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    1. How will rural areas be affected by the virus?

      Rural Towns Insulated From Coronavirus Now May Take A Harder Hit Later (They will almost certainly get the virus. When they do, they'll realize they're less prepared than cities and their people...

      Rural Towns Insulated From Coronavirus Now May Take A Harder Hit Later (They will almost certainly get the virus. When they do, they'll realize they're less prepared than cities and their people are disproportionately more likely to be a high risk group.)

      The Coronavirus may hit rural communities later but it will certainly hit them harder (very similar to the one above)

      Are suburbs/rural areas safer from the Coronavirus? Probably not. (also pretty similar but it talks about precedent during the 1918 and earlier pandemics and also that people are apparently renting their houses on the notion they're safe, which is wrong.)

      5 votes
    2. Daily coronavirus-related chat, questions, and minor updates - March 29

      This thread is posted daily, and is intended as a place for more-casual discussion of the coronavirus and questions/updates that may not warrant their own dedicated topics. Tell us about what the...

      This thread is posted daily, and is intended as a place for more-casual discussion of the coronavirus and questions/updates that may not warrant their own dedicated topics. Tell us about what the situation is like where you live!

      9 votes
    3. New social isolation rules implemented in Australia

      Frustratingly (and in keeping with how confusing the messaging has been from the Australian government on all aspects of this pandemic), there is no single easy source that lists these new...

      Frustratingly (and in keeping with how confusing the messaging has been from the Australian government on all aspects of this pandemic), there is no single easy source that lists these new restrictions in a nice simple format.

      https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-29/public-gatherings-limited-to-two-people-coronavirus-covid-19/12101162

      https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-29/scott-morrison-coronavirus-covid19-two-person-rule-explained/12101212

      https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/elderly-australians-told-to-self-isolate-at-home-outdoor-gatherings-restricted-to-two-people-20200329-p54f1g.html

      • All gatherings, whether indoors or outdoors, are limited to 2 people. Exceptions apply for people you're living with (you're already sharing germs with them). However, previous limits of 5 people for weddings and 10 people for funerals still apply.

      • People should only leave the house for necessary activities, such as: shopping for supplies, exercising, medical care, work, school.

      • Elderly people should stay home and self-isolate. This applies to: healthy people over 70; unhealthy people over 60; indigenous people over 50. (And if we ever needed evidence that indigenous people have worse health than everyone else, this announcement proves it.)

      • Public playgrounds, outside gyms, and skate parks will close.

      These rules are all advisory, rather than legal. However, individual states can choose to enforce them legally.

      10 votes
    4. Are you having any (professional) "I told you so" moments?

      It could be positive ("I'm so glad I convinced Management to let us set up for working remotely" or "I'm so happy we tested for a ridiculous setting on scalability testing") or negative ("If you...

      It could be positive ("I'm so glad I convinced Management to let us set up for working remotely" or "I'm so happy we tested for a ridiculous setting on scalability testing") or negative ("If you had let me set up the server to [whatever] we would not be in this pickle").

      18 votes
    5. Fortnightly Programming Q&A Thread

      General Programming Q&A thread! Ask any questions about programming, answer the questions of other users, or post suggestions for future threads. Don't forget to format your code using the triple...

      General Programming Q&A thread! Ask any questions about programming, answer the questions of other users, or post suggestions for future threads.

      Don't forget to format your code using the triple backticks or tildes:

      Here is my schema:
      
      ```sql
      CREATE TABLE article_to_warehouse (
        article_id   INTEGER
      , warehouse_id INTEGER
      )
      ;
      ```
      
      How do I add a `UNIQUE` constraint?
      
      7 votes
    6. What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga)

      What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was...

      What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.

      If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!

      5 votes
    7. US President Donald Trump has signed a $2,000,000,000,000 stimulus bill, along with many other leaders in their respective nations

      This thread is a follow-up to the oil prices thread we had less than a month ago. Australia has signed a stimulus package So has the US (title) (link) And Canada And Brazil (in portuguese) So how...

      This thread is a follow-up to the oil prices thread we had less than a month ago.

      Australia has signed a stimulus package

      So has the US (title) (link)

      And Canada

      And Brazil (in portuguese)

      So how are we feeling about this? Will the packages do their jobs and bandage the economy together until we stop the virus, are we headed towards a new great recession/depression, is this the nail in the coffin for the US as a political power (China has the virus under control in their nation and they're selling/giving out tons of masks so if the US economy is nuked and the Chinese only feel the trade effects then they can further empower themselves)

      9 votes
    8. What do you do with fifty-one character levels?

      My gaming group got to talking at our last game about how long we've been playing. Most of us were at 20+ years. I asked them if they'd ever played a 20th level character, and the answer was a...

      My gaming group got to talking at our last game about how long we've been playing. Most of us were at 20+ years. I asked them if they'd ever played a 20th level character, and the answer was a unanimous no, so that's something we're going to remedy with the next campaign.

      I got to fiddling around with characters and noticed that 5e caps itself out nicely once you hit 20th. No matter what you create, the limits on action economy, maximum spell/attacks, stats/scores all give rise to a nice plateau. The hit points getting huge is the biggest change, so you just end up trading healing word whack-a-mole for characters that can actually take some real punishment and using power word heal. Needs a wound mechanic so that going down has lasting consequences even if you get right back up, but that's easily workable.

      I was bored and threw another twenty levels on for a 40th level character, and then another 11 for a meaningful dip into a third class. Just cap the character's proficiency bonus at +6/20th and nothing really changes except you have a far larger bag of tricks at your disposal. Twelve feats is like candyland. I'm anticipating some of my players are going to get ferret shock trying to keep up with their spell lists during combat. Too many choices, they'll make a hilarious mess out of it and it'll be fun. I have a tiny hourglass sitting on the table to keep the pressure up, I'm sure that'll get some use.

      I told them to pick their favorite character they've played over the years that they want to revisit and make the best version they can, complete with character history, holdings, etc. They also have to explain everything on their sheet - every level, feat, item, holding, etc all have a story attached. You're a monk? Where and when did you get that training, etc.

      Then one of my players turned me on to the epic level book for 5e from 2c gaming. It's perfect, plugs right into the limits and takes them up a bit, but also adds all sorts of epic madness. Every class/archetype gets its own ten level epic prestige class. That's the 'real' 21-30 I can use for their advancement. I can also torment them with the prestige evolutions from the campaign setting we'll be using. There's plenty of advancement to be had this way despite already being at 51st level. I'm working in all of their existing characters from adjacent games as well, so we've got a ready made pool of henchmen.

      I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of spelljamming and planar travel in this campaign. There's probably a gods war in there somewhere too. I have my 2nd Edition monster manual binders right here, and a third of the critters in them can give these characters nightmares for days. I'm figuring I'll be making heavy use of Illithids as one of the main threats, that trailer for Baldur's Gate 3 has them back in vogue again. Psionics is such a wonderful foil for magic.

      So what kind of character would you build if you were making a character that's already the master of his/her/its? tiny corner of the D&D universe? What do you do with those 51 character levels?

      Any races allowed, of course. Racial abilities are the least of it at this point. Origin can be from any campaign setting, past or present.

      9 votes
    9. What are you reading these days?

      What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit. Previous topics Previous topics are listed in the wiki.

      10 votes