TRPG General Chat

@Himitsu_no_Yami The first one is easier.

then why would some people edit [text](link) and change it to the latter

@Himitsu_no_Yami I think it's technically more correct.

linksassin

12:07 AM

@Himitsu_no_Yami [text](link) is easier to write and better for copy paste. [text][#] [#]:link is cleaner to read and better if you want to reuse a link more than one in a post.

MikeQ

Also, if you use the built in editor to add links to an answer, it will automatically use [text][#] format

@linksassin I'm not sure I buy the "cleaner" argument, personally - I'm never a fan of storing contextual information separate to its context.

@linksassin Personally, I disagree with the cleaner to read bit. It means I have to see the [#] scroll down in the answer (if it's a particularly long one) and check where it goes to if I'm editing

@Himitsu_no_Yami Jinx XD

compared to having the link right next to the text it's attached to

12:10 AM

@Himitsu_no_Yami I stopped using [text](link) because it made it more difficult to reuse or edit a link. It also meant I couldn't look at all the links in a single location to make sure I referenced the right things

Like if I spend an answer talking about X thing, I can look at the list of links and realize I never actually linked to the rules on X thing

@Himitsu_no_Yami If you're wondering where a link goes, can't you just click the link?

linksassin

@Himitsu_no_Yami If you are writing a long paragraph with lots of links the []() format can get pretty cluttered and it is harder to spot typos or grammar mistakes.

@Medix2 But if you talk about X, Y, and Z, looking at the list won't tell you whether you linked the right links in the right places.

@Medix2 when editing not really

@Miniman And when looking at a paragraph full of [text](link) it becomes harder, at least for me

@Medix2 To each their own, I guess.

12:14 AM

@Miniman Yeah that's definitely the correct answer here

Now to wait for the person who edited my answer to pop in, realize I'm asking because of their edit, and respond. (tbf I am just curious about different people's takes on it, it doesn't really bother me or anything)

Yeah I want the answer on that too, maybe even open a Meta somewhere on if one has some meaningful benefit

In other news, I think I might be doling out too much magic item swag but oh well, I'm not taking it back now lol

@Himitsu_no_Yami Assuming you're talking about D&D 5e, quantity usually isn't an issue. As long as none of the items are too powerful, it shouldn't really matter much.

@Miniman well they're mostly uncommon, there's a bit of rare but no more powerful IMO than the uncommon

it also depends on what you consider "too powerful"

12:24 AM

Does 5e have anything like 4e's treasure bundles?

Not familiar with 4e but 5e's DMG has an entire chapter on treasure

@BESW I instantly typed "no", but it does technically have guidelines that are supposed to accomplish the same thing.

@BESW It has treasure and magic item tables one could roll on for hoards but... not exactly the same

Every level has a list like that, of the kinds of treasure the party should get over the course of that level.

If your party is smaller or larger, you drop fewer or more magic items.

And once every five to ten levels, you drop an artifact which has its own set of rules and eventually leaves the party after they've either made it very happy or very sad.

@BESW Yeah. See, the 5e guidelines are more like "roll d100, if you roll a 1 they get enough copper pieces to buy half a pair of pants, if you roll 99 they get a jetski each".

12:30 AM

@Miniman Gnoooooomes.

And you can roll for random treasures within those parameters, but the book encourages you to have the players make wishlists and you pick from those instead.

@BESW Imagine your surprise.

(The magic items are in the PHB, not the DMG!)

There's a recommended level at which you should have each rarity of magic items but rarity doesn't mean a whole lot

Yeah, 4e introduced rarity partway through its run and I promptly ignored it.

Besides that I guess there's the "Starting At Higher Level" section

12:34 AM

As long as I'm trying to be fair, they did have a second go at it in their equivalent of a PHB2, and those guidelines are at least not purely luck-based.

I don't have the hands-on experience to say whether they're good or not.

