TRPG General Chat

BESW

12:00

Rubiksmoose

@kviiri not really. Only confirmation of stuff we already knew. Alas. Though Korvin had some interesting bad news about planes being reopoed which was enlightening.

Anyways I think any progress towards solving my issues will likely take a while

If any positive resolution even can

kviiri

oh nuts :(

vicky_molokh

I think there are still certain patterns to what kinds of stories can achieve mass interest once presented. Stories about remarkable characters in remarkable situations (usually action-packed or at least thriller-ish and with some sort of conflict) seem to be way better received by the general public (as distinct from cult followings). Odyssey, Genesis, Harry Potter, New Hope etc. Conversely, slice-of-life stories about unremarkable events of unremarkable people aren't met with such interest.

Am I perhaps overlooking some stories and thus seeing things in a skewed manner?

BESW

12:16

Sensationalism does sell, that's a truism. But it's important to remember that popularity doesn't happen in a vacuum; there are many many variables completely unrelated to content and theme which make or break a story's success, and a lot of them are present or absent based on existing infrastructure and assumptions about what WILL be popular.

By reading accounts from marginalized creators, we can quickly see lots of patterns about just how they get marginalized by systemic assumptions that marginalized stories don't sell.

So they don't get picked up, or they get less of a marketing push, they're published in off-peak times of the year, etc.

user15026

@BESW I think I will play this many, many, many times.

user15026

(starting right now)

user15026

@BESW I see this all the time in the romance world. (which let's be honest is most of what I pay attention to, and I am cool with that)

BESW

Here's the thing: the most profitable kind of novel, with the most sales, the most loyal followers of particular creators, the widest distributions? Romance novels.

Romance novels that are generally about pretty ordinary people doing the pretty ordinary thing of falling in love with each other.

But if you're not interested in romance novels you might never notice them.

user15026

Some of the best romances are...horribly mundane, in that sense.

user15026

12:21

Romances work because we can see ourselves in them.

BESW

And yes, within the romance novel genre, there's still massive categories where it's "common knowledge" that certain kinds of character will never sell big.

The big romance publishers tend to relegate all stories about POC to POC-specific sub-brands, as if being a person of color was itself a genre.

Which means that nobody who's not actively looking for a POC romance will see those options, so OF COURSE romances about POC don't sell as well.

The same kinds of nesting deliberate-obscurity-reinforcing-assumptions patterns happens in movies and TV shows, in other kinds of literature, everywhere.

vicky_molokh

@BESW I think this part is where we reached a consensus about the basics (i.e. I think I agree to what you wrote in this message), but are likely to have different views about the implications of that paragraph. Such as the degree of influence of other factors, and viability of non-sensationalist works in a hypothetical situation of those factors being removed.

BESW

Netflix recently "regretfully" cancelled a series that was very popular with queer and POC communities, claiming that it didn't have enough ratings to sustain more seasons. If you look more closely, you'll see that they didn't hype it as much as other shows which they're continuing to support despite having more lukewarm reception.

And how are we rating popularity? Online chatter? Most of that gets fueled by hype machines so it's not a useful measure.

vicky_molokh

@BESW That's a statement that I find hard to believe, but I wonder if that's because my romantic life was atypical and I'm outright wrong about my assessment of its plausibility as a result. (That is, my assessment is that fictional romances are both sensationalist and remarkable. Also probably idealised.)

But that's probably a tangent.

BESW

Speaking from personal experience, I guarantee that if you haven't read romance novels, you don't know what they're like. And if you've only read one, you still don't.

If anybody here is curious about romance novels, I suggest Dangerous Books for Girls as a good primer for knowing what you're getting into and giving a sense of the landscape.

vicky_molokh

12:30

If they're significantly different from, say, films based on them and their portrayal in their book reviews/descriptions, then yeah, that means I have a lack of understanding of what they are like.

user15026

Oh trust me romcoms et al are not representative of the book genre even a little

vicky_molokh

@Ash So e.g. Twilight the films are significantly different from Twilight the books?

user15026

@BESW I second this recommendation

BESW

@vicky_molokh Yes. And also the Twilight books are not representative of the majority of Romancelandia.

user15026

@vicky_molokh I could probably debate that, and find you books, but yeah, tangent.

user15026

12:34

@BESW suuuuuuuper not representative, yeah.

user15026

(I am a human who reads on average 350 books a year, and on average at least half are romances, so...I have some familiarity with large chunks of the genre)

BESW

Ash has been my guide to dabbling my toes in Romancelandia. I haven't found exactly what I like yet, but I've been pleasantly surprised by the breadth and depth of my options.

vicky_molokh

Carefully: I'm guessing Tanith Lee's Silver Metal Lover will be deemed even less representative . . .

user15026

@vicky_molokh nope, I could relatively easily find you more like that, for various aspects of "like that".

user15026

That would be relatively easy.

nitsua60

12:38

@vicky_molokh The wild successes of A Thousand Acres and The Shipping News when they came out spring immediately to mind as counterexamples.

BESW

@nitsua60 Since apparently "falling in love" is an exceptional experience in this context, I've concluded the conversation does not have a discernible thesis and I'm just going to talk to Ash about romance.

@Ash Did you ever see Hot Guys Making Out?

user15026

@BESW Doesn't immediately ring a bell.

