Annoying Game Questions You Want Answered

The Adventurer's Almanac · Tue Dec 10, 2019 11:53 pm

Bro, you fucking explode. People generally die when they explode, even robot people. I know it doesn't explicitly say you blow up, but when I read "your body erupts in the same holy power that shaped the universe at its birth", that sounds like a Good Explosion to me. There should be little Warforged chunks strewn about the battlefield afterwards.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Dec 10, 2019 11:59 pm

Yes, fluff wise. But mechanically, warforged can be repaired. So even if the body is exploded, there's still the question of "can the warforged's parts be taken to the local craftsguild, or is it time to find a cleric with Resurrection?"

The Adventurer's Almanac · Wed Dec 11, 2019 12:29 am

Do Warforged die when they are killed?

Pariah Dog · Post by **Pariah Dog** » Wed Dec 11, 2019 12:58 am

WF go inert at 0 hp like other races go unconscious. If you cast this, someone needs to break out the old diamond dust.

Orca · Post by **Orca** » Wed Dec 11, 2019 2:25 am

Warforged don't die from HP loss. That's not the same as 'they can't die' IMO.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Wed Dec 11, 2019 7:26 am

If Warforged aren't immune to death effects, they probably aren't immune to this, either.

Iduno · Post by **Iduno** » Wed Dec 11, 2019 5:01 pm

The Adventurer's Almanac wrote:Do Warforged die when they are killed?

People die if they are killed, and warforged are mechanical people, so yes.

The Adventurer's Almanac · Wed Dec 11, 2019 5:59 pm

People, ESPECIALLY in D&D, do not always die when they are killed.

Pariah Dog · Post by **Pariah Dog** » Wed Dec 11, 2019 6:02 pm

Not permanently. That is what spells like Resurrection are for.

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Wed Dec 11, 2019 9:14 pm

last I heard Warforged are constructs and constructs go down and stay down beyond the power of any Cure Wounds equivalent if you hit them enough times in the right places.

Let us not think too hard about how it must be relatively easy to install a grown up warforged brain for all the warforged fluff to work given how hard it game mechanically has to be to repair one. Maybe the Spark permanently fucks with the relevant circuitry so that attempts to repair it without resurrection magic get you restored to factory settings.

(...when I ran a D&D campaign I might have been too determined to come up with in character terms for game mechanical shit. So there was a handout called Anima all about how that was the term spellcasters used for Hit Dice to the extent that they could be objectively observed e.g. by requiring X amount of onyx to animate you, or needing X "Anima" to no sell Sleep. And relatively fresh off an Exalted campaign I had it in my head that "the Spark" was the physical property that caused a person to take levels in PC classes instead of NPC classes.)

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:18 pm

I just realized that the "ambiguity" was based entirely on a misreading. Warforged are "inert" between 0 and -10 hp, implying they gain the "Dead" condition at -10 like any other character.

Iduno · Post by **Iduno** » Thu Dec 12, 2019 8:13 pm

This sounds kind of interesting. Blades in the Dark is rules-light MTP trash, right?

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Thu Dec 12, 2019 8:17 pm

Blades in the dark is a Bear World knockoff.

It lost me when it had a number of units you could spend to avoid a consequence, which are explicitly phrased as "avoid" and not "blunt", and in the very description of how these were used went "even though this is what you paid to *avoid* the cost you still pay 2/3 of the cost in addition to the thing".

The Adventurer's Almanac · Thu Dec 12, 2019 9:04 pm

High Magic Lowlives wrote:Unlike any RPG you've ever played before* you can get paid for livestreaming your fight against the jack-o-lantern queen of zabraxas. Your companions would probably prefer you help them survive the fight, but they'll forgive you when you capture their critical hit for all to see.

I have never in my life wanted to play a game less than this, and I've read FATAL.

