TRPG General Chat

Bardic Wizard

00:15

@HotRPGQuestions so... this is a thing now?

Hot RPG Questions

5

Q: Does an Air Genasis' Unending Breath affect a dragon's poison breath?

I play a 3rd level Air Genasi Monk and my party will be fighting a Green Dragon and was wondering whether or not a Green Dragon's Poison Breath can affect me if I'm not breathing due to Unending Breath. Any thoughts?

Mark Wells

00:28

@BardicWizard Meet naked sprite familiars in your area!

(Naked Sprite Familiars is the name of my Pixies cover band)

BESW

If the covers aren't chiptune then you're not using your band name to its fullest potential.

Bardic Wizard

00:56

@BESW chiptune?

BESW

Chiptune is a kind of electric synth music that uses or mimics the old arcade machine/video game console sounds.

I mention it because "sprite" is the word for the two-dimensional objects composited onto a background to create the moving effects in those games, like the character you control.

The Shovel Knight soundtrack is a modern example of chiptune.

Adeptus

Sometimes when I'm listening to The Glitch Mob (who aren't quite chiptune, but aren't far from it), I think "...haven't I played this game?"

Hot RPG Questions

3

Q: Can a monk use a quarterstaff for the attacks from Flurry of Blows?

I have a Level 3 Air Genasi Monk with a quarterstaff. When I take Flurry of Blows, do I have to attack without a weapon, are there certain weapons I can use, or can I use any monk weapon as my Flurry of Blows attack? How does this work?

dnd-5e weapons monk unarmed-combat

Joel Harmon

@Adeptus I sometimes listen to video game sound tracks at work, even for some games I haven't played. Then I see a clip from the game somewhere, and think "shouldn't I be working?"

Adeptus

For a while I was watching music videos in a small youtube window while working. Then I put on a bunch of OK Go videos... It is impossible to work when those are on. You just have to watch them.

Joel Harmon

01:11

Yeah, I would also get distracted.

Key reasons for sound tracks include "no words", which can be very distracting while I'm trying to focus.

BESW

Some of the best music for me to work to has words, but it's music I'm so familiar with that the words are in my head already so I have lyrostatic equilibrium.

Joel Harmon

I only manage that with a few songs.

Adeptus

Foreign languages also work well for that... I quite like Mongolian band The Hu, but have no idea what they're saying (well, some idea, from reading translations... but no idea what the specific words mean)

BESW

Amusingly, the songs I have lyrostatic equilibrium with, tend to be songs I've listened to for so many years that it's not even the kind of music I mostly listen to now.

Bardic Wizard

01:35

@BESW same! I have the mess of Gilbert and Sullivan stuff I use for homework all the time and I know all of the words to the extent I don’t really hear them any more

Rubiksmoose

I've been on a kick of listening to some Japanese music with lyrics for work. I don't understand 95% of it so it's not distracting except that rare moment when I'm like "Hey, I understood that!" which is fun.

BESW

One of my favorite "I have no idea what this means but I love it" bands (aside from various local artists who sing in CHamoru) is Fey.

(Even when I understand a string of words literally, she's singing in so much idiom and metaphor than I'm still clueless. I think Popocatepetl is about a bad breakup.)

And in the cross-section of my Venn diagram for "I don't understand this" and "this is in my head forever," "Desolation Row" is king.

Hot RPG Questions

04:05

3

Q: If a player rolls 33-34 on the wild magic table (maximize damage), what happens if they miss the target on the damaging attack?

On the Wild Magic Sorcerer's Wild Magic Table, (PHB p.104), getting a roll of 33-34 results in: Maximize the damage of the next damaging spell you cast within the next minute. What happens if the sorcerer casts an attack roll spell that deals damage, and misses the target, or a Saving Throw spe...

dnd-5e spellcasting sorcerer wild-magic

Bardic Wizard

04:19

I had a weird thought earlier: is there any mechanical way in D&D5e to hoard stuff and always find something useful in it (weapons and other things with mechanical benefits especially, but if it’s only small trinkets that’s fine too)?

