TRPG General Chat

12:05 AM

@BESW As someone who has seen American high school sports (both as a player and a spectator), I feel like any high schooler who’s been on a team for any of the games you can play as will get super upset about their sport not winning everything. High school sports players can be really dramatic. (Although it’s an awesome looking game and I’d bring it to the next team-bonding event I have to go to if those ever come back)

Lacrosse players can be super competitive especially.

BESW

It's worth noting that this is a non-American's version of American high school, so think more how it's depicted in TV and movies.

Bardic Wizard

Ah. I have first hand experience (though not with any of those specific sports... my sport is basketball) with high school sports in America so I guess I’d come at it differently

BESW

And my high school was technically American, but due to a variety of complicating factors (religion, Indigeneity, size, gender, etc), my experience is deeply atypical.

MikeQ

Was it as melodramatic as TV American high school life?

BESW

12:20 AM

Yes, but in different ways.

AncientSwordRage

> Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or internatio…

Sounds like your experience was with lacrosse players, but that might not be a constant across all schools

I think that quote is relevant

If not, enjoy it in isolation from the conversation

BESW

Brie Beau Sheldon interviewed Jay Dragon about their Wanderhome Kickstarter.

Witch Jam hosted by Alicia Furness. Witches are awesome. We all love witches. Make a playable witch for your favourite TTRPG! Make a whole game about witches. Everyone is a witch now. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.

@AncientSwordRage I've noticed that there's a lot of complicated variables which go into a sport player's investment in winning, vs investment in personal excellence. Like if a sports scholarship is your only chance at a higher education.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW wrong link?

BESW

...good link, but wrong link. Would you mind too terribly? http://briebeau.com/thoughty/2020/08/wanderhome-with-jay-dragon/

AncientSwordRage

@BESW how's it looking?

BESW

12:31 AM

Thank you!

AncientSwordRage

NP

linksassin

@DavidCoffron Pretty solid analysis. I agree with NautArch that Nano Sense might be stronger than you have assessed. Also it might be badly worded but I think the Spider Hunter ability allows you to add your dex mod to attack and damage twice, provided you are hidden. Which is a little strange.

Both subclasses need a lot of work. I overall agree with your conclusion that it's not too far from being balanced but needs a few adjustments and perhaps a complete rewrite of the subclass features.

You also seems to have missed the 15th level Unbreakable Web feature. It makes it very difficult for anyone you ensare to escape. Which bumps the power level of all web based abilities.

BESW

(For the curious, the wrong link was a twitter thread about the vízállásjelentés, a daily Hungarian radio announcement of river depths and shipping restrictions.)

AncientSwordRage

@BESW very interesting

@BESW that interview will have to be a morning read, as I'm off to bed

Ciao for niao

BESW

I have a friend who likes transit-related things, especially schedules and data, so I was sharing it with them.

ttfn

nitsua60

12:49 AM

@BardicWizard Typically if it's a stationary-hung bell struck on the outside we'd call it a "chiming hammer." Whether the bell is hung dead or live (stationary or free to swing) if it's struck from the inside it's by a "clapper." (The bell's ~uvula~.)

MikeQ

@linksassin Can I use Nano Sense to detect the presence of iPod nanos?

Is that the correct plural? Is it iPods nano?

nitsua60

@NautArch @PeterCooperJr. @JoelHarmon how's storm wreckage near you? I sat through two days with no power, but when the utility finally changed our part of the outage map from "assessing" to "7-10 days," we bugged out to a hotel.

@MikeQ Definitely. Passersby, surgeons general, iPods nano.

MikeQ

What if you're referring to multiple military generals who are also surgeons? Would that be surgeon generals or surgeons generals?

And if they're also attorneys, would they be surgeons attorneys generals?

BESW

in Not a bar, but plays one on TV, Jun 25 '15 at 8:17, by BESW

Also, it's plural: Shias LaBouf.

see also: Batsman

MikeQ

1:05 AM

No, Shia LaBeouf is the plural form of Shium LaBeouf

BESW

Okay, so what's the singular of BESW?

MikeQ

One BESW is two BESV, and BESV is worth five BESI

Personally I prefer BESIII: Morrowind

2

trogdor

@BESW I think mine may also have been relatively atypical for several different reasons XD

Hot RPG Questions

2:30 AM

10

Q: Does the feat War Caster give you advantage on a constitution saving throw made because of Sleet Storm?

