TRPG General Chat

DuckTapeAl

00:00

@Adeptus I have a relevant story about that.

Shalvenay

@DuckTapeAl we have a set, but if you want to join us, we play on Mondays at 9PM US EST

DuckTapeAl

So, in a class I took in college, we played a session of D&D. I GM'd my group, and my wife-then-girlfriend played in my group, in her first time playing a tabletop game.

The adventure was a stock 3.5 adventure whose name escapes me. The only detail I remember is that there was a Kobold NPC called Duke Chupo.

The whole adventure was about how this Kobold was magic, and could seal away an escaped Kyton for another hundred years or something.

It was a low-level adventure, and the epic final battle with the Kyton and his imp allies was supposed to be about holding it off until the Duke could finish his song-spell or whatever, and seal the Kyton.

My wife downed it, and rolled well enough on the coup-de-gras to kill it.

Shalvenay

LOL

Miniman

@nitsua60 If you're around, I'd be interested to discuss that question with you.

DuckTapeAl

Her first and last experience with tabletop gaming was killing a monster with a CR 3 levels above her. :P

Shalvenay

00:04

@DuckTapeAl sounds like the Duke would be throwing a party for the party xD

nitsua60

@Miniman here for fifteen or twenty minutes

DuckTapeAl

Probably.

nitsua60

My opening line was "I don't usually answer balance questions, 'cause I don't really know what that is. But, like Potter Stewart, I know it when I see it, and this ain't it."

(actually, afk one sec--gotta make a bed)

Shalvenay

@DuckTapeAl -- so as to joining that DW game? or does that time not work for you?

Miniman

@nitsua60 So, there's a few issues that I think need to be resolved before it can see reopening - Tuggy already ditched "How do I namez?", but "How do I put this on my character sheet?" is really also a separate question.

Adeptus

00:09

@DuckTapeAl In my case it was a party of 4. They were level 3 or 4, and a Roper is CR12.

DuckTapeAl

@Shalvenay How often is it? Every week?

nitsua60

@Miniman Yeah, that's true. I think it was so obviously severable that my mind's-eye just skipped over't.

DuckTapeAl

And is it text, or voice?

Shalvenay

@DuckTapeAl weekly, and voice with a side text chat -- BESW has a Discord setup

nitsua60

@Ash @BESW @Sandwich@Shalvenay @VisuallyImpaired I've had an evening work-duty come up next Monday--would it be possible to push back one hour? To start at 10pm Eastern? Can you leave a note in Discord with that plan's workability? Thanks.

Shalvenay

00:15

@nitsua60 do you mind if we rope another player in? xD

nitsua60

I'm waiting to see if we can help Ash work scheduling out.

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 ah.

nitsua60

00:41

hmm... is there a way to rescind a reopen vote? Doesn't seem that way to me =\

DuckTapeAl

There is not.

Nor is there a way to re-cast a close vote, I've found out.

@Shalvenay I would indeed be interested in joining that game, if that would be alright.

nitsua60

@Shalvenay I feel like we're at voice-saturation already. I don't know if you noticed, but there were people during session 0 not speaking up, and it was still a bit to manage. And that was one player down.
@DuckTapeAl you're welcome to lurk--I think you'd have to get info from @BESW on how to connect--but my one vote of six would be against enlarging the group.

DuckTapeAl

00:56

Oh, if you've already started, then I wouldn't want to butt in.

I just hear "there's a game with RPG.SE regulars, and someone else is running it" and I feel a deep need to ask if there's space. :P

I've never played more than a session or two in a game that wasn't D&D, and I've only got one diweekly game now.

Brb, getting applesauce.

nitsua60

@DuckTapeAl We've sorta-started; we're through session 0 (character creation, some world- and story-building boundaries set). Do ping BESW about getting in to spectate a bit, if you're interested, and perhaps the other four players disagree with me that we're at/near saturation on the voice channel?

BESW

I think this link will work: Folks who want to lurk on the DW game can go here and Nitsua, Shalv, or I can give them lurker status.

@nitsua60 [disables the "speak" ability for people with the Watcher status]

And yes, in terms of participants on a voice channel six is very much the upper limit for conversations that aren't aggressively structured.

