TRPG General Chat

Vylix

08:25

Just checking in: when Greatsword (2d6) crits, I add extra 2d6, not only 1d6 dmg, right?

Tiggerous

Correct.

Double all weapon dice on a crit.

BESW

08:38

Oh, 5e brought that back, too?

~~How~~ do they square that design choice against the philosophy of bounded stats?

Magician

~~how~~ ~~why~~ ~~but~~ ok

Tiggerous

(Oh yes, I was presuming 5e @Vylix)

Vylix

(yes 5e)

kviiri

@BESW It's only accuracy and defenses that are bounded, I'd say

Reading back on 4e Monster Manuals, I think they made a rather good call there. These numbers are totally wacky.

Tiggerous

Extra dice on weapon enchantments, smites or sneak attacks etc are normally understood RAW to be doubled too - but it's an area of the game very prone to houseruling.

Magician

08:43

@kviiri 4e didn't quite get its own math right to start with, but when they did (MM3), it worked really well.

kviiri

@Magician Heh, yep.

In 4e, it's normal for epic-tier (level 20-30) to have 40 or so in to-hit and defenses, and deal something like 2d10 + 10 damage while hit points are in the hundreds at that point. But MM3 math alleviates this somewhat

I'm not sure whether it's fixed completely but way better at least.

Vylix

2d6 seems more superior than 1d12. Why someone would use Greataxe over Greatsword? It has slightly more consistent damage (minimum 2), and Fighter can reroll both damage if they use Great Weapon Fighting style

Magician

@kviiri There was an alternative fan-made "1st level forever damage" table. Which preserved the damage to hp ratio of the first level combat. It was brutal. We used it for most of epic.

BESW

@kviiri It's important to note that monster mechanics are nothing like PC mechanics.

@Magician I loved the L1E tables.

kviiri

@Vylix Finding a good enchanted greataxe, I guess.

@Magician Yep, those are cool! I'm just too lazy to make any sweeping numbers changes to the game

We're planning on a Heroic-tier campaign so the scaling shouldn't kick in too bad either way

Vylix

08:47

@kviiri i don't understand. What's the difference between enchanted greataxe and greatsword?

Magician

@kviiri Oh, by then 90% of monsters they fought were entirely custom, or at least re-skinned and modified. Using a table wasn't a big deal.

kviiri

@Vylix I mean, one might find an enchanted greataxe, not an enchanted greatsword.

@Magician Ooh, I see

BESW

Same. I was hacking all my monsters together from spare parts on the builder, so changing the numbers was already part of the deal.

kviiri

It's also somewhat weird how in 4e, you might have something named like "Mook" that is a normal level 8 monster and then "Super Mook" which is a level 14 minion.

BESW

That was so brilliant, though.

Vylix

08:50

@kviiri oh i see ;)

Magician

Oooh, oooh, I wrote about that

kviiri

I used to use the business card thing.

And pair it with powers from MM that seemed cool.

BESW

It made the PCs feel so awesome because a minion was still hard to hit, and could deal reasonable damage, it wasn't just a mobile obstacle like in 3.5 where you had to use a lower level monster to fill that role in the fight.

Magician

Power vs Level

BESW

Honestly I've considered a levelless 4e hack where you get more stuff but the numbers don't change, because 4e worked better that way anyway.

kviiri

08:52

After re-reading 4e rules, here's my preliminary verdict:

Magician

@BESW Well, I mean. Done that, too.

kviiri

5e has (in addition to having superior art) two main advantages: simpler rules and better scaling. 4e has a bit of bloat on the rules side but the power system is to the system's credit

A lot of things that 4e does badly aren't any better in 5e - eg. solo monsters.

BESW

@Magician That's a lot more aggressive than I'd probably do, but it probably works better.

Magician

@BESW Once you start cutting...

kviiri

@Magician A good treatise on the topic

I think 4e's approach requires a lot of suspension of disbelief, but I have no problem with that personally.

Magician

09:00

@kviiri Thank you!

Writing a blog about a single system certainly had its benefits. I don't think I have much of a recurring audience nowadays, just people who randomly stumble upon links.

