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12:14 AM
Of course, I’d also love to see some frame challenges pointing out all the awesome ways to communicate, share, and record information without any writing at all. Maps can be carved representations or physical charts, for instance.
 
12:57 AM
@BESW heh, I guess not
@Cooper are you in reach of book boxes?
 
@AncientSwordRage A lot of worldbuilding has been done in various mediums around the idea of a society that doesn't have access to fire because underwater, but "embossed minerals are the default writing option" is... limited, at the least.
The specific airworld technology of wax crayons is probably impractical to develop underwater, but (a) a parallel technology is pretty easy to imagine and (b) most civilizations throughout history have some staple element of their society that they can only acquire through trade.
There's a "first three TRPGs you ever played" thing going around social media and... D&D 3.5, Mage (oWoD), and SG-1 (Spycraft). Which definitely formed a baseline from me to pivot from, I guess.
2
 
1:24 AM
BECMI/1e hybrid, Cyberpunk2020, and I think an old Elfquest game.
I'll be interested to see others' answers--I hope this becomes a room-thing =)
 
The earliest three I can remember are 3.5e, vampire requiem and probably 4e
 
(I learned D&D on 3.0, but was then handed the 3.5 books days before starting the campaign.)
 
That's ignoring play by post (on a bulletin board) and CRPGs based on TRPGs (I'm looking at you Baldur's Gate and Fallout)
 
Oh, and prior to the SG-1 game I had a lot of exposure to d20 Star Wars games but technically wasn't participating in them.
Chris S. Sims wrote a twitter thread about the shallowness of playable cultures.
 
2:06 AM
redfoxscion wrote a twitter thread about how Wanderhome "shows a world trying to heal after a tragic war."
"POC Horror Anthology Death in the Mouth Has Funded on Kickstarter" article by Andrew Liptak for tor.com. A new horror anthology is set to feature BIPOC and ethnically marginalized writers from all over the world.
 
3
Q: Invisible structures and floors

NormalGuyI’m preparing a puzzle tower for my players, with a twist. It’s one empty room that goes up four or five stories, but one wall is entirely a mirror that shows stairs, walkways, doors, etc that are invisible to the player except when looking at them in the mirror and are solid objects. This includ...

 
@BESW Didn't respond because I think the question is about the books, not ideas from real life.
 
Sure, looking for any examples of how writing can be done underwater really, as there are so few that I can find — mb345345 2 days ago
 
2:28 AM
@BESW yeah, I still read that as examples from lore, not real life or idea generation.
If they're asking that, it's not an rpg question.
 
Definitely not how most of the answers are taking it, though.
 
Yep, and I've downvoted accordingly
 
Night Tripper by Chris P Wolf. Interstellar Adventure Role-Play (Beta, Not Edited, Extremely WIP, More to Come)
 
This feels extremely RPG adjacent: davesgarden.com/guides/articles/…
 
"How to Grow Old in Tabletop RPGs" by Teos Abadia on Alphastream. An article on aging in the RPG industry. How to do it well, in a world of constant change.
 
2:31 AM
@AncientSwordRage Can't vouch for it being accurate, but it's good enough for a game
 
2:49 AM
Am I wrong in thinking asking about how to do this in real life isn't really rpg centric?
If the races in the lore don't have those methods?
 
You're not wrong. But it's clearly what the asker is after:
Thank you for this, I think I'll likely use something along these lines or thin engraved sheets of copper — mb345345 11 hours ago
Maybe send 'em to Worldbuilding for "underwater writing technologies"
 
@BESW that's a rabbit hole of eye-opening reads
 
Should we remove that request as it is off topic?
 
3:52 AM
9
Q: Does an Artillerist Artificer's Eldritch Cannon gain a bonus to damage while under the effect of Enlarge/Reduce?

Laura WoolweaverCan the Artificer cast Enlarge on one of their eldritch cannons to grant the cannon the extra 1d4 damage to its initial damage? Some of us were confused on the official ruling of that spell.

 
 
1 hour later…
4:54 AM
@AncientSwordRage Checked the one labeled books, and no luck-- I have a bunch of stuff that got put in the office that needs unpacking, so hopefully it'll turn up in one of those! I did a really disorganized job of packing...
 
 
1 hour later…
6:20 AM
5
Q: Can a ghost possess a vampire or any other undead?

iamlonelyhellothereIn my campaign, I'm planning to have an NPC ghost possess an NPC vampire. Is this even possible?

