TRPG General Chat

Ben

12:00 AM

@Shalvenay That's the direction the comments took

trogdor

Oh I was about to say

Why not just edit the tag but I guess that's the problem XD

Ben

Apart from pathfinder, but that doesn't have a 5e

So I can understand if the point was to get the new user to understand being specific can be important; but the rollbacks seem... a bit much?

nvm - rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6867/…

Ben

12:17 AM

So I have a animal companion in Pathfinder - an eagle. At this point in time, it's more of a lookout than anything; I don't use it in combat or anything, purely due to the chance of losing it. This, however, makes it a deficit, because it is trained for combat (it actually has more hp than our healer)

MikeQ

A non-combat scout companion isn't bad. PF tends to reward preparation - use the companion to gain intel on upcoming hazards/environments/traps.

Ben

Apparently the extent I can do is "squawk if you see anything"

Which doesn't really provide much.

And potentially gives us away

Rubiksmoose

@Ben maybe try "squawk all the time unless you see something" ;)

MikeQ

12:34 AM

@Ben Depending on what sources are allowed, you may want to look into animal companion archetypes, if you want the birdie to specialize instead of using the default melee-combat-oriented progression

Ben

@MikeQ He does have some features, "trick, swoop," etc.

I can't remember them all off the top of my head

I vaguely recall some combat specific capability

@Rubiksmoose My dog does that.

linksassin

@Ben You may be interested in what qualifies as guessing the system. If the OP clarifies in comments the it is D&D 5e then it is fine to add the tag. 5e alone is not enough.

Ben

@linksassin Yeah. Personally, I mean, it's obvious: Tieflings don't exist outside of D&D and Pathfinder, and Pathfinder doesn't have a 5th ed. BUT the system is there for a reason. Doesn't matter what you *feel; moderation works because it exists.

linksassin

@Ben Exactly, the people against that policy have fairly logical arguments and are right 95% of the time. But when/if you are wrong it can cause a lot of issues. It's just better to get the OP to clarify.

I think I remember a comment from a mod or high rep user somewhere that said something like "I personally dislike this policy but since it came in we have had a lot less issues with mistagged questions." And I think that is the crux of the issue. It costs us nothing to not guess and we avoid the issues it can cause.

MikeQ

12:50 AM

Other systems have a 5e. Other systems have homebrew and third party publications. Tieflings are OGL and not WOTC trademarked. Thus, "5e tiefling" could appear in the context of another system.

Shalvenay

@MikeQ yes

someone could be porting tieflings to SR for all we know :P

Ben

@MikeQ Yeah. That was another consideration. Much less likely, but still, it's that 1%

MikeQ

And even if it was trademarked (e.g. illithid), there are homebrews and 3rd party publications that ignore the trademark anyhow

Ben

@linksassin And you know, Modded Minecraft over on Arqade is the same. I it's a support question; it's off-topic. No exceptions

nitsua60

@Rubiksmoose do you keep meta open in its own tab? That was pretty quick!

Shalvenay

1:01 AM

wb @nitsua60 -- will you be around Discord in a bit?

nitsua60

Not likely. I shouldn't have even taken the time to post that meta, I'm so backed up on grading. But I saw about a half-million rep disagreeing in front of the kids....

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 I do actually, but in this case it was pure luck to have been tinkering around when I saw your post :)

It is a pretty boring tab most of the time lol

(I removed my comment btw)

nitsua60

@Rubiksmoose There's a nice second "inbox" the topbar gains when you get a diamond that lights up on a couple of different events, including a new post on meta. It makes it pretty easy to keep up with a slow-moving, but often important, flow. I wish they had an option for any meta-capable users to opt in to that bit of GUI.

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 that would be nice! It's not like meta ever really has anything super hot that needs addressing, but I would still enjoy it. I was running a beta version of SOX a while back that implemented (or tried to) it, but it was always really wonky and they appear to have removed it.

nitsua60

Ask and ye shall receive!

2

A: Allow me to get notifications for new Meta posts, like mods do

I've made a userscript to do this. Just like mods do, this userscript adds a diamond to the topbar (sorry if it's not the right colour - I'm not a mod on any site!) that goes red if there has been a new question posted on the current site's meta. Once you click it, it will show the 5 most recent...

Rubiksmoose

1:08 AM

ooo! [...] Oh darn it points back to SOX. Maybe I'll dig back into the settings to see if I turned it off.

