Oh jeez, Gencon events list posted. I need to review that.

@doppelgreener Ill try to see what I can find out.

@JoshuaAslanSmith thanks dude :)

that might actually make for a good mainsite question: "what happened to the lifeboat?"

@Miniman They have the same birthday? Hmm... has anyone ever seen @BESW @trogdor and @doppelgreener together in the same room?

@Yuuki Hmm... even when they claimed to be in the same room, wasn't @doppelgreener Skyping in?

This doesn't count.

@nitsua60 X-Files Theme

(there's also the "BESW is actually four people" theory)

howdy to all!

@MadMAxJr I've only ever been to one Gen Con (there was only ever two in Australia) and it was kinda lame. D':

Didn't know they did them over there. Huh.

Only in 2008 and 2009.

This is Gencon 50. Kind of a milestone.

I bought a pirate sword from one of them.

I went to '09 in the states.

I remember asking the dude if I could take it out of the box and he gave me a very firm no please don't and taught me a bit about how the security guards would feel about me doing that.

I hung out with the creators of a now defunct RPG, hung out with their art guy during the EN Awards and watched him get best cover art award. Bought a buncha games I have to this day not played.

I also bought my campaign coins there, which I later used for fate points. They had a big bowl of them selling for something like 10c/coin, and a dollar or two for a little silk bag to keep them in, so I gave them all the rest of my change for the day and made off with a satchel of awesome metal coins.

@doppelgreener you wanna post and I'll cobble up an answer? It looks like it was folded into the previous D&D edition forums and each handbook is just a post there

but there is a post with an index of the ones they saved/deemed worthy

enworld.org/forum/…

I'll edit my answer on the meta question with the new link

@JoshuaAslanSmith sure thing

I did get to play the one-room version of True Dungeon on that trip too....

Think I still have my dagger puck/coin.

(I just created the en-world tag!)

that is a tag we probably couldve used earlier

YOUR LOGO HAS CHANGED

WHO ARE YOU IMPOSTER

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE REAL DOPPELGREENER

*waves hands and puts finger on arm phaser space ghost style *

Moltar made some changes up in the booth.

That's why.

@JoshuaAslanSmith I'm here! It's still me! I'm a doppelgreener, remember?

Some kind of doppeldoppleganger.

haha

ah

thats right your race is known for its doppleganger abilities how could I forget space ghost laugh

[nervously laughs along & sweats]

definitely not a mindflayer

Also this marks the first female avatar I've used. Hooray! About time.

mourning your lost subjectivity now that you are a diamond

thankfully the 4e charop lives on so I can still wistfully dream about running/playing 4e

I need to vent my 4E hardbacks into space.

lol why

@MadMAxJr Vent them into my space. I like 'em and had to leave mine at home in Australia.

If you're willing to pay the shipping fees, you can probably have them.

if wotc just made the compendium a database program Id pay 100 dollars for it

I hope everyone has updated their system software lately?

your bank probably hasnt

@MadMAxJr I have this Peridot/Lapis Lazuli ship. Will that pay the cost?

I haven't seen much outside of the first couple seasons, so no.

Darn

I saw enough to know that Gregg Universe is the best dad, not for his accomplishments, merely the fact he tries hard despite having almost nothing.

@MadMAxJr He is an amazing dad.

Like many cute, charming things in that show, Gregg reminded me that you can be happy with a handful of things in your life.

Then after realizing I am experiencing emotion, I went back to internet forums.

gotta wash out the taste of that sentimentalism

In the grim, dark internet future there is only flame war

mearls ama in 20 minutes?

Steven universe is a pretty important to me because it brought all those messages about love, acceptance, compassion, directed both at others and oneself, despite flaws if not also because of flaws.

@NautArch that could be interesting

Apparently the green one still reflexively wants to solve all problems with killbots, but shows restraint now.

I was having a pretty hard time with almost every area of my life and was experiencing what was only recently diagnosed for me as an episode of clinical depression.

That show helped a lot with everything I was dealing with, including just giving me time to sit and bond with one of my closest friends.

@MadMAxJr This is accurate, hahaha. I've heard it said she's based on an earlier Invader Zim fanfic Rebecca Sugar wrote, which explains a lot.

To be fair, as a person who writes modules for helpdesk software, I would love to solve user problems with killbots.

Ticket: Having problem with computer. Resolution: Computer annihilated by killbots. Request new computer.

@MadMAxJr Users would be very eager to find workarounds!

Mean time to close report would improve. But costs would also jump up.

Price of progress.

