quote:

I like to run all sorts of different games and one of those types happens to be themed based. This could be anything from an all drow party to no spellcasters. This thread has spawned from the "saying no" thread and I would like to go into more detail about preserving the flavour of a theme based campaign when using restrictions.

There have been several people on these forums who ridicule your DM skills simply because you don't run your games the way they want you to. Some have this notion that you must "always" build the world along with the group in order to get their input on it. Now what this actually is is a ploy because they expect this so called "coming together" to have one end result and that is to allow the player or playersto lift any restrictions if they can find a good reason for them to exist. To me, this totally defeats the purpose of having a theme in the first place. Why in the hell what I work on a themed based campaign, only to have you play what I have restricted? The theme campaign just ended before it even began. I stick my decisions because I like to actually keep the campaign themed based. If the majority don't want to play it then we just won't play it and god forbid, these same poeple won't simply opt out of a campaign they don't like, they want it changed around until it becomes something they do like, which incedentally is the thing that was restricted in order for the theme to be possible in the first place.

For instance, in my 5th edition games the Paladin class will be Lawful Good only and the infernal Warlock will always be any evil. Gaining powers from the hells or the Abyss will corrupt and while you don't always have to start evil, you will eventually become evil. In my opinion, I am making my world my own and giving it it's own unique flavour.

This works for my players and I'm sick and tired of these same people who continue in the past couple of years tradition of making these forums a horrible place. I have heard arguments about freaking humanity, respect, importance of humanity etc.. This all because some of us don't run our games the way these people want us to. All of my ideas are put forth to my players first and they decide whether they want to play in it. None of my players feel they are entitled to play in each and every game I run. They don't call me a bad DM if I stick to my restrictions instead of changing the game around to suit them. They show me the respect of opting out and letting the others enjoy the game. From what I have read, 5th edition is supposed to be more about the DM taking back that power and making the campaign his own instead of just reading out of the book and I am grateful for that.

quote:

For those that just can't stand the default video game like healing rules for long rests, powers like Second Wind, and Hit Dice (healing surges), how will you fix these problems and do you think the DMG will have all the options you require? One concern I have is that monsters might hit a bit too hard because the game assumes that the party can rest once and regain all their hit points. With the game designed around the adventuring day in this manner, I think the game might require an adjustment to the clerics healing spells per day. Of course, I want magical healing to be a required aspect of the game and I don't mind the group's dependancy on a cleric. Basically, I'm just looking to play a traditional D&D game with 5e. I'm interested in reading your solutions to this problem.

quote:

It may be 'just a power fantasy' for some groups but rape has a much more varied history than that. It ties into the same reason it's as prevalent as it is in Game of Thrones and ASoIaF. D&D started as a medieval combat simulation game. GoT is largely modeled after the same period. Fact is, rape was a common, every day occurrence back then. The idea that rape is not acceptable by society at large is actually fairly modern idea. So, to depict that era in any kind of length of story involving many figures from all castes of society almost necessitates covering the topic because it was so prevalent.

John Tarnowski posted:

On Outrage-Fatigue and The "High Road"

It's hilarious to hear some of the architects behind the "Boycott Zak And Pundit" thing, that sent hundreds of mass (you could say spam) emails each to Wizards to create the impression of some mass protest in order to try to get them to publicly shun us, now complaining about how 'unpleasant' and outrageous it is that people are talking about engaging in email campaigns against them.

Kind of like how you have people who were very happy to spend hours looking through my blog entries from TEN YEARS AGO to try to find stuff to (mis)quote against me, or approving and sharing the same, now complaining how "unfair" it is that Zak is using a conversation from 2.5 years ago as proof of Tracy Hurley's bad behaviour.

Hypocritical loving liars are funny.

Meanwhile, we have some no doubt well-intentioned but naive people poo-pooing my recent efforts to fight back against the Outrage Brigade's lies, claiming that it's unseemly to "stoop to their level", and that what we regular gamers should do instead is "just not engage". Because after all, just because they're being bad it doesn't mean we can't take "the high road".

