TRPG General Chat

12:21 AM

PHB+1 is officially being ditched, for anyone who didn't see this news earlier.

3

I've mentioned in the past that I respect the intentions of the rule (making the game more accessible to players who don't want to have to buy every single sourcebook as they come out), but in practice it restricted some really cool, relatively straightforward builds from being used in AL. So I'm glad it's going away.

Mark Wells

1:01 AM

translation: wait, why did we not want you to buy every single sourcebook? of course that's what we want!

(alternate translation: 1-level Hexblade dips are now mandatory for everyone, no excuses)

Adeptus

BESW

3:08 AM

Happy Ayyam-i-Ha!

AncientSwordRage

3:43 AM

@BESW do you have a busy (checks wiki) 4 days ahead?

BESW

Not a lot of festivities planned, because [gestures at world], but I'm gonna be doing a refresher course for facilitating Ruhi groups and I'm excited about that.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW well, that does sound awesome

BESW

Yeah, it's been a long time since I've done Ruhi and I miss it a lot. There's a new edition of the first book out and I've been asked to facilitate some groups studying it.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW sounds great

It had been too long since I went to any Islamic courses even in the before times

I do hope we keep using [gestures at world] and 'before times', even when/if things become easier.

BESW

4:13 AM

Year Zero Mini by 3 Skulls Pub. Like other rules-light games, Year Zero Mini (YZM) is designed to provide a light framework to allow you to quickly jump into your favourite setting. Where other rules-light games might emphasise action or heroics, YZM is a little more down to earth - telling stories of a more gritty and relatable nature..

Kickstarter: Cryptid (Mis)Communication by WhatNames. A role playing game to be played outdoors, at a blurry distorted distance | Zine Quest 2021

Kickstarter: A State of Being: Bonds, Backgrounds, and Rumors. by C. Scott Smallwood. A TTRPG Zine detailing a system-agnostic Worldview, Party Bond, and Concept systems to replace traditional alignment systems.

Update: https://speakthesky.itch.io/trifold-template-pack by Speak the Sky. A pack of trifold pamphlet templates for Affinity Publisher, plus supporting files like fonts!

James Introcaso wrote a twitter thread about freelancer rates in TTRPGs.

Mike Wildspeaker wrote a twitter thread about the impact of visible representation in MtG products on the demographics of his school's Game Club.

Half Page Booklet Guide by Matthew Gravelyn. A booklet about making booklets

@AncientSwordRage I worry that if we apocalyze current events too much, we won't take them as a prompt to make foundational changes in the way the world works.

A. B.

4:45 AM

People are always saying that, but I don't really see what "foundational changes in the way the world works" are relevant, other than not being mean to pangolins.

BESW

I mean. Take your pick, from making access to health care and living wages a genuine priority, to normalizing wearing a mask any time we're feeling a bit ill.

If America were more death-positive our leaders wouldn't be dragging their heels to initiate necessary mass fatality contingencies, but instead we fear the solutions as much as the problems they're intended to solve.

Replacing isolationist and nationalist attitudes with global communication and cooperation would facilitate coordinating in times of crisis so that different parts of the world are supporting each other rather than hording artificially limited resources.

Recognizing that the free market is not designed to prioritize human dignity and wellbeing would be nice.

(Recognizing that those things SHOULD be a priority would be even nicer.)

A. B.

Huh, yes, now you put it that way, this has certainly thrown the employment practices of Amazon et al. into even sharper relief than they were already.

BESW

Eradicating the cult of individualism in favor of taking pride in joining communities of mutual service, maybe.

A. B.

I hadn't thought of the health care issue because at least we haven't had THAT problem. :-(

BESW

I look at people talking about "when we won't have to wear masks again" and I'm sad because masking shouldn't be demonized. In parts of Asia and Southeast Asia where the bird flu and SARS were really bad, a culture of "masks are a sign of care for your community" is a big part of what helped that NOT go global the way C19 is.

A. B.

4:58 AM

Quite enough of a nightmare without that, can hardly imagine what it must be like when you haven't even got guaranteed health care.

To be fair the mask thing has been a huge problem for some of the autistic community.

Though I've seen a few say that at least it gives them a good excuse for not being able to read people's expressions!

