TRPG General Chat

12:00 AM

@Miniman The normal function of the U.S. Marshals is court security and prisoner/witness minding. The West was... odd, mainly because there weren't other federal law enforcement agencies.

doppelgreener

@BESW that is awesome

Marc Dingena

@BESW Maybe a bit more broke than just blue links?

Anyhow... my night change was successful. Time to shut down here and finally get some sleep :)

good night all

BESW

Nah, I just answered a few more meta questions than usual recently on popular meta questions.

ttfn

Shalvenay

whew! I think I'm ready for the first full session of the 5e campaign I'm DMing now that "first encounter" and "first village" are both sketched out and ready to go

doppelgreener

12:18 AM

@BESW I did not know this was possible!

BESW

@doppelgreener Neither did I!

It makes sense in retrospect.

Miniman

I wonder if there's any cap on meta rep.

doppelgreener

@Miniman that's just the thing, there's no such thing as meta rep really! But I guess somewhere in the back end of the system there is?

I have a bacon and maple syrup muffin and it is strange and delicious.

Miniman

@doppelgreener That's why I wondered. It clearly keeps track of it.

trogdor

@doppelgreener I am jealous of you right now

soo much

BESW

12:31 AM

Bleh. I never understood the whole "maple bacon" thing. Why ruin perfectly good bacon?

Miniman

Yeah, I love maple syrup, but it doesn't belong with bacon. It belongs with ice cream!

BESW

Ew. What's wrong with molasses?

Good blackstrap molasses on vanilla ice cream, with chocolate chips sprinkled on.

Miniman

Molasses are also great with ice cream.

Around here it's a lot easier to buy maple syrup than molasses, though.

Sandwich

@BESW There's no part of that sentence I didn't like

BESW

12:47 AM

I also use molasses and honey instead of syrup on my pancakes.

But then, my pancakes are usually skillet-baked too.

Sandwich

I like Chocolate chips and vanilla ice cream

BESW

There are ice creams I prefer, but they're less reliably good.

Sandwich

I like Mint chip a lot too

Miniman

My favourite is probably vanilla ice cream with hot caramel sauce.

BESW

Citrus sherbets contain multiple kinds of win, if made properly. Otherwise they're meh. And yes, quality mint chocolate chip is hard to beat.

Miniman

1:00 AM

Lime sorbet, too. Or lemon sorbet.

Sandwich

I love the taste of mint chip its amazing

BESW

@Miniman Orange, lime, lemon--any citrus can brighten my day if it's made with a light touch.

Sandwich

1:17 AM

What

i.imgur.com/OHFjAZS.gifv

doppelgreener

@Sandwich please provide a content / NSFW warning for certain gifs, like that one.

BESW

I have no response to that.

Sandwich

I don't even know what that is

BESW

It clearly involves more of a person's backside than most people want to see without being asked first.

Sandwich

The text to describe the image is funny though

"When the chili you had yesterday was just a bit too spicy"

Shalvenay

1:27 AM

hrm. one other thing -- I could use a term similar to "shire" to describe an administrative region

BESW

@Shalvenay I assume you're looking for something mostly English?

doppelgreener

@Sandwich Dude, some people (not me at the moment) use this site at work. The fact it has a funny caption doesn't mean you shouldn't warn us it depicts someone's half-exposed butt getting nitrogened or something.

BESW

@Shalvenay Because I like comarques.

doppelgreener

though i don't know if that "but" was in response to this or w/e

but yeah, warnings please

(though fair to say, someone just pasting an image link with a "what" and nothing else should pretty much always be taken as a warning not to click such a link at work)

BESW

If it hadn't had the imgur "v" at the end of the file extension, it would've automagically oneboxed.

Shalvenay

1:39 AM

something along those lines, yes -- a term that's clearly out-of-place in the English language would be an OOC nuisance when it came up. (in-universe, the common tongue is actually a pidgin Orcish, but that's neither here nor there atm :P)

BESW

Category:Types of country subdivisions

...

Ward, barony, canton (more familiar to people who've seen Firefly), manor, province...

Sandwich

Dont forget Fief

BESW

Or you can just appropriate an ordinary word and make it mean something more official in that area.

Perhaps they're circles or chairs.

BTW, I just found this. Should I flag it as not an answer or something?

