TG February Chat Thread: Dank Rollman's Halal Hotbox

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > TG February Chat Thread: Dank Rollman's Halal Hotbox

«‹›33 »

LongDarkNight: Oct 25, 2010; It's like watching the collapse of Western civilization in fast forward.; Oven Wrangler

The narrator is absolutely related to Captain Marsh. Read the last chapter.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 17:38

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 2, 2024 14:18

Fenarisk: Oct 27, 2005

I don't know man, the thought of gradually sloughing off skin to give way to scales, or gills bleeding out and ripping their way to the outside of my neck, or gooey scar tissue giving way to webbing would scare the poo poo out of me. Having to actually go through this unknown transformation would be terrifying, or seeing someone mid way would as well.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 17:39

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

We can all agree, surely, that Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth was equal parts amazing and horrible ... JUST AS WAS H.P. LOVECRAFT HIMSELF! ~fin~

Doodmons posted:

So my gaming group got put through AD&D1E Tomb of Horrors by our local AD&D GM. Zero fatalities, actually managed the secret happy ending by for-reals killing the demilich and not just busting his phylactery, 50k xp each, 150k gold each, some swag magic items and used the last Wish off the djinn to send everyone who ever died in the Tomb to a happy, final resting place. That's pretty much as good as it gets, right?

Start the gaming phone tree to let everyone know their formerly trapped dead characters are now resurrectable

This is just like when that guy played Tivadar's Crusade at that one Magic tournament and the resolution took weeks while every active game of Magic: The Gathering had to be notified

# ? Feb 8, 2015 17:42

Slimnoid: Sep 6, 2012; Does that mean I don't get the job?

Quarex posted:

This is just like when that guy played Tivadar's Crusade at that one Magic tournament and the resolution took weeks while every active game of Magic: The Gathering had to be notified

I just looked at that card. Did someone really rule that all goblins everywhere were destroyed? :psyduck:

# ? Feb 8, 2015 18:10

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

Slimnoid posted:

I just looked at that card. Did someone really rule that all goblins everywhere were destroyed?

No, but that has been my dream ever since the first time I opened a pack of The Dark and saw it. And it should be the dream of all who have ever played Magic.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 18:31

Bendigeidfran: Dec 17, 2013; Wait a minute...

Innsmouth as written by Lovecraft is absolutely a racist tract obsessed with maintaining purity of blood. Like he mentions a sailor who brought back a Chinese wife and some Fijian immigrants and he's clearly disgusted with these harmless individuals. It's aristocratic white-supremacist bullshit.

Deep Ones as an idea are probably better told as a Faustian deal: a lot of people would jump at wealth and immortality no matter what. One little shot in your grandfather's arm and your failing political family keeps its power for years to come. But now you're indebted to strange forces from below the waves: they demand endless payments and victims. The money is stolen through corrupt means, the victims arrested for petty crimes and political reasons. As your grandpa lives past 100, past 130, he becomes a floppy mockery of a human being. His bulging eyes are haunted by guilt, greed, and raw terror. And you, who looked away at the murder your family was built on, are next.

Or, you could pull an Eberron-style reversal and make them not evil. Even the original story showed the islanders as more or less fine with the arrangement. Having your great-great-grandparents around to tell stories from the Sunken City is cool. Maybe they're here for some alien mission and needed a place to stay. Hell, you could retell The Creature Walks Among Us and show a Deep One terrified of becoming human.

One "monster" can mean a lot of things.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 18:37

Halloween Jack: Sep 12, 2003; I WILL CUT OFF BOTH OF MY ARMS BEFORE I VOTE FOR ANYONE THAT IS MORE POPULAR THAN BERNIE!!!!!

Robert M. Price does a really nice intro to The Innsmouth Cycle where he gets past the miscegenation paranoia to discuss Innsmouth as a parable of fundamentalists being willing to introduce new ideas and practices (Cthulhu and interbreeding with aliens) into their native culture (Christianity in a sleepy fishing village), only to be totally subverted into the invading culture.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 18:50

Kai Tave: Jul 2, 2012; Fallen Rib

Deep Ones are cranky grandpa fishmen shaking their webbed fists at those darn hairless apes and gurgling at them to get off their lawn. Some sign on with eco terrorists and pilot giant crustacean-mechs like in the noted historical documentary District 9 while others write angry blog posts about racist amphibosapien caricatures in Arcane Werewolf Online.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 19:01

OtspIII: Sep 22, 2002

Bendigeidfran posted:

Innsmouth as written by Lovecraft is absolutely a racist tract obsessed with maintaining purity of blood. Like he mentions a sailor who brought back a Chinese wife and some Fijian immigrants and he's clearly disgusted with these harmless individuals. It's aristocratic white-supremacist bullshit.

