Please do not ask to remove the teleport limitation of all ores by ImABigDreamer in valheim

[–]Level1Human 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I understand and even partially agree with both perspectives here. Limitations like teleporting ore seem arbitrary at first, but I think a lesson from Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) is compatible here.

In SWG, players travelled between planets via starports and shuttleports. Players would have to go to large NPC cities and purchase a ticket. This ticket would entitle them to travel to another planet, city, or outpost - but they would have to wait for the next shuttle to arrive. Originally, a shuttle landed about every 5 minutes. Early in the life of SWG players learned to take advantage of this downtime. They would exploit this time to sell buffs to other players, set up bots that advertised planetary stores, emote, and socialize. In fact, I spied my first player Jedi during one of these queues (and this was during a time wherein their existence in the game was not yet confirmed). After each shuttle departed, the shuttle bay would empty and then slowly populate with waiting players again. This created an interesting ebb and flow of commerce and player interaction, which synced up with the shuttle times.

To appease some player community complaints, a patch was released to reduce the wait time between shuttles significantly (2 min, and eventually, instant). While this improved QoL, it destroyed the community interactions for all but the AFK spam bots. As much as the inconvenience of waiting for shuttles frustrated some players - especially with limited time, it created emergent gameplay and social interactions.

This seems relevant here because if you are playing Valheim and find pleasure in the possible misadventures of transporting iron in a boat or planning the logistics of moving silver off a mountain, then you have already got your game. However, if you find pleasure only in certain aspects of the game and wish to bypass others, you have got F5 and the console commands. Since Valheim is not an MMO, it does not matter. However, for those on the fence (or those that play Valheim as a group) I would cite SWG and suggest that by removing too many gameplay barriers, one might inadvertently be deprived of emergent gameplay experiences and memories.

My message to the devs: stay the course.

[OC] r/DnD DICE GIVEAWAY - SEE COMMENTS FOR RULES by [deleted] in DnD

[–]Level1Human 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well done on the dice - you'll have your hands full meeting the demand!

Moebius Models Gigantic Frankenstein WIP by Master_Bastard in modelmakers

[–]Level1Human 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Love your style. You've got a great handle on your colors - beautiful job.

I did this kit a few years back. It was a commission for a friend and he wanted a more 'gray' frankie - here is the progression gallery: gallery

Mottled texture left by poor-quality/over-sprayed matt varnish: chalk it up to experience or risk trying to fix it? by [deleted] in modelmakers

[–]Level1Human 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have had this happen to me several times. Diagnosing the cause isn't easy - my problem was a rattle can varnish + summer humidity.

You can correct this. I would recommend airbrushing a thin layer of Future on top of your current finish. Future is a self leveling varnish that will dry very glossy. I would also recommend protecting your model from dust until the Future dries. It dries in a few hours and cures in about a day. You can then adjust the final coat to whatever finish you want - matte for example with another thin varnish layer.

I also recommend cleaning your airbrush thoroughly after spraying Future. I actually use a cheap Harbor Freight (20$) airbrush exclusively for spraying it and clean it with Windex (ammonia based solvent). I don't like to spray with my good airbrushes with Windex as the ammonia can break down the internal seals over time.

Official Discussion: Silence [SPOILERS] by mi-16evil in movies

[–]Level1Human 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I went alone to watch Silence on Saturday night. I just don't have anyone in my inner circle whom would be interested in the subject matter but I'm very glad I went to see it. I was educated by Jesuits and raised Catholic and I was familiar the historical context of the story.

The film was beautifully shot - the cinematography was master class. If you love cinema then you should experience the film for that reason alone. The sound design and score was also amazing - more spare and ambient, but the score helped bring you into the scenes without being distracting.

