I see a lot of dumbfucks and turbo autists here holding up DEPENDS ON THE SETTING as a mantra like the left uses the...

"Depends on the setting" is a completely valid answer.

If you want an analogy, if I ask you something like:
"{i = 5;
i = ++i + ++i;}
What does i equal?"
You don't answer 13, and you don't answer 14.
You answer "depends on the compiler".

Same shit with "depends on the setting".

If you take it exactly as it says, then there's no point in making that post, because just about everything depends on the setting.

At least that guy has a purpose, even if it's a retarded one that most people don't really initially see or understand and explaining it only makes it seem more retarded.

Though saying that, it might be better to just ask what setting people are using instead. That way it's continuing the discussion, and people might feel less shut down.

Yup. Realised as soon as I'd posted it.

> "as a mantra like the left uses the word privilege."

Who hurt you, user?

OP, if you want to ask a question about a specific D&D setting, its on you to state which setting you mean in your post. Its not reasonable to get angry because people can't read your mind.

No, it's more like "Hey, do you know what time it is?"

"It depends on what time zone you're in."
"That's nice, but do you know what time it is?"
"It depends on whether we are in a place that practices DST."
"Wonderful, but I just sort of want you to take a look at that watch on your wrist, that wrist right there, and to tell me what the numbers say."
"It depends on whether you and I both agree that these numbers both mean the same thing."
"Ohhhhhhhhhh.... Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize. I didn't see your 'i'm a sack of shit" button on your shirt until now. I'll go talk to someone else, thanks."

Pretending for a moment that this isn't the bait it clearly is, you're a complete moron who doesn't understand the point of the use of the phrase. It's used to express disregard for pointless questions. If OP asks Veeky Forums some retard pointless question about something that isn't detailed in any official fluff or mechanics, then the answer is always "depends on the setting", because there does not exist any canon answer and the question doesn't deserve a thorough examination from Veeky Forums.
When people say "depends on the setting", what they actually mean is:
"Make something up, nobody gives a fuck."

>For fantasy stuff, people mean D&D. It is very easy to work out from context if it is Eberron, FR, etc.
Really? Because while you're skirting around it D&D settings can be extremely different. Elves can range from forest-dwelling nature lovers to imperialist mages to nomadic runners, while halflings can range from homebodies to plucky thieves to murderous cannibals.

What you really mean is "just assume the most boring world you possibly can and answer my banal question," which is dull as fuck.

>disregard for pointless questions.

Holy shit, you're ten times the autist OP will ever be.

Nah, if you are asking me over the Internet, what time it is, I'll answer "I dunno what time it is in your place, but the time at my place is XX:XX."

D&D is shit, that's why.

Weird, because the people in those threads don't seem to agree with you.

Maybe it's just you being upset that people are enjoying discussions that aren't quite as autistic as yourself?

The thing is though, you could have cut that conversation short right there in the second line by not being such a prick and just telling him what timezone you're in.

But no, you decided to be difficult. Well done.

Elaborate, should be fun to see where you're going with this.

That's the equivalent of "In my setting, blank blank blank."

Which "Depends on the Setting" isn't.

No, that's why we go "depends on the setting," and try to think of interesting answers instead.

"Depends on the setting" is the equivalent of "I can't tell the time, you prick, I dunno where you live. So either tell me where you live, or fuck off."

But your example is flawed, user. A better one would be the guy asking 'what does a clock look like?' at what point its pertinent to ask him to clarify what kind of clock he means. Depends on the setting is an answer to a question that is vague enough to be meaningless, and a request for more specifics.

If your analogy really is "hey, do you know what time it is?" then the answer is "check the clock on your Desktop rather than making a thread about it."

"What time is it?"
"Depends on your time zone."
"Uh...I'm in CST."
"Oh, well, it's 7:00."
"Alright, thanks."
"No problem."

I think you're very stupid, because if you follow the course of the conversation, it's clear that they're both standing in the same time zone.

Regardless, all that needs to be done is the simple assumption that when someone asks you a question, they want YOUR personal answer. If you need to clarify extra information, that's great, but it's generally assumed that whatever the answer you provide is, it's the one that you personally prefer or believe to be true.

These are not bizarre, out-of-the-way assumptions. This is just the general way humans communicate.

>OBSCURE HIPSTER GAME NOBODY FUCKING CARES ABOUT OUTSIDE OF POLYGON/RPS/SUSD

Well, it depends on the setting.

