TRPG General Chat

@vicky_molokh That means your right alt, in whatever language your keyboard is configured for, is actually AltGr. In EN-US, the "right Alt key" doesnt' do anything special.

Axoren

@vicky_molokh Right-Alt gives me none of those things, which is why I use it identically to my Left-Alt. However, I have used a European Keyboard that does not scribe Right Alt as AltGR

@Medix2 Dark L?

T.J.L.

@Axoren It's less about the physical keyboard than it is about the input language configured in the OS.

Medix2

3:11 PM

Isn't ł just pronounced w?

kviiri

@Medix2 By what I've understood, it's that or close enough approximation.

Axoren

I can't even imagine what "dark" means in terms of a consonant.

vicky_molokh

@Medix2 Depends on how old you are. ^_^

Yuuki

I feel like if you know your game is at least decent and the previous (two/three) game(s) were absolute garbage, you offer owners of a previous game a good discount to buy the new one. Even if they were burned by your previous game, they likely still want to be able to justify their purchase.

David Coffron

Velarization

Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, velarization is transcribed by one of four diacritics: A tilde or swung dash through the letter U+0334 ̴ COMBINING TILDE OVERLAY (HTML ̴) covers velarization, uvularization and pharyngealization, as in [ɫ] (the velarized equivalent of [l]) A superscript Latin gamma U+02E0 ˠ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL GAMMA (HTML ˠ) after the letter standing for the velarized consonant, as in ⟨tˠ⟩ (a velarized [t...

Axoren

3:12 PM

@Yuuki Wait, it's not just gonna be them overhauling the existing game and just making a major update?

Medix2

@Axoren A somewhat linguistic term (perhaps you'd prefer Voiced alveolar lateral approximant) that occurs in some words of English such as film, fill, and milk. The l you make is completely different from the regular one

Meanwhile my personal idiolect of English completely removed dark L... and replaced it with the uvular nasal of all things

Yuuki

@Axoren Oh, looks like it is.

For some reason, I had heard it announced as a new game.

David Coffron

@Axoren Basically a "dark" consonant is when your tongue is closer to the back of the roof of your mouth

They don't really show up in English much.

Axoren

@Medix2 I see now why you would say it sounds more like a w, because it can be pronounced in some dialects without full contact on the roof of your mouth

Making it sound more like a w

Film sounds close to the OwO pronounciation Fiwm.

Yuuki

I don't really care because I had decided to get the game through Origin subscription at the time so I only had to pay $15 for a month of misery as opposed to $60 full-price buyer's remorse.

kviiri

3:14 PM

I have a friend with whom I've spent the longest amount of time just talking about stuff (he has a skin condition that makes lots of activities hard) since early childhood and only quite recently I learned that he has a speech impediment where he pronounces his r like the French do

Axoren

Pretty much OwO is confirmed Dark Arts.

Medix2

Apparently the pronunciation of ł changes when there's no vowel after it (in Polish)

kviiri

Hearing someone talk or long enough apparently makes them sound normal

Medix2

@kviiri I love that effect

T.J.L.

I apparently don't pronounce Ls properly... As you might be able to tell from my username here, that makes parts of my life somewhat difficult.

Medix2

3:16 PM

@T.J.L. Proper pronunciation is overrated anyhow

kviiri

@Medix2 It has a downside. My big brother mispronounced his 'r' and it cascaded to us younger ones.

T.J.L.

@Medix2 Important on the phone, though.

Medix2

@T.J.L. And so begins the crusade on phones

T.J.L.

@Medix2 I'm pretty sure that started with the advent of text messaging. :)

kviiri

Luckily speech therapy at school was free. I wouldn't mind the ridicule in my adult years but the correct way to say it easier on the mouth

T.J.L.

3:18 PM

@kviiri Apparently didn't help me.

Axoren

I thought it would be funny to replace all appropriate w's in an owo copypasta with ł's, but then I got disgusted with exactly what I was doing.

On an ethical level, it's not worth the joke.

Medix2

I just remembered Polish allows 4-5 consonants in-a-row...

vicky_molokh

What do you mean 'allows'? There's no rule in e.g. English that says that you must write in a vowel between the consonants.