First of all: it's probably easier for you to talk about 'the high road' when its not YOUR name they're trying to associate with transphobia, homophobia, racism, and other things you utterly abhor all over the internet. How about we wait until they make up some story about your having kicked a puppy to death or something, have it posted over and over again all over the social media you use, where your friends, gamer buddies, family, etc. can read it, and then see just how interested you are in the motherfucking 'high road'?

Second: The Swine LOVE it when the other side "takes the high road". They DEPEND on it.
They depend on the other side being far too well-behaved and well-mannered to effectively stand up to them and all their dirty-fighting tactics.
They depend on the other side saying "well, I'm not going to report you to the forum mods because I don't tattle", while they get everyone on your side banned by a flood of frivolous mod-reports and manipulation of forum rules to their own benefit.
They depend on the other side saying "well, I'm not going to hurl insults at these people or engage with them" while they take over the whole focus of the discussion.
They depend on the other side saying "I don't like the insulting jargon they use so I won't make any of my own as that would be the same bad behaviour as them" while they end up taking control of language as a way to artificially control the entire conversation.
They depend on you saying "I won't write to Wizards of the Coast to support their choice of consultants" while they write hundreds of emails each in order to create the impression of a flood of outrage.
They depend totally on your side saying "I won't stoop to say mean things or attack them because I'm above it all", while they stab you in the back and kick you when you're on the ground and destroy lives in order to meet their goal of petty power-grabbing at all costs.






So you know what? gently caress the 'high road'.

I could be twice as lovely as I am now and still be ten times more honorable than they are:
-I don't just Make poo poo Up, I tell the truth about them. And not horrific loving lies, which is what they rely on.
-I don't send death threats.
-I don't attack or harass my opponent's seriously ill girlfriend while she's in the hospital.
-I don't pretend I want to debate and then run away and make up lies and use cheap smear-tactics to make my opponent look bad.
-I don't ever deny any of what I actually truly did.
-I don't censor my opponent's voice.
-I don't go back and try to delete evidence of things that I wrote.
-I don't try to put pressure on people's private lives; I don't contact real-world employers or friends; I don't use people's 'real names' if they are known to be private about them.
(another little Hypocrisy Point: All the Outrage Brigade expressing how horrible and harassing it is that Zak uses SA/rpgnet-troll Ettin's 'real name', while they gleefully post and +1 articles and entries that use my civilian name ALL THE loving TIME)

But within those rules of honor, I will be quite happy to use any rhetorical tactic they use against us. I will be as aggressive in my defense of the RPG Hobby as they are in their brutal assault on it.

And if they depend on our larger numbers being silent while their smaller numbers hyper-inflate their apparent significance by aggressive and repeated lobbying, then we absolutely NEED to be doing emailing campaigns.


This brings us to another point: more than a few people have commented on how "tired" they feel, even how "worn out" they are by the 'bullshit drama' about the D&D Consultants. Some have said this to me, as if it's in my power to stop it.

Gee, I'm sorry you feel vaguely tired about an entire group of people's ongoing and concerted effort to publicly LIE about me and FALSELY paint me as a homophobe, racist and sexist to try to make sure I NEVER WORK AGAIN in the RPG field.

I'm sorry it's inconveniencing you so much.


But you know what? You're talking to the wrong person just now. I'm not the one who can end this.
No, not the Outrage Brigade either; I mean obviously they COULD end it, just by NOT LYING ANYMORE, but they've made it pretty obvious they're not going to do that.

No. The person who can end this is YOU.


If you're tired of the attacks and counter-measures, or if you don't want the Tracy Hurleys of the world getting to be the only ones who decide what D&D should look like, then you NEED to go and make clear where you stand on this. You need to tell the Outrage Brigade to gently caress off. Very publicly, and very loudly, until it becomes blatantly obvious that they do not speak for the hobby.

And you need to make sure Mike Mearls hears about this. Because part of the problem here is that the Outrage Brigade are very, very good at making their numbers seem artificially inflated and bombarding people with emails and expressions of their fake-outrage. The other side is usually not so good, because the other side are (with the exception of a couple of us loudmouths), just regular gamers who think that these guys are crazy but can't imagine they'd actually need to go and tell the suits at WoTC as much.

