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Tequila Sunrise wrote:
@ Tac, How did WotC treat you rudely?
Tacticslion wrote:
Though it sounds petty, after attempting to ask questions to understand how 4e worked (simply due to naivete about the transition from one system - and the settings which I was deeply into at the time) I received more than one very... short... email:
Tequila Sunrise wrote:
Wow, sorry they treated you that way Tac, that sucks.

I mean, it's a long time past, now. I was ticked, but, eh. Time fades most things.

Tacticslion wrote:
This... is true (except for the level thing - monster levels are a bit weird, but that's just an artifact of how level =/= challenge that is never really explained well).
Tequila Sunrise wrote:
You mean how different monsters of equivalent level can be minions, standards, elites, or solos? What do you find unexplained?

No, actually! I meant CR for d20 systems rather than 4e! See, in d20 and related systems monsters have levels, but that's different from HD, which is different from challenge, which is different from etc. It's gone into great detail, but it also isn't inherently intuitive (though different people feel differently) either on the surface or how it's explained. I think the roles are rather self-explanatory in 4e - a little too on-the-nose for me, but it does work. It's like how ludicrously easy Starfinder is to create monsters for, though. I like how easy it is. I'm not entirely sold on the fact they're so fundamentally different. (That said, I find SR a good compromise for my purposes.)

Tequila Sunrise wrote:

Honestly, I get the appeal of fantasy physics, it makes things feel more real for many of us gamers. It's one of the things that I love and also hate about 3.x, because it's very inconsistently applied and compromised by sacred cows.

In fact the heartbreaker I wrote/am writing and am using as the engine of our family ttrpg, is basically a love letter to 3.x with fantasy physics!

Nice! I find the deeper system dives into various d20 systems often yields surprisingly robust and internally consistent results, but this is, again, not strictly intuitive, and several elements can only be realized when pushing things to their natural limits... while others are broken by the same. So it's a give-take relationship, and definitely not perfect.

Tequila Sunrise wrote:
video

... wwwwwow.

Tequila Sunrise wrote:
Anyway, thanks for being such a cool guy Tac, I can agree to disagree where we do. :)

That's what I got the AC for!

(Th... that's what ACs do, right? I think that's how that works.)


No wonder I'm so "cool"-! O.O
*gets clothes on*


4 people marked this as a favorite.
Tequila Sunrise wrote:
I remember fans complaining about one of the 4e promotion videos that WotC put out, so I went and watched it -- the one about grappling. It was definitely a bit of an exaggeration of the wordiness and detail of 3.x grapple rules, but it was very tongue-in-cheek and goofy. (And whaddya expect from a company selling a new product.)

for them to not actively insult the people using their previous product.

Seriously, the 80s are over. You can sell something new without actively insulting anyone who goes to the other guy, especially when the other guy is...yourself.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Freehold DM wrote:
Tequila Sunrise wrote:
I remember fans complaining about one of the 4e promotion videos that WotC put out, so I went and watched it -- the one about grappling. It was definitely a bit of an exaggeration of the wordiness and detail of 3.x grapple rules, but it was very tongue-in-cheek and goofy. (And whaddya expect from a company selling a new product.)

for them to not actively insult the people using their previous product.

Seriously, the 80s are over. You can sell something new without actively insulting anyone who goes to the other guy, especially when the other guy is...yourself.

Someone linked me a Gillette commercial the other day uh, like, two or three years ago now? more? sheesh, Time, what happened selling whatever number of blades they were up to at the time.

The commercial absolutely blasted "those other razors!" with fewer blades indicating that they were terrible in every way compared to the amazing new Gillette product (noting, of course, that test results they were touting were based on the "closest competitor" to their advertised product) and describing exactly how much more awesome Gillette was by sheer test results. Basically heavily implying you'd have to be a moron to buy that other outdated nonsense.

You know where this is going already: you follow the line of relatively obscured "see here for details" and said "closest competitor" was, in fact Gillette's previously released product.

"Man our old stuff sucked so much, you're like a moron to use it! Switch to our new stuff or you're a moron! Moron!" ... were never actual words they used, but the commercials (there were three) sure did imply it.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

(How to know your doing good as a parent during this stuck at home time)

So, a child, from his bedroom, uses his cell phone and calls his mother, who is in the front room, on her phone.

"Yeah mom? I slept in too late, and missed the bus. So I won't be coming in to 'school' today."

