TRPG General Chat

12:03 AM

If it's not obvious, I really like how Steven Universe constructs likable and varied but flawed and complex characters. >w>;;

doppelgreener

@Pixie Me too.

This is one of the things that draws me in.

Pixie

In a variety of body shapes, skin colors, personalities, and circumstances, at that, and it does interesting things with them. It seldom lets itself get caught up in rehashed, abbreviated "stand-bys" of characterization, and it creates a richer and more relatable view of humanity just by not mindlessly reinforcing gender roles.

doppelgreener

@Pixie Yes!!!

And if explores narratives around relationships between these complex flawed and beautiful people that are amazing. ;_;

Pixie

Yes. Steven and Connie's relationship is one of my favorite examples. It. Feels. Genuine. I was so prepared for Connie to be The Love Interest, because that's what most other cartoons do when they introduce a character like Connie.

There's a boy, so he needs a girl to angstily pine over. If she's older and completely unattainable (and hence totally objectified and immaterial to most of the plot because she really has nothing to do with the guy), they will then introduce a more attainable love interest later. See: Adventure Time, and many many others.

(AT does a much better job of not objectifying the characters in question, but it still fits the mold.)

But Steven and Connie have an actual friendship, connection, and reasons to be invested in each other beyond sheer clumsy puppy love. The narrative is a lot less concerned with Steven pining after Connie and a lot more interested in Connie and Steven having fun and figuring out their half-alien/human dynamic.

BESW

12:20 AM

@Pixie ....and now I'm thinking of Flash Sentry.

Pixie

@BESW I still have yet to see EG. xD

Ben

Well, I think I might have to actually do some work today, so I think I'll drop out. Ciao y'all!

Pixie

Seeya.

doppelgreener

@Pixie Amazing World of Gumball partially does this, which I like. The protagonist has a girl he likes, she likes him back, they're both clear on that, when in one episode someone challenges gumball and is yelling out "I shall win Penny's affections!", Penny shouts from the background "No you won't!" and so on. There's no um/uh or if/and/but or pining or so on.

Only Gumball isn't a series for exploring anything like that in much depth.

Pixie

@doppelgreener Hehe. I haven't seen a ton of Gumball, but I really like what I've seen.

Gumball is way more lighthearted, so I wouldn't expect it to go there. xD

doppelgreener

12:27 AM

The Amazing World of Gumball - The Knights (Preview) Clip 2

►

Pixie

She is so done with all of this.

doppelgreener

@Pixie yes XD

It has some clever episodes too.

or. a lot.

Pixie

Yeah, I enjoy it.

doppelgreener

@Pixie and yeessss. And it pays attention to both of them as people with needs and flaws and so on.

Pixie

I like Adventure Time a lot too, but its ability to effectively, realistically, and respectfully see through the serious subjects it tries to deal with is sometimes iffy. And sometimes it just doesn't know what it wants to be.

doppelgreener

12:35 AM

There was the episode about the book they were reading together wherein spoiler and I thought that it was gonna be spoiler but I was pretty happy with what happened instead.

Pixie

Yeah. They have chemistry and I would be into it if they eventually went there, but only because they bothered to set it up and round it out. It doesn't need to happen yet, if ever, and the series knows that it can pace itself and no one will be tearing their hair out because there's no great (shallow) romance.

doppelgreener

So yeah, it explores them both as people as well, not as facets of their gender

@Pixie Mmhm. :)

Adeptus

Speaking of cartoons addressing emotions and the like... I saw Inside Out last night

Pixie

I've heard good things, but I haven't seen it yet myself.

doppelgreener

I have not seen this yet either!

A couple of my housemates have.

Pixie

12:38 AM

The trailer was a little offputting, but I've heard that the trailer honestly kinda misrepresents it.

Adeptus

I enjoyed it. Filled with emotions (and not just because they're the main characters...)

