Messages

1

General Chaos / Re: Duke Nukem Forever

« on: May 28, 2009, 06:40:59 PM »

Yesterday's Zero Punctuation was about Duke Nukem Forever.  Hilarious.

I saw it -- that's what piqued my curiosity enough to do some googling, which eventually led me to the 3d Realms forums.  My mind continues to boggle ...

CR

2

RPGs / Re: Beating A Dead Horse (or why system matters to me)

« on: May 28, 2009, 04:46:35 PM »

Not to mention, where would we be without the corporations?
Does he have some sort of pipe dream of a world where Game Masters must craft their own tomes from the ether?

I think that he figured that if he could somehow rally the gaming masses to rise up and cast down the corporate overlords, we'd be left in a perfect utopia in which he could find players for his abortion of a homebrew system.

CR

3

General Chaos / Duke Nukem Forever

« on: May 28, 2009, 04:41:12 PM »

Things That Blow My Mind:

The Duke Nukem Forever video game has been in "development" for 12 years.  Not 12 months -- 12 YEARS!  Since 1997!  Last month, Take Two finally pulled the plug on the 3d Realms project which has been passed around the video game industry, changed engines multiple times, and has seen employee turnover that would make a McDonalds sad ...

Yet despite this, there is proof positive that, for anything you can possibly conceive, there are people out there who will buy into it.  There is a thread on the 3d Realms forums wherein people are whining that Take Two has stopped the game from being made and it's their fault that they'll never get to play it ...

This is why I'm willing to throw my lot in with whatever alien conquerors arrive.  There's no hope for humankind.  Go alien overlords.  *waves pennant*

CR

Edit: Just so nobody thinks I'm lamenting the obssessions of a couple of nutjobs -- there are 20 pages of posts on this very topic.   

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RPGs / Re: Beating A Dead Horse (or why system matters to me)

« on: May 28, 2009, 03:55:46 PM »

Slaves to Corporate Gaming...When those words in that order make an appearance, you know this guy has had this issue for a good while.

Yes -- he believed that Wizards, Steve Jackson Games, and other such companies were corporate monoliths that threatened good gamers everywhere.  His website is down right now, or I could link to some of his blog entries on the subject.   

Don't get me wrong -- I'm not a huge fan of everything Wizards/Hasbro does, but I'm pretty sure that they're several steps away from ruling the world and enslaving us to their whim ...

CR

5

RPGs / Re: Beating A Dead Horse (or why system matters to me)

« on: May 28, 2009, 03:25:33 PM »

I tend to agree with the original poster.  While I think there's room for minor house rules that make things easier or clarify things that are unclear, I tend to shy away from GMs who delight in having pages and pages of house rules.

Engage Anecdote Dispersal Device!

One GM I played under briefly went way overboard with house-rules.  The campaign started out as a standard D&D 3.5 game.  Then he unilaterally announced that he would be instituting a spell point system for magic.  And critical hit and fumble tables cribbed from Rolemaster.  And skill and feat training rules of his own design.  I excused myself from the group, explaining that this wasn't really what I was looking for.  He of course exploded and announced that I was banned from his games.  When I pointed out that throwing me out of his game for choosing to leave was a bit redundant, he launched into a barrage of emails and blog posts berating me and some of the other members of the group for being slaves to corporate gaming and not appreciating his unique flair for GMing.

I later ran into other players of his who recounted nearly the exact same story.  I gather he's tried this bait-and-switch scheme many times in an attempt to find people who will play his homebrew system.  I guess he figured that nobody would join up if he presented the system outright (he's probably not wrong), and so lures innocent gamers in with promises of fun D&D gaming ...   

CR

6

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: RPPR reviews on iTunes

« on: May 28, 2009, 08:44:38 AM »

got a 2 star review for saying uh and um too much during the actual plays. I could edit them but that would take fucking hours for a single AP and if you think I'm slow in posting them now...

Oh well. Can't please everyone.

During the APs?  Did he also mark you down for poor posture and not sticking the landing?

CR

7

RPGs / Re: cthulhutech campaign ideas

« on: May 22, 2009, 10:52:31 AM »

Sounds like a winner to me -- Horror On The Orient 737 made me chuckle right away.   

You could have a ton of fun updating old Cthulhu mythos scenarios and stories, especially if you have players who are familiar with the old versions.  It'd be great to see the look of horror on their face if you cloaked it well enough that it took them a while to realize what story they were trapped in.

CR

8

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: New World Primer is here

« on: May 22, 2009, 08:57:27 AM »

Congratulations to all who worked on it! 

