TRPG General Chat

Zarus

00:07

0

Q: How does the Hellfire Warlock's hellfire blast function?

I'm trying to properly understand the Hellfire Warlock's hellfire blast. Hellfire Blast (Sp): Whenever you use your eldritch blast ability, you can change your eldritch blast into a hellfire blast. A hellfire blast deals your normal eldritch blast damage plus an extra 2d6 points of damage per...

Thanks.

Shalvenay

00:33

hey there @KorvinStarmast

Yuuki

So I saw this post on Reddit and the discussion about how some myths, like brownies, could have come about from similar situations made me think about some worldbuilding: imagine a world just like ours. Mythological creatures pop into existence when real-world creatures and their actions are mistaken by humans to be mythological creatures.

Every time someone with poor eyesight sees a rhino and wholeheartedly believes it's a unicorn, a unicorn appears out of thin air. Or whenever a mouse tidies a workshop and a person comes by the next morning, a brownie is born.

Shalvenay

@Yuuki LOL

BESW

Hmm. I wonder how that can be reconciled with a multiple-truths epistemological approach to story.

Yuuki

Some dude finds a whole pterosaur fossil: boom, dragon.

BESW

Or if it needs to be.

Shalvenay

00:50

@Yuuki LOL!

BESW

A lot of myth and legend exists in a liminal half-light where they simultaneously are and are not fully allegory, fully history, fully fiction, fully fact.

Shalvenay

one of the computer games I play actually has pterosaurs in it as a kind of creature

BESW

At the CHamoru Legends book launch last night, Leonard Iriarte described the CHamoru creation myth as a document/ritual for establishing and affirming the CHamoru claim to the land. Which I really liked.

But, it also describes an empty world into which came water, and then land out of the water, and then people from the land. Which is a very reasonable geological history summary.

And it's an allegory about self-sacrifice and creativity and interdependence.

KorvinStarmast

@Shalvenay Hi Shal, how ya doin' ?

trogdor

@BESW yeah seems legit

There was definitely water out here before there was land

BESW

01:04

It's a lot better than the... other... creation story.

Black Spike

@trogdor And how History cycles around! (We are currently under Flood Warnings! ) :)

trogdor

Which one?

Shalvenay

@KorvinStarmast alright here, as for you?

BESW

The one with Chaife. Its purpose is to de-legitimize the CHamoru claim to the land and their own identities.

And it is not particularly liminal, either.

trogdor

@BlackSpike I mean, we live on a relatively small island out in the Pacific, when land starts getting eaten by flooding on a global scale we are gonna be one of the first to start swimming

@BESW ooh is that the one you and a friend of ours was talking to me about,... Was it like 4 years ago?

BESW

01:07

Probably yes.

With the devil and hell and all that jazz.

trogdor

I'm not sure I ever heard or read that one

Other than you telling me about it

Black Spike

@trogdor Ours is a small island, on the scale of things ...

trogdor

I mean

I would call your island at least medium size :P

BESW

Guam is about a third the size of London.

trogdor

But it is still an island, and the flooding isn't going to be great there either

Lol yes

Also England as a whole is bigger than Hawaii I think

Which is a collection of islands that are mostly bigger than Guam (I think, I could be wrong, I'm no geographer) XD

Black Spike

01:12

True.

trogdor

But again, it is still an island

I don't exactly envy the position of a large island like that even compared to us

That's a lot of displacement that potentially can happen

Black Spike

Oh, if the Waters rise, we got some major troubles ... the South East will disappear ...

My entire County will become a lake

(I think current Scientific Theory is that Earth was a ball of Rock, until the Water arrived from comets? )

And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil. And then the Arabs came and they bought Mercedes Benzes.

KorvinStarmast

@Shalvenay cleaning up an answer

Black Spike

01:29

Guam is actually USA?

KorvinStarmast

@BlackSpike It's a territory. We picked it up as a result of the Spanish American war of 1898. Same time we picked up Puerto Rico and the Philippines.

I would need to research that detailed status at another time. (It also has a significant air base on it ...)

Black Spike

@KorvinStarmast Philippines are USA too? Ok, shows what I know ...

