TRPG General Chat

goodguy5

2:01 PM

not ra, but still

Sir Cinnamon

Now that's a conspiracy - the sun swaps out every day and the government just wants you to think its the same one

Yuuki

@BESW Turns out the prophecy foretelling the destruction of the Weave is just Mystra deciding to perm.

BESW

@SirCinnamon It's not like the sun is a Shelby Electric bulb.

KorvinStarmast

@Yuuki Now that's a bad hair day

G. Moylan

@BESW the centennial light! There's a live feed!

Yuuki

2:05 PM

@BESW I actually first heard about this thing on Warehouse 13.

BESW

It also got a surprisingly touching elegy in 17776.

KorvinStarmast

@BESW I did a re open vote and noted one of the broken links in a comment.

JohnP

@KorvinStarmast Same. Question is reopened.

BESW

(Warning, 17776 will suck up a decent amount of time, it's a serialized speculative fiction multimedia story semi-unofficially subtitled What Football Will Look Like in the Future.)

Yuuki

Someone linked it to me awhile back but I never finished it.

BESW

2:10 PM

I found it worthwhile?

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch Yes, it got a wry grin out of me. The base question also got me digging into my boxes of previous edition stuff.

G. Moylan

I fundamentally disagree with putting much stock in the JC podcast mentioned in this question about targeting, and thus also the current top answer, but there really isn't a correct answer to the question

Yuuki

I enjoyed it while I... read(?) it but I just put it down one day and never picked it back up.

BESW

Apparently for a lot of people it was their first experience with speculative fiction that explores the nature of humanity in that way, so it's got a rather mind-blowing reputation that I didn't get, but I really liked it as a new entry in the medium.

Yuuki

To be fair, sbnation isn't really a hub for speculative fiction.

BESW

2:12 PM

No, but Bois is a great storyteller.

And if he can give a lot of people an opening to reading good specfic, I'm all for it.

Yuuki

So it's entirely possible that it's a lot of people's first experience with speculative fiction. Especially since the general sbnation audience isn't what one would stereotypically consider to be familiar with such.

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 That's amazing and I'm totally stealing it.

BESW

@Yuuki Aye. I'm not trying to be denigrating at all when I say that it seems to have been many peoples' first exposure to narratives with those themes, it's always exciting to see people find awesome stuff for the first time. Reminds me of how awesome the stuff really is.

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast which is different than the rye gin drunk master question :P SPeaking of...your comment on using chips should probably go into an answer :)

Yuuki

I should go back and finish it but I can't remember where I stopped it and I kinda don't want to start over.

BESW

2:15 PM

And gosh, I'd much rather people read 17776 than, say, The Giver, as their first foray into futuristic exploration of the nature of humanity.

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch Cheese is a form of fun. When Nitsua started the cheese meta to celebrate that play style / form of fun, I was happy to support that effort. Members of the dairy lobby from Wisconsin ask you to support cheese in all of its forms ...

G. Moylan

@BESW geez that book

NautArch

@G.Moylan Yeah, I don't like how much is put on JC there.

BESW

@G.Moylan Yeah. But if The Giver was the spark that gave someone the hunger for more, I won't begrudge that.

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast I'd probably add a caveat that it's fun for some. Plurality of playstyles and all that :)

G. Moylan

2:17 PM

@NautArch I started writing up an answer and realized that the subject is SO broad and fundamentally flawed that it's difficult to really address properly. I have plenty of examples that either contradict, support, or both at the same time.

KorvinStarmast

@JohnP thanks John! :)

NautArch

@G.Moylan I've submitted answers supporting both sides.

BESW

@G.Moylan Ooh, it's like Doctor Who canon except the majority of the community doesn't accept "it doesn't matter" as an answer.

G. Moylan

@BESW cries in ambiguous JC rulings

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch It should, if I had enough meat to write an answer. I need to review the Q again and see if I have enough meat for that.

BESW

2:19 PM

@G.Moylan Oh, no, you're getting Twitter damp.

Rubiksmoose

@G.Moylan Yup. In short, it's a mess. The best way I can think to answer the question would be if there was some way to be able to argue that one of the options consistently leads to a better table experience (eg "ignore the rules and inconsistencies, do this because it does this thing way better"), but it's so freaking complicated to get even to a ruling that is consistently applicable that I've never been able to get there.

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast I think that answer is going to need a ton of beef. THere's a lot to cover.

G. Moylan

@BESW Ryan Reynolds gets Twitter damp

Rubiksmoose

@KorvinStarmast Just make sure your meat isn't spam ;)

KorvinStarmast

@BESW Which is unfortunate, since there are some good "it doesn't matter" answer eligible questions roaming about.

@NautArch Yes, you nailed it.

Yuuki

2:21 PM

@G.Moylan I'm not sure that's exclusive to Twitter.

