TRPG General Chat

BESW

00:00

Let's Stay In! A sale hosted by Jamila R. Nedjadi. Each item 50% off! or buy everything for 64% off! Indulge in reflective and interpersonal games. Play by yourself, play with one other person, and tap into your creative intuition. Many of these games are ritual games, these rituals can be as real as you need them to be.

Axoren

The OP can always take accepted answer away and give it to a new poster if it's within their purview.

BESW

"Using Safety Tools in Online Play v01" is now live in the #TTRPGSafetyToolkit!

2

Axoren

@Medix2 Though, this question reminds me of an idea I had for a Legendary CR 1 creature.

The encounter they would be a part of would be one that couldn't by won by killing it (unless the party was evil), like a Small Child causing mayhem in a crowded public place and actually fighting it in combat (by dealing damage) would be the obviously morally wrong decision.

Combat would mostly be spent trying to thwart the character's attempts to cause calamity and fix the problems they caused, all while the character is acting after each player's turns doing more things and resisting charm and lock-down magic.

nitsua60

@Medix2 I think I've even bountied "competing" answers in a situation like that. Do whatever your conscience dictates.

Medix2

@nitsua60 Yeah I was thinking about doing just that

NautArch

00:16

@nitsua60 think I'm going with white plume mountain

nitsua60

It's nice that it throws the "right" answer a bunch of rep, they also get a bunch of rep from people who are drawn to the question by the bounty-activity and see you recommending that answer, and that answer will always have a blue "+X" sitting under its score.

@NautArch I didn't run that one--I'll be interested to hear how it goes!

nitsua60

00:27

@NautArch (I've got the 1e version sitting on a "classics to someday run" shelf, but haven't gotten to it yet. But a bunch of my RL players know the classics and know of that shelf of mine, so any time they run across anything I describe out in the mountains they're all "oh, is it White Plume? Is it Barrier Peaks? Is it Caves of Chaos?")

BESW

Make it Thunderspire Mountain to really throw them off.

nitsua60

00:53

Against the Queen of the White Forge Giants' Slave Lords. Of Dread.

NautArch

01:05

@nitsua60 Looks fun and 8th level is a fun range

Fun!

sorry, just needed a third fun

goodguy5

aw.... my local pub is so sad.

They got all this st pattys swag (green hats, coozies, the like) and posted "come get takeout beer and swag"

Ben

01:26

Morning all

Ben

02:02

Phew

So I had to convert a separate project into a plugin by the end of the day, but going back and looking at the existing plugin interface, it looks like it's purely internal, which is not what we want, so I need to re-write that to allow for external plugin use.

That's given me some time

NautArch

@nitsua60 Did you run them on roll20?

nitsua60

02:34

@NautArch IRL, except for one R20 session... nope. All IRL. (I was misremembering a campaign.)

NautArch

Did ToA have maps for each encounter?

MikeQ

ToA should have maps for dungeons and shrines and stuff, but most of the jungle encounters in our game used improvised battlemaps by drawing random terrain

nitsua60

@NautArch on R20, yes. All the maps in the book were in R20.

Even the little quarter-page ones that you might find in, say, Yellyark =)

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 that would be cool, I am up for it!

@Medix2 I liked how you updated that.

@nitsua60 Oh, yeah, that one was a real meat grinder. The DM had the wrong kind of mushrooms on his pizza, and that's what he had prepared for us. 8^o

(Not quite actual history)

@goodguy5 I had two shots of Jamison's when I got home, if that helps. Happy St Patrick's Day!

NautArch

02:56

Hmm, either there aren't any in white plume or i can't find them

KorvinStarmast

03:07

If you go looking for mushrooms in White Plume mountain, hehe, you may find something else. :-)

Axoren

Better than White Plume Mountain Oysters, whatever you find.

How often do "Make my character" questions usually come up?

Ben

@Axoren Like the Bjorn one?

