TRPG General Chat

Emily Dickinson's poems were heavily edited before printing, and one of the more understandable things they did was to simplify her use of dashes because she used dashes that printing machines could not replicate.

Most memorably, dashes that slanted up or down (as well as being longer, shorter, and with varying amounts of space).

Iron Heart

-–—

BESW

(She wasn't too upset about having her poems edited, most of the time, but she did complain when the editors seemed to totally miss the point.)

Iron Heart

@BESW I'd like to see that.

BESW

(And yes, contrary to popular belief, Dickinson had poems published during her lifetime. Her writing was not a mystery to those who knew her, and it wasn't a surprise that she had written over a thousand poems.)

doppelgreener

i don't know of her, so i have been taught against popular belief before learning it \o/

BESW

2:04 AM

Yey!

(There's a lot of bunk about Dickinson, almost as much as about Poe, which caters to our desire for neatly concise dramatic stories rather than describing the genuine interesting people they were.)

doppelgreener

[wards the brackets away from their invasions on BESW's writing]

BESW

The common vision taught in American schools is that Dickinson was a lonely goth chick who wrote angsty poetry because her poor social skills meant nobody wanted to marry her, and that she never shared her poems with anyone so her family was surprised to find 1800 poems locked up in her room after she died.

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

@BESW oh, to answer the above question, use a coarser grind. The grounds should be above the minimum dimension of the strainer.

The Oracle

-1

Q: What's wrong with good?

So, I have noticed several high-rep users edit perfectly good and upvoted questions containing language like "Is this good" or "Is this a good way of approaching this issue/solving this problem" or "Is X good for/at Y". I think that many of these questions are excellent questions and I wish we g...

discussion

Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Sorry, the invocation of coffee is stlil quite an effective summoning ritual for me. ::poof::

BESW

2:09 AM

@BrianBallsun-Stanton I self-answered with a tea infuser.

@doppelgreener Umm. Maybe use a word that doesn't start with C and end with P?

doppelgreener

@BESW don't worry, i checked myself after writing htat

BESW

2:29 AM

@doppelgreener Yeah, "claptrap" just isn't very nice.

doppelgreener

@BESW he's nice when it matters!

BESW

3:21 AM

@doppelgreener Are you going to have the bowling alley scenario ready for Saturday? No pressure, I just want to know what and how much I should be prepping.

Iron Heart

[amused]

BESW

@IronHeart ?

Iron Heart

It's the night before my 17th birthday, which means in a few hours, I'll have to face the mysterious Test to determine my future.

Tweeted by DystopianYA on February 11, 2015 at 12:54 PM

Good feed.

doppelgreener

@BESW probably not ;_; i have been too busy this week

BESW

►

Adeptus

3:54 AM

@joe Beware the combat tailor? ... That'd make an amazing build recommendation question if you have a game that it'd be "suited" for. — Brian Ballsun-Stanton ♦ 3 hours ago

Now I want to see a combat tailor class :)

Miniman

@Adeptus You mean like the Binder?

I can't work out if this is too broad or not. Anyone with PF expertise want to take a look at it?

Iron Heart

@Miniman Forums are better suited to helping with this.

Miniman

@IronHeart That's what I figured. If it was 3.5 I would've VTCed, I just don't know enough about PF to tell.

Iron Heart

@Miniman Given that the Pathfinder core rulebook is pretty much the 3.5 PHB, the restriction of "core only" should have told you as much.

Miniman

@mxyzplk Hi!

BESW

4:09 AM

@doppelgreener I will put together a variety pack of options.

I'm thinking Raycia's CD scenario, a collaborative CD scenario, or Great Ork Gods.

doppelgreener

@BESW all of these sound lovely.

mxyzplk

@Miniman Howdy.

Grubermensch

5:38 AM

You know, I'm kind of sad to cross "Prep tiger" off my to-do list. It was so entertaining to see whenever I opened it up.

BESW

I'm imagining a teenage tiger in a tie and blazer.

Grubermensch

heh

Iron Heart

6:45 AM

I need more songs with clocks ticking in them.

BESW

The Syncopated Clock

The Watchmaker's Apprentice

Thirteen O'Clock might qualify, ish.

(Syncopated Clock was original an instrumental.)

