TRPG General Chat

Akixkisu

12:06 AM

@AncientSwordRage in lore it is common that they function as catalysts or storage units.

AncientSwordRage

12:29 AM

@Akixkisu but storage units can be used up...

Akixkisu

@AncientSwordRage sure.

but there certainly is no "all storage units magically disappear" clause.

The false dichotomy of either it retains its (resell) value or is completely valueless is a strange reading.

BESW

@AncientSwordRage Just apply Voyager shuttlecraft technology?

Akixkisu

And basing that strong claim on a sliver of the rules and then using broad conjecture like that is questionable and the result is frankly boring.

AncientSwordRage

@Akixkisu I agree with everybody else's logic over my own, just explaining my previous thinking

BESW

Note to self: in the future when dealing with progression systems like Fate, adjust the milestone to hit just before the big dramatic conclusion instead of after.

AncientSwordRage

12:38 AM

@BESW seems dangerous

Akixkisu

@AncientSwordRage why? What about that false dichotomy is convincing?

It is an awfully clean reading.

It is a reasonable interpretation among others.

AncientSwordRage

@Akixkisu huh? I'm saying where I used to think one thing about material components (they are magically consumed not materially consumed) I no longer do

Unless I'm misread/misunderstanding what you are saying?

Akixkisu

@AncientSwordRage ah nah, that is on me - I misunderstood you there.

AncientSwordRage

Phew

Akixkisu

I think they can be consumed either way.

And the text isn't clear about it at all.

And whether they retain any value is completely up to the DM.

AncientSwordRage

12:48 AM

Yeah that's very reasonable

Akixkisu

When you someone creatures like the magen.

The casting consumes a vial of quicksilver.

But when they "die" they puff into smoke.

When you have something like that, there is clarity there.

AncientSwordRage

Absolutely

GcL

@Akixkisu Maybe you can help me come up with some common uses of things still being extant after being consumed.

BESW

I'm struggling to find the start of this thread, what's being consumed and why?

Akixkisu

@BESW I think the start was a question about sapphire dust used as a spell component.

The gist is what happens to materials consumed in spellcasting.

How are they consumed, do they retain value etc.

AncientSwordRage

12:54 AM

@BESW I posted a dnd-5e (which is why you didn't see it) about is components are destroyed or just rendered magically inert when they're 'consumed'

BESW

Ahah.

This is an excellent opportunity to dig into what magic is for your world/character.

Akixkisu

@BESW yup.

@GcL I'm a big fan of the manure example that I used in my answer.

Consumption is transformation.

AncientSwordRage

Very much so, but I was also curious how/if it works in the sourcebooks

BESW

Bold of you to assume something works in the sourcebooks.

2

Akixkisu

Well the sourcebooks say nothing about how it works.

MikeQ

12:58 AM

The explanation behind magic in D&D 5e is that it existed in the previous editions

5

BESW

Today in Your Worldbuilding Doesn't Have Enough Silly Names, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Cloudesley Shovell.

Akixkisu

I think there is more meat in a dragon magazine.

Generally 2e is probably the edition for taxonomy.

Lord Peniston is also a good one.

Peniston Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne

Peniston Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne (29 January 1745 – 22 July 1828), known as Sir Peniston Lamb, 2nd Baronet, from 1768 to 1770, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1768 to 1793. He was the father of Prime Minister William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. == Early life == Lamb was the son of Sir Matthew Lamb, 1st Baronet, and his wife Charlotte (née Coke). He was educated at Eton College from 1755 to 1762 and entered Lincolns Inn in 1769. He succeeded in the baronetcy on his father's death on 6 November 1768 and inherited Melbourne Hall in Derbyshire. He married Elizabeth...

AncientSwordRage

@Akixkisu I will see your Peniston Lamb and raise you a Sir Manley Power

Akixkisu

@AncientSwordRage that is also a great.

AncientSwordRage

They're all great

BESW

1:07 AM

@MikeQ Argument by Tessellation, nice.

Jun 14 '18 at 12:24, by BESW

(And yes, his name is Manly Wade Wellman. No he didn't change it from something more boring.)

AncientSwordRage

@BESW as DG says that's a very compelling name

Cloudsley is a great name, and rightly he died off the coast of Scilly (cos is sounds like silly)

BESW

Also he got thousands of his men killed because he refused to admit his math might be wrong, and killed the guy who suggested it.

AncientSwordRage

I was just going to say, last time I checked Old Sir MP commited some atrocities as well

Date I check on Peniston's Wikipedia entry?

BESW

"a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1768 to 1793" is not an auspicious start

But also Wikipedia editors tend to be aggressively defensive of their colonial atrocity-doers, characterizing accurate descriptions of awful behavior as "biased" and holding such claims to harder standards of proof.

