#this is not the dungeon of good decisions

[scribz-ag24]

Everyone go play PMD Seven Symphonies, it's a sequel for both Explorers of Sky and Special Episode 0 and it's making me fall in love with a bunch of teams i had never thought twice about!! i cant believe im saying this but i actually wanna draw team raider.

[9ofspades]

I did actually read a good summary of what some people earnestly mean when they say “metagaming”. I thought it was good food for thought, even if it doesn’t cover every situation and doesn’t address the new players’ fear of “meta gaming”.

So first, the person established a framework of 4 approaches players can have to a TTRPG (assuming the rpg in question is multiplayer and has each non-GM player adopt at least one character):

I’m doing what I would do if I were in this situation, and also I was an elf cleric [or whatever is relevant and appropriate]

I’m an actor playing this player character, and I do whatever this character would do in the situations they’re in. As a good actor, I have to stay in character and act and react accordingly.

I’m a cowriter/co-director and this PC is one of the tools I’m using to execute my vision of telling a good story. This means this PC will do whatever I think will make for the best or most interesting story.

I’m the player of a game I intend to win. This means all my decisions will be based on what will improve my chances of winning given the information and resources I have.

The summary concluded that when person A uses a different one of the four approaches from what person B thinks they should use, person B will accuse them of “meta gaming”.

In actuality, each TTRPG will have at least one of these approaches they favor, and extremely self-aware ones will explicate which approach the player should apply in a given situation. For instance, the old school D&D with all the deathtraps, where a dungeon was an obstacle course that tried for a total party kill, #4 was actually the correct approach.

I had an especially ignorant friend try to insist to me that every game *needed* to be as strict and crunchy as 3E, because otherwise “meta gaming” would definitely, without question occur, and by this they meant people playing using approach #4 in a system that wasn’t designed to do intellectual combat with them.

From what I understand, “munchkin” and “meta gamer” are insults thrown at people who play #4, even though that’s only inappropriate if the system isn’t designed for it. But there’s also people who call out “metagamers” for doing “yes-and” improv comedy with their characters, which is more approach #3, because they’re failing to stay in character. The others may or may not be less common, but I haven’t seen them as much.

Anyway, circling back to the main conversation topic, I feel like allegations of “power gaming” and “meta gaming” for the probability thing are very much people thinking players shouldn’t play with approach #4, and then doing what my friend did with the “but it’s only human to use #4 and no amount of communication or polite requesting will stop them,” and then drawing the conclusion of “THEREFORE you have to make it impossible to use that approach in order to have any fun storytelling in a roleplaying game”. And then deciding to ‘make it impossible’ by preventing anyone from knowing how odds are calculated so they can’t strategize numerically.

Which is ridiculous, because if you want people to play using one of the #1-3 approaches, then you can just. Communicate that. And then pick a game that supports it.

Besides the fact that it's really stupid, the issue with the conflation of system mastery and metagaming in [modern D&D centric] RPG discussions is that it effectively generates a mode of play that's. Not fun to engage with as a game.

GM starts a new campaign with the other players creating a fresh batch of characters. The players have been taught that expressing too much knowledge about the game as a system is metagaming and bad and they should avoid it, but because it's impossible to know what is reasonable for a bunch of starting characters to know it's easy to overcorrect. The GM also knows they shouldn't expect the players to express too much system mastery so there is effectively a gentleman's agreement that wherever the player characters stumble into blindly (because they can't be expected to make informed decisions about which challenges to pursue because thinking about what the situation presented to them via the logic of the system would be metagaming) they will be challenged but not too challenged.

This leaves very little room for player characters accidentally stumbling into a situation where they misjudged the danger present or meaningfully learning from their mistakes. Because a lethal mistake means that a player loses a character. Is the player allowed to utilize the knowledge they gained from the loss of that character with their next character? Apparently not.

Anyway so that sucks.