Dunno if it's a clock or a metronome in Pink Floyd's Time.

doppelgreener

I've just removed all the tags from my ignore list

it helped the other questions stand out, but i was just paying attention to the ignored ones anyway

i might create a userscript to help me out with this: less-transparent ignored questions, and make everything else stand out a bit better.

BESW

7:02 AM

@IronHeart That's all I can come up with on my break. Useful?

Iron Heart

absolutely

@BESW It's a metronome set to a multiple of 60bpm by my guess.

user61230

'ello

BESW

Hmm. I'd be shocked if Tool hasn't done something with clocks at some point. I mean, they've done Gregorian chants and hospital monitors in the same song.

I'll ask my Tool expert, but he won't get back to me 'til tomorrow.

Dream Theater's Regression isn't quite a song, maybe, but it's an album intro with a tick.

Iron Heart

The Joker's theme from The Dark Knight has been suggested to me as well...

BESW

7:18 AM

It'd be appropriate, if a little obvious, if there's ticking in the Dark City soundtrack.

Also try stuff inspired by 'Alice in Wonderland.'

BESW

7:31 AM

@Emrakul Heyo.

user61230

How goes!

BESW

Rebuilding InDesign templates for a literary magazine.

user61230

That... sounds like... fun?

user61230

ju'ocu'i

doppelgreener

I bought Hundreds and Thousands arnotts biscuits today.

Five are gone.

I will have to be careful in coming days to not drive them to rapid extinction.

BESW

7:39 AM

Yeah, those don't have a long projected survival rate.

@Emrakul I built the template four years ago, when the magazine had a different editor and a rather different mandate. Since then I've been slowly modifying it each year as things changed. Since I upgraded to CS6 last month it's a great opportunity to start over and purge the unnecessary bits of older versions that are still lurking beneath the surface.

user61230

That makes sense.

BESW

Also, the project is months ahead of where it usually is.

Two years ago I didn't any selection material to work with until early May.

Yesterday I went to a meeting that usually doesn't happen 'til the middle of March, at best.

user61230

That's awesome!

user61230

What's the meeting for, if you don't mind me asking?

BESW

Short-list selection of material for the annual issue.

doppelgreener

7:55 AM

It sounds like this group is getting their schnozzle together.

BESW

After that meeting, I know almost everything that's going to be in the issue, with a few pieces that might get added depending on author revisions and page count needs.

Now I have lots of time to work with the interns on processing the raw submissions into a format that InDesign will accept gracefully. This will include consulting with the editorial board and the authors to clarify various issues of whitespace and typography; it's often difficult to tell what's deliberate, and what's an artefact of the author struggling with MS Word.

user61230

That's great, though! Do they usually tell you exactly what they need up front?

BESW

And since the magazine's mandate is (in part) to provide a space for Pacific authors and artists to explore the emerging Pacific cultures of the written word, it's important to preserve intent: there are pieces which aren't poem, or prose, or song, or essay, or anything else in the Western canon of written work--stuff English doesn't even have words for.

@Emrakul Nope. Part of my job is teasing out the right questions to ask.

user61230

Hmm. Are they at least consistent once they do tell you?

BESW

The authors? Never. The editorial board? They work from a consistent vision, but that vision means they avoid enshrining policy.

doppelgreener

8:01 AM

@BESW What things do they create that we don't even have words for?

[doppel asks, shortly before realising this requires BESW to use words for them]

2

[hopes that a satisfactory description can be arrived at with the use of more words]

BESW

@doppelgreener This year we've got a submission from Fiji which is a written version of a performance/prayer/song that really exists only as an oral tradition. The very notion of this being a thing which can or should be written down is rather novel.

We'd use words like "ritual chant" to best approximate it.

We get strange and marvellous meldings of form, using Western structures to capture Pacific oral traditions, or striking away from Western structure entirely into things that aren't poem, or essay, but are also both.

There's one submission that is... I dunno, most like free-form poetry with each "line" being a full paragraph that stands alone as a stanza. But it's also written as a satirical medical report.

At the same time.

There's one submission which is either a three-line poem in Chamorro that's been translated into English, OR it's a poem with one three-line stanza in Chamorro and one three-line stanza in English: we can't tell.

The difference in meaning between the two stanzas is small, but significant, and we can't tell if that's an artefact of the translation or a deliberately-created bilingual tension.

Or, again, both.

But that sort of thing is for the editors to talk about.

