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gradenko_2000 posted:I think even a call to your standard RNG API is going to be good enough for government work. The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.
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Oct 22, 2016 02:05
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Ilor posted:Speaking as someone who works for the government, the above is almost certainly true. I worked with the government on arranging a web meeting once. It took about 35 minutes for their IT guy to realize that the invite email was going to a clutter box, then another 20 minutes for them to hunt around for a microphone.
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Oct 22, 2016 02:13
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I'm pretty sure https://www.crystalcaste.com used to make bone dice but I don't see them on their website any more. I used to do our orders with them when I worked at a game store and they were pretty awesome people. You used to be able to send them stones and they would carve them into dice for you. I don't know if they still do that. Most of the fancy dice were sold to groups buying a present for their DM. People coming in talking about their individual characters got old really fast but groups talking about how awesome their long time GM is or was was always really nice. 
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Oct 22, 2016 03:17
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gradenko_2000 posted:If you really wanted true randomness, you'd use random.org's integer generator set to 1 to 20 (or whatever other dice size you need), but then that doesn't include things like easy access to modifiers. For a period of several months my group used a dicebot that appeared to have a fixed seed and a really bad array of numbers. We found out when we had two of it in the channel and were rolling large numbers of dice, resulting in identical strings of results. A friend took the bot and ran it through a thousand rolls, establishing that it didn't even hold to a standard bell curve.
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Oct 22, 2016 04:44
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If you want properly random you go to the universal standards http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/
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Oct 22, 2016 11:43
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This makes me miss my dice tower.
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Oct 22, 2016 14:29
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Dareon posted:For a period of several months my group used a dicebot that appeared to have a fixed seed and a really bad array of numbers. We found out when we had two of it in the channel and were rolling large numbers of dice, resulting in identical strings of results. A friend took the bot and ran it through a thousand rolls, establishing that it didn't even hold to a standard bell curve.
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Oct 22, 2016 14:56
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Possibly someone's first attempt at coding their own RNG. Pseudo-random is surprisingly hard without leaving a bias of some sort in there.
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Oct 22, 2016 15:52
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SweetBro posted:As for your "on topic", basically it's best done with some sort of computer assistance otherwise it takes too loving long, at that point it just becomes "Gamble on whether or not you do nothing or something awesome with your turn". I've got a "The universe is just a series of mathematical computations" wizard that uses them, but haven't actually bothered playing him yet. Yeah I know how it works, its fully detailed right there in the link I provided. I said on topic, because this is a thread where people recount stories of gameplay experiences and I was hoping for a story of a catpissy grognard playing a numerologist in a (likely) unsuspecting group, not a discussion on pathfinder design philosophy or the merits of competing SRDs. Somewhat surprisingly, it seems that nobody in here knows anyone that bothered .
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Oct 22, 2016 21:27
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goatface posted:Possibly someone's first attempt at coding their own RNG. Pseudo-random is surprisingly hard without leaving a bias of some sort in there. Only if you try to be too clever and reinvent the wheel, instead of just using an existing proven library. Nerds being nerds, of course, finding people trying to roll their own PRNG and failing is hilariously common. Even something as relatively ancient and straightforward as a mersenne twister PRNG can be significantly more fair and random than rolling a physical die.
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Oct 22, 2016 21:36
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Mondian posted:Yeah I know how it works, its fully detailed right there in the link I provided. I said on topic, because this is a thread where people recount stories of gameplay experiences and I was hoping for a story of a catpissy grognard playing a numerologist in a (likely) unsuspecting group, not a discussion on pathfinder design philosophy or the merits of competing SRDs. Somewhat surprisingly, it seems that nobody in here knows anyone that bothered . Somewhat surprisingly? The discussion of the design philosophy is likely why people HAVEN'T used it.
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Oct 22, 2016 22:08
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I support my GM by bringing him Big League Chew every game as well as marrying his ex-wife. Does that count as proper compensation?
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Oct 24, 2016 11:51
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CobiWann posted:I support my GM by bringing him Big League Chew every game as well as marrying his ex-wife. Does that count as proper compensation? He has multiple ex's you have married? Also, where do you find Big League Chew any more?
