TRPG General Chat

7:01 PM

@Someone_Evil Yeah that I don't know. But, if so, then an answer could list them couldn't they? There can't be that many things called that that it would be burdensome. I'm dubious that there would actually be more than one, but D&D lore is definitely not my strong suit.

GcL

@Someone_Evil I've not been able to dig up many references. Seems like Greenwood put it out there as treasure in a magazine and then latter added it to Forgotten Realms.

Rubiksmoose

I generally get the feeling that this is one of those drive-by questions though where we never end up seeing OP again sadly. Hope I'm wrong though.

(and not that it changes anything about the way we would or should handle the question)

GcL

I disagree with prime dice about the question needing context. "This is lacking context to make it understandable except to 1) people who already know the answer, 2) the asker." That is characteristic of a querent that is utterly unfamiliar with what they're asking about.

E.g. "What is DAG? Did it exist before git?"

You'd have to know the answer or be the querent to know what the heck that's about, but it's a reasonable question. They came across DAG and couldn't figure it out or if it existed before git.

Someone_Evil

@GcL Abbreviations (and other names) can refer to (wildly) different things depending on context. PhD could mean a doctorate or monodeuturated benzene (rare abbrev., but not unreasonable).

GcL

Yup, and unless you know the answer it's not going to jump out at you.

"vector" is one of my favorite terms in that it varies drastically in meaning between fields that come together sometimes.

Rubiksmoose

7:18 PM

What's your vector, Victor?

V2Blast

Surely you can't be serious.

Rubiksmoose

I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.

I mean my user name is right there

:)

GcL

What's a smoose ?

Is that were you go to kiss someone and don't connect?

Rubiksmoose

hahaha. Well it is now.

goodguy5

@GcL especially if that someone has antlers

GcL

7:24 PM

I coin all terms in silver. It makes them less AUspicious and easier to AGgregate.

goodguy5

I don't know if that joke PBasses

Yuuki

@Rubiksmoose Wait a minute, I know you. You're Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. You write fanfiction about Sherlock Holmes.

Xirema

Want to solicit some opinions on that Divine Strike question: do we think it's a dupe of the "How do I know if an Ability is Magical?" question?

I'm leaning towards no, on the grounds that the latter is dealing with abilities as a whole, whereas the former is dealing with damage types. Not sure if that's enough of a distinction.

Rubiksmoose

@Xirema my first read: it seems a bit more specific since they are also asking about the damage type as well

GcL

Reads like a duplicate to me.

Is X considered magic damage? seems to be covered by "How do I know if X is magical?"

Xirema

7:29 PM

@GcL I certainly think the answers are going to be nearly identical. But our criterion for what constitutes a duplicate is not usually just that the answers are the same.

GcL

@Xirema The original question covers the dupe and the answer to the original answers the dupe.

Rubiksmoose

upon rereading the question it might actually be a dupe.

But I'm too tired to make an informed decision here so I'll leave it to close-voters instead of hammering it.

Carcer

it's probably dupey enough

Rubiksmoose

ah yeah. looking at your answers really does make it clear that it is a dupe I guess.

Carcer

hm

it's borderline

Xirema

7:42 PM

It really is.

Rubiksmoose

Well I convinced myself enough to cast the vote.

GcL

Cast it in plaster or wax first to see how it looks.

Xirema

I did go ahead and give it a close vote though: I'm confident that the dupe question/answer will satisfy the OP's question.

Carcer

hm

Rubiksmoose

@GcL I don't recommend casting votes while plastered.

Carcer

7:43 PM

I'm slightly aggravated by the tactics of the other answer but oh well

Rubiksmoose

how so?

I didn't read it super closely but it seemed to hit all the right points and citations

GcL

The answer their own question? I'm not a fan either.

That's why I didn't upvote it or the question.

Rubiksmoose

hm. What am I missing?

Carcer

slapped out a one line technically correct answer and then deleted it in order to edit

get first answer privilege, avoids downvotes for writing a bad answer

Rubiksmoose

@Carcer ohhh I thought you meant the answer on the old duped question

Carcer

7:46 PM

I was being ambiguous, I apologise

just feels rather like gaming the system.

