TRPG General Chat

NautArch

01:07

→ 2 messages moved to Here There Be Dragons

linksassin

→ 6 messages moved to Here There Be Dragons

bobble

01:20

Known bug? It shows as duplicate in the mobile site view on the outside, and closed on the inside

Someone_Evil

Dupes autoredirects if you're not logged in

You'll not that the title q and score is different

bobble

Ah

Sorry

Someone_Evil

No worries. It's sure confused me a couple of times :)

A. B.

01:49

hello

Hot RPG Questions

02:48

4

Q: Does darkvision granted by a magic item affect what a caster can see in a dark location using the Clairvoyance spell?

The description of clairvoyance states: When you cast the spell, you choose seeing or hearing. You can use the chosen sense through the sensor as if you were in its space. The wording "as if you were in its space" arguably leaves room for ambiguity. If a creature with innate darkvision -- e.g.,...

nitsua60

03:05

@Shalvenay I see elsewhere you're pondering a lot? Sounds fun and exciting!

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 yeah, all still very preliminary stuff

nitsua60

Cool, cool.

Glazius

03:44

Oh hey, question. If you have a gold tag badge, can you remove duplicate closures, or only close things as duplicates?

Ah, yes to both, there we are: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/dupehammer

BESW

04:27

Class Modifier Module for 5th Edition by GabeJamesGames. A narrative-driven, character creation tool for modifiers by class rather than race.

"Take revenge on an evil celestial body in 'hyper-TTRPG' Ten Million HP Planet" article by Chase Carter on Dicebreaker about TEN MILLION HP PLANET by Sandy Pug Games.

A. B.

04:48

Grrr.

bobble

.rrrG ?

A. B.

G

r

Curse you, apparent rule against posting the same thing twice in a row. :-)

BESW

here, have an
r
r
.

A. B.

:-D

BESW

Sometimes I forget just how aggressively our brains hard-code music to both emotional and physical states, but the last few days have been a strong reminder.

TRPGly, this is why I don't use video game or movie music for atmosphere in my campaigns unless I'm very confident none of my friends are familiar with the original media.

A. B.

04:56

Hmm?

BESW

If somebody were to run a campaign set in late 19th century Russia and they played "Korobeiniki" in the background to set the mood for the group... it would not have the desired effect on many players.

A. B.

Ha, yes.

Although that's kind of the opposite of the "original media".

That one only works if your players are familiar with it from the original origin but not from the Tetris version!

BESW

Right, but the principle applies. The soundtrack from Alien or the music from Myst are awesome and atmospheric works that would be really good to use... if your players have never seen Alien or played Myst.

I've seen people use Zelda music at their tables and it worked for me because I've never played any of the games, but everyone else at the table... very distracting.

linksassin

@BESW I avoid using Skyrim soundtracks for this exact reason. One of my players is very familiar with it and every time I did he was like "Wait, is this from Skyrim?" completely breaking the mood at the table.

A. B.

Daft, what you said to start with does make sense, it's just that my brain somehow skipped the bit about "video game or movie music".

BESW

05:04

I like to use the soundtrack from Tomb of the Cybermen for horror sessions. Unless you're a pretty devoted Doctor Who fan you've probably never encountered it.

A. B.

Yes, it's tempting because it's bound to be good for the purpose because it was specifically made to accompany games!

But if people keep recognising it I can see how that might disrupt things a bit!

Ben

@linksassin Had a game of All Flesh Must Be Eaten (Zombie survival rpg) that was a modern day Diablo. I was the only one that picked up on it, from the story, the structure, etc, until I heard the Tristram theme.

A. B.

Oh, that's a good idea.

BESW

Ditto film tracks; The Batman vs Dracula has some excellent tracks for gothic horror, but they keep dropping The Batman's theme in.

A. B.

(The "Tomb of the Cybermen" theme, I mean.)

