TRPG General Chat

Bardic Wizard

16:04

@kviiri I’d play in that game

i ran an entire session that was supposed to be “the mikado, but with an elvish city instead of Titipu, and the players are outsiders investigating the strange law”

this led to the infamous elvish flirting law incident

kviiri

I pepper my games with little culture references, puns and such, mainly because my players won't usually catch on to them anyway but they help me remember names much better

Also, maybe a bit counter-intuitively, it makes me feel less silly than faux-sindarin does x)

Bardic Wizard

Same

G. Moylan

o/

AncientSwordRage

\\oo/

ahoy

kviiri

howdy

NautArch

16:13

howdy howdy

G. Moylan

long time no chat

NautArch

welcome back!

AncientSwordRage

well welcome back!

G. Moylan

ty ty

I've never noticed before but some folks names in the chat transcript are italicized. what does that mean?

NautArch

@G.Moylan room owners

G. Moylan

16:15

ah

NautArch

and blue is a mod

AncientSwordRage

waves in mod

G. Moylan

@NautArch yeah I knew blue. So owners of the particular room or just any room?

@AncientSwordRage waves in pleb

AncientSwordRage

@G.Moylan not a bleb, a user

NautArch

@G.Moylan I believe just the room you're in.

AncientSwordRage

16:17

> I fight for the users

G. Moylan

@AncientSwordRage a pleb-user, a ploser! wait...

@NautArch neat

Bardic Wizard

@AncientSwordRage i am the Lorax, I speak for the users...

NautArch

I ~~eat~~ greet the users.

G. Moylan

close enough

Speaking of eating ~~people~~ pastries, I am working on my seasonal halloween D&D 5E one-shot and I've decided to create some prefab characters. The game takes place in Ravenloft, but there are elements to it that are best explained by the characters being summoned/sent to Ravenloft in some way, and I'm trying to establish that why

AncientSwordRage

@G.Moylan they're planesalkers?

G. Moylan

16:24

@AncientSwordRage I'm leaning more the gordon freeman & G-man or the suicide squad approach

but I'm having trouble explaining it thematically that isn't "oh we're Gordan Freeman" or "oh we're the suicide squad"

AncientSwordRage

Maybe it's interplanar witness protection?

NautArch

@G.Moylan SOrt of a chicken/egg thing, but I think coming up with the story first will help figure out why they're being sent.

G. Moylan

more like they're reluctant. I'm trying to build in insurance for if they fail to kill the BBEG or why this would be a recurring yearly scenario. I'm trying to establish this game as tradition, and a sense of "I'll get you next time!"-ness

I have the story, they're fighting strahd

NautArch

@G.Moylan it's an annual thing that simply can't be stopped permanently. But must be stopped in order for X not to happen.

sort of like a Cabin the WOods thing?

kviiri

It's annual, but is this the first time these particular characters are taking part?

G. Moylan

16:28

this is based off of James Haeck's Strahd muse die tonight! one shot

AncientSwordRage

Maybe this is a ...who's the x-men baddie who take them to an arena for a TV series?

G. Moylan

and yes

I ran the game last year as a test run with different folks and they made their own characters. I'm trying to remove the swingyness of that and include thematic and useful characters that even new players can pick up

kviiri

If so, I'd do the And Then There Were None thing. Each character was simply invited under fraudulent pretenses tailored to their specific situation.

NautArch

@G.Moylan DId they want that? Just speaking as someone who prefers to make his own.

G. Moylan

they did last year. but the people I play with are constantly plagued by scheduling issues, so I wan to remove the "I'd play at the last second but I don't have a character" or the "I'm new and want to play but have no clue how to build a character" parts of it.

these folks will be on board with it

I want this to be packaged, self-contained

kviiri

16:31

The pretenses under which each character was invited conveniently allows for a cool outlet for presenting the backstory of the characters, including their possible motivations.

G. Moylan

@kviiri what exactly is And then there were none? is it a movie, book?

NautArch

@G.Moylan Agatha Christie

ten little indians

kviiri

@G.Moylan A very classic detective story by Agatha Christie, also known by names that are not exactly nice by modern standards.

