TRPG General Chat

12:01 AM

Creators should benefit from their work, that's simple justice. Cultures should be able to interact with their artistic influences, that's how they grow. Some art should be restricted within certain boundaries or it loses its significance entirely, that's a principle of communication. Reconciling these principles is almost impossible with universal rules because the factors change according to local realities.

Black Spike

In an increasingly Globalised system, it is also difficult if there are no universal rules! And deciding which jurisdiction something falls under is a complex issue.
As i say, I'm no expert.

BESW

Current copyright law allows major corporations to steal Indigneous intellectual property for their own profit and then prosecute the Indigenous creators as illegal competitors, because the original controllers didn't control it in a way that Western copyright law considers valid.

V2Blast

@BESW I'm sure there's someone out there trying to do this anyway, however futile the endeavor may be... :P

@BESW Very true

BESW

@V2Blast True, I should never underestimate the ambition of AO3.

Black Spike

@BESW Well that's just messed-up.

BESW

12:06 AM

@BlackSpike yup. A lot of Indigenous groups are debating whether or not to move their intellectual property into forms of control that are recognized by colonial laws, at the expense of making it difficult or impossible to use that property in the way it was intended.

Black Spike

@BESW Are the various Software "copyleft" licences (GPL, etc ... I don't know details) a good inspiration?

BESW

Not really, no. Indigenous concepts of ownership don't often map to American notions. A Palauan dance created by someone might be usable by anyone in her village in any way they see fit, but anyone from another village must ask permission from her family (not just anyone in her village) for a specific use.

And it would depend on the nature and context of the dance; some would be freely shared, others would be restricted to specific occasions or groups of individuals, like funerals or young women, because the context of who and where it's performed is not incidental to the intellectual property, the dance IS its context.

Black Spike

Tricky

Sounds like a job for Contract-Law-Man! Up, up, and ... sign here please!

BESW

This is also how a lot of oral tradition works; the context of who shares it and in what situation is just as meaningful as the words themselves, and are part of what reinforces the oral tradition's accuracy through generations. Recording oral tradition on a tape, or writing it in a book, or even telling it in the wrong time and place, or the wrong person telling it, erases or changes significant meaning.

nitsua60

@BESW (Not that the problem's limited to intellectual property. I live on land that, 400 years ago, some Europeans desired and... lo! Those who live here don't have similar notions of property?)

Black Spike

12:17 AM

I'm not sure we have comparable traditions here in UK (maybe something could be compared).

@nitsua60 That, we have LOTS of comparable traditions for ...

BESW

But even beyond that... copyleft is simply not useful for Indigenous intellectual property because it removes the creators' right to exclusivity. It might keep Disney from trying to copyright mele inoa, but it doesn't keep Disney from using mele inoa to misrepresent marginalized people in harmful ways.

@nitsua60 Now there's a rabbit hole flooded with blood quantum.

nitsua60

@BESW Yes, I believe that's our town motto.

(My landlord has been in land-rights litigation with the local tribe for over four decades; before that the legal conflict goes back over a century, referencing actions from two centuries back.)

Black Spike

(What's the phrase? "In America, 200 years is a long time. In Europe, 200 miles is a long way". My house is over 100 years old. A friend's is twice that)

BESW

So, to awkwardly wrap this back around to the starting point, I think it's not only okay but important to aggressively interrogate D&D's settings and modify them for our own use--in part because D&D's settings are drawing on stolen inspirations and revisionist colonial fantasies that I feel an obligation to reject.

Black Spike

@BESW I agree. And I think that there is a strong ethos in the Hobby that each Table can, and indeed should, change things up to suit their Group.

BESW

12:26 AM

That would depend on your table. For myself, corporate-mandated franchise continuity has never commanded my obedience. But for a lot of tables I've encountered, published material is sacrosanct and a great deal of energy goes into adhering to it.

Black Spike

@BESW I do know tables like that. I tend not to sit at them.

BESW

Mmm. I once completely re-skinned the entire D&D 3.5 setting to an original concept in order to get a couple of players to stop expecting things to be like their memorized lore.

Black Spike

Our (tiny) group always changes things. I'm known for either swapping a System to one I feel more suits a Setting (I've run Cyberpunk with more Systems than I care to think about), or to butcher a Setting for my own ends (and then write to the Author with my "Improvements"!)

One of our group enjoys taking Canon, and examining the Slippery Slopes ... well, if THAT is Canon, surely it means THIS?

BESW

One thing I love about Lady Blackbird is how skillfully it establishes a tone and aesthetic while leaving wide open spaces for the table to make the game our own, and the core principle of GMing the game is explicitly about making that happen.

