TRPG General Chat

I had a student try to slide work under my door one day. He felt a little tug on it and thought I was there, being playful. After much more tugging and finally getting it back, the entire bottom two inches were shredded.

wax eagle

2:36 AM

Some movie drops tomorrow, then Xmas, new years and an extra week off

Shalvenay

@waxeagle got it

nitsua60

The next day I got a paper from the kid with the following note: "my teacher's cat ate my homework."

2

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 heheh. I'll be there tomorrow

nitsua60

@Shalvenay Cool--hopefully I'm feeling up to it. (I have a minor procedure on the agenda for tomorrow afternoon.)

doppelgreener

@nitsua60 oh no XD

nitsua60

2:42 AM

@doppelgreener wouldn't have been so bad, but there were actually two cats, from the same litter, both extremely polydactylic. (If that's the right word...?) One had six claws on each front paw, the other totaled fifteen claws afore!

doppelgreener

Wow.

Polydactyl cat

A polydactyl cat is a cat with a congenital physical anomaly called polydactyly (or polydactylism, also known as hyperdactyly), that causes the cat to be born with more than the usual number of toes on one or more of its paws. Cats with this genetically inherited trait are most commonly found along the East Coast of North America (in the United States and Canada) and in South West England and Wales. == Occurrence == The true polydactyly is a congenital abnormality, genetically inherited as an autosomal dominant trait of the ZRS cis element of the Pd gene with incomplete penetrance. Normal cats...

apparently it's kind of a thing for cats in particular.

nitsua60

@doppelgreener and a big buff on vets' bills, when declawing.

Miniman

3:36 AM

@nitsua60 I made some tweaks to your tweaks because of my OCD, but it was a good call.

Pixie

4:07 AM

@doppelgreener I haven't referenced it before now? That surprises me more than anything else. xD I looove Zim.

@doppelgreener I love polydactyl kitties!!! But I think everyone does. They get adopted so fast.

Though I don't know how I feel about people breeding them on purpose.

trogdor

that seems like a thing that should not happen

Pixie

As I understand it, polydactyly itself isn't a a big deal for the cat, but there's a related condition that you could wind up with when breeding within this population which is bad for the cat. Of course, that's the case with a lot of purebreds.

trogdor

that is the case with a lot of traits connected to genetics

doppelgreener

@Pixie I might just not have noticed or remembered? This time I did!

trogdor

if you breed an animal for a trait too much you are gonna get some bad genetic baggage

doppelgreener

4:16 AM

@Pixie I would go for more ordinary kitties and I find the idea of people deliberately breeding them to be quite concerning.

Pixie

I've seen them in person before. Their big paws are very cute, and the cats themselves are fine. They really don't seem to suffer for it as far as I've observed. There are also far worse potential side effects with much more popular breeds. (Personally, I just don't go for purebred cats at all.)

nitsua60

@Pixie we just found them in a box at the barn.... Ten years later, still doing well!

Pixie

@nitsua60 I'm glad! Fifteen, wow, that is a doozy.

Wow, apparently it affects Maine Coons especially. Come to think of it, the ones I've seen probably were Maine Coons. They have enormous feets as it is.

(I would not like to be whacked by one, though. Our probably Maine Coon was dangerous enough with the usual amount of claws.)

Adeptus

4:32 AM

@Pixie We had a Devon Rex (died at easter, poor thing. But had a good long life - 23 years). But they bred them responsibly - no scrawny hairless sickly things (except maybe the runt of the litter). She had a beautiful velvety coat.

Pixie

@Adeptus There are definitely ways to breed more responsibly. I'm glad your breeder did. They are sadly not all willing to expend that effort. :(

We've actually had a number purebred dogs, mostly due to circumstance. They all unfortunately got hit with some of the ill effects of their breeds and sizes.

Well, except maybe the golden retriever. I can't think of any health problems he had.

BESW

4:55 AM

Cthulhu Idol & Card Game Kickstarter.

Magician

5:17 AM

@BESW it's been a while since I've done any 4e-like monster building. Would you care to take a look at my 13th Age kaiju and offer some feedback, maybe? And anyone else, who's not my player.

BESW

Sure.

Magician

Mollusk of Murder

BESW

What am I looking for?

Magician

Well, you obviously wouldn't know the numbers (I'm iffy on them myself), but the general flow of it all.

