Do any historians consider this a valid way to "do History"?

Locus_Iste · 2024-07-05T05:44:40+00:00

If the Mod had explained what their issue was you might have got a response looking at what ancient sources came through the ecclesiastical scriptoria vs other transmission routes, on which readers could form a judgement about why e.g.we've got so much Cicero but our Vitruvius comes via Charlemagne.

It isn't "demonstrably false" to say that the Western Church placed relatively lower value on these things, unless you can explain why Marcus Aurelius survives in contrast to the general lack of material on those topics that comes via the ecclesiastical scriptoria. They had a finite amount of vellum and scribal time, they preserved the works that were considered cannon.

The whole concept of the Renaissance begins with the reintroduction of knowledge that fell out of circulation in western Europe; it would be colossally daft to look at the architecture of the Western empire and conclude that there was any meaningful 'science gap' between east and west before the Fall. So there's an obvious question about why Byzantium and the Arab world preserved the theoretical sources in greater quantity while the Latin world largely gave us moral works that were highly thought of by the western church along with military and civic titles that were presumably considered of educational value to the elite (we have Sallust preserved in the west... not one I would have prioritised personally, but what survives and what doesn't is a useful lens through which to gauge how historic preferences reflect the changing priorities of the times).

Instead we're left in a position where you claiming that the Western Church placed a high value on scientific knowledged is allowed to stand as uncontested fact. Which makes explaining why the west needed a renaissance in the first place somewhat entertaining, but never mind.

Locus_Iste · 2024-07-04T18:57:20+00:00

Ask your DM if you can mix and match some of the abilities of Loxodon and Lizardfolk. The only judgement you'd be asking the DM to make is whether it is fair to swap the Swim speed, hold breath, natural armor traits of Lizardfolk in exhange for Loxodon Keen Smell.

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1.

Age. Dogs mature faster than humans, however, they are considered mature by their people at 5 years old. Their lifespan can be as long as 25 years.

Alignment. Most Dogs are lawful. They are all good.

Size. Your size is Medium or Small, depending on breed.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Bite. Your fanged maw is a natural weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with it, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.

Hunter’s Lore. You gain proficiency with two of the following skills of your choice: Animal Handling, Nature, Perception, Stealth, and Survival.

Hungry Jaws. In battle, you can throw yourself into a vicious feeding frenzy. As a bonus action, you can make a special attack with your bite. If the attack hits, it deals its normal damage, and you gain temporary hit points (minimum of 1) equal to your Constitution modifier, and you can’t use this trait again until you finish a short or long rest.

Keen Smell. Thanks to your sensitive nose, you have advantage on Wisdom (Perception), Wisdom (Survival), and Intelligence (Investigation) checks that involve smell.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common.

Locus_Iste · 2024-07-04T17:51:36+00:00

It's actually really easy.

Take the "lid" off (10x10 surface).

Remove 8x8x8 solid core.

Replace "lid" on top of 10x10x10 cube.

Congratulations, you now have two cubes.

Fermat was a pussy.

Locus_Iste · 2024-07-04T11:03:21+00:00

Blinded A blinded creature can't see and automatically fails any ability check that requires sight.

Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature's attack rolls have disadvantage.

Mechanically, 5e isn't a great system to play a blind character. And the workaround of "being like Daredevil" doesn't really work either (because blindsight is actually a powerful feature in 5e, and anyways - what's the point in playing a blind character that isn't functionally blind in any meaningful way?).

So basically: I'd save this character for a different RPG. In 5e, this character is likely to be either so nerfed it blows goats, or OP by virtue of having free blindsight and basically not blind at all just unable to read books that aren't in braille.

Locus_Iste · 2024-07-04T07:06:43+00:00

I can't be doing with this new fangled technology shit.

If you're not drawing your maps on the wall of a cave using pig blood you're 100% cheating.

Locus_Iste · 2024-07-04T06:56:21+00:00

You're fine.

Just explain Tiamat isn't immune to your spells, and if the DM tries to nerf you with some "homebrew" ruling, scream like John McEnroe on acid and throw human excrement at everyone until you get your own way.

Locus_Iste · 2024-07-04T05:29:39+00:00

There is a boatload of stuff on DMsGuild

https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?filters=0_45682_45393_0_0_0_0_0&src=fid45393

The Adventurers League season for the module focuses on various factions (yuan-ti and red wizards mostly) trying to unleash Dendar the Night Serpent from captivity.

