TRPG General Chat

The Oracle

00:29

1

Q: Should we close questions where the asker is looking to double check their understanding of basic rules?

A user has recently asked these two questions: What is included with a character's proficiencies when they become a dhampir Understanding how to play a wizard In both questions, they articulate the rules of the game quite clearly, and then ask the stack to clarify that their understanding is co...

discussion

Bardic Wizard

05:33

@BESW I know this isn’t particularly my discussion, but I actually disagree

Right in the middle of the pandemic, the local newspaper gave away a bunch of their old news distribution boxes — you know the ones you put coins into to get the paper out of — to anyone who wanted them, as long as they were making little free libraries out of them.

There’s one around the corner from my grandfather’s house, and it’s become a community Thing. There’s some kids who draw on the sidewalk next to it all the time with chalk, and the owners leave little notes on the door sometimes for anyone who wants to read them. I see a lot of people smiling when they pass it and stopping to consider books

BESW

Oh yeah, it absolutely can be a community-building node.

I'm just saying that public bookcases don't have the community-building element built into them the way a traveling library usually does.

Bardic Wizard

05:48

@BESW point.

There’s a few others around the neighborhood here that are less of a community project and more of a book repository, but I see people carrying books to and from the one on my street all the time. Sometimes people say things like “wow, this book is perfect for me! I wonder who put it there” and then they leave more books, but it’s not really a community

BESW

And the possibility for anonymity in a public bookcase can be a feature which traveling libraries can't offer--making books available to people who don't want to interact with people to get them--but even then, more and more people are putting video feeds in "their" public bookcases because they want to police how the public is using the bookcase.

Traveling libraries tend to produce group ownership models more organically.

I'm really glad that you've got a successful public bookcase, they can be awesome.

I've just seen too many people online saying that they're taking down "their" public bookcases because "people are stealing books from it" and the like.

Bardic Wizard

@BESW Umm. I thought the point of the bookcase was to encourage people to take books?!?

BESW

But only the way the sponsor thinks they should.

Like "only take one at a time" and "you have to put one back for every one you take." I often see complaints that "homeless people are selling the books."

Bardic Wizard

Ugh, people.

BESW

Like... that's still getting the books read, and somebody's able to eat because of it too!? Sounds like a win to me.

We repotted our pothos today.

One of its vines is ten feet long.

Mithical

07:50

@BESW My family has a book swap shelf outside of our house. Books will appear and disappear, and it's where most of my new reads are coming from. I very rarely put anything there, though, because I have a very hard time getting rid of books.

It's overflowing seriously, though... two full bookcases triple-shelved... not enough people are taking.

Hot RPG Questions

4

Q: Understanding how to play a wizard

I apologize in advance, as I fully admit that this post is asking for the community to help me overcome some of my reading comprehension problems. However, with the success I have had with this community, I am very hopeful for the results in my 1 year study of the wizard class. What gets me the m...

dnd-5e class

V2Blast

09:05

Humble 13th Age Bundle: Treasures! Maps! Adventures! is available for the next 4 weeks. Paying $1 or more gets you the Quick Start rules/SRD, an intro adventure, a book of loot, and monsters; a total of $20+ gets you 16 items (more adventures, maps, loot, monsters); paying at least the avg. of $23.53 gets you 22 items (incl. bestiary + GM screen); and $25+ gets you all 34 items (incl. core book + 13 True Ways).

4

doppelgreener

10:54

0

A: Should we close questions where the asker is looking to double check their understanding of basic rules?

This category of question is on topic. Stack Exchange's Q&A doesn't just take the form of question and answer. It also takes the form of problem and solution. This principle is why our topicality help says “You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face...

AncientSwordRage

15:18

it's quiet in here

GcL

That's because there's nobody here but us chickens.

MikeQ

Bawk bawk.

GcL

@Yuuki thought of another common house ruling: spells damaging objects even when they can't target objects. E.g. shocking grasp or acid splash.

Probably a lot of that with warlocks in a campaign. Those are usually eldritch blast for days.

