TRPG General Chat

trogdor

9:00 AM

I was mostly just intrigued by the outside chance that he might at least feel kinda remorseful about it

BESW

@doppelgreener I would probably have no money at all.

trogdor

I would have less than that

doppelgreener

@BESW yes well... I have been buying them steadily and I only have 6 XD

oh, apparently there are only 8!?

with the ninth story still ongoing

trogdor

those 8 apparently have a lot of story then

BESW

Check out Atomic Robo Presents Real Science Adventures.

It's basically Secondary Characters and Background Plots Get Spotlights.

Magician

9:11 AM

...just misread a question's title as "How Do I Assassinate a Vampire Goat." Am terrified.

3

doppelgreener

@BESW i have intended to go for this one afterwards :)

@Magician known to scale vertical castle walls and strike

Magician

The Old Goat of the Mountain

doppelgreener

9:31 AM

News stations' truthfulness analysed, turns out Fox News lies a lot, probably nobody surprised. But the bit that surprises me is the survey mentioned at the end:

Fox News watches are less informed about current events than people who watch no news at all.

BESW

Oh, man, which quote do I use?

...all of them.

> To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worth while. The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely to feed the mind with canned chatter. - Aleister Crowley

doppelgreener

Here's the original study about news and awareness: What you know depends on what you watch: Current events knowledge across popular news sources

BESW

> A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier. - H. L. Mencken

> If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed. - Mark Twain

> The best fiction is far more true than any journalism. - William Faulkner

> You cannot hope to bribe or twist,
thank God! the British journalist.
But, seeing what the man will do
unbribed, there's no occasion to.
- Humbert Wolfe

doppelgreener

this is probably true. thankfully australia has a couple of newspapers (maybe more than 2?) that aren't drivel or tabloids in disguise, but reflecting on it i don't get a huge amount out of reading either other than a way to pass the time.

doppelgreener

9:56 AM

so it is no wonder to me now that I don't read them very much at all ;)

trogdor

I also do not read the papers here much

even when I do, I kinda just scan to see if any story is worth it (at least in my own opinion)

and then I just read the funnies, cause there usually isn't a particularly interesting/important story in there

though part of that "may" be because I don't read it often, but wtv

doppelgreener

@trogdor the problem here is that the newspapers with the funnies don't have much worth other than to act as protective wrapping for the funnies :)

trogdor

this is not a wrong answer by any means

problem is, we are a small island, and as far as I know we don't really have more than one real newspaper, though we technically do have at least,... the Stars and Stripes paper

but I don't know how much that counts

I read it even less

doppelgreener

drat

at least you have the 'net

trogdor

yes

and like,.. books

doppelgreener

10:07 AM

i just found out our outside freezer (which i have not used until shopping on sunday night) does not... freeze.

at least, not near the top where i put the frozen pizzas.

trogdor

I won't say it is the best habit ever, but I almost take more interest in learning history than news

doppelgreener

i suspect they may have very very limited life expectancy now :'(

@trogdor that is not one of the best habits ever but it is an awesome habit compared to the inverse

trogdor

to be fair, I do enjoy seeing the connections between them

and I don't just mean like, obvious ones

BESW

@trogdor Pacific Daily News and the Marianas Variety are the "real" newspapers. PDN is very Guam-and-US centric, while the MV is more Micronesia-and-international.

trogdor

mk

I defer to you sir

BESW

10:10 AM

But even people who prefer the MV have to read the PDN for the obituaries.

trogdor

one of the reasons Japanese history intrigues me so much (besides all the other reasons) is that it is still repeating a sort of cycle it has gone through as a country for as far back as any of it's history I know of

BESW

And neither is exactly top-notch in terms of independent investigation, though the MV makes a little more of an effort.

trogdor

though there have been some rather significant differences recently

and by recently, I mean in a very historical sense

events like WWII were not technically recent in the very basic sense of recent

Japan has been know through its history to sort of borrow culture from other countries, and then swing in on itself and make its own culture without any further influence from the outside world for a while

mostly from China for a while, but not exclusively, especially the closer to the present you look

not to say that they ever weren't doing at least a little of their own culture making, but they did ( and possibly still are) follow a cyclical pattern of borrowing and then (at least relative) isolation

BESW

"Wolverine-Adamantium-waterbed" would be a good name for a.... huh. I'm sure it'd be a good name for something. Maybe a post-apocalyptic warrior's code name.

doppelgreener

i am disposing of these pizzas. ;_; dammit

BESW

10:18 AM

@doppelgreener Viking funeral?

doppelgreener

@BESW unceremonious dumping in the bin

BESW

Aw.

doppelgreener

unfortunately we don't have the raw materials for a viking funeral or a pyre

which would be awesome.

trogdor

it would be

doppelgreener

open fires tend to be fairly illegal in australia though. that might be common, but we also have gum trees in back yards.