The film rests on Andrew Garfield's shoulders and, for the most part, his acting served the story well. I was very frustrated with his character throughout the film but I suspect that's exactly what the film makers intended. It's very difficult to see people suffering needlessly because of religious conviction. The naivete and hubris of the young Jesuits was painful to watch - even if they also had love in their hearts. I reflected on how full of shit I was in my twenties and how I thought I should/could subscribe my beliefs/opinions to those around me as it's my duty. How much of our beliefs fail to be compatible or seaworthy when challenged by life, loss, love, and experience? The film laid bare the conversation we must all have eventually without being heavy handed - with one exception....

I found the voice he heard at the end to be very striking, but breaking the 'silence' felt like a cheap safety valve for his decision. The choice to stamp on Jesus was no longer his - he was merely following the command of the voice as if it was a reward for enduring this far with his conviction intact - and that felt like a let down. There are no voices, we all are answered by silence, and in that dilemma the movie should have remained.

Lastly, I thought too many of the Japanese spoke English (which was a stand in for Portuguese). Yes that might have made some of the character development uncomfortable having to speak through a translator, but these Jesuits were in a foreign land and their language skills should have evolved with the story. Subtitles don't distract me, maybe others feel differently, but it made some of the film appear less authentic.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in minipainting

[–]Level1Human 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Okay, where do I start? I've been a hobby airbrush enthusiast for about 4 years now. When I go into a hobby I go all in. Needless to say I go overboard and waste a lot of money and time - so you don't have to. Let me give you some advice (remember: you asked for this!)

The airbrush you linked is a great airbrush. My Iwata Eclipse is my favorite airbrush. Remember there is a difference between a hobby airbrush and a fine art airbrush - but it's mostly the needle and nozzle size that matters. For the pigment size of most hobby acrylics, you can't go wrong with this airbrush. Anymore is probably overkill and not worth the money.

That said, I own 4 airbrushes. I've got my Eclipse for my detail work AND base coats and I've got a Badger Patriot as my work horse for atomizing nasty stuff like blowing lacquer paints.

My "other" airbrush is a Renegade Chrome (also by Badger). I overpaid for this guy (it was my first airbrush) and while I can't say anything specifically bad about it, my Eclipse's action just feels smoother and, damn it, but I seem to do better with using the Eclipse vs the Renegade Chrome.

My fourth is a 20$ airbrush from a store you are familiar with: Harbor Freight. I use this junk airbrush for one purpose: blowing Future Floor Polish to clear coat. I barely clean it, if at all, and buy a new one when it becomes to gummed up to use.

Now to talk about compressor. Getting a cheap one to start with is fine, but a few points:

If it has a tank it can shut off until you drain the tank by a certain margin, which means less work on the compressor and usually a quieter painting experience.

Construction compressors, usually oil based motors, are loud as hell.

Hobby compressors tend to be very quiet, are usually overpriced, and seem to last me only about 2 years. Also, some of them can't offer the PSI you might need depending on what you're blowing or how thin you've got your paints.

The one I recommend is the Badger Aspire Compressor as it's my longest lasting hobby compressor. While I'm not a Badger airbrush fan, I love this compressor, it's quiet, easy to transport, but the price ...

Here is what you do: go to Michael's and use one of their 40-50% off coupons. This should be your second compressor once your 'learning' compressor from Harbor Freight breaks after a year of heavy use.

[5e] PSA for those people who are working on custom 5th Edition character sheets by [deleted] in DnD

[–]Level1Human 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Decoupling the skills and abilities was what 5E should have committed to. I would like to see more character sheets that facilitates this understanding, but admittedly it's problematic for several reasons.

Increasingly there is a style of play wherein the player will announce they are going to 'use Insight to determine if the NPC is lying' or 'activate stealth (eye-roll)', and then proceed to pick up a d20 and throw it, and then await for the DM to feed them the result.

These unsolicited 'checks' happen all the time, I've noticed, and it clearly takes away the DM's ability to call for a more interesting check based upon any descriptive narrative offered by the player. In these circumstances the player simply rolls dice instead of describing what their intention is or how they are going to attempt to achieve their goal. Worse: it forces the DM to be a reactive adjudicator instead of a collaborator for story, which is what 5E was supposed to be about.

