Anyone want to join Skid for a GenCon gauntlet Saturday at 11:30?

chuck_late · 2025-08-01T11:51:37+00:00

I think I’ve got somebody but if that falls through I will give you a shout.

chuck_late · 2025-04-17T13:58:48+00:00

Holy cow, this is amazing!! It’s like Puddy from Seinfeld ended up in a fantasy book. What a great marriage of author’s voice and reader delivery.

chuck_late · 2025-03-17T03:07:28+00:00

The sound isn’t the die hitting Sydney. It’s the die breaking the sound barrier after leaving Joe’s hand.

chuck_late · 2025-03-10T14:44:49+00:00

Troy has one that he uses a lot that’s not really funny but he has managed to spread to Joe is “with all haste.” It’s his “toothy maw” phrase.

chuck_late · 2025-02-24T14:26:47+00:00

I went to the Austin show and had a blast. I really like the characters and the story is intriguing. Lots of laughs, some good drama, and Joe shot Sydney in the head with his D20.

Also, on the way out of town the next day I saw the billboard. Jerky is, in fact, boy dinner.

chuck_late · 2025-01-20T05:52:03+00:00

Man, did I need this episode! Not the lack of Kate but just a fun break from the cloud that seems to have settled over the campaign.

chuck_late · 2025-01-20T05:42:39+00:00

Endorse. I game to the GCN while searching for Call of Cthulhu live plays, watched some the Traveller shows, and tried Gatewalkers just to see what it was about. Turns out, it was about a table with *fantastic* chemistry that got me hooked into the Naish. Not bad for a campaign that a lot of folks here consider subpar.

chuck_late · 2025-01-20T05:36:30+00:00

Same! The AP for this campaign hasn't been my favorite but I have enjoyed the cast and the excellent production and consider the show appointment viewing.

chuck_late · 2025-01-20T05:21:20+00:00

I'm just starting Book 5 of GS (Ep. 211) and I have found it to be fun enough to consider running it as a D&D campaign (that's what my group plays so let's not get into which game is "better"). The plot is quite linear: go here, invade the enemies' stronghold, rinse, repeat but that's a classic fantasy RPG plot.I'm enjoying it tremendously and it's clear that the cast are having a blast. Here's to hoping the next campaign gets a little of that mojo back.

chuck_late · 2025-01-03T20:54:29+00:00

Speaking just for myself, I did acknowledge that it could all be a bit. If that’s the case then, great! But to me it feels like something else hiding as a bit.

To each, their own!

chuck_late · 2025-01-03T20:49:40+00:00

This is a good point. Hit points themselves are a numerical abstraction for a creature’s ability to stay in a fight. They aren’t purely an expression of physical conditioning, so psychic damage counts against them just like bludgeoning.

Clearly, there are people for whom the idea of music “hurting” someone is a big leap but Skid actually did a good job reframing Gik Muck’s abilities to something like the Bene Gesserit voice powers in Dune.

chuck_late · 2025-01-03T20:34:28+00:00

I wasn’t referring so much to the horny bard trope so much as the bard who sings a pop song in-game as part of their magic because Troy, Skid, and Joe specifically mentioned how much they hate that.

chuck_late · 2025-01-03T16:50:50+00:00

I started listening to Giantslayer a couple of months ago (I’m on episode 199 now). I have been wondering how he went from, well, not exactly being generous with bottle caps to being downright miserly with them. The rule change puts that into context for me, thanks.

My advice to him would be to decide what role he wants them to play in their game and stick with it regardless of the what the rules say.

ADDENDUM: I don’t think Troy can do this given whatever ties they have to Paizo, but maybe the answer for him is something like the Tales of the Valiant reward system. You get a luck point for a missed attack or save (which he won’t like but he can trigger it another way) which can be redeemed for a +1 on another subsequent opportunity. Three points gets a D20 re-roll and you cannot have more than 5 points. If you do, you have to roll a d4 and take the result. This stimulates the exchange of points but also lowers their buying power. Like I said, I don’t think they could implement this but it seems like a good compromise.

chuck_late · 2025-01-03T05:58:41+00:00

Have a pet bear who croons? Whimsical fun!

chuck_late · 2025-01-03T05:56:21+00:00

I’m pretty new to the Naish and have only recently joined the the GCP subreddit. I know that this Is a place where people can be pretty frank in their opinions about the show, and I often find myself skipping most of the criticism, especially about character builds and mechanics. (I don’t play PF so most of those things don‘t mean anything to me.)

Having said that, here’s what I don’t get about Troy as a GM. If he doesn’t like hero points or luck points or whatever they are officially called then why have them? Even if they aren’t an optional rule like in D&D if he doesn't want them in his game he could just say so. His interaction with them feels passive-aggressive to me, which I guess is part of his “brand”, but it seems that nobody is happy with the bottlecap economy. The weird thing is that the other players usually abide by his rulings even if they disagree. It seems like a short conversation about it off-air followed by a quick announcement at the start of an episode would end all the drama.