But you do need to. If you want to stop them in their tracks, or if you're really tired of the 'drama' of a group of people using lies to try to destroy the lives and livelihood of a pair of Old-School Gamers because they disagree with what they say about RPGs; if you understand that these have been lies (and there's been tons of evidence to that effect), then the best thing you can do is to write to Wizards of the Coast: write to mike.mearls@wizards.com and make sure he knows what you think (as a D&D gamer and past, present or potential future customer) of the hatchet job being done against Zak and I by these people, and that you support us and Wizards, and think Wizards needs to keep on supporting us, too.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Solitario + Gawith's Squadron Leader

quote:

The problem with D&D's spell system is that spellcasters don't actually play the game, unless they're rolling damage. Spells just work. There's no attack roll or skill roll, they just happen and everyone has to deal with the consequences on their own. People accuse 4e Powers of just laying down cards, but when you use a power in 4e, you have to roll to attack (or make a skill roll), but in other editions, all you have to do is drop a card onto a table and, if you dropped a Fireball or something, roll some damage. That's it. Everyone else has to roll to do something, to attempt to try at something, that's how interacting with the game in D&D, for better or worse, works. Spellcasters don't have to do that. It's why people make such a big deal about Knock despite it not really being that great a spell, or even that good at stepping on the Rogue's toes. Knock does the Rogue's job without a skill roll. It's not exactly better than getting a Rogue to unlock the door, for example the 5e version makes a lot of noise, but it's indicative of the issues at play: spellcasters don't have to interact with the game like everyone else. Magic gets to cheat.

quote:

#rpgaday
Day 5: Old poo poo that's better than most new poo poo.

quote:

Note to creatives: I'm not saying to stop what you're doing. I am saying that you're not doing anything new, you're not doing it any better, and somehow you're getting more accolades than all of the awesome people that created this combined. That's the magic of the internet, not evidence of grandeur. Be humble. Your betters were.

quote:

What the gently caress? I know many folks into RPGs are messed up in the head/emotionally, but they don't need to shove this poo poo down our throats. Maybe they have access to market research I don't, but to me it seems whatever gain in sales they might get from catering to the LGBTQ crowd could be outdone by disgusted people dropping the line. WIth so many alternatives out there, as well as piracy of pdfs, the market is very volatile. The scariest thing is that while WOTC does seem to care mainly about business and sales, I get the sneaking feeling Paizo actually gives a poo poo about this. They aren't just doing it for a sales boost, they really believe in this crap.

What's next, fat acceptance in the art? I mean, why are all iconics skinny or muscular? Why does Paizo hate fat people?

quote:

I dunno, I think this is pretty cute and heartwarming, and the guy (girl?) is a hottie on their picture.

Edit: he should stay a guy though; he looks like he sucks mad dick

quote:

quote:

I've yet to see this mythical video game/board game/comic book/movie ruined by the "SJW propaganda". And I mean genuinely ruined, as in things that were good but now they're poo poo because there's a tranny or a strong wymin it it.

Are you aware of a company called Bioware?

Jonathan Wojcik posted:

I actually had to sign up to this board JUST to say how loving appalled I am at the ignorant, narrow-minded rhetoric in this thread.

You realize most of you are echoing the attitudes of the kind of bible-thumping, right-wing hicks gamers traditionally seem to believe they are better than, right? You all seem to pride yourselves on some sort of "intelligence," yet you somehow weren't aware that transgender people have always existed, are not "new," are not a mental "sickness" or "political propaganda," and are not going to hurt your precious hobby, right?

Some of you need to grow the gently caress up.

quote:

Jonathan Wojcik, if you are the same guy, I've really enjoyed your articles and I hope you stick around on the Codex. I really don't think the Codex has a higher proportion of transphobes than the general population - but because we have considerably more freedom of speech than other sites, the users who are transphobic don't have to hide it. If you had access to General Discussion, you'd see that a tranny porn/appreciation thread is sticky'd there.

Re: YOU make the perfect RPG, what dice mechanic/system would you use? posted:

For attributes, roll 3d6 in order 6 times.

For combat, roll a 20 sider and look it up on a table that cross indexes attacker level versus defender armor class.

