TRPG General Chat

Ben

12:19 AM

So I have a new favourite gif

Ben says no

BESW

12:33 AM

The Bargain Bin Tabletop Character Name Library, a Google Drive spreadsheet curated by Caro Asercion.

Ben

12:52 AM

@BESW Interesting

Hot RPG Questions

5

Q: Half-rock- half-forest-gnome

I'd like a new character I'm building to have the stats and background of a forest gnome, but primarily the personality traits (curiosity, inventiveness) of a rock gnome. Does this seem like a plausible result of the union of rock and forest gnome parents? Are they actually capable of producing ...

V2Blast

@BESW Haha.

> Sheets Literate
Flax | Miscellany

@BESW the sheet's entirely publicly editable? a bold move indeed

trogdor

What? That seems like a bad idea

V2Blast

> right now this doc is fully editable but if people start being rude ones i will change it to view only, please dont make me turn this car around

trogdor

I hate to say it but I feel like that is going to inevitably happen

I hope I'm wrong though

Joel Harmon

1:32 AM

@KorvinStarmast I tried checking the numbers in 5e D&D against what I could do in a gym, and I recall getting something like a 5-point spread, depending on the exercise.

Hot RPG Questions

6

Q: Can an actual attack instead of a feint be used as the distraction for a help action?

The latter part of the description for Help Action says: Alternatively, you can aid a friendly creature in attacking a creature within 5 feet of you. You feint, distract the target, or in some other way team up to make your ally's attack more effective. If your ally attacks the target before ...

dnd-5e combat

BESW

"Dungeons and Dragons and Feelings," a D&D 5e hack "to better support player driven stories and inter-character interactions," by Ashton McAllan.

3

Ben

1:49 AM

@BESW This is great :D

BESW

I'm not totally sanguine about stuff like "madness" but I figured people would like it as inspiration of their own drifts, if nothing else.

Ben

Well, that sort of started a thought process in my head, and it led me to actually one of the latest... quirks in my D&D group.

So, bit of background; my DM is a fond supporter of the LGBTQI groups. He dumped a long-time friend recently after their church group protested wedding rights, etc outside of his home. Which I completely understand.

However

I'm a guy, and in our latest D&D game, I chose to play a woman. I'm one of those people that can sometimes have issues playing female characters in games, simply because of a disconnect.

But, I got into it, until he decided to... I dunno… use the situation as an example maybe? He created an NPC that was very much a "lady's man", and focussed all of that energy on me

Still trying to understand the intent/purpose there.

Also, if you feel this is better of in another room, fee free to move it

Shalvenay

@Ben mind describing the character you chose to play further?

(I'm sort-of-wondering if he was twigging on something in backstory or personality?)

Ben

2:04 AM

Far traveler. Air genasi Fighter. More confident than charismatic. Nothing more than that, other than the fact that she got blue skin was really described

Shalvenay

hm

did your DM make this NPC you mentioned straight-away, or did they insert it after you had been playing your char for a while?

Ben

@Shalvenay Sort of both? It was the second session, but it was a while between sessions

BESW

@Ben I'd ask him, point-blank. Not confrontationally, but there's a communication gap and it's responsible to try and bridge it.

Shalvenay

yeah, I'd ask as well, something seems weird here.

BESW

2:20 AM

There's so many reasons it could be happening.

Is yours the only feminine party member?

Ben

Yes, but we do have female players, and actually one member has recently announced that they're trans, too

V2Blast

@BESW Is it just me, or is the character sheet (PDF) link not working?

BESW

There are at least three possible rationales I can think of off the top of my head, but we really aren't in a place to responsibly speculate.

@V2Blast Not just you.

V2Blast

thanks for confirming

Ben

This isn't the first time we've clashed either, I think it's just clashing personalities. I do things that potentially frustrate him, and vice versa.

nitsua60

2:30 AM

@DavidCoffron ^^

BESW

@nitsua60 I appreciate any game/setting that asks each PC "Why do you even like these chuckleheads?"

nitsua60

I like it in the group; whether the game specifically does it is pretty secondary for me.
That said, I'm really itching to run *Tales from the Loop.* A party that is, by system mandate, that group of friends that you all rode bikes/played stickball with as kids... it'll scratch that itch, I assume.

