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Halloween Jack posted:I mean I like Brandon Sanderson but if this is people's criteria for good fantasy/sci-fi, it sounds like that's going to funnel them into becoming a connoisseur of endless franchise schlock and just picking out the better ones. Oh yeah like he's not The Greatest Ever, he's just the kind of guy who actually does got super into worldbuilding and system-building and then have his characters try to exploit those as they learn about it.
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Apr 13, 2019 03:00
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There's only one author who manages to balance compelling character writing and extensive worldbuilding and it's the our best living writer, Kinoko Nasu.
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Apr 13, 2019 03:08
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Halloween Jack posted:All the Silicon Valley transhumanism is just people who don't believe in anything, coping with the fact that they're going to die some day. Nah, they just believe in a dumb imaginary thing that's less generally accepted than all the other dumb imaginary things.
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Apr 15, 2019 16:57
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Nah, they just believe in a dumb imaginary thing that's less generally accepted than all the other dumb imaginary things. Nah, most of them switch from thing to thing too quickly to have ever really believed in any of them. If they did I'd expect a lot more suicides from people radically destroying their most central beliefs....again, and again, and again.
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Apr 15, 2019 21:42
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That's because central to all those kinds of beliefs is "I'm not actually going to die though, right?"
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Apr 15, 2019 22:10
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fool_of_sound posted:That's because central to all those kinds of beliefs is "I'm not actually going to die though, right?" Mulva posted:Nah, most of them switch from thing to thing too quickly to have ever really believed in any of them. If they did I'd expect a lot more suicides from people radically destroying their most central beliefs....again, and again, and again. *Dracula smiles at his throne while clutching his wineglass*
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Apr 15, 2019 22:16
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Gene Wolf author of The Book of the New Sun, a tetralogy set in the Vancian Dying Earth subgenre, died yesterday. https://www.tor.com/2019/04/15/gene-wolfe-in-memoriam-1931-2019/ quote:Author and Grand Master Gene Wolfe, 1931-2019
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Apr 16, 2019 00:22
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I've been rather out of it all day as a result of learning about his passing this morning. I'm in grad school these days and a key part of what I want to do is write about Wolfe in the academy. Here's a quotation I found from him: Gene Wolfe posted:I would like [my readers] to better understand human beings and human life as a result of having read [my] stories. I'd like them to feel that this was an experience that made things better for them and an experience that gave them hope. I think that the kind of things that we talk about at this conference -- fantasy very much so, science fiction, and even horror -- the message that we're sending is the reverse of the message sent by what is called "realistic fiction." (I happen to think that realistic fiction is not, in fact, realistic, but that's a side issue.) And what we are saying is that it doesn't have to be like this: things can be different. Our society can be changed. Maybe it's worse, maybe it's better. Maybe it's a higher civilization, maybe it's a barbaric civilization. But it doesn't have to be the way it is now. Things can change. And we're also saying things can change for you in your life. Look at the difference between Severian the apprentice and Severian the Autarch [in The Book of the New Sun], for example. The difference beteween Silk as an augur and Silk as calde [in The Book of the Long Sun]. You see? Joe Slowboat fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Apr 16, 2019 |
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Apr 16, 2019 00:25
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RIP the Inventor of Pringles
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Apr 16, 2019 00:40
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Plutonis posted:RIP the Inventor of Pringles His mustache will live on, in our hearts and on Pringles cans.
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Apr 16, 2019 00:48
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Helical Nightmares posted:Gene Wolf author of The Book of the New Sun, a tetralogy set in the Vancian Dying Earth subgenre, died yesterday.
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Apr 16, 2019 02:21
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Halloween Jack posted:...I finished reading Citadel of the Autarch just a few days before he died. Then now's the perfect time for a memorial rereading (I kid, but the books genuinely benefit hugely from a second read).
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Apr 16, 2019 02:23
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The incest alone will take me three readings to figure out. But seriously, he's the first person I was thinking of when I said that if your criteria for good writing is straightforward plotting and a setting where everything fantastical is rationalized, you'll really miss out.
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Apr 16, 2019 02:26
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Halloween Jack posted:The incest alone will take me three readings to figure out. The incest is somehow deeply moving. Also, you'll be amazed to learn that core Wolfe fandom has been spending decades trying to precisely rationalize every event in the Book of the New Sun, and downplay Severian's personal journey as purely distraction from the real questions of plot and setting systematization. I know, I don't get it either.
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Apr 16, 2019 02:35
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Replaying FFX and thinking... Has someone tried to make an advancement system on RPGs like the sphere grid...