Deep Ones as an idea are probably better told as a Faustian deal: a lot of people would jump at wealth and immortality no matter what. One little shot in your grandfather's arm and your failing political family keeps its power for years to come. But now you're indebted to strange forces from below the waves: they demand endless payments and victims. The money is stolen through corrupt means, the victims arrested for petty crimes and political reasons. As your grandpa lives past 100, past 130, he becomes a floppy mockery of a human being. His bulging eyes are haunted by guilt, greed, and raw terror. And you, who looked away at the murder your family was built on, are next.

Or, you could pull an Eberron-style reversal and make them not evil. Even the original story showed the islanders as more or less fine with the arrangement. Having your great-great-grandparents around to tell stories from the Sunken City is cool. Maybe they're here for some alien mission and needed a place to stay. Hell, you could retell The Creature Walks Among Us and show a Deep One terrified of becoming human.

One "monster" can mean a lot of things.

Lovecraft gets tricky with games if you start looking too hard, since his entire schtick is xenophobia. I really like him as an author because I think his stories are really strong portraits of how awful it is to be someone who takes every person or thing that doesn't fit within your very limited definition of 'normal' and see them as some sort of sinister yet inexplicable alien force threatening your way of life; most of Lovecraft's stories can be read real easily as a demonstration as to how being xenophobic makes you miserable and semi-functional, even if that's not how Lovecraft intended them at the time. That's really not the type of thing I want to roleplay through, though.

I'm not sure how to treat Deep Ones. Lots of Lovecraft's stuff can also be read as "the universe is big and doesn't care about human life", but Innsmouth isn't really one of those stories--it's pretty much just about racism and body horror, although I do think it's super funny that the first interaction the protagonist has with Deep Ones is running into some jewelry they made and going "wow, this is super well made--almost inhumanly so," implying an actually pretty advanced culture that never gets referenced again in the story. The best idea I have is just to go War With the Newts with them and paint them as equals to humanity who just happen to have a culture and resource needs that inevitably leave them at odds or clashing with humans. Even that can turn really easily into something resembling "western culture and Islam are fundamentally incompatible, and one must destroy the other"-style fuckery, though.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 19:03

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Quarex posted:

No, but that has been my dream ever since the first time I opened a pack of The Dark and saw it. And it should be the dream of all who have ever played Magic.

My dream was always to get multiple recursive games going with the old Shahrazad card from Arabian Nights.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 19:16

Kestral: Nov 24, 2000; Forum Veteran

I posted in IYG last night asking for recommendations for audio gear to replace the ancient iRiver my group uses to record our sessions. Someone asked why I�d want to do that, and rather than clutter up that thread with RPG-related content, I�m posting it here as a discussion topic.

BigFactory posted:

Why do you record tabletop role playing games?

It started out as a way to keep notes on a complicated campaign without actually breaking from my job running the game to write things down in rushed shorthand that I probably wouldn't be able to decipher the next day. Later it became a learning tool, the way actors will watch their own takes to dial in a performance, or coaches watch replays to figure out why part of the game turned out the way it did. When you're dealing with inputs from two to five other people, it's easy to miss things. Being able to go back to a moment in the game and say, "Oh, that's where that scene went wrong / became compelling for someone" is an incredibly useful tool, both for players and for the GM.

Now its main function is fulfilling a sense of archival duty. Tabletop gaming is an ephemeral experience that starts to fade as soon as the session ends. Nothing you do in those four to eight hours persists outside of your memory and maybe a few marks on a piece of paper. If the game is more an excuse to hang out than anything else, that's fine. But if you�re playing a game where the players are creatively and emotionally engaged in the story and the characters, it seems like a shame to let something you invest in that heavily be eroded as memory fades. I suspect that�s part of why games like Microscope and The Quiet Year became such fan favorites, and why old character sheets and maps from the early days of D&D still survive in people�s closets and bookshelves: the artifacts of play are the only way we have to preserve valuable experiences which would otherwise be lost.