(Irregular update schedule doesn't help either, of course)

kviiri

We've agreed, among a certain group of friends, to start a game design blog when our respective studies are finished. (probably never, that is)

Magician

@kviiri Do any of you already have blogs?

Tiggerous

I'm DM'ing 5e for some new players at the moment. Session 0 will be their first time making characters. Can anyone suggest where I could find some very high level messaging that will quickly and simply help them understand what differentiates the various classes? I mean I can blabber about it myself - I'm just wondering if there're some great one sentance summaries out there (as opposed to half hour videos) that I can send them ahead of time to get them thinking?

Magician

09:16

Wouldn't the first paragraph of each class' description do this?

kviiri

@Magician I used to blog about an unrelated thing

I'm also a former editor of a computer culture mag where I wrote about retro and FOSS games.

Magician

Oh, cool

Tiggerous

@Magician I probably will go that route, I was just wondering if anyone had used an alternative method with success.

kviiri

Apocalypse World has a summary of all classes, with a couple of sentences of fluff followed by a couple of sentences of "how it'll play out in practice". Including warnings about what might not work.

Ok, more like one paragraph of each.

Magician

@kviiri I was going to suggest that there'll always be reasons not to do whatever project you have in mind. But I suspect you know this. So, let me know if/when you do start this blog.

kviiri

09:20

You can check them out on the opening pages of this pdf.

@Magician I always do, yep :P I'm also painfully aware of group efforts' having a tendency to peter out because everyone assumes the group will do it.

gul

@Tiggerous Page 45 of the PHB has, like, some one-sentence descriptions if you want, but you'll probably need to expand on them a bit.

kviiri

I think the warnings part of the Apocalypse World book are particularly good for DnD inclusion

Magician

@kviiri So you got to be the one to actually do it, and hope others join you :)

kviiri

@Magician Yep!

Tiggerous

@gul Thanks - I'll check them out and see what I think.

kviiri

09:22

Hm, one of the group also has an IT blog

gul

Unfortunately they are a little uneven w/r/t what they actually tell you. Druid and Barbarian both mention a specific class feature (shapechange and raging, respectively) but the Bard one is just fluff.

kviiri

So for Fighters we'd have something like: <fluff about fighters> followed by "Fighters are tough defenders who usually face danger wearing the heaviest armor and weapons. While their peak destructive power is not on par with a fireball-hurling mage, they have endurance and durability that helps themselves and others stay effective through an adventuring day. WARNING: Fighters have a relatively simple role in combat compared to the more nuanced spellcasters."

I think the warning part about how different classes play out and what might go wrong can pre-emptively abort a lot of trouble.

Tiggerous

@kviiri Thanks - I may prepare something like that myself. I want to give enough information to help them make an informed choice but not so much as to overwhelm.

kviiri

@Tiggerous That can be difficult, for sure. The important thing is not to rush it and not to oversell :)

For someone who comes from DnD-inspired games like NetHack or the more modern MMORPGs it can also be difficult to understand the actual differences between the classes.

Sorcerer, Warlock and Wizard, for example, are practically synonyms outside gaming and their differences, if any, vary between games. And if you get the difference in power source across, that's still just a start to describe how different these three play out...

BESW

09:40

@kviiri Related:

10

A: Is Harry a Wizard or Warlock?

Harry's a wizard because the books define 'wizard' as the thing Harry is. It sounds like you're using some definitions for "wizard" and "warlock" from outside the Harry Potter franchise. This is a non-starter for two reasons. First, historic terms for magic users have extremely vague definitions...

Tiggerous

@BESW That's fun...

kviiri

@BESW What can I do but upvote that? Your argument is spot-on.

BESW

I mean, if you're asking...

Tiggerous

Upvote from me too.

BESW

Seriously though I learned not to poke my nose into the HP section of that site long before I gave the whole thing up as more trouble than it's worth. Literal and uncritical readings abound.

The amount of pushback I got on the idea that Harry is an unreliable narrator being fed a very specific form of propaganda about the new world he's in, and that all our understanding of the setting has to be filtered through that lens.

kviiri

09:45

If I'm ever to become a fantasy writer, I'd like to do like Tolkien and have my characters theorize on pretty much everything regarding their own world's mythos and watch the world burn as the fans debate which of the many conflicting "author explanations" (actually just educated guesses by the characters) is correct.

