TRPG General Chat

Ben

12:00 AM

I laugh at 100% of my own jokes anyway, so I'm sweet.

trogdor

@Ben indeed

@Ben I don't quite laugh at all my own jokes

In fact usually it happens a little less often just depending on my audience

Like my family is all used to my dad's joke style

Ben

Hmm... yeah true. Maybe 99%. Sometimes it's a bit of a swing and a miss... a detail poorly explained, or overlooked that makes the joke actually funny

trogdor

So when I make a joke it's usually very dry humor and pretend at least a little that I'm playing it straight when I say something ridiculous

They like that a lot better because my dad hams it up too much

Ben

19 and 20 got in a fight.

21

trogdor

2019? Is that you?

Ben

12:07 AM

So, to make that joke even funnier, I texted that to my girlfriend just earlier. Turns out her mother had her phone, and read the message as it came through, and just called out "Ben got in a fight!"

Freaked both of them out haha

trogdor

Oh whoops

XD

Thankfully that's fixable

Waaay more so than injury resulting from an actual fight

Ben

It's all good though. The joke was explained to be joke, so chaos averted haha

V2Blast

12:27 AM

lol

BESW

@Viishnahn Hi again!

Viishnahn

@BESW Hi! It's been a while, glad to see a lot of people I recognize still come here.

BESW

What's new?

Ben

@BESW Brilliant!

Jun 15 at 12:20, by Ben

Who the f*** is my dnd character

Viishnahn

Internship is almost over, players reached level 9 in my 5E campaign that's been going on for over a year now, GMed Dungeon World for the first time, and much more.

You?

BESW

12:31 AM

@Ben It reminds me of that Simply6 game the ticker linked a little while ago. "You can be anything! within these narrowly supported parameters!"

@Viishnahn Started up a "cozy" gaming group recently, it's been a lot of fun. Gonna run a Lady Blackbird table at a local convention this weekend, so I'm practicing integrating support tools because I don't think anybody at the table will be familiar with them.

Got a lot of game design ideas that I want to get a move on.

How was your Dungeon World experience?

trogdor

@BESW best idea I've had at least all year XD

The first thing, obviously the second thing is all you

Viishnahn

@BESW You'll have to let me know how the Lady Blackbird game goes; I haven't forgotten about your recommendation from before, and I might want to try that sometime.

V2Blast

@Viishnahn Hello!

BESW

I ran an LB game for the first time in a while last week. There's new play sheets that are so good!

Viishnahn

@BESW Dungeon World was chaotic. It went off the rails as soon as it started. Three players, two that hadn't played any RPGs before. I was constantly stopping myself from calling for rolls that the players didn't initiate.

Still had a blast, though

BESW

12:39 AM

And it suggested an abbreviated form of Script Change that really sold me on how the tool's "film-making" metaphor is super helpful with integrating structured conversations into play.

@Viishnahn Really, that's interesting! My experience with DW-style games is that the rules tend to call for dice when I don't want to use them.

Viishnahn

@BESW I'm sure I'll get the hang of it more if I run it just a couple more times. Lord Scurlock looks interesting; have you ever tried that one?

trogdor

@BESW wasn't that the week before?

BESW

...you're right. My brain is peanut butter, I was up past 3am.

trogdor

Fair enough

BESW

@Viishnahn I have not, but @kviiri has!

Joshua

12:42 AM

I encountered something stupidly hard to kill in my reading; troll strength; unicorn speed and agility, spell immunity: all ranged spells 8th level and lower including cast by itself, has access to spells up to 7th level, had phylactery but is not undead; phylactery will resurrect to living creature after 1 year

Viishnahn

@BESW I'll check with him sometime, then. I actually wandered in here to ask a quick 5E question.

BESW

@Joshua I want to pit it against a Ship In A Bottle.

Shalvenay

hey there @Viishnahn

Joshua

Prefers to fight with axe

BESW

@Viishnahn Fair enough. I'll stop babbling and let the experts take over.

Viishnahn

12:43 AM

@Shalvenay Hello, friend

Shalvenay

how're things going? I heard you had an interesting time of it with DW

V2Blast

@BESW Delicious

@Viishnahn ask away!

Viishnahn

I know Sharpshooter is a good feat - it's strong, it allows for a lot of single-target damage versus low AC stuff. I don't have a problem with that part, and I don't see extended range as a problem, since it doesn't come up incredibly often.

Joshua

@BESW not a bad choice; it might break your bottle from inside

Shalvenay

@Joshua ....funny thing is, I'm already thinking of things that could do the creature in...everything from mundane industrial hazards to well, "I don't think it'd survive the Pascal Bravo treatment"

Viishnahn

12:46 AM

But most ranged characters will end up taking the Sharpshooter feat, and it ignores all cover except full cover. Cover is generally only relevant to ranged characters, so this begs the question is cover even usable anymore in half or three-quarters form?