[multiheadcanons]

TF2 MERCS AND GAMES

scout: the boy loves an fps, though is pretty good at most any game you set in front of him. nobody ever wants to play a video game with him. sucks at cards though. lost his entire first check to a drunk demo on poker night. that is when he found out he did not know the rules of poker. good sport about losing games because it happens so rarely, but a very sore winner. you would think he’s never won anything in his life ever. also a casual enjoyer of puzzles.

soldier: soldier is a cheater. a damn good one at that. one of the few people to beat scout in any game of scout’s choice, bar a good old foot race. and that’s because scout doesn’t know that one of the controllers suck, the port that holds the controller’s wire is loose (he bribed spy for that), and if you tap the tv the wrong way the screen will glitch. but soldier does. also a fat cheater at board games. hides money and cards under his helmet and will DIRECTLY LIE ABOUT THE RULES. medic refuses to play with him because he’s a cheater but nobody believes medic because medic is also…. a fucking cheater.

pyro: those little hand games where you have to know the rhymes? pyro loves those. that can keep them entertained for HOURS. their favorite is the susie had a steamboat one because almost cursing makes them giggle. has a mutual agreement with medic that they will play their respective games with each other since they have both been found guilty in game court and banned. pyro set the board on fire in an act of rage at the possibility that they might go bankrupt, and demo argued it was cheating. gets really good luck on card pulls. won a jackpot at blackjack on an off night at the casino. they donated most of the money to a shelter and threw the rest off a building to the people below. they just…. they didn’t take the cash out of the bag? and is now wanted for questioning of negligent manslaughter.

demo: demo is a card shark; and he will not play for anything less than money and privileges. past that, he likes a good board game until the middle of the game. he’s the kind of guy who makes real-life deals to win a game of monopoly. sore loser, to the point where he’ll start a fistfight if he suspects cheating. he banned medic, engie, and pyro from team game nights because they’re all cheaters. in his defense, he did hold a trial against him all, and they were all found guilty. would probably like dungeons and dragons, but has never played.

heavy: heavy is not much of a game player, but he joins in on game nights because it’s good bonding. a great player because he’s a wild card with no care for the rules, and likes to watch scout lose, as boring as it is to watch him go “good game!”. it takes everyone teaming against scout, but if heavy’s playing, people can breathe a little easier knowing that it’ll be a close game at worst and a total toss up at best. slow decision maker. pyro tried to teach him a hand game once, he didn’t care for it. he also knows that soldier is a cheater, but doesn’t have the heart to get a fourth person banned from game nights because of cheating. he still misses watching the doctor suck at cheating. kind of thinks cheating is in the essence of competitive games. is not a cheater himself. average luck on card pulls. enjoys dominoes.

engineer: also really likes hand games. slaps hands too hard because he gets too into it. pyro never minds that. also a card shark with a mean poker face. also plays go and chess; he’s pretty good but there’s no real competition in the base for him to really hone those skills. also banned from monopoly nights because he was found guilty of cheating, so now on game nights they play uno instead in the next room. a graceful loser, and a sore winner. he’ll shove it down your throat if you lost.

medic: medic is a cheater. a bad one. and a sore player in general. he cannot help himself but to cheat at competitive games, and finds cooperative games boring. insult hurler when things go awry. was the one who actually initiated and created the team court for game night issues, and was the first to be held to trial and found guilty. that infuriated him. he lunged at demo when the verdict came in. LOVES a good card game though, his favorite is speed. don’t even make eye contact he will seduce you to the table with humble promises of him keeping his old hands limber, beat you undebatably and patronize you after, promising you’ll get him next time. and you’ll do it again because he’s like a game playing succubus who wants to slowly crush people’s spirits through the game of speed. it’s like he gets off on it. the closest anyone got is scout and they tied. it almost started a fight because scout would not agree to a rematch, and medic refused their rightful tie. tie refuser. surprisingly graceful winner and loser. but in the midst of the game all bets are off with him. also a fist fighter when it comes to games, and has knocked boards over before. he knows soldier is a cheater and brings it up every time they get ready to play and nobody believes him. he once bribed pyro to burn the game trouble because he was rolling like dog shit and couldn’t get the dice out to weight them.

