The Factory Floor

Secespitus

07:57

@Mithrandir24601 Let me guess: someone died? :D

Mithrandir24601

@Secespitus people died, yeah. The question is: did any of the main characters die?

Secespitus

@Mithrandir24601 If I remember the few episodes I watched with friends correctly that happens quite frequently

It was quite funny. I watched a few episodes from every season while everyone else was binging the series and whenevery we met I was like "What about him? Oh, okay... But he - damn... But at least my favourite char - ... okay forget it..."

Mithrandir24601

@Secespitus that it does, but neither of the really good bits that I've been waiting to see were the death of a character

@Secespitus wouldn't be GoT without that!

Secespitus

I honestly liked that most about the series. I wasn't a big fan, but I think it's good to go a different route than other authors these days.

Normally you can be sure that a main character will survive everything, no matter how ridiculous it may be. Or that one of the main characters might die as the season finale at most.

But with GoT every episode was interesting because everyone could die at any moment. No matter how important he may be.

Mithrandir24601

Lots of people complain about it, but that does massively improve the plot - it just feels so much more believable and realistic

Secespitus

08:09

The people complaining are the ones only used to the very soft "don't kill important characters" approach that we see so often in shows, games, books, ... these days

Mithrandir24601

08:33

Skorī dēmalȳti tymptir tymis, ērinis iā morghūlis - When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die

Secespitus

Wasn't the introductin to High Valyrian "My name is xyz." "I am from zyx." "Where are my dragons?!?"

Worldbuilding Meta

09:05

0

Q: Do we need the [gun] tag on the Main Site?

I was looking through the tags today and I found the tag gun. The first thing that comes to mind is that it is using singular whereas other non-meta tags normally use the plural form. The second thing is that I remember one of the first discussions on Meta where I was involved: Specialized tag...

Mithrandir24601

09:22

@Secespitus possibly... I read that once or twice, but now get my Valyrian words and phrases from the Valyrian dictionary on the Wiki

Worldbuilding Meta

10:40

1

Q: Do we need the [fiction] tag on the Main Site?

When looking through the tags on the Main Site I found the tag fiction. Two of its questions are closed. Two questions use the tags science and fiction, which looks like the author wanted to use the tag science-fiction and didn't know that tags are written with a hyphen when you would use a space...

discussion specific-tag tags

Hannah

14:12

... huh...

its funny how changing one letter to two that produce the same sound changes how you pronouce an entire word...

-brought to you by a tub of ben & jerrys-

DaaaahWhoosh

15:05

I wish a tub of ben & jerrys was brought to me

Hannah

@DaaaahWhoosh well. sadly you'll have to make do with a virtual one

DaaaahWhoosh

I now know what I'm having for dinner

DaaaahWhoosh

15:38

ugh, I really don't like it when I'm right, and people tell me that they don't care

Bellerophon

@DaaaahWhoosh I don't really care.

DaaaahWhoosh

oh, good point. You'd have to be wrong for me to not like it

I really don't like it when people are wrong, and I try to point it out, and they tell me they don't care

some guy just commented on one of my comments telling me to vote and move on. Which is like the complete opposite of what I feel like people should do

Green

@DaaaahWhoosh Where is this so I can down vote this wrong answer?

VENGEANCE!

DaaaahWhoosh

here, the guy is saying that in D&D 5e when you take the 'Ready' action, you can choose to use an action or to move when the trigger happens. And also that moving using the Ready action doesn't consume your reaction

I'm arguing that using the Ready action always consumes your reaction once you choose to use it, and that the point of the Ready action is that you choose what to do beforehand, and only have the option to not react when the trigger happens

I think the issue is that the book says "you can use your reaction to act" which he's thinking means "you only use your reaction when taking an action, not when moving"

Green

@DaaaahWhoosh This feels like an ambiguity in the rules....and I don't know enough about DnD to make any kind of judgement though @James sure does know enough.

DaaaahWhoosh

15:45

yeah, if I could get a second opinion that'd be great, I might just ask a separate question about it but it feels like such a stupid idea to me

@JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMES

or, who else has been talking about D&D in here

James

@DaaaahWhoosh WHAAAAT?!

