TRPG General Chat

12:33 AM

okay, so let's say you have "punching two"
and you jump out of a window to make a flying punch at some mook using that and get two 6s.

What can you get as your level 3 skill?

nitsua60

@goodguy5 "dramatic entrance"

"drop it like it's hot"

"I'm the Hulk, I'm the Hulk, I'm the Hulk" (Act One's the referent)

goodguy5

wat

nitsua60

@goodguy5 If you feel like listening to ten minutes of Mike Birbiglia it'll make sense. And make you laugh.

(I assume the "wat" is in response to the third?)

goodguy5

tbh, I didn't notice that it had a play button

trogdor

@goodguy5 it has to get more and more specific, so the vanilla example is "punching while moving"

nitsua60

12:42 AM

I think the "more and more specific" bit is what leads to the "must be a subset of the skill used" thinking. I know it did for me!

trogdor

Or even the literal exact thing you did "punching while going through glass"

But if you don't already have punching while moving, it's better to get that because it is less specific

nitsua60

That, and the use of the word subset in the ruleset.

trogdor

It is,... Hard to come up with stuff sometimes for it

BESW

Right, so nothing says skills have to get more specific.

trogdor

I thought they did?

BESW

12:45 AM

> If you roll all sixes on your roll, you can get new skill one level higher than the one you used for the action. The skill must be a subset of what happened to you in the action (Say, Athletics 2 if you were climbing a wall, or Teeth of Biting 2 if you were eating a cake)

The trick is that it's "a subset of what happened to you" rather than "a subset of the skill you used."

So what happened when you leapt through a window to punch someone?

Did you fall three floors, landing in a "punch the ground" position that created a tremor shock knocking everyone off their feet?

trogdor

Did we just play it the wrong way then?

BESW

Maybe get "Falling with style 3."

Or did you knock out all the guy's teeth? Take "Out-patient dentistry 3."

@trogdor At least once, yes.

trogdor

Ah

I only played it a couple times so

BESW

@goodguy5 The skill you use doesn't have anything to do with the skill you get. It's the outcome that matters.

trogdor

Ok

Shalvenay

12:50 AM

hey there @MikeQ, was eating -- so, whatcha got?

Rubiksmoose

@BESW So is the top answer wrong then when it says "I'm also fairly strict about the rule that new skills must be narrower in scope than the one that was used to gain them, so even if players do end up gaining high-level skills, they're not very often applicable (at least not without either clever planning by players or fancy footwork by the GM)."

BESW

i don't know of such a rule.

In my experience, the open-ended narrative-driven nature of new skills is a big part of what makes the game so fun.

Rubiksmoose

I don't know why I remembered that one part of the answer but it stood out to me.

goodguy5

@BESW that can't be because then you'd never get level three skills

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 Skills don't level up, you just get new ones.

goodguy5

12:53 AM

I didn't say that they leveled up

BESW

@goodguy5 I mean, in terms of what the skill is. The rank of the skill used informs the rank of the skill gained, but the nature of the skill is irrelephant.

goodguy5

Then it matters

BESW

@goodguy5 Not as an answer to your question, "What can you get as your level 3 skill?"

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 I see.

goodguy5

it matters that you used a level 2 skill.

And that you could have only done the thing (at level 2), using your level two skill

BESW

12:55 AM

I don't know what you're talking about.

goodguy5

So, my example.

BESW

You seemed to be asking about how to determine what a level 3 skill could be.

Mike Q

@Shalvenay Summary: PCs are on a pirate ship and just got a ton of treasure. There's an enchanter spy among the crew, and intends to steal the treasure, and hijack the ship to meet up with their boss in X days. The enchanter's plan is to use illusions and other spells to make the PCs think that the treasure is cursed, so if the PCs notice anything odd, they can blame the "curse".

goodguy5

"I jump out of the window, shattering glass. I charge my fist and swing a might punch at the mook below"

you can either use your level 1 skill of "do anything", right?

Shalvenay

@MikeQ right...

goodguy5

12:56 AM

or you can use your "punchin' schmoes level 2" skill

Mike Q

@Shalvenay Until day X occurs, I have no planned encounters. Just the spy slowly working their plan, and making the PCs think that they're dealing with a curse.

