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greatn posted:In point of fact the amount of the comics in the magazine have remained consistent, they've just upped the page count adding articles on hackmaster(and 3.5 sometimes) rules. I can't recall if they've upped the price to go along with that, but they've certainly lowered the quality of the comics content. They've also stuck a ton of continuing, sucky storylines in there that I hate, but that's unrelated. quote:Still, Hackmaster has enabled me to have characters such as a pixie fairy berserker, so I can't fault it too much. But I can already do that in DnD, which was the entire point of the comic. Things like that were not "hey what if we could do this in dnd laffo" it was "hey you can do this in dnd isn't that ridiculous laffo." There was some hyperbole, yes, but the entire point of the comic was taking the rpg genre's preexisting quirks and laughing about them, occasionally exaggerating them, but just making your own (really lovely) system up just serves no point except to remove Hackmaster from the realm of "fictional generic RPG we can just make poo poo up about" and into the realm of "real life" and therefore "not funny." Gassire posted:It gave sanctuary to the bitter old fat guy with a thick beard and did nothing but bitch about 3rd edition at the back of the comic/hobby store. I think each store by gamer law is required to have one. Actually at my store it was nothing but 13 year old goths who thought it was "lol so EXXXXXTREME BADASSSS" in a completely non-ironic way who played it. edit: sorry if I came off angry here. I just used to really, really like KoDT and it just got so lovely once they came out with Hackmaster, it really pisses me off. bgaesop fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Apr 9, 2007 |
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Apr 9, 2007 23:43
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FMguru posted:Big 3E ups for the "AOO" sound effect in the last panel. I came here to post that! I love how detailed this comic is.
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Apr 10, 2007 06:46
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Man I am enjoying this comic. I'm so excited to see where this goes that I can't even get upset.
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Apr 23, 2007 19:11
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Efreet saiid posted:As I said, I don't juge the strip by this, just this subplot. And again, seriously, i'm pretty sure part of why people inexplicably bitch about Roy and call him a jerk so much is because he's LG. One idea you never seem to entertain here is that perhaps being Lawful Good does tend to make you a jerk? Of all the people I know that I would describe as LG, most are jerks and all but a very few are extremely annoying. Also, it is supposed to be hard to be a Paladin. The reasons you see Paladins falling so often is because it is very easy for a Paladin to fall. They have to follow ridiculous codes of honor. That is part of what they are. They are the only class that has to do that, and it is that way for a reason. Of all the people I have known who play Paladins, a grand total of one of them didn't play a jackass. I know it's bad, and that well done Paladins make good characters, but the fact of the matter is most of these people are jackasses. Ferrinus posted:Oh, in case anyone is interested: Rich Burlew wrote a little on his personal opinions of the Paladin class in "No Cure for the Paladin Blues." Basically, he said that while he thinks the shining white knight is a great trope that always has a place in fantasy, the Paladin class as-written is kind of prone to causing dysfunction between players because it seems to give one player the imperative to try and police all the others. Yeah, basically this. Even people who normally play fun characters will turn into jackasses when they play paladins. It's part of the job. Efreet saiid posted:A lot of people have that attitude about Paladins, that the premise leads to inter-party conflict, but i'm a bit dubious. It strikes me a bit like the alignment system, a lot of people talk about it being broken, but it's not the rules that are the problem, it's the assumptions people attach to them, and the excuses people use for being jerks. Exactly. Being a Paladin does not turn someone into a jerk, but it does give them one hell of a good excuse. It's just like being a cop. There are good cops, there are bad cops, but whether you're good or bad, by virtue of being a cop you are required to be a jackass. Efreet saiid posted:I do think it's wierd, but are evil PC's really that common? Genuinly evil ones? And if there is a genuinly evil PC in the game, surely they'd be a tad more disruptive than a Paladin who responds to them? I guess something like a sniveling cowardly CE character is possible, i'm not saying everyone evil is a lunatic, but at some point it's clear to me that the player of the paladin is getting the blame for a situation of wich they're only one part. I've played multi-year campaigns where we never discovered that a third of the party was NE.