The short before it wasn't as good as some, but fit with the emotions theme

Pixie

Also Sadness's design is adorable.

doppelgreener

Sadness has glittery hair, doesn't she?

Pixie

I didn't notice it glittering more than anyone else's in the trailer, but it certainly looks shiny.

doppelgreener

I am listening to one of Blue Man Group's albums. They have some very nice percussion. (And pretty funny or impressive stage shows too apparently.)

Specifically an album from sixteen years ago too.

trogdor

12:48 AM

I wonder how the idea for that band happened

doppelgreener

@trogdor through magic!

trogdor

A Wizard Did It

doppelgreener

(source, I think)

Miniman

You know how no-one knows what happened to the two Blue Wizards in LOTR? Well, now we do.

doppelgreener

@Miniman There's three Blue Mans though!

trogdor

12:51 AM

XD

Miniman

@doppelgreener They must've recruited someone. Someone blue.

Pixie

They found the last one. The secret one.

doppelgreener

Beautiful

This is a wonderful fancanon

(Maybe the last one is Tom, as part of his normal routine of being inexplicable)

Miniman

@doppelgreener I was thinking of Jeffrey Jey, personally.

doppelgreener

Side note, I like that Tolkien put characters in his work who couldn't be reconciled with the written world view - Ungoliant being created by nobody and coming out of what should have been nowhere, Tom being unaccounted for by any individual and his capabilites being unexplainable by association with any known type of being unless he is Iluvatar hiimself.

I like that stories that do this, and it gives me goosebumps when they take the narrative in directions that seriously explores what that could mean - at the very least via implications.

(I have not read much of Tolkien's work, so I don't know how much of that it does.)

trogdor

1:01 AM

the little I have seen written about the blue mages is too obscure though

they litterally just exist to be completely unexplained, as far as I can tell

hinting at something without telling all is fine, but just going booga booga all day annoys me

doppelgreener

@trogdor for me it's like what BESW did in your campaign: wait a minute, what is the Far Realm really, and what are the implications of it existing everywhere around our known reality in every direction?

trogdor

1:14 AM

@doppelgreener that was fine, I just don't like it when someone makes a character who is literally unknowable in every way

as it seems to me like the blue wizards are

now, maybe I am wrong, I have not seen much on them, but what I have seen makes me think in that direction

doppelgreener

to my knowledge it's just known they exist, and they headed off into other lands

trogdor

exactly

pretty much nothing else

doppelgreener

as I understand it, ostensibly Tolkien's works are the history of Europe, so the blue wizards headed off into the east.

trogdor

why bring in a character or 2 just to go, oh you aren't gonna see this guy

I just don't like that as a story element

doppelgreener

@trogdor to suggest there's more to the world than what the stories cover.

trogdor

1:18 AM

but you can't suggest a whole other world with throw away lines

oh look this exists

nice world building :P

not to say he didn't world build, but that particular example is not a good one of his work

Miniman

Btw guys, can anyone explain to this guy about the bare minimum of research preferred for question-askers? All of his questions so far have been answerable with a single Google.

@doppelgreener Thanks!

doppelgreener

@Miniman no worries

@trogdor certainly there is more that can be done there, and it would've been much more satisfying explored a bit.

trogdor

that is basically my point there

I think it just upsets me more than most people

doppelgreener

1:35 AM

it probably upsets you more than most people

i don't care enough for Middle Earth to get bugged by it though

I do not actually expect high quality storytelling from it. If I did I would be bothered by this being all they do with the blue wizards.

doppelgreener

1:50 AM

If it were Dan Simmons authoring it, I'd be bothered with him getting lazy there and not finding better ways to paint the remaining world :D

But he already knows how to handle stuff like that.

trogdor

2:11 AM

I don't think it is because I care particularly about the Lord of The Rings world really

I think it is just a more general pet peeve with me

BESW

2:31 AM

> “There really isn’t an explanation,” says Goldman. “Chris dug up a picture that he drew when he was five years old, and it had three blue men in it. And I had a thing in my wallet for years with a blue tribe in South America. I don’t know why it was there; I never put pictures in my wallet. We think the Blue Man has always been here. The best answer is that we found each other.”