BESW

Depending on your GM, yes. Because I like calling for lots of rolls, I'd say that jumping through a window isn't punchin' a schmoe and call for two rolls.

goodguy5

fine, then "do anything 1" to jump
and then "punching schmoes 2" to hit the guy

BESW

But if you're using Punching stuff 2 to go through a window fists-first, that's awesome.

Okay, so you roll two sixes and punch the schmoe. What happens when you punch him?

(This is why RFS works so well: it forces narrating interesting outcomes rather than just saying "you succeed," because the outcomes are where the new skills come from.)

goodguy5

@BESW "My fist connects with his face, the crunch audible. But it doesn't stop there. My momentum from the window jump drives us both to the dirt, a ploom of dust rising as we hit the ground"

BESW

1:00 AM

Cool.

schmomentum 3

I like it.

schmomentum

As an RFS GM, I would happily accept Schmomentum 3 as the new skill in that situation.

goodguy5

right on

BESW

1:02 AM

I would also accept "Raising dust 3" or "Crunchin' stuff 3"...

Mike Q

@Shalvenay So that's what I'm looking at. It's an opportunity for the players to do downtime and RP and whatever. So I need to keep them interested, even though there's no immediate threat.

goodguy5

but for Schmomentum 3, it matter that you used a level 2 skill to get the result

BESW

Only inasmuch as it's a rank 3 skill.

You were asking about the phrasal part.

goodguy5

and the skill that allowed the roll was "punchin schmoes 2"

BESW

It doesn't matter, mechanically, that the skill was "Punchin' schmoes." That just led to the narrative situation which gave rise to Shmomentum.

Rubiksmoose

1:04 AM

My fist RFS skill name. I'm so proud XD

goodguy5

yea, but you had to have it to roll the two dice

BESW

Skills aren't trees in RFS, they don't owe anything to their progenitors. Once a skill's been made, it's independent of the skill which created the situation that birthed it.

I'm still very unclear what you're arguing about.

goodguy5

@BESW I get that (now. didn't get it originally, because of the example they use).

what I'm trying to say is that the GM (narrator?) has to know you have punchin schmoes 2

Shalvenay

@MikeQ give them hooks as to what's going on? gossip and such?

Dan B

2:13 AM

so, I've been running Dungeon World oneshots recently

here is a thing that happens: someone always takes the Immolator

the Immolator has a power: you can ask any NPC "what fans the flames of your desire?" and they have to answer truthfully, no rolls involved

as DM, I struggle to give interesting answers to this question

Shalvenay

@DanB heheh. I actually considered taking it in my first time through DW but settled on Druid after considering Paladin

Dan B

...like, here's one thing I tried: one of the first times this happened, there was a creepy eyeball-themed wizard spying on the party with eye beasts, and they're like "what fans the flames of your desire?" and I told them the eyeball wizard had a creepy crush on the fire priestess of the temple in town

so one of my players decided he was going to resolve the eyeball-wizard subplot by coercing the fire priestess to sleep with the eyeball-wizard

and -- I mean, I communicated that I wasn't really comfortable with this, that it felt uncomfortably rapey, especially the way he was going about it. but he doubled down on it, and eventually I had to ask him to leave my table

since then, I've carefully avoided any responses related to sex, even though "what fans the flames of your desire" is sort of asking for that

Shalvenay

@DanB I'd view that question as related to motivation more generally, not anything specific to mating

Dan B

so I guess here's my question: what are some good responses to "what fans the flames of your desire"?

BESW

While DW is definitely okay with sexy times, the table gets to make the ultimate decision, and "desire" is deliberately vague.

Dan B

2:18 AM

(I considered making this a post on the site, but decided it would likely get closed before I got a good answer)

BESW

How about this exercise: think about some characters in pop culture and how they'd answer.

What fans the flames of Captain America's desire? Justice and mercy.

What fans the flames of Twilight Sparkle's desire? Cross-referenced checklists.

What fans the flames of the Shredder's desire? Vengeance.

The Immolator's whole gimmick is toying with the different metaphorical meanings of fire and how to creatively interpret fire-related idioms.