Black Spike

Heard of it. Never seen it

Our group tends to average-out with System-Mastery/Winning dialled to 11. Role-Play/Characterisation still up at 9, and Plot/Story at 8. We get very invested. but The Numbers Matter. Once we have made characters with Big Numbers, we then leverage them to make our Stories/characters happen

BESW

12:39 AM

The full 14-page Lady Blackbird PDF is free to download here, along with some other games in the same setting.

Black Spike

Cool. i shall peruse.

BESW

Its GMing advice is extremely formative for me, I apply it to pretty much every system which doesn't require its own style of GMing.

Black Spike

I'm not good with "GMing Styles" ... I have MY style, and I find it hard to change ...

puts on Viking Hat

BESW

I used to be like that. These days I try to be more conscious about applying specific GMing tools to what's going on in order to achieve different goals as needed.

Black Spike

I'm a lot more open with System these days. No hiding behind a Screen.

BESW

12:44 AM

I've got favorite tools, and tools that are more comfortable or more frequently useful, but I have more success if I'm picking up the tools deliberately based on what's going on and what the group wants/needs out of the session.

Black Spike

And a small amount of asking the Payers to define things (usually minor)

*players

BESW

I use more and more player collaboration tools as I go, partly because I wouldn't be running any games if I had to prep them much at all, I just don't have the mental energy these days; and partly because everybody is awesomely inventive and by collaborating we can all surprise each other.

Sep 1 at 3:11, by BESW

Just played a game of Roll For Shoes in which an overprepared robot navigator, a cheerful T-Rex skeleton pilot, and a goth delivery mouse with an Aliens-style power loader, delivered a package of glitter to Jack Skellington as part of his attempt to understand Valentine's Day.

Black Spike

Sounds fun! A bit too "gonzo" for me. I tend to try to stick to "gritty realism" (Never works! Our last game had a fight in a Candy Factory, that had the players escaping on a souped-up forklift, covered in sweeties, and joining in a New Year parade!)

BESW

There are systems which keep things very serious, by virtue of what they mechanize and what they don't. I don't use them very often.

Dog Eat Dog is a great game, very valuable and I'm glad I played it, but it's also quite harrowing.

Black Spike

A friend keeps pitching "Carry". I think just for shock value

MikeQ

12:55 AM

Over time, I've learned more and more that sticking to established lore can be a problem in ensuring that players are playing the same game

Which seems unintuitive

But the truth is you don't know that your DM and fellow players have the same interpretations of the lore as you

BESW

Yeah, very much so.

Black Spike

@MikeQ And not everyone knows the Lore as well

BESW

I'm curious about trying A Spark In Fate Core some time, because it's trying to sidestep that problem.

trogdor

@BESW that was extremely fun

BESW

Oh yes, it was awesome.

I think I liked the Honey Heist game in the Santa's Village theme park better, but not by much.

trogdor

1:00 AM

@BESW mm I don't feel like I contributed as much to that one

XD

BESW

Fair enough, you were instrumental in covering Halloween Town with glitter.

trogdor

Yes

I pretty much orchestrated it

BESW

oooh, the Gauntlet has a character keeper for InSpectres.

MikeQ

@BESW Going forward I'd like games that can tell stories without relying on established world histories. PoL seems like a similar model to what I'm trying.

BESW

@MikeQ PoL basically says "there's a ton of history but since society collapsed into barely-connected points of light in the wilderness most people don't know much of the history and a lot of what they know is wrong, so do whatever."

V2Blast

1:10 AM

@MikeQ Very true

@BESW I do like that approach (though I'm not personally familiar with PoL)

BESW

There's very massive problems with the practical implementation of the PoL concept in the game, but the concept itself is arguably sound so long as you avoid the colonial revisionist fantasy elements.

[wave 2]

[160-MHz]

helloBen.gif

FM or AM?

How is everyone?

MikeQ

1:13 AM

Why is everyone?

Ben

Getting into the real stuff now

V2Blast

@Ben Not bad, just chilling

BESW

V2Blast

@BESW What if my faith is centered around He-Man

MikeQ

Nyaaah!

Ben

1:16 AM

@MikeQ My boss just jumped at me laughing out loud at that haha

It was quiet then I just cracked up suddenly haha

BESW

@V2Blast Context is arguing this may already be true.

Ben

Is it blasphemous to call the Flying Spaghetti Monster "the spaghooter"?

@V2Blast I was at around 7-8 this morning, but now it's much warmer

BESW

Since the FSM is created as an anti-religious proof of concept, blaspheming against it is a category error.

Ben

It is,by definition, the definition of ironic haha

V2Blast

@BESW Hahaha

Joel Harmon

1:21 AM

@MikeQ Apparently, this video is why everyone.