Ben

@MikeQ none of those archetypes are ringing any bells, unfortunately ;/

linksassin

@Rubiksmoose Maybe the solution is to run for moderator? :P

Rubiksmoose

@linksassin lol! I mean... you're not wrong.

That it is a solution, just not a very scalable one lol

linksassin

Will there be an election since SSD retired? Or do we have enough anyway?

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 oh wow, I'm silly. I do already have the diamond thingy. But it hasn't detected your post yet

nitsua60

1:13 AM

@linksassin That sounds like a great meta discussion =)

If mxy and greener and I felt one were necessary we'd ask SE and they'd almost certainly schedule an election. If we didn't and you-all didn't, they almost certainly won't. If we didn't but you-all expressed on meta that you did want one... we'd probably change our minds =)

linksassin

@nitsua60 Sure I can post it if people are interested. But I was more wondering if there was like a set policy on it. I haven't been around for an election before. Is there some quota per user base or something?

Rubiksmoose

My comment flags are being handled 2.36 minutes slower on average! We need an emergency mod election stat.

linksassin

@Rubiksmoose You would be one of the only people I would believe actually has that data.

MikeQ

@Rubiksmoose is already a demi-mod, and it seems they're more responsive than some of the actual mods

Rubiksmoose

@linksassin hahahaha. I'll take that as a compliment :)

@MikeQ that's not really fair because so much of what the mods do is behind the scenes. Since I'm just a power user that spends way too much time here, I get to do all the fun loud stuff that mods can't :)

nitsua60

1:18 AM

@linksassin No real policy, this meta I suggest (humbly) does a decent job of encapsulating how the most recent election came about.

Rubiksmoose

Our mods do great work, even moreso when you consider that its a ~~pretty~~ thankless volunteer position.

nitsua60

Thanks! (But it's not exactly thankless: we get a t-shirt. And a hat.)

trogdor

Lol

Rubiksmoose

aw snap a hat! Well in that case sign me up!

trogdor

Yeah we seem basically to have mod elections as we need them, no timetable but if literally everyone decides it's what we currently need it can happen pretty fast

I was in here last time and it sure seemed to happen quick from my perspective

nitsua60

1:24 AM

yeah, a month or two, most likely

trogdor

Yeah but like that's pretty fast

For a change like that

nitsua60

sooth. wisely, wisely.

linksassin

@nitsua60 That post is a goldmine of information. Do you feel there is an increased chance of burnout with one less mod?

trogdor

I don't personally think it's an issue as of yet unless the mods themselves are feeling pressure of extra work

That being said I don't look at a lot of posts most of the time

Rubiksmoose

@trogdor ^agreed

nitsua60

1:28 AM

@linksassin I don't know. I don't think so--our workload around here is pretty managable, and we're good about coordinating with each other when real life's getting heavy or light. (It seems to me, at least.)

trogdor

Though like Greener said in the above link a lot of mod activity is mostly invisible anyway

Rubiksmoose

I'm not honestly sure what overworked or insufficient moderation even looks like here. And for that I'm thankful!

nitsua60

To the extent I'm burning low it's not because SSD's retired, but because of personal things.

trogdor

Yeah I mean I would be conserned if one more of you retired but just one out of four of you doesn't seem so bad if the three of you don't feel pressured by it currently

Rubiksmoose

From what Mxy was saying in the community check-in, it also sounds like the community has picked up a bit of the moderation workload over past years so that possibly helps a s well

linksassin

1:31 AM

@trogdor I think that's a good view to take. Considering that was the cause for the previous elections. Leave it for now and then elect 2 the next time someone retires.

nitsua60

For me it's not so much the workload, it's having a couple of people to bounce things off of when I'm not sure about how to approach something, that makes me value it being more than, say, just two total.

trogdor

Three seemed like a fine enough number before honestly, not like I was gonna complain about four but three is probably fine

@nitsua60 yeah I can see that at least

nitsua60

I mean, we have easy contact with 100+ moderators from around the network which is helpful for technical things, but for the things we need to think about it seems to me much better to say "hey greener and mxy, does troggy seem to be acting strange? I'm thinking he might need a talking-to...." than to ask mods who don't know the site and prominent users.

trogdor

Lol

I don't have much contact with myx though

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 fwiw, I'm glad you opened the meta on that question specifically. There were lots of high rep users on both sides of that open/close battle and it never seemed like anything was changed or resolved. Seems like a great time to see how people feel in a meta so we can learn going forward.

trogdor

1:35 AM

XD

nitsua60

@trogdor Then we'll probably task him with pulling you aside and setting you straight. It'd be too personal with either greener or me =)

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 clearly this is doppel-troggy

trogdor

@nitsua60 actually if that was a thing I guess it would actually be a good idea :P

nitsua60

@Rubiksmoose Thanks--I feel pretty strongly that my role as a moderator is as much (if not more) to ensure that the community hashes out issues like this as it is to instruct people on what to do.

