TRPG General Chat

David Coffron

14:00

@MageintheBarrel It can be tough when your income doesn't match up with cost of living. I would have never moved out without the extra income from my gf.

Mage in the Barrel

I eat just enough to keep my body fully fuctional and still don't make enough becuase of my insane medical expenses (nothing to due with my eating habits)

goodguy5

@NautArch not counting my would-eventually-be-wife, I've never done the roommate thing, and I kind of wish I had. not a lot, but kinda.

David Coffron

You can try to find roommates online, but that is a risky endeavor (I speak off of my brother's experience)

goodguy5

@MageintheBarrel And here we see the American Healthcare system at its finest. /s

David Coffron

@goodguy5 Huh. America has a health system? /s

NautArch

14:02

@MageintheBarrel Many many people need roommates. They don't need to be your friends and lots of times they aren't (or aren't before you move in.) You may not live in the nicest place, but i've known lots of folks who've put up with strangers are roommates in not-great apartments just so they could be on their own.

goodguy5

@DavidCoffron I mean, "don't get sick" is technically a system.

NautArch

@DavidCoffron I know lots of folks who have done that. Sometimes it's worked out, sometimes it hasn't. But honestly, the same can be said with friends :)

Mage in the Barrel

I eat 1 meal a day and survive on salty snacks otherwise Usually a small box or twos worth

goodguy5

"swords worth"?

Mage in the Barrel

still waking up lol

David Coffron

14:04

Yeah don't know that phrase. Swords were historically pretty pricey. A swords worth of food is probably pretty elite xD

goodguy5

And you should try to eat better. Salt can be a problem, especially among African Americans (heart disease).

Mage in the Barrel

I try to use my energy effectively so I don't tire myself out

goodguy5

Not saying that's anything to do with your current situation, just as an addendum

NautArch

@goodguy5 heck, eating a small box or two of salty snacks isn't great for anyone! THe problem is that eating healthy is usually more expensive than eating unhealthy. 'merica!

goodguy5

It's so annoying.

David Coffron

14:05

@goodguy5 But they're also cheaper. I have some issue with that statistic as it might fall to a lurking variable. It could be: African Americans have lower income on average and as such, resort to cheaper, but not as healthy foods, which increases risk of heart disease.

Mage in the Barrel

I eat about 2-6 usd worth of food a day

goodguy5

Though, I've found a fairly inexpensive lunch of baby carrots, hummus, and either radishes or those little sweet peppers.

I think it's 10 bucks for 3-5 meals (depending on how much I ration the hummus)

That's possible, but I think that there's enough science for even comparable income African American communities.

We know that a lot of cholesterol and Heart Health is genetic.

But you raise an excellent point about the national socio economic impacts of systemic racial poverty

Mage in the Barrel

I have to pay around 100 bucks a month on medication and buy 40 bucks of groceries a weak spend 80 dollars per month on copay to my therapist so 320 a month on medical expenses and food

David Coffron

@MageintheBarrel Honestly, from my level of privilege, I can't even begin to fathom that level of poverty. It sucks that Americans have to live with that situation, and I hope we can get above that as a society as soon as possible (such as living wage laws).

goodguy5

@DavidCoffron Universal Basic Income, please.

2

Mage in the Barrel

14:09

the towns taxes are middle ages level of bull****

they charge us 1k per month

on just property tax

we have to take money from savings because we make less than they charge

goodguy5

And I figured out how to "sell" it to the right.
"Tax Credits"

Give everyone 50k (or whatever) in "Tax Credits"

@MageintheBarrel holy smokes. Where do you live?! I think my property taxes are under $600?

Mage in the Barrel

we all know we poor folks don't matter to the Bourgeoisie

goodguy5

And I live on .3 acres near the city.

Mage in the Barrel

in the suburbs

BESW

Okay, this conversation isn't going to happen here. We've already got four letter words and accusations spilling around the edges, it's not going to get better. Take it to meta, or at least a side chat.

→ 15 messages moved to yelling about good subjective/bad subjective

goodguy5

14:14

:50808335 A family friend always says (southern drawl) "There's only three kinds of lies in the world.
Lies
Da....ng Lies
And Statistics"

Mage in the Barrel

nearly 28 minutes from f***** boston

BESW

→ 1 message moved to yelling about good subjective/bad subjective

goodguy5

@MageintheBarrel classic bean town

Sir Cinnamon

@goodguy5 The Athens of America

BESW

→ 4 messages moved to yelling about good subjective/bad subjective

Sir Cinnamon

14:16

The City of Notions

Nicknames of Boston

Boston has many nicknames, inspired by various historical contexts. They include: The City a term used by residents of Greater Boston to refer to the downtown core of Boston. The City on a Hill came from governor John Winthrop's goal, of the original Massachusetts Bay Colony, to create the biblical "City on a Hill." It also refers to the original three hills of Boston. The Hub is a shortened form of a phrase recorded by writer Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Hub of the Solar System. This has since developed into The Hub of the Universe. The Athens of America is a title given by William Tudor, co-founder...