Also, hi all!

Ben

So I had an idea... Not sure about it's appilacbility, or its capability though

Having a "mod ping"

Just a general one

@JoelHarmon [wave 3]

Joel Harmon

@Ben How does one wave upside down? I'm not convinced my hand would bend that way...

A "mod ping" sounds like just flagging for a mod.

Ben

@JoelHarmon mirrors, mostly

@JoelHarmon on the main site, yeah

But maybe in chat, it might be a bit different. Like a chat that needs to be moved to a different room, or asking for them to unfreeze a room or something.

You just need a mod for that

Joel Harmon

If you could define a short, fixed list of common things, then perhaps a modification to the existing chat flags would be a feature you could suggest.

BESW

That's really not what mods sign up for though, it'd be a dramatic shift in the things mods are expected to do.

Ben

1:29 AM

Well, make it simpler, just type something like "@moderator can you please xyz"

Gotta use your manners

Joel Harmon

Also, I believe chat room owners also have some nebulous set of powers related to rooms, but I am currently too distracted to look it up. Yes, looking it up would probably have taken less time than writing this message.

BESW

90

A: A guide to moderating chat

What tools are available to room owners? Room owners are users that have some elevated permissions in a chatroom. Typically, they will be the first line of defense when it comes to inappropriate content or behavior in a room. Users will look to the room owners to guide the room. The room owners...

Ben

Haha

Bookmarks Every Site on the Web

I almost feel like there's going to be a "Stig reveal" moment when @BESW actually explains the acronym. Haha

Some people don't want to know... Some do desperately... Others will be underwhelmed or overjoyed by the knowledge

nitsua60

@Ben lolfigsl

V2Blast

About to stream our D&D 5e actual-play podcast in about 2.5 hours: https://www.twitch.tv/events/oGzGrCoxSbS1S1Zg61gSqg

In a universe adjacent to our own lies a world known as Runia. This world, once peaceful and idyllic, is now threatened by a monstrous being from its prehistory. A group of adventurers known as Whiskey Company have risen up to do what they can to fight this entity known only as Nagat. They have trekked far across the mortal realms in search of the shards of Barrinoth, the Titan of Justice, in hopes of returning him to his full power.

MikeQ

1:43 AM

@Ben It used to be in the profile info. Not there anymore. Now it's a mystery.

Ben

@nitsua60 accurate

Building the Expectations of Stackizens Worldwide

2

Joshua

2:00 AM

Chaos in the UK

KorvinStarmast

@Eternallord66 personal preference. Kenku is mechanically an utter mess. tiefling for other reasons and this is not the time and place.

@Shalvenay hi shal

@MikeQ You nailed that dive :)

Joshua

So my friend thinks that anyone who can get close enough to a star to blind scry is dangerous even if you're five levels higher.

KorvinStarmast

@BESW original D&D had no canon setting. What you all missed by entering into it two decades later is that freedom.

Ben

@KorvinStarmast Warhammer 40k was originally that similar "you all meet in a tavern and go adventuring together" style of game too

KorvinStarmast

@BESW geeks are gonna geek, but that was a great reply

@Ben The less canon and the less "official" material the better if you don't mind having to use your own imagination.

If you need to borrow someone else's imagination, eh, that's just harder to do but it is still doable

Ben

2:11 AM

Personally I'm not really good at world building, so it makes things easier for me haha

KorvinStarmast

@Ben Fair point and I have gone both routes, hence that observation

Ben

Each to their own :)

How's things?

Joshua

2:43 AM

Things are still subject to the second law.

MikeQ

@Joshua A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law?

BESW

Muse - Madness (THE 2ND LAW)

►

Joshua

@MikeQ: ΔEΔS>0

Hot RPG Questions

5

Q: RAW, Is the "Finesse" trait incompatible with unarmed attacks?

Pathfinder draws a strict distinction between unarmed attacks and weapons. Does this distinction invalidate the benefits of the "Finesse" trait, when applied to unarmed attacks? Almost all characters start out trained in unarmed attacks. You can Strike with your fist or another body part, cal...

Ben

3:28 AM

@MikeQ r🐘

V2Blast

4:08 AM

We'll be live momentarily! Come tune in: twitch.tv/bigdredwun

Ben

@V2Blast @linksassin a good way to pass the afternoon :D

linksassin

4:39 AM

@Ben If only I had access to twitch at work.

Ben

Haha fair

Benefits of being head of IT in a small business :P

linksassin

TBH I think the only reason this site isn't blocked is because the filter doesn't equate rpg to gaming. Arcade.se is blocked.

DnDBeyond also isn't blocked but I can't login to it because Twitch is.

Ben

@linksassin You could argue it is a QA site...

