TRPG General Chat

12:04 AM

hey there @Papayaman1000

Heh, yeah, for our Bubblegumshoe game we're basically saying "Here's the Google Map of the town we're using for inspiration, and we'll label it with anything that's different in our world as needed."

nitsua60

feature-request-google-maps togglable hex-layer

actually... feature-request-someone-in-the-room-build-me-a-script-for-this togglable hex-layer in Google Maps.

2

Ben

@nitsua60 I feel like halp-pls would be more to the point, and also allow for a more broad allowance

nitsua60

@Ben =)

PSA, related to conversation about bringing newer users into chat to workshop questions: please remember that while that's a fine thing to do, changes to questions should be transparent to mainsite(-only) users. See this meta for detailed thinking and advice.

Papayaman1000

@nitsua60 Hmm...

Shalvenay

12:19 AM

@Papayaman1000 how're things going?

Papayaman1000

@Shalvenay Ok, except CRUNCHYROLL KEEPS CRASHING

Shalvenay

online video is a fickle beast on the best of days :P

Miniman

@Papayaman1000 That sucks, Crunchyroll is normally really reliable.

Is your Flash up to date?

Shalvenay

(something I partially blame on Hollywood, partly on MPEG-LA and co although the rise of Ogg Theora and other such openly licensed codecs helps, and partly on Adobe :P)

Miniman

Also, do you use Adblock?

Papayaman1000

12:21 AM

At least it's not like Hulu, where despite my paying for the privilege and disabling my adblocker, it insists that I can't watch my shows due to blocking ads.

@Miniman Nope.

@Miniman Yep.

@Miniman Not on this site, despite being bumrushed by 13 ads per episode

Miniman

Welp, I got nothing.

Shalvenay

and yeah, the adblocking wars don't help matters either :/

Papayaman1000

@Shalvenay BTW, W3C is voting on something incredibly concerning.

Shalvenay

@Papayaman1000 yah, the HTML EME crap

Papayaman1000

Basically, DRM file extensions.

Miniman

12:22 AM

Maybe you need to be using adblock - I always do, and Crunchyroll has been completely reliable for me.

Papayaman1000

@Shalvenay Er, yeah that

Ben

@Papayaman1000 Which browser?

Papayaman1000

@Miniman I was until the issue began

@Ben Chrome, and the latest one at that

Miniman

@Papayaman1000 Ouch, then I really got nothing.

Well, except that I use firefox.

Ben

@Papayaman1000 That might be your problem.

Chrome is notorious for consuming RAM

Papayaman1000

12:23 AM

@Miniman I used to be a huge Firefox guy, but honestly I prefer Chrome nowadays

@Ben Yes, but Shockwave shouldn't crash every time it hits the mid-show ad.

Shalvenay

@Papayaman1000 I'm hoping something big happens on the legal front. right now, DRM is only viable because of the forces of law behind it. if those get tossed by the courts, then I suspect that it'll force some real soul-searching by Hollywood, if that's even possible that is

Miniman

@Papayaman1000 I definitely get that, but I don't like how chrome proliferates threads.

Papayaman1000

@Miniman I... huh? Tech guy does not understand tech statement.

Shalvenay

@Miniman threads or processes?

Papayaman1000

@Shalvenay Aren't we all?

@Shalvenay this

Miniman

12:25 AM

@Shalvenay Well, both.

Papayaman1000

@Miniman I still don't get "proliferating threads"

Shalvenay

@Papayaman1000 as in -- calls fork() a lot

Papayaman1000

@Shalvenay Ok.

Shalvenay

(well, that's for processes xD but you get the idea, and Chrome definitely does proliferate processes)

@Papayaman1000 -- mind hopping on Discord btw?

Papayaman1000

Fun pastime: "[personalwebsite.tld]/thiswillcrashyourbrowser" - a page with "ha" copy-pasted endlessly that calls fork() on itself on load.

Shalvenay

12:27 AM

(well, in 15-odd minutes as I have to eat now :)

Papayaman1000

@Shalvenay Not at all. I just got done arguing with my friend about My Hero Academia on there.

@Shalvenay [Same issue! Don't worry.]

Ben

@Papayaman1000 re-install/update shockwave? Possibly something to do with a bad update or something. Sounds like it's just not communicating properly anymore

Papayaman1000

@Ben Ehehe, well...

Miniman

@Papayaman1000 As shal pointed out, chrome runs a separate process for each tab and window, where firefox runs one process for everything. It's not as simple as processes = threads, but where you have a bunch of processes, you have a bunch of threads.