Shalvenay

Cantons are typically small, otherwise I'd go with that

"Riding" sounds interesting, although its use in history has been spotty, and generally refers to non-top-level subdivisions

Sandwich

@BESW I would, and did

BESW

1:49 AM

Keep in mind, each of those words has probably been used for multiple kinds of areas over the centuries.

So you don't have to pick something that already means exactly what you want.

Sandwich

Oh also

Hamlet could be used too

Loosely

BESW

Sandwich

@SevenSidedDie Dang Die congrats on Legendary

MC_Hambone

quick question am I crazy or are the question titles blue now?

Sandwich

They are @MC_Hambone

Miniman

1:59 AM

@MC_Hambone It's not just you

MC_Hambone

when did that change?

BESW

1

A: Links suddenly blue?

Stack Exchange is presently working on some major CSS updates for our site and a few others. (These updates are for the Stack Exchange developers' sakes and aren't supposed to affect how our site actually looks.) These blue links showed up a few weeks ago and stuck around for half an hour, and va...

Sandwich

That normally happens when stack rolls out an update and it changed page code

Normally when programming goes out it goes out in one big push

MC_Hambone

awesome. thanks tbh i kinda like it

its easier to read for me

Miniman

Me too, but I suspect it won't last

Sandwich

2:00 AM

If there's bugs they normally have to create tickets for the bug reports and whatnot and then run another push

I think it looks okay

doppelgreener

@BESW yep, forumy discussion stuff

i like the blue as well.

Shalvenay

hrm, I think Riding might be the best fit, even -- playing off the folk etymology for that word

BESW

I think it's not quite the right blue, and the choice should be made by people familiar with the international standards for website design for the visually impaired.

doppelgreener

@BESW thankfully the guidelines here are pretty simple, and I speak as someone who has professionally operated with exactly this thing you've linked to for the past two years. they are just: "pick something with sufficient contrast from the background."

Shalvenay

so, I decided to go with a system of Marches and Ridings

each sovereign is divided into Marches, which in turn have several Ridings

BESW

2:10 AM

@doppelgreener Good to know. I'm under the impression, however, that if we want the fact it's a link to stand out, there's a bit more to put into it.

Shalvenay

Reeves are allocated a few to a Riding in the countryside, and there is a court lord for each March that basically performs the function of a circuit court judge

BESW

(And our blue links are now sitting on blue backgrounds in the user cards on the bottom of every question. I don't know if the contrast is high enough to overcome that.)

doppelgreener

@BESW Correct. WCAG says links must be distinguished from surrounding text by something other than only colour. Such as: underlines. Most designers don't care about this because it messes with their beautiful designs, and Stack Exchange overall appears to have gone with that too.

BESW

It just needs intentionality, and we don't have that right now--we have one design's colour added to another design's palette by happenstance.

doppelgreener

@BESW Our current orange links aren't satisfactory in chat. 4.5 is the expected contrast ratio. The user cards don't satisfy it either.

but this is a site that has this going on with Meta Stack Exchange's footer.

basically they do not care.

BESW

2:17 AM

I'm not saying the existing design is great.

doppelgreener

sure, i am just responding your comment about the blue links on blue user cards.

i think the previous red was pretty and the current blue is pretty (but a few shades over would be a better fit for our site), but none of it is really satisfactory for any accessibility guidelines.

if you turn on a screen reader for stack exchange sites, a lot of things (Such as rep and badges) are unintelligible.

e.g. this thing

gets read out as "twenty three billion, three hundred and eighty eight million, eight hundred and seventy seven thousand, one hundred and fifty eight" (because as far as any screen reader can tell, the numbers are right beside each other)

it's probably going to be a while until stack exchange turns their attention toward accessibility properly

Shalvenay

yeah, that's pretty derp -- wouldn't some strategically-selected alt text make the problem go away though?

doppelgreener

@Shalvenay yeah, there's many easy options for making that problem go away.

BESW

Even companies that are trying really hard to improve accessibility have some kind of basic derps.

doppelgreener

absolutely

BESW

2:25 AM

Microsoft's own screen reader has bits of the Windows system settings interface that it can't read.

Shalvenay

yeah, at the end of the day, you have to test the stuff end-to-end

doppelgreener

the very nature of this stuff is that when you derp super hard, there's not much visibility to it. you can only come across that with testing. as a visual user, it's also very easy to gloss over something because you already understand it from having seen it.

