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This needs to be posted, cookingwithgygax.txt Cookbooks are a lot like Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games. They contain seemingly rigid rules that, in practice, require a certain amount of adaptation for your own tastes. So how come cooking gets its own TV channel and role-playing games don't even get a show on G4? Maybe the population at large doesn't want to pretend to be a half-elf. Maybe RPGs take more imagination than most people However, it just might have something to do with the role-playing community. If geeks talked about cookbooks the way they talk about RPG books, the results would not be pretty: Posted: 12:15 a.m. by LordOrcus I'm so mad that there's a new edition of The Better Joy Cookbook out. Thanks for making my old copy obsolete, you greedy hacks! For five years now, my friends have been coming over for my eggplant Parmesan, and now I'm never going to be able serve it again unless I shell out 35 bucks for the latest version. Posted: 12:42 a.m. by KathraxisHey, I have a question! When you preheat the oven, can you start it before you measure out the ingredients, or do you have to do it afterward? Please answer quickly, my friends and I have been arguing about it for four hours and we're getting pretty hungry. Posted: 12:48 a.m. by Goku1440 I found an awesome loophole! On page 242 it says "Add oregano to taste!" It doesn't say how much oregano, or what sort of taste! You can add as much oregano as you want! I'm going to make my friends eat infinite oregano and they'll have to do it because the recipe says so! Posted: 1:02 a.m. by barrybarrybarry I can't believe I spent 35 dollars on a cookbook that doesn't have a recipe for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. When I buy a cookbook, I expect it to tell me how to cook. And don't tell me to just make a PBJ myself, I'm not some sort of hippy artist pretentious "freeform cook." Posted: 1:08 a.m. by jvmkanelly Where are the recipes for chatting with friends while cooking? Where are the recipes for conversation over the meal? When I throw a dinner party, I want it to be a PARTY. I guess the idiots who use the Better Joy Cookbook just cook and eat in stony silence, never saying a word or even looking each other in the eye. Posted: 1:23 a.m. by LordOrcus Hey, guess what? They're coming out with The Better Joy Book of Hors D'oeuvres. It just goes to show that the publishers are a bunch of corporate greedheads who care more about money than they do about cooking. Is it too much to ask for a single cookbook that contains all possible recipes? Posted: 1:48 a.m. by specsheetHey, everyone. I can tell just by reading the recipe that if you prepare eggs benedict as written, the sauce will separate. My mom always said the other kids made fun of me because they were jealous of my intelligence, so I must be right. Everyone who's saying that they followed the recipe and it came out perfect is either lying, or loves greasy separated hollandaise sauce. Posted: 1:52 a.m. by IAmEdAs I have pointed out MANY TIMES, several of these recipes contain raisins, and I, like most people, am ALLERGIC to raisins! And before you tell me to substitute dried cranberries, I will reiterate that I am discussing the recipes AS WRITTEN. I do not appreciate your ATTACKING ME with helpful suggestions! Posted: 2:12 a.m. by HerodotusI just have to laugh at the recipe for Beef Wellington. In Wellington's day, ovens didn't have temperature settings! And pate de foie gras certainly didn't come in cans. It's like the authors didn't even care about replicating authentic early 19th century cooking techniques! Posted: 2:17 a.m. by LordOrcus I have read the new Better Joy Cookbook and I am devastated to my very core. Their macaroni and cheese recipe, the very macaroni and cheese I've been making since I was in college, has been ravaged and disfigured and left bleeding on the page. Where once it contained only cheddar cheese, now the recipe calls for a mix of cheddar and Colby. It may contain macaroni, and it may contain cheese, but it is not macaroni and cheese. This is a slap in the face and a knife in the gut. You have lost me, Better Joy Cookbook. I would bid you goodbye, but I wish you nothing but the pain and rage you have delivered unto me.
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Mar 16, 2009 22:24
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I'm not talking about a specific case here, just stating the obvious. Exalted, for a great many reasons in a great many places, is broken. I'm also not saying that the game as a whole is unplayable, nor that it's doomed or somehow not worth playing anymore. In this thread, we discuss how, why and where Exalted is broken, that we might fix it. I still enjoy Exalted, I'm even STing a PbP in our very own forum, but it's sadly flawed. If you don't think Exalted is broken somewhere, if you think everything written balances perfectly, this thread is not for you. Just as it's annoying for every drat thread to turn into a debate about Sidereal MA, it'd be really annoying if this turned into an "Exalted is NOT broken!!!111" dogpile. And before I even start: YES, this probably will end in flames - skip it! We'll start with an easy one: Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style Mirror Does Not Lie, Essence 5, MA 5 10m, 1wp, Combo-Basic, Scenelong. Perfect Defense against any attack ANYONE in the fight sees coming, including the user. Air Dragon's Sight, 3m, Combo-Basic, Scenelong, Essence 1, MA 5 Negates all surprise attacks for the Scene. Congratulations, you are utterly invincible, A Solar Essence 5, Melee 5 effect can only prepare a limited number of Perfect Parries, that don't negate most surprise attacks, and the number is only uncapped at Essence 6.