There is a thunderstorm in China. But instead of bolts of lightning, there are bolts of octopuses.

Tweeted by MagicRealismBot on September 16, 2016 at 12:07 AM

@MagicRealismBot Japanese wizards herald the next invasion of China.

Tweeted by Thunderblarg on September 16, 2016 at 12:18 AM in reply to MagicRealismBot

@DuckTapeAl I'm thinking about offering @VisuallyImpaired some quick one-shots in a few other systems to give 'em a taste of what else the RPG world can offer and maybe see what systems/styles are easier to accommodate.

@nitsua60 I'm flexy, do whatever the rest of the group needs.

DuckTapeAl

01:39

@BESW Well, if you're ever looking for more players, I'm interested in playing things that aren't D&D.

BESW

Noted.

DuckTapeAl

It's been long enough since my last online game flopped that I feel okay about joining another one.

:P

BESW

And I put a link up above if you want to lurk on the DW game.

Miniman

@nitsua60 Thanks.

nitsua60

@Miniman you mean for the shout-out?

Miniman

01:41

@nitsua60 Yep.

I mean, I'm making an assumption, obviously - an actual dwarf or small child could have given you that advice.

BESW

@Miniman So far as we know, these are not mutually exclusive.

nitsua60

Oh, Jesus. That guy's taking my feedback to make changes to the weapon in OP.

I've rolled it back, but this feels like it could get difficult?

Miniman

@nitsua60 See, that's the issue I didn't mention - he was pretty clearly doing this as a "Hey everybody, whaddya think?"

nitsua60

Well, you're the one who gave me a pithy way to put it, and are loaning me your 55K rep to hang the assertion on!
=)

I think as it stands it's still a fine question. Put something out there, and the answers give the world an education as to how some people analyze these things. Just leave it alone, now.

Sorry, 59K.

(I don't usually look that high up on the rep-league.)

Miniman

@nitsua60 [Embarrassed but secretly proud smirk]

DuckTapeAl

01:53

"That high up in the rep league". It's funny to me for two people who are both in the top .5% of repped users talking about differences in rep. :P

nitsua60

@DuckTapeAl Hey, someone with more than twice your rep is still someone with more than twice your rep =)

DuckTapeAl

That is true.

Miniman

@DuckTapeAl Also, you're also in the top .5%, so :P

nitsua60

What can I say...

Dec 9 '15 at 3:11, by nitsua60

I'm constantly amazed by the Stack's ability to socially-engineer me

Miniman

Random side note: the top .5% is 101 people. Man we have a lot of users, active or otherwise.

nitsua60

02:00

How many users with exactly 1 rep? (or 101?)

Miniman

12326 out of 20210.

So, around 61%.

nitsua60

That's... a long tail.

But, then again, I suppose the 99% of page reads from non-users really is the long-tail that we're shooting for, right?

Miniman

@nitsua60 Well, it's a thing we're shooting for.

nitsua60

It really is kinda-amazing, a few thousands of people, 'led' in some way by perhaps hundred(s), building this thing that presumably benefits millions... all in our free time.

Miniman

Helping the person who actually asked the question is another thing.

nitsua60

02:04

Uh-oh, three rollbacks in a row, now. Is there anything that auto-flags?

(Me, OP to un-rollback, then another came along and re-rollbacked the same as mine.)

Miniman

@nitsua60 No idea, but SSD is on the case, anyway.

nitsua60

@SevenSidedDie I believe you're around right now--does the homebrew swiss army knife need some edit-war peacekeeping?

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 it sounds like a Swiss Army Chainsaw to me -- or what Larry Wall would have come up with were he to be at a D&D table :P

nitsua60

(nvm--you're already on it. Thanks.)

SevenSidedDie

@nitsua60 Maybe. That thing is looking like a developing headache, and it's already had a mod intervene once before. I'm disposed to give it a short bit more rope and see if it's OK now, given the comments have attempted to clear up the issue.

nitsua60

02:09

@Shalvenay I just don't envy him a creative DM. "Yes, you can have that, just as you wrote it. And every time you roll max damage on a damage die, it's going to break. That's how we're going to model its complexity-over-mundanity."

