TRPG General Chat

Bardic Wizard

12:00 AM

Also our library is open for 3 people at a time so today I got books from the library!!!!!

trogdor

I usually only bake potatoes

XD

full skin on and everything

Bardic Wizard

@BESW that’s possible? I’ve heard of potato chowder but not potato soup stock

trogdor

then I open them mash them and put stuff on and inside the inside

(and before any of that I rub olive oil and salt on the skin, not reccomended for health but it's not like I eat this all the time)

BESW

@BardicWizard Yeah, though I don't do it with just potato skins; we make vegetable soup stock by throwing all the vegetable bits we cut off and discard into a pot with enough water to cover, and simmer (not boil) for an hour, then strain out all the chunks so it's just broth. That's your stock, to be used for whatever you use soup stock for.

Ends, tops, trimmings, peels, all that fun stuff.

A word of caution, though: the skins/peels are the part of the veggie that collects the most nutrients and minerals, which means it's also the part that builds up the most pesticides and other toxins. So these days I generally suggest focusing on the waste from organic food, if possible, to reduce the chance of getting slowly poisoned by your soup.

Adeptus

ugh, I hate when RAW arguments devolve to interpretations of common English... "entered for the first time this turn" means "entered AND you haven't been inside before on this turn", NOT "you entered last turn (so started inside this turn), then you left and entered this turn"

Bardic Wizard

12:16 AM

@BESW wow, that’s fascinating!

Ben

@BESW Also useful method for chicken and beef "stock"

AncientSwordRage

@Ben that's awesome

Ben

@AncientSwordRage I just hope it sticks [touch wood]

AncientSwordRage

@Ben it helps if they touch the wood

And you've already applied glue to the wood

Bardic Wizard

We make turkey stock around here every year but my mom usually throws in the turkey and some water to the pot and puts it to boil. I’m... not much of a fan because I’m the token vegetarian in my family

trogdor

12:25 AM

oof

that must be a little rough right around now

it's kinda a carnivore holliday

not that that is the only kind of food but it's the food typically focused on

BESW

@BardicWizard Well, you can grab the potato peels, onion skins, carrot tops, parsley stems, etc., and make a very tasty and complex stock that's never the same twice!

(Go easy on carrots and bell peppers, they can easily overpower the other flavors.)

Ben

@AncientSwordRage That's not a bad idea... We were going to use party poppers to tell when they left their rooms... but if we glue them to the bed frame that's even better! :P

AncientSwordRage

@Ben oooh exciting

trogdor

@BESW how dare you say to go easy on carrots XD

AncientSwordRage

@BESW I can never be bothered to peel potatoes

trogdor

12:31 AM

@AncientSwordRage kinda same that's part of why we bake them around here

AncientSwordRage

@trogdor I mash with skin on, some for chips etc

trogdor

I kinda use the skin as a bowl

and then eat it after

XD

BESW

BTW, @BardicWizard, if you're interested in simple, hearty vegetarian cooking, I highly recommend Tassajara Cooking by Edward Espe Brown (or The Complete Tassajara Cookbook, but NOT The Tassajara Recipe Book).

It's got recipes, but it's primarily a guidebook to how to think about cooking, with the recipes as examples, so that you learn how to cook with what you've got instead of needing exactly what's in the recipe.

Probably about 70% of what I know about cooking comes from Tassajara Cooking and Tassajara Bread, and most of the rest is from my mother, who ALSO uses Brown as a touchstone. The veggie soup stock 'recipe' is directly out of Cooking.

TheDragonOfFlame

12:46 AM

I wish I could cook

I can make canned soup

I don’t know how to make macaroni

I can make pancakes from scratch though but that’s about it

Bardic Wizard

I can make tortillas. That’s been my crowning achievement for a year or so, and would be better if I didn’t reliably mess up with anything else shrugs

BESW

Like any skill, it takes practice and a lot of learning from failure.

I've made soup too salty to eat, beans too crunchy to eat, confused salt and sugar on multiple occasions, spilled so much chili oil in the pan that I had to just turn off the heat and run away from the burning clouds of spiciness....

trogdor

ouch

that last one

BESW

The best I can say is, it wasn't as bad as the time my dad tried to dry a big handful of donne' sali in the microwave.

