Tales from the Dorms: The Questors of Wey-Talleigh

null0trooper wrote:

Commander Knight wrote:

mhalpern wrote:

So there's a junior high student named Hypergolic, THAT'S gotta be interesting

Sounds rather reactive and probably explosive.

", who wore a conspicuously odd pair of plastic gloves over his hands.

'Gotta be sure I don't, ah, mix the wrong stuff,' the boy, Hypergolic, managed to not-explain. Judging from the singes on his clothes, Calliope wasn't going to pry."

A fan of Derek Lowe,

www .science .org/topic/blog-category/things-i-wont-work-with

An enjoyable read. A few thoughts, in no particular order
* It certainly feels like Gazebo's area of specialization for his devisor talents is the realm of tabletop gaming. The room atmosphere is nearly perfect (even if the old version seemed to have a cameo from the Princesses of the Pizza Parlor series). I also see elements of the devisor talent at play in making the Gestalt Multi-clasing work. Looking to a career after Whateley, I could see die-hard TTG geeks drooling over the VTT system, though I don't know how easy it would be to mass-produce. Using GEO as a guide, I suppose it would be possible to enchant a devisor software package. The downside to doing so would be inherent instability of devises in general and the mashup in particular.
* Saumer is going to put together the pieces of Erica's past, and probably sooner rather than later. Erica should fill him in on her terms, but who ever said that hormonal teenagers do the smart thing. I doubt this is actually the case, but there is a possibility that he figured it out on their first meeting and is just waiting for her to reveal the truth.
* Got to love the Monty Python references.
* I so wish Cryo-Cola was real. Alas, only the struggle is real.
* The banter between Chessa and Gazebo when the former needs/wants something out of the later to keep the game moving in a particular direction is quite amusing.

For Court:
re: the Aasimar ASMR thing. ASMR is short for "Autonomous sensory meridian response", which is a sort of synesthetic response to audiovisual cues. There are plenty of videos on YouTube that attempt to use it, usually with soft words, white noise, and other low-key audio elements, to help people relax and feel nice. The idea being that Wolpheen is using her abilities as a (probably) Museborn Aasimar to replicate ASMR effects via her voice and instrument, which lulls listeners into a happier and more compliable state of mind.

For cprime:
Cryo-Cola is real. Or at least, the Coca Cola Company briefly had machines marketed in Britain, Singapore, and Japan that could supercool Coke or Sprite to the same effect. I think they lasted longest in Japan (about two years), but they've since disappeared from my local 7-11.

Wasamon wrote:

For Court:
re: the Aasimar ASMR thing. ASMR is short for "Autonomous sensory meridian response", which is a sort of synesthetic response to audiovisual cues. There are plenty of videos on YouTube that attempt to use it, usually with soft words, white noise, and other low-key audio elements, to help people relax and feel nice. The idea being that Wolpheen is using her abilities as a (probably) Museborn Aasimar to replicate ASMR effects via her voice and instrument, which lulls listeners into a happier and more compliable state of mind.

For cprime:
Cryo-Cola is real. Or at least, the Coca Cola Company briefly had machines marketed in Britain, Singapore, and Japan that could supercool Coke or Sprite to the same effect. I think they lasted longest in Japan (about two years), but they've since disappeared from my local 7-11.

Cryo chillers are expensive to run, especially as it sounds like an effect best achieved by cooling it quickly.

Undoubtedly, Hypergolic keeps a copy of Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John Clark (a first edition bought at great expense on Amazon) on his night stand.

Of course, the one you really need to worry about is Ignition! An Informal History of Dragons

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Undoubtedly, Hypergolic keeps a copy of Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John Clark (a first edition bought at great expense on Amazon) on his night stand.

I don't know... Ignition!: A 1,001 Uses for Hellfire could also come in handy.

Astrodragon wrote:

Of course, the one you really need to worry about is Ignition! An Informal History of Dragons

null0trooper wrote:

I don't Ignition!: A 1,001 Uses for Hellfire could also come in handy.

Both of which probably do exist in the Whateley library.

However, given the codename 'Hypergolic', I suspect that the book on rocketry is more likely Especially since it discusses hypergolic fuels at length. Whether that book exists in the WU maybe be an open question, though (whereas it is very definitely real in ours, being recently reissued in fact).

I liked it. You're a brilliant writer whose stories I've enjoyed. As a formerly avid tabletop gamer, I appreciate your tipping of the cap to some well-known tropes (paladin + babies / kids of "always chaotic evil" = perfect opportunity for GM to be a jerk; good thing this one wasn't)

All I can say is I wish my gaming experience had been always that good.