Axoren

Yeah, but also the "make me a Fighter character"

Ben

IME, not often. Often enough to be a thing, but not often enough for their to be any specific metas/wikis, AFAIK

Axoren

There was also one for Monk, but that one seemed focused enough to actually be answerable

Ben

03:34

There would be some that are answerable - eg. using the point-buy system for optimal stats, or allocation of stats, then "I want to achieve this build - which feat(s) should I use/which path should I choose"

The Oracle

0

Q: What is the best way to deal with duplicate answers which reference each other?

We often see situations where answers incorporate parts of other answers trying to create complete answers. Here is an extreme example where 2 answers each contain half of the information, and both thank the other answer for the other half. Personally I think it is a good thing that both users w...

discussion

Ben

04:11

I don't think I've ever had such a round number in rep before... ~Satisfying~

And it's immediately gone lol

Miniman

04:28

5

Q: How to build X in (a point-buy system)

In strictly point-buy systems (like GURPS and HERO System) you can build pretty much any character/vehicle/gadget you can think of if you know how to combine the powers and modifications thereof. Trouble comes of not knowing how to combine them appropriately. I'm wondering if those sorts of ques...

discussion on-topic

V2Blast

05:35

The Fantasy AGE Basic Rulebook is free for the next month (until April 20): https://twitter.com/Pramas/status/1240008799345233921
You can get it without needing to enter a billing address from DriveThruRPG here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/153066/Fantasy-AGE-Basic-Rulebook

V2Blast

08:10

also - bit late in posting this this week: https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/free-games
Anodyne 2, A Short Hike, and Mutazione are free to own on the Epic Games Store if you get them before 11 am on March 19th.
(After that, the games The Stanley Parable and Watch Dogs will be free from March 19-26.)

BESW

A Short Hike is good!

BESW

09:35

All We Love We Leave Behind by World Champ Game Co. is a single-player RPG of letter writing focusing on abandonment, isolation, and the passing of time... and it's currently free. Includes 2-player variant!

BESW

09:48

Green Ronin Games has made the Fantasy AGE Basic Rulebook PDF free, and almost everything else is 20% off, until April 20th.

Dark Streets & Darker Secrets from Gallant Knight Games is now PWYW on DTRPG (including print editions).

AncientSwordRage

10:03

@Ben you tempted us!

nitsua60

12:00

I dunno... the lower-left cusp of that `2` is pretty pointy. 30K's got a similar problem, and don't even talk to me about 40K.
Call me when you hit 60.

=D

Axoren

12:29

I think I have a fan, lol. Every one of my recent answers has a single downvote.

BESW

That's liable to get flagged and reverted by the system within the next day.

Axoren

I'm mostly joking, I doubt it's the same person.

But it was just interesting how consistent it was.

AncientSwordRage

12:55

@Axoren if it is, that won't last

GcL

13:08

@Axoren You need something downvoted? I can help.

Ol' Cubic Forest Ninja once needed parity on one of his answers. Equal number of up and downvotes. It was tricky to find that down arrow, but we did it together. Then we found out the real tarrasque had been the voting system all along.

Axoren

Honestly, if anything, I want one of my 75+ voted answers to hit 100 so I can get that juicy gold medal.

GcL

@Axoren So you need me to downvote one of your answers to make the gold medal feel all the more real? Like when you have someone add weight to whatever you're carrying so you get stronger? Very Goku of you.

Axoren

I sandbag fairly plenty already on a lot of my other posts, lol.

GcL

Sandbagging prevents flooding.

Axoren

My favorite brand of jeans is Levees.

nitsua60

13:32

11 year old: "daddy, I thought of something as I was falling asleep. John Coffey [of The Green Mile] has Lay on Hands."

Yes. Yes he does.

Axoren

A friend of mine who was new to the game saw "Lay on Hands" and thought it was about fist fighting and decided they were gonna be a Paladin as a result.

2

Monk/Paladin Gestalts have "Catch These Hands" as a result.

Rubiksmoose

@Axoren hah!

GcL

13:51

I have friends that are blissfully unaware that it's a biblical reference... and I don't have the heart to tell them otherwise.

AncientSwordRage

@Axoren certain monks can take full-hp creatures out of combat peacefully, and they also get lay on hands like abilities...

