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A. B.
A. B.
12:00 AM
OK, if people will do the same for me.
 
user15026
(Also, here's an English.SE answer to your question about "folx": english.stackexchange.com/questions/439443/…)
 
A. B.
A. B.
(She means well, I think she just hasn't got anyone deserving to fight :-D )
 
MikeQ
MikeQ
Ah, sorry to hear that.
 
user15026
(Also, as a general rule, just vecause you don't understand the offense doesn't mean the other person's feelings aren't valid, but in any case, we shouldn't be discussing them here.)
6
 
MikeQ
MikeQ
@Ash Good find, thanks!
 
A. B.
A. B.
12:01 AM
Hey, good catch, should have thought of that.
I forget EnglishSE isn't just for the study of "respectable" English!
 
MikeQ
MikeQ
English is an unholy amalgam language, there's nothing "respectable" about it
In a better world, we would all speak in formal symbolic logic
 
user15026
No thank you
 
A. B.
A. B.
Not her being offended, her pouncing on people for saying things that she decided were possibly offensive to some other group of people. If it was her that was upset then obviously you can't argue with that.
 
user15026
Aghain, can we stop talking abvout someone who isn't here to share their side of things, please?
2
 
MikeQ
MikeQ
Well, it sounds like the best option is to move on to greener pastures. Do you have any promising RPG prospects on the horizon? Or are you taking a break?
 
BESW
BESW
12:07 AM
@LizWeir My TRPG book club is probably gonna read Ironsworn next week, and I've been seeing Quest recommended as a good substitute for D&D for the increasing number of people who can't in good conscience continue to use products from Wizards of the Coast.
Sale: Vote Tunnel Goons hosted by Highland Paranormal Society. Tunnel Goons is nominated for an Ennie for best free product. Get Tunnel Goons and some adventures to play with it. Save 58%!
 
A. B.
A. B.
The group hasn't recovered from being exploded, so nah.
They're all going "we should decide on another forum" and have set up several but nothing happens is this discussing people who aren't here if I have to talk without mentioning anyone who isn't currently here it's going to get complicated.
 
user15026
I'm not saying don't speak about them, just be careful how you do so, and err on the side of not disparaging people who aren't here.
 
user15026
(or, y'nkow, people in general)
 
BESW
BESW
12:24 AM
We try not to gossip or backbite in these rooms, and we definitely don't mock people for their language use.
 
MikeQ
MikeQ
Can we mock the English language itself?
 
BESW
BESW
I certainly hope so.
Orion Black left Wizards of the Coast and made a statement about their reasons for doing so. Twitter link leads to a TwitLonger page.
6
Eldritch Crow Gaming has released a Core Rules overview for Aether RPG.
 
MikeQ
MikeQ
> Combat revolves around lowering a hostile creature’s Morale to 0, at which point players can take the opportunity to talk the creature out of fighting if they have an Understanding of the creature’s Type
That does seem promising
 
BESW
BESW
That opens up a lot of interesting potential!
 
MikeQ
MikeQ
Whenever I try that in other systems (which I do, a lot) it tends to break things
So it seems like it opens up potential for more interesting stories, compared to the "murder first, ask questions later" default
 
BESW
BESW
12:40 AM
I love the Comedic Tragedies concept.
 
A. B.
A. B.
When did I mock anyone for their language use? I'm cursed, honestly. I should just crawl away under a stone and never try to speak to anyone ever again.
I like the sound of that combat mechanic. (If that's not insulting somebody.)
 
MikeQ
MikeQ
It doesn't look like that statement was meant to criticize what you said
Seems more like a general statement that, to make RPG.SE more welcoming to various users, we avoid mocking people
 
A. B.
A. B.
Well, it's a weird thing to specify if you didn't think that was what I did.
 
BESW
BESW
I try not to call people out specifically, but just remind everyone of the chat room's standards. If people want specific accountings, they can ask for it.
 
A. B.
A. B.
scratches head
Or are you mixing the two chat rooms, because it is somewhat relevant to what I'm currently in trouble about in Not a Bar? If so, can you not, please, I can't keep up.
 
