@doppelgreener Fair point. And I did answer his first question. (So if my guess is right, I bit! Hard! LOL at me in that case)

so either a long time troll

or...

@goodguy5 Or, some bad stuff just came up at the table

right

@goodguy5 I actually wonder if this is the guy that is still causing trouble or this guy has had some fairly poor luck with players...

though, I remember being a scared confused teenager, so it's hard to say.

Ok, everything checks out. User is fine. Stuff is probably real.

@goodguy5 Could easily be an over-exaggerated response for humorous purposes too.

@doppelgreener I am imagining a Martian Manhunter mind-reading scene here

Where he goes inside the mind of the suspect and fights imaginary mind guardians or whatever, and when he comes out he's exhausted and gasps "stuff is probably real" before slumping over

@SPavel haha!

@GreySage "I might die, tee hee"

also, about the problem "player", all I can imagine is Curly from Hey Arnold!

@doppelgreener OK, we'll roll with it, thanks for the deeper look.

@goodguy5 Anybody can suggest whatever they want. But he also is wrong.

I'm following up further, but yeah, nothing I have access to right now indicates a problem and if anything corroborates legitimacy.

@Rubiksmoose oh good okay

smort!

@doppelgreener rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/122574/…

Having once between an 8th/9th grader, I can confirm that we were all psychopaths to some degree.

I think this whole situation is help piling too much in comments, shouldn't we invite the user to chat?

@Rubiksmoose I don't see how a person sexually harassing another is an RPG problem just because both are players. The question also seems more about "Is this guy a psychopath?" than anything.

Yeah I was going to answer in the comments then I've noticed that it doesn't make sense and came here lul

@SPavel Great practical RPG.SE advice for fun at the tabletop. Thanks. :)

With the caveat of psychopathy being more of a pop culture thing than an officially recognized medical condition and we really shouldn't be diagnosing psychological disorders on SE.

@Yuuki Mainly, not on RPG.se

@HellSaint How is it not? Harassment is something that unfortunately happens around the table far far too often (read: more than 0 times). Guiding a young DM with how to deal with that kind of behavior at a table is certainly within our expertise.

@KorvinStarmast oops sorry will delete, no longer on topic for the juvenile psychiatric disorders chat :P

@HellSaint It is irresponsible to diagnose any medical condition, let alone psychological ones, on any SE not just RPG.SE.

@Yuuki "Mainly". I agree nonetheless.

So the GM has a problem that may involve physical and/or sexual assault. There are legal consequences here, outside of the GM's power. What exactly can they do here other than consult authorities?

@MikeQ Is that not still a valid answer though? And one this kid apparently needs to hear?

I still don't know why we haven't suggested that they come to chat

@Rubiksmoose I really don't see how this is anywhere related to RPGs other than it happened in an RPG table.

@Rubiksmoose It is. I just don't think it is an answer for RPG.se.

What exactly will chat do, @goodguy5?

@MikeQ Curses, I was about to make a "what if they're not a divine spellcaster" joke before that edit.

@SPavel Talk it out in a more real-time situation, rather than trying to piece together comments and conjecture

I've followed up further on investigating this user as far as I can right now. I'm giving it the all clear, I don't have anything that suggests they're a troll right now.

@HellSaint are you ignoring that most of the behavior was exhibited in a game?

@Rubiksmoose Sure it's valid, it just needs a massive caveat that the GM has limited power here. At best they can boot the player and call the players parents and/or the cops

This isn't just violating the social contract, it's violating the law

@Rubiksmoose Not ignoring. But we can't say if the guy playing an evil character is evil IRL. The problem is that the question and answer changes too much when we add exactly the thing that has nothing to do with gaming.

@HellSaint Trying to grope another player is being evil IRL

If the sexual harassment wasn't there, it was just a problem about someone breaking the social contract of playing good/neutral characters, which might not have been made explictly.

@Sdjz My point.

When you add the "non-game" thing, it changes completely everything and it doesn't seem to fit any more in a "gaming" SE. That's what I mean. I might be wrong, but I really feel that there should be better places for that question.

I've left a comment asking if the game's taking place at school or not.

@doppelgreener Based on the user's previous questions, I would assume so

one of their mom's basements, perhaps. Near a psychoactive testing facility?

Not concrete but: "My group is the only one right now at our school,"

@MikeQ Yeah. It matters though if they're playing it at school.