Has anyone run into this before? Where the only characters that care about an element of an encounter, an adventure, or something else have an ability that allows them to trivialize it?

Joshua

@Shalvenay: Well if you can do catastrophic damage go for it.

Shalvenay

@Joshua or just get it stuck in a hazardous confined space

Viishnahn

@Shalvenay DW is quite different. I was trying the I'm on a Boat! short adventure available on the DW site. I opted to start the players getting onto the boat instead of already on and having known each other, so it was a little rocky of a start. Two of the three had never played RPGs before, and one was bordering on thoughtlessly reckless.

Shalvenay

@Viishnahn ah. I may have to talk to Glazius about that premade actually, because I've been struggling with a couple aspects of DW in my campaign

Joshua

Won't work. It'll dimension door out

Shalvenay

12:52 AM

(I can tell I'm off my usual game re: combat narration in that campaign)

@Joshua hrm, how is it at Concentration rolls? XD

(and I wonder what DC "casting spells while in a hazardous (hypoxic/poisonous/...) atmosphere" is

Viishnahn

@Shalvenay I've started designing fronts for my ongoing 5E campaign, and I love the organizational simplicity of it. Narrating the combat was difficult, since I was trying and failing to spread the attention/threat around to all the players equally

narrating combat in DW, that is

Shalvenay

@Viishnahn yeah, my issue is trying to get the combat to flow as a narrative between me and the players, instead of reciting the mechanics :P

Joshua

OhI get it; it properly has terrible def against hypoxic atmosphere

trogdor

@Shalvenay I've had a bit of that problem too, especially running 4e DND

Shalvenay

@trogdor yeah, it's interestingly something that's less of an issue for me in D&D

Viishnahn

12:55 AM

@Shalvenay I had the problem where the players didn't know what all they could do, so they were referencing their moves and trying to apply those mechanically instead of fictionally

Shalvenay

@Viishnahn yeah, I think I'm having some of that as well in the thick of combat

trogdor

@Shalvenay huh, that's odd, for me it's definitely the opposite

Shalvenay

@trogdor what happens for me in D&D is that the player invokes the mechanics and I narrate the roll results, which works fine there, but isn't so hot when applied to DW :P

Viishnahn

Has anyone ever dealt with a Sharpshooter ranged character? How has it gone? How have you used cover in your 5E combats with them present?

Shalvenay

especially with getting the player to narrate what they're trying to do in the fiction with their blade

Joshua

12:57 AM

On the other hand it can use fireball in a contained space standing right next to you

V2Blast

@Viishnahn ranged weapon attackers will take it; casters won't

Shalvenay

@Joshua yeah, you wouldn't be sharing the hazardous confined space with it :P

Viishnahn

@V2Blast Problem is my party has a blade warlock, a paladin, a ranger, and a ranged fighter. The last two both took Sharpshooter, and the warlock uses his blade more than EB (although he does still blast when the situation calls for it, so I suppose there is that).

BESW

@Viishnahn I haven't done anything with 5e, but in 4e I loved sprinkling my maps with cover and similar terrain. I liked starting a conflict with the opponents in positions of terrain advantage, and over the course of the scene the party would maneuver the situation to their own benefit.

V2Blast

full cover still matters, and characters can still hide behind cover

plus cover still matters for some sense of realism as opposed to a bunch of flat battlemaps

Joshua

1:01 AM

Probably your best bet is upcasting fireball from ninth level slot, but you've got to worry about the phylactery sometime.

Viishnahn

@BESW I fully agree. I like having options to make encounters more interesting, and I'm just frustrated that the option of partial cover has been removed from those it would affect the most.

@V2Blast That's true, and I forgot about both sides being able to use it

BESW

Are there features which benefit from having partial cover? Like, getting a bonus to attack if you're attacking from cover?

V2Blast

@BESW In 5e? not by default, no

BESW

Boo.

Joshua

Benefit: you get hit less

BESW

1:04 AM

[grin] That's not a character-facing benefit.

Viishnahn

@BESW I want to try 4E sometime, but my entire party has booed that down. Some days I get frustrated with the lack of granularity, then I remember that you only have to add 2 - 3 numbers to find out if you hit AC instead of 6+

trogdor

@Shalvenay fair enough, our brains all work differently XD

Viishnahn

@BESW Hmmmmm

@BESW Think dangerous is being applied here. I like it.

trogdor

@BESW 4e is extremely good for that yeah

nitsua60

@BESW I'd be annoyed at a GM who didn't give advantage to an attempt to hide (which advantages attacks) given cover. That said, with the action economy the way it is it only really makes sense to attempt hiding if you're a rogue and can do so as a bonus action.

(A very good tactical group, facing a very high AC monster, would realize that PCs alternating turns between hiding and attacking with advantage will fare better in the long run. I don't know that I've seen a group that would realize/implement that in the heat of battle.)

