|
I remember reading some A. E. Van Vogt as a kid. Is he one of those sci-fi authors that turned out to be a terrible person?
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2023 20:47
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 21:58 |
|
|
Ferrinus posted:So... isn't this just you admitting to being slow on the uptake? Argh, if only they'd warned me about the joke ahead of time, I would've gotten it! I know you meant this as a lighthearted jab, but people are already doing a good job of deescalating being grumpy at each other so let's continue in that direction without stirring it back up again. Also I've never seen an Aliens movie.  I didn't even realize Prometheus was in that universe!
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2023 21:11
|
|
|
MonsieurChoc posted:I remember reading some A. E. Van Vogt as a kid. Is he one of those sci-fi authors that turned out to be a terrible person? I mean to some extent this cabal of north american science fiction white men hung out together and slapped each other's backs while engaging in typical mid 20th century racism and misogyny, so they're all tarred with that brush a bit. His characters are mostly white men, although he did study about and then write a novel set in communist China. He was accused of being a monarchist, especially with reference to his earlier work which often featured powerful monarchies presented as good forms of government; and he got involved with L Ron Hubbard and was a proponent of and ran a little company dealing out Dianetics poo poo. But when L.Ron went from secular Dianetics to religious cult Scientology, Vogt bowed out. I think he was just fascinated with alternative theories of mind and systematics, understanding and logic and reason, not exactly hippy woo stuff but more this quasi-intellectual deconstruction/reconstruction of society and culture etc. that some people fell into especially in the 50s. But to the best of my knowledge, no, AE Van Vogt wasn't a terrible person, if you make allowances for the times and if you give him a break for helping Hubbard proselytize bullshit for a decade since he eventually washed his hands of it. He doesn't seem to have been accused of being especially racist, or abusing people, and he was well-respected by the time of his death. He had a big influence on writers like PK Dick and Harlan Ellison. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Mar 10, 2023 |
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2023 21:39
|
|
|
Leperflesh posted:I mean to some extent this cabal of north american science fiction white men hung out together and slapped each other's backs while engaging in typical mid 20th century racism and misogyny, so they're all tarred with that brush a bit. His characters are mostly white men, although he did study about and then write a novel set in communist China. Neat! Maybe I'll go back to his books one of these days. Man I loved old-school sci-fi so much a a kid/teen.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2023 21:43
|
|
|
Leperflesh posted:I mean to some extent this cabal of north american science fiction white men hung out together and slapped each other's backs while engaging in typical mid 20th century racism and misogyny, so they're all tarred with that brush a bit. His characters are mostly white men, although he did study about and then write a novel set in communist China. The whole "Fans are Slans" thing is cringey as hell but I don't really think that was his fault.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2023 22:31
|
|
|
Lemniscate Blue posted:The whole "Fans are Slans" thing is cringey as hell but I don't really think that was his fault. Yeah aggrieved nerds finding themselves together in a space where they feel empowered have a bad habit of doing that sort of thing. I have no idea if he was involved, liked it, hated it, whatever! But it's not that different from nerd social fallacies in the TG space that we're all familiar with.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2023 22:59
|
|
|
Lemniscate Blue posted:The whole "Fans are Slans" thing is cringey as hell but I don't really think that was his fault. "Fans are Slans"? I've never heard of that before. What even is a Slan?
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2023 23:00
|
|
|
PurpleXVI posted:"Fans are Slans"? I've never heard of that before. What even is a Slan? One letter off from a voracious poster.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2023 23:02
|
|
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slan tl;dr, in the book Slan, Vogt presents a superintelligent psychic species who are nearly extinct and suffer oppression by the stupid humans around them. quote:In American science fiction fandom, the slogan "Fans are slans"[5][6] quickly developed, making the analogy between science fiction fans, perceived as harassed because of their greater intelligence and imaginative capacity, and the slans in the novel, who are persecuted for their superior mental abilities. Although some regard the usage as a sign of fandom's elitism, along with the related term "mundane" for non-fans, others regard it as a natural reaction to the disapproval of science fiction fans by the broader culture. The related term "slan shack" came to be used in fanspeak for a home occupied primarily by fans. The first Slan Shack to bear that name was established in 1943 in Battle Creek, Michigan... So basically aggrieved elitism by bullied nerds. e. I should add that in the 1950s, SF fans absolutely were bullied nerds. SF and fantasy was considered pulp schlock and absolutely not literature by the broader culture and in schools. Fandom today enjoys far, far more social acceptance than it did back then, before star trek and D&D. It was silly poo poo for children, not serious. My mom actually was a fan, and in school in the 1960s she defied a teacher's refusal to let her do a book report on any SF content by writing one for a Ray Bradbury novel, I forget which one but e. I think it was The Illustrated Man. As she tells it, since she was a very good student and wrote a great report the teacher basically had to take it seriously and she got a good grade. But that was the sort of attitude prevalent back then, even literary giants like Bradbury weren't universally taken seriously yet. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Mar 10, 2023 |
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2023 23:08
|
|
|
PurpleXVI posted:It wasn't a perfect movie, but I appreciated it for not holding back on who got fragged. Kids, love interests, everyone was fair game in that movie, which was kind of novel compared to other movies where you would always expect certain groups to be excluded from being annihilated on-screen. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 02:42
|
|
|
Podima posted:I know you meant this as a lighthearted jab, but people are already doing a good job of deescalating being grumpy at each other so let's continue in that direction without stirring it back up again.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 02:43
|
|
|
Trad Games/The Game Room now has a feedback thread! Thoughts? Opinions? Schedules for your Harn character's turnip farm? Tell the mods!
