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1:34 AM
Ugh. Why isn't it lunchtime the weekend yet?
 
@Adeptus You're in Australia, right?
IIRC, that puts you about twelve hours ahead of my current Thursday evening. So can't you just, like, go another ten thousand miles east or something and call it a week?
=)
 
1:56 AM
@nitsua60 Pretty sure if we did that it would extend the week by another day. Crossing the dateline and all.
 
In all seriousness, though, I feel you @Adeptus. How're things down there?
Oh, no. That's not the right conclusion at all. That's, in fact, showing he did need a date line. He just didn't know it.
 
@nitsua60 lol
@Adeptus What part of Australia you in?
 
@nitsua60 I can't complain too much. Working from home has pros & cons (and, I'm still working). The day is just dragging a bit right now.
@linksassin Adelaide, SA
 
@Adeptus How are restrictions there? I'm in Melbourne.
I'm working too, though my wife lost her job.
 
2:13 AM
Mar 13 at 13:31, by nitsua60
Since the CiViD19 pandemic is sensitive and stressful to many, and sparks a lot of discussion, kindly try to keep conversations about it in the Coronavirus chat room.
 
I get to play video games in my lunch break!
 
@Adeptus lol that is a good upside. Friday's are still fridays though
@BESW Yep, sorry understood.
@Adeptus What games you playing at the moment?
 
2:36 AM
Urrrgh once again my PDFs are exporting gibberish. [smashes face against keyboard, produces more legible content]
 
@linksassin 7 Billion Humans, and FFXIV. (I had also been playing Fallout 3, Infinifactory, and Overwatch, but haven't for a week or two, so...)
 
@Adeptus I take it you, like me, had a big backlog of games that you can now work through?
 
Oh boy. I've got 500-ish games in Steam, 100-ish in Epic, and... some more... in Uplay, Origin, & GOG. I'd say about 90% of them are unplayed...
*with some overlap... if Epic is giving me a free game, I don't care if I already own it on Steam, I'll take it again
 
@Adeptus Ok I take it back, we aren't in the same league. I have like 6-10 games that I haven't played yet. Most that I bought 1-2 years ago and never got around to.
 
2:52 AM
hey there @linksassin, how've things been?
 
@Shalvenay Busy, strange. Much the same as everyone else I suppose.
I've been out of chat for a while to focus on some personal things. But that's under control now so easing back into things.
 
Ben
3:17 AM
Hey man, good to hear you're getting it all sorted :)
[All-encasing message of support and praise of efforts made]
 
3
Q: Does a Spectator need to make an attack roll to determine whether it hits a target with its Eye Rays?

Morthos TimorThe spectator is a D&D monster that can shoot rays out from its eyes with varying effects. The creature it targets has to succeed on a DC 13 saving throw (the ability of the save depends on the type of eye ray) to avoid one of the eye rays' effects). Does the spectator have to make an attack rol...

 
3:55 AM
@Ben Well, on the road to recovery. Still have lapses from time to time. But I'm slowly exposing myself to the things that were a problem before to see how I'm handling them.
 
Ben
4:07 AM
Yeah, that's always scary. I hope it goes well for you!
 
 
2 hours later…
6:18 AM
4
Q: How does it affect the game if not everything spoke Common?

ErudakiGoing through the bestiary DBs, you find that most monsters that speak a language, almost all speak Common as well. (Or have some form of telepathy or truespeech.) From the data my friend gathered, he determined there are about 75% of speaking creatures speak Common. Of those that don't, 20% ar...

 
 
2 hours later…
7:58 AM
today was a tiring day. time to sleep
good night all
but first: For the King is free on the Epic Games Store until April 30. (After that, Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Crashlands are free from April 30 to May 7.)
 