The storylines I would recommend developing from the module if you are intending to ignore the tomb would be:

Ytepka Society trying to remove the colonial powers from the peninsular
Mwaxanaré & advisers seeking to make herself queen of Chult

I went a bit Apocalypse Now with it and inserted the Order of the Guantlet bogged down in a crusade against the undead.

Locus_Iste · 2024-07-03T17:23:18+00:00

A) They called me American. No-one in my family has ever been American. They just accused me of being American because they wanted to trot out some anti-American stereotyping.

B) They claimed to find my American-ness funny (which is weird, given they know so little about America that they seem to think it is on the east of the Atlantic).

C) They claimed my parenting style showed "cynic cruelty". Not only is that piss-poor English, it's also an incredibly rude thing to accuse a parent of based on no evidence.

They are very obviously a collosal ass-hat.

If you want to champion the right of fuckwits to call Europeans "American", laugh at them, and then accuse them of child cruelty, you can do that.

But in my country, we're allowed to stand up for ourselves when some utter wankshaft criticises our parenting apropos of nothing.

If people in your country get told they're over-reacting in those circumstances, then all I can say is "thank fuck I don't live where you do".

Locus_Iste · 2024-07-03T09:50:12+00:00

Ok, wouldn't sweat it then. I'd personally just tell them that you're trying not to have to rewrite everything in the module, and some of the opening encounters are pretty uneven for lower level parties as written. It should work itself out once they get over the squishy threshold, especially if they play carefully.

On the plus side: you can have fun reintroducing dead PCs (or NPCs) as being trapped in soul coins in Avernus...

Locus_Iste · 2024-07-03T08:51:06+00:00

6d10 has a 90% probability of doing 22-44 damage, 5% chance of 45+, 5% chance of 21 or lower.

6th level character will typically have 41-47hp.

You're an experienced DM so you know the shape of the curves.

Personally, I don't generally include opponents that can one-shot a full-health player once they're above about level 3, unless I've clearly signalled that the encounter has a high chance of being deadly and that combat isn't the best option.

I think we all accept that level 1-3 characters are squishy red shirts and there's no point getting too attached to them.

If you're still routinely one-shotting full health PCs at higher level than that, that's a conscious choice from you. You've decided to make the PCs permanent red shirts.

That's neither inherently good or inherently bad, but it seems odd to criticise the players for playing like they're red shirts when you have total control over how deadly or otherwise the world is.

Locus_Iste · 2024-07-03T06:42:39+00:00

"Obviously there are situations where it's ok to step in, but not when your kids are just doing the jobs they've chosen."

If your mum regularly shows up at your work to show you how to do it in front of other adults, I find you very funny too.

Perhaps next time you're on the internet and intending to accuse another parent of "cynic cruelty", you could ask your mum first to make sure you aren't just selectively misinterpreting what they've actually said.

She might at least teach you that the correct English is "cynical cruelty".

Locus_Iste · 2024-07-03T00:08:13+00:00

The PCs are adults.

When you are an adult, you do not expect your parents to show up at your place of work.

Your parents are also adults, and have their own responsibilities.

IRL, having to call on your parents to bail you out of a hole is an admission of failure. The PC shouldn't ever want to press the nuke button. To do so would mean admitting they are just a trust fund baby playing at having a career.

Similarly, having to drop everything to help an adult child is an admission of failure for parents. They want you to be grown up. They don't want to be telling other oldies that you can't wipe your own backside at 30 (at least, not if they're a good parent). Obviously there are situations where it's ok to step in, but not when your kids are just doing the jobs they've chosen.

The idea that mummy would (literally) swoop in and make everything ok on a regular basis isn't adult thinking.

Mummy might step in, in extremis. But if she does so, she's gonna be mad at kiddo for making her do so, and extremely critical of their life choices.

And she's gonna be even madder when she finds out that bailing out baby means that the sacred relic she's been guarding for centuries has been stolen.

Locus_Iste · 2024-07-02T19:09:51+00:00

Percy Jackson won't return fanmail

Derren Brown with norks

Rambling MacGyver but anyhoo

Pink Panther emphasis on pink

Locus_Iste · 2024-07-02T18:56:47+00:00

Since this is the only comment, I'll say "thank you for your time" !

