Quote
The bell curve is really that not extreme.
There's a 0.46 chance of an 18 on 3d6.
If you were the smartest kid at your high school that would probably put you at 18.
That's a lot of 18s in the population.  They can't all be Einstein.

The monkey wrench in those numbers is that there are not 300 million player characters in the US.  What percentage of the population are PC versus NPCs? 

Just for giggles, you can work that backwards, take the number of geniuses, map that to 3d6, and infer the number of PCs in the population. 

[edit, added the quote since we crossed a page boundary]

I think a bell curve for attributes tied to symmetrical modifiers doesn't make sense if the majority of examples is skewed towards the upper end. 

As an example of what I mean, here is my solution with a nods towards the population distribution, supporting random rolls, but more than 50% of the population is above average.  It's partly a game play mechanic splitting the difference between competing concerns, using 3d6 in order.

Score	Modifier
1	-4
2-3	-3
4-5	-2
6-7	-1
8-10	+0
11-13	+1
14-16	+2
17-19	+3
20-23	+4
24-28	+5

Numbers out of the 3-18 range are to illustrate the thought behind the progression for special cases.  You may note that the scores of 10, 13, 16, and 18 still have the same bonus that they have in BEMCI/RC, despite the skew.

rpg.net took another step towards turning into East Germany. The mods have admonished the users in general for NOT reporting posts in a thread the mods didn't like.

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/is-this-a-new-policy-thing.876904/

Pretty soon turning in your fellow posters will be mandatory for wrong think.

I don't even really know anything about the topic they were discussing. Maybe the posts did cross a line, but the authority figures lashing out at the users looks totalitarian/cult-like to me.

For those obsessed with 3d6 rolls reflecting the distribution of ability scores in a population, consider two things.

First, 3d6 approximates a normal distribution. With a mean of 10.5, and a standard deviation very close to 3. So the average is between 10 and 11. One deviation above, between 13 and 14. Two, between 16 and 17. Those numbers should look familiar to anyone who's played B/X D&D, because 13 gives a +1 ability score bonus, and 16 gives a +2 ability score bonus. Thus each +1 bonus is equal to 1 standard deviation.

If we continue the progression, then 19 should be +3. Wait, a 19 on a 3d6? That's the second thing to consider. The 3d6 roll approximates the normal distribution, but only out to about 2.5 standard deviations. It doesn't handle truly exceptional individuals. Moldvay fudged the ends to make 18 give a +3, but if we ignore the limitations of the 3d6 roll when modeling a normal distribution, we can expand the ability score table to reflect the full range of human variability.

13 (+1) -- 1 in 5 (household)
16 (+2) -- 1 in 30 (extended family)
19 (+3) -- 1 in 400 (village)
22 (+4) -- 1 in 15,000 (city)
25 (+5) -- 1 in 1.5 million (country)
28 (+6) -- 1 in 400 million (preindustrial world)
31 (+7) -- 1 in 250 billion (more humans than ever existed)

I rounded obscenely, but it's clear the best human of all time would have a score of about 30.

Quote from: wmarshal on February 09, 2021, 01:20:36 AM
rpg.net took another step towards turning into East Germany. The mods have admonished the users in general for NOT reporting posts in a thread the mods didn't like.

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/is-this-a-new-policy-thing.876904/

Pretty soon turning in your fellow posters will be mandatory for wrong think.

I don't even really know anything about the topic they were discussing. Maybe the posts did cross a line, but the authority figures lashing out at the users looks totalitarian/cult-like to me.

For fuck sake.
.....Not only must you like solely the things that I say you can like, it is your role to ensure everybody else only likes those things too.... 

I am honestly shocked that (so far) only one or two people got banned in the linked thread. Of course the mods had to close the tread for a spell, because moderating is so exhausting.

Over a fucking cartoon.

Quote from: wmarshal on February 09, 2021, 01:20:36 AM
rpg.net took another step towards turning into East Germany. The mods have admonished the users in general for NOT reporting posts in a thread the mods didn't like.

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/is-this-a-new-policy-thing.876904/

Pretty soon turning in your fellow posters will be mandatory for wrong think.

I don't even really know anything about the topic they were discussing. Maybe the posts did cross a line, but the authority figures lashing out at the users looks totalitarian/cult-like to me.

Just when you think they've hit the bottom... I genuinely didn't think it would be quite so literal until I read the post for myself. The hell is in the water there?

Quote from: Godfather Punk on February 09, 2021, 06:45:06 AM
I am honestly shocked that (so far) only one or two people got banned in the linked thread. Of course the mods had to close the tread for a spell, because moderating is so exhausting.

Over a fucking cartoon.

Read the hecking room, that 'cartoon' is literally responsible for killing anime folx.

Quote from: Godfather Punk on February 09, 2021, 06:45:06 AM
I am honestly shocked that (so far) only one or two people got banned in the linked thread. Of course the mods had to close the tread for a spell, because moderating is so exhausting.

Over a fucking cartoon.

