TRPG General Chat - 2021-04-08

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Hot RPG Questions

1:22 AM

2

Q: Does Icewind Dale allow a grapple as an opportunity attack?

There is an event in Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, and official Wizards of the Coast Dungeons & Dragons 5e product, which seems to allow for a grapple attack as an opportunity attack. "A knucklehead trout leaps out of the lake, makes a tail attack against one random character in the boa...

dnd-5e opportunity-attack grapple readied-action rime-of-the-frostmaiden

Hot RPG Questions

2:12 AM

5

Q: How does a regular hobgoblin use a spell scroll?

In the official Wizards of the Coast Dungeons & Dragons 5e product Acquisitions Incorporated, in the adventure section, a hobgoblin carries spell scrolls which it may use in battle. "One of those hobgoblins carries and will use two spell scrolls" This is a regular CR 1/2 hobgoblin with no spell...

dnd-5e magic-items spellcasting

3 hours later…

5:01 AM

I have an interesting question for people here, especially people who read blogs about TTRPGs: what draws you into a blog or gets you to check out someone’s blog? For crafters, it seems to be posting a free pattern and sharing it on ravelry, but there’s no ravelry-equivalent for TTRPGs.

I started reading one specific TTRPG/writing blog because when I was looking for a review about a certain RPG they were the first one with an actual decent one.

(also, I have to sleep now, but wanted to share that)

5:17 AM

@bobble hmm

I’m kind of realizing that maybe I made a mistake starting a blog that basically covers all my interests and hobbies, when I really mostly read craft blogs

I like blogs that give a window into the community by sharing content from a variety of creators, doing interviews, that kind of thing.

@BESW do you have an example?

Or blogs that do a deep expert dive into a narrow topic that interests me, like the blog that describes every season of Doctor Who as an ongoing campaign with rotating GMs (showrunners), players (main characters) and guests (recurring roles).

Unfortunately the best example that comes to mind, shuttered last year because of harassment.

[rummages]

These days those kinds of presences are more likely to be podcasts than written blogs. The era of the blog is long past, and I'd love it to come back.

@BESW agreed

@BESW welp, I’ll never be able to do that. I’m too frivolous. There’s a reason I read a lot of the YH’s stuff

This blog is one I follow because it gives a peek into a slice of TRPG creation that I don't get elsewhere.

This blog is the one that does the Doctor Who thing. It also does a lot of other things, most of which I'm uninterested in but if they were in subjects I wanted to know about it'd be a good window into them.

5:32 AM

Both of those look fascinating! Anything else you’d recommend as an intro to any of the current TTRPG blogscene?

Most of the people I follow, are doing their thing on social media because the algorithms give them more visibility on a shared platform.

@BESW yeah... that’s at best not a great option for me for a few more years

Lemme go rummage through the "plugs" sections of a couple of Discord servers.

Youtube, podcast, youtube, twitch, instagram, facebook...

Oh, here's one. "Half Minotaur Farmer" system-hopping diy rpg enthusiast

Of course, there's James Mendez Hodes.

Hrm, that's another blog that's gone down because of harassment...

That's all I'm picking up right now.

You'll also find blogs like Sly Flourish which post regularly but are mostly "here's a free sample of the thing I want you to buy."

5:51 AM

@BESW well, thanks a lot

6:08 AM

> orcticles

:-)

6:33 AM

@BardicWizard Here's the GURPS forum's list of blogs, if that's of interest to you (some specifically about GURPS, some general). forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=113371

7:13 AM

< screams >

4 hours later…

11:33 AM

@BardicWizard Someone links me an article, endorsing it.

12:04 PM

@Akixkisu One thing you may want to add is a supposition (or maybe I'm interjecting).

In that we're talking more here because meta is feeling toxic (or maybe that's just me projecting.)

@NautArch I don't want to do that.

I'll throw in one more maybe. Waffling three times sounds right.

I thought about it.

@Akixkisu Totally reasonable :)

I upvoted you regardless. I think for myself it's tied to my answer.

@NautArch I agree.

