TRPG General Chat

BESW

00:09

Scherzando! by hamZardo is a musical tabletop roleplaying game about things going explosively wrong in which you play both the characters and the soundtrack.

@inthemanual Cool!

John Clifford

01:19

I spent nearly an hour writing the answer for this and although I think it's a good one I'm still paranoid that it's going to end up getting downvoted for some reason. rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/153423/…

Shalvenay

hey there @JohnClifford, how're things going?

John Clifford

@Shalvenay Not too bad thanks, you?

Shalvenay

@JohnClifford alright here, hoping to get back into the swing of things with a couple more games I'm in

John Clifford

Nice one. We had a session last night. :)

Shalvenay

nice. what game are you in/running, btw?

BESW

01:24

@JohnClifford I'd mostly be concerned about "I'm answering the question in the title rather than the one in your last paragraph" because that's a practice which tends to create problems so the phrase is gonna raise some eyebrows and make some voters more skeptical/critical of the rest of the content.

John Clifford

Really? I would have thought answering a question not in the title would be more confusing.

I was just clarifying that my answer is "yes, you can benefit from multiple Shield spells" and not "yes, using Shield Block prevents you from casting every copy of Shield you have."

BESW

Titles are fast, pithy ways to attract eyeballs. They are not good at communicating nuanced problems.

John Clifford

Should I take that part out and just change it to "Yes, you can benefit from multiple copies of Shield (with some caveats)"?

BESW

@JohnClifford Try saying that more explicitly. "I'm answering" makes it sound like you're ignoring the body text entirely for your whole answer, rather than just describing exactly which sentence your lede sentence is responding to.

John Clifford

Yeah, I've edited it.

BESW

01:27

10

A: Should we be answering the question, or the question posed in the description?

The post body is the actual question, and the other part is just the title. Questions regularly have their titles adjusted to match the real question in the body, while the reverse (changing the body to match the title) is done only in unusual circumstances. Answers should answer the question — ...

John Clifford

Thanks for the suggestion.

Can you think of any use case that would suggest that the "can't cast the spell again for 10 minutes" clause of Shield would apply to every copy of it you have from any source?

BESW

Unfortunately I don't have enough expertise with the systems involved to cast conscientious votes, I can only speak to broad structural/phrasal patterns I see across the RPG.SE experience.

John Clifford

I've provided a couple of examples that back up my interpretation so hopefully that will be sufficient.

BESW

Good luck! And remember that a single downvote just means you've got enough eyes on the post that the random noise of the system has found you.

4

John Clifford

I had to laugh earlier when I posted an answer that got immediately downvoted then realised it was because I was just completely and utterly wrong.

Mark Wells

01:32

@JohnClifford I'm skeptical of that argument just because the "spells" that you cast are not the "instances of spells" that can be in effect at any moment.

John Clifford

@MarkWells That is a fair point, but there's also nothing that says each of your prepared spells is considered the same spell if its name is identical to another one.

Mark Wells

It seems clear that "can't cast it again for ten minutes" doesn't refer to casting the same instance of Shield.

John Clifford

No, but I would say it does refer to casting the same prepared copy of Shield in the particular slot you cast it from. Having it as one of your other cantrips is independent of that, I feel.

Mark Wells

01:56

@JohnClifford What if you're a sorcerer? Your cantrips don't strictly have a slot.

John Clifford

Not strictly, but you still have a distinct set of cantrips in your repertoire.

It's a fair point though. As I said, I was poring over the rules for an hour trying to figure it out. :P

Mark Wells

Right, so can you cast Shield only once, or unlimited times?

John Clifford

As many times as you have Shield as a repertoire cantrip (if we're still talking about Sorcerer)

The Oracle

02:13

0

Q: Is undeleting a potential duplicate acceptable?

This question (deleted, viewable by 10k+ rep only) is deleted within minutes after a VTC as duplicate to this question is called. It is indeed a duplicate to the suggested question. Given that duplicates are actually valuable to us as a signpost to the referenced question, with different word...

Mark Wells

03:01

@JohnClifford Thinking about it now, on the one hand, it's really weird that you could take the same cantrip multiple times and it would actually do something.

On the other hand, taking Shield as two of your cantrips do that you can have two shields fits really well with my preferred conceptual model of cantrips.

Hot RPG Questions

03:15

6

Q: What is this 1990s horror game of otherworldly PCs dealing with monsters on modern Earth?

In the 1990s I once played a horror RPG. I'd like to track it down again but I'm unable to figure out what it was. As best I can remember: The PCs are powerful, almost alien beings. Players had a great deal of freedom in what their PCs looked like. The PCs normally reside in another universe o...

product-identification horror

V2Blast

07:29

@BESW I think the issue there is actually that "what solutions are available?" depends entirely on what your goal is (as now noted in mxy's answer to Someone_Evil's meta). Which is why "should" questions often get downvoted/VTCed

John Clifford

@MarkWells I felt the same way, but the fact is that there's nothing stopping you from doing so and nothing in the rules that says having multiple copies of a spell prepared links them together in any way.

