TG Chat Thread 2017

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > TG Chat Thread 2017

kaffo: Jun 20, 2017; If it's broken, it's probably my fault

Evil Mastermind posted:

I haven't seen the rules from the KS since I didn't back it, but I did late pledge (which, sadly, doesn't give me the backer release). From what I've heard, through, it's an improvement over the original rules.

Yeah, folks I've seen on the forums and such have said good things. It's still the same crunchy TORG with the fat trimmed, which is what I want.
I dunno, if I have time I'll need to investigate it more throughly.

# ? Aug 21, 2017 14:54

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# ? May 28, 2024 01:02

Halloween Jack: Sep 12, 2003; I WILL CUT OFF BOTH OF MY ARMS BEFORE I VOTE FOR ANYONE THAT IS MORE POPULAR THAN BERNIE!!!!!

I searched for one of my old posts on the subject and realized that we have pretty much the exact same discussion about the ENnies, every year. There are even the same related tangents, like "Zak S is a turdsmith" and "G+ is a cesspool."

Bear in mind that the ENnies were created as a D20-specific slate of awards, had a separate award for Best OGL/D20 Game until the boom busted, and generally categorized awards so as to facilitate recognizing D20 products. (Best campaign setting, best adventure, best maps, etc.) It should be no surprise that the bulk of ENnies go to D&D/D20 and spinoffs like Numenera.

ProfessorCirno posted:

Also everything OSR is terrible and gets rave reviews because the OSR itself is an increasingly insulated group that only really ventures into the public to harass people, typically women. At one point there were tons of OSR kickstarters...except it was the same group of people donating to every single one AND starting them. Just the same pool of money, moving back and forth between, never actually adding more, never actually growing.

The Old School Renaissance: Pooping Back and Forth, Forever. :ancap:

Yawgmoth posted:

Ahahahaha that reminds me of a woman in one of my graduate classes who did a huge presentation on Second Life being the future of online business and talking up how great it was for this that and the other thing, then when she went to demonstrate it a dude with a zebra head wielding a giant dildo came running through and smacking everyone & everything he could. I don't think I've ever seen someone yank a cord out of their laptop as fast as she did.

This story, in its many thousands of variations, is the story of Second Life.

gradenko_2000 posted:

Crawford's work seems to be good in spite of being OSR rather than being because of it. Like, he has a lot of GM support and random generators and setting material, but honestly Silent Legions could have been written as a PBTA game or a d20 game and be just as good, and while I leaned heavily on Stars Without Numbers's generators for plot, I still ran it with Classic Traveller.

I agree. His generally good writing and design suffers from the need to use the same OSR ruleset for all of his games. Like, to give a really clear example, all of his games set outside the D&D milieu should drop STR as an ability score.

Like, taking Call of Cthulhu and putting it into the mechanical context of a sandbox D&D game? Great! Building CoC PCs like D&D characters? Very meh. And it's not like CoC's system was great in the first place.

# ? Aug 21, 2017 17:34

Nuns with Guns: Jul 23, 2010; It's fine.
Don't worry about it.

Halloween Jack posted:

Like, taking Call of Cthulhu and putting it into the mechanical context of a sandbox D&D game? Great! Building CoC PCs like D&D characters? Very meh. And it's not like CoC's system was great in the first place.

Stars Without Number is worth having around for all the resources it provides on building a galaxy and fleshing out power groups within it, but then again the base Traveller rules never engaged me enough to be invested in them. Silent Legions is great for similar reasons, if you want to generate a whole new and alien mythos instead of recycling the same eldritch entities over and over. Interesting structures built on an unremarkable chassis, I guess?

# ? Aug 21, 2017 17:48

Halloween Jack: Sep 12, 2003; I WILL CUT OFF BOTH OF MY ARMS BEFORE I VOTE FOR ANYONE THAT IS MORE POPULAR THAN BERNIE!!!!!

Nuns with Guns posted:

Stars Without Number is worth having around for all the resources it provides on building a galaxy and fleshing out power groups within it, but then again the base Traveller rules never engaged me enough to be invested in them. Silent Legions is great for similar reasons, if you want to generate a whole new and alien mythos instead of recycling the same eldritch entities over and over. Interesting structures built on an unremarkable chassis, I guess?