DaaaahWhoosh

@James in D&D 5e, when you take the Ready action, does it mean that once the trigger happens, you have the choice to use the action you decided on, move, or do nothing?

and if you choose to move, does that not spend your reaction?

James

A readied action is forgoing your action to wait for a trigger.

So basically its your turn and you don't have a good option, you can use your move action and any bonus action, then you say I am going to ready and action to do XXXX when XXXX happens

Nex Terren

@DaaaahWhoosh 100% right. You have to specify the action and the trigger. I don't know if this is in the rules or not, but we always let people decide at the last second to forfeit the triggered action if they decide that doing the action would be a really bad idea. "I attack the next creature through the door!" "An arch demon steps through the door..."

James

if the trigger happens before your next turn you execute the action

Yeah we are same as Nex, if the trigger comes and things have changed, you can choose to do nothing instead

DaaaahWhoosh

15:51

but you can never choose, instead of taking your readied action, to move? Because you had to decide that during your turn?

Nex Terren

@DaaaahWhoosh Right. You specify the trigger and action in simple English. GM, as always, policies what's reasonable.

James

@DaaaahWhoosh Well...your readied action could...technically...I think, include both a move and an attack if you want it to

DaaaahWhoosh

@James right, but you don't get to decide after the trigger happens, right?

basically, read this answer

James

@DaaaahWhoosh Correct, once you choose the action that has to be the action (unless your DM allows you to do nothing instead)

DaaaahWhoosh

the guy is arguing that you choose an action, and can later choose to move and not spend a reaction when the trigger occurs

James

15:54

@DaaaahWhoosh Nope

Each turn includes. 1) Action 2) Move 3) Bonus Action 4) Reaction. You get exactly one of each per round.

They have to be used on your turn, unless, like we mention you ready an action.

DaaaahWhoosh

well, the reaction isn't used on your turn.

James

...ok yes true

DaaaahWhoosh

but if you use the Ready action, it consumes your action when you decide what you'll do, and consumes your reaction when you do it

James

Actually I have used a reaction on my own turn once.

DaaaahWhoosh

I've been reading up on some edge cases, it might be possible.

James

15:57

@DaaaahWhoosh I would argue that you could give that person both their readied action and a reaction if for example someone leaves their threatened area and the get an opportunity attack.

...but that feels weird...I think the readied action should have to happen first...

DaaaahWhoosh

if you use the opportunity attack, that consumes your reaction.

are you saying they readied an opportunity attack?

James

So we have a house rule that on a natural 1 attack roll, you have to roll a d4 to see what happens. 1) Fall Prone 2) Drop your weapon 3) Swing through (hit a random adjacent creature, which can be yourself) 4) Break your weapon

@DaaaahWhoosh Yeah I take that all back it doesn't make sense, a readied action consumes your reaction.

Nex Terren

So weapons have a 1/80 chance of breaking? My, my.

James

One night I rolled a natural 1, then a 3 on the d4 and swung through, I was the target and I hit myself so I used a reaction to dodge or something I think it was a class skill...

We actually played last night. I transformed into a werewolf hybrid, raged, and then slashed at goblins with claws flurry of blows style...it was a massacre.

Oh and it turns out that goblins can fly...when you critical them as a barbarian/monk/werewolf.

2

@NexTerren Yeah and it seems to happen way more often than that.

DaaaahWhoosh

I saw a house rule once where weapons have their damage dice for hit points, and so you roll damage against them on a 1. It was only for one session so nothing broke, but I liked the idea.

James

16:06

@DaaaahWhoosh With our rule, mundane weapons auto break if you roll a 4, magical weapons ...I think we roll damage on them...but I don't remember.

DaaaahWhoosh

there's nothing like the look on someone's face when they're told they just broke their magic weapon

Nex Terren

See, my players think I'm evil, but I never pull stuff like this.

DaaaahWhoosh

(have I ever suggested we should have a Worldbuilding D&D campaign?)