I'm working on the level of "This author used whitespace in X way. Is that significant and should be preserved, or is it incidental and can be standardised?"

doppelgreener

This sounds really impressive.

And given the creativity unfurling here I can understand why it's so important to preserve the author's intent!

BESW

(If doublespacing is regular throughout the peice, it's almost never part of the author's vision; if it's irregular that implies intent... or poor proficiency with the software.)

If a picture has been included with the text, does its placement in relation to the text have meaning?

And there are more fundamental issues like--what page canon do I use? Very few Pacific cultures have page canons because their history with writing on paper is relatively recent and dominated by non-Pacific cultures.

doppelgreener

8:16 AM

What is a page canon?

BESW

If I use American (or Japanese!) page canons, that's going to say something about the content.

Page canon is the placement of the text on the page.

How much blank white page is there on each edge before the block of main text starts?

This is how Gutenberg did it.

The red square is where the body text goes; the black lines are showing the math for how you arrive at the red square.

doppelgreener

that took a bit of deconstructing to figure out

i get it now

BESW

I'm using a European page canon which draws on the ratio 2:3.

This is... simple and pleasant, but by no means neutral. Any page canon I choose is going to give preference to one culture of the written text over all others. In a context of trying to nurture emergent cultures of the written text which have very little written history to draw on, that becomes a major deal.

Imagine a culture trying to develop its own style of theatrical performance, but all the stages they can use are designed for some other culture's style.

Ditto font choices, and even something as simple as "Do I put the author or the title first?"

doppelgreener

It is great you are putting thought into this stuff.

Brb! Homing timing.

BESW

ttfn

I think I'm going grocery shopping soon.

BESW

10:44 AM

This is pretty brilliant: I LEGO N.Y., impressions of New York City in Legos.

doppelgreener

11:12 AM

@BESW that is pretty clever lookin'

BESW

Also, this is the most rocking version of What Child Is This? I've ever heard.

(I was writing a quick SF.SE filk to exorcise the idea that's been bouncing around my head for a while, and looked up YouTube versions to make sure I remembered it right.)

doppelgreener

oh dang. do share when you're done? :D

BESW

First draft excerpt:

> What film is this which once I saw
So long ago on my TV?
I cannot place the actor’s face:
His other films escape me…

doppelgreener

i can pick that out right away

i like it :)

David Wilkins

1:06 PM

I should probably not ask questions on SE while imbibing adult beverages

BESW

Don't drink and Stack?

David Wilkins

pretty much

BESW

Seems legit.

David Wilkins

I love how what I think is a simple question end up being very elaborate and what I would have thought overly specific. I just am not good at supplanting my thought process into the question I guess

Or, I think my thought process is the same as everyone else's. I am an introvert after all

Anywho. Hopefully this is more clear: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/56626/…

BESW

1:22 PM

@IronHeart My Tool expert says there's not clocks in here, but it's a similar kind of thing.

Iron Heart

@BESW Even a small snippet of clock ticking, like in Vexare's The Clockmaker, will do.

BESW

What's this for?

Iron Heart

Nothing in particular.

Sudden fascination with clocks.

BESW

'cause, like, Wings for Marie/10k Days has a hospital respirator which is... thematically similar.

Joshua Aslan Smith

good morning

BESW

1:25 PM

Yawp.

Joshua Aslan Smith

found a new favorite podcast

hellointernet.fm

BESW

What recommends it?

Joshua Aslan Smith

so one of the guys is CCP Gray

of this youtube channel

youtube.com/user/CGPGrey

CGP Grey

C.G.P. Grey is an eponymous YouTube channel featuring short explanatory videos. The channel's first popular video was an explanation of the terminology of the British Isles, which went viral. The channel has also spawned several spin-offs, including a secondary channel, CGPGrey2, and a channel with playlists of Grey's favourite videos called "greysfavs". In addition, Grey created the podcast Hello Internet with Brady Haran, creator of many well known educational YouTube channels. == Videos == The channel provides, among other things, Grey Explains, a series of explanatory videos on a rang...

He makes educational videos, I dont agree with his views on things like copyright but I very much enjoyed his 2 LOTR videos and his general style is great.

