TRPG General Chat

I haven't restarted the computer yet to test it myself, but I've got a half-dozen Adobe forum threads saying "we tried everything else and disabling Pushbullet fixed the problem."

Apparently Chrome apps and Adobe don't play nice.

See here, here, here, here, and here for the problem I'm having.

Magician

As a Computer Scientist, my qualified opinion is that computers run on magic and bullshit. Don't cross the streams.

6

BESW

I really like the "push to other device" feature, and the copy-paste is buggy for me anyway (it goes from computer to tablet and vice versa, but not computer to computer which is what I'd really wanted), so I'm going to disable that bit and see if that's enough.

The problem seems to stem from some clipboard competition between Chrome and Adobe.

So, I think the "InDesign works for roughly half an hour after I restart my computer and then derps again" pattern is just how long it takes me to copy-paste in whatever specific way makes the two bits of code go kablooey.

@Magician My mother frequently cites the "99%" rule, which has a name I can't remember.

Magician

Sturgeon's Law, Internet tells me.

BESW

No, it's a programming thing.

Magician

4:54 AM

Then I don't know the rule you're referring to.

BESW

If two programs each have a 1% chance to bug out, when working together they have a 98% success rate instead of 99.

Stack together as many programs as a modern computer has, and we can be surprised things work as often as they do.

Magician

Heh. Yeah, that's what I collectively referred to as "bullshit".

BESW

Indeed.

Also magic.

Magician

...now pondering Magic & Bullshit, a roleplaying game of... spellslinging bards? Illusionists?

BESW

Pretty sure it's based on Now You See Me.

BESW

5:16 AM

@Pixie [wave]

Pixie

@BESW Hello!

Magician

@BESW Pixiewave is when the entire stadium flutters up and down, a column at a time.

Pixie

@Magician With sparkle noises.

BESW

@Magician It's also a new ultrasmall sound system.

(Also with sparkle noises.)

Pixie

Always sparkle noises.

@BESW Been reading through that mapping blog you linked earlier. It's good stuff. I sort of want to map things now.

BESW

5:19 AM

@Pixie I know, right?

It's a nearly perfect intersection of Things Relephant To BESW's Interests.

Pixie

Oh yeah, my boyfriend also linked me to Krita today, a free Photoshop-esque program. I recall us discussing PS alternatives and their lack of CMYK before. Krita has a waaay better interface than GIMP and says it supports CMYK too.

Have not had the chance to play with it much, but it seems promising.

Now I just need to think of something to map. :P If I map blindly, well... then I'll have a new setting on my hands.

BESW

The place I'd least like to live is the farm in the background of those diagrams showing how tornadoes form.

Pixie

5:34 AM

Goodness, imagine the flooding!

BESW

Hmm. Idea just floated through my brain, gonna run it up the flagpole. (@doppelgreener in particular)

My group's about to spend a volume on a spaceship for a near-Sun voyage, and I've been thinking about ways to have adventure/drama on the trip without, yanno, aliens.

And a vague notion that just came to me is: space is magical. Like, seriously intensely creepy magical.

Perhaps the void between stars accumulates aether more slowly than the Earth, but over billions of years without any minds to tap into it, it builds up to un-heard-of levels. Power so potent that when a mind does finally come into such an area, you get mystical fireworks of Lovecraftian proportions.

No magical creatures, no aliens or shoggoths or demons, more like The Forbidden Planet.

Your Mind Makes It Real, Monsters From the Id, Your Dreams Come Alive, that sort of flavour.

Magician

5:53 AM

Psychodrama In Space! Now with extra radiation leaks.

BESW

I think it'd be a good opportunity for my players to explore their characters a bit more.

Also it sets up some interesting directions for the Exciting Conclusion In SPAAAACE being more magicky than sciencey.

Magician

In that context players can really go crazy with story detail declarations.

BESW

Yeah.

My current thought is to introduce this with a session using Cthulhu Dark rules, until they get it under control.

Magician

6:09 AM

I seem to be incapable of not writing essays. "I'm going to write a short post, it'll be just a few thoughts on a topic, I'll call it "musings on ...", maybe make it a recurring thing." 700 words later: "well, that's maybe half of what I wanted to say".

doppelgreener

@BESW the moment you suggested space is magical i remembered the concept of the aether

also we're flying in there with magical burning demon rocks

one could say the demons have never attempted to shoot burning demon rocks into the space-aether before

BESW

@doppelgreener I'll be totally ignoring the magical burning demon rocks and just waiting for you guys to compel them.

doppelgreener

@BESW hahahaha alright

BESW

They're so universally complication-worthy that I don't want to blow them unnecessarily.