KorvinStarmast

IIRC, in the Cold War era, there were nukes stored there and strategic bombers on Guam.

@BlackSpike Not now, certainly.

@BlackSpike Worth a look in the history from about 1910 to 1941 (Then the Japanese took over the PI) and then the rocky period from about 1945 - 1991.

Black Spike

@KorvinStarmast Just had a quick wikipedia ... more complex than I care to dive into tonight ...

KorvinStarmast

... Oh, yeah, it's complicated.

Black Spike

01:34

off on a not-completely-tangent ... you ever read Raymond Briggs? The Island at the Bottom fo the World

KorvinStarmast

@BlackSpike I have not, is it about Australia?

Or Antarctica?

Black Spike

@KorvinStarmast Falklands

Just checked, it is called "The Tin-Pot Foreign General And the Old Iron Woman"

KorvinStarmast

Heh, I may take a look. Had a colleague a few decades ago who flew Sea Kings during the conflict there in 1982. (We worked on a NATO staff together).

Black Spike

@KorvinStarmast cool. My cousin was in the clean-up crew

KorvinStarmast

It remains an interesting place, politically, but most of my friends who were RAF sorts didn't care to be assigned there ...

Black Spike

01:39

Apart from the conflict, don't know much about it ... one of our (disputed) Holdings ...

KorvinStarmast

Sorta like how the Danes still hold onto Greenland, I guess. :)

Black Spike

<continuing down tangent> Raymond Briggs did lots of good Satire. "Once upon a time, there was a little island at the bottom af the world ... one day the Tin-Pot general decided to bags it as his own ... The Iron lady was upset! I baggsed that ages ago!"

"Green"land!

PR done right! lol

KorvinStarmast

Given my sense of humor, Briggs sounds like my cup of tea ... yeah, Viking PR on Greenland was a master stroke.

Black Spike

Also check "When the Wind Blows" ... a heartbreaking tale of an ordinary couple, when The Bombs Fall ...

<sorry, off on a thing now .. Briggs was a big, if side-point, of my childhood>

trogdor

@BlackSpike yeah Guam is a USA territory

Has been for a while with brief interruption during most of WWII

Black Spike

01:45

His Big Hit was Fungus the Bogeyman .. .looks like a kids tale of a Monster ... but delves deep into work-a-day, clock-in, clock-out

trogdor

And yeah it's definitely complicated

KorvinStarmast

@BlackSpike I'll check my local second hand book story, see if Briggs is available.

trogdor

To the point where not everyone agrees on what other status the island wants exactly, but most people at least agree that territory of the US is..... Not optimal

KorvinStarmast

@trogdor Had a friend in high school (70's) whose dad had just got hired by Eastern Airlines. They had moved to our suburb from Guam, since that was his dad's last assignment in the Air Force.

(I lived in DC)

@trogdor Puerto Rico has been having similar internal disagreements on that for as long as I've been alive.

Black Spike

@KorvinStarmast They're "picture books". Bigger than comics ... graphic novel?

KorvinStarmast

01:48

@BlackSpike yeah, that's what it looks like, a form of graphic novel.

trogdor

@KorvinStarmast mm and they have a pretty fresh reason to be mad at the US to pile onto everything else

Black Spike

"Overseas territories" are always complex ... UK tends to have a very protectionist attitude (on account of kicking overyone out, and installing our own people)

KorvinStarmast

@trogdor I'll not comment on that here; as with most things, it's complicated.

Plus there is a huge Expat population from Puerto Rico in the US in the Tri State Area: New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

(And loads of folks with Puerto Rican heritage were folks I served with in the Navy)

BESW

Guam's not dissimilar. Lots of expats, and a proud history of military service derived partly from a generational sense of obligation for events in WWII, and partly from that being one of the only avenues for locals to get higher education and professional training.

trogdor

Yeah

KorvinStarmast

01:54

Just out of curiosity, do most of the ones who serve in uniform come home, or do they leave for good?

trogdor

That definitely makes it more complicated

BESW

A lot of people come back. I don't know statistics on it.

trogdor

@KorvinStarmast there's plenty of both happening

BESW

But there's also an increasingly large multigenerational diaspora on the mainland.

trogdor

I think more people leave for non millitary jobs though

KorvinStarmast

01:55

@trogdor I can see that.