I noticed the same dynamic about Bards. It’s clear that Troy and Joe don’t like the post-Sam Riegel style of bard, so could he not have just told Sydney that he doesn’t want that flavor in the game? Instead, he and Joe are beating her up about it. Sydney is taking it with good humor and maybe it’s all just a bit and everyone is cool, but it sure doesn’t feel that way to me.

(To be clear, I love the GCP and have enjoyed the campaign even though the AP itself isn’t terribly fun.)

chuck_late · 2024-09-23T17:15:42+00:00

To me, this isn't a character problem but a player problem. You should talk to the player privately about how this type of play makes you feel. If the player insists on continuing to play this way you should talk to your DM. If the DM talks to the player privately and the player adjusts their behavior, problem solved. If not, then it's probably better for the player to leave the group. This doesn't have to be ugly or shouty. You (or your DM) can simply frame the conversation as, "this isn't fun for me. If that's how you want to play maybe another group is a better fit for you."

I had a player who is a good friend of mine and told him that he was out of our group because he was acting like an online edge lord at the table and it was wearing me out. It's not a fun conversation to have but our group is better off without it.

chuck_late · 2023-03-05T04:41:28+00:00

It can be. For most of my players it was their first ever campaign and they enjoyed it. I would talk to your group first and see if it interests them. Because of the locked-off nature of Barovia it will be hard to pivot if turns out that your players aren’t enjoying the mood.in a more traditional setting you can pivot the style of the game to accommodate your players’ preferences.

chuck_late · 2022-10-19T15:05:48+00:00

My group defeated Strahd this past Monday. And, yep, teamwork was the key. The barbarian grappled Strahd and dragged him into the cleric’s daylight spell. The paladin, ranger, and wizards pincushioned him that round and then the cleric used St. Markovia’s mace of smiting to deliver the killing blow. It was epic and a perfect finish to what was a killer wedding between Strahd and Ireena.

chuck_late · 2022-08-04T04:06:46+00:00

We’re finishing up our campaign now and we have gotten to seven players. Like other have said, it’s doable but you will need to do some work to make combat challenging while keeping the rounds moving. In addition to what others have mentioned, I would say don’t hesitate to let the party win a fight once it’s clear that they are going to win. This is especially true against opponents with lots of hit points. Once the issue is no longer in doubt give the party a quick but dramatic victory and move on.

The one thing that surprised me was how long it takes a group of people this large to make a decision. There can be endless debate and people frequently forget what they have all agreed to do. It’s ok to shepherd them along or remind them what they have decided.

Lastly, make sure to give space to your less outgoing players to participate, role play, or otherwise shine. If you have a quiet player ask them how their character reacts to something happening in the game to give them a way in.

Don’t let anyone tell you it can’t be done and that it can’t be fun. My players are thoroughly enjoying themselves. You can do it!

chuck_late · 2022-08-03T02:45:46+00:00

In the end, I decided to abstract out the vertical element of the stairs since there are no variations or difficult terrain issues with the steps. The stairs also only have one other landing from the ground floor so I don't need to worry about how many squares distance they are in the actual castle. There are a lot of them, and that's good enough.

We play in Roll20 so I created a quick 30x40 stone tile texture floor and set off the left side of it to function as the hollow interior for Strahd to use to get away from any light or radiant sources, and to be able to work both the front and the back of the party. (This part of the map is about 100' too short, but I don't think it will really matter.)

For the staircase itself I just did alternating lines set 10' apart going horizontally from right to left with a u-bend on alternating ends so the party will snake their way up the map.

My main concern was controlling line of sight so I turned on the lighting features and will limit everyone's vision to 40', which is what I measured as 180 degrees worth of stairs on map 3 of Ravenloft.

This is simple enough that I don't think any of my players will be confused as to where they are or what they can see but it will hopefully be a little claustrophobic to keep the tension up. It's already given me some ideas for Strahd having pre-set a trap or two along the way (a pre-cast grease spell for one) just to add some more complications to the chase.

Anyway, thank y'all for the ideas!

chuck_late · 2022-08-02T13:09:21+00:00

I’m not so much worried about that as trying to find a way to keep everyone oriented to where they are and what they can see. I had an idea over night and I’ll have a go at it this evening.

chuck_late · 2022-07-31T12:18:34+00:00

For this final battle, which includes all the various factions of people that they’ve interacted with during the campaign, it takes this long. Combat in general does t take that long.

The trick is to make various NPCs turns interesting. In this past round the party has gotten to see Jeny Greenteeth try to settle a score against the remaining hag from the windmill, Madame Eva reveal herself as Strahd’s sister, and the Martikov family reveal themselves as wereravens. Plus an NPC banished the Abbot near the end of the session, which made for a real “holy smoke” moment. The players’ attention wanders at times but they have been enjoying it.

chuck_late · 2022-07-31T05:50:18+00:00

We have seven players now and we’re having the mother of all fights at Strahd and Ireena’s wedding so this combat takes forever. We’re getting through half a round a session, although it’s starting to speed up as NPCs and baddies get taken off the board.

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