BESW
BESW
12:53 AM
@A.B. Here's your requested accounting for mocking peoples' language use: you called Jonaya's use of barding as a verb lazy, and called neologisms unintelligible.
It's totally fine to ask about things we don't understand, we're very happy to help with that. But we don't judge people for using language we haven't learned yet.
And I know you've had some bad experiences with other spaces being overly zealous about language, but that doesn't give you the right to ignore when people here ask you to please stop gossiping. This isn't a space designed for healthily unpacking trauma, we can't do that for you.
And since you've said elsewhere that you've gotten this impression from this chat room: I haven't seen anyone here impugn your character or write you off as "bad." We work hard to talk about behaviours, not people; it's just a lot more useful that way. People are rarely incorrigible, we can choose to change our behaviours, but getting written off as inherently bad often makes it harder for us to do.
 
A. B.
A. B.
I just am inherently bad.
Or, you know, infectedly bad, anyway.
Oh well, if this isn't a place to talk about language it sure as hell isn't a place to talk about my medical history.
No, I haven't got a game and I'm unlikely ever to get one, because [things I can't mention again] and they're the only people I know.
 
user15026
I am not sure how that would be relevant to the current discussion, to be honest.
 
A. B.
A. B.
And you don't want to know, trust me.
 
BESW
BESW
Nobody said don't talk about language. We talk about language quite frequently here. We just... don't call people lazy or unintelligible for using it differently. There's a distinct difference between "talk respectfully" and "don't talk at all."
 
user15026
1:09 AM
@A.B. shrug okay.
 
A. B.
A. B.
Have it your own way.
 
NautArch
NautArch
Okeydoke everyone. Just stopped by, but let's all take a breath and move on.
 
A. B.
A. B.
I am not guilty of any of the awful things anyone here is implying.
 
NautArch
NautArch
@A.B. I'm asking everyone to just move on.
 
A. B.
A. B.
I just wanted to say that in case not saying anything about it implied that I was.
 
BESW
BESW
1:11 AM
Has anybody looked at the preview kit for Monster Care Squad?
 
NautArch
NautArch
And everyone please remember to be respectful to all. Whether to others here, about others here, are anyone else anywhere they may be.
@BESW have not!
 
A. B.
A. B.
Look here. You don't know who I am. That's all. (speaking of what NautArch said.) Don't make assumptions about how much of a kicking I'm up to taking.
 
MikeQ
MikeQ
@BESW Briefly. The art is nice. I didn't quite figure out the mechanics of gameplay.
 
BESW
BESW
@NautArch It's linked in the Kickstarter.
 
user15026
@BESW I keep forgetting to do so.
 
NautArch
NautArch
1:12 AM
Well this sounds awesome
I bet my kids would love this
 
A. B.
A. B.
No
 
user15026
@BESW The more I read here the more I am like oh yes please
 
BESW
BESW
@NautArch I love that it starts a game with Assumptions and actually gives good discussion prompts!
And like.
> Monsters are sentient, but not necessarily verbal. They are respected, cared for, and loved by the people
 
user15026
It sounds cozy, in its way, and I like that
 
BESW
BESW
I know that's a basic Pokemon-genre thing but it's SO GOOD to see it written down and made incontrovertible for TRPG players who might be bringing "acceptable targets" baggage to the game.
It's a little more complicated than I usually like but I love a lot of the pieces.
 
user15026
1:20 AM
I would likely struggle but i like the setting!
 
BESW
BESW
1:31 AM
Upcoming Kickstarter (07 July): Wait For Me by Jeeyon Shim and Kevin Kulp is a 21-day journaling game about time travel and connection. For every 10 pre-launch registrations Shim will share a photo and story from the past.
 
user15026
@BESW grabbyhands
 
A. B.
A. B.
2:24 AM
@NautArch Have you seen my private message? I don't quite know how they work here.
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
@NautArch There's a reason I have this meta.SE post bookmarked =)
 
 
1 hour later…
Bardic Wizard
Bardic Wizard
3:51 AM
I think I might have broken D&D today. Major image, immovable object, and fireball combined do some really stupidly good stuff and can destroy a car. Just make an immovable marble or small aerodynamic object at window level, have major image as a decoy, and then fireball whatever’s left (this propaganda is produced properly by S.P.L.A.T., the Sorcerers Providing Large Ammunition Troubles)
 
BESW
BESW
4:09 AM
Eternal Prometheus by Joaquín Ollo for the Attack and Dethrone God Jam, is a story game where one player takes on the quest for godly fire, while all other players channel the Moiras, the sisters that decide and weave everybody's fate, including the gods'.
Sirena Besos started a twitter thread for people to share the indie games they love.
 
user15026
@BardicWizard excellent acronym.
 
