TRPG General Chat

1:14 AM

@Yuuki Distance, though, isn't (to me) a hugely-useful metric. 10% of people within 10m of mean sea level, though... that's an interesting way to think about rising oceans.

@GreySage I'm definitely more attractive in dim light.

(IOW, "what BESW said.")

trogdor

So your saying your color and contrast is the problem then ? @nitsua60 ? :P

nitsua60

@trogdor I think I'm saying they're among the problems =)

Ben

1:34 AM

Hey @nits, how are you?

trogdor

1:49 AM

@nitsua60 lol

Ben

2:18 AM

Is Jeremy Crawford an "author" of the D&D rulebook?

nitsua60

@Ben Hiya.

@Ben Yes, though I don't know to what extent his role as "lead designer" was authoring rules vs. leading a team who did so.

Ben

Yeah, just wanted to get a "title" for the appropriate person(s) authorised to make official rule clarifications.

nitsua60

@Ben Lead Designer is his formal title.

Ben

The OP appears to be in a but of a stubborn state of mind lol.

nitsua60

@Ben In their defense, I think your (completely correct to my mind and imminently reasonable) assertion about the reading would benefit from one of the designers' quotes about 5e being written in "plain language."

Since "see" and "no difficulty" aren't otherwise-defined game terms, we use the Simple English reading of them (which leads to your stated claim, IMO).

@Rubiksmoose I saw that =)

Ben

2:35 AM

@nitsua60 Fair. This really is an interesting situation haha

RAW, both are "not wrong", even though they are contradictory haha

nitsua60

Any player of mine who tried to make that claim at my table would find their GM saying "really? So you see through your eyelids? You know that after about a week you're going to die from sleep deprivation right? 'Cause I'm fine with that, but you can just ditch your character less-dramatically if you want."

Ben

@nitsua60 I feel like I could/should add that to my answer?

nitsua60

@Ben Do what you like--I don't touch RAW with a ten-foot pole, so my advice probably isn't very useful.

Ben

Hahaha fair enough

nitsua60

[considers mod-abuse of undeleting, upvoting, then redeleting @Miniman's totem answer...]

Ben

2:48 AM

@nitsua60 hahaha

I unfortunately missed it lol

Miniman

@nitsua60 it's a more problematic answer than I'm comfortable with.

Ben

What was the gist?

Miniman

Because the implications for darkvision or truesight are concerning and contradictory.

> You can see up to 1 mile away with no difficulty, able to discern even fine details as though looking at something no more than 100 feet away from you.

Was the gist

Ben

Also a valid point.

I'm with @nits on this lol

Miniman

Feel free to steal it if you like.

Joshua

2:51 AM

Apparently nobody thinks I should build a traps dungeon despite the fact I believe the DM should not construct unfair traps.

Ben

@Joshua Define "unfair"

Joshua

I don't like "make this check to detect the trap or die"

MikeQ

@Joshua Define "nobody"

Joshua

Nobody I've talked to about it.

Ben

@MikeQ lol

@Joshua I will say that is very... all or none.

MikeQ

2:54 AM

Well you're technically conversing with me, and I say you should design a dungeon with a trap and hazard theme. So that's no longer nobody.

Ben

Not saying traps can't lead to death...

Joshua

Let's put it this way, if the trap results in a TPK the party blew it.

Ah MikeQ the dungeon theme is traps and puzzles.

Tell you what, if you can find a way we can play it I can build it.

MikeQ

Especially for lower level PCs in a D&D-esque game, I prefer trap challenges because the players choose the pacing - they can notice the trap, discuss, then figure out how to address it.

nitsua60

I exist in some superposition of hating, liking, and not understanding traps.

Joshua

I also had this brilliant idea of leaving spellbooks in the dungeon to ensure the players know the necessary spells.

nitsua60

2:57 AM

Alright, people, I've taken a big plunge.Tonight I bought my first console since the NES.

MikeQ

@Joshua - I recently wrote about trap design in an answer. tl;dr The cost of failure doesn't need to be death, just substantial enough to make the trap significant.

Miniman

@nitsua60 Which one?

