TRPG General Chat

12:28 AM

@KorvinStarmast yeah submission was one word I thought, but I think that's probably the wrong tone. Embracing sounds more welcoming

nitsua60

1:02 AM

@V2Blast I went ahead and answered that meta post. It seems like you've been following the originating post(s) through the day: I'd be happy to hear your feedback on my answer. (I just poked around the last 10 minutes, otherwise I've been afk all day.)

V2Blast

@nitsua60 Seems like a good answer to me

nitsua60

Thanks--it would have been easy for me to miss something glaring, so it's good to hear that sounds like reality to you!

V2Blast

A random name generator with tons of settings to filter by country/culture of origin (and some other categories): http://www.behindthename.com/random/
Could be useful for both coming up with PC names and NPC names, if you're not trying to follow a particular race's naming convention (e.g. for humans in 5e, the convention is basically just "actual human names").

BESW

1:39 AM

"Oh hey that sounds really cool."
[click]
"Let's see, they've got Maori that's nice. Ooh, Igbo, I like. Wait. 'Native American.' Get out of here."

[face/palm] It mashed together a Mapuche (Chilean/Argentinian) name with an Algonquian (Great Lakes) name.

Yeeeah. I'm sure it's useful for some people but I'd be careful with that.

(Alarms: "rapper" and "fairy" are both "whimsical" categories; "Hinduism" is "mythological" while "Biblical" is its own category.)

user15026

eeeeergh okay no thank you

user15026

1:55 AM

Also, theology being a separate from Biblical thing is also weird (it's mostly names for Christ with an occasional "Satan" or "Allah" thrown in, looks like)

MikeQ

The Biblical category seems to be a hodgepodge of judeochristian naming conventions from many different regions and periods

Ah, it must be from the non-mythological version of the Bible, which spanned multiple centuries and religions

"Ancient" is a category?

BESW

And of course no Asian, African, or American languages have ancient or mythological naming conventions--except "Hinduism."

user15026

The hillbilly category is also...ungood

user15026

I appreciate there was an attempt, I guess?

MikeQ

@Ash Did you experiment with that catetgory? Those results seem more like slurs than names.

user15026

2:04 AM

nods

BESW

....it gave a loan-word first name as a Maori surname.

user15026

ooooh boy

BESW

With a loan-word first name as the first name, too.

I'm not sure if it's better or worse if I assume their use of the surname "Mere" is just the loan-word "Mary" as a surname, or if I assume it's the Maori word for a kind of ritual knife which, so far as I know, is not used as a surname.

MikeQ

Did you also look up what "Simitiq" and "Tsang" refer to

BESW

I was afraid to.

user15026

2:19 AM

"Simitiq which gives you fantasy names in an Arab/Hebrew/Persian/Hindi style and Tsang which is comprised of fantasy names in a style similar to Asiatic names (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc.).", says this: forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/…

BESW

V2Blast

oh my

nitsua60

@BESW Dare I ask how fantasynamegenerators does?

BESW

Looks more reasonable, actually.

Handy hint: just copy a name into Google and see if actual Maori people are predominant in the results.

MikeQ

I want to use whatever name generator produces pseudo-western names like "Bobson Dugnutt" and "Sleve McDichael"

nitsua60

2:31 AM

"Ford Prefect"?

V2Blast

2:51 AM

@nitsua60 the best name

SmokeDetector

3:54 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer, bad keyword with email in answer, email in answer, pattern-matching email in answer (346): Can a vampire enter a temple? by Gentle on rpg.SE (@doppelgreener)

BESW

4:10 AM

Thread!

Marginalized TTRPG players: What's the best way to make you feel comfortable at a new table? For me, it's the existence and use of safety tools at the table.

Tweeted by MystyVander on April 19, 2019 at 2:09 AM

Hot RPG Questions

4:30 AM

3

Q: How does the secondary effect of the Heat Metal spell interact with a creature resistant/immune to fire damage?

This is the description for the spell heat metal: Choose a manufactured metal object, such as a metal weapon or a suit of heavy or medium metal armor, that you can see within range. You cause the object to glow red-hot. Any creature in physical contact with the object takes 2d8 fire damage wh...

V2Blast

From the ticker in the top left, an RPG news digest: enworld.org/forum/…!

trogdor

4:46 AM

@BESW this is still the best

V2Blast

5:15 AM

It is fucking insane to me that there were only a few articles about the inherent racism in the design of Cuphead???

Tweeted by FilmCritHULK on April 19, 2019 at 3:45 AM

and a Kotaku article linked in the replies: kotaku.com/…

actually, better to link the article they summarize: unwinnable.com/2017/11/10/…

BESW

Oh yeah, every now and then I get to blow peoples' minds by pointing out why so many cartoon characters wear white gloves.