BESW

The Philippines are... a very different situation, for a lot of cultural and historical reasons.

trogdor

Yeah

KorvinStarmast

@BESW Yep, that's for sure.

trogdor

In fact, i have a couple co-workers who came from there but live here on Guam now

BESW

Not least because living in the mainland US vs living on their ancestral land, for CHamorus, is not a question of leaving US jurisdiction. For Filipinos, it is.

trogdor

01:58

Yep

KorvinStarmast

We have a significant expat Filipino community near where I live, most of them linked to retired military or married a military serving there decades ago.

Anyhoo, I seem to have tasking from the lady of the manor, so cheers to you all.

Black Spike

umph ... I don't know Guam (heard the name).. just Googled .. Our City has twice the population?

(and we're not a big city)

I do not know what it would be like to live there! Like, one of our big Towns, but in the middle of the sea?

trogdor

Not quite

Because we both Urban and Rural space here

Black Spike

@KorvinStarmast Fare thee well

trogdor

They even bleed together a bit

Black Spike

02:03

@trogdor Our Towns tend to do that

trogdor

Mm fair enough

goodguy5

@trogdor Is there a difference between "in guam" and "on guam"?

Black Spike

but then it goes Rural .. Rural .. Another Town ...

trogdor

But I can't streets enough how it isn't just a big town in the middle of the ocean

Black Spike

Not Urban .. .Rural .. Sea ...

trogdor

02:04

XD

BESW

@goodguy5 Yeah, that's how you can tell if someone's local.

Black Spike

:)

trogdor

Lol

nitsua60

@KorvinStarmast Heard it's for sale, though. (#toosoon?)

Black Spike

@nitsua60 Breaking News: No it's not! :D

nitsua60

02:06

gasp!

(Note to room: I don't actually gasp, it's too prone to choking hazard. I just say "gasp" at appropriate times.)

BESW

@BlackSpike Guam's very diverse, in terms of both geography and demographics. We've got rolling hills and farmland, dense forests, steep grassy mountains, urban and suburban housing, glitzy tourist areas, industrial parks, rivers and waterfalls, caves, tall cliffs, wide beaches...

Black Spike

@BESW Sounds nice!

goodguy5

my wife and I do this pseudo gasping thing..... I'm trying to describe it adequately...

put your lips like a whistle and then pull in air like you're about to gasp, but then halfway through close it off with your tongue like you're about to make a 't' sound.

like if you were to shove the sound "tooohhhhh" backwards through a yakbak

BESW

...Indigneous Chamorus, other Micronesian demographics who came for work and school and stayed, or will return, a large Filipino community --both local and balikbayan, lots of Korean and Japanese families (and lots of Korean tourists), a white American expat community that doesn't intersect with much of the rest of the population a lot, always military families who only stay for their term of service...

Black Spike

We had a TV documentary about our Street: Most Diverse Culture in the Smallest space!
The City is known for its Asian (Inda/Pakistan/Bangladesh/et al) communities, but along our Road we have almost all Cultures represented! (if you want to open a Genuine Guam Cuisine take-away place, you'll fit right in!)

BESW

02:12

Black Spike

channel4.com/press/news/…

BESW

@BlackSpike Well now I'm just amused.

Black Spike

@BESW NICE!

You should be proud! :)

BESW

@BlackSpike I'd be concerned it'd just become another Aloha Poke fiasco.

Black Spike

@BESW Company trademarks local phrase? Welcome to the USA! :D

trogdor

02:21

@BESW XD

BESW

@BlackSpike Some guy from Chicago who learned about poke in California, no less.

trogdor

:/

Black Spike

What is "poke"?

I see it is a food-thing ...