My next character for the school group is going to be a pack rat.

BESW

I'd borrow from DFRPG and say "set aside an amount of gold, and at any time you can pull out something and subtract its cost from your earmarked gold."

Maybe put a limit of "items produced this way must be either non-magical OR cost less than [appropriate amount of money to keep it from being ridiculous]."

Or just put a hard cap on the total amount that can be earmarked this way at any one time.

Adeptus

04:53

Not 5e, but I believe Kender in AD&D2 (Dragonlance) had a similar mechanic.

kencyclopedia.com/kender/pouches/pouch_rules.cfm

2

I found a homebrew Kender as a 5e halfling subrace nerdsonearth.com/2015/05/kender-playable-as-a-5e-race

3

> Curiosity. The curiosity of the kender knows no bounds. As a result, kender often “acquire” objects that are not theirs. Kender gain proficiency with Sleight of Hand checks and begin the game with five trinkets. In addition, once per day, you may search through your belongings to find any single item worth 2 GP or less and weighing 2 lbs or less, which you reasonably could have picked up in your travels.

Ben

06:22

DM trap idea #12: clearly label all trapdoors as "definitely a trapdoor", and all non-trapdoors as " definitely not a trapdoor". Never waiver.

kviiri

@BardicWizard Apocalypse World 1e has an extended playbook with that exact schtick, I've been wanting things like that

kviiri

08:16

I'm in general fond of the idea "you have X-much random stuff that you can choose to contain useful things as plot demands"

BESW

08:58

Hm. You know what might be a fun way to make it work in D&D 5e? Make it something you spend inspiration on to pull out better stuff.

AncientSwordRage

09:37

@Adeptus seems a little too 'cute' on a few of the traits

also the sling staff needs a range

heck the base sling needs an improved range

@BESW that's good

@Ben seems like a fiendish plan

Didn't someone win a poker tournament by telling everyone what was in his hand? Everyone assumed he was lying and he kept winning

AncientSwordRage

10:28

Hi @LioElbammalf!

Lio Elbammalf

hi @AncientSwordRage

AncientSwordRage

hows it goin?

Lio Elbammalf

Good thanks, how are you?

Ever played with someone who throws away characters all the time? As soon as any get to low health quick or have to make a death save he wants to give up on that character (sometimes purposefully kills them) and make a new one.

Someone_Evil

25

Q: What are possible ways to deal with a player who frequently switches characters?

I have had problems in the past with players who are serial character creators. What I'm referring to are the players who cannot seem to stick with a character more than two sessions at a time without finding endless reason to complain about, dislike, or grow bored with their current character. ...

gm-techniques system-agnostic problem-players

AncientSwordRage

@LioElbammalf no I haven't

Lio Elbammalf

10:42

@Someone_Evil Thanks - I'd read that. I can see why the advice is not to play with them but social groups aren't always that simple.

AncientSwordRage

@LioElbammalf It often comes down to talking to them

Someone_Evil

I suppose you could also show them this, but it requires them to acknowledge the problem:

33

Q: I keep switching characters, how do I stop?

I have been playing in a couple of campaigns recently as a player rather than a DM, and I have noticed a trend. I build characters that are flavorful in one way or another, memorable, fun characters. Everyone enjoys them, including me. They sometimes have goals and growth opportunities. However,...

dnd-5e character-creation

AncientSwordRage

hey DG

kviiri

11:05

@LioElbammalf No, but I've occasionally played with people who have a thing for their characters dying because they like it as a narrative device

dorijan5484

11:26

Hey guys, any ressources available for a newbie GM and newbie players? I'm thiking about running a Pathfinder 3.5 session for a few friends, but fear such a question might be closed duo to being opinion based.

kviiri

Hi, welcome to chat

Someone_Evil

What issues are you concerned with?

kviiri

I'm pretty sure someone can help you here with open questions, and if you can brainstorm some specific ones you can always post them on main

I'm not a PF player myself so can't help with that specifically

Someone_Evil

Both new-gm and gm-techniques could be useful, as well as new-players and system-introduction

dorijan5484

Thank you both. I'm checking the tags you just mentioned, Som. I was looking into the new-gm tag before hand, but there was a mix of everything in side of it.
Is pahfinder a good system for new players / new gm, or should I look into something else?