KorvinStarmast

@Rubiksmoose As a crusader against spam, you can rest assured that I will comply with that diamond mod guidance. (ON the forum where I am a mod, I am ruthless with spam and spammers. )

Rubiksmoose

@KorvinStarmast hahaha I never had any doubts, just trying for the easy/lame pun.

Yuuki

Hey, Spam can be good. It's fantastic in hot pot, for example.

Rubiksmoose

@Yuuki Of course it can! How do you think I find all of my witch doctors?

G. Moylan

> Just trying for the easy/lame pun

BESW

2:24 PM

Spam is a proud traditional food of Indigenous peoples across the world who were forced to incorporate it into their diets by colonizing forces, and found ways to make it tasty anyway.

G. Moylan

@G.Moylan my life

Sir Cinnamon

@BESW Curse you for making me read this again

Yuuki

Spam in hot pot is great because the hot pot diffuses the saltiness of the Spam and then it in turn absorbs the flavors of the hot pot.

goodguy5

I'm still thinking about how the sun works in Frustrum-world.

I'm thinking three sects of a cult.

one who summons it on the one edge of the realm.
another sect pulls it to their side slowly throughout the day.
and the third is a sect of darkness harbingers who, daily, strive to destroy the sun, only to succeed every day and a new one formed the next day.

And this is all going to be introduced by the party learning about the sect of sun destroyers. Then they're going to find them and learn that they succeed every day.

Yuuki

So, do the sun destroyers know that they succeed every day?

goodguy5

2:31 PM

yes

Yuuki

And why do they want to destroy the sun every day? If it's to bring eternal darkness, they'd probably realize that someone else is making a new sun every day.

goodguy5

It's kind of like a "good day at the office" situation.

And that is also true

KorvinStarmast

@Yuuki And it's a fine breakfast meat, fried in the iron skillet to go with eggs.

Yuuki

The sun pullers are probably the only sect that'd be able to stay a secret from the other two.

goodguy5

That is my intention.
They're partially content with the fact that they are in fact destroying the sun.

But one of the tenants is eternal darkness and many are displeased by the sun generation cult.

Yuuki

2:32 PM

@goodguy5 How much does eternal darkness pay for monthly rent?

goodguy5

I get the joke, but is that not the right use of that word?

oh, tenets

kviiri

Eternal darkness is a nice tenant if electricity is included in the rent

oh shoot, the joke was already taken

goodguy5

huh. I don't think I've ever seen "tenets" written.

I've always just assumed that "tenants" was an overloaded word.

Yuuki

@goodguy5 I saw it as a child when I went to Sunday school despite not being Christian.

JohnP

@KorvinStarmast no prob.

NautArch

2:35 PM

@goodguy5 david tenets?

goodguy5

ha

G. Moylan

@NautArch I believe in him

kviiri

@goodguy5 I was following Civ Fanatics (a fan community of the strategy game series Civilization) when the last Civ V expansion, featuring Ideologies with unlockable Tenets was upcoming. I recall the correct spelling being the norm on the forum, then a mod who maintained the "what we know" or some other high traffic thread misspelled it once and the "tenant" spelling became almost instantly dominant :)

If I was an anthropologist, viral misspellings would be an interesting field to study

Rubiksmoose

@Yuuki I've never had this before but I could definitely go for one right now

hey @OriBiggie :)

Yuuki

@Rubiksmoose I love hot pot because it's not only delicious but it's a social event where I can distract my usual social anxieties with food.

Hot RPG Questions

2:40 PM

3

Q: Does the Aegis Astral Suits' have weight that effect encumbrance, Armor check penalties and speed?

Does the armor created by the Aegis ability Astral Suits have weight that contributes to encumbrance, along with Armor check penalties and speed penalties, like normal armor?

goodguy5

@Yuuki I don't think we're supposed to talk about pot at any temperature here....

kviiri

Another thing I noticed much later was a penchant for hypercorrectionism on certain strategy game forums: if using a fancy word like "malus" isn't enough, they'd use a horrible pseudo-Latin plural "mali" for it.

Rubiksmoose

@Yuuki Well that sounds like a sound and yummy strategy!

goodguy5

@kviiri Malusopodes

KorvinStarmast

@kviiri Just out of curiosity, is Sirian still active in the Civ Fanatics community? I am reaching way back into memory, but when Civ 3 came out he was a significant contributor. (And I think he got hired to work on Civ 4?)

kviiri

2:41 PM

@KorvinStarmast No idea at all, it's been many years since I was active and even then it was largely in bursts.

G. Moylan

@goodguy5 that's more Greek

kviiri

I followed Civ V development and the Brave New World expansions with fairly serious interest, but that's about it.

goodguy5

YOU'RE MORE GREEK

G. Moylan

@goodguy5 BONT cack

KorvinStarmast

@kviiri My son got me to try Civ 3 again, after a long lay off. Sigh. I'd need to drop my other games and devote myself to that game if I were to really enjoy it.