So, right now my thoughts for the volume are to start with a Cthulhu Dark session about adapting to the aether of space, and then cut straight to arriving at the N-1 Object and seeing what that's about.

I expect the bulk of the volume will be spent on/around/in Nibiru-1.

doppelgreener

[remembers a term] luminiferous aether!

BESW

6:36 AM

Yes, although as a spirit-propagating medium rather than a light-propagating one.

...that is not what I expected a font called "Aaargh" to look like.

doppelgreener

@BESW i find it concerning that its titular samples have less than excellent kerning, and yeah I can't imagine why it is called that

BESW

I'm looking for legible but curvy "Art Nouveau" title fonts and sans-serif body fonts which complement them.

BESW

7:01 AM

Also, kerning is something I can fix manually.

I'm not as good at it as I'd like to be, but I know how.

Grubermensch

oh god the r and g there

IT BURNS

maybe that's why it's called 'Aaargh'?

Actually looking at the specimen, I'm becoming convinced of it. There are so many details in this font that are driving me up the wall.

BESW

7:23 AM

Unfortunately, because my college was focused on the visual rather then the typographic end of design, I'm having to slowly catch up on this stuff on my own.

BESW

1:09 PM

....every time {spoiler} in season 4 and 5 of Primeval makes a pop culture reference, I wonder if he picked them up naturally or if he's carefully peppering his language with them to fit in.

Aaron

Morning

BESW

Hey.

What's new?

Aaron

Not much. Almost finished with my current game.

wax eagle

2:00 PM

rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/55903/… too broad

David Wilkins

Hey @BESW

BESW

Yo. What's new?

David Wilkins

Not much. I was wondering if you could help me formulate an edit to my question (the one that generated the most recent meta discussion)

BESW

Have you seen this comment yet?

Iron Heart

So, if I want to link to chat, can I just put [chat] in a comment?

David Wilkins

2:05 PM

I had not seen the latest comment, but I did read yours

wax eagle

@IronHeart yes, that links here

BESW

@IronHeart Yup! Also [help], [tour], [meta], and [*.se] where * = specific Stack.

Iron Heart

Guessing that one is meta in brackets.

BESW

@DavidWilkins In essence: tell us more about the specific circumstances which led you to ask the question, so the Stack can leverage its citizens' experience to tailor the answers to your needs, rather than asking us to work as a data compiler to provide a neutral list of options you'll still have to wade through and vet.

David Wilkins

@BESW the edit I want to make, or rather the information I want to include, is precisely that, and for those reasons

BESW

2:06 PM

@DavidWilkins Excellent!

So it's just a matter of teasing out your situation into expressible terms.

David Wilkins

Exactly

BESW

Unfortunately I'm not familiar with 5e, so I'm not positioned to ask the best sorts of questions to guide you through this.

David Wilkins

That's fine, you won't need to know the system to help with the question, methinks

BESW

Generally details should describe the situation the creature will be used in and the role it needs to play.

David Wilkins

They will, but the situation's particulars aren't system specific, even if the answer is. That make sense?

BESW

2:09 PM

So party level and composition (lots of ranged or melee, for example?), environment (dark and cramped, bright and open, developed or wild?), and combat role (defender, leader, striker, to borrow from 4e's terminology?) are all likely to be useful information for answerers to have.

Is the creature supposed to be a major threat or a nuisance? Does it matter whether the creature can talk (so it can divulge its master's Terribly Clever Plan, for example)?

David Wilkins

The latter part is more applicable, but some of the former part will be included as well

BESW

Do you need to be able to justify the creature having a lot of treasure drops, or none at all? And so on and so on.

Something as simple as "And cannot fly" would slice down at least a quarter of the current list.

David Wilkins

Let me make the edit, giving as much of that information as I can (where relevant) and if you could take a glance and let me know if it looks good?

BESW

Does size matter--the pixie might be too small to create the impression you want.

Fair enough. I'm just listing things to get your brain kick-started, it's by no means an exhaustive list.

I could do this all night.

David Wilkins

haha, these are all things that I have already, or should have, considered before approaching you

wax eagle

2:15 PM

@BESW to get that first bit, you'll need to give present party level as those threat types change based on where you are in the progression CC @DavidWilkins

the other concern I have is that you basically have carte blanche as a DM to sub in spells. So basically that list is "any caster"

BESW

@DavidWilkins Basically anything that would influence your choice of creature as a GM is potentially useful info to include in the question, provided it can be expressed clearly.