>A better one would be the guy asking 'what does a clock look like?'

And then you can describe what you think a clock looks like.

If your answer is "It depends on the maker", that's just a passive aggressive non-answer.

You can describe a grandfather clock or a digital one, and even both if you're inclined, and even strange clocks that you find interesting. Any of those is a better answer than "DON'T ASK ME QUESTIONS I AM UNCOMFORTABLE IF IT'S TOO OPEN-ENDED BECAUSE IT'S CLEAR YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO DISCUSS SOMETHING WITH ME."

>For fantasy stuff, people mean D&D. It is very easy to work out from context if it is Eberron, FR, etc.
Do they, though?

Or do they mean one of the billions of other fantasy roleplaying games out there, or generic animu trash (hello, "elf stuck in tree" threads), or just a generic "setting" that encompasses all of media?

Hell, if someone talks about Orks specifically that's either 40k or Warhammer Fantasy - but that's because they spelt it with a K. If they said "Orc", did they mean the noble savages of D&D, the pig-faced orcs of old D&D, the Orcs of middle-earth, or animu bullshit?

Hell, what about kobolds? Are they furry or scaly? Do they have any relation to dragons whatsoever? Are they cutebolds, or are they germanic spirits, or what?

Even when something is "D&D", there's a lot of difference there! TSR D&D is a very different beast from WotC D&D, and even within WotC's "default" setting you've got at least three separate cosmologies!

And that's without getting into the non-published settings that individual DMs create for their games, where "God" might mean more than just a ton of hit points and free spells.

Oftentimes, "depends on the setting" is a very relevant question since there's a hell of a lot that actually depends on the setting! Even dumb questions like "why don't Wizards rule the world?" have a ton of assumptions you need to work through before being able to answer it properly.

For some of those threads, it's all just down to memes. Why do elves hate dwarves? 'Cause Tolkien did it and people copy him. They don't in individual settings, though, and thinking about it I'm not even sure that there's a current D&D setting where that's the case?
But it's still a meme, so it sticks around. Dwarves hate elves and are scottish, elves are slutty hippies, humans live in feudal kingdoms, guns aren't a thing despite 17th century armor, magic is rare and special and can do anything.

>3) LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT SOME OBSCURE HIPSTER GAME NOBODY FUCKING CARES ABOUT OUTSIDE OF POLYGON/RPS/SUSD PRAISING THE FACT IT HAS A BLACK GAY ELVEN COLLEGE PROFESSOR WHO IS A MEMBER OF THE ACLU AS AN ICONIC
So what you're saying is that D&D and Pathfinder are obscure, huh?

You don't need to know where another person lives to be able to tell the time, you idiot.

8:48 EST is an answer that provides useful information, especially if that person knows the time difference.

> Why do elves hate dwarves? 'Cause Tolkien did it and people copy him.

That's only a half answer though. I understand that you might not agree with the assumption that elves hate dwarves, and the answer "They really shouldn't, because X" or "In Y setting, they don't because Z" actually contributes to explaining WHY you disagree with that assumption.

But what if the guy isn't interested in grandfather clocks but means a wrist watch instead? Then he's stuck listening you spouting irrelevant things, and you wasting your time trying to educate him on something that isn't even relevant to him. Depends on the setting is an entirely legitimate way to point out that more specific information is required to answer the initial question properly.

This is why you just don't answer dumb questions at all and let the thread die

>I think you're very stupid

Good for you, but the context of your original conversation is flawed for talking about the OP. (see )

More than that, you entirely missed the point. Even if the answer should be obvious to the person you're asking, you're still choosing to be a fuckwit about it rather than just saying "Well this timezone, obviously"

Salty man child cries on Veeky Forums, news at eleven...

>But what if the guy isn't interested in grandfather clocks but means a wrist watch instead

There's more than just OP in this world. If you think something is interesting, you should say it.

It's also bizarre that you think anyone is "stuck" listening to anyone.

Really, I'm starting to wonder why you think that the OP isn't fully aware that just about everything depends on the setting when he doesn't specify a setting. Reaching out to many people and looking for a wide range of opinions is largely the reason why they don't bother specifying a setting, because they're more concerned with understanding how different people prefer doing things instead of finding an answer they could google.

So, you ARE just stupid.

