TRPG General Chat

BESW

00:00

(Then they replace Nancy's best friend with a different actress who is supposed to be playing the same person... and then they replace Nancy's actress... and there's no attempt to even gesture at acknowledging any of it.)

You can play "spot the re-used set," scream every time the plot is moved forward by Nancy's nigh-supernatural compulsion to trespass, and keep track of the Strange Fates Which Befall Joe's Romantic Interests.

AncientSwordRage

00:37

@bobble that's a real pooper 😔

If it makes you feel any better, I started off on what works be called a double major of CS and physics, and was able to switch to physics major and computing minor

If it doesn't, I still sympathize with you

bobble

00:50

@AncientSwordRage I can fulfil a different major requirement (physics) if I can't get the CS class, so it's not terrible terrible... just not terrific, either

Thomas Markov

This question contains eleven different questions, but it cleared review for Leave Open, only needs one more close vote.

trogdor

@BESW yeah also at least the first episode is just "no one ever explain anything, just don't do it"

BESW

01:13

This is… not a one time theme. [grin]

There’s a season two moment where someone shouts “none of this makes any sense!” And they were right.

AncientSwordRage

01:50

@bobble it sounds sucky. I think we avoid this in the UK by mostly undersubscribing courses?

Or at least predicting drop out numbers, but showing for a few extras here or there

@ThomasMarkov I left a comment

I know they could ask them all as new questions but it feels like many of those may be dupes, and the OP needs to show down to pick up how the system here works

bobble

@AncientSwordRage your comment is very grammatically weird, especially this sentence:

> If it appear exists, will add a notice to the post that points you (and any future answerer) that way, out it'll get answered here.

Did you mean something like "If it already exists, we'll add a notice to the post that points you (and any future answerer) that way, otherwise it'll get answered here."

About duplicates, I assume

BESW

Our local university has been really struggling with matching class availability to need, because all their models for anticipating enrollment trends (which were never very accurate in the first place) are totally broken for 2020 and 2021.

AncientSwordRage

02:17

@bobble yes 🤦🏻‍♂️

bobble

bobble the grammar edit crown is here, never fear

(seriously, all my friends would get me to edit their essays for grammar and clarity.)

AncientSwordRage

@bobble I live in fear of making a mistake that would cause the grammar edit crown to have to jump into action... 😬😜

bobble

in The Sphinx's Lair, Nov 16 '20 at 23:13, by Sciborg

BESW

AncientSwordRage

Phoenix Wright memes are the best memes

I went looking for the one that points out how complicated grapple is, and find an entirely different Phoenix Wright meme about it

bobble

02:31

@bobble *here

headdesk

BESW

AncientSwordRage

@bobble un-headdesk

bobble

head undesks

AncientSwordRage

Much better

Hot RPG Questions

03:42

3

Q: Can a readied action trigger on loading a crossbow and take effect before the crossbow attack completes?

Situation: An enemy with a crossbow appears. On my turn, I shout "To your knees, hands behind your head!" and ready an action to shoot my own crossbow at him, if he begins to load his crossbow (or draw another weapon, or move, probably not relevant here). Is "loading a crossbow" an actionable tri...

Bardic Wizard

05:17

So today I broke rule something or other about designing things. I mentioned to a friend that I’m working on a specific rpg-related project before I even have a draft and now she wants to see it and it’s Not Done. In fact, it’s Very Not Done, possibly So Not Done That It’s Barely Even More Than An Idea And Some Notes

Has anyone else ever done this? I want to not feel like the only blabbermouth with lots of ideas rn

Xirema

I'm pathologically afraid to share the things I'm working on for exactly that reason. 🤣

If you want though, you can go through the archives of the Elemental Plane of Math channel, hyping up the progress I was making on my SETI-like attempt to solve the Holy Grail Dice Problem™.

MikeQ

@BardicWizard I've been in both positions, both as person excitedly worldbuilding and as a listener excited about a friend's worldbuilding. It can be pressuring even if they're just trying to be supportive.

Bardic Wizard

Yeah. I didn’t want to mention it because this friend sometimes blurts things out — not secrets or stuff, just the sort of thing that she didn’t know was meant as a private thing, like who asked who out or stuff.