Morning all

Practically speaking, 4e's treasure parcel system means that every level drops [# of PCs] - 1 magic items between 1 and 5 levels higher than the party's level, and enough gold to buy another item at the party's level (or slightly less gold than that if the GM thinks they need a lot of healing potions just to survive). (They usually don't, even if the party doesn't have a dedicated healer.)

4e really does translate well into video game functionality lol

And you wanna upgrade your three main slots every five levels (weapon/focus for attack bonus, neck/back for non-AC defensive bonus, armor for AC defensive bonus), in order to keep up with the monsters' stats--which is the point where if I was gonna re-build 4e I'd just say "forget linear numerical progression it's just Red Queen bookkeeping, magic items are only for the nifty extra features they give you."

1:50 AM

Parenting conundrum: At schools they sometimes give kids "donation boxes" to take home and collect change to build up a "donation" for a cause. (local church, environment, etc).

So one of the boys has been stealing money from their mum's bag, to put into these donation boxes

Not a donation.

gszavae

I think "stealing is wrong" is probably a good start for parenting in this case.

Stealing is wrong - but giving money for a good caused is a good thing.

I think @BESW's point is probably a better one - explain what a "donation" actually is

gszavae

Giving the money isn't the problem and I'm not sure there's any need to discuss it :3

In a setting that places primary value on physical ends, rather than ethical processes, it's easy to wind up with "but she would have donated anyway" or similar justifications.

I like to think about how a donation is valuable for the person making the donation, not just the end recipient.

1:56 AM

^^

Yeah

This is deep in our parenting veins. "We do something nice for X not because it's good for them, but because it's good for us." "We forgive not to make X feel better, but to make ourself feel better."

It's a whole process-of-community thing.

~~"We moderate the site not for the users, but for ourselves."~~

See also: truthfulness, trustworthiness.

1:57 AM

Hmm... that one doesn't work as well....

gszavae

Kids often have trouble understanding ownership and consent. For that matter, it's a problem for many adults too.

@nitsua60 If it were my kid, it'd probably be an opportunity for the next part in an ongoing conversation about truthfulness and trustworthiness as capacity to discern, value, and uphold truth itself.

@nitsua60 well, I mean... in a round about way...

@Ben (Really, I was just trying to land the joke while not getting too pulled away from current project.)

Badum-tss

2:05 AM

Speaking of which, I'm really growing to enjoy editing audio of conversations. Cutting down pauses and trimming "umm"s and eradicating mouth noises has the same sort of monotonous fulfillment to it as, say, mowing the lawn or ironing sheets.

Thanks for the help. We'll have to think about it because the youngest one (6yo) is a bit too "innocent" or "pure" to get a proper grasp on the situation at the moment. We'll have to keep it simple. The 8yo on the other hand is a sponge.

(However, I'm not sure how I feel about the realization that I start basically every question "I'm curious: question question question.")

@nitsua60 Just finished "Midnight Gospel" on Netflix, which is kinda like that. It is an... odd show.

It's like an animated podcast

@Ben I don't know it--what's the one-sentence description?

> The Midnight Gospel was created by Duncan Trussell and Pendleton Ward – it is a mash-up of the latter's 2010-18 animated series Adventure Time with the podcast The Duncan Trussell Family Hour, in which Trussell interviews guests about their life philosophies and meditation practices

2:12 AM

@Ben I know Ruhi Grade 1 has modules on truthfulness and trustworthiness aimed at 6-to-8s.

But I'm not sure how useful they'd be without the accompanying training in theory and praxis.

Yeah. I think there are some more fundamental issues that need to be resolved first.

@nitsua60 I was going to say actually that I wonder if it's just me; but I feel like the spelling of the "rim shot" ("badum-tss" as I spell it) is similar but less focused than the "gif vs jif" argument. Lol

2:28 AM

@BESW just had a post flagged?

What?

this one in NAB.

Came up as a flagged post

Heh.