TRPG General Chat

BESW

00:45

@plerpsandplerps There's a ton of games like this! And in my experience it's not so much that everpresent turn orders change the game, rather it's that games use this concept to meet certain goals which unstructured order doesn't support. They tend to be games with a strong structure and narrow focus, and "turn order" doesn't necessarily look like D&D-style combat initiative.

For example, in Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple each player's turn starts with a semi-random mechanic that lets them choose what kind of action they'll take (getting in trouble, or helping someone) and then they narrate their character toward that outcome with the support of the other players; when the outcome is achieved, focus moves to the next player.

Or you could look at Lovecraftesque, which doesn't go around the table one by one in every scene, but each scene has a clear set of events which must be met in order by the Witness and the Narrator before it ends. And the Journey Into Darkness scene is specifically split into at least 12 turns of escalating shared narration that does pass sequentially around the table.

Or games like The Station, i'm sorry did you say street magic, and Together Among The Stars, which use turn orders to shift the spotlight around the table.

I've also imposed turn order on otherwise very loosely-formed systems that don't have any initiative-like concept at all, such as Cthulhu Dark, when the group is large enough that we need the structure in order to keep participation equitable.

Joshua

03:07

suprise side effect: if you read the book of the dead you raise the dead; but the undead are not friendly to you

BESW

Isn't the Book of the Dead a funerary text for guiding the deceased to their desired afterlife?

Joshua

depends on who you ask; nethack believes something else

BESW

I'd be upset with the person who took me away from the Field of Reeds, for sure.

Joshua

fair point

BESW

Yeah, I'd be surprised if the Book of Emerging Forth into the Light disturbed the dead instead of helping them find peace. I would not be surprised that they were angry with me if it did work that way.

...although I suppose if you were, say, reading from the Papyrus of Ani, I wouldn't be too shocked if Ani showed up--but just to take it back from the British Museum.

Joshua

03:22

An unexpected development.

BESW

Maybe a little detour to deface Sir Budge's grave.

BESW

05:10

"The Gaming Shelf Plunges Into the Apocalyptic Navathem’s End" by Linda Codega for Gizmodo.

Mangayaw by goobernuts. Rules-light adventuring in an Early Philippines-inspired world

MAGI by Adrian Lumm. Futuristic Fantasy Roleplay, Illuminated by LUMEN

Hot RPG Questions

05:45

2

Q: Does Symbol require the target to be fully inside the sphere?

…When you inscribe the glyph, choose one of the options below for its effect. Once triggered, the glyph glows, filling a 60-foot-radius sphere with dim light for 10 minutes, after which time the spell ends. Each creature in the sphere when the glyph activates is targeted by its effect, as is a c...

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06:09

4

Q: What does it mean in-game to be better at Deception than Persuasion?

Recently in-game I found myself moderating an 'off-screen' encounter between two NPC's; one an intelligent animal companion (winter wolf) of one of the PC's, and the other a Rakshasa who had no particular sympathy or animosity toward the PC's themselves, but who was interested in using the animal...

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The Oracle

06:47

0

Q: Is the general form of a common question a duplicate of the specific forms?

The situation is the following: there are often questions where the querant is facing a very specific instance of a more general issue. For example: Someone wants to know when a colossal creature would be affected by Symbol. Here the general question is how much of a large or larger creature's s...

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The Oracle

07:11

0

Q: Is creating duplicate signpost questions wrong?

I created a new question as a signpost for an existing question, because the existing question was using language that made it hard to find (at least for me), then immediately closed it as a duplicate, pointing to the other question. Thomas recommended to not do that, but rather to edit and retag...

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AncientSwordRage

12:18

@BESW My Larp character got resurrected once and I roleplayed them arguing not wanting to some back

They were a paladin of 'order' (like lawful but fractionally less dumb), so their afterlife was them turning big wheel - forever contributing to some larger machine they we're aware of

BESW

When I wrote up a "raise the dead" ritual for my 4e campaign, skills like Diplomacy and Perform were used to help convince the soul to be willing to return.

AncientSwordRage

12:34

@BESW and deception? 👀

BESW

That would fall under "if you want to use a skill that's not listed, make your case to the group."

AncientSwordRage

I've got "Where do we go from here" stuck in my head now

BESW

The last couple days I've found that "my dreams of CONquest!" overrides just about every other earworm.

AncientSwordRage

I've got youtube back at work - but now I have lost my earphones

BESW

You'll get a significant fraction of the effect just from this screenshot.

Graham Crowder, an actor famous for playing "mad scientist" type roles and who had previously turned down the role of the Fourth Doctor, played the secondary villain Soldeed in the Doctor Who story "The Horns of Nimon." Pictured above is a still in which he clutches his face in despair upon learning that he's not the Big Bad Villain of the story, just the now-expendable tool of the main villain.

According to behind-the-scenes lore, Crowder thought they were just doing a camera test and acted much more extravagantly than he would have otherwise. So of course that's the take they kept.

AncientSwordRage

13:14

@BESW I think you've shared this before, but I didn't look properly the first time

KorvinStarmast

15:34

The problem of sentient weapons: DM needs to role play them sometimes. While I like to RP as the DM, it's part of the fun, it can add to overhead when there are three sentient weapons. (Group has Wave and Blackrazor, and is close to finding whelm).

AncientSwordRage

15:49

@KorvinStarmast my GM is roleplaying my Book of Shadows as sentient, more or less. It's very much appreciated

KorvinStarmast

@AncientSwordRage Oh, that is soooooo cool! I wish my GM did that. Channeling the Patron?

AncientSwordRage

16:36

@KorvinStarmast sorta

turned out the patron didn't appreciate the book of shadows being taken into an anti-magic room

Joel Harmon

17:22

@KorvinStarmast Consider setting up a rotation, where each sentient weapon is played by the player on its owner's left.

bobble

18:14

^ meme ferret made at the time

GcL

@JoelHarmon or taking a page out of troupe style play. The DM runs the minor character for a little bit, but then let the players take over. Worked well for me so far.

AncientSwordRage

20:17

@bobble was that me or scibirb?

bobble

20:43

hmm, I changed the file and didn't edit the message after

You inspired it though

plerpsandplerps

@BESW Thanks for following up on this! These all look like some interesting mechanics! Sadly my question was closed because I suppose it wasn't mechanics-focused enough.

AncientSwordRage

@bobble 🙌🏻

Hot RPG Questions

20:59

3

Q: Can the Book of Shadows be used to summon a patron?

Dracolich Phylacteries (MM P.84): (Emphasis my own) (...)If a dracolich's physical form is ever destroyed, its spirit returns to the gem as long as the two are on the same plane. If the gem comes into contact with another dragon's corpse, the dracolich's spirit can take possession of that corpse...

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AncientSwordRage

@plerpsandplerps I suggested a work around...

Would you be opposed to this being edited into asking "what is this called?" That way you either have a term to search on, or if it's a small list a set games that use those terms...? — AncientSwordRage 1 min ago

I'm thinking if it has a single name, that's useful. If not, a short list, e.g. "Game 1 calls it X, and game 2 calls it Y", might be acceptable

Hot RPG Questions

22:38

3

Q: When aware of an illusion, can you lose this knowledge by losing sight of the illusion?

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1

Q: Does a Life Cleric's Disciple of Life apply to healing effects of summoned creatures?

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KorvinStarmast

22:57

@JoelHarmon Not enough of my players would handle that even close to well, sadly. Nephew, for sure, brother maybe, and then ... it drops off kinda quick.

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Q: Is it possible to summon only two manes with Summon Lesser Demons?

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