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Oct 24, 2016 12:05
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Bieeardo posted:Regardless of the answer, this monstrosity is clearly the fairest of them all: http://www.gamesbyemail.com/News/DiceOMatic
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Oct 24, 2016 15:08
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Samizdata posted:He has multiple ex's you have married? Also, where do you find Big League Chew any more? I've only married his one ex-wife. What would be the proper grammar for that statement? And you can get Big League chew at Five Below. That actually have a great selection of candy at cheap prices. ** Sorry for the delay in reporting on our Tanicus campaign – it’s been a combination of being busy at work/writing and submitting a story/depression/breaking my iPhone with all my gaming pictures on it. ** Last we left off – Varis had been resurrected and was now a spokesperson for Abeforth’s Apothecary. The party’s immediate goal is to somehow get into Ancellyon, the home of the evil Sidhe (Elven) race and summon an army from the Feywild in order to stop the Ancelyn army from joining up with our Eldritch Knight’s grandmother and her devil allies. Ancellyon is separated from the mainland by a vast sea and bordered by tall, jagged mountains. The only way into the country is through one of the heavily fortified and militarized ports or through the bottom levels of the dwarven capital of Anarak. However that exit from the city-fortress is constantly besieged by Orc tribes allied to the Ancelyn. Our first attempt to get into Ancellyon involves a Ancelyn smuggler who we had sprung from the prison of Catra’zal who said that he could sneak us into the country under the guise of slave trading. However, when we arrived at the hidden cover to meet up with him our group discovered that the smuggler, his crew, his cargo of “slaves,” and indeed his entire boat had been frozen solid in a huge block of ice by none other than an Ice Devil. After defeating the Ice Devil and his frostlings, our party came to realize that Tellisyn’s grandmother somehow knows our plans before we do, as if she’s constantly scrying on us. It’s enough for Tellisyn to almost give up right then and there as she believes there’s no way to make it to the Standing Stones and summon the Feywild army with her grandmother on our back the entire time. It takes a visit from the Queen of Air and Darkness herself to “remind” her that a pact had been struck and she WILL make it to the Standing Stones to summon the army. There was no “or else.” Fortunately, luck was on our side. It turned out that our group had been followed the entire time by a dwarf who was the cousin of another prisoner we had rescued from Catra’zal. And he had a way to get us into Ancellyn via the dwarf capital. The dwarf was an arcane spellcaster who teleported us to the roof of the city-fortress of Anarak. From the roof, it would be possible to descend through the mountains to a monastery dedicated to Emanyn, the Wave Master, god of the sea and all things water-related. It had once sat on the shore of the ocean until the Worldquake had changed the geography of Tanicus and placed the monastery in the foothills of the World’s End mountains. The monks just shrugged and dug a series of aqueducts to bring water to the monastery and went about this business. Underneath the shrine dedicated to Emanyn was a staircase that led to the ocean floor which was now a dried out badland as opposed to the lush seascape it had once been. Oh, and I should mention that Ksena, our Monk, grew up in this monastery and had NO Idea this staircase existed. We fight across a rickety bridge after being ambushed by harpies, who are the favored species of Caradoc, the Foul Destroyer, god of war and battle lust, force our way through a bevy of Frost Giants, and make it to the monastery where Ksena is greeted by her master as “Little Raincloud.” After a “my Kung Fu is superior to your Kung Fu” brawl with one of her rivals who believed that travelling the world made one weak as opposed to study and meditation, the Grand Master reveals the staircase. Before our party leaves however, Ksena has a vision. Right after the Worldquake, a monk (Ksena in a past life) made a pilgrimage with several other monks to the Barrier Spire to retrieve several important artifacts and return them to the monastery. Our journey to Ancellyon would take us along the same path this monk took, only his journey ended in tragedy as orcs killed his party along the way. The trip to Ancellyon proper takes across the bottom of what was once part of the ocean. The ground is covered with the bones of large sea creatures, decaying coral structures stretch above us like dirty fingernails, and what were once undersea steam/heat vents still project foul gases and mist into the air. We manage to avoid getting into fights most of the way across the floor, heading towards the marshlands that once made up a vast river delta pouring into the ocean. Along the way, our party runs into an orc ambush where Ksena turns into a whirling dervish of death, pretty much giving the orcs no quarter as she rips through them. It’s this way for most of our trip – orc ambush, Ksena tears them apart, orc ambush, Ksena tears them apart. Even our Eldritch Knight and Paladin, who pretty much live by the maxim “kill as many of them as you can before they surrender,” are taken aback as Ksena works off past life baggage. Our party ends up at the Barrier Spire itself. The tribe who had taken up residence inside had plundered the place of anything valuable years previous, save for one item that the party found once Ksena had finished killing every orc…. quote:Cullus – Ksena killed everybody. The