Someone_Evil

11:39

What sort of gameplay experience are you looking for? (which is maybe not an easy question to answer)

Adeptus

@dorijan5484 It's on the rules-heavy side, which may discourage some newcomers

dorijan5484

@Someone_Evil hmm, it really isn't easy to answer. hahah
Let me think on it a bit.

@Adeptus What system would you recommend for newcomers?

kviiri

@dorijan5484 Sorry to give such a tricky answer, but it depends on what you want

DnD and its derivatives, like Pathfinder, are generally somewhat heavy on the rules and book-keeping, while lending the most mechanical support to running combat encounters

But if you want a more narrative-focused experience, there are easier systems to play with

They might require one to adjust their expectations a bit though, especially with prior DnD experience

dorijan5484

Non of the players or I have any prior DnD experience. Do you know any specific more narrative-focused systems? I feel combat might be less rewarding in those systems. Is it so, or am I just worrying about nothing?

Thomas Markov

12:06

Maybe Lady Blackbird.

Havent played it, but Ive heard great things, particularly that it is more narrative focused.

BESW

[wave] Hi! The "rewardingness" of combat in a given system depends on what you and your friends find rewarding about combat. Fate Core, for example, treats both physical and social conflicts as mechanically equal and makes them rewarding based on the risks, stakes, and complications the characters involved care about.

Lady Blackbird is a great system, but if you're looking for mechanical support for tactical combat it's not your game; it's geared for more of a "swashbuckling underdogs" adventure type story like Star Wars or Firefly.

dorijan5484

I'll make sure to check both Lady Blackbird and the Fate system. Thanks a lot, everyone!

BESW

Usefully, Fate Core and Lady Blackbird are also free! And a lot smaller than the Pathfinder texts.

kviiri

oh yeah, Lady Blackbird is really good

I love it

BESW

Oct 31 '19 at 10:56, by BESW

Online Fate SRD; DriveThru RPG download; itch.io download; downloads at the Evil Hat website.

Oct 31 '19 at 10:59, by BESW

You may also find Up To Four Players' Fate Core explanatory comic useful.

Sep 5 '19 at 0:39, by BESW

The full 14-page Lady Blackbird PDF is free to download here, along with some other games in the same setting.

Thomas Markov

12:19

Gonna toot my own horn for second, I spelled "shillelagh" correctly on my first try just now.

kviiri

tööt

Thomas Markov

@kviiri How would this be pronounced?

NautArch

o/

kviiri

@ThomasMarkov /ˈtøːt/, I guess dirt with a hard t sound instead of d in the beginning is an excellent approximation

...at least, depending on the dialect of English we're pronouncing "dirt" in x)

Carcer

you have described the turt in turtle

BESW

12:25

I feel like the turt in turtle.

kviiri

@dorijan5484 It kinda depends. DnD is decent for tactical encounters, but they tend to take long and start to require hacks if the combat is too different from what the system is designed for

eg. it's quite hard to implement a battle against 500 minions in DnD without doing some house rules on how it plays out

(various editions of DnD might have their own "mass battle" rules)

Systems that downplay or ignore the tactical aspects of combat generally don't get bogged down with that in the slightest, and often give the GM and the players some level of control on how detailed they want the battle to be. So you can go for more cinematic and fast-paced action at the cost of not getting the tactical challenge you'd get in DnD.

