OOTS #1299 - The Discussion Thread

[Peelee]

All I know is the byrd is the wyrd.

[Domino Quartz]

You'd think, right? but no actually, the only thing about the word that didn't change was its pronunciation. It grew from Wyrd, which dealt less with the strange and was more about fate or destiny, was a noun in most uses, obviously spelled differently, and has the same pronunciation the whole time.

Weird, eh?

Actually, I'm pretty sure that in Old English, "y" was pronounced like the German "ü"

[Tzardok]

I like to do that nowadays too. It sounds very silly.

[Provengreil]

That makes sense. The owlbear was on the way from Azure City to the Oracle IIRC. There have been a lot of minor encounters to keep straight.

There were the ogres and dirt farmers while travelling with Miko toward Azure City, and orc island could be considered a random encounter while looking for a place to take in the Azure city refugees (Banjulu becoming the orcs' god and settling things with a pie eating contest was certainly random enough for me).

They thought that the scags were a random encounter, but it turns out they were part of the Kubuto plot, the paladins thought Oona was a random encounter, but it turns out she's part of TE latest set of minions.

Most of their encounters advance the plot in one way or another, but even so, they have lots of more or less random encounters and plenty of their foes are defeated and never seen again. Do we really expect great significance and a dramatic return for the Furkini menace, or Curly the vampire, or the spiked chain wielding half-ogre; on the other hand, Trigak will of course be back. He got dramatic musical cues and all.

From my time DMing, if you're doing it right almost* every random encounter should have the ability to be part of the story like this. D&D combat is often slow and not inherently interesting, especially in random encounters where there's nothing special on the map. IMO That's a waste of everyone's time. I'd rather engage them with clues to the main story or run a subplot of some sort as part of it all, so nothing is truly random.

*most exceptions are local wildlife.

[hroþila]

Actually, I'm pretty sure that in Old English, "y" was pronounced like the German "ü"

Old English is a long time and a big place. While it was indeed pronounced like German <ü> in what we'd call "classic" Old English (late 9th century West Saxon), by late Old English it had undergone unrounding (to /i/) and/or lowering (to /ø/~/e/) in some dialects, possibly including the late West Saxon dialect in which most surviving texts were written and which may have had /i/. In some parts of southern England, unrounding and lowering to /e/ can be detected in late Old English or very early Middle English.

[Space Sorceress]

So, I've had this account for less than a week, and I'm just curious

Do #X Comic Discussion threads ALWAYS end up this weird

[Mordar]

So, I've had this account for less than a week, and I'm just curious

Do #X Comic Discussion threads ALWAYS end up this weird

No. Some are wyrder. Some are less wierd. Many are the same weird. It all depends on the weird of the specific thread, and if that wyrd is for it to be weird, than clearly it shall be. Unless, of course, it has a weird weird wyrd.

All of which I am pretty sure makes sense. With the intentional "typo"/misspelling.

- M

[Somniloquist]

You mean being derailed by weirdos with very specific axes to grind and veering off into "was X morally justified" flamethrowing, followed by relatively civil chitchat about random things unrelated to the comic that nobody can remember the beginning of? Yeah, that's pretty normal.

[Kantaki]

Eh, it's not that bad. When we're starting to discuss Star Wars, then it's time for a new comic we can talk about a derail.
This is practically almost nearly on topic. If you squint.

[Space Sorceress]

You mean being derailed by weirdos with very specific axes to grind and veering off into "was X morally justified" flamethrowing, followed by relatively civil chitchat about random things unrelated to the comic that nobody can remember the beginning of? Yeah, that's pretty normal.

Awesome! I'm having a great time so far

[bunsen_h]

You mean being derailed by weirdos with very specific axes to grind and veering off into "was X morally justified" flamethrowing, followed by relatively civil chitchat about random things unrelated to the comic that nobody can remember the beginning of? Yeah, that's pretty normal.