Yeah, the best parts of Silent Legions are the random generators, especially the one that allows you to generate an entire mythos from scratch. I've always felt that in Lovecraftian gaming there's a purist drive to "do it right," but SL allows for creating a pantheon that might be far more Derleth or Smith than Lovecraft, or something else entirely, and that's okay. The emphasis on cultists rather than monsters as the enemy is also a good thing.

The system? It's old-school D&D with a skill system tacked on, and it has exactly the quirks you'd expect. People have been making D&D-with-a-skill-system-tacked-on since at least 1980. I think that the best iteration of Crawford's ruleset was Other Dust.

In the case of SWN, it feels like the design suffers from needing to follow the Fighter-Rogue-Wizard setup. Like, if you want to have psychic powers, you have to be a guy with low HP and poor combat ability.

# ? Aug 21, 2017 18:17

Alien Rope Burn: Dec 5, 2004; _{I wanna be a saikyo HERO!}

Notes from Gen Con:

Got to talk to some Onyx Path folks. The White Wolf booth was obviously there to push the upcoming World of Darknesser Vampire (I saw Ken Hite running a demo), but since Onyx Path had a lot more to show, it was a lot more Onyx Path.
I got to take a look at the new edition of Changeling: the Lost. Main new thing I noticed was, like may other OP 2nd editions, they're removing Contracts from being 1-5 dots and are just "common" (contracts specificially written by the fae for changeling use) and "noble" (the contracts written by the fae largely for the fae). Noble contracts are more expensive.
Got to look at two chapters from Arms of the Chosen for Exalted. One had the new weapons - I remember there was a hammer and a bow - but there weren't many. No smashfists. The other had the new warstrider rules, which have been completely redone, of course, with evocations. Didn't read it deeply enough to make a judgement, though. Also got a peek on the redo of Earth Dragon style, which seems to be about hitting people like a truck, largely.
Starfinger was there but they laughably only brought 50% more copies than they originally did of Pathfinder at launch. Lisa said she was surprised they sold out so quick but I'm kind of surprised that she thought that would be nearly enough. So you had a lot of Starfinger add-ons just sitting around as a result. I was told that PFO was actually being shown on the floor but I didn't see it...
... probably because I was distracted meeting the principal writers behind Savage Rifts (Sean Patrick Fannon and Ross Watson). Sean Fannon will be at Con on the Cob this year and hosting the party as usual. There will be more Savage Rifts, focusing on the American setting and giving us more on the Xiticix and Archie, among other things. I hope they'll forgive that I can't recall - I think they're working on an unrelated pirate setting for Savage Worlds, too? Watson is also working on the new Warhammer 40k RPG, which will be taking place after whatever big warp thingy separates the galaxy and use a new d6-based system unreleased to previous editions.
I went to a talk with a bunch of guys from the first Gen Con, which was interesting, but mainly just served as a window to the old wargaming scene (and watching the poor guys trying to recall poo poo from 50 years ago). Also just a window into nerds being petty before the internet. (The internet mostly just made it much, much quicker, IMO.)
Charles Walton from Palladium was actually doing sketches; I commissioned one myself. The main release for Palladium was Dimension Book 15: Secrets of the Atlanteans, which I think may have actually sold out. Carmen Bellaire wasn't there this year that I saw, hopefully he's doing alright.
Level 99 was my main scene, of course. A lot of games that were originally going to be a part of their big game box were just being released separately - I picked up Sellswords: Olympus (triple triad, but good), and tried out I Can't Even With These Monsters (a card game where you're trying to keep your score both high and even by choosing either score cards from your hand or blindly from your opponent). Trials was quietly released to backers who were present but wasn't up for sale. There was a free two-character starter pack for Exceed. The championship promos for Tatsumi and Tanis were available at the BattleCON tournament. I got to playtest some upcoming stuff and provide feedback. EXCEED Season Two was being shown off and looks real, real good, barring some balance and move updates before release.
I flopped my main tournament for Pixel Tactics for the first time, running a Marmelee deck that got hard countered in the final round by Francoise Malephase. However, I tied with Andarel for first place in EXCEED largely with the nudist robot (and a little evil overlord), and picked up 6th place of 26 players in the BattleCON tournament with Runika / Thessala / Cadenza, actually fighting the multiple GenCon champion to a tie.
I got to playtest Over the Edge 2nd Ed. with Cam Banks running (and writing). The system has been completely revamped with a 2d6 resolution system where 7 is a success, 8 is a bigger success, and 9+ is the biggest success... and 6 is a failure and 5 is a bad failure. Every 4 you roll adds a good twist of chance and every 3 you roll adds a bad twist of fate. Character skills are only really ranked by power level and the character with a higher power level shifts their result up by one. There are some kooky mechanics like offering people a pool of d6s and which ones they select having some impact on the game, as to be expected, though nothing on the level of Cut-Ups (yet). Johnathan Tweet is also apparently being consulted on it. The adventure was kooky fun around a convention of supernatural types. Apparently Al Amarja is now being run by the son of Monique D'Aubainne. It's also moved locations to a new ocean but damned if I can remember exactly where.