sniper: snipes dms a dungeons and dragons campaign under an alias online that consists of six party members. he’s a bit of a hardass dm, but he’s become pretty good friends with john from the party, he thinks. good guy, couple of kids and a wife, no known bounty on his head. hates any other game. will reluctantly play poker and then quit after the first hand. frankly just a quitter of games in general. hates competitive games with his team because they all act like they have no sense. it’s like literally playing with children. is normally the peacekeeper for team game nights and will refuse to play because medic and demo fight people over little shit. his most common phrase is “it’s a GAME, YOU CUNTS”. prefers single player games. he’ll schedule his dnd sessions on game nights if he doesn’t want to deal with them. will occasionally indulge pyro in a hand game or two if they ask, though the first time pyro did ask sniper leaned in close and said “do not ask me unless you have asked everybody else and exhausted them”. occasionally indulges medic in a FRIENDLY GAME of uno. will quit the second medic starts getting snappy with him, so the doctor has had to learn that if he wants to play with snipes he’s gotta be nice because “i’m not gonna play your stupid game if you’re gonna act like a dick!”

spy: is one of the party members in snipe’s dnd group, under the identity “john”. he’s really enjoying it and the freedom of being someone else who’s pretending to be something else for fun and not for profit. can’t always join board game nights on the base because dnd sessions fall on the same day sometimes. though he’ll go afk and even miss sessions to watch the fights when they get rowdy, but because “john” has built good rapport with snipes he never complains about the occasional disappearance, though none of the other players are really given that same grace. has a dice collection he paid a lot of money for that he’ll occasionally gift a set to snipes as “john” to keep in his dm’s good graces. tries to join on the poker games when he can, it’s easy money when medic isn’t playing and demos too trashed to see. also plays solo games like solitaire. will never play hand games with pyro. has bad luck with cards he didn’t shuffle.

[thedungeonofbaddecisions]

Are you telling me this ice monster has no bones??

Me, to the DM. It did not.

[monotcchi]

dragon roast dreamin' 🍖💨✨

[pushspacetocontinue]

Russell had a feeling that Gaunter might not have fully understood what he was talking about. Not everyone was into computer games after all. Russell also had used the tactic of nodding when he didn't fully get it.

Of course, he liked hearing people talk about their passions, but he just didn't have anything meaningful to add. Usually when Simon was talking about his latest programming project or David talked about the most effective agriculture methods.

But then Russell felt some relief. So Gaunter knew about tabletop games and possibly had an interest. That was something that would allow him to contribute to the conversation more evenly.

"Well, some, some of them are, are definitely a, a bit more silly," Russell said, "Like um, like Poetry for, for Neanderthals. You, you gotta describe something, like, a, a chair, without saying chair it-itself, for your, your team to guess. But you, you can only use words with, with one syllable. Thankfully my, my stammer doesn't, doesn't count with, with that. I also like, like What Next. It's, it's a cooperative adventure like game where, where you team up with, with each other and, and complete challenges, like throwing a decision card and, and catching it to see if, if you grab a vine, and, and deciding what, what to do."

He thought then.

"One I, I like playing is, is Doomlings. It's, it's a, a card game that's, that's about trying to, to score the, the most points by, by playing certain cards down for, for the right rounds, called, called ages. That adds a, a new rule so, so you gotta like, figure out the, the best card to, to play for, for the most points. Then there's catastrophe cards which really can, can turn the tide of, of it. If, if you get three, that's, the end of the game and, and whoever has, has the most points wins."

Russell rubbed at the back of his neck. It wasn't always easy to explain when he couldn't demonstrate. He also was not going to let himself get started on Dungeons and Dragons.

