TG September Chat Thread: #baldursgate

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > TG September Chat Thread: #baldursgate

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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How many of you can I bribe to attend Gen-Con 2015?

# ¿ Sep 1, 2014 03:29

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 11:25

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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Evil Mastermind posted:

I'd like to go to GenCon 2015. Assuming I can get a room. And plane tickets. And probably a car rental.

And friends to go with.

We are your friends, Evil Mastermind. Every one of us. Also be a badass and take a cheaper mode of transportation like I did. Not that I really recommend being on a train for nearly 24 hours normally.

Froghammer posted:

I have friends that go every year and apparently it's great.

Be prepared for a whole mess of fat guys though.

There are many fat men. But it is so great that no number of fat guys could possibly impact your good time. In fact ... some of the fat guys help make it a better time

ritorix posted:

Gencon is less than a year away.

This year I booked my emergency hotel room for next year BEFORE GEN-CON EVEN STARTED :hellyeah:

though I am still scared that it being in July will somehow totally mess with attendance. Or it will double, who knows

Kwyndig posted:

I wouldn't need a plane ticket (it's only one state away from here after all), but there's no way in hell I could afford to go considering I'm up to my eyeballs in bills. Well unless somebody is crazy enough to give me like four grand to pay off my dentists.

Done

You will find 1980s RPGs worth the sum of $4,000 behind the shed

(which is to say, 2,500 RPGs)

# ¿ Sep 1, 2014 03:53

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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Loki_XLII posted:

I guess I probably count as a lurker, I only really post every couple of weeks, if that.

And I'd really like to go to GenCon next year, but I don't know if I'll be in a position where I can. Also all of my friends usually start school around when it happens so I don't know if I'd be able to go with anyone, and kind of don't want to go alone.

July 30, 2015 :smug:

Your year to go has arrived.

Though Goons (at least con-going-Goons) are seemingly cool and welcoming and helpful without fail; even if your friends randomly start school in July you could probably find somebody to crash with who you would have fun hanging out with. Well, unless you only play the Bella Sera card game.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2014 04:36

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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DigitalRaven posted:

One of these years I will go to GenCon. When I can get organised enough to save up for the loving plane fare. And route via Dublin to avoid the hideous immigration bullshit. And arrange a hotel room. And set aside enough for a ticket. And set aside two weeks off when I don't have urgent deadlines to cover the con and the jet-lag. How Brookshaw manages it every year is beyond me.

Just become friends with https://www.youtube.com/user/87nellybelle/ as it seems like she has some sort of magical way to make flying from Dublin every year a reasonable decision instead of putting her into bankruptcy proceedings. Though she could be some sort of Irish Nerd Double-Agent, not sure. And of course you would still have to get to Dublin. Wait, what hideous immigration bullshit are you even talking about? I am interested as your best friend and also as an immigration officer.

thespaceinvader posted:

How big is the bribe?

I would almost certainly pay for food and drinks at our traditional pre-convention Wednesday night Goonzone throwdown for anyone who actually came as a result of me prodding. So really just some VALUE ADDED to the decision to actually go, not so much "buying your plane ticket." Though I am the sort of person who would do that if I accidentally became independently wealthy.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2014 19:49

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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Esser-Z posted:

EDIT: I may try to make gencon next year. Depends on some stuff that's up in the air right now.

Time to land that stuff.

Bucnasti posted:

Unless something unexpected happens I will be at Gencon next year probably with (part of) a booth.

Ooo, part of a booth! Awesome. We should keep tabs on what percentage of the exhibit hall floor has Goons involved. It had to have been at least like 1% this year!

Still it is always fun seeing how many people are actually working at/running booths.

Bucnasti posted:

Wonder how hard it would be to setup a "goon train" to Gencon like the PAX guys do. Everyone meets the same train along it's route and plays games for the entire ride.

