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And animals aren't smart. They don't recognize things in human terms. The information you get is going to be vague or limited anyways. It isn't like the local squirrel can fully explain that "Why yes, dread wizard Sper Glord has spirited away the townsfolk to slave in his crystal mines to the north." And ruin your players finding their own plothook.
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Nov 18, 2015 23:19
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Captain Bravo posted:In that instance, the GM didn't want us to know what was coming because it was a Spider Eater and he was planning to paralyze most of the party for months so his sorceror buddy could make a deal with some forest witch. He got pissy when we killed it too early, and so loving declared that me and a rogue tripped and fell on top of it, paralyzing ourselves. Then he got mad when I pointed out that the cleric could heal paralysis, and declared that I couldn't tell anyone that, and nobody's characters could loving know that because it would be out-of-character knowledge. Did the sorcerer give the forest witch a wedgie and tell the cleric to use his drat magic?
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Nov 18, 2015 23:22
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Captain Bravo posted:In that instance, the GM didn't want us to know what was coming because it was a Spider Eater and he was planning to paralyze most of the party for months so his sorceror buddy could make a deal with some forest witch. He got pissy when we killed it too early, and so loving declared that me and a rogue tripped and fell on top of it, paralyzing ourselves. Then he got mad when I pointed out that the cleric could heal paralysis, and declared that I couldn't tell anyone that, and nobody's characters could loving know that because it would be out-of-character knowledge. Wow. Why were you letting him read you his novel, again?
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Nov 18, 2015 23:33
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the_steve posted:And animals aren't smart. They don't recognize things in human terms. My players miss so much information all the time, I wish they'd talk to the animals or *something* every so often. Like darn it, there's all this world-building going on, I wish someone would take the time to appreciate it, and try to figure out *why* there's a manual of necromantic golemancy in the hands of the kobold leader, or why the ancient flesh-statue-throne thing is so willing to talk and make deals with the pcs. But no, as long as there's loot to be found, and things to kill... Also reading this thread makes me sad that I haven't played DnD for a while.
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Nov 18, 2015 23:35
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"i continually do things my players have no interest in and now i seem to have no group"
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Nov 18, 2015 23:41
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Poison Mushroom posted:gently caress, I could actually build a campaign around this one. Sword of the Rings. (The Rings are Hell) cheetah7071 posted:The ultimate solution is to never expect anything. You can come up with a hundred possibilities for what the players might do, and they'll find option 101 instead every single time. Plan nothing. Build a setting and react to players. Also ask your players to make characters that want something, that might also help.
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Nov 18, 2015 23:41
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I've been in two FS/N games. One was a large-scale setup with 14 characters that needed a shitton of coordination to get anything done and never got to any big fights before it fizzled, which is a shame because there were some cool concepts. My favorite was the guy who summoned his past self because he'd been just that famous. The other one had five players with eight characters between us playing an alliance of four teams against ten other NPC teams. The gameplay was more story than numbers, and it was split between journal-based roleplay for downtime and everyone jumping into a chat at once for combat sessions. Most of us died multiple times, usually on purpose because that meant the GM would whip out a Tiger Dojo act at us and then we'd get to do it over. The party was: Mulan (Saber) with a ten year old prodigy snotrag who got the entire party and then himself killed via incompetent double-crossing. General Patton (Rider) with a cowardly illusionist in over his head. Fate/Zero came out the year after and did that whole dynamic much better. Atalanta (Brawler) with the illusionist's dumbass best friend who had no idea he was a wizard. Brawler's best moment was facing down Simo Hayha and saving her Master by punching a bullet dead on. And one of the other new classes with an anxious housewife who was the only Master on the team old enough to legally drink. It was less a tournament and more trying to capture the feel of the original game, stupid main character choices and overblown meal descriptions and all. That one didn't escape the FS/N game curse either, but we got a lot further and had a lot more fun before it died.
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Nov 19, 2015 00:26
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Kavak posted:Was the sorcerer played by his girlfriend or something? No, but his wife played in the game. One time he told her that her character couldn't hear the battle going on inside the building she was standing outside of, and so her character just stood outside and did nothing while we fought some bandits. She got kind of pissy, and he got pissy in response, and it was really uncomfortable.
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Nov 19, 2015 00:54
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Then who the hell was this sorcerer?
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Nov 19, 2015 00:56
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Captain Bravo posted:No, but his wife played in the game. One time he told her that her character couldn't hear the battle going on inside the building she was standing outside of, and so her character just stood outside and did nothing while we fought some bandits. She got kind of pissy, and he got pissy in response, and it was really uncomfortable. I think that's the first time I've heard of someone dicking over their significant other in game. Who was the sorcerer, then?
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Nov 19, 2015 00:57
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Just a friend! Some guy who I started referring to as his butt-buddy. He may also have been the dudes weed hookup, maybe that explains it?