James

@DaaaahWhoosh I'd be happy to DM :D

DaaaahWhoosh

I'd be happy to play, now that I know how

plus, it might dovetail nicely with all the other things we're doing

Bellerophon

16:12

i'D LOVE TO PLAY.

Woops. Didn't mean to use caps lock.

Secespitus

I'd love to be part of that now that I started DMing for a group of friends recently

And you are right @DaaaahWhoosh

Nex Terren

I'd love to play as well. What ruleset would we use?

Secespitus

I vote for 5e, because those are the rules I know :D

DaaaahWhoosh

@Secespitus seconded

Nex Terren

I vote for 4e so everyone is confused about the overly complex combat!

Hannah

16:16

-I don't know how to play D&D-

Nex Terren

That's why people play tabletops, right?

Bellerophon

I'd need to read up on 5e rules.

Nex Terren

@Hannah 5e is easy to learn, assuming we go with that.

Hannah

@NexTerren Right...

DaaaahWhoosh

just don't pick a magic user, things are really simple that way

Secespitus

16:18

But scheduling a WorldBuilding DnD campaign might prove difficult. It was difficult enough to get a decent amount of people for the WorldBuilding PoC chat session.

Nex Terren

Most basic concepts of the game:

You control one character. GM controls "everyone and everything else." GM is both the storyteller and referee.

To see if you succeed or fail at doing *something* you make a "check," such as a "bluff check" or a "strength check." You roll a die, add in how good you are at it, and give the number to the GM. He'll tell you if you lied your way into the compound or lifted the tree off the horse.

*Assume* you won't get everyone. Only need 4 players. Be fine if you have to tell someone "looks like we can't make it work out."

Gets a *lot* easier if you do that...

DaaaahWhoosh

as long as we can get one game going, just to see if it works out, we could always try rescheduling to include others later

Nex Terren

Combat is gamey, but mostly beyond that, @Hannah, it's like writing a story.

Bellerophon

Problem might be that we probably don't all have the right dice.

Hannah

@NexTerren Oh okay - should be fine then.

Secespitus

16:22

@Bellerophon We could use a chat on RPG.SE

DaaaahWhoosh

@Bellerophon I could probably make a HTML dice-roller

Secespitus

They have a dice mechanic so that you can type things like "2d4" to roll 2 foursided dice

Nex Terren

I'm assuming @James would use either Roll20 or MapTool, and both have built in dice rollers.

DaaaahWhoosh

I might still make an HTML dice-roller. Seems like it'd be fun.

Nex Terren

@DaaaahWhoosh No javascript. No CSS. Just. Pure. HTML.

DaaaahWhoosh

16:28

okay, I take it back.

is HTML even Turing-complete?

Nex Terren

@DaaaahWhoosh I'm not sure, but we've made random number generators with just books, so... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…

@DaaaahWhoosh Okay, looks like the answer is "almost." lemire.me/blog/2011/03/08/…

DaaaahWhoosh

huh, okay then. So with HTML and CSS3 I could probably do it, and it might be fun. But it wouldn't look pretty

actually, now I'm wondering how to make a random number generator

ugh, so much fun, so little time

Nex Terren

@DaaaahWhoosh $30 bucks will buy you a set of dice and and enough booze to bribe the hobos down on 1st.

Also an answer to "how do I find enough players for my new campaign?"

DaaaahWhoosh

I just hope they have enough time between the longsword lessons I'm going to be giving them

James

16:55

lol

I like the idea but lets get the new site and podcast sorted out and then jump into this

Hannah

yeah... i get the feeling we're a group who has amasing ideas lightyears before we can even begin implementing them

DaaaahWhoosh

I just want to play some D&D. I have two groups that might be starting up in a month or two, but I've been waiting for a few months already, and I think the beginner sessions I did got me addicted

AndyD273

@Hannah That seems to be my MO... "I really want to get into audiobook narration. I should buy a mic so I can do that! Also, I should probably write a book so I can narrate it... I'll get around to that later."

Hannah

@AndyD273 Same with me.

James

@DaaaahWhoosh Yeah that happens...

Nex Terren

17:26

@DaaaahWhoosh I have an online Star Wars tabletop RP. Not D&D ruleset, thought.

