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Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

And some creeps thought it'd be bright to make a horror movie out of it.

But really, attributing every atrocity to spoopy magic or an ancient conspiracy is disgusting, and offensive - it turns these real things into some kind of saturday morning cartoon incident. And there are many, many atrocities that have trouble gaining traction for people to acknowledge it actually happen, so by going "Oh Supernatural group started it!" undermines real life efforts to raise awareness or try to learn from said incidents, because players would think it's a made up thing.

Sorry if I seem incoherent, but I'm pretty mad about this and I have a hard time expressing words to describe why.

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Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Yes, thank you guys for putting things into words I was too angry to form coherently.

It's one thing to play with the 'location have memories, memories and emotion can leave scars upon the world' - that can be extremely compelling, and easier to keep within the lines of acceptable.

But saying the Armenian Genocide was caused a hungry vampire, or the Mansons were trying to summon Shub-Niggurath, or the Witch trials of Salem was caused by The Spirit of Patriarchy - now that's as said, offensive, cheapens, and can be harmful - especially given most of the time they don't actually look at what happened, or just make poo poo up on the fly (If I have a dime every time someone said witches were burned in Salem...)

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Mors Rattus posted:

Weren't the witches in Salem hanged? Burning was a uniquely European punishment, IIRC.

Oh, and that one dude who was pressed to death.

Exactly, and the ones that were hanged were those that refused to admit they were witches, the ones who did lived because they would start pointing out other people as members of their coven.

The man pressed to death was because he refused to enter a plea, and the pressing was meant to be a pressuring method, but Giles Corey both was a stubborn old man, and knew if convicted, his property would be seized so he just held out.

EDIT:

Person below me: That's actually kind of cool.

Robindaybird fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Jan 8, 2016

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Rand Brittain posted:

The Traditions aren't a Luddite faction, though, or they weren't until now.

It's just how most of them ended up being played, same with how Changeling is Anti-Personal Responsibility under Brucato's hands

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Kurieg posted:


Remember Rage Across Australia has that bit where the White Man is being divinely punished for planting Cereal Grains rather than subsisting at a hunter/gatherer level.

Must've overlooked it for that guy who had a footstool/drum made with aboriginal skin.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Cythereal posted:

To me, it also screams of the overly romantic views of low-technology (generally vaguely medieval - see most fantasy settings) life that started to become influential after WW1. Maybe not so much Luddites as a group like the Amish or Mennonites. A lot of the loudest voices clamoring for a "return to rural simplicity" and the like have never been without civilization's comforts, or realized just how much work and stress and hardship go into low-technological life.

Reminds me of the sort of people who wish for, or at least aren't horrified by the Zombie Apocalypse are generally the sort of people who would not last more than a week without elevators and be would the first to get ejected out of a survival group because nobody wants a selfish nutjob that threatens to put a bullet in someone at the first sign of weakness.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

That's so maddening! The way he uses mental illness as a crutch to create horrifying antagonists, with the implication it's the fault of the person who is ill, and you know Brucato would turn around and rail against the medicines that can help the sufferers of the very same illnesses to control themselves because it's poison and kills the spirit.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Cythereal posted:

Isn't Kobal just the Joker?

From it all, looks like he falls into the same trap many writers do when depicting Joker, depicting him as a monstrous badass mastermind who just happen to like jokes, instead of a Comedian/Pranksters who just happens to be completely deadly to everyone around them.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

I looked up this Tournament of Rapists, and became even more disgusted by Fields after seeing him trying to defend this piece of bile, and genuinely makes me think he's a deeply disturbed man, not just someone who's just in it to shock people.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

mcclay posted:

The first hit on Google search is Britbert yelling about "SJWs" attacking Table Top Gaming, so Field's isn't alone.

that I noticed, was surprised they didn't decry all of tabletop gaming as satanism, and then trying to find a less insane source to get information on.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Uh. Hate to break it to you, but Skinheads is almost used exclusively for Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists nowadays, you don't want to call any punk a skinhead. SHARPS and the like exist, but common image is the far-right nutjobs.

Robindaybird fucked around with this message at 10:20 on Jan 20, 2016

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Ratoslov posted:

Andreaphalus is hilariously one-note, even for a In Nomine superior.

And it's interesting is reading between the text, he intentionally makes himself so one note because otherwise, he'd actually start to realize that he might've made a massive error in going "You know what? Love Stinks".

