TRPG General Chat

12:10 AM

If possible I'd like some feedback on rpg.stackexchange.com/q/121047/43856 - I feel it might still be somewhat either broad or opinion-based. I tried to narrow it and specify clear restrictions and concerns, but I'm not sure if it is still a decent question to this site.

Mike Q

@HellSaint you're asking for suggestions so it's hard to point out whether one option is better than another

for example, I've been accustomed to roll 2x and take maximum, or take average rounded in some direction

BESW

It looks pretty good to me, in large part because answer quality will almost certainly have to come from the answerer's experience.

The upward bound of not having to re-balance encounters is a good practical constraint on armchair speculation.

The Oracle

2:51 AM

0

Q: Forced movement and OA duplicates

I recently created a Q&A (Can I trigger an Opportunity Attack by forcing an opponent to move out of my reach?) for the purposes of having a general question to dupe questions dealing with forced movement causing OAs to. I subsequently went through and marked 9 questions as duplicates of it. I'm...

Rubiksmoose

3:16 AM

@Miniman sorry about that dupe btw.

Mike Q

3:27 AM

Good day/evening/morning all

Rubiksmoose

same to you :)

Mike Q

@Rubiksmoose Tsk tsk, your meta post isn't technically a question

Rubiksmoose

@MikeQ hah! very true.

Mike Q

at least you confessed to your vigilante dupe-marking

The community is safe once again

Rubiksmoose

@MikeQ well the coppers were hot on my tail. My only move was to flip. Hopefully, I'll get a reduced sentence at a minimum security internet prison.

Mike Q

3:40 AM

So what are you up to, aside from atoning from your imaginary internet crimes

Rubiksmoose

@MikeQ Trying and struggling to plan for a super hero campaign. I'm... not super fast/good at campaign planning. To be fair to me, this is also a new system and a new genre for me/my group so that is definitely contributing.

How about yourself?

Mike Q

Superhero campaign you say? Would that happen to be Mutants and masterminds?

Rubiksmoose

@MikeQ No (that was one I considered). It is actually a PbtA game called Masks.

Basically Young Justice / Teen Titans, the RPG.

Mike Q

Ooh! A superhero system that doesn't make me want to pull my hair out! Nice.

Rubiksmoose

hah! So far, I also have had no hair-related issues with this one.

Miniman

3:47 AM

@Rubiksmoose All good! Sorry if I came across as grumpy.

Rubiksmoose

I'm pretty happy with it from all the research/real play listening/planning I've done so far.

@Miniman not at all. I wanted to make sure I didn't come across as that either. Though really I came across as dopey if anything.

Shalvenay

hey there @CollinD, welcome to the RPG.SE lair :)

CollinD

hiya

don't mind me, just lurking

Rubiksmoose

lurk away!

BTW it looks like daddy eagle is on nest duty ATM.

Mike Q

4:03 AM

So this is my first time actually watching the bird nest. I'm not saying this is boring, but what exactly is the draw here?

Rubiksmoose

@MikeQ Sometimes there are two! Sometimes one brings the other one fish!

Rubiksmoose

4:34 AM

If that is too boring there is always these two storks who are right now very annoyed with a particular stick in their nest but are unable to remove it.

Shalvenay

4:47 AM

hey there @SimonH.

Simon H.

@Shalvenay hay dude, happy weekend

Shalvenay

how're things going?

Simon H.

pretty good, just got a chance to run cthulhu dark

Shalvenay

nice, how'd it go?

Simon H.

it went alright. we played it instead of our regular game because we were missing a player. I messed up some NPC encounters, but now I think I better understand the system

Shalvenay

4:55 AM

ah

we got through the Flaming Fist OK :>

more like got away, though, although we did drop a few of them in the process, and now are back at town

Simon H.

oh that's in D&D, huh?

tuskiomi

can i consult someone on my DMing tool that i just used in a campaign?

Simon H.

which one?

tuskiomi

haha, i just "taught a player a lesson" wanted to know if it sends fair

seems*

Simon H.

oh shoot did you just kill your first player lol?

tuskiomi

5:00 AM

no, but they got close to a TPK

Shalvenay

@SimonH. yeah, just updating you on my tabaxi cleric's travails :>

Rubiksmoose

@SimonH. I'm happy to hear it turned out alright :)

Mike Q

@tuskiomi So what was the situation, what did the player do, and how did you teach them a lesson?