BESW

In California government officials are refusing to activate emergency plans for dealing with large numbers of bodies because they say private funeral homes should "step up" and take this as an opportunity to prosper in the free market by meeting the need. Funeral homes aren't designed to do the kind of organization and management needed, that's what mass fatality experts are for.

I'd like to see this fuel a change in our understanding of what governments are for.

We also see a broad lack of critical thinking skills which would help the population understand the data and sort good information from garbage, and even the best-intentioned educational programs which are supposed to be teaching critical thinking tend to be teaching WHAT to think rather than HOW.

A. B.

Again I am not "us", so my experience of how "us" are messing up may be limited. But that sounds like a mess. sighs This is no time for people to stand around waiting for other people to "step up".

Oh, BOY, yes.

BESW

So when I say we need major changes in how the world works, I'm not talking about superficial pandemic-specific behavioural changes, but fundamental shifts in how we think about ourselves and our communities.

It's never been more obvious that isolationism and individualism are not only unethical, they are logistically impossible. That reality ought to prompt major systemic upheaval across the world.

But so long as we speak of current events as a outlier, a deviation from a normal we can return to, instead of seeing it as an inevitable result of that normal to which we should never be content to return...

We can't prevent natural events like new diseases, but we can make a world that mitigates the potential for a natural event to become an unnatural disaster.

(Of course, we CAN also reduce the frequency of new diseases crossing into the human population, by measures like finding alternatives to industrial livestock production.)

A. B.

5:13 AM

Yeah, I was being a little gormless there and not being able to think of anything that had general relevance as well as coronavirus relevance. Some of what you said are less changes in the way the world works than in the way America works, they haven't been as much of an issue here in the UK. But some of them do. And I think some things are only less of an issue, but not entirely not one.

We have a better official "social safety net" than you do, and I think a better unofficial one too - we never had quite as much of a cult of individualism as you did, and speaking from that point of view, I say that's a very good thing - but people still fall through the cracks all the time, and of course more now since so many more people need rescuing.

trogdor

@BESW yeah I hate that some people seem to think masks are a bad thing and no one should wear them,.... very destructive attitude

A. B.

Well, obviously, masks are a bad thing. But you have to balance that against how much of a serious threat disease transmission is at any time.

trogdor

@A.B. I mean I don't particularly like the way a mask feels on my face I'll admit, but I still wear em to reduce the risk of both catching and spreading Covid

BESW

Masks are a tool, they don't have an ethical value attached to them.

trogdor

if we didn't have pandemic on our hands I wouldn't just wear one all the time, but people refusing to wear masks or get vaccinated has prolonged it,....

BESW

5:17 AM

A lot of masks in use may be a sign that a bad thing is happening, but the masks themselves in that case are a sign that the bad thing is being responded to in a good way.

trogdor

yeah

A. B.

How much of a problem has not being able to see anyone's expression actually been in practice, to normal people?

BESW

It's like being upset that a wound is scabbing over. I'd rather not have the wound, but I'm happy my blood is clotting.

trogdor

I find masks uncomfortable personally but I don't count them as a "bad thing"

@A.B. seeing as I don't care to see people's expressions all the time I couldn't tell you :P

A. B.

We seem to be using different definitions of "bad thing" and I don't quite understand what yours is.

You can hardly deny that they're an inconvenience.

trogdor

5:19 AM

well my definition of a "bad thing" is a disease

A. B.

So that makes masks not a nuisance?

BESW

Shoes are inconvenient too.

trogdor

I mean they are but they aren't nearly as much of an inconvenience as catching a highly contagious and at least relatively deadly virus?

my point isn't that everyone should love wearing masks, I certainly don't, I still do it though

BESW

But now I'm accustomed to close-toed shoes and I don't really notice the inconvenience anymore.

A. B.

I ain't denying that they're the lesser of two evils (by far, in current conditions). It just seems weird to me to say that you shouldn't describe them as a problem at all because they're preferable to something else.

trogdor

5:22 AM

masks aren't a problem though

I resent the use of language to describe them as such even

BESW

A lot of us aren't used to masks, and a lot of masks aren't made to be comfortable for long-term wear. The first we get over with time, and the second we get over with better quality masks.

trogdor

they happen to be a particular solution to a problem

I can agree with you if you say that it sucks to have to wear masks, I can't agree with outright saying masks themselves are a problem

A. B.

I'm thinking of some of my autistic friends who I wouldn't like to be forbidden to say that they have a serious problem with masks because masks are a Good Thing and A Solution Not A Problem.