Nyakouai

07:45

G'morning...

vicky_molokh

07:55

@KorvinStarmast I've spotted a comment where you mention writing a composition then picking a title. Interesting. Around here, there's usually an offer of 3-6 titles (or, in looser cases, themes) and you need to write a composition based on the one you've chosen, not the other way around. Or at least that was the way it was when I was a pupil.

BESW

09:16

"PbtA designers, please stop using +/- x modifiers in your games," a "demystifying math" Twitter thread by ammourazz.

KorvinStarmast

10:47

@vicky_molokh You appear to be mixing up topic and title. Topics as writing prompts are a common way to exercise the ability to write about a topic. A title chosen after writing an essay or theme paper allows for a letting the process of writing complete a series of connected and organized thoughts, and then using the result the inform the precise shape of the title. The same piece can have a variety of titles that "fit well enough" but getting "the right fit" is another matter.

What I learned in high school, in terms of fitting a title to any given piece of writing on a topic was to focus on the topic, and let how I treated it inform the title. (Heck, may have learned that in junior high.). I still find that the best way to select a title regardless of the topic.

(And I've had plenty of help here in getting my titles right when I don't go through that process).

Headline writing is somewhat similar, but with a slightly different purpose.

vicky_molokh

@KorvinStarmast As far as I recall, most of the time they would de facto be the same. E.g. 'Depiction of serfdom in Shevchenko's poetry', with no additional label applied. They would differ in e.g. tasks involving writing a short story, but not compositions. (Unless I've hit a language barrier and what I think a composition is is something else.)

BESW

I've seen both techniques used.

KorvinStarmast

@vicky_molokh Composition fits what I was describing well enough. But what you are describing to me is the topic. Can they be the same? Yes.

BESW

There are a great many compositional praxes in the world.

KorvinStarmast

@vicky_molokh That said, five of us can get the same writing prompt - Depiction of serfdom in Shevchenko's poetry - and treat it somewhat differently, and even focus on different aspects of the topic in the final composition. Having the title fit what was finally written and/or concluded would often mean that none of the five retain the topic as title. @BESW Indeed, there are.

(And of course coming up with a title for a book or a short story is often an iterative process as an author follows their muse ...)

What I have found in technical writing work I've been involved with is an imperative to get titles to fit the content; it seems to be more important than in creative writing.

@vicky_molokh speaking of which, did you ever finish the two page 5E game we talked about a while back? :)

vicky_molokh

10:59

@KorvinStarmast Uh, I published it, it got about ten stars, and I made some sub-edition patches.

KorvinStarmast

@vicky_molokh Link? I was out of town for a few days, and I think linksassin or someone evil also did something similar.

Or was that the same one? I made a comment on one of the google docs ...

gaaaaaaaaaah. RL calls, visit with you later.

vicky_molokh

@KorvinStarmast Mine and Evil's.

Joel Harmon

11:17

@BESW I'm torn between "these are interesting ideas, and the mathematics checks out" vs. my "twitter is a microblogging platform, not a blogging platform" pet peeve.

2

BESW

@JoelHarmon Eh, I'm a fan of applying resolviendo to digital media tools.

(That's an epistemology of technological disobedience.)

Joel Harmon

Ah.

KorvinStarmast

@vicky_molokh aaah, thank you. :) everyone knows what HP is Of course, it is Healing Potion. :)

Joel Harmon

@KorvinStarmast Wait, I thought it was Homeostatic Physiology!

BESW

@JoelHarmon Ernesto Oroza coined "technological disobedience" to describe the modern application of the resolviendo attitude codified in Con Nuestros Propios Esfuerzos during Castro's "Special Period in Times of Peace." A piece of technology is created for a specific purpose, and resolviendo requires disobeying that intent: looking at a piece of technology and seeing it not as an object with a particular purpose but as component parts temporarily combined to accomplish a current need.

vicky_molokh

11:31

@JoelHarmon The maths check out, but somehow I don't feel that rerolls serve well to demystify the math. If anything, I think they make it less transparent.

Joel Harmon

@BESW Ah, right, I recall hearing about that before, just in a totally different context. Stuff like "washing machines have a totally serviceable electric motor. What if you took it out to use it for something else?"

BESW

Right. A washing machine with a broken drum is still a motor you can put on a bicycle.

Joel Harmon

@vicky_molokh Less transparent, sure, but more engaging for the player. Particularly the tactile "fist full of dice" players.

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive body detected (44): Corroded Meta vs Magical Armor, should it melt it? by Meowid on rpg.SE

BESW

I like seeing that kind of "but what constructive use can I make of this?" attitude applied to technologies that corporations are trying to overcurate.