Simon H.

@Shalvenay ah... I have to admit, while I play D&D regularly, the Forgotten Realms is a mystery to me. is the flaming fist dangerous?

@rubiksmoose thanks, I'm glad you're at least not rooting for my destruction xD

Rubiksmoose

@SimonH. I mean I wouldn't cuddle it that is for sure.

Simon H.

5:09 AM

/s

tuskiomi

basically i home brewed a lizard for 5e. 8AC, 30HP, immune to fire damage. if exposed to fire, they get multiattack for 2 total attacks. only attack is a ranged tongue attack, 10ft. does 0 damage if the player is at full hp, and around 18 (6d6) poison if not. no other effects. i put 2 of them in a coal chute. player in question sees a couple party members open and close the door, decides to investigate. gets licked for 12 damage. player is a sorcerer. pyromancer. casts fireball. quickens to cast fireball 2.

Mike Q

I'm a bit confused, but I guess the lesson is "Don't set lizards on fire"

Shalvenay

@SimonH. more like a really annoying band of mercs with a habit of going "PAPERS PLEASE"

quite rude

Simon H.

@Shalvenay but nothing the legendary tabaxi cleric couldn't manage.

tuskiomi

well, they immediately retaliated without thinking. if the player used any disk that didn't set things on fire, the fight would be trivial.

used any spell*

Mike Q

5:14 AM

Was there any reason the players couldn't simply close the door and leave?

tuskiomi

our even took a moment to realize how badof an idea it is to send flames into flammable storage

Simon H.

did you mention the coal, @tuskiomi?

Mike Q

Eh, I dunno. When curious players see stuff that is explicitly flammable, it's either telling them "Light this on fire and something awesome happens" or "Light this on fire and something horrible happens".

tuskiomi

no. there may have been some intrinsic exploitation urge, as upon opening, there was a small chance of the lizard reacting. it never hurt the players, but it did startle them.

and Simon, no. the player opened the door, and triggered the reaction. the player didn't miss a beat in retaliating

Simon H.

I see. so like "I open the door and fireball!"

I feel like an encounter like that is really cool and could teach the players to keep on their toes, either way.

tuskiomi

5:18 AM

i tried describing the lizard, how it's eyes were fiery, but i got one sentence in and the player said "i cast fireball"

Simon H.

@tuskiomi oh they were asking for it. good job.

Mike Q

Ah. So the lesson is "Don't interrupt the GM while they're narrating." A very valuable lesson indeed.

tuskiomi

should have been trivial for a party of level 7 players. one of them made it much harder.

Rubiksmoose

@tuskiomi Sounds like you did everything right to me. The kicker is that this could not have been worth a lot of xp either seeing as it was probably a low CR encounter.

kviiri

9:28 AM

@tuskiomi Had the party any reason to believe the lizards were strengthened by fire as opposed to dying in it like ~everything else?

I'm personally of the school of thought that GMs should always be generous with the information they provide

So I'd probably have made sure the players were aware of that as well as giving them the option to reconsider upon spotting the coal

kviiri

10:15 AM

Bird looks a bit anxious

The egg oughta hatch in a few days I think?

BESW

11:58 AM

@Helwar Hi!

What's new?

kviiri

12:37 PM

1

Q: Is this 'Elven thrower' balanced? D&D 5e

Based on the "Dwarven Thrower" this homebrew magic weapon is essentially an elven dagger with the similar returning feature. the exact specifics are... ELVEN THROWER Weapon (dagger), rare (requires attunement by a elf or half-elf) You gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made...

dnd-5e magic-items homebrew balance weapon

I have a feeling that that's perfectly in line with the general power level of Rare items, but I'm not very good at justifying that...

Especially given the restriction to Dagger, which is a rather weak weapon on its own

kviiri

5:01 PM

@DavidCoffron Re: two handed weapons in the warlock weapon question, they are held in one hand whenever not attacking with them.

