TRPG General Chat

nitsua60

00:53

@Miniman @DForck42 Corollary: if someone tries to attack, you probably need them to die.

nitsua60

01:05

VtC doesn't know system

Eidolon108

@nitsua60 Looks like he edited in the DnD 4e tag, although the question is still pretty messy

nitsua60

01:31

@Eidolon108 Yes, but I've no faith that OP actually knows 4e is the game. ('Cause they said they didn't know.) It wouldn't have let them submit with no tags, so having typed in "dunge" 4e might have been the first tag to come up....

Eidolon108

@nitsua60 ah, didn't think about the fact that he was forced to tag

daze413

01:52

I think it's odd he has a handbook but doesn't know the edition

Shalvenay

hey there @daze413

Adeptus

@daze413 Could be 5e? I don't think it says the version anywhere obvious

daze413

@Shalvenay oh hey, shalvenay! Still a bit sleepy. Just ended a game session at 12 MN last night and got 5 hours of sleep. But what fun!

Shalvenay

@daze413 ah. I'm hoping that my DM's interwebs start working again because right now, the game I was supposed to have the first session of today is looking like a big, fat non-starter

daze413

@Adeptus It is most likely 5e. New people usually don't get into other editions without someone who knows the edition well to teach them.

nitsua60

01:58

@daze413 I'm pretty sure 3 doesn't say anything to that effect, 3.x does, don't know about 4, and 5 definitely doesn't.

@daze413 Unless you just grabbed a book or two at a bookstore, or at a comic/card shop with one shelf of rpg materials. Sometimes you go into these places and there's a total random assortment of systems, editions, and products.

That was largely my early B/X/1e/2e experience: grabbing whatever was around at the comic shop that we were allowed to take a family trip to once every three months!

I mean, if someone thinks D&D would be cool, walks into a store and buys two or three books without anyone to guide them, and tries to RAFO how to play... I can sympathize with any amount of confusion that might ensue.

Adeptus

@nitsua60 Especially if they picked up a mix of editions

daze413

@Shalvenay I hate when that happens... But allow me to one-up you on that note: I once applied for a forum game where we started at 20th-level, had our picks of magic items (even homebrewed ones, as long as it got GM-permission) and had 5 attunement slots. You could imagine the prep that went into this thing. I spent 2 weeks just mathing to get the best DPS (I was an EK/Devo Pally smiteknight from orc labs). What happened? (to be continued...)

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 agreed -- I'm very glad that I learned the way I did instead of trying to teach it to myself from the books

nitsua60

@Adeptus Yeah, which would be super-easy to do, what with WotC trying to brand each of its D&Ds as the D&D.

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 fail WotC, fail.

daze413

02:05

@Shalvenay (continued...) Well, we introduced our characters in a tavern. It was all good until one of the players insulted (eye-rolled) another player's flashy entrance. Long story short, they exchanged insults and started PVPing because the DM couldn't control it (we were super overpowered, srsly)

nitsua60

(I remember wandering to the RPG shelf in a big-box bookstore about a decade ago and thinking to myself "what ever happened to AD&D? And this D&D looks nothing like the D&D I know...!?")

Adeptus

I still don't get their reluctance to label it clearly with the edition number, like most (I think?) other commercial RPGs

daze413

@Shalvenay after that, the game died... it never started

Shalvenay

@daze413 :/

daze413

weeks of prep... lost... wasted... I still have the sheet... lemme pull up myth-weavers for a sec

BESW

02:07

@Adeptus The four-and-some-fractions-which-don't-add-up editions of Fate just sorta flowed from one to another with little comment; until Core, the divisions were largely fan-determined for ease of communication.

daze413

@Shalvenay RIP Helm Danravan myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=632258

Shalvenay

@daze413 a pretty freaky 5e char :P

daze413

@Shalvenay yeah, and the other players were similarly OP. when the PVPing broke out in the tavern, you could just imagine the destruction...

Shalvenay

@daze413 ...yeah.

BESW

The Faith Corps engine doesn't even have an official name, so far as I can tell.

Shalvenay

02:10

not quite as bad as "oops, we just signed up for total war against space mercs when we have not into Sputnik yet"

nitsua60

@Adeptus they'll come back. After all...

Jul 28 at 3:26, by Adeptus

@Miniman But D&D 105e isn't real D&D... The last real D&D was 102.7e

Okay, OP says it's 4e. Voted to reopen.

