TRPG General Chat

diego

20:00

@DForck42 What types of things does the party need? If you need more blasting I'll second Destructive Wave. For healing I've heard Aura of Vitality is the best out of combat healing you can get. If you run into a lot of spellcasters and you don't have an abjuration wizard your Counterspell would be better than other spellcasters of your level.

@MadMAxJr What decks?

DForck42

@MadMAxJr lol

NautArch

@DForck42 I'd scrap cloud of daggers

MadMAxJr

Mirrodin era Leveller deck and MASSIVE ELVEN MANA GENERATOR deck.

DForck42

@diego counter spell would actually be super useful. we have a sorc for blasting

MadMAxJr

Priestess of Titania was such a fun card.

DForck42

20:01

healing, I think we're good on for now

the biggest issue we have, honestly, is that we only have one melee fighter, the fighter

Adam

@DForck42 I feel that on principle, everybody who can get counterspell should get counterspell. Same with dispel magic. They are just spells that I can't imagine any combat focused mage ignoring

MadMAxJr

Bunch of mana generator elves and one who could convert a mana into a white or red. I could dump a white X heal or a red X damage on the table with tons of green to dump in.

NautArch

@DForck42 destructive wave may be awesome then. When your melee is getting swamped just step up, hit it and step back.

Ryan

Llanowar Elf. Llanowar Elf x 2. Giant growth, giant growth, rancor! Winning!

MadMAxJr

Rancor <3

DForck42

20:04

my spell list: drive.google.com/file/d/…

MadMAxJr

The plan B in that deck is the playset of Coat of Arms

diego

@DForck42 You could trade CoD for Polymorph for a new frontline T-rex whenever your fighter needs backup

NautArch

@DForck42 with your song of rest and inspiring leader, i wouldn't pick up aura of vitality

Ryan

@DForck42 what class is this? Bard?

NautArch

@diego or turn the enemy into a turtle

DForck42

20:05

@Ryan bard, level 9 now

I picked up hold monster for level 9

diego

@NautArch That isn't as effective since when they run of of the polymorphed forms HP they revert and still have their previous HP

DForck42

@diego I already have polymorph, and dm has houseruled dinosaurs don't exist in this game (cause...)

diego

@DForck42 Oops, I missed that page

NautArch

@DForck42 i'm not a fan of feign death, would switch that out next level if you can

DForck42

@NautArch yeah

NautArch

20:07

@DForck42 same with confusion. i just don't like the randomness. it sounds better than i found it to be

@DForck42 wait, so waht did you pick for your level 6 secrets?

DForck42

@NautArch burning hands, lightning arrow

lightning arrow I'm kinda meh on, burning hands I love

NautArch

woof, so missed out on fireball/counterspell. okay - that's not a huge deal.

DForck42

@NautArch yeah, I'm def gonna pick up counterspell this time around

NautArch

@DForck42 i'm not sure I"d use a 10th level magical secret on it. you can get some crazy power out of those spells. like bigby/destructive wave/WallOfForce/

conjure volley, etc.

The Oracle

0

Q: 2017 Moderator Election Q&A - Question Collection

RPG Stack Exchange is scheduled for an election next week, April 17th.In connection with that, we will be holding a Q&A with the candidates. This will be an opportunity for members of the community to pose questions to the candidates on the topic of moderation. Participation is completely volun...

MadMAxJr

20:12

... Is it that time of year already?

DForck42

@NautArch might see if my dm's ok with me swapping out lightning arrow with counter spell

NautArch

@DForck42 good luck with that! technically not kosher, but either is bacon and it's delicious.

MadMAxJr

I never had to ponder if magic was kosher.

DForck42

@mxyzplk aww, sad to see @waxeagle stepping down (he's not even pingable in here now)

@NautArch lol

MadMAxJr

Wax hasn't been here in months.

DForck42

20:20

@MadMAxJr sad day, but I know what it's like

MadMAxJr

So we're down to Seven and Mxy

DForck42

i... kinda disappeared for a while myself

Ryan

@NautArch turkey bacon can be Kosher

MadMAxJr

I vanish and reappear depending on the status of my gaming tables.

NautArch

@Ryan yes, yes it can. And Dispel Magic is like turkey bacon to the Bacon of Counterspell. It's good, but not delicious.