The point is that it's a passive aggressive non-answer to a casual question, not that the timezone actually matters.

Your issue is that you don't understand why people ask questions that are more open-ended than your insecurities allow you to tolerate. You're mentally fucked, kid.

I'm personally going to just start assuming they're referring to Darksun and answering things that way.

The question op poses is a lazy generic banal question that deserves the "depends on the setting" answer is gets because that's equally as lazy and noncommittal. Either the op can be specific or the op can be broad and weird his query in a broad manner but "orc marauder wat do" doesn't inherently deserve a better answer than "elf slav wat do".

Tldr op is an autistic faggot and belongs here

There's a huge difference between a D&D orc and a LotR orc.
There's a huge difference between a D&D vampire and a Vampire: the Masquerade vampire.

It's a simple matter of being clear about what's being talked about.

I don't really see a difference, other than one taking the initiative in the conversation. So where does the butt hurt come from in the other?

That's a lot of swearing you got out of three innocuous words.

Here's a hypothetical scenario. Let's say an OP makes a one-line statement in greentext, then asks:
"Would you put this in your setting? If so, how would it fit?"

Is that format more acceptable?

I think the butthurt comes from a guy trying to use Veeky Forums like it was Ask Jeeves, only to get "Reply Hazy. Ask Again Later" on the Magic 8-Ball.

Yes, that is more acceptable.
An even more acceptable format is:

>green-text one-liner
"How does this fit in your game?"

The difference is that one is an answer that provides new information and encourages conversation, the other is a non-answer that attempts to be snarky.

One makes you a contributing member of a forum, the other makes you a cunt.

>I think the butthurt comes from a guy trying to use Veeky Forums like it was Ask Jeeves,

Why do you assume that they're using Veeky Forums like google? Your autism?

Let's be honest: most of the time, Veeky Forums answers "depends on the setting" because the OP just wanted to make a thread about their favorite anime on the wrong board, and Veeky Forums likes shutting down shitposters.

Ask Jeeves != Google.

>Regardless, all that needs to be done is the simple assumption that when someone asks you a question, they want YOUR personal answer.

Actually, OP is pantshittingly angry at the prospect of someone giving a circumstanced and personal answer. He tells it himself : if he asks a question, he wants the most generic and non-committal possible answer for the most generic setting conceivable, according to the lowest common denominator.

If he asks what time it is, he will call everyone autist beta cuckoo weaboo fedora grimdark sjw because you didn't give the hour in UTC+8 (China time, the most populous timezone).

>passive aggressive
I've noticed this come up a lot.
Motive guessing is a form of projection, user, especially in anonymous text. The question isn't an attempt to halt the conversation, or make you feel dumb. It's an opportunity for you to guide the conversation to something you enjoy.
Don't worry about it, and have fun.

No. It's my interpretation of his intent. He wants answers from a robot, not dialogue with a human.

Daily reminder that there is no functional difference between poltards and tumblrinas. Also, OP. Get out.

This.
People be saying that depends on setting shuts down conversation, but it really don't. The only thing that actually shuts it down be the butt hurt they create in they own hearts.

Ye.

Veeky Forums also loves shitposting though.

It's less that I don't agree with the assumption than it is that that's the stereotypical dwarf.

Which is basically just Gimli, really. Short, gruff, vaguely scottish accent, cares about the beard and hates elves. Also, uses an axe. A dislike of trees is optional but appreciated.

If I made a thread asking "why do Dwarves care about their beards so much", I'd probably get a lot of people agreeing with the assumption that yes, Dwarves do care about beards. It's a meme, in the non-internet sense.

Elves being slutty is also a meme, and "it's not rape if it's an elf" is also an internet meme.
For more elvish memes, think about how they're beardless hippy magical girly-men. That's not really entirely true in any setting, I don't think, but those individual bits are things that you can probably get people to agree are very "Elvish".

>it must always be 40k
>it must always be d&d

I'll take that on board!

>Someone asks a question without specifying context that is important to the answer
>Someone asks for context
>OH MY GOD HOW FUCKING AUTISTIC ARE YOU FOR NOT KNOWING EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN

Than OP is dumb.
Why not include a sentence like "through all editions" or write its just a collection for ideas.

If someone spergs about this "depends on" it shows either he cant communicate/write properly or is too autistic to think that all in his mind is default or the only truth.

Wait. Do people actually believe this?