Papayaman1000

That's hard to do on Chrome OS.

Ben

12:30 AM

Ah

Papayaman1000

@Miniman Ah, ok

Ben

@Miniman I can understand that logic, but for a browser, that just seems like overkill

Miniman

It also means that Chrome crashes one tab/window at a time, where firefox, if something crashes, the whole thing crashes. A lot of people prefer chrome for that reason, but I like being able to kill the whole thing in one go.

Ben

@Miniman "Restore session" is good for that.

Papayaman1000

@Miniman There is a root process for it, but it's hard to tell which one it is

It usually consumes more resources than the mini-processes, but if a tab has a memory leak or something that's obviously not helpful

Miniman

12:33 AM

Huh, apparently Chrome also runs a separate process for any plugins or extensions, so your flash can crash without crashing the tab/window.

Did not know that.

Ben

Powerful, yet costly

Papayaman1000

@Miniman As I am well aware of, in between them just having their own iframes and the fact that every third ad on Crunchyroll presents me with "Shockwave Flash has stopped responding", which one click later, brings me (unsurprisingly) a crash message.

Miniman

@Papayaman1000 It's probably more apparent to a habitual chrome user :)

trogdor

@Miniman I have had that exact thing happen to me on chrome

Papayaman1000

@Miniman hhhyep. Especially one working on ChromeOS, where you do everything via web apps or PNaCl ports.

Because I want VLC and a GBA emulator on my netbook.

Now to figure out how to spin up the Java VM on ChromeOS so I can use Maptool again.

Miniman

12:38 AM

@Papayaman1000 These are both things no laptop of mine would be complete without XD

Ben

Speaking of caffeine....

Much better

Just realised... Something I haven't played in ages: KoM

Papayaman1000

@Ben Kingdom of Mana?

Ben

@Papayaman1000 Also yes.

Papayaman1000

@Ben Oh, then what were you referring to?

Ben

But in this instance, I was actually referring to King of Monsters lol

Papayaman1000

12:46 AM

Oh.

Well now I feel like a fake tabletop schmuck.

Miniman

@Papayaman1000 What's Kingdom of Mana?

Papayaman1000

@Miniman Fairly popular SNES JRPG

Or was that Secret of Mana?

Miniman

@Papayaman1000 You mean Secret of Mana?

Papayaman1000

One was a lesser-known sequel of the other, at any rate

So yeah, Kingdom of Mana was on... some system? I think it was the GBA or somesuch. Just a sec, let's try Google.

Miniman

Hmmm...there's a bunch of mana games, and some weird translation quirks, but I can't find an entry in the series called Kingdom of Mana.

Shalvenay

12:48 AM

@Papayaman1000 -- back from food

Papayaman1000

@Miniman I'm having a tough time too. Odd, I know it's at least a thing

@Shalvenay I'll be on Discord in just a sec

Ben

@Papayaman1000 [Insert adjective/noun] of Mana

Papayaman1000

@Ben Fuzzy Wambler of Mana

BESW

Sometimes it's spelt "manna," have you checked that?

Yup. That's a thing

12:53 AM

3

It's about the magic, not the magic sustenance flakes. I'm pretty sure it's just Mana.

Miniman

@nitsua60 Technically, that's spelt "Mahna Mahna".

(I may or may not have the song on my phone.)

nitsua60

@Miniman doot doo, de doo doo.

Ben

@BESW However I don't think it's actually along the same series... exactly

nitsua60

Someday I want to hear someone make a "Mahna Mahna," "De do do do, de da da da," and "Obladi-oblada" medley.

BESW

1:01 AM

@Papayaman1000 Because most people don't know "mana" is derived from Polynesian religion, but "manna" is a reasonably well-known Western religious concept, they get conflated a lot.

Neither of them are actually about magic in the sense Western pop culture applies it.

huh

kingdomofmanna.com

@Ben I saw that

Just thought it might be interesting for the rest of the room

BESW

1:15 AM

@Papayaman1000 Roughly speaking, mana is the power to be effective in a particular circumstance or situation. It has a supernatural element but that's an incomplete, inaccurate descriptor because of the cultural interpretation issue: the indigenous epistemologies involved consider everything in terms of qualities which Westerners see as intangible and non-quantifiable, so concepts as important as authority, power, and prestige are necessarily imbued with qualities that we'd call supernatural.

