TRPG General Chat

Rubiksmoose

15:00

@goodguy5 this just in: everything in 5e that doesn't explicitly list a color is now transparent/invisible.

David Coffron

@Rubiksmoose My best is 5 days in a row

goodguy5

Things I would allow grease to be used for:
WD-40
Artificially extending your move speed (run 30 feet, the last 5 of which is in grease, you skid some amount)
messing up someone's walk on water (I know it says you can walk on oil, but I don't care)
lubricating your pan when you cook food

David Coffron

@goodguy5 If you are using a spell slot to cook I commend you. (If you are a level 18 wizard with grease as your spell mastery, you are crazy)

doppelgreener

In order:

I added the UA tag and removed the familiars one, technically the raven isn't a familiar. – daze413 6 hours ago

@ hohenheim Some magic items that can cast spells require attunement by a specific class, or require the attuned person to be able to cast an x-level spell. It helps to see all avenues of where the interactions between the raven and the ability to cast spells are, since it helps build a case against ruling this way. – daze413 6 hours ago

Agreed. I would strongly suggest you mention that the wand and ring are homebrew. It saves future readers and potential answerers fr…

Tiggerous

@Rubiksmoose That does indeed sound inexplicably pleasing.

Maximillian

15:04

There needs to be a Greater Grease spell, zero-friction surface.

Rubiksmoose

@DavidCoffron I got 6 once and missed the 7th by 5 points :'(

David Coffron

@Rubiksmoose Oh no. I'm sorry

Rubiksmoose

mah fake internet points!

David Coffron

(If I was that close I would've went back to see if there were any questions I forgot to select an answer for)

goodguy5

sometimes I intentionally don't answer because I'm getting close to capping

Rubiksmoose

15:06

@DavidCoffron alas, I probably did. And probably had nothing that I was willing to mark as an answer.

David Coffron

@Rubiksmoose fair enough

Rubiksmoose

I was happy that I crossed the halfway mark for Legendary though. only 74 more capped days lol

David Coffron

I'm 1 day away from FANATIC!

goodguy5

ooooh

nice. I've been boned by the tUTC thing multiple times

Rubiksmoose

@DavidCoffron nice!

David Coffron

15:13

@Rubiksmoose I'm afraid that just means I've become hopelessly reliant on the stack and am going to spend the rest of my days not quite paying full attention at work

Helwar

Can I ask here something that is entirely too-broad and explicitly opinion-based? :)

goodguy5

yes

Maximillian

I'm still impressed that the various gaming sites at Stack haven't been blocked by the work filter.

kviiri

yea

Maximillian

@Helwar This is what chat is for!

Rubiksmoose

15:14

@Helwar as long as it is not explicit AND opinion based ;)

goodguy5

@Maximillian I assume it's because the entire stack is allowed at work and it's a pain to block substacks

Helwar

so

David Coffron

@Maximillian I'm on my phone while at work...

Tiggerous

Logging off (from work)

Helwar

in the game I'm DM, my players are about to encounter not only one BBEG, but a coalition of them, working together for a while, and they are gonna find themselves quickly overwhelmed if they decide to press on and fight them

like.... they have adult dragons as pets, an my party is lvl8,

there are absolutely no chances

David Coffron

15:17

14

Q: How can I dissuade my players from attacking a deadly foe who isn't meant to be attacked?

I will be taking over as DM of our group in a few weeks. Our party right now has a large number of magic items, and while I don't have a problem balancing that, I would rather replace lesser ones with greater ones. The plot device I have chosen to do this, as part of the Hoard of the Dragon Que...

goodguy5

The Evil League of Evil. Got it.

Helwar

I fear they are gonna try anyway and I'm gonna have to pull something up my sleeve to save the day

David Coffron

@Helwar That questions, it's duplicate, and the related question of the duplicate have a lot of insights. It's a tough topic

goodguy5

You have magic. and DM powers, both at your disposal

Rubiksmoose

@Helwar Do they have any powerful allies that are even close to being in a position to save them? Or deities interested in their well-being? Worst case scenario you can do that.

kviiri

15:19

@Anaphory Oh, one more recommendation: Lake Kuusijärvi is reasonably close to downtown Helsinki (about 35 minutes on a bus) and is a popular place for taking a swim. The waters are a bit cold in June which I hope means less traffic that way. Sauna admission is 6e for electric saunas and 12e for smoke sauna.

Helwar

I have several ways for they to acomplish their mission without interacting with the evil brotherhood directly, one of them some kind of gladiator arena, that might be a way to "hey captured you instead of killing you to have fun!"

buuut otherwise I foresee a TPK if they don't get the idea that they are overwhelmed :O

Anaphory

@kviiri I should definitely go saunaan.

kviiri

@Anaphory It's one of those things to do, yep :)

Helwar

@Rubiksmoose they have several tools at their disposal, but i fear my players don't remember what they have, and it would mean me especifically saying: HEY, you have THIS

kviiri

Kuusijärvi is easy in the sense that it's admission by ticket, no need to book anything in advance. Also there's a lake. Can't beat a good lake!

