TRPG General Chat

BESW

1:57 AM

Gold ENnie for Family Game goes to Bubblegumshoe #ennies

Tweeted by ENnies on August 19, 2017 at 1:50 AM

Shalvenay

hey there @MikeQ

Mike Q

Hello! What have you been up to?

Shalvenay

not a whole lot, got into a 5e game these days at least, as for you?

Mike Q

2:13 AM

Recently left a 5e game, actually. It was kind of horrible but I learned plenty about what not to do as GM. Currently I'm preparing material for a campaign I plan to run later this year, so that's exciting.

Powerdork

Evening.

That's rough, @MikeQ.

Mike Q

Well to be specific @Powerdork, the campaign was just poorly run. The GM is a decent person, but they have no idea how to design or balance encounters, social interactions, puzzles, ... pretty much all of their content was ridiculous.

Powerdork

Ah, jees.

Mike Q

Fortunately, I always had very amusing stories to tell my other tabletop friends, who would say "Mike, why do you attend these things, they sound terrible"

But that's RPGs for you. Nobody's perfect, and even the best GMs have flaws.

Shalvenay

hey there @Powerdork

Powerdork

2:20 AM

Ahoy.

Shalvenay

@MikeQ -- ouch. mind giving an example or two?

@Powerdork -- how're things going?

hey again @Papayaman1000

Mike Q

@Shalvenay There is a chance that the GM and/or other players visit the site now and then, so I'll decline on details. Such as real names (including my own :P).

Papayaman1000

oh hey

Shalvenay

@MikeQ ah

@Papayaman1000 what's been up?

Papayaman1000

birthdy jubilations

Shalvenay

2:22 AM

xD

decided to splash out on my 2nd multimeter, at last

Mike Q

@Shalvenay What do plan on using it for?

Shalvenay

@MikeQ it's my 2nd bench meter, but I'll also be using it for some electrical work

(TME.eu had a good deal on the BM235, so we'll see how long it takes to come over from across the pond :)

Mike Q

I don't fully understand what that means, but I wish you good luck with it.

Powerdork

@Shalvenay Miserably!

Shalvenay

@Powerdork oh dear, what's wrong? :/

Powerdork

2:33 AM

Waiting to see.

nitsua60

3:07 AM

@kviiri I've had a similar expdrience--just seeing the pool seems to have quite the effect.

BESW

3:55 AM

@nitsua60 I'm reminded of Doom Candy.

Powerdork

5:48 AM

@Shalvenay Someone I love having some mental health issues.

Powerdork

5:58 AM

Apropos of nothing...

daze413

6:24 AM

@Powerdork Sorry to hear that, hope it all works out in the end :)

nwp

9:00 AM

Can someone with knowledge of dnd-3.5e check if this question has anything to do with dnd-5e? I can't tell.

Miniman

9:22 AM

@nwp Essentially, it's a "I'm running a 5e game but 5e has a dearth of lore" question.

We've seen a few of them; generally it boils down to answers drawing from whatever they want.

nwp

Ah, then it's fine. I kinda read it as 5E being some ingame thing of dnd-3.5e.

Shalvenay

2:21 PM

rhey there @Papayaman1000

daze413

2:58 PM

@Miniman this summarizes perfectly what I miss from earlier editions (despite my never playing earlier editions), I keep hearing about cool fluff stuff in earlier editions, must be nice...

nitsua60

@BESW "doom candy"?

BlackVegetable

4:10 PM

Trying to get psyched about my upcoming Dungeon World session in 3 hours. I've been waiting a month to play. I'm the GM so I've gotta prepare some more fragments to use just-in-case. Any fun ideas?

Anaphory

4:46 PM

Desert. Faint ghosts who cannot talk try to aggressively point the characters to a dry well that used to be covered by a huge stone, where a demon of Mala, goddess of Draught, used to be trapped and is now running free again.

Mountains. A landslide has removed the pass the players might have used for decent, including the dwarven mountain hut where they wanted to restock provisions. Strange, because such a hut would be constructed to be safe from landslides.

