Messages

1

General Chaos / Re: Query of Podcasting

« on: August 13, 2010, 10:17:53 PM »

While I can't claim to have listened to all RPG podcasts, I think that's a new niche.  There are certainly some podcasts that address both sides of the playing/running coin, but they tend to focus on one particular system, or do it in a disjointed way.  It would be worth including, whether it just be in show notes or what have you, actual plays for the system when available.

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General Chaos / Re: Newest RPPR Member

« on: July 22, 2010, 01:48:27 PM »

Congratulations!

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General Chaos / Re: Best Internet Vidyas

« on: July 02, 2010, 09:25:34 AM »

I definitely agree with you that a little more exposition on how the virus spread and mutated through the population could have helped the overall immersion.  But given the nature of the cure and the state of the vampire population at the end of the movie, that that leaves the potential for expanding the backstory in a sequel. 

I suppose they could also expand it into the future if the cure has an odd effect on vampires that have already reverted to a more animal state.  Or at least I don't recall it getting used on anybody but "healthy" vampires.  I'm not sure it did well enough to merit a real "in movie theaters" style sequel, but I could certainly see a cable or direct to DVD sort of thing.  I'm sure a SyFy channel treatment wouldn't be a train-wreck!

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General Chaos / Re: Akinator

« on: June 27, 2010, 09:07:55 PM »

He couldn't get a secondary character from the Mistborn series.  I lack the patience to try another one.

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General Chaos / Re: Don't Tease The Panther - Post Your Favorite Terrible Published Writing

« on: June 27, 2010, 09:03:05 PM »

I'm not surprised. There is a lot of die hard Beckites-9/12-truthers out there that will read it with the utmost intent of following to its letter. Everyone else will read it so they can make fun of it at the office.

I wonder what percentage bought it because they like Beck.  Certainly a television and radio show promoting your product non-stop (presumably) does a lot to ramp up sales for your target audience.

I can't help but wonder if some of the success is people throwing money at it to game the system to get a #1 spot on the list for another tag for the book jacket.  I don't know the ins and outs of the system well enough to really speculate on how feasable that'd be.

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General Chaos / Re: Don't Tease The Panther - Post Your Favorite Terrible Published Writing

« on: June 24, 2010, 08:52:37 AM »

Criticizing a writer for not having the same social mores and sensibilities is pretty weak. It opens a huge can of worms for pretty much all writers of note. Shakespeare for Shylock, Twain for Nigger Jim, Conrad for the Nigger of Narcissus and on and on and on.

That being said, there has been much written about HPL's racism by some brilliant writers. I recommend Michel Houellebecq's "H.P Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life" which has a chapter addressing his racism and argues that it was part of the central motivating force in his writing.I just re-read it (starts on p. 105) and it's a great read.  After all, the Mythos are the perfect Other. So if you enjoy some of his work, then you are part to the same types of thought as HPL.  :O

Anyway, great art requires great understanding in order to comprehend. It's fine to read and enjoy the work of HPL on a surface level but disliking it because it makes you uneasy because of his antiquated racism shows that you need to dive deeper. You can enjoy his work and acknowledge his racism at the same time.

I'll have to check that book out.  I will say that I think his racism went a little deeper than some of the authors you cited, or at least in my reading it seems to be deeper than using a term that was socially acceptable at the time of writing.  I tend to agree with S.T. Joshi in his assertion that Lovecraft tended to go further than other authors of his time period.

That being said there's no doubt that his views shaped his writing, as it does for all authors.  And nobody can deny the impact his writings have had over the years...and will continue to have for years to come.  Re-reading some of his writings with my eyes opened to the almost autobiographical nature of some of his characters, in terms of some of the hardships in his own life, certainly can give you an appreciation of where he was coming from.

I certainly don't throw him out as an author.  He is by far my favorite horror author, if you can even really tie his writings to a specific genre.

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General Chaos / Re: Don't Tease The Panther - Post Your Favorite Terrible Published Writing

« on: June 23, 2010, 05:52:03 PM »

srsly just because you don't like HPL's purple prose doesn't mean it's bad.

Unless you can back up your words with some serious critiques.

LET'S HEAR IT

Don't get me wrong.  A lot of his stuff is excellent.  I started reading him back in high school, and have been a fan ever since.  But sometimes it's hard to overlook the blatant racism in some of his writing.

