So, that mosquito whose larvae eats other mosquito larvae so it can live on nectar instead of blood as an adult? It's in Ursula Vernon's garden.

lol

awesome

@BESW Sounds like a fairly convenient type of mosquito to have around!

@doppelgreener They're trying to introduce it in areas with dengue fever.

I would love it to be introduced here really XD

I am wondering if the answer to this: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/30541/… would be the answer i would get if I asked a similar question on how to 'kick a player out of the group'... except in my case we are just starting a new campaign, and he didnt feel like making a character tonite. I have 6 people already and as a personal rule i dont go above 6 anymore.

he is in a separate campaign i will be putting on hold so i dont want to make him mad or feel like i am singling him out. I simply need to tell him that I gave him the opportunity tonite to sit in and start the game and he chose not to

...and now we have 6 and i dont want more people at the table

I've had conversations like that. It's a matter of being kind and honest.

hmmm not sure if i can do "kind"... honest I got in spades. usually brutally blunt in my honestly lol

If he HAD shown up, would you have been okay with having seven people?

Kindness is a skill that takes practice.

i would have begrudginly accepted him only because he has been playing with us for about a year

i have played with groups of 7 or more and it just gets too hectic

That might've been bad in the long run, as in my experience overpopulating the game out of loyalty to the players creates misery later on.

plus this guy has a problem with gettig up and wandering around the building when its not his turn. Our last campaign ended with eight party members (6players and 2 NPCs they acquired) and he would get up and miss his turns because he was "bored"

Phrase like, "I can't have more than six players without the game becoming miserable for everyone" and "If a spot opens up later I'll call you" and "But I need players who can come regularly and commit their energy and attention to the game for the whole session time."

You can make it clear that you're still his friend even if you don't do everything together. And if he doesn't believe that, well, somebody's going to disappoint him someday.

i'll give it a swing like that... you're right if he can handle a little rejection life is gonna kick him in the nuts over and over

do you think i should mention his penchant for getting up and wandering the hobby shop? Multiple times during the Tiamat fight last week he got up and left the table to to watch other people play MTG

well it's clear he's not so interested in the game at all times, acknowledging that could open up a conversation about what he would like to do with y'all, if anything

If he's a close friend outside the game, you can find other ways to socialise with him. If he's just a stranger, he can just go his own way and that conversation isn't important.

he is a close friend of one of the players... I dont personally care for him. But i like to maintain a fair table and since he is in my side game i dont wanna piss him off

Eh, if he gets pissed off that's on him to deal with, not you.

fair enough... facebook chat should suffice right? or should i like call him on the phone?

Actually i misread, if it impacts your side game that would be unfortunate. But the reality is you would rather he not be in game #2, and just be in game #1 (where it sounds like he's OK?), and he loses interest so may not be very invested in game #2 either.

i'm not sure if he just liked the change of pace from D&D to Mutants and Masterminds... or if he liked it better since i was running ym M&M game in 2 separate groups so he was only playing with 1 other person

well i wrote him a 'dear john' letter and told him that he is still in the DC adventure/ mutants and masterminds game and that if a hole opens up for D&D that he can come in at that point... hope he takes it well.

Sometimes when the PCs are being too reasonable, you just need to fill the room with cyanide gas.

The touching story of a birdwatching Narwhal.

@rStyskel Hi!

One of my pet peeves: typefaces that are absolutely excellent for a purpose (like users writing everyday stuff), but one or two glyphs (such as lowercase g, uppercase Q) are ostentatious or slightly illegible and make it unsuitable.

(or such a porpoise)

Urrrph yes.

I have several that I use for titles and so forth, where a Weird Character is less likely to show up or I can work around it.

(If you look at famous instances of typography, they'll often have one or two characters that got squished or stretched or outright replaced.)

@BESW Yes. :(

@BESW Yeah! That's slightly harder to control on a web platform though.

For example, 2001: A Space Odyssey uses O instead of 0 (the letter "o" instead of the numeral zero) for its title card.

(And the font used for Hal's own logo is probably a super-squished-up Univers.)

I can picture how different it'd look!

Yeah, that was what I was picturing. Would have looked pretty crummy XD

@RohanGada Hi! You'll need at least 20 rep on any one Stack Exchange site before you can type in chat rooms, but you're welcome to hang out until then.

And then this from the credits:

That's mostly Futura, but the M is Gill Sans and the W is... [shrug]

they misspelled "fillum"

Haha. I am fighting typefaces right now.

afk

@Pixie [vividly imagining a scene in street fighter 1, pixie vs typefaces]

@doppelgreener This is definitely what is happening.

