TRPG General Chat

Derpy

1:04 PM

@HotRPGQuestions yep. For example, six-face shaped dices usually have an almost zero probability of rolling 42 :P

(sorry, bad pun)

Rubiksmoose

I must agree with the comments. D4s are the worst die

Even ignoring their caltropiness

goodguy5

they seem less bad if you have a dicetower

or if you kind of throw them against the side of a dice arena

Rubiksmoose

Of the standard die I mean. Actual 100 sided die I hear are pretty annoying for opposite reasons (they don't stop rolling)

doppelgreener

@Rubiksmoose just generally true

@goodguy5 they're still terrible, the dicetower is just compensating for their terribleness :D

hehehehe, PixelMaster found a d4 caltrop:

2

Derpy

@Rubiksmoose their caltropiness is the best part. What other dice can you use if you are being pursued by the other players (who just discovered you killed them off with a loaded dice roll) and you need to escape?

Rubiksmoose

1:11 PM

@doppelgreener no joke, I think one of my players has this exact dice set

Derpy

@doppelgreener was just going to do that same image search, you spared me the time.

Someone_Evil

@Derpy I think my d120 can knock some out if thrown.

Rubiksmoose

@Derpy XD I do have a d20 that is about the size of a very large coffee mug that could certainly cause some damage...

Derpy

@Rubiksmoose should be a martial art.

nitsua60

@KorvinStarmast I'm wondering if you have a minute to look at something personal--I'll drop it into discord.

goodguy5

1:15 PM

@doppelgreener yes they are still terrible, but they FEEL less bad if you employ one of my aformentioned methods

okay, I was searching for a d24, but this came up and I was very confused

> D24 - Pill Identification Wizard | Drugs.com
https://www.drugs.com › Pill Identifier › Results for d24
Results 1 - 8 - Pill Identifier Results for "d24". Search by imprint, shape, color or drug name.

Substitute a d24 for d4,d6,d8, and d12. d10 and d20 also work if you're willing to reroll on 21-24.

doppelgreener

There's also this one

I feel like these are political statements about the d4

Someone_Evil

@doppelgreener in a "decleration of war" kind of way

goodguy5

^

doppelgreener

....... now I want to make a ninja character that has to roll a ton of d4's for their caltrop move. it's a joke, get it?

goodguy5

@doppelgreener no, please explain

Derpy

1:22 PM

ok, since it seems that you all are trying to steal my role as the room official crazy pony, I will have to use my secret weapon.

doppelgreener

entirely theoretical game and move of course

Derpy

The most annoying dice for a D&D player

doppelgreener

but whenever the ninja wants to throw a ton of cantrops, the player has to roll a fistful of d4's to see how that goes. they're throwing caltrops! haaaaaa

Someone_Evil

Anyway Truncated Tetrahedra d4 are available from The Dice Lab (no affiliation) if you want a less weaponized but still distinctive d4, and not risk rolling your octaheadral d4 instead of your d8.

goodguy5

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I get it.

It's a pun! You have to roll the dice "deefore" you know how much damage it does!

Good one XD

kviiri

1:24 PM

@Someone_Evil One of my players has those! I think they're better than normal and also aesthetically neat

doppelgreener

@goodguy5 [audible teeth grinding]

yes

Someone_Evil

@kviiri I have them aswell. My players "don't get how they work" somehow..

doppelgreener

that's the joke

you definitely got it

goodguy5

/giggles to self, but quietly because work/

unicornturtle

Hello!!!

Wat is going onsss

.........

ello?

kviiri

1:29 PM

Hello o/

Someone_Evil

@unicornturtle We're mostly discussing the military application of d4s

unicornturtle

oh ok

caltrops for da win

Derpy

@doppelgreener You may be interested in this

unicornturtle

Deploy dem on da battlefield, when dem russian bois step on dem it is like stepping on legos

doppelgreener

> This project is a labour of love for us; to create imaginative, 3D-sculpted custom dice for our favourite hobby, and for the pure joy of holding and rolling them.

kviiri

1:30 PM

@Derpy I am mildly annoyed by the fact that "Neutral" is represented by scales, which is a symbol traditionally associated with law and justice.

unicornturtle

Hehe

doppelgreener

[looks at d20] ... I think they failed in an effort to meet their goal

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 OK, will do - I can't get to discord until later today. Might be faster with gmail.