Rubiksmoose

@Ash wow! That's an amazing number of books!

BESW

It's an RPG about exactly what it says on the tin!

> Hot Guys Making Out is about the relationship between Honoré, a former nobleman, and Gonsalvo, his ward. They are both totally gorgeous and have the hots for each other. Also pretty often there are other people trying to kill them. It is set in a remote village in the Pyrenees during the Spanish Civil War (1930s) but you don’t have to know anything at all about the history or setting to play. It also includes rules for character creation, in case you would like to make out with other hot guys in other hot settings.

user15026

@BESW oooh, interesting. I'd be curious to see how it is put together, and how well it avoids various of the more damaging m/m tropes

BESW

12:44

Probably not super well? It seems to be leaning hard into common seme/uke tropes?

user15026

Yeah, probably not, but I can see how it would have an appeal to certain groups. Not super my jam, but I am also bad at things like visual novels and such

user15026

I love the idea of VNs but cognitive processing wise they're not a thing I actually enjoy

BESW

It's also of interest to me because it uses a deck of playing cards for its action resolution.

vicky_molokh

> "falling in love" is an exceptional experience in this context

I didn't mean the falling in love part as what made the romance stories I'm familiar with as remarkable, but rather the way it happens and how it ends, but I'm fine with the romance literature topic being passed to those who are experts/readers thereof.

user15026

@BESW interesting choice.

user15026

12:48

@vicky_molokh there are, I feel the need to point out, hundreds of ways it happens and even more ways it ends, the only rule of romancelandia is that it must have a happily ever after or happy for now ending.

user15026

(but emphasis is heavily on the HEA ending)

BESW

@Ash You take turns playing cards or passing; if you play a card of higher value than the previous card, you get to say a line or two of your character's behavior (usually constrained by your individual flaws, but special cards transcend those limits). If you pass, you discard and draw another card and describe the scenery a little.

doppelgreener

@BESW nooooo :(

BESW

> Note: If you choose to pass, but can’t think of any detail to add, simply wait a moment of tense silence, then note the end of your turn. Tense silences are always appropriate.

doppelgreener

Sounds like a case of one group being judged on potential and also given the resources, while another is judged on actual results while not being given the resources to expand them.

Rubiksmoose

12:51

@Ash super tangent: you know this is something I've often wondered about. I'm a very fast reader of text (or at least I think I am) I am generally faster than my wife at reading text based media at least. But when it comes to mixed graphic/text media like VNs or even just newspaper comic strips or memes I am so much slower at getting through them than her. I always wonder if there's a reason for that

BESW

@doppelgreener Yup. Common institutional pattern that reinforces expectations and makes an artificial trend seem "natural."

@Rubiksmoose Your brain is switching input modes between text and visuals. That can be tiring, and/or make it slower to process either because your brain doesn't transition quickly or because it also requires synthesis.

user15026

@Rubiksmoose for me its a mental processing issue, but I suspect this might be another case of "oh hey you just do the neurotypical thing but more", my brain handles text parsing much better than images to the point where traditional comics are so hard for me to focus on I avoid them completely. Graphic novels take me forever, and VNs are just...frustratingly slow and then also I tend to blind spot miss things.

user15026

@BESW giggles

Rubiksmoose

I'm there same way!

David Coffron

@Rubiksmoose Two different skillsets. Identifying text and identifying images use different parts of the brain. Possibly (could be other factors) your "text-reading" brain goo is more efficient than your wife's while your wife is more efficient when using the brain goo for "text-reading" and "image-reading" together

BESW

12:55

A LIST OF GALAXY-SPANNING EVENTS TO WRITE ABOUT THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH WAR/MILITARY Space operas are great right!! Space! Space makes everything better! But unfortunately, far too many space operas are about one thing: war

Tweeted by ellle_em on March 29, 2019 at 11:35 AM

Rubiksmoose

Or at least it seems so by your description. I still struggle through the occasional manga though

BESW

I keep seeing dungeon master types disparaging themselves with phrases like NewbDM, baby DM, or some other way to showcase they don't think you are good enough. DMs are rare in the wild and players should be dancing with joy that you are providing a game! (Cont'd)

Tweeted by AntediluvianG on March 28, 2019 at 10:20 PM

David Coffron

Some reading on split-brain syndrome can make this apparent

Split-brain

Split-brain or callosal syndrome is a type of disconnection syndrome when the corpus callosum connecting the two hemispheres of the brain is severed to some degree. It is an association of symptoms produced by disruption of or interference with the connection between the hemispheres of the brain. The surgical operation to produce this condition (corpus callosotomy) involves transection of the corpus callosum, and is usually a last resort to treat refractory epilepsy. Initially, partial callosotomies are performed; if this operation does not succeed, a complete callosotomy is performed to mitigate...

user15026

@doppelgreener from everything I have read about the show in question, if I am correct about it (which is one I loved with all my heart), yeah, pretty much that.

Rubiksmoose

@DavidCoffron that is fascinating

user15026

12:57

@Rubiksmoose I do read some graphic novels if the images aren't complex, like I read Digger and Persopolis and I love Lucy Knisley's work

user15026

But they take me....forever, compared to a text book of similar size.

