TRPG General Chat

AncientSwordRage

12:00 AM

swarms are bad enough in games let along real-life....

nitsua60

12:16 AM

> Unfortunately, 2 + 1 > 2.

@ThomasMarkov I see what you're getting at, but I'll admit: in my day job it's pretty convenient that 2+1>2 =D

Hot RPG Questions

12:53 AM

3

Q: What information should I give the players for them to draw their map?

I am going to start an online Westmarches-style campaign, using a slightly patched version of Pathfinder 2. I expect the whole adventure to happen on one big island (where the PCs arrive in session 0), and I cartographied it on an hexagonal grid, with different colors for the different biomes, sy...

linksassin

1:05 AM

@AncientSwordRage Yeah, I was mowing the grass and suddenly I was surrounded. Got stuck 8-9 times before I got the mower off and the dogs and myself inside.

Shalvenay

sounds like you mowed the beehive :o

linksassin

1:21 AM

@Shalvenay I don't think so. Grass wasn't that long.

Shalvenay

@linksassin yeah, and most ground-dwelling bees are solo artists AIUI

AncientSwordRage

2:04 AM

@linksassin I wonder if the noise of the mower or at least one of the frequencies made the bees think it was an animal/another hive?

Hot RPG Questions

2:36 AM

2

Q: Can I Heal for The Damage I Deal?

I have been theory-crafting a character for an lv20 one-shot that I'll be playing in. We have been allowed 1 magic item of each type. I plan on making a Monk / Fighter Multiclass. Basic so far I know. But when looking at the magic item I planned on taking for my legendary spot being the Gloves of...

dnd-5e magic-items warlock hit-points eldritch-invocations

BESW

6:08 AM

TRAIN GAMES a collection by Tracy

Spooky October Party Games by Meguey & Vincent Baker, et al. A bundle by Meguey & Vincent Baker, et al, $32.25 for 5 games

Rivetgeek wrote a twitter thread about the problems with devaluing indie and small-press games as "not professional."

anadvora_ asked on twitter for recommendations of "short gentle worldbuilding games like The Quiet Year, that might be good to play with primary-school-age kids"

"Not All Black And White" an interview with Aina Skjønsfjell, Liselle Awwal, Jonaya Kemper, and Anna Erlandsson, for Nordic Larp. How it is to be a woman of color in the larp scene?

"Horror RPG bundle channels devil babies, The Wicker Man, MF Doom and internet creepypasta for Halloween game night" by Matt Jarvis for Dicebreaker. Scarily cheap.

Evan Torner wrote a twitter thread about becoming TRPG designers "because there was a time when we'd want to ask thematic questions like "Who are the real monsters here?" and the existing systems would respond: "Idk can your character climb this wall IN THE RAIN?""

KorvinStarmast

12:56 PM

I once stepped in a ground bee hive, and I got swarmed. Was about 9. Not pleasant.

Hot RPG Questions

1:50 PM

2

Q: Is a Reincarnated creature the same creature for the purpose of Scrying?

My pathfinder party have found themselves with a significant (100k Platinum) bounty on their head placed by one of the villains of the campaign. The bounty is a form of blackmail in an attempt to force the party to do the villain's bidding. Therefore my players have been brainstorming ideas to av...

spells pathfinder-1e divination reincarnation

goodguy5

3:13 PM

something is different about the rpg front page and I'm not sure I like it

@KorvinStarmast that is terrifying

Groody the Hobgoblin

3:28 PM

@AncientSwordRage I was replying to your long-genealogy character intro. That kind of thing (and also the sound of the names) appeard to me like what someone might do in Iceland ... they are very serious about their familiy lineages over there

Community: there is currently a question rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/201839/… that has several close votes. I personally do think that you can answer usefully about the pros and cons of having several opponents at the same time for a campaign, withough knowing details about what they are, but I thought I check here first, because I suspect people who close-voted think that replying might be inappropriate

NautArch

@GroodytheHobgoblin I do think it needs to be closed for more details about their problem. Whether or not they should do it depends on what they are trying to get out of the game and other considerations. But it's really more of a discussion prompt.

Thomas Markov

3:48 PM

@GroodytheHobgoblin If you haven't already, please read the "Optimizing For Pearls, Not Sand" article at the Stack Overflow. By design, "we can answer this question" is not a good enough reason to leave a question open.

2

> That’s why we’re determined to keep question quality high, even at the cost of refusing a little sand. It’s true that you can’t have Q&A; without questions, but having the wrong sorts of questions is far more dangerous. The fastest way to kill any Q&A; site is to flood it with low-quality questions.

That particular question is exactly the sort of low quality question the article is discouraging.

V2Blast

@BESW What a title. lol

Thomas Markov

We need to find a balance between helping users and maintaining question quality. Fortunately, putting a question on hold to get more specific details about their problem works toward both of those objectives.

Joel Harmon

So long as the user doesn't misunderstand and ragequit.

KorvinStarmast

@JoelHarmon If they do that I don't mind anymore, to be honest. We have been through this issue on meta time and again over the years, and you can't please everyone. Also, doppelgreener once pointed out to me that something over 90% of the interactions on this site were views, not engaging with or asking or answering. If someone will rage quite because we are using the tools as intended, I am not sure what to do about that. I can't mind read over the internet ...

... and my previous advocacy for being warmer as regards the new user situation has reached its limit ... and had a couple of years ago.

@ThomasMarkov Thanks for trying to provide an answer, but what you presented is more or less how far I have already gotten already.