There's no such thing as "too specific" anymore: SE used to have that as a close reason, but we realised that it was just obscuring other, more fundamental close reasons that extremely specific questions sometimes --but not always-- suffer.

In fact, since good answers to specific questions include a discussion of how they arrived at their solution, and that "how" is often generalisable, specific questions garner better and more broadly useful answers than broad questions which get vague answers that lack process.

David Wilkins

"more broadly useful" is exactly my thought process here, and I think I can see how to get there with appropriate information about my situation

BESW

The big issue specific questions can run up against is the X/Y problem.

@DavidWilkins Don't worry about tailoring your question to be useful to anyone except you. The Stack likes it that way, and is designed for specifically-useful questions to provoke broadly-useful answers.

David Wilkins

No no, that's not what I am doing. My question will be quite specific to me or anyone else facing the exact same scenario

but the answer might be useful to a much broader base

BESW

(In other words: our citizens like to ramble anyway, we don't need encouragement on that front, they'll do it anyway.)

David Wilkins

2:35 PM

Alright, we're close here, I can feel it.

Ok, tell me what you think: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/55852/…

BESW

Here, have an upvote.

wax eagle

good deal, use case is important. Are they starting at L7?

David Wilkins

Yes, 7 or 8.

BESW

I have a good clear vision of what you're looking for, and when I see an answer I'll be confident that I can vote on whether it's actually useful to you.

wax eagle

This is off topic to the question, but I'd suggest you consider starting them farther down the road in the adventure.

David Wilkins

2:41 PM

I haven't looked at the adventure yet, but I will insert them somewhere appropriate...They are currently in Ravenloft, so anything would be easily justifiable

wax eagle

a lot of the beginning stuff is small potatoes for low level characters

BESW

Since SE uses voting to turn its questions and answers into neatly-sorted piles, it's important for questions to provide enough detail that voting on answers is informed and useful.

David Wilkins

I didn't want to read ahead because if someone else ends up DMing it, I don't want to spoil it for me

I guess I should page @Miniman so he can update his answer

wax eagle

yep

I'd go ahead and remove the check too

(and if this was a case where the answerer wasn't a site regular, you'd want to flag it as Not and Answer in addition to a comment so the mods know to check back/clean it up if it doesn't get edited)

David Wilkins

Thanks again @besw and @waxeagle for all the support

BESW

2:48 PM

Our pleasure. Thanks for sticking with it.

Aaron

I have been listening to the same music for a couple months. I need some new music. Any recommendations? I'm not that picky

David Wilkins

New, or new to you?

Aaron

Either.

wax eagle

@Aaron Awesome Mix Vol 1

(and/or basically all the Marvel instrumental sound tracks)

Aaron

I would just get on Pandora but due to my work I have to be on a VPN that says it is in Canada. And Canada does not allow Pandora DX

wax eagle

2:51 PM

:(

BESW

@Aaron Loreena McKennitt, Janelle Monae, Lupe Fiasco, Chameleon Circuit, Bob Dylan (any era, but his recent Tempest is pretty great)...

wax eagle

can you use your phone via wi-fi?

Aaron

@waxeagle I leave my phone with my wife or I would use it.

BESW

...Blind Guardian, Star One, Tom Waits, Tool, Aqua...

Aaron

@BESW Oh I know Loreena. Good songs.

BESW

2:55 PM

...Silvard Kool, Phillip Glass, the Myst franchise soundtracks, the Riddick franchise soundtracks...

JohnP

Blind Guardian is good, if you like that then you may also like Hammerfall, Volbeat, Nightwish or Dragonforce.

Muse is also good.

Aaron

@JohnP Dragonforce did through the fire and flames right?

I have a love/hate relationship with that song because of Guitar Hero

BESW

Blind Guardian keeps more of the operatic elements of power metal than most other bands/songs I've tried, which I like.

JohnP

@Aaron yes. And same here.

Aaron

I love how it sounds. But DAMN was it hard.

JohnP

2:57 PM

@BESW - If you like operatic metal then you'd love Nightwish.

BESW

@JohnP I do not, actually, love Nightwish.

JohnP

Surprising.

I really like their concept album Imaginareum.

BESW

Not really. Nightwish is a lot more screamy and metal-y, a lot less full-orchestra and choral.

JohnP

►

If you like Jethro Tull at all, you should like this song.