I sold off 26 out of 32 auction items, mostly Heroclix, CCGs, and spare gaming books. The only thing that came home was mainly odd collector's sets of Heroclix and a few Dream Pod 9 books. Silhouette Core has been really hard to sell thanks to being in that uncomfortable space of being A) rare enough to be vaguely valuable and B) niche enough that nobody cares. I picked up some Fragged Empire adventures and an issue of the Rifter at the auction... which was nice, because IGDN had the other Fragged Empire hardcovers I was looking for.
Tried out Feast For Odin, which is a heavy worker placement game - I liked it other than my general issue with Euro worker placement games (i.e. the only real interaction is placement nabs). But it was interesting and I'd play it again, though I don't think I'd be buying it. I like playing Euro games but don't feel the need to own them.
Got to meet with goons for shot wednesday, but the Rathskeller was a drag as far as meetup locales go. Food was pretty solid, though, I had a german... sausage... burger thing I enjoyed. High Velocity was a better scene, ironically. Didn't get to have much fancy eats this time around. Mostly alternated between noodles and forgetting to eat.
Played the new Scott Pilgrim game, though it sold out on the first day and the game was a little hampered by somebody thieving cards from their demo copy. It's a light deckbuilder that plays with the theme in a neat way (it alternates between normal deckbuilding and them making card combos in a second phase where you fight somebody to try and earn power-ups). It's a solid game and at least not a cheap Dominion knock-off. I can't help but think it's something that the characters of the titular comic would find really insufferable, though. Seeing the Game of Thrones strategy game had me thinking a lot about the use of licenses in games - does anybody watch GoT for the main draw of what battle tactics the characters are using? But they know how to make that sort of game, so they'll slot it into that sort of game... same with the upcoming Batman game, etc.
R. Talsorian is reforming and I got to meet Cody and Mike Pondsmith. Cody is working on The Witcher RPG and showed off their near-complete copy that's going through final layouts and approval. It uses an trimmed-down version of the old Interlock system, with roles like in Cyberpunk (mage, witcher, criminal, etc.) and a redone wounds system that's less of a downward spiral, but also had a critical injury system as well where you can get or inflict rando dehibilating wounds if one character has a severe margin of success on a combat roll. There's a new magic system where you have a vigor score you're expending through spells, though you can burn yourself out to go nova at the cost of long-term consequences. Their focus on Cyberpunk seems to be largely in updating the technology but also with a data crash that apparently makes some technology harder to come by.
7th Sea had their quickstart for 7th Sea: the East, and I told John (Wick that he'd won in that I was more interested in seeing that than FFG's Legend of the Five Rings (the line for FFG was never not crazy that I saw and I didn't even bother). He asked me to tell him what I think and I'll probably e-mail that over, since I didn't have time to read anything during the show that wasn't EXCEED or BattleCON strategy.
Monte Cook Games had demos for all their stuff except Invisible Sun in an non-ironic twist. Still, a little more invisible than expected.
Went to a d20 retrospective headed largely by archdevil Ryan Dancey (but also with John Nephew, Monte Cook, John Zinser, Erik Mona). It was interesting though, of course, Dancey was putting the most positive spin on it he could. He was actually effusive about complimenting D&D 4th Edition but said it was just a bad marketing choice and blamed WotC's woes on those choices rather than the quality of the game. Monte Cook had this weird thousand-yard stare whenever Dancey talked. I got the feeling this isn't his first rodeo in that regard. Or he could have just been conhausted.
They had a museum made to look like the first GenCon at the local stadium, with period games being run and a lot of historical product, flyers, and production materials from tabletop history. Definitely was worth seeing.
Played in a brief and enthusiatic Car Wars game geared for a two-hour slot but even with low armor, it couldn't finish in time. Maybe if we had been given weapons that hit reliably? Well, it meant we got some good crashes in.
There are Funkos people are charging $300 for, huh? I guess everything's worth something to someone...
I almost picked up the 13th Age Bestiary 2 but the "here are some evil elves no you can't play one" sidebar gave me flashbacks to reactionary D&D past and I put it down for now. Probably unfair, but my big money went to Fragged Empire and artist sketches this year. Sorry, Pelgrane!
I got Fabio Fontes and Brad Talton to do a Hida O-Ushi parody for me for Millennium Blades. I mean, it's a little sketch on a game card, but it's as official as unofficial game cards get.
Got the official Crystal Caste die for GenCon!... apparently with an error where you can't tell the 1 or 6 apart. Oooops. Well, it was free.