@JoelHarmon Yeah, and making the feeling of "I'm more likely to do better" accurate is more important than easily understanding the maths involved in why that feeling is accurate.

Joel Harmon

11:35

@BESW Which reminds me of the "if you can't take it apart, you don't really own it" philosophy

BESW

@JoelHarmon This would be part of why I'm moving from Adobe to Serif.

vicky_molokh

@JoelHarmon Hmmm. I wonder if I'm having a confirmation bias, or if die-tactile-oriented players and designers tend to also be the ones that mystify the maths the most. E.g. World of Darkness and . . . Weapons of the Gods was it? . . . seem to want a quirky feeling of rolling differently, but also happen some of the most mystifying and obfuscating maths.

Nyakouai

Funny you are speaking about dice and obscure maths... I spent half an hour yesterday trying to figure what was the point buy equivalent of "Roll 4d6 and drop the lowest"

vicky_molokh

@Nyakouai Already used anydice for it?

Joel Harmon

@vicky_molokh Probably because tweaking the available dice pool does weird things to the probability curves, mathematically speaking.

Nyakouai

11:39

@vicky_molokh Nope, I don't know that much tools for RPG. Thankfully, I had my good old excel

Joel Harmon

@Nyakouai 4d6k3 is slightly better than the basic stat distribution recommended in D&D.

vicky_molokh

@Nyakouai A handy tool. Here's an example: anydice.com/program/16dff

Nyakouai

@JoelHarmon Slightly better than a 20 point build yeah... But by how much and why were the questions that were tickling me.

Had to figure the exact difference

Joel Harmon

Oops - I need to run. Later, all!

Nyakouai

See ya

BESW

11:40

ttfn

Nyakouai

And I'm quite sure most DM who use this method don't know how this choice affect the player character sheet

On the other hand, keeping dices simple and arranging distributions is somewhat hard

BESW

When I started in D&D, my friends really liked the randomness of rolling for stats. By the time I quit D&D we'd come around to much preferring point buys, because people rolling badly made us feel worse than people rolling well made us feel good.

These days if a game offers the option to roll for ability-stat-like things, we only take that option if it's a silly light-hearted and very short game.

Nyakouai

I agree. Random might be fun for a short game, where you know you aren't stuck forever with a character that has a 6 in a characteristic. But on the long run, I find point buy system more rewarding

BESW

But we very rarely play that sort of system anymore anyway.

Nyakouai

Everyone start with the same budget, and what you become is entirely up to your choices along the game

BESW

11:50

I guess Fate and Gumshoe would be the closest?

Nyakouai

(Also, very nice thread about the +/- X modifiers. Didn't know advantage mechanism was almost equivalent to +2/-2)

BESW

...I was going to try to work on my Fate/Bubblegumshoe/Kids On Bikes mashup system today but the whole day was eaten by Unexpected Things.

Nyakouai

Never played any of those, sadly, but I hear a lot about them. Almost never heard any complaint about Fate

BESW

Fate's a great toolkit, but not quite a game system until you get to specific iterations like Atomic Robo.

Nyakouai

So you expand on Fate to create a system that fit your setting?

(Or use? Not sure of the proper terminology)

BESW

11:53

Very cool stuff, though, it's our default choice for any game where we don't have a system specifically for the kind of story we're wanting to tell.

Yeah, Fate's a bunch of gaming tools that loosely fit together into a system but rely heavily on the people playing to have a shared understanding of the setting/story/themes they're wanting to work with.

Unlike some game systems, which use the mechanics to push for a specific kind of story/theme setup even if the players aren't all understanding that.

If everybody agrees on what kind of story you want to play but you want help playing it, Fate's awesome. But if, say, you want to play a space opera game but one of your friends has never seen Star Wars or Flash Gordon... try a system like Lady Blackbird because it'll give more guidance for playing that kind of story.

Nyakouai

Got to go :X

Bye

BESW

ttfn

@Nyakouai You know how in Powered by the Apocalypse games, all your moves and character features are basically tropes and story moments from the kind of genre that particular game's inspired by? Fate's more about giving each player, and the group as a whole, the tools for making their own set of those tropes and story moments they want to have happen a lot in their game.

Then also during play, it puts a lot more power in the hands of the players, to decide when things are going to go badly and when things will go well for their characters, and to add world details as we play.

nitsua60

12:26

@KorvinStarmast I like that, but I dislike the bit (in 5e RAW) about every magic item in the world needing an hour of get-to-know-you-time to know all its secrets.

Hot RPG Questions

3

Q: Can you end your own spell prematurely?

Let’s say a ranger casts spike growth (up to 10 minutes), then realizes it is useless since the enemy is able to fly. Can they end the spell prematurely?

dnd-5e spellcasting duration

KorvinStarmast

12:48

@nitsua60 Are you referring to "short rest = identify" in the DMG? Not a fan.