Mana is a quality that combines physical power, social influence, symbolic meaning, effective knowledge, and religious authority, with other concepts we don't really have good words for, to express a concept of fluid influence over particular elements of the world.

Its specific meaning is particular to the region in which it's used (eg, Hawaiian mana is distinctly different from Māori mana, and Māori mana has a contemporary meaning different from its traditional meaning that's only distinguishable through context).

Ben

Sooo... magic

BESW

Not in the way that word is used in pop culture, no.

Mana can be the authority of a person to bind groups into reciprocal obligations, or the effectiveness of a government to impose justice, or the personal qualities which makes people willing to follow a leader.

But, again, because the cultures involved look at the world very differently, those powers and authorities are also imbued with sacredness.

Mana describes both the secular and the sacred without distinction, because in those cultures the distinction is trivial, if it exists at all.

It's.... kind of like how some Americans consider the Constitution of the United States: as powerful and effective because it's a practical text but also because it's a sacred text.

It has power and meaning beyond its measurable reality.

Mana would describe either or both of those levels of effectiveness, depending on its context.

Ben

Soo... magic

(I should point out that I am actually being sarcastic)

(not just ignorant and/or oblivious)

BESW

1:32 AM

Ah.

Adeptus

1:50 AM

@Ben Generally, yes.

@BESW I assume you heard about lines from the Declaration of Independence being tweeted, and some people assuming it was complaining about the current government, not the King of the time?

BESW

Yes. I expect there'll be a number of PhDs built on that.

Yuuki

2:06 AM

I recall that some people recognized the text but still said it was a political to read it during Trump's presidency.

Despite the fact that NPR's been reading it on radio for the past 30-ish years, I think?

This was just their first year doing it on Twitter.

BESW

DRUID: I've never figured out how glowing brightly makes you HARDER to hit. GLOWING PALADIN: That's 'cos you're not a paladin. #dnd

Tweeted by UrsulaV on July 11, 2017 at 2:08 AM

Ben

@BESW also depends on how brightly you glow

Papayaman1000

@BESW @Ben AAUUGH MY EYES

Ben

@Papayaman1000 polaroid sunglasses

Papayaman1000

@Ben See also: the reason everyone hates me for trying to circumvent my Drow's sunlight sensitivity.

"But what if I commission a magic item an call 'em Spectacles of Umbrage"
"Yeah, I gue-- NO"

BESW

2:19 AM

> Brilliant Target. You have +2 to defend against attacks which require sight. If you defend with style you can inflict the dazzled aspect on your attacker instead of getting a boost. However you can be compelled for being ridiculously visible.

Shalvenay

@BESW three words: home on jamming

Papayaman1000

@BESW I want to see that buried somewhere in an otherwise-normal SRD

Ben

@BESW definitely going to impact stealth

Shalvenay

hey there @Yuuki @daze413 @T.J.L.

T.J.L.

'Ello.

daze413

2:30 AM

@Shalvenay heyoo!

So, hey, what's the term for the original question that other duplicate questions are linked to?

Ben

So you know, it's nice when you try to provide some advice, being all supportive, explain the issue and how they might be able to change the situation, perhaps add a bit of an explanation on how it works, then some pompous butt comes along and says nothing more than "lol, you're clearly an ignorant moron", then, after resisting the urge to punch them in the face, you ask nicely how they might be able to provide the correct information, they simply scoff and leave.

daze413

duplicatee?

Papayaman1000

@daze413 Duplicant?

Ben

I mean, sure I may not have a PhD in psychology or anything, but if you have some information that might point me in the right direction, it'd be nice to learn, rather than be told I'm simply an idiot.

Apologies for the misplaced rant

daze413

@Papayaman1000 that's an MtG card....

Ben

2:32 AM

@daze413 the original question?

As in, that's what I'd call it

Papayaman1000

@daze413 Doesn't surprise me. I'd, in fact, be rather surprised if it wasn't a creature type.

daze413

Also, thanks, google. I googled "Black Lotus" once, ONCE. and now when I search for a word MtG pops up

Papayaman1000

one of us
One Of Us
ONE OF US

@ B&CG.SE

[Except no because simply being aware of its existence is punishable by summary execution]

daze413

@Papayaman1000 I was meaning to join that stack. I suppose now is as good a time as any?

Papayaman1000

@daze413 Eh. It's mostly MtG questions, and even as an avid player of MtG I just can't bring myself to appreciate its existence.