only magical item left inside was a staff - a Staff of Tranquil Rest. When used, the Staff opens a portal to the Elemental Plane of Air for the entire party to step through. Inside the portal is the idea resting place for whoever is wielding the staff at the time – our druid-esque Favored Soul had a vast green meadow, Varis had the town of Dale during a cool spring night, and Skeever was a large sphere filled with nothing but large fluffy pillows where nothing could possibly harm anyone. Air elementals act as servants while inside the portal and the party gains the benefit of a long rest and a complete meal after 8 hours. As the dried seabed slowly gave way into the marshland, our party came across a huge orc camp/fortress that blocked the way into the marshlands. Ksena, as usual, wanted to walk inside and kill everyone, but Fallinrae managed to convince her that tact might be needed this time out (leading Skeever to ask if we needed a doppelganger check). With the help of Cullus’ Rogue disguise kit and some drat fine rolls (the lowest he rolled was a 16 before modifiers), Cullus turned our party into a group of Ancelyn and their goblin slaves. This allowed us to walk right through the first part of the camp without a fight. In the back of the camp however, a group of Ancelyn were with the Orc Chief. They were in the middle of warning the Chief that interlopers were attempting to force their way into Ancellyon and that the orcs needed to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Like the party of Ancelyn and their goblin slaves that no one had ever seen before who JUST walked into camp. The fight took two-and-a-half hours. Half the party recreated “Horatio at the Bridge” to hold back the orcs from the front of the camp who were pouring over a bridge (even the Rogue kicking out the supports didn’t stop the orcs from charging across the chasm using the bodies of their fallen comrades as stepladders to climb the opposite wall of the moat) while the other half dealt with the orc chief and the Ancelyn. The orc chief was apparently expecting a double-cross from the Ancelyn, because on his first action he took a swig from a nearby stein…and went from a Medium-sized creature to a Huge-creature. The party had to pull out every single trick in the book to stay alive, from bringing the tent down on the Ancelyn to giving the Orc Chief a hotfoot to buy a few rounds to heal up to hiding behind the pile of dead orcs...we won (barely). In the end, the only two orcs left alive were the two guards at the very front of the camp, the ones who let us in while we were disguised. quote:
Next time - The Brains That Wouldn't Die, complete with pictures!
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Oct 24, 2016 15:45
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Samizdata posted:He has multiple ex's you have married? Also, where do you find Big League Chew any more?
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Oct 24, 2016 16:07
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quote:Cullus – Ksena killed everybody. They're all dead dave. :P
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Oct 24, 2016 19:49
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Splicer posted:There's a rotating cycle of three wives that they divorce and remarry each week for a +1 bonus to spell DC. 
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Oct 24, 2016 20:31
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CobiWann posted:I support my GM by bringing him Big League Chew every game as well as marrying his ex-wife. 
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Oct 24, 2016 23:21
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Ilor posted:This has breathtaking cat-piss potential. Tell me more. I'm pretty sure CobiWann already told that story previously ITT. Although it is a nice story. I've been DMing a group of friends in a 4th edition game for the past year, and we've been having a great time. I orginally started with The standing stones and segued into our homebrew campaign, but the amount of work my players have done with their characters is great. And they keep latching onto my one-time NPC's and turning them into heroes in their own rights, which is great. For example, The Standing Stones has a character callled Kiris Hoyt, a wererat living in the ruins of a town. He's a relative of the questgiver, and is basically there to provide some answers, freak out and be a combat encounter. My players knocked him out, then brought him along. They'd been getting a bad vibe from the questgiver and somehow during the fight they'd got it into their head that Hoyt had been cursed by his cousin into being a wererat. So, like anyone trying to be Good DM, I rolled with it. He was with them for two more adventures. Next time: Horse is a class, and now it's glowing.
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Oct 25, 2016 01:13
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Except CobiWann's game sounds fun and good, and by all accounts his GM has been running for him for a while. So I'm not sure that really needs to get discussed here. Especially as that might be personal and not relevant to his excellent adventures.
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Oct 25, 2016 01:15
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HiKaizer posted:Except CobiWann's game sounds fun and good, and by all accounts his GM has been running for him for a while. So I'm not sure that really needs to get discussed here. Especially as that might be personal and not relevant to his excellent adventures. Plenty of rear end in a top hat potential though. CobiWann: "I would like to seduce the noblewoman." DM: "But she married." CobiWann: "Didn't help you, did it?"
