TRPG General Chat

12:28 AM

Bell Songs is a (GMless) game of animal adventure in the vein of Redwall, Mouse Guard, or Watership Down. You will need: 1-3 friends, some six sided dice, and something to write with.

user15026

@BESW oooh that sounds like it could be fun

BESW

@Ash It's only 20 pages! Would you like to be our expert on it and help guide us to play it some time?

user15026

12:43 AM

@BESW aaaaaaaokay yes in the spirit of audaciousness

user15026

If I can hold a core activity in my house I can also do this.

BESW

I'll read it too! It's like how Troggy's the GSS expert.

user15026

I will need to acquire a copy when I can.

user15026

Remind me to do so?

BESW

I wiiilllll.

trogdor

12:45 AM

@BESW I'll accept expert instead of supreme authority I guess

BESW

Nah, you were Supreme Authority for D&D 4e.

user15026

So gracious of you Hahaha

trogdor

@BESW oh that's kinda a good point

Lol

BESW

Also it tells us to read the text together, but I think it'll be good to have at least one person who's studied it beforehand.

> You must also take care of your friends. If the game pushes into content that is difficult, or content that you can’t contend with, you need to help each other. That might look like processing the things you are feeling together, taking time away from the game to resettle yourselves, or eliding certain content that is too much for someone to handle.

trogdor

That's generally a good idea

user15026

12:48 AM

@BESW yes good

BESW

I'm so happy more and more games are like "hey, friends before fiction, yo."

trogdor

Yeah it's surprising how that's changed recently

I remember when no games we were looking at had anything to say on the subject

BESW

I went on a little dive into my copies of 20th century games to see if/how they addressed the need for gaming safety, and almost everything I found put the onus on the GM alone, if there was anything at all. And it was almost always focused on the game, not the table.

All Flesh Must Be Eaten is the only one that made it clear everyone at the table shares responsibility for everyone having fun, but that's 1999 so it barely squeaks in under my artificial bar.

(And that was tucked in at the last page of a chapter toward the end of the book which the introduction told players not to read. So. [waves world's tiniest pompom])

trogdor

Lol

That's kinda counter productive

"Don't read this:, by the way you should help your freinds be comfortable"

BESW

Yeah, it was in the "GM only" chapters.

So they still put the onus on the GM to communicate the expectations.

(And, by inference, to enforce it.)

[blink] Completely unrelated, but is anybody here familiar with the original MTV Aeon Flux shorts?

trogdor

12:58 AM

@BESW only a little

I think I saw one or two of them, at some point

BESW

I just had a brainwave that it might be a decent place to start for a Great Ork Gods Minus Orks remix.

trogdor

Plus that was,... A while ago

I mean, MTV alone

Just as a thing that still existed

XD

I can barely remember that

BESW

Yeah, it was 1991-1995. The creator made it partly because he was frustrated with the child-friendly limitations on the other project he was working... Rugrats.

trogdor

Wow I didn't know that bit

BESW

Thought it was apparently less "I want to make sexy cartoons" and more "I want to do actiony stuff with characters that have long limbs."

trogdor

1:07 AM

Lol

It was rather risque for it's time

BESW

Oh, it's still pretty risque for today.

trogdor

Yeah

But today stuff like Game of Thrones exists

BESW

The creator says it was partly to get people to watch something that would be way too artsy for a popular audience today, and partly because he was inspired by Egon Schiele.

trogdor

Which, I don't think anyone would have allowed even just in the 90s

Egon Schiele?

BESW

GoT doesn't have the casual bondage wear or egalitarian queerness of Aeon Flux either.

trogdor

1:10 AM

That's true

BESW

Austrian painter from the 1910s. Studied under Klimt, early Expressionist. Lots of twisted-up skinny nude bodies.

trogdor

But it also has a lot of sex and violence and as a live action thing to boot

Ah

Wow ok then

But anyway, yeah I was extremely surprised to see Aeon Flux

user15026

@BESW curious headtilt

trogdor

I didn't fully understand most of the asthetics at the time, (Maybe I still don't but wtv) but it was extremely different at the very least that was obvious

BESW

@Ash Ummm. Probably not a conversation to have in detail here.

trogdor

1:14 AM

There's a lot of stuff that's probably not appropriate for chat in Aeon Flux as I recall

user15026

@BESW I figured, I will do my own research

BESW

Dropping some pictures into your Discord.

