TRPG General Chat

12:03 AM

@BESW that's an interesting piece of geotechnical strategy

(When we got hit by a Mercalli IX in 1993, the mainland newspapers sent journalists to visit because they were sure we were lying about zero casualties.)

@Shalvenay It was totally accidental at first; it's just how the military did their poured-concrete housing and that's the model most of the local houses followed after the war.

Shalvenay

@BESW yeah -- we've seen several times in recent years just how much of a difference modern seismic codes make in large 'quakes

BESW

No major buildings collapsed completely during the earthquake, and the only ones which had to be demolished afterward had building code violations.

(Including one fancy hotel which was going to open a few days later.)

Shalvenay

IIRC, the casualties from the relatively recent Christchurch 'quake were rather minimal as well

Papayaman1000

"This was our biggest project to date! THIS IS A CATASTROPHE"
"Well maybe keep it up to code next time moron"

Shalvenay

12:07 AM

actually, no, I must have been mixing up my 'quakes

BESW

And our typhoon casualties are usually "Somebody went reef surfing during the storm" or "Someone ran their diesel generator inside the house to keep it from getting wet."

Papayaman1000

@BESW In other words "People being stupid as us Americans are wont to do"

BESW

"Hold my beer" seems to be a universal human trait.

3

Papayaman1000

[for the record I am included in that]

Shalvenay

yeah -- it was the earlier Canterbury 'quake I was thinking of

Papayaman1000

12:09 AM

@BESW And this is the basis of why RPGs are awesome.

trogdor

@BESW this one always makes me upset

BESW

@trogdor [sigh] Yeah.

Shalvenay

the Christchurch one had a relatively high casualty count, but that was due to already-damaged buildings from the previous quake and the Christchurch 'quake in 2011 having insane surface accelerations (especially considering its magnitude on the Richter scale)

trogdor

like, there are other ways to keep it dry, and do your really need the power on at all times? come on

BESW

To be fair, military-style housing takes "de-prioritise ventilation" to an art form.

trogdor

12:14 AM

at our old house we had a shed for keeping the generator in, we couldn't run it from there but it stayed dry and safe

BESW

Our house opened up north/south, and the winds blew east/west.

trogdor

@BESW yeah but even with good ventilation, don't run those things in your house

Papayaman1000

"Hey what's for dinner"
"Soup"
"On the gas stove?"
"Yeah"
"You're going to kill us all"

trogdor

my dad did do one real stupid thing though

the shed blew over in one storm. and he went out to drag it (the generator )into the house till the storm passed

Papayaman1000

@trogdor I... but... ah...

trogdor

12:16 AM

we all told him he was an idiot as he went out, and as he came back in

BESW

Our 200WordRPG submissions:
[Gotterdammerung](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e55r0uBVE7tV1Qv0cR4ZcWd63_Bjg1oaIT2Wa2SPDGM/edit?usp=sharing) by Magician;
[Quarantine](https://docs.google.com/document/d/17g1IDlfi0i9pzWzNwYvntpgby5LUIjaDx11OH22pu28) by eimyr;
[Shonen RPG](https://200wordrpg.github.io/2017/rpg/2017/04/17/ShonenRPG.html) by Anne Aunyme;
[Puppy Day](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FZQCmtGvGF8aBNjh6aSJu345luUzQZa5tG4rcc-xjuc/edit?usp=sharing)
& [Too Much Bubblegum](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FT6J_SrZf48QJGZkO51wROeX2mQ7V_8cMYdlv4OBYdQ/edit?usp=sharing) by BESW.

3

trogdor

@Papayaman1000 appropriate reaction yes

we can replace the stupid machine, not the stupid guy who goes out for it

he was fine but like,.... he shouldn't have done it

BESW

@trogdor I think everybody has a "stupid thing my dad did during a storm" story.

trogdor

@BESW I am inclined to believe this

BESW

Alan's dad taught all five boys how to sail uphill on their skateboards with a bedsheet and a broom handle.

trogdor

12:18 AM

oh good lord wtf

that's like, way worse

that is passing the stupid on

BESW

My dad held the door open so we could watch Typhoon Paka rip off our carport.

