TRPG General Chat

Xirema

01:44

Someone on Reddit suggested Inspiration should be given for Natural 1s, not Natural 20s, and suddenly this variation on the rule sounds a lot more appealing.

KorvinStarmast

02:57

@nitsua60 as well we should. Core is core.

@Xirema I like the concept, but WoTC's execution of late has been abysmal.

@nitsua60 I am trying to get involved in the play test.

@Xirema so on an opposed grapple, if both get a 20 , then what?

It's a terrible idea, and I wish they'd not do such things

Xirema

@KorvinStarmast I assume the usual rule (whoever is rolling wins ties) applies, but more and more I'm opposed to them doing autofails/autosucceeds.

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 bingo

@Xirema me too

@nitsua60 what if I want mage hand? Why can't I have nice things?

Xirema

If we were living in a world where they'd never put auto-miss on nat1s on attack rolls, I'd probably be outraged by the idea of introducing it.

KorvinStarmast

@MikeQ salt marsh will remain 5e

@GcL I have been in one. It was great fun, and no FR nonsense at all. Bard, Lore, 1-20. Great fun.

@Xirema I gotta say, I kinda like that.

Aah, I need to have more time than I have now to digest it all. talk to you all soon.

D&Done or D & Done? 😁

Xirema

@KorvinStarmast Yeah, the moment they suggested "Inspiration on nat20s", I was like "..... I guess, Inspiration has been underused, so something to make it more relevant is fine...." but then they suggested giving it out for nat1s and immediately it clicked as a really good recovery mechanism so that nat1s don't feel as bad. Yeah, you fail the roll, but you get improved odds on a later roll.

nitsua60

03:20

@KorvinStarmast My point was just that there's no point in specifying prestidigitation, since you can effectively, at chargen, swap that with any other arcane cantrip. Why not just say "high elf has arcane cantrip of choice at character creation"?

As to your second question, "because gamers will optimize the fun out of them." =D

@Xirema "here's a thing that we said was one of the three awesome things making 5e special (bounded accuracy, (dis)advantage, and inspiration), that ~~nobody~~ few who play say is awesome. So let's spam them with it."

Xirema

@nitsua60 I literally added a mechanic to my campaign that players can get Inspiration at the end of a 8hr rest, for free, so long as they pass a not-terribly-difficult "party bonding roll" (d100 roll with bonuses and penalties based on how much PCs share their backstories, debate the plot, assist with camping preparations, etc.). They get this inspiration every other night usually.

It still doesn't get used.

They just keep forgetting they have it.

nitsua60

I've had some luck with players remembering inspiration by (a) having a separate bowl of sparkly d20 sitting on the table which are exclusively inspiration-dice, and (b) not awarding inspiration myself but rather having all inspiration awarded by players.
That said, I don't terribly like the effect of inspiration being used, and all my players through the years have agreed that it feels too gamey.

KorvinStarmast

03:38

@nitsua60 half the people I play with either forget they have it of just don't use it. Others like to use it and then earn more. It's a mixed bag.

Xirema

We're using a VTT, so I think what I need to do is add some kind of overlay or macro or something that makes it very obvious that they have inspiration.

KorvinStarmast

Don't disagree with the sentiment of "feels gamey" ... it was a good idea but maybe some tweaks in implementation would be good.

arrgh, off to bed, early day at work tomorrow. Nite and best wishes to all

nitsua60

I feel like the psychology becomes obvious when you contrast with Lucky or Halfling Luck.
Players think of those things as part of their character, so they think of them like a caster thinks of slots.
There's no player I've met who thinks of inspiration-state as part of their character.

@KorvinStarmast o7

Often I'll ask players ten minutes after an awarding "what'd you get that inspiration for, again?"
Usually the recipient can't remember, but the award*er* can.

Joel Harmon

03:54

@Xirema This reminds me of Dungeon World's "gain XP for failing" mechanic, which I tend to enjoy. I believe other systems have done this or similar as well.

@Xirema I don't know VTT, but can you add a halo around character icons?

My general problem with inspiration is forgetting to award it as a DM.

Xirema

@JoelHarmon There's definitely icons you can put on the character.

What I might look for, since I'm using Foundry, is something where, when a PC makes a roll, an extra button appears "Use Inspiration!" to reroll the die.

Which I think only requires me to inject some javascript into the RollMessage.

Hot RPG Questions

05:01

2

Q: How do I know which damage dice to roll with magic items?

I’m new at D&D and just trying to DM my first game with some friends. I don’t know which dice should I roll if, for example, I use the magic sword dragon slayer. All it says is it adds a bonus to your attack and damage. Ok, but which dice should I roll? The dice which I use with my regular sword...