G. Moylan

does it lend itself to the characters being recycled, a la Gordon Freeman?

that's a little more supernatural, I suppose

kviiri

I don't know Gordon Freeman

so can't say for sure

G. Moylan

16:35

the Half-Life games feature a protagonist that is mysteriously "owned" by some kind of all-powerful entity that manifests as an agent of the government. They deploy the protagonist to carry out tasks that shape the outcome of events

Gordon Freeman is the protagonist, G-Man is the nickname for this entity that he interacts with

also spoilers for a 30+ year old game, I guess

well, 25

kviiri

PEGI 30

ATTWN kicks off as eight people, strangers to each other and each having been invited by Mr and Mrs Owen, arrive on a small island. They, along with two people already keeping house on the island on behalf of the Owens, soon find out they've been lured to a murderous scheme with the intent that none of the ten can leave the island alone.

The specific comparison I'm going for is that everyone going to the island has been presented an offer too good to refuse, catering to their specific circumstances by the would-be murderer who understands the psychology of their prey all too well. And by the time they arrive on the island and realize that they've been had, they're already trapped.

G. Moylan

my only concern with that is I can't use that trick more than once

kviiri

Why not?

NautArch

@G.Moylan have you seen Cabin the Woods?

G. Moylan

I suppose if the players know but understand that the characters don't, it works

@NautArch yes

NautArch

16:41

@G.Moylan Would something like that work? Recurring cataclysmic event that must be stopped?

kviiri

I was under the impression the game could start when they are already in Ravenloft, having followed the instructions given in the invitation.

I can't remember any particulars on what the invitations contained, but it could be something like this: say a character is wanted for execution for a crime they did not commit. Maybe they received summons to Ravenloft (or a place that turns out to be a one-way teleport to Ravenloft) under the pretense that an unknown beneficiary holds key evidence that could exonerate the character

G. Moylan

@kviiri yes but the reveal is the moment there that loses impact on successive years

kviiri

@G.Moylan I don't really understand, what reveal?

G. Moylan

@NautArch the general premise begins with "the window to Ravenloft is open briefly and now's our chance to get Strahd" but that could be retooled and being preemptive to prevent strahd from escaping or something

@kviiri that the chracters have been lied to, or are you suggesting that the players know that going in?

@G.Moylan but I'm amused at the idea that the whole thing was a farce constructed by some third entity

kviiri

@G.Moylan i'm suggesting the game starts with that as the setup, essentially

NautArch

16:45

@G.Moylan Door swings both ways, though. If it's open, then he can leave, too.So it's both his chance to escape and the player's chance to kill.

G. Moylan

@kviiri my concern, again, is when I try to play this next year, why would that character fall for that or a similar ruse again

kviiri

@G.Moylan Oh, so you want it to be the same characters every year. Sorry, I missed that

In that case it makes less sense

G. Moylan

@kviiri that's what's in my head. If I can work out the details and package this with a bow, I can get it out each year with minimal prep and just worry about the general presentation each year

kviiri

You could patch it by just having the characters be cursed to repeat it once a year after the first time x)

G. Moylan

@kviiri lol true. that is pretty on-brand for the realms of darkness or whatever they're called

kviiri

16:48

it escapes me

G. Moylan

I really am getting a kick out of the idea that this is all a show, a la cabin in the woods. Maybe without the cataclysm. But I'm laughing at the idea of someone placing bets on how it all plays out

NautArch

@G.Moylan THey're the ones who open the pathway. Neither STrahd nor the party knows what's really happening.

but maybe there are interactions that hint

Carcer

@G.Moylan now I'm imagining a Truman Show version of this

kviiri

I like the "all a show" trope quite a lot

Carcer

"surprise! Ravenloft was just a giant set this whole time"

G. Moylan

16:51

@Carcer oh, you!

Carcer

"we raised you from birth to believe you were fantasy warriors. Great ratings"

kviiri

The mid-season reveal will be that it's not actually a loft either

G. Moylan

like, adding their score to the scoreboard and saying "better luck next year!"