Glazius

@BESW So, fun story, I dunno if you've done the math, but the breakdown for Blades success at numbers of dice pretty well tracks the breakdown for PbtA success at varying bonuses, assuming 2 Blades dice equals a PbtA =0.

BESW

1:31 AM

@Glazius Oh? That seems like it'd make sense, Blades is a PbtA drift.

Glazius

Yeah. Fails trend a little lower, success a little higher, but in Blades success often comes pre-compromised.

The crit proportion is all off, but Blades crits are always on so it makes sense for them to be rarer than PbtA crits, which you need to spend advances on unlocking on a move-by-move basis, so that payoff shows up more.

BESW

Interesting. I'm not sure why you tagged me on it, though?

Glazius

Well, you were talking about another Blades drift.

...mini? Not sure what to call it.

BESW

Ah. It calls itself Micro Blades.

I haven't played Blades myself, but something @doppelgreener might run a game for me. I've also heard good things about the manual design, which is of professional interest to me.

But I've found the PbtA really doesn't work for me, personally, and I don't expect Blades to 180 that for me.

Still, I know a lot of people here like them so I share cool-looking stuff when I find it.

nitsua60

1:49 AM

@BESW Oh, yes. Strong memories of MTV's Oddities. Aeon Flux, The Maxx, was the original run of Beavis & Butthead folded into those?

Something about a middle school girl. Daria?

BESW

@nitsua60 I'm thinking about using the early first-season shorts (the ones where Aeon almost never spoke, and might die in any given episode) as inspiration for an Orkless retool of Great Ork Gods.

Rubiksmoose

@BESW I keep forgetting you aren't a big PbtA fan.

nitsua60

@BESW Wow. That could totally work. I don't know what the gods would be, but that's mostly because--despite seeing every Aeon--I have absolutely no idea what the heck was going on.

(Though even at that impressionable age I knew that a 6" waistline isn't actually a good thing.)

BESW

@nitsua60 I'd add the gods in, there's no direct translation. It'd be its own setting, but heavily inspired by Aeon Flux.

Hot RPG Questions

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Q: Would a Ghostwise Halfling Druid be able to use silent speech while wild shaped?

A player in the campaign I am preparing to run has asked me if he could play a Ghostwise Halfling from Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide so he could mitigate not being able to communicate with the party while in wild shape thus allowing him to spend more time as a beast. My initial decision is no b...

nitsua60

1:53 AM

@BESW I've never gone an done a rewatch as an adult. Is there a coherent narrative, or is it just as impressionistic as I remember?

BESW

@Rubiksmoose I totally get why people like it! I admire it for accomplishing its goals so well! But it just gets in the way of my playstyle because its goals are to encourage a table experience I already accomplish without rules.

@nitsua60 You might get a little more coherence out of the last season.

It's most an aesthetic and character show. The stories are trappings for exploring character and scene.

So they don't worry about knotting the stories together, each early episode is a self-contained riff on the same concept, and each later season is a self-contained riff on the same concept.

trogdor

I didn't even realize there were "seasons" to it

BESW

[rummages] I'm going off memory here, let me grab details.

Shalvenay

hey there @Glazius

Glazius

Hey hi.

Rubiksmoose

2:01 AM

@BESW Makes sense!

Shalvenay

@Glazius how're things going?

BESW

First season: six unrelated very short independent episodes. Aeon Flux dies in more than one of them.
Second season: five longer independent episodes, Aeon dies in each.
Third season: ten longer mostly-connected episodes, in which Aeon doesn't die much at all!

Ignore the movie.

Shalvenay

also, hey as well @linksassin

linksassin

@Shalvenay Hey, how's it going?

Shalvenay

@linksassin alright here, as for you?

linksassin

2:04 AM

@Shalvenay Not too bad. Long weekend starting tomorrow makes things better.

Shalvenay

@linksassin ah, nice

Glazius

Work's keeping me pretty day busy. I have three answers to go before I get silver in Dungeon World and I'm trying to think of something that might be a good self-answer. Still no other takers for a Fellowship demo, and I'd really like at least one more because that game loves its bonds, bonds really come alive at three players, and while you can technically bond with the Overlord you generally don't want to?

You know, the usual.

Shalvenay

@Glazius wow, no other takers than ACM and I?

Glazius

Not that I've seen.