There are so many things that are just so saturated into pop culture that it doesn't even occur to us to think about their origins, they just are.

This is an element I think complex worldbuilding needs to take into account, but it rarely does.

4e surprised me in a good way with that.

V2Blast

5:30 AM

@BESW how so?

BESW

In 4e lore, tieflings are as commonly accepted among the other "main races" as anyone else; it's the dragonborn who are treated with default suspicion and kept at arm's length by the others.

If you dig into the history, this traces back to the most recent large country in the area, a human-led nation that treated all the "civilized races" equally but dragonborn were second-class citizens.

And if you dig further back, that prejudice was justified based on propaganda from a world-spanning war between two empires a very long time ago.

According to the propaganda, it was a human empire vs a dragonborn empire, and the humans were liberal and egalitarian while the dragonborn were racist zealots.

....but it's pretty obvious from our perspective as players that the "human" empire was a tyrannical nation ruled by tieflings where all non-humans were little better than slaves, and the dragonborn empire was fighting to prevent the tieflings (fueled by demonic pacts and blood sacrifices) from taking over the whole world.

V2Blast

ooh. interesting

BESW

So, dragonborn are treated with suspicion in modern 4e because the most recent nation was run by humans who had bought into the ancient anti-dragonborn propaganda of the ancestors' overlords.

Which reminds me of, on a much smaller time scale, the American conviction that disco died of natural causes.

V2Blast

5:46 AM

On a mostly unrelated note, prompted by this tweet, I'm curious about something in Forgotten Realms lore. I know there are regions inspired by East Asia (e.g. Kara Tur, for Japan and China)... and the Middle East (Zakhara)... But what about South Asia?

some googling brings up Malatra:

forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Malatra

trogdor

@BESW what are talking about there's no gunshot wound

Therefore natural causes right?

V2Blast

it seems like Southeast Asia, with a few Indian-ish names and Hindu mythology (or at least the names of Hindu gods) transplanted onto it

trogdor

But yeah I actually kinda liked that too

Plus I got to make a tiefling who joined the Dragonborn side

That was pretty cool

V2Blast

(and on a totally unrelated note: what's the origin of Shiva - and other Hindu gods like Indra - being arbitrarily gender-swapped in fiction from other countries?)

BESW

@trogdor Maybe not a gunshot, but how about an explosion?

trogdor

5:53 AM

@BESW that's pretty fair yeah

BESW

@V2Blast I dunno about Indra, but Ardhanarishvara might account for at least some of the gender-swapping re: Shiva.

And I don't know about origin but I suspect Roger Zelazny's "Lord of Light" might be responsible for spreading the idea of gender-fluid Hindu figures through Western fiction.

(I suspect Lord of Light is highly offensive to many Hindu faithful for a great many reasons.)

V2Blast

@BESW I know of Shiva getting gender-swapped in Shin Megami Tensei. There's also a summonable entity in the Final Fantasy franchise by the same name, whose appearance in at least some iterations is clearly inspired by the Hindu god

BESW

@AmethystWizard Hi!

V2Blast

Lord of Light

Lord of Light (1967) is a science fantasy novel by American author Roger Zelazny. It was awarded the 1968 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and nominated for a Nebula Award in the same category. Two chapters from the novel were published as novelettes in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction - "Dawn" in April 1967, and "Death and the Executioner" in June 1967. The context of the novel – modern western characters in a Hindu-Buddhist-infused world – is reflected in the book's opening lines: His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman...

interesting

BESW

It's got the kernel of a really cool idea but unfortunately the whole thing also feels like so much religious tourism.

V2Blast

6:07 AM

@BESW Yeah, that was my guess from the summary/premise

BESW

And it's written in nigh-impenetrably pretentious prose.

I waded through it back when I was thirsty for non-Western subjects but hadn't yet twigged to needing to get it through non-Western lenses.

V2Blast

thoughts on this review? does it seem to reflect your feelings on the book? goodreads.com/review/show/299757121?book_show_action=false

BESW

Pretty much, yeah.

I think an Indian author who was interested in engaging with it, could make a fascinating re-write using the (non-Hindu) human crew's choice to uplift themselves to mimic Hindu deities, as an allegory for Zelazny himself and his approach to the "exotic" ideas of another culture.

