TRPG General Chat

12:00 AM

@Ben Are you both single? From the outside, it looked an awful lot like she's looking for excuses to interact with you romantically. I'd bet that if you were dating, her desire for that aspect would decrease almost immediately.

Ben

@Karelzarath Long and short of it, we do have something going on the outside, so there's no need for it in game

Miniman

@trogdor Me too, actually - although I thought he was wearing a blue hoodie.

trogdor

@Miniman I think that is much more fair than "something behind him" was XD

Shalvenay

hey there @nitsua60

nitsua60

@Shalvenay hiya

Ben

12:05 AM

@daze413 @SevenSidedDie as for why this didn't result in continuing the plot, I can't really vouch for her motives.

BESW

@trogdor Our Evil Hat order arrived, though the tracking site doesn't know it yet.

trogdor

@BESW oh, so much for me checking it and thinking it was in the same place for a long time then

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 how're things going?

nitsua60

Thursdays are generally my longest day. And three additional things got dumped onto *this* Thursday, so I'm a little beat and still have over 2 hours 'til I get to go home.
But on the flip-side, the girl's got the medicine she needs and my wife can stay home with her tomorrow, my colleagues aren't complaining that I haven't given them tomorrow's lesson plans yet, and I had a good rehearsal tonight.

You?

KorvinStarmast

0

Q: My PCs are getting distracted from the main storyline, focussing on their own ventures instead

Ok, I say PCs... but I actually mean PC. I am running a 1-player D&D 5e game for a friend (let's call her Jane), as a way of introducing them to the game. It was only meant to be a "non-canon", one-time-adventure that was supposed to peter out when the actual game started, (we are both PCs in t...

I so wanted to post this in comments ...*Does the same page tool handle roll in the hay playing games?* after @Karelzarath made a wise observation in comments.

Miniman

12:15 AM

@nitsua60 Sounds like not a good time for this, then?

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 OK here, hashing out some of my RP issues with someone I know from one of the communities I'm in

Ben

@KorvinStarmast Huh?

KorvinStarmast

Young Frankenstein Movie Reference, Terri Garr moment

Shalvenay

hey there @KorvinStarmast

KorvinStarmast

hey

Ben

12:17 AM

@KorvinStarmast Oh.

Miniman

@Ben We have some info on the Same Page Tool here, if that's what you were confused about.

nitsua60

@KorvinStarmast "roll in ze hay! Roll in ze hay =)"

KorvinStarmast

@ben I am trying to be funny, but not always succceeding

Miniman

@KorvinStarmast I laughed!

Shalvenay

@KorvinStarmast -- got an aviation.se question that I figured I'd want to toss your way actually...

KorvinStarmast

12:17 AM

Ok, shal, go ahead

Ben

Karelzarath

KorvinStarmast

@Ben happens to me all the time ...

Shalvenay

5

Q: What is the best word for lateral translational movement in a rotorcraft?

I'm talking about movement left and right without changing attitude. This is a motion that can be done with a quadcopter and to a limited extent a helicopter (I presume). On a helicopter a left/right movement of the cyclic will command a roll motion from the rotor, but in a hover the aircraft w...

helicopter terminology rotorcraft attitude

KorvinStarmast

Foot has the right answer.

trogdor

12:19 AM

@nitsua60 lol

KorvinStarmast

What actually happens is the rotor disc tilts a bit, there is a modicum of roll that is righted by the pilot, and the momentum keeps you going in that direction laterally.

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast werewolf?

KorvinStarmast

It's a learned technique, and the question is partly wrong. It forgets that below translational lift, helicopters and fixed wing do NOT act the same

Miniman

@NautArch Huh?

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch There wolf, There Castle .. Walk This Way!

Karelzarath

12:20 AM

@NautArch No, Airwolf

Shalvenay

@KorvinStarmast yeah -- Tom's kinda new to the spinny-wingy world ;)

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast walk this way is running joke in my family

KorvinStarmast

Air wolf was a hilariously bad TV show. All of us helicopter pilots used to gag and groan over the crap they pulled

My brother and I still do that, Eye Gore ...

nitsua60

@Shalvenay strafe?