Ben

05:06

At that point I knew exactly how we were supposed to be playing, so I was just kinda back seat DMing, egging the other players into doing particular things, like "Wedging this escape door open, so it's like a shortcut back to town"

linksassin

It is why I curate all my own playlists for background music. It's so tempting to use freely available ones but I often find they either have songs that are too recognisable or have harsh/sudden sounds that are distracting.

BESW

There are some tracks that I don't really mind if people recognize. Cradle of Filth's album "Bitter Suites to Succubi" isn't exactly obscure but nobody's gonna start humming along to it accidentally and the kinds of scenes I'd use it in, are the kinds of scenes where recognizing it isn't going to be distracting anyway.

MikeQ

I don't mind if the players recognize soundtracks, but I do agree that it's useful to avoid mood-setting music if familiarity with the source material is the only connection to the intended ambiance

BESW

@MikeQ A more common issue I have, is that recognizing it creates unintended moods. Like a Myst soundtrack will absolutely change the brain patterns in the player who recognizes it, and unless I want them to start looking for secret doors and taking notes about the birdcalls...

Myst 3: Exile Soundtrack - 12 Theme From Edanna

►

A. B.

Unrelated Vampire: the Masquerade terminology grumble of the day: "Anarch", but "Autarkis". Why? Pull yourselves together.

@BESW Rather like what Ben said about the game being easier because the music tipped him off that it was based on Diablo - except the other way round, yours isn't based on Myst but they'll think it is.

BESW

05:23

Yeah.

Now, if I was running UnWritten, Myst music all the way. obviously.

Unwritten: Adventures in the Ages of MYST and Beyond by InkWorks. The officially licensed Myst TRPG, using a modified Fate Core engine.

Feeds

BESW has made a change to the feeds posted into this room

BESW has stopped a feed from being posted into this room

trogdor

05:50

@BESW also If I've heard it before I am not only likely to recognize it but also to comment on it XD

BESW

Yes. This is true.

Though you're definitely not the only one in the group who's been likely to comment.

trogdor

That's fair

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

08:13

@A.B. Is this about the words flexed differently?

Because if yes, then, well, terminologies often have inconsistent handling and etymologies. Like lumping together a greek and a latin morpheme into a single word. Two different words being handled inconsistently is nothing unusual.

A. B.

Is true. But VtM doesn't even try - all of it's like that!

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@A.B. Very few people try even outside VtM.

A. B.

Yes, "Anarch" is one faction, "Autarkis" is another - not "Autarch", even though it's the exact same construction, because that would have made too much sense.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@A.B. Same happens with real-world factions. For example, consider Argentina vs. UK. Why is it that one doesn't get its name translated/adapted when speaking more distant languages, and the other does? Inconsistency.

A. B.

That's a good point.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

08:27

(For example, in East Slavics, Argentina stays Argentina, but UK becomes [confusingly] Velikobritaniya.)

A. B.

Although you can't say that "Autarkis" is their own name, in this case, because there is no them, I was being vague, "Autarkis" is just a fancy term for an independent vampire with no affiliation.

Velikobritaniya, I like.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@A.B. What, no objections to having non-GB bits 'cut off' by the translation?

A. B.

Oh, that's true. I always forget the difference between the various variations. Yes, "Britain" doesn't include Ireland, does it? You sure "Velikobritaniya" means "UK" and not "Great Britain"?

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

Великобритания

Великобрита́ния (русское название происходит от англ. Great Britain [ˌɡreɪt ˈbrɪtn]), или Соединённое Короле́вство (United Kingdom [jʊnaɪtɪd kɪŋdəm], сокращённо: UK), полная официальная форма — Соединённое Короле́вство Великобрита́нии и Се́верной Ирла́ндии (англ. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), — островное государство на северо-западе от континентальной Европы. Единое Королевство Великобритания образовалось в 1707 году вследствие политического объединения королевств Шотландии и Англии; но ещё ранее, в 1603 году, король Шотландии Яков VI унаследовал престолы Англии...

(Just one example. Others are similar.)

Basically if you go east, the distinction isn't handled properly.

I.e. the proper name/distinction is technically acknowledged, but not used that often.

