RolePlay onLine RPoL Logo

, welcome to A Serious Waste of Time

07:02, 28th April 2024 (GMT+0)

The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales.

Posted by HeathFor group 0
Heath
GM, 15478 posts
Nyuk, nyuk!
Why, I oughta...
Tue 3 May 2011
at 00:56
  • msg #1

The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Game idea by Heath (original game) and jioan (resurrected game)

Here is where you can discuss fun things that happen in your roleplaying games.  You may link to games as needed within reason.  This is a discussion forum.

Original Game Rules:
      Point to games that are a great read, give highlights of fun games,
      interesting scenes, or whatever.  Just a way to talk about other games
      without joining them or using the Time Waster Lounge.

      For example, Doulos and I were joking about his character dying in my
      campaign, and we could do something like that in a Lurker Directory
thread.

Discreet
player, 2205 posts
Tue 3 May 2011
at 01:08
  • msg #2

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Here's one to atart things off-- this is from an offline table top I was running not too long ago.

So the main idea behind the game was that I was testing out a new casting system I was designing where the players could create their own spells on the fly.

So I had the players just coming together and meeting each other for the first time, and they were coming upon a group of goblins and orcs. They had just passed some travelers heading north, and knew the baddies would overtake the travelers before long if they weren't warned.

So two of them decided to stay back, and act as a distraction of sorts for the goblins---skirmishing--- while the third darted off to warn the travelers.

So as an interesting aside, the one that had dashed off to warn the travelers had died in the introductory sessions of the game--just DM and player-- and had actually been reincarnated as an Eagle---which was why he was chosen to be the messenger. So he flies after the travelers, and realizes on the way that, while he'd get there first, they may not believe him, or be able to take a talking bird seriously. So instead he decided to try and build a message spell.

Mind you, this was his first spell of the campaign-- so he picks all the various parts and pieces of the spell, and gives his reasoning for why he chose those things, and he casts it. Not thinking, he chose an -instant- duration, so rather than the magic having some duration that could carry the message, his wording went from "Look out, goblins are coming up from behind!" to "blrrggg!" --or more appropriately a loud horn like sound that rapported over the duration of a second or less.

This had some good laughs around the table, and was a good comic relief for the game. One of many that involved message passing, actually.
Grant
GM, 6289 posts
HOLY CRAP!!!
ITS SEAN CONNERY!!!
Tue 3 May 2011
at 01:10
  • msg #3

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

This story comes from my first home-brew adventure that my older brother ran for me about 6 years ago. I played a rogue who was an ex-arson in a 'past life', since all of the PC's had amnesia and had to try to figure out who they were. During one of our  missions from this crazy extra-dimensional time traveler (it's a long story), we had to break into this castle that was heavily guarded at the gate with a wizard who had no means to teleport or otherwise get us in.

So my character, having a high Dex and really good climbing skills, scaled the walls to one of the towers, single-handedly slaughtered (more like backstabbed) every single guard within the tower system, then opened the gate. Shortly after, we found out there was an informant on the inside who was going to open the gate for us. Apparently I killed him without knowing. And I torched his body as a distraction for the other guards, so lost the key he was going to give us which would later open the door we had to get into.

Oh well.
Heath
GM, 15483 posts
Nyuk, nyuk!
Why, I oughta...
Tue 3 May 2011
at 01:14
  • msg #4

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

In high school, my friend would play a practical joker.  After killing a bunch of goblins, he cut of an arm of one of them and when they were sneaking up on some trolls, he hung the arm around the corner of the cave, pulling its tendons like a marionette and telling the trolls to come get some goblin meat.

* * *

Another player pulled out a sword that transformed the bearer into a giant.  Unfortunately, it did not add mass to the target.  Therefore, he went from a skinny human to a bony stick-like giant 12 feet tall -- from normal strength to an extremely weak giant.

So the practical joker drew a party portrait with everyone and just drew two skinny legs going up to the top of the paper for the other player's "giant" character.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:15, Tue 03 May 2011.
Discreet
player, 2206 posts
Tue 3 May 2011
at 01:35
  • msg #5

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

A friend of mine was playing a half-rhakshasa ( Sp? ) rogue/sorceror. Going on the premise that he was sort of following a head of some household, he had some in-character schtick that he would clap his hand over his fist, and offer a short bow in recognition that he was going to follow through with his objective.

You know, supplicate himself.

Well anyway, being that he was essentially building an assassin, he had a signet ring with a needle of some intense poison on it, and he wasn't thinking so when he did the bow, he suddenly realized it, and just said "oh sh-t I just killed myself!"

Failed the save against it, and basically collapsed.---If you're wondering why the house-head didn't save him, it's because it was a figure communicating via telepathy or something.

e_e ah good times.
Heath
GM, 15486 posts
Nyuk, nyuk!
Why, I oughta...
Tue 3 May 2011
at 01:42
  • msg #6

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

In high school, I ran two separate groups, one with my friends and one with my younger brother's friends.  So I decided to run the same adventure with them simultaneously going through it.

Well, my friends heard about this and were ahead of the other group, so they decided to make a map.  In this map, they indicated great treasures in places where there were lethal traps and dangerous dragons "Stay AWAY!" and such for the places they absolutely had to go.  It was a very detailed map, and when my brother's friends stumbled upon it, it caused them no end to their misery for trusting the map...which they did...over and over.  They did not survive that dungeon crawl.
Remi LeBeau
player, 180 posts
Laissez les bon temps
rouler mes amis!
Tue 3 May 2011
at 01:48
  • msg #7

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

There was a game I picked up the reins for after the main GM left... and we had one character who kept getting away with posting his amazing actions(the love child of Sephiroth and Cloud, I believe he was).  He kept trying to get his way in a combat, posting these amazing moves and evasions.  I kept shortcutting him.  Finally he does this massive leap off a building and assumed he landed perfectly.  He broke both ankles from the height and impact.  For some reason, no idea why, I got plenty of messages laughing about that...
jioan
player, 2367 posts
Tue 3 May 2011
at 02:25
  • msg #8

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

After about 6 months of playing 4th edition D&D all but one of my 6 players hated it.  To end the campaign they had their characters all commit suicide at the same time in the most creative way possible.  What they came up with was using nonlethal damage to beat a huge dragon unconscious, propping his mouth open with a staff, and crawling into his stomach to be digested together.  I'm not sure why but that's what they did.
Remi LeBeau
player, 183 posts
Laissez les bon temps
rouler mes amis!
Tue 3 May 2011
at 03:34
  • msg #9

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Wow... that's just... wow
jioan
player, 2378 posts
Wed 4 May 2011
at 11:14
  • msg #10

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

During my very first campaign of roleplaying I was DMing a game of tabletop D&D 3.0.  Now only one person in my group had played before and he was the one who owned all the books.  He told me that as DM I didn't need to read the Player's Handbook to play the game.  Only the players had to do that.  So when we actually started the campaign I didn't know many of the rules but pretended I did because I was supposed to and I didn't think the rules I was missing were in the PHB.  I had no clue what spells the players were casting or how much standard equipment should cost.  In the end only the one player actually knew the rules and the others just asked what to do whenever they levelled up or rolled a check they weren't used to.  He ended up getting away with more than I ever have let anyone get away with since.  He did things like use a grappling hook as a standdard weapon, convinced me he could add modifiers to his dice and tell me the result, and told me resting for 8 hours completely restored their hitpoints.
Kagura
player, 13485 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Wed 4 May 2011
at 14:47
  • msg #11

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

jioan:
After about 6 months of playing 4th edition D&D all but one of my 6 players hated it.  To end the campaign they had their characters all commit suicide at the same time in the most creative way possible.  What they came up with was using nonlethal damage to beat a huge dragon unconscious, propping his mouth open with a staff, and crawling into his stomach to be digested together.  I'm not sure why but that's what they did.


See, I don't understand why people have such a problem with 4.0. I'm currently playing in two separate 4.0 games, one currently Heroic Tier (Lv. 10 party) and one Epic Tier (Lv. 26 party). Personally I find it easier to play all around. Character creation takes all of 15 minutes (as opposed to the hour or so of calculating and so on that I had to do in 3.5), every character gets interesting moves and abilities, and skills are infinitely more manageable. Other than that, it's pretty much the same as it's always been. Fights still take forever, you still roll dice to attack defenses, monsters still have unfair advantages... you know, all the things that make D&D fun.

However, on the note of people crawling into a monster's stomach... in my epic tier game, about 6 or 7 level ago, we were fighting this purple worm (and some other things, but I don't remember because we killed them in the usual manner). Our wizard was told that he had a "feeling" that there was something inside the purple worm that he needed to become an Archmage, and it had to be taken while the worm was still alive. So, being the brilliant idiot that he is (high INT low WIS), he JUMPED DOWN THE WORM'S THROAT. And started being digested. Fortunately, our paladin got swallowed too. The paladin then proceeded to roll a crit on an attack roll from inside the creature, which was flavored to "You managed to thrust your sword down, through the worm's stomach and into the ground below, effectively pinning it in place." After that, finishing the thing off (it had been a burrowing type of worm) was pretty easy for my monk and the rogue, who were now the only damage-dealers outside of the worm (we also have a cleric and an artificer, but they're not so big on the damage thing). Good times.
jioan
player, 2379 posts
Wed 4 May 2011
at 20:44
  • msg #12

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Cons to 4.0
While there are tons of arguments against 4.0 (and most are legitimate) these are the 3 that bothered me the most.

-The Monster Manual is supposed to make it easier for DMs but I found it much harder to create variety.  There are not base creatures but instead very specific entries many of which don't follow the same rules as PCs and use recharge rules and such.  Minions make no sense and the other monsters all have a huge number of hitpoints causing combat to drag on forever.  This isn't a problem for players generally but as a DM I felt as if my intelligence and abilities were insulted.

-There are really only 4 classes.(Controller, Defender, Leader, and Striker.)  The actual classes are simply slight variations on these roles.  Their combat abilities almost all degenerate to a formula (YdX + Z dmg vs Static Defense(AC, Ref, Will, Fort)).  This makes combat boring and uncreative especially now since class specific systems have been replaced with encounter, daily, and at-will.  Combat turns into everyone using their encounter powers and then smacking the enemy with at-wills while debating whether to use dailies or not.

-The game rules seem to do everything they can to turn the game into a series of dice roles and extract roleplaying.  Skill challenges can turn exciting chase scenes or conversations into simply rolling dice and hoping for high numbers.  The alignment system is now smaller and one dimensional instead of two dimensional so that grey areas were all but removed.  Miniatures (or at least tokens) are now required converting the game from roleplaying to tactical combat.  I feel more like I'm playing a Warhammer heroes game than a roleplaying game.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:53, Wed 04 May 2011.
Kagura
player, 13488 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Wed 4 May 2011
at 21:27
  • msg #13

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

jioan:
-The Monster Manual is supposed to make it easier for DMs but I found it much harder to create variety.  There are not base creatures but instead very specific entries many of which don't follow the same rules as PCs and use recharge rules and such.  Minions make no sense and the other monsters all have a huge number of hitpoints causing combat to drag on forever.  This isn't a problem for players generally but as a DM I felt as if my intelligence and abilities were insulted.


I don't DM, so I can't argue with you on this point.

jioan:
-There are really only 4 classes.(Controller, Defender, Leader, and Striker.)  The actual classes are simply slight variations on these roles.  Their combat abilities almost all degenerate to a formula (YdX + Z dmg vs Static Defense(AC, Ref, Will, Fort)).  This makes combat boring and uncreative especially now since class specific systems have been replaced with encounter, daily, and at-will.  Combat turns into everyone using their encounter powers and then smacking the enemy with at-wills while debating whether to use dailies or not.


While I can't deny that there are four character types, and that battles will invariably break down as you say, I think that the variation within classes really is significant. For example, the epic-level game I'm in. My character is a Monk (Striker) which is good at infighting, doing damage reliably in smallish amounts, moving around the field, and hitting multiple creatures at once. Our other Striker character is a Rogue, a character with a specialty in ranged attacks, unreliable but very high amounts of damage, and dealing extra damage to one or two creatures at a time. Also, the whole "attack a static defense" thing doesn't preclude creative combat. Especially if either a.) you have no way of determining the enemy's weakest defense or b.) you have no attacks that attack the enemy's weakest defense. You've got a problem with the creativity of the people you're playing with if the battles are uncreative. Replacing class specific systems and making everyone's battle system work the same way doesn't really strike me as a bad thing.

jioan:
-The game rules seem to do everything they can to turn the game into a series of dice roles and extract roleplaying.  Skill challenges can turn exciting chase scenes or conversations into simply rolling dice and hoping for high numbers.  The alignment system is now smaller and one dimensional instead of two dimensional so that grey areas were all but removed.  Miniatures (or at least tokens) are now required converting the game from roleplaying to tactical combat.  I feel more like I'm playing a Warhammer heroes game than a roleplaying game.


I have to disagree with you completely on this. If all the 4.0 games you've played are like this, then the failing is with your DMs, not the game itself. Yes, the game allows for everything to turn into either a combat or skill encounter, with dice rolls, but if the DM is creative in their storytelling, then you also end up with a lot of roleplaying too. We've spent entire 4- and 5-hour sessions just roleplaying, not doing encounters of any kind, in both games that I play in currently.

Also, miniatures have always kind of been necessary for the game. When I was playing 3.5 we used dice to represent our and the monsters' locations so that we knew where everything was during combats. So I don't see how that's really a change. Maps being required is the bigger change, I think. But honestly I again don't see that as a bad thing.

As for the alignment system, can you honestly say that you'd really played your characters that deeply? Or that everyone ELSE in your parties did? All they really did was turn "Neutral" into "Unaligned" and remove the contradictory player alignment of "Chaotic/Good"... because nobody really knew how to play that anyways.
jioan
player, 2381 posts
Thu 5 May 2011
at 01:35
  • msg #14

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Kagura:
While I can't deny that there are four character types, and that battles will invariably break down as you say, I think that the variation within classes really is significant. For example, the epic-level game I'm in. My character is a Monk (Striker) which is good at infighting, doing damage reliably in smallish amounts, moving around the field, and hitting multiple creatures at once. Our other Striker character is a Rogue, a character with a specialty in ranged attacks, unreliable but very high amounts of damage, and dealing extra damage to one or two creatures at a time. Also, the whole "attack a static defense" thing doesn't preclude creative combat. Especially if either a.) you have no way of determining the enemy's weakest defense or b.) you have no attacks that attack the enemy's weakest defense. You've got a problem with the creativity of the people you're playing with if the battles are uncreative. Replacing class specific systems and making everyone's battle system work the same way doesn't really strike me as a bad thing.


Spells per day, rages, druid's wild form and other interesting abilities in 3.X allowed for much more creative and interesting combat then the 4 types and their classes.  A wizard in 4.0 is no different than a ranger in many regards and that really does bother me.  Compare this to the differences in 3.X or Pathfinder where the abilities are unique to a class.  What I meant by "attacking a static defense" is that all combat is the same for every character class.  Regardless of the character you build you have to fight in the same fashion as everyone else.(Maybe you do some AoE or ranged dmg but that's the only distinction.)For example one of my friends plays a Sorcerer so he can use spells that don't call for to hit rolls because he thinks he has really bad luck.  Having various battle systems for magic and combat made the game more interesting and feel more real.  4.0 is simply the same thing over and over again in combat especially once you're down to at-wills.  The combat drags with enemies that have such high health and can get very repetitive.

Kagura:
I have to disagree with you completely on this. If all the 4.0 games you've played are like this, then the failing is with your DMs, not the game itself. Yes, the game allows for everything to turn into either a combat or skill encounter, with dice rolls, but if the DM is creative in their storytelling, then you also end up with a lot of roleplaying too. We've spent entire 4- and 5-hour sessions just roleplaying, not doing encounters of any kind, in both games that I play in currently.