BESW

Oh yeah, I've got a background project to mash together Kids on Bikes with Bubblegumshoe to make something similar.

V2Blast

@BESW Kids on Bubblegumshoes?

Oh... or Bubblegumshoes on Bikes

that seems to fit better

BESW

Working title, Bike Sleuths.

nitsua60

2:36 AM

Hmm... wonder if there's a possible It hack there? You've got the childhoot mystery to deal with, then you come back as adults to re-tackle it. Stakes are higher now, because adults can get into danger. (A principle of TftL is that kids don't come to harm.)

Hot RPG Questions

5

Q: Can a PC attack themselves with an unarmed strike?

Let's say a PC attempts to punch herself. Can she do so? If the PC is willing and deliberate, can she miss? Does she make an attack roll? If so, what AC is she trying to hit? How much damage would it cause? I was considering how this would work in general, but it would also be relevant if the...

dnd-5e attack unarmed-combat

BESW

Not to be confused with Bikklegumshoe.

"Role-Playing Is Beneficial to Mental Health," a ConBravo 2019 lecture by Amanda Spikol AKA OmegaGeek of PsychMedia.

trogdor

3:04 AM

@Ben yeah I assume you are annoyed by this and want him to stop, if so tell him he's crossed a line

It doesn't matter what his reasons are, he should stop once you've told him this and if he doesn't he should take a long look in the mirror

You can steal that whole quote if you want

Miniman

@Ben I feel it's worth pointing out that (I assume) you would be equally uncomfortable with the situation if you were playing a male character.

trogdor

@Miniman well I think the point is that the DM might somehow feel it's ok if he's teaching a male friend what it's like to be a lady getting harassment from random men. That being said yes you also have a fantastic point there

Miniman

@trogdor It's my incredibly hot take: sexual harassment is bad, regardless of the genders involved. Controversial, I know.

trogdor

Not at all

Not to me anyway

Miniman

3:19 AM

@trogdor Yeah, the sarcasm wasn't directed at you.

trogdor

I've been sexually harrased very little but it's happened

It was very unpleasant

I can hardly imagine how much worse it is for some people who have to put up with it on a regular basis

And yeah that's a problem women seem to get hit by more often than men, but it's suspected men don't report it in full amount with Because toxic masculinity is a thing

It's a problem and no one is somehow completely immune due to gender

I do believe it's definitely a larger issue for women

But it certainly doesn't make it somehow ok to do to men either

Miniman

Of course! I wasn't trying to imply otherwise. Just saying, it's not okay, either way.

trogdor

(or anyone of any gender at all)

@Miniman no I didn't think you were

I was sort of just parsing it out loud because I do that

Miniman

And the whole thing of doing it to characters in RPGs is just...ugh.

trogdor

Especially online

Even though that's technically not "out loud"

@Miniman I think that kinda depends

IE, you should definitely ask if anyone is upset by the prospect of it happening at all, or to thier character in specific

But if everyone is fine with it it's definitely a way to make a character for people to dislike

Like our Bubble Gumshoe game

I was playing a girl and the guy we were investigating was hitting on my character

That invested me really well into disliking the guy

It's certainly not just something you should do out of the blue but it can add to the experience if it isn't hurting anyone at the table and is handled well

You just gotta actually make sure those parameters are met

Or else just don't do it

And yes not just with The person playing the character, also everyone else at the table

I sort of perversely enjoyed hating that little twerp

All that being said, in Ben's case, just as an example, it seems like nothing was hammered out about it earlier

At least not with him , possibly not with other group members

That's pretty uncool

V2Blast

3:45 AM

Yeah, per Ben's description it seems somewhat out of the blue, and persistent?

trogdor

Yes

Very far from expectable precautions

Basically this is one of those reasons saftey tools exist

Probably in the top 5 reasons at least

Ben

4:01 AM

@Miniman scandalous.