It's one of those DnD 5e common misconceptions that you need two hands to even wield them

David Coffron

@kviiri Yeah, i just forgot about it. System-mixing

kviiri

Heh

David Coffron

@kviiri I don't understand why my objective analysis of the Elven Thrower is getting hate though

kviiri

I remember those good old days when Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup had 1.5-handed weapons, aka "one handed with obscure penalties you probably won't remember".

@DavidCoffron Okay, I was going to point out a major flaw that needed fixing, but that turned out the be between my ears.

I forgot that it's possible to throw while doing 2WF. That is certainly a big boost for the dagger I didn't remember at all.

> One of the only times radiant damage is better than piercing damage is if you are fighting swarms and plants (since it is a magical attack).

Err, am I remembering something wrong? Because I recall hearing radiant is the least-resisted damage type

David Coffron

@kviiri But so is magical piercing

Only plants and swarms, which are fairly rare in most settings

kviiri

5:12 PM

But a lot of creatures are vulnerable towards radiant.

David Coffron

@kviiri But I just realized that you can use a free hand for spellcasting or a shield with a sunblade or scimitar of speed which is pretty strong. I edited

@kviiri Only a few actually

kviiri

Hm, okay, that one might be edition confusion with 4e

Not that radiant is a particularly common vulnerability there either, but there's some really good builds for stacking vulnerabilities of it to enemies :)

David Coffron

I think it is just the shadow that is vulnerable to radiant

kviiri

Shadow demons, too

And some undead have no real vulnerability but lose their strengths against radiant.

(eg. vampires)

David Coffron

I usually ignore setting reliant benefits (like good vs undead or weak vs plants) since it is impossible to know. If anything I'll do a +0.5 if its strong vs a common type.

kviiri

5:20 PM

Well, if we go that alley, what isn't setting-dependent? :)

@DavidCoffron The claim that it's strictly worse is patently wrong though

So I agree with you there

But I think it's incorrect to simply disregard the radiant weaknesses of vampires and zombies but mentioning those of plants or swarms.

Shalvenay

hey there @SimonH.

also, monster idea: animated rosebush

Simon H.

5:49 PM

shrubbery's a bit too dangerous for my tastes, personally

Shalvenay

eheheh

Simon H.

6:21 PM

falling rocks are more like it honestly

David Coffron

7:12 PM

@kviiri I added it

Shalvenay

hey there @CaptainBohemian

Captain Bohemian

@Shalvenay Is goodgame empire counted as RPG?

Shalvenay

@CaptainBohemian no clue what you're talking about

sorry m8

Simon H.

@CaptainBohemian not tabletop, certainly

Tiggerous

7:55 PM

I've played it, it's an online game and not an rpg, more civilisation builder.

Captain Bohemian

8:35 PM

I quite like games of civilization establishment, which gives me the mysterious feeling as the civilization is constructed from wilderness gradually.

Shalvenay

hey there @Powerdork

doppelgreener

8:51 PM

I'm going to see if I can give @TBG access to this room so that they can discuss this issue with us.

@TBG I believe you should be able to talk here now.

T BG

Testing: hello?

doppelgreener

Hooray!

As I mentioned we can't do recommendations mainsite, but we can discuss those here.

T BG

Neato. Thank you, and for the opportunity to ask - though I'm not quite sure how

doppelgreener

I'll summarise: you're looking for games that aim to represent disability without shaming or punishing them, or representing them as costly such as in a flaw system, right?

T BG

Yes, seems a great summary

doppelgreener

8:54 PM

There are a lot of games available that are content to facilitate that, such that the games which do handle things that way you'd like to avoid are sort of only scratching the surface.

T BG

I'm not the most well-versed in systems, with most of my experience being WoD, D&D, and CoC. They've been fine, if a bit distasteful in function, so if I'm asking for recommendations: do you have some ideas?

doppelgreener

Off the bat, the following come to mind as most general:
- Fate Core/Accelerated (https://fate-srd.com/). It relies on aspects which are short phrases that describe your character.
- Cortex Plus (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/530352392/cortex-prime-a-multi-genre-modular-roleplaying-gam) operates very similarly, but I don't have much experience with it.