BESW

I do like Star One, despite their often-unpolished productions. Especially the middle of their first album. The Eye of Ra (Stargate film), Sandrider (Dune), and Perfect Survivor (Alien) are pretty sweet.

JohnP

3:00 PM

Their newer stuff is less screamy than their early stuff. I like it all, though. Any metal other than death/scream whre I can't understand the lyrics.

BESW

But now it's past 1am, so I'm for bed.

Aaron

I just created a playlist with 5 songs from each of the suggested bands on grooveshark. Except Silvard Kool. They apparently don't have any songs on Grooveshark.

BESW

@Aaron I am not especially surprised on that count.

Aaron

@BESW Gnight. Thanks for the suggestions.

BESW

He's a marine biologist who also does baroque piano music.

@Aaron That's gonna be one twistedly whiplash playlist.

JohnP

3:02 PM

@Aaron - It depends on what style you like. Hammerfall is very fantasy oriented, as is Dragonforce. DF is speed metal on crack, Hammerfall a little less so.

Aaron

@BESW My normal playlists are similar.

BESW

As are mine. Enjoy!

ttfn

Aaron

@JohnP Speed metal

I need to pay more attention to Genres.

JohnP

@Aaron For speed I like Anthrax, Helloween Judas Priest and Testament. If you don't mind the lyrics, Mercyful Fate has good melodies, but I don't like the lyrical themes.

I'm much more into power metal and older heavy metal.

H.I.M. is decent too, although their lyrics also get a little titchy for me.

And I really like metal covers of pop songs. Disturbed does an absolute genius rendition of LAnd of Confusion (Genesis).

And Korn does a really good Brick in the Wall cover, and Pain/Eleanor Rigby is excellent.

Aaron

I know and like Disturbed and Korn. H.I.M sounds familiar. I think my friend listened to them. What do you mean by titchy?

JohnP

3:10 PM

While I'm not practicing now, I was raised Roman Catholic, so satanic lyrics are offputting to me.

Aaron

Oh. Maybe HIM isn't who I am thinking then.

JohnP

HIM = His Infernal Majesty - They had a couple mainstream hits, I think their biggest was "Wings of a Butterfly"

Joshua Aslan Smith

4:22 PM

AHHHHHHH witcher 3 previews

Joshua Aslan Smith

4:57 PM

@Grubermensch yoz

wax eagle

lol, I do that all the time

Joshua Aslan Smith

hahaha

I think of him as sam now and not grubermensch because Ive actually conversed with him

There's gonna be a lot of extra attacking next session

Ooh level 5 seems pretty big for Ken's bard

And the wizard gets 2 level 3 spellslots

wax eagle

yep :)

Joshua Aslan Smith

5:14 PM

oooh I get some spell slots of the 2nd level

and another known spell

hmm time to do some reworking

keeping fog cloud

@waxeagle tough choice between pass without trace or silence

though silence is sphere based so a wizard could just leave it

David Wilkins

7:04 PM

And to think, I had gone so long without experiencing a TPK

Grubermensch

@JoshuaAslanSmith Sorry, was getting ready for work, then staff meeting.

And yesh MOAR ATTACK!

Also, IIRC cantrips get better at L5

David Wilkins

@Grubermensch in 5e? Yes they do. I forgot and was casting 1d10 Fire Bolts at level 6 for a little while

wax eagle

7:21 PM

oops

Joshua Aslan Smith

@Grubermensch hmmm I do not belive I knoweth the cantrips

wax eagle

no, you get multi-attack and horde breaker and other things, no cantrips for you :P

Joshua Aslan Smith

haha

Oh I know

wax eagle

(though the EK also get multi-attack and cantrips)

Joshua Aslan Smith

it makes sense

wax eagle

7:31 PM

(though, do you not get some eventually?)

Joshua Aslan Smith

yeah but those things conflict action economy wise

@waxeagle zero cantrips

I dont think pally does either though

wax eagle

yeah the action economy conflict is problematic

Joshua Aslan Smith

Id much rather have horderbreaker than cantrips

wax eagle

reality is that unless it's very specific circumstances, after the fighter gets multi-attack, he's going to be hard pressed to find a reason to use attack cantrips

(ranged backup perhaps...but he'd be better off with the bow still)

Joshua Aslan Smith

yeah

does he get any buff cantrips?

he has access to abjuration right?

wax eagle

7:33 PM

not sure if EK gets whole wizzy list or just abj/evoke

Grubermensch

Basically just Abj/Evoke

which is crap

because all the good Abj/Evokes are Warlock

Joshua Aslan Smith

haha

I belive I did suggest youd be better off warlocking it

with the blade invocations

Grubermensch

Yeah well, the things we could have done.

