TRPG General Chat

6:00 AM

(And that's Rockwell's... second? third? album. Long after he blew his one-hit wonder.)

Seriously though. I don't know what campaign this is, but I'd play it:

And "Power in the Blood" is definitely a horror adventure:

I get the impression most of The Weeknd's songs are already part of a game of A Penny For My Thoughts, and Beauty Behind the Madness doesn't dissuade me.

WrongOnTheInternet

6:18 AM

I dunno, I'm liking the background as inspiration more than the people. You got any more of them crazy art album covers?

BESW

Always.

Lupe Fiasco's Cool Young History already has a deep and evocative gritty urban fantasy setting.

Adeptus

Then there's ones that already look like the cover is inspired by a fantasy story/RPG...

BESW

Janelle Monáe's Metropolis Suite also already has its own concept setting:

@Adeptus Well, if we're going to use power metal album covers...

WrongOnTheInternet

Yes.

BESW

Just look up anything by Blind Guardian or Meatloaf.

Magician

6:31 AM

Any cover by Roger Dean, really

BESW

I much prefer the stuff that doesn't fit into a bog-standard D&D-like.

WrongOnTheInternet

@Magician THIS IS THE ONE I WANT THEN

BESW

For example, here's a Paranoia campaign:

WrongOnTheInternet

@BESW I'm trying really hard to think of something that would better represent Paranoia.

Magician

WrongOnTheInternet

6:33 AM

Uriah Heep?

All of these are biomes, waiting to be converted into D&D terrain.

Magician

@WrongOnTheInternet Is a band. One of the progenitors of metal.

BESW

This is probably a Misspent Youth campaign:

Magician

One could say I'm a fan. Seeing as my username orignates from the song named on that cover...

BESW

Ben

I was gonna say APC fits in there somewhere

Magician

6:35 AM

@WrongOnTheInternet For real, though. Roger Dean

BESW

Period drama:

WrongOnTheInternet

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/… I'll turn THIS into a biome.

trogdor

gone for an hour and the chat is innundated, my word

BESW

Here's a character concept:

WrongOnTheInternet

@BESW Watercolor land, clearly. (Don't think that's actually watercolor)

BESW

6:37 AM

WrongOnTheInternet

@BESW Hellish Cityscape Biome

Ben

Miniman

@trogdor Inundated in album covers, though. When you think about it, there's worse things to be inundated in. Like albumen.

trogdor

ehehe

BESW

Grace Jones NPC Has No Time For Your Nonsense:

Here's an HGMO campaign:

Ben

6:41 AM

@BESW That was a thing for me

A bio-mechanical unicorn ate my heart and replaced it with a... growth.

From which a flower grew, and it ate regularly.

BESW

Bjork is totally a Fae Ambassador:

trogdor

lol

I can believe that

the dark wanderer

@BESW so colonypunk looks cool. You're not participating, though?

BESW

@thedarkwanderer I'm glad you like it, but I can't guarantee my dedicated availability in that time slot.

I'll probably at the very least be able to spectate.

trogdor

it is hard fitting our schedules to people who live in the Mainland U.S

the dark wanderer

6:45 AM

Oh, ok, makes sense :) Yeah, cultural discourse is definitely a feature of RPGs I find very compelling. Will probably add some gray to the Colonists are the Bad Guys thing, but we'll see how it goes.

BESW

trogdor

also people in Europe

the dark wanderer

XDDDD

that song is pretty great

BESW

@thedarkwanderer Colonists are not inherently Bad Guys, no. Colonypunk emerges from Dog Eat Dog, and both are about navigating cross-cultural power imbalances.

Miniman

@trogdor Wait...are you playing Colonypunk right now?

BESW

6:49 AM

You can play Dog Eat Dog with the Occupiers as a UN health delegation to an isolated village, because regardless of intent there's an inherent superiority/inferiority dynamic; and you can play Colonypunk with the foreign power as the administration of a school making unjust rules for its teachers because it's detached from the reality of the classroom.

the dark wanderer

For sure, but real-life Colonialism has generally been pretty much awful. Plus your game is about righting a foreign injustice so I figure most people will grab stuff from real life for the differences, which will get to Colonists are the Bad Guys pretty quick. We'll see, though!