You know... arQAde.se

haha

Hot RPG Questions

5:19 AM

3

Q: How do you calculate the range of an attack when attacking diagonally?

I was recently in a situation where I had to make a crossbow attack on an enemy that is in the opposite corner of the room from where I was. It looked a bit like this: For the sake of simplicity, let's assume my weapon has a range of 25 feet, and that each square is 5 feet wide. If I count t...

dnd-5e ranged-attack battle-map

kviiri

6:46 AM

@Ben How come I never realized this

Ben

It took me a while too

I still automatically think "arquarde" too haha

kviiri

Meanwhile in Dada Engineering (typo intentional), a "two-week feature" I've been working for a month and a half is finally starting to show results.

Ben

@kviiri Just to check... data > dada?

kviiri

@Ben Yeah

Ben

Ok haha

It is a very attentive role. Gotta make sure it's following the right lessons you've set and help it get itself back together when things go wrong

BESW

6:55 AM

@JohnClifford It's not a religion, but there is the Allegory of Justice Represented as a Blind Ferret Triumphing over the Duck of Mute Despair.

kviiri

@Ben I'm more about pipelines at this time

Ben

I'm actually doing the exact same thing with Cables.

kviiri

it's like playing Factorio except the copper is data, the iron is data, the coal is data, the oil is data, and even some of the belts are data.

BESW

@kviiri And now I'm thinking of "The Complete History Of The Soviet Union, Arranged To The Melody Of Tetris," by Pig with the Face of a Boy.

kviiri

@BESW Ooh! That's a classic!

I also like how it's not the usual "commies bad" take on the Soviet history

BESW

7:05 AM

Yes, although it also removes a sense of agency from the Russian people.

kviiri

True

BESW

Which is... kinda validating the narrative that got them there in the first place.

kviiri

My great-grandmother left Russia when the revolution was already ongoing

A relative of mine has some tapes of her talking of it, apparently the border security was quite lax at the time (and Finland was until December 1917 a de jure part of Russia, even if autonomous)

BESW

Wow, that's really interesting.

kviiri

Yeah, I should do something about digitizing them

Ben

7:16 AM

@kviiri That's a decent idea

kviiri

She moved to St. Petersburg to work (as a maid) in her youth and she also saw them fish Rasputin's corpse out the river

BESW

Now there's a story to tell your grandchildren.

Ben

Wow.

"Who's Rasputin?"
"O-ho! Strap yourselves in kiddies!"

trogdor

a very weird man

who people remember most for the way he was killed

at least the supposed way he was killed

Ben

Wasn't* killed. Haha

As in no matter what happened, he didn't go :P

BESW

7:25 AM

Rasputin saw Moliere's Tartuffe, ou l'Imposteur and thought "Hah, I can do better than that."

trogdor

lol

@Ben I mean, he did die though

Ben

Supposedly. :P

trogdor

and I am of the opinion they didn't need to be quite so brutal about it, they just really really didn't like him

Ben

He wasn't the greatest guy, lets be fair

trogdor

and thus the legend of it taking several forms of murder to kill him, or that he lived through it or wtv you desire to posit

I'm not gonna try to say he was no

but that was an excessive murder if there ever was one

I think that's not too controversial of me to say

7:28 AM

People in those times were... flamboyant about a lot of things

RASPUTIN - Vladimir Putin - Love The Way You Move (Funk Overload) @slocband

►

trogdor

oh god

it begins

now I have to watch both again

monsters

Ben

And then of course...

In the Dark of the Night - Anastasia 1080p

►

trogdor

no

I say no

Ben

Why are the villains songs always the best?

Save a few, like Mulan, I'd say it's a pretty common theme. Lol

BESW

7:34 AM

Because the villains are allowed to have depth and flaws in ways that heroes of that particular bowdlerized kind of story aren't.

And, well. Despite their "I want" songs, most heroes in that genre are passive and reactive while the villains are the ones who take action to accomplish their goals.

Pierre Cathé

Morning

Even beyond their songs, villains are often more likeable than heroes in many kinds of media

BESW

(Also, queer-coding your villains is morally reprehensible but it does mean they've got much better style than your heroes.)

Ben

@PierreCathé especially when you get older haha. As a kid, you wanna be Arial. As an adult, Ursula is yo gurl

@BESW I think Disney has been sending the wrong subliminal messages haha

Nyakouai

Morning. Thanks for putting in the Dark of the Night in my head right from the start

Pierre Cathé

I think one of the characters I like most is Arsène Lupin, who's often both a hero and a villain

V2Blast

7:40 AM

D&D 5e:
My halfling swashbuckler rogue just hit level 16 (in our streamed game, every Wednesday night at midnight EDT ;) ).
He has a Dex score of 18 and a Cha score of 16. Since he just got an ASI, do you guys think it's worth taking the Inspiring Leader feat, or should I just increase Dex score to 20? (Or something else?)