12:06 PM

And I do think Korvin's new-user frustration is also tied to it. New users watching old users argue in comments about what to do is also a bad look.

12:22 PM

I threw a hat in

12:33 PM

@NautArch I talk in here because Meta not set up to support back-and-forth discussion

Well, it doesn't effectively support it

@BaconyRevanant The stack doesn't support back-and-forth discussion :)

Yes, I agree

1:06 PM

This is fairly unfriendly right now. I'm going to remove the last couple of comments.

→ 1 message moved to Trash

→ 1 message moved to Trash

→ 1 message moved to Trash

FYI, this may be a contentious topic and would do better in Dragons.

2:06 PM

I will never not laugh at "NautArch has invited you to join Trash."

2:22 PM

@ThomasMarkov Not to mention joint rash, which is sadly something I've had to cope with since the army days.

is there a way to search for bounties awarded

or do I need to try SEDE

Found what I needed in SEDE.

2:55 PM

@BaconyRevanant Sorry bacon, gotta delete for the language.

→ 1 message moved to Trash

@NautArch Yeah, fair I guess

@BaconyRevanant Sorry :(

hello

hello!

3:31 PM

Hello

Hello there!

has anyone noticed a drop in suggested edits recently :) I got myself spam-banned again so no edits from me for a while

3:59 PM

I haven't, I almost never look at those

@bobble spam banned?

> Special note for anonymous edits
Because a large proportion of anonymous edits are spam or abusive, anonymous edits are heavily rate-limited and there is an extra filter that checks all anonymous edits. If your edit trips the filter, it will be silently disregarded and you will be instantly banned from suggesting edits temporarily. If your edit was not spam or abusive (i.e. a false positive), or if someone else on your network triggered it, you can sign into an existing account and suggest your edit through it. (Note: the "edit history" link on the ban error message will just go to the ho…

good morning everyone

Source

how are we this evening?

4:03 PM

Basically, I tried to edit an HNQ which had a table-as-image and make it a Markdown table, but I added a lot of text and tripped a filter.

@Catofdoom2 it's my morning, I'm doing nicely. Doggo is cuddling on the couch.

@bobble it's morning for me as well but no one said anything when I said morning soooo

@bobble doggos are always nice.

Well, I was typing something else and so couldn't respond immediately

i'm sorry,

You're fine! I know chat can be hard to get into at first

i have D&D in a few hours

4:10 PM

Good luck with that! I think the other half of my group will get a session later today, I will watch them. (We're split up due to timezone difficulties)

thats unfournate

english

*waves as half of abovementioned other half*

hmm, if we count Rusty and Pancake then you're only a fourth

@Catofdoom2 Woohoo! I do as well in about...9 hours.

@bobble I don't think Rusty quite counts but Pancake might

in PSE D&D Chatroom, Apr 1 at 22:56, by Mithical

"Pancake? We're going to follow this bird. It might be able to lead us to your mother. Do not eat the bird."

Should give the feel of the last session. :P

4:23 PM

@Mithical Player: I cook the bird.

in PSE D&D Chatroom, Apr 1 at 21:50, by Mithical

"Rusty! Drop it! You can't just eat random things!"

do any of you play yu-gi-oh?

nay

nope

fair engough

4:30 PM

uh-uh

@Mithical is that a no?

yeah, it's a no

fair

that's everyone?

@Catofdoom2 Not at all, but others may not be active right now.

ok

4:33 PM

You can see the users list on the side (on desktop) or click on the menu (on mobile) to see how many users there are in here right now

so the party is just about to end a combat encounter, should I just make the hour lore after they finish?

What do you mean by "lore"?

Depends what your party wants, I'd think...

i don't think it's very bright to just throw more fighting at them

lore as in story and world buliding

@Catofdoom2 I would play it by ear. But I always do that :)

4:36 PM

maybe start a new combat right at the end but it shouldn't be constant combat

@Catofdoom2 This is a homebrew campaign, right?

yes

but i already have a whole history thought out

You could provide the opportunity for story, but your players might have another idea. In my current campaign, after our first combat our characters went back to the inn and discussed what happened. Not really DM-driven.

