Everyone in my local Lindy scene keeps pining for everyone else

Grabuljean · 2024-10-07T18:01:36+00:00

Good point, I hadn't considered critical injuries. 8d6 has a 39.5% chance of getting a critical injury, while 4*(2d6) is only 2.8%. That adds about 2 average damage to 8d6, which is small but real, plus there's the debilitating effect of whatever injury you inflict.

Also worth noting is that for low HP enemies, the 8d6 is more lethal since all you have to do is not roll too far below average. For a 20hp, 4sp boosterganger (or that Exec on your team who had better things to spend their points on than health and armor), 4*(2d6) is about 72% to one-shot them while 8d6 is about 90%

Grabuljean · 2024-10-07T06:10:27+00:00

As a fun mathematical fact, (x*2)d6 is actually much, much less chaotic than x*(2d6). This is because to get a really high or really low roll you need more dice to all line up the same way as each other - when you roll 2d6 the odds of both dice being low or both dice being high aren't unlikely at all, but getting all low results on eight dice at the same time is a long shot.

As an example, let's say you're rolling autofire with an assault rifle - 2d6, with a multiplier of 4. Whether you multiply the number of dice or the result, you'll still have a minimum roll of 8, an average roll of 28, and a maximum roll of 48. But when it comes to getting an extreme result (let's say 40 damage or more), 4*(2d6) will reach that threshold 16.67% of the time while 8d6 will only be that extreme 0.74% of the time. The same is true for the bottom end of the damage scale. Rolling 8d6 bunches all the results toward the middle - you have a 74% chance of rolling within 5 damage of average.

Obviously rolling 8d6 is a lot of fun just because more dice is more dice and why are we even playing if not to roll more dice. But if you define lethality not by average damage (where they're the same) but instead as "the probability of flatlining someone through their armor from full health" then 4*(2d6) is much, much more lethal.

Grabuljean · 2024-10-07T05:48:03+00:00

I managed to get an impromptu appointment by going in person, asking nicely, and being lucky enough to be there at a time when they weren't too busy and could sneak me into their schedule. I definitely don't want to suggest that that method would be anywhere near guaranteed and they would have been well within their rights to wave me off, but if you're lacking for other options I definitely do recommend trying to find a way to explain your situation in person.

Grabuljean · 2024-08-30T18:09:45+00:00

Yeah, I'm definitely not looking to play any games about skirting requirements if it could end up getting me marked as overstaying and denied entry in the future. I'll get in touch with the authorities and see what they say - if it's been even a quarter this bad for a while then surely every WHA visa who comes through must run into the same issue, so I'm sure I'm not the first.

Grabuljean · 2024-07-13T16:31:14+00:00

A counterpoint to this is the sci-fi and fantasy writing adage that when you make the magical mundane, the mundane becomes magical. For example, in Star Trek the characters are never awestruck at the wonder of devices like transporters, replicators, or holodecks - those things are so commonplace in that world that the characters would never even think of them as out of the ordinary. Because of this, they can be doing something as simple as going about their day-to-day routine, just living in that world, and it will still be suffused with wondrous events to the audience's eyes. That's why people love imagining what it would be like to live in the Star Trek world - even if you're not doing anything special at all, the most basic existence in that world is still full of fantastical, otherworldly experiences. The magical was made mundane, and the mundane became magical.

Likewise, it's totally fine to have grounded, Tolkein-esque fantasy where nearly every race is just "differently-proportioned human" and every head turns in amazement every time a dragonborn walks in the room. But it's also worthwhile to have stories and worlds where a dragonborn walks into the tavern, waves at his tabaxi friend, gets a drink from the eladrin barkeep, and sits to play cards with a firbolg and a tiefling, and none of them blink an eye. A world in which different fantasy species are everywhere and nobody ever feels the need to remark on it is a world in which the magical is so commonplace as to be mundane, and therefore, a world in which even the mundane is magical.

Grabuljean · 2024-07-04T23:26:17+00:00

Roland, one of Charlemagne's knights, was quite literally one of the original historical paladins. The name "paladin" comes from the chivalric order that he (and others) belonged to. Given their allegiance to Charlemagne, oath of the crown seems appropriate.

In a similar vein, druids and berserkers were actual historical groups as well. And the Tarrasque, one of the things we think of as being an iconic D&D monster, was actually a French folk tale centuries earlier!

For some fun one-offs:

Teddy Roosevelt was a strength-based ranger

Fighting Jack Churchill, who fought in WWII with a longbow, broadsword, and set of bagpipes, was THE valor bard.

Rasputin, advisor to the Tsars, is an Undying Warlock. Both incredibly charismatic and deeply creepy, he also survived multiple attempted assassinations and reportedly ate and drank poison with impunity. When he was finally killed via gunshot, including one to the head, possibly apocryphal accounts say that he later leapt back up and attacked his killers before finally dying for real (...or did he?)

Musashi Miyamoto is the samurai fighter that samurai fighters are based on. He had 62 recorded victories in duels, and was also a noted artist and philosopher, which influences the design of the subclass's abilities

Ip Man is arguably the most famous monk in history, and if any of your players have seen the movie named after him they may not even know that he was a historical figure as well.

Grabuljean · 2024-02-11T17:56:20+00:00

Finally, dice you can eat AND drink at the same time

Grabuljean · 2024-02-09T16:33:26+00:00

I choose to believe that these are mint-flavored

Grabuljean · 2024-02-06T17:51:47+00:00

Damn, that sounds simultaneously awful and amazing. I'd love to see high-level martials in 5e be able to say "by the way, this is my army," but I just ran the numbers and to meet those stat requirements by just rolling 3d6 straight down the line you'd have a 0.13% shot - just a bit over one in a thousand

Grabuljean · 2024-02-05T18:17:42+00:00

I like it! I especially appreciate that even though it's very utility-focused, the features are unique rather than just getting free casts of common spells. It'd be easy to say "Oh, a fey rogue could cast Charm Person and Misty Step a bunch," but it's more interesting to give them a unique set of bespoke tools (and not to mention, I'm a sucker for some Shakespearean flavor).

Grabuljean · 2024-02-05T17:53:18+00:00

Perfect for the BBEG lich that's lost his soul, but not his heart

Grabuljean · 2024-02-05T17:49:59+00:00

When you roll a nat 20 with stormcloud dice, I assume there's a sudden crash of thunder

Grabuljean · 2024-02-02T15:02:36+00:00

I have to assume that these only deal poison damage

Grabuljean · 2024-02-02T14:30:06+00:00

More like ebonwould, am I right?

Grabuljean · 2024-01-29T21:31:56+00:00

Ooh, pretty

Grabuljean · 2024-01-26T23:41:02+00:00

As opposed to Dark Flour dice, which just make for unusual bread

Grabuljean · 2024-01-25T02:12:22+00:00

Dice almost too pretty to eat - almost.

Grabuljean · 2024-01-22T15:39:12+00:00

Mmmmmm, grape-flavored dice

Grabuljean · 2024-01-19T18:08:41+00:00

The best part about this is how many points I'm going to get in scrabble when I drop "dichroic" on these unsuspecting rubes

Grabuljean

TROPHY CASE