But she asked me directly what I was doing cause we were talking by text and I accidentally mixed up the photo I meant to send her with the photo of my project notes and I told her

And now I just don’t know what to do, I guess? Cause she told me it was super cool and a great idea, but now I feel like she’s gonna ask about it so I’m gonna have to work on it or have a good reason not to show her and I don’t know if I even want to work on it now anyways

MikeQ

05:33

What about telling them that you're still working on it and you're not ready to share the ideas yet?

Bardic Wizard

I mean, it might work. She’s okay on boundaries most of the time so she probably wouldn’t press. I ought to at least try it

My anxiety-brain didn’t even realize that was an option though, so thank you

BESW

06:51

@BardicWizard All the time. I have trouble developing a project if I don't talk about it to someone (rubber ducking doesn't work for me, for whatever reason), and I've had to learn to be moderately careful about who and how so that I don't create unreasonable expectations; especially in the early stages of a project I might be super enthusiastic about something that turns out later on to be completely unsuitable, and I feel bad if I've made somebody look forward to it.

Hot RPG Questions

09:51

1

Q: Spell Level vs Spell Slot when it comes to Artificers' Spell Storing Item ability

What I know and can look up... Ring of Spell Storing can hold 5 Spell Slots (Ex: 5x Magic Missiles, or 1 Fly and 1 Invisibility) and Artificer's Spells Storing Item ability can hold a 1st or 2nd level and can be used up to 2 times Artificer's Int mod. Question Can you store a 1st or 2nd Spell usi...

dnd-5e spells spell-slots

AncientSwordRage

10:28

@BardicWizard I love to casually drop things I'm working on, but I might be more cryptic as my brain is not as organised... rarely do I have notes on things

but you can reasonably ask them not to spread round too much of what they've seen

Thomas Markov

11:11

@Akixkisu What even is the difference between readied-actions and triggered-actions?

Akixkisu

@ThomasMarkov the line of inquiry most of the time.

But most often there is little difference in 5e.

Thomas Markov

Oh, is there a meaningful difference in other systems?

BESW

Without looking, I'd guess it's different terminology for different systems.

Certainly in 3.5 and 4e those would mean VERY different things.

Akixkisu

Yup.

Thomas Markov

Interesting. I think there is room for improvement on the tag descriptions - as written, I can’t really understand a distinction.

BESW

11:14

In 4e, a readied action is "It it my turn now but will give up taking an action right now, and instead define a specific event of my choosing and an action I will take immediately after that event happens, before the beginning of my next turn."

Akixkisu

In 5e questions we generally use it when the question is about implications of the trigger and when it is an action that is triggered by a non-readed action.

But also the tag doesn't see much use.

BESW

That is, it lets you take an action you'd normally do during your own turn, but at a different time and it's triggered by anything you'd like to choose each time you do this.

Thomas Markov

Or am I missing something about the descriptions? They seem to me to be saying the same exact thing with slightly different phrasing.

BESW

But also in 4e, there are triggered actions: specific moves you can use only when a specific event occurs as described in the move.

Thomas Markov

@BESW gotcha, so readied would be I choose the trigger, triggered would be the feature defines the trigger?

BESW

11:17

Right.

Like, anybody can say "I give up my standard action, and instead I'll make a melee basic attack against the next creature within range who attacks any of my friends." That's a readied action.

trogdor

but you can also have a power you can only use when a trigger happens

BESW

But a Fighter gets to do that constantly, without sacrificing a standard action and without calling it ahead of time, so long as the target is marked, because that's a triggered action every Fighter gets.

trogdor

like say, and enemy moves away from you and you have a power that triggers when that happens that lets you shift 3 towards them

Akixkisu

In 5e, we also have features that work that way, but it rarely is how we use the tag for 5e. Admittedly, it is a small sample size.

trogdor

or yeah the class feature for fighters that let's you make any at will attack

Thomas Markov

11:21

I definitely don’t see that distinction made in the tag descriptions.

BESW

4e being 4e, there's specific hard-wired language around these kinds of actions, and "trigger" is the jargon.

Akixkisu

And we could be more stringent about it if we did a small retagging effort to make it consistent with that way of using it.

