TRPG General Chat

1:51 AM

5

Q: Do the rules detail any effects caused by cannibalism?

I'm thinking on running a campaign in 5e where a shady character is selling, what looks to be, high quality meat for outrageously low prices in a small, slowly rebuilding, town. I'm making it fairly obvious that the shady meat seller's meat shouldn't be eaten, but there's always the exception to...

nitsua60

2:17 AM

@YuvrajSingh... Hiya! Welcome, and enjoy =)

I saw last week at my table someone who had non-cube d6s. Each side was either a trapezoid or a completely irregular quadrilateral (I forget now), but the six sides were all the same shape. To the eye it looked like it could be fair, I dunno!

BESW

2:31 AM

Barrel dice look fun, but also like they're gonna disappear under the couch even faster.

Hot RPG Questions

2:52 AM

4

Q: Beginner question about mechanics of turn-taking in combat

I have never played tabletop D&D before. Lots of NWN and BG on my PC though, so I know the basics. I got a 5e D&D "Essentials Kit" for my birthday and I'm going to try to run a beginner module for my family. I am confused on the mechanics of combat. Everyone rolls for initiative and takes a 6 se...

dnd-5e initiative

kviiri

6:14 AM

@BESW You just need an appropriate approximation of the "Pop O-matic" from Trouble

eg. a drum you can spin up, with the di[c]e enclosed inside

Fun fact: the Finnish version of Trouble is called Kimble because The Fugitive was super popular at the time. I vaguely recall earlier boxes having the blurb that it's a "game of pursuit", alluding to the show's name which'd translate as "The pursued".

Hot RPG Questions

9:01 AM

5

Q: High Int Barbarian

I'm playing a campaign were we are building and playing each other as characters. I'm planning to build one of the players as a barbarian as he is a former Muy Thai kickboxing instructor and he had a tendency to get mad and go off on rants when frustrated. The difficulty I'm having is he is also ...

dnd-5e character-creation optimization

goodguy5

1:45 PM

I've got a high elf barb floating around somewhere...

Someone_Evil

1:58 PM

Were they not sufficiently tethered?

goodguy5

nope

Hot RPG Questions

9

Q: If two Moonbeam spells are placed on a Large creature, does it take damage from both beams on its turn?

If two moonbeam spells are placed on different parts of a size Large (or larger creature), does it take damage from both beams on its turn? Or is this subject to the rule on combining magical effects that "the effects of two of the same spell do not combine, the most potent effect applies while ...

dnd-5e spells damage stacking simultaneous-effects

NautArch

2:18 PM

howdy howdy everyone

goodguy5

howdy howdy

NautArch

Nearly TPK'd my kid and his friends last night with the end of the Stranger Things. Had to pull punches.

goodguy5

awesome!

did they deserve it?

NautArch

But they loved it and ended victorious

nope, not deserved. I'm not quite sure how they balanced that fight. I guess if it was the full 5 players, it'd have been easier. But down to 3 and the final boss can take them out in a single hit each.

goodguy5

oh wow

NautArch

2:20 PM

yeah, it's nasty

i basically skipped it's lair actions otherwise it'd have been a rout

goodguy5

rout1
/rout/
Learn to pronounce
noun
1.
a disorderly retreat of defeated troops.

MikeQ

Greetings, internet goblins

goodguy5

as that like mini trolls?

NautArch

@goodguy5 yeah, I guess less rout and more just total party kill

goodguy5

I accepted it, I was just unfamiliar with the term.

I was just posting in case someone else didn't know

NautArch

2:23 PM

But either way, interesting to see how they develop their tactic preference

my son does NOT want to be a tank.

Wants to be on the outer edges shooting a bow

But he still wants some damage-dealing spellcasting. I'm not quite sure yet what to recommend other than trying to build a ranger with some better spells.

goodguy5

That seems like the best way to do it.

maybe an arcane archer

NautArch

@goodguy5 that's more about special arrows than spellcasting

goodguy5

I mean.... depends on how your son feels about it

NautArch

But I have to say, before level 5, zephyr strike is an amazing spell.

goodguy5

but you're right

NautArch

2:27 PM

even at level 5, it's pretty sweet

Hot RPG Questions

2:48 PM

7

Q: How can I help my players make meaningful choice during dungeon navigation?

