TRPG General Chat

Novian

01:20

@KRyan and the ritual would give me the spellcasting to get access to it. I see now.

or did I take your meaning wrong

BESW

@Novian ...is this Pun-Pun?

Novian

i was refering to the conversation earlier. so yes

I might wanna just pull a dragonwrought kobold on my group one day

BESW

@Novian No. Bad Novian, no cookie.

Novian

Hell the worst that can happen is i get banned from doing it ever again like the saint Pixie Monk.

BESW

@Novian Then your group is either a lot less inventive or a lot better at self-control than some of mine have been.

Novian

01:25

42 unarmored ac is no joke.

and yes we do have self control

BESW

Anybody here have experience with either or both Call of Cthulhu systems?

somori

@BESW Brief experiences. What are you thinking?

BESW

a) single-player potential?

b) d20 or BRP?

somori

b) d20

a) Yeah, I think so.

BESW

I've never tried BRP, but based on descriptions I'm guessing it has more of the "Sweet Celestia, I don't have a chance" feel.

Novian

01:29

...

BESW

Any system where you get more hp regularly is going to at the very least give a false sense of hope that if you level up enough you might succeed.

@Novian ?

Novian

@BESW ironically my sister just handed me a cookie from Mc dondals right after you said that.

somori

@BESW Like all skill-only systems, it can be. D20 does the same, assuming that you either don't use combat or throw overwhelming opposition/

@Novian Doesn't count, it's not really a cookie ;)

Novian

@somori tasted like one.

BESW

@somori It's a cookie-like substitute. Soylent Grimace, probably.

Novian

01:31

@BESW refferences to MLP or even similar named entities are getting old to hear about. I live with MLP Fans.

BESW

@Novian And I happen to be one. [shrug] I'll try not to make it egregious.

Novian

living with them has gotten annoying. they wont stop trying to get me to watch it.

BESW

@Novian That's not cool.

Novian

I dont dislike bronys and fans of that show its just tiring to hear and see it constantly.

too much of anthing gets old fast

BESW

@Novian Tell 'em to love and tolerate your disinterest.

Novian

01:34

@BESW indeed they dont like anime I dont Like MLP

I think is blasphemous but dont force it.

BESW

@Novian Then you're acting 20% cooler than they are. [ducks]

somori

@Novian Blasphemy is a bit harsh...

Novian

@BESW Chucks D20

1d20

Dice Service

3

Novian

miss

my BAB is only 3.

BESW

01:38

@Novian I usually grant combat advantage. +2.

Novian

???

not that i understand sounds like 4e

somori

@Novian It's the same thing as flanking in 3.5, just with a name that makes more sense.

BESW

@Novian Yeah. Combat advantage is what you get for flanking (or certain other situations, like being flat-footed).

Novian

ah

BESW

Every now and then I throw a bunch of crazed cultists at my PCs, who all grant combat advantage as a permanent condition. The PCs lap it up.

@somori Why d20?

It'd definitely be more familiar to my player.

Novian

01:42

3d6

Dice Service

•

BESW

@DiceService Nice roll.

Novian

....decent rolls. unlike my real dice.

BESW

How complex can dice service get?

Novian

up to 9 die.

of all the most ommon die

BESW

01:43

Does it do calcs?

Novian

9D20

Dice Service

10

18

4

3

2

4

1

3

1

Novian

>< 2 nat 1's

somori

@BESW It's a taste thing I think. If one is more familiar, then that's going to get out of the way a little more.

Novian

9d6

Dice Service

01:44

•

BESW

1d20+3

1d20

Dice Service

18

BESW

1d20 + 3

@somori Fair enough.

@DiceService Looks like my kobold-killer followed me into the Internet.

Novian

I think die service is biased on d6

somori

@BESW BUt as I was going to type at one point. It's best as a horror game - and horrifying your players is a very different proposition to giving them a cool story.

BESW

01:46

@somori Yeah, I'm a little on the fence about that.

somori

@Novian It's a PRNG... you'd have to hunt hard to find bias in it.

BESW

They liked the idea of MLWM but the execution made them kinda squirmy.

somori

@BESW My Life With Master? Never played it, only heard bits about it.