Yuuki

@Derpy Wait, what are on the other sides? Or can you roll Lawful Chaotic?

doppelgreener

@Yuuki I'm assuming the dice have doubled up faces

kviiri

1:31 PM

@Yuuki I'd assume they repeat on opposite sides

unicornturtle

yay an active chat!!! the board game one isnt so much i am afreaid :(

kviiri

Or who knows, maybe there's cheeses on the other side

@unicornturtle We are pretty active, but there's also longish quiet periods

unicornturtle

ok

lol

Well i gtg i will be sure to ocme back!!

kviiri

Bye

doppelgreener

@Derpy honestly the more i look at these the more i'm thinking they sorta failed :U

They're not nice dice to look at, won't be fun to handle or roll, look like a pain to carry because they've increased pointiness, clunkiness, and space-taking-up-ness, will be hard to read or identify ("which one's the d8 again?")....

they don't even look like they'd be all that nice as ornaments

and three of them might be a bit weighted

Someone_Evil

1:37 PM

@doppelgreener I agree, they're worst then d10 which is already sketchy

Derpy

can work if you build the game around the dice. D10 for unarmed combat, D12 for defense rolls, D20 for parrying rolls... But I kinda agree with you, it is most for novelty purposes and will get old fast

goodguy5

10 fingers - d10. makes sense.

Someone_Evil

@goodguy5 I don't want to know what you have 12 of on your head

goodguy5

It's a Homer Simpson situation

teeth? idk

doppelgreener

eyes

of course

goodguy5

1:44 PM

"twelve" rhymes with "elve" and elves have pointy ears... on their heads!

Someone_Evil

@doppelgreener doppelgreener confirmed Beholder, you heard it here first everyone!

doppelgreener

@Someone_Evil [sweats]

Derpy

@Someone_Evil '2-10-11: eyes, fingers, toes'

doppelgreener

i mean um

i have the n-normal number of eyes

i have ... what is it ... five of them just like all the rest of you

Someone_Evil

@Derpy I honestly don't know what this is supposed to mean

Derpy

1:47 PM

@Someone_Evil sorry, should have given a little more context :P

It is a line from the Addams Family movie

Someone_Evil

@Derpy Gotcha. (largely outside my wheelhouse)

Derpy

it is the code used to open a safe in a scene in the movie. Fester does not remember the code so Gomez says that line.

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 OK, I saw something pop up on my phone, currently not able to down load the doc, give me a few, and it is my pleasure to be of any assistance at all.

doppelgreener

did y'all see there's a new Addams Family movie coming out on Halloween?

The Addams Family Teaser Trailer #1 (2019) | Movieclips Trailers

►

It looks great, and I'm looking forward to it.

Derpy

And I think that may be an actual reference to Gomez claiming having 6 toes on his feet in the original 1964 show.

@doppelgreener never saw it before, thanks for letting me know.

KorvinStarmast

1:55 PM

Ah, John Astin, the original Gomez Addams. That was one of the few shows my parents let us watch. (they were real strict about the idiot box/TV) (Wasn't Raoul Julia in that role when the movie was made (Christina Ricci as Wednesday version?)

Derpy

@doppelgreener Could be promising, can live with the character design. Only thing felling a little out of place is "fat" Gomez. Would have preferred if he was a little slimmer

to be more precise, the character design seems to be based more on the cartoon than on the original show.

KorvinStarmast

@Derpy Yeah, the debonair and trim John Astin look would IMO be better.

nitsua60

@KorvinStarmast Sorry to bug you, but do you have a second to check Discord?

(Oh, nvm--just saw your message fifteen back.)

I can put it in as text if that's easier.

Derpy

2:12 PM

@KorvinStarmast I think part of that is actually due to having seen the original version far before this one.