Yeah, without talking to him I'm not sure what the intention is. If it's a lesson or just a tease or what, but without communication, things won't develop

trogdor

@Ben yes but also he should have talked to you (and the other players) about it first anyway

And if you are feeling uncomfortable and or targeted he should stop

Ben

Yeah. In all honesty, and without going into it, I've been dealing with so much of this stuff - one sided treatment where they think everything is fine - especially lately, so I've learned how to del with it. My primary "problem" though is that I always try and understand it first - simply by evaluating things in my head and filling in the gaps so it makes sense. context, general character of the person, how our interactions normally go, etc.

Not the best evaluation mechanic though, of course.

trogdor

4:32 AM

There isn't anything wrong with trying to learn what humans habits are like when forced to deal with them in the long term

I do it too

But when they overstep their bounds in realtion to how you are comfortable with them treating you, make it clear

I know that's not always easy to do

Ben

Yeah. The practice isn't bad. But the way you go about it might be

trogdor

I also have trouble telling people to stop doing things that bother me

Ben

"you" being the third person. Not specifically you haha

trogdor

Lol

Ben

I used to be the same, but it got to a point where I had to do something. The situation basically forced me to.

I do still hold my tongue sometimes, but it's much easier now that I know how the whole situation gets dealt with.

trogdor

4:40 AM

For me it depends on several factors

Just so many, some I might not even be able to properly articulate

But one factor is the other person/people involved

Ben

Yeah. I can understand that.

The relationship you have with the person, the situation you're dealing with, the potential responses they may give...

etc and so on

trogdor

If they are strangers i just extricate myself if possible, if it's people I know who get definsive the second I say they did something to upset me I give them the cold shoulder from hell

Ben

@trogdor I condone this behaviour.

I do the exact same thing

MikeQ

@Ben Once they start making you uncomfortable/confused, it should be okay to break character and ask "Where are you going with this?" And it doesn't need to be an accusation - maybe they are trying to do something interesting with it.

Ben

Yeah, potentially.

Where I am now with it is that I don't really associate myself with the LGBTQI squad all that much, only because I'm one of those people that supports the idea, but has noting else to provide. They, on the other hand, are right in the middle of it.

So in my head I've got this potential idea that they see me as a "nay-sayer that just keeps his mouth shut".

And like I mentioned earlier, we do have very different personalities, different upbringings, etc. I'm someone who waits for an opportunity to talk, he talks when he has something he wants heard, regardless of when or who is talking. Maybe because he didn't learn manners, maybe because he's had to fight to be heard properly his whole life.

Everyone has quirks that upset others. Ways of expressing themselves that might be interpreted as obnoxious or inappropriate. But unless you know all the facts, you shouldn't judge.

trogdor

4:53 AM

Well but also I think it's important not to let people walk all over your face either

They may have wtv reason they want

But that's still not a cool thing to roll over for either

No matter how polite you want to be

Ben

Yeah. I actually spoke to my dad about this, and there is a generational difference in regards to being treated, vs treating others.

My dad's generation was told that they had an obligation to treat others with respect. And my generation was taught that we had the right to be treated with respect.

kviiri

Good morning

Ben

The flipside of both of those though, is that the lesson always comes across as one sided: if you are obligated to treat others with respect, you forget that others owe you that same obligation. And you may have the right to be treated with respect, but then you forget others have that same right.

@kviiri [wave] welcome to the weekly D&M

trogdor

@Ben I mean, I feel like my generation has mostly been told we don't work hard enough or conform Enough to society as it exists or hold the door open for women enough

BESW

@Ben As someone who grew up surrounded by a culture with strong collectivist background, this false dichotomy continues to blindside me.

trogdor

4:58 AM

XD

MikeQ

@Ben Get yourself a generation who can do both?

Ben

@BESW Lotta big words there. I got a power nap last night, and it's getting towards the end of the day haha

@MikeQ #goals

trogdor

@BESW well, and it is a false dichotomy but sometimes the way you are taught a thing has a weird impact

Especially if you have secondary reinforcement in weird directions

I definitely get being taught to treat others with respect and then ending up giving them more than they give me

BESW

collectivist: relationships and groups are more important than individuals.
dichotomy: only two options are possible.