I can spend hours roleplaying in any game system or even without one.  The point is that the game rules try to change roleplaying into rolling a die after every sentence.(Just take a look at skill challenge examples in the PHB.) The DM can ignore skill challenges altogether but they are still a part of and a flaw of 4.0.

Kagura:
Also, miniatures have always kind of been necessary for the game. When I was playing 3.5 we used dice to represent our and the monsters' locations so that we knew where everything was during combats. So I don't see how that's really a change. Maps being required is the bigger change, I think. But honestly I again don't see that as a bad thing.

I never used miniatures before 4.0 and haven't used them since.  I may be in the minority but I don't like using miniatures in my roleplaying.  It takes away from the experience, requires setup time, costs a good deal of money, and my DM can remember where everything is if I forget.

Kagura:
As for the alignment system, can you honestly say that you'd really played your characters that deeply? Or that everyone ELSE in your parties did? All they really did was turn "Neutral" into "Unaligned" and remove the contradictory player alignment of "Chaotic/Good"... because nobody really knew how to play that anyways.


It was Lawful/Chaotic and it was a very important part of designing dynamic characters.  I have played Lawful Evil kings, Chaotic Neutral marauders, Lawful Neutral judges, and Chaotic Good rebels among others.  Chaotic Good and Lawful Evil characters are not contradictory.  They can represent more intricate characters than "This guy is good!" or "This guy is bad!".  I will say that my group will use alignment consistently as a way of getting away with certain things.  The majority of my group will play chaotic good or chaotic neutral characters because they will perform good acts but they like to steal and gain power.  Alignment used to be a great generalization of morality and values but now is simply a good/evil detector.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:38, Thu 05 May 2011.
Kagura
player, 13490 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Thu 5 May 2011
at 03:27
  • msg #15

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

jioan:
Spells per day, rages, druid's wild form and other interesting abilities in 3.X allowed for much more creative and interesting combat then the 4 types and their classes.


Spells per day = dailies. The new setup just makes it easier for spellcasters to be useful for more than just a handful of battles before the entire party needs to rest. Which (from a pure roleplaying standpoint) makes the "days" and duration of the quest more realistic than in 3.X.

Wild form - still exists. My druid character frequently shifts back and forth between her humanoid form and her wild shape. It actually annoys my party that I imitate a Striker rather than being the Controller that I'm -supposed- to be playing... especially when I take a bunch of hits and need healing early on.

So, I guess I don't understand your argument. The things you're saying don't exist in 4 DO still exist in 4.

jioan:
Compare this to the differences in 3.X or Pathfinder where the abilities are unique to a class.


... nope, still don't understand. Every class has a multitude of skills and abilities which are unique to them. And I'm not talking about the 4 classifications, I'm talking about the actual character classes.

jioan:
What I meant by "attacking a static defense" is that all combat is the same for every character class.  Regardless of the character you build you have to fight in the same fashion as everyone else. (Maybe you do some AoE or ranged dmg but that's the only distinction.) For example one of my friends plays a Sorcerer so he can use spells that don't call for to hit rolls because he thinks he has really bad luck.


While I'm sorry for your friend, I don't really see how making the combat rules the same for everyone is such a problem. I mean seriously, how does having everyone follow the same rulebook equate to a BAD thing? Because that's basically what they did. They said "You know, this is needlessly complex having everyone calculate their attack hits and damage differently. Hey, I know! We can make a regulated battle system and have everyone do it the same way! That way people will be able to try out different character classes without having to learn an entirely new battle system every time!"

jioan:
Having various battle systems for magic and combat made the game more interesting and feel more real.  4.0 is simply the same thing over and over again in combat especially once you're down to at-wills.  The combat drags with enemies that have such high health and can get very repetitive.


While I cannot deny that combat can drag a bit when you have multiple high-health enemies, if you're regularly getting down to At-Will powers then you're not getting frequent enough extended rests. I don't think that having the different battle systems for magic vs. melee really made it feel more "real" though. I learned how to play in 3.0, and I never really wanted to switch from magic-user characters to melee characters because the battle systems were so complicated. Now I have no problem having a melee-type character or a magic-type character or both because the system makes more sense. Remember - it's not supposed to feel "real". It's supposed to be a GAME. :D

jioan:
I can spend hours roleplaying in any game system or even without one.  The point is that the game rules try to change roleplaying into rolling a die after every sentence.(Just take a look at skill challenge examples in the PHB.) The DM can ignore skill challenges altogether but they are still a part of and a flaw of 4.0.


Just because something exists in the playbook doesn't mean the DM has to use it. In fact, I'm of the opinion that if a DM only uses skill challenges and discourages straight freeform roleplay, then the DM is doing it wrong.

jioan:
I never used miniatures before 4.0 and haven't used them since.  I may be in the minority but I don't like using miniatures in my roleplaying.  It takes away from the experience, requires setup time, costs a good deal of money, and my DM can remember where everything is if I forget.


Like I said, we used to use dice to represent our characters and the monsters. And our "maps" were drawn on graph paper. It's only recently that I've started playing with minis, and that only because my Epic level DM owns about a thousand. Literally. It's kind of ridiculous, actually.

jioan:
It was Lawful/Chaotic and it was a very important part of designing dynamic characters.  I have played Lawful Evil kings, Chaotic Neutral marauders, Lawful Neutral judges, and Chaotic Good rebels among others.  Chaotic Good and Lawful Evil characters are not contradictory.  They can represent more intricate characters than "This guy is good!" or "This guy is bad!".  I will say that my group will use alignment consistently as a way of getting away with certain things.  The majority of my group will play chaotic good or chaotic neutral characters because they will perform good acts but they like to steal and gain power.  Alignment used to be a great generalization of morality and values but now is simply a good/evil detector.


That just sounds like you're stuck in the old-school... come to the 4th Ed. side! We have cookies! :D

But seriously, as far as I saw, alignments really weren't used much. Ever. It's much easier to say "unaligned" and then have a very broad range in which to play your character than it was to box them into a specific 3.X alignment because there was never any consistent way to define "Chaotic/Good" vs. "Chaotic/Neutral" or whatever. As it is, my epic level monk is actually a "Lawful/Good" character, and that DOES affect her choices. She won't ever throw her party members under the metaphorical bus (no matter how annoying the stupid pirate Archmage gets) or let them sacrifice themselves. She won't fight unless the enemy is demonstrably "evil" or doing evil to those that she's sworn to protect. And of course, she's loyal to her god above all else. On the other hand, my "unaligned" druid has no problem sending a flaming hawk at the head of the party bard when he gets too drunk, or ignoring everyone's insistence on fighting THIS ENEMY HERE rather than that gnoll over there (she has a problem with gnolls... they burned down her family tree) in favor of ripping out the throat of the gnoll. She's a little snarky and worships the Raven Queen. If I were to class my druid in 3.X, I don't know whether she would be Chaotic/Good or Chaotic/Neutral or True Neutral. There was, as I said before, no really consistent definition of those very specific and confining alignments.

*stops and breathes* There. So much typing. I hope my water didn't boil over while I was doing this!! *runs off to check the pot she left on the stove before coming out here just to look for a minute* -.-;;
jioan
player, 2384 posts
Thu 5 May 2011
at 20:50
  • msg #16

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Kagura:
Spells per day = dailies. The new setup just makes it easier for spellcasters to be useful for more than just a handful of battles before the entire party needs to rest. Which (from a pure roleplaying standpoint) makes the "days" and duration of the quest more realistic than in 3.X.

Dailies can be used once per day.  Spells per day allowed for higher variation of attacks based on which spells are known and or prepared.  Also, by your definition of spells every class in 4.0 is a spellcaster.  It feels like WoW with every class having an action bar filled with powers except that rather being able to be spend points on them they are used at regular intervals that the game lays out for you.  While the "days" may be shorter at lower levels if you want to recharge your spellcaster's spells this in so necessary.  At low levels in 3.X a light crossbow can deal sufficient damage.

Kagura:
Wild form - still exists. My druid character frequently shifts back and forth between her humanoid form and her wild shape. It actually annoys my party that I imitate a Striker rather than being the Controller that I'm -supposed- to be playing... especially when I take a bunch of hits and need healing early on.

So, I guess I don't understand your argument. The things you're saying don't exist in 4 DO still exist in 4.

Wild Form is not the same because if I remember correctly it does nothing to your stats and only shifts which powers you can use and your appearance.(I don't even think you can change size.)  Wild form in 3.X gave the druid the unique ability to shift into other helpful forms that would make it have better combat abilities or useful skills.  In 4.0 it just changes your spellset to something that isn't unique.

Kagura:
... nope, still don't understand. Every class has a multitude of skills and abilities which are unique to them. And I'm not talking about the 4 classifications, I'm talking about the actual character classes.

What I mean is that every class uses abilities in the same way as opposed to the fundamental class differences in 3.X and Pathfinder.  In 3.X a fighter could not use the "Combat Maneuvers" which are essentially spells with the name changed.  They fought differently and added variety to the game.  Certain classes would have to prepare spells while others could cast them spontaneously.  The origin of the powers was actually different rather than claiming one class has "martial" or "arcane" powers.  4.0 treats every class the same.  If it was just simplicity then I would just consider it fine if not loyal to its predecessors.  Some games use very simple and quick simulations to represent combat and that's fine if that's the sort of game you want to play.  Instead it tries to make combat longer and treat the encounters as if they will be original when the game system tries to make every encounter encounter powers followed by at-wills with possibly dailies.

Kagura:
While I'm sorry for your friend, I don't really see how making the combat rules the same for everyone is such a problem. I mean seriously, how does having everyone follow the same rulebook equate to a BAD thing? Because that's basically what they did. They said "You know, this is needlessly complex having everyone calculate their attack hits and damage differently. Hey, I know! We can make a regulated battle system and have everyone do it the same way! That way people will be able to try out different character classes without having to learn an entirely new battle system every time!"


In 3.X all classes were following the same rulebook but they were different classes and acted like it.  This isn't Shadowrun the battle system is the same throughout the game (unlike 4.0 which makes monsters fight differently).  Learning to play a new class was fun because it was different and it was easy to learn.(At least for everyone I know.  If you had difficult learning the spells per day system or something it isn't the game's fault.)

I can see where our difference of opinions comes in though.  I prefer complex games and you prefer simple.  I doubt any amount arguing will change that.  However, if you want to play a simple game though I don't see why 4.0 is the way to go because the pacing is ridiculous for being so simple.

Kagura:
While I cannot deny that combat can drag a bit when you have multiple high-health enemies, if you're regularly getting down to At-Will powers then you're not getting frequent enough extended rests. I don't think that having the different battle systems for magic vs. melee really made it feel more "real" though. I learned how to play in 3.0, and I never really wanted to switch from magic-user characters to melee characters because the battle systems were so complicated. Now I have no problem having a melee-type character or a magic-type character or both because the system makes more sense. Remember - it's not supposed to feel "real". It's supposed to be a GAME. :D


It felt much more real than the action bar concept that 4.0 uses.  Anyway switching classes appeals to some people because it's a change of pace from one they may have been playing for a long time and in 4.0 switching classes doesn't give that same feeling.  The 3.X system makes sense because magic isn't (or shouldn't be) the same as combat and 4.0 forgets this.  Also while a game isn't real realism is still a good thing to have.  Fiction that depicts a new setting with realism is praised and the same should be with game systems.

Kagura:
Just because something exists in the playbook doesn't mean the DM has to use it. In fact, I'm of the opinion that if a DM only uses skill challenges and discourages straight freeform roleplay, then the DM is doing it wrong.


My DM didn't do this but that is how it is shown in the PHB and therefore is still a flaw in the system.

Kagura:
Like I said, we used to use dice to represent our characters and the monsters. And our "maps" were drawn on graph paper. It's only recently that I've started playing with minis, and that only because my Epic level DM owns about a thousand. Literally. It's kind of ridiculous, actually.


I meant that minis (or markers of any sort) and maps were not necessary before 4.0 and my group had never used them.(Well we did in our 40k meetings but not roleplaying.)

Kagura:
But seriously, as far as I saw, alignments really weren't used much. Ever. It's much easier to say "unaligned" and then have a very broad range in which to play your character than it was to box them into a specific 3.X alignment because there was never any consistent way to define "Chaotic/Good" vs. "Chaotic/Neutral" or whatever. As it is, my epic level monk is actually a "Lawful/Good" character, and that DOES affect her choices. She won't ever throw her party members under the metaphorical bus (no matter how annoying the stupid pirate Archmage gets) or let them sacrifice themselves. She won't fight unless the enemy is demonstrably "evil" or doing evil to those that she's sworn to protect. And of course, she's loyal to her god above all else. On the other hand, my "unaligned" druid has no problem sending a flaming hawk at the head of the party bard when he gets too drunk, or ignoring everyone's insistence on fighting THIS ENEMY HERE rather than that gnoll over there (she has a problem with gnolls... they burned down her family tree) in favor of ripping out the throat of the gnoll. She's a little snarky and worships the Raven Queen. If I were to class my druid in 3.X, I don't know whether she would be Chaotic/Good or Chaotic/Neutral or True Neutral. There was, as I said before, no really consistent definition of those very specific and confining alignments.


Your druid is obviously chaotic neutral.  The alignment system used pre 4.0 was much more in depth than the 4.0 system and not much more complex.  They were really only meant to start off a character (PC or NPC) and later they can be shifted if the character is dynamic.  The system in 4.0 is both vague and one dimensional which promotes one dimensional characters.  I found increasingly irritating playing Lawful Evil characters because I can't conceal that I'm evil (paladin powers) but I can't prove that I follow the law and am a man of my word.

Edit: I suggest we simply say we won't be able to convince each other of anything before this argument grows out of control.  I mean look at our posts exponential growth!
This message was last edited by the player at 21:00, Thu 05 May 2011.
Kagura
player, 13493 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Thu 5 May 2011
at 23:28
  • msg #17

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Argument-shmargument. This is healthy debate! :D

I do agree that we should probably agree to disagree though. Even if -we- don't get sick of talking about this, other people surely will!! Although I will say one more thing: I don't like "simple" games. Simple games are boring. In fact, when it comes to video games, the more complex, the better. It's really just D&D. All the calculating and whatnot... has just always been confusing to me. Heck, I still have to ask for help recalculating values for things when I level up!! It was just worse when I was still playing 3.X is all. More things to calculate.

I tried playing a Chaotic/Neutral character once... and was eventually taken aside by the DM and more or less asked to change to Chaotic/Good because I clearly wasn't playing Chaotic/Neutral... I still don't really understand those classifications. -.-;;
Discreet
player, 2208 posts
Thu 5 May 2011
at 23:44
  • msg #18

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I feel the need to weigh in on this friendly debate.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying Kagura-- it's simpler, it's been streamlined so that it's not nearly as difficult to bounce between a fighter and caster. Everyone fights on the same terms, as it were.

One thing I don't agree with you on is the alignments, I find the 3.X method to be extraordinarily well designed. It's a wonderful gradient of persona. Over the years, and through various debates on the exact subject I've come to the conclusion that chaotic neutral is the hardest to play in general. Because while you're not completely random---you are consistently driven on a whim.

Having two axis to place yourself between just gives more interesting and various points to land in.

Granted I'm saying this without really fully understanding the change--

I've played 4.0 but I didn't really enjoy it for a variety of reasons. Most of which involved the group I was playing with, and that at the time it was still fairly new to the people playing it.

Moving on Jioan--- although for the most part I agree with you in that -I- like 3.X better, some of your arguments clash in my opinion.

Saying that you like a richer more complex combat system, in my opinion doesn't make sense when you say you don't like the need for figures--- personally, I find that when I'm using all the rules for 3.X--- including things like partial cover, and range---direct lines, etc etc etc, figures are somewhat essential. Unless your DM is just doing bland, one on one combat, there are all sorts of various rules that can be in place to make the -interesting combat- you were talking about I feel like they are often necessary.