Dan B

...well, here's a more recent story: the group is wandering through a forest, far from civilization, looking for dryads to help make a magic item. They roll a 6- on a check, so I narrate that a druid shows up flanked by two spirit bears and she's mad about some damage they did to some trees. the immolator walks up to the druid and says: "what fans the flames of your desire?" and I totally blank.

(so I did what I always do when I totally blank, which is I turn to a random player and tell them it's their job to answer this question. worked pretty well actually!)

but: what would you have answered?

Rubiksmoose

healthy trees?

Dan B

haha, I guess? "healthy trees" doesn't obviously lead to an interesting next plot development, but I guess they don't all have to

Rubiksmoose

Less jokingly though: unsullied nature? but that doesn't progress you that much either.

BESW

2:33 AM

@DanB Best. Technique. Ever.

I love game systems that lean into it, like Fate and InSpectres and Lady Blackbird.

Joel Harmon

@DanB Appendix 4, Instant NPCs; both the Instincts list and the Knacks list seem like reasonable things to check

BESW

@DanB A really really good cup of tea. Which she can't enjoy properly while trees are being savaged!

Joel Harmon

@BESW Speaking of you and game systems, would you mind taking a look at the Bubblegumshoe section in my recent answer and verify I'm representing the system well? I don't immediately know of anyone else who has played it.

BESW

I saw it! The only thing I might change is "nebulous." More like... complex or nuanced?

nitsua60

@DanB "breezes through the trees. The clattering of bare branches in winter, when you see the souls of trees. Breezes that blow in nourishing rains. Summer breezes heavy with the heavy scent of honeysuckle. Breezes chasing stampedes of dried leaves."

Joel Harmon

2:36 AM

@BESW uncertain?

BESW

Nebulous or uncertain implies that there's stuff you don't or can't know; BGS is more about "Okay, you've got all the pieces but there are no easy answers... but you've got to make a decision anyway."

Joel Harmon

I liked what I recalled of the mechanic enough that I wanted to include it in the answer, but as mentioned I have no actual experience with it.

Mike Q

@DanB Adventurers who pay for the trees they damaged

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 clearly that druid has never seen the Jet Taxi before :P

nitsua60

I don't know what that is.

Shalvenay

2:42 AM

@nitsua60 oh, you must have missed that Mythbusters episode then, where they flipped a car and a schoolbus using the jetwash from a 747 doing a ground runup

Rubiksmoose

@DanB I'm going to have a sort of similar problem with a PbtA game I'm going to run called Masks where there is a move anybody can do at any time called Pierce the Mask that allows you to ascertain motivations and plans of enemies.

@nitsua60 should Are there heroic or good Yuan-Ti? have dnd-5e and dungeons-and-dragons?

Dan B

Oh? How do you plan to handle it?

Rubiksmoose

@DanB Man, I have no idea honestly at the moment. Planning basically.

nitsua60

@Rubiksmoose Probably not, but I think it's going to take OP's input to clear it up. [commenting...]

Rubiksmoose

Hopefully I can have villains (it is a superhero campaign) fleshed out enough where I can tell the PCs motivations and plans without having to improv too much.

On the other hand if they are going to use it on random Joes on the street I might be able to have some fun with it making up random motivations. Though I don't think that is likely at all.

nitsua60

2:51 AM

I've voted to hold the question because I think it's unclear how [dnd-5e] and [dungeons-and-dragons] interact here. Rather than us asking what sources are acceptable, can you just edit in to the post what the source of the question is? I.e. why do you need to know? Are you writing an RPG novel? Running a home game? Trying to present something to your GM? Writing an adventure for publication? When we know that answerers themselves will be able to judge which materials from which editions they want to reference. — nitsua60 ♦ 1 min ago

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 I saw! Thanks for doing that. Hopefully they get back so we can get them some sort of answer (though I'm not sure there is really relevant source material in 5e aside from VGtM exist at this time sadly).

nitsua60

I mean, we don't even know if they're even playing 5e. They mention some 5e books, but maybe it's just that those are the ones on the shelves, or that their friend mentioned.

