TRPG General Chat

BESW

12:01 AM

Pandatheist did a read-through (twitter link) of Bolt RPG by Ajey Pandey.

nitsua60

1:29 AM

@Himitsu_no_Yami ADR is good.

Hot RPG Questions

17

Q: What to do if a player expected much more than DM gave?

I was not the DM in this session, it was my GF, but she does not speak English so I'm here to ask for all of us. We've faced an issue that seems we can't solve. It was our 2nd game, no one of us ever played before. We played Lost Mine of Phandelver and finally entered a room with a hostage in a c...

Hot RPG Questions

4:27 AM

7

Q: Where did D&D first move away from instant death?

Early editions of D&D direct that a character dies when reaching 0hp; that is instantly. Hit Points and Hit Dice Any creature reduced to 0 hit points (or less) is dead. Page B6 (D&D Basic Box Set) When was it first published as an option that characters do not die instantly in the general case?

dungeons-and-dragons history-of-gaming character-death

Bardic Wizard

4:40 AM

So I had an idea for a campaign, can somebody recommend me a system?

linksassin

@BardicWizard What's the idea?

Bardic Wizard

Basically, the players are magic users, but are low ranking Starfleet officers. The problem: Starfleet doesn’t know magic exists, and the players need to keep it that way.

So Star Trek, but with secret magic and some extra problems.

linksassin

Hmm... what's the tone of the campaign? Is it a stealth and subtly game? Or a social game? Or something more combat focused where the setting is just a backdrop?

Bardic Wizard

I have no idea. Probably rp-focused over combat focused, but it just popped into my head and I really want to play it

Maybe something useable in PbP though bc pandemic

linksassin

We had a conversation a while ago about how the setting is less important than the tone when choosing a system. Started by me stating something was a "sci-fi" system and then being questioned about what makes a system "sci-fi"

Bardic Wizard

4:46 AM

Tone is probably TNG-like then — light and funny, but with the ability to go darker occasionally

linksassin

Are you looking for heroic adventure? Or more political manavouring? Something with lots of mechanical crunch or something more lightweight and narrative focused?

Bardic Wizard

Narrative systems have worked better in PbP before for me

linksassin

@BardicWizard PbP is an important restriction. I don't have much experience there. Strict PbP or would you trying playing online?

Bardic Wizard

I’d play online probably, it’s just that this isn’t the style of my local group so I’d be recruiting players or something

So it’s mostly be “something that doesn’t require being in person to play”

linksassin

In my experience if your group adapts well to playing on a virtual tabletop and voice chat you can play basically anything much the same way you would in person.

Bardic Wizard

4:57 AM

It hasn’t worked like that for us much — we have a hard time ensuring nobody cheats bc half the group can’t get roll20 for reasons; trying to show a decent map on zoom; and a whole bunch of voice chat issues

linksassin

@BardicWizard Cheats? How can they cheat?

Personally I use discord and roll20 and while one player has some voice issues it has been fairly successful.

Bardic Wizard

@linksassin we roll physical dice and announce results, but I’ve got really bad luck despite sacrifices to tymora and one of my players has really good luck (even at a physical table and with my dice) so it always feels like “this is probably fine but she’s just rolled 2 nat20s in a single session...”

linksassin

Ah... you can get a dice roller bot for discord if roll20 doesn't work for you

Bardic Wizard

I don’t have discord (it was blocked on my computer until a couple months ago but I haven’t gotten around to it), is it worth using?

linksassin

@BardicWizard In a single session isn't that unlikely. Are you sure they are cheating or is it just the group doesn't trust each other enough?

Discord is my prefer voice chat option. It's pretty good for most things.

But there are other options. I've even used slack in the past.

Bardic Wizard

5:06 AM

It’s somewhat of a trust issue (we met through a mutual activity) and I’m usually not the doubter, that’s my other player

I use slack for one game rn

linksassin

You can get a dice roller bot for most voice chats that support bots.

Slack has one for sure

Bardic Wizard

Ah, alright then. It’s useful to think about it, but since I’m not even sure if I could find players for this game, I mostly wanted to know if there was a system that would support something like what I wanted

linksassin

@BardicWizard Roll20 has a player searching feature. Or you can see if anyone here in chat is interested.

Bardic Wizard

Alright

linksassin

We even have some questions on finding players under the finding-other-players

BESW

6:06 AM

What's So Cool About Being Demisexual? by Babblegumsam for the What Is So Cool About Jam. if you don’t get it, that’s okay. demisexuals probably don’t either.

HellSaint

6:46 AM

wait

@Someone_Evil @Rubiksmoose remind me again please: a closed question can get to HNQ?

nevermind I was reading the timeline of the question wrong

BESW

9:57 AM

Kickstarter: INSPIRISLES by Hatchlings is a completely original tabletop RPG aimed at teenagers. It will promote empathy, life skills and deaf awareness with an emphasis on teamwork and creativity. Participants learn Sign Language (BSL/ASL) as they play. Aimed at teens but enjoyed by adults, our game also features safety tools, is dyslexia friendly & will receive ASD consultancy.

