TRPG General Chat

12:24 AM

Plus One Exp is making a twitter thread of "#OSR & #SwordDream creators you can support."

Jeeyon Shim is asking on twitter "Who are POC working in games and/or SFF who come to mind when you think about themes of folklore, fairy tales, and myth?"

The First Twisting Host Profit Share Bundle by matara and 8 others.

Hot RPG Questions

2:35 AM

1

Q: What is the Blue Dragon wing span size compared to other dragons?

This is more of a lore question, but I can't find any information on it in the 5e Monster Manual. Hopefully there is a lore wizard out there who knows something about this. I recently bought some of the adult dragon miniatures released by Wizkids, and noticed the Adult Blue Dragon has considerab...

BESW

3:41 AM

"The First Female Gamers" by Jon Peterson on Medium. How Dungeons & Dragons Opened Up Games for Women. (the subtitle is generous to the point of being misleading)

Hark! Says the Frog Magus | Frog Magus Launch Sale! by Diwata ng Manila.

Hot RPG Questions

6:45 AM

6

Q: Are there any consequences to walking into a hidden enemy?

Suppose a PC is looking at an area of darkness that a foe has Hidden in. The PC would prefer not to guess the square the enemy is in and potentially waste their attack, so they decide to use their movement to physically traverse the area and see if they 'bump into' the enemy - if they succeed the...

dnd-5e stealth

AncientSwordRage

10:57 AM

@BESW especially important after seeing some TSR/Gygax images floating around stating the opposite

JVC Parry explains why they left the DMsGuild (Mail Chimp link)

BESW

@AncientSwordRage Yeah, I'm not gonna give those bad actors any air time from me, but I'll reiterate this:

11 hours ago, by BESW

Plus One Exp is making a twitter thread of "#OSR & #SwordDream creators you can support."

AncientSwordRage

@BESW yeah what I've said is all intend to say on it. I only learnt about it by people shooting down those bad actors

Had anyone here read Rivers of London?

BESW

[raises hand] I've read all the novels, and most of the short stories and graphic novels.

AncientSwordRage

11:12 AM

Ahhh cool, it's SFF's next topic challenge

in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, 8 mins ago, by AncientSwordRage

@Slartibartfast this has been in my to read list for almost a decade

BESW

@AncientSwordRage I like 'em! They're like the Dresden Files, but with consciousness about race and gender; a genuine interest in procedural work; a protagonist who isn't a complete heel; and an author who not only actually knows the city the books are set in, he makes the different parts of the city literal characters, and uses the architectural history of the setting as a major part of the plot and atmosphere.

I also super appreciate that it's an urban fantasy which doesn't try to universalize magic so that all cultures are just different levels of wrong about their own supernatural elements. I don't see that much.

AncientSwordRage

I'd call that glowing praise

BESW

> Ben Aaronovitch's "Rivers of London" series (also the "PC Grant" or "Peter Grant" series) are urban fantasy murder mysteries about a young Fula-English police detective discovering that magic is real but poorly understood. Some people will be attracted to it for the supernatural worldbuilding and the way magic is simultaneously rigorous and poorly understood, but my greatest love of the series is how it presents Britain through Grant's eyes: as a police officer, as the son of a jazz man and a housecleaner, as a student of architectural history, as a Londoner with family in Sierra Leone.

(From a media recommendation list I did for somebody a while back)

I really enjoy the "magic is rigorous but we don't really know how or why, and the rules are different depending on who and where you are" element of the worldbuilding too. It satisfies the "reader can figure things out" itch and makes Grant's learning and discoveries seem earned, but it leaves the world open for flexibility and surprise and cultural respect.

AncientSwordRage

12:00 PM

Sounds right up my street

BESW

The first book's title, The Rivers of London? That's not just the setting. Some of the most important people to the plot are literally the Rivers of London.

(Though not even a River can explain exactly what it means to be a River, and they're even less likely to admit that.)

AncientSwordRage

1:37 PM

@BESW mind if I pop this in TREU

Axoren

2:11 PM

What are some things that walk that aren't animals?

I need something for a riddle, but I'm having the hardest time thinking of something.

I'd like to avoid abstract concepts like "A walk is like a journey so ..." and have it be an actual thing.

Otherwise, there's no chance it'll be gotten.