NautArch

14:20

For anyone that's used sourcebook assets purchased through ROll20...where are those assets? Like the grid maps?

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

14:43

@GcL Yeah, it's cool to learn from which mythologies various archetypes are derived. (Though paladins being Christian seems almost obvious, what with the round table's knights being one of the blatant inspirations.)

Powerdork

14:53

@NautArch generally, or for a specific game?

NautArch

@Powerdork Specifically for Tales from the Yawning Portal/White Plume Mountain

RedRiderX

15:04

@NautArch I'd assume that it would show up as a module in Roll20. Did you start a new game with the module?

AncientSwordRage

Cast as a ninth level spell create or destroy water can create rain of such volume that it would be recorded as 475,000 mm/hour if it lasted long enough.

Hot RPG Questions

2

Q: What CR would this level 5 wizard "mini-boss" be?

I'm about to start the first session of a big campaign tomorrow night. I have three experienced players and one newbie and I've got a big opener planned. The way things will most likely go in the first session will involve a lot of small fights without a short or long rest between them. The party...

dnd-5e encounter-design cr-calculation

KorvinStarmast

15:34

@nitsua60 awesome; a paladin in the mode of O'Chul. He wanted to do right by others regardless of consequences.

@GcL It's also a reference to Sir Lancelot in the Morte d Artuhur ... Mallory

@NautArch In your journal and there ought to be a "+" next to it.

NautArch

15:53

@KorvinStarmast they seem to be just handouts

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch Oh, do you meant the maps up to;p when you click on the blue page to get game maps?

I'll need to go home and play with r20, I think you need to pick a menu on the front page of a game your create and include that package of stuff.

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast ha! That's it. I didn't even think to look there.

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch Good! :)

GcL

16:06

@KorvinStarmast I expect that instance to itself be a christian reference derived from wherever it was in the new testament where jesus does the LoH thing to cure disease.

KorvinStarmast

@GcL I am sure it is; I recall seeing something years ago (maybe in a Dragon article or editorial) from EGG about the influence of Lancelot as Paladin laying on hands ... but we are reaching back something like 40 years ago, and that was also around the time that I read for the first time Mallory's tome (English Translation) so I may be mixing memory

And then I read Tom Berger's send up of Mallory "Arthur Rex" shortly thereafter, so my mixing may be even worse.

This book

GcL

Neat. Thanks.

NautArch

16:47

Debating on giving an uncommon magic item to the level 8 adventurers to start a 5e game.

DMG standard says no magic items, but it seems more likely that by level 8, they'd have something

GcL

Alternatively write an adventure that doesn't require them? My parties usually sell the permanent magic stuff they come across as it's rarely of the kind of equipment they use. Magic crossbow? nobody uses... probably worth more as coin for expendables they will use.

NautArch

@GcL I'm doing White Plume Mountain. Have no idea if it's 'required'

GcL

If you do go the route, make it the same across the board, e.g. your main weapon is a +1 magic weapon, or choose one from this short list of three things.

NautArch

@GcL I was just going to say pick one uncommon magic item.

but providing a simple list isn't a bad idea, either.

GcL

@NautArch I have a couple of min/max players that when given options choose stuff to push edge cases, because that's what's fun for them. It's decidedly not fun for the DM.

Also, short list means you can choose items that you know will have use in the adventure.

KorvinStarmast

17:03

@NautArch I strongly suggest that you do. I gave my level 1 chars a common item tailored to their back story, and it barely influences the campaign to date at level 4

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast common or uncommon?

nitsua60

I like gating by price off the Sane Magical Prices Index, rather than by rarity.

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch Good plan. In my case, common.

What GcL said: Also, short list means you can choose items that you know will have use in the adventure Amen.

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast You mean i have to prepare by fully reading the adventure? :P

Axoren

@KorvinStarmast You'd be surprised how many uses players will find for a Cap of Waterbreathing in a one-shot devoid of bodies of water and pools.

