TRPG General Chat

BESW

04:37

Kickstarter: The King Is Dead: a Roleplaying Party Game. A party game for roleplayers and non-roleplayers. Fight with your friends, fall in love with your enemies, and seize the crown!

Magician

04:55

That's certainly a... thing.

Doesn't look that appealing, I'll be honest. "Hey, let's play 11 games for each of which we'll have to read a page or two of rules as we go" is a tough sell. Without seeing the games themselves it's hard to see how roleplaying even factors into it, since it's all about hand manipulation. And most importantly, how do you even pick one of the 10 non-terminal games? Optimizers would need to know them all before touching the cards.

trogdor

I was more concerned with needing a book for each player

If you ever want a chance to play with 5 people you have to have 5 books? Not exactly all that great

Magician

That's what the boxed set includes

Or lots of printing, I suppose.

trogdor

Yeah actually looking at the price, that isn't too bad

You are right though,.... We don't know much of how this game works in a role playing way

Heck, we know what cards we want but not how we are supposed to get them

Magician

05:11

Maybe there are hints in game descriptions, like "go to war if you want to take cards from other players"

I have a feeling you're meant to just go with the flow, and choose games based on "roleplaying". That is, something will happen and everyone will have a good time, party games, yay.

trogdor

Lol

I get the impression party games are not your favorite

Magician

au contraire

I love party games like Secret Hitler, Dixit, Mascarade

trogdor

Ah

I would love to try Secret Hitler

Magician

It's like Resistance, only better

trogdor

With a group of people who really knows each other well it looks really fun

It seems like it has the perfect mix of actual mechanics and group manipulation

Magician

05:17

It actually works well even with people you don't know at all - what better way to get to know them than to lie to their face :D

trogdor

Also fair

kviiri

07:56

Hi!

BESW

yo.

kviiri

Today in RPGs, I offered a friend to buy his 4e gear off him (if he hasn't gotten rid of them yet)

BESW

I assume that 4e gear includes a helmet and pads for protection against the haters.

trogdor

lol

that would be perfect

BESW

@kviiri Did you get the gear?

I managed to get most of my standard polyhedrons very cheap off a friend when he dramatically quit RPGs for about three months.

kviiri

08:06

@BESW Still waiting for his reply

There's a non-trivial chance he's already got rid of them earlier.

kviiri

08:30

If The Roman Empire was a TV Series #map #maps

Tweeted by onlmaps on April 3, 2018 at 1:50 AM

A bit harsh on the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire. At least Russia gets away just being "wierd" [sic].

BESW

....what's Carthage in this scenario?

kviiri

The competing franchise that actually predated the Roman Empire but never broke big and is mostly recognized by a few die-hard fans.

Sort of how people today'd assume The Worst Witch is a Harry Potter ripoff while it actually predates Potter books by decades. It just never got as big.

BESW

I... didn't know the book had been made into a film until people started talking about it in relation to HP.

For me it always just been one of the many kids books I'd read with a great premise and a lackluster execution.

kviiri

@BESW I didn't know about the books at all before Netflix started pushing me the series. I did have a hunch there was a book behind it, though.

As for why Netflix keeps pushing me these series... when I started using it, it asked me to select three or more series I like for it to base recommendations on. I was like "just get on with it I don't care what you recommend me!" and selected the first two series I had actually seen, being Orange is the New Black and Breaking Bad, and for third, I just picked the next item on the list.

That being Peppa Pig.

BESW

08:46

Also, when folks started going on about The Worst Witch in connection to Harry Potter, my main reaction was "What about Wizard's Hall?"

@kviiri Hah. In my experience you wouldn't have gotten more accurate recommendations if you'd chosen something more carefully.

kviiri

@BESW My SO agrees. But I still wish I hadn't picked Peppa. I find the art style a tad unnerving.

My parents used to joke that I "like playing those games where guts and giblets fly" (meaning Bio Menace, a good ol' Apogee platformer from the 1990's) while I get easily distressed by uncanny valley animations.

BESW

Aug 12 '15 at 6:34, by BESW

Netflix Says: Because I like Haven and Agents of SHIELD, I would like... Storage Wars.

kviiri

@BESW Storage Wars is either one of those numbing reality shows or a delightfully self-aware anime.

I hope it's the latter.

BESW

Alas, the former.

kviiri

Rats.

