TRPG General Chat

Rubiksmoose

00:04

@GreySage thats a good way to do it. :)

BESW

One other random thing from playing Fred's Fate game. It reminded me that dice flipping (turning a die to a + face) as the result of an invoke is something I greatly prefer to a +2 bonus in my own play. This is not news, but it's a useful reminder to myself.

Tweeted by rdonoghue on March 5, 2018 at 3:02 PM

Koch's bottletail squid is a 3cm-long cuttlefish from the Indo-West Pacific. (Photo: Kurt W Gross)

Tweeted by StrangeAnimaIs on March 5, 2018 at 3:15 PM

Rubiksmoose

huzzah! gold badge obtained lol.

BESW

ᵒᶰʷᵃʳᵈ ᵐʸ ˢᵗᵗᵉᵉᵈ ᵗᵃᵏ ᵐᵉ ᵗᵒ ᵗʰ ᵉ ᵗʳᵃˢʰ

Tweeted by PapaCone_ on March 4, 2018 at 5:13 PM

@Rubiksmoose Grats!

Helluva good icicle @Rosslynchapel this afternoon

Tweeted by RobTConservator on March 4, 2018 at 3:41 PM

Rubiksmoose

@BESW It's only my 100 day one (so I really didn't do anything) but thanks! I feel so special now lol

BESW

Hey, logging in every day isn't nothing, and you've been doing more than just that.

Rubiksmoose

00:14

@BESW :)

trogdor

Lol yeah some of us only log in

whistle

Not gonna name names though XD

Rubiksmoose

@trogdor I mean I did that for a whole year and then I decided I was going to take the dive and be active. which was almost (a little over) 100 days ago.

@trogdor hahaha good we wouldn't want to call people out now would we :P

trogdor

I would be very cross with myself if I outed myself like that

So just ignore what I said and it will all be good

Rubiksmoose

00:30

@trogdor you said something?

nitsua60

@Rubiksmoose I probably lurked for a good two years before I even made an account. Though, in my defense, most of that lurking was finding QA that basically looked like "how do I do [my_thing] in LaTeX?" "Use [package_name], which is designed to do exactly [your_thing]."

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 hahaha which is exactly what I did in every forum ever years ago for VBA.

Shalvenay

hey there @nitsua60, how're things going?

BESW

00:54

Purrmaids.

Adeptus

@BESW Catfish!

BESW

Today I learned that Wes Studi is in a band called "Firecat of Discord."

Adeptus

01:27

@BESW I was trying to place his name... googled it... Oh, Mystery Men!

Shalvenay

01:47

hey there @PhiNotPi

nitsua60

@Shalvenay Hiya. Turmoil in the sheep-pen. One of us signed the boy up for football, not realizing the other was absolutely serious about every opposing sentiment they'd voiced about the boy playing football.

@trogdor mind checking discord?

Miniman

@nitsua60 Ouch, good luck.

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 ah, want to talk to you about a couple things you raised in the r20 thread...

nitsua60

@Miniman We'll see. A wise woman once told me that a successful marriage isn't about getting the "right" answer (as if that existed), but getting an answer, together.

We are not there right now. But we will be.

@Shalvenay The things I listed as "discussion for next session"?

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 yes

nitsua60

01:51

@Shalvenay Unless there's something urgent I'd rather discuss them as a group. (Much like above: I don't know that it matters what conclusion we-all come to, as long as we come to it together.)

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 ah. understandable

NautArch

@nitsua60 ouch. I have a feeling that fight might come, but I think we're in agreement.

Ben

Morning all

nitsua60

@NautArch So did I =\

If you say so =)

Ben

Afternoon all

(Just ticked over lol)

nitsua60

02:00

If you say so =]

Ben

So I was gonna look into the CR for making monsters, but I didn't get the chance.

What I want to do is make an encounter with a lot of zombies. I'd be ok if it was an difficult encounter (not deadly) but obviously Zombies are like a 1/2 CR, so I'm not sure if 10 + a "Boss Zombie" is too much

BESW

@nitsua60 It took me twenty minutes to realize you meant football, not futebol.

Suddenly made a lot more sense.

Trying to turn procrastination into a fine art. Here's Auldjo’s 1832 map of Vesuvius https://www.historytoday.com/kate-wiles/map-vesuvius-1832

Tweeted by Oniropolis on March 5, 2018 at 4:22 PM

nitsua60

02:16

@Ben What level's the party?