I've heard the argument, particularly in light of his wife being Jewish, that some of it was for shock value.  I suppose that's possible, but it still makes it rough for me to slog through some of his stories.

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General Chaos / Re: Don't Tease The Panther - Post Your Favorite Terrible Published Writing

« on: June 22, 2010, 08:18:34 PM »

Ben Counter is a good author.  I also appreciate the injection of humor into the genre from Sandy Mitchell in the Ciaphus Caine stuff, and the non-Caine stuff is also pretty good.

Some of HP Lovecraft's stuff is damn near unreadable.  Some of it's excellent, but when it's bad it's horrendous.

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General Chaos / Re: Don't Tease The Panther - Post Your Favorite Terrible Published Writing

« on: June 22, 2010, 01:17:34 PM »

I'm a sucker for Abnett's writing.  40K, fantasy, I've read it all (probably).  However, in the same genre, C.S. Goto is some of the most pointless writing I've ever forced myself to finish.

Battlefield Earth, in addition to being one of the worst movies ever made, is one of the worst books ever published in my opinion.  I know there are people that consider it fantastic, and probably not all of them follow Tom Cruise, but man...I couldn't even finish it.

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Recruitment Board / Re: Song and Stage [Changeling: The Lost for 2-4 Players]

« on: May 18, 2010, 01:34:20 PM »

My overall ignorance of the rules is the biggest thorn in my side right now.  I had a concept for a Darkling antiquarian (closest thing anyway), who works and nearly lives in a co-location facility, pulling the night shift and surrounding himself with reams of data and easy, fast access to the Internet for all his research desires.  But I'm not sure I buy into being able to feed on all the misery available through that medium.

The couple of colocation centers I've seen meet all the criteria for a good place to hide out.  They're secure, not well lit, and tend to be out in the warehouse districts away from anybody else.  He'd be heavy on mental skills, extremely light in social, with a few physical skills.

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General Chaos / Re: The Corrupt A Wish Thread

« on: May 13, 2010, 01:54:34 PM »

I wish they would do a remake of those Wishmaster movies and call the resulting film "THE Wishmaster".

Granted.  In an effort to make it more theater friendly, Shaquille O'Neil is back to play a Djinn again and his ultimate goal is to get his Djinn brethren to rule the world... and to make sure that product placement hits an all time high.  Miley Cirus will, of course, be the one making the wishes.  And her wish to be a better singer will make sure the viewers are treated to a LOT of concert footage.  It will be a franchise reboot gone horribly awry.

I wish the pollen count would go down.  And I don't care if I've (potentially) already wished for that before.

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General Chaos / Re: The Corrupt A Wish Thread

« on: May 09, 2010, 08:38:02 PM »

I wish I could see Boyos's new white/green organic paint job on his car.

Granted!  You're going to experience the joy of seeing the new paint job drop by drop as you're trapped inside his car for days in record heat with just enough water to keep you alive.  Of course, since the windows won't roll down, the inside is going to get just as bad as the outside quickly.

I wish I could kick the MMORPG habit for good, EQ2 is downloading as I write this.

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General Chaos / Re: The Corrupt A Wish Thread

« on: May 09, 2010, 06:32:32 PM »

Granted, I'd explain the horribleness of this situation, but I don't want to tarnish Ross & Tom's reputation.

I wish my dissertation would write itself, so I could concentrate on the Codex.

Granted, but your dissertation relies on Wikipedia and the Internet for all the information and fails to make any attempt to reword itself to avoid blatant plagiarism.  Oddly, though, that doesn't cause any problems as people are amazed your dissertation achieved sentience.  Once it's found out, the first thing it does is rat you out for not doing your own work.

I wish that food that tasted good was also good for you.

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Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: What's that new button do?

« on: May 09, 2010, 12:43:05 AM »

[spoiler]The chick is really a dude, and with the theme song being sung by Boy George you really shouldn't have been surprised.[/spoiler]

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Recruitment Board / Re: Song and Stage [Changeling: The Lost for 2-4 Players]

« on: May 08, 2010, 03:21:13 PM »

I'm interested...  But haven't played a White Wolf game in a long time.    I could make an argument that PBP is a great place to learn, but I shouldn't worry about that until I've actually gotten an ap up.  This weekend might be a rough time to get it going.