Grognards.txt

[Kroack]

The definition of Luck is “… that quality which helps events turn out in the character’s favor.” Okay, that sounds fine, but trust me, a good GM can find bad in just about anything.

I thought RPGS were supposed to be fun and the GM should encourage the players to enjoy their time.
Man, fuck this guy.

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[robotkarateman]

I'm not the antithesis of this guy, bad things have to happen to characters to keep the story dramatic. But to make it a point to ensure that every character in the game is a miserable ball of depression - how does he keep finding players? I mean, I can understand he's got one or two long-time sycophants who get off on power-by-proxy watching him crush new players' hopes and dreams, but you would think word would get around in his local community.

There's a guy up here who plays D&D as a competition sport, it's him vs. the players - and if he loses, he just makes himself win without bothering to roll any dice. "Nope, sorry, he made it through the escape hatch."

Apparently, after a particularly brutal campaign involving phantom wards that weren't there a moment ago when they checked for them, villains that got back up more often than WWE wrestlers, and, I shit you not, a quest macguffin that was cursed, the players had had enough. At one point, they were fighting the Big Bad in a cavern and he started to slip out a convenient back door, leaving the party to his minions. The fighter of the group said, "I can't catch him ... BUT ... I can get close enough that if you hit me with your fireball I'll survive but the blast will get him too."

The fighter ran as close as he could, mage hit him with a fireball, the explosion engulfed the villain too for enough damage to kill him. The GM said, "Nope, you can't target party members." Final ruling.

Shortly after that, they all quit.

Now nobody in town wants to game with him.

[ristarr]

I agree that his GM style leaves something to be desired.  The idea of teaching the PCs a lesson does not seem like acting in an adult manner.  To quote from his anti-DnD diatribe:  "It's that "Great power, great responsibility" lesson we keep hearing about - the lesson we keep hearing about, and keep ignoring."   And he is one that keeps ignoring it also.  He sounds power mad and irresponsible.  I am picturing his campaign having two types of players: his favorites who create and run their characters "the right way" so they don't need to be punished, the other group being those that have not learned to play properly and receive tips in the form of fatalities to their PCs.  I guess there is a third group also, the smart ones who don't play in his game.

I find the DnD rant a good bit off base also.  He keeps mentioning about how DnD stole this and that from games that came before it.  If he would take a little longer look at the history books, he would see all the games he mentioned built upon the foundation of DnD.  He doesn't complain about them.  His hatred for all things DnD is continued in Houses of the Blooded.  One of his two main design concepts was for it to be "The Anti-DnD"
"But I did so as a reaction to D&D. I didn’t want to
re-design that game, but design a new game that was a kind of response to it.
Almost everything that’s true about D&D is untrue in this game."

Almost everything except this mentioned in the paragraph above this last quote:
"you play the role of a character in
an ongoing story. You define your character with traits listed
on a character sheet. Together with your friends, you sit down
with other players and make your characters together, relying
on each other to assist in that process. This game calls those
characters player characters because they are characters
controlled by the players."

That is anti-DnD alright.  I wonder why he did not credit Gygax and Arneson for that.


Sorry about the rant, but I really hate pretentious assholes.

[Maze]

I know you're not defending the guy, Tad. Brought in this light, there's no way he could come out as an "okay kind of guy". Maybe he is in aspects of his life that don't concerns roleplaying games, maybe he just lost too many SAN to Wizards of the Coasts cultist to be able to GM properly. Who knows?

Per his youtube channel, he doesn't seem too insane, although humble isn't one of his trait: http://www.youtube.com/user/LordStrange

Anyway, this isn't the "JohnWickisaDick.txt" It's about GROGNARDS!

The fighter ran as close as he could, mage hit him with a fireball, the explosion engulfed the villain too for enough damage to kill him. The GM said, "Nope, you can't target party members." Final ruling.

It happened more than once a GM would try to pull a trick on us while I was a players, I changed my approach. When a GM is about to house-rule something or break consistency in his own setting I usually give him a warning to make him realize what he's doing. It's usually something about the line of "Do you really want to take this victory away from us when it was legitimate and smart thinking on the player's part, simply so that you don't go too off script? Instead of having players talk about this game as "the time they screwed over this guy", have the player talk about another "fucking railroad scenario" or "this guy's horrible DMPC"?