Shalvenay

....that's strange. it sounds like either people are being super-not-commital about adding something to their schedule due to time-of-year (finals, summer vacations, etc), or really apprehensive about trying a new system?

Glazius

2:08 AM

It's not strange at all in my experience. Or maybe I'm just a terrible pitchman because I get excited about really weird things.

Shalvenay

@Glazius hm

@Glazius I wonder if you should go about getting your advert (re)pinned to the starboard btw?

trogdor

@BESW yeah, already done

@BESW wait so there was a whole season where Aeon barely dies? I must not have seen that at all

BESW

@trogdor yeah, I think I showed you a couple of the first-season shorts.

Glazius

@Shalvenay tinyurl.com/FellowshipPlaybooks <-- demo playbooks for Fellowship, a PbtA, game about communities and the heroes (and tagalong siblings, experimental automobiles, big lugs, little guys, and delicious packed lunches) they send to stop the Overlord. Running a demo to celebrate the second edition and looking for players (am in -5 GMT)

trogdor

@BESW I believe you did

Shalvenay

2:22 AM

@BESW you mind pinning @Glazius' Fellowship advert to the starboard, or would I have to ask @nitsua60 for that?

nitsua60

@Glazius I suggest you edit it to lead with "running a demo of...." As is it just looks on the starboard like you're pointing out a resource that people might like.

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 hrm, you may have to edit it for him since it's well outside the normal chat edit window

Glazius

Aw, crumbs, yeah.

nitsua60

@Glazius if you put up a wording you like better I'll pin that and delete the old one.

Glazius

How many characters are in the critical part? Gonna have to sharpen up my nonexistent twitter game.

Seeking players for a demo of Fellowship (am in -5 GMT), playbooks in the link. It's a PbtA game about an Overlord, threatened communities, and the heroes (and tagalong siblings, experimental automobiles, big lugs, little guys, and delicious packed lunches) that protect them. Playbooks available at tinyurl.com/FellowshipPlaybooks

Shalvenay

2:35 AM

@Glazius fix your link, needs https://

Hot RPG Questions

2:53 AM

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Q: How can a dance-off be run in 5e as a combat encounter?

My players will be soon be encountering a fight that will unfold as a dance-off against a group of magical dancers. Ideally, I would like to be able to run the encounter as something that allows the player roles to be somewhat reversed in combat, where the tanks who normally deal out the damage w...

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BESW

Kickstarter: Sleepaway: A Tabletop RPG. A group of camp counselors protects their wards from a nightmare monster in this horror RPG.

Glazius

Right.

Seeking players for a demo of Fellowship (am in -5 GMT), playbooks in the link. It's a PbtA game about an Overlord, threatened communities, and the heroes (and tagalong siblings, experimental automobiles, big lugs, little guys, and delicious packed lunches) that protect them. Playbooks available at https://tinyurl.com/FellowshipPlaybooks

8

Yeah, that works.

linksassin

@A.B. Looks like @Glazius is looking for some players. I feel like two of our pinned comments should be connected.

Glazius

I think they were mostly GURPS, though.

Shalvenay

3:30 AM

hey there @JohnP

JohnP

Sup

Shalvenay

@JohnP not a ton, as for you?

JohnP

Just putting the kids to bed. Son #1's foot looks a lot better, hopefully not broken.

Shalvenay

@JohnP good to hear.

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Q: Does the Artificer's Many-Handed Pouch infusion enable unlimited infinite-range cross-planar communication?

One of the available infusions available to the Unearthed Arcana Artificer is called the Many-Handed Pouch, which links up to 5 pouches to the same extra-dimensional space (emphasis added): The infused pouches all share one interdimensional space of the same capacity as a single pouch. Thus, ...

dnd-5e magic-items

Shalvenay

3:38 AM

@JohnP did you get to read the transcript I linked btw?

JohnP

I have not, yet. Today was hectic, to.orrow I have a bunch of contractors coming to the house may not be able to read it until the weekend

Shalvenay

@JohnP OK. as I said, just ping me here or in the Not-A-Bar if you have questions/comments about it :)

JohnP

For sure.

Ben

4:45 AM

Afternoon all

linksassin

@Ben G'day

Ben

Just had a neurology scan. EEG I think it is?

Scanning for epilepsy stuff. They glue nodes to your head, then make you (voluntarily) hyperventilate, then flash a really bright light in your face haha

How is everyone else doing

user15026

Oooh thats a neurology thing I've not had done

linksassin

@Ben Sounds like a party....

