@kviiri Yes! I used to have it. I played through it maybe twice, then traded it for something else. I think when I got it, it was already pretty old, as I remember the graphics being rather dated.
Armor of Agathys (PHB 215) states:
If a creature hits you with a melee attack while you have these hit points, the creature takes 5 cold damage.
Since it doesn't specify that it has to be a weapon attack, does it also work for melee spell attacks?
Specifically, would it work against Spirit...
@V2Blast Yeah my concern with that was that this "dark choice" was the active decision to shoot and kill an NPC. I don't think that sort of "violence" should really be advertised on the main site. While we do have a 14 (15?) plus user base, I don't really want to go into the details of it all
Especially because there's no guarantee all users are "of age"
The Shifter race from Eberron Rising from the Last War has the Shifting ability:
Once per short rest as a bonus action, you can assume a more bestial appearance. This transformation lasts for 1 minute, until you die, or until you revert to your normal appearance as a bonus action.
Druids ha...
@Powerdork yeah, that's a known infelicity of the underlying platform. it's not the greatest, and I think there's a meta thread floating around about it already
In search of the elusive Stench Kow...
In Volo's Guide to Monsters there is small appendix allocated to "Assorted Beasts", which includes the Cow and variants: Ox, Rothé and Stench Kow (VGtM, pp.207-208).
In the description of the Stench Cow it says that they are native to the Lower Planes.
...
So I posted my question, after thinking about it a bit more and fleshing it out a bit. I don't think it will affect the feedback I got from the discussion last night, but it might be a worthwhile question, since it's not about the game, it's about the player to player interaction
@Ben Eh... I don't think that's a problem, as long as you avoid any, uh, graphic descriptions, and include a content warning at the start of the post if you feel it's necessary. But I don't think your example is really any worse than most of the stuff people ask about from RPGs (especially re: murderhobos).
@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I don't think we normally have voting deadlines on these things, we just kind of let them run until it looks like a consensus is reached
@Carcer I'm asking because in the days after the question was posted, it seemed as if a consensus was reached, with results radically different from what we have now.
True. Though initially there were no/few competing answers (and even KRyan's answer has changed/expanded substantially since it was initially posted)... Given those new answers and edits, and with more people seeing it and voting on it over time, it's interesting to see those trends change.
I'm interested to see the discussions continue and see how things play out.
Thus the question about deadlines, because it's possible to keep saying 'well, this is it, the stable state is reached' as well as to say 'things changed before, they will change again, wait some more'.
@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I think there is a minimum length of time to let the question run so that people can have the discussion about it and different views can be presented
Generally, based on my history with the site, it's premature to announce stability in a meta post's outcome until a week has gone by--partly because it's unreasonable to expect even active participants to check meta every single day, and we should give people time to reflect in order to make clear, thoughtful answers.
Yeah, a minimum of a week seems reasonable, but I'm interested in how long it's considered long enough to be safe about treating the outcome as stable.
I've had this question about sources for price benchmarks for typical items/services closed as off-topic. I would like to request either one of two actions, or an explanation of the logic behind what seems to me to be an inconsistent treatment of between similar questions.
The inconsistency I s...
As for a "now it's settled," well, nothing's ever permanently settled with meta. But to consider a major policy outcome actionable on mainsite, I'd generally avoid a flat maximum and instead look for something flexible like, say, three days of no significant activity after the first week.
In practice, it's usually pretty clear when the community's said everything it's got to say, so long as we wait at least a week.
In our new campaign, our DM allowed us to start at level 3 with two classes so I picked rogue/warlock even though I am going to pursue Warlock beyond level 3. As a level 3 rogue, I am getting sneak attack which gives a damage of 2D6. It works nicely with my Walk Unseen invocation. Only downside i...
@KorvinStarmast Hit points are an abstraction for combat (their description is listed in the Damage and Healing portion of the Combat chapter of the PHB). The Damage and Healing section starts with "Injury and the risk of death are constant companions of those who explore fantasy gaming worlds. The thrust of a sword, a well-placed arros, or a blast of flame from a fireball spell all have the potential to damage; or even kill, the hardiest of creatures."
The actual description of Hit Points states they "[...] represent a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck. Creatures with more hit points are more difficult to kill. Those with fewer hit points are more fragile"
An assassin plunging a knife into someone's neck while they sleep isn't combat. As a result, a lot of the abstraction that Hit Points are meant to represent aren't present (in particular, they aren't actively trying to prevent their opponent from hitting them in a particularly vulnerable area)
With surprise, the Assassinate feature gives the rogue an auto crit if they hit a surprised creature with an attack, they also have advantage on that creature if the general has a lower initiative roll than the assassin. However, they already have advantage on the strike because the general is sleeping
This particular monster gets a tag, but does that mean every monster gets one? And then do we need to worry about editions/RPGs having different uses?
When do we allow system wide monster/spell/ability tags and do we not? What's the decision making process here?
Seems like we shouldn't have ta...
@illustro Combat does have situations where the target is not actively trying to not get hit, eg. when the target is unconscious or paralyzed, so I don't think this is exactly an intuitive interpretation
@kviiri in regular combat there are multiple participants, and the person doing the attacking is (usually) being harassed or distracted by the other combatants. At the very least the attacker needs to be aware of where everyone else is in combat.