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Mar 16, 2009 23:00
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OK, I'm about to start playing in a new campaign. Looking forward to it, this should be a chance to shake some dice and show off my moves! I can flick my sword across my enemy's cheek, scarring him with my initials - or maybe I should be a great and powerful sorcerer, summoning up elemental spirits to destroy my enemy's lands by night - or maybe I just want to survive the dimly lit backstreets of a violent city, relying on my cunning and my poisoned dagger. Perhaps I'll play a baby dragon, maybe I'll play a pixie, maybe I'll be a lich. Of course, my imagination's going into overdrive at this stage while I think of possible backgrounds for my character, personality quirks, long-term goals, what he looks like and all that stuff and wonder what kind of plot the ref will throw at me. So now I have to work out what character I'm actually going to play. So what am I going to do? Sure, I'm going to leave all that to chance. Why would I want any conscious input into a character concept that I'm only going to be developing over the next 3, 6, maybe 12 months? Hey, if I'm lucky, my buddy might roll all 9s and 10s for his stats, and I might roll 16s and 17s!! That way we can both play the same thing, and he can just suck, and I'll just kick rear end and be the center of attention the whole time and he can just kiss my bum because I'll be so much cooler than him. Whaddya mean, points-buy!?!?!?!? Then I might have to THINK for more than, like, TWO WHOLE minutes while I choose where to put my points. Jeez, are you expecting me to take RESPONSIBLITY for my character concept as well!?!?!?!? I think my brain might explode from actually having to USE my IMAGINATION!!!!!!!!! So give me random rolls, random rolls yee-hah! Hang on, what's that - I get to choose a Profession and a Race and a Clan/Tribe/Kingdom or something? B*****cks, I might actually have to read up on the different choices so that I can make a sensible choice. Maybe I'll just roll a d20 and turn to that page number in the book and there's my race chosen for me! Go forward another 2d20+20 pages and there's my character class! And then I'll be stuck playing a lizardman elementalist, when I actually wanted to play an elven thief. But who am I to argue with the dice? I am inferior to them, because I am human and make mistakes, but they are inanimate objects and do not. And this SAVES me from the PAIN of THINKING!!! Woohoo! Now I can spend the next 12 months playing a character that I'm in NO WAY interested in just because I rolled sh*te, YAY!!! Hang on a mo. Maybe I should just choose my Profession and Race after all. OK so now I'm stuck with choosing my Profession and Race and Clan/Tribe/Kingdom, so I'd better read all the rulebooks to work out which ones do the stuff I like. Dammit I could have mastered a points-buy system in that time. Holy moly Billy just rolled 17s for all his stats and I only got 5s! Not to worry, we'll have different niches. What's that, he wants to play a Gargoyle War-Priest of Shinroth as well, just like mine? With the same choice of Superdupershooters and Polly-Parrot Familiar just like mine? And he just rolled max. Health Bonuses for our freebie level increases and I rolled nearly minimum??? So he can do everything I can do and just do it better than me?? drat. Hey, not to worry, we still have to roll for starting equipment. Oh balls, he got 4,765,241 platinum pieces and I got a used jockstrap. How can I cheer myself up? GOT IT!!! I may be screwed over by the dice having to play a character who's strictly inferior to Billy's but my luck's nothing like as bad as the ref's. He's got to figure out how the two of us Gargoyle War-Priests of Shinroth with Polly-Parrot Familiars have teamed up with Gary's randomly rolled Dragonbred Bird-Eater without Polly 1 and Polly 2 getting their heads bitten off during the two gargoyles' daily naps. OK, with that in mind, now I'm happy with my randomly generated character, YAH!
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Mar 16, 2009 23:39
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Oligopsony posted:Today I was going to do a classic rant on account that its the day The Wench heads back to Canada. But I decided that instead I'd be writing about a fairly classic topic, something I haven't ranted about in a long time: RPG.net. thats way too many words from a bitter dude but the lovely moderation over there is in fact why every other copy paste in this thread exists
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Mar 16, 2009 23:47
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it's not just lovely moderation it's lovely posters too. RPGnet is just bad all around. Also this site is the best source for grognards.txt Over at theRPGsite, someone had made a comment about 4e; about how the "real damage" of D&D 4e would come along when other gaming companies tried to clone the horrible concepts the game contains. Well, I think what they should have said here is "the real damage will come IF the other game manufacturers clone this monster". That's one of the best measures of if a new edition is "successful" or not from a design point of view. D&D 1e (and OD&D) were obviously the biggest success in that sense in that virtually all RPGs are in one sense or another based on OD&D's design concepts and basic framework even to this day. 2e didn't inspire gently caress all. It was Vampire that was inspiring people in the 90s and games were borrowing stuff from WW; more in setting and pretentiousness than system because there wasn't any real system innovation, though even there the horrid WW-style Dice Pools, though not original, might not have been as popular