All the other crazinesd aside, does anyone actualy think dots ever shut down anything?

It's literally the most ignored post. It happens in almost every thread, and the only reaction it ever really gets is a "fuck off, autist" at best.

Asking for context? Please, if you're hoping to pretend it's not just passive aggressive butthurt, it's a little too late for that.

That, and that the setting isn't quite as important as a person's personal views. People alter things in established settings all the time.

Sorry, but you're just a fag.

The dumb memes are dumb memes, regardless of setting. The dumb elf ones are not an issue with the person not specifying a setting, but with them having poor taste.

>if you're hoping to pretend it's not just passive aggressive butthurt, it's a little too late for that.
You're sounding a little paranoid m8

There's people up above genuinely admitting they use it because the OP apparently slighted them. Either because they assume OP is using D&D as the default, because the question is too broad for their taste, or because they are offended by the idea that people who play in diffetent settings may jointly discuss a shared topic while evaluating the merits of each others' opinions.

This is one of the most autistic posts I've seen in a long while.

Are you the same idiot from the thread about blank pages in spell books?

Seeing as OP is clearly too dumb to understand basic anaologies, lets try an example

>OP: what do dwarfs like to eat
>P1: in setting X they like dorf bread
>P2: in setting Y they like dicks
>P3: in setting Z they like fresh fish vag
>...
>PN: in setting N they like food what ever

so becuase the OPfailed to specify a setting, his question about the setting he ment goes un answered,and we have a bunch of unconnected foods.

if OP had asked
>what do dwarfs like to eat in YOUR favourite setting
then we could have a nice conversation about the different food dorfs eat

What do you mean "unanswered"? Are you genuinely retarded? Like genuinely, 100% a retard?

Do you actually think that people reply with "hurr durr, I'm making up a dick-eating setting in my head for the express purpose of giving you a meaningless and random answer"? At best, they might be offering a flippant joke, but it's hardly the fault of OP not explicitely demanding that all answers pertain to a favorite setting. Hell, someone's favorite setting might be a dick-eating setting.

I hate to do it, but you really need to be called a retard.

Not even close. Both are search engines, but one is so old an little used that I'm amazed most people even remember it apart from the commercials in the 90s.

...

In my setting, OP is a raging autist and a faggot.

That actually doesn't depend on the setting.

And the people hoping to try and defend the meme are even worse.

You're being intentionally obtuse.

No, you are being retarded.

In any thread where the setting is unspecified, most people are able to function under either the assumption that the OP is asking about your personal preference (which isn't actually tied to the setting, since people freely mix parts of settings to their tastes), or that you should specify what setting you are basing your answer on.

Only about one retard per thread is so stupid that they need to reply that "it depends on the setting" because they lack the base understanding of even a toddler.

>What do you mean "unanswered"? Are you genuinely retarded? Like genuinely, 100% a retard?

i grow more and more suspicious that you are a baitman. this the example above, OP wanted to know about D&D, the 'generic' setting. instead what he got was a bunch of different info about a bunch of different settings

Also, seeing as you didnt get it, dorfs eating dick and fish vag was a little joke on my part. sorry, should have clarified that you humorless dolt

>'can vampires feed off of eachother?'
which setting am i talking about, OP? what is the correct answer?

you get 'depends on the setting' because you asked a broad question that can be answered in hundreds of different ways, many of which are contradictory, depending on the setting
stop being retarded, op

if you want to know more about a specific setting, mention that setting or even a system when you ask a question, ie 'can vampires feed off of eachother in nwod?' or 'in pathfinder' or whatever else
if you want to gather up a bunch of answers from a bunch of settings, mention that too

of course this is all assuming that you actually want to learn anything
if you just want to stir up the pot with a one line greentext thread then fuck off

that analogy doesn't work at all though because there is only one correct answer and it's being intentionally avoided
whereas in reality, when talking about something as vague as 'do elves live in treetops' or something equally asinine, there's fucking hundreds of correct answers because there's hundreds of different settings involving elves
>do you know what time it is
>depends on the time zone you're in
>oh, GMT+2
>yeah it should be 16:14 over there
>thanks
niggity wiggity

Your example only is relevant if all OP's only want to know about a single setting which they accidentally forgot to specify.

Since that's rarely if ever the case, it is retarded to assume that and to build an argument using that as the universal assumption.