@kviiri lol

Carcer

@kviiri due to budget cuts the raven has been substituted by a magpie

3

G. Moylan

@Carcer though the crow union cried bloody murder

Carcer

16:53

okay now the fantasy realm of Magpie Basement sounds like something that should exist

G. Moylan

that can be scrawled on the whiteboard with the high scores

now I want to watch Cabin in the Woods again

@NautArch I'm trying to think of examples of this. Like "glitch in the matrix" moments?

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Q: Does STRENGTH add to damage in Ben Milton's Knave?

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kviiri

@G.Moylan People who should be unrelated looking very similar? (same actor)

Or having some particular idiosyncrasy that doesn't get covered by disguising magic

G. Moylan

perhaps repetitive dialogue, or limited dialogue. Someone asks questions that weren't "accounted for" and gets some kind of canned answer

kviiri

That... describes my normal experiences with DnD all too well x)

Carcer

17:07

@kviiri in most D&D games I've been in I've found that pretty much all the NPCs have been portrayed by the same actor.

kviiri

@Carcer touché.

G. Moylan

@kviiri haha indeed. I'm thinking like bad Skyrim NPC stuff. Very scripted patrol lines or phrases. I could likely even rip some off an the players would think of it more as a skyrim joke than a tell

Carcer

@G.Moylan or bad oblivion NPC stuff. "What does the bartender look like?" "Oh, you're looking at his face?" "... yes?" "Wisdom save"

G. Moylan

@Carcer HA

kviiri

And we're back to Sideshow Bob.

G. Moylan

17:12

the extra glory of all of this is that it's timed with an hourglass

kviiri

The (would-be) Bart-ender.

Carcer

@kviiri get out

G. Moylan

@kviiri Booooooo

kviiri

Actually yeah I should go get my garden stuff in, there's a big storm coming

G. Moylan

@kviiri "wind's howling"

Bardic Wizard

17:16

@kviiri good luck

NautArch

@kviiri I need to finish stacking about 2 cords of wood.

kviiri

17:41

@BardicWizard Thanks. Obligatory reminder though that I'm not one of the real coast people of this channel, so our "big storms" are mainly of the variety "gardens get wrecked and someone might lose electricity if we're really unlucky"

KorvinStarmast

@kviiri awesome is as awesome does. Big Thumbs Up

@kviiri Sally appears to be giving the Gulf Coast some rain, but I hear some folks around here (who went through Harvey three years ago) scoff at "it's barely a cat I hurricane" ... but those still blow down power lines.

Bardic Wizard

@kviiri yeah, I’m in urban NorCal and so I get where you’re coming from because the fires don’t really get us beyond air quality but everyone asks if they do

KorvinStarmast

Sally's building energy state is related to what I recall the metro officer referring to as "the chimney effect" so it may get enough energy to be a Cat II it seems. That's quite a storm.

Thomas Markov

18:28

@NautArch Was that an appropriate answer? It's that strange situation where its not a dupe but the answer is a dupe.

NautArch

@ThomasMarkov yeah, i upvoted :)

instead of a copypasta, you could restate in the terms for this situation

but it still works

goodguy5

18:46

phew, vacation 2 down.

G. Moylan

so I have an idea: go with the "it's all a show" idea but have the players in on it. They know the end goal, they know the whole concept is to power up as much as possible, to beat strahd and "get the high score". They're playing peasants at a carnival where a traveling wizard is offering what is essentially a VR experience

if they die, they get a new character and get to keep playing

except during the final fight with strahd

this makes it recyclable every year without having the premise spoiled, explains how the characters are back to do it again every year, and I think leaning into the arcade idea hams it up a bunch and very clearly sets the tone for the game

KorvinStarmast

Hope it works

G. Moylan

@KorvinStarmast this is for a one shot for Halloween, but I was having trouble coming up with a reasonable explanation of how/why this might happen annually with the same characters without asking the players to pretend like they didn't know what was going on and to remove the potential disappointment of "losing"

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G. Moylan

@G.Moylan @NautArch metioned Cabin in the Woods and it got my gears turning

Bardic Wizard

19:36

I’m gonna get bar’d from playing bards soon, in other news

I want to make one based on Mabel from the Pirates of penzance

whose spell list is basically Hold Monster and that’s it

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20:40

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AncientSwordRage

21:13

@HotRPGQuestions this question has ~~got~~ not gone well

Someone_Evil

Grumble... assuming you meant an 'n' and not a 'g' there I agree with you. Real tempted to take that off HNQ actually

AncientSwordRage

21:28

@Someone_Evil please do

@Someone_Evil I feel like it's one of those unfortunate situations where our desire to help has gotten in the way if helping productively

NautArch

@Someone_Evil I would, I think we need to close it. TOo many unknown details.

ah, you did!

and I deleted my answer.