Jason Pitre of Genesis of Legend Publishing shared the RPG Design Worksheets he uses in workshops with new tabletop game designers.

Hot RPG Questions

11:15 AM

4

Q: Is there a work around for Counterspell and Identifying a spell both using a reaction?

In order to Identify a spell being cast (XGtE p85) a character can use their reaction to identify a spell as it's being cast, This is a problem because Counterspell (PH p228) also requires a reaction. So if my intent is to identify the spell being cast and then counter it, I am unable to do b...

dnd-5e spells reactions counterspelling

kviiri

11:29 AM

I wonder if anyone's done a decentralized RNG service. Would be a really low-tech solution, working even on platforms without roller bots and potentially being even more versatile

BESW

Not sure what you mean?

kviiri

Err, centralized I mean. Like a web site that creates a global rng array eg once a minute. Just share the link to the site and everyone sees the same array

BESW

Ah.

kviiri

My ex and I were working on a solution like this for a platform she uses where drawing lots for small stuff is quite common but there's no roller bot support so enforcing fairness is quite hard

BESW

Why not just grab a random number table? Those things pre-date electricity.

kviiri

11:32 AM

true, although everyone'd need a copy of the same table and if there's considerable concern about cheating it might become a bit unwieldy

Cheating as in trying to influence results, or knowing the next result in advance

For my ex's need, we designed a system with the intent that the method used to randomize is public and based on public data only. I recommended using hashed stock data

BESW

Oh yeah. I forget that some people game with people they don't trust.

kviiri

Well the need for remote RNGs extends beyond just RPGs

BESW

...does anybody have a public Lavarand?

BESW

12:07 PM

The Fabled Flame is a UK etsy shop that sells 2.5'' tall d20 candles.

Medix2

@V2Blast Why did you protect this question? The timeline has nothing on it between unprotection and reprotection on my end

Carcer

12:33 PM

@Medix2 it's one the ones that's had the spellcasting spam on it

BESW

Dr Nigerianname can get your ex back, purge your incurable disease, give you mind control powers, make you rich, AND give you some nice herbal therapy. Whatsapp him today!
Yeah, that's one of the bots that won't give up.

Medix2

Oh are we doing a reprotecting of posts with prior bot spammers?

BESW

It was just edited for other reasons two days ago, so V2 may have just seen it come up in the feed again and noticed that it needed protection.

But yes, I haven't seen any supported meta arguments for not re-protecting posts that have been identified by spammers.

Carcer

@Medix2 yes, it's at least agreed that questions with previous history of that kind of spam are extremely likely to attract more if unprotected

Medix2

I'll go find the people saying not to do that... (This may take a while)

BESW

12:45 PM

Everywhere I saw people saying not to re-protect, they acknowledged in comments or edits that known spam targets should be an exception.

Carcer

I did suggest it, but only as a fact-gathering exercise to demonstrate if questions which had been spammed this way a long time ago were still likely to attract spam today.

Someone_Evil

But how we want to use that information and importantly the protection feature going forwards is not decided yet is it? As far as I know that's the next step in the process.

Carcer

(and on the presumption that reapplying the protection was a very quick and easy thing which could be done at any time, which turned out to not quite be true.)

I think we're generally agreed that protecting questions which manage to attract spam that gets through SE's normal spam-prevention measures is one of the appropriate uses of protection

Someone_Evil

And part of that will be the community making a value judgement between letting new users answer certain old questions and reducing spam posted by an unknowable amount

Carcer

it's the other uses which are in question

shopping time

Someone_Evil

12:52 PM

@Carcer That seems probable to be the consensus, but (as I can see) it isn't decided yet so I'll ask users not to go on a rampage reprotecting questions before the community has talked things out

Carcer

@Someone_Evil I didn't have any plans, but I'll try not to do it by accident

BESW

@Someone_Evil We're talking about how a moderator did it. Once.

Someone_Evil

Ok, good. And while I guess it's easier to find the protection sprees (as opposed to unprotection) I though I could hear gleeful scurrying and wanted to get ahead of it

BESW

I know y'all are skittish after The Seven Hundred, but let's not over-correct into wild accusations.

"gleeful scurrying" and "go on a rampage" are a bit. much.

Medix2

"can we get a list of which unprotected questions are causing problems?"
"There's a lot of talk of repeat spam, could you get stats of how many deleted answers per protected question?"
"isn't it possible to reprotect a question as soon as there is any activity that would warrant that?"
"The questions have been unprotected for almost a week now, has there been a flood of spam?"
"Usually, a question gets hit once and then never again. I only ever protect it if there's a clear sign it will be a repeat target"

Well the line-bresks broke the links but oh well

Someone_Evil

1:03 PM

I'll apologize if I went too harshly. There's a lot around this which is a bit of a mess. And I saw the exchange "are we doing a reprotecting of posts with prior bot spammers?" "Yes" and wanted to make sure I didn't have to look at more SEDE queries. Skittish is probably an apt description

Medix2

@BESW I was fully prepared to go reprotecting a bunch of questions if the community had made some consensus I was unaware of

Also @Someone_Evil Immense thank you for that edit into "erratically"

Thomas Markov

1:18 PM

@Someone_Evil If I find things like that post I flagged that you edited, Its cool if I just change it myself?

