TRPG General Chat

Hot RPG Questions

00:31

3

Q: Can the Telekinetic Feat be applied to yourself to act as a 'Disengage'

In Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, Page 81, it describes the Telekinetic Feat. The third paragraph states: As a bonus action, you can try to telekinetically shove one creature you can see within 30 feet of you. When you do so, the target must succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC 8 + your profi...

Ben

00:58

Howdy do

AncientSwordRage

01:16

@Ben hidey-hi!

Ben

How are we today?

BESW

@Catofdoom2 There's no rule about "good" bosses. A good encounter is one that meets your group's needs at the moment in that particular game. Assuming you mean a high-stakes combat encounter which acts as the culmination of a narrative or exploratory arc, consider principles like "the encounter rewards engagement with previous parts of the arc" and "PCs and antagonist(s) have goals that might be accomplished w/o killing the other." But both of those are unnecessary for certain kinds of playstyles.

If you're in a game that values prolonged tactical-combat encounters, consider phased fights not unlike some of the more memorable MMO raid designs.

Even outside of games that emphasize prolonged tactical combat, I've had good results with including environmental elements that can be used to both advantage and disadvantage by all parties; some MMO boss fights give good examples of this if that's your style, but I also recommend studying the object-focused choreography of Jackie Chan films (especially from his Hong Kong era).

Now live online: Mnemomic: A Weaver's Almanac by A Circle of Weavers is now available as a digital web-book. Gameplay rules and setting lore for anyone looking to play out stories in the world of memory.

Help CoffeeSnake Crowdfund a Baby. A bundle hosted by CoffeeSnake Studios with content from 16 creators.

Joshua

01:59

Fear not the Lich for his monstrous form; fear rather the man who bent all his will and sacrificed everything for power and domination over others.

BESW

Dec 28 '17 at 20:35, by BESW

Demilychee? A fruit-bearing lich?

Joshua

Is that only funny if you don't know the ch in lich makes k sound?

BESW

It's only not funny if you insist on ignoring the common modern pronunciation.

Joshua

I guess I just don't get it; and I tell lots of puns.

MikeQ

How many liches does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

Adeptus

02:11

@MikeQ 🤣

BESW

@MikeQ A-one, a-two, a-phylacter-three.

Joshua

Been watching Count von Count?

BESW

Mike made a Mr. Owl reference, so I did too.

Joshua

I counted once. 464

Adeptus

Joshua

02:17

Pun!

Ben

@Adeptus 'Ah, 'ah' ah!

BESW

Seriously though I'd be very happy if the word phylactery stopped being associated with monstrosity.

It seems disrespectful at best and I'm working on excising it from my fantasy vocabulary.

MikeQ

What about "horcrux" as a loanword replacement

Joshua

only if you can win the copyright battle

would be a good change though as as far as I can tell that didn't exist before 1998

AncientSwordRage

@MikeQ to be honest association with that franchise isn't exactly issue free

Joshua

02:21

although it may be a pointless fight; Jedi really means something rather bad and nobody remembers now

BESW

Better in the sense that it's not disrespecting a religious tradition; not ideal in that it perpetuates the non-obscurity of the creator it's associated with.

I'd be inclined to use ordinary English descriptive words like "Soul Jar," or invoke a tradition like Koschei's egg which has always been that exact thing.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW so very cursory searching online send to imply the term is not too contentious as it's not the only/main word, which is teffillin

reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/f5ubvw/…

Obviously opinions in that post aren't going to cover everybody, so I'm fine not using the term myself, but I've never seen it raised as an issue before

@BESW sounds good to me

BESW

[shrug] I've seen Jewish RPGers express concerns about it. Given the ubiquity of anti-Jewishness in fantasy I'm inclined to be extra sensitive to it.

Joshua

You know; I'd love to just call it soul anchor

Fun fact: in old D&D it was supposed to be a box containing scrolls but people didn't like idea much and preferred more creative object selection

AncientSwordRage

@BESW that enough for me

BESW

02:29

D&D, in particular, is rather infamous for stripping context from traditions. I'm not attributing intent to the use of the word in D&D, just observing that most of the time that D&D references real-life traditions it's already filtered them through at least one layer of white-English pop culture.