The other guy on the podcast is this guy who makes a ton of education youtube videos and has a bunch of channels

Brady Haran

Brady John Haran is an Australian independent film-maker and video journalist who is known for his educational videos and documentary films produced for BBC News and for his YouTube channels. == Career == Haran studied journalism for a year before being hired by The Adelaide Advertiser. In 2002 he moved from Australia to Nottingham, United Kingdom. In Nottingham he worked for the BBC, began to work with film, and reported for East Midlands Today, BBC News Online and various BBC radio stations. In 2007 Haran worked as a filmmaker-in-residence for Nottingham Science City, as part of an agreement...

the interplay is that Brandy used to be a professional journalist and sort of leads the discussions by his questions while CCP Grey expounds on things, its a nice back and forth, they also have great voices lol

He drops a link to one of the more recent podcasts in his lastest video (LOTR vid 2) and I just really enjoyed their discussion about what you would do if the ring corrupted you in a completely silly way, but they talk about "real" stuff too in many ways, it never devolves into pedantic nerdery (as enjoyable as that is sometimes)

The episode im listening to know is talking about The Royal Society archives in the UK and also about how the first edition of the hobbit did not feature the big confrontation between biblo and gollum in the way we've read it

David Wilkins

1:43 PM

How many ways can you stir coffee without a spoon? How many ways can you tell the querent they are an idiot? All can be found here: lifehacks.stackexchange.com/questions/4229/…

BESW

Yup, it got expanded after Tolkien thought up his next major book's plot.

Joshua Aslan Smith

yeah I never looked into that and I consider myself a pretty big tolkien buff, But I just never even thought to examine that possibility

Ive read leaf by niggle lol

BESW

Tolkien was constantly revising his worlds.

See also: the goblin/orc confusion.

Joshua Aslan Smith

@besw I knew about that

and yeah Ive read a lot of drafts or letters to his son about the LOTR series as he wrote it

and all the effort into The Silmarillion

Ive probably neglected the hobbit more than I should simply because it was a simple launching point vs the complexity that came afterward, thats not a good excuse mind you, but its probably the reason

BESW

I think it was CS Lewis who wrote that Tolkien would respond to criticism one of two ways: ignore it entirely, or rip everything up and start over.

Joshua Aslan Smith

1:46 PM

yeah

The dynamic between their works in my head is always interesting to me

David Wilkins

Wait....That's how I respond to criticism of my questions on stackexchange....am I doing it wrong? :P

wax eagle

@DavidWilkins re: your question on the dragon, make the ancient a potential ally instead of an antagonist. Your characters are going to want/need the metallic dragons' support later in the adventure.

Joshua Aslan Smith

I love CS lewis' nonfiction but tend to avoid rereading his fictional works because they are too allegorical (Despite being a protestant myself) whereas the inverse is true of tolkien

David Wilkins

@waxeagle definitely an angle I hadn't considered

Joshua Aslan Smith

@waxeagle I am super lobbying to have the dragon egg raised by the Emerald Enclave

Phil

1:49 PM

you could even frame it as him helping to beat the wyrmling somehow, to make it clear whos side he is on

BESW

At one point in my last D&D campaign, I just had to make every NPC assuming someone in the party was going to try making friends with it.

wax eagle

@DavidWilkins consider what's going on in HOTDQ. the cult is allied with the chromatics to try to return Tiamat to the Realms. Basically everyone else is involved in trying to defeat them.

(and this is super clear when you get to RoT where the opening is several council meetings)

Joshua Aslan Smith

Im also looking at the factions again and I find I am increasingly attracted to the Enclave and Lords' Alliance as concepts (I still like Gauntlet a lot as well) but both harpers and zhentarim are utter snoozefests

David Wilkins

The wyrmling is metallic too, so maybe the ancient was trying to rescue it from the cultists, who were trying to train it for their ends? I'm not sure if that works canonically

BESW

@waxeagle ...there's a D&D adventure module which opens on politics? What, are they taking cues from The Phantom Menace?

Joshua Aslan Smith

1:51 PM

@besw so a big push in the organized play modules are the new factions

dnd.wizards.com/dungeons-and-dragons/story/factions

David Wilkins

/o_ @BESW

Joshua Aslan Smith

These will span all types of organized play (Encounters, Expeditions, Epics).

BESW

Is the Dairy Queen trying to control taxes on the trade routes to outlying villages?