Miniman

@NautArch Mine too - I'd forgotten where it came from. I need to watch that movie again.

KorvinStarmast

12:22 AM

FWIW, shal, I use the term "slide" when maneuvering like that, as does the crewman who is talking you into a cargo pickup/drop point, or a personnel pickup/drop, or a SAR pick up, drop.

NautArch

Do not doubt the Jan-michael Vincent.

KorvinStarmast

My sisted had a crush on JMV... she was a teenager

nitsua60

@NautArch "Vootschteps, vootschteps! Vollowing in his vater's vootschteps!"

KorvinStarmast

A riot is a terrible thing .... zoo lets have one!

12:24 AM

@KorvinStarmast that'd be good to add as an answer to go with fooot's

trogdor

@BESW hehehehehe

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 that term's already appropriated for a different maneuver though :p

KorvinStarmast

Shal, I might do that

trogdor

@BESW I was tempted to link that the last time someone said stuff about werewolves

Shalvenay

@KorvinStarmast will upvote if you do :)

nitsua60

12:25 AM

@Shalvenay Fair. Forgot the context =\

@Miniman actually, now's fine--I'm curious =)

Shalvenay

@KorvinStarmast -- and one more thing before I go (warning: you may cry and/or uncontrollably facepalm upon reading): avherald.com/h?article=463cfa1c/0000&opt=0

nitsua60

(Tonight's my night where I supervise a study hall, so really I'm just sitting here not being home yet for two more hours.)

Ben

@SevenSidedDie ty for the edit :)

Miniman

@nitsua60 Maybe in a spoiler room? It's the wrong spoiler room, but it's not frozen.

trogdor

we apparently have a lot of spoiler rooms XD

nitsua60

12:27 AM

@Miniman on my way

KorvinStarmast

OK, Shal, I answered it

Shal, I'll go and see what the bubbas on PPRuNe have to say abbout that one. Bad Weather in the caribbean can jump on you quickly.

@Shalvenay Hmm, not the finest decision making ever. :(

Shalvenay

@KorvinStarmast yeah -- definitely not the finest performance by the crew involved.

KorvinStarmast

12:50 AM

@Shalvenay We'll see if anyone else agrees with your upvote

Whoops, the missus calls, farewell all!

Ben

Clarification: CR = party of 4 party level

I.e. CR 1 = 4 level 1 players

Yes?

Miniman

@Ben Sort of - it's not quite that simple, though.

15

Q: Does the Challenge Rating of a monster assume a party or a single PC?

I'm reading through the new DM D&D Basic Rules, but I'm confused about the challenge rating of a monster. Does the challenge rating assume a single PC or a group of PC's? As a CR3 a challenge for 1 PC (like with 4th Edition), or for a group of PC's? If so, for how large a group? How should a DM ...

dnd-5e encounter-design

Ben

1:15 AM

@Miniman Yay for cryptic descriptions

Miniman

1:47 AM

@Ben Always :(

Ben

Here's an odd question... Is an exact NPC copy of a PC a fair challenge?

For whatever reason, a PC is faced by an exact clone of themselves

What system?

Link v Dark Link

?

Let's start with 5e

@Godskook just a way of describing the situation

godskook

1:51 AM

In 3.5/PF, clones are a CR+4 fight

@Ben, ah, I thought that was you trying to answer "what system". Fair 'nough.

So, in 3.5/PF, if you have 1v1, CR=CL, CR+4. 1v4 is "normal". I can't speak for 5e.

Ben

@godskook Well, I'm thinking more like "Give me a copy of your character sheet. Now we fight"

godskook

But I'd imagine that its not grossly different in this regard.

@Ben, in 3.5/PF, 1v1, that's CR+4

Yuuki

> Party opens a door in a dungeon to find several stirges flitting about the room.
DM: What do you do?
Monk: Do they have opposable thumbs?
DM: No....
Monk: I close the door.

godskook

You're SUPPOSED to fight CR+4 sometimes, but they're "ultimate battles", not "average".

daze413

@godskook is the +4 fixed?