@Helwar That's tricky indeed

Helwar

15:22

@Rubiksmoose also 2 gods interested in them.. but they are roman/greek gods, they like to meddle so it's not super special

kviiri

I'd probably start with "these guys seem really dangerous" and follow that up with "guys, you can't really win this one" if they don't get the idea.

Maximillian

I've been honest with my party in the past. "Guys, above table, the plan you're proposing is going to put you up against challenges way above your current level. You're gonna risk a party wipe and I'm not gonna pull any punches if you go ahead with that."

GreySage

@DavidCoffron That's not the worst thing for you to be reliant on.

Rubiksmoose

@Maximillian is there a reason why you don't want to do that in this case?

GreySage

@Helwar If you do any sort of recap or into at the begining of the session (I think it's a great idea in general) you can remind them of these tools without being too blatant.

Helwar

15:25

@kviiri yeah, i think I can get the idea across. Part of the question was also if that kind of thing where your party is forced down a way sits good with players

kviiri

If they still do it, then I think it's the best to... well, be honest about the consequences.

Maximillian

@Rubiksmoose Some DMs don't like breaking scene or giving comments outside the game I guess?

kviiri

---> away for a while

Helwar

it's a good narrative point... but I dunno if they will feel railroaded in like: do what i tell you, or you're ingredients for dragon sheesh kebab

Maximillian

I just know my players are here to have a good time and if they're about to all die because they planned to do something they most likely cannot do, I'd like to spare us all the trouble.

Rubiksmoose

15:26

@Maximillian oops sorry mistook you for @Helwar

Maximillian

And yes, some will complain about being railroaded.

But honestly, every game has some degree of rails. Nobody wants to stay in the rail cart until it falls off the cliff.

So telling them, "Guys, cliff ahead." is not out of the question.

goodguy5

If there's an NPC convenient, he can relay "how terrible" they are "You? You could never defeat them! If you try, they'll kill you. and maybe me too. don't get me killed!"

Matt Colville has a good video on NPCs

Anaphory

@goodguy5 And then have that guy and his under-powered gang try to stop the party, because he's afraid of the fallout, in case they go ahead nonetheless? And keep it in proportion to imply “Like you wiped the table with these guys, so will the BBEG wipe the table with you”?

Helwar

I've been ramping up the difficulty lately too... And I've been guilty of softening my punches and even master-intervention save the party last game (but in this case I did It because I think I didn't convey the puzzle rules as good as I could and they didn't understand properly)

The idea of the other group of people trying to stop them is good

goodguy5

also, the power of "Hey, uh... cleric-face... can I get an insight check?"
"oh wow. yea. You can tell these guys are the real deal. They view you as no more a threat than a few goblins (or whatever they just killed a bunch of)"

Helwar

15:32

I have other adventurer parties in the city, waiting theyr oportunity to either strike or leave undetected, and they've seen corpses of adventurers hangin from the trees in the surrounding forest...

GreySage

@goodguy5 "cleric-face" heh

kviiri

@Maximillian That's true, but ought to be noted that many don't like it simply because of a preconceived notion that it shouldn't be done.

Helwar

@Maximillian It's not like I don't want to break scene or something, but in most cases whenever I do, they just automatically assume what I said is of relevant importance and they abandon everything they are doing to overanalize my words xD

So, general consensus is that overwhelming odds, if I make clear that they have no chance of winning, is ok? As long as I don't railroad them too much?

Maximillian

Basically you need to express that while they can do it, they might not want to, and it could ruin the session for many of them.

kviiri

Well, assuming the choice is "flee or die", I think it's railroading anyway. The optimal outcome, IMO, is that you make the potential defeat interesting

Maximillian

15:38

Don't tell them they can't do it, just indicate it may not go very well.

kviiri

But railroading isn't always bad

Helwar

ok thanks

Mike Q

16:04

@Helwar Is this a scenario where you are trying to introduce the villains, without the players fighting them directly?

It's a very common issue for DMs, because often when we try to communicate to players "Don't fight this guy, he's too tough", they interpret the message as "This guy is tough, so get ready for a tough fight"

@Helwar So it depends what you're trying to accomplish here. Do you want the players to meet the villains, let the villains give a monologue, then part ways? Or do you want to stop the players from interacting with the villains too early?

goodguy5

16:48

@GreySage I usually do "Fighter McFighterson", but I felt that his wisdom insight wouldn't be as high. And "Cleric McClericson" doesn't ring as well to me.

Sir Cinnamon

17:19

@goodguy5 Clarice McClericsdaughter

goodguy5

heh

how did that question not get filtered

Sir Cinnamon

@goodguy5 Which question

goodguy5

the capslock one. it's been fixed now

Rubiksmoose

good question. Also, what is up with the video games -> D&D weapons conversion questions lately?