Yuuki

Hmm... I'm probably overreaching here but should I talk a friend who's DMing their first campaign about level of details? They've been quasi-griping about the amount of work they have to do, chief example being generating loot for each monster.

goodguy5

@Yuuki how is that overreaching?

NautArch

@Yuuki I think helping them out would be...helpful.

Yuuki

And one of the players isn't particularly helpful, mentioning that they'd have to take into account which loot would be revealed by Investigation checks.

Sir Cinnamon

yikes lmao

Yuuki

14:18

@goodguy5 Mainly because I'm not the DM and am only peripherally involved in this campaign.

goodguy5

@SirCinnamon phew buddy. I misread "Titletown" and boy was I confused.

@Yuuki How good of friends are you with this person? Do they value your input? etc?

I would, personally, tell anyone that I talked to, but I also don't feel shame.

17

A: How can I determine how much of the loot the PCs find?

Loot/treasure should be the reward of another task, not a task itself. You've already decided what the maximum amount of treasure you're comfortable with them getting. What is the point of "Well, I allocated 1000gp, but you only rolled 14 instead of 15, so you get 300gp instead"? The players d...

Yuuki

@goodguy5 We're good friends. The issue in this case is that this is a group that meets in-person and I am in another state. The plan has been that I'm part of a brain trust thing and also I'll guest star as the EGOTD when I come over to visit.

goodguy5

just to toot my own horn a bit

yea. def tell him then.

Also, I've never seen "Evil Guy of the Day" before, nor its acronym.

Sir Cinnamon

I almost never use the individual treasure rules and often only roll treasure HOARDS - is that weird?

NautArch

@SirCinnamon I usually just pick stuff. The random treasure never really sat right with me.

Yuuki

14:23

@SirCinnamon It is weird that your treasure invades unsuspecting villages.

Sir Cinnamon

@Yuuki I haven't had my caffeine yet

Mage in the Barrel

well I've gotten way off topic so I'll leave it at 1 last lmessage
My town leadership is totally stupd first the old highschool becomes "no longer up to modern building standard" so they take a huge loan out to make a new one. Then while they are still paying it back and bleeding us dry with taxes, they decide to build a shopping center. Cause why not.

anyways why I came here

goodguy5

shopping center = more money

Sir Cinnamon

@NautArch I sort of half do this - roll for the monetary amount and then get what magic item table the item would come from and pick what is a good fit

G. Moylan

ding ding ding

Mage in the Barrel

14:24

I almost died in the first campaine

goodguy5

oh yea! Tell us more, Mr 8hp

Mage in the Barrel

during sesion 1/2

David Coffron

@goodguy5 != more money for citizens U = more businesses that make money

Mage in the Barrel

so what happens is the dm has us do a puzzle

NautArch

@MageintheBarrel that's par for the course. And 8HP at level 1 ain't bad. Level 1 is just ridiculously easy to die at.

G. Moylan

14:25

@DavidCoffron means more tax revenue for the city

goodguy5

@DavidCoffron which then pay taxes. obviously, the money makes its way back into town. One could say that it "trickles down".

Mage in the Barrel

were in this weird mind control barrier and we have to break the spell

David Coffron

@MageintheBarrel Did you all start at level 1? That's fairly common at level 1 as the party members have very low HP.

@goodguy5 Unless the town doesn't invest back into the people. (which can be fairly common)

Mage in the Barrel

the spell seems to be centered around a brick so our fighter tries breaking and and it bounes back

so I'm like I know maybe magic works

uses firebolt

goodguy5

@DavidCoffron if it wasn't clear from my use of the phrase "trickle down", I'm being facetious and you and I are on the same page here.

Someone_Evil

14:27

Are shopping centers usually built by the local government?

Mage in the Barrel

the spell gets deflected

goodguy5

@MageintheBarrel as one does.

David Coffron

@goodguy5 /me facepalms in oops

Sir Cinnamon

@Someone_Evil Usually heavily subsidised i believe

David Coffron

@Someone_Evil I know my town funded the one I currently work in (not sure how common though)

Mage in the Barrel

14:28

if it it had hit me I would have been 1hkod by my own spell

David Coffron

@MageintheBarrel Yeah. Level 1 characters are very squishy

goodguy5

@MageintheBarrel but not killed!