"Peerage of Ireland" whoo boy.

AncientSwordRage

1:35 AM

@BESW I may have noticed this the other day.... I forget what I was reading there... I keep thinking "when will we get to part about...." But it never manifested

BESW

1:55 AM

In Dracula's Wake by Lexi the Fae. An adventure for the Thirsty Sword Lesbians RPG

@BardicWizard International Quilt Museum. Need I say more?

Ryomasa wrote a twitter thread about the nuances of using TRPGs theraputically.

Descendants of the Queen by Barkada Games. How to design for Descended from the Queen games

"Board game publishers don’t expect shipping woes to end soon" article by Chase Carter for Dicebreaker. Leder Games’ Patrick Leder and Marshall Britt discuss the rippling effects on smaller publishers.

Tracy Barnett wrote a twitter thread about a way to consider the difference between story and narrative in TRPGs.

Momatoes wrote a twitter thread about examining data to answer the question "do D&D Kickstarter projects earn more than non-D&D ones?"

"Are Hippos DRAGONS!?! Sarah Gailey Weighs In!" and "Do Hippos Count as Dragons: An Examination of Identity and Taxonomy," essays by Sarah Gailey for Tor.

2

Upcoming Kickstarter: Deimos Academy by Game And A Curry, LLC. A GM-less, collaborative horror roleplaying game in a coloring book, about adults returning to their creepy old boarding school.

jay Dragon wrote a twitter thread about the physical editions of Wanderhome.

Meguey Baker wrote a twitter thread responding to the question "When you're developing games, are you creating setting specific games that would include all of these sorts of details, or do you provide them as storyteller tools for them to consider as they craft their own worlds/campaigns?"

CROSSROADS by Sebastian Yūe. a game at the intersection of grief and hope

The Sun's Ransom by pidj is now available for public purchase! The Sun's Ransom is a poetic, tragic RPG where you play vampires determined to bring back the sun.

Anybody have insight into whether a SAQ gets more or less interaction than a non-SAQ?

bobble

2:14 AM

SAQ = self-answered question?

BESW

Aye

I'm guessing unanswered questions get more views.

(trying to use Stack to get some more awareness of The Sun's Ransom by asking a genuine question I had in the most please-make-me-a-hot-network-question way possible.)

0

Q: How many dice fit in the sun?

Assuming standard 16mm dice, how many dice do I need to play The Sun's Ransom?

bobble

I looked for some statistics questions on main meta, and people only seemed to be worrying about relatives scores. Perhaps you could modify a query to look for views instead?

Specifically: meta.stackexchange.com/a/364150/1017231

nitsua60

2:33 AM

Hi and welcome. This question is likely to get closed as some combination idea-generating/game recommendation/primarily opinion-based. (Check the tour for more on topicality.) That said, I'm sure there are people in Role-playing Games Chat who have experience that could help and would be interested in hashing things out a bit. You'll need 20 rep to participate; I've just thrown you half of that with an upvote, and hopefully another'll come soon =) — nitsua60 6 mins ago

BESW

3:00 AM

I am very grumpy about onlookers demanding that I explain Sun's Ransom's dice mechanic. This isn't a standard for more familiar games, it's only people who don't know a game (and thus couldn't answer it anyway) who expect this kind of extra hand-holding for obscure systems.

BESW

3:14 AM

People will personally trial dice fairness tests and spend seven months reading old magazines to answer questions but there's a long-standing pattern that if a game's mechanics are unfamiliar to users they'll demand that the mechanics get explained to them.

I've seen questions get closed because people who are fine with D&D questions about attacks not explaining 1d20+mod, think that questions about obscure systems they know nothing about are "unclear."

Literally "If I don't understand a question and it has a link to more information then I think it's spam" and "you should quote the sales pitch" how are these real.

Do D&D questions need to have "In cases where the outcome of an action is uncertain, the Dungeons & Dragons game relies on rolls of a 20-sided die, a d20, to determine success or failure."

I have refused to explain mechanics in the past, because you know what happens when I do? This nonsense where people think what I've explained is enough for them to armchair-philosophize their way to an answer without any further context from, you know. Having read the text or played the game.

BESW

4:02 AM

...an hour later they notice that the question might, possibly, not be about the circle they assumed.

Because they finally.... looked at the cover art. Which the question is about.

trogdor

ouch

BESW

I appreciate that they're trying to help, but... help doesn't look like taking a sentence out of context and not even looking at the freely-available subject of the sentence.

That's assuming you're an expert on something you've never heard of, and not checking if your assumption is right.

trogdor

I think it's partially caused by just the way the site works

not to waive the responsibility of the individuals involved just to say, I think there's a reason it's so widespread

BESW

Probably. But maybe more because for the vast majority of the questions here, that kind of slapdash approach to specificity works, because they're all about the same stuff.