Someone_Evil

@ThomasMarkov Probably(?). Editing a post bumps it to the front for community review (as it were) and it's probably the kind of thing which might be better suited to bring up in chat than flags simply because that way you get more eyes (and heads) on it

Medix2

Was it the edit I just applauded?

Someone_Evil

Oh and as ever with editing old answers, keep the rate to a reasonable limit

@Medix2 Yes

Thomas Markov

I don’t even remember how I ended up on that post, but I saw it and thought “we can do without that phrase”.

Oh right, V2Blast edited the tags or something.

Medix2

FWIW I agree with the edit and am quite glad it was made

BESW

1:30 PM

@ThomasMarkov Yes, thank you for finding that and getting attention on it.

Brainstorming! I need a nongendered name for a doggo that phonetically "matches" (rhyming, alliteration, consonance/assonance, etc) the title Grim. Like Grim Jim but without a gender.

ACuriousMind

Kim?

BESW

Doesn't really roll off the tongue but definitely a possibility [adds to list]

Medix2

When you know females who goes by "Jim"......

BESW

Yeah, gendering names can be dumb but it's for a project and I need the hoi polloi to come along without too much prodding.

Medix2

There's Grey(son)/Gray(son)

NautArch

1:38 PM

@BESW Grim Slim? Can make him kinda like the tough "Slim" from the Jim Croce song "don't mess around with Jim"

Rubiksmoose

@Someone_Evil Indeed. I'm hoping to drop a post to that effect this weekend. I'm guessing we'll also feature it so it gets as many eyes as it can.

MikeQ

What's the doggo like? Knowing that could help with choosing a name.

Rubiksmoose

Are they a good boy?

Thomas Markov

Grim Gram.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW Kim is a (possibly) genderneutral name

BESW

1:45 PM

Grim is a very good doggo. They're a ghost bound to protect a place that no longer needs protecting, and they're trying to make connections with other things and places nearby so they can go exploring beyond the limitations of their haunt and find a new place to protect.

AncientSwordRage

wait... just read past comments

@BESW @NautArch's 'slim' also feels right for a ghost doggo

MikeQ

Grimlock?

Medix2

So we've got Grim Kim, Grim Slim, Grim Grey, and Grim Gram XD

I can't read "Grim Gram" without thinking of flim flam

AncientSwordRage

I also like crim

rhymezone.com/r/rhyme.cgi?Word=grim&typeofrhyme=perfect

MikeQ

Grim Growl(er), because they're a dog ghost?

AncientSwordRage

1:53 PM

hymn, limb, whim, ...?

NautArch

@MikeQ ooh, Grim Growler!

BESW

I liked Grim Growler enough to start trying it in my notes, and then I abbreviated it GG and went "...hm."

AncientSwordRage

Grim Shin, either because they're missing a shin bone or they like to gnaw on a spectral shin bone

Thomas Markov

Grim Ash, pronounced like Sean Connery saying “grimace”

kviiri

I can only think of Grim Natwick

Or Fandango

But neither matches the specification

MikeQ

2:05 PM

Grim Tin Tin?

NautArch

@MikeQ you are killing it!

MikeQ

I wrote a much larger list of terrible names, and then picked the least terrible

Thomas Markov

Btw Humble bundle has a Pathfinder 2e bundle on sale.

Rubiksmoose

@BESW ooooo I love it!

Bardic Wizard

@BESW Grim Rim?

Thomas Markov

2:21 PM

Grim Billie or Billie Grim.

Billie Grim is too close to Billy Graham nvm

Carcer

@ThomasMarkov it sent my head straight in the direction of Billie Lurk

Medix2

Is this contradictory to anybody else: " To determine how many workweeks it takes to create an item, divide its gold piece cost by 50. [...] Items that cost more than 50 gp can be completed over longer periods of time, as long as the work in progress is stored in a safe location." so a 90gp item takes... uh... 1 week? 2 weeks?

user15026

@ThomasMarkov That one feels odd to me

user15026

But that's likely because it's got my name in

LizWeir

I think that second section is just saying "your 90gp item will take two weeks, but you can spend a week on it, leave it in a box for a year, and then do the second week"

Medix2

2:25 PM

So "divide its gold piece cost by 50" just fails? 90/50 = 1

MikeQ

@LizWeir Yeah that's the only interpretation that makes sense

@Medix2 Could be 1.8, but 90 in two weeks would imply you round up to the nearest whole number of weeks

Medix2

@MikeQ Oh right it could just be 1.8 weeks... but you definitely round down, since it doesn't say otherwise

Someone_Evil

@ThomasMarkov Grim Ace?

user15026

@Someone_Evil That might have some unintended weirdness for ace-spec people maybe?