Most people don't specify a setting because they want answers from as many different points of view that people versed in many settings can provide.

There are no "wrong" answers, just more and less interesting/viable ones.

While that makes sense, the first rule of writing is to assume you need everything spelled out to your readers unless you're writing a novel. As such, it is the responsibility of the OP to specify if he meant a setting or not. Take a fucking course in writing some time, you salty butt-pirate.

Also, the "eats dicks" was that user making a rhetorical statement. He didn't actually mean that someone would respond that way and you fucking know it.

exept thats when people say
>depends on the setting.
questions similar to mine and are asked all the fucking time, and are comlpelatly meaningless. if someone says 'in your setting/favourite setting' then we know what we are looking at, and not guessing weather or not OP is a dickless retard. like right now.
basically stop being so butt hurt and specify if you want a general discussion about dwarf bread and elf trees

Fuck off with that writer's responsibility bullshit. Everyone except the dumbest idiots can understand that any OP isn't asking for non-answers.

It's all just a passive aggressive meme that long ago lost any hope of hiding behind some retarded benign purpose.

Warhammer Fantasy Orcs are also spelled with a C. Only 40K uses the K at for Ork.

>in setting Y they like dicks

Is setting Y Veeky Forums?

I almost forgot about those comics.

Meta threads are cancer, and you've managed to add three different kinds of bait to the hook you dipped in with this one. Take it to where you belong.

somebody shit in your cornflakes there faggot?

>Everyone except the dumbest idiots can understand that any OP isn't asking for non-answers.
which is why we expect at least a modicum of effort on part of the OP asking why dwarves live underground
if you can't be fucked to at least qualify it with the setting you had in mind when asking that question (even if it's just 'in your favourite setting'), then you deserve a shitty non-answer

The major issue is that it DOESN'T depend on the setting so much as it depends on personal preference. They're related, but not exact, because people are free to mix aspects of different setttings in their games.

Sort of why people pose those broad questions to begin with.

And like that, you've willing thrown your end of the argument into the trash heap. Thanks for playing.

If you can't be fucked to make a basic assumption, why the fuck are you so insistent on getting fucked up enough to express how upset you are that the OP didn't make relegate his question to a specific minority of the board instead of trying to be inclusive?

Just don't post instead of being passive aggressive for all the wrong reasons.

>ask incredibly vague question
>get mad when you don't get the answer you're looking for
>get mad when you're told to specify
>b-but it's your fault for not assuming it was x-y-z setting
boo hoo

>Fuck off with that writer's responsibility bullshit. Everyone except the dumbest idiots can understand that any OP isn't asking for non-answers.
The point here actually is that asking questions that inevitably lead to "depends on the settings" is asking a NON-FUCKING-QUESTION to begin with.
Asking a question of Orcs are industrious or noble or sheer brutes is a non-question. That is why you are not provided with an answer. There is no universal answer to that question, because it DOES INDEED DEPEND AND DIFFER FROM SETTINGS TO SETTINGS, FROM RULESET TO RULESET.
There is absolutely no fucking way around it. You ask a dumb question and expect OTHERS TO GUESS which of the many major popular system you are referring to.

But there is something even more fucked up about people like OP than just assuming that others can read their fucking mind:
It's the problem of homogenization of fantasy ITSELF. Fantasy, as I should remind you, used to be a synonym to IMAGINATION. Not a rigid, shallow set of meaningless tropes. Even the systems and settings don't exist as rigid definitive systems, but rather as a pointers and suggestions that you should (and most do) use as stepping stones towards creating your own fantastic setup.

Not only that OP is an idiot who literally gets mad because people around him aren't psychics, but he is very specifically getting angry at the very notion that fantasy is about imagination and creativity. And that is some serious fucked up shit and quite frankly, indicative of clinical autism.

OP is an idiot and anyone who agrees with him not only fails to grasp basic communication, but fails to grasp the main fucking purpose of the exercise.

If you want to talk about specific case within a specific settings (e.g. Shadowrun, FR, Ebberon), there is NOTHING EASIER THAN TO STATE THAT AS PART OF THE ORIGINAL QUESTION. It is literally two or three extra words to write.
If you can't be arsed to do that, you deserve your "depends on the settings".

I keep seeing pictures similar to that. Is there some story for why there's photos of Japs playing extinguishers like saxaphones?

Depends on the setting.

You're a cheeky cunt, I'll give you that m8