BESW

For a fast-paced action-movie kind of game that's crunchy and narrative, I'd recommend BOLT by Ajey Pandey, which has a ton of addons and drifts made by lots of different people to modify it for whatever particular kind of aesthetic you're after.

doppelgreener

12:51

Personally I find combat _very_ rewarding in narrative-focused systems, because combat happens because of, comes from, and feeds back into, the narrative.
In D&D and PF, you fight because you need XP so the GM hands you brigands and monsters to mow down. None of it matters or is personal. Victory is more or less assured; the only question is what resources you'll have afterwards.
In narrative systems, you're probably in a fight only because of personal stakes on both sides. Those personal stakes means both sides have something to lose, and victory may not be assured at all for either side: …

This is the difference for me between "Neo fights a hundred Agents Smiths because it's cool and he has to" and "Neo fights a single Agent Smith to save Morpheus."

Thomas Markov

@doppelgreener Im lucky to have a DM that majored in creative writing in college. We do milestone levelling and none of our combats are meaningless.

dorijan5484

@BESW Thanks for the resources and your input on the combat. For now Fate core sounds like something that would work for me and my group.

BESW

Awesome!

For a very long time that was my default system for my group, whenever we couldn't find a specific system designed for what we wanted to do that night.

kviiri

Fate does kinda require getting into the mindset

dorijan5484

What kind of mindset?

kviiri

13:02

Or hm, how should I frame this

It has less unambiguous rules than many other systems do, so there's a lot of responsibility on the players as whole to interpret the rules. Sometimes, it's not easy. With my group, I struggled a lot with people having different ideas on what should Aspects be like for instance.

OTOH my group had a really nasty streak of being hard to involve in anything that wasn't DnD

dorijan5484

I think it might not be too big of a problem for us, as nobody really knows what they are doing. We would try and find a unified definition that works for everyone. In the end if the votes are tied I'd just rule what I'd find the fairest solution.

BESW

Fate's less of a game engine and more of a game toolbox. A lot of Fate Core's text is talking about why mechanics exist so you can apply them to your game appropriately, because it puts a lot of the "how to use this game" choices into the players' hands. You can use Worlds of Adventure (also available on their itch.io account) to give you a leg up toward your game goals, though.

The great thing about Fate, in my experience, is that there's no "wrong" way to use it. The mechanics don't latch together in ways that break if you change how you use them.

dorijan5484

@doppelgreener Btw thank you for your input. It makes fate sound like a fun system.

BESW

So it's a good sandbox to experiment in and figure out what makes your group happy.

dorijan5484

Sounds awesome. I'll read more into Fate. I think for a group of newbies who just wanna roleplay away it might be the easiest option to get the hang of the whole thing.

Thanks once more, everyone!

kviiri

13:09

No prob :)

BESW

You might check out Fate Accelerated. It's basically Fate Core stripped to the bare bones. Or Fate Condensed which is kind of a midway between Core and Accelerated, but written more recently and generally I find that the newer Fate stuff is easier to understand; they have more experience writing it, I guess.

kviiri

13:39

Fate Condensed sounds fun

Thomas Markov

13:52

Fun fact: there is a way to use the Ready action on spells with a casting time of 1 bonus action.

Someone_Evil

@ThomasMarkov Go on

Thomas Markov

hehe

Im about to post two answers.

apprently you can only post one answer every 60 seconds/

0

A: Can you ready a bonus action?

A Chronurgy Wizard can ready a bonus action spell of 4th level or lower. The Chronurgy Wizard from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount has the ability Arcane Abeyance: When you cast a spell using a spell slot of 4th level or lower, you can condense the spell’s magic into a mote. The spell is frozen i...

NautArch

Doesn't that also work with a ring of spell storing?

Thomas Markov

It doesnt.

NautArch

Or no, because you use the action cost of the spell when you release it

Thomas Markov

14:00

A bonus action spell cast into a ring of spell storing should use a bonus action to cast.

NautArch

but either way, another reason for me to disallow ravnica (like i needed one)

Someone_Evil

@NautArch This subclass is from Wildemount

Thomas Markov

"Some magic items allow the user to cast a spell from the item. The spell is cast at the lowest possible spell level, doesn't expend any of the user's spell slots, and requires no components, unless the item's description says otherwise. The spell uses its normal casting time, range, and duration, and the user of the item must concentrate if the spell requires concentration."