had it not been for them. 3e INSPIRED. Or more specifically, D20 did. It revolutionized how people thought about game design. Open source gaming. Single Unified mechanics. Even the basic layout of RPGs; if you look at books that were considered perfectly well laid-out before 3e came out, today you read them and feel like they aren't quite well-organized because they don't follow the organization structure 3e used and that became almost universally adopted. Will this thing they call 4e really end up inspiring anyone? Will new games that come out really end up being full of 4ncoutars, and treat their setting like a meaningless mmorpg backdrop and be all about the power-cards? Frankly, I can't really imagine it right now. I can't imagine almost anything from 4e ending up making a big impact on other games. Its been out long enough already that it would have started doing so already if it was going to, and from what I see 4e has inspired gently caress all thus far. Once again, D&D has lost the ideological vanguard in gaming. And yeah, in one sense, thank god that it means no one is going to be copying 4e, but in another, that's only going to be bad for gaming in the long run, because while people won't be looking at 4e to imitate for their own games, they will end up looking elsewhere. Which is exactly what the Swine wanted, it the reason that they wanted to cripple D&D into being a purely "gamist" game all along, so it couldn't inspire, and the Swine could usurp that ideological vanguard. RPGPundit Currently smoking: Mastro De Paja Media + Hearth & Home's Namaste
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Mar 16, 2009 23:55
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The Swine are any people for whom RPGs have, as their primary purpose, the conveyance of some kind of sense of personal self-worth. This need for gaining self-esteem out of RPGs manifests itself in creating and aggresively promoting the concept that RPGs are either "art" or "intellectual pursuit" rather than a mere game, and usually implying that someone who participates (to them it would not just be "playing") in an RPG is doing something of inherent value with their lives. In order to create this illusion, the value of "art" or "intellectual" has to totally superimpose itself over "fun" and "play". Likewise, and here's the insidious part, in order for the Swine to be able to gain this sense of self-worth from what any sane person would consider a meaningless game (meaningless good fun, but still utterly meaningless and certainly not self-validating) the Swine must attempt to utterly destroy the concept that RPGs should be played for fun as a mere game, and must promote the concept that they (the Swine) are the special elite who truly understand RPGs, and actively work against the popularity of RPGs. So the Swine have it as part of their make-up, conscious of the fact or not, the destruction of the RPG industry, and indeed of the hobby as a hobby or as play. All this for their own selfish, low, contemptible ends. Now, only a few of the Swine are the truly incorrigible willfully evil kind that have no real interest in RPGs as a game, as play, or as fun, and want only to fulfill some kind of sick psychosis. Sadly, the vast majority of the Swine were hapless rubes, the willing or unwilling fools that bought into the foul creeds of the real Swine in the 1990s when the Swine took over the entire ideological basis of the Gaming industry; hence that era being what I've called gaming's "generation of Swine". Most of these gamers had come into RPGs playing D&D and having a great old time, but let themselves be hoodwinked into thinking that how they were playing RPGs was "wrong" or "stupid", and in their desperate desire to appear as sophisticated as the Swine appeared (and only the very young and impressionable, or the terminally stupid, could fail to see through the Swine's cheap two-bit artistic posturing and pathetic pseudo-intellectualism), they let themselves be brainwashed into thinking that playing story-based games where nothing happens and the players are cheerleaders for the DM's (or the game designer's) brilliance were somehow more fun than blowing up buildings or cutting orcs in half. Fortunately, with each year in the last six or so, there have been less and less people fooled by the Swine, some of the lost generation have even reformed themselves, and the damage is slowly being repaired. Slowly, the hardcore Swine are being pushed more and more to the margin, leaving only the most extreme cases to continue arguing meaninglessly in places like rpg.net and the Forge, still pretending that they are the ones who matter. There is obviously some kind of deep psychological explanation for why the Swine are like this, which I won't pretend to be able to analyze, except to look at the most basic probable cause which is that people who become Gamer Swine are the ones who don't have enough going for them in the real world or in their real lives to give them some kind of a sense of validation. I mean, I sure as gently caress don't need to play RPGs as a way to make myself feel smart, or to pretend I'm doing meaningful work. I play RPGs as a way to get away from that poo poo; that poo poo being what I do in the real world, in my real life. I have a strong suspicion that the majority of the Swine don't have much of a real life. Let's hope that (mixed with my original essays on the Swine in the first entries to this blog) this definition ends up clarifying the issue somewhat, and providing a better breakdown of what the Swine are all about.
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Mar 16, 2009 23:57
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Yes but at least that dude hates Burning Wheel so he isn't all bad.