BESW

Yeah, for pure text Ash is one of the fastest readers with good retention I've ever met.

user15026

I can read a 500 page dense history with antiquated language in a week with breaks for "okay wow they're torturing again need to take a breather" but a similar length graphic novel takes way longer with way more processing breaks.

BESW

And with dense, complex texts, too!

user15026

@BESW something tells me we are thinking of the same example :p

Rubiksmoose

12:59

I did read through most of Sandman and I think I found myself getting better at it as I went along.

BESW

Yes. Yes, we are.

David Coffron

@Rubiksmoose So in my view (super lay), you have better either short-term memory (to recall the previous sentence to make sense of the next), more efficient language centers, or better problem solving skills (for skimming and filling in the blanks). While your wife either has markable better image identifying and environment context reasoning (to compensate for the lesser text-reading assets), or just has better communication between her lobes.

BESW

@Ash I kinda want to have you read The Dawn-Breakers just out of curiosity about how you'll cope with it.

user15026

@BESW its on my list, I just have a pile of other things to read first in that regard. Do intend to tackle it, if nothing else to see Sheldon's face when I do :p

Derpy

@BESW give her a copy of Eragon. Bound to fall asleep in the first half of the book :P

Rubiksmoose

13:00

@DavidCoffron she definitely has better and faster image recognition then I do given that she crushes me in fast response pattern-recognition games (think slap Jack, or Set), but until now I had never thought of the two as potentially related.

user15026

I just am taking a break from history stuff for a bit.

Rubiksmoose

She's also done a lot of art training so I wonder if that helps.

BESW

@Ash Yeah, and I mean, you've already read God Passes By which is the Good Parts Version of The Dawn-Breakers.

user15026

@Derpy if you mean me, they/them. Also, I haven't read that yet but I should.

BESW

I suspect the only trouble you'd have with the language is all the names, though.

user15026

13:02

@BESW that is part of why I haven't read it yet, yes, because that's how everyone keeps describing it. :)

user15026

@Rubiksmoose it probably does!

David Coffron

@Rubiksmoose Practice is the best way to strengthen your brain's processes, so it likely has a big impact.

Those little dendrites need to connect to everything and work their little science-magic

BESW

Although at a certain point art training stops helping you easily parse visuals and starts having you stop to marvel at how well Britten and Brülightly is illustrated.

Rubiksmoose

(not to undersell her but she is really good at her artistic endeavors and it baffles me because I am so inept at it)

GcL

@Rubiksmoose Usually comes back to a variation of "Is it nature or nurture?"

Rubiksmoose

13:06

oh dear, and that's certainly a debate I am not qualified or willing to have lol

David Coffron

@Rubiksmoose I'm the same way with my girlfriends aptitude in makeup. I use to do makeup in high school for theater, and I was apparently not good at all (though I used to think I was pretty solid)

BESW

@GcL No, it's DiGiorno!

user15026

@Rubiksmoose I find people who can do creative art type things fascinating because that is not a thing I have much skill in. (I know practise could help me but I have other ways I prefer to express myself)

GcL

@BESW I'm highly entertained.

Derpy

@Ash who knows.. maybe you would like it? I do find the Eragon "trilogy" a little boring and not too well written (that said, this last point may be a consequence of reading a translated version of the book - perhaps it is better in its original version)

Rubiksmoose

13:07

@DavidCoffron I'm the guy who can struggle to make an identifiable stick figure (and I wish I was joking) lol

GcL

@Ash RPGs count as creative endeavors, no?

BESW

@Rubiksmoose I'm a professional artist/designer, and I can never get the proportions on stick figures right.

David Coffron

@GcL I think it's niter. Everything gets better with a little explosions

user15026

@Derpy perhaps I will fold them in as my next fantasy ish type read.

user15026

@Rubiksmoose stick people are tricky

Rubiksmoose

13:09

@Ash On art having to do with crafting with ones hands especially. Like I just can't see things in a way and my brain is just incapable of making the transition to idea or picture to reality. I am better at symbolic reprentation, but even then....

David Coffron

@Rubiksmoose I mean, what can you make identifiable about a stick person? You really only have their limb-proportions, face, and hair to work with. Making distinct characters out of that is hard

Rubiksmoose

My point being I have an awed respect for people who are good at that sort of thing.

user15026

@Rubiksmoose my motor skills definitely hamper me there, yeah.

GcL

@Ash They prefer to be called bidimensional persons

Rubiksmoose

@BESW well that is a bit nicer to hear. I can never get them right. And if they are sitting or bending just forget it lol

David Coffron

13:10

@GcL That sounds more insultig to my literary analysis mind (a 2-dimensional character is only slightly more interesting than a 1-dimensional character)

goodguy5

any news in flight-gate? @Rubiksmoose

David Coffron

GcL

@DavidCoffron A one dimensional character could be a point of interest or a long ~~tale~~ tail

BESW

@DavidCoffron Now we're talking Flatland.

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 alas no, not that I've seen yet today. Finally got our "official" notification via email telling us what the site notification already did (only 12 hours after they canceled the flight!). We'll see if my CU can get some blood from this rock. Or if some sort of class-action movement starts here.

user15026

13:13

@BESW another thing I need to read.

user15026

@Rubiksmoose here's hoping something happens, in a positive direction.