Joshua Aslan Smith

They toyed a lot with faction objectives as a ways to give side stories and have some light inter party friction in the last few 4e encounters seasons

wax eagle

@BESW lol no

Joshua Aslan Smith

1:53 PM

This was a big deal of the Drow campaigns that wrapped up the 4e organized play runs

and it made a lot of sense (it was very cutthroat)

its less extreme now but factional standing, like magic gear, is something you can track as your character progresses and adds out of combat abilities and resources to call upon

@besw have you seen the Auralnauts versions of the prequels?

BESW

Probably not.

Joshua Aslan Smith

youtube.com/playlist?list=PLINl9l0igYjzIipxsD4Y59_Jjxe4N3pZo

just watch the ones labelled eps 1 2 and 3 if you have the time

in the way DarthsandDroids completely rewrites the story this does as well

The jedi are party crazed stoners and Darth Sidioius is just trying to run a decent family restaurant chain

Its enjoyable for how terrible the protagonists are and how noble the villians are recast as

wax eagle

my Bones get here tonight! Going to be hard to resist the distraction and finish my session prep

BESW

Ooer.

I'm hoping my tablet arrives tomorrow, but I'm not really expecting it to.

The tracking hasn't been updated since it left New York two days ago.

(The longer it goes without an update, the less accurate the estimate is.)

Joshua Aslan Smith

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

►

Dorian

2:27 PM

Is 5e starter material still free? Might be jumping in soon.

wax eagle

@Dorian the rules are free, there aren't any free officially published adventures

Iron Heart

@waxeagle The basic rules for creating a character, and the four main classes?

wax eagle

@IronHeart yes

Joshua Aslan Smith

@dorian the basic rules are free, the starter set is a boxed adventure

@IronHeart they also have DM basic rules now

Iron Heart

Oh, good.

Joshua Aslan Smith

2:29 PM

which has some brief insight into creating adventures and encounters (very bare bones cause they want you to buy dat DMG)

but it has a nice section of monsters

and a few basic magic items

wax eagle

pdfs here: dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules

Joshua Aslan Smith

(magic items are de-emphasized anyway and its fairly easy to make one as the DMG rules on that are basically like, put a lot of story into it)

wax eagle

there's an html page too, that I need to find

Dorian

@waxeagle was about to ask for that lol

Joshua Aslan Smith

@waxeagle its actually harder to find things in the HTML version

Dorian

2:31 PM

Might be joining a game.

Figured why not.

wax eagle

@JoshuaAslanSmith true

Dorian

Someone on a gamefinder on 4chinz seems to have one set up (and apparently is more interested in 4chan people than on the horde of people making threads on the game's roll20 page lol)

(not sure what that says about the game or the dm... >.>)

Joshua Aslan Smith

@Dorian function of the dm Id say

I havent tried to look for a game online in years though

Dorian

@JoshuaAslanSmith Probably. The campaign is supposedly at least mildly magical realm lol.

Something about a green dragon kidnapping beautiful women, so "expect many beautiful women"

This amuses me. Kinda like joining just to see how bad it'll be XD

Joshua Aslan Smith

oh man

wax eagle

2:38 PM

that sounds...awful

Joshua Aslan Smith

this sounds like all the worst tropes (not the low magic setting, Im down with that)

The princess is in another castle lol

Dorian

no not low magic

"magical realm"

Joshua Aslan Smith

Im picturing the DM showing you frazetta fantasy art pin-ups in Roll20 handouts for the beautiful women

Dorian

that's... hrm...

Joshua Aslan Smith

@Dorian I always mix those terms up

Dorian

2:40 PM

magical realm is a term denoting settings that feature a high amount of someone's fetish or something lol

Joshua Aslan Smith

You are right a mild magic setting would be "high magicv"

@dorian RUN AWAY

Dorian

XD

Joshua Aslan Smith

2

Dorian

"Campaign is set in generic Dawn War fantasy setting. Main villain is an Ancient Green Dragon that has taken up abducting beautiful women and revels in the chaos and despair that goes with taking beautiful women. Expect beautiful women to be a constant source of plot in this campaign. Other than that little magical realmishness, it'll be a completely normal D&D swords and sorcery campaign. Some races in the DMG NPC table may be allowed. Starts at lvl 1."

That's the blurb they put on 4chan.

Iron Heart

> Expect beautiful women to be a constant source of plot

I don't know what to say to that.

Joshua Aslan Smith

2:44 PM

5e?

Iron Heart

I could say a dozen things, I suppose, but I'll say none of them.