Miniman

1:55 AM

@Ben We talked about this a bit here, I know there was a previous conversation about it but I'm having difficulty finding it.

godskook

@daze413, HUH?

Ben

@Miniman Well I suppose that does head me in the right direction.

daze413

@godskook At all levels, you add 4 to any encounter's CR? or does the 4 increase/decrease?

Ben

I mean, I have done 1v1 PvP fights before, but some classes have abilities that need to be handled carefully to make it a fair fight. Barbarian's Rage for example

godskook

Oh, its +3 in PF

d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering

Ben

1:58 AM

The only thing is - if it's A Rogue v Rogue, Paladin v Paladin for example, I thought it would be a little simpler to manage

godskook

Er wait.

Derp

+4, I was reading the wrong thing.

+3 is the hardest CR+ suggested on the page.

Ben

@Miniman Why is it that in that situation, its a TPK? Aren't they both the same level?

godskook

@daze413, what are you talking about? I was saying that CR+4 is the CR rating of having players fight themselves. Your reply doesn't make sense to me...

Ben

@godskook So at level 1, the CR is CR+$, and then at level 20, the CR is CR+4?

godskook

If you have 4 PCs fight themselves at level 1, that's a CR 5 fight, technically, yeah.

Ben

2:04 AM

And then at level 20, its a CR 24 fight

daze413

@godskook Ah, sorry. I was reading the CR+4 battles are "ultimate battles". Which incidentally is a mirror match as well.

godskook

Although because some races have fractional CR, this isn't "always" true.

Miniman

@Ben Ah, here's where we talked about it before that - basically, you're likely to have the advantage, and when it's that evenly matched it's basically down to luck who wins, so that small advantage means you're more likely to win.

Ben

@Miniman Ohhh ok

godskook

@daze413, CR+4 battles are "ultimate battles", but I was defining CR+4, not "ultimate battles" there.

Shalvenay

2:08 AM

hey there @daze413

daze413

@Shalvenay heyo! how are things?

Shalvenay

alright here, as for you?

godskook

@room, how exactly does one attain an Evil alignment without committing *ANY* crimes? "Crimes" as defined by the Paladin who just detect-evil'ed you?

And by "Evil" I mean "this character can't be done as a LN/TN/CN" Evil.

SPavel

Lots of evil deeds aren't crimes

If only because laws against them haven't been invented yet

daze413

@Shalvenay a bit sad. The tea house we regularly go to to play is closing down

Shalvenay

2:10 AM

awww

@SPavel this, very much so

daze413

They have these big tables and juuust the right height of the chair that I can still peak over my DM screen

Ben

@godskook I saved a kid's balloon the other day. Then just as I handed it to him, I popped it with a pin.

SPavel

For example, I could jack up prices on food & water in a disaster zone. I have the legal right to do so, it just makes me a ginormous prick.

Shalvenay

@SPavel sometimes, laws themselves can be evil

Ben

If that's not evil I don't know what is

godskook

2:11 AM

"as defined by the Paladin", guys.....

@Ben, being a dick that one time to that one kid is probably not enough to justify a distinction between Neutral and Evil.

SPavel

The paladin, fortunately, doesn't write the laws.

And even if he did, it would take him a while to get the laws ratified

In the meantime, you make your escape in a hot air balloon shaped like a skull

Ben

@godskook A single act, no. But a behaviour that defines you as "being a dick" can probably be defined as evil, depending on the frequency and desire to do so

Disclaimer: I personally didn't do that. That would be mean.

SPavel

Ok, here's one - worshipping an evil god is an evil act. But the components of that worship - prayer, ritual dancing, abstaining from certain foods and so on - are not crimes, and punishing them as crimes violates freedom of religion if the realm has such a law.

As long as you're not personally shoveling orphans into a sausage grinder, it's all fine.

(or otherwise endorsing an orphan-shoveling operation)

Ben

@SPavel What if it's corpses?

Without going into the source of the corpses...

Maybe just dealing with a plague.

SPavel

Desecration of the dead depends on the locale - but if they are corpses of parishioners who willingly donated themselves to the faith, what right hath the Paladin to go against their wishes?