But I wouldn't blame any Indian author for being completely uninterested in doing that, either.

trogdor

6:28 AM

@V2Blast I think, as someone who has only been there once, that many people outside of the country or religion itself might be easily confused by the ability to turn into different people and create Avatars and stuff like that

I think maybe some people confused that with the ability or even the inclination to do pretty much anything with the material

and also on some level latin based languages might assume most names that start with an S (even in translation) and end with A are female names?

it's a little silly but I know that's pretty much how English and at least some versions of Spanish do it

kviiri

I think differing standards for femininity might also account for gender swaps

Similarly, I wonder why exactly did Disney name the little mermaid "Ariel", which is traditionally a masculine name.

trogdor

@kviiri oh I was freaked out when I first learned that! XD

like wtf?!?!?!

I don't even remember where I heard it

I just remember the surprise

kviiri

I stumbled upon it while reading on Ariel Sharon

trogdor

6:43 AM

anyway, I know I found all the mythological powers of the Hindu gods kinda confusing

I just know I like Ganesh because and Elephant head is awesome

also apparently he's pretty generally popular in India (or at least the area I visited)

kviiri

I'm frankly quite out in touch of how the Hindu faith works. I know that I don't know, which gets me a long way though

BESW

@kviiri Apparently some people can't get their heads around the idea that Ashley is a traditionally unisex name as well.

trogdor

oh also

I got to be the only one of the three of us who went there who already knew the Swastika was stolen by the Nazis

we went to several temples and at one point the other two got a little nervous when they saw it,... somewhere

but it was also nice because I got to see it in a few places where it was supposed to be rather than in a movie about WWII

BESW

That is nice!

trogdor

it was a nice trip overal

a couple of times I was a little scared but that's pretty much my own brains fault

and my boss accidentally booked me up a little wrong but I fixed that myself

BESW

6:51 AM

I do wish they'd put the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár earlier in your journey.

trogdor

yes

I was a little tired by the time we got to that

but also,.. it was a work trip

and I didn't speak up about wanting to see that very early on

BESW

Yeah, I get that.

trogdor

my mom is also still making fun of me every once in a while for "not bothering to go see the Taj Mahal"

which yes, I wish I had but like

it's the first time I have ever been there and there was a looooot to deal with

learning an entirely new work skill, seeing the sights of a small part of a huge country I have never been to,

a looot

kviiri

Yeah India is a fair bit bigger than most people realize

Thanks a lot Mercator projection :-)

BESW

Heheh.

I think that's hilarious because of the time I worked with a guy from Boston who was astonished that a few tiny islands in the Pacific had a complex network of cultural perspectives within the Indigenous community.

V2Blast

7:07 AM

I went to the Taj Mahal once on what was apparently the hottest day of the summer

BESW

How'd that work out for ya?

V2Blast

we could barely walk (no shoes allowed, unless covered with a shoe cover). basically just dashing on tiptoes from shady spot to shady spot

trogdor

7:19 AM

and to be fair to my guides, they also had a lot on their plate

they had to teach me and one of the other people a bunch of stuff, and then show us a bunch of temples that we wanted to see

XD

Ben

7:54 AM

Evening all

V2Blast

@Ben hola

Ben

Currently housesitting this weekend. Should be fairly chilled long weekend for me :)

Derpy

@V2Blast ..... sorry to have to ask.... Which iterations? Most of the times Final Fantasy's Shiva looks like "blue girl in swimsuit with random pendants/amulets/trinkets"

trogdor

@Derpy a ton

Ben

Also a good chance to draft up my Corruption v2

trogdor

7:58 AM

I don't think specifics were important to the question

V2Blast

@Derpy looking at this wiki page:

finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Shiva

kviiri

The earlier iterations do look more like that

V2Blast

tons of them have gray/blue skin and few have a diamond symbol on their forehead where the Hindu god Shiva's third eye is generally depicted

(see also: Raven from Teen Titans)

Ben

Hey everyone, my friend has gone full time with her artwork, please check her out, and support her! Twitter, Instagram, and facebook! (Potential NSFW warning). You can also support her on Ko-fi, which you can find on her twitter and instagram pages :)

If I could get a pin on that one I would greatly appreciate it :D

BESW

8:25 AM

@V2Blast Thinking about that review a bit more, there's one thing I think it misses: the core concept could have been (arguably was) about storytelling as a tool of identity, and that's a very interesting theme which Lord of Light found a rather compelling scifi allegory to explore.

I suspect the novel I'm reading now, A Memory Called Empire, is using the same allegory to great and more nuanced effect with less collateral damage. But I'll wait 'til I've finished it to pass judgement.

Derpy

@trogdor we will have to agree to disagree then. To me, it just seems like usual FF usage of out-of-context names, like Leviathan not being really tied to a leviathan (Sin is actually more like it), Ifrit not really like an Efreet, Gilgamesh looking more like Benkei, Eden being a summon , Excalibur, Masamune/Murasame and so on...

trogdor

@Derpy my point is just that it's more prevalent than that

Derpy

@trogdor yep, I'd assumed that, and I meant that I don't see much similarities...

