TRPG General Chat

12:17 AM

@Alan Thanks for the pointer - I'll play with those numbers and spreadsheets when I get the chance.

1:32 AM

@ThomasMarkov how so?

Meanwhile, after doing a question or two back at math, I'm finding myself missing the 1k "see vote breakdown". Oh well, if I keep learning Pf2, it'll come soon enough.

Thomas Markov

1

A: LegacyQuestions - Bringing back the old questions design

Votes/Answers/Views listed vertically. I don't see that any changes to the home page just recently went live, so it may be something under the hood that has broken.

Alan

Huh, I had been a very infrequent user of se sites in the last few years and I'm a very not-visual person, so I never even realized there was an update until now.

BESW

"The best actual play podcasts that don’t use D&D" by Em Friedman for Polygon. There’s worlds to explore beyond the dungeons

Crowdfunding: Earth to Jupiter: A ZiMo TTRPG by Pidj Sorensen. A solo epistolary roleplaying game about being left on an apocalyptic Earth.

2

Crowdfunding: FEVER DREAM NEXUS by Sophia Tinney. Psychedelic samurai roleplaying in a kaleidoscopic world of surreal dreams and esoteric cultures.

"The Itch Creator Census Report", an analysis of survey responses done by Matthew Gravelyn.

Alan

1:49 AM

@BESW Hmm, no Kobolds Ate My Babies, no Og: The caveman rolepaying game. Pass :)

BESW

Crowdfunding: Dinocar: a game of chaotic art and city planning! [Zine Month 2023] by Dinoberry Press. Dinocar is a chaotic, collaborative art-making/city-planning game set in a world where dinosaurs drive cars! Using any art supplies they want, players build a world map and then take their dinosaurs on blindfolded road trips!

@Alan Yeah, most of those podcasts are using systems less than fifteen years old.

Alan

Hey, Og had a second edition! You could totally have your Smart Caveman know the word "Verisimilitude!" :)

BESW

(And generally more aligned with long-form narrative campaigns)

Feeds

BESW has made a change to the feeds posted into this room

BESW

American Werewolf Biker Club by Andre Rivera Art. Play as werewolves who find and build community in a vast multi-chapter biker club.

Alan

1:54 AM

Huh, go figure, there was a 3rd edition of Og that I missed. Good to know

<---may be a bit of a gaming dino these days.

BESW

That's one reason I pop in here every now and then with some TRPG news. A lot of people on rpg.se don't go looking for contemporary industry/hobby developments but are interested to hear about it if someone else has done the legwork.

So every now and then I scrape together the TRPG parts of my own feeds and share them here.

Alan

nod Yeah, definitely worthwhile.

BESW

Indie Press Revolution wrote on tumblr about some of the cool games funding during Zine Month.

thedungeonguy and kejaba wrote on tumblr about "degrees of play" and how people play TRPGs when they aren't at a table.

"Modular Character Sheet Fantasy Expansion" by Penflower Ink. The first expansion to the Modular Character Sheet Kit

Cezar Capacle wrote on tumblr "A spotlight on designers of the Global South"

Crowdfunding: GRANDMOTHERSHIP - A sci-fi TTRPG about senior ladies in space by Armanda Haller. A TTRPG for 2-4 players and 1 GM about space, horror, and senior ladies piecing together a mystery. Get in trouble, crochet a new scarf, go ballroom dancing, and find solutions where everyone else has failed. A game designed to be played as one-shot sessions.

"Holding A Mini-Con Online For Your Friends, or How To Learn A Lot of TTRPGs at Once" by barilleon on tumblr.

I'm excited about Earth to Jupiter. Pidj's games are little microcosms of care and feeling, and her art direction is always on point, but each game --especially the Zine Month games-- is also some new experiment or progression in Pidj's journey as a designer and it's cool to follow along.

Shalvenay

2:12 AM

@BESW LOL. now I want to see what happens when the congestion kicks in

(TBF: it sounds like it would be a great chassis one could add RL-based congestion-fighting mechanics to. parking metering? congestion pricing? transit?)

