NP Friday May 05 2017

[The Old Hack 2,448]

1 hour ago, Tom Sewell said:

Those odds don't depend on the die at all, but whether the GM wants to kill you now or wait until later.

You can always kill a player character. But, ah, the opportunities to humiliate them, crush their dreams, and delight in their wails and lamentations... seize those when you can, for once they are dead, they will not come again.

[hkmaly 490]

4 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

6 hours ago, Cpt. Obvious said:

You forget that the exact odds depends on if the roll was made openly or behind the GM screen...

Those odds don't depend on the die at all, but whether the GM wants to kill you now or wait until later.

In case of SOME GMs, it depends on how much he wants to save you from your stupidity. Remember, you don't play AGAINST the GM. If GM would be your enemy, you would simply meet dragon in first 3x3 room at your first adventure. And he would be VERY pissed off due to being stuck in so small place.

(There is one exception: Amber Diceless RPG. In that, GM might actually assume pissed off dragon is adequate opponent for start of first adventure.)

[The Old Hack 2,448]

2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

In case of SOME GMs, it depends on how much he wants to save you from your stupidity. Remember, you don't play AGAINST the GM. If GM would be your enemy, you would simply meet dragon in first 3x3 room at your first adventure. And he would be VERY pissed off due to being stuck in so small place.

(There is one exception: Amber Diceless RPG. In that, GM might actually assume pissed off dragon is adequate opponent for start of first adventure.)

Meh. A bit anemic opposition, I'd say.

Then again, in Amber Diceless, the DM wouldn't have much use for a d20.

[Cpt. Obvious 73]

10 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

You can always kill a player character. But, ah, the opportunities to humiliate them, crush their dreams, and delight in their wails and lamentations... seize those when you can, for once they are dead, they will not come again.

I used to make up some games to play with the players, though they never knew about it. One time I rolled a D20 behind the screen every minute, made some appropriate (or inappropriate in some cases) noises and jotted down the result on a pad behind the screen and calculated the running average. The players soon noticed about the time roll and that I was obviously taking detailed notes. Soon they started worrying about what was going on that they didn't know about. When some one eventually asked about it I just said that it was nothing to worry about, it probably wouldn't kill them. When they got a bit antsy I started making this roll openly, but I still didn't tell them anything about why, and for some strange reason this freaked them out even more. There's no pleasing some players...

 

[Bluedarkyugi 0]

7 hours ago, Cpt. Obvious said:

I used to make up some games to play with the players, though they never knew about it. One time I rolled a D20 behind the screen every minute, made some appropriate (or inappropriate in some cases) noises and jotted down the result on a pad behind the screen and calculated the running average. The players soon noticed about the time roll and that I was obviously taking detailed notes. Soon they started worrying about what was going on that they didn't know about. When some one eventually asked about it I just said that it was nothing to worry about, it probably wouldn't kill them. When they got a bit antsy I started making this roll openly, but I still didn't tell them anything about why, and for some strange reason this freaked them out even more. There's no pleasing some players...

 

>.>

<.<

You may be among the most evil people I have met, I may have to steal that one.

[hkmaly 490]

12 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Then again, in Amber Diceless, the DM wouldn't have much use for a d20.

If I remember correctly, unlike players, DM MIGHT use dices in some cases, although the rules didn't specified which dices.

8 hours ago, Cpt. Obvious said:

One time I rolled a D20 behind the screen every minute

You mean every REAL-TIME minute? That doesn't make sense ...

[Scotty 1,061]

41 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

You mean every REAL-TIME minute? That doesn't make sense ...

The GM we had for the Heavy Gear game would randomly run the dice command in IRC with various modifiers, but not explain why, while we discussed what actions we should take and such, we didn't know if he was rolling because we were taking too long to decide, or if he was just playing with the bot. There was one night he rolled several times with a low result and chuckled saying "well got those pathetic rolls out of the way for yas" and the later rolled high and only gave an evil sound chortle.

[hkmaly 490]

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

You mean every REAL-TIME minute? That doesn't make sense ...

The GM we had for the Heavy Gear game would randomly run the dice command in IRC with various modifiers, but not explain why, while we discussed what actions we should take and such, we didn't know if he was rolling because we were taking too long to decide, or if he was just playing with the bot. There was one night he rolled several times with a low result and chuckled saying "well got those pathetic rolls out of the way for yas" and the later rolled high and only gave an evil sound chortle.

Well, sure, if the group is arguing what to do next, you can say that "talking is a free action" doesn't apply and the arguing actually takes roughly same time as in real time. But generally, game-time and real-time are very unsynchronized.

[Cpt. Obvious 73]

2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

You mean every REAL-TIME minute? That doesn't make sense ...

Well, in our group talk wasn't a free action, other than that you could spew an incredible amount of drivel in the time it took to swing a sword. But basically anything said between players was said by their characters, and that included pizza orders... I remember a cunningly laid out ambush that failed as the sneaky halfling that was hiding near the road suddenly shouted that he wanted extra garlic sauce with his pizza...

