trilemma ooc

@Drgwen,@Rumo

Here let's talk about character ideas. And other ooc stuff.

Hi folks. I was thinking of playing a magic user. So probably 2 in Erudite, 1 in Skulking. And here's my starting coin.

OK, 110 Coin. I'll fill in the details soon.

Cool. We have two options for magic. I kind of geek out over magic systems …

1. totally freeform do whatever you want, per the rules. This doesn't fit well with the concept of the Trilemma setting where would-be wizards are roaming around trying to discover the secrets of the Seree and Martoi so that they can cast spells. In this option there are no real costs to learn or use magic (aside from potential Strain if you fail a casting roll).

2. secret-based where each spell you learn is a unique thing, but maybe over time you can figure out new ways to combine spells. This fits the setting better. Learning spells costs the same as a Great weapon so 40 coins per spell. Each spell has 2, 3, or 4 words (I use tables to randomly generate the words) and takes that same amount of Strain to carry in your head. DS of a spell is 7+words. Successfully cast spells are effective (no saving throws). Failing a casting roll adds Strain.

As the party's magic user, you pick whichever system seems better to you and I go with it.

I’m fine using the second method.

How would we determine which spells she knows, then? There’s no spell list.

But if it costs as much as a great sword, I hope it’s equivalent in power or usefulness.

Depending on this roll I did notice that going 3 skulker would let me wear 4 armour. Could be fun to play a scrawny mercenary whos taken on the roll of tank by wearing the heaviest armour they can and getting in the front lines. If that's too goofy I'd be keen to play a 2 Brute 1 Skulker. I can just act as a conjurer assistant.

Looks like I could only afford 3 pieces of armour anyway.

- Sword
- Shield
- Armour
- Rations x 6 (I'll be pack mule)
- Waterskin
- Flint/steel
- Chalk

Maze Rats has some random tables for weird word based magic. I use those, plus, to generate unique spells. You decide what each spell does. Then you can mix and match words from different spells to make new ones. If you're carrying six words in your head you can make a lot of different spells.

OK works for me. I rolled pretty well on coins, but I'll still only be able to afford 2 spells, maximum.

Please just let me know whether you want one or two spells.

Two please

Spell one: .2. words (DS 9) are: "Opening the Mask"

Spell two: .4. words (DS 11) are: "The Brine that Warps and Maddens Shadows"

Make of those, what you will. They take 6 Strain to carry.

Interesting!!! Hmm. Ok. I’ll fiddle with my character some more then. Thanks

Name: Dahlia
Stress: 12/20
Brute: 0. Skulker: 1. Erudite: 2.
Spells: "Opening the Mask" and "The Brine that Warps and Maddens Shadows"
Gear: a black cloak, 2 rations, throwing dagger, flint/steel, 4 torches, waterskin, 4 silver.

OK there's my character. Not sure how to handle Stress/inventory for the small adventuring items or the dagger. And no ranged attack weapons are listen in the weapons choices, but Skulker says it is for aiming, so I just made up throwing daggers.

Name: Myrven
Stress:12/20
Brute:1 Skullker:2 Erudite:0
Gear: Cloak (Dark green), Sword, Shield, Armor piece, Rations x 6, Waterskin, Flint/steel, Chalk.

Ok. In the GAME I have established that you're in a fishing village where the water and fish are bad, and you've just heard a strange rumor about a lynx.

Now that we have characters I'll expand on the rumor in the GAME.

Looks like theres a third player interested in the game in the old thread too

Yes, GeneralET. I brought him on.

Rolling Silver

How the strain inventory works ?
I could not find anything related to that...

As for character I was thinking something like a spellsword (1 Brute, 2 Erudite)

Welcome, GeneralET!

Thanks!

I would buy 1 spell (40 silver) + a sword (20 silver) and... I'm broke

Name: Ingvar
Stress: TBD
Brute: 1. Skulker: 0. Erudite: 2.
Spells: TBD
Gear: a white cloak, 2 rations, sword, 0 silver.

The Strain thing is like this for a starting character:
• Max 20;
• each inventory item (magic words each count as one inventory item) +1 current Strain,
• each failed roll +(DS - roll) to current Strain,
when Strain ≥ Max Strain you are Out of Action (and at the mercy of opponents, unless you're defended). You can drop items (including magic words) to reduce Strain. You also can recover d6 Strain by resting for a while in a protected place.

@GeneralET here is your spell:

"Larcenous Vengeance of the Sword Crow" (DS 11)

Shall I just drop in the game ?

Come on in, the water's fine! Well, actually, the water is poisonous, which is what we aim to figure out. Maybe your character and mine are acquaintances?