Swamp. The village the players enter is cold and uninviting, it's difficult to get a door to open. At sunset, a deep bell tolls 7 times from the moors.

TheThirdMage

Hi all

Anaphory

Hills. Behind a curve in the road, the group is ambushed by a party of surprisingly well-equipped robbers.

@BlackVegetable Like that? Those are a few of the first sessions of DW I can remember.

Shalvenay

hey there @TheThirdMage

TheThirdMage

Got a question that wouldn't fit in the SE format

I'm fairly new to Fate and need something for fate points; I'm on a bit of a budget though so I can't get the official ones. Any recommendations for cheap things for them?

Anaphory

In the past, I have used poker chips, almonds (needs a lot, people kept eating them), shotgun shells (for a post-apocalyptic game)

I haven't even seen official FPs.

TheThirdMage

4:56 PM

The ones you can buy from Evil Hat are what I consider official

And I don't think I'd be able to take shotgun shells, even fired ones, to school with me. I'm gonna try to run a Fate game at some point during this semester

Anaphory

I'm not suggesting you should, I'm just saying that anything of an obviously visible size works.

Bottle caps?

TheThirdMage

Hrm. Maybe. I guess it'd depend more on the setting my players would want

Anaphory

(I mean, plastic ones, but if it was post-apocalyptic, the other ones would be nice, as well.)

Stone pebbles that are about thumb joint sized

TheThirdMage

I've heard good and bad things about those glass beads you can get at craft stores

Anaphory

Unused dice from other games

Yes!

TheThirdMage

5:01 PM

Hm? Why the enthusiastic yes?

Anaphory

I've heard that as well. I'm just looking around me and thinking, if I were to try and start a Fate game right now, what things do I have around that would work. If you can get those glass beads, they have a good size, shape, feel and sound, and they are not setting-specific.

TheThirdMage

Maybe the colours could be. I dunno. Heard they were fairly fragile though

Anaphory

I don't think I have seen them breaking or broken ones when I saw them. There might be different qualities?

TheThirdMage

Ah. I might just buy some today and keep them in a separate bag in my dice bag, same with my Fate dice. How many would you recommend?

Would also be useful for counters in Magic as well!

Anaphory

[Pieces of thick woolen thread is not that useful, btw. I tried that because it fit the theme of strings of fate in an ancient-greek-mythology game. Poker chips were much better.]

TheThirdMage

5:07 PM

Good idea for that though!

Anaphory

Generic Fate Core refresh is 3. If you don't know what you'll play, there might be a reason to have 4 instead. During a scene, you have a budget of 1 FP per player for your NPCs, putting that at 5 per player. Plus a few to go around for compels, concessions etc., so I'd guess something like 6–7 per non-GM player or 5–6 per player including GM.

TheThirdMage

Yeah I'm using core. So a good guesstimate would be like 30 or so?

Anaphory

Likely lower than that, unless your group is big or your power level high.

reddit.com/r/FATErpg/comments/2owjjk/…

TheThirdMage

5:34 PM

I dunno how big my group will be, just hoping they're four or less, or the ones past four have their own dice

Anaphory

It also depends on how many players you as GM can deal with.

TheThirdMage

Well I've never ran a game before, so I dunno that number.

Anaphory

Keep it low, then! Four or less is generically good.

TheThirdMage

Regardless, just get a bag of them, you think?

And another separate bag for the points so they don't get mixed in with my dice?

Anaphory

That sounds good!

I can also recommend getting index cards (or cutting paper to about that size) and bringing a reasonably large number of pencils and one bigger felt pen to scribble down aspects, notes, stress boxes etc.

TheThirdMage

5:43 PM

Why the pen?

Anaphory

Write in bold on the index cards.

So that someone on the other side of the table can read it.

TheThirdMage

The tables are pretty small, and we all play Magic so the "Let me see this card" thing is a thing

Anaphory

It's also not like you can't write big bold words with other pen(cil)s. It's just one of my standard pieces of kit for games.

