@BESW this is one problem with it yeah

I've got no problem with paying taxes, and I do believe that it needs to be pretty complex in order to have any chance of being actually just.

The specific implementation has problems, though, especially for us.

America's tax system seems to be pretty obscure compared to Australia's though.

Australia's gone to pains to make convenient quick paper forms & web applications.

@BESW well, there are too many loopholes and weird rules that I don't think have to actually be tangled together the way they are

@BESW @doppelgreener if Australia can apparently do it, we should be able to do it too

@SevenSidedDie At the very least, it's ridiculously ignorant and completely inaccurate to any actual Native concept of totem poles.

just like with practically every first world country besides us with healthcare,... it shouldn't be wrapped in a system where rich people don't have to care, and everyone else gets shafted

and I realize I make it sound simpler than it is, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't fix it somehow

</rant>

(It seems to have been popularised in the '30s and '40s by white comedians, and in those not-pervasive cases where totem poles do represent some kind of hierarchy by vertical position it's the figures who bear the weight and are at eye level who are most important.)

@BESW LOL

@BESW hilarious

and makes a certain amount of sense

"this is the guy who is carrying everyone else around, and he has the best eye on the little guys too"

I like that particular Totem Pole idea

@trogdor Some journalists are suggesting Bernie's ideas are catching on, including the idea of a single-payer healthcare system (which is the thing every other first-world country has)

@doppelgreener yep, this is exactly what I mean, and I do hope this goes through, I just have reservations for,..... reasons,.... about celebrating it just yet

in fact at least one of those reasons is in the article you linked, I will let others come to conclusions as to what that could possibly be

don't want to start some kind of political debate here

or an agreement spiral even

regardless

"Agreement Spiral" would be a good name for a Digable Planets single.

hehe

as much as I would love to see an agreement spiral, I don't actually want to cause one here

(I've been looping Digable Planets for about 24 hours now...)

plus, it isn't the only possible outcome anyway

@BESW slow down man, you can listen to them any time XD

It's been keeping my tax blood pressure down.

fair enough

Off to Game Night for me. I'll have to force myself to not keep checking up on election stuff.

ttfn

see ya later then

have a good time and all that

@SevenSidedDie ballots ain't stuffing themselves, man =)

@nitsua60 you cad :P

If elected, I pledge to fund research into self-stuffing ballots and auto-gerrymandering.

I assume GraceNote's just waiting for three more nominees, then she and mxy'll just roll SSD down a hill to figure it all out.

@SevenSidedDie enjoy!

I was unanimously elected. Sadly, that didn't actually make me department head.

Halfway through re-filling this form, I realise I accidentally printed out a 2008 form.

[is slowly becoming more post-it note than man]

Hi all. Hope everyone had an agreeable easter / long weekend / whatever you want to call it

@Adeptus The jury's out on BESW. (Slowly descending in to madness working on taxes.)

@nitsua60 wat XD

like, SSD is off playing a game, so his physical internet self can be rolled around by the other mods XD

The weekend came out about even; awful, except for watching new MST3K with Troggy on Saturday night.

hilarious image you have conjured for me

@trogdor SSD's like Checkov's prism: what's the point of having him around if you're not going to use him?

@BESW the new one?

@BESW glad I could be part of the positive side of that equation

@nitsua60 yes

Actually, I take that back: I also sat on the balcony sipping coffee with my mother on Sunday morning, and took my dad to see the sunset at Fort Santa Agueda on Friday. So the balance is a little in the black.

wtv, doesn't invalidate my contribution, so I can go with it :P

@nitsua60 Iz good.

I liked it, I still have no clue what they were thinking with having the new guy try to rap, but the meat of the show was good

(also, even if I disliked his rap skills less,.... it went on a little long for my taste)

I allow it, on the basis that they've always had the hapless subject perform far outside his actual skill zone for laughs.

I wasn't amused by it though,...

Neither was I, but not all jokes land for everybody.

This might be relephant to you, @Yuuki: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/69668/…

if they wanted amusement they should not have given him a rap that someone else actually could have made great

You and I don't really like "hahah he's awkward" humour, but a lot of people do.

or made it drag quite as long as it felt like it did

@BESW but it didn't even feel like they were going for that

If they were really thinking it was a good production number... they have no idea what makes rap... rap. Jonah has so little flow I think he actually backed up.

anyway I still really liked the movie parts

@BESW well, I have no proof on hand that anyone involved in production isn't white

One of the best-flowing rappers Of All Time is Eminem, so that's no excuse.

besides which, they also had that strange attempt at nostalgia with the three final antagonists from the prievious version of MST3k, and the horribly confusing cameo of characters from the Time travlers

@BESW well, but he is like, an exception to a rule though

you can't cite exceptions to rules as precedent

I mean, I admit it isn't an excuse, but come on now

Heck, Insane Clown Posse has passable flow.

most white people involved with production of anything have no idea what rap is

if not most without a caveat

hey there @DuckTapeAl and @ObliviousSage btw

and hey as well @daze413

I mean, you are citing specifically actual rappers, and I am talking about like, producers, directors, writers, and actors

The Reduced Shakespeare Company managed to flow better than Jonah Heston, while still being even more awkward about it.