And I've got some standard patterns that I'm really comfortable with, and anything outside those patterns is... stressful, at best.

If I'm frying stuff up in a pan and making some rice or pasta to serve it on, I'm pretty happy. But the instant something goes into the oven, I'm on shaky ground.

trogdor

1:03 AM

oh god

@BESW this is seconded by me this is exactly why I don't tend to cook things I have not tried before XD

BESW

When I was in high school, I made pasta with tomato sauce for the family once a week, because that's all I could make reliably on my own. It's pretty hard to mess up tomato sauce; if you get the flavors too strong or weak everyone can just use less or more on their pasta, and it's usually pretty straightforward to modify it on the fly to be a different kind of flavor profile if you accidentally add something you didn't mean to.

trogdor

oh wow I'm a lot more comfortable putting stuff in the oven to bake

XD

BESW

I did burn it sometimes, but that's not the end of the world, you can scrape the top off and eat that.

@trogdor When something's in the oven, I can't watch it and hover over it and fix it if it's going wrong!

trogdor

lol

BESW

I'm a lot better with stuff that's okay with being worried over constantly.

Hot RPG Questions

1:06 AM

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trogdor

I have never burned something in the oven

I mean it does depend on what it is but for things I'm established with I already know how long they take in the oven I use

and if it's something I have never put in there before I check it regularly

but I like not having to constantly fuss over it and stand there the whole time

BESW

Yeah, like I've made my fancy brownies often enough that I'm pretty okay with baking those.

trogdor

yeah

BESW

But that comes from years of learning "okay, that was too wet, they burned on the edges before the center was done," "that was too thin, this is more like a cookie for dipping in tea," and so on.

trogdor

I know I have been there at least a few times you made em

like while they were baking XD

BESW

1:24 AM

And the answer to "how much ginger does Troggy want in the brownies" is always "more."

trogdor

lol

I do want to just say

if you replace too much of the other ingredients of something with ginger I won't like it as much

it's not because it's too much ginger but because all of a sudden where is the chocolate and pumpkin XD

or wtv else you happen to be putting in there on a case by case basis

but I really do like chocolate and pumpkin

BESW

Coffee, molasses, cayenne, cloves, avocado...

trogdor

ugh avodaco

ok

XD

honestly as long as it's baked into something with other stuff I won't notice avocado

but I do not like it in general

BESW

1:39 AM

I'm not the biggest fan of the avocado-instead-of-pumpkin substitution myself, but it works.

And it's a bit healthier and it lets the consistency get more brownie-like, because it doesn't hold as much wet as the pumpkin does.

trogdor

that's all fair

BESW

But yeah, pumpkin is best egg-and-oil replacer.

trogdor

I would eat brownies with avocado in it

I don't like, hate avocado, I just kinda mildly dislike it

BESW

I have fed them to you!

trogdor

but I wouldn't notice it in a brownie

you have probably put it in with things with stronger flavors

now if you had fed me tomato I would notice it

I hate tomato

I put up with it in sauces and that's about as far as I can go

BESW

1:43 AM

Yeah, I gotta cut tomato with something like honey when I use it.

trogdor

my parents eat just straight tomato sometimes

they even got me to do it once and it was just absolutely horrible

I will eat like, some amount of tomato sauce on pasta or pizza, but honestly given the choice I will always pick like a white sauce or something instead

or a pesto, mm pesto

BESW

I've been making pesto every week now, and using the leftovers as pizza sauce.

This week we actually have a lot of basil, but most of the time we just throw in a couple leaves of basil from our plant and the bulk of the pesto is mustard greens or scarlet frills or something like that.

And walnuts instead of pine nuts, because ain't nobody got that kind of money.

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TheDragonOfFlame

2:06 AM

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Adeptus

2:18 AM

These days, I mostly do easy meals on weeknights, and more complicated (or just longer cooking times) on weekends. So weeknights are often meat & salad, or wraps (which is basically meat & salad in a store-bought tortilla), or something similar. It used to also include pasta, but my wife has been getting heartburn after tomato-based pasta sauces, and my kiddo doesn't like the egg-based one my wife prefers...

