I actually think 1 faulty general, 1 honest general, honest Emperor isn't solvable in a sense because the Honest general can't distinguish it from the dishonest Emperor
Yeah, but I'd say the point is to get a reasonably high threshold where we can say "the system'll work correctly if at most this many nodes are faulty"
>It can be shown that if n is the number of generals in total, and t is the number of traitors in that n, then there are solutions to the problem only when n > 3t and the communication is synchronous
When we get to communications being unreliable --- as they are in real life --- it's easy to see why scheduling RPGs is hard. Because it's actually impossible to schedule anything between even two people if communications aren't 100% reliable :)
In order to schedule eg. a lunch date, I need to know she's coming too. So I send her a message and tell her I'd like to have a lunch date at that charming Uighur restaurant downtown. She's game, so she replies that she's coming if I am. But alas, since she can't be sure I received her message, I need to message her that I know she knows I'm coming. But since I can't know for sure she received it, she'll message me that she knows that I know that she knows that I'm coming... etc
"Confirmed, but I also need to know that you will attack or we will be overwhelmed. So I will attack at dawn if you attack too, so let me know that you know and are going"
Are you sure there's not a solution for N > 2T? Take the solution where every general 1) Broadcasts their vote to every other general; then 2) picks the most-sent response. I think this is tolerant for the most part - if it's an Honest Emperor, there are at least T+1 responses for (Emperor's will), since the honest generals all give back what their order is and these overshadow the traitors even if they all go the other way
Though I guess it gets much more complicated with a dishonest emperor
So scratch that, that solution is exactly as tolerant as the "Dumb Model" of just spitting back the order you're given
Yeah with (lets say) N=10 T=4 (including a dishonest emperor): 3 HG(Honest Generals) get a retreat signal from E 3 HG get an attack signal from E traitors tell the ones who see attack that they also got an attack vote (3 HG think the vote is 6 to attack) traitors tell those who were told to retreat that they got retreat (3 HG think the vote is 6 to retreat)
Do the sizes in D&D5e are Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Huge and Gargantuan? I've just found a website which has Fine, Diminutive and Colossal. But I'm not sure which edition is.
@EnderLook There really is nothing on that page stating what edition it is for, unless you already know the differences between editions. I wonder why so many DnD products (both WotC and 3rd party) refuse to simply label their content.
@doppelgreener Nah, burn down everything, figure out what went wrong, wait for the world to replenish itself, iterate. You might have to wait a few moments between iterations.
@GreySage what are you iterating? Burning? Feels like you should add an adapt code for what went wrong, so at least you are trying to make progress (even if the world still burns at least you aren't just burning it guaranteed)
@NautArch no problem, just a thought (as in, if it helped the answer). If it's better unsaid, then by all means :)
@GreySage ah. Maybe I was being overly fecicious. Kind of like the "Do you know the answer?" "Yes" (while technically answering the question, its being a bit anal about it's application)
@NautArch very good. I was thinking about adding a frame challenge or linking to another answer about handicapping players forcibly. It's good insight to add
If the players are on board with that kind of game it can be fun but it's a risky endeavor
(Even in my hyper-realistic "you die if you be dumb" campaigns where the players are expecting brutality, I would never gimp a full caster like that. Sure id cut off the tongue of the party-face if not a caster, or the high elf ranger, but not something so important to class identity; and even then, only if the players understand it's that kind of game)
@DavidCoffron I once had a chat with a DM who gleefully told me about a campaign where his players spent a week carefully choosing their characters' gear and items.... and the first session had them shipwrecked and all their gear washed away including the casters' books and focuses and reagents so all they had to rely on was their skills.
@BESW yeah no. Tell them going in that it will be a game like that. Jesus, GMs. People like surprises but they don't like feeling like their effort was wasted
@kviiri This is the same group that decided what they really needed was multiple interlocked tables to roll on for figuring out if the NPCs got pregnant depending on a variety of factors.
If it's a game that had any real chance of handling the whole pregnancy thing in a sensible way, I'd probably just ask my players what they think should happen
@kviiri Mmm. I'm also skeptical about any game where "did I get someone pregnant" is a common enough occurrance that the mechanics of it need to be addressed at all.
@BESW oh believe me, I would never run a game where it's an important part of the story unless everyone was comfortable. So I would probably never run one since I would be uncomfortable...
@NautArch in a related vein... we had to postpone the Very Definitely Final Session of CoS from last Thursday because of a very serious illness in the family for one player (a completely understandable reason). And this week's off the table for one of the players who's leaving for Vegas for the next two weeks
Ok so about two hours of semi-focused working and I've created a better, more elegant and faster substitute for that cluster-crashing jury rig that took me months to create
"Raymond Swan land illustrates the Xanathar ambushing explorers in the darkest depths of Undermountain, proving that the beholder crime lord's interests run deep beneath the city of Waterdeep."
@ACuriousMind My imagination has trouble seeing a Beholder as a crime boss. I mean, there's a certain poetic fit to a creature with countless eyes monitoring everything that goes on in a city, but... managing some mafia seems just so much below them.
@kviiri They crave power, and love scheming. Seems like a good fit to me.
Since they love complicated schemes, one would imagine that many of the "crime" operations further a deeper underlying goal, and are not just about short-term enrichment
The last time I had a crime syndicate in a D&D-like game, its ultimate boss was using the syndicate as just one part of a ridiculously ambitious multigenerational scheme to rule the entire nation.
I'm running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and curious as to how much of an open secret Xanathar's Guild is.
If someone has lived in Waterdeep for 20 years, a year, 2 months, a tenday, how much are they likely to know about Xanathar, Xanathar's Guild, and ruffians with eye tattoos?
@kviiri Mafia lets them A) Exert power on the city at large, and B) gather all sorts of reagents for magical experiments and schemes in spite of any nosy authority. Plus, built-in guards to weed out bothersome adventurers
@SirCinnamon hmmmmm maybe? It looks like the answer is only using really old sources, but I'm unfamiliar with the adventure. So proceed at your own risk I guess.
It doesn't seem like anything here would be a spoiler.
D&D 5e DMG page 111 - Foraging: How much times per day are characters able to forage? And how much time does it take? Or does foraging rolls represent the whole day of searches for food and water sources? Is possible to forage even when you are not in travels at a normal or slow pace, like camping?
@EnderLook In our 5e ToA campaign, its is a check made once per adventure day.
@EnderLook It does not impact travel time/speed unless the DM rules that it does.
For another treatment of how to fold foraging into a campaign, see the published adventure Out of the Abyss. There are sections of that adventure where foraging is more or less the key achievement on some adventure days.
@KorvinStarmast Important to note that the party includes a ranger--that has a big effect on the treatment of foraging.
@EnderLook I've always read it (when DMing) as a roll for the day, because that's the only way the numbers make any sense. (If an adventurer's raking in 1d6+WIS pounds of food multiple times a day, they're in the wrong business--they should be full-time foraging!)
I'm running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and curious as to how much of an open secret Xanathar's Guild is.
If someone has lived in Waterdeep for 20 years, a year, 2 months, a tenday, how much are they likely to know about Xanathar, Xanathar's Guild, and ruffians with eye tattoos?
