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12:48 AM
0
Q: What to do about a new user repeatedly posting poor questions?

linksassinIn the last few days I've noticed a new user has posted ~5 questions; most are of poor quality, showing little to no research. Some of the questions have been flagged as too broad or unclear, but not all. This user is a new DM, and it seems that the user is trying to have his campaign written by ...

 
 
2 hours later…
2:18 AM
@NautArch What do you think of my answer on the meta DavidCoffron linked?
 
 
2 hours later…
Ben
4:03 AM
Also - if you haven't seen it yet, go watch "What we do in the shadows"
 
By Taika Waititi, the director of Thor: Ragnarok.
 
yep
I liked it a lot
even before I knew he made it
heck before I knew anything about him at all
but now I am a big fan of his, he is pretty great XD
 
 
1 hour later…
5:22 AM
@nitsua60 While its on the chat, here is a much older discussion. (cc: @NautArch )
 
anyone have any interesting builds (multiclass or single-class) for a level 5 all-halfling one shot? No UA. We'll all basically be new recruits of a halfling criminal organization.
unrelated: so, uh, what's the process for suggestions to synonymize tags or merge them or whatever, after the initial meta post and discussion?
examples:
12
Q: The [story] tag should be merged with the [plot] tag

V2BlastThis issue of the confusion between the story and plot tags has been brought up twice in the past (years ago): How should the “story” and “plot” tags be used?, in November 2011 (eventually closed as a duplicate of the later post...) Do we need both [plot] and [story]?, in October 2014 Also semi...

brought it up in august, one person replied
nothing seems to have changed about the tags or their use
and, of course, the more recent metas:
9
Q: Should the [breath] tag be renamed to [breathing]?

V2BlastThe usage guidance for the breath tag currently says: For questions related to to the act of breathing or holding your breath. However, any time I see the tag, it takes me a second (or takes me hovering over the tag to see the usage guidance) to remember what it's meant to be used for. The ...

4
Q: Should the [astral] tag be renamed to [astral-plane]?

V2BlastThis seems like a pretty straightforward suggestion. The astral tag is currently used on just 4 questions, three of them about D&D 5e and one about 3.5e. In addition, all 4 questions are specifically about the Astral Plane. (There are quite a few other questions about the Astral Plane that don't...

but then those are sort of still actively being discussed
though at least in the former case the response seems pretty unanimously in favor
I suppose more generally there's the issue of people agreeing that something needs to be done but nobody doing it
e.g.
5
Q: What is the [teamwork] tag meant to be used for, and how is it different from [helping] or [party]?

V2BlastThe teamwork tag has no usage guidance or tag wiki, but it's currently being used on 11 questions about a variety of systems: 4 of them are tagged as being about Fate Core 1 is tagged for Fate and the Dresden Files RPG 1 is generically tagged as science fiction and GM techniques 1 is tagged as ...

4
Q: What is the [conflicts] tag meant for?

V2BlastThe conflicts tag seems to be getting used for a number of different questions. It primarily seems to be used to refer to situations in Fate/Fate Core, but is also tagged on a few questions about Polaris, Mouse Guard, Dogs in the Vineyard, and some other systems. However, the tag also seems to b...

 
 
2 hours later…
7:10 AM
@Carcer I get what you're saying but I wouldn't call AW, DW and Monsterhearts "a single product", effectively or otherwise. They're rather different games that just work on a rather similar set of core principles
 
They're related the way the d20 System constellation, or the Fate constellation, are related: sufficiently similar to be considered as using the same system.
D&D 3.5, Pathfinder, 4e, 13th Age, Stargate SG-1, Star Wars d20, Spycraft d20--much more than using the same core principles, they all use the same basic system.
Ditto the PbtA constellation.
 