Thomas Markov

If y’all think that’s the proper distinction, we can just update the description of triggered-actions without posting a meta.

@Akixkisu Seems agreeable. (If we get the descriptions straight)

BESW

But while it's useful to make the tags more distinct, I'd avoid trying to make them fit any particular system's jargon to the exclusion of other uses we see in the tag already (I'm not as worried about potential drift for future uses; the tag should adapt to that as it happens).

Thomas Markov

@BESW my worry here is that we’re using the two tags for the same thing sometimes because the descriptions aren’t clearly distinguishable.

BESW

11:23

That's legit, and they definitely aren't the same in the jargon of many popular systems.

Akixkisu

I'm a fan of adding system-specific use-cases in the more information section (not the excerpt).

trogdor

it is pretty important to make it clear what system you are talking about

Akixkisu

@ThomasMarkov I think it is more so that we use the tag for specific things that commonly overlap.

Thomas Markov

Yeah, lets get triggered-actions more clearly defined in distinction with readied-action, and retag where appropriate.

trogdor

I'm not a fan of when people assume, for example, that the latest edition of D&D is literally the only thing they could possibly be talking about (unless it's 4e because they wouldn't be caught dead playing that)

XD :P

BESW

11:25

The general practice is to pair a generic term tag with a system tag, rather than making specific term tags for each system.

The blunt case example would be something like wizard dnd-4e rather than dnd-4e-wizard

Akixkisu

11:40

Unfortunately, putting system-specific distinctions in tag descriptions is something that we don't do anymore. We use the most generic descriptions only instead of also making distinctions about different use-cases (especially how they differ between different systems) in the more information section.

AncientSwordRage

11:55

@Akixkisu does it make more sense to have one tag and then break it down in the description to say "This covers XYZ etc?"

Akixkisu

@AncientSwordRage For some tags, yes. E. g. the bloodlines tag, then you can use one tag for all systems, but they would benefit if the more information sections showcase what exactly the system-specific use-cases are.

The generic excerpt is good, but missing out on information isn't.

AncientSwordRage

fair

Akixkisu

12:14

I think the excerpt/more information distinction is most important due to prescriptive application.

I think the excerpt/more information distinction is most important due to prescriptive application. In a generic tag excerpt, using dnd is potentially harmful and exclusive, but listing distinctive system-specific use-cases in the more information section not only makes it explicit that we use the tag in different systems. It also informs to which situations the tag applies specifically.

Finishing that thought.

Hot RPG Questions

13:09

3

Q: How do I implement this specialized roll-and-keep mechanic in AnyDice?

I need help with an anydice function. I'm looking for a modified Roll and Keep type of mechanic, where if you have more dice that roll the max result than you are keeping, each discarded max result adds +1 to the total. Example: if you were rolling 6d10 and keeping two (equivalent to HIGHEST 2 of...

dice anydice

Medix2

13:24

It is at least a little funny to me that we have all of these: [reactions] [triggered actions] [readied-actions] [immediate-interrupts] [immediate-actions] [immediate-reactions] [interrupts].

I can see why, but it definitely would look funny if I didn't know examples where these are all different

BESW

Yeah, it’s a bit awkward to be both using system-specific jargon in tags (because the tags would be re-made constantly otherwise) and also trying to make non-system tags system-agnostic.

But then it’s also awkward for D&D to have such poorly differentiated terminology.

2

Trish

@BESW yeeeea, we try our best to avoid the latter case... unless it can't be helped. whic, usually, it can.

KorvinStarmast

13:40

@trogdor heh, when this site was first in its larval stage, there was a concern that it was becoming "D&D 4e SE" voiced on a few meta posts. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Trish

@trogdor Oh gosh, I hate that stance. And that's the reaon I try to get in occasional really obscure systems. Or things that come up at the gametable and are actually solved there (for the moment), but where I look for a better answer. Or one that is closer to the system.

trogdor

yes diversify the systems! preach it!

XD

@KorvinStarmast oh no something I don't like is getting popular :P XD

KorvinStarmast

@trogdor I just noticed that we seem to have no questions with the mythic tag (a game system I down loaded this weekend from DTRPG). I wonder if I'll ever get to try and play it.