Kinda like green Magica De Spell still looks weird to me even after starting to accept Ducktales 2019 more "geometrical" design.

doppelgreener

@Derpy let's bear in mind the Addams family roots are in syndicated newspaper comics from 1938, not anything on TV

i.e. the cartoon was based on Charles Addams' designs, and so are the movie designs

Derpy

@doppelgreener and you have a point on that

(By Charles Addams, Fair use, en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15992920)

AncientSwordRage

ahoy

Rubiksmoose

@AncientSwordRage yarrrr

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 I have another 46 minutes before discord finishes loading on my phone. If you can sent it to my gmail that we used before, that would be faster. Not sure what you have access to at the moment.

GcL

2:26 PM

Does anyone here use a flat screen tv horizontally to display maps and other material for their table top games?

nitsua60

@KorvinStarmast Oh, yeah--that's easy. Just a moment...

Done. Sorry for the trouble!

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 Got it! In work now!

doppelgreener

@Derpy (just fyi, wikipedia image URLs like that don't actually onebox. They direct to pages not images even if they appear to have an image file extension.)

AncientSwordRage

Anyone read the Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica?

Rubiksmoose

@AncientSwordRage bits of it. I seem to be relatively rare around here in finding 5e splat books to be uninspiring reading...

AncientSwordRage

2:34 PM

@Rubiksmoose thats fair

I've started picking up MTG more recently so I've become more interested in that splat book than others

Does anyone have thoughts on how to do a Gruul Tattooist?

^ too broad for a main site question

Rubiksmoose

ah yeah and that is certainly another strike against me for this one in particular since I have never had any real experience of interest in MtG for whatever reason.

AncientSwordRage

@Rubiksmoose I read a review by someone who had little to no MtG experience which was completely counter to how the rest of the (mtg) community saw the book

doppelgreener

I'm not a 5e fan so I'd probably pick whatever seems exciting and lift it into a system like Fate. The most interesting things on Ravnica aren't the fighting, they're the intrigue, interactions, espionage, negotiations, and all the other social stuff that D&D only lightly handles.

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener IIRC you did that with 4e correct?

(not Ravnica obviously but just jumped from 4e to Fate)

doppelgreener

correct

the stories I'm most interested in aren't ones that mostly revolve around tactical combat

high-stakes dramatic physical conflict worth spending a significant amount of time on would tend to be rare and far between

Rubiksmoose

2:43 PM

I'm right there with you.

doppelgreener

so, I moved to Fate since it valued and fleshed out those kinds of stories very fully with mechanics, and valued those mechanics equally to mechanics for actual fighting

I'm interested in Ravnica because it's full of potential for those kinds of stories

Rubiksmoose

I think the most fun combat I've ever had was in a Masks game and the combat lasted five minutes when one of my players (with no super powers) had a breakthrough character development and used their Moment of Truth to take down a fairly major villain in one "round". It was amazing and glorious.

doppelgreener

Oh, that sounds wonderful.

How'd that unfold?

Rubiksmoose

(I was DM for reference) The player was playing as the Beacon playbook got grabbed by my villain (Clayface from DC comics). The character just kind of snapped. The character had had a really rough streak of luck recently (the dice had not been in the player's favor). He was sick of being the victim and started acting like a leader a bit and got the team to work together for the first time in the game. [cont]

kviiri

I like tactical combat and I like games without it. I dislike games that put a lot of emphasis on tactical combat without really openly embracing it

Rubiksmoose

2:49 PM

[cont] He barked out orders and used his knowledge of the villain to instruct the team how to basically blast him into little pieces and contain him so he couldn't reform. And they walked him to the police station in a jar.

I had planned on this being a major recurring encounter but that was wayyy better.

kviiri

Your fate <screws on lid> is sealed

Rubiksmoose

hahaha it was kind of that awesome. I think the player managed to come up with some awesome lines like that too.

@kviiri I feel the same way about games that put a lot of emphasis on not-combat yet never really embrace it in the system. Which is how I would describe 5e.

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 Reply is speeding to you via the intertubes.