@BESW well there you go though, at least that felt like they were trying for it

this guy just didn't give it the special something that would indicate he was going for anything other than trying his best to actually rap

...and to his credit, Jonah's lyrics had less syllable-padding nonsense than a lot of popular rappers.

if he was just going full meta? good for him...?

but it rubbed me the wrong way regardless

Speaking of white rappers...

(this is a rap version of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven. I figure it might amuse some of you as much as it does me.)

@Adeptus except

I am sure he never mentioned cell phones or Paris Hilton in it XD

but still great and amusing anyway

Speaking of white rappers:

@Karelzarath also fair enough there

hey there @Karelzarath

@Shalvenay Heyas

certainly much better than Jonah was

how're things going?

I can't complain, but some times I still do.

(also, I still keep listening to MC Frontalots "I'll form the Head") XD

OK here, although the weekend did come unglued a bit with nitsua having been pulled off by a RL emergency and some stuff with the PF campaign I'm in (the two folks who invited me split from the campaign over playstyle differences mostly but I'm going to stick around at least a little longer because I suspect some new-DM stuff is influencing that)

Mxy in da hizzouse

also, trying to figure out the scheduling strategy to approach the upcoming convention over here with

@Shalvenay Which convention?

@Karelzarath lol XD

@Karelzarath it's a local con (you probably haven't heard of it unless you're in the region) -- I can tell you that it's a heavily tabletop game focused one though (both board/card and RPG)

@Shalvenay Fair enough. Hope it all goes well.

and I also plan to bring my 5e one-shot to see if I can gain a bit of impromptu convention-game experience from that side of the screen so to speak in addition to participating in one of the scheduled playtests if they have a seat open and/or doing some pickup stuff

mostly trying to reckon if I should go both afternoons or just one

it's kind of a mixed bag -- I'm expecting a quieter environs this time around due to the tabletop gaming focus (vs. a "general purpose" con)

is it generally OK to bring something to DM to a convention even if you aren't scheduled for a slot so to speak?

@Shalvenay Well, you can certainly bring anything you want.

I don't see how it could hurt for sure

SSD back in black,.... sorry that one doesn't seem as good XD

so yeah -- bring it but just play it by ear re: DMing a pickup session, it sounds like

SSD, breaking the laws of geometry in the vicinity once again.

@Miniman thank you, much better

@Shalvenay Most conventions of a reasonable size have some sort of open gaming area for people looking for a pickup game.

yeah, I would expect you could at least possibly pick up a game

@Karelzarath yeah, they state there will be an open gaming area

@Shalvenay It's good manners to put it back when you're done with it, BTW.

@Karelzarath yeah, no doubt xD

Some year I will get my act together and actually file GRT monthly.

And some year I won't get horribly behind on laundry. ;)

@nitsua60 re: your candidacy statement: here and here.

Hey magician

hey again @Papayaman1000

@DuckTapeAl Sorry it took me so long to accept that one - I try not to accept right away, and then I just forgot about it.

@BESW Thanks--I'm working on the questionnaire and found them useful =)

(Btw, speaking of monsterliths, hoo-ey that questionnaire....)

I may need to take a weed-whacker to my responses when I'm done barfing them out composing delicate, Jeffersonian prose.

@nitsua60 I mean, you've taken the longest between writing your nomination and answering the questions, so yours must be better-written, right?

@Miniman The nomination had a character-limit. The questionnaire does, too, but it's orders of magnitude higher... =|

@Miniman wait, I just saw that Korvin nominated. Has he already posted the questionnaire and thus lapped me?

@nitsua60 Yeah, he had a negative time in this particular race.

"Vote for nitsua! Sheep take their time getting there!"

@nitsua60 Ruminating on your answers?

@Adeptus I've already used the term in my answer, actually. A little shout-out to all my sheeple. =)

@Miniman JUST beat me to it. Darn.

"Led to judgment like... what!?"

On the subject of negative campaigns, do we really want to give control of the site to a woolly thinker like @nitsua60?