NautArch

@Someone_Evil same with wildemount.

and eberron

Someone_Evil

@NautArch Fair

NautArch

14:01

probably same with tasha's new book. BUt we'll see.

I have not been happy with the new content.

darnit, down a player in Rime tonight. Not sure what i'll do.

BESW

Obviously, the solution is to only play dead systems that will never get new content.

2

Thomas Markov

@NautArch abducted by illithids, obviously.

NautArch

New content isn't bad (I do like Volo's), but a lot of the latest I just don't like.

Someone_Evil

Since XGtE, all the new player options has been for specific settings, no?

nitsua60

@BESW That's why my only RPG these days is Go.

NautArch

14:05

I think so

nitsua60

(Thinking of expanding to Chess, but my group doesn't like tackling new systems.)

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@nitsua60 Chess is a new system. Use baduk instead.

nitsua60

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica (he he he) I got that reference.jpg

(We have an legacy program where a dozen baduk masters from a Korean institute visit for a week every year, so it was a very conscious effort to call it "Go" in the first message--I think of it as baduk, but doubted many would recognize it.)

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@nitsua60 I don't really like the word 'go' because it makes me think either of the verb, or the series of mobile phone games. But 'baduk' and 'igo' and 'weiqi' are likely to be about equally obscure in the Anglosphere. Baduk is the word of choice of my ex-colleague (who introduced me to the game) uses when trying to get unambiguous search engine results though.

NautArch

@ThomasMarkov Good luck with your answer on flame arrows.

Thomas Markov

14:16

Thanks? Is there something I should be concerned about?

NautArch

@ThomasMarkov Take a gander at the related link I posted.

Someone_Evil

@NautArch But arrows affected by flame arrows aren't actually on fire (as written)

Thomas Markov

Ill get out ahead of that objection in my answer.

NautArch

@Someone_Evil Hey, I believe in Thomas' answer :) I'm just saying there are quite a few stackizens who may not based on that other question.

That answer seems to be fire=light. So if it's on fire, there's light. Flame usually signifies fire.

doppelgreener

@kviiri So I found that the rules were pretty clear (it is very clear how actions work) but what's absent that you'll see in, say, D&D, is that it is not interested in telling you precisely when you must use them and how

Someone_Evil

14:19

Fair. And I'm honestly slightly surprised the spell doesn't say the arrows are flaming, I guess we just take it as read from the title

doppelgreener

Fate says "here's some tools" in a similar way to how Lego says "here's some bricks". If you're used to D&D, you're used to the system telling you exactly what to do when and how and what next after that, but Fate's not about doing that.

That's how I've thought about it, anyway

kviiri

@doppelgreener I dunno, Fate has that whole "well is that a good Aspect? Or should it be a stunt, or should it be something else entirely" thing that really hurt our group's chances of getting into it

doppelgreener

I getcha

kviiri

Which I personally still think is largely on my group for not really buying into it

at least to the same degree I expected

doppelgreener

That does exist as a side effect of the system laying out its tools and making it an open question of how you want to mechanise these concepts, and that's a flaw in some ways.

Thomas Markov

14:23

I added a brief paragraph at the end that considers the objection.

doppelgreener

@kviiri I think it's a thing where that's a question that requires some familiarity with Fate to know the best answers, so that's a flaw

kviiri

@doppelgreener Yeah, maybe not for everyone, but it does necessitate a bit of... hacker spirit from the players

as in, being willing to analyze and tweak as you go

doppelgreener

right

NautArch

forgot to upvote you @ThomasMarkov :P

kviiri

And that didn't really work out for eg. my group that was, well. Rather vocally "can't we just play DnD like before" as usual x)

NautArch

14:53

@ThomasMarkov Suggesting a narrative approach to the flame arrow may help. Like the arrow hits the target and then bursts into magical fire that burns.

kviiri

A fire that doesn't burn would be more magical

Thomas Markov

"It doesn't really matter. Your ranger will just be happy they can use their spell and Umbral Sight at the same time."