(Your reaction may vary,...)
;P


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Scintillae wrote:
I'm reminded of the all-barbarian party.

This... is beautiful, really.

And I gotta say - that GM is a champ. He might have prepped a TPK, but he didn't fake it, he let them have their victories, dealt with a traitor-player (and let him do his thing!), and generally rolled well with things. Sour or not and duplicitous or not, he let his players keep their earnings and adjusted his campaign, apparently multiple times, to follow the PC leanings. That's impressive.

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Scintillae wrote:
I'm reminded of the all-barbarian party.

That. Was. AWESOME!

Scarab Sages

2 people marked this as a favorite.

So last night I dreamt that Cap Yesterday was running a game for us on roll20.

I dont remember much more then him patiently explaining things and we trying to move our tokens.

Pretty wholesome dream.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

I wonder if they have that as a PlayStation app.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Tacticslion wrote:
Freehold DM wrote:
Tequila Sunrise wrote:
I remember fans complaining about one of the 4e promotion videos that WotC put out, so I went and watched it -- the one about grappling. It was definitely a bit of an exaggeration of the wordiness and detail of 3.x grapple rules, but it was very tongue-in-cheek and goofy. (And whaddya expect from a company selling a new product.)

for them to not actively insult the people using their previous product.

Seriously, the 80s are over. You can sell something new without actively insulting anyone who goes to the other guy, especially when the other guy is...yourself.

Someone linked me a Gillette commercial the other day uh, like, two or three years ago now? more? sheesh, Time, what happened selling whatever number of blades they were up to at the time.

The commercial absolutely blasted "those other razors!" with fewer blades indicating that they were terrible in every way compared to the amazing new Gillette product (noting, of course, that test results they were touting were based on the "closest competitor" to their advertised product) and describing exactly how much more awesome Gillette was by sheer test results. Basically heavily implying you'd have to be a moron to buy that other outdated nonsense.

You know where this is going already: you follow the line of relatively obscured "see here for details" and said "closest competitor" was, in fact Gillette's previously released product.

"Man our old stuff sucked so much, you're like a moron to use it! Switch to our new stuff or you're a moron! Moron!" ... were never actual words they used, but the commercials (there were three) sure did imply it.

Shiro's statement on the subject (and I have no reason to doubt him) is that the reason Gilette and others went to multi-blade disposables was that other companies were selling sharpeners that let people re-sharpen and re-use their old disposables. Adding the extra blades prevented the sharpeners from working.

And of course, the public went nuts over "more blades", so you now have the ridiculous 4-6 blade contraptions that jam up after only a shave or two because so much hair gets caught between all the darned blades...


6 people marked this as a favorite.

Communication is a skill that should be severely beaten into everyone.

NobodysHome: Hey, writer! The steps you detail in your documentation here (provides link) don't match up with what I'm seeing in the demo environment (provides screenshots).
Author: It works in my environment. Have you tried following the steps in my documentation (provides exact same link as the one I just gave him)?

If you're not going to bother parsing what I said to you, then don't bother responding to me at all. You're just going to p*** me off.

EDIT: Yes, you might consider it ironic that I first complain that 82% of all of our SRs are from people not RTFMing, and then I complain that a writer dismisses me and assumes that I didn't RTFM, but when my email included a link to that FM, plus screenshots showing me implementing the steps of the FM correctly, a response of, "Works for me. RTFM!" is pretty appalling.

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.
NobodysHome wrote:

Communication is a skill that should be severely beaten into everyone.

NobodysHome: Hey, writer! The steps you detail in your documentation here (provides link) don't match up with what I'm seeing in the demo environment (provides screenshots).
Author: It works in my environment. Have you tried following the steps in my documentation (provides exact same link as the one I just gave him)?

If you're not going to bother parsing what I said to you, then don't bother responding to me at all. You're just going to p*** me off.

Truth


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Woran wrote:

So last night I dreamt that Cap Yesterday was running a game for us on roll20.

I dont remember much more then him patiently explaining things and we trying to move our tokens.

Pretty wholesome dream.

...was I in the dream too?


2 people marked this as a favorite.
NobodysHome wrote:
Tacticslion wrote:
Freehold DM wrote:
Tequila Sunrise wrote:
I remember fans complaining about one of the 4e promotion videos that WotC put out, so I went and watched it -- the one about grappling. It was definitely a bit of an exaggeration of the wordiness and detail of 3.x grapple rules, but it was very tongue-in-cheek and goofy. (And whaddya expect from a company selling a new product.)

for them to not actively insult the people using their previous product.

