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1:02 AM
ICYMI, every one of these titles is 30% off during the DTRPG Halloween sale. http://www.drivethrurpg.com/sale.php?filters=0_0_0_0_0_45295&manufacturers_id=2152&affiliate_id=24139 https://t.co/JpZAHtixFA
 
1:50 AM
Ursula Vernon's serial novel Summer in Orcus just introduced a wolf who turns into a cozy little cottage on the nights of the full moon.
 
oook then
 
It's a werehouse.
 
that seems like an odd particular
oh good lord the cheap puns
why XD
 
 
dogs have the best expressions
though to be fair, so do humans, and cats
 
2:04 AM
Even the most enthusiastic cat looks like it might just be sarcastic.
"You don't say?!"
 
2:35 AM
I disagree on that
at the very least, they are incredibly good at faking it
 
3:14 AM
hey there @nitsua60
 
@Shalvenay hiya
 
@nitsua60 how're things going?
 
@Shalvenay beat--my wife having to go away while I'm coordinating an exchange group coming in from Europe was... challenging. She's home now, so everyone's happier.
You?
 
alright here, just got to DM my 3.5e dungeon :)
 
@Shalvenay cool! RL, or OL?
 
3:27 AM
with me
basically got an evaluation on my character
and it was on roll20
need a few tweaks but otherwise im in the right direction
 
cool.
 
yeah, it was pretty hilarious at times too xD
 
i literally had no idea where i was
like what time period am i in?!
 
think "electropunk magitech smashup" ;)
 
and i just realize something
did all of those elves die because none of them knew how electricity worked?!
 
3:41 AM
the elf-guard most directly, yes
 
oh lord
 
the other two were a combination of the swordfight and electrical encounters
 
wait which one was the elf guard?
 
the one in the bathroom
 
figures
 
3:46 AM
@Shalvenay somehow I'm not surprised
Also, hello.
 
 
1 hour later…
Ben
4:55 AM
Never thought a question about level balancing would be so well received...
Quick question, completely unrelated: Does anyone have a Samsung Galaxy S5, and how well does it do?
Though that conversation might be better of in Not A Bar... @BESW
 
Eh, it's not interrupting anything and is unlikely to be controversial.
 
Ben
Alrighty then. Let the recommendations commence :P
 
It's also time to update the Timely RPGery!
**[Timely RPGery](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nKltjD1HJ954pS3QZZL-E_ckNaKEeedxMKn7XwdFiio/edit?usp=sharing "Click for full source doc; please suggest items to pin!"):**
[BoH](https://bundleofholding.com "Buy RPGs cheap in bulk, support charities & indie designers!");
[LCQ comp](http://blackarmada.com/lovecraftesque-competition/ "Write a short (~600 wds) Lovecraftesque scenario and you can win the adulation of your peers and a copy of the game! Nov 07");
[playtest](http://www.modiphius.com/star-trek.html "STAR TREK ADVENTURES - Living Playtest Sign up");
ooh, Ki Khanga is finally visible on the pin.
The only smart phone I've ever had is a Sky 3.5, so I can't really help with your question.
 
Ben
@BESW That's cool. Honestly the only reason I'm upgrading is because I have a 4S, it's definitely seen some better days, and they don't sell them anymore.
Though you haven't had much experience with Dark Heresy... have you?
 
5:10 AM
I have the book from a friend who was leaving island and I flipped through it once.
 
Ben
Haha fair enough.
 
@BESW I know exactly who fits that description XD
he was pretty big on Warhammer stuff
 
He's also why I have Call of Cthulhu and Star Wars d20.
 
what do you think of Star Wars d20?
I have not even read it, but I don't know that I can go back to playing d20 based systems, at least not all that often
 
Pretty much the same as Stargate SG-1 d20.
Which is to say, I don't think much of it.
 