@Nyakouai 29. We have a post on that somewhere here.

@Nyakouai Depends on the target number. We have a good Q&A on that, I"ll get you a link

Hot RPG Questions

2

Q: If you walk into an otherwise invisible creature, may you attack it?

Let's say a barbarian named Boomtar is in a room with stalkers and can’t see them because they are invisible. Boomtar bravely lunges forward and happens to run into the stalker. May Boomtar then make an attack at the stalker?

dnd-5e attack invisibility

KorvinStarmast

6

A: Is there a way to duplicate the range & power of rolling stats with a homebrew point buy?

Extending the current system There are two parts to this answer. The first is fairly simple - to homebrew the point-buy system to extend the range, simply use the formula already implicitly used in the book. Specifically: If the score is less than or equal to 13, the point value = score - 8 If...

179

Q: How does rolling two dice and taking the higher affect the average outcome?

D&D 5E has an "advantage" concept where instead of rolling 1d20, you roll 2d20 and take the higher. Likewise, disadvantage means rolling 2d20 and taking the lower. How does this affect the expected average outcome of the roll?

dnd-5e dice statistics

@Nyakouai I find those two posts to be interesting exploration of those two applications of dice.

GcL

13:04

@nitsua60 Also not a fan of that.

nitsua60

13:31

@KorvinStarmast Yeah. I miss read magic and identify and quests to figure out all the things this does. I know I can make that up as a GM (and I do), but without the coreset including examples of that, I worry about it dying off.

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 With so many different flavors of magic user now in the game, and some of them having spell slot limitations, I think the devs didn't want to create a party where nobody could figure out what these magical items did. I'd rather they came up with a different way to do that so that Identify would retain its value. (And I'd like to see a similar spell for divine casters ...)

GcL

@nitsua60 I do something similar usually. If it's a simple magic item, fine.. one hour and you find the button. If it has interesting always on effects, I wait until they apply obviously or someone casts identify. E.g. had a magic clockwork shortsword. Does +1 damage per successive round it was used for an attack up to +3 max. The description for the short rest was that, "it feels like it whirs and moves inside"

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 quests to figure out all the things this does not to mention Arcana and Histlry checks (with hard DCs, 15- 20 and beyond depending on rarity) where using guidance or help could be a way to use the skill system to do it ...

Here is where I once again wish that Warlock were Int caster ... and if we apply this approach, then the Int score takes on a new importance.

GcL

@KorvinStarmast Definitely make a series of skill checks. Easy one to find the trail head so to speak and then successively more difficult ones at forks in the ~~road~~ quest. Success means easier path or bonus loot along the way.

yoink This is why I always carry a notebook around.

John Clifford

13:56

I very narrowly avoided ending up in a situation where I had a Curse of Strahd party with no good-aligned characters in it. XD I wasn't looking forward to figuring out what to do with a Sunsword nobody could attune to.

Yuuki

@JohnClifford How about a Starsword? Requires neutral alignment?

John Clifford

That's a pretty good idea, though it would make the radiant damage component make slightly less sense. XD

KorvinStarmast

@JohnClifford Heh, a neat problem to have.

Yuuki

Force or some other damage type?

Half radiant, half necrotic?

John Clifford

Wouldn't prevent Strahd's regeneration, so less useful as an item. Though I could easily fudge that.

They ended up adding a couple of paladins to the party though so it's a moot point.

Yuuki

13:58

Actually, half radiant and half force maybe?

Seems thematic for "stars".

John Clifford

I'll certainly keep that in mind if I run it in the future though.

KorvinStarmast

@JohnClifford Under the idea that stars and suns are roughly the same thing, just that a sun is closer, the starsword being radiant damage is fine. If stars are "something else" and not suns that are very far away ... that's a different thing.

See magic item "ring of shooting stars" for another take on this.

JohnP

@KorvinStarmast That...would be an interesting spin, if a starsword had different damage implications if the star in question was a red dwarf, giant blue, etc.

John Clifford

I may use this for something later actually, even if not a replacement for the Sunsword.

KorvinStarmast

@JohnP Yes, there are a bunch of neat ways to customize that idea.

Yuuki

14:02

Hmm... instead of the Starsword being a palette-swapped Sunsword, it's an artifact with different effects based on which star you attune it to?

KorvinStarmast

@JohnP Moonbeam is radiant damage, I think, and it's reflected sunlight if we use "our world" models for that.

@Yuuki Attunement is for PCs. The star sword would be "through magic" somehow harnessing the unique powers of that star ... or the unique characteristics of that star ...

Yuuki

I suppose giving the player the ability to change the enchantment might be too powerful.

Starsword of <Star> would be nice. Starsword of Polaris. +1 longsword that grants the ability to cast 'scry' 1/day.

KorvinStarmast

@JohnClifford Oops, ring of shooting stars does fire or lightning damage, not radiant ....

