TRPG General Chat

Joshua

12:16 AM

It there a particular reason why players don't tear apart dungeons with the tools they have?

Someone_Evil

Which tools do they have to tear dungeons apart?

Joshua

Anything from pickaxes to transmutation spells.

Someone_Evil

Well, for pickaxes the answer is simple: they haven't got time before 1. story runs away from them or 2. the inhabitants run at them

Joshua

Perchance I play too much nethack.

Someone_Evil

For transmutation (and other spells), generally systems in which you run a dungeon will also have resource limits. And if you are high enough level (or eqv) to fully undermine an entire dungeon design with your spells, you shouldn't be sent into that dungeon, but a more interesting one (ie. higher level) instead

Joshua

12:23 AM

One of my friends ended up with a cantrip transmutation spell. He could have, rather slowly, but systematically cut new passageways, cut through supports, any barriers, etc.

Someone_Evil

See the pickaxe reasoning above

Also, most of the time they don't know what's on the other side of walls, which direction they need to go exactly, and there may be things they need to, or want to do (say find loot) in the dungeon requiring them not to raze it to the ground

Joshua

I noted the players didn't try to dig through part of the floor to get something they clearly knew was under an object too heavy to move.

MikeQ

If I remember correctly, the floor was made of stone (unless you're talking about a different group of players)

Joshua

It's not the first time I've noted this.

Huanted mansions generally become more sensible if you're willing to knock a few holes in the walls.

Someone_Evil

Sounds like it might anger the mansion thoroughly, if you ask me

Shalvenay

12:36 AM

on a different note: in D&D 3.5e, where on your home plane does being banished dump you? random place? something subject to some constraints?

MikeQ

The spells (dismissal and banishment) don't specify.

Seems to be up to DM discretion.

Joshua

I'm debating whether I'd rule no effect or banish to another continent.

MikeQ

Common recommendations include: last location before shifting planes, or their place of birth, or some safe location.

Joshua

lol; what plane you're native to is determined by your species right?

MikeQ

That's up to interpretation. Usually folks say that "native" means that a creature was born/created there.

Joshua

12:50 AM

I noted the statsheets for creatures always gave the native plane

MikeQ

They do? In what edition?

Joshua

Check Environment for anything that's not normally on the material plane.

MikeQ

Yes, that's the case for the "outsider" type in D&D 3.X. Doesn't apply to non-outsiders though. Example: a summoned horse is explicitly from another plane, but the stat block for horses doesn't specify a plane.

(Unless all horses are secretly from the Elemental Plane of Horses)

Medix2

4:27 AM

Apparently Crawford has been asked this question about synaptic strike six times

Mark Wells

@Medix2 He just needs to come here, where we have facilities for handling that kind of thing.

V2Blast

6:58 AM

@Medix2 lol

does that make me an influencer

also:

My dragonborn vengeance paladin (in a Princes of the Apocalypse D&D 5e campaign) can choose one magic item of rare or lower rarity (presumably as a reward for a quest). He already has a (homebrew) magic sword and a magic shield, both of which require attunement. (He also has plate mail, bringing his AC to 20; the sword also has a reaction ability to grant an extra +2 to AC vs. one melee attack, and the shield grants a constant extra +2 vs. all ranged attacks.)

Any recommendations or suggestions on what magic items I might want to take a look at? Ideas are welcome.

Someone_Evil

11:12 AM

@V2Blast I mean flight is usually quite powerful and useful in and out of combat. There are at least cloaks, boots, and brooms that will do that for you

Hot RPG Questions

12:12 PM

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Q: Does the Moonbeam spell's damage get re-rolled each turn?

Say the moonbeam spell is cast, a creature starts its turn within the beam of light, and the radiant damage is rolled. The creature then moves out of the beam. On the caster's turn, they move the beam back onto the creature. The creature starts its next turn in the area of moonbeam. Does the cas...

nitsua60

1:36 PM

@MarkWells I wonder if it would have violated twitter ToS years ago to make a bot that follows questions posted to JC and super-quick finds that Q&A here and "helpfully" tweets him with links to our answer =)

Hot RPG Questions

2:12 PM

2

Q: Does the Detect Evil and Good spell see through a Night Hag's Etherealness?