BESW

08:50

Aug 4 '14 at 6:01, by BESW

[sigh] It's time for more What Are You Thinking, Netflix?
- Because of my interest in "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" and "Belphegor: Phantom of the Louvre," I might like "Forrest Gump," "Patriot Games," and "M*A*S*H."
- Because I watched Joss Whedon's home production of "Much Ado About Nothing" and the British "House of Cards," I might like "Parks & Recreation."
- ...and they've yet again managed to track down a Tinkerbell movie to put in "Top Picks for BESW."

Oct 2 '15 at 5:28, by BESW

Dear Netflix: You don't get to call a film a "hidden gem" if people look at me funny for not recognising when they quote it.

Nov 26 '14 at 23:35, by BESW

Really, Netflix? A 1967 film has "a 1960s-style vibe"? You don't say.

kviiri

:D

You can't make that stuff up

BESW

Seriously though they spent at least three years throwing direct-to-DVD Tinkerbell movies at me.

kviiri

I was going to ask whether there's enough movies of Tinkerbell for them to be a category of their own. Apparently there is.

BESW

May 19 '14 at 1:46, by BESW

Netflix says: Based on your interest in Adventures in Babysitting and The Legend of Bagger Vance, you'd like Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive.

kviiri

How does that work out? She doesn't speak does she? Is she a mute protagonist like the video game heroes of old?

BESW

08:54

I don't know, I never watched any. I didn't want to encourage the algorithms.

kviiri

Crikey.

Me and my SO actually like kids' films a lot, as long as they've got good production values.

BESW

As do I!

But the Tinkerbell franchise looks like.... not that.

kviiri

Yeah, "direct-to-DVD" doesn't associate with quality.

BESW

"Direct to DVD Disney sequel series for tots" even less so.

trogdor

@BESW ooh that's a good one right there, really shows how,....... good? Netflix is at deciding these things for you XD

kviiri

09:01

There's a reason why "entertainment industry" has "industry" in it. Doesn't mean it's all bad, but with the goal being "let's make X-many marketable products this year"... it tends to either be bad or be going that way.

BESW

Yeah. That's why I'm pleasantly surprised when things like the TMNT 2012 series, which really had no reason it needed to be anything beyond mediocre in order to cash in on the film, turned out to be.... actually good.

trogdor

@kviiri I think I saw commercials for it in which she not only spoke but had like 4 or 5 fairy friends who also did

well, for one of them anyway, I have no idea how many movies there are or how different from each other they are

kviiri

@BESW Regarding this, I would say I joke about "adulthood being the state where you can watch children's films, play Pokémon Go and build sand castles without being embarrassed of it", except I really mean it.

BESW

I don't agree with CS Lewis about a lot of things, but "When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."

doppelgreener

That's great.

kviiri

09:07

@BESW Couldn't say that better myself

BESW

(source)

I think about it a lot when I'm making the posters for the local student directors' night of self-chosen one-act plays.

doppelgreener

I enjoy a lot of stuff that's ostensibly for kids — invader zim, Steven Universe, studio Ghibli movies. I'm surprised others in my life sometimes don't want to watch them exclusively because of them being in the "for kids" category.

BESW

You will pry my brightly-colored and optimistic depictions of the best things in human nature from my old, dead hands.

kviiri

I go to the beach a couple of times a Summer, and my favorite activity is still not swimming but building little pools and walls to protect them from the waves. And little "wells". And once it's done, contemplate the finitude of everything as waves slowly erode the muddy structure back into a flat non-existence.

BESW

Alas, the best beach for doing that here is, itself, a victim of the finitude of everything.

kviiri

09:12

Because of the army dump thing?

BESW

....In particular, the abrupt and determined finitude of government administrations.

Naw. Even stupider than that.

Back in the '50s the Army Corps of Engineers built a very simple stone pier to re-direct the currents from the river into the bay and prevent erosion of the bay's beaches.

kviiri

How did it turn out?

BESW

It worked until the late 90s, by which time the waves and tides had shifted the stones of the pier--which had just been piled in place, not cemented--so that the pier was no longer influencing the currents. The beach sands started quickly migrating out into the ocean, and the shoreline was eaten by yards every year.

By that point it was no longer the Army's responsibility, it was the local government's.

