TRPG General Chat

NautArch

1:07 AM

→ 2 messages moved to Here There Be Dragons

linksassin

→ 6 messages moved to Here There Be Dragons

bobble

1:20 AM

Known bug? It shows as duplicate in the mobile site view on the outside, and closed on the inside

Someone_Evil

Dupes autoredirects if you're not logged in

You'll not that the title q and score is different

bobble

Ah

Sorry

Someone_Evil

No worries. It's sure confused me a couple of times :)

A. B.

1:49 AM

hello

Hot RPG Questions

2:48 AM

4

Q: Does darkvision granted by a magic item affect what a caster can see in a dark location using the Clairvoyance spell?

The description of clairvoyance states: When you cast the spell, you choose seeing or hearing. You can use the chosen sense through the sensor as if you were in its space. The wording "as if you were in its space" arguably leaves room for ambiguity. If a creature with innate darkvision -- e.g.,...

nitsua60

3:05 AM

@Shalvenay I see elsewhere you're pondering a lot? Sounds fun and exciting!

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 yeah, all still very preliminary stuff

nitsua60

Cool, cool.

Glazius

3:44 AM

Oh hey, question. If you have a gold tag badge, can you remove duplicate closures, or only close things as duplicates?

Ah, yes to both, there we are: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/dupehammer

BESW

4:27 AM

Class Modifier Module for 5th Edition by GabeJamesGames. A narrative-driven, character creation tool for modifiers by class rather than race.

"Take revenge on an evil celestial body in 'hyper-TTRPG' Ten Million HP Planet" article by Chase Carter on Dicebreaker about TEN MILLION HP PLANET by Sandy Pug Games.

A. B.

4:48 AM

Grrr.

bobble

.rrrG ?

A. B.

G

r

Curse you, apparent rule against posting the same thing twice in a row. :-)

BESW

here, have an
r
r
.

A. B.

:-D

BESW

Sometimes I forget just how aggressively our brains hard-code music to both emotional and physical states, but the last few days have been a strong reminder.

TRPGly, this is why I don't use video game or movie music for atmosphere in my campaigns unless I'm very confident none of my friends are familiar with the original media.

A. B.

4:56 AM

Hmm?

BESW

If somebody were to run a campaign set in late 19th century Russia and they played "Korobeiniki" in the background to set the mood for the group... it would not have the desired effect on many players.

A. B.

Ha, yes.

Although that's kind of the opposite of the "original media".

That one only works if your players are familiar with it from the original origin but not from the Tetris version!

BESW

Right, but the principle applies. The soundtrack from Alien or the music from Myst are awesome and atmospheric works that would be really good to use... if your players have never seen Alien or played Myst.

I've seen people use Zelda music at their tables and it worked for me because I've never played any of the games, but everyone else at the table... very distracting.

linksassin

@BESW I avoid using Skyrim soundtracks for this exact reason. One of my players is very familiar with it and every time I did he was like "Wait, is this from Skyrim?" completely breaking the mood at the table.

A. B.

Daft, what you said to start with does make sense, it's just that my brain somehow skipped the bit about "video game or movie music".

BESW

5:04 AM

I like to use the soundtrack from Tomb of the Cybermen for horror sessions. Unless you're a pretty devoted Doctor Who fan you've probably never encountered it.

A. B.

Yes, it's tempting because it's bound to be good for the purpose because it was specifically made to accompany games!

But if people keep recognising it I can see how that might disrupt things a bit!

Ben

@linksassin Had a game of All Flesh Must Be Eaten (Zombie survival rpg) that was a modern day Diablo. I was the only one that picked up on it, from the story, the structure, etc, until I heard the Tristram theme.

A. B.

Oh, that's a good idea.

BESW

Ditto film tracks; The Batman vs Dracula has some excellent tracks for gothic horror, but they keep dropping The Batman's theme in.

A. B.

(The "Tomb of the Cybermen" theme, I mean.)

Ben

5:06 AM

At that point I knew exactly how we were supposed to be playing, so I was just kinda back seat DMing, egging the other players into doing particular things, like "Wedging this escape door open, so it's like a shortcut back to town"

linksassin

It is why I curate all my own playlists for background music. It's so tempting to use freely available ones but I often find they either have songs that are too recognisable or have harsh/sudden sounds that are distracting.

BESW

There are some tracks that I don't really mind if people recognize. Cradle of Filth's album "Bitter Suites to Succubi" isn't exactly obscure but nobody's gonna start humming along to it accidentally and the kinds of scenes I'd use it in, are the kinds of scenes where recognizing it isn't going to be distracting anyway.

MikeQ

I don't mind if the players recognize soundtracks, but I do agree that it's useful to avoid mood-setting music if familiarity with the source material is the only connection to the intended ambiance

BESW

@MikeQ A more common issue I have, is that recognizing it creates unintended moods. Like a Myst soundtrack will absolutely change the brain patterns in the player who recognizes it, and unless I want them to start looking for secret doors and taking notes about the birdcalls...

Myst 3: Exile Soundtrack - 12 Theme From Edanna

►

A. B.

Unrelated Vampire: the Masquerade terminology grumble of the day: "Anarch", but "Autarkis". Why? Pull yourselves together.