Trying to diagnose a player with such and such mental illness isn't helpful and isn't relevant

Because that determines whether escalating to teachers is an option if things, well, escalate.

@doppelgreener It sounds like things have already escalated

@MikeQ People using D&D to act out and do evil crap is kinda normal even for normal healthy people. I mean, you get to do evil crap without consequence for funsies. But it's also getting carried away at that point and almost certainly alienating others, especially the girl in the group.

@HellSaint Ah I see your point now, apologies

@doppelgreener Right, RP often risks making players uncomfortable, and a GM can take steps to mitigate that. But if players physically assault another, then that's another issue.

Ok, updating my comment...

@doppelgreener though OP already answered that? Or are we jsut making double sure?

@Rubiksmoose I don't know if he's actually answered that in a clear affirmative they've been assaulted in real life.

@doppelgreener Insofar as telling someone else "keep your hands to yourself" I would hope that all of the players would support that. And if no apology is forthcoming, then a peer sanction "you can't hang out with us" is the next logical step. That's one way to sort these things out ... before the escalation that may also be appropriate.

rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/122574/…

I thought that was pretty clear? (deleted now though)

@Rubiksmoose that confirms he attempted to grope the girl in real life.

That doesn't mean the assault is in real life.

@doppelgreener From a certain definition, attempting to grope is the assault

Ohh you mean "attacking party members"?

@MikeQ Ok. Yes. That part is definitely real life assault.

@MikeQ Actually, I think that's battery?

Sorry I was taking "assault" to just be shorthand for "sexual assault" here.

I understand now, I think.

@Rubiksmoose You edited out a closing paren. Now my whole answer will go out-of-bounds and segfault.

@GreySage Here, take mine, I don't need it.)

@GreySage I see you caught on to my devious plot.

@GreySage I'm wondering the % of people on RPG.se that are also users on stackoverflow.

high

And I'm guessing more than 50.

very much so, I would guess

I'm guessing more than 70%

I'm worrying about the poor girl and the poor DM, but at the same time my life is going on with its stupid little problems that I still care more about. I feel awful. Some would say it's normal but I still feel awful.

@goodguy5 Somewhat active.

@Zachiel Same :( I want to reach through the computer and help them more!

@Rubiksmoose Came here to +1 for inverting the agency in the title of that question.

@Zachiel I can't remember the exact phrasing of the adage, but basically "someone else's suffering does not diminish your suffering"

I mean, because one can't +1 edits directly :)

@mattdm daw thanks. Besides being more appropriate to the problem (IMO), the reason I actually did that was because it fit the way OP referred to the issue in the body much better.

So it was a win-win.

@goodguy5 Depending on what you mean by "on" SO I think I very much do not qualify as being one of those that is. I posted once a long time ago and I haven't browsed for years and years even.

@goodguy5 nor does having to worry about one's own suffering more than another's mean anything bad about oneself

yes

we all have only so much weight we can lift at any point, and some have plenty enough to lift already

@Zachiel Feel ya. I honestly want to punch some parents (not sure whose). Then help them. But I'm currently more worried about my own rejection problems :v But my psychologist has already helped me to not feel bad about worrying more about myself than others...

@HellSaint I'm currently more worried about my refusal to see a psychologist, but hey, I think worrying about oneself (and people we hold dear) is perfectly normal.

A good professional counselor is another option to full psychologist in most states.

@Zachiel Been there. Not sure if for the same reasons. For me, seeing a professional meant that I admitted I had a problem, and usually we don't want to. Funny enough, that's one of the most important steps on solving it haha

I highly recommend finding a counselor you like and at least visit them like you would a dentist.

@HellSaint Maybe rephrase as something you'd like to work on. Doesn't have to be a problem.

Psychologists have been enormously helpful for me at several times in my life for issues I've had trouble with.

As I said, that was for me. That's how I saw myself by then. Literally as a problem.

I've also been to psychiatrists, for clinical depression and more recently for getting generalised anxiety treated.

@HellSaint yeah that's often the thing. Or a sense of embarrassment or shame over it meaning we have a weakness. Australia has that bigtime.

(but Australia has a fairly masculine culture)

Yeah, seems familiar. The difference is that at Brazil we are poor :P

But I see a doctor when I need physical treatment. Same thing.

@HellSaint I have a thing or two I'd like to work on, but I don't think my gaming problems are worth the money :p

@Zachiel That depends on what these "gaming problems" are haha. One friend of mine would spend way more in gambling than he did on therapy.