DaaaahWhoosh

@NexTerren is it... what was it, Edge of the Empire?

Nex Terren

@DaaaahWhoosh FATE.

DaaaahWhoosh

oh, so you just make it up as you go?

Nex Terren

@DaaaahWhoosh Besides the Force, not really.

The Force is kind of... nebulus as to how it works, but right now we have 0 Force users.

DaaaahWhoosh

I'm still unaware of the process of using FATE in games. I think I know what it is, but it seems like it needs to be extended in a lot of cases

I probably need to do more research on it

Nex Terren

17:52

You roll Fudge dice instead of d20s. No ability scores. More skills. Stunts instead of powers/exploits/feats/whateveryouwantocallthem.

"Aspects" are the only really unique... aspect... of the system.

AndyD273

@NexTerren "Fudge dice" sounds very sticky

DaaaahWhoosh

I can only roll a fudge die once. After that, there is no fudge die.

Nex Terren

:P

Fudge dice are d6s, with two +s, two -s, and two blanks.

Rolling 4 of them creates a bell curve.

DaaaahWhoosh

yeah, so you can get -4 and +4 but will probably get 0

I guess, I don't think I ever saw how to translate attack/damage rolls. Do they become the same thing?

Nex Terren

@DaaaahWhoosh Yep. You roll a check, they roll a check. The difference is the "stress" the target takes. "Stress boxes" (mental and physical) replace HP, and I like it better. They set it up cunningly where you never get bullet sponge enemies yet "health" still matters.

Basically depending on your Endurance skill you get a number of boxes. The boxes look like [ ] +1, [ ] +2, [ ] +3, [ ] +4... So the +4 box can, theoretically, take x4 the abuse of the +1 box, however when you take damage you have to mark off at least one box. So a guy sitting tough with 4x boxes still goes down after having four attacks connect, yet he can still easily walk off a massive +4 blow.

DaaaahWhoosh

18:07

so if you take two +4 blows but only have one box, the second one gets you?

Nex Terren

@DaaaahWhoosh First blow you'd probably mark off a +4 box, second one you'd mark off a +3 and a +1 box, leaving you with the +2 box.

DaaaahWhoosh

ah, that makes sense

so you can combine boxes, but you can never take a fraction of a box?

Nex Terren

Correct!

I also like how it handles intimidation and charm. Instead of just a "you failed the roll/you won the roll" the enemy has the option to "cow" and do as commanded/requested or take mental stress. Makes the process of the social interactions less... binary.

DaaaahWhoosh

yeah, I definitely need to do more research on this

Mithrandir24601

@NexTerren Hmm... I like this - it definitely looks much, much better than that weird 'health' thing that everything seems to use :)

DaaaahWhoosh

18:19

supposedly, D&D also uses stress. You only get hit once, when you fall to 0 HP. Everything else just takes away your ability to dodge

it's just usually more fun to describe injuries

James

Alternity may be of interest to you guys, its a far future space setting and instead of HP you have Stun, Wound, and Mortal points. each has their own implications and the points get expended. Its a cool system.

Nex Terren

@James Reminds me of Shadowrun.

OOOOH

SHADOWRUN WITH A BUNCH OF SMART PEOPLE AND A SMART GM WOULD BE AWESOME

James

Havent played shadowrun.

Nex Terren

It's rule rich, setting rich, and encourages thinking outside of the box. A perfect Shadowrun mission involves figuring out a way to accomplish a mission without firing a shot.

The world is something like Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell or Deus Ex, and you play as a team of mercenaries/con men/whatever other job you want to do.

Missions tend to involve planning, scouting out a location, social engineering... etc, and then you go into the mission and see how long your plan survives contact with the enemy. :)

But it only excels if you have smart, thoughtful players and a likewise GM.

It'd be awesome if we could get together a WBing group for Shadowrun.

AndyD273

Is that something you can do remotely?

Nex Terren

18:26

Sure. Skype + Roll20.com

DaaaahWhoosh

but where are we going to find a smart GM?

