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Ben
Ben
00:15
Morning all!
Good tiding and well wishes to all!
@Ben Good morrow to thee
@Powerdork unless....they contain fruit
Ben
Ben
How are the holidays treating you?
@Ben as well as can be expected
you?
Ben
Ben
Not too bad, kids running around stealing softdrink (aka soda) out of the fridge, then having to deal with the subsequent sugar rushes, but it's been relaxing, lots of food, new clothes, great weather.
So certainly not going to complain.
I've also fixed the fence that our new puppy kept escaping through. So I scratch that up as a win for me
@AncientSwordRage I think that'd be even worse on my head.
00:34
@Ben You can keep your well wishes. Truth is in that well, and she's armed and angry.
Ben
Ben
@BESW What about well washes?
Ben
Ben
00:50
I mean, also not great, but can be useful in a pinch
@BESW Better than ill wishes
...I do wish for interlibrary loans.
01:15
Anything non-local involves air mail.
Oh right you’re on an island
We've got a public library with five small branches in different villages, and a university library with more access to scholarly off-island content.
And the public library has a bookmobile, the years that its budget can handle that.
yeah I'm pretty sure that budget gets hacked apart to be put in other places quite regularly
01:32
The public library also technically has online ebook repositories but not the big ones like Overdrive, and I've never found a book I was looking for on them.
@BESW that does put a wrinkle in things
Traveling Librarians could work as a board game, with them dropping tokens at towns for what books got dropped off or picked up
Then each town could grow its demand for different subjects or switch depending on a deck of cards
Of course you wouldn't just drop off book subjects but you could get non-book subjects shared like family recipes and culture type stuff.
Probably not what @BESW had in mind but it's a pleasant idea to me
I've considered that a few times.
I think the main problem I'd have is that a board game would be likely to gamify the community element too much.
(I mean, aside from the fact that I'm even less qualified to make a board game.)
01:54
I feel like I would at least be good at playtesting board games XD
that could just be that I really like them and would love to assume I would be good at that though XD
@BESW that's a risk
@trogdor you need to be critical as well unfortunately
oh no I can definitely be critical
XD
that probably isn't a concern
I should finish making my Eevee evolution card game
The risk with that is that it's obviously copywritten
Ben
Ben
How goes everyone's side projects?
Mine has taken a hiatus. I've got my officew setup, I just haven't used it
Sloooooooow
Ben
Ben
02:04
Lol
Or stalled
@Ben great! (Then again I spend winter break 50-80% working on my own projects and most of my projects are side projects except for school and my regular rpg stuff) I’ve picked up at least the basics of tatting in the last few days and I tested out my drop spindle even if I’m still having tons of trouble with concepts like “drafting evenly”, “spinning in a consistent direction”, and “plying”
Ben
Ben
@BardicWizard well you certainly know what you're talking about, even if I don't haha! Gald it's enjoyable at the least!
@Ben stalled here, need to get back to one of mine but it's one of those that's cause for much trepidation (trying to get the oscillator in a CD4060 to run using a 32.768kHz watch crystal -- can't do it on a solderless breadboard because parasitic capacitances there are far too high, so I need to solder it up on perfboard)
Ben
Ben
@Shalvenay Yeesh... that does sound tricky
@AncientSwordRage What are you currently [not] working on? (Aside from your Eeveelution game lol)
02:12
@BardicWizard fascinating :)
@BardicWizard that actually has me wondering just how much differs between what you use to spin fibers into thread and what you'd use to spin individual strands into a stranded wire or wire rope
@Ben how long do you have?
Mostly unstarted: 2 books, a Roleplaying Game, at least 2 computer programs, one board game
Mostly underway: 0 books, a card game, 1 computer program
02:37
@Ben the thing that’s getting put aside is my break homework, namely a SPICE chart and a PERMS chart for history and the math problems for the next 2 chapters of the math book...
Meh I’ve got another week to do it in
@Shalvenay that’d be cool to research but off the top of my head I don’t know
Tatting looks complicated
02:52
@AncientSwordRage it isn’t really, not once you look at it a little; needle tatting has been the one craft I have never been able to get working for the last year and a bit, but shuttle tatting is much easier for me and I’d like to think I’m getting good at it even though I’ve only done like 10 hours in the last day and a half on it
Maybe it’s just me though: one of the tutorials I read on it said shuttle tatting is easier to start for people who can do cats cradle for hours and/or already know a few fibercrafts
@BardicWizard I will literally have to take your word for it
10hrs in the last 36hrs is approaching 33%, which is significant!
@AncientSwordRage it’s probably been closer to “in the last 2 days” cause I started sometime yesterday morning and it’s now early evening today
It’s significant but it’s also in 5 minute chunks between things rather than in any long time span
@BardicWizard that's a great way to do it though if you can
My normal pattern of activity for learning a new fibercraft is to spend 2-3 days just doing the basics as much as possible and then once I have those down then I pick up advanced techniques when I need to for a pattern
I’ve been crocheting for more than 5 years (which is over a quarter and probably over a third of my life at this point) and I still mostly pick stuff up as I go, even though I’d call myself an advanced crocheter
And I didn’t learn how to hold the yarn for knitting until last year
So my ~10 hours of tatting practice is mostly making rings and chains and simple patterns using rings
03:24
@BardicWizard that sounds like a useful way of learning skills
My technique is to get fixated on an advanced final project, then work backwards learning whatever skills I need on the way.
It doesn't always work
@AncientSwordRage I did that twice, once that worked and once that didn’t... well it was either beadweaving or needle lace the time it worked, and I think it was actually needle tatting the time it failed
When it works it’s a great feeling of accomplishment but when it fails it turns into an embarrassing mess
03:43
Yeah, that happened with my not-Christmas card animation.
I had a ridiculously ambitious vision for the project and wound up scaling it down significantly. I'd be very happy with the result if it was what I'd originally aimed for.
(Did I share it here yet? I can't remember.)
03:59
5
Q: How do I rule on spells without casters and their interaction with things like Counterspell?