And since the Corps doesn't bother with things like blueprints for such simple tasks, it was technically impossible to rebuild the pier and nobody would sign off on building a new one in the same place without having the paperwork to say what had been there before.

trogdor

mmm mmm mmm government bureaucracy and colonialism

BESW

So instead they piled rocks up all along the shoreline, where the beach used to be, to make a sea wall.

trogdor

09:17

such,.... great,..... horrible flavors

BESW

...a sea wall that was also not held together by anything except the weight of its materials, and which (unlike the original pier) was not built with any consideration for how the currents actually flowed.

...A sea wall which amplified the currents, speeding up the movement out to sea of the silt on which the wall was piled, because that entire valley and bay go down at least a hundred of sand, silt, and clay before you hit bedrock.

So every few years they go out and pile more rocks on the sea wall where our beach used to be, because it's sinking into the silt.

At this point rebuilding the pier probably wouldn't work because the whole shape of the place has changed.

I'm very much in favor of humanity being okay with the fact that the world moves, and I think we need to learn how to build and plan to take that into effect rather than trying to make it stop. So the pier going away, that's just part of how things work and rebuilding it might never have been the right plan.

But what we have is just Sisyphean nonsense.

kviiri

Ugh... that sounds terrible.

BESW

I mean, the Corps was mostly just building the pier for post-war busywork and because they wanted a nice beach. It's not like they built the pier before we lost a whole cemetery to the currents.

But they had experts who could eyeball the context with the currents and the tides an make a pier that lasted more than 40 years with nothing but rocks and muscle.

Oh, and for extra stupid: there are decades of crisp aerial photographs of the pier, with visibility down into the water, that clearly show how it was built and how it slowly fell apart.

But that's not good enough.

kviiri

Hrmh.

BESW

It was a wonderful beach. Fine black magnetic sand with streaks of dark blue mud, a long low slope into the water and a nicely scooped bay mouth made for excellent surfing waves.

kviiri

09:29

:(

BESW

have you ever made drip castles?

kviiri

Yeah, but nothing fancy

BESW

This sand was amazing for them.

Now what little sand piles up against the sea wall is gritty and coarse.

kviiri

I don't know any good beaches near my home, but we go to Pori about once per month. There's a beach with particularly fine-grained sand that gets everywhere.

BESW

kviiri

09:44

It's beautiful

BESW

Top image is from 1991; bottom is of the sea wall.

kviiri

I imagined the wall to be a bit further out

BESW

No, it's about where the trees stop and the sand starts in the top image.

Basically they waited until the erosion threatened the road before they did anything.

kviiri

Okay

kviiri

10:02

I can't help staring out towards the little bay of our own to see if someone's still testing the ice

kviiri

11:10

TIL: In 1917, in Naissaar, Estonia, there was an independent yet short-lived (two months) Socialist republic led by a very small Russian force with a very cool/stupid flag.

Naissaar

Naissaar (German: Nargen; Swedish: Nargö) is an island northwest of Tallinn (but belonging to Viimsi Parish) in Estonia. The island covers an area of 18.6 square kilometres (7.2 square miles). It is 8 kilometres (5.0 miles) long and 3.5 kilometres (2.2 miles) wide, and lies about 8.5 kilometres (5.3 miles) from the mainland. The highest point on the island is Kunilamägi, which is 27 metres (89 feet) above sea level. The island consists predominantly of coniferous forest and piles of stones and boulders. As of 2005, the island had a population of ten. Now the island has three dozen or so permanent...

BESW

11:48

@doppelgreener If you've got a moment for Discord some time soon, I'd appreciate it.

doppelgreener

@BESW I do!

goodguy5

oh good. we're back to green

also morning nerds

trogdor

12:10

back to what now? purple never happened, I mean,.... what color?

XD

goodguy5

12:26

"Piracy Outpost Management" is a great title

NautArch

It's an interesting question, but i fear D&D may not be the best solution?

BESW

It so rarely is, platonically speaking.

goodguy5

Well, it's a D&D game, not a Piracy Outpost Management game, that's just an aspect of it.

Rubiksmoose

Morning all

goodguy5

👋

NautArch

12:29

@Rubiksmoose top o the morn

Rubiksmoose

So I saw the "Is gold a poor weapon material?" post again today and I realized that it is an incredibly ironic title.

NautArch

Don't know if you're a michigan fan...

hahahah

well played

goodguy5

oh, huh... didn't put that totgether at first

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch The state itself or the various sports teams within it?

@BESW hah. Too true I'm afraid.

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose the sports team that throws balls i hoops from the school whose colors are maize and blue

goodguy5

12:32

alright, in terms of piracy management.