Ben

@Nyakouai You're welcome! Hahaha

Nyakouai

Villains are often way more charismatic than the protagonist

Scar and Frolo come to mind

Pierre Cathé

As in he's definitely the protagonist and he's a gentleman, but then he robs you for all you own

V2Blast

@linksassin Ah. No Google account connected to the same account, I assume?

@kviiri I didn't realize it until just now (or maybe I did and just forgot)

Pierre Cathé

@V2Blast DEX is probably your main stat ? ASI to your main stat is often the best thing you can do, but it depends on your roleplay

Ben

7:42 AM

Firewall stuff. Lots of prewritten rules automatically filter out things. Drugs, alocohol, streaming, recreational stuff, gaming, etc

kviiri

@trogdor There is a similar legend in Ingrian folk poetry that was included in Kalevala, the story of Kullervo. He was born in slavery, and (through some means knowing his origin) vows, in his childhood, revenge on Untamo who killed his father and took him for a slave. Untamo, realizing this, orders Kullervo to be drowned in a barrel, but he somehow escapes it. Then he is ordered to build a pyre, where Untamo tries to burn him to death --- but he emerges unharmed after burning for days.

Then they try to hang Kullervo but he doesn't die of that either, having filled the oak tree with carvings and drawings over the days they left him there for.

Ben

@kviiri you'd think this stuff only happens in fiction. I suppose they gotta get their inspiration from somewhere though!

kviiri

Untamo then gives up and lets Kullervo live in slavery, promising he'd be rewarded for good work and punished for bad.

Nyakouai

While this seems extremely interesting (and depressing) I'll sadly have to leave you for the morning

V2Blast

@Nyakouai Later!

Nyakouai

7:47 AM

Have a good (not depressing) morning

V2Blast

danke

Ben

@Nyakouai currently 6pm for me, so I'll let you know tomorrow haha

Ciao!

BESW

ttfn

I do recommend that people look into why Disney villains tend to be the most interesting and memorable characters in their movies, because it's directly related to a lot of common problems in D&D-style characterisation and plotting.

trogdor

@kviiri interesting

Ben

That is a great point actually. One of my favourite characters was actually the villain in a one off I ran

BESW

7:59 AM

Aug 24 '17 at 5:09, by BESW

@eimyr I just ran across something that reminded me of a rule-of-thumb test for protagonism: the character who has the strongest desire and faces the biggest obstacles is the protagonist. (This is why so many movies have more interesting villains than heroes; by many standards the villain better fills the role of protagonist.)

V2Blast

I'm currently looking for orchestral reference music; the D&D party's currently in hell (trying to rescue someone), and my character's a bit of a composer, so he's writing a new composition based on recent events. So right now I'm listening to Liszt's Dante Symphony

LISZT~Dante Symphony S.109 HD Complete *ft. Gustave Doré Scenic Storyline* Complete

►

Ben

She was a tiefling sorcerer, masquerading as a dark elf (hid her horns and tail under her cloak at all times), and her power was purely on mind control, nothing else

BESW

@V2Blast it's not orchestral but you might be amused by The Vitamin String Quartet.

Ben

The adventure wasn't very long, so I didn't get into her character very much, but she seemed to be under some kind of pressure to be the bad guy for someone else

BESW

And Carbon Maestro does good digital orchestral compositions.

Derpy

8:07 AM

Disney's protagonists...

drop the Disney mess, switch to shonen - or even better seinen

BESW

Nobody's saying Disney's a good model?

Derpy

for protagonists?

well, I remember liking Kimba....

kviiri

Kimba the Lion Hamlet?

Derpy

@kviiri Kimba the Albino Panthera

(and yep, lions are part of the Panthera genus)

Ben

8:27 AM

@BESW well it works, so it's got something going for it haha

John Clifford

8:50 AM

What's the etiquette on posting an answer to a question that already has an accepted answer if you don't necessarily agree with the one that was accepted?

BESW

Answers are self-contained responses to the question, and offer positive support for their solutions.

It's possible to add, as a minor part of an otherwise lengthy answer, something like "I've also seen a common misapprehension that I'd like to clear up..." but that's not necessary and is hard to do without being rude or making the answer reliant on another answer to make sense.

John Clifford

Yeah.

V2Blast

9:36 AM

What BESW said. Answers should be largely standalone, rather than intended as comments or refutations of specific other answers. If you have an answer that is in opposition to the existing answers (accepted or not), that's certainly fine to post - just make sure to gear it toward addressing the question, not necessarily other answers.