David Coffron

Especially mage-types

Mage in the Barrel

if it had done two more damage I would've died

Someone_Evil

@MageintheBarrel Also please remember that dropping to 0 hp is not death, you then also have to fail some saving throws to die

Mage in the Barrel

14:29

two more damage and deflection would have killed me

goodguy5

A crit, however, would have been VERY dangerous

Mark Wells

@Someone_Evil It's complicated. They're almost always built by a private developer, but often get tax breaks / infrastructure improvements / other support at the cost of the local government.

goodguy5

@MageintheBarrel you know that you don't die at 0 hp, right?

Mage in the Barrel

which is why I said it almost killed me

yeah i know

goodguy5

okay, good.

David Coffron

14:29

So, what is your concern here? Do you feel that the GM made the puzzle too dangerous?

goodguy5

you've been using "kill" and "ko" interchangeably. I was confused.

Mage in the Barrel

if it deflected and did two more damage it woudl've killed me

becuase 2x you hp is instant death right?

Sir Cinnamon

from full hp?

Mage in the Barrel

yeah

2x max hp

David Coffron

Ah so you mean if you rolll a 10 on the d10, you get instantly killed because you have 5 hp?

Sir Cinnamon

14:30

how did you deal 14 damage with 1d10

Mage in the Barrel

i did 10

i have 6 hp

goodguy5

something like "If the overflow from an attack equals or exceeds your Maximum HP, you die"

Sir Cinnamon

Oh I thought you said you had 8hp

goodguy5

^

Mage in the Barrel

yeah I calculated wrong ealier

goodguy5

14:32

ah. living that "zero con bonus" life

David Coffron

@MageintheBarrel To be fair, firebolt typically has a 10 damage maximum until level 5 or higher

Sir Cinnamon

Ah okay - checks out then!

Mage in the Barrel

oh thank god

KorvinStarmast

Just a quick note. Took a walk around Vancouver BC yesterday. The public library is awesome. Weather beautiful two days in a row, very glad we visited.

Mage in the Barrel

I though it dealth more

goodguy5

14:32

@MageintheBarrel 1d10 fire damage. period

David Coffron

@MageintheBarrel yeah, it is just 1d10 (you don't add a modifier to spell damage unless you have a feature that does so)

24

Q: Does your spell modifier add to your spell damage?

So I know how to calculate spell DC (8 + proficiency + modifier) and spell attack rolls (1d20 + proficiency + modifier), but I am not clear on spell damage. Namely, do you add your spell modifier (e.g. int for wizards) to spell damage? For example, burning hands does 3d6 fire damage or half a...

NautArch

@MageintheBarrel to be honest, seeing one attack bounce back would immediately have been an indicator to not attack it again :)

Mage in the Barrel

'luckily my dm was nice enough to have it deflect instead of reflect

goodguy5

"nice enough"

Mage in the Barrel

I can't really complain cause that was stupid of me

so no i'm not upset

David Coffron

14:33

I'm curious what guidance the Dungeon Master's Guide provides to traps vs level 1 characters. rummages

Mage in the Barrel

i just felt like sharing the most memorable part

David Coffron

Looks like 1d10 is actually exactly right. xD

Mage in the Barrel

we were trying to get past checkpoints and we have a noble in our party so I sneak up behind him and claim I was with it saying i'm his "servant" to try to apeal to his ego

David Coffron

(although, as usual level 1 is much higher risk than level 2-4 proportionally)

Mage in the Barrel

didn't work

Someone_Evil

14:35

2d10 is more than dangerous to a 1st level character

NautArch

@MageintheBarrel Did you roll deception against an insight?

Mage in the Barrel

nope he didn't play along

goodguy5

@Someone_Evil not to a level 1 tough barbarian with 16 con

David Coffron

@Someone_Evil It's 11 damage on average, they categorize it as:

> a dangerous trap is likely to seriously injure (and potentially kill) characters of the indicated levels.

So I think it is about right

Mage in the Barrel

so what I do next is go to the merchant line

remember my pet is an owlbear

albiet a cub

David Coffron

14:37

@MageintheBarrel Pet? Are you a Beastmaster Ranger?

Mage in the Barrel

so i'm like "hey I'm a merchant who sells exotic pets and wanted to sell this owlbear to the highest bidding noble"

goodguy5

I think they found it

Mage in the Barrel

i'm a custom class based on the summoner from pathfinder

needless to say to guy was a bit nervous

he's like "where's you papers"

NautArch

@DavidCoffron It's this DMsguild homebrew eidolist

Mage in the Barrel

I'm sorry I got robbed on the way here (which was true) and my papers were stolen

NautArch

14:39

@MageintheBarrel so you also homebrewed the avatar?