Rubiksmoose

2:42 PM

@Yuuki I think my go-to strategies involve serving as bartender and playing games.

kviiri

@KorvinStarmast Play something simple and not time-consuming. Like Factorio x)

MikeQ

@goodguy5 It's all Greek to me

goodguy5

@Rubiksmoose This is my ideal career

OriBiggie

Ah, there we go. Wouldn't let me talk at first. @Rubiksmoose thanks for the greeting :)

Rubiksmoose

@OriBiggie Sometimes it takes a bit I think. And no problem :)

kviiri

2:43 PM

@OriBiggie Hi! Welcome to the chat!

MikeQ

@OriBiggie Welcome to the Role-Playing Games chat, where we don't talk about role playing games

kviiri

Yeah, we just role-play that we're role-players while actually we aren't.

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 oh boy, I feel like I would like this as well. Though I think I'd make an awful professional bartender.

Despite enjoying cocktail making quite a lot.

goodguy5

I think that's all you need

KorvinStarmast

@kviiri Hearthstone is what I do now, as it can be broken down into short chunks of time.

d20

Dice Service

2:45 PM

12

KorvinStarmast

I make my save versus role playing a role player.

Rubiksmoose

2d6

Dice Service

•

Xirema

How do people feel about this Stack Exchange blog post? What a very bad day at work taught me about building Stack Overflow’s community

G. Moylan

@Rubiksmoose something something drink and know things

@KorvinStarmast and large chunks of money

kviiri

2:50 PM

@KorvinStarmast Cool! I'm not that much into multiplayers but I also play short deck-building sprees with Slay the Spire.

MikeQ

@Xirema That seems to be the experience for fresh users. The observations are nothing new. It's reinforced by SE design. If it changes somehow that would be nice, but based on trends I'm not counting on it anytime soon.

JohnP

@MikeQ The only way it would change would to stratify the stack and create a "newbie" exchange. And that would be a nightmare to manage, unfortunately.

Xirema

@MikeQ My initial thought was "huh, I guess they're finally starting to acknowledge what the problem is!" not long after followed by "so what are the odds they actually do something to fix it? -_-"

goodguy5

I feel like it's 50% idiots and 50% warranted.

People have a terrible attitude towards the internet of it being a mindless outlet for whatever stream of consciousness they happen to be experiencing and no one wants to do any research about anything, let alone before asking a question.

And then there's the real issue of being so ignorant about something that you don't know what you don't know. These are the people who are wronged by the SO model.

In the case of that actual article it seemed the blogger and team made a change without consulting how it would impact engineering and then felt…

Now, we don't know what the change was, so we'll never know.

G. Moylan

@goodguy5 to be fair, company policies are often implemented without consulting individual teams

goodguy5

3:02 PM

@G.Moylan AND they're often infuriating.

Yuuki

@goodguy5 I feel like designers pushing design and then feeling personally attacked when there's an adverse reaction to said design is pretty common in tech in general.

goodguy5

@goodguy5 like "must wear pants" and "can't drink whiskey before 2pm"

Yuuki

It's a story I see a lot in gaming as well.

Xirema

TBH, I don't really know how you solve the New User Experience. You can't implement restrictions on the aggressive "Mega-Downvotes for Lack of Research" behavior of users without also impacting those same users' ability to properly respond to spam and off-topic content.

G. Moylan

@goodguy5 if women can wear skirts and sandals to the office they why the heck can't I wear shorts when it's 100F outside. That's what I want to know.

goodguy5

3:04 PM

1. I do wear sandals. I dare a manager to try to stop me.
2. I've also always wondered that.

3. just wear a skirt.

G. Moylan

@goodguy5 Bus drivers in France did this for exactly the same reasons

goodguy5

*cough* kilt *cough*

G. Moylan

@goodguy5 I own a kilt. and I own that kilt.

goodguy5

noice

Yuuki

@G.Moylan Even if it's 100F outside, I still wear pants because it's like 60F inside.

goodguy5

3:05 PM

what kind did you buy?

I've been considering a kilt.

G. Moylan

@goodguy5 I have a traditional highland kilt that was made in Scotland by an individual. I forget his name but it's on the piece

goodguy5

well, that's excessive.

G. Moylan

@goodguy5 I was in a pipe band for a while (drums) and we sourced our kilts from Scotland

most of the cheapo ones you can get in the U.S. either 1) aren't very high quality, or 2) don't use enough fabric

BUT, there are plenty of high quality manufacturers out there with great products

just most of them ship from or are based in Scotland

goodguy5

I understand that it's totally innocuous, but I'm so uncomfortable clicking on clan.com.

G. Moylan

@goodguy5 HA!

KorvinStarmast

3:13 PM

@Xirema I like her blog post. It's an interesting observation on crowd behavior. @nitsua60 coined a term here about sometimes a "help pile" forming in comments.
Sort of like a dog pile of people descending upon a new question, and overwhelming a new user with advice. That can be received in a less warm connotation that is being transmitted.

kviiri

Yep ye

totally true!