Adam

20:22

@NautArch Dispel magic is leaner, higher in protein, and part of a nutritious breakfast?

DForck42

@Adam but not as tasty

MadMAxJr

My next evil baddie will have Dispel Kosher.

The material component is a shaker of bacon bits.

Adam

@DForck42 Disagreed. I prefer turkey bacon

MadMAxJr

Turkey bacon isn't half bad when cooked right. As long as it's cooked flat and doesn't shrivel up it's great when crisp.

DForck42

@Adam I'm sorry that your opinion is wrong ;-)

Adam

20:24

rip my feelings :'(

Karelzarath

pours a 40 on the curb for @Adam's feelings

NautArch

@Adam My god, man! You need to try something better than oscar meyer bacon.

MadMAxJr

Roll saving throw vs. social judgement.

3

Adam

It's not my fault that I want my meat to be more meat than fat!

DForck42

@Adam lol

@NautArch we were talking about bacon this morning at work. a local place sells bacon for $9 a pound

NautArch

20:27

@Adam try Nueskes for some ridiculously good bacon. But I also like melty fat with my meat. Smoked brisket....drooooool.

Zachiel

@Adam Repent and join the joy of lard.

MadMAxJr

Still stuck on this idea of kosher magic.

If I fireball a cloven animal, do I then need to follow up with salt 15' burst?

Or is that only if I plan to harvest the meat?

NautArch

@MadMAxJr None of the above. FIreball is not a kosher means of killing an animal.

MadMAxJr

Hmmm.

Maybe more of a wall of blades thing.

NautArch

@MadMAxJr and I believe all "suggestion" spells must use guilt as the driver.

Yuuki

20:35

IIRC, the animal must be 1) killed instantly and B) have all its blood removed.

NautArch

"you should leave this fight. Your mother misses you."

MadMAxJr

.... Wait a minute, I think there's a class that can do that.

I seem to recall blood mages in 3.5 could rip all the blood out of something.

Yuuki

Although I think studies have indicated that the traditional kosher method does not kill instantly. Or even quickly.

doppelgreener

@NautArch Found as a worn and creased letter on the villain's desk in a half-opened envelope underneath a tarnished amulet.

Yuuki

Shechita

The Hebrew term shechita (anglicized: /ʃəxiːˈtɑː/; Hebrew: שחיטה‎; [ʃχiˈta]; also transliterated shehitah, shechitah, shehita) means the slaughtering of certain mammals and birds for food according to Jewish dietary laws (Deut. 12:21, Deut. 14:21, Num. 11:22). == Biblical source == The Torah (Deut. 12:21) states that sheep and cattle should be slaughtered “as I have instructed you” but nowhere in the Five books of Moses are any of the practices of shechita described. Instead, they have been handed down in Judaism's traditional Oral Torah, and codified in halakha. == Species == The animal must be...

NautArch

20:38

Cutting Words: "I'm very disappointed in you"

Yuuki

Cutting Words: "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed."

Ryan

Is this Jewish or Catholic Guilt? Gotta be more precise

NautArch

For the new paladin ceremony, coming of age becomes Bar/Bat Mitzvah and costs all of your current wealth.

MadMAxJr

Note to self: Modern setting villain who will only make undead minions from kosher preparations.

Ryan

Paladins no longer quest from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday

MadMAxJr

20:42

and that's enough of me learning about Kosher products and methods today.

NautArch

@Ryan I don't smite on shabbos.

MadMAxJr

I appreciate the loot split party, but I can't handle gold today. It's a thing.

doppelgreener

@NautArch Culting words: "I̞̳͔̪'͉̤́ͅM̴̷̱ͅ ͎̹̣̗͜ͅV̨̼͓̳͠E̲̜̪͍̭͕̼͎͠R̶̤̲̗͖͙͉̗͞Y̦̺͈͙̣̜͖ ̡̤̱̬̦̘̜͓̭́͟D̫̮̹̙̳̖͕̘͡I̖S̡̡̡̯̝̦̳̣̱͉Á͖P̪̳P̛͖͉Ó̝͍ͅI̸̭̦̙N̶҉̳̳̫̮̣̣̩̕Ţ̵͚̱̤͉͍̦̳́E̷̢͍‌̜͍̖̪D̷̞͈̮͎͘ ̥̗̥̜̮̤̤̱͢I̛͏͔̪̞̻N͏͇͖̟̝ ̢̛͔̠Y҉̣̬̖͎͖̖͠Ớ̫͉̠͚͙Ù͔̥̠͇̱̻͔̻͉͘.̷̗̬̝͕̬͈͝"

MadMAxJr

Wow, you spelled it just like my mother does.