Xirema

@Carcer Well, the privilege for doing that is limited to the silver badge you can get for having a "first answer, accepted, good score" combo. Like, yeah, you could game the system for that, but I'm not sure why you would. Answering like that doesn't really improve your chances of gaining rep, since for equally-voted answers, the system prioritizes newer answers over older answers.

Rubiksmoose

@GcL Actually answering your own question is explicitly encouraged.

Yuuki

Also, nobody really cares about badges.

Rubiksmoose

It is a good thing and should not be frowned upon.

Yuuki

I mean, not in a comparative sense.

Xirema

7:48 PM

So the only real advantage is getting the badge.

Carcer

For equally voted answers I was of the impression that the system randomises the display order

GcL

@Rubiksmoose Encouraging a thing I don't like to see? I'll go not upvote the encouragement as well.

Rubiksmoose

@Carcer You are correct. It is random.

Xirema

@Carcer I stand corrected.

Carcer

@GcL why don't you like it?

Yuuki

7:49 PM

@Xirema How are standing desks, by the way?

Xirema

@Yuuki Good for my heart, bad for my knees.

Yuuki

Do your feet not get sore from standing for so long?

Xirema

@Yuuki (I don't actually have a standing desk; I presume a person's feet would be quite inconvenienced)

Yuuki

Well then how could you type "I stand corrected"? Who would do that, go out there and lie on the Internet?

V2Blast

@Yuuki liars. duh.

:P

Xirema

7:52 PM

I find it mildly amusing that my question to the Poker Stack is, after 48 hours, the 3rd most recent activity in the whole stack, after one posted answer to another question and one edit made to another question. Apparently, after 8 years, it's still in beta. O_O

Rubiksmoose

@Xirema oof. Pretty quiet there huh?

GcL

@Carcer Self answered questions often strike me as patting yourself on the back, a comedian laughing at their own jokes, or an op ed. Not all of them. I've upvoted a few. It's difficult for me to identify the feeling they leave me with. Like the feeling that happens right before you squint and look sideways at something.

Especially when the Q&A are one right after the other. Like, thank's for making your blog post in the form of a question.

Xirema

@GcL I used to feel exactly like that. You have to kind of remind yourself that Stack Exchange fancies itself to be a kind of repository of expertise-driven knowledge. If you stumble across a substantial problem, but then find a compelling solution to it, it's encouraged to share that problem (and your solution) to this stack, since it might be useful to someone else.

Yuuki

@Xirema I suppose most people already know her.

@GcL The best way to do that is to detach the user from the post.

GcL

@Xirema I'm not a fan of self declared experts or the hubris that comes with thinking my knowledge would be useful unsolicited.

@Yuuki That would be neat. Just remove all usernames from Q&A's.

Xirema

7:57 PM

@GcL That's fair, but that's what the voting system is for. If your advice is unhelpful or unsolicited, you'll get downvoted for it.

GcL

@Xirema I don't downvote it. I just don't upvote it.

Yuuki

There are some questions that people just won't bother to go to the lengths of answering themselves and it's frankly easier to just go out and figure out the answer yourself.

And why not post the question & answer? It's a valid question that you thought of, which means it could very well be a question that might come to someone else's mind.

Rubiksmoose

Yeah you certainly don't have to like or approve of self-answered questions (as long as you don't go telling people not to do them or whatever)

GcL

@Yuuki Sure. I've done that before. Especially for some esoteric stuff. I don't accept my own answer.

Xirema

@Xirema Incidentally, if anyone has experience with double-deck Five-Card-Draw and knows if/how the Hand Rankings need to be adjusted for such a game, I would appreciate the input for a project I'm working on.

Yuuki

8:02 PM

It doesn't increase your rep and sometimes you just have the most complete answer.

GcL

Also, self researched answers show up hours or days later. Sometimes after a comment like, "you're missing a ; on line 24"

@Yuuki The internet points don't really factor into the feeling for me.

Yuuki

I mean, your feelings are up to you but the point is that self-answering in and of itself is good.

Rubiksmoose

@Yuuki You do get rep for self-answered questions. Just not for selecting your own answer.

GcL

It being good isn't the feeling I get.

Rubiksmoose

Also fun note is that self-answers are the only answers not pinned to the top. If another answer gets more votes it will displace a self-answer even if it has the checkmark.