But I'll second everyone, it succeeds in the dark side of lust and sex addiction to the point you either have to light it up as more comedy, or not use it to avoid causing great discomfort in the group.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Basically that's what I got with the first blurb, that's he's a badly written Joker. It's really hard to do a thing on dark humor as humor is largely subjective, and the "Thinks about" blurb really hones in the write doesn't understand what makes something funny, I had to skip it after the terrible stream of fire puns. A pun at it's most effectively is to be used with a precision, surgical strike, instead of carpet-bombing everyone.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

I'm actually digging Nybbas, his Snarky commentary actually got a bit of a sleazy charm to it compare to Andre and Hraag's gotta Lust/Glutton it up, and Kobol's comedy falling flat.

Have to say if I do anything with In Nomine, I'd leave the possibility of Andre being convinced he is still capable of love and he can't stop denying it - either giving him the chance to redeem or become vulnerable to the machinations of another prince, Hraag is take or leave, Kobol would need a serious rewrite or be replaced, while Nybbas I can use as-is, a sleazy producer-type is always a fun villain to run with.

Robindaybird fucked around with this message at 07:17 on Jan 26, 2016

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Midjack posted:

Jordi is an almost complete peckerhead to everyone and I don't think anything ever really improves him.

it's kind of hard to reconcile someone so outright hostile with all of humanity given what we got from his original blurb, he hates humans, he never has, never will, which seems kind of detrimental to the War.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Simian_Prime posted:

One of the things that bugs me in Western RPGs is the constant need to have some sort of breakaway Confederate State, or and alternate Southern victory. For once I'd like to see a Western game where the Civil War ended exactly the way it did in our own history. Or, possibly, one that turned out better (promises of Reconstruction are followed through, black civil rights are protected and Jim Crow never takes root, etc.)

This game was done by Goodman Games, the makers of the awesome Dungeon Crawl Classics. It's really a shame they're still selling this on their site.

This is why when I did my own weird west take that while the Confederates are responsible for elemental-infused bullets (a more accidental discovery due to desperation in scrounging up raw materials for ammo), it came far too little, too late to save them. Speaking as someone that grew up in Mississippi, anyone that romanticizes the "Rebels of the south" is a loving idiot.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

And something I wish more westerns use - the fact a good chunk of Cowboys were black, many freed and escaped slaves went West to avoid getting hassled or taken advantage of by white landowners.

Then you also got the fact there's still a lot of simmering tension between former soldiers on both sides, allowing for feuds to occur, keeping the Sheriff and Marshals busy, while adding another dimension to other kinds of conflict (Settlers vs Ranchers, Cowboys vs Lawmen).

Though really - the Confederacy cannot survive without the major interventions you often see in the Weird West Milieu because while the South had better generals and familiarity with the battlefields, they did not have the infrastructure or manpower to match the Union, especially after their major ports got blockaded, keeping them from getting vital materials needed.

Robindaybird fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Feb 3, 2016

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Traveller posted:

Nerds are reactionary and love Lost Cause horseshit.

Not just nerds, Hollywood sure loves romanticizing the Noble Rebels, while side-stepping the fact it's really all about the right to keep slaves. Let's put it this way, if you know a little about the Civil War, it's about slavery, if you know more, it's State Rights, but if you really dig in and read up, it's really about the right to own slaves.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Doresh posted:

It seems people interesting in Alternate Western History stuff rarely go beyond "The South lost the war, so what if they didn't?!". They don't seem to grasp the nuances of what can happen after a war.

As pointed out, there's other ways to extend the "Lawless" period - make the war more lethal - maybe given the horrendous battlefield medicine a plague starts sweeping through the ranks, or a hurricane decided to sweep through, and the Weird version - ghostly vengeance, real-life Thunderbirds snatching cattle and wagons making the perilous journey even more dangerous, even Gaia going "What the gently caress are you doing to my Bison?".

if the confederacy stood, many of the people who had gone out west for one reason or another would not have done so, and many of the famous Outlaws would be nobodies among other things.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Simian_Prime posted:

All good ideas, but do you really need to extend the lawless period for you average game, unless you expect it to take place over decades?