Foreword: I run a D&D 4e campaign, but I think that this question is overall system-agnostic. Recently I've somewhat shifted my D&D campagin towards a more traditional dungeon crawling style. However, a problem I've noticed is that when the PCs are exploring a dungeon, they have no way of choosi...

gm-techniques system-agnostic dungeon

NautArch

actually, nevermind. reread the spell and you only get the advantage, damage, and move increase once.

@goodguy5 He also really isn't in the roleplay and just wants a battle arena. Which I can do :)

Someone_Evil

Eldritch Knight?

NautArch

@Someone_Evil yeah, maybe. Does that build work well with ranged?

I still have a hunch ranger will work, i just need to look at the spells more closely.

I think he had some character jealousy with the wizard doing burning hands and the bard using shatter.

And those multiple creature attacks were cool.

Had considered warlock, but he really wants the bow and not just the blast.

Someone_Evil

Fighter can be an archer; Go with high dex and Archery fighting style. Limit is that it's only 1/3 spellcaster

goodguy5

@NautArch can hexblades use a bow?

NautArch

2:59 PM

@Someone_Evil I tink the 1/3 is okay as long as he can get some area effect options

Someone_Evil

What char level?

NautArch

4

Someone_Evil

Thunderwave sounds good on an archer; AOE dmg+push away if enemies get too close

@goodguy5 Improved Pact Weapon invocation (XGtE) should do that, Hexblade limit is non-two-handed though (for using Cha instead)

goodguy5

ah ha. I see. I thought hexblade could break that if the weapon was magical

hand crossbow?

Someone_Evil

Wait, hang on. It has an exception for any weapon from your Pact of the Blade, so longbow is back on

Branding smite works with ranged weapons even

NautArch

3:12 PM

oooh, i still like the warlock idea. i may try a build out and see how it ends up.

Yuuki

Should make a The Corporate patron for warlock, adds branding smite effect to their Eldritch Blasts or something.

NautArch

@Yuuki I cast paradigm shift

Yuuki

@doppelgreener And at least one of us is the besw

goodguy5

Team? I want to do a skill challenge, but I'm not sure how to work it into the place I want to use it.

NautArch

@goodguy5 what's the situation and the challenge?

Xirema

3:21 PM

@Someone_Evil Banishing smite also works with ranged weapons....

goodguy5

They're sailing and I'm planning on having them pass through this ... shadow zone, kind of thing.

like a bermuda triangle situation

KorvinStarmast

@BradleyLindsey It was a paper published in the US Army War College's professional journal in 1993, warning of too much military interference in civil functions ...

NautArch

@goodguy5 and is the skill check navigating safely?

goodguy5

@NautArch Oh, one sec. I'm talking about skill checks from 4e / matt colville

58

A: Handling encounter elements that would realistically cause instant death

Group Checks, Success with a Cost, and Skill Challenges These three concepts are meant to be used in tandem, but can be cherry picked to suit your style of play. I have the most experience using them together. Group Checks This is pretty simple. Half the group has to pass at doing some thing. ...

KorvinStarmast

@BradleyLindsey Just so that you understand the context, the professional officer corps (career officers, in which case I was included, albeit at the lower rungs of that group) were disturbed by some of the constitutional implications of turning to the military for what had been for the longest time civil functions, specifically law enforcement (war on drugs was a particular issue, that has since been very much given over to DHS and Justice) and other law enforcement things ...

NautArch

3:29 PM

@goodguy5 oh! Are you playing 4e?

goodguy5

So it's "get past the obstacle"

@NautArch haha no. just a stolen concept

NautArch

or just incorporating it into your 5e game?

KorvinStarmast

@BradleyLindsey As it turns out, those concerns were, over time, addressed and to a large extent mitigated when DHS stood up; though there remain some areas of concern.

Yuuki

is selling military equipment to local law enforcement on the list? because i'd like to know who thought some small towns need mine-resistant vehicles

or armored personnel carriers

goodguy5

@NautArch I the general rule I've seen is to be able to come up with 3 success criteria and assume the party can come up with more.

MikeQ

3:38 PM

@Yuuki What if they live in a small mining town?

goodguy5

Arcana
Vehicle (Water)
and Perception?