So TradGoons, how have you preserved your TTRPG experiences? Alternatively, anyone able to recommend a replacement for that iRiver that has decent recording quality and is reasonably unobtrusive? A big honkin� microphone in the middle of the table calls too much attention to itself, so I was considering something like a Zoom H4N, but even that thing is pretty conspicuous. I�d like to stay around $200, but since I expect to use this for years and it�s important to me to get it right, I�m willing to go up to $300.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 19:37

Kemper Boyd: Aug 6, 2007; no kings, no gods, no masters but a comfy chair and no socks

One of the Delta Green books (I think it was Targets of Opportunity) presented a thing where the Deep Ones aren't actually having fishbabies with human women, but they're actually spreading an STD that turns humans into Deep Ones.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 19:43

wallawallawingwang: Mar 8, 2007

Joke answer: Deep Ones / Shadow Over Innsmouth is now all about the dangers of furrydom. (Scalydom?)

I can halfway imagine the CthulhuTech writers thinking that changing the Deep Ones from miscegenists into rapists was a step forward. Something like: our game has some horror elements to it, racism is dumb so we should take it out, but we need to keep the mythos intact and rape is horrible so lets play up that angle of the story. That's maybe not an ENTIRELY stupid idea, Alien is great science fiction horror after all! Of course, where they go off the rails is that most DMs are not Ridley Scott and to the extent that theme is in Alien its subtext, and its handled with a lot of thoughtfulness and a health dose of female empowerment, and movies are things you watch not participate in unlike RPGs. The odds of a rape theme being as a useful story telling device in a horror elf game is vanishingly small.

The writers of Delta Green might have been on to something when they decided to place Deep Ones into the background of the setting. Bendigeidfran is right too, Deep Ones work well as Faustian devils. It's true to the source material even! You could do a great mystery set on an oil drilling platform that is doing unusually well, until the workers start going missing. I was puttering on a fantasy setting where the fish people weren't evil exactly, but were stuck in a malthusian hell. Fish lay jillions of eggs at a time, but that's OK since most don't live to adulthood. When the fish are smart enough to ensure they most do, you could end up with a society that has some serious issues.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 19:52

Kai Tave: Jul 2, 2012; Fallen Rib

Kemper Boyd posted:

One of the Delta Green books (I think it was Targets of Opportunity) presented a thing where the Deep Ones aren't actually having fishbabies with human women, but they're actually spreading an STD that turns humans into Deep Ones.

If "Deep Ones are an unsubtle metaphor for the dangers of miscegenation" is your problem I don't know if "Deep Ones are now an unsubtle metaphor for the dangers of AIDS" is the solution.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 19:56

Hyper Crab Tank: Feb 10, 2014; The 16-bit retro-future of crustacean-based transportation

Quarex posted:

No, but that has been my dream ever since the first time I opened a pack of The Dark and saw it. And it should be the dream of all who have ever played Magic.

Sneak a Radiate into an Unhinged tournament, cast rear end Whuppin' and watch the glory unfold.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 20:09

neonchameleon: Nov 14, 2012

Serious answer: You make at least some of the PCs Deep Ones. Being a Deep One is this great secret that you need to keep at all costs because the consequences of it being known would be ... catastrophic. And as a PC you know or at least suspect that some of your fellow PCs might be Deep Ones. If they are, stand with them if they get revealed and that could be just as catastrophic for you. (I've done this for a Monsterhearts Skin)

# ? Feb 8, 2015 20:11

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Kestral posted:

I posted in IYG last night asking for recommendations for audio gear to replace the ancient iRiver my group uses to record our sessions. Someone asked why I�d want to do that, and rather than clutter up that thread with RPG-related content, I�m posting it here as a discussion topic.

It started out as a way to keep notes on a complicated campaign without actually breaking from my job running the game to write things down in rushed shorthand that I probably wouldn't be able to decipher the next day. Later it became a learning tool, the way actors will watch their own takes to dial in a performance, or coaches watch replays to figure out why part of the game turned out the way it did. When you're dealing with inputs from two to five other people, it's easy to miss things. Being able to go back to a moment in the game and say, "Oh, that's where that scene went wrong / became compelling for someone" is an incredibly useful tool, both for players and for the GM.

Now its main function is fulfilling a sense of archival duty. Tabletop gaming is an ephemeral experience that starts to fade as soon as the session ends. Nothing you do in those four to eight hours persists outside of your memory and maybe a few marks on a piece of paper. If the game is more an excuse to hang out than anything else, that's fine. But if you�re playing a game where the players are creatively and emotionally engaged in the story and the characters, it seems like a shame to let something you invest in that heavily be eroded as memory fades. I suspect that�s part of why games like Microscope and The Quiet Year became such fan favorites, and why old character sheets and maps from the early days of D&D still survive in people�s closets and bookshelves: the artifacts of play are the only way we have to preserve valuable experiences which would otherwise be lost.

