TRPG General Chat

12:42 AM

"January Book Club Continues!" by Collabs Without Permission. Here's an update about you, about me, and a fun interview with Momatoes about the Phantom Tollbooth and tabletop games! The full interview will be released at the end of the month.

Four Feathered Adventures by Côme Martin. Four light pulp adventures for intrepid birds!

BESW

12:59 AM

Price reduction: BEYOND THE RIFT by Dee Pennyway is now $20 instead of $30, and will be free if it gets 100 sales. A metroidvania-like tabletop game set in a world without memory.

KorvinStarmast

1:33 AM

@Phoenices sorry to be late, but celery. 😊

BESW

Lacuna Apostasy Itchiofunding A sale hosted by Ordoalea Publishing. This is a Domain (setting) for the Domains Horror Roleplaying System. Anyone who buys this, and doesn't have the book itself, will get a 90% off on the Domains Horror Roleplaying System Core Rulebook for the duration of this sale as a bundle!

Hot RPG Questions

1:50 AM

6

Q: Are all the combinations of items in Dungeon Wordle possible?

I recently picked up Dungeon Wordle from the Wordle Jam on itch.io, and I was really impressed... But the way the game 'randomises' what item you get for a given day, is based on the answer to the Wordle puzzle for that day. Given the table in the Dungeon Wordle pdf (which I won't reproduce here,...

3

Q: What can I make with Alchemist's Supplies?

The page on D&D Beyond for Alchemist's Supplies doesn't specify what if anything you can make. Other tool are more obvious in what they're for, like the Forgery Kit is for making forgeries: This small box contains a variety of papers and parchments, pens and inks, seals and sealing wax, gold and...

dnd-5e equipment crafting alchemy

BESW

3:14 AM

"How I make Maps out of Marble — OSP Behind The Scenes" video from Overly Sarcastic Productions.

AncientSwordRage

3:30 AM

A wild bobble appears!

bobble

That I do.

AncientSwordRage

The polka dot umbrella must need a recharge

How goes it?

bobble

Essay needs some last touches, then off to reading Gilgamesh

Phoenices

4:27 AM

@KorvinStarmast No! I must not! Mostly because, if I have carrot, onion, chicken, celery and milk but no potatos, there's no possible reason to not make chicken pot pie.

AncientSwordRage

9:15 AM

@bobble oooh that sounds like a cool read

BESW

12:03 PM

"Hexcrawl across sand and sea with a pair of bookless RPG settings geared towards exploration" article by Chase Carter for Dicebreaker. Undying Sands and Bottled Sea are two tabletop RPG settings that use hexagonal pieces instead of a book to depict evocative worlds.

QueasySpaceship shared on twitter sketches of "an idea for a book of enoch aasimar"

Wyrd Science Magazine announced on twitter that "to celebrate our first year I've made both issues PWYW on Itch & DriveThruRPG"

Author, cartoonist, and animator SydneyPadua discovered on twitter that there is a genre of "80s RPG games" in which "GEN X-ers WE ARE ESSENTIALLY HOBBITS AND ELVES"

Upcoming Kickstarter: Justicar by Nevyn Holmes. A mystery game of courtroom drama for 4 players

Bat 'Ship! by Ash Can Games (And So Can You!). A Game of Sonar & Seduction

"Play as adorable goblin bakers and hamster wranglers in this storytelling game" article by Alex Meehan for Dicebreaker. Play an upcoming board game featuring adorable goblin characters that fits entirely inside a mint tin box.

AncientSwordRage

If there's an AncientSwordRage, does that imply there's an AncientCupRage, AncientWandRage and an AncientStarRage?

BESW

Or possible a MidlifecrisisSwordRage?

AncientSwordRage

12:29 PM

@BESW I thought you said MidwifecrisisSwordRage then...

Pangalactic sits down and reads D&D 4E for the first time (twitter thread)

BESW

@AncientSwordRage Sounds like a Witcher/Call the Midwife crossover spinoff show. Would watch.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW 100%

@Mindwin I'm aware of what the RAW is here...it's the first half of this answer. There is no DC for the rider's saving throw because it isn't a pass or fail, its purpose is to set the DC for the mount's ability check. As for "too clunky"...it takes about the same amount of time as resolving an attack, which is also two dice rolls to resolve one action (sometimes more if making more than one attack) - an attack roll and a damage roll. "Your house rule breaks RAW" is a very interesting criticism to make of a house rule. — Thomas Markov 19 hours ago

"Your house rule breaks RAW" I just... I ...uh... What?