Aww... the poor guy can't even chat =\

Adeptus

@nitsua60 "and every time you fumble, it's going to break and hurt you"

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 LOL

nitsua60

@Adeptus I dunno, I tend to be fumble-averse. In all honesty, though, you might be onto something, because "just" having it break really isn't enough.

Miniman

@nitsua60 "Hey, would you mind posting a less contentious question that we can all upvote to get you into chat?"

2

nitsua60

Thinking this way: you could carry the Swiss Army Weapon List and a spear, and just revert to the spear when the SAWL breaks. You're still ahead on the day!

Adeptus

02:15

Miniman

02:30

@nitsua60 Sidebar: You probably don't want to read those books.

nitsua60

@Miniman Turning my head 90 degrees I can see about eight linear feet of book I do want to read. I won't be adding them to my pile =)

Shalvenay

@Miniman ...which books?

Miniman

@Shalvenay Sorry, something from another chat. The Eragon books.

Shalvenay

@Miniman ah.

nitsua60

Speaking of books, I just ordered a decades-old set of the old D&D-syle choose-your-own-adventure books. Possibly even put out by TSR? For my eight year-old =)

BESW

02:42

@Miniman Ah, yes. The series notable only for being almost as good as it was reasonable to expect of its author.

Adeptus

@nitsua60 Aww yeah! From TSR, I had one of the 1-player books & a couple of 2-player sets. From other publishers, I had... I don't know... 10-20? (actually, I should say have, because they're still on my shelf)

Miniman

@BESW That's an intriguing description, please feel free to elaborate.

BESW

@Miniman It's a derivative, predictable mash of Tolkien, Jordan, McCaffrey, etc. If it'd been written by anyone except a kid under the age of 20, it'd've been relegated to the back shelf with the rest of the fantasy epic knockoffs.

But for a teenager's first work, it's notably not awful. It's exactly as derivative and formulaic as a first work by anyone is usually going to be, but it's competent within that frame.

nitsua60

@Adeptus this is the one I grabbed. For some reason a few days ago the remembrance of their existence just popped into my head, and I was all "I must give these to my children!"

BESW

And that's how it was marketed: "Look, a teenager wrote a book and see how surprisingly average fantasy fare it is!"

Miniman

02:49

@BESW So...some sort of weird reverse ad hominem effect?

BESW

Kinda, yeah.

nitsua60

"winning the expectations game," I believe they call it

BESW

If it'd been published in the Clickbait Era, it would've been "One typical fantasy novel whose author will surprise you!"

And I'm not trying to bash Paolini or anything. The dedication and effort to write Eragon is notable.

Many authors have spent decades building a reputation for churning out tropetastic fantasy retreads and never reached his first novel's level of workmanlike prose.

But he's not Rowling or Cooper, and if you want a "young novelist" comparison I'd point at Gordon Korman as an example to blow Paolini out of the water.

Shalvenay

...this question leaves me wondering what'd fit me as a reader, writing-wise. (keep in mind that the last piece of long-form writing I read cover to cover was NTSB/AAR-10/03)

BESW

(Written from ages 12 to 14, Gordon Korman's first book was written with a style and wit unmistakable for anyone else, ever.)

@Shalvenay ....I'd like to see your reaction to Gerard Durrell's autobiographies of his childhood.

DuckTapeAl

03:03

@Miniman That was... moderately painful.

Miniman

@BESW My Family and Other Animals? Nice.

Shalvenay

@BESW hrm. I...probably should have specified better -- I was thinking fiction, and fantasy or fantasy-like stuff in particular

@DuckTapeAl o.o what was?

Miniman

@DuckTapeAl Yeah. It really is the Mary Sue of weapons.

DuckTapeAl

@Shalvenay Chat with the querent from that homebrew weapon question.

Shalvenay

@DuckTapeAl ah.

Miniman

03:04

Like, a weapon with a bunch of different configurations? Fine. Easy to make, easy to balance.

DuckTapeAl

They have some ideas about weapon design, let me tell you.

Miniman

Double-ended staffsword swordstaff staff sword staff? Trickier, but still doable.

Trying to do both at once with a pile of weird assumptions and requirements bigger than one of the Tarrasque's enormous steaming dumps? Suddenly a whole lot less fine.

nitsua60

I was interested when I assumed "huthvir" was some sort of historically-based Icelandic weapon. Once I learned its true provenance, well, back to map-making =)

DuckTapeAl

The damage-types-do-different-damage thing is pretty weird to me, as well.

nitsua60

Okay, forrealz this time: night all.