More pragmatically, it started as street "disturbances" and evolved to an increasingly formalised performance context.

trogdor

that certainly is interesting

BESW

Jewelbots: Friendship Bracelets That Teach Girls To Code

Interview with co-founder.

trogdor

seems like a decent idea

BESW

Open-source Arduino-compatible.

BESW

3:15 AM

@Grubermensch What do you want to see in the Cool Stuff, aside from Microscope and Reapers?

BESW

3:29 AM

**Cool stuff:** [Bundle of Holding](http://bundleofholding.com "buy RPGs cheap in bulk, support charities & indie designers!");
[Microscope Explorer](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lamemage/microscope-explorer "new ways to play Microscope");
[Reaper Minis Bones 3](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1513061270/reaper-miniatures-bones-3-the-search-for-mr-bones "The Search for Mr. Bones!");
[Jewelbots](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1345510482/jewelbots-friendship-bracelets-that-teach-girls-to "open-source programmable friendship bracelets");

doppelgreener

3:49 AM

Car Wizards!?

[reads] So K&T: Car Wizards like Fast & Furious: the Equally Ridiculous and Implausible RPG Supplement.

or, is like*

BESW

4:28 AM

@doppelgreener Yup. The premise is that the sort of crazy driving stunts we see in contemporary car films are the modern equivalent of more traditional crazy impossible sword-fighting and martial arts stunts.

It's the "supernaturally good at [skill]" trope, applied to vehicles instead of melee combat.

With all the "brooding muscle-bound men in silly leather clothing" character tropes that are also part and parcel of such films.

Now here's a conversation I've had more than once.

doppelgreener

4:47 AM

You have?

trogdor

I am pretty sure it wasn't the EXACT same one

BESW

Well, there weren't symbolic toilets.

Ben

[Ben walks in, then runs around the room with his hand held out, waiting for high fives as he passes]

Too much? Ok. [Sits down]

Miniman

Sorry, I was looking for my ~~bone saw~~ high-fiving hand.

Ben

@Miniman Ohh cool. Is that detachable?

Miniman

5:02 AM

@Ben Yep, it's a ~~hand detacher~~ detachable hand.

doppelgreener

@BESW Could we have horrifying thing-monster removed from star list? There are other stars in the same conversation that will do the same job.

Thanks

Ben

@Miniman Ooooh... Can I see..? [Reaches out...]

doppelgreener

@DuckTapeAl updoot is a great word.

Ben

Wait... woah... I just got a notification for an offensive flag... wth? When did I get that priviledge?

[Retracts hand]

trogdor

magic hands maybe

Ben

5:07 AM

@trogdor Jazz hands

trogdor

jazz hands explains a lot for sure

Ben

What's the go with the flag moderation in chat? When/how did I get that privilege? How do I see the list?

doppelgreener

@Ben chat.stackexchange.com/users/126332/ben

You have 10k network rep.

This means you see chat flags now.

BESW

33

Q: Is there a list of SE chat privileges, and the minimum reputation required for those privileges?

Is there a list of privileges that users have on any Stack Exchange chat rooms, and which lists the minimum permission required for each privilege? If such list doesn't exist, what is the reputation required for the chat privileges?

doppelgreener

@BESW Oh goodie, we have a thing about this!

Miniman

5:20 AM

@Ben Gratz!

@BESW I never even realised that the ability to see frozen/deleted rooms was a privilege.

Ben

@doppelgreener Oh. Cool. That snuck up on me! Haha

@Miniman Ty :)

doppelgreener

@Ben That is more or less how it happens :D

now ENJOY THE POWER

Ben

That's what that is! I always wondered what the number was beneath my name in chat haha.