Just bugged by a couple things (as a person who used to do Pathfinder and other systems).
Picking a "bad" spell or ability based on flavor is in effect begging the GM to put together a scenario in which that spell or ability will be useful. If you've got a GM who's going to play ball, great; otherwise not so great.
Also, deciding something purely on "concept" is A route to making an interesting character, but there are other routes to make an interesting character. I will sometimes look for interesting things I can do and build a character totally around them. Occasionally really high on the power curve, sometimes not. As an example, I once looked at some "alternate" domain sections and what they could do when a character invested in them. Rulership has one where, if you channel negative energy, you can do half as much damage to everyone in your little cleric , thought it would be fun to potentially deny bad guys actions, open up tactics, etc. OK, so from that, you've got to be a cleric and channel negative energy and have a deity who has "rulership" as an option. So, one step away alignment-wise. Ah, Horus, nice, Lawful Neutral. Domans, Air, Animal, wait a minute; as his animal is the falcon and he's called the falcon of the sun, I should get Feather subdomain. Now, which race should I be. Well, it's Egyptian-esque now, so that means something human, planetouched, scaly, , for a cleric of the falcon of the sun, either Tengu , there's a Feathery Aasimar, perfect. Am I a descendent of Horus? Do I just THINK I'm a descendent of Horus? Who knows, might be interesting to find out in-game. Now, Feather ! I want a giant falcon-type 'm getting a Roc once I qualify for the pet. OK, nuts and bolts mostly done; now just feats, skills and backstory and I'm good to go. Go to , foundling in the temple is a classic, or just an ordinary human being doing an ordinary , let's look at archetypes and see if something there lends itself to what I want to do mechanically and the flavor I'm getting

You see what I mean? I didn't start with a concept and run with it; I actually started with "what's the most interesting way to use this combo of abilities'? But I got what will become a fully-realized character.

Am I an evil min-maxer? Only when you make me

Anyway, sorry I went on a bit long. Just brought back some geeky memories.

No need to apologize! I love these fun discussions and debates on how to play a favorite game.

Gazebo's philosophy is definitely more of an outlier in some ways, and he does go above and beyond to encourage players to use odd abilities in novel ways. When I do stories like these, it's partly from experience (good or bad), partly from stories I've heard from others, and lastly a whole lot of what I imagine the game could be like.

I actually have a series of novela-length episodes based around this same sort of setup, sans superpowers for the players involved. "Princesses of the Pizza Parlor," published on Amazon Kindle under the name Maikel Yarimizu. Cprime already noted a reference to the series in this story, lol.

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Undoubtedly, Hypergolic keeps a copy of Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John Clark (a first edition bought at great expense on Amazon) on his night stand.

That book is legendary, and hilarious, in a somewhat dark humor way,

Is any cafeteria furnature ever destoryed deliberately?

I seem to .recall that happening a time or six.

Archiving reactions from the Discord before they get lost in the noise:

SomeoneElse37 wrote:

Comments on my first read-through of Tales from the Dorm - The Questors of Wey-Talleigh:

Erica and the Barnes Clan. Interesting.

How did the detention following Dorms go, anyway? I hope there's a story in the works about it?

Aha, a D&D session. That's what's happening here. This should be fun.

So Emi is a catfolk cleric of some variety? Interesting. Although D&D clerics rely on Wisdom pretty heavily, so that racial penalty might prove to be a problem.

Petrille , it seems.

Ah, Pathfinder. I'm not familiar with Pathfinder; I've only played D&D 5e. And I'm not familiar with genasi (or oreads, etc.) at all.

't play TTRPGs fairly, since the dice like him a bit too much, I'll bet he could be a fantastic GM for the very same reason.

Okay, so this campaign is using homebrew rules where everyone gets some features of the Cleric class and some features of another class? I think I'm starting to understand.

Chessa taking Magic for Muggles

"Damnit, Saumer,"
🤣
The Erica-Saumer 's going to happen there. I dunno what, or when, but it's gonna be spectacular when it does. It's not like Erica's exactly doing a perfect job of hiding the fact that she already knows Saumer.

Wait, Emi's a tiefling? That was not the impression I got from her introduction. The "catlike ears" bit threw me off, I think.

Chessa is adorable.

Spectacular, I said. The Erica-Saumer situation is not disappointing me yet.
Interesting take on the ways that mutants play TTRPGs differently from baselines. I know I usually try to optimize my characters, although I don't bother with online guides and instead prefer to rely on my own analysis. Not that my analysis is necessarily all that good.

Epontia, goddess of horses. I like it.

A centaur-goddess? Is she going to turn Calburi into a centaur now?

... All right, maybe that idea was a bit silly.

Well, that's about all I have to say. I enjoyed this story, so thank you, Wasamon, for sharing it with us; and I'd be interested to see what becomes of this campaign in the future, although I don't know if any such story is being planned.

And to repeat a reply from Discord, Emi is a Beastborn Tiefling, one of the variants from Paizo that is specifically related to Rakshasa somehow. In this case, through her spiritual and metaphysical mama figure in the sky.