John Clifford

9:46 AM

I did so. ^_^

Joel Harmon

11:18 AM

~~strikethrough~~ -> ---strikethrough---

Pierre Cathé

@JoelHarmon Thanks

Joel Harmon

@PierreCathé Any question/answer edit box should have a help section that covers that.

@V2Blast Are you familiar with Two Steps from Hell?

Nyakouai

11:56 AM

Re

Why the Kimba?

@Derpy Since Seinen is more often than not about a hero overcoming impossible odds through sheer power of will, that fits quite nicely what BESW said ^^

Derpy

@Nyakouai because The Lion King is often said to be somehow "based" on ideas taken from "Kimba the White Lion", an old anime by Tezuka (same one that wrote Astroboy if you know that)

Nyakouai

12:22 PM

Bit young for that, but I think I faintly remember something about that

Derpy

1:45 PM

@Nyakouai it is the one in the picture I posted before

Nyakouai

1:55 PM

My work's proxy doesn't let me see pictures (nor use Google efficiently)

Hot RPG Questions

8

Q: What is the DC of the Tempest Cleric's Wrath of the Storm feature?

Tempest Domain clerics have the ability Wrath of the Storm (PHB, p. 62): When a creature within 5 feet of you that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to cause the creature to make a Dexterity saving throw. The creature takes 2d8 lightning or thunder damage (your ch...

dnd-5e class-feature cleric saving-throw difficulty-class

The Oracle

2:17 PM

0

Q: Should questions about how to narrate be on topic here or off?

We've gotten a couple of questions recently that do seem to be okay within our framework, but there's enough softness here that I wanted to bring it up in meta as to whether or not they really do fit. How to flavor my narration of a fight in a creatively plausible way without affecting mechanics...

discussion

Joshua Aslan Smith

@V2Blast @Rubiksmoose @nitsua60 @doppelgreener maybe one of you could help with this deleted duoe situation

goodguy5

I'm expecting a wrist slap for my comment on that create water question

doppelgreener

@JoshuaAslanSmith What's going on?

Someone_Evil

@goodguy5 I think the yes makes it technically an answer

Joshua Aslan Smith

0

Q: Where can I find a price list for machinery?

I'm running a setting where my PCs want some kind of machinery. Mechanical canaries, clockwork, guns, etc... are just a few examples. I have heard that D&D has a list about machinery cost/price but I haven't been able to find it. In my last session the PC's wanted to build a temple for Erathis (...

dnd-5e magic-items homebrew crafting pricing

New user made a duoe of their own question that was deleted

goodguy5

2:20 PM

@Someone_Evil edited to "well, it's impolite"

Joshua Aslan Smith

*dupe

Can't vtc as dupe of a deleted question which makes sense. Figure a mod might be able to undelete original and the close off the new one as a dupe

Also @doppelgreener hi

Starting to be active again now that I'm playing rpgs again

doppelgreener

Thanks for bringing that up, all sorted out now

Hi!! It's great to see you. :)

NautArch

@doppelgreener Can you reestablish the original question's hold status as well?

@goodguy5 nah, it's a funny

it's impolite to have an open mouth and to put water in someone's open mouth :)

goodguy5

sometimes certain odd-numbered dice don't like my funnies

doppelgreener

@NautArch I'm iffy that it needs it in its current state. It seems clear about what it's talking about, and it's just asking for general guidance.

NautArch

2:33 PM

@doppelgreener okay, so it was a mod call rather than community.

doppelgreener

Yep

NautArch

Gotcha, i'll delete my comments

doppelgreener

If it's still missing details, could you post a comment on the old question asking for that detail?

NautArch

I think i had voted as too broad in the same way id id with how ot price higher education

nitsua60

Sometimes a company that services electronic card-access locks for school campuses decides that the first week in September is a good time to push a big software update.

doppelgreener

2:33 PM

Mod call being my call alone, I haven't checked with my co-mods yet

NautArch

@doppelgreener I don't necessarily disagree, but it also effectively rubberstamps what they did which I don't love.

nitsua60

@NautArch Well, you push up the sticker price while simultaneously lobbying the federal gov't for subsidized student loans....

NautArch

@nitsua60 hhe, i'm trying to find the question now...

doppelgreener

@NautArch I agree it might send the wrong message, but let's hope they don't learn from that or they're going to see more of the moderators again than they'd like.