BESW

@Alan My disappointment from that list, and I can't blame the list-maker because I don't know of any myself so it's really more of a general "why isn't this a thing yet it really should be a thing" is that there's no Gubat Banwa actual plays.

Feeds

The Soloist: The Soloist is coming Feb 1

posted on December 27, 2022 by Patrick Buechner (he/him)

A new, free newsletter for players, creators, and curious explorers of solo and co-op RPGs.

The Soloist: 🚀 Launching The Soloist

posted on February 01, 2023

5 GM-less games crowdfunding today, a solo game bundle to support suicide prevention, and more! First issue of #TheSoloist

Alan

In a serious thing I'd actually want to see would be if someone could pull off Eclipse Phase. That game is headbendy for me

BESW

I did some EP chargen a while back and it's too high on the fiddly-bits meter for me. The big draw according to friends who played it, seemed to be the exploration of mind/body identity interfaces in an exploitative setting. Balikbayan fits that bill better for me. And it does have APs.

ZineMonth is so overwhelming, there's so many great games!

But I'm distracting myself by working on my entry for the (TTRP + BOARD)GAME JAM.

Alan

Yeah, I was going to play EP once but it never happened. The whole idea of playing in a game post singularity was weird

Shalvenay

2:26 AM

yeah, one thing that a lot of futuristic cyberpunk-y media gets wrong I think is transport and land use, anyway

skyscraper cities are fine, but they sure as heck won't have superhighways cutting through them!

BESW

Heh. I'm putting a note at the beginning of my game that the setting is running on pure aesthetics and vibes, attempts to have it make logistical sense will result in the entire thing falling apart.

Shalvenay

you'd be seeing frequent electrified regional rail, automated metros that are the next best thing to a teleporter, and autonomous 40' city busses instead XD

BESW

[grin] In my game the only visible transit is a caravan, but it's a public transit caravan.

Shalvenay

@BESW XD. reminds me of the transit map I made for one of the persistent worlds I play in

BESW

(I'm going to imply more complex transit options at the terminal hubs, the caravan is for going through an area that's protected from permanent installations or flyovers.)

Adeptus

2:41 AM

@BESW Kobolds Ate My Baby has a new edition in BackerKit right now

BESW

If the article were going for that kind of low-hanging fruit it'd just be a list of Pathfinder podcasts; I'm frankly disappointed they listed Glass Cannon, because it implies (a) the reason to diversify from D&D is exclusively Wizards' exploitative business practices --which, don't get me wrong, has been sufficient reason for more than twenty years-- and (b) if that's the case then Paizo's PR blitz of "not as terrible as Wizards so far as you know please don't look it up" is working.

Alan

So far I've yet to have any negative experiences with Paizo, did a lot of PF1 stuff and some PF2 playtest.

@Adeptus All hail King Torg!

BESW

2:56 AM

Most D&D players haven't personally had bad experiences with Wizards either.

"Playtesting TTRPGs" by Rae Nedjadi on tumblr.

"Playtesting Your TTRPG" by Sprinting Owl Designs on tumblr

Feeds

BESW has made a change to the feeds posted into this room

BESW

Snail: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game by Scarlet. You live in a big city. Unfortunately, things aren't going very well and you're being chased by an imaginary snail. To escape, you will need to get through the city.

COSMIC Free TTRPG Mechanics by Gabriel Caetano. This is a set of mechanics for playing or creating a d20+d6 role-playing game without corporate attachments.

Shalvenay

@BESW oh gosh. watches the snail try to chase him through the railyard

BESW

"What if there was a game like D&D but not by a Racist Corp" a collection by TheGiftOfGabes. A list of games for people who want to play dragon game-esque games.

"Safety Tools and Wellbeing for TTRPG" a collection by TheGiftOfGabes. Some cool things you can pick to use at your table for safer games.

(heads-up, that last collection includes the Support Flower, and I gotta tack a caution onto that one; be very sure it's the exact right tool for your table because it's got a lot more potential for failure than most tools I've seen.)