Hot RPG Questions
Hot RPG Questions
6
Q: Why does dueling fighting style add such a big bonus?

LJD200I've created a character in D&D Beyond. He's a level 4 half-elf fighter. Here's the character sheet: The character has a longsword and D&D Beyond has calculated the damage roll on this to be 1d8+12. The +12 bonus seems too big according to my calculations. I'm calculating the roll like this: T...

dnd-5e dnd-beyond
 
BESW
BESW
4:31 AM
Sep 23 '19 at 14:13, by BESW
PSA: Anyone can ask for a conversation to be moved to the Not A Bar (or other chat room) at any time and I or one of the RPG mods will re-locate it as swiftly as possible. This does not reflect poorly on the topic, the conversers, or the asker; sometimes there's just a need for stuff to not be in the main chat and we'll never ask for justification.
 
A. B.
A. B.
(Right. Typed too fast. Ta.)
 
MikeQ
MikeQ
This room is sort of the main foyer for site users. Personal disputes are best resolved elsewhere, hence Not a Bar.
@BardicWizard I would like to hear more about SPLAT please
 
user15026
(can someone move my message to Bardic Wzard back here as it doesn't make sense in NAB?)
 
user15026
@MikeQ same!
 
BESW
BESW
← 1 message moved from Not a bar, but plays one on TV
@Ash Whoops, sorry.
 
user15026
4:40 AM
Thanks, friend!
 
Medix2
Medix2
4:56 AM
If anybody has the most recent printing of the dnd-5e PHB is the range of dream still "Special"?
 
Hot RPG Questions
Hot RPG Questions
5:11 AM
3
Q: Can Minor Illusion be used to replicate non-physical attacks?

Matthew StatlerRecently as a player my party fought against a creature that could paralyze you if you looked at it. Since my rogue has now seen it, would it be possible to replicate this using Minor Illusion by creating a image of the creature, and would it work the same way or be less effective? Could this als...

dnd-5e cantrips illusion
 
Bardic Wizard
Bardic Wizard
@MikeQ and I will oblige to tell. SPLAT is the least terrible name for our party’s newly formed mercenary company.
It’s in future America but with magic, vaguely dystopian and magepunk all at once. Also about ten years or so before I
sorry, before in game time, the USA failed a takeover and got put in a magical barrier, plus global warming happened and so we are in the San Francisco islands trying to survive.
We are all on the run from the law. There are four of us and we are on about 10 different wrong sides of the law
Also, spellcasters are persecuted, so I’m hunted just for existing as a sorcerer
But we are a sorcerer, paladin, artificer, and rogue
Mostly, we’ve gotten in jail, blown up, plagued by a biker gang, and escaped by the skin of our teeth.
But nobody actually named our mercenary group yet, so I suggested SPLAT.
Because otherwise—- the artificer will name it and he doesn’t know the first thing about names
 
BESW
BESW
5:55 AM
Session Zero Bundle hosted by Meghan Cross. Session Zero is a deck based, character creation game. Save on Session Zero and its first expansion when you buy them both! Also check out Session Zero: World Building Edition.
Ajey Pandey wrote a twitter thread appealing streamers, adventure writers, and other content creators, to pivot from Wizards products to indie products.
 
 
3 hours later…
Hot RPG Questions
Hot RPG Questions
8:50 AM
2
Q: Can a "psionic spell" be dispelled using the Dispel Magic spell?

Nec XelosSituation from my recent game: a tree-like supposedly psionic monster used pain mirror on me (I'm Arcanist). I intended to dispel it with dispel magic, but I was informed that because it's a psionic effect, I can't do that. The GM supposedly based his judgement on contents of Occult Adventures, b...

spells pathfinder-1e psionics occult-magic
 
 
1 hour later…
Zachiel
Zachiel
10:18 AM
Idle thought: when one plans characters for a D&D-like RPG, they often try to build them so that they will survive in the face of the unknown. This leads to optimization, which leads to encounters that they breeze through, often proving unsatisfactory.
> A strange game.
> The only winning move is not to play.
 