Her power are probably a pun on the spelling of the word Shiva - which comes out really close to "shiver"

blue skin? Common for ice-themed entities. Yuki-onna in Japanese folklore sometime are portraied as having blueish/white skin, and so is Cailleach from Scottish folklore

The fact that some of her incarnations are very similar-looking to Shantae (which is intended like a Djin / belly dancer) probably also doesn't help to make me look at her like an Hindu Shiva "reference."

trogdor

well,... if it was just one

if it was just Shiva or just Effreet or any of the others that sound like something from somewhere

I would be inclined to say that was a simple mistake

but I think whoever translated it into English, at the very least, made those connections however tenuous

Derpy

8:41 AM

@trogdor Sorry, I am not sure I get what you mean here. The original name also was Shiva, so it is not like someone gave her that name at a later time because he connected the appearance of the character to the Hindu god.

trogdor

@Derpy but that had an english translation didn't it?

it wasn't Shiva in Japanese?

it might be a word that is pronounced similarly to Shiva in Japanese, but my point is, when I spell it in English it's still Shiva

and that connection can be made in English regardless

I'm not trying to blame anyone in particular either here

it's just that in the wider context of this kind of thing happening one instance of it looks very similar to any other

and I am wondering what you mean exactly by this example I guess?

Derpy

8:57 AM

@trogdor nonono. I meant that the original name is "シヴァ" which does indeed mean "Shiva". So, what I meant is that the name was already there in the original, not something someone else made up at a later time because he though "Oh, look, this ice spirit remind me of (Hindu) Shiva, let's change her name to that!"

trogdor

@Derpy ah ok

Derpy

9:12 AM

That said, they are at least aware of the "shiva-> shiver" pun. See FF XIII: Revenant Wings

In that game, we also have Shivan and Shivar

Ben

I have a question - what's a word for "Influence", in the context of it being a "resource"?

It's something that you dole out, but it's not a resource like gold or equipment. It's more like experience, or damage.

Derpy

If anything, I expect a future Dragonball / Final Fantasy cross over that will finally reveal that FF Shiva is actually a relative of Frieza (since ice based pun abound in his family too)

Ben

@Derpy Except it's pronounced "Shiver"

Derpy

....uh? Who?

Someone_Evil

@Ben Have you tried asking english.stackexchange.com?

Ben

9:18 AM

Probably a good place to ask lol

Just been working with @BESW and @KorvinStarmast on this, so force of habit lol

@Derpy Shiva; pronounced "Shiver", in the DBZ crossover

Derpy

@Ben AH! I get the pun now. Nice idea :P

Ben

Lol

Derpy

9:51 AM

in the meantime..... brought a chocolate Lindt bunny at the office, trying to convince myself that I should wait next week to eat it.

wish me good luck.

Someone_Evil

@Derpy One of the 1kg ones?

Derpy

@Someone_Evil nahhhh, the small ones.

Someone_Evil

@Derpy How dull (and sane)

Derpy

@Someone_Evil didn't want to raise suspicions. There is a whole tribe of chocolate-eating coworkers kobolds running lose ^_^'.

BESW

10:42 AM

Every year I try to find a solid dark chocolate bunny to eat during the Festival of Riḍván.

Derpy

@BESW while it is indeed dark chocolate, it is empty on the inside, so if you meant that by "solid"... no luck.

BESW

@Derpy I would also accept a rabbit filled with whatever's in the middle of an Andes Mint.

Derpy

@BESW sorry then, I can't help with that. Mint&Chocolate is like Kryptonite for me.

trogdor

@BESW ooooh man

yes please XD

I would probably get sick eating that though

Derpy

@trogdor that would be Future Trogdor problem :P

trogdor

10:51 AM

lol

Future Trogdor is me right now though

Future Trogdor always ends up to be Right Now Trogdor eventually

BESW

BTW, @trogdor, did you watch that video essay I shared about Fantastic Grindelwald and Where to Crimes Him?

trogdor

yes

XD

BESW

Because I so want the version of the franchise that essay posits.

trogdor

Newt Scamander and the Faulty Franchise?

@BESW yep

it made me a little sad

that that isn't what we,.... have

BESW

And so, me being who I am, I started thinking about whether/how it would make a good RPG.

And I thought you might be interested in a Scamander-like PC.