"I don't really play, play them, but, but Magic The Gathering and, and The Pokemon Card Trading Game are, are real popular, but I, I usually just watch those, those games," Russell said, "You essentially do, do battles with, with the cards. And the cards have, have different spells or, or weapons, or, or summons. Some of the artwork on, on them is, is real nice too."

Russell thought. Wasn't there one he heard about that had been 10 years in the making? Was it... ah, yeah, that was the name.

"We uh, we also got one called, called Gwent coming out this, this year," Russell said, "I probably wouldn't be, be any good at it, but I think my, my brothers who play card games would, would be, be pretty good."

{As Russell begins to discuss his favorite games, Gaunter seems to quickly realize that what he thought of games wasn’t what this young man thought of - he had known of a few table top games, namely Gwent and other odd games of his time. The longer the young man went on, the less he felt himself able to keep up with the conversation, feeling a bit baffled and awkward but not deterred by the challenge he gave himself in wanting to get to know this young man- he nodded along. Pretending to understand what he was saying and hoping the young man didn’t see through his façade.}

{At the mention of a tabletop game, Gaunter visibly relaxed his slightly tense shoulders before speaking up.} “What sort of table top games are you mostly into? Perhaps you could enlighten an ‘old man’ such as myself-“ {He joked, winking.} “-who knows, perhaps it’ll lead to me actually participating in it.” {The chances of that actually happening were slim, but not zero.}

[nomouthtospeakof]

hey gale. gale.

halaster? the halaster? halaster fucking blackcloak?

you not only personally know halaster blackcloak --

you chose HIM --

-- as your CAT SITTER??

[cosmicterrorthe8th]

Do you think the kiddads listened to Monster from epic the musical and felt it in their bones?

Lark was willing to do anything, even throw an infant off a wall to kill the doodler for a long time. Do you think Lark felt like he became a monster in the process but was willing to be worse to undo his mistake.

Sparrow literally doomed a world for his family like Odysseus was willing to do for his family. The rest of the kidadds were about to have the sun burn the doodler away killing almost everyone but their families

Do you think they had to kill doodlerized children or people they knew like a child who went to grants library or terrys student and do you think that broke down their morals?

We're the kiddads at a point where they thought that they had killed so many people but that the only way they could undo the world and make it worth it was to continue killing and trying to throw their guilt away like in the song? They felt that they couldn't save the world by becoming healed and better and that they have to stay in the fight or flight state(?) where they are desensitised to violence or what they have to do and double down on that and become worse to undo the doodler

Do you think any of them saw the parallels and like used to listen to this song to get themselves ready for a day of slaughter? Idk. Also I think Terry would love it because he's a theatre kid enough to introduce it to them all to it. I think this song upsets them all but grant especially

[space-writes]

Chapter Eight

In which Ashenivir enjoys a night out

[ID - a purple decorative divider]

Snow crunched beneath Ashenivir’s boots. The main thoroughfares of the Castle Ward were clogged with sludge and slush already, and thin snow flurries swirled intermittently from the iron-grey sky, flakes catching in his hair. Cold bit at his nose and cheeks, but he left his hood down. He liked the sharp edge it gave the morning, so unlike anything he’d ever experienced in Mythen Thaelas.

The cobbles of the market were slick beneath his feet as he wound through the bustling crowd. He hoped the bookseller would be out again today; the bazaar back home had some stalls that were permanent, but others depended on the day, and he didn’t yet know if Waterdeep’s market worked the same way. It took him a quarter of an hour to find her, stamping her feet and rubbing her gloved hands together behind the carefully organised chaos of the mound of books heaped over her stall.

“Back again?”

“You could have warned me there was a cliffhanger,” Ashenivir said.

She grinned, then plucked three slim volumes out of the pile and handed them to him. “Hard in Hightown, right? That Tethras fellow really knows what he’s doing.”

