TRPG General Chat

12:33 AM

@BESW hello

@KMallory herro

@Grubermensch hewwo

Grubermensch

Salutations my good sir

It's been some time

yes it has, I no longer have a job where I can sit with the stack open

Shalvenay

hey there @KMallory

KMallory

12:49 AM

hello

@Grubermensch I believe so.

...Thank goodness for search features, because my RPG folder is a mess right now.

@besw thats how I feel everytime Im looking up a rule bit in a PDF ive OCRd

@KMallory @Grubermensch @Shalvenay @JoshuaAslanSmith plus.google.com/hangouts/_/sv7qqmj2qvb6li2g54oa25tinye

I'm honestly not sure my internets will hold out tonight, they're still pretty flaky

@RobertF you around this evening?

RobertF

1:06 AM

I'm here!

@waxeagle Next time use less butter, and don't fold the dough as many times.

@BESW if only

@RobertF woot! see above for the link

1:54 AM

@waxeagle aidedd.org/dnd/images/devilBearded.jpg

@JoshuaAslanSmith When Hair Plugs Go Wrong?

@besw lol they make an attack with the beard and with the gliave

So that's a yes.

beard has a poison effect that prevents healing if you fail the save

yeah pretty choice

5 bearded devils

@waxeagle sadness, thank you for gming as always

@JoshuaAslanSmith yeah, it's a bummer, it was pretty stable til I got home today :(

Grubermensch

2:10 AM

@waxeagle one other option you might look into is if you can get a business-class connection

it's more pricey, but they generally have availability and performance guarantees, and it might still be cheaper than using a wireless link

SevenSidedDie

4:03 AM

@waxeagle We recently had lots of flakey internet problems. Turns out that the majority of it was a loose coax cable between the modem and wall. Disconnecting and reconnecting the cable actually eliminated most of the noise that was the problem.

4:16 AM

So you're saying your internet needed to be coaxed out? :D

4:26 AM

4:44 AM

@BESW that's about the only way I could imagine responding to that XD

4:55 AM

@KyleS. Hi!

@BESW howdy!

I'm procrastinating as usual!

Woo!

I really shouldn't be. My PhD defense is in 11 days...o.o

Oooer.

I'm trying to finalize my draft of the dissertation, and it's stressing me the hell out

4:57 AM

@KyleS. just remember the best defense is a good offense

I've.... helped people format their dissertations.

@doppelgreener I have a sword at the ready, and a boot knife in case things get up close and personal.

Have you chosen your second?

@KyleS. great. You're very prepared.

I'm also preparing for the snake fight portion of the defense.

5:01 AM

.... that would have made for a great 200 word RPG, if I'd only remembered it.

"I assure you, the snakes are very real." might make a decent quote for the dedication section

Since I'm likely to be the only person to read it after my advisors finish

Hmm. Instead of character generation, you have thesis generation.

SevenSidedDie

@doppelgreener My pun response is more of a rueful facepalm, but I have dear friends who have heavily conditioned that reflex. ^^

How are things for you guys?

Just had a half-dozen classes get cancelled, so my workload and my paychecks for the next two weeks got a lot lighter.

On a brighter note, I'm looking forward to getting back into an episodic pattern with my RPG campaign starting this weekend.

Miniman

5:12 AM

@KyleS. I've read this before and I don't know why.

Also, this suggests that Aladdin and Harry Potter both have honorary degrees.

Dr Jones doesn't, though.

Miniman

@Magician I don't know, we didn't see him get his PhD.

@Miniman Hah!

@BESW After I wrap up this degree, my plan is to start running a 5e game every other week. I've been saying I will forever and school keeps getting in the way

On the day of Ragnarok, Thor will finally get his degree.

So no more excuses after this

5:17 AM

I have a feeling he didn't write a single word, though.

@KyleS. My group meets weekly, but only one or two players can come really regularly. We play a lot of one-shots, but for our main campaign line it's designed to be episodic, like a TV show with an ensemble cast and a lot of guest stars.

That's awesome

All the PCs work for an organisation that sends them out on missions, so each new mission the team gets changed a little bit.

The organisation gives it cohesion so the missions fit together into a big campaign moving toward a goal, without needing to have the exact same PCs every session. It also lets people change out PCs and try new stuff more easily, including switching who's GMing.