Mike Q

Aww, I wanted to answer in caps lock...

goodguy5

17:24

don't do that lol

Sir Cinnamon

@goodguy5 Ironically the question was asked by mumbles

Rubiksmoose

@SirCinnamon noticed the same thing

also though it was humorous

Mike Q

Maybe they've been told to stop mumbling, so they used caps lock to compensate

goodguy5

but for that question....

you'd just use eldritch blast and the pulling invocation from Xanathar's, right?

Mike Q

You could do that for a similar result, but if you specifically wanted to use a pact weapon, then that won't suffice

GreySage

17:29

@goodguy5 Once the system gets cleared up it seems like a decent question (Pretty sure the answer is no since Pact Weapon is restricted to melee weapons).

Rubiksmoose

@GreySage Unless you pick up Improved Pact Weapon of course.

goodguy5

@GreySage I mean.... wouldn't a chain weapon be a melee weapon?

GreySage

@Rubiksmoose That only expands the list to include the bows.

Rubiksmoose

@GreySage Which are indeed ranged weapons. I was just pointing out the possibility.

After all, this might venture into homebrew weapon territory

GreySage

@Rubiksmoose I get it, just wouldn't help with that question specifically

goodguy5

17:33

There's no problem with attacking targets within 5 feet using a reach weapon in 5e, right?

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 besides the lance, no

GreySage

@Rubiksmoose Yeah, it really depends on what exact weapon properties they are looking for in their homwbrew weapon

Rubiksmoose

@GreySage defintely.

The Oracle

1

Q: Would this question about spoon feeding my players hints get closed?

I want to ask a question about an issue I'm seeing in my current D&D 5e campaign but I'm not sure if it'll get closed or not so I figured I could try workshopping it here first. Background: My players have missed a reoccurring "theme" in our campaign. I've dropped maybe 6-7 (relatively subtle)...

discussion

Rubiksmoose

0

Q: Does Commander's Strike reset Reaction?

You can only use 1 reaction until the start of your next turn. You can only use Sneak Attack once per turn. Sneak attack's benefit is more damage. Reaction's benefit is an extra strike/move while is not your turn. But are both of them not "Turn based benefits" ? You can only do them once per tu...

dnd-5e fighter reactions

So this question should be reopened, but I'm not exactly sure what they are asking yet.

goodguy5

17:38

anyone else google usernames when someone comes in here and posts a low quality question?

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 nope I had never conisdered that actually.

goodguy5

you get weird stuff sometimes

Szega

@Rubiksmoose If you are unsure, why should we reopen it? It is obviously unclear.

goodguy5

anyway, the guy's asking if a rogue (or anyone) gets another reaction after they use their reaction

(using commander's strike)

GreySage

@Rubiksmoose Seems pretty clear to me, just very badly written

Rubiksmoose

17:41

@Szega Sorry my comment was unclear. I meant that the system was resolved and thus should technically be reopenable.

GreySage

Also: Did the chatroom lose it's jeff tag?

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 yeah I got it finally after cleaning it up a bit.

@GreySage oh no!

Szega

@Rubiksmoose It seems we got birds-apparently instead

goodguy5

ugh

There was an answer I saw recently about 5e having two definitions of "turn"

GreySage

And we lost the eagle-cam sticky

@goodguy5 a turn is an individuals window for movement, actions, and bonus actions. As far as I know it is very consistent

Mike Q

17:45

@goodguy5 Seems reasonable. Players take "turns" in combat. Clerics can "turn" undead. That's two definitions.

goodguy5

ha, I meant more like your "turn" in the combat round and someone else's "turn"

I can't think of it clearly

maybe it's two "round"s?

Rubiksmoose

Why did SSD put that phrase in a quote box?

rpg.stackexchange.com/revisions/121147/6

Mike Q

@GreySage How do we re-jeff the chat? Do we need to summon a mod?

nitsua60

@MikeQ Or room owner

goodguy5

@GreySage a gentleman's updoot to you, sir.

GreySage

17:54

Do "chain weapons" exist in 5e? I cannot think of anywhere I've heard of them before.

Rubiksmoose

@GreySage They do not.

goodguy5

^

This is inherently a homebrew question

GreySage

Ok, I feel like SeraphsWrath comment is inherently confusing then.

goodguy5

and I feel that the top answer should parrot our usual "existing characters often make poor D&D characters"

can we summon seraph?

nope

GreySage

Like, this is a question about if a homebrew weapon that doesn't exist, no analogues or similar weapons exist, and we're not given any stats, works with a specific class feature.

goodguy5

17:58

Really, the question is "How can I build a Scorpion-esque character in 5e?"

