TRPG General Chat

KorvinStarmast

12:32 AM

@MikeQ yes. It's great fun.

@MikeQ the session began "the fireball wakes you up"

This term was not in our vocabulary, but I guess it could be called a one shot now

nitsua60

2:05 AM

@mbork First off, Amazing Tales is a great choice! I had great fun with it when my three were anywhere in the 4-10 range.

I think it's pretty perfect for that age group.

As for reacting quickly, I think the thing that worked best for me was not having much of a "plot" in mind: one or two sentence summarizable, at most. Basically, as "GM" I held myself to one side of an index card, much like their character sheets were. That way I was able to just mostly listen and, rather than trying to figure out how whatever they said fit, I just was able to riff of of whatever inanity came out of their mouths.

It was like the Yo, Gabba Gabba! of GMing =)

The other thing that helped was sitting to watch a show they liked (Octonauts, Backyardigans, whatever their generation's Salute Your Shorts is whose name I can't remember...) to remind myself (a) how simple to keep plots/motivations/characters, and (b) how quick the pacing wants to be for their story-likes.

@ThomasMarkov The flag-handling UI is horrible--I think at least once a week I'd mishandle a flag and then end up leaving a comment somewhere on a post of the user's saying "btw that flag was good, I totally did the thing you suggested, but managed to screw it up so it'll show as declined anyway, sorry for tanking your stats...."

bobble

3:00 AM

@Cooper what's really helped me start doing more things was switching to a different game with less rules and a very loose skill system (RFS). I didn't have to worry if what I wanted to do was covered or excluded by something in the rules, since the game was explicitly designed to be bare-bones and let you do whatever you wanted.

With D&D I was always worrying over what my options were, what skill I would use, etc. etc. whereas RFS is like "options? have 'em all!"

linksassin

3:45 AM

@DForck42 @ThomasMarkov As an FYI, some we sometimes use Decline & Delete because certain types of flags come with automatic penalties for the poster that we can't control. I.e. Accruing multiple helpful Rude & Abusive flags can lead to automatic suspensions. So we take more care when marking though flags as Helpful.

Unfortunately we can't give specific feedback on comment flags like we can we with post flags. Our options are really just Helpful + Delete, Helpful + Do Nothing, Decline + Do nothing or Decline + Delete.

Shalvenay

hey there @linksassin

linksassin

@Shalvenay G'day, how's it going?

Shalvenay

@linksassin alright here, how about you?

linksassin

@Shalvenay Not too bad. Works been busy which has kept me away from chat unfortunately.

Little sore as pre-season for cricket went back last night and the first session is always a killer.

BESW

4:14 AM

@nitsua60 Finding touchstones through shared stories is so helpful for so many groups!

Shalvenay

@BESW no doubt -- it's one of the major challenges I run into in that I don't have many of the more "normal" touchstones other folks have

V2Blast

4:57 AM

@linksassin I'm pretty sure for comment flags, the options are just "Delete", "Edit" (I think?), "Decline", or "Decline and Delete". (I believe that last one was more recently added, sometime within the last year.)

BESW

5:27 AM

Eldritch TRPG by viendhita. a rules-lite horror TRPG system made to be a versatile tool to help you tell any kind of horror story you want, from Lovecraftian to slasher tales.

A Family of Blades by A.C. Luke. Modern Action & Intrigue, Forged in the Dark

Paranormal Documentary Podcast by Ash Can Games (And So Can You!). A Game of Content Creators & Cryptids

What Should We Have Tomorrow? by ehronlime. A solo journaling game about planning and preparing a week of meals for your loved ones

Tech Jam #2: Tactics hosted by will jobst. Squares, hexes, distance, plays, morale, hare games, no-hit challenges... any flavor of tactics, from wargames to grid maps to abstract systems to lyrical explorations. Stretch the definition as far as you want, just keep it tactical.

Bardic Wizard

@mbork hi! I play occasionally with a 7yo (younger brother) and a 13yo (younger sister), and I have lots of things to say about it

Give me a bit to write them up

linksassin

5:49 AM

@V2Blast I meant in terms of feedback/visibility to the flagger. But yes, I overlooked that 'Helpful + Edit' or 'Decline + Edit' were options.

Bardic Wizard

Right. Long winded stuff starting.

First, I’d make sure your kids are into rpgs — don’t play if they don’t want to. Sometimes it’s just not the right day to try. Also, if your kids don’t play imaginative games together, they won’t have fun doing rpgs together. Learn from my mistakes.

For actually running a game, my biggest tip is to go along with whatever they want to do. Watch kids play imaginative things together and listen to them build on each other. And then accept that not all your plans will work out. Kids will add things to your plans that you never expect. My favorite example is the 7yo, in a Goblin Court game, declaring that a cabinet was full of apple corers (don’t ask. I talked about it a while back, but it’s a weird story)

Also, know your players and what they’re ok with. It’s easiest with kids you’re related to, but kids can have some really bad fears and you do not want to bring those up in a game unless you want meltdowns.

I think that’s most of what I learned. Also, relax! Seriously, it’s more fun for you if you stop worrying about how it’s going. If you have fun, they’ll have fun too

BESW

@Glazius Thanks! It looks great. And the maths better match up with my napkin math, and while the numbers aren't close to what the creator once reported as average observed numbers in playtests, I think I can extrapolate from your example and figure out where your choices deviate from theirs.

Hot RPG Questions

9

Q: Do the smaller Black Puddings have their reactions in the same round as the original Black Pudding split?

The Split reaction available for the Black Pudding monster goes as follows: Split. When a pudding that is Medium or larger is subjected to lightning or slashing damage, it splits into two new puddings if it has at least 10 hit points. Each new pudding has hit points equal to half the original pu...

BESW

@BardicWizard Those are some good learnings, thank you for sharing.

@bobble I once started an RFS game by asking "what were you doing before the ninjas attacked?"

Bardic Wizard

@BESW you’re welcome! I’ve been thinking more about this lately so it’s nice to share a bit

BESW

7:13 AM

POCGamer wrote a twitter thread about how "Three of the greatest battle scenes ever filmed are absolute templates for aspiring #TTRPG and #DnD GM/DMs."

AncientSwordRage

9:58 AM

@BardicWizard you've got me want to plan games for my nieces and nephews, however they're all too young atm

@BESW this looks too much like it's trying to trick me into food planning!

@nitsua60 if we don't already have a "How do I run a game for children" this would make a great start for an answer

2

AncientSwordRage

10:17 AM

@BESW My interest is piqued

Hot RPG Questions

11:18 AM

4

Q: Does magical armor enhancement bonus increase the armor’s maximum dexterity?

Do magical armor enhancement bonuses increase the maximum DEX mod allowed for an armor? If so, awesome! If not, are there other ways to optimize AC through a DEX driven character?