There are microgames like Lady Blackbird (for steampunk adventures), Cthulhu Dark (for horror), or Lasers & Feelings (a sort of star trek paraody), or Roll for Shoes which simply don't care about these things mechanically, possibly unless you specifically choose to invoke them mechanically.

Fate Core would let me happily create a Blind Samurai character who's proactive and competent, and play along as an equal beside other characters.

T BG

So the easiest solution may be to have things be mostly cosmetic, where possible? That seems to be the description of how each would handle the issue

doppelgreener

Fate and Cortex would care about it on a deeper than cosmetic level.

(There's always the go-to option of just making it cosmetic. I feel like you're looking for something deeper, which is why I mention Fate and Cortex Plus.)

trogdor

yeah I feel like saying,... Fate doesn't treat aspects as cosmetic

doppelgreener

9:02 PM

Fate embodies a narrative cycle of crisis and victory: the difficulties and setbacks we experience enable us to reach future victory, and victory sows the seeds for future difficulties and setbacks. Hence Fate being about dramatic stories.

It provides that cycle via a fate point economy, which lets us invoke our aspects where they lend us strength, or compel our aspects where they would cause complication in our lives.

trogdor

they are a large part of the mechanics of the game, the trick is that they don't have to have any mechanical effects that you don't want them to have

doppelgreener

Yeah.

T BG

Alrighty. Fate sounds like an excellent option, going forward

trogdor

and if you happen to decide to play a character with a disability, they are not going to be expected to be compelled any more than other characters

the ideal in all cases is every character getting compelled relatively the same amount of times

T BG

Thank you for your help :3

doppelgreener

9:05 PM

For a crash course into Fate from your background, I would suggest Masters of Umdaar, which is a pay-what-you-want-including-free game set in a laser fantasy world.

(Basically like He-Man or Thundercats.)

(Masters of Umdaar was already funded through a patreon, hence free being an option.)

This means if you have a blind samurai, they *can* have their blindness used against them when it's legitimately to their disadvantage, but the game doesn't value it inherently as a flaw. Their being a samurai at all is equally useable against them: samurai have the bushido code of conduct, and they can be compelled as a samurai to need to go along with it to their detriment.
Both can equally be used to their advantage, such as to achieve surprising feats in combat that someone relying on their sight can't pull off, or to pull the political strings of bushido themselves because they know th…

T BG

Awesome. I'll be taking a look ASAP

doppelgreener

Fate encourages us to describe things in our aspects which can be used both in our favour or which can complicate our lives and create setbacks for us. A character one of our fellow chatizens runs is amazing at bureaucracy and loves paperwork, which means she can work systems that aim to set up tons of barriers.

But it also means she basically has ethical difficulties with the idea of bending the rules, or can get very easily roped into paperwork to keep her preoccupied by someone who wants her distracted so they can get up to something to her detriment, or get fixated on fixing wrong paperwork when there's more important thigns to do.

T BG

Ooh. Always fun to have such hooks available

doppelgreener

Yeah. :)

Fate points are a wonderful thing.

When a player is compelled or has one of their own traits invoked against them to their detriment, they're given a fate point in exchange.

That fate point lets them, in turn, leverage things to their benefit, or compel other characters, meaning they accept setbacks now in order to secure victory later.

However, we can also use fate points to "buy off" compels, or to cancel out when something's being used for a numerical advantage against us.

(I can totally imagine a modern-day blind samurai exploiting smoke bombs to their benefit, such as by having a stunt that lets them drop one to blind everyone in a single room once per session.)

T BG

That's an excellent concept.
Every time I hear about Fate it's given a pinprick of interest, but this seems to be a good catalyst for actual exploration. Thank you very much

BESW

9:17 PM

This hour-long video is a good example of the game in action, though it uses a slightly different rule variant than Masters of Umdaar.

T BG

Worth it. Game sessions are my new background noise when drawing up maps

doppelgreener

... that sounds like a great way to use them. :O

I haven't watched that video yet myself (though many others have, and on their account I recommend it as well) because I've always got something else to do...