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Adeptus

Weekends I do homemade meat pie or burgers, or chicken & eggplant... etc

Sometimes it's hard finding things that everyone will eat, that are reasonably healthy, and that I am willing to cook (since I do 99.9% of the cooking...)

TheDragonOfFlame

Why is something a hit rpg question when it has 2 upvotes

trogdor

I think because it was just asked today and already has like 70 views?

but honestly I have no idea how that is measured

BESW

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AncientSwordRage

2:40 AM

@BESW also walnuts are better than pine nuts

BESW

I wouldn't even know? The only time I've had pine nuts was in restaurant pesto that was, sure, fine.

trogdor

@AncientSwordRage you take that back right now! XD

AncientSwordRage

In your home country

trogdor

pine nuts are the best things

you don't even know

AncientSwordRage

Scratch that

Ughh butter fingers

trogdor

2:43 AM

XD

piiine nuuuuuuutssss

AncientSwordRage

I misremembered the article I read

I prefer red pesto anyway, as much as I want to like green

The article brings up some interesting and some disturbing things

trogdor

oh my god, green pesto is extremely good why

XD

TheDragonOfFlame

@AncientSwordRage Pistachios almonds and cashews are not nuts

Nor are pine nuts

trogdor

I have never had that problem when eating pine nuts

TheDragonOfFlame

What problem?

Nvm found it

trogdor

2:52 AM

them making other stuff taste weird

or something

KorvinStarmast

So we drove to san antonio to visit our son. We show up and he's just put into the oven hand made pizza with 00 semolina (dough) he's had raising for three days. Yeah, lucky us, turkey will be fine tomorrow, but we already won Thanksgiving weekend. 😎🤠 For those who do turkey day: may yours be wonderful.

Oh and he had a six pack of Moosehead in the fridge when we showed up. Today, I felt like I got the Lucky feat ...

AncientSwordRage

@TheDragonOfFlame and tomatos, cucumber and courgettes/zucchini are all fruit.

Raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries are not berries

Ben

@AncientSwordRage the avocado is a berry.

AncientSwordRage

@Ben best berry

Scratch that, second best, after coffee

Ben

3:07 AM

Very true XD

Well actually isn't that a bean?

trogdor

I hate both of you :P

AncientSwordRage

@Ben nope, it's no legume

Ben

TIL

@trogdor lolol

AncientSwordRage

@trogdor the same but about you

trogdor

lol

AncientSwordRage

3:11 AM

(^^)

Also salsa is a fruit salad

runs

trogdor

EVERYTHING BURNS

Bardic Wizard

@AncientSwordRage gives chase

@trogdor hello fellow fire-lover!! offers burning torch

trogdor

lol

AncientSwordRage

@BardicWizard I honestly thought you'd given me cheese then

Wishful thinking

Ben

Everything in this universe, is either a potato, or not a potato

AncientSwordRage

3:23 AM

Jul 22 at 16:36, by Rubiksmoose

@AncientSwordRage I'd live on the elemental plane of pasta.

@KorvinStarmast this sounds awesome

We had a good pizza place near us once... Almost bankrupted us 😅

Kazumi Chin is making a game about refugees on a generation ship (Twitter link)

TheDragonOfFlame

4:04 AM

@Ben so is pineapple

Bardic Wizard

Ugh I finished a project then decided fiddling with it was a good idea and now I’ve got 8 variants on a single lace edging

Whose bright idea was putting me, a crochet hook, a ball of yarn, and the thanksgiving episodes of all the tv shows my family watches in the same room?

trogdor

4:26 AM

people make thanksgiving episodes of things?

I mean I guess I might remember some maybe

Ben

@BardicWizard I'mma take a wild guess and say.... you

@trogdor Almost every sitcom ever? lol

trogdor

oh that explains it

I hate sitcoms

especially because they usually have laugh tracks and I absolutely despise laugh tracks

Ben

@trogdor Ms. Brown's Boys

Actually has a live audience

Bardic Wizard

@trogdor indeed

@Ben fair

Ben

Lol

trogdor

4:34 AM

I don't think I like the actual live audience that much better

it's definitely a little better

but it's still like,.... peer pressure to laugh?

