« first day (4140 days earlier)      last day (809 days later) » 

BESW
BESW
12:00 AM
@Phoenices I loved DMing but I spent so much more time in the "how do I make the mechanics fun" stages than in the "how do I make the story/world/characters fun" stages and it got tiresome even when the mechanics were fun to play with on their own.
(another reason I found non-D&D systems so preferable)
 
 
1 hour later…
Hot RPG Questions
Hot RPG Questions
1:11 AM
2
Q: What classes with rage abilities can a Skald multi-class into?

Alexander Ryan BaggettCan a skald multi-class into something else that gives a rage ability. If so what? Supposedly it can based on the text From the bottom of Rage Powers (Ex) If the skald has the ability to rage from another source, he can use his skald rage powers during that rage as well I have heard that the sk...

pathfinder-1e class-feature multi-classing
 
Phoenices
Phoenices
1:23 AM
Yeah, that's a thing that I'm not worrying about much, because I don't want to fall in that trap which I have heard exists. I'm worrying about it about 2/3 as much as I should, though, and I'm going to get caught off guard by not having organized things like statblocks beforehand someday.
Right now about half my non-mechanics time is spent on cosmology worldbuilding, and half on small-scale cultures and creatures. This is a little silly, because cosmology is kind of irrelevant at 1st level.
On the other hand, as a player, I focused on mechanics and world approximately equally, so... eh, I d…
 
 
1 hour later…
goodguy5
goodguy5
2:24 AM
Re: Mold Earth, if I have several casters, can we each chain together our cantrips to instantly put someone in a pit?
 
BESW
BESW
2:41 AM
> Instant Pit Once per scene for free on your turn, you can place the aspect Shallow pit in your zone with one free invoke, or Deep pit with no free invokes.
 
 
2 hours later…
BESW
BESW
4:15 AM
The Stone Beast's Crown by Symbolic City. An investigative adventure for ARC
Himbos of Myth & Mettle by hugeboar. A high fantasy game of comedy, kindness & camp
Art Exhibit by Armanda. A Solo Collecting & Journaling TTRPG
Signal to Noise Press Kit by LunarShadow Designs
Brian Yaksha wrote a twitter thread about "my process with regards to sandbox iterative game design"
 
BESW
BESW
4:29 AM
Better Soulslike Tabletop Jam hosted by Marc Majcher. This game jam is an invitation to anyone and everyone who would like to put a stake in the ground and tell the world "this is what a Dark Souls RPG should look like!" Or, what your Dark Souls RPG should look like, anyway.
 
 
1 hour later…
Phoenices
Phoenices
5:33 AM
Test
Can't send other message - maybe it's too long?
@BESW Having watched the first one, I can say: pretty good. I didn't like the emphasis on colonialism. That concept feels as if it's becoming part of a culture I disagree with, and taking on some of its forms of unruthfulness. The part of that which was most convincing to me was the idea of "maybe assuming other people's cultures are monoliths is stupid and not a good idea IRL. Part 2 of my thoughts: coming soon because I don't know how to add another line on mobile.
 
BESW
BESW
The chat's characters-per-message limit is significantly increased if the message includes a line break.
 
Phoenices
Phoenices
The non-colonialism based parts didn't seem extremely fresh and new, but they weren't bad. Not sure if "don't call gerblins a tribe" is true. It sure sounds like good advice for someone who's played "dumb tribal goblins" for years. But... what if I want some goblins in tribes? Obviously there's a reason for that, but it shouldn't be banned.
 
BESW
BESW
You're reading a lot more prescriptivism into Map Crow's statements than I see.
 
Phoenices
Phoenices
True. It's quite possible this is an attempt to say "the base concept of goblins as always tribal should be rejected."
 
BESW
BESW
"I would not, because" is not equivalent to "Nobody should ever." Especially in the context of somebody making it really clear that they're sharing their current thoughts on a topic they're in the process of exploring and learning about.
 
Phoenices
Phoenices
5:45 AM
No, you're right. I was being unfair.
I recently made a tribe of goblins.that the PCs will probably run into next session, which is why I checked this out. They're a tribe that's about as advanced as most rural humanoids, living in treetop homes and training thieves to steal valuables from the wagons on the nearby trade road. They've got a genuine wizard, scrolls, and tactics, and use intermediaries to buy from towns.
 
BESW
BESW
I have nothing to contribute regarding your feelings about Map Crow's brief mention of colonialism, because they're your feelings and draw on your experiences outside the video which I don't know or share.
I do second Map Crow's recommendation of Hodes' articles to pretty much everybody interested in how speculative fiction in general, and TRPGs in particular, can engage with such things responsibly. I've linked to Hodes several times here in the past and his "Giant Robot of Offense" vocabulary has helped me a lot in thinking deliberately about my design choices.
 