BESW

Everything breaks RAW. RAW is definitionally unplayable, it is the fantasy of Text Without Audience Or Author.

3

@AncientSwordRage There's some very nice analysis here, they're picking up on a lot of what I picked up when I first read it.

Oh oh they're reading about implements now. [watches eagerly] My mind was absolutely blown by how much our categorical assumptions about magic as separate obscured the simple and obvious concept of "what if magic weapons, but for spells."

AncientSwordRage

12:54 PM

@BESW starred for truthiness

BESW

Hah! Channel Divinity mechanics tripped us up too. It's a simple rule exception but weirdly hard to express clearly to people who are still learning the wider system.

Exempt-Medic

5:18 PM

Hmm, I find myself wishing the "delete" prompt would change to "undelete" instead of being part of the pop-up when voting to 'delete' a question you already voted on

TheDragonOfFlame

We don't like this kind of answer, do we?

0

A: Can a gem dragonborn use the Psionic Mind trait to telepathically issue commands to an elemental spirit from the Summon Elemental spell?

Yes if you have any kind of reasonable DM. I am not worrying in this answer about RAW, RAI or RA, other that RAF (rules as fun), and I never do, and would always encourage others to view DND in the same light. A telepathic character essentially has a new form of communication that isn't standard,...

Exempt-Medic

@TheDragonOfFlame I was wondering if that pushed the "there is a right way to GM" button too hard

TheDragonOfFlame

@Exempt-Medic yeah, and also its just an opinion. Who says that's what any 'reasonable DM' would do? I wouldn't do that, silence is a spell for a reason. I consider myself fairly reasonable.

illustro

8:01 PM

@BESW Absolutely, this is definitely a valid use of the alternative skill rules for D&D (which I make use of liberally when I DM)

AncientSwordRage

8:56 PM

@illustro I think the way the 'alternate' rules in the DMG are present ed doesn't make them look like viable options. They look like good alternatives to the (sometimes) oversimplified non-alternatives, but they're tucked away like somebody didn't want them to be seen

If one if the alternative had replaced the main rule, and the simplified rule was in a side bar it would be better an arbritrarily 90% of the time

illustro

9:07 PM

@AncientSwordRage Yep, there is certainly a presentational problem. The fact they are called "Variant" rules makes them seem like a "bad idea" (since variant's normal meaning is very similar to aberrant in most people's mind)

AncientSwordRage

@illustro it feels symptomatic of 5e trying to please too many people at once

illustro

9:24 PM

@AncientSwordRage I just think it's poor presentation of alternative rules to be honest, and not symptomatic of a particular perspective. Imo, 5e has done a very good job of making D&D in particular more accessible to a much wider audience (which is a net positive I think, for the hobby). But that accessibility comes at a price.

BESW

10:14 PM

I'd love to believe that, but I'm not sure how D&D's tenure as a synecdoche for the entire hobby has benefited indie or small press creators that aren't just making D&D-clones or extra material for D&D; or what possible benefit could outweigh Wizards' support of racist and abusive legacy creators driving new talent out of the industry entirely.

(Also, the skill flexibility I was describing is a core component of 4e's out-of-combat design, and a basal design principle in most of the other skill-based games I've played more recently like Bubblegumshoe and Atomic Robo.)

We know that D&D's omnipresence causes widespread confusion because people assume that whatever D&D does is what other TRPGs do too, or that things D&D touts as its strengths are unique to it, both of which are problems and neither of which would exist if D&D was seen as just one option among many:

2 days ago, by BESW

POCGamer wrote a twitter thread about the place D&D holds in the hobby and common misconceptions about its similarities and differences compared to other TRPGs.

We know that WotC's outsized influence means it leads industry standards for how creators are treated, and that its standards are trash.

And the accessibility of D&D is only really in relation to other kinds of D&D; its relative excellent falls apart when compared to the wider industry's offerings at lower costs, smaller page counts, specific support for a greater swathe of genres/tones/themes, reduced sunk costs, no need for specialized tools, more literally accessible formats, less restrictive IP sandboxes...