Seriously, the 80s are over. You can sell something new without actively insulting anyone who goes to the other guy, especially when the other guy is...yourself.

Someone linked me a Gillette commercial the other day uh, like, two or three years ago now? more? sheesh, Time, what happened selling whatever number of blades they were up to at the time.

The commercial absolutely blasted "those other razors!" with fewer blades indicating that they were terrible in every way compared to the amazing new Gillette product (noting, of course, that test results they were touting were based on the "closest competitor" to their advertised product) and describing exactly how much more awesome Gillette was by sheer test results. Basically heavily implying you'd have to be a moron to buy that other outdated nonsense.

You know where this is going already: you follow the line of relatively obscured "see here for details" and said "closest competitor" was, in fact Gillette's previously released product.

"Man our old stuff sucked so much, you're like a moron to use it! Switch to our new stuff or you're a moron! Moron!" ... were never actual words they used, but the commercials (there were three) sure did imply it.

Shiro's statement on the subject (and I have no reason to doubt him) is that the reason Gilette and others went to multi-blade disposables was that other companies were selling sharpeners that let people re-sharpen and re-use their old disposables. Adding the extra blades prevented the...

I am of two minds on this.

When the multi blade razor first came out was when I first started shaving my head. My god, it cut through everything so nicely, I wondered why I never used it before. Hot knife through butter.

But my GOD my face was a mass of razor bumps. I could shave in 5 minutes or less, but yeesh...I looked like an awkward teenager afterwards.

If only I knew the glories of the single edge and straight razor as a lad and didn't listen to propaganda....I might look a good 5 years younger than I do now.


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I, on the other hand, found multi-blade razors much better to shave my face checks.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I on the other hand, frequently cut all sorts of chunks out of my head with a single blade, but love my head blade 4-6 blade contraptions.

It did take about a year to get the hang of shaving my head, but even once I got the hang of it, single blades routinely cut me more frequently and with greater severity.


4 people marked this as a favorite.
Freehold DM wrote:
Woran wrote:

So last night I dreamt that Cap Yesterday was running a game for us on roll20.

I dont remember much more then him patiently explaining things and we trying to move our tokens.

Pretty wholesome dream.

...was I in the dream too?

My guess is... probably not.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

Once razors went past *two* blades I went from 'being able to shave every day' to 'only being able to shave every few days' to 'shave only for urgent emergencies'.

Due to the spacing on the bigger bladed razors, it's like running a cheese grater across my face...


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Duh. Shaving is overrated anyway.

*grabs scissors to trim the beard*


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
Drejk wrote:

Duh. Shaving is overrated anyway.

*grabs scissors to trim the beard*

I had a beard at one point, sideburns at another. Too much effort.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I've never even seen a razor with less than three blades, much less used one >.>


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Orthos wrote:
I've never even seen a razor with less than three blades, much less used one >.>

woooooow....


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Wei Ji the Learner wrote:
Drejk wrote:

Duh. Shaving is overrated anyway.

*grabs scissors to trim the beard*

I had a beard at one point, sideburns at another. Too much effort.

?!

Wait... What effort?

Shaving is an effort. Not shaving is definitely not an effort. Getting scissors to cut away excess hair once a few weeks or months is much less effort than shaving every few days.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Nylarthotep wrote:

I on the other hand, frequently cut all sorts of chunks out of my head with a single blade, but love my head blade 4-6 blade contraptions.

It did take about a year to get the hang of shaving my head, but even once I got the hang of it, single blades routinely cut me more frequently and with greater severity.

while I have given myself some GOOD ones with a straight razor(learning curve is severe but my GOD the lack of razor bumps makes it worth it), a butterfly razor/drop razor is where to go if you want a good single blade shave. I use one from Aeglosland, and I tell you, if I had a time machine, it is what I would have used from a long long time ago.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Drejk wrote:
Wei Ji the Learner wrote:
Drejk wrote:

Duh. Shaving is overrated anyway.

*grabs scissors to trim the beard*

I had a beard at one point, sideburns at another. Too much effort.

?!

Wait... What effort?