5:15 AM
ah
yeah you didn't even need to say the second part
XD
it was a fun idea to use it to play a Stargate campaign, but in practice it didn't go over well
 
Ben
@BESW Had a friend that ran a SW d20 game... they had an NPC that somehow, (since at the beginning of the game everyone is weaker than tissue paper) managed to survive an onslaught similar to the one in episode 3 that killed all the Jedi. They actually created a character sheet for him, up to the point where they were deliberating about a name, before he got hit in the head with a lazer blast.
It was very impressive, and very shocking
 
Also, a Star Wars RPG necessarily has a Light/Dark mechanic which winds up having most of the problems that D&D 3.5's alignment system struggles with.
 
I would even argue that that sounds like it would be worse
not necessarily by much, but only two options definitely sounds worse by almost whatever margin an alignment system can be worse than D&D
 
Ben
There is the grey section in the middle (I forget the actual title)
Not Light or Dark
 
ah
I do remember a "grey" sort of middle ground that one force practicioner used in one of the Old Republic games or something
I just didn't know that was necessarily used like, anywhere else
 
Ben
5:22 AM
That being said, There's two ways to play it: You're Either Light, Dark, or Grey
Or there is a constant "pull" to Light or Dark.
Not really much room to move
 
that does seem like a really limited set of options
 
You get "Dark Side Points" whenever you do something evil or unjust, and once you have enough of them it becomes much easier to just keep going to the Dark Side than to try and recover.
(But Force users with Dark Side Points tend to lose physical ability stats as they level up.)
 
Ben
@BESW A bit like Corruption/Insanity in DH?
 
Maybe?
I know a little more about d20 Star Wars because some of my friends played it in college.
 
Ben
You gain corruption for doing "things" that would be considered "evil", or that would "corrupt your soul", but you can lose them again if you do something especially pure.
 
5:30 AM
I'mo take a nap before four hours of evening meetings. ttfn
 
Ben
Insanity is a little different, so it would probably not be fair to put that in the comparison
o/
 
6:05 AM
Having said all that about the Force in RPGs, I can see why Faith Corps might be an attractive option.
It'd be very easy to re-skin Faith and Demon Dice as Light and Dark dice.
 
 
14 hours later…
8:31 PM
1
Q: Cross System Questions and How to Tag Them

lithasA recent question in the meta addressed whether cross-system questions should ever be combined if the answer to both questions was determined to be the same. I understand (and agree with) the answers posted in response, but it made me wonder what the tagging policy on such a question would be. I...

 
Is anyone on with Roll20 experience? I'm having trouble with something that should be super simple.
 
@DuckTapeAl a tiny bit?
 
Basically, I want to be able to erase things made with the drawing tools without erasing everything.
But the only way I can find to erase anything made with the drawing tools is to erase everything at once.
 
hmm [poking around in r20]
 
So, like, if I'm marking out spots on a map in real time, I have to get rid of all of the markings if I want to wipe out any of them.
 
8:44 PM
got it
you're using the "clear drawings" tool to get rid of things you've drawn?
 
Yes.
 
each thing you've drawn--shape, freehand, polygon--also exists as an object. You should be able to switch to the "select/move" tool and individually select objects.
From there, it's a right-click away from deleting it.
 
Aha!
That's exactly what I'm looking for.
Now, hopefully I can click on stuff without clicking on the imaage behind it. :P
 
you can also shift-select to grab multiple objects and then delete them en masse
@DuckTapeAl that's where layers will help
put your map-objects on one layer, your annotations on another...
(layers are obscurely hidden behind the wireframe cube, second item in the toolbar)
 
Aha!
You've been super helpful.
 
8:49 PM
@DuckTapeAl np--glad I could help!
 
hmmm, I wonder about something in Pathfinder.... Is a Dhampir Inquisitor(Kinslayer) of Sarenrae really as scary as it sounds? I mean, a half-Vampire hunting Vampires who is in league with the literal sun goddess, slings around light spells... do Vampires even got a chance against that once he gets to the level they should start to pop up? (Mind you, Vampire-template grants CR+2 that demands 5 HD while Vampire itself is a CR9 monster)
 
I don't know much about that particular combo, but I do know that in the d20 System often the specific mechanics don't quite match up to their narrative implications.
 