Joshua Aslan Smith

haha

wax eagle

if wishes were horses (well...they could be, but not until L17)

Joshua Aslan Smith

7:36 PM

though you did hit with all your polemaster opp attacks

even if you missed with all the rest of your attacks

wax eagle

$%*(ing polemaster

Grubermensch

Polemaster is best

I'm thinking of taking Mobile at L8

Joshua Aslan Smith

hah

CANT WAIT for lvl 8, take me that sweet sweet medium armor mastery

bee-tee-dubz though we should as a party not fail stealth checks when it matters from now on

+10 to up 6 including me within 30 feet of me

wax eagle

is that one of your new class features?

Grubermensch

There's no way I'm getting better at Stealth.

Zachiel

7:40 PM

Alas, the day has come

When I would hear people talking about D&D and realize I'm not getting their builds

Joshua Aslan Smith

@waxeagle level 2 spell, pass without trace

onedrive.live.com/…

I get 2 level 2 spell slots at level 5

and learn 1 more spell (4 spells known)

so I picked up pass without trace

Pass without Trace 2nd-level abjuration

Casting Time: 1 action Range: Self Components: V, S, M (ashes from a burned leaf of mistletoe and a sprig of spruce) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

A veil of shadows and silence radiates from you, masking you and your companions from detection. For the duration, each creature you choose within 30 feet of you (including you) has a +10 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks and can’t be tracked except by magical means. A creature that receives this bonus leaves behind no tracks or other traces of its passage.

wax eagle

is ranger one of the ones that learns one and swaps one basically every level?

Joshua Aslan Smith

yeah anytime I level up I can change one of the spells I know for another one from the list

I kept the 3 I already knew though

I thought about swapping out goodberry

since we havent used it at all this campaign

I still may

thers a good bit of healing between ken and shalvenay

wax eagle

there is

and they'll likely pack on more with the level up

Joshua Aslan Smith

so maybe Ill pick up a spell I also might not use but could be clutch

JohnP

8:30 PM

Huh. So, evidently I'd be a chaotic good dwarf fighter, 7th level.

Miniman

@DavidWilkins Updated, although it didn't actually change much.

KRyan

9:52 PM

@Zachiel Whoever put forth that argument about full attacks, haste, and whatnot? That person is a blithering idiot. Why are you playing with this person?

@waxeagle heh, limited wish should be able to handle a horse

wax eagle

@KRyan is that a 5e spell?

(I haven't memorized the whole spell list yet)

Zachiel

Because as you know I play in a game where there are many DMs and he's one of the best rule-wise and workload-wise - except when we get to those things he's always done differently from other DMs and goes on a "prove that to me" stance.
If I bring those questions here is because we (several other people) still haven't found ways to tell him he's ---an idiot--- wrong.

Anyway, he conceded because of the number of people telling him it's done differently

Our last point was "ok, don't trust statblocks, but at least look at what is written on the monster manual description of what those stats are"

Anyway, I think I never had him as a DM personally

KRyan

10:14 PM

@waxeagle point, I'm not sure whether or not it is.

@Zachiel huh?

Miniman

@KRyan Sadly, no.

KRyan

@Miniman eh, they still have the littlest wish and that's way more important

Miniman

@KRyan And everyone has their own version of it now. Even Monks can get something similar.

KRyan

@Miniman is "it" here wish or littlest wish?

Miniman

@KRyan Littlest wish :P

KRyan

10:20 PM

@Miniman awesome! I hadn't noticed that. I've long felt that everyone should get it; it's just a little bit of cool

Miniman

@KRyan Well, everyone has a variation. Druids have druidcraft (I think that's what it's called), clerics have thaumaturgy, etc

KRyan

@Miniman heh, what's the monk version called? ooh, does the warlock get a special one, or do they just call their littlest wish prestidigitation like the wizard?

Miniman

@KRyan The Monk one is only for the Way of the Four Elements monk, and I can't remember what it's called. I can't remember if/what the Warlock gets, although tieflings have thaumaturgy by default

KRyan

@Miniman neat

Miniman

@KRyan Yep, although making them thematic to each class has made them a leetle less powerful than the original

Zachiel

10:24 PM

@KRyan Since the monster manual explicitly says that the full attack line is what a creature can do in a full attack action (not quoting verbatim here) the statblock things looked a little less "they just filled the form, they're not intended to be rules" thing he added to the "they're often wrong" thing

KRyan

monster statblocks are... extremely problematic

for a lot of reasons

Zachiel

NPC statblocks are worse.