^^

Your players may end up driving direction more than you think they will.

ok

so let them do as they want

should a bunch of level 4's be able to kill a griffon or a baby dragon?

4:39 PM

@Catofdoom2 Well, that's not quite what I meant.

@Catofdoom2 Do you use dndbeyond.com?

it doesn't let me pul it up

are you somewhere with a firewall?

or web surfing rules?

@ThomasMarkov Please stop referring to our campaign as that :P

Griffon and Dragon Wyrmlings are CR 2, depending on how many "a bunch" is, a level 4 party could handle one, assuming they can handle flying enemies

But no worries @Catofdoom2, can you access this encounter builder

@Catofdoom2 Wait... you're killing a baby dragon? I just adopted one! ;_;

4:42 PM

@NautArch Ive been rackin my brain all week tryin to figure out how were going to go straight into chasing the dragon after dealing with Xardy.

@Catofdoom2 FYI, the encounter ratings aren't always...perfect.

@NautArch it says the website isn't accessible

@Catofdoom2 The second link, too?

theres only one

i don't see a second link

@Catofdoom2 What do you mean by "hour lore" and "whole history"? As in the history of the creatures they just fought, or do you mean something else?

4:44 PM

3 mins ago, by NautArch

But no worries @Catofdoom2, can you access this encounter builder

I generally try and mix up combat vs roleplay/exploration. I'll have an idea sketched out for how the session may go, will have a few encounters ready that are either location-specific or possibly agnostic so i can use them anywhere, and then I'm prepared to improvise when I have to (which I usually will.)

@MikeQ i mean like the gods and what obelisk is all that stuff

I've had nights where I thought it would go all combat, and it ended up all RP.

it won't let me acess the site

If there's a reason for story narration, @Catofdoom2, then by all means narrate. But don't just talk to the players. Have an NPC encounter where they can learn and ask questions. Maybe tie into someone's background so there's a hook of sorts.

i know

its 10 am right now almost 11 am and D&D at 4 pm sooooo

4:47 PM

I had asked this question, but it may help you when desigining encounters:

73

Q: What is the purpose of easy combat scenarios that don't need resource expenditure?

This is something I've been thinking about as a DM in my encounter design: Why have easy/medium/etc combat encounters that don't really require resources to successfully complete? Given the limited time many of our tables have to actually play, I've never created "easy" combats that don't requir...

dnd-5e gm-techniques combat encounter-design resource-consumption

thank you

@NautArch To get your players to waste resources so they dont have them for the real fight.

@ThomasMarkov How in terms of how you'll get there?

Or where to go? Or why to go?

@ThomasMarkov True, although that particular question is about challenges that don't force the players to spend resources

@NautArch Im assuming we're gonna fight Xardy or die trying, and then we have to go straight into chasing this dragon with no rest.

4:51 PM

@ThomasMarkov Yeah, pretty much.

one sec...

but yeah, that's pretty much it.

IT's going to be tough.

@NautArch ha did you just now accept that answer from two years ago

@ThomasMarkov Yes, yes I did.

It was honestly a tough decision. I really like @KorvinStarmast's answer and Mathieu's.

May bounty those.

5:13 PM

@bobble If you're going to continue making edits, then you should really join RPG.SE

true, true - but that's a big decision for me and I am already over the limit of Decisions my brain can handle at once IRL.

@Catofdoom2 Then probably dont share it here.

ok

@bobble Joining a site you already participate on is a big decision?

sigh I'm not sure I can explain myself well for this, but I started with "only going to participate on Puzzling" then expanded to "only going to participate on Puzzling and anonymously edit as my fancy" then expanded to "only going to participate on Puzzling and Literature and anonymously edit as my fancy" - with my internal rule being "only join a site that I can help with Q&A". So joining here just to edit would break my internal rules which is mildly distressing to me.

5:23 PM

OK, that's reasonable

@Catofdoom2 If you're concerned about a player backstory (and you don't need to elaborate the details here), you may want to pass it by the other players first, to see if they're not opposed to it. For example I disallow certain themes/events in player backstories if I don't want that stuff in my games.