Trish

Readied-actions, triggered-actions and delayed-actions all exist in various games *besides* D&D. For example The Dark Eye gives every player two actions: an Attack and one Parry baseline. Both actions can be used for stuff other than close combat (e.g. loading your crossbow, casting spells), and you can turn your parry into an attack at a cost and vice versa. Now, there are 3 cases that the three different keywords come in:
your Parry is always *triggered* by an enemy attack. If you are not attacked, you loose it. You need to declare converting it to an attack or other action before the rou…

@Akixkisu As explained, the system might use one of the two or even a third term for different things.

KorvinStarmast

@trogdor here's a bit of nostalgia on "are we tagging this right?" from the larval stages

Akixkisu

13:50

@Trish oh yeah absolutely, that comment is specific to our current use-cases for 5e q's on the stack.

Trish

@Akixkisu yes, so whie in 5E the terms seem interchangeable, we should actualy try to keep them, for some system might have the terms not interchangeable.

KorvinStarmast

@trogdor WoD and NWoD had similar questions arise

Joshua

You know something whack is up when one of your players starts setting things up at degree angles that are in scientific notation with negative exponents.

Akixkisu

@Trish I don't think anbody thinks that we shouldn't keep the tag, we are thinking about changing the description.

BESW

If I recall correctly, I've played in systems where a triggered-action is a kind of immediate-action, which can be either an immediate-interrupt or an immediate-reaction.

And then I threw my hands in the air and played Honey Heist instead.

Trish

13:57

@Akixkisu oh, well... I would put the emphasis in "Triggered" to "For where an action happens when a specific condition happens. For example, 'I shoot when the clock strikes noon'" On the other hand, for "readied" : "For where an action is prepared to happen at a later (predeterimined) time." and the hypothetical "delayed" : "For when an action and execution time is chosen now to happen later"

readied and delayed are... quite similar there though...

KorvinStarmast

@Joshua how do they like theater of the mind as a style? (Just out of curiosity). Been recently in a PbP game with a lot of ToTm and it's been mostly great with some disorienting moments in a battle where I had no mental picture of what is going on. My 'mostly play on r20' may have made me too grid centric of late ...

Some foundational thinking

Akixkisu

@Trish Yes, hence my suggestion of a generic excerpt with system specific use-cases :)

Joshua

It worked great during narrative portions but it doesn't mix well with precisely controlling AoE effects. (To be fair the fact you can do this feels like a weird artifact; I'm not sure fireball should have sharp edges.)

BESW

@Joshua My group found a lot of amusement with 4e's chessboard approach to the grid, and how it meant that what looks like a 3x3 square on the grid to us, is a 3-diameter circle to a character who paces it out.

Oct 16 '18 at 6:00, by BESW

That is, inside a five-foot area things seem to map to our real-world geometry fairly well. But when you get bigger than that, it uses chess measurements: moving three squares is traveling the same distance whether you're going north or northwest.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW is that 'Manhattan space'?

BESW

14:07

@AncientSwordRage Very similar to taxicab geometry, yes.

Oct 16 '18 at 6:04, by BESW

If you take this measurement anomaly to its logical conclusion, then you can draw a 5x5 square room on the grid map and your in-game character walking around inside the room will identify it as circular because every point on the wall is equally distant from the center of the room.

Oct 16 '18 at 6:04, by BESW

But if you draw a circular room on the grid map, your character inside will find that it takes more distance to get to some edges than others, and identify the room as a square.

Joshua

Man hattan. So discriminatory.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW I feel like they should get some kind of catch all term still...

BESW

@AncientSwordRage Ah, the fabled pokemon-action

AncientSwordRage

@BESW exactly!

in fact while were at it, why not just consolidate all our tags down into rpg and be done with it

@Joshua yup, other head coverings are valid too

> The word “Manhattan” comes from a dialect of the Lenape Native Americans, and can be translated as “a thicket where wood can be found to make bows.” The bow and arrow were a chief means of hunting

KorvinStarmast

@trogdor This is the meta post I was thinking about earlier, from 2010; finally found it.