 
 
3 hours later…
9:14 AM
@Cooper packing is packing, no worries about disorganization πŸ‘πŸ»
 
10:02 AM
1
Q: How does telepathy with mute creatures work

JamesBSuppose player "Apple" has telepathy, and tries to communicate with creature "Bagel," whose stat block explicitly says "understands Common but can't speak." Bagel can't speak, but presumably can understand Common and think in Common. If they can think in Common why might they be incapable of repl...

 
@HotRPGQuestions Since Apple and Bagel are characters, I'm going to assume Common is also a character that Bagel understands.
 
@BESW Common is not a food though.. :/
 
10:58 AM
Bit he is a rapper.
 
@NautArch I'll take your word for it
 
11:38 AM
@AncientSwordRage Is this about the age/race/stats table? If you drop the link again I can grab my 1e books this afternoon and double-check them.
 
23 hours ago, by AncientSwordRage
Does anybody know if anything on this page is accurate? https://advanced-dungeons-dragons-2nd-edition.fandom.com/wiki/Character_Race_Tables
Oops that's the chat link, is that ok.
@nitsua60 I think the page has 2e tables, but 1e tables would also be great
 
@AncientSwordRage 2e, right. Either way: I've got both sets in my office, and can go grab them after lunch.
For now, though, it's not even 8am and it's already 80 degrees, so I need to get going on this run!
 
11:56 AM
@nitsua60 that's awesome!
I am thinking of asking it as it's own question now, what do you think @nitsua60
Enjoy your run!
 
 
2 hours later…
2:24 PM
I wish you could provide reasoning when rolling back an edit
 
That would be great, but I'm sure there'd be issues
 
A single comment with the reason is usually warranted and useful
 
@Akixkisu I can explain my rollback if you'd like, and if you'd like to keep your version, I will start a Meta
Well. Apparently that doesn't work
Oh I see, you have to not use the rollback button at all...
Apparently diamond mods can edit edit reasons independently 0_0
 
@Medix2 Doesn't come up very often
 
Yeah, I can't imagine it would
I'd never even thought about it being a thing
 
2:34 PM
We're supposed to be able to fix most things, especially where a user has entered text. But I suppose the new community user comments don't count for that...
 
Oh you can't delete or edit those?
I knew they couldn't be flagged, but wow
 
Sure can't. There's some feature requests on it though
We can edit them actually, but not delete. Which seems a bit silly
Btw, I did end up undeleting the answer to your body shapes question @AncientSwordRage (and I don't know you'd get notified of that?)
I still don't think it's good, but it is trying to answer and (mostly) making clear its basis
 
@Medix2 the one time I've seen it done is when someone left an sorta-inflammatory edit reason while rolling back an edit criticizing their actions. Their edit did not go over well with the post owner.
 
3:20 PM
@AncientSwordRage I wouldn't count on it.
 
2
Q: Does a grappling Bigby's Hand have advantage on a contested check of a creature trying to escape the grapple?

Guillaume F.The spell Bigby's Hand creates a large hand of force that can grapple a target: Grasping Hand. The hand attempts to grapple a Huge or smaller creature within 5 feet of it. You use the hand's Strength score to resolve the grapple. If the target is Medium or smaller, you have advantage on the chec...

 
@Trish that's why I'm asking here
 
@AncientSwordRage from a skim, some info checks out with keynotes I know, but the lack of sources makes me really queasy. Even the L5R wiki is better sourced, and that is a mess of culturally inappropriate info that in 5E is all "never happened"
the numbers though appear to match about with with what I remember from old lecture I had when curious.
 
3:43 PM
@Trish that's definitely not an official wiki though
 
Whenever tthere is no source, I get queasy, as I can't verify. No page? Not reliable, my thought.
 
Again that's why I was asking in chat
@Someone_Evil I didn't get a notification but I'm happy with that, I'm hoping they can tidy it up?
 
4:37 PM
3
Q: Artificer Thunder gauntlets taunt effect

ToofleI'm currently DM-ing a campaign and one of my players is playing a Warforged Artificer Armorer. At lvl 3 he gains the Thunder gauntlets that as Tasha's describes has a forced attack effect on the artificer. "A creature hit by the gauntlet has disadvantage on attack rolls against targets other tha...

 
 
2 hours later…
6:55 PM
@nitsua60 how was your run earlier, not too hot?
 
 
1 hour later…
8:00 PM
@AncientSwordRage Good. Four hours, and I was still sweating at the end, so I didn't get too dehydrated. And I'm about back to human, having stretched and eaten and cleaned up and gone for an easy walk.
 