Very nice

But for the last few months we've been on an unusual mission (space travel to an Atlantean colonyship) which made it a lot less episodic.

We're finally back on Earth as of last session, and tomorrow we'll be starting with episodic stuff again in the middle of figuring out how much has changed while we were gone and where we fit in now.

5:22 AM

what system? Fate?

Yeah, it's mostly Atomic Robo with a splash of whatever else as needed.

I've heard AR is so well done

The Atlantean colonyship used Umdaar (which is Fate Accelerated), and once or twice we've used an entirely different system like Don't Rest Your Head or Monster of the Week when that particular episode made it appropriate.

@KyleS. It is! Feels like Evil Hat's Fate products get noticeably better with every release.

I've eyed buying it a few times but I have enough RPG books I have yet to try out, so I'll hold off until I actually want to use it

I've been loving the Worlds of Adventure for Fate too (and they're free, which is always nice).

5:25 AM

Have so many systems I want to experiment playing with...

/me looks wistfully at my bookshelf full of barely used RPG books (with the exception of D&D ones)

I've got the same thing, but with folders of PDFs.

Even just my Fate folder is brimming.

I WILL have time after I graduate. No more excuses really. Work is so much easier than school, IMO

Heh.

I'm helping some professors use Dog Eat Dog in their social studies classes, and they don't have any time at all.

5:46 AM

I'm out for the night. Nice chatting @BESW

ttfn

Have fun with your defence!

8:46 AM

morning

@Doppelgreener @DoomedMind @Eimyr @Nitsua60 My players weren't available for a test play last night - but they did add a useful gameplay element. At the end of each round, all the players suggest what happens as a result of their actions, then roll to see who is 'right'.

Morning Sejanus :)

All well?

Doomed Mind

@Polyducks hi :)

is there a way to send a PM to a regular rpg.SE user?

Doomed Mind

thats unfortunate...

No PMs I'm afraid

8:48 AM

@Polyducks which game?

You could ping them? But that's about as far as it goes

oh well, nvm then

@doppelgreener The one I had started a new ruleset for. Sorry, I thought you were part of that conversation!

The site is very deliberately absolutely no private messaging ever except for official moderation or staff business, and with good reason.

nah I just wanted to answer a question and help a person in a PM since the question itself was closed, but nvm

8:49 AM

I've given the game the name 'Gods of this Universe'

Ah I hate when that happens

You can invite someone into a dedicated side room where people will have to go looking to see what you're saying, but outside of mod powers that's the most private you can get.

@Polyducks Was that the steampunk thing?

No, this is about all the players being Gods with no central DM

Creating a universe

Okay, I have no idea about this thing then.

haha sorry. I was certain you were there for it. Good morning anyway :)

It's basically nomic with a world creation addition

8:52 AM

@Sejanus You can always leave them a comment pointing them toward the chat.

If he can comment, couldn't he leave an answer in that comment?

@Polyducks I can possibly be a guinea pig over lunch, but today is the submission deadline!

Oh? There's no way for me to make the deadline

Oh well!

I guess it can just be a pass-around :)

@Polyducks Such an activity is usually not taken well. However, a link to a chat is fine.

@doppelgreener why?

Q: What's with the policy on deleting answer comments on on-hold questions?

8:56 AM

Comments aren't for answers, ever ever, ever, ever, ever ever, ever, ever.

Unless...

Ever

Or...

1

I understand that the policy is not to allow any answers whatsoever in the comments, but there is a bit of a weird situation when it comes to [on hold] questions. Lately I've been encountering a lot of on hold questions where comments have been removed by the moderators with the usual 'An on hold...

With the exception of...

haha sorry, I love synonymns

8:58 AM

Think about it this way: we get really good answers all the time, and people the right answers all the time (instead of horribly misguided ones), because of.... quality assurance. There is so much quality assurance here. Voting (and downvoting), bumping to receive eyes, review queues, collaborative editing, comments requesting improvement or potentially illuminating why something is a horrible idea, etc. Comments have exactly one of these things: the upvote. And that's it.

Good points, agreed

Attempting to use comments to provide answers is thus encouraging the idea of skipping all quality assurance measures to your detriment, the community's detriment, and the asker's detriment.

And ultimately, the end of the world as we know it

Oh, wait, it's tomorrow.

