TRPG General Chat

12:00 AM

Ah, I see one of the topics is the 3.5 fighter, a never ending debate....

The first Conan story I ever actually read was the one where he kinda knows magic and there are no ladies to save. Just a soldier-type guy who dies at the end to help Conan do whatever it is he is doing. And then Conan totally pours one out for his homie. (Beyond the Black River. Considered one of the classics.)

Green Monkey

I love 3.5, and have been running my campaign for about 2.5 years straight now. However, when confronted with the fighter issues I told my players what I thought. Pathfinder. The themes and paths solve alot of my players issues with the fighter. Or I tell them to find a PrC that has what they want and head for it as fast as they can. In 3.5 the fighter is just a way of getting extra feats without sacking BAB for a melee character, dip a level for a free feat and move on

That was a good one @Alex. I think I have almost all of the old pulp books in a box in storage. Conan was one of the first series to catch me as a kid, then Amber, then John Carter

mxyzplk

@BESW Thanks, I do (semi-objectively) think that of the "next gen" SEs we have built the best and most on-topic one, not straying too far into the world of weird fiddly unique rules that degrade the usefulness of the site (looking at you, Christianity.SE) but building a community that values the SE best practices and keeps the shenanigans to a minimum (looking at scifi.se among others). It's good work on the part of all the long-timers, and some beloved departed ones (@Bryant...)

@Lord_Gareth Totally. And that's not really an answer to "Why is this class bad?". It's an answer to "How does this class perform in play..." Subtle but important difference.

Oh nice... The question @BryanBallsunStanton linked is a good example of a good way to ask a question in GS/BS non-flamebait way.

4

A: Is master of the nine a solid prestige class for a swordsage?

Not really, until high levels. As written, it's designed to blend classes and seems to have very steep requirements such that many dips are typically necessary to enter it in any reasonable timeframe. Take a look at the shadow sun ninja, as that seems to feature in many swordsage builds. Examini...

Alex P

@mxyzplk I'm curious. What does Christianity.SE do that's weird?

wax eagle

@AlexP ask people to ask their questions within a legitimate scope...

except that this isn't exactly and easy thing to do when there is literally 0 agreement across the spectrum.

mxyzplk

12:11 AM

@AlexP They made it so you could only answer a question from the point of view of the documented theology of a specific denomination. I sympathize in that a religion SE brings the random "I feel like this means X to me" people out of the woodwork but it means it's practically largely useless (IMO...)

Alex P

How do they handle comparative-religion type questions?

Zachiel

@mxyzplk It's hard to imagine without an example. Even a stupid one would do.

mxyzplk

having trouble logging in there, hold on

been so long...

Zachiel

If you have something in mind I don't need a link (but of course if that's easier for you, thanks)

wax eagle

@Zachiel Simplest example I can think of. The question "is getting a tattoo a sin?" would be a good example.

The answer depends quite literally on your doctrinal frame of reference.

Alex P

12:16 AM

@waxeagle There are denominations that say yes to that? I know people do, but I wasn't aware it was official doctrine for anyone.

wax eagle

because there is a clear old testament prohibition on getting tatoos. However, not all of us believe that this prohibition applies.

Alex P

Ah ok

wax eagle

so then, in order to get answers that are actually useful to the asker we ask the person asking the question to narrow the scope.

why are they asking the question? what's the motivation, what problem are they trying to solve

mxyzplk

grr, i don't understand, i'm logged into wordpress but it can't find my identity... Anyway, in their meta,

Zachiel

like "according to XYZ doctrine, is getting a tattoo a sin?"?

mxyzplk

12:18 AM

14

Q: What makes a good focused question?

In response to Can we reverse the trend on low quality posts? we would like to propose the following thoughts on what defines a good focused question. The primary focus of this site is a place to ask questions about Christianity. We have identified a couple of key aspects of constructive questi...

wax eagle

@Zachiel exactly

Alex P

So do you end up with ten answers for different denominations? Or scoping the question to "I am a Lutheran, ..."?

wax eagle

@AlexP we've mandated scoping the question not the answers. Because quite frankly, moderating answers doesn't scale.

This is essentially what we've done with sys-rec here. You have to give requirements that make it answerable, something to test against.

mxyzplk

indicates you "have to choose a doctrinal tradition/denomination" and there is/was (this may have changed since I bailed) a rule about not asking question for yourself since that's "pastoral advice," when the point of SEs is to ask about a problem you have. Anyway, don't want to start a turf war with waxy, I just know that I stopped finding the site any help at all quickly into the beta and departed/

Alex P

Okay, done with my chat derail. Thanks for answering my questions against Christianity.SE. ;)

mxyzplk

12:24 AM

I guess I can't dis 'em too much because we're only slightly ahead of them in the traffic ratings :-)

stackexchange.com/sites?view=list#traffic

Alex P

@GreenMonkey I think I started fantasy fiction with... erm, I dunno, probably something like Dragonlance? Not exactly "classics" ;)

@mxyzplk Bitcoin is beating Board & Card Games??? RAAAAAGE!

mxyzplk

We're tied for highest % of answered questions though! Us, workplace, parenting, chess, and all the furriners

Zachiel

ugh, chess

Green Monkey

@alex, nothing wrong with dragonlance, plenty of enjoyable material there. I went through a huge pile of forgotten realms before I started with dragonlance. I got lucky when I was a kid and found a yardsale that had whole sets for cheap.

mxyzplk

Y'all take it ez gotta go home from work now. No offense meant on the x.se stuff @waxeagle

wax eagle

12:28 AM

@mxyzplk yeah, whatever problems we've had (and continue to have if you take even half a look at our meta on any day), what we're doing does seem to be working

@mxyzplk none taken. I know not everyone was happy with the tack we took. And I always hold out hope that you and cross will come back at some point :)

Problematic

1:07 AM

24 hours left to pay what you want for 6 RPGs from Bundle of Holding +4

2

Alex P

1:22 AM

"DRM-free"? But it's... tabletop?

Problematic

Ayuh.

Digital rights management

Digital rights management (DRM) is a class of controversial technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders, and individuals with the intent to control the use of digital content and devices after sale; there are, however, many competing definitions. With First-generation DRM software, the intent is to control copying while Second-generation DRM schemes seek to control viewing, copying, printing, and altering of works or devices. The term is also sometimes referred to as copy protection, copy prevention, and copy control, although the correctness of doin...

Alex P

Do they mean "no watermarks"?

Or has crazy DRM become a thing since the last time I bought a PDF?

Problematic

> Electronic books read on a personal computer or an e-book reader typically use DRM technology to limit copying, printing, and sharing of e-books. E-books are usually limited to a certain number of reading devices and some e-publishers prevent any copying or printing. Some commentators believe that DRM makes E-book publishing complex.

Because screw consumers, amirite.

Alex P

Okay, but is that a thing for RPG PDFs?

All I've heard of was DriveThru watermarking things.

Which is DRM but it's the lawsuit-based post-hoc kind.