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Tollymain posted:yeah but nobody plays gurps either I'm in a GURPS TL0 caveman game right now. Just had my eye replaced with a magical marble after having it shot out during an ambush last session. Now I can see the spirit world.
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Nov 10, 2014 12:19
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badass
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Nov 10, 2014 12:21
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Are they friendly spirits?
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Nov 10, 2014 18:19
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Benagain posted:Are they friendly spirits? Well our tribe totem is on our side, I guess. The spirit of my magical eye-biting knife is somewhat scary, as are the spirits of most of our magic weapons tbh. We're having an on-off relationship with a nearby boar spirit and we're trying to bump off a miscarriage spirit that's plaguing one of our ally tribes. So a bit of a mixed bag, really. The main draw of the magic eye is that I can see if items are magical and see whether people have Power Investiture. I'm a one man shaman spotting team. (of great relevance considering one of our tribe has a magic item called the spear of secret murder)
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Nov 10, 2014 20:43
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I am going to a Magic PTQ this weekend. It'll be my first. Anyone been to one of these before and mind telling me what to expect/how to prepare?
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Nov 10, 2014 21:43
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Reene posted:I am going to a Magic PTQ this weekend. It'll be my first. Anyone been to one of these before and mind telling me what to expect/how to prepare? PTQs are pretty casual, going off of the one I went to. Make sure you show up a bit early to sign in and everything, but other than that it works like a step or two above a Friday night Magic. EDIT: In terms of "serious business" that is.
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Nov 10, 2014 21:53
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I've been to two and the only real difference was attendance and a lack of table chat. Bring your A-Game and don't be afraid to call for a judge.
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Nov 10, 2014 22:01
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Zurui posted:I've been to two and the only real difference was attendance and a lack of table chat. Bring your A-Game and don't be afraid to call for a judge.
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Nov 10, 2014 22:16
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Yawgmoth posted:That right there is I think why I haven't had much fun at GP/PTQs. If all I wanted to do was pilot my deck I would just jump on MTGO. I want to talk to my opponent and have a fun time of things socially as well as magically. Well there's yer problem! Since Secret Santa season is upon us, I wanna do a quick straw poll to see if one of my backup ideas is going to be successful. How many of you nerds have read Iain Banks' The Player of Games?
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Nov 11, 2014 00:09
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grassy gnoll posted:Well there's yer problem!
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Nov 11, 2014 00:11
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Yes, it's fantastic. I doubt you'll find many who haven't read it - but that's not to say that a nice hardbound copy would go amiss.
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Nov 11, 2014 00:23
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grassy gnoll posted:Since Secret Santa season is upon us, I wanna do a quick straw poll to see if one of my backup ideas is going to be successful. How many of you nerds have read Iain Banks' The Player of Games? The Player of Games is wonderful, like most of Iain Banks' work. Poor Iain Banks 
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Nov 11, 2014 00:24
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grassy gnoll posted:Well there's yer problem! Brilliant book. One of my favorites.
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Nov 11, 2014 00:25
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grassy gnoll posted:Well there's yer problem! I discovered him at pretty much the moment he was guaranteed to write no more books and was sad. This one was very enjoyable for its look at that universe.
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Nov 11, 2014 00:30
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Hrmm. While I'm delighted so many folks have read the second-best Culture book, especially here, that does kinda put a damper on using it as a backup gift. Oh well! Read Player of Games if you haven't, nerdlords.
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Nov 11, 2014 01:31
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I haven't read it
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Nov 11, 2014 01:38
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Leperflesh posted:I haven't read it same
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Nov 11, 2014 01:55
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grassy gnoll posted:Hrmm. While I'm delighted so many folks have read the second-best Culture book, especially here, that does kinda put a damper on using it as a backup gift. Oh well! Hell, most of it is. It's a great series.
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Nov 11, 2014 05:10
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grassy gnoll posted:Hrmm. While I'm delighted so many folks have read the second-best Culture book, especially here, that does kinda put a damper on using it as a backup gift. Oh well! Just send your Santee an Azad set. Problem solved.
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Nov 11, 2014 05:15
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dwarf74 posted:Yeah, Use of Weapons is awesome, too. AKA The Best Culture Novel. inklesspen posted:Just send your Santee an Azad set. Problem solved. Joke's on USPS, I bet I can fit an entire society into a flat rate box.
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Nov 11, 2014 05:49
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So I'm watching the recent Hobbit movies. I'm a giant Tolkien nerd, but I'm not a dick about it, and absolutely love Jackson's LotR movies. But this is just bullshit. I'm hate-watching it. I wish I could take a shot every time someone almost falls off something. It's like if Michael Bay got a hold of The Mouse and the Motorcycle and threw in a lot of fire, explosions, precarious drops, flimsy structures, and gratuitous slo-mo.
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Nov 11, 2014 07:06
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now i want to see what michael bay would do with a tolkien property 
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Nov 11, 2014 07:08
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Tollymain posted:now i want to see what michael bay would do with a tolkien property I'd much rather see Hobbits with flamethrowers.
