TRPG General Chat

NautArch

00:24

@nitsua60 that would have been an awesome reference to break the tension.

nitsua60

@NautArch You know, everyone keys on the "up to eleven" part of that scene. (Which, as it applies to spell levels, was what made me think of their excellencies.) But I feel like the "sustain" joke and that one ^^ are the real meat of it.

TIL: Christopher Guest is a titled Baron in the English peerage. Wonder if Baron Guest or Count Rugen ranks higher?

goodguy5

01:07

@BESW yes. which is why I don't pass it around much

NautArch

01:42

@nitsua60 TIL: According to peerage, Count is the non-english equivalent of Earl which is higher than a Baron and only separated by the Marquess before reaching the highest rank of Nobility, the Duke.

kviiri

08:27

I've been reading Edward Rutherfurd's Paris for a couple of nights an man, he really seems to like architecture.

I'm scarcely a few dozen pages in and there's already been descriptions of the constructions of the Sacré-Coeur, the Saint-Chapelle and the Statue of Liberty.

And the Paris Opera house.

BESW

One of the things I like about Aaronovitch's "Peter Grant" series is that he communicates atmosphere via architecture very nicely for parts of London that usually don't get that treatment, like block housing.

kviiri

Oh yeah, there was also a discussion of the Medieval gabled housing being replaced by more modern boulevards and fancier housing by Baron Haussmann (I have to look him up, never heard of him before).

@BESW I have a strange fascination, myself, in the betweens. I always love it when an author pays attention to eg. the thresholds, the entryways, the gatehouses.

BESW

Aaronovitch tends to focus on how architecture becomes a negotiation between the land and its inhabitants.

A recurring motif in the Peter Grant novels is how London has completely subsumed many small rivers, which continue to flow beneath the city, unnoticed but not un-influential.

(The first novel is called Rivers of London, and many secondary characters are the physical representations --not quite avatars or incarnations or representatives, not quite not any of those either-- of those rivers.)

SmokeDetector

08:50

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Manually reported answer: Can you earn XP for defeating a creature, then raise as undead & destroy it for more XP? by Coleman Arnold on rpg.SE

kviiri

@BESW Cool!

@BESW A politician in Finland was mostly known by his initials, because they stood for words meaning "Certain Revenge". He was a son of a radical communist, but wound up being a rather moderate left-centrist himself.

Hm, now I got stuck reading about those underground rivers. Cool stuff, I say. Also a tad frightening.

Some part of my intuition says there ought to be always room for a river in a proper city.

hohenheim

10:05

The question I just asked was answered with a quote from a homebrew race on dndbeyond. I replied with a comment that I don’t think a homebrew race would be evidence in this regard. Then the answer was deleted. Is there a way I can ask the person who answered why he/she deleted it?

kviiri

Not really, except maybe pinging them in chat.

Seems likely that they agreed with your assessment, in which case their answer'd be not an answer.

BESW

hohenheim

@BESW Thanks. I didn't see this comment before it the answer was deleted.

BESW

They explained in a comment, but comments on deleted answers are only visible to people who can see deleted answers (in this case, I can see it because I have at least 10,000 reputation).

hohenheim

Thanks mate. I was afraid my comment was too harsh and that's why the answer was deleted. So I wanted to contact them. But it seems to be okay.

BESW

10:20

Thanks for checking in!

Also, pinging them in chat wouldn't work because they haven't been in chat recently enough for a ping to actually contact them.

If a person's name won't auto-complete when you start typing it with @ in the front, it won't contact them. (Elected moderators can "powerping," but us ordinaries don't.)

hohenheim

I didn't know that. You help is appreciated.