MikeQ

@Ben Anyhoo, my point was to question the DM's motives respectfully, because we can't assume bad intentions. This doesn't justify their inappropriate NPC interaction, but it can get you two cooperating better.

trogdor

5:03 AM

It's happened to me a lot

Ben

@MikeQ Yeah, that's a good angle to come from :)

BESW

trogdor

Lol

Ben

5:42 AM

@BESW Right. The collectivist part was what was catching me up there haha. I never really experienced that myself, to be honest. I've spent most of my life with the teachings of "be nice to everyone, and they'll be nice to you", but the favour was never really returned. Not like, bad or anything. Just, I'd do something nice then I never had anything nice done for me. So I eventually learned to take it on the chin, and be careful who I invested my effort in.

We have a work contact named Wade Wilson

BESW

Yeah, not saying that it's an automatic thing, but it's an expectation to the point that there's a word for somebody who acts like they deserve respect without giving it, and it's a bad insult.

Ben

@BESW Yis.

BESW

And there are social structures in place to reinforce and mechanize those expectations, rather than just "oh, it'll happen" [waves hands]

Ben

There are a lot of things that go into even getting that to work too. Exposure, recognition, retention...

Ben

5:58 AM

It'd be much easier if people were like computers. You can just open the Ben.exe and see where the problem code is.

"Ah... here we go. The problem is that the anxiety method isn't clearing the variables properly, so each time it's just adding more each iteration. And when it has such high levels like this, it's taking up all the processing power. So if we just add the line here; if (emotionalInput.positivity != null) anxiety--; There. That should do it."

BESW

"Oh, here's your problem. Raptors. Yeah, they'll get into the engine and chew on the wiring."

V2Blast

heh

The Russo Brothers in an AMA: reddit.com/r/marvelstudios/comments/cn9lbx/…

> And when we want to kick back and relax, we replay the "Lost Mines of Phandelver" D & D campaign. Over and over again...

why LMOP of all things

kviiri

6:13 AM

@Ben whatsa D&M

Ben

Deep & Meaningful haha

@V2Blast because of the inevitability of it all? Or maybe they wanna do a no-death potato only Dark Souls speedrun

In d&d

V2Blast

6:32 AM

@Ben hahahahaha

Ben

@kviiri Basically "Depp and Meaningfuls" are where you sit down and talk about a certain topic; thoughts and feelings; interpersonal relationships; future dreams and plans; your existence and what it means. They can be meaningful, they can be deep... sometimes both.

Well, Deep* and meaningfuls. I've never personally had a Depp and Meaningful.

BESW

@Ben maybe "Dead Man"?

Ben

6:47 AM

Id imagine that a Depp and meaningful might involve more goatees, and meaningful stares

BESW

Nah, in Dead Man mostly he's just clueless and offensive and then he dies. It's mostly Exaybachay who gets the Meaningful out of the experience.

Ben

@BESW Been a while since I watched it. It was very quiet.

Lol

BESW

Jim Jarmusch... yeah.

Low-key but intensely weird is kinda his thing. Who else could make a "very quiet" film with a cannibal bounty hunter.

Miniman

7:06 AM

@Ben Shout-outs to Salt and Sanctuary, the soulslike game where potatoes are a real item.

Also, I hate the term "souls-like" as much as any rational human being, but it really is the closest thing to "2D souls" I've ever experienced. Even the feeling of exploring the world is a good match to how it was in Dark Souls. And that's saying something, since the sequels to Dark Souls didn't even come close to replicating that feeling.

Plus, the poison mechanic is really cool.

Nyakouai

Morning

Pierre Cathé

7:32 AM

Good morning

kviiri

@Ben oh I see

The Oracle

7:58 AM

0

Q: What to do if I can't manage to find a suitable and accurate name for my question?

I'm currently writing a question for the main RPG stack site. As usual, I start writing the title first, then the question. But while I was writing my question, another question added to the first, making the question two. I don't think these need to be separated to be answered separately, so p...

discussion questions

V2Blast

8:11 AM

@Nyakouai greetings

Nyakouai

@V2Blast Time agnostic greeting to you

John Clifford

8:26 AM

Time-specific greeting to all.

V2Blast

8:41 AM

Time is an illusion; lunchtime, doubly so.