Shalvenay

@BESW -- complain to Michael Kaplan I suppose, if he's still @ MS that is

(he's kind of their unofficial internationalization and accessibility advocate)

so. PC sheets are a go AFAIK, although I think I'll make one last check. first encounter (party formation) is ready to go. first village and its key NPCs (reeve of the riding + village innkeeper, shopkeeper, smith, and shaman) are ready to go at least at a basic level. intro to the first quest is ready to go. is there anything else I should make sure I have prepared for my first full campaign session as a DM?

BESW

Be ready to call for breaks and/or ask players for input when things happen that you need a moment to respond to.

When I was doing D&D I had lists of random names--people, towns, inns, etc.

doppelgreener

have snacks

Shalvenay

2:35 AM

@doppelgreener -- this will be hot on the heels of dinner

doppelgreener

perfect timing

BESW

(Snacks are a good excuse for a break.)

For some groups, I needed a "speaking stick" for when they all talked over the top of each other. I used a soft toy so it wouldn't hurt anyone/thing when it was inevitably tossed at folks.

But most groups it was unnecessary, and even when we needed it, the Giraffe of Discourse only got used for parts of sessions every several weeks.

Shalvenay

welp, I think things will be a go for the session tomorrow then :)

Nyoze

@Shalvenay Good luck and have fun :)

Shalvenay

:) should be interesting to say the least

after all, how many campaigns have an Orc reeve, Elven bandits, and a Kobold shopkeeper, all in the first session?

Nyoze

2:46 AM

Not enough :)

Shalvenay

yeah. my thoughts exactly -- it'll be interesting to see how far I can take this campaign world

Nibelung

3:04 AM

Hi everyone. Just checking out the chat.

doppelgreener

@Nibelung Hi!

Nibelung

You guys have an awesome site, and I wish I have found it a few years earlier.

doppelgreener

It is pretty awesome, isn't it :D

trogdor

It is the best

Nibelung

I'm entering a new ground in my next 4e campaign, and I think I'll be asking questions a lot in the near future.

I DMed for years never leaving heroic tier. For the first time I want to make a 1-30 campaign

And sincerely, I'm a bit scared if I will be able to do it to the end.

Shalvenay

3:12 AM

hey there, and yeah, rpg.se is pretty darn cool. not #1 on my favorite SEs -- that title would be split between Aviation (very clean and tidy, like here, + a userbase that's pretty darn cool all-around and a topic that isn't exactly argument-prone), and DIY (despite the low SNR, I've been able to swing some darn good rep there)

but up there, nonetheless

Nyoze

@Shalvenay Lies. RPG.SE is the best :P

Shalvenay

:P

Nyoze

@Shalvenay If only because I have trouble understanding the rest lol.

Shalvenay

harhar

trogdor

RPG is the only SE for me honestly

I don't have time to pick more than one anyway

I already have a habit of trying to pack as many things into any given day for entertainment and whatnot, not to even count chores and work I have to do any given day

Nyoze

3:32 AM

I'd look at another SE, but nothing else really catches my interest for more then a few minutes at a time.

Zach

3:58 AM

So, I was thinking of posting a question, but I don't know if it's too vague or not.

Basically, I'm looking for a guide of things to look for and to look out for when trying to find a new gaming group.

Miniman

@Zach I think that's more likely to be closed as a duplicate than anything else.

67

Q: Where can I find other RPG players?

I'd really like to learn how to play pen-and-paper RPGs. I know that it takes a few players to actually sit down and play, but I'm not at all sure where to find more gamers. How do I find existing groups to join? Or, are there any resources online that may help me find existing RPG groups or pl...

Zach

Well, I found one question that pertained to what I should do when joining a new group, but I didn't see any that talked what qualities the group I'm looking to join should/shouldn't have

Miniman

@Zach Wait, so you want to know what to look for in a potential group?