Then success would be leaving uneventfully, I guess and failure would be some sort of big combat? I'm not sure what failure would be

NautArch

@goodguy5 Hmm, if it's just the system, why not let the players come up with a plan completely?

@goodguy5 Do you track food/water?

goodguy5

@NautArch not really. It's assumed that the players have access to enough food and water unless there's a good reason not to

NautArch

@goodguy5 okay, just thinking that this could become a survival issue

Like the fail state is a battle, loss of resources, and then attempt to navigate out safely again.

but can't rest and need food/water.

goodguy5

yea... yea... They'll be some hull damage and they've got to chuck material to stay afloat.

cool

Now I just need to decide whether I want it to be 3 successes or 5

NautArch

3:45 PM

@goodguy5 You could always decide on the fly depending on how they roll.

and how long you want this to take

goodguy5

@NautArch part of skill checks is telling the party how many fails and successes are needed

NautArch

@goodguy5 ah.

If this is the main event, i'd go for 5.

Xirema

So my party is on the verge of turning into the Party of Theseus. After our Monk died, the Champion Fighter died offscreen (decided by the player, not the DM) and rerolled as a Druid, our Battlemaster Fighter got a letter from home that his wife's killer was located, so he rerolled as a Cleric, and our Artificer (who wasn't even present for the session) also plans to reroll because she's already playing an Artificer in two campaigns.

Now my Barbarian is the only original party member left, who spent the session gleefully lying to the new party members about how her plan to smuggle weapons to the Lizardfolk to instigate war between them and the Humans is actually an act of Charity to the "poor, marginalized, downtrodden lizardfolk".

Also, we spent the rest of the session planning a daring heist of weapons from the Military Police of Seaton. Tooootally unrelated.

Yuuki

Wouldn't you want to avoid a mine-resistant vehicle in that case? What happens if there's a cave-in and the vehicle just doesn't want to go down the mine.

@Xirema At this point, your next character needs to be a shipwright named Theseus.

Carcer

the best scenario is that you lie thoroughly to the new party members about what you're doing and when, then die yourself

then your new party is thoroughly committed to some nonsense for no good reason.

Yuuki

3:56 PM

i mean, most D&D parties are thoroughly committed to nonsense for no good reason

Carcer

well, you're not wrong.

MikeQ

@Yuuki In case of a cave-in, the cleric can prepare cure miner wounds

2

Xirema

4:19 PM

@Yuuki I'm committing to that. 😂

CollinB

I just walked in on "Cure Miner Wounds" and I'm not sure whether I should stay or not

NautArch

@CollinB What does the canary say?

Is this question a shopping question?

CollinB

@NautArch My canary has been dead for quite a while

Yuuki

@MikeQ I suppose in the case of a serial thief, a mine-resistant vehicle might be useful.

goodguy5

I think it's close, maybe even technically yes, but I also think it's okay.

"Is there an official example of an assassination mission" seems pretty focused

JohnP

4:27 PM

@NautArch I'd say yes. Basically saying "Look in all the material and find me X"

NautArch

added a comment asking. If it's just "do these exist", there will be a non-helpful answers. If it's recommend me one, then it's off-topic.

/shrug

goodguy5

before I chide this user in a comment, "published adventures" is 1st party stuff only, right?

MikeQ

That would be a great follow-up question for a comment, because 3rd party publications are published, just not by WOTC

goodguy5

a user recommends an assassination adventure, but it looks 3rd party to me

NautArch

@goodguy5 I...have a feeling it isn't. DMsguild makes this really complicated.

JohnP

5:22 PM

@NautArch You asked that on meta a bit ago. Dop said it's 3rd party, but supported by WoTC (for their $$ cut of course).

NautArch

@JohnP except of course for the first party stuff that's in there, too

and a lot of it is AL legal, too

JohnP

@NautArch There is 1st party? I thought that was all through the main...

NautArch

@JohnP Eberron was on there

JohnP

@NautArch hunh. ok. Might be worth revisiting the meta then?

NautArch

@JohnP it didn't get a ton of traction, maybe?

goodguy5

5:38 PM

@NautArch Needed bigger tires

NautArch

@goodguy5 or maybe the question isn't balanced.

I got to play my new character tonight! Let' see if this one can lost more than a few sessions.

goodguy5

@NautArch Remind me which character?

