So. My own Worldbuilding game design efforts are on hold for a while (Realised a major mechanical flaw in the game), but I was wondering if anyone wanted to join a play-by-email-style game of Microscope using Google Slides. Just a rough thought at the moment, but I figured I could check for interest here.
Sadly not. I wish I had time and motivation to work on some stories, but I have a few exams coming up and other personal stuff that needs to be taken care of.
oh no, exams aren't even on the table yet. Thanksfully my uni does exams briefly before the start of the new semester (so mid august to mid september is exam season)^^
scott knows how much of a safety net the long summer is
Well, if I've worked things out right... The Internet, pretty much any time, just need to get people involved and then it should (theoretically) take care of itself.
Well, I'm on the job rn, so some light worldbuilding to keep the creative juices flowing would be welcome :)
I was also recently thinking about dropping all my work on military structure and such of my conworld onto the site or the chat to get feedback, but not sure I should(?)
@Shalvenay introduced me to it, and it is a very intriguing RPG that, with a minor tweak to the mindset and the use of Google Slides, could become a very interesting exercise in both co-operative Worldbuilding and asynchronous RPG gameplay.
@dot_Sp0T Part of the game. Basically a way of saying 'you get to pick the focus of interest and influence the narrative more for a while'. The whole game is quite simple but remarkably deep in scope and broad in possibilities.
@dot_Sp0T I think it should work. There's some more role-play-ey elements that might not, but most of the game should work just fine in comments and a shared slideshow.
(Steam, or probably gaming sites in general have proven to be a reliable way of exchanging contact information; add each other via their gaming tags, and then use the private chat on the service)
Can I have drops that aren't drops?
water physics science-based
For a story I am drafting I would like to have drops of fluid that form another shape than the regular domed drops we usually see. Is there any other shape such as a e.g. a doughnut-shape that drops could naturally form given the r...
@AndyD273 Testing a game called Microscope out. It's on Google Slides, and hopefully we'll be able to run it in such a way that we can asynchronously slot a bit of co-operative Worldbuilding into our everyday lives
@dot_Sp0T I've mostly been working on moving the story forward and keeping the room thawed. I have a few ideas of where I'd like the story to go if left to my own devices, but it's still open for everyone of course
@JoeBloggs I wanted to get around to write down most of what has happened so far into a first chapter for the blog, I'll stop saying that I will have done that by xyz, but am def still hoping to get around to it soon-ish
@dot_Sp0T My general plan is that during the night one of them manifests their full shadow as a giant creature, which flails around and panics for a few minutes, knocks a bunch of trees over, (which is useful for making a raft) then it calms down and a few minutes later the person wakes up. Working toward the idea that maybe the shadows aren't bad, just miss understood and unstudied, since testing that kind of thing in a crowded colony would have been a really bad idea.
It's ok. I saw it once when I was pretty young. I don't remember all of it, but one of the things I remember was this machine that let people manafest a "creature from their ID". The ID is basically the subconscious.
It's basically what I picture when I think of the shadow creatures
@dot_Sp0T Right, and I really do believe that if magic existed, science would try to figure out how it works and how to explain it, until it stopped being magic and was just more science.
You know... I think it could be fun to see a remake of Forbidden Planet. It might not work for today's audiences, but as an action/horror movie I think it could do well
@AndyD273 in the early stages my Conworld had 'magical properties' assigned to materials when they were burned in ovens and at certain temperatures, in certain compounds, and so forth ;; At some point I dropped it to not be tempted to make magic hammers and swords and such
@dot_Sp0T Mostly I think it can be done well with a little effore. Star Wars is essentially magical fantasy. And really so is Star Trek. But the interesting thing is how much they have influenced actual science, to the point were we owe them for a lot of tech we use.
Last week when we played that walked into a village of barbarians. They were escorted by the tribesmen to a central pavilion. They assumed they were important enough to speak to the elder. Every time the dwarf in the party tried to speak one of the guards smacked him with his spear haft.
They ended up going murder hobo and killing all the tribesmen guards
Last week I had a villager give the halfling a way-description, but then the villager being angry and stomping off - the halfling tried to confirm that that was the right way for about half an hour with different villagers
@James I often roll insight/investigation checks soon the PC's behalf. Not the player's behalf, but the PC's, because I imagine them being driven headlong into danger by their derp of a player while internally monologuing about how they knew it was a trap all along.
A policy I instituted after a full hour of trying to get through an unlocked door.
@James Lawful evil are the best. Ran into a ridiculously overpowered LE devil once. Ended up with one player under a geas to count all the chickens in a village because the Devil had a thing about trading information.