And then when they bump into a system that doesn't work that way, they demand details about the specific thing they notice isn't the same, then carry on assuming everything else is as they imagine.

trogdor

well that's actually what I'm talking about

BESW

4:16 AM

Ah. I thought you meant the infrastructure of the site itself.

trogdor

the site itself encourages being able to answer as many questions as possible, what gets all these people through 5e questions which dominate the site?

using their knowledge of a system they already have to answer a question quickly and moving on to the next one

BESW

Heheh.

I really "liked" the Lady Blackbird answer where the person said "I didn't read the game but I assume spells have damage values."

trogdor

If they have been conditioned to behave this way through a system they already understand, what happens when a system they don't already understand shows up?

the easiest quickest answer is to treat it the same as all their other answers

I'm not saying that's how people should do things but apparently it's how some people do things

including the inadvisable action of answering detailed questions about systems they have never even read

BESW

Aye, all true.

trogdor

so that's what I mean by the way the site works

it encourages that behavior on a lot of answers because a lot of answers happen to be 5e and so a lot of people who know the 5e system are answering quesitons, which isn't in and of itself bad of course

but then maybe some of them are a little too used to all the questions being about 5e and maybe assume they can answer other stuff because answering questions has been working for them

I've had to do a lot of amateur behavior study :P

and systemic analysis

Xirema

5:21 AM

I will say, reading the question and the Itch.io page—with the caveat that I am very tired and possibly a little food-poisoned from eating pizza made from a homemade pizza sauce that's been in my refrigerator for not less than six weeks—I had some difficulty figuring out what, exactly, the question was asking.

I think that, when the player is being asked to do something that's non-traditional in the TTRPG space, like "use the literal picture of a sun that we put on the front cover of this book, gather enough six-sided dice that you are able to cover up the sun by placing them on the picture, and use that group of dice as a dice pool for the mechanics of this game", it benefits the player to be a bit more literal and explicit than you'd otherwise be.

Because on my first pass reading, there's enough references to Proper Nouns in the game's mechanics (Joy and Light tasks, Vampires, etc.) that you initially assume that every word in that description is a Proper Noun that has been defined for the game, and because you don't know what most of those Proper Nouns mean, you just assume you don't know what any of the nouns mean, even when they very much do point to things you understand.

BESW

Yeah, and the same goes for D&D. We're just familiar with D&D's vocabulary so we don't notice how ridiculously impenetrable it is.

trogdor

5:41 AM

yeah

Xirema

@BESW I think I have a rant here somewhere where I complained about all the things D&D just takes for granted the player will know, that are implicit in how its rules are written.

BESW

Stuff like "what kinds of attacks are attacks" and the current "what does 'consume' mean" conversation, are esoteric and complex even for people familiar with the game in question and specific cases can reasonably be expected to be shared. But nobody's going around expecting every question about attacks or saves to quote the PHB on 1d20+mod.

Xirema

Or rather, I complained about one very specific thing as a signifier for all the other stuff; I think it was something about which types of dice the game uses. 😛

BESW

Aye. And we have multiple questions about how many dice are needed for games, but they're games like DitV which have cultural traction so nobody demanded that those questions explain the dice mechanic they're asking about.

I just. If you haven't at least read the relevant material maybe assume your confusion about the question isn't obviously because the querent isn't holding your hand enough.

Context knowledge is a thing, and if you're used to having a lot of context knowledge for rpg.se questions and then suddenly you don't... well.

It's 'cause you don't know everything about every game, not because questions about games you don't know about are somehow magically less clear.

[grabs a random question from the recent pile] Absolute nonsense if you don't know a lot of specific text and at least one hobby idiom not found in the text.

But nobody's clamoring for it to explain initiative, the action economy, or even specific items which may not be available in the core materials, or the abbreviation RAW.

Meanwhile it's a very common experience for me to have my questions about less-well-known games get comments demanding that I quote basic game text, explain game philosophies, and generally make it so that people who have no interest in learning the game think they could answer it just from reading my question. Which is insulting to me and to the actual game experts, and clutters up the site with answers that are pure armchair speculation which cannot be backed up.

This is not why I stopped asking Stack questions, but it certainly made the choice easier.

May 13 at 13:03, by BESW

I'll just say, the Stack Exchange is structured to present the notion that there's such a thing as an TRPG expert, but that doesn't exist. We have people with specialized experiences in specific TRPG areas. But since we're all told to think of ourselves as "experts," we're set up to make uninformed decisions outside our bailiwicks and then get huffy about having our "expertise" called into question.

BESW

6:49 AM

The Zombi - Tales of Zombies - Extra Mythology

►

V2Blast

7:49 AM

@BESW That title definitely sparked my curiosity... Guess it did its job ;)

Seems like an interesting mechanic/game!