No really posted:

The Codex is a place to debate and discuss computer-based roleplaying games. It was founded by a group of RPG fans who wanted somewhere to discuss how terrible RPGs were without getting banned on various developers' official forums or having their posts deleted (it turns out if you call a game's combat system crap on the developer's official forums, they don't like you very much). As such, the Codex is quite happy for people to come here and vigourously debate - until they run out of breath - how good or bad their favourite / least favourite RPG is. Codexians should feel free to do so without fear of being banned for using "offensive language", having their thread locked because it "got too heated" or warned for "flaming". By all means, feel free to troll each other as much as you please and incite flame-wars with whichever willing participants you are able to find.

quote:

quote:

GM believes that minmaxing in all circumstances ruins the spirit of the game.

A wise DM I agree with. Lets call it: The Superhuman Fallacy. Players mistakenly think that if they make a super human character that they will have a ''better'' character, have more ''options'' and have more ''fun''.

quote:

Player believes that, permitted a point buy, it's only smart to put an 18 in at least one ability score.

The player believes wrongly. The player only thinks they are being ''smart'', but in reality they are pushing things too far. You don't need to have a superhuman character to have fun. One more plus will not suddenly make the game great or make your fun beyond great.

You don't need to drive a golf ball 200 yards to play put-put.

quote:

They disagree on what actually ruins the spirit of the game..

Clearly.

The DM is quite simple: You can role play and have fun with any character, it's all up to you to role-play and how much fun you have. The DM understands that having a limited, combat focused view of a character is limiting.

The player thinks they must be superhuman to have fun. They feel that the whole game is about combat and numbers. And that everything the character does must be the best of the best, and they fall for the lie that they are ''just trying to make a character that is able to to the basic job.''

quote:

What are your thoughts on the above scenario? What are your opinions? What do you believe ruins it in general?

Optimazation ruins the spirit of the game, and sucks the fun out of it.

quote:

Antigrog 1 posted:

I have to wonder if gm would made as much of a fuss if player rolled the d6s and scored an 18 that way. The only difference here is he's relying on chance to get an 18 vs just buying the 18.

Grog posted:

He would not, speaking for that kind of DM.

If a player is willing to 100% accept the chance of getting random abilities, then they are a good player and the DM would say nothing.

Rolling, but using the ''I did not roll good, re-roll'' stupid rule is a yellow flag: This player might be a problem player and now must be watched.

Point buys are just a tiny bit shy of cheating. Your ''stacking the deck''. This is a problem player.

Antigrog 2 posted:

Translation: "people who are not playing RPGs the way I do are playing them wrong!"

And that's a funny redefinition of a problem player. Just buying a single high stat means you will automatically cause problems at the table? What?

Finally, do note that pretty much every RPG that's not DND uses point buy these days, and most of them don't even have the option to roll a random character because it makes no sense with their system.

Grog posted:

It's a red flag. When a player ''must'' have a high score in an ability to ''have fun'' or even ''play the game'', they are typing their hand and showing they are a problem player. A ''must have'' is the way to spot a problem player.

Antigrog 2 posted:

No, this merely shows the player likes to play a powerful character, and has a different approach than your oldschool "you will take what the dice give you and you will like it" one. But of course people playing the game differently than you and problem players are the same thing, amirite.

NGDBSS posted:

RPGCodex seems to be for CRPGs what The RPGSite is for TRPGS. It's a place for people who've been bannably bad jerks on other sites to whinge about "my freedom of speech!" and the like.

quote:

5 years of 4E d&d, 0 character deaths
1 session of 5E d&d, 1 fighter killed from full health by a critical hit from a wolf, followed by rolling 1 on the death save.