I'll laugh when I laugh

Ben

It certainly makes it more enjoyable for everyone, cos the audience has just that one person with the laugh that stands out, some people can't stop laughing, and the cast has to keep going and try not to luagh lol

@trogdor Laughter is contagious

Adeptus

@Ben ...so wear a mask

Ben

@Adeptus very well done XD

Bardic Wizard

Our list: about 2 episodes of Gilmore Girls (I have no idea which), two good eats episodes which we get from a dvd, sports night season 1 episode 8, Star Trek TOS journey to Babel, and a handful of other things. I paid attention to exactly three episodes. That may be why all that crochet happened

TheDragonOfFlame

@trogdor laughter science is cool. There was a study showing that if 3 out of 4 people laugh for no reason, the fourth will usually start laughing

trogdor

4:42 AM

I don't usually laugh just because other people laugh

I've been asked more times than I can count "you really didn't think that was funny?"

Ben

@trogdor Well that's unpleasant :/

trogdor

it's mostly just annoying

TheDragonOfFlame

@trogdor same. Whenever I laugh it’s for some reason no one else understands

trogdor

I definitely do that

XD

I remember things I found funny or amusing and just laugh at them sometimes

actually often enough that my parents comment on it sometimes

TheDragonOfFlame

5:02 AM

@trogdor literal mood

@trogdor wait are you a teenager as well? or just remembering

trogdor

no

I am not

TheDragonOfFlame

alright

trogdor

I do still live with my parents but I am not that young

TheDragonOfFlame

ok

thats my plan too tbh

my mom wants me too and hey, free room and board

BESW

Troggy and I live in a place where multiple generations of family sharing a home is pretty common.

TheDragonOfFlame

5:07 AM

neat

trogdor

well also

covid hasn't exactly made any choice to move out easy

TheDragonOfFlame

it isnt uncommon for 2 generations here but 3 generations is almost unheard of

truth

Ben

After having four kids, my parents were not so accommodating lol

trogdor

even if I had full financial capability this year

TheDragonOfFlame

@Ben when i was 8 i said i would always live in my moms basement (when she was sad thinking about me moving out) and she said what about when you get married and i said "she can live there too

BESW

5:12 AM

Some families here (ours are not among them; we have no claim to generational land) have compounds and they build new houses or house extensions on the compound when a marriage makes the family bigger.

TheDragonOfFlame

i honestly know next to nothing about most of the world..

trogdor

5:31 AM

a lot of people don't know anything about Guam

BESW

Thanks to Netflix, even more people now know even less about Guam!

TheDragonOfFlame

i have never even heard of it

well, thats not exactly true

i just know literally nothing about it

trogdor

5:54 AM

@BESW oh god I had even forgotten about that and now am forced to remember

Bardic Wizard

@BESW that’s cool. It sounds like people in your area have strong relationships with family which I wish was a more common thing over here (I’m on great terms with my parents which is more than most of my friends can say)

BESW

Pasifika cultures tend to have strong reciprocal bonds within and between extended families.

TheDragonOfFlame

@BardicWizard true all of my friends seem to hate their parents

BESW

Though of course, Guam also has a lot of Americanized influence from, you know, the colonization.

But it's not so much about liking your family as individuals, as the connections and bonds which connect the family together as a unit and tie it to the rest of the community.

TheDragonOfFlame

doesnt every where have american influence (annoyingly enough [and no canadians arent americans])

Bardic Wizard

6:01 AM

@TheDragonOfFlame I hugged my mom in public a lot pre-pandemic and after we moved to where we are now, half my classmates asked me why I did that and looked surprised at the answer “bc I love my mom, why else?”

TheDragonOfFlame

@BardicWizard extreme sadness at the world at large

Bardic Wizard

@TheDragonOfFlame that’s how I feel anytime I read the news or look at my history book so I agree with you

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SmokeDetector

8:35 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at beginning of answer, potentially bad asn for hostname in answer, potentially problematic ns configuration in answer (36): What's the best way to use a tablet computer for your character sheet? by Kpsc on rpg.SE (@Rubiksmoose)

BESW

11:47 AM

Yeeeah, this could be rough for people to walk into unannounced. Moving discussion of adults' relationships with their parents to HTBD.

trogdor

mk

BESW

→ 13 messages moved to Here There Be Dragons

trogdor

sorry bout that

AncientSwordRage

@BESW thanks, and also sorry

BESW

No sorries! It emerged naturally and then y'all noticed that it was getting a bit heavy.