Rubiksmoose

@Ash I'm right there with you.

user15026

@Rubiksmoose yay, not being alone in that is nice.

Rubiksmoose

@Ash Thanks!

@DavidCoffron that's...beautiful

goodguy5

@DavidCoffron oh man.... my gutter brain mis-saw that that really bad

David Coffron

13:18

@Rubiksmoose Yeah. Very artistic with so little ink. Every time I look at it I see another reason to appreciate the attention to detail

user15026

Alright, I'm going to go be a dragon and get some more sleep, because my trainer cancelled our workout today. Thank you, as always, for letting me invade and participate, y'all are good humans.

Rubiksmoose

Thanks for invading and particiapting! Get some sleep!

BESW

ttfn

I should sleep soon too...

Taking my dad to the doctor in the morning.

@Derpy For my White Farmboy Fantasy Epic, I'd rather re-read the Prydain Chronicles or The Dark is Rising Sequence.

At least the Power Thing that got Taran started on his quest was an oracular pig.

(Disregard the film. It's fine on its own, but it mashed up two books and missed the point of both.)

Rubiksmoose

Sleep well!

kviiri

13:57

@BESW This was a great read, btw. Racial stereotypes and racism concerning Far Eastern cultures are not a very hot topic here so it's a great opportunity to learn

so thanks ^^

doppelgreener

@kviiri one thing you and I can now do is speak to others about it as it becomes relevant, so that the burden is more distributed

Because usually it is left solely to people like Mendez to explain and justify, and it's exhausting to have to do that all the time

Yuuki

14:16

@kviiri Model minority racism is a particularly weird thing to talk about because while it flips a lot of notions of typical racism on their heads but has the same results in the end.

At the end of the day, it's still other-ing an entire class of people.

kviiri

@Yuuki Yeah.

Yuuki

Whenever I bring it up, the general responses are typically "what's so wrong about people thinking you're really smart and good at math?". Well, if you're not good or even just average at math, people think it's all right to use this model minority stereotype to mock you for your performance. And if you are good at math, it just leads people to diminish your accomplishments.

5

kviiri

Yep

I'll be right back

Hot RPG Questions

14:39

4

Q: Disadvantage of gaining multiple level at once in short milestone-XP game

My recent campaign has been run in arcs of 4 to 6 month, between which we usually change system and rebuild the characters due to using a Work-In-Progress custom system. My players and I have been curious about using D&D a few times, but the leveling curve is bugging me. My problem is that I do...

KorvinStarmast

15:06

@Ash If you are a reader, I just finished a very good on by Patricia McKillip called Kingfisher. Her ability to mix the real and the surreal is top notch.

@Derpy It wasn't the translation that made Eragon boring ... but my son enjoyed it when he was in junior high.

Derpy

@KorvinStarmast I wanted to leave some margin for hope at least, but I doubt the 3? chapters about "Eragon and the magical life of ants" can be any better in English

Yuuki

I haven't read it in a really long time but what I can recall is that the worldbuilding was pretty interesting but the narrative was more of a soporific than anything.

KorvinStarmast

@Derpy chuckle what was interesting to me was that the author was a teen when it got published. So good for him.

Derpy

@Yuuki bingo.

KorvinStarmast

@Yuuki a fair critique

Derpy

15:13

@KorvinStarmast I know. Kudos for him, even if some part did have that "ghost writer" smell IMHO. That said, I walked in expecting something more dynamic (and probably less "Star Wars of the Rings")

KorvinStarmast

@Derpy A friend of mine described the LoTR movies as "Raiders of the Lost Ring" - and IIRC they made a mini series out of it, right? I mean Eragon.

Derpy

By which I mean that I probably had the wrong expectations.

KorvinStarmast

I seem to recall a mini series made out of Wizards First Rule (Goodkind) and it was no better than the books. I pushed through book 1, barely, and then after 20 pages of book two just had to stop.

My son made it through book 3 or 4 in high school, IIRC.

Derpy

@KorvinStarmast Eragon? Originally advertised as a Trilogy. In the end it spanned FOUR books.

As for the movies based on the books ... they kinda shot themselves in the foot after the first one.

KorvinStarmast

Well, GRR Martin did likewise with a song of fire and ice. Supposed to be 5 books .... uh, , and six/seven are still "somewhere in our future"

Derpy

15:16

They changed one little detail in the end of the movie adaptation - Murtag gets to stay with Eragon in the end.

Small problem they discovered only later - Murtagh leaving was central to the plot

KorvinStarmast

It's been so long since I read that book that I need to recall who Murtag was. ??

Hot RPG Questions

3

Q: "and that skill is always a class skill for you" - does "always" have any meaning in Pathfinder?

Many traits and (some feats, if my memory is right) have this rule written in them. For example: Trap Finder Benefit(s): You gain a +1 trait bonus on Disable Device checks, and that skill is always a class skill for you. In addition, you can use Disable Device to disarm magic traps, like...

pathfinder skills character-advancement

Derpy

@KorvinStarmast Basically the Anakin of the story.

KorvinStarmast

Got it, I did not try book 2 ... thanks.

The broody and pouty look is such a giveaway

vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/inheritance/images/d/d3/…

Yuuki

@Derpy Which is weird because I could've sworn the movie came out after book 3 or something.