BESW

My pleasure. Chat's kinda wonky with a lot of fiddly bits, I'm still learning some of its weird edge cases.

hohenheim

I'm new to d&d, new to stackexchange and new to this chat. So I don't have the slightest idea how any of this works ^^.

kviiri

Glad to see you've found your way here :)

hohenheim

Well, I have to go SOMEWHERE to get reliable answers to all my rpg-related questions ^^.

kviiri

10:49

Heh, the 7th Sea basic rules and the handbook have a warning before the Hexenwerk rules because said rules feature a few rather disgusting bits. Having read them, yeah, I can sort of see why.

Death is an important part of Hexenwerk and parts of cadavers feature quite prominently as ingredients.

goodguy5

11:41

morning nerds

kviiri

Hi

goodguy5

12:00

ugh, there's an answer I like, but it's in desperate need of formatting... And I don't feel like doing it lol.

goodguy5

12:22

Guys guys.... guys.

Beast Master Ranger.... with a swarm as their companion. 1/4CR beast. WHAT!?

kviiri

I don't follow?

goodguy5

what's not to follow?

kviiri

Like, are you asking whether that's legal or...?

Or whether it's balanced?

(after a quick check of the Beastmaster rules, I'd say it's neither)

goodguy5

What!? How could you argue it's not legal?

Or balanced, for that matter

But I was just commenting on how cool it is.

kviiri

12:38

@goodguy5 "Choose a beast that is no larger than Medium". A beast.

Swarms aren't a beast, they're... well, swarms of them.

As for balance, the swarms have the very strong baseline resistance against all bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage that, as far as I can remember, no singular beast of a similar CR has. On the other hand, they can't recover hit points, so the survivability of such a companion (or set of such) would be rather abysmal.

goodguy5

"a beast" meaning "a creature with the beast type"

kviiri

@goodguy5 Which swarms aren't. They're "medium swarms of Tiny beasts".

goodguy5

that's like arguing that "people aren't humanoids, they're medium swarms of microscopic beasts"

(in D&D language)

kviiri

Lore-wise, Monster Manual points out that swarms aren't just random assemblies of critters but co-ordinated by some "sinister or unwholesome influence", which also makes little sense when paired with a Ranger.

@goodguy5 No it isn't. "A beast" is not the same as "any amount of beasts".

Or the same as a "swarm of beasts".

goodguy5

you're right, it's not. But it has an entry in the creatures section.

under "beast"

Regardless, I'm more talking about how cool it would be. You could have Willard... or Batman Or Queen Maeve.

kviiri

12:45

Or Skitter.

goodguy5

spiders, I assume?

kviiri

But yeah I'd advice against it from a balance POV.

goodguy5

I really don't think it'd be that imba

kviiri

@goodguy5 Insects, spiders and some crustaceans too iirc (from the web serial Worm).

goodguy5

And, this goes back to a previous discussion as to whether or not Beast Master is balanced or not

kviiri

12:47

Yeah, I don't really know much about that. I've always assumed they aren't really that strong on the paper.

Of course it depends a bit on what one considers the true measure of "strength" - non-combat purposes can be tricky to measure because they vary wildly by GM and campaign.

goodguy5

Combat Strength is the main thing. i.e. - the ability to resolve combat, by any means.

Almost any non-combat situation (barring lock picking) can be solved by almost any class.

yea, a tiny scout is cool

kviiri

Well, there's things like access to a means of flight

goodguy5

but what does that really give you?

"bird. go up there. look at things. squawk at me until I understand vaguely what you saw

kviiri

Bypasses, mostly

Shalvenay

@goodguy5 besides, most doors have plenty of other vulns to exploit besides the lock

kviiri

12:52

Fly over the encounters straight to the final boss. Assuming an overwordly campaign.

@Shalvenay Violence is the other lock picking skill.

goodguy5

@kviiri but that doesn't help because everyone is still stuck on the land except the companion

kviiri

Chop the door down!

@goodguy5 Oh, I was talking in more general terms, not just about animal companion

I don't think any 1/4 CR animal could carry even a gnome skywards.