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 Oh yeah I meant if the answer turned out to be 5e based. Which you smartly phrased your comment in a way that would suss that out pretty quickly if they ever answer it.

nitsua60

@Rubiksmoose Thanks! (Happy accident, to be sure.)

Sun rose about half an hour ago in Estonia. The geese are heading out for the day, and the eagle's looking jealous.

Rubiksmoose

Awww yisss. Eagle TV. Almost forgot to check in on the poor guy/gal (any consensus on the gender of this one?)

nitsua60

3:04 AM

I think that's the darker-colored one.

Rubiksmoose

Man eagle parenting is boring. You'd think they could get Netflix (Nestflix?) at least

Joel Harmon

3:36 AM

@BESW How do you feel about "The setup is always a tricky social situation where you know what happened, but there's no clear right answer."

BESW

3:58 AM

@JoelHarmon That sounds good! Maybe "usually" instead of "always"?

Ben

Just dropped in to drop this off

BATMETAL FOREVER

►

BESW

4:15 AM

d&d notes

Tweeted by NowWeAreAllTom on April 13, 2018 at 1:31 AM

Axoren

4:41 AM

Hey what's the usual message to comment to new posters when you need to direct them to the posting guidelines? I couldn't find my way to the wiki on the new UI.

I wanted to send [this dude](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/a/120403/14873) the link to let him know why people are downvoting him, but I can't navigate the site for crap anymore.

RIP, also forgot how to link

I found the link: rpg.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-answer

BESW

[help], [tour], [chat], and [edit] all expand to actual links.

I usually post
Welcome to rpg.se! Please take a look at the [tour], it's a useful introduction to the site.

In chat, sticky returns (pressing enter to create a new line) breaks almost all markdown. That's why your link failed.

Axoren

Man, that's pretty weak markdown if it can't handle a few stairs.

BESW

Yes, well. I suspect it has something to do with the Stack Exchange interface being originally and primarily designed for talking about code.

Axoren

Anyways, thanks @BESW. I included your message almost verbatim, plus a light shove towards the answering guidelines. I'm surprised that one lasted in the queue as long as it did. Usually, those things empty within 10 minutes.

BESW

So a quick and easy way to paste code into chat without confusing the chat into executing it... makes a lot of sense.

Axoren

4:50 AM

Yeah, but you can format as code blocks, can't you?

Or do the backticks not do multi-line?

`Hello
World`

Rip

BESW

 Hello
 World

Five spaces for multiline code blocks.

But code blocks destroy text-to-speech reader functionality, amongst other things.

Axoren

If I wanted to post over 5 lines of code, I wouldn't want to be assed with adding 5 spaces to the beginning of each line.

BESW

Also--putting just one line break into a message dramatically increases the maximum character limit for the message. Which is nice.

Axoren

I can see why this was done now

BESW

I dunno if you need five spaces at the start of every line? [shrug] I don't code.

Hello
World

Nope, every line for that.

Axoren

4:52 AM

Hello,
Mars?

Yeah.

BESW

When I was curating a pinned message linking to time-sensitive RPG events like Kickstarters and beta testings, I used the line break's increased character limit a LOT.

And because I wasn't using code blocks, the markdown implemented itself in the star bar where line breaks became spaces.

Axoren

Sneaky, sneaky.

kviiri

7:53 AM

For bird aficiandos, the Satakunta osprey seems to have returned: youtube.com/watch?v=Numban4ufNA

Not trying to oust the Estonia Eagles as the "official" bird mascots of this chat though :)

BESW

room topic changed to RPG General Chat: Main chat room for tabletop role-playing games [birds-apparently] [dice] [jeff] [pen-and-paper] [roleplaying] [rpg]

Tiggerous

Morning all, I've been thinking about homebrewing a new teleportation spell for my dnd-5e setting. Part of making sure I balance it right would be comparing it to existing spells. Is there an equivalent question to this one What spells are available to resurrect characters? for teleportation spells?

Magician

@BESW One day, Jeff & co will edge out any and all mentions of RPGs

Tiggerous

8:08 AM

I feel like there are even more possibilities for teleportation than resurrection, however. So, would such a question be too broad?

kviiri

8:28 AM

Hm, I'm a bit iffy about list questions but I think such a question could be useful to the site in this case.