Ben

2:36 AM

@Papayaman1000 MtG is to B&CG.se that D&D is to RP.se?

daze413

@Papayaman1000 I mostly just play Catan and the occasional Smash up! I stay away from MtG, as it's so expensive esp here

@Ben no, not in the same magnitude, actually

Papayaman1000

@Ben Except MORE SO

@daze413 I might actually use it if I couldn't more reliably answer literally any question I have that it could cover with CTRL+F on the BoardGameGeek forum archives

Ben

Well, not in volume, but just looking at the tag numbers, I would have to say moreso haha. Over 100x more questions on MtG than the next... which is bridge. Lol

Joel Harmon

@nitsua60 I misread that without the comma in there...

Yuuki

@BESW (Requires 16 INT)

Ben

2:41 AM

In gaming.SE it's Minecraft, with nearly 3x as many than the next (Minecraft at 8.5k, and Skyrim a 3k) and rpg.SE is 5e with almost 1k over pathefinder at 4000

daze413

@Papayaman1000 define: "it" in "I might actually use it"

Joel Harmon

@Papayaman1000 it's actually pretty easy to find which of the Chrome processes is the root one on Windows. In the task mangler, click the Applications tab. Right click on any Chrome window and hit "go to process".

Yuuki

@Ben I'm going to make a wild guess and say about 3/4s of those Minecraft questions are closed because they're basically crash log dumps.

Papayaman1000

@daze413 B&CG.SE

@JoelHarmon "Task mangler" sounds like an AvE-ism

Ben

@Yuuki Yeah. Did a bit of a thing on it a while ago.

3

A: Can we change the criteria for tag badges?

I'm having an issue following the "Depth vs Breadth" issue that @Robotnik mentioned at the beginning of the feed, but I'd like to use my dark-souls-2 contribution (Most questions and most answers; and I was recently awarded the bronze medal for the tag) and my dark-souls contribution (most answer...

daze413

2:44 AM

@Papayaman1000 ah, yeah, if there are reliable forums that can serve a stack's purpose, I imagine the tag usage on that game drops. Like here, since WotC took down its own forum and sage advice is... (yeah, why aren't people just asking the devs in sage advice vs here?) actually pretty good...

I got kinda digressed a lot there ^

Joel Harmon

@Adeptus Do you have a citation on that?

BESW

@JoelHarmon Google NPR tweet delcaration.

Take your pick of sources.

Joel Harmon

@Papayaman1000 I picked up that phrase somewhere back in the '90s

@BESW will do, thanks

BESW

I don't usually say "just Google it yourself" but for that kind of thing it's usually best to let the querent find the source they prefer.

T.J.L.

@daze413 Because Sage Advice is one guy, and even official WotC properties don't give it much heed. SA rulings are not considered rulings at all for AL play.

Ben

2:51 AM

@BESW "just Bing it"

BESW

@Ben I think I'm going to be binge Primeval again.

Papayaman1000

@Miniman TODAY in "wishing I was better with using SO's built-in statistical analyses tools": Comparison of dnd, adnd, adnd-1e, bdnd, dnd-2e, adnd-2e, dnd-3e, dnd-3.5e, dnd-4e, dnd-next, dnd-5e, and any other tag that contains the string "dnd"'s question count with the question count of every question that does not have any of those tags or system-agnostic.

BESW

@Papayaman1000 Ping @Miniman.

(hint: [*dnd*])

Papayaman1000

@BESW Are they the general go-to for SE statistical analysis?

[dnd]

BESW

Yes.

Use \ to call out characters as non-markdown.

Joel Harmon

2:53 AM

@Ben I think I kinda hate you a little right now :)

Papayaman1000

@BESW Yep.

Ben

@Miniman [sets 4 Mars djinni]

Papayaman1000

[*dnd*]

Miniman

@Papayaman1000 I'm away from my computer right now, I'll do it as soon as I get back.

@Ben A Meteor! Oh noes!

Papayaman1000

@Miniman ...I'm not sure if I should be confused by the idiomatic statement there, or trying to write a script that posts that message whenever somebody pings me for anything I'm proficient with while AFK.

BESW

2:56 AM

@Papayaman1000 A mobile device would be the reasonable assumption, so I'm going to go with technokinesis.

Papayaman1000

@BESW You mean people use this chat without SSHing into a headless RasPi using a tool to give them a live terminal feed of the room?

[Side note: Actually sounds like a fun project.]

halp-pls

Ben

@Papayaman1000 lol

Papayaman1000

@Ben See, I do pay attention to this chat! I just tend to think that replying to anything over .5h old without profuse apologizing for being so late to get back is in poor form.