KirtThe players in my Curse of Strahd game have reached the Amber Temple. While there, they recently breached a certain door, for which the module indicates One of the PC's is a wizard, and he had a counterspell prepared and a slot available. Initially I thought he might be able to counter this ef...

 
1 hour later…
05:15
2
Q: Can Word of Recall teleport through planes of existence?

MarkWord of Recall is a 6th level Cleric spell that states You (...) teleport to a previously designated sanctuary. It defines this sanctuary as (...) a location, such as a temple, dedicated to or strongly linked to your deity. The text of the spell says nothing about interplanar travel, however ...

 
1 hour later…
user15026
06:29
@BESW I don't think you shared the finished version.
Oh, I'll do that over in NAB then.
user15026
@BardicWizard this reminds me I need to learn how to do more than just double crochet things like scarves and blankets. Like I have a pattern for crochet fish, but I have no idea what it wants.
06:56
@Ash what’s the pattern? I might be able to simplify it (in the morning; it’s past my bedtime again) and make it easier to understand what you need to do if you want; crochet is the craft I most enjoy overall and I’m good at it
And at helping others with it, at least according to the friends that ask me for help with crochet
07:47
3
Q: Can archers bypass partial cover by arcing their shot?

AndrendireThere are two basic ways an archer fires at a target. In close quarters engagements, archers (and anyone using a projectile weapon) would likely use "direct fire", ie. fire at an angle nearly parallel to the ground. At longer distances and especially when targets are hiding behind terrain and wal...

 
3 hours later…
10:20
2
Q: Can "Shield of Faith" counter invisibility?

andrewtinkaThe wording of Shield of Faith suggests that it can be used to reveal a known but invisible enemy: A shimmering field appears and surrounds a creature of your choice within range (60 feet), granting it a +2 bonus to AC for the duration. Unlike many spells, there's no requirement for the caster ...

11:03
Hello guys Im confused about AC stat - is it better to have lower AC (going in the minus ig.-14AC) or better to have higher AC (+21AC) , I read somewhere that your AC is 10base -DEX -Armour modifiers, but in other sources that you just add those up ? how do you calculate hit/miss then? sry just trying to understand
@SanchezPanza Which edition?
oh do they differ? ok going to research that
@SanchezPanza If you're playing the game that calls itself Dungeons & Dragons, and it has a red "&" symbol that looks like a dragon, the one that's newest; you want a high AC. Your armour type, in the Equipment chapter, will tell you what your AC while wearing the armour is, but if you're wearing simple clothing, your AC is 10 + Dex.
(I may be super wrong. The equipment chapter of your Player's Handbook should tell you everything, regardless of the edition it's from.)
11:20
@SanchezPanza 1st and 2nd edition AD&D have a system where lower AC is better (essentially your AC is applied as a modifier to the enemy's attack roll, so you want it as low as possible), but from 3rd edition onwards, it switched to a system where your AC is a target number the enemy has to reach to hit you, so you want it high instead.
If you're new to D&D you're most likely meant to be looking at 5th edition; for that, the freely available basic rules explain armour class and resolving attacks.
11:58
> Quiptastic. When I invoke an aspect for effect, I do not have to spend a fate point if I make a quip or one-liner that the table agrees is appropriate to the occasion.
@BESW Spider-Man abuses this ...
@RevenantBacon for a rogue it would be tempting
@besw Did you see my previous comments about the similarities I saw between primeval and sliders?
I saw that you mentioned Sliders, but I didn't see any further comments on it?
I'm not too familiar with Sliders.
> Unappreciative audience. Once per scene when I take out an opponent, I get a fate point if I deliver an (in)appropriately callous one-liner about their downfall.
12:27
@BESW someone is developing portal technology, and get given the final piece of the puzzle by an alternative version of them from another alternative reality. You can return to your home dimension but only if you wait for the countdown to finish on the portal gun, and inciting incident is that the protagonists jump dimensions early in the first episode, so can't return home
12:39
Ah, interesting.
A big part of the "leveling up" of Primeval characters is learning more about how the portals operate and how to interact with them. Knowing when they go before you jump in or how long they'll stay open, being able to move their location or lock them so nothing can go through, that sort of thing. The series' grail is being able to open a portal on command.
The big plot-mover of the spinoff series is simply a fight over the tech to find a portal as soon as it opens.
@BESW Sliders is far more formulaic, time hits 0, open a portal, explore new alternate reality. I don't remember there being a level up moment at any point
@BESW interesting new angle
I went to look up more details and saw this on my Google news feed
> Novels are terrible and you’ll never convince me otherwise
> We don’t need fiction – the real world is strange enough. Plus, fancy writing is incomprehensible, argues Ben Butler. Lucy Clark tries to prove him wrong
...
12:54
13:06
@BESW it was from the guardian, which I hold in higher esteem than some papers (which is not difficult) but they also have some garbage pieces...
@AncientSwordRage Somewhat facetiously: 'What if we take planets of the hats, and leave just the hats?!' . . . but it actually turned out to be a fun ride.
 