Medix2

Except there is as English has syllable structure restrictions and minimal word restrictions

vicky_molokh

Englishmen even do funny stuff like write borshcht with six consonants in a row where Slavs get by on two.

Medix2

3:21 PM

Oh also I don't mean whether their written but how it actually gets pronounced

David Coffron

@Medix2 "strengths"?

vicky_molokh

(Where they got the T from is a mystery.)

David Coffron

that's 8 consonants with one vowell ;)

Medix2

@DavidCoffron Sometimes I forget consonants are written things...

vicky_molokh

Stren,þs. Only three consonant sounds though.

(Sorry, no ng symbol on this keyboard.)

David Coffron

3:23 PM

But yeah, if you mean pronounced, strengths has two digraphs "ng" and "th"

Medix2

Those letters hurt me XD

st̠͡ɹ̠ɪŋkθs

For that lovely pin-pen merger

David Coffron

pirates can have many consonants: "arrrrrr"

Medix2

But stɹɛŋkθs

vicky_molokh

Wait, people actually voice the g as a separate thing, and counterintuitively change it to a k to boot?

Medix2

Separate from what?

Axoren

3:25 PM

@vicky_molokh In English, if the same consonant occurs 3 times or more in a row, it must be separated with a hyphen

The only time in which it can happen is at the nexus of a compound word, like cross-section.

vicky_molokh

@Medix2 From the ŋ.

Axoren

Notice how ugly crosssection looks to a native speaker.

David Coffron

@Axoren bee-eater for example

Axoren

^

Medix2

@vicky_molokh Oh yup, words (read: spelling) sucks

Axoren

3:26 PM

Beeeater.

Medix2

@DavidCoffron You say that like coweater is a word

David Coffron

belllike

Axoren

@Medix2 Meateater is.

vicky_molokh

@Axoren Hey, Russians have their длинношеее . . .

David Coffron

@Medix2 valid criticism xD

Medix2

3:26 PM

@Axoren Not for me

Axoren

I don't know how to read that script, so it looks like it says "Oweee"

Medix2

But yeah Polish has words such as these: bezwzględny źdźbło wstrząs krnąbrność

It's weird knowing how to read cyrillic because of learning some Mongolian, though that does mean I don't know about the two "sh"

T.J.L.

Meeeeedix... You're making my braaaain hurt. :(

Axoren

My friend knows a guy who's name has no vowels

David Coffron

@Medix2 zwzgl? my goodness

Axoren

3:28 PM

But every time he tells me what it is, I can't tell if he's joking.

vicky_molokh

English has xkcd as a name . . .

kviiri

In Finnish and Swedish, compound words are typically written without spaces or hyphens. What counts as a compound word is often somewhat hard to teach to kids who don't do a lot of reading on their own (which gives one an eye for that sort of thing in the vast majority of cases). And then when they start learning English, most equivalent terms are written with a space x)

Medix2

@kviiri The world of "English compound words" is an ABSOLUTE mess

David Coffron

@vicky_molokh Isn't that pronounced eks-KAY-see-dee though?

Medix2

@DavidCoffron I just tried to pronounce it as a word, that hurt

vicky_molokh

3:29 PM

@DavidCoffron Only if you have the time to pronounce like it's uppercase.

Axoren

@vicky_molokh It has no phonetic counterpart.

Medix2

Perhaps it's pronounced zix'ed?

Axoren

https://xkcd.com/about/

"What does XKCD stand for?
It's not actually an acronym. It's just a word with no phonetic pronunciation -- a treasured and carefully-guarded point in the space of four-character strings."

From the horse's mwth.

Carcer

agglutination

Axoren

I always thought it was like a Check-disk type utility.

vicky_molokh

3:31 PM

>>> no phonetic pronunciation
Pft, weaklings!

Medix2

@Carcer Yeah let's just crank out that 30 character word

vicky_molokh

How do I mate it not-quote . . .