Kill an attacker? eldritch blast. Stop something from fleeing? eldritch blast. Negotiate a truce? eldritch blast. Get the milk from the table over there? eldritch blast? Tie your shoes? eldritch blast.

NautArch

@Yuuki Using spells that can only target creatures against objects may be another.

Yuuki

oh yeah, i've seen that a lot

GcL

15:28

Ignoring crossbow loading happens.

Don and doff armor times are frequently eschewed.

NautArch

I'd say sleeping in armor, but I don't think there are any rules for that (outside of xanathar optional?)

GcL

The amount of crap a character can carry & quickly access often ignored.

NautArch

Although outside of encumbrance weight, I don't think that's really a rules issue?

Common sense, yes.

GcL

Encumbrance rarely got tracked when it was pencil & paper only. Spreadsheets and VTTs have probably increased the amount of tracking that actually gets done at tables.

Yuuki

@NautArch IIRC, encumbrance is an optional/variant rule?

GcL

15:31

@NautArch Common sense was suspected dead for a few decades, but the last of it was confirmed to have gone the way of the dodo in 2020.

NautArch

@Yuuki There is an encumbrance and variant encumbrance.

GcL

@Yuuki There's the you can carry as much as a Hercules of your size and the you can't carry as much as a Hercules

I started using the variant rule to prevent the clerics from using STR as their dump stat and still strutting around in full plate like it's no issue.

NautArch

But in both, if you can carry the weight of 3 glaives, 2 greatswords, and all your requipment, you can.

Yuuki

@GcL yeah, i don't want to have to manually calculate my encumbrance every time i pick up an item but i'm more than willing to play inventory management if total weight is automatically summed

Someone_Evil

@GcL There's a STr req for heavy armour though isn't there? Don't remember what the penality is

Hot RPG Questions

15:36

5

Q: True Seeing into Ethereal plane in Fog Cloud, what is seen?

True Seeing spell allows, among other things, this: and can see into the Ethereal Plane, all out to a range of 120 feet. Assume that True Seeing doesn't allow one to directly see through the Fog Cloud fog, which is actual conjured fog and not an illusion, and creates a heavily obscured area. I ...

dnd-5e spells ethereal-plane special-senses

GcL

@Someone_Evil It's a movement speed hit.

It's 10' of movement penalty if the character doesn't have the str requirment, plus another 10 feet if they're encumbered by the weight.

Someone_Evil

10 feet of movement isn't nothing, but I suppose it isn't that bad

GcL

Basically, you can't go traipsing around in full plate armor and a 50 pound pack.

@Someone_Evil It's 20 if they're under the str requirement and above the encumbered weight.

65 lbs for full plate means at least a 13 str just to wear it and nothing else without being over encumbrance. To be fair, have to apply that to NPCs as well which took a bit of work. Unless they're on duty, soldiers, mercenaries, town watch, etc... aren't going to wear their heavy armor around town.

Someone_Evil

Which is pretty signigicant. Ray of frost would bring them to a full stop (unless a base speed of 35+)

GcL

Gives an in town advantage to monks and rogues who don't have to walk around being overtly armed and looking like they're heading to battle.

@Someone_Evil Oooo... good one. Didn't think of that.

Someone_Evil

15:50

I don't usually play with encumbrance either, we haven't had an issue with stuff carried for the bookkeeping to be worth it, but I like the idea of a slot based system as a compromise. Don't worry about minutia, or pool them as a backpack item.

NautArch

@GcL Which also makes a lot of sense.

GcL

16:09

@Someone_Evil It was getting ridiculous with a couple of my players. cleric with 13 str in full plate, shield, hammer, and all the kit in their backpack. Kinda stepping on the toes of the str builds.

Also, having all their potions/scrolls/weapons available as a free interact with object in the same way drawing a weapon.... just too much.

MikeQ

Potions and scrolls usually specify "as an action" to use them.