Dorian

Yeah 5e

Joshua Aslan Smith

hmmm weird about the NPC races stuff

expect balane to be an issue thre

JohnP

@IronHeart Yeah, that is a bit...odd.

@BESW Which tablet did you get? I've been waiting for a release date on the Asus T300 Chi before I get a new tablet.

20

RC & Scale Modeling

Proposed Q&A site for all hobbyists interested in RC/scale modeling, from static display to operational models. This includes design, construction, diorama, painting and finishing and display aspects, as well as operation and setup techniques of working models.

Currently in definition.

Mini sculpting/painting is on topic. Tell your friends! Tell your enemies! :)~

Iron Heart

Ignore that.

Yup.

Nothing to see here.

Joshua Aslan Smith

3:05 PM

this could be awesome

enworld.org/forum/…

David Wilkins

Shame that it only supports up to 4 players

Dorian

3:22 PM

Hmm... a week left to fund exploding kittens

I can prolly afford it.

Joshua Aslan Smith

@DavidWilkins 4s a pretty good party size

wax eagle

3:37 PM

@JoshuaAslanSmith I'm intrigued

Joshua Aslan Smith

Its kind of what I wanted neverwinter to be even though I knew it was an mmo

Grubermensch

3:59 PM

That sounds awesome

I'm skeptical of the execution though. Can't get my hopes too high.

Joshua Aslan Smith

4:23 PM

@Grubermensch anything for 5e thats a tie in that doesnt flat out suck is a good thing

I feel that WOTC accomplished bringing old fans in

but that theyve failed utterly at attracting non-D&D players in any real way, let alone actually educating and training those players

its great that i can get all the rep from helping those people if they happen also to stumble upon us, but we should be a stop gap, not the solution

Grubermensch

Yeah

I do imagine a video game would be a good way to reach a wider audience quickly

Joshua Aslan Smith

yep

and its a sort of nice fallback for a lazy dm or one who cant get a group of players together

sometimes you want that diablo-type experience in D&D

RobertF

5:13 PM

@waxeagle - Are we on tonight?

Phil

5:29 PM

0

Q: Please, can you guys help me design a good campaign for this group of players?

First of all, hi there! I'm trying to design a good campaign for this specific group of players, but I seriosly need help. Of course, like any GM, I just love making a epic campaign, full of dramatic and fun moments. I have enough experience to design a campaign like that. But I'm not looking exa...

pathfinder campaign

VTC please peeps

wax eagle

5:48 PM

@RobertF we are

RobertF

@waxeagle Cool - Will we have time to spend our loot, leveling up our PCs, etc.?

wax eagle

@RobertF yes, shortly after the start you guys will spend some time in Greenest.

(it's on the way to where you need to go)

RobertF

excellent

wax eagle

(you'll also be supplied with horses for the journey, so if you don't have something to ride, it will be provided)

RobertF

We're delivering the egg to the blue dragon that was assaulting Greenest, is that right?

wax eagle

6:00 PM

@RobertF yes

JohnP

6:10 PM

Anyone got good ideas for a flying animal companion in pathfinder? I rescued an as yet unnamed flying animal (large) from a hill giant hunter last night, and when it heals (Miraculously in time for me to be 4th level) it will be a companion. I think almost anything short of a dragon is on the table.

RobertF

@JohnP - Do you want to use the flying companion as a mount?

JohnP

@RobertF I go back and forth on that, actually. While it's a cool concept, if I'm the only one it limits the usefulness

RobertF

6:26 PM

A griffon would be cool - it's a large flying magical beast, not an animal but your DM may give you some leeway.

... or a hippogriff

JohnP

I thought hippogriffs were water?

Oh, wait, that's hippcampus. nm.

RobertF

how about a dire bat, giant owl, pegasus

JohnP

I was considering the giant owl and the griffon, also not sure how the dm will stretch it.

Giant eagle is also cool, but intelligence can be problematic.

RobertF

Right, and training will be required

Having a giant eagle at your beck and call would be awesome - both air transport + heavy artillery you can call in during an outdoor combat.

You could ride your giant eagle on long trips - save wear & tear on boots and pesky random wildreness encounters, drop the One Ring into Mt. Doom, etc. :)

mawimawi

7:38 PM

In Pathfinder I'd like to make an NPC Duergar seem as a normal Dwarf. "Disguise Self" only works for 10mins/level, which is not an option for the NPC, since he is a spy for his people working for months with the dwarves above ground. Any ideas how to let him be in disguise for a longer time? (Or should I make a real question about that?)