Shalvenay

@kviiri not even that -- give the door the ol' reacharound ;)

goodguy5

@kviiri oh, gotcha. Yea. I was at talking about the Ranger. Flight doesn't help an animal companion much/any

Shalvenay

or stick a screwjack in and spread the frame for that matter

kviiri

12:56

It's actually quite a major design challenge in DnD-like games, how rogues, fighters and such are supposed to keep their distinctive abilities useful against cosmos-altering wizardry powers.

NautArch

@goodguy5 Section and creature type may be (and clearly kind of are) different things

goodguy5

@kviiri the thing is that rogues/fighters etc can "do it all day"

kviiri

@goodguy5 That's a potential, but risky solution. Spell slots (etc) are, alas, also among those resources that are way cheaper in some tables than the others :<

I felt sooooo overpowered playing a bard in a 5e campaign where we basically had a long rest between every two encounters. I could just fire spells without any real consideration.

I think a better solution would be adjusting the power caps and the expectation that a level 1 rogue is a mundane thief and that a level 20 rogue is just a very good mundane thief.

NautArch

@kviiri I hear ya. 5e really requires the DM to make sure resource management is a thing, or the battles have to be enormous and deadly.

kviiri

Yeah

Some houseruling or proper discipline from the players is also needed if there's a safe place to just have a long rest in (to avoid the "five minute adventuring day" phenomenon)

NautArch

13:08

@kviiri Yeah, i always try and play 'reasonable' as much as I can. Oftentimes the DM overrules and let's it happen -which makes me feel both happy and sad.

goodguy5

Yea. The game is really built around 3-ish short rests (I think 2.5) per day. More or less really throws off the balance of magical classes vs martial classes

NautArch

The bard firepower with refreshes on long rest and the abilities that refresh on short rests (inspiration dice), makes them quite formidable. I can lock down enemies with concentration spells andjust unleash fireballs and other non-con spells. COmbined with my warlock 2 dip for EB+CHA damage, and my toolset for resources and non-resources is big.

@goodguy5 It's also hard if you've got short rest dependent classes in your group.

goodguy5

@NautArch A Fighter, a warlock, a cleric, and a paladin go on an adventure. How many rests do they take?!

kviiri

Bards are pretty awesome. Not really my thing though, because I get really locked whenever I have to pick utility spells.

NautArch

@kviiri Heh. It helps that our campaigns (until our new one...may it start soon) have always been 95% combat. The general utility spells just aren't necessary.

kviiri

13:13

@NautArch Yea, I hope our campaigns were like that (in DnD, at least) :D

I can only wish

NautArch

@kviiri Pure combat?

I'm actually looking forward to our new campaign/DM. If it ever starts

kviiri

Of course, our GM being a cool fellow, would probably toss in opportunities for me to use any utilities I picked, but I hate the idea of picking utilities just so the GM could invent uses for them.

@NautArch We have a rather peculiar blend of non-combat and combat, where non-combat usually feels a bit pointless afterward. This campaign's a bit different, because we're playing Curse of Strahd. The worldbuilding is quite cool.

However, it's still a bit pointless. We spent one whole session shopping and then asking the same things from a variety of NPCs and got the almost the same responses every time.

NautArch

@kviiri Our non-combat are traditionally (with the current DM) out of character puzzles.

New DM is saying he wants to incorporate more roleplaying and non-combat opportunities in his campaign.

So building my wizard to be able to do both.

kviiri

CoS has this off-putting thing where it has a ton of named NPCs.

@NautArch Sounds cool. This isn't the critical fail GM I presume? :)

(not that the GM is a critical fail, but the one with the critical fail houserule...)

NautArch

Heh. We do our own world building. Only thing I know is we're starting off destitute and working for little to no wages with no equipment.

kviiri

13:20

You're doing it as a group? That's cool.

NautArch

@kviiri This will be the campaign after the critical fail GM. The critical fails will continue, but the GM is significantly better.

kviiri

We're going to be playing 7th Sea sometime in the future. I've made the reservation that I want to have enough time to learn the system, and also that everyone should read the Basic Rules material. 7th Sea has a rich setting I intend to use in the campaign and it'd suck if people came into the first session clueless about it.

