camera filter thing, I think, it's fixed position cameras with a pane in front of them over which has been painted the missing elements from the scene

overlay, that's the word I wanted

oh so a green screen type of thing

In this case, it's a painting on glass that's put in front of the camera, and the live scene is filmed through the glass.

@BESW yeah, I've got a strong memory of a gif showing how that was done with for instance a charlie chaplin film to make it look like he's teetering precariously over a ledge, but I can't track it down

There's a lot of different kinds of matte painting techniques. The earliest was just covering part of the lens with black so the film wouldn't develop on that side, shooting the scene, the covering the other side of the lens and shooting the scene again: in-camera compositing!

@Carcer Ah yes I remember that one

But the "small painting of the background in front of the lens" was REALLY popular for a long time. Star Wars did a ton of it:

is there an image without the painting? I'm wondering what the set looked like that let them line up so wel

Or a film crew would build the exterior of a house, but only the bits they needed for close-ups: for long shots the rest of the house would be a matte painting:

@AncientSwordRage Not that I know of, but that's just how matte paintings worked: they were painted and the sets were built so that they meshed together.

@BESW makes sense

It was a very technical and creative skill, and master matte painters were highly sought after.

Lucas had an addition to matte paintings long before he had an addiction to greenscreen.

"Matte painting" may also refer to a large background painting behind a practical set which the actors walk in front of, designed to mesh with the edge of the set to create the illusion of a distant space on a small set.

There's also a wild version where you build a scale model instead of painting a matte, and you set it off to the side of the camera. You put your actors in front of the camera, and you put a mirror between the camera and the actors, angled to reflect the model into the camera. Then you scrape off the reflective backing of the mirror in the places where you want the actors to be seen.

Here's a gif of a recreation of the technique using a shot from Metropolis

@BESW 404

[grumble]

It's on this page

That's neat!!!

The whole concept of glass/mirror matte painting is basically a really high-precision kind of forced perspective.

They take something small and put it really near the lens to convince us it's bigger and further away.

So, for films shot on sets with no ceilings because they needed to have the lights and booms and all up there, you put a piece of glass in front of the lens that's got the ceiling painted onto it.

(warehouse scene at the end of the Raiders of the Lost Ark)

whaAAAAT

i thought that was an actual warehouse full of boxes

damn those people are good at what they do

XD

The paintings with holes to film though, are distinct from (but often used in conjunction with) the matte technique where you can use black shapes to block the film from being exposed in certain areas, then film again using an inverse of that black shape so that the previously unexposed film gets exposed without double-exposing the first parts.

That technique was pioneered very early on; a guy in 1907 tried to patent his technique but the patent was rejected on the grounds that it was already something a lot of people were doing.

By 1933 it had advanced to the point where they could use it to create absolutely terrifying effects:

(When the Invisible Man removed his bandages, he was wearing a black full-body stocking underneath and filmed in a black room; that let them create high-exposure copies of the film which turned all of the clothing white, and use a negative of that high-contrast film as a mask to block the film in the camera while they were filming everyone else in the scene. Then they could add the original Invisible Man footage into the holes.)

(That's called a travelling matte because the matte's shape changes from frame to frame in the film to follow the action. Fans of Fraggle Rock now appreciate the joke.)

@Ben CSE is Christianity.SE. WoT = Wall of Text)

Ahhhh I see. It all makes sense now haha

WoT is the sound I make when I see a WoT

u wot m8

howdy howdy

@BESW incredible

Well if nothing else I am getting a metric [unprintable] ton of interview practice.

I need some more eyes on something. Can folks take a look at the map for Dead in Thay in dndbeyond for the corridor between the areas of 38 and 39?

@JohnP toosoon

@NautArch I figure if Nathan Fillion can do it at a 'con, it's ok. :p

hehehe

I've got one about firefly day care if that's better...

@NautArch I just saw your ping elsewhere, presumably about that. I'm around for a half-hour or so if you want.

@Ben To match the DC mechanics, you should add to the DC difficulty instead of subtracting from the roll.

@nitsua60 Pinged you back, but thinking maybe this should go on mainsite as a question.

