The Back Room: Live Tabletop Games

The Janissaries (from Ottoman Turkish يکيچرى Yeniçeri meaning "newly converted") comprised infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops and bodyguards. The force was created by the Sultan Murad I from Christian boys levied through the devşirme system from conquered countries in the 14th century and was abolished by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826 with the Auspicious Incident. Origins The origins of the Janissaries are shrouded in myth though traditional accounts credit Orhan I – an early Ottoman bey, who reigned from 1326 to 1359 – as the founder. Modern histor...

oooh, hey, nice

But I can totally see a tribe of dragonborn, overrun by the army, forcably conscripted.

Sohum

these little inset things are pretty cool

Iszi

Nice idea... really leaning toward the Warlord though.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

And it could be a recent or a historical thing, depending on how much you wanted to explore concept.

Yeah, just brainstorming instead of doing real work

Iszi

Hehe... I do like the idea.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

12:32 AM

inspiring warlords are... bland... oh. Take a look at harlequin

the feat series

Sohum

so, Brian

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Cause if you like that idea, then the idea of the "practical joker" could be fun

okay, I need to shut up now.

Sohum

given that I still haven't managed to get my hands on a copy of Essentials

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

ohterwise I'll just "help" make everyone's

Sohum

explain to me how the Essentials archetypes differ

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

12:32 AM

it's in DDI, so I can ... um

oh, um. no.

Iszi

@BrianBallsunStanton That's reserved for the Gnome.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Sorry, that's a long discussion.

:5263 Hrmmmm... not quite what I was... ::muttermuttermutter:: Sorry, so not coherent. And I can't exactly reference a trope from the middle of a really long series.

But um, if you're interested, the belisarius series, with how he treats Kushans, feels about right.

bah, back in 30.

Sohum

?

Iszi

Oh, and for anyone interested, Netflix is now downloadable software for the PS3! No more disc! Yay!

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

also, is good site question.

::does the waaaave::

ugh, feeling silly today. is bad sign

Sohum

12:39 AM

Brian, sorry, did you answer my question?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

:5273 no, I didn't.

Sohum

...?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Sorry, trying to keep my head in dissertation mode.

back in a while. time to walk to campus.

Sohum

/me nod

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

12:57 AM

well, the good news for you folks is that I've completely given up on writing today

The Forlorn Ferret

1:47 AM

Hello all. Just wondering if there might be room for one more for this playtest? :)

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Hello :)

Um... probably not, but I'll place you on the waiting list.

The Forlorn Ferret

Hehe, good-oh.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Hrmm, the dungeon tiles access on this thing is... funky, but quite usable

RMorrisey

Hey, guys

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

2:02 AM

Howdy, mate.

Good morning.

RMorrisey

Good evening =)

You in australia or NZ?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Oz.

Sydney, so the urban part of Oz :)

RMorrisey

ah

USA here, east coast

sorry, I was distracted by the googledoc changes

Iszi

Hey.

I'm going out on a limb here, but does our dungeon mapping software support three-dimensional movement?

(I have a tendency to leverage the third dimension whenever I can, especially if I manage to get a Controller)

RMorrisey

Don't know, have we figured out a tool to use yet?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

2:13 AM

pbpmap.com/zzdts1/map.php

yes, yes we have

and I have our first encounter prepped

um... and so long as we can work out a consistent terminology, it should

i.e. you want to teleport into the trees and whatnot?

Iszi

Oh, I'm sure I'll find plenty to do. Especially with trees.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

cool. So long as we work out an appropriate marker, it shouldn't be too hard

Hrmmm, 2x2 wagon is a bit funky.

Iszi

Guessing players shouldn't look at the map until it's done? Does PBP map allow for partial revelation?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

eh, map as it is is fine

there's no exploration and it's well lit

so you'll be able to see stuff

And I even know the rough plot around the encounter, too

Woo, @Sohum You got your thief!

oh no, does squeaky play the harmonica? :)

Iszi

Bah, I've really got to clean up my CB. So many characters I've got left over from games I many never get to get back to.

By "5th Regiment" I suppose it can be implied that we're using Army terminology?

RMorrisey

2:24 AM

That was the idea, yeah

It can be made-up fantasy army, obviously =)

Sohum

We have a cunning bard trickster gnome!

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Yeah, tis "Generic Fantasy Army, get creative in ranks"

Iszi

@Sohum Sweet!

Sohum

I actually wouldn't have minded seeing how a changeling paladin would've worked...

RMorrisey

@Sohum +1 for the idea of getting "elected randomly" because the top brass doesn't like you =)

Iszi

2:26 AM

Easy fix! Make "Archive" folder, move dnd4e files, and retrieve later as necessary. Don't know why I waited so long for this.