 
2 hours later…
8:55 AM
@kviiri product probably the wrong word to use, as BESW puts it they are effectively using the same system
 
@Carcer Same system in some loose sense, I'd say. I mean, the rolls are alike, and each game uses the same root principles, but since those principles are largely about "honoring the genre" and each game is of a different genre, they come down to very different experiences.
 
as described to me they all seem to very obviously be using the same core mechanical system
I get that the narrative experience at the top level will vary dramatically depending on which one you're playing, but at the core they have the same mechanic
 
In a sense, but I don't think it makes the guide any worse.
Rolling systems are just an accessory, not a thing in itself. A more comprehensive guide could've maybe showcased something Diceless, something Fate, etc etc, but I don't think there's any inherent value in showing off in how many ways one can decide things with dice.
 
9:12 AM
it is ostensibly about roleplaying beyond D&D but it does an extremely poor job of illustrating the RPG landscape beyond D&D as everything else it talks about is also from a single family of games
that irks me. I'd have been cool if it was upfront and said "I want to recommend you this particular family of games"
I don't think anyone is going to successfully argue that into not annoying me but it's hardly the biggest deal in the world
 
Yeah, I get what you're saying, but I just guess I feel stressing out the importance of being in a particular system family or not doesn't matter that much to me.
I mean, for instance, I think AW is a very different game from DW and the similarities are pretty limited. You have moves, you have GM moves, you have 2d6 and the GM agenda, but after that AW and DW are so different that I can't really GM the latter despite being very comfortable with the former.
 
 
2 hours later…
11:02 AM
@V2Blast There's not really a formal process because we don't have to do it that often, but in general: diamond mods discuss it then act on it or choose not to. A status tag should be added once we choose one way or the other though. In order though: (1) slipped through the cracks, (2) busy checking before we do this, (3) has only been around for a couple of days, (4) and (5) have already been pruned and require no further action. (and [teamwork] had a tag wiki added.)
alternately, synonyms can be made by the community, which requires one person to propose the synonym on the tag and others to agree
 
Mmh. I shouldn't have read that Werewolf as a boss question. I had a similar situation in one of my parties and got a bit too eager to answer instead of doing productive stuff :>
 
 
1 hour later…
12:06 PM
homosexuality in FR question has me thinking; it seems like Sunite temples would be a great first stop for trying to find a local scene
Sune's whole thing basically being "love! passion! look fabulous!"
 
 
3 hours later…
2:58 PM
@nitsua60 I think it's just about spot-on - but it unfortunately opens things up to bad Q&As. We have a precedent for good questions because of bad answers, and this is a similar situation of should we close off what might be a good question because of the high degree of noise in both Qs and As.
 
3:34 PM
Almost three weeks in, my algorithm still shows no signs of results :(
Apparently the time complexity is pretty wild
 
@kviiri what's it about?
 
@Zachiel It has to do with Maximal Independent Sets
 
@kviiri I hoped it was RPG-related
 
@Zachiel I often attempt to apply graph theory to things I do :)
 
@kviiri Now... is rocket science RPG-related?
 
3:40 PM
@Zachiel The projectile is propelled by a simple rocket engine, so I'd say yes
Basically, given dimensions w and h, I'm trying to compute the set of possible w × h "tiles" that can appear in the MIS of the kth power of a 4-regular grid.
(sorry, I just had to say that. Speaking science babble makes me feel like I've actually made progress with the topic)
 
Whoof. Three weeks. And you've got logging somewhere in it so you know it's progressing and not caught in an infinite wait or execution loop.
 
hey there @ThatBrazilianGuy, welcome to the RPG.SE lair :)
hey as well @Zachiel and @Helwar
 
3:57 PM
Hey
 
@Shalvenay Hello
 
@Zachiel how're things going?
 
I'm just passing by, please ignore me :)
 
@Shalvenay a fellow PC in one of my games is trying to test their disguises with me. They rolled a 1, I rolled a 20 in Spot. Still she beats me by 7 more points. All is fine and funny!
On other shores, I've had a lenghty talk about how to build a PC that makes coherent choices and how starting with a build almost always prevents it.
 
Because the lower level character choices are basically investments in a later character, and until then the character isn't viable?
 
