TRPG General Chat

2:25 AM

Hey guys, interested in suggestions on how to port over an idea that i really like into 5e, potentially either in an npc or as a possible ability for an assassin character, but i dont want to completely make things broken, just preserve the concept. typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Mystic_Eyes_of_Death_Perception

Miniman

3:45 AM

I'm not sure it's possible to conserve that concept - instant death abilities are basically always completely broken.

Joel Harmon

as an NPC with some strong compunction against using it, maybe; as a player ability, almost certainly not

is it strictly necessary to control the death, or just to predict it?

Shalvenay

4:01 AM

hey there @JoelHarmon

Joel Harmon

hey @Shalvenay

how are things?

Shalvenay

how're things going?

Joel Harmon

currently just bouncing around the internet

DForck42

5:24 AM

is there a resource to get maps/dungeons/etc for 5e modules? ie, if i want to print out a dungeon from storm king's thunder, is there a place to find that?

Skyler

7:28 AM

@Miniman I agree about death PC part. Maybe allow for a perception check to perceive a weakness, and now your sneak attack bonus will be automatically available to any attacks made against that. I want to preserve the more esoteric parts so maybe allow them to expend a reaction after a particular spellcaster casts a spell, so if they ever cast that spell again they can contest it with an attack and it acts as a counterspell. Also inanimate objects destroyable perhaps.

death on the PC part*

perhaps as a result of this the player is otherwise severed from magic at a fundamental level

nitsua60

12:31 PM

@DForck42 The modules (what they used to call Expeditions) come with map-packs on DMs Guild. THe hardcovers, though, I believe you're looking at either photocopying/scanning out of your book or printing off the high-quality no-doubt-illegal pdf that Mr. Google finds you.

BESW

12:42 PM

> Death Perception. You can use Notice to create advantages representing a target's metaphysical weak spot.

> Critical Existence Poke. If you invoke a target's metaphysical weak spot while making a physical attack, the target can only use consequences to absorb the stress you inflict.

nitsua60

@BESW o/

BESW

Hey.

nitsua60

How's life? I feel like you've either been quiet recently or we've justt been ships-in-the-night-ing it.

BESW

I've been very not-in-chat.

such busy. so stress. very work. argh.

nitsua60

Sorry to hear it. Productive work, or just suck-my-time work?

On second thought, this question might be off-topic... Whoops.

BESW

12:52 PM

@nitsua60 Both. And now my car needs $$$.

nitsua60

Ahh.... sorry to hear that.

BESW

I accidentally scheduled two full weeks of classes on top of a theatre project and some major home events, and then the car went "poot."

The parts I need aren't on island.

trogdor

ah shoot

BESW

And the theatre production is The Laramie Project, which isn't something I feel like I can bang out in a couple hours.

On the up side, last week we finished our first Bubblegumshoe adventure, and this week we watched Get Out and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner back to back.

And because I'm a horrible person I've procrastinated enough on one project to add about 1,200 books to my goodreads account.

nitsua60

1:13 PM

@BESW Funny, this week saw a few hundred entries into my LibraryThing =)

BESW

Goodreads says my favourite genres are Adult Fiction, Art, Children's, Comics, Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic novels, Historical fiction, Horror, Humor and Comedy, Mystery, Paranormal, Religion, Science, Science fiction, Suspense, Thriller, and Young-adult.

I think that's the equivalent of the algorithm throwing its hands in the air.

trogdor

lol

nitsua60

1:32 PM

@BESW similar here...

the tag cloud for my books that're so far logged ^^

Note that "fiction" and "non-fiction" are two of the largest =|

doppelgreener

1:55 PM

i miss the time when d20pfsrd didn't do stuff like this

somewhere behind that alert is the description of a feat i am visiting the site to read

trogdor

no way to close or minimize that?

doppelgreener

@trogdor yeah, there's a close button inside the button of that popover saying "OK. Don't show this again". But there'll be another one in few weeks that will also cover up all the content, probably, and have me click that button for that particular popover advertisement. That's generally enough time for me to have not visited the site again in the meantime, so I'll get something like this every visit.

trogdor

ugh

so it happens with the frequency of a boss fight

Breath of Fire III - Battle in the Coming Days [Without SFX]

►

doppelgreener

yes hahaha

that's a good comparison

except, if it were like that undead boss fight from Final Fantasy 7 where you could kill the boss instantly by using a phoenix down on it.

