but I'm sure it will work!" which are bad, downvote them. This is a site for quality answers, not armchair speculation. "Here's what I'd do (not that I've ever done this or anything remotely like it, I just have an opinion and want to say it and maybe it's workable)" is also bad.

BESW

Also part of the "win in spite of the dice" mechanic involves all the players rocking out with air guitars.

NautArch

A lot of times I've been very against houserule ideas because they seem to break the system but don't have the realworld experience to say it won't. Other times (like with the paladin focus tattooed to my face), I've noticed what I thought should screw the economy doesn't seem to make a real difference.

doppelgreener

20:49

@goodguy5 do we have to take into an account the total available length of cables to a power socket within which one could be said to be meaningfully playing halo?

BESW

@NautArch Yeah, depends a lot on the system/edition.

doppelgreener

@BESW wow, yes please

Rubiksmoose

Now I remember what the meta post was. It was SSD talking about posting a meta question about Good ~~Suggestive~~ Subjective for answers (to supplement the current one which focuses mainly on questions)

(I'm pretty sure Good Suggestive is not site policy lol)

doppelgreener

@Rubiksmoose GSBS for answers will be pretty useful

@Rubiksmoose good suggestive is a Fiasco character style

BESW

@doppelgreener Character creation includes queuing up songs that are the sort of thing your band would play.

doppelgreener

20:52

@BESW beautiful

BESW

> grab one of the songs that you chose when you created your Band, and push play. Then you and everyone else in the band need to stand up and dance, sing, and play air instruments along to the song for at least 90 seconds. Then, describe how your character helps everyone win by overcoming her Secret Fear, through the help of at least one of your friends—or, if it seems like it’d be cool, through the help of one of the Rivals!

doppelgreener

Like on an actual music player, to play it when it's time?

Wow!

BESW

Actual music.

Each band member can only do it once per story, though.

doppelgreener

That's delightful

trogdor

@BESW lol, I kinda don't entirely like that but wtv

Rubiksmoose

20:54

@NautArch this is a very interesting point. For example, I'm pretty sure my current group just ignores the mechanics of arcane foci/holy symbols accidentally (or because we don't care, I'm not sure) for the most part and the game has not come crumbling down on top of us.

BESW

And in the scene where the Rival Band has to win, the GM picked a song to play if the dice say the players would win, and gets describes to describe how they cheat.

trogdor

@BESW this makes me a little nervous personally, having to get up and do physical stuff when I am RPing a character

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose we basically have as well, but we've also basically ignored encumbrance, too. We sort of do rations, but no one is really watching that closely.

BESW

@trogdor That's okay, I'm sure compromises can be found.

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener Absolutely agreed. I hope he does write something up. A good discussion about it should be informative and enlightening to read and useful to reference.

trogdor

20:56

@BESW yes, part of why I mention it now

Yuuki

@BESW CARRY ON MY WAYWARD SOOOOOOON

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch oh god yeah we just completely explicitly ignore encumbrance. I only just realized how much when I was making a new character in one of those auto-filling character sheets and I got like a quarter through my equipment and was already encumbered lol.

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose 20 STR helps a lot with that :)

Rubiksmoose

8 STR definitely didn't lol

Yuuki

Encumberance is just such a clunky mechanic. I guess you could say that it's... encumbering.

Rubiksmoose

21:02

@Yuuki you could say that couldn't you

doppelgreener

@Rubiksmoose I get the feeling if it was recent you might be thinking of me, in my own post just above the section with the pirates

goodguy5

alright nerds, time to go home

NautArch

adios @goodguy5

staying late at work until my gamenight starts

goodguy5

ooooh. board game or roleplaying game?

NautArch

@goodguy5 5e, campaign with the DM I don't like :P

Rubiksmoose

21:08

@NautArch But so close to finishing!

Can someone back me up here, I feel like I've seen a TON of people answering in the comments lately. Including one very recently with a very high rep user (which a best I can see as borderline)... Am I just super anal about this or what?

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose depending on what happens tonight, it might be the end. TPK is possible, but basically just waiting on what the DM is planning for the railroad ride.

@Rubiksmoose You're not - I feel like I've been seeing more of it as well.

goodguy5

@NautArch oh no good luck!

NautArch

@goodguy5 either way, i'll have fun. Just riding that rail.

doppelgreener

21:32

@Rubiksmoose nope it just happens multiple times a day every day every month

Especially on HNQs where they attract everyone from other stacks where answering in comments is just accepted

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener Huh, I must just be noticing it more now that I know what it is.

doppelgreener

@Rubiksmoose probably yeah

Yuuki

21:53

If drinking unicorn blood curses you with a half-life, a cursed life, then what happens if you're undead?