Miniman

Well, having watched a relative go through it, I'll say that every other way of finding out that you have epilepsy really sucks.

Ranging from the absolutely catastrophic "passing out while driving" to the still potentially extremely dangerous "momentary blackout while standing up".

Ben

4:55 AM

Yeah. That's never fun

I started experiencing that sort of thing... My vision and hearing would vanish, but I'd still be aware of myself. Motor skills would still be fine, etc.

linksassin

@Miniman Very true. As much as medical tests can suck. Not having them can be far far worse.

Ben

I'd just have to stop in the middle of wherever I was walking until I could see again.

trogdor

@Ben ah I had a similar experience as a kid, but instead of hyperventilating I had to stand still, and instead of lights it was horn noises

Not an epilepsy test but a brainscan

The horn and train and boat noises were, I think, supposed to o calm me down? Or help me stay still? I don't know what they were thinking there

Or Maybe they needed to light parts of my brain up with sounds during the scan, that could be it actually

Ben

Interesting

trogdor

I've mentioned it here before I think, but some Quack doctor thought I had brain cancer for some reason (I didn't)

So I had to go to the Cleavland Clinic for tests

Ben

5:06 AM

Now that sounds like fun...

trogdor

I mean, I didn't think it was so bad at the time, I'm not sure my parents told me it was to check for that

The only thing I really remember is the big scan machine I had to lay still in, and that I was having trouble with the staying still part

And my parents telling me sometime later about that doctor turning out to be kinda crazy (he worked here not in Cleavland)

V2Blast

@BESW I am intrigued

BESW

@V2Blast I just looked over the mechanics and I like a lot of it!

trogdor

You've already read it?

XD

V2Blast

BESW confirmed speed-reading robot

trogdor

5:16 AM

It's only like 30 pages or so I think

You don't have to be a speed reader to have read it already

BESW

Twenty!

trogdor

Oh even less wow

I still haven't gotten through all of Sundown yet

BESW

More like 17 pages of actual text-to-read.

trogdor

There's a ton to read in it

I got through 50 pages or so the first day and I had to stop

And then I didn't force myself to continue again, which I should probably do

kviiri

6:03 AM

@Carcer Sort of, but arguably keeping some bad answers visible for the sake of making an example ("heads on pikes", if you will!) can have a positive effect on both answer quality and the information levied on the casual user of the site

"Oh, so that's how this problem should NOT be solved"

V2Blast

7:11 AM

A reddit thread in /r/dndnext (so obviously the answers are specific to 5e, but it's a good discussion prompt): What was something that happened in a game that made you question your IRL morals?

BESW

[blink] There are games specifically designed for that.

Derpy

8:12 AM

@V2Blast as someone said, they should really learn how to clean up metadata when building a "teaser" site ^_^' I wonder if the announcement was made before E3 just because fans already noticed that the teaser site with just a "3" on it had to be about BG3 (the video used for the logo had metadata that said Baldurs Gate :P )

The Oracle

3

Q: Is it appropriate to edit an answer just for tone?

When reading an answer to a recent question (here, for reference), I felt that the content of the question was good, but the tone (and commentary) of the question seemed negative to verge on personal criticism. I didn't want to flag the answer for deletion, because it makes some good points. But ...

discussion answers editing

doppelgreener

8:50 AM

@BESW I keep forgetting to read it! I'll get the book out for later. I don't think Blades has any relationship to PBTA though, or at least it's built on its own separate engine. (Maybe it took lessons from PBTA? Not sure yet.)

@BESW oooh.

Carcer

@TheOracle won a quick bet with myself following that link

BESW

@doppelgreener Behold: Blades in the Dark creator John Harper tells Apocalypse World creator Vincent Baker that BitD is "totally" Powered by the Apocalypse.

Also, if you trace the DNA of PbtA and most of the other games that Harper cites as inspiration for BitD, you'll find they all have a small handful of shared origins.

Blades is kind of like one of the more complex citrus fruits: you can tell it's closely related to a lot of other citrus but it's hard to sort out exactly which because citrus are all so cross-bred already.

doppelgreener

Thanks :)

V2Blast

9:46 AM

@Derpy Haha, yeah, I've seen a lot of posts about "Larian Games is teasing Baldur's Gate 3" before the actual trailer

Derpy

@V2Blast ^ it didn't really leave much ground for guessing :P

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Q: Does Sunlight Sensitivity affect special melee attacks (such as grappling)?