BESW

> "Bad form," he cried jeeringly, and went content to the crocodile.

@Crai Hi!

daze413

3:13 AM

@Papayaman1000 "Your form lacks grace!" -Jade Empire

Adeptus

@Papayaman1000 I occasionally reply to messages a day or two old...

Ben

@Adeptus I'm not sure how I respond. I might get a ping on my phone, but that's usually at least an hour or two old by the time I get it anyway

(Going off the whole 2 times I've been pinged when I wasn't in the room)

Adeptus

[makes note to ping Ben randomly when he isn't here]

daze413

@Ben here, have a pity ping :) I'll edit this and ping you twice-in-one

Ben

Lol. Thanks for the support guys :D

daze413

3:25 AM

@Ben we're here for you <3

Ben

Speaking of chocolate...

Yowies are back.

Though they are nostalgia-crushingly disappointing.

BESW

We. Are. LIVE! Act I of Shadow Rift! #FateFilms http://twitch.tv/GameratiTV #twitch #twitchaffiliate https://t.co/mZF9wdcnzB

Tweeted by gamerati on July 11, 2017 at 3:02 AM

daze413

@Ben Huh. Did they just find a remote tribe or something?

Ben

@daze413 this emphasises my point.

BESW

Cleverman

Cleverman is a television drama program based on an original concept by Ryan Griffen. The series premiered on 1 June 2016 on SundanceTV in the United States and on ABC in Australia the following day. The six-part drama series reimagines several stories of the Aboriginal Dreamtime in a modern, superheroic context, and reflects on racism, asylum seekers and border protection. Its central story revolves around two estranged Gumbaynggirr brothers who are forced together to fight for their own survival when one of them is passed the mantle of the "Cleverman". Creatures from the Dreaming also feature...

Ben

3:29 AM

The previously Australian Kinder-surprise variant, still resembling and occasionally containing figures based upon the Australian Aboriginal myth, is now developed by an American company.

Point 2: the chocolate is somehow richer than it was before. Like, almost dark-chocolate quality. I could only eat half of one

BESW

And I'm told Pascall Pineapple Lumps are stopping production soon.

Ben

Point 3: the chocolate itself is in two visible halves, to expose that plastic container inside, to avoid chocking hazards

Miniman

@Ben Yeah, I was really excited when someone told me Yowies were back, only to have my hopes irredeemably crushed when I tried one.

Ben

Though, Point 4: the container itself is too large for any kind of child under the age of 7 to even fit in there mouth

Miniman

@Papayaman1000 Yo.

BESW

3:33 AM

@Ben That sounds like a dare.

Ben

And, point 5 - which is evidently the most important (though I can understand following the attempt to remove all chance of choking hazards) are no longer multi-part constructible figurines that they used to be.

Magician

@BESW "Next news comes from Guam, where an unidentified person has assaulted multiple children, all under the age of 7, trying and failing to stuff a Kinder Surprise egg into their mouths. More as the story develops."

7

Ben

@Magician Finding it hard to avoid starring this

Papayaman1000

@Miniman Nice. I'm sure users will be surprised that only ~16% of all RPG.SE questions could possibly be, in any way, referencing D&D,

Miniman

@BESW I always assumed those were terrible, then tried them on the Cadbury factory tour, and was pleasantly surprised.

@Papayaman1000 I certainly was!

BESW

3:37 AM

Papayaman1000

@BESW Is... is that a reversed meme?

@Miniman As was I!

Ben

In @Magicians defense, I was thinking the exact same thing, as you said it @BESW

@Papayaman1000 wait...

Miniman

@Papayaman1000 Oh, derp. I didn't exclude answers.

Magician

@BESW Needs a third panel with a KS egg stuffed into the open mouth.

Papayaman1000

@Miniman wait, what

BESW

3:38 AM

@Papayaman1000 Yes. Yes, it is.

@Magician I'm a little busy now that'll have to wait.

Miniman

Also, Pathfinder :(

@Papayaman1000 Sorry.

Papayaman1000

@Miniman NEVERMIND D&D is a massively overpowering force on the site.

Miniman

@Papayaman1000 Yeah, I thought something had to be wrong there.

Papayaman1000

@BESW Furthermore, considering the fact that the US has specific laws against any inedible object being "partially or totally embedded [...] in candy", I'm surprised that there are any kinder eggs being manufactured within nukin' distance.