Shaving is an effort. Not shaving is definitely not an effort. Getting scissors to cut away excess hair once a few weeks or months is much less effort than shaving every few days.

maybe you white guys can get away with that, but I can't. It takes a lifetime of practice and good tools at home/in the shop to maintain a beard if you are black. Scissors ain't gonna keep it even.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

I shave regularly, but not my face.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Freehold DM wrote:
Drejk wrote:
Wei Ji the Learner wrote:
Drejk wrote:

Duh. Shaving is overrated anyway.

*grabs scissors to trim the beard*

I had a beard at one point, sideburns at another. Too much effort.

?!

Wait... What effort?

Shaving is an effort. Not shaving is definitely not an effort. Getting scissors to cut away excess hair once a few weeks or months is much less effort than shaving every few days.

maybe you white guys can get away with that, but I can't. It takes a lifetime of practice and good tools at home/in the shop to maintain a beard if you are black. Scissors ain't gonna keep it even.

Idris Elba makes it look easy.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

I dunno if I want to think about Idris Elba and body hair for a while.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Well, that's horrifying. Let us never speak of this again.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Drejk wrote:
Freehold DM wrote:
Drejk wrote:
Wei Ji the Learner wrote:
Drejk wrote:

Duh. Shaving is overrated anyway.

*grabs scissors to trim the beard*

I had a beard at one point, sideburns at another. Too much effort.

?!

Wait... What effort?

Shaving is an effort. Not shaving is definitely not an effort. Getting scissors to cut away excess hair once a few weeks or months is much less effort than shaving every few days.

maybe you white guys can get away with that, but I can't. It takes a lifetime of practice and good tools at home/in the shop to maintain a beard if you are black. Scissors ain't gonna keep it even.
Idris Elba makes it look easy.

Idris Elba makes everything look easy!


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Freehold DM wrote:
Drejk wrote:
Freehold DM wrote:
Drejk wrote:
Wei Ji the Learner wrote:
Drejk wrote:

Duh. Shaving is overrated anyway.

*grabs scissors to trim the beard*

I had a beard at one point, sideburns at another. Too much effort.

?!

Wait... What effort?

Shaving is an effort. Not shaving is definitely not an effort. Getting scissors to cut away excess hair once a few weeks or months is much less effort than shaving every few days.

maybe you white guys can get away with that, but I can't. It takes a lifetime of practice and good tools at home/in the shop to maintain a beard if you are black. Scissors ain't gonna keep it even.
Idris Elba makes it look easy.
Idris Elba makes everything look easy!

That explains why people even considered making "Cats" movie...


2 people marked this as a favorite.

A couple of opinions on teaching:
(1) I taught math from basic remedial math for kids whose schools had failed them (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) all the way up through differential equations and linear algebra. And I never, ever saw the need for a calculator because, quite frankly, making the student take out a little box and ask it for an answer significantly reduces the student's sense of accomplishment in getting it on their own.

Yes, it's more boring to teach math when all your figures are parabolas and lines that intersect at integers. And it takes quite a bit more work to make every problem work out "nicely". But the students not only get the concepts just as well, they can do all the problems by hand and get a sense of actual accomplishment.

(2) Neutral jin is a powerful concept.
In general, I like Impus Major's physics teacher. *But* he lost his Thursday lab time, and the only thing he could think of to do was to turn it into an agonizing 6-hour lecture. So, yeah... no one can pay attention to anything for 6 hours straight. Have them work together on a worksheet. Have them do the homework together. Suggest some stuff they can try at home that doesn't have to be graded, but that will help them understand the concepts you're talking about (when he was doing pulleys, everyone tends to have at least one can and a shoelace around the house). 6-hour lectures aren't helping anyone.


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Not even The Stand or Endgame were that long.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
NobodysHome wrote:

A couple of opinions on teaching:

(1) I taught math from basic remedial math for kids whose schools had failed them (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) all the way up through differential equations and linear algebra. And I never, ever saw the need for a calculator because, quite frankly, making the student take out a little box and ask it for an answer significantly reduces the student's sense of accomplishment in getting it on their own.

looks at this

looks at timed regents exams

reaches for calculator

Sorry, I have to go to college and you dont write regents exams.

Quote:

(2) Neutral jin is a powerful concept.

Yes, I too love Al Qadim.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Freehold DM wrote:
NobodysHome wrote:

A couple of opinions on teaching:

(1) I taught math from basic remedial math for kids whose schools had failed them (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) all the way up through differential equations and linear algebra. And I never, ever saw the need for a calculator because, quite frankly, making the student take out a little box and ask it for an answer significantly reduces the student's sense of accomplishment in getting it on their own.

looks at this

looks at timed regents exams

reaches for calculator

Sorry, I have to go to college and you dont write regents exams.