Also according to the BoVD, sadism and masochism are evil, but what consenting adults do in the comfort of their own dungeon is no business of a guy with a mere figurative stick up his butt.

Ben

2:18 AM

Masochist to the Sadist: "Hurt me"
Sadist to the Masochist: "No."

Miniman

@Ben I can't be the only person thinking about Little Shop of Horrors right now.

SPavel

Also, I think intent can also make you evil, so you can just be really bad at doing crimes

If you murdered a guy in cold blood and then he turned out to be literally Satan, and the people rejoice and celebrate you, you still did Evil

Ben

@SPavel [Roll to pickpocket] Nat 1 [You place your wallet in his pocket, and sneak away without him noticing]

SPavel

If you poison a guy and the dose is too low, but it accidentally acts as a medicine and cures his disease, still Evil

godskook

@SPavel, source on the Sadist/masochist thing? I found a snippet that discusses it in BoVD, but it doesn't call it "Evil" there in that section.

Ben

2:22 AM

My reaction to all of these:

how i met your mother aw man!! (the blitz)

►

SPavel

@godskook It's under Evil Acts I think, or they're labeled as Evil Traits or something

Oh! Speaking of BoVD

Willing Deformity feats are [Evil] but it's just stuff like being really fat

godskook

@SPavel, no, that's the exact previous section.

SPavel

Also I think fiendish heritage feats make you more evil too?

godskook

It goes:

Evil Acts - this stuff
Addictions and Fetishes - that stuff

SPavel

So a guy with Willing Deformity (Gaunt) and Willing Deformity (Tall) who was tortured and then let loose into the world is Evil but he didn't do crimes

Unless the paladin considers sanctity of body to be Law, but is perfectly willing to violate that said sanctity of body with his sword

Casting deathwatch is evil because it's an [Evil] spell but it's hardly a crime

Same for protection from good

Ben

2:29 AM

godskook

@SPavel, willing deformity requires supplicating an Evil Deity to make work.

Ben

And following that thought... Next PC: A Paladin named Sylvester.

Shalvenay

@SPavel yeah -- some of the [Evil] descriptors on spells are downright silly

Ben

@godskook What about "Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons"?

Or "The wrong thing for the right reasons"

godskook

@Ben, what about them?

Ben

2:41 AM

Depending on the situation, would that not be considered "evil" without breaking the law?

In any case... it's certainly a morally grey area

nitsua60

Okay, on top of fifteen-hour workday layered with sick kid, the Staties stopped me from walking home. Because bear in neighborhood.

Ben

@nitsua60 So the alternative is..?

nitsua60

@Ben I'm'a gonna redacted that bear up if it gets in my way.

Ben

Ohh... Them's fightin' words

Miniman

@nitsua60 Yikes.

godskook

2:48 AM

@Ben, doing the right thing, for any reason, isn't an "Evil" act. Doing the "wrong" thing for the "right" reasons is.....not an Evil character, and I was far-more discussing Evil characters than Evil acts.

nitsua60

@Ben Also, I know just-enough to know that's a fight I stand no chance of winning.

Ben

@nitsua60 bearmageddonnews.com/2016/09/22/…

nitsua60

The two things I've previously done when encountering a bear:
1: "Hey kids (4 and 2 at the time), I don't know if you noticed, but a bear also thinks this is a nice-looking raspberry patch. Let's go have dessert *in* the cabin, slowly."
2: "Hey kids (5 and 3 at the time), that bear in the parking lot? Let's keep a bunch of cars between it and us."

Miniman

@Ben This is ~~totally awesome~~ absolutely horrifying.

nitsua60

Tonight: taking an alternate route home. Night, all!

Miniman

2:57 AM

@nitsua60 Cya!

Ben

@nitsua60 Good idea :) Good luck!

Miniman

@nitsua60 Good idea, I hear they're pretty bad drivers.

Ben

@daze413 I would suggest perhaps explaining a little more what you mean about "exhaustion". You mention play-testing, which I think is a really crucial point. You can't just whip together something that you think is "cool" then throw it on the table.