It's heavily based on remorhaz. I took away burrowing, as it doesn't really fit, and it feels like some sort of movement ability could be good. But not sure what would fit.

BESW

Sloughing Flesh. When the Mollusk of Murder would be prevented from moving freely, it can lose [X] hit points to ignore the hinderance.

Magician

5:29 AM

Not bad! While this party seems to mostly apply the best debuff available to its enemies, death, having something like that would be useful.

BESW

The flavour of it is almost better than the effect itself, I think.

"Oh, you were trying to hold it in place? Enjoy your fistfuls of nasty mollusk flesh as it rips away from you."

Adeptus

Feb 25 at 0:01, by BESW

The second-best debuff is death. The best debuff is "He's on our side now."

Magician

@BESW Hehehe. Ew. Ewhewhewhew?

BESW

That sounds about right.

Magician

@Adeptus My bad. Yes, they can't quite grasp the best debuff. There's a paladin who really likes to charge people...

BESW

5:32 AM

It just seemed like the sort of ability this guy would have.

Well, overall I like it. Very flavourful, and it'll be forcing interesting tactical choices throughout the conflict.

The battle looks to be very chaotic in relatively manageable ways. That's hard to make happen.

Magician

Awesome. Big boss fights are always stressful...

BESW

I hear ya.

I'm putting together a big villain for this weekend, myself.

I've got her philosoraptor advisors built, though.

Magician

@BESW Haha, nice.

BESW

Thus far all I've got for the Queen are her aspects.

She's a humanoid triceratops who dresses like a glam gospel diva in a Mad Max film.

Magician

Flashy +5, I take it?

BESW

5:45 AM

+7, actually.

She's a Master of Umdaar facing ARRPG PCs, so her numbers get to be ridiculous.

doppelgreener

7:14 AM

Y'all who haven't yet: go make a wikipedia donation!

They're asking for donations down to the cost of a cup of coffee. So go donate one of your daily coffee slots to Wikipedia. And then go get that coffee anyway to celebrate donating, because I'll be surprised if a nonprofit actually winds up making me subtract a cup of coffee from my week on their account. :D

Miniman

7:33 AM

@doppelgreener What about those of us who don't drink coffee?

doppelgreener

@Miniman ... Tea maybe?

Ahriman

No tea?

doppelgreener

Hmm. This is really outside my worldly frame of reference.

What about a small cake or bread loaf?

Ahriman

Isn't that more expensive than a cup of coffee?

doppelgreener

I dunno, Australia's cups of coffee are usually a bit more than $3 so I'm guessing ballpark closeness is close enough.

Ahriman

7:46 AM

Seriously expensive bread

Derpy

morning

doppelgreener

@Ahriman what would you say might be a fair equivalent?

@Derpy plausibly!

Ahriman

around here getting a good cup of coffee is twice as expensive as a bread

Derpy

Ok. You are right. I said I won't use "morning" anymore.

Rewind.

@doppelgreener Okie dokie lokie

doppelgreener

@Derpy you did? what's the occasion? (did it reach noon?)

Derpy

7:54 AM

@doppelgreener Another room, after the usual "it is not morning here but thanks anyway" comment.

BESW

8:32 AM

@doppelgreener Siopao!

doppelgreener

9:39 AM

@BESW Perfect

BESW

11:07 AM

After all the Star Wars franchise essays and retrospectives and so forth that I've been exposed to the last week or so, I've decided that "The Monomyths" would be a good name for a band.

Ahriman

@eimyr You there?

M20 Quickstart is even more bare bones with regards to basic rules knowledge (no actions for examples)

BESW

M20? you roll a twenty-sided monster?

Tim B

11:23 AM

A Gelatinous Icosahedron?

doppelgreener

11:36 AM

@TimB Grats on the super shiny hat!

eimyr

@Ahriman can be

Ahriman

@eimyr Also a bit confused: do you need rule pointers or background fluff?

eimyr

@BESW M20 is a Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary edition. I'm actually surprised there is no tag for it.

@Ahriman as I said in the question, I need to give them reading on absolute basics regarding game concepts.

So I don't need them to read a Combat Maneuvers table or know the circumstance modifiers by heart. I need them to understand what Consensus is and how come Paradox blasts them only sometimes.

In actuality, if that was as easy as "read chapter 2, 7 and 8" I wouldn't be asking the question.