Joel Harmon

4:03 PM

I am also fresh out of magic solutions to the problems surrounding strangers on the internet. But I also happen to disagree with Thomas' implication that there aren't any downsides. Are the cons worth it? Having viewed many of those discussions as well, I'd say yes. You can make messages clearer and friendlier, but you can't make users read them.

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch We may benefit from a formal meta on "what is a discussion prompt and how do we recognize it" as a particular sub case of "this is a great question for a forum" category of closing things while we engage with a user.

NautArch

4:22 PM

@JoelHarmon @ThomasMarkov We also have a big issue of foisting the idea that closing is bad and makes enemies in the comments underneath. Folks woh may not have thought it was a problem back away once existing users start arguing.

Thomas Markov

@JoelHarmon I don’t think I’m saying there aren’t downsides. I’m more saying that many of the downsides people often talk about are intentionally built into the platform as the cost of doing business.

Joel Harmon

Perhaps I read too much into your emphasis on "works toward both of those objectives".

The ragequitter didn't get any help, and thus failed to meet that goal. Other users were helped, in that they learned site mores. Question quality was upheld.

NautArch

@JoelHarmon I'm not too upset if we lose out on ragequitters.

If that's their typical reaction, then I'm not sure how helpful they're going to be as repeat visitors.

Thomas Markov

4:43 PM

@JoelHarmon but on the other hand, it seems like a net loss if overall site question quality goes down in order to appease drive by posters with no interest in learning about how the site works.

Joel Harmon

@ThomasMarkov Agreed. And I think it is worthwhile overall. However, the downside should be acknowledged; that's the only way to know to look for ways to mitigate it.

NautArch

The way to mitigate is for us/mods to help educate new users about the process and not just dump the process on them.

The problem is when the acknowledgement happens, others who don't agree with it begin to argue about it - and even a positive thing becomes negative because of that.

So then people stop commenting to help because of the blowback.

Groody the Hobgoblin

4:58 PM

@ThomasMarkov Thanks for the feedback, I will hold off answering then. Yes, I did read the pearls/sand article. I do think that getting your question closed mostly feels bad, no matter how nice we are about it, and that having to jump through hoops to turn the question into one that works here is difficult as often there are no really objective criteria what is on or off topic or policy; but I may well not have been around long enought to get tired of unresponsive, un-thougthful quearants.

Joel Harmon

Even without that arguing, I don't tend to see comments on how the question could be improved until after it's closed. That is definitely subject to bias and my own usage patterns.

NautArch

@JoelHarmon Sure, but my own experience has been a reduction in my offering to help because I'm tired of debating with others about the need for that help.

'Please include X' was often followed by "They don't need to include X, why are you asking for this?!"

And then it's an internal debate about the need and not engaging the querent.

Joel Harmon

Yep. It's definitely a thing that offering help to someone who may or may not even come back to read it, much less act on it, has a cost to the helper.

NautArch

And after being slapped down for trying to help, I just don't do it as often anymore.

AncientSwordRage

@GroodytheHobgoblin oh of course

They weren't lineages though, they were bynames.

And in (broken) Icelandic

I would post a translation but @Mithical and @bobble might then see it 👀

Thomas Markov

5:11 PM

@GroodytheHobgoblin I would hope that it doesn't take you getting tired of unresponsive, un-thoughtful querents to appreciate what we're generally aiming for with question quality.

Hot RPG Questions

6

Q: How can I help players who have trouble interjecting into conversations and roleplaying?

After recently starting a new campaign with a group of players that I've had for separate groups before, I noticed that one of the players often struggles with the ability to interject when they want to. I often notice that she goes to, and then someone else starts talking or roleplaying the scen...

system-agnostic problem-players

Thomas Markov

@KorvinStarmast Then I dont think I understand your confusion.

KorvinStarmast

5:53 PM

@ThomasMarkov I may have to be content with "DM ruling suffices" but maybe I ought to have asked "how have you done this in play?" and see if that got a different kind of answer. Reading the Ch 10 stuff and the spell left me with enough ambiguity that I was interested to see if anyone had a better take than I had.

Hot RPG Questions

6:35 PM

5

Q: Prime sight: Can the mage see if another mage have active spells?

Okay so I am part of two Mage the Awakening 2ed campaigns and the two GM's disagree on the rules for prime sight. What they disagree on is if prime sight is able to see if a mage have active spells. The rule stats: "... and the presence (if not the composition) of any awakened spell ...". One of ...

chronicles-of-darkness-2e mage-the-awakening-2e

Thomas Markov

8:47 PM

9

Q: Generate a Tiefling's Traits

A Tiefling is a character race from Dungeons and Dragons, that have a list of possible traits: small horns fangs or sharp teeth a forked tongue catlike eyes six fingers on each hand goat-like legs cloven hoofs a forked tail leathery or scaly skin red or dark blue skin cast no shadow or reflectio...

code-golf random

AncientSwordRage

9:01 PM

@ThomasMarkov would you look at that...

Thomas Markov

@AncientSwordRage you can do it in R with a[sample(1:12,sample(2:5))]

Hot RPG Questions

3

Q: Does the 'surface thoughts' aspect of Detect Thoughts allow a character to know what spells another creature has prepared?

Before a spellcaster can use a spell, he or she must have the spell firmly fixed in mind... (PHB, CH 10, Spellcasting, Known and Prepared Spells) A question came up in play last week along these lines: "Does detect thoughts allow you to know what spells a creature has prepared?1" I was not su...