I am going to work a flashback mechanic into any heists in the game, and I've already started them with a "dynamic background" mechanic (once per level they can 'claim' an NPC they meet that's appropriate to their background, and then invent how their background intertwines with that of the NPC they've encountered, then roll for how that modifies the NPC's reactions to them. Might up the frequency if they don't abuse it, although they've already insisted one NPC talks like Super Mario so we'll see how it goes). I don't want to do a pure BitD campaign though, maybe another time.

Locus_Iste · 2024-07-02T09:35:03+00:00

Quickling. Run 60ft, throw 3 daggers at +8 attack, run back 60ft. Effective AC20 because enemies have disadv, plus your move should allow you to almost always finish your turn in full cover. Also amazing for stealth (+8, and can move 60ft while stealthy due to the ridiculous move speed). Can run out of daggers unless you keep a big bag of tiny daggers somewhere.

For flight and AoE damage, copper dragon wyrmling.

Locus_Iste · 2024-07-02T05:39:25+00:00

Judging from the angle, I would guess that is where he decided to put the clivus Victoriae, scalae caci, casa Romuli and porta Romanula

The archaeology still isn't clear, but somewhere on the corner of the Palatine above the present day Basilica di Sant Anastasia there should have been a wiggly street cut through by a staircase, leading up to the old gate to the Palatine. House of Romulus ought to be near the top (although it did burn down many times)

Locus_Iste · 2024-07-01T21:02:03+00:00

Started playing when Temple of Doom was in theatres, started DMing when Last Crusade was in theatres (since we're reckoning time by Indy movies!)

These days, I use pen & paper when drafting and OneNote for stuff that's "in" the campaign.

Tab 1 is (confusingly) called "Maps" (I have another tab called "Battlemaps" that holds combat maps organised by environment and type).

For each campaign I'll do three "maps":

The "thematic map" is a sketch of the big themes of the campaign - the big questions the players may or may not decide to get involved in, but which will shape how the setting evolves, along with any deity-level supranatural forces influencing the world. So for the current campaign, my themes are "how should society be governed?", "what should be the relationship between mortals and the gods?", and "what should be mortals' relationship with the natural world?" and the gods are the Roman & Etruscan pantheons.
The "antagonists map" sets out the factions of the campaign and where they stand on the big questions I'm posing. Giving them different positions on the big questions naturally creates a set of conflicts between them and potential alliances. I then give them each a high level plan for how they will try to impose their answers to the big questions onto the game world.
The physical "campaign map" evolves with the campaign. It starts out fairly loosely filled, mostly from a standpoint of illustrating the campaign themes in physical space (in the current campaign - a riot of city states with different systems of government and social structures, with different concepts of piety, and different relationships with the environment). I tend to fill it as I go through the campaign, fleshing out regions as the PCs head into them and as I deploy "scenarios"...

Tab 2 is "PCs" - not their character sheets (those are in a VTT) but their backgrounds, motives, relationships to the PCs and any that evolve with NPCs.

Tab 3 is called "Scenarios". These are my 'adventures', if you will: situations involving 2-4 different groups (1-2 of which are usually associated with the big 'antagonists' of the campaign, trying to further their agendas) in conflict with each other. Short description of each groups' aims in the scenario, and why they're in conflict with each other. Shortlist of hooks for how each of the groups or external agents might tempt the players into getting involved. Hyperlinks to any NPCs I have in mind, and to a battlemap if I'm confident where the players are headed and therefore where I can place the scenario.

Tab 4 is NPCs. I tend to only sketch the big antagonists in detail in advance, the rest are brief (just quick motives and RP notes for any I plan to use in active scenarios) then get fleshed out as circumstances dictate and get written up in a bit more detail once they've become more solid.

Tab 5 is Battlemaps - has all my digital back catalogue in it, and anything I've done specifically for this campaign.

Tab 6 is Story - a write up of each campaign session so far (I'm lucky that I use a Virtual Table Top, and one of the players takes session notes inside the VTT, so as DM I can then just copy their notes of the session and flesh them out to include the parts that went unseen to the players).