DForck42

@doppelgreener omg

MadMAxJr

20:48

I͒͊ͨ̒ͥ̾͒ͣ́̑̆̍ͩͣͧ͌͏̳̗̤̮͓̹̤̗͝'̿̌̌̀ͧͩ̌̾̈́ͦ̏̇̅ͥ̈̑ͬ͂͏̷̷̴̛͚̘̪̘̯̖mͩ͆ͣ̏҉̶̨͔͙͎̠͍̳̞̕͝ ̷̤̳̘͉̗̻̰͉̠̻̳ͮ̑̃̑̀͜͠v̧͚͕̜͓͔̜̲ͬ͒̾ͥͮ͆ͧͦ͢͡e̸̝̫̟͚̤̫̠͓̞̘̟̹̦̺̪̝͓ͧ͒̃̃̉̍̓ͯ̈̆͛ͦͥ̈́̋̔̀͛̊́r̛͛̽ͨ͊͏̻͚̦͉̤͚͎̤̻̙̦̺͘ͅy̵̅͛ͣ̉ͮ͗̈̈́͂ͧ̍̉̒҉̧̪̻͈͔͉͕̳͚̮͚̣̪̀ ̐̍͋ͯͥ̑̓͛͌̉̊ͪ҉҉̴͚̻̺d̸̶̨̛̬͍͉̮̱̳̲̼̠̻̘̦̙̼͚̥̥̔͗ͮ͛ͬ͂̅̉͂̆̌͐̈ͪ͌̌ͭ̚ͅi̢̖̲̹̻̣͓͇͎͚̗͉̗̪̝͋̑̈́ͨ͜ͅş̊̎̂̐̿̏ͭͦ́͏͖͈͚̜͓̞̦̩̟̹̪a̸̢̲̪͓̭͍͕̦͙̬̟̪͚̥̻̤͕͍͗̉͒͂̃̒̽̓ͫ̌͛́́̚͜͠ͅp̢̡̺͕̜̻̞̙̺͙̲̟̝̣̪͍͋̉ͤͮͨ̂̔̓̑̋̇̀͝p̵̡͉̳̳̱̬͈͓̘̬̪͎͇͂͊̅ͮ̑ỏ̷̧̢̲͚̟̪͈̣̲̪͙̺̋̅͛̈́ͨ͐͋̀iͣͬͨ͑̏͟͞͞͏̦͖̲͈̺̰͓̫̥̦̰͉̳̫ͅñ̢̧̛͉̞̬̜̖̹̦̤̗͔̗̉͒͐̊ͬͧ̍ͪ̊͗͢͡t̛͕̥̲̤̣̤͉͕͔̹̳̻̟̝̗͎̼ͩ͗͌ͣ̎̈́̓̈͊͒͋ͭ̏́̌e͑̾ͬ͆ͨ͏̷̱̩̬͓d̻͙̯̣̺͍͇̭͉̝̪̪̮̯̘̝̽̓ͧ̏̅͢͡͡ ͙̭̘̳͖̭̰̙̟͖͎̰͈̺͍̭̳̿́̈́͐͋ͧͥ̾̔̈́̐ͯ͗̾͌͑̀̚͘ǐ̵͑̍͋͋̊̈ͨ͐̈̇̍͐̃ͬ̔…

Aww, it chokes it.

DForck42

@MadMAxJr how do you do that?

Yuuki

@doppelgreener Catting Word: "(meow)"

I think everything a cat meows can be interpreted as "I'm disappointed in you" or "get me my food, human".

WHY DO I HAVE 35 UPVOTES FOR THIS QUESTION?

10 was understandable if a bit excessive.