@NautArch What about it? (map 5.6, yes?)

@Someone_Evil yes, map 5.6

The corridor between areas 38 and 39...are those secret doors?

may be of general interest ^^

@nitsua60 Are there any good recipes for cooking with worms? I feel there will probably be a bunch of cans opened without much of a plan for what to do with them.

@GcL I hear they're good fried

@GcL Barbecued worm sandwiches

@NautArch Isn't that just some stairs (leading down to 39), similar to the ones leading down into 40?

@Someone_Evil You're looking at the stairs going "west" to room 36. I'm talking about the two white bars in the "north" wall of room 38.

@NautArch Ahh.. heading back up to 35?

@Someone_Evil I believe it's area 39.

darnit, yes, 35.

End of 35 describes them I think

so just a regular doorway/corridor?

> A white gate is located in the corridor to the south, leading to the Warren of Eyes.

okay, cool. I think the missing description in area 38 is what we through me.

Thank you!

ZOMG SPOiLER ALERTS PEOPLE!

just kidding. carry on.

THere's a non-secret door!

@MarkWells Nice question on compelled duel!

@NautArch I was curious what you'd say about that. In general your answer holds up, though it suggests kind of a bizarre scenario of every possible environmental hazard "remembering" who created it.

@MarkWells Unless it was an ally, i don't think it's necessary.

And your party will generally know what they've done.

It took me a bit to come to a conclusion. I was going to put something in there about it being unclear enough for a DM to rule otherwise, but I ended up thinking it is pretty clear.

Like, if you push a monster into a pit, are you doing damage to it, or is the guy who dug the pit doing damage?

@MarkWells I'd say if you push a monster into a pit, it's you doing the damage.

But if you dig the pit and the monster falls in on its own, it's also you?

Yeah, it was a trap you designed and implemented.

(this is getting pretty far into the weeds from the scenario described in the question, which was 100% something that happened at the table)

but yeah, i'm also a little less sure about the pit situation.

(well, 95%. they weren't named Paula and Severus.)

I keep reading Paula Paladin as Paula Poundstone.

no, Paula Poundstone is a bard

The pit scenario is definitely trickier.

But here's a question: Do monsters that kill themselves contribute to XP?

trick question. monsters being killed does not contribute to XP. retrieving treasure contributes to XP :)

@NautArch I think there is a question about that on main, IIRC the answer was yes

or, for you mainstream 5e players, overcoming threats contributes to XP.

If they're part of a challenge, and the PCs survive / overcome / bypass that challenge, then yes it should earn XP

OKay, there goes that line of logic I was working on :)

but I'd still say that your actions to make the trap is you being part of it.

@NautArch To quote nautarch himself

@JohnP Cripes, that guy is an idiot.

inorite? Backed up by quotes and everything

Like the books actually mean anything...pssh.

@NautArch I'm actually fine with that reasoning, because Compelled Duel already works on the level of intent (it makes the target want to fight you!). So if an ally of the caster contrives some way to do damage to the target, and it works, then they break the spell, regardless of what exactly they did.

@NautArch Sure. If the challenge presents itself and resolves itself without the players acting in any way, then it wasn't much of a challenge.

@MikeQ Genre-wise, my paradigm for XP is "glory". The XP goes to whoever gains the glory for the victory. Could there be a poem afterward that starts "Sing, O Muse, of <your name here>"? XP for you, then.

@NautArch did you mean to pin?

@AncientSwordRage No, my browser freaked out. I was trying to reply.

@MarkWells I actually never liked compelled duel in practice. Mostly I think that as a vengeance paladin, I had lower AC than my barbarian buddy and less HP. It didn't make sense to draw the enemies to me.

@NautArch It's not very well designed for what (I suspect) it's supposed to do. This is a general problem with mind control spells in D&D.

@JohnP For the flameskull thing, it only counts for XP as long as it's a challenge. Things that aren't challenged award 0 exp.

@MarkWells Very much agree.

There's all kinds of heroic-myth precedent for calling out an enemy champion and engaging them, David and Goliath style

but to represent that with mechanics I think you need a solid morale system

@MarkWells didn't David engage with Goliath at distance with a sling?