Liking the new edition so far

Chaltab posted:

(Is Wojcik and industry professional or something? The name sounds vaguely familiar.)

quote:

Jonathan Wojcik, if you are the same guy, I've really enjoyed your articles and I hope you stick around on the Codex. I really don't think the Codex has a higher proportion of transphobes than the general population - but because we have considerably more freedom of speech than other sites, the users who are transphobic don't have to hide it. If you had access to General Discussion, you'd see that a tranny porn/appreciation thread is sticky'd there.

quote:

quote:

Jonathan Wojcik said: ↑
are not a mental "sickness"

You shouldn't talk that way about the mentally ill, implying it's bad and stuffies, you could offend and trigger some people here. You mental ableist schizophobe. Being able to talk to a machine god and hearing voices does not make you have less as a person or mean that you shouldn't get representation, intoleramus. If anything is offensive here it's your bigoted rear end.

quote:

This view of game design is why our shelves contain so many narrow, patronizing games. Any generic table top roleplaying game having a 'classic' structure (DM and group of players) should empower the DM to control the content, feel, grittiness, etc. of his or her setting. Whether a goblin is dangerous and an ogre not is irrelevant; there is an infinite number and diversity of creatures, NPC's, traps, diseases, etc. and the DM should sort out what mix of them is present in his or her world in whatever way suits his or her vision. The notion that the game designer would make these decisions for you in advance, serving up to you a recipe for a specific vision of your game world, is only loosely acceptable for licensed settings where there is some sense of responsibility to reproduce something familiar, but in generic games like D&D is always vile.

quote:

I can't figure out how to assemble quotations from a dozen posts, so I'll just summarize: all objections to my earlier post are totally and obviously wrong.

pming;6357403 posted:

Hiya.

Ok, I'm confused. With TWF you don't get "double" attacks; you simply get ONE extra attack. So a 20th level fighter would get 5; 4 normal, plus one for TWF. Where are you getting all this "8 or 12 attacks" nonsense?

As for "DPS", I think you're trying to reduce the game to a table top version of an MMO. In an MMO, it's pretty much a given...you do more damage, you kill more things, you do better. However, with a table top RPG, there are nigh infinite things you can do to "win" in combat...many of which have nothing at all to do with your "DPS". If you boil it all down to brass tack's, the GWF has a LOT less choices on the field of battle. He basically attacks one opponent to do as much damage as possible . The TWF'er has a LOT more choices available to him as he technically can have a 'free hand' yet still attack/defend (if he wants; or he can get an extra attack). In an TTRPG this is a HUGE benefit, IME. Of course, if your DM doesn't actually "DM" and is content with just being a rules-lawyer rolling dice for the monsters...yeah, TWF becomes less desirable in such a game. But as I read the rules and play the game, having more options in combat almost always outshines "but I do +X more damage each round".

I'm not trying to pee in anyone's Cherio's, but just "crunching numbers" without taking actual game-play into account is an effort in futility.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

potatocubed posted:

quote:

Sounds to me that if you offend everyone equally, it could be okay.

So to extend the magic beyond just Native Americans, you could also have Chinese, Puritans/Preachers (more of a class than a race), and even some kind of Snake-Oil shyster or a Jewish mage like a Kaballist (need more research here).

Then each of these magic races (or classes might be better) would have their own set of spells that match their various mythologies.

SymmetryrtemmyS posted:

Are these people serious? Her armor has nipples. She's not wearing pants.

quote:

Getting rid of mana burn was one of the most idiotic changes to the game, though it's also one of the fairly few really idiotic changes to the game. The real purpose of mana burn--drat that silly "memory" garbage from Garfield--is to punish the player for making boneheaded mistakes or for simple excess. [...] It is far more likely the removal was done solely because whoever responsible probably kept losing to it.

quote:

All rules in this game exist to force people to remember them. The day you forget that is the day you stop playing Magic. The day you hate that is the day you should stop playing Magic. There is a reason why we have a very large comprehensive document of rules, and that reason is not "complexity".

quote:

I rather wish they would reprint FATAL. They really need to simplify character creation, though. I'm all for crunch or whatever, but spending literally an hour and a half generating a character isn't fun.

Having that character die almost instantly within an hour of playing isn't fun, either. :P

I think they could streamline/simplify character creation, fix the broken advancement system, fix up the combat system (Fulcrum points or whatever? Really? I should never need a calculator to swing an axe), and it would be pretty playable. I don't mind the whole "rapey rape rape" thing - never have.

The sad thing is that the game has an extremely gritty environment that could easily be played "low-fantasy" style. You could have entire campaigns that have nothing to do with anything non-human (or above a serf, for that matter). Almost like Legendary Quest in a way. The spells listed in the book are also pretty gritty and plentiful. I like that kind of thing. Some of them are just idiotic, but that's whatever.