Yes. And the end of the world would be largely agreed to be a very bad thing.

8:59 AM

I just convinced myself it's today so that I don't miss it

Q: What role-playing game is best for playing isolated sci-fi single-session adventures?

2

I am interested in running sporadic sci-fi short adventures, preferably with a duration of one session. It should be a fast system and with a simple context. What system do you recommend?

game-recommendation science-fiction

And if the question's potentially salvageable through edits, answers in comments train askers that they don't have to improve their questions, and train other citizens not to bother helping them improve it.

I added a comment I hope its ok

see you later, lunch time

@eimyr to be honest I'm not feeling either way on submitting it to the competition

@Sejanus Oh, he's come into chat a few times; he's here now. I've pushed some links his way.

9:00 AM

@Polyducks Why not?

I've got tons of deadlines to work to and I'm not excited to add another one haha.

But on the flip side it'll be nice to share the idea.

...I've been fighting down more ideas for 200 Word RPGs since submitting Colonypunk.

I'd offer for you to submit them under my name, but you're a stickler for rules and I don't think that you'd enjoy entertaining the idea.

Also it's only one submission per person per category.

Two per person per category

9:03 AM

And @eimyr's already submitted an RPG.

I'm pretty sure that's what I read

> Each participant may submit two entries, one for each category.

oh right

Pretty much.

I'm struggling with the supplement category.

But it's not a priority for me to submit anything.

I just had RPG idea I liked.

Three, actually.

I wish I could test my game, but it's hard to convince normies to play games at lunch.

9:05 AM

(Normies sounds like an infectious disease)

It is an infectious disease

"Sorry boss, I can't come to work, I got normies."

haha

@Polyducks Ask @nitsua60 how he managed it!

More like "I don't play at lunch time. I'm normie positive."

9:06 AM

BTW my Death or Guinea Pigs bit on the starboard is completely out of context but it works anyway

@BESW he managed to convert normies?

@eimyr Sounds like an Eddie Izzard sketch

I never watched a single EI sketch. I just know he runs marathons.

in BESW's Spoil-Lair, yesterday, by nitsua60

@BESW okay, did a ten-minute playtest with four colleagues, none of who had ever played any RPGs. Notes:

Jeez, talk about leaving a cliff hanger!

@BESW an NPC for you:

twitter.com/visualographyco/status/720883014394220544

9:09 AM

What did Nitsua submit? What was his idea?

@eimyr Oh, he was playtesting Colonypunk for me.

Oh.

@Magician I've been staring at that for a few hours and trying to come up with a suitably majestic concept.

I give up. The mysteries of twitter magic are beyond me.

(I should've shut up about the 200words challenge, my chances are dwindling by the minute!)

9:11 AM

@BESW Seems to me, little can beat reality. He's the leader of the Loch Ness Project.

@eimyr 250+ submissions!

That project being, of course, to do with breeding Loch Ness "monsters" for agricultural purposes.

@BESW An NPC who is the head of Loch Ness Project. He also is Nessie.

@Magician I think @eimyr just beat reality (maybe? we don't know for sure he's not a wereNessie).

Nessie must have shapeshifting abilities.

After all it's a kind of a dragon-man.

9:16 AM

I've heard there are some pretty big sturgeon in Loch Ness

I've got a passion for very big fish

watch out for my relatives then

Lochness - Judas Priest (FULL VERSION & LYRICS IN DESCRIPTION)

►

The Loch Ness Project is a group of dedicated individuals, searching for the proverbial Nessie. Trouble is, they've been infiltrated by a were-nessie, intent on sabotaging the search. Trouble is, they're all were-nessies, they just don't know about the others.

haha

This reminds me of 'totallynotrobots'

All trying to sway the efforts of others, I assume, to remain undetected?

9:20 AM

"HAHA I am definitely a human. I love to manipulate things with my squidgy flesh-digits also!"

@eimyr Indeed.

Everything that can go wrong, does. Twice over. The place must be cursed!

There is no actual full-time Loch Ness Monster, and never has been; it's merely a transformative curse that's plagued the locals for generations. Nobody knows what causes the change.

@BESW The person that catches Nessie, or find solid proof of its existence, becomes the new Nessie.

4

@Polyducks In Borderlands 2 there is a robot who decided to declare himself human. "Hi! I'm human! I eat food, and desire things! I'm in credit card debt and have a wife for whom I feel nothing!"