A. B.

Looks to me as if the Russian Wikipedia article just doesn't know the difference between the two at all. It's putting each one next to the correct translation all right, "Velikobritaniya" is translated as "Great Britain", not "United Kingdom", but it's talking as if they all mean the same thing.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

08:36

But my point is that terminologies are usually messes.

A. B.

Yep. :-)

VtM has nearly all of it in a mess, though. I think that it's putting "sounding dramatic" above having any internal logic, which is true of the rest of it, too, in my opinion! Which I think is not really an improvement in the end, because then all the dramatic-sounding things contradict each other and it fails to be dramatic because you don't know what's true and it's completely arbitrary what is true this time.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@A.B. Well, you might be not the target audience. Because the whole WW brand achieved what it did by being dramatic and tropey and putting style over substance.

A. B.

:-D

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

My words probably read as criticism, because I also am not entirely the target audience. But they're not really.

A. B.

From my point of view, it's hard to be dramatic when everything is so contradictory that you don't know whether a character is facing a terrible choice or not, because you don't know what the result of that is supposed to be!

Yes, some people evidently do make it work very well.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

08:46

@A.B. Well, your character probably shouldn't know for sure either. That's part of the conspirational paranoia of the setting.

A. B.

That's a good point. It's more when two logically incompatible things are both well known to be true.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@A.B. That's probably also part of the Neonate Experience Simulator.

A. B.

In other words, "the rulebook is lying"? That's a neat idea. Depends whether your GM is thinking that way, though, I suppose.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@A.B. Well, not to the degree of Paranoia XP.

The rules are mostly right. The lore is contradictory.

A. B.

I haven't read Paranoia, but I've heard it mentioned :-D

A. B.

09:02

A lot of VtM does hang together even in a logical way, to be fair. The place I've mainly noticed it unravelling is how the vampires actually work, in terms of what things they can do/survive. Which, unfortunately, is kind of important to the point. I suppose to make it work you and the GM both need to be ready to just say what something complicated comes up "right, we're not going to look through the book for

every mention of something related to this and add them all together, we're just going to say it's this way".

BESW

I'm looking forward to seeing how Sun's Ransom handles that element of the setting.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@A.B. I'm not sure I understand what you're referring to in terms of survival/doing.

A. B.

Nice.

AncientSwordRage

09:24

@A.B. Looking on the Wiki: Anarch choose to be separate from the Camarilla and Sabbat, to the extent that Anarch cities exist. They're not a sect per se, but if it quacks like a duck. Autarkis are more like social pariahs, deliberately excluded. They're in no way organised. Caitiffs are either rejected by their sire (but could still join a clan {with difficulty} ) or literally don't have a clan, that is no strengths or weaknesses from their blood

BESW

I have no problem with inconsistency in worldbuilding; I'd instead have a problem with disparate and opposing factions agreeing on a coherent naming system.

AncientSwordRage

@A.B. Vampire, and to a similar/lesser extent mage, seems the most burdened by the weight of tradition. A major overarching theme I saw when I last played is the new vs old dynamic, both conceptually and personally

@BESW yeah that can be a bit of fridge logic

BESW

Nobody complains that Protestants should call themselves Anti-Catholics.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@A.B. There's an extensive, mostly comprehensive but not neatly ordered listing of unusual abilities and weaknesses Kindred posses.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW [beat] .... sure, no one I know of

trogdor

09:29

@BESW well now I do :P

BESW

The opposite of a gnostic is not an agnostic.

AncientSwordRage

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica this is part of why I love the Ordo Dracul

it makes perfect sense to me that some vampires would want to understand and counteract some of their weaknesses

kviiri

One fantasy worldbuilding project I've been playing with for about a year has a prominent ideological faction named after a leader who never followed this ideology himself, but happened to die before it became particularly clear

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@AncientSwordRage This is a VtR thing, right? Which . . . have ways to remove weaknesses and/or add powers?