Adeptus

02:26

Does anyone know of a character build-planner for either D&D 3.5e or 5e? Something that lets you plan your character advancement level by level, ideally with settable goals that it can guide you towards (eg, gaining specified PrC/feat/ability as soon as possible). I have no idea if such a thing exists, but I (and I'm sure others) would find it useful.

BESW

I call it "RPG General Chat."

2

nitsua60

@BESW I call it "@Miniman" =)

Miniman

Aw, shucks.

nitsua60

(at least, for 5e; never tried 3.5)

@Miniman Then again, the last character you helped me with bit it at L3, so we never really saw how well he did at unleashing Pelor's might across all of Barovia.

Miniman

For 3.5, I'd call it KRyan.

nitsua60

02:32

@Miniman Yeah, not even playing, it sure seems that way from some of the build-questions on site.

Shalvenay

02:45

@nitsua60 once my DM gets his interwebs back working, we'll see how well the paladin-emulator build works in the homebrew campaign he has planned

Miniman

@nitsua60 Oh yeah, I just remembered - what's Dungeonology like?

nitsua60

@Miniman Haven't looked at it yet. I did pick up Volo, but am holding off on Dungeonology 'til the new year.

@Shalvenay Which flavor did you go with?

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 Life domain

nitsua60

So, Ftr1/Cl many?

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 yep

nitsua60

02:52

Which first? Stats?

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 Ftr1 first, and 17/13/15/15/16/9 STR/DEX/CON/INT/WIS/CHA (rolled, ofc)

nitsua60

ugh... thassalotta odd stats =\

I guess first ASI could be STR+1, WIS+1?

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 that could work, yes

Miniman

I'd go Str+1, Con+1, personally.

Shalvenay

or that

Miniman

02:56

No point having an odd number in Wis.

nitsua60

@Miniman derp... misread the ordering as having WIS 15, not 16. Yes, then, STR & CON.

Miniman

It's not like Str where an odd number still benefits the most important stat in the game :P

nitsua60

[clears throat]

Encummmmmm-BRANCE!

(That was the ol' "Space... GHO-OST!" call there, in case you didn't recognize it.)

@Miniman Or did you mean ~~high~~ long jump?

Miniman

Nah, long jump.

Lol.

The longer you can jump, the lower the probability of setting of a trap is.

nitsua60

I'm still not clear on what happens if I have a speed of 25', run 10', long jump, and have a STR of 18. No answer to that question has yet satisfied me.

Miniman

03:01

You don't like "jump 15 feet"?

Or "use Dash and jump 18 feet"?

nitsua60

I don't understand why a Dwarf who's tested out to 18' hits the ground after 15', while a human who's tested out to 18' hits the ground after 18'.

When in combat.

(Relaxing on a summer afternoon, they can simultaneously long jump the same dist.)

(It's only under stress that the dwarf hits the ground after 15'.)

Miniman

If you run faster, you jump further - just like in physics.

nitsua60

But speed is not an input to our long jump "score."

BESW

D&D physics is pro-human.

Powerdork

True fact.

nitsua60

03:04

@BESW Sooth. Wisely, wisely.

@Miniman Honestly, the answer I like is "you're in midair. Hang out there, we're swinging the spotlight away, and we'll be back to you for the last 3' of your jump."

Miniman

@nitsua60 I get that, but it leads to serious weirdness.

nitsua60

So does magic, man =)

Miniman

True dat.

daze413

Hm. I don't allow my players to jump that far if they don't have enough speed. I've always described it as like one of those movie scenes where they face a cliff they have to jump but they stop just before jumping to look back and then jump.

nitsua60

@daze413 So I've got no problem stopping their turn when they hit their speed. It's ending the jump early that bugs me =)

daze413

03:11

@nitsua60 which is why if they want to jump that far, but their speed limits it, I always tell them they can only jump as far as their speed or their jump distance, whichever is shorter

nitsua60

Maybe it's because I was a high-jumper. If somebody told me that I was going to hit the ground early because I'd taken too long a runup, I'd... well, I guess I'd run fast, turn away at the last second while awkwardly throwing myself backward toward them, then contort myself in the air so as to just-barely not touch them.

So there!

Not that it ever matters, right? I mean, long jumps are going to be multiples of 5' at any table that's tracking feet....

daze413

You ever wanted to design an encounter where the PCs are free-falling and they're also fighting while falling?

Shalvenay

@daze413 oh gosh :P

nitsua60

nope. You?

daze413

@Shalvenay those make awesome movie scenes

it just popped into my head, I could attempt to work it out but my PCs are still 5th level and they don't have fly or feather fall (because yey fireball and offensive spells!)

nitsua60

03:17

Point Break, what else?