@trogdor (Just so everyone watching knows: it's totally not a thing.)

trogdor

Lol

When did SSD retire anyway?

Rubiksmoose

1:38 AM

@nitsua60 Yeah I like that a lot about the moderation here. And it seems like that is completely by design from all the docs on moderation theory I've read on SE/SO.

trogdor

Was it literally just now?

Rubiksmoose

I think hands-off moderation in a lot of ways is actually very difficult to achieve and maintain.

linksassin

72

Q: A thank-you to you all

I am retiring as a moderator this week. I made this decision with my heart a few months ago, made it with my head and let my fellow moderators know a few weeks ago, and now that the paperwork is sorted out, I'm letting the rest of the community know. The decision reaches back farther though, and...

trogdor

Ah ok just last month

nitsua60

@Rubiksmoose There's an inherent tension between "people elected us and trust us and we shouldn't be afraid of acting as an authority" and "we shouldn't trample the community," I think. I'm not sure I always find the "right" position on that spectrum--recognizing that "right" will be different for every situation and for every mood I'm in when I see it and for every observer of the action--but I hope that there are those around here who know they could catch me to say "hey, what're you about?"

V2Blast

1:49 AM

@nitsua60 what are you about?

:P

nitsua60

About two bills.

But I'm working on that =)

V2Blast

Haha

linksassin

@nitsua60 This is a great attitude. If a leader/moderator/captain isn't willing to listen when someone comes to them concerned about their behavior they are only doing part of their job. Thanks for being great.

nitsua60

Luckily, I make prominent mistakes most days of my professional life. So I have plenty of opportunity to practice! (Usually it's just an arithmetic mistake in front of the classroom. Occasionally it's... worse.)

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 actually, you mind if I link you a ~12min video?

linksassin

1:54 AM

@nitsua60 Haha, math on a whiteboard, we've all been there. In programming classes I'm a strong believer in never debug with an audience. It's not a good look.

nitsua60

@Shalvenay That's fine. Might get to it in an hour or so.

@linksassin In practice, though, I love co-programming.

linksassin

@nitsua60 Co-programming is good. A lecturer trying to live code while answering questions and then expecting that code to work... not great.

Shalvenay

@linksassin heheheh

nitsua60

Yeah, in front of a classroom we've got to know our limits. I can solve a differential equation on the fly in front of a class without embarrassing myself too badly. But coming up with an example DE for the kids to solve using the techniques we have at hand... on that I'll crash and burn more often than not.

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 yeah, it doesn't help that $random_diff_eq is not going to be very solvable 99.9% of the time

The Oracle

2:02 AM

4

Q: Should this question be open?

How I can I roll a number of non-digital dice to get a random number between 1 and 150? was closed by five users, then reopened by five other users. (Many of these first ten users are very high-rep and -experience users--you can see them all in the revision history.) Then it was closed by an el...

discussion specific-question close-reasons

nitsua60

@Shalvenay Srsly. Citation: the first time I tried to teach DE and come up with examples during class!

Alright--night, all.

Ben

2:19 AM

@nitsua60 Day, you

Ben

2:34 AM

OK... I have a date with a new girl tonight, and we're seeing endgame. I need to steel myself, because last time I was an emotional wreck all through the movie haha

@doppelgreener I'm at the supermarket and the only Omega 3 they have is "vita-gummies for kids" lol

Shalvenay

@Ben think feeesh XD

Ben

I avoid feeesh. Bad run in with a seafood salad earlier in my childhood haha

V2Blast

@Ben interesting first date choice

I just watched Endgame earlier today

Ben

@V2Blast Indeed. Her choice though, and I enjoyed it, so I won't argue haha

V2Blast

fair enough!