BESW

11:13 AM

For #Brinkwood, I want to keep the fantasy vibe of having different races in ttrpgs, but dropping some of the problematic baggage of fantasy race. I want players to be able and mix-and-match their heritage, not feel trapped in any particular category. #folklorejam #bigBadJam

Tweeted by ErikTheBearik on April 18, 2019 at 5:14 PM

Hack the Planet is available in PDF form! If you've been waiting, you can nab it. DrivethruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/268457/Hack-the-Planet-Cyberpunk-Forged-in-the-Dark?src=newest_since Or Itch: https://fraserimons.itch.io/hack-the-planet And soon, the Samjoko Publishing webstore (It's just taking forever to upload there).

Tweeted by frasersimons on April 18, 2019 at 6:14 PM

trogdor

@BESW I somehow had not considered that

BESW

Yeah, it occurred to me that there may be room for a Gumshoe One-2-One version of Fantastic Beasts: Bond Edition.

I'd want to file the serial numbers off the Harry Potter universe, of course.

There's just way too much messed-up stuff there to want to port over. But the basic concept is totally portable to a more interesting and less fraught setting.

trogdor

11:35 AM

yeah

also, man I didn't even realize some of that stuff J.K.R did

in terms of ret conning stuff later

a little ridiculous

BESW

And one potential thing there, if you've got the interest, is that an Outlandish Critters campaign would be pretty easy to move from One-2-One into either Gumshoe or Fate to accommodate extra players if anyone shows up.

It'd be at its core a single-player game for the very good reasons that the essay outlined, with extra players as guest stars with potentially recurring roles. And the magical animals would replace the investigator's Contacts as opportunities for low-key, low-pressure scenes that still advance the plot.

trogdor

I'm always up for more players

goodguy5

12:09 PM

Happy Friday!

I'm trying to find (short of that, make) a medium list of extraneous laws for an overly judicious town.

i.e. - Decapitating a bandit from left to right is in violation of mandate alpha407. 2sp to the town fund.

but my search came up dry, doublebut, I'm terrible at finding things.

Ben

12:25 PM

Ok so someone gave a possible solution to the whole "death save" situation for my Influence system. Basically, when a character reaches max influence, their character is effectively lost. One idea was to integrate a system similar to the "death saves" in 5e: on three failures, they die; three successes they're stable. Same sort of thing when they reach max influence. On three failures they either go mad or turn into a hellbeast

The suggestion was to instead give them a 'reprieve'. If they succeed, they instead are only granted a reprieve, so they will need to face it again at any given time, at the DM's discretion.

There's a bit more that needs to go into that thought, but I liked the idea. It adds a level of tension; chaos, loss of control.

cc @KorvinStarmast @BESW @linksassin

The system might already have that, to some extent.

nitsua60

1:15 PM

@BESW Lindsay, Evelyn....

Ben

Also RE: Removing Resistance. If a player can remove resistance by making a Resistance roll at disadvantage, does their current "resistance" meter affect this? In a normal situation, the roll is xdX + current resistance. This means that making resistance rolls at higher levels is easier. This would also mean that making resistance rolls at disadvantage easier as well. Thoughts?

nitsua60

@goodguy5 Boy, do I have you covered.

loweringthebar.net in the "Government" menu, check Laws (Dumb), Laws (Outdated), Laws (Odd), and Laws (We Shouldn't Need).

They won't all be relevant to a fantasy setting, but I'm sure you can reskin a bunch of them =)

goodguy5

Thanks!

nitsua60

(Note that when you go to a category it gives you full-page treatment of the most-recent article; if you click through to the next page you get thumbnail listings of later articles.)

Ben

1:54 PM

Corruption v2 Draft

GcL

2:06 PM

Are you going to playtest that with a one shot?

kviiri

2:57 PM

@goodguy5 One of my favs is, esp. for pre-modern settings, a law that <something> can only be done on specific weekdays. It's not especially silly, but can be quite flavorful to have eg. market days outside which transporting goods for sale is illegal

goodguy5

ooooh

kviiri

This also has a lot of historical precedent

(And in many places, contemporary precedent!)

Certificates and notarization are also fun, yet credible "stupid bureaucracy". Eg. your town could forbid buying or selling any property without passing a receipt to a public archive, coupled with a document signed by a guild representative appropriate for the item being sold proving the item's nature was represented to the buyer truthfully

Shalvenay

3:13 PM

@kviiri tax all weapons in the style of NFA Title II :P

goodguy5

Giant rats may only be killed with bludgeoning weapons

Shalvenay

(that'd be a reference to the US National Firearms Act -- Title II governs things like civilian ownership of machineguns and the likes)

goodguy5

no balistas

kviiri

So eg. if you sell an iron broadsword, you need to contact weaponsmith's guild to get someone to write you a statement proving that yes, it's actual iron, yes, it's what they'd call a broadsword, no, it doesn't have any undisclosed defects.