Yes, I was thinking it would be easier if we assumed we knew each other in some ways before this adventure.

I'll join you up at the tavern then :)

regarding the spells, is it possible to mix known words to create new effects at will? Or do they count as new spells that we have to learn?

For instance could I just use the 2 words Vengeance and Sword to create an effect.
Then later use the 2 words Crow of Larceny to create something else?

That was my understanding? But we'll have to see what the GM says.

Correct. You also can teach each other words. Each word you learn adds to your Strain.

Wow! You guys are proposing to Change the World! That's really cool.

I guess we've scaled back to start with something more feasible. Are we ready for a montage of setting off into the Dark Place?

Yep! Sounds good. I hadn't realized that the curse was ancient -- thought it was recent.

sounds good to me! I think we need to get some stuff together before tackling a bigger quest

Let's discuss INVENTORY.

Each "item" adds 1 strain. So 6×rations = 6 Strain. Four torches = 4 strain. One purse of any number of coins = 1 Strain. One magic word = 1 Strain. etc. Your clothing and cloak are free.

My current estimates for Strain (out of Max 20) are:
Dahlia 18
Ingvar 7
Myrven 12

perhaps you should redistribute the torches among you. Possibly to Ingvar but I leave that to your collective discretion.

No problem with that. I'll add those torch

We already spent 2 right? Or atleast we are near the tail end of our second. So shall I just leave mine off and say we burnt through it already?

Let's talk "leveling up" and "luck".

A rule I've tried in other Goons-ish games is to implement a combo "luck" and "level' die. It starts at 1 and ticks up by 1 each time you make a roll. You can swap it for any die you roll. E.g., if you roll ⚀⚅ and have a ⚂ luck die, you can swap to have a roll of ⚂⚅ and a ⚀ luck die. If the luck die is at ⚅ and would tick up, you can keep it there or choose to reset it to ⚀ and "level up".

When you level up, you add +1 to any stat or +2 to Max Strain.

So far, @drgwen is at ⚁ on the Luck die and everyone else is at ⚀.

If you look at the Characters or at the little grey bubbles below Rolls, I think you should see "Trilemma Tracker" that will show your current strain and Level/Luck die. Remember you can swap the Luck die for any die you roll.

I don't see the Trillema tracker on my side.

can you see it from the Characters option in the bottom bar?

I'm not seeing it but I can add it to my character sheet to keep on it

Ok. Right now we have:
Dahlia 15 Strain, Luck die 4
Ingvar 17 Strain, Luck die 3
Myrven 16 Strain, Luck die 3

I will be on family vacation June 11–19. Will not be posting or checking this game during that time. Will be back after that.

I'm re-considering the DS for spells. It seems like the fewer words a spell has, the more flexible and powerful it gets. Should more flexible spells have higher DS? Or is it more fun to have the super specific spells have higher DS? For now it stays as-is.

Nothing from the GM since the 9th, so I'm going to bow out here. Thanks for the game, folks. Hope all is well, Tibbius, and thank you for running the game :) All the best.

@Rumo as mentioned above, I was on vacation. I'm back. If you'd like to rejoin you are welcome.

@drgwen, @generalet, I'll post in the game thread today.

Oh mate, I'm sorry. I thought we'd been ghosted. I didn't see that post. I'd be keen to rejoin if it's not too late.

@rumo you're very welcome. I now will post what happens when you left the room to see the man about the boat.

@GeneralET,@Drgwen,@Rumo … there are so many ways you could have screwed this up, but you didn't! I have run similar scenarios in other settings where, e.g., paranoid players attempted to massacre all of the potentially-friendlies.

oh my goodness! Nah, not my style. I'm glad we found a peaceful solution!

Live now, flee later!

Meseems a good time for a cut scene montage

Busy with work but I'll post tonight :)

Sorry guys I'll be able to post in about 14 hours

Have I been able to keep our supervisor occupied so that he isn't involved in the conversation with Dahlia?

I think the magic words summarize particular mental processes that engage supernatural forces. It's yours to describe how or if Dahlia manifests those processes with physical actions.

Well friends, how would like to be paid? We are allegedly sharing some of this wealth with the village, but there should be enough to go around. Dahlia's first instinct is to ask for the coin, but she knows that information can be as valuable. Knowing next other nothing about these wizards, however, she wouldn't see the value in a letter of favor.

To be honest I think myrven is on board with being paid in coin. Information might be more exciting but his disposition at the moment would be much more inclined to getting some wealth under him considering we are lean on cash.