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Mar 16, 2009 23:57
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Naar posted:Yes but at least that dude hates Burning Wheel so he isn't all bad. The Lost Generation The other day I hit upon a revelation that sincerely shocked the crap out of me: I have been gaming for as long as some of my players have been alive. In some cases longer. This came as a shock to me, as I'd never thought of myself as a grognard; mine was the generation of gamers of the mid to late eighties, the ones who were the New Generation. We were those who were inheriting the gaming earth from the old guard of the grognards, and would create a bold new tomorrow. We produced masterpieces of RPGs in our days, the great second era of RPGs in fact, and ours was the peak of the gaming hobby. There were more gamers actively playing, and the industry was bigger than it had ever been, and as it turns out bigger than it would ever be again. But the center could not hold, things fell apart. Starting with TSR's moral decadence into Lorrain Williams-land, where the she-harpy set the model for corporate mismanagement of gaming companies by people who despised gamers. After she had cheated Gary Gygax out of company control, and given him the boot, TSR released 2nd Edition; which set the tone for second editions made for reasons other than to improve the game. The only real motive for 2nd edition was Williams' own spite, and the end result was a catastrophic drop in the number of people drawn to gaming. But all this was just the catalyst for what was to come. Williams' subversion of TSR created an environment where TSR had lost its natural position as industry leader. Into this vacuum stepped White Wolf. The 1990s were to be gaming's age of darkness, in more ways than one. I have hope for this new generation of gamers, few as they are, that are getting into gaming in this foul year of our lord 2005. A couple of the gamers in my groups here in Uruguay have under 2 years of gaming experience, and they show so much promise. Even if South America is really a different beast altogether (and it is), on my last visit to North America I got to witness my younger brother's game. He's ten years younger than I, and his group are all relative newbies. They're good. They'll do fine, if only we were getting more of them, if only the gaming companies could get their heads out of their asses and realize that making new gamers should be priority one. But this is after 15 years of utter disaster in the gaming world. And that generation of gamers, the ones "born" into the hobby from the early to mid nineties, are a lost generation. Lost in the sense of those who we did not manage to bring into the hobby, those gamers who never were, who should be roleplaying now and are not; and Lost in the sense of those who do game, only to have been subverted by the pseudointellectuals. This is the "white wolf generation", coincidentally the same generation my friend Hunter S. Thompson, in another context, called "the Generation of Swine". But this is just as good a term to use for the roleplaying hobby as it is for everything else the 90s generation represents. Not that the kids were all bad kids, far from it, just that they were brought into gaming in a time when people had been hoodwinked into thinking RPGs were "Storytelling"; were meant to be a thing of sophistication, and one had to take them awfully seriously. In terms of gaming style, this was the age of story-based gaming, of metaplots, of the dreaded in-game fiction. It was a time of pretentiousness, which bred a closed, cliqueish mentality among gamers. They not only didn't care that people were dropping out in droves from the gaming hobby; they WANTED that. They wanted exclusivity, so it didn't matter to them that kids were turning away from RPGs. RPGs weren't supposed to be for "kids" anyways in their twisted world, never mind that most gamers started as young teens; that many of the Generation of Swine themselves started as young teens, brought into the game by the people of my generation or the grognards, now the Generation of Swine wanted RPGs to be "mature". So selfishly, they shut themselves in, and those of us who refused to quit gaming with them. The mentality of pseudo-intellectual elitism is one that inevitably leads to the formation of incestuous sub-cultures. Pseudo-intellectual gamers cringe when they hear that RPGs are enjoyed by "millions". They hate D&D simply for being the most popular. The most extreme among them even hate Vampire because its too "mainstream", and choose to hang out in intellectual garbage-dumps like the Forge, spewing nonsense theories about gaming philosophy, and producing nothing of value. The Generation of Swine are not to blame really, except in their complacency. Its only some of them who are pseudo-intellectuals, but the problem is that many of the rest are enablers. They allowed a small group of pseudo-intellectual artistes, mostly brought into the hobby only because of White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade, to hijack the entire industry. Many of those of my generation have their share of the blame too, for choosing to quit gaming, rather than soldier on and call for a restoration of sanity. This mentality brought us to the brink of disaster... had Peter Adkinson and Ryan Dancey not come in and restored sanity, gaming as a commercial industry may have ceased to exist. They did the humane thing; they took the spoiled brat's toys away and re-established order. Wizards has taken up the reins of industry leader, and gaming is slowly on the mend. But many, many gamers are still infested with the mentality of the Generation of Swine, in particular those who are active online. This continues to be a problem; there are those who still despise D20 for taking control of the asylum back from the lunatics; there are others who would try to make D20 more like the old and utterly failed model of story-based gaming. Cheers to all! Currently smoking: Castello Collection Fiamatta + GL Pease Charing Cross
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Mar 17, 2009 00:05
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Currently Smoking: Chronic.
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Mar 17, 2009 00:17
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Mikan posted:This is the "white wolf generation", coincidentally the same generation my friend Hunter S. Thompson, in another context, called "the Generation of Swine". But this is just as good a term to use for the roleplaying hobby as it is for everything else the 90s generation represents.
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Mar 17, 2009 01:30
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That RPGPundit site is pretty solidly grognard.quote:A Serious Question
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Mar 17, 2009 04:41
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His rants about RPGnet are the best. Yeah, RPGnet sucks hard but rpgpundit has this weird paranoid vendetta against the site that turns creepy fast.