GcL

@MikeQ Yeah, and you don't have all of them on hand either. So action to dig them out of your pack, plus action to use them. We eventually settled on up to 6 items (including weapons) a character could have ready to draw.

MikeQ

Wouldn't it be a free interaction to draw, but an action to use?

Thomas Markov

@MikeQ This.

GcL

Makes the descriptions of NPC intent a bit easier too, but more involved. The martial characters or those with military background get to recognize when someone is kitted out for a fight. E.g. essentially wearing tactical gear and more armed than the civil situation would call for.

@MikeQ Not if it's in your backpack.

Thomas Markov

16:14

> withdraw a potion from your backpack

An example of something you can do with your object interaction.

> Here are a few examples of the sorts of thing you can do in tandem with your movement and action:

So taking a potion from your pack is explicitly stated to be something that can be done with your free interact.

MikeQ

Yeah, if a character does something that basically just rearranges the position of an object in their "inventory" (in an abstract sense, e.g. moving a potion from a backpack to a hand) then it may as well be a free object interaction.

AncientSwordRage

@ThomasMarkov that's because the game puts potions on the hotbar automatically, right?

GcL

@ThomasMarkov Good point. Must be a houserule then.

SmokeDetector

16:45

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer, bad keyword with email in answer, bad phone number in answer, email in answer, messaging number in answer, +2 more (543): Are Psychics arcane casters? Can they prestige into Dragon Disciples and do they suffer Spell Failure? by gladys wynn on rpg.SE (@Rubiksmoose @ThomasMarkov)

Someone_Evil

Well that was quick. Smokey zapped that in 27 seconds

Thomas Markov

Fun fact, Critical Role's original Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting is now going for $300 on amazon

MikeQ

Holy overpriced content, Batman!

Thomas Markov

It's out of print with the new one coming out later this year.

Check your local game stores, you might be able to make a profit on a flip.

cheapest ebay listing is $250

GcL

@ThomasMarkov Are there digital copies to be purchased somewhere?

Thomas Markov

16:58

@GcL Nope.

Thomas Markov

17:14

If anyone wants to work on their SQL chops, I have a SEDE assignment for you

AncientSwordRage

@ThomasMarkov I've dabbled

not sure how helpful I can be though

Thomas Markov

Recall that at the end of June last year 700+ protected questions were unprotected.

I need some help gathering stats on those questions.

AncientSwordRage

thats going to be beyond me

there IS a SEDE chatroom

Thomas Markov

I might just make a meta post.

AncientSwordRage

that chatroom might be helpful, @rene is often there to help

gotta dash now though

ciao for niao

Someone_Evil

17:21

There are some existing queries on one of the meta posts on that, but I assume you've already looked at those

Thomas Markov

@Someone_Evil I was looking for them and couldnt find them

Someone_Evil

11

Q: How has RPG.se used protection? (crunching the numbers on spam and protection)

Very soon we intend to start a discussion about how protection is used on this site going forward. To inform that discussion, I've tried to dig deep and find some data that could help guide this discussion. It got so lengthy that I decided that posting it as its own post was probably the best way...

discussion protected-questions statistics

Thomas Markov

Also I think getting what I want will be beyond my ability to hack together a query

@Someone_Evil Thanks, I'll start here.

GcL

17:55

@ThomasMarkov If you're looking up how to get a query working, the SEDE dialect is TSQL. Some of the aggregation and bits like common table expressions are different than SQL.

Thomas Markov

@GcL See, shows how much I know.

GcL

More than half of getting something done is just knowing the names of stuff to google.

rene

18:28

You rang?

Thomas Markov

@rene Oh hello

rene

\o

Thomas Markov

@rene Context

I'm going to see what I can figure out using some of the queries in this meta post, but if I get lost, I might come find you for some help, if you don't mind.

rene

ok

KorvinStarmast

19:19

@V2Blast argghh, I already have core and 13 true ways, maybe I'll get the bundle and send you the core? I don't have any adventures beyond Eyes of the Stone Thief.

GcL

19:54

@V2Blast Don't threaten me with a good time!

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