But I would like to point out that there's no requirement that you post or answer questions. I just found out the other day that we have a user who's been active for years and has yet to post a single question or answer.

I was mostly making the recommendation as a means of not getting blocked by automated filters for spam editing

Wouldn't have helped this time, since absolutely no way am I making an account on Medical Science SE

LOL

And the time before that, when I got banned for an edit on Space Exploration SE

5:26 PM

Fair enough

Though I think I've been banned here the most of any one site (3 times)

If you've been keeping track of which edits are getting you banned, I can post a MSE request to adjust the filters.

Hmm, but I don't have access to my edit afterwards.

I could probably dig through my history and get you links to the posts, though

tbh MSE will probably suggest registering.

Since it is the solution-by-design.

Probably, but I have enough experience with MSE that hopefully I can avoid getting too negative a response. :)

5:29 PM

well do think I should shut down a story of [hover for spoilered story]

fun fact, I got banned on Meta SE first of all sites!

11 mins ago, by Thomas Markov

@Catofdoom2 Then probably dont share it here.

@Catofdoom2 ...uh. That'd be something for your party to decide IRL, but might not be the best subject for this chat room (which, like all SE chat rooms, should be largely PG13).

fair engough'

thznk you for the insight

Oof. Personally I advise against using backstories as some sort of trauma contest, if I want the game to be about big fun heroic fantasy. But again, poll your players (not internet strangers) for how they feel about it, especially if you think the backstory details will be mentioned in-game at some point.

2

5:33 PM

ok

Discussing lines and veils with your players can also help establish boundaries.

ok

@bobble For converting the images here to tables: meta.stackexchange.com/a/303779 . I distinctly remember I did so while watching Kinky Boots (the musical) on the TV.

just some comedy for you

@Catofdoom2 FYI, I'm going to delete this line. We try to keep this space clean in terms of language.

→ 1 message moved to Trash

5:41 PM

ok

PSA about chat flags: they go out to moderators around the network, so you're gonna want to have the flag explain itself and the context needed (mods will investigate/get context, but the flag is better when it explains itself)

You're also gonna want to flag the right message, but that's probably obvious

how do i fix it?

Fix what?

i'm sorry

Hi sorry, I'm confused?

5:45 PM

@Someone_Evil Then the tooltip needs to be changed. "Moderator flags are seen only by the site moderators". Surely Im not the first to be confused by that?

Hmm... that is confusing. I suppose its moderators as opposed to any 10ks (= moderator tools privilege) and that all SE mods are site moderators for chat, but that is really confusing

And its not the first time, otherwise I wouldn't have known to bring it up now

18

Q: Make the "flag for moderator" tooltip in chat more accurate

The tooltip that comes up when you mouse-over the flag for moderator option in chat is: Moderator flags are only seen by the site-moderators, and should be used to indicate serious issues with a message, and other administrative issues. When I read this, I interpret "site-moderators" as "th...

feature-request flags chat tooltips flag-dialog

7 years later and no response. RIP

1 hour later…

7:07 PM

hello

\o

o/

\Oo/

\o\ /o/

@NautArch good call

7:10 PM

(@AncientSwordRage pssst Beeblebrox)

Welp, just booked the first vacation we've had since 2019 for late august.

@NautArch woooo where to

still feels weird and not right.

@ThomasMarkov Hawaii!

We discussed where we'd want to go as a family post-lockdown and that was the request, so we're all in.

@NautArch Noice. Which island(s)?

@nitsua60 staying on Maui, but we'll like visit Kauai

have to start planning on activites we'd like to do or see.

7:22 PM

snorkeling! malasadas!

I'm excited to go diving again. I haven't been underwater in years.

I really am NotArch now.

I hear Necker Island is great in August.

@ThomasMarkov I'll give Dick a call and see if he'll let me use it.