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Derpy

btw... @V2Blast - just noticed you added a "specific question " tag to this Meta post. Are you sure the question is about asking for guidance just in this specific case? The way I read it, it feels like it is looking for a more generic answer, citing the specific case just for sake of clarity and context.

(also, thanks for the spell-checking on my answer)

V2Blast

10:01 AM

@Derpy ...Is your RPG.SE profile unconnected to your chat profile? :thinking:

@Derpy that said, you make a fair point. in my perception, it seems hard to answer the broader question in a way that isn't dependent on the particular tone of the answer and what it's saying...

Derpy

@V2Blast long story short, the account I use on chat is a separate account I once created for a bot (that was supposed to provide some fun to the users of a now closed room on the main Meta). Nowadays, I keep using this account on chat just because it has become an habit.

I could merge them. Someday.

Anyway, glad to see I wasn't the only one to wonder ^_^'

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monsters dungeons-and-dragons lore forgotten-realms

V2Blast

10:26 AM

Ah, I see

BESW

10:46 AM

Illithid are like elves: people just keep inventing new nonsense they can do.

Derpy

@V2Blast your answer on the Mind Flayer issue somehow reminded me about Las Plagas from Resident Evil 4. Tentacles, parasite, kinda hive mind... At this point I wonder if that was deliberate

trogdor

11:01 AM

@BESW lol

Carcer

I don't think that nonsense is new

V2Blast

@Derpy I assume they're all drawing on Cthulhu:

Cthulhu

Cthulhu () is a fictional cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft and first introduced in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published in the American pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928. Considered a Great Old One within the pantheon of Lovecraftian cosmic entities, the creature has since been featured in numerous popular culture references. Lovecraft depicts Cthulhu as a gigantic entity worshipped by cultists. Cthulhu's appearance is described as looking like an octopus, a dragon, and a caricature of human form. Its name was given to the Lovecraft-inspired universe where it and its...

and whatever the inspirations were for that

Carcer

yeah, mind flayers have always been very cthulhuesque

BESW

I still think 4e's Points of Light interpretation was best for the whole shenanigans.

V2Blast

"games company TSR included an entire chapter on the Cthulhu mythos (including statistics for the character) in the first printing of Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook Deities & Demigods (1980). TSR, however, were unaware that Arkham House, which asserted copyright on almost all Lovecraft literature, had already licensed the Cthulhu property to the game company Chaosium.

Although Chaosium stipulated that TSR could continue to use the material if each future edition featured a published credit to Chaosium, TSR refused and the material was removed from all subsequent editions."

interesting

BESW

11:11 AM

....I wonder if that's why rakshasa have all those weird bits added to them, too. Was somebody at TSR worried about... whoever has the Kolchak license?

V2Blast

rakshasa are from Hindu mythology... albeit not exactly how they're depicted in D&D

don't think those can be copyrighted

:P

BESW

Not the D&D rakshasa.

44

A: What inspired the D&D version of the Rakshasa?

There's an episode of the 1970s Kolchak: Night Stalker series that includes a shapeshifter called a rakshasa. It also involves a vulnerability to blessed crossbow bolts/piercing weapons, which isn't part of Hindu tradition (I think Ravana, greatest of the rakshasas, was actually killed by a round...

V2Blast

interesting. But still, not a copyrightable thing, right?

BESW

Probably not. But do you think the TSR knew either?

V2Blast

fair point, lol

BESW

11:25 AM

I'm just thinking, between Chaosium and the Tolkien Estate, it's possible some of the weird choices in early D&D are just attempts to avoid discovering something else was copyrighted without them knowing.

kviiri

For some reason, I associate "<Artist name> Estate" with rather ruthless profitmongering

I'm not sure if that's actually true in Tolkien's case

BESW

Depends on which family member was in charge at the time.

But there's a reason D&D changed hobbits to halflings.

kviiri

The one that irks me the most, personally, is the zeal with which the Moomin characters' IP is enforced. I find it very much contrary to the spirit of the original works that their IP holder is trying to restrict the characters' use even in Fair Use domains (like video parodies and such)

BESW

@kviiri It is absolutely essential that you respect my wishes.

kviiri

@BESW Is that a reference to something?

BESW

11:34 AM

@kviiri Recognition of that phrase can be used to carbon date a person's presence in fanfiction communities. Scroll to the bottom of this page.

kviiri

@BESW Ah.