AncientSwordRage

2:22 PM

@Axoren thoughts? At-Ats? Colours?

Axoren

At-Ats is closer than all the others. The others are too abstract. I was hoping for some sort of genre-agnostic inanimate object, or something closer.

AncientSwordRage

Baba Yagas hut?

Axoren

@AncientSwordRage If only it was for that campaign.

nitsua60

5:14 PM

@Axoren Anything that was shoplifted. An obviously-guilty defendant after botched prosecution. The Energizer bunny. A slightly-unbalanced benchtop centrifuge, or an unbalanced lathe with a flimsy stand. (Can attest, personally, to both of those.) A jilted lover. Fozzy Bear, when only slightly amused.

nitsua60

5:24 PM

Actually, I can personally attest to at least four of those. I'll leave it to each's preferred headcanon to decide which four =)

Shalvenay

6:07 PM

was doing a bit of research into how Arabic and friends were mechanized because it sounds a lot like the problems elves would have with the invention of the printing press, and found this interesting page discussing some of the challenges of typeface development for cursive, calligraphic languagesi: ilovetypography.com/2013/09/25/…

Shalvenay

6:24 PM

hey there @ThomasMarkov, how're things going?

Thomas Markov

@Shalvenay Good, I had to come into the office today to catch up on some things.

Shalvenay

@ThomasMarkov ah. been pondering elves with printing presses lately, doing a bit of research into Arabic manual/mechanical typesetting as an analog for that

(suffice it to say, it was a mess for a while)

Axoren

6:52 PM

@nitsua60 I refuse to believe that you've seen the Energizer Bunny walk.

Trish

7:25 PM

@Axoren I refse to believe that it's even able to walk

Medix2

7:49 PM

@ThomasMarkov I will say, the recent Meta does irk me some because, as far as I can tell, it is all by one user. And I assume they mean well with their edits.

Thomas Markov

@Medix2 That is correct.

But I did my best to conceal that fact.

I don't really much care either way, in the end, but I do care about our written guidance being consistent with site practice.

Medix2

Yeah that's fair. Though it does assume we'll have people to/who enforce that guidance as a practice

But we probably do and would still, so in this case, it's probably just fine as a Meta

Thomas Markov

@Medix2 If we settle on "enforce not enforcing", maybe it will motivate reviewers who approve insubstantial edits to stop doing so.

Medix2

Yeah, my thoughts there as well

Thomas Markov

We're about 50/50 right now.

As in, we reject about half right now, but a lot of those, Im one of the reviewers, and the edits are much more likely to be approved when I don't reject.

Carcer

8:05 PM

is there any case we've seen there where a post author has rolled back the changes and then someone tried to resubmit the edit

The Oracle

2

Q: Should RPG.SE enforce not enforcing a specific standard for handling gender pronouns?

This is a follow up to our standing guidance on pronoun use in Q&As around the site: Should RPG.SE enforce a specific standard for handling gender pronouns? The question asks: Should RPG.SE enforce a specific language standard (here: with regard to gender) even when the original text is correct ...

discussion language

Thomas Markov

@Carcer No

But Ill double check

Carcer

fwiw my stance is still that I don't think this activity should be considered "enforcement" of neutral pronouns

Thomas Markov

@Carcer When do you think it becomes enforcement?

When OP reverts and the edit is suggested again?

Carcer

@ThomasMarkov if they keep trying to do it over the objection of the author

yeah. I figure the edits are suggested in good faith as improvements, and aren't really any different than correcting typos or fixing formatting and other little quality things

Thomas Markov

8:10 PM

@Carcer Yeah, Im sure that's where they are coming from.

But that view isnt consistent with our existing guidance, and if we want to adopt that view, we need work on that.

Carcer

it's enforcement if the changes are being made over the author's objections

Thomas Markov

In fact, someone tried to start that discussion, and it was closed as a duplicate of our main pronoun question: rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/11233/…

Medix2

Ar the very least, I do think that "All pronouns are neutral" and "updated "he" to "they" for inclusivity" are at odds with each other

@ThomasMarkov That's the one I was looking for

Carcer

@ThomasMarkov yeah, I don't think that should have been closed

but oh well

Thomas Markov

@Carcer I don't either.

Carcer

8:14 PM

I lack the mental energy to get properly into it on meta now

Medix2