Anyway, that's what I remember! GenCon! It was good... well, except for the con crud that's followed me home, but I suppose I know what I signed up for when I made one handshake too many.

# ? Aug 21, 2017 19:17

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Halloween Jack posted:

The system? It's old-school D&D with a skill system tacked on, and it has exactly the quirks you'd expect. People have been making D&D-with-a-skill-system-tacked-on since at least 1980. I think that the best iteration of Crawford's ruleset was Other Dust.

In the case of SWN, it feels like the design suffers from needing to follow the Fighter-Rogue-Wizard setup. Like, if you want to have psychic powers, you have to be a guy with low HP and poor combat ability.

This is what always bugged me about Crawford's stuff: his reliance on making everything "Early D&D" means he's shoehorning things in all over the place, regardless of how much sense it makes.

I really do wish he'd branch out into other systems, but every time I've seen people ask him for it his response is "well, you can just pull the tables from <whichever game> out since they're not tied to the mechanics," which veers to close to Rule Zero "just make the rules yourself" territory for my tastes.

Seriously, though, I'd love a Fate Core version of Godbound.

# ? Aug 21, 2017 19:45

drrockso20: May 6, 2013; Has Not Actually Done Cocaine

The whole point of Crawford making his stuff OSR is so it's compatible with most everything else in the movement, not to mention so he doesn't have to muck around with a new core system every time, since TSR D&D is basically a solved system

Really don't see why it's suddenly become "dump on the OSR movement" time in this thread, sure there's morons and assholes in it, but that's the case for literally every part of TG anyways so I don't see why OSR needs extra focus in that regard(and really outside Zak S and some of his cronies, it pales compared to some of the dickwads I've seen in the WoD/CoD fandom for example)

# ? Aug 21, 2017 20:07

Yawgmoth: Sep 10, 2003; This post is cursed!

drrockso20 posted:

The whole point of Crawford making his stuff OSR is so it's compatible with most everything else in the movement, not to mention so he doesn't have to muck around with a new core system every time, since TSR D&D is basically a solved system

Really don't see why it's suddenly become "dump on the OSR movement" time in this thread, sure there's morons and assholes in it, but that's the case for literally every part of TG anyways so I don't see why OSR needs extra focus in that regard(and really outside Zak S and some of his cronies, it pales compared to some of the dickwads I've seen in the WoD/CoD fandom for example)

lol are you really trying to use the "but other things are bad too" defense

# ? Aug 21, 2017 20:37

drrockso20: May 6, 2013; Has Not Actually Done Cocaine

Yawgmoth posted:

lol are you really trying to use the "but other things are bad too" defense

More that I see focusing on the negative aspects of the industry to be overall a waste of time as there's honestly little that can be done to change it at this point(really this is the case for almost everything in the world these days), much less stressful and depressing to ignore it where possible(besides trolls like Zak S thrive off people giving them attention, better to just pretend he doesn't exist)