BESW

Rice litigation, and copycat litigation, was the scourge of the fanwork community in the early 2000s to the point that many fanworks were shared in secret confidential email chains rather than on open sites.

kviiri

How did it turn out?

BESW

Harry Potter happened.

Then Anne Rice found Jesus.

kviiri

There was a really magnificent video parody/tribute made of the Moomin anime of early 1990's floating around the internet at some point. It was episodes that had been really artfully and skillfully edited to portray a gay romance between Moomintroll and Snufkin --- a topic that is subtly hinted at in Tove Jansson's actual works.

Derpy

11:42 AM

@BESW and then Lestat meet Memnoch

BESW

I only ever actually read the Vampire Chronicles books that were required for my university class.

Derpy

@BESW I assume this means you got to skip over the Memnoch one?

BESW

Yeah, I only read the first one or two, I think?

I know about the copyright thing because the HP fandom inherited the paranoia.

Derpy

lucky you. Some of my friends didn't stop so early.

kviiri

The reason I'm a bit hesitant to call it a parody without further qualifiers is that, once one got over the initial "hehe, they remixed the lines to make them sound gay" and some intentional funny moments inserted, it's actually a really tasteful video that deals with complex issues. Moomintroll faces the need to conceal his relationship and has to cope with Moominpappa's emotional backlash at his son being gay (he does accept it after a while)

BESW

11:45 AM

It was an overview course of vampires in English literature and pop culture, so we didn't spend much time with any single work.

@kviiri It sounds sweet, especially if I had any emotional context for it.

Derpy

see the positive side: that means you also didn't get to spend much time on that one with the sparkling vampires....

kviiri

@BESW It sure did. One of the heaviest things it dealt with was Snufkin's gender identity --- in that video series, Snufkin is actually transgender and undergoes a gender transition spell from The Witch (post-transition Snufkin is reprepsented by Alicia, the Witch's daughter in the anime)

BESW

My course pre-dated Twilight's rise to popularity. I studied it on my own afterward.

kviiri

This transition isn't easy for Moomintroll, who finds that he has difficulty adjusting to his partner changing.

BESW

In the context of vampires' English media history, sparkling is quite reasonable.

@kviiri Wow.

kviiri

11:49 AM

Anyway, that video series has been repeatedly harried off Youtube. Seems like it's been reuploaded again though \o/

Derpy

@BESW sparkling isn't exactly the main problem of that story. This was....

in The Reading Room, Feb 15 '17 at 0:30, by BESW

Personally I think the whole saga could've been salvaged by a good editor and a theme shift: it's a horror story about two deeply dysfunctional sociopaths who can't function on their own, and how together their neuroses complement each other so they can inflict themselves on the world as a terrifying power couple.

kviiri

@BESW The scene where Snufkin transitions is pretty well done from such limited source material: youtu.be/pBeSaN3GHCI?t=361

"It is never good to have to act against one's own nature"

Carcer

@kviiri I dunno man that sounds like My Guy Syndrome to me

BESW

@Derpy Yeah, that's from a conversation about how I find the Twilight franchise fascinating and engaging to study, because of its flaws as well as despite them.

Derpy

12:14 PM

@BESW It kinda always gave me the "Girl, you should totally stick with this abusive guy because you can totally change him" vibes, but that's probably just me.

BESW

in The Reading Room, Feb 15 '17 at 0:28, by BESW

But yeah, Midnight Sun is... savage. It rips apart Bella's fairy-tale narrative by exposing Edward for the creepy stalker every discerning reader already knew he was, but which Twilight never admitted.

Derpy

yep, I saw that. It is just that I don't really like the fact that said "fairy-tale" narrative from the first book didn't appear to be an intentional troope deconstruction but more of a marketing move to drawn in younger female readers

kviiri

12:56 PM

I feel really tempted to write a new answer to an old question that has three answers already: one good, from RAW perspective, and two bad.

Rubiksmoose

Do it! As long as you're and something new it's a good thing.