NautArch

@goodguy5 evocation wizard.

after the demise of my divination wizard and then the demise of my battlemaster.

goodguy5

ah yes

NautArch

exchanging standard wizard versatility for blasting.

goodguy5

5:54 PM

master blaster

NautArch

@goodguy5 I'm debating and shortening my name to 'tim'.

goodguy5

You're supposed to say something long and elaborate

NautArch

My name is "Nahas Alghugha, master of elements, focus of fire, the flame strike, the soon to be very well known. But you can just call me Tim."

JohnP

@NautArch whutup, tim

NautArch

And that way I don't have to deal with other players/characters not pronouncing my name.

goodguy5

5:57 PM

What you could do, is the long part for a session or two

Then, the next time someone asks, you say "There are those who call me ....... tim?"

NautArch

^^

we'll see if i can keep it up for that long

goodguy5

You strike me as the kind of person to play with people that would get the joke

NautArch

oh definitely

goodguy5

That's one of my favorite pieces of movie triva, that the actor forgot the whole blurb and just said "Tim?"

Right up there with Indiana Jones and the pistol vs scimitar scene

NautArch

Bad news is my high hopes for a more RP-opportunity campaign doesn't seem to have been realized, but good news is new character is better positioned for damage.

and I can get all my old wizard's spells into my spellbook if I do want them.

JohnP

6:03 PM

@goodguy5 Seriously? ...Tim was an ad lib?? HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS??

goodguy5

oh yea. That's why it's a question mark.

NautArch

I did not know that, either!

better not be fakenewz

goodguy5

oh! That's why I suggested starting with the long name

look it up

JohnP

@goodguy5 hrm... Cleese disputes that it was ad libbed...

goodguy5

oh no!!!!!!

I've seen this across multiple sources, don't break my heart

JohnP

6:08 PM

> Some believe the Enchanter's name is Tim because John Cleese forgot the character's original name, and ad-libbed the line, "There are some who call me...Tim". However, Cleese disputes this. During a 2018 live tour, he said there was no improvisation in the final movie.

That's on the IMDB trivia page, so provenance is shaky.

goodguy5

"in the final movie".... that line is suspect.

nitsua60

@JohnP A seriously drunk ad lib, as I heard it told back in the 90s.

goodguy5

The world is better in a world where it was an ad lib, so that's what I'm choosing to believe.

David Coffron

@goodguy5 That could mean that he improvised the line in a previous take, and the director liked it so they took a take with him saying that in character

Then it isn't improvised in the final cut.

goodguy5

^my point exactly

MikeQ

6:12 PM

I've asked the question on movies.SE. We'll see where that goes.

goodguy5

And besides, I'm not listening to someone dispute an urban legend after over 40 years

JohnP

@goodguy5 Eh, all I know for sure is that Cleese very rarely ad libs, as he doesn't like it at all.

I'd just never heard that line was ad libbed before. :)

@MikeQ You could have asked on skeptics, too :p

NautArch

in my search around this, I also uncovered that Val Kilmer's cough of "bullsh*t" in Top Gun was ad-libbed.

goodguy5

oh! and Vince Vaugn's YooHoo scene towards the beginning of Dodgeball.

He was supposed to spit it out

JohnP

@NautArch Probably common knowledge, but all of Robin Williams' radio broadcasts in Good Morning Vietnam were ad libbed start to finish.

goodguy5

6:19 PM

that delights me

and is on brand

NautArch

@JohnP that one I knew!

goodguy5

Did they give him a script and he ignored it?

JohnP

@goodguy5 newp. They just let him roll it.

David Coffron

@goodguy5 Giving Robin Williams a script on something like that might be an exercise in futility.

goodguy5

well, yea

Jumanji was just a documentary

JohnP

6:21 PM

My favorite little known is Harrison Ford - He ad libbed the "I know" to Leia just before being frozen in carbonite.

goodguy5

I had heard that

JohnP

Oh, and speaking of Robin, he improvised the whole fart scene joke in good will hunting.

MikeQ

Did you hear that all of The Godfather Part I was ad-libbed

It's not true but maybe you heard it

JohnP

I really liked Williams, I feel sad that he never let a private persona through. He was always "on". Even his "Inside the Actor's Studio" interview was over the top.