I'm in a weird spot with my D&D 5e campaign, where my party is taking on a night hag. They are level 5 adventurers. They have no access to the see invisibility spell currently, since the only spellcasters are a cleric and a healing-focused warlock. We left off last week with the night hag using ...

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Medix2

2:51 PM

I'm thinking about asking a dnd-5e question about how Readied spells interact with Metamagic; would this be best as a bunch of separate questions since each one has different wording?

Someone_Evil

What interaction are you interested in?

Medix2

@Someone_Evil Most of them, the wording is all weird and confusing

But Twinned, and Careful are probably the big ones

I think Heightened is the only other one is be interested in actually

Someone_Evil

3:20 PM

So like "when can I use X metamagic when readying a spell?"

Medix2

3:38 PM

@Someone_Evil Or when do you have to. Since it says you use them when you cast the spell, which would be when you take the Ready action, not when you release the spell using your reaction

Someone_Evil

@Medix2 If it's about when can I use, and they have the same clause for using them, it seems reasonable to me to group them

Hot RPG Questions

6:37 PM

2

Q: Can a Human use the Disguise Self spell to appear like a Grung?

Can a Human use the Disguise Self spell to appear like a Grung? I want to pretend I'm the grung goddess Nangnang, and I thought of using Disguise Self to make that illusion. My party will support me with Daylight, Minor Illusion, yelling Grung phrases into a horn that amplifies and distorts them...

dnd-5e spells disguise human grung

nitsua60

6:53 PM

@KorvinStarmast I've +1'ed, but I kinds wish the section on "for 5e, the GM is the last say-so on the world" were either downplayed or not even there. With that player I don't care what page a GM could turn to, there's *social*(ization?) problems that need to be dealt with, which no game's text will solve.

KorvinStarmast

7:54 PM

@nitsua60 I tried to allude to that, and I pointed out that it may not have an effect; shall I strengthen that point - (I agree that the querent is dealing with a social problem that is not small)

Shalvenay

hey there @KorvinStarmast

KorvinStarmast

@Shalvenay hi Shal! :)

Shalvenay

@KorvinStarmast how're things going?

KorvinStarmast

Raining, keeptryin to "time" the application of fertilizer and failing. Otherwise mostly OK.

(Though my cousin's husband died last week, so that's a bummer ...)

Shalvenay

@KorvinStarmast ah. alright here, hugs btw

also, \o/ for Bob and Doug

KorvinStarmast

7:56 PM

@Shalvenay Thanks. Bob and Doug? The McKenzie Brothers? Did I miss something?

Shalvenay

8:14 PM

@KorvinStarmast Bob Behnken(sp?) and Doug Hurley

KorvinStarmast

@Shalvenay ref went over my head. no idea who they are

Shalvenay

(aka, the Demo-2 crew -- launch yesterday was nominal, with the weather clearing out in time for the launch window)

KorvinStarmast

aah, astronauts ....

KorvinStarmast

8:28 PM

TILT: in order to make a salad correctly ( a la Chick Filet's infamous salad which recipe I was being told to emulate) one must first massage the Kale for three minutes (after sprinkling lemon juice on it). Never had to massage kale before. Perhaps that's my next calling: Kale Masseuse ...

Hot RPG Questions

9:02 PM

3

Q: Can a gargantuan creature be shoved into a demiplane using polymorph and released into a different plane of existence

For context, my party is going to face a gargantuan (20 by 20 ft. or larger) creature with obscene levels of health, so would it be possible to make a demiplane and polymorph the gargantuan creature down to size and then shove it into the demiplane, trapping it there. This spell transforms a ...

dnd-5e spells

Taylor Spaulding

10:14 PM

Hey guys; so I have a campaign with 2 dms. As one of them and the other... we have been trying to figure out how we can deal with compulsive players. Any body else have a hard time trying to remember exhaustion checks, water checks, time checks and all these checks that are suppose to make the game more realistic...

BECAUSE I AM! One of the things we are dealing with is players choose to walk a long trail to find something out of compulsive behavior, and then half way they decide to just turn back... because there not thinking how long it would take to walk back. I'm finding it really hard to deal with these players, because they keep on doing things like this.