Carcer

yeah, it doesn't agree with the general rule that says you round down

@Ash "Ace" is used as a name and in other contexts, though, it feels like it should be safe

I think a bigger problem is that then you've just called the dog Grimace and probably the first thing that makes people think of is McDonalds.

user15026

2:31 PM

@Carcer If you're a certain age, yes - I remember him but I don't know if the McDonaldLand characters are even actively a thing anymore :P

user15026

At least, not here so much

Rubiksmoose

@Ash They probably are in some horrific corner of capitalism-driven media marketing lol

user15026

@Rubiksmoose oh I'm, sure they're still lurking someplace

user15026

waiting

Rubiksmoose

shudder

Carcer

2:33 PM

seems like early-2000s was their last outing

stop reminding me that I am subject to the ageing process and the things that are culturally relevant to my childhood may be no longer

Thomas Markov

The McDonald’s in my home town had a Ronald Macdonald statue sitting in a bench outside the store up until a few years ago when they renovated

Rubiksmoose

@BESW Grim Pim for some reason is sticking in my mind.

Grim Glen? Can Glen be gender neutral?

Carcer

if the dog is good at jumping could it be the Grim Leaper

2

Rubiksmoose

Love the pun.

@Carcer Or even Grim Keeper

Bardic Wizard

3:28 PM

In that vein: big eyes mean it could be the Grim Peeper, if it often went “meep” it could be the Grim Meep-er, if it has roadrunner ancestry it could be the Grim Beeper, if it liked to swim (or dig)— Grim Deeper, if it had a scythe — Grim Reaper, a broom could make it Grim Sweeper...

user15026

giggles okay, those are very silly, in a good way

MikeQ

Grim Beeper would be fitting for a ghost cockatiel

doppelgreener

4:06 PM

Grim Cheeper for ghost canary. It mainly haunts mines, sometimes spiriting a canary away because (a) the canary deserves better and (b) it'll really mess with the humans that put it there.

Thomas Markov

5:26 PM

We’ve got several posts here that could use some clean up: posts containing the word “retarded”

HellSaint

@ThomasMarkov Some of them are actually referring to a extremely low IQ character, what is the current term? Impaired?

user15026

@ThomasMarkov I've suggested edits on some of them now

HellSaint

@Ash For this one, ridiculous doesn't quite pass the same message, but I'm having trouble finding any other word that fits.

In particular because I think the answer used the word intentionally as extremely pejorative.

user15026

@HellSaint yeah, it's not the best option but I couldn't think of one that was incredibly unkind, and yeah, I understand they wanted a pejorative, but that's not the way to do it

nitsua60

@BardicWizard I strained my shoulder the other day shoveling a few yards of gravel for a patio-project. I'm now a grim heaper.

^^ true story

Thomas Markov

5:36 PM

@HellSaint Yeah, some of them have appropriate context, I’m not sure what to do about those. Some should definitely be scrubbed though.

user15026

@ThomasMarkov even then the "appropriate context" is kinda crappy

HellSaint

@Ash I would leave a comment in that case. If the answerer is willing to change, then they do it. Otherwise, you downvote I guess

user15026

(IQ as a thing is a terrible measure of anything actually legitimate about intelligence, it's terrible and racist and biased as heck)

Thomas Markov

@Ash Yeah, looks like a lot of them are very old posts.

user15026

@HellSaint I don't really wanna leave the word just hanging out there, honestly

user15026

5:37 PM

It's not kind, it's not necessary, and its a harmful thing.

HellSaint

@Ash Then you may flag the answer as a whole as offensive/harmful. But editing it in a way that was not the intended by the person writing it is a no-no.

Thomas Markov

Ten years ago we might have thought it appropriate, but it’s okay to keep things updated as words change.

user15026

@HellSaint I feel like we're splitting hairs, here, honestly.

user15026

I'm not really changing the intent beyond "oh hey let's not use a slur here please"

user15026

But whatever, y'all can not accept the edit if that's how you wanna do it

user15026

5:39 PM

(I honestly don't care if you do accept it or not, I just really hate that word, I hate people using it casually, and I've been trying really hard to scrub it from my own vocab.)

HellSaint

I have approved the other edits, but that one edit specifically doesn't have the same meaning. Again, I would leave a comment explaining it and the answerer can change it themselves, which is how we improve an answer when we can't find a simple edit that certainly contains the same message

Thomas Markov

@HellSaint I’m sure we can find a way to preserve the substance of the posts. It’s just not something I was comfortable undertaking solo and wanted some input from the thoughtful individuals who frequent this chat.

HellSaint

@ThomasMarkov Yeah, in almost all of them I simply approved the edit. That very specific one answer is the only one I disagree with changing without a comment.

NautArch

If y'all are interested in making changes, I'd put it up on meta.

Thomas Markov

Which answer was that? I just approved two more edits that looked good to me.

@HellSaint was it the one about trains?