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Mar 17, 2009 04:42
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This will undoubtedly make some people angry. That is not my intent, but rather it is to express my observations and opinion about something I felt was implied in another thread. If it makes you angry then I am sorry, but my opinion still remains the same. Some will undoubtedly agree with me, some will disagree. C’est la vie. I forked this thread from How Do you Distribute Treasure? It occurred to me from reading that thread that within the game (considering this particular issue) you basically have two ways of looking at the World and milieu in which the characters operate. 1. The World Exists for the sake of the Characters – therefore the players present “Wish Lists” to the DM/GM, and he makes sure that the treasure they receive, assuming magical items are included in such troves, is fit for their desires and “wishes.” I imagine by extension that such a wish list can or maybe will eventually incorporate other aspects of milieu-management, such as arranging events, dungeons, political situations, and a whole host of “goodies” for the benefit of the characters. The point of existing in such a world, I suspect? – to level up of course. To become more, or maybe far more, of what you already are. The point of the game is to a large extent the mechanics of the game. By getting what you want you become what you wish and what you wish is to be stronger, bigger, badder, and more powerful as a game-character. That is to say the point of the game is the nature of the game, the world exists to service the game-character as an expression of “gamism.” In short the various accoutrements and devices and badges of heroism are distributed and “given out” as a tangible reward based upon the wishes and desires of the player. If you want the implements of heroism, those things that will assist you in being heroic, then it is the duty of the world, through the agency of the DM, to give you those things as a reward for the idea that you want to be an imaginary hero. Which leads me to the second basic way of viewing the World in an imaginary gaming universe. 2. The Characters Exist for the sake of the World – therefore the players get whatever they happen to discover and it is up to them to make the best possible use of whatever resources they encounter and can gain in order to earn their heroism. They cannot petition the World, through the agency of the DM to get whatever they “wish for” in order to facilitate their further actions. On the contrary they must gain what they gain, either intentionally, or by accident, being in effect limited to what is, not to what is wished for. This way of looking at the world is far less like a video game full of self-imposed (auto-programmed) Easter Eggs and far more like the real world. Yes, you can create things at your own expense, but there is no Santa-Clause DM/GM to whom one can avail oneself for that special, bright, shiny toy one so desperately longs for in his secret heart of hearts. (And this toy may be an item, object, device, situation, ability, or power – anything that encompasses a possession of some kind.) Because of this the world does not exist for the characters but rather the characters exist for the world, they must make use of what is offered, and they come by that due to the logical demands of what is possible from the environment around them rather than from the environment they wish to exist. This creates an entirely different dynamic of both “heroism” and “power.” Heroism is not something made evident through the “goodies” you possess or even through the power they convey upon you, but rather what you possess is “empowered” by the cleverness by which you employ it. You cannot demand the world give you things or service your needs, so therefore you must service the world in order to make best use of what you can get. The world and the DM will not bow to your demands (though the world and the DM may consider your efforts to achieve some given end or object as noble, worthy, or even of deserving assistance of some kind) and wishes so therefore you must “earn what is possible” given the particular circumstances in which you and your comrades find yourselves. I find this a fascinating contrast in both gaming theory and in the implications of such theories. As a personal matter I should say I find the first method and worldview immensely fascinating and even seductively alluring. I also find it, personally speaking, as a way of approaching the game, any game, or of viewing the world, any world, ugly, repulsive, petty, doomed to eventual self-absorption, and very likely to generate little else in the end than utter apathy. I can find nothing heroic in it as an ideal at all, other than the rather atrophic and shortsighted view that heroism as a game ideal is best created through raw accumulation of power. That is to say the more power you have the more potentially heroic you must naturally become because after all it is power (in the sense of raw force) which is the true measure of heroism. (And there is something at the margins to warrant a serious examination of this assumption, without power it is simply not possible to be heroic, unless of course powerlessness is a form of power, and I suspect very much that given the right conditions that statement is also very, very true. Sometimes powerlessness is the greatest form of power.) Nevertheless the idea of the game-world existing to service the character is as repugnant to me as the idea that the real world exists to service Paris Hilton. As a matter of fact I would call this way of looking at the game as the "Modern Entertainer" View of Heroism. I am a Hero when things go the way I wish and when I get the things I want in order to assure that heroism is worth my while. It is a sort of acting out of heroism, not as an actual thing, but as a sort of stage play in which the actor becomes a shadow or mask (a persona) of the man he is supposed to be truly representing. If on the other hand heroism makes real demands on me, such as that I serve the needs of the World, rather than the other way around, well, that’s either too tough, too demanding, not profitable, or gets in the way of my fun. Or put more simply, “Fun is the point of Heroism, and so Heroism must serve my needs and wishes to be ‘gainful.’” I personally find that an extremely shallow view of the idea of fun, heroism, gain, or profit. To be perfectly honest all I have ever seen of real heroism makes me suspect it is in fact hard, dangerous, demanding, thrilling (at times - being deadly boring at others), patience-testing, taxing, excruciating, and exhausting work. Yes, it can be fun, it can also be incredibly disgusting, disheartening, heart-breaking, lonely, back-breaking, and yet the gains and profits of it are almost immeasurable in comparison to the dearth of “goodies” you ever really receive from your “wish list,” which is usually little more than, “God I hope I survive this,” or “God, I hope they survive this.” (Which to be perfectly honest is why I fully understand the allure of the first World View - who hasn’t been in a really tight or lethal spot and thought to themselves, “if only I had what I really needed I could have saved them,” or “if only I had the power to have prevented this I could have saved them.” That is a common condition when faced with servicing the world while facing the reality of doing so with a lack of sufficient resources and/or power.) Nevertheless you do what you can with what you have and I’ve often wondered that if I possessed every degree of power I demanded or wished in order to solve any problem I faced, if I had every resource I desired to right any wrong or injustice, would then my actions under such conditions be heroic at all? Or those of a man who by being able to bend the world to my will through a wealth of whatever I wanted or wished, more akin to King Midas. Everything I desire turns to gold, but there is no more blood to warm my future, for everything has become through contact with me the more inanimate the more I accumulate. I know why the world exists and it is certainly not for my sake. It is hard for me to imagine a world that exists for the sake of the hero. It is also extremely hard for me to imagine a Hero who asks that the world exists for him. There are men who ask that the world exist for them, who make ceaseless demands upon it, and who seek to have their various wishes fulfilled for their own benefit, but you don’t call such men heroes. They have another name. Another name entirely. (enworld)
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Mar 17, 2009 05:48
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RPGPundit is a tragic disaster. The raw hatred he has for RPG.net is pretty entertaining, but then you havequote:For starters; my Mods are wimps. In the private mod forums they call for the banning of this guy and that guy (the "guy" in question usually being Cavscout) but when I give them carte blanche to do whatever the gently caress they feel like, they don't actually ban anyone. Ah well... Traditional Games: If a dog becomes sufficiently rabid that it is a danger to the Polis, that dog will meet my knife. That Rough Beast fucked around with this message at 07:46 on Mar 17, 2009 |
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Mar 17, 2009 07:43
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I'm 6'2". I used to lift weights (I'm a bit out of practice). I've got a scary-high IQ. And a wide variety of skills. Most games I've seen that started with "Normal people" made me feel cramped and a lot weaker than I am IRL in a lot of minor ways.