Then again, it wouldn't be too unrealistic that, if done well, the fans would indeed recognize them as guesses and apply the wisdom of interpreting things less literally to their daily lives.

Tiggerous

I guess, applying only dnd criteria, wizards (and witches) in Harry Potter are sort of wild magic sorcerors that go to school and multi-class to wizard.

BESW

I think fandom needs to get over its obession with assuming there's a whole herd of okapi attached to every okapi butt.

Wild Mass Guessing is a fine hobby, but in extremis it's not a healthy environment for media consumption.

And it feeds some assumptions about the nature of creativity and the role of the creator which can cause very real problems for creative industries, make creators unsafe, and discourage people from becoming creators.

(For reference: "Worldbuilding and the Okapi's Butt," by Ursula Vernon.)

kviiri

@BESW Same with DnD rules edge case hunting :)

BESW

Taking Tolkien as a template for speculative fiction is bad for a lot of reasons, but normalizing his brand of unnecessarily deep worldbuilding is probably one of the nastier tricks pop culture has played on speculative writers in the last century.

kviiri

@Tiggerous Yea, it doesn't translate neatly at all. Basically magic is driven to great extents by innate power and emotion, but you still have to understand the theory of it all to use it right.

BESW

09:57

I really value writers like Okorafor and Leckie and PD Clark, who are absolute masters of the okapi butt.

kviiri

In a similar vein we could pin Gandalf to a dozen DnD classes, but there's little point in that apart from getting a bit of laughs at the expense of the rigidity of the class system

And at worst, someone'd take it seriously!

BESW

I once asked worldbuilding.se how I could reign in my worldbuilding to keep it simple and only focus on the stuff I'd need, and there was genuine widespread confusion about why I'd want to do that.

kviiri

Heh

BESW

They finally decided I must have a deadline or something.

kviiri

I did that with my only own 5e campaign. It worked out pretty well!

Simplicity works. Especially in RPGs.

BESW

10:01

I'm increasingly happy with games where we start with only the broadest of strokes --even with players characters!-- and slowly add to the setting and story through play.

....I really want to make a Dead Djinn adventure for Cthulhu Confidential.

gul

@BESW Yeah I mean that's what is great about DW, in my mind. It really drives you towards lean worldbuilding, which seems to increase the sense of discovery when you handle it right.

BESW

In that vein, I should get more experience with A Penny For My Thoughts.

It's, like, the definitional example of a game designed from the bottom up to have everything discovered through collaborative improvisational play.

gul

This game looks real neat.

BESW

And any system that hands the players the keys to choices that are "traditionally" the GM's sole domain, gets my ears perked. Lady Blackbird and InSpectres are good examples of having the GM throw the ball back to the players and asking them what's going on.

kviiri

Yep

BESW

10:08

Ooh, maybe I can add declarative details to my new project I swear I'm not actually starting yet.

trogdor

lol

we know you are

you are doing that thing

kviiri

@trogdor You need to keep an eye on BESW to make sure he doesn't!

trogdor

I don't know what you think I can actually do

BESW

trogdor

oh no, I am distracted by my favorite thing

(sorry Tennant, it's still my favorite thing)

I can't fully express how much I love that gif

kviiri

10:12

That somehow reminds me of that one time I was in Britain

Magician

The Doctor in the rain reminds one of Britain? Inconceivable!

kviiri

Great Britain has a memetic status as the promised land of rain, so we had naturally mentally prepared for a rainy trip. Indeed, I'd say I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if it had been sunny all the time.

gul

Such is the fate of famous Scottish people.

kviiri

If I'm going to Britain it'd best rain properly at least once.

Well, we were there for a week and a half or so and it did rain once. For several days straight.

gul

Try Ireland sometime.

kviiri

10:16

We were thrilled, the locals not so much.