HellSaint

5:44 PM

@ThomasMarkov The one from mxyzplk

Out of box thinking

Rubiksmoose

I'm a bit confused why this is getting downvotes given that everything I've concluded here seems to stem directly from the data and I didn't get far into subjective material I feel. If anybody sees any errors or areas for improvement or even alternate viewpoints, I really would appreciate it if they could drop them in a comment or another answer. :) — Rubiksmoose ♦ 2 mins ago

^ Just to give my comment a bit more visibility. I'm concerned that I overstepped my analysis or missed something important given the lukewarm/negative reception.

Thomas Markov

@Ash do you want to make a meta post about the rest of those posts or should I? I think we got the ones that were blatantly inappropriate.

HellSaint

@Rubiksmoose Can you link the post? :P

Rubiksmoose

@HellSaint If you click the link it should take you to the comment on the post :) But here's the link How has RPG.se used protection? (crunching the numbers on spam and protection)

HellSaint

@Rubiksmoose Yeah I realized it's actually 2 different links. One goes to your Meta account, and the other goes to the comment

Rubiksmoose

5:52 PM

I can actually fully understand a lukewarm reception. After all, reading through all that data to verify stuff is a chore (I know because I had to do it lol), but having downvotes just sparks a bit of my insecurity and concern.

HellSaint

@Rubiksmoose I think the main issue is that I'm not sure how the analysis is useful at all. After reading it, my feeling is: so what? Haha

Like, I was thrown some data at my face, but I'm not sure what exactly the data is trying to tell me, or, more specifically, what your answer is trying to tell me by presenting that data.

I wouldn't downvote just for that, though, but that's the overall feeling I got

Rubiksmoose

Ah I see! Well that certainly is valid. I tried to pick out the bits that I thought were relevant but also to stay away from practical recommendations since that is what I saw as the next step in the process after data collection.

But that certainly makes the answer less useful to people other than me for sure.

@HellSaint How about now?

HellSaint

@ThomasMarkov some of them are actually locked so that's also a problem - can not be edited.

Rubiksmoose

@ThomasMarkov oof.

HellSaint

@Rubiksmoose Can mods still edit locked questions?

Rubiksmoose

6:01 PM

@HellSaint yes! We can edit, but oddly we cannot revert.

user15026

6:19 PM

@ThomasMarkov Would you mind? I am mostly a chatizen as far as TRPG is concerned, and haven't really interacted with the main site much yet, so it might be better coming from someone more established

Thomas Markov

Yeah, Ill put something together. May not get to it today, I'm preparing to preach tomorrow.

Rubiksmoose

(if neither of you wanted to do it for whatever reason I or one of the other mods could certainly take care of it, just let us know)

Thomas Markov

@Rubiksmoose If you want to, go for it, I probably dont have the time to put together something worth while today.

Rubiksmoose

@ThomasMarkov I suspect it can wait until you do have time. I'm certainly willing but not in a particular rush. I also have several other moderation/meta things that I am writing up :)

user15026

Moderate all the things :P

user15026

6:23 PM

@ThomasMarkov No worries, I appreciate you doing it :)

Rubiksmoose

XD

Thomas Markov

haha no worries guys, Ill get around to it in time.

Rubiksmoose

@Ash Some days it certainly feels like it what with the Mod Council, Tavern ROing, MSE write-ups, and all the meta stuff here recently lol. Not that I'm complaining. I literally signed up for all of this.

Thomas Markov

All of the remaining posts are 5+ years old, so it isnt really a "fix this right now" thing.

user15026

@Rubiksmoose still, that's cool of you to take that stuff on, and I can see how it might make you busy

HellSaint

6:26 PM

@Rubiksmoose I liked the conclusion in the end, upvoted now :P

Rubiksmoose

@HellSaint Thanks for the suggestion for actual useful conclusions :)

@Ash I do apparently like to keep busy lol

nitsua60

8:40 PM

Please tell me that the books actually state what edition they are for somewhere in either introduction, cover or anywhere in the content. While the logos here are certainly distinguishable, relying simply on the logo to convey that info seems... Argh. — HellSaint 2 hours ago

@HellSaint yes they do. I mean, if they're 2nd or 3.5e. The beauty of D&D =)

The PHBs of the various editions often have an introduction or preface talking about the thinking that went into creating a new edition. Beyond those, it's rarely mentioned within the works.

Thomas Markov

@Someone_Evil @NautArch if he asks a different question Ill take a crack at it.

NautArch

@ThomasMarkov Is there a question yet?

ah, it's up now. And it's a legitimate question of probabilities (i think)

Thomas Markov

am i really about to learn the basics of this system just for a dumb flex? yes, yes i am....

NautArch

hahahaha

Thomas Markov

8:57 PM

@NautArch That's a ridiculously complex probability problem that depends on variables not listed in the question.

Someone_Evil

> Use comments to ask for more information or suggest improvements.

NautArch

@ThomasMarkov ^^

HellSaint

@Someone_Evil can I get you in a private chatroom?

Someone_Evil

@HellSaint Sure, give me a moment to set that up

HellSaint

@Someone_Evil I... joined it and then got kicked? haha

Someone_Evil

9:08 PM

@HellSaint Yeah, 'cause I changed it to private

HellSaint

9:22 PM

@nitsua60 I love you.