One of the benefits of War Caster is: You have advantage on Constitution saving throws that you make to maintain your concentration on a spell when you take damage. The spell Sleet Storm doesn't deal damage, but the game designers still wanted it to make characters in the AOE make a CON save to...

Joel Harmon

3:09 AM

@nitsua60 Thanks for thinking of me, but I haven't seen any big storms recently. I suspect my featureless space isn't that close to yours.

Joel Harmon

3:24 AM

Also, I'm delighted to say Mrs. H. and I are rolling the genetic chargen dice again.

Bardic Wizard

3:47 AM

@JoelHarmon I was going to link that xkcd what-if about that, but it turns out it’s only in the book and not the blog. Sorry :-(

Joel Harmon

@BardicWizard I have two or three books. I'm really hoping you're talking about Thing Explainer.

Rather, I was. Explainer was the first of his books that I thought of, before I finished reading your sentence.

Bardic Wizard

@JoelHarmon I was thinking about what if, which iirc has d&d ish stats used for explaining what happens if you have a kid with yourself

So not exactly the same but similar I suppose

Peter Cooper Jr.

4:07 AM

@nitsua60 We're fine here, though I know there are some nearby areas that lost power. Just small branches in my yard which is typical of a strong thunderstorm going through. There is a tree down blocking the road (and on top of power lines) a couple houses down the road, and it kind of surprised me that it was still there last afternoon which makes me think that there must be a lot of cleanup happening. But I can just go the other way in the meantime those rare occasions I leave the house.

@nitsua60 Stay safe and hope all is well with you and yours!

BESW

4:59 AM

Lebanese Red Cross Relief Fund A bundle hosted by Batts with content from 29 creators. Trying to raise money for the Lebanese Red Cross after the devastating explosion earlier this week.

AncientSwordRage

6:43 AM

@JoelHarmon congrats!

Adeptus

ugh. Time to get one of my work passwords reset again... I don't use it very often, and it expires every few months or something, so I always forget it.

AncientSwordRage

7:20 AM

@Adeptus the pro move is to forget it an hour after resetting it and finding out resetting has a hard coded cool down

Hot RPG Questions

9:32 AM

1

Q: What are the dots in the skills section of the standard character sheet for?

I'm filling out a pdf character sheet for my character who is a high elf wizard and I'm not sure how the skill box works. I've got all my saving throws done but I'm really just confused with the dots down the side. Which dots do I fill in and how does that change the number beside it? If this hel...

dnd-5e character-creation saving-throw character-sheets

The Oracle

0

Q: Why this answer was deleted?

This question has a deleted answer. While the vote is very negative, I've noticed that there's no immediate problem that warrants the deletion of this answer. It is an answer, albeit many people does not agree to it - but it is not a ground for deletion. Why this answer was deemed worthy of dele...

discussion specific-question deleted-questions

AncientSwordRage

10:41 AM

@Carcer this looks deceptively similar to a question I want/was going to ask

would it be easy to modify the anydice program to sum numbers below a threshold from a dicepool?

like output [if 3d12 less than 7] named "sum 3d12 less than 7", but where it looks at individual dice rolls?

nitsua60

10:58 AM

@JoelHarmon Strange--for some reason I had you pegged as living in a large city near me whose residents tend to refer to it just as "the" city. Well, glad to hear all's well, anyway! And congrats on the upcoming addition! (Number two, yes?)

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@AncientSwordRage I'm not sure I understand correctly, but this looks similar to a question that got answered with custom dice like {1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0}.

AncientSwordRage

For instance this program is saying the above is giving me a potential score of 30, but that seems wrong as it should never be above 21

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

(There's a better notation for that but I hope this gets the point across, and is either useful or can be safely identified as not what you need and thus discared.)

AncientSwordRage

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica seems useful and simpler

eventually I might want to say "Only some, if at least one die is above 7" but I don't know if I'm there yet

Someone_Evil

@AncientSwordRage anydice.com/program/1d260 ?

AncientSwordRage

11:03 AM

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I think I want {1,2,3,4,5,6,0,0,0,0,0} but yes

@Someone_Evil I think thats perfect

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@AncientSwordRage Oh, actual summing of numbers on the dice, not summing the number of dice which fit the criteria.

AncientSwordRage

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica yeah sorry for lack of clarity

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

Unfortunately, Anydice seem very unwieldy for making more than one operation on a set of dice. I remember trying to help someone out with Shadowrun, and had to resort to asking the author of Anydice for help, and I still don't fully understand the . . . architecture? process? structure? keywords? and how they all work. Though maybe I just gave up on deeper understanding too early.