Oh, don't get me started on test writers...


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Losing my squash here. Zucchini are just right out. Eggplant were a non-starter.

Doc sister crying that my MIL mailed her homemade fabric masks.

I hate that this is where we are right now.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Yup, it's April.

How do I know? It's snowing.

As luck would have it I happen to be working next to one of the houses on my snow run.

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Freehold DM wrote:
Woran wrote:

So last night I dreamt that Cap Yesterday was running a game for us on roll20.

I dont remember much more then him patiently explaining things and we trying to move our tokens.

Pretty wholesome dream.

...was I in the dream too?

I dont remember :(

Scarab Sages

2 people marked this as a favorite.
captain yesterday wrote:

Yup, it's April.

How do I know? It's snowing.

As luck would have it I happen to be working next to one of the houses on my snow run.

Yep.

Here in the netherlands we have a saying.

April does whatever it will.


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captain yesterday wrote:

Yup, it's April.

How do I know? It's snowing.

As luck would have it I happen to be working next to one of the houses on my snow run.

It was 82 here yesterday. Last night it dropped into the 30's and today's expected high is around 49.

That's Midwestern consistency.


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Nylarthotep wrote:

Losing my squash here. Zucchini are just right out. Eggplant were a non-starter.

Doc sister crying that my MIL mailed her homemade fabric masks.

I hate that this is where we are right now.

Good crying or bad crying?

Scarab Sages

3 people marked this as a favorite.

MrT had some considerable beard envy of Riker in Star Trek: Picard.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Orthos wrote:
Nylarthotep wrote:

Losing my squash here. Zucchini are just right out. Eggplant were a non-starter.

Doc sister crying that my MIL mailed her homemade fabric masks.

I hate that this is where we are right now.

Good crying or bad crying?

Yes? She has had to deliver babies without PPE. Including one or more to feverish women. She has had mandatory testing after several probable exposures. Respiratory issues and epidemiologies are not her thing, but pretty much everyone in the hospital is being affected in some shape.

I have an acquaintance who can get large bulk orders (>500k) masks that meet FDA requirements, but hospital bureaucracy precludes them from being purchased readily. I know of several places making face shields, but again, getting them to the hospitals is proving problematic.

Just meh.


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Been trying to hold it in, and I won't even be evil enough to link it all, but:
(1) Nearly every high school and college in the country requires kids to buy a TI graphing calculator
(2) In all my years as a researcher visiting labs at U.C. Berkeley, U.C. Davis, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) in Berkeley, then as a trainer visiting NASA, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and others, I never once saw a graphing calculator, much less anyone using one.

TI managed to create a need where none existed, and insert themselves as a mandatory requirement nationwide for a tool that no one in any industry outside of education uses.

It's really beyond vile.


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I would and still do frequently see HP graphing calculators in the EE department at my alma mater and with engineers at telecom companies.

My TI85 lasted from my freshman year of college to 2006 (so about 15 years). Granted, I did not use its graphing capabilities once I went to law school, but I still used it.

They are tools. Sometimes they work well, sometimes they are a hammer to a hex bolt.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Nylarthotep wrote:
I would and still do frequently see HP graphing calculators in the EE department at my alma mater and with engineers at telecom companies.

That honestly surprises me, but at least someone uses them.

Nylarthotep wrote:
My TI85 lasted from my freshman year of college to 2006 (so about 15 years).

I'm still happily using my 1983 HP 15C. (No graphing, though.)

Nylarthotep wrote:
They are tools. Sometimes they work well, sometimes they are a hammer to a hex bolt.

Exactly. Which is why I get so upset that we are now dedicating entire courses to teaching people to use them and requiring low-income students to buy a tool they'll most likely never use again.

Kind of like requiring every kid to takes wood shop to buy a $150 6' level.


4 people marked this as a favorite.

I have a 150 dollar 6' level.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

I don't get beard envy, I can pretty much grow a full beard on command.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
captain yesterday wrote:
I have a 150 dollar 6' level.

And a job that makes having one make sense :P


1 person marked this as a favorite.
captain yesterday wrote:
I have a 150 dollar 6' level.

The reason I chose it was that so do I. :-P

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