NautArch

Movin' right along

Just watched it with the kids, such a great movie!

Someone_Evil

Is "Movin' right along" the movie in question, or am I missing something?

NautArch

It's from the Muppet Movie and from a recent comment.

Someone_Evil

Ahh... I'm with you now, Ted

Kevin

9:37 PM

The lvl 1 stat block for Starfinder's iconic character Iseph says they have +6 to Athletics. Why is this? Shouldn't it be Str + class skill bonus + operative's edge = 1+3+1 = 5?

Someone_Evil

That's probably a valid question for main. Pretty sure we have other questions of that type (and I'm not sure how much Starfinder expertise there is among the chatizens)

Kevin

Ok. Should I include a higher-res image of the stat block in the question? I don't know whether Paizo wants me distributing content typically available only to users signed into their site.

MikeQ

Quoting or citing the relevant text is usually the norm around here

Someone_Evil

Which would be the number 6 and the other details you just gave. A systems expert should be perfectly able to answer from there, or they'll ask for clarifications in the comments

Kevin

Ok, thanks

MikeQ

9:43 PM

Although, to take a guess

If Starfinder uses skill ranks the same way as Pathfinder 1e, then it's probably because it includes the 1 rank. So 1 (Str) + 1 (rank) + 1 (class trained) + 1 (operative's edge) = 6

The other skills seem to be calculated similarly

Kevin

Hmm, unsure. If that was the case, then I would expect acrobatics to be 12 (4 dex + 1 rank + 3 class bonus + 1 operative's edge + 3 skill focus) rather than 11

MikeQ

3 from class trained, not 1, my typo

Kevin

ok

MikeQ

> Skill Ranks: Each skill rank you’ve invested in the skill increases your total skill bonus by 1.

nitsua60

20

Q: Are there mistakes on the pregenerated Starter Set wizard and ranger character sheets?

I am returning to D&D having not played since first edition and am trying to get my head around the character building process before I try and explain it to some new players. I have been reading through the PHB and working through the pre-generated character sheets from the Starter Set to help...

dnd-5e character-creation skills proficiency pregenerated-characters

^^ for instance

HellSaint

9:49 PM

@nitsua60 yeah, in some of the pregen in WotC website there are typos as well

nitsua60

Looking into SAGA: I think I can dig the notion that magic is bifurcated on whether it affects living/once-living things vs. inert, and that determines which stat powers it.

That bit about the eight stats being paired and paired again and paired again has some nice feels to it, too... though it starts to feel a little allomantic at some point.

Medix2

@ThomasMarkov I'm still debating changing the instances of Multiple Personality to Dissociative Identity, there's a point where I'm unsure what makes a good edit... Like seeing "his/hers" and wanting to use "their" or the r-word or MPD... The world is complicated

@HellSaint I've seen people argue the exact opposite of that

HellSaint

@Medix2 In what sense?

That people should edit a question/answer in a way that the original person that wrote it did not intend? That's very awkward.

Someone_Evil

You can very often keep the intent without using misused words

Kevin

Hmm, curious. When I add one skill rank to an ability on roll20, it adds 4 to my calculated total. I think the sheet assumes class skill bonus doesn't apply unless you have at least one rank.

HellSaint

9:59 PM

@Someone_Evil I agree. I just think the edit that was suggested earlier did not, so I rejected it. But someone else approved so I moved on :P

Someone_Evil

@HellSaint IIRC the author approved it

HellSaint

@Someone_Evil Even better that I moved on then haha

MikeQ

@Kevin That sounds correct. The +3 class bonus is only added to trained skills, which usually means having at least 1 rank in that skill.

HellSaint

In that case I believe leaving it as a comment instead of an edit suggestion would also have worked since the author could easily agree and edit either way though

Medix2

@Someone_Evil This. There's usually some way of getting rid of an offensive word while maintaining the tone/intent. Unless it was actually used offensively in which case it should get deleted for other reasons

Hot RPG Questions

10:02 PM

6

Q: Why is the term pureblood used for the lowest rank in the yuan-ti caste system?

In Volo's Guide to Monsters, the chapter on Yuan-ti tells us that they tend to live in a caste system, where the Abominations are the top rank, the Malisons† are the middle rank, and the purebloods are the lowest rank. From p. 92: The vast majority of yuan-ti fall into three categories–abominati...

dnd-5e dungeons-and-dragons lore yuan-ti

HellSaint

Although I would like to have some "privileges" to be optional

Like, I want to suggest an edit or I want to suggest that a question is a dupe. I don't want to outright edit or outright close the question :(

Someone_Evil

@HellSaint Sure. But if you have a good replacement to suggest, suggesting an edit is often quicker for everyone. And it isn't reliant on the author being active which not everyone who posted answers 10 years ago are anymore

Medix2

@HellSaint Sock account?

HellSaint

@Medix2 Eh, unfortunately I think that's too much for me haha

Kevin

@MikeQ That would explain several inconsistencies I'm seeing.