Xirema

@KorvinStarmast I think it's a good post! I'm just so cynical on the topic of whether this post represents a forecast for potential changes, or just a platitude acknowledgement of the problem.

KorvinStarmast

@Xirema What she is trying to do, I think, is try to better understand the problem (and to explain it) from both sides of the fence. The new user getting feedback and the users/veterans providing feedback, and the message coming across with a difficult tone.

Heh, peer review in academia also can come across as a personal attack. Depends on the personality of the academicians.

OriBiggie

Coming from a new (posting) user - it's daunting as heck putting anything on this site.

But then again, I'm not sure how much of that is because it's actually daunting, or because of the reputation of it being daunting

Xirema

@OriBiggie It is actually daunting. I think this specific Stack is better-than-average in regard to keeping the atmosphere welcoming, but even as a veteran user, I still brace myself if I ever find a need to post a question over at Stack Overflow.

KorvinStarmast

3:20 PM

@OriBiggie I have been around the intenet (and use net and BBS and news groups before that) for a long time. I am an OK writer, but I also had to discover by trial and error the "how to write a good question" when participating here.

I had similar experiences at Christianity.SE. I mostly provide answers in Aviation . SE and History beta, and I find that writing answers is easier than writing questions.

Medix2

I end up feeling bad for people where their first question/answer, or first few, are "bad" by the Stack rules, which can end up swaying the poster away from the site. I guess that just comes down to reading the rules before posting

Xirema

I mean, the default expectation for anyone designing a site is that new users will NOT read the rules before trying to use it, and that therefore the site should be designed around minimizing the ability of new users to break the rules of the site.

G. Moylan

SO uses that guided question thing to help try to alleviate format issues, but that still doesn't change the quality of the question content

Xirema

Like, the fact that SE doesn't have a built-in "Question Builder" interface that new users are automatically redirected to seems like an immediately obvious shortcoming.

It wouldn't be that hard for something like Stack Overflow either.

kviiri

By my admittedly dated experience, a large enough portion of SE users just don't care about quality.

Medix2

3:29 PM

Yeah a Question Builder or Question Template could be nice

Xirema

1. Describe, in plain English, what your problem is.

2. What is the output that your program should be producing?

3. What output is your program producing instead?

4. What is the /smallest/ about of code required to reproduce your problem?

@Xirema Build a 4-panel UI to display these questions and text boxes for each, concatenate the whole thing into a final panel, and give the user a chance to review the whole thing before submitting.

OriBiggie

1. It doesn't work

2. The right one

3. The wrong one

4. The code I've got

Xirema

Totally optional if the user is experienced (>= 500 Rep) and still permits the user to bypass it if their question really does not fit this generic format.

OriBiggie

It couldn't possibly go wrong :P

Xirema

@OriBiggie Which would still be better than ~40% of the questions that get submitted to SO by newer users, TBH.

OriBiggie

3:31 PM

Haha, fair

Rubiksmoose

@Xirema I thought SO did have a question wizard live?

Carcer

simple fix

"On Hold" -> "On Hold :)"

NautArch

@Carcer Cast hold question

Carcer

d20

Dice Service

11

Carcer

3:33 PM

what's your save DC?

Xirema

@Rubiksmoose It's opt-in.

Rubiksmoose

@Xirema Ah, gotcha.

Xirema

@Rubiksmoose It is most of what I'd expect from such an interface, but a bit too cluttered for my taste.

It's also got the problem of "question cruft", i.e. it's got two questions "Summarize the problem you're having" AND "give some background information on the problem", which is frustrating for users since the distinction between the two is kind of arcane.

Rubiksmoose

Huh. It certainly looked like an interesting idea from the intial stages I saw.

Xirema

I mean, it's not bad. But not enough, either.

Yuuki

3:47 PM

I know it's partly due to existing database constraints but while I enjoy the various racial naming schemes that FFXIV has, I'm disappointed that they're all of the "<forename> <surname>" persuasion.

David Coffron

@goodguy5 It seems about right. I got slightly higher numbers, but that may be because we implemented the accuracy-boosting strategy differently.

NautArch

Is there a french translation of the 5e SRD or core books?

G. Moylan

@NautArch enworld.org/forum/…

goodguy5

@DavidCoffron Thanks!

NautArch

@G.Moylan dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/localization

goodguy5

3:54 PM

Then I think there's a new best answer. I'll mark it in a day or two

nitsua60

@goodguy5 Not "frustrum" with a second 'r'?

G. Moylan

@NautArch Oh Nice! I don't think they've started yet, though. I can't find any products

@NautArch oh here I found it: gf9.com/Default.aspx?tabid=225&art_id=5526

NautArch

@G.Moylan nice, I couldn't find that!

G. Moylan

@NautArch still can't find the book on the linked site, though

NautArch

@G.Moylan ugh. Talking with the drunken master poster. They're french and that's adding an additional difficulty (not in communication, but in source books)

G. Moylan

4:00 PM

@NautArch do they ahve a french copy?