BESW

But like... Troggy and I live in a place that's somewhat near the epicenters of bird flu and SARS. We're totally used to seeing people wear a mask just because they're traveling, or they have a sniffle. It's a normal gesture of caution and respect.

@A.B. Nobody's... saying that...

trogdor

@A.B. I myself am autistic and don't like having something on my face like that, but I still don't see masks as a problem in and of themselves

BESW

5:25 AM

There's a category error here. "Masks are a problem for me" is not the same as "masks are a problem."

A. B.

> I can agree with you if you say that it sucks to have to wear masks, I can't agree with outright saying masks themselves are a problem

Well, I meant exactly the same thing by both, so I don't know what you would take as suitably not meaning the same thing.

Would "nuisance" succeed in not looking to you like meaning whatever you mistook me for meaning by "problem"?

> There's a category error here. "Masks are a problem for me" is not the same as "masks are a problem."

BESW

I can be deathly allergic to bees, but bees are still not "obviously a bad thing."

trogdor

that's fair

BESW

If I were deathly allegic to bees, I'd still be very upset to see people talking about bees as something that they'll be glad to see go away.

trogdor

I just,... the particular word "problem" could imply a lot of things that I don't think you mean when you use it

and I know there are far too many people who still see masks as an actual problem

BESW

5:29 AM

I started this by talking about my worries when I see people demonizing masks as a sign of pandemic rather than recognizing masks as a sign of communal action to mitigate the pandemic.

trogdor

and in an exclusive way that excludes seeing them as in any way useful or helpful or necessary right now

let alone as something that could see normal use if you just happen to be sick and don't want to spread it to other people

BESW

Because that means we'll have the same "I shouldn't have to wear a mask because it's my choice to get sick" nonsense the next time around, and the next time will come faster because people won't think of masks as a preventative tool the next time they think they have a totally normal flu.

A. B.

Well, I can't comprehend what you mean by actual problem other than what I said. It may be that I just have not heard these people and don't know that they're saying something which is different from what I was trying to say.

That's not a bad idea.

BESW

It's already totally normalized in places like Japan and Hong Kong. If you go out in public with a sniffle and no mask people will think you're very rude.

This is the result of a hundred years of cultural normalization after a pandemic was controlled via masking, entrenched by seeing it work again VERY effectively multiple times in the last two decades.

trogdor

@A.B. well at least in the USA there are people who believe masks are just completely bad with no redeeming qualities

A. B.

5:32 AM

sighs That's less a question of subversive attitudes or insufficient Word Police and more a question of people completely failing to get the idea of what masks are for. They've got it backwards.

trogdor

I've even heard a couple stories from people who have visited certain states wearing a mask and no one there was and were all giving them trouble over it

BESW

The reason it didn't work as well for C19 is simply that C19 is infectious prior to being symptomatic.

trogdor

so my problem with using the word problem to describe them is,... you give ammunition to people like that when you do

A. B.

(That was in reply to the remark about '"it's my choice to get sick" nonsense'. Agreed, nonsense. Wrong end of stick entirely.)

trogdor

instead you might describe the discomfort of wearing a mask as a problem

and that right there reframes it in a way that let's it be more about designing masks more to be comfortable to wear

A. B.

5:34 AM

Not sure that's physically possible, but there you are.

trogdor

rather than letting someone run away with what you said as an extra excuse not to ever wear em

I mean I think it is

using different materials would be an extremely good start

A. B.

Is that possible?

trogdor

I like certain cloth masks way better than plastic ones

it definitely is

A. B.

I suppose the lining can be anything you like, at least.