Ben

1

Fighter, Wizard and Ranged Fighter

nitsua60

Against three level 1 characters 10+ zombies is definitely too much.

Ben

The Fighter is a GW Fighter, the Wizard is a Necromancer (can control 1 undead creature at a time) and the Ranged Fighter is a Archer (building to an Arcane Archer)

nitsua60

They are none of those things if they run into 10 zombies, I'd wager the contents of my pockets.

If you want, we can game it out in the back room

Miniman

If they have room to kite around, it shouldn't be an issue.

Sucks for the GW Fighter, though.

Ben

02:27

So, I do want the numbers - 10 + boss zombie (for dramatic effect)

So I just need to nerf them

nitsua60

Those zombies are going to make a good number of their fortitude saves.

BESW

@Miniman Ah, yes, the Gun-Wielding Fighter. Infamously bad at kiting.

Miniman

@nitsua60 Oh yeah, I forgot about that ability.

Ben

@nitsua60 In this fight I was actually going to get rid of the Fort Save

nitsua60

@BESW gas-welding, in 5e.

Ben

02:28

These zombie aren't anything special... the Boss Zombie though - he's the special one, so he gets the fort save

@nitsua60 Especially since zombies are resistant to being poisoned

nitsua60

@Ben That'll help, but zombies have a lot of hp as written. It'll take your L1s three hits at least to drop 1; that's ~5 times targeted per zombie.

BESW

@nitsua60 You mean Olaf the Stout?

nitsua60

(maybe 4; zombies' AC are commensurately low)

@BESW nah, I don't drink.

=D

@Ben if you can nerf your minion zombies down to CR0, then I think 10+boss might fly against a party of three (three!) level 1s.

trogdor

@nitsua60 mk will do

nitsua60

(either stat-wise or just through tactics/behavior)

trogdor

02:32

@Rubiksmoose hehehe

nitsua60

Remember: zombies are the manifestation of humanity's uncontrolled desire to consume.

Your zombies should be grappling and dragging as much as they harm, in my book.

Miniman

@nitsua60 That doesn't really leave anything for ghouls to be :P

Ben

@nitsua60 Ok. I'm mainly concerned about damage - but I'm not sure if nerfing health or damage, or both is the way to go

@Miniman Angry Zombies - so basically Zombie+

nitsua60

@Miniman For me zombies are "drag someone down and everyone beat on them" vs. ghouls at "drag someone off and eat them by your lonesome".

Miniman

@nitsua60 Ah, I see. So you mean that zombies, collectively, embody humanity's desire to consume.

trogdor

02:36

@Miniman two different types of consumption though, one is eating and the other is capitalism in metaphor of eating, see? Completely different XD :P

nitsua60

@Miniman Yes.

BESW

Modern zombies are Gluttony + People - Individuality. D&D-style ghouls are Gluttony + People - Compassion.

nitsua60

@Miniman imdb.com/title/tt0077402

feature-request IMDB oneboxing

BESW

12

A: Can we one-box imdb links in chat?

Sorry, ain't gonna happen. IMDB doesn't allow it.

nitsua60

Dawn of the Dead (1978) - Trailer

►

@BESW darn

Ben

02:38

hash

See how many people get that one...

BESW

From Jemisin's blog:

> All mythological creatures have a real-world root. Dryads are trees + humans + magic. Mermaids are fish + humans + magic, or maybe porpoises + magic. Unicorns are deer or horses + magic, maybe with a bit of narwhal glued on. Dragons are reptiles + magic, or maybe dinosaur bones + magic – paleontology.

Miniman

@BESW @trogdor Are you gonna let this guy talk about you like that?

trogdor

@Miniman which of those is @BESW though?

Miniman

@trogdor Human + human + human + human + magic, obviously.

trogdor

Also, do you know how many humans get dragons wrong like, all the time?

I have to go up to each of them and BURNINATE their faces off personally? Heck no

nitsua60

02:46

@trogdor Beholder (all-seeing) + Elephant (wise) + Steam mephit (volcanic homeland) + Will-o'-the-Wisp (pops up unnoticed)

2

Ben

trogdor

@Ben I see nothing wrong with this

@nitsua60 wait this is me?

Where does all seeing come from?