2

Nex Terren

@DaaaahWhoosh Ohsnapdatburn

DaaaahWhoosh

;P

AndyD273

@NexTerren Could almost become a spinoff show

Nex Terren

@AndyD273 It could!

AndyD273

18:27

I've never RPG'd away of a computer

"A bunch of monkeys roll dice"

Nex Terren

@AndyD273 Roll to eat banana.

AndyD273

Also a good random number generator solution

Nex Terren

@AndyD273 To be fair, most computer RNG solutions require billions of queries for computers to find patterns. We're not computers, and we'll never roll millions, let alone billions. Any pattern we think we see will just be humans' keen ability at finding patterns in the noise.

AndyD273

"Monkeys and a bag of dice"
"Monkey&D"

Nex Terren

@AndyD273 Monkeys and Madhouses?

AndyD273

18:31

Not bad...

Monkeys and Monsters?

Nex Terren

Works for me.

AndyD273

Well, should probably try to get the main podcast recorded

Hannah

20:07

... I have an idea for my sphinx's dwellings... but it seems a little ridiculous...

DaaaahWhoosh

@Hannah well, the sphinx is already somewhat ridiculous. So you've got nowhere to go but up.

(and I mean 'ridiculous' in the best possible way)

Hannah

... because they're basically dug-out cliff-houses, with a small tunnel-entrance. There is a 'fireplace' of sorts in the lowest floor, that has a 'chimney' into a small room, used for smoking prey for storage over the winters, but on top of that room is where they sleep (with underfloor heating caused by the smoak-room for the coldest nights of the winter)... so its basically a 3 story cliff-dwelling with some overkill methods for keeping warm in the coldest (and darkest) parts of the year.

... this style will likely only be found in the most northen and southern areas of the planet, though i worry it doesn't have any good solutions for the hot summers.

DaaaahWhoosh

I feel like if it's dug into the rock then that should insulate against the heat

isn't that what adobe does?

Hannah

@DaaaahWhoosh True. Tbh, i've been a bit overkill on the whole heating thing... though then again, i estimate the poles go hugely below freezing during the winter

Nex Terren

Sweet! I got 2 points from a user being removed!

2

Hannah

20:20

... saying that though, as i don't have any decent temperature equations to figure this stuff out properly though, i'm not sure what the temperature difference will be between the summer and winter....

DaaaahWhoosh

cliff-houses should cover both cases. Warm in winter, cool in summer.

AndyD273

It might depend on how underground it is.

I think once you go down a little bit the temperature is pretty normalized around 58F (or something) year round

Hannah

@AndyD273 Yeah, thats what i thought... i didn't want it to be too far underground to prevent ventilation issues... but how far underground they'll be i don't know

AndyD273

Geothermal gradient

Geothermal gradient is the rate of increasing temperature with respect to increasing depth in the Earth's interior. Away from tectonic plate boundaries, it is about 25 °C per km of depth (1 °F per 70 feet of depth) near the surface in most of the world. Strictly speaking, geo-thermal necessarily refers to the Earth but the concept may be applied to other planets. A line tracing the gradient through the planetary body is called a geotherm on Earth and other terrestrial planets. On the Moon it is called a selenotherm. The Earth's internal heat comes from a combination of residual heat from planetary...

but being on a cliff face would probably change things a lot

So if it was near the surface on the face, it would probably be warmer/colder than if it was back a ways

So, it is a cold winter day, the outside air temperature is 30 °F, but the temperature of the ground 10 feet down is a balmy 50 °F. By putting pipes in the ground, we can exchange the heat from the ground to the house. A fluid is pumped through a closed loop of piping into the earth where it warms up.

TrEs-2b

I just finished up a pretty funny session of Dnd. Can confirm shenanigans

Hannah

20:29

@AndyD273 Thats what i thought. I'm going to try and negate this somewhat by having the living areas be quite small, but i'm also being a bit inspired by iron-age roundhouses - as in i want them to be able to smoke/preserve game from inside the dwelling... without suffocating them to death... hrm

@AndyD273 I was like, 30 degrees seems a bit warm for a winter day... but then i realised you were using farenheight

AndyD273

@Hannah Not my quote. it's from a geothermal heating/cooling website

But yes, Fahrenheit.