GreySage

@goodguy5 That would have been a better question, yes

goodguy5

I almost typed "Moral Kombat", which gives an entirely different feel of game

Mike Q

@goodguy5 Isn't that just paladins

goodguy5

Actually, I might Frame Challenge that Mortal Kombat question....

ugh, he's already answered (marked an answer)

Mike Q

@goodguy5 Doesn't mean the question is closed. If you want to write up a different answer, go for it

goodguy5

18:24

eh, I don't

Rubiksmoose

there are no exotic weapons in 5e right?

Tiggerous

PHB (I think it's the PHB?) provides some exotic names for weapons that it recommends you use to simply re-skin existing weapons for an eastern setting.

goodguy5

@Rubiksmoose not at this time, likely not ever

Tiggerous

It could be the DMG...

goodguy5

@Tiggerous in the monk block

Rubiksmoose

18:31

@Tiggerous yeah I remember that too, but none that require different proficiency from the weapon they are stated for if I recall right?

goodguy5

Feel free to ask your DM what kind of weapon you want to use. Monk weapons examples: a Kodachi (a curved short sword like a small katana and uses short sword stats), a Kunai (a small black knife that can be thrown which also has a small hole at the bottom of the handle indicating it can be used to fix it to a chain and uses dagger stats), a Guandao (a Chinese polearm..)

there might be another place, as well

Tiggerous

No, it's simply re-skinning existing weapons, no mechanical differences. In one of the streams I watch, they've done that and the monk wields a guandao. It works really nicely as a very simple thing that evokes a lot of flavour.

Rubiksmoose

@Tiggerous agreed.

goodguy5

I would suggest a kukri is a dagger that does slashing damage... though, a kukri might actually be closer to a short sword...

nm, 16 inches, definitely a dagger

Rubiksmoose

oh hey OP changed their selected answer on the MK question

should have gone for it @goodguy5 (still can too)

goodguy5

18:35

nah. not doin it

besides, I should be working

Tiggerous

The only answers I've ever written have been while I was supposed to be working. Questions too, come to think of it...

GreySage

@Tiggerous I've done one or two from home, but yeah, mostly an at-work thing

Tiggerous

They pay me to to write and edit copy, and this is both copy-writing and copy-editing, so that's good right?

goodguy5

yea, it's "Professional Development"

David Coffron

@goodguy5 I couldn't find that line in the PHB. Is it somewhere else? I checked XGtE and SCAG

goodguy5

18:45

@DavidCoffron it should be under the monk section

David Coffron

@goodguy5 Nope and I think I found your source for it (it's not a perfect quote)

goodguy5

here's the actual quote from my phb pdf

For example, you might use a club that is two lengths of wood connected by a short chain (called a nunchaku) or a sickle with a shorter, straighter blade (called a kama). Whatever name you use for a monk weapon, you can use the game statistics provided for the weapon in chapter 5.

David Coffron

Yeah that is the quote I used in my answer

goodguy5

I didn't have the pdf up, so I grabbed it offline

David Coffron

I just wanted to add your examples if I could find an official source for them as it would add more credence

goodguy5

18:48

ah

HellSaint

@Tiggerous I'm not the only one - yay.

goodguy5

I wonder if that other example is a different translation or something

David Coffron

Perhaps

The Oracle

0

Q: How do I ask a question across multiple editions but is tightly coupled?

Something an old DM of mine has done with an NPC has bothered me for going on 20+ years now and wanted to leverage the community to help me settle it. The issue is this particular NPC hated by all (I mean absolutely reviled) has been in every iteration when we change editions. He has been update...

discussion

Tiggerous

19:08

How do I know if I previously suggested an edit but it was refused?

I'm trying to work out if an edit I thought that I submitted was refused, or if I just goofed and didn't press send on it, or something.

David Coffron

I looked at the history of suggested edits. It looks like you haven't super recently, when was this supposed to take place?

Tiggerous

If it was refused, I obviously won't just resend it, but if I goofed then I might do...

HellSaint

@Tiggerous If you are talking about the tag edit on my question, it was refused by a mod

Tiggerous

OK, cool

David Coffron

Oh. That one

Yeah

I'm blind

HellSaint

19:10

You can check in your Profile -> Posts Edited -> Suggestions

David Coffron

the system-agnostic tag is very specific about how it can be used

Tiggerous

@HellSaint I guess I must have misunderstood the tag then. Thanks guys.

David Coffron

The comment to his rejection was "This edit introduces tags that do not help to define the topic of the question. Tags should help to describe what the question is about, not just what it contains." If that helps you at all

HellSaint

@Tiggerous Don't worry. I was also thinking if I should put that tag, I just choose to not to after checking the kind of question on that. Then I thought something like "if it should be tagged as such someone more experienced will come and do it lol"

Tiggerous

Or some idiot like me will come and do it then have it rejected, you'll know either way.

HellSaint

19:13

Don't be too harsh on yourself :P

Tiggerous

It's all good, learning outcome for both of us.

David Coffron

@Tiggerous some of the most veteran users here have had issues with that tag; you are all good

HellSaint

Take it from me - I wrote BBGE instead of BBEG like 10 different times on a recent answer.