AncientSwordRage

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica yes

I prefer VTR over VTM the way I prefer Windows 10 over Windows 98

I have fond memories of Windows 98, but I'd never want to go back to it

even if they did a "Windows 98 25th anniversary edition" :D

kviiri

09:33

Said leader is widely regarded as "the lesser evil" in a stratified and oppressive diarchy, and faced with the risk of losing his position he rallies up supporters from the oppressed classes by vague promises of reforms that he himself would limit to the bare minimum. He loses the conflict before having a chance to disappoint anyone, hence future reformist movements carry his name unknowing their namesake was just a cold strategist making a move.

AncientSwordRage

@kviiri too close to real life for me :|

kviiri

@BESW For that matter, the Orthodox church considers itself catholic and the Catholic church considers itself orthodox.

AncientSwordRage

@kviiri The pope is not the Pope

BESW

@kviiri And around here, at least, "Christian" often colloquially means "any denomination other than Catholicism, sometimes including explicitly non-Christian faiths."

"We're all Christian here," says the speaker at an interfaith event with Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and Baha'is, and she genuinely means "we're all people of faith."

Words are complicated, identity words even more so, and any worldbuilding where group labels are neat and tidy and all fit the same pattern, isn't trying to depict a realistic world.

AncientSwordRage

09:50

@BESW that's fascinating

like calling a plaster a Band-Aid (tm)

@BESW I had a peek, and I wasn't super stoked for it. I'm guessing it's because it's just not for me, because it looks very very well written and produced

BESW

@AncientSwordRage It's what comes of a place that's surrounded by diverse faiths, but is itself forcibly immersed in a foreign culture obsessed with the tiniest differences in Christian sects while treating all other faiths as distant and ignorable.

You wind up with a rather unique vocabulary to describe your situation.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW I should really really read A Memory Called Empire

BESW

Hahahah I can't imagine how this conversation might have reminded you of that.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW I may borrow that concept for a novel I'll probably never get round to writing

... I'm experiencing sarchasm I think?

BESW

Just a little. [grin]

AncientSwordRage

09:55

ok, phew

BESW

@AncientSwordRage I also recently witnessed a conversation about atheism/agnosticism/etc which reminded me how much of the world's relationship with faith/god/the supernatural is completely outside the Western models of talking about belief/disbelief/ignorance.

For many people the idea of "do you believe in the divine" would be very much akin to asking "do you believe in your grandmother."

AncientSwordRage

while googling the title of the book I came across "Memories of Empire by Django Wexler " and while I've not read that book, the web fiction that author wrote for MTG was seriously good

BESW

Hrm. The name's familiar but I haven't read anything by him and no particular information is percolating up out of my brain.

AncientSwordRage

He managed to make two dragons fighting mid-air seem realistic and the characters of the dragon's distinct

whilst still obviously draconic

@BESW hmmm, good points

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

> was applied

What does it mean 'was'? Pope is a common but very very informal way to refer to priests in the east to this day. It's used both in literary texts and in everyday speech, it's just avoided by superstitious people when actually addressing one.

AncientSwordRage

10:06

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica so the point I was getting at was one I initially saw on QI, so how accurate it is I'm not sure

but the gist, was that the head of the catholic church is called the pope, but thats not the official title

whereas the head of... another branch of Christianity (possibly Eastern Orthodox?), their head of church is officially the pope

BESW

(A pet peeve of mine is writers like Pullman who think the narrow concept of God they're familiar with, is the entire concept of divinity, and attempt to discredit all faith by attacking the one tiny corner of faith they've taken issue with.)

AncientSwordRage

@BESW I hate this! More than just a peeve of mine

12

Q: Does Islam as we know it exist in Supernatural?

Supernatural holds by a Judeo-Christian view of the world. Whilst the Quran (also spelt Koran) has been mentioned, it's almost implicit from the shows events that its account of events are not 'true', or at least accurate. Is there anything in Supernatural that refers to Islam further, whether i...

supernatural

I'm sure there's plenty of better examples of more marginalised faiths

BESW

It's a subset of an even more common issue I've talked about here before, when authors create worlds where the truth about the supernatural is both obviously inspired by very localized cultural concepts AND supposed to be universally true and all other cultures are misunderstandings of the same thing (cf the Fairy Courts in Dresden Files).