Hot RPG Questions
Hot RPG Questions
5
Q: Can an enemy "surprise" a character with the Alert feat by readying the Attack action before initiative is rolled?

Snowbody455My character with the Alert feat was attacked and received damage pre-combat. Specifically, our party was walking through a dark cave, and on the ceiling there was a swarm of insects (that none of the PCs noticed). Suddenly, the DM narrated that a swarm of insects lunged at my character and immed...

dnd-5e feats combat readied-action initiative
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
10:42 AM
@Zachiel Thinking about a related topic I studied yesterday in game design: the solution to that problem would generally be to make things become known. Have a conversation about the game, what its scope is, the risks the players will face, the assets they'll have, and what this campaign/story is going to be about.
This would include a conversation about what kinds of ways the players actually ought to build, so that they are appropriately strong, but without concentrating their strength in just one place (or worse, concentrating it in a place the game doesn't value as much as they thought it did)
This means the players aren't facing the fully unknown. They can build in an educated way that can anticipate what's coming up, and know how much resources they can spare for other things which will help make the story fun for them and the group.
For example if you're about to go into a D&D-like game and build your character wholly for combat, but the game places strong value on noncombat skills as a survival tool, you're in trouble and you over-invested. Once that's discovered, that probably ought to lead to lead to a conversation about how this character can be revised to fit the game's needs better mechanically.
 
Zachiel
Zachiel
@doppelgreener I like how Pathfinder's Player Guides to their Adventure Paths tell you whoich enemies and terrains you're going to face, so that the ranger can choose their favored ones among those that will see play (and they do similar things with archetypes).
Yet, I'm talking more about "Challenge Rating" (or its equivalent in a game).
Specifically, I was thinking about how, at a certain point in my last campaign, with all my players either having a high attack bonus or hitting Touch AC with their attacks, I started giving the Advanced template (+4 to all Ability Scores, +2 to AC) to every monster they faced, two times the advanced template to important NPCs and three times the advanced template to the final boss.
Otherwise, we'd get the anticlimatic "BBEG dies in one round before ever acting once" that neither me nor the players wanted.
(This is mostly about PF and D&D 3.5e being rocket tag, whoever wins initiative at the high levels can just unleash a ton of punishment on the opponent, who'd be very lucky to be still alive)
And now I am DMing again, this time for a group with a bard, and once they get Dirge of Doom (an area debuff with no save) it's almost like the Advanced template just... negates the Dirge.
(in reality not, because the dirge does the debuff by imposing a codition that, if the party takes the relevant feats, will be very useful to have on enemies.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
11:04 AM
Yeah that sounds like rocket tag alright
It's also because D&D is sort of a zero-sum game: one set of numbers beats the other set of numbers, and any increase to one set of numbers helps decrease the other set of numbers proportionately
So the solution is to just make sure you have big numbers all the time and can reduce the other numbers
@Zachiel Specifically to this, my understanding is that Pathfinder is frequently written targeting a very low level of optimisation. (Following on that Paizo's core staff are militantly opposed to anything resembling optimisation.) Could it be that's basically compensating for the game's low core power levels?
 
Zachiel
Zachiel
@doppelgreener Which means I'm very tempted to increase the other numbers just to keep the difficulty the same, but with all this not being an exact science but a 1-to-20 rectangular distribution...
@doppelgreener I don't know I'm in a game where, at level 2, the players face the following CRs in a row: 2 2 2 2 4 3 4 (level up to level 3) 3 3 4 5 4 5 5 4-to-7-depending-on-their-previous-deeds and then, possibly in the same day, possibly not all of them, another string of 5 encounters ending with a 6 6.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
I'm thinking about how other games I play tend to sidestep this by making narrative matter a lot more than fighting, including making it matter during fighting. Narrative is simply a wholly different axis to numbers. You cannot throw numbers at narrative and solve it; you have to respond to it with narrative.
For example if during a Cortex superhero fight someone is put in peril or an evil scheme is advancing, you have to divide focus, manage different risks, choose what's important and potentially give up other things that you've deemed less important, hoping you made the right call.
And importantly you're not expected to achieve a clean success. You're expected to simply develop the narrative.
 