Medix2

10:04 PM

But also things like this where edits for inclusivity were made and the community seems to agree with such edits despite them literally going against the OPs preconceived notions

Kevin

I'm beginning to suspect that all of the wrong numbers I'm getting can be fully explained by "the stat block doesn't exhaustively list which skill have ranks in them"

Someone_Evil

If you want to suggest something to the author, comments are usually best as most of the time it's not the author approving/rejecting the edit (but they get an override/check?)

Kevin

i.e. only three are listed but I'm supposed to have nine

HellSaint

@Medix2 Well, that was the OP themselves asking the meta question, though.

And they seemed to be fine with the edit, with a slight inclination to "aw I want it back"

Medix2

At leas to me, making the edit is a better idea than dropping a comment. The comment might go unnoticed by others whereas the edit still notified the answerer and lets others see it in the Active tab. Though you could always field comments in chat first

That could just be a me thing. I gotta go for a while now, sorry about the sudden vanishing

HellSaint

10:09 PM

@Medix2 In general I prefer the edit as well, but when I think my edit changes the original meaning, I will always leave it as a comment. In that case I thought it changed, and even the person suggesting the edit said they weren't sure the meaning was kept, but they really really wanted to take out the word, so they suggested the edit

But it might as well be the connotation of "ridiculous" for me that's quite different from something "stupid".

V2Blast

@BESW Correct, I just happened to see it due to it recently being edited/showing up in the feed, and re-protected it due to it being a known spam target (after seeing that the question had been a victim of the recent mass-unprotection). Wasn't part of any mass-reprotection, just me protecting a question that needed it because I saw it via my regular activity

HellSaint

In hindsight I would have proposed "stupid" as the replacement haha

btw, what are these "spellcaster bots" you guys mention a lot?

Thomas Markov

0

A: Does a Barbarian stack rages while raging or does he reset his rage?

Rage branch of skills; how it really works; They do stack & they are all use in the one declared bonus action. This skill stack as one skill after you qualified with the Bonus Action Rage & your level required. Rage is the declared as a bonus action; making a player use an additional free action ...

what even

V2Blast

@HellSaint you have the ability to see deleted answers, right?

HellSaint

@V2Blast yeap

Thomas Markov

10:18 PM

"DM are evil; kill them with reason and facts"

HellSaint

@ThomasMarkov I can't parse that answer.

kviiri

@HellSaint Long story short, there is a bunch of hucksters who make their living or some extra money by offering phony services of magic, like love spells, death spells, longevity/health spells or more rarely something else

And the spam bots advertising them often find our site topical, questions concerning spells in particular

HellSaint

@kviiri ahhhhhh I see what you mean by spellcaster now hahahaha

Thomas Markov

@kviiri So youre saying theyre...Arcane Tricksters?

MikeQ

@HellSaint They are the only true benefit of having 10k+ rep

Thomas Markov

10:22 PM

@MikeQ thats what im working for tbh.

kviiri

@ThomasMarkov Huckster is an actual class-ish in Deadlands!

Someone_Evil

There's similarly ones offering to turn you into a vampire, werewolf, mermaid, and probably other things too

HellSaint

I was very confused on "why spellcaster?"

Thomas Markov

Once I hit 10k Im just gonna laugh at deleted answers and be @HellSaint's yes-man

MikeQ

Although I think that whenever Smokey bot reports them in chat, you can see the original text that way too

Thomas Markov

10:24 PM

"spellcaster bot" really misses out on the opportunity to marginalize rogues by calling them arcane tricksters.

nitsua60

Mar 23 at 12:10, by Someone_Evil

RPG.SE really changes when you unlock the see deleted spell

HellSaint

We had a meta question on the funniest (some deleted) posts, didn't we?

Thomas Markov

got about 2-3 weeks to 10k

Someone_Evil

@HellSaint Was that before or after the giraffe one?

HellSaint

rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/q/7218/43856 - this one

Someone_Evil

10:27 PM

That's non-deleted ridiculous stuff

HellSaint

I misrembered it as "funniest " because well they are quite funny for me haha

by the way, deleted comments is something only Shiny Pokemons can see right?

no matter how high the rep goes?

Someone_Evil

Yes

HellSaint

and I assume even you guys only have access for a limited time?

Someone_Evil

It's a lot less interesting than you might think

@HellSaint Not to my knowledge

HellSaint

gezz the site must look like a hell of pollution for mods then

nitsua60

10:30 PM

@Someone_Evil Looking at deleted comments is like grading students' work. Most of the time you just hang your head while muttering "what were you thinking... why did you even submit this?" And every once in a while you just have to lean over to your ~~officemate~~ co-mod and say "holy crap, look at this!" in amazement/horror.

Someone_Evil

They don't show up on a post unless we choose to, but some timelines are utterly incomprehensible for the amount of stuff on them

HellSaint

@nitsua60 in amazement/horror.

That was me, grading 4th year electrical and computer engineering exams from a machine learning course, and having 8 out of 300 students answering 1/2 + 1/2 = 1/4.