BESW

1:07 AM

@nitsua60 Sometimes I start thinking "Hey, what if I tried playing D&D again" and then the chat reminds me of another reason why I stopped in the first place.

Viishnahn

@nitsua60 Right, because the run usually isn't that long. Spend two actions hiding and one attacking before the combat is over in a typical encounter in 5E.

nitsua60

@Viishnahn Why are you going to spend two actions hiding?

@BESW Know thyself =D

Viishnahn

@nitsua60 If you're alternating, let's say that you start off by hiding to give yourself advantage on the first attack on your next turn. Next turn, you attack, then move back so you can Hide next turn. Next turn, you Hide again, but now everything is probably dead if it's the average 3-round combat encounter.

nitsua60

Oh, I see. I thought you meant Hide, Hide, Attack. Which seemed silly.

@Viishnahn A GM who wanted to teach the tactic would throw a monster with AC25, 100 HP, and 1d6 damage at a L4 party.

(Give it some legendary saves, too.)

Viishnahn

@nitsua60 Yeah, not the best wording on my part, sorry. And that monster sounds like some 4E solo creatures that I've heard about (huge HP, low damage)

I heard they moved away from that design style as the MM2 and 3 came out later

BESW

1:12 AM

@Viishnahn Urrrgh those are horrible monsters and even Wizards of the Coast realized it and their last several monster books experimented with other less boring solutions.

Personally I liked using Magician's multibody solution.

Viishnahn

It makes sense for an obstacle, but not for a threat

nitsua60

Sure--it's a puzzle with combat elements, not a "monster" in the typical D&D player's conception. Not one you want to run across a lot, just like you don't want your GM handing you a different Rubik's variant every session and saying "this represents the trapped lock--solve it to get to the next room."

BESW

Jan 4 '18 at 12:51, by BESW

Like, a dragon was five standard monsters: head, body, wings, claws, tail. Each had its own turn and its own actions and its own role (striker, leader, defender, brute, etc) and if you defeated one the dragon lost that turn and those actions.

nitsua60

^^

Viishnahn

@BESW Sounds fantastic. I had that idea for a gargantuan stone golem where all the initial damage was redirected into the torso. Once that broke, then the head, each arm, and the legs started doing things independently. I still want to spring that on my players one day.

BESW

1:15 AM

Hee.

trogdor

Nice

Viishnahn

Kind of like Zakum if anyone here ever played Maplestory back in the day

nitsua60

I think you'll find "back in the day" varies quite a bit by chatizen =)

Viishnahn

@nitsua60 Fair enough. A decade ago, then.

BESW

I also had monsters like, a kraken attacking a boat: it manifested as multiple "tentacle" monsters that each retreated underwater if they took 1 point of actual damage, and it could put two tentacles up above the water every round (maximum 8). If all its tentacles were in retreat on its turn, it would instead surface to attack with its head--and then you could attack for actual ending-the-fight damage.

nitsua60

1:19 AM

@BESW Wasn't that a boss in contra?

Viishnahn

@BESW That's a great mechanic! Did you ever throw it at your party?

BESW

@nitsua60 I wouldn't know.

Miniman

@BESW It still bothers me that I'll never know if I was right about the one of those I answered.

BESW

@Viishnahn Yeah, I used several variations of it.

Ben

@Miniman Of course you were!

BESW

1:20 AM

I experimented a lot with ways to make "single opponent" fights challenging without just pumping up the attack/defense numbers on a single monster.

Miniman

@Ben Ehhhh, it was a little tenuous.

Ben

Lol

Viishnahn

@BESW What level were your players? I imagine if you had fighters or warlocks each making two attacks per turn, odds were good that the head would come up pretty quickly.

BESW

Priest who can summon four ghost minions, and his summon power refreshes if all four minions are dead.

Ben

I am a little concerned about this user's apparent trend in... brief answers

Viishnahn

1:22 AM

@BESW That's exactly the design principle that the game needs. Unfortunately, almost no one knows how to do that.

BESW

@Viishnahn This was 4e, so the rules were different.

I've never played 5e.

But yes, I'd tune the number of tentacles and their revival rate to make it relatively easy but not trivial to force the kraken up.

Viishnahn

@BESW Ah right, principle might still be the same though. Did martials have any exploits that allowed for multiple attacks?

BESW

The point isn't to draw out the fight, the point is to give the fight dynamic variables the party can influence strategically.

2

nitsua60

^^

BESW

With the priest summoning ghosts, you can make the fight easier by leaving one ghost up.

Viishnahn

1:24 AM

I bought the PHB1, MM1, and DMG1 just to look through

BESW

(But then you've got a ghost running around being annoying, and I'd make sure the ghost's powers were more annoying than lethal.)