Miniman

03:07

@DuckTapeAl I think that was just a misunderstanding of "resistance means half damage, so 2d4 becomes 1d4".

BESW

ttfn

Miniman

@nitsua60 Cya!

DuckTapeAl

Well, the 2d4-to-1d4 thing, yeah. I mean that b/s does 2d4, p does 1d8 thing

I find the damage line in general weird and confusing, and the rest of the description even more so.

BESW

@Shalvenay I figure creative narrative non-fiction might be a gateway genre.

Miniman

@DuckTapeAl Oh, I missed that bit. [reads] Wait, what?!?!? He wanted it to be dealing 4d4?!?!?

Shalvenay

03:11

@BESW hrm, describe it a little more to me?

BESW

Durrell is a naturalist who wrote very funny accounts of his barely-supervised childhood running around a Greek island and poking all the wildlife, interspersed with anecdotes about his deeply weird family.

DuckTapeAl

@Miniman Oh, crap, did he? I honestly can't tell if he's saying that it's supposed to do 2d4 s and 2d4 b or just 2d4, but it counts as both.

Miniman

@DuckTapeAl The "one of each" bit is what led me to these frightening thoughts.

BESW

I'd like to see how @Miniman describes it, though.

DuckTapeAl

@Shalvenay Have you read The Martian? It's a detailed and highly technical account of a (apparently) realistic attempt to survive alone on Mars.

Shalvenay

03:14

@DuckTapeAl I have not. I'm looking for something that's more of a gateway to fantasy vs. straight SF

DuckTapeAl

@Shalvenay Have you read any of the Star Wars EU? Some of it is pretty good.

Miniman

@BESW Your description is pretty spot-on, but I would point out that it's very laidback, British sort of humour.

DuckTapeAl

Most of it is basically the literary equivalent of popcorn.

BESW

If there's an overarching theme or plot to the books, it's young Durrell's efforts to learn about the science of nature on an isolated island with a family that just doesn't care (so reference books and instructors are difficult to acquire; much of his knowledge has to be self-gained).

DuckTapeAl

And any of the books that focus on Jedi straddle the line between SF and F pretty well.

Miniman

03:15

@DuckTapeAl That's an awesome phrase [swipes]

Shalvenay

@DuckTapeAl no, I'd probably get thrown off-kilter by the way SW treats space combat

(space opera doesn't account for EW very well.)

BESW

@Miniman Oh, yeah, popcorn reading is a great phrase.

DuckTapeAl

@Shalvenay I don't really know how you mean.

Miniman

@BESW Describes a worryingly high fraction of my bookshelf, too.

BESW

@Miniman Nothing wrong with popcorn.

DuckTapeAl

03:16

Also, there are a bunch of books with little to no space combat at all.

BESW

A lot of my vocabulary and knowledge base comes from thousands of hours of popcorn reading as a kid and youth.

2

Shalvenay

@DuckTapeAl true....but more my point is that the universe doesn't account for it well either -- and overall, I'm not a huge fan of SW as a 'verse

BESW

The Boxcar Children taught me about portaging.

@DuckTapeAl Shalv's problem is with settings that wave their hands instead of labouring to achieve near-perfect internal consistency.

DuckTapeAl

@Shalvenay Fair. I don't understand what you mean by "the way SW treats space combat", though.

@BESW Aha.

Well, if you might be interested in "harder" fantasy, Brandon Sanderson's adult fiction novels have remarkably self-consistent magic systems.

To the point where "let's exploit the rules of magic" is an actual thing that characters actually do in multiple books.

BESW

So, for example, when Star Wars treats space combat as if it were naval or aerial combat without explaining why or how that's reasonable, it throws him out of the story.

DuckTapeAl

03:19

@BESW Aaaaah. That makes sense.

Shalvenay

@DuckTapeAl EW seems like a natural development of any universe where you're dealing with machine-to-machine combat -- we see it in naval combat and aerial combat IRL

DuckTapeAl

@Shalvenay EW?