Hannah

@AndyD273 And how feasible is this idea for a relatively pre-historic culture (from stone to maybe copper or bronze-age?)

Secespitus

@TrEs-2b Which edition are you playing?

TrEs-2b

5th

Secespitus

I am a new DM for a group of friends for 5e. It's always funny how you plan something and 5 minutes in your players want to literally go in the opposite direction

AndyD273

20:34

10 feet (3 meters) is not very deep. They built the pyramids in the bronze age, I'm sure they could handle it

DaaaahWhoosh

@Secespitus something that bothered me about beginner one-shots I've been in is that I can tell where the DM wants to go, but everyone else seems to not notice and focus on things that are obviously under-developed

improv is nice, but I'd kind of like to explore the places that were planned out already

TrEs-2b

@Secespitus Absolutely, we were in a destroyed village, and or paladin found a blacksmith's apprentice. We saved him, and immediately tried to recruite this scrawny kid. Our DM claimed he had a tiny tim situation going on, so our paladin wasted their healing spell on the kid.

Secespitus

@DaaaahWhoosh I have one player that always wants to goes the straight-forward approach that I planned and the authors get hung-up on something I said - which shows me that my communication is not very clear from time to time.

AndyD273

"The road goes toward the West."
"We want to go East."
"but the road goes west."
"We want to go east!"
"Fine. The party leaves the road and heads east. Suddenly the ground opens up and swallows the entire group, instantly killing them all."

Secespitus

@AndyD273 "Congratz, you found the lair of 'Grumpy' the ancient red dragon that is known for devouring people - roll new characters"

@TrEs-2b "Tiny Tim situation"?

TrEs-2b

20:37

bum leg

AndyD273

@Secespitus I always took it to mean sickly, no cure

Secespitus

@AndyD273 Ah, thanks for the explanation. Never heard that phrase.

DaaaahWhoosh

God bless us, everyone!

TrEs-2b

@Secespitus to make things worse, the kid gave the paladin a javalin, so of course I mentioned how I helped save him and in my attempt at buttering him up, I gave him a severe ego. When our DM pointed out he had no weapon, our ranger gave him his second shortsword. Now our DM has this kid pretty much trying to prove himself by going head first into every battle.

Basically our low level party now has one of those Highschool egg's from Home ec, useless and troublesome to keep alive

Secespitus

@TrEs-2b Oh my god, that sounds hilarious!

TrEs-2b

20:39

It somehow gets better

The Ranger and Paladin renamed him paul and "adopted him"

now when the DM rolls initiative for him, he writes him name as "Paul"

Secespitus

I had a situation where there were a few dead horses blocking the path of the wagon. One player said "Let's move the horses and move on fast so nothing surprises us". The others started dicussing what might have killed the horses and wanted to stay exactly where they are. Another one got bored and decided to cut of the hooves of the horses. That was the start of him collection trophies from everything!

DaaaahWhoosh

Adventurers. They ain't right in the head. But when the kingdom needs savin', they're the best we've got.

6

TrEs-2b

I love just how far off plan a session can get

The best is when the DM let's it

Secespitus

Yeah, it's pretty funny to see what they come up with and to try to improvise something.

But improvising is hard

TrEs-2b

Like for example, Me and our Warlock got into a 15 minute argument whether to go west into endless plains, or east into a town. Only to discover that "paul" had written a fake town on the map because he was bored and we only could go west

Hannah

20:55

@TrEs-2b Thats hilarious.

TrEs-2b

Our DM really wants this kid to die, so naturally every session since we got him has become saving private Ryan, we will die for this kid

Secespitus

@TrEs-2b How many sessions did the kid survive already?

Bellerophon

I played DnD once and it was great but there are no local DnD clubs to me.

Secespitus

@Bellerophon That's why I convinced my friends to give it a try

TrEs-2b

so far, 4 sessions. I think he been involved in a dozen or so fights; at least half our encounters are his fault

Hannah

20:58

@Bellerophon I've never played...