Ben

@BESW The downside of this is that you need to make that obvious in some way. 5e very much defaults to the "I attack it" strategy. "Called shots" are enough of a deficit to be non-viable, most of the time

BESW

@Viishnahn In 4e, most characters can make multi-target attacks at least once a fight by the time they're level 3 or 5, if they want to make those choice. Some classes specialize in multi-target attacks. There's no a martial/caster divide in these roles.

Viishnahn

@BESW So using encounter powers. Gotcha.

BESW

@Ben That's one of the cool things about 4e; it assumes that seeing a power in play always grants an understanding of its rules text.

So maybe the priest starts with four ghosts in play. The party doesn't know about its summoning power unless they've made a good Knowledge check. But as soon as they kill all four ghosts and the priest re-summons them, they have perfect knowledge of that summoning power and its refresh condition.

This works really well because it gives space for surprise AND strategy.

(On reflection, that philosophy in 4e probably helped me a LOT in easing into the full-disclosure playstyle I now prefer.)

Ben

1:31 AM

Actually called shots aren't even part of the core rules... so that furthers the issue. Player's don't even know if that's even an option. It's a special action, if at all

So yeah, the best way to handle this is to actually present the monster as multiple parts.

BESW

Also: phased fights.

Ben

17

Q: How can I make an engagement with a high-level monster fun for my party?

Related: How can I make a multiple engagement encounter fun for my party? For clarification; by "fun" I mean make the encounter challenging, yet not deadly, and not feel like a "rinse-and-repeat" of the same actions for an extended period of time. As a player, I have been in a few games that in...

BESW

There's absolutely nothing wrong with designing what is mechanically three different fights in a row against three opponents in a row without a break, but is narratively a fight against a single opponent who switches tactics three times.

(It also avoids stupid one-hit kills because you just bring in the next phase.)

16

Q: Making epic combat interesting and challenging but not complicated

I'm running up on the tail end of a year-and-a-half 4e campaign, and epic levels are exhausting to GM. Everyone has more weird powers than you can shake a dragon at, and that includes the NPCs --particularly elites and solos. There's gotta be a way to make an encounter interesting and challengin...

dnd-4e gm-techniques combat epic-tier

trogdor

@Viishnahn oddly I did, though I did that fight when I was underleveled for it and only the one time

Viishnahn

@trogdor I never got far enough on the official servers to even have a chance at him, but on the 4x XP private servers it was a fun and challenging fight

BESW

1:40 AM

Oh, and I think the biggest thing about making ANY kind of combat reliably fun... killing the opponent(s) isn't the point.

Some of my favorite setpieces are about achieving a non-combat goal while combat gets in the way.

Ben

I did make one enemy, that was incredibly powerful, purely through mind control powers. She was effectively like the Mind Flayer (Stranger Things). Incredibly powerful through the use of minions, but she herself had almost no defenses

trogdor

@Viishnahn leveling in that game was pretty harsh

BESW

@Ben Oh, that reminds me of the mind flayer I made who teleported into the face of whoever's turn it was, at the beginning of that player's turn. It was a TERRIBLE tactic, the mind flayer wasn't a melee combatant, but it made everyone focus on the mind flayer instead of its minions who were actually a threat.

Viishnahn

@BESW Combat is just one approach to problem-solving. There are (or should be) many other choices, though not always viable.

trogdor

@BESW well,.. not if they kill all ghosts every time they come back in one turn

BESW

1:43 AM

@Viishnahn Well, I am talking specifically about D&D here, where combat is the default and the vast majority of the rules are dedicated to it--and especially 4e, which made that an explicit priority rather than an implicit one.

Viishnahn

@trogdor Not anymore. Recently (a few years back) went from 1 to 50 in a casual, non-intensive week. Not the same game anymore.

trogdor

@Viishnahn ah well I only played it say, ten years ago

BESW

If I'm playing Bubblegumshoe or Golden Sky Stories or Cthulhu Dark, I might not ever see a proper combat scene.

trogdor

Actually more like 12-15 maybe?

Viishnahn

@trogdor Keep it in your memories, it was better back then.

trogdor

1:45 AM

@BESW yeah it's weird that those used to seem so integral to RPG

Ben

My tactic was that there was always "one more minion"... Mainly the big tough guy that kept coming back, no matter how badly you beat him down last time, but they quickly learned he was actually under control of the BBEG. So the tactic changed (from the players perspective), that he wasn't the target. So they instead trying to go for the BBEG, but she always had something else up her sleeve, and always managed to slip away.

trogdor

@Viishnahn lol

Ben

By then end though, it was just a fist fight, between a (practically dead) PC, and her, having used up all of her resources

trogdor

Faster leveling sounds good to me

But then I expect you mean something else

Ben

It did get very intense

Viishnahn

1:48 AM

@BESW Not saying you're wrong, but whenever I hear combat encounter, I always ask myself if there's another way (stealth, coercion, redirection, etc.). If it's the BBEG, it'll probably mean combat, sure, but I try to give opportunities in my encounter design for non-combat approaches (although they might be more difficult)

V2Blast

@nitsua60 You can't hide without some sort of cover or similar in the first place (barring invisibility), so I wouldn't give advantage to Stealth because of the presence of cover.