And since i'm a new DM... i'm still not good at all with trying to remember these checks; THERES SO MANY. I don't really know how to exactly phrase my question. this is just what im dealing with is there a chat or someone who could help me.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@TaylorSpaulding "Your character is an experienced hiker; it probably knows better than you (player) that this amount of means is insufficient for the trip. Would you perhaps like to adjust your plan?"

Depends on character competence/experience/etc. of course, but a thing to keep in mind.

Someone_Evil

Are you sure you really want those checks? Or extending that thought, are you sure you want that level of realism? If your players aren't interested and its just a pain for you to run, simplify it away?

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

Also yeah, there are multiple approaches. If you are the sort of GM and recruited the sort of party that wants realistic (-ish, -ier etc.) gaming, that's one thing. If things are not as clear-cut, consider the alternatives. I assumed the former but maybe that's not the case.

Taylor Spaulding

ok... but its just the character kinda forces the group to come with her on this diversion from what they were doing. part of what was happening is they were investigating a killer; who is genetically modified killer, so he was able to fire his or her arrow from a really really far distance.

however, because of what i'm having issues with. The group made it almost fully there to just turn around give up and go back, the reason for this being, they didn't actually really feel the distance; if you get what i mean.

So they were like, "oh we can just walk back... even though its like 30 MILES!", so yeah. its just they kinda as a group make alot of compulsive decisions; most of them revolving around the same genre such as travel... and its because they don't feel the distance. I really want to make it more realistic with the checks and stuff , but i'm having the issue of remembering it all... how do you guys do it? any advise on how to do the checks?

Someone_Evil

Is your problem remembering to do the checks, or what to call? It sounds like the problem might be how to emphasise the travel time to your players, which is an interesting technique problem

Taylor Spaulding

10:29 PM

yeah kinda both... I really want to do the checks, but its a little taxing.

also yes I do agree... emphasis will also help.

Someone_Evil

So, when players declare their intention "walk X miles", what do you do? How do you describe their actions?

Taylor Spaulding

TO be brutally honest, we don't really describe it; at least not in a way that makes it seem long. how do you do that? in a way that will make it seem long.

Someone_Evil

I was about to link to a bunch of main site questions, but it seems I've already done that

@TaylorSpaulding If there's some hardships to overcome, call checks. And describe how it boring and taxing to just walk (repeating yourself deliberately can actually be a help here)

You might also want to look at making the time wasted matter, make it clear the characters missed something, make clues and other information outdated. Or, recognise if the time doesn't matter, and then let them take their time

BESW

Consider, instead of boring the players in order to communicate how bored the characters are, glossing over the boring bits and get to the exciting part: what has changed at the end of the journey because they took so long?

Someone_Evil

Yeah, how to convey hardships and monotony in an interesting fashion is a hard nut to crack

BESW

10:43 PM

It's been my experience that rolling dice almost never equates to "realism."

Taylor Spaulding

OK THANK you GUYS so much!

this really helped

BESW

Making the world breathe is what gives people a sense that the story has stakes, and dice can be an aid for that but a lot of times randomization is actually a great way to de-escalate stakes because it emphasizes the world's artificiality and the fact that the players' actions may not actually matter at all depending on the dice outcomes.

Dec 3 '18 at 21:28, by BESW

@ColinGross As for segues, I always try to keep it snappy, like a film editor who ends every scene as soon as it's obvious what happens next or we hit a strong emotional closing note. And I often ask the players something about the next scene, which gives them an opportunity to guide it toward a recovery scene or whatever.

Sometimes a 30-mile walk is just an opportunity for some roleplay of the group getting to know each other.

Most TRPGs aren't reality simulators, they're story simulators. And being invested in a story is a VERY different goal from realism.

If you want a game that's as "realistic" as possible, D&D is not a system designed to support that goal. There are some systems which can support that... but I find them tedious and aggravating, personally.

H*ck, even Fate has a better "doing something that takes time" representation than D&D. And it's a simple enough structure that you could graft it into D&D or any other skill-ish system.

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