@ThomasMarkov Personally, I like the change! (Though I'm not opposed to changes to the shades/colors used (and/or inverting the color fill.) I suspect most new users have no idea what the diamond means... Plus I think it just looks nicer.

I'd kind of prefer that the updated display of the mod diamond info (i.e. the "Mod" text) be displayed on mainsite too. (I presume the orange Staff badge won't need to be visible on mainsites, though, since that info is usually irrelevant to anything a staff member might say on mainsite.)

Akixkisu

9:11 AM

@BESW reminds me of the question that I recently asked where someone essentially demanded that I show them that I could use their proof of concept and when I did, they never delivered.

AncientSwordRage

11:04 AM

@BESW this image doesn't load for me, so that may answer my question, but I can't find a picture of the cover with the sun on it (except in that twitter page).

BESW

The more information I put in the question, the more people are gonna think they can answer it without any understanding of the context of the problem. In other words, they're gonna think that rpg expertise is not applicable and it's just a brain puzzle or math problem to be solved

This is my learning over years on rpg.se asking about systems nobody here has heard of, and it's already my experience with this question in the last eight hours.

(Notice that people thought they could answer the question without even looking at the cover they were supposedly talking about.)

Adding info to the question just invites more answers with false confidence from people who are experts in something other than the subject of the question.

You know what happens when I explicitly refuse to provide details that an expert would consider common knowledge of the material? The only people who answer are people who've gone and read the material.

Often they actually went and learned about the game because I wouldn't give them the illusion of knowing "enough."

For example, anybody who's bought the game as a PDF will have seen the sun illustration because it's... in the game they bought.

AncientSwordRage

11:19 AM

I was initially going to argue against your approach, but you've made a compelling point about people having the illusion of knowledge (I suppose there are parallels to DGtS). Is it worth meeting the community/potential answerers partway, and editing that the sun on the cover is not circular and you'll likely need a copy to answer? That should at least clue some people in that they can't take the same shortcuts they're used to?

something like what you've already written:

> I also don't want to imply this is just a maths problem; it's likely there are additional text/play considerations that I haven't thought of because I haven't played it yet!

BESW

If you'd like to, go ahead. I'm not feeling particularly interested in hand-holding people who need to be told they aren't experts in a game they've never heard of before.

If it was the first time, maybe. But we've got questions where people say with their whole mouths that they didn't even bother to read a free game and they're just gonna answer it as if it were D&D.

This is a chronic problem on the Stack, it directly affects the ability of the Stack to handle non-D&D systems at all, and I'm not gonna cover for it anymore.

AncientSwordRage

That (people think they're experts in a system they've never heard of) is part of the problem, but I'm used to thinking of the sun as a perfectly circular disk and hinting that's not enough is a start.

I don't see giving a small hint as hand-holding as saying to let go of the hands and find their own way, but I respect your opinion on this. I can see how it's really burnt you numerous times 😕

Do we italicise game names?

BESW

@AncientSwordRage Again, I'd be more sympathetic to that perspective if it weren't a matter of D&D being allowed a lot of space for assumptions that experts know basic things about the system, and indie games not getting that consideration. I think "have seen the cover of the book" is a reasonable level of knowledge to assume.

@AncientSwordRage No standard stylebook for the Stack, so it's up to individual preference.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW yeah, so that is reasonable, and that's not in my edit

@BESW I'll stick to your style then rather than change or add a conflicting style

BESW

I tend to default to "bigger works get italicsed, smaller works get quotation marks."

AncientSwordRage

11:30 AM

>

<sub>Also I don't want to imply this is just a maths problem; it's likely there are additional text/play considerations that I haven't thought of because I haven't played "The Sun's Ransom" yet!</sub>

this is what I'm thinking of adding to the end of the question

BESW

That's fine.

Another person is treating it like a physical puzzle, maybe it'll help.

Maybe I need to use a phrase other than "tight packing."

AncientSwordRage

@BESW I think tight packing gives too much away if I'm honest

that might be what is implying maths problem not just physical puzzle

BESW

SOMETHING seems to be making people switch from "what's practical while playing a game" to "what's the absolute tolerances of the physical system."

AncientSwordRage

yeah

BESW

And it really tells me they haven't read the book because gosh but it's completely at odds with the aesthetic of the game.

Someone_Evil

11:35 AM

The phrase "Assuming standard 16mm dice and tight packing, " makes me read it like an exam problem, FWIW. Or at least, brings that to mind

AncientSwordRage

> Assuming standard 16mm dice and whatever packing is specified in the rules, how many dice do I need to play The Sun's Ransom?

it's not perfect but inches it away from exam problem, as @Someone_Evil calls it

Someone_Evil

I think it's the [Assuming ...] that's the main issue TBH. "Assume Ideal Gas Law" etc. were pretty commonplace to my exams

BESW

That's a good point. If anybody's got a re-phrase, I'd welcome it.