BESW

@somori It's very much a 'feels' game, about creating an atmosphere of dread and groveling submission in the PCs, who slowly develop enough spine to challenge their Master face-to-face.

On reflection I think they tried to make a Master they could laugh at (the players get to invent the Master at the start of the game), and the way I played him they couldn't laugh.

somori

@BESW Always a risk.

@BESW One of the avatars in the Dawn of Worlds game over the weekend was Gobble-Gobble Motherf**ker. A turkey with an eye-patch who has to be voiced by Samuel L Jackson.

BESW

01:51

@somori With that name, I would also accept Bruce Willis impressions.

Novian

@somori English Mother!@#$er Do you Speak it?

only thing I can remember that actor ever saying

somori

Don't forget the fact that he was running an organisation of covert operatives built up from elves who can breathe lava and have mastered the magics of stealth and pyromancy.

BESW

@somori They designed a midget who couldn't achieve excellence in the one thing he desired (metalwork) so stole the work of other people in a pathetic attempt to get the local metal guild to accept him.

@somori "elves who can breathe lava" ... "stealth" ...

somori

@BESW "can" not "have to"... it did all get a bit strange.

@BESW hmmm, that could get messy

BESW

@Novian I believe he once said something pithy about airborne ophidians.

somori

01:58

@BESW Repe-pithy? Nah.... there's no way to make that pun work. Dammit.

Novian

Ah IM TIRED OF THESE MOTHERFUCKING SNAKES ON THIS GODDAMN PLANE?

something like that

BESW

@somori They didn't seem to realize that for a man with that kind of profile to rule a town with nothing but fear, he had to be even more cruel and capricious than a Master with more skill or self-worth.

@Novian He can certainly lend a kind of rhythmic poetry to his phrases.

Novian

he wasnt bad in the avengers either

perfect for nick fury

BESW

@Novian Yes, but I'm not sure what I think about the comics changing him to reflect the film casting.

Novian

i dont know either

BESW

02:04

Casting SLJ as Fury was a brilliant example of casting for talent rather than for appearance: if he can fill the role, it doesn't matter if he looks like the source material.

somori

@BESW There's another loop there, isn't there? As I remember, they made the Ultimates Nick Fury look like Jackson and paid him with the casting choice.

BESW

Changing Fury to look like SLJ could be in honor of his skill in inhabiting the role... or it could be a cynical merchandising choice.... or it could be an inability to separate talent from appareance in the way the original casting did.

@somori And there's another reason I don't have an opinion so much as a malaise.

Novian

indeed

BESW

On an entirely unrelated note, someday I shall use this in a campaign, either as flavor or as part of a plot:

Mari Lwyd

The Mari Lwyd (Grey Mare or "Gray Mary" in English), also Y Fari Lwyd, is a Welsh midwinter tradition, possibly to celebrate New Year (see Calennig), although it formerly took place over a period stretching from Christmas to late January. It is a form of visiting wassail, a luck-bringing ritual in which a the participants accompany a person disguised as a horse from house to house (including pubs) and sing at each door in the hope of gaining admittance and being rewarded with food and drink. Background Perhaps deriving from an ancient rite for the Celtic goddess Rhiannon, the Mari Lwyd wa...

Novian

http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/1001_and_more_Things_that_the_worst_party_in_Eberron_is_forbidden_from_doing

Rule 928....

BESW

02:13

It's a ghost horse costume.

Novian

Is incorrect because Im the DM

BESW

@Novian If anyone does something like 929 to me, I immediately make the discrepancy part of the plot.

Novian

lol

i dont get the rules ferverent restating that jaela is off limits.

it should be common sense

despite 929.

928 is incorrect because I say so however. any dissagreement is mutiny

BESW

@Novian You've read nearly a thousand items on that list, and you're arguing common sense should keep an item off it?

Novian

Ive read nearly all of them and a good 500 are about jaela

Merrix dCanith is obviously lex luther who got transported to Eberron and is plotting an assault on superman from there.

BESW

02:19

1030+1031: I register approval.