BESW

10:19 AM

It'd probably also be a zoning violation.

trogdor

though anyone who sees that would at least be seriously confused

yeah, and legality is a major issue

BESW

@doppelgreener On a scale of charcoal to eucalyptus trees, where does the gum tree fall?

doppelgreener

@BESW they are dry tinder waiting to be ignited but thankfully do not have explosive yield.

BESW

A quick Google tells me they're actually in the same family as proper eucalyptus.

doppelgreener

and they have so many twigs and shed twigs and branches everywhere, so when I mean they are tinder that is not a metaphor.

Gum tree

Gum tree is a common name for smooth-barked trees and shrubs in three closely related genera of Eucalypt: Eucalyptus, which includes the majority of species of gum trees. Corymbia, which includes the Ghost gums and Spotted gums. Angophora, which includes the Sydney red gum. == Other plants == The name Gum tree may also be applied to: Black gum Sweetgum Water gum == See also == Gum Tree, Arkansas...

my mistake, they're probably totally explosive.

trogdor

10:22 AM

that sounds a lot like what the bamboo that grows right past our wall does

though I am not sure it is necessarily as flamable

doppelgreener

Exploding tree

Exploding trees occur when stresses in a tree trunk increase leading to an explosion. These explosions can be caused by three different factors: cold, lightning, and fire. == Causes == === Cold === Cold weather will cause some trees to explode by freezing the sap, because it contains water, which expands as it freezes, creating a sound like a gunshot. The sound is produced as the tree bark splits, with the wood contracting as the sap expands. John Claudius Loudon described this effect of cold on trees in his Encyclopaedia of Gardening, in the entry for frosts, as follows1: The history of frosts...

trogdor

the worst part is that any part of it not ready to break off is,.. really resistant to getting cut down

doppelgreener

HAHAHA OR #4 THE TREE BEING FULL OF EXPLOSIVE OILS.

#3 mentions that but I am 90% sure SELF-ASSURED DETONATING TREE belongs in its own category.

@trogdor bamboo is definitely not necessarily as flammable, on account of bamboo does not belong to a flora ecosystem that survives by ensuring it regularly burns to the ground.

trogdor

I figured

don't get me wrong, it is actually pretty scenic, in a way

but it reminds me of Tangen Tangen, except thicker and harder to cut down

I am not excessively fond of Tangen Tangen

doppelgreener

is this flora all pretty problematic?

trogdor

10:31 AM

it,.. grows a lot

takes up space

and if I recall correctly, it is not indigenous

the nice thing about the bamboo in comparison to the Tangen Tangen is that it doesn't spread like crazy the same way

and I do personally find it more pleasing to look at in comparison

doppelgreener

bamboo is pretty beautiful.

i hear it grows and dies in colonies, is that right?

BESW

Tangan-tangan is this stuff, from Central America. It's all over the Pacific, not least because the US military exploited its value as a fast-growing, aggressive, densely packed tree to curb erosion damage in places where the local vegetation was destroyed during WWII.

Don't eat the leaves; it makes most mammals' hair fall out.

You can't kill it except by burning the stump, and that's no guarantee, because it's nearly impossible to get the taproot out intact.

The only prevalent invasive plant rivals the tangentangen for visibility on Guam is the cadena de amor, which will happily smother tangentangen given half the chance.

doppelgreener

10:48 AM

Is that the super-aggressive vines you described to me once?

BESW

Yes.

doppelgreener

that quote from the Tesladyne Field Guide about the arms war to smother the earth is coming back to me.

BESW

Antigonon leptopus is among the front ranks.

Its leaves are large and flat and thick, and they hang to quickly and effectively block all light to the host plant the vine grows on.

It's another "I dare you to try getting all my taproot" plant, where even the littlest bit of root system left in the ground will recover.

doppelgreener

before I forget, @BESW it is said that gum trees in Australia need to grow in groups, and lone ones are unhealthy. suddenly with this mycelial network thing that makes more sense.

BESW

@doppelgreener Yup!

doppelgreener

11:05 AM

!!!

[just thought up very cool plot thing!]

[then realised he could not possibly comment on it!]

:D

trogdor

lol

I did a very small amount of that myself

BESW

While looking up zeerust for Jessie references, I actually just ran across a potential plot thingie myself.

trogdor

the thing I thought of also got brainstormed away (more or less), but I like what said brainstorm produced anyway

BESW

11:48 AM

Oooh, a downvote.