Tiggerous

The hesitancy about list questions is why I wanted to check in here before posting something.

kviiri

On a very positive note, it's a limited list (bounded by the number of official 5e spells) with a clear and rare inclusion criterion

I say go ahead

Tiggerous

Great, thanks for the input.

kviiri

The usual problem with list questions is, the lists are practically or even concretely unbounded.

So an answer would never be complete

Tiggerous

Because a future official release might render it incomplete, or?

kviiri

8:34 AM

I mean, the typical problematic list questions

Eg. "What are games that have <this mechanic>"

Tiggerous

Oh, I see.

What are games with an emphasis on "hand management"?

That would be an awful question.

kviiri

Omega, the roguelike.

:P

Tiggerous

Hmm, do you think I need to stick in a caveat of "teleport characters willingingly"?

To avoid things like Banish being a correct answer?

kviiri

Few people have heard of Omega it because it's a niche instance of a niche genre (roguelikes). Basically it's a roguelike with lots of cool things and content which no one ever saw because its gameplay is terrible.

Tiggerous

Sad :(

kviiri

8:40 AM

Hmm, can't really comment on that one. Including or excluding categories of teleportation is, as far as the stack is concerned, just a detail

...and among those terrible gameplay things was, indeed... hand management.

Most roguelikes have an inventory "backpack" that can be accessed without delay. Omega went for more realism. The character has two hands to move stuff around with, slots on their belt, pockets etc for easy access. The backpack had much more space, but the more stuff was in the slower it got.

There was also the item slot "up in the air" which was used as a sort of temporary swap slot. An item "equipped" there would fall to the ground after the swaps were complete.

Tiggerous

That does sound unnecesserily complex.

I must admit, I was thinking of specifically card games, which I guess is a sign of how awful that question was.

kviiri

:)

I feel sad about Omega, but I guess it has done the world a service by being a warning example of what design by "wouldn't it be cool if" alone can cause.

Tiggerous

A salutory lesson for us all :P

How does this sound?

**What are the official spells that can be used by characters to teleport themselves or others in Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons?**

Which classes can cast them and at what level? If appropriate, what is the limit to the distance that can be teleported using them? Is it possible for companions to accompany the caster?

kviiri

@Tiggerous I would be fine with this

I wouldn't totally discount someone thinking it's too broad, but life's too short for worrying about that in advance. You have my vote!

I would maybe explicitly add a note whether you permit or not UA content.

And module-specific, if there's module specific magic in 5e.

BESW

@Tiggerous If possible, it's best to describe the situation you're facing and ask for help with it; right now that question sounds like you've already decided what kind of help you need and are asking for that without telling us what's actually going on.

Which means we can't apply our experience-based expertise to solving the problem, because you're shutting us out and just using us as a reference librarian.

You'll be able to take advantage of the full resources of our experts by describing the challenge you're facing. If the solution is a list of spells, you'll still get that list! But you'll also get other kinds of solutions too.

It's often harder to ask a more comprehensive "this is my situation" question, because it requires more reflection to accurately describe the challenge one is facing. But the rewards are well worth it, in my experience.

You'll get advice on processes and techniques for homebrew, based on concrete experiences.

Tiggerous

9:04 AM

Thanks both.

When writing questions I always have two considerations in mind, specific enough to answer my own issue, broad enough to be useful for as many other people as possible. Should I be ignoring the latter?

BESW

@Tiggerous In my opinion, yes. Good answers to narrowly specific questions explain "how" and "why" with techniques and processes that others can learn from and apply to their own situations. Broad questions tend to get vague, diffuse answers that aren't particularly helpful to anybody.

A long time ago the Stack Exchange had a "close as too localized" option for questions that nobody thought would be useful to anyone except the asker.

Over time they came to realize that narrow questions which are worthy of closing aren't close-worthy because of their narrowness, but because they violate other guidelines we also have specific close reasons for.

And that narrowly focused questions encourage complex deep dive answers that really draw on answerers' experience-based expertise.