T BG

Yikes, speaking of which, I've got to get to depicting the forests around a small mining town. Thanks again, and I'll try to keep questions more concrete main-site from now on

trogdor

XD

doppelgreener

Ttfn! :)

@TBG RPG Stack Exchange can take some getting used to. You'll have free roam of chat rooms once you hit 20 rep, but for now you've got free access to at least just this one. You can ask questions about how to use our site itself, or our policies, on RPG Meta, and we're available for those questions here too.

Shalvenay

10:06 PM

hey again @SimonH.

Simon H.

hello @shalvenay

Shalvenay

how's it going?

Simon H.

pretty good, how about you?

Shalvenay

doing fine here

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer, bad keyword with email in answer, email in answer, pattern-matching email in answer: Is Hunger of Hadar seriously overpowered or am I reading it wrong? by Matilda Morgan on rpg.SE

BESW

10:22 PM

@SmokeDetector The witch doctor spam's spelling is getting noticeably worse.

trogdor

lol

they are desperate now it looks like XD

Ben

11:36 PM

Mornin all

Mike Q

Howdy

I have a question about whether it's ok to ask a certain question on the site

Ben

Is that the question?

Cos I think that sums it up lol

Mike Q

Basically, how to deal with scenarios where you're a player, other players are unknowingly breaking the rules, and the GM doesn't realize it

Ben

I've seen questions like that before.

Mike Q

Do I say something and ruin the player's fun? Or do I keep my mouth shut and pretend I don't know that the rules aren't being enforced?

trogdor

11:44 PM

I think asking for advice based off of experience dealing with a similar issue is exactly one of the types of questions this site looks for

Ben

Well, is it ruining your fun?

^ seconded

trogdor

I think you should write up a question and post it

Mike Q

It's hard to say. Sometimes I think it's unfair, because I'm following the rules and limitations, while other players aren't.

@trogdor But it's essentially a "What do I do" question, which are no-nos

trogdor

@MikeQ exactly how I would feel

Mike Q

I considered wording the question as "Is it bad form to do this" but then it's opinion-based

trogdor

11:46 PM

Hmm

Ben

50

Q: Should I boost a new player's character level to match the rest of the group?

As the title states, I have a new member joining the group. He is also new to the RP game, meaning he has no experience at all with any system (much like the rest of the group, who are only 3 or 4 sessions in). While the rest of the group are only up to level 3, I feel like I should ask him to...

dnd-5e new-players new-gm

31

Q: Player complaining about "Kill stealing"

One of our players (our Fighter) has started complaining about "kill stealing". Not overly much, like throwing a tantrum or anything, but they're still voicing their opinion about it. Some instances of this: The group were fighting a monster in a dark cave. After a brief game of cat and mouse,...

dnd-5e problem-players group-dynamics

And probably most relevant...

10

Q: Player cheating to keep their character alive

Ok... I understand that question title seems like it's a bit harmless, and I'm sure others have asked similar questions but I'm not entirely sure if this fits the same bill, or if it even a problem. So: to the matter at hand. One of our players is cheating - but to make it interesting, it's only...

problem-players numenera cheating

trogdor

I think you just need to word the question in a way to unambiguously ask for examples of how others have approached the problem

Ben

I feel these are all kind of "what do I do" questions

trogdor

Rather than asking only for narrow advice

Ben

Be prepared for the "Talk to them" answer haha

trogdor

11:51 PM

And if someone answers it with only advice for a narrow situation,... That isn't your fault if you didn't ask for that

I dunno, maybe someone with more experience writing questions than me can help workshop the question before you post it if you want to do one but are worried about it?

Mike Q

Yes, I can wait indefinitely. I am no hurry to ask a question.

Ben

I feel like these sorts of questions are sort of... the exception to the rule. This is a broadly specific situation. You are experiencing this, in your group, within a specific system. But at the same time, other players/parties may be experiencing a similar issue

trogdor

Yeah, I will say, I am not the best guy for knowing exactly where the line is in rules about posting questions

(which I think are a little harder to nail down than the ones for answers, might just be me though)

Ben

Quick clarification - weapon damage is weapon dice+str/dex+prof? (d&d 5e)

Mike Q

no proficiency, unless you're an animal companion

Ben

11:55 PM

Ok

Thought so

I am a tiger. Rawr