D&D and Tabletops RPGs V7: Yes you can talk about tabletops other than D&D - Games

Okay, so remember how I mentioned my superhero character (Ghostronaut) has an ability I affectionately refer to as "Ghost Taste"? Essentially, he can suck out someone's ghost and taste it, gaining insight into their thoughts, emotions, motives, and all that type of stuff. As the game has continued, Ghost Taste has basically become my go-to approach; Wormholes and Mummy Beams are insanely useful for combat, but if we're not currently punching something, Ghostronaut doesn't have too much to work with. For example, we just played a game yesterday where we had to fight members of our own superhero team who were mind-controlled by some extra-dimensional being (people were absent, so it's time for a one-shot side adventure). Naturally, I don't want to just fry them off the bat, so I'll almost always go for a Ghost Taste in order to discern motives right off the bat and give my team the upper-hand before things devolve into combat. I used it on said aforementioned extra-dimensional being, rolled two successes, and was thus given two niblets of information about who she was and where she came from. Pretty nifty stuff, even if it fails it's still an excuse for us to play around with lore and set-dressing, which is always cool to see done on the fly. So because Ghost Taste is both insanely useful and tremendously silly (especially when I have to outright say "I'd like to attempt to taste her ghost" at least once a session), it's become something of a running gag amongst our group. And because there's a decent amount of artsy people in this group, it's not uncommon for people to be doodling and posting art in the chat (we play over Discord) while waiting for their turn. Hence these memes I made: https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/241798/a90e9fe5-423d-4068-b79a-6832751b7030/image.png https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/241798/24c03194-97fd-4810-ad3c-00e8a3702692/image.png https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/241798/605579a4-4c5c-46e4-8419-cd6167f13a75/image.png That last one halted the game for maybe 15 fucking minutes because the DM had to recover. I love the slow build of anticipation when you post something in the art channel, then listen to people naturally stumbling upon it in real-time. Another person in the group is currently designing a full fucking tarot deck where each card represents a character in the game (both PC and NPC); naturally, Ghostronaut is Death.

What is considered an acceptable amount of time to take to learn the basics of a system? I'd be more open to learning more systems if it didn't take so damn long to get accustomed to some of them. GURPS in particular; my friends seem to love it but it doesn't really feel easy to pick up.

GURPS is batshit easy to pick up, esp once you see it in action, my advice is to hit up youtube and switch for streamlined rundowns.

Really, the whole system is contained in GURPS Lite. Everything else is optional. All 180+ extra pages in BS: Characters and the 200+ odd pages in BS: Campaigns - they're all optional. If you can learn GURPS Lite, you've already learned GURPS. https://labcit.ligo.caltech.edu/~tdcreigh/Downloads/gurpslite4.pdf

A +6 to hit on a magic item is double the current max you’d expect to find on legendary artifacts. You might need to become more familiar with the current array of magic items to better balance your conversion because right now it looks obscenely powerful.

Yep, I went back and changed a lot of how that works after scouring through canonized magic items and the like to get better grasp on powerlevels and Rarity. Lesser Charms are now built mostly atop present Magic Item effects of Uncommon (no attunement required) rarity where Greater Charms are built off Rares (mostly without attunement, those with attunement don't have the full effect instead).

Made a pixie fighter(Brawler) in 4e, shits hilarious.

I'm internally losing it. My players have spent at least an hour this session making a plan, spent 4000 gold to buy invisibility potions, and they have no idea that the heavily guarded area they're trying to sneak into has an anti-magic field around the entrance.

Alright, so, clearly the potions don't work by magically making them invisible. What it does is magically change their biology to allow them to be invisible and will naturally change back in due time. And now they have to sneak in naked and without weapons.

Did NPC duties for a friends campaign with a situation like that, the character everyone remembers was a Lich that sold basically every alchemical anything known to any and every realm; Monty Hauling PCs basically treated her campaign like a WoW/Warframe sessions trying to roll through roleplay and trying to get all the phat loots whether they were leveled for the task or not by raiding all the magic shops and reliquaries for all the hot tips. Apparently the phattest of loots of was guarded in a spooky multidimensional pyramid by a Sphinx, for which the PCs robbed a bunch of hapless NPCs for their gold to buy a "potion of clarity" to pass the sphinx's riddles with easy cheat codes. Gave the Lich the monies, whom promptly game them a potion of clarity each. They confidently approached the Sphinx with options in hand, taking hearty swigs of their ill gotten advantage, only to discover the potions did not give them any insight inot the riddles, but did turn them quite clear. Not only did they lose two members to Sphinx consumption thereafter, they also ended up convalescing in an apothecary after the city they returned to was convinced they were under attack by evil possessed armor and promptly kicked the crap out of them.

"I just realized that I have made a ridiculous character. I'm running around with kinda a paladin mentality as a necromancer while trying to make a god that I made up real" I love my players

Vaguely considering on delving into Mutants & Masterminds, Shadowrun, or anything interesting really. Getting slightly bored of playing D&D all of the time and I want to try something new.

anyone ever heard of normality? http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/normality i'm honestly really fascinated by... whatever it is

HINT: THEY ALREADY DESCRIBED THE GAME AS DADAIST, AND IF YOU’RE OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL YOU REALLY SHOULD KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS.' Ah yes, truly supporting devs that are totally not high level stoners.