AncientSwordRage

it's absolutely why I love Arthur C. Clarkes short story about the stars going out

BESW

@AncientSwordRage Thank you for specifying the short story, because the Nightfall novelization was atrocious.

AncientSwordRage

10:12

@BESW I was actually looking for this sort of thing on TV Tropes, and I came up short

@BESW I've not heard of it

sounds like that's a good thing

BESW

Wait, no, I'm thinking of the Asimov short story/novel about the stars going out. Maybe I haven't read the Clarke short story.

AncientSwordRage

The Nine Billion Names of God

"The Nine Billion Names of God" is a 1953 science fiction short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. The story was among the stories selected in 1970 by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the best science fiction short stories published before the creation of the Nebula Awards. It was reprinted in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964. == Plot summary == In a Tibetan lamasery, the monks seek to list all of the names of God. They believe the Universe was created for this purpose, and that once this naming is completed, God will bring the Universe to an end....

BESW

Asimov wrote a short story about an alien race on a planet with so many suns that the stars are only visible once every two thousand years, and all civilization collapses into chaos every time it happens. As a short story it was an entertaining thought experiment. Then he made it a novel and in the ouvre of a man famous for tedious, self-congratulatory exercises in pointless padding, it stands out as particularly egregiously boring.

A. B.

I've read that one, but not the Asimov one! I like it too.

BESW

So not exactly about the stars going out, either.

A. B.

10:16

Well, that was a spoiler.

BESW

I mean, it's Asimov. Even if it weren't literally 80 years old, Asimov's books don't exactly get spoilt.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW Wexler's books look promising?

A. B.

I meant the Clarke one, not the Asimov one.

AncientSwordRage

@A.B. oops

I always assume that was the title of the book, not the last line

BESW

ttfn, time for Friday night: homemade pizza and 60s/70s thriller/mystery serials.

A. B.

10:18

On an unrelated topic, I can't remember whether this is something you'd know about, BESW, but I thought it was worth asking.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW yay

ciao for niao @BESW

A. B.

Well, when you've got time.

kviiri

@AncientSwordRage Yeah, this is pretty big too

A. B.

@BESW This from Wikipedia about birds of paradise:

> Antonio Pigafetta wrote that "The people told us that those birds came from the terrestrial paradise, and they call them bolon diuata, that is to say, 'birds of God".

kviiri

@BESW Oh yeah I remember this one, Nightfall. If I recall correctly the civilization portrayed had already begun testing the psychological effects of darkness, but the real shocker to them comes when the final eclipse brings out the stars

A. B.

10:23

Forget it, I tried searching for a different spelling and did find information about this name and its origins this time.

kviiri

@A.B. Interesting, that seems like Finnish mythology where migratory birds were believed to travel to a paradise-like "Bird home" (lintukoto) at the edge of the world

A. B.

I don't think I've heard that one, thank you.

kviiri

Lintukoto is still used to describe calm and peaceful places, and the myth also survives in the Finnish name of Milky Way, Linnunrata meaning "Bird's way". They supposedly followed it to the edge of the world

A. B.

10:39

I've just been sidetracked into reading the Wikipedia page, and several others off that, in the way you do with Wikipedia!

A. B.

10:54

Birds of paradise and how they got their name cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-southeast-asian-studies/…

NautArch

11:16

This question shouldn't be system-agnostic, right?

kviiri

@NautArch I would say so, but given it's from 2012 I don't think changing it at this point is worthwhile

NautArch

11:32

@kviiri Better to close it?

Answers be rollin' in.

well, one answer rolled in.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@NautArch It seems like one that shouldn't assumed to be restricted to a single system. Answers seem system-agnostic at least.

NautArch

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I VTC'd. A solution for one system definitely may not apply to another. I realized this when trying to help Vorac with their answer.

And that their answer really wouldn't work with 5e.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@NautArch 'I have a system which is an exception and does not work with a generic solution' does not mean that the solution isn't generic.