And the guild's got a long line for requests like that. And far too few people to sign them. Which is good for them because they get lots of extra money from rich folks paying a bit of extra for skipping the queue.

Shalvenay

@kviiri spikes the quench tank with a stress corrosion cracking promoter

kviiri

3:19 PM

@goodguy5 Why not enforce an edged weapon tax, while at it? Or ban in the vein of early-edition clerics of DnD

Bayeaux Tapestry, spawning false historical memes since 1060's or so

goodguy5

"It is unlawful to be a character from another edition"

Metastatute 23354

Shalvenay

@kviiri that does cause...issues...when your cleric has Serious Bitey Teeth ;)

David Coffron

This question is a lot of work. Sigh

I;m about 1/3 of the way through, working on and off for 2 hours

Someone_Evil

Yeah, homebrew not for a specific character which means they have modularity in options and done in such a way that its exponentially more work to analyze it

David Coffron

@Someone_Evil Although, I think that homebrew for a specific character is a bad idea too, as most classes/races/subclasses have features that don't always synergize perfectly with a single character idea.

goodguy5

3:33 PM

speaking of which, changed my robocop's integrated tool to caligrapher's supplies so that he could issue citations

David Coffron

You can over-fit a homebrew as well

@goodguy5 Haha. That's graet

goodguy5

Statute Theta303 - It is unlawful to train and weaponize more than one raccoon. Fine 2gp and reparations for any losses incurred by the additional raccoons.

5

Someone_Evil

@DavidCoffron True, but if you don't include distinct options, but only one of these paths, it's much easier to say it is balanced (at least in terms of power, if not flexibility)

David Coffron

@Someone_Evil I'm having more trouble just evaluating some of the options

Someone_Evil

@goodguy5 +1 for the concept of 'weaponized racoon'

goodguy5

3:38 PM

and that one is okay

goodguy5

3:52 PM

Statute Delta666 - unsanctioned summoning of demons is forbidden. Fine up to 100pp and/or execution.

Shalvenay

4:10 PM

@goodguy5 that actually makes sense :P

GcL

4:25 PM

@DavidCoffron Blessed are you for doing the Lord Oghma's work. If find the "is this balanced?" type of questions tedious.

Hot RPG Questions

5:10 PM

6

Q: What is the home of drows in Flanaess?

In Faerun, Underdark is the home of Drows. What is it's equivalent in the lands of Flanaess? Is there also some sort of Underdark or is there something else?

dnd-3.5e greyhawk

Xirema

5:24 PM

Could we get this reopened? It got closed for missing a System tag, but it got added right before the last close vote was posted.

goodguy5

I actually just didn't understand it

Xirema

It's two related questions:

1. If I'm hit by multiple ranged attacks as part of the same Attack Action, can I deflect more than one of them? (No)
2. If any or all of these attacks miss me, can I deflect any of these missed attacks? (No)

Relatively trivial and probably downvotable due to lack of research, but perfectly valid.

goodguy5

I think I got confused because of the two questions? but I'll vtr

Xirema

There's a red herring in the first one, in that the Dagger is being split mid-flight into individual daggers, each with their own Attack Rolls, which is weird—but mechanically, it's no different than using Extra Attack or Multiattack during your Action.

Except for the wrinkle that it might not be possible for other things (Bonus Actions, Reactions, etc.) to be sequenced between those Attack Rolls, which is weird but nothing in the rules prevents that, so....

(Also, I'm pretty sure stuff like Eldritch Blast, Magic Missile, Scorching Rays already work like that?)

Someone_Evil

@Xirema I'm not sure you can take a bonus action between two attacks (this would be relevant for a recent Shield Master question)

Szega

5:41 PM

Could someone explain all the hate (ie downvotes) I got here: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/145472

Especially considering that my answer is the same as Xirema's...

maybe @Xirema ?

Xirema

@Szega Stack Exchange uses Critical Successes/Critical Failures, and you botched your Charisma (Persuasion) check?

\shrug

Someone_Evil

They key is that there is a choice the DM needs to make, because RAW is (possibly deliberately) vague. You are stating one of the options as fact.

(I guess. none of the down-votes are mine)

Xirema

I do think the answer might benefit from the same clarification I added, that the cost isn't solely inks, but also other components.

Szega

@Someone_Evil Xirema gives no choice either. He states that you have to go to the market, ie you cannot retroactively conjure the stuff

@Xirema That is not the point, really. All of those are necessary, you cannot skip them, incl. the ink

Xirema

@Szega I mean, yeah. I don't have a real explanation why I got upvotes and you got downvotes. Maybe a bandwagoning effect.