@daze413 I'd suggest something like Bane of the Tradeways (DDAL04-something) used for a chase-on-wagons scene, where you define some new combat actions that reflect relative motion.

Such as "pencil dive: as an action, you can add A to your vertical speed for one round." or "join up: as an action, if you are within B of a willing creature you two can grapple and thereafter move (X-Y) in tandem."

daze413

@nitsua60 oooh, neat... adding it to the modules to read, next to the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

nitsua60

The chase scene (and its mechanics) worked really nicely, IMO.

(Much better than the one from Elemental Evil's DDEX that had a chase scene on mine carts (a la Indiana Jones), which involved too many saves and not enough ability to act.)

Shalvenay

OK, Maptool is a giant ball of frustration

nitsua60

Okay, do I want my monk to be deceptive, a performer, persuasive, a healer, a survivalist, an arcane-nerd, perceptive, intimidating, or a prestidigitator?

@Shalvenay Yeah, I've liked examples, but actually using it didn't seem worth the effort. (I've dumped two or three different afternoons into it at various points.)

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 the main problem is that it doesn't play nicely with the current state of US residential Internet access :P

daze413

03:29

@Shalvenay is that the same program that can make tokens?

Shalvenay

@daze413 same people, different tool

daze413

@nitsua60 whats in the campaign?

@Shalvenay oh, yeah, I've been meaning to learn how to do it. Couldn't even get started. :/ I wanted to make tokes for the demon lords in Out of the Abyss

nitsua60

@daze413 It's Curse of Strahd, my Ftr1/Light Cleric many just bit it. I'm making a Sun Soul wood elf monk, focused on doing some nice martial-arts damage and having that radiant ranged bit for when I need to back off.

daze413

@nitsua60 in that case, perceptive is always nice., What do you mean by prestidigitator?

nitsua60

Rest of the party's a paladin (who recently tried to kill some kids because they were screaming because he'd hacked down the door to their house after...), a tempest cleric, a life cleric, a warlock (who helped kill me by not reading his own spell descriptions), and a rogue.

@daze413 (sleight of hand)

BESW

03:33

@Shalvenay So, it hasn't changed in the eight years since I last tried to use it.

nitsua60

I'm looking at backgrounds, and which skills I'd pick up.

If I go acolyte I get to reassign those two skills to anything I want. But I don't really feel like going acolyte.

So maybe I'll have a guild artisan monk.

Shalvenay

@BESW haha. 99% of it is the whole 'you connect to some other player's maptools instance that's acting as a server' dance

nitsua60

Like those ones that make the cheeses.

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 or brew the beer!

BESW

@Shalvenay The only time MapTool ever half-worked was when I had a comp sci in the room with it at all times.

Shalvenay

03:35

@BESW LOL

BESW

And even then the fog of war never fogged.

nitsua60

No, I love cheeses. I have a personal relationship with cheeses. Cheeses saves, man!

Cheeses can see into your heart.

Pray to cheeses in secret, that your cheeses, who see you in secret, will know.

3

daze413

@nitsua60 guessing by the party make-up you don't need healing(clerics), persuasion(pally), deception(warlock), intimidation(warlock), and prestidigitation(rogue). So performance and survivalist?

BESW

@nitsua60 ...have you been reading Summer in Orcus?

nitsua60

@daze413 I might need to persuade the paladin to stop being all chaotic-evil. (Yeah, good luck with that!)

@BESW No, I was just trying to play on the weak cheeses=Jesus homophone.

BESW

03:37

Well, yes, I got that too.

nitsua60

(wasn't sure if it was coming across)

It's a pretty weak play on words.

(Cheeses help me.)

BESW

Summer in Orcus has a couple chapters with the secondary character the Wheymaster.

nitsua60

Whey cool.

BESW

He used to be the Waymaster, but the evil queen banned him from helping people find their Ways.

daze413

@nitsua60 that's a lost cause... is your party comp really composed of 2 evil PCs? The pally and warlock?

nitsua60

03:40

@daze413 worse. Five teenagers.

=)

BESW

But if your cause is just and your need is urgent and you can convince him it's worth the risk, he might give you a slice of "harpy cheese, aged in moonlight, washed in the pool of the Oracle. It's as close to a prophetic cheese as exists in the world."

And for courage, "manticore cheese. Ripened on the grass where heroes have slept." But "too much of it and you forget the taste of fear, and that’s a dangerous place. Find yourself charging lions barehanded and nonsense like that."