Sandwich

A̰ͅl͎͎̗̤ḷ̡ h҉̭̜͕̟̗̻͕a͙͈̪i͟l̨̜̠͚̹ ͚̳͇͍̳o̟̹̜u̹̪ŕ̰̘̭̝̥ d͍a͓͕̩̭̥ͅrk͏̹̫͖̲ ̨l̵̳̺o̶̭͓͈̞r͖̩͙͉͕̙̹d̞ ̸̝̭̲̹a͎̘͔̲n͢d ҉̩m̙̩̲͎̝̕a̹͓̬ͅs̶̝̼̻̰̼̳t͖͝e̟̤͙̥͓̺͔͞r̲̫͍̦̠͈ͅ C̷̲̻̖ͅͅͅt͍̪̬̭̳̮h̡u̸̙̭̘̺̳̤l̗͕͎̘̩̹̥u͔̻̹͞ͅu͈̻̖̫͉͓̞͜u̟̼̺͈u̷͈̹͔u̴̝̮̣͙͓͎͇

Zach

@Miniman Yes, in general. Though, I'm also interested in what to look out for

Miniman

4:02 AM

@Zach So, that is likely to be closed - not because it's vague, but because it's entirely dependent on you.

I could say "Watch out for groups who don't stick to one game for any significant amount of time", but that might not be a problem for you; it might even be a good thing.

What I want out of a group is going to be completely different to what other people want.

Zach

@Miniman Yea, that's what I wanted to avoid. I don't want specifics, just general guide lines. I've only ever been in two groups, so I'm not sure if there are any giant warning sign type things I should look out for.

Miniman

@Zach A question about common pitfalls or something like that might work

Although I suspect it's still likely to get hit up as too opinion-based

Zach

@Miniman Yea, that's what I'm worried about. It's advice I think a lot of people would greatly benefit from having, but I'm not sure how to ask it so that it won't be too opinionated

Sandwich

P̸̖̲h̻͝'n̶̦͈̩͈͇̲g̡̞͎͈l̞͞ͅu̷i͇̤̯̩͎̳̲ ͔̝̹m̶̻̹̲̬̬͓gl͕͝ͅw̷'̮̗̥̠͠n͖̫̦̰a͕f͇̫h͚̝̭̤̩̗͜ ̹͕̥̝̗C̟t̳̘̫̼̤̟̖̀h͏͖̟̻͇̯u̸l̀h̖̙u͕̜̦͙ͅ ̻̭̤̩̳̯͝ͅR'̴̱͙͓͓ͅl̖̟͓̼͖y͈̣͙̘͢e̺̮̪̦̙͇h ̯̺wg̴̫̯ah̺͢'͈͖̫n̰̰̰ạ̱͉̪͉̣͝ͅg̴l͍͙̤ ͉͝f̢̪͙̙̼̦h҉̻̻̰̮̝ͅt̴̥͈͖̱a̩͉̝͈̭̻̭͢g̠̺͍̦͇̦̖̕n

doppelgreener

@Zach You would need to have specific goals that would create an answerable question.

Miniman

4:07 AM

@Zach I'm not sure, personally. Don't forget that you can just post it, then if it gets closed work with other users to improve it up to the point it gets reopened.

doppelgreener

If you just ask for what to look for or look out for, you are going to get answers from many opposing viewpoints. "Look out for a group with good system mastery, they're great." "Look out for a group that has good story, avoid the optimisers because they ruin games." Looooots of opinion. And things to look out for depend on the game they're playing and the kind of experiences you desire.

BESW

And I'd answer something like, "If they're jerks don't play with them."

detly

I also have a question about a question I'm trying to form - basically, I want some techniques for combating our groups' analysis paralysis (or close to). With six players, we can end up endlessly discussing what we're going to do in a particular set of circumstances, when what really needs to happen is a couple of players need to bite the bullet and accept a compromise so we can get on with the game.

Zach

@doppelgreener that's the kind of thing I'm wanting to avoid. I want to phrase the question so I get more general information.

doppelgreener

e.g. A D&D game where the GM has absolute control is par for the course. A Fate group where the GM maintains absolute control is a signal you should look for a different group.

detly

4:10 AM

I was thinking that there must be some well researched, widely tried and tested techniques for DMs and players, or even from beyond the TRPG world, for quick decision making and consensus reaching around a table. Could this allow for a reasonably objective and authoritative set of answers?

BESW

With maybe a smattering of, "Ask to sit in on a session before you join."

doppelgreener

@Zach "More general information" is a slurry of personal opinions and individual peoples' burn marks.