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May 7, 2007 21:42
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Efreet saiid posted:You can say that about any alignment. GC? Fickle and recalcitrant. NG? Vague and fearful of commitment. Yes, and if there are classes out there that force you to be CG and then emphasize all the bad parts of that, giving you "detect law" at will, and gave them a code of honor that basically boils down to "be a jackass to everyone with a different alignment" then I would agree. LG does not necessarily mean jackass, but Paladin pretty much does. quote:Actually clerics do it too, they just inexplicably don't get any flack for it, even though their ethods are often far more retarded. I think that really depends on the player. I've seen clerics who are retards and ones that are great at getting everyone in the party to agree and work together despite radical alignment differences, but this is something that Paladins, by definition, cannot do. A very forgiving NG cleric can get the NE rogue and LG fighter to work together if he's smart enough, but a Paladin cannot. quote:And it's not easy for Paladins to fall, it's just easy for people to fall into the trap of thinking it's easy for them to fall. Again, I think this depends on the DM. I've seen DMs who won't remove Paladinhood for blatant murder, and I've seen DMs who will revoke Paladinhood for failing to remember to use your Detect Evil power on a new party member (who ended up being True Neutral). quote:You just proved my point. A paladin cannot knowingly asociate with evil characters. And if mr secret NE really was NE and eventually did something to reveal that he's NE, he should be kicked out anyway, unless everyone sides with him. All that leaves is detect evil and there are variants aplenty to replace that. I said "a third of the party." There were five of them. There was one paladin, played by one of the NE character's players after his NE character got killed, but he got killed rather quickly because the player was an idiot. The player then made another NE character. Efreet saiid posted:So you would have no problem asociating with somebody who was immoral and sadistic? he =/= his character. I'll put up with a lot of poo poo in DnD that I won't in real life, or vice versa, depending on who I'm playing.
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May 7, 2007 22:25
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OHHH SHIIIIIT. This is how to make Paladins badass, I think HappyElf and I can agree on that. drat that's cool.Taear posted:I don't see why not, zombifying them is just bringing their body back, isn't it? It doesn't need a soul or anything. You can't be raised as undead twice. If these count as true undead, then no, you cannot do that. You could gather up 100 of their corpses and make a Corpse Golem, though. Ferrinus posted:By the way, this post is from way back on the last page but I just want to quote it because I think it's a brilliant summation of Xykon's problems. Xykon is like an impatient player going through a video game with an extremely high level caster. He's like, "Heh, I can do this, whatev- OW OW OW! Damnit! gently caress!" But he can't reload Sure he can, Redcloak still has his phylactery! 
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May 8, 2007 03:49
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RentACop posted:Holy crap did I pick a good time to start reading this comic. If you haven't already, read the archives. They're excellent, and you really can't understand the comic without having done so.
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May 9, 2007 22:19
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I love every character in this comic.
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May 12, 2007 06:35
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If Redcloak wants the war to end NOW, why doesn't he let the shadow-covered monster fight?
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May 12, 2007 07:37
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Robot Bastard posted:the restaurant where I'll adsorb some food. Through your intestinal lining!
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May 23, 2007 04:07
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Robot Bastard posted:What the gently caress is wrong with "loose!" or "shoot them!" (Yes, I know that in the context of the comic it's important that the guy yell 'fire' so that the author can rip off Gary Larson.) What the hell is wrong with you you moronic semantics-arguing baboon? Here are some definitions: dictionary.com posted:27. to discharge (a gun). On the other hand, shooting is the act of firing a gun. But guess what, you can also shoot a bow! No one besides you cares about these tiny differences in usage! Robot Bastard posted:Yeah, look. The reason this whole thing got started was that I thought the author was making a meta-joke about "Lord of the Rings". It's starting to seem that maybe he wasn't, giving the number of people here who are trying to claim that "fire a bow and arrow" is perfectly acceptable terminology. "Yeah, look," is a sentence fragment. What is it giving the number of people?
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May 23, 2007 06:20
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Robot Bastard posted:I give up. Your hoard of arguments have decimated me.  Horde! I assume you mean "horde" since we presented a plethora of reasons, rather than ones that I had stored up ahead of time (a "hoard.") A hoard is what a dragon has, a horde is what the army of hobgoblins is.Also, I doubt I have removed one tenth of your... whatever it is that I was supposed to have decimated.
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May 23, 2007 06:45
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clockworkjoe posted:Bah. His use of decimated is perfectly fine. Robot Bastard posted:\/\/\/ holy poo poo, someone (bgaesop) actually got the joke
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May 23, 2007 06:58
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RentACop posted:I know about the resting, but the mechanics, I mean, if he gets interrupted halfway through does he get half his spells, if he takes a cat-nap could he get one spell back that sort of thing. Basically I'm wondering whether V will be able to do anything before the seige is over. Elves require only four hours of meditation to recover the amount that other races need 8 hours of sleep for, but they still need 8 hours of rest in order to prepare any spells. Any time they are interrupted adds an hour to the required rest, and the hour directly before they prepare new spells must be completely uninterrupted. Of course, there are feats and such that alter this. edit: "rest" is defined as "not moving, being in combat, casting spells, using skills, talking, or any mental or physical task of equivalent effort."
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May 23, 2007 17:06
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Quarex posted:nobody ever wants to play the stupid cleric. Whaaa? I love playing Clerics! You're by far the most powerful member of the party. By far. You automatically get leadership of the group, because who the hell is going to adventure without a Cleric? If anyone disagrees with you, hey, feel free to spend all your money on healing potions, the rest of us will go the other way and keep our treasure.
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May 24, 2007 06:20
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zot is also a sound effect
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May 24, 2007 06:50
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NorgLyle posted:My Druid wishes to disagree with your assertion. Complete Divine may have generally sucked, but the addition of the Vigor spells and Rejuvenation Cocoon make up anything lame about the rest of the book. The Vigor spells are also Cleric spells, and Rejuvenation Cocoon, while good, is not nearly as good as Heal, which is only one level higher. Plus very few people play druids.