Luck can easily factor into that scenario (the attacker doesn't quite hit the right place to land a killing blow because they were trying to dodge an incoming arrow from a ranger)
@Akixkisu Only the ones you skipped yourself, I believe, by going to the review history and then clicking on "my review history" at the bottom, then checking the "show skipped reviews" option (see this meta for details)
From that meta I couldn't exactly understand whether moderators can see skipped reviews for everyone but if they can, sharing "how many people skipped" may be ok
I've been wondering, given the large amount of D&D related material on this stack, to the chagrin of some of the stacks userbase, is it worthwhile (or even allowed) to suggest a stack specifically for D&D questions?
You can, I don't think it will go anywhere though because we cover it fine, there isn't really a demonstrated problem and splitting up would probably leave the non-D&D stack with a dangerously low volume of questions
I figured that would probably be the case. I think it'd be more like the ai.stackexchange.com being separate from Stack Overflow. A subset of programming, but with enough critical mass to sustain itself, and the ability to have a slightly different focus.
Yeah, I ran (or tried to) run some numbers way back and... yeah, what Carcer said. I think our most popular non-DnD systems aren't even in triple digits.
Okay, I correct myself: Savage Worlds has over three hundred questions.
(And at least at one point it was the #1 system tag after DnD)
It's sort of like the difference between "Board and Card Games","Poker" and "Chess". Poker is clearly a subset of the card games and Chess is clearly a subset of Board games, yet both have their own stacks specific to them.
yeah, it seems largely that the problem is users who don't like D&D getting frustrated that the site is overwhelming-majority D&D, but if all the D&D went somewhere else I don't imagine that there would actually be a sudden jump in volume of non-D&D questions
It would be twofold. The scope of a D&D specific stack could be expanded to include all things related to D&D (like the novels and CRPGs based on D&D), while also giving breathing room to non-D&D games to get the requisite air to flourish.
As a user I'm a 100% D&D focused RPGer (I don't have experience of any other RPGs due to a lack of availability in my local area)
As someone who stopped playing D&D about six months after joining this site, and has been the first asker for many new systems here in the seven years since, rpg.se is so structurally ill-suited to the kinds of TRPG questions I have now that I don't even both trying to work them into the Stack format anymore.
D&D is the lifeblood of the site and removing it wouldn't let other questions flourish, it'd just kill the remaining site with inactivity and extinguish our ability to ask non-D&D questions which DO easily fit the Stack model.
@illustro My concerns these days are more about stuff like running horror games without the influence of L*vecraft, or using Script Change on Discord, or running tables at cons that don't have comprehensive codes of conduct, or... anything about Sundown, I've given up even trying to talk about that in this chat because people get so weird about it, I'd hate to think about what kinds of responses I'd get in mainsite.
You know, the stuff that can't be answered with clear objective analysis and page quotes. The stuff that RPG.SE has spent nearly a decade fighting tooth and nail to enforce Good Subjective/Bad Subjective policies so that those kinds of questions have even a chance here.
My favorite app (game) just got a really minor, but really nice QoL change. You can donate cards to teammates, but you had to click the "donate 1" button every time. they added "donate max"!
I was always happier answering questions than asking them. A good chunk of my mainsite rep here basically boils down to offering situation-specific actionable advice on the theme of "The friends you're playing with are more important than the game you're playing."
But asking questions about, say, The Thousand Cousins or Balikbayan or Sundown, or the challenges of transposing support tools for neurotypical hugspace into a neutrodiverse group on Discord--or the kind of developer concerns I'm running into recently--well.
This site just isn't built for that, at a very structural level, even if its userbase had that expertise.
RPG.SE has semi-annual meltdowns about understanding and using very basic analytical lenses, for which there is at least two decades of very public mainstream discourse.
We nearly set things on fire over Fate Core, for h*cks sake.
And I'm not saying anything bad about any of the individuals involved.
The Stack Exchange was designed for independently verifiable actionable solutions to specific problems that the developers judged to be morally and emotionally neutral. And then we tried to use that structure for everything from parenting advice to religious discussion to... putting ourselves in the emotional shoes of imaginary people and getting personally invested in their fictional lives.
@Carcer FWIW, I think that if you down vote a question, and it then gets deleted, that the rep you spent to down vote is returned. (Not sure if I remember that correctly)
@BESW I need to set more bounties, thanks for reminding me.
@BESW Yes, SE isn't the best place for every topic, but then again, neither is the internet. Text based mediums lose a lot of the social context and cues we as humans rely on during face-to-face discourse (or even in audio based discourse)
I mean, fundamentally, SE is very much like a more limited reddit, with primary replies being answers here and secondary replies being relegated to comments
So it cuts back the back and forth you get from a "regular" conversation even further than other text based mediums (like forums)
The kinds of problems I encounter these days tend to require conversations in order to address, and the Stack is specifically designed to discourage and obstruct dialogue.