KorvinStarmast

17:05

@NautArch I have been doing that for so long that I perhaps make the assumption that all DMs do ... oops

@Axoren bury one's head in a barrel of beer for a very long drink .... we have a Barbarian who would do that in my brother's campaign!

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast Nah, it's fine. I just gave myself about 2 days to prep so we can get started. Not a lot, but work is...slow.

Axoren

@KorvinStarmast That but while running through Cloud Kill to avoid needing to make a save. In our case, it was a bucket of "juice" that someone cast Purify Food and Drink on.

KorvinStarmast

@kviiri I have a solid idea on the "one unique thing" for my 13th age bard, will visit with you tomorrow, hopefully, on the details. Can we meet in the back room to chat then?

@Axoren brilliant! :)

kviiri

@KorvinStarmast Sure :> although I remind you, I won't have the time and energy to actually start running the game until July, August (at earliest) and of course a lot might happen before then, so you're a bit early in a way :>

But I won't mind hearing it out!

Axoren

Our groups are nothing if not innovative. I was once part of a prison break where me an another party member had to share a single sword each round.

Just constantly juggling the sword back and forth while we double-teamed a guard.

kviiri

17:10

One edge for you, one for me

Works!

Axoren

Player 1: Object Interaction to Take Item from Ally, Attack Action.
Player 2: Object Interaction to Take Item from Ally, Attack Action.
Would have been so much better if the guard just let me have a bucket.

Who doesn't let a prisoner have at least a bucket?

KorvinStarmast

@kviiri cool, will discuss tomorrow. You mentioned that you prefer a particular kind of bard, and I think this fits that idea ....

kviiri

@KorvinStarmast That was for personally playing them, but if you like it yourself, no objections :)

KorvinStarmast

17:32

@kviiri OK. As I look through 13th Age's mechanics for the bard, the "song as form of magic" in a way that fits some of the stories I've read seems to have support. More on this later.

GcL

@Axoren Yes! I like that. Makes the combat into a Jackie Chan movie scene.

Axoren

It felt just like that.

NautArch

18:05

@KorvinStarmast Looking at the monsters, most are resistant to nonmagical attacks. That seems cruel to not give martials a magical weapon.

kviiri

@NautArch Resistance is less potent than you're probably used to, though. If you roll high enough, you will penetrate the resistance and deal full damage.

NautArch

@kviiri huh?

this is for a 5e adventure

kviiri

I mean, assuming we're talking about 13th Age.

NautArch

oh, no. ha!

but that's a cool mechanic!

kviiri

Aaah sorry, I keep forgetting that if you ping someone without replying it highlights their last message.

(even though it wasn't necessarily the one was replying to)

@NautArch Yeah. 13th Age has a lot of "pay attention to the die result" :)

At times I fear the designers may have fallen a bit too much love with that, but one'll probably get used to it after a while.

Powerdork

18:28

The die result is the only tangible thing when you make a roll; modifiers are abstract

(unless you're playing on a virtual tabletop)

kviiri

Well, in a sense the result itself is tangible, but the different dimensions you have to filter it by aren't necessarily.

Did I hit or miss? Roll over resistance threshold? Is it even so I can use my flexible attack that triggers on even rolls? And such.

NautArch

is this question a duplicate of the question that spawned it?

Powerdork

@NautArch Is the ideal answer for one also the ideal answer for the other?

NautArch

@Powerdork Possibly. BUt I think they're asking the same thing in a different way. One is very general and one is asking through the lens of the new book.

I just don't want to dupe hammer it.

Powerdork

I'm voting to close as opinion-based.

NautArch

18:38

@Powerdork for both?

Powerdork

No, the 'what's official' question.

NautArch

@Powerdork I guess that means you think they're different questions :)

Powerdork

The common gamer can look at Wildemount and judge "yeah, that's an official D&D setting now" without being too far off, but it'd take a statement from Matt Mercer or Wizards to give a true answer as to what about Exandria is official, imo

In which case I guess it's better as "out of scope"?

NautArch

@Powerdork I think that'd be a good answer. YOu're saying it's unclear without an explicit statement. BUt I'm honestly not sure about that. THe bigger issue seems like it's a 'new' setting and this is the only official book.