So if the players stood around in a dungeon for too long it was quite possible a wandering monster might stumble on them instead of the other way around..
 

[hkmaly 490]

8 minutes ago, Cpt. Obvious said:

2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

You mean every REAL-TIME minute? That doesn't make sense ...

Well, in our group talk wasn't a free action, other than that you could spew an incredible amount of drivel in the time it took to swing a sword. But basically anything said between players was said by their characters, and that included pizza orders... I remember a cunningly laid out ambush that failed as the sneaky halfling that was hiding near the road suddenly shouted that he wanted extra garlic sauce with his pizza...

I would note that it was cruel but considering how this started it would be superfluous.

9 minutes ago, Cpt. Obvious said:

So if the players stood around in a dungeon for too long it was quite possible a wandering monster might stumble on them instead of the other way around..

THAT I understand.

[Scotty 1,061]

58 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Well, sure, if the group is arguing what to do next, you can say that "talking is a free action" doesn't apply and the arguing actually takes roughly same time as in real time. But generally, game-time and real-time are very unsynchronized.

It wasn't so much that, but we were sometimes on a schedule, like trying to get a combat session done in one or two nights, if any of us were taking too long to decide what to do on our turn, the GM would threaten to decide for us.

[Cpt. Obvious 73]

2 minutes ago, Scotty said:

It wasn't so much that, but we were sometimes on a schedule, like trying to get a combat session done in one or two nights, if any of us were taking too long to decide what to do on our turn, the GM would threaten to decide for us.

That's something you quite often has to do. Some players can take hours to decide on sleeping arrangements. We had one six hour session where all that was accomplished was a bit of hunting for provisions. It took ten minutes for them to bag a boar, and the rest of the time deciding if they would smoke, dry, salt or just cook the meat.

That was one of the reasons we started using a "not quite realtime" system. If the players started to bog down a swift kick in the butt from the GM usually got things rolling again. 
 

[The Old Hack 2,448]

6 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Well, sure, if the group is arguing what to do next, you can say that "talking is a free action" doesn't apply and the arguing actually takes roughly same time as in real time. But generally, game-time and real-time are very unsynchronized.

A friend of mine played in a LARP where "talking is a free action" was deliberately disallowed and replaced with a five-word speaking limit per combat round.

On his turn, he said, "Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, tintinnabulation,floccinauccinihilipilification, antidisestablishmentarianism, trinitrotulurene."

He got mobbed by the referees and the other players. I told him I was very disappointed that he hadn't included 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.'

[Don Edwards 548]

He was being hyperintellipygian.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

1 hour ago, Don Edwards said:

He was being hyperintellipygian.

No, merely -- as was his wont -- allowing his logorrhea and sesquepedalianism run away with him.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

4 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

No, merely -- as was his wont -- allowing his logorrhea and sesquepedalianism run away with him.

You know, they have pills that can help with those nowadays.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

Just now, ProfessorTomoe said:

You know, they have pills that can help with those nowadays.

Prescription strength STFU? o.O

[hkmaly 490]

13 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

You know, they have pills that can help with those nowadays.

"Scruples are not hemorrhoids" (although both are more likely to affect people as they get older).

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

Ah, yes, sesquepedalian loquatiousness, a favorite of cunning linguists the world over.

23 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

He was being hyperintellipygian.

I see what you did there!

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

17 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Prescription strength STFU? o.O

Actually, that does not require a prescription.  In fact, the manufacturer gives it away.

It seems that while many people RECOMMEND taking it,  Very few will USE an entire dose in a human lifetime.

[mlooney 3,417]

On 5/10/2017 at 4:40 AM, The Old Hack said:

On 5/10/2017 at 4:39 AM, ProfessorTomoe said:

You know, they have pills that can help with those nowadays.

Prescription strength STFU? o.O

 

Normal sized doses of Ativan would count.  Never mind a "given in the ER to calm down freaking out people" level dose.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

On ‎05‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 9:07 AM, mlooney said:

Normal sized doses of Ativan would count.  Never mind a "given in the ER to calm down freaking out people" level dose.

Is this stuff available without prescription?

I'm asking for a friend...

[hkmaly 490]

On 05/11/2017 at 3:07 PM, mlooney said:

Never mind a "given in the ER to calm down freaking out people" level dose.

Do they seriously give people who are freaking out something which can make them forget how they get where they are? Sounds shortsighted.

[mlooney 3,417]

2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Do they seriously give people who are freaking out something which can make them forget how they get where they are? Sounds shortsighted.

It is one of the options.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

4 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Do they seriously give people who are freaking out something which can make them forget how they get where they are? Sounds shortsighted.

In Denmark we have mental 'health' institutions where patients will be kept immobilised and/or heavily drugged for weeks or months on end because it makes them easier to deal with. The patients' actual health, mental or physical, is at best a tertiary consideration if it even rates at all. Part of the problem is lack of funding. In my personal opinion the principal difference between these places and a medieval bedlam is that in the more 'modern' version, the floors are kept cleaner.