#table talk

[mantis-lizbian]

even more than that, fundamentally, there's nothing within the mechanics that a player is capable of doing but an NPC isn't or vice versa. take the right class, pick the right feat, get the right magic item, and the only things a boss can do that a PC can't are gonna come from their species and/or templates. which... we've just gone over how those things are, at least in principle, as capable of being on a character sheet as on a stat block. if you want to play a werewolf, the Monster Manual has everything you need to do it, no homebrewing required.

So there is a pretty clear shift in playstyle between TSR D&D and WotC D&D: for better and for worse, D&D 3e introduced the idea of encounter balance, de-emphasized mechanics that had previously encouraged the GM to think of the monsters as real living creatures (reaction rolls, morale, etc.), and it had the effect of making D&D a much more combat-focused game. D&D has always been a game that's opinionated about combat, it's basically the most expressive and detailed form of play regardless of edition, but combat in the TSR editions was not exactly zoomed in and tactical. The WotC editions purposefully made combat zoomed in, granular, and tactical.

And this has had an effect on playstyle: since combat is now the main form of player expression what players actually want is for their characters to get into combat. Because combat is the most fun part of the game. But the game has also changed from the largely amoral dungeon-crawling game into a game of fantasy heroics (even though a lot of the trappings of the amoral dungeon-crawling still remain, which contributes to the dissonance), so you can't just have the player characters going into combat for the sake of it. That would frame the player characters as kind of Fucked Up, and we can't have that in our supposedly heroic fantasy.

What you end up with is a variety of contrivances like "they're bandits," "they're cultists," or, my all-time favorite, "they attacked first" to make the action seem morally justifiable, even though gameplay is still motivated by a desire to fight. The monsters fight to the death and, importantly, can often not be reasoned and negotiated with, partly because combat is supposed to be the fun, engaging part everyone is here to do, but also because if they actually acted like reasonable people it could cause dissonance with the whole "the player characters are the goodest heroes."

As my friend @tenleaguesbeneath once called it: what is actually going on is that the player characters are hunting people and monsters who have been programmed to fight to the death and never negotiate for sport, while justifying it as self-defence.

It's a simple power fantasy, and I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Sometimes you want to play a morally uncomplicated game about killing guys with cool magic swords. But I think it's also fun to think about what the specific types of monsters players end up fighting reveals about Society the invisible, unexamined ideology lying under the surface that the designers of even modern D&D have failed to examine. And to me it often reads like a frontier justice fantasy. None of that is to detract from anyone's joy of the game, and for me it's just fun to think about and post about this stuff while Still Enjoying the Game, but if someone expressing that opinion makes you feel uncomfortable, why? That's pretty silly imo.

[punkitt-is-here]

Just wanted to say that I finally cracked open Astral Guard and this one Astra face took me out

HELL YEAH I'm so glad!!! Astra's faces were my FAVORITE to do bc she can just be so absurdly silly. I was consistently laughing at myself while drawing her face sprites. JJ's writing provided me with so many opportunities to go wacky with her.

[friends-of-beetlejuice]

Now that elders can turn thinbloods full vampires (temporarily) I wonder how my ST will treat Beetlejuice's blood bond.

Technically, Maria is an elder by the book's standards. If we were playing with rules as written, poor BJ would be a full-blooded toreador at the moment.

I'll have to ask them next time we hang, because I'd rather not have Beej going full vamp... yet

But the possibility is intriguing 🤔

[dungeonsandkobolds]

Hope you’re having a good day… any advice on what to include on a coming back from hiatus survey/questionairre and or second session zero?

Ooooh this is a fantastic idea of something to do!!!

Some things I might include:

Checking whether the balance of rp to combat to puzzles is correct

How is combat feeling? Is it balanced? Do they want it to be trickier? Do they want more easy fights that make their characters feel powerful between the hard stuff?

How they feel party dynamics are going (depending on the vibes at your table you could also make this confidential)

What things are going well? What have they enjoyed most so far?

Are they feeling happy with the genre/vibes of the campaign?

Are they feeling happy with their character?

These are just kind of off the top of my head, and will v much depend on the dynamics of your table. But make sure you give them a chance to compliment you/the stuff you do well! Particularly if you're coming back from a hiatus this will hopefully give you an extra boost of motivation to get back into the swing of things!

[xr250r]

Table Talk

[highground501]

Don't forget the 200k table made from the wood of a now extinct tree

[marypsue]

Keep seeing that post where OP starts like 'Thinking about...grieving the undead' and then adds on about like. Real life situations where people have not died but have left your life and you would have reason to grieve them.

All respect, that's an important concept, but that is not what I am thinking about when I read 'grieving the undead'.

[niccola-decapovina]

Fighter (ooc): what again were we supposed to do here? Whom we have to find? Cleric (ooc): Oh yeah, the spouse of that man. You will find a ring for them in your inventory. Please tell me you still have it. Fighter (ooc): I don't know if I ever had that thing... do I? And how do you know what's in my bag? Cleric (ooc): Please for god's sake don't tell me you gambled that ring off in the tavern six sessions ago! And I know about the ring, cause you talked to the husband and got the quest in the first place!

Someday, the fighter might be up to date with the group's quest... But point taken I think we picked that up like six months ago...

[wordsofsicca]

eyes of the table

[rq-tblazer]

FUN NEWS. we might actually be cisintersex ?

[shitslikethis]

bar topics are only dead if you let them die……. if the table is silent and i pipe up to ask you a batshit “would you rather…?” i expect you to engage as if it is serious because if you laugh it off….. we’re back to dead silence…… that’s on you now

[academyoftheheartandmind]

Table Talk

By Ed Walsh It was after his wife was killed that my father’s brother visited us. I was thirteen at the time and from what I understood she was driving their car when she came off a straight stretch of road out in the sticks and hit a telegraph pole. There was nobody else in the car and no witnesses, no explanation for what happened beyond her just losing control of the thing. As an incidental,…

[punkitt-is-here]

Finally got around to playing Astral Guard Table Talk. The cast of characters is really fun and has some great chemistry and I'm already intrigued by the copious amount of "I'm fine" (they were not fine)

LMAO TO THAT LAST PART you're literally so right

[rozmorris]

The hidden shapes in stories and why drama isn't what you think it is - interview with @EHeathRobinson

This is a massive headline, I know. A massive headline for a massive and far-ranging conversation about storytelling. My host is Heath Robinson, whose YouTube channel has seen a stellar line-up of story nerds, including Christopher Vogler, author of The Writer’s Journey, Christopher Vogler, Matt Bird, author of The Secrets of Story, John Truby, author of The Anatomy of Genres, and Vic Mignogna,…

[rwsdarw]

this was fun