One more!

Baron wrote:

Good job on the story. I am super interested in how Erica and Saumer will play out. With that and tide turner and his sister there are some interesting relationship plots brewing..

Yeah, lots of fun setting up stuff for later in this one.

Wasamon wrote:

No need to apologize! I love these fun discussions and debates on how to play a favorite game.

Gazebo's philosophy is definitely more of an outlier in some ways, and he does go above and beyond to encourage players to use odd abilities in novel ways. When I do stories like these, it's partly from experience (good or bad), partly from stories I've heard from others, and lastly a whole lot of what I imagine the game could be like.

I actually have a series of novela-length episodes based around this same sort of setup, sans superpowers for the players involved. "Princesses of the Pizza Parlor," published on Amazon Kindle under the name Maikel Yarimizu. Cprime already noted a reference to the series in this story, lol.

GM's and players come in all types. Some people insist a class is a role. I disagree. It depends on your game and whoever the characters are. You'll get some people who insist on always playing the same character or type of character; you get others a bit more fluid. I always ask a new group what they need, then figure out how to make an interesting character within those restrictions, that I can play OK both tactically and getting into character-wise.

Every game is different as well, and some I wonder if the designers actually have played. For instance, some feats that are so good they're either "taxes" everyone needs to take or nobody should. Other things like how a character will or will not be effective based on whether a stat is this &D was notorious for stuff like this but it exists in other systems too. If I'm doing a Pathfinder campaign I always want to clear with the DM how we're doing stats, whether or not Leadership exists, how much of 3.5 you can 'port over, what races are fair game, and how prevalent are guns. Maybe stuff like how much downtime the characters have, too (certain types of characters like wizards who can prep scrolls and others will benefit from a lot), and which archetypes I can use and / or mix and match. Magic and its uses in whatever game you're doing. Hero system has some powers / combo sets that are pretty nuts if you know what you're doing. Rifts is pretty insane; you need to know exactly what level everyone is on because standardization is lacking. What exactly is kosher in whichever White Wolf game you're playing? Please don't have a decker if you're doing

I'm playing 4e and the DM has ways we have to design to be relevant and horror stories about a years-ago halfling paladin who picked his stats for flavor and so can't hit anything or support the party. In 3e, one of the tried-and-true designs I remember playing was a halfling pally on a riding dog, so when we got together to play and he insisted striker / defender / controller / leader, we already had a wizard and a rogue, I picked a half-elf chaladin. Partly because it was interesting mechanically and partly to show how a character like the halfling he complained about SHOULD have been

Anyway, stats are stats, role-playing is role-playing, and anything can be mixed. A fun character in 5e I played was just straight CN Pirate Tempest Cleric of Umberlee. Party needed a backup tank; I was a polearm specialist who could control space really well. Used Animate Dead to have skeleton archers who were "shipmates" with standing orders to attack whatever I did. Tossed out the occasional heal but only when needed. Simple design, just basically a human , the "shipmates", occasionally the "pirate" speech, the grudging "prayers"...

The GM's always got more tools than you do. He or she is trusting you to play nice, and you're trusting him or her to not kill your character unless it's either an epic death or you do something stupid or else you're horrendously unlucky. Beyond that, it's just mechanics. What I want my character to do, then how I'm going to approach this as the character. Play into type, or against, or a combo.

ghoti wrote:

Anyway, stats are stats, role-playing is role-playing, and anything can be mixed. A fun character in 5e I played was just straight CN Pirate Tempest Cleric of Umberlee. Party needed a backup tank; I was a polearm specialist who could control space really well. Used Animate Dead to have skeleton archers who were "shipmates" with standing orders to attack whatever I did. Tossed out the occasional heal but only when needed. Simple design, just basically a human , the "shipmates", occasionally the "pirate" speech, the grudging "prayers"...

I've played a tank, once. Ranger with INT 11, CHA 10, and Speed 30. Always Speed: 30. (Boy, did that come up a time or three) He had the second-worst "Handle Animal" rating for a ranger the DM had ever seen played, and was one of the few characters for whom "Brutal Throw" lived up to the name. He started out as "how many templates can I stack and still bring a character into a level 6 campaign." + "Okay. Let's try this for one night and see how it goes." Eight levels later, Hank was still on the team when the campaign ended.

ghoti wrote:

The GM's always got more tools than you do. He or she is trusting you to play nice, and you're trusting him or her to not kill your character unless it's either an epic death or you do something stupid or else you're horrendously unlucky. Beyond that, it's just mechanics. What I want my character to do, then how I'm going to approach this as the character. Play into type, or against, or a combo.

If by "playing nice", you mean "let the GM know what you're planning now" and "be cool with what actually happens next", sure. You know you have a great idea when the GM buries his face in his hands and no one else at the table knows why.