Mormon Star Wars posted:

This.
Racism indeed.
As a caucasion white male I absolutely should not be allowed to enjoy *my* cultural heritage, the stories of *my* ancestors, of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, the Sorceress Morgaine le Fay and all the sword and sorcery outgrowths of that.
No, I have to be not 'colour(culture) blind', but be colour/culture-sighted and put all other colours and cultures ahead of mine even when celebrating my own culture.
Because otherwise its me who is racist!

quote:

Tabletop roleplaying games are like Star Trek's Holodeck, a virtual reality handled with pen, paper, dice, and your imagination. Instead of a computer, a person, called the Dungeon Master, runs things. You will be playing a character and acting as if you are a hero in a fantastic situation.

quote:

I'm not going to bring gender into this in any way. In my games, regardless of gender, life experiences, whatever, people have a clear forewarning that I run games (regardless of system) where things CAN happen. We don't sit around and push it to the limit every session - that's immature and takes away from the impact of those events. It's just a sandbox where things CAN happen. You KNOW for a FACT that you are not "protected" by your own comfort zone, that your character may experience things that make you uncomfortable, and that the bar is set somewhere in the sky and is never going to be lowered. A gaming session might be fairly inoffensive, or it might be pretty dark. It all depends on character actions, consequences, and so forth.

In other words - it's all about the game, and the story being told. That's my stance on the subject.

quote:

I read through it and didn't see any rape jokes. The book is written in a very dry clinical tone for the most part, which makes it boring in addition to a bad system. A few well timed rape jokes would have been an improvement.

FMguru posted:

Someone has decided to respond to RPGnet's decade-old review of FATAL

Mormon Star Wars posted:

This.
Racism indeed.
As a caucasion white male I absolutely should not be allowed to enjoy *my* cultural heritage, the stories of *my* ancestors, of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, the Sorceress Morgaine le Fay and all the sword and sorcery outgrowths of that.
No, I have to be not 'colour(culture) blind', but be colour/culture-sighted and put all other colours and cultures ahead of mine even when celebrating my own culture.
Because otherwise its me who is racist!

Error 404 posted:

Somebody should ask this guy if all the knights of the round table were white. Then tell him about the black one and the werewolf.

quote:

I didn't mention this in my initial comments about the PHB, but it is worth pointing out that I noticed it right away. There were definitely multiple passes done on the artwork choices for this book to ensure it was ultra politically correct.

For example, there are 8 gendered races in the book. (Dragonborn are androgynous.) All but the half-elf have illustrations of female characters. Aside from the half-elf, the only male character to appear in this chapter is Drizzt. The human female is also black, just like the human featured on the first page inside the cover. Mulan appears on the Soldier background. Persian Mulan appears next to the weapons table, etc. And no, this isn't a book full of subverted expectations. There are no female illustrations for the Hermit or Street Urchin backgrounds.

Given that RPGs are a primarily male hobby, and will remain a primarily male hobby, I don't understand their choices.

Lightning Lord posted:

Given that RPGs are a primarily male hobby, and will remain a primarily male hobby, I don't understand their choices.

jedipotter posted:

I don't like talking to people out side the game. I feel that if they act badly, they are too far gone to even bother talking too.

In game punishments are the way too go.

Player 1-beep beeep blip beeep on his phone
DM-''Player 1 it's your turn''
Player 1-''Hun? What?'' beep beep on his phone
DM-"Nevermind, the dragon tail slaps your character for 66 damage and send you flying off the ledge into the pool of water!''
Player 1-"What?" beep beep beep on his phone

Though I also use the carrot....keep the game fast paced and intresting. And not let any player slow things down.

DM-"Ahead you can see the marketplace. Your typical wood stalls and tents...but not so typical piles of dead bodies. Most look quite fresh, even as you approch you see a halfling say ''I wil sell it for 100,000 gold!'' and he suddenly screams in pain as something unseen slices into his body...a couple seconds later his dead body falls to the ground. Everyone looks or glances, but does not move or react much. No one goes near the halflings body, or any of the others.''