Miniman

@Ben Mind=Blown - as a user of only one SE, it never occurred to me that that was anything other than just my rep.

Ben

@Miniman Me neither. It never occurred to check it was the same on multiple sites either. I noticed it, but didn't understand it so I just ignored it

Magician

5:32 AM

"How long do owlbears live for?" "Longer than any researcher who tried to find out."

BESW

@Ben ...why is that hallway full of anthropomorphic coralmen?

Magician

@BESW Their heads are exploding.

But I kinda like your interpretation better.

BESW

@Magician Well, duh. That's how coral spawns.

Miniman

@Magician Did someone make a TV show of Lemmings?

And if not, why not?

Magician

@Miniman Kingsman

@BESW "Check out these 10 mindblowing facts! Number 7 really expanded my brain. (totally not going to turn you into a coral spawn, honest)."

doppelgreener

5:37 AM

@Magician I cannot wait until we move past clickbait titles

they are the worst

probably literally they are the worst thing about the internet at the moment

Magician

@doppelgreener You Wouldn't Believe How Terrible These Clickbait Titles Are! Fifth One Is Literally The Worst

doppelgreener

@Magician I bet!

Magician

Clickbait curse: until it is lifted, anything you say must sound like a clickbait header.

Ben

@doppelgreener closely followed by the "20 things..." where each thing is on an individual page.

Why...

doppelgreener

Were I able, I would blacklist every single one of these clickbait sites so that I never witness them again on Facebook.

BESW

5:39 AM

@doppelgreener ....you can, kinda.

doppelgreener

@BESW How!?

BESW

Two ways, actually.

The first is to just stop looking at your Facebook feed.

Simple, effective, 100% guaranteed.

Ben

Magician

@BESW Scientists Everywhere Hate Him.

doppelgreener

Oh, yes, totally. And I pay extremely little attention to it.

BESW

5:40 AM

The second is, whenever something appears in your feed that you don't like, there's a little down-facing caret on the upper right corner of its block.

That gives you a drop-down menu with options like "Never see stuff from this webpage again."

doppelgreener

My Facebook account is used for communicating with a few different people, and operating a group between my friends. (That's it. And there are plausible replacements for Facebook for these things.)

@BESW I don't actually see the Webpage option...

Ben

@doppelgreener Like se chat :D

BESW

Let me log onto Facebook and scroll 'til I find something I haven't blocked yet.

Ben

@doppelgreener I think it's more like "Don't show me this"

Or "I don't want to see this"

BESW

Then you click "see 2 more."

Miniman

5:42 AM

Option C is an adblock plugin.

BESW

And it looks like this:

doppelgreener

Right, but like... someone links Buzzfeed, bunch of people share it, there is no "Hide buzzfeed.com option".

I think there used to be.

@Miniman !!!!!??!!!!?!!?!?!??/?!?!?/!!!!!

BESW

@Miniman Ooh, that's from adblock, not Facebook?

Miniman

Like this.

BESW

....huh.

I guess I never used Facebook without adblock.

doppelgreener

5:44 AM

@BESW All of the things you have listed are Facebook.

But all of the things you have listed are "There is a specific person or Facebook page, I do not want to see their things."

BESW

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something/everything.

Miniman

@BESW Sorry, when I said Option C I was referring to this post.

doppelgreener

However, I have people who are friends who link or share 9gag, Buzzfeed, Distractify, Huffpost, and other sites I don't want to see.

BESW

Ah. It depends on how they link to it, I guess.

doppelgreener

They are almost always inane garbage and clickbait and were they not there, my feed would be entirely cool stuff about my friends' lives.

@BESW Was that Newsarama one you provided a screenshot of a post first made by Newsarama and shared by someone else?

Miniman

5:47 AM

@doppelgreener Sociological problems require sociological solutions. Technological solutions can only ever be bandaids :(

BESW

Have you tried "hide all stories like this"?

doppelgreener

@Miniman I'm not going to tell my friends to stop linking to websites on their feeds.