# ? Aug 21, 2017 20:54

Reene: Aug 26, 2005

I agree, ignoring a problem is definitely a tried and true way of making it go away and has no negative consequences whatsoever

# ? Aug 21, 2017 21:03

Yawgmoth: Sep 10, 2003; This post is cursed!

drrockso20 posted:

More that I see focusing on the negative aspects of the industry to be overall a waste of time as there's honestly little that can be done to change it at this point(really this is the case for almost everything in the world these days), much less stressful and depressing to ignore it where possible(besides trolls like Zak S thrive off people giving them attention, better to just pretend he doesn't exist)

nothing can be fixed ever, yes, i agree

# ? Aug 21, 2017 21:13

Len: Jan 21, 2008; Pouches, bandages, shoulderpad, cyber-eye...

Bitchin'!

Alien Rope Burn posted:

[*]There are Funkos people are charging $300 for, huh? I guess everything's worth something to someone...

A guy I used to work with needed to fix the ac in his house and sold two pops to pay for it.

Two pops to fix a central air unit seems insane to me.

# ? Aug 21, 2017 21:29

Halloween Jack: Sep 12, 2003; I WILL CUT OFF BOTH OF MY ARMS BEFORE I VOTE FOR ANYONE THAT IS MORE POPULAR THAN BERNIE!!!!!

drrockso20 posted:

The whole point of Crawford making his stuff OSR is so it's compatible with most everything else in the movement, not to mention so he doesn't have to muck around with a new core system every time, since TSR D&D is basically a solved system

This statement makes no logical sense; there are huge differences between different versions of D&D and there is no way in which it can be said to be "solved."

The OSR started simply as a way to make new material that is compatible with old editions. I question whether it's really necessary for all of Crawford's games to be fully compatible with each other and also with, like, White Plume Mountain. If I'm playing Silent Legions, I don't care what makes for good gameplay strictly in the context of a White Box D&D that takes place entirely within the dungeon. No one's asking for him to write a completely novel system from the ground up with each release.

# ? Aug 21, 2017 21:32

DalaranJ: Apr 15, 2008; Yosuke will now die for you.

Len posted:

A guy I used to work with needed to fix the ac in his house and sold two pops to pay for it.

Two pops to fix a central air unit seems insane to me.

I never imagined that funkopops would be a vital part of the post apocalyptic barter economy, but here we are.

# ? Aug 21, 2017 21:32

drrockso20: May 6, 2013; Has Not Actually Done Cocaine

Yawgmoth posted:

nothing can be fixed ever, yes, i agree

I'll admit it's probably just my depression acting up, when that happens it's better for me to just ignore that kind of stuff as much as possible

# ? Aug 21, 2017 21:33

Serf: May 5, 2011

DalaranJ posted:

I never imagined that funkopops would be a vital part of the post apocalyptic barter economy, but here we are.

They give you a permanent +1 to one of your stats, of course they're valuable.

# ? Aug 21, 2017 21:35

drrockso20: May 6, 2013; Has Not Actually Done Cocaine

Halloween Jack posted:

This statement makes no logical sense; there are huge differences between different versions of D&D and there is no way in which it can be said to be "solved."

The OSR started simply as a way to make new material that is compatible with old editions. I question whether it's really necessary for all of Crawford's games to be fully compatible with each other and also with, like, White Plume Mountain. If I'm playing Silent Legions, I don't care what makes for good gameplay strictly in the context of a White Box D&D that takes place entirely within the dungeon. No one's asking for him to write a completely novel system from the ground up with each release.