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Mar 17, 2009 08:35
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I took an IQ test in high school it was so high the guidance counselor committed suicide out of raw fear upon viewing the results.
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Mar 17, 2009 12:52
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First, let me tell you a few things about myself. I'm a big fan of Star Wars. Well, actually I'm not, but I still think the first movie was genius and the second and third were good. I watched the fourth one with a feeling of mild curiosity, but I didn't particulary care for the fifth and sixth. That's all in order of appearance, by the way. I don't have the action figures or the die-cast models and I've never read any of the “Expanded Universe” (if I use that term correctly) books and I probably wouldn't kill somebody over the “Han shot first” matter. So I don't think I'm allowed to call myself a fan. Nevertheless, the Star Wars trilogy gives me a warm fuzz and I wouldn't be adverse to role-playing in the Star Wars universe. So, through channels and Ebay, I laid my hands on the 2nd revised and the 1st editions and had a good look at the stuff. Being a dumbass role-player (actually I'm unsure about calling myself a role-player, or at least a real role-player, as well, but that's a long story), I didn't understand a single word about the whole concept. I mean, It's, well, different from, say, AD&D. It's like, something else completely or whatever. Couldn't wrap my head around it all. So when I got the opportunity to play in a round of Star Wars (2nd rev.) at a local convention yesterday (BTW: Maurice de H‒‒‒ isn't wearing a frock ‒ yet), I jumped at it. I'm not sure how to put it, but during this five hour ordeal, it all came together. It was, like, a piffany, a religious enlightenement to me. All those big concepts finally clicked, snapped into place in my bran. It's like a boy who never could see for the dandruff using Head&Shoulders for the first time. Take this “immediate race” thing. That's actually Latin for “jump right in” or something. Never knew how to use it in play, but it was so simple after the GM had explained it. “Immediate race” means: You wake up in a cell to the cackling laughter of an alien in a “I'm your employer and all you'll get is this lousy t-shirt” t-shirt. How cool is that!? Or I learned that Star Wars is all about characters, not roles. You see, after I had come -5 minutes late and didn't bring a character and asked him what the party needed, the GM allowed me to play whatever I chose. So naturally I chose a freighter pilot, kind of like Han Solo's younger brother, and there wasn't a spaceship to pilot in the whole adventure. Just think of the opportunities! Instead of being bogged down by tedious piloting rolls, I could sit back and enjoy the others' role-playing. I think I never had so much time for contemplation at the table in my whole role-playing life, marvellous! One thing Spielberg got wrong in the movies is the investigatitive foundations of Star Wars adventures. Naturally, we didn't know at the beginning of the adventure that the employer, the incumbent planetary governor, was screwing us over and that his missing fiance was with the Hutt-puppet challenging him in the elections. Fortunately, one of the players's characters was an alien type called a De'Kr or something, who googled all the neccessary informations on the imperial internet-thingy with a few lucky rolls. This, of course, saved us all the hassle of blaster-blazing battles and all. Really, it's so unrealistic. Given the technology level, even the lowly mook is too much of an investment to the higher-up NPCs to squander him in baseless “stormtroopers knock down the door and start shooting at you” type attacks. All the Rambo stuff in the movies is due to the fact that Luke and his folks are capital-ache-Heroes. Playing the genre really means playing the game world, so why would the governor or his rival send any of their scarce supply of mooks (the GM can only create so many preparing the adventure, after all) after a bunch of lowly guttersnipes like us? This rationale really also bursts the stupid “the PCs are at the center of things” bubble the RPG writers pulled out of their asses. It's really bogus and only applies to Luke &c, and to those people who frown at laundry runs I say: The Rebellion needs laundry done, too. So there! A clear-cut morality is the hallmark of Star Wars, so much I had already gathered on my own, but the way the GM implemented it in his adventure was simply brilliant. Now, whom do we help: The governor, who screwed us, or his rival, whose strings are pulled by a Hutt somewhere off-system? After much deliberation we decided to follow the Path of the Righteous and Good, meaning we did nothing and let the providential Force sort it out. Talking about deliberation, one of the most intense role-playing experiences I ever had was the two-hour argument about what to do at that point. It nicely blended tabletop and live-action role-playing, IMHO, people shouting at each other just like our characters would have. My ears were literally ringing and I was hoarse from trying to get a word in edgewise (I didn't). And I'm proud to say that I had the final vote on the matter, because when I came back from the bathroom (and chatting with my SO for half an hour, who, for reasons I can't fathom, was enjoying a game of WHFRP), the loudmoth GM's buddy actually asked me which way I swung. I had been hoping for a more interesting option, but they explained to newbie me that my character could get shot at that way, so I opted for doing nothing, and it all turned out for the best. This was in all respects an enlightening experience, which gave me insights I could never have gotten elsewhere. I salute the Force for giving me an opportunity to see the Star Wars RPG in action and learn what it's all about.
