TRPG General Chat

nitsua60

03:37

can anyone help: what's that nice way to create links in posts by numbered reference? I know it's something like [blahblah]{1} and then {1}{blahblah.com} later in the post? (Or just a pointer to the right search term in the help center. I can't even find the help I've seen on markdown right now.

Miniman

rpg.stackexchange.com/help/formatting

Sandwich

Its [words ](link )

Without the spaces

Miniman

@Sandwich Nah, he means reference-style linking.

nitsua60

thanks, @Miniman--perfect.

yup, that's right

Miniman

@nitsua60 As someone who's in the D&D 5e space (and reasonably level-headed), can I ask what you think about this question?

nitsua60

03:43

okay, a slightly more-detailed one: is there an easy way to find any question that's been closed for a specific reason? (Currently I'm just looking for a "too-broad" closed question.) Or will that only be easy with the 10Krep moderator tools?

going to look in a second, but I just got a huge thrill out of being called "reasonably level-headed" by a 10-times-my-rep user. Thanks for the pick-me-up. brb

Miniman

16

Q: Provide a way to search for closed questions by a specific close reason

I can search for of all the questions that have been closed for any reason with closed:1, but you very rarely want to see just closed questions, you usually care about questions closed for a specific reason. This would also be a great feature for teaching new people about why questions get close...

BESW

@Miniman ...I was just constructing that formula on my own.

nitsua60

@Miniman it seems reasonably-clear from the spell description, but not offensively so

BESW

@nitsua60 drop this into Google: "too broad" site:rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/ -site:meta.rpg.stackexchange.com

nitsua60

the rough guideline that's emerged for me is: "all the querent asks about is contained in one page/textblock/description" = read to me;

"querent's question involves at least two interacting dynamics"=ahh..., okay, sometimes it's not laid out all that well

I find that most who claim the corebooks are easy to understand have already had practice doing it through five or six other editions of the same core concepts/mechanics

BESW

03:49

Often there'll be something in a single block of text that's unclear: the rubric for me is whether the querent can specify where the confusion is.

nitsua60

thanks for the question-finding link (@Miniman) and google-fu (@BESW)

BESW

But I'm not 5e-fluent, so can't speak that specific instance at all. Broadly, it looks fine: "How does [general mechanic: resistance/vulnerability] behave in [specific instance: damage from vampiric touch], given [edge case exception: the spell's unique damage limitations and kickers]?"

nitsua60

@Miniman I haven't looked much at your answer and the ensuing comments--did something crop up there?

Miniman

@BESW @nitsua60 Yeah, I guess I more meant "What do you think of my answer?" - the question's fine, I'm just wondering if my argument makes sense to other people.

nitsua60

okay, let me take a look...

@Miniman I think I buy your argument that "deals" and "takes" are distinct numeric concepts.

But I think the answer's a little hard to follow.

I think the Hit Points and Damage Rolls sections on PHB196 treat the two terms the same way as you do--as being the two end-links in an arithmetic chain.

Miniman

04:05

@nitsua60 That makes sense, it sort of grew over time. I'll try to clean it up a little when I can.

nitsua60

And some might find those foundational/definitional sections more authoritative than an inference-from-example

I also think it's worth leading with something like "Damage dealt and damage taken are not the same." And here's why...

Miniman

That's a good call, and the consistent usage in the damage sections would definitely be a good thing to add.

nitsua60

I can see the de-linking of the two being counter-intuitive--against plain-language--and I didn't really realize that's what you were arguing for until my second read

but I think it's probably right.

Miniman

Thanks, that's helpful.

nitsua60

I can't recall it coming up at my AL table recently, but I'll keep an ear out for it.

Miniman

04:07

I'll restructure it when I've got some time.

nitsua60

Time--hah! Speaking of which, off to bed for me. Pumpkin-time was 8 min. ago. Good night.

Miniman

@nitsua60 Cya!

Tashio

05:51

Morning

Adeptus

Afternoon

Nyoze

Heya

doppelgreener

One of these is not like the others.

Nyoze

06:12

I'm unique, sorry :P

BESW

Now I've got this vision of Nyoze, the Friendliest Ninja: Hey-YAH!

Nyoze

06:39

Now I've got that Outcast song stuck in my head :(

BESW

Hokay. I have four poster design mockups for the directors to look at. Time to get some food before the meeting.

