TRPG General Chat

NautArch

19:00

@SimonH. ah, but the DM didn't know! Ryan described what he was doing, but not what spell actually was (which is what the DM need to know to know what ability to use when rolling the save)

kviiri

Sometimes people think their problems are less tied to the mechanics than they actually are

I think it used to be more common though.

Funny story from today: I sent my in-laws (we're not actually married but I refer to them as such for convenience) messages that me and my SO are going to see their relatives in another town, asking if they'd like to join. Mother-in-law responded "Yes", father-in-law responded "So I was told".

Simon H.

@NautArch If the ability had been used in the past, his description could easily tell the DM what he needs to know. What I meant was that he didn't need to tell the DM about his own rolls because the DM was the one who has to roll

@kviiri oh lord.

NautArch

@SimonH. Right, but the DM doesn' tknow what to roll until Ryan said Fear spell, Wis Save.

@kviiri And that was the beginning of your beautiful friendship.

kviiri

@NautArch I actually like both of my in-laws very much! :3

I mean... not in-laws because we're not married. What's an appropriate term then...

Simon H.

@NautArch Each character has a specific set of spells, yeah? So if it's been used in the past, then it would be easy enough to deduce which one he was referring to. However, I still believe that stating the action and then describing it is the best solution.

NautArch

19:05

@kviiri THat's awesome. And the dad seems like a decent guy in his honesty about visiting more relatives.

kviiri

@NautArch He's probably more thrilled than he lets show. There's a puppy dog waiting in the other end, after all.

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch So I grudgingly agree. I've edited my answer accordingly.

Simon H.

@NautArch Actually, I think I get what you mean now.

Rubiksmoose

@kviiri outlaws

kviiri

@Rubiksmoose Hah

SPavel

19:09

outlawsarewanted.joke

Rubiksmoose

:)

Simon H.

Would it be appropriate to ask the system-agnostic version of the question now, or should we wait until the active question is properly answered?

Should we get in contact with Ryan?

Mike Q

@SimonH. Is there a need to ask a separate, system-agnostic version of the question?

Simon H.

@MikeQ Currently, the question is on hold for that tag. I'm sure either the question needs to be edited or a separate question needs to be asked.

The real question here, though, is whether Ryan would like to make it system-agnostic or just use the D&D 5e tag as originally suggested.

Mike Q

@SimonH. Nobody dies if the question stays on hold

Simon H.

19:14

@MikeQ ...That would be regrettable. It's a good question, and it deserves an answer.

Hold on, it has an accepted answer

doppelgreener

@SPavel It's a good example of the system-agnostic tag being completely removable whilst losing zero useful information, also.

Simon H.

@doppelgreener Maybe not

@doppelgreener Did you hear the rest of the conversation?

kviiri

I'm off to celebrate Yuri's night

see ya

doppelgreener

@kviiri Goodnight!

Simon H.

Later, dude. Happy space day.

doppelgreener

19:18

@SimonH. I'm catching up now.

Simon H.

@doppelgreener I can attempt to summarize, if you'd like.

doppelgreener

@SimonH. I'd appreciate that. There's a lot that was said.

Simon H.

@doppelgreener In roll for shoes, there are modifiers and rolls that need to be told to the DM.

Even in roll for shoes, you are basically rolling against a number, and your roll total still needs to be stated.

doppelgreener

Right.

Simon H.

So the revised question would be "How do you demonstrate all mechanics-related information to the DM while still not breaking character", which includes rolls and modifiers in almost all cases

TTYL, guys.

doppelgreener

19:22

TTFN.

Rubiksmoose

What a frustrating day at work. The only happy points are dropping into my players' Masks group chat and seeing how excited they are all for it and all the neat ideas they have. Makes a soon-to-be-DM proud. My little baby superheros.

David Coffron

@Rubiksmoose sorry you had a frustrating day and good luck with your group

Rubiksmoose

@DavidCoffron Thanks! :)

It isn't terrible or anything. Just one of those days you know?

NautArch

19:39

@Rubiksmoose I hear ya. I begrudgingly noticed it which is why I put up the Q&A about it.

goodguy5

did we resolve this?

NautArch

I have no idea.

doppelgreener

The sys-ag question thing?

goodguy5

yea

doppelgreener

I don't know. I don't think so. It went down avenues of "so how system-agnostic is it, and what's that even mean anyway?" and then apparently also "so how do we rephrase it to keep it system-agnostic?", when I think the avenue we should be going down is "do we have enough information about the asker's situation that we can answer the question, and is there information missing that answer authors should have access to in order to provide effective solutions?".

NautArch

19:53

@doppelgreener and for me, the Roll for shoes argument (based on Greysages explanation) suggests that even if it was written as generally as possible still doesn't apply to all RPGs.