Nah, the chat event's tomorrow. Unless you wanna play the game now XD

Yeah, and school administrators can get put in the Bad Guy box really fast in that situation.

Miniman

@thedarkwanderer That was a joke - read the message I was replying to in the context of Colonypunk.

the dark wanderer

@Miniman XDDDD fair enough

trogdor

@Miniman sort of?

BESW

DED is about the interaction between Local and Occupier, and I wrote Colonypunk as a response to seeing how it didn't really deal with the way Locals interact with each other.

the dark wanderer

6:52 AM

@BESW I don't actually have experience with either so, I mean, I could be totally wrong about current thoughts.

BESW

Let's just say it's complex, and each game can only deal with one or maybe two facets of the experience.

Colonypunk was written largely for myself; I'm not sure how it'll play for others.

the dark wanderer

Well, the general framework looks good, if simple. I'm concerned only about two aspects of the system. 1) the system opposes local and foreign so that being more able in one arena makes you less able in the other. That's well and good most of the time, but sometimes you're interacting with BOTH foreign and local things at the same time. For example, if you get in a fight with a foreigner while using local weaponry, or if you use the foreign power structure to attempt to effect social mobility

2) characters are all effectively equivalent. differences in ability must be modelled in terms of differences in what interactions count as 'tense'

other than that it looks good. I like world creation system

BESW

7:08 AM

Both those points are deliberate, and push consideration of the game's themes through play.

In the first case, it asks players to engage with evaluating their choices in the context of cultural contact zones and to discuss what is and isn't of one's culture.

In the second case, the mechanically important part of a character is their connection to their culture and everyone starts out equally of their own culture. Their choices during the game affect that connection, which is the central pivot of the story.

(For a 200-word RPG of any substance, the spaces between the rules are at least as important as the rules.)

the dark wanderer

Fair enough :) We'll see how it goes. Have you run it before? How long does it typically run for?

BESW

To the best of my knowledge, the only game of Colonypunk ever played was run by Nitsua.

And it finished prematurely because the bell rang.

the dark wanderer

XD

nice

BESW

Apr 14 '16 at 13:16, by nitsua60

@BESW I'd estimate our full game (of Colonypunk) would have taken thirty-forty minutes. Keep in mind it was with non-gamers, so perhaps that's a workable upper bound...?

I usually double time estimates when converting from punchspace to chatspace.

the dark wanderer

well, the second one will be memorialized in chat logs XD

yeah, an hour seems like a good minimum estimate. We'll see, though, I suppose.

BESW

7:20 AM

@eimyr Did any of your crew ever try Colonypunk?

eimyr

7:37 AM

@BESW no, neither did we playtest anything else that wasn't ours.

eimyr

8:18 AM

@BESW perhaps a chat play is in order, if there were willing people. Ad hoc?

Damn, now I sound like a Trump tweet.

BESW

4

Q: Chat event: COLONYPUNK

We're trying to schedule some [chat] events. COLONYPUNK: a resistance and assimilation game You're LOCALS. a FOREIGN power has colonised your nation.... Thus begins COLONYPUNK, a 200-word RPG by Our Very OwnTM @BESW. I'll host a game, and you may register here for 00:30 on 2 Jun 2017 in ...

BESW

8:43 AM

Tonight's dinner: canned albacore tuna mixed with spicy mustard, sesame oil, olive oil, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, turmeric, paprika, chili powder, ginger salabat powder, and toasted sunflower seeds. Spread on sourdough rolls with bread & butter pickles, cherry tomatoes, and cheddar cheese.