But I don't think that's your case haha

From what I'm aware of your gaming problems impact on your personal emotional or mental health pretty significantly.

Emotional, maybe

Some say I must be a little masochist, because I like talking about them. I personally think it's that I find what happens to me while gaming more interesting than, say, how the day went at work.

Quick side note: rpg.stackexchange.com/q/122305/43856 - this question made me upvote two opposite answers and agree with both. I'm lol'ing.

@Zachiel both.

One can't experience emotional suffering without their mental health also suffering overall.

At least with long-term emotional suffering.

So, yes, it's worth it, go do it.

I'm gonna go for a run, see y'all soon.

@Zachiel I'm not sure I have the context, but most of us probably find talking about gaming more interesting than talking about the work. Also, talking about problems - whatever they may be - is usually relieving for people. Masochism is keeping that inside forever :p

@HellSaint I guess people categorize it as masochism because I usually discard their solutions to my problem, which A) makes them think they're wasting their time on me and B) makes it look like I want to cradle in my misery. Rather, I'm fascinated at the existence of unsolvable problems (or at least at problems I could only solve by risking a lot or compromising a lot).

@doppelgreener see ya. I'm going back to work lol spent too much time here hahaha

@doppelgreener See ya

@Zachiel kay, can see the point. But again - sometimes just talking about it is enough for relief.

I've just ended a relationship with my best friend AND a girl I was with. There's absolutely nothing I can do about any of them - they are not coming back. Yet, talking about it usually makes me sleep better haha

ps: not the same person - two relationships at almost the same time. Just to be clear lol

@HellSaint I'm sorry for your loss. I have lost some people - not friends, not lovers - that I would have liked to be friends with, but it must be nothing in comparison.

In case the chat needs a bit of a mood lifting: tv.eenet.ee/merikotkas.html

@MikeQ Unfortunately, it is currently nighttime in Estonia.

In fact, it is almost midnight.

Hm. So much for that plan.

That is a very patient dog

v.redd.it/hnf67gyb0mx01

Today I broke my single attack damage record as a monk in DnD 5e... 46 piercing damage with a longbow.

This is my hamster familiar. He adds a +1 morale bonus to morale.

@kviiri fornally requesting more details on this

@Sdjz Yer wish be granted, although it's not as interesting as it could've been. I was longbowin' an enemy and the first attack missed by a mile. I said something along the lines of "Torm please grant me strength" and rolled a crit on my second attack. With Kensei's shot, that gave me 2d10 + 2d4 + 4 damage, and I rolled 23 (E=20)... against a target that had just been tactically rendered vulnerable to piercing by a friendly NPC's ability.

@kviiri Thanks, Torm.

@SPavel The enemy was an anthropomorphic tree, so I guess attacks of similar fierceness will henceforth be known as Torm-enting.

@kviiri Especially when done to sentient trees.

@SPavel "np" - Torm, probably

Ah yes, trees are famously weak to arrows

My GM said something along the lines of "I have no idea what [kviiri] is doing or saying anymore, but he speaks fast and has a good flow so who am I to stop him"

Hence, Robin Hood's trick where he showed his prowess with the bow by slaying a tree, despite it being obscured by a volunteer and shielded by an apple

@kviiri Ah, the hip-hop approach to roleplay

@SPavel Well, the kensei weapon attacks are magical so they ignore the most common damage resistances. We just wrote it off as me targeting specific points to wreck the tree-being's chi.

@SPavel Apples are famously bad at being shields.

@doppelgreener

@Rubiksmoose Except against doctors

@Wibbs o/

@SPavel The monk works excellent for that. I think I've finally found a 5e class I actually like a lot. There's just enough things to spend one's juice points on to keep things interesting without it being either annoyingly complex or simple to the point of staleness.

I spend my juice points on grapefruit

@kviiri durkon would be proud

Grapefruit is the supreme juice

Yuzu is good too but hard to find

Plum is the su-prune juice?

And getting a lot of attacks is fun

Plum is the devil's angiosperm

@doppelgreener Can you check the question posting history of the guy with the 'chaotic evil PC' question please? Its like a who's who of controversial questions, and they've all been posted in the same day. If they'd posted one I might believe it, but there's an alignment one, a pretty girl one etc.