I won't dispute the rest

Ben

@trogdor I did it right! Woo!

nitsua60

@trogdor This is a response to you asking what BESW's mytholineage is.

trogdor

Lol

@nitsua60 ooooooooooh

Ok that clears it up nicely

I did think you missed a few things, like regal and snarky and flamey and invisible

Just to put forth the examples

:P

KorvinStarmast

02:54

@nitsua60 In re that marriage comment my line on that is that it is a math formula that goes like this we>me. ;) My parents taught me that by how they lived, not by anything they said.

Shalvenay

hey again @KorvinStarmast

KorvinStarmast

hi shal, I see that's two of us for "no meatgrinder"

nitsua60

@KorvinStarmast "we>me" I never had trouble wrapping my head around. It's "we>*right*" that took an embarrassingly-long time to drill through my thick skull. (As if I even knew what "right" was in the first place!)

KorvinStarmast

Sometimes you are, sometimes you are not: wisdom is knowing the difference. (Thus sayeth he who still seeks wisdom ...)

Shalvenay

hey there @nitsua60 -- btw, could you unpack a bit by what you mean by "meatgrinder" first off?

nitsua60

02:59

@Shalvenay It's actually a mechanical term native to that adventure.

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 oh?!

@nitsua60 is there some sort of sidebar in the text it's referring to with alternate rules in it or something like that?

Ben

So, the Fighter - Hit +5, dmg 2d6+3; The Necromancer has quite a few spells - Chill Touch, ray of frost, Prot from evil and good, False Life, and Mage armour; And the Rogue has Hit +5, dmg 1d8+3 (longbow) or 1d4+3 (dagger)

KorvinStarmast

It is in the intro and I had to put the book away once Nits offered to run the ToA.

nitsua60

@Shalvenay Yeah, basically.

KorvinStarmast

It's for advanced players

We are not a gelled team, so I think meatgrinder is ill advised.

We are still in the forming and storming phase ....

Shalvenay

03:01

yeah, don't think we want to run this in hardcore mode :P

Ben

Sa as far as damage goes, I'm not overly concerned with dealing with the Zombies, just worried about damage received. The general AC is ~15

KorvinStarmast

@Ben 10 zombies versus 3 level 1's is most likely a TPK unless their dice are hot and DM dice are cold.

Korvin Starmast, Life Cleric, was in a fight at level 3 with a few dozen zombies and a necromancer mage. , with the rest of his party, We had to withdraw and come back.

That isn't what killed me, but they kept getting back up ...

My sacred flame was all that kept a few down ...

But go ahead and kill the party, and get that OSR t-shirt. :) Hee Hee.

Ben

So, since I don't have the DMG with me, what needs to change to drop the CR?

KorvinStarmast

the number of zombies

Do you want a deadly encounter?

Ben

I'd prefer to nerf the zombies.

Difficult, not deadly

KorvinStarmast

03:06

Do yu

mean hard or medium?

Classes of encounter are easy, medium, hard, deadly. Which one do you want

nitsua60

I think you're underestimating how much it takes for 3xL1 to dish out 22 damage.
Supposing you remove the fortitude bit and that 3-of-4 party attacks hit:
Round 1: all three hit; fighter + rogue (with SA) take down 1 zombie, Wz hits another for half its health. Ten zombies get to attack your party, say 1/3 hit for 15 damage to party. Someone's down. But let's ignore that for a second.
Round 2: two hit; rogue (with SA) takes down Z2, Wz hits another for half. Nine zombies attack, 13 damage to party. Someone's down again.

Ben

So, just so we're on the same page, a group of 3 x lvl 1 = CR 3, right? Which is a Medium?

nitsua60

@Ben Nooooooo....

KorvinStarmast

How about making the undead skeletons, not zombies?

Ben

This fight is thematic

nitsua60

03:07

A group of four level 1 characters should find a single CR1 to be Medium. (MM p.9)

KorvinStarmast

@Ben *This fight is thematic* Then wait until they are highter level

Ben

Wow

ok

nitsua60

@KorvinStarmast Or make CR0 zombies.

9 hp, no fortitude, probably pretty close.

KorvinStarmast

Yes, but that's more fiddliong than I like to do.

Skeletons are fine.

nitsua60

The action economy's still brutal, though. Eleven on three, when none of the three have multiple attacks or AoE.

