Partly, I'm specifically trying to learn Java/Android, to write Apps. I've done web-pages ... and I can't be bothered to either learn easy-conversions, or completely rewrite for multiple platforms! :D
The trick is in 1) including lots of stuff 2) calibrating it well.
I'm not up to speed on either yet ... but getting there ...
the maps was a few months of smashing my face into the keyboard, giving up and going to the pub, a Eureka Moment, a week of knocking the algorithm together, and a month of tweaking it! Still needs more content and lots of tweaking ...
@Shalvenay what was the multi-storey thing? I've not implemented that in current app , just single level
@BlackSpike Potentially... but perhaps not? You can store object tags with coordinates, if a certain checkbox is checked?
As far as the algorithm goes though... that's the tricky part. Placing a hard value into a randomly generated sequence could potentially throw a fork into the mix
As an example of the uses of Prestidigitation, the 3.5e PHB lists "Common tricks with prestidigitations include producing tinklings of ethereal music". However, the rules text for Prestidigitation, as duplicated in the SRD, does not appear to make any references to sound or the means to create i...
There is probably a way of doing it... create lvl 1, including stairs ... mark Level1-Array with Stairs. Hard-Mark Level2-Array with adjoining stairs. Create lvl 2. Check if stairs are connected (in a room or corridor) if not, make a new corridor
@Ben Er...no? No-one sees the Emperor. And the Golden Throne keeps Him alive, but it's not part of him. Even if it was, that wouldn't make worshipping the Omnissiah not heresy. The Emperor relies on machines, as do we all, but there's nothing to suggest he worships them.
@Carcer Yep. Someone without the ability to vote is potentially not capable of properly reviewing something that has made it into those queues. It's not about stopping you from looking at that stuff, it's about making sure someone who has votes looks at it.
Could even include "multi-level" connectors: these stairs go all the way from level 1 to 4 (mark Maps 2-4 with stairs). Or just to level 4 (mark lvl 4 Stairs. mark levels 2, 3 with USED SPACE )
Hmmm ... Currently I keep the map data in a 2d array (co-ordinates). Each "tile" has a value: R1 (room number one), C2 (Corridor from room 2), S1 (solid rock around room 1 and C1), etc. I would have to add some 'marker' for stairs ... in the Array? In a Room ("Rooms" are java Objects)? A separate Object? ... hmmm
@Shalvenay I think in this case what you have to do is design obstacles that don't require PCs to pretend to forget the things you said openly in front of them. Like, the lich of course also spawns a tiny scrying sensor so all of your companions can watch you get torn apart by ghouls and lament their weakness. It sure would show that smug jerk up if someone worked out how to hijack that to save you!
@BlackSpike I would say that would be the best option - because they technically are their own "object". And adding them as one also allows for additional funtionality
I recall a discussion about Exalted, and do Exalts know how many "motes" of "mana" they have for their powers? There was a big push towards "Yes" because the powers were known and studied. so mote-counting (I won't use that Power yet, I need my motes for something else, and I get 5 back end-of-round) is actually NOT meta-gaming! :)
Solars have the following weapon attack on their stat block:
Slaying Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d8 + 6) piercing damage plus 27 (6d8) radiant damage. If the target is a creature that has 100 hit points or fewer, it must succeed on a DC ...
@Shalvenay or not :) we sometimes do "cut scenes" where I show the BBEG ordering his minions around. Not something the PCs would ever see, but gives the players something to work with. A form of exposition, without being a boring info-dump
BBEG <cut-scene> Hah! Those fools think they can sneak around my defences? Activate the Laser-Sharks! Players: Laser sharks? Oops! PCs: I bet the BBEG has defended this route some-how ... we should be alert for traps, or guards ... he might even have dolphins with blasters!
He now has a recurring Bad guy based on one of our first D&D characters - a Human Barbarian with the Bear Totem. He hugged everything to death, and didn't actually use weapons in the conventional sense - instead he would simply grip the handle of the weapon, and punch.
I like playing games which actually make room in the rules for players to barge in and say "NO BUT LISTEN HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING" without my having to ask.
@BESW We do that, so many aspects of our games are just things we've pictured in our heads. Changelings, for example, make a sort of flatulent sound when they change shape, like a flipbook with skin.