Problem Player-"I roll my skill checks, DM tell me what is going on."
DM-"Your character falls asleep."
Good Player-"I'll walk into the market place, careful to stay away from the dead bodies and look for a stall that sells daggers....."

quote:

What about other instances of political correctness in this game? For example, in grizzled outcasts, one man in the artwork appears to be of African descent, and the woman appears to be of Asian descent, making them out of place in Innistrad, which is modeled after Victorian England and other parts of Europe during that time period. I can understand WotC's desire to be more inclusive, but I believe that accuracy should take precedence over that.

Winson_Paine posted:

- Must post grog. This is the big one. Your post can certainly comment on some funny grog, but the last thread was overwhelmed with low effort slackers riding the jocks of the real grogposters. Don't post grog, something bad will happen to you. Commentary on previous posts is fine, or discussing grog, but you gotta bring a pie to the buffet if you do.

GorfZaplen posted:

David Hill is offering free stuff to anyone who ditches GenCon to help in Ferguson and is selling his books so he can donate all proceeds to the ACLU.

Clearly, this is just a cynical ploy by the OUTRAGE BRIGADE!!!!

John Tarnowski posted:

If You Were At Gencon Right Now You Might See... Victory.

This:



Which is awesome, and not something I expected at all (I have nothing to do with the production of these shirts, by the way; I believe Zak doesn't either).

But it also sums up nicely what we've learned is the real issue of the past 45 days' clusterfuck: D&D is better thanks to Zak S & the RPGPundit.

That's what it all comes down to. Because this whole thing was very clearly not about Social Justice, as any and all claims that I was racist, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic have been proven to be either false or more often, INTENTIONALLY false (that is, knowingly fabricated as an effort at character assassination). That means that not only was sexism, racism, homophobia or transphobia never what was at issue, but the people who were out to get me and Zak were quite willing to throw the reputation of those causes under the bus by knowingly lying about them for the sake of weaponizing them against us.

Which if you're really someone who cares about racism, sexism, or prejudice against LGBT (as indeed I am) that's just about the most despicable thing you can possibly do. It's worse to knowingly make up lies about someone being transphobic than to say or do transphobic things in the first place, because by making up lies or knowingly false accusations you end up damaging the reputation of legitimate issues and legitimate cases of transphobia; people don't know what to take seriously or not anymore, once the lie is caught and discredited. So the people who made up these lies about me are, from a social justice point of view, the absolute scum of the earth.

With that out of the way, that means that all it comes down to is this question: as this is not in any way about any real claims of sexism, racism or LGBT-phobia, the only thing under consideration is whether it is more important that D&D is better thanks to Zak and the RPGPundit, or that Zak and the Pundit are sometimes mean to people (99% of whom are people who don't actually like D&D and want it to do badly)?

Does it matter more that Zak and I are aggressive to assholes and liars, and often do so in defense of D&D against people who want to see D&D fail; or does it matter more that we had an influence on 5th edition being what it is and looking how it does (I don't mean the art, which is awesome but I can take no credit for, but rather 'looking' in the sense of being a game that has very strong Old-School sensitivities), and that this is something that has been widely praised?

It should also be kept in mind that at least some of the people who are doing the attacking here are people who have either always condemned or rejected D&D, or who had hailed 4e as their final justice where D&D was finally the 'gamist' skirmish-competition-game it was supposed to be cornered into becoming all along, and comfortably neutered from having real protagonism in the hobby when it comes to ideas?

I think it should, because these people have used me and Zak to get at 5th Edition D&D. They saw that it was going to be vastly popular (and significantly, vastly more popular than the GNS-inspired 4th edition of the game), and that they'd just be marginal voices of sour-grapeing if they went after the rules or system, so instead they tried to get a boycott going based on utterly made-up outrages they libelously heaped on the two guys who had been so mean to them all along; the guys they thought so inferior to their own pseudo-intellectual sophistication, and who they were aghast to see WoTC turn to as ideological inspirations for the new edition.