BESW

Poke (Hawaiian dish)

Poke (Hawaiian for "to slice" or "cut crosswise into pieces"; sometimes stylized Poké to aid pronunciation, also called Poké Bowl) is diced raw fish served either as an appetizer or as a main course and is one of the main dishes of Native Hawaiian cuisine. Traditional forms are aku (an oily tuna) and heʻe (octopus). Heʻe (octopus) poke is usually called by its Japanese name Tako Poke, except in places like the island of Niʻihau where the Hawaiian language is spoken. Increasingly popular ahi poke is made with yellowfin tuna. Adaptations may feature raw salmon or various shellfish as a main ingredient...

Black Spike

aha. raw fish. Enjoy.

(isn't Hawaii the other side of the world?)

goodguy5

02:26

POKé!

Basically a Sushi Bowl (as a very lay comparison)

one of my top 100 foods, to be sure

Black Spike

@goodguy5 That is high praise! As at least 90 of my favourites are Vitamin Bacon!

goodguy5

explain

Black Spike

@goodguy5 bacon is good food. improves (almost) every meal

goodguy5

oh lol, okay. gotcha.

I got really excited and thought there was some sort of Bacon with extra Nutrients

Black Spike

bacon IS extra nutrients! :)

goodguy5

02:30

Is bacon high in Vitamin C? no

And you could, theoretically, add bacon to poké

Black Spike

you can have an orange for dessert

I'm not suggesting that man can live on bacon alone ...

goodguy5

@BlackSpike but maybe with "Vitamin Bacon", we could...

But the world isn't ready for that kind of Utopia.

Black Spike

@goodguy5 might want some tomatoes with it :)

goodguy5

And a little lettuce.
A veneer of mayo.

Potato roll/bread

Ben

This is misleading. Vitamin C = Citrus. Vitamin D = Daylight

Vitamin B != Bacon

Lol

goodguy5

02:34

Beef and Barley are great sources of Vitamin B

and beans, for that matter

Black Spike

@Ben lol

So, a BLT sandwich.

Ben

@goodguy5 Yeah this makes sense :P

goodguy5

And the German word for leaf is Blatt (sp) and leafy greens are also high in B

Ben

@BlackSpike Lightly toasted

goodguy5

@Ben ever so lightly

like..... one light beer.

that's how toasted I want my bread for a blt

Ben

02:36

Dangit. I'm still at work and now I want a BLT and a beer haha

Black Spike

@goodguy5 "how toasted do you want your bread?" ... "beer please!" :D

Ben

@BlackSpike "Like a toast given at a Sunday brunch among work colleagues celebrating a good job well done"

goodguy5

I'm just saying. "How toasted are you?"
"I've had one coors light"

Black Spike

@Ben that could go either way ...

Ben

@BlackSpike on a sidenote have you sent through the map app?

Black Spike

02:41

@Ben Dungeon Generator? Is up for test, if I have your Gmail

Ben

@BlackSpike Yeah, I believe I sent my gmail address from the last email I sent from my hotmail.

Black Spike

shuld have got a link to download . will check

I don't have any hotmail on my list. send me again?

"Just The Maps" is available Public Free.

Ben

Just sent a new email with my gmail in it

Black Spike

cool

Ben

I need to move my Corruption System room to a new location. It keeps getting frozen for inactivity haha

I just don't post often enough

Black Spike

02:54

sent download link

BESW

We could make a room on the Spectacularly Bad Plan of Rassilon.

Ben

Awesome :)

BESW

But not right now, I'm telling stories.

Black Spike

Dungeon has not had much work recently ... @BESW gave me a puzzler ! (front-end works just fine , but I went down a rabbit-hole of code ...)

Ben

Installing it on my phone now :)

Black Spike

02:57

@Ben Dungeon not so good on phone ...

(your phone may vary. Read the T'n'Cs. Warranty void in Oveseas Territories)

Ben

Just a preliminary look, get an idea of how it works.

Black Spike

:)

I think I enforced landscape mode.

Ben

@BlackSpike Yeah

Black Spike

Should have map, click-for-room, and room list.

Ben

It's looking pretty good! I assume the arrows in some of the rooms indicate the "stairs" to the next floor?