AncientSwordRage

11:48 AM

and you did the heavy lifting; much appreciated

@BESW unsorry then XP

Hows things with you anyway @BESW?

BESW

[blink] In what sense?

AncientSwordRage

12:08 PM

whatever sense suits you

::engages in small talk subroutine::

BESW

Well, I've started two TRPGs in the last couple weeks and I'm starting a third soon and I'm not GMing any of them, so things are... nontypical but probably good?

AncientSwordRage

12:50 PM

For a moment I wasn't clear if you mean started designing to TRPGs

BESW

Oh, ah. No, I haven't done any work on game design for months.

AncientSwordRage

nice to have a break?

BESW

[shrug] I'd like to do more work on some stuff, I enjoy it, but I don't have any hooks lately.

AncientSwordRage

9 hours ago, by AncientSwordRage

Kazumi Chin is making a game about refugees on a generation ship (Twitter link)

spark any ideas?

BESW

I've got ideas, just stalled out on actionable next steps for them.

AncientSwordRage

12:58 PM

ah ok

I get you now

yup I'm there sort of with a bunch of half baked ideas

BESW

Cardboard Monsters is stalled at a point where it needs materials production for testing beyond what I'm willing/able to invest in a free side project.

Traveling Librarians needs a lot of intense historical research.

Bike Sleuths just sorta hangs out being a thing I haven't found a reason to care about.

I can't find a place to start with Calibration Palettes.

Surgadores ran into a cultural issue that's probably gonna mean I never develop it further or publish it more formally.

AncientSwordRage

Sounds like you've put good initial effort in

I'm most curious about Bike Sleuths and Surgadores

BESW

Bike Sleuths wants to mash together a sort of Encyclopedia Brown/Nancy Drew/Three Investigators kind of thing: pre-driver's-license tweens-and-teens investigating mysteries rooted in their local community. But with mechanics as unobtrusive and low-complexity as possible, and a focus on the sleuths' roles in their community.

It's a nice idea but I haven't found any compelling reason to actually DO the thing.

Surgadores was a joke gone too far, about a team of surgeons who are also luchadores and they take turns wrestling Death away from the operating table so they can stabilize the patient. It had a fun gimmick where your character sheet was your luchadore mask, and you colored it in as you stabilized the patient.

AncientSwordRage

1:16 PM

@BESW sounds like it might fit a similar niche to WWG, where you need to consider your own community?

@BESW that sounds amazing

BESW

It was fun! But the more I worked on it, the more I realized that I was playing in someone else's Serious Business and I really shouldn't.

AncientSwordRage

ahh sure, makes sense

what was the mood/theme of Bike Sleuths?

sounds very Stranger Things-esque

BESW

Stranger Things is part of what made me drop the whole thing, actually. I don't want it to be anything like that at all. It should be a lighthearted romp where the monsters aren't real, if there's ever any suspicion of monster at all.

And I especially don't want it to be a nostalgia bomb.

AncientSwordRage

hmmmm

closer to scooby-do-on-bikes then

BESW

More Encyclopedia Brown, The Mad Scientists' Club, The Great Brain.

Most Scooby plots focus on the thrills and the gang, not the community, because it's a traveling act.

AncientSwordRage

1:25 PM

@BESW I don't recognise any of those

BESW

And yes, I said I don't want it to be a nostalgia bomb but I'm citing inspirations that all peaked in the 70s.

Oh, Henry Reed would be another good source.

Maybe MacDonald Hall if I wanted to go slapstick.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW but those inspirations needn't be 'bombs'

browsing the Encyclopedia Brown books, it sounds like you want to collect a bunch of clues, and then when you've solved for all inconsistencies, you get some kind of step/track advancement to solving

you could split the clues into different categories of say people, places, trivia etc

BESW

Nah. I'm not focusing on a mystery structure. The Mad Scientists made their own problems by coming up with overly ambitious science projects that they'd need to gather materials for, perform, and then do damage control for.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW ok, just read the wiki page on TMS and that would lend to a currency in schemes, that had outcomes to advance the plot?