NautArch

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I may withdraw the close vote, but I'd like to see what the community says. But you are right in that many of the other answers are much more agnostic.

Maybe it is just that one answer that isn't a good fit.

Unfortunately, many of the answers are also unsupported.

But that's a secondary issue and likely from it being so old.

Retracted after further thought.

But I also don't think calling the 500lb gorilla system an exception is legitimate, and I'd say the same for my experience with scum and villainy.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

11:53

@NautArch Depends on context. Exception in what selection and by what metric, and for what solution. If something works fine for a dozen systems (especially if they're not clones), that's still a case of a generic solution found in a system-agnostic question.

The alternative would be needing to tag such questions [storyteller] [storytelling] [gurps] [shadowrun] [exalted] oh I ran out of tag slots, this would be silly of course.

There are questions that are strictly system-gnostic, to the point of caring about which edition it is. There are those which aren't. Both deserve answers if that helps the questgiver.

KorvinStarmast

13:51

@doppelgreener concur with your DW question D&D answer delete move, I followed it. 😊

SmokeDetector

14:56

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer, bad keyword with email in answer, email in answer (249): D&D: How to find out if someone is a spellcaster? by Richard Barbara on rpg.SE (@Rubiksmoose)

AncientSwordRage

@SmokeDetector that Q also needs more clarity, they phrase it as though it's for the D&D edition of the time (3.5 based on answers) but don't include that tag, and in a comment ask because they're making their own game and "want to get an overview of how other systems handle this"

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica does rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/183776/… want both the VTM and V20A tags ?

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@AncientSwordRage V20 is one of the editions, so . . . probably? V20 is an edition-specific tag. VtM is a game line tag.

AncientSwordRage

ah ok

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

I don't see a note similar to the D&D one where the D&D tag is forbidden on edition-specific questions. Maybe I missed it.

AncientSwordRage

but VTM is a specific edition I thought?

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

15:09

VtM has 1e, 2e, Revised ('3e'), V20 (anniversary) and 5e/V5.

AncientSwordRage

I guess one doesn't exclude the other

NautArch

16:02

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica Should it have one? If someone were to only tag a question VTM would you have to ask which edition?

nitsua60

@kviiri All the archaeologists can't figure out why the whole civilization goes up in flames every 8000 years (or whatever)... until they see how people completely freak out when darkness starts to fall.

Cat of doom2

hello

bobble

\o

(just a note that you don't have to always announce when you come in)

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@NautArch IIRC people usually write the edition in the body if there is no proper tag for it.

AncientSwordRage

@Catofdoom2 \oo//

NautArch

16:08

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica So the specific edition is required?

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@NautArch Depends on question.

NautArch

@Catofdoom2 How'd the session go?

AncientSwordRage

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I think my confusion comes from the fact that we have WoD vs CofD, VtR vs VtM, but in each there's also a game line edition

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

In this case it's marked 20th edition.

AncientSwordRage

It feels like some of that is redundant

Cat of doom2

16:09

but the session itself wasnt that bad

bobble

there are two separate conversations happening at once here

AncientSwordRage

@bobble your comment made it three

like if I specified the question was about V20A, I wouldn't need some of the others, but I guess you may be interested in VTM in general regardless of the edition?

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@AncientSwordRage Yeah on one hand of course all V20 tags are a subset of VtM-in-general. On the other having both makes certain (not all) searches easier.

AncientSwordRage

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica yup

NautArch

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I'd say if the tagging system is working for VtM players, there's no need to get more granular and make changes.

→ 6 messages moved to Here There Be Dragons

Cat of doom2

16:15

ok

i'll stop

NautArch

→ 1 message moved to Here There Be Dragons

AncientSwordRage

@doppelgreener I just noticed Coyote and Crow is only shipping to USA and Canada for the kickstarter

NautArch

@Catofdoom2 What ended up happening?

Cat of doom2

@NautArch what do you mean?

bobble

In the session. What happened during session?