ACuriousMind

The wonders of HNQ :P

nitsua60

this ^^

@Yuuki It's the same reason I've got 70 upvotes for my answer on the ADHD question which, to be frank, is just a bunch of decent general-GM advice that pays homage to the thought of how it works/doesn't for an ADHD player.

Speaking of which, @SevenSidedDie do you think it's worth unlocking the ADHD question? It's off HNQ and answer-edits aren't likely to bump it at this point. I feel bad having it locked any longer than it'd have to be. (Feel that way for any post.)

@Ryan ugh... any list that has put 5e ranger at "tier 1" has lost me. They're a tier 1 NPC, to be sure, but it's hard to argue that they're doing any other class's signature "thing" better than that class.

MadMAxJr

21:07

@DForck42 eeemo.net

Advanced Dungeons & Huge Dragons

Yuuki

Amusing homebrew magical items: "The magic rod of create magic rod of create magic rod. Has one charge and the item is destroyed when out of charges."

Scrolls of raise dead - these scrolls levitate a corpse 6 ft. off the ground permanently.

MadMAxJr

Amusing homebrew magical items: Absolute Immovable Rod. It's a fixed point in space. Your planet is not.

Yuuki

Scroll of Raze Dead - It just burns the corpse.

> They eventually started tying bags of gear to it and pulling it around like a hover cart. The party member who had died didn't appreciate it however and eventually became an angry wraith due to the defiling his corpse, but they decided that slaying the wraith as it re-coalesced every day was easier than giving up taking every last scrap of loot from every encounter.

DForck42

@MadMAxJr oh my, easy way to kill something

shove the rod into something, then speak the command word. watch as said thing goes hurtling either into the ground or into space

MadMAxJr

We thought it was a nice way to not have to deal with the Tarrasque for a year.

We agreed that in the vaccum of space it would asphyxiate and freeze to death and then continuously regenerate to life and die again.

Yuuki

21:23

Wouldn't the rod burst from the Tarrasque's stomach?

doppelgreener

@Yuuki Catting work: "(bark)" (those who pass a Wisdom check of 15+ see the cunning deception)

DForck42

@MadMAxJr *ever, if you're going off real world physics. the planet never goes back through the same space

MadMAxJr

Seeing as how the Tarrasque is a horrible, almost Dark Souls tier monster, I figure it could just swim in space, fall through re-entry, regenerate in its crater, then come for you again.

mxyzplk

@DForck42 Yeah actually it's a little concerning, he resigned from another mod-ship and actually just disappeared from here, we've been pinging him for months but no answer

Yuuki

Eh, Tarrasque is beyond Dark Souls-tier. Dark Souls isn't hard because the monsters are strong, Dark Souls is hard because you are weak.

MadMAxJr

21:27

Yeah, I had tried to ping Wax on his birthday, no response.

Adam

@Yuuki That seems like the same thing to me, just from a different point of view. Relativity and all that.

Yuuki

The difference between the Tarrasque and Artorias is that one is a world-breaker and the other can kill you really hard.

Well, both can kill you really hard, I guess.

DForck42

@mxyzplk :(

BESW

Is it normal for Arqade answerers to not have any experience with the game in question and expect querents to give them screenshots of stuff they could easily see if they had the game?

DForck42

I miss him, and @brian

nitsua60

21:33

@MadMAxJr saltinwoundssetting.com

DForck42

@BESW shrugs I don't go there, it's a bit of a mad house from my limited experience

Yuuki

@BESW Are you asking about identifying a game?

As in "I remember this game that I used to play, I remember being able to do this and it was about this, can you tell me the name?"

MadMAxJr

@BESW Screenshots are mandatory on 'Identify this game' questions. People who respond are expected to be able to assert facts, not opinions about the question. Flag for moderation if you see garbage content.

BESW

@MadMAxJr I once ran @Emrakul's rabbi PC on a vision quest through the sephirot in order to gain divine power in a Dresden Files game.

I'm asking about where to find a particular game's save files on OS X, and somebody pulled out a five-year-old forum post with a Windows file structure. When I said "the file structure for the package contents doesn't look like they," they wanted me to describe the file structure to them.

MadMAxJr

Got a link to your question?

BESW

21:38

I've also got an answer-in-comment marauding around.