Derpy

9:04 AM

@V2Blast Thanks. Now I know I will have to Beautiful Dreamer again this weekend -_-'

> "Things are a mess fer ya 'cause ya think time an' space are objective things. Y'now how time seems down when y're waiting? Fact is, time is simply a creation of your human consciousness. What is there ain't no human beings anywhere in the world? Wouldn't clocks and calendars be a waste? Maybe there ain't no such thing as time that flows in one direction from the past to the future, and never was dontcha think, ma'am? Human beings are slipshod to begin with, so there ain't nothing strange 'bout time being slipshod too. If ev'rything was all hunky-dory then THAT'D be weird. The only certai…

V2Blast

Heh. Just quoting Douglas Adams.

Derpy

Yep, I recognized the quote. But I also have the blessing/curse of knowing that movie, so your quote reminded me of Mujaki

Hot RPG Questions

11:00 AM

2

Q: Can you use the Fly spell to move underwater at a speed of 60 feet?

If under the effects of a Fly spell, can you move at a speed of 60 feet underwater?

dnd-5e spells movement flight underwater

G. Moylan

1:02 PM

@V2Blast that used to be my Lync/Skype4B status at my last couple of jobs

goodguy5

1:40 PM

ugh

Long ago, I thought that Messenger Business was the worst, until I had to use Skyp4b

Teams is rolling out and seems actually good.

It feels like it was built off of the same framework as discord and slack.

Derpy

@goodguy5 give them time. Crafting something annoying requires a lot of effort and care. I am sure that in a few months it will be just as bad as Skype...

goodguy5

At least it persists messages, so that's cool

I hate asking someone a question and accidentally hitting escape and closing (and deleting) the message

Nyakouai

Lync had you covered

Derpy

@goodguy5 Skype 4 business? The conversations should show up in your chronology in Outlook

Nyakouai

How many times did we lost crucial informations that we were forced to ask again to the relevant person the next day...

goodguy5

1:49 PM

yes

@Derpy I cannot for the life of me figure out how to turn that on in this office.

I think they did something to it

Derpy

you don't see a "Conversation History" item under your inbox and all? Weird.

@goodguy5 Try this.... in the Skype for business Options > Personal page... do you see an option "Save IM conversations in my email Conversation history folder"?

goodguy5

@Derpy grayed out

Derpy

and I suppose it is unchecked too.

goodguy5

of course

Derpy

yep, then probably someone disabled it via group policy. You can't do much then.

goodguy5

1:56 PM

jerks

Derpy

If you work in a small company and/or know someone that works in the IT dep you may actually ask them it it was intended, but if you are in a big company and can't hope to talk with anyone involved...

goodguy5

haha. my office alone has about 200 people in it. And that's just one office of one branch

but, as I said, we're switching to teams

G. Moylan

2:28 PM

it's an exchange config. Lync/Skype4b uses part of the exchange server for auth and communication

it's not a local GP issue, to my knowledge

oh wait, I see what you're saying

that setting being turned off is indeed GP, yeah. But I believe there's also a server-level setting that should do that automatically for all conversations so they're forever documented internally. it should achieve the same thing but it's controlled form the server side

it's a document retention thing. If it's managed by the exchange server it can be stored or purged per company retention guidelines

Derpy

See this

G. Moylan

hmm. I distinctly remember an enterprise-leval component that ran on a server and connected to exchange. maybe it wasn't Lync/Skype4b but another chat software

one company I was at had a couple. they were transitioning between them. Never got to my department, though, it was trial thing with the exchange/server folks. we of course were never in the loop

man ENWorld really is having a rough go of their upgrade

nitsua60

3:20 PM

Since at least some of you are here:

I also wish that some close-voters would weigh in with their thinking. I was pondering "too broad" myself, but the connection among all the items and their use by a single party makes me reconsider that. (@findusl I do wonder if it may be worth moving your "why do I want these items" paragraph upstream of the list: a quick/cursory reader may just see a low-rep user asking "are these balanced," a list of 8 items, and think "whoa, that's too broad." I was certainly leaning that direction until I read the end-matter.) — nitsua60 ♦ 43 secs ago

JohnP

@goodguy5 Ours doesn't have the option to save, but if it sits idle for a little bit it will aytomatically save to outlook

That was an...interesting interview. I think I wavered between "Nailed it!" and "wth just came out of my mouth?"

nitsua60

@JohnP Sounds like... you were spontaneously honest and it seemed to fit well?