Do note I specified TSR D&D(and AD&D), which despite the surface differences between them are very similar games at their core, to the point that it's very easy to use AD&D content with BECMI D&D and vice versa

# ? Aug 21, 2017 21:39

Plutonis: Mar 25, 2011

Why the gently caress are Funkopos so expensive. Like Japanese minifigs and nendoroids have stuff like changeable faces and can make poses and have a lot of accessories but those loving things are all the same model with different painting

# ? Aug 21, 2017 21:45

Halloween Jack: Sep 12, 2003; I WILL CUT OFF BOTH OF MY ARMS BEFORE I VOTE FOR ANYONE THAT IS MORE POPULAR THAN BERNIE!!!!!

drrockso20 posted:

Do note I specified TSR D&D(and AD&D), which despite the surface differences between them are very similar games at their core, to the point that it's very easy to use AD&D content with BECMI D&D and vice versa

As far as the to-hit mechanic, monster stat blocks, and a few other things mostly concerning combat, sure. As far as character creation, character advancement, class balance, and a host of other things, not at all. Like, whether or not ability scores affect much of anything changes a great deal from Brown Box D&D to BECMI and AD&D2e. And again, there's nothing "solved" about any of this--I've found it difficult to even discuss AD&D with people because so few people actually play it by the book. The issues that I'm talking about are the sort of things that come up front and center when you try to run multiple very different settings using the same version of D&D.

# ? Aug 21, 2017 21:58

Rand Brittain: Mar 25, 2013; "Go on until you're stopped."

Ignoring trolls is a great way to deal with trolls who have absolutely no power to do anything except be annoying.

It's a terrible solution to any problem big enough to count as an actual problem, though.

# ? Aug 21, 2017 21:59

Countblanc: Apr 20, 2005; _{Help a hero out!}

Plutonis posted:

Why the gently caress are Funkopos so expensive. Like Japanese minifigs and nendoroids have stuff like changeable faces and can make poses and have a lot of accessories but those loving things are all the same model with different painting

because their target demographic, lower- through upper-middle class nerdy people with few if any dependents who want objects to decorate their work space, have the disposable income to not care since they still fall firmly in the "not that expensive" camp regardless of actual value

# ? Aug 21, 2017 22:01

Plutonis: Mar 25, 2011

Countblanc posted:

because their target demographic, lower- through upper-middle class nerdy people with few if any dependents who want objects to decorate their work space, have the disposable income to not care since they still fall firmly in the "not that expensive" camp regardless of actual value

These are the City People that Pol Pot warned about.

# ? Aug 21, 2017 22:15

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

drrockso20 posted:

The whole point of Crawford making his stuff OSR is so it's compatible with most everything else in the movement, not to mention so he doesn't have to muck around with a new core system every time, since TSR D&D is basically a solved system

Even if this were true, you're still building off a system where constitution and charisma cost equal character resources. This only works well in a very small category of games, and not everything Crawford attempts falls into that category. The games end up weaker by trying to conform to these restrictions.

# ? Aug 21, 2017 22:18

LuiCypher: Apr 24, 2010; Today I'm... amped up!

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Notes from Gen Con:

It's always interesting to see how different everyone's Gen Cons are even though they're nominally at the same venue.

Personally, Shot Wednesday was a SUCCESS for me and Rathskellar was a way, way better meet-up venue than the prior year's Tilted Kilt. Maybe you didn't have the experience from the Tilted Kilt to color this year's memories, but Rath was far, far better than the Kilt. Lots of tables, open air, and you can actually move around to different goon groups and hear each other talk.

I was disappointed this year that I could not reliably track down designers to get them to sign certain items. I was doubly disappointed that I could not buy new copies of King Arthur Pendragon - for those in the know, Stewart Wieck's unfortunate demise has thrown the rights up into the air. From my understanding:
- The rights for who gets to publish it are currently being hammered out.
- Nocturne will likely retain use of the license to publish Charlemagne (if they need it to do so - I only say this because it looked like they were allowed to advertise for the Kickstarter at Gen Con).

In my personal opinion, I think it's likely that rights will fall back into Greg Stafford and Moon Design Publications/Chaosium's hands, but I may be entirely wrong/off base. I hope they get it sorted out soon and mostly everyone is happy with the outcome.

