Humor, jokes, memes about TTRPGs
Once, I played at a table where we did an x-mas themed one-off.
Fast-forward to the climax of the session where we face off against an evil santa. As a bard, I had to get very creative.
Me: Describe him for us. Is he wearing the full santa claus getup?
DM: Of course!
Me: Including the red hat and the big 'ol belt-buckle around his big 'ol belly?
DM: Who do you take me for? He's the spitting image of St. Nick.
Me: Great! I cast heat metal on the belt buckle.
DM: ...
DM:
Not D&D-specific, but one party member with Quietus and one with Obtenebration was absolutely nasty in Vampire back in the day. There have been several rulebook revisions since then, so I have to assume those powers either suck or no longer exist now.
If that second opponent was a pirate and uses the eye patch for what it was meant for, it would not make any difference.
Everyone remembers the part in Mythbusters where they proved this is possible. Nobody remembers the part where they found no evidence of it ever happening.
Also, the eye patch trope was originally for sailors in general. Which would make sense if this is what it was used for, since all sailors would need night vision, but that just means it's even crazier that nobody would bother to write it down.
They used deck prisms to see below decks. That would give you plenty of light during the day, and during the night your eyes are already adjusted to the dark.
Sure but we have also lost things that you'd think someone would write down properly if only for the purpose of manifests or similar things. Like Roman concrete where all the recipes we had failed to note that you needed to use salt water specifically or how I believe it was British naval vessels had three standardized condiments which we know the first two I think it was mayo and ketchup but we don't know what the third was we think it was probably vinegar due to its common use in recipes at the time but we aren't certain. It's often times the most mundane things that are lost, reminds me how in 40k it's all but stated that the control runes for more ancient tech are probably just our symbols for power on/off or whatnot they just lost the cultural context.
It's still a huge stretch to go from "this could possibly work, but there's no evidence that it was ever used besides sailors often being drawn with eyepatches" to "ever single sailor on the ship wore an eyepatch, and everyone forgot why and also depicted most sailors as not having eyepatches for some reason".
Oh I doubt they all used that but it could've been a backup/specialist method dependent on ship or crew member. It wouldve been enough that when combined with actual eye injuries which could've been caused by any number of things it got stuck in on a cultural level, it's like how under shirts got labeled tank tops because enough tankers kept getting too hot in their tanks so they stripped down to their skivvies. Doesn't take much for memetics to kick in on such things, which when combined with ill records can cause a weird dissident of information.
when combined with actual eye injuries
Doesn’t take much for memetics to kick in
That alone is enough to explain our observations (the trope).
So, to summarize your point, if this happened but not very often, it wouldn't leave any evidence. We have no evidence, therefore it must have happened, just not very often.
Probably, there may be evidence if you cross referenced a bunch of old journals, possibly medical logs, and maybe familial oral traditions. But yeah without going through largely inane and scattered documents it's probably one of those self perpetuating memetic things that pops up on occasion because for a short period of time an uptick in sailors with eye patches happened and it got stuck culturally.
The best you could probably do to actually disprove such a thing would be to find where the source was, which would in all likelihood come down to a certain model of ship or a specific cultural tradition. Hell given how commonly shit goes back to Odin it could be a lost form of worship that got wrapped up in with sailor folklore after the viking age.
'I have you now Blackbeard, I've ruined your night vision! YOUR NIGHT VISION!!!'
If the room was bright... yes, it would! Even if only momentarily.
Phantasmal Force is great. Used it on a Mini-Boss fighting alongside the Big Bad and then described "a giant goose comes crashing through the skylight, with it's head low it charges you with a furious 'HONK!'"
The DM played along a little by rolling to randomize what he swung at each round. Everytime he'd swing at the goose to "keep the illusion" I'd describe that he successfully hacked off a head, but now two more sprouted in its place and the honking intensifies.
The best part was the last sliver of damage he took was from the Phantasmal Force. So in his mind he was slain by a hydra goose.
