|
What, where did our funny name go?
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 03:54
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 13:02 |
|
|
Who is Skarka again?
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 03:59
|
|
|
Gau posted:What, where did our funny name go? APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding Shitlords out of the goblin ranch, mixing Trad Games and desire, stirring Dull posts with spring rain.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 04:01
|
|
|
Plutonis posted:Who is Skarka again?
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 04:02
|
|
|
Winson_Paine posted:APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding here's a haiku: winson suck my dilz winson you should suck my dilz winson suck my dilz FMguru posted:Fading midlist game designer, known mainly for running his mouth and being extremely full of himself. Like John Wick, only less accomplished. Oh... well, i don't actually care for that at all but thanks for the effort of caring about that guy! 
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 04:08
|
|
|
Plutonis posted:here's a haiku: Plutonis was kind of a slob shitposted like it was a job his posts were so bad he was chased from FYAD but now he's the king of the YOB!
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 04:14
|
|
|
Winson_Paine posted:Plutonis was kind of a slob Emptyquote.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 04:17
|
|
|
Winson_Paine posted:Plutonis was kind of a slob :nignog:
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 04:19
|
|
|
FMguru posted:Fading midlist game designer, known mainly for running his mouth and being extremely full of himself. Like John Wick, only less accomplished.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 05:42
|
|
|
Don't forget, he also accused Evil Hat of having some sort of evil conspiracy of using good customer service to trick people into buying their products.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 06:12
|
|
|
It was less that he accused Evil Hat of a conspiracy so much as he called people who thought that Fred Hicks' good customer service and generally decent behavior was anything more than a ploy to separate them from their nerdbucks a bunch of saps. In GMS-land the only reason you ever aren't an rear end in a top hat to someone is because you want them to give you money.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 06:27
|
|
|
Kai Tave posted:It was less that he accused Evil Hat of a conspiracy so much as he called people who thought that Fred Hicks' good customer service and generally decent behavior was anything more than a ploy to separate them from their nerdbucks a bunch of saps. In GMS-land the only reason you ever aren't an rear end in a top hat to someone is because you want them to give you money.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 06:31
|
|
|
Evil Mastermind posted:Seriously, he should be grateful RPGNet exists because it gives him such an easy way to deflect blame or criticism away from himself. Skarka is super weird about RPGnet. When people criticise him he flies off the handle and/or makes up strawman horseshit so he can play martyr, so now RPGnet is apparently a super-evil den of outrage mongers that constantly drives away game designers and real designers like GMS don't go there, except to search for threads about himself and complain about it on G+ based on the worst possible interpretations of what people said.  My favourite post, in response to a single person posting that they wouldn't back Tianxia based on his involvement: quote:Ah. There we go. The RPGnet crowd begins the "we're not going to back Tianxia because Skarka is tangentially involved" drumbeat.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 06:39
|
|
|
Ettin posted:
There isn't an big enough.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 06:42
|
|
|
Ettin posted:Skarka is super weird about RPGnet. When people criticise him he flies off the handle and/or makes up strawman horseshit so he can play martyr, so now RPGnet is apparently a super-evil den of outrage mongers that constantly drives away game designers and real designers like GMS don't go there, except to search for threads about himself and complain about it on G+ based on the worst possible interpretations of what people said. Doesn't he constantly - and consistently, like, once a year or something - scream about the horrors and evils of RPG.net and how he's leaving forever...and then a few months later, emails and begs to be let back in?
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 08:25
|
|
|
ProfessorCirno posted:Doesn't he constantly - and consistently, like, once a year or something - scream about the horrors and evils of RPG.net and how he's leaving forever...and then a few months later, emails and begs to be let back in? I'm still not sure how it was he got unbanned the first time around...that happened years before they thought it'd be funny to make me a mod. The only entertaining thing he ever brought to the forum to my recollection was getting super-pissed at the guy pretending to have the same name as him and then posting his phone number and challenging people to call him and confirm that he was the "real deal" or something like that. He'd then go on to complain about having "stalkers."
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 08:32
|
|
|
I kind of liked this line from his twitter feed@gmskarka posted:Anyway, that’s the update. Much more detail towards solution when I’m back full-time. Thanks to those who’ve demonstrated understanding. He also didn't seem to feel the need to apologize to anyone for how ITU turned out. What's always been amazing about Skarka is the gap between the massively self-important way he styles himself and the actual output of his game design career. It's one thing to be a big shot game designer and have an ego to match, it's another to carry that sort of ego around despite producing...well, what exactly is Skarka famous for? A D20 supplement about pirates? Some pulp modules? Work on LUG's Star Trek line? A Vampire heartbreaker that disappeared right after it was published? I mean, if you're Gary Gygax or Mark Rein-Hagen or Richard Garfield, you can sort of justify treating other people as some sort of lesser life form (not that those people did). But this mediocrity?