You should know, that I say this having lived a long life of game play that did not use figurines---and if cost is a problem for you, then graph paper and pencils ought to cover it, and i feel like in 4.0 it'd be the same. ( like grand total, 27 cents..since you should already have pencils if you're playing anyway. )

Uhm, so yeah. <3 3.X --- I don't hate 4.0, I don't think it's as good as its predecessor is all.
jioan
player, 2388 posts
Thu 5 May 2011
at 23:52
  • msg #19

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

If you liked the core of 3.5 but found it too confusing I suggest checking out Pathfinder.  The game truly is the spiritual successor and cleans up a lot of unnecessary complications while maintaining and improving the complex system. (One notable change is that skills are easier to manipulate than in 3.5 or 4.0.)

Edit: Sorry Discreet I hadn't refreshed and didn't see your post there.  I do enjoy a more complex battle system but I don't like having the representation in front of me.  The reason for this is probably because when I first played D&D my friend described it as a "board game without a board" and that really resonated with me for some reason.  I have an active imagination and I like seeing the world from my own perspective.  I can't do this with any other type of game and its one of the reasons I roleplay.  As for the issues with determining combat me and the other DM in my group have a small map of the area on grid paper that the players don't see.  Any questions they have about line of sight or terrain can be answered by the DM.  Hope that clarified things for you.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:02, Fri 06 May 2011.
Kagura
player, 13495 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Fri 6 May 2011
at 03:45
  • msg #20

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I don't think I'll be looking up Pathfinder anytime soon. I play D&D (and WoD) for the social aspect. That is to say, I play more because I want to hang out with people than for the game in and of itself.

Something you said in your response to Discreet suddenly made everything you've said crystal clear to me. You said:

jioan:
I have an active imagination and I like seeing the world from my own perspective.


When you do that, you may not realize it, but what you're doing is (in my opinion) something relatively rare. Allow me to explain. I have very good spatial perception. I can point to the exact center of a stationary object within a few millimeters with no problem. In spite, or perhaps because of this, I have trouble visualizing how multiple moving points relate to each other if I can't see them, and that's what you have in D&D. Unfortunately, writing down an example of combat movement completely obliterates the purpose of explaining my problem, because once it's written down, it can be remembered. And that's the problem for me, and I think for most people. Without a physical representation of where everyone and everything is in relation to each other, it's really REALLY hard to remember where that monster that -was- 20 feet directly in front of you at the end of your turn, but it's moved since then, and you don't remember where it moved...

So basically, your memory is obviously significantly better than the average D&D player's... or the average human being's, for that matter. Do you have photographic memory? Because that would be really awesome.
Discreet
player, 2209 posts
Fri 6 May 2011
at 04:06
  • msg #21

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I think rather than having a visualization for everyone, the dm keeps a mini one on some grid-paper, or note paper out of view. >_>;--- he doesn't have an eidetic/ photographic imagination, he just prefers to keep it up in his noggin.
jioan
player, 2411 posts
Fri 6 May 2011
at 11:19
  • msg #22

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

What Discreet said is correct, but I rarely have to ask questions about the map once they've been said once.
Kagura
player, 13500 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Fri 6 May 2011
at 13:31
  • msg #23

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Seems unfair to make the DM do that one more thing. And easier to just let everyone see what's going on. *shrugs* Still a better memory than me... can I borrow yours until I've taken my Research final this afternoon jioan?
jioan
player, 2412 posts
Fri 6 May 2011
at 16:35
  • msg #24

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Normally I would, but I need it for my World History final in a couple hours. :)

Also, I usually DM and I don't mind doing it.  The other DM in my group likes his roleplaying games miniature free and thinks making the smaller map is easier than making the larger one.  Art doesn't matter, spoilers don't need to be hidden, and it's easier than making a larger version.
Grant
GM, 6296 posts
HOLY CRAP!!!
ITS SEAN CONNERY!!!
Fri 6 May 2011
at 16:39
  • msg #25

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Honestly, I've never tried 4th edition, and from all the reviews I've heard, I don't know if I will. It's not even whether or not I want to waste the money, it's more the fact that I've finally gotten good at 3.5 rules (I didn't decide to switch from 2nd to 3.5 up until about two years ago), so learning ANOTHER set of rules would just screw me. I've already half-forgotten 2nd edition rules, not from a bad memory, just from getting the two confused sometimes. And since I do still like playing 2nd edition... XD
Kagura
player, 13501 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Fri 6 May 2011
at 18:16
  • msg #26

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

4th edition rules aren't really that difficult to learn. And if you don't want to spend the money on it... find a friend. :D
jioan
player, 2415 posts
Fri 6 May 2011
at 20:38
  • msg #27

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

While the rules are not very complicated they do have a different feel than previous editions and will be harder to mix up.  I'm suggesting Pathfinder if you want something that builds on the 3.5 rules though.
Heath
GM, 15492 posts
Nyuk, nyuk!
Why, I oughta...
Mon 9 May 2011
at 18:40
  • msg #28

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I started looking at the Monster Manual entries in 4th edition and sat up straight in my seat.  All the sudden there were all sorts of symbols and differences.  I think the overall effect would be very cool and helpful, but definitely a little different.

My pet peeve with systems like D&D is that it give players the idea that everything is locked in.  So when a cleric casts a mage spell, they say, "He can't do that."  Then I explain that the rules are for players, not the entire world and many situations could exist when someone actually could.  Or when they believe they know a monster and I modify it.  I prefer instead to have a world where, even though the players have rules and boundaries, the world itself is unlimited.
Kagura
player, 13522 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Mon 9 May 2011
at 18:52
  • msg #29

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

My DMs constantly modify monsters. Sometimes it makes things easier for us... mostly not though. Usually it seems more like they're trying for a TPK...
Heath
GM, 15493 posts
Nyuk, nyuk!
Why, I oughta...
Mon 9 May 2011
at 19:03
  • msg #30

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

TPK?

I like to change names of monsters.  For example, I use a scandinavian derivative instead of the word "troll."  This helps make things seem more exotic.
Remi LeBeau
player, 188 posts
Laissez les bon temps
rouler mes amis!
Mon 9 May 2011
at 19:18
  • msg #31

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I love my 3.5.  I'm growing to love my 4.0 and Essentials, though Essentials can be a little locked in place.  I've been playing the Essentials Encounters, which are quite fun.  You usually range from 1st to 3rd level before the game is done, and you can choose what kind of character you wish to play.  Which reminds me, I need a new char for Wednesday... lol

I find good points and bad points to each system, so it's basically a matter of do you want something streamlined down, like 4.0, or something that can take more time to create a character, because you have SO MANY OPTIONS!  I truly miss my dervish... such fun characters to play.  And gestalt, though I've forgotten how to create those.

The game I run(or try to, since I can occasionally have issues remembering certain kinds of rules) is Exalted from White Wolf.  I love playing either oWoD or nWoD, but Exalted was the first game I ever ran.  It demands you do over the top stuff, like when watching Xena or Hercules, or anime.  It's a blast to run, a blast to play in, and characters are quite customizable.  It focuses on social aspects as well as combat.
Kagura
player, 13523 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Mon 9 May 2011
at 19:20
  • msg #32

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

TPK = Total Party Kill

They won't generally tell us the names of the monsters, and we generally don't ask. Usually we just go "Okay, let's kill it. Weakest defense and vulnerabilities? Reflex, you say? Fine. I hit it in the Reflex." I'm very good at hitting things in the Reflex. And occasionally the Fortitude. Not so much on the Will.
jioan
player, 2465 posts
Mon 9 May 2011
at 19:55
  • msg #33

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Your DM tells you the weakest attribute of the monster?  And what about the plot?  With the exception of random encounters shouldn't you be fighting things for a purpose?
Kagura
player, 13525 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Mon 9 May 2011
at 20:21
  • msg #34

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Two of us have an item (Paragon tier) that allows us to look at a monster and know its weakest defense and vulnerabilities. It's called a Foe Stone, and it is very very useful. It would be MORE useful if it would tell us about resistances too... because hardly anything at Epic tier has vulnerabilities to anything... >.<

Our purpose for fighting is that waaaayyyy back when the party were still level 1 or something, to save the world from destruction, each party member had to release a pair of ancient and powerful beings back into the regular planes of existence. Now, to prevent THEM from destroying the Prime Material Plane, we have to travel around and find these creatures (one dragon and one rakshasa for each party member except me... because I came in later - we've managed to take out six of the the ten released) and destroy them. This is beginning to prove more difficult than originally anticipated because 1.) of the remaining godlike creatures, one of the rakshasas has replaced the god(dess?) of the Silver Flame and is hiding in Celestia... where the entire party is forbidden to go on pain of excruciatingly painful and agonizing death, and the other... well, all of our attempts to ask about HER from oracles have come back with "No such creature exists." responses. This is what we get for trying to find a prescient rakshasa who goes by the moniker "The Sage of Tomorrow". -.- Oh, and apparently there's another godlike rakshasa pulling our strings in some convoluted scheme to escape it's own imprisonment. We just found out about THAT one.

We don't actually see that much in the way of "random" encounters. Although I suppose those living spells that we keep running into could be counted as "random" (we destroyed a dragon whose powers were linked to magic... and the result was that there are now living spells running around and popping up inopportunely...). And I suppose the battles linked to our pursuits of our assorted Epic Destinies could also be counted as random (we just recently had to help a pair of powerful Far Realm creatures decide a resolution to a conflict between them... by defeating one of their two champions. Unfortunately, the champions were a Bronze Dragon and a Gibbering Orb, and we had to fight them both at the same time... -.-). THAT wasn't fun. The stupid Orb kept giving us nasty status effects. Fortunately, it also kept missing my Will... whenever that happened, it took 10 damage. I did this about 5 times over the course of the fight.
Heath
GM, 15495 posts
Nyuk, nyuk!
Why, I oughta...
Mon 9 May 2011
at 21:41
  • msg #35

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Back to my high school days (and those are the most strange for roleplaying, aren't they)...  We had a player who frequently didn't show up, was very unserious about the game, and quite annoying in real life.  His character in our scifi game was called "George Washington."  Well, George was soon used as the tester for every suspected trap, flimsy-looking bridge, and dialogue with mean looking monsters.  His player never returned, and the character will probably never forgive him for that...after his scorching, falling, burning, bruising, maiming encounters, and his use as a love object by some species or another.
Remi LeBeau
player, 189 posts
Laissez les bon temps
rouler mes amis!
Mon 9 May 2011
at 22:45
  • msg #36

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

And speaking of skills and stats...

I was playing an elven bard in a 3.5 campaign(or 3.0, but think it was 3.5) in a homebrew world.  The elves were more plainsdwellers and somewhat nomadic, having been routed from their homelands by orcs and forced to live elsewhere, on the other side of some seriously dangerous mountains.  The party I was in had a variety of characters I can't recall except for the rogue who managed to get caught in a simple trap that hoisted him into the air, suspended by a rope around his ankle, my bard, and... the dwarven cleric.

Now this cleric was a strange thing.  He had an 8 in charisma, which isn't very good for a cleric, what with turning undead and all.  But other than often annoying the other party members with his bluntness, we were fine.  Until...

Now, when traveling, occasionally you meet things you really don't want to have to fight.  Like... the adult blue dragon in the middle of the night as you leave a city.  He came after us, wondering about another dragon's scent on our group.  Now, I, the elven bard with the charisma of 20, was dealing quite well with the dragon, calming it, even getting into friendly polite talks with it.  You'd think that would be a thing to leave alone, right?

We learned that night what happens when a dwarven cleric with an 8 charisma decides to say that they were in a hurry and we should just kill the beast and be done with it, or something in that vein.  Needless to say, the dragon was not impressed.  It breathed at the cleric... and blue dragons have lightning.  One of the other members wanted to stick his metal shield in the way, then was reminded of the lightning.  He changed his mind, good for him.  Not good for the dwarf.  He got a nice huge shock, and it was the first time I've ever heard of a dwarf with permed hair and beard, that smoked.  Literally.

Since then, it's kind of been a catchphrase... "Let the bard handle things."  We have no idea why...
jioan
player, 2467 posts
Mon 9 May 2011
at 23:21
  • msg #37

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

A couple years ago my gaming group doubled.  We originally had 3 players and a DM who all knew each other and knew how to play the game.  I was starting a new campaign and recruited one player who recruited 3 of his friends quite unexpectedly.  This created some tension between the two factions of players and made for some humorous group dynamics.

The first adventure was a standard kobold warcamp raid with a few twists to get the new players comfortable the rules. One of the veteran players (a fighter) was busy and was unable to show up.  In any case, everything was going smoothly until they attempted to raid a large hut and a dragon broke through the wall in front of them ready to kill them all.  Now at this point the newer players were debating the safest way to run away while the veterans threatened to attack whoever tried to run away first.  They very nearly came to blows until one of the veterans came up with the idea to have the fighter be the only one to engage in melee combat and everyone else use ranged weapons from out of range of the fire.  If the fighter died (which he didn't expect) they could still run.  After much debate about the precise distance, whether or not they should group up, and what to do if more enemies appear.  This has all taken about half an hour before the plan is finally put into motion.  The fighter makes his first swing and... it goes right through!  The dragon was just a two part trap with an illusion and an explosive in the wall.  Now the scattered party was attacked by several kobolds waiting for an opportune moment to strike and two of the characters nearly died.  At the end of the fight it was the fighter intended to be a sacrifice who had lost the least amount of hit points.
Remi LeBeau
player, 206 posts
Laissez les bon temps
rouler mes amis!
Mon 9 May 2011
at 23:29
  • msg #38

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I snorted my soda over that... lol
jioan
player, 2474 posts
Mon 9 May 2011
at 23:31
  • msg #39

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Yeah my players didn't find it so funny at the time.  They now look back at it with the same amount of humor as Morningstar Leg.  Now THAT was a funny story.  I'll get around to telling it eventually.
Remi LeBeau
player, 209 posts
Laissez les bon temps
rouler mes amis!
Mon 9 May 2011
at 23:33
  • msg #40

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

One of mine isn't truly a story, but something just kinda funny when thinking about it.  I play the D&D Essentials for 4.0 on Wednesday nights, and we have a couple tables' worth of both veteran players and new players.  One of our players has this fascination with building characters that never focus on the stats they should focus on for their powers.  Of course, this means the healer that he wants to build has very little healing ability... and often is in negative hit points before anyone else...
Heath
GM, 15496 posts
Nyuk, nyuk!
Why, I oughta...
Tue 10 May 2011
at 00:17
  • msg #41

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

When I was in college, we had a guy who got put under a love spell and accidentally fell in love with his horse.  The party had to take extra precautions to make sure he didn't go off alone with the horse...because at every opportune moment, he would tell the DM he is going to take the horse out back to have some alone time.
Remi LeBeau
player, 304 posts
Laissez les bon temps
rouler mes amis!
Tue 10 May 2011
at 02:55
  • msg #42

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

In an all-elven game I'm in(drow, elf, half-elf, and eladrin), two members of the party was asking witnesses to a murder about it... then apparently they decided to kill the witnesses...
Kagura
player, 13532 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Tue 10 May 2011
at 04:31
  • msg #43

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

There's a story in my Wednesday night game about this one time before I was there when they faced a Mindflayer. The Cleric and the Wizard apparently both spent pretty much the entire fight dominated.

... since then, the Cleric has acquired an immunity to dominate, and the Wizard... hasn't... and now has a piece of the Mindflayer god living in his head.
Remi LeBeau
player, 306 posts
Laissez les bon temps
rouler mes amis!
Tue 10 May 2011
at 04:36
  • msg #44

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Oh, now, what a lovely thing to have stuck there...
Kagura
player, 13534 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Tue 10 May 2011
at 05:20
  • msg #45

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Yeah... he needed some rare potion ingredients and that was the price...