@NautArch Youre thinking of the Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands. There's also a Necker Island Hawaii that's a 1 km long bare rock

user image

@ThomasMarkov ah

7:29 PM

@ThomasMarkov That doesn't sound like much of an "island"

Madagascar, on the other hand? Not that's an Island!

Also the elemental plane of Vision

AncientSwordRage

@Mithical Whuuh

Oh right \oo//

@BaconyRevanant No man is an island. I know a man named Madagascar. Therefore Madagascar is not an island. Thank you for attending my TED Talk.

@ThomasMarkov is there free swag

@bobble Always.

7:49 PM

@naut Kawaii is the best island. Well, the best of the three I've visited. Can't speak for Maui.

@Rykara Maui speaks for himself and only says "Youre welcome".

Goram it. Now that's going to be stuck in my head.

I'm confused. Why is that a problem?

@ThomasMarkov "...and thank you!"

It's not. In fact, I frequently sing/say that to my wife. She watched that movie on our flight to Italy a few years back. It was functionally something like 2:00 in the morning mid flight and the entire plane was asleep. When the scene with the giant crab happened, she had to stuff her face into her pillow to not wake up the entire plane she was laughing so hard. She had the headphones on and I couldn't figure out why she was crying. It was probably 4 minutes before she could breathe fully.

8:15 PM

Is there a way to see a views timeline for a question?

What do you mean by that?

I can see that a question has 500 views, but is there a way to see how many views a question got during a certain week or soemthing like that?

NAFAIK

Not on the question itself, no

8:27 PM

@ThomasMarkov I'm surprised that that kind of things isn't included in the site analytics

Theoretically, it shows a timeline of posts, votes, and traffic, but I don't know how detailed it gets

IIRC viewcount history per q isn't stored anywhere

Analytics only cover site views as a whole

10

Q: Statistic for views over time

How can i see a statistics about when the number of views increased over time? I would like to find out if at a certain date there were a significant increase of views to one of my "famous" questions.

support statistics views timeline

13

Q: Is there a possibility of seeing a graph of a question's views over time?

I'm not sure if this is possible architecturally, but when judging whether to set a bounty and how much it should be, it would be nice to see the impact based on our previous questions. If you're not visiting the site throughout the day, there is no way to tell how effective that bounty might be-...

feature-request status-declined questions views data-analysis

2

Q: Graph of the views

I searched the questions on the site, but none came close to what I imagined. I would like to know if it is possible to see a graph of the views that any page over a certain period. For example, how many times has this page been viewed today, showing a graph of the last 24 hours.

discussion statistics

8:48 PM

0

Q: What's wrong with this answer?

Here is a question I asked a couple of months ago — Is "a special melee attack" an actual game term? Most upvoted answers agreed that there was no game term "special melee attack", and this phrase had its natural English meaning, Later on I came across this JC's tweet that says exactly what "spec...

discussion specific-question answers self-answering

2 hours later…

10:28 PM

I've got a lot of friends who are now in Hawaiʻi, but I've never actually spent much time there; mostly layovers and medical trips.

Did you ever get malasadas?

@BESW I went when I was a 10 year old west coaster and again for my buddy's wedding 15 years ago.

(Do I miss malasadas? Yes. Yes I do. They're not the same anywhere else)

@bobble Don't have to go to Hawaiʻi for those, almost every bakery on island makes 'em daily.

sighs in lack of malasadas

10:33 PM

CHamoru style malasadas: recipe, video

11:00 PM

oooh man yes I love those

They're great, though I prefer buñelos aga, myself.

Coyote and Crow: A science fiction and fantasy tabletop RPG set in a near-future where the Americas were never colonized, created by a team of Natives.

2

@doppelgreener I've heard rumblings about poor handling of Indigenous creatives behind the scenes on that, but I don't have any publicly available sources on it.

So I'll just point out that the Native people listed for the project don't have contact info or social media links provided so other people can easily hire or commission them--or ask about their experience on this project. And that their stretch goals didn't include extra payment for artists until they'd gotten nearly five times the goal amount. This isn't proof of anything bad, but it looks sketchy.