AncientSwordRage

14:14

So sayeth the wise google (may not actually be true)

@BESW what if that circular room has a sun pattern on it...

KorvinStarmast

@AncientSwordRage we now call that Central Park, since the rest is a concrete jungle

BESW

tag-wikis-are-supposed-to-explain-the-kind-of-questions-the-tag-should-be-used-for-and-not-the-subject-of-the-tag-itself-but-that-has-never-been-modeled-effectively-and-in-practice-is-downright-counterintuitive-so-tag-wikis-are-a-constant-sore-spot-in-curation-because-their-described-purpose-is-counter-to-every-implementation-in-the-wild-and-this-contradiction-has-never-been-properly-addressed

7

AncientSwordRage

@BESW you can tell it's succinct by the lack of spaces

BESW

@AncientSwordRage tag

Thomas Markov

@BESW this is art.

AncientSwordRage

14:18

@BESW you-re-it

BESW

@ThomasMarkov No, this is Art.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW no, this is Garfunkel

BESW

This is also Art

Thomas Markov

Is this the krusty krab?

BESW

AncientSwordRage

14:25

@BESW pours my drink into the computer

@BESW that is such a good film

BESW

Oh yes.

Though, I do think attempts to emulate it and its ilk are responsible for some of the problems I frequently encounter with contemporary storytelling.

AncientSwordRage

Will have to pick this up in a minute as I've been called home on a semi-emergency

BESW

Oh no, good luck!

Briefly, before my melatonin kicks in, I have beef with the increasing reliance on withheld information as the primary tool for holding tension in storytelling. I love mystery stories, but solving the mystery is almost never the thing that makes a mystery story compelling.

Margery Allingham described the murder in a murder mystery as a device to "make characters reveal themselves."

Trish

14:44

@Akixkisu Gneric Tags please! Try not to make a generic tag that is system specific.

Akixkisu

@Trish see context.

2 hours ago, by Akixkisu

I think the excerpt/more information distinction is most important due to prescriptive application. In a generic tag excerpt, using dnd is potentially harmful and exclusive, but listing distinctive system-specific use-cases in the more information section not only makes it explicit that we use the tag in different systems. It also informs to which situations the tag applies specifically.

Trish

@Akixkisu YES. I hate "this is supposed to be generic... oh, here have a system specific desctiption.

BESW

In The Thing there's a lot we don't know, and never will, but the focus is always about what the unknown means to the characters, how it impacts them and how they react to it. The ending's ambiguity isn't compelling just because it's ambiguous, it's compelling because we now know and understand the characters and we get how the ambiguity affects them.

Compare CSI (where the mystery of the week is an excuse for the ensemble cast to bounce off each other--and I also have Opinions about the They Fight Crime era of TV programming but that's a different rant) to, say, WandaVision where withholding information from the viewers actually made it harder to connect with the characters and their emotions or feel invested in the outcomes of events because we didn't understand the stakes until after the fact.

It's something I see in mainsite questions about campaigns semi-regularly: the idea that withholding information from the players is its own justification, rather than a tool that can be used well or poorly and which is generally better left untouched until there's something it will add rather than just subtract from the experience.

(I swear, WandaVision would be at least 30% better if it were just edited so all the flashbacks were instead shown chronologically. But it wouldn't have been a social media sensation, because its 'mystery' was non-diegetic and carefully designed to spur franchise-derived speculative conversations.)

AncientSwordRage

nods

BESW

15:01

@Trish I generally agree, but counterpoint: tag wikis describe what the tag is used for. If a term like immediate-action has only ever been used with D&D tags on the site, it makes a certain amount of sense to describe it that way. Tag wikis get broadened as their useage gets broadened, it's part of the emergent folksonomy approach to tagging. We don't make tags for questions that haven't been asked yet, and we don't write tag wikis for applications that haven't been made yet.

Akixkisu

Unfortunately we have several tags that require meta knowledge to use and we don't use them much.

BESW

Yes, well, we also know that the number of people who read tag wikis before applying a tag to a question adds up to just slightly greater than a rounding error.

Akixkisu

Yup.

Hence the excerpt/more information argument.

BESW

Which is, I suspect, why there's never been much effort from on high to actually get tag wiki guidance to make sense.