"Interview with 2-Minute Tabletop: Maps, Tokens and More!" Interview with Ross McConnell for The Geek Post.

Heartbeats in Perfect Sync by Nathan Blades. An urban fantasy shounen anime in TTRPG form!

"A TTRPG Co-Op — the Future of Indie TTRPGs?" article by Max Fefer on Medium. 2021 was a busy year for the indie TTRPG scene. Itchfunding, TTRPG TikTok, and degreening from Kickstarter have been exciting developments.

Big Feels TTRPG A bundle hosted by kumada1. People play TTRPGs for a lot of reasons. Sometimes it's for the feeling of success. Sometimes it's for the feeling of closeness to a character. Sometimes it's for the feeling of introspection, or tragedy, or anger, or justice. Here in this bundle, you'll find 65 TTRPGs that inspire feelings. Romance, compassion, consideration, righteousness, apprehension, peace, and more.

KorvinStarmast

10:49 PM

@Phoenices completely fair point, though my wife claims that turnips are a suitable potato substitute, and I utterly do not agree.

@illustro if you have ever used the 5e flanking rules you'll know why they made it a variant rule, and why they hid it away.

BESW

11:06 PM

I suppose there is one way that D&D's ubiquity is, technically, helping the industry at large, but it's a back-handed compliment at best: because Wizards can leverage Hasbro-level influence, its sandboxed and predatory online store for third-party material is partnered with more global finanicial institutions than alternatives like itch.io or Kickstarter. This means that D&D Beyond is a storefront available to creators in many parts of the world where other options aren't supported by any of the financial services available in their country.

illustro

11:36 PM

@KorvinStarmast that is one I haven't run, in part because it's got some severe problems when paired with classes like the rogue. I'm not saying all of the "variant" rules should be front and centre, but I am saying the choices made on how to present them cause issues for their use or experimentation with by DMs.

illustro

11:46 PM

@BESW yes, and all of the problems that WoTC have caused (along with their iron-fisted approach to licensing) are the price we are currently paying. Could they make the industry better, absolutely. Have they done bad things while getting to where they are, yes. But I still think that the explosion D&D5e has had is good for the hobby, because it has normalised the idea of TTRPGs as something that everyone can enjoy, as opposed to being "only for uber-nerds" or ...

BESW

Please don't mistake Wizards' misdeeds for history, or passive negligence.

And I don't buy "a rising tide lifts all ships" when what we're actually talking about is the expansion of a single franchise from a company which acts like it's the whole industry.

illustro

... as "a potential recruiting tool for satanists" being the impression held by people who don't play TTRPGs. And while D&D may currently be forming people's expectations of how TTRPGs are played, it won't always be the case, and the people who have come to the hobby because of it will stay and grow those other niches.

@BESW I'm not.

BESW

Again, I'd love to think that. Maybe you could show your support for those claims. What I'm seeing is that on rpg.se when somebody asks a question about an indie TRPG our users will accuse them of shilling for the creator, assume it's a D&D-like without checking, try to close it as not a TRPG, or get rude if the querent doesn't teach them the TRPG in the comments.

2

AncientSwordRage

@illustro that's a lot of absolutes being assumed? "people who don't play TTRPGs" is as much a monolith as people who come to the hobby and then move to indie games

BESW

I learned TRPGs in the Bible Belt in the mid 2000s and met exactly one non-TRPG-player who made a reference to the Satanic Panic, and that was a joke because he knew it was nonsense. That's not to say such people don't exist but... it's not anywhere near a universal even fifteen years ago near the geographic epicenter of the era.

AncientSwordRage

11:55 PM

@BESW I've definitely experienced that

BESW

What I do meet is people who play D&D who think that "not like D&D at all" means... Pathfinder.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW ☝🏻yup this is my experience

BESW

Or who say that they don't try games other than D&D because they don't want to read another thousand pages to gain system mastery, or that they can't commit to months of campaign on something they don't know they like, or that TRPGs are too expensive to buy on speculation.

And we get people all the time who say that they play D&D despite not wanting to, because nobody they know will play anything else.

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