Now you've made me maa-aa-aaa-aad

You know I'll fleece the treasury =)

Then hoof it!

Y'know what sounds good right now? Gyros.

I'm on my way to get a lamb burrito right now :)

@Papayaman1000 With a papaya chutney?

@nitsua60 Papaya chutney? Please, you're gonna have to try a little harder than that.

@Miniman True confessions time: lamb is my favorite meat.

I am not a man of papaya. I am an Acolyte! One who follows our grand ruler, the Dark Star! Artifact of almighty power and...

@nitsua60 You sicko.

I once had a lamb shank at a Persian restaurant that was so good I didn't eat meat for seven years afterward. (Jan 2001 -> summer 2008) </true confession>

@nitsua60 Hey, you're practically an honorary Australian!

@Miniman I do like me some Lesser Summer.

@nitsua60 wait seriously

like actually

um

wow

@Papayaman1000 It was really good.

@nitsua60 I actually have no idea what this means.

@Miniman I thought you told me that you had spring, summer, autumn, and lesser summer?

@nitsua60 Okay, I'm not sure how religious of an experience it needs to be for one to do that, but it sounds like that's the sort of meal I'd literally kill to eat a second time. And I don't mean in the stupid vegetarian way.

[Meat is murder. Veganism is genocide.]

@nitsua60 Not me personally - but when you put it like that I can see the idea.

Although it's heavily geodependent.

@nitsua60 Now I wonder: did you up and decide "I won't eat meat anymore in honor of this" or try eating meat again and just realize it'll never be the same?

@Papayaman1000 It was pure Costanza...

@nitsua60 That still doesn't really help

It was a really good meal. I decided to go out on a high note.

@nitsua60 Okay, so I can eat this without ruining my experience of inferior meat then.

So I didn't eat any more meat. Until seven and a half years later I had a craving for Italian sausage.

Because if it was the latter I would've taken the "ignorance is bliss" route.

@nitsua60 in case no one mentioned it here, we have "it's really hot" and "wow it's certainly raining right now"

also I guess "it might rain soon"

@trogdor I saw a graph someone linked of a year's daily averages and thought "that's not so different from my weather." Then I double-checked and the vertical axis was humidity, not temperature.

humidity here is always high

even in the dry season it's pretty high humidity here

(Maybe it was chance of precipitation, then? I remember something that ranged from 40s to 90s and thinking "oh, it's just rather-warmer at the low end, but not too different at the high end." Then seeing the axis-label.)

couldn't tell you

it does fluctuate, don't get me wrong, but it's usually always high

ahh I made a terrible mistake

I knew that going into Mysterious Portals was a bad idea, but then some guy was like "yeah it's great for getting ahead, the loot is awesome" and now my guy is dead

because every single monster in the dungeon spawned in the same room...the first room

The trick with portals (as with most things) is to summon something, send it through, wait a while, and then summon it again and ask how it died.

lol

too bad I was playing a crossbowman, and also Dredmor doesn't work that way :(

ooh ouch

yeah Dredmor portals hurt

Honestly the build was terrible - even the most basic bolts in that game costs several gp

Oh, a videogame. Sorry, I just assumed.

though sometimes they are real weak too

But I had found an awesome artifact spear and it was going okay

@SPavel I do hate building for crosbow stuff, it seems wasteful

I managed to clear out two monster zoos by using telekinesis to open doors remotely and then running away

I go for caster builds, or hit stuff with a stick builds

I've done those before

I tried a vampire build before this, but it's way too hard to stay healthy

I don't really want ones that take limited items

Also tried crafting, but jesus christ that's so much effort

@SPavel f you get the right other skill trees, it's actually ok, I beat the game once as a vamp with a hybrid of healing/damaging spells and some limited melee ability

crafting is a pain for sure

I go one specific craft tree only because it also has the best trap disarm, and disarming traps with a high skill is free exp XD

tinkering is great for that

It's ok, I've worked out how to make up for this - 4 parts whiskey, 1 part lemon juice, 1 part maple syrup, 1 dash cinnamon

lol

I eyeballed it, maybe a little less lemon next time

If I were at a bar, they'd put a slice of lemon on this and it would cost $14

welp, I mean, how else do they make money right? XD

wow, we have 3 ridiculously good moderator candidates already in many ways

@trogdor That's true

@Shalvenay If 2016 taught us anything it's that Bryant Jackson is definitely going to win.

@A_S00 All that needs to happen is that the 3 candidates throw enough mud at each other that all of their supporters stay at home and don't vote out of disgust.

what dictates candidate score?