I love the idea of compelled duel, but yeah, the implementation isn't my favourite

4e didn't do too badly without a morale system!

@AncientSwordRage Goliath is the paladin in this case

@MarkWells ahh

twitter.com/i/status/1222172709402169346

I have a thing for slings

I feel like having a barbarian around is one of the few times you might get a paladin not feeling like the tankiest PC - my paladin's definitely her party tank, but then Redemption did sort of set me up for the "any time they punch me instead of an ally, I'm winning" style ;-)

@MarkWells That would be neat. Track like hitpoints? Bards become morale clerics?

Might be a lot of tracking to do. Ally dies... morale hit. Hit in face... morale hit in face. Viciously mocked double morale damage.

We might see something in the new Theros book?

because if we're not going to mechanically force the called-out creature to duel, then the consequence for refusing the challenge should be that their side loses morale

I still remember a very disappointing encounter where we had to fight one-on-one against another group in a gladiator-style combat. Before anything got started, I called out the leader. But the leader wasn't as powerful as his champions. womp womp.

@NautArch oof

Yeah, and the DM was giving out XP by difficulty. I was pretty miffed.

Here I thought I was doing the right thing for my character.

You were. That guy just shouldn't have been the leader.

@NautArch can you cast hellish rubuke when taking damage from cloud of daggers?

Also true.

there are a whole bunch of ways to do it between "forced to" and "a morale system"

@GcL I'd say yes.

YOu have been damaged by the spell cast by someone.

as long as you can see them and their in range

mechanical incentives are solid - bonus to attack you and/or penalty for attacking your allies, that sort of thing

@GcL Can you cast hellish rebuke when you fall in a pit? "A curse on whoever dug this pit!" (some building contractor hundreds of miles away bursts into flame)

@MarkWells Ha!

out of range, though.

and not visible

but funny as hell

@MarkWells Well, if they're standing there at the edge of the pit gloating.. yeah. Rebuke all over them. Some hellish egg on their face!

@NautArch Seems reasonable.

If we start separating the spells that are cast from who cast them, I think it's going to open up a lot of problems.

@NautArch On the other hand, it means being damaged by spells and effects counts as being damaged by a creature. I don't know if that also has other edge cases. Wrath of the storm and hellish rebuke are the things I'm currently dealing with regularly.

@GcL I see nor eason why those woudn't work with spell effects.

Hit by a fireball? hellish rebuke.

stuck in Evard's tentacles? Hellish rebuke.

Yeah, but wrath of the storm doesn't work for fireball.

which is the distinction.

So far

Ah, yes. Wrath of the Storm requires being hit by an attack roll.

A much more specific condition than hellish rebuke.

I guess it would activate on some persistent attack roll spell (assuming the other conditions were met)

I can't find anything else that would be affected by considering spell or effect damage as "damaged by a creature". Just looks like hellish rebuke.

For me, if you shove somebody into a damaging area you didn't damage them, because I find the alternative option arbitrary and ill-defined

We'll also compelled duel

@Medix2 You being the shover or the caster of the damaging area?

@MarkWells overthinking does not contribute to XP. It contributes to DM's over drinking.

@NautArch Oh right. If I shove somebody into Bob's spell or a spike pit, I didn't damage them. If I did... It just gets all kinds of messy

Bob did it.

@GcL dammit bob!

If he'd made it a foam pit, we wouldn't have this problem!

Time to find a monster weak to foam damage

vulnerable in 5e is the keyword. :p

@GcL Ball Pit Trap. Mechanical trap. If a creature falls into this pit, it takes no damage, but it's just so much fun that it must make a DC 13 Wisdom save to remember that it has more pressing business elsewhere.

yoink

same

A campaign where all the danger is just endless distractions

@KorvinStarmast A DM never overdrinks. A DM drinks precisely as much as they need to to deal with the crazy antics of the players.

@MarkWells They are also never late

@Medix2 I played a game like that at a con; we got to some point and discovered that the dungeon had been childproofed. It was... less fun than the GM apparently expected. Possibly the tone of it didn't work for me.