KRyan

@Zachiel massively so, yes

Zachiel

And that's just to be able to rant on them

not because it somewhat diminishes what you said

But like I said with a friend, the tarrasque took toughness as a feat. Six times.

Iron Heart

@Zachiel whaaaaaaat

Zachiel

10:29 PM

"Yes" I said, And he said "no!" and then I said yes exactly 5 more times

@IronHeart d20srd.org/srd/monsters/tarrasque.htm

"toughness (6)"

The tarrasque has 18 bonus HP

KRyan

there was a general problem with 3.x, I think, that the designers didn't actually talk to one another very much, and at least two of them had very different ideas about what sort of game they were making

one of them designed the spellcasters, the spells, magic-related feats and options, and magic-using mosnters

the other designed the warriors, the general and combat feats, and the non-magical monsters

Iron Heart

I'm sure there were other feats the Tarrasque could take.

KRyan

and they did not realize they were designing two very different games

Zachiel

@KRyan I almost believed you

@IronHeart Oh yes, many. But he didn't.

Iron Heart

he took +18 hit points instead of anything useful.

KRyan

10:32 PM

to be fair, he's got what, 48 HD?

16 feats, out of just the Core options?

on an Int 3 creature?

slim pickings at best here

Zachiel

Replace one of those with improved toughness and bam, you free 5 feats with just one splatbook

@KRyan We did a core-only D&D 3.0 campaign. Or it was core + FRCS only

KRyan

@Zachiel horrifying

Zachiel

Well one guy wanted to play a fighter, then realized he had too many feats and took barbarian instead. Still got the space for lightning reflexes and iron will

@KRyan I know but my players are lazy. Give them all the manuals, they use 5 at most. And still break premade campaigns. Well, even just core does.

It was the campaign that ended with the archmage casting a Disjunction with friendly holes

KRyan

@Zachiel I bet plenty of my characters use just 5 books, or could easily do so by removing only minor details

it's just that I'd pick the right five for the character

Iron Heart

@Zachiel I think premade adventures are made for the beer-and-pretzels roll-up-characters-the-evening-of types.

Zachiel

10:36 PM

Depends on which books. In their case is core + the first 4 completes

@KRyan ah, well, of course.

KRyan

mmm.... uhm

yeah, there's... little and less worthwhile in those books

Iron Heart

The type with system mastery less than 1%.

Zachiel

@IronHeart That's why I like 4e. You use premades and they work

when the enemies are drow vampires or squads of drow fighter 4 wizard 5... against level 16 opponents...

'night

BESW

11:04 PM

this makes so much sense and I don't know why http://t.co/rKiUt52bSr

Tweeted by KatePow3ll on January 24, 2015 at 11:45 PM

2

doppelgreener

i-it does

BESW

Needs more geese, though.

Shalvenay

@BESW -- agreed on the geese

BESW

BTW. That "ancient techniques rediscovered" archery video that keeps making the rounds? The voiceover is a little hyperbolic in its declarations: while Lars Andersen and many Westerners may not have known those techniques, they're not lost to the cultures that originated them.

This is a needlessly vitriolic deconstruction of the claims in the video, and this is a documentary being made about archery techniques around the world.

It's very cool that Lars was able to figure out so much from old art, and kudos to him for using almost exclusively non-Western art in his studies, but the amazing thing is that he's self-taught from pictures, not that he discovered techniques which professional archers were unaware of. Because he didn't.

doppelgreener

11:28 PM

@BESW it was them or the chicken, so i'm happy the chicken got in

@BESW well that is a mix of cool and not so cool and slightly disappointing

BESW

@doppelgreener I actually find it very cool. It means that historical artists were faithful enough in their depiction of archery techniques that even an amateur historian could learn the techniques they showed. It also means that Western LARPERs are looking into non-Western source materials for their inspiration and taking it quite seriously.

And it's a useful reminder that often what we think of as the all-encompassing scope of a subject ("archery") is actually quite narrow (actually "modern Western archery").

doppelgreener

@BESW Yeah, that is very cool. And I'm also going to attribute this to the guy not having any idea, not malintent, so it's more a matter that i feel bad he's wrapped up in criticism for something that was otherwise super great in every regard.

BESW

...and it's a reminder, in case anyone forgot, that movies' dedication to historical realism is about as strong as a wet tissue.

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