AncientSwordRage

I also added props to it, because the cover is a prop

another hint

BESW

Good call.

AncientSwordRage

11:42 AM

I'm worried I've gone too far, but I've tried to help

BESW

I mean. You've seen my original question text, which got the response of "I'd report this as spam if you didn't have so much rep."

AncientSwordRage

@BESW :o

I did not see it

BESW

Edit history!

AncientSwordRage

to the edit-history-mobile!

hmmm, it's a short question, but it's not bad for it

BESW

It's everything you'd need to know if you'd read the game, and all the context you need to know it's a coherent question is in the link.

Which is more than I can say for a lot of D&D questions.

AncientSwordRage

11:46 AM

@BESW exactly

BESW

But nope. It confuses people who've never heard of the context before, so "the title is misleading" and "it looks like spam."

AncientSwordRage

:/

Someone_Evil

Hmm... I can sort-of see that concern, but it's still disheartening. I suppose one thing is that when linking to a store page it's good form to note the absence of affiliation (the need is the other way of course, but it simplifies the concern).

BESW

Aye, and I'd be more charitable about that, too, if it hadn't been followed up with being told that the solution was to... copy-paste info from the linked page?

The concerns weren't coherent, and generally boiled down to expecting the person asking about the game to explain the game so that people who know even less think they can answer without doing research.

And this is the exact same pattern I saw over and over, for years, on nearly every small-press and indie tag.

There is a problem here which needs solving, of users who aren't making the effort to become experts on small-press/indie games thinking they should be able to answer those questions anyway. And so far the solution suggested is that people asking about small/indie press games should also introduce/teach the game in their questions.

Someone_Evil

There is a general desire to have questions justify being asked (under the umbrella of showing their research), but there sure isn't a lot of consistency on that. That shouldn't need to be explaining how the mechanics work, but is most elegant when they point to what is left out, so there's bleedover in style (and a lot end up very on the explaining end) and it probably comes most to a crashing head when readers aren't familiar with the game (but still have their curator hat on)

AncientSwordRage

12:00 PM

@BESW is it still possible to get a physical copy of the game/zine/book?

NautArch

Wow, that's a frustrating comment thread .

BESW

@NautArch And the first thread's already gone!

AncientSwordRage

@BESW thats what I'm missing I think... probably for the best D:

BESW

@AncientSwordRage No, it was a limited risograph print, funded by a Kickstarter.

But the PDF purchase includes scans of the physical zine.

And the Kickstarter mentions the print dimensions in public posts. This isn't an eldritch ritual of a mystery cult.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW oh no, I think I want a copy now

to play

I don't own enough dice to actually answer the question how I'd like to, but I wouldn't mind playing at some point

BESW

12:04 PM

@AncientSwordRage It is amazing and this response is the primary reason I asked the question in the first place, so success.

AncientSwordRage

:D

I gutted I didn't get the Risograph (?)

BESW

@AncientSwordRage It's kinda like screen printing but cheaper and faster, or mimeographing but with better fidelity.

You can see the effect here.

Sun's Ransom is only printed with one color, but you can do a risograph with multiple templates, each a different color, on top of each other like making a woodcut print with multiple blocks.

@NautArch You said it, I didn't.

NautArch

@BESW Yep. Felt like both my statement above and my comment were needed :(

Apparently it's Flag Day for me.

BESW

I just kept passive-aggressively acting like obviously answerers would have some reason to think they could answer the question beyond confidence in their Mycroft-like deductive skills.

Thomas Markov

See this answer for a user script to invert the staff and mod label colors

HUGE improvement.

BESW

12:14 PM

I hope there's a Green mod update.

Jan 3 '18 at 11:35, by BESW

Blue? That doesn't make any sense. Mods are green.

NautArch

@BESW I'm being more aggressive. Let me know if I should stop.

BESW

A really great answer will either include multiple answers for different choices, or explain the choice it made.

....My reputation reporting is screwy. My total rep seems to be going up in line with votes, but the rep increase reporting has only registered +20 rep today.

Someone_Evil

@BESW It is known

AncientSwordRage

@BESW Bobble spotted it

@NautArch please don't :D

NautArch

12:30 PM

@AncientSwordRage Don't stop or don't be more aggressive?

Thomas Markov

@NautArch Let's turn it up some more

Howdy y'all. If you need to ask clarifying questions because you haven't played the game or read the rules, then I'd recommend not answering this. — NautArch 31 mins ago

Beautiful comment

AncientSwordRage

@ThomasMarkov this

BESW

I mean, I'd also accept support from a podcast or LP or author interview, if such things exist which I'm not sure they do, provided they're, you know. actual support.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW someone would need to have listened/read those to know if they did or didn't so it's probably best not to mention

BESW

Aye.