Ben

@Joshua I'm all for traps that kill - but there should be fair warning, and potential buffer against said death. Otherwise players should be warned to bring several character sheets before the game starts.

nitsua60

@Miniman xbox

MikeQ

@Joshua That's a valid approach. Definitely a big boost if the PCs have a wizard.

Ben

2:58 AM

@nitsua60 Wooooow

Miniman

@nitsua60 What's the benefit over a PC?

Ben

[Impressed applause]

@Miniman You can play on the couch

Joshua

@Ben: That's what resurrection's for.

nitsua60

@Miniman Me and the kids sitting around playing whatevs on a 50" screen together.

MikeQ

@Joshua Personally I like narrative environmental clues - spatters of dried blood, discarded lockpicks, noticing that the dungeon denizens avoid certain areas, etc...

Joshua

2:59 AM

Noiiice.

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 hahaha you saw nothing. [Jedi hand wave]

nitsua60

(Also, I live in laptop-world. Haven't had a desktop for a decade or so, and don't really want to pick up another machine whose maintenance is my problem.)

Ben

@Joshua True.

nitsua60

@Rubiksmoose Your petty magic tricks won't- [snores]

Miniman

@nitsua60 So any particular reason why an xbox over whatever playstation and nintendo are up to now?

MikeQ

3:02 AM

@Joshua Lastly I'd advise against insta-kill traps, especially when healing is a limited resource. Killing the PC means that the player can't play anymore, or until they get brought back somehow.

nitsua60

@Miniman Fifa, I think was it?

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 BTW I totally softened my wording on the RAT question upon rereading your answer. I don't think it's fair to say to that all uses are derisive or ironic.

Joshua

@MikeQ: Ah too bad. My traps tend to be really lethal as in healing magic probably won't help much. Hmmm better start the players with a few Ressurrection scrolls.

Rubiksmoose

Still I really hope that kind of terminology doesn't catch on.

Miniman

@nitsua60 Ah, interesting.

Joshua

3:05 AM

I've just been assuming fighter (includes druid), cleric, wizard

MikeQ

@Joshua Ok, then I'll need to understand your motives here. Why do you want lethal traps? To make them scary? Or as an exercise in resource management?

Ben

Switch = Mario Party. A game of frustration and hatred for the whole family.

Joshua

To make them scary. Resource management is supposed to be a complete non-issue and the players can take long rest between each room.

nitsua60

@Rubiksmoose For my part, I think you make a good point about RAT probably not being terribly useful in describing a source. "Quote tweets if you want, if you have feelings about how they should be taken explain those, but don't rely on obscure jargon to carry any of that water" seems like good advice.

Miniman

@Joshua This statement, combined with "really lethal as in healing magic won't help" suggests to me that your traps are of the "read my mind or die" persuasion, which is, in general, significantly less fun for players than "make a check or die".

Ben

3:07 AM

"Mario Party. You though you hated monopoly... just you wait!"

MikeQ

@Joshua In that case there are better strategies to make dungeon elements scary

Joshua

Yeah that's the problem if I get them wrong.

nitsua60

@Miniman The requirements were (1) not PC (for aforementioned reasons), (2) Elite Dangerous, (3) FIFA, (4) as cheap as reasonable subject to 1-3.

MikeQ

The problem with too many surprise deathtraps is that it makes the players overly cautious. It often encourages a playstyle where the game slows down due to many many Perception rolls

Joshua

Most of the traps I've designed deliberately have most/all of the elements in the open for investigation.

MikeQ

3:10 AM

Okay that's good, and I can skip the point about poorly clued warnings

Ben

@MikeQ Actually, yes. I have experienced this in one of my games. My mum and dad used to play D&D when they were younger, and apparently those dungeons were lethal. "I open the door" - "Ok, you're dead".

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 yeah and I just dread debating whether something is RAI/RAT or RAW/RAT and why this thing can be in multiple categories at once. Luckily I think this is all a bunch of hand wringing over something very unlikely to happen based on the current rate of usage of the term. But I did worry.