Feeds

06:03

Needles & Nilbogs: Birthday photos!

posted on August 19, 2022 by Bardic Wizard

Today was the second day of school and I have opinions but mostly trip photos. And some from senior sunrise this morning, and a super amazing thing one of my best friends sent me for my birthday. (Blogger turns photos sideways for some reason but) The City Spies, as drawn and painted by one of my besties!!! Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s a scene from book 1, and if it wasn’t late I’d fin…

Matthieu

06:14

Inspiration on nat 1s actually does sound nice, definitely makes for a nice consolation prize when getting terrible luck.

I'll keep that idea in mind for later games.

Hot RPG Questions

07:07

5

Q: Does the person who came up with a compel have to propose it?

Background I'm GMing a Fate game set in space, with Starhound, Athens, and Twilliam (the names have been changed to protect the innocent) helping a stalwart band of rebels break the yoke of the Black Hole Empire. One of Starhound's aspects is Flew the Prix Stella Out Of The Underworld, which does...

fate-core compels

AncientSwordRage

07:21

@Xirema put them in situations where is do or die without it... That helped me remember usually

AncientSwordRage

08:58

It happened once where @Mithical rolled on their wild surge table and got something that would have almost given a TPK

Mithical

"almost"

AncientSwordRage

@Mithical I think Fin would have survived

I think at the time she had 25hp actually so maybe just Teri would have?

Mithical

09:52

It definitely brought Sherri under 0

AncientSwordRage

10:06

I was hoping we could all take half damage if we were stood in the fountain...

Mithical

pro-tip, kids: don't roll a self-aimed fireball on the wild magic table when you're at level 2 or 3

Matthieu

Sounds painful

Wild magic can be pretty fun huh, I should definitely check it out at some point.

AncientSwordRage

@Mithical also I'm pretty sure that the fireball damage would have healed/grown the elemental

@Matthieu I much prefer when it summons burgers

Matthieu

Reminds me of entropic spells in Naheulbeuk

Those were pretty wild

Mithical

@AncientSwordRage pretty sure mick hinted it would've killed it, actually

Matthieu

10:12

I remember getting one in a campaign's first fight and triggering random mutations on my whole party, thankfully it turned out pretty well for everyone.

AncientSwordRage

@Mithical ohhh but fire+fire=more fire, that's just elementary mathematics

Mithical

@Matthieu gesundheit

Matthieu

@Mithical The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk. Started as a french podcast sharing a comedic story in a caricatural dnd-inspired world where just about everything goes wrong for some newbie adventurers.

Mithical

Ah, I see

Matthieu

They ended up making a trpg system from it.

From the few times I've played it, it's still more on the caricatural side, but it can lead to some pretty funny situations and campaigns.

Notably, some spells become "entropic" when subject to a nat 1. Meaning they roll a random effect in a d100 table of absolute chaos.

Mithical

10:19

Caricatures and satire can be great (see: Terry Pratchett), especially for people who've consumed a lot of fantasy media and are very familiar with the tropes

Matthieu

During the campaign I mentioned I became famous for being "the mage that cannot cast a spell right", as I managed to roll nat 1s on 4 out of my 5 spells during the first few hours.

Mithical

...how?

Matthieu

It definitely is a breath of fresh air when you're used to more "serious" trpgs

@Mithical uh... I blame the DM.

I remember having a really funny situation come from one of those failures actually.

Mithical

A probability calculator tells me that therte's only a 0.00003% chance of rolling a 1 four out of five times

(on a d20)

Matthieu

I was playing what was basically an ice/water aspect wizard, and since we wanted to attack a bandit camp I decided it was a good time to try a spell I didn't get to use until then. Its effect was to make frogs, moskitos and other swamp-related critters appear in an area for the duration, so I thought it would make for a pretty great distraction.

Nat 1, read the effect of the critical failure on the spell : area of effect is recentered on the caster, the creatures are summoned at 10 times the size, they deal damage to you as long as you stay in the area and impede your movement.

We end up in the situation where my mage is trying to get out of the area while slipping on oversized slimy creatures, the dwarf trying to use his shield as a surfing board to slide accross the area, the goblin artificer being oblivious to the whole situation as he's infiltrating the camp, and the ogre laughing at the rest of the group.

TLDR we had a good laugh

Mithical

10:26

Hmm, I'm having trouble finding information about it in English.

Matthieu

Mhh I wonder if the rulebooks are translated at all.

AncientSwordRage

in PSE D&D Chatroom, May 19 at 19:32, by Sciborg

OH NO THE ELEMENTAL

I dunno how attached he was to the elemental

KorvinStarmast

11:59

@JoelHarmon Tunnels and Trolls did that/does that.