The Stack works best when it's providing well-explained actionable solutions to challenges someone actually faces.

[/soapbox]

kviiri

I think BESW has a good point

BESW

(This is one reason armchair stacks like sff.se have a hard time. Solutions aren't really... actionable... there, so voting and topicality gets wonky.)

kviiri

Teleportation is, while seeming like a narrow-ish thing, used commonly for three different purposes: fast travel, obstacle bypassing and tactical mobility. And then there's niche uses like measuring longitude (this is an actual thing in 7th Sea).

Tiggerous

Hmm, OK. So "Is my homebrew teleportation spell balanced against exisiting spells?" is a better question than "What ways are there of teleporting in 5e?"?

BESW

9:13 AM

@Tiggerous Yes! But now you have to describe what "balance" means for your design goals.

Mar 23 at 5:41, by BESW

@ravery The trick to "balance" questions on RPG.SE is, "balance" means something different to everybody. We can only help you with balance questions if you can explain to us what "balance" means for your particular group/campaign goals.

Mar 23 at 5:41, by BESW

For your game, is balance about using mechanics to manage the spotlight so everybody gets time to feel useful (does out-of-combat usefulness redeem in-combat obscurity)?
Or keeping fights interesting by making sure they aren't too long or too short?
(What is "too long" or "too short" for your group? How can you tell?)
Is it about making sure the players will win the fights while keeping them feeling like they could die at any moment, or is it giving them a fighting chance but there's still a reasonable likelihood (20%? 50%?) of character death?

And so forth.

Tiggerous

@BESW It just seems like many more people, other than me would find the list question useful for later reference.

BESW

Feel free to ask it. I'm not the question police. [grin]

And like I said, this kind of question isn't easy.

Tiggerous

To be honest, ideally I'd ask both.

BESW

But I do think you may find that your homebrew proficiency improves from the self-reflection required to ask such things. I know mine did!

Sounds great.

Tiggerous

Not sure if sarcastic... :P

BESW

9:17 AM

Not at all. Sorry.

I'm kinda in-and-out while helping my dad with his nighttime routines.

Tiggerous

That's cool, thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts.

BESW

I hope it helps! Thank you for being a thoughtful citizen of the Stack experiment.

And thank you, @kviiri, for your input too!

kviiri

@BESW I'm always happy to partake ^^

Well, in pedantic terms, not always. Eg. when not online :)

RPG stack is a good pastime for a person who, like myself, is interested in debate, policy and process but also wants to see something fun and productive emerge from it.

Tiggerous

Is the opposite of inter-planar simply planar?

BESW

Inter-planar... something between or across more than one plane.

Planar... relating to at least one plane.

I think what you're looking for is intraplanar.

doppelgreener

9:26 AM

I wouldn't say those are always opposites, because "inter-planar travel" is moving between planes... but "planar travel" is the spell for doing that. :P

kviiri

I'd feel the need to say "intra-planar" but I'd advocate a clearer choice of words (remember that we have plenty of ESL users!)

Eg. expand to "teleportation within a single plane"

doppelgreener

I agree with all of that.

BESW

Yeah, unless you need a keyword that'll be included in the glossary at the back of the book, I'd go for a more phrasal explanation like @kviiri's.

Tiggerous

Thanks. I think that's probably enough questions from me for a while.

Question posted, please feel free to suggest any edits.

kviiri

10:30 AM

The teleport question got me facetiously wondering, what exactly is a willing creature?

A sapient being who knows about teleportation is easy, but what if we're speaking of a non-sapient creature, an infant human or something like that which completely lacks understanding of the concept of teleportation?

Or perhaps, even the concept of will.

BESW

...is it impossible to use a "willing creature" teleport on someone until they reach their/the caster's culture's age of majority/consent?

Or at least, unethical?

"I can't teleport you, kid. Not without a note from your parents."

doppelgreener

Nonsentient animals and infants cannot legally consent to magical involvement until at least of age 8, and until then their willingness defers to that of a parent or guardian or nearest fit to that concept determined at time of casting.