BESW

9:06 AM

Just found the #ironsworn #rpg and this looks interesting with guide, co-op and solo play https://www.ironswornrpg.com/

Tweeted by craigpbrown on June 1, 2017 at 8:08 AM

trogdor

10:08 AM

@BESW ginger salabat powder, sounds like a nice seasoning XD

eimyr

how is ginger salabat powder different from ginger powder?

google doesn't seem to know

trogdor

it's in reference to a drink as far as I know

did you try Salabat without the ginger in the search?

Papayaman1000

@BESW All I did last dinnertime was eggs benedict. Still took me over half an hour. And I don't even like eggs benedict.

eimyr

yes

trogdor

I don't honestly know what it is made with

BESW

10:13 AM

Ginger salabat is a filipino drink. It varies by family and region but basically it's strong ginger tea with sugar or honey and cayenne pepper.

eimyr

I tried "ginger salabat powder" "salabat", "what is salabat" et al, and was only met by recipes and other bits that are not useful as a definition

trogdor

I just remember the word and what it was usually referred to when I heard it

BESW

I use a powdered drink version of it both in my drinks, and whenever I want to add ginger to a recipe.

trogdor

@BESW ah, so I have been getting that in your drinks, more or less, at least some of the time

Papayaman1000

Looks like salabat is candied ginger powder, basically.

eimyr

10:14 AM

oh, so it's an instant drink powder, like milo, instant coffee etc.?

BESW

@eimyr Yeah.

@trogdor Almost every Geek Night drink has ginger salabat powder in it. Generally speaking the more powder I put in the more you like the drink.

trogdor

all I know is, I have an inordinate fondness for ginger

eimyr

Cool. Props for using it as a spice

Papayaman1000

Now I want to try it. Maybe I'll follow a recipe or something tonight.

trogdor

@BESW it is strange how that works out

BESW

10:16 AM

That's what I use.

trogdor

I am not sure I have ever hit my upper limit for Ginger tolerance

it might take a stupid amount of it to do that

eimyr

This one is with calamansi. That's a fruit I'd like to try.

BESW

We used to keep a root of fresh ginger in the freezer and cut or grate off whatever we needed, but then my dad thought it was a burrito and microwaved it.

trogdor

@BESW I think I remember you mentioning that :(

poor ginger root

eimyr

Is microwaving a ginger root a bad idea, apart from ruining it?

Papayaman1000

10:17 AM

@trogdor Something containing a stupid amount of ginger: Homemade ginger ale, but you stopped following the recipe because you wanted it to be "stronger".

trogdor

@Papayaman1000 see, I don't think I would want to ruin it for myself like that

BESW

@eimyr It's not lethal on its own, but it can make an awful lingering stink. And if you leave it in the Tupperware....

trogdor

just saying, I think I, or someone else, would have to be trying to cause it

Papayaman1000

@trogdor I didn't want to, either.

trogdor

@Papayaman1000 I figured XD

eimyr

10:18 AM

@BESW I see.

BESW

@trogdor I don't think I could make enough ginger salabat powder dissolve into the drink for it to hit your upper limit. At least, not without really working at it.

trogdor

@BESW you might be right

eimyr

@BESW Experiment: discover the solubility limit of ginger salabat powder in water.

Papayaman1000

@BESW So, uh, break out the blender, then?

trogdor

I was thinking something more like (and again this is stupid) just gnawing on the powder itself or something

that might do it

BESW

10:20 AM

@Papayaman1000 Blender wouldn't help. Long slow heating, though.

@trogdor What, like the cinnamon challenge but with ginger salabat powder?

trogdor

@BESW I,.... was not even thinking of that

eimyr

I wonder if it's possible to create a supercritical salabat solution.

BESW

@Papayaman1000 You might also try making Pink Rangers, since ginger salabat with lemon is halfway there already.

trogdor

"Pink Rangers"

XD

BESW

> PINK RANGER: mix to taste:
- hot tea (I like using red herbal teas, like Celestial Seasonings' Red Zinger)
- ginger salabat punch powder
- cranberry juice (not punch)
- lemon, lime, calamansi, or similar juice
- brown sugar until it's not too strong for your guests
chill and add carbonated water just before serving

(With my current Geek Night crowd, the proper amount of brown sugar is none.)

trogdor

10:25 AM

lol

I like brown sugar

but the ginger though

so I don't neeeeeeed it

so I assume I have had a few "Pink Rangers"

BESW

There's a little sugar in the salabat powder, and using a tea like raspberry zinger can add more sweetness, so there are a number of ways to modify the sourness without just shoveling sugar into it.