In relation to your answer on Customizing monsters

0

Q: Enemy attacks-Who gets hit?

How do you guys decide which player gets hit when an enemy attacks? Do you just assign each character a die number and roll it?

gm-techniques

Which systems can affect this choice?

Miniman

3:17 AM

@Ben Well, for example, in Fate the answer would be "the most narratively appropriate target".

Ben

@Miniman Fair enough

Miniman

There are plenty of systems where the question doesn't even make sense: "what do you mean, attacks?"

trogdor

yeah, I mean, it's still technically "who the GM decides they are attacking" but that should be the most narratively appropriate target

Miniman

Also, who's deciding? In some systems it would be the GM, in other systems it would be the players, in some systems it would be a die roll...

trogdor

@Miniman yeah this is why we have system tags

which this guy really should be using

Papayaman1000

3:26 AM

In a hotel. 12 hours from home. Full beds so I have to sleep on the bathroom floor. I hope you're all enjoying your evening more than I.

Ben

@Papayaman1000 How did that come about?

Papayaman1000

@Ben Unpleasantness.

daze413

3:44 AM

@Ben better?

Ben

Yeah :) Just from a new guy perspective, it's probably not very well known exactly what is involved in properly balancing a homebrew monster

BESW

In Great Ork Gods, the GM just says the outcome.

The players decide who they're attacking and what the difficulty is, and handle the rolls.

Ben

3:59 AM

@BESW I assume you're responding to my question about systems affecting outcomes?

BESW

Yeah, the attacking question.

re: homebrew, great answers explain as much how and why as they reasonably can.

Ben

OK. Cos I think the question is asking about determining the targets, rather than dealing with the outcome of combat

BESW

Yeah. GOG doesn't really do attacks that way.

Ben

@BESW ohhhh ok

BESW

It's more like how in DW often a monster won't be attacking for damage unless the player is triggering their own attack move, which represents a back-and-forth combat exchange.

Miniman

4:03 AM

@Ben Yeah, I deeply suspect that it's a dupe of this question.

Ben

True

Chemus

Yeah, I was even gonna re-edit my 'welcome' comment regarding looking for already asked q's but then didn't, and then didn't even look for them myself. I got wrapped up in my impression being wrong as to what the q was about and forgot

Ben

Because effort

[Re-roll to exert effort]

d20

Dice Service

9

Ben

Eh... Better

Chemus

4:06 AM

The crit earlier was a bit too much effort was it?

Ben

@Chemus I like to think that's the random surge of energy you get when you realise the pigsty you're living in. So you clean the entire house in a day, but that only happens once every 5 weeks

Chemus

@Ben Holy dung you're ambitious! Every 5 weeks...

Ben

Lazy and chronologically impaired

Chemus

Obviously I should have assumed taht you're more ambitious than I; my avatar doesn't even have to walk whereas yours is some aussie bloke photobombing a shrubbery pic.

Ben

@Chemus Rule #1 of being successfully lazy: Get someone else to do it

Chemus

4:12 AM

@Ben Can you get me the rest of that list by the end of the day? Thanks.

BESW

@Ben I'm too lazy to persuade someone else to be lazy for me, so I postpone it and wind up being lazy all at once just before the deadline.

Ben

@BESW That's true procrastination

BESW

There's no point being lazy unless you're really going to put in the effort to do it right.

Chemus

@BESW Enh. Can't be bothered.

Ben

I somehow feel this competition of laziness is going in the wrong direction

BESW

4:16 AM

Yeah, but it's not like anybody's going to try and turn it around.

I have a new Great Ork Gods campaign:

William Scrym, died 1382, fell from a tree attempting to overthrow a nest of magpies

Tweeted by DeathMedieval on April 28, 2017 at 4:14 AM

Miniman

@BESW A true hero.

Chemus

@BESW He was attempting an overthrow!? Traitor!

trogdor

lol

Ben

5:16 AM

Is a downvote technically "non-constructive" if they don't leave a reason?

I'm fine with downvotes... as long as people explain why

Miniman

@Ben Nope, not at all.

13

Q: Can we require comments on downvotes?