Ok, I'm not volunteering for this (you don't want me to) but is there perhaps an artist in the group who could do profile drawings?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

I nominate google images. :)

RMorrisey

@EricWeilnau I like that... Squeaky talks a lot. Sam just happens to be the best listener. =p

Iszi

Any way to set the zoom level on that document?

RMorrisey

I don't think so

Eric Weilnau

the "silent" bob to your Jay =)

RMorrisey

2:30 AM

grin

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

zoom level?

RMorrisey

you could try the zoom on your browser, but on chrome at least it kind of messes with the formatting

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

if you zoom, you just have to refresh the page after

RMorrisey

yeah

FYI, guys, I won't be around this time tomorrow night. I'll probably be on late for a few minutes to catch up and do my bit for the next step

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Cool. Well, the next step will be "choose 2 backgrounds" if you want to do it early

Sohum

2:41 AM

It's going to be interesting roleplaying a silent character in a chat medium...

RMorrisey

I gotta sort out my char for my new Shadowrun game tomorrow night first

@Sohum There are a lot of ways you can express your character's actions with few words

If we are doing a lot of roleplaying for this exercise?

Sohum

I know, it's just going to be... interesting.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Um, I'll start out with the technical bits and just start... adding bits on

:5355 What with your /usual/ practices...

RMorrisey

If anything, playing a silent character is probably easier in a text medium than in tabletop =p

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

::muttermutterthousandwordpostsmutter::

RMorrisey

2:43 AM

ahh... so desu

Sohum

Oy! I never hit a thousand!

Did I?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

ummm

some of those dictated scenes were stupidly long

Sohum

::muttermutteri'llvirtueyourmediummuttermutter::

RMorrisey

lol

Iszi

Anyone object to the Dragonborn having rank of "Master Chief"?

RMorrisey

2:46 AM

I need to come up with a better response than that

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

:5367 Fun, a warrant...

oh that'll create some /fascinating/ problems with the noncoms

Iszi

Sorry... noncoms? NCOs?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

yeah.

RMorrisey

@Iszi I thought you suggested that because of the Halo character

Sohum

Hahahahaha @Iszi not at all

Iszi

2:47 AM

@RMorrisey Right

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Chiefs are warrant officers, which are.... neither fish nor foul.

they are noncommissioned officers with ranks that are actually superior to some commissioned, because they're not stupid enough to be commissioned officers

though master chief is /awfully/ high

Eric Weilnau

isn't that because they are Marine ranks? since it is only a corp all of the commissioned officers are technically Navy, right?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Warrant Officer is probably a bit more appropriate to the squad?

that would ... ::goes over to the navy tabs::

Aaaah

Yeah, Master Chief Petty Officer

So... given that this is an army regiment, chief is actually not... the best rank? Unless for some reason you /were/ in the navy and... now you're here

so you could /insist/ everyone call you master chief :)

Iszi

Actually, former naval history could fit with the background I was aiming at.

RMorrisey

That would be fantastic, if some sailor mucked up so badly that he got transferred to infantry, and now he's leading the band

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

2:52 AM

hrmm... so real rank is probably private, but you're a salty seaman, damnit. You earned that old rank, no matter what that damn admiral says.

Iszi

Combiniation of "the bloody claw" suggested for the Warlord, and the "Dragonborn - Dishonored" background.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

oh fun.

Iszi

Older character, used to be a legendary badass, but then some event in battle led him to become a deserter.

Since then, he's sought out this new military family as a way to redeem himself.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Cool.

How'd he get back to level 1?

Iszi

His shame led to an extended time out of battle. He's out of practice.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

2:54 AM

Ah. Cool.

That works.

::mutter:: tokentool makes images that make picasa grumpy

Iszi

There we go. How's that?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Excellent!

Iszi

Ah, need to specify the class/build, don't I?

Done.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

This is actually starting to work

And the map has been preped for you folks.

Iszi

3:12 AM

Spiffy. Just one request.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

The crazy eyed dude on the wagon? Yeah, he's a friend.

Sure.

"friend"

Iszi

Let's not do character building like this again, via chat.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Explain.

Iszi

(Unless it's full-on real-time.)

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

::nod::

Fair enough.

Yeah, group collaboration on characters does require a certain amount of synchronity.

how is it 2 PM?

RMorrisey

3:13 AM

@Iszi Any particular reason?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Back in a bit, the stomach gods are demanding food.

RMorrisey

It isn't, it's 11:13 PM

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Part of it, @Iszi is that we're just figuring out the protocol now.

Iszi

I know.

In any case, without all the participants in one "place" at one time, it becomes atrociously slow, and the actual "collaboration" is fairly limited.

Eric Weilnau

night all

RMorrisey

3:15 AM

I agree that it takes forever, but I think the medium in combination with googledocs does a decent job of facilitating collaboration that isn't too time-sensitive

Iszi

@EricWeilnau 'night

RMorrisey

night Eric

Iszi

@RMorrisey I agree the asynchronous chat and Google Docs help facilitate the process, but even 10% of forever is still... forever.