NautArch

@kviiri not familiar with it. I still want to try out 13th age (but recent discussions have made wondering if we should try 4e instead)

kviiri

I hope that opens up some eyes in the party, because I really want to present the guys with new ideas on how roleplaying can work. Our usual DnD roleplaying is usually just repeating quirks when not in combat.

NautArch

@kviiri Yeah, our RP is really just us being us with unless someone has a 'quirk' which usually means being a jerk (panache ability on other PCs, stealing, etc.)

kviiri

13:27

I'm slightly worried about this 7th Sea thing for that reason, because we have one player who's extremely observant of the game and has a good memory for detail, but who also likes doing all kinds of minor foolery instead of being a hero.

NautArch

It's kind of annoying that unless we metagame while Roleplaying, we don't really get anything out of it. But that's the current DM and their issues, I think. And when we do Roleplay as our characters, there's hardly ever inspiration given.

@kviiri It's very My Guy syndrome.

kviiri

Fishing, baking, petty theft, stuff like that. And he's also a bit of a derailer.

NautArch

I don't necessarily think they're trying to be negative, I think it's more of a lack of imagination.

kviiri

@NautArch My approach of choice is to try to mate strong out-of-character choices with in-character motivations, sort of how Fate rewards making bad choices with Fate points.

Or not necessarily bad choices, just making one's character's life a bit harder. :)

SPavel

Good morning, ladies and gentlefarts

kviiri

13:30

Or houseruling penalties for lingering in hostile territory

@SPavel The sweet breeze of a Springtime fart.

NautArch

@kviiri That's a great way of thinking about it. Don't punish the player for making a bad, but in-character, decision.

goodguy5

@SPavel My farts are anything but gentle.

SPavel

Thanks to Jesus, I get a day off today

Which means I will be hanging out in the chat instead of being at work, unlike normal, where I hang out in the chat instead of doing work

doppelgreener

jesus died for our long weekend

kviiri

My girlfriend forbade me from eating a traditional Eastertide treat because it apparently affects the habitability of our apartment's microclimate... but she's not home for the weekend.

goodguy5

13:33

@SPavel Good, then you can weigh in on how balanced beastmaster rangers are in 5e, and whether or not they should be allowed to have swarms as companions

SPavel

>Finnish dessert: disgusting black sludge

Shalvenay

@goodguy5 PHB or revised beastmaster?

goodguy5

@Shalvenay phb

Shalvenay

@SPavel maybe it's a live black pudding?

kviiri

@SPavel It's actually dark brown!

SPavel

13:34

@goodguy5 I don't play 5e, my natural instinct is "the class is fine, you just suck"

doppelgreener

@SPavel it has been observed for many years that stack exchange chat activity correlates strongly with weekdays during work hours :)

Shalvenay

@goodguy5 PHB version is fairly underpowered due to action economy issues

kviiri

Yummy yummy yummy I have love in my tummy.

goodguy5

@Shalvenay I'm really less sure of that than I was, after actually taking the time to look it over.

kviiri

@SPavel That's usually a reasonable start, but it should be noted that the Ranger was revised fairly soon after release because it was felt to be underpowered and unfun.

So there's some truth to it. This time around.

SPavel

13:36

Hm, my tea is not brewing...

Being at home is overrated

kviiri

Sure is, amigo :<

NautArch

@kviiri Interesting, now I have to go see if there's a Jewish equivalent to this, as it seems like a dessert version of cholent (made so that there is no active cooking on the Sabbath.)

SPavel

Then again, the good tea at work is always taken

goodguy5

@kviiri it was revised due to community outrage, not their own balance feelings.

NautArch

@SPavel I am not ashamed to say of all the fancy teas i've tried, I still go back to Lipton yellow label for my morning tea.