The only question is if it's with your time I guess...

vicky_molokh

@Derpy If anything, in the age where cynicism (in the newer sense of the word) is treated as interchangeable with coolness and smartness, a fairy-tale narrative is, ironically, noteworthy and 'original' and something I think worth appreciating.

kviiri

@Rubiksmoose I did

Rubiksmoose

1:16 PM

@kviiri :)

kviiri

@vicky_molokh I don't agree 100% but you're definitely on to something there

Grim dark is getting kinda passé

vicky_molokh

@kviiri Grimdark seems to be at least often/usually used with a good grain of satire, such as WH40K's over-the-top darkness to the point of being silly. But things like 'deconstruction' seem to have become a 'must-have' buzzword that's always taken very seriously. And it's ubiquitous.

kviiri

yeah

Derpy

@vicky_molokh what I meant is that I am not really sure the "fairy tale" narrative was intentional when the first book was made - I am not sure it was supposed to be a "girl deceives herself into thinking to be in a fairy tale were she will change the bad boy for the better" and not a "girl will change bad boy with the power of love and care". But keep in mind that as I said I didn't actually read the book so my view of it may be mislead by its advertising campaigns.

Rubiksmoose

@vicky_molokh cough DC cough

vicky_molokh

1:32 PM

@Rubiksmoose Yeah, the Flash reboot TV series is one I really appreciate for not falling to that trope.

Rubiksmoose

@vicky_molokh I actually highly also recommend Doom Patrol.

Ben

Evening everybody!

Speaking of TV shows, I just finished Happy! Season 2.

Rubiksmoose

Good morning!

@vicky_molokh Though I'd be curious how deconstruct-y you thought it was

vicky_molokh

@Rubiksmoose The Flash? Not at all. It felt like the 80s Superman films in terms of 'taste' for the most part.

Rubiksmoose

@vicky_molokh I actually did watch part of Flash. Wasn't a fan for other reasons, but I agree completely. I meant DP though.

vicky_molokh

1:38 PM

@Rubiksmoose Not acquainted. A major reason I tried watching the reboot series is because I had vague memory of positive emotions about the original series from childhood.

Rubiksmoose

@vicky_molokh Gotcha! How'd it live up?

vicky_molokh

I also tried watching Supergirl and Legends, and found the latter fun for about as long as it had a certain character aboard, while the latter was mostly OK.

@Rubiksmoose The rebooted Flash? 2-3 seasons were great, the 4th was hit and miss, and I haven't watched the fifth yet.

I only have vague memories of the original series, and they're probably distorted by nostalgia.

Also keep in mind that being born in the second world, I approach supers films without the familiarity of supers comics. So my impressions may not be a useful what-to-watch-choosing guideline for many of you.

Rubiksmoose

Sure. I was just curious to hear your personal thoughts :)

Like I said I did also watch part of the Flash reboot (most of the first season)

vicky_molokh

I see the series as fun in a silly kind of way. I really like that it doesn't feel ashamed of its nature, unlike many, say, Marvel films which treat even the pseudonyms of their heroes as taboo.

I think as far as video fiction is concerned, they mostly handled their time travel effects well. The parts which didn't make sense at least made up for it with coolness.

Rubiksmoose

@vicky_molokh I did enjoy that aspect as well (assuming I understand you). It leaned into and owned its tropes eg.

Some of the tropes it chose were not my favorite though. Mainly, "can't reveal my secret identity for no logical reason"

Rubiksmoose

2:02 PM

So doing my monthly check of the HNQ stats and it looks like (surprisingly to me) our stats didn't really change. 38% of our questions (45% if you exclude closed questions) looked like they hit HNQ last month even after the tweak to the algorithm.

Though I think this will be the first full month with the new algo so I guess we'll see.

Carcer

is the tweak just the delay?

Rubiksmoose

@Carcer As far as I know, yeah

ah it looks like it might have only gone live on 5-20. So that could explain the lack of impact.

Rubiksmoose

3:46 PM

I was putzing around and I found this neat page that has a neat UI showing stats for election nominees.

Rubiksmoose

3:58 PM

Apparently there used to be an official page like it as discussed here

Xirema

4:29 PM

> Another example of identical effect stacking is benefiting from multiple Auras of Protection, where Crawford confirmed that you can benefit from identical effects as long as they aren't spells. Twice. — Do two class features that add the same bonus to damage double it?

@Xirema How many DMs would actually permit that ruling at their tables?

CTWind

I feel like I remember errata since then that has changed that particular ruling, but not sure off the top of my head.

Carcer

@Xirema does it offend you in some way

oh

ohhh

misread

yeah that's definitely not currently true

I'm pretty sure that tweet predates the additional guidance about stacking effects where it says game features with the same name don't stack

CTWind

That sounds right

Xirema

@Carcer Found it.