Ben

This led to a 30 minute argument about whether or not they should open a door without knowing in one way or another what was on the other side

MikeQ

Case: The undescribed dragon problem
- PCs enter a room, and GM describes some aspects of the room
- PCs walk forward and get eaten by unmentioned dragon
- The dragon wasn't invisible, but the GM says it's the players' fault for not checking for dragons

Joshua

@Ben: Illusionary wall with a chained Gorgon on the other side. The players are supposed to be able to recover from this one.

Shalvenay

3:12 AM

hey there @Joshua

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 I think the ideal solution is just to ignore JC entirely lol

The bugger is that he is very helpful sometimes when he agrees and makes sense.

Shalvenay

@Joshua -- thought about your lich-on-a-magnetar -- I wonder what that lich'd see if that magnetar had a starquake....

Joshua

Well considering that he has to cast darkness with true sight on top of it to see /anything/...

Hmmm trouble is that spins up the magnatar by a few kHZ. Not good.

Shalvenay

@Joshua heheheh

"can ionizing radiation pierce magical darkness?"

Joshua

I'm not going to ask that one. I can't hope for an answer from the rules.

nitsua60

3:19 AM

@Rubiksmoose lolfigsl =)

Ben

@nitsua60 "figsl"?

nitsua60

@Ben urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=lolfigsl

Ben

Ahh lol. (No figsl)

nitsua60

@Ben (though a search of this room's transcript may lead you down a straaange rabbit hole, if you've ten minutes.)

Joshua

I was disappointed I had to toss what I thought was a well designed trap/puzzle because a material impervious to anti-magic field can't seem to exist anymore.

Shalvenay

3:31 AM

@Joshua that's annoying

my thing with traps, though, is traps that aren't really traps

Joshua

It really needs a hemisphere anti-magic field rather than a sphere anti-magic field

Shalvenay

@Joshua Sculpt Spell or equivalent?

Joshua

I don't think you can sculpt-spell an item with a permanent anti-magic field.

"The tunnel opens into a room. You don't see a floor but you can see the tunnel on the other side of the room. There is a red spire about three feet tall just hanging there with its bottom at floor level. You see heat waves."

V2Blast

Hmm... I think Korvin's right about this question:

14

Q: How can I explain how to play D&D to new players without them falling asleep from boredom?

Some of my friends just started playing Dungeons & Dragons [5e] for the first time and don't know anything about how to play. I have tried explaining to them the things that are completely necessary and teach them the rest while playing but I could not get them to understand. None of them have a ...

being a duplicate of this one:

14

Q: How to explain D&D to new players?

I recently brought up the fact that I play D&D to a friend, and a few days later he came back to me and said that he wanted to play. I was excited at the idea and said that I would be willing to run a one-off session for him and some other friends. The first friend used to play somewhere around...

dnd-5e new-players new-gm system-introduction

I can close one as a duplicate of the other (as they are basically identical), but I feel both questions have some good answers so they might benefit from a diamond mod merging them...

nitsua60

@V2Blast Can you custom flag with a note to that effect?

V2Blast

3:45 AM

Sure!

nitsua60

(Gets it into a nice queue where we can all easily get a look, discuss, and decide how to proceed.)

V2Blast

Done.

(I assume I should only flag one of them)

Joshua

I took a look at the questions and agree with the assessment of duplicate.

Joshua

4:02 AM

I've kind of got this idea that attacking a high-level spellcaster in his stronghold is a truly terrible idea and a reasonable expectation of such a battle is its really sharp and not in favor of the players.

V2Blast

Am I right in guessing that the site linked in the following question rehosts non-SRD content?

1

Q: What is a dead magic zone?

From Nail of blood Inscribed along its length with wicked-looking runes, this 3-inch-long nail is made of black metal and gives off a faint, eerie blue glow. Powered by strange necromantic magic, the nail allows a spellcaster to cast spells within a magic dead zone by drawing on the caster’s ...

pathfinder

MikeQ

4:36 AM

@V2Blast Nope, pathfinder moved its official SRD to aonprd (archives of nethys)

V2Blast

4:55 AM

@MikeQ Ah, okay.

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