8:11 AM
Also, the D&D freebies page has been fixed/updated. Wednesday's freebies include DDEX 1-11 for Adventurers League (until 4/28), the "Storm King's Thunder Complete DM's Bundle" by Eventyr Games ("contains all published Valeur RPG DM's Resources" for SKT: guides, maps, sidequests, etc.), Castle Ravenloft Battle Maps by Venatus Maps. Thursday's has no game content, just a pack of 4 digital backgrounds (wallpaper/Zoom BGs). And coloring pages both days.
WotC also announced a digital club activity kit that qualifying US/Canada organizations can request; it just includes a welcome note with info about Magic/D&D resources; 30 codes (1 redeemable per account) for 3 free booster packs on MAgic Arena; and a key that unlocks one Legendary Bundle on DDB.
 
8:33 AM
1
Q: If I were to cast a spell limiting reactions (shocking grasp), does that mean the target can't make a saving throw?

DallinMThe shocking grasp cantrip states that the target can not take reactions until the start of its next turn. Therefore, the target should not be able to cast spells like absorb elements and shield. However, are saving throws considered reactions? If they are, someone could cast a spell using a sa...

 
9:18 AM
I just realized I forgot to eat dinner. It's now 5 am
I postponed it till after my D&D session (a one-shot from DMsGuild: Murder on the Eberron Express). we ended at like 3 am (it started at 9 pm)
then I forgot I didn't eat dinner until now
lol
contemplating what to do now
 
 
2 hours later…
10:48 AM
@V2Blast Brinner?
 
 
3 hours later…
1:39 PM
Today in "Your subterranean designs aren't interesting enough":
 
2:07 PM
@BESW Brinner
 
 
2 hours later…
GcL
3:44 PM
So here's an issue. There's an open spot at the virtual table. There's a dozen applicants that are interested in filling that spot. What is a request that can be made of each applicant that should be trivial for someone who knows the rules or has played 5e and pretty easy to verify? Essentially, a fizzbuzz variant for 5e applicants.
 
@GcL calculate a an attack roll and damage?
 
Depends. Usually I'd pick whoever seems like they'd be fun and hasn't played before. Or maybe you might prioritize players with the most experience instead.
 
GcL
@MikeQ No time to interview all of them. Also, no interest in interviewing all of them.
 
No need to interview. Isn't there some message they write to apply?
 
GcL
@NautArch What information would you give them and what would you expect the result to be?
@MikeQ Yes. Mostly solemnly swearing they're totally going to be available for the posted times and have loads of experience
Could have a more involved application.
What question(s) would you put on a more involved application to get at the criteria by which you'd make a decision?
 
3:59 PM
Maybe ask for number of years of experience (to estimate rules knowledge), and possibly number of different groups (to estimate playstyle flexibility)
 
You are being forced to make a Charisma saving throw. What is happening to you?
 
If they just say "I have loads of experience. So much. The most experience with D&D. I roll so many 20s. Believe me." then that's not really a helpful description.
 
GcL
So what would you look for that would qualify an answer as a good one?
 
If they give # of years and # of groups, then at least you can compare those
 
GcL
Seems reasonable to ask and easy to evaluate.
 
4:04 PM
@GcL I think you could give them the weapon, the ability score, and the class in case there are modifiers. Result should be the math showing the attack and damage calculations.
 
GcL
@NautArch That could all be text and is pretty straight forward. Also should be trivial for anyone who has played before to do on the fly.
 
@GcL exactly. it's a great baseline. And I can tell you with 100% certainty that one of my players that has been playing for 2 years wouldn't get it right.
 
@GcL "Who calls for an ability check: GM or player?"
 
GcL
E.g. Fighter L4, with STR 18 (+3), DEX 14 (+2), CHA 9 (+0), and proficiency bonus of +2, attacks using a greatsword. What die do you roll? What is the modifier added to the roll to determine the attack total?
@nitsua60 That's a clever one.
@NautArch Ooof.
 
My question (to you) is what are you trying to screen for? Rules knowledge? Which ones, and why? Think about the times you've had hiccups or slowdowns at the table, and maybe ask about common threads there? Is it calculating modifiers correctly, or is it faffing about trying to go into every shop in the whole bloody city, or is it having to ask every time their turn in combat comes up what the disposition of every other thing is because they weren't paying attention to their party-mates?
2
Hmm... [realizes he's basically just described his IRL group]
 
4:18 PM
@GcL I'd leave out the modifiers. just give the scores.
 