Zachiel
Zachiel
I know, but I like the idea of my players being good at tactics and most other games I know are like "whatever the problem, we solve it with a generic system that makes the same tactics viable every single time"-
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
Don't worry, I'm not trying to tell you that you should switch. I'm just thinking out loud.
 
Zachiel
Zachiel
Ah, it's a bit of a rant about wanting to switch systems myself to get rid of some problems and noticing that I end up losing the game I like to DM in the process.
Where "like" mostly means "the one I know how to tackle and the one I know will give me something I like", and not "the one I'm 100% satisified with".
I'd design my own system but, as always, I'm not sure a solution to my problem exists, not with the constraints I'm not willing to let go. Anyway, back to the main thing.
I'm the DM. I have this slider that makes encounters easier or harder, but no direct feedback of how hard they will be. I feel like the rule 0 mindset would help here, fudging the rolls to provide the illusion of things being challenging in combats that should feel like achievements.
It's a bit like those platformers where you can still jump even if you're a pixel off the platform, or those games when your last pixel of health takes more damage than all others, to increase the feeling that you just barely won.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
11:18 AM
(coyote time!)
 
Zachiel
Zachiel
But of course lying to your friends feels bad (as it should)
@doppelgreener is it the technical jargon for the mechanism?
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
Yes! :D
Coyote time is the time you have after you've left a platform, during which you can still jump or turn around as though you were on a platform.
 
Zachiel
Zachiel
Uh, I see. Wile E. Coyote running in midair before falling XD
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
That's it!
 
Zachiel
Zachiel
Well, he never did jump. The Road Runner, on the other hand, often ran back after taunting the coyote.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
11:20 AM
Wile E. Coyote just made poor use of his coyote time.
And he had so much of it!
 
Zachiel
Zachiel
(Useless trivia: as the Wile E. pun does not translate in our language, we got used to call him Willy Coyote)
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
Oh no! That's not as effective lol
 
Zachiel
Zachiel
@doppelgreener I contend that producing signs with some hilarious writings on 'em is not a poor use of his time at all.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
You are right, but from a platforming point of view ...
 
Zachiel
Zachiel
I recognize that this might just be a matter of perspective, tho'.
Back to the perceived difficulty problem, I thought D&D 4e fixed it with the freedom to make monsters that didn't use the same rules as monsters (which alone could have fixed the save-or-die-used-against-players issue) and with the tighter balance between classes, but no.
Speaking from experience, smart players jut pick the options that disable monsters, making battles easy unless you buff them. My solution was using "level 1 damage", a technique of increasing damage so that it takes away the same percentage of health a level 1 attack would have taken on a level 1 character... and completely redesigning the bossfight.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
11:29 AM
D&D 4e still has the escalating numbers issue that's endemic to this variety of game design.
Also, the original editions of boss fights had exactly that problem.
 
Zachiel
Zachiel
Yes but at least you know that the enemies and the players scale together
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
They envisioned boss fights being versus a single solo powerful monster ... but then it becomes easy to simply nullify that monster's ability to act with status effects.
 
Zachiel
Zachiel
I'm glad they solved that at least partially
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
So in MM2 (or was it MM3?) they revised the construction rules for solo monsters and they began presenting that boss fights should be made up of a solo monster plus multiple support enemies.
 
Zachiel
Zachiel
but take D&D 3e instead. Face an incorporeal swarm, and the party might just die even if they're the most optimized damage dealers and status-spewers ever.
@doppelgreener MM3. "Post MM3 statblocks/monsters/design"
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
11:31 AM
Thanks.
 
Hot RPG Questions
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Q: Who decides which PHB variant rules are in play?

KirtThe rules variants presented in the DMG are clearly there for the DM to decide upon. Some of the variants in the PHB say that they are the DM's prerogative. For example, "Variant: Customizing Ability Scores" (PHB, p. 13) says: At your Dungeon Master’s option, you can use this variant for determ...

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Zachiel
Zachiel
I also feel that D&D 4e is potentially the best system for pre-written adventures, since the need to slog through HP as the only way to kill an enemy means that enemies work fine almost independently of the PC's class. Even in encounters with heavy crowd control, monsters were fine.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
That sounds about right
Also, D&D 4e gates certain monster traits within certain level spans, and ensures that player characters will have a way to address those across the board, since even martial characters get to do basically magic.
 