trogdor

I thought it might be

@doppelgreener same thing in one undead dragon fight in BoF 3

though it that it requires a move instead of an item

so less easy to do (because that move takes one character being a certain level, or one of two characters in the fight training to learn the specific move)

I was personally glad it took more work to get that "cheesey" win in BoF 3 than in that fight in FF7

not that it wasn't hilarious both times

doppelgreener

2:03 PM

oh, what's the cheesy win in question in this game?

trogdor

cause it was

@doppelgreener instead of using a Phoenix down, you have either Garr or Ryu learn "Kyieri" which kills any undead enemy in one hit

including the rotting undead dragon (a hard bossfight) that want's to kill them both

particularly difficult because they are the only two you can use for the fight, no third person helping, and no other party choices

but Garr can learn the move if he is the right level by the time you fight the dragon, but he technically shouldn't be that high level yet anyway

the only other way to get it is training under the specific "Master" who knows the move, which is just a thing you can do in BoF 3

but if you do either of those things. you just walk all over the undead dragon

I did it once or twice in the several playthroughs I did of the game, and it honestly was satisfying knowing I had done the work ahead of time to make that fight so easy

I call it "cheesey" because a one hit kill used on a boss kinda is, but in the end I never minded, because it took more work than just having a renewable item on hand

I seem to recall having trouble with a boss in FF7, and my brother and I looked up a walkthrough and it says "well if you can't seem to beat this boss too easily, throw a Phoenix Down on it"

which was fine, I don't begrudge being able to skip a frustrating boss, but it was maybe less satisfying in a way

doppelgreener

that's fantastic :D

there's a cheesy victory I used in Bloodborne recently

trogdor

2:18 PM

on a boss fight?

doppelgreener

Sort of! There are boss fights, and then there's fights against fellow Hunters, which are also very difficult.

trogdor

the NPC hunters or the people?

doppelgreener

NPC hunters.

trogdor

ah yeah

I watched a playthrough of Bloodborn, and the enemy hunter NPCs looked like a pain

though to be fair, the guy doing it did cheese them when he could get away with it

taking advantage of their "tethers" and such

doppelgreener

I don't like to do that. ^

trogdor

2:21 PM

when they wouldn't persue him beyond a certain point, so he could heal out of combat and go back in

doppelgreener

But there is an extremely challenging hunter who you can push off a ledge if you rush him. He falls, dies, and you can get his stuff. :D

trogdor

@doppelgreener I didn't figure you would

@doppelgreener lol

so he doesn't fall and drop the item somewhere you can't go?

have you beaten Bloodborne?

doppelgreener

@trogdor Not yet! I think I'm getting close.

trogdor

@doppelgreener ah ok, cause I was wondering how you felt about a specific enemy, but I forget how far in the game he is

I think he is about halfway through it

but he could be closer to the end, because my memory of that specific kind of detail isn't great

doppelgreener

@trogdor Well. Uh. About that.

(That is an item hovering in midair.)

trogdor

2:26 PM

oh

so he can drop it in a glitchy way where you can't get it XD

doppelgreener

@trogdor The saving grace here is that for Special NPCs, if you leave the level (via a lantern) and then come back, their items respawn near where they died. In the case of an NPC who fell off a ledge, they respawn at that ledge.

trogdor

did you fight a guy with a gattling gun, who was more memorable than the other guys with those guns?

doppelgreener

I have fought many guys. One of them had an arm cannon!

trogdor

it may even have been an arm cannon

where was the guy with the arm cannon when you ran into him?

IE, did you just walk up to him and fight him, or was it more,... complicated than that to get to him?

if the first one he isn't who I mean, if the second he might be

basically, the most memorable fight I watched was a guy on a tower with a projectile weapon, shooting down at the protagonist while said protagonist had to fight enemies down on his own level and progress all the way up the tower to stop that guy

I don't think the guy was even like, a boss or anything

anyway, I needs the sleeps,. see ya'll later

Shalvenay

4:41 PM

hey there @Zachiel

Zachiel

Hey @Shalvenay

Shalvenay

how're things going?

Zachiel

I'm ....confused

either I think I have a problem that is not a problem, or I'm unable to express it to the other players in my game, because they're all looking at me weirdly, not understanding what's wrong with me.

I am in this D&D 3.5e environment where I get DM'ed by different DMs each time, and each DM uses their own preference of how many free actions per round a PC can take.