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Mar 17, 2009 18:54
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It was, like, a piffany, a religious enlightenement to me.
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Mar 17, 2009 18:54
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One thing Spielberg got wrong in the movies is the investigatitive foundations of Star Wars adventures.
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Mar 17, 2009 20:16
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You either accept that GNS theory is designed to denigrate certain games (some games that deserve denigrating, others that don't, but none of which really need GNS to explain anything about them) and proudly denigrate these games; or you accept that GNS theory denigrates certain games and thus reject GNS theory. You can't accept GNS theory and then pretend that GNS theory isn't elitist. gently caress that. gently caress you for trying it. gently caress you for being such cowards! Where are the enemies worthy of me?! I'm so sick of these loving Grima Wormtongues that will always try the backhanded stab and the double-entendre rather than just admitting their position and showing the will to fight for it with some modicum of valor, even if their convictions be wrong. Oh Great Magnet, give me an honest opponent worth fighting, at least, instead of these scum!
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Mar 17, 2009 20:52
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IT IS I, THE TRUE WHITE KNIGHT OF THE INTERNET! SHOW YOURSELF VILE VILLAINY!
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Mar 17, 2009 21:06
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TG Discussion: Oh Great Magnet, give me an honest opponent worth fighting, at least, instead of these scum!
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Mar 17, 2009 23:16
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The Avenger is Love. Or Hate. Something like that. It's Batman, anyway. I am so tsundere for this class. I just picked up PHB2 today, and I've only had enough time to really digest parts of it, but I'm really impressed by what I've seen so far. The Avenger looks like it manages to be a really interesting class, which is really the most important thing. Let's break it down: Avengers are clothies, but get a rough analogue to Swordmage Warding. I get the feeling Armor Proficiency is going to be basically mandatory for these guys, but Armor of Faith and their reliance on Dex/Int keeps them in light armor. They have a surprising number of HP and Surges; less than a defender, but more than any other striker save the Barbarian. That's probably to make up for their lack of armor, even though they look like frontline types. The striker feature is Oath of Enmity (hereafter OoE). You pick a guy and get to roll Melee attacks twice against it. It differs from the usual striker feature in that you only get one, and you can't open up a new can of whoopass until you're done with your first. This makes a pretty huge difference in terms of tactics, as Avengers have limited ability to adapt. Once they're on track, they kind of have to stay the course... which is fitting, one supposes. Of course, they also get tons of powers that help them stay on target, so it's not all that bad. It's also limited in that the target has to be the only enemy adjacent to you, so positioning is pretty key. The reroll stacks just fine with Elven Accuracy and the Deva racial power, so you can get some pretty sick probabilities there; for all that there was some pixelbitching about it not being as good as other striker damage features, it's really, really nice for landing those important Daily and Encounter powers. The problem, of course, is that it only works on Melee attacks, so it hampers an Avenger's ability to sideline in AoE or sniping. An Avenger's Censure gives them bonuses to damage based on stuff. Censure of Pursuit gives them +dmg to their OoE target if it tries to run from them. Censure of Retribution gives them stackable +dmg to their OoE target if anyone tries to horn in on their action. In both cases, they're punishing their target for trying to escape his punishment, but the two builds end up being significantly different; Retribution spec is more about control and denial, while Pursuit is more about relentless agression and rushdown. They also have Channel Divinity; in addition to whatever applications they might have from feats, they can burn their channel to give an ally an attack reroll against their OoE target. They also have the standard divine class undead-raping channel. At-Wills: Bond of Pursuit lets you shift to follow your target. Bond of Retribution causes an autodamage effect against anyone who attacks you except the target. Overwhelming Strike is basically Footwork Lure, but it's pretty good when your class feature demands precise positioning. Radiant Vengeance is a ranged radiant attack vs Reflex that gives you temp HP. It's kind of like the striker version of Sacred Flame. It's interesting that you have at-wills that sort of emulate the effects of the two Censures, so you can either have an at-will that enhances your Censure or one that gives you some of the benefits of the other Censure. Or both, I guess. Overwhelming Strike seems pretty important for making sure you get your OoE reroll, and Radiant Vengeance helps you out by giving you a source of radiant damage on demand and letting you target another defense, as well as covering what would otherwise be a bad range for you. The temp HP are okay too, I guess. All in all, there aren't any strictly bad at-wills here, and the limited selection actually means something for any build (as opposed to, say, Rangers, who pretty much just need Twin Strike and whatever else). As for the other powers, I'm impressed that they managed to write so many interesting and unique powers while maintaining a relatively tight theme. Avenger powers are all about hunting down your target and keeping everybody else from interfering. They have some really nice powers (like Distracting Flare, which lets you do the Batman disappearing trick at 2nd level), and going through in detail I found only maybe one or two that weren't awesome in some way. The Avenger bag of tricks is both deep and broad (like yo momma!), including tons of shifts, teleports, some invisibility, and painful control effects that follow your target. They have access to a lot of damage types, with Thunder, Fire, Lightning, and Psychic damage all being well-represented. I cannot wait to take this bad boy out for a test run in an actual game.