Bardic Wizard

23:02

I had chem class today, and the teacher mentioned a handful of compounds that are not stable at room temperature. One of them is the aptly named FOOF. Can any d&d5e spell create FOOF? Asking for a friend...

BESW

I'm pretty sure most player characters are 90% FOOF.

Bardic Wizard

Also if nothing can make it, what’s the best explosive pure substance you can get in 5e?

BESW

But, I think my answer here is probably applicable:

15

A: Creating Poison Cheaply - Potato Tea?

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Bardic Wizard

Dang it

I really need a critical mass of explosives for a ... project

AncientSwordRage

@BardicWizard FOOF is power word kill

Bardic Wizard

23:06

But that won’t get the building to blow up

AncientSwordRage

@BardicWizard true

It can react catastrophically at -100°C

Bardic Wizard

There is a perfectly sane reason for this, which is most certainly not “I want to make things go boom now”

Someone_Evil

If you're going for explosiveness, don't bother with flourines. That's just a way to poison yourself

Bardic Wizard

But poison explosions!

Someone_Evil

I would assume someone has linked it to you already, but if not let me introduce you to: Things I won't work with.

3

BESW

23:10

D&D supports chemical rigor to the exact same extent that your GM supports chemical rigor.

Bardic Wizard

@Someone_Evil Nope but that sounds amazing

I learned about the amazing explosives in chem class

Someone_Evil

For explosives you want things with too much nitrogen. Compounds with fluorine in the wrong places are for things like burn concrete.

Bardic Wizard

Can D&D spells make nitrogen explosives?

BESW

Or you could just dust a bunch of flour into the air.

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A dust explosion is the rapid combustion of fine particles suspended in the air within an enclosed location. Dust explosions can occur where any dispersed powdered combustible material is present in high-enough concentrations in the atmosphere or other oxidizing gaseous medium, such as pure oxygen. In cases when fuel plays the role of a combustible material, the explosion is known as a fuel-air explosion. Dust explosions are a frequent hazard in coal mines, grain elevators, and other industrial environments. They are also commonly used by special effects artists, filmmakers, and pyrotechnicians...

Someone_Evil

@BardicWizard I don't think so, but now I want to mod an alchemy jug to be able to

BESW

23:17

But again, in most TRPGs this works to the extent the GM will permit it and no more, because you have to persuade them it's within the scope of the game's target material.

Miniman

So what you really need to do is ask your GM: "Hey, my character wants to blow something up. Do they know any ways to do that?"

Bardic Wizard

@BESW see, that’s something my gms would know about.

my usual GM as a player would be like “sigh just scan the textbook and text it to me”

He’d let me use it once though

granted, I am known for using OOC knowledge and IC abilities for full effect

BESW

I generally make that sort of ruling based not on the action's physical plausibilty, but on its genre plausibility.

Are we telling the sort of story where characters exploit dust explosions? Yes? Then go for it. No? Then maybe look for something a bit more in line with the story space the group's agreed on.

(I did not always rule that way. This is how the goblin died of explosive gunpowder.)

(explosive gunpowder *coffee.) (I need to wake up some more.)

[wanders off for more non-explosive coffee]

trogdor

23:49

@Miniman or you know "I would really like it if my character blew something up, could you help me out with that"

Because if your asking for help with it that means you want it, and making it about what you want rather than what the character wants is more likely to gain some assistance

XD

BESW

Miniman

@trogdor Yeah, that's better.

trogdor

Lol

BESW

Yeah, discovering the power of telling the GM what you want and asking for help to do it, was absolutely magic for us.

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