Xirema

@nitsua60 I've gone back and forth on this, so maybe I'll feel differently on a different day, but today, I feel like as a stack we're a little bit too aggressive towards "is this balanced"-type questions.

JohnP

@nitsua60 I was very strong on the training/presentation/management aspects, not so great on the cybersecurity. But, it's easier to train CS than it is presentation skills.

Xirema

Like, I know there's no "objective" metrics established by 5e (or most other TTRPG systems) that allow us to say with certainly whether or not an item is "balanced", but if the user attaches a rarity to an item with a specific description of its capabilities, there are things we can work with.

nitsua60

3:28 PM

@Xirema I know that among the mods we've got a vague idea floating out there that we should prompt a large-scale "how is homebrew-review going?" discussion/review/task-force... but it's not clear how to do that best. Or if it could accomplish much: we're only three months out from this, after all--

11

Q: What rules/guidance do we want to give for homebrew review questions, if any?

There seemed to be a strong consensus in this question that we're not happy with how homebrew review is working on the site right now, and that the way forward is to get some additional rules around it to try to cut down on the most common types of problems these questions have. What sorts of ru...

discussion tags homebrew

(But see the first three comments there ^^ )

Xirema

The DMG and XGE has rules for how powerful a Magic Item of a given Rarity ought to be, and XGE has rules for how frequently magic items should be distributed. And while a lot of DMs don't explicitly or implicitly follow those rules, my observation has been that most good DMs end up following a personal rule that, coincidentally or not, ends up lining up with those rules.

@nitsua60 I suppose a lot of this continues to bump up against the "SE is not good for iterative review" problem.

Like, using the stack for Iterative Review involves putting a lot of community-enforced restraints on the mechanisms of the stack.

nitsua60

@Xirema Eh, I don't know that it has to be too bad? It just needs OP to (on later iterations) say "I tried this, here's the ways in which it wasn't satisfactory." And if they don't, community just needs to close as unclear until that's provided.

(Which, btw, is how I feel about all homebrew review. I, personally, am not crazy about prospective review for "balance," whatever that is. I'd much rather see problems in the form of "I'm using $this homebrew to try to achieve $that, and $here's how I know it's not working.:)

In the case of an iteration we've got evidence (in the first iteration) that prospective review is not wise enough; we must go off of what you're reporting from actual play.

</rant>

G. Moylan

what if we're trying to vet something before introducing it because we fear the consequences could be too great or not great enough?

"Hey I really want to try X, but I'm worried about Y. Is this a balanced way to achieve what I want?" seems like a reasonable question

one that can be answered with play experience and frames of reference from the published materials

Xirema

3:43 PM

I would even contend "I've created an item that can do X, Y, and Z, and assigned it a Rarity of Q, is this balanced?" is perfectly stackable. Granted, it broaches "someone read the book(s) and cross-reference the tables for me", i.e. someone asking the stack to do the work for them, but it's not like we're here to tell people to solve their own problems.

I could see how a question like that could be much less answerable in other games, but some game systems do have relatively clear rules for what constitutes an appropriate power level for an item/spell/class/class feature/racial feature/etc.

Or at least rules that can be deduced from context.

nitsua60

@G.Moylan Yeah, but I'd also like to hear a lot more about why you're worried. What bad experiences have you had? What (specifically) are you fearing?

These are things that would inform, I believe, good answers. Rather than just rote "here's a list of things we can compare it to, blah blah blah." Answers can address your play experience, not just some vague, Platonic experience.

G. Moylan

@nitsua60 i think the issue for a lot of people is they just don't have the decades of table experience to even know what to worry about. They're just worried about "breakign the game" but have zero clue how that might happen

Xirema

@nitsua60 Also important.

nitsua60

@G.Moylan Then play and find out? This may be the grognard part of me coming out... [rummages]

Dec 7 '18 at 17:09, by nitsua60

@goodguy5 the way BESW described it is similar to my experience and those I'm familiar with: TSR was this company way off in Wisconsin that made books and modules. It never occurred to me or my brothers to expect they would clarify something for us. Then we discovered Dragon and it was like "well, if I mail them a question and an SASE then maybe I'll get an answer in three months...."