Shalvenay

@DuckTapeAl Electronic Warfare

attacking your enemy's sensors, targeting systems/weapons guidance, etal

DuckTapeAl

Aha.

Miniman

@Shalvenay Have you read any of the Honorverse?

Shalvenay

03:21

@Miniman heard of it but haven't read it

@DuckTapeAl I've heard the name mentioned before re -- highly consistent magic systems

BESW

The other challenge here is that he has trouble engaging with plots where the stakes are emotional.

Miniman

@Shalvenay Could be worth a look, I think it ticks a lot of boxes for you.

Shalvenay

@Miniman perhaps

DuckTapeAl

@BESW I don't really get what you mean by "emotional stakes". I'm trying to think of what would be emotional versus non-emotional stakes, but I'm coming up blank.

BESW

@DuckTapeAl At the end of Star Wars VI, there's two climactic scenes: one has objective, rational stakes and one has subjective, emotional stakes.

The first is about blowing up the Death Star. That's a physical goal to remove a physical threat and draw the teeth of an objectively horrible regime.

Miniman

03:25

@BESW Hey, now. "Objectively horrible"?

BESW

@Miniman Within the story's frame.

Miniman

@BESW Sorry, I was kidding.

BESW

The second is about Luke getting closure with his dad.

He could've just let his dad blow up in the Death Star, but then he would've... felt bad?

Joel Harmon

hey, spoilers!

BESW

But in the film, which is the more important climax? Which are we supposed to care about more and have more investment in?

(Hint: it's the one with the main character, not all the side characters.)

Miniman

03:30

@BESW Honestly, I'm not sure the idea even makes sense within the story. The Emperor and Darth Vader simply couldn't have been vaporised in the Death Star explosion.

trogdor

@Miniman you would call an empire run by Dath Sidious and Darth Vader something else?

DuckTapeAl

Okay. I think I understand what you're saying.

BESW

Shalv can get behind the whole "We must destroy the genocide machine and stop the war" thing, but he has a harder time believing it's worth taking great risks for somebody's catharsis or to redeem a bad guy.

Miniman

@trogdor Wow. That there is pure ad hominem.

DuckTapeAl

However, I think it's going to be super difficult for me to determine whether a plot is more physical or emotional.

trogdor

03:31

hehehehe

Miniman

"Darth Sidious is evil, therefore his political regime is evil." C'mon man, you're better than that.

BESW

I'm off to a client meeting. ttfn

trogdor

@Miniman giving absolute power to an evil person isn't exactly a good thing

DuckTapeAl

I... think? maybe? that the Mistborn series is more of a physical plot than an emotional one? But that line is pretty hard ro see.

Joel Harmon

well, there goes the plan of waiting a few minutes for chat to settle before asking @BESW about DW bonds

DuckTapeAl

03:32

Also: I never really thought of Luke as the "main" character. Those movies always felt more like an ensemble cast to me. Not that I would have called it that when I initially saw the movies.

Though I have been told that my view of the SW trilogy is forever tarnished because I've only ever seen the remasters.

Joel Harmon

and now I'm wondering about the viability of Dungeon World as an investment strategy

Miniman

@DuckTapeAl Sure, but Han and Leia don't blow up the Death Star, either. The only character involved who even has a name is Lando.

DuckTapeAl

@Miniman Well, there's Wedge, too.

Joel Harmon

@Miniman which death star?

Miniman

@JoelHarmon Talking about RotJ.

@DuckTapeAl Oof, that's me told :P

DuckTapeAl

03:34

And Nien Nunb, Lando's copilot.

Miniman

@DuckTapeAl See, now you're just showing off.

DuckTapeAl

:P

I only know those names because my seminal sci-fi was the X-Wing series.

Miniman

@DuckTapeAl If Nien Nunb had made it into Rogue Squadron (the game, not the books) I might've known his name, but outside of that I haven't looked at much EU.

trogdor

yeah, wasn't Wedge in Rogue Squadron?

(again, the game)

Miniman

He was! But his name made it into the movies, too. I just forgot that he was there for Death Star 2.

trogdor

03:37

most of my Star Was EU knowledge is from games, not much in reading of it

@Miniman yeah but, being in the game helps too

Miniman

@trogdor True, although he's kind of a jerk in the game.