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 10:16
|
|
|
Also an urban fantasy game using a "coin-pool" system as a resolution method, a John Carter knockoff RPG, and Far West, can't forget those.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 10:43
|
|
|
Kai Tave posted:Also an urban fantasy game using a "coin-pool" system as a resolution method, a John Carter knockoff RPG, and Far West, can't forget those. Isn't Far West trapped in the same "never ever going to be released" limbo, though? Or did that materialize when I wasn't looking.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 10:52
|
|
|
gnome7 posted:Isn't Far West trapped in the same "never ever going to be released" limbo, though? Or did that materialize when I wasn't looking. He had surgery to have large parts of his bowels removed, but so far it seems to be the same old poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 10:59
|
|
|
gnome7 posted:Isn't Far West trapped in the same "never ever going to be released" limbo, though? Or did that materialize when I wasn't looking. It's coming out next week.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 11:05
|
|
|
Evil Mastermind posted:Or you're a "college liberal", i.e. actually concerned with social justice or outraged by things he isn't outraged about. He hates those too. What's funny is if you read any of his social media musings you'll find out that's he's actually mega liberal about social issues. I remember in one particular moment of self-loathing he said something like "I want to turn in my old-white-guy card". In fact, he's so liberal that he doesn't actually believe that the people who gave him money actually deserve anything in return. "You guys aren't customers, you're backers who decided to give me money to be creative.  "Take THAT capitalism.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 13:57
|
|
|
FMguru posted:I mean, if you're Gary Gygax or Mark Rein-Hagen or Richard Garfield, you can sort of justify treating other people as some sort of lesser life form (not that those people did). But this mediocrity?
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 16:07
|
|
|
Skarka also promised us a Buckaroo Banzai RPG and for that failure he is a monster.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 16:13
|
|
|
ProfessorCirno posted:Don't forget, he also accused Evil Hat of having some sort of evil conspiracy of using good customer service to trick people into buying their products. So yes, Fred wants you to buy his games. Skarka wants you to buy his games. But if Fred is cool about it and Skarka is an rear end in a top hat, it still speaks well of Fred.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 16:30
|
|
|
I think the closest Skarka has come to real self-awareness is his anger at the whole idea of "gatekeeping" the hobby because he knows that if people did it, he wouldn't be allowed in.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 17:04
|
|
|
Quarex posted:The fairly minimal amount of negativity I have heard about all three of those people makes me wonder, in conjunction with knowing how friendly a lot of game designers are, about the identity of the biggest game designer who is also kind of a jerk. Is there a direct line of "friendliness" versus "success" in game design? Well, I am sure not, but all the curmudgeonly assholes whose companies or products are running gags certainly seem to skew the numbers While he hasn't has D&D levels of success, I'd throw Fred Hicks and Evil Hat onto that list as well. Dude is a genuinely super nice guy who just fuckin loves games.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 17:58
|
|
|
Quarex posted:Is there a direct line of "friendliness" versus "success" in game design? Well, I am sure not, but all the curmudgeonly assholes whose companies or products are running gags certainly seem to skew the numbers
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 18:15
|
|
|
Most game designers and companies are pretty cool. They kind of range between the clueful and the clueless as far as PR blunders go, but most of them aren't outright assholes. It's the terrible fuckers that make the most noise and that attract our attention, I like to think.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 18:18
|
|
|
FMguru posted:It's pretty telling, I think, that the two designers with the most outsized public personae (Wick and Skarka) have more or less consigned themselves to the fringes of the hobby, self-publishing small press products and relying on begging-bowl/kickstarter funding from their dwindling fanbase to function. I was going to say pretty much this. Being an rear end in a top hat gets you noticed for being an rear end in a top hat. People are a lot more apt to bring you up for scrutiny and slighting when they feel slighted themselves. Speaking of Rein*Hagen, from what I hear his current project has completely skipped the rails and become something completely different from what was proposed, but since it's White Wolf that has the checkered history and not him personally, it only gets a handful of cringing posts whenever someone goes to look.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 18:24
|
|
|
Alien Rope Burn posted:Most game designers and companies are pretty cool. They kind of range between the clueful and the clueless as far as PR blunders go, but most of them aren't outright assholes. It's the terrible fuckers that make the most noise and that attract our attention, I like to think. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 18:26