...it's always a little disconcerting that whenever I run into old friends of the family, they think I'm still in college.

Nyoze

I had a kid I knew from highschool try to add me on social media today.

We didn't like each other 10 years ago, why would he even try? :\

BESW

Heh.

My own relationships with people from that era of my life have changed quite drastically.

People I was joined at the hip with are now folks I'm okay seeing sometimes, and people I had nothing in common with are now good friends.

Nyoze

That's exactly right. The people I used to see I don't see, and the people I never saw, I still never see.

I unfortunately work with a few people I went to school with, but we've always gotten along okay, which was lucky.

doppelgreener

06:58

@Pixie Aloha!

Pixie

@doppelgreener Hi!

doppelgreener

How's things!

Pixie

Pretty good! How are you?

doppelgreener

All over the place! Pretty good, feeling tiredish, brother just visited for the weekend and a couple of days so I saw him in person for the first time in a couple of years, and I'll be in Melbourne all next week and weekend for PAX, and I haven't been able to gym in several days but I finally will be gymming tonight, and I have a new car and it's very good, and other stuff.

(@BESW @trogdor I will be in Melbourne for PAX on the 31st.)

Dan's taking a look at making a PC who summons a dragon which is kinda spectacular.

Pixie

Wow, quite a busy time.

doppelgreener

07:04

It is surprisingly busy for time that should be vacation time.

(i'm at work today and tomorrow, which adds to the busy-ish-ness)

Pixie

And neat! I am always on board with dragons.

doppelgreener

As am I. :D

Pixie

I'm about to work for 4 days in a row, which isn't much, but this is a part time job, so it's unusual for me. Book festival is this weekend, at least, so that'll be fun. I'll be helping little ones make paper turkeys for several hours. xD

Nyoze

Dragon's are always a good thing :)

doppelgreener

That sounds like it's going to be so fun and tiring.

Pixie

07:13

Amassing the supplies is the tiring part. I think we're done with that, luckily. xD

(This entails cutting out hundreds of paper leaves and circles.)

Tashio

ugh

People who make rule claims but have no back up beyond it does not state you can...

doppelgreener

07:32

@Pixie Royland Blackstar. (Also @BESW @Nyoze and @trogdor because dragon.) Only started writing him up last night.

Pixie

I love this concept.

I was just talking about Recorder Bard, Friend of Dragons today. Someday...

doppelgreener

@Pixie Me too!! We've still got to work out the specifics, but he was telling me about Royland last night and I had to try mechanising what he was describing. We worked out most of the summoning stunt in the car.

Derpy

Morning

doppelgreener

@Derpy Hi!

Nyoze

That looks awesome @dop! :)

doppelgreener

07:40

@Nyoze It's such a cool concept it can't not look awesome

Nyoze

Exactly! :)

Pixie

Seriously. So much fun.

doppelgreener

I've asked if he's actually a black dude because it is funny to imagine someone trying to ask if that's why he has that name but sweating bullets because they don't want to sound racist or ignorant when they actually get to those words ("S-so is the uh... are you called... um... did you... did you choose Blackstar b-bec.... uh...") but for now we're making no decision on his ethnicity.

We do know he's from some strange musical place that was attacked by the Mute Empire who're now hunting him down (very quietly).

And he has that name because it's ridiculously ostentatious.

Nyoze

See. I see that, and I just assumed he was born on a night where the stars weren't shining or something.

doppelgreener

This is possible!

Or that the black star was overhead.

Derpy

08:17

I don't know why, this made me think of Xadhoom. Must have been the name part.

doppelgreener

08:27

The guitar now has guitar lasers.

Pixie

What laser-free guitar is worth its salt?

trogdor

@Pixie as you should be

@doppelgreener yes, this has all my yes

doppelgreener

The guitar and portable amp are now called Rain & Thunder

BESW

09:01

Bathory - Gods of Thunder of Wind and of Rain

►

trogdor

09:52

so does he have all weird modes?

Derpy

@doppelgreener How long till Sonia Strumm makes a cameo in your game session :P?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

10:15

Anything I should keep in mind if I make a player semi-invulnerable. As in, if he dies, he'll resurrect the next night. I have a player who has pissed off a necromancer-esque guy and the necromancer wants to punish him by making him undead and keeping him from committing suicide. As far as I can tell, it shouldn't be too bad. He still has to play it safe in combat, as his death can mean the death of the rest of the party.