@gul I'd love to :)

trogdor

Lol

gul

@kviiri It's quite moist, generally speaking.

doppelgreener

@nitsua60 and lo did the kingdom of rpg develop Jeff as a title, much to the confusion of archeologists who would later have to sort out Jeff from Jeffs from people merely titled Jeff

kviiri

I wonder what a traveler in Ireland could treat themselves to, except whiskey.

gul

Breakfast and quality wool goods?

trogdor

10:20

@doppelgreener thankfully some were saved by the letter G

Tiggerous

As a UK resident, I really don't feel like it rains much more often here than elsewhere (though I am aware that there is some regional variance).

kviiri

@Tiggerous I think it's largely just memetic, like Finnish asociality. I mean, I'm Finnish and I speak with a person on an almost daily basis.

trogdor

@kviiri lol, a person

gul

@trogdor Look you gotta take your victories where you can get them.

BESW

@kviiri One of my Finnish friends told me it's less asociality and more emotional constipation.

trogdor

10:23

Yeah to be fair, that isn't far from the actual number for most days

kviiri

@BESW To be fair, I never quite related to the popular idea of how quiet people here are, but I also have relatively little experience with other European forms of small-talk...

BESW

The folks I've met probably aren't representational.

Since, you know, I met them in Israel at an international convention.

...hey, have you seen Rare Exports?

kviiri

Yep, but it's been a while

BESW

I was wondering how representational it is of Finnish film, in terms of motifs and characters and style and such.

kviiri

I've also seen the sequel where the POTUS (Samuel L. Jackson) crash-lands in the Finnish wilderness and is being hunted by terrorists. (and there's mountains, which makes it feel more like Norway)

gul

10:29

This sounds like an odd film.

But then, perhaps I should know better than to judge a movie by its wikipedia summary.

BESW

...I hadn't realized Big Game was by the same writer/director. Maybe I will check it out.

But I don't see any mention of feral Santas in the synopsis.

kviiri

@BESW Hmm, I mostly know Kaurismäki films that are very glum, for the most part.

doppelgreener

@Tiggerous It really doesn't actually rain very much in the UK compared to my I used to live in Brisbane, Australia, which is in a subtropical region. It has both a temperate seasonal cycle (cold season to warm season) and a tropical weather cycle (dry season to wet season), and it rained somewhat less in Brisbane, but when it did rain there was a ton more water.

kviiri

Comedy has been traditionally either black, crazy, or something in between. Except when it's a children's movie, they're usually much better in the spectrum of humor used.

Tiggerous

@doppelgreener That's always been my perception - but I've always lived in the east of England, and I understand the west is wetter.

kviiri

10:33

And then there's meta humor about humor being dark.

doppelgreener

My experience of the UK is that every few days there will be a very light drizzle that is so little I'm entirely comfortable walking through it for ten or so minutes. My experience of Brisbane is that we'd have a dry season, but during the rainy season it could rain half the days, it would pour for half or all the day, and the amount of water would be similar to standing under your shower in the morning (which is not something anyone wants to wlak through).

gul

@doppelgreener Phoenix, Arizona is quite (quite) dry during most of the year, but when it sees fit to rain it's typically very heavy.

doppelgreener

@Tiggerous I live in London, so maybe my experience is very specific to that.

gul

Though the monsoon season is only maybe a month or two out of the year.

Tiggerous

@doppelgreener I grew up in South east, lived 10 years in North east and am now based in Cambridge - hence my vague reference to "east"

BESW

10:36

Our weather is pretty straightforward, but confuses visitors anyway.

Apparently mainlanders can't tell the difference between rain that'll go away in five minutes, and rain that ruins your beach day.

And then the rainy season starts and they're confused again because rainy season rain will ruin your day even if it's not raining.

doppelgreener

@BESW how's it do that?

BESW

The rainy season is wet. You just have to assume you'll be damp if you go outside, rain or not.

kviiri

Before Rare Exports, the two stars were in a bread commercial.

BESW

And all the insects don't like that, so they come inside.

doppelgreener

@BESW In Brisbane I had some handle on that, but in general I find the weather doesn't make empty threats: if it's a day with dark clouds out, there will probably be rain, and it is not a good idea to make any plans vis a vis the beach that don't involve “and then we'll run to shelter and do XYZ instead” as part of the plan.

(not as part of plan B or C, but part of plan A.)

BESW

10:40

@doppelgreener Yeah, we don't usually do the "run and hide" thing unless it's the rainy season or a typhoon. You just cover the food and go swimming.