Other items:
- I got a Delta Green Raid Jacket
- I got to playtest Wrestlenomicon, and I loved it.
- I won a leather-bound copy of the CoC 7th Keeper's Rulebook from a Novus Ordo event, in which we collectively wrote/designed a Batman Mythos comic from start to finish.
- I bought way too many RPG rulebooks, but I don't care (Kagegami High, Sprawl, Night Witches, Rogue Trader Core, Rogue Trader: Battlefleet Koronus, The Unspeakable Oath 18-21, the Charnel Dreams CD being sold at Arc Dream's booth)
- The wife and I bought some good two-player games
- We also played a Savage Worlds game where we robbed the Liberace Museum for Dr. Girlfriend (Venture Brothers)
- Food was enjoyed

Maybe in a future year I will get to meet more GOONS and network better with GOONS, but we shall see.

# ? Aug 22, 2017 04:07

Saguaro PI: Mar 11, 2013; Totally legit tree

drrockso20 posted:

The whole point of Crawford making his stuff OSR is so it's compatible with most everything else in the movement, not to mention so he doesn't have to muck around with a new core system every time, since TSR D&D is basically a solved system

Really don't see why it's suddenly become "dump on the OSR movement" time in this thread, sure there's morons and assholes in it, but that's the case for literally every part of TG anyways so I don't see why OSR needs extra focus in that regard(and really outside Zak S and some of his cronies, it pales compared to some of the dickwads I've seen in the WoD/CoD fandom for example)

Every time should be dump on the OSR movement time because the OSR movement is bad. The whole idea is predicated on grogs who want to think of themselves as special and rebellious for writing and playing the same poo poo they have been for the last half-century, so good stuff coming out of it is really more of a cosmic accident than an exception.

And lol at "morons everywhere". Yeah, outside the OSR you get poo poo like GMS suing farms in the middle of the Icelandic wilderness, but nothing else in the hobby really scrapes the bottom of the barrel that's people like Zak S, Pundit or Alexander Macris. And no-one outside the OSR seems to have this baked in legion of fans who say "well yes, this person might be horrible but if I stop supporting them then where will I get my Swords and Wizardry houserules and random gen tables?"

# ? Aug 22, 2017 09:12

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Huh

The Bridge was a pretty good premium-TV series from a couple of years ago about shady doings at a town on the US/Mexican border that lasted only two seasons (and deserved more). I was looking at the episode listing when I noticed something weird about the episode titles.

Season 2 starts off perfectly normally

But by the end, the episode titles have swerved into...well, see for yourself.

It seems Stranger Things wasn't the first recent TV program to go deep into the AD&D 1E Monster Manual for inspiration.

# ? Aug 22, 2017 18:51

Yawgmoth: Sep 10, 2003; This post is cursed!

I really need to know what the episode named after the Demon Prince of Oozes involved.

Edit: oh, there's a link there. Decidedly lacking in demons and oozes.

Yawgmoth fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Aug 22, 2017

# ? Aug 22, 2017 18:54

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

So I am hearing various reports that Starfinder is basically nothing new under the sun(s), and is pretty much "Pathfinder in Space" without much in the way of innovation or streamlining.

This sounds suspiciously like exactly what I'd expect out of Paizo, so I'd like to hear some goonsensus.

e: Like, is this designed to appeal mostly to the Paizo faithful, or is it an attempt to reach out to the broader gaming base that thinks Pathfinder is poo, like myself?

dwarf74 fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Aug 22, 2017

# ? Aug 22, 2017 19:01

Der Waffle Mous: Nov 27, 2009; In the grim future, there is only commerce.

I'm curious, too. Some of the initial talk put me in the mindset of SWSE and I'm a little bummed that's not the case because it is a thing I like the look of.

# ? Aug 22, 2017 19:04

LongDarkNight: Oct 25, 2010; It's like watching the collapse of Western civilization in fast forward.; Oven Wrangler

Sweet Christmas, one of my buddies has hardon to run a Champions game and I'm reading the 6th edition rules now. There is so much math and so many modifier and rules that my brain shut down so hard I thought I had a stroke. I just want to make an opossum with Duplication powers whose alter ego is the hero Multipossity, why is this so difficult.