John Clifford

It's still an interesting thing to look at Korvin. We all make mistakes. ;)

KorvinStarmast

@JohnClifford Glad I checked, though, RoSS has morphed quite a bit since the first time I ever got one in OD&D. That one would only do the meteor swarm thing outdoors.

John Clifford

14:07

That'd actually be really cool for my campaign because I'm planning on transporting the players through various planes of existence and settings, so if they do get a sword like that it could change its function depending on where they are.

JohnP

@Yuuki Depends on how you spin it. Could be a quest line to get the material to change out/make a new one. Kind of like a lightsaber crystal

Yuuki

@KorvinStarmast Ring of Shooting Stars. Once per day, you may cause ethereal synthpop music to start playing. Nearby creatures will hear this music on loop for ten hours.

KorvinStarmast

@JohnClifford RINGS: Shooting Stars: This ring functions only during the hours of darkness when the wearer is under the open sky. It will cast Light spells for a distance of 24", throw a fireball of 12 points damage, or hurl a solid missile of 12 points damage

@Yuuki Ring of Shooting Stars: when using this ring, you shoot six lead slugs into John Lennon. 8^o

@JohnClifford The more I think of it the more I like the idea of making one of the damage options radiant.

John Clifford

@Yuuki That would be super useful for Castle RAVE-nloft.

JohnP

@KorvinStarmast Bard item: Ring of Autotune - Any song you sing is at a +2 for being on tune, but there is a 1 in 10 chance you will irritate/enrage your target.

KorvinStarmast

14:11

@JohnP hehe, love it. :) (My daughter was a voice major, and is in the music business. She's not a fan of auto tune ...)

JohnP

@KorvinStarmast I despise it, personally.

But there aren't many hard rock/heavy metal bands using it, thankfully.

KorvinStarmast

5e version .... Shooting Stars ... For every charge you expend, you launch a glowing mote of light from the ring at a point you can see within 60 feet of you. Each creature within a 15-‐‑foot cube originating from that point is showered in sparks and must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 5d4 ~~fire~~ radiant damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one

John Clifford

drive.google.com/file/d/14naXizqiriYbixKET8iejN7jVx9gVKue/view in case you guys haven't seen this, it's awesome.

2

Yuuki

I think there's something to be said about exaggerated Autotune as a stylistic choice (like T-Pain) as opposed to using it to cover up mistakes.

KorvinStarmast

@JohnP Yes, though my metal days are mostly behind me.

John Clifford

14:13

Owl City walks the very center of that line. :P

KorvinStarmast

@Yuuki Yes, as a deliberate choice... Good point. (like phase shifters and fuzz/waah waah pedals on an electric guitar.

Yuuki

T-Pain, incidentally, has an absolutely fantastic non-Autotuned voice so it's definitely a stylistic choice.

JohnP

@KorvinStarmast I don't rave/mosh/concert anymore, but I really like the new generation of hard rock. Disturbed, Hellyeah, Halestorm, A7, etc etc.

One of the top cybersecurity guys in Scotland (And a mod here on several sites) is a guitar player in a heavy metal band.

KorvinStarmast

@JohnP Have not investigated, I'll take a look sometime when the missus is out of town. Metal aggrivates her these days.

JohnP

@KorvinStarmast I don't like modern metal, too much screaming. If you have Sirius XM, the channel Octane is one of my main gotos.

John Clifford

14:16

Scotland ftw

JohnP

@JohnClifford I'm legally a Laird on a technicaility

KorvinStarmast

@JohnClifford That is a bucket full of awesome. I DL'd that, looks like great fun.

JohnP

Becoming a Laird of Blackwood - It's a preservation thing, but you can get legal ID as a Lord/Laird in any common law country.

John Clifford

Man, that's actually tempting for 30 quid.

kviiri

I want a sitcom about two roomies, one who purchases such a title and another who just happens to be a passionate Jacobin.

JohnP

14:22

@JohnClifford I got one for me and one for my wife as a Valentine's day gift when we were still performing at Renaissance Faires.

Yuuki

@kviiri That's incredibly niche and I want it so much.

JohnP

@Yuuki Uh...expand that a bit and it's Outlander.

Yuuki

@JohnP Trying to think of a good Guy Ritchie Sherlock joke here.

John Clifford

On the basis of a conversation in my D&D group chat, I want a sitcom about an incredibly polite ghost with the tagline "Chivalry is dead".

Yuuki

51 secs ago, by Yuuki

@kviiri That's incredibly niche and I want it so much.

Incidentally, kinda sucks for the SO who gets left behind by the time-traveller who falls in love with someone in the past.

kviiri

14:26

@Yuuki "baby you can't be mad, she's ancient history"

KorvinStarmast

@JohnClifford There was a trilogy of books written by Robin Hobb, with a core plot feature including a play on words regarding "Chivalry is Dead" (Farseer Trilogy/Assassin Trilogy)

JohnP

@Yuuki Yeah, but his ancestor gets to abuse the love interest really badly so he's got that going for him.

