TRPG General Chat - 2020-12-19

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12:24 AM

@MikeQ I suppose get the book and read it. As for convincing people to play... hopefully that's not as tough as it sounds.

In my experience, getting people to try new systems and settings isn't actually that hard, as long as you're willing to run the game

Also check out bladesinthedark.com/basics

Hot RPG Questions

12:39 AM

5

Q: Does the Seeking Spell Metamagic work on a weapon attack caused by a spell?

The Seeking Spell Metamagic from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything reads: Seeking Spell If you make an attack roll for a spell and miss, you can spend 2 sorcery points to reroll the d20, and you must use the new roll. My question is, what exactly counts as "an attack roll for a spell"? Obviously s...

dnd-5e spells sorcerer metamagic

12:54 AM

Today I discovered, while cleaning off my desk, three copies of the phb errata, getting older the closer to the surface of the desk they got. I should probably clean my desk more often

Because I’m pretty sure that there hasn’t been PHB errata in a while

"a while" is relative

PHB errata was issued this year, which is "recent" imho

@Carcer yeah, but when were the two before that?

I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen more than 1/year at best so that’s a really long time since I cleaned up

1:18 AM

yeah, if you're going back 3 distinct versions of PHB errata that takes you to 2017.

1:32 AM

@MikeQ Find a way that the game resembles something they like that D&D isn't suited for. (But don't call out that D&D isn't suited for it, ideally.)

2:31 AM

Honestly "I'm excited about this game, please help me try it out" is usually enough with my friends. It shouldn't be much more dramatic than "Please go to this movie with me."

My friends need a lot more budging than that.

I know that dynamic exists, but I think it's pretty personalized so there's no one-size-fits-all answer to how to address it.

If someone's invested in the ideal of playing an uninterrupted years-long campaign, or if they're invested in the system mastery they've achieved, or if they're resistant to the particular theme or tone of the new system...

I think I remember being a little resistant to switching out of 4e because of all the work I put into learning it

Those of Us Who Know Better by Charles Jamie Linton. a trans superhero game where your powers come at a price

Dr. Michael Nerdahl wrote a twitter thread about running Agon RPG with my students in a first-year seminar on "Ancient Supermen and Wonder Women".

TheDragonOfFlame

3:40 AM

@MikeQ “heyyy... so... ya know what’s cool? Gothic Victorian assassins, that’s what.”

2 hours later…

5:39 AM

Hi. My name is Xirema. In the campaign I've been DMing for the last year, my party has been carrying around an amulet that, if broken, would cause over a 24-hour period the total annihilation via volcanic heat produced by a draconic abomination of everything within a 10km radius—and tonight they just broke it. AMA.

5:54 AM

Trans Legal Fund Bundle A bundle hosted by ThatAceGal. All proceeds from this bundle of over 150$ worth of games will go towards the Good Law's Trans Legal Defense Fund, which will help support the legal battles to ensure the rights of trans people in the UK.

Hot RPG Questions

6:07 AM

2

Q: What is the interaction between "Touch of Death" and "Undead Fortitude"

The "Way of the Long Death" monk has a feature called "Touch of Death": Touch of Death Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, your study of death allows you to extract vitality from another creature as it nears its demise. When you reduce a creature within 5 feet of you to 0 hit p...

dnd-5e monsters class-feature monk zombies

6:31 AM

@Xirema How did you telegraph it, and how much input did they have in breaking it?

In order:

- They found the amulet in a maximum security prison inside a glass dome, and only an artifact weapon the fighter had been carrying around was able to break the amulet out
- The Cleric has magic armor that lets her detect Black Dragons within 30 miles; on two occasions, she used it and found the dragon in the amulet (though only the second time did she specifically key in on the fact that it had to be in the amulet, and not just in its general vicinity)
- The first time the party considered breaking the amulet, I had the Fighter make a Wisdom Saving Throw; he passed, and was cont…

Also, in true Clickbait fashion: when they finally broke the amulet, it was in a tower in the middle of nowhere, miles from civilization, and the only thing they actually risked was a possible TPK when the tower started collapsing on top of them. 😛

6:54 AM

Two Front Teeth Sale! by Ben Roswell. This year I finally completed a 3 years long push to repair damage done to my teeth by a high fever in 2006. Unfortunately, my insurance is only paying for a fraction of the cost of several dental surgeries. For Christmas help me cover the cost of my teeth!

