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MERP being completely unsuited to depict Middle-Earth and was more of a vehicle to prime the pump for Rolemaster under a recognizable universe probably had something to do with it, too.
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May 13, 2017 16:53
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dwarf74 posted:Why do you think this was the case? We actually know why it happened. The Tolkien estate is focused on preserving Tolkien's legacy and is infamously weary of people using the IP. They're slightly more relaxed about it nowadays but they still (for obvious reasons) stress that all of the stuff not written by JRRT is in no way canon, and just don't acknowledge the existence of that stuff 99% of the time. By contrast the Star Wars d6 RPG and the later Star Wars video games, books, comics, etc. all came out of Lucasfilm's desire to monetise the Star Wars IP, and the RPG world-building ended up canon because when the secondary stuff really took off, the RPG material already existed and was very detailed, so it got reused by multiple people doing multiple things.
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May 13, 2017 16:58
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Kwyndig posted:Has there ever been a situation where a property has survived its creator gracefully? It seems like whenever somebody adds to a dead canon it just ends up being terrible. Star Trek
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May 13, 2017 17:22
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Countblanc posted:Star Trek Counterpoint: Voyager
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May 13, 2017 17:58
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Countblanc posted:Star Trek
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May 13, 2017 18:00
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Kwyndig posted:Has there ever been a situation where a property has survived its creator gracefully? It seems like whenever somebody adds to a dead canon it just ends up being terrible. Wheel of Time
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May 13, 2017 18:01
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Kwyndig posted:Has there ever been a situation where a property has survived its creator gracefully? It seems like whenever somebody adds to a dead canon it just ends up being terrible.
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May 13, 2017 18:06
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Dr Cheeto posted:Counterpoint: Voyager
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May 13, 2017 19:41
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Pretty sure you guys just got Blanc'd.
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May 13, 2017 20:56
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My Lovely Horse posted:I was gonna say Discworld but from most of what I hear it didn't even make it to Pratchett's death all that gracefully, what with one embuggerance or another. Yeah, the cracks started to show at the football themed one and things just kinda got worse. I dunno if it would have been better if he'd stopped before then, but I''m grateful he at least got to do them. 
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May 13, 2017 21:18
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I actually just finished re-reading Unseen Academicals, and I think it holds together pretty well. I liked pretty much everything except Juliet (she's more a personification of Glenda's issues) and the weird resolution of the game at the end. I still enjoy it, though. Raising Steam, on the other hand...as much as I hate to use the term in relation to an author I love, Ned really is a total Mary Sue, with Vimes getting pretty up there too. There's some really good ideas in there, like the changes happening to dwarf society and the toxic influence of the "traditionalists", but there's no real story, just a series of scenes. And when you listen to the audiobook version, you realize that a large part of the book is just monologues. e: I remember seeing someone say once that the editor on Raising Steam was much looser than he'd normally be given that this might have been Terry's last novel, and I have to agree that's the case.
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May 13, 2017 21:25
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Unseen Academicals was great to me, except that because I have no familiarity with UK football culture none of the references made sense.
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May 13, 2017 22:03
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Rand Brittain posted:Unseen Academicals was great to me, except that because I have no familiarity with UK football culture none of the references made sense. Yeah, Unseen Academicals was still very strong. Not his very best, but good nonetheless. Raising Steam was sadly no good - I couldn't get through it.
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May 13, 2017 22:35
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Raising Steam tackled dwarf issues as a metaphor for conservative religions/attitudes way better when it was called the Fifth Elephant, and then again when it was called Thud!, so it seemed real weird to tread over that ground again imo.
The Deleter fucked around with this message at 23:00 on May 13, 2017 |
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May 13, 2017 22:45
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I haven't got round to "I Shall Wear Midnight" and "The Shepherd's Crown", but I thought Unseen Academicals was pretty great - a loving sendup of UK football culture. I always felt with Raising Steam that yeah, it was way more overt and less nuanced than other works, more monologues, and maybe the writing suffered for it. But hell, dying and with everything that's happened/is happening, can you blame him for being blunt in his last books over what he saw as critical issues?