Yuuki

Well, I imagine it's not any different from asking a rules question on a particular system and getting an answer that's written from the perspective of a different rules system.

BESW

1

Q: Where does GOG keep its Wiz8 saves?

I'm used to porting Wiz8 saved files between Windows machines, and on OS X games I can usually dig up the saved game folders in ~/Library or the app's own Package Contents. But I've got a Good Old Games version of Wizardry 8 that I'm playing on OS X 1.11.6, and I can't find the saved game files a...

os-x wizardry-8

MadMAxJr

Oh. That one is you. Hmm.

Saw that in the feed earlier..

Yuuki

Common or not, it's not how answers are expected to be given, but there's always people who want to provide input despite either 1) not reading the question or B) not having the requisite knowledge.

That's not something that's Arqade/Gaming.SE specific, that's pretty much endemic to SE.

Ryan

alright time to hurry up. I gotta make a Monk if I'm gonna do it. The group that plays tonight had a cancel so I can get in.

BESW

21:41

I'm reminded of RPG.SE commenters asking for querents to quote entire swathes of the rules.

MadMAxJr

Yeah, that's just a bad answer. That screams, "I googled it, upvote me please."

In your question you clearly state you know how to view package contents and you didn't find it there.

So no, this is not representative of the typical gaming stack response. This is what happens on older titles though.

BESW

To be fair, I edited that in because apparently "on OS X games I can usually dig up the save-game folders in ~/Library or wherever they're hiding" wasn't enough.

I think it's not an older title problem; I think it's a GOG problem.

[pokes files further]

MadMAxJr

I can't help with that one. MacOS is French to me.

Yuuki

@BESW I think we're both referring to the general issue of the unhelpful answer and response not the specific problem you're having with this game.

BESW

....hah. I was right. [starts writing SAQ]

MadMAxJr

21:48

We've had worse answers than that though. You should see what we go through on minecraft questions.

It's finally eased up, but we'd get 'My game broke, here is a log thing, fix my game.'

"According to this you have 300 mods" "Fix my game please"

We also get gold-rush style question seeding when new games come out.

Yuuki

> 7yo Daughter: You know what would be a funny name for Dungeons and Dragons?
Me: I don't know. What?
7yo Daughter: Beholders and Blankets. That wouldn't be so scary.
(Would that mean playing that game on a plane would be AirBnB?)

source

doppelgreener

@Yuuki That's adorable.

Karelzarath

Incredibly adorkable

MadMAxJr

Beholder bursts in, horrible magic ray eyes blasting everywhere. Little girl walks up, tosses blanket on it, Beholder falls asleep like birds in a cage under a blanket do.

BESW

Answered myself. GOG is tricksy.

Yuuki

21:59

@MadMAxJr I like the idea of beholders not having object permanence.

5

BESW

It's right there in their name, after all.

Karelzarath

Every attack is preceded by the creature announcing, "Voila!"

doppelgreener

22:18

@BESW That's some solid sleuthing!

But does the app-in-an-app contain another app?

BESW

No, but it contains six .exe files.

(including, for some reason, Internet Explorer.)

DuckTapeAl

My favorite thing about my most recent installation of Windows is that it somehow came with Chrome pre-installed, reducing the number of times I have to run Explorer on my computer from 1 to 0.

doppelgreener

22:38

5

Karelzarath

I guess Microsoft didn't like IE because they took the ring off it.

doppelgreener

@Karelzarath it was a mercy slaying.

Karelzarath

@doppelgreener heh

DuckTapeAl

I really liked the new episode. I can't wait for more.

Shalvenay

22:54

hey there @DuckTapeAl @JuneShores and @Karelzarath

JuneShores

Hi hi.

DuckTapeAl

Hey @Shalvenay. Long time no see.

Miniman

@DuckTapeAl Hey, good to see you hanging out in chat again!

BESW

[wave]

DuckTapeAl

I'm hoping to be on more. I've been in a job that I'm not very happy with for a while, and I've fallen off on hanging out online as much as I used to.