Disclaimer: I only know the Kensei monk, which is a fairly combat oriented take on monk. I'm not sure how elegant I'd find the others

@Wibbs Imagine yourself as a teenager, you just found this super cool website that answers your D&D questions, and boy have you got a lot of questions

I picked Kensei because I wanted something that would work well with a flavor similar to 4e's Avenger (an Assassin's Creed -esque offensive-oriented lightly armored paladin)

@Wibbs he already checked. Twice at least

@Sdjz ah OK, fair enough

@SPavel I'm obviously more cynical than you :)

@Wibbs Now you have to play the part of the loose cannon cop who breaks into the archives because he doesn't take his superior's word for it - and it turns out that he was onto something all along!

:p

@Wibbs Yeah, I've already investigated and everything checks out as OK.

@SPavel That's what it looks like to me too.

@doppelgreener consider me still unconvinced, but thanks

It seems Praxiteles is running an Aboleth in his next session.

@Wibbs I'm keeping an eye on it as well.

@Wibbs Actually, none of the questions contradict each other. If you put them all together, you can get the big picture of a semi-functional high school D&D group, with some recurring problems

@MikeQ with two players going hog wild with the murderous cretin stuff, which is far from unheard of, and with all the group dealing with weird puberty & sexuality stuff going on.

Alternatively, even if the stories are fake, the questions themselves are valid tabletop questions

Assume good faith and honest intentions when evidence to the contrary is meager.

(and it is, IMO)

Yay, repcap!

@trogdor Faith Corps uses Cortex-style dice and Fate-style aspects/points.

ooooh

so because it is combined together

in at least some ways

Good night everyone

Chat with you later

night

Bye

Ooh, new GSS content: Kodama, tree spirits!

@BESW So you waited for the tree-spirit killer to head out, before bringing in the news?

@BESW nice

@Zachiel they wouldn't be killers in GSS XD

@trogdor You know what's in the details without me spelling it, right? =P

@BESW Oh boy!!!

@GreySage Congrats!

I'm keen to see GSS's take on Kodama. :)

@Wibbs If you go back in the chat log, you'll see that I smelled a rat earlier in the day. Doppel looked into it. Seems OK. Even if it is a bit of trolling, then more than one of us bit, and maybe some good has come out of it?

> thanks for making me feel "not alone" on this one. :)

@Zachiel must have missed something

@MikeQ 'struth, if our policy enforcement has forced trolls to modify their behavior so their content is functionally indistinguishable from good-faith additions to the site.... success?

Could a Way of the Drunken Master Monk redirect an ally's attack towards an enemy?

> Redirect Attack is my one hot-button feature in the whole deal, because “stop hittin’ yerself” is such a danger when it comes to undermining tone. The math, or absence thereof, is weird. A miss against you (no matter than attack bonus) is a hit against another creature (no matter its AC). I don’t recommend this for real, but your blind barbarian buddy can gleefully take the -5 penalty from Great Weapon Master, hoping to miss you, and you can spend ki to make it hit your high-AC adjacent enemy.

Guys, I am very sleepy. I've translated that wall of text that my psychologist friend has sent to me as the answer to the weird tensions in the teenager D&D group, but I am sure that it has a thousand of mistakes. Can someone pls review it from the language perspective? rpg.stackexchange.com/a/122586/30214

@trogdor They say that the devil is in the details. Of course the sentence has a metaphorical meaning but I was just trying to belittle the details since they contain the devil. The details being that we were talking about GSS.

Hardly maintaining concentration to type even those two messages lol

Goodnight to you... and to me, then!

Good night to everyone who is going to bed, God bless you if you are religious. :) And good whatever time of day you are experiencing right now.

@Baskakov_Dmitriy Thanks, I need the blessings to get through the 3pm afternoon slog :(

@Baskakov_Dmitriy Alláh-u-Abhá, and good night.

@BESW Like this related xkcd?

Aye.

Centaur Voltron? (content warning: all text, contains one instance of strong language)

@Yuuki Not as good as the tower of rage, which is still my favorite answer on the entire site

@Zachiel oh XD

@MikeQ Wait, if a mount that is not combat-trained becomes frightened on a failed Ride check, could you attempt to purposely fail Ride checks on the BBEG to frighten them?

@Yuuki I mean... if you're somehow riding the BBEG, then... maybe?

@Baskakov_Dmitriy As much as I'd like to help, this one's probably better for you to look at again after you have had some sleep. Great Big Thank You for getting the input from your friend. The extra effort is appreciated. 8^D

I'd like to throw some kinda pirate ghost ship at my players, but I can't decide which parts to make incorporeal. The ship itself? The crew? The ammunition?