Feeds

3:25 AM

Three Black Halflings: Tales of Wagadu: The Curse of the Spider Queen Ep. 20 "The Real Work Begins"

posted on January 09, 2023

Our season comes to a close with this meditative and emotional conclusion. Starring: Shamini Bundell (she/her) as Reth (they/she, Eland's Blessing Swala, Squared Circle Pugilist) Liv Kennedy (she/her) as Juji Osei (she/her, Bloom Emere, Circle of Stars Druid 6/Twilight Cleric 2) Jonathan Charles (he/him) as Aboade (he/him, Copper Ironmaster, Battle Smith Artificer) Jasper William Cartwright (h…

Three Black Halflings: "Apples & Pears, Boppity Bop" - New Year, New Adventures... In A Castle

posted on January 16, 2023

This week the Halflings are welcoming in the new year with a game-breaking tale from the table before they talk about this week's sponsor DnD In The Castle, we tell you all about how the event works, what to expect & why you should come to play with us! Join us at the Castle! https://shop.dndinacastle.com/collections/round-1-march-6-10-2023/products/2023-round-1 We want to hear from cont…

Three Black Halflings: "Shirefolk Spotlight" - with Christian Navarro

posted on January 24, 2023

Who's that at the door? Why, it's Christian Navarro! The Halflings are back for another Shirefolk Spotlight with the actor, TTRPG performer, and all-around wise and wonderful fellow. Follow Christian on Twitter at @navarroc0821 ! Join us at the Castle! https://shop.dndinacastle.com/collections/round-1-march-6-10-2023/products/2023-round-1 We want to hear from content creators about their re…

Three Black Halflings: "Lore Drop" - With Erika Ishii

posted on January 30, 2023

It is finally happening... We finally have the one the only Erika Ishii on the show! We discuss how all this started, the influences in art, acting in video games & a whole new segment where we drop lore about ourselves! If you don't follow Erika already please do: @erikaishii Join us at the Castle! https://shop.dndinacastle.com/collections/round-1-march-6-10-2023/products/2023-round-1 …

Three Black Halflings: "Watch What I Do, Not What I Say" - Interview with D&D Executive Producer Kyle Brink

posted on February 06, 2023

Today's episode features one of our most important interviews ever! Liv and Jeremy sit down with D&D Executive Producer Kyle Brink to talk in-depth about the OGL 1.1 disaster: what led to it, where WotC went wrong, and how they intend to fix it going forward. You won't want to miss this one! Out of the OGL Loop? Check out these articles by Linda Codega! https://gizmodo.com/dungeons-and-dra…

BESW has made a change to the feeds posted into this room

BESW

I wish there was some way to change the feeds without auto-posting the last five entries in every updated feed.

Hot RPG Questions

5

Q: How does Freedom of Movement interact with magical effects which increase movement costs?

The text for the Freedom of Movement spell contains the following clause: the target's movement is unaffected by difficult terrain, and spells and other magical effects [cannot] reduce the target's speed While this is fairly clear with regards to spells which produce difficult terrain (such as ...

BESW

4:02 AM

"Dungeon impacted NPCs" by bankuei on Deeper in the Game. Along with the idea of dungeons as disaster zones, another useful trick is to place NPCs who are impacted by the dungeon existing.

Play Patrice

6:18 AM

@Alan @HeyICanChan - Thank you for putting up with me and my questions. I'm not the most math literate person - so helping me walk this on target is much appreciated. Trying to get things down to variables I can work with.

Alan

@PlayPatrice I hope the walk through on how I got to the formulas help. The basic steps in mathematical problem solving is to first solve simpler problems that you can break down into pieces, then go back up and see how you can generalize them.

@PlayPatrice of course, the classic text in mathematical problems solving for beginners is press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691164076/… . The phrasing may be a bit dated, but all of the methodology is very sound

@PlayPatrice I'll do it up in google sheets real quick for you

Play Patrice

6:34 AM

@Alan That is above and beyond, again thank you Alan.

Alan

@PlayPatrice docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/…

with the 52.5 or 47.5 if it's a 0 edge, I suppose I could add those

I suspected but wasn't sure that the difference is just one line on the table, and it is.