@trogdor 1 point per 1k rep up to 20, plus 1 point for each of certain badgers.

ah ok

fair enough

rep and a specific set of badges seems like a good way to do it

at least in an automated way

So for you it would be...uh...4/40.

I was not expecting it to be that high honestly

it's all badges

Just refuse to release your badge report

It's certainly interesting for what it tells you about your usage habits - I don't edit enough, which is not that surprising, but still.

@Miniman because of not having the rep to get a point?

Editing is a waste of time, vote to close + flag for abuse + dox the user

it's way faster

what user habits does the candidate score show exactly?

@trogdor I meant that as a general "you", not a specific one.

@Miniman my point was just, what does the score itself show?

in general

the whole thing about me not having 1k rep is like, not a big deal honestly

@SPavel pah. I've run into pretty solid users otherwise who simply need a personal copyeditor

if I was going for rep I would have more, personally I never expected to have more than like, 100 rep XD

@SPavel that's... a joke, right?

@nitsua60 I hope so, doxing is not cool

Everything I say is facetious

in any way whatsoever

I'm like your own personal Stephen Colbert

@trogdor Well, the score in itself shows nothing I suppose. I guess I just found my results interesting to me and tend to generalise everything.

Except poor

@Miniman fair enough then

and liberal

@nitsua60 That's not necessarily a paradoxical statement - it can be true.

and personally, at least this time around I don't think I would really make a good mod

@trogdor Same for me, minus the "this time around".

@Miniman I just don't want to assume that some years from now I wouldn't change my mind

I would make a great mod - just not great for the community #kickbacks #corruption #helicopterbackflips

if I felt like the comunity needed me to do it down the road at some point, I might actually give it a try XD

as is, not happening

@trogdor I'd vote for you.

@nitsua60 fair enough, but atm I would not XD

I know the feeling =)

What we need is a parliament

Good morning/day/evening/night to everyone! :)

Long time no see.

How've things been?

Something I've been wondering about all day - is there a term for the concept where someone pretends to be a good person, but because pretending to be a good person means doing good things, they effectively are a good person? Kinda like this guy?

Users table motions to close threads, and get filibustered by 200wpm speed typists

my biggest concern, with myself as a mod, would be "am I spending enough time actually doing mod things when I need to be?"

not that there are not other concerns, just that one would definitely be #1

hey there @RollingFeles

how're things going?

other concerns would include stress, lack of confidence, and maybe more stress XD

@nitsua60 a lot of work. I've suspended my DW campaign for 2 months. Two days ago resumed it. Also bought a Switch(I've already boasted about this here :P )

There are two options: yes, in fact you're doing too much; and no, impose martial law, crack down on unverified users, ban anti-establishment tags

@nitsua60, @Shalvenay how're yours?

@Miniman "Preach faith till you have it, and then because you have it you will preach it." -John Wesley

@nitsua60 "Fake it till you make it" -The Situation?

ah. OK here. would be better if last weekend had panned out a bit better, but oh well :) hoping to see nitsua's shortform wrap up this upcoming Saturday although that leaves me in a slight lurch re: what I had planned with Ash and co.

@RollingFeles Alright, kids are back to school after April vacation, so that's a nice bit of regularity back into the schedule.

@Shalvenay That should be no problem.

Ash is a lousy trainer anyway, just throw a Rattata his way and he'll spend 3 episodes dealing with it

@SPavel not that Ash :P

There is only one Ash

@SPavel Well, befriending it and solving all of its uninteresting personal problems.

and also maybe cooling off some in the month of May -- need to shed load in other areas to focus on getting a lab report knocked out

@SPavel pah. you clearly haven't run into @Ash before

@SPavel according to you maybe :P

@Miniman This Rattata has a low credit score, and can't get a mortgage for its dream burrow! Let's take it to a gym battle to prove to its creditors that it's got what it takes!

@Ash oh, no worries at all

@Ash (yeah -- there's always the crew call desk ringing you at 2AM as an option...haha -- so I'm not plussed at all about people with inconsistent schedules other than the natural frustrations that form)

@RollingFeles I tried the Switch out the other day. I played loads of Breath of the Wild. I'll probably buy it when I can get BotW in a bundle for around $250.

where would a question about the wider-online-RPG-discussion-world belong? mainsite? meta? neither?

@RollingFeles -- also got into a PF campaign but not sure how it'll go longer-run as the DM's rather new and got into a bit of a muddle first couple sessions in

Online RPGs? Maybe Arcade?

@Papayaman1000 BotW is one of the best games I've ever played. I really think that game designers that strive to be great must play it, because I can see so many details where Zelda creators thought about how to make player experience better.