Powerdork

I'm saying it's not answerable as-is for the same reason questions asking about designer intent aren't answerable. But whereas most questions about designer intent can be shifted to be generally answerable, the designer intent is core to this question.

NautArch

18:47

ah, that's a really good point.

meta?

Powerdork

I'm about to go right the heck to sleep, else I'd try drafting a post about it.

NautArch

@Powerdork sleep on, my good powerdork.

GcL

19:08

@Powerdork Is that essentially punting by saying, "we can't know what constitutes an official setting short of the publisher explicitly saying, 'X is an official setting for 5th edition?'"

Powerdork

@GcL No, it's punting an advanced lore question ("Which of the established information sources for the setting predating its release as an official setting are considered official in the context of said release?") by saying "we can't know what constitutes official lore short of the publisher explicitly stating, 'X is canon'."

GcL

@Powerdork In short, what are the official sources for a given setting? Seems straight forward enough. Published non-playtest material in addition to anything else explicitly included. Fifth edition Eberron ropes in the previous edition materials.... which is actually kind of a pain, since some of the 4e stuff does contradict the 3.5e stuff.

Powerdork

Eberron's meant to be fairly open-ended with no deep lore to speak of, anyway

GcL

@Powerdork What do you mean by no deep lore?

nitsua60

@NautArch I'm not sure why it's so important to know the state of the doors? The bubble is intact at the start of the adventure, so why does it matter if the doors are ajar or no?

Powerdork

19:24

@GcL I haven't kept up since Wayfinder's Guide, but Eberron generally takes the stance that it is 998 YK and the Last War ended two years ago with Cyre being obliterated four years ago; everything introduced in supplements either builds on existing content (rather than overwriting it) or fills in blank spaces on the map, so to speak,

Mordain the Fleshweaver could be an excoriate in a particular campaign just as easily as not and the community (that I've seen) knows that asking "if Mordain is an excoriate, then XYZ?" doesn't really have any bearing on what someone else's campaign does with Mordain

nitsua60

I mean, I'm tempted to post "The bubble is intact, treat these doors as you do any other undescribed door in a module" as an answer, but I wonder if I'm missing something

V2Blast

19:40

@NautArch If anything, the "Starting at Higher Level" table in the DMG underestimates the number of magic items the party would have by those level ranges if actually adventuring starting at level 1, especially compared to the DMG's own loot tables. Xanathar's has a section of chapter 2 on "Awarding Magic Items" that's a bit more realistic about numbers of "major" and "minor" magic items awarded by tier/rarity. I'd go with at least one uncommon magic item per character given that it's level 8.

NautArch

19:58

@nitsua60 in case they take that passage? I was making a possibly bad reading that you could only pull them open from the north

@V2Blast that makes sense. And given how many monsters are resistant, I'll let each player pick.

And an extra uncommon consumable

KorvinStarmast

20:10

@NautArch yeah, by level 8 you'd think they'd have a +1 sword or mace or something.

If I may second this notion the "Starting at Higher Level" table in the DMG underestimates the number of magic items the party would have by those level ranges if actually adventuring starting at level 1, especially compared to the DMG's own loot tables

GcL

@Powerdork That's true of all the settings. There are unfilled details. In the case of Mordain, wizards did have an article by Keith Baker that specifically spelled out he was an excoriate of one of the elven dragonmarked houses. So there is existing lore on that detail. No lore on how tall he is!

I ran an aberration focused campaign a number of years back. A daelkyr was the BBEG... but we got many of the peripheral actors around aberrations involved at some point or another.

Hot RPG Questions

20:26

8

Q: Is there a spell that allows you to divine what happened "here"?