BESW

Bruno and Boots usually started out doing harmless pranks or dealing with some upset to the equilibrium of their lives, which snowballed out of control until the only way out was through.

AncientSwordRage

1:33 PM

whatever it ends up being, it sounds like something I'd like to play

I know you said that you don't want to play up the mystery structure but thinking about how Schemes could feed into clues, and clues into schemes sounds like a good game loop

even if the clues weren't for big mysteries

like "What is the mayor's shoe size" isn't really a mystery

but might be relevant to see who tampered with a scheme

\oo// @doppelgreener

doppelgreener

o/////////

BESW

Henry Reed always has a very simple, sensible idea about how he's going to spend his summer, and then very simple, reasonable complications keep cropping up until by the end of the season and through no fault of his own he's hit oil in New Jersey or set off a U-Haul full of fireworks on main street or is hosting a circus.

AncientSwordRage

@doppelgreener whatcha doin' with so many arms?

BESW

They're just moving that fast.

doppelgreener

Yes! Zoom

AncientSwordRage

1:38 PM

@BESW sounds like good clean fun

BESW

Hmm. [scribbles notes]

AncientSwordRage

so if the game loop had some sort of pattern like schemes -> complications -> clues (and other branches between them) it might be fun

BESW

I think I'd instead make it about interactions. Each character has roles of instigating and obstructing, providing sets of goals and obstacles to those goals, which combine to make the story.

Like.... hrm.

A common dynamic in a Henry Reed book is that Henry wants to do something, but he's going to miss the opportunity because he's planning and overthinking. So his friend Midge, who doesn't usually make careful long-term plans but is very good at seizing opportunities as they come, runs out ahead of Henry's plan to make the thing happen. But her carelessness causes problems which Henry's caution then has to solve.

AncientSwordRage

thats a good dynamic

BESW

They complement each other and their back-and-forth creates a common kind of chapter structure.

AncientSwordRage

1:49 PM

maybe linking plans and time is a good angle?

BESW

MacDonald Hall has a similar dynamic, but tuned a bit differently: Boots evaluates the situation and identifies a problem but isn't brave enough to do anything about it; Bruno makes overly elaborate schemes to solve the problem but lacks the impulse control to follow the scheme through properly, and he relies too much on Boots having the same audacity that Bruno has.
The half-finished scheme leaves Boots in an even worse situation than before; they fight about whose fault it is, and the fight creates more chaos which changes the situation so they can see an actually achievable solution; ena…

AncientSwordRage

it sounds like they're interacting around schemes/plans still

RevenantBacon

2:26 PM

To whom it may concern: Happy Thanksgiving

3

Please enjoy your turkey responsibly

AncientSwordRage

@BESW How about an impulse score. Roll over to make a plan, and roll under to follow. Maybe even just progress on those rather than just succeed/fail

then maybe something to track when one of your plans is followed/failed by someone else

like if it's followed really well, low animosity score for that track, if it's followed badly high animosity. Then your interactions with others scale based on that animosity

Bardic Wizard

Aww man I missed a discussion on kids books? sad face

I’d totally play a game based around kids in their community though especially since the books in question are really good

AncientSwordRage

2:59 PM

@BardicWizard you can restart the convo

I've never read any of the books @BESW mentioned

Bardic Wizard

@AncientSwordRage I’ve read the encyclopedia brown books, the Henry reed books, and the great brain books

Although if @BESW ‘s goal is “kids in a community”, there’s also the Alvin Fernald books, by Clifford B. Hicks; the babysitters club books, by Ann M. Martin; or the Ruby Lu books (and/or Alvin Ho books) by Lenore Look

I liked those all a lot and all of them have a lot of interaction between the kids and the community— some more than others though, and all in different ways

I read a lot of kids books

AncientSwordRage

3:16 PM

@BardicWizard I went from books aimed at increasing literacy (i.e. really basic) to young adult and I don't think I experienced anything in between

when I was ~10 I was told I had the reading age of a 16 year old, but I don't think I progressed past that

so I feel like I may have missed out

Bardic Wizard

@AncientSwordRage It’s never too late to go back and read this stuff!