Yeah, most of my drinks lately are variants on the Pink Ranger depending on available materials.

Papayaman1000

If we all got together in some physical location, I could imagine this playing out:
TROGDOR: "Hey BESW I need more salabat since yesterday"
ME: "You want some drink with that mix?"
BESW: "You went through an entire jar. In a 500mL bottle of water. And you're not done yet?"
TROGDOR: "JUST SHUT UP AND GET MORE SALABAT"
BESW: "I can't find any. Why are we in the UK again?"
TRUGDUR: "Then make a recipe or something idc"
BOSW: "You have serious issues"
TRIGGERED: "Maybe so; your point is...?"
BEST: "That I meant for that jar to last me the whole trip."

trogdor

I can imagine everyone angry

some people just take longer to get there

anyway, I wouldn't dig into it out of his pack or something

doppelgreener

@Papayaman1000 I enjoy BMW's recipes very much.

trogdor

@Papayaman1000 also, I can't believe you TRIGGERED me man, how could you :P

doppelgreener

10:30 AM

I saw someone yesterday write "Troglodor".

Papayaman1000

@doppelgreener This is why I could never write a script. By the end, the characters would all be random words from the OED.

trogdor

@doppelgreener in reference to me?

doppelgreener

@trogdor nay! another trogdor joined the site.

trogdor

ah

doppelgreener

(this one called "trogdor the burninator")

trogdor

10:32 AM

oh, I thought we had one of those already

or do you only mean RPGSE?

doppelgreener

@Papayaman1000 k-k-k-carrot cake! you can be the real super sam!

trogdor

because the one I saw may have been in some other Stack

BESW

(A true proper Pink Ranger uses earl grey, red zinger, fresh calamansi, cranberry, ginger salabat, brown sugar, and seltzer water. I usually substitute or leave out at least one or two ingredients, down to sometimes just serving red zinger salabat.)

doppelgreener

@trogdor apparently including you and that one we have at least 4 trogdors just on RPG.SE, but this one is new and just joined the network recently.

trogdor

ah

Papayaman1000

10:35 AM

Anyways, I gotta go to work now. Thanks for YET ANOTHER thing written down in my notepad with "Thanks, BESW!" appended. And Earl Grey is my tea of choice, so, joy. Later!

trogdor

have the nice of times

BESW

ttfn

@Papayaman1000 Feel free to experiment! I've used only earl grey and it gave the drink a nice solid foundation.

Most versions of the Pink Ranger are... lighter.

...heh. I think Troggy's actually seen me angry several times.

IRL privileges.

doppelgreener

I can imagine BESW being angry. o:

eimyr

Is BESW one of those people who never get angry until they do, and then you have to move continents or face extinction?

BESW

I... used to be.

It wasn't very healthy.

doppelgreener

10:54 AM

I also used to have some anger management issues I only really began solving when I was, maybe, 24 or 25.

(which isn't very long ago)

I picture @BESW as someone who can still get properly mad but nowadays can keep a check on it and handle it constructively, and if they're outright mad it's been earned.

BESW

It used to take about a year before I'd actually express anger at someone, but heaven help us both and anyone else in the social fallout zone when it happened.

doppelgreener

oh dear.

BESW

I now remind myself to express negative emotions more regularly, so they're smaller and more constructively directable.

doppelgreener

That's good.

eimyr

I always thought there is a limit to BESW's patience, but I'm happy you can resolve it without mushroom clouds raising.