They effectively need "living costs" and maybe "wages" for 400+ people, likely not all of which are on active duty.

right?

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch In that case, not really. I'm not really a fan of any team. I don't hate sports (having played several of them I do have a decent understanding of them) but I just don't enjoy them to the extent that I want to dedicate any time to them lol.

doppelgreener

Btw, here's the source of the Waluigi image that I definitely didn't use for my avatar because I have always been green: dragonitearmy.deviantart.com/art/Waluigi-425848519

Rubiksmoose

Regarding that pirate question, I do not think it should be closed, but I am worried about the potential for people to throw untested homebrew as an answer. I do not think it has an easy answer in 5e, but I think it is a valid question. Any way to head that off?

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose was just thinking the same thing and I don't know how to address it (also thinking in terms of PhilBoncer's issue yesterday)

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch Indeed. I think this is a different scenario with this question a bit (at least from the way I'm thinking about it now) in that the telepathy question did not have enough information to be properly answered in a productive way. This one seems to have all the details we need, but with a large potential for people to give unsupported answers to.

And yeah OP's comment is expected but not going to help the situation.

NautArch

12:40

Definitely, but in terms of early closure for a user's first post.

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch oh yeah I see where you are coming from now.

NautArch

Question wise, they're completely different.

@doppelgreener Is there a way to automate the "welcome" comment to a user on their first question?

goodguy5

@Rubiksmoose I'm typing up an answer where my main point is "don't do that"

my second point being "if you must, here are some things to consider"

doppelgreener

@NautArch There is not, and probably shouldn't be. It's an opportunity to add specific guidance to their situation. People seem to be more receptive to guidance embedded in that welcome comment.

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch like system wide? or to be able to individually have a stock welcome message that you can put in easily?

doppelgreener

12:44

There is however an extension that can fill the comment field from templates, which can start you off. I rarely use it.

NautArch

@doppelgreener okay, just a thought. and to help prevent welcome pile-on.

doppelgreener

Does that happen much?

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener Yeah that is what I was thinking of too. I don't use it either really. I like to personalize it too much that it never really helps.

doppelgreener

@Rubiksmoose Right, same here.

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose I'm also not sure how they expect a party of Level 1s to overtake a pirate outpost of hundreds

Rubiksmoose

12:47

@NautArch yeah not sure either. The core question seems to be: "how do I run a pirate business?" I wonder if the downtime rules (poor as they are) could be used to adjudicate it.

NautArch

looking at xanathar's, those seem to be more about DOING, not MANAGING

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch Yeah I started in the DMG and I think they would work?

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose bingo bango bongo

running a business. Piracy is a business, just tweak as needed.

goodguy5

oh.....

man

I was like 30 seconds from hitting that "post answer" button

T_T

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose I voted to reopen, but I think that comment should be an answer :)

Rubiksmoose

13:01

@NautArch I definitely see what you mean, but it is not intended to be a sneaky answer. I'm actually trying to figure out 1) if they've looked at them at all and 2) what the flaws are in them that they need addressed. Basically so that I can further understand what they want from a solution. If people think it is too answer-y they are welcome to flag it though.

(and I was drafting up an answer along those lines as well)

goodguy5

I'm not allowed to flag it.

not cool enough

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 Be more cool man. :P

goodguy5

@Rubiksmoose can't find the xtge business running bit

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 "work" would be the relevant bit in there, but yeah the DMG is the best fit here I think.

NautArch

@goodguy5 that's because it's in the dmg

goodguy5

13:07

Well, I know that section, but I wanted to read over the xgte bit

NautArch

@goodguy5 Xanathar's is more about doing stuff and isn't as applicable (except for maybe activities within the organization and players participating)

goodguy5

ah

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch It could be relevant, but probably not at all better than what the DMG gives.

goodguy5

brb

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose yuppers

i've got a stay home day of working and watching barbie movies with my kinda-sick (but maybe not) daughter

Rubiksmoose

13:14

@NautArch oh boy, I think I would have a very low threshold for how many barbie movies I could watch in a row before I went insane lol.

I hope she's not sick btw

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose they're actually not too bad. Not at all what I expected. But the Barbie dream-house netflix show is NOT for kids.

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch Then.... who is it for?

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose teens/adults? I'd say more adults than teens. It's basically a faux reality show. Not as bad as Drawn Together, but they're pretty awful role models.

goodguy5

well yea

alright. pirate answer all typed up if it ever gets reopened

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch huh. good to know I guess?