RMorrisey

I was frustrated the other day because I didn't "get it", I couldn't really follow what was going on. After fishing around in the wiki a bit and seeing other people's work emerge on the doc I feel more confident

nod

well, if this was a full-time, 4-5 hour game, I wouldn't be able to play because of time constraints

so this format is better for me, personally

Iszi

@RMorrisey Same. This method in general does help you learn to think differently about the characters, and learn flexibility.

RMorrisey

3:18 AM

I am already in 3 other weekly RPGs

yeah

Iszi

@RMorrisey Yeah, full-time via chat can be cumbersome too, I imagine. Guaranteed that at least one person is going to be in an environment where the game can't possibly have their exclusive attention.

But, perhaps if we could coordinate time on at least the first one or two sessions to get past the collaborative character building hurdle, the "real game" would get started much sooner and smoother.

RMorrisey

I once tried running a Mechwarrior RPG over IRC. Even though I knew all of the players in real life, I wasn't able to hold the game together for more than 2 or 3 sessions, because it's just so much harder to keep everyone's attention

When you are typing away, or even speaking over voice chat, interacting as the GM with one of the PCs, you don't see the other 4 players sitting there, fiddling with their laptops playing games on the sidelines

Iszi

Heh... sad truth.

Well, I should go pass out for the night.

Cya tomorrow, maybe.

RMorrisey

night

Sohum

3:35 AM

Did the group construction of characters not work well? I thought it worked/is working pretty damn well.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Expectation management :)

Iszi

The overall concept works well.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

In my experience, I'd... grade this about a B.

Sohum

wooo pass

:P

Iszi

It would just work much better if we were all doing it at once.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

3:36 AM

We'd have been better to lock down participation before we started, but nothing went horribly wrong.

Eeh, there are virtues to this method, and I've seen it go far worse.

Iszi

One thing for sure, is that I'm getting just a little bit attached to each one as I work on them. So, I'm not quite sure yet which one I'll play.

Sohum

hm. They're really aiming for the younger crowd, with Essentials, aren't they?

RMorrisey

The jury is still out on how well it will prevent a TPK (the original goal from the source question), but I think it's a lot of fun (you can see already we are messing around with the interplay between characters, and have some fairly unique concepts)

Sohum

Prominent "12+" on the front cover

RMorrisey

This system reminds me a little bit of a podcast I listened to about Burning Wheel character creation (though I've never played that system)

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

3:38 AM

:5453 Well, one large component is that everyone's aware of everyone else before powers are selected.

That, I think is vital.

RMorrisey

I would suggest that, if the idea is to create the most survivable party (fun and theme being secondary), the character creation should be role- and goal-driven. We have a certain balance of roles that emerged as a result of collaboration, but min/maxing hasn't been a driving force in the process

Iszi

Threw in my two cents for the yet-undecided classes. We could use another striker, and a controller is always nice to have.

RMorrisey

Maybe after this runs for a bit we can experiment with an alternate for one encounter, and compare notes?

Sohum

Well, is the goal to create the most survivable party?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

:5459 Yeah, could you move those suggestions up a phase?

Something about their placement in 4a annoys me... but that could be lack of coffee

Iszi

3:41 AM

Ummm... I thought we were solidifying the selection in this phase?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

RMorrisey, yeah, we will be

RMorrisey

The question was, howdo I ensure a balanced party and good synergy so that my player's don't run into a TPK? (I'm paraphrasing)

This game is a test of Brian's proposed solution (the rotation/phases)

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@Iszi we are. But I just don't like the idea of comments there before anything else. And remember, it's not locked down yet. I'll probably be moving the wilden away from defender

Iszi

That was the original question. However, I think the message conveyed in this process was more geared towards an "interesting" party.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

:5469 Functional is what I'm aiming for

Specifically a functional party that can cooperate both in flavour and in mechanics

Iszi

3:42 AM

Well, we've definitely got the former.

RMorrisey

agreed

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Right. Battlmind swapped for controller

Iszi

I think it was the inclusion of "flavor text" items in the previous phase and this one, plus the fact that the next two steps will be background selection, that led the focus more towards "interesting" and "flavorful".

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Yes.

My hypothesis is that flavourful creation before mechanics will lead to better mechanical choices

i.e. the warlord knows whether to or not select MBA granting stuff

Also, remember that we're at X+1, so we'll be able to select a decent cooperative group from them

Sohum

...we're going to have to /drop/ one of them?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

3:45 AM

Ayup. Everyone will choose one character to play at the end.

Iszi

Right now, we're at X+2, pending participation from one of the "waiting list" players.

Sohum

:(

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Right.