GcL
Just a quick filter to cut down on the number of applicant pool to actually be screened via voice chat.
 
and the level, not the modifier for prof
 
GcL
@NautArch I sometimes forget where the proficiency bonus increases.
I think it's L5 for every class, right?
 
After every 4 level block, so 5th, 9th, 13th, 17th
 
@GcL yeah, for the first one, then 9.
but if they've forgotten, it's also a good test to see if they'll look for stuff on their own.
 
4:28 PM
So how does asking about rules correctness help filter out potential players? If multiple players just look up the answer online, then you still have multiple contending applications.
 
@MikeQ I'd still be okay with that. It means they proactively figure things out.
 
But the original problem was having too many applicants. This approach doesn't solve that.
 
@MikeQ It might. We don't know until we get the results.
But literally any question might result in positive answers from all applicants.
But if GcL is wanting to get folks who have a basic understanding of the mechanics, it's a good start
 
GcL
4:44 PM
@NautArch For the fizzbuzz type question, it in a text chat. I'm not expecting someone to go look stuff up. Actually, probably don't want to give someone the time to do it. It's a freaking attack roll. With all the information in front of them, they should be able to know what to tally up.
@MikeQ Too many to interview by voice chat. I can burn through a lot via text chat room pretty efficiently.
@NautArch Also would be a good check for someone who asserts "5 years dnd experience" in "3 campaigns"
I'd expect someone like that to be able to tally an attack roll given all the pertinent information and some extra info. Also, to know that a greatsword has no possibility of using the dexterity bonus.
Might actually flip flop the dex and str bonus. So a situation where a finesse build fighter is using a greatsword.
Probably wouldn't be too big of a question to ask for the spell attack bonus of a caster. Is knowing which is the primary attribute of a spellcasting class a bridge too far?
 
4:59 PM
Ooh... @Miniman: I've found a new site-stat I might be able to get interested in...
20
Q: Modified h-index for questions and answers?

templatetypedefIn academia, the h-index is a measure of how much of an impact a researcher has. It's defined as follows: You have an h-index of k if you have published at least k papers that each have k or more citations. The reason I bring this up is that it might be interesting to adapt this to work fo...

 
GcL
Given how the use of impact factor and other citation related metrics has impacted authoring and publishing practices, I'd be against porting that miasma to SE
It would promote questions and answers that lend themselves to being cited. Those that are useful, but standalone are less likely to score well by those sorts of metrics. I'd rather have specific answers to specific questions be on the same footing as general hand wavy answers to specific questions.
 
@GcL That's not what's proposed.
They're just describing academic h-index for context. The proposed stat is "highest n for which you have n [answers|questions] of score n."
 
GcL
@nitsua60 You're using citation metrics for something other than ranking authors?
 
No, nobody's proposing using citation metrics in the first place.
 
GcL
That's what an h-index and impact factor are.
 
5:10 PM
1 min ago, by nitsua60
They're just describing academic h-index for context. The proposed stat is "highest n for which you have n [answers|questions] of score n."
Gotta Zoom--sorry if I created any confusion.
 
GcL
Gotcha. That's not an h-index. That does seem like an interesting take the distribution of posts by vote count.
So taking the max of the entries of a histogram that are above the y=x line.
Where's @Xirema and the elemental plane of math? I feel like this can be done, but might not provide a particularly useful metric. Maybe a there's a good bin width.
 
🅵🅾🆁 🆆🅷🅰🆃 🅳🅰🆁🅺 🅿🆄🆁🅿🅾🆂🅴 🅷🅰🆅🅴 🆈🅾🆄 🆂🆄🅼🅼🅾🅽🅴🅳 🅼🅴?
 
GcL
Elemental plane of math work.
 
You'd need someone to thaw it out first if you want to move it over there (if the SEDE doesn't work for you)
 
5:21 PM
Yeah, gotta ping a mod to unthaw rooms.
 
I poked around at some of the usual suspects--SSD's the highest I'm finding, with 53.
Also, TIL HICC has >2000 answers!
(My co-Zoomee is nowhere to be found.)
 