Still, I'd feel nervous when approaching that limit.

doppelgreener

11:00 AM

There are some mindfulness & misc life seminars I've been a part of, and I recall one of the things that came up a handful of times was parents who were dealing with anger issues. There was a common pattern every time: they'd had an abusive parent who had awful anger issues, and wished to be nothing like that parent, and so they themselves resolved to never express their anger, so they bottled it up, and inevitably it came out in frightening outbursts every so often.

Ironically that meant they were behaving exactly how they were trying not to, because they were trying not to behave that way -- they'd be seething low-level with anger regularly and having anger issues and outbursts at people and stuff.

BESW

@eimyr That was the scariest part, I think; neither I nor anyone else could tell the limit was approaching until the containment breached.

doppelgreener

The solution was generally to acknowledge anger where it came up, and that expressing it in words, such as "I'm cross with you right now," tended to also make it disappear quite significantly or at least lose its deathgrip on their actions.

eimyr

@BESW The straw that broke the camel's back. I used to have a little bit of this, but instead of an anger outburst I'd just turn to hatred. I'm not a very angry person, but a lot of people point out I can be very passive aggressive when irate.

BESW

I definitely didn't have an abusive parent, but I did have an emotionally unpredictable adult who played a significant role in my childhood. I learned some... not entirely useful emotional coping mechanisms.

eimyr

It's not your fault though, and kudos for recognising and dealing.

doppelgreener

11:05 AM

@BESW Same.

BESW

Luckily I also had some awesome adults in my life, a few of whom were visibly and unashamedly wrestling with various emotional/social challenges of their own.

More than anything, seeing people I admired and who generally had themselves together, going through similar conflicts and being okay with being on that path, was instrumental in helping me find my way toward dealing with my own various challenges--not just that one.

doppelgreener

That's really good. :D

Steven Universe offered a lot of lessons on some other emotional fronts for me.

BESW

And, you know, it's not like this sort of thing is ever concluded. Self-improvement is one of those things where you're never at a loss for new projects to work on.

doppelgreener

My parents have changed and grown a lot over the past decade -- and that's not a matter of my perspective changing during transition to adulthood; they and others feel similarly, and my parents observed during that period of change that they were getting very different and better responses from people. When I was a kid though, one of them had what I feel were very poor ways of dealing with conflict and negative emotions, and I picked up and then had to un-learn those habits.

BESW

I'm doing better with expressing negative emotions constructively, but it's exponentially harder the more emotionally intimate I am with the people involved.

So folks on the Stack see me at my best: usually I'm dealing with people I don't have a high emotional stake with, and I can take my time or even walk away.

(This is one reason I'm not a moderator.)

doppelgreener

11:12 AM

Huh. For me it gets easier with those people, because I understand better how I can explain myself and what's going on for me, and they understand me and can give me the time and leeway to explain myself.

BESW

That's probably one reason we work pretty well together.

doppelgreener

\o/

BESW

We're like Edward and Bella; our neuroses synchronise so we're functional enough to inflict ourselves on the world!

doppelgreener

That's not a comparison I wanted but it's a comparison I'll accept!

trogdor

11:52 AM

@BESW I can remember a few times yeah

@BESW I meditate, and grumble, both of them can work even if there isn't anyone around XD

@doppelgreener @BESW for me it is harder for me with people I know as well

the thing is that I usually think "oh they know better than that" or "I don't like this person because they don't know better than that

(and seem to refuse to learn)

I more or less currently know exactly one person in that second category that drives me bonkers

but I talk to people about it, and I meditate almost every day, if not every day

generally meditation on random stuff helps me a heck of a lot

to be fair, I have not had much trouble with anger overall for most of my life,.... if only partly because I didn't bother to get to know people well enough to get angry at them

that in and of itself is something I have to work through a bit XD

NautArch

12:10 PM

Rough gameday yesterday :(

Rolled three critical fumbles in a row, lost my Haste in the 2nd round of combat at the start of my turn so lost two full turns :(

eimyr

@NautArch ...I expected something different after the introductory "rough gameday" announcement

NautArch

@eimyr do i want to know what?

eimyr

I'm thinking what a player says after "rough game yesterday" says a lot about their preferences

@NautArch Why not. If I said "rough game", I'd follow it up with something along the lines of: "We had a gruesome combat and our favourite NPC died, but it was my decision that killed her. Then another PC refused to let it go and I'm looking forward to the side plotline, meanwhile we're still on the fence whether the town is worth saving after all..."