11:18 PM

How common is it to not include contact info? (I assume there are some valid reasons to do so e.g. mental health of not getting spammed on social media sites)

Usually some team members will be unlisted to avoid harassment. An entire team going unlisted raises my eyebrows.

For comparison, here’s Wanderhome and Sun’s Ransom.

Mar 3 at 10:33, by BESW

A pattern I'm starting to see: if the pitch for a KS leans on hiring a lot of marginalized creators, but the stretch goals prioritize extra merch for backers over extra pay for creators, dig deeper because that's a warning sign.

I'm specifically suspicious of this campaign because it's so loud about the marginalized identities of its creators. It doesn't list anybody's "how to hire me" info but it DOES list each of their tribe affiliations.

That looks like the project is more interested in its own success than in the success of its creators.

I would be surprised if there wasn't at least one or two people who didn't want thier contact information just floating around. However it's definitely odd that none of them are listed at all

(I also notice that the only editor on the team is non-Native. Editors often have a lot of power over content in this kind of structure, and I would hope that a Native project would have an editor who's intimately familiar with the concerns and priorities of its people. Not saying a non-Native can't have that familiarity, and if that were the only thing about the campaign, and I hadn't heard any rumblings... but it's not and I have.)

At any rate. The creators are doing work-for-hire and the only "creators get more money" goal is achieved, so whether or not a person backs the project now doesn't change the creators' profits.

11:37 PM

Ohio

[wave]

'ello

How goes it

What is "it"? Who knows

male parent gave surprise popcorn to everyone

How does one provide surprise popcorn? Do they set up a hot plate in your room and just leave the pot uncovered when you're asleep?

Lol

11:42 PM

It looks like a cake from the outside, but when you cut into it, it's actually popcorn

oh no not that again

heh. He went around to everyone and gave little bowls of popcorn, taking advantage of the fact we're all glued to computers to avoid anyone noticing him popping it

Nothing like a lovely treat to help bring people back to reality :D

Any toppings?

Furikake

11:47 PM

I really like a drizzle of melted peanut butter, or a sprinkle of garlic salt and curry powder.

I used the one that's just nori and sesame seeds, without little salmon flakes (like our other shaker)

@BESW yummmmm

I don't have a sweet tooth. i think it fell out one Easter when I was a kid. So the savoury tooth is much more prominent now lol

My family used to sneak furikake and arare into movie theatres to mix into popcorn

... when movie theatres being open was a thing that happened

@bobble [old-timey voice] back in my day, you could visit a huge auditorium, filled with people, to watch a movie on a gigantic screen... you would eat popcorn and drink soda, to the point that you'd be fighting the urge to visit the bathroom, just as the movie was getting good.

@Ben as you get older you may find that it takes less soda and popcorn to induce that problem... which detracts from the movie experience considerably. I am down to "no soda and no popcorn" as a result. That saves me money, though, which is a good thing given the insane markup of those snacks.

11:54 PM

@KorvinStarmast I'm starting to reach that point too haha. I just make sure I empty my bladder beforehand

Viditya Violeti asked on twitter for people to "sell me on linear progression."

@Ben always a good plan. Not sure what prices you see at the counter for soda/popcorn, but I stopped buying them a few years back on that basis as well. Wife still wants to get popcorn, though, in most cases. (We haven't been in a while, I think the last one we saw was "The Art of Racing in the Rain" which is a great movie. (Even greater if you have a golden retriever ...))

@KorvinStarmast Yeah very true. I think the only reason I still do is just nostalgia. That and the movie tickets are actually only $10 AUD

There's a local movie theatre that offers free refills of their largest-size popcorn, so we ask for an extra box, dump all the popcorn into the other box on receiving it, and immediately ask for refills. Much cheaper, and it gets us unlimited popcorn :D

@Ben That's nice, I think we pay a bit more if we don't have a coupon or other discount (don't have the conversion number on the tip of my tongue, is it about 1.3 to 1?)

11:58 PM

So it gives me some leeway for buying a box of popcorn, which is about the same price

@bobble Nice!

"yes, we need a refill right now, do you see how our box is empty"

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