JohnP

7:58 PM

@mawimawi - Why not a hat of disguise? Or hat of disguise, greater if you can afford it.

2

mawimawi

@JohnP Oh, didn't know about this item, and it's perfect for what I want. Thanks!

Joshua Aslan Smith

8:30 PM

that is a very cool article about publishing costs and rates for writers

My wife jokes I spend so much time on RPGs that I should make money doing it and I reply that at best you can hope to make is a modest, but respectable salary if you end up as staff somewhere like the D&D team which is increidbly small and all those people spent years and years to break that point

wax eagle

one thing I've noticed observing the D&D team and others is the crazy lack of stability in the industry. I'm someone who needs/wants a stable job...and that's not something you'll find in that industry

Joshua Aslan Smith

right exactly

it looks just as bad as the video game industry

which she has also suggested and I have literally laughed in response as I routinely read layoff horror stories from dev companies

wax eagle

yeah, that's an industry that's intriguing, but not something I'd have a strong interest in entering because of exactly that. You routinely hear of full team layoffs

Joshua Aslan Smith

it baffles my mind because there are plenty of other industries (even other software development fields) where it works on the same basis, contract work is what funds the company, and they manage to not instalay everyone off

RobertF

So what is the successor to WoW and Skyrim in the MMORPG scene? Or maybe there isn't one

Joshua Aslan Smith

8:37 PM

@robertF how does skyrim get thrown in?

there will never be a wow killer

wow will simply continue to decay

much like everquest or ultima before it, wow was simply the right game at the right time and there is a certain amount of inertia and first mover advantage they got that means they will not be dethroned until there is a new paradigm

RobertF

Well I'm tossing off two popular games.

Joshua Aslan Smith

I would say that the MMO scene is in many ways made up of a lot of small, well budgeted but still limited games that span all the genres

If there was any game that had hopes of beating wow in terms of popularity and press coverage it was probably SWTOR

but they botched that

The Oracle

0

Q: Rename the M&M edition tags to be properly hyphenated

As a result of Do we need more Mutants and masterminds edition tags? we now have a couple of Mutants and Masterminds edition tags: m-and-m2e and m-and-m3e. By the convention of basically every other edition tag on the site, those should be m-and-m-2e and m-and-m-3e, with that extra hyphen before...

support tags

BESW

9:05 PM

@JohnP Oh, it's not a tablet tablet. It's a pen tablet.

For regular tabletyness, I have a Kobo Arc that I got super cheap a couple years ago. It doesn't have bluetooth, but it's otherwise quite sufficient for my minimal tablet needs.

BESW

9:25 PM

(Mostly I use it to read ebooks, show mockups to clients, and as a reference and remote while GMing.)

Iron Heart

@waxeagle I'm reminded of one of the quotes given anonymously by a Wizards of the Coast employee

> - Nothing is organized. Nothing is on time. Everything is on fire

(source)

Grubermensch

9:44 PM

@JoshuaAslanSmith @waxeagle In re game dev economics: My guess would be that it's an issue of margins, and of consumer versus enterprise products.

JohnP

Oh yay, another badge. "Outspoken". Nice term for "amusing blabbermouth".

Grubermensch

If you have either high margins or enterprise customers who are paying for development, typically you can absorb the costs of failure more easily.

JohnP

@Grubermensch Or deep enough coffers.

Grubermensch

@JohnP That would be margins. I'm referring to margins across the whole company, so that your established products can loss-lead the newer, riskier moves.

JohnP

Gotcha.

Grubermensch

9:48 PM

Valve, for instance, can do this, because Steam ensures them a massive revenue stream at relatively low internal development costs.

wax eagle

makes sense

BESW

Brian Clevinger on who should voice Dr. Dinosaur: "I don’t know. But it should feel like Mark Hammill’s Joker doing an impression of Cobra Commander."

doppelgreener

10:40 PM

XD

Phil

10:57 PM

gah I hate it when computer problems kind of fix themselves and you have no idea why or whether there is an underlying issue or not :/

JohnP

@Phil I hate when I look at a piece of working production code, and wonder how it's ever working at all with obvious bugs.

Phil

:)

thing is, its a new computer that I've just built, and if there's an intermittent problem with a component then I'd quite like to know :(

doppelgreener