> Different game features can affect a target at the same time. But when two or more game features have the same name, only the effects of one of them-the most potent one-apply while the durations of the effects overlap. — Combining Game Effects, Dungeon Master's Guide, pg. 252

(After errata)

Carcer

@Xirema yeah, that was errata'd in... I want to say 1026?

uh

2016

yep, first appearing in the 2016 errata

I congratulate my own memory

now it is hometime.

nope I'm blind

it's in the 2015 errata too. media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/DMG_Errata.pdf

Mage in the Barrel

4:53 PM

hello I have an alignment question, I plan to join an adventures leauge and evil alignmens are only allowed up to lawful evil if that as you may know how immoral can an action be before falling under evil?

like does having no qualms about threatening someone, stealing or scamming make you evil.

Rubiksmoose

@MageintheBarrel Hi! So alignment is a very thorny issue and the simple answer is that it will be up to you and your DM (with the DM getting the final call) to decide what is evil or not and how many evil acts you need to do to result in an alignment (change to) evil.

william porter

I mean, that errata has nothing to do with that question. If they're two different class features (different names) giving the same type of bonus they stack. If they're the same class feature (same name), only the strongest applies.

Rubiksmoose

It is highly unlikely that one evil action would be enough to make you evil for example.

Xirema

@williamporter Well, the point is more that the Errata contradicts what Crawford ruled.

william porter

Oh the stacking auras, I was looking at the rpg.se question

Yeah, he's wrong in that case

Xirema

5:00 PM

@MageintheBarrel It honestly just depends on where the DM draws the line. Like, in my campaigns, people like Lawyers and Cops are defacto Lawful Evil, but in other people's campaigns, you'd have to enter serial killer or warlord territory before you get that alignment.

william porter

Lawyers are always LE :P

Mage in the Barrel

I'm trying to go with a character that has the "as long as it's fun" philosophy.

Xirema

@MageintheBarrel That's usually Chaotic Neutral, maybe Chaotic Good if they're conscientious of the rest of society.

Rubiksmoose

@MageintheBarrel May I give you some general advice about playing this character?

Mage in the Barrel

in that they'll do just about anything that seems like it'd be entertaining regardless of right or wrong

sure

i've never played before but I want to get everything together befoe I go present to my dm

Rubiksmoose

5:02 PM

@MageintheBarrel Whatever you do, do not have the character do things that hurt the party. I is always bad news every time. Especially at AL tables where people don't know each other well.

The personality of character you are constructing is a very common one, and one that commonly causes serious issues at tables if not played carefully.

Mage in the Barrel

good to know

CTWind

Yeah, if you're evil, have the party be the ones they're being evil for, not to.

Stackstuck

@Xirema I'd like to raise the point that sometimes lawyers sue cops, which is good.

CTWind

D&D's not meant for/good at interparty hostility.

Mage in the Barrel

are there any good irc channels I can join

Rubiksmoose

5:05 PM

@MageintheBarrel give this Q&A a read when you have a chance and try to make sure you don't fall into those pitfalls and both you and your whole table will be much happier.

Xirema

> ".............. Let them fight."

Mage in the Barrel

there's only 1 table in my town and I can't walk very far due to having a bad ankle. So i'd have to bug my parents to drive me which i'd rather not do.

is there such a thing as an online table in the first place?

Rubiksmoose

@MageintheBarrel There are certainly ways to find and join online games

I've never done it though so I can't really help that much in that respect

I think we have some Q&As on it though

31

Q: How do I find a friendly, inclusive roleplay group online?

One of my queer friends is interested in joining a campaign online, and is looking for an inclusive, friendly group of players. She asked me how she'd find such a group. I'd love to answer her, but after years of roleplaying irl and online, I still have no idea how I'd accomplish such a feat. M...

online-roleplaying social-contract finding-other-players gender

120

Q: Where can I find other RPG players?

I'd really like to learn how to play pen-and-paper RPGs. I know that it takes a few players to actually sit down and play, but I'm not at all sure where to find more gamers. How do I find existing groups to join? Or, are there any resources online that may help me find existing RPG groups or pl...

new-players social finding-other-players

David Coffron

5:31 PM

@MageintheBarrel I am an avid user of roll20's online tables, which, while limited somewhat, have provided me with two stable and very fun groups this year.

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