Ben

@rubiksmoose would you agree that this user exhibiting a worrying trend? Or is it just me?

Viishnahn

@trogdor Faster leveling is nice, but it devalued the achievement that high level used to mean. Plus it was mostly because you played through a string of story dungeons that artificially boosted XP at a ridiculous rate (10x the speed of level-appropriate grind XP)

BESW

@Viishnahn Examples from 4e include "escort the king out of the city while it's under attack," "open the portal before the hordes of undead overwhelm you," and "convince the rebel leader to stop the battle and sit down for negotiations."

trogdor

Huh

Viishnahn

1:54 AM

@BESW All great examples of problem-solving that assume combat. What about trying to get into an enemy stronghold to rescue an NPC? If you discover something incriminating on some of the guards, you might be able to leverage that. If you are sneaky enough, you can stealth past. If you are clever, you can make a distraction on the other side of the chamber/stronghold, giving you an opportunity to enter while they are distracted.

BESW

Sure! That's what I play Fate for.

Viishnahn

There's absolutely conflict, but combat might be avoided

BESW

In 4e, I used [modified skill challenges](www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?230567-Stalker0-s-Alternate-Core-Skill-Challenge-System-FINAL-VERSION-1-8!a) a lot, but the showcase of the system is physical combat. We chose the system so we're gonna play it.

Viishnahn

@BESW Lol. I shouldn't have started with D&D, since I'm mostly about problem-solving over combat tactics.

Shalvenay

@Viishnahn yeah, there's also the issue of problem domains -- some games are oriented towards systems problems, others people problems (GSS is very definitely in the latter camp, for example)

trogdor

2:04 AM

Yep

GSS is all about "person has problem"

Generally one that needs to be solved on a very social way

Rubiksmoose

@Ben Yeah, Dale has a long history of one liner and "mike drop" answers without any kind of support and you are not alone in being concerned about it.

Ben

@trogdor "how does solve problem"

trogdor

@Ben by talking and using magic powers and being cute and adorable

XD

Ben

@trogdor Friendship solves all problems

trogdor

Yes

In fact friendship is the main way to recharge yourself

Ben

2:09 AM

@Rubiksmoose Ok. I wasn't really sure how to respond to it... it wasn't wrong, but I just didn't agree with it

trogdor

Both magically and,.. sort of motivationally

Ben

It did, at the very least come across as just poor quality

user15026

@Ben In GSS it sure does!

trogdor

Freinds are pretty much the ultimate tool/resource/ mechanic in Golden Sky Stories

V2Blast

@trogdor Do your friends appreciate being called tools? ;)

Rubiksmoose

2:11 AM

@Ben generally speaking, those are exactly the type of answers we don't want, especially on those kinds of questions. In the end, you should act in a way that makes you comfortable, but downvotes, flags, and/or votes to delete are options available to those with sufficient reputation.

trogdor

@V2Blast probably not :P

Rubiksmoose

An answer can very easily be factually correct and also a poor answer for this site (and/or bad in other ways).

8

Ben

@V2Blast "He’s the world’s biggest tool! No, tools can be useful. He’s the world’s smallest tool; I’m the world’s biggest tool! Gah, see what he’s doing to me?"

@Rubiksmoose Yeah, I think it was that they've been on this site much longer, so their "reputation" threw me off. Like, they've been here longer than me so they should know better than I do

trogdor

That's definitely a problem with the whole rep thing

Ben

Time != reputation. I've seen it both ways. Sometimes I see new users that gain a massive amount of rep in a short time, and am still fairly critical of them cos they're "newbies", and see long-term users, and am cautious about second guessing them.

But that's my own personal issues that I need to deal with

Shalvenay

2:21 AM

there's also the issue that the site kindasorta expects you to average a certain number of upvotes per Q/A

(it shows up mostly in tag badges XD)

trogdor

Ugh

Yeah

Ben

@Shalvenay how do you mean?

Shalvenay

I hit that from both ends...RPG, WB, and Aviation tend to all be heavy on rep and light on Qs/As

so I wind up with plenty of points to get tag badges, but not enough answers

trogdor

@Shalvenay I'm not extremely active on the Q/A front but yeah according to to some of that I should have more votes on the posts o have made ?

Rubiksmoose

@Ben I mean it's not truly an issue with you alone. The whole SE system is built on the idea of using reputation as a stand-in for "trustworthiness". But it's also very possible to have high reputation users who act in a way that is toxic or harmful to the community. At the end of the day, hopefully community norms and, if necessary, rules and policies eventually curb such behaviors.