David Coffron

@JohnP That's how branding goes sometimes...

@JohnP I also heard somewhere that he improvised the final line: "son of a b* stole my line" or whatever

JohnP

6:27 PM

@DavidCoffron I think it was more related to his depression than branding.

goodguy5

^

kind of like Chris Farley

nitsua60

@NautArch Star Lord dropping-then-catching the power stone in GotG v.1.

NautArch

@nitsua60 ha! really?

kviiri

I think I recall an interview where one of the Pythons said "Tim" was chosen as the Enchanter's name specifically because people would've expected it to be something fancy, as a sort-of anti-joke. But I realize this anecdote is really no better than one where someone thinks they remember someone said somewhere that it was an ad lib.

nitsua60

@NautArch ftw.usatoday.com/2015/10/…

NautArch

6:30 PM

@nitsua60 There's also the awesome scene in I think A New Hope where the stormtrooper hits head on a doorway.

David Coffron

@nitsua60 Another Guardians character has a famous ad-libbed line in Drax's "I'll do you one better: Why's Gamora" in Infinity War.

kviiri

TV Tropes lists "Tim the Enchanter" in its trivia page but they have literally zero sourcing standards and sadly that often creates citogenesis effect... so can't say for sure.

JohnP

@DavidCoffron Now you're just making that up... ba dum ching.

kviiri

@NautArch IIRC they even added a sound effect to emphasize it in later editions

Re: Jumanji, we recently watched the original movie --- which I don't think I'd ever seen before, or at least recently enough to remember ~anything out of it and I was a bit frustrated that it had (IMO) an inferior premise to the animated series which I remember... well, not particularly fondly, but remember anyway.

In the animated series, every roll on the game transports one inside the game world until a quest is completed. A hint about the particulars of this mission is given in the central crystal of the board just before entry, and usually they feature some sort of character development angle, which makes the board game's "personality" a bit more nuanced. It tries to make visitors into better people.

The kids who discover the game meet Alan inside the game's world and resolve to help him escape. He missed his hint when he entered the game and is therefore stuck trying to remember what his hint is, or even why he missed it, and just trying all kinds of things to get out.

David Coffron

6:51 PM

@kviiri So what the remakes do then (minus the hint)

kviiri

@DavidCoffron Haven't seen any of them

Unless the animated series counts as a remake, which I doubt it does :P

David Coffron

@kviiri They're okay movies. I'm not really a comedy person, but I enjoyed them well enough

In fact, in the remakes there is also a person who is unable to complete the quest and is stuck in the game (they help him get out)

And I guess they are more like reboots than remakes since the story is completely different.

Yuuki

There's also a question about how you define an ad-lib.

David Coffron

@Yuuki Strictly speaking it means an action taken "at one's pleasure" or "spontaneously"

Yuuki

Like one well-known example is Indiana Jones shooting the swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was a departure from the original script but it wasn't spontaneous. Apparently Harrison Ford was just super sick and couldn't physically do the fight scene. He brought up just shooting the guy to Lucas, they workshopped it a bit, and finally decided to do that instead.

David Coffron

7:00 PM

@Yuuki I'd consider that an ad-lib, but I can imagine some people who wouldn't. Another example of that sort of modification shows up when Carter touches Steve's chest in Captain America. Wasn't originally in the script, but wasn't spontaneous exactly

Yuuki

@DavidCoffron If you're talking about the 2017 movie, I think that was a sequel not a reboot.

kviiri

@DavidCoffron I think it's good they went with that, I think it's just a much better premise than the original film's.

David Coffron

@Yuuki really? That doesn't make sense to me. There is no chronology established shrug

Yuuki

The end of the first movie has the board game washing up on a beach, which is what the 2017 movie opens with.

Granted, different beach and I think different characters but it was a 10+ year gap, I think that's forgivable.

David Coffron

@Yuuki I must have missed that

Yuuki

7:04 PM

Jack Black also confirmed that the 2017 movie was the third in the series, the second movie being Zathura.

Rubiksmoose

@Yuuki huh TIL that exists

David Coffron

@Yuuki Interesting. So it's just a different board game with reality-warping effects.

goodguy5

Zathura was pretty good, albeit, obviously just "Space Jumanji"

NautArch

7:27 PM

this question on initiative/reactions is definitely interesting.

goodguy5

yea, my gut is "thats fine", but I don't know why

NautArch

@goodguy5 interestingly, i thought the opposite

goodguy5

"that's not fine and I know why"?