So, 900 gold for the three crates? That seems like a good amount, but I don't really know. What do folks think? We'd have to go share it with the town, too. Each of us can have everything we could possible want from the gear list for 100 or less (plus a horse, maybe, for another 100?). So I'm not sure.

Not sure where Myrven is getting the two dozen men. Did I write that somewhere? I thought it was the three of you, the captain, and Dwatto on a smallish fishing boat.

Yea I figured myrven would swing for an exaggeration.

I'd be keen to buy armour so I can be a bit more tanky. Not sure what we should do about the village fish poisoning if we care, but maybe going out on the town is a good way to generate some new contacts. Or we could look for a library if Dahlia wants to do some magic research.

We could put on the pinkie ring and follow to where it leads?

Is the term "domain level play" relevant to you? With 300+ coin you could easily recruit followers etc.

The beauty of a simplistic system like Dungeon Goons is that it leaves room for us to discuss and agree on rules for situations not covered. It's pretty easy to make those rules consistent with the paradigm of the underlying rule set. For example, I've got a small set of Mass Combat rules called "Goon Squad". I would imagine Erudite rolls become more significant for things like arranging logistics, negotiating trade deals, selecting reliable generals, etc. Unlike a wargame, Goons-derivative domain level play would tend to keep your characters centered in the story.

Sounds good to me

Hey so sorry Tibbius ill post tomorrow, just had a packed day and its really late here but i want to go through make sure im getting everything right. planning on buying the kimono and two armour pieces at least. ill post properly in the morning

No worries. I suggest you and @drgwen have an in-character discussion of Dahlia and Myrwen's next plans.

Uneven Melee Combat

When it's multiple-v-one, the one gets to roll against each opponent each clash, but only one roll can DO damage; the rest are pure defense and the one might take damage on a miss.

Shooting Combat

There's no risk of damage when you're shooting AT someone. You roll +Skulker+Weapon.

When you're getting shot at, you roll +Skulker+Armor v their DS. On a miss you take damage.

How are we doing here? The system is moderately interesting, especially the magic system — by the way, is that your creation, Tib? It reminds me of Maze Rats but it’s different.

Do we want to go to the borderlands? Or… just go wherever the ring directs us?

The magic system is my adaptation of Maze Rats! I strongly like that system and have run a game with it on here.

I kind of did that here.

Very cool! Lots of neat stuff there.

@Drgwen,@Rumo tomorrow marks 6 months since we started playing this game!

I didn't think we'd make it, tbh! The system is simple and we had several players earlier on that were phoning it in. But here we are!

I've asked this before, though, and I'll ask again: I would like another spell, please. I want to cast more. I'm also curious to see what spell failure looks like!

We're doing it!

I don't think we've "leveled up" yet and I feel like before entering this next location it would be good to do so.

@drgwen, @rumo, please add +1 to a score of your choice.

At this time, also, I'm changing out the rules for Strain etc. I think they're too complex for me to track well.

We're going to switch to "carry a reasonable load" (which each of you has now) and "you get 9 Luck, and lose 1 each time you fail a dangerous roll; Luck resets to 9 when you level up; if your luck runs out, I'll roll 2d6 and tell you what happens".

So entering this Tower, Dahlia and Myrven have 9 Luck. The NPCs have lesser Luck.

Brute increased by 1, mwahahaha

@tibbius so, I’m not sure if you intended this, but it felt like you were being critical of me in your latest post, when you said, "Not that they know the details, as Dahlia's said nothing about it."

I had asked an OOC question above. I was waiting for an answer before posting again. This is not the first or even the third time you’ve kind of ignored something I’ve said in an OOC. But it may be the first time you’ve given me trouble about not moving on in the game after you’ve ignored me.

This is frustrating. I’m not here to play test your game mechanics, Tibbius. I want to play a game where my input and experience is valued and I’m not feeling that here.

So I think I’m gonna step away from this game.

Sorry to end the game like this @Rumo . Happy gaming to you both.

I don't even know how to respond to that. Sorry, @rumo.

I am sad about this ending to the game. We were about to enter on a very cleverly-written adventure that I found a few years ago and have been waiting a while to play. It's too bad that feelings got so easily hurt and led to a rage-quit.

Sorry Tibbius, looks like our styles didn't mesh. I was struggling to find a footing for a while, felt like I was just sort of tagging along most of the time and didn't know when to make solid choices as the game sort of just kept flowing on anyway. Loved the creativity of the setting and world-building, but it might have been too expansive to really engage with. I did think it might be getting a bit more structured and interactive as we entered the tower, but alas. All the best, thanks for GMing, good luck with the next game.