Black Spike

03:04

yup

Ben

Nice

Black Spike

Have a play. Send feedback :)

Ben

Shall do :D

Black Spike

for now, is v late on this sid eof pond

Be good. Catch y'all on the flip side

Ben

I had a suggestion about my Diablo Corruption System. Players affected by certain aspects could relate to enemy (maybe just boss) characteristics. E.g. if they deal fire damage, a player that is first level could see that the Boss looks like they're on fire. Other players might not see that, depending on their Corruption level

@BlackSpike Ciao!

goodguy5

03:08

new monster idea:

Zombies, except they're immune to fire damage and they "cast" fireball when they die.

boomers, if you will.

Can be any element. Acid, if you'd prefer

Ben

Also a cool idea

goodguy5

I just need to figure out what CR is appropriate for 8d6 damage....

Ben

Should be in the DMG, no?

goodguy5

I mean..... yes? but damage is averaged over 3 rounds

yea, by that metric, it's a CR 1 monster on damage alone

Ben

So, roll 8d6, then deal 1/3 of the total over 3 rounds, you mean?

goodguy5

03:15

yes. iirc, that's how it tells you to calc damage. I'll double check. But since it's a 1/monster ability, it throws off the averages

yea, average over 3 rounds

And it's pretty easy to foreshadow it.

blah blah blah
"A sparking, shambling zombie emerges, then several more. Each of them have a pulsing, molten, orb mounted in their chests."

I have a certain affection for giving monsters death throes and/or summoning more monsters.

I should really branch out.

hrm... branching... something something treants...

Joel Harmon

@goodguy5 Are you going to leaf us with that cliffhanger?

goodguy5

hell, I've leaft myself with that cliffhanger.

cliffhanger....

Walking tree.... bamboo?

Bamboo treants, or something?

This is coming together.

Yuuki

Bamboo can be really sharp, I've cut myself on bamboo leaves before.

goodguy5

Would they be smaller slicier treants, because I'm okay with that

Yuuki

Bamboo are some of the fastest growing plants on Earth as well.

goodguy5

03:25

Bamboo Treant Swarm!

Yuuki

> Bamboos include some of the fastest-growing plants on Earth, with reported growth rates up to 910 mm (36 in) in 24 hours.

Bamboo also flower very rarely but when they do, an entire forest can flower at once.

goodguy5

extremely rough draft:

Bamboo Treant (CR 1)
Large plant
Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 51 (7d12 + 14)
Speed 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
17 (+3) 2 (-4) 15 (+2) 12 (+1) 16 (+3) 12 (+1)
Damage Vulnerabilities fire
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing
Senses passive Perception 13
Languages Common, Druidic, Elvish, Sylvan
Challenge 1 (200 XP)
False Appearance. While the treant remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a normal tree.

Multiattack. The treant makes two slam attacks.

Ben

Oh cool. I like

Yuuki

@goodguy5 So multiattack means that the treant can either slam twice or razor leaf once?

goodguy5

@Yuuki yes, just like the big treant

Though, I wouldn't hate lowering the damage and allowing it to do either

nitsua60

03:32

Okay: looking for an in media res idea for a scenario to kick-start a cyberpunk table. And I'm commuting for the next half-hour, so I'm just dropping that out there. Ideas welcome.

goodguy5

I don't know what that means

Yuuki

Starting in the middle of the action.

goodguy5

ah

Yuuki

@nitsua60 Being chased by a megacorp.

BESW

@nitsua60 Suddenly, a shot rang out!

goodguy5

03:33

@nitsua60 growth pods are always good.

BESW

Aeon Wave starts with your client being assassinated in the middle of them giving you the job.

(But it's not the client, it's a telepresence bot of the client.)

(...because the client is already dead! It's a sort of Who Censored Roger Rabbit scenario.)

goodguy5

Some group breaks into <corporation>, with the intent of sabotaging their genetics program. The pods all open/break, spilling their contents.

You <number of players> were mature enough to survive, but had not yet finished your training download or augment installation.

The three hackers before you are responsible for the death of your comrades. You know that you've never spoken to them, but you still feel some sort of inexplicable kinship and these brigands are making a mess in your proverbial parent's house.

Someone_Evil

@nitsua60 "The good news is your plasma detonator worked. The bad news is that it worked slightly earlier than you expected."

goodguy5

^"Terrance meant to set it for 15 minutes, not 5"

Joel Harmon

@nitsua60 What kind of system and/or how flexible are you in DM-ing style?