Yuuki

I mean, it's understandable that she'd have some reservations about him after that. Logically, not really, but trauma doesn't behave logically.

JohnP

@Yuuki Yeah, can't discuss too much about it in a PG 13 room, but the later seasons/books they really mess with the characters in a lot of interesting ways.

KorvinStarmast

@JohnP Based on family history documents, my grandfather had (IIRC) 1/4th Irish and 1/4th Scots ancestry (due grandparents) so I suppose should pursue that idea as a simpler avenue of recovering a small bit of family heritage. Thanks for the link.

Yuuki

14:34

@JohnP I'm incredibly disappointed that the testimonials aren't all of the form "<Testimonial> - Laird/Lord/Lady <Name> of Blackwood".

JohnP

@Yuuki tbh I never looked.

John Clifford

If I do purchase a couple I'm going to travel to where my land is and put up a little fence around it.

JohnP

@JohnClifford I want to get one of those little tiny dog tents and put it up on it. No permanent structures.

If I get 11 rep today I get past the 5k privilege mark. w00t.

goodguy5

14:54

@JohnP there ya go

Someone_Evil

Welcome to the exiting world of making tag wiki edits :p

JohnP

@Someone_Evil I've done that already, now I can run wild with no parental oversight :p

@goodguy5 Oh, thanks! I think I also get 100 bounty from the invisibility question, but I don't know when that will hit.

If it does.

Someone_Evil

Oh, right 5k is just approving them, derp

JohnP

Now it's the long slog to 10k to be able to see deleted/heavily downvoted answers. :)

We need more archaic system questions :)

goodguy5

yea, 10k was the last one I care about

At a minimum, it will take you 25 days, immic

KorvinStarmast

15:15

@JohnP I am archaic, should I ask a system question?

Someone_Evil

There's that s-word again...

KorvinStarmast

@Someone_Evil Oh, man, there goes my rep. 8^o

@Someone_Evil I just realized that a dog may never use the word "should" in conversation, since I am led to believe that dogs don't have a sense of futurity. (Am I being led astray?)

goodguy5

first of all, are you making some "lead a stray" pun?

second, that's not the reason your dog "may" never use "should" in a conversation.

vicky_molokh

@JohnP And just more non-D20 questions overall. Much of the time there just aren't any questions that need answering.

John Clifford

Anyone else noticing that we're getting a fair number of questions lately where the answer is pretty much "Nothing in the rules covers this very specific edge case, it's up to your DM"?

Nyakouai

15:24

@KorvinStarmast Thanks for the links, will check it out.

Someone_Evil

@JohnClifford Are you sure this is a 'lately' problem?

John Clifford

Well to be fair I only recently started being active on this SE again after a lengthy hiatus so it's only lately from my perspective. :P

vicky_molokh

@Someone_Evil Are you sure it's a problem?

Someone_Evil

@vicky_molokh I don't think it is a problem in the sense that we should do something about it, but it is a set of questions that don't have good answers, and were the answers are very similar. But, sure, let's call it a phenomenon instead, if the wording matters.

KorvinStarmast

@goodguy5 Yes, I was trying for a micro pun there.

@JohnClifford Since 2014 we have a lot of questions like that. It's a 5e thing.

@goodguy5 I was also presuming an ability, like a D&D "speak with animals" spell, to converse with a dog beyond the mundane means that I use with mine.

Someone_Evil

15:35

@KorvinStarmast To what extent is it a 5e thing because 3.PF has at least 3 sets of rules for any thinkable scenario?

KorvinStarmast

@Someone_Evil The explicit language in the 5e manual regarding rulings over rules informs my comment there, but you are correct that other games and systems run into it as well.

5e may suffer from the reverse of the PF thing: no rule for it at all, or a vacant space in a rule section ...

JohnP

@vicky_molokh I managed a decent answer on the ravenloft question.

But yes, it is heavily d20 centric most of the time.

John Clifford

I'm still not 100% sure on my answer to the Shield question but I think my interpretation makes more sense than the other way.

KorvinStarmast

17:20

@JohnClifford Arrgh, I just had a thought. When a barbarian raging shoves or grapples another creature, does that shove or grapple constitute an attack such that it sustains rage? Grapple/shove is called a "special melee attack" so I think it does.

Rubiksmoose

@KorvinStarmast I think that would work!

If the only criteria is attack, then it definitely does.

John Clifford

Ooh, good question.

Yeah, I would say so. As you said, it's a special melee attack.

Someone_Evil

@KorvinStarmast System and edition?

Hot RPG Questions

5

Q: Does the rule that you cannot willingly end your move in another creature's space force or prevent certain actions?