Zachiel
Zachiel
Still it felt like most encounters got faced in the exact same way by the players. I'm not sure that is bad, I'm playing the "I hit it with my axe... again" kind of character in the PF campaign I'm in as a player right now. It just feels less satisfying for me when I DM.
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
This means it's pretty difficult to make a party that will get outright obliterated by an encounter in a given adventure
 
Zachiel
Zachiel
11:43 AM
True
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
And yes, that is a legitimate problem
 
Zachiel
Zachiel
The things I hated most in 4e at the high levels were:
1) now everyone is teleporting or shifting at will
2) now everyone is able to cast spells in melee without provoking
3) now the fire wizard ignores fire resistance and immunity
All things that decrease the amount of thought that goes into navigating the battlefield and choosing targets.
Eve if the most interesting decision with targeting in D&D is "shall we spend time clearing the mooks and dealing with more rounds of the more competent monster hitting us, or shall we do the opposite?"
And also "shall we pile on a monster or shall we try to maximize our damage by each full attacking whoever is currently near to our own PC?"
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
for me personally you're listing reasons why i don't really play games focused around pumelling things into the dirt for progression :P
it's just more fun to, say, continue unfolding a mystery as teenagers in bubblegumshoe and then work on the conundrum of what to do about it once we've solved the mystery. because, say, merely solving the mystery of how a kid's bike went missing is only the first half of the problem—we've still got a missing bike and a wrong we want to set right.
or to play bears stealing honey using hokey schemes.
or play characters solving problems in lady blackbird through skulduggery
all of that beats "here is a barrier. spend a long time hitting it until it is gone, and then there will be some scenery and some talking and then there will be another barrier. all of these things will only minimally relate."
also why i liked the idea of porting an adventure I'd made for D&D 4e into Fate instead, because D&D 4e said I had to gate story progress behind beating people up, but other systems do not ask that at all.
my players at the time were also interested in that because the combat was the part we were having the least fun with.
 
LizWeir
LizWeir
12:01 PM
I definitely enjoy 4e, though I've only played heroic and paragon; I think the positioning decisions in those tiers work quite well for me; I think I tend to be into the sort of play doppelgreener's talking about or "ok no let's do some Tactical Combat Action," so there's basically two major peaks in Systems I Like
one around very fluid narrative-driving mechanics, and one in crunchy grid combat
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
oh yeah. if i do want some tactical combat, D&D 4e is where it'd be at for me.
they decided they were going to just focus on making a good tactical combat game and pulled out all the stops for it
 
NautArch
NautArch
I've been trying to convince my group to try 4e/13th Age because of what y'all are saying.
We really really like combat, but no one really wants to try to switch.
 
LizWeir
LizWeir
I do want to give Valor some play sometime - it's kinda "what if 4e was a point-buy system designed for Fights Anime instead of D&D-ish fantasy?" (although it uses a stamina bar instead of the at-will/encounter/daily system)
did have a character built but the game fell through, sadly
 
NautArch
NautArch
@LizWeir THat happened with me in Savage Worlds
Buddy was going to run it, worked through chargen, and then he couldn't find other players.
womp womp
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
12:17 PM
@NautArch would you have any luck proposing, say, a 2-3 session adventure, work with precon characters, see how we like it?
 
LizWeir
LizWeir
(the other thing giving me trouble with Valor is that while I like playing this sort of game, my approach to GMing doesn't mesh with it so well - I prefer fairly low prep so the worst-case scenario of "whoops forgot to think about the game all week" isn't too bad, so unlike a lot of other games I want to try, the "guess I'll run it" solution isn't so viable)
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
oh, yeah. : ( i can't do high prep games
 
NautArch
NautArch
@doppelgreener group is definitely not into the pregen thing. But maybe it's time to try again after we finish this module.
 
 
1 hour later…
nitsua60
nitsua60
1:42 PM
Okay--if someone asks you do roll a d66, which are you rolling: a d66 or a d36?
d12 2d6
 
Dice Service
Dice Service
4
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
 
Someone_Evil
Someone_Evil
@nitsua60 d60 + d6 obviously
 
LizWeir
LizWeir
if I see d66 with no explanation I'll probably assume the thing that's actually a d36
 
BESW
BESW
I learned a couple weeks ago that in OSR spaces a d66 means you roll 1d6 twice and use the first result for the tens place and the second result for the ones place.
 
vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica
vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica
@Someone_Evil d60+d6 produces a range of 2-66. That seems wrong for a d66, which should produce a range of 1-66. At least based on a standardised automated reading where you plug in an N into an XdN.
 