(between who wins ties, it shifts down one line from the other chart)
\

Wich means I can compress it down into one table, hmm, now to figure out how to post a table into Stackexxchange

Play Patrice

@Alan I'm going to "Self Awnser" with column's B and D as a summany of your work if thats okay when your done, or you can post it yourself if you'd like. That chart is exactly the "laymens" format I was looking for.

@Alan You are frackin amazing!

Alan

It is only going to need 1 table since the numbers are the same, shifted by 1. I'll get it, should finally actually ahve a taable anwer :)

Play Patrice

\o/ As soon as that awnser is bountiable - Name your price!

Alan

6:58 AM

@PlayPatrice I'm just glad I quickly realized I could add 3 columns of nothing but |

on the google sheet so I could just copy and paste the table right in. Never actually got a bounty on any stack exchange ). I'm good with whatever!

Play Patrice

he he - takes a couple days for new questions to open up for bounties. I'll get ya taken care of.

Alan

@PlayPatrice Cool beans. You can see the nonlinear nature, as your edge goes up and up the amount of extra % chance you get to win goes down. It basically takes the same amount of additional bonuses to go from 50-90% win as it does to go from 90%-100%. And sheesh, I remember skills & powers. Vaguely :)

Anyhow, I should probably get back to, oh I don't know, grading my student's papers, writing a solution guide, writing a college algebra test, doing my reading for my doctoral program in education....(No not your fault, I was pretty fried tonight)

Play Patrice

Fair enough - glad I could be a fun distraction of sorts! For Posterity!

Alan

Out of curiosity, is there a reason you still do 3.5 and not PF1?

Among other things, PF1 got rid of the 27 thousand different systems for special attacks :)

Play Patrice

7:13 AM

Our crew never transitioned over to 3.5 when PF came out. We have mountains of 3.5 stuff, not much in the way of PF materials about. And the monk scenario in question was a 3.5 monk... so I was curious if and how that monk was legitimately working.

Alan

you mean out of 3.5 ,I assume. Well, all the rules stuff for Pf1 are on archives of nethys. I just liked how much pf cleaned up 3.5, made single classing just about every class a viable path rather than forcing everyone to optimize for prestige classes, etc. Plus they toned down some of the worst overpowered magic stuff.

Of course, for horror days of OP magic, nothing beats 3.0 days. Did you know the 3.0 Shapechange spell would let you turn into a Tarrasque and get every single thing it has except its frightful presence )?

Play Patrice

That I was aware of.. I'm usually the rules monger / power gamer of the group - So I'm usually banned from playing casters unless its a new-player playgroup and then I am asked to play a cleric - and sit in the back... and let them "Try" first....

hides

An interesting point of note in my project - except for Dragons - Creatures tend to advance in base attack bonus the same as a cleric or monk (3/4). Meaning per hit die the monk keeps up with monsters on a per "hit die" "Level" basis.

So as long as the monk grabbed improved grapple - he should be on par with most of MM if he took a modest STR value.

Alan

12:18 PM

@PlayPatrice Been a while since I looked at 3.5, but I'm pretty sure that as you level up, HD tends to be higher than CR for a lot of things

Play Patrice

12:37 PM

The CR value is to determine challenge rating for a party of 4. And it's approximately 3-4 HD per CR... So usually - from a practical standpoint - a Party encounter for a level 10 party ends up with 6-8 monsters raning from an equivelent player level of 6-8 with the ocassional even matched monster showing up as a special guest for tough encounters.

Meaning if the DM is following CR guidelines - except for huge monsters and BBEG's, you should be able to routinely grapple monsters per attack somewhere between 50 and 30% per attack.

At least, thats my back of the napkin figuring.

Alan

12:57 PM

nod yawn Okay, time to try toget 2 more hours of sleep in.

Hot RPG Questions

2:02 PM

1

Q: How does one Calculate Dual Variable Probability?

Or asked another way: How do we determine the probability of given grapple to succeed? In DnD 3.5 the grapple mechanic relies on double variable randomness in order to determine success or failure. This double randomness increases both the possibility of success and failure at the extreme ends...

dnd-3.5e grapple statistics

Thomas Markov

Got a near instantaneous downvote on this answer, anyone got a clue why that may be?

Ah, missed the detail about needing pact of the blade too.

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