@Rubiksmoose I still don't have it, and I too find the splats to be only so so ... the Wayfinders/Eberron is OK.

Anaphory

Hello, lovely chatizens!

doppelgreener

Hello! o/

Rubiksmoose

2:58 PM

howdy!

KorvinStarmast

@Anaphory \0 hey

Anaphory

\o !

Masks! Nice! I still want to set up a campaign of it. It's on top of my list for that.

Rubiksmoose

I'm not sure how my players all feel, but it is my fondest gaming experience so far.

I know they all enjoyed it at least. Some would love to do another story, but a couple others just didn't like the genre that much.

doppelgreener

@Rubiksmoose ohhh, boy. that is fantastic!

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener As a DM it was accompanied by many tingly warm fuzzy feels. :) I'm honestly not sure if D&D style combat has ever elicited near that kind of response from me personally.

Hot RPG Questions

3:09 PM

1

Q: How does initiative work when teleporting into combat?

A Wizard PC Teleports their party from a safe place directly to the location of a group of foes, who the party intends to attack. If the foes did not know this was about to happen, they should be surprised. How does initiative work in this situation - does the Teleport take place on the Wizard...

doppelgreener

@Rubiksmoose was that snap a mechanical thing too? I've never played more than a session with the Beacon, so I don't know if that was a result of XP buildup.

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener Kind of. There was nothing that said he had to snap then, but he felt that his character had that moment and thus invoked the Moment of Truth for Beacon (which basically is a "take down an enemy in an awesome way and show you deserve to be on this team of superheros even though you don't have powers" moment).

goodguy5

4

(the tag is "druid irl")

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 I wish I could have crows and not be a jerk to them/the environment/break laws.

doppelgreener

@Rubiksmoose oh, that's awesome :)

Derpy

3:33 PM

@goodguy5 I keep hanging fatballs for the bird to eat on a tree in my garden. So far the only "payment" I got is "organic bird compost" for the tree. Will update if the ravens start bringing in money.

GcL

Crows are wicked smart.

West nile nearly wiped them out. Glad to see they're making a comeback picking up errant bills.

Rubiksmoose

heh. They actually make and use tools IIRC. so smart.

Anaphory

I believe I read about experiments on training corvids to collect things humans want collected, but don't themselves. Cigarette buds, coins, etc. All of them still require several steps to reinforce the association between collecting that thing and the reward, so it seems anon got lucky about skipping step 2.

Rubiksmoose

I'm honestly not sure what is going on here

ah nvm I think. OP explained.

Kind of?

Someone_Evil

@Rubiksmoose It's looking a lot like "I have made some poor choices about progression, and now it's breaking my game. Help"

Rubiksmoose

3:43 PM

@Someone_Evil I honestly have no idea.

The person is the DM but is acting like the rogue is somehow getting XP sneakily as if the DM did not grant them it.

I'm circling back around to this being unclear until that detail is clarified.

Someone_Evil

@Rubiksmoose I'm guessing by "not sharing experience" it means whomever landed the final blow gets ALL the XP and so the rouge has happended get more XP which lets them get more of the kills and furthering their lead

Rubiksmoose

idk

> So I'm running a homebrew campaign and one of my players somehow got 4 levels higher and about 40 extra hit points than they should. [...] They are the only rouge and they are very convincing to everyone else, but I'm onto them.

Someone_Evil

Its definitly a mess

Rubiksmoose

And as a side issue nerfing evasion and uncanny dodge is a legitimately huge nerf for a rogue.

Someone_Evil

There is no way to know that they are following rules (/good guidelines) so there may be a whole lot unknown with their play-style

I'm guessing it will be too broad/opinion based by the time a the situation is resolved anyway

Rubiksmoose

3:54 PM

I wonder. I mean maybe not though. If they are giving XP like you said the solution could just be to stop giving them encounters where they will flourish or to change the way XP is divided or something else. You are completely right though that without understanding what is going on we can't solve the issue though

I've never heard a way of playing D&D where the players can get XP without the DM knowing about it

except in cases like AL where they might do other games and play at other tables in between sessions with that particular DM.

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