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Nov 19, 2015 01:04
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the_steve posted:And animals aren't smart. They don't recognize things in human terms. I think it was a New Yorker cartoon where a scientist finally invents a dog translator, only to find out that dogs only ever say "Hey!" at varying volumes and inflections.
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Nov 19, 2015 03:03
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There was a different cartoon or tweet that said that all bird language is variation on "This is my spot" or "Let's gently caress".
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Nov 19, 2015 03:11
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gradenko_2000 posted:I think it was a New Yorker cartoon where a scientist finally invents a dog translator, only to find out that dogs only ever say "Hey!" at varying volumes and inflections. 
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Nov 19, 2015 03:44
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the_steve posted:And animals aren't smart. They don't recognize things in human terms. Yes, let's apply real world logic to the thought patterns of animals with whom we are communicating via magic in our land of make-believe. Animals should be able to tell the players exactly what the GM needs to tell them in order to advance the story line at the pace the GM wants. So this is a hyper-smart squirrel, or this spell allows the translation of thought patterns into those recognized by humans. I get the desire to maintain verisimilitude, but at some point it all breaks down because magic. I remember I was playing a Sorcerer in a Rolemaster campaign and there was a spell that changed one form of gas into another form of gas. I decided I was going to use it to convert all of the nitrogen in the room beyond a certain locked door to Hydrogen. Surely the light that was visible via the gap under the door was caused by a flame? Hydrogen mixed with Oxygen and flame creates an impressive boom (and a little bit of water vapor). So one of the other players says something to the effect of how would a person in the middle ages know about the chemical composition of the air and know to convert one into the other using chemistry? My retort was holy gently caress dude: If the spell allows the conversion of one gas to another, there must be some basic knowledge of chemistry or else why the gently caress would this spell exist? Later on, I decided to convert nitrogen to chlorine. 
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Nov 19, 2015 06:18
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Agrikk posted:Later on, I decided to convert nitrogen to chlorine. Holy poo poo. That's aw
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Nov 19, 2015 06:24
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Does the end result have to be something that is naturally a gas in the current environment? If not, well, there's a lot of fun to be had with gaseous metals. 
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Nov 19, 2015 06:33
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The point I was trying to make was: there's no reason to NOT allow someone to use Speak with Animals if they think to use it. Like you said, the local squirrel can convey enough info for them to go on without spoiling anything major.
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Nov 19, 2015 06:54
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SynthOrange posted:Does the end result have to be something that is naturally a gas in the current environment? If not, well, there's a lot of fun to be had with gaseous metals. Hah hah hah. That's funny. I imagine that it currently has to be a gas, because if not I could do dumb stuff like turn gas-lead into gas-gold and other game-breaking shenanigans. But a lungful of gas-plutonium instead of nitrogen would be an interesting critical to receive.
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Nov 19, 2015 07:16
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the_steve posted:The point I was trying to make was: there's no reason to NOT allow someone to use Speak with Animals if they think to use it. Like you said, the local squirrel can convey enough info for them to go on without spoiling anything major. "A passing chipmunk tells you: that thing can outrun you but it's not my problem, g'bye!" Agrikk posted:Hah hah hah. That's funny. I imagine that it currently has to be a gas, because if not I could do dumb stuff like turn gas-lead into gas-gold and other game-breaking shenanigans. If you instead went with antimatter-gas-plutonim, then... 
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Nov 19, 2015 07:52
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Agrikk posted:
I disagree. Humans talking to animals are naturally funny, and animals are best used to make druids look insane/brilliant. I recently started playing a Druid named Ranger Fizbit, whose gimmick is he's a Ranger Rick guy whose inalterable sign of transformation is a brown ranger's cap. Making animals animalian is a big part of wild adventurers. Rick fed his rations to a gluttonous wren (who revealed the forest had no food in it, since weird magical creatures had driven everything off); he tricked a dragonfly (who was too stupid to tell adventurers, aka "two-legs", from hypnotized pawns), and directly insulted a Magus by parleying with the guy's familiar instead of him. My point is: If the Justice League were pre-Gens, Aquaman would be the funnest. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 08:27 on Jan 8, 2018 |
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Nov 19, 2015 07:53
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Our Bard in a 5e port of the Stolen Land modules from pathfinder pretty much constantly has speak with beasts up and while the spell(in most systems anyway) really doesn't allow for proper conversations with animals we've had some fun listening in on them. We came up on a group of bears indulging in the continental breakfast at the re-purposed fort the adventure starts in, and got an earful of the man who owns the place screaming his head off behind a locked door. Since the bard had cast speak with beasts we got to hear a lot of incidental dialogue.  Waador posted:Oleg's Trading Post... After murdering a bunch of bandits we eventually took possession of their riding horses who have been fairly unnerved by our antics off and on. Waador posted:Oleg's Trading Post... Waador posted:Oleg's Trading Post... Not giving the animals you're chatting up at least some kind of personality, especially if they're going to be around for the long term, is just wasted entertainment potential .