KorvinStarmast

15:20

@Yuuki I am guessing that authors and screen writers have a love/hate relationship some times ...

Derpy

@Yuuki possible. Wouldn't exclude the altered plot was just story writer incompetence in deciding what they could change and what is better to leave alone.

KorvinStarmast

Aha, my dupe hammer got overturned, and then someone else applied their dupe hammer. Glorious churn at RPG.SE.

Yuuki

I mean, the source material wasn't all that great to start with.

I couldn't really tell you what the BBEG's motivations were nor the hero's motivations for taking down the BBEG.

Well, other than BBEG is evil so we have to defeat him.

Derpy

I mean.... in one of the live action adaptation of Death Note, the main character Light is able to use the Note to have some people killed as a side reaction of another person death. That is one of the first rules of the Note - no death can cause side harm to others. That is also a central point in the manga since if Light could have used side effect then he would have been able to kill L at any time he wanted instead of playing the cat&mouse game.

so... I am not surprised at all when I see an adaptation that changes a basic plot element and breaks all the plot as a result.

KorvinStarmast

I am still not sure why Haldir showed up at Helms Deep ... in the movies

Derpy

15:27

I am still not sure how Legolas showed up in the Hobbit...

Yuuki

@Derpy Someone flashed a bunch of zeroes at Orlando Bloom.

KorvinStarmast

@Derpy (1) profit motive and (2) as he was the son of the King of Mirkwood ... he was alive at the time

I was so disappointed with how they made that into 3 movies. So much filler.

Xirema

This seems like as good a time as any to link this (first of a ~~two~~ part series):

The Hobbit: A Long-Expected Autopsy (Part 1/2)

►

Derpy

@KorvinStarmast somehow I think reason (1) overweight reason (2) by far.

KorvinStarmast

@Xirema thank you big grin

nitsua60

15:33

@KorvinStarmast Legend of the Seeker, and I think it was made by SyFy. I bought it not because it was any good, but because I wanted to send the clear message to companies: "yes, please mine this (fantasy) vein."

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 fair enough

nitsua60

On a similar note MTV produced a Shanarra series. It wasn't bad. Reminded me of when they made My So-Called Life and the world was all, "MTV? Really? 'Cause that's good."

Derpy

@KorvinStarmast would you prefer the trailer for "The Pony: An Unexpected Journeight"?

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 ah, yeah

Derpy

@nitsua60 please don't take this as an offense... but I have to know. You were joking right? Not bad?

nitsua60

15:44

@Derpy Not joking. Watched the whole thing.

I mean, sure, it was teen romance all the way.

But someone made a Shanarra series--who else has done that?

With decent production value?

I'll take a second season.

Derpy

@nitsua60 romance is a tad reductive. It was borderline objectification imho... I doubt that portraying a main character as bisexual (please forgive me if this is not the most polite word to use, as I said, I am kinda struggling in how to express this kind of concepts in English) was done to "promote tolerance"... seemed pretty a lame move to me.

goodguy5

merrrrrrrrrrr

missed a phone screen for an interesting job

I had to call into some number, but thought they were just going to call me like every other phone screen I've ever done.

I remembered after 10 minutes and there was no one on the line.

I emailed back that it just wouldn't connect for 5 minutes, so we'll see.

Sir Cinnamon

Ugh, I hate those things - how hard is it to call my phone

goodguy5

ikr

I sat quietly next to my phone for 15 minutes, like an idiot (10:55-11:10)

GreySage

@goodguy5 Urhg, phone screens are some of the most stressful things I have ever done in my life. So many things can go wrong, so many ways to screw it up...

goodguy5

15:59

@GreySage at least I'm at a job now, so it's effectively zero stress

I'm personable AF, and initial screens are usually personality and basic competency tests, anyway

David Coffron

@GreySage I did a phone screen for my current job. Wasn't that stressful to me, but then again I already had two other interviews lines up so it was more of a "I'll see if this one is better" (turned out it was)

GcL

@GreySage How do you feel about video call interviews?

better? worse?

Sir Cinnamon

I found job hunting extremely tedious and stressful after I graduated

GreySage

@goodguy5 That is good. When I was first looking for a job after graduation they were super high stressors for me, knowing that if I didn't do well and get a job soon I might not be able to live.

goodguy5

personally, I hate them. Unless I'm at a video center for the company. like "go to this office to interview for this other office".

I don't want people looking at the inside of my home and webcams are not flattering

Rubiksmoose

16:02

@GcL I've never had one, but I hate the idea.

GreySage

@GcL About the same. I'm socially awkward, I don't like the phone, I get nervous in interviews, AND I have a speech impediment, so it's really hard for me to make a good impression remotely. I do much better in person.

goodguy5

oh yea. when I was hunting and got the job I'm working now

I was with a contracting company that "promised" to take care of me.

We moved home from Chicago after two years. Got an apartment, all the while this company saying that they'd have me placed in the Philly area in 1-3 months.

we moved back in November. Right before Christmas, the contracting company lays me off.

And my full time job becomes looking for a job so that we can pay our rent before we run out of money.

GcL

@Rubiksmoose I found it was pretty nice if I could share my screen as a show and tell.

@goodguy5 yikes. That sounds awful.

goodguy5

it was pretty poopy

Rubiksmoose

@GcL huh, I've never had a real need to do so in an interview, but I suppose I can see how one might and that would be a nice advantage.