Axoren

@Medix2 @Carcer youtube.com/watch?v=gG62zay3kck

A quality video

@Axoren I'm pretty sure that whoever named the utility "fsck" did so very deliberately

David Coffron

3:32 PM

@vicky_molokh Try putting a non-space space before the ">"

Axoren

>This.
That.

kviiri

Incidentally to this discussion: we watched the Adventures of Tintin animated series and the Finnish voice actors mentioned the plot-significant poison "rajaijah" only once by name, at other times referring to it as "poison", "madness-inducing poison" etc descriptors

vicky_molokh

Too old to be edited. -_-

Medix2

⠀> This
That

vicky_molokh

Anyway,

Weatherman nails town's super long name

►

David Coffron

3:33 PM

> test

Medix2

Don't do what I did, don't use the Braille blank character

kviiri

I wonder if the voice actors struggled with the name. But I wonder how they managed with "Rastapopoulos"

Axoren

@vicky_molokh That man was in the bathroom 30 minutes before his screen time just practicing that town name.

David Coffron

$$/text{> test}$$

Axoren

Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, a lake in Webster, Massachusetts.

kviiri

3:34 PM

Or maybe they just couldn't come up with good dialogue to replace the name. "The big-nosed drug guy"

David Coffron

.
> test
> test

Medix2

@Axoren Yeah... I've been there

David Coffron

multi-lining it works

Axoren

"Let's Go Canoeing on Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg"

►

David Coffron

> test
> test

but not if the alternate line is blank

Medix2

3:35 PM

Everybody just calls it Lake Chaubunagungamaug (if even they go for that one)

David Coffron

@Medix2 I'ma call it lake Ch'ug

Axoren

Call it Webster Lake so that you're not the Lake version of a weeaboo.

David Coffron

@Axoren No, they insist on calling every thing "loch". Ever heard of the Great Salt Loch

Axoren

That's the Scottish version of a Weeaboo.

"Don't forget to loch the front door."

sounds of wartime

David Coffron

@Axoren Is that a transfiguration spell: door to loch

Axoren

3:40 PM

Personally, I thought it was really messed up when someone cast Stone to Flesh on a boulder that wasn't originally made of Flesh.

So, any X to Y spell gives me flashbacks

"Hey guys, I can affect a 20-ft cube!"

David Coffron

@Axoren Hm? That's a very efficient create food spell, no?

Yuuki

Ex to Why, 3rd-level enchantment. Target one creature under the condition of having been in a previous romantic relationship with the caster. Target must roll a Will save and, on failure, acts like a ridiculously curious toddler.

@DavidCoffron Stone to flesh was very nice in Nethack, although being satiated wasn't always optimal.

David Coffron

@Yuuki Why to Zzz, 4th-level enchantment. Target one ridiculously curious toddler and cause them to fall asleep.

nitsua60

X to Y, 2nd-level algebra. Find the inverse of a function, without really understanding inverses. Or functions.

David Coffron

@nitsua60 haha. Very true

goodguy5

3:48 PM

@DavidCoffron wtb

please. I need this

Yuuki

does this smell like chloroform to you?

(i wish this didn't need a disclaimer, but don't chloroform your kids)

(or anyone really)

Medix2

Knowing what chloroform smells like feels impossible even though I know it's not

Axoren

@Medix2 It smells like Ether

If you smell a lot of Ether, I bet it has a similar effect

Someone_Evil

@Axoren It most assuredly does

Axoren

I forget, in Pokemon, is Ether the thing that gets your Pokemon's pp up?

Yuuki

3:54 PM

ಠ_ಠ (yes)

Someone_Evil

I have never been so light headed in my life as when leaving a overfull, undergrad organic chemistry lab after 9 hours

goodguy5

disclaimer, do not use ether to get anyone's pp up.

Axoren

My sister has two friends whose parents were both different pairs of organic chemists.

Yuuki

something something chirality

Axoren

Poly Esther, and Ethel

David Coffron

3:56 PM

@Yuuki I read that as "chimeric" at first, and thought something totally different

Axoren

@DavidCoffron Big... Brother...?

Medix2

GeGe!

David Coffron

@Axoren Is that a FMA reference? I'm having trouble parsing

Axoren

@DavidCoffron yes

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Nina

►

David Coffron

@Axoren I'm vaguely familiar, but having actually seen the anime or watched the manga. I know there is a chimera in one of the things though, so.... I figure it out I guess xD

Axoren

4:01 PM

I could never bring myself to use the Nina event as a story element in a game.