I love the sound of the Goon Train, though given how much weirder getting to Indianapolis by train is than getting to Boston, it would be a bit awkward (you have to take a bus from Chicago as the last leg[!] or of course have buddies to drive you in like I did). Plus I would be surprised if more than a couple of Goons would be coming from any given direction/on any particular train line. Tragedy.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2014 20:50

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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Reene posted:

So I'm back from PAX and it has made me realize I really need more boardgames in my life.

Hey, my buddy who just got back from PAX said that he doubled his boardgame collection! And considering this is a guy who I met originally as "my wife's frat guy friend who wants to join the police," I was more than a little confused and delighted to hear how into board games he was. NERD HOBBIES WILL OVERCOME

Loki_XLII posted:

Goon Train sounds rad, and I was probably going to avoid air travel anyway to cut down on costs.

Yesssssss ..... yessssssssssss

Where would you be coming in from? We should clearly start seriously analyzing this possibility. If I trained in it would be from Plattsburgh, New York, to Chicago ... unless it was from Washington D.C. to Chicago instead but that assumes a lot.

You in Cincinnati, Bucnasti? Or are you a big WKRP fan? Thematically that seems appropriate

# ¿ Sep 2, 2014 04:38

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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Whew, a real game company is finally releasing the only books I ever felt compelled to write for the hobby. I am free! Free from having to show the world that play-yourself-apocalypse is the best. Well along with play-yourself-fantasy. Or play-yourself-vampires. -robots. -top-chef

(We discussed this in another chat thread? but the hate for play-yourself games mystifies me, as it has been the most guaranteed-fun kind of game for my gaming groups for 20+ years now, and only one of us is a doomsday prepper!)

# ¿ Sep 4, 2014 20:10

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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Striking Yak posted:

Are there any mechanics that model PCs having to do immoral/taboo things? Most groups I've seen tend to start murdering inconvenient people at the drop of a hat. I suppose in most settings people don't have great life expectancy, so death is more normalised, but I don't think that accounts for PCs' bloodthirst.

And to bring it back to the discussion that started this--one of the reasons I love play-as-yourself campaigns so much is because people, at least if they are being honest with themselves (which apparently all of my group is willing to do), will act so profoundly unlike stereotypical adventurers in such a game.

I mean, players who would kill everything attacking them without a moment's hesitation and strip everything valuable from the room where they found an enemy are suddenly wondering whether it is OK to leave someone who attacked them lying unconscious in the alley or whether they should try to get them to a hospital. Just try picturing Fantasy Viet Nam going like that. Anything that makes people actually able to think more deeply about the consequences of their actions is cool by me.

Zurui posted:

I know it's a hilarious stereotype, but some of us are quite athletic and outdoorsy.

And while my gaming group is probably only made up half of people who have any chance surviving an apocalypse, like, it does not take much to stretch the imagination to figure out how the rest could contribute. We are fond of having the intro game to a play-yourselves campaign start off with just as much failure as you would expect, and then after a session or two of things like "uhh I guess we should pour the soapy dishwater down the hill and hope the monsters fall on it so we can run away?" we have like "six months pass, you spend all your time working out because you are going to die if you do not, OK, now, moving on" because why not?

Plus, I mean, unless you are metagaming to take away ...metagaming, you should acknowledge that every player/character has some amount of incredible skill in "understanding how zombies/aliens/monsters/magic/whatever" works, which gives them something useful to do even beyond being physically fit or real-world useful. Not like in apocalypse fiction where the protagonists, I assume almost without fail, come from worlds where nobody ever thought up the concept of (whatever went wrong) before it actually happened.

Edit: I agree with you, Effectronica :unsmith:

it is just kind of less fun to think that people actually have a chance in the apocalypse I think

# ¿ Sep 5, 2014 02:41

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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There is certainly an issue with people who do not want to play themselves for a variety of reasons--but, well, I still think it is worth narratively glossing over the real-life hindrances if they are fun-ruining. Drawbacks are always fun to play up until a point--I mean, even "will die without access to modern medicine" to me sounds like an awesome plot point rather than a reason to not play.