Anyway, sleep now.

ttfn

Akixkisu

Rest well o7

Akixkisu

16:10

Someone made these useful Wanderhome templates, and I didn't properly name them and shoved them in the wrong folder.

Cat of doom2

17:26

hello hello hello

is anyone here today?

KorvinStarmast

@Catofdoom2 hello, hope all is well with you. 😉

Cat of doom2

would bounes damge toevil alignment break the game?

KorvinStarmast

@Catofdoom2 Probably not, but what scale are you talking about? Is there a particular monster that you thinks needs to take extra damage?

Cat of doom2

fiends and such

KorvinStarmast

Is your idea an extra d4, an extra d12, ability bonus, what?

As an example, undead take 1d8 extra radiant damage from Paladin smites.

What mechanism do you want to use to inflict an extra d(x) to a fiend?

Cat of doom2

17:35

it would techinaclnaclly make it magic so it would be helpful their. so 19 counts as a crit or somthing to all evil alignment

KorvinStarmast

That would probably work, as all that does is add another damage die ... are you making this a global mod, or just for certain sub classes or classes?

Cat of doom2

a spefic sword

@KorvinStarmast it'll be a sword longsword with no effect unless used upon any evil alignment

KorvinStarmast

Than it's not going to break the game. My best friend's barbarian has a sword of sharpness (he's lvl 9) and it has not broken the game. On a crit it does extra 4d6.

@Catofdoom2 OK, magical, but that feature only works against evil creatures? Yeah, sounds like a good item.

ooh, look, I made a pun. good item 😊

Cat of doom2

would it stack with the class abiltty. that makes 19 a crit and make 18 a crit?

KorvinStarmast

Not sure if that's rare or uncommon. Might be worth a question.

@Catofdoom2 You can decide that it does.

It's your magic item.

1d8 is not earth shattering damage as you go up in Tier 2 and Tier 3 adventures

Cat of doom2

17:40

The Devil’s Skull The Devil’s Skull is a magical item that closely resembles a goat skull but with a mild grey tint and allows for travel back and forth between the Nine Hells and the material plane. The skull is believed to be capable of incredible magic when used by that with fiendish blood flowing through their veins.

KorvinStarmast

Increasing crit range, though, is a very narrow benefit for a few sub classes. Treat with care.

Cat of doom2

is that a good magic item @KorvinStarmast

KorvinStarmast

@Catofdoom2 how many times per day. 1? 3?

Cat of doom2

@KorvinStarmast for the sword or the skull?

KorvinStarmast

I have a legendary item in one game, cubic gate, that lets me plane shift 3 times. Rechard 1d3 charges at dawn

@Catofdoom2 skull

MikeQ

17:42

If the weapon does extra damage per hit to evil creatures only, then its effectiveness will depend on the frequency of evil creatures in the campaign. Adding damage and decreasing the crit range is powerful, but it's just extra damage. Aside from big enemies going down more quickly, it's unlikely to completely break a game.

Cat of doom2

@KorvinStarmast i don't know yet.

KorvinStarmast

@Catofdoom2 My suggestion. For the skull. Three charges. Recharges 1d3 at dawn. Either Very Rare or Legendary rarity.

Cat of doom2

should the amount of charges be their magic level each day

KorvinStarmast

@Catofdoom2 no

Someone_Evil

You're also likely to get the player asking whether a given target is Evil or not quite often. I think effects like this are usually tied to creature type, which is a lot more guessable

Cat of doom2

17:44

but when used by a fiend it can do other magics should those use the same charges

Thomas Markov

@Catofdoom2 Were those linked duplicate targets what you were looking for with your question?

KorvinStarmast

@Catofdoom2 I think your sword is fine as is, but if it expands crit range rarity needs to go up and it needs to require attunement.

MikeQ

Ah, yeah, good point. "Evil creatures" is vague enough in D&D that players might disagree about whether certain humanoid enemies are evil. On the other hand, this is exactly how paladins played in D&D 3.x/PF1.

KorvinStarmast

@Catofdoom2 yes

Cat of doom2

so how many charges level = charges. level x 2 or 5 or somthing

MikeQ

17:46

What does one charge do?