Yeah, the light-based abilities of that archetype aren't actually that great.
Like, it definitely makes it easier to find and track down a vampire, but I wouldn;t say that inquisitor is more threatening that a single-class wizard or cleric.
And all of the standard ways to hide from magical detection work just as well against that archetype's abilities.
Looking through the list of abilities that an Inquisitor generally gets, it seems like a really weak class in general.
 
9:06 PM
So once again a "sounds nice but... rules don't match the flavor text" case... well, at least it /sounds/ awesome, and not a bit less clichee than the Aasimir Paladin and the Catfolk Hunter my troupe gathered... together with a human fighter (who was responsible for two one-hit-kills), human war cleric (you know, the CN War god G something), Elven Druid and... Halfling Bard...
Which makes me wonder: does my group maybe cook a few clichees to many? well, at least they have 2.5 healers and quite some punch... even if the Bard proved to be only sideline decoration during the first combat.
 
Yeah, this class is roughly at Monk levels of power, from a quick look through its abilities.
 
That's damning with faint praise.
 
what's damning?
 
Monk is considered one of the worst base classes in either 3.5 or PF.
 
Note to self: push them to play out their characters more... forgot the half-elfish rogue...
 
9:10 PM
So saying that a class is as good as the Monk is saying that the class is pretty terrible.
I really can't tell what this class is supposed to be good at, other than like, information gathering.
 
My attitude toward D&D splat these days is, "Really great inspiration for characters in systems where the mechanics draw directly on the narrative."
5
 
Which is something that other classes do WAY better.
For example: at level 7, a Heavens Oracle gains the ability to cast commune as an extraordinary ability, once per day.
Which is possibly the best divination in the game.
 
but... isn't commune a spell earlier than 7th level? ok, it being EX instead of SU or a spell is quite a benefit... and of course, Monks gain that 'once I was a human, now I'm far more' pinnacle at 20, but... yea, monks are a tad screwed on some traits in contrast to the other classes keystones...
 
Commune costs 500gp per use, normally.
Which is non-trivial.
Monks are screwed because there's nothing that they're actually good at. They are sort of okay at a bunch of things, but not actually good at anything.
 
depending on level and money income (if a group starts to use the downtime rules and earns a lot via that, it becomes change).
 
9:15 PM
And 3.x is a system that heavily rewards specialization.
@Trish Sure, but then anyone who can cast commune is better at information gathering than an inquisitor.
Just looked it up: commune is a 5th level spell, so most people can't get it until level 9.
 
inquisitors should be (at least how I read them) be good at 2 things: squeezing out info & hunting down a few types of monsters
 
I'm not seeing much on the "squeezing out info" front, and I'm not seeing anything about hunting other than the Track feature.
And all of the time-limited spell-likes that it gets basically just duplicate a spell, but don't actually do it any better than a spellcaster could.
 
These Judgements are meant ot help at killing or subduing beings...
 
It looks like that's what the thematic idea was, but they're not actually good enough to help with that.
+1 damage per 3 levels is not a lot.
To compare, a rogue gets +3.5 damage per 2 levels.
 
having a permanent fast healing 1/3lvl can be a changer however.
 
9:21 PM
Not really. It's high enough so that it can be used to heal in between combats, but so can a wand of cure light wounds.
 
it only works in combat even...
 
It's never high enough to keep up with the damage being thrown around.
 
can be used to space out the time between the heals from the caster a tad bit, but... yea, still too little.
 
Like, at level 1, you'll be taking around 5 to 10 damage per hit, and healing 1 damage per round.
At level 12, you'll be taking more like 25-40 damage from 1 hit, and healing 4 damage per round.
In all cases, it takes 5-10 rounds to heal enough damage to take 1 more hit.
And combats in 3.x are typically decided before round 5.
 
heh, tell me: my gameing group ended combat against my nasty big spider in the very first action... that bastard fighter played Kankra with her (and landed a crit...)
 
9:25 PM
Yeah, that's pretty standard for 3.x.
 