I've downloaded and look forward to reading it over the weekend.

CR

9

RPGs / Re: Can they be taught?

« on: May 21, 2009, 03:55:33 PM »

The one thing that I've seen that can make a player change is if they join a pre-existing group that already has a strong "group culture."  At that point, peer pressure can lead to a degree of self-restraint, which eventually solidifies into lasting change.  That said, this usually happens immediately, or not at all, and requires that the one player be heavily outnumbered.

Maze is also right though -- there's always potential for growth, if not rapid change, but this is usually a very slow process.

As much as we as gamers talk about the GM setting the tone for a session, campaign, group, etc -- I've always found that there's a very powerful "group culture" thing that goes on, regardless of who is actually GMing.  Has anyone else experienced this?

CR

10

RPGs / Re: Monster Manual 2

« on: May 20, 2009, 04:09:28 PM »

The name "Proney the Failbear" will be stuck in my head for the rest of the day -- thank you.   

CR

11

RPGs / Re: Hunter the Vigil Discussion Thread

« on: May 20, 2009, 03:07:25 PM »

Ouch.  That is a bad sign, given that character creation in NWoD is a pretty quick process.  I guess they succumbed to the lure of flipping to the shiny powers section, which is normally understandable, but kind of annoying when you're under a time-limit.

CR

12

General Chaos / Re: The day the Cathartic Lobster became a hero.

« on: May 19, 2009, 07:41:28 PM »

UPDATE!

Today, Thiefy McGee came back into the store and returned a Young Indiana Jones box set he stole last month. He apologized and started crying. My favorite part though has to be when he said, "I've never been confronted by anyone like that before. He really scared me."

That's right! I scared a guy! I'm about 5'7" 160lbs. with thick-framed Weezer-esque glasses and I scared this dude!

I know that getting a criminology degree has affected the way I think about things when the first thing I think is, "What is this guy's fascination with the Young Indiana Jones box sets?"

Either way - way to keep the streets safe!  Have you suggested a Lobster-Signal to your local police department?

CR

13

RPGs / Re: Dealing with Absent Players

« on: May 19, 2009, 09:31:32 AM »

Although this isn't really "dealing with the player", one thing that helps if you have a group with a high absenteeism rate is to run certain types of games.  Games that send PCs far from a home base make it trickier to explain away the absence of a PC, but if your campaign is set in a large city, there can be lots of reasons that PC X isn't around during a particular session.  This also applies with games that include common and easy fast travel, such as modern games.  Of course, this still requires that you ended the last session somewhere where it makes sense to ease a PC out.  This is why I learned early on as a GM that ending a session on a cliffhanger is great, but only do it if you can be sure that the "cliffhung" PC or PCs will be available next session.

CR

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RPGs / Re: What do you want the RPPR crew to try out?

« on: May 19, 2009, 09:19:04 AM »

My vote is for Paranoia -- it's great for a one-shot, and I think it'd be hilarious to listen to an AP of the RPPR crew gleefully sabotaging and blasting away at each other.

That said, Paranoia sometimes relies on a lot of note-passing, so maybe that wouldn't work so well ...

CR

15

RPGs / Re: Red Flags of Gaming

« on: May 19, 2009, 09:17:10 AM »

I Haaate when they don't read their spells. 

They'll tell me
"I cast Icy Terrain!"
 "Ok, what's it do?"
 "Uhh...damage, and enemies slip around on ice." 
"...I hate you... (jk)"

Yup -- I've actually been playing in a group where a bard/druid burst into a fight, and cast Daze on an ogre.  The ogre fails their saving throw, and the character gleefully runs up to it on their next turn and swings at it.  Of course, the effects of the Daze wear off at the end of the bard/druid's turn.  The ogre then crushes the bard/druid with one hit (who knew that a bard 2/druid 1 with only 12 hit points shouldn't go toe-to-toe with an ogre?).  Anyway, the ensuing exchange between the player and GM stuck in my mind ...

Player: That's not fair!  I cast daze on the ogre!  It's dazed!!!

GM: That spell only lasts for one round.

Player: Well, how the hell was I supposed to know that???

I kid you not, the player actually stormed out of the game session over this, after stating that it was the "GM's job" to let her know that charging into melee with the ogre might get her character killed, and since he hadn't done that, her character should be miraculously brought back to life.  This is the same player who referred to herself as a 15 year RPG veteran, and constantly tried to tell other players what they should be doing with their characters during combat ...

Anyway, I'm seeing that I've sown an entire field of red flags with that anecdote ...

CR