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 02:45
|
|
|
If Xenomorph XX1121 existed, there would be people who think they're cute arguing how they're misunderstood. They would probably post pictures of Xenomorphs on their tumblr saying things like "beautiful bug kitty" or "aww, look, he's so spooky~" They'd say they feel a kinship to the creature and wish they could have one as a pet. They'd refuse to listen to anyone about how existentially dangerous they are. Some of the rich ones would keep them as pets. You'd read a story eventually how someone thought they tamed there’s and it ate him and some of his servants before the colonial marines were able to put it down.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 02:54
|
|
|
PurpleXVI posted:It wasn't a perfect movie, but I appreciated it for not holding back on who got fragged. Kids, love interests, everyone was fair game in that movie, which was kind of novel compared to other movies where you would always expect certain groups to be excluded from being annihilated on-screen. Which is precisely why I loathe that movie, but then I'm a firm believer that when it comes to horror movies(or indeed most genres of fiction) that outside of maybe a flashback or backstory sequence that the onscreen "victims" should on some level always "deserve"* their horrible demise, whether that be because they're an rear end in a top hat, a moron, or are just plain annoying *the quotes to be specific don't mean they deserve it from a moral sense more of a metafictional one
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 08:02
|
|
|
MonsieurChoc posted:I remember reading some A. E. Van Vogt as a kid. Is he one of those sci-fi authors that turned out to be a terrible person? Van vogt stuff is bonkers in the best way, definitely worth finding some in a second hand bookshop (don't be a nerd and read him electronically, you want an ancient yellowed paperback with a cover that has boobs and/or spaceships) E: aha 
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 08:13
|
|
|
Splicer posted:OK but seriously watch Alien. Don't make me admin challenge u
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 08:14
|
|
|
So were blink dogs also pulled from the golden-age SF well, or are they a TSR original?
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 08:19
|
|
|
Antivehicular posted:So were blink dogs also pulled from the golden-age SF well, or are they a TSR original? I was sure they were from a story or something, but looks like they were an original!
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 08:25
|
|
|
sebmojo posted:Van vogt stuff is bonkers in the best way, definitely worth finding some in a second hand bookshop (don't be a nerd and read him electronically, you want an ancient yellowed paperback with a cover that has boobs and/or spaceships) I love the frog.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 09:54
|
|
|
drrockso20 posted:Which is precisely why I loathe that movie, but then I'm a firm believer that when it comes to horror movies(or indeed most genres of fiction) that outside of maybe a flashback or backstory sequence that the onscreen "victims" should on some level always "deserve"* their horrible demise, whether that be because they're an rear end in a top hat, a moron, or are just plain annoying I mean yeah, it's absolutely more satisfying that way most of the time, but it's also more predictable. It's not something I'd want every movie to be like, but it still felt like a breath of fresh air to have a movie that didn't play by the same unspoken rules as most others in its genre. Like it absolutely made me sit up and pay more attention when one of the first two dead humans in the movie was one of those that groups that would be sacrosanct in most others. Which was probably pretty obviously playing to the scriptwriter/director's intention of showing that they were that much more brutal than the rest, but it got me.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 10:23
|
|
|
sebmojo posted:Van vogt stuff is bonkers in the best way, definitely worth finding some in a second hand bookshop (don't be a nerd and read him electronically, you want an ancient yellowed paperback with a cover that has boobs and/or spaceships) Man I love used bookstores, I should go to one again.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 15:28
|
|
|
sebmojo posted:Don't make me admin challenge u I'm doing it!!!