DuckTapeAl

@Miniman He's the only person with 2 Death Star symbols on his ship.

trogdor

@Miniman I don't hardly even remember what his personality in it was like XD

Miniman

@DuckTapeAl Confirmed, Wedge is the main character for sure.

@trogdor He's that game's equivalent of Natalya from Goldeneye, with the added bonus of shooting you every so often.

trogdor

@Miniman what about, the Falco?

cause Falco was a jerk

XD

I assume he wasn't the Slippy

DuckTapeAl

03:41

In all seriousness, my initial perception of that movie was that the two plotlines in the end were the 'Endor' plotline with Han, Leia, and Chewie, and the 'space' plotline with Luke, Darth, and a bunch of plebs.

And that Lando, Ackbar, and Wedge were basically ewoks, narratively speaking.

Shalvenay

hey there @JoelHarmon

Miniman

@DuckTapeAl Honestly, I would've said the Endor plotline, the Sith/Jedi plotline, and some random space battle in the background.

Joel Harmon

hey @Shalvenay

Shalvenay

@JoelHarmon how're things going?

Miniman

Let's be honest, once the shield goes down we spend almost no time on the Death Star assault.

Shalvenay

03:42

@Miniman yeah, the Death Star has practically nil armor and structure :P

Joel Harmon

@DuckTapeAl to be fair, there were a bunch of other plebs on Endor as well

non-ewoks, that is

DuckTapeAl

@JoelHarmon ..oh yeah, there were, weren't there.

Did any of them have names?

Or, like, lines?

Joel Harmon

besides "AIEEEEEE!", I'm not sure

Miniman

Did we even see them after we met the ewoks?

Joel Harmon

not sure; it's been months since I've seen those movies

DuckTapeAl

03:45

@Miniman I think we see them guarding prisoners and stuff once the fight is over.

Miniman

@DuckTapeAl And I'm sure they do a great job of it.

DuckTapeAl

It's possible that the most recent Star Wars movie that I've seen is the Holiday Special.

Miniman

@DuckTapeAl I've never given myself the...satisfaction, let's say, of watching it.

DuckTapeAl

It was a tradition at Turbine.

We celebrated Life Day every year.

Miniman

@DuckTapeAl Oooh, you work at/worked at Turbine?

DuckTapeAl

03:48

Until recently, yes.

Since 2010.

Miniman

@DuckTapeAl Very cool.

DuckTapeAl

Primarily on Lord of the Rings Online.

@Miniman Thank you. It was a good time, most of the time. :P

Miniman

@DuckTapeAl Where are you working now? (If you don't mind me asking.)

DuckTapeAl

I don't mind. Currently nowhere.

Turns out, it's hard to get a job in games. :P

Shalvenay

yeah...and it's probably doubly hard coming from a game designer background vs. an engine dev

Miniman

03:52

@DuckTapeAl It's an unfortunate junction of popular and difficult.

Joel Harmon

almost as if the market were saturated with devs, because everyone who gets a degree related to computers at some point thinks "Gee, I know enough to work on computer games now!"

Shalvenay

@DuckTapeAl -- what's your educational background btw?

DuckTapeAl

@JoelHarmon Quote for goddamned truth.

Shalvenay

@JoelHarmon but for an engine dev job, you're also competing with well...lots of other folks who need devs for things that don't have a whole lot to do with game engines per se

DuckTapeAl

@Shalvenay I have a bachelor's in Interactive Media and Game Design with a Technical Concentration from WPI.

So, basically it's a programming degree with a fair bit of game design sprinkled on.

Shalvenay

03:55

hrm. not sure if you'd be considered qualified for IT operations or not....

(because of all things, the Federal Public Defender in the state I live in needs one good sysadmin.)

DuckTapeAl

@Shalvenay That's not really an issue. If you have a couple years experience working as a programmer on a game, you can pretty easily get a job as a programmer doing other things.

Miniman

@Shalvenay The gulf between a programmer and a good sysadmin is vast.

DuckTapeAl

For the most part, programming experience is pretty fungible.

Shalvenay

@DuckTapeAl yeah -- that was my point exactly

Miniman

Like DBAs, anyone can be a sysadmin, but very few people can be a good one.