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May 13, 2017 22:58
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Yeah, Raising Steam felt off for me too. I stopped reading it because I knew at the time it could very well be his last and I didn't want to end it on that note. I enjoyed Snuff and Unseen Academicals though. Not as big a fan of I Shall Wear Midnight, but that's partially because Tiffany Aching never quite grew on me as a protagonist, and I preferred Lancre and its witches to her stories. drat, now I'm feeling all mopey. I miss Pratchett.
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May 13, 2017 23:51
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I have the last few books, I just haven't been able to read them. Hurts too much to wrap everything up, I guess.
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May 14, 2017 00:14
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In the game Prey, there's a minor plot about a tabletop group playing an RPG onboard the space station. I thought it was a pretty fun detail, and then I came across some in-game materials for their made up RPG Fatal Fortress: there are a few GM notes:  and a few character sheets (I don't have screenshots of them all):  
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May 14, 2017 06:36
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Hordinbaffle Flagdasterous is a great wizard name.
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May 14, 2017 07:35
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Is it chill to play HeroQuest solo just using the standard singleplayer "enemies approach and attack on their turns" style gameplay a lot of games use?
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May 14, 2017 07:53
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Pratchett lost the ability to touch-type to Alzheimer's and ended up dictating his later work to his assistant Rob Wilkins instead, which is probably part of why they come across as monologues. I enjoyed Raising Steam for what it is.  I never got around to reading any of the Aching books past The Wee Free Men though. I probably should.
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May 14, 2017 09:17
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They merge CHA and WIS into INT, but they still have STR and CON as separate stats?!
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May 14, 2017 09:24
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Sad that future people have no interest in playing sci fi games.
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May 14, 2017 09:25
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Serf posted:In the game Prey, there's a minor plot about a tabletop group playing an RPG onboard the space station. I thought it was a pretty fun detail, and then I came across some in-game materials for their made up RPG Fatal Fortress: World without sunlight, underground fortress, create spells by drawing runes. That's Arx Fatalis, one of Arkane's previous games. The icons on the character sheet are even pretty much identical.
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May 14, 2017 10:34
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Even in the distant future, someone out there will still consider "fantasy RPG with no classes" an exciting innovation
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May 14, 2017 10:42
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I can't believe those loving space nerds are playing the worst edition of fatal fortress
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May 14, 2017 10:43
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Strom Cuzewon posted:World without sunlight, underground fortress, create spells by drawing runes. You forgot the most obvious clue:  They're literally called the same thing, using the same font. Lemon-Lime fucked around with this message at 13:18 on May 14, 2017 |
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May 14, 2017 13:10
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gradenko_2000 posted:They merge CHA and WIS into INT, but they still have STR and CON as separate stats?!
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May 14, 2017 13:32
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Lemon-Lime posted:You forgot the most obvious clue: Oh god Arx means fortress. 
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May 14, 2017 13:33
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 "Chestnut brown hair + huge muscles"
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May 14, 2017 13:44
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gradenko_2000 posted:They merge CHA and WIS into INT, but they still have STR and CON as separate stats?! Oh man, I thought I was the only one beating the "STR and CON should be merged in most old-school games" drum. Thinking about doing it for a game of Silent Legions when I can get around to it. Kwyndig posted:Has there ever been a situation where a property has survived its creator gracefully? It seems like whenever somebody adds to a dead canon it just ends up being terrible. Haystack posted:Lovecraft springs to mind. Lovecraft is an excellent example but also the exception that proves the rule, because there was never really a Lovecraftian "canon." It was a community of friends who didn't take their own work too seriously, encouraging each other to borrow in ways that hinted at continuity without ever establishing anything for certain. (Lovecraft himself cribbed from Chambers, Dunsany, and Blackwood when it suited him.) Even then it wasn't entirely graceful--without August Derleth, possibly none of us would ever have read Lovecraft, but Lovecraft fans are super salty at him for writing stories that "clarified" Lovecraft's creations into pantheons of good and evil gods. Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 15:50 on May 14, 2017 |
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May 14, 2017 15:39
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Halloween Jack posted:Oh man, I thought I was the only one beating the "STR and CON should be merged in most old-school games" drum. Thinking about doing it for a game of Silent Legions when I can get around to it. SW:EOTE merges them into Brawn and it is Good.