My Queen walks into a room full of bodies. One survivor, a small noble she's never met before, tells her a story about what happened to the prisoners she expected to find here. Fortunately, she's a skilled Diviner. Is there a spell other than Speak with Dead she could use to figure out what happe...

dnd-5e spells divination

V2Blast

20:44

@KorvinStarmast Yeah. the Starter Set campaign itself gives out at least 2 different +1 weapons, I believe a +1 armor as well, and a few other magic items (including some consumables)

Powerdork

@GcL I tried to choose a detail that wasn't spelled out in (the still available for purchase) Eberron Campaign Setting, since that definitely means it's not central to the experience

nitsua60

@NautArch Ooh, sure, I see that. I've always read it that they could be pushed from the south, but they specify everything about the handle &c. so that even a "screw you!" GM would have to admit that, sure, there's at least a handle on that side. In case anything--even just someone leaning back against one--closes one they're not trapped.

Unless, yanno, there's 4 tons of water pressing against it.

Powerdork

But I know that my forest's going to get mistaken for a region filled with trees so I'm just going to give up holding an argument now

NautArch

@nitsua60 and you can't access that area from the north, so I guess they have to be open to even get there

nitsua60

@NautArch Certainly, by the time the party gets there, they're open =)

Whether they had to push them open or not....

I like the point one of your answerers made about them lending gravity to the atmosphere.

NautArch

21:00

@nitsua60 yeah, I may add the dc check to open them

I like that and it adds some atmosphere

I also never know about short rests in dungeons

But there is a mechanic for a potential encounter every 10 minutes

Akixkisu

21:14

@NautArch odds are that you are going to get a few short rests done if your groups wants to do them.

Hot RPG Questions

4

Q: Do we know what skin tones humans can have in D&D lore?

This question is inspired by What different skin colour can a tiefling officially have? From the 5e Tiefling player race description, Infernal Bloodline section (PHB, p. 42): Their skin tones cover the full range of human coloration, but also include various shades of red. Emph...

dnd-5e dungeons-and-dragons lore human

NautArch

22:16

@Akixkisu oh definitely. And I've got a warlock, so I need to give them opportunity to rest.

But I'll do the rolls for random encounters

V2Blast

23:03

D&D Beyond is temporarily increasing the content sharing limit from 3 campaign groups to 5 until the end of May. After that point, those sharing content with 5 groups won't have anything taken away, but if they want to change the campaign groups with whom content is being shared, they'll have to go back down to the limit of 3.

NautArch

23:36

@V2Blast looks like can make another couple chatizen campaigns for access :)

Himitsu_no_Yami

can anyone figure out why my question was downvoted so much? I don't see where I did anything wrong or downvote-worthy

goodguy5

I think that it's framed very much like a "what do you guys think?", which we don't support here.

Note, I didn't vote on it either way.

but I'm not sure; I also was surprised at the -3

MikeQ

We have a few meta questions on this, but in a nutshell, homebrew review questions here are treated like code review questions on other sites. If it doesn't explain (1) how/why it was made and (2) what metric we should use for judging it and (3) your own research or analysis, then the community tends to react negatively.

Someone_Evil

See this and this for recents

MikeQ

These kinds of questions don't violate site policy, so it's still ok to ask them here

goodguy5

23:44

@MikeQ ah ha. thanks, Mike.

Someone_Evil

@Himitsu_no_Yami Add your own analysis. Why do you like it, why do you think the features are balanced, what do you think the concerns might be? (Ideally this is done before posting, and at least before you get answers)

Himitsu_no_Yami

I couldn't really say how it was made based on the fact that I didn't personally make it. The why is also kinda tricky. I'm not sure what metric you would judge balance by and based on my previous experience, I'm trash at understanding balance as anything I've made has been considered OP

MikeQ

There's no golden rule for balance questions, so yeah it's tricky. Usually the heuristic is that if you're making a ___, then try to compare it versus another ___. So in this case, whether a feat is balanced vs other existing feats.

Someone_Evil

@Himitsu_no_Yami Include that information. Showing your reason for asking is a massive help towards an answer being able to properly help you

Himitsu_no_Yami

I like it because the whole idea of it is cool and fits the character I had in mind. Other characters also got their own unique feats which I could mention but I wanted the focus on the feat I posted. I could also try to get the creator to chime in with some of that information since he's the DM and made it for my character for that game.

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