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Oct 25, 2016 02:38
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Nah, there’s no cat-piss to it. I met my wife and her ex-husband/current GM through my roommate at the time. I played in some games with them (“DC Superheroes,” “Firefly,” a homebrew cyberpunk setting) but at the time I was a horrible RP’er – not quite cat-piss, but you’d want to change the litter after a few sessions with me. My wife started to run a “7th Sea” campaign on Friday nights for my roommates and myself so I became good friends with her. When the divorce hit, my wife ended up moving into a townhouse just down the road from me. We played a new “7th Sea” campaign at her house with new players, I started hanging out with her/going to the movies/babysitting her daughter, she convinced me to start going to her White Wolf LARP, one thing led to another, her and her daughter moved in with me, we got married, she ran “7th Sea” for a few more months until I took over to run a West End “Star Wars” game. Meanwhile, her ex-husband gets remarried (to Ksena’s player). The divorce was…about as pleasant as a divorce could be with a kid involved, but once the dust had settled my wife and her ex-husband became very amicable towards each other, almost friendly. It also helped that I hit it off with his new wife and anytime the four of us were together it was easy for the two of us to get a conversation rolling, plus I was able to help him break the ice with HIS new stepdaughter since the two of us were new at the whole "stepdad" thing. Fast forward a bit – they’re dropping my stepdaughter off at our house. The GM mentions he’s going to run his D&D game and I ask him what edition. He says fifth, I chat with him about the rule changes between third, fourth, and fifth, and he invites me down to play a one-shot character, a local Sorcerer who can escort the party to a cave high in the mountains. One thing leads to another, and next thing I know I’m in my first regular “Dungeons and Dragons” campaign. The family and social dynamic is…a bit mixed. There is me, married to my wife, who’s the ex-wife of my current “D&D” and “Ghostbusters” GM who’s married to a new wife who also plays in both games. I run a “Star Wars” game for three friends and my wife who have all been playing together for nearly a decade. One of those friends is the ex-wife of another player in my “D&D” and “Ghostbusters” games and THAT was a nasty divorce, so nasty that those two don’t talk to one another because she’s dating (and just bought a house with) one of the “Star Wars” players. The third “Star Wars” and “Ghostbusters” player is an incredibly chill guy who not only plays in the “Star Wars” and “Ghostbusters” games, but makes a drive every other week to play “7th Sea” with my ex-roommate who HATES my wife and her ex-husband…and this is without getting into LARP drama… I could sit down and write a book using my social dynamics as a backdrop, except I’d get called out for it being too unbelievable. You’ve heard of blended families? We’re a freakin’ Gordian Knot. The four of us actually have a Board Game Night coming up – “Exploding Kittens” with the girls before they go to bed, the new expansion for “Betrayal at the House on the Hill” once they’re asleep… CobiWann fucked around with this message at 13:08 on Oct 25, 2016 |
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Oct 25, 2016 13:05
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You're a stiff wind away from knocking over that house of cards, holy moly 
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Oct 25, 2016 14:44
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Wait wait wait hold on. There's a BaHotH expansion? Any good?
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Oct 25, 2016 15:59
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Splicer posted:Wait wait wait hold on. It's an expansion for the game "Betrayal at House On The Hill". What more do you really need to know? e: That is to say, your feelings on Betrayal should mirror your feelings on the expansion. It's more of the same. There ain't nobody who didn't like Betrayal who'll like the expansion, and the only people who like Betrayal who won't like the expansion are the ones who lose their poo poo at the mention of names like "Zoe Quinn" and "Anita Sarkeesian" because they (among many others) were brought in to write haunt scenarios for the expansion. Scyther fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Oct 25, 2016 |
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Oct 25, 2016 16:06
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Here's a picture of a D&D 4e flanking conga line from our session yesterday Pictured fighting my squad of githyanki is: Myna, the Half-Orc Warlord with an Intimidate check so high she can use it for echolocation Clara, the Monk-turned-Vampire that set up an elaborate movement just so she could kill a target with an elbow drop+falling damage Raiden, the Cybernetic Fighter that defeats my nefarious dungeon traps using NANOMACHINES, SON Not pictured: Zhahn, the Mage with an incredible disdain for people walking into the AOEs of his spells and a knack for finishing people off with Magic Missile Balasar, the Dragonborn Bard that constantly frustrates my monsters with a combination of blunders, fumbles, hypnosis and precognition EDIT: We used to have a Druid in the party who would summon a toad. Except at the time, when I searched my tokens, Toad was the only thing that came up when I searched for a toad. The party has since adopted him whenever someone has a summon spell.
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Oct 29, 2016 01:53
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gradenko_2000 posted:We used to have a Druid in the party who would summon a toad. Except at the time, when I searched my tokens, Toad was the only thing that came up when I searched for a toad. The party has since adopted him whenever someone has a summon spell. Nice. When my group started using gametable, I sort of went nuts making most of the random pictures on my hard drive into pogs, one of which was Naked Snake from MGS3. Snake manages to show up in nearly every battle, just off to one side in the scenery.