All I had to give up was all memory (ALL memory - even the memories that the other party members had) of an agreement that I'd had with said Wizard for two minutes of silence from him. Whenever I asked. In exchange for some more vaguely un-useful information about how to obtain my Epic Destiny...
Heath
GM, 15497 posts
Nyuk, nyuk!
Why, I oughta...
Tue 10 May 2011
at 16:35
  • msg #46

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Grant can tell you what he did in my game.  The fighter had a cursed sword that had intelligence and was a good bonus but forced the user to always use it as the preferred weapon and never let it go.  When the fighter died, Grant's character (a cleric) picked up the sword, forgetting its purpose.  He then had to use a sword (which he couldn't do as a cleric).  But things got worse when the fighter was resurrected and came looking for his sword.  They had been friends and companions, but the curse of the sword was upon them both, so he basically beat up Grant's character and took it from him.  It was pretty funny. :)
Kagura
player, 13540 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Tue 10 May 2011
at 21:26
  • msg #47

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Hehe. Our wizard has a cursed sword. It's literally attached to his hand. It also gives him some kind of penalty to... something. I'm not really sure what though. It will stop being cursed when we beat the dragon that put it there...
Heath
GM, 15506 posts
Nyuk, nyuk!
Why, I oughta...
Tue 10 May 2011
at 21:35
  • msg #48

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

When I was running two groups, they were on two separate missions:

The first had to sneak in and investigate and kill a group that was meeting in secret after listening in on their meeting.

The second group had a mission of infiltrating the group, being invited to the meeting and sitting through the meeting, finding out who was friend or foe, and killing the dangerous foes.

Since this was done online through two separate groups, it worked out perfectly.

The first group prematurely started attacking while the second group was dressed as the supposed "enemies."  They didn't know each other either, so chaos ensued, with characters of one group attacking both the bad groups and the characters from the other party, who found their meeting suddenly beset upon by violent intruders...
Kagura
player, 13544 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Wed 11 May 2011
at 02:39
  • msg #49

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Haha! That's cruel Heath! Cruel, but hilarious!
Discreet
player, 2212 posts
Wed 11 May 2011
at 03:38
  • msg #50

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I was running a campaign where societally magic was less common, but I still allowed the players to function as normally within the rules.

Since we'd been playing together for some time at this point, and I knew the group would handle it responsibly, I let the players test some of the 3rd edition expanded rules, provided they had a hard copy they could bring with them to sessions.

As a result, a friend of mine who had the savage species 3rd edition expansion wanted to play a half satyr/quardos demon mix. With good reason I warned him in advance that either of these creatures would be fairly uncommon in my setting, and he may encounter some difficulties as a result. But determined, and interested, he decided to play anyway.

As an interesting quirk to the combination he decided to play a true neutral character---but play it as though he were a split personality between a lawful good character, and a chaotic evil one. I was a bit skeptical, but given I'd warned him in advance, I let him go with it.

It was a tricky balance, as a character, but he played it off well. Switching between the lawful good satyr-side, and the chaotic evil demon, however a four armed satyr stuck out, and his evil side got into some serious shenanigans, involving local murders.

Needless to say, it was fairly easy to run sessions for this group because they provided their own drama for me. But the local trouble eventually got the better of the character, because the lawful good satyr side kept wanting to turn himself in, in utter shame and remorse, and the chaotic evil demon kept killing people to try and flee for his life.

The rest of the party decided they would have to put the demon down, in what remains to this day one of my favorite scenes of roleplay, and has actually resurfaced as mythology in my campaign setting a couple of times.

The demon, trying to escape boarded a ship as a stowaway, but was found shortly after leaving port. He ended up killing several of the crew, and lighting the ship on fire in the ensuing chaos.

The other PCs were trying to track him down, and when the boat caught on fire in the distance they figured it out pretty quickly. One of the other PCs was a druid, and shape-changed into a fish to swim out there. It took a bit, but the quadros was still distracted by the boatmen, so it worked out.

The fish hops on board, and without missing a beat calls lightning down from the sky onto the Quadros. Down on HP from the battle, it was enough to put him down.

So as I said, my world is fairly low on the magic scale, so having a demon rampage on the boat only to be taken down by a fish calling down lightning isn't something you see everyday. The surviving fishermen revere that fish as an avatar of the gods, and worship him as a minor deity to this day.

Ah good times.
Remi LeBeau
player, 327 posts
Laissez les bon temps
rouler mes amis!
Wed 11 May 2011
at 04:28
  • msg #51

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

You are a god.  That is awesome!
Discreet
player, 2217 posts
Wed 11 May 2011
at 04:33
  • msg #52

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

>_> In that world, I'm all the gods. Haha. But that druid character, of my friends is certainly revered in some circles now.
jioan
player, 2585 posts
Wed 11 May 2011
at 11:10
  • msg #53

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

What did the player do who was playing the satyr/demon?
Kagura
player, 13549 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Wed 11 May 2011
at 12:28
  • msg #54

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

That made me laugh. I need a good laugh in the mornings. :D
Discreet
player, 2237 posts
Wed 11 May 2011
at 14:21
  • msg #55

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

The quadros/satyr knew it was coming and agreed that the other players had to put him down. He enjoyed the character, but he wasn't upset that the others had to kill him. So when the character died, he just rolled up a new one.
jioan
player, 2639 posts
Tue 17 May 2011
at 17:37
  • msg #56

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Last week I was DMing and my players for some reason spent almost all of their money on horses when the next part of their journey would be by boat.  They bought passage on the largest boat they could find.  About halfway downriver they were attacked by Bullywugs who were stabbing holes in the ship's hull causing it to start to sink.  They freaked about their horses and said they would jump off and swim to shore.  I informed them that there were 10 to 15 foot cliffs on either side of the river.

They then began to argue with me about river formations and how the river current wasn't fast enough to dig its path through so much rock and would instead have made a path through the nearby soil the trees were in.  They said that the reason the nearby path wasn't right alongside the river (which I had mentioned earlier) was because of yearly flooding that would have washed it away.  They told me that if I wanted to make an even somewhat realistic world then those cliffs should not be there.  I smiled and said something along the lines of, "About 200 years ago a wizard was chasing a ship down this river and summoned a water element to catch it.  It ended up going so fast along the river that it dug out the cliffs."

This was met with more arguments that I simply answered with "A wizard did it."  After an annoying half hour of this though I realized they just wanted there horses to live.  They ended up just crashing the ship into the cliff and running away so the entire argument had been pointless.
Heath
GM, 15537 posts
Nyuk, nyuk!
Why, I oughta...
Tue 17 May 2011
at 19:14
  • msg #57

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I once had a group that walked into a medusa's lair and all got turned into stone.  That ended the campaign real fast.
Discreet
player, 2256 posts
Wed 18 May 2011
at 18:16
  • msg #58

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I once had a party of adventurers come across a town turned to stone, but rather than the traditional monsters that could have caused the ruckus, instead I had some scooby-doo villains with boots that made their tracks look like basilisk tracks, and a ring of flesh to stone.

And they would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for those pesky PCs.
Heath
GM, 15544 posts
Nyuk, nyuk!
Why, I oughta...
Wed 18 May 2011
at 19:05
  • msg #59

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Sounds like the adventure I've run twice because it works so well.  The group is told there are vampires drinking the blood of livestock and a couple human victims, and they live in a cave on the hill.  The adventurers get decked out with silver and magic and vampire fighting tools.  Turns out that there is only a giant spider and a harpy making all the ruckus up there, and the blood was being sucked by a herd (?) of stirges.  No undead.
jioan
player, 2918 posts
Wed 1 Jun 2011
at 12:54
  • msg #60

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I just had my planned reoccurring villain killed off in his first combat encounter with the PCs...
Kagura
player, 13784 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Thu 16 Jun 2011
at 03:56
  • msg #61

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Something too amusing to NOT share happened at my D&D game tonight, and I feel like you all are an audience who can appreciate the awesomeness of it.

First, the setup: Our party of epic-level (27) characters are currently traveling the path of death in order to find an evil dragon and slay it. We are at the sixth level of the path, which was apparently supposed to be an extended rest-equivalent stage... but the dragon we're chasing trapped it. Because of this we ended up having to fight a dracolich (not fun), and now we have to reincorporate our selves-of-the-past by fighting them.

My character is a monk, which means that I have pretty solid defenses all around... usually (AC - 42/Fort - 38/Ref - 41/Will - 40). Unfortunately, my opposite in this particular fight has an At-Will ability to Dominate me (and presumably anyone else, she's just never used it on anyone but me), and the DM can't seem to roll lower than a 50 for that particular move.

Now begins the amusing-awesomeness: I finally made a save against the Domination, but my doppelganger's turn came before my next one, so of course she tried to hit me with it again. Our Artificer, awesome guy that he is, used an ability of his to take the effect upon himself instead, becoming Dominated in my place. Since I was the closest target, the doppelganger subsequently told him to try and hit me. So he tried the way he normally does. First, he rolled a d20 to "predict" the turn (an ability attached to his Epic Destiny - Sage of Ages allows him to pre-roll a die, and substitute it for any d20 roll that he makes during the turn), then rolled a second die as his normal attack roll. The "prediction" die was a 1, the regular die was an 18. So what did he do? Switched in the 1 for the 18, of course, automatically going from a hit to a miss.

Truly that was the best use of his Sage of Ages prediction ever.
jioan
player, 3388 posts
Sun 19 Jun 2011
at 18:55
  • msg #62

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

If he was trying to hit you wouldn't his character be forced to take the higher roll?
Kagura
player, 13795 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Mon 20 Jun 2011
at 01:37
  • msg #63

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Nope. We go by the "if the DM doesn't complain, then you can do it" rule. And I think the wording of the power is such that it doesn't matter.
Remi LeBeau
player, 384 posts
Laissez les bon temps
rouler mes amis!
Mon 20 Jun 2011
at 03:56
  • msg #64

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

That is ultimately sweet.

Nothing funny from me, but we have a kid in our Essentials group who has yet to figure out how to create a character that works well.  This latest time, he created an assassin... using poisons... but kept running from the combat, while first me, then the other blackguard, then another character in our five person party went unconscious.  Fortunately the one with the healing potions was still up, and came to our rescue, while the assassin kept running away all over the map.
jioan
player, 3486 posts
Mon 20 Jun 2011
at 20:18
  • msg #65

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

My PCs have taken up the hobby of saving innocent people and then selling them into indentured servitude.
Kagura
player, 13800 posts
Mostly Human
Mostly Harmless...
Mon 20 Jun 2011
at 21:09
  • msg #66

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

In reply to Remi LeBeau (msg #64):

Pff. Clearly the problem isn't that the kid doesn't know how to create a character that works well. Rather, the problem is that the kid hasn't fully grasped the concept that if your character can MOVE, then they should be running towards the fighting, not away from it...

... my monk has a truly ludicrous move speed (10 squares on a grid, or 50 feet per move action), so naturally she uses this to very good effect against large groups of monsters. Particularly with a move called "Dancer on the Sea of Battle". It lets me shift my speed, attacking every enemy that I move adjacent to during that move. I once took out five monsters with it. It was awesome.
Remi LeBeau
player, 465 posts
Laissez les bon temps
rouler mes amis!
Tue 21 Jun 2011
at 00:17
  • msg #67

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Now you make me miss my dervish.  She was a half-kitsune, half-phoenix dervish too...
Heath
GM, 15650 posts
Nyuk, nyuk!
Why, I oughta...
Wed 29 Jun 2011
at 01:03
  • msg #68

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I once played a character in a modern RPG.  He was under attack, was in the bathroom, and had no weapon.  All I could think of was to rip off the toilet seat and used it as an improvised weapon.

My rolls went well and I took down the opposition.  Still having no weapon, I had my character wear the toilet seat around his neck for quite awhile in case he needed a quick improvised melee weapon.

EDIT: And it came in handy too because he later found himself stuck in a pit, so he tied a rope to the toilet seat, threw it over the top of the pit and used it to anchor himself to climb up and out.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:04, Wed 29 June 2011.
Discreet
player, 2292 posts
Mon 25 Jul 2011
at 19:16
  • msg #69

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

So I play WFRP sometimes, and it's a good fun game. And one time we were roaming along, and I was playing a Halfling Pharmacist, and as my career path worked, I basically had been an apothicary before hand, so I was apt with medicines and herbs and what not, and could basically make any potion I liked.

So we came across these mutated spore plants, which kept launching their seeds at us and doing terrible terrible things to us. One would leech into us, and make us glow in the dark, until three days later where it would explode in a cloud and seed all over again... one would leech away at our life, and one would suck at our mana if we were casters.

I thought these plants were great, and with a little ingenuity, some clay, and some fortunate skill rolls I was able to turn them into weapons. I shaped the clay into balls, and harvested the spores so that they'd grow within them, so that I could use my sling to launch them at enemies like grenades.

This was awesome because in night battles, we could light the field up with the glowing one from a distance, and then knock out all the shambling enemies, with the red one. And the blue one, well that only came in handy occasionally, but boy was it nice when it did.
jioan
player, 4012 posts
Thu 8 Sep 2011
at 20:34
  • msg #70

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

The other day my players obtained a throwing spear that would teleport them to the location where it landed.  They frequently used it as a way to get up cliffs by throwing it on top.  Last session the PCs were climbing the edge of a volcano.  When the Fighter accidentally threw the spear over a cliff and into the lava he teleported there and was incinerated.

It seems the best magic items always lead to a PC death.
E'mbrilyn
player, 368 posts
Fri 9 Sep 2011
at 15:08
  • msg #71

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Wait a minute... wouldn't the spear have incinerated before the fighter used it to teleport?
jioan
player, 4029 posts
Fri 9 Sep 2011
at 20:02
  • msg #72

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

It causes the teleport instantaneously when it hits a liquid or solid substance.  Then the spear was submerged and destroyed along with the fighter.
Heath
GM, 15849 posts
Nyuk, nyuk!
Why, I oughta...
Wed 14 Sep 2011
at 18:12
  • msg #73

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

As teenagers, I was running my group through a scenario where one of them was transformed to be 15 feet tall.  Unfortunately, it had no effect on mass, so he was transformed into a skinny, stick-like figure from a burly strong man.

Another player drew a "group photo" with him standing next to the rest of the group.  He was too tall, so his head and shoulders were cut off by the page.  However, this other player poked a pencil through the group drawing to show how another piece of his anatomy had grown in the transformation.  Very bad, but we about died laughing.
Heath
GM, 15869 posts
Nyuk, nyuk!
Why, I oughta...
Fri 23 Sep 2011
at 22:26
  • msg #74

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

This one will give Grant bad memories:

The group was going to rescue a "gold dragon," and the main NPC was getting ready to leave them.  He gave them some magic items and told them to keep them, and all magic items they hold dear, inside a portable hole for the near future.  Then he left.

Well, the "gold dragon" was a golden statuette of a dragon that, when "rescued," emitted a strong anti-magic aura which took away the magic of all magic items.  They hadn't listened to the advice about putting things in the portable hole (which opens on a non-spatial dimension that would have protected them from the antimagic aura), so almost all their magic items became suddenly worthless, including the new "gifts" from the NPC.
Grant
GM, 6754 posts
HOLY CRAP!!!
ITS SEAN CONNERY!!!
Fri 23 Sep 2011
at 22:41
  • msg #75

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

It was pretty awesome how I cold-cocked the baddy into a lava pit with my critical hit.
Heath
GM, 15870 posts
Nyuk, nyuk!
Why, I oughta...
Fri 23 Sep 2011
at 23:44
  • msg #76

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

You mean his clone.  :)  But yeah, that battle didn't turn out like I expected it to.