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Mar 18, 2009 05:26
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I am so tsundere for this class.
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Mar 18, 2009 05:26
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Games > TG Discussion: I am so tsundere for this class.
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Mar 18, 2009 05:33
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what the hell does tsundere mean
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Mar 18, 2009 08:20
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Zarick posted:what the hell does tsundere mean http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Tsundere
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Mar 18, 2009 08:27
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How did I know it was going to be about anime
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Mar 18, 2009 14:55
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Fenarisk posted:How did I know it was going to be about anime http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKrTGBq74wg
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Mar 18, 2009 16:02
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Male. Bi. Unix. posted:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKrTGBq74wg Play a yukkuri if you want… ✦ to take it easy
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Mar 18, 2009 16:47
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3E/3.5E is guilty of said sins, true. The distinction is that 4E strongly supports that breed of sinners: people who couldn't deal with dead characters, complained because the game wasn't perfectly "balanced" (inviting uniformisation and sameness), and got into nitpicky arguments over rules because they had neither the common sense nor shared trust to resolve situations amicably and avoid abusing the rules. In 4E, these types now have both idealogical and canonised support for their dickery-- the dogma that common sense is, in fact, not possible or even desirable. What started out as stupid experiments in game design (Book of the Nine Swords/Tome of Magic) and a few odd decisions (Free/Swift/Immediate Actions) became the driving philosophy behind the new edition. "Fun" as "continuous positive reinforcement" and something that comes purely from combat encounters is emphasized over everything else. Don't get me wrong I'm not one of those sadistic Gygaxian rear end in a top hat DMs who gets cheap thrills from finding new and arbitrary ways to gently caress with their players or deny them their fun. Positive reinforcement and combat are of course important sources of fun; 4E emphasizes these to neglect others. The result is a vulgar simplification of what role playing games can offer us. A lightweight but ultimately unsatisfactory form of feelgood, passive entertainment, delivered as a bland, flavorless paste for gamers to digest. Season to your desires, but that's still what you're paying 39.99 for. This sort of game design is poisonous to the future of all tabletop games because it encourages 'bad players'. Yes, its not impossible to run 4E in better ways, but DMs who attempt it are likely to face strong opposition and disapproval, because the very spirit of 4E is very much against fostering individual creativity; in fact, it casts suspicion and disapproval on it.
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Mar 18, 2009 19:33
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Even though its always the same arguments rehashed over and over the arguments against 4e never get old for some reason.
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Mar 18, 2009 20:21
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4E bashing emphasizes these to neglect others. The result is a vulgar simplification of what whining about role playing games can offer us. A lightweight but ultimately unsatisfactory form of feelgood, passive entertainment, delivered as a bland, flavorless paste for gamers to digest. Season to your desires, but that's still what you're reading rpg.net for.
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Mar 18, 2009 20:25
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I love RPGnet. Where else can you get such classic posts as "Valiant Strike is the best at-will", "deva are overpowered because they come back to life automatically" and "catchphrase from three years ago"? Also that one dude whose post history is nothing but "I gamed with Gary Gygax, pay attention to me".
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Mar 18, 2009 20:35
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yeah, unfortunately I was on the receiving end of that argument TODAY. great guy, smart, just retarded over 4e 
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Mar 18, 2009 20:36
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it's a depressing reminder of how spergy I am that the thing that most often offends me about RPGnet is their inability pluralize "Yozi" correctly
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Mar 18, 2009 20:42
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Mikan posted:I love RPGnet. Where else can you get such classic posts as "Valiant Strike is the best at-will", "deva are overpowered because they come back to life automatically" and "catchphrase from three years ago"? Is that the guy with the beer drinking smiley avatar? I love that guy because I would bet money he has a beard, a wolf shirt, and a stein somewhere on his desk as he types and scoffs at anyone and everyone.
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Mar 18, 2009 20:51
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Fenarisk posted:Is that the guy with the beer drinking smiley avatar? I love that guy because I would bet money he has a beard, a wolf shirt, and a stein somewhere on his desk as he types and scoffs at anyone and everyone. Don't forget some these too:  They're for special occasions.
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Mar 18, 2009 20:57
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That's the dude. It's really creepy the way people respond to him. I don't feel like sinking down to RPGnet right now, but there's this almost-but-not-quite joking worship thing they have going on. Okay, actually I have a good example. It's 22 pages of people sucking up and asking questions and he doesn't answer any of them. Mikan fucked around with this message at 21:03 on Mar 18, 2009 |
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Mar 18, 2009 21:00
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I care less about finding a culturally-appropriate name and more about finding a name that feels "right" for the character. Lady Belissica is a flamboyant drag queen witch. She had to have a fancy, feminine, unusual name. She *demanded* one, actually. ^_^ Her birth name is one of those long unpronouncable Aztec names with lots of Xs. Goro the Monkey gets a simple, short name and a nickname, fitting for a kid who grew up homeless in Nexus. Forgotten Purity Whose Pain Must Be Known is an Abyssal. 'Nuff said. Silent Gale is an air-aspected Immaculate who, oddly, is rather talkative. The name was given to her as a puzzle for her to solve - she hasn't, yet. ^_^
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Mar 18, 2009 21:22
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