GcL

16:05

How did it turn out?

goodguy5

but I scored a much better job than they could have gotten me, so it worked out

GcL

That's a good ending. I like this story better now.

goodguy5

This was in .. 2015?

I've been with the company I'm at since then (2016) and my wife and I have a house and a baby now, so life is all good.

Sir Cinnamon

Woohoo! Happy Ending

goodguy5

But I was applying for 3+ jobs a day. I was writing cover letters and tailoring my resume when needed.

GreySage

16:07

@goodguy5 I'm automatically jealous of your having a house.

GcL

@goodguy5 That is the way to do it. Hiring managers recognize when you've taken the time to write a cover letter for the specific job and tailor your resume.

@goodguy5 I hope the baby is nice to you and lets you sleep someday.

Sir Cinnamon

@GcL Good hiring managers do

GreySage

@goodguy5 Yeah, it doesn't seem like it but job hunting is exhausting. I would spend 2-3 hours looking for/applying to jobs, writing cover letters and tailoring my resume, and then just be wasted the entire day.

goodguy5

Thanks! ^_^

We like it. Little rancher near her parents. Finished basement. Near (enough) to train, etc.

Sir Cinnamon

instead of an HR rep who doesnt know what exactly they're hiring for and just takes a list of keywords and searches your resume for them

goodguy5

16:09

@GcL fingers crossed. We can reliably get him to sleep for 2+ hours a stretch at night

Sir Cinnamon

5 years experience in a software that came out 3 years ago sort of requirements

GcL

@SirCinnamon That's funny. I remember seeing that for AJAX experience a number of years back. It was pretty amusing to chat with them about that.

goodguy5

It's all about formatting your resume and spinning it.

GcL

@goodguy5 I imaging that makes it a lot harder to read.

goodguy5

@GcL Should have used jquery

GcL

16:10

Unless it's a really slow rotation.

Sir Cinnamon

@GcL Nah you format it like one of those LED fans that makes text+pictures, then you spin it

GcL

@goodguy5 this pre-dated jquery

GreySage

@GcL No, you spin it back to front to create a 3d optical illusion. The real resume is in the illusion.

goodguy5

@GcL referencing a stack meme

GcL

I pay as little attention to js as I can get away with.

Rubiksmoose

16:13

@goodguy5 THIS. Seriously, my resume got me so many compliments when I would hand them out a job fairs. Like almost every single person would comment on it. I spent hours just tweaking the formatting.

But it really paid off. Then I gave my design to my wife when she started looking and she noted the same effect lol.

goodguy5

@Rubiksmoose I was really fortunate that the contracting place, if nothing else, had put a lot of work in perfecting this formatting and taught it to us.

GcL

@Rubiksmoose I like it when at least one of the interviewers recognizes LaTeX typesetting and T1 typefaces.

I like it even more when a candidate shows up with it.

Rubiksmoose

@GcL Now I didn't use LaTeX, I did use Word (which is the reason it took me so many hours to get it looking right)

GcL

@Rubiksmoose Word has gotten a lot better. The kerning and justification used to be abysmal by comparison.

Hot RPG Questions

3

Q: Are there any limitations on attacking while grappling?

I've tried looking in other posts regarding my question, but couldn't find a definitive answer to my question. If a level 5 barbarian equipped with a 2-handed weapon attempts a grapple and succeeds, would the extra attack feature allow an attack with the 2-handed weapon? The barbarian's next tu...

dnd-5e attack grapple

Rubiksmoose

16:16

But that is impressive. I only know very very basic LaTeX and don't think I could ever pick it out.

GcL

@Rubiksmoose You'd probably notice side by side, or going through a stack. Word does do a pretty good job nowdays, so it might not jump out at you anymore.

nitsua60

16:30

@Derpy I don't remember that jumping out at me. (Like, if you asked me I wouldn't have remembered any relationship details other than the standard "kid-from-the-sticks and the princess" tension.) Could just be that I'm pretty insensitive to the relationship-angle and was just happy to be sitting there seeing the world and people of Shanarra get screen-time =)

goodguy5

Yay!!!!

The company confirmed that there were also technical difficulties and rescheduled to just call me Monday ^_^

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 nice!

GreySage

@goodguy5 Huzzah!

Derpy

@nitsua60 Just to be clear, I am talking about Eretria - which not only kinda "proposes" to Amberle during a bathing scene, but even has a female partner in season two from what I gathered.

Now, mind you... I have nothing against a bisexual main character.

I have much against a bisexual female character added just for male fanservice.

user15026

16:49

@KorvinStarmast Oooh, that does sound like it would be quite good. I've added it to my GIANT TBR pile on Goodreads. :)

KorvinStarmast

@Ash I really enjoyed it. I first encountered her writing in my early 20's.

user15026

She's a new author for me, which is always fun because then if I like them it means I have back-catalogue stuff to explore :D

KorvinStarmast

The first of her books I read was "Forgotten Beasts of Eld" ... I think it won some awards

@Ash sorry, forgotten beasts comment was for you.

user15026

17:06

Cool beans, I'll check it out

Xirema

@Derpy I tend to reserve judgement when it comes to stuff like that, because my instinct is that bisexual characters handled poorly/stereotypically in media is still preferable to bisexual characters being absent in media, at least as of our current status quo in this, the third month of 2019. But of course, "Bisexual characters handled well" is obviously preferable to both.

user15026

It's one of those things where I am like "yay representation at all" but at teh same time I am like "this is bad representation and very lazy and kinda reinforcing the bad" and it's really tricky to sit with.

nitsua60

@Derpy I don't remember enough, I guess. But as you say it I do remember feeling like the female outfits felt a little fanservice-y. But I don't have a good sense for how much of that is "I'm a middle-aged man and this is pitched to teenagers," vs. "fantasy armor is not real armor" vs. whatever else could be going on.