Simon H.

There is information missing, actually.

Different spells have different spell-save DCs. Was the DC based on any of his stats or was it static?

If it was based on his stats, it would be ridiculous for him to expect the DM to have memorized his sheet in order to know what he's rolling against in the first place

NautArch

@SimonH. i don't think that matters. The point is how do you bridge narrating your action with passing on required mechanics information. Even if it was a static DC, the DM doesn't know what ability to roll with.

goodguy5

fine. it's D&D and 5e at that

NautArch

Knowing it's a DC of 17 doesn't help the DM know that he's making a Wisdom save for Fear. DM still needs to be told, use WIS and this is for a frightened effect (as some creatures are immune to Frightened)

goodguy5

anyone looking for a similar question will probably find the D&D one and be satiated anyway

anyway. closing time

ta ta

KorvinStarmast

19:57

@NautArch Many thanks for the help on "hit me" question.

Simon H.

@NautArch The action isn't all the information he needed, though, because the DC is vital too.

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast no worries, nice answer :)

goodguy5

one question about roll for shoes

you start with do anything....

NautArch

@SimonH. Right, but hte point is that all of those pieces are system specific. The general question is how do I relay mechanical requirements for the DM when I'm trying to narrate in character.

goodguy5

the next time I get a skill, is it automatically at level 2?

NautArch

19:59

@KorvinStarmast i'm still kind of surprised the question isn't getting more upvotes. I thought that'd be an interesting one for the stack.

goodguy5

oh, I see okay. it always has to be narrowing down skills.

got it

anyway. out for real

Simon H.

@NautArch He seemed to be asking about how to pass on ALL key information to the DM via roleplaying, not just the action. So in some cases, that might include the action, but the action is demonstrable in some systems and in that case (Roll For Shoes) it would only be the sum of roll + modifiers that matter

But the modifier will ALWAYS be needed

Rubiksmoose

can someone link the Q (I'm lazy)

NautArch

@SimonH. I oculd have sworn greysage said no modifiers, or at least no modifiers that need to be passed onto the DM. The DM just needs the final roll tally, which is outside of the narration. The PLayer's roll and the DM's roll are separate entities that are not dependent on information being passed back and forth?

13

Q: What are strategies to roleplay through a saving throw my GM must make?

As I try really hard to always be improving my in-game persona through better roleplaying, one area I find difficult is when my abilities cause the GM to roll a saving throw. Are there any strategies either I can take, or try to talk to her about, to make it a bit more seamless? For example, wh...

doppelgreener

@SimonH. That's why I'm interested in knowing the system (instead of finding ways to keep it system-agnostic): there's information being transferred, and what information needs to be transferred, how much, and when it can/must be transferred, is really important to being able to provide an effective answer.

BESW

20:03

@nitsua60 Everybody's got their own naming conventions, and as others have said, if you haven't signed off on a final, then it's probably just wishful thinking on her part.

doppelgreener

E.g. things like D&D 4e don't need certain information transferred: saving throws have a static target value and someone can tell whether they succeeded or failed by looking at the rolls. But people can also use things that modify saving throw values, and some of that can be communicated in advance.

NautArch

@doppelgreener AH! I think that is an interesting approach that wasn't really being considered. It's not just about how do I in general provide mechanical requirements in narration, but how do I do it when this set of Mechanical requirements is required.

@BESW He'll have to wait and see if there's changes made and the next iteration is Final2.

doppelgreener

@NautArch Right, that's what I've been trying to say.

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch I am familiar with the GiTP thread that inspired the question, and have a feeling that its uses are mostly in the land of Oz.

NautArch

@doppelgreener I don't think i fully understood that until your latest iteration :(

doppelgreener

20:05

Communication is difficult, to other humans especially so.

NautArch

@doppelgreener who you calling human?

doppelgreener

To other ... sapient beings?

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener Just call him The Luggage.

BESW

@NautArch I use a related notation to mark whether files are draft-quality or print-quality, and whether they're speculative or iterative.

doppelgreener

@Rubiksmoose Communication is much easier with The Luggage sometimes, I think, than with people.

BESW

20:06

@doppelgreener "people" is a good word.

doppelgreener

@BESW Yes, that.

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener as damning as that is. I think you are absolutely correct lol.

BESW

@goodguy5 Each skill you get is one higher than the skill you rolled to get it--but it's not narrowing down skills. Higher-ranked skills don't have to be subsets of lower-ranked skills; they're derived from what happened narratively as a result of the roll, not what skill you rolled.

SPavel

@BESW Towards the end of the game, your rank in "get mangled horribly" will be fairly high

David Coffron

@SPavel I don't think skills ever level up.

