That seems like it would run into big table-protocol problems with pacing and hidden information. They've got to be convinced they're doing some other kind of scenario, or else be told up front that there's a heist going on, or else what are we all doing sitting at the table?
I like heist movies (OK, most heist movies... I'm one of the apparent few who think Ocean's 8 was great and Ocean's 11 was barely tolerable). Which RPGs would be good for a heist story?
@BardicWizard Aeon Wave is a cyberpunk Fate Core setting/adventure with half-pre-made characters hired by a dead client to find out why she died at the heart of one of the most secure corporate R&D sites in the world.
But a fun bit of news that made me smile: I have a friend who I play d&d with weekly. We both, independently, started making costumes of our characters for Halloween and only found out that both of us were doing similar things today when we were talking
I saw that a hydra has "advantage on saving throws against being... knocked unconscious" and was curious as to what spells or effects would cause such a thing to happen. The only effect that came to mind is the sleep spell, which operates on hit points rather than a saving throw. What else can kn...
@doppelgreener oh so uh, I didn't even realize you ever said the term, but I was searching the word mutism assuming I was the only person here who said it (I re-read conversations I had sometimes), turns out you did 4 years ago XD
so you knew the term for it before I looked it up 3 days ago
(although I decided to use the term as situational mutism or intermittent mutism because the word selective seems to imply a choice that doesn't exist. I would be willing to bet some "professional" who it doesn't happen to named it that )
this time I was looking it up to remember the term, because the book I'm reading actually has an instance of it happening
would it amuse you to know that the condition was originally refered to as "elective mutism" and was subsequently renamed "selective mutism" precisely to stop implying it was a choice
"situational mutism" is still less ambiguous of course
At a guess, they're using a scientific jargon convention whereby agency ("elective, selective") is given to involuntary biological processes. I've seen similar language used for inheritance: a particular genetic trait is "selected."
This is... not great... when they're defaulting to that kind of terminology to talk about human experiences.
based on my advanced reading of this wikipedia article "elective" was originally just because they assumed the patients were deliberately refusing to talk.
also, other context that makes it bad, there are already people out there in the world who, either out of ignorance or unwillingness to know, already misinterpret the experiences of people who are neurologically different from them
@Carcer this is a thing that I know has happened by experience
not with like doctors or psycologists or anything but just with people who are around when it happens
using a word that even implies choice is,... not a good idea
it helps facilitate thinking believing or assuming choice is or can be involved
even when you know the term for what is happening
which is supposed to be the best case scenario of a bad situation
but yeah I don't think I'm trying to convince anyone here I just needed to point out what I see wrong with it XD
and also the reason I just don't like that word
IE, because we already have enough of a problem with people who don't have this experience (on a professional and on a personal level) misinterpreting what exactly is happening
oh, I also just want to make it clear, it's also doubly bad if choice is implied when the attack of mutism itself is being caused by someone talking to you, expecting a response, and getting increasingly frustrated and angry.
most of my attacks of it have been caused by conversations with other people that got stressful for one reason or another
most didn't actually get to the point where people were yelling, but they often ended up with people assuming I wasn't talking because I was mad at them and sulking or something
as might be intuited, that helped no one
not me, but also not the people expecting a continuance to a conversation which they were delaying by being incredulous or acusatory XD
Swedish traditionally has hon/han for she/he respectively, but they've introduced hen as a gender-neutral term borrowed from the Finnish hän which pronounces nearly the same
New peeve with that .eu website, they seem to also include arbitrary interactions and presenting them in the same way meaning it can't even be trusted to be a collection of developer tweets
Permanently banishing a creature to a demiplane through nested basnishing
Banish the creature to the demiplane, then banish the creature from that plane, then the first banishing ends returning it to the start, then the second banishing end returning it to the demiplane permanently.
The more I develop games and talk with game developers, the less I think it's reasonable to expect game devs to also take on the role of arbiters or interpreters of their text. Trebly so when, as in a collaborative project like D&D, it's not even their text in the first place.
Most writers don't have deep intimate understanding of their own process, and most game devs don't have as much experience with their games as the people asking them questions.
(I think it's fine to ask a dev about their thoughts and intents, if the dev has clearly made themself available in that way. But that's different from asking a dev to add or modify the text, or adjudicate our tables; that's not their job and they're not getting paid for it and they're probably not the right person for the job anyway.)
@NautArch The uneven publication of each printing's errata is just the tip of the "we are sloppy" iceberg. :p In other news, Weiss and Hickman are suing WoTC over a new DL story line; apparently there's a money issue like "oh, no, we'll not be paying you for that" or some such. ($75k US)
Not sure why they don't go deep pockets and sue Hasbro ...
The story I heard, V2 seems to know more, is that they were licensed last year to write a few mor DL stories (WoTC owns the IP) and had put book 1 in already, and then shennanigans began ... Summon Laywers III had to be cast, apparently.
Anyhoo, the "three new setting" release later this fall might have been times to also see release of the story (?? via Penguin Books?) which suggests more DL material is due to come out (rats, I was hoping for Dark Sun) but I wonder if this suit will block that?
@AncientSwordRage I am almost afraid to ask who Nick Kelmen is. A corporate suit?
We seem to have another "let's overcomplicate our first D&D character with a mute spellcaster" question - I think something very much like this has been asked before, but maybe that was for a blind character.
@ThomasMarkov Right?! One thing I didn't expect was so much government ownership. Of course this is during the time that the US was bailing out GM so that explains the ridiculously high number there, but yeah. China definitely has (had?) its fingers in lots of pots. Like many governments.
oh wait, actually it looks like China is pretty insular in that graph.