AncientSwordRage

Also, apparently I have heard of the connection before

BESW

(see: Rakshasa)

MikeQ

Also the association between various djinn and the Greek model of 4 elements (although it's not as problematic as evil phylacteries)

BESW

And yes, the "box full of scrolls" description is VERY much a reason to dismiss arguments that "phylactery" might be used in D&D as a more generic term for a protective talisman.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW there's plenty of better terms than phylactery for sure

BESW

02:32

Hmm I should go see what term Yep used for the Stolen Sea.

...Do I even still have those books anymore? @trogdor Did I give you the Dragon of the Stolen Sea and if so do you still have it?

MikeQ

He is a dragon, so maybe he stole it as per the title's instructions

AncientSwordRage

Interestingly the Islamic equivalent is called Tawiz, and is forbidden/frowned upon/very popular depending on who you ask

trogdor

@BESW uh what's that one about?

BESW

@trogdor It's the one with the Monkey King and the orphan boy and the dragon whose inland sea got stolen by a witch.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW that sounds very inconsiderate

trogdor

02:34

@BESW you either have not given that to me or I haven't read it

oooh wait

BESW

Omigosh how could I have NOT given that to you ages ago?

trogdor

I just remembered that now, you did give me that at some point

BESW

VINDICATED.

(Correction: "Dragon of the Lost Sea.")

trogdor

I think I gave it back at some point though?

Joshua

Cat IQ? youtube.com/watch?v=aaBHzfc0KOg

BESW

02:37

The witch reduced the dragon's inland sea to a blue pebble, which became the focus for her magic. Unleashing the sea also caused her to lose all the magic she'd used to make the pebble in the first place, severely weakening her.

MikeQ

Wow, spoilers much

Joshua

You know; I kind of liked the Wesnoth of making a Lich; you cast delayed raise dead (the same spell for animating a zombie) on yourself with your dying breath. No soul jar for you as a young lich; you only made one later, if at all.

BESW

Ah yes, the 40-year-old spoilers for a book inspired by a 500-year-old folktale.

"Interview on Crow Island Funeral // PROCESSION with Jan Martin" on Thoughty.

BESW

03:00

Kickstarter: Strange Hills by Jason Vanhee. A tabletop rpg about loss and redemption, based on the No Dice, No Masters system.

Applied Hope: The Solarpunk & Utopias Jam

Never Setting Sun by M.A. GUAX. An enigmatic and minimalist, system agnostic setting for any TTRPG

Joshua

03:23

Who was it who had the idea of avoiding the Necromancy laws by only raising copies of self (via statues and stone to flesh).

BESW

A teamup of Narcissus and Pygmalion?

Hot RPG Questions

04:13

6

Q: Does moving by means of a bonus action provoke opportunity attacks?

The criteria for not provoking an opportunity attack when leaving an opponent’s reach are: Take the Disengage action or Teleport or Move (or be moved) without using your action, reaction, or movement. (actual rules text: You can avoid provoking an opportunity attack by taking the Disengage act...

dnd-5e opportunity-attack

BESW

04:25

...the next time somebody comes at me with one of those "verisimilitude" arguments to justify some D&D nonsense, I may have to fire back with the taxonomy of the supernatural.

MikeQ

Oh? What's the context of this?

BESW

Oh, it's just part of my ongoing disquiet with the tendency for modern fantasy to classify the mystical. The difference between a zombie and a revenant, a vampire and a werewolf, a goblin and a fairy, are modern orders imposed mostly by people who did not actually participate in the traditions.

And it particularly irks me when people who accept that modern taxonomy without criticism, turn around and use "realism" or "historical accuracy" to argue against something that's actually historical like ethnic diversity or accessibility devices.