BESW

22:57

Aw. [sadjobface]

DuckTapeAl

But my last day is Friday, so I'm hoping that the new job doesn't leave me sad and exhausted every day. :D

BESW

Yey! [hopefuljobface]

DuckTapeAl

Lol.

doppelgreener

@DuckTapeAl Congratulations! (and I am now off to sleep off some major tiredness)

Best of luck, it's good to see you again

DuckTapeAl

You too, @doppelgreener.

Miniman

23:00

@DuckTapeAl That sucks :(

@DuckTapeAl That hopefully doesn't suck!

nitsua60

@Karelzarath Do you think the attacks are just permanent startle-reflexes?

Shalvenay

(came from NWN...but imagine the head-scratching this piece would cause in a campaign :P)

DuckTapeAl

Reminds me of the time I played with a guy who played a Moogle Barbarian, who somehow used a Large reach weapon of some kind.

nitsua60

@DuckTapeAl Can I ask a stupid-seeming question, but it's sincere? How do you know you're unhappy in my job? (I ask because I had an unsolicited job offer come across my bow today, and it has me scrambling to evaluate things.) I feel like job-unhappiness is often one of those slow-slouch-toward-Bethlehem things that you only realize years after it's started....

DuckTapeAl

He was a little 3-foot-tall fluffy white death machine.

Shalvenay

23:10

@DuckTapeAl hahahaha :D

nitsua60

(Well, that's a Freudian slip!)

I mean "your job," obviously. [nervous grin]

BESW

> The employer cannot hear the employee;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the cubicles

DuckTapeAl

I get what you're asking, and I don't think it's a stupid question at all. It's a hard and deeply personal decision.

Karelzarath

@nitsua60 For me, it was the realization that I no longer looked forward to going to work and that the new boss had little regard for my abilities or the project I was heading up.

Wearing a heart rate monitor and watching the steady increase of my resting heart rate also gives good clues to stress level.

DuckTapeAl

Yeah, that's pretty much what it was for me too.

The breaking point for me was that there was a layoff, I wasn't laid off, and I felt more stressed after I got the news.

Karelzarath

23:13

Oof, that's not a good sign.

BESW

I figured out a job was bad for me when I started getting grey hair at the temples.

nitsua60

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The HR manager is not in to hear your complaint right now.

@DuckTapeAl Wow.

@BESW Hmm... so I shouldn't be a dad anymore?

=)

DuckTapeAl

My general career goal is that I always want to be solving interesting problems. I work in game design/QA, so it's totally normal to have times of high stress that come and go, but at each high-stress point before, I felt invigorated to get my work done to make a quality product.

I never felt that drive at my current job.

nitsua60

@Karelzarath I had a time this winter where I had a part of my job I was looking forward to every day. Then it ended. And it's left me feeling like every day's a drag to get there and back....

@DuckTapeAl Interesting.

BESW

@nitsua60 Getting grey hair from being a dad is, I think, more acceptable than getting grey hair from laying out a book.

DuckTapeAl

23:16

I'm moving on mainly because the company I work for is making games that I'm not interested in playing, and it's hard to do my best work in that sort of environment.

Karelzarath

@BESW It's a badge of honor, even.

nitsua60

@BESW It's certainly a more-widely shared experience =)

Miniman

@nitsua60 If it helps, when it's really bad, you know.

nitsua60

@Miniman It's not really bad. There are actually lots of awesome things. And it's comfortable. Part of me thinks "that's an idiotic reason to stay!" while the other part says "yanno... contentment isn't exactly a bad target to shoot for."

DuckTapeAl

I can't speak for your particular situation, because I know that moving jobs often is accepted and normal behaviour in games, but if my current job was "a drag", and I have a job offer for a place that would be more fulfilling to work, I'd take that offer.

Depending on your career goals, comfort is definitely not a bad thing to strive for.

nitsua60

23:19

@DuckTapeAl It gets tricky, though, because it's a five-body problem in my life. That's a lot of dislocating people just for my possible increase in fulfillment.

Miniman

@nitsua60 Well, if it helps, in 11 years of working that's a better situation than I've ever been in.

BESW

Depends a lot on why you have a job, I think.

DuckTapeAl

Brb, gotta go pick up dinner.

nitsua60

afk a bit--one of those five bodies needs a bath =)
(more grey hairs on the way...)

Karelzarath

@nitsua60 Finding a place you can settle in to is a great thing, especially when you have a family.