NautArch

looksl ike they've come up with a narrative that works for them

Someone_Evil

Flaming arrows without any visible flames? So it's less a spell and more dipping your arrows in glycerol and lighting them?

NautArch

@Someone_Evil I personally have no issue with magical fire not producing light

Someone_Evil

15:03

@NautArch In similar veins to not producing heat, nor requiring oxygen nor fuel

NautArch

exactly, but i also get folks want fire to have light, and i'm cool with that, too

Thomas Markov

I added a note about ethanol fires.

Ethanol burning

►

Ethanol fires can be nearly invisible, and even in an area of total darkness can produce very little light.

Medix2

@ThomasMarkov Life decided to do a lot of turning lately. I dropped out of a grad school program (it couldn't do what it was supposed to given COVID-19) and will be going back to it next year. Now I'm working in food service (heading there now to work a double shift) and working on balancing my time out. I'm around and still read, though I'll likely have a lot more free time soon

So hopefully it'll be a year of adulting. A year of graduate school. And then teaching highschool math

Thomas Markov

@Medix2 I had a lot of fun teaching high school math.

But I also had several really great administrators supporting me.

GcL

15:20

@ThomasMarkov Another tractable example might be a propane torch. Nice blue flame, but doesn't put out much light at all.

Bardic Wizard

15:55

@Medix2 I love high school math!!!

(granted I am a student in high school)

NautArch

16:12

this question looks good for reopen

Thomas Markov

16:42

Whoa, the Chronurgy Wizard can create a quick release Tiny Hut.

NautArch

I"m guessing they didn't think that one all the way through

Thomas Markov

That seems like it might be OP.

NautArch

or any of the other longer cast time spells.

There's a reason those have long cast times.

Thomas Markov

Yeah, Im looking through them now to see what the most broken combo would be.

Instant magic circle is pretty strong.

Also lets you give shield to other players.

Oh dear, instant Galder's Tower right in the middle of combat.

Bardic Wizard

@ThomasMarkov where’s that spell from?

Thomas Markov

16:54

Lost Laboratory of Kwalish

Bardic Wizard

I’m adding that to the list of “things I would buy if I ever get a raise in allowance”, then

Thomas Markov

It's a brief adventure

$10 at DDB. Digital only, I think.

Bardic Wizard

@ThomasMarkov $10 is most of my leftover allowance for the month (after I deduct expenses like 4 balls of crochet thread and the birthday presents for my siblings...), so I doubt I’ll get it, but I like anything that involves a laboratory

GcL

@BardicWizard But wait, there's more!... you too can be part of an actual laboratory in just a few short years!

Rubiksmoose

18:24

@BardicWizard If you have a daring constitution and a sense of adventure and a nearby university I'm sure you could be part of a lab sooner than that!

GcL

@Rubiksmoose Most places I worked with didn't hire high school students. You might find a work-study program, but I'm not sure how many places are still running those.

Rubiksmoose

I meant as a laboratory subject ;-)

GcL

Gotcha. There are not as many studies that take anyone under 18. The regulatory work around pediatric clinical trials and human subjects research is enough to dissuade all but child-focused researchers.

Rubiksmoose

I'll bet.

Bardic Wizard

19:11

@Rubiksmoose my school has a chem lab— several, actually. We just can’t use them rn

funniest fire alarm ever was when the alarm went off and one of the chem teachers went around screaming “Don’t worry, it’s just us!!”

The Oracle

0

Q: How do I reference a racially charged term without it getting deleted as a "racist slur"?

For reference, I'm old enough to have been a child in the casually, obliviously racist period in the United States -- many terms that are now considered "racist slurs" were in common usage, among otherwise decent adults as well as children, and to people of my generation they mean certain things ...

discussion code-of-conduct

GcL

19:31

@BardicWizard Still not a good sign.

Bardic Wizard

@GcL I don’t know the cause but the teacher involved is my chem teacher this year... this year’s going to be awesome

Thomas Markov

@TheOracle I knew this was coming when I made the edit.

goodguy5