Perhaps I'm the only one noticing this, but I've seen several Questions and Answers around here that have been downvoted for no apparent reason. What's worse, is that no reason for the downvote is given - there's either no comments at all on the item, or there are no negative comments to address...

feature-request status-declined voting comments

That's the main discussion on our site, but it also links to discussions on other sites.

Ben

I feel like I'm whinging, and I am. I just like to understand what people are thinking when they decide posts aren't "helpful" in any way.

Miniman

@Ben I get that, and trust me, almost everyone feels the same way sometimes.

But there's a whole lot of reasons why anonymous downvotes are important to the site's function, and they are never going away, so we all have to just get used to it :P

Ben

Well... here's something I learned today.

Trust Me, I am a Mechanical Engineer

►

Nothing to do with my work, pass times, habits, or browsing history, but apparently found its way into my recommended videos on youtube.

Miniman

@Ben Youtube is often like that.

@Ben As a sidenote, many of the longterm users consider single, uncommented downvotes on their posts to be random white noise not really worth noticing.

(This also led me to reread this conversation - years later, I now have a 14.)

Ben

5:34 AM

@Miniman I know how the system works, and why it works, as well as why new users find it frustrating and pointless. But it's a mark on my otherwise impressive (by my own standards) record. :P

Magician

5:45 AM

Another microgame by Grant Howitt, Big Gay Orcs, or "A thousand orchid blossoms: a love story".

2

Ben

Actually... that reminds me... have any new editions of Elf vs Orc been added?

I don't remember who linked it in the first place... I think it was @BESW

BESW

Elf vs Orc is in limbo, but Sings-to-Trees appeared in the book Nine Goblins.

Ben

Same writer?

Miniman

@Magician Seriously, what is it with microgames that makes them all slow spirals towards inevitable doom?

(Except that one BESW did to prove me wrong.)

Magician

Well, his previous game, Honey Heist, wasn't so much a spiral of doom as an explosion of insanity.

Miniman

5:52 AM

@Magician I remember that one :)

Ben

@Miniman Easy to clean up?

BESW

And, you know, there's always Roll For Shoes.

Miniman

@BESW And speaking of explosions of insanity...

BESW

@Miniman Maybe escalation is easier and more fun to write than closure.

Miniman

@BESW Actually, now that you point it out, that holds true for the majority of RPGs, micro- or not.

BESW

5:55 AM

Eeeyup.

Magician

It's hard to mechanically build in closure. Race towards oblivion, on the other hand...

Ben

I saw a game that was leading up to the resurrection of Tiamat. Don't know if it was one of the pre-written ones or not. Anyway, the party got to the ritual, which was nearly complete, they killed the guys trying to resurrect Tiamat aaand...

That was it.

Ok. It's over. Go home, everybody.

Miniman

@Magician For some reason, this is making me want to write an RPG about this.

@Ben That's exactly what my group did, yeah.

(In fairness, the final chapter of the campaign is set up so that it's very easy to prevent Tiamat's resurrection.)

Ben

Not exactly an enjoyable or memorable event, regardless of what the outcome was.

BESW

In D&D, closure tends to be about liquidating your loot and buying shiny toys with it--with the implied "for the next adventure" making it more of a pause than a close.

Ben

5:58 AM

Chaos and Oblivion is far more memorable

Magician

Peaks and valleys. Tension escalates as resources are depleted, while rest and looting valleys allow for a steeper peak next time.

...or what BESW said

BESW

InSpectres makes it very explicit that your current adventure is in large part about controlling the resources you'll have for your next adventure.

Magician

I suspect this element has largely disappeared from D&D, which makes the "default" motivation of adventurers, the quest for more gold, much less appealing.

If you don't have gritty survival mechanics where every healing potion is to be treasured, and wounds heal for weeks otherwise, you don't really need money.

Miniman

@Magician Well, in 5e at least, gold is basically useless after a certain point, so yeah, there definitely comes a time when it's just not an effective source of motivation.

BESW

Of course, there ARE games like A Penny For My Thoughts and Pilgrims of the Flying Temple which mechanise satisfying closure without needing to imply a next adventure.