I love love love the Majestic 13 "mission briefing" mechanic.
It consists of the GM presenting a very basic, broad sense of the adventure, and then players take turns adding details and complications to flesh out what it'll be like and what challenges they're likely to face.
The candy Factory was riffing off players' ideas. They were wondering where the BBEG would hide ( I had no idea yet!): He might be near the Old Carnival. He needs access to sugar (he has a Condition to boost him, but burns calories FAST) Where does the Carney get its Candy? ... They basically decided, and then "went to ask an NPC who might know these things", so i could tell them "Oh, you mean the Olde Candy Factory?" :)
Our group is quite split on having such Rules. 1 is very against. I'm an old-fashioned viking-hat DM, others really like the idea. We tend to do it free-form
"minor" details, I always allow the players to call. Or at least get a roll for ... In the Candy Factory: it's a factory, is there a forklift truck nearby? Well, obviously there are some around ... nearby? sure, why not!
You might like InSpectres' take on it? When someone mentions a company resource for the first time, they roll their character's Resources stat to see how good or bad the resource is. And once per scene one player can do a reality-show-style confessional in which they can establish diegetic elements everyone else has to play around.
So it's strictly controlled but very open-ended within those controls.
It may be a little glitchy ... it's just a preview/test-run, really
user15026
@Ben I have a friend from Adelaide who will be moving to Canada eventually and she is like "it got to 5C here and I thought I was gonna die. Canadian winter might kill me."
With our original concept, we were investigating "Powers". One was the ability to have minions. The next was the ability to give your minions the same powers that you have. So it developed into a swirling horde of miniature people with tornado powers, just causing utter and complete havoc.
The GM decided to just focus all the points into the hurricane power, so it was a Dwarf with the ability to create a tornado originating on him, on command
@Rubiksmoose Productive procrastination is my biggest flaw. I can justify it by getting something done but it's not usually the thing I'm meant to be doing.
Inspired by a comment in this question, which reads as follows:
It says you must spend your action each turn, but it does not say that if you do not spend an action that the spell fails
And the rules for spells with long casting times are as follows (emphasis mine):
Certain spells (inc...
In my game, my players want to ask Arianna of Southton questions about the Gorgov family necklace. This seems like a good opportunity for a legwork scene where they have to find her within the church and then ask her questions.
My question is how this fits within the mechanical structure of DCO....
I don't entirely understand the question but I'm pretty sure if I knew the module it would make sense. It seems clear enough that if you can answer it you would understand.
I also once ran a D&D 3.x campaign where I let my players use material from all d20 supplements, and their PCs were all randomly portaled into the campaign setting for reasons nobody ever figured out.
(It sounds crazy, but it was probably my D&D 3.x campaign with the least power spotlighting problems.)
Isekai (Japanese: 異世界, transl. "different world") is a subgenre of Japanese fantasy light novels, manga, anime, and video games revolving around a normal person from Earth being transported to, reborn, or trapped in a parallel universe. Often, this universe already exists in the protagonist's world as a fictional universe, but it may also be unknown to them, as is the case with Sonic X. The new universe can be an entirely different world where only the protagonist has any memory of their former life, as in Saga of Tanya the Evil, or one that they reincarnate in. It may also be one where a formerly...
I've got the answer I wanted, but I'm intrigued by why this question would be considered unclear.
There might be better ways to write it, but it seems like it would be clear enough to people who understand the mechanics of Dusk City Outlaws
I'm probably going to ask more questions on here about...
If I cast Hunter's Mark on a Roper and I attack its tendril, do I get the 1d6 bonus damage? Each tendril has its own HP/AC, but it's a part of the Roper's body.
It is not a social media platform, nor is it as prominent or widely used in the way that sites like FaceBook and Twitter are. It's still niche in the public consciousness, and it's not social media.
(And, you know, that seems like an arbitrary thing to pick at in the blog post. Is her point less persuasive because she doesn't use Reddit?)
no, and if anything reddit downvote bandwagons are a kind of the encouraged active engagement she's talking about
reddit literally has a sorting option for "controversial". It pretty much reinforces her point
I wasn't trying to enact some kind of scathing takedown, just genuinely querying that particular assertion because I thought reddit counts as social media and it is one of the most popular sites in the US (~#6 apparently) and the world.