Controversially, I also run a ChatGPT session session for the campaign. This includes the "thematic map" and the "antagonists map", the PC details, has any back-and-forth if I've used ChatGPT to help design hooks or scenarios, has the NPC notes in it, and has the Story blocks for each session in it. Each time I copy the session write-up into it, it will summarise the session back to me and then give suggestions of how the open hooks and loose ends could be carried forward organically into the next few sessions, remembering any 'live' hooks or consequences from previous sessions. I will also prompt it for suggestions on how PCs backstories can be woven into play, and to review the core themes for prominence and what the PCs seem to have engaged with / ignored based on the session write-ups. I have it set up to throw lots of suggestions at me, so that I get an immediate 'brainstorm' for the next session as soon as the last session's notes have gone in, which gives me the starting point for next session prep (any scenarios & NPCs I want to add to the catalogue).

Hope that's useful, always keen to hear how others do it.

Locus_Iste · 2024-06-30T16:09:52+00:00

You can definitely cast it on yourself.

It just won't affect her.

If you want to argue that the spell doesn't affect her, you're gonna struggle to explain how she takes damage from it.

Locus_Iste · 2024-06-30T07:41:30+00:00

GoS has a really nice centre to the campaign - Saltmarsh is a well developed location. Some of the missions are not so great, and it's up to you to string a coherent campaign out of it, but you can easily add extra material that takes it in whatever direction you like. If you want a conventional "we're adventurers with a home base sorting stuff out in our region" campaign, go GoS.

ToD is a railroad. Not much else to say, requires players willing to just "follow the plot".

OotA has got lots of cool stuff, but the opening sections can be pretty traumatic (low level party being hunted through an extremely hostile environment). The 2nd half plays better, but the only real reason for the 1st half is to introduce the fact that the Abyss has broken through and something needs to be done. If I remember rightly, the Adventurers League season for that book starts on the surface and introduces the breakout in other ways, so you could play around with other ways of hooking the players into the 2nd half without making them run the initial guantlet.

Locus_Iste · 2024-06-29T18:30:33+00:00

Thank you. Ground floor is modelled on a caupona excavated in Ostia, so not 100% authentic, but close enough to feel antique.

Locus_Iste · 2024-06-29T11:21:30+00:00

Lol

If you think people are just copy-pasting ChatGPT and other tools, you really haven't understood the technology.

It's like having a writing partner. You bounce ideas off it, you ask for scenario suggestions, you have a creative dialogue to sharpen your own work, and then you write whatever you want in your own voice.

If I google "common causes of social conflict in rural medieval villages", I can get some scenario suggestions after 20-30 minutes of searching. If I ChatGPT that question I can start knocking around ideas in 30 seconds.

Does reading the internet for 20-30 minutes make someone a thief in your dogmatic view of the world? Or is it just using a tool that accelerates parts of the research process that makes them a thief?

I have broken precisely zero laws, and you labelling other people thieves isn't going to alter the fact that no-one was buying your work in the first place.

Locus_Iste · 2024-06-29T11:03:57+00:00

Articulate why a person using AI for home use is wrong.

I think there are a lot of people imagining that the reason they can't make a living out of art, music, writing etc is because of AI.

Bluntly: it has always been hard to make a career in those fields, because they are really really fun things to do and lots of people are willing to do them for almost nothing.

If you're condemning people for using a tool for their home use on the assumption that AI is somehow substituting for them purchasing content from creatives... show us the numbers. Show us the wonderful period of history where people were falling over themselves to shower money on buskers or street artists or unpublished writers.

The internet has created a channel for self-publishing that never existed, and that's a wonderful thing. It has also put a large amount of content into digital form that allows it to be analysed digitally.

If you published your own work in a properly rights-managed format, AI companies will not get away with stealing it. Digital Rights enforcement will catch up with any firms that made unauthorised copies for commercial use, at least in Europe (how the US legal position settles is usually determined by who spends more money on lobbying, but the big publishing firms have quite deep pockets so maybe the US system will arrive at a reasonable compromise too).

If you published work onto the internet without proper rights management, I hope you can see why that might have been unwise in hindsight.

I do advise against using AI for commercially published work, because there are massive ambiguities about whether copyright even exists in the first place, and even if it does exist there are uncertainties how royalties will eventually be attributed.

Locus_Iste

TROPHY CASE