@detly Sounds like an OK question. Make sure to describe your game, and give us concrete scenarios in which this has happened and relate to us in brief how they've gone down.

BESW

Hmm. Brian may have some paper on that subject.

detly

That was the plan, yep.

doppelgreener

The details you provide will make a difference on how reliably decent our speculation can be.

Zach

4:15 AM

To give a better idea of what I'm looking for; of the two groups I've been in, looking back, I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.

The first group very rarely finished a campaign, and group drama always seemed to get in the way of the game. In the second group, there was more focus on the game and less drama, but ultimately it only had 'players' and no real GM. Yes, we took turns being the GM, and were able to function that way, but no one was actually happy with that, and our games always fell to pieces because of it.

In both groups, there were things besides the game and play style of the group that, if I were to see those traits in other groups, I'd steer away from them because of it.

Miniman

@Zach Thinking about it, even if there are objective things to look for or look out for, it still has the problem of being an open-ended list.

Zach

@Miniman That's the main issue I keep coming to. Despite this being potentially very useful information that a lot of people could likely benefit from having, the format questions on this sight are supposed to adhere doesn't really allow me to ask the question.

Miniman

@Zach Yeah, you might be better off consulting somewhere form our list of forums.

Zach

@Miniman Very helpful advice. I wasn't actually aware that existed.

Miniman

@Zach It only came into being fairly recently, but it's proven an incredibly valuable link-target

Zach

4:27 AM

A link in the help center might be in order

doppelgreener

We can't actually edit the help center, so it doesn't get personalised per site.

the on topic page is the only one we can edit.

maybe it'd fit somewhere in there actually? but it's probably not where people would look for it x)

ahh, still might be helpful

Nyoze

@doppelgreener If its there at least we can link people to it?

@Sandwich You have issues, you know that? :P

doppelgreener

@Nyoze well you can link people right to the meta Q

Nyoze

Yeah, that's true.

Sandwich

@Nyoze Why Nyoze, whatever do you mean

Zach

4:37 AM

Hmm... does anyone who's more familiar with some of the forums suggested have any recommendations for which one to take my question to?

Nyoze

Everything. Everything.

Sandwich

I̯ͥ̾ͤ̍͢ ̲̙̘̼̗͉͇͛͐ͯ͛͊w͕̪̤̣̹̌̎̽̾͊́̚i̷̦̪̱͍̻̍̅̓͋ͭ̃ͤlͥ͂ͯ̿ͫ̅͟l̟̃͑ͫ̿̉̔͊ ̥͊ḓ͎̮̳̠̖͗́ͅe̓̿ͯ̉̅̚v̴̻͚̤̗̌ͨ͛o̡ͦͦu͇̯̪͕̬̲̰͊̄̅͌͊ͦ͋͘r̡͎̣̞̝͎̮̿̎̉̿̉ ̏̏̇̾y͓͍ͫö̴͙͇̞͖͇̥ͯ̄ͥ̌u͙̺̺̲̥̕rͪ̀̓ ̠͍̮̰̓̕f̬̺̦͓̊͆̒ͨͧ̔͗l̜̗̲̞̘̜ͥͦ̋ͅĕ̀ͣs̭̦̙̥͕̪̠̑̎̐́h̟͈̙ ͇̩̬̘̔͠ͅp̟̺̩̦͂͂ͤͥͥ͝ù̡̩̘̻̼͔̓ͤ̏nͥ̌ͯ̋̽͏͇̣̺̤̜͉̠y̼̠̳̠̰͙̙̎̔ͯ̀͝ ͇̭͓̟͎̍ͩ̂ͅmͦ͊̄ͦo̷̼̍ͅr͚̱͍͖͈̻̉̈̍t͖͙͈͊̌͂̆ă̗̟̱̋ͨ̆͂͊̉͡l̰̝͕̺̱̣̰̆̒̏͒̌̒̊ ̡ͩͥ͋͊͒h͆̇ͨ́̂҉̯ì̙͗̒ͨ͊͘s̢̝̣̤͓̰̭ͅş͚̘̟̻̌ͭs͚͕̱̥̖̭͎ͥ̎̒ͫ̚s̜̑̌s̡ͮ͌ͣ̈́ͥ͌͑ṣ͈̘̣̟͋̉͐ͬ͘