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Apr 16, 2019 18:26
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I kinda got that feeling from the way you follow the skill trees in the FFG Star Wars games
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Apr 16, 2019 18:50
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Joe Slowboat posted:The incest is somehow deeply moving. I admit, there were a lot of little details I didn't quite understand until I got to skim a copy of GURPS New Sun. Do you find it's basically right in how it explains mundane things, like how the soldiers' lances work?
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Apr 16, 2019 19:00
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I have not read GURPS New Sun, I haven't been able to justify buying a GURPS book I'll never use, but if they claim lances are future flamethrowers and slings are rifles that's about my sense.
Joe Slowboat fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Apr 16, 2019 |
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Apr 16, 2019 19:08
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Plutonis posted:Replaying FFX and thinking... Has someone tried to make an advancement system on RPGs like the sphere grid... I mean, if you think of careers as a chain together, thats how Warhammer Fantasy works.
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Apr 17, 2019 02:55
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Halloween Jack posted:In a perverse way, I can see their point. The last book implies that since Severian is destined to become the New Sun, and the Increate's powers transcend time, so he's using time-travel to repeatedly edit his life story so that Severian goes where Severian needs Severian to go. (I think I got that right?) Also, Severian is an unreliable narrator, and I always got the implication that he wasn't really aware of it.
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Apr 17, 2019 06:09
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D&D 4e feats are like the sphere grid: the core concept is good but there are way too loving many of them, optimization is both trivial yet tedious, and midway through the game you just give up trying to identify meaningful things to work towards and settle for mindless cookie cutter paths of least resistance.
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Apr 17, 2019 07:06
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I remember the sphere grid mainly as a linear path of small individual advancements with occasional short branches towards special abilities. Much like the actual maps in FF games from X onwards are narrow linear paths with occasional branches to a treasure chest. Seems easy enough to model. FF games tend to be based around stats in the mid-to-high double digits, though, and while that gives you plenty of room to include a bunch of "+1 Strength" upgrades on your advancement path, it's also very much a computer-based model of play and not really conductive to pen & paper. 13th Age feels like it's halfway there with its incremental advances model, if you tweak that you could arrive at something very much like the sphere grid.
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Apr 17, 2019 07:36
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Liquid Communism posted:Also, Severian is an unreliable narrator, and I always got the implication that he wasn't really aware of it. Wolfe always said Severian wasn't unreliable, in the sense that Severian more or less tells it like he saw it (with some notable, but very obvious, exceptions, because Severian is really bad at lying). What Severian is, is he's bad at pattern recognition, and his assumptions and mistakes color the narration on every level. Also, it's not entirely likely he as the Conciliator shaped his own life; rather, the Hierodules likely intervened - but that's partially based on the epilogue novel, Urth of the New Sun, which I consider interesting but not part of how I interpret the core story.
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Apr 17, 2019 08:07
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I'm like 70 pages behind but I wanted to say I was going through some boxes a few weeks ago and found the d10 I lost out of an otherwise complete dice set about a decade ago.
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Apr 17, 2019 10:05
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Joe Slowboat posted:Wolfe always said Severian wasn't unreliable, in the sense that Severian more or less tells it like he saw it (with some notable, but very obvious, exceptions, because Severian is really bad at lying). What Severian is, is he's bad at pattern recognition, and his assumptions and mistakes color the narration on every level. Also, it's not entirely likely he as the Conciliator shaped his own life; rather, the Hierodules likely intervened - but that's partially based on the epilogue novel, Urth of the New Sun, which I consider interesting but not part of how I interpret the core story. I think the thing is 'unreliable' narrator simply means a narrator whose account cannot be fully trusted because of its subjective viewpoint, not just from deliberate omissions and lies. One where the author specifically doesn't give them a full and true understanding of the events in question.
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Apr 17, 2019 12:59
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Yeah, unreliable doesn’t necessarily mean dishonest. You can have an earnest and truthful narrator who either doesn’t understand things or is just in the dark.