NautArch

13:25

@Rubiksmoose f you ever have kids who want to watch it :)

but it's really funny if you're an adult.

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch Yeah our cats aren't too picky lol.

NautArch

@goodguy5 @Rubiksmoose for when it gets reopened, having the players join a raiding ship could be an encounter or a downtime activity from xanathar's. This is all very answerable!

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch Yeah, usually people leave comments when a question gets closed. Kind of surprised this one did not.

NautArch

13:51

@Rubiksmoose Any thoughts on this? I'm still waffling.

Simon H.

Idk dude, maybe he gave up. He was new, after all.

Wait he's got a response

NautArch

@SimonH. yeah, we just need the reopen votes now :)

goodguy5

I mean... what kind of cool stuff do you have now?

The tome would be a nice "set and forget" bonus if you already have cool stuff.

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 good question

goodguy5

I try ^_^

are reopen votes 2k rep?

ah, 3k

Rubiksmoose

14:00

@goodguy5 2 more btw to reopen

goodguy5

noted

NautArch

@goodguy5 I do have a lot of cool stuff. Attuned to a staff of swarming insects, Cli Lyre, ring of mind shielding and have a Bag of Tricks and Deck of Illusions.

goodguy5

@NautArch Then I'd go with the tome.

Rubiksmoose

I'll take a peak at the magic items later and see if anything pops. It is hard to say though without knowing what excites you/your character.

NautArch

@goodguy5 Yeah. It just seems kind of vanilla, but it'd be make a big difference.

goodguy5

14:02

I mean, it is only vanilla in the frame of reference of "a lot of cool stuff. Attuned to a staff of swarming insects, Cli Lyre, ring of mind shielding and have a Bag of Tricks and Deck of Illusions."

If you had received it at whatever level you hit 20 CHA

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 I mean it is definitely not flashy, so I can definitely see what he's saying

goodguy5

Would have been super jazzed about it?

NautArch

The only other thing I'd consider was a carpet of flying or the marvelous pigments.

but the Tome helps my attacks and DCs, and those are my bread and butter.

My bard is driven for power and fame. Loves to show off and trick people.

But is also a romantic and is ever in search for his one true partner (saving a Philter of Love for that lucky lady)

SPavel

Your bard is looking for a woman to drug and brainwash? Romance indeed.

Sir Cinnamon

I once talked my DM friend into selling a magic carpet to his party

Not a carpet of flying mind you, a magic carpet (+1)

goodguy5

14:08

ha!

Sir Cinnamon

Apparently the debacle took almost a whole session as they hunted down the con man who sold it to them and... obtained a refund

goodguy5

woah. excuse me? Magic Carpet +1 is a prized posession

NautArch

@SPavel he's a bit twisted. the warlock dip to bane may have done that.

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 It has resistance against non-magical stains and odors.

goodguy5

You can tie it to your back, +1 ac
you can swing it as an improvised weapon, +1 attack
you can roll bodies in it (alive or dead), +1 holding bodies

it's the everyman's magic item

SPavel

14:14

Tie the room together, +1 on grapples

Rubiksmoose

@SPavel That is amazing and I'm ashamed I didn't think of or make that joke myself

NautArch

one of our closest TPKs was a room full of rugs of smothering

Sir Cinnamon

@NautArch Things that grapple can be very dangerous, I was wary to throw an Otyugh at my party for that reason

goodguy5

Things that can eat the stuff they grapple are more dangerous

SPavel

Plot idea: Party is on a sea voyage, is swallowed by a giant whale. Once they escape, they realize that the whale has been swallowed up by an even larger whale.

goodguy5

14:17

XD

ugh, I have a question for worldbuilding.se, but don't feel like making an account there.....

doppelgreener

it is one button press to make one!

maybe two

SPavel

I can answer any worldbuilding questions with 99% accuracy (but 1% precision)

goodguy5

How could you have a flat earth where gravity acts (mostly) earthlike?

SPavel

Magic.

Szega

Just declare it is so?

goodguy5

14:19

That was my first thought, as well

SPavel

A flat earth is not possible due to physics.

goodguy5

oh, hey. Szega does exist

SPavel

You need to get rid of physics.

