Not a bar, but plays one on TV

1:22 AM

Commedia dell'arte (UK: , US: , Italian: [komˈmɛːdja delˈlarte]; meaning "comedy of the profession") was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italy, that was popular in Europe from the 16th to the 18th century. Commedia dell'arte was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is also known as commedia alla maschera, commedia improvviso, and commedia dell'arte all'improvviso. Commedia is a form of theatre characterized by masked "types" which began in Italy in the 16th century and was responsible for the advent of actresses (Isabella Andreini) and improvised performances based...

Atellan Farce

The Atellan Farce (Latin: Atellanae Fabulae or Fabulae Atellanae, "favola atellana"; Atellanicum exhodium, "Atella comedies"), also known as the Oscan Games (Latin: ludi Osci, "Oscan plays"), were masked improvised farces. The games were very popular in Ancient Rome, and usually put on after longer pantomime plays. The origin of the Atellan Farce is uncertain but the farces are similar to other forms of ancient theatre, such as the South Italian Phlyakes, the plays of Plautus and Terrence, and Roman mime. Most historians believe the name is derived from Atella, an Oscan town in Campania. The farces...

> The ancient Romans, Han Chinese, and medieval Europeans all enjoyed occasionally organizing events in which everyone pretended to be from an earlier age, and entertainment appears to have been the primary purpose of these activities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-playing

Mark Wells

Some do, yes.

Jin Long

Thanks to everyone who contributed.

Mark Wells

Would you just link to the article already so we can see their actual argument?

doppelgreener

@JinLong No, absolutely not.

Look, you can have a tense topic, and you can make ordinary topics tense by conducting them poorly. Learn from that.

5

Do not insult or belittle the people who were made uncomfortable. That's not even a little bit acceptable.

2

When you get back from a cooldown, I invite that you can either take them and their discomfort seriously and make it personal learning opportunity, or leave them well alone completely.

NautArch

All I know is I miss having access to a research library.

doppelgreener

1:38 AM

Personally, the conversation resembled you playing games with your conversational partners: you were jumping to various extremes with peoples' statements, and then making extreme assertions and then simultaneously putting it on others to refute you while also claiming not to be proving anything. That is not a good way to conduct a discussion and will work poorly whatever you're talking about.

That alone can drive people away.

Derpy

12:37 PM

Feb 13 at 11:57, by Derpy

I kinda hope some (probably Japanese) crazy guy has the idea to recreate the Dream Emulator landscapes inside the game.

^ indreams.me/dream/mEGtiwqBubj

NautArch

2:22 PM

I do think 5e definitely more easily supports combat than other things.

goodguy5

I think I agree?

Though, if you want to get REALLY into the weeds on it, I think it most easily supports character generation, but that doesn't seem to be the point.

user15026

I found character generation to be a long frustrating process. Too many moving bits.

goodguy5

interesting....

I've made dozens (if not hundreds) of characters and 5e is one of the easier processes to me (discounting super rules lite and 1-page systems)

Perhaps, and only perhaps, rivaled by Fate.

user15026

But in general D&D (5e, et al) is a game where I have to hold too many things in my head at once.

goodguy5

I'd be willing to entertain the notion that it's easier to me because the majority of characters I've made are in various D&D systems.

@Ash explain?

NautArch

2:26 PM

Yes...but you also need to understand the system in order to generate

If you don't, you get stuck with I want X, but the system only gives me Y.

user15026

@goodguy5 I don't know how to explain it better, it has too many things I have to keep track of.

goodguy5

@Ash fair enough, I guess. I'm just trying to mentally walk through the process and the only thing I, personally, keep track of is what kind of character I want to play. Then I just go through the steps.

NautArch

@goodguy5 i go both ways. I'll have a starting idea, but as I choose my mechanics, I work on my story, too

user15026

@goodguy5 yes but you have to know what parts of it will give you what you want to play.

NautArch

^^

goodguy5

2:31 PM

I don't think I'm going to understand what your problem is unless you wanted to walk through chargen, which I don't think you feel like doing.

But that's okay and I believe that you have a problem with it.

NautArch

And there's a lot to learn

kviiri

Some of my dislike for DnD 5e have to do specifically with the fact that it's perceived as a "default" system. Which results in people not really agreeing what it should be like, which results in me mostly being unhappy in our games

goodguy5

I'm the kind of person that reads through the entire book, likely multiple times. And I have a head for holding those stupid rules categorically.

