@Shalvenay going to do kids' bed now, then will be back. Will you be around? If so, I'm committing now to figuring out tonight what our summer plan is.
@DuckTapeAl I've been there - there was a group I stuck with for a long time, but when the decision was made to change systems I took it as an opportunity to quietly disappear.
Yeah, I'm quite happy with my current dynamic of "Show up or not, we'll do fun stuff with whatever size group we get each week" and a lot of low/no prep systems.
If just one other person shows, we usually watch binge Netflix or something. If there's at least three folks (including me) there's stuff to play.
I've been lucky enough to organically form a small group of reliable people. On the fairly rare occasion that someone can't make a night, we just skip it.
But just three people still works quite well for games like Danger Patrol, Roll For Shoes, Cthulhu Dark, Lovecraftesque, A Penny For My Thoughts, Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple...
And most Fate games are quite content with two PCs and a GM.
And I don't think I'd have as much fun with that kind of low-prep, less regular game. I like to tell a story most of the time, and it's hard to do that without s regular group.
Also, most of my experience with non-dnd systems is me running them poorly for people who generally don't game.
So that makes it hard to get excited for that kind of thing.
@BESW Have you seen any of Cleverman yet? Since it's made here, I don't know when the rest of the world gets it. It's been pretty good so far. Definitely using the non-humans as an analogy to RL minorities, similar to what Alien Nation & District 9 did.
@SevenSidedDie I have only played Classic Traveller. If I were to pick up a newer-than-1977 version/edition/publisher, what do you suggest? I don't want anything as crunchy as GURPS, but have to assume that unambiguous improvements have been found in thirty-nine years....
For a little more context, I really like CT. Just don't want to leave improvements "on the table", so to speak, out of ignorance.
@nitsua60 I'm not a Traveller connoisseur, but I've heard enough that I can share what I would be looking at. :) Mongoose Traveller is a typical Mongoose production: heavierweight, but true to the original's feel; as is also typical for them the 2nd edition (just released) is superior to the 1st. The T5 that just came out (or just last year?) is from Marc Miller himself, and is the "director's cut", but not everyone is happy with it. Both MGT1/2 and T5 are heavier than Classic. […]
Classic is also still widely played, and is considered to not really be in want of improvements. (Personally, that's where I'd be heading if I were starting a Traveller campaign.) Overall, it seems like the differences between CT, MGT, and T5 are enough a matter of taste that they're all good choices, but will each suit different people better or worse than the others.
Again, this is mostly hearsay, so consider it directions to the dungeon from the peasant in town who waved his arm and said "Oh it's tha' way, trough the forest…"
@nitsua60 It also sounds like they're much less different from each other than, say, D&D editions, which are the weird outliers of the RPG universe for diverging so much. So if you like one, you'll probably like the others!
For those on Windows 10 getting Microsoft Office update/purchase nag messages every month: hit Start, type in get office, right click on the Get Office app that shows up, and uninstall it. It is the thing sending those reminders and it has no other purpose if you don't want Office.
Struggling with naming something at work: We need a word for "where waste ends up", which covers categories including recycling and energy generation. Currently we're using "fate", which sort of works, but sounds weird.
[argh] Okay, computer-expert-type folks, it's time for another episode of BESW Knows Nothing Laugh At Him.
I'm told that uninstalling Java from my Mac is a good idea because it's a bundle of security flaws. But I can't run the Adobe programs I need for my profession without it. From the comments here it appears I can install just the JRE (whatever that is) and have the programs work okay.
Is this a reasonable compromise between security and functionality (given my alternative is to subscribe to the Adobe Creative Cloud, which has notoriously dubious security of its own and tends to make it impossible to run your own programs for its own reasons), and is it something an idiot can do with minimal risk of setting his computer on fire?
@BESW whoever told you that isn't wrong. Java has *so* many security flaws. Everytime they release a patch to fix some, it adds more....*sigh* Adobe cloud is great for students, buuut only if it's the only thing you're running on your laptop. JRE is an improvement, and the instructions provided seem fairly easy to follow Are you familiar with using cmd?
@Asteria You mean Terminal? I can copy-paste lines into it and sometimes I can even figure out how to replace the file structure bits to fit my hard drive's setup.
As a kid I did some command-line tinkering in DOS and some very rudimentary BASIC coding, but I'm a software user first and foremost.
(Graphic designer with a specialisation in print media; I'm not even really proficient in HTML.)