Summer in Orcus. The Wheymaster first shows up in chapter six.

nitsua60

Remind me in 5e, with errata incorporated, unarmed strikes don't count as melee weapon attacks? So they won't trigger the monk's Stunning Strike?

daze413

@nitsua60 oh... have played with children before, theyre normally ok RPers, sure you get the occasional weird name: "GG" the barbarian. Which I aptly renamed to "Gigi". Only his name is cute

@nitsua60 wait, that doesn't sound right...

BESW

@daze413 Doesn't sound right, but it sounds like D&D to me.

nitsua60

Oh, children I've no problem with. I run an 8yo group and have a great time. It's HS students, in quantity, that can be maddening. (Also, can be endlessly entertaining. As long as you're not attached to your character, or the storyline, or your sense of propriety....)

BESW

03:49

....I'd love to run an RPG with some of the youth in our community-building projects.

nitsua60

Hmm... we've got an any thoughts on...? question that just popped up.

trogdor

I don't have a particular problem with the age of the people in our games, but I might have a problem with individual people of certain ages

it really depends on the individual person

more so than the age of said person at least

Magician

@BESW, hey, have you had a chance to look at icons for me, after your Doom Week? (I don't want to bother you, but it'd be nice to finalize stuff).

BESW

@Magician Urrgh, my Doom Week overfloweth.

Magician

Welp, this only took me a few weeks. And/or a few years. Getting ever closer to a proper public playtest. https://t.co/P6y61Dz730

Tweeted by Magbonch on December 7, 2016 at 2:52 AM

BESW

03:51

In theory I'm finishing it up today.

Magician

Fun times.

Ah well, back to rules manual writing for me. It's the least fun part by far...

nitsua60

Okay, off-topic question: can anyone think of some good team-based board games?
Not cooperative ones, but real *team* games. Like Axis & Allies with 3-5 players. Real team-of-players vs. other team-of-players.

BESW

I may have some hang time this afternoon while waiting for responses.

Magician

@nitsua60 Captain Sonar. In similar vein, Space Cadets.

nitsua60

@Magician Except space cadets is cooperative. It's all players working together. Not 3 players trying to beat 3 other players (for instance).

Magician

03:58

Ah, I'm thinking of Space Cadets Dice Duel

trogdor

@nitsua60 does Secret Hitler count? technically you don't know who is on who's team but there are teams

nitsua60

@trogdor I dunno. [adds to list to read about]

trogdor

it involves a lot of bluffing and "detective work"

and basically playing the players as much as the game itself

nitsua60

@Magician captain sonar looks up the right alley

Joel Harmon

@nitsua60 Have you heard of Ladies and Gentlemen? It's an asymmetric team based game, but requires something of a sense of humor around gender norms. The teams are couples. The husband goes to the stock market all day to earn money, while the wife goes clothes shopping to spend all his money. The woman with the best clothes wins.

nitsua60

04:00

@Magician Space cadets, btw, is awesome to watch a bunch of HS students play.

Joel Harmon

there are a few zombie games (Last Night On Earth) that are humans vs. one or more zombie players

nitsua60

"C'mon, guys, let's see if we can pull a Yatzee and not die on the training mission!"

@JoelHarmon [adds to list] this could get really regressive, considering I'm looking for something to have on hand when six (male) college buddies get together in a few weeks.

trogdor

nice

Joel Harmon

some games simply have one or more traitors (Battlestar Galactica) while others optionally do (Camelot, whose real name I forget)

nitsua60

@Magician so, in dice duel do you have one team attacking another team's ship?

Shalvenay

04:03

hey there @JoelHarmon

Magician

@JoelHarmon Shadows over Camelot

@nitsua60 Yeah, it's two ships dueling.

Joel Harmon

@nitsua60 if you've got an odd number, there's an extra rule around a floozie who simply goes against the guy who got her the least amount of stuff (if she didn't otherwise win)

@Magician correct

nitsua60

@Magician nvm... just found the "more" link in the BGG description

BESW

@nitsua60 It's also just wrong. Every spell with a DC has a level-based component.

nitsua60

@JoelHarmon oh, cheeses.

Joel Harmon

04:05

my most adamantly feminist friend thinks the game is hilarious, and of course there's no actual restriction on gender for the players

@Shalvenay hey

nitsua60

@trogdor looks like an interesting edge case

trogdor

@JoelHarmon yeah Secret Hitler , for example, has one "Hitler" one or two "Facists" and everyone else has no idea who has what role (neither does Hitler, so he has to sort of guess who is with him)

Joel Harmon

also, @nitsua60, I assume you're aware of players vs. environment games

nitsua60

@JoelHarmon like Pandemic, or the like?