@eimyr ness garou.

9:22 AM

@Magician For hundreds of years, there was only one Nessie, maybe two. Now that whole boatloads of people go looking with advanced instruments, the place is crawling with were-Nessies.

Doomed Mind

"I wonder what It'd be to have a belly button"

@Polyducks borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/Mal

@BESW Stop the geometric progression of the wereness curse, at all costs.

@eimyr See, I was thinking Octodad.

@BESW I should play it. BTW, have you looked at Jacek Dukaj by any chance?

9:24 AM

@eimyr Not yet.

Meanwhile, in other Twitter-inspired campaigns...

This is the cockiest hospital i have ever seen http://t.co/nZrxwj1gFf

Tweeted by iamjermainew on September 18, 2015 at 1:26 AM

> NOT TODAY.

B-But Senor Doctor! I am Death! And why are you naked?

...If I didn't think it was pretty important to keep tomorrow's session focused on the local area before we go gallivanting across the world, I'd totally be doing an Adrian Shine adventure tomorrow night.

His shirt tore off into ribbons in manly fashion when he reached out for that pose.

@doppelgreener I'm thinking this could be a great little 200-word game too. "Surgical Strike" or something like that.

Players are a team of surgeons who have to operate on the patient while simultaneously holding Death at bay with lucha-libre moves.

10

9:38 AM

@BESW they tag out on the wrestling as each one's surgical profession comes into relevance and etc.

Yes!

lol

that is great

And they have medical Luchador names. The Anaesthetic. Dr Bonesaw. El Scalpelo. Stitch-up.

Okay, now I'm actually thinking about mechanics for this.

Lasers & Feelings turned Medics and Machetes.

9:45 AM

No, no.

This is cool as heck

This calls for an I'm a Pretty Princess hack.

BTW, this should be a betting game.

What's that?

@Polyducks I'm a Pretty Princess.

9:47 AM

Is that a ruleset or a declaration of a fact?

Yes.

Part of your character generation is picking a picture of a princess out of a colouring book.

awww!

You colour it in as you play, and the colour you use and the bit you colour in determines what you're doing.

This hack, of course, will include lots of red crayon and colouring outside the lines.

The pictures in the manual make me feel uncomfortable

hahahaha

And whatever that shape is in the character sheet, we replace it with a luchadore mask.

9:50 AM

Lolz

@doppelgreener no, a surgical mask

@doppelgreener I think it's called a Fleur

A luchadore surgical mask?

Actually, I was going to have chargen be drawing your own luchadore surgical mask.

OK, so the mask should be like Batman's with open mouth, with a normal surgical mask on top for TOTAL COVERAGE

Dude yes

@eimyr You can draw YOUR mask that way, but others may have a different idea.

9:52 AM

@BESW the dude yes was to your awesome idea but also applies to @Eimyr's awesome idea

Drawing your own mask ftw

@BESW I can only assume shades of blue and green you use for medical stuff, reds for luchador stuff and uncoloured white on your mask marks sterility. As you colour in more areas you pose a greater danger to the operation.

The only colour I'm going to use is red

Dr El Rocho

@eimyr ...I'm not sure that word means what you think it means?

Doesn't matter. It's mock spanish.

[checked] No, it's alright.

9:57 AM

Dr Ferero Roche

The ambassador's finest

"Roc" is also short for rocuronium bromide.

lol

The surgadors should also have medical wrestler moves and wrestling surgical procedures.

also short for

Roc (mythology)

Roc, from the Spanish words rocho and ruc, these latters from Arabic رخ (ruḵḵ) and that latter from Persian رخ (ruḵ), is an enormous legendary bird of prey. == Etymology == Etymology is partially uncertain and thus, debated. It seems that nowadays, at least following dictionaries and other referenced source materials, the English word roc is exclusively reserved to refer to the mythological bird. The English form "roc" originates directly from the Spanish words rocho and ruc, these latters from Arabic ruḵḵ and that latter from Persian ruḵ. In both languages, Arabic and Persian, the word is written...

@eimyr surgador is a fantastic name

@eimyr Their CPR is brutal.