Yeah, DIY Zak and Old-School Pundit. Not regular-gamer-hating Ron Edwards, Vince Baker, etc etc. Not the pretentious sophisticates who always wanted their vision imposed by force on the 'unwashed masses' of 'brain damaged roleplayers' who they felt didn't know what was best for them, but Zak and the Pundit: guys who embody the style that actually believes in D&D, and believes in gamers, that says that the way people actually play and have (in the vast majority) always played is the best way to play, and the best possible way to design an RPG is to design it for how people like to play. And NOT to try to invent something new through dubious theories and then try to change the culture of the hobby to force people to play that new way.

In other words, the Grognards they loved to make fun of are now the guys in charge. Old School has won. And they lost.

And that's what ALL of this bullshit of the past month has been about. It's why they hate us so much; it's all because "D&D is better thanks to Zak S & the RPGPundit".

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Ben Wade Canadian + Image Latakia

quote:

****'s lusts have pushed hir far beyond hir limits, each being sie unbirths now adding to an immense battery of energy that has changed the dragoncat, forcing hir to evolve to survive the massive energies of hir guests. Sie has been pushed even further now, thanks to the relentless input of energies from beings like **** and ****, pushing hir evolution further and futher. Hir womb now pulses with immense energies that sie is only beginning to control. But with those energies comes the hunger for more.

Sie has managed to gain enough control over hir power to control hir form to a degree, and has compacted hirself from hir normal 200 foot tall frame down to just 5 feet tall. However, hir proportions remain exactly the same as hir massive form. Hir legs have become long and more muscular, with reddish scales showing through the fur when hir muscles move and flex. Hir rear remains shapely and taut. However, hir tail has changed quite a bit, thickened and muscular, and covered in scales, more like a dragons tail than a cats. Its long, long enough to trail behind hir on the ground.

Hir belly is huge, large enough to rest firmly on the ground. It ripples constantly with its contents, hir kits. The current litter consist of ****, ****, ****, ****, ****, ****, ****, ****, ****, ****, and ****! You swear you can almost hear moans of pleasure inside, as if all the motion were caused by an unending, unyeilding orgy.

Between hir legs, for those brave enough to look up, hir sex has undergone some changes as well. First off, sie has finally become a hermaphrodite, sporting a massive shaft, pressing tightly to the undercurve of hir belly. It is perpetually hard, more than a foot in length itself, drooling pre from the tip to matt the fur of hir belly. Sie does in fact sport a pair of hefty testicles in hir scrotum, which actually GLOW with a portion of the male energies hir body is unable to bleed off. All the power of the males sie takes end up here, and this organ has become potent indeed.

Just below and behind that is hir femsex. It seems to shift and move of its own accord, opening and closing, like a hungry mouth. The scent of honeysuckle is overpowering, and alluring. ****'s pheremones have become VERY strong, and to inhale too deeply of them is to become hir willing sex toy. If sie wishes, sie can increase the potency of hir fragrance, driving those around hir mad with lust. You look higher, eyes following hir curved hips to hir chest, where four massive breasts, each the size of beachballs sit. The lower pair rests against hir belly, the upper pair against the lower, all four impossibly firm and well-formed, jiggling against each other and fighting for room on hir still-crowded chest. Hir proportionally tiny nipples leak a steady stream of milk which leaves a wet stain on hir luxurious fur, revealing the scales beneath.

Hir face has changed subtly as well, hir expression more predatory, hir eyes glowing with the inner fire of all that magic, now coursing unheeded through hir. Hir teeth are sharper, fangs longer, and a pair of dragonlike horns extend from hir head, curving back over hir skull. hir tongue has become long and agile, now nearly a foot long with fully extended, as sie shows by licking the very tips of the horns on top of hir head.

hir wings have changed the most. Once huge bat-like wings, they have erupted, becoming feathered wings made of fire. Each feather is like a seperate, delicate flame that does not burn flesh, but instead ignites passion within any who touch them.

hir entire body glows subtly, and all flaws and blemishes have left hir. hir fur is the softest any fur could hope to touch, hir body warm to the point of almost being hot. sie moves seeming unencumbered by hir bulk, graceful and light on hir feet.

Sie turns and sees you staring, a grin crossing hir face. I need... more... come to me and feed me... sie says, licking hir lips and smiling.