Shalvenay

2:23 AM

whereas, I basically grind for tag badges on DIY.SE

due to the sparse voting patterns the userbase exhibits with regard to those subject areas

V2Blast

yeah, the site seems to apply the same metrics regardless of the size of the community (at least if it's not in beta)

Shalvenay

@V2Blast yeah, and it's not just size, but voting habits as well

DIY.SE users tend to abstain from voting on electrical-related things unless something is screamingly obvious

Hot RPG Questions

2:41 AM

2

Q: Can the spell Floating Disk cut objects?

Can the spell floating disk cut objects? The text of the spell doesn't give any restriction on where you can summon the disk, so could you summon it halfway through a lock or door to gain entry?

pathfinder spells targeting objects

BESW

"I Tried - Nat 1 Crit Fail T-Shirt," from DnDoggos.

JohnP

@goodguy5 soory I'm late replying, I'm at our worlds comp this week. If I am reading it right, about all I could do for an offensive username on a site I don't moderate would be to ping the site mods/flag just like you can. My mod powers only extend in chat, not on the main site.

Hot RPG Questions

3:01 AM

11

Q: Elf (adjective) vs. Elvish vs. Elven

Are there rules on when to use elf (as an adjective) versus elvish versus elven in D&D? For example, would any of the following sentences be more or less correct than the others? "Many of them worship the elf gods; the Seldarine." "Many of them worship the elvish gods; the Seldarine." "Many o...

dungeons-and-dragons lore languages elf

Shalvenay

@ACuriousMind @Glazius btw: we'll have to scratch this weekend as well as I won't be available for it

Glazius

Ah, sorry to hear that. THanks for saying.

Hot RPG Questions

3:21 AM

9

Q: How often does the spell Sleet Storm require concentration checks?

The 4th level spell Sleet Storm says If a creature is concentrating in the spell’s area, the creature must make a successful Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC or lose concentration. How often is this condition checked? Each round? Each turn?

dnd-5e spells concentration

Glazius

@Viishnahn ...wait, if the characters didn't know each other, how were you writing bonds?

Ben

4:39 AM

trogdor

@Ben I love this

It's great XD

Ben

As you walk down the main street, a fascinating array of smells and aromas greets you, as you see a collection of food stalls all manned by all sorts of creatures. A goblin selling seasoned, dried fungus. An Orc with glazed and salted meats, Elves with dried fruits and sweets, and dwarves selling what appears to be flavoured ice and chilled cremes

kviiri

5:09 AM

@Ben I think it's a flaw in our rep system that they're one of the highest rep users despite having a rather consistent thing for bad answers :(

trogdor

@Ben fantastic

Ben

@kviiri On the flip side, there are other users that have a great reputation on the sight, but a measly score, because they are often using the bounty system, because a "score" isn't important to them. Or other users like @trogdor whom don't really contribute to q/a, but are great for understanding how everything works

trogdor

Lol

kviiri

Generally speaking, in formal trust management contexts as well as in the natural context, a person's reputation is established largely with their recent activity with older ones diminishing in importance. It doesn't matter how saintly one has been if they go bad at some point, that's all people will know and all people should care about, really.

trogdor

Who mua?

XD

@kviiri yeah it's,.. weird that we have a system that allows someone to climb the ranks and then abuse it

kviiri

5:16 AM

@trogdor Mankind at works x)

trogdor

And we have safeguards but those are kinda nuclear, and something like simply posting a lot of bad answers doesn't really trigger or generally warrant it

@kviiri too real

X/

Hot RPG Questions

4

Q: LMOP: what beasts live in Neverwinter Wood?

I'm DM'ing for the first time, for a group of first-time players. I chose the LMOP-campaign because it would be the easiest both for them as for me. This week, we had our first session. 3 of the player-characters got humiliated (mainly because of bad rolls, but still... it was funny), but one pl...

dnd-5e druid wild-shape animal lost-mine-of-phandelver

trogdor

@HotRPGQuestions ones that don't like Winter obviously

V2Blast

@trogdor booooooooooooo

Ben

@V2Blast this reaction just makes the joke so much better XD

trogdor

5:29 AM

@Ben yep XD

It's like a fine spice

@V2Blast XD :P

Ben

trogdor

I can't see that at all

XD

V2Blast

> user image

that's what it should look like

trogdor

Oh

What happened the first time then?

Ben

> Waitress says "say when" when grating my cheese. I never say when. The room fills with parmesan. There are no survivors.

@trogdor I posted a direct link to the .png url

trogdor

5:33 AM

X-files music plays

@Ben no you ruined the mystery

XP

what are frogs?

Deep cut but still

V2Blast

what are birds? we just don't know.