BESW

@Papayaman1000 When I was a kid, I made do with plastic dinosaurs embedded in egg-shaped soap.

Papayaman1000

3:42 AM

Oddly, lollipops and freeze pops are still manufactured.

Ben

@Magician Tried... failed. paint hath defeated me in the single attempt I made (and after my awesome mousing skills last time too)

Papayaman1000

@BESW omnomnom

Ben

@Papayaman1000 Also yes

Not even kidding

I mean... remember Asbestos (not personally, but I've heard the stories)

Papayaman1000

do I get the ticket to hell now or

[Note to self: More comic sans. And cowbell. Cowbell sans.]

Magician

3:57 AM

This chat produces weirdest memes

Papayaman1000

Me: "I need x utility on my phone."
Also me: "...buuut that Outlook scan says I have exactly 255 apps. I physically cannot store any more."

@Magician Says the one who requested it.

Magician

Well, I am a part of this chat :D

BESW

....you're not wrong.

[rummages]

Papayaman1000

@BESW WHO MADE THIS, WHEN, AND WHY.

BESW

Papayaman1000

4:00 AM

@BESW (nat 1's on a check I say they're only allowed to make because I doubt they'll succeed)

Ben

@BESW I have convinced an in-hinged sorcerer to retrieve any kind of trigger-like device, with the promise that she can keep it, in an attempt to stop the bad guys from blowing me up.

@BESW See above

BESW

@Papayaman1000 I did, in late 2015, because it needed to happen.

Magician

@BESW Hm. The King in Yellow KS - 4 linked campaign books for Trail of Cthulhu. Night Forest KS - a... game. Of ritual and memory.

daze413

@BESW I'm saving this image on my phone

Joel Harmon

@Miniman 16% seems low for d&d. Doesn't Posts contain answers as well as questions?

Papayaman1000

4:02 AM

@JoelHarmon We adjusted. It's much higher.

Miniman

@JoelHarmon Read a bit further down XD

Joel Harmon

... and I just caught up on chat.

BESW

Nov 18 '15 at 4:53, by doppelgreener

We want YOU! to supply us with Cool RPG Stuff.

Papayaman1000

@BESW Then suddenly...

Miniman

@BESW Have you considered adding it to the community promotion ads list?

BESW

4:04 AM

It's not the right size, shape, or phrasing.

Magician

...it should be "The Yellow King." Well done, me.

BESW

Also the Cool Stuff pin died and has only recently clawed its way back to the land of the unliving.

Miniman

Fair enough - more generally, though, what do people think about the idea of an ad for this chatroom appearing as a network promotion ad?

I'm inclined to think increased visibility would be a good thing for new users.

BESW

I think it'd be more successful if we tied it to an actionable.

Miniman

Hmmm.

Ben

4:09 AM

That was about 5 minutes late. The firewall refused to let me laugh at "Humor and/or Comics"

"Usually always"

There's a phrase for you

Miniman

4:23 AM

I'm so bored...if anyone has any queries they want done, I could really use the distraction right now.

BESW

3

Ben

@Miniman KoM?

Miniman

@Ben Heh, sounds good.

Ben

Any other takers?

ping @GeneralChat

BESW

I'm not sure how much of the currently-present chat will readily know that "KoM?" is an invitation to participate in a beta-test game in the Back Room chat.

trogdor

4:32 AM

I would also point out that an entirely different KoM was talked about just a few hours ago

Ben

@BESW Well then... [ahem] I would like to invite any other members to join Miniman and myself to join in a game of "Long Live the King of Monsters" in The Back Room :)

trogdor

So that could also confuse someone

:P

And I would totally join but I happen to still be at work for an hour and a half longer

Miniman

@trogdor ...yeah...

Ben

so, in half an hour then?

trogdor

@Miniman I take it someone else is too

Wonder who that could be lol

BESW

4:42 AM

@Miniman I mean, there's always rolling up deadEarth PCs.

Miniman

@BESW Waters too deep to wade, I think.

Papayaman1000

system-agnostic posts that also have a system tag vs system-agnostic posts that have no system tags.

Miniman

Hmmm...that's a little problematic, since there's no way to identify system tags beyond compiling a list.

Papayaman1000

I don't think the system allows mining for data in a tag description

But I know literally nothing about it besides the fact that it might use SQL maybe

Miniman

@Papayaman1000 It does, actually! But searching for "game" or "system" aren't going to be any kind of accurate, I think.