Szega

5:46 PM

Does anyone actually play with retroactive quantum spellbook components?

Someone_Evil

What do you mean?

Xirema

@Someone_Evil Crawford certainly thinks you can.

Mar 11 at 20:38, by Xirema

As DM, I allow the bonus action of Shield Master to happen after you make at least one attack with the Attack action, since making one attack fulfills the action's basic definition (PH, 192). If you have Extra Attack, you decide which of the attacks the bonus action follows. #DnD https://twitter.com/ivstinus/status/1105172295067230213

Tweeted by JeremyECrawford on March 11, 2019 at 7:08 PM

Szega

Many say there that the wizard can declare that he bought inks and components in the last city in the middle of nowhere

Someone_Evil

@Xirema Neat

Xirema

@Szega I mean, that is one of those things that a lot of DMs generally handwave away. Doesn't make it correct (or RAW) but colloquially, they're not wrong.

Someone_Evil

5:48 PM

@Szega I might allow it depending on a lot of things. That is a DM/Table call though, and I would not do it exclusivly for Wizards

Szega

@Someone_Evil Thats the point. If the rogue didnt buy enough daggers and he threw them all away, would you let him retro-buy them? Why?

Xirema

@Szega For the same reason that my DM never tracks how many arrows I've used, despite the fact that I've used well more than the 30 that I started the campaign with (and never replaced): it's a hassle to track stuff like that, and tends to distract from the RP stuff that they find more interesting.

Someone_Evil

No, I'd let him pick them up again or find some of the goblins. If they suddenly go 'We should have bought tents or food etc.' I might let them.

Szega

Let's ignore proper preparation and forethought then?

Xirema

Personally speaking, as someone who enjoys making spreadsheets and tracking mindnumbing nonsense, I don't mind keeping track of that stuff for my players and mandating that it be tracked—but I'd probably also remind them every time they enter a town what they've consumed so that it's as painfree as possible for them to make sure they recover what they've used up.

Szega

5:52 PM

@Someone_Evil My point was not the acquisition of daggers, but the conversion of money into daggers

goodguy5

Aside from everything else, spells are an order of magnitude great in cost than a dagger.

5 3rd level spells (a reasonable spellbook to find and want to copy) would be 750GP.; contained within that is 15 instances of whatever the hades "fine ink" is.

Someone_Evil

Someone forgetting that they should have bought 'spell-copying stuff' is less of a crime than forgetting they need to have more daggers if they want to be hurling them everywhere. Getting a spell to copy is less expectable than things to throw daggers at.

goodguy5

Are you suggesting that your wizards should carry around dozens of vials of "fine ink" waiting for a maybe spellbook? A feature that may not even appear in the game.

A rogue will always need their daggers. They know they need their daggers. It's called out that they need their daggers.

ninja'd

Xirema

@Szega I'm looking a little closer at the question in... question, and I think I have a better hypothesis for why your answer is getting downvoted: it's not incorrect, it's just somewhat tangent to what the OP is trying to resolve. They're not disputing whether or not the process of copying spells into their book costs special inks or not, they're trying to figure out how to acquire them, without explicit instructions in any of the books. The fact that they need inks isn't being adjudicated.

Doesn't necessarily explain the upvotes on the (wrong) answers, but.... there's my two cents.

Szega

@Xirema "Or could he just use any inks (such as from the scholar pack) and drop 50 gp in the forest?"

Xirema

5:57 PM

@Szega If Druids had access to spellbooks, I'd allow that. XD

Szega

The question is not "Where can I buy fine inks?"

@Xirema Wouldn't that be littering? :)

Xirema

@Szega It's "What are Fine Inks?"

@Szega Implying the Fey Spirits don't have a Capitalist Society.

Szega

It is (sic) "Should a wizard buy fine inks every time he want to copy spells into his spellbook?" And the correct answer is "Yes, he cannot just conjure that stuff"

Not without a proper spell, anyway

Shalvenay

hey there @Glazius and @ACuriousMind

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Xirema

7:20 PM

> Splintering Dagger
Wondrous Item, Uncommon

As an Action, you may throw this Dagger and make a Ranged Attack (thrown; Range 30/120) on a target. On a hit, this attack deals 1d4 + your Ability modifier Piercing damage. You may use Strength or Dexterity as your Ability modifier for this attack.

When the dagger is thrown, it splits into 1d4 additional daggers that each make Ranged Attacks against the target. Each of these daggers uses the same attack roll as the main dagger, but for each dagger, roll 1d6-3, and add this value to the attack roll before comparing it to the AC of the target. E…

@Xirema Made a pass at generating a Statblock for the magical splitting dagger that showed up in that Monk question.