“Are these going to have me back again tomorrow?”

“Probably, but that’s all the parts that are out as yet.” She tucked a spring of orange hair back from where it had escaped her thick woollen cap. “You’ll just have to wait like the rest of us.”

Keep Reading - AO3 / Dreamwidth / Neocities

[ID - a purple decorative divider]

Obedience taglist: @foxboyclit @belovedviolence @thegreatobsesso (ask to be +/-)

[chikkenhawke]

we’re all having a GREAT time in the feywild :)

[ermineadoptera]

i just have one voice acting request for the second cour

[alphaketoglutaricacid]

Also i find her naive desperation (cant find the right words for it) to see her adventuring crew as sworn friends wholl go thru hell together even tho shes the newest addition soooo telling. Shes had trouble making friends her whole life she was really hoping! And even the ones who left are willing to go to hell for her n the crew so its not like its not true. Its just not like how it is in her mangas. I think theres a good chance she n namari become like closer after the end of the series.

[constantnever]

two paths lie before me: rewatch buffy or rewatch the magicians. I know which is the correct path & yet for some incomprehensible reason I'm still unsure of my choice

[pankomako]

suddenly kinda tempted to play Hades. however im kinda thinking of waiting for it to go on sale bc 25 bucks feels like a lot. not sure though bc i might forget by the time it does lmao

[thedungeonofbaddecisions]

We're fighting an alchemist in an enclosed room. He is in the room. We have not yet fully entered.

DM: Crondak smirks. He takes a potion out of the pocket of his coat, just smashes it on his skin, and he fades from sight.

Tex: Oh, shit.

Me: I should've taken See Invisibility!

Sean: We could always close the door and wait one minute.

Me: This is true! Is that metagaming?

DM: Amity, your turn.

Jennifer: Amity's going to move [directly in line with the door] and then loudly suggest "We could always close the door."

Iska: Could he not open door?

Turuk: But we would know if he opened the door.

Iska: This is true. Let's close the door.

Jennifer: I cast Shield and end my turn.

DM: Okay.

Sean: I'm going to delay till after the KitKats.

DM: I'm gonna give everyone a chance to say what they wanna do.

Tex: Turuk is gonna close the door.

Me: This is so stupid. This is so stupid.

Tex: This is the dumbest strategy we've ever done.

Me: And the worst part is, I think it's actually going to work, because this guy's like "Aha! I'm sneaky! I'm gonna hide in the darkness!" and we're just like "Okay."

DM: So you close the door.

Me: What happens?

DM: Well, you hear movement inside.

Saturn: The KitKats are going to ready an action to, as soon as there's any activity on the doorknob, run the door straight through.

*everybody readies actions to attack as soon as the door opens*

*the full minute passes. nothing happens. the door remains shut.*

Sean: Well, uh, who wants to open the door?

Saturn: Okay. The KitKats are gonna kick down the door.

DM: You kick open the door. You don't see anything.

Saturn: Okay. Second action, advance ten feet.

DM: Ah! As you walk in the door, you see a much larger dwarf, with a reach of five feet, take a swing at you with his hammer. You take 21 damage.

KitKats: Oh, fuck, he's gotten real big. What are we gonna do?

Iska: Stab him!

KitKats: Easier said than done. Well. Wait. He's too big to fit through the door...

Saturn: The KitKats are going to come back out and close the door behind them.

Me: This is so stupid!

DM: This is the best fight ever.

*the party confers once more. We decide to wait him out, again. Though we leave the door open this time, and fire on him every time he comes into view. I hit him with a Purifying Icicle. He telekinetically hurls a rock at the KitKats. He misses. Amity hits him with Magic Missile. Turuk and the KitKats move into the room. Crondak is eventually killed.*

[toonbly]

MY GF GOT ME TWO CHUCK TINGLE NOVELS FOR OUR ANNIVERSARY LETS GOOOO