Joel Harmon

@trogdor it's a Werewolf-esque

@nitsua60 yep. Arkham Horror is another good one

trogdor

04:06

@JoelHarmon well, all games like this are like, Mafia esque type games

Joel Harmon

(my wife's favorite, actually)

nitsua60

@JoelHarmon Sure. It's just that... we're college buddies. So we'd be all for beating up each other, rather than just the viruses =)

trogdor

or at least Mafia is the first game to do this type of thing that I know anything about at least

also, your role doesn't give you anything other than your team (except the two Facists, cause they get to know who the other one and who Hitler is) as I understand it Werewolf gives roles that let you do certain things

Joel Harmon

@nitsua60 if I'm not mistaken and there are seven of you, you could try Diplomacy. It'll have shifting teams, and kill your weekend

nitsua60

thanks, all... there are some good possibilities here.

Joel Harmon

04:09

@trogdor there are a good many variants of powers you can have in Werewolf

nitsua60

@JoelHarmon numbers are actually fluid right now =\

Joel Harmon

@nitsua60 there's always the boardgames stack. I hear some of them play things other than Magic

trogdor

@JoelHarmon fair enough, there are a loooooot of games with the idea of one/or-possibly-more traitors undermining a group with a specific goal

BESW

Speaking of Magic, what about... what're they calling it these days, Emperor?

Powerdork

@BESW The 100-card deck format with the Commander card that defines the deck's colour identity?

BESW

04:18

Noope, that's not it.

The six-person game with two teams where only adjacent players can target each other.

Shalvenay

so best we can tell, our DM has port forwarding woes

atop an intermittent internet connection

Joel Harmon

@nitsua60 you might also look into Puzzle Strike as well as Battlecon

trogdor

@BESW oh, that game mode you mentioned a long time ago?

BESW

@trogdor Yeah.

trogdor

I was always interested in trying that, but there have never been enough interested people

BESW

04:29

The one my cleric deck is apparently ideal for.

trogdor

yeah

I mean, your cleric deck is pretty disgusting in any group format

but in this it might just be close to unbeatable

with the right decks blocking for it at least

(and it blocking damage to them and whatnot)

I also feel like a lot of the Magic Decks I have ever built would be really pretty good in that format (despite the fact that in just about any other format they tend to suck)

I build decks a little too much for the really late game

except for that one goblin deck

anyway, long story short, I would still be interested in trying that format out

nitsua60

04:48

@BESW I remember that, vaguely, from the 90's.

@JoelHarmon Thanks.

BESW

@trogdor If we ever get six laid-back players in a room... we'll still need decks. Might be interesting to do a proxy game so folks can play good decks without actually spending an arm and a leg.

Also I need to track down all your Magic cards that we used to back the 4e power cards.

trogdor

oh

that might be why I can't find some that I knew I had

XD

@BESW I am not against this

I never objected to you using proxy cards, remember?

nitsua60

@JoelHarmon Cheeses, there's, like, a billion things named BattleCON. Any guidance on which is what? Or how to start looking at them?

Joel Harmon

@nitsua60 I believe those are mostly expansions and promos of the same game (which I believe to be battlecon: War of Indines)

also, I need to step out for a bit

BESW

05:23

@nitsua60 Which 5e thingummy are we using for reference, again?

BESW

05:49

Bay Area Fate GMs: @DunDraCon is looking for folks to run intro Fate Accelerated games. Sign ups till 12/10:… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/806359413124698112

Tweeted by SeanNittner on December 7, 2016 at 4:47 AM

Miniman

06:38

@nitsua60 Nope, unarmed strikes are very much melee weapon attacks.

Trish

09:30

VTC: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/91403/…

eimyr

11:30

Hi

trogdor

hello

eimyr

what's up?

BESW

Hafa adai.

trogdor

not much going on right now for me

I do have the day off tomorrow though

BESW

Ben and I are hanging at my place in the afternoon. Not sure what we're doing, but you could join if you want.

I'm thinking I might show him how to roast tofu.

trogdor

11:40

I would be cool with that

eimyr

11:54

10K BABY!

awww yeeeeaaaah

You trust me now?

BESW

Grats.

doppelgreener

@eimyr Congratulations!

Joel Harmon

12:16

@nitsua60 I don't know how I forgot Codenames (a competitive word association game)

also, A Study In Emerald, which seems to be Sherlock Holmes + Neil Gaiman + HP Lovecraft

doppelgreener

@eimyr Could you tell me about the situation with Rasputin in cWoD sometime? :)

I just read your answer but I'm not aware of the circumstances and in-jokes around him.