So, how much does it differ from just total reputation? That difference would be where it would be able to tell you something novel
 
GcL
That's a clever way of tabulating it for a single id. I'd call it something other than h index. The bin width ends up being the n? It's the size of the side of the box where count of posts == score of post
Square Post index?
We can then see if it works for some well rounded whole question.
 
Gives a bit of a feel for breadth of quality contributions? I imagine on SO it'd be pretty simple if you've got a quick trigger finger to amass hundreds of 5-10 score answers, giving you (let's suppose 200 answers all at 10) 20K rep and an "index" of only 10.
Compare that to someone who's given some distribution of answers that adds up to 20K rep but has 220x5, 50x10, and 20x20 for an index of 20.
Frankly, I'm not sure how much it differs from, say, average score per post.
 
GcL
@nitsua60 Good question for comparison. It might be near the median post score.
 
5:34 PM
But it's kinda interesting. While I sit and wait for someone who's currently standing me up.
 
GcL
Mean post score I would expect to be influence a lot by 0's and high scores.
 
Yeah, but I suspect those two are pretty well anticorrelated, so I don't know how much I'd expect them to change ordering.
 
@nitsua60 I'd want to to see the scatter to see if there is a difference the metric is able to pick up
 
MOAR PLOTZ!
Though I fear we're starting to wander into
territory.
 
If we are, you're the one with the power to push us to PoM
 
5:44 PM
I think I'll just go take a nap, instead =)
 
GcL
6:11 PM
@Someone_Evil I think that's off by one. Look at user id 23970. There are not 22 posts with score greater than or equal to 22. There are 21 posts with a score greater than or equal to 21.
 
@GcL Which site?
 
GcL
rpg
 
I'd assume one of us is doing something wrong, because I'm getting 46 as their index
 
GcL
@Someone_Evil That's for meta?
NM. I have it backwards. I was searching on meta
so meta.rpg is the one with the22 result that should be 21
 
Has anyone here run Dead in Thay?
 
 
1 hour later…
GcL
7:39 PM
@Someone_Evil Take a look at user 38434 with your query. It gives 23, but that user only has 22 posts above a score of 23
@Someone_Evil This approach inspired me to dust of some T SQL memory and write a query that grabs it for the top 100 users: Top Square Post Index
 
@GcL Not really my query, was in a comment on the MSE post
 
GcL
@Someone_Evil Awww hell... now I've got to wade into meta. I'll get my cloths pin and waders.
 
@GcL Based on those hundred, there's a reasonable linear relation between the square root of rep and the top square index, with one outlier
 
9
Q: When does the kobold racial ability "Grovel, Cower and Beg" take effect?

EndemicThe kobold racial ability Grovel, Cower and Beg is described as follows: Once per short rest as an action, you can cower to distract foes. Until the end of your next turn, allies gain advantage on attacks against enemies within 10 ft. of you that can see you. Suppose a kobold starts 5 feet ...

 
6
Q: Passive Perception or Active Perception Check to detect hiding enemies?

TirafesiI'm DMing for a party that constantly says stuff like we'll walk slowly and carefully, or we'll look around as we walk, to make sure there's nothing threatening or out of the ordinary. Say there's a monster hiding near the PCs (stealth check 14). All the PCs have a passive Perception lower than ...

 
7:53 PM
I find it slightly odd that that ability doesn't consider the impact on the people being groveled at. Do they have to make a save to not spare the kobold's life?
Or is the idea that kobolds begging not to be killed is somewhere between annoying and funny, rather than an actual appeal to the character's conscience?
(Unknown Armies has mechanics for begging for your life, why doesn't D&D? /s)
 
 
2 hours later…
10:10 PM
the standard plot hook for Lost Mines of Phandelver doesn't seem enough... Have any of you found/used a more engaging one? I'm afraid my players would just ignore the whole story if I tried using the generic one
 
The key to engagement is hooking it into player agency. Nothing generic is gonna work as well as tailoring a story to the group. Look for ways to reward the character building the players have been doing, by offering stories which give opportunities to reinforce and further explore that characterization.
 