Papayaman1000

4:52 AM

@Miniman True, but... eh

Hhhyep. I cannot find a single unifying term for system tags. Maybe that'd be a good cleanup project.

Adeptus

5:42 AM

@BESW Alas, the room is frozen... (to protect us from ourselves?)

trogdor

6:34 AM

lol

BESW

@Miniman So, wait. Does this mean something about the quantity of answers with regard to D&D vs non-D&D?

Miniman

@BESW Unlikely - answers have no tags, so they were all counted under the non-D&D category.

BESW

Ahah.

Is there some kind of search we could do for that, like.... oh, say, "number of answers with positive scores in D&D-like tags vs ditto in non-D&D-like tags"?

Miniman

Certainly.

@BESW Certainly.

Ben

Wow

Miniman

6:49 AM

Interestingly, non-D&D questions have a much higher answer-to-question ratio (~3:1 vs D&D's ~2:1).

Even more interestingly, that's still true (slightly less true) when you remove the positive score requirement.

I suspect system-agnostic is punching above its weight here.

Magician

@Miniman Probably because a lot of D&D questions amount to "how does this rule work", which has a single correct answer.

Ben

@Miniman More room for interpretation? I mean, D&D have twitter access to RAW/RAI authorities

Miniman

For anyone who's interested, answer to question ratio by tag.

@Ben There could be something to that - not because of twitter, but the D&D editions are roughly ordered by ambiguity.

BESW

7:35 AM

Does this mean that we might be able to say that we have more quality content per question in non-D&D questions?

@Miniman Thank you very much.

trogdor

7:48 AM

@nitsua60 you know, I was just thinking of this on the way to work way earlier today XD

doppelgreener

9:44 AM

Hey folks (maybe especially @BESW), an answer brought up the Al-Qadim setting, which was a vaguely Arabic setting for D&D 3.5e. It was written by a white guy rather than anyone from the region though, so that sets off warning signs for me, but I'm not sure how to begin with researching its racial sensitivity or etc. Does anyone know how I could look into that, or know much about how Al-Qadim is handled in terms of racial stereotyping etc?

Clink is funded with 55 hours to go

Damn the Man, Save the Music is >300% funded with 9 days to go :D

Misspent Youth is is 192% funded

BESW

10:02 AM

@doppelgreener Link?

doppelgreener

Cool RPG Stuff:
🤠 [Clink](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sigilstonepublishing/clink-an-rpg-of-mysterious-drifters-and-risky-coin "an RPG of Mysterious Drifters and Risky Coin Flips")
🎵 [Damn the Man, Save the Music](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hannahshaffer/damn-the-man-save-the-music "A roleplaying game about music, growing up, and dreaming big in a world that wants to make you small.")
🤘 [Misspent Youth](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robertbohl/misspent-youth-rpg-sell-out-with-me "Misspent Youth: Teenage rebellion in a fucked-up future! Play the only kids that can…

4

@BESW Whoops! Here:

Al-Qadim

Al-Qadim is an Arabian Nights-themed campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The setting was developed by Jeff Grubb for TSR, Inc., and was first released in 1992. Al-Qadim is set in the land of Zakhara, called the Land of Fate. Thematically, the land of Zakhara is a blend of the historical Arabian Empire, the stories of legend, and a wealth of Hollywood cinematic history. Zakhara is a peninsula on the continent of Faerûn in the world of Toril, the locale of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, although Al-Qadim is designed to stand on its own or be added to any existing...

BESW

@doppelgreener So, my first glance process is to look at the relephant entries on Writing With Color's master list of stereotypes and tropes (in this case, the Arab and Muslim entries) and compare that to descriptions of the setting and campaign.

doppelgreener

10:20 AM

@BESW omg. [bookmark] I didn't know if something like this existed!!!!!!!!! That's so good.

BESW

A major point in favor of WWC is that they do their best to get people who are part of the group being talked about to do most of the talking, and they are VERY clear when that's not happening, and that this is not ideal.

> While this paper has focused largely on first edition AD&D and D&D, the Orientalistfocus continued in second edition and beyond, with game campaigns like Al-Qadim, set in afantasy Arabian Nights-themed world. The medieval European focus of the AD&D and D&Dgames and the outlook of its creators ensured and reinforce Eurocentric and Orientalistdepictions of non-Western peoples and civilizations, exoticizing or debasing them as an “other”completely apart from the West.