I started a good one-shot with something like "Two carriages are hurtling down the road, one chasing the other. So, which carriage are you guys in?"

This was Dungeon World, so the ask questions, use answers fit well, and naturally expanded into "who is in the other one?" and "why are they chasing you?"

Ben

03:43

One game started where players would give a placement - what they were doing, where, with whom. Then all of a sudden The apocalypse happens - people start running around like mad, earthquakes, etc.

In a cyberpunk setting, maybe "the network crashes" or something along those lines

Joel Harmon

Any additional information on where this might be going could be helpful for determining how it might start.

Ben

@JoelHarmon The cart in front thinks the cart behind are bandits, but the cart behind was just following you to ask for directions.

Marlin and Dory style :P

Joel Harmon

@Ben No.... it turns out this was an Evil one shot (just to try it), and the cart in front was full of orphans.

More precisely, it was a "you are not yourself" one shot, where we agreed that each character would be made by consensus of the players other than their player, specifically to go counter to the type of character you normally play most. Evil just got tossed in there.

Someone_Evil

"There is a loud snapping noise as the cyborg that is standing on top of the elevator with you cuts that last of its cables"

Shalvenay

@Someone_Evil followed by a loud scraping sound as the brakes kick in

Ben

03:50

@BESW "You can clearly see that the other guys in this deal are getting nervous. They're either hiding something, or are really uncomfortable meeting with you in this back alley. Then one of the guys finally snaps, raises his gun, and fires!"

Someone_Evil

@Shalvenay Filling the shaft with sparks from the ancient, corroded discs

Shalvenay

@Someone_Evil shoes, but yeah

Someone_Evil

@Shalvenay I will honestly admit that I don't know too much about brakes, elevator brakes double you so

Shalvenay

the shaft fills with sparks from rusted shoes on the guiderails as the e-brakes kick in with a metallic screech, bringing the elevator car to a halt

Ben

This is cyberpunk. They'd clearly be using anti-grav boosters.

:P

BESW

04:04

@Ben #woulfman-corruption is in the GAMES channel.

Ben

@BESW Link?

I have no idea where that's hosted lol

BESW

I pinged you on Discord from the room.

Hot RPG Questions

4

Q: Does the Scatter spell actually scatter the targets?

Based on the spell's name, you would think that all of the targets would end up all over the playing field, but per the Scatter spell description: The air quivers around up to five creatures of your choice that you can see within range. An unwilling creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving th...

dnd-5e spells

Ben

Ah ok, cool :)

BESW

I'll make a link that won't expire and will grant people temporary access to just that one room unless they assign themselves roles for the rest of the server, so you can pull people into it.

@Ben #woulfman-corruption: a space on my Discord server for @Ben to homebrew his Diablo-like D&D mechanics.

Ben

04:16

Ok, just a clarification, since the room here doesn't get used regularly enough, and is constantly getting frozen, can it be removed per request?

nitsua60

@JoelHarmon CP2020. I'm flexible, and this group of kids is pretty unflappable =)

@BESW This I like. This could work.

BESW

@nitsua60 There's a lot of good adventure design in Aeon Wave.

Joel Harmon

04:47

@nitsua60 I'm not familiar with CP2020, and I think my best idea is the chase one, because it gives so much control to the players.

BESW

@nitsua60 There's always the Psi*Run model: you've escaped while being transported from one prison to another! Run! Run now! Figure out who you are and why you were prisoners later!

kviiri

06:17

@BESW the Psi*Run concept is awesome and I really want to play it

BESW

@kviiri I'm even more interested in the Terminator hack for it, but I figure I should probably play it straight at least once first.

...I've got a lot of games that I'm more interested in for a hack or drift variant.

kviiri

It's strange how popular shows, comics and films about fugitives (or twists thereof) are seeing how few RPGs are built around that

BESW

I suspect part of it is that there aren't a lot of well-known models for it in TTRPGs.

kviiri

What, you mean you can't exactly use wargaming as a foundation? :grin:

BESW

...now I want to go back and refresh my memory on the 1989 RPG for The Prisoner.