For example I made them roll survival to pick a campsite. One of them rolled well and found a good spot, another failed with a nat 1. The guy with the nat 1 had to play the scene out thinking he had found the best possible camping spot available. They ended up having to do a charisma check vs a wisdom check.
If you roll a natural 1 your turn ends and you have to roll a d4. On a 1 fall prone, 2 drop weapon, 3 swing through (attack your nearest ally, new attack roll) and 4 break your weapon.
If a number doesn't apply you just step down a number. So for example a monk attacking unarmed wouldn't have a weapon to break so on a 4 it would turn into swing through. If no allies were close enough, you'd go to weapon drop, but again...so you end up falling prone.
I haven't had any nat1 attack rolls; but I was thinking about having them describe colourfully how they fail, and how their enemy was taking advantage of that
Allowing myself to give them some inspiration for being unfair with themselves
@James I just try to add some problem on a 1 because the other stuff felt too repetitive for my players. For example "Nat 1 and you are standing next to a pillar? Instead of your enemy you hit the old pillar and it's threatening to bury you and your enemy. Both characters roll Dex Save and we have a bit difficult terrain between you guys."
@dot_Sp0T Friend of mine handles all the narration except for moments where 'big-bads' get killed or critted, then he lets the players take over and gives inspiration (5e players :D) if they're suitably over-the-top.
@James I have never once created enemies for my players that can have their numbers altered as a matter of plot to respond to lucky/unlucky rolls. Nosir. Not me.
@James I'd argue to the contrary: If your brain isn't flexible being the DM with a patient and understanding group is an excellent way to build up your flexibility.
@James Had a party during scenic combat (no minis, just words): "Wait, there's still two rats left that have not taken their action" - oh you stupid fools
I love grids; used one for the last party's dungeon and they went crazy when they could start to add the effects of their attacks onto the map. Like "You've missed the rat, but smashed the barrel it was hiding behind instead" - player erases barrel and draws smashed barrel
Avoids ambiguity, and you can blow people's minds with a couple of sheets of gridded acetate and some careful planning. Dr Strange style moving floor battles... The wizards had a field day and the barbarian fell over a lot.
@Secespitus I've felt so free to clean up the Sandbox main answer with the posted questions; it's much easier to read and edit like that and might serve as an example of how to use markup to its fullest
@dot_Sp0T Yeah, those fancy terms are unknown to me. I've read your question in the Sandbox - no reason to read it again on main before voting. I think the markdown is harder to read. Either just numbers that tell you nothing when reading them or all lower case, dashes between words, weird cut-off points, ... I prefer to have a readable text for links. The same with the numbering. No idea what people thought when implementing this. But whatever...
@Green We introduced a buddy that hasn't been able to play for a while to the campaign so the session was mainly just working him into the story (he was a slave held by barbarians). We will be getting into the meat of the demons and the succu-mom tonight though.
The setting is the same as our own world in terms of evidence for the existence of any higher powers. However, rather than our set of a few religions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and a few others) becoming dominant, what we now think of as 'ancient' faiths such as the Graeco-Roman and Norse pan...
@James, to ask your expert opinion, how long should I wait before I start fearing that a bounty is not properly being responded to? 3 days? 4? (Possibly hypothetical question. Depends . . .)
And to restate an earlier question, do you mind if I ask you a mod-related question? I've always wondered what, exactly, "flag for moderator attention" should be used for. Considering starting a Meta thread asking for a list . . . . . as a moderator, is there anything you think I should know about that flag option/limitations?
And on another note, I think this is not only too broad but also POB. Even unclear at first: I couldn't see any question marks so I had a hard time understanding what the OP was asking worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/113570/…
@James agreed. How can you pull out all major religions and not be somewhere completely different? Extracting the influences of religion is ridiculously complex.
@JoeBloggs I'm in the process of getting some much needed rest; if you want to we can try to get through the scene in the next 15min, otherwise I probably won't be available before tomorrow same time as today
@Green It's not so much removing the religions, it's just exchanging them for the old gods. Which depending on how far back that goes could be messy. Moloch required child sacrifice.
@AndyD273 Also, there's a good reason why newer religions superceded older ones. The ideas wrapped up in new religions outperformed, for whatever reason, the older religions.
Like, what was it about early Christianity that proved so interesting that it completely replaced classic Greco-Roman religion?
Not sure... My roman history is probably not what it should be. I think it may have spread to Rome via Paul and others, caught hold, and eventually one of the emperors converted. Which pretty much ended it for the old gods.
Can I have drops that aren't drops?
water physics science-based
For a story I am drafting I would like to have drops of fluid that form another shape than the regular domed drops we usually see. Is there any other shape such as a e.g. a doughnut-shape that drops could naturally form given the r...
The Factory Floor
The Factory Floor