It's funny how the battles I think will be really hard sometimes turn out to be over quickly, and sometimes the ones I think will end easily become difficult.  That's the fun of these games, I think--the unexpected.
Grant
GM, 6755 posts
HOLY CRAP!!!
ITS SEAN CONNERY!!!
Fri 23 Sep 2011
at 23:53
  • msg #77

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Aside from his use of meteors, yes, that fight was rather easy.



On a somewhat related topic, my brother used to run a campaign for me and a couple close friends, where one of the main villain's henchman had a permanent Heart of Stone cast on himself. For those of you who don't know what that spell is, basically it removes your heart from your body and makes you invincible, so long as your real heart (the one you can put wherever you want) is intact. So whenever we ran into him, he would typically lop off an arm, turn it into a tentacle monster (or some such creature), and run away, or pelt us with magic.

We finally defeated him when my rogue character entered into his hideout and grabbed his heart. The next time we ran into him (and he somehow hadn't noticed we had stolen his heart), he went to cast a Lightning Bolt at us, and my rogue pulled the heart out and took the shot straight on, laughing as the wizard killed himself, unintentionally of course.



He had to use anti-frizz spray for weeks. ;)
Heath
GM, 15871 posts
Nyuk, nyuk!
Why, I oughta...
Sat 24 Sep 2011
at 00:00
  • msg #78

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

The hard to kill baddie had a different effect when I ran a tabletop game:

The idea was that they had to use a whistle to keep the bad guy, which was a giant creature--very formidable--at bay.  Then they had to find a summoning word in the room to summon a creature that would kill it or drag it off defeated.

Well, they didn't get the whistle clues and just started fighting it.  Hours of roleplay later...after I kept reminding them of their items, including a whistle...I had an NPC tell them to try the whistle.  Well, that just made them blow the whistle and attack the monster, which was essentially immortal, for an hour or so more.

They had to say the summoning word backwards to work, but they just went on fighting instead of trying to summon anything.  Finally, since it was getting dark outside, I gave them another clue....and they got it!  Talk about using up all their healing...they had mutations which helped them heal too, so the battle could have gone on a long time.  I think a couple of them died, but I don't recall.  That was 1987.
REkzkaRZ
player, 383 posts
/start rant
/end rant
Mon 26 Sep 2011
at 13:43
  • msg #79

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

jioan:
I just had my planned reoccurring villain killed off in his first combat encounter with the PCs...

Or at least, they THINK the villain was killed off... heh heh
REkzkaRZ
player, 384 posts
/start rant
/end rant
Mon 26 Sep 2011
at 13:50
  • msg #80

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

One of my fav games was a Cthulhu run.

We were all doing pretty well, but then on the ending scene of 'Ride the Demon Train' everyone was slowly weeded out (the cutpurse, the cop, the cowboy gunslinger) except a young athletic guy and my Nun who wielded a Bible and a ruler.

The athlete fails the risky jump to the front locomotive and gets CRUNCHED.  The Nun makes the leap (?!?!) but then the GM says that the creature in the locomotive is shoveling red hot coals from a burning hot engine.  "Do you look...?"

I say, "Yes."

Everyone else (now out of the game, ie dead) shouts -- "No!"

And then the GM describes how the Nun gets her mind launched out into the infinite unknowable chaotic void.

All the other players say, "In Cthulhu, if the GM asks if you want to look -- say No!"

That game had so much hilarity, coupled with exciting action...!
jioan
player, 4326 posts
Mon 3 Oct 2011
at 11:16
  • msg #81

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Does anyone here play new World of Darkness?  If so, could you please help me with which books would help to run a game with a variety of playable monsters.
praguepride
player, 4089 posts
Lord of Munster Cheese
Mon 30 Apr 2012
at 19:10
  • msg #82

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Playable monsters are found in each line. Unfortunately they're all specific: werewolf, vampire etc.

A variety of non-playable monsters are found in the hunter line, but they're not suited for players.


If you want THE most variety, go with werewolf as they have some alternate paths that let you be were-bears, were-ravens etc. giving you a nice vareity.
Heath
GM, 16655 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Fri 19 Jul 2013
at 17:04
  • msg #83

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

In my recent RPoL game (as Grant may remember):  The wizard's player didn't realize that the squares were 5 feet, not 10 feet squares.  He backed up against the wall and cast lightning bolt.

It had its intended effect.  It hit the enemy and then bounced off the far wall and hit the enemy again.  Two strikes!  But given the room was only half the size he thought, it then hit the wizard, the wall immediately behind the wizard, bounced off the wall, and hit the wizard again.  He barely survived his own lightning bolt.
FourLegged
GM, 39550 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Sun 1 Sep 2013
at 09:49
  • msg #84

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I have not played in RPoL games other than this one in about a decade, but I'd love to hear your tales.
Yoss
GM, 27757 posts
Honorary Necromancer
Portable Product Inventor
Fri 4 Oct 2013
at 00:45
  • msg #85

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Birdie, you may also like this thread to discuss your Warriors game. (bump)
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:45, Fri 04 Oct 2013.
PrettyBirdie
player, 34 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want a cracker!
Fri 4 Oct 2013
at 00:46
  • msg #86

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

So basically to talk about it here? (Drat that question thread)
Yoss
GM, 27784 posts
Honorary Necromancer
Portable Product Inventor
Fri 4 Oct 2013
at 01:08
  • msg #87

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I think that's the purpose.  I'm not actually sure since this was created after I'd left for my long vacation.
PrettyBirdie
player, 49 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want a cracker!
Fri 4 Oct 2013
at 01:15
  • msg #88

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Cool. Has anyone else on here read the Warriors books? They're geared more towards preteens in reading level, but the world is so well laid out that it makes a good RP setting.
Heath
GM, 16915 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Fri 4 Oct 2013
at 15:07
  • msg #89

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

To clarify, this is to talk about games you are currently playing that are RP games (on RPoL or elsewhere), and to recount any interesting RP stories that happened in any of your games.  Some stories can be funny or interesting.

For discussion of books, movies and such, post in the Media Schmedia thread.
PrettyBirdie
player, 61 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want a cracker!
Fri 4 Oct 2013
at 15:18
  • msg #90

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Okay, got it. :)
Yoss
GM, 27797 posts
Honorary Necromancer
Portable Product Inventor
Fri 4 Oct 2013
at 18:51
  • msg #91

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Blurry line, since she's in an RP based on a book.  :)
Heath
GM, 16927 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Fri 4 Oct 2013
at 19:32
  • msg #92

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Sorry, I was responding to her question in post #86, not criticizing her latest post.
FourLegged
GM, 39882 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Sat 26 Oct 2013
at 06:13
  • msg #93

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I have never read Warriors.  (In addition to the titular warriors,) what are they about?
PrettyBirdie
player, 310 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want sugar!
Sat 26 Oct 2013
at 06:39
  • msg #94

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Basically it's about feral cats, divided into four clans, and each clan lives in one part of the forest. There are alliances, rivalries, and everything you'd expect from that kind of setting. It has a very Native American flavor to it. The books are geared towards the 12-14 age range, but the setting makes a really nice RP. Not only is it remarkably easy to add new players, but there's also an element of secrecy that lets you really play around with multiple threads/groups/PMs. I have over 20 threads in the game currently, and only five or six of those are visible to any one player at any one time. (not counting notice threads.) It can be a bit to keep up with, but it's fun nonetheless.
FourLegged
GM, 39906 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Sat 26 Oct 2013
at 06:43
  • msg #95

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I have found that the simpler premises seem to work best in an RP scenario.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:44, Sat 26 Oct 2013.
Amy2
player, 11 posts
Definately not demon!
Totally normal!
Sat 26 Oct 2013
at 13:25
  • msg #96

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

In reply to PrettyBirdie (msg # 94):

Hey! How come I only just noticed that you're the GM for that? Awesome game btw.
PrettyBirdie
player, 327 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want sugar!
Mon 28 Oct 2013
at 15:27
  • msg #97

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Thanks! :) As for me, I recognized your username from the Watering Hole before I recognized Greykit. XD
Yoss
GM, 28102 posts
Honorary Necromancer
Portable Product Inventor
Mon 28 Oct 2013
at 17:23
  • msg #98

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

It's been a long time since I did any non-ASWOT RP online.  And my IRL group quit over three years ago.
PrettyBirdie
player, 340 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want sugar!
Mon 28 Oct 2013
at 21:49
  • msg #99

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Wow. You should get back into one.
Yoss
GM, 28202 posts
Honorary Necromancer
Portable Product Inventor
Mon 28 Oct 2013
at 22:44
  • msg #100

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Online RP is too slow.  IRL, well...
Heath
GM, 17114 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Thu 31 Oct 2013
at 17:09
  • msg #101

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I agree.  My plots tend to be sophisticated and complicated, yet when it takes months for them to unroll, the players have forgotten too much to make them have the kind of impact they should have (or to solve the problem) in RPoL.
FourLegged
GM, 39964 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Sat 2 Nov 2013
at 23:00
  • msg #102

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

My procrastination is far too powerful for me to be involved in any game where other players are dependant on me to do anything.
Yoss
GM, 28387 posts
Honorary Necromancer
Portable Product Inventor
Mon 4 Nov 2013
at 22:02
  • msg #103

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

In reply to FourLegged (msg # 102):

Ha, I had the opposite problem.  I would post far more often than anyone else in the game.  Maybe a 1-on-1 game (just a DM and a player) would work better.  Games with four players in a group take FOREVER because everything has to wait in committee.
Heath
GM, 17156 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Mon 4 Nov 2013
at 22:52
  • msg #104

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

In reply to FourLegged (msg # 102):

This is why I instituted the 48 hour rule.  If you don't post in 48 hours, I get to NPC your character until you post again.  If you delay too long, your character might engage in more and more dangerous actions.
PrettyBirdie
player, 495 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want sugar!
Mon 4 Nov 2013
at 23:19
  • msg #105

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Lol, I like the idea of "more and more dangerous". I'm an overly nice GM - I give a player three or four days before moving on, and then another three before NPCing them, and then only if it's necessary. I've never had to boot anyone before, I only move their player to an NPC after they for sure have left.

Of course, I tend to be nicer in almost all internet dealings - at least I hope so.
Heath
GM, 17168 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Mon 4 Nov 2013
at 23:23
  • msg #106

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I've only used the dangerous activity thing when I'm pretty sure the player has actually left the game.  But I will NPC characters to keep the game moving.

I have probably killed off 4 or 5 like this.  I've also on 2 or 3 occasions just brought in a new player to take over the old.

Back in the days of tabletop, whoever didn't show up for a game session got their character NPC'd by the other players.  He would inevitably end up being a trap tester, chest opener, flimsy rope bridge crosser, and conversation starter with dragons.
PrettyBirdie
player, 496 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want sugar!
Tue 5 Nov 2013
at 02:46
  • msg #107

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Hah! Good incentive to never miss a session. (Or bring so many snacks that you become so adored they don't dare do anything to you. ^^)
Heath
GM, 17191 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Tue 5 Nov 2013
at 17:37
  • msg #108

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

There was an article many, many years ago (I think in Dragon magazine) about some of the TSR people who had a character sold as a love slave to the kobold queen after his player missed a session.  I'll have to dig it up because it was hilarious.
Yoss
GM, 28456 posts
Honorary Necromancer
Portable Product Inventor
Wed 6 Nov 2013
at 00:11
  • msg #109

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Heath:
Back in the days of tabletop, whoever didn't show up for a game session got their character NPC'd by the other players.  He would inevitably end up being a trap tester, chest opener, flimsy rope bridge crosser, and conversation starter with dragons.

Yeah, my group was like this.  I never missed a session.  Ever.  Add to that that the DM philosophy of the group (we had more than 1 DM taking turns over the years) was adversarial.  It was not a collaborative story, it was DM versus players to the death, and the players were pretty cutthroat as well.  (In other words, they'd rip you off, with the DM's help, if they thought they could get away with it.)

I hated it, and eventually my hate became arguments, which made the whole thing fall apart.  Now I have no tabletop group.
LuLu Prayer
player, 315 posts
Hope comes
In all hues
Thu 7 Nov 2013
at 15:03
  • msg #110

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

My mom used to have a tabletop group when I was little, if someone were to not show up for it they would either literally leave them behind because the 'sleeping' character wasn't waking up and they didn't care enough to take him via anything else, or they would drag/put him on a cart or something and take the guy with them somehow. Via the first one of the people ended up waking up covered in tiny man eating spiders, via the second, well, the characters got mad that he wouldn't wake up after a while so they threw him in a barrel that they pushed out to see, you can imagine how he felt when he woke up
Heath
GM, 17211 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Thu 7 Nov 2013
at 16:24
  • msg #111

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Our group had the absentee character go talk to a red dragon about surrendering its treasure and peacefully abandon its lair (while they waited around a corner).  It didn't work, and he didn't survive.
LuLu Prayer
player, 355 posts
Hope comes
In all hues
Thu 7 Nov 2013
at 16:43
  • msg #112

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Well, isn't that lovely
Heath
GM, 17222 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Thu 7 Nov 2013
at 17:11
  • msg #113

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Kids are cruel in the 15-16 age category.  I was the DM and just let them do what they wanted.

At the opening session when they all met their characters for the first time, one player had his character hit another character over the head to knock him out, and then stole his money and pretended someone else did it.  It all went downhill from there...
LuLu Prayer
player, 374 posts
Hope comes
In all hues
Thu 7 Nov 2013
at 17:13
  • msg #114

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Blah blah blah, I'm getting No life, and then I'm going to sleep darn it!
Yoss
GM, 28567 posts
Honorary Necromancer
Portable Product Inventor
Thu 7 Nov 2013
at 18:04
  • msg #115

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

In reply to Heath (msg # 113):

The group I described was of average age like 30 or so.
PrettyBirdie
player, 518 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want sugar!
Sun 10 Nov 2013
at 21:55
  • msg #116

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Friend of mine held a gaming session solely for the purpose of passing the time, so I jumped in - it was scary. Through sheer stupidity, we had a TPK less than 2 hours after character creation...
FourLegged
GM, 40481 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Sun 10 Nov 2013
at 22:04
  • msg #117

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

On the rare occasion that I get wrangled into a regular tabletop group, we tend to mess around for 90% of the time and actual game for 10% on a good night.
LuLu Prayer
player, 393 posts
Hope comes
In all hues
Mon 11 Nov 2013
at 00:07
  • msg #118

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

On the first night of a 'family reunion' tabletop game, my older (and perverted) brother sucked off a dying tree, as we all had to watch on in horror because the GM was my uncle (yes, same uncle, netflix dorko uncle) and he just let it happen, also that brother of mine got a good roll so~, it worked-- I was, along with everyone else, absolutely disgusted, no kids in that group thank god, I think mom scolded my brother anyway though, I don't know, it was a long time ago
Just a girl passing through
player, 813 posts
The Recorder
The Infinite Alpha
Tue 12 Nov 2013
at 07:42
  • msg #119

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

ahhh  courage...   why am I not surprised?  Our family really is to eccentric for ASWOT, but we do try to tone it down like 90%.  We believe fully in freedom of speech, or just plain freedom, true freedom...   which makes pg-13, or even pg almost impossible, sorry.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:42, Tue 12 Nov 2013.
LuLu Prayer
player, 610 posts
Hope comes
In all hues
Sat 16 Nov 2013
at 17:56
  • msg #120

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

We're being kind of pg, aren't we?
PrettyBirdie
player, 564 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want sugar!
Sun 17 Nov 2013
at 04:59
  • msg #121

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I just had the funniest thing happen in the OOC of another game:

We were talking about muffins and other sorts of yummy bread-like foods, and here's where it went...

Me:
Yeah, all those are nice, but have ya'll ever tried Amish friendship bread? I swear, that stuff is to die for.


Other player:
If you bring that Amish stuff near me (Me or Pessac), I will rend you limb from limb to get it and your doctoring skills will not save you.

Klondike bar nothing, I will use the Klondike bar to beat you into a coma to get that bread.