I'm trying not to be a dick about it, but it actually worked, every time I put it in this light, the GM let us keep our virtual victories. It doesn't matter if the scenario is 2 hour shorter (if the GM can't improvise further), we managed to solve the initial problem. This is what happen when one GM had us fall through a trap door right in front of the main bad guy, he finally let us roll to avoid falling. One PC managed and he brought down the main bad guy that we were suppose to fight last down with us. He had to replace his final encounter but it turned out as a really good game.

Anyway, the other alternative is to let the GM be a dick and have the game, if not the campaign turn to shit

[Sean-o-tron]

This stuff was written when he was still with his first wife.  Kinda gives you a hint of where his mind was at.

From Play Dirty, a reprinted compendium of his Pyramid column, as well as that first Gaming Outpost article:

While preparing for this book, I re-read the episodes, looking where
I might be able to tighten up the text, but after reviewing the first
episode, I decided against it. This book stands as a testimony to whom I
was that year. I like to think I’m a better writer these days (note the use
of “hope”), but being honest about my past has recently become very
important to me for reasons I’ll outline at a different time.

The John who wrote these episodes comes across to me more like a
younger brother than a younger version of myself. I can sympathize
with his anger, his joy, and his hope, but he seems like a different
person. The most important difference is the marital status. Younger,
angrier John is married; older, wiser John is not. And Jennifer is doing
just fine, by the way. We just had lunch last week and I got to rub her
tummy. She’s re-married and got all preggers. I joked, “John’s a great
name.” She promised she’d think about it. “Maybe a middle name,” she
told me. When we said goodbye, we both had a touch of sadness in our
eyes. We always do. Happiness eclipses it, but there’s no getting away
from the past. And it’s important to be honest about that.

But meeting her made me also think about these episodes. I went back
over my own files, re-read the words, laughed and winced. There was
more laughing than wincing. And hence, this little volume.

I'm not trying to defend him, I'm just saying he's very aware of the asshole he was.

[malyss]

Oh...

malyss
I am worth 100 points in GURPS ladies
***
Posts: 127

And can I get this modified to include a comma so that it doesn't appear as though I am from the "Ladies" edition of GURPS?

If by comma you mean apostrophe, then maybe.

Until then, GRAMMAR FAIL.

Would an apostrophe confirm that he is from the female edition?

IE: " GURPS Ladies' "

I believe he wants a seperater to indication that his title is, in fact, addressing ladies.

IE " GURPS, ladies."

Tad = Pass
Seth = Fail

"GURPS' Ladies" would indicate that the ladies belong to GURPS.
"GURPS Ladies'" would indicate the I belong to GURPS Ladies. What exactly a "GURPS lady" is, I have no idea...

Until then, I leave you with a quote.

"Me fail English? That's unpossible."

I'm sure a few of you recognize that quote.

And Seth... put the red marker away; you'll hurt yourself.

[malyss]

malyss
I am worth 100 points in GURPS...ladies
***
Posts: 137

Hehehe. Just had to come up with something different eh, Ross?

[clockworkjoe]

only way I could figure out to represent this

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in a written form

[malyss]

Does the term "Too Much Fucking Free Time" mean anything to anyone here?

How do you guys even find this stuff... it's like an Oddness Detector or something. I bet if you were walking through a crowd, you would end up stopping by the guy with two different socks who is standing next to the woman breastfeeding her poodle and you would all have the same birthday...

Funny statistical thing...
http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/

Damnit! You are sucking me into your black hole of strange! The closer one gets to this site, the more likely strange crap will happen. The strangeness around here is so dense it bends light.

Can't stop posting though...

[clockworkjoe]

u mad

[malyss]

No, just a little perturbed.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Does the term "Too Much Fucking Free Time" mean anything to anyone here?

It's the interwebs. Yous can finds whatevers yous wants. Ss.

If you go looking for odd than your likely to find it. And odd is, often enough, bloody hilarious.

[clockworkjoe]

No, just a little perturbed.

[Kroack]

See, Ross IS plugged directly into the internet. Watch, he'll respond with some weird picture post.
BLARG

[clockworkjoe]