Ben

2:48 AM

How did you feel when [spoiler] did [spoiler] and [spoiler][spoiler] the [spoiler]?

linksassin

@Ben Yeah can't say it's something I would see on a first date. What if she talks in it or something? Could ruin the entire relationship before it starts

V2Blast

@Ben oh man, so [spoiler]

linksassin

@V2Blast TBH [spoiler] was a much bigger deal than [spoiler]. But I really wish [spoiler] had [spoiler] before [spoiler][spoiler]

V2Blast

@linksassin but what about [spoiler]? That was pretty [spoiler] if I do say so myself

trogdor

Good lord the spoilers

Now I can't watch the movie, too many people said spoiler

XD

linksassin

3:01 AM

@trogdor [spoiler alert] I really wasn't expecting Voldemort to steal the Gauntlet...

trogdor

Lol

Or for Thanos to say rosebud

linksassin

Must less give it to Sauron.

Then when Bumblebee rocks up to fight the Hulk. Damn that was a cool fight though.

trogdor

And then they all stop fighting because Paul Rever warns them the British are coming

Glazius

@linksassin Oh, you didn't watch the stinger scene? That wasn't actually Sauron. It was Mickey, pretending to be Xehanort, pretending to be Maleficent, pretending to be Sauron. Kingdom Hearts 4 is gonna be off the chain.

V2Blast

15

Q: How to handle "assuming this Jeremy Crawford ruling to be true"-related questions?

Since WoTC have officially stated that Jeremy Crawford's twitter posts are no longer official and that published sage advice is still just guidance, I've seen a couple of recent questions pop up utilizing those tweets as assumptions and asking for including their use. Do we just treat these as h...

discussion specific-question dnd-5e

I totally misunderstood this meta

At least one of the questions in the post - the second one:

-3

Q: If you subscribe to JC's ruling, are enemies attacked by a conjured creature considered "targets" of the conjuration spell?

According to Jeremy Crawford the "Dragon's Breath" spell also targets the creatures hit by the exhalation, and Green-Flame Blade targets two creatures. My understanding is that according to JC, any creature "affected" by a spell is considered "targeted" by it. Suppose I subscribe to JC's ruling...

dnd-5e spells targeting summoning

The asker there originally just thought the thing stated in Crawford's tweet was a rule, and was only later edited to ask "Assuming Crawford's tweet were a rule, [what's the answer to this question]?" That led to my misreading of the meta post, so my answer was totally off-base

trogdor

3:08 AM

Why does anyone take what he says via Twitter as gospel? I just don't get it

V2Blast

deleted it for now

trogdor

It isn't so much that he is saying something but that he does it by a medium of oppinion without any oversight from other people making rules for the game

:/

Ben

yesterday, by Ben

All JC tweets now redirect to dandwiki

V2Blast

@trogdor well, he is the lead rules designer - but their intent isn't always reflected in what the rules actually state

lol

trogdor

@V2Blast yeah but lead doesn't mean he should do everything or finalize everything by himself you know?

It isn't that it's him saying or that I don't like what he's saying

It basically boils down to Twitter not being a suitable vector for these decisions

V2Blast

3:12 AM

@trogdor well, it is his own personal Twitter feed. and whatever "official rulings" count for in general, I'm glad the SAC states his tweets are no longer considered official rulings

Ben

All in all though, I highly [spoiler] this movie.

trogdor

@V2Blast yes that makes me glad too

V2Blast

@Ben Spoilers! How could you reveal that it was a movie?!

:P

I rate it [spoiler] [spoiler]s [spoiler].

Ben

@V2Blast Gasp! My bad! I'm so sorry everyone D:

user15026

@V2Blast what oh no not a moving picture damn it now I can't watch it I know too much

Ben

3:28 AM

Well, you can, you'll just see it coming.

Hot RPG Questions

5

Q: Can a Tiefling have more than two horns?

I was trying to figure out if a tiefling could have more than two horns. The PHB doesn't specifically state how many horns they can have and most depictions just have two so I wasn't sure if that was the max. Can a Tiefling have more than two horns or is two the max?

dnd-5e character-creation tiefling

user15026

@Ben yeah but is it still any good this way?

Ben

Well I mean... I live in Australia. So you can't trust anything I have to say XD

user15026

Oh right, this is very true, you are not to be trusted because you are not real! So...i guess I have to decide for myself.