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Nov 11, 2014 07:17
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The Hobbit is the first time I've wanted a collector's edition that tosses out 3/4 of the theatrical material.
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Nov 11, 2014 07:35
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I'm just going to assume this is an appropriate time to link to the kill count video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgI1ah4vC-s
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Nov 11, 2014 07:37
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dwarf74 posted:It's like if Michael Bay got a hold of The Mouse and the Motorcycle and threw in a lot of fire, explosions, precarious drops, flimsy structures, and gratuitous slo-mo. I gotta admit, I would watch the hell out of Michael Bay's The Mouse and the Motorcycle.
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Nov 11, 2014 07:49
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What's an example of a really bad game/module that came out of the OGL? It's been mentioned a couple of times that one of the byproducts was a glut of subpar products, but I've never really heard of one specifically.
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Nov 11, 2014 08:22
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gradenko_2000 posted:What's an example of a really bad game/module that came out of the OGL? It's been mentioned a couple of times that one of the byproducts was a glut of subpar products, but I've never really heard of one specifically. Might as well say the obvious one: The Book of Erotic Fantasy.
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Nov 11, 2014 08:25
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gradenko_2000 posted:What's an example of a really bad game/module that came out of the OGL? It's been mentioned a couple of times that one of the byproducts was a glut of subpar products, but I've never really heard of one specifically. BESM d20 and d20 Modern both come to mind.
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Nov 11, 2014 08:26
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I think it might be quicker and easier to list the OGL/d20 products that weren't middling to crap. The two big standouts that immediately spring to mind are Mutants & Masterminds and Spycraft, not coincidentally two games that have gone on to continue to have a life after D&D3E. Basically any time someone made "[RPG]: the d20 Version" you can generally assume that it was pretty bad.
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Nov 11, 2014 08:56
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gradenko_2000 posted:What's an example of a really bad game/module that came out of the OGL? It's been mentioned a couple of times that one of the byproducts was a glut of subpar products, but I've never really heard of one specifically. Dungeon World. Not the excellent game by LaTorra and Koebel, but the hard-bound A4-size job that landed at the time of the d20 boom. I'm not sure whether to mention Rappan Athuk or not - the revised version was much tidier, but the original was just some guy's AD&D megadungeon translated straight to 3.0 rules without any regard to the differences in the way the games played. Mechanically it was godwaful, but when we played it there was plenty of fun to be had in the 'I take a sniff of the powder' 'You die' old-school style.
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Nov 11, 2014 09:10
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Kai Tave posted:I think it might be quicker and easier to list the OGL/d20 products that weren't middling to crap. The two big standouts that immediately spring to mind are Mutants & Masterminds and Spycraft, not coincidentally two games that have gone on to continue to have a life after D&D3E. The Stargate RPG was pretty good, but it was really just Spycraft with aliens. For stand out bad D20 stuff... The Worlds Largest Dungeon $100 for a bunch of half-assed dungeons strung together.
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Nov 11, 2014 09:19
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Also it's kind of hard to imagine just how much d20 shovelware was being pumped out unless you were actually keeping tabs on it. You know how a lot of people nowadays put out tons of $0.99-$2.99 micro-supplements on .pdf, things like "10 Magical Codpieces" or "All About Doors," poo poo like that? Imagine people doing that only with 128-page dead-tree books and a vague understanding of the d20 system. lovely art, lovely rules, some of them had interesting concepts and occasionally you found one that had decent production values but they were all ultimately forgettable and when the d20 "bubble" popped a lot of game stores that had invested unwisely now had shelves full of this crap that they couldn't even give away.
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Nov 11, 2014 09:29
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I didn't get a chance to take notes on any of the games I playtested at Metatopia, so I'm going to just write about them now, while the memory is still fresh. I have more extensive notes for the various panels I went to, and I'll be writing those up tomorrow. The first game was Jason Pitre's Faded Age, a very Kingdom inspired game, though with more of a focus on the idea of the shifting of grand epochs. The game actually became much more interesting once we stopped trying to roleplay individual characters, though, and focused our attention on the grand forces that our characters were meant to be the avatars of. I think that it has some interesting implications, for the idea of these individuals trapped within the influence of powers beyond their control, manipulating and steering events towards varying ends. Of all the games, it's the one that needs the most work, so don't expect to see it any time soon. Next was Laura Simpson's Dreamfall, an PbtA game about a group of teens that share the same dream world. A lot of time was spent establishing relationships and conflicts with each other, as well as our relationships with the central NPC and details of the dream world itself. The events of the narrative then kick off with the central NPC's death, and the implications for the characters in the real and dream worlds. It's definitely a neat game, and one I'd look forward to running myself. The skins lack a bit in terms of diversity, due in part to a decision to not include skin specific moves. Still, the concept is really cool, and I think that it'll be game-ready sooner rather than later, so expect me to keep you guys updated about this one. Third was James Mendez Hodes's AfroFuture, which is built around the Cortex+ system. The PCs are all folk heroes who have appeared in songs, and our group included Stagger Lee, Momotaro, Pirate Jenny, and Cindi Mayweather. The PCs belong to a group from the end of time, having been taken at the moment of their deaths, to join the good fight throughout all of space-time in order to defeat the vile minions of The Man and bring about golden ages of harmony. It's a very over-the-top setting, and the setting itself bore much of the attention. The mechanics worked fine together, and for those who find Cortex+ too crunchy, Hodes has already made FAE rules for the game available, and should have the setting ready for more eyes soon. Finally, I played Tim Rodriguez's Hyperreality, a game that takes reality shows and takes them over-the-top. Our group ended up taking Project Runway and then making the contestants all super-villains, with our host being Tim Gunn as the Humungus. Character creation is based around creating aspects in four different qualities, then deciding whether that aspect would make the character a Face, Heel, or Star. These determinations provide cards that are used rock-paper-scissors style to resolve conflicts. To refresh those cards, each character also has three Secrets, which can be revealed to get those cards back. The Secrets are written by everyone at the table, and the players pull from the pile to get ones that they didn't write, and the contrast between the aspects and the secrets made for comedic material. All in all, it's a pretty simple game, all that needs doing there is writing the book so that anyone can play it. If you see it around, and you like reality television, give it a go.