Ben

03:09

The idea is that the "lingering evil" has brought the townsfolk back to life. These guys are just general farmers, so not strong, just undead. And since there is no specific power keeping them alive, they don't have the Undead Fort save

KorvinStarmast

For 3 level 1 characters you want 225 XP worth of monsters. but if you have 3 monsters the multiplier goes up to 2.

Ben

@nitsua60 Actually... technically 4. Since the Wizard has "control Undead", they're going to turn one Zombie (at a time)

nitsua60

@Ben Will that eat the wizard's action?

KorvinStarmast

4 skeletons gives you 200 XP worth but the number attacking makes it 400 so it is closer to deadly.

Ben

@nitsua60 It's the "Charm Person" spell, only it's focussed on Undead instead

KorvinStarmast

03:11

How many total undead can he control?

Ben

1 at a time (at level 1)

nitsua60

@KorvinStarmast (And all those numbers presuppose a party of 4, not 3. At those low numbers, a difference of one makes a big impact.)

KorvinStarmast

@Nits, yeah.

nitsua60

As you'll be discovering soon. [cackles madly]

KorvinStarmast

@Ben, if he can turn 1 zombie for the whole fight, bring no more than a six pack .... and that will still be a bear ...

Ben

03:13

So this controlled zombie will grab the attention of roughly 1/4 of the zombies. Yes, it will eat the action, but I'd say that's a fair trade off

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 We thank you for that Gygaxian maniacal laugh :)

No cleric? Five probably makes for a good fight.

Ben

It might be easier to just "re-skin" skellies into zombies

KorvinStarmast

Yeah

nitsua60

@Ben I'd still suggest gaming it out, either solo or with help here. No amount of theorycraft'll replace simulcraft =)

KorvinStarmast

that way no regen and fewer HP

nitsua60

03:14

@Ben literally!

[mic drop]

KorvinStarmast

Shall we play this in the Back Room? I am up for it!

Our Monday D&D game just got cancelled.

Ben

I do have the char sheets ready to go if you want

KorvinStarmast

I say let's do this

nitsua60

KorvinStarmast

Ben, you have to play the wizard, I have no necromancer Fu for 5th edition.

Nits, can Ben get on discord?

Ben

03:17

I can - also I have the Fighter and Necromancer sheets ready to go for you

KorvinStarmast

Where?

Ben

I'll be "playing" the rogue

I can post them somewhere.

KorvinStarmast

Hmm, how about I play the rogue? I suck at 5e wizard.

Ben

Google docs and I'll send a link

KorvinStarmast

k

Ben

03:18

@KorvinStarmast Unfortunately I'll be re-building the rogue sheet

nitsua60

@KorvinStarmast I dunno. I don't have any servers?

Ben

So you can be the fighter instead?

KorvinStarmast

OK, I guess I have to learn that 1st level spell

I can do fighter for sure, and wizard as a spazz wizard. :)

Shall we shift to the Back Room chat room?

How about nits playes wizard?

And I fighter?

nitsua60

(It's 3 first level characters. They've all got +5 to hit. GWM does 2d6+3, Wz does 1d10 or controls 1 (which they can do twice), the rogue does 1d8+3 and a d6 if they get SA. They've got 12, 10, and 8 hp. They've got 16, 14, and 12 AC.)

(There's your character sheet. At least as much as you need for this fight.)

KorvinStarmast

Ok, I'll cut and paste to back room

nitsua60

03:21

Who's running the monsters?

KorvinStarmast

Ben, I guess

Ben

05:30

So all in all, I'd say that test was a success

Cheers to @nitsua and @KorvinStarmast for the Assistance!

BESW

05:45

> Brain: These tweets about someone with a new kitten are adorable.
Me: Awww, yes they are.
Brain: Look at how she's complaining about the kitten keeping her from working!
Me: Hee, that's a problem I wouldn't mind having.
Brain: You should write an RPG about trying to work but there's a kitten.
Me: Aaaaaah no stop brain.
Brain:
Me:
Brain:
Me: ....I already have ideas.
Brain: You're welcome.