But I also think of course everyone has to be on the same page--if you have Type 1 Diabetes and would really rather not have to spend your in-game time trying to find insulin, the GM could just handwave that and move on.

Bucnasti posted:

When I run Barter Town you won't be allowed to man the double crossbow turret on my six-wheeled nitro-burning-dune-buggy.

This beautiful sentence is precisely why I love the genre beyond any hope of recovery.

Also thank you for this last page, as I now think being trapped in worst-case-scenario Disney World could be a compelling apocalypse scenario.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2014 17:04

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

The Open Gaming License was to gaming as the IPod was to .MP3 players--there were plenty of alternative products, many of which were potentially better for any particular person's uses, but the ubiquity of the main product drowned out most such arguments for years until entirely different sorts of products began to gain steam. If you liked 3rd Edition/the IPod, though, drat--you had the time of your life, with countless add-ons coming out from third party vendors galore.

Yes that is the post I shall make

_{_{and I also feel this way because I miss my Rio Karma like I miss TORG}}

# ¿ Sep 8, 2014 15:28

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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I had a lot of fun playing Munchkin and we even finished multiple games. But then, this was with a group who had like 12 editions and you rolled a D12 to determine which deck to draw from every round, and the juxtaposition of rules combined with the good-humored nature of the group probably made it a lot more fun than it should have been.

Plus how many Axe Cop games are there ever going to be?

# ¿ Sep 11, 2014 18:41

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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FMguru posted:

Nerdery is pretty much built on extending adolescence and deferring adulthood for as long as possible. Self-examination is pretty much kryptonite to nerds, because once you start picking at that string you might be forced to confront your long-buried suspicion that building your life around a tv cartoon meant to sell toys to children or a game about elves and wizards and owlbears might not have been such a good idea after all.

I have spent a lot of time wondering whether I really enjoy my nerdy pastimes or whether they just give me nostalgia. Ultimately it is hard to know the difference a lot of the time, I think. All you can do is think about what you want to spend your time doing and compare it to what you actually spend your (free) time doing, see how close the two are, and then wonder if the latter is actually more appealing to you than the former.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2014 18:36

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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I wish I even knew someone planning on ever playing 5th Edition. The most anti-4th edition people I know all switched to Pathfinder permanently and have no interest in even giving 5th Edition a chance, which is extra-funny given that of course they are the target audience.

Oh well, at least the first editor of Dragon Magazine says 5th Edition is proof they finally realized that AD&D 1st Edition was better than anything that came after it. And he says this with joy. So it must be hitting some oldschool dudes just right!

# ¿ Sep 16, 2014 14:19

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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Arivia posted:

Kim Mohan? Or is there someone I'm not thinking of?

Tim Kask. Though your comment suddenly makes me wonder what Kim Mohan is doing these days.

Tim Kask, Frank Mentzer, and James Ward founded their own OSR publishing company, which must be kind of like running for mayor after being governor.

# ¿ Sep 16, 2014 15:17

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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I like RPGs

# ¿ Sep 16, 2014 22:42

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

Evil Mastermind posted:

Hello RPG buddy I too like RPGs. We should be friends.

I have pretty much had fun at some point with every game or game system I have played. Except Villains & Vigilantes but we do not talk about that.

# ¿ Sep 17, 2014 03:48

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 11:25

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

The only thing I did not expect when the news broke of him selling the company was him buying it back a few years later, even though honestly what else could I have possibly expected?

Godspeed, you Dice Maniac.

_{I noticed a picture of him with a mannequin named Woody in an old issue of Dragon I bought one year, and I dared to go ask him about it at Gen-Con, and oh my god I have never seen an early-age gaming luminary happier. I think he had never seen the picture and was thrilled that a youngster cared about the hobby's history. It made my feelings on him go permanently from to )}

# ¿ Sep 17, 2014 21:03

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