It's just too much

goodguy5

4:18 PM

There are no 5e creatures without con scores like there were in 3.x, right?

Carcer

not as far as I know

I don't think 5e has a the concept of a nonability score

MikeQ

Sentient magic items have no physical ability scores. Not sure if they count as creatures.

Medix2

@MikeQ I think they don't which is... Weird

T.J.L.

Sentient magic items are missing a whole lot of other properties that they'd need to be functional creatures.

Medix2

10

A: Is there anything that is simultaneously a creature and an object?

Sentient Magic Items Sentient magic items have minds like many creatures do, and can take a number of different actions, including the independent activation or suppression of their powers and attempts to possess their wielder. They do not, however, have Dex scores (which makes initiative uncle...

MikeQ

4:23 PM

Ah ok. They have no AC or HP, so they can't be treated as creatures. However, they can wear hats, if you get creative.

goodguy5

Well, this morning has been complete chaos.

T.J.L.

Is it really a hat, or really worn, if one does not have a head?

goodguy5

The system that controls our delivery (digital) automation pooped the bed. Including the part that tells us if it's not working properly. The past 3 hours have been trying to right as many ships as possible and alerting the relevant parties.

T.J.L.

I mean, if I put a hat on my crystal ball... doesn't it cease to be a hat and become a ball cover? Or is it a Schroedinger's cat kind of situation, both being and not being at the same time?

@goodguy5 Oh, that does sound awful.

David Coffron

@T.J.L. Would an axehead work?

@T.J.L. Essence of things sounds like a question for Plato...

What are the important characteristics of the "hat" Form

Is "being worn on a head" one?

Is there a real essence of hat, or is it only nominal (to borrow from Locke)

goodguy5

4:34 PM

What is the platonic ideal of a hat?

David Coffron

@goodguy5 one that keeps my head warm, but I don't need to be intimate with

(other platonic) ;)

Xirema

@goodguy5 Speaking as someone who is very sick today and flitting in and out of lucidity, this was absolutely the worst thought to stick inside my brain today.

goodguy5

I think it's a Santa hat.
warm
easily visible
has a pom pom
festive
fuzzy, but not completely fuzzy.

David Coffron

@goodguy5 are you hnestly suggesting that pom poms are a factor in the Form of a hat? :P

goodguy5

yes, are you suggesting they aren't?

MikeQ

4:36 PM

A platonic hat is convex and is made of regular congruent polygons

David Coffron

@goodguy5 If that is indeed the case, then the majority of fascimile's we witness fail on many counts to meet the ideal

goodguy5

yes. agreed.

and I'd like to submit "home-made-ability" as an additional hat-quality.

i.e. - Could I get one of these from Grandma?

David Coffron

@goodguy5 No. She got run over by a reindeer

goodguy5

Baseball cap ain't coming from granny!

@DavidCoffron It was a hit, for finding out the secret hat pattern

David Coffron

@goodguy5 Mrs. Claus is a ruthless businesswoman

goodguy5

4:41 PM

@Xirema you're welcome.

MikeQ

@KorvinStarmast I updated the one-shot structure because I realized the players could just skip the entire latter half, and decide to rush into combat with the malfunctioning device. So now there's a forcefield around it, which can only be suppressed by one of several "magic extinguishers" located throughout the store. Hence, a reason to explore.

goodguy5

@JohnP badass

NautArch

@goodguy5 @JohnP Just watched it - this is great!

goodguy5

And I filed my taxes last night. doing great

David Coffron

4:56 PM

@goodguy5 the file, the taxes, the night, or you are doing great?

goodguy5

1 and 3, mostly

David Coffron

Hm... Can "last night" be presently "doing"?

Axoren

5:42 PM

Can a Prismatic Wall wear a hat?

KorvinStarmast

@MikeQ heh, I just saw this, but I have to go and run errands. will take a peak when I get back.

Hot RPG Questions

5:54 PM

5

Q: Would swapping the Assassin's Imposter feature for the Scout's Ambush Master feature be unbalanced?

Inspired by this question: Would allowing the Rogue sub-class (Assassin) to benefit from Supreme Sneak be unbalanced? The Assassin roguish archetype is considered by some to have very weak class features at levels 9 and 13. The linked question suggests replacing the Infiltration Expert feature w...