Also, I know people who would say "Difficult night, X consulted the books all the time and I'm not really enjoying what the GM is doing with the guardsman NPC. I argued with Y over that but our GM just wants to get on with the plot, so..."

NautArch

fair enough, that was definitely part of it as well. Our games are mostly heavy combat, so problems in combat take the priority. THe storyline continues, but it's pretty on the rails without much impact from us.

eimyr

Yeah, it depends on what you get out of your game.

If combat is the most exciting thing, then a critical roll becomes much more significant than in story-oriented RPGs.

NautArch

12:22 PM

Sadly, I"ve had to kind of give up on impacting the story. It's more of a "go along with the DM or be punished" type of table.

BESW

Aw.

NautArch

so I could talk about how my a Planetar of my god has apparently split from him and is trying to trick me into thinking I'm failing him.

eimyr

sadface

NautArch

but that doesn't really matter because if I don't go along with it, my character will be targeted. So I just roll with whatever happens. I was sad about it, but I enjoy the table and i'm interetsed to see how it'll all end up so i've come to terms with it.

but the combats are really fun! Unless i'm laying prone watching the whole thing go by for two rounds while spending one round of it in a Cloudkill.

BESW

Yeah, I was in a campaign like that once.

eimyr

12:30 PM

It's weird for me to say that, but I'd like to be in a campaign like this.

BESW

If it hadn't imploded right after I joined I would've had to wrestle with whether I wanted to go with the flow, ask the ST to change his style, or leave.

NautArch

I'd like it more if it didn't feel as much of a DM vs players thing. And if the DM didn't constantly put us in situations where our weapons/gear is taken away.

BESW

Hmm. That's often the sign of a GM with a tragic backstory who needs to learn how to trust his players again.

NautArch

It's more of a GM who thinks they're an alpha male and this is a dominance thing for him.

BESW

In my experience, those things are often compatible.

NautArch

12:32 PM

But he's built a pretty interesting world and I'm hooked enough into the story to see it through. We're nearing the end, so that's helping. Another player is stepping up to DM after this multiyear campaign is over.

ACuriousMind

@NautArch Do you know how the rest of the group feels about that? If they similarity dislike it, that's different from just you feeling that way and sucking it up.

BESW

heh. That's exactly what the players in the group I joined were saying. "Yes, we're just meat puppets dancing on his railroad, but the story is worth it!"

ShadowKras

weapons/gear being taken away happens, it is the simplest way to put the PCs on a tough position. He could do that by creating difficult encounters, but that is a lot more trouble to balance.

BESW

Except they'd been dancing for many years of campaigns.

eimyr

@BESW A friend of mine calls it "dance for me, monkeys!" and finds it inexcusable. I share the sentiment.

ShadowKras

12:34 PM

Creating an encounter that will force players to flee is much more difficult than saying "you have no weapons, you better flee".

BESW

@eimyr I... would've had to do some soul-searching and decide what I could enjoy/endure.

NautArch

@ACuriousMind A couple are in basic argument, but they'd never challenge him. There's two new players, but I don't want to color their interpretation with my past frustrations. the DM has been improving (except for the constant take-away-your-stuff stuff), so it's not fair to do that.

@ShadowKras yup, but it's happened so often we just roll our eyes and deal with it.

BESW

It definitely got my dander up in the one session where my character, perfectly designed to trivialise the specific situation we were facing, was backseated so his GMPC could perform a heroic sacrifice which made no sense.

ShadowKras

I know your frustration, i also had a GM that did that a lot. But eventually you just go with it. Try to focus on your abilities without your gear.

BESW

I'm so glad I've now moved away from systems where character agency is so intimately tied to their possessions.