I'm willing to believe that I have an easier time with it than some

kviiri

except I don't play it anymore because I'm done waiting for it to become fun

NautArch

Just walking my group of 8-10 year olds on chargen was hard

user15026

2:32 PM

@goodguy5 that gives you...way more ability to work with it than most, then

NautArch

@kviiri that's an excellent reason not to play :)

I really enjoy combat, so 5e works for me.

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 Out of curiosity, what other systems have you played outside of the D&D types if any? (I really don't mean this to be demeaning, by the way. I literally think it is useful information for these kinds of questions and I can't recall you mentioning it before).

goodguy5

Combat is the part of the game where I need rules to back me up. I want a clearly (ish) defined set of rules for what happens when the party attacks X with Y.

Everything else, I can handle.

I think that's why I like 5e.

kviiri

@NautArch I would enjoy combat, but my group doesn't want a combat-oriented game. I would also enjoy a game not about combat, but they don't want that either. :(

Rubiksmoose

@kviiri :(

goodguy5

2:36 PM

@Rubiksmoose Slapdash (think roll for shoes), various PbtA games, Fate (And Dresden), GURPS, I've made characters for Traveller (but not played), I think I played a game of the Buffy rpg, and this other game that I can't think of the name.... something about being super mutants? (but not M&M)

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 That sounds like a good variety :)

goodguy5

dang it, what was that game. I'm pretty sure it had a cheeky name. You had different sized dice for what you were better at.

kviiri

The last campaign of DnD 5e I was in started with a session that had one solid combat encounter but the rest of the session was "exploration" (=really slow-paced opening doors after doors after dooooors in a mansion)

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 I've actually found PbtA (ok, Masks) to be better, for me, for character creation. I love how open and conceptual it is. If you have a concept, I find that you can usually make it (assuming it fits into the intended archetypes the game is designed to support)

Better than 5e I mean.

And better at supporting that concept mechanically.

NautArch

@kviiri what do they want?

@goodguy5 Savage worlds does that

Rubiksmoose

2:40 PM

@goodguy5 of course I now see that you said besides rules-light systems which Masks would fall into I think.

goodguy5

@NautArch I was thinking that it might be a savage worlds subset

NautArch

I've only attempted chargen in that system, tho. The game never happened :(

kviiri

@NautArch Beats me. I mean, my interpretation of the situation is not likely to be unbiased or correct but I kinda see them having an imprecise, yet dogmatic idea of what DnD should be like. That GM in particular talks a lot about the "three pillars" but what good is that if you don't think about their implementation?

And some of them are vocally in the "RPGs are like pizza" school.

Rubiksmoose

@kviiri ... cheesy and good for large groups?

goodguy5

I'm so annoyed that I can't think of this game.

You had a secret base somewhere. and you lfet the base to go do your adventures, which were usually breaking into villain secret bases

kviiri

2:43 PM

@Rubiksmoose "Good even when it's bad", which means they just never really had bad pizza

Rubiksmoose

@kviiri ahhh yes, I think I've heard this before.

Elementary school cafeteria pizza is not an RPG that I would want to play.

goodguy5

@Rubiksmoose There's a monster hearts joke here

Rubiksmoose

Oh, what are the odds that someone has created an pizza rpg

@goodguy5 I really wish I could help.

NautArch

3:07 PM

I'm on mobile, so not sure I can do the move from here

Rubiksmoose

→ 46 messages moved to RPG General Chat

NautArch

Home sick again :( this winter sucks

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch You've had a pretty rough time of it recently it seems :(

NautArch

Yeah, probably tied together. Winter sickness and depression compound each other

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch :( Depression is like the suckiest thing ever. Not that I need to tell you that.

Andras Deak

4:08 PM

@kviiri thanks to the bird cam I now see a great tit and a blue tit side by side :) Quite helpful for distinguishing them, I thought blue tits looked...bluer. I also see a lot of eurasian jays which is great, I like them

doppelgreener

4:43 PM

61

Q: The company’s commitment to rebuilding the relationship with you, our community

My name is Teresa Dietrich. About a month ago, I joined Stack Overflow as Head of Product and Community. During my years as an engineer and technology leader I saw the impact this community and site has on people across the world and I am very excited to be here. While I have personally gotten a ...