@BESW Rather like what Ben said about the game being easier because the music tipped him off that it was based on Diablo - except the other way round, yours isn't based on Myst but they'll think it is.

BESW

5:23 AM

Yeah.

Now, if I was running UnWritten, Myst music all the way. obviously.

Unwritten: Adventures in the Ages of MYST and Beyond by InkWorks. The officially licensed Myst TRPG, using a modified Fate Core engine.

Feeds

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trogdor

5:50 AM

@BESW also If I've heard it before I am not only likely to recognize it but also to comment on it XD

BESW

Yes. This is true.

Though you're definitely not the only one in the group who's been likely to comment.

trogdor

That's fair

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

8:13 AM

@A.B. Is this about the words flexed differently?

Because if yes, then, well, terminologies often have inconsistent handling and etymologies. Like lumping together a greek and a latin morpheme into a single word. Two different words being handled inconsistently is nothing unusual.

A. B.

Is true. But VtM doesn't even try - all of it's like that!

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@A.B. Very few people try even outside VtM.

A. B.

Yes, "Anarch" is one faction, "Autarkis" is another - not "Autarch", even though it's the exact same construction, because that would have made too much sense.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@A.B. Same happens with real-world factions. For example, consider Argentina vs. UK. Why is it that one doesn't get its name translated/adapted when speaking more distant languages, and the other does? Inconsistency.

A. B.

That's a good point.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

8:27 AM

(For example, in East Slavics, Argentina stays Argentina, but UK becomes [confusingly] Velikobritaniya.)

A. B.

Although you can't say that "Autarkis" is their own name, in this case, because there is no them, I was being vague, "Autarkis" is just a fancy term for an independent vampire with no affiliation.

Velikobritaniya, I like.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@A.B. What, no objections to having non-GB bits 'cut off' by the translation?

A. B.

Oh, that's true. I always forget the difference between the various variations. Yes, "Britain" doesn't include Ireland, does it? You sure "Velikobritaniya" means "UK" and not "Great Britain"?

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

Великобритания

Великобрита́ния (русское название происходит от англ. Great Britain [ˌɡreɪt ˈbrɪtn]), или Соединённое Короле́вство (United Kingdom [jʊnaɪtɪd kɪŋdəm], сокращённо: UK), полная официальная форма — Соединённое Короле́вство Великобрита́нии и Се́верной Ирла́ндии (англ. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), — островное государство на северо-западе от континентальной Европы. Единое Королевство Великобритания образовалось в 1707 году вследствие политического объединения королевств Шотландии и Англии; но ещё ранее, в 1603 году, король Шотландии Яков VI унаследовал престолы Англии...

(Just one example. Others are similar.)

Basically if you go east, the distinction isn't handled properly.

I.e. the proper name/distinction is technically acknowledged, but not used that often.

A. B.

Looks to me as if the Russian Wikipedia article just doesn't know the difference between the two at all. It's putting each one next to the correct translation all right, "Velikobritaniya" is translated as "Great Britain", not "United Kingdom", but it's talking as if they all mean the same thing.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

8:36 AM

But my point is that terminologies are usually messes.

A. B.

Yep. :-)

VtM has nearly all of it in a mess, though. I think that it's putting "sounding dramatic" above having any internal logic, which is true of the rest of it, too, in my opinion! Which I think is not really an improvement in the end, because then all the dramatic-sounding things contradict each other and it fails to be dramatic because you don't know what's true and it's completely arbitrary what is true this time.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@A.B. Well, you might be not the target audience. Because the whole WW brand achieved what it did by being dramatic and tropey and putting style over substance.

A. B.

:-D

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

My words probably read as criticism, because I also am not entirely the target audience. But they're not really.

A. B.

From my point of view, it's hard to be dramatic when everything is so contradictory that you don't know whether a character is facing a terrible choice or not, because you don't know what the result of that is supposed to be!

Yes, some people evidently do make it work very well.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

8:46 AM

@A.B. Well, your character probably shouldn't know for sure either. That's part of the conspirational paranoia of the setting.

A. B.

That's a good point. It's more when two logically incompatible things are both well known to be true.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@A.B. That's probably also part of the Neonate Experience Simulator.

A. B.

In other words, "the rulebook is lying"? That's a neat idea. Depends whether your GM is thinking that way, though, I suppose.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@A.B. Well, not to the degree of Paranoia XP.

The rules are mostly right. The lore is contradictory.

A. B.

I haven't read Paranoia, but I've heard it mentioned :-D

A. B.

9:02 AM

A lot of VtM does hang together even in a logical way, to be fair. The place I've mainly noticed it unravelling is how the vampires actually work, in terms of what things they can do/survive. Which, unfortunately, is kind of important to the point. I suppose to make it work you and the GM both need to be ready to just say what something complicated comes up "right, we're not going to look through the book for

every mention of something related to this and add them all together, we're just going to say it's this way".

BESW

I'm looking forward to seeing how Sun's Ransom handles that element of the setting.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@A.B. I'm not sure I understand what you're referring to in terms of survival/doing.

A. B.

Nice.

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