@NautArch a little more digging paid off: black-book-editions.fr/produit.php?id=7439

NautArch

@G.Moylan I think they said they had the SRD (but they call it Heroes and Dragons?)

G. Moylan

@G.Moylan Just the PHB: black-book-editions.fr/produit.php?id=6265

NautArch

but not having all classes makes homebrewing harder because they can't compare

G. Moylan

@NautArch see the link just above for PHB. Ah I see how that would be frustrating

JohnP

So...today I applied for a job that would be a radical career change if I got it.

David Coffron

4:04 PM

@JohnP That's exciting and intimidating. Good luck!

G. Moylan

@G.Moylan it doesn't seem they've translated anything beyond the core 3, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, the DM screen, and the Starter Set

JohnP

@DavidCoffron Thanks. I'd be excited and terrified at the same time :p

G. Moylan

@JohnP when can you expect to find out?

JohnP

Knowing corporate HR, probably at least 3 weeks before I get a response saying "We've gone in a different direction". I'm only peripherally qualified for the position.

goodguy5

4:18 PM

@nitsua60 jwilson.coe.uga.edu/emt725/Frustum/Frustum.cone.html

G. Moylan

@goodguy5 so conical frustum. What did you say the ridged variety was called?

INB4 "ruffles"

goodguy5

I just called it a "ridged frustum"....

or, a Reese Cup.

NautArch

is my comment on this question a duplicate?

G. Moylan

not quite, since this one seems to be out of game. It's unclear if this is just frustrating to the GM to hear about it or if it's actually affecting gameplay

"since it is rarely done during the session time"

players can make jokes and impossible plans all they want OOG. if it's IN game, then I'd say duplicate

NautArch

cynical nautarch is just thinking same OP, same scenario.

G. Moylan

4:30 PM

oh jeez hand't noticed that

NautArch

ugh, is this considered 5e for tagging purposes?

may have to meta that ^

Rubiksmoose

This post is talking about the BBEG, but the question is about entities like Cthulhu. This answer seems to misunderstand the question. The question is about, for example, starting a game of CSI: The RPG and the player of a beat cop making plans to kill God. — SevenSidedDie 21 mins ago

Is it bad that I want to play this game now?

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose That game sounds awesome. Sign me up.

Rubiksmoose

"He was a straight-laced by-the-book cop just getting through the day. Until he met his new partner. A loose cannon cop, who wants to kill god."

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose Did you see this?

Rubiksmoose

4:38 PM

@NautArch I did and I have absolutely no idea. Is that the french localisation of D&D?

Or is it 3rd party or what? (note: I only took a very brief look)

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose No. At least, I don't think so. I think they took the SRD and then built on top of it. But I don't know what that really means in terms of our tagging or even legality.

But technically, that's what the drunken master OP is playing.

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch Dumb(?) question: isn't that what the SRD is for?

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose I haven no idea :) Maybe? But then is it considered 5e that's being played?

or is it Heroes and Dragons?

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch All these are excellent questions.

What question did this pop up in reference to? (I'm mobile atm)

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose Should I turn this into a meta?

5

A: Please review my drunken master concept

First, a warning on resource management The core of this build involves an immense amount of resource management - for the player and for the DM. Tracking the current state of CUA may be problematic and will require the DM to keep track of hours passed since first imbibing and for the player to ...

Rubiksmoose

4:44 PM

@NautArch hmm

In my mind, the question you are raising should be raised on Meta. I think in addition to what you are asking, we might want to consider whether it matters at all here as far as getting them helpful answers.

It looks to me like they would like us to assume that everything is identical between 5e and the thing they are playing, and if that is the assumption they want, we can give them answers accrordingly I think and tagging it as 5e might be the easiest way to go about that. Maybe mentioning the actual game in the body as well and explicitly asking us to assume they are the same.

All of which is to say, probably a good thing to get this on Meta to see what people think.

Someone_Evil

Is it wierd that I now want to play a Tieffelin Roublard?

Yuuki

@Rubiksmoose Why do we always have to kill God? Why not playing a character who wants to put God in time-out? Or send Them to AA?

Xirema

I usually just write god a strongly worded email condemning her for all her mistakes.

Rubiksmoose

@Yuuki Good point! Where are the stories about getting god to invest in their Startup? Or asking them to eliminate DST?

Xirema

@Rubiksmoose Heretic! The true path forwards is to make DST permanent!

Yuuki

4:53 PM

@Rubiksmoose I feel like eliminating DST is beyond the ken of any being, deities included.

Can you imagine having to sift through all that timezone code? I think it's impossible.

Xirema

The Problem with Time & Timezones - Computerphile

►

That video is so good.

Delioth

The obvious solution to DST is, since we have both sides - some say "always" and some say "never".... to make it flip every day

Ben

@Xirema oddly appropriate. It's 3am and I need to start work because I have a meeting with ppl in the US

The Oracle

0

Q: Is this kind of snark really necessary?