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Apr 17, 2019 13:26
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jeeves posted:Can anyone recommend me a good system-unspecific GM screen that let's me print out my own materials and put them behind plastic or something? Pinnacle used to make one that was amazing but I only ever saw it in my local game shop ONE time. It was basically a 4 panel binder with no actual binder parts inside so would fold up flat and had slots that you could insert pages on both sides of it. In theory, I guess you could somewhat replicate this by taking 2 binders, cutting the front and back panels off of each then using clear duct tape to join the panels together. ninjaedit: and immediately after I post, I find this: https://www.peginc.com/store/savage-worlds-customizable-gm-screen/
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Apr 17, 2019 15:13
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whydirt posted:Yeah, unreliable doesn’t necessarily mean dishonest. You can have an earnest and truthful narrator who either doesn’t understand things or is just in the dark. Splicer posted:I'm like 70 pages behind but I wanted to say I was going through some boxes a few weeks ago and found the d10 I lost out of an otherwise complete dice set about a decade ago. Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Apr 17, 2019 |
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Apr 17, 2019 15:16
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It's a point I insist on because one common reading of the books is that Severian is basically antagonistic to the reader, a petty tyrant attempting to justify his rise to the throne, and any appearance of moral or personal change is a deception intended to shore up his claim to legitimacy. It's a reading which I dislike strongly. E: Jack's precisely correct about the effect of Sev's memory on his ability to recount events, imo.
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Apr 17, 2019 15:55
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Hey, I have a new game out now! Psyber Knights is a one player, narrative game set in a dystopian future where you take on the role of a Psyber Knight in training. You must confront your mental weaknesses in order to strengthen yourself against psionic threats sent by the Oligarchs. Doing so will be difficult and will be painful, but you can do it, if you are willing to face the truth.
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Apr 17, 2019 21:51
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This is gonna sound like a crazy person wrote it, but what was that game where you’re all dinosaurs in a 90’s sitcom and the resolution mechanic is eating wings? Either this is real or I’m having a really slow burn of a stroke.
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Apr 19, 2019 05:07
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Xiahou Dun posted:This is gonna sound like a crazy person wrote it, but what was that game where you’re all dinosaurs in a 90’s sitcom and the resolution mechanic is eating wings? Pretty sure it's real. Dunno about mechanics but I can visualise the cover. I thought the game was called "Dinosaurs" but nope.
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Apr 19, 2019 05:25
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Jurassic Central Park.
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Apr 19, 2019 05:28
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You’re the best. Thank you! Any other games with non-standard mechanics, I’d also love to know about them (and talk to their authors for information/permission). My friend and I are debating doing a thing showing off games that explore for lack of a better word “weird” design space. Edit : and any info on how to contact this author would be cool. I’d prefer they liked the idea of some randos playing their game before we did this, and if nothing else would like to credit them as they’d prefer. Xiahou Dun fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Apr 19, 2019 |
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Apr 19, 2019 05:46
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Xiahou Dun posted:You’re the best. Thank you! Jurassic Central Park is actually a SA contest game from 2012. Not sure if Ulta is still around, but if you have archives, you can find the entry post here and an index of all submissions here.
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Apr 19, 2019 08:08
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Xiahou Dun posted:You’re the best. Thank you! Games with physical non-standard mechanics: Dread - pulling blocks from a jenga tower Ten Candles - something about ten candles?? All Outta Bubblegum - chewing gum Ribbon Drive - creating, narratively following, and switching between music playlists Scherzando - creating simple live music De Profundis - writing letters Fortune Cookies and Nuclear War - reading fortune cookies The Stress of Her Regard - mystic scrapbooking Viewscream - video calling Games with narrative non-standard mechanics (there are way more, but it's hard to define what's standard or non-standard now): Metrofinal - narrating scenes until things get significantly weirder than they were at the start of the scene Final Bid - spending your character's qualities, possessions, history, etc. to buy auctioned narration rights Polaris (and hacks like Thou Art But A Warrior) - negotiate your character's story using ritual phrases SKEW - take over as GM whenever you have an idea of where the increasingly surreal story is going
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Apr 19, 2019 08:34
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UnCO3 posted:Here are some examples (not exhaustive): The ten candles are your life meter, and represent your remaining hope. Ten Candles is a horror game and every time something bad happens, you put out one of the candles. You also are supposed to play in a room where the candles are your only light source. So as the game goes on, the room gets dimmer, and when the last candle goes out, the game is over.
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Apr 19, 2019 11:14
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UnCO3 posted:Here are some examples (not exhaustive): All outta bubblegum still uses dice though, the gum is just a sorta hp and difficulty thing. I mean it's fun, but definitely leans more towards standard resolution but with a gimmick than unique mechanics.
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Apr 19, 2019 19:22
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Noumenon uses dominoes for it's resolution mechanic, Mexican Train style. Also you play as a cooperative party of coffin bugs exploring a philosophy 101 afterlife. Harder They Fall also uses dominoes, but as domino chains.
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Apr 19, 2019 19:25
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Xiahou Dun posted:You’re the best. Thank you! I'm trying to find it, but there was a game I saw published online where each player had a glass of milk and some cookies and had to dunk and eat the cookies as a resolution mechanic/stress tracker.
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Apr 19, 2019 19:29
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