Secespitus

@TrEs-2b You are good at resisting your DM :D

AndyD273

So this is interesting:

The Early Bronze Age was simultaneously terminated in all the countries of the ancient East—a vast catastrophe spread ruin from Troy to the Valley of the Nile.

Hannah

@AndyD273 Yup - Its known as 'The Bronze Age Collapse' youtube.com/watch?v=KkMP328eU5Q

TrEs-2b

Our Party isn't really into Dnd for the roleplay anymore is the thing, we play to have fun, true chaotic

AndyD273

@Hannah cool

Bellerophon

21:03

I played an overly polite dwarven cleric. Got some roleplaying xp for knocking and asking if we could come into a cave which we knew was filled with enemies.

2

Hannah

@AndyD273 dating from 1200 to 1150BC, cities of this era are found burned & leveled to the ground, after thousands of years of great civilisations.

AndyD273

@Hannah watching it now

Hannah

@AndyD273 Ah

AndyD273

very interesting. to bad it's such a mystery as to what happened. At least he says it was a mystery several times in the first couple minutes

Hannah

@AndyD273 Yup. In later videos he goes over what we do know from the very few written records of the time, along with likely reasons why it may have fallen so quickly

Mithrandir24601

21:07

I've heard about this before - it sounds a bit speculative, but I've read people saying that it might have started the legends of Atlantis in that there was a tsunami (or something similar) that destroyed a really wealthy civilisation around that time and the same event caused what's now referred to as the Biblical exodus. Sounds speculative to me, but not impossible

TrEs-2b

One of my favorite characters to play was a lawful good cleric. Basically the idea was he knew every law and it's details; that's it. He was stupid in every other way. So in every encounter I would try to arrest the enemy, I even confessed to local law enforcement our crimes. The best part was giving dumb laws that were broken to justify arresting someone, like jay walking

Got to go, remember me!

Hannah

@Mithrandir24601 It could be anything from sustained drought, rioting, invaders and/or more.

Bellerophon

I want to play a lawful evil cleric. I'm thinking he would really hate having to work with the 'good guys' but be bound to it by some deal I made which I cannot break.

DaaaahWhoosh

@Hannah is that where the Sea Peoples come in? Or were they later?

AndyD273

@Bellerophon Seems like that would be a little like playing a genie. "You said that you wanted to see the world. So I'm throwing you into space..."

follow the rules exactly, but if there is any wiggle room you'd interpret it in the worst possible way

Hannah

21:12

@Mithrandir24601 One of the few written records from the period are a plee for help that never made it out of the city it came from states "My father behold, the enemy ships came. My cities were burned and they did evil in my country. All my troops and chariots are in the land of huttie (sp?) and all my ships are in the land of luuka (sp?). My country is abandoned unto itself"

@DaaaahWhoosh Yep - youtube.com/watch?v=y-8uv4D7cOE&t=6s

AndyD273

I must go as well. Places to go, children to play with.

Bellerophon

@AndyD273 Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Like he ended up swearing to obey one of them for whatever reason so is now stuck in this party and is trying to annoy/kill them within the rules.

Mithrandir24601

@Hannah Of course - the interesting bit was how they analysed the whole exodus thing - it does make an alarming amount of sense (I think he reckoned that it could have been caused by a volcanic eruption, but this is even more speculative) - he looked at the plausibility of the plagues (actually very likely, but in an uncertain order), then the crossing of the red sea he thought would have been the crossing of the reed sea, which is where the tsunami comes in.

Very interesting, but 'speculative' is a bit of an understatement

Hannah

@Mithrandir24601 Exactly

AndyD273

@Bellerophon I swore to follow you do the death. I didn't say whos.

Mithrandir24601

21:14

@AndyD273 Geros Ilas (and @TrEs-2b)

DaaaahWhoosh

I like the idea of the sea peoples. They didn't write anything down, but they destroyed the people who did. We know about them only by the destruction they left behind. It's terrible for history and the people who lived it, but great for storytelling.

Hannah

@DaaaahWhoosh Yup - Though i think the records of 'The Sea People' come from Egypt, basically talking about how they were not defeated by them... i think... though it might have been propaganda of the time as they were defeated by them eventually

Mithrandir24601

@Hannah This is so, so fascinating - do you know anything else about this? Where was it found? What other records were there?