4:10 PM
@MikeQ because the PC is locked into choices that might go against psychological development caused by the roleplay and because optimizing calls for choices that have absolutely no sense in character (and are often carbon copies of other builds)
 
@Zachiel What system?
 
D&D 3.5
 
Yeah, I've noticed that 3.x/PF tends to put optimization and building at a higher priority than narrative or meaningful character interaction/development
Which is annoying, because bad build decisions are punished harder than in-game choices (i.e. being stuck with a nonviable character vs. making a mistake and learning from it)
 
@Zachiel LOL, nice
@MikeQ yeah. 3.x has too many pitfalls in char building to allow builds to be sanely driven from IC decisions; one solution is to expose parts of the charbuild metagame to the characters
but that's a whole another can of worms
 
Yep. When there's a mutually exclusive choice between 1. play a character that you find narratively interesting or 2. play an optimized mechanical role that the party needs, I think that the system has kind of failed
 
4:18 PM
@MikeQ exactly
@MikeQ it's doubly compounded when you are someone who likes to be a "swing", "bench", or "utility" player re: mechanical role
 
I'm currently in a pathfinder game where >50% of the game time is doing math and looking up rules, the rest is spent deliberating, and 0% is meaningful character-driven interaction
and i'm || this close to quitting
 
@MikeQ is it like, a megadungeon or equivalent? :o
 
@MikeQ A woman I know is trying to tell me that it's ok to make viable characters, or to better put it, it's ok to make characters viable. What's bad for roleplaying is trying to make them the stronger we can, for it preculdes us some very interesting choices. For example, maybe I shouldn't try to get both shock trooper and brutal combat (name?) and maybe use a feat or two to spice the character up with other things he can do.
 
@Zachiel I'm not quite sure what you are saying
@Shalvenay The GM plays strictly by the rules, and no more (no narrative descriptions, no relevance of character motives, no handwaving things for the sake of gameplay, etc.)
 
I'd like to play a very tall rogue, one with the Jotunbrud feat, but the feat is useless to the character. Same with a spellcaster that doesn't look like she's casting spells and would therefore waste a lot of feats on things like thematic spells: strands of hair. But in both cases, I don't think I have feats to spare if I want to be effective
 
4:26 PM
@MikeQ wow. that's a very Gamist approach
 
@Shalvenay Huh, I wish I knew about GNS theory before
 
4:42 PM
@MikeQ that's basically how I DM D&D 4e
which is why I'm the worse at demonstrating that D&D 4e is not just combat
(well, sometimes I handwave random encounters)
 
If your players enjoy it then you have nothing to sweat over
 
@MikeQ They enjoy it. Me, not so much.
I'd like to build a grandiose narrative with motivated characters and... no, that's too much of a sweat.
I still like to gawk at grandiose narratives and motivated characters played by other people, with a lot of envy about them.
 
Character-driven gameplay doesn't have to be melodramatic
I think, at minimum, narratively interesting characters should have some defining traits other than their mechanical aspects, and some motive other than staying alive
 
@MikeQ I think I'm bad at character-driven because I always play premade adventures. If I let them set their own goals, they would derail the intended arch of the premade adventure.
 
Two points:
1. Being a flexible GM often means finding ways to incorporate the characters' goals into the main story
2. Is it so bad if they derail from the premade adventure? If the players find a storyline that they find more interesting than the prewritten one, why not move the campaign in that direction?
 
4:50 PM
@MikeQ Ok so just "make a character that wants the city to come out in good shape" is a GM act in the right direction , I guess.
 
Could be. As I said before, it depends on what the table wants.
 
@MikeQ Because if they derail the adventure, why did I use the adventure? My aim is to have premade monsters and encounters so that I don't need to worry about creating them myself.
Also, I now wonder about how they will solve the presented challenges, if they do not follow that path, how will I know?
 