BESW

12:33

@doppelgreener Between all the different splats, five different Vampire clans, a Mage tradition, and a Werewolf tribe, all claimed that he was one of them. They finally resolved it with major storyline where he was the Big Bad and they revealed he was a Wraith who jumped bodies between all those different supernatural beings. And in nWoD they explicitly clamped down on tying major human events to supernatural beings--the supernatural's in the shadows, tweaking minor details, nothing more.

nitsua60

@BESW You mean in Discord?

BESW

Ayup.

nitsua60

@Miniman Where do I find that rule/ruling?

@JoelHarmon Thanks!

Miniman

@nitsua60 In the combat section, under Making an Attack.

BESW

@nitsua60 I just wound up going with the premades. I like the human fighter.

nitsua60

12:39

@BESW DEX-based, folk hero, archery style?

@Miniman Third para. of "Melee Attacks"?

@BESW oh, nvm. THat's the Starter Set one I'm thinking of.

doppelgreener

@BESW That's fantastic. Thanks for that explanation. :D

BESW

Nah, first I struck out everything with spellcasting. Then I struck out Weird Bookkeeping Stuff. That left the barbarian and the human fighter.

And I like the characters whose stats don't change mid-battle, and who can intercede for their friends.

So, human fighter.

Nox

13:04

Hello, chat. I have posted a sort-of-general question on the main site that I am not quite content with. I know it is solving an 'X to Y to Z' problem, so I wanted to ask for your help with it.

0

Q: Can an Improved Familiar wield weapons?

Is there a way for familiars gained through Improved Familiar to be given weapons? Well, the ones that should plausibly have hands: Imps, Lyrakien Azatas and so on. I heard that PFS prevents players from being able to buy tiny-sized weapons. Roleplaying Guild Guide only mentions the resize optio...

The gist of it: before I started overthinking it, it was : "I want my Improved Familiar Imp to wield the Quarterstaff of Entwined Serpents, is it achiavable in PFS?". But it's got a lot of IFS on the way, which is sort of multiple questions in one, so I started dividing it into specific questions and I don't like what the first one of them turned out to be.

BESW

Why not just ask "How can my Improved Familiar Imp wield the Quarterstaff of Entwined Serpents?"

Nox

Don't know... "Does not show any research effort? What makes you think it can't?"... Am I overthinking it?

BESW

Just say what wall you've run into.

It's better to have one complicated question than a lot of simple ones, if the complicated question is the real one. Trying to break it down is liable to wind up with a lot of XY problems (pre-supposing the solution and asking for help with it, rather than asking for help with the original problem).

Nox

Yes, thanks. Just changed the question to the specific one I had in the beginning.

Miniman

13:41

@nitsua60 Yep, that.

nitsua60

@Miniman Okay, I'll have to take a quick look-see at someone's later printing. Mine still has unarmed strike on the weapon table, and para.3 references that. I've got the errata printed and cemented to my back endsheet, but adding that in still doesn't seem to add anything to make it seem a melee weapon attack, as opposed to a melee not-weapon attack.

Miniman

@nitsua60 We've got like 4 questions on this, but the canonical one is here: rpg.stackexchange.com/q/58158/15469

DForck42

14:12

mornin

BESW

It is morning! By 13 minutes. ...I should be in bed.

DForck42

@BESW lol

what side of the world are you on?

BESW

West Pacific.

Same time zone as Sydney and Tokyo, but between 'em.

DForck42

neat

central us for me

I hate windows update on my work laptop... makes it SO slow for the first hour or so after rebooting

doesn't affect my own laptop likewise

doppelgreener

@BESW You aren't actually in the same time zone as either of those! You're an hour ahead of Tokyo (UTC+9) and an hour behind Sydney right now because of Daylight Savings (UTC+11). But on average you're completely correct.

though on second thought, both of those are close enough and recognisable I guess.

BESW

14:17

And technically ChST is its own time zone unique to the Marianas.

doppelgreener

> The Mariana Islands were not part of any time zone legislated by the U.S. Congress until the Chamorro time zone was established by Public Law 106-564 on December 23, 2000.

apparently legally you transcended spacetime until December 23, 2000.

... is Chamorro time zone a bit of a misnomer? I'm under the impression Chamorros are the population of only one of those islands in that time zone.