NautArch

12:35 PM

@GcL Let me know if anyone helps you find that print. I'll clear the pin when youre ready.

bobble

1

A: I'm not getting reputation notifications

Couple of things blew up here and it took a little while to isolate and repair the fallout, so sorry for the delay. We had a (successful!) SQL failover in the wee hours of this morning but, for the brief period of time that the application was failing over, a number of duplicate events were writt...

it should be getting through backlogged rep notifications now

BESW

Over the last ten minutes my rep registed an upvote and a downvote, then cancelled the downvote because the post had been deleted, then gave me three more upvotes, and then the other nine.

Pretty sure it's up to date now.

bobble

I have about six more upvotes that need to happen

BESW

I might have some more from older questions? I usually get two or three of those a week.

More if somebody's taking a walk through a tag I used to frequent, usually Fate or Doctor Who.

bobble

You can check what you should have in your Reputation profile-page tab

Thomas Markov

12:48 PM

Or check here

BESW

@AncientSwordRage One of the things I really like about Sun's Ransom is, it understands that vampires are a liminal space and encourages each group to define them uniquely on each play-through. So long as the vampire is some kind of parasite on society to whom wholesomeness is an existential threat, the details are ours to make according to our interests and needs.

...also some of the art uses Renaissance Florence as an inspiration and though most people would never notice, I love how perfect that is for the concept.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW I like it. I have played two versions of WoD Vampire. I've been a fan of Buffy... but I also love much more out-there ideas about Vampires

BESW

The book gives three examples, and points out that the nature of the vampire is entwined with the tragedy of the sun.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW that's a good central theme

I have ideas brewing for a Vampire character in a story so very interested to get inspiration from there

BESW

The examples are a freezing megacity where vampires leech warmth, a grieving greenhouse world where vampires steal emotions, and a sky-city where vampires feed on the electricity which keeps it afloat.

KorvinStarmast

1:02 PM

@trogdor a most excellent observation. + a bunch. 😉

BESW

Then the character creation questions are "What were you like as a mortal?" and "Who are you now?"

4

AncientSwordRage

@BESW those are all excellent vampire models

@BESW THIS is why I like vampire characters

"what happened to you" is a great question

NautArch

Those are great questions for adventurers on general

BESW

And the play experience is focused on the vampires trying to recreate the positive touchstones of their mortal lives, which is opposed by obstacles like their vampiric nature, the despair of mortals, and the sunless world itself--but if successful, saps their vampiric strength while also bringing the sun's return closer.

KorvinStarmast

@ThomasMarkov concur. Even spelled y'all correctly. 😉

BESW

1:07 PM

I love how Pidj balances hope and melancholy so perfectly that the group can tip the story either way as we like.

(And when the sun comes back, the now powerless vampires are scorched by its return, but the group gets to decide what that means--destruction, redemption, something else?)

AncientSwordRage

I'm excited to play it

It feels like it distils a lot of what (I read) WoD is trying to convey in both VtR and VtM, but gets overwhelmed by it's on systems and other game factors like leaning on the politics of the world, into the important parts

BESW

The depiction of vampires in media is a personal interest of mine and Pidj's vision here brings me much delight.

Slate

2:21 PM

'lo, just poking my head in to say hi!

@Slate o/

@Slate howdy howdy

How's it goin'!

@Slate slow day at the office tbh

Slate

pretty fair - can be a good thing, from time to time

NautArch

2:24 PM

Same here. Busy preparing for something that will happen in a few months, but otherwise I'm trying to ~~not to~~ kill @ThomasMarkov in a game.

Thomas Markov

@NautArch No, change it back. Be an honest DM.

NautArch

hehehe

But no,l that's my other game. I just sent the group up against a commando squad of duergar.

regular duergar, an alchemist, and a warlord.

GcL

@NautArch You can clear it.

NautArch

grazie

AncientSwordRage

@Slate \\oo/

NautArch

2:32 PM

@Slate What brings you by?

Slate

Not too much! Just poking by some chatrooms, saying hi. Always liked this li'l spot. (I haven't been around Stack in a couple years, but was recently hired as a CM. Before that I used to semi-frequent RPG General Chat.)

(Also, if I say hi here, I can be pinged easily in the future, but I'm mostly just poking around again :)

It helps to be an avid player-of-games though ;)

NautArch

@Slate We're a good spot! You may have been here before my time :)

Feeds

Needles & Nilbogs: Starflake Doily: free pattern

posted on July 29, 2021 by Bardic Wizard

I absolutely love lace. I like to make it in a number of different ways, I like to see it when I scroll through Instagram or look at patterns, and I like to use it in projects. So, when I promised my mother some coasters back in October of 2020, I immediately went for the size 10 crochet thread, the steel hooks, and a pile of stitch markers. There was going to be lace in my future and it was g…

NautArch

What RPGs do you play @Slate?