BESW

12:22

"Interview: Pam Punzalan, Author of Between Tangled Roots" by Matt Chapman for D&D

Kazumi Chin wrote a twitter thread about prepping feelings, "not desires, not rooms, not events"

Matt Sanders wrote a twitter thread "about reading comprehension and retention" and TRPG "ideas of RAW and text size."

Gubat Banwa 1e playtest by Makapatag. A martial arts fantasy in the Sword Isles: a fantasy setting inspired by the cultures of Southeast Asia, from Early Classic to Early Colonial

Indie Game Developer Network wrote a twitter thread of "All the winners for this year's Indie Groundbreaker Awards!"

Alone Among The Stars (Game Boy port) by donotrunwithpixels. A Game Boy port of the journalling TTRPG

"How to Play Double Trouble in Thirsty Sword Lesbians" by Whammy Analyzes

Camp Elementa: A Six Elements Role-Playing Game by Edaureen Muhamad Nor. Summer Camp is even more fun when you have powers

Kickstarter: Tales from Sina Una by Lucia Versprille. An adventure anthology set in the Islands of Sina Una setting for 5e.

"The Gaming Shelf Celebrates the Indie Groundbreaker Awards" by Linda Codega for Gizmodo. This year's Indie Game Developer Network award winners are a frankly stellar group.

FEELERS by hexavexagon. Non-verbal TTRPG safety tool (but like... for bugs)

"Gen Con says harassers targeting marginalised attendees are not staff or volunteers" by Chase Carter for Dicebreaker. Convention officials continue to investigate claims of targeted hate speech and threats of violence.

AncientSwordRage

HE RETURNS!

BESW

"A short RPG Etiquette Video" by POCGamer

And returns, and returns, and returns

"Designing the game to be learned vs. taught" by bankuei for Deeper in the Game

Thomas Markov

BESW is Beetlejuice confirmed.

BESW

Kickstarter: Make Our Own Heaven: Zine by Reizor. A limited print run of the Angelic Biopunk RPG, Make Our Own Heaven. Free yourself, Free your community, Free the city.

"Early Collaborative Games of Fantasy and Imagination"

Kickstarter: Help SQUISHY:CAMPFIRE CATASTROPHE get finished! by emmet kiernan. Generate your a haunted summer camp in the latest module for the SQUISHY horror TTRPG! All donations receive a playable demo!

The Valley Standard A style guide for solo RPG notation

Kickstarter: Interdimensional Shenanigans (Zine Quest) by Craig Campbell. An RPG of multi-dimensional adventure, inspired by Rick and Morty

Major revision: Beyond the Rift by Dee Pennyway. A metroidvania-like tabletop game set in a world without memory.

TABLETOP GAMING AWARDS 2022 FINALISTS ANNOUNCED A brand new website incorporating a whole host of content from Tabletop Gaming and Miniature Wargames magazines

Bloodthirsty Gentlemen by Ash Can Games (And So Can You!). A Game of Fighting, Flirting, & ****ery

ARCHIVAL. by Secession Cycles. A 200-word rpg for 1 player, letting you RP as an owner of a new library.

GUN COWBOY by che. a journalling game of dead outlaws

Into the Black by Monkey's Paw Games. A PINKHACK sci-fi system for space adventures.

Kickstarter: Coming soon: Spectres of Brocken by Aaron Lim. A tabletop roleplaying game about making friends and then years later going to war against them in giant mechs.

Kickstarter: RUNE by Spencer Campbell. Solo TTRPG inspired by soulslike games. Emergent storytelling meets tactical combat.

SawdustBear shared on twitter some examples from their upcoming exhibit of "artifacts documenting games that don’t exist, beasts of play, strange rituals, and fake divinations"

AncientSwordRage

> RPGs, Indie Games, Itch.io, D&D 4e nostalgia: BESW used to share with us links, of games other than D&D. But that all changed when he got busy. Only he could keep discussion off of D&D One. But when the chat needed him most, he vanished. A hundred hours have passed and the Wizards of the Coast have started teasing a new edition. Two minutes ago, he started posting links. I still believe that somehow, BESW's return will save the chat.

BESW

12:30

Oh, should I save the D&D one twitter thread for last then?

Bluescreen Sale by Yuri Runnel. I've been saving up for a couple of months, but at this rate it'll probably take a year on my own to afford a PC that's not going to cause me grief when working on games or graphic design, so I reached out to a few kind folks who were willing to donate some games to this bundle for the purposes of helping me afford it sooner.