So TradGoons, how have you preserved your TTRPG experiences? Alternatively, anyone able to recommend a replacement for that iRiver that has decent recording quality and is reasonably unobtrusive? A big honkin� microphone in the middle of the table calls too much attention to itself, so I was considering something like a Zoom H4N, but even that thing is pretty conspicuous. I�d like to stay around $200, but since I expect to use this for years and it�s important to me to get it right, I�m willing to go up to $300.

I use a Zoom H2N to record RPPR Actual Play episodes. I record in .wav and then use Levelator to smooth it out before I encode to MP3 for uploading.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 20:57

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

neonchameleon posted:

Serious answer: You make at least some of the PCs Deep Ones. Being a Deep One is this great secret that you need to keep at all costs because the consequences of it being known would be ... catastrophic. And as a PC you know or at least suspect that some of your fellow PCs might be Deep Ones. If they are, stand with them if they get revealed and that could be just as catastrophic for you. (I've done this for a Monsterhearts Skin)

Or go the Paranoia route and make literally every PC a secret Deep One but tell them they have to keep this secret from the other PCs.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 21:07

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

Evil Mastermind posted:

My dream was always to get multiple recursive games going with the old Shahrazad card from Arabian Nights.

Hyper Crab Tank posted:

Sneak a Radiate into an Unhinged tournament, cast rear end Whuppin' and watch the glory unfold.

These are both important ideas. Thank you. I hope to one day do both of these plans at once.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 21:28

moths: Aug 25, 2004; I would also still appreciate some danger.

It's interesting how recently in fiction the trope of a secret, unusual bloodline is now generally positive. While in Lovecraft's time the concept was linked to fishmen and worse, today you're more likely to be an intergalactic space princess (Jupiter Ascending), the greatest boy wizard, Star Lord, have cool X-Men mutant powers, or being a Jedi.

Of course it still propagates the same concept of identity as ancestry. But it's an ancient idea with examples as old as myth. (I'm thinking of Hercules, but there are certainly older characters defined by lineage.)

I did get to skim over Innsmouth again, and you guys were completely right - there's a lot more underlying racism than I remembered.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 21:36

Sion: Oct 16, 2004; "I'm the boss of space. That's plenty."

Some friends of mine would like to play a roleplaying game but they stalwartly refuse to tell me what kind of game they are interested in.

Should I just run DnD and go from there or..?

# ? Feb 8, 2015 21:37

fosborb: Dec 15, 2006; Chronic Good Poster

Sion posted:

Some friends of mine would like to play a roleplaying game but they stalwartly refuse to tell me what kind of game they are interested in.

Should I just run DnD and go from there or..?

Fiasco of they haven't really played RPGs before. Get them started right.

Dungeon World for a great one shot with goblins.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 22:00

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Push them into the deep end, whip out Apocalypse World. :getin:

# ? Feb 8, 2015 22:07

Humbug Scoolbus: Apr 25, 2008; The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.; Clapping Larry

fosborb posted:

Fiasco of they haven't really played RPGs before. Get them started right.

Dungeon World for a great one shot with goblins.

I they don't like Coen Brothers movies Fiasco is a terrible choice. And no, not everybody likes Coen Brothers movies.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 22:11

fosborb: Dec 15, 2006; Chronic Good Poster

Siivola posted:

Push them into the deep end, whip out Apocalypse World.

And this is your sex move. Speaking of, you all put your keys in the hat by the door, right?

e: I tried to play Fiasco once with someone who doesn't really like movies. It was... a train wreck.

fosborb fucked around with this message at 22:24 on Feb 8, 2015

# ? Feb 8, 2015 22:22

Tollymain: Jul 9, 2010; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

I don't really like movies and Fiasco is great

# ? Feb 8, 2015 23:30

paradoxGentleman: Dec 10, 2013; wheres the jester, I could do with some pointless nonsense right about now

Dungeon World is probably the safest bet. If they have never played RPGs before, they are probably expecting something along the lines of D&D, and if they want to play that, DW will satisfy them without any of the baggage associated with D&D.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 23:33

Tollymain: Jul 9, 2010; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Well, without some of it anyway.

# ? Feb 8, 2015 23:46

Mad Jaqk: Jun 2, 2013

moths posted:

It's interesting how recently in fiction the trope of a secret, unusual bloodline is now generally positive. While in Lovecraft's time the concept was linked to fishmen and worse, today you're more likely to be an intergalactic space princess (Jupiter Ascending), the greatest boy wizard, Star Lord, have cool X-Men mutant powers, or being a Jedi.

Of course it still propagates the same concept of identity as ancestry. But it's an ancient idea with examples as old as myth. (I'm thinking of Hercules, but there are certainly older characters defined by lineage.)