Shalvenay

that sounds like...quite a problem

isn't there some sort of "head DM" who can just apply super-DM-fiat to specify a global rule?

right now, you're dealing with a hive-mind that can't make up its mind :P

Zachiel

It is a problem indeed (beacuse my tactics need to vary based on who's the DM, and I do not know who the DM is when I ready my spells or build my character) but that's just the premise, not the point.

I have an item that modifies all spells I cast in a round, and for maximizing its effect I'm going to cast a standard action spell and a quickened spell, so that this item modifies both.

Activating this item is a free action, and in order to swap my wand of extend with my wand of quicken I need another free action. So it's two free actions and I asked the hive-mind: can I?

The minds in the hive started replying
-"I don't see the problem, you can't do two rapid actions in a turn" (mrghhhhh no, I'm not even trying to)
-"Why re you asking us collectively? Ask the current DM" (to which I replied that when I do that action I have a Schroedinger DM and it's not like I can wait to change my spell list when the DM shows up)
-"No, you can't decide your spell list at the moment, you're a prepared spellcaster" (that's what I just said, thank you)
-"using your glove of soring swaps your wand with the one stored in the glove" (no, it does not) "so I don't see why you need…

It's getting a little bit surreal, isn't it?

Shalvenay

5:01 PM

quite!

Zachiel

@Shalvenay I added a last one which I forgot

*at all

also, *glove of storing

and it's not wands but rods, but that's irrelephant

doppelgreener

VTC no system

doppelgreener

5:25 PM

@BESW @trogdor regarding this post I'm going to put some thought into using this for Fate stories! It comes to mind giving the villains faults and helping those faults be a significant part of their downfall via compels seems like something that I'd definitely like to make use of.

Jack Stout

6:48 PM

Anyone want to drive over and run this game for me? I'm feeling bloop-dee-gloop.

It's stage 3 and moving into my Wisdom modifier!

Joel Harmon

8:03 PM

@Zachiel The srd seems to say you can do one or more free actions in a turn. There's no particular limit on it, but it does say there is one. So it's DM call, with a strong case for at least two.

Shalvenay

@JoelHarmon -- the problem is that he's being DMed by an erratic hive-mind

Joel Harmon

You may note that preparing spell components counts as a free action, so if you cast multiple spells in a round requiring materials, it's typically hand-waving multiple free actions implicitly. This may backfire into limiting the number of spells per round you can cast, though.

Shalvenay

although that is a good point for him to bring up

Joel Harmon

@Shalvenay right; I'm attempting to provide evidence to sway the objecting parts of the hive mind

but it is essentially DM's call

Shalvenay

10:13 PM

hey there @CTWind

CTWind

Hello!

Shalvenay

how're things going?

CTWind

Fine, nothing too exciting going on.

Shalvenay

ah, alright here. last night's session went grand \o/

CTWind

I've been absent D&D for over a week, lots of player sicknesses in all 3 of my completely separate groups.

Shalvenay

10:18 PM

ah

-o-
\o-
\o/
-o/
-o-

Isn't that illegal?

hey there @nitsua60

@Miniman doing the wave?

@Shalvenay hiya

Shalvenay

how're things going?

Miniman

10:23 PM

@nitsua60 Yeah, I thought it was illegal to do the wave now.

Maybe that's an Australian thing.

nitsua60

@Miniman really? Or is the joke just really going over my head? ( \o/ )

Miniman

@nitsua60 Hmmm, apparently it's only banned for cricket specifically.

And no, not a joke.

nitsua60

@Miniman |o|

@Miniman Sadly understandable, given the occasional stadium tragedy we hear of.

@Shalvenay Good, you? Still getting to play AL regularly?

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 sadly, no. didn't join the AL 5e group, and the 1e group got cancelled it seems

haven't heard back from that DM :/

Miniman

@nitsua60 Yeah, we're not "English soccer fan"-level rowdies, but accidents do happen.

Shalvenay

10:28 PM

I'm wondering if we should have a question on this STack about RPing fire scenes (if we don't already have one) because that seems to be a rather sticky wicket of a topic

Miniman

@Shalvenay Do you mean scenes where someone gets fired, or scenes where something is on fire?

Shalvenay

@Miniman the latter

nitsua60

@Shalvenay Forgive me, but I really think it's only a sticky wicket for you. I've never met anyone else who perseverates on details the way you do....

Miniman

@Shalvenay I'm curious, why is that a sticky wicket?

nitsua60

Eh, "perseverate" isn't quite right; sorry 'bout that. But it's beyond "focus," because it prevents you from moving on, it seems.