BESW

The big issue is making sure the stakes in fights are more than just "survive."

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

To prevent him from staying while the rest run?

BESW

Not really.

It's a standard storytelling tool: having things matter for bigger reasons than "we don't want to die right now" makes for better tension and interesting choices.

When dying is no longer a pressure, the necessity of larger stakes becomes more apparent.

Recently in my games we've had fights where the stakes were things like, "get the enemy's magic sword," and "put the rampaging time-travelling monsters back in their era safely to avoid paradoxes," and "let the enemy get away with the loot but put up enough of a fight to make them think we did our best to stop them."

trogdor

10:33

that last one wasn't really that recent

BESW

About five months ago...

trogdor

it depends what you mean by recent I guess

BESW

We don't have a lot of full, proper conflict-conflicts in most of our sessions.

Thinking back to D&D, a lot of our fights were just slogs: obstacles in the way of walking somewhere.

trogdor

10:51

yeah

BESW

But I made sure we'd have setpieces like "stop the ritual" and "escort the king from the city mid-invasion."

BESW

11:18

Hmmm. Need to invent a Master of Umdaar and his minions.

Tempted to just grab Mumm-Ra.

Aaron

12:26

Morning

doppelgreener

We're busy creating the Dragon of Rock for Royland Blackstar, and we're sitting on a stunt that makes him bulletproof and fearproof, but must come with two weaknesses (which are attacks or effects against which he'll be vulnerable). What weaknesses would a Dragon of Rock have, that are relevant to some science action adventurers getting into fights and doing Indiana Jones-style action science?

Thoughts have come up: noise disturbances throwing off tempo (like construction work), new technology, pop music.

He may be incorporeal or may be corporeal.

Derpy

.... if it is Dragon/Rock, you could try a Water type...

doppelgreener

12:42

@Derpy We like this and we're probably going to go with this one.

> Bigger Than You. Fearproof, but weak to water. Use Physique to defend against mental attacks.

Derpy

@doppelgreener I am bigger than you, I am fearproof, but I actually fear water. He would work pretty well with Poseidon/Neptune from Pollon...

doppelgreener

@Derpy It's terrible when shows get rained out 'n stuff.

Derpy

@doppelgreener I know, I was just remembering the good old sea king with water fear issues :P

doppelgreener

@Derpy The what now? Are you telling me there's a story where Poseidon has aquaphobia?

Derpy

Little Pollon

Little Pollon (Japanese: おちゃめ神物語コロコロポロン, Hepburn: Ochamegami Monogatari Korokoro Polon, lit. The Story of Little Goddess Roly-Poly Pollon) is a musical Greek mythology-based Japanese anime television series, based on the 1977 manga Olympus no Pollon (Pollon of Olympus) by Hideo Azuma. The anime TV series consisted of 46 episodes and aired across Japan on Fuji TV from May 1982 to March 1983, and was also popular in some European countries, such as Italy. The series is noted for its faithful portrayal of the Gods of Mount Olympus as fallible beings succumbing to real human faults and weaknesses,...

See Poseidon under the Characters List

And if I may add, not only he can't swim, but he is actually afraid of the idea.

doppelgreener

12:50

@Derpy that's cute.

Derpy

He doesn't not really like to walk in waters that are more depth that his leg. Which isn't a real problem since he is huge.

doppelgreener

13:06

I like that. :D

Derpy

@doppelgreener there is an episode that has all the gods getting "cloned". During the event Pollon has to try to recognize the actual Poseidon, they use that fear, and actually chose the one without it because "it is not possible that the god of the seas has aquaphobia" :P

doppelgreener

Hahaha!

Novian

13:40

Good morning folks

if there are indeed people in here and not just Some amalgamations of tiny lizards in people shaped costumes

doppelgreener

@Novian No promises

Novian

Glares intently

Man....not a lot of Ranged Touch spells on the magus spell list.

unrelated to the lizard amalgamations.

doppelgreener

@Novian That does sound like the kind of thing a lizard amalgamation would say though.

Novian

@doppelgreener Riddiculous! im a peeple. i do peeple things. like eat hamburgers and tie our shoes,

doppelgreener

Hmmmmm. That does sound very people-ish. I guess you might be right.

Novian