NautArch

12:37 PM

@ShadowKras FOr instance, last night we were heading into a temple that housed something clearly evil that was giving 'protection' to the town in return for their own blood. We walk into the temple, told to lay down our arms, and after we do so, the door closes behind us, chanting begins, and someone bars the door.

This happened earlier in the campaign, so I just said "screw it", called the attack, ran back to get my weapon and then...FUMBLE!

ShadowKras

@NautArch my players are currently living in a town where all weapons larger than a dagger are forbidden.

NautArch

It may have had negative consequence, but givent he past history and similar situation,my character acted accordingly.

BESW

At this point it sounds like he's also stuck in a creative rut.

ACuriousMind

@ShadowKras I feel like GM like this need to understand that gear is as much a part of the characters as abilities in many games, and that if you feel the need to take it away you shouldn't have given to them in the first place - after all, the GM has the power to bar specific items from appearing in the first place, but I honestly think that doing things like taking the weapons from a character focused on fighting with weapons more than every once in a while is a cop-out, and not good GMing.

ShadowKras

You could have not laid down your weapons and forced your way in if you suspected that an evil thing was inside.

NautArch

12:40 PM

but the battle was amazing. Some minions, lightning elementals, a hag that was using an illusion first and a number of other cool monsters/interactions. There was a mirror of life stealing thta our raging barbarian broke. A guy who was trapped inside wsa freed, but the barbarian was in such a frenzy (and being pressured by a sentient weapon he was wielding) immediately killed the freed man.

@ShadowKras yes, but we actually wanted to try and roleplay it

ShadowKras

There were armed minions?

BESW

@ACuriousMind This. I knew a guy whose idea of a fun campaign premise was to shipwreck everyone on a desert island with no possessions. Including a level 1 wizard without a spellbook. In one of the editions where that meant he was a fancy commoner.

NautArch

Yes, little short swords. Didn't do much damage, but mainly got in the way.

ShadowKras

Maybe he is removing the weapons because one of the PC has a really strong weapon and it bothers him.

NautArch

ALso some ghost-things that I couldn't really do much damge on, so took an OA to attack something I could hit :)

ShadowKras

12:41 PM

and he cant simply say "you cant use that weapon anymore"

BESW

If you want to play a survival game, or an underdog game, there are better systems to do it in.

NautArch

@ShadowKras that's mostly me. The weapon isn't that strong, but Paladins hit hard :)

It's just a +1 maul

ShadowKras

Sadly 5ed has no sunder maneuver

NautArch

sunder?

ShadowKras

or i would have sundered your weapon in that situation.

breaking weapons in half

BESW

12:42 PM

@ShadowKras Why can't he?

NautArch

I've brokenmy maul via fumbles twice.

ShadowKras

@BESW he has the power, but the players wouldnt accept that easily.

NautArch

I've got a +1 greatsword as a backup.

ShadowKras

@NautArch the reason he is doing that is because your class is clearly too strong for the encounters he prepared.

BESW

@ShadowKras That's awful, and further sign of poor group social dynamics.

ShadowKras

12:43 PM

on my first campaign of 5ed, we had a paladin that was pretty much soloing encounters.

BESW

If a GM has to resort to diegetic tactics to resolve a non-diegetic problem, the social contract needs to get dusted off.

ShadowKras

we were in 3, a cleric, a barbarian and this paladin. He could two-shot a lot of creatures of our level.

NautArch

A lot of us are very strong. The barbarian is currently at 25 AC. He's barely hittable.

ShadowKras

which is something i really dislike on 5ed (the damage done by everything).

BESW

A group's choice of system carries with it implied statements about the kind of game that we're signing up to play. If it turns out that someone in the group doesn't want to play that kind of game, it's better to address that and find something which works for everyone than to suffer through one person's dissatisfaction making everyone miserable.

ShadowKras

12:45 PM

I agree @BESW, but the GM found it simpler to remove these unbalanced mechanics whenever the situation requires.