DForck42

timezones are weird...

doppelgreener

@DForck42 even weirder when you start making timezone-based eldritch horror existential defence story fanfiction

eimyr

@doppelgreener Chamorro timezone is the one Chamorros are in regardless of where they currently reside in space. The time continuum of Chamorros is a legal and physical anomaly that irreversibly ties them to one and only one of the multiverse timelines, which manifests as an actual timezone where the Chamorro population density is the greatest.

doppelgreener

@eimyr <- @BESW Can you confirm accuracy of this y/n

DForck42

14:27

@doppelgreener weird

BESW

@doppelgreener Chamorro (or Chamoru) is the indigenous group native to the entire Marianas chain.

Their sailing prowess let them move freely between the islands long before any Westerners showed up, but each colonising influence also forcibly moved families and villages around.

@doppelgreener This actually ties into the central conceit of the Journeyman Project games.

The Temporal Security Agency can detect the ripples of changes in time before they hit, and so an agent quickly goes back in time to prehistory, where they keep a log of all known history. By jumping to prehistory, the agent leapfrogs the time change. Then he returns to the (now changed) present, where he compares the log to the new history and determines what's changed and why--so he can go fix it.

DForck42

@BESW that... hurts my brian

BESW

Give your Brian some tea and tell him not to think too hard about it.

DForck42

lol

doppelgreener

14:45

@BESW ha, sounds pretty interesting. i like it.

BESW

It's a fun little series.

Though the first game is kinda... cumbersome and torturous.

DForck42

my bard almost died again last night...

Anaphory

15:30

Welp, still not well enough do be productive or musical.

nitsua60

15:44

@Miniman Ahh, gotcha. SA. Thanks.

eimyr

@nitsua60 How is your pirate playtesting going?

nitsua60

@Miniman also, I took a quick flip through PotA and didn't see the force-cube ex machina anywhere. I wonder if it was passed around on AL fora or somthing? Strange for both my GM in the Northeast and @DForck42's in the Midwest to pull the same shenanigans....

@eimyr Haven't had a chance to try it yet--kids are hooked on Ticket To Ride these days.

eimyr

TtR is cool.

I hope you're using European version though.

nitsua60

How would I know?

(I suppose there's a stupidly-simple answer: "it's got a map of Europe, idiot.")

eimyr

(yes)

DForck42

15:56

@nitsua60 yeah, I think he got it off of reddit or somewhere

nitsua60

Then, no, I'm using the Canada&US version. (I can tell because it's got a map of Canada and the US. I mean, it's got some Mexico pictured, but no trains run there. For... reasons?)

DForck42

@eimyr what's wrong with the US version?

nitsua60

[ahem] Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal, Toronto....

The Oracle

0

Q: An answer I flagged as very low quality was declined despite answer being of very low quality?

I flagged an answer as 'Very Low Quality,' which has a description of "This answer has severe formatting or content problems. This answer is unlikely to be salvageable through editing, and might need to be removed." The answer was terribly formatted and was full of spelling and grammar errors. ...

discussion support flagging

nitsua60

Btw, when you've a minute, @Miniman, I'd be curious what you think about the highest possible attack bonus for 5e.

(Note I used expectation values for the dice, and ignore advantage.)

DForck42

16:02

@nitsua60 lol

eimyr

@DForck42 Nothing. It's just that european version and Nordic countries version is slightly better. Also, teaches US kids Europe is more than just a capital of Paris.

DForck42

@eimyr ahh

nitsua60

@eimyr No, that's not what we teach them. We teach them "Europe's what England threw away after we (US) threw away England. What? What's that you say? No, I've never heard of the United Kingdom. It's England."

DForck42

@nitsua60 "UK, England, Britain, it's all the same..."

nitsua60

(with apologies if that cuts too close to home)

eimyr

16:06

DForck42

@eimyr I love that graphic

first I saw it it finally made everything click

doppelgreener

16:27

@DForck42 same here

@DForck42 don't tell that to a welshman or a scotsman or an irishman

maybe don't tell it to a briton either, depending on how they're looking at you

i suppose what i mean is don't tell that to anyone who's looking at you funny :D

DForck42

@doppelgreener lol

I've actually got some friends from English and Scotland, i'll have to post on their FB and say that, lol

also, I made a thing

doppelgreener

is this chance of hitting vs an AC?

eimyr

@DForck42 It looks like a very inclusive game prioritising diversity.

3

DForck42

@doppelgreener yes

doesn't take advantage into consideration

so a good example of how I would personally use this, is to narrow it down the the current +to hit range my pc's currently have

doppelgreener

16:49

That's pretty useful.