NautArch

this one which I still think isn't answerable by anything then "up to your dm".

so yeah, keep it open :)

although this time they are the DM and I don't know if there is any real guidance here.

nitsua60

2:37 PM

@NautArch the thing about that one that makes me unable to vote is my dearth of knowledge on Eberron; the scoping to a particular, published setting makes it certainly conceivable that there's a well-enough established economy that it's answerable. So I'm not going to close it. But if some Eberron expert comes along and says "there's nowhere near the necessary info published about Eberron to answer this..." then I hope they VtC =)

NautArch

@nitsua60 Totally agree. Definitely not closeable (although I don't agree with their chosen answer.)

JohnP

SE is weird.

Nyakouai

Which part of it?

JohnP

@Nyakouai Careful well researched detailed answer -> 2 upvotes. 5 minute description that was self deleted and undeleted -> 22 upvotes and counting. :|

nitsua60

2:57 PM

@JohnP Baseball cap with an embroidered diamond -> priceless =)

JohnP

@nitsua60 I never got one of those. :(

Although the box o' swag I got had a ton of RPG.SE stickers. Bonus.

nitsua60

@JohnP Oh, no! To the TL!!! [Batman theme starts...]

JohnP

@nitsua60 Eh, I'm ok with it. Until I get elected on a ~~full~~ graduated site, anyway.

nitsua60

Or wherever on the new spectrum of A51-->"full" the diamond-cap will now fall. Brave new world!

Joshua Aslan Smith

3:18 PM

Lol

@JohnP I feel like a lot of those stylistic questions are voted on feels preferences

JohnP

@JoshuaAslanSmith Pretty much. I must be good at all the feels.

Hrm. That really doesn't sound like it did in my head.

Joshua Aslan Smith

3:44 PM

Haha

KorvinStarmast

@V2Blast 20 dex

NautArch

@V2Blast How hard is the DM coming at you? Are folks dropping a lot? How many SHort rests do you guys get per day?

Medix2

4:25 PM

I'm not really sure where to ask this, is there a way to opt out of receiving reputation for an answer but not mark it as a community wiki?

Yuuki

No but technically yes but also why would you want to do that?

> - No (you can't opt out of getting reputation)
> - Technically yes (you can always put up a bounty using the rep that you got)

Medix2

In case I don't want to receive reputation for an answer, such as if it is not my original work, but also do not want it to be marked as community wiki which signals "You can edit this answer to improve it beyond typical edits of grammar and the like"

Yuuki

How is it not your original work? Are you citing some rulebook or an existing answer on the site?

Medix2

@Yuuki If I am effectively pasting an answer to a different question from another user, perhaps one who no longer uses the site

Xirema

@Medix2 Just to be clear, the question being answered is definitely not a duplicate of the question where the answer you're referencing came from?

Because in that situation, it would be better to remove your answer, and then just flag the question as a duplicate of the other so that they'll be linked.

If they're not duplicates, then it's fine to make essentially the same answer, though I would make an effort to at least use your own wording and then link to the other answer as evidence/reference for yours.

Carcer

4:33 PM

unfortunately there's no way to disavow mechanical credit for an answer besides marking it community wiki

Xirema

It's not unusual on this site for two [legitimately] different questions to have nearly identical answers.

Yuuki

Besides, there's still work involved in finding an applicable answer.

Carcer

but yeah

Yuuki

I wouldn't stress out about "undeserved" reputation because 1) I don't think it's undeserved and 2) it's not that big of a deal.

Carcer

there's not actually any harm in just quoting something which already perfectly answers the question as long as you're open about the fact you're quoting and what your source is

Xirema

4:34 PM

@Yuuki I mean, Plagiarism definitely should be avoided, but there's easy stuff you can do to remove potentially plagiarizing material from an answer that's still the same in substance to the other.

Carcer

lots of good, high-voted answers are basically just quoting the relevant parts of rules texts at someone anyway.

Medix2

Those are all very good points, thank you all

Yuuki

@Xirema In cases where someone is concerned that they're getting reputation that they don't think they deserve, I don't think that person is attempting to plagiarize and so I'm willing to give a pass. Especially when the system we're working in doesn't really address the issue in any way.

Besides, SE is a collection of fake internet points, not peer-reviewed papers that establish your academic credentials.

Medix2

Is there a way to suggest an edit when you have higher reputation but have the question not immediately change? Such as if you edit is rather significant and you would want the asker to agree to it before it applies?

Yuuki

Once you have automatic edit privileges, you can no longer suggest edits.

Medix2

4:39 PM

@Yuuki Interesting, guess it'll just be that way

Someone_Evil

(bar using a sockpuppet account, which is a bit of a grey-area)

Yuuki

Maybe leave a comment or an invite to a chatroom or something.

Xirema

In those situations, I usually just ask in a comment if they're okay with me making that edit; or I just suggest they do. I generally don't make edits if it substantially alters the content of the post UNLESS

1. They tell me it's okay.
2. They're hashing out details in the comments and I'd rather get that stuff into the post than wait for them to figure out how editing works (they're often newer users that do that).