Ahriman

add in chapter 10 and that's basically it

Coming together is done in character creation

eimyr

The idea is that I give them M20 QS pdf and some selected basics that I know they will need and then listen to what further information they request.

I want them to know what they don't know, so that they can either explore in the game or look/ask for resources themselves.

So, @Ahriman, I respectfully disagree.

It's not basically it.

Ahriman

11:47 AM

mm

My group is a more rulesbased then

I can chuck a system at them, say read X chapters

and amonth later we hammer all rules quinks out

doppelgreener

2

Q: Should we add V20/M20 etc tags for White Wolf Games?

In the recent years Onyx Path has released 20-year anniversary editions of popular white wolf games which include both mechanical and plot/setting changes, like the removal of the metaplot that formed the World of Darkness in previous editions. To my knowledge, Vampire, Werewolf and, recently, Ma...

Ahriman

Then we take a look at important concepts

eimyr

@doppelgreener was it decided that 20th Anniversary is not sufficiently different? It's abotu as different from others as Revised is from 2nd ed. And many questions that I answer require clarification about the edition or careful consideration of both if not provided.

doppelgreener

@eimyr no conclusion; you might want to weigh in if you feel those tags should exist.

eimyr

@Ahriman in my groups we first get everyone on board with game concepts and only then look at mechanics and rules.

doppelgreener

11:52 AM

@eimyr You may want to mention all this stuff in your Mage question. It won't any longer be a generic question for the standard group, but as the Standard Mage: Ascension Group is hermetically sealed in a vault in Geneva for purposes of measurement, we don't have to worry about them.

If it'll help you get the answer that you need for your group we're golden and you're asking a great question.

eimyr

@doppelgreener The only reason I frame it as generic is that I don't know who's going to be in the group at the moment.

It's to help me prepare to play with people I don't know yet.

doppelgreener

@eimyr It sounds from this conversation like you need emphasized background on key parts of the lore too, though.

But maybe that's a depends-on-the-group thing?

eimyr

Which is why I listed the concepts I need to convey and why I only want the most basic things laid out.

doppelgreener

Ah, I guess it may be decently covered in there.

eimyr

I agree, the information needed depends on the group and their character choices and the plot prepared.

Ahriman

11:58 AM

I had the feeling difference in how groups prepare could be an issue

doppelgreener

I think the disruptions might also differ! :)

eimyr

However, you can draw a line between "I need to know about [insert magical society] if I'm playing [member of that society]" and "everyone must know how to cast a spell"

Ahriman

true

But for casting magick you have the concepts on one hand & the rules also

eimyr

Yep.

Ahriman

reformatting teh answer

eimyr

11:59 AM

I assume you mean the mechanics.

I can lay them out in 15 minutes around the table.

Explain the nature of the Consensus in light of multiple personal Paradigms? Hour long lecture that I'm sure is better delivered by bits of Chapter 2.

Also, I need the player to know that there is such a thing as an Avatar and Essence - and then the player knows that he has to know 4 available Essences or that he can speak to the avatar.

Tim B

@doppelgreener Thanks, got a gold badge on worldbuilding and stack exchange this week :)

Just need 2 upvotes on this for another one:

98

Q: How would Facebook Sysadmins prevent the summoning of Cthulhu?

So, I've got this idea for a short story. Some researchers find a forgotten manuscript hidden locked away in an ancient tomb. While they are working on it one of them pastes part of the text into a Facebook announcement and Facebook automatically translates it. This links Facebook to the nether r...

apocalypse computers cthulhu facebook

doppelgreener

@TimB I am quite happy to put you one doot closer to a gold badge for this.

Tim B

Heh, thanks. :) I think it should make it. It's still on first page of HNQ and only needs 1 or 2 more upvotes.

doppelgreener

I'm playing a game about Weird Science & Magic with @BESW and @trogdor, and we also looked across the concept of what'd happen if optical character recognition software were to 'read' the various magical manuscripts being digitised into our organisation's systems.

Tim B

yeah, sounds like a similar concept

trogdor

12:11 PM

@doppelgreener yeah that was a fun idea

Ahriman

D20 Modern once did an adventure with this

scanning books into a cataloging computer

got self-aware & adventure ensued

nitsua60

12:34 PM

random chat-question: any time I try to scroll back (to older messages) my browser auto-scrolls me right back to the present. Persists after restart. Anybody had that happen/know what might be causing it?