There is a rule in the "Moving Around Other Creatures" section which states: Whether a creature is a friend or an enemy, you can't willingly end your move in its space... I am wondering just how absolute this rule is and have come up with example situations where its application is unclear ...

dnd-5e movement

Someone_Evil

18:07

Has the change to the Morris site caused the Feeds functionality to pick up all the threads in their 'meta' section?

It felt like we're getting a lot of items from them in that feed, and it's not interesting to folks who aren't users of that forum (me included)

Oh, it's not just their meta section, but seems to include other parts, including really old threads with new activity. I feel like that part of the feed needs updating so we aren't spamming ourselves with all the activity of that forum.

kviiri

Agreed, 'tis a bit annoying.

John Clifford

18:53

I wish people would leave a comment saying why they downvoted my answers so I can fix whatever is wrong with them.

kviiri

@JohnClifford If it's a single downvote, it can be literally anything including that the downvoter is just having a bad day. If it's more than that, someone is likely to explain, eventually.

John Clifford

True.

Sdjz

Could be from the 5e quote you had at first as well

People might not have come back and seen that you removed it later

John Clifford

19:08

Good point.

Stupid edition confusion. XD

MikeQ

The feed is really a mess. Is that due to some change? Should someone post about it on the meta?

Someone_Evil

I assume the feed we read has changed content after an update on their site. Not sure how that feature works, but I assume @BESW or a mod knows/can fix it

John Clifford

It's linking to threads on enworld.org for some reason.

Rubiksmoose

Is the troublesome feed "Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG News"?

Someone_Evil

Yes

Rubiksmoose

19:17

I can remove it temporarily if it is being a nuisance and then we can try to figure out what is wrong from there.

If someone had the time to write up a Meta on it, it might help us track and deal with the issue :)

I'm just stopping by briefly so I don't have the time at the moment (though might be able to do it later tonight if nobody else has). I also haven't been in here long enough to see what the issue is.

Is it just spamming bunches of posts?

John Clifford

Looks like it. The new feed items area just got a flood of posts from there.

Feeds

Rubiksmoose has stopped a feed from being posted into this room

Rubiksmoose

Begone with ye!

John Clifford

Wizardry!

Rubiksmoose

Also I went ahead and wrote up the Meta

The Oracle

19:30

0

Q: Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG News feed misbehaving in Chat

It seems that Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG News feed has been spamming chat with lots of posts including old ones, and we're not sure what is going on. For the time being I have removed it from the chat feed to prevent it from being a nuisance. Anybody have any idea what is going on?

support chat feed

Rubiksmoose

If only we could modify that message to say "[user] has cast silence on [feed]".

John Clifford

Hahaha

That would be hilarious.

JohnP

Well, lets see how well that question gets received. :p

Found tweets from ed greenwood saying that in 5e FR, paladins do have to follow a deity despite mainstream 5e that not being a requirement. I'm looking for the source of that assertion.

Rubiksmoose

feature-request

JohnP

> Welcome to this new upgrade of the site. We are now on a totally different software platform. Many things will be different, and bugs are expected. Certain areas (like downloads and reviews) will take longer to import. As always, please use the Meta Forum for site queries or bug reports. Note that we (the mods and admins) are also learning the new software.

MikeQ

19:42

@JohnP Isn't Greenwood one of those original lore authors? Can't he just cite himself?

JohnP

@MikeQ Tweets aren't official any more. This was on the sageadvice eu feed.

MikeQ

Ah, you meant a source saying that it's officially a D&D 5E rule? In that case I have no idea.

KorvinStarmast

@Someone_Evil should have said 5e ;)

JohnP

@MikeQ Yes, since they haven't published any FR specific settings books yet, I want to see if this is in a different book as an addition, or if it is made up out of whole cloth.

KorvinStarmast

@JohnP The problem with that tweet is that each instance of FR is unique to the table where it is being played, except maybe in AL events.

Yuuki

19:47

@KorvinStarmast They're called the Forgotten Realms because everyone has their own and if you leave a campaign, you have to forget everything you learned about it before joining another table.

3

KorvinStarmast

@Yuuki that's one take grin

John Clifford

I've never considered it a requirement for Paladins to follow a deity if someone wants to make one who doesn't.

Nor do I require that for Clerics.

JohnP

Well., this is a sticky wicket. I can't register or log in/forgot password, because their captcha is screwed up (ENWorld). I can't post on meta that it's messed up because I can't log in. :p

Hot RPG Questions

6

Q: Corroded Metal vs Magical Armor, should it melt it?

The DM in our game homebrewed something called a Dire Otter Swarm and had the Corroded Metal attribute that can destroy nonmagical items, but he gave it a buff that allowed them to destroy Magical Items, to which the rest of our party gave him a confused look. Are we just being excessively sensit...

dnd-5e magic-items monsters magic balance

John Clifford

Anyone got any thoughts on the "Unified Theory" with "Natural Medicine" question? I still think that saying you can use one skill check in place of the original doesn't change which one the feat requires.