I'd say it's sort of a social media platform, but it certainly isn't its primary function - at the very least, it's a very different platform from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
@linksassin I had no familiarity with the system but it definitely looked like completely uninformed close-voting to me. Nothing about it looked like it would be unambiguous if one was familiar with the system and scenario
We could ask the close voters, but on the other hand I don't think there's any real urgency to do so unless the question is actually closed and re-opening is disputed by someone.
I hesitated a bit to write it because asserting someone did something because of X is always a bit of a gray area, but I think this relatively new user's concern had to be eased and I have some experience of a similar phenomenon so I opted to put it out there anyway.
I admit I didn't have the time to read all the way through that post this morning, but the points made at the start about how social media platforms drive engagement seem generically applicable to everything.
Like, it doesn't really matter if I don't discuss TTRPGs on reddit, if I spend enough time on reddit discussing the other stuff in my life that it influences the way I behave in online spaces generally.
I've always found Reddit almost impenetrable as a community. It de-emphasizes individuals and continuity of interaction, punishes extended conversation, silos aggressively...
An information silo, or a group of such silos, is an insular management system in which one information system or subsystem is incapable of reciprocal operation with others that are, or should be, related. Thus information is not adequately shared but rather remains sequestered within each system or subsystem, figuratively trapped within a container like grain is trapped within a silo: there may be a lot of it, and it may be stacked quite high and freely available within those limits, but it has no effect outside those limits. Such data silos are proving to be an obstacle for businesses wishing...
As for punishing extended conversations, that's built into the UI.
I did find some inconveniences in long conversations, but that probably had more to do with me being heavily used to linear threads rather than branching ones, and Reddit is branch-oriented.
Which in a way makes sense since different branches of a thread can go in very different directions, not all of which are equally interesting for a given user.
I vastly prefer reddit's branching model in that regard, specifically because it allows people to have extended conversations without having to make a "separate thread" or essentially having a bunch of overlapping conversations
It encourages disjointed reading of snippits rather than full nuanced conversations--each bit is rated on its own punchiness more than on than its usefulness in context.
I am baffled by how people use twitter for extended discourse, so much so that there's basically dependency on third party tools to take threads of tweets and make them readable
@BESW FYI: your article seems to be region-locked (it doesn't load from my native IP but does from a North American one). But I do think it reaches sensible conclusions (though, and this is weird for me to say it, its opening seems to have neurotypical-normative vibes).
Anyway, I really appreciate the conclusions about partial disengagement, about avoidance of BadWrongFun'ing people, and about agreeing to disagree and understanding that two friends of person A are not necessarily friends among themselves. I think these are things that people often forget.
Last year my internet connection's intermittent failure was traced, after months of replacing routers and debugging lines, to a frayed wire in a wiring box, which disconnected every time the wind blew through it.
Regarding board games, I bought Spirit Island. It seems like a fun and deep co-op game and has gotten lots of praise to that effect. I also like the fact that it has the players take the side of the native life (spirits and people) of the island, inverting the usual colonial objectives, although I haven't yet read all the material that came with it to assess how fair its treatment of the native population of the island is.
They are represented on the board by champignon-shaped tribal huts, which got a slightly awkward chuckle from me. I thought the Smurfs had cornered the mushroom home market.
The players control spirits inhabiting an island that's being colonized by invaders who, in their greed and haste, don't know how to coexist with spirits or the natives of the island. The invaders send explorers to build towns and cities that blight the island, and the players try to stop their spread and contain the damage they do.
Funnily enough, the guy who gave the ultimate recommendation to get the game is a Swedish colleague of mine. He said I could repel the Swedish colonial overlords in the game! (yes, Sweden is one of the invader country picks available)
I think the Swedish rule over Finns was for a large part "Fair for Its Day" and left us some very good institutions that continue to serve us today, but hey, I have to do it at least once.
@goodguy5 I once spent an hour chatting to one of my friends from university as we ambled around the city centre taking the freshers to the local nerd shops, completely unable to remember what his name was
@BESW I have a friend from school that we only refer to by his last name. Which was always funny when we called his house to see if he could talk. "hi is Mu--uhh..." [think hard for 5 seconds] "is Ashley there?"