TheThirdMage

Good point. I might pick one up at Walmart today or something. It a good place to buy those beads too?

Anaphory

I have no idea where I'd go and buy those things. Here in this Dutch town I'd probably google for an interior design or creative/arts place.

nitsua60

10:24 PM

Kids watched *Pirates of the Caribbean* last night for the first time. Son's birthday party is this coming weekend--he's asked if we can do a pirate birthday. Treasure hunt: check. Swordplay: check. (One of my attending friends is a stunt coordinator/stage-combat teacher.)
Mom: What kind of cake do you want?
Son: A piracy cake.
Mom: What does that look like?
Son: It's a black background and it says "Piracy is not a victimless crime." And the FBI logo is on it.

ACuriousMind

@nitsua60 I see a bright future in copyright law for that kid. ;P

Shalvenay

:P

nitsua60

@ACuriousMind Wishing my kid a future in copyright law!? What'd I ever do to you???

=D

ACuriousMind

Okay, I admit that might have been a bit harsh ;)

Shalvenay

10:40 PM

I dunno, that Leonard French guy seems kinda cool actually

Shalvenay

11:00 PM

hey there @Papayaman1000 and @nitsua60

nitsua60

@Shalvenay hiya

howzlife?

Shalvenay

alright, as for you?

nitsua60

Good week-long family vacation, now home and getting caught up on "the week that was." Head spinning a bit, frankly.

Shalvenay

going anywhere for the eclipse?

nitsua60

Just outside. Starting a year ago we looked into heading S/SW, but couldn't quite make it work. Time to teach the kids the distinction between umbra and penumbra =)

You're in the path of totality, no?

ACuriousMind

11:14 PM

I never quite understood what's so amazing about eclipses. :P

BESW

@nitsua60 There's a bowl in the middle of the table, filled with a kind of candy everyone in the group likes. The bowl is clearly labelled "DOOM."

2

nitsua60

You shouldn't look directly at a partial eclipse because of the damage that can be caused by improperly aligning the solar-lunar orbital plane with the orbital bones around your eye.

BESW

Everyone is free to eat the candy... but the candy is also an expendable resource in the game, and the empty bowl triggers an event.

nitsua60

It's a planescape thing.

I never got it either.

BESW

When I used it for a session in 4e, so long as there was candy in the bowl every d20 roll also had the player to your left roll a d20. You could eat a candy to use their roll instead of yours.

And when the bowl was empty, it triggered the boss fight immediately, rather than you reaching the boss on your own terms.

ACuriousMind

11:23 PM

@BESW How many candies were eaten because people wanted candy as opposed to being eaten for that strategic purpose?

BESW

Not very many.

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 close to it, we'll be heading out to see totality tho

nitsua60

@BESW hmm... wonder if I could re-skin it in "inspiration" terms and make it AL-legal =)

BESW

I wouldn't use it often, but it's a great "special event" gimmick.

ACuriousMind

@BESW Did you have any sort of in-universe/character-level justification for that mechanic, or was it entirely player-level?

BESW

11:29 PM

Not particularly. It was a point in the story where it made sense to have a semi-random tension-building effect where people didn't know exactly what would happen or when.

(I didn't tell them what would happen when the bowl emptied.)

ACuriousMind

So no "there's an eldritch field you can tap into to influence your luck" or anything like that, but just a bowl of candy.

BESW

Not for that use, no.

Obviously you could do that if you wanted.

For my implementation, part of the draw was not explaining it.

It was a resource with an unknown catch, and tying it to the narrative in any explicit way would've given them some sort of hint what the catch would be.

I was experimenting with one-time mechanics a lot toward the end of that campaign.

Once I had a series of conflicts with one-hit spirits, and when you defeated a spirit you kept its mini.

In the final confrontation of the adventure the minis became expendable resources that could be spent for various effects depending on which kind of spirit it had been.

BESW

11:51 PM

In particular, it let you manipulate the environment and inflict unusual penalties on the boss.

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