David Coffron

@HellSaint I saw that lol. I was wondering if I just misunderstood your usage of the acronym

I was thinking Big Bad Guy that is Evil XD

HellSaint

BBGE - Big Bad Goofy Elk.

Tiggerous

19:14

@HellSaint Oh yeah, I saw that, it was fun :P

David Coffron

Maybe you wanted to be hyper-PC and not judge him for his evil-ness but just suggest that he is evil but still a Guy worthy of Guy-hood

Tiggerous

Hmm, on reflection I'm still not sure I really understand the criticism of that edit, but I'll be more cautious when applying that tag in the future.

David Coffron

At tiggerous: see the tag description The question involved does have to do with game mechanics, and game context does matter (some systems may have specific methods to deal with this problem)

doppelgreener

FWIW the decision I made to reject the edit to add that tag was personal; on principle it can go either way and on a personal level I don't think it needs it.

Other people might have decided differently.

Sys-ag "doesn't describe question content" for that question, but nearly universally can't do that definitionally anyway.

HellSaint

@doppelgreener yeah, when I've read your reason to refuse I almost went to meta to ask "is sys-ag a necessary/useful tag?" lol

I mean, if it depends on the system, it should be tagged with the system - if not, then just don't tag at all (?)

doppelgreener

19:24

That's my thinking as well

It exists because of reasons that are largely historical and date back to the first 2-3 years of the site and its paradigms then

David Coffron

@HellSaint @doppelgreener I find it useful as many new users don't tag a system when a tag is necessary. Instead, a sys-ag tag shows they don't have a system in mind (so we don't have to ask necessarily)

doppelgreener

@DavidCoffron Lack of a tag also does that

Tiggerous

So, whether the question is system agnostic or not doesn't really matter, because it's not relevant to the question or the answer that it is or isn't system agnostic?

doppelgreener

@Tiggerous all of the above

HellSaint

@doppelgreener I think he meant that sometimes lack of a tag means they forgot to tag haha

David Coffron

19:26

@HellSaint or didn't know to

Tiggerous

@doppelgreener OK, thanks. I appreciate you taking the time to talk about it (it's my first refused edit).

HellSaint

While the tag sys-ag explicitly says "i didn't forget to tag - the question is indeed independent from the system."

doppelgreener

@HellSaint Right, but either the question needs information about a system or it doesn't. If it needs information about a system we ask about that; if we have that information but the tag is missing we tag it; if we don't need the system then it's fine to just not tag a system (we have lots of questions that don't relate to any specific game system and simply don't have a game system tag and that's that).

I don't feel sys-ag has a serious role at this point in that process.

HellSaint

@doppelgreener I agree with you, I was just clarifying his point haha

David Coffron

@Tiggerous it is your fourth according to history...

Tiggerous

19:29

@DavidCoffron Ah - well the first I've noticed then. Haha!

HellSaint

Most of the sys-ag questions are social, problem-players or something on those lines, so yeah, I agree that the tag most of the times doesn't introduce any new information on the question.

@Tiggerous some edits are refused by the Community profile because they clash with another edit made after it. You might not notice those.

Tiggerous

@HellSaint Yeah, at least one of them was that. I'm learning lots today :).

@DavidCoffron Can I see my 'history' somewhere?

David Coffron

@Tiggerous stackexchange.com/users/7773745/tiggerous?tab=activity If you click the revisions tab here, you can see all the revisions you've made

@Tiggerous I don't think there is a way to see rejected edits without reaching a high enough reputation to view the suggested edits queue

Tiggerous

19:48

@DavidCoffron That's what I was wondering. I can see them under the 'all actions' -'suggestions' section on my RPG SE profile, but I think they only go back a certain number of days, so I can only see three rejections there.

doppelgreener

That history is unlimited. You only have three rejected edits recorded on RPG.SE.

However this line shows up on any of your revisions...

> Tiggerous had 26 edit suggestions approved, and 4 edit suggestions rejected

i'm not sure where that 4th comes from

David Coffron

Yeah. I was very confused

Maybe it counts one from another stack?

Tiggerous

Oh, that's possible.

I did dabble in VBA a few times and ask some really stupid programming questions...

doppelgreener

Those stats are local to the stack.

e.g. on another stack I have this line show up:

> doppelgreener had 2 edit suggestions approved, and 0 edit suggestions rejected

Tiggerous

Oh well, it's a mystery...

doppelgreener

19:52

Maybe it comes from a deleted post.

David Coffron

How do I pull up my history like that?

Like my suggestion history, not review history

doppelgreener

@DavidCoffron There's a "suggestions" tab in your activity

David Coffron

Oh I only have one, guess I climbed rep too fast...

Glad I picked up that badge somehow though

Rubiksmoose

@DavidCoffron Gotta go fast...