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Oct 29, 2016 02:39
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Wait, Intimidate check for Echolocation? How does that work?
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Oct 29, 2016 05:05
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the_steve posted:Wait, Intimidate check for Echolocation? You can hear the walls quiver in fear.
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Oct 29, 2016 05:10
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I feel like a complete idiot spending a couple minutes searching for Toad from Marvel comics in that picture.
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Oct 29, 2016 06:02
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gradenko_2000 posted:Myna, the Half-Orc Warlord with an Intimidate check so high she can use it for echolocation I love your players.
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Oct 29, 2016 11:01
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Right, here's the thread I was looking for! Man, I just remembered the time my DM let me enchant a Titanic Toad with a permanent Awaken spell, granting it human-scale intellect and speech. And Craft: Brewing. Then one day we decided that Jeremiah wasn't just a toad, he was one of them psychotropic lickin' frogs.
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Oct 29, 2016 16:20
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Bieeardo posted:Right, here's the thread I was looking for! And now you've got that song stuck in my head
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Oct 29, 2016 16:57
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Bieeardo posted:Right, here's the thread I was looking for! He was a good friend of mine? Edit: f;b
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Oct 29, 2016 23:21
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Bieeardo posted:Right, here's the thread I was looking for! I came in and read this as that song was playing on the radio. 
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Oct 30, 2016 02:02
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Bieeardo posted:Right, here's the thread I was looking for! 
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Oct 30, 2016 12:13
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Playing V:tM, my first time playing a Sabbat game. I'm playing my pack's priest, a devoted and fervent disciple of Cain, filled with a great love for all of vampire-kind. Our very first mission, I get shot in the face with a flare gun, succumb to the Rotschreck, and triple botch my Path degeneration roll  On a more badass note, I was reduced to one-hit-away-from death like three times that same game and still walked away at the end of every fight FrostyPox fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Nov 1, 2016 |
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Oct 31, 2016 17:01
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FrostyPox posted:
For those of us who are unfamiliar with the system, what does this part mean?
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Nov 1, 2016 03:24
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So Vampires have an innate terror of fire called "The Rotschreck", which causes them to flee, much like a wild animal. This is due to the fact that Vampires have an "inner beast", which is why they have to make Willpower checks to prevent fear frenzy from fire, or hunger frenzy from... well, hunger. Also, fire causes MASSIVE damage to Vampires. Some vampires also have to check for frenzy when insulted or provoked. Camarilla Vampires basically seek to flat-out deny the beast by maintaining their humanity (represented by their "Humanity" stat). These Vampires will suffer from Humanity loss for commiting human sins (theft, murder, etc). As one might expect, this can make life difficult for a Vampire. Rotschreck causes one to run in terror, Frenzy causes one to attack the source of ire (and anyone nearby, too). Sabbat vampires, however, for the most part flatly reject the notion of humanity (after all, Vampires aren't human), and accept the Beast as part of them. However, they don't want to allow the Beast to control them, but rather to be in a sort of harmony where they understand and sate the Beast when necessary. Most Sabbat, instead of Humanity, are on the Path of Caine, which is all about embracing and mastering your vampiric nature. A Vampire at 10 on the path of Caine is basically in perfect harmony with his nature and the Beast. So sins for this Path include things such as disrespecting other students of the Path, failing to "ride the wave" of Frenzy (IE, letting the frenzy control you completely, or successfully resisting the frenzy), or, in my case, succumbing to the Beast's fear of fire ("Master your fear. Terror is for lesser beings.") Regardless of your path, every time you "sin", you have to make a roll to see if you degrade along the path. The higher you are on the path, the closer you are to being the paragon of your philosophical ideals. The lower you are, as a vampire, the more bestial you become. Hitting zero on your path, regardless of what your path may be, makes you a "Wight", a literally-feral vampire who is incapable of reason or communication and, like an animal, concerned only with feeding and sleeping. So basically I sinned, so I had to make a roll based on a substat (in this case, Conviction). Success means that I felt remorse for my sin or have managed to justify my failing, failure means I don't give a gently caress and thus lose the path dot. I rolled my dice pool of 4 and not only did I not roll any success, but I rolled three ones; a triple botch. My character didn't give even the slightest gently caress that he sinned and thus degraded. This is doubly ironic because he's literally a priest. I can spend XP to increase my rating on the path, which represents my character spending time meditating, studying, and trying to unfuck himself. FrostyPox fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Nov 1, 2016 |
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Nov 1, 2016 03:54
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