@MarkWells Anything over a cider an hour is a trap set by the players.

@GcL I admit to having shared my Untested Homebrew cider with the DM once or twice.

@MarkWells Or did you share your untested cider with homebrew?

@Medix2 I think having that strength that the items give you are what lets you wield the Hammer. But that's just my own narrative.

The Hammer does just say you have to wear them. Not have their benefits.

@NautArch Yup, that's how I assumed it as well. I wonder if these exist in previous editions

@NautArch I laugh a bit every time I see "at the time he wrote the tweet" when talking about Crawford

Since I remember just how important that clarification is...

@Medix2 (grumble grumble not that important if you never payed them undue credence grumble mumble)

=)

@nitsua60 Oh for sure but when people go "look, a tweet, that's the intended ruling" I can go "nope, Crawford has disagreed with himself before"

Yeah--that was a very early "feature" of the "Sage Advice by tweet" model that really got under my skin.

I really wish the sageadvice.eu guy would rename his site. or that WoTC would ask him to do that.

@Medix2 I'm running short of patience with "I know Crawford's tweets aren't, like, official, but still here's what they say" answers. To be fair, I'm running short of patience all the time.

but the traffic he gets must be enormous.

@MarkWells Yeah, using his tweets is often what separates an upvote from a no vote for me.

@NautArch Gosh I wish that were the case

@NautArch It seems weird to me to introduce such a themed, legendary magic item without the other items and a player character and story that leans in that direction, but maybe that's just me

@NautArch Hmmm, I know I've gotten a lot of comments pointing out relevant Crawford quotes but if using his quotes really makes people stop liking answers... Maybe I shouldn't use them

@Someone_Evil I guess it could happen with random rolls on magic item tables for treasure.

but yeah. Don't take away toys. I'm not a fan of that.

Or at least don't do it without talking to the table as to why you're doing it.

That item way too powerful for you as a DM to handle? Totally cool, just talk to your players about it, why you're oding it, and what you're giving them in exchange.

@NautArch "I made a mistake" is a powerful tool that GMs should know how to use

@Medix2 GMs everyone, everywhere

Well, people in general really

@NautArch It's on table I and using random tables don't stop you from filling in the gaps, making switches to fit your players or creating story with them

The worst case here is that the legendary magic item they found is actually just a +1 maul, and if none of the PCs want to use a heavy weapon, that sucks

Well, I'm definitely getting interview experience. That one was interesting, the manager kept pulling people in.

argh, user removed rep loss

@JohnP very good sign there on that

@NautArch (in which direction?)

@nitsua60 Not voting. Realized after I typed that it was confusing.

@NautArch I hope. One was a guy that I interviewed unsuccessfully with about 3 months ago, but it was for a different role that I was less suited for.

@JohnP If he wasn't interested, I doubt he'd have come back in.

Greetings @user4553! Welcome to the rpg.se lair! Anything in particular that brings you here?

@NautArch Oh, he's not the hiring manager. The way it works is you have an interview with the hiring manager, then the manager and a couple coworkers and then with other managers.

Which is the weird thing. This position I hadn't even applied for, until the director I interviewed with recommended me to apply to it. So I don't know if that qualifies as an interview for this position and I can skip a step or not.

@JohnP Nice to see that the director thinks you'd be a good choice; would not have recommended otherwise, right?

@KorvinStarmast That's what I'm thinking. And the hiring manager felt good enough to start pulling others in, so hopefully they liked me too.

@NautArch Ah, I lost 10 rep as well from a deleted user. @JohnP Thinking nothing but beautiful thoughts for you over here, John.

@KorvinStarmast Thanks man. Got a lot of people in my corner, good vibes are a flowin for sure!

@GcL yeah that's what I had originally, but that was too many numbers. Minimum roll, modifier, result. This way it's just "best this number"

Hello peeps.

Gossip Squirrel: Solo Walking Larp by Lucian Kahn is a game for city play while Social Distancing. Pretend to be a squirrel & talk to mailboxes & trashcans on your masked walk to the store.

Yes, I'd imagine that would make sure people kept their distance from you.