David Coffron

I like how my accepted edit actually got reverted by mod...

rpg.stackexchange.com/posts/113706/revisions

goodguy5

19:57

fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine
https://rpg.stackexchange.com/a/121163/34716

gawd

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 Instead of saying "frame challenge" you might say "here's a way that you can more accurately mimic the Scorpion character and not just his weapons"

David Coffron

@goodguy5 I don't think piercing damage with a spell would be overpowered, but it is unprecedented...

although we have slashing with cloud of daggers (i forgot) just ignore me

GreySage

@DavidCoffron I think the only time damage type matters is resistances and immunities, and the vast, VAST majority of them are overcome by magic, so piercing wouldn't really matter either way.

doppelgreener

@DavidCoffron sometimes we say "(spoilers for X)", but just "spoilers" doesn't do much -- spoilers for what? For D&D 5e adventures we've got adventure-specific tags, so I've added the HOTDQ adventure tag and made the quote a spoiler quote.

rpg.stackexchange.com/search?q=spoilers

David Coffron

@doppelgreener makes sense (also I didn't know about those tags, good to know)

doppelgreener

20:07

(also remember: moderators can be wrong, and sometimes are tired and/or not paying 100% attention. we are not infallible.)

2

David Coffron

@doppelgreener can i quote you on that ;P

Rubiksmoose

1 min ago, by doppelgreener

(also remember: moderators can be wrong, and sometimes are tired and/or not paying 100% attention. we are not infallible.)

doppelgreener

yes

diamond moderators are human like all the other moderators (which is to say, all of you)

David Coffron

I would like to note that this is my favorite corner of the internet for reasons like that (acknowledgment that everyone is of value)

doppelgreener

there is a borg diamond conversion process being developed but that's not ready yet. once the hivemind has been launched and all diamond moderators are assimilated, our actions will be 99.99% consistent, except also equally fallible.

David Coffron

20:10

all moderators or all diamond moderators? I would love to join the borg hive

Rubiksmoose

@DavidCoffron yeah but the upper crust is clearly more valuable. They are diamonds and we are but coal. ;)

doppelgreener

all diamond moderators sorry

GreySage

@doppelgreener Isn't that what BESW already is?

doppelgreener

all moderators comes later once the beta test has been done

@GreySage that's the suspicion, but possibly a separate collective

David Coffron

@Rubiksmoose Can Superman Really Turn Coal to Diamond?

GreySage

20:12

Tangent: I hate when I go to bed early specifically so I'll be less tired than I normally am in the morning, only to wake up even worse than normal the next day.

David Coffron

Literally me every day I have off

Rubiksmoose

@DavidCoffron I'll have to watch when I have access.

HellSaint

How can I move comments to chat? Sometimes a link "automatically move comments to chat" shows up, but I don't know how to make it manually. Only mods can do it?

The comments I want to move are here rpg.stackexchange.com/a/121108/43856 - Zeus onwards is, again, an extended discussion.

David Coffron

@HellSaint If you keep commenting you will get the link eventually (it uses an algorithm to provide the link). Otherwise, someone with enough privileges (possibly requires diamond mod) can move it

Mike Q

That question should probably get protected sometime soon. It's getting a lot of quick advice answers.

Rubiksmoose

20:21

@HellSaint flag it for the mods

Just use a custom flag like what you just said and they'll be more than happy to take care of it.

David Coffron

@MikeQ It only got one answer that a standard protection would have prevented. Just saying

Rubiksmoose

@HellSaint and yeah only the mods can do it unfortunately.

KorvinStarmast

@HellSaint There is a product called "Big Green Egg" (a kind of covered grill for food) that is called by some a BGE; it comes in numerous sizes, the largest of which might be a BBGE: bloody big green egg. :)

@doppelgreener Ah ha! And you kept trying to keep my discovery of the hive mind down. 8^D Loose Lips Sink (Borg)ships.

BESW

20:46

@hohenheim Morts, maybe.

Depends on the kind of thing you're looking to run.

doppelgreener

@HellSaint The comments you flagged for removal, I can't actually move to chat. I can only either remove them or leave them alone. Is there anything you'd like to keep from them before I do the former?

BESW

@GreySage, @MikeQ A conversation last night precipitated the removal of jeff, which I'd been considering for some time, for reasons enumerated in the conversation.

Author @NicolasHornyak brings us this month’s Fate World of Adventure: Arecibo, a sort of Stranger Things/Cthulhu mash-up set on Puerto Rico. Profits from our 2018 DriveThruRPG sales of this title will be donated to the Hispanic Federation’s UNIDOS effort. http://drivethrurpg.com/product/240445/Arecibo-o-A-World-of-Adventure-for-Fate-Core?affiliate_id=24139

Tweeted by fredhicks on April 23, 2018 at 7:53 PM

KorvinStarmast

@kviiri The Man Who Was Thursday is worth a read, and it's not too long. An interesting example of English literature.

@BESW in re random; D&D 5e still has the wand of wonder, which is what the Wild Mage table looks a lot like; turning the wild magic sorcerer into the occasional wand of wonder ... or a potted plant.