The trolling and flaming are not usual at all. Weirdos? I'll own that. Going off on strange tangents and semi-random chit-chat is normal. (Don't forget that in mathematical jargon, "normal" means "orthogonal to other objects", e.g. "a vector normal to plane such-and-such".)

[KorvinStarmast]

So, I've had this account for less than a week, and I'm just curious

Do #X Comic Discussion threads ALWAYS end up this weird

Yes and no. Sometimes wyrder.

You mean being derailed by weirdos with very specific axes to grind and veering off into "was X morally justified" flamethrowing, followed by relatively civil chitchat about random things unrelated to the comic that nobody can remember the beginning of? Yeah, that's pretty normal.

Yes. It is.

Eh, it's not that bad. When we're starting to discuss Star Wars, then

It is time to nuke it from orbit, just to be sure.

Awesome! I'm having a great time so far

From here, it's all entropy.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

[RichTF]

So, I've had this account for less than a week, and I'm just curious

Do #X Comic Discussion threads ALWAYS end up this weird

I’ve been lurking here for years, but hardly ever post. I love reading the main comic thread though. The first couple pages usually provide additional context on the D&D rules and/or surface odd little throwbacks or character details that I missed. Then there’s always some interesting (and usually mostly incorrect) speculation about what’s going to happen next. And then, through some mysterious chaotic principle, some random comment will get picked up and derail the thread for several pages or more.

It’s always a fascinating read though, and the people here are relatively civil throughout (by internet standards). It’s a great forum.

(Also has some of the most firm-but-fair modding I’ve ever seen, so a shout out to Peelee and co. too)

[Canisius]

This filled me with such joy. I want this strip tattooed on my retina.

[Diachronos]

I don't think the 3.5e MM even has listed spells known for dragons. Same for feats or skill ranks. You're kinda expected to customize them since they're probably a miniboss encounter at bare minimum.

Wouldn't be the first time someone looked at the Pathfinder SRD and thought it was the 3.5 SRD.

Fair point, it's been a long time since I looked at the 3.5 statblocks so I probably got the two crossed in my head.

[Space Sorceress]

This filled me with such joy. I want this strip tattooed on my retina.

have you... have you considered contact lenses

[Precure]

Do we know how old a dragon Calder is? If I'm looking at the right tables, he's probably got a higher Strength than the dino, but he might've gotten some kind of penalty to the grapple because of the surprise factor.

At least 155 years old.

[arimareiji]

Tom Lehrer: "I know that there are people who do not love their fellow man, and I hate people like that!"

EDIT:
His own website has lyrics, sheet music, and so on.

Thank you! <3 I really wanted to follow this up, but felt like it would have been weird coming from me just two posts later.

Spoiler: thoughts that might be of interest to Lehrer fans but unlikely anyone else

Show

Also, thank you for the reminder he has his own website.

Now if only I could find a way to let him know that the appreciation really was well-deserved. In fairly recent years he said he didn't think his songs poking fun at the awful results wrought by the powerful did any good because they weren't even "preaching to the converted", they were just "titillating the converted" -- but I think I have a strong counterpoint. If all you ever do is get mad about them, soon all you have are programmed helplessness and despair.

But if you can laugh about them, you can remind yourself how idiotic they are… and take life energy from the laughter, to keep wanting to do something about them. My gratitude, Tom, wherever you are. <3

have you... have you considered contact lenses

Well-played. XD

I have the strangest thought trains… now I wonder, have they figured out how to make VR headsets that work for people with presbyopia?

[Canisius]

Perfect example of being too smart by half. Dragon thought it had an "improvised weapon" in Sunny's anti-magic, until he was being meleed by a creature of the same stature. The eye-beam prevents magic, so the one thing it has on the Extreme-inator, magic, is out of the picture. Also Sunny got his protection from evil.

So much fun!

[DavidSh]

I have the strangest thought trainsÂ… now I wonder, have they figured out how to make VR headsets that work for people with presbyopia?