Phoenices
Phoenices
It was fun to make that tribe, and so I was annoyed by the claim that goblins shouldn't always have a chief/tribe/shaman naming scheme. It didn't appear to break any general principles here that I agreed with. Alright, I'll check Hoses out, though he and Map Crow compete with my recently-gifted Stack O' Old D&D Books. In particular, the 2e High Level Campaigns book seems to be a don't of wisdom about any and all campaigns.
 
BESW
BESW
The Giant Robot is how I'd approach using the word "tribe" in my games, for instance. I know that I'm not intending to harm anyone by the use; if I'm careful I can use it without hurting people; and when I put it in a game I'll take care that the inclusion isn't providing other people an opportunity to use it hurtfully.
For example, I can include lots of details and context which actively defy the expected stereotypes which come with careless use of the word, so that not only am *I* not using those stereotypes but it's hard for people using my game to fall into those stereotypes by accident.
That last part is where a lot of game design fails to even try to use material responsibly, so we don't have a lot of commonly known examples of how it's done.
It also helps frame the obligation of care as a scaling issue: there's a BIG difference between putting the head on the robot for a homebrew world that'll never leave the table it's played at, vs putting the head on the robot for a world I'm selling on itch.io, and another scale again if I'm writing the setting for Wizards of the Coast.
I've done stuff at my table that I'd never put in publicly shared material, because putting it into the public breaks context and control in ways that I'm not able to compensate for responsibly.
 
Bardic Wizard
Bardic Wizard
6:10 AM
@BESW weird. I know I’ve been around more than usual lately which should mean that I’m pingable but who knows
@AncientSwordRage recovering from a non-covid illness, mostly
 
BESW
BESW
@BardicWizard Very strange. I could ping everyone else I tried. But now I can again so yey!
 
Bardic Wizard
Bardic Wizard
Yay for that then!
 
bobble
bobble
@BardicWizard those exist???
 
Bardic Wizard
Bardic Wizard
@bobble yeah. Picked it up from school and was out 3/5 days last week
Also almost fell asleep in class twice yesterday
 
BESW
BESW
Yowch
 
Bardic Wizard
Bardic Wizard
6:13 AM
So maybe I shouldn’t have gone back yesterday but there wasn’t a fever so I should have been fine
 
BESW
BESW
I'm glad you're recovering.
 
bobble
bobble
My genetics professor has been having difficulties with her lectures/office hours due to multiple sick little ones - just the standard colds all toddlers get, but incompatible with a two -income household nevertheless.
 
 
2 hours later…
Phoenices
Phoenices
8:26 AM
Oh, forgot to mention somehow - the thing that tips the video from "mid-quality" to "quite good" is the truly breathtaking map he draws during the video as both metaphor and example of his claims.
 
Xirema
Xirema
Is there any way to embed a video into a Stack Exchange post? I was looking at this puzzle and managed to create an application that would let me browse a Fractal Maze (and annotate it with dots to draw paths), and after I found a solution, I took a video following the path through the maze and want to post it as an answer.
I could just post it to Youtube and then link it, but if it doesn't embed in the answer then it just looks like a Link-only answer, which isn't satisfying to me.
 
 
1 hour later…
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
9:47 AM
@Xirema There is not. Some sites have youtube embeds switched on but puzzling.se does not support them.
I would consider it's a dependency on an external resource either way, though I understand the optics are improved with an embed.
Have you considered converting the video to a gif?
If it's quite long, the filesize would probably be prohibitive though. You'd have to fall back on alternatives like highlighting the key points or drawing the path.
 
 
2 hours later…
Hot RPG Questions
Hot RPG Questions
11:29 AM
3
Q: Non-Metahumans with Adept powers

The Amused MuseIn Shadowrun lore, as well as in Running Wild, Street Grimoire, and other places, spirits, dragons, and other things can have the abilities of a mage (though spirits can't conjure most of the time). Is there any lore reason why a spirit, dragon, etc would not be able to be an adept gaining adept ...

lore shadowrun-sr5 shadowrun
 
AncientSwordRage
AncientSwordRage
@BardicWizard ooof, get well soon
 
Mithical
Mithical
12:21 PM
@BESW I keep seeing it and I keep going "ew".
 
BESW
BESW
12:37 PM
Hey, long time no chat.
 
BESW
BESW
12:58 PM
ZiMo campaign: The Toxic Wood by Shane Walshe. A corrosive hexcrawl adventure
 
 
3 hours later…
Hot RPG Questions
Hot RPG Questions
4:25 PM
3
Q: When does caster's DC/attack bonus apply for ring of spell storing?