BESW

21:01

Oh joy, more opportunities for affirmations of in-culture signifiers via dated absurdist recitation.

KorvinStarmast

What is that in response to?

GreySage

I feel like that sword and spell question is a dupe

But actually looking stuff up takes effort

BESW

@KorvinStarmast I have only ever known one group of gamers who would not, upon someone turning into a potted plant, immediately burst into not-actually-funny-the-fiftieth-time Douglas Adams quotations.

KorvinStarmast

@BESW grin I hate to tell you this, but for a moment I thought you might have been referring to the comment made by Oliver North's lawyer during his senate hearings; "I am not a potted plant.' (He was trying to get North to shut up)

@BESW I was ill for a few weeks (had mononucleosis) around the time North's hearings were on TV. Better than Jerry Springer, I suppose.

@BESW (I am guessing that the Adams quotations are as ubiquitous as, in some circles, Monty Python quotes). Read the first book, liked it, the second one didn't do anything for me so I stopped. My brother heard the radio show version and loved it.

HellSaint

@doppelgreener Nah, nothing I want to keep. I just asked to move to chat because the Zeus guy could be interested in the discussion haha

@BESW lol the community history class was fun

Rubiksmoose

21:19

I don't understand this grease thing. Don't people understand that candles can be made out of grease, butter is grease, pizza is covered in grease. None of these things are viewed as dangerously flammable IRL except under very specific circumstances.

BESW

@KorvinStarmast Yeah. Python and Adams quotes occupy the same space in geek culture. What humor they originally possessed (and particularly in Adams' case it was often rather thin) was based largely on being unexpected. Through repetition they've lost their original meaning and become recitational shibboleths, chanted by the group to affirm each member's belonging.

Sir Cinnamon

@Rubiksmoose I fully agree with you. But I did allow the grease spell to start a fire once because it was funny

GreySage

@Rubiksmoose Probably because Grease is similar to Oil, and Oil is flammable (in certain circumstances, by certain types of oil).

Rubiksmoose

@SirCinnamon Oh I would probably absolutely allow it. But I don't get the thinking that it HAS to be flammable and that the DM has no say in it.

BESW

It's creepy and makes people feel unwelcome if they can't or don't want to participate.

2

Rubiksmoose

21:25

@GreySage yeah that is the thing isn't it. Very circumstantial.

BESW

@Rubiksmoose I suspect it's memetic.

And, well. I'm always suspicious of "realism" arguments for not allowing players to do a cool thing.

The Fudge Factor website is back — it was a sort of online ‘zine’ for the FUDGE system back in the early 00’s. For a bit of history, here’s my 2001 article talking about this new-fangled idea Rob and I had called Aspects. http://www.fudgefactor.org/2001/10/01/aspects.html

Tweeted by fredhicks on April 23, 2018 at 8:09 PM

Sir Cinnamon

@Rubiksmoose Sometimes players get uppity and you have to throw a family of dragons at them to keep them in their place /s

Rubiksmoose

@BESW in this case it is more like the rules are vague on the issue. and I'm all in favor of giving the DM the freedom to allow it. Saying that grease must be flammable (in a mechanically significant way) by definition is kinda silly.

@SirCinnamon yeah take 'em down a few pegs. ;)

Sir Cinnamon

Often, especially at the table, a ruling that falls against the party is seen as the DM unfairly hindering them, while rulings in their favour are seen as purely logical and fair (by the players that is)

BESW

@Rubiksmoose D&D has a lot of memetic truth values, inherited from previous editions/generations so long as the primary mode of learning to play is being taught by a more experienced player.

Sir Cinnamon

21:28

at least thats my experience. It's a purely natural bias

Rubiksmoose

@BESW that makes a lot of sense. I was brought up by friends on stories of 3 and earlier editions and the crazy stuff they did. And that definitely colored the way I learned the game from them.

BESW

One GM's choice becomes the next GM's habit becomes the next GM's rule.

Many people who are quite proficient with D&D have read very little of the books, and that's not bad! But it creates even more divergence of experience and expectation than D&D inherently has already.

(This is one reason "rules as written" is a tool of limited value; its original purpose was to create a common shared baseline for discussion of the game across groups, but the rules as written are often not actually a shared baseline because many participants aren't familiar with the text at all.)

Rubiksmoose

Maybe related, but I know almost nothing about the lore of D&D despite my generally being rather experienced running/playing it. But my DM has experience from many editions.

BESW

I think that's definitely related.

All the 3.5 games I ran, I ran in custom-designed worlds to a greater or less extent.

I had one group who "knew the lore" so well that I actively disrupted everything about the D&D setting in order to get them out of the books and back into the game.

Rubiksmoose

that was probably not at all an easy task I imagine.

BESW

21:35

No, but it was fun.