G. Moylan

@G.Moylan I know I want to try all sorts of stuff but I fear ruining the experience of the game and having to go back and retcon or remove stuff that's busted seems like a) a royal pain in multiple body parts; and 2) a disservice to my players

nitsua60

3:49 PM

It just feels like a "talk to your players" moment. "Everyone: I'd like X to happen. I feel like it's not happening, and that introducing Y might do the trick. What do you think? Wanna give it a try? We'll talk at the end of next session about whether we all like it?"

(afk a bit)

Hot RPG Questions

4:18 PM

5

Q: What would happen to an adventurer's personal identity when turning into a God?

I recently played RP with some friends, and one these friends is also one who's playing in the D&D campaign I DM (Lost Mine Of Phandelver). While they were explaining me their home-made RP system, we came to talk about Gods. After a bit of talking, my friend who is also playing D&D told me that ...

dungeons-and-dragons lore forgotten-realms religions-and-deities

inthemanual

5:32 PM

12

Q: Can you combo attacks with the Booming Blade cantrip?

I understand that so long as conditions are met, you can Sneak Attack as part of the melee attack from the Booming Blade cantrip. Can you dual wield and attack with both weapons after casting Booming Blade? I understand that you probably need something like the War Caster feat and Subtle Spell t...

dnd-5e spells attack two-weapon-fighting cantrips

This is attracting a lot of low quality answers

Mark Wells

5:44 PM

and a lot of anger

I'm morbidly curious where it got linked

inthemanual

I think it's a good candidate for protecting

but I don't have 15k rep to do so :/

JohnP

@inthemanual It has two new answers. One quoting sage advice, one that is flat out wrong. All the rest are from long ago.

inthemanual

@JohnP there were 3 new answers until one was removed

Xirema

Also 3 answers from one person very belligerently certain their understanding of the rules is correct, and everyone else is wrong.

(Begins cautiously avoiding Mirrors....)

JohnP

Ah, I can't see those. Not enough rep yet.

I went ahead and flagged for mod.

goodguy5

5:55 PM

same

inthemanual

@JohnP I'm just shy of being able to see deleted answers as well, but I happened to catch and flag one "not an answer" that is now no longer there.

Xirema

Is Sage Advice still considered "official" in whatever capacity Designer Intent Rulings used to be considered, or was it demoted at the same time that Crawford's tweets in general were demoted?

goodguy5

Sage advice is still valid.

JohnP

@Xirema I think SA releases are valid just not the tweets

goodguy5

Crawfords tweets that make it to sage advice are valid, but because they're SA

Xirema

5:57 PM

@JohnP That sounds right. Just wasn't sure.

Someone_Evil

From SA (2.3):

> Official rulings on how to interpret rules are made here in
the Sage Advice Compendium by the game’s lead rules designer, Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford on Twitter).
The public statements of the D&D team, or anyone else
at Wizards of the Coast, are not official rulings; they are
advice. Jeremy Crawford’s tweets are often a preview of rulings that will appear here.

goodguy5

oh wow!

Xirema

@goodguy5 I think you misread it.

Granted, I don't approve of how you've preserved their line breaks. =P

goodguy5

yep... added or subtracted a word somewhere

Xirema

Kind of disrupts the flow of reading.

goodguy5

6:00 PM

YOU kind of disrupt the flow of reading

Xirema

> Official rulings on how to interpret rules are made here in the Sage Advice Compendium by the game’s lead rules designer, Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford on Twitter).

The public statements of the D&D team, or anyone else at Wizards of the Coast, are not official rulings; they are advice. Jeremy Crawford’s tweets are often a preview of rulings that will appear here.

@goodguy5 I mean, fair.

goodguy5

But then again, most people are.

I mean trying to read words on someone's body is awful. Everything is stretchy and curved.