> (source)

The comments on this post are mostly shallow/vile/clueless, but this comment is interesting; a person of Arabic extraction says the setting/campaign is not actively offensive to them, but is largely ordinary D&D re-skinned with Arabesques. Which is, of course, its own kind of erasure.

My second pass is to look and see if Bankeui or similar blags with a focus on roleplaying detox have mentioned it.

doppelgreener

@BESW That's more or less one of the two bad options I had in mind. One is "the game eats racial stereotyping for a racially stereotypical breakfast", the other is "it's pretty much still just D&D with surface-level changes like putting people in a desert and giving them more turbans" which is problematic in its own way.

BESW

Based on my quick perusal of descriptions, it feels like they tried to avoid most of the really negative stereotypes, but fell into positive stereotypes (no less harmful) and also treating their own normal as default normal.

There are some interesting notions, but it looks like they tried to have their cake and eat it too by, among other things, mashing pre-Muslim and Islamic concepts together without regard for how Islam radically changed the culture.

And then just smoothing it all over by filing off the serial numbers so the conflicts aren't conflicts because they're not actually the things they actually are.

doppelgreener

10:38 AM

Ok, so, not too bad in terms of offensiveness, but not really great at all in terms of diversity or representation because it... doesn't represent much.

I had my attention drawn to it by this answer which suggested it as a good way to escape Western fantasy and have a more inclusive tabletop game, among two other RPGs (Legend of the Five Rings, and Heroes of the Water Margin).

daze413

Lol. Just messed up a bounty message. '¯_(ツ)_/¯

doppelgreener

@daze413 If you like, I can refund it so you can repost it properly.

BESW

I wouldn't call L5R especially great on that count either.

doppelgreener

@BESW AFAIK it is very much Not Japan

BESW

Generally I'd suggest looking for games/settings created by people from the inspiring locations/cultures. Like Ki Khanga.

daze413

10:42 AM

@doppelgreener You can do that? You would do that? :D

doppelgreener

@daze413 I will.

daze413

Also, ok, so chat syntax doesnt work. Do I just not link the answer I wanna bounty? Or how do i go about that?

BESW

(Ooh, new gold badger.)

doppelgreener

@daze413 You had a [space-> ](...) in the link.

daze413

@BESW hit em in the eyes! I hear dem pelts is spensive!

doppelgreener

10:43 AM

But if that doesn't work, you could just say "For bla bla bla (example.com) which is great and stuff"

@daze413 I've refunded the bounty. Here's your original bounty message:

[PurpleVermont's simple and unusual answer ](rpg.stackexchange.com/a/69469/23064) worked for me and my group and is really underappreciated.

daze413

@doppelgreener ah... wellp, that's what I get for bountying things on my phone :/

So, it should work if I just remove the space...

doppelgreener

@daze413 Autocorrect spaces are helpful and totally don't mess up syntax at all!!!!!!11

BESW

@doppelgreener Bankeui on why they like L5R despite its problems.

daze413

Ah dammit.... nevermind. Just leave it like that, I deserve this...

Ugh... I think it was the ommission of "https://" all along...

doppelgreener

@daze413 I've refunded it. Here's your syntax:

[PurpleVermont's simple and unusual answer](rpg.stackexchange.com/a/69469/23064) worked for me and my group and is really underappreciated.

// I suggest using this though:

PurpleVermont's simple and unsual answer worked for me and my group and is really underappreciated. (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/a/69469/23064)

@daze413 might have been...

daze413

10:51 AM

I am... so embarrassed and grateful, @doppelgreener...

doppelgreener

@daze413 nobody knows this happened for sure..... 🕵🏽

Secespitus

I was just coming to chat to ask what happend here with the bounty message. Interesting, didn't know mods could refund bounties

daze413

@doppelgreener googling "daze413 messes up a bounty message not once, but twice" shows a transcript of this chat. Haha

2

Thanks again, @doppelgreener :D have to go now. Ttfn

doppelgreener

i got curious :D

BESW

11:31 AM

NO BAD IDEA NO HAVE THESE PEOPLE NEVER SEEN A SINGLE HORROR MOVIE http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/chicago-library-seeks-help-transcribing-magical-manuscripts-180963911/

Tweeted by premeesaurus on July 10, 2017 at 11:27 PM

4

nwp

punctuation is optional

I believe I gained proficiency in creating 5e characters.

2

BESW

This is a good question, but the title has so much unfulfilled promise.

doppelgreener

11:58 AM

@BESW hahaha

yeah it's a great question

i want to write paragraphs for it but my energy's being sucked up elsewhere

Transcript for