MikeQ

19:52

@JohnClifford It's a new question, asking about a relatively new system. Give it time.

John Clifford

I'd read it as changing Treat Wounds from "this requires a Medicine check" to "This requires a Medicine check, but you can use Nature instead if you want".

Oh I know Mike, I'm just asking if anyone else in here has thoughts on it. :P

KorvinStarmast

@JohnP I suspect that this Q&A answers your question. Whaddya think?

JohnP

@KorvinStarmast Does that address FR specifically? Doesn't seem to, but I'm not that familiar with 5e yet.

@KorvinStarmast - Also the original question tweet specifies 5e PHB, Ed's response should be addressing FR in 5e but who knows what he was smoking at the time.

Rubiksmoose

@JohnP Certainly wasn't smoking the 5e DMG as far as I can tell.

JohnP

20:08

@JohnP If this is a rules question about 5e (as it is tagged), then Greenwood is not an official source and this question should be closed as a duplicate. If this question is only about lore, then maybe the 5e tag should be removed. — Raj 38 secs ago

I'm...not sure how to answer that. I thought that I specified it pretty well.

@MikeQ - Thanks.

Hot RPG Questions

9

Q: Are there any other rule mechanics that could grant Thieves' Cant?

Thieves' Cant is a class feature of Rogue in 5e. As it is a method of communication, can it be taken as a language? If not, is it mechanically equivalent to something that can be swapped so that characters of another class can use it without multiclassing? Are there any other rule mechanics e.g...

dnd-5e rogue languages

MikeQ

@JohnP It could help to clarify what you mean by "valid ruling", e.g. if it overrides the PHB text. Otherwise it's sortof a dupe of the linked question.

KorvinStarmast

@JohnP John the only requirement for a god in 5e I have seen is Clerics in AL, but I stopped reading AL Stuff after Season 7.

Season 8's changes to gold and treasure really put me off AL.

JohnP

@KorvinStarmast 5e/AL != FR AFAIK

KorvinStarmast

@JohnP No, it is not that narrow in terms of "FR" specifics, and I think Ed had a fine bowl of herb going before he made that tweet ....

JohnP

20:21

@KorvinStarmast Quite possible.

@Rubiksmoose - Morrus thinks maybe the script picked up all 20 years of import to the new forum software.

Rubiksmoose

@JohnP That would have been so fun to watch! lol

JohnP

@Rubiksmoose You could give it a bit and try re enabling the script, see if it still does the same with old feeds.

Well, I'll let the board stew over that question. Two downvotes already tho :(

And, gotta go home and watch the monsters. BBL

Carcer

20:37

@JohnP I mean, Ed Greenwood probably feels like he's got the right to make assertions like that about FR because he wrote the setting

GcL

@Carcer He should get a blog like Keith Baker. Maybe Hasbro would hire him to write for FG again.

BESW

21:22

@Someone_Evil It's also a 5e thing because a lot of non-D&D games have clearer guidance and principles for the GM to follow, and we can write answers about that.

@Someone_Evil I've noticed that RSS feeds tend to get weird when sites are re-jiggering anything to do with how they post new content. It should calm down eventually and we can put it back.

Black Spike

21:46

Quick question: Where might I get help for Spreadsheets? I have a big data-table I need to alter.

JohnP

@BlackSpike Stack overflow has excel programming type questions.

Black Spike

@JohnP Thanks. I'm using LibreOffice, but have others available.

The Oracle

2

Q: Why is this question not a duplicate?

This question: Do Forgotten Realms paladins have to follow a deity? references this other question: Are paladins required to follow a god? asking what seems to be the same question. Why is it not a duplicate? The implication seems to be that unofficial tweets can override an official source ...

discussion

JohnP

@BlackSpike they have tags for Libre office and Libre office Calc.

Hot RPG Questions

4

Q: If I control a zombie (animated) does it get undead fortitude saves when it's reduced to 0 HP?

I have been thinking over this and couldn't find anything about it online so far. If I animate a corpse into a zombie to be my undead follower using the spell animate dead, when it is reduced to 0 HP will it get the benefit of undead fortitude, and, if it is then not slain will I still retain th...

dnd-5e spells monsters

Black Spike

21:52

@JohnP Cool. Investigating now :)

Xirema

@BlackSpike Post a link if you write a question, I have proficiency in Libreoffice.

John Clifford

@Xirema Sweet, that means you get +2 on LibreOffice skill checks.

Black Spike

0

Q: How Can I Concatenate Many Sets of Columns Into Several New Columns?

I have a spreadsheet. 60 rows, ~100 columns. I wish to concatenate the data from each set of 3 columns, to produce ~30 columns of 'merged' data. e.g. currently columns include "Fighter 1", "Fighter 2", Fighter 3", "Wizard 1", "Wizard 2", Wizard 3" etc. i wish to put the data from each set int...