# ? Aug 22, 2017 19:10

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

dwarf74 posted:

e: Like, is this designed to appeal mostly to the Paizo faithful, or is it an attempt to reach out to the broader gaming base that thinks Pathfinder is poo, like myself?

I'm imagining it's the former, since PF's whole thing is appealing to people who only play Pathfinder for eternity.

# ? Aug 22, 2017 19:19

potatocubed: Jul 26, 2012; *rathian noises*

LongDarkNight posted:

Sweet Christmas, one of my buddies has hardon to run a Champions game and I'm reading the 6th edition rules now. There is so much math and so many modifier and rules that my brain shut down so hard I thought I had a stroke. I just want to make an opossum with Duplication powers whose alter ego is the hero Multipossity, why is this so difficult.

I once thought I'd run a Champions game, then Mutants and Masterminds was released and I never looked back.

I did once play a Champions game, and it took the full four hours to resolve one pointless skirmish in the middle of nowhere. It's a terrible system.

# ? Aug 22, 2017 19:23

Cease to Hope: Dec 12, 2011

Do we have a Starfinder thread?

I'm reading it now and the example of play is raiding a temple with traps and a glowing sword but in space. I'm immediately underwhelmed.

ninja edit: Question #1: can I make Goku

Cease to Hope fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Aug 22, 2017

# ? Aug 22, 2017 19:24

Halloween Jack: Sep 12, 2003; I WILL CUT OFF BOTH OF MY ARMS BEFORE I VOTE FOR ANYONE THAT IS MORE POPULAR THAN BERNIE!!!!!

Opinions regarding its quality aside, Pathfinder lives in a bubble reality where the D20 bubble never ended, thanks to the strength of Paizo's brand. So yeah, it's for people who still want to use D20 for whatever game they happen to be playing.

I'm actually kinda surprised that this didn't happen sooner, and that there isn't, like, a Pathfinder Modern Horror that steals liberally from CoC D20.

# ? Aug 22, 2017 19:25

Covok: May 27, 2013; Yet where is that woman now? Tell me, in what heave does she reside? None of them. Because no God bothered to listen or care. If that is what you think it means to be a God, then you and all your teachings are welcome to do as that poor women did. And vanish from these realms forever.

Cease to Hope posted:

Do we have a Starfinder thread?

I'm reading it now and the example of play is raiding a temple with traps and a glowing sword but in space. I'm immediately underwhelmed.

Just play Fragged Empire or Fantasy Flight Star Wars. You will be objectively better off when it comes to space adventures since you'll be playing better games that aren't just quick, $5 reskins of the publishers most popular title to make a quick buck. Well, maybe a bit with the latter one, but it's still a better game.

# ? Aug 22, 2017 19:28

Arivia: Mar 17, 2011

Halloween Jack posted:

Opinions regarding its quality aside, Pathfinder lives in a bubble reality where the D20 bubble never ended, thanks to the strength of Paizo's brand. So yeah, it's for people who still want to use D20 for whatever game they happen to be playing.

I'm actually kinda surprised that this didn't happen sooner, and that there isn't, like, a Pathfinder Modern Horror that steals liberally from CoC D20.

Third party people have made that Pathfinder Modern actually. It's a thing. A stupid thing, but a thing.

And yes, it does look like Starfinder is mostly for the faithful.

# ? Aug 22, 2017 19:30

Serf: May 5, 2011

Starfinder is one of the bigger wastes of effort and talent I've seen in a while. Tons of good art, setting design and high-quality production values for another iteration of the same old lovely system.

# ? Aug 22, 2017 19:31

Cease to Hope: Dec 12, 2011

so that's a no, we don't have a starfinder thread

# ? Aug 22, 2017 19:33

Cease to Hope: Dec 12, 2011

jesus christ it has plain old 3x3 d&d alignment

# ? Aug 22, 2017 19:34

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# ? May 28, 2024 01:02

Plutonis: Mar 25, 2011

The art for the promos I saw looked ridiculous lol. Not really hideous but still not what I'd call good.

# ? Aug 22, 2017 19:34

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > TG Chat Thread 2017

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