AncientSwordRage

@Someone_Evil I thnk I see how to make further modifications, thanks

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

It is often that I think it's easier to code a Monte Carlo for the specific type of dice interaction I'm trying to figure out, than to explain to Anydice what needs to be evaluated. (And at times I had done the former.)

AncientSwordRage

11:07 AM

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica yeah it's tricky

I forget how Shadowrun dice works, I just remember wanting to play a Troll with a Steel bow before I realised that was well established cheese

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I think 1..6 is the numbers 1 to 8, and then 0:4 is 0 four times

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@AncientSwordRage Found it. This is the code for Shadowrun dice-rolling, though at this point I'm having second thoughts about whether it was the most incomprehensible Anydice example I encountered. I certainly don't remember how it works and why at this point, it's been a while.

AncientSwordRage

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica that does look convoluted

@Someone_Evil I'm so happy about that any dice program you wrote

NautArch

12:17 PM

@nitsua60 we were in the lee of the mountain I think and got mostly protected. Lights flickered and branches down, but not much else in our hood.

AncientSwordRage

1:37 PM

Q for the chat - optimising Any-Dice programs, on topic for this stack or maybe SO?

Someone_Evil

Why do you need to optimise it?

AncientSwordRage

@Someone_Evil I modified the function version, and now it takes >5 seconds to run for some number of dice and timesout

Someone_Evil

How many dice? Or what kind of modifications?

AncientSwordRage

@Someone_Evil anydice.com/program/1d265

Someone_Evil

I mean, you can ask here about the system you're trying to model (+ what its rpg context is), show what you've done, how that doesn't work, and ask for how to do it

AncientSwordRage

1:43 PM

@Someone_Evil sounds like a plan, rather than "I Have X please make it work".

Give me teh anydice

Someone_Evil

2:05 PM

Is intentional that results of 7 aren't counted either way?

AncientSwordRage

@Someone_Evil uh, I haven't decided

they probably should count

Bardic Wizard

What’s the program for?

AncientSwordRage

@BardicWizard the rpg system I'm working on

my current idea is that when you fail at a roll, you can put the failure dice towards later successes

it would do that by summing the dice that were less than 8 (<=7 in the code), and then giving you a limit break token to spend during that same scene

BESW

@AncientSwordRage Did you look at Danger Patrol?

AncientSwordRage

@BESW when did you mention that (that's a no btw)

BESW

2:18 PM

Jul 30 at 0:22, by BESW

You might want to check out Danger Patrol: Pocket Edition. It doesn't sum, but it uses multiple aspects of the roll. Specifically, it checks for four-or-higher, AND for max possible result per die, AND for natural ones.

It's got a mechanic for applying insufficient successes toward the task cumulatively over multiple attempts, by any number of people.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW ahh I remember now

BESW

Or look at games like Fate or No Dice No Masters for examples of more narrative "failure flows into success" currency-based cycles.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW I'll make a mental note

BESW

In Lady Blackbird you get your expendable resources back if you spent them but failed anyway.

AncientSwordRage

I'd like to partially flesh out my system first, so as not to lean to heavily on an existing solution

BESW

2:21 PM

In Roll For Shoes you get an XP point when you fail, which you can spend to gain advanced skills.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW GAH! RFS is what I was trying to think of the other day

BESW

There's no shame in cribbing from other sources. Don't use an existing mechanic just because it's there, but if it's the right mechanic... nab it and be part of the decades-long process of designers building on what other designers built.

2

(And reading systems that aren't doing what we want, helps us figure out what it is we DO want from our system.)

(Walkies With Grim wouldn't exist without Gossip Squirrel and We Forest Three.)

AncientSwordRage

@BESW Oh, I've done plenty of cribbing

And if making my mechanic, I read up on the others and decide I can improve or monkey-patch mine, thats cool

I mean, the limit break idea came from here: xanthir.com/b4sE0

(it's named similar to the FF mechanic, but it does the opposite I think, in that it rewards early failures)

@BESW now there's a great point

@BESW and now I'm curious about those

AncientSwordRage

3:21 PM

@BESW the other one I was thinking of was Risus

Rubiksmoose

3:41 PM

Well that was fun lol

AncientSwordRage

@Rubiksmoose waitwhat

Rubiksmoose

XD

AncientSwordRage

rep recalculation...

GcL

@AncientSwordRage We all got that. How'd you miss it?

Usually I ignore the side panel in this chat. But it got highlighted today as I'm looking for a previous comment by searching my own username.