The secret, unusual bloodline as a positive isn't a new development; it's apparently a common childhood fantasy, referred to as a "family romance". Freud believed it was a way for a child to remove their parents' authority, I learned while writing this post.

# ? Feb 9, 2015 02:23

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

Seconding Dungeon World as an introductory game if you can't even elicit a preferred genre from the group.

Kestral posted:

Recording games

This was a good post. I think I will do that next time I game just because.

# ? Feb 9, 2015 02:35

Alien Rope Burn: Dec 5, 2004; _{I wanna be a saikyo HERO!}

Jimbozig posted:

Hey, Strike is just about to hit its first stretch goal, which is basically rules for huge boss monsters. I've got some stuff written up, but I need more ideas. Chat thread, I need your help! Post youtube links to the best boss fights in all videogames!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cabSmNHsdY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn6c52RAkBY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81gCxvUo-dg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFwwMy4LqDE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4itFxnswdug

# ? Feb 9, 2015 03:52

sentrygun: Dec 29, 2009; i say~
hey start:nya-sh

Metal Slug 3 got a lot weirder than I thought, huh.

# ? Feb 9, 2015 04:52

Effectronica: May 31, 2011; Fallen Rib

The simplest solution to the Deep Ones is to not have them be bad guys. Same with shoggoths. That way you sidestep all the issues with slavery and concentration camps and interrracial sex. You can neatly cut out any Cthulhu-worship or whatever too.

# ? Feb 9, 2015 04:56

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

When I was running a Delta-Green-ish game (I didn't have a copy of Delta Green) the idea was the Deep Ones were just a parallel form of humanity that lived in the sea, and that the crazy ones trying to summon Cthulhu and worshiping Father Dagon were the Deep One equivalent of the crazy human cultists doing the same.

# ? Feb 9, 2015 04:58

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

Jimbozig posted:

Hey, Strike is just about to hit its first stretch goal, which is basically rules for huge boss monsters. I've got some stuff written up, but I need more ideas. Chat thread, I need your help! Post youtube links to the best boss fights in all videogames!

PC BLAST

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm6KAif6BYA
Just one of many comically enormous bosses in the Serious Sam games, but this one really took me a while to figure out, as it SORT OF seemed like you could do enough damage to kill it if you hit it solely with the most powerful attack but then he gets healed sometimes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7C28Y8j_Wg
Not kidding. Hilarious and yet entirely sound mechanics!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN2fezPg6Mc
It was kind of way too hard but there is a certain satisfaction in literally ripping a person to pieces slowly...if you are into that. Still mad the sequel never came out for PC, even though apparently it sucks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX3rEd1-A60&t=2059s
Jazzpunk's final boss fight is incredibly long but obviously, well, yeah. It is all kinds of entertaining. This is a little ways into it.

# ? Feb 9, 2015 05:16

Kai Tave: Jul 2, 2012; Fallen Rib

Effectronica posted:

The simplest solution to the Deep Ones is to not have them be bad guys. Same with shoggoths. That way you sidestep all the issues with slavery and concentration camps and interrracial sex. You can neatly cut out any Cthulhu-worship or whatever too.

Alternately, if you want to keep them antagonistic just don't make them an awkward metaphor for anything. Sometimes an angry fishman is just an angry fishman.

# ? Feb 9, 2015 05:23

Tollymain: Jul 9, 2010; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

i thought shoggoths are ancient biological machines gone haywire. are they a metaphor for some grotesque bigotry as well?

# ? Feb 9, 2015 05:30

Error 404: Jul 17, 2009; MAGE CURES PLOT

Tollymain posted:

i thought shoggoths are ancient biological machines gone haywire. are they a metaphor for some grotesque bigotry as well?

You mean like Slaves went "haywire" when they were emancipated?

# ? Feb 9, 2015 05:44

Elfgames: Sep 11, 2011; Fun Shoe

Effectronica posted:

The simplest solution to the Deep Ones is to not have them be bad guys. Same with shoggoths. That way you sidestep all the issues with slavery and concentration camps and interrracial sex. You can neatly cut out any Cthulhu-worship or whatever too.

Or how about the fish people are just captureing and mutating people(or maybe it is willing who wouldn't grow some gills for enough money and power?)

# ? Feb 9, 2015 05:48

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 2, 2024 14:18

Tollymain: Jul 9, 2010; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Error 404 posted:

You mean like Slaves went "haywire" when they were emancipated?

# ? Feb 9, 2015 05:49

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > TG February Chat Thread: Dank Rollman's Halal Hotbox

«‹›33 »