NautArch

I think it's easier for him to handicap us then it is to build an encounter to our strengths/weaknesses. It's a shortcut that's gotten old, but I"ve accepted it.

ShadowKras

If it's a temple to an evil deity, my guards would also require all weapons to be removed from anyone entering.

"We do not allow bandits inside, lay down your weapons or we are calling the guards"

NautArch

We knew it was going to be a fight, but we thought there'd be a chance to RP and learn more about what was going on.

BESW

I've been the GM who can't balance encounters for his players. It stinks. But the solution isn't to hamstring the PCs, it's to tell them what the problem is and ask for help finding solutions.

2

NautArch

We gave it a chance, saw it immediately turn towards combat and chose to start the fight ourselves.

@BESW this guy has too much pride to do that

ShadowKras

12:47 PM

You could conceal a dagger inside your boots or backpack and never be unarmed aswell.

BESW

Then, again, there's a friend-level problem that can't be resolved with game mechanics.

ShadowKras

5ed doesnt care where the weapon is sheathed, you can quick draw it any time.

eimyr

@NautArch do you have an option to change groups or change game/GM?

ShadowKras

"Oh i hand down my greatsword and maul" - What about your dagger? - "Are they searching my backpack? I cleave him."

NautArch

@eimyr no, not really. My only option is to steal players and start my own and that doesn't seem right. It's not ideal, but things rarely are. I still enjoy the table and I've got hopes for the next DM. We're more on the same page.

I'm not sure how much longer it'll run, but we're definitely nearing the climax.

eimyr

12:51 PM

@NautArch \online options?

ShadowKras

@NautArch in your position, i would complain about it in a friendly way (as a joke) and roleplay what my character would do in that situation.

The weapons are being taken from the characters, not the players.

So roleplay how they would react to that.

NautArch

@ShadowKras Honestly, it's not really worth it. It's an artificial hurdle that I'm willing to jump. I like the table, I like the other players, I just get frustrated with the antagonist DM style. But I'm still having a lot of fun and enjoying it.

BESW

Whereas I'd be inclined to talk to the GM outside of game time and offer my help as co-GM.

eimyr

@BESW co-GMs SUCK

ShadowKras

You have to keep in mind the GM is roleplaying your enemies, it makes sense if he acts an antagonist.

eimyr

12:55 PM

I've tried both being and having co-GM and I can't make it work despite best efforts.

BESW

@ShadowKras [snort] I've never seen that attitude end well.

ShadowKras

@BESW there are several games where that attitude is the norm.

BESW

If players can be expected to keep player and character knowledge separate, GMs can not act like villains even though they're controlling the villains.

eimyr

@ShadowKras the GM also roleplays The World, doesn't that also mean that he's neutral, objective, uncaring, purposeless, godless and in time will become cold and still?

ACuriousMind

@ShadowKras There's a difference between portraying a villain and committing villanous acts even when not portraying them. Repeatedly having the world conspire to take away the players' stuff is the latter, not the former.

There's no roleplaying of an enemy going on, it's just the GM making decisions about the world that negatively impact the players.

BESW

12:58 PM

@ShadowKras Really? Which? I don't know any off the top of my head. Even My Life With Master, which suggests that the GM actually physically invade the personal space of the players while inhabiting the Master, draws clear lines between GM and NPC.

NautArch

Our bararian did say "NO" and stayed outside the temple. As soon as the door got barred, he was summoned via a Mage Hand that was waiting outside with him and came crashing through the door like the Kool-aid Man. THat was pretty awesome.

ShadowKras

@ACuriousMind he didn't take away, they decided to let their weapons be taken away.

ACuriousMind

Yes, it might be in character sometimes to have the players be disarmed by their enemies, but if it happens that often that it's sort of a running gag, it's clearly the GM deciding to do that

BESW

Maaaybe Paranoia counts, but as a parody of bad gaming practices it's an exception which proves the rule.

ACuriousMind

@ShadowKras NautArch clearly said this happens so often they just roll their eyes when it happens, I'm not really talking about this one specific situation

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