LuLu Prayer
player, 639 posts
Hope comes
In all hues
Sun 17 Nov 2013
at 18:00
  • msg #122

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Huh, Amish stuff is illegal for that guy I guess
PrettyBirdie
player, 566 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want sugar!
Sun 17 Nov 2013
at 18:57
  • msg #123

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

But really, have you ever had it? It's the best baked good I've ever had, no contest.
LuLu Prayer
player, 643 posts
Hope comes
In all hues
Sun 17 Nov 2013
at 19:18
  • msg #124

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Really, well, I haven't had it but I should try it I guess
Yoss
GM, 28913 posts
Honorary Necromancer
Portable Product Inventor
Mon 18 Nov 2013
at 18:59
  • msg #125

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I've never had that Amish bread ... stuff.  Sounds interesting.
PrettyBirdie
player, 580 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want sugar!
Mon 18 Nov 2013
at 19:03
  • msg #126

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

You have to get the starter from a friend - the recipe takes ten days to make, and you have to have starter to make it.

You basically let the starter ferment for five days, add a cup of sugar and a cup of flour, let it ferment another five days, use that to make the batter by adding a bunch more stuff, including yeast, more flour, and more sugar, and then divide half of the batter into four bags, and use the other half to make bread. Now you have bread, plus four bags, which are the new starters - you keep one, and give the other three away. That's why it's called friendship bread.

And it's divine. ^^
Yoss
GM, 28924 posts
Honorary Necromancer
Portable Product Inventor
Mon 18 Nov 2013
at 19:23
  • msg #127

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Interesting.  So, some portion of what you're eating is very, very old food?
PrettyBirdie
player, 584 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want sugar!
Mon 18 Nov 2013
at 19:31
  • msg #128

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Hah! Guess it depends on when the original starter was made, and what portion of those molecules made it into the stuff you're holding. XD
Yoss
GM, 28933 posts
Honorary Necromancer
Portable Product Inventor
Mon 18 Nov 2013
at 19:37
  • msg #129

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I'm sure we could do some math to figure out how old the average batch of Amish Friend Bread is.
PrettyBirdie
player, 588 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want sugar!
Mon 18 Nov 2013
at 19:50
  • msg #130

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

You go ahead and do that. ^^
Yoss
GM, 28947 posts
Honorary Necromancer
Portable Product Inventor
Mon 18 Nov 2013
at 20:02
  • msg #131

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Well, you pass along 3/4 of what you took in, right?  So it's just 0.75 raised to X power, where X is the number of times the bread has been passed since the original batch.

Oh, but then you also need to know the time increment for each of those passes.  If it's always two weeks, then you can just multiply the result above by 14 days.
PrettyBirdie
player, 593 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want sugar!
Mon 18 Nov 2013
at 22:42
  • msg #132

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Ten days, not fourteen.

And I don't like math. :P
Yoss
GM, 28995 posts
Honorary Necromancer
Portable Product Inventor
Mon 18 Nov 2013
at 23:20
  • msg #133

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

10 days for the recipie, but what about down time between when you bag up the new starters and when the next person actually starts their 10 days?
PrettyBirdie
player, 594 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want sugar!
Mon 18 Nov 2013
at 23:45
  • msg #134

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Nope, no down time. It goes like this:

Day 1: Receive bag
Day 2: Let sit
Day 3: Let sit
Day 4: Let sit
Day 5: Add flour, sugar
Day 6: Let sit
Day 7: Let sit
Day 8: Let sit
Day 9: Let sit
Day 10: Add other ingredients, separate, bake, pass off new bags to friends... Friend receives bag, today is their "day 1: receive bag".

If you don't manage to give it to a friend the day you make it, just keep track of which day it's on.
Yoss
GM, 29014 posts
Honorary Necromancer
Portable Product Inventor
Mon 18 Nov 2013
at 23:55
  • msg #135

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Oh, that makes the math very easy then.  Just multiply by 10.  The age of a particular portion of the mix is 10x where x is the number of hand-offs.  The percentage of the total that that portion makes up is 0.75^x, so the amount contributed to the age of the total is 10x*0.75^x.  To get the entire average, you need to sum over all values of x from 1 to N.  Do you know how many handoffs have happened since the original?
PrettyBirdie
player, 598 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want sugar!
Tue 19 Nov 2013
at 01:53
  • msg #136

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Not a clue. XD
Supposedly, only the Amish know how to make the starter, so for it to get from them to here... that could be a starting point, I guess.
FourLegged
GM, 40552 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Sun 24 Nov 2013
at 21:49
  • msg #137

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Isn't it nine days between receiving and passing?
PrettyBirdie
player, 673 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want sugar!
Tue 3 Dec 2013
at 04:48
  • msg #138

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I'm not sure... Now my head is spinning trying to remember whether I did that right...
Yoss
GM, 29201 posts
Honorary Necromancer
Portable Product Inventor
Wed 4 Dec 2013
at 17:01
  • msg #139

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I guess we'll never know how old that bread is.
FourLegged
GM, 40632 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Wed 4 Dec 2013
at 18:53
  • msg #140

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Don't you have to eat the stale bread before you can touch the fresh bread?
PrettyBirdie
player, 681 posts
Tweet! Tweet! Chirp!
Polly want sugar!
Wed 4 Dec 2013
at 19:23
  • msg #141

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

But... it's not stale. It's fermented.
FourLegged
GM, 40651 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Wed 4 Dec 2013
at 22:48
  • msg #142

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Mmmm... yeasty goodness.
Yoss
GM, 29289 posts
Honorary Necromancer
Portable Product Inventor
Fri 6 Dec 2013
at 21:00
  • msg #143

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I usually avoid the bread-type foods in favor of more of the main dish.
LuLu Prayer
player, 734 posts
Hope comes
In all hues
Sun 12 Jan 2014
at 21:39
  • msg #144

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Now you've made me hungry--- SO I WILL EAT YOU ALL!!!
jioan
player, 5536 posts
Tue 11 Feb 2014
at 23:18
  • msg #145

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Jokes on you.  Beholder tastes awful!  :)
Heath
GM, 17677 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Wed 19 Mar 2014
at 18:30
  • msg #146

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

(For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Paranoia is a dystopian science fiction roleplaying game where the darkness of settings like "1984" meets the whacky humor of the likes of Douglas Adams.  All the players play clones who are paranoid that they will be turned in to "The Computer" for treason and executed.  They are Troubleshooters who try to fix problems designated by The Computer, which missions are assigned to them with no regard to whether they will survive or not.)

In my Paranoia game, I just had the Troubleshooters run into some cyborg flowers in an AWOL biodome.  The flowers had faces and mouths, but all they could do was insult the Troubleshooters.  (Imagine the scene where King Arthur is constantly insulted by the French in Monty Python's Holy Grail.)  They were protected by cyborg bees with sword-like stingers.

Some of the insults were memorable, if silly, such as:

One flower says in response, "Is your name Laryngitis because you're a pain in the neck...er, stem?"

Another says, "Clones with cameras are compensating for other areas of deficiency."

Yet another says, "I bet your puny clone brain feels as good as new, seeing that you don't use it."

"Clones are living proof of reincarnation. No one could possibly get to be so stupid in just one lifetime."

"You should have been decanted in the Dark Ages; you clones look terrible in the light."
"And this one's a couplet short of a sonnet."
"A vacuum-tube brain in a microchip world."
"He must be afraid he'll void his clone warranty if he thinks too much."

"Your human ancestors came looking for bananas, didn't they?" a flower quips, starting up the insults again.
"You must have a leaky sunroof."
"You must come from spliced genes."
"Neanderthal brains in Cro-Magnon bodies."

Unfortunately, they got past the flowers before I could get more insults thrown at them.
Bart
player, 12009 posts
I am infused with...
The power of radiation!
Wed 26 Mar 2014
at 03:45
  • msg #147

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

PrettyBirdie:
Supposedly, only the Amish know how to make the starter, so for it to get from them to here... that could be a starting point, I guess.

How to make the starter: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/a...dship-bread-starter/
Pretty much the same as beginning any sourdough bread starter.

I've never really understood the point of Paranoia or how to play it.  Thanks for the explanation. :)
Heath
GM, 17692 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Wed 26 Mar 2014
at 21:32
  • msg #148

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Paranoia is a well designed game for people who have a sense of dark humor and don't want overly complicated rules.  It has an interesting traitor accusation method to see if you successfully accuse another player of treason or not.

It also has "perversity points," which are points (up to 5) that you can use to affect any roll that is about to take place (for yourself or others, to help your teammates or hurt them).  And there are many secrets each player has that, if found out, would result in a finding of treason.  Not the least of which is that each character has an illegal mutation power.
Bart
player, 12022 posts
I am infused with...
The power of radiation!
Thu 27 Mar 2014
at 07:52
  • msg #149

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I'm in a game where my character saw a symbol and I, the player, recognize the symbol but my character doesn't, and probably no other player recognizes it either (it's pretty esoteric).  I think I'm just going to ignore my personal knowledge, since the GM might have a completely different meaning behind the symbol, although my player knowledge may suggest avenues of exploration that I and my character possibly might not have thought of with only in-game knowledge.

That's the problem with metaknowledge.  Ignore the elephant in the room?  No problem.  But when planning a road trip of 2,000 miles, when it's pointed out that you are going to be passing close by some tourist attraction that you hadn't heard of (and the attraction is explained), and you're deciding whether or not to stop there now, it's hard to decide whether or not you would have noticed it and if you had noticed it whether or not you would have chosen to stop there if someone else hadn't pointed it out to you.  If you do stop there, maybe you would have anyway.  If you decide not to stop there, maybe you wouldn't have anyway.  Either way, how can you be certain?
Heath
GM, 17693 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Thu 27 Mar 2014
at 15:43
  • msg #150

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I did a similar thing in my game.  Being fluent in Japanese, I wrote the "foreign tongue" in Japanese symbols so that I would understand it (and not forget later on what it meant) but the others couldn't until they later had it translated.

Unbeknownst to me, one of the people there spoke at least some Japanese, but I don't think he metagamed much.
FourLegged
GM, 40850 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 16:10
  • msg #151

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Sounds like what occasionally happens here.  Players leave 'private' notes to themselves.
Heath
GM, 17711 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 16:49
  • msg #152

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Yeah, I create a "DM's Corner" thread in a private thread with all the secrets I don't want to forget.  Unfortunately, one time I accidentally placed a couple players in that private group...
FourLegged
GM, 40862 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 16:57
  • msg #153

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Were they honest and tell you of your mistake?  Or did they just suddenly have inexplicable insight into your plans and schemes?
Heath
GM, 17716 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 17:06
  • msg #154

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I don't know.  I caught it within a couple of weeks, and one of the players affected was effectively ousted by the other players anyway not long afterward, so it was probably fine.

The worst part was probably putting in motivations for my secret NPC's (those who appear to players as actual PCs until their motivations come out).  I always have one or more of them in a group.
FourLegged
GM, 40865 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 17:09
  • msg #155

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

As a player, knowing that would have ruined the fun
Heath
GM, 17720 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 17:11
  • msg #156

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

But of course, by now those NPCs are all long gone and any secrets are ancient history...literally, since they went through the time space continuum...
FourLegged
GM, 40869 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 17:12
  • msg #157

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Travels in time and space?  Too cool for school
Heath
GM, 17722 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 17:14
  • msg #158

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Actually, they went back in time, so they are now creating the history that they were reading about in the ancient scrolls prior to them accidentally putting events into place that destroyed the world.
FourLegged
GM, 40871 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 17:19
  • msg #159

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

So, if they read the scrolls, they should have some inkling as to what you throw at them next?
Bart
player, 12040 posts
I am infused with...
The power of radiation!
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 17:31
  • msg #160

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I still drop by and read your "ADnD 2nd - The Adventurers' Lounge" every so often, Heath.  I just really don't like ADnD as a system.  The game itself has some nice stories though. :)
FourLegged
GM, 40875 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 17:35
  • msg #161

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Bart, I'd invite you to come and poke around in my other games but well... I don't have any.
Heath
GM, 17725 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 17:36
  • msg #162

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

In reply to Bart (msg # 160):

I could always reintroduce Va'a...  He never technically died.

I've been playing 2nd edition from the 80s, so it's the one that comes naturally to me, especially to DM it.
Dante
player, 100 posts
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 17:37
  • msg #163

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I'm thinking of making a game myself... it's about hackers who get trapped in a virtual reality world and will be free form. you guys should totes play,  yknow, once i make it...
Heath
GM, 17727 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 17:38
  • msg #164

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I ran one like that once...

It was based on the Matrix movies, which is what your proposed game sounds like.  Mine was GURPS based.  It's still around here:  link to another game
Dante
player, 103 posts
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 17:48
  • msg #165

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Yeah it's kind of like inception meets the matrix... hence I'm trying to nail down a lore that actually makes sense xD thanks for the link I'll check it out!
Heath
GM, 17730 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 17:53
  • msg #166

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

My players had essentially one character with two aspects:  one was their normal out of Matrix character, and the other was their supercharged character they used while in the Matrix.
Dante
player, 107 posts
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 18:04
  • msg #167

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Yeah without giving a ton away basically the group is stuck in their own brains, which have been connected through a neural network technology kind of thing... so depending on how they are feeling and doing mentally the game would be affected. but also in the game they are only limited by their imaginations really, so they can do stuff like in the matrix where Neo is like, defying gravity and stuff.
Heath
GM, 17731 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 18:11
  • msg #168

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

The one rule my game had that I stuck to is that you had to touch things to alter the code.  So you could control your body's code, which could control the code of anything around it, but you couldn't affect the code of something, say, 50 feet away without connecting to it somehow.

This also shows why martial arts and melee weapons were useful, and why you needed a phone to exit, but didn't result in game altering powers.

All the powers I developed for them to learn were based around this theory.
Dante
player, 109 posts
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 18:16
  • msg #169

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Yeah that is good to know... thanks man! I will keep that in mind when I'm working on the campaign...
Bart
player, 12045 posts
I am infused with...
The power of radiation!
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 18:21
  • msg #170

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

On RPoL right now I'm playing in a 3rd edition D&D game, took over a deserted character in a 4th edition D&D game, am playing in a Classic Spycraft game, and am working on a backstory for a character in a Star Wars Edge of the Empire game, plus that religious chat.  I liked Va'a Polemi -- was that how I spelled the last name?  It sounds right.  Anyway, I'm just not a fan of AD&D.  It was my first tabletop roleplaying game, but I've since found other tabletop roleplaying games that I like a whole lot better, like pretty much every other game system. ;)
This message was last edited by the player at 21:24, Tue 01 Apr 2014.
Heath
GM, 17733 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 18:33
  • msg #171

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I'm just too lazy to learn new systems when I've mastered the old.
Bart
player, 12049 posts
I am infused with...
The power of radiation!
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 21:25
  • msg #172

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

It's cool.  Hey, I just noticed, if your finger slips to a different key it's possible to type "while" instead of "whole".  Hunh, who'd a thunk?
Heath
GM, 17736 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Tue 1 Apr 2014
at 21:34
  • msg #173

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

If your left hand slips, you might accidentally type ahole, which could be a "whole" lot worse. :)
Heath
GM, 17739 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Wed 2 Apr 2014
at 00:53
  • msg #174

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Bart:
On RPoL right now I'm playing in a 3rd edition D&D game, took over a deserted character in a 4th edition D&D game, am playing in a Classic Spycraft game, and am working on a backstory for a character in a Star Wars Edge of the Empire game, plus that religious chat.  I liked Va'a Polemi -- was that how I spelled the last name?  It sounds right.  Anyway, I'm just not a fan of AD&D.  It was my first tabletop roleplaying game, but I've since found other tabletop roleplaying games that I like a whole lot better, like pretty much every other game system. ;)

If only there could be a generic universal roleplaying system that all could use and could be used for any game...  We could call it GURPS.