@Zachiel What I like to do is use the prewritten material as a source of inspiration, rather than a hard script
e.g. If the book says the players have to go west to find the crypt dungeon, but the players want to go east to the mayor's mansion, then okay, I'll move the content from the crypt dungeon into the mansion and reflavor it
However, if the players and GM are content to follow a railroad of combat encounters, then that's fine
 
@MikeQ that I call illusionism
@MikeQ And this, since the players know, is just partecipationism, instead of being the railroading that it would be if they weren't OK
The whole premise of the game is "I will run this adventure for you", they play because they're OK with the premise. But this is also why I sometimes get snarky remarks about "wow, I just solved my plot hook, my character could just walk away" when the adventure is not that tight. XD
I'm a little bit sadder for first time players who join my ongoing campaign when people leave.
 
@doppelspooker Cool cool
Anyway, getting back to my other question:
Anyone have any interesting 5e builds (multiclass or single-class) for a level 5 all-halfling one shot? No UA. We'll all basically be new recruits of a halfling criminal organization.
 
5:14 PM
@Zachiel Find ways to tie in the character's sideplot with the main plot
@Zachiel And if the prewritten story isn't interesting, then modify it. Either ask the players for input, or adjust the story based on character choices.
 
Oh I've just discovered Paizo's Adventure Paths, their stories look interesting enough. Mty players chose which one and now I'm running it.
 
Some are better than others. Which one are you running?
 
Curse of the Crimson Throne
 
Ah, right, ok, I think you mentioned this the other day.
 
I see the last two bboks are a bit of a hackfest but it's a thing APs do
 
5:22 PM
Crimson Throne's the AP with all the noble houses and royal succession and whatnot, yeah?
 
Well, only one noble house is related to the plot but I guess it's that one.
It's the one where the king is ill and all sorts of thing happen when he eventually dies.
(Without an heir, as the curse wants)
 
6:22 PM
@Glazius Yea, with a slightly smaller parameter it was 10 days so this is to be expected :(
I went to the store to get some groceries and was coerced to come to sauna by a group of mostly old friends I met by chance, but their block's stove was broken so it was only lukewarm :(
 
Ah. Getting cold out?
 
@Glazius Yea, but had the stove been working right that wouldn't be an issue
They have two saunas in their building for tenants to book. Apparently the one we had booked had been "broken" before but several tenants had figured out a workaround to make it heat up. Now the block's blocked (!) the stove controls, apparently believing said workaround is the reason it doesn't heat up.
 
6:40 PM
@kviiri Wario-charging-a-stove.gif
 
@Zachiel I wonder how many stoves I've charged
 
@kviiri just to be sure: I meant charging by running shoulder first into it.
 
7:03 PM
@Zachiel I had to google a bit of Wario stuff but yeah, I ultimately figured :D
 
I failed at finding an actual gif
 
 
3 hours later…
10:04 PM
hey there @Julix, welcome to the RPG.SE lair :)
 
Someone had made a "useful items to put in your haversack" list for Pathfinder quite a while ago and I found it useful - now I can't see it anywhere.
Hi Shalvenay
 
10:39 PM
@Julix On RPG.SE? Or somewhere else?
unrelated:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeRPGs/comments/9pgzno/drivethrurpg_halloween_freebies/
"On each of the following pages, there is a spooky Halloween image, like a Ghost or a Jack-o-Lantern, that adds a free item to your cart."
There are some products from DriveThruRPG, DriveThruComics, DriveThruFiction, RPGNow, DMsGuild, and Storyteller's Vault.
 
10:50 PM
I always get a pit in my stomach when I get near the end of writing these types of answers, because if I screwed up my memory of how probability works or typo'd on a formula somewhere I need to rewrite the whole darned thing, lol.
 
11:03 PM
D&D 5e:
What do you think about a Hill Dwarf Life/Forge Cleric with Str 15, Dex 8, Con 15, Int 8, Wis 15, Cha 8, heavy armoured and melee weapon?
Or Wood Elf Life Cleric, Str 8, Dex 15, Cons 15, Int 8, Wis 15, Cha 8, Light/Middle armoured and Finesse melee/range?
Or is bad have so high and low stats?
 
@CTWind We've got some folx in chat who'd be able to help check your numbers.
 

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