I saw one haole woman marveling at how people who are walking somewhere keep walking when it rains.

Like, what are we supposed to do? It's rain, you're not gonna melt.

kviiri

> "Well are you hungry or not?"
> "Hard like life"
> Oululainen's low heat bread, now in convenient pieces.

Hm, Warlord is more exciting than I remembered. I wonder why 5e didn't keep this one.

A lot of powers revolve around granting allies extra attacks.

BESW

Lazy warlord builds (focused on giving away all their actions so they never do anything themselves, just order folks around) are very fun and SUPER powerful if you've got a party that has effective basic attacks.

trogdor

@BESW I do take nearby cover if I'm not walking somewhere

Personally

BESW

One of the most beastly 4e characters I've ever seen was a hybrid warlord/shaman who literally never rolled an attack.

Granted attacks can give the fighter an extra marked target, let the warlock deal out-of-turn curse damage, etc.

(Warlocks can only deal curse damage once per turn, not per round.)

Lazy warlords are also very good at being the utility item carrier.

doppelgreener

11:06

@BESW Wait, that's a thing? :O

I thought curse just passively added +1d6 to any damage

BESW

Wait, no, I'm wrong.

It is once per round.

> If you damage a cursed enemy, you deal 1d6 per tier extra damage. You decide whether to apply the extra damage after making the damage roll. You can deal this extra damage once per round.

It's a bit of a pain to keep track of.

What I was remembering is that a warlord's granted attack can give you another shot at your curse damage if you missed with your attacks on your own turn.

ie, a warlock is a better choice for a granted attack if they missed on their turn. If they've already dealt their curse damage, maybe another character is a better choice.

kviiri

4e has sadly a very wide variety of things to keep track of.

It's one of the weaknesses of the system.

BESW

Yar.

Or, for some folks, it's a strength.

I know that until epic levels made everything REALLY silly complex, we mostly enjoyed the complexity of the system back when I first played it.

We used a white board to track some stuff, and markers on the board for other things.

trogdor

Yeah I kinda liked it as a player

I liked the complexity so much I tracked stuff for the fighter

doppelgreener

@BESW Ooh. Ok, so, I had that misunderstood. So if I do an AOE and hit 3 cursed enemies, I just deal normal damage, then pick one, and can choose to deal +1d6 to that guy.

BESW

11:18

Yes.

I should re-write the power cards.

doppelgreener

Ok, thanks. I should adjust one of my macros.

(I'll probably make a Warlock's Curse power)

BESW

Good call.

doppelgreener

That's important for me because if I pre-roll each curse result as I hit 3 cursed enemies, then that's going to influence my decision-making. That's not too far from rolling curse damage, choose the best of 3.

BESW

Yeah, I clearly wasn't thinking clearly when I wrote those.

doppelgreener

11:33

I'm not gonna fault you for it :D

It's been several years since any of us last touched D&D 4e

and in most rounds, the warlock is basically just dealing curse damage on any attack they make, at least right now

trogdor

You do have decree of karahd

Or however it's spelled

If you hit with that it can get multiple guys

BESW

Being a daily, in most rounds still applies.

trogdor

Yes

I can't recall too many really juicy multi target attacks for feylocks

That aren't daily

goodguy5

12:12

Morning nerds

kviiri

12:28

Bird has some nest material stuck on its beak

trogdor

Morning birds

5

SPavel

sup trog

BESW

> “Sup”, he said, like a medieval monk imploring me to try his pottage.
- Verity Holloway

SPavel

12:44

get your own pottage, dirtbag

BESW

Hmm. Somebody's looking at DRYH questions.

kviiri

DRYH?

Ah, this time google actually helped

BESW

Yeah, I got upvotes on all my dont-rest-your-head questions.

nitsua60

@BESW I just got eight upvotes on a bunch of old/inactive stuff, none of which is dryh. Maybe someone's going for electorate?

kviiri

Where's my part of this bounty

I want internet points!