SPavel

13:38

Q: Is one permitted to ride in an airplane on the Sabbath?
A: Yes, as long as your seat belt remains fastened. In this case, it is considered that you are not riding, you are wearing the plane.

goodguy5

@NautArch like some sort of peasant

SPavel

@NautArch I would reconsider. Lipton uses pesticides and other low-quality hacks that degrade the quality of the tea.

And the quality of your internal organs.

kviiri

I wish my players were more active with their ideas for the 7th Sea campaign. I have a basic starting point for the plot set but open for comments and I'd really like to know what kind of stuff they'd like to do in this world.

SPavel

If you want acceptable store-bought/teabag tea, Twinings, Bigelow, Taylor's are all good

NautArch

@SPavel Hmm. I also like red rose, and that's apparently safe

kviiri

13:40

@NautArch I'm not sure why mämmi even is a dessert. It's like sour bread but in pudding form. Not that I don't like it, it's just that it'd be as believable as a normal side :)

NautArch

and if i can't trust this random internet page i found, who can i trust?

SPavel

@NautArch Huh, surprised to see Twinings at #1

NautArch

@SPavel The more you know!

SPavel

Not surprised that Chinese tea is the pesticidiest

Taiwan tea numbah one

kviiri

@NautArch And that's one of the things I really love and respect in the Jewish culture: how the necessities of religious law are met with clever planning and design.

NautArch

13:43

darnit, maybe i'll bring the giant multisleeve box of yellow label into work and i'll buy some red rose for home :)

SPavel

@kviiri A prominent rabbi recently announced that cloned pork is not considered meat, so you can eat it despite the laws

kviiri

@SPavel I noticed that too, interesting stuff!

SPavel

In the same week, the Pope announced that there is no Hell

So...the times, they are a'changing

goodguy5

@SPavel wait, meat from cloned pigs, or lab-grown "pork"?

SPavel

@goodguy5 I think the latter

kviiri

13:46

@goodguy5 The latter, lab-grown meat that never was a part of a whole animal.

goodguy5

oh okay. that makes sense.

I was worried that they meant cloned pigs not being "pigs"

Because that opens a WHOLE slew of ethical questions.

SPavel

"Because that opens a WHOLE slew of ethical questions." For the Jewish faith, having more things to argue about is a feature, not a bug.

goodguy5

that's funny. you're a funny man

kviiri

@SPavel When I was a child, a priest lived next door. A real kind fellow, liked by pretty much everyone as far as I knew. Even authored some books about mercy and tolerance. Later on I learned he has been almost suspended from ministry because of some controversy in the 1990's.

The controversy was sparked by his statement that "everyone goes to Heaven, for Hell doesn't exist".

goodguy5

But I mean more like "if cloned pigs aren't real pigs, then are en-vitro pigs real pigs?"
"If envitro pigs aren't real pigs, are envitro humans real humans?"

kviiri

13:49

He wasn't suspended.

@goodguy5 I thought about the same, yep

SPavel

@kviiri My mother's pastor was excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church for embezzling donations, and tried to get the congregation on his side by lying about it. She ran the church website, so she was able to divert most of the community to a new church, and got a commendation from the Patriarch

kviiri

Okay, I guess from a certain point of view it's a very radical statement to deny Hell. You might be perceived as luring people in there or something. But to me, it always felt like they were trying to punish him for being too kind on his fellow humans.

@SPavel Hah! Nice job!

SPavel

@kviiri Isn't that the Jewish view? The faithful go to Heaven, the unfaithful go to budget Heaven that's just not as nice.

goodguy5

I'm so excited to use the term "budget heaven"

SPavel

Meanwhile, the Pope's announcement was that the unfaithful simply vanish into nothing

kviiri

13:53

@SPavel Even though I try to maintain a fair degree of knowledge of various faiths and customs, I don't really know. I think the concept of an afterlife is less pronounced and more personal in the Jewish faith than it's in the other Abrahamic religions, but that's about it.