@Rubiksmoose I find it amusing that this sentence could be likening china to other government, or implying that of the pots it has fingers in some are govenments
@ThomasMarkov They were white at some point, i recall
My little brother was a picky eater and dad would always try to coax him into eating everything by claiming it's "super healthy". This didn't work and later I found out it wasn't particularly true for all the foods he said it about either. Eggplant for instance is rather poor in nutrients.
In Master of Magic there's a special resource called "Nightshade" which I thought at first was some fancy magic herb. Then I learned it's just a generic name for a family(?) of plants
...and later I learned the nightshade in the game indeed is supposed to be a magical herb.
i hadn't heard the term in English before the game, and face it, if you ran into the term in a fantasy context you'd assume it was some magick plant too x)
@Carcer I found it amusing that on yesterday's page of SSSS the name "Nalle" was assigned to one of the clearly deadlier bear beasts :D it's a really cutesy name to modern ears, roughly equivalent to Teddy bear
@Carcer Not too much. There's a lot of names for bears, some of which are still in use and others have changed meanings. Eg. "Karvaturri" is a cutesy word meaning pretty much any furry thing (Finnish furry fans use the word "turri", short from that, to describe themselves)
"Kusiaistennuolija" means pissant licker though, I found that somewhat amusing :P (from the fact that bears eat bugs, among other things)
"Metsänukko" means "Old man of the forest", and "Hallavanahka" means "Light gray skin"
@Carcer Minna is just a normal name, I think it's related to Wilhelmina in German?
So there's a vast vocabulary of figurative words that refer to bears. Even the official name for bear in modern Finnish (karhu) is originally a "nickname" – I think comparative linguistics suggests otso is the one closest to the original name.
@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica maybe: morgana isn’t really gender neutral in this day and age, but maybe Merlin. Though that’s also very popular so it may suggest a stereotype with regards to what kind of a wizard the character is
A more indirect method might be to using a magic-associated name as a family name. Merlin or Houdini probably would both work. 'The Magnificent' may be a subtitle variant instead.
@MikeQ pop culture stuff; I’m doing a thing as a favor to a friend that involves making a wizard costume thing for xem and xe couldn’t come up with a good name
@MikeQ heh, I have a 'lock whose famialiar is a goldish pseudodragon - when the PCs met her the firs question one of them asked was "Oh, right, Goldilocks." (Which isn't her name, but I laughed)
user15026
@MikeQ I understand this reference! (Which is rare.)
Werebeings in D&D are powerful characters who are capable of transforming into specific beings, notably tigers, bears, and wolves, or hybrid human/beasts. The rules concerning the question are as follows (these rules are for weretigers specifically, but they apply across all werebeings):
The ...
@RevenantBacon If you can't speak but can perform verbal components, can you cast message? And will the messages be intelligible, or just telepathic squawking?
Whether or not the spell even succeeds in being cast depends on if you can whisper when you can't actually talk. Even if it does succeed though, since the spell specifically calls out that you whisper the message, that means you have to speak it aloud, and since you can't speak, the message comes across as whatever noise it is that you can make
@NautArch My rule for underwater casting was the Dorra rule, if you can breathe underwater or speak whale, you can cast spells underwater. Probably should give a bonus to range for breathing water and speaking whale.
In Dungeon World, if the GM describes a hazard and a player disregards it should that trigger the Defy Danger move or be considered a Golden Opportunity that triggers a GM move?
For example:
GM: The swamp beast lurches out of the mist, a massive twisted hulk with a tangle of grasping, strangling...
@NautArch I recall liking Jordan's books better than Riftwar, but that may just be a personal taste thing. Oh, by the way, I just discovered three chocolate bars that I bought early in Covid days with you in mind as emergency supplies to mail to you if necessary. You good on chocolate now? .👀
@NautArch Good, then I can release them from quarantine and allow The Missus to partake.
@NautArch In other news, my bridge fell out of my mouth last night. Had to see dentist today to get the high grade epoxy applied to make it more permanent. I hate chewing on my own teeth in the middle of a bit of turkey sandwich.
@NautArch But I liked even less what the Cowboys did last night on Monday Night Football ... if I could use an RPG metaphor, I'd say they all suffered from a bad case of ongoing necrotic damage ...
@ThomasMarkov It was the last place that I remember being out in public in my flight suit and being somewhat accosted by grabby and attractive females ... and I never did get my hat back. We were in the Flats ... hooray for taxis, expiditious retreat and all that ...
@ThomasMarkov This isn't really on-topic for general, but it's not something that should create an issue. Off-topic and not issue causing is more of a NAB thing. Dragons is for topics that may create tension/issues themselves.
@KorvinStarmast wentz fencing. He makes some amazing plays, but other times, he really really doesn't. The O-line and skill positions are pretty bad right now, but I've seen other quarterbacks on worse teams do better.
Banishing smite to a harmless demiplane, banishment back to plane of origin, banishing smite drops, then dropping banishment returns target to demiplane.
@ThomasMarkov I'll walk that through the paces with our DM, we have a BBEG who I'd love to pull that stunt on. (But saves will mitigate it ... maybe time to cast Bane ....)
(Our wizard is not a diviner, so Portent can't help us there)
Hold up, what's all this nonsense about Banishment + Gate + Banishing Smite + a demiplane?
Side note, does "While there, the target is incapacitated. It remains there until the spell ends, at which point the target reappears in the space it left or in the nearest unoccupied space if that space is occupied." only come in to effect if it gets sent to a demiplane, or will it apply if the target is also sent to its home plane?