It's GURPS, of course.

That's another thing, though--I'm constantly surprised by what DID get an official licensed TTRPG back in the day.

TMNT, The Prisoner, Doctor Who, Red Dwarf....

TMNT and Doctor Who both got a TTRPG in 1985.

kviiri

06:26

But sans snark, I think stealth is one of those things that's unusually hard to implement even satisfactorily with the traditional DnD-style declare-roll-result model.

BESW

....hmmm. what about WuShu style stealth?

kviiri

What's that?

BESW

Wushu: the Ancient Art of Action Roleplaying is a sadly orientalist game which does a really interesting thing akin to the Japanese anime/manga technique of pausing storytime to spend reading/watching time examining a single moment of the story.

On your turn, you describe your action and its context. The more details you include in your description, the more dice you roll to resolve the action.

(It is also a rather poorly written game, it doesn't explain itself well.)

kviiri

Hmm. I think the major problems with stealth oriented gameplay in traditional systems are that it's difficult to translate a fictional sequence of sneaking into an intuitively correct amount of rolls

And it tends to be an all or nothing affair.

WuShu sounds like it departs heavily from the d20 tradition which is probably for the best, but I think these two core issues need a more dedicated approach if one wants to focus on them

BESW

I mean, that's easily fixed with any of the many cumulative-challenge systems or subsystems out there.

Even D&D 4e had a clear and constructive generic subsystem for that kind of action.

Go further afield into Fate, or Misspent Youth, and you get really cool possibilities.

Actually, Misspent Youth might be a REALLY good place to start, if you reified the STRUGGLE! board with the stealth narrative.

Though, obviously Psi*Run isn't a bad choice either.

V2Blast

06:49

Finally caught up on chat

How's everyone doing? :)

vicky_molokh

@kviiri The amount of rolls is not necessarily all of the story. Stealth-and-detection activities are by their nature unknown-progress activities. So you're stuck between making those rolls behind the referee screen (but then there's not much gamism to it) or doing these rolls openly (in which case the activity no longer feels like a stealth/search activity to the player because of the meta knowledge injected into the process).

kviiri

07:07

@vicky_molokh Yeah. And then there's the whole spectrum of situation awareness from utterly clueless to full alert

vicky_molokh

@kviiri There's certainly a spectrum, but it has more to do with chance of passive notice and with the reaction after noticing than with Thief-style up-and-down movement like 'I saw something, not sure what' -> 'alert' -> 'must have been just the wind' (which was WSoD-straining in the computer game but would outright ruin the atmosphere of a typical 'serious' TTRPG).

kviiri

07:50

0

Q: How to expand the chain of puzzle?

I have read the Q&A Designing puzzle-based mysteries. I'm specifically interested in how to design such a chain in a classroom for 8-10 teenages in a team. My attemp is: Let say there are two types of cards: action (A1 -- turn and read, A2 -- solve and find extra piece, A3 -- ask Ceasar) and i...

gm-techniques game-recommendation

This is too broad for us, but since it's more about puzzle design than RPGs it might be on-topic at Puzzling. Do you know if they accept "improve/expand this puzzle for me" questions?

kviiri

08:07

I directed them to Puzzling.SE's chat

Pierre Cathé

08:31

Hi folks

kviiri

Bonjour!

V2Blast

10:23

An official Alien tabletop RPG is coming to stores next month

> Alien: The Roleplaying Game has two playable modes, cinematic and campaign. The cinematic option lets you play through a scenario similar to the events of the films in one session, and emphasises "high stakes and fast and brutal gameplay", which doesn't sound ominous at all. The campaign mode takes more of a Gloomhaven structure and lets players explore the Alien universe more freely over multiple game sessions.

by Free League Publishing (publishers of Tales from the Loop)

392 page book, plus a set of custom dice, a set of maps, and a GM Screen

> Alien: The Roleplaying Game will be available in stores and on the Free League website from December 10, just in time for Christmas.

BESW

Tonight's dinner is tuna marinated in lemon juice and soy sauce, diced and sautéed in sesame oil with garlic, ginger, cayenne, black and red pepper; served on whole wheat penne with okra stir-fried in onions and cornmeal.