@Carcer I agree, there is a significant amount of non-text based content (ie Youtube), but conversations on the internet between large groups of people are still text based
So generalizing it to "Internet awkward" doesn't really fly. I've got much more help with my problems on RPGSEA Discord servers because they're (a) designed for dialogue and (b) populated by people who already share my context so I don't constantly have to start over explaining things like the baggage of orcing.
we've subsumed some image based communication into the text based discourse to try and enhance/replace the non-verbal cues that we've lost
but it's still text based
@BESW This is my point specifically about SE, it's attempted to remove the conversational element to communication that other sites (like reddit or discord) still have
The communication between non-connected people on the internet is more awkward and prone to misunderstandings than in person communications (because the non-verbal element is removed)
Communication on SE is further limited because we don't allow conversations to occur on an answer
RPG.SE is particularly militant on the enforcing of "comments are not for discussion" angle of SE
@BESW It has obvious drawbacks, I agree. I'm also curious what takeaway we can glean from the fact that it does those other things with any level of success. (I'm off for the day, just spitballing for a sec.)
You asked what kinds of questions are ill-suited to this space and I've answered. Your response is that I should do it anyway to give them a chance and also agreeing with me that the Stack is ill-suited to them. And now some tangent about "militant" comment curation, which has well-documented reasons on RPG.SE related to the kinds of argumentative and abusive behaviours that frequently get imported by users from other RPG spaces.
At this point I don't know what you're hoping to achieve from the conversation; I was offering my own insight into the kinds of struggles that a non-D&D TRPG.SE would face, because one of the reasons we're so D&D-heavy isn't just that it's a dominant franchise but because it's the franchise most compatible with the Stack infrastructure.
Everyone take a breath. This is obviously a contentious subject, but we can keep ourselves level. I'm close to moving this to NAB, but I think it's relevant as it stands right now.
I feel I should clarify. My comments about the militant enforcing of moving comments to chat isn't meant to be derogatory, it was more an observation.
I'm agreeing with you that questions requiring conversation aren't a good fit, but you mentioned questions that need Good Subjective/Bad Subjective don't and haven't worked here (with an implication I'm reading into the posit you are giving those those types of questions require or necessitate conversation)
@NautArch If I'm coming across as frustrated, or combatory, that isn't my intent here
Thank you for clarifying @illustro. I'm coming in kind of late, but doing my best to keep this even. I'm starting to think this may actually be better in NAB (which is perfectly fine!)
I think comment curation is actually one of the greatest strengths of this stack as far as working within the system that SE is offering and optimising for that. This is not the same as optimising for community though.
@kviiri Yeah it's a complicated issue. Complicated in large part because SE designed comments with the foolish notion that people would not try to use them to chat and bond (and argue and insult), which is what people are inclined to do when given anything with a text box.
@Rubiksmoose true, and I should probably have been more careful in using it (particularly given the fact I'm been born and bred in Ireland). Though being from Ireland has also instilled me with a certain sense of irreverence for the seriousness of particular words when used in face-to-face conversation, and thats bled over into how I choose my words in text based conversations (where the non-verbal contextual information to my words is missing...like tone)
@illustro We also have a history of somewhat contentious debate about the issue in the past. Though largely site norms seem to have normalised around what you see now.
@SirCinnamon XD I mean... you're not wrong. Or at least knowing the rules enough to know how and when to break them.
@Rubiksmoose Primary missions is high signal to noise ration with an implied mission essential task of creating a large enough community of expert answerers that the site is returned to again and again. (Original goals). What is being looked at now, and maybe what the transition is, seems to be"building a community" with fewer modifiers to that concept. And as ever, change can create a bumpy ride.
@nitsua60 certain stacks seem to have objectively failed at doing so. For example, the Finance and money stack, when I've engaged with it, seems to be nothing more than a soapbox for people to spout their opinion on the question without any real recourse to solving the problem posed by the querant
@illustro Thank you, and thanks for your clarifications. Sorry for being brusque. I'm tired and cranky and should have known better than to dig into these subjects now.
Anyone else think we should close this question? It seems that the AL rules have been changed, and this question no longer applies. rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/125309/…
Emoji were originally designed for Japanese phones so a number of symbols don't line up with our expectation (although this is getting muddier with additions and redesigns). Triumph (😤) is the most common example
> Originally meaning pictograph, the word emoji comes from Japanese e (絵, "picture") + moji (文字, "character"); the resemblance to the English words emotion and emoticon is purely coincidental.[3]
I learned this in Japanese class and was shocked.
@Someone_Evil @SirCinnamon whoa I've never heard those particular examples before.
@xdtTransform System may be important to possible answers, so please tell us what game you're playing in the question. Otherwise, just give us as much as detail as possible and that you're comfortable with.
Additionally, describing the issue and the hoped for resolution would also help.
@xdtTransform (though only if that you are a new-gm is relevant to the question, if it is irrelevant to the question itself, merely providing context, then omit the tag and ask as regular :))
Preface
We are playing Savage Worlds. My character is an ex-military dishonorable discharge that was granted an opportunity to waive the charge by volunteering for a Black Operation service term instead. The Op resulted in genetic engineering resulting in "Spiderman-like" abilities. The Op was l...