Novian

so rule 67 is incorrect

@BESW Only during the Mabar Festival

BESW

I would totally allow 1084.

(I have Indiana Jones and Mission: Impossible at hand during sessions already.)

Novian

2119 true

2159 is lol

BESW

All these "the X is not named Y" things...

We named our adopted goblin sidekick 'Splat.'

Novian

2167...why not

BESW

02:26

He actually lived to found (and sire) a new clan of goblins dedicated to Bahamut, whose joie de vivre was making friends... with the civilian citizens of enemy powers, to establish secret rebel groups deep in enemy territory.

The actual PCs, on the other hand, were known to history only as Splat's friends.

Novian

2251 I have broken. and it didnt end well.

poor zombie civilisation

they didnt stand a chance....

2471....Yes it is, dont listen to him.

Novian

02:50

is it wrng to graft warforged parts onto shifters to make manual transmissions?

wait that joke didnt come out right

BESW

@Novian Two humans walk into a bar, but the halfling ducks.

Novian

does he need to?

BESW

@Novian No; that's why it's funny.

somori

@Novian I assumed it was at halfling eye-level...

BESW

@somori In that case, it would be a groin joke. Which is also funny.

Novian

02:52

i need to read up on all the ebberon stuff. its politics intruige me.

and merrix dCanith is lex luthor.

if that is true who is superman?

the half orc Psion?

BESW

@Novian Superman IS a touch telekinetic.

Novian

Superman at one point or another possessed whatever super power was neccesary for the situation.

especially the really old ones.

he has had every known super power short of stretching

and a billion different kinds of kryptonite.

BESW

@Novian At one point they ruled that the reason he can hold an entire plane by its nosecone without just snapping the nose off (and rescue falling ladies without just getting a handful of midsection) was that he has unconscious touch telekinesis that lets him enfold them in force fields to hold them together.

Novian

he also can read minds

somori

@BESW It would also explain flight that went beyond the "Jump really fast" model.

BESW

02:57

@somori I liked that version better.

Novian

and it may explain his x ray vision.

or hes a wizard.

he has rays and divinations.....

and cone of cold

BESW

I'm more of a Batman, Jaime Reyes comics guy, but I like a well-written Superman (not dumb as a bag of rocks, but not godlike).

Novian

my favorite super hero was always Gambit for some reason

they need a bag of rats fighter

for a super hero

it would be rather odd.

especially the rats part

BESW

I'm pretty sure there's somebody like that in the Sandman series, but it's not coming to me right now.

Novian

hmm If your party is dead and your near death. is it acceptable to snap a wand of fireball in half to kill the badguy?

or is that just cheating.

hmm.

BESW

03:03

@Novian Ask the players first, at the very least.

Novian

hmm Well I could do worse.

BESW

(and I'm reasonably sure that only works for certain staves.)

Novian

Usually works for any arcane item storing charges I though.

thought

releasing a huge blast of energy,

BESW

I'll check.

Novian

and they wonder why I keep one.

BESW

03:05

...Yeah, no. 3.5 DMG only has the Staff of Power and similar specific items that have explicit abilities along those lines.

Novian

hmm. so no last minute sacrificial heroics.

BESW

Necklace of Fireballs, Staff of Power....

Only some things blow up spectacularly when they're trashed.

Novian

ah yes I could do the 96D6 fireball.

SoP is too expensive to trash.

BESW

Suddenly I'm tempted to run a joke campaign where wizards blow up when they die based on the spells they had left to cast that day.

Novian

even in last minute sacrificial heroics

somori

03:07

@BESW hopefully, that's just a joke "session"!

Novian

@BESW Sounds like the Rune of Unmaking series. exept it wasnt really and explosion in the physical sense. just a shockwave that is generated when a powerful wizard dies that only those with magical talent can feel.

BESW

@Novian Staff of Power is 211,000g. Portable Hole + Bag of Holding is 22,500g.

Novian

....doesnt that just astral plane transport?

@BESW Suddenly I want to write up a serious campaign for this.

BESW

@Novian True. But in the right situation...

Novian

1d6 per spell level.