Is 8 out of 300 a lot? Usually no, but people making this mistake, in an online test with 24h to submit the final version? I was amazed, and in horror.

MikeQ

The students are only 4 years old, you can't expect them to master fractions so young

HellSaint

While I was looking for the random meta post about funny stuff, I decided to open all the mod farewells on the way

I am not crying, you are crying.

BESW

10:58 PM

"Glossary of Ablelist Terms" (and some suggested alternatives) by Lydia X. Z. Brown for Autistic Hoya

"Alternatives to saying 'stupid'" by anagnori on tumblr; "non-ableist alternatives for insulting people or things!" by sad-queer on tumblr

I will always be a little salty that a completely frivolous comment which missed the point of my answer entirely but quoted a nerd-famous TV show, wasn't deleted after five years of repeated flagging, and it took a passive-aggressive meta comment on a hot-button topic to finally get it purged. Because it had 40 upvotes from i_understood_that_reference.gif

(This is why scifi.se had to ban images in answers unless they were clearly needed to make the answer intelligible. People will upvote cultural shibboleths regardless of r🐘🐘.)

HellSaint

11:20 PM

@BESW Learning something new every day. I didn't know dumb was related to speech at all.

How would you refer to a character with low int score? Asking so I can edit this answer of mine lol.

Not sure "irrational" fits in there since it has intelligence enough for it to not be an animal...

BESW

D&D's concept of intelligence doesn't map rationally to any real-world model of mental capacity. I'd just call them a character with a low int score.

Trying to use real-world mental words for D&D mental stats is like trying to figure out whether being Lawful Good means you follow rule utilitarianism. There's a faulty premise that the two worlds can be overlapped meaningfully.

HellSaint

@BESW that's... incredibly simple and fair. Now I feel like I have a low int score.

BESW

And since here we're writing from a D&D-first stance, the real-world concepts and people will almost always be the ones who come out worse for the comparison.

Thomas Markov

@HellSaint Per the entries on idiotic and imbecile, dipshit is an appropriate alternative.

Someone_Evil

I might disagree slightly on appropriate

Mark Wells

11:26 PM

@HellSaint The endless attempts to hash out the difference between Wisdom and Intelligence are a symptom of this.

BESW

@HellSaint I find that very often when I'm really struggling to find the right words to say what I mean, it's because I'm not just saying what I mean.

nitsua60

^^

BESW

(Also, um. If a person's using slurs in ways that the meaning is dramatically changed by NOT using slurs, that's probably not speech the Stack should be trying to protect.)

HellSaint

@BESW I agree. To be completely clear: I didn't think the sentence was unchangeable in a non-offensive way, I just disagreed with the proposed change, but I couldn't, personally, find a better suggestion.

BESW

@MarkWells Oh I have Strong Opinions on the differentiation between intelligence and wisdom and its relationship to real-world racism, but this is neither the time nor the place for that conversation.

Medix2

11:36 PM

@HellSaint Countless words used as insults and negatives have connotations people have forgotten or gotten used to... The idea of being dumb, or sucking at something, the list is infinite... I have friends who basically majored in words like these and the negative ramifications their continued use has... I've found that after enough thinking I usually don't even want a word with a negative meaning of connotation or that my reason for wanting to use one was just not a good reason

BESW

Jason Pitre of Genesis of Legend reviewed (twitter link) Once More Into the Void by Jamila R. Nedjadi. The game is current in a bundle raising funds to help them with epilepsy complications.

HellSaint

@Medix2 Hm, I'm not sure I follow the last part. I think there is certainly value on having words that mean something negative. But I don't think that was the point you were bringing (although that's how I read it :P)

Carcer

@HellSaint the problem is just when all your negative words have derived that negative meaning from originally being descriptors of disability and things like that

HellSaint

Also, in my defense :P, the direct translation of some English words to Portuguese (my native language) are used in a way lighter connotation and without such a history of prejudice in my own culture, so sometimes that's awkward to grasp. Usually we call someone "stupid" by comparing them to an animal, like Donkey

Carcer

sleeptime

Medix2

11:43 PM

@HellSaint I've found I really can use them utterly little, but that's generally. Wasn't trying to say negative descriptors are bad, they just often get their meaning or connotations from horrible things. It's good to know where a word comes from

HellSaint

(in fact, the Portuguese word for Dumb is the same as Donkey, which is why I never associated it with speech lol)

@Medix2 "Bad" and "Horrible" as good examples of negative descriptors that I don't think we can communicate without :P

Medix2

@HellSaint Yeah this all gets tied up into the complicated bundle that is "the history of words in English" which is really complicated at times, for a large number of reasons

@HellSaint For all I know, "horrible" stems from something I'm not aware of... Probably should've taken my own advice on that one

BESW

[grin] Horrible's okay so far as I know; it's literally tremble-inducing.

Anyway, if this conversation's gonna continue it should probably move to the NAB since people are throwing around some questionable words and maybe that's not a thing people should be dunked into as soon as they come to general chat.

Please remember that people in this chat have bad personal experiences with these words, this conversation is not a theoretical exercise about potential harm.

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