Oh, wait, forget I said that.
Bart
player, 12059 posts
I am infused with...
The power of radiation!
Wed 2 Apr 2014
at 07:11
  • msg #175

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

d20 works pretty well as we saw from Spycraft and Pathfinder.  Spycraft is set to come out with a new 3rd edition that'll be new, though, so we'll see how that works.

This Star Wars Edge of the Empire seems a lot like Decipher's CODA system, which was fun, more for the subject matter than for the actual mechanics though.  EotE is one of those systems where you have to make a choice at character creation to either be super good quite a bit later and not have much going for you right now, or to be quite good right now and not be as stellar later on, and I really dislike having to make that choice.  I guess I'll see what it's really like in practice here in a bit.
Heath
GM, 17740 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Wed 2 Apr 2014
at 16:41
  • msg #176

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I did play Gamma World in d20. It worked fine. I just didn't play it enough for it to be ingrained in my system.  And I like the adaptability of GURPS to just about anything, even making your own system based on it, like I did with my Matrix game using Chambara Martial Arts as well as unique skills I created for the game and the use of "bullet time" like in the movies.
Heath
GM, 17749 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Wed 2 Apr 2014
at 19:27
  • msg #177

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

The other thing I like about 2nd edition is that I have all the rules and expansions in Word format that makes it easy to reference, copy and paste, etc.

I copy and paste out subparts and make new Word documents.  For example, Wizard Spells, Combat rules, etc., from the Player's Handbook.  Then I always have a quick reference without having to go look through the entire main source again.

I wish I could do that with Paranoia, or even GURPS, but I don't think they sell Word or rtf versions of their rules and expansions.
FourLegged
GM, 40934 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Sat 5 Apr 2014
at 05:58
  • msg #178

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I have a friend who has been GM'ing a weekly dice and paper PathFinder game for quite a while.
Heath
GM, 17823 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Tue 29 Apr 2014
at 00:05
  • msg #179

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Sometimes I miss the live games we used to have in high school and college, but I also remember them being chalk full of interruptions and off topic conversations that interfered with the flow of the game.
FourLegged
GM, 41112 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Tue 29 Apr 2014
at 00:56
  • msg #180

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

The interruptions and off topic conversations were what made the live games so special.
Heath
GM, 17824 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Tue 29 Apr 2014
at 01:11
  • msg #181

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

"Special" is definitely the right word.  As DM, I sometimes it resulted in the adventure not turning out as intense as I would have hoped--like Knights of the Dinner Table sessions.
Bart
player, 12289 posts
I am infused with...
The power of radiation!
Tue 29 Apr 2014
at 04:32
  • msg #182

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Bart:
EotE ... I guess I'll see what it's really like in practice here in a bit.
Or not.  The GM didn't like the choice of Barry for a human mercenary character: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Sadler  Come on, the guy who was a Green Beret and wrote and sung the Ballad of the Green Beret that then inspired (and was the main soundtrack song) for a John Wayne movie?  Look at the YouTube video of him singing that song -- he's the literal embodiment of a physical mlitariy/ex-military archetype.  Either two or three years ago, when I was working at Scout Camp for the summer and had read all of my own books, I found one of his Casca stories.  It wasn't on the level of, say, The Lord of the Rings, but it was a great way to while away a couple hours before dinner one evening.  Anyway, it turns out that he wanted me to pick a name that already existed in the Star Wars universe.  Pfh, I never reuse a name in-universe.
Bart
player, 12364 posts
I am infused with...
The power of radiation!
Thu 15 May 2014
at 06:03
  • msg #183

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

So I went into my ScratchPad to save the answer for the puzzle I just put up and found notes there from years ago.  I present now for your edification:
Bart write, I mean:
TWYNDYLLYNGS -- wheel of fortune

http://www.archive.org/details/ird059

http://files.filefront.com/kil...77867;/fileinfo.html

Seriously, we'll all be, "Woah" and "Dude" and then you'll be all "Like totally" and then someone will say when did we become turtles and then we'll all be all "Man, we're like totally surfing these posts.  Like, hang 40(k) which is like totally some sort of retirement thing and totally gnarly, but not quite as much as that radically bodacious 50k is going to be."

Cyberknyght -- GM for that Dragonlance game
Initially starting as a Cleric 1, this is the direction that I plan on taking Omar in: Cleric 1/Fighter 2/Paladin 2/Chameleon 1  Chameleon is from Races of Destiny -- an online writeup is found: http://www.wizards.com/default...20041210b&page=1

“Ah, ah,” Darius said, an exasperated grin on his face, guiding his very young son away from the others, “Omar, what did God say about arguing?”
    “He said,” Omar sheepishly replied, “Contention is of the devil.”
     “That’s right,” Darius responded with a proud grin.  “If we let ourselves get all knotted up inside then the devil has a hold on us.  Now what was the problem?”
     “Well,” Omar started, “Pitir said that we kept traveling because nobody wanted us and that’s why people sometimes come out in the middle of the night and burn our wagons.”
     “And what did you say to that?”
     “I told him that he was lying and that people sometimes burned a wagon because they’re jealous of how we’re God’s people.  Then he said that I was a liar and that you are too!”
     “Was what he said the truth?”
     “No, I’m not a liar and I know that you don’t lie, papa.”
     “Did what he say harm your body?”
     “Well, no, but you know that he’s not telling the truth!”
    Darius stopped walking and pointed at the grass nearby.  “Do you see the grass, Omar, how it bends in the wind?”
     “Yeah,” Omar replied, his bottom lip turning almost into a sullen pout.
     “Do you remember what I said to you about how we should bend in the wind like the grass?”
     “Yeah, but, but what,” Omar stammered, “what about the wind storms, Papa, sometimes it just rips the grass out of the ground.”
     “Yes.”  Darius said, looking out at past the horizon, “Sometimes you must be like the rock and be strong and firm.  The spaces between towns are large, Omar and there are monsters out there, that is why we keep our swords sharp.”
    There was a moment of silence before Omar disturbed it by interjecting, “But, Papa, how do I know when to be what?”
     “You will come to learn, Omar,” Darius said, leaning down to swing Omar up onto his shoulders, “You study the situation as best you can, choose the role and play the part.  Experience will teach you when to be what.  Just remember, experience is what you gain when you learn how to pick yourself up after falling down again.  And how should we get back up?”
     “With a smile,” Omar called out to the grassy plains.
     “That’s right.  Now, let’s go help mama get the wagons ready.”


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Omar grew up in a family of traveling stage performers, moralizing thespians.  Every night near a town they’d set up stage and perform a play of one sort or another.  Always, though, Papa’s word was law.  So was Mama’s.  There was plenty of discussion and give and take in Omar’s family, but when Papa or Mama laid down the law, that was it, any ongoing discussion was ongoing no longer.  Whenever they got to a nearby town, Papa and Mama would slip into the town for an evening of wandering and talking.  They’d return early the next morning with a new play in mind.  A play that the local townspeople would eagerly pay to see again and again.  A play that gave overbearing overzealous stick-in-the-muds their comeuppance with a healthy dose of slapstick.  A play that taught a moral about how a life should be lived, about how people should relate to each other.  In places where such plays were outlawed, Omar’s family simply moved on to places where such plays were legal.  Part of Papa and Mama’s authority lay in their teaching that the law needed to be obeyed, that without laws to protect us society would crumble and fall.  People just needed to be reminded of how to be good.

Of course, one needed to keep a sharp sword in the wild lawless spaces between towns or sometimes even right by a town after a local magistrate or baron or what-have-you decided that if the law wouldn’t punish these itinerant performers, then he would hire someone who would.  Omar thought that he had found his calling, worshipping the three tenants of his life, God and the sword and mild trickery.  That didn’t truly make him joyful though, so he tried to devote himself to the sword.  That didn’t make him joyful, so he tried to live the life of an ascetic.  Although he did find a measure of joy there, a measure of happiness, it was not until he remembered his father’s words and strove to be both the rock and the grass that he found his joy.

Omar has learned how to be good at what he devotes himself to.  Word of his unique abilities came to the right ears and Omar found himself the subject of a request to do a particular bit of study.  A bit of study that could take all of Omar's talents...
Again, years old.  Now I kind of want to play Omar in some game.
Taz
player, 9 posts
Exceedingly interested
in the oddest of things
Fri 15 Aug 2014
at 05:37
  • msg #184

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

*Too shocked in awe of your writing skills to speak*
....................................................
Just a girl passing through
player, 1211 posts
The Recorder
The Infinite Alpha
Fri 7 Nov 2014
at 07:11
  • msg #185

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

wooow...  I have a few things in my scratch pad, but they add up to less than a sentence compared to that.
jioan
player, 5841 posts
Tue 7 Jul 2015
at 14:58
  • msg #186

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

This was a cool thread.  Maybe I'll put another story on here someday.
Heath
GM, 18096 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Mon 20 Jul 2015
at 16:29
  • msg #187

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

So we just had a situation where the characters are walking through a hall of metal mirrors.  Some are framed in different colors and do something if you touch them.

One character decided to touch one, but they all linked hands first.  The metal mirror's effect was to shock the person touching it.  I couldn't quite figure out if this meant all of them got shocked, or just the person at the end of the line (with the electricity flowing through the others without harm).
jioan
player, 5970 posts
Mon 20 Jul 2015
at 17:47
  • msg #188

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

What was your decision?
Heath
GM, 18099 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Mon 20 Jul 2015
at 18:55
  • msg #189

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

All 7 of them took damage.  :)

I believe the idea to hold hands was the character played by Grant.
jioan
player, 5980 posts
Mon 20 Jul 2015
at 20:30
  • msg #190

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Haha, that's great.

To be fair that's the best way not to split the party if it teleported them or something like that.
ChupaBob
player, 34 posts
Thu 23 Jul 2015
at 10:00
  • msg #191

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Huh, I just realized that none of the posts I made to ASWoT yesterday uploaded -- not a one of them. I won't be using the chrome browser on my Android to do that again.

EDIT:  Never mind, some posts uploaded and others did not. I won't complain.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:04, Thu 23 July 2015.
Grant
GM, 7144 posts
HOLY CRAP!!!
ITS SEAN CONNERY!!!
Thu 23 Jul 2015
at 12:22
  • msg #192

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Out of all the ingenious things I come up with to ruin your plans, using the hand-holding technique was the best story you could come up with? What about the time I used Withdraw to figure out how to beat your timed "Falling into lava if you don't figure out the puzzle" trap? Or the time I used stone shape to barricade a lich from chasing us? I can't think of anything else off the top of my head but I'm sure there's better tales than that.
Heath
GM, 18112 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Thu 23 Jul 2015
at 16:38
  • msg #193

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Yes, you have come up with many ingenious things.  That was at the top of my head because it was fresh on my mind AND it had a funny outcome.
ChupaBob
player, 41 posts
Fri 24 Jul 2015
at 03:01
  • msg #194

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Should I share my personal favorite story of gamer experience? It takes place in a Star Wars D6 game during a reenactment of the Battle of Hoth, but the story is a little long winded.
jioan
player, 6042 posts
Fri 24 Jul 2015
at 04:30
  • msg #195

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Sure, I'll read it.  I like Star Wars and long D&D session retellings.
Heath
GM, 18120 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Fri 24 Jul 2015
at 20:38
  • msg #196

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Did I tell you the one about the PC who got his head cut off in battle, and the players had to dump his body in a nearby well?  The well was a well of healing water, so his body kept coming to life and dying again until finally the head and body reconnected during healing, and then he kept starving to death and being reanimated yet again.  This recurring process made him grow crazy.  When he finally got out of the well (many years later), his driving ambition was to get revenge and kill the whole party, blaming them for the years of torture he endured.

And then there was the time there was a giant flood they went to investigate.  As it turns out, someone had died, and their magical water container had tipped over in the process. Because it created neverending water, it eventually flooded the entire area.  It didn't help that the guy died atop a tree, so the water kept flowing down.
jioan
player, 6050 posts
Sat 25 Jul 2015
at 03:07
  • msg #197

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Did you take off a level for every time the guy died?  If that's the case he must have been way too weak to be a threat to the party!
ChupaBob
player, 47 posts
Sat 25 Jul 2015
at 06:26
  • msg #198

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

In reply to Heath (msg # 196):

Our party did the same thing with a jug of everlasting water. It happened during an AD&D campaign. In a forest setting, we found the entrance to a dungeon that we had been seeking. Expecting to be in the dungeon for a few hours, perhaps a day, someone had the bright idea of tipping over a jug so our horses would have fresh water to drink while we were away. What we didn't know is that the dungeon existed into a separate reality, and once we entered, there was no way out until we completed the dungeon many dungeon levels later. The entire party of mid-level characters died in that dungeon. Our replacement characters all died in that dungeon. The GM would not let us bring in new characters to his campaign world anywhere but inside that dungeon until we completed it. Rather than bringing in a third set of characters, all first level, into the same dungeon to die again with ever decreasing odds of success, we quit the campaign. That water jug was left pouring onto the forest floor, causing an ecological disaster. Perhaps it was (in our head canon) our jug that you found.
Grant
GM, 7150 posts
HOLY CRAP!!!
ITS SEAN CONNERY!!!
Sat 25 Jul 2015
at 07:07
  • msg #199

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Wow, that DM was kind of a jerk. If my players were going to up and quit because either my campaign was too hard or that I had some strict TKO policy I think I'd change something. Unless of course I hated running it and that's why I was fine with it ending.


One of the best stories I have is in the multi-year 2nd Edition AD&D game my older brother ran for most of my childhood. I had a thief who specialized in dual wielding and had a special proficiency in using fire as a weapon so he was pretty deadly in combat.

We were breaking into a castle and had to be discreet about it so my character climbed the 50' tower with no ropes to dispatch the guards so they could unlock the gates. I went through and backstabbed or straight up murdered every guard there was in there (accidentally) before getting the doors open. Everyone else was pretty surprised when the scrawny little thief killed 30+ fully armed guards, using nothing more than a (heavily enchanted) dagger and a torch.
FourLegged
GM, 41544 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Sun 27 Dec 2015
at 08:34
  • msg #200

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I wish I had good stories.  I should play more.
Nyoze
player, 236 posts
Tue 12 Jan 2016
at 04:48
  • msg #201

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

One of my current games, I'm playing a female half-elven Cleric, and I died to a snake.

The GM let me get a free reincarnate, but brought me back as a dwarf.  And to make matters worse, I have to get hitched and have a baby in a year, or else my parents estates are going to be taken away from my family and I'll have nowhere to live.

Fun times ahead :)
Bart
player, 12521 posts
I am infused with...
The power of radiation!
Tue 12 Jan 2016
at 10:05
  • msg #202

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

2nd edition decanter of endless water, worth 1,000 xp
   Stream: pours out 1 gallon per round
   Fountain: 5-foot long stream at 5 gallons per round
   Geyser: 20-foot long stream at 30 gallons per round

3.x edition decanter of endless water, worth 9,000 gp
   “Stream” pours out 1 gallon per round.
   “Fountain” produces a 5-foot-long stream at 5 gallons per round.
   “Geyser” produces a 20-foot-long, 1-foot-wide stream at 30 gallons per round.

7.48051948 gallons in a cubic foot.  So on Geyser it fills roughly 4 cubic feet per round.  A 10'x10'x10' room is 1000 cubic feet, so it would take 33 rounds to fill.

Now, dungeons tend to be fairly big. I have no idea how big.  Let's take a rollable battle mat, say that a common 24" x 36" mat is one floor of a dungeon, that is a 1" to 1' ratio, and that perhaps 1/2 of the map is actual open space.  24x36=864 square feet x 10 = 8,640 cubic feet / 2 = 4,320 cubic feet per level or 1077 rounds to fill a level, which is less than two hours to fill a dungeon level.  Yup, decanters fill a dungeon level fairly swiftly (when on Geyser -- if left on stream then it's 30 times longer or 2 1/2 days to fill a dungeon level.