Not really, I'm fine with a decade-two decade window, though games like Deadlands seem to expect longer campaigns or want tech from later periods to mesh in with the Wild West and an excuse as to why said tech didn't tame the West.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

The wall of the faithless was bar none the stupidest thing they did with the setting, in a setting full of stupid poo poo. The Mask of the Betrayer was a fantastic Nwn2 module, but it was pretty heinous, takes away the actually neat concept of having a good-aligned death god in the setting after a string of neutral and evil ones, and reduced the rest of the gods to various levels of parasite.

I get Ao is meant be representative of the GM, but given how many gently caress ups in FR is either because he's remote, or he chose to act in what seems to be the most dickish way possible, makes you wonder why the rest of the gods don't go "You gotta go."

Robindaybird fucked around with this message at 05:48 on Feb 7, 2016

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

There's gods and some concepts I like from Forgotten Realms, and I admit I have a soft spot for the setting due to CRPGs - from the Gold Box games to Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, but there's a lot of groanworthy poo poo.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Bieeardo posted:

That's most of it, because they're pretty much everywhere you look.

Pretty much. I thought the Harpers were pretty silly as an organization, the way Lloth demands how drows need to act should've made the entire civilization collapse ages ago especially given everything else in the Underdark that would take advantage of that level of "gently caress you I got mine" and "Betray first!" that runs through the entire society.

I want to take some of the more fun gods (and admit a couple I like even if they're not exactly popular like Lathander), some concepts, and put them in a place that's less like someone's personal sandbox.

Robindaybird fucked around with this message at 07:39 on Feb 7, 2016

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Doresh posted:

Don't tell me Mr. Genderswap Yuri Action can't just write some silly book about how Drizzt and Elminster travel back in time to undo the events that lead into 4e, undoing

Not to be Pedantic, but Salvatore is Drizzt's writer, and you get a Kojima-esque situation where he's sick of writing the guy, but does't trust anyone else to do it well.

Honestly my favorite settings have always been Ravenloft and Planescape, Forgotten Realms is largely a nostalgia entry-realm for me, despite the massive issues it has.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Bieeardo posted:

I'd like to see that. My experience is with the 2E material, which worked relatively well if you ignored the 'suck your PCs into the Demiplane of Dread!' approach they seemed to like, and made everyone native to the setting and aware of the risks of using certain spells and tactics.

And, you know, made sure your players knew they were in for something more Dracula than Army of Darkness.

That's pretty much the approach 3.5e went with.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Rand Brittain posted:

Yeah, Ravenloft 3e is defined for me by its attitude of "This land is still worth saving. Don't give it up to the night."

Yes, that's exactly the tone darker settings should go for: Yes, the odds are stacked against you, things look grim, but fuckin' hell, you save that one little kid, that village, you put down one monster, break a single curse - there's another star shining in that big black void now, if people keep going someday, that sky's going to be littered with light.

I find relentlessly bleak settings like Necropolis exhausting - where it's "the world's permanently hosed and ain't nothing you can do."

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Yeah, the writing was really good, even for the tie-in novels. P.N Elrod who did some decent vampire mystery novels wrote a couple of books in the line, and one book was written by Laurel K. Hamilton - before she gone batshit crazy.

Van Richten's Guides are excellent in-world guides and out-of-world guidebooks to the big categories of baddies, and when the line got shuffled to White Wolf, the setting write up only got better.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

I am quite in love with the idea of Christopher Lee, Vampire Handler. Shutting down Dracula when he tries to step out of line.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Yeah, that's the big thing I do not like about Ravenloft is how they handle the not-Roma - while the mysterious traveling people are a staple of gothic and romantic literature, that is something they really should've left in their source material.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Van Richten - he is definitely my favorite NPC because his philosophy is to win not by staking and shooting everything, but to shine a light into the darkness and expose the monsters, fighting against ignorance, fear and superstition with knowledge.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Doesn't help with the Wizard spell selection that after a point, you can make a pretty viable part out of one-two Cleric/Druids and three-five wizards if you can survive the initial low-level hump.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

I lost count how many times I rolled my eyes at the introductory stuff in Bella Maga.

Though to be fair, the murder of a young girl in such a brutal fashion sells newspapers like hot cakes, so it's gonna be reported even if it took place in Nebraska.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Yeah, my money is on "Fetishized" or "TERF"

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Ratoslov posted:

Why is 'Fairy-tales are real!' a lynchpin of the setting? A lot of fairy-tales are quite sexist.