Slate

To be honest? Mostly we play without a fixed system. It's almost always some eclectic mix of safety tools, and writing one or two numbers and phrases down on a page... but of my most recent three games with a system, two were Monsterhearts and one was City of Mist.

How 'bout you?

NautArch

2:45 PM

Mostly D&D 5e, but am also somewhat playing Scum & Villainy (a blades in the dark game).

ANd a keen interest to try 13th age.

Slate

Nice! Always been curious about BitD... but haven't had a chance to play it (or read it).

What's Scum & Villainy?

NautArch

It's basically Firefly / Cowboy Bebop

You've got a crew of various backgrounds and types and fly around going on missions, evading those after you, having wacky shenanigans, etc.

Slate

That's pretty neat, I think. Good space RPG systems are tricky...

NautArch

We've only done a few sessions, but it's been an absolute blast.

I went with crazy engineer type and my buddy went with the heavy.

Slate

Yeah, that sounds like a good time

I'm glad for y'all, I hope it gives you many more good sessions

Hot RPG Questions

4:06 PM

7

Q: How would losing their spell book affect an NPC wizard-sorcerer multiclass?

I’m currently DMing a long-running campaign and trying to plan a small quest to save their wizard NPC friend from an evil-wizard’s abandoned lab. My initial thought was to have him lose his spell book to render him more-or-less useless. Unfortunately, I remembered that I gave him 2 levels in sorc...

dnd-5e wizard spellcasting multi-classing sorcerer

Medix2

4:40 PM

Do we have a 5e question on how the 5-10-5 diagonal rule interacts with determining the shape of aoes ?

nitsua60

4:59 PM

@NautArch dropped about 20 degrees overnight down here. You?

@Medix2 You mean using the variant that counts every-other diagonal doubly to better approximate sqrt(2)? I'm pretty sure we don't.

But the "template variant" from XGtE basically addresses the same thing, so maybe one of these would help? rpg.stackexchange.com/…

NautArch

5:14 PM

@nitsua60 Temp-wise, we're about 10 degrees lower than yesterday. Currently pouring rain.

The storm a couple days ago may have formed a microcell hurricane about .5 miles away from us.

@Medix2 That edit may be premature.

nitsua60

@NautArch whoa. I'd say "cool," but also scary =\

NautArch

@nitsua60 Yeah, touched down where my mom is. Everyone okay, but she's from Florida and was like "This is a hurricane!"

Should we roll back this edit until OP confirms that's their question?

AncientSwordRage

@NautArch I think so

NautArch

@AncientSwordRage grazie.

AncientSwordRage

@NautArch de nada

Medix2

5:39 PM

@NautArch I tried to make the title match the body, but hmmm

Oh good, they commented a few seconds ago

NautArch

@Medix2 yep, all good now!

I just wasn't sure because the body also mentioned another question theyve asked that I can't find.

Why did i not look at their profile?

7

Q: Can you take the form of a swarm with the polymorph spell?

The Polymorph spell says: The new form can be any beast whose challenge rating is equal to or less than the target's Swarm of insects says: Medium swarm of Tiny beasts Can a wizard choose the form of a swarm with Polymorph, considering that even though its made up of many creatures it is trea...

dnd-5e spells polymorph swarm

AncientSwordRage

@NautArch haha beat me to it

it's in my clipboard :D

toroid

9:10 PM

I'm playing Fate Accelerated soon, but I've only really played D&D 5e before. Has anyone tried that system before?

trogdor

yes

I have played both of those systems, a little at least

toroid

@trogdor Is it easy to pick up?

trogdor

it's pretty easy as far as new systems go yeah

toroid

Also fantastic name 🐲💪

2

trogdor

I mean you'll still have like a bit of a learning curve or system shock possibly

but it's meant to be a pretty simple system to be learned relatively easily

it's certainly better to jump into than say, any of the more complex fate systems

toroid

9:15 PM

I've never really heard of the fate systems until I got invited to play, is that like a whole genre of TTRPG systems?

trogdor

I personally think it's a great system to try after your only/main experience is one of the D&D editions because of how different but simple it is

it gives you a taste of something a little outside your current experience but isn't too had to wrap your head around

MikeQ

Fate is easy to learn, yes, although it involves a different mindset than D&D. The rules are simple but more abstract. Players have more control over the narrative and work together (with the GM/storyteller) to agree on how the story advances.