DaaaahWhoosh

ah. maybe. Yeah, this is the first I'm hearing about the Egyptian account. I seem to recall they destroyed ancient Greece

Mithrandir24601

The sea people?

Was that 'the people from across the sea' or something?

Hannah

21:20

@Mithrandir24601 I think so... Though there is debate over whether they were foreign invaders or more local groups

DaaaahWhoosh

@Mithrandir24601 they're probably not the people from across the land

Mithrandir24601

Why didn't I do classical civilisation for A level?..

Hannah

... i'm not an expert in the subject - the only bronze age stuff i've kept up with closely is the excavation at Must Farm in England (nicknamed 'Britain's Pompeii' for how well preserved it was)

DaaaahWhoosh

most of what I know about the Bronze Age is that the khopesh is a cool sword

Hannah

@DaaaahWhoosh ... i know that Britain basically skipped over the copper age, going straight to bronze due to having a supply of tin on the island.

Oh, and some bronze-age dwellings (such as the one in Must Farm) in britain show similarities with those in the netherlands (i think), with dwellings over the water.

... aw man i'm getting excited over the finds in the 'Must Farm' dig again... i'm inwardly squealing over it

Mithrandir24601

21:28

Oh yeah, while I remember, @Hannah - I'm not sure on this, so would need to properly think about this, but a couple of days ago I had the thought/partial realisation that the orbit of your planet is going to vary slightly (it's probably not going to be exactly circular for the exact same reason that the luminosity reaching a point in a circular 'orbit' is going to change over time - it's a higher order effect due to to massive objects also moving around

Hannah

@Mithrandir24601 Oh? thats interesting.

Mithrandir24601

@Hannah youtube.com/watch?v=YHrJ2uAiCwI

I've got a program that I wrote a few years back to simulate the solar system, so I'll maybe try it on that if I can find time at some point

Hannah

@Mithrandir24601 Oh thats cool. I've been wanting to get a program like universe sandbox for a while, but as i don't have a good source of income right now i've been putting it off.

Mithrandir24601

22:09

@Hannah @DaaaahWhoosh youtube.com/watch?v=bRcu-ysocX4

Hannah

22:40

... bronze can be made with arsenic? - so if you had a thick grip, and wielded it very carefully, could you have a 'poisonous' blade?

Mithrandir24601

I doubt it... I don't know chemistry, but I would have thought that a chemical compound (is that even the right term?) would have different properties to its constituent parts - chlorine is a poisonous gas, but is used in swimming pools and is safe in that

Hannah

... yes, but i'm pretty sure that arsenic can poison you through skin contact over a period of time

Mithrandir24601

apparently it caused problems for the smiths, but that's all I know

In any case, if I got stabbed with such a weapon, I'd be more worried that I'd been stabbed than the fact that it was arsenic :P

Hannah

true...

Shalvenay

hey there @Hannah and @Mithrandir24601

Hannah

22:52

@Shalvenay hello! - normally i'd be signing off by now, but i'm watching a video first

Mithrandir24601

@Shalvenay rytsas! I'm currently listening to various fascinating videos about the bronze age collapse and swords while baking some cocoa muffins :)

Shalvenay

I'm pondering what the damage footprint for 1kg of mass accelerated into the head of NK's Dear Leader from orbit at .99c would be...

Mithrandir24601

@Shalvenay There's an XKCD about this...

what-if.xkcd.com/1

Shalvenay

yeah, I was hoping for more specific details :P

Mithrandir24601

Well... what's more specific than 'everything with a radius of about a mile around the target essentially gets nuked'? :P

Shalvenay

23:00

@Mithrandir24601 yeah, the firestorm radius isn't specified though

Mithrandir24601

@Shalvenay I don't really know but it would have an energy of over ~6-7 x10^17 J on impact

Shalvenay

ouch.

that's a Tsar Bomba and then some right there

Mithrandir24601

Lots and lots of damage in other words :P

Shalvenay

yeah

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