Not all ghosts are incorporeal at all!

Like, if it fires an incorporeal cannonball, does it just... go through stuff

Or if PCs try to board the ghost ship, do they just fall through it?

And being incorporeal doesn't mean it doesn't have any effect.

@BESW Yeah, I guess it simplifies things to go the POTC route and just have it be a tattered wreck that is still physically there

@MikeQ Just paint it pale green, throw some seaweed around, and have one of the pirates dedicated to yelling “Ooooooooo~” as the ship sails around.

@Yuuki The ship is really the old groundskeeper in disguise! And he would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those meddling kids.

Oh and get some smoke machines.

@Yuuki Not that they're not ghosts, they just know they don't really look like normal ghosts and they want to show respect for the traditions.

@BESW "If we didn't say OOoooOOoooh, then how would ye know we be ghosts?"

Also, what's better: Find the ghost ship patrolling around at night, or "call" it with a seance? Assume the PCs want to encounter the ship.

@Yuuki hopefully they rotate that pirate so everyone gets a turn/break XD

"We run up the skull an' bones to tell ye we're pirates, an' we make spooky noises to tell ye we're ghosts! 'tis only decent ye know what ye're in for."

@MikeQ Thanks for that link. Not being a PF fan, I had missed that one. Glorious cheese.

There's also the ship in a bottle, though I wouldn't use those stats under any circumstances.

I'm strictly asking for opinions and not mechanics. The PCs will need to find a specific ghost ship. As for how, I've narrowed down options to "Sail in an area until they randomly show up" or "Perform some ship-summoning ritual"

I don't think making them sail around for it to show up randomly is very interesting

what if they go to a place it is purported to be, they know this, and then oops, looks like we have a ghost ship?

@MikeQ To find a ghost ship, I usually leave nested clues that revolve around a time, place, and condition wherein the ghost ship is sighted or arrives. (This is informed by the number of variations of The Flying Dutchman that I read as a youngster. That legend got modded in a variety of ways).

That way, if they want to call it, or encounter it, they need to set it up.

@KorvinStarmast Hm, so it's like a combination of both options. I like this. Any specific ideas for the conditions and how to meet them?

OK, you have caught me right before a run to the 'loo. BRB, with a thought or two.

@MikeQ Clearly, a ritual for summoning a ghost pirate ship involves historical re-enactment of a naval battle.

A trinket, a celestial body (I usually use a moon, depending on how many orbit the game world), a season, and a fourth thing that is party dependent. That can be a family member, a curse, a location (castle, lake, mountain) that the party has an interest in.

The fourth bit is what makes it fit better in the adventure, or as a side adventure.

The season will inform which weather phenomenon will be connected to the ship's appearance/arrival.

hey there @KorvinStarmast

I tend to use summer for tornadoes/waterspouts, winter gets sleet/ice storms, fall gets hurricanes/typhoons, and spring strong currents/maelstroms.

how're things going?

Busy, you?

good here, doing some mechanical drafting of all things

Cool beans! :) Hoping we get a chance to get the gang together for a bit more RP ... will keep an eye on back room each day for updates.

@MikeQ Anyhoo, that's what I've got, my "get X food since you are about to drive home" phone call just arrived. Such is domestic bliss ... :) by all, be well.

Thanks @KorvinStarmast I'll take this into consideration

GSS now has stats for playing Fox, Racoon Dog, Cat, Dog, Rabbit, Bird, Horse, Mouse, Wolf, Pony, Fish, Witch, Aberration, Construct, Dragon, Elemental, Shapeshifter, Slime, Brownie, Elf, Gnome, Nymph, Pixie, Puca, Shrine Maiden, Fairy, Fox (Western), Witch's Cat, Living Object, and Tree Spirit.

Oh, and Michinoke (road monster), Oni, Kappa, Ghost, and Visitor.

@trogdor GSS has dragons: Wonder costs less in your territory (0), it's easier to make Impression checks to make or strengthen connections (0), you can fly in dragon form (2), you can Surprise people with a breath blast (4), you can paralyze people with a glare if your Henge is higher than their Child or Adult (10), and you can roar to Surprise the entire town at once (20).

What a selection

@Trogdor not sure if you saw it, but apparently we jumped in at the exact same time

Also wow yay dragons!

I don't think I noticed