There is also the beloved "error ID 107" (or "error ID 10T")

@doppelgreener that's my favorite error code

a lot of the software I support at work throws fun error messages like 'Error: target could not be invoked error message: "

fails to list target

the error message for the error is blank as well

We have error messages. Then we have out of the blue calls from the product vendor, "So something happened and the database supporting your instance is doing things we've never seen before."

hahaha

Stored procs with enough if loops to become sentient

"It's self aware. And it hates 'Request for further assistance' tickets."

Looks like the Mearls AMA started.

@CTWind Lots of questions, no answers yet

Yeah, original post makes it sound like he'll be in and out so I'm assuming he put it up early to start gathering questions for later.

Dear Mike, why do you hate fun and my table and rule X?

He can't answer questions about unreleased products. Well fine, what about in a parallel universe where product X is out?

heckuva AMA, mearls.

Zero answers. Woo.

i haven't followed many AMAs, but I'm guessing this isn't normal? Or are answers reserved for IAA (I'll answer anything) threads?

Most AMAs start before the answerer actually answers questions.

Mostly to allow questions to self-seed by community popularity and to give them for the answerer to review which questions to answer.

Answers have arrived

hey there @Yuuki @GreySage

Hi.

how're things going?

Lamenting over the state of the competitive scene in NA.

ah. OK here. should be able to finish out our dungeon run sometime today

does that sound like a plan for you @Yuuki?

Hmm... I think it could be doable. You said there was just a boss fight thing left?

@Yuuki yeah, all that's left is a combat encounter basically

hey there @ShadowKras

reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/6bbfar/…

Hey @Shalvenay

I remember a lot of those same feelings going through chat a while ago

Ranger - I'd rebuild it using the paladin as more of a model yeah we need more classes that look the same mechanically...

how're things going?

alright, bored at work while stuff updates

ah, I know the drill man

been working on a more combat-heavy standing dungeon to go along with the one I already have

standing dungeon?

something I can just keep around and pull out when the occasion arises

as opposed to something that's meant to be used as part of a specific campaign

> Make shapeshifting more central, scale back on casting

That would not go over well with one of my friends.

re: Druid that is?

Maybe Mearls has been playing too much WoW.

@Shalvenay Yes.

@Yuuki that would be a bad decision IMO. Make it a class option if that's something the community wants

I see no problem with a druid option that is focused on shifting and spends his spell slots to improve combat

@ShadowKras yeah -- the current state of affairs for the Druid seems to be satisfactory although I haven't played one myself (I'm too used to 3.5e druids :P)

Is there a big thematic difference between a full caster druid and a Nature Domain Cleric?

aside from wild shape

@Adam primarily in the spell lists I reckon

Nope, they are similar

hrm...that's a good point then

The biggest difference is wild shape

against domain-granted powers

yeah, I think you're right come to think of it

that, and all clerics get turning AIUI

@Shalvenay They all get turn undead, yes. As far as base stuff goes, it looks to me like druids get wild shape and clerics get turn/destroy undead and Divine Intervention. Everything else is depends on your domain

@Adam right

About cycling initiative. How would you keep combat fast without rerolling initiative every round or using a program to make the rolls (like roll20 does)?

"if we ever did do a 6th edition, my ideal would be seamless backwards compatibility." I love you Mearls! trying to save my wallet and such things

The way combat works would need to be redesigned depending on how much we change how initiative works.

Example, lets say the wizard just cast a spell with 1 round duration and happened to be the last person to act on round 1. On round 2, he managed to beat everybody else on initiative and is now the first to act. What happenes to his spell?

@ShadowKras Initiative is decided atmospheric noise.

In which case, anyone who can cast Control Weather has advantage.

@SevenSidedDie thanks for the edits

@ShadowKras My group tried call and respond initiative once, and it was one of the most fun and quick combats we had. Though that does have the disadvantage of negating a bit of the benefit of having a high dex. Still, Dex has a lot more going for it besides initiative and call/response helps slower guys not feel so bad.

@Adam mind describing the call and response init system some more?

hey there @JoshuaAslanSmith btw

@Shalvenay We started it off normally. The first person who goes is the once with who rolls the highest init check. Then, at the end of their turn, they call on another creature to take its turn. Then after their turn, they call on somebody else, until everybody gets a turn. You can't pick the same creature again until everybody has been called.

@Adam nods interesting...

Ah, iv seen that, i think it was marvel heroic roleplaying?

@Adam how about when there is a single creature against the PCs?

PC1 calls the creature, creature calls PC2, PC 2 calls PC 3?

Yup, or any combination there of. It doesn't matter who's turn it is. Creature or PC, you just have to call somebody who hasn't been called before this round.

It's important to realize as well that the last person to go for a round can call on themselves to start the next round. So if you fight a big boss and have him go last, he could potentially call on himself to get 2 turns.