Ben

6:06 AM

@Magician That particular issue I have found comes from the fact that effectively, you don't really need it.... I don't know if that's just bad DMing (or good DMing, by taking it off the table all together). But When I get gold, I just feel like "OK. Cool. I'll just start hoarding that... for when... I need it... I guess..?"

BESW

My Life With Master does it; Dogs in the Vineyard doesn't.

Magician

@Ben As usual, I have an in-depth post about it.

BESW

Today's Captcha Campaign is: STOP PINTOR.

I assume PINTOR is a Masters of the Universe villain.

Ben

@Magician Rant* to the rescue!

Patent Pending

Magician

@BESW Pinnacle Innovation Towards Obliteration of Resistance

Ben

6:09 AM

@BESW Skeletor's more fabulous cousin

BESW

Pygmies Incensed by Negative Typecasting Organize Rebellion.

Magician

@BESW Yellow card, same word used in the acronym.

BESW

Better?

Magician

Aye :)

Miniman

Random side note - does anyone know why "calle" appears in captchas so much more often than any other word?

BESW

6:15 AM

Because they often get those words off street signs.

Magician

@Miniman Thy calle is important to us, please hold.

4

BESW

[rummages]

@Miniman Captcha is using Google Street View as an image source.

Miniman

@BESW Wow, that explains so much! Thanks for that!

(Tone-on-the-internet note: Not sarcastic.)

Magician

@Miniman /s

BESW

(And it just occurred to me that not everyone here might know: calle is street in Spanish and Portuguese.)

Miniman

6:20 AM

@BESW I had picked that up from trying to solve this mystery before, but hadn't gotten any further with it.

BESW

Yeah, reCAPTCHA is crowd-sourcing us for turning images of text into digital text for Google Street View, Google Books, etc.

Chemus

@BESW Yes. That never makes me feel like a flesbag zombie robot. Ever.

Magician

In other news... Last night, my bard walked into an enemy war camp, alone, unarmed, and barely with any backup, to inform them he's there to accept their surrender. Almost pulled it off, too. Rolling a 1 didn't help.

BESW

Eh, we're already cyborgs with external memory and processing drives.

Miniman

@Magician What game?

Chemus

6:27 AM

@BESW Yes, and? :D

Magician

@Miniman 13th Age, a long-running campaign.

Chemus

@Magician Not so long for your bard, it appears

too soon?

Miniman

@Chemus Heheheheh.

Magician

Oh, he made it out just fine. Didn't get the entire slave army to rebel, though. Only 4 people fled with him.

Ben

@Magician I'm confused... How does one fail to accept surrender?

Magician

6:29 AM

@Ben By not having one offered.

Ben

Ah... there's always a catch.

Magician

I do have a dread knight statted up and ready to go, if something happens with the bard. He's... slightly reckless.

BESW

The same way one fails to catch a falling elephant in one's hat.

Chemus

"Surrender!" "Oh you wish to surrender to me? Very well, I accept."

Ben

@BESW If the elephant is bigger than the hat... is that an automatic fail, or does the fact that the elephant lands on the hat count as a success?

Chemus

6:31 AM

Or just getting your arm out of the way first?

BESW

These are excellent questions to ask once you've found a falling elephant and a man willing to stand under it.

Erik

Assuming you can talk really quickly

Miniman

@BESW I would've said this was an analogy for the situation where the army says "Yep, we surrender" and you're forced to deal with feeding and housing them all.

Magician

I did miss having fate points at the time. To just pour them into the check. Icon relationships could have worked, but the GM has somewhat neutered them, to make the game less improv-heavy.

Ben

Chemus

7:15 AM

Two vids semi-topical (sorry for that)

Half-elves, and how they could be entertainingly different

►

Role Play Gaming's Missing Rule

►

Ben

7:26 AM

@Chemus ONLY SEMI-TOPICAL?? What do you think this is? Some kind of Chat Room??

Chemus

I was apologizing for being partially on topic rather than completely off topic as is right and good.

Ben

@Chemus Oh. My apologies. Continue

Chemus

Yes I saw the potential for that gross and egregious misunderstanding, but I really didn't care enough to phrase it better.