Ben

I am already interested haha

BESW

Our latest Fate World of Adventure is The Agency! James Bond meets Spies Like Us meets Archer meets Paranoia meets Everyone Is John meets Fate Core. It's a big meeting. An original from @TheOtherTracy and @d20monkey as always, it's #PayWhatYouWant https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/236183/The-Agency-o-A-World-of-Adventure-for-Fate-Core?affiliate_id=24139

Tweeted by EvilHatOfficial on March 6, 2018 at 12:02 AM

BESW

07:37

> Heavy Artillery. You can make one last ranged attack with a heavy gun after it runs out of ammo, rolling Physique instead of Shoot.

Probably not actually a stunt, but it amused me.

Hmm.

trogdor

lol

BESW

> Heavy Artillery When attacking with a gun that takes two hands to wield, you can use it as a melee weapon as well. When using it this way, you can trade out any boosts you might get to instead push your opponent one zone away.

trogdor

I think it should have like, a plus two or something

well not the second one that looks fine

BESW

> Anything can be a ranged weapon--once. You can make ranged attacks with any object it takes two hands to lift, using Physique instead of Shoot. You get +2 to do so, but need to find a new object for each attack.

Magician

07:57

> Experimental Technology. As useful as it is unreliable. Each die you roll when using it that falls off the table counts as a '+'. However, if all dice fall off the table, the roll counts as -4, and the GM places any aspect they can think of with a free invoke.

^this started as something as entirely

BESW

08:08

[amused]

> No manual, no directions, completely unlabelled. You have a hand-held device and you don't know what it's for. You can use Lore in place of any other skill to attempt any action by activating the device, with the usual difficulty increased by +4. Good luck!

Magician

08:29

I wonder if there's a way to get the archive of all the stunts from the chat, as they follow a common format.

Every now and then I want to make a bot to post a stunt to twitter every day, there's got to be a year's worth of material here already.

BESW

Hee.

trogdor

08:55

Lol

I don't know if the chat has anything like that though

Maybe one of the people who messes with that stuff could manage it?

BESW

09:30

@Magician Re: Backup Campaigns, we now have backup campaigns for our backup backup campaigns.

I think we've got second-string auxiliary understudy backup campaigns.

Magician

Heh

Yeah, you don't so much have a gaming group, as a gaming anarchist collective.

3

trogdor

09:45

@BESW not sure we have quite that many

BESW

10:32

CHEETAH & BUFFALO have a brief throwdown CHEETAH: I trust people who talk less, less. BUFFALO: You've never been on a clandestine mission. CHEETAH: Yes, I have! I was the distraction! GM: This explains a lot...

Tweeted by UrsulaV on March 6, 2018 at 2:41 AM in reply to UrsulaV

doppelgreener

Durarara!! Episode 3 - Shizuo Heiwajima vs Izaya Orihara & The 'Dollars'

►

BESW

11:52

“As a paladin I find bureaucracy fun, but I don’t really understand what it is.” -@lasrina corgi paladin #dnd #ironclaw

Tweeted by RebelsHeart on March 6, 2018 at 1:27 AM

*extremely not a raccoon voice* I are jugs for foods, place excess snacks inside for safety

Tweeted by CrunkDriver on March 4, 2018 at 3:22 AM

doppelgreener

@BESW hahaha

BESW

@doppelgreener Oh, man, I've just read Vernon's "Clocktaur War" duology, and it's the most amazing satire/love-letter to D&D-esque adventuring, and in particular it's all about The Problem With Paladins.

doppelgreener

Oh lovely

eimyr

@BESW What is The Problem With Paladins?

BESW

From the Afterward in Clockwork Boys:

> The love interest [in NWN2] if you played as a female character was a self-loathing paladin who was guilt-wracked over…something or other, I don’t know. He moped a lot. He had no evident sense of humor. This was supposed to be attractive.
This is an ongoing problem with just about every paladin ever. Everybody seems to want to write them like crapsack Jedi—endlessly teetering on the brink of damnation, one bad thought ready to turn them over to the dark side, all of them as moody and self-absorbed as teenage boys.

> In a burning rage about how paladins were being written wrong, I hammered out forty or fifty thousand words that would later form the bones of Clockwork Boys.
[...] I suppose thanks must also go to the writers of fantasy paladins, lo these many years, without whom there would be no tradition to enrage me and force me to tackle the issue myself. Inspiration knocks now and again, but spite bangs on the door all year long.

eimyr

12:02

So far I'm failing to see how that constitutes a Big P "Problem"

doppelgreener

Does Clockwork Boys feature satirical dark and brooding paladins?