Ascendancy by Gemworks. A cyberpunk TTRPG about psychics and identity

AncientSwordRage

@BESW yes

BESW

Here it is!

Color Spray Games wrote a twitter thread about the portrayal of mixed-race characters in One D&D.

2

Clayton Notestine began a twitter discussion about D&D's design choices

"InThe News - Feat. Archival, Witch, Slice of Life Bundle, Zine Idea Generator 2.0 and more" by C. A. Berlitz

TTRPG Accessibility Drive 2022! This Jam is designed to encourage TTRPG makers to revisit their previously published products and update them with new versions and or additional versions designed with accessibility in mind for a wide range of needs, focusing on providing access to as many disabled gamers as possible.

(I'm still catching up with links, but I've reached "today" in my feeds.)

Kickstarter: Wretched Wasteland: Revised & Reprinted for ZineQuest 2022! by Stuart Watkinson. A Wretched & Alone game set in post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Okay, now I'm done

KorvinStarmast

12:54

@AncientSwordRage all he did was offer advantage on the saving throw. 😋

AncientSwordRage

13:24

@BESW yup... I think the attempt is better this time round, but that's like saying having only one eye poked out is better than both...

@KorvinStarmast Advantage, the last reroll?

NautArch

Reading through the playtest materials again and I'm getting more into it.

There are definitely issues but overall it's a nice step forward.

AncientSwordRage

@NautArch anything you changed your mind on specifically?

NautArch

@AncientSwordRage I'm pretty sure i was positive yesterday about it.

AncientSwordRage

@NautArch you did seem positive, yeah?

NautArch

I am simply more positive and like the direction that D&D is pointed towards with this very small bit of info we've got.

AncientSwordRage

13:31

Oh, I guess "What are you more positive about today Vs. yesterday?"

Or just in general

NautArch

I do like the ASIs within backgrounds for chargen, and like that i can still mix and match outside of that. And I like the feat changes. It still feels like they are wanting to tell bigger stories with more powerful characters, but still keep the difficulty as-is, which I think is problematic (or is for me currently.)

AncientSwordRage

@NautArch not sure if I'm seeing the 'more powerful characters thing

Someone_Evil

@AncientSwordRage Everyone starting with a feat would be the biggest part of that I think

NautArch

^

Plus new content is more powerful than old content. THat's a pretty clear trend.

AncientSwordRage

@Someone_Evil yeah but they seem to have picked less powerful feats for 1st level as far as I remember

NautArch

13:46

@AncientSwordRage any feat is more powerful than no feat.

Thomas Markov

@NautArch Sure, but no more 1st level characters with sharpshooter or crossbow expert.

Being first level with crossbow expert is basically playing two characters in combat until martials come online at 5th level.

NautArch

@ThomasMarkov Not sure I get this.

@ThomasMarkov Yeah, that makes sense.

Maybe this is their attempt to counter the power creep in classes?

Thomas Markov

@NautArch Crossbow Expert gives a bonus action attack.

That isn't limited to dice only like Two Weapon Fighting

TWF doesnt use your modifier for the damage on the bonus action attack

CBX does

Someone_Evil

@ThomasMarkov Wait, are those getting capped out? I seem to have missed that, thought they were only unmentioned

Thomas Markov

So when every character only has one attack (or one and a half for TWF), CBX gives two attacks.

NautArch

13:53

ANd by removing that, you remove a class from getting too much too soon. Not bad!

Thomas Markov

@Someone_Evil If Variant Human/Tasha's Origin arent included, then no more 1st level PHB feats.

@NautArch Yeah, it's a good move.

Like, sure, you can ban Variant Humans and it does the same thing

but it feels like an "obvious rule patch" for balance reasons.

Someone_Evil

@ThomasMarkov Except now everyone gets a first level feat, which can include those. Can't it?

AncientSwordRage

@ThomasMarkov true

They're going to run into the age old issue of backwards compatibility vs. balance

Dndo humans are limited to 1st level feats in exchange for Resourceful and Skillful

Thomas Markov

14:26

@Someone_Evil I thought the feat was determine by your background?

Need to reread it.

Eaither way, the 1st level feats provided are wayyyyyy less powerful than CBX/SS/GWM.

Someone_Evil

@ThomasMarkov Yes, but there's the build-your-own

It's very possible that those Expert/Master feats are pushed to later levels (even just 4th), but that hasn't been shown yet (possibly not a bad houserule otherwise)

Thomas Markov

@Someone_Evil That's what Im hoping for.

JohnP

14:42

zomg I'm finally over the 10k hump.