trogdor

@toroid Fate is,.. not a genre of TTRPG systems so much as a different company that uses a different set of rules and such than Wizards does with D&D

@MikeQ it's also specifically Fate Accelerated which is a little paired down compaired to other fate systems

I think it's probably the best stepping stone into checking fate out

especially if you don't have diverse experience outside the huge D&D bubble XD

Fate Accellerated, as I recall, only has you tracking 5 "skills" and maybe a couple aspects

and a fate point pool

they aren't really described as skills but that's kinda what they resemble compaired to D&D

MikeQ

Characters in Fate Accelerated have approaches, not skills. It focuses on how your character attempts something, not whether or not they are capable at it.

trogdor

yeah

but I'm just making a comparison to D&D here

toroid

9:24 PM

Cool! I'm excited to try it. I'm into the collaborative storytelling part and it sounds accessible. Definitely need to expand out of the D&D bubble 😅

trogdor

@MikeQ well it does like, track how generally capable they are at an aproach

but yes it doesn't track how specifically capable of a task the character is XD

But anyway

I'm always glad to see people branching out of D&D

Not that no one should be allowed to enjoy D&D just that,.. trying some new things is the only way to find something new that you might like as much or more

toroid

Yeah! I'm a TTRPG baby still 👶 I was the DM for my D&D 5e group because I didn't know anyone else who could run stuff and that felt easiest to start with

(obviously I know now that there's simpler and more accessible systems)

trogdor

And D&D isn't going anywhere probably

It's not like trying a new system means you have to never touch it again XD

I hear you, I wasn't the main DM for my group or anything but for a while D&D was the only thing I knew

I even remember a little trepidation at the thought of just switching D&D editions from 3.5 to 4e

Let alone when we first started trying whole other systems

I think our first one was even Fate Accelerated

Or at least some version of fate

But once we started branching out it got easier and easier to try new things

I can't recommend the experience enough especially in this particular hobby that is dominated so much by D&D when other options exist in abundance

2

bobble

9:41 PM

I've been having a lot more fun now that my group is playing RFS (before it was D&D 5e)

toroid

@bobble RFS?

bobble

@toroid roll-for-shoes

toroid

Hah this is amazing

trogdor

yeah Roll For Shoes is also great

pretty minimalist but also you can do basically anything in it

GcL

Can I get shoes?

trogdor

9:45 PM

you can but you definitely don't start with them

I made a wolf once and rolled for spring shoes and got them

XD

GcL

Spring shoes you say? So it's a bounded system?

bobble

I think my group (or at least I) rolls for less/less often than a "standard" game of RFS, but it works for us.

We already had a rhythm to freeform roleplay and RFS is a way to inject some randomness into it, and making up/using fun skills drives part of the fun

trogdor

yeah

my main concern for someone new to anything other than D&D playing RFS is,.. it's pretty freeform

going into it with little to no free form experience isn't bad necessarily but it could be a little difficult

toroid

Seems like it has real "I cast Magic Missile on the darkness" energy

bobble

There's one person who's promised to run us a game of PF once their work lets up, so we created some characters and did a bunch of freeform backstory roleplay while waiting - that's where the freeform rhythm comes from

GcL

9:52 PM

@toroid Careful! You could hit a grue!

toroid

eat grue

2

bobble

This question might benefit from an answer pointing to here (the Damage section)?

GcL

@toroid Wait... that would make you eating the grue that's eating.... oh, username checks out.

toroid

@GcL ♾

BESW

10:52 PM

@toroid Welcome! And glad to see you're excited about new systems!

toroid

👋

BESW

I assume you've looked at some of the fate questions on mainsite, but you might also find some of the conversations in our old Fate chat room helpful. Do keep in mind, a lot of them are from the very early days of Fate Core/Accelerated when we were all learning the new "editions."

The conversations include several examples of play in chat. The earliest are us trying out the beta version of Fate Accelerated.

Also, has anyone pointed you to the Fate SRD yet?

AncientSwordRage

Hi @toroid \\oo/

Ben

11:18 PM

Morning all

bobble

Do I spot a Ben in the wild?

Ben

Not just any Ben, a happy Ben.

bobble

A too-rare specimen.

Ben

Well, at the very least a stress-free Ben. Haha

Finally caught a break at work. If only temporary

bobble

I believe the socially expected thing for me to do is to ask a question.

So, what exactly was this break? Please do explain :)

Ben

11:37 PM

In short, our relationship with a client has reached a point of threats. Up until this point, we have been friendly, working beyond our scope of work to help deployment, and all attempts to handle the lack of understanding have simply been ignored and turned around on us to "just deal with it".

So we replied with a professional stance and explained that we have delivered everything the client asked for and more, and the issues are with management on their side, and involved their management (higher up the chain) for the first time

So the ball is now in their court

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