[acquires mullet]

lisardggY

12:05 PM

`ola.

BESW

I see that grave accent!

lisardggY

A backtick. If I'd wanted an ò, I'd have put an ò. I'm ò-capable!

g̀r̀àv̀è!̀

Unicode allows me to put a grave accent on an exclamation mark. We're living in the future.

8

BESW

12:33 PM

HP Lovecraft gets groovy and talks about Evil Dead.

lisardggY

The current organizer of our local annual SF&F convention is a good guy, but he came from Trek and TV fandom, and knows absolutely nothing about literature. In a Guest of Honor meeting a while back, his list of "possible authors to invite" included such luminaries as Arthur C. Clarke (dead for 6 years), Isaac Asimov (dead for 22 years) and, notably, H.P Lovecraft, dead these last 77 years.

Dead? Or just sleeping?

@Magician ...and now I've just read your text as "How do I vaccinate a vampire goat".

3

BESW

►

Joshua Aslan Smith

12:59 PM

herro

trogdor

1:19 PM

►

this seems at least close to appropriate too

doppelgreener

Hooray, a playlist!:

►

trogdor

also to be fair, I just like it better

doppelgreener

@BESW @trogdor have these people done a Greensleeves?

trogdor

no idea

BESW

@doppelgreener What Thing Is This? is from a Christmas song that uses the same tune.

doppelgreener

1:28 PM

@BESW Woo! \o/

I've always loved Greensleeves.

Thank you! :)

BESW

My pleasure.

....I should sleep. Gotta get my car into the shop tomorrow, and that's going to involve a tow.

@trogdor If all my morning plans fail, can you help me with rides in the afternoon?

trogdor

sure

I actually have nothing specific I have to do tomorrow

so I could help you earlier than that if you need it

BESW

Thanks.

doppelgreener

Both greensleeves and once upon a december are songs I love for the melody. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm sure there's a word for the sound of the notes they pick. (I used to think Greensleeves used a lot of flats, but apparently not!?)

trogdor

@BESW anyway, good night

Aaron

1:38 PM

Good morning

trogdor

Good morning

BESW

1:52 PM

[pops back in for one last brain bubble]

> Going off the Reservation: When you take a serious or extreme consequence but still have enough harm left over to take you out, you can spend a Fate point to immediately make one attack, with a bonus equal to the value of the consequence(s) you've just taken. If your attack takes out your opponent, you win the conflict instead of losing it.
You keep the consequences as normal regardless of the outcome of your last-ditch effort, but you must re-name the highest-value one to reflect the dire fallout of your success.

trogdor

wow

brutal gamble that

Miniman

Very movie villain

BESW

Yeah, last word should be "gamble," not "success."

@Miniman I actually got it from the scene in Mission: Impossible where Ethan Hunt blows up the aquarium restaurant.

It's not a concession, nor is it a straightforward victory.

The enemy doesn't get what they want at all, but he doesn't get what he wants either, but he gets a little more of a victory.

So--victory at serious cost. Hit by "the whole operation was a molehunt" and taken out with mental stress, he takes an extreme consequence Hunted by everyone as a permanent character aspect: he can't change it 'til his next major milestone. In return, he's got a chance to clear his name.

Sleep nao.

Aaron

Gnight

Joshua Aslan Smith

2:36 PM

lol nice example

Aaron

3:40 PM

Can anyone think of a creative name for Many in One? I'm stumped

I am creating a creature template that allows the creature to take many templates so I want to name the template something like Many in One.

I thought Legion at first but it carries too many other meanings and it is still technically one creature.

Ohh I like "multifarious"

having many varied parts or aspects.

wax eagle

multifaceted too

(many faces)

Aaron

Hmm.

I like multifarious due to the aspect part. I would use multifaceted more for a shape shifter.

How does this sound for a description. Trying to not make it sound META.

A multifarious creature is capable of doing what would destroy most creatures. They can receive power from many different sources without their body falling apart from the warring powers within.

Pretty much saying. "This creature can take on multiple templates without any issues or conflicts."

wax eagle

seems reasonable? not a PF guy though

Aaron

@waxeagle Well this is mostly wording not system specific

Joshua Aslan Smith

4:01 PM

@aaron janus

Aaron

Janus?

Joshua Aslan Smith

Janus

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus (/ˈdʒeɪnəs/; Latin: Ianus, pronounced [ˈjaː.nus]) is the god of beginnings and transitions, and thereby of gates, doors, doorways, passages and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past. It is conventionally thought that the month of January is named for Janus (Ianuarius), but according to ancient Roman farmers' almanacs Juno was the tutelary deity of the month. Janus presided over the beginning and ending of conflict, and hence war and peace. The doors of his temple were open in time of war, and closed...

