RPPR Episode 84: Murphy Rules

News: The Know Evil Fan Creation contest is well underway and the deadline for entries has been extended. Tom has started a Pathfinder campaign, which will be recorded. I have a short story in The Unspeakable Oath 22 – read “Message in a Bottle.” Also, I want to thank every RPPR donor who helps keep this site up and going!

Synopsis: Murphy’s Rules were a long standing comic in Pyramid magazine that pointed out the quirks of various RPG systems. Recently, I found a hilarious thread on the SA forums carrying on that tradition by explaining how jumping really high in D&D 3.5E can make you really popular or how a priest wouldn’t be able to recognize his own god in the flesh. This episode deals with this disconnection between reality, game rules, and genre conventions and how to deal with them in games. Is this even a problem? What do you do when a player finds a way to break the game or its genre? After the main discussion, Tom has a letter for us and shout outs and anecdotes.

Shout outs

Song: I am the night by Perturbator

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17 Comments

  1. I have the collected Murphy’s Rule put out by Steve Jackson Games. It is hilarious!

  2. Ahh good ol Jumplomat.(It’s done with a Prestige Class btw…)

    Oh and the locate city nuke….

    Oh and Pun Pun.

    Good ol character optimization boards on Wizards webpage.

  3. YES! Something I mentioned on the forums got a shout out on the Podcast!!!!!

    I’d like to thank all the little people that made this possible…

    Except the CGI artists. Fuck those guys…

    Knights of Pen and Paper! WOOT WOOT.

  4. Vanilla Ice’s pants in that poster tell you everything you need to know about that film.

  5. “Please don’t start a iOS/Droid flame war.”

    Hello! Shouldn’t that read “Please don’t start an iOS/Droid flame war.”

    ~Rhesus

    PS I want RPPR on NPR.

  6. Tom should totally do a Mass Effect Let’s Play. It would be awesome.

  7. If you’re doing a mashup of the Office and a Cthulhu cult, what would it take for me to get to do a cameo as the cult’s version of Alec Baldwin from Glengarry Glen Ross?

    “Put that dagger down! Daggers are for Summoners only.”

    “A, B, S! A: Always. B: be. S: Summoning. Always be summoning! ALWAYS be summoning!”

  8. Seems like the link to CamScanner doesn’t work.

  9. That poster does say it all. And all it says is bad.

  10. I wonder what Tom’s thoughts are on Sim City’s new release. I heard the actual game is fun, but the game needs to log into the EA servers before-hand and these have 30 minute wait times and they crash constantly.

  11. Princess of Mars, the John Carter novel, actually revolves around the protagonist jumping really high and being named the king of everybody because of just how impressed they are by it.

  12. Tom’s thoughts on Simcity:

    It is an awesome game, for the most part. I love how it is a bit more simplified version of Simcity 4, which I loved. (just a bit too over-complicated)

    Maxis did an amazing job. Then EA shit all over it. Always online DRM? For single player? Hours waiting to get into a server to play a SINGLE PLAYER game? First, EA shits on Mass Effect 3, and now Simcity. I think they totally earned the title of Worst Company of 2012. And they are high in the running to make it again this year.

    Hooray for mediocrity, EA!

  13. By the way Tom, if you are trying to find out how to ‘beat’ a Sim City game, maybe this video might help you. Also slightly unsettle you.

  14. True story behind GURPS and darkness penalties:

    Total darkness is -10 and you have to use hearing or some other sense to identify were the target is so you can attack the right hex.

    Setting yourself on fire is not a good idea and this is why: -3 from smoke and distraction, at least -3 from darkness penalty because a person on fire does not light up everything as bright as day, and -1 to -4 from the damage you take from the fire.

    The best possible scenario is you light yourself on fire and attack the opponent with a -7 to -11 penalty to skill depending on damage recieved. Meanwhile your opponent can attack you at only -3 darkness penalty or lower for attacking the light source. Remember also that a character with normal stats (HT 10) who is on fire will collapse after 4-6 seconds, and possibly die in about 10 seconds.

    So yeah, the penalty can be lower if lucky, but still not a good idea, and you will die quite horribly.

    /Swedish GURPS-player

  15. Wow, this music is awesome. That Perturbator guy is fantastic.

  16. I love this ep also. Incidentally, I misheard “Jumplomat” as “Juggalo-mat” … confused as to how ICP played a role in D&D. 0-o

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