Jon of RunAGame wrote a twitter thread about the cardinal rule of RPG epistemology... that nothing about the game is true or real until it's been said and understood ("established") at the table.

(BTW, this is one reason pre-written mystery games are so weird.)

7:40 AM

Yeah aren't they basically unplayable after the first time otherwise?

Everyone whose played it once knows the answer to the mystery

More than that, a pre-written mystery module is usually running counter to the idea that nothing about the game is true until it's been established at the table.

2 hours later…

9:19 AM

ah

@trogdor eg, compare our attempts to solve the mystery in Delta Green, to our attempts to solve a mystery in Atomic Robo. In the latter, clues don't mean a specific thing until the table declares what they mean. In the former, the table is trying to guess what the clues already mean.

yeah

I think I understand

In Delta Green we can't be right unless we guess the pre-determined right answer. There's a truth that is true before it hits the table, and nothing at the table can change that truth.

9:43 AM

yep

10:05 AM

That's part of what makes me so itchy about the campaign, I've figured out.

1 hour later…

Hot RPG Questions

11:35 AM

3

Q: How do Blade of Disaster and Resilient Sphere interact?

Does the Blade of Disaster spell, which can "pass through any barrier", have the ability to enter a Resilient Sphere spell - a "barrier" that specifically mentions that other spell effects can't pass through it? If it can, can the blade do damage to a creature inside in spite of the fact that "a ...

3 hours later…

2:23 PM

@Someone_Evil Thanks for setting that up! :D

2:38 PM

:)

3 hours later…

5:57 PM

@Sos good to hear that everything is going nicely. About your "newbie mistake", don't worry, some might argue that it wasn't even a mistake at all (manticores are well known creatures and knowing what one is might not be challenging at all depending on your setting :P). Either way, as I mentioned in the answer, keep getting feedback :) and if there isn't a problem, then there isn't a problem!

@HellSaint hey bud, havent seen you around in a while.

6:33 PM

Quiet today.

Awkward silences are my favorite.

@NautArch Tried to kill my character last night.

@ThomasMarkov so close

@ThomasMarkov it is a little deserted. I only just woke up though cause I’m playing catch-up on sleep

@ThomasMarkov what happened?

@NautArch I had 17/27 hp when it was over.

@BardicWizard We got assaulted in a blizzard by an awakened tree and a frost druid. My puny kobold sorcerer was attacked twice in a row by the frost druid and both times I said NOPE and cast shield.

@NautArch That resistance to cold damage was nice.

@ThomasMarkov you were doing the most damagem andshe saw the dragon's breath cast.

We totally forgot about wild magic

@NautArch oops.

"That kid that reminds the teacher about the home work we had" = "that kid that remembers to do concentration checks and not wild magic"

yeah, we forgot 5 times.

I'll never forget again though.

I'm really liking this build though.

7:19 PM

@ThomasMarkov phd takes time :v

3 hours later…

10:11 PM

@ThomasMarkov Weekend chat is slow chat

AncientSwordRage

I've started reading the fate-srd

I don't want to call it a perfect system, but it's very good

First thought: Pokémon RPG with fate rules where every Pokémon has aspects/stunts and it gains more as the trainer improves

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@AncientSwordRage Great basic ideas, but a lot of 'make something up' and 'designer not included'.

AncientSwordRage

Second thought, hacking 4e powers to be stunts and handing them out like candy

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I think that's status-by-design

And in most systems, that would be bad. But fate looks (on paper) like it can pull it off

Having played Fate a few times, I can say that it certainly can handle it.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

Whether 'it' can pull it off really depends on if the GM (and to a lesser extent, players) can pull it off.