|
|
|
Really, if you can get some people to support something once, a smaller section of them will go on to support it every time, because... they supported it once. Why? Well, they supported it, and thinking otherwise would make them wrong. And they couldn't be wrong, that's just nonsense. And you also get complicated situations like Paizo where people like Jason Bulmahn seems pretty chill but Sean K Reynolds is a self-righteous bonehead. Lisa Stevens seems really professional, but then she goes and hires Ryan "eat my foot for breakfast, lunch, and dinner" Dancey.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 18:42
|
|
|
Kai Tave posted:Also an urban fantasy game using a "coin-pool" system as a resolution method, a John Carter knockoff RPG, and Far West, can't forget those. Underworld is pretentious as gently caress, but it's at least interesting.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 19:14
|
|
|
Ettin posted:Save on Far West! I'm not familiar with this guy, is the joke that the audience for ICONS is completely different than the audience for Far West, or is the joke that Far West is never going to come out either? Edit: gently caress, I thought I was on the last page of the thread. DalaranJ fucked around with this message at 19:44 on Apr 6, 2014 |
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 19:42
|
|
|
Humbug Scoolbus posted:Underworld is pretentious as gently caress, but it's at least interesting. It might be, but who even knows it exists let alone plays it? That's the thing, who's actually playing the games that GMS makes? Not the ones he maybe has a contributor credit for because he's done some stuff for ICONS and I think the Doctor Who: Adventures In Time and Space games but isn't the lead guy on those, I mean the "Gareth-Michael Skarka presents" ones. On the subject of game designers who aren't jerks, Greg Stolze is also a pretty cool dude who seems to have a successful track record of producing games that actually come out in a reasonable amount of time and who doesn't act like a huge rear end in a top hat. The thing is, I don't think that resorting to crowdfunding is necessarily related to being a huge douchey blowhard, especially in this hobby. FATE Core/FAE was Kickstarter driven, a bunch of what Greg Stolze's done for a while (all the Reign supplements and the pocket version, Better Angels, stuff like that) has been crowdfunded, etc. Given what the RPG hobby is like it makes a lot more sense to try and do things that way regardless of whether you're a jerk or not. Of course GMS is both a jerk and chronically unable to deliver. Far West is so overdue it's a punchline, while neither Fred Hicks or Stolze have any outstanding undelivered projects to the best of my knowledge.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 19:47
|
|
|
DalaranJ posted:I'm not familiar with this guy, is the joke that the audience for ICONS is completely different than the audience for Far West, or is the joke that Far West is never going to come out either? Yes. Icons is lite FATE inspired superhero game and Far West is a d20-ish western. So not a lot of overlap there. And Far West's kickstarter ended shortly after Gencon 2011 and has been 'out next week' for at least 1 year.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 19:56
|
|
|
On a completely different note, here's something I was thinking the other day: what's folks' favorite dice rolls from games? This can be resolution mechanic, an effect mechanic, a really cool way to roll on a table or matrix (remember those?), whatever. What's the funnest or most satisfying ways to use dice?
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 20:02
|
|
|
Personal favorite is probably WFRP3e's symbol resolution, mostly because it has so many possible results for each pool, and also because upgrading dice and adding small bonus dice is way more satisfying than just adding a number. ORE's great too, even if it's pretty bad statistically (even Stolze admitted that he didn't really check it thoroughly). e: Least favorite is any RPG where you roll a thing and add a thing and compare it to a thing (with the exception of maybe * World, mostly because that's more interesting in interpretation). So mechanically uninteresting. Asymmetrikon fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Apr 6, 2014 |
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 20:07
|
|
|
Kai Tave posted:It's coming out next week. No, not next week. Next Week(tm). But yeah, I thought GMS did a lot more work on Icons, so I gave him some money for Far West. Then I realized just how awful of an rear end in a top hat he was, but it was too late. If I ever get Far West, it'll be the last thing I get from him.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 20:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 13:02 |
|
|
I like the One-Roll Engine because it's a clever way to get more than one piece of information out of a single dice roll, also because it tends to limit pools to about 10 dice or so which keeps things from getting into Shadowrun/Exalted territory where you need three dozen dice on hand. Also whatever other problems Deadlands may have I dig how being a magician gambling with demons for power actually involves you trying to put together a poker hand to determine how successful you are.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2014 20:11
|
|