GcL

8:05 PM

Huh... that's strange

Yuuki

@Rubiksmoose You get the +2 in that you're an asker that accepted an answer but you don't get the +15 for being an answerer whose answer was accepted.

Rubiksmoose

@Yuuki do you? huh. Must have misremembered

Yuuki

Actually, you might not get the +2.

It's been awhile.

Oh, I see what you mean though.

Yeah, of course you get rep from upvotes on your answers, but you can't gain rep by the action of self-answering and accepting said answer alone.

Any rep you gain from self-answers is earned from other users, either upvoting or giving you a bounty.

Are feet shoes for skeletons?

🤔

Rubiksmoose

8:28 PM

@Yuuki What you said earlier actually made me doubt myself. I can't remember for sure now either.

lol

SmokeDetector

9:00 PM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, bad keyword with email in body, pattern-matching email in body, potentially bad keyword in body (238): DR LAMATU SPELL REUNITE MY HOME HAPPILY by owen susan on rpg.SE (@doppelgreener)

Xirema

@SmokeDetector That is some really aggro spam. "I WANT TO TESTIFY OF A GREAT SPELL CASTER CALLED DR LAMATU FOR HIS HELP OVER MY MARRIAGE." Like calm down, holy heck†, lady. Look, you can steal my credit card info and impersonate my identity, just stop yelling at me!

Yuuki

LAMATU, I'VE COME TO BARGAIN

BESW

@Rubiksmoose Wow, 1925. On Guam that'd make it an automatic consideration for the historic register.

V2Blast

9:16 PM

The Odyssey of the Dragonlords adventure/setting book is now on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcanumworlds/odyssey-of-the-dragonlords-5th-edition-adventure-b
"An epic adventure book for 5E. Blends classic fantasy with Greek mythology. From the lead designer of Baldur's Gate I & II and KOTOR."

It's made by Arcanum Worlds, a fairly new publisher founded by a team of ex-BioWare designers and writers (James Ohlen, Jesse Sky, and Drew Karpyshyn), with maps by Michal Cross (lead graphic designer at Modiphius Entertainment).

Sir Cinnamon

@Yuuki Please fix my marriage or I will trap you in a time loop

BESW

I don’t expect game companies or the people behind them to be perfect at all times nor even often. Gods know I and mine aren’t. What’s important is what you do when mistakes are revealed, and who you choose to support when a moral choice is on the line.

Tweeted by fredhicks on April 16, 2019 at 11:23 AM in reply to fredhicks

trogdor

9:47 PM

@Xirema that's how they getcha

XD

Yuuki

You know, I never thought about the fact that purple prose makes so much more sense when you live in a time without the easy access to information that the Internet provides.

BESW

10:11 PM

@Yuuki Hmm?

trogdor

I don't even know what exactly purple prose is?

V2Blast

Also, per a reply by Arcanum Worlds to a comment on the Kickstarter:
"we've actually just updated the player's guide with a handful of new pages, including revisions to the satyr and centaur player races and Thylean class archetypes for fighters and monks. Once the campaign finishes, we will update the player's guide again with any stretch goals that have been unlocked!"
some other details from comments:
- "all of the content in the player's guide will be present in the hardcover adventure book. We felt that the softcover version would be easiest as a convenient item to hand around at the t…

Purple prose

In literary criticism, purple prose is prose text that is so extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw excessive attention to itself. Purple prose is characterized by the excessive use of adjectives, adverbs, and metaphors. When it is limited to certain passages, they may be termed purple patches or purple passages, standing out from the rest of the work. Purple prose is criticized for desaturating the meaning in an author's text by overusing melodramatic and fanciful descriptions. As there is no precise rule or absolute definition of what constitutes purple prose, deciding...

trogdor

10:35 PM

ah

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer, messaging number in answer (174): Can you tell if a spellcaster is maintaining a spell? by Janice on rpg.SE (@doppelgreener)

BESW

11:51 PM

"Iron Street Combat • A World of Adventure for Fate Core." Five minutes into our past, shadow governments, crime syndicates, evil corporations, and creepy cults pour incalculable resources into hiring some lady with muscles to punch their enemies until they take can over the world. That lady is you.

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