I've been avoiding the Creative Cloud and sticking with my lovely CS6, but at this rate I doubt it'll survive the next major OS.
...which means I might finally be free to re-evaluate my OS choices. Not that I'm unhappy with Mac, but I've been tethered to it since 2007 because of OS-specific Adobe licensing. Might be good to see what else is out there soon.
Whether I go to a different set of programs entirely or just jump to the Cloud, that'll give me professional access to, at the very least, Windows.
@BESW as a child I was sent to work in the HTML mines, digging up loose elements and unmatched close tags. Every now and then I'd find a scrolling marquee and I'd be given a nickel. I know HTML well.
@BESW Unfortunately, the cloud philosophy assumes everyone has a continuous, stable connection to the Internet with lots of bandwidth and no data limits.
I live on an island with a fragile infrastructure that's semi-regularly bombarded by typhoons and earthquakes. My "stable" Internet has micro-disconnects on an almost hourly basis.
And even setting that aside--a year or two ago, the entire design community worldwide lost access to their Creative Cloud programs when the Adobe servers went down for a whole day.
And because CC files aren't back-compatible, you couldn't fall back to CS6 even if you still had it.
@BESW There's having the JRE on your PC for Java software, and there's having the browser plugin. The browser plugin itself is a popular vector for attack. Having it uninstalled is a good idea, especially since just about no modern websites use it nowadays. The JRE being another thing - not having the JRE is better than having it, but being able to do your work is better still than having no Java.
Seeing that both computer science professionals and laypeople were so eager to use ELIZA in ways which a basic understanding of programming should show to be ridiculous if not dangerous, Weizenbaum took two years off to talk to psychologists, historians, engineers, and experts in many other fields.
He came out of it with an understanding of the progressive role of technology in society and humanity's relationship to it, and he saw that computers do not fit the traditional progression but we treat them as if we do.
He wrote the book Computer Power and Human Reason as an exploration of that gap, the problems which rise from ignoring it, and an exhortation to change our relationship with computers to be more informed about them.
His fundamental conclusion was that we've got a horrifying tendency to use computers for tasks because they can do the tasks, without reflecting on what that choice signifies, what impact it has, or whether it's a good thing to have a computer do.
The cloud is an embodiment of that thoughtless "This sounds cool, so full speed ahead without examining the context!" attitude.
I see certain uses of the cloud (e.g. Adobe Creative Cloud) to be quite poor decisions that come to the detriment of the people trying to engage in them, but the cloud overall is quite a beneficial concept when used well.
@doppelgreener Aye. The problem with the cloud is that very few people are considering whether it's a good tool for a given job--simply whether the job can be changed to fit the tool.
@Miniman Cross-reference with "people who think Soylent is a great idea."
@BESW Hmm. In general in the industry areas I'm exposed to it's being used quite well mostly, Adobe being a quite egregrious exception. "Let's provide all of our software via the cloud, but also force people to use our cloud-based file handling, which can experience downtime sometimes! And if it's down you can't run the software or do anything at all!" Visual Studio requires network-based authentication to let you run it, but you can go for several months without that authentication.
Adobe made some very bad decisions for its consumers there.
@BESW TTFN!
At the moment one of the primary uses of the Cloud is to provision web servers, through services like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Generally it's a pretty good thing, and resembles the move the electricity utility industry experienced.
In the beginning of electricity being a household thing, houses that could afford one had their own generators, and maintained and fueled them privately. Then power plants began to appear which could provide multiple houses with power at the same time, and the houses could share in the cost of maintaining and running the generator and ensuring it had adequate fuel. Nowadays in most of the world, power plants tend to be how someone gets electricity at all.
In the beginning of web hosting, everyone had their own private server rooms and had personnel to run those. Then people started offering their own machines (but they were generally garbage and the pricing didn't reflect usage very well). Now, Cloud hosting provides a far more flexible model for people just getting whatever computing power they need, and the companies who formerly had server rooms are flocking to 'em.
@doppelgreener We have 1.5kw on our roof. Bought it a few years ago, when it was much more expensive, but the feed-in price was higher too. We've thought about adding more, but I believe then we'll lose the higher feed-in on all of it. (Also, money's tighter than it was for us then.) Looked at the Tesla batteries too, but they're still expensive.