@BESW what if you did it on the astral plane?

BESW

03:12

@Novian I'd probably rule that it fizzled, created a feedback loop, or randomly teleported you to another part of the Astral Plane. Depending on my mood or a roll of the die.

Evil Overlord List #85: I will not use any plan in which the final step is horribly complicated, e.g. "Align the 12 Stones of Power on the sacred altar then activate the medallion at the moment of total eclipse." Instead it will be more along the lines of "Push the button."

Villains NEVER follow that rule. Sudden Astral banishment can be very effective if timed properly.

Novian

whats complicated about making go boom?

BESW

(And with the appropriate summon or telekinesis spells, you can do it at range!)

Novian

@BESW isnt it a move action to do that sort of thing too?

@BESW Mage hand?

BESW

@Novian If Making Go Boom requires careful timing and positioning to achieve the ingestion of a power source larger than your head, then banishment at the right time can be all the heroes need.

@Novian Mage hand may be too slow at 5'/rnd.

Novian

ahh.

A mechanical trap perhapse?

an evil mechanical trap

simple 2 arm trigger mechanism each arm holding one of the ingredient.

BESW

03:16

@somori I dunno, I once ran a summer campaign with a wizard who could only cast spells through arrows ("Hold still while I stab you with this arrow of bull strength."), a dwarven bard with intelligent bagpipes that refused to play unless drunk ("Ah'm jusht a leetle damp, eet'll shound faine!"), and a raised-by-wolves ranger who knew a number of words equal to his Int score.

Novian

in one an open boh the other a portabble hole

BESW

@Novian Eh, summon monster I

"Celestial Blink Dog, I have a task for you."

Novian

Summon monster 2 for 1 for each.

....

somori

@Novian Time to call Grant Imohara. I'm sure the mythbuster crew would love to build something so dangerous.

Novian

tory is the test dummy not grant I like grant he is......Usefull.

I also need adam and .....the other guy.

BESW

03:19

@somori Fantastic Myth-Busters is a campaign concept I could definitely get behind.

Novian

TO TAKE OVER DA WORLD

BESW

Heck, D&D television in general could be awesome.

Novian

....what do you call a scrying mirrior

BESW

"Now, this tarrasque's a bit ornery so I have to be careful to move slow and talk quietly."

somori

@Novian He's the one who could build the robot.

@BESW Oh god.

BESW

03:22

@somori The mind, it boggles.

somori

@BESW Worth a blog post though :)

BESW

@Novian Scrying mirrors don't have performance and scripting.

"You've probably heard that if you put a bag of holding into a portable hole, it'll create a rift in the planes! To test this theory, we've summoned this troll and used flash cards to tell him what to do."

"Let's stand back behind the wall of force and watch, shall we?"

Novian

indeed.

one of our members via a private facebook group we use just told us to bring cans of soup to our next session because he wants to try something....

i dont know what.

BESW

@Novian Charity work, or re-creating the Once Upon a Table Sprite Battle?

Novian

???

BESW

03:37

@Novian Start here: uponatable.com/comic/2003/02/10/the-new-flavor-of-gaming

KRyan

@Novian there are a lot of those rules in those lists that are hallmarks of bad DMing. Mr. Welch makes them funny but a lot of them are sarcastic commentary on bad DMs

Novian

he did mention something about a mr welch in another post.

BESW

@KRyan Very true. There are also some jokes in very poor taste.

KRyan

@Novian that's an excellent metaphor

@BESW truth!

Novian

@BESW hehe. sad thing is I did once sit on a minican of sprite.

didnt notice.

very strange couch we have.

very plush cushions.

Novian

04:45

Kalashtar have the ability to become thrallheards rather easily.

BESW

05:29

@Novian Mr. Welch is considered the originator of the "Things I Am No Longer Allowed to Do in <context>" lists.

...although the title is hotly contested. My headcanon says it's Skippy.

somori

@BESW Things Skippy Is No Longer Allowed To Do In The Military sounds about right,

BESW

@somori Ditto.

Reference for others: skippyslist.com/list

[#83: "Dear Princess Celestia..."]

Luke Burgin