I feel that some of our users have taken the change in norms with subjective questions too far. This comment is the last straw. It reflects a complete misunderstanding of the answer, in terms of addressing the actual problem. A GM and all of the other players see the game one way, and one pl...

discussion

0

Q: Is Heroes and Dragons the same thing as 5e in terms of system tagging?

This question came up and during a discussion, it came up that it wasn't exactly 5e that was being played. The game itself is Heroes and Dragons with more specific rules found here. Fundamentally, it seems based off of 5e's SRD, but has been expanded and is it's own thing. I'm fairly certain th...

discussion specific-question game-systems

Delioth

Everyone who matters uses UTC or defines what timezone they're using anyways (which includes DST or no)

Ben

4:57 PM

Uber actually still uses GMT

Delioth

That's just UTC with a different name

Ben

I know. Lol

Delioth

Just wanted to be sure, I've seen an argument over that at least once (not here, but I've also been away for a while)

Ben

UTC became a thing same time as the switch to CE and BCE from BC and AD

I'm in Australia, and from memory we also used to use EST, WST, etc, but now it's AEST and AWST, to specify between us and the US

Yuuki

AWST sounds like an off-brand antivirus software suite.

Delioth

5:04 PM

To be fair, most brand-name antivirus software suites also sound like off-brand AV software suites

Ben

Antivirus With Sub-par Training

Then there's the less favourable counterpart used the other half of the year... AWDST

Antivirus With Dangerously Sub-par Training

Sir Cinnamon

@BESW Just finished reading 17776. I swear i first read it long ago but wikipedia says it came out in 2016... and I don't remember the ending. I wonder if I was reading it while it was happening

Rubiksmoose

@Xirema Darn! If only you had mentioned that before I sent my celestial petition out.

JohnP

5:24 PM

@Ben And don't forget the odd few places in the US that ignore DST completely. Such as Arizona, we don't observe DST changes. Except for a small Indian reservation in the NW corner.

Yuuki

@JohnP But I hear there's also a part of the reservation that doesn't observe DST changes.

NautArch

@JohnP I once drove through (on a camping trip) that part of arizona/nevada. I had no idea what time it was as I went through central/mountain/navajo/dst/nodst timezones.

Yuuki

So if you take a specific straight-line drive through Arizona and the reservation at the right time, you have to change your clock six times.

Perhaps more if you drive right at DST change-over.

Delioth

If you take a specific straight-line flight across the planet you have to change your clock at least 24 times

Xirema

I feel bad for Arizona w/r/t its Time Zone decision. They were on the right track ("Wow, changing our clocks twice a year is the dumbest thing imaginable!") but then settled on the wrong solution ("Alright, no more DST! We'll just turn our clocks back and keep them there!") instead of the better solution ("Alright, permanent DST! We'll turn our clocks ahead and keep them there!")

Rubiksmoose

5:27 PM

@Delioth Literally(?) watching time fly.

Yuuki

@Delioth If you take any straight-line flight through Texas, you have to change your clock up to 5 times or more.

Delioth

Though admittedly, "have to" is being used a little broadly

Xirema

At least the rest of us still have a chance to get it right.

Delioth

We'll just compromise, and set our clocks halfway to DST all the time

Xirema

(Of course, the BEST solution would be a complete economic overhaul that shortens the workday and renders conversations about how to maximize sunlight hours during the day moot, but changing the clocks is a much more plausible solution...)

Delioth

5:30 PM

Maximizing sunlight hours during the day is moot for 99% of the population, and farmers don't really care what the clock says anyways

Other than relative times of "I've been out for 5 hours so it's time for second breakfast"

Xirema

@Delioth Mmm. Ask me again when I'm driving home in rush-hour traffic during the winter struggling with headlights and streetlamps.

There's objective benefits to permanent DST that justify the original thought experiment; the mistake was making those changes seasonal.

Delioth

That's not really a benefit to DST and changing the clocks though

That's just a benefit to the shifted schedule WRT sunlight

Xirema

Ehh. Semiotics.

Delioth

You don't need to kill all the software engineers, you can just get companies to shift their work hours from 9-5 to 8-4

Sir Cinnamon

As a programmer I say: Leave the clocks alone, shift your life as needed

yeah!

Xirema

5:33 PM

@Delioth Or we could shift the work hours to 9-3. =O

Sir Cinnamon

Also I say that pretty facetiously

Xirema

#LaborRights

Delioth

Which is WAY easier than getting international commissions and programmers and nations and such to agree on changing something as fickle as time

Oh yeah, I'm all in for shorter days since there's enough research that shows that a shorter work week actually gets more (absolute, not per-hour) work done

And also because my cat needs more love

Yuuki

@Xirema Solution: public transportation.

And/or automated vehicles.

Surely driving AI is less complicated than timezones?

JohnP

@Yuuki That's news to me, but I never paid a lot of attention. We hardly ever had calls going out to that area, so we didn't investigate it totally.