Papayaman1000

@trogdor As Randall Munroe helpfully pointed out once, turns out people die doing that

What if #66, Citation 2.

BESW

Nobody died that time, but it is in keeping with the fact the entire family was on first-name-and-facial-recognition status with the local emergency room.

Papayaman1000

"When Hurricane Isabel hit Virginia in 2003, I had the bright idea of standing on a skateboard with a poncho held up like a sail, so the wind would blow me down the street. But the moment I got the sail up, the wind fell quiet. Later, I learned that people die from doing that. Oops."

BESW

(I was in a youth dance group with them, and Alan left blood on the stage trying a stunt his older brother used to do.)

trogdor

12:26 AM

@BESW I seem to recall you mentioning that before

BESW

Probably so.

trogdor

in the car or something a few years ago I think

BESW

We had some memorable performance blunders, but only one where a performer had to go to the hospital before the act concluded.

Papayaman1000

Idle thought: Who's the oldest non-staff/admin user on the SE network?

Shalvenay

@Papayaman1000 candidate: aviation.stackexchange.com/users/394/terry

BESW

12:33 AM

[amused] I think he meant earliest registered.

Papayaman1000

@Shalvenay Candidate for oldest SE user by age of account, or by age of owner?

Shalvenay

@Papayaman1000 age of owner

Papayaman1000

Frankly he might be either

Shalvenay

definitely age of owner

Papayaman1000

394. That's a low number

Shalvenay

12:33 AM

you'd have to dig back into SO itself for earliest registered

@Papayaman1000 albeit site specific

Papayaman1000

@Shalvenay oh

BESW

Terry's been on SO longer than Aviation.

Papayaman1000

Yet that number is almost 700k.

ACuriousMind

For oldest account you need to look at the low account numbers on SO, e.g. stackoverflow.com/users/20/tom

Shalvenay

first non-staff SO user found!: stackoverflow.com/users/5/jon-galloway

Papayaman1000

12:35 AM

@Shalvenay I was just about to link that.

Shalvenay

@ACuriousMind I just went from ID=1 on SO and enumerated up

Papayaman1000

Brute-force method?

Ah, yes.

ACuriousMind

@Shalvenay I found 1-4 to be staff and then skipped a few :P

Papayaman1000

Looks like this person is the oldest person who's still active.

Shalvenay

I wonder who is the oldest fella on SE by age of owner, though

Papayaman1000

12:39 AM

@Shalvenay I don't think we can legally find that out

Shalvenay

@Papayaman1000 yeah, they'd have to volunteer

Papayaman1000

@Shalvenay Even then they might be wrong

ACuriousMind

While removed from all profiles, I think the age field is still available in SEDE

Alas, no guarantee that people are honest about their age there

trogdor

oh, i thought by age people meant like, how long you have been on the site

ACuriousMind

@trogdor Well, that one's easy, just go to the low account numbers, we already did that above

Miniman

1:00 AM

@ACuriousMind Apparently, the biologically oldest user on our site is 97.

BESW

Mayan-inspired stone Cthulhu tablet.

Miniman

On Stack Overflow, 125.

ACuriousMind

@Miniman I guess they play Voynich?

BESW

@Miniman Please check the age of crafts.se.

Miniman

@BESW That's the one named Arts and Crafts? If so, also 97.

BESW

1:02 AM

Awesome. I shall assume she's one of the yarnbombing grandmothers.

(I'm sad crafts.se doesn't appear to have any yarnbombing questions.)

Miniman

@BESW Their profile says they're a web developer, so I have some doubts.

BESW

Miniman

I didn't know there was a word for that! One of our local trees has a very nice jumper.

BESW

Quick, somebody write a 200-word RPG about yarnbombers.

trogdor

@ACuriousMind fair enough, I was only half following any of this

Shalvenay

1:25 AM

wb @Forrestfire

Forrestfire

hi

Forrestfire

1:35 AM

how goes?

Shalvenay

OK here

BESW

Okay, submitted my 200-word games.

That's a surprisingly good sweet spot, 200 words.

Shalvenay

wb @Papayaman1000

Papayaman1000

@Shalvenay Hey there! Just had a really good chicken dinner.