Revisionist Fairytales are in vogue, and admittedly some are actually not that bad, but yes a lot of them are horseshit sexist, especially Bluebeard, where some versions blames the bride for being curious and disobedient.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Count Chocula posted:

The review mentioned something about dwarves being able to get more info on stone-based traps automatically, which brings to mind a Fantasy GUMSHOE where you automatically make Investigation rolls based on your character's knowledge.


One of last year's best sci-fi movies was based on Bluebeard, Ex Machina. It's like the Angela Carter version. Her 'revisionist fairytales' are the best:

There's an earlier version or perhaps, just one with the same basic story fame called Fitcher's Bird, where the bride instead of crying for help, the bride escapes by disguising herself as a strange bird.

King Thrushbeard is sexist no matter how you spin it.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Count Chocula posted:

Huh? Heaps of people do drugs, 'whore themselves out' (to use your charming phrase), still get good grades, go to New York, and leave mental insitutions. Some of them even have colorful hair! It's almost like there's some kind of all-pervasive social system that causes these problems and then shames the victims of them! Some kind of... Patriarchy.
Did you really imply it only exists in the game?

The writing and editing are crap, and this book totally deserves mocking by some smart women, but we need more riot girl witch RPGs and fewer fantasy heartbreakers.

I'm saying it as a woman. Yes, stuff like this happens and yes male privilege makes things hard for women and the patriarchy does exist to an extent. But the whole narrative just reeks of melodrama for the sake of scoring Mary Sue bingo points, and not a real look into the causes of self-destructive behavior, or how it's society's fault beyond "Well because!" or "Because white men!" - that's a childish oversimplification of complex social issues

There's a certain point when the tragedy is piled on too high and it becomes a farce, especially when wrapped up in a "Circe was just testing me!" narrative.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Count Chocula posted:

It's badly written and cheesy, but there's so many male power fantasies that are just as bad. Maybe some kind of resistance can help - creating stories, no matter how dumb, that women can use as sources of power, or stepping stones to read deeper. I dunno, maybe the whole 'power of stories' thing is privileged bullshit. But everyone deserves imaginative armor to step into.

And hey, pretending to beat up rednecks and right-wing assholes can be fun.

I'll say it - if it's meant to be a power fantasy, why was Tammy raped five loving times and never once got a chance to punish the ones who did this? I can't speak for everyone, but I don't want rape anywhere near a game that I want to feel powerful and in control. It's done as a cheap way to make the reader sympathize, but it's laid on so thickly if someone said it you, you'd be right in suspecting the person was making it up for attention.

And others expressed it so eloquently - the way it's used as shock value, the stupid strawmen that populates Digahol, they're all caricatures of the evil redneck trope - and white girls only vibe.

Oh yeah, her other project is WGA which comes off 'Yeah, women would be completely evil monsters if they had magic to turn anyone who slightly annoys them into cigarettes and smoke them'.

And let's put it this way, if I discover my 'goddess' allowed me to be raped five times, become a junkie, I'm not putting that anathame to me, I'd loving shank her because who needs a god like that?

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

EDIT: whoops double post

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Evil Mastermind posted:

Everything about Abby Soto's art makes me really, really uncomfortable.

I mean, the snuff porn yeah of course is really loving :gonk:, but even in a general sense it's all very unsettling for some reason I can't put my finger on.

It's bad tracing with lovely inking and coloring.

I'm gonna say it, Soto is tracing - that kind of rigid stiffness that pervades her art is often a tell-tale sign of sometime that is using a light box and copying a model. Or how some art look, I wouldn't be surprised if she was taking poser models and and just slapping a paint tool over it if she can't find a reference pose.

unseenlibrarian posted:

Other way around, IIRC the quoted bit elsewhere correctly- Transmen are forcibly detransitioned, transwomen aren't mentioned because presumably, the writer's enough of a TERF that they're counted as men, who you can't play.

GROSS :barf:

Robindaybird fucked around with this message at 19:02 on Feb 16, 2016

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Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Young Freud posted:

Another possibility is that she's rendering them directly in Poser or DAZ with a comic art filter. I remember the "goat transformation" breakdown in WGA looking like she applied a line art and cel shader to some Poser models.

Okay, that's a possibility, since I hadn't mess with Poser to realize that's an option. But yeah, Poser is pretty much uncanny valley central.

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