Shalvenay

03:56

@Miniman I agree with you re: great sysadmins -- it's the same way with full-spectrum DBAs

DuckTapeAl

And there are waaaaaay more programming jobs than there are programmers, at least where I am.

Shalvenay

@DuckTapeAl ah, wow. so just biding your time waiting for something good to pop up?

DuckTapeAl

Well, my problem is that, while I have a degree in programming, I haven't actually done any significant programming in six years.

Shalvenay

@DuckTapeAl sounds like time for some side projects to knock some rust off, no?

DuckTapeAl

@Shalvenay That is one possible approach to my employment issue, yes.

Joel Harmon

03:59

may I recommend the Synacor Challenge as a warmup?

DuckTapeAl

I'd really rather stay in design, though, which is tough.

Joel Harmon

weird, that didn't link

DuckTapeAl

I think you need to include the full link.

Miniman

@JoelHarmon Http is a requirement for links to be links here.

Shalvenay

@DuckTapeAl yeah, staying in design makes things far narrower

Joel Harmon

04:00

there we go; sorry.

Shalvenay

@DuckTapeAl do you want to stay specifically in game design, or try your hand at business software? also, is relocation an option?

DuckTapeAl

@Shalvenay Relocation isn't really an option, because my wife's job is super awesome. By design, I definitely mean game design, because game design experience doesn't transfer to anything else.

Shalvenay

@DuckTapeAl ah, drat on two fronts -- my employer has a business-analyst type opening floating around, but it'd mean relocation for sure. wild idea: considered going blue collar for a while?

DuckTapeAl

@Shalvenay I worked at a paper mill in college. I don't think I could hack it doing blue collar. Also, there aren't a lot of blue collar jobs around, either.

Shalvenay

@DuckTapeAl ah. I'm...mixed on the blue collar thing. I couldn't do a straight laborer, but there are a fair few industrial trades jobs I'd be willing to take (if I had no other options, I could always apprentice as an electrician, myself)

DuckTapeAl

04:21

Huh. Neat.

imgur.com/gallery/tW0J81Y

Since that isn't going to resolve into something useful: That's a link to an imgur post where someone made a conversion of all the FFXIV classes into 5th ed classes.

A cursory glance makes me believe that they're... not great.

Miniman

There's some interesting ideas there, though.

DuckTapeAl

For sure.

BESW

04:43

@JoelHarmon [returns]

Adeptus

@BESW RPG.SE Episode VI: Return of the BESW

Chemus

These are not the rules you're looking for... he can go about his business... move along.

Chemus

05:04

@Miniman Miniminiminimini-Miniman!

(to the tune of 1966 Batman)

trogdor

na-na-na-na-na-na!

BESW

@Chemus My favourite 1966 Batman Theme Song Joke is, alas, VERY culturally specific.

Chemus

@BESW Which culture?

BESW

Chamorro.

Chemus

Or rather; I'm kinda smart, and might get the joke anyway. Maybe. Though, I'm apparently not as smart as I'd hoped (goes to look up Chamorro)

trogdor

05:10

@Chemus yeah if you have to look it up, you will most likely not immediately get it XD

Miniman

@Chemus Uh...hey?

Chemus

@trogdor Yep...

BESW

Local greeting card's cover:
NANA NANA
NANA NANA
NANA NANA
NANA NANA

Chemus

@miniman just sayin Hi; Since I saw yer avatar float down.

BESW

Inside card:
"WHAT, NAI?"

trogdor

05:13

@BESW lol

ok that is fair enough

Chemus

Nai+ 'now'?, or '[some younger relation]?'

Miniman

@Chemus Hi! (When I'm on mobile my picture bounces in and out like I'm bungee jumping.)

BESW

@Chemus It's more like an exasperated intensifier.

Chemus

Thanks. Yes, unfortunately, that is pretty language/dialect specific

BESW

Correct me if I'm wrong, @trogdor, but the phrase "WHAT, NAI?" is a "you're reading this in my voice" moment for most anyone who grew up in or around the local culture.

trogdor

05:16

@BESW yes

you mean a certain radio show correct?