@SPavel no, as in "people who discuss RPGs on online forums" -- stuff like ENworld, GitP, etc etc

@Papayaman1000 The Switch is as excited as I've been about a console for a long time, but I'm waiting until there's more than one game (and hopefully it's a bit cheaper too).

@RollingFeles Amen. It's like what Zelda was always meant to be. It's like the perfect game.

@Miniman And here I am.

@Papayaman1000 Huh?

Fun fact: Its charger is a standard USB-C port.

@Shalvenay Parenting, because GitP is made up of giant babies

@SPavel :( there's lots of great stuff on GitP, you just have to stay out of the Tier/Monkday/Let-Me-Tell-You-About-My-Sorcerer threads

@Miniman Like I said, I'm waiting for it to be bundled with BotW at about $250. By then it ought to have a larger library, too.

@SPavel Be Nice applies to people who aren't actually here, too.

@Shalvenay :36774751 I suppose it depends on what the actual question is. "How do we best tone down heated argument in the RPG-verse" strikes me as OT on either platform. "Should RPGSE add 'being a model for civility within the RPG-verse' to its mission?" might be suitable on meta. "Why is the RPG-verse so uncivil" would get insta-closed for POB mainsite....

"Is the assumed tone of RPG discourse on online fora 'agree or argue?'" is where I'm getting at here -- trying to see if I'm askew in some way on my views of the broader RPG-discussion world

@Papayaman1000 We can only hope!

@Miniman Sure, but I couldn't resist

To be fair, I am on those boards

And they have gotten better

@Papayaman1000 I wouldn't say that, the way they handle weapons breaking could at least be done better, it kinda annoys me that the one you are using breaks in your hand, and you have to apparently switch it out yourself,... breaking up the action of the fight

But not enough

@Shalvenay personally, I'm not attracted to PF. I think there is too many mechanics that make game too complicated. And I think it will be pretty hard for a new DM. Help them and support them(well, if they put effort to make their game better). They need it :)

@RollingFeles just saw your words on the nomination--thank you, kindly.

@A_S00 I'd rather ask here re: tiers than on say GitP

@Shalvenay I would rather gargle glass than ask a question about tiers than on GitP

not saying it's a horrible game, but it also, in fact, could be learned from in the mistakes it does make

@RollingFeles no kidding. I personally wouldn't DM PF or 3.5e due to that extreme complexity and nonorthogonality combined

@trogdor The fact that weapons are so fragile and the brainless Korok "puzzles" (along with the Three Trials) are my only real complaints.

@RollingFeles That's how I feel too - PF came about when people who didn't understand systems design decided to fix the symptoms and not the root problems, and then failed.

@Papayaman1000 they also do seem to break a tad fast XD

@Miniman 10 more days till Mario cart ;)

3.5 had a solid premise - "what if we give everyone access to the rules, say the rules are law, and then make the rules absolutely insane"

@Papayaman1000 haha, how fast do they break? :P

@RollingFeles Sorry, I should have said "games I'm interested enough to think about buying a console for" :P

weapons breaking isn't horrible, but it is horrible when handled the way BotW seems to have done it

PF tried to salvage something that was destined to be a train wreck

@Shalvenay Most of them barely last more than one long fight.

@nitsua60 it's just a reflections based on your actions. So, all thanks to you ;)

The Master Sword itself only lasts about 60 normal hits before needing to recharge for a bit.

@Papayaman1000 yeesh kabibble -- I think my longsword-wielding buddy would have something to say to his smithy about that

@Miniman that's ok. Apart from BotW I can say that Switch is very convinient and fun just as gaming solution.

@Papayaman1000 yeah seems to be about what I observed too,... which is honestly a little fast, especially for the unique weapons that don't seem to break any slower than most

I really like the mobility and quality.

That's awesome.

@Shalvenay Also, literally all of them are salvaged, but...

it sounds like the experience of anyone who tries to machine FR4 with HSS or plain carbon steel tooling

instead of carbide or diamond stuff

(spoiler: kiss your tooling goodbye as it'll have no edge by the time you're done with the job)

@Shalvenay they really could have stood to treat these weapons a little more like they were actually forged out of metal rather than soggy wood, just saying XD

@trogdor yeah, steel can be made to hold up to far worse punishment for far longer

@Papayaman1000 well, except for the unique weapons, presumably those are higher quality and had better upkeep

@Papayaman1000 weapon durability is not that great issue, really.

What is this, Fire Emblem?

@Shalvenay I mean, you are usually hitting creatures made of flesh, and then the steel sword breaks on them,... so I agree