@Carcer What's the second to last letter of the alphabet again?
@kviiri There were two guys on my high school crew team named Matt. our coach said "This is too much. You [pointing to the younger one], you're name is Nick now." And so it was for the next 2 years.
Cook becomes Cookie, Fox becomes Foxy, Hesketh becomes Hesky... Harry got to be Harry but I suspect that was because his forename already ended with the -y sound.
I've been almost always referred to by my first name only, although I had some short-lived variations when I was active in youth work and my IRC handle is still occasionally used
The Jeremy Crawford tweet that @Psyntax referenced here has gotten me wondering what exacty constitutes a target of a spell.
The PH states:
A typical spell requires you to pick one or more targets to be affected by the spell's magic. A spell's description tells you whether the spell targets ...
Earlier today I was reading that cantrip damage house-rule question and it got me thinking... The general consensus among the community seems to be that actually in 5e the classes are fairly well balanced (barring a few well known exceptions such as Beastmaster Ranger, Way of Elelements Monk), compared to earlier editions. But that each group's playstlye can do a lot to throw off game balance.
One of the more common ways that game-balance gets broken is the 'five minute adventuring day'. I wondered if a question around that would help discussions of those issues - something along the lines of 'How does the five minute adventuring day affect class balance?' But I wasn't sure if thatd be too broad?
@Someone_Evil It's a slang term for games with few combats - i.e. rather than 6-8 combats of varying difficulties, you might have just one deadly combat between long rests.
@Someone_Evil It's the DnD thing that happens when the players do the "smart thing" and rest between every encounter. Often also occurs by accident when people homebrew adventures with few combat encounters
(scare quotes since it's not actually always "smart")
Anyway, I was just wondering whether others thought that such a question sounded like it could be stackable and useful, to broader discussion of class balance?
@Someone_Evil Eg. in our games, we've played almost exclusively homebrewed adventures. Our GMs aren't game designers --- I have the mindset, I think, but not all the tools. The adventures are "played by the ear" and balance interactions aren't usually considered much
@Tiggerous This was also partially why i asked my question about easy encounters. Including more encounters that are 'easy' to fill the 6-8 i don't think makes a difference. I know that as a player, I'd just be saving my resources for when it matters and using non-resource abilities for the easy ones.
The upside is that we usually only get content that the GM at the time finds interesting --- so little to no "filler" encounters. The downside is that we usually have only a single combat a day, or two, and that does nasty things to DnD 5e balance.
And it's a bit of a vicious cycle: the GMs notice in retrospect the players survived the one combat of the day with ease and ramp up the difficulty, which leads to more resource splurge during a single encounter but never gives more endurance-oriented characters (like Warlocks and Monks) a chance to shine.
@kviiri I wonder how much of it also relates to many games being played over only 2-3 hour sessions, with combat encounters being fairly time consuming.
@G.Moylan You won't find one I don't think. Nothing explicit and official anyways. They either don't know or aren't willing to clarify what actually is a target of a spell and, in fact, apply the term inconsistently in the rules as well.
Having played a bit as a monk, the SR dependency is actual an advantage. I can splurge during an encounter and take an hour to get all of my resources back. That's pretty huge.
I think the Warlock may be a bigger issue with simply fewer spell slots. But the Ki resource is pretty big. I can get a lot of bang out of the Ki buck (especially with stunning strike.)
@Tiggerous It's not really something that can be answered in a general way. Comparative damage between classes varies enormously based on encounter density.
@Rubiksmoose I'll read that, ti looks good .I'm stuck trying to prove that spells affected by another spell are not therefore targeted by that spell. In my gut I feel like that can't be true, but I'm not sure how to prove it
@Miniman That's why I was considering asking the question about how class balance was specifically affected by the 5 minute adventuring day - I suppose you could also ask the opposite too, though that's less often an issue.
@kviiri Well, you could say that about a lot of things - but I take your point.
@JohnP Hmmm. Nothing leaps to mind immediately for that exactly. But there are a lot of that type of social question that either blur together in my mind or I may never have payed much attention.
@GcL that's the assertion that since it affects those spells that it also targets those spells. Crawford apparently said something to that effect in 2017 but I haven't found any kind of update for that