BESW

...for you, probably yes.

trogdor

well, also quite likely specific people, who would be different for everyone

BESW

For me, Malafunkshun was just talking 'bout all the nanas I remember at my friends' houses and how they'd respond when my friends were bugging them.

trogdor

but most definitely for me it is that radio show because it is the source of where I heard it the most

@BESW well, that WAS the point after all

but his voice is how I hear that phrase

for sure

not to say I never heard anyone else talking in that manner, but his rendition of it is what I remember first when I read it, for sure

and it may be that the single biggest source of me hearing phrases such as that being spoken, at least for a long time, happened to be him

there was also the amusing time period in which I was volunteering at the Park where I was sitting at the desk with 3 older local women who were themselves very interesting people

BESW

Yeah, neither of us had a nana like that and I probably spent a bit more of my childhood around other peoples' nanas than you did, but Malafunkshun means you get the joke anyway.

trogdor

05:24

yes

as you are most likely aware, I had to be dragged to most social type gatherings with other people when I was younger

and not all of those were even with local families

I did not make the same kind of effort to catch everything that I imagine you did

passive noticing of things did happen, but not generally always even voluntarily XD

BESW

Well, as a kid I sort of went with whatever was going on. That just happened to involve a much different set of experiences and exposures, largely because of my family's involvement in local Bahá'í activities that extended into the neighbourhoods.

trogdor

I think some of it had to do with my general lack of interest in too much socialization, and my parents being friends with at least as many EX Pat type people as locals

@BESW this is also probably some part of the divide in experience as well

yes

Chemus

What's the ettiquette on folding a comment that, while not changing the conclusion, changes the path, into your answer,?

BESW

I'd talk about it in the answer.

@Chemus "At first I arrived at X conclusion using Y logic, but then [awesome person] said something which made me realise Z logic is even niftier."

Chemus

05:39

Unpack that a little?

Yeah, I was just slow

@BESW Yeah, I'll do that rather than wait for the commenter, as I'm [obvioucly] an impatient cuss. Thanks.

BESW

09:20

NPC concept looking for a home:

Benjamin Snood, saloon owner and former preacher, and his brother Adam Snood, preacher and former saloon owner.

BESW

10:05

So, if you take out the vampires, Blood on the Trail is still a very robust Oregon Trail game.

trogdor

10:29

what now?

is it an RPG or board game or what?

BESW

It's the newest World of Adventure for Fate. The basic concept is "What if vampires attacked wagon trains in the Wild West?"

But the wagon train mechanics are robust enough to make the vampire part seem almost unnecessary.

trogdor

ah

BESW

Sorta like how we decided it was superfluous to add magic to our Bubblegumshoe game.

trogdor

10:52

yeah

except in this case it was supposed to be baked in

at least, I assume so

BESW

Honestly it kinda feels like they made an Oregon Trail game but had to add something to make it more marketable.

So, it's the same era as Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, why not?

trogdor

ugh

I hate that name

well, "title"

BESW

To be fair, their presentation of vampires does reinforce the themes they've designed the game to focus on.

Toshinou Kyouko

13:02

starting a new character for D&D today, a half dryad bard - little do my party know that his long lost father was my last character!

looking forward to seeing them realise :)

Skathix

14:52

Half Dryad, Your last character had sex with a tree brah

Toshinou Kyouko

yup :|

v dedicated druid

Skathix

Wait, did this happen? Because that'd be a HILARIOUS realization.

Toshinou Kyouko

well, in our world the dryads are basically elven-like creatures that can morph into trees

Chemus

Too bad half dryad is half fey rather than half plant...

Toshinou Kyouko

and we had a random encounter on a table where we were crossing a big plain which was a fey party, where my character wandered off with one of them

Skathix

15:11

Oh nice, yea that will be a nice reveal

I need to write up D&D

We play tomorrow

Anyone know any good tools to use on a computer?

Toshinou Kyouko

:)

homebrewery.naturalcrit.com is good for homebrew

idk about DMing

inkarnate.com/maps#/ is pretty good for maps

i discovered it when i made my own map maker (in super-alpha: ianfhunter.github.io/Map-Builder)

Skathix

Woooooooooooah

What

WHAT THE HELL

THANK YOU TOSHI

Toshinou Kyouko

:)

no problemo

happy to help

Skathix

Any artists online?

UrhoKarila

I can do stick figures

UrhoKarila