@BESW Permission slips are a very important part of conducting magic upon youths.

kviiri

There's two alternative models at work: "passive willing" would mean a creature is willing unless it mounts some psychological resistance and "active willing" would mean a creature is unwilling unless it somehow actively consents to being teleported. Either of these seem problematic when dealing with mindless or non-sapient creatures.

BESW

"You've been accepted to Magic School! Please have your parents sign this permission-to-teleport form in blood."

kviiri

I'd ask this in main site but I think we have enough questions about weirdness caused by reading too much into the minutiae of 5e wordings...

BESW

10:38 AM

@doppelgreener You need to get a teleporting license before you can legally teleport yourself without an accompanying licensed adult. Teleporting more than four other people alongside you at once requires taking an extra class and test to qualify for the chauffeur's license.

doppelgreener

@BESW "Please only put the blood in the signature spot. Please use the blood to make a signature, specifically. The blood is expected to belong to the signatory. That is to say, the blood is expected to have been the blood the signatory's own body produced. We've had a lot of confusion over these points, and don't want to have another incident like the one that happened last year."

"Children with parents or guardians who are animated constructs, incorporeal, or otherwise blood-deficient, please speak to school guidance for possible counselling and alternative forms that do not require blood. Please do not seek alternative means of acquiring blood."

@BESW Getting a chauffeur's license is difficult, given the number of accidents that occur in larger teleportation spells. The licensing program thus offers a course to assist potential candidates in passing: "Everything Will Be Fine: Convincing Not-Too-Close Friends to be Subjects of Ridiculously Dangerous Tests with Extremely High Fatality Rates Without Telling Them All The Details."

And the later-developed "Everything Will Be Fine 102: So They Heard How We Trained You To Lie Through Your Teeth About the Whole Process So You Could Perform Extremely Dangerous Magic On Them And Eleven Other People You're Not Actually All That Fond Of, What Now?"

kviiri

10:57 AM

0

Q: My group has problems with planning quests and making decisions in situations with limited information

I am very content with my group so far, when they are in a situation with current problems they are quite ingenious to solve it (Escaping from a inescapable magicians prison with a toilet which has something like an embedded small sphere of annihilation). But if they are not in danger and there ...

Is this a proper situation for system agnostic? It would seem to me knowing the system would help a lot.

0xFFF1

[D&D 5e] If you obfuscate the true meaning of the actions you command someone under the *Suggestion* spell to undertake, does that allow you to bypass the restrictions that normally prevent self-inflicted harm?
For example:
> Take <this>, go over <there>, and say <that>
<this> is a bomb enclosed in a box with a magical trigger
<there> is someplace you want them to explode violently
<that> are the words of power to activate the bomb

kviiri

I'd rule it depends on whether the target knows these.

0xFFF1

So if they pass or fail an Insight check?

kviiri

No, unless you've got a policy of using insight to learn hidden nature of things.

If the target is just some random mercenary who has no idea what's in the box, I don't see a point in giving them any check.

BESW

Random thought of the evening: sugar substitutes make good names for deities. Aspartame, Mogrosides, Xylose.

kviiri

11:12 AM

Aspartame does have a Greek goddess vibe

0xFFF1

isn't you issuing the command a form of deception, and thus deserves an opposing insight check?

kviiri

Nah, otherwise you'd have to roll it for pretty much every Suggestion.

0xFFF1

or that failing the suggestion saving throw is a substitute for failing an insight check. having the NPC roll insight is a double-whammy

kviiri

Yeah

0xFFF1

If they somehow survive the explosion, would that trigger the
> If you or any of your companions damage the target, the spell ends.

goodguy5

11:21 AM

Why wasn't this closed as a list question?

0xFFF1

as is the spell ends anyways because that's the end of the commands

goodguy5

3

Q: What spells are available to teleport willing characters in DnD 5e?

What are the official spells (published materials only) that can be used by characters to teleport both themselves and others in Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons? Which classes can cast them and at what level? If appropriate, what is the limit to the distance that can be teleported using them? H...

dnd-5e spells

kviiri

@goodguy5 Because it's a good list question. The search space is neatly finite and the criterion of inclusion is simple.

goodguy5

Fair enough

kviiri

As opposed to the list types where the search space is pretty much unbounded and the criterion is vague, something like "Which RPGs have Good-aligned vampires".

doppelgreener

11:27 AM

Bear in mind "list question" is old terminology that had more relevance in 2009 before the actual problem criteria got worked out. Now it's short-hand for that criteria.