JohnP

@goodguy5 so not touching that.

goodguy5

@JohnP Touching just makes it more confusing. Skin is too uneven to be a good Braille surface.

V2Blast

6:12 PM

@Xirema The Sage Advice Compendium contains official rulings. (And compiles the rulings that previously appeared in "Sage Advice" columns on the official D&D website: dnd.wizards.com/articles/sage-advice). Note that SageAdvice.eu is a third-party website that just compiles tweets and other designer statements from elsewhere on the internet.

inthemanual

@V2Blast thanks for your cleanup

V2Blast

@inthemanual The community handled most of it, all I did was protect the question and leave a comment on their unremoved answer :)

(and edit that answer I guess :P)

Carcer

6:42 PM

it's a bit sad they really doubled-down on their interpretation in response

Yuuki

8:32 PM

@Xirema What about official rulings on how to interpret official rulings on how to interpret rules? Is there a Sage Advice Guidance Compendium?

BESW

nitsua60

72

Q: Where do I find the "official" rules for D&D 5e?

I play D&D 5e and sometimes come here with questions. But sometimes I see things referenced here as sources that I don't have or aren't aware of.... Which are the "official rules" for D&D 5e, and where do I find them?

dnd-5e

=D

V2Blast

9:02 PM

@BESW That is... a disturbing-looking image.

nitsua60

25

Q: The "Featured" tab is now "Bountied"

It's long confused me why we put bounties on a tab labeled "Featured" that has no connection to the "Featured" questions in the right sidebar. I posted a discussion about it earlier this year here on Meta Stack Exchange and the (small) response seemed to agree that this terminology mixture was co...

discussion bounties homepage announcements questions-page

^^ Network-wide changes, people!

V2Blast

woooo

Yuuki

9:26 PM

About that Dungeons & Dragons & Feelings thing, what about non sequiturs? "The lich killed everyone in my village. I shall have a chocolate swirl ice cream."

user15026

I mean, what else are you going to do?

user15026

Ice cream helps on bad days. I am pretty sure that's science.

6

user15026

9:44 PM

@nitsua60 I always did find that a little odd, so I am happy to see this

V2Blast

9:57 PM

@Ash What if the bad day is caused by ice cream?

Someone_Evil

@V2Blast Error. Does not compute.

V2Blast

@Someone_Evil you right

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs clip - Cal's birthday

►

Someone_Evil

Unrelated: Do we not have a tag for non-animal companions?

V2Blast

not that I know of

what sort of companions do you mean?

Someone_Evil

Battle Smith's Iron defender

V2Blast

10:03 PM

ah, fair

Someone_Evil

A big Iron machine doesn't really strike me as an "animal" so the tag looks wrong

lol, yeah

hi

@Xirema feels bad man

XD

Xirema

10:08 PM

@V2Blast How do we feel about that related question being/not being a duplicate?

Because

1. It's the same UA
2. It's the same wording ("five times your artificer level plus your Intelligence Modifier")
3. They're both 'Companion' creatures

But....

4. They're technically different features, and neither question is scoped for both.

BESW

I'd be inclined to leave them separate, in part because if one gets errata'd and the other doesn't....

Someone_Evil

It wouldn't be errata as much as changed in further playtest or final print versions, but I think it is a fair point

BESW

If "five times your level plus Int mod" was a standard rule that'd get changed universally or not at all, then sure. Dupe.

V2Blast

10:47 PM

I agree that they're not duplicates. You can probably use the answer to one to justify the other, though.

BESW

10:58 PM

Right, I forget that UA means something totally different in 5e.

Someone_Evil

It's a good name for a thing, but since they reused it apparently they need more good names for things. Don't we all?

Black Spike

all the good names have been taken

BESW

> Where have all the good names gone
And where are all the mods?

Hot RPG Questions

11:36 PM

3

Q: Can a character who casts Shapechange and turns into a spellcaster use innate spellcasting to cast spells with a long casting time?

Can a character who casts Shapechange and turns into a spellcaster use innate spellcasting to cast spells with a long casting time? A specific example is when a druid casts Shapechange to turn into a Planetar that has innate spellcasting. They then cast the Commune spell that Planetars can cast ...

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