It made me realize people will star the dumbest chats.

AncientSwordRage

@GcL I got it a while back, if this is the 'rewarding answers and questions equally'?

@GcL guilty as charged

GcL

3:55 PM

@AncientSwordRage I really did like it when favorites were played. I think it made the questions work harder to prove themselves. /S

Rubiksmoose

to explain that rep though...

in Charcoal HQ, 14 mins ago, by Rubiksmoose

Well I finally got sick of running into sites where I couldn't cast flags with FIRE so I just went ahead and created accounts on all the sites I hadn't yet joined.

AncientSwordRage

@Rubiksmoose ahhh

GcL

4:13 PM

What are people using for office chairs these days?

AncientSwordRage

@GcL an office chair?

as in, thats what I'm using

GcL

4:32 PM

What brand or model? and are you happy with it? I'm currently using a bar stool when running virtual table tops.

AncientSwordRage

@GcL no idea, it's about 12 years old right now and my wife got it free as part of her DSA

I'm not at home right now, so can check later on

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@GcL Bed, carpet, adjacent wall, and a rolled-up blanket.

GcL

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica Do you end up looking up at your monitor? or are you using a laptop?

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

Laptop.

GcL

Do you support your elbows on anything?

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

4:44 PM

No.

MikeQ

@GcL I carve out a throne made of frozen tears. I imagine most others do the same.

GcL

Where else are you going to sit when Frostmourn hungers?

goodguy5

I use a gaming chair

GcL

@goodguy5 which gaming chair?

MikeQ

If you can't freeze your own tears, then store bought is fine.

GcL

4:51 PM

Some of us are too salty.

goodguy5

@GcL lemme track it down

@GcL smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H1QY3OE

GcL

Neat. The foam padding on that has been holding up well for you?

goodguy5

yea, but I don't usually use the arm rests

GcL

Where do you rest your elbows?

goodguy5

I either don't or my legs or my desk

GcL

5:04 PM

I didn't realize I was in free elbows company here.

GcL

5:25 PM

@goodguy5 Is your chair mostly under your desk when you're using it?

goodguy5

no, not really

Yuuki

6:26 PM

@goodguy5 I still don't understand why gaming furniture has chosen motor racing as their buzzword.

The seats in racecars have completely diametrically opposed design goals.

Racecar seats are designed for weight and space efficiency above everything else.

You know, things that most gamers should not optimize for.

For people who sit in chairs for hours at a desk, you should be optimizing for comfort, support, ergonomics, etc. The weight of your chair generally doesn't mean as much to the floor of your house as it does for a lightweight racing vehicle.

This one looks better than most "gaming" chairs, but I know that a lot of gaming chairs are horrendous for your back.

MikeQ

7:01 PM

@Yuuki What if my gaming setup is located in a racecar?

Maybe I live in a formula one mobile home.

trogdor

7:23 PM

I agree with Yuuki, I would rather my chair be sturdy and supportive

and comfortable, and all that XD

GcL

7:35 PM

@Yuuki Also holding your ass in place when there's a lot of inertia trying to force it out of the seat.

Looking at the gaming chairs, they appear to be an aesthetic nod toward racing seats. Most of the ones I'm looking at include lumbar support and all the adjustments that the ergonomics department would want. The raciness of the designs is because ~~sex~~ ~~fast cars~~ ~~loose firewalls~~ nice curves sells?

Yuuki

I suppose that's a recent thing because I definitely remember gaming chairs being soooo bad for you.

It was both healthier and cheaper to buy a good office chair.

Since for some reason, gaming chairs also had jacked-up prices.

RevenantBacon

8:17 PM

Yo does anyone remember that quote from SA about changing what spells are available to a class for 5e?

GcL

With regards to what?

Someone_Evil

> Modifying a class's spell list usually has little effect on a character's power but can change the flavor of a class significantly. (DMG 287)

?

GcL

Usually... until WoTC released a bunch of extra material making more corner cases than an icosahedron.

RevenantBacon

8:46 PM

@Someone_Evil That's the one I'm looking for

trogdor

9:56 PM

@Yuuki I actually use an office chair instead XD

Hot RPG Questions

11:13 PM

2

Q: My any-dice program times out, when calculating large limit break checks

Someone in chat helped write an anydice program to calculate limit breaks in an RPG I'm developing, but after making some changes, it times out for dicepools > 7. The system I have in mind, is that if any of the dice you roll is below a threshold, you can bank the sum of all failed rolls for late...

anydice

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