(As with many things, we can probably blame Tolkien and his fanatic imitators for normalizing a lot of downright abnormal choices in fantasy. You might think somebody with his reverence for Nordic texts wouldn't have represented elves and dwarves as separate species, or made such a big deal out of retconning orcs and goblins to be different groups just because he decided he liked a different word when he wrote the sequel.)

Adeptus

05:01

@BESW Same goes for golem?

BESW

Oh gosh so much more for that, especially in monstrous contexts but also just as a synonym for humanoid construct.

[rummages]

The Golem and the Jewish Superhero

►

trogdor

yeah golem were origionally guardians weren't they?

BESW

It's almost 40 minutes but I strongly recommend it.

(Amusingly, I'm currently editing some text and audio about the role of storytelling in identity.)

Hot RPG Questions

05:51

2

Q: Can Spined Devils learn Common?

Spined Devils have 11 intelligence and they don't know common. Can they learn common language from a NPC/PC? For reference, I'm a player in this game. The DM said he remembers something like you have to have 1+int modifier for learning a language with normal ways (ı mean just by from normal teach...

dnd-5e languages

BESW

06:48

@HotRPGQuestions StefanHuddlest1 wrote a twitter thread with a "DM tip: Consider granting more languages, maybe a lot more."

2

(Summary: tying language to Int is the kind of nonsense that only an insular monolingual culture could come up with; it makes more sense to tie the number of languages known to the number of languages the character is exposed to.)

3

(response threads include some really great discussions about how shifting language acquisition from on/off to a set of narrative-contextual fluent/dialect values, creates many more interesting story opportunities.)

AncientSwordRage

09:53

@BESW maybe this spined devil took a summer camp on the material plane

BESW

10:54

@AncientSwordRage It seems odd that devils, generally, wouldn't know at least enough off a wide-distribution mortal language to ~~ask where the bathroom is~~ offer a rigged bargain.

Shalvenay

11:33

@BESW my gnoll from AD&D had nothing remarkable for an INT mod, but knew oh, a dozen or so languages XD

Hot RPG Questions

3

Q: Do spells halving movement stack?

If a group of monsters were, say, Slowed and then subjected to Sickening radiance would their speed be one-half normal, or one-fourth? Slow has, in part: An affected target’s speed is halved... A monster who fails their Sickening radiance saving throw: ...suffers one level of exhaustion... .....

dnd-5e spells movement stacking

AncientSwordRage

11:54

@BESW makes sense

AncientSwordRage

13:53

I'm looking at the DNDBeyond pdf character sheet and there's a few things that seem off like the fact that the character description is in very small text, and the image I uploaded isn't in the white square above that text (which is what I'm guessing it's there for)

Someone_Evil

I've not been much impressed by DDB's pdf sheets either

Akixkisu

14:26

I like them, though they aren't prient friendly.

I think my favourite generated pfd sheets are the ones that Genesis does for Splittermond.

AncientSwordRage

14:56

@Someone_Evil any alternatives you can think of?

Someone_Evil

@AncientSwordRage Generated? No, but I haven't looked at that. I made myself some custom ones, but that's mostly preference over the official ones

AncientSwordRage

@Someone_Evil fair enough

Someone_Evil

My biggest issue with the DDB sheets were the amount of space wasted on headers and similar formatting, and redundant general info (which also then leads to text being small, because there's too much for the boxes)

AncientSwordRage

@Someone_Evil hard same

Someone_Evil

I think some of the form fillable official sheets let you include a picture of yourself if you're going for that

AncientSwordRage

15:16

@Someone_Evil I might look into it

Trish

16:03

VTC: Designer Reasons Intent in disguise: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/190888/…

Thomas Markov

@Trish I think its fine, I'll just add a clarification that it is requesting official canonical sources.

Akixkisu

@ThomasMarkov That seems like it is just asking for designer reasons, explained in written form.

I think there needs to be more detail in regards to what they are looking for to make it stackable.

Thomas Markov

How about "rules source" instead of publication

Akixkisu

16:18

@ThomasMarkov That is certainly an improvement.

But I think even then it is right on the edge.

But that might also be my bias at work there.