NautArch

16:29

^^

Cat of doom2

oh, they finished up the goblin shaman. got to a little town, had so rolplaying drama

some jokes where cracked

good stuff

bobble

I like watching the other half of my group's session :)

in PSE D&D Chatroom, 18 hours ago, by Sciborg

We cut to a montage of Kith running around trapping chipmunks with carnival music behind it.

MikeQ

Ah yes the chipmunkmancer build, a classic

AncientSwordRage

@MikeQ never played it, but I hear it's a top tier build

GcL

I always thought it was a rather cheeky build.

NautArch

16:38

@GcL That's nuts if it's true.

AncientSwordRage

@NautArch I've squirrelled away a character concept based on it, acorny one, but should be fun

bobble

There are exactly 4 hits when searching this site for "chipmunk".

Cat of doom2

lol

Thomas Markov

I almost just made a huge mistake.

In the morning I drink out of a shaker cup.

In the afternoon I use that same shaker cup for my preworkout drink (caffeine bomb)

I almost just took a huge swig of the preworkout drink (still have 4 hours left at work)

Totally would have ruined my day.

Cat of doom2

one of players was trying to seduce a dragon. what should I do?

Thomas Markov

16:50

Make sure everyone is being respectful.

Pretty confused by the downvotes on my answer there btw

AncientSwordRage

@ThomasMarkov that sounds serious...?

Cat of doom2

They just asked a baby dragon to be their boyfriend.

Thomas Markov

@AncientSwordRage It gets you wired up pretty hard for 2 hours, then you crash really bad.

AncientSwordRage

@ThomasMarkov oh wow

Thomas Markov

A baby dragon? Has the baby dragon formed a meaningful concept or interest in that sort of relationship?

GcL

16:59

@ThomasMarkov Insufficient number of down votes? Lemme see... I probably have another one laying around here I could toss on for you.

KorvinStarmast

@ThomasMarkov I like the answer, you covered it from different angles. Also added that nice coda about chickens ... also confused in re down votes ...

Cat of doom2

@ThomasMarkov it was a youngling dragon

i don't know

GcL

@ThomasMarkov Don't avians just rub cloaca together?

Thomas Markov

Depends on the bird.

@GcL This is true of chickens.

But not ducks.

Xirema

I can assure you, speaking from personal experience, I am not confused by the downvotes on that answer. ._.

They're unjustified, but not a mystery either.

Thomas Markov

17:14

@GcL But you raise a valid point, I've updated my footnote.

GcL

Looks like the vast majority of bird species don't.

AncientSwordRage

I love a good foot note

goodguy5

17:32

T_T
Goodtoddler5 can escape his crib.....
Including the zippered mesh tent that we put in place to keep him there

oh, actually, steam game recommendation to you folks.

ChessLocke - an "rpg" chess game. (you can give your chess pieces abilities)

GcL

17:58

@AncientSwordRage I end up with ink stains on my socks.

AncientSwordRage

@goodguy5 time to break out the ol' shackles

@GcL :-D

@goodguy5 cool!

GcL

@goodguy5 I seem to recall an old activision game that did something similar. Archon?

The chess pieces fight instead of take one another.

Yuuki

18:18

imagine losing a possible checkmate because your queen got beat by a pawn

goodguy5

Pawns don't get abilities, and there's no checkmate.

You can lose the king in ChessLocke; the win condition is sitting on the throne (where the king starts) for an entire turn

Yuuki

so i watched the new episode of falcon and the winter soldier and as much as i dislike that they gave such a great line to a designated villain, i at least appreciate that they're showing the protagonist agreeing with him (to a degree) and it's not "he's wrong because he's a bad guy"

although it kinda rings hollow in the context of the universe and the larger narrative

bobble

aaah no spoilers

Yuuki

well yeah, that's why i phrased it the way i did

bobble

thank you, was worried there would be further information after

goodguy5

18:26

what's the spoiler syntax

did that ever come to chat?