LizWeir
LizWeir
1:44 PM
(I got in via Warhammer, where d66 and occasionally d666 tables for some of the campaign modes and the specialist games like Mordheim and Necromunda show up a lot)
 
BESW
BESW
2d6
 
Dice Service
Dice Service
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BESW
BESW
That'd be 54.
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
@BESW <record scratch>
 
BESW
BESW
There's also d666, which is the same for three digits.
 
Someone_Evil
Someone_Evil
1:45 PM
@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica twas a joke :)
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
@BESW So you get results in the range 111 to 666, where 339 of those values are inaccessible?
 
LizWeir
LizWeir
yep
the way this is usually applied is on random tables
 
BESW
BESW
@nitsua60 Yup! It's apparently a kind of table lookup notation.
 
LizWeir
LizWeir
so the missing values aren't a problem
 
vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica
vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica
Ugh, two different notations that look indistinguishable.
 
BESW
BESW
1:47 PM
(I read Troika in an RPG book club. I can't recommend it as a game manual but I learned a lot from the conversations we had.)
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
I think I just barfed a little in my mouth. Which, tbf, isn't really necessary--there's nothing inherently better about reading the d6s in base 6 vs. base 10.
 
Someone_Evil
Someone_Evil
Was this not what you meant by d36? Because that version of d66 gives 36 options
And recent question on it btw (on simulating in AnyDice specifically)
 
LizWeir
LizWeir
the big advantage of calling it a d66 is that the notation for reading it is cleaner - you just directly look at the two dice values you have, rather than needing to mess around multiplying and adding
it can be confusing if you mix notations, so outside the spaces where it's used enough to be a Known Thing it might be safer to just present a table that tells you to roll a d6 twice and has a double lookup column marked, like, "first die" and "second die"
but it's not totally without merit
 
Carcer
Carcer
if I were tasked with coming up with the notation I'd call it a d6-by-6
 
LizWeir
LizWeir
(because you definitely wouldn't expect a d36 to be able to give you a 35 but not an 01 or 18)
oh yeah, I've seen it called d6 x d6, I think? that was to be fair in a conversation much like this one
 
Someone_Evil
Someone_Evil
1:52 PM
Clearly we need to get an ISO standard for dice notation
6
 
LizWeir
LizWeir
 
vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica
vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica
{d6,d6}
 
BESW
BESW
I really like how creative you can get with the most basic dice.
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
I can get the desire not to be multiplying 36 by the result of the first die in a 3d6 roll (when rolling d216).
Turns out this person wanted results in the 1-66 range.
My answer ("39") should have made obvious any confusion, as it's not a valid result for d66, only for d66.
 
Someone_Evil
Someone_Evil
2:08 PM
Now I want a die (or rolling method) which gives the results possible with d66 but not d66
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
just use one of Zocchi's d66.
 
 
2 hours later…
kviiri
kviiri
4:33 PM
@Someone_Evil The big difficulty is the unwieldy prime factor 11, so the simplest is probably to use (1d12-1) * 6 + 1d6 rerolling rolls where the d12 lands on 12.
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
4:44 PM
@kviiri Or just read 3d4 in base 4 and hope nobody notices that you never get 65 or 66.
 
Trish
Trish
RIDICULOUS! We need to develop a **proper** universal standard!

...

There are 16 competing standards.
@LizWeir d66 is a 6x6 matrix, used extensively in MAID. Not sure if "they" started it, but... who cares? The matrix often doesn't care about the order even, so technically it's not even 36 results...
 
kviiri
kviiri
5:17 PM
@nitsua60 Not a fan of base 4, but for hexadecimal, I'm all about that base.
 
LizWeir
LizWeir
5:38 PM
@Trish Huh, that's interesting, because the one I'm familiar with from Warhammer stuff (which I strongly suspect will be the same one the OSR uses, as I think those are likely to overlap) does care about order.
So that means we have two different "roll 2 dice" d66s that aren't compatible with one another or a full 1-66.
 