Now, how about to fill a valley?  I'm going to use Lake Arrowhead in California for that because I grew up there, and also because it's a man-made lake. Anyway, the lake is a decent sized lake and fills one valley.  It's nothing like Lake Powell, though, it's much smaller.  One acre foot equals 43,560 cubic feet or 435.6 hundred cubic feet and is equivalent to 325,851 gallons.  Lake Arrowhead has a surface area of approximately 780 acres (320 ha) and a capacity of 48,000 acre·ft.

That's 48000 acre feet * 325851 gallons in an acre foot / 30 gallons per round / 10 rounds in a minute / 60 minutes in an hour / 24 hours in a day / 365 days per year = 100 years to fill Lake Arrowhead from a decanter of endless water.

Although I could see a decanter being a serious problem in a dungeon, especially since the lower more valuable levels would fill up before the higher levels, and since even 2' of water in dungeon level starts becoming seriously annoying and anything over head height starts to be seriously life threatening (and some races aren't that tall), I don't see a decanter being a real problem outside.

Let's consider just Papoose Lake, which you can see at https://www.google.com/maps/pl...+Arrowhead,+CA+92321 next to Lake Arrowhead.  35 acre feet * 210 feet deep is 35*210*325851/30/10/60/24/365 15 years to fill although that brings up an interesting question, how much not to fill a valley and create a big lake, how much just to make life difficult for halflings?  And let's use a titchy small thing like Papoose Lake.  Seriously, I can run from one end to the other in just a few minutes, it's not very big.  35*2*325851/30/10/60/24 = 52 days to make the water 2' deep.  By then, someone out to have noticed the gradually occurring flood.  The deeper the water gets, the more slowly it's going to take to rise since the ground likely slopes and every foot of rise will mean even more acre feet to be filled.

Tl;dr A decanter of endless water is likely a huge problem in a dungeon, but isn't really a problem at all outside.  Outside is freaking huge.
Nyoze
player, 240 posts
Thu 14 Jan 2016
at 23:23
  • msg #203

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Now I just want to buy a boat, and about 200 decanters.  I'll recreate Noah's Ark in pathfinder :D
PrettyBirdie
player, 933 posts
Why is candy not a valid
option for currency?
Mon 18 Jan 2016
at 21:04
  • msg #204

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Sooo.... pour the decanter into the dungeon, flood the whole thing, wait for the creatures to drown, then make all of the party members bail out the dungeon with bags of holding, dumping the water into a nearby lake or valley or something. Free dungeon loot! How long would that take? (Assuming the valley/dumping ground is a five minute walk away, ten minutes round trip.)
Bart
player, 12551 posts
Everywhere in the world,
you find good things.
Tue 19 Jan 2016
at 01:41
  • msg #205

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

PrettyBirdie:
bail out the dungeon with bags of holding

Take one sacrificial bag of holding, put it at the bottom of the dungeon, then place a portable hole within it while you're tied to a rope that the rest of the party are holding.  A gate to the Astral plane is then created which sucks in everything with 10' (If you're held back you should be fine).  There is now a gate to another plane at the bottom of the dungeon and all the water should drain out through it.
PrettyBirdie
player, 936 posts
Why is candy not a valid
option for currency?
Tue 19 Jan 2016
at 02:20
  • msg #206

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Even easier! Never gonna have to dungeon crawl again XD
Bart
player, 12559 posts
Everywhere in the world,
you find good things.
Tue 19 Jan 2016
at 23:20
  • msg #207

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Pros:
Helps reveal secret doors.
Pit traps are now water hazards, but in general this method should short out or help destroy traps.
Costs a fair amount of money.

Cons:
Need to hold your breath for a long time while you swim down to the bottom of the dungeon, or get a potion of water breathing.
Doesn't get rid of any undead or construct dungeon guardians.
PrettyBirdie
player, 939 posts
Why is candy not a valid
option for currency?
Wed 20 Jan 2016
at 00:20
  • msg #208

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Hmm... Maybe go back to bailing it out as we go. Then we're on land for fighting the leftover baddies and none of the loot gets sucked into the astral plane. :D
Bart
player, 12560 posts
Everywhere in the world,
you find good things.
Wed 20 Jan 2016
at 02:15
  • msg #209

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Until you start bailing out that little pool of water in front of the doors to Moria...
PrettyBirdie
player, 940 posts
Why is candy not a valid
option for currency?
Wed 20 Jan 2016
at 16:34
  • msg #210

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Ha XD
Bart
player, 12633 posts
Everywhere in the world,
you find good things.
Thu 11 Feb 2016
at 05:11
  • msg #211

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

So, in one campaign I'm writing, one character... does as "roleplay" if I'm playing all the characters myself in my head then writing down what ends up happening?

Anyway one character made a threat and the city watch was called.  They caught up with the character back at the inn and eventually that character ended up with a geas'd community service penalty.
Tanner
player, 219 posts
Wait... you mean the
green goop isn't edible?
Sat 20 Feb 2016
at 09:21
  • msg #212

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

BACK AMYBRI18!!!

THOU SHALT NOT HAVE MINE BOARD ROYALTY!!!

I SHALL SMITE-ETH THEE BY BURYING-ETH THEE UNDER POSTS FROM A TIME WASTER!!!!

lol jk :P




not but really




just kidding XD

[8 blank lines suppressed]

In any case how are you?
FourLegged
GM, 41892 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Wed 25 Oct 2017
at 02:18
  • msg #213

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I was about to express my astonishment that it's been eight months since Tanner made a run at the throne, then I noticed that I was off... by about a year

Oops
Nyoze
player, 304 posts
Wed 22 Nov 2017
at 06:19
  • msg #214

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

O_o
Grant
GM, 7404 posts
HOLY CRAP!!!
ITS SEAN CONNERY!!!
Sat 10 Feb 2018
at 13:14
  • msg #215

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Maybe this one needs to go too.
Froggychum
player, 57 posts
Sat 10 Feb 2018
at 16:35
  • msg #216

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

i agree completely
Grant
GM, 7447 posts
HOLY CRAP!!!
ITS SEAN CONNERY!!!
Sun 11 Feb 2018
at 07:44
  • msg #217

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Unless people want to talk about role-playing games here...
Froggychum
player, 100 posts
Sun 11 Feb 2018
at 15:34
  • msg #218

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

im open to different views:

some dork: you succ froggo
me: HAHHWKSD.JF;ALSDHOG;IAKPIUP 3IJR5M0082 N3Y-Q34Y98FRYWAUEYROUYQ9347T...!!!!

ANGERYY VEGETALLLLLL!!!!


*base drop boom sounds*
ChupaBob
player, 318 posts
Sun 18 Feb 2018
at 06:32
  • msg #219

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Rescued from Page 2!

Soooo, has anyone here ever designed a board game? It was suggested to me recently that I make a board game adaptation of the story which I am writing.
Froggychum
player, 140 posts
Mon 19 Feb 2018
at 14:50
  • msg #220

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I've always been super interested in the idea, but I have never gotten much real inspiration, and am not inventive enough to think of something new and such.
Pluckyribbons
player, 23 posts
Fri 23 Feb 2018
at 03:20
  • msg #221

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I play a Gurps Dungeon Fantasy character named Masugatan.  He’s a street thug... and needless to say, he lacks refinement.  Also, he has certain disadvantages (this is part of the Gurps system) which sometimes make it difficult to control his temper.

One time, he was visiting a temple in the city where most of his adventures take place.  He became annoyed at the pomposity of the local clergy, and then failed a self-control roll.  Oh-oh!  He then did something rather uncouth: he exposed himself and urinated all over the floor of the temple!

At least, this was the case until this post was edited by a gm to make it more civilized.  Officially, my character merely spat on the floor and cursed.  He still had to borrow money to pay an enormous fine, and has only recently paid off the debt.
ChupaBob
player, 320 posts
Sat 24 Feb 2018
at 05:00
  • msg #222

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Was it a temple to the King in Yellow?
Pluckyribbons
player, 28 posts
Thu 1 Mar 2018
at 07:53
  • msg #223

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

It was by the time he was done with it.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 07:53, Thu 01 Mar 2018.
Heath
GM, 18284 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Tue 27 Mar 2018
at 22:23
  • msg #224

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

That reminds me of a character I played in the 80s using GURPS. His disadvantage was being a misanthrope and he was also paranoid of being wounded.  So he was clad in plate mail armor where the only thing showing was the eye slit through which he could see.

So of course, the GM decides that every monster and enemy will aim for the eye slit in every encounter.  (Not very realistic--GM apparently didn't like my misanthrope, who also had a "quirk" of flipping a coin, which I had to act out "in game.")

So before long, my poor little misanthrope was blind, just before being stabbed through the eyeslit and then in the next battle receiving a punctured brain that killed him. I don't think he even made it into the cave or dungeon before dying.  Fastest adventure of my life, and GM wouldn't let me roll up a new character until the next adventure.
Froggychum
player, 176 posts
Tue 27 Mar 2018
at 22:32
  • msg #225

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

that was a really lame Gm from the sounds of things... maybe just inexperienced?
Heath
GM, 18286 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Tue 27 Mar 2018
at 22:35
  • msg #226

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

He personally didn't like the character (especially because I really played him as a misanthrope who hated everyone), so he did it on purpose.  He should have let the PCs take him out; that would have at least been realistic.  But we were like 17 years old, so I can't expect too much maturity.
Froggychum
player, 178 posts
Tue 27 Mar 2018
at 22:37
  • msg #227

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Ah okay.

My only roleplaying tale is that my mom bought dnd nearly a year ago now, and since we only have 3 people in our house, and none of us have time for it, also we don't know how to play... well, we've never played, we have opened the box and read the rules though :P

i like roleplay, but i prefer it here online where It is much more convenient... i suppose some people need to set the mood per se, but not me, guess that's part of my unbridled creativity... or whatever.
Heath
GM, 18287 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Tue 27 Mar 2018
at 22:54
  • msg #228

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Tabletop is more dynamic and faster.  It certainly has its appeal.  Much less formal, most of the time, compared to online when you can carefully phrase everything, check the rules, etc.  Back in my day, we were winging it.
Froggychum
player, 179 posts
Wed 28 Mar 2018
at 18:50
  • msg #229

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

acknowledged
Tanner
player, 335 posts
Wait... you mean the
green goop isn't edible?
Sat 12 May 2018
at 03:06
  • msg #230

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I miss a lot of the frequency of the old GMs.

This specific game is the only reason I keep my RPoL account up to date to be honest...
Froggychum
player, 252 posts
Sat 12 May 2018
at 16:21
  • msg #231

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

it always seems whenever I join a really awesome forum (or roleplay in this case) it's on the brink of death

it's weird, this is one of the coolest games, but all the life has wandered away... it's still going though, so there is always hope new people will come joining
Tanner
player, 426 posts
Wait... you mean the
green goop isn't edible?
Sun 13 May 2018
at 04:14
  • msg #232

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

That is the magic of ASWoT, it is more RPoL than most people realize. Everything about it leads tons of players to this forum board.
Froggychum
player, 359 posts
Sun 13 May 2018
at 17:59
  • msg #233

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

deep
FourLegged
GM, 41952 posts
Quadruped Phascolarctos
Cinereus Unsquisheus
Sun 4 Aug 2019
at 04:00
  • msg #234

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

The only other game within which I have a registered character was created by a dear friend of mine about a year ago. (Just checked, it was one year ago, last Thursday.)

Since the game's inception, there has been nearly zero activity.  The GM has put in a couple of Notice threads, (backstories, games rules,) and an OOC chat thread, (which he creatively called the Chatter Box.)

Some time after I went through the process of learning the mechanics of the game, (Savage Worlds with the Rifts conversion,) and creating a character, (a Sam Spade inspired Koala named Marlowe, (I like koalas, don't judge me.)) I decided to post some color in the Chatter Box:

Character in other game:
All of the color drains from the Chatter Box as Marlowe enters.  The monochromatic yet dapper Koala removes his trench coat and fedora, revealing a well tailored pinstriped suit, and approaches the bar.

He places the removed articles of clothing onto a bar stool before climbing up onto the one beside it and catches the bartender's attention.

The bartender, another Koala, (he's naked but Marlowe isn't judging. It's not the first time Marlowe has seen vestiphobia amongst the anthropomorphics in this world,) places a bottle of whiskey and low-ball on the bar in front of him and wanders off to help another customer.

Marlowe starts to argue, but seeing that it was what he was about to order, wisely shuts up and pours himself a healthy slug.

He drinks and waits for whomever or whatever happens next.


No other thread was available within game to post where other players might be able to see and interact.  (You may recognize the bartender, but perhaps not.)

The reaction was silence.  I should have stopped and walked away right then. But I had invested some time in the game and I had this lovely little fleshed out character in my head so I decided to push forward.  Every few weeks, I'd post again in the Chatter Box.  Nothing long, just noting the passage of time, drinking and having the bottles refreshed by the attentive bartender. Still no response.

Yesterday, (my actual cake day,) I posted this:

Character in other game:
Wearing a whimsical paper hat, the bartender brings out a modest sized eucalyptus cake, (decorated with sufficient candles,) and two forks.  He lights the candles.

After a silent wish, the bartender and Marlowe blow out the candles and then eat the cake.

Marlowe: What did you wish for?
Bartender: What I wish for every year.  Peace on Earth.  Good will towards Koalas and Koalakind. What did you wish for?

Marlowe: Looking pointedly at the camera. I wished for this game to start already.  I'm going to die of alcohol poisoning or liver failure before anyone shows up.

Bartender: Glancing nervously from Marlowe to the seemingly blank space towards which his ire is directed. Ummm... do you know Deadpool?

Marlowe:  No. Why do you ask?

Bartender:  Ah... no reason.  Here.  The next bottle is on the house.

The bartender swaps out the old bottle for a new one.

Marlowe pours, drinks and waits.


I am posting this because I was a little frustrated a few months ago but I have moved past that now.

I thought you all, (what's left of you all,) might enjoy it.

Maybe someday the GM will start the game. Maybe someday I'll toss in the towel. Maybe someday the loading of the complement of small lemon-soaked paper napkins will finish and this spacecraft will take off. Maybe someday.

p.s. - Obviously this Koala bartender isn't FourLegged.  Please note the whimsical paper hat.  FourLegged would never wear a paper hat, whimsical or otherwise.
Froggychum
player, 809 posts
Wed 8 Apr 2020
at 02:38
  • msg #235

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I'm happy to know that I've (virtually) met at least one koala fetishist in my life before! Yay me :)

I got into DND in the last few months, and I'm currently in one dnd game, in the process of joining another.

In the game I'm in, I'm playing a build which is supposed to be 'unkillable' , and got knocked unconscious. I could have died, but luckily the hobgoblins weren't thirsty for my blood.

It was my fault for not keeping better track of my stats :P, didn't realize I was damaged until I was reading the thread for fun and pointed that out!
Heath
GM, 18342 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Wed 8 Apr 2020
at 05:20
  • msg #236

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

In reply to FourLegged (msg # 234):

Maybe you should point us to the game so we can all join it and make it interesting!
Heath
GM, 18358 posts
Don't click my picture!
This space is blank.
Wed 15 Apr 2020
at 07:31
  • msg #237

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

I thought it was funny when Kahan (who I believe is Grant at ASWoT) got pulled into the web cast by the PC mage by a Will O'Wisp--face down looking into a pit full of ascending undead that want to rip him to pieces. We shall see what comes of it...
Froggychum
player, 1374 posts
Mon 27 Dec 2021
at 16:55
  • msg #238

Re: The Lurker's Lounge and Timewaster's Tales

Unfortunately decided to drop out of that same DND game recently. I think I played for about two years, and it was definitely an amazing experience.
Sign In