Thomas Markov

So that devouring corpse question

I found the exact reference to Critical Role using hunger of hadar to devour corpses.

KorvinStarmast

@ThomasMarkov Hadar was hungry, and I guess not very picky as to diet.

Thomas Markov

Also they feature a cantrip that does exactly what OP is asking about

MemeMan

17:49

@ThomasMarkov @Someone_Evil @MikeQ , Do any of you know what page of "Buldars Gate Decent into Arnevus" the sword of Zariel stats are on?

Thomas Markov

@MemeMan It's the very last entry of Appendix C

Dont know the page number though.

MemeMan

Thanks!

I found it!

Cat of doom2

19:00

hi

Hot RPG Questions

21:39

6

Q: Have oozes ever been a playable race?

I would like to play as a gelatinous cube with class levels. The game is 5e and I know no such option is available in 5e but in previous editions lots of things were possible. Has there at any time in any edition of D&D been a ooze, preferably the gelatinous cube as a playable race?

dungeons-and-dragons races

Hot RPG Questions

22:04

2

Q: How do I upgrade my party's weapons?

I am a newish GM. Me and my party had about 5 sessions and I think it is the time to give them better weapons, but I could no find any tables for lvl 4 characters or anything similar. Is there a need to upgrade them, like giving extra damage or change the die from 1d10 to 1d12 or will it be balan...

dnd-5e magic-items weapons character-advancement

KorvinStarmast

22:18

Somebody needs to take a chill pill

Hot RPG Questions

22:29

1

Q: Can you make a very very slow demiplane with create demiplane?

My goal is to create a Demiplane where I could craft, taking my time to do it, while time on the material plane would advance very very slowly. Exemple : 1 year on my demiplane = 1 minute on the material plane In order to do that, I tried to understand the rules but I am not sure on how to interp...

spells pathfinder-1e magic planes

doppelgreener

psst, does anyone with pathfinder expertise want to add tag descriptions for aegis and channel-energy to wrap up thomas's usage guidance checklist?

Thomas Markov

@KorvinStarmast Sometimes users are just unwilling to align with the content standards of the community. This is okay, as long as the user can recognize that the community isn’t going to change just for them. But sometimes they dig their heels in and let frustration mount until you get what we have here.

KorvinStarmast

@ThomasMarkov Or, like me, tell a few people how tired you are of their crap and then get suspended for a while.

I eventually stopped doing that, though.

GcL

@ThomasMarkov The shifting standards, the hard to find standards, or the standards you have to suss out yourself from extensive use of the site?

@KorvinStarmast but have you ever crapped so much it made you tired?

KorvinStarmast

@GcL only when I got dysentery as a teenager

GcL

22:35

@KorvinStarmast At least you made it to Oregon. I was worried you'd die fording a river.

KorvinStarmast

@GcL not to mention the cotton mouths

GcL

@KorvinStarmast Always have a gallon of water when you're getting stoned.

KorvinStarmast

@GcL particularly if the word ecstasy is in the evening's vocabulary

GcL

@KorvinStarmast Also a pacifier in that case, or something squishy to grind your teeth on.

KorvinStarmast

glad I never got into that scene, a few of the people who worked for me did ... so it goes

Someone_Evil

22:43

Well this conversation took weird turns in rapid succession

BESW

Song Title Adventure Jam A game jam hosted by 蠢謳迷 / omi chun. Song Title Adventure Jam is about taking real-world songs that exist and making analog game adventures out of them.

Royal Rumble by Nana. A solitaire TTRPG set in an alternate medieval universe

The Monsoon campaign setting is offering a free 5e adventure to people who sign up with their website. “Trail of Madness” is a quick-start adventure designed to introduce new players into the world of Moonsoon. Here, you and your friends will protect a Cappy village from an ancient rampaging guardian. Swashbuckling characters, mystical legends and a lush dangerous jungle awaits!

@Someone_Evil [offers alternative topics]

If your Obscure Tomes Of Forgotten Knowledge aren't littered with manicules, what's even the point? "Point, don’t point" by John Boardley for I Love Typography. From prehistoric pointing and medieval marginalia to manicures and mayhem. Learn about the printers' fist or manicule and its first appearence in typographic or printed books.