I will be your striker.

Excellent. We cannot lose.

My special attack is ERASER STRIKE.

It's a metaphor for GIANT DEADLY LASER but it will probably still be super effective against typefaces.

It can completely obliterate low-quality characters!

yesss

and then the rest can be reassembled frankenstein-style into the ultimate typeface!

@doppelgreener Frankenfont!

@Pixie how exsquisite

crazy 3.x question -- can Control Winds create a horizontal vortex?

Erasers: Don't make a mistake without one!

should I throw that on the main site?

@Shalvenay probably yes

this sounds like other questions, like can the stone wall spell make a bridge etc

Super happy fun ball

Sorry, but my fun ball is more super and happy.

@Shalvenay Can you define "horizontal vortex" within the wind patterns and strengths the spell makes available to you?

@BESW -- it's a rotation :)

just about a horizontal axis instead of a vertical one

@BESW -- leads me to a scene where a gold dragon is curled up over a dead druid, mourning, after the druid, who was wildshaped into a giant eagle, followed said dragon too closely and got caught in the dragon's wake

"Given the humanoid yearning for flight, druids who turn into flying creatures are remarkably rare. This is not, as is commonly believed, because of some taboo or ritual restriction. Rather it is because druids who turn into flying creatures have a markedly higher incidental-mortality rate than their brethren who choose to remain grounded."

@BESW -- hahahahaha YESSSSSS

at least they don't have to worry about getting inhaled by a jet engine (unless it's a d20 modern game ;)

that would be a relief

though your druid would not even know it was a relief, he would probably instead be afraid of being inhaled by a dragon or some other large beast. (and by "inhaled" i mean "eaten")

heheh

(source)

@BESW in which the elder gods attempt and fail again to batter us and escape their earthly prisons

well, batter the earth XD

Ooh, deep-fried Blue Marble.

at least you aren't talking about relativistic objects

I want to make a "Fire and Ice" joke again except about giant cakes.

You hold up an arrow to the man standing in front of you. He says "I could wipe out your civilization with that one arrow."

@Shalvenay thankfully it seems the elder gods are incapable of summoning those.

@Shalvenay Doctor Who did it.

Turns out the only god actually capable of devouring the Earth is extremely picky and finds anything but pastries unpalatable.

Cute. Sounds like a fun god to make pals with.

The Pastry Nebula has an armada of drageé warships standing ready to repel him.

He might decide to wash it down with the Milky Way.

Behold, an acolyte of Dem-golth the Aesthete! Every pastry they make is an offering to their god! Every pastry consumed a divine gift! They work hoping to end up in his kitchens of eternity. Also, this one makes a raspberry pie that's to die for.

You should get Ursula Vernon to illustrate that.

Sounds like my kind of cult.

Their recipes are out of this world.

Literally unknowable for the uninitiated. To gaze upon their recipe book is to risk one's own mind.

I think they're from the same setting as the Dour Brotherhood of Quantitative Sorrow.

D

... that's not what I meant to do, but okay.

Good roll, at least.

1d

Looks like my luck.

@BESW this fun ball is not happy

I hate it

It must die a thousand deaths

did I mention I hate it?, I think I did

I am so salty right now

and just generally mad

ok, I didn't mean to scare everyone out of the chat

XD

Hey Fellas.

Do you know many other games, besides RPGs, in which rules are just suggestions?

not really

unless you mean some video games

but by that I mostly actually mean different game modes

some games have like, capture the flag or king of the hill

rather than what you would normally do

and then there are kids games like tag or hide and seek

most of the time you count to 10 or something, but anyone could do it differently

Nah.

I was thinking more in term of board and card games.

You know how most RPGs say that rules are mostly a suggestion and should not get in the way of the fun?

those generally have rules for good reason

That is a lot of trust RPG devs put on the players.

I don't see that around very often.

the thing is, in a board game, all you have is the board and what comes with it

Yeah, but these days, what comes with it can be quite a lot.

if you don't actually use the rules for the game, it will usually ruin the balance or leave you with nothing to really do in terms of a structured game

Not all games are Euros.

There are games that even blur the boundaries with RPGs, like Tales of The Arabian Nights.

Or Above and Below.

Then there are games like Dead of Winter.

That could, possibly make the same assumption in their game manual, that rules are just good as long as they keep the game fun.

But it doesn't.

well, how exactly are they stopping you?

you have the game now, if you bought it

Not really. There is this whole idea of house-rules.