10:21 PM

The only thing I'm not a huge fan of in the Fate system is how they handle damage

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica True

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

When I just started with it, it was really awkward to handle. And the most frustrating thing was there was no clear . . . how do I phrase it . . .

AncientSwordRage

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I think it gives you the tools if you want/are able to use them

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

Basically there was no procedurally systemised, coherent knowledge base that would lead one from unfamiliarity to familiarity with the how to handle things.

Asking a question about 'how do I do X' tended to lead to 'well would you name some example?' leading to 'well for example X.a.g.i and X.p.q.z, but really I want to learn how to handle X' leading to 'well this is how you handle g.i and this is how you handle q.z!' leading to 'but what about X?!'.

Also the system basically never helps with evaluating even the approximation of plausibility - that has to be supplied by fiat most of the time.

Don't get me wrong, I keep using it and playing it!

But there's a reason why I am stuck between GURPS and FATE, as neither performs all functions that I want a go-to generic universal system to perform to a quality I want from a system.

It does have many cool bits, mostly in the very basics of the system.

The FATE Core/Condensed Default Skill Set is a pretty good starting point that often fits well with no or minimal changes to many campaigns I've seen or played in.

The 4dF is elegant, albeit a bit too swingy when compared to the skill ranges a starting PC can have.

The Aspect Invocations are a nice self-balancing mechanic (not perfect, but pretty good!).

(Self-balancing in the sense that the more worthwhile a bonus, the more likely it will be used, but the more often an Aspect is used, the more FP it eats.)

AncientSwordRage

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I'm not following

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@AncientSwordRage Asking veterans how to handle a certain general phenomenon often lead to veterans asking me what I mean. Upon providing some examples, discussions would often LASER-focus on some very narrow example very thoroughly, leading to a lot of talking and exhaustion, but failing to produce clarity in matters of the general phenomenon.

(Unfortunately, the book texts are not very helpful with such 'how to even initially approach X' questions either, thus the veteran-questioning.)

It took a long while for me to settle on some semblance of coherent framework of conversion between the mechanics and the narrative, and even those are flimsy and I can't expect to be able to quickly make sure I'm on the same page with another system-user.

10:47 PM

@AncientSwordRage I know of at least one Pokemon-like Fate drift.

[rummages]

@AncientSwordRage How to Train Your Mutant Fire Dog: Monster Training in Fate Accelerated by June Shores

oooh

XD

There's a fleshed-out version for sale on DTRPG.

11:04 PM

The best thing about rpg sessions over video calls is that I can be baking at the same time and I don’t have to fend off my fellow players like last year

"fend off"?

AncientSwordRage

@BESW I'm exactly 0% surprised that exists

You might be some% surprised that it was written by June Shores.

AncientSwordRage

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica have you seen the examples on www.fate-srd.com? They seemed clear to me, but I've never run a game

@BESW Last year I was in and out of the kitchen for most of one session we were playing at my house (taking pans of cookies out of the oven mostly) and I kept having to thwack people with a spatula to keep them from eating the cookies ahead of time

This year the spatula was unnecessary

AncientSwordRage

11:08 PM

@BESW that's cool

Although this is the first time I've seen the name

I'm also going to have a baking day tomorrow, if I have the time

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@AncientSwordRage The SRD AFAIK initially mostly reflected (some of the) published books. It started getting more and more extra content later, after the hardest steps of getting familiarity were behind.

June's been around chat on and off for a while.

After years of little to no baking, I'm trying to re-acquire my teenage baking skills (specifically with our local variety of cinnamon roll)

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@AncientSwordRage I do recall that way back when I needed, SRD didn't really help me much with figuring good baselines for Scale and the reasons that would make those choices good or bad.

11:10 PM

@BESW is that OVO JuneShores? :D

I don't know what OVO is.

Is it related to uwu

...oh, right. Yes, I suppose it is OVO.

@kviiri what are you going to make?

I have no idea what OVO is

I sort of assumed it was the only June Shores I know of

11:15 PM

@BardicWizard A Finnish style of cinnamon roll, looks like this: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Korvapuusti1.jpg

Our Very Own?