ACuriousMind

@Shalvenay hey :)

Shalvenay

@ACuriousMind @Glazius would this Sunday be a good time to resume our campaign, or would you rather we saved that for next Sunday? and either way, what would be a good time of day for that? one hour later? two hours later?

ACuriousMind

@Shalvenay Dunno, I had the impression that it was the Sunday spot in general that was a bad fit for Glazius, not these specific Sundays, but either time would work for me, just not this Sunday

Shalvenay

@ACuriousMind yeah, my understanding is that our original Sunday timeslot turned out to be a bit earlier in the morning than would have worked best for @Glazius

hence me inquiring about shifting it to later in the day

ACuriousMind

Ah, alrighty

Glazius

7:27 PM

No, not this Sunday, I'm visiting family for the Easter holidays.

After that, noon EST would work better than 10 EST.

Shalvenay

@Glazius okiedokie, we can swing that if @ACuriousMind is cool with it

ACuriousMind

Would be fine with me :)

goodguy5

7:51 PM

have a good weekend, folks

V2Blast

how's everyone doing today

Someone_Evil

Fine on a Friday evening

The pre-prerelease for the new MtG set is live (if anyone else cares)

Xirema

9:13 PM

> The Sword of Many Swords
Wondrous Item, Artifact (Requires Attunement)

All the swords.

Like.

ALL of them.

GcL

@V2Blast I thought I had a handle on the difference between ranged attack and ranged weapon attack, but our recent conversation thread has me second guessing my model.

V2Blast

a ranged weapon attack is just a kind of ranged attack (the kind that's not a ranged spell attack). You can make ranged weapon attacks with ranged weapons (i.e. weapons on the weapons table, listed under ranged weapons), or with any weapon with the Thrown property. (or with anything else, using it as an improvised weapon, of course :P)

GcL

@V2Blast I was unaware that thrown counted as ranged weapon attack and not ranged attack.

V2Blast

it's why the first 2 benefits of the Sharpshooter feat apply to attacks with thrown weapons, but the last one doesn't (except for darts)

...a ranged weapon attack is a ranged attack

GcL

So, if I throw a longsword, is that a ranged weapon attack?

V2Blast

9:21 PM

Yes. It's an improvised weapon when used that way though

GcL

So the only not ranged weapon attacks are spells?

Everything else is a ranged weapon attack because any object thrown defaults to improvised weapon if not otherwise specified?

Are all weapons are ranged weapons when you throw them?

Xirema

@GcL Yes, unless the spell is like Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade and explicitly calls for a Ranged Attack with a Weapon as part of its Action. (To my knowledge, there are no such spells, but I am unfamiliar with the Ranger spell list....)

V2Blast

if by that you mean "the only ranged attacks that aren't ranged weapon attacks are spells", then yes, basically. almost all attacks are either:
1. melee weapon attack
2. ranged weapon attack
3. melee spell attack
4. ranged spell attack
(there's also shoves and grapples, which are described as "special melee attacks" - and anything else specifically described as an attack. those may not fit into those 4 categories)

GcL

English is a poor choice of language.

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GcL

9:25 PM

I grouped ranged weapon together and considered that the type of attack.

It's weapon attack as ranged | melee

Needs more hyphens.

V2Blast

Read it this way:

it's "ranged [weapon attack]", not "[ranged weapon] attack"

it's a ranged attack with a weapon, not an attack with a ranged weapon.

GcL

@V2Blast That is a better way of putting it.

Joshua

Eerily familiar: worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/144367/…

nitsua60

@Xirema Would wield again.

GcL

@Joshua Damned degenerate matter. Get some electrons and get a job!

ACuriousMind

9:44 PM

@GcL Cannot...resist...nitpicking...: Neutron stars are all neutrons because their gravity is so intense that it forced the protons and electrons in them to combine into neutrons. They are not in want of electrons.

They still could use a job, though

Joshua

Well the material makes a great weapon when summoned.

GcL

@ACuriousMind ....ahhh technically correct; the best kind /S

ACuriousMind

@Joshua Not if the summoner intends to survive the aftermath :P

GcL

@Joshua For the last time... gravity does not count as summoning. /S

Joshua

@GcL; get vamped -> time stop -> marvelous pigments -> anti-magic field (wink out for duration of anti-magic field)

GcL

10:01 PM

@Joshua I wish time would stop when I'm getting vamped. On the other hand, the pigments are my blood and only marvelous when it's on the inside doing what it's supposed to be doing. Kinda takes the magic out of the scene though.

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