BESW

You can still close your eyes, that way you won't see it coming.

Ben

3:35 AM

@Ash Every citizen of Australia is a bot

user15026

@BESW this is true!

user15026

@Ben oh my poor brain

Ben

I think that is one of the more famous Reddit threads haha

user15026

I wonder if all the comments are that

Ben

I think so. Any comments that aren't are just "[deleted]"

Even the replies are the same haha.

I daresay this would be carefully moderated hahaha

kviiri

5:33 AM

@V2Blast I think there's an additional issue in that the question is literally asking us to derive a JC opinion from a source that isn't JC (the source being interpretation of an unrelated JC tweet)

That's wrong on too many levels for me to accept

BESW

5:47 AM

@kviiri It's tweetles all the way down.

V2Blast

@kviiri yep

trogdor

6:37 AM

Tweets, I hate those filthy bandits (sorry dumb video game joke)

trogdor

6:55 AM

(oh it's called offworld trading company that was it)

V2Blast

7:28 AM

A bunch of D&D 5e books are on sale for cheap on Amazon, for those who want physical books: https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/bjugzv/the_players_handbook_is_like_20_on_amazon_right/
The Starter Set is $8.34. All 3 core books are a little over $20, as is the Art and Arcana book.

BESW

BREAKING: By popular demand, #FolkloreJam's deadline has officially been extended until May 19th!!! TWO WHOLE FRESH WEEKS to make your spooky, godly and cryptic #rpg games come to life in the jam 🌺✨💀. Take care and have fun, everyone! 💕💕💕 #gamedev https://itch.io/jam/folklorejam

Tweeted by SwordsnFlowers on May 2, 2019 at 8:45 AM

Did you know I'm the official cultural consultant for the Big Bad Game Jam about folklore and mythology? If you submit a game and you have questions about how to research or present cultural content in your material, hit me up—I'm here to help you! https://twitter.com/SeanNittner/status/1117090528087068672

Tweeted by LulaVampiro on May 2, 2019 at 9:22 PM

Ben

OK... Wow

kviiri

7:45 AM

It's really important they specify the mice are from Mars so that no one'd confuse them with the Biker Mice from Venus.

BESW

Well, yes, because one expects the Biker Mice from Venus to be rocking the bare midriff look.

Ben

Secondly Wow

BESW

Also I am shocked that Google doesn't seem to have anything for me re: biker mice from Venus.

Ben

There was this... The Biker Mice from Earth

Apr 27 '17 at 22:16, by Ben

BESW

As promised. #BOEP met its goal. Here is the game the #BigBadJam inspired me to make. Play as a group of Cherokee trying to save the world from Sun's wrath. “And they decided...that they would kill the Sun.” ~Freeman Owle https://casskdesigns.itch.io/sun-daughter #ttrpg

Tweeted by casskdesigns on May 2, 2019 at 9:21 PM in reply to casskdesigns

BESW

8:28 AM

What's your number one DM Tip? Mine is Have the players help create the world and story around them while playing, it allows for everyone to be equally invested at the table.

Tweeted by MystyVander on May 2, 2019 at 11:50 AM

@jimlikesgames 3. Paint the scene and leading questions from @GauntletRPG 's Jason Cordova. "What in this room tells you that it is inhabitated by the dead?" is such a powerful cue to the players' imagination, and it gets people involved & invested in a scene. Thanks a lot for this!

Tweeted by SabineV5 on May 2, 2019 at 10:00 PM in reply to SabineV5

trogdor

@BESW how dare you ask the question and preemptively steal my answer :P

Carcer

I'm having the tremendous urge to answer that question about chef knives in AD&D with a suitable variation of the Katanas are Underpowered in d20 copypasta

BESW

10:34 AM

@nirvenes The Truth About Eternity. It's about digital tombs and the future of ancestor worship explored through relationships of digitized ancestors and their descendants. Here it is! https://alexandria.dk/data?scenarie=5683

Tweeted by cysdavis on May 2, 2019 at 6:23 PM in reply to nirvenes

Hot RPG Questions

11:30 AM

4

Q: If you cast Reincarnation on a body, can you still cast Speak with Dead on it?

In this scenario a person that has been dead for less than 10 days is Reincarnated. Their old body is still there. Someone then casts Speak with Dead on the body. Question: Would the Speak with Dead spell work?

Transcript for