Delioth

5:36 PM

Yeah, driving AI is less of a pain than timezones at least

Yuuki

> Unlike most of the United States, Arizona does not observe daylight saving time (DST), with the exception of the Navajo Nation, which does observe DST. The Hopi Reservation, which is not part of the Navajo Nation but is geographically surrounded within it, does not observe DST.

Delioth

One's fun to work with. The other you're confused as to why your deadlines are all 1 day ahead, all your displays flip over at 4:00PM, except for in UAT environment

Yuuki

Based on this map, there are actually two places inside of the Navajo Nation that don't observe DST. So a drive through Arizona could result in eight timezone changes.

Perhaps more if we're not talking straight lines.

Delioth

Because in UAT your DBA remembered to set the services to run with timezone=UTC, and you manually configured half the services to always run in UTC, but half of your QA and Prod clusters are in US-Mountain DST

It looks like you could make a straight line from just north of Arizona through both Navajo-Non-DST zones, and clip the tail end of Arizona to get back to no-DST before heading into new mexico

Sir Cinnamon

And when you arrive your relatives ask how you aged so rapidly

Delioth

5:42 PM

Actually it looks like that straight line also includes one of the DST pockets surrounded by No-DST inside of the DST area

So I'm at... 10? Including entering and exiting?

David Coffron

6:28 PM

@goodguy5 Grr... I can't find a new exploit to boost my numbers

goodguy5

haha poor baby

Ben

@JohnP Yeah, I live in Queensland, which doesn't use DST.

@NautArch 2pm, 2pm, 1pm, 3pm, 4am, 2pm

NautArch

@Ben I don't think it went to 4am, but there was that missing hour outside Area 51.

Ben

Haha

Hot RPG Questions

13

Q: What do Unicorns want?

I am making a Celestial Warlock who has made a pact with a particularly powerful Unicorn, as suggested in XgtE. One thing I want to do is flesh out the pact and my patron, but I am struggling to find anything that would make a Unicorn different to any other Chaotic Good Celestial who happened to ...

dnd-5e monsters dungeons-and-dragons lore

Someone_Evil

6:47 PM

@HotRPGQuestions Sugar cubes?

Ben

I ran into a unicorn that wanted my heart.

goodguy5

twitter.com/Farore_DnD/status/1150831826291888129

how do we put in tweets here/

Ben

At least, that was what he GM kept telling me it was. Even after I said I was skeptical when it ate my heart

I think embedded links need the http:// part

Yuuki

One-boxing is broken.

And fixing it is low priority.

goodguy5

oh okay, I'm not just a dumb

Ben

6:51 PM

@Yuuki That's generally why they have two people in the ring?

Yuuki

I think Wikipedia and Stack links are the only links that currently one-box.

Oh and xkcd.

Amazon borked a long time ago and Twitter borked a few months back.

goodguy5

as God intended

David Coffron

Okay.... I got to 500 without using a bonus action... Now I need to find a really good bonus action xD

(that isn't a spell because I already cast action spells)

nitsua60

@NautArch I dropped a note into the Spectacularly Bad Discord; point #1 might interest you. (If I'm remembering something from ~6mo. ago correctly.)

goodguy5

eldritch knight?

David Coffron

6:59 PM

@goodguy5 I went with a big sorcerer this time with some nice heightened spells

goodguy5

fair

David Coffron

Not sure I can get it up to the 700 mark though

Yuuki

@DavidCoffron I cast Fist?

David Coffron

I'm calculating a tempest cleric with lightning arrow. Wish him luck!

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch Thanks for your patience earlier today. Very much appreciated.

V2Blast

7:06 PM

@NautArch I see such questions about exploiting rules loopholes often get downvoted when approached by the querent with seriousness, though it usually goes fine when they acknowledge it's a loophole and are just having fun seeing how ridiculous it can get.

David Coffron

@V2Blast I agree with that evaluation. When it looks like they are power-gaming by exploiting ambiguity in the rules, it is much less well-received than these folks (which are more for the fun of it)

kviiri

One thing I don't have much tolerance for, myself, is wantonly switching between "physics on/physics off" and pretending it's by the rules. Esp. if it's a serious argument at someone's table whether that should be allowed and the querent wants RPG.SE to back up their affirmative opinion

Yuuki

@kviiri cough villager railgun cough

kviiri

@Yuuki I was thinking exactly that

nitsua60

8

A: How many creatures can attack (melee) a single creature at once (assuming all creatures are medium sized)?

All of them/arbitrarily large: (With thanks to @Joel Harmon for the idea, and his blessing in posting it.) Let your army consist of battlemasters (fighters) of at least level 17. Let us assume your target is not proficient in STR saves, and has a STR mod of 0. Line your battlemasters up in two...

Yuuki

7:12 PM

@kviiri I always counter "well, giving someone an item is a free action" with "well, a thrown rock/pebble is an improvised weapon".

goodguy5

whip is 15 feet right?