Derpy

@nitsua60 !

in David's hat store, 23 mins ago, by FlagAsSpam

I really can't. The chat won't let me scroll up.

like.. this^?

nitsua60

@Derpy yup. And a CRTL+R did it. Browser restart didn't, system restart hadn't. The simple things....

Thanks

Derpy

in Tavern on the Meta on Meta Stack Exchange Chat, 1 min ago, by balpha

fix is deploying, ETA 1 minute

@nitsua60 Trad: your CTRL+R just by chance happened after the fix was made.

nitsua60

12:52 PM

@Derpy makes more sense--thanks

eimyr

1:16 PM

@Polyducks Hey, remember the map thing? Are you doing anything related?

BESW

Don't make today's Doctor angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry.

eimyr

What is that doctor? My know of doctorin' ain't enuff.

Y'all.

Derpy

Waaaaait.

Aaron

Morning

Derpy

@eimyr Angry + Doctor..... doesn't spring any memory?

eimyr

1:24 PM

Not quite.

@Aaron hiya!

Derpy

@eimyr and if I add "green"?

eimyr

Okay. That's better.

Blast those pop-culture references! I never get them.

BESW

[sad walking away music]

Derpy

@eimyr Well, not everyone is expected to recognize the Green Power Ranger from that picture :P

eimyr

For a shameful moment I thought @doppelgreener has finished a PhD but couldn't get past the "angry" bit in this context.

BESW

1:29 PM

[amused]

No, the chat's resident angry doctor in a hat hasn't been around much recently.

Miniman

2:15 PM

Giving players premade characters is such an awful practice grumblegrumblegrumble

nitsua60

@Miniman what particular problem came up?

wax eagle

@Miniman I've got a game I'm working on where I'm doing that...with a twist

doppelgreener

@Miniman wat hapen

Miniman

@nitsua60 @waxeagle @doppelgreener Just another question with someone who has never seen a PHB before.

(When I should have been asleep 2 hours ago)

Derpy

@Miniman Have you considered vampirism as an alternative?

nitsua60

2:26 PM

@Derpy (to the need for sleep, you mean?)

Miniman

@Derpy It's a little too mainstream for me these days.

Derpy

@Miniman Yes, don't worry. I'm going to give you the choice I never had.

doppelgreener

@Miniman Have you tried becoming a dhampir?

Derpy

(what? what pony? that one is just Lestat...)

Miniman

@doppelgreener Tbh I think if I was going to go undead I'd head straight for ultimate arcane power.

Derpy

2:31 PM

@Miniman Or becoming a Prinny. Just think all the stuff you could explode when someone throws you.

Miniman

@Derpy Googling that gave me awesome flashbacks to Mario Kart 64.

Anyway, I really had better sleep now.

Derpy

@Miniman Prinny... in Mario Kart?

wax eagle

@Miniman oh, that one, yeah...

Anaphory

6:30 PM

@Miniman Not in all contexts.

wax eagle

for something longer than a session or two/three...probably not a great choice

Anaphory

Probably. Unless you intend to play Robots and Rapiers the way that game was originally conceived.

(and you finish making that game first.)

Miniman

9:20 PM

@Derpy Just because when you die you become something that explodes if it hits stuff.

@Anaphory Is there a context in which players having no understanding of their characters is a good thing?

Adeptus

10:53 PM

@doppelgreener They did the same in a Buffy episode, too. Scanned a demon out of a book, turned him into a cyberdemon.

I, Robot... You, Jane

"I, Robot...You, Jane" is the eighth episode of season 1 of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode was written by staff writers Ashley Gable and Thomas A. Swyden, and directed by Stephen Posey. In this episode, Willow accidentally releases the demon Moloch onto the internet. There he wreaks havoc and gains a following. == Plot == In Cortona, Italy, in 1418. Carlo, a young Italian man, looks at a horned demon: Moloch "the Corruptor", his master. Moloch coaxingly promises Carlo everything if he gives Moloch his love, and as Carlo promises his love, Moloch kills him by breaking...

(that wikipedia entry needs a spoiler tag :P)

BESW

@Adeptus spoiler

Miniman

@Adeptus It's ok, I just finished the second season :)

BESW

@Miniman SPIIIKE.