BESW

I've got a quite comfortable mask my mother made. It's two layers of fabric (cotton inside, polyester outside) with a pocket for a coffee filter insert. This layering is the suggested model for masks.

trogdor

5:36 AM

it depends on the material but there are options

we have several pretty good cloth masks over here one of our cousins started making for several branches of the family

they still have a filter in them but the stuff that's touching your face feels much better than plastic

BESW

It's got a single tie going up the cheek of the mask, around the back of my head over my ears, and back down the other cheek of the mask, and I tie the ends together at the back of my neck.

trogdor

I wouldn't even call them super fancy but they do the job and I count them as better than the disposable plastic ones in basically every category

BESW

The top of the mask has a folded-over flap that bends inside toward my face, and I lift the fold up where it goes over my nose; the way the fabric bends to return to the folded-down position on either side of my nose, creating a decent seal across the top of the mask without squashing my nose.

trogdor

XD

A. B.

Nifty
I suppose one like that would have to be made yourself, or at least altered yourself, so the top band would be the right length.

BESW

5:39 AM

The mask is wide enough to go from cheek to cheek near my ears so it's comfortable and flat against the sides of my face, making a good seal on the sides. And it has enough fabric vertically that it goes partway down my neck so I can talk without my chin trying to take the mask off my nose.

Nah, the string is a loose drawstring so I pull it to the right tightness and hold it there with the knot at the back of my neck.

The tie-off design was inspired by this MOCA mask design (click the b+w video at the end of the images)

But we don't have the resources to do custom-fitted nose risers, so the folded-over top was used instead on our model, and the bottom was given a lot more room. It's just a rectangle of two layers of fabric, left open on the bottom to make the pouch for the coffee filter.

The inner layer of cotton absorbs moisture so that my spit doesn't travel outside the mask as much, and the outer layer of polyester repels moisture so that other peoples' spit doesn't get inside the mask as much.

And the coffee filter helps trap anything that's trying to make it between the layers anyway.

I've been doing walking exercises in it and the only discomfort has been when I use a round shoelace for the tie instead of a flat one, because the round lace is a bit rough against the back of my head.

It's also the only mask I've used so far which doesn't feel like it might fly off my nose when I yawn.

A. B.

X-D

They do tend to be very narrow and I have wondered how they can possibly not "ride up".

BESW, you were saying about industrial livestock farming. That's probably true for some diseases too, but I've seen it said that the coronavirus outbreak is more a product of destroying rainforests and other remote habitats, meaning animals fleeing from there end up closer to human settlements than they ever normally would be. Obvious extra argument, if more were needed, for not doing that.

Also for not hunting pangolins, of course.

BESW

Yes, C19 in particular is not the result of industrial livestock farming; it's the result of humans exposing ourselves to new and exciting biomes, and reducing the biodiversity of our own biomes. But any attempt to reduce the frequency of pandemics in the future needs to recognize that industrial farming is creating some of the most effective disease intensification incubators ever known.

See also: Lyme disease is more prevalent in suburbs than in rural areas because suburbs tend to reduce or eradicate all the non-Lyme-carrying animals the ticks also feed on, so the chances of any given tick carrying Lyme disease skyrocket.

A. B.

5:59 AM

That's an interesting one, didn't know that.

BESW

Yeah. Lyme is most often in the mice, and the mice are the ones that stick around closest to humans.

So the ticks near humans have higher concentrations of Lyme disease because we've forced them to have a high diet of mouse.

A. B.

All kinds of strange things happen when you skew an ecosystem. Humanity really needs to get to grips with that and be on the lookout for trouble needing to be dealt with/things we'd be better advised to just not do.

BESW

I don't have global solutions for all these problems--there's NOT any one-size-fits-all solution for any of these, only globally coordinated local solutions--but I feel like we won't enact anything meaningful so long as we keep talking about going "back to normal," because normal is how we got here in the first place.

A. B.

Some things need going back to.
Other things are seriously wrong and this emergency has just demonstrated that.
That's one thing unusual emergencies are good for, I suppose - they test under different conditions than usual what works and what doesn't. Some of the "standard protocols" of many countries have *not* come out of this test as well as others.

What you said earlier about wider education in how to get reliable information - very yes. I go on about that a lot myself.

BESW

6:15 AM

Education is the process that reveals and polishes the gemstones of capacity hidden within each person, but it doesn't work if it's just treating people like empty buckets to pour facts into.