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Nov 19, 2015 08:13
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"Oh my gosh this bacon is delicious, I can almost fit the entire thing in my mouth!"
"PLEASE BE QUIET CHILDREN, MOTHER IS TRYING TO CONCENTRATE ON SHUTTING OFF THIS INCESSANT ALARM."
“This is the worst day I have ever had in my life!”
"Did you see what they did to that one guy? They cut him in half man. I think that guy with the tattoos is wearing him like a new coat. We have to get out of here before they do the same thing to us."
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In the first ever game I ran one of the players had a spell that let them speak to machinery. When she used it on a mad scientist's device it told her how it had tried its best for master but it still wasn't good enough and he just got angry and hit it. THAT'S IT GUYS WE'RE RESCUING THE MACHINE
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Nov 19, 2015 09:26
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In a Dark Sun campaign I had a wild mage perserver with a snake familiar. The DM knew just how to spin it. It is really hard trying to hold critical supply negotations when your snakes is whipering in your head "Can I eat 'em, boss?" "Can I? Huh? Huh?" "Please?" "How about now?" "Now?" "I betcha you say 'yes' NOW..."
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Nov 19, 2015 09:59
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karmicknight posted:Sword of the Rings. (The Rings are Hell) I need to run this game now. Just need to decide what system.
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Nov 19, 2015 10:15
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a horse posted:Horsetag YOLO, am I right?" Noooooooo
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Nov 19, 2015 12:01
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Agrikk posted:Yes, let's apply real world logic to the thought patterns of animals with whom we are communicating via magic in our land of make-believe.
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Nov 19, 2015 14:29
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silentsnack posted:If it observes conservation of atom-density and energy, considering that plutonium at room temperature has a very tiny vapor pressure the effect would be something along the lines of "rapid pressure drop followed by intense heat as plutonium rapidly oxidizes, then the room implodes." Agrikk posted:Later on, I decided to convert nitrogen to chlorine.
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Nov 19, 2015 17:05
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Yawgmoth posted:poo poo like this is why I'm not allowed to take dots of Matter in Mage. I mean, you can't actually do that sort of thing in Mage until everyone else can do equally effective things because it actually has hard rules set for it.
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Nov 19, 2015 19:47
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Do you GMs keep your old log books and notes? Or do you just toss them after a while? I am notoriously bad at hoarding old gaming stuff (hello complete and intact Boot Hill game from 1975)and recently I was wandering through a bunch of old boxes and I found an old campaign logbook from about 20 years ago. Crazy how many memories it brings back. I'm wondering now: Is this thread worthy? I was thinking about posting page images from it and doing a write up on my thoughts at the time of where the campaign would go. Would y'all be interested in a thread like this?
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Nov 20, 2015 00:13
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Highlights, yes. Mostly comparing and contrasting how you did things then vs how you would do them now. That would be interesting.
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Nov 20, 2015 00:16
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Mr. Maltose posted:I mean, you can't actually do that sort of thing in Mage until everyone else can do equally effective things because it actually has hard rules set for it. Also they're dropping pretty much all the distinctions on Matter transmutations in 2e so get ready for plenty of "then I turned his shirt into ClF3 and the other moros was pissed because there wasn't enough left to use any Death spell on."
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Nov 20, 2015 00:32
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A Darker Porpoise posted:Horsetag YOLO This is the best line
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Nov 20, 2015 00:45
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Skyscraper posted:This is the best line The entire horse conversation was brilliant in every way.
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Nov 20, 2015 00:52
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Agrikk posted:Do you GMs keep your old log books and notes? Or do you just toss them after a while? Starting last year or early this year I began actually taking notes of sessions I participated in. I have all of my tabletop stuff on a 1 TB Dropbox account that's linked to two computers.
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Nov 20, 2015 01:04
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I bribe my players with bonus XP for each session they write a small in-character journal entry for, and it's been working great. It's always funny to read players who STRONGLY disagree over whether something that happened is good. Player A: Things are progressing according to plan, we will soon be triumphant! Player B: Things are so out of hand, we are the monsters the next heroes will slay Player C:  THINGS ARE ON FIRE
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Nov 20, 2015 01:11
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Finishing L5R sessions with a haiku-off was always nice.
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Nov 20, 2015 01:20
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I try to record my sessions for posterity.
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Nov 20, 2015 01:24
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I audio record my sessions. This helps to keep emotional and situational context for everything, allows me to easily remember what happened for the next session when I listen to it on my way to and from work, and, most importantly, preserves the often hilarious table talk that happens.
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Nov 20, 2015 01:43
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Kaza42 posted:I bribe my players with bonus XP for each session they write a small in-character journal entry for, and it's been working great. It's always funny to read players who STRONGLY disagree over whether something that happened is good. Something I wanted to do for a Supernatural-inspired monster/ghost hunter game was to use Google Docs or something to create a digital "journal" of all of the information that the party comes across, like what monsters are vulnerable to and their notes on the individual case.
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Nov 20, 2015 02:01
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