Also, does Voldemort count as a lich?

BESW

Don't cross the franchise streams.

Yuuki

What if you pour unicorn blood on plutonium? It already has a half-life.

trogdor

XD

the universe explodes

do it! XD

trogdor

22:12

on the subject of dinosaur meat,....

smbc-comics.com/comic/de-extinction

or maybe just

NautArch

@trogdor i was hoping for all you can eat buffet

trogdor

nope

GreySage

@trogdor I wonder if there are laws against creating new organisms and releasing them into the wild

trogdor

there probably should be

if there are not already

NautArch

@GreySage that's why you need to put them on an island!

Yuuki

22:28

@trogdor There is currently legislation in the US prohibiting/limiting spread of GMO crops that probably also applies to other living organisms.

trogdor

I am aware of that

but I don't know any reason it would also automatically cover other organisms

because bureaucracy

GreySage

It seems in the US at least many states have laws covering releasing non-native species

Yuuki

@trogdor Lack of specificity in the law?

trogdor

@Yuuki hey maybe

GreySage

In California its abandonment of any animal

Yuuki

22:30

It wouldn't be the first time that a law could be feasibly applied to something unrelated because lawmakers weren't sufficiently specific.

trogdor

@GreySage that isn't quite the ,.... scale of what I am worried about, but I'll take it xD

@Yuuki that is fair

Yuuki

All Writs Act

The All Writs Act is a United States federal statute, codified at 28 U.S.C. § 1651, which authorizes the United States federal courts to "issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law." The act in its original form was part of the Judiciary Act of 1789. The current form of the act was first passed in 1911 and the act has been amended several times since then, but it has not changed significantly in substance since 1789. == Act == The text of the Act is: (a) The Supreme Court and all courts established by Act...

> The current form of the act was first passed in 1911 and the act has been amended several times since then, but it has not changed significantly in substance since 1789.

GreySage

ooooh, in the UK you only need a permit to release an animal if it's on a specific list. If you create a new species it by default won't be on the list. Loophole found!

Yuuki

It's currently being used as precedent for the government to gain password access to electronic devices.

trogdor

@GreySage yeaaaaah this is the kind of thing I am worried about

GreySage

22:34

Aw, the EU as a whole has GMO laws, which dinosaurs would come under. No releasing dinosaurs in England for me :(

trogdor

and the difference between how different countries decide on laws is a big deal in the context

GreySage

On the plus side, you can patent your dinosaurs.

trogdor

lol

doppelgreener

22:52

apropos of nothing: some kind of bard

(probably)

(debatably not certified by the guild of bards)

BESW

Klingons who play D&D (A warrior's game! A way to hone the mind and recite tales of honor and glory!) gravitate towards bards more than barbarians. Klingons fight with passion, revere the arts, and see the world as shaped by stories.

Tweeted by alexandraerin on February 24, 2018 at 4:07 PM

Barbarians rage, yes, but any petaQ can get *mad*. Bards can level a column of warriors with a shout like thunder. They can inspire superheroic feats of stamina and skill with their lusty songs. They can goad foe into a fatal error with words like a sharpened d'k tahg.

Tweeted by alexandraerin on February 24, 2018 at 4:12 PM in reply to alexandraerin

Romulans: Gamist. Klingons: Narrativist. Vulcans: Simulationist. Humans: Sure there is no wrong way to play, but the other three aren't doing it right. https://twitter.com/popeguilty/status/967439446466588674

Tweeted by alexandraerin on February 24, 2018 at 4:46 PM in reply to alexandraerin

NautArch

@BESW snarky humans

doppelgreener

@BESW these are great.

BESW

23:11

Evil Hat project manager @SeanNittner gives a quick rundown of the various project statuses used on our project status page. Publishing is no joke. https://www.evilhat.com/home/project-status/

Tweeted by fredhicks on February 28, 2018 at 3:13 PM

trogdor

23:36

@BESW I love all of that

It's fantastic

@doppelgreener this person put a lot of levels in fighter first methinks

Yuuki

@doppelgreener Actually a rogue. Subclass: brassassin.

trogdor

I wouldn't expect that to assasinate me that is for sure

Yuuki

23:52

This obviously opens you up to sneak attacks.

trogdor

Indeed

@GreySage also, I know it's a late response, but it seems like the list should be of animals that are ok without a permit, and a second list for animals that currently have a system in place to get a permit for

Because yes, as described that looks like a silly silly but possible (?) Loophole

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