GcL

6:12 PM

@Axoren It could probably wear the hat of Chief Diversity Officer?

NautArch

I've noticed something in homebrew review questions. Answers that provide review (as asked), but don't provide rebuild help don't get nearly as many upvotes.

Axoren

@GcL Doesn't the hat burst into flames?

NautArch

Which I understand, but when we say we don't do "design this for me", that really shouldn't necessarily be the case.

GcL

@Axoren That's the Wall of Fire which is usually wearing the Chief Security Officer hat... which is made of asbestos.

NautArch

Because doing so seems to promote putting up incomplete homebrew just so we can 'finish' it.

GcL

6:14 PM

@NautArch I blame the cats and the music they listen to.

NautArch

@GcL blaming cats is always appropriate

Someone_Evil

@NautArch Incomplete homebrew should (and I believe usually is) downvoted and/or closed as unclear

NautArch

@Someone_Evil often doesn't, either. People like cool stuff.

BUt it can be complete, but just clearly not analyzed by the creator

Someone_Evil

Giving a suggested "fixed" version of a thing gives a much clearer idea of what the answerer means and is more helpful towards making a better one

@NautArch How exhaustive analysis do you expect people to have done?

NautArch

@Someone_Evil And I get that, but it also seems to move us into having folks use the site to help develop.

@Someone_Evil Based on the vast majority of homebrew posted here...more.

Someone_Evil

6:19 PM

I'm not saying those aren't real (and valid) concerns, but I don't think advocating worse answers are a solution to that

NautArch

@Someone_Evil I'm not sure i'd qualify a review without recommendations as 'worse'

in fact, I kinda think it's better

Zachiel

I need to do something about my group.

NautArch

@Zachiel Are you looking for suggestions?

Zachiel

I don't know. It's probably going to be "talk to them about this". Maybe I'm just looking to organize my thoughts before doing just that.

Suggestions that are more specific than that might work.

NautArch

What's going on?

Zachiel

6:23 PM

The group worked pretty fine when they were playing highh level D&D 4e. Sure, there was this one guy who didn't heal himself if he was not in combat, but the buff that came with healing and the fact that he was low on healing surges justified it.

Now they're playing low level Pathfinder, they're in a situation that very clearly requires them to save resources and last week they had a TPK (well, almost, one player was missing last minute and we decided to play the same, without their character).

Now the guy who was saved from the TPK wants to change character but he wants this one to die first, so he's doing things like shooting with his bow in melee.
The guy who didn't heal does things on a whim, like the party desided to stay far from a fog cloud to draw the enemy out, he charges in and then goes to negative HP, but he's all "whatever, I can always roll a new PC".

NautArch

Does the "roll a new PC guy" really still want to play?

Zachiel

A third guy keeps rolling Constitution 6 old alchemists, basically a glass cannon

NautArch

Is there a penalty for having died?

GcL

@Zachiel How clear is "clearly" ? I find that obvious is never obvious enough.

Zachiel

@NautArch you lose your gold (but people argue that is should still be around) and you lose your character, which should be important enough but no.

NautArch

6:29 PM

@Zachiel Is everyone always at the same XP level?

Zachiel

@GcL There's a huge army of orcs swarming their town and they are mostly on their own

@NautArch yes, story leveling

GcL

@Zachiel What's the cost to the DM for having to incorporate a new character? Is it more cumbersome in this campaign for the player or the DM?

NautArch

But it sounds like in general that a Session 0 for the new game and style needs to happen.

and discussing that managing resources is important and that not managing and rolling up new when things fail isn't really an option, because there will be a penalty (TBD)

maybe it's their a level behind

Zachiel

@GcL I am the DM and the cost is creating new Dyslexic Character Sheets for whatever their combination of archetype is, and helping one of them creating the character.

NautArch

so the story-based levelling still occurs, but they're just one level behind.

Zachiel

6:30 PM

@NautArch then it's a spiral of death, this chapter of the story is hard

GcL

@Zachiel So the cost is higher for you than for them. That's a problem.

NautArch

@Zachiel It's as hard as you want to make it, though.

Zachiel

Dinner now, I'll be back

GcL