V2Blast

sounds fancy :)

BESW

Okra can get a bit slimy, but cooking it with cornmeal fixes that nicely.

V2Blast

I love okra

BESW

10:41

Fresh local okra is very nice.

V2Blast

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/the-messenger/home
The Messenger is free on the Epic Games Store until November 21 (after which Bad North: Jotunn Edition will be free for the following week).

BESW

Part of me wants The Messenger to be a game about a Biblical gender reveal professional.

"Congratulations! It's a Messiah!"

trogdor

11:13

lol

user15026

12:27

@BESW today in things I didn't know I wanted...

goodguy5

12:44

@Ben def read that as "anti gray boomers" for a second (haven't had my coffee yet)

<ITAG>!

Carcer

@V2Blast mmm.

BESW

13:00

@Ash You're all out of Messiah-themed party favors so you have to go into the city to buy more! And it's after dark so only the night gate is open but OH NO someone is trying to get their enormous camel through the tiny night gate.

trogdor

I love this XD

Hot RPG Questions

2

Q: If one creature detects a hiding creature, do all other creatures automatically detect you too?

The rules for Hiding state: Until you are discovered or you stop hiding, that check's total is contested by the Wisdom (Perception) check of any creature that actively searches for signs of your presence. and When you hide, there's a chance someone will notice you even if they aren't se...

dnd-5e stealth

trogdor

13:20

@HotRPGQuestions yes, we are all one, a hive mind, the notice is upon all

XD

JohnP

14:02

Ah, that was a nice little rep bump. Only a couple k from 10k privileges now.

@trogdor Our name is Legion for we are many.

Gwideon

14:15

hello

So i'm about to start writing up my notes on rise of tiamat

goodguy5

14:32

Where is the "Magic Items per Tier" list?

Joel Harmon

@goodguy5 It's in the DMG, pretty early on.

goodguy5

ty

JohnP

DMG 135

21

Q: How rare are magic items and how many should I be handing out?

What is the baseline distribution of magical treasure and at what level should a given character expect to have received or have a potential of getting a specific rarity of item? Example: Rare lvl 10+ Also Does this take into account general non-combat magic items?

dnd-5e magic-items treasure

goodguy5

ty

Gwideon

so um I'm adapting RoT to my campaign setting and I need some ideas for what to change the organizations into

nevermind

goodguy5

14:45

RoT?

JohnP

Rise of Tiamat?

goodguy5

oh, I see above now

yea

JohnP

c'mon, gg, stay with us here :p

Gwideon

So I already have orders related to my gods that I can use to replace the order of the gauntlet.

I don't have anything to replace the harpers, or that weird theives guild type faction. I think I can just transplant the emerald enclave into my world and the lords alliance should be fairly easy to translate.

goodguy5

@Gwideon Might I suggest, not replacing them?

Just pop them in. Zhentarhim are an underground shadow organization in the first place. It only makes sense that not everyone knows about them.

The only reason they've really come to light as of late (in canon) is necessity.

Gwideon

14:53

@goodguy5 I don't know. I'm just not sure how well those organizations fit into the world. Also yeah the lords alliance will just be a pain to translate in general

goodguy5

The Lord's Alliance is the easiest one!

It's basically a frat club for nobles.

NautArch

@goodguy5 Did you find the magic item by tier table?

goodguy5

yes

well... John did

Gwideon

@goodguy5 My world only has two major named city, because I haven't gotten around to making the, One of which was destroyed so I'm gonna have to come up with cities

goodguy5

@Gwideon "only has 2" in that you've only described two, or only two actually exist by design

Gwideon

14:59

only described two. There are other major cities I just haven't added them to my notes yet.

goodguy5

ezpz then

Gwideon

15:21

anyways. I'm kinda unsure. don't really feel super inspired right now.

i'm gonna go

goodguy5

okay! Good luck

Pierre Cathé

15:48

Now I want to play an Oath of the Jedi Paladin with a Sun blade :-/

I know I'm late to the party but I've just looked at that homebrew and it's really nice

Although I still feel like it's missing some kind of charm effect

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