@trogdor I say "may be" because I don't know if the plant currently in Europe actually sells to Europe. Those cars might just all ship straight to the USA. A second factory in Europe, though, will likely eventually start producing excess that will be sold in Europe - once they meet all their pre-orders, of which there is a phenomenally large quantity.
I think the concept itself is viable, the thing is, would it be considered metagaming? If your poison lasts 12 hours, and your saving throw increase only lasts 5 minutes, then it does seem weird that a spell would be timed like that
I mean, are the characters themselves familiar with the concept of saving throws?
...that's a totally different question, and one that is almost impossible to answer because "metagaming" is a nebulous concept which very few people can agree on--neither what it is nor assigning value judgements to it.
@Nzall It's been argued that, with sufficient observation & intelligence, characters can work out the "laws of the universe" ie the rules of the game they're in
@Nzall While the characters are usually not familiar with "saving throws", they can sometimes be translated either into in-game concepts ("second wind", "trying to shake it off") or to narrative concepts ("a last-ditch effort to transcend the condition").
It depends on how you, the players, want to view it. Some will be fine with simply saying "there's a saving throw, no other justification necessary".
@Nzall Of course they are! Even disregarding "observing the laws of the setting reveals the rules of the game," the poison has iterative effects that are easily observable.
It sounds like you're looking for a hard line between setting knowledge and game knowledge. This is impossible, not least because "metagame" is not a precisely defined term, but also because for systems like D&D setting and game define each other in inextricable ways.
A common trope in movies, for instance, is for a protagonist to be known down, for instance, and can't get up - until some external event, like a friend getting injured, allows them to pull themselves up and get back in the fight. This is a saving throw, for me.
If there are spells to boost saving throws, there must be some in-universe observable benefit to it, otherwise what would be the point of casting it? Whether you view it as improving your luck or something else, comes down to narrative
I find it difficult to imagine that in a world where spells effect creatures in recognizable, quantifiable ways that are directly based on HD, and the same world is filled with towers of wizards dedicated to fully understanding the universe in general and magic in particular, that nobody sat down for some empirical testing to figure out what HD are.
But for something like saving throws it's much more straightforward.
The question, really, could be more usefully framed as: What practical qualities of a saving throw aren't empirically observable to a D&D 5e character?
@BESW That would depend entirely on the group. For some, asking a mage how many fireballs they can cast per day to determine their level is perfectly valid. Personally, I prefer to think the rules with levels and HD and other numbers are a simplification of a complex reality that simply doesn't have those.
In the original, pre-edited question, the OP tried to couch the out-of-character mechanics (rolling a 1 5% of the time) with in-character observations ("I summon a bunch of skeletons and cast at them, noticing that despite my superior skill, I still miss ~5% of the time).
The problem with that i...
A mage typically learns to cast X spells of certain level (can't avoid spell levels!) by certain time in their career. We call that level Y. There are other mages out there that don't, but we don't bother with them too much.
Mind you, fun can be had with empirically derivable rules of the system. Give a toddler (Strength 1, modifier -5) a dagger (1d4 damage). Let the toddler stab you (for 1d4-5, minimum 1 damage). How many stabs can you survive?
Fifteen minutes later I had the ability to wild shape into any creature of the fey type up to 35HD, and replicate that fey's supernatural, extraordinary, and spell-like abilities while doing so.
D&D et al actually have a slight advantage here over systems that try to give mechanics more flowery, in-universe names. The more flowery the name of the skill or spell, the more it seems like it should exist in-universe.
...of course the real fun is in having your party stumble into one such lab, where a mad wizard tried to figure out the rules. "You enter a room. There's an aggressive toddler with a knife, and lots of blood on the floor."
A high-level barbarian can take significantly more hits with a greatsword than a commoner. This is true even if the barbarian is tied up. We should consider making our armor out of high-level barbarians.
Right. And your goal is to accomplish simple, ordinary zepplin tasks while staying angry enough to stay afloat and without letting anyone know you're an angry illiterate zeppelin.
@BESW Oh, me too... multiple tabs in multiple windows, all the time...
You may want to consider that if you keep wanting out from Chrome, you may be best just keeping at Firefox and altering your workflow until it sticks...
Though that depends on the costs and benefits to you
Yeah. A lot of it has to do with how I've integrated three different gmail accounts into my profession, and I can't get Firefox to play nice with all three at once.
I've had rocky past with some of these. I tried Thunderbird, The Bat, a selection of Linux options but sadly Outlook was a clear winner until its newest incarnation