Miniman

6:04 AM

@trogdor If you'd ever played Neverwinter Nights, you'd know that the correct answer is boars, deer, and an infinite number of ancient dire bears that give 1xp when killed.

trogdor

lol

and they alllllllllllllll hate winter

obviously

linksassin

@Ben This is amazing.

Miniman

6:20 AM

@trogdor I mean, spoilers, but the game has a much more interesting explanation for the whole "Neverwinter" thing than "it's near a volcano lol".

trogdor

@Miniman sorry I didn't mean it to come off as dismissive, I was in joke mode

Miniman

@trogdor So was I! I just didn't have another one.

trogdor

Ah lol

I always have another one

Heeeyyyyo?

Sorry

I just usually hit a point where I really don't want to keep going with it

kviiri

I have no idea why it's called Neverwinter. I've never played anything that touches on that

V2Blast

6:37 AM

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Neverwinter
"The city was originally named "Eigersstor", which was an Illuskan word. The name "Neverwinter" was the Chondathan translation."
There's a whole section on legends purporting to explain the reason for the name, but it's inconclusive.

kviiri

I like place names with a bit of mystery to them

V2Blast

Also on Wikipedia:
"The name of the city has its origin in that even though the town is situated in the cold north of Faerûn, the Neverwinter river that flows through it is heated by fire elementals living under the nearby Mount Hotenow in the Neverwinter Wood. The heat given off from the river creates a permanent warm climate in the immediate area; without the elementals, the river, and subsequently the city's water supply, would freeze over. An alternate loric explanation for the name is given in Neverwinter Nights 2: When the city's founder (Halueth Never) was hunted to the coast by orcs…

Neverwinter

Neverwinter is a fictional city-state in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Neverwinter was founded by Lord Halueth Never. It sits on the northwestern coast of the subcontinent of Faerûn. The city has been the home locale for the first graphical MMORPG ever created, the original Neverwinter Nights on AOL (1991–1997), which was developed by Stormfront Studios. BioWare later acquired the rights to the title and developed a series of best-selling role-playing video games under the name Neverwinter Nights.In the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition...

Miniman

6:54 AM

Yeah but those explanations are just silly. Neverwinter Nights has the most sensible and therefore correct explanation. [folds arms]

trogdor

Yes

It is law

BESW

trogdor

7:21 AM

Lol

That gets me every time

Hot RPG Questions

8:05 AM

10

Q: How can I get a player to accept that they should stop trying to pull stunts without thinking them through first?

How can I get a player to accept that they should stop trying to pull stunts without thinking them through first? To explain the issue, one of the players in my game wants to assassinate a high-ranking government official. I have mentioned several times the government official is surrounded with...

dnd-5e problem-players player-communication

Ben

8:55 AM

You know I should probably start adding these toye libabry

trogdor

lol

Ben

Wow... I was looking at "libabry"... Then I saw "toye". That was meant to be "to my meme"

trogdor

oh ok I thought you just meant "to a library"

as in you know a personal one to use em from

V2Blast

same

trogdor

I didn't think you meant an actual physical one

close enough though

V2Blast

8:57 AM

I think he meant "to my meme library"

trogdor

yes he meant that

what I mean was my misunderstanding wasn't so far as thinking he meant a physical Library

BESW

@Ben Ping me on Discord some time, I'll send you my medpoc meme folder.

Ben

I'm going to stick with libabry now though. It's a thing. This is the origin. Everyone save the date and location.

@BESW haha awesome

trogdor

@Ben yes oh great inventor, will do

Ben

In truth, that's all anyone wants. To be the creator of "that one thing". I have now achieved this goal. I can have it engraved on my headstone when I pass.

trogdor

9:01 AM

Lol

goodguy5

11:59 AM

@V2Blast yes, but the progression of inanity is much slower.

@JohnP ohhhhh, I see. I saw the blue name and thought I recalled seeing you apply for modship, so I linked the two (regardless of whether or not the latter actually occurred).

Viishnahn

12:45 PM

@Glazius I was trying the I'm on a Boat! module, and the way that I was narrating to begin with, it made sense to play to see how each character got onto the ship. After that was over with (a good hour or so), then I did a time skip of a couple weeks and had them create bonds.

goodguy5

@Viishnahn Did you exclusively narrate in the style of T-Paine?

Viishnahn

@goodguy5 Not sure what you're referring to, sorry. I had the players each describe their characters' motivations for leaving town, then had them act out getting onto the boat while escaping the notice of the town guard.

goodguy5

where is your native home?

content advisory: Strong language
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfISlGLNU

NautArch

@goodguy5 Or was it more like the catalina wine mixer?

goodguy5

The song is called "I'm on a boat" and it's featuring T-Pain.

Viishnahn

12:56 PM

@goodguy5 Ah. Nice one there :P

Ryan

1:45 PM

jeez seems my question about rolling multiple dice at once was the right question at the right time. must've been on the feed or something

Sdjz

@Ryan Well it did make it to HNQ so that probably helped.