BESW

@doppelgreener I don't... think so?

It may have been shared with newsrama's "share" button on their non-facebook main site?

doppelgreener

@BESW No, 'cause I don't really know what that will hide. If someone's like YOU WON'T BELIEVE THESE 10 FACTS ABOUT SPACE, I still want to hear things about space.

Miniman

@doppelgreener I wasn't suggesting that you should. Just making the point that your friends want to share this stuff with you, so they'll find a way to even if you try to prevent it.

doppelgreener

5:49 AM

@BESW Hm, ok.

@Miniman No, it's not shared to me, it's just stuff they share on their own feed.

BESW

Here, have a Buzzfeed article entitled Top 14 Ways To Block BuzzFeed Articles From Your Facebook Timeline.

2

doppelgreener

@BESW Wow. Awesome.

Miniman

@BESW (You won't believe No. 11!)

doppelgreener

@BESW Okay. That was not actually helpful at all. Drat.

@BESW I will try this "unfollow this page" thing and see what it does just for links to the page.

BESW

At the very least "see fewer posts like this" might help?

Ben

5:51 AM

Ok, what is the name of that case? The Case Where Every Word Starts With A Capitalised Letter?

BESW

Internet Title Case?

@Ben Strictly speaking, actually, it's just title case.

Grubermensch

@Ben Wikipedia says "Start Case"

BESW

The rules about whether you don't capitalise some words in title case are house style rules.

Aye, start case is a subset of title case.

doppelgreener

Also, gentle reminder that the star is for posts that are "useful / interesting for the transcript", and it is not a Like button. (It's for others who are reading back through the logs later.)

2

Magician

@doppelgreener You're not, like, my mom.

Ben

5:58 AM

Shots fired

doppelgreener

@Magician Yes I am! (plot twist)

Ben

The plot thickens!

Magician

@doppelgreener But that would mean I've married my sister!

(I imagine Greener take off his magnificent moustache as he says this).

doppelgreener

@Magician Oh no!!

Ben

The audience gasps

doppelgreener

6:03 AM

@Magician [removes entire green disguise actually]

[somehow inexplictably taller once it is removed]

Ben

The audience gasps louder

Miniman

I have to link this at this point, btw.

Magician

@doppelgreener //trembling voice// That figure... You are the one who killed my brother, Alberto.

Ben

Repost

doppelgreener

@Ben [presses it]

Someone else join in here and reveal dramatic secret plot twists about Alberto

Adeptus

6:07 AM

Oh no, the chat's become Days Of Our RPGs

Ben

[Hasselhoff walks in] @Magician "Father - I'm back!"

Pixie

Reaper Bones... [deep sigh] I am trying not to start minis because I don't need another expensive hobby but sometimes I just go to Reaper and fill up a cart with awesome things. xD

Magician

@Pixie Their kickstarters are probably the best way to get into the hobby, price-wise. And the minis are very good, too.

Pixie

@Magician Really? The only tier I see that has actual minis starts at $100, and that's like, the whole core wave. It's probably the most bang for one's buck, certainly, but excessive for my needs. xD

Magician

@Pixie Yeah, that's what they do. But you get a bucketful.

Pixie

6:13 AM

Heh. I have entirely too much stuff as is to need a bucketful of minis I'll probably never get around to painting more than a few of. I know myself. :P

doppelgreener

I would get statuettes of things I like, but not for RPGs. @_@

Some of those Reaper models look neat though.

Pixie

(I already collect anime figures and a few other things.)

Magician

@Pixie I'm worse than that. I have the first two kickstarters, of which I painted maybe 5%, and I still look at the new one and go "shiiiny".