BESW

20:20

Nope, new skill every time you qualify for one.

SPavel

Right, progressively more advanced mangling

What happens if you have, say, a 5d6 skill and roll it and fail and the outcome is that you get mangled

David Coffron

@BESW What is the DC (number of dice the DM rolls)? Is it chosen each individual time or are there rules for it?

BESW

22

Q: How many dice does the GM roll when challenging the players?

I'd like to run a game of Roll for Shoes, but I'm not sure how many dice I roll when the characters face various challenges. I'm under the impression that it's supposed to be the same number of dice the character uses, but that seems to make impossible tasks far too easy to perform. Is there a ...

gm-techniques roll-for-shoes difficulty

7

Q: Should circumstance modifiers be used in Roll for Shoes?

As I now know from reading How many dice does the GM roll when challenging the players?, there is almost certainly no clear ruling on this. Consider the situation: Player A is a chef Player B is an armored knight. Player A has the skill Spoon as Knife 3 from (Cooking 2<-Anything 1) from the ti...

roll-for-shoes

SPavel

@BESW I like the top answer for that

Let players XP-farm trivial tasks if they are willing to accept non-trivial consequences for failing

Zachiel

@kviiri in chaoses

BESW

20:40

@SPavel It's a basic Fate principle, too: if you can't think of something interesting/dramatic/fun for both success and failure, just have the interesting thing happen instead of rolling.

But in Roll For Shoes, I find the fun lies in rolling for everything and improvising ridiculous outcomes as the dice demand.

Hence "Roll to See if I Have Shoes On."

It derives humor from treating the trivial as roll-worthy.

Rubiksmoose

I really want to play RfS

BESW

Because it's a silly one-off game in which you roll as often as possible, the stakes for failing to produce an interesting outcome on each roll are very small.

It's kinda like stand-up comedy: if something doesn't get a laugh, move on quickly.

@Rubiksmoose Sometimes enough interest can be drummed up that folks run it in the Back Room‌.

Rubiksmoose

@BESW One of these days I'm bringing my drum

BESW

Does 5e have Shulassakar?

They'd make a good partial frame challenge answer for this question.

Rubiksmoose

@BESW nothing on D&DB on it

BESW

20:54

(They're an Eberron thing, so wouldn't make for a good answer independently.)

Rubiksmoose

@BESW makes sense. There is no official Eberron material yet for it though.

BESW

And the querent is asking more about Forgotten Realms specifically than 5e specifically.

@kviiri In-commonlaws?

@Rubiksmoose If there ever is, it'd totally help make a better answer for my question too.

Gandalf standing in front of the Gates of Moria trying to remember a password makes a lot more sense to me now than it did in 1984.

Tweeted by other_shoe on April 10, 2018 at 10:25 PM

3

BESW

21:18

47.

Tweeted by OhhSixer on April 8, 2018 at 4:28 AM in reply to OhhSixer

59. Someone plz do this

Tweeted by OhhSixer on April 8, 2018 at 4:35 AM in reply to OhhSixer

David Coffron

Has anyone read Venom in Her Veins by Tim Pratt. Might be relevant to this question. I would need to know the details of one of the characters to be sure (as well as waiting on a response from the OP)

BESW

21:59

Ooooh.

April and May for our Fate Worlds patreon are shaping up nicely. https://www.patreon.com/evilhat

Tweeted by fredhicks on April 12, 2018 at 9:48 PM

Carnotaurus lived in South America during the Late Cretaceous & grew to 9 metres long. It had thick horns above the eyes (a feature no other carnivorous dinosaur possessed) & tiny arms! It was one of the fastest large theropods. (Credit: Lida Xing, Fred Wierum)

Tweeted by Extinct_AnimaIs on April 12, 2018 at 9:41 PM

Twitter thread: "What is your favorite #RPG that takes place in the real world (with or without fantastical adjustments)?"

doppelgreener

22:28

I have an important question: has anyone yet played a tortle in D&D 5e that was shy and needed help coming out of its shell?

trogdor

That would get too real for me pretty fast

XD

BESW

23:11

"Tabletop Games Piracy in 2018," by Adam ~~Judge,~~ Jury ~~and Executioner~~.

Something we don't really talk about enough (imho, anyway, so I'm going to, lol) in the writing community is: A) how vital cheerleading is to the early stages of a project, B) how useless editing is in those same early stages.

Tweeted by AnaMardoll on April 12, 2018 at 2:09 PM

David Coffron

23:23

@doppelgreener Not yet, but I played a "ninja turtle" in 4e (Hengeyokai Assassin, with Carp but reskinned as turtle) and that joke came up.

BESW

23:36

Sophie Lagacé does #AprilTTRPGMaker: Questions 7 through 12.

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