As an elementary schooler my school library had fiction books separated by grade level, supposedly equal to reading level, and you could only check out books from (grade level minus 2) to (grade level plus 2). By second grade I was reading above a fifth grade level but they still wouldn’t give me any fiction books at my level so that’s why I started only checking out nonfiction

And going to the public library

I was (still am) a voracious reader and loved (still love) to read anything I can get my hands on so it really bugged me

BESW

@BardicWizard Ooh I haven't actually read any of those.

@BardicWizard Were the Great Brain books weird, or was it just my coming at them from a significantly different cultural context?

Like, Henry Huggins' circumstances were unfamiliar and exotic because he lived in a suburb and took the bus, but all the characters in The Great Brain felt... uncanny, in themselves, not just because of their circumstances.

Bardic Wizard

@BESW probably both; I haven’t read more than the first 3 plus one that was published after the author’s death, but there was a lot of stuff I thought couldn’t have been real

AncientSwordRage

@BardicWizard my books came from home, and were frown on by teachers

Bardic Wizard

@AncientSwordRage same! Our house has bookshelves on pretty much every wall and my parents never restrict me and my siblings from anything bc “we’re not ready”, though they do say “you can’t read this book until you feel ready to deal with these themes“

Not often though

@BESW READ THEM THEYRE REALLY GOOD

BESW

3:30 PM

I'll see if I can find them for cheap!

...I'm almost done with my Murderbot re-read marathon.

AncientSwordRage

@BardicWizard Heh, I was told off for reading Terry Pratchett in year 3 or 4? and was reading R.A Salvador when I started 'high school' (secondary school here)

Bardic Wizard

@BESW I think the Alvin Fernald books are out of print, but the rest of those are recent

@AncientSwordRage I love terry pratchett!

AncientSwordRage

@BardicWizard whenever I try and write something serious I slip into pratchettisms

doppelgreener

@BESW vague thought: an RPG about robbing the British Museum of everything it stole from other countries, then finding a way to completely bombasitically blow it up and/or burn it down at the end, all with significant material support from those other countries.

if there's anything i know about one-shot heists, capers, and adventures in general, they always benefit from a stupendously large explosion at the end

4

Bardic Wizard

3:45 PM

@doppelgreener if you do that I want to hear about what happens that sounds awesome

AncientSwordRage

@doppelgreener "name something that sounds british but isn't" "The contents of the british museum"

doppelgreener

@AncientSwordRage hehehehehehe

AncientSwordRage

4:02 PM

I'm having fun learning about exoplanets for the latest novel-I-Plan-to-write-but-dont-yet-have-a-plan-for

Bardic Wizard

4:29 PM

@BESW other books you might check out: the gooney bird Greene books, the A to Z mysteries, sequel series the calendar mysteries, the melendy quartet, the meg mysteries, the mother daughter book club books, the penderwicks books, the noisy village books, and the mysteries by Peggy parish (the series name eludes me now but it includes The key to the treasure and the secret of hermit Dan among others)

Some of these aren’t the best example of kids in a community, and abt half of them don’t involve mysteries, but these are ones I remember off the top of my head

AncientSwordRage

5:37 PM

it's too quiet

Someone_Evil

*thistle tumbles past frame*

AncientSwordRage

thistle or tumble weed?

Someone_Evil

tumble weeds are also known as "Russian thistle", being native to Siberia (IIRC)

AncientSwordRage

true, but I rarely see them called that

hows tricks?

Someone_Evil

quiet mostly

AncientSwordRage

5:52 PM

hmmmm

too quiet

TheDragonOfFlame

6:30 PM

@BESW I didn’t notice this really.. they where strange because so old and a foreign culture to me, but the characters seemed normal enough

@AncientSwordRage I love terry Pratchett!