BESW

@eimyr The only interesting thing you can do with a D&D-inspired paladin, basically, is have him Fall From Grace. They're too rigid and boxed in for much character growth otherwise.

@doppelgreener [rummages for quote]

eimyr

@BESW Precisely. And?

BESW

> Demons tried to tempt you. It was their nature. If you desired power or knowledge or any one of a hundred complex desires, the demons had a foothold to work on you. So the ranks of the Knight-Champions were swelled by those who wanted nothing more than to be useful, to be appreciated, to kill demons, to have hot water and decent food and a warm bed at the end of the day.

doppelgreener

@eimyr I think you're pressing this for more than is there? Relax

eimyr

12:06

It's like with Superman - the only interesting thing you can do about him is to refer to how his unlimited superpower is a) taken away b) affecting him negatively. That's not really a Problem with Superman, more like just how it is.

BESW

@eimyr And I'm not really in the mood to try to explain it, so have Ursula's Rant in Two Parts: one; two.

eimyr

@doppelgreener Sorry.

@BESW Sorry. Thanks for the link, I'd be very interested to read it.

BESW

At its core:

I really think it stems from failure to respect what religion is good for.

Tweeted by UrsulaV on October 12, 2017 at 7:20 PM in reply to UrsulaV

eimyr

OH.

I didn't even think of how it portrays religion.

trogdor

yeah I don't understand why most people don't like having paladins that don't have huge gaping character flaws

it's like anything else,.... if every character in every movie or book was like that we would get real sick of it wouldn't we?

BESW

12:10

Like, straight up, it's a completely broken system if your religion has a whole class of people given major responsibilities in moments of crisis, who are damned the moment they make a mistake.

trogdor

also that

BESW

Jedi are worse because they just have to get mad or jealous or sad at the wrong time.

Religions tend to be centered on some forgiveness mechanism for a very very good reason.

trogdor

well also, if you theorize enough about it Jedi are all about taking away coping mechanisms

BESW

The whole paladin... thing... utterly fails to understand that.

So Clocktaur Wars has a paladin who committed a (very understandable, everyday) sin, which let a demon get its teeth in him and use his body to do some very horrible things. The demon refused to leave, so they killed it and its metaphysical corpse is rotting in his mind.

And his order kicked him out, his god won't talk to him anymore, and he's been in prison for four months when the novel starts with him getting an offer from the main character to join her suicide mission--if they survive, he gets a pardon!

He's got some good reasons to brood, but more importantly his story arc is largely about not having been given any support for coping with what happened to him, and how that's messed him up even more than having a demon corpse in his brain, and what it takes for him to receive and accept help now.

kviiri

For being a very major theme in several dominant world religions, redemption from evil sure doesn't seem very appealing in fiction in general.

BESW

12:19

@kviiri I absolutely cherish my fiction which deals with those concepts.

trogdor

well even in some of those religions, say Christianity, sometimes it has been popular to preach fire and brimstone

kviiri

When a bad guy turns good, most of the time they might as well draw a crosshair over them because it's obvious they're going to have to die.

trogdor

not saying it is actually representative,... but that the habit of spicing it up exists in real world example too

BESW

Yeah, but the sects where fire and brimstone is inevitable and without recourse... don't tend to get a lot of traction.

trogdor

@BESW wasn't saying they did, just that this is,..... a thing even outside of fiction

kviiri

12:21

@BESW Me too, but it tends to go so that a bad guy can only be redeemed by dying. I get that it's easier to write, though.

eimyr

Somehow I never imagined fantasy Paladins as dealing with any of the real-world issues of faith and religion.

kviiri

No need to write that complex phase where they've turned but still have to deal with their past or anything...

BESW

I just read Binti, too, which is about a teenager who stops an interstellar war by basically saying "Wait, wait. You're being silly, let's talk."

trogdor

some people like to make a thing out of not having forgiveness available

BESW

(Interestingly, she's in the position to be able to say that and have people listen because she's an outsider with some particular cultural practices.)

eimyr

12:22

To me they were always a force-of-nature archetype like treants or dungeons filled with treasure.

doppelgreener

@BESW that's exactly the kind of thing a youngster would do. 👍

BESW

@doppelgreener I can't wait to read Home, the sequel in which Binti comes back and says "Mom, Dad, this is my new friend the tentacle alien whose entire species has been killing our neighbours for decades."

doppelgreener

Awww XD

BESW

"...also, sorry I ran away from home."

(The first book starts with Binti sneaking away to be the first person in her tribe to go to a prestigious interstellar university.)

Joel Harmon

@BESW Are you referring to the character or the author here?

BESW

12:30

@JoelHarmon The character.

Joel Harmon

@eimyr To be fair, they literally believe hard enough that it's magic. (as opposed to clerics, who are granted power)

kviiri

I managed to write a short story yesterday. It touches on the guilt/shame/penance thing. The protagonist is feeling guilty that they never worked towards really knowing their grandparents before they died.

Eventually they decide that it's nothing to really feel guilty about, but also that "a little penance never hurt anyone", so they start visiting the elderly to hear the life stories no one's ever asked them before.

BESW

@JoelHarmon Binti is Himba, and her otjize --which sets her apart as an object of disdain by other humans-- is instrumental in her ability to get the aliens to take her seriously.

(Also her heightened ability to find harmony in mathematical concepts.)

I'm on such a binge of Okorofor's work. Akata Witch has a kind of Nigerian Harry Potter thing going on--but the secret magical society the main character discovers she's supposed to belong to, runs on knowledge. For Leopard People, magic money literally rains from the sky when you learn something new.

trogdor

lol

BESW

And the worldbuilding in Zahrah the Windseeker has elements of solarpunk as well as Afrofuturism.

trogdor

12:35

don't I wish that happened for me

BESW

@trogdor Yes, well. It's also a much more dangerous society. People get excited about child endangerment at Hogwarts, hah.

trogdor

lol

BESW

And her short story "Hello, Moto" is... well, people complain that it stops too abruptly but I think its ending is just perfect. And a short film inspired by it is premiering this May.

goodguy5

morning nerds

BESW

[wave]

doppelgreener

13:05

> Otjize is also used for hygienic purposes due to water scarcity. Over time, otjize flakes off, removing dirt and dead skin. Wood ash is used to wash the hair.

That's a hygiene approach I'd never heard of before. That's quite good!!

BESW

In Zahrah, the Gorilla People (who are literal gorillas who live in the Greeny Jungle, practice acupuncture, and shun technology) bath in warm fragrant tree oil.

doppelgreener

Sounds lovely.

BESW

Zahrah certainly thought so. But she may have been biased, since her oil bath came after three weeks of trekking through the Greeny Jungle with only one set of clothing.

doppelgreener

I've been told about the Japanese Macaques who bathe in hot springs on the side of Mt Fuji, but more recently learned that their family units are territorial over hot springs. They're not just a random assembly of monkeys chilling out, they're a group that has claimed this specific hot spring as theirs and who are ready to defend it from other Macaques.

This means people don't try to bathe in those specific pools. If it's a monkey's pool you leave it alone.

BESW

(And her people are massively fashion-conscious, to the point of obsession, so even going half an hour without fixing your hair and making sure it's still in style is kinda stressful.)

doppelgreener

13:10

@BESW wow XD

BESW

@doppelgreener Their architecture and decorating practices involve a LOT of mirrors.

doppelgreener

@BESW I'm imagining that's their equivalent of our "why not put a clock on it?". Have space, can put something there... let's put a mirror.

BESW

Zahrah is particularly self-conscious about appearances because she was born with dadalocks, which are like dreadlocks but with vines growing inside each strand. People with dadalocks are said to bring bad luck.

> We all carry mirrors in our pockets, and we take them out every so often to inspect our reflection and make sure we look good. On top of that, our clothes click with tiny style mirrors embedded into the collars and hems. They're really lovely. I have a dress with style mirrors sewn all over it. Sometimes when I'm alone I like to put it on and dance in the sunlight. The reflections from the little mirrors look like white insects dancing along with me.
My people love to use mirrors everywhere, actually. If you go to the downtown area of the great city of Ile-Ife, you'll understand what I'm …

eimyr

@doppelgreener "why not put X on it" as an expression of cultural values. I'm wondering how fictional races might see our obsession with clocks and what they would put in their place instead.

BESW

@eimyr The study of how clocks fundamentally changed the way people interact with time is... fascinating.

You can see hints of what it must have been like before clocks, in native cultures that are infamous for being "late" and get disparaging labels like "Indian time" or "Chamoru time."

Kent Nerburn talks about it a bit in *Neither Wolf nor Dog," where it's explained as a sense that for certain tasks or events the time they should happen is rooted in context and will happen organically when the right things align. In Chamoru culture, it's often more about understanding priorities and patterns of obligation that Western visitors don't value or even notice.

KorvinStarmast

13:27

@Ben Sure thing, Ben, that was an interesting little scrap. I'd recommend that if you want the true D1 flavor, use sword and board fighter, actual rogue, and take a risk with the sorcerer; Divine Soul would do the trick. Just an idea. The set up was pretty good

The party should be able to move faster than the zombies, so the Rogue Kiting becomes a valid approach. With actual zombie, the + to hit from proficiency bonus makes a difference in a melee ...

doppelgreener

@KorvinStarmast I read that as Rogue Kitten instead for a moment

KorvinStarmast

@doppelgreener She's a dangerous little cat, our Diablo 1 rogue ...

goodguy5

that new damage question

level one is neat because paladins don't get smite yet

eimyr

@BESW An interesting way of measuring time was common in medieval Europe where day had 12 hours measured from dawn to dusk. With seasons changing it meant that "6 hours of work" could be anything between 4 and 8 hours and sometimes it was deliberately addressed ("winter pay" for stonemasons) and sometimes it deliberately weren't (exact same labour demands per week from villeins unable to pay it in coin).

In English we see the above in the expression "o'clock", which was used to distinguish between "hours of the clock" and "hours of the day" or "hours of the sun"

kviiri

13:43

Cool

I know in some places, the day is still considered to begin at dawn rather than at midnight. Makes a lot more sense in way, especially near the Equator where the dawn corresponds quite neatly with the formal 24-hour clock.

doppelgreener

14:03

@kviiri like 00:00 is at daybreak?

for me there's a "clock" day and a "there is sun out there" day (also known as daytime)

honestly, starting the day at daybreak makes a lot of sense

eimyr

new day vs date change for me

doppelgreener

the new day starting at midnight is mostly something we have only because of measurement systems

eimyr

"tomorrow" is after I wake up

doppelgreener

"tomorrow", "the next calendar day" and "the next day" can easily wind up between themselves referring to 2 or 3 different time periods :)

KorvinStarmast

@eimyr But if you work the graveyard shift all that goes out the window. :)

eimyr

14:07

@KorvinStarmast I did for a while and it still worked - it's just that tomorrow started at 6 p.m.

kviiri

@doppelgreener Yep

At least in unofficial contexts

goodguy5

14:43

@KorvinStarmast I hate formatting answers lol

KorvinStarmast

15:01

@goodguy5 Yeah, it adds time.

goodguy5

I really wanted the answer to use sneak attack...

The best I could do was Variant Human, Battlemaster feat (wrong name).
1d6+1d8+1d6 (sneakattack) + 3
And 1d6+1d8

14.5 + 8 = 22.5 aint nothin, but not as good as the giant sword attack

And I also considered inflict wounds

I also feel like a half-orc barbarian is an honorable mention

up to 3d12+5 is cool

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener and that is just the easy stuff. My friends and I have vigorous discussion about what "next week" "this weekend" "this week" mean exactly to the surprise of all sides who thought their way was unambiguous and clear lol.

nitsua60

^^

Rubiksmoose

though it has a lot to do with the shifting meaning of "this" and "next"

@goodguy5 I like formatting because, to me, the formatting of an answer is closely tied in with the logical structure of it. So in the end the structure and format get done in tandem.

goodguy5

15:20

@Rubiksmoose Oh, I like formatted answers..... I just don't be the one to do it.

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 I like the feeling of tidying up I guess when it concerns other people's answers. Which is weird because my desk is a whirlwind of chaos at all times.

goodguy5

@Rubiksmoose There. you inspired me rpg.stackexchange.com/a/116803/34716

KorvinStarmast

15:54

@doppelgreener Is there a "stop edit wars" counter in answers on SE?

I am unable to further edit an answer that needs some tweaking. I keep getting an error message. I have switched browswers and even rebooted the PC. :p

@goodguy5 You can't be a battlemaster until level 3.

Are you referring to Martial Adept?

Transcript for