SPavel

Could be because Judaism started out as a polytheistic faith way back in the before times, and slowly morphed to favoring one deity over others, and then only the one deity

And then Saul of Tarsus ruined it for everybody

kviiri

The church in 7th Sea is an interesting subversion of what I'd expect of an Early Modern era game

SPavel

@kviiri The Greeks had the most fun with their church, stick to that IMO

Want calm seas for your journey? Tithe to the goddess of the sea, even if she's not the personal patron of any PC. As opposed to D&D, where other churches exist to be raided for their loot.

kviiri

Basically the core tenet of the Vaticine church is science, figuring out how the world works. But since the last Hierophant (= Totally Not Pope) was murdered, the Inquisition that answered only to him has been getting more and more extreme without anyone to check it.

SPavel

Is minting a new Pope not baked into the doctrine?

Is it a Dalai Lama thing where he has to grow up first?

kviiri

14:05

They should do it, but there's apparently been a lot of trouble doing it. The book doesn't go into great depth explaining it, but apparently the Cardinals elect the new Hierophant from among themselves. It seems likely that the Inquisition is prolonging this election on purpose, as with a new Hierophant they'd again have someone they needed to obey.

SPavel

Ah neat, always good to have a little Borgia drama

As a vaguely related thing (religious heads > Dalai Lama > reincarnation > Avatar)

Which of the four tribes would win a Chopped style cooking contest?

You'd think that a Firebender would be a master of the grill, but let me remind you that steak is full of iron, making it a perfect medium for a skilled Metalbender

kviiri

Dunno, I only have a very vague idea about what happens in Avatar.

SPavel

The gist of it is that in not-Asia, there are four types of dudes that each control one of the classic elements, except they get very liberal with what is involved in each one (Earthbenders can control metal or lava, Waterbenders can manipulate ice as well as any liquid, Firebenders shoot lightning for some reason)

Airbenders do this:

You should watch it, it's a great show

kviiri

I guess the Airbender could compress air to increase its temperature to achieve a unique cook?

SPavel

You know, they never explore that part of it

Firebenders seem to have a monopoly on raising temperature, waterbenders on lowering it

You'd think a waterbender could turn water to scalding steam, but they only do water to ice and back

Or they could mix an ice cream and then freeze it in moments, which is a solid move because the Chopped ice cream machine is notoriously unreliable

kviiri

14:12

Ok, I haven't even seen the show, but theory: it's all in the mind. The reason those limitations are wonky is that they've simply been taught they can do this and this and this, so that's what they do. They never turn water into steam because they never tried.

SPavel

Well, they do invent metalbending during the course of the show, so it's entirely possible that "never tried" is the only limit

Also most of the airbenders got dead, so there are not a lot of masters willing and able to experiment with new techniques

kviiri

Probably, tracing the lineages of the clans back, we'll arrive at the four headmasters of Hogwarts who can bend everything each but agree to teach their offspring just one element just for kicks to see where it goes. And then it sort of gets Chinese whispered all the way to present day.

SPavel

The origin story is that giant spirit turtles granted humans the different bending powers

Only the Avatar can have all four because he has a special spirit bonded to his soul

goodguy5

does anyone else ever get the thing in this chat where the whole chat wobbles up and down?

SPavel

No

Frezak

14:20

Only when I nod my head vigorously.

Rubiksmoose

@SPavel confirmed it is a great show

SPavel

goodguy5

@Frezak I mean, that's kind of what it looks like. maybe once an hour when someone posts, wiggle wiggle

Mike Q

@kviiri Airbenders can manipulate air. An evil airbender can create a vacuum around someone's head and suffocates them.

SPavel

If airbenders weren't vegans, they could be great at hunting birds, and do cuisine based on that

As-is...juice bar?

Mike Q

14:24

@kviiri You should drop whatever you're doing and go watch all of The Last Airbender tv show

goodguy5

can earth-benders move sand?
i.e.- can they make sandblasters?