Is that callous of me? Ah well.

Chemus

7:47 AM

@Ben I re-answered your Q. Pretty much same advice I gave here. Hope it's different enough from the other.

Ben

Yeah, thanks man. I figured writing it out would add a bit more substance to it, and allow for a better anser

Chemus

Hope you get some good ones.

eimyr

9:08 AM

@Chemus I saw those videos way back and... well, Lloyd (Lindybeige) knows a lot about various topics and iss quite entertaining to watch, BUT his thoughts and observations about RPGs are stuck somewhere in the late 90s.

BESW

9:24 AM

For tonight's dinner I burnt green beans, carrots, and onions in a pan with olive oil, black pepper, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce. Then I chopped up some frozen salmon and burnt it in the pan with olive oil, cayenne pepper, ginger-wasabi teriyaki sauce, and toasted sesame seeds. Served both together on brown rice and lentils.

Erik

I don't think you're supposed to burn your food.

Skyler

in case anybody was running out of ideas boredpanda.com/…

Erik

Damnnnnnnnnn that's good

BESW

Well, I usually do a combination of pan-frying and sautéing until things get black around the edges. But that's not as pithy or dramatic.

Anne Aunyme

@eimyr actually his videos about previous editions of D&D are quite relevant (but you are right concerning most of the other ones)

Skyler

9:31 AM

@Chemus The second he said chases I was like HELL YEA

ive been actually working on putting chases in one of my campaigns actively

eimyr

@AnneAunyme Only if you look at them exclusively through D&D lens

Anne Aunyme

what do you mean?

eimyr

Well, let's take a particular video - let's say, the one about his complaint about lack of chase sequences in RPGs.

or rather lack of mechanics supporting chases.

That's only an issue if all of the following are true: a) you're playing an adventure/action game b) you're playing a traditional, GM-centric, combat oriented game like D&D or similar c) you are not using the extended rules that address that (skill challenges from DMG etc.) d) you deliberately avoided systems where chasing is expected and supported e) you think that RPGs are supposed to emulate cinematic/video game experience f) You're not playing the newer versions of those games

I'm not saying Lloyd is wrong, I'm saying he's late.

Also, @AnneAunyme If you end up playing the game, can I ask you to grab names or other credits from people? I think they should be included as playtesters

Anne Aunyme

@eimyr I'll try, but I can't be sure I will get everyone's name

eimyr

@AnneAunyme Well, is someone doesn't want to be credited that's fine, but I think it's important to give one to ones who do.

Anne Aunyme

9:46 AM

Yup, I will let people fill their name on the paper where the analysis will be written, but if they don't want to fill it I can't force them :)

eimyr

Absolutely.

Anne Aunyme

@eimyr in the video that is an analysis of the first editions of D&D, Lloyd may be late, but I don't think it decreases the quality of the video (since it's about old things anyway)

eimyr

@AnneAunyme That video is from 2015. And he opens it with "A lot of RPGs are unfortunately fixated upon combat..." Well, no, not quite. You have to be operating within a very specific environment to get that impression.

If he replaced every utterance of "RPG" with "D&D", I wouldn't have a single complaint about the video at all.

Also, it's like he deliberately limits the discussion to RPGs that operate on a grid of some sort, either with minis or in the mindscape, putting in bits like "RPGs give a character a single speed at which he moves".

I remember he had a really cool video about DCs and challenges, where he described a wall that needs to be scaled and said the roll is not to test whether the character can scale this wall in this particular instance, but rather whether this wall is scalable by this character at all - the point being that if you have to scale the same wall twice, you don't have to roll twice.

This is not an informed opinion, because if he pondered the topic a bit, maybe researched for a while, or just simply played more RPGs than old-edition D&D, he'd not only see that specific issue addressed in the book but also a wealth of debate with tangible conclusions, which made the situation a non-issue decades ago. It's almost like he never looked at online resources where "when to roll" question is debated.

It's like he's coming out of his room with a 2000-page plan on how to solve the problem of horse dung littering the streets and never notices the majority of the world uses cars now.

/rant over

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