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May 14, 2017 16:11
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Halloween Jack posted:Oh man, I thought I was the only one beating the "STR and CON should be merged in most old-school games" drum. Thinking about doing it for a game of Silent Legions when I can get around to it. I cut my teeth on Microlite20, which cuts down stats to Strength, Dexterity, and Mind, and max HP is equal to the whole Strength score+modifier+hit dice. and you know there was something that the 3e DMG said the other day about how the only real difference between an ability check and a saving throw is the narrative illusion of an proactive action versus a passive reaction, and that got me thinking about just resolving skill checks with Fort Ref and Will saves.
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May 14, 2017 16:27
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Pretty much whenever I do think about making my own D&D clone (I never will but you know how it is, work is slow sometimes), Fort/Ref/Will as the basic ability scores is right up there on the list. Sometimes they get renamed to something like Strength/Speed/Spirit, sometimes not.
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May 14, 2017 17:43
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We owe Derleth a huge debt but he really didn't understand Lovecraft.
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May 14, 2017 21:14
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I want that shirt
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May 14, 2017 21:26
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My Lovely Horse posted:Pretty much whenever I do think about making my own D&D clone (I never will but you know how it is, work is slow sometimes), Fort/Ref/Will as the basic ability scores is right up there on the list. Sometimes they get renamed to something like Strength/Speed/Spirit, sometimes not. I've sometimes humored the idea of just ripping off the Zelda games. Power/Wisdom/Courage, with thiefy poo poo getting split between them (it takes Wisdom to properly pick a lock, Courage to lie without your voice shaking or steal something without fumbling it). As a side note, my old standby for "I need to name this place and can't think of anything" was Fort Refwill. Over many, many years, only a few players realized what I did. Double edit, because I solved the mystery: So, uh, this is happening  If you have a book on DrivethruRPG, this is fixable, you just need to reupload your cover image. I'm posting this now so everybody else can get a head's up, because it seems to be happening to every book on there and I freaked smooth the gently caress out for a couple of minutes. Lunatic Sledge fucked around with this message at 23:55 on May 14, 2017 |
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May 14, 2017 21:29
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Serf posted:In the game Prey, there's a minor plot about a tabletop group playing an RPG onboard the space station. I thought it was a pretty fun detail, and then I came across some in-game materials for their made up RPG Fatal Fortress: I like that both players had to draw in an "HP" box on their character sheets because the designers forgot to include one. It's exactly the kind of typo you'd find in an off-brand RPG with poor editing.
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May 15, 2017 01:01
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gradenko_2000 posted:I cut my teeth on Microlite20, which cuts down stats to Strength, Dexterity, and Mind, and max HP is equal to the whole Strength score+modifier+hit dice. My Lovely Horse posted:Pretty much whenever I do think about making my own D&D clone (I never will but you know how it is, work is slow sometimes), Fort/Ref/Will as the basic ability scores is right up there on the list. So now that you mention it, a really common thing in Fantasy Heartbreakers is that they recognize problems with the way AD&D handles character stats, but they can't quite bear to break with tradition. So instead of point-buy, they have really idiosyncratic stat-rolling, and instead of minimizing or eliminating ability scores, they introduce a bunch of new derived values that normalize the effective values and results. Just combining ability scores and saving throws makes more sense.
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May 15, 2017 02:47
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That wizard staff is insanely OP. A goddamn 4d6 melee attack? That's quadruple the rogue's dagger.
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