AncientSwordRage

@ThomasMarkov see this is my issue. It's too easy to forget build your own means the ones provided aren't just the default

They're written like those are the default, and custom is the alternate based on number of pages given and lack of support in making your own

Someone_Evil

A suite of default options along with a build-your-own isn't a bad spot to be in IMO

The Oracle

0

Q: Should there be a separate tag for One D&D?

Yesterday, Wizards of the Coast announced the playtest material for its next iteration of D&D, codenamed One D&D. Later that day, they released the first Unearthed Arcana document with part of the new ruleset: Character Origins. Where it gets complicated is that while this is playtest material fo...

discussion tags dnd-5e

Someone_Evil

It means you have easy to chose options, but also the option to make something of none of the default options suit you (for any of several reason)

It's also where Background were already, they just didn't have a feat as part of them (and the Background feature was a touch odd)

AncientSwordRage

15:21

@Someone_Evil it's not a bad spot... But like, fewer people are going to build their own pizza rather than make their own and a whole bunch will either not know how or not think it's worth the effort or both

JohnP

@AncientSwordRage This is how we ended up with ham/pineapple/anchovy pizza.

> A Rod is a scepter sized object specifically designed to be an arcane focus. I don't think a small glass stir stick would qualify

Some days I make myself laugh easily.

AncientSwordRage

15:36

@JohnP make it Turkey ham and that sounds delicious

JohnP

@AncientSwordRage Thios is why we can't have nice ~~things~~ pizza.

Anchovies belong nowhere near anything resembling food.

Thomas Markov

15:54

@JohnP Fish are friends, not food.

Hot RPG Questions

16:22

10

Q: What is "Hadozee wavedashing"?

In the recently released Spelljammer supplement some people talk about "Hadozee wavedashing", what is that?

dnd-5e racial-traits

GcL

@JohnP You're just salty about small fish /S

KorvinStarmast

17:43

@NautArch I call that bloat.

@ThomasMarkov If I go over to my friend's house and I drown, that's not a friend. Fish are food. 😋 (Eagles and Bears agree with me, so there!)

V2Blast

17:58

@JohnP I don't hate that, mostly because the D&D economy is already horribly broken and there's no real benefit to giving items of the same kind different default prices if there's no mechanical distinction between them.

V2Blast

18:11

@Someone_Evil I believe that is the plan, yes. I haven't watched the video about this UA, but others have mentioned that Crawford said the plan is indeed to level-limit those sorts of feats that add a big spike in power

KorvinStarmast

@V2Blast We'll see, my lack of confidence in the coherence of vision on the design team is, as of this writing, at an all time low. But maybe they will surprise me.

V2Blast

@AncientSwordRage I mean... I don't think the UA could be any clearer that the sample backgrounds are just samples, given that it explicitly tells you that you can (1) use a sample background (2) build a custom background using the specified format, or (3) use a sample background and then customize it. (I'm not looking at the UA so it may be in a different order :P )

AncientSwordRage

18:34

@V2Blast I'm not saying it's unclear, I'm saying if you want to push customisability, but put that much space for backgrounds that don't look customisable feels backwards to me

It's like how feats are an alternate rule, and the books are clear on that but I bet most people don't realise that.

22

A: What is the scope of the Charlatan background?

Read the "Customizing a Background" rule. This is not listed as an optional rule; in a sense, it is closer to the core rules of 5e than feats are (which are optional) and multiclassing. You can pick any feature from any background. You can pick any two skills You can pick any two tool proficien...

> Read the "Customizing a Background" rule. This is not listed as an optional rule; in a sense, it is closer to the core rules of 5e than feats are (which are optional) and multiclassing.

So people are already getting the wrong impression, it'd be really easy to put a small customising/making custom background section in or even give you enough options in the sample backgrounds (a choice of two skills, two feats, two langauges etc.) to show they weren't set in stone it'd be a smaller leap

It looks like there are is a small section on customising 🤔

🤷🏻‍♂️

JohnP

21:22

@ThomasMarkov Depends on the fish. Love sashimi, but anchovies not so much.

@GcL ....

GcL

22:23

You knocked? or was that the sound of your eyeballs rolling so hard they fell out of your head?

Hot RPG Questions

23:06

3

Q: Does Faerie Fire's affect objects/creatures partially in the area of effect?

What effect does Faerie Fire have on objects/creatures partially within its 20' cube area of effect? Two simple examples: a 10' pole which is half-in, half-out of the area of effect, or a purple worm that is partially within the area of effect. I'd say Faerie Fire exemplifies some the the complex...

dnd-5e spells area-of-effect

AncientSwordRage

23:22

@JohnP I can and have eaten anchovies from the jar

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