Miniman

@BESW Yep, you and everyone else who told me to get into the second season before making my mind up were right.

BESW

Second season has Spike and Oz but no Riley, and is therefore best season.

(Also there's, like, some good stories or something? I dunno, I wasn't paying attention.)

Miniman

11:01 PM

@BESW Also the only romantic relationship that doesn't appear out of nowhere with no development whatsoever and make absolutely no sense.

(At least, so far)

BESW

Which, Spike and Drusilla?

Also, sorry, but almost every romantic relationship for the whole series is suddenly out of nowhere, nonsensical, or both. It's a tribute to the actors that sometimes I care about them anyway.

Miniman

@BESW I meant Willow and Oz, actually.

BESW

Oh, yes. They work together well.

When they spoiler and Oz decides to spoiler, I admit it colours my impressions of Willow's spoiler with spoiler. Though Oz gets to spoiler in spoiler, so there's that.

In summary: Whedon syndrome keeps getting in the way of Whedon's desire to explore strong feminist themes.

(See also: Black Widow's controversial reason she calls herself a "monster" in Age of Ultron.)

But then, I think season four on is generally weaker in story and characterisation, despite being stronger in production and acting.

Miniman

11:31 PM

@BESW It really surprises me every time I hear that.

BESW

Hmm?

Miniman

@BESW I mean, I'm a fairly traditional sort of person, but even I would say Buffy is deeply chauvinist.

BESW

Whedon wants to explore feminist themes. He's not often good at it.

The fundamental concept of Buffy is that she's the cheerleader who gets attacked by the slasher in the alley... but the monster comes out worse. This IS an empowering conceit.

But, partly because of the advances in what we expect from socially conscious media now compared to when the series started, and partly because Whedon has a hard time with "big picture" stuff when it comes to his themes, it's a thematic mess.

(And to its credit, Buffy is one reason that we DO expect more from our media now.)

3

Miniman

@BESW Thinking about it, I have issues with this, too - she can fight vampires and not just be a hapless victim, which is good...but she can only do so because she's the Chosen One. (No TVTropes link required since the show didn't even bother to come up with a different name for the trope.)

BESW

Heheh. Yes.

Although: we see her un-Chosen friends also taking up stakes against the enemy and defying their victim role.

Miniman

11:37 PM

Fair point.

BESW

Willow and Cordelia both become supreme butt-kickers as the series progresses.

Miniman

That's a minor spoiler, but I played the videogame way back when, so I already knew about Willow, anyway.

BESW

And later on we see Whedon struggling to add depth to the Chosen One narrative, exploring its origin and having Buffy deconstruct its assumptions. I don't think that was intended from the beginning though.

The Chosen One narrative wrestles with being about inherent feminine power, but rarely succeeds.

Miniman

@BESW Does it explain how being the Chosen One is something you're born with but Kendra became the Chosen One as soon as Buffy died, despite already being 16 (or whatever)? Because that still doesn't make any sense.

BESW

....yes. Ish.

Miniman

11:41 PM

Huh. That's something to look forward to, I guess. Even retconned consistency is better than leaving it inconsistent.

BESW

Basically: because the Slayer has such a short life expectancy, there are a lot of girls around the world who are "Potentials," born with the capacity to become the Slayer. Whenever a Slayer dies, a Potential is Chosen semi-randomly to gain the power of the Slayer.

I don't think that's really a spoiler, as it's what Kendra's trying to explain.

Miniman

Ah, right. That makes the opening narration a little inaccurate, but it makes sense, I guess.

BESW

The final seasons dig into the origin of the Slayer and her power, and Buffy tries to pull a Kobayashi Maru with it.

> Into every generation potential slayers are born: dozens of girls across the world who will, consecutively as the previous falls, become the chosen one. They alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their number. They are, and will be, the Slayers.

Not quite so pithy.

Miniman

@BESW I think "not quite so dramatic" is a more likely line of reasoning :P

The Oracle

11:59 PM

1

Q: Why was this recalculating CR question closed as too broad?

This question was put on hold as too broad. As far as I can tell, it isn't too broad - recalculating CR is a defined process, and we already have questions of this type on the site. As far as I can tell, the question is clear, specific, and on-topic (not that that last was ever in question), so ...

discussion closed-questions

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