BESW

23:21

(I saw the final proof for that book yesterday. I worked on it five years ago.)

Karelzarath

@BESW O.O Good lord. What kind of book is it?

BESW

Trilingual combination coffee table picture book and social studies textbook.

Karelzarath

blinks Interesting.

BESW

It's a fascinating project, it's just been cursed with the worst kind of development hell.

It's been through at least two editors since I worked with it, it tries to do too much at once, and it's dealing with some highly politicised topics.

Also some of the people who've been in charge of the project at various points have known nothing about its subject.

Karelzarath

I can't imagine how a book that's been 5+ years in development is going to make a profit.

BESW

23:26

Yeeeah, I'm glad I got my checks already.

It was working off education grants for a while, but I'm sure they're long gone now.

Part of the idea was that it could be sold to tourists as a coffee table picture book, and then again to local schools, Japanese schools, and mainland US schools, as a textbook.

Last I saw, the orthography had been changed again and didn't match the local schools' mandate anymore.

Karelzarath

That's quite the market spread to straddle.

BESW

Yeeessss.

Hence being trilingual.

(Laying out a picture book with three languages saying the same thing on each page? Not easy.)

Karelzarath

I can't imagine the attempt.

Very curious to see the end result, though.

trogdor

it sounds like a nightmare honestly

BESW

[rummages through old drafts]

Sample page:

Karelzarath

23:36

That's got to chew up a ton of pages.

BESW

Yeeup.

trogdor

@BESW I have actually seen something similar at the park I used to Volunteer at

same three languages in those books and all that

but they are only single copies tied to the stand they sit on

BESW

We've got some great pictures, though. Local artists contributed work for each chapter page (it's an alphabet book, with each chapter focusing on a Chamorro word starting with a different letter in the Chamorro alphabet and chosen for its relevance to the contemporary culture).

trogdor

the books there are all just about environmental stuff, local legends, and WWII

BESW

Troggy's mother has a painting in the book, too.

trogdor

23:40

which one is it?

BESW

Heh. You may not know it; she painted it for me in about an hour to fill a gap we just couldn't get any art for.

trogdor

ah ok

she has been painting a lot more recently, and actually sold a bunch of them at the last art show

Karelzarath

@trogdor Ooh, grats to your mom!

BESW

We used a lot of existing art like Judy Flores' batiks (see above!) but for some reason nobody had existing art for odda'.

trogdor

it's good because she likes to paint, and has not had time to while she was working

she seems a lot happier and less stressed out now

Karelzarath

23:44

Work/life balance can be a tricky, elusive thing.

trogdor

she was not balancing at all

she was working herself to death in an office that took for granted that she would

BESW

@trogdor Speaking of unhappy jobs, @nitsua60.

trogdor

huh?

BESW

@trogdor Earlier conversation.

trogdor

oh

yeah, my idea of an unhappy job is exactly that thing

if you are working hard that is fine, if you are working toooo hard because no one else will do anything,..... it's no longer cool

I don't want to go into any particular detail on it, but it was a horrible situation overall

my dad mentioned that a big reason for it was that the boss just wasn't replacing people when they left,... leaving more work for everyone left over

strange way to run things if you ask me

Karelzarath

23:54

Saves them money in salary costs?

DuckTapeAl

But @trogdor! Look at our P&L numbers! Our profitability goes up every time someone leaves!

So clearly, we need to make the job suck so much that more people leave.

trogdor

and then have no one left who didn't literally die of overwork

sound strategy, never saw it that way before, thanks XD

Karelzarath

As the old demotivational poster says: Sometimes the solution to morale problems is just to fire all the unhappy people.

trogdor

making people do more and more work does not actually increase productivity in the long run

@Karelzarath as I understand it, it was a lot more people leaving than people being fired

JuneShores

Nope. Making people happy to do the work will increase productivity.

DuckTapeAl

23:57

Unfortunately, quite a few managers have a problem with that sort of long-term thinking.

trogdor

@JuneShores yep, that is exactly my point XD

@DuckTapeAl yeah, go figure,....

Karelzarath

@DuckTapeAl Most of them will be off to a new job in a year or two, so long term strategy isn't in their self-interest.

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