@nitsua60 good grief, that's a long run
I thought popping to the shops was tiring 😜
 
@AncientSwordRage The editor of Runner's World claims that one can, with proper rest, extend the length of one's long run by about fifteen minutes each week.
About three months ago I decided to take him up on the assertion and, lo and behold!
I'm going out to do some errands in a little bit--I'll grab my 2e and 1e phbs from the office then.
 
8:18 PM
@nitsua60 no rush, I'm definitely going to write somekind of question for it, because I suspect the method in 1e and 2e are similar but distinct from 3e onwards
 
8:36 PM
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] No whitespace in answer (96): How do I calculate weapon damage as I level up? by user72794 on rpg.SE (@Rubiksmoose @ThomasMarkov)
 
@SmokeDetector generally harmless nonsense.
@Akixkisu What feedback option did you select?
Cuz the bot comment is totally useless there.
 
@ThomasMarkov the one that completes the review.
I flagged the post.
 
Hmmm.
 
The tools in that queue are less than worthless.
 
I can’t help but laugh at this.
 
8:43 PM
I could have also asked them to provide proper code.
Edit the question.
Or say "looks okay."
That is them, all of the options.
 
facepalm
 
You can't even skip.
Whoever tested this is utterly detached from every se that isn't so.
@Medix2 No worries, those two edits happened within 3 seconds. I'm fine with either.
 
Jan 28 '20 at 23:43, by Someone_Evil
I sometimes wish us editors had a way to roll for initiative, so we don't try to go all at the same time
 
9:03 PM
They are essentially different applications of better grammar. I prefer mine, but I think both versions have their upsides. Kirt's is a significant improvement, and the "neither nor" is more commonly used than the "not nor" for negative sentences, so that is probably more accessible.
Mine restructures a conditional phrase and creates consistency with the active language of the querent.
 
9:48 PM
Table 7 checks out, incl. the halfling-note;
table 8 checks out;
table 9 checks out, note that the linked page doesn't really make it clear but it's the case that these modifiers are unique to dwarves, it's a bonus to saves against poison or against magical attacks (for "dwarves are nonmagical and never use magical spells");
table 10 checks out, incl. the gender-note;
table 11 checks out, incl. the note on elven migration;
table 12 checks out, with ability modifiers.
1e races are a bit more complex. You've got the whole table of which races may play which classes, what level they may maximally attain, what ability scores they may have (broken out male/female). Races get similar bonuses/maluses to thematic scores. And then there's the "racial preferences table," which details who prefers, tolerates, or hates whom.
 
@nitsua60 woah
Is there a way of generating height or weight?
@nitsua60 very good to know
 
@AncientSwordRage No, just a blanket admonition that after determining abilities, one should then personify your character. (Name, some background, possessions, next of kin.) Then the GM will help establish your character.
s/complex/fiddly two messages back.
The 1e equipment list does include four different types of boots, though. And 21 types of livestock.
 
10:23 PM
5e has brought that down to a much more reasonable 14(*) types of livestock
 
@nitsua60 oh good 😁
 
10:39 PM
As everyone knows, livestock should be listed in multiples of seven.
 
11:11 PM
@BESW yup, or pairs πŸ‘€
 
You're not wrong: 2e has 35 different animals in the equipment list!
 
11:40 PM
And with this trip down memory lane, I'll leave some notes on rangers.
1e is when the ranger (new subclass of fighter) gets what has evolved into "giant killer": they get +1/lvl to damage on any hit against bugbears, ettins, giants, gnolls, [hob]goblins, kobolds, [mage] ogres, orcs, and trolls. They've got a mix of druid and magic-user spells. They get something like "dread ambusher," in that they surprise their enemies 50% of the time. And they get followers at name-level, which will be an interesting mix of beasts and humanoid forest-lovers. And tracking.
I wonder if that last one led to as many arguments as "druids will not wear metal armor" does now?
 
@nitsua60 Robin Hood's seven score Merry Men would like a word.
...Also, do we know where the "druids vs metal" thing came from? Because I want to be wrong that it's about removing druids from their historical context as community leaders and turning them into anti-society terrorists because they opposed English rule.
 
11:55 PM
That could possibly be a question for mythology stack?
 
I suspect not; D&D almost never draws directly from mythology. It'd be a Science Fiction & Fantasy question because the chances are VERY high it's something some 20th century author came up with to be clever.
 
@BESW I think it's a civilization Vs wilderness thing
 
@AncientSwordRage In a nutshell, that's what I'm afraid of.
Druids were leaders of civilization.
 

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