Hm, my eaglecam glitched and the eagle just appeared out of nowhere :)

Telebird

goodguy5

13:02

I had somebody want to roll 1d4+1 (once) for magic missile at a table on Friday.

doppelgreener

@kviiri that wasn't the eaglecam, Estonia glitched

nitsua60

@kviiri There you go. And a badge, to boot =)

kviiri

@doppelgreener Ah I see

goodguy5

I wasn't the DM, so I couldn't do anything about it.

kviiri

@nitsua60 Neat! ^^

nitsua60

13:03

@doppelgreener Typical Western fake news.

@kviiri (I tried to make it a "guru," but your +39 answers I'd all already upvoted.)

goodguy5

But I said "At my table, you roll separate d4s for each missile"
Then he tried to be like "Oh well, JeReMy CrAwFoRd SaId...."
to which my response was idgaf

kviiri

@nitsua60 One of these days!

Tiggerous

@kviiri Have one from me too...

kviiri

can't stop the € from flowing in

nitsua60

@goodguy5 I hope it was actually "idgaf because..." =)

SPavel

13:05

@goodguy5 At my table, if you bring a d4, it will be seized and destroyed

doppelgreener

towel otter will soon be a guru

kviiri

Towel otter is among the best otters

doppelgreener

@SPavel are you suggesting the magic missile user has to roll d6's instead

kviiri

1d8 halved rounding up?

SPavel

@doppelgreener Magic missile users get to roll on out of here and never come back

goodguy5

13:07

@nitsua60 it was "idgaf. rolling one die is absurd and makes the spell swing too much. 25% chance to do max damage. no thank you. Also, Crawford and I don't always agree about how to affect table flow"

kviiri

@goodguy5 You could point out that JC himself points out, several times, that the DM is the ultimate authority of a given table, not him!

doppelgreener

@kviiri or “we can use JC rulings when he sits down here to run our game”

kviiri

@doppelgreener Haha!

Excellent

goodguy5

Like I said, I wasn't the DM, so I had no power to enforce my disapproval. It doesn't help that I think the player in question is kind of a weasely butthole

I feel like he's really close to being a combination of My Guy and That Guy. Either by circumstance, or choice, he's staying just to the "left" of the line.

SPavel

@goodguy5 It's pronounced Wessley-Butol, thank you very much

David Coffron

13:20

@goodguy5 how did the DM rule? (Just curious)

goodguy5

@DavidCoffron he said whichever, he didn't care. but that he had to choose now, one or the other.

(can't flip flop)

David Coffron

@goodguy5 hmph... That's a tough choice... Idk which I'd chose.

SPavel

ForDoes MM in 5e still top out at 5d4? That's still sane

But for 350d6 blastomancer fireballs of death, I'm not going to sit there and wait for him to add them all up

David Coffron

Probably roll for each. I use magic middle to make sure I take out a threat (or at least hit it hard). I don't want to roll min damage and lose out

goodguy5

@SPavel no. 11d4 at level 9 (spell level 9)

@DavidCoffron great joke

SPavel

13:25

@goodguy5 ok but who is wasting 9th level slots on magic missile

goodguy5

@SPavel it's funny you ask. I asked a question that had someone propose burning an 8th level slot, iirc.

David Coffron

@SPavel It's really good with certain class features. I use 8th level slots on it before. 50 guaranteed damage is amazing

goodguy5

9

A: What's the maximum damage that can be dealt in one round by a 20th level character with at least two levels of Fighter?

Since the question states most effective way to deal max damage, I inferred that expected damage, which includes hit chance, critical hit chance, and saving throws, is the best metric (I have another answer for assuming perfect rolls, but that would be another question), so... Expected damage is...

David Coffron

.... hey I answered that

SPavel

Yeah but an 8th level slot is just meh

An 9th level slot is 9th level! The best level!

goodguy5

13:26

fair point.

David Coffron

I only ever use my 9th level slot for True Rez or wish. Nothing else compares

(Obvs I'll prep imprisonment if we're fighting a BBEG)

SPavel

@DavidCoffron What about Bigby's Expressive Single Digit?

David Coffron

*cocks eyebrow

SPavel

OotS reference

As well as a general joke about Bigby's useless spells

KorvinStarmast

@MikeQ For the same reason that short stories did so well as films. (Some of the best noir films were from short stories or novellas, and IIRC Elmore Leonard's short stories and novellas were successful as films.