I took a "standard" D&D 3.5 setting and gave it dying magic, with the attendant social upheavals. And across the sea was a new continent full of magic and weird stuff. So the campaign was about going to the new place where everything was different.

Rubiksmoose

I'll bet it was! for all of you I imagine.

Oh man that sounds really neat actually.

(I've actually gtg unfortunately, but hopefully I can hear more about it later)

BESW

ttfn

HellSaint

Oh, Rubik's sentence made me remember something I wanted to ask. I've played D&D mostly on homebrew worlds, campaigns and everything else. I know very little about actual settings from the books - even the most well known FR. Where should I start? :P

David Coffron

@HellSaint What version?

edition*

HellSaint

I'm currently playing 5e - but I'm not sure how much has changed from each edition about the history of the worlds.

Although I know the Forgotten Realms have changed alot with the editions

David Coffron

21:50

The history hasn't changed but the relevant divinities, cosmology, major players, etc. has changed ALOT

in both FR and Eberron

(the two most popular)

If you just want forgotten realms history check out this YouTube channel

HellSaint

So, for 5E - where can I read about them? For FR, I know there is SCAG, but is there any more TL;DR version to start with, or just jump and dive into SCAG?

David Coffron

The DMG touches on a tiny bit but SCAG is the way to go (and Volo's Guide to Monsters after that)

for current FR

HellSaint

@DavidCoffron I already liked seeing the same DM screen I use. haha

What about Eberron?

I remember seeing something on UA, but that was all

@mxyzplk There was a comment about my conversation with goodguy5, but then there were more comments that were chatty and didn't add anything to the answer and @doppelgreener deleted them. I suppose he ended up deleting the comment from the other mod about the earlier conversation.

David Coffron

@HellSaint 5e hasn't touched on Eberron officially minus what is barely touched on in mentions

HellSaint

Besides FR, is there any specific universe with enough published content on 5e?

David Coffron

21:59

4

A: For the 5th edition, what Eberron-like official settings exist?

As someone pointed out in a comment up above, D&D is inherently high magic. Virtually all of the official D&D game settings are high fantasy/high magic, with the exception of maybe Dark Sun, but Dark Sun hasn't been ported to 5e yet. I recommend you either homebrew your own setting and impose li...

Short answer: No

There are some fairly well-built third party settings though @HellSaint

You can browse here: (dmsguild.com)

KorvinStarmast

22:23

@BESW I can see that. My brother insists that I never really got the "real" Adams since the way the humor comes off in the radio show is different from printed page. Someday, maybe, I'll find a CD collection and listen to the radio show episodes ....

doppelgreener

@HellSaint Whoops, yes I did

[undeletes it]

HellSaint

Feeling sad that I can't grind reputation. 200/day is way too little for a dungeon crawler. kappa.

@doppelgreener no worries, I just informed the guy with awkward and unpronounceable name what probably happened haha

Ben

Can I throw a battleaxe?

HellSaint

You can.

Will it be effective? Not exactly.

Ben

Hmmm

Fair enough

HellSaint

22:35

I mean, it depends on the system, but I usually assume it's D&D5E as it is the most movement we got around

Throwing a weapon that doesn't have the Thrown property is the same as improvising a weapon. That means no bonus proficiency and the damage die is a d4. (Anything else I forgot?)

Ben

Ohhh ok

The Oracle

1

Q: How do we save designer reasoning questions?

I think we have a bit of a problem with designer reason questions on the site. We have 15 Meta questions about designer reasoning questions: https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/designer-reasons And we have 66 of them on the main site: https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/tagg...

discussion designer-reasons

Ben

@HellSaint In which case if I took "Tavern Brawler" as a feat...

> You are proficient with improvised weapons and unarmed strikes.

Shalvenay

hey there @HellSaint @SimonH.

Simon H.

Hello @shalvenay

Shalvenay

22:43

how're things going?

Simon H.

pretty good, how about you?

Ben

Then I just need to take Dual wielder, and I can swing around 2 battleaxes :D

Shalvenay

doing fine here

Simon H.

just drooling at the inkarnate pro features

BESW

@KorvinStarmast Eh. Delivery can only improve it a little; a major problem with Adams' writing is that it's extremely repetitive. After a little exposure you can see the setup/punchline structure coming from a mile away every time, and since the structure relies on the punchline being unexpected, the repetition quickly saps the life out of the writing.

Simon H.

22:44

I missed it when it came out, but it looks totally worth it

BESW

He's better with TV scripts, because then he can work with sight gags and physical humor as well. Adams' run on Doctor Who was hit and miss, but it provides some of the Fourth Doctor's best moments and some of the show's most surreally weird moments too.

Simon H.

do you guys use inkarnate?

BESW

Recently the only campaigns that have felt like they needed maps, we've used annotated Google Maps documents.

Ben

So, we've started a new group... and we're doing a sort of "hub world" idea, so that when we switch out GM's, we don't need to worry about using the same worlds or whatever.

Transcript for