VR headsets already use lenses to make the images appear to be at distances greater than the few inches that the screens actually are from your eyes. I think you'd just need variant lenses that cast the images at the distances at which the presbyopic eyes will focus. It should work, as long as any difference in focal distances of the two eyes doesn't end up with excessive differences in magnification.

A little googling brings up the existence of custom lens inserts for VR headsets.

[bunsen_h]

Spoiler: thoughts that might be of interest to Lehrer fans but unlikely anyone else

Show

Now if only I could find a way to let him know that the appreciation really was well-deserved. In fairly recent years he said he didn't think his songs poking fun at the awful results wrought by the powerful did any good because they weren't even "preaching to the converted", they were just "titillating the converted" -- but I think I have a strong counterpoint. If all you ever do is get mad about them, soon all you have are programmed helplessness and despair.

But if you can laugh about them, you can remind yourself how idiotic they are… and take life energy from the laughter, to keep wanting to do something about them. My gratitude, Tom, wherever you are. <3

See also: Sheridan's conversation with Rebo (and Zooty) in the Babylon 5 episode "Day of the Dead", about the duo's thinking about leaving comedy to go into politics.

Rebo: "You know, making people laugh is... is ok. I mean, I... I enjoy getting a laugh, but, uh, I don't know. We wanna do something more important."

Sheridan: "But you two have a real gift. I mean, when things were bad under president Clark, you two said things on your show that no one else would dare to say."

Rebo: "No. We say serious things in a funny way, but when the joke comes, people stop listening. The real comedy all happens in the senate. They do... they do one idiotic thing after another, but people listen because they say it seriously. I don't know whether we're leaving comedy to go into clown school, but all I do know is that, uh... comedians don't matter."

Sheridan: "Well, if you don't matter, nothing matters. I mean, the only reason politics exist is to ensure that people have the freedom to laugh."

[Vikenlugaid]

My understanding as an American is that European nations hate their neighbors, like the next country over; e.g., the French hate the Germans, like the Poles.

Nah, we spaniards don't hate Portugal. We do hate France but who doesn't?

[Coppercloud]

Nah, we spaniards don't hate Portugal. We do hate France but who doesn't?

...I mean I'm French and I can't really disagree there. But that's all right; we French hate each other right back, so at the end of the day it balances out.
This is entirely tongue-in-cheek, obviously. ...I mean it was obvious, right? Right?

[danielxcutter]

Hey, at least you guys have better food than England.

[Provengreil]

Hey, at least you guys have better food than England.

England: the country that invaded the world for spices, then didn't like any of them.

[danielxcutter]

England: the country that invaded the world for spices, then didn't like any of them.

I mean, apparently most of the restaurants that sell good food there sell Indian food.

[KorvinStarmast]

England: the country that invaded the world for spices, then didn't like any of them.

I think that should read

"..then didn't use any of them in their cooking"

But the English drink the heck out of tea.

[danielxcutter]

I don't think tea counts as a spice.

[Tzardok]

I don't think tea counts as a spice.

I mean, you could use it like one. People do so with cacao and coffee. Incidentally, I heard that when tea was new in Britain some people experimented with flavouring buttered bread with cooked tea leaves.

[brian 333]

...I mean I'm French and I can't really disagree there. But that's all right; we French hate each other right back, so at the end of the day it balances out.
This is entirely tongue-in-cheek, obviously. ...I mean it was obvious, right? Right?

As a native of Louisiana, I found a lot of love in France. Until I spoke French. See, I don't think the French really hate anyone based on nationality, they hate anyone who A) does not speak French, or B) speaks French with an accent. Unfortunately, France is so provincial, any speaker who was raised more than 20 miles from another speaks with an accent.

Otherwise, it's all fromage et vin.

I think that should read


But the English drink the heck out of tea.

I have to wonder how tea became a thing. Something like this, perhaps?

"Hey, Bert! The puddle under this bush tastes better than the puddle over there."

"Brown water? That's disgusting, Ernie! I'll drink the water with live bugs and green scum! At least we know it isn't poison, and it is high protein as well."

As we now know, evolution picked the tea drinkers.