Szega

sup

goodguy5

I thought you only existed to close tickets ^_^

SPavel

14:19

Powerlevel to Epic and murder the god of physics

goodguy5

@SPavel So then things just fall straight down because reasons?

SPavel

I guess you could pull off shenanigans with a convex spacetime

NautArch

I stupidly never realized that steam backed up to their servers. Play anywhere and continue. that's super cool.

doppelgreener

@goodguy5 yeah, well, right now in our reality, particles just fall toward each other because reasons. why? because.

you would have a flat realm where everything falls downward because reasons.

SPavel

@doppelgreener G R A V I T O N S

goodguy5

14:20

fair enough

doppelgreener

ok, your realm has downitons.

goodguy5

but the other thing....

How much would first level PCs know about The World as a whole?

doppelgreener

@goodguy5 how much does a human being know?

SPavel

For bonus points, misunderstand string theory as "invisible strings connect objects to the ground, and when you let objects go, the strings snap them back and they fall."

goodguy5

@doppelgreener well, it's more "how much does a human being know about the state of the world 400 years ago or more?"

doppelgreener

14:22

"first level PC" isn't a group that correlates to any specific measure of knowledge.

goodguy5

how much did medieval peasants know? or guards?

SPavel

@goodguy5 Quite a lot

Peasants don't count as human

Yuuki

For bonus bonus points, mishear "string theory" as "string fear-y" and set out on a quest to find a measure of yarn that instill terror in all who are tangled in its length.

SPavel

It was like, King, nobles, knights, the dirt, the worms in the dirt, peasants

goodguy5

you forgot popo

doppelgreener

14:23

tons, they just didn't know about germs yet. they didn't understand why people would die more often from small cuts than giant wounds, for example. (granted, places like persia and india were figuring out anaesthetic and sterilisation in BC / early AD, so this is strictly Medieval Europe.)

SPavel

@goodguy5 I said king

goodguy5

@SPavel fair

Yuuki

I don't know, the Greeks and Romans believed in humours and they say "laughter is the best medicine" so maybe they were actually ahead of their time.

goodguy5

I don't mean experts, medicinemen, etc. I mean schmoes. soldiers, musicians.

How much would non-scholars in america know about the moon, or Germany, or the earth

If your answer is the same, then so beit

Yuuki

You're equating "level 1 adventurer" with "average commoner" and I'm not sure if that comparison is accurate.

doppelgreener

14:28

A lot? Some people would know a bunch, some would not. The categories you're highlighting don't correspond to any specific group of knowledge.

goodguy5

@Yuuki Fine, then "how much experience and travel is expected from a level 1 adventurer?"

SPavel

@goodguy5 Depends, a level 1 fighter has probably been around the block while a level 1 wizard might never have seen the outside of his college

doppelgreener

Like, if you asked me about modern day: "how much does a person know? How much does a soldier or a musician know?" there would not be an answer because those generalisations don't equate in any way to knowledge levels. The same problem exists for asking about people 400 years ago.

@goodguy5 That gets answered by your setting or game.

Yuuki

Like I might know a bit more about random trivia than the average programmer. I probably also know less about programming than the average programmer.

goodguy5

So... the reason of all this.

Is because the game I'm starting (Saturday) has a flat world and two main continent bodies. A great typhoon is ever-present at the center, separating the two lands.

The characters begin in a small town in a country near the southern tip of the right continent.

I don't know how much to tell them about The World as a whole.

doppelgreener

14:33

These are questions you gotta answer then.

Yuuki

Don't give them any more information than they need nor any more information than is going to be relevant.

How often is the flatness of the world going to come up in your campaign?

Does your campaign revolve around the party discovering another continent? Or the typhoon? Are they supposed to realize that they live on Azeroth?

goodguy5

@Yuuki probably not often. That part I know how to deal with.

@Yuuki shutupshutupshutupshutupshutup

doppelgreener

The problem with asking a question like "how much does a level 1 adventurer know?" is it's a bit like asking "how many apples are on a tree?". A tree is not a unit that corresponds to number of apples. If we assume you mean just apple trees specifically, then an apple tree can have any number of apples, including none or hundreds.

Yuuki

@goodguy5 I mean, hopefully you don't have a demigod lich stuck in an ice cube on a forgotten northern continent, do you?

doppelgreener

Once you start defining exactly what kind of apple tree you mean, you start defining the answer itself by virtue of the question. "A medium-sized one. One with maybe a few dozen apples on it." "Well, it's got a few dozen apples on it then."

goodguy5

14:36

But no, Continental Exploration isn't a keystone of the game.