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 wait, you mean chain mail bikinis are not historical? rimshot

@nitsua60 I am reminded of the costumes in Buck Rogers in the 25th century TV show (late 70's / early 80's) which was ... all fanservice, I think.

GreySage

17:21

@KorvinStarmast Well, Conan the barbarian came out quite a while ago now, so they kind of are now.

Xirema

w/r/t exploitative costumes, I still think Jim Sterling had the right idea: it's okay to put the women in chainmail bikinis if you're also going to put the men in chainmail thongs. Fair is fair, right?

KorvinStarmast

@GreySage true enough, I think they had chain mail bikinis in the comic book Conan stuff I recall from high school. (70's)

Xirema

(Alternatively, if you have an issue with that latter suggestion, maybe you shouldn't do the former either, yeah?)

Yuuki

@Xirema I dunno, it depends on the attitude of the depiction. Mickey Rooney can get into the sea. Or at least wade out up to his hips.

KorvinStarmast

@Xirema They kept Marc Singer in Beast Master in very little clothing, I seem to recall.

Xirema

17:22

(Just a thought if there's any high-profile costume designers that stumble onto this chat at any point. =P)

KorvinStarmast

At least in The Messenger they had Joan of Arc in what looked like medieval armor

user15026

@Xirema It reminds me of a friend's Slave Leo costume, and his surprising amounts of shock at just how objectified he was when he wore it in public at cons. (Not entirely safe for work, I suppose - it is modelled on a Slave Leia costume.)

Sdjz

@KorvinStarmast You may need a space after closing bracket

KorvinStarmast

@Sdjz I had a space and I now can't edit it.

The internal one got me I think

user15026

There we go, took me a couple tries, but I think that should be tidied

Yuuki

17:27

@Ash How on earth did I think that was a good idea to click at work? Thank god I used my phone.

I need to put my brain out to pasture.

Xirema

@Yuuki TBH I think he looks pretty good. ;)

(Yes, the irony is not lost on me)

Yuuki

@Xirema That's not what I meant.

Clearly my brain is not working in a functional manner if it thought that clicking on a link titled "Slave Leo" was a smart choice for work.

Xirema

@Yuuki Ah, gotcha.

GcL

@Ash I was hoping for bikini bottoms.

Few and far between are men that can really make metal bikini bottoms work for them.

Rubiksmoose

@Yuuki hahaha

Glazius

17:56

@vicky_molokh updated the answer again. Sorry to keep needling about this, but part of the problem is I don't know exactly what more I need to explain.

vicky_molokh

Maybe I'm just bad at phrasing the question.

Or maybe I'm seeing the wrong pattern / one that isn't really there.

Glazius

I mean, the question was clear, but I can't cite "the term isn't in the game, it arose in various discussions interrogating the game from a false perspective".

vicky_molokh

I'm not sure what to add to clarify what I'm looking for, but further edits didn't seem to make the chain from the text to the memeplex-as-common-in-the-fandom very clear.

Glazius

Hm.

Superman can fly. When Superman is swooping down to catch someone, the GM calls it an overcome and assigns it a difficulty. What does the GM do when the Flash is swooping down to catch someone? Trick question. The Flash can't fly.

Daniel Zastoupil

18:13

@AshRandom There is a difference between the Attack Action (which is explicitly for attacking with a weapon using mundane means), an attack (which is attempting to hit someone with some kind of physical effect) and an offensive spell like Fireball. Fireball deals damage, can be considered an aggressive action, but does not mention, nor use, the term Attack in any part of its resolution. Instead, it uses a Saving Throw, much in the same way Confusion would.

Attacks, which use an offensive 1d20 (and usually proficiencies and attack bonuses) are affected by armor. Firebolt, a blockable projectile, uses an attack.

Glazius

@vicky_molokh "Aspect permission" is what people say when they're trying to answer the trick question anyway.

Daniel Zastoupil

Fireball, a spell that swells and goes around corners, ignores your armor and only cares about your ability to maneuver around it, which is why it only uses a Dexterity Saving Throw.

GcL

@DanielZastoupil Like horseshoes!

GreySage

@DanielZastoupil Is your avatar a file-not-found icon on purpose?

GcL

errrr... hand grenades. I always confuse those two.

user15026

18:17

@GreySage Okay, so it's not just me, then

Daniel Zastoupil

@Gcl Yes!

@GreySage No!

But I like it, so now everybody has to ask that question.

As far as I knew, it was just some default icon that I never changed. So now it either reflects that I'm incredibly lazy, or that I'm slightly clever, and I'm fine with both of those conclusions.