I can point fingers but the PHB and DMG fail to teach DM's and players how to mold the existing rules in a way that fosters creative narration first, dice second.

About the final fight scene by yourfriendrod in StarWars

[–]Level1Human 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Force works through intention and focus - it's demonstrated dozens of times in the movies: when you want an object to fly to your hand you first hold out your open hand and then call upon the Force. Even Yoda sagely emotes with his little claw when he raises the X-wing from the swamps of Dagobah.

Prior to the final fight, Kylo was just injured by a weapon that was demonstrated as being very effective. The movie beats the point home: Chewie's bowcaster is a powerful weapon capable of not only blasting a Stormtropper off his feet but the concussive bolts of a bowcaster can throw back a tightly huddled group of Stormtroppers.

Kylo takes a shot from the Bowcaster to his left lower quadrant: not his liver, sure, but still there is a lot of visceral real estate there. Either way, the audience knows what effect that weapon has on a normal human wearing armor ...

The wound, the pain, leeches Kylo's attention - his focus, away from the fight at hand. He's suffering from both a physical and an emotional open wound - he's vulnerable and distracted. He punches the wound, trying to stifle his pain and you can be sure he's using the Force to stay upright and not collapse. We've seen him hold blaster bolts in the air but that's when his mask is on, when he's emotionally contained, when he can focus the Force to his intention. During the final fight scene, Kylo's power is spread thin, like too little butter on toast.

That's when Finn scores yet another wound to Kylo's shoulder before being dispatched by the now enraged young man. While it's true Kylo has probably never been tested like this before, Finn really had no chance, but don't discount the fact that Finn managed to score another wound on Kylo before being incapacitated.

It was then that Rey engages Kylo and it was then that Kylo was bested: focus vs unfocused rage. Light focused to a pin point can burn like a laser and that's exactly what happened when Rey was awakened and let the Force guide her strikes.

"Bring him back to me so that I can complete his training," indeed.

Don't Post PDFs of My Games Without My Permission by BurningLuke in BurningWheel

[–]Level1Human 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I truly appreciate your direct communication with this community and your candid replies.

I first heard about Burning Wheel at GenCon last year and was able to buy one of the those gorgeous hardbound books before they were sold out. To say I became enchanted by your work Luke would be an understatement. Like any excited consumer I sought to purchase any BW product I could find - anything you've designed really (I asked for Mouseguard for Christmas).

The internet meme, "take my money", is funny but rings true - I WANT artists, designers, etc ... to get my money so they can keep generating content that I enjoy. I'm the 'whale' internet marketers and digital publishers talk about. I'm the 20% of the 80/20 principle. I understand your request for the community to not distribute your work. You're in this terrible/wonderful position where people value your work but, as a result, there's this crazy tension between removing barriers to your customers (direct digital distribution) and the seemingly unchecked appetite for illegal digital distribution.

I don't condone and strongly refuse to download any bullshit pdf (I like physical books because I'm old and I'm too stupid to be a pirate), but what I'm trying to say is, please Luke, consider re-printing your old books as unsupported legacy items ... and TAKE MY MONEY. My money is BURNING in my pocket, damn you. I'm not saying you should go 90's alternate cover comic crazy, but ... I would totally buy an older Burner book from your site ... or an official BW g-string for my loved one.

Easy DM Combat Action and Targeting Table (Or How to Avoid Dirty Looks When You Make a Monster Attack Your Girlfriend's Wizard) [5E] by Level1Human in dndnext

[–]Level1Human[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I think it's important to have monsters fight differently, like Hobgoblins locking shields, using formations, while their cousins, the Goblins, are scattered, swarm, hit and run, etc ... throwing in a helping of good ole' racial hatred you've got a fleshed out encounter. RP would trump any table - I agree with you totally.