5

Rubiksmoose

^

Andras Deak

in Tavern on the Meta on Meta Stack Exchange Chat, 3 mins ago, by Andras Deak

if it weren't for the Shogpocalypse I'd be quite optimistic

kviiri

@AndrasDeak You're welcome! Indeed the blue tit is not as blue as one'd think from the name only :)

Andras Deak

we also have a bird identifier app, but that features drawings and the birbs are misleadingly blue there

kviiri

5:33 PM

I like the jays, they're not top common here in the city

Andras Deak

I've mostly seen them in the countryside here, and only last week at the university campus (in the middle of the city) :)

Actually, no, there was also a pair of jays who used to come here for months, a few years ago. That was pretty nice, we usually only get sparrows and great tits here...

kviiri

6:05 PM

I see blackbirds on my commute. There's a nice park along the way

When I was a wee child we had magpies on our yard. Never, ever crows. But there was a pack of crows right near, just two houses away. It's exciting how they have territories like that.

Andras Deak

Magpies are jerks.

kviiri

They're cute jerks tho. And smart.

Andras Deak

yeah, pretty bastards

kviiri

Surprise sauna at inlaws

JohnP

8:11 PM

@doppelgreener @nitsua60 @Rubiksmoose @V2Blast - Regarding the new CPO and the statement "Over the last month, I have spent time listening to and asking questions of our Community Managers, our Engineers who are long-time community members, and those throughout the company with community involvement." - Did any of you participate? Was it all in TL and those that don't inhabit TL missed out?

Rubiksmoose

@JohnP Actually discussion with Teresa is taking place right now in the TL. I'm not aware of her being in the TL at any point before though but I've also not been checking in as regularly because of working so much.

JohnP

@Rubiksmoose huh. good to know, but again, no announcement.

nitsua60

9:10 PM

@JohnP I didn't participate (that I know of). But I know a few times in the last few months there've been random shout-outs (TL, Team, meta-maybe?) in the vein of "I'm gathering feedback on <blahblah>, ping me if you'd be interested in chatting" that I've ignored.

They really need to figure out communication with mods, too. Right now it's Team, TL, blog, MSO, MSE that one would "need" to watch if one wanted to feel like an "informed" mod vis-a-vis the company. And maybe Tavern. (And probably scratch blog, since it's a feed in TL.) I only knew to respond to the recent Team ask about a meetup next week because it arrived in my e-mail with the team weekly digest that I keep not getting around to disabling!

V2Blast

9:54 PM

@goodguy5 Haha, I suspect I'm similar, at least with D&D 5e. ...Or maybe not? Idk, I haven't actually "read through the entire book", certainly not multiple times, but when something is pointed out to me, it seems to stick with me - and given that I've been playing D&D 5e for about 2 years now, I think I've just got a better ability than most to remember and understand all the fiddly bits of the rules (...and there are quite a few).

@goodguy5 I think this is true for a lot of people that play 5e - it lets them have rules and "balance" when it comes to combat, and lets them sort of improvise the rest? Some see that as a strength, others as a weakness. Personally I think I sort of see both sides of it?

@JohnP I just woke up and have barely been active in TL lately. So I only know from what Rubiksmoose mentioned that she's been in the TL answering questions now-ish. I read the MSE post just now and haven't yet wandered over to the TL :P

doppelgreener

11:01 PM

@JohnP my activity in TL has been next to nonexistent. whatever's going on, i haven't been involved, but i also wouldn't have known. i've stepped away from basically everything on the network except RPG.SE recently.

Andras Deak

11:40 PM

Very interesting thread by Jon twitter.com/jlericson/status/1230268701510733824

2

Gotta love these guys doing what they do for the community even given their circumstances

V2Blast

A proposal by SE staff related to blockquote styling/formatting that could use some feedback:

15

Q: Some improvements to blockquotes

We’re making a few changes to blockquotes soon. Historically, we had a bit of feedback that the yellow backgrounds were overpowering, reducing the contrast of the quote itself. The yellow border also lacks contrast with the background. Others have indicated that there should be more visible diffe...

discussion design blockquote

entirely unrelated:

Meerkats fall asleep while standing up (funny)

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Not a bar, but plays one on TV