GcL

@DanielZastoupil Looks like you provided a link to an image that broke.

Kind of nice that it's displaying the title and alt text are the username. At least those get rendered when the image fails.

Daniel Zastoupil

Thinking about it, I think I had the Gunz: The Duel icon, which is a somewhat obscure third-person FTP shooter which involved a lot of wall running and PvP.

Rubiksmoose

@DanielZastoupil unfortunately, Ashrandom is not pingable in chat, so they won't get notified about those messages

GcL

Mine is a picture of an icosahedron with a single face labeled with "20" showing. It's an obscure reference.

vicky_molokh

18:31

@Glazius It seems to have arisen indirectly, yes. What puzzles me is how it managed to be so convergent and/or uniform - I expected to see some sort of common core that made the thoughts of multiple people develop along such similar lines. Normally even ideas with common roots seem to diverge in RPG fandoms (consider 'RAW', 'narrative-oriented GMing' and 'immersion' as examples that diverge even within a single category). Yet many FATE veterans seem to have converged on such a similar vision...

...Despite the core book mostly using Stunts for 'you can do something others can't' stuff.

Do I see the line of reasoning that you demonstrated in the answer as a possible one? Yes. Do I understand why it seems to be, while not an inevitable nor universal, but pretty ubiquitous? No, I don't understand. To me it looks on the opaque side, similar to the feats of the fictional Sherlock Holmes:

He sees five clues and arrives at a conclusion. Those five clues can be combined to arrive at four more conclusions that would look plausible too. Yet somehow, without a rational explanation how, he seems to pick that specific one.

And a lot of people in the fandom seem to be taking the same 'five clues' and arriving at the same conclusion, and I don't understand how this one became so dominant and considered so taken for granted and so self-evident.

I'm not sure my explanation made my quest any clearer to other people.

Glazius

19:01

@vicky_molokh I think I see. "Aspect permission" as a way of saying "you don't need a stunt or extra for that".

vicky_molokh

@Glazius Yeah. It seems to be a very common convergent view, but I'm very puzzled by what makes it such, given that the text seems to nudge the reader into the Stunt direction by a combination of cues such as description what Stunts are, what examples exist, and how Aspects are used.

Glazius

I've been pitching the positive case and you needed the negative one. Okay.

vicky_molokh

I'm . . . not sure that's the case.

What I'm saying is:
Concluding that permissions come from Invoking for Effect, Compels, and Stunts seems like an obvious conclusion. Concluding that merely having an Aspect is enough seems non-obvious to me. Yet I see a lot of people treat it as obvious. I must be missing the chain of reasoning which so almost inevitably leads to the second conclusion and denies the first conclusion.

Also, seeing Sprint (run faster) being a Stunt, but flight or ability have a chance to lift a normally non-liftable object causes dissonance.

kviiri

19:41

@DanielZastoupil This isn't exactly right either. Things are attacks in DnD 5e when they require an attack roll. Whether it's a physical effect or not has no bearing on it

WrongOnTheInternet

...so apparently PoD AD&D books are a thing.

Xirema

I feel like everyone is overlooking the obvious issue with the "Is a Fireball an Attack" question? Fireball is the Cast a Spell Action, not the Attack Action. Asserting whether or not the actual effect of the spell constitutes an "attack" (i.e. like the Attack Roll of Vampiric Touch) is kind of putting the cart before the horse, so to speak.

WrongOnTheInternet

What circumstance is this about? Is someone trying to sneak attack with fireball?

Xirema

-1

Q: Wait..... Fireball is not an attack?

I'm flabbergasted. Has this been covered by sage advice, because it sure seems like a topic in desperate need of a common sense injection. Could someone explain how this came to be the ruling for fireball? Number of people making this assertion in the Subtle Spells thread. They're saying because...

dnd-5e spells

WrongOnTheInternet

Ah, got it.

I've never played in a game where casting a fireball wouldn't reveal you?

Someone_Evil

19:52

Has that actually not been adressed in the approx mile of comments?

WrongOnTheInternet

I dunno, I'm late to the party and just now following the chain of argument.

Xirema

@WrongOnTheInternet Well, the trick is that in the question that that question is responding to, the Fireball was being cast with the benefit of the Subtle Spell metamagic, which suppresses verbal/somatic components.

So usually, "an attack" made by a hidden creature causes them to be revealed, but spells don't (usually) count as "attacks", so you instead defer to the fact that the spell has Verbal/Somatic/other stuff that reveals the caster, but in the absence of (most) of those effects, the caster might not be revealed.

The Oracle

0

Q: What should we do about a question that seems like a reference, but the author doesn't want it to be?

This question raised an important issue that I think we need to figure out. It very much seems like it should be a duplicate of this question. A question asking what are the official rules sources should provide an answer on what's official and it's varying states. And the answer did used to do ...

discussion

GcL

@Xirema Yeah. I thought casting a spell with vocal or somatic borked hiding.

Regardless of what the spell is.

WrongOnTheInternet

So it's like a hidden sniper situation, but with heavy artillery.

Xirema

19:57

@GcL They implicitly reveal a caster, but they don't inherently reveal a caster, if that phrasing makes any sense to you.

GcL

Nope.

I don't think it's made explicit in the rules as "knocking over a vase" is in the stealth rules.

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