And even more off topic but certainly relephant to this chat's interests,

"We Asked, You Answered: Your 50 Favorite Sci-Fi And Fantasy Books Of The Past Decade" by Petra Mayer for NPR. Earlier in the summer, we asked you to vote for your favorite science fiction and fantasy reads of the past decade — so here are 50 fabulous reads, curated by our expert judges and you, the readers.

Reminds me to put Radiance back on my TBR for a time when my brain is feeling particularly limber. Loved the ambiance, but I've recently lost all patience with the "write like things only the author could possibly know are actually common knowledge" style.

...Also I haven't finished the Wayfarers series and I have no good reason for that.

Half that list is already on by TBR and everything on it that I've read I would whole-heartedly recommend.

GcL

@Someone_Evil Sometimes you get Oregon Trail references. It happens.

Someone_Evil

Spinning Silver (and Uprooted) get mine

BESW

23:04

Imperiah Radch blew my mind when I first read it, though it now feels rather traditional compared with Murderbot or Teixcalaan which address similar themes and motifs.

The Dead Djinn stories are great, they're funny and grim, sarcastic and sincere, and the worldbuilding is only outpaced by the characters which inhabit the world.

Green Bone, Daevabad, Wormwood, and Black Sun are on my TBR. Ted Chiang is on my TBR as a category unto himself but so far I've only read "The Story of Your Life." Haven't read Changeling but Victor LaValle is a horror author who is so intense I've been unable to finish some of his books so if you're into that...

Binti, of course. Just so good. Okorafor is iconically unbothered by conventions and expectations and Binti delivers the goods.

I've only read one Lady Astronaut story but it was enough to get all of them a spot on my TBR. Black Leopard, Red Wolf has been recommended to me many times. Cixin Liu is another "I don't know why I haven't read this author yet I really should" entry.

Broken Earth is powerful and awe-ful and will be in my head forever. I'm very glad I read it before 2020.

An Unkindness of Ghosts is a favorite of several of my friends. It looks really really good but I haven't been in an emotional place for it the several times I've started it. And then Solomon went and put out The Deep which I also want to read but EMOTIONS.

bobble

23:21

reminds me to say: @BESW, I finished Black Sun <3 very good book, me want more

BESW

Awesome!

Have you read anything else by Roanhorse?

bobble

I rarely notice the author's name when reading, so let me look up a list of her works

BESW

in Here There Be Dragons, Jun 21 at 13:42, by BESW

"Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™" by Rebecca Roanhorse. (also available read by LeVar Burton)

bobble

Oh, I remember reading that.

BESW

Dec 21 '18 at 23:04, by BESW

Trail of Lightning is a novel by Rebecca Roanhorse, in which the Diné (Navajo) nation walls itself off from the rest of the world as climate change causes flooding, storms, famine, and political upheaval. Within the walls of Dinétah, the old gods and clan powers return... and so do monsters.

She's also written at least one Star Wars novel.

bobble

23:24

None of the others ring a bell

AncientSwordRage

May have been oversharing...

bobble

If we're recommending fantasy, I'll throw in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and its sequels. Slightly embarrassingly, they're my main source of Chinese folklore knowledge, despite me being half-Chinese.

There's a delightful thing where (minor structure spoilers) the little short stories embedded throughout the books end up mattering in a big way to the plot/resolution of the final novel.

BESW

That sounds nice.

AncientSwordRage

@bobble I'll definitely add it to my story graph list

BESW

@bobble Not speculative fiction, but you might be interested in Laurence Yep's "Golden Mountain Chronicles." It's a ten-book series spanning multiple generations of a Chinese family immigrating to America from 1849 to 1995, written by a Chinese-American from 1984 to 2011.

AncientSwordRage

23:43

@BESW I have that queued up now for tomorrows walk to work

@BESW The Paper Menagerie is another good story in that space, but with a little more fantasy

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