They also had to close the thread in Trouble Tickets seemingly over the pushback they received from some of the users. I'm guessing those pushing back aren't regulars on the Tangency sub-forum, so weren't quite as aware before now just how dystopian the moderation had become. Of course there was one user praising the idea ("Look at me, Senpai!") of forcing the everyone into being a mini-mod.

In a sane world someone in charge over there would take this as an opportunity to reflect on what rpg.net has become, and maybe step back from the Abyss, but it also seems too late at this point.

So, how does one get a Gestapo moderator armband on RPG.NET?  Seems to be very fascist fashionable these days.  Do I need to get one in order to practice/protect my mad Libertarian beliefs?   

The wisest course of action would be to dispose of the Tangency forum. Just delete it, and post a notice: this board is not for political discussion, there are a billion other places to do that, please take it elsewhere.

Which of course is why they won't do it. It's hunting over bait for the mods that get their jollies from hitting the ban button.

Quotethere are a billion other places to do that

But there you risk getting exposed to opposing points of view or pictures of spiders, without the obligatory trigger warning. Better to stay in the cuddly cocoon.

Quote from: Ghostmaker on February 09, 2021, 08:34:09 AM
The wisest course of action would be to dispose of the Tangency forum. Just delete it, and post a notice: this board is not for political discussion, there are a billion other places to do that, please take it elsewhere.

Which of course is why they won't do it. It's hunting over bait for the mods that get their jollies from hitting the ban button.

I think the mod closing the entire thread and admonishing all the posters as horrible people for not reporting a bad post is indicative of mods getting desperate for a bigger hit off of banning. Like a drug addict who keeps on seeking stronger drugs for a more intense high, now the mods are looking to punish whole groups of users by closing threads and calling out/insulting everyone who was on that thread. The next logical progression would be to ban users who start a thread, but then insufficiently police their thread, even though they aren't mods, and the mods like to bring out the ban-hammer on those who stray into mod territory.

I swear it looks like the rpg.net mods read 1984 as a how-to guide. Instead of "changing" the past, or math even, as a tool to help keep everyone in fear of The Party, the mods are constantly changing their expectations they have of the users to keep the users on their toes.

Big Snitch is watching you. If you don't regularly snitch on your own against other users, then Big Snitch will come after you.

Quote from: Godfather Punk on February 09, 2021, 08:42:58 AM
Better to stay in the cuddly cocoon.

Sounds like something the spider would say to its prey.

Well, a guy got permabanned for posting this:

As mentioned, the reason to play DnD as a game is because you want to get into fantasy-themed tactical combats and resource management.

In order to provided level-based challenges, enemies and other challenges like trap damage are calibrated around certain level expectations - people like BlogOfHolding and SongOfTheBlade have managed to backport the math so that, for example, a level 6 monster is calibrated to do roughly 12 damage per round to a single player.

The classes as currently designed are intended to, one way or another, meet enemies of their level and be able to deal sufficient damage or keep their allies alive to do so.

The risk in multiclassing is that unless you're doing short dips or you know your build is basically a straight upgrade, that you fall behind on the expected damage or power curve. This means extra work goes either on the shoulders of your party (they have to work harder to compensate for you), or on the shoulders of your DM (they have to work out what your effective level is to construct appropriate challenges).

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/manwhat-receives-a-%F0%9F%92%80-permanent-ban-rule-0.876758/

Note: I disagree with his assumption (the reason to play DnD as a game is because you want to get into fantasy-themed tactical combats and resource management.). To me D&D is (and can be) much more than this. But... what in the hell there could be in his post that justifies a permabam? I read and re-read it ten times and I'm stuck. 

BTW, this is the official motivation: manwhat, in the year 2020 you had 7 infractions including a week and thirty day bans. You have regularly been aggressive and condescending in D&D threads and despite your long infraction history have not changed your behavior. Reviewing your history, the thirty day ban was when you basically admitted to trolling and purposefully raising the temperature of threads.

Aggressive? Condescending? Now stating your own fucking opinion is reason enough for a permaban? They are really in need of professional help up there.

Quote from: wmarshal on February 09, 2021, 01:20:36 AM
rpg.net took another step towards turning into East Germany. The mods have admonished the users in general for NOT reporting posts in a thread the mods didn't like.

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/is-this-a-new-policy-thing.876904/

Pretty soon turning in your fellow posters will be mandatory for wrong think.

I don't even really know anything about the topic they were discussing. Maybe the posts did cross a line, but the authority figures lashing out at the users looks totalitarian/cult-like to me.

I loved and still love the pushback they received about it. Telling posters to report a thread or Else! was going to go over so well. While not actively understanding why it would be an "issue". I don't know threatening to ban posters if they don't report a thread is showing that they are so "welcoming" at the site. The Tone deaf apology about being overworked is bullshit. Only so many times one can hide behind that before it becomes an excuse and a stale and poor one at that.

Remember kids the rpgsite is the most regressive and repressive site out on the Internet.