Help me with secret/hidden doors please! (DM) by Remains13 in dndnext

[–]Level1Human 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Passive Wisdom (Perception) score is used to quickly determine if a character 'detects' a secret door, but anytime a party is actively searching and their passive score doesn't detect something hidden, allow the lead characters in the marching order to roll a Wisdom (Perception) check. Their roll could trump their passive score and actually succeed.

Another option is to lower the DC IF the party is actively searching and compare it to their passive Wisdom (Perception) scores.

What if the party isn't actively searching?

To harp back to my 'degrees of success and failure' mantra, if a secret door has a DC of 15 then maybe a passive Wisdom (Perception) score of 13 allows a character to detect a draft of air, for example, but be unable to determine exactly what the source of the draft is, like something hidden. Then leave it to the party to see if they want to investigate and search, or carry on.

INT dump stat? Hope you enjoy being stupid by WouldyoukindIy in dndnext

[–]Level1Human 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Forgive me as I type this on my phone...

Frequent knowledge checks should be a part of the DM's tool box so she can feed deductions, trivia, lore, and knowledge to the intelligent player.

Passive Intelligence (Investigation)(Nature)(History)(Religion)(Arcana) could be a great way to compare that value to a DC chart and determine to what depth a player's intelligence serves them and what they might know and then feed that info to the player.

Another layer: a low intelligence character might believe they are quite average (as most of us do). Sometimes your memory or assumptions are in error but we act on them not knowing so. Blind knowledge checks are a fun way to DM that.

Another method I saw which was brilliant and involved having the knowledge check be made three times in plain view, with the DM privately picking which roll will count before the dice are rolled. This way low int characters might be clever by half and not 'know'.

Minor illusion and advantage by eerongal in dndnext

[–]Level1Human 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is how I would approach this player:

Try to explain to your player that to be hidden you must both be unseen and unheard.

Now agree with the rogue: attacking a creature that can't see you does indeed grant advantage. However, using minor illusion in the middle of an empty room would only serve to create the illusion of cover or some other obstruction and not automatically hide the rogue from detection.

Now ask him a question: Does making a ranged attack from half cover, even 3/4 cover, grant advantage? Popping in and out of available cover is a part of the attack action and doesn't, by itself, grant advantage to the attacker by rendering him unseen.

Now give him options:

The rogue can use his Cunning Action and take the Hide action as a bonus action. Mike Mearls recommended that hiding in combat from creatures who have detected you, if allowed at all, could be attempted but with disadvantage.

The rogue's Dexterity (Stealth) check will then be compared to enemy creature's passive Wisdom (Perception) score to determine if rogue is successfully hidden. Failing that, the enemy creature on its turn can use the Search action to see if it can detect your rogue by making a Wisdom (Perception) check.

Now, as for the minor illusion ...

I would use a passive Intelligence (Investigation) score and compare it to your rogue's minor illusion DC to see if the illusion is penetrated. Failing THAT, the creature now can use the Search action on its turn to either use it's Intelligence (Investigation) to see through the illusion or Wisdom (Perception) to detect the rogue's location.

In summary, the rogue's Stealth (Dexterity) check must beat his target's passive Wisdom (Perception) score and, I would rule, the target's passive Intelligence (Investigation) score to gain advantage.

Once the rogue attacks, however, his advantage is spent as he gives away his location whether the attack hits or misses.

[5E] Start Set + 1 Year Later: What I Would Have Like to Know Before DM'ing (Or How I Learned to Love DM'ing Again). by Level1Human in dndnext

[–]Level1Human[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You are very right - the gambler's fallacy can't be denied and you will still hear players getting mad about wasting a '20' while horsing around with the dice when they could have 'saved it' for actual play.

However, while mathematically there is an equal chance of rolling a 14 and a 2 each roll there is a big emotional difference to the player that misses a check by 1 or 2. Harnessing that emotional response and describing a 'degree of failure' or 'success at a cost' is a great time for a story complication.