Bardic Wizard

@AncientSwordRage not at my house! The parade is going (unfortunately), the siblings are shouting, and the turkey is about an hour away from setting off the smoke alarm

Which means I’m an hour and one minute away from the annual tradition of running outside with my hands over my ears while my mom shouts “it’s not a real fire! And if it was, take your siblings with you!!!”

TheDragonOfFlame

7:01 PM

@BardicWizard fun tradition lol

Bardic Wizard

@TheDragonOfFlame with any luck I’ll eventually grow out of my noise sensitivity

but until then...

(Though it was worse at our old house where the smoke alarm needed a 2 story ladder to disable)

TheDragonOfFlame

7:27 PM

@BardicWizard mood I hate loud noises every time there is a fire drill at school, I’m the guy with his jacket over his head to muffle the noise

Bardic Wizard

7:51 PM

@TheDragonOfFlame I hid under a desk in kindergarten during our first fire drill so I get that

AncientSwordRage

8:29 PM

@TheDragonOfFlame it's a family favourite

I opened up skymap, and it looks like Orion is suplexing the horizon

trogdor

8:53 PM

@BardicWizard I have potentially bad news, I never grew out of noise sensitivity, it doesn't mean no one does but if I use myself as an example it's possible for it to not happen

XD

@BESW I'm about to do that again after finishing the last Rakdura book again XD

SmokeDetector

9:08 PM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer, potentially bad keyword in answer (87): How much does a "Potion of cure light wounds" heal? by Fredrik Palm on rpg.SE (@Rubiksmoose)

TheDragonOfFlame

@BardicWizard im not sure if this is the same with you, but I have "Sensory Processing Disorder" which means i odnt like loud noises or bright lights: there are some advantages though. I can smell bacon cooking from 300 feet

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer, potentially bad keyword in answer, blacklisted user (158): Can a Sorcerer learn "Cure Light Wounds" from a scroll? by Fredrik Palm on rpg.SE (@Rubiksmoose)

trogdor

lol

I don't specifically have sensory processing disorder, I'm autistic and possibly ADHD and at the very least autism generally can have sensitivity to lights and sounds and such and I seem to have gotten some of that

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer, bad keyword with email in answer, email in answer, pattern-matching email in answer, blacklisted user (418): How much should a "button of Cure Light Wounds" cost (should it be available at all?) by Fredrik Palm on rpg.SE (@Rubiksmoose)

kviiri

well it certainly seems we have a hot topic for tonight

trogdor

9:23 PM

lol

Bardic Wizard

10:17 PM

@TheDragonOfFlame I have something similar; I hate loud noises and a handful of other sensations

We don’t know if it’s just my brain being wired wierd in general cause I’ve got either dysgraphia or a processing disorder related to writing alongside other things

So it’s never really been formally diagnosed but my parents think it’s likely sensory processing issues

@trogdor yeah, we don’t know if I’ll grow out of it or if I’m just going to live with it the rest of my life

trogdor

yeah I happened to be diagnosed early with Autism and a little later with ADHD which my parents and I both disputed at the time

I haven't since spoken to my parents about the fact that I accepted the ADHD diagnosis later (as it explains some things and I have since learned it doesn't work the way I assumed it did) and they haven't always been great about not outing me as autistic in public (And I also think I just don't need to start an argument about it)

GcL

@NautArch I already downvote all of the chats.

BESW

10:37 PM

@doppelgreener I love this idea. I've noodled a few times on a "It belongs ~~in a museum~~ with its people!" game but decided that the development of such a game should be led by people from cultures targeted by museum looting, and that's not me.

MikeQ

@BardicWizard Not to overwhelm you with a Flurry of Suggestions, but have you tried carrying around earplugs, fabric gloves, fidget toys, etc? I've found those have helped by making stimuli more tolerable.

Bardic Wizard

10:56 PM

@MikeQ it’s why I always have yarn. I don’t tend to use earplugs cause I can’t stand anything in my ears except my headphones and even those are only when in class; I carry a cats cradle loop at the minimum and usually have way more yarn than that

My middle school homeroom teacher was awesome cause she let me bring yarn to our weekly mentor-group check in despite the usual rule saying not to bring anything

I focus better with yarn

And it helps me calm down my brain

trogdor

11:50 PM

good stuff

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