BESW

13:38

> Bigby's Useless Spells. When using Lore to create advantages by casting spells, you can choose to get +4 on the roll. If you succeed when using this stunt, the resulting aspect has no free invokes.

SPavel

@BESW 0/10 not enough hand-related features

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 I think I linked someone to an answer of yours that I liked that was related to a question. That might explain a few of those votes.

@SPavel Our wizard in my tier 3 game has uses Bigbly's spells for a variety of things that were not useless, to include grappling and shoving a variety of enemies.

BESW

> Bigby's Inexplicable Obsession. You get +2 when casting spells whose effect is a visible hand-shaped construct.

KorvinStarmast

> Bigbly's hand spell originated in a very old joke late at night in Lake Geneva, and pertained to the sum total of the Jolly Green Giant's love life

nitsua60

@KorvinStarmast aah. That'll do it.

goodguy5

13:45

> Bigby's Invisible Date some text that won't get me in trouble but is still suggestive.

KorvinStarmast

> I totally made that up, but it's plausible

Sir Cinnamon

Morning folks

SPavel

@goodguy5 Palmela Handerson?

goodguy5

👋

nitsua60

@SPavel It's really good with certain enemies, too. No save, no AC. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Rubiksmoose

13:47

morning all

KorvinStarmast

A more likely explanation is that Gary Gygax, when playing little league baseball, was the left fielder on a team with a catcher whose last name was Bigby.

BESW

> Bigby's Suggestive Gesture. You can use Lore instead of Provoke to create advantages with insulting hand signals.

SPavel

@BESW insulting hand signals no jutsu!

BESW

> Otiluke's Memetic Transformation. You get +2 when casting spells whose effect is a reference to something that made at least one player laugh earlier in the same session.

Sir Cinnamon

A much lovelier day in Estonia than it is here. Glad to see the egg didnt hatch while I wasn't watching

kviiri

13:55

@SirCinnamon It did, but the eagles found another one.

Sir Cinnamon

@kviiri They just want something to sit on

SPavel

@SirCinnamon Of course it didn't hatch, the eagle has been sitting still! Everyone knows you need to bike up and down Goldenrod City to hatch eggs

Sir Cinnamon

@SPavel Or tape down the up arrow below one of those sand-waterfalls that push you back, I did that once

BESW

> Otiluke's Outworn Welcome. If an attacking enemy uses a stunt that they've already used during this scene, you can defend with Lore instead of the usual skill. You get +1 to the roll each time you re-use this stunt in a scene.

goodguy5

> Meld's Confusing Mispronounciation You have advantage when attempting to convince someone that you know what you're talking about

Rubiksmoose

14:05

@SirCinnamon Fun story: apparently there was another egg earlier

Sir Cinnamon

@Rubiksmoose :O

Rubiksmoose

@SirCinnamon It got crushed apparently but nobody knows how. :'(

Nobody that I can find anyways

Sir Cinnamon

@Rubiksmoose Aww, well that's nature i guess

i wonder how often that happens

kviiri

Wesley, stop that!

Wesley: <crushes>

Rubiksmoose

I found a very useful blog:

How to tell the male/female apart :http://www.looduskalender.ee/n/en/node/2206

Egg drama: http://www.looduskalender.ee/n/en/node/2269

Sir Cinnamon

14:09

They have names!? Suvi and Sulev?

Rubiksmoose

We even now know when about the egg was laid. We have ~9 days til expected birdy birthday.

Sir Cinnamon

Suvi is the big eyed darker coloured one evidently

kviiri

Suvi means Summer :3

Sir Cinnamon

Which means I guessed the sexes correctly!

I think sulev means "Charming" ?

Derpy

Good afternoon. Just a quick drop-by. I have noticed this question on the HQL, I think some of you may found it interesting. Here

kviiri

14:12

@Derpy Thanks!

@SirCinnamon Hmm, Sulevi is a name in Finnish at least but I don't know its etymology. I think it's Finno-Ugric though (as opposed to being a Germanic/Slavic/Hebrew loan)

Sir Cinnamon

@kviiri nordicnames.de/wiki/Sulev Says its the Estonian from of Sulo, and just means "good"

BESW

@SirCinnamon The first cat known to have been given a name was called "Sweet" or "Pleasant." (Ancient Egypt, of course. Most cats of that period were just called "Cat," which was probably pronounced "Mau.")