But the thing is that they don't STATE IT.

I doubt they felt the need to explicitly say that you don't need to follow the rules they made

Then why would RPGs feel the need to do so?

RPG's are actually a little less structured

they expect you to role play

that is literally in the name

And that is contrary to playing by the rules because...?

you are playing a character at least as much as you are playing a game someone set up

it isn't specifically contrary

it is just more open to the idea

Hm...

Here is the thing, some board games do have RPG elements in them, and expect you to roleplay as well.

there is an expectation in an RPG that you should be able to make up your own rules, probably because some characters you might make up and want to play might be supposed to be able to do something the rules don't cover

Yet their expectations on their players seem different.

well if all else fails, they are technically different communities

they may have overlap, but there are definitely people who play one and not the other

@trogdor On that, it is interesting that some RPG source books do not stop there, Fate for example cites not only when the rules don't cover something, but also mention that when the rules are not making for an enjoyable experience, that you should be liberal with them.

@trogdor Maybe...

and the idea that someone might want to play outside the rules is probably less easily come to by someone who has made a board game

again, for balance and structuring reasons

It might be the case most board games do not have a GM, an impartal figure whose only function in to make a great game experience.

So it becomes a lot riskier to suggest something like house-ruling.

They might believe players will not be impartial.

Anyway, nice talking to you.

I'm off to sleep.

mk

have a good rest then

And when I make a boardgame, if I ever do, I will suggest everyone to burn the rulebook after reading it.

Then we will see the ramifications.

at the end of the day, it is up to the people making the game to even come to the realization that they could mention throwing the rulebook out

if they never even thought of it, then of course they won't mention the idea

if they even think it is a good idea if they do think of it

@trogdor I seriously doubt it. A LOT of board games are approximations of RPGs. Claustrophobia, HeroClicks, Descent, etc.

I find it very hard to believe none of the people making these games never thought of it.

well, in specific cases yes

They must have studied RPGs for ages to create their games.

but I find it hard to believe that every board game maker has thought of it

Yeah. That is true.

Still, the fact that I cannot recall once single instance of a board game that suggests that seems to tell me there is something there.

and some who have might not like the idea of the work they put into the rules being completely ignored

Even in very specific cases, as you called them.

even if the game would still work well with at least some of the rules thrown out

@trogdor That might be a more psychologically plausible explanation for it.

technically, any game could be played sans at least some of the rules

but it would also take some work to fill the gaps those thrown out rules leave

@Althis yeah, I figure it is the reason sometimes

@trogdor If it could not, it would be a rare beauty of simplicity and efficiency...

sigh

How I long for those rare jewels.

Anyway, I really have to go.

mk

The sun is rising.

Nighty night.

don't let me keep you awake too long XD

[sigh] We had what, eight, ten years? of almost no storms, and we did get were pathetic, hardly even banana typhoons.

Now this is our... third? fourth? this year. And...

Another one right behind.

WOW. @_@

That one's passing almost straight over you!

ugh

I hate this so much

why the hell does it work like this? it's ridiculous

Augh... be safe. D: (My autocorrect really wanted me to tell you to be Dave, which may or may not be as helpful, depending on which Dave.)

Dang six hours ago?

I don't know any Daves that could just walk around in a storm XD

no idea who he is

That's the 1978-82 TV version of the Hulk named David Banner instead of Bruce Banner because somebody at the studio said "This alliterative naming thing, Stan, it's just not gonna work."

Yay!

6 Hours!

Now, to social engineer a 7 hour gap!

eh, I wasn't expecting that so soon

I thought it was expected to possibly hit us later today

looks like it already passed to the other side

unless I am getting the direction wrong

Looks like rain

We've still got the second one coming up though.

Hmmm

If the two collide

Will it create a global superstorm capable of wiping out life as we know it

Unlikely.

I am pretty sure the more likely scenario in a case like that is actually that they wreck each other

or at least that the stronger one is damaged and the weaker one destroyed

this isn't the movies, things moving with that speed and force don't just suddenly combine into one thing

at least not in a beneficial way XD

If they get within a certain distance of each other and conditions are right, their centres begin orbiting each other.

But if they get closer, they rip each other apart.

Occasionally they'll merge into a supertyphoon, but it's rare.

global super storm is more than pushing it though

in any case, these 2 aren't really close enough for any of those outcomes, I think

unless of course one of them changes speed and course by the exact right amount, which I won't say is impossible

they are unpredictable things