1 hour later…
14:12
@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica just the same world with new hats
14:35
4
Q: What is the point of this line in the Hide of the Feral Guardian?

PseudoDruidThe Hide of the Feral Guardian, a legendary item from the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, includes the following ability. When you cast the polymorph spell using this armor, you can transform into a cave bear (use the polar bear statistics). Why does it do this, and not just turn the user into ...

15:20
Good morning!
Good morning! o/
Or afternoon from london!
@doppelgreener oh right time zones are a thing
regrettably
I’m nonfunctional so far this morning, how’s everyone else?
15:41
@BardicWizard functional!
Very functional, unfortunately. Back to work as usual
@AncientSwordRage that’s good for you then! I have only managed to drag myself out of bed and to hit the switch on the electric kettle as of now
@BardicWizard that's how I was this morning, I have several hours on you
@RevenantBacon :-(
@AncientSwordRage it appears things must have improved for you in terms of functionality so I have hope that I can manage to do more than access caffeine today
@BardicWizard cafffiene helps with that
16:14
So I usually try not to get preachy about health stuff, but I have to ask. Just how dependent are you guys on caffeine?
16:26
Just how dependent are you on air and water?
2
@RevenantBacon I usually need a cup of caffeinated tea in the morning to be able to function once every couple of days, although some weeks I need it more often and I’ve gone a couple weeks without it before. Lately it’s been needed more often (on the scale of at least every day) cause I’m on winter break and am still catching up on a semester of missed sleep so to get me up before 8 am requires caffeine
I know a couple kids running on 2-3 cups of coffee a day though
17:01
But why would you want to be up before 8?
@BardicWizard Also: BIG OOF
@RevenantBacon Dost thou even hoist, sir?
17:19
@RevenantBacon lets see... I go running in the morning, my parents want me to do something before noon, and/or I have a seven year old sibling
All of the above are recently used reasons
17:40
@RevenantBacon probably not as reliant as I think I am?
18:02
@AncientSwordRage Definitely not as reliant as you present yourself at least.
user15026
@BardicWizard I will look for the link again and let you know! I appreciate it. I know part of it is my fine motor skills are horrible and I can't make my hands do the right things
19:53
@RevenantBacon I do have days where I wonder why I don't feel quite right and it's because I'm undercaffienated
@AncientSwordRage this is me today.
Coffee helps my ADHD
Caffeine helps me commit to waking up on time. My alarm goes off, I chug 150mg of caffeine, and then I can't not get up.
@ThomasMarkov that's good
Its a good routine by the sounds of it
@Ash hands are fiddley things, and they don’t always do what you want them to
Nobody I know, not even myself, managed to crochet fancy things without a lot of practice and the occasional hand pain
20:10
@BardicWizard Many a model I have had to repaint from my hands not directing the brush quite where I want them to.
20:45
@MarkWells that was a quick delete
20:59
@ThomasMarkov Rethinking whether I want to answer this at all.
21:42
@RevenantBacon That’s never fun. One of my first experiments with working into a chain instead of around one in crochet ended with every single stitch in the wrong place and I had to frog more than two rows to get it back to a manageable place
@AncientSwordRage this is truth.
2
Q: Is this house-rule for initiative game-breaking?

EddymageThe rules for initiative in PHB read (emphasis mine): Initiative determines the order of turns during combat. When combat starts, every participant makes a Dexterity check to determine their place in the initiative order. The DM makes one roll for an entire group of identical creatures, so each ...

4
Q: Would I risk balance issues by giving my low-level party reduced-bonus Oil of Sharpness or even the full-bonus one?

AnagkaiI am currently preparing an adventure in a wizard's mansion and need to fill the building with interesting content. Having a laboratory where the party can take some stuff seems like a good idea. Oil of Sharpness looks interesting as stuff to take but is a very rare item. The general assumption s...

 
2 hours later…
23:28
3
Q: Is there a monster that has resistance to magical attacks on top of immunity against nonmagical attacks?

SoulstreakI was wondering if there is an official monster in 5th edition that has resistance against any combination of bludgeoning, piercing or slashing damage and an immunity against any combination of bludgeoning, piercing or slashing damage dealt with non-magical weapons on top of that. While I was loo...


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