Yuuki

@Someone_Evil IIRC, sock puppets aren't really a grey area. They're definitely allowed with the sole exception of vote manipulation. So go ahead and make a sock puppet. Just don't vote with both of your accounts.

nitsua60

@Medix2 In that case I will often make the (substantial) edit and then quickly revert, then leave a comment saying "I think this would read better if XYZ, but it's way too long to get into in comments. I've gone ahead and made an edit so that you can see what I mean. [link from revision history] Please feel free to use as much of that as you'd like in case you agree with the sentiment."

@Xirema There was a while there (ca. 2015 or 2016?) where @Miniman and I were often tens of seconds apart on answering new 5e questions (with substantially the same answers). Often they ended up like A/B tests on whether narrative vs. bullet points, or KISS vs. explain-and-expand would be better received.

JohnP

4:47 PM

@Someone_Evil Relevant meta - Sock accounts are allowed unless you abuse them.

Xirema

@Medix2 Oh, something else I often do, especially if the post contains a lot of grammar or spelling mistakes: "I've edited your post to try to clean up the grammar and make your intent more clear: please feel free to roll back my changes if you feel I've misrepresented your intent."

Edits can be rolled back relatively painlessly.

Medix2

I hadn't known that if you rollback an edit it still exists in the revision history so they can re-rollback, thanks for the tips/advice all

Is there a better/regular place to ask questions about ways to accomplish goals like I've asked here?

JohnP

Hrm. So...there are two different questions that are answered by pretty much the exact same quoted block from the DMG, are they dupes or not? Dupes go by question not answer on RPG, correct?

@nitsua60 ^^

Someone_Evil

@JohnP They're probably only heavily related. A block of rules can clarify many distinct situations and there are many ways to misunderstand a block of rules

Marking Q's as duplicates because of overlap in answers can lead to messes

JohnP

5:25 PM

@Someone_Evil makes sense. Harder here because of rules interpretations. Easier on other sites where 18 different descriptions still describe the same object.

nitsua60

@JohnP And ways to know what the "right" (for a game, for a table, for a problem) interpretation is.

Similar-to-identical answers are a ~~good~~ great prompt to ask "are these questions duplicates," but really it's evaluation of the questions absent any of their answers that should argue for/against closure, IMO.

Someone_Evil

Is there a specific pair of questions that prompted this?

Yuuki

@nitsua60 Yes, questions should be closed based on their merit, not their answer-space.

NautArch

@Himitsu_no_Yami DIdn't want to continue this thread in the actual comments, but I purposefully didn't translate it to french and I was referencing Magritte :)

JohnP

5:42 PM

@Someone_Evil The flying speeds for dragons question, it was answered by the exact same quote/nearly same answer as the griffon/flying carpet question.

NautArch

@JohnP I would say that isn't a duplicate. Same answer process, but both different question (griffon/flying carpet vs dragon) and different final answer based on the speeds of those creatures.

V2Blast

@JoelHarmon I am. I figured it was too on the nose :P

@nitsua60 Rubiksmoose and I didn't get any swag :(

@NautArch We've definitely had challenging fights but even being downed is a relative rarity.

@JohnP Correct, they're only duplicates if the questions are the same (or one's entirely a subset of the other), not if only the answers are the same.

NautArch

@V2Blast Then I'd probably skip inspiring leader. If the temp HP isn't needed, then they're not needed.

But in general, i often prefer feats to ASIs.

they're more fun

@V2Blast what's your race?

V2Blast

@NautArch halfling

@JohnP Related:

12

Q: If an answer to question A can be found in question B, should we close A as duplicate of B?

Related: Non-duplicate question with answer in another question Should/can we change the Duplicate notification? Situation — there are two different questions Aq and Bq. Question Aq has a specific answer Aa. Question Bq has a good detailed answer, which includes points Aa, Ba and Ca. Should ...

discussion faq duplicates closing-questions duplicate-answers

13

Q: Non-duplicate question with answer in another question

Regarding the recent question "How do I quickly find the official errata for any book?". It was closed by several heavy users as a duplicate of "How do you tell if a D&D book is 3.0 or 3.5?". The questions are not the same, but the latter question happens to have a very long answer that contai...

discussion closed-questions

NautArch

@V2Blast The halfling luck feats (bountiful/2nd chance) are kinda fun, but not as offensively focused.

Himitsu_no_Yami

5:56 PM

@NautArch oh well now I feel dumb lol

NautArch

@Himitsu_no_Yami hehe. no worries. /woooosh :D

Himitsu_no_Yami

big woosh lol

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