Pixie

@Magician Well, they are shiny.

doppelgreener

[puts on Groucho glasses] The trick, see, is to disconnect "shiny" from "will buy"

[buys all the unshiny things instead]

[to demonstrate wise expenditure]

[starves]

Magician

6:17 AM

@doppelgreener Potatoes are usually unshiny, you should be fine.

Pixie

@doppelgreener I see you have a very expansive collection of sandstone and towels.

Aww man, some of the arachnids are out of stock. Hope they come back. I like, uh, spidertaurs?

Magician

@Pixie The Not-driders-no-really?

Adeptus

@Pixie Driders

Pixie

DRIDERS, that is what they are called in this context.

Magician

Except Reaper can't call them that, because that's WotC IP. Just like mind flayers and beholders and the like, they all get (extra) silly names.

Pixie

6:23 AM

I like them in settings in which they're not connected to Drow (though Drow are cool too), so I forgot the word. xD

Adeptus

@Magician There's a tentacle-faced Star Wars alien whose name I forget. I almost bought a mini of it, to use as a mindflayer

Magician

@Adeptus For all your mindflayering needs.

They manage to get into Starcraft/Tyranid territory with some of those, curiously enough.

Ben

I'm out. Toodles chaps and chappettes!

BESW

@Ben Poodle tips!

Adeptus

@Magician Professor Kraken!

Pixie

6:31 AM

... so this is my problem. I click the link and think, "Mindflayers are cute! :D" It has always been this way. The first thing my friends and I did when exposed to 3.5 was look through the monster manual awwing at what were intended to be horrific beasts. xD

BESW

On that note...

(source, which also has Cthulhu Minions.)

Pixie

Hehe.

Magician

Never trusted that mouse.

BESW

Pik-Ia! Pik-Ia!

Pixie

... the unicorn is out of stock. ; A;

I really hope it comes back. It is awesome.

BESW

6:37 AM

The world needs more warhorse unicorns.

Adeptus

Pixie

Unicorns aren't complete without maximum feathers.

doppelgreener

@Adeptus Brilliant!

Pixie

I am digging the bedazzles.

That is one design quibble I've always had with MLP: in G1 and G4, only male ponies get feathers (not that they make male playfuls almost ever in G4). G3... didn't have any specifically identified male ponies, I think? But... I love feathers. All the ponies need feathers. ALL of them.

G2 actually did that, and it was pretty great.

Magician

There isn't a rainbow-feathered owlbear picture (why?), so have this instead:

doppelgreener

6:43 AM

@Pixie Are feathers the extra floof around the hooves?

Pixie

5e has some very nice owlbear art, I noticed in the store the other day.

@doppelgreener Yup.

...

7:11 AM

My little owlbear, my little owlbear...

BESW

Aaaah! Aaaah! Aaaaah!

trogdor

AAAAHHHH

BESW

And since it showed in my searches, I'd just like to remind everything that this is a thing.

trogdor

oh god please stop

BESW

7:17 AM

(For the record, the successful search that yielded Pastel Owlbear up there? pride owlbear.)

Pixie

@BESW truly the most majestic of beasts

Nyoze

That's... Awesome :)

doppelgreener

There was a person who saw there was a fox and a parrot, and that they were separate, and said: "No, this must not be."

Pixie

@doppelgreener I think it's a wolf, but same basic principle.

Nyoze

15 Weird and Wonderful D&D Monsters

I love the moon rats. It's Pinky and the Brain! But only on nights that the moon is full, and several other convoluted requirements are met.

doppelgreener

7:33 AM

@Pixie Uh. Yes. That is the canid which I meant.

Pixie

It's like a fusion between a wolf, a hawk, and a tiedye cake.

doppelgreener

@Pixie Or a rainbow lorakeet

SPArchaeologist

It is nice to see how the cultural background of a room can change the reaction to a picture.

Have the FIM ep 100 bugbear posted on a random board and you will get lot of "What is this thing???!? What were they thinking??".
Post the same image on RPG and everyone will go "niiiiice, D&D lore....."

doppelgreener