Tabletop Games Thread

[I3uster]

Yeah because I think normal games generally do not have the BL problem of HEY LOOK AT MY FIGHTER DOING 20d20 DAMAGE WITH 30 FOOT REACH AND 20 AOOS THAT TRIGGER WHENEVER AN ENEMY SNEEZES so you can totally be the asshole of your group with any class.

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i might be wrong

[Five_X]

That problem extends far beyond BL, I'm afraid.

[I3uster]

I guess that's why PF requires familiarity and communication. You usually know if your other players also powergame and can adapt.

On my first campaign I was a bit blindsided and then had to on-the-fly cook up a way to catch up with Chris while not losing too much of my flavor options but again thanks to the incredible amount of shit you can get in PF even that isn't too hard.

it just made me cry because i couldnt pick more flavor shit

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also i had one of the most broken classes in the game so that helps

[mAc Chaos]

That problem extends far beyond BL, I'm afraid.

Yeah it's more of an internet thing.

[I3uster]

Well PF also really encourages it because it can create a huge disparity and if you don't just google for a guide finding your own neat little tricks is fun. It just becomes problematic when that ends up being the only reason for your RPing or if you have a mixed group of people going full flavor and people going full system obsession.

But I can adapt and generally don't get too mad if I suck.

[Trubo]

It's just ... it costs $150 for the ultimate version, and even that only gets you the SRD stuff in terms of play material. You then have to buy whatever else you might want as a DM (or regular player who would prefer the ultimate licence's add-ons), including things like the Elemental Evil Player's Companion that is free to download off Wizards' site but FG charges you for​.

I'm not defending the price for the ultimate version or for them charging extra on what should be a free source book. I'm just saying that, out of the few online options I've tried, it has the best interface.

[Seika]

Thinking to myself: whenever I open up a new pdf character sheet, one of the options I immediately turn off is the inclusion of coin weight. So ... why? It's in the rules. I tend to have fifty or more coins, so it makes a difference, if not a huge one. What's my problem with it?

Realisation: I am conditioned by paper play to think of it as hugely fiddly and generally stupid to keep track of. So, even when it's all automated, my subconscious says "No, this is bad," and urges me to get rid of it.

It's kinda funny.

[Saiga]

Coin... weight?

[Seika]

Each coin = 1/3oz (don't think about the fact that this means copper, sliver, gold, an alloy of gold and silver, and platinum are all meant to weigh the same). 50 coins = 1lb. PHB p143.

[Saiga]

Okay wow I didn't know there was a rule for that.

We ignore weight limits entirely (something I'm not completely happy with) and pretty much every time the question of "wait, how would you count out 8,000 gold coins?" comes up the response is "shut the fuck up"

[Seika]

Ahhh, metric is so much easier: it's 10g per coin. But I've done D&D in imperial for so loooooong...

[Bird of Hermes]

So me and my group have finally managed to sync our timetables up so we can play next week.

Dragon encounter is about to finally go down.

[Saiga]

I have had very little exposure to imperial before D&D, I can't envision distance or weight for shit

Grid paper all the waaaaaay

also I might not be able to envision distance for shit using metric either

[Strife ❤️]

Metric coinholders are being shortchanged.

[Seika]

I'm pretty bad at imperial weight; I've handled weights for kitchen scales and stuff, but I still don't know how many ounces to the pound or pounds to the stone.

[Five_X]

Stone is very special, though. It's unique enough that I at least remembered that 14 pounds = 1 stone even if that was never useful to me outside the GP's office.

[Arashi_Leonhart]

Okay wow I didn't know there was a rule for that.

We ignore weight limits entirely (something I'm not completely happy with) and pretty much every time the question of "wait, how would you count out 8,000 gold coins?" comes up the response is "shut the fuck up"

Gygax specifically brought that kind of thing up because you could often generate adventures out of mundane issues like that. "Great, we have 7010 platinum, 12,931 gold 25,055 silver, and 33,714 copper coins, plus a dozen art pieces and assorted gems, and no bag of holding. How do we move this from point A to point B?" becomes an adventure itself. Hire people to help. Buy the necessary support equipment. Feint off others that want to claim the loot. Completely change the economics within the region. Become Thorin Oakenshield.

I actually like figuring out mundane stuff like that rather than "Who can I find to enchant my sword to +3 flaming burst?"

[Seika]

I'll bet ye've got all sorts o' barmy questions! (She mimics your heroic stance) Greetin's, I have some questions... can ye tell me about this place? Who's the Lady o' Pain? I'm lookin' fer the magic Girdle of Swank Iron, have ye seen it? Do ye know where a portal ta the 2,817th Plane o' the Abyss might be? Do ye know where the Holy Flamin' Frost-Brand Gronk-Slayin' Vorpal Hammer o' Woundin' an' Returnin' an' Shootin'-Lightnin'-Out-Yer-Bum is?

[Saiga]

Gygax specifically brought that kind of thing up because you could often generate adventures out of mundane issues like that. "Great, we have 7010 platinum, 12,931 gold 25,055 silver, and 33,714 copper coins, plus a dozen art pieces and assorted gems, and no bag of holding. How do we move this from point A to point B?" becomes an adventure itself. Hire people to help. Buy the necessary support equipment. Feint off others that want to claim the loot. Completely change the economics within the region. Become Thorin Oakenshield.

I actually like figuring out mundane stuff like that rather than "Who can I find to enchant my sword to +3 flaming burst?"

It's funny, the first thing that made me sound interested in checking out D&D was browsing in a comic store and I overheard some other players. They were in a forest of some kind, and were doing things like checking the direction of sun, following a river, checking their fresh water supplies to properly plan how to navigate out of this. The level of detail was what made it sound super intriguing to me. I do think things like that could be fun to play around as a player, but I'd need it to be under a DM who is already used to things like that.

That's one part of the 'rules for everything' approach 3.5E had that appeals to me - there are too many topics in D&D that I don't know enough about to make reasonable call as DM. Anyway, with my players they have made it extremely clear they do not want to deal with those mechanics or concerns, it doesn't interest them at all. The above scenario would probably be seen as a waste of time to half of them, currently the mood seems to be that we shouldn't be spending time on irrelevant quests and instead do meaningful things.

I kind of thought originally that I'd be someone who prefers DMing, but I'm starting to think now that playing might be more of my thing. There just seem to be a lot of cool things I want to experience as a player, rather than run it as a DM.

[Bird of Hermes]

When you spend a month hyping up the groups first dragon encounter only for half the players to cancel at last minute. :/ You continue anyways and the PC's wander through the swamp to see the Young Black Dragon in the distance. You expect them to scout around and analyse but they just waltz up and talk to it. In the resulting fight you built to be hard for the full party it ends up fighting a level 5 rogue and wizard which going by Kobold fight club should be deadly... ends up jobbing to them.