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 16:16
|
|
|
Antivehicular posted:Boy, I need to play Fiasco again sometime. Does it run at all functionally as a PbP? The basic structure of Fiasco is two acts, within which everybody gets two scenes, and when it's your turn to have a scene you can either pick how the scene is set up or how the scene concludes (positively or negatively, getting you a white or black die, respectively). To actually make the scene go you're just expected to improv it with everybody who should be in the scene, with anybody who's not there picking up bit characters if there are any. Open-ended free-form improv isn't really going to fly in a PbP. But you might be able to get it going as... kind of a weird journaling game? Everybody has permission to write every character, and every group of scenes pick someone to pair up with. You each write half the scene (character player picks which half) and whoever writes the conclusion picks what kind of die it gets. It wouldn't be Fiasco-as-forum-posts but I think it'd keep a lot of the important structure elements and get everybody's take on every character.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 19:22
|
|
|
I don’t recall Voyage of the Space Beagle’s monster turning people into eggs or anything like that. I believe the cocoon scene was cut for pacing reasons.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 19:25
|
|
|
Glazius has it right, Fiasco as written is unplayable in a PbP format. Like, you could play a scenario, but the output would be nothing like the experience it's trying to generate.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 19:29
|
|
|
sebmojo posted:https://mobile.twitter.com/RobertGReeve/status/1496621153426755592
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 20:53
|
|
|
I've seen a panther (cat) done as a pc class somewhere in the basic OSR.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 20:58
|
|
sebmojo posted:https://mobile.twitter.com/RobertGReeve/status/1496621153426755592 In the Danish translation of the classic D&D board game "The New Dungeon!" a Displacer Beast is called a Telepanter. Still one of my favorite translations ever. Sadly, I lost my copy ages ago and have been trying to find it again ever since.
|
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 21:01
|
|
|
https://www.prosperosisle.org/spip.php?article324 Here's the short story.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2023 23:09
|
|
|
I can't find a thread devoted to it...but I saw the D&D movie. It's good. I'll need a list by the end of the week of the references. For some reason I got tears in my eyes when the map went over Icewind Dale. Why Hasbro hasn't got ALL THE MERCH out in stores already I do not understand. Well, I understand, it's Hasbro, but they should have had the book for the game based on the movie based on the game in book stores. Anyway, I give it a 16 out of d20 roll.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2023 09:14
|
|
|
Good bad or good good? Like assuming you're broadly ok with marvel movies, where does it fall in that list?
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2023 10:19
|
|
|
It's 85% on RT right now. I'm not surprised tbh, I thought it looked like a fun GOTG-like from the first trailers.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2023 11:44
|
|
|
The fanservice on the trailers honestly made me groan. Oh look a displacer beast! A mimic! Red Wizards of Thay! 
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2023 13:19
|
|
|
Plutonis posted:The fanservice on the trailers honestly made me groan. Oh look a displacer beast! A mimic! Red Wizards of Thay! According to the early reviews I've read it seems like a just-turn-your-brain-off-and-enjoy movie that hits most of its marks. I'll probably go to see it in the theatre since according to people I've heard talk about it it seems to have surpasses my initial expectations for it. (Which is that it would be horrible)
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2023 13:37
|
|
|
sebmojo posted:Good bad or good good? Like assuming you're broadly ok with marvel movies, where does it fall in that list? Good as in Good Movie Worth Watching. The amount of fan service is...large (they mention as many locations on the Sword Coast as they can) but that's why YOU want to go see it right? "Oh yes, they said one of the lords from Baldur's Gate is coming!", "Hey I know the name of moon", "Hey it's the Emerald Dream!", "Oh Hey, Harpers!". But you get over it. GOTG level of having to introduce a lot of characters and backstory (with flashbacks for nearly every character) and explain who all these people are and why YOU should care and get teary eyed about their partner/child/tree/great great great grandfather/He's a Paladin, and GOTG level humor. Also a scene with no-speaking parts from the party from the original D&D cartoon. You just see them running and standing around but it looks like they never did get home. I didn't see Matt Mercer but I wouldn't know what he looks like anyway.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2023 13:41
|
|
|
Comstar posted:Also a scene with no-speaking parts from the party from the original D&D cartoon. You just see them running and standing around but it looks like they never did get home. They came home but it was on a brazilian car commercial (for some bizarre reason the cartoon was super popular here) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiBxZ9xDeMI
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2023 13:47
|
|
|
Plutonis posted:They came home but it was on a brazilian car commercial (for some bizarre reason the cartoon was super popular here) That is one of the most amazing bits of media trivia I've ever beheld. That absolutely made my day.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2023 14:10
|
|
|
I, too, am shocked that a movie based on a franchise tries to lean into the elements of said franchise that are unique to it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2023 14:13
|
|
|
PurpleXVI posted:That is one of the most amazing bits of media trivia I've ever beheld. That absolutely made my day. https://twitter.com/CHofferCBus/status/1635268112638697474 And a long scene from the movie's tweet account where you get a good look at them. They don't speak in the movie. https://twitter.com/DnDMovie/status/1635264460452687874 I like what the Displacer beasts tentacles actually do.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2023 14:31
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 21:58 |
|
|
Plutonis posted:The fanservice on the trailers honestly made me groan. Oh look a displacer beast! A mimic! Red Wizards of Thay! Honestly given how adaptation movies go that seems entirely reasonable to be like 'we actually adapted the material rather than begrudgingly slap the name on some failkid's script'.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2023 14:40
|
|