Trish
Trish
@LizWeir it'S part of how the actual matrix for color s is set up
the Red-blue-yellow-white-black-rainbow is a line where the whole matrix flips over
 
LizWeir
LizWeir
nodnodnod
 
Trish
Trish
the results are odd:
SIXSIX: {11..16,12..16,22..26,23..26,33..36,34..36,44..46,45,46,55,56,56,66}
output 1dSIXSIX
you have 5+4+3+2+1=15 double probability results (2/26) and 6 with 1/36. if you'd want to compensate, you'd have to mirror the 11 22 33 onto 44 55 and 66, cutting the possible options to 6+5+4+2+1=18 with even distribution.
 
LizWeir
LizWeir
5:55 PM
right, the ones down the middle are less likely
... which means they've made red, blue, yellow, white and black less likely
which seems like the opposite of what you want?
 
Trish
Trish
depends... the chance is 2.8% instead of 5.6%, so...
not that much a difference
 
Someone_Evil
Someone_Evil
@HellSaint (Because we haven't got feedback on comment flags:) btw, that comment was picking up on a detail/implication which was since edited so it's NLN (still deleted though :))
 
Hot RPG Questions
Hot RPG Questions
6:11 PM
6
Q: What happens to a thrown weapon after it hits or miss?

field158Patty the Chatty Monk throws her handaxe at a growling wolf. It hits! So... what happens? This question is asked for the intent of further understanding the Object Interaction rule and also to add flavor to combat encounters. What happens to a thrown weapon after it is used? On a hit: does it fal...

dnd-5e weapons ranged-attack
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@BESW choice excerpt from that:
> They would talk about how they're going to start working on treating staff better, retaining contractors, actually answering questions. How much they were invested in diversity and change even though they hired two cis white dudes into two big leadership positions during this. One of whom claimed that he doesnt know what he's doing. No shit. I never want to hear "maybe they just hire the best person for the job" again.
It's tragic that the abuse he experienced put him in such a situation that he doesn't want to ever write another tabletop RPG.
 
Rubiksmoose
Rubiksmoose
6:28 PM
@doppelgreener That's heartbreaking
 
HellSaint
HellSaint
6:41 PM
@Someone_Evil Oh, I didn't check the timestamps, my bad. I thought they were just disagreeing with the answer as a whole.
 
Someone_Evil
Someone_Evil
@HellSaint No worries, it's detail qualleling on a topic where a lot words have been spilled and much confusion caused and soothed (see eg. the number of dupes pointing to the Q posted to cover the topic)
 
 
1 hour later…
SmokeDetector
SmokeDetector
8:04 PM
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive body detected, potentially bad keyword in body (44): Invisible Stalker by Liam Smith on rpg.SE (@Rubiksmoose)
 
LizWeir
LizWeir
oh, while I remember - noting that comment on the recent question about the main site using family-friendly language; what's the policy in chat?
(I've been trying to avoid swearing in here because I'm not sure)
 
MikeQ
MikeQ
Pretty much the same expectations. This is a public chat room, it's supposed to feel welcoming, and we regularly get young users.
 
LizWeir
LizWeir
Suspected that might be the case - I'll bear that in mind, thanks!
 
MikeQ
MikeQ
It's quite common for users here to [bleep] out implied expletives
 
 
3 hours later…
BESW
BESW
11:28 PM
Valdasine made a spreadsheet of every single TTRPG [in the itch io racial justice bundle], sorted by playstyle (GM, no GM, pair, solo), with engines notated. (twitter link) (google spreadsheet)
5
 
vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica
vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica
@A.B. Oh, on that topic, check your Discord PMs. There's a remotely related thing you might want to check out.
 
A. B.
A. B.
My Discord's been broken for ages.
 
vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica
vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica
@A.B. On the topic of games.
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
11:49 PM
@BESW This is what I've been waiting for. I just haven't had the time/energy to curate it meself, so even just a little shove to get me over the starting hump is excellent.
 
A. B.
A. B.
Yay!
Could you send me it via the GURPS forum, maybe? Although if it has to be Discord then it's out for the moment anyway.
 
RedRiderX
RedRiderX
@BESW Hah the one time I thought I found a tweet before you and I see you've already posted it here!
It's a very good list though.
I like how it interacts well with the new google doc link previews
 
BESW
BESW
I also recommend checking this out, RPGSEA is doing amazing stuff:
 

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