SPavel

Also the first half of Season 1 of Korra, then Season 3, then Season 4

Mike Q

@goodguy5 Yes, there are sandbenders, who are a subset of earthbenders

SPavel

@goodguy5 There are tribes of sand-benders that can, but it's not a skill that is typically learned outside of deserts and even master earthbenders have trouble with it otherwise.

Mike Q

@SPavel I mean... s2 wasn't that bad. And the spirit stuff becomes relevant later on.

goodguy5

14:25

interesting.

SPavel

@MikeQ S2 was so bad that even the clip show episode skipped it

goodguy5

how about mudbenders that turn themselves into giant mud-mechs?

kviiri

@MikeQ Ok ok maybe!

Mike Q

@SPavel Whoa, spoilers much?

goodguy5

:43713742 are those water or earth?

SPavel

14:27

Doop dee doo

Mike Q

YOU SAW NOTHING. THERE WERE NO SPOILERS HERE. FAKE NEWS.

SPavel

Also in S4 of Korra they do build a giant robot for some reason

Korra was weird

Mike Q

Korra was indeed a much more... experimental show

goodguy5

earth benders

Mike Q

Tournament arcs, random sideplots about the film industry, kaiju fights, lots of mechas... TLA was much more consistent about its world's lore

SPavel

14:28

Mud is considered to be both earth and water

goodguy5

lava bender

can we get benders for all of the elemental planes? (and subplanes)

oh! and what about light and dark benders?!

SPavel

Lava is a special Earthbender skill that requires Fire influence

Although I guess the Fire Lord does it the one time

But the 2 people actually called lava benders are both Earth

Shalvenay

hey there @MikeQ

Mike Q

@goodguy5 No, but there is vague "spirit magic" that gets introduced in Korra... even though it doesn't really fit into the existing structure... grumble grumble

SPavel

@MikeQ Spirit was AtlA

It's what the Guru whatever does, and the turtles

Mike Q

14:31

@Shalvenay Ahoy! Avast! How ye be doing, ye land-lubber?

@SPavel What? American Theological Library Association?

SPavel

Avatar: the Last Airbender

Mike Q

@SPavel I... I am dumb.

SPavel

@MikeQ You can be Sokka

Mike Q

Spirts as a concept was introduced in (A)TLA, but the ability to use Spirit magic, I think that was first shown by uncle McCreepy

goodguy5

alright, so air water earth fire air
that gives us subplanes of frost, swamp, lava, and... uh... ash?

SPavel

14:32

Aang uses it at the end of AtLA

goodguy5

oooh. Why isn't whatsherface an ice bender?'

SPavel

Inner Plane

The Inner Planes are the fictional innermost planes of existence in the standard cosmology of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. They are the building blocks of the multiverse, the elements and energies from which all of the material universe (the Prime Material Plane, or, in the 3rd Edition, simply Material Plane) is made. The Inner Planes, the material building blocks of reality and the realms of energy and matter, stand in contrast to the intangible and esoteric Outer Planes, which include the realms of ideals, philosophies, and gods. The Planes serve as a home for extraplanar creatures...

Ice falls under Water, the Water tribes live on the poles so they all learn it

Mike Q

@goodguy5 Lightning. Certain fire benders (can) channel lightning instead of fire, because something something thermal energy

SPavel

Oh, they actually gave a reason? I thought it was just to make Ozai extra cool

He channels his coolness into pure lightning

goodguy5

@SPavel or he's a sith

SPavel

14:34

And then in Korra, they make it a trivial skill that the city's department of energy hires for

:(

Mike Q

But by far the most powerful character is Sokka, the master of Jokebending

goodguy5

I'm a master of wine bending

SPavel

@MikeQ Sokka is eclipsed by one character

WANG FIRE

HERO OF THE IMPERIUM

goodguy5

is it just me, or does he look like Ang with a beard?

Mike Q

@goodguy5 He looks like Sokka with a beard. What a not-at-all-suspicious coincidence.