DForck42

@doppelgreener yeah, I'm currently blanking on how to calculate the likelihood of at least one hit during a round

nitsua60

So, "1st-party" would be the game's publisher. And "3rd-party" is a company other than the publisher. So who's "2nd-party"--the consumer, right? (As in, game publisher and consumer are the two parties to the original transaction.)
I propose we start a campaign to re-brand "homebrew" as "2nd-party content." Who's with me?

5

DForck42

@nitsua60 lol

Masakan

17:15

man i thought i was being real clear about how i worded that

DForck42

17:26

@Masakan noooooooope

DForck42

17:39

@Masakan did you delete the question?

doppelgreener

@nitsua60 haha, good thinking.

Masakan

18:57

@DForck42 I did basically i was asking if there were any spells exclusive only to bards to add to their uniqueness

but i guess i didnt convey it that well

DForck42

@Masakan yeah, and from what I gathered the answer is "no"

Masakan

aside from the ones i put down

bolts of bedevilment, glibness, improvisation

but i guess thats all of them

DForck42

well, and 3.5 is complicated because there are a lot of splat books

so, really, it's not that great a question

Masakan

yeah it was a waste of time so i just deleted it

DForck42

because you would have to have someone that knows ALL of the 3.5 spells, ALL of the classes and their spell lists, and ALL of the prestige classes and the shenanigans they get up to

Masakan

19:02

i suppose that makes sense i been researching 3.5 for years

and i still dont know everything

most of the questions i ask are honestly for clarity's sake

SevenSidedDie

@eimyr Technically Wales should be a sub-bubble of England — it was annexed to England directly (rather than federated or united or whatever Scotland and NI are within the UK) back in 1282. Though I guess it's complicated, because with the shift from Royal Head as definition of a country to … whatever modern political fiction we use now, it's politely considered a country again. But also not really (e.g., Prince of Wales is an English prince).

That's a fantastic graphic though.

doppelgreener

20:52

For the techy people here: Vue Smart Glasses kickstarter. Seems to be onto some good ideas. There's 2 days left.

DForck42

21:25

so, question, and I'm not sure if it's a good fit for the site

one of the things that really kinda urks me about dnd, especially in 5e, is the 5ft increments

everything is done in 5 foot increments, rooms, hallways, doors, etc

the average male is 1.6 ft wide with a wing span of 5.9ft

what would break if we changed the scale of the game from 5ft squares to 2.5ft squares?

doppelgreener

things are done in 5 foot increments as a matter of convenience

nothing breaks from having a 4 foot room

the game is, I believe, compatible with not using grids at all (but you'll have some maths to do around things that mention squares for units)

DForck42

@doppelgreener nah, I like having the grid, it's just that 5ft x 5ft squares is awfully chunky, imho

doppelgreener

historically 5' was just chosen because it's in the goldilocks zone for sizes. plus, humans are really good at doubling, so we get 10, and 10 is a really easy number to do maths with. there's 1,280 feet to the Keep -- how many squares is that? 128 squares twice, or 256 squares.

5' is also a good-enough estimate for how much space an average human "controls" on a battlefield, which going back to the game's original roots is pretty reasonable to use as a basic unit

doors, rooms, hallways, and so on are not committed in five-foot increments... except insofar as it's really, really convenient to have that stuff closely align with the grid. doesn't stop round rooms, 4' doors, caves with wobbly-line walls that look like they were based on a kid's crayon drawing.

i am saying all of this because i think changing the scale of the game to 2.5ft is solving a problem ("everything is done in 5 foot increments") that isn't totally accurate to the depth you described, and exists to the extent that it's enormously convenient

The Oracle

21:44

0

Q: what button makes a comment appear as an answer?

If I post a question then someone answers said question as a comment how do I say that’s the right answer, (what button do I click) so that they get the proper recognition? How do I vote a comment as helpful? If these aren't features yet I feel like they should be.

discussion support

doppelgreener

but to your real question i doubt much would break. you'd have to re-math some stuff. opportunity attacks are already still based on 5' reach, and medium humans occupy 5', so those don't change; people will tesselate slightly differently on the battlefield.

nitsua60

21:58

@DForck42 This is the part I don't really hew to. When I sketch something out its roughly to scale (thanks to the fact that I'm sketching on a battlemat), and we use a few rulers when we want to measure distances. Very few things line up with grid intersections: they're there for the drawing of the place, not the use of the place.

Small templates for spheres and cubes are easy. (A couple of index cards stapled appropriately makes a great 15' cube =)

Transcript for