Shalvenay

10:31 PM

@Miniman a couple things -- one is narrative-time vs real-time, another is fire behavior (vs the setting of the fire, whether it be a big ol' castle, a log blockhouse, a light wooden building, or outside in a field or forest)...

but yeah -- I kind of got stuck on the details because the scene I was imagining was worse than it turned out to be (which is what drove Jherala to be more cautious regarding structural integrity)

Miniman

Hmmm. It sounds to me like, if you're going to ask about it, you should ask about realistically simulating fires in RPGs, rather than asking about RPing fire scenes.

Shalvenay

yeah, that seems to be the path to take

Miniman

Cos if you ask about the latter, you're going to get answers based around drama, choices, and probably character strengths and weaknesses, etc.

Shalvenay

@Miniman yeah -- my question is basically "how can I RP fire in a realistic way without creating too much complexity or making the players' choices irrelevant?"

nitsua60

@Shalvenay But what's wrong with that? What's the problem? To be clear (to the room), the building in question was super smoky and burning debris fell on you (twice). IOW it was reasonable to assume the fire was worse than it turned out being.

Shalvenay

10:44 PM

@nitsua60 it meant I was having Jherala pay such close attention to the fire behavior because she didn't want to walk the party into something that was about to flashover, or worse yet, trigger a flashover

as well as not walking the party into failing structure

nitsua60

Which is reasonable, IMO. I'm still not seeing/understanding the problem.

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 ah. well, I think the problem is that you were spewing out details about all the other stuff and not enough about what the fire was doing

nitsua60

@Shalvenay I'm not trying to be dense, I swear: what problem did that cause? That you felt uncertain about how to proceed? That you feel you wasted time? That you feel I wasted your time?

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 that I felt uncertain how to proceed, basically, and probably wasted a bit of time OOCly, as well as drew the perseveration remarks

nitsua60

10:59 PM

Help me out: tell me whether I succeeded in narrating the following:
lotsa smoke implies lotsa fire. Falling, burning item, very occasionally. (Twice in 20 or 30 min of game-time.) Find fire, it's smaller than one would expect. Find other small fires. Later find active fire in places that you'd already cleared of fire.

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 I think you did that part successfully -- it was the lots-a-smoke from a small-ish fire that threw me for a loop

nitsua60

I think that's okay. Because you haven't finished the adventure yet, so it's possible you may still learn explanatory variables =)

(or you won't, and it'll be a mystery!)

Miniman

@nitsua60 Or it might just be that what's burning is a material that burns particularly smokily, which is an extremely common occurrence.

nitsua60

Graah!

@Miniman spoiler

Miniman

@nitsua60 Yep, I saw it.

nitsua60

11:04 PM

(Btw @Shalvenay I couldn't care whether or not you read that spoiler, just wanted to mask it to preserve the choice for you as player.)

Shalvenay

hey there @ThomasWard

nitsua60

In other news, my son and his friends tried the Wookie Prisoner Trick in their session yesterday. But they didn't have a Wookie, so really they just walked themselves into the belly of their enemies' camp and are surrounded with no plan B. (No real plan A, either.)

Miniman

@nitsua60 In fairness, that's exactly how the original worked.

nitsua60

So I stepped out to prep snacks and told them to come up with a plan. I came back to "I say ''what does your poop smell like?' and shoot him with my bow."

Miniman

@nitsua60 See, this why I try to never leave my players alone.

nitsua60

11:30 PM

I guess "what does your poop smell like?" is the 8 year-old's version of murderhoboism: they're both just testing the boundaries of "I can do anything!?"

SmokeDetector

11:46 PM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer, bad keyword with email in answer, email in answer: Infinite wish combo using 3 items by Daniela Schellin on rpg.SE

doppelgreener

@SmokeDetector thank you! :D

trogdor

@doppelgreener that is neat, but wasn't that sort of a thing we have done at least once or twice already?

like Vultura for example

doppelgreener

@trogdor probably! i think it's something i'd like to involve more.

trogdor

fair enough yeah

doppelgreener

not to say there's been anything wrong with what we've done. it seems like something fun to try though.

trogdor

11:53 PM

I agree with that

though, it might get samey in some way if the only way to ever beat a villain is to wait for them to make mistakes first

doppelgreener

sure! the thing on my mind is compelling their faults to make things go wrong for them (event-wise or decision-wise), or compelling their known faults to reveal even worse things about them (decision-wise).

trogdor

mk

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