I think I got to beef up my monsters a bit... and think a bit about what type of NPC I toss at them as my 'if anyone wants to GM, here, I take this charbit for that time'. Not a Cleric, or they'd try to extort him for free heals/revives... they got their own cleric...
Sadly the falconer archetype is laughable at least: you get the bird compannion... which is one of the worst ones.
wait... is that formula correct?! Aasimir Paladins start at 20+6d6 and start being "middle aged" at 35. Average result would be 41, right? So while human paladins are usually 18-19 and about 16-17 years before their prime, the Aasimir of the same profession are commonly 6 years past their prime?!
With a chance to be 56 in worst case and thus old?!
even a bad-luck halfling wizard has 6 years before he starts to grow old...
 
Where are you getting that?
 
Yeah, that's definitely a typo.
 
Aasimir teaching times / aging chart don't match up. Neither do Dhampir or any of the outsider: training times like elfs, but life spans like humans?!
 
9:39 PM
Yeah, I think they screwed up a lot on that sheet.
Aasimar paladins are 60+6d6 years old to start.
I'm looking up the age ranges now, but those are higher as well.
I think middle aged is like 120.
 
that sounds... somewhat more reasonable...
 
How is Paizo not able to fix their own site based on their own PDFs?!
 
Because aging rules are used only rarely, and no one has bothered telling them that something is wrong?
 
well, true, but I try to play Kingmaker with them (with occasional breaks, where someone else may take the reins to lead something but nothing with lots of impact (eg: no artifacts, no monsters of dragon/outsider type, no huge changes)... So they might actually grow kind of older... (like... maybe a dozen years at worst)
 
9:44 PM
Kingmaker, like, with the settlement rules?
 
With the UC settlement/kingdom rules, yea
 
shudder
I have... problems with that ruleset.
I really, really like playing in games that have to do with building kingdoms, and settlements, and bases of all kinds.
I loved the Stronghold Builder's Guide as a kid.
And I really wish the UC settlement rules were better than they are.
 
we're still at exploring,... or rather have 2 hexes done.... and chargen (ate most of yesternight)
 
Because they look really cool, until you try to actually use them for anything other than a super narrow set of situations.
And then they break apart.
 
do you know some band-aids or ways to keep them together a bit?
 
9:48 PM
Not really, no. I tried for a month or so to turn it into something functional, with very limited success.
The problems are all over the place.
 
the UC or the version in the path? UC already was king of strong band aid...
 
I've never read the path.
Which I guess are the UC ones?
 
yea
 
And as I understand it, the path is built so that the rules basically work with them.
But if you, say, want to have your party build an actual keep on the borderlands without tons and tons of cash, the DM has to put in a lot of work to make it work with that ruleset.
 
I guess, can't check if they changed something... the rules in the path have holes as big as tankers... like there was an infinity-of-gold loop as a bad wording allowed restocking the magic items in shops at any moment, even during the income phase and then selling the new stock, rinsing and repeating from restocking...
 
9:51 PM
Examples of things that make it hard to use: You need a minimum of 10 characters staffing various posts for 1 week out of every 4, or you get a bunch of penalties.
 
or the necropolis that earned money... not so much anymore in UC, as they kicked the economy boost of graveyards.
 
Building the simplest structures "on your own" takes north of 50K gold.
 
well, there are also NPCs to staff some other posts... but yea, some PCs got to staff some posts... and possibly they might bicker who gets King.
hmmmm, technically a heir and a consort are exactly the same...
 
10:10 PM
hey there @DuckTapeAl
 
Hey. What's new?
 
not a whole lot, got to run my 3.5e dungeon on r20 again, as for you?
 
logistics question: I have a question I'd like to ask a stack, and I'm not sure which of two is more appropriate. I joined both chats to inquire, and both have 0 current users. Should I then post a meta-question on one of them?
(also, hello!)
 
@JoelHarmon hey there @JoelHarmon -- throw it out in the NAB here I suppose and I can take a brief glance at pointing you in the right direction
 
Asking a meta-question is typically the next step after asking in chat.
 
 
2 hours later…
11:56 PM
@DuckTapeAl this!!!
VTC unclear needs system
 

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