NautArch

when the PCs roll well, they'll like it. When they don't, they won't. But I guess that's kinda balanced.

BUt it seems like players more likely have more reaction mechanics than monsters.

But it also depends a bit on the numbers involved. If there are fewer on one side, that changes the risks of this, too.

I dunno, I guess I don't like it and I think there's probably a good reason why this happens during Surprise, but not during regular fighting.

goodguy5

7:49 PM

I mean, it's only part of 1 round

Hot RPG Questions

9

Q: IC conflicts, OC hurt feelings, how did you overcome group conflicts as a player?

I'll try to not go too deep into detail and this might turn into a small rant, so sorry in advance. For easier reading I added some subtitles. ;-) Here is some context My group and I (4 players, amazing DM) play for almost 2 years now and it is the first rpg group for all of us. It was very cle...

roleplaying group-dynamics conflicts

V2Blast

8:40 PM

@NautArch I think it's a badly phrased question - it's not exactly clear what it's asking. Asking for a clear, tightly scoped list is fine, but this question is both vague and not very tightly scoped...

@JohnP to be honest, 90% of Robin Williams' lines in everything are probably improvised to some degree (at least to the extent of "he improvised it once and the director liked the change so he stuck with it in future takes")

@Yuuki Apparently it's an adaptation of the children's picture book Zathura, which is a sequel to the original Jumanji children's picture book by the same author

@NautArch @goodguy5 Yeah, it's basically a house-rule with minor effects - it's not really necessary and copies part of the effect of surprise, but it also doesn't really break the game much either.

Hot RPG Questions

4

Q: How do dimensional shackles interact with a banishing arrow?

An arcane archer hits a creature with a banishing arrow, they vanish into the Feywild. A man in the middle places Dimensional Shackles on the target (in the Feywild) for 10 minutes. What happens when the shackles are taken off?

dnd-5e magic-items class-feature

Mark Wells

9:19 PM

@NautArch The main issue I see is that standoffs get less standoff-y

Yuuki

So would this houserule be called the Law of Surprise?

Mark Wells

On the other hand it does make shield a tiny bit less useful, and anything that makes spellcasters less able to shrug off attacks is probably for the best

David Coffron

@V2Blast I always love seeing you jump in and reply to the chats throughout the day; it is like a little recap of the day's topics :)

Rubiksmoose

Welcome to your daily V2*news*blast :)

trogdor

lol

V2Blast

9:34 PM

haha

@Yuuki I think that's a different thing... :P

Yuuki

10:00 PM

trogdor

XD

+10 just because Gravity Falls is great

Yuuki

10:28 PM

Circle of Spores: Because Recycling Is Good For The Environment

V2Blast

10:41 PM

Matt Mercer just released an updated version of the Blood Hunter (the old one's still on DMsGuild as a separate listing). It costs $8, but all proceeds go to the AU Brushfire Relief charity: dmsguild.com/product/301641/Blood-Hunter-Class-for-DD-5e-2020

> Author's Note: This was my first homebrew class waaaaay back before DMs Guild first started, and I had a LOT to learn. Originally spawned as a handful of variant abilities I designed for Vin Diesel guesting on my D&Diesel one-shot to promote his film "The Last Witch Hunter" (in which I was given no context for his character other than the trailer), the internet was loudly requesting me to release what class he played. Needing to heavily expand upon those small features, I cobbled together my first attempt at this class with meager design experience and tossed it to the internet with a win…

In the Twitter thread, Mercer also mentions that the version on DDB will be updated too: twitter.com/matthewmercer/status/1221885565848571904

Yuuki

The Last Witch Hunter was a weird movie.

KorvinStarmast

11:06 PM

@Yuuki if a governor wants it for his national guard, it isn't a problem, really. If the state doesn't mind, I don't see there being a constitutional problem.

@Xirema Your group sounds like a lot of fun to play with. "plots are optional" 8^D

V2Blast

11:36 PM

Note: After 2 weeks, the DMsGuild version will be PWYW. The current price is for charity efforts: twitter.com/matthewmercer/status/1221897670668603392

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