2

A. B.

I remember when I did my degree course there were some lessons in how to judge the reliability of sources of information. I already knew a fair bit about that myself, but it was still informative to see it laid out systematically like that, and of course if you didn't know it before even more so. But this information should not be restricted to science graduates.

BESW

Aye. Last year I got to work with some Ruhi educational materials for junior youth (like 11 to 14 or so) and the math book in particular stood out to me because it presented mathematical concepts as tools for understanding the world and making informed decisions.

A. B.

Well said. You can't expect a school to teach people all the facts they'll need to know all their life long, so they'll need you to teach them how to find out facts for themselves, and assess for themselves which are accurate. (even if that means ending up disagreeing with some of the things they learned in the school!)

BESW

For example, one of the early lessons was about accuracy: that different kinds of information have different kinds of accuracy.

A. B.

Never heard of Ruhi before, just looked it up. Sounds an excellent idea of somebody's.

BESW

6:20 AM

A population count in the millions probably isn't going to be accurate to ones place, or even the hundreds place, so if you see that kind of number with that kind of accuracy you can be pretty sure there's garbage info involved.

A. B.

Oh, three cheers for whoever put that in.

BESW

Whereas a person's body temperature that's accurate to the tens place, should be equally suspect because it's not providing the necessary amount of info.

A. B.

Sig figs et cetera. Of course, you DO sometimes have numbers that are accurate to a lot of sig figs in both directions, but not usually. And often, like with the temperature and the population count, it's fairly obvious how much accuracy you can expect if you think about it. You just need it pointed out to you that it IS wise to think about it.

BESW

The very first lesson in the book has exercises like this:

Hot RPG Questions

7:06 AM

3

Q: If a spell is twinned, does the caster need to provide costly material components for each target?

The Divine Soul Sorcerer can gain access to the revivify spell pretty easily (along with other costly resurrection spells), which has a costly material component that the spell consumes (300 gp worth of diamonds). If after a particularly rough battle, can the Sorcerer use revivify on two separate...

BESW

8:47 AM

Clayton Notestine wrote a twitter thread about why pay-per-word is an outdated model for game designers. Momatoes wrote a twitter thread about why abolishing pay-per-word should be done in tandem with other industry reforms.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW that's a point...

BESW

12:17 PM

"EPIC DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ADVENTURE AT WARWICK CASTLE." Prize drawing from Comic Relief (UK charity org). UK residents only. Embark on an epic two-day Dungeons & Dragons experience at Warwick Castle. Including a brand-new Dungeons & Dragons adventure led by Mark Hulmes plus the opportunity to learn archery, jousting and falconry.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW I'm from the UK :o

BESW

The event will take place when it's safe to do so.

Medix2

1:55 PM

Well, I have an answer drafted at least @ThomasMarkov

I just have to make it feel less... ranty / "You're just wrong"

GcL

But what if you are just wrong?

I have a goto statement for that: "I would be inclined to agree if that statement was correct."

Someone_Evil

@Medix2 Assuming it's the question I think it is, it's now moved at least

Medix2

@Someone_Evil Working on reformatting and title as I type...

Someone_Evil

Does anyone know why Oblivious Sage's comment wasn't copied over?

GcL

I suggest, "Kittens! 10 secrets to their cuteness." That title will get you soooo many clicks.

Someone_Evil

2:02 PM

Ahh

> Comments on the question that link to the homepage of the target site will be deleted. This is to remove redundant comments that tell the author to post on that site.

The Oracle

0

Q: Shouldn't we move past repeating "rules do what they say and nothing more?"

More the start of a conversation than a real question. It's a wall of text, so I thank you in advance if you reach the end. So hear me out: I've lurked on this site for months, learning hidden rules, exploring audacious interpretations and studying new mechanics: the honeymoon is not over yet and...

discussion dnd-5e

KorvinStarmast

@Xirema All I can say is 'disagree with this choice' but they've made a dog's breakfast out of AL anyway.

Medix2

If my answer comes across poorly, feel free to let me know or somehow fix it...

Thomas Markov

@Medix2 If you want an example answer for your second section, here is one of mine where the RAW ruling is lame and I add some DM experience suggestions for ruling differentyly

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