That's why X+1 is vital, so if we can see that we're oversubscribed on one type, we drop the extra of the type

And ferret has expressed interest /in/ chat

The question is: do I have the first scenario be easy or challenging...

Iszi

Seriously, we'll need a warm-up.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

That's what I'm thinking.

And that's why I'm quite happy with the encounter I've chosen as ... it has interesting components.

RMorrisey

3:49 AM

Should I stop picking on Sohum? in the googledoc? =p

Sohum

picking on /Serai/

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Remember, you might be playing Serai after :)

Sohum

there is a difference, far more in this game than many

right, and I might not

RMorrisey

lol

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

I was actually talking to @RMorrisey :)

Sohum

3:50 AM

At this point, I like each of the characters well enough :P

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

huh.

This suddenly reminds me of micoscope scene creation

RMorrisey

I'm waiting to see how the shardmind turns out flavorwise. Curious about that one

Sohum

:5500 What do you think I was basing a lot of the flavour-is-free stuff from?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

:5502 um, um, I won't ask the ceiling cat? :)

We should probably link the rest of these guys to that timeline if um...

Sohum

if you're going to keep making references to it, yea

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

3:53 AM

wave.google.com/wave/waveref/googlewave.com/w+oIyBwbVbD

RMorrisey

you guys know that Wave is being retired, right?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

yup

hoping that someone else will pick it up

RMorrisey

sadly =(

Sohum

yea, yea, there's going to be export tools and hopefully they won't turn off wave for domains and bla bla bla

I totally have wave.nsb0.net; hoping they won't turn that off

RMorrisey

I actually wrote a gadget for wave =( for keeping track of IPs in shadowrun

Sohum

3:56 AM

I wrote one for simultaneous revealing of votes/other comments for microscope :(

RMorrisey

it had a bug that made it crash whenever Jeff connected to it, though. Not anyone else, just Jeff.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

hahahaha

Sohum

:D

...wait, where are the classes?

in Essentials?

...I don't think this is essentials

grrr.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

wait, what classes?

Sohum

Essentials Thief?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

4:01 AM

Ah... um

Check wave :)

Iszi

Ok. Going to bed for real this time.

Sohum

4:59 AM

Tell me we're not going to be using those faces on the pbpmap.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Okay. We're not oing to be using those faces.

::smiles::

::rolls bluff::

how'd I do?

basically pog-making is a royal pain in the posterior.

Especially nice beveled pogs. Arrghb. And don't get me started about large creatures.

Sohum

But the current ones aren't nice or beveled or even pogs

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

::muttermutterdeathmutter::

Sohum

5:19 AM

I mean, if nothing else, there's a bunch of... if not better, at least more appropriate/identifiable ones under Figures 1x1.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

those were from figures 1x1

Sohum

We should totally use the sprites :P

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

....

die.

FFS

images must be max 3k

right, will need to do this in a real photo program. Hate you so much.

Sohum

5:35 AM

:D

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

hrmmm... photoshop is overkill... imagemagick will be ... interestingly tricky ::twitch::

There. Happy? :)

Sohum

:D

That's pretty awesome

Where are the sprites from?

And the four things surrounding the guy on the wagon are not-us, right?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

correct

dunno, figure 1

x1

sprites might ... actually work. depressingly

doesn't fit with the lovely backgrounds, but .

Sohum

So what did you have to do re: imagemagick?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

nothing, I haven't actually /done/ the work proper yet, I'm just taunting you

it is most droll

Sohum

5:42 AM

Oh, is it, old chap?

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

After LOLCat poetry? Yes.yes it is.

Sohum

...true, I kinda do deserve it

what

no I don't

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Oh, and if you can figure out a way to work out "We can haz justice" into your character, I'll penalize you by deducting healing surges.

Yes, yes you do. :)

Sohum

You brought up the Lolcat period in the first place

Lolcat poetry was /your/ punishment for that

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

details

Sohum

5:44 AM

no

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

and now to run paperwork around, back... eventually

Sohum

'k, ta'

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

6:54 AM

Right... now... imagemagick or dissertation work...

decisions, decisions...

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

7:54 AM

okay. I've now made a pog convlution script, by magick

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

8:21 AM

how does the strongman look?

Sohum

hm. it's not live-update?

apparently not.

the little not-us dudes are gone, and the strongman looks appropriately strong

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

8:37 AM

I click save

try again?

Sohum

8:52 AM

Strongmen around the wagon

and two off by themselves in the upper-left

incidentally, what are the little downward-pointing triangles on the fallen log?

19

Q: 3d6 vs a d20: What is the effect of a different probability curve?

What is the effect on game play of replacing d20 rolls with 3d6 rolls in a D&D 4e campaign? I started thinking about this after reading this question where the example was given of playing a d20 system with 3d8 (actually 3z8, but I digress). I like math and probability and it got me curious....