Of course, You guys can do the same thing

SO Pc 1 can call pc2, who calls pc3, who calls pc4, who calls creature?

Nobody has asked him about the unstoppable madness that is Sharkenbear yet.

Er, Mearls that is.

I see

@ShadowKras yup. Or PC 1 can call creature who calls PC 2 who calls... Just as long as everybody gets a turn, the order is fluid

Yeah that is how marvel heroic roleplaying works.

Its commonly called Popcorn Initiative.

Numenera/The Strange plays similarly, because the GM never rolls any dice, players simply react to being attacked and take their actions in whichever order they want to.

They make a single roll at the start of combat against a target number, if they pass, they act before the creatures

I've got The Strange coming to me in the mail. Curious how it works.

hey there @Trish and @MadMAxJr

heya

how're things going?

hey as well @WeirdFrog

Hey

how're things going?

hey again @ShadowKras and hey there @nitsua60

Popcorn initiative is pretty great.

Just don't use Ork initative. Biggest, loudest player goes first.

I've also had success with transplanting Doctor Who initiative, for games where it makes sense.

Talkers go first, followed in order by Movers, Doers, and last Fighters.

What distinguishes a Doer from a Fighter?

Make love not war?

Each round your initiative order changed depending on which of those four categories your intent falls into.

and hey again @Yuuki

"Doers" is pretty much the catch-all for any action that isn't one of the other three.

hey there @eimyr

hi

i'm here, I can talk!

or in NAB

let me get back to where we were in the NAB

oh hey there @KorvinStarmast -- sorry about missing you yesterday, was out for breakfast with relatives

@BlueMoon93 VtROed but there is no diamondhammer for that AIUI unlike VtC

there's not?

@BlueMoon93 Given the OP's change to the title, it seems like they're asking about what happens after the cancelling. Which they will have to do some more to detail what their question is about. I'm actually going to roll back the changes. Sorry. :/

I can't vote to ope it tho. Do i need more rep?

@BlueMoon93 yeah

ah well

I might ask something similar if that question doesnt go anywhere tho

i.e., whats the point of casting darkness or so, if attacks all happen normally still

Basically, if you have advantage, then are given disadvantage, they cancel each other out

If one party has disadvantage on attacks, and then the other party is given disadvantage on attacks, then they both have disadvantage.

And you can't "stack" advantage/disadvantage

Actually NVM I'm not going to rollback. The OP's edit to remove the “after” kind of question, but later edit to put the “after” part back into the title, just makes it a mess I'm not going to alter further.

so confusing

:P

anyway, thanks for listening

@doppelgreener why do you persist on giving away our secrets? XD

@trogdor sssh. it's one of those things where it's so ridiculous the best policy is to just tell the truth and then nobody will believe me.

@doppelgreener yes. of course. you. are. correct. totally separate entity

@trogdor [winks with one eyelid then the other]

lol

@trogdor the power of the diamond...

hey there @Ben

[wave]

what's up?

@Ben also the power of being a part of the conspiracy of the hive mind but the diamond works too

@trogdor the diamond is a marking given when they enter the hive mind

Not much

Dealing with software upgrades.

not much here either. (btw -- I realized that I had a half-elf that I could have tested your dungeon with earlier -- it was the bard I made for daze's boss testing)

"We released a new version of the software. The old one doesn't work anymore, so you have to upgrade."

@Ben hahaha

"Also, we're not going to tell you how it works. good luck."

@Ben how is the upgrade going, at least?

@Shalvenay Ahh fe

@Ben that would be sweet, but it is not how it works XD

@Ben ?

@Shalvenay All done now. It took me 3 days to figure out that there was one step that was added since the previous version, that is needed to make the whole thing work

Obviously, no indication of this was given

@Ben ah. glad you were able to figure it out

fe = Fair Enough

ah

have you gotten to deploy that dungeon yet btw?

I use that soo much haha

@Shalvenay Not yet, everyone's been busy

@Ben ah. was it intended for half-elves to be able to navigate btw?

hey there @nitsua60

I've spent my time coming up with "Cursed artefacts" instead

@Ben heheh

@Shalvenay It's a themed dungeon. Aimed at elves, but anyone with enough knowledge would technically work

@Ben ah.

out of curiosity, what were you envisioning the band o' mercs to go with that dungeon to look like?

@Shalvenay nothing special. Rag-tag bunch of dudes

@Ben ah. your typical band of grumpy old war veterans eh?

maybe with one or two young sprouts mixed in as trainees

Yeah. They were never meant to be essential to the plot. They're just the hook to get to the dungeon.

It's a side-quest more than anything

nods I see

@Shalvenay hiya

how're things going?

tech week for my daughter's play... sitting in a dark theater.