Derpy

@kviiri He specifically mention that he is preparing some D&D sessions. Also notice that - to be fair- one of the answer already mention some game-related mechanics (taking away exp-based rewards and so on)

kviiri

@SirCinnamon Sulo is a cute name, my SO's aunt's retriever was called such

Sir Cinnamon

@BESW I love facts like this that just show how little people have changed over millenia

Rubiksmoose

14:17

I feel like I know these birds so much better now :)

goodguy5

@Derpy Great link! I was just thinking about that last week with a new game I started

Secespitus

@BESW I just discovered the game and looked through the tag. It looks interesting and I am thinking about talking with my usual group about giving it a try. What's your experience with the game? Were there some pitfalls when playing it? (BTW: I already have my Electorate badge.)

BESW

It was difficult to play without having everyone in the room (at least one player was joining online).

It expects you to have a lot of different-colored physical dice and move them around.

The setting's a bit... weird. I ignored it and used the system to represent a surreal horror session in an otherwise pulp-adventure campaign (most of the campaign used Atomic Robo).

SPavel

These are great patch designs

who is the DEA's graphic designer?

Tweeted by kd2luw on April 15, 2018 at 7:57 PM

@kd2luw

Tweeted by PlasticWig on April 16, 2018 at 1:26 AM in reply to kd2luw

BESW

@Secespitus I talked about it a little here.

SPavel

14:29

Every adventuring party needs a patch like this

Secespitus

@BESW We would all be at the same table (some of us don't really like online, though we might have to give it a few more tries in the future due to difficulties with scheduling). The amount of similarly coloured dice is something I am still thinking about. I have a few sets of dice, but each set looks different. I am not sure about the setting, but I thought about giving it a try because it's what the games assumes.

@BESW Thanks, I'll check it out.

BESW

Feb 14 '16 at 2:35, by BESW

DRYH was a little too complex for my tastes; the strategy was important for the tension, but I think it had a few too many moving parts for the level of immersion it was trying for.

goodguy5

What's DRYH?

Secespitus

@goodguy5 dont-rest-your-head

goodguy5

ty

BESW

14:33

In which insomnia grants reality-breaking superpowers, but the more you use them the more likely you are to fall asleep... and then the things will get you.

But if you stay awake too long, your powers will take over and you become a nightmare.

The best part of the system, I think, is the narrative concept behind the powers.

You pick something pretty simple like "summoning knives" or "hailing a cab," and as your power increases you can do more and more ridiculous things with that concept.

SPavel

@BESW Hailing a cab straight into somebody's face?

BESW

Or hailing a cab in the middle of the ocean.

SPavel

laughs maniacally as burning cabs rain down upon the city

BESW

Or getting a cab that'll take you to an abstract concept.

One memorable power was "I can cut anything."

SPavel

Captain, I am receiving a hail.
On screen.
*yellow cab bursts through the Enterprise viewscreen and crashes into Worf*

BESW

14:37

At low levels, that means you can slice through metal like it's paper.

At high levels? You can slice apart relationships and cut the noise out of a room.

Secespitus

@BESW I remember seeing an anime where one character was centered around a similar concept - cutting through life lines of everything.

SPavel

Just don't cut the cheese

Rubiksmoose

@SPavel that one I can do right now! I feel so powerful!

SPavel

If I had that power, I would use it to make better cuts of movies

BESW

Just ran across this (Roll For Shoes):

Nov 3 '15 at 10:21, by BESW

By having players come up with their own skills on the fly, it opens up a massive space for creativity at any level. I've mentioned the guy whose PC couldn't do things, right?

Nov 3 '15 at 10:22, by BESW

He'd have skills like Can't Find A Door 2, and if he failed the roll he'd find a door.

Rubiksmoose

14:48

that is an amazing idea that I love.

SPavel

Find a door between yourself and the enemy, blocking an attack

Find a door out of the jail cell, find a door into the core of the Matrix

Find a door to the Room of Requirement

Find a door to a universe where falling asleep won't kill you

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