I just don't know how much to include in my blurb of the beginning of the game.

doppelgreener

Assume they're knowledgeable about the big picture of their world, let them tell you what they're experts in and know things about, tell them stuff that's relevant to showing them the start of the plot.

goodguy5

@doppelgreener so that's the part I'm having trouble framing a reference for.

what is "the big picture"?

Sir Cinnamon

@goodguy5 It's a framed photo of me that hangs above my bed

doppelgreener

Well they know they're on a flat world, they know about the capital cities in their region, the neighbouring countries, etc. In a sense your world will define how much people in the world know about it.

goodguy5

cool. alright. thanks

doppelgreener

14:39

Discworld says everyone in the world generally knows all the major locations in the world except for a specific mysterious island on the edge of it.

goodguy5

So, this is no longer "help me with these ideas", but rather "this is one of the aspects I decided"...

My discworld is actually closer to a resse's cup. There's a second layer, far beneath the surface.

doppelgreener

They also know most things about the cosmology, have general common sense about all the kinds of professions on the disc, etc. People outside the city would know less about how the city works than people inside it, and the same goes for people in the country vis a vis knowing how the country works.

SPavel

"The world is flat" is irrelevant until the PCs decide to tunnel through, walk on the bottom under the typhoon, then tunnel back up

doppelgreener

Well, it's relevant in teaching them about the world they're on. It means if they wanted to travel far, there are Edges they will eventually reach.

SPavel

Not for long, as soon as you say "you can't go past here" the PCs will bring the biggest laser they can find to blast through

doppelgreener

14:43

... will the lasers magically make the disc wider?

because i mean literal edges to the world

SPavel

Flat Earthers believe that an enormous wall of ice prevents you from walking off the edge

That's where the laser comes in

doppelgreener

Ok, can you tone that down a bit please. We're not discussing a discworld with an ice wall, nor flat earthers.

SPavel

Tone down what?

doppelgreener

Knowing it's a disc also sets the tone for the geopolitical dynamics. In Discworld it's no coincidence that the entire disc's largest city is in a relatively central location, and not right on the edge of the map. In a spherical planet, there is no "center", so anywhere can be the center: Rome was the "center" for the Roman Empire; Karakorum was the center of the mongol empire, etc.

@SPavel memery and quips that aren't relevant to the situation?

SPavel

I literally said one thing

And it's not at all irrelevant

The issue of what is at the end of a flat world is important

doppelgreener

14:46

Then ask about what's there, and then give answers accordingly? :U

SPavel

It's a discussion about worldbuilding, dude

There isn't even a there until someone brings it up

nitsua60

Okay, I'll speak up in defense of the Tinkerbell series. It's got a lot of the same friendship and cooperation and communication themes as MLP, but with much less shouting. Alas, the hemlines are equally unrealistic.

(I've been in the room for most of them.)

goodguy5

so close to getting that piracy question back up and running

SPavel

@nitsua60 Steven Universe best friendship show

You don't have a real friendship until you can fuse into a terrifying four-armed space monster

David Coffron

@goodguy5 I would like the details in the comments placed in the question body for the piracy question. I'll ask the OP

Oh nvm. My phone didn't refresh the question

doppelgreener

14:52

@SPavel TIL i have only one real friendship

David Coffron

Are @dopplegreener and dopplepurpler different people? I'm confused

nitsua60

it gets downright spooky sometimes:

doppelgreener

@DavidCoffron that was me :)

nitsua60

-2

A: Downvotes - comment or negative reputation?

Based on doppelspookers answer it seem like we don’t want to force comments on downvotes because we don’t want unhelpful arguments to ensue. That being said, down voting without a reason leads to new users feeling unwelcome, and potentially leaving. This is an undesirable outcome. If that’s t...

SPavel

@DavidCoffron Due to doppler shift, the colour of @dopplegreener is directly related to how fast he is moving relative to you, depending on speed he might be @dopplepurpler

doppelgreener

14:58

@SPavel during april fools i move very fast and may become other colors

nitsua60

With one caveat: there is apparently no relative speed at which they appear blue.

doppelgreener

@nitsua60 that's correct.

nitsua60

(That's the "spooky valley" on their v vs. lambda graph. Hence: doppelspooker.)

SPavel

Well, you could start as one of the ASian cultures where the distinction of blue vs green is not emphasized

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