Mage in the Barrel

yeah it was a watered down owlbear using blackbear stats

NautArch

@MageintheBarrel was this all via roleplay, or were you rolling ability checks/contested checks?

Mage in the Barrel

I was rolling deception checks

David Coffron

@MageintheBarrel Oh right. Got my users mixed up

Mage in the Barrel

the thing is I do have a bag with me

NautArch

14:40

@MageintheBarrel against a DC or against an insight or something?

Mage in the Barrel

the stuff I stole off the bandits that attacked me

so I'm tottally bullshiting the guy at this point

and i'm like oh this stuff another group of bandits robbed me so I took their stuff

tried to*

so the dm rolled deception against insight

I got a lucky roll

so I got through

(that guard is so fired)

David Coffron

(This GM probably would've given you disadvantage because that story is a little silly)

(but that's because I usually involve my players role play in the roll play)

Mage in the Barrel

not sure what it looks like to give a disadvantage on roll20

David Coffron

(Or more accurately, I would've used a hard DC instead of a contested check, but if I was going to use a contested check I would've given disadvantage)

@MageintheBarrel There are a couple options

Mage in the Barrel

it was 17 | 12

David Coffron

14:45

Yeah, so if you had disadvantage you would have gotten the 12

Mage in the Barrel

i'm level 1 btw

David Coffron

You can make it always roll 2d20, or you can enable a toggle-able advantage/normal/disadvantage thing

JohnP

Hrm. I don't think he is interpreting that correctly:

Mage in the Barrel

my character has 15 int and 17 wis

JohnP

> A wizard may know any number of spells

Mage in the Barrel

14:47

she's from a forest so her people skills aren't to hot

JohnP

That doesn't mean that a 1st level wizard can have two spells from every school in their spellbook, does it? Or am I interpreting that wrong?

NautArch

@MageintheBarrel what's your charisma?

Deception is based on charisma.

Mage in the Barrel

hence why charisma is my lowest stat at 10

I rolled really good

NautArch

Ah, so then your d20 has no modifiers.

Sir Cinnamon

@JohnP If they had a lot of gold and time they could

Mage in the Barrel

14:48

17 16 15 15 15 10

Someone_Evil

@JohnP Context?

NautArch

And i'm assuming you didn't pick Deception as a proficiency?

Mage in the Barrel

was my roll

Sir Cinnamon

(and access to a larger spellbook)

Mage in the Barrel

nope

NautArch

14:48

Yeah, so then it's just the straight d20 for your deception rolls.

Mage in the Barrel

yeah i got a 17

plus I rolled my avatars hp stat and got 26

David Coffron

@SirCinnamon (there are 100 vellum pages in the standard spellbook IIRC, I think you have plenty of space)

JohnP

@Someone_Evil This question about retraining

Sir Cinnamon

@DavidCoffron as in a larger volume of spells to copy from

Mage in the Barrel

28 was the highest possible roll

Sir Cinnamon

14:49

Ah pathfinder - ignore me then!

Someone_Evil

@JohnP Ah... so Pathfinder, well, can't really help you

JohnP

I keep thinking the answer is no, but I'm not convinced.

David Coffron

Ok. I'm out of my depths. Not a pathfinder player

Mage in the Barrel

the things with me and rng is I either get abyssmal or amazing rolls

Someone_Evil

This is why we need to know what system people are playing/referring to

NautArch

14:50

@MageintheBarrel You rolled 3d8 and got 20? Are you rerolling every time you create it?

Mage in the Barrel

we did 4d6 drop the lowest rerolls 1s

oh i thought you meant ability scores

David Coffron

@MageintheBarrel Whoops. I misinterpreted

NautArch

@MageintheBarrel no, the black bear's HP. It's HP is 3d8+6. Which means you had to roll 20 to get it 26 HP.

Mage in the Barrel

also the 3d8 was my first shot

NautArch

@MageintheBarrel So you're rerolling HP whenever you have to recreate it?

Mage in the Barrel

14:52

and yes i got 26 on my first shot

I havent had to recreate it yet

since it hasn't died

David Coffron

@MageintheBarrel Which, if you are curious, is a 6.8% chance to get 20 or higher on 3d8

NautArch

@MageintheBarrel you should probably work out these mechanics with your DM :)

But allowing that roll forever while you are still summoning the blackbear/owlbear cub is questionnable. It's easier to allow it because you rolled high, but imagine if you didn't. I'd recommend either taking the average or agreeing to reroll each time it returns.

David Coffron

@MageintheBarrel And if you are curious for how your ability scores stack up, I use this system to judge rolled ability scores for my groups, and while the average I surmise is 19 points, your rolls land between 35 (if you rolled all 15s and then racial abilities bumped them up) and 40 (if you bumped a 8 and 14 up)

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