This could be one of the most mechanically sound TTRPGs ever released and I would never touch it out of that one paragraph by itself.

oh god there's hashtags too

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Dec 13, 2019 12:03 am

The Adventurer's Almanac wrote:
High Magic Lowlives wrote:Unlike any RPG you've ever played before* you can get paid for livestreaming your fight against the jack-o-lantern queen of zabraxas. Your companions would probably prefer you help them survive the fight, but they'll forgive you when you capture their critical hit for all to see.
I have never in my life wanted to play a game less than this, and I've read FATAL.
This could be one of the most mechanically sound TTRPGs ever released and I would never touch it out of that one paragraph by itself.

oh god there's hashtags too

Damnit, they stole my idea.

Except my idea was just the concept of a rogue that did unboxing videos when opening treasure chests and shit like that.

The Adventurer's Almanac · Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:38 am

If we were in the same party, I would kill your fucking rogue on the spot.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Dec 14, 2019 12:49 am

Why? It's just a character with a sidegig. And if you actually act it out more than once, that's more to do with your DM...

I think it'd be a kinda cool little fluff thing in an urban fantasy setting

The Adventurer's Almanac · Sat Dec 14, 2019 11:48 pm

Unboxing shills fill me with a chimpanzee rage that makes me want to take someone's face off.

Iduno · Post by **Iduno** » Mon Dec 16, 2019 2:56 pm

Prak wrote:Why? It's just a character with a sidegig. And if you actually act it out more than once, that's more to do with your DM...

I think it'd be a kinda cool little fluff thing in an urban fantasy setting

Yeah, I was getting a Black Mirror dystopia feeling.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Dec 16, 2019 3:03 pm

The Adventurer's Almanac wrote:Unboxing shills fill me with a chimpanzee rage that makes me want to take someone's face off.

Dude, it's a weird form of entertainment, to be sure, but it is a form of entertainment. I don't get watching sports, but I don't fantasize about killing sports fans (well...).

Also, the unboxing is sort of more of a framing device for a parasocial relationship that's the actual source of the entertainment.

The Adventurer's Almanac · Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:18 pm

Prak wrote:Dude, it's a weird form of entertainment, to be sure, but it is a form of entertainment. I don't get watching sports, but I don't fantasize about killing sports fans (well...).

Play more Bloodbowl.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Dec 21, 2019 7:11 am

I might if I weren't poor.

Anyone want to take a look at a Christmas-y mini rpg I wrote the other night and give me some feedback?

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Mon Jan 06, 2020 11:12 pm

It's possible that I will get promoted this year, which would give me some disposable income. I've been considering the idea of hiring a writer to work on an RPG project, but I'm not sure what the best place to start would be if that happens.

Frank and AncientHistory have posted about what freelancers get paid in the past, but that's usually in the context of awful exploitative Catalyst Games Labs stuff. And it's also been a few years since then, time for markets to shift and evolve. Does anyone have advice on where I should start looking? Probably wouldn't be doing anything until May, but it seems prudent to start thinking about this early.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Mon Jan 06, 2020 11:30 pm

Blades in the Dark was inspired by Apocalypse World but is not part of the Apocalypse game line. It is substantially different and, in my opinion, substantially better. I joined a weekly game of Blades in the Dark a few months ago, then started my own weekly game, and have over a dozen sessions now as both player and GM. I was skeptical about it at first, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well it holds together.

deaddmwalking · Post by **deaddmwalking** » Mon Jan 06, 2020 11:36 pm

Avoraciopoctules wrote:It's possible that I will get promoted this year, which would give me some disposable income. I've been considering the idea of hiring a writer to work on an RPG project, but I'm not sure what the best place to start would be if that happens.

Frank and AncientHistory have posted about what freelancers get paid in the past, but that's usually in the context of awful exploitative Catalyst Games Labs stuff. And it's also been a few years since then, time for markets to shift and evolve. Does anyone have advice on where I should start looking? Probably wouldn't be doing anything until May, but it seems prudent to start thinking about this early.

When you have your disposable income, you should first talk to a lawyer about creating a company that will hire the freelancers. When your business loses money (and it will!) you may be able to avoid taxes and a lot of personal liability stuff. It'll also be easier to have ownership of the RPG stuff exist in a separate entity if things go well and you turn into TSR. And then, if things get bad again (like TSR) you're STILL protected.