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Nov 11, 2014 09:53
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dwarf74 posted:So I'm watching the recent Hobbit movies. I'm a giant Tolkien nerd, but I'm not a dick about it, and absolutely love Jackson's LotR movies. I've actually enjoyed the two Hobbit films thus far, but even I have to admit that the over-the-top action in those films feels a bit superfluous. Having said that, they're pretty much what I expected: given that the Lord of the Rings films came out first, I understand that Jackson wanted to tie the Hobbit films to that trilogy, which means that the story of a whimsical children's novel has to be made to match the gloomy darkness of the LotR films, as well as adding a bunch of cameos and lore-dropping to make it feel like it actually takes place in the same universe. What I don't get is turning the shortest Tolkien book into a trilogy of films equal in length to the LotR films. Oh wait, I totally get it. 
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Nov 11, 2014 09:54
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Wasn't there a whole "company" called fast forward games or something that just made dozens of horrible splats with mostly nude ladies on the covers? EDIT: I mixed two together! Fast Forward Entertainment did terrible splats, and Avalanche Press made, uh, other terrible splats, with mostly naked ladies on the covers. EDIT 2: If you want to know how bad poo poo got, you have to realize that it wasn't just companies making terrible products, it was the industry lining up to join and reward them. The aforementioned Avalanche at one point got an Origins reward for "best supplement" for a book that's best described as "mediocre and dry historical text with absolutely terrible mechanics." Because by god something d20 had to win, right? ProfessorCirno fucked around with this message at 10:47 on Nov 11, 2014 |
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Nov 11, 2014 10:36
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Meinberg posted:Finally, I played Tim Rodriguez's Hyperreality, a game that takes reality shows and takes them over-the-top. Our group ended up taking Project Runway and then making the contestants all super-villains, with our host being Tim Gunn as the Humungus. Character creation is based around creating aspects in four different qualities, then deciding whether that aspect would make the character a Face, Heel, or Star. These determinations provide cards that are used rock-paper-scissors style to resolve conflicts. To refresh those cards, each character also has three Secrets, which can be revealed to get those cards back. The Secrets are written by everyone at the table, and the players pull from the pile to get ones that they didn't write, and the contrast between the aspects and the secrets made for comedic material. All in all, it's a pretty simple game, all that needs doing there is writing the book so that anyone can play it. If you see it around, and you like reality television, give it a go. This sounds amazing, especially since my other half is hooked on X Factor at the moment. In fact, I know exactly what I'd run with it: X Factor but all the contestants are archetypes from the major arcana and the judges are personifications of the four suits.
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Nov 11, 2014 12:43
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Bucnasti posted:
Ahhhh! The memories!! They had just faded!
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Nov 11, 2014 12:48
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Fast Forward Entertainment made a ton of bad supplements, including Dungeon World (which I own). When I'm not on my tablet I can tell the tale of how FFE imploded because it's pretty funny.
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Nov 11, 2014 13:13
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gradenko_2000 posted:What's an example of a really bad game/module that came out of the OGL? It's been mentioned a couple of times that one of the byproducts was a glut of subpar products, but I've never really heard of one specifically. Pretty much anything Mongoose put out at the time; the Quintessential books were loving dire (I'll always remember "peasant warrior" as a prestige class), the Slayer's Guides (... to Female Gamers, yech), Power Classes, any of their books with "Ultimate" in the title... it's possible that some of it is okay, but chances are if you throw a rock at anything published by Mongoose from like '02 to '05 it probably deserves the impact. They glutted the market and along with folks like Fast Forward, really helped contribute to the idea that d20 books were just shoddy cash grabs. They've cleaned up their act to a good extent but can still be really hit or miss.
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