NuxburryFor the ring of spell storing, I know the spell's DC/attack bonus is based on the caster who originally stored the spell in the ring. My question arises when said caster uses temporary items to boost their spell DC/attack bonus, such as with a Bloodwell Vial. When using the ring to cast a spell, ...

dnd-5e magic-items spellcasting difficulty-class
 
 
1 hour later…
The Oracle
The Oracle
5:33 PM
0
Q: Is asking about the design process of roll20 on-topic?

Exempt-MedicHow was the "target" of a spell chosen for the Roll20 Information Block? That question was recently asked and has comments and various votes about whether it should be open or closed. Is it on-topic? To quote the current form of the question in full: The PHB specifies that there are two parts in...

discussion specific-question on-topic
 
bobble
bobble
6:00 PM
Hi all! I walked out of winter break a fan of Jason Bourne (movies & books so far) and have been trying to figure out why. My current best guess is that I enjoy how competent he is - when he does things, he does them well. His problems, then, are that he knows less about the situation than the people working against him, and that his antagonists are also pretty competent.
Any recommendations for more diverse media like that?
Preferably books, though that's not a requirement, and preferably series, though that's even less of a requirement.
 
 
3 hours later…
AncientSwordRage
AncientSwordRage
9:05 PM
@bobble it's what Sanderson calls an iconic protagonist I think
He gives the example of Bond, but he's hardly a role model
Sherlock Holmes comes to mind as well, but also not a great personality
Kathy Reichs' book series about Temperance Brennan might fit, as she's competent, but I can't remember much else... I know I stopped reading at one point as the MC got insufferable, but I may have just been feeling grumpy
Jack Reacher series also springs to mind but I've read even less, my parents seem to enjoy reading him. The author might be James Patterson?
Dean Koontz's characters, at least the ones I've read aren't all that competent, by the MC of Intensity certainly. That book is full of fairly horrible stuff that the villain does/did/want to do... So may need a large NSFW label on it. I forget any specifics
Yeah, I just looked up the plot summary for Intensity. It's got stuff in it we vetoed for our D&D game I think
And like... Much worse. I forget how it's described (present/past tense) but it's not something I'd recommend without heavy caveating
 
 
2 hours later…
Phoenices
Phoenices
11:36 PM
@bobble The Imager Portfolio, by Modesit (or however it's spelled) fits this description. It's set in a world that's half medieval and half modern - 1750ish technology, but feels like a fantasy world. The protagonist's issue isn't power at any point, though he's not extremely powerful. It's understanding the results of his actions. He's intelligent but inexperienced, and keeps trying to make things work out and learning why things go wrong when he acts with too much or too little thought.
 
BESW
BESW
@bobble John Rogers says the writer's room for the TV series Leverage (2008) called this "competence porn."
It's a very common mode for Cold War era serialized spy stuff like the original Mission: Impossible TV show (1966), Danger Man (1964) (AKA Secret Agent Man and yes you've probably heard the theme song). I also recommend Thunderbirds (1964) and Thunderbirds Are Go (2015) for Super Action Rescue Vehicle competence, and Sapphire & Steel (1979) for low-budget high-concept existential horror competence.
 
bobble
bobble
@Phoenices this sounds very interesting, thank you!
@BESW thanks for the terminology!
@AncientSwordRage yeesh
 
BESW
BESW
Depending on how you like your competence, you might also find films like The Ipcress File (1965) and its sequels compelling; it's basically "What if James Bond but human." (and it's one of the primary references for the Austin Powers character, much more than Bond himself)
Both the book and film The Martian are very much about hyper-competence overcoming realistically un-survivable spacefaring scenarios. There's an element of the same, though expressed in dramatically different ways, in both the Stargate: SG-1 TV series and the books and TV series The Expanse.
 
AncientSwordRage
AncientSwordRage
@bobble yeaaah
 
bobble
bobble
I liked The Martian; read the book >5 times and watched the movie twice :)
 
AncientSwordRage
AncientSwordRage
11:50 PM
I'd have to reread to know how bad it is
 
BESW
BESW
@bobble Then you may also want to look for real-life-survival books, especially autobiographical ones. A lot of them are in the same vein.
Hmm. You might also like the book Hidden Figures (2016).
 
bobble
bobble
Read it too. Middling for me.
 
BESW
BESW
Tower of Secrets (1993) is the autobiographical account of a KGB spy becoming disillusioned with his nation and defecting to America. Lots of hyper-competence stuff in there, mostly around using social engineering to avoid needing to do more "traditional" spywork.
 

« first day (4140 days earlier)      last day (809 days later) »