@AugieBrown The last time I ran LMoP, I started the first session in-medias-res with their conversation with Gundren handled with a brief flashback. It's kind of cheaty, and kind of railroad-y, but the players were new (and self-confessedly bad at RP, though I don't think they were that bad...) and needed training wheels at the time.
 
I like to actually ask my players what kinds of stories and opportunities they're hoping to get during the campaign, and then give that to them.
 
Are your players newer, or more inveterate?
 
(There's an original main q for some extra context)
 
10:15 PM
It's been my experience that newer players may be more unsure of themselves, but are also a lot more audacious because they haven't yet had to adjust expectations from years of D&D-like systems telling them "no" because their level is too low or they didn't take the right feat or it wouldn't be balanced.
 
10:47 PM
So, I moved to a different computer at work cus all of my stuff got reset and things for a different line of business were installed on it and slowing it down a lot and I found something really interesting
I can access Meta
 
First: make sure it's an adventure you want to run, not something you're running out of obligation or desperation. RPGs are social events and if the person instigating a social activity isn't enthusiastic about it, that makes it hard for anybody else to be.
Next: Talk with your friends about it. Tell them why you're pumped to run the adventure, and ask them what they're hoping to see/do/experience in the campaign (they have hopes and desires, it's why they're playing). These things can be diegetic like "I want to meet the paladin who inspired me to take orders" or mechanical like "I want to
5
 
I want to roll giant fistfulls of dice but due to the platform on which I typically play, that's not really an option for me :(
 
11:02 PM
Digital with digital dice?
 
@Someone_Evil a sloped table, I bet.
 
it's not the same cus I use roll20 so it's just spitting out numbers not rolling dice
 
<rimshot>
 
and now Meta is blocked again. wonder what that was about
 
@Himitsu_no_Yami What sort of block are you seeing (sorry if we've asked before)?
 
11:06 PM
@Someone_Evil Barracuda
 
Right, I should've remembered that
 
Just has me curious why it was working fine for a few minutes and then it's like "lol nope!"
I was planning to read through the fine cheese collection again
 
Yeah, not every game system is gonna be able to meet every need (this is something D&D is reluctant to admit, because it wants to be the One True System For Everyone).
 
Yeah
And honestly it does a worse job of that than a few other systems anyway
Not that any system is really good at it
But D&D is actually a pretty strictly specific system
It requires the people playing it to get really creative to do the things they want and still "follow the rules"
XD
 
8
Q: Does the damage from Blade Flourish crit and double?

ThanedorHaving a small debate with another player and there is a small belief that it does not. I was doing my own research and everything I saw pointed out that it does in fact double in dice, and therefor should be treated as a crit since it's rolled dice. However the other player argues that it's add...

 
11:18 PM
@HotRPGQuestions Thanks for making my point for me :P
 
11:33 PM
Random question, I could ask on mainsite probably but idk. Anyway, what is the highest level of spell that exists in D&D (5e if specificity is important) I know in 5e players can only cast up to 9th level but I'm fairly certain at least 10th level spells exist
 
@Himitsu_no_Yami For 5e: only 9th level spells exists, but there is a way to cast at 10th level (involves artefact)
 
Some editions have "epic" spells which for which spell level is effectively meaningless.
Other editions don't have spell levels at all.
 
@Someone_Evil really? I thought there were examples of spells that were higher level but not castable
 
And a numerical pegging isn't guaranteed to make sense across editions
@Himitsu_no_Yami When those are talked about, folks are basing it on stuff from older editions
 
@Someone_Evil Ah, okay
Oh, I know this is off-topic but if we have any anime fans in here that have not already seen it, I'd suggest checking out Overlord. I just rewatched part of it and parts of the magic system are very heavily based off of D&D (namely what spells there are and the levels and such)
 
11:41 PM
Which Overlord? My first association is a game where you boss imps around, but I'm guessing that's not what you are referring to
 
@Someone_Evil an anime by the name of Overlord
it's an isekai anime but borrows pretty heavily from D&D
 
GcL
@V2Blast do you ever get tired of making posts better?
 
@GcL I think we can only hope not
 

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