KorvinStarmast

@MikeQ takes wearer from material plane to nine hells. Hence my rarity suggestion

Cat of doom2

it can open a portal between any of the 9 levels of hell or the matireal plane with contraction @MikeQ

you do need to contrate to open a portal

other effect are a work in progress

KorvinStarmast

@Catofdoom2 Caution. Plane shift is a level 7 spell. Replicating that with great frequency in one day is unbalancing. See my point on charges above. Do you have a copy of DMG?

MikeQ

With a plane shifting mechanic, all that really matters is whether it has 1 or 2+ charges per day. If it only has 1 charge, then plane shifting is a significant choice, because they won't be able to return until tomorrow. Whereas if it has 2+ charges, they can just flip back and forth with little consequences. Although it can be a headache for the GM if the players keep changing scene like that.

KorvinStarmast

@Catofdoom2 you can look for items that have many powers (staff of power is an example) each of which costs more charges or fewer, depending on how powerful it is. You could use that to give yourself ideas.

@MikeQ which is why cubic gate is legendary, I suspect. 😁

MikeQ

17:50

Why would the party need a device that plane shifts them to hell?

Cat of doom2

the camipgign is called demon hunters. nuff said @MikeQ

MikeQ

That doesn't really answer anything

Cat of doom2

their whole job is to kill demons

Thomas Markov

But why are they going to Hell to kill the demons?

Demons in Hell isnt a problem. Demons in Waterdeep is a problem.

Cat of doom2

@ThomasMarkov the church has a hate for demons

MikeQ

17:53

The church sends adventurers into hell to kill demons? This is some Warhammer level shenanigans, but ok.

Thomas Markov

Seems like a waste of resources. Is the material plane already demon-free?

KorvinStarmast

@ThomasMarkov Root cause analysis tells us that is not quite so; destroy them at the source! 😁

Cat of doom2

they want every single demon to die painfully

KorvinStarmast

@ThomasMarkov It keeps the murderhoboes off of the material plane and killing demons, and thus busy.

Thomas Markov

What do the adventurer's get out of this?

Cat of doom2

17:54

the churnch is kinda sorta evil

KorvinStarmast

@ThomasMarkov XP

Thomas Markov

@KorvinStarmast Fair.

MikeQ

It's like the crusades. Send the violent knights on a pointless quest so they don't be violent where it matters.

Cat of doom2

@MikeQ exactly

KorvinStarmast

@MikeQ With the exception that in the crusades some of those knights wanted to build kingdoms in the Levant, and they did. (Lasted a bit over a century).

Thomas Markov

17:55

What is the party's motivation here?

MikeQ

To seek the Holy Grail!

KorvinStarmast

I doubt the adventurers want to build kingdoms in the nine hells

@MikeQ That too

MikeQ

What is their favorite color?

KorvinStarmast

@MikeQ beige

Thomas Markov

@KorvinStarmast It sank into the [fire] swamp?

Cat of doom2

17:56

some of them are getting paid some were raised by the chruch and don't ask question

KorvinStarmast

@ThomasMarkov Yep, and I appreciate the double reference! 😄

MikeQ

What if the players start to ask questions? "Are we the baddies?"

KorvinStarmast

@MikeQ Have Asmodeous show up and assure them that they are not. 😁 He can be trusted.

(well, he can be trusted to manipulate and to lie)

MikeQ

Ok, ok. Let's assume that the campaign premise makes sense. Back to the original question. How many times per day would the party need to travel to hell?

KorvinStarmast

My guess is six to eight since nobody wants to take a short rest in hell ... 😋

Thomas Markov

17:58

@MikeQ Just once, right? In by 9, out by 5?

KorvinStarmast

@ThomasMarkov The commute isn't hell, the destination is!

MikeQ

Is the skull only a plot device because you want regular plane shifting? Or does it serve some other purpose?