Yuuki

i don't believe so

bobble

not possible in chat

goodguy5

oh right, I remember

bobble

you can rot13 your text, though

goodguy5

Spoiler

bobble

18:27

same effect

Yuuki

@goodguy5 i mean, you could be growing that culture to inoculate cheese

dunno if the penicillin they use to make brie and other moldy cheese is the same strain that can grow on bread

GcL

Rubens. You make antibiotics industrially with sandwiches. An entire year of study and that's basically the only take away.

NautArch

@GcL Battlechess?

Yuuki

ugh, i wanna talk about the mcu stuff because i'm interested in the narrative choices they've been making with the two episodic series that they're released recently but i have no one to talk about them with

my friends all want to wait until the episodes are all released so they can binge them at once

GcL

@NautArch It was Archon. It got a refresh and is on Steam... so now I've got another time sink from my youth from Steam.

AncientSwordRage

18:39

@Yuuki now I want battlecheese

TellerYT

18:49

The battlecheese

Yuuki

@AncientSwordRage well now if someone makes a game about it, you might be able to claim royal cheese

goodguy5

ha

AncientSwordRage

19:11

@Yuuki indeed, the cheese must flow

Hot RPG Questions

21:14

10

Q: Can World of Darkness vampires drink water?

Vampires in "Vampire: the Masquerade" can't eat normal food. Not only do they not get any nourishment out of it, it tastes foul to them and if they swallow it they'll immediately vomit (unless you bought the "Eat Food" advantage for the character, in which case they still don't get anything out ...

lore world-of-darkness vampire-the-masquerade

Glazius

21:24

...huh. Did D&D 4E just sweep half-dragons under the rug and I never noticed until now?

BESW

21:34

4e doesn't have a thing called half-dragons. Dragonborn generally fill that niche for players, and if you want something like them to use as monsters the Draconomicons have draconians and dragonspawn for you to use.

It's part of the much-appreciated 4e move away from making "my parents got freaky" part of a character's origin story; cf half-orcs.

@Yuuki Yeah, I'm getting very tired of "straw man has a point" villains in the MCU. There's nuanced takes and then there's "maybe genocide is okay sometimes? really makes you think!"

Aside from Thorgnarok and Black Panther (both of which were hobbled by the constraints of the ongoing franchise story keeping them from making stronger statements), the MCU's attempts to tackle difficult or nuanced themes has been pretty consistently meh-at-best. WandaVision might've been able to do better if it had freed itself more from the source material, but GOSH that was a garbage story they chose to adapt.

Yuuki

21:54

the house of m comic was just weird because for all that it showed the literal power that wanda had, she had very little agency in the storyline that centered around her

and not that much focus either

like, she was the catalyst of the event but that was pretty much it

BESW

Thorgnarok was a really solid parable about coming to terms with the realization that one's success is built on blood and stolen land, and that one's heroes were monsters. But it has to segue into the Thanos plot so there's no room in the story for actual reconciliation and rehabilitation.
Black Panther ends with T'Challa ending his nation's isolationist foreign policy and enacting a compassionate form of N'Jadaka's vision of an engagement policy; it's admitting N'Jadaka had a point, but the impact of that engagement policy can't be shown realistically because it would change the world too …

Yuuki

i appreciate that wandavision did a much better job of keeping the narrative focused and centered around wanda's story

though it was a bit weird for monica to go "they'll never know what you sacrificed for them" at the end, felt really off

BESW

WandaVision could've been improved a lot by some structural fiddling--taking most of episode 8 and putting it in episodes 1 and 2 might have reduced social media engagement because there wouldn't have been such an obvious "mystery," but it would've let the show explore its themes of internal life upfront rather than backending them.

The big problem with WandaVision though, is that it's adapting a story that was written with two major themes in mind: that robots without genitals aren't real people, and that women with a lot of power are dangerous because they can't control their mommy feelings.

Glazius

@BESW Yeah, when I got curious and went looking I also saw the Draconomicon had a draconic template, which mechanically probably does most of the things a half-dragon one would do in 4E, but narratively can reflect any number of things including dragons ritually bestowing some of their power on servants or allies.

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