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May 24, 2007 06:57
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BAWRLIN posted:Well, if you're a huge homo and think "roleplaying" means actually playing a role, then clerics are awesome for interaction and non-combat utility. Pfft, what kind of queermo does that? (i also do that)
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May 24, 2007 20:06
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Gassire posted:I just hate PrC in general, worse than 2nd edition's kits. The only time a marketing decision has had any good effect on DnD was Ebberon. Someone's failed one too many sanity checks.
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May 25, 2007 10:16
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Fuego Fish posted:His what? His tefillin.
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May 28, 2007 02:18
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May 29, 2007 20:16
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For when it undoubtedly goes down:
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May 31, 2007 05:45
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Quarex posted:If the "who's on first?" joke is never, ever, ever brought up pop culture ever again, it will still have been put to rest about 50 years after it should have died. This is not even the first time he has used it, is it? That joke will never stop making me laugh.
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May 31, 2007 07:56
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greatn posted:I thought Smite Evil was a spell like ability and would do damage much as a magic missile or fireball would do damage. I don't really know how exactly damage reduction works though. Damage reduction works on all damage that comes from a weapon. Smite Evil is a supernatural ability, but that doesn't really matter. For instance, if one of the paladins was swinging a +1 Flaming Longsword, which would deal 1d8+1+1d6(fire), she'd still be completely unable to deal more than 15 damage (8+1+6=15) not counting strength bonus or Smite Evil, so that 4,000 GP magic weapon would be pretty much useless. Liches are powerful. quote:If Xykon were hit with a fireball, for instance, would the first 15 damage not take? I only recently converted and am still on 2nd edition thinking, where instead of DR you require a certain + to hit, and a magic spell or magic ability would do damage regardless. Do these magic abilities not get around DR? No, he would take full, unless he has Protection from Elements: Fire or Spell Immunity or something like that up.
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May 31, 2007 20:14
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greatn posted:Ah the way I thought it would work is the damage would be completely seperate. From the sword maybe something like 8 damage, none of which takes, and from the smite evil something like x amount of damage, all of which would count. Nope, if that was the case then dr/magic would be stupid as hell. quote:OK, my following question would be: why are these paladins so retarded? quote:paladins
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May 31, 2007 20:36
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Vicissitude posted:Slightly wrong. The D8+1+Str from the longsword is unlikely to get through the DR, but the fire damage would. Energy damage is not affected by DR. Neither is magic, but that doesn't make the +1 go through. I'm not positive about this, but this is how everyone I know has ruled it in the past (but it very rarely comes up). quote:Liches have no innate resistance to fire, so he'd take the D6 from the sword and full damage from the fireball (Reflex half). Unless he has Fire Resistance from a spell or item. Wait, just to be sure here-a flaming weapon is completely different from a fireball. A fireball completely bypasses damage reduction, yes. quote:A magic mace/warhammer/morningstar would go right through, though. This is completely true, though. A magic longsword and a nonmagical mace both are stopped by a lich's DR. (that's actually the exact example they use in the Monster Manual. how nerdy is that?)
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Jun 1, 2007 03:31
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greatn posted:Oh yeah, she was a monk. I know she has uncanny dodge at least. Do monks hands get magical pluses at some point or am I thinking of another system? In any event would that make them a magical bludgeoning weapon? Because Rawk if so. Yes, at level 4 monks' unarmed attacks count as magical, and they are bludgeoning.
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Jun 4, 2007 20:56
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Ferrinus posted:You can't call Hitler or a suicide bomber or whatever Good (even if you treat alignment as a statement of intentions) because he's completely willing to kill innocents to accomplish his aims. Miko isn't - the innocents she's killed have been people who she thought were conscious servants of Xykon. But they were Jews! Everyone knows that the Jews are evil satan-spawn that could be Smite Eviled out of existence if Hitler had taken any levels in Paladin. Hitler was totally being a righteous LG character.  greatn posted:I don't know, is Redcloak turned good suddenly from pulling back his troops and working to minimize his casualties because of his epiphany that all goblinkind were created equal? It is much harder to go evil=>neutral=>good than the other way.
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Jun 5, 2007 20:01
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NutShellBill posted:Miko's too unbalanced to deal with the idea of the founder of her Order being "undead". If she was one of the Paladins before, why wouldn't she know about the whole "if you're killed in the throne-room, you come back as a pseudoghost" thing if all the other paladins did? NutShellBill posted:P.S. Can we end the Hitler allegory please? It's not a good choice, as it does not compare with the actions of fictional characters in a webcomic. Plus, it's a cheesy way to try to win an argument. "If you don't agree with me, you must support Hitler! Hurr!" Ugh. You know who else wanted us to not talk about Hitler? That's right.
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Jun 6