Aaron

Hmm. Doesn't quite fit

Joshua Aslan Smith

@aaron chimera

Chimera (mythology)

The Chimera (/kɨˈmɪərə/ or /kaɪˈmɪərə/, also Chimaera, Chimæra; Greek: Χίμαιρα, Chímaira) was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of more than one animal. Usually depicted as a lion, with the head of a goat arising from his back, and a tail that might end with a snake's head, the Chimera was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and a sibling of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra. The term chimera has come to describe any mythical or fictional animal with parts taken from various animals, or to...

Aaron

That would suggest a physical addition to the body for each template. which could be a neat idea

Hmm.

Joshua Aslan Smith

5:34 PM

new hat

woot

wax eagle

5:55 PM

very nice.

AgentPaper

6:15 PM

Wish I could share how I got this hat, but I'm afraid it would encourage...bad behavior. :P

Appropriate for a Fear and Loathing hat, now that I think of it.

Joshua Aslan Smith

6:33 PM

lol

the fedora for the werewolf hunter looks good on deckard

Aaron

8:09 PM

0

Q: Pathfinder encounter building checklist

I have been GMing in pathfinder for a little under a year now and I have recently realized that I have not been taking full advantage of certain aspects of combat encounters such as terrain effects and such. I looked online for a checklist of possible things you can add to an encounter but all I...

Joshua Aslan Smith

8:51 PM

The close votes

ALL OF THEM

v

0

Q: How do I create a good fighter character?

I've only played with other DnD'ers at school and they just gave me a character. I'd like to make one of my own as a fighter and i have no idea were to start and what to do.

character-creation

wax eagle

was about to post that here, but got distracted by reading an article about CAH's black friday promo this year

Aaron

Poor guy probably doesn't understand the VTC hammer that is about to drop on his head

The Oracle

0

Q: How do I list an external resource?

After reading through the 5e DMG, I became disgusted with the way magical items are organized. I'm creating a sortable list and will upload to DropBox or something this weekend; my question is, how do I share my work? Should I post a question like "How do I pick the right magic item?" and then p...

discussion

Joshua Aslan Smith

9:09 PM

@waxeagle my bullS**t christmas cards have all shown up, they definitely up'd the game from last years's

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith nice, we're still waiting on 2 days. Have you been following the puzzle quest?

Joshua Aslan Smith

9:45 PM

Nah since I get th shipped somewhere other than my home

Miniman

@Emrakul Hi!

user61230

@Miniman Hello!

user61230

How goes the battle?

Miniman

I just had someone tell me its ok to answer questions about a spell you've never read.

except you can't because it's not open. Based on previous editions I went out on a limb. Even if they're called from other realms the overall content is still correct - otherwise the caster would have to resummon his familiar every morning. — Xander 1 min ago

BESW

If you haven't read the material in question, chances are you aren't the expert the querent is hoping for.

Miniman

9:54 PM

@Emrakul How goes your personal battle over at puzzling?

user61230

@Miniman Eh. Eheh. Eheheheh.

user61230

I plead the fifth.

Miniman

Ouch, sorry. I'll leave it alone.

user61230

It's fine! It's just... a struggle. I just don't know how so much vitriol managed to accumulate in one place.

user61230

I'm stepping back for a while. I'm... tired. Y'know?

Miniman

9:59 PM

Yeah, I dig.

user61230

But how've you been? Been a while!

Miniman

Well, I have this awesome hat!

user61230

(Dern mobile interface. Sorry, one sec.)

user61230

I see! A glorious hat indeed. Worthy of a Miniman!

Miniman

Lol, thanks. Pure luck that I got it, but I'm never letting go of it.

user61230

10:08 PM

What's it for?

Miniman

Gold badge during Winterbash.

user61230

Now I want one xD

BESW

I'm happy with my ushanka. It goes well with my swamp monster's moustache.

2

doppelgreener

11:05 PM

I kinda wish they still had the bowler hat. It was so dashing, and would be even more dashing with this moustache.

Miniman

11:25 PM

@doppelgreener Now there's an interesting one. Newer questions are usually the ones that get closed as duplicates, but I can kind of see your point.

Adeptus

34

Q: What’s a “handegg”?

What’s a handegg? NOTE: This question is primarily related to the etymology of a compound noun which is not in The Dictionary. There is a hat this year called “Handegg”, given out for a posting that reaches a score of +7. But here’s the problem: the word handegg does not occur in the Oxford En...

etymology slang history connotation winterfest

So that's what it means

BESW

More Adventures In Regional Colloquialisms!

Transcript for