Party travelling to city About a week's travel. Last day's travel they see family with lots of bags Offer to deliver them the rest of the way for a few copper They agree Family keeps on asking weird questions "how much cheese does the city make" "what kinds of cheese" "how does the city get rid of cats?" Turns out they where mice polymorphed into humans They all start singing "THERE ARE NO CATS IN AMERICA!" Last thing party sees of them, is them jump off the cart and immediately get mauled by cats. Party shrugged, "not our problem now"

Silly question potentially, how do you physically play DnD over a table top? I've been hosting a DnD session over discord with some friends and using a roll simulator and I figure we're close enough that we could meet up for an actual session. the mechanics yeah fine remain the same, but a physical map I think might seem to impose a sort of meta gaming, (ie you can see that room on the map, even though your character doesn't know about it type thing) and some dungeons seem to be massive sprawling things that would take several sessions to get through (but how do you keep 30 rooms interesting?) just curious as to what people's experience with actual tabletop is

most of the dnd games i've played irl have pretty well all been theatre of the mind with some makeshift maps

Lots of paper, notebooks for the players I stick youtube on and play playlist of DnD music We all have physical copies of the PHB I have the MM, DMG bunch of useful quick reference apps on my tablet And as for the map https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91y2ouXU3LL._SX355_.jpg wet erase markers and a laminated sheet.

Specifically regarding the map metagaming thing, you only draw out the parts of the map the players have been to already and can see, marking doors and such as they enter new rooms. It's no bigger of an issue than any of the other ways people can find to munchkin things.

Hey guys, I am going to co-run a game with me mate soon. This will be the first time for the both of us, and we only have the vaguest of ideas about how to approach such an endeavor, so I wanted to ask for any tips&tricks from those of you, who have already done this.

Both of you should read whatever rulebooks are involved and take notes. Start by running an intro scenario - a dungeon or similar thing to learn the exploration and combat mechanics (though of course it depends on the game you're running whether it's a dungeon, a 'megacorp facility' or whatever, it's all the same in practice.) Create a few example characters to get the hang of character creation before you run it by new players so you can explain everything to them. Basically, you should know the rules pretty well as the GM, and be ready to make rulings and judgement calls as needed. You'll also need to be ready to improvise as players will do things not planned for by you or laid out as an option in the rules or adventure.

I should probably clarify that both of us had quite some GMing experience before, but this is the first time either of us will have another person with them behind the GM screen. What would be some tips related specifically to two-person GMing?

Well, take lots of notes still. Make sure you both know the motivations and character traits of any NPCs so you don't have them played multiple ways. Keep each other well informed. Are you both actually running at the same time each session, or swapping out every once in a while?

At the same time. We also took into account the possibility of splitting responsibilities in combat, and also the added benefit of being able to have dialogues between NPCs without looking like a loon.

"without looking like a loon" You do realise what we're all playing right?

The downside is that two people running a game have a less clear voice than one at any given time. I've done a game with 2 gms (I played as one) and we swapped out between adventures. The theory is sound, you share the overall goal of the story while keeping specifics about adventures secret. 2 people at the helm, though, sounds like it will cause more trouble than it's worth to me. All I can say, other than what I've said, is good luck.

It acts a multiplier, so if you guys are doing good, good will become great, bad will do the same unfortunately. That doesn't mean OMG HARD ROLES IMMEDIATELY OR ALL IS LOST OMG, but if you know one of has a particular strength or weakness, plan (as much as you can) accordingly, and don't be afraid to hash a thing out right there so you can move on during your game.

Pretty sure I just did an airdash cancel in dnd I'm playing a pixie, so I can fly, but it has this caveat: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182242992223027200/457408423462436865/unknown.png which got me one square away from safe ground, so I used this on an enemy standing at the ledge: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182242992223027200/457408822022111243/unknown.png https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182242992223027200/457408894818320405/unknown.png

Gonna be running a game of Demon the Descent, Mondays at 6PM GMT(11AM Pacific Time for Americans). PCs all work at a game development company, in the same building. You're all Demons, fallen Angels, and any of your co-workers could be agents of the God-Machine. On top of that, you've discovered evidence that the development of the company's current project is being manipulated. System-wise, the game is basically about being magical spies who can turn into monsters if they need to get out of a situation fast, but it's a worst case scenario type deal. Usually, it's more along the lines of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, or The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.

In our Storm King's Thunder game, we were making our way to Waterdeep and had to pass through a couple of towns. We came across a group of farmers that were trying to hold a carriage for money/goods or something, but we convinced them to let them go. I'll spoiler the rest in case any other group is currently, or planning too, play SKT. Instead, it turned out that a group of people came to their abandoned fort they were occupying and was farming the area around it. They didn't care for the town near-by so they lived at the run-down fort. We decided to help them reclaim the fort (they seemed trust-worthy enough and were pretty ragged). We walked inside and after a very short conversation with the thugs, they ended up attacking us. We dispatched them and proceed to loot the bodies. Upon inspection, we found they were all wearing a Waterdeep insignia, and we quickly determined they were guards sent from Waterdeep. The entire table absolutely flipped the fuck out. It was so genuine the look of "we're fucked" on our faces. We found one other "thug" in the keep and found out they were hired mercenaries instead of actual guards, so hopefully that won't come back to bite us.