AncientSwordRage

@trogdor either and owls face or the other have if an ovolacto-vegan

ooh

must be that

AncientSwordRage

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica remind me what scale is?

@kviiri that looks real good

@Someone_Evil exactly!

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

11:19 PM

@AncientSwordRage Scale is a mechanic - somewhat different between books! - that handles modifiers when there is a discrepancy either between actual size/mass, or more mystical power levels, between entities. Such that Physique 4 on an ant is not the same as Physique 4 on an elephant, for example. Or different meanings of Shoot when performed by an X-Wing and a Death Star.

@AncientSwordRage They are excellent! The dough is flavored with cardamom, and the roll is filled with cinnamon, sugar and butter (or vegan equivalents).

Side note: need an opinion. I'm gonna be making a cake. My plan is chocolate devils food cake with a cherry filling between layers. Should I also do chocolate frosting, or some other kind?

I'm undecided

@RevenantBacon I'd go for the chocolate, but it depends on what your crowd's into XD

I'd probably go with chocolate frosting, rich chocolate and cherry is probably enough and adding a third direction might make it a bit confused(?)

@Someone_Evil Yeah, that's probably a good call

11:25 PM

@kviiri sounds yummy! I’m making fudge, biscochitos, and cranberry bark

Oohhh, what do you put in your fudge?

@Someone_Evil I'd be inclined to add a spice like ginger, but it's come to my attention that my spices wouldn't pass muster in the Big White Tent.

(Paul Hollywood thinks matcha tastes "stale" and makes a condescending face every time ginger is more than an afterthought in a recipe.)

This Paul Hollywood person has clearly never had good ginger ale

And Prue can't handle chili in gingerbread, apparently.

Paul Hollywood is,... not worthy

11:33 PM

@BardicWizard Are you making the cranberry bark in general, or only when there's intruders?

the man looks for every possible excuse to take points away from people

I love ginger. Ginger ale isn't really a thing here and it's sad, you can't find a single decent brand in most grocery stores.

ginger good

I prefer the strongest ginger brews I've found so far, and when I make it myself I also aim for strong flavors. It's a tad hard

@RevenantBacon chocolate and condensed milk and vanilla extract. Sometimes candy cane bits, but only ever on top. I’m also a fan of using leftover cinnamon sugar and anise extract but I’m also the only one who likes that outside of biscochitos

11:36 PM

@trogdor I watch how they react when people from other cultures use their traditional ingredients, and I think my spicy no-cholesterol gingerbread brownies might literally kill them.

just throw Paul Hollywood out of the show, just get rid of him honestly

anyway, bedtime

take care everyone

XD

G'night

ttfn

11:37 PM

I know that sounds harsh but he is just the worst judge

No argument here, he's got creepy and manipulative vibes and brings the tone of the whole show down.

@BardicWizard I like adding a healthy dose of maple extract, and an unreasonable quantity of walnuts

@kviiri in general (technically, my sister's currently making this batch but still). It’s a family favorite

@RevenantBacon yummy!

(Sorry — went to get the biscochitos out)

Every time I read the word "biscochito" my brain tries to autocorrect to "biscotti" lmao

AncientSwordRage

11:52 PM

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica ah ok, I haven't come across that. I'm much more a fan of absolute scales

@BESW I have no issue with him being harsh but it always feels like he takes a perverse pleasure in taunting/downgrading the marking

He's clearly 'playing' bad cop but enjoying it too much

@AncientSwordRage it's not just that he gives bad scores to people, it's that he does it all the time for just literally whatever excuse he can make,.... I really don't like his attitude or style he just wants to dunk on people all day and pretend he's better than them

AncientSwordRage

@trogdor exactly

If you're familiar with the PUA concept of "negging," his behavior looks very familiar and very creepy.

I mean, I also get that in a show with judges, one of them at least has to give people points off for something because they need a winner,... but yeah

it's not just that he's doing it it's the way he's doing it

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Dec '2019

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