I was about to say

I don't want these people operating on me

9:59 AM

+1 Surgadors

but if they do operate on you, you are very unlikely to die.

buuuut maybe if I was going to die either way it would be the more awesome way

@doppelgreener tell me how they don't end up "accidentally" killing you themselves at this point XD

If you die, they're going with you.

@trogdor well, they've also got death pinned right there, he can't do jack squat to you until they're done with the surgery, and when they're done with the surgery you'll be fine.

@eimyr this is fantastic.

that still doesn't seem to add up

XD

10:02 AM

@BESW Is there a GDoc or something of it already?

@trogdor It's okay, the nurses have logic in a choke-hold in the hallway.

We should totally write this up quickly and submit as "RPG.SE Chat Effort"

of course

Or perhaps just designate someone.

@eimyr I'm making notes on my own, but squeezing it into 200 words is gonna take some doing.

This is voyage out.

10:03 AM

Let's do this anyway, as a microgame.

(And you guys are providing great flavour and triggering some good ideas, but I'm the one pushing mechanics.)

Basically the surgadors could remove the patient's head and the patient would still live as long as the others kept death from touching the patient

which could lead to all sorts of crazy stuff

[re-reading IaPP for The Good Bits to hack out and re-build from there]

@Polyducks that definitely doesn't sound like it works out long term

@BESW (Noted.)

10:10 AM

(Also, IaPP is CC-BY-NC-ND, which is problematic unless I only use the most basic "use a colouring sheet" element and nothing else.)

ND? That's a bummer.

Mhm.

just thinkin': surgadores, in an ideal world, have a lifetime 100% survival rate for their patients.

Obviously

You must have seen the sculpture on the way in

Guys, I think I've found my easteregg for these websites

lol

10:13 AM

I can make a hidden script that generates armour stats for the clothing

'BOSS ORANGE trainers of +30 fire resistance'

It can use the product name as the seed of the stats

@Polyducks well, also, there's a read-between-the-lines implication there, if you catch my drift

@Doppelgreener I don't get it!

@Polyducks Death only gets to a patient over a Surgadore's dead body. The day he has a patient fatality, he's already dead.

Ohhhh

Damn that's smart

As death could kill with a single touch, it'll be important to grapple them just right

Unless Death can't kill unless it's time

Then you're just wrasslin'

Guys, what's a good DnD/RPG/dungeon password for an easteregg?

I think the first thing that happens is that you wrestle his scythe away

otherwise he uses it on you

10:17 AM

Something like xyzzy

@Polyducks i honestly don't understand the question.

Don't worry, I think I've answered my own question

Part of what I've got in the first draft:

> Chargen is drawing (in black lines, like a colouring book) your surgadore mask. Masks have five parts: eyes, nose, mouth, design, and background. As you are colouring, assign each part a number from 2 to 5.
[...]
Colour in part of your mask you're using, and roll that many dice. If you're performing surgery, successes are under the number of uncoloured parts of your mask. If you're fighting Death, successes are over that number.

@BESW 2-5 is 4 numbers

Details, details. It's the first scribblings.

10:24 AM

having never read IaPP I'm busy doing some thinking myself about how one would use a colour-in mechanic.

[also semi-afk to play vidja game]

IaPP also has keywords and a deck of cards and all sorts of things.

This will definitely need playtesting to get balanced.

Can I play?

First it needs to be playable.

Obvs

...I have a lot of ideas that'd push it outside the 200 word limit, which isn't technically a problem since it probably can't be submitted to the contest anyway, but it's the principles of the thing.

10:29 AM

It'll be much better as a short rules game

M'rr. [scrunches up, throws out] I need capacity for a Dramatic Reversal.

What are some qualities that a surgadore might have, like his surgical specialty and his best wrestling move?

10:44 AM

@BESW Are you looking for examples?

Yes, plox.

Actually, wait.

I mean I'm looking for examples of other categories like that, not for examples of things in those categories.

would the number of patients he has saved count?

It might.

strength, stamina, perseverence, determination. (not necessarily separate categories.) we might assume that by virtue of being a surgadore they have all of those things in abundance.

Yeah, I'm looking for stuff that makes that surgadore unique.

10:48 AM

Speed, Accuracy certainly

your lucky surgical instrument, the reason you became a surgadore.

oh

@BESW Essential part of equipment, things you can summon mid fight/surgery, favourite nurse/cheerleader

@BESW Special ability (like "you can't see me" or "experience with tendons")