Cat of doom2

18:16

@MikeQ that would be a good thing

@ThomasMarkov they may o may not be trapped in hell for a couple days on the regular

@KorvinStarmast they dont want to but they will

KorvinStarmast

@Catofdoom2 muahahahaha = don't forget the "evil DM laugh" at the appropriate moment. 😁😁

Cat of doom2

i'll get practing

a should get to making royal versions of some fiends so that if a tpe of fiend gets the skull they become a stronger boss varient. \

a royal spinned devil a king corribon. and all that stuff

any ideas for royal fiends? @KorvinStarmast

Thomas Markov

Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes has a pretty extensive collection of fiends.

KorvinStarmast

@Catofdoom2 Not really, beyond MoTF that Thomas mentioned. And, as ever, Orcus. Prince of the Undead. He's a pretty standard demon prince archetype.

AncientSwordRage

18:32

@ThomasMarkov I thought you were going to say a "pretty extensive collection of evil laughs".. and I thought .. how is that conveyed in text?

Cooper

@AncientSwordRage muahahahaha vs ahahahahah vs heheheheheh ??

AncientSwordRage

@Cooper I'm sold

Thomas Markov

I dont think this is an actual answer.

It appears to just be instructions for training a real dog.

I settled on flagging NAA.

Cat of doom2

19:09

most importent question!!!!

MikeQ

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

Thomas Markov

@MikeQ Chultan or Waterdavian?

Cat of doom2

19:25

how do i actually DM a moulde?

Someone_Evil

Either that's the name of a monster I'm not familiar with, or an incredibly broad question

MikeQ

Are you asking how to run a module or prewritten adventure? What do you mean "how"?

KorvinStarmast

@Catofdoom2 Yellow Mould (I make joke with typo) is a monster that poisons the PC using spores

Thomas Markov

@KorvinStarmast Found some dog vomit slime mold saturday. Pretty neat stuff.

MikeQ

From my experiences with prewritten adventures, I suggest you be willing to deviate from the written material, and adjust content to better fit the players' expectations.

KorvinStarmast

19:34

@ThomasMarkov For a carefully tailored definition of "neat" 😮

Thomas Markov

KorvinStarmast

@ThomasMarkov Those look like those easter chicks made of marshmellow stuff - aka peeps

MikeQ

Prewritten adventures often have inconsistent stories, unfair challenges, and assumptions about specific party makeup and strategies (e.g., assuming the group has a wizard to dispel a specific trap, or assuming the heroes will follow a specific clue or ask an NPC a specific question)

user521200

cursed peeps

Thomas Markov

Its an opaque black slime under the fluffy yellow bits.

The consistency of room temperature butter.

KorvinStarmast

19:36

burninate it - it's the only way to be sure

user521200

oh so they're filled peeps

Thomas Markov

The red bubbles were like the goo filling of gushers gummies

MikeQ

Also, as part of campaign prep, the GM should read over the written material in advance. Look for potential pitfalls. Look for future story events or important information about NPCs, because they may come up earlier than expected.

Thomas Markov

I read Curse of Strahd straight through twice before I ran it.

Definitely helped.

user521200

I've seen some videos going over the content of a module from the perspective of a DM who's run it talking about pitfalls and such, might feel good if after reading it you still aren't confident.

Trish

20:46

@ThomasMarkov those are smart slime funghi, aren't they?

trogdor

21:07

some might call them fun guys

sorry

Cat of doom2

22:03

final question of the day

Someone_Evil

22:20

It's a long one apparently... :p

Mike Z.

Sup?

BESW

22:43

I need more friends who have played BoB/NDNM games but aren't professional game designers.

Someone_Evil

That's an interesting problem to have. Why has it come up?

BESW

I want to understand the systems better through dialogue, but professional game designers (a) come at it from a specific lens that I feel is incomplete without complementary lenses and (b) it's their job so "noodling about design" just has a very different texture as a conversation which makes it awkward for an amateur like me to pick their brains.

@MikeQ <insert Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 joke here>

(I think one of my long-term game design projects is gonna be best if it builds on BoB/NDNM learning)

Hot RPG Questions

23:57

2

Q: If I start combat by making an attack, does a high-initiative enemy see it coming?

This is a follow-up question I had after reading the accepted answer in this related question. A player is talking to an NPC and then decides to stab the NPC. Let's assume the tension is high enough that the NPC isn't "surprised" (they "noticed the threat"). The DM will ask for an initiative roll...

dnd-5e combat initiative

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