Ryan

2:14 PM

@Sdjz yeah thats what I meant by "feed"

NautArch

2:39 PM

@Sdjz I think I went too far in my mage hand answer :) nice job on yours, +1

Sdjz

@NautArch It was probably just FGW effect :) I think both answers are fine

@NautArch Regarding my feat questions I hadn't thought of it being too broad but you may be right. There might be way too many combinations to consider

NautArch

@Sdjz FGW?

Sdjz

Fastest gun in the west

hm maybe it's called FGITW

I dunno

NautArch

@Sdjz That wasmy first thought. I think the ones you have are fine with regard to balance, but others that have more general/combat use would not be.

Maybe that's my answer ;)

goodguy5

3:03 PM

@Sdjz only 8 options, really, not counting racial feats or armor proficiency

NautArch

@goodguy5 Yeah, that's partially why i removed the comment.

goodguy5

what a weird character that would be.
"I'm okay at fighting, but boy, let me tell of my **OTHER** skills"

it'd be a funny npc actually

NautArch

Il ike the idea of mixing the roleplay focused ones.

it gives someone a reason to use those

@GcL Not sure why you got a downvote on that mage hand. My only problem with it is action economy and is it worth losing a potential attack to slow itdown by 5'...maybe.

GcL

Exp and loot rewards are pretty good motivators for players. Making the non-combat engagements and encounters have the same kind of clarity of hack-and-slash without feeling rail-roady can be tricky.

NautArch

@GcL not sure i understand

GcL

3:10 PM

@NautArch I'm pretty ambivalent about it the internet points. I put that answer there so I don't forget about the idea.

@NautArch One of the attractive parts of combat is the clarity of the ends and the means by which that can be achieved. Kill the foes by sticking them with pointy things is pretty simple.

Contrast to conversation encounters where the ends might not be as clear and the levers to achieve them aren't as clearly spelled out by rules support.

NautArch

@GcL I generally give out XP for roleplay time, too. But I'm pretty fast and loose with XP values.

GcL

@NautArch I do as well, but also have encounters and plot points that are non combat that have loot and exp rewards on par with combat encounters. So the difficulty I ran into was making the goal clear-ish and providing obvious means for the players to leverage to achieve those goals. I found that nothing is too on the nose as far as hints go.

kviiri

I don't think rewards is the only point to consider. There just isn't much of a non-combat game in DnD, rules-wise, so non-combat feels more like being subdued to GM fiat than combat does.

NautArch

@GcL Yeah, and that's typically not how i end those encounters. Most roleplay moves the story along in some way, and that's why I give XP.

GcL

@kviiri Yeah. That's pretty much what I initially ran into.

kviiri

3:15 PM

Same applies to freeform actions in combat if you have a GM who insists on "no metagaming" so to find out what something does, you have to actually do it. Which means you might waste your turn doing something the GM feels should not work, and people don't want to waste their turns, so they don't do freeform actions.

GcL

@NautArch Gotcha. I have small rp rewards that I just tally. 10 and 15 xp for playing the character... essentially the player making the decisions and then portraying those through the lens of the character.

Derpy

@NautArch Ye oldie Roleplaying XP?

NautArch

@GcL I'm not even that specific...for good or bad. I mostly want each session to feel like the character is progressing along their path. It's kind of a mix of XP and milestone, but without specific milestones. For me as a player, getting an extra 15 XP never feels good. Heck, an extra 100 when you're mid level still doesn't feel good.

GcL

@Derpy very apropos

NautArch

@Derpy sky's the limit!

GcL

3:18 PM

@NautArch It usually adds up pretty quick. I've got a little tally board with a litany of non-com things that are worth exp. Passing a DC 20 check for example. Funny has a category... overkill... oh puns. We have an entire house rule for puns.

NautArch

@Sdjz I had a minor debate with my DM regarding the Drift Globe and non-action based command words.

MOre meaningful when i'm using it to dispel magical darkness without an action :)

Sdjz

@NautArch I still wouldn't have an issue with this usage personally, but it certainly is more useful than "fishing rod -> stick -> fishing rod -> stick"

NautArch

@Sdjz Oh, definitely! He didn't either. But it was a moment of "I can do this without interrupting my other actions?"

Pretty frightening for the caster to think he's safe, then room lights up and there's a paladin swinging a glaive at him.

...3 times.

Sdjz

Wait, 3 times? Daylight says it's once per day (until dawn). Did I miss something?

NautArch

@Sdjz sorry, 3 attacks :D

Sdjz

3:29 PM

@NautArch Oh that makes sense

NautArch

3:46 PM

Yeah, that driftglobe came up on a random treasure roll and saved our butts several times.

@KorvinStarmast Or maybe we should close that hunting question as...opinion based :P

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