Shalvenay

aye, same here actually -- Cornish game hen with a lemon wedge inside ;)

Papayaman1000

1:46 AM

Grocery store had cheap wings -- I got about 60 for $20 -- so I took 'em home and baked 'em. Made a Honey Sriracha barbecue to go with 'em. That was good.

@Shalvenay Almost jealous but the wings were too good to be jealous of anything rn

Shalvenay

heheh

Papayaman1000

Anyways, I'm gonna throw my laptop on the charger real quick and meet you in The Back Room for our session. brb

Joshua Aslan Smith

2:16 AM

late night lurk edition

Shalvenay

hey there @JoshuaAslanSmith

Joshua Aslan Smith

herro

Miniman

@JoshuaAslanSmith You mean midday mingle, surely?

Shalvenay

how're things going?

Shalvenay

2:33 AM

hey there @ObliviousSage

Oblivious Sage

greetings

Shalvenay

how're things going?

Oblivious Sage

Doin' OK. No excitement, which is how I like it.

Shalvenay

alright here

getting my PHB back from the bindery here soon

Oblivious Sage

Binding falling apart from overuse?

Shalvenay

2:36 AM

@ObliviousSage not even that, it's one of those first printing 5e PHBs :P

Oblivious Sage

Oh yeah, I forgot they had that problem.

godskook

Wazzup?

Oblivious Sage

Chillin'. Slowly conquering the galaxy in Stellaris.

godskook

As long as you're not the dude I passed at lunch who was playing Stellaris, we all good.

Oblivious Sage

Nah, during lunch I read Worm fanfiction.

Joshua Aslan Smith

3:36 AM

@Miniman I reject your timezone

nitsua60

Today in parenting victories:
[8 yo son] Dad, doesn't this smudge on the napkin look like Great Britain? You know, from the Risk board?

Today in "some geometries are even stranger than your battlemat's": bar constructs maze to comply with setback requirement

trogdor

@nitsua60 do you have games of Risk that don't last like, 3 hours minimum ?

nitsua60

Yeah--Risk: Legacy. Three games in, and none over an hour.

He keeps beating me because I'm fighting all the habits to play Risk, meaning I'm just starting my midgame when I realize he's one good turn away from winning.

Joshua Aslan Smith

@nitsua60 OH BABAY

you are in for a treat

nitsua60

Let's bring that down to real terms: right now the board sits where he could have won on his last turn, but he wanted to grab one more card to be able to claim 30+ troops (with missile in hand) this game.

@JoshuaAslanSmith so yes, yes I am.

Joshua Aslan Smith

3:45 AM

yeah opening those boxes can be very interesting the first run through

I super enjoyed it, game kept giving you new ways to impact the board

and the factions themselves

nitsua60

The only thing we've opened so far is the packet that includes comeback powers.

Joshua Aslan Smith

yeah, dont worry

youll get all sorts of cool stuff

but even those first few games play really well compared to normal risk

nitsua60

@JoshuaAslanSmith Yes, absolutely.

Joshua Aslan Smith

it makes sense though since Rob Davieu wrote risk 2210 which is the only other risk variant I actually enjoy

nitsua60

Alrighty: night, all.

Joshua Aslan Smith

3:47 AM

by the way if you finish risk legacy and want more I 100000000 percent recommend pandemic legacy

good night

nitsua60

@JoshuaAslanSmith Yeah, I've done pandemic legacy. (Not with the boy; with friends)

Right now the friends-standing game's a campaign of Kingdom Death: Monster.

But yeah, I should get to bed. I have a committee meeting in 8 hrs.

BESW

4:14 AM

I want to write a short paragraph about 1998 events and pop culture to help get my players into the mindset of their characters.

2

Nothing really profound, just a little primer on "Google hadn't incorporated yet, people were just starting to get tired of the Titanic theme song, Viagara jokes were timely," that kind of thing.

Any suggestions?

@Angzuril Hi!

The Oracle

5:12 AM

1

Q: What do moderators do here?

There's an election going on right now, and as a result there's rather a lot of discussion about the role that moderators play on this site. ...actually, that conversation has been going on for quite a while. One of the hardest problems that faces those hardy souls who step up to nominate the...