Yuuki

If they get really shirty about physics, then I bring up What If? xkcd #1 (Relativistic Baseball).

goodguy5

ah, "only" 10.

kviiri

@Yuuki Exactly :) if you want to override rules with realism, sure, I can understand. Override realism with rules? Makes sense too. Override them both ways around willy-nilly to get some absurd outcome? Count me out.

goodguy5

but even so,
I think we can get 4 layers deep with bugbears and lunging attacks

so, that's 80

kviiri

7:19 PM

Lunging at yer lungs

@Yuuki I have an uncomfortable time whenever someone suggests using water magic and lightning together to increase the electric damage

Yuuki

@kviiri IIRC, water is less conductive than the human body, it's just that it's more conductive than air?

I might have my physics wrong.

David Coffron

@goodguy5 What about Flames of the Fire Snake?

(or is class specified)

Delioth

It depends on how pure the water is

David Coffron

19

Q: What build maximizes reach?

A Bugbear (Long Limbed: reach +5 feet) wielding a reach weapon (10 feet of reach) can make a melee weapon attack with a reach of 15 feet. If said Bugbear is a Battle Master with the Lunging maneuver, he can extend his reach of 5 feet for a single attack (achieving 20 feet of reach). My question...

dnd-5e character-creation optimization reach

Delioth

Water+Salt is actually a pretty good conductor because of the salt

But if you can keep the water perfectly pure, it should be a really good insulator

goodguy5

7:22 PM

@DavidCoffron arguable if thats a melee attack

kviiri

@Yuuki Assuming we're talking about normal water (as opposed to distilled), you're correct I reckon. But surrounding one with a good conductor doesn't really mean they get shocked harder in most instances

Yuuki

Which is why water is used as shielding in nuclear reactors, right?

Delioth

Well, that doesn't have much to do with its electrical conductivity

goodguy5

@DavidCoffron Thanks!

kviiri

Water is, by what I remember, a neutron inhibitor

And it absorbs heat well, too

Yuuki

7:26 PM

@DavidCoffron My image of bugbears is forever tainted by KoL.

Delioth

Re: Salt (ocean) water and human bodies have roughly the same conductivity, fresh water is less conductive than a body

Yuuki

I have to keep reminding myself that bugbears are really big goblins.

And only occasionally are they this thing:

kviiri

Re: lightning and water, ofc fantasy lightning magic doesn't really have to behave like proper electricity --- but again, I am a bit reluctant to shift back and fro between "physics" and "no physics", especially when I (usually) understand said physics better than most of my group and that doesn't amount to much

Rubiksmoose

@Yuuki More to do with water's ability to damp out neutrons

ah yeah kviiri got it.

Delioth

I think we can all agree that water is magic.

2

Worldbuilding idea: take my above statement literally

Or backwards, either way

kviiri

7:28 PM

@Delioth This is actually quite well said. Water has very interesting qualities, it's an actual wonder material.

Yuuki

@Delioth My Little Pony: Friendship is Water?

Delioth

Using magic consumes some amount of water proportional to the magic power

kviiri

For proof of its miraculousness: what are the odds that it freezes at zero degrees and boils at exactly hundred?! (Celsius, assuming normal pressure)

(And yes, sarcasm)

Yuuki

Friendship is Water -> Watership is Friend -> Watership Down -> now i'm sad

Delioth

D&D terms, casting a spell consumes Spell Level^2 mL of water (50% less in humid environs as you're drawing some from the air, 50% more in arid environs for the opposite reason). Could be an interesting world to run in

NautArch

7:33 PM

@KorvinStarmast No worries - figured I was a good one to discuss to try and help :)

V2Blast

@Yuuki lol

kviiri

One unusual property water has, and a quite life-sustaining one, is thermal contraction. It really makes me see water as a bit magical

V2Blast

Regarding this meta:

3

Q: Is Heroes and Dragons the same thing as D&D 5e in terms of system tagging?

This question came up and during a discussion, it came up that it wasn't exactly 5e that was being played. The game itself is Heroes and Dragons with more specific rules found here. Fundamentally, it seems based off of D&D 5e's SRD (translated into French), but has been expanded and is it's own ...

discussion tags dnd-5e game-systems heroes-and-dragons

I asked:

Specifically, the game is titled "Héros & Dragons" (it's in French). Should we have the tag name be the English translation (with the original French name as a synonym), or leave it untranslated (with the English translation as a synonym)? I suppose it's also worth considering that accent marks (e.g. the acute accent mark in "Héros") can't be used in tags. — V2Blast ♦ 6 mins ago

NautArch

7:53 PM

@V2Blast Commented, but agree it's likely either heros-et-dragons or heros-and-dragons

G. Moylan

heros-and-dragons looks like it has already been created. I edited some wiki info for it just now

on both meta and main

goodguy5

@nitsua60 your answer is outdated! I've posted a conflicting answer to deal with your laxidasicalness

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