20

A: What is the definition of a list question?

I just want to point out we need a clear unambiguous definition of when a question can be called a "list question" or alternatively why we shouldn't use it as a definition. It's not a definition, a condemnation, or even really a classification. It's... Shorthand. For straw-polls, GTKYs, di...

Many questions that involve a list somehow are actually OK on account of not hitting any of the actual problem criteria.

11

A: What are list questions?

List questions are as Shog9 describes in the Meta Stack Exchange question you linked, What is the definition of a list question?: they're the types of questions from our Don't Ask which lead to unbounded opinion collection in which every answer is equally correct. These are for example the "tell ...

Joel Harmon

@Axoren If I have over 5 lines of code, I'm almost certainly copy/pasting it from a different program where both it's already indented like that, and the program has a block indent feature.

@doppelgreener I am still interested in the whole 'advise not to accept for a day' controversy, but I'm on my way out the door now.

KorvinStarmast

12:14 PM

@doppelgreener But 8 is 56 in dog years, isn't it? :)

kviiri

Sorry to crowdsource stuff here, but I have this music box whose melody I need to recognize. Does this ring any bells? drive.google.com/file/d/1MLLoczhEofhvm_EE4S9sO_VvSJzq8Ub_/…

Ok well I'm not actually sorry. It's not like I'm spamming this on an hourly basis or anything

doppelgreener

@KorvinStarmast Good point! I'm not across the latest statutes of dog magic but I'm sure there's a fierce debate going on about that.

KorvinStarmast

@doppelgreener We have a pair of lawyers on retainer for that case, but their record is spotty ... they were recommended by one Mr Greenhilt ... Jones and Rodriguez law firm. :) What could possibly go wrong?

doppelgreener

@kviiri i will reach out to my network

kviiri

@doppelgreener Problem solving via exponential explosion of friends-of-friends-of-friends tickles my computer science nerves nicely

BESW recommended me a site with a rather extensive list of music box melodies but listening to them all is hard word :)

doppelgreener

12:27 PM

@kviiri seven degrees of person who just happened to come across that song this one time

kviiri

@doppelgreener Excellent reference!

Or, might I say, well memed.

doppelgreener

@KorvinStarmast so i'm now picturing actual dog lawyers in a dog courtroom of dogs, with like, a team of three human plaintiffs (but the courtroom isn't human sized, so they have to sit on little seats and hunch over a bit to keep clear of the chandeliers), and there's a plaque on one wall reading NO HOWLING

kviiri

Le roi et l'oiseau Thème

►

A friend suggested it might be this but I'm not hearing it

doppelgreener

@kviiri yeah, it's not the right sort of musical refrain

nitsua60

@Axoren I would say that I, personally, am not in favor of "this may be why people are downvoting you" comments; rather I find "this is why I've downvoted" much more productive. More here, second grouping, second bullet.

goodguy5

12:48 PM

anyone have a good video of roll for shoes being played?

kviiri

@doppelgreener I'll be offline for a while, thanks for your help and don't hesitate to ping me if you or your friends figure it out! (same for the others too)

doppelgreener

@kviiri ok! :)

12

Q: Can someone decide to be hit?

In this question, I asked about whether a character could willingly not use their shield or Dex bonus on certain attacks due to wanting to be hit. This raises the greater question- Can someone decide to be hit? The question was answered here, but it is for 4e, and I am asking about 5e. This que...

dnd-5e attack armor-class defense

this is kinda stunning to me

"i'm just going to stand here. you, take all the time you need and give me a good and proper stab with that sword."
"HIYAAA" [miss]

i mean... i know the rules probably just weren't written with Consensual Stabbing in mind... but the surreal stuff that falls out of rules sometimes is great

KorvinStarmast

@doppelgreener It's not a miss, per se, it's a hit, or an attempted hit, that didn't do damage. (A bad swing that glanced off of the leather armor, for example)

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