A DM once attacked our party with wargs in an arctic tundra in the dead of night.
I discovered an offensive use of Create Water.
When you think about it, the body of any living creature is an open container made of animal skin.
That's been thought of so many times that d&d tells you it doesn't work inside living things, and has done so for a few versions
Oh yes, I'm aware. I still think it's funny enough to share with players who haven't heard it before.
Surely "grab tile and eat it" is a standard action, right? Letting that be a free action seems like a weird call by the DM...
It also involves lowering your guard, so should trigger AOps.
Meh, if it's a one off and not an important fight? Doing it for the sake of a gag I've got no problem with. Just don't want it to be a consistent thing.
What if that’s the core fault of my character? Can only eat tiles so eats it whenever it’s available
That character must make some exquisite mosaic poos.
Eh, +2 on the next hit after you miss, if you do enough damage to only some kinds of floor and if you pass an intimidation check is almost nothing. The problem I have is that it'd get old, so the player has to come up with new material.
Thought: A barbarian subclass that has a version of cutting words, but instead of insults it's shit like this
Just don't want it to be a consistent thing.
Easy, make the player deal with the consequences of eating a handful of gravel.
For the next 12 hours, every hour roll a constitution check against 1d4 of gastrointestinal damage.
Loosely, you get a "use object interaction" every turn that isn't given a lot of emphasis but is in the rules as "other activity on your turn" (pg 190, PHB 2014). It includes something like talking, opening an unlocked door during your movement, picking up something within reach from a table, or unsheathing your sword as part of your attack action. It says it should require an action only if it needs special care or presents an unusual obstacle. I'd agree that grabbing a handful of dust and putting it in your mouth could be a free action.
I'm glad these people are having fun, but I always feel a bit put off when some random group's homebrew and table rulings are pitched as being typical d&d.
So adjusting the game slightly to suit what the group feels would enhance their experience makes it... not counting as the game somehow?
So my Rimworld isn't Rimworld anymore because i added some Mods?
I think this is gatekeeping, tbh.
There's a spectrum of play that runs from strict rules-as-written to complete calvinball. Calvinball can be fun, but it's not really a transferrable game. It's very particular to that moment and that group.
Sometimes people post wacky calvinball moments (eg: rolling damage against the floor, a free action to eat tiles, a +2 bonus to hit) as if that's baseline RAW DND. It is not. Many tables would be like "wtf, that's not how this game works". So it can be kind of weird when it's presented as obvious, as if it's raw, when it's just make pretend.
Imagine if the post was "we were playing basketball and I missed the shot, so I got in my car and drove up close so I could jump off the roof and dunk". Like, wacky story but not how you're supposed to play the game.
Furthermore, DND specifically is kind of bad at creativity. It's very precariously balanced, with specific rules in odd places and no rules in others. Compare with, for example, Fate, which has "this thing in the scene works to my advantage" rules built in. DND is almost entirely in the hands of the DM.
That's not what he said at all. He pointed out that recommending a game and then listing examples that aren't actually part of the game's core rules is a bit weird. It sets an expectation that may lead to disappointment or argument.
"I love Rimworld, it's got so many Big Naturals in it" would be, I presume, misleading *
* I've never played Rimworld but I assume it has Big Naturals mods like everything else
I have also never played Rimworld but curiosity got the better of me and against my better judgment I checked to see if you were correct.
You were.
No. These people are welcome to play however they want. They're having a good time and that's great for them.
Pitching this as "d&d is great" when the entire story hinges on multiple table specific rulings makes this both less relatable for players of d&d used to a different tone of play and can set unrealistic expectations for new players who might join a game that plays very differently.
I'm not saying they shouldn't play like this, or that this isn't d&d. It's just a very specific scenario that is quite likely to be non-representative of many games.
I had my familiar transform into a bird to shit in an assassins mouth to interrupt a spell without causing a diplomatic incident at a wedding.
Whenever the DM gives me enough money at character creation, I buy two immovable rods so that I can fly by way of magical monkey bars.