SPavel

14:37

It's just you

Wang Fire is a loyal citizen of the Fire Nation, born and bred

While Sokka is a fugitive and foreign subversive

They couldn't be more different people

Plus Wang Fire is shown here wielding a straight stick, which is not at all curved like a boomerang

goodguy5

I feel like you're trying to tell me that they're the same person.....

SPavel

That's absurd

goodguy5

I've only seen parts of TLA

Mike Q

Yall should see all parts of TLA, in order. And maybe check out Korra too? It's still great, but doesn't really pull off the fun and charm of the original series.

doppelgreener

I agree with that

goodguy5

14:40

eh, on "the list"

somewhere after ANY miyazaki film

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 it really is worth it

goodguy5

yea. I believe it.

SPavel

Ah, and of course there is Melon Lord, top character

goodguy5

it's not about "not wanting to", but more about putting it somewhere on the proverbial stack

Mike Q

@goodguy5 Switch over to a priority queue, then give ATLA top priority, problem solved

Rubiksmoose

14:42

data.stackexchange.com/rpg/query/161411/…

@SPavel am I right in reading that this stack get ~300 questions in a week but only ~300 answers?

SPavel

Question votes

It's just a bad graph

kviiri

Yeah, that can't be right. We have something like 25k questions total.

SPavel

Questions asked is the line waaaaaaaay down at the bottom

And the color is sliiiiiiiightly lighter

goodguy5

@SPavel wait a minute... can I edit in a reference to a later comment?

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 apparently. That was a complete accident. The editing of that comment as a whole lol

SPavel

14:45

@Rubiksmoose No, it's ~300 answers and ~150 questions

goodguy5

that's cool

Rubiksmoose

@kviiri yeah that makes WAAAAY more sense. I feel dumb for not questioning that number in the first place

SPavel

Stop doinking me

goodguy5

sounds dirty

Rubiksmoose

But wow that color choice. Fantastic

Like when Powerpoint decides that the Excel graph I'm pasting into should really be in 1,000 shades of pastel blue instead of visible colors

SPavel

14:47

@Rubiksmoose Powerpoint knows better than you

Rubiksmoose

Well that answers so many questions

in a manner of speaking

wish I could disable data series easily

SPavel

Paradox, you funny

kviiri

Hah!

Frezak

There's a Dwarf Fortress reference somewhere in Stellaris. A lave-covered city with inscriptions about how valuable shoes were.

kviiri

@SPavel This picture takes me back to when I first saw a HoI 4 screenshot. I was like "huh, that font looks familiar..."

"...it's the Civ V font!"

SPavel

14:52

>the civ V font

get out

kviiri

@Frezak Stellaris is absolutely rife with good references!

@SPavel I am actually outside already! For practical intents and purposes at very least. There's a refreshing, sunny Spring day out so I'm keeping the balcony door, right next to me, open.

SPavel

Both Civ V and HoI4 use Century, which is a crappy Futura ripoff

Futura Condensed is used by Skyrim, for some reason

kviiri

I like how there's the Kerbol system in Stellaris. Too bad it doesn't spawn with the appropriate planet names.

And isn't guaranteed to have a habitable planet. Then again, the Kerbals wear spacesuits outdoors too...

Frezak

I know that there's a bunch of evil sentient stars in D&D that are actually named after real systems, so I froze in horror the first time I saw Hadar (the Ebon Hunger) in Stellaris.

To be fair, the Kerbals only have a couple of buildings on the whole of their planet.

SPavel

kviiri

14:56

@Frezak It's so habitable, you don't need a building to live!

Frezak

And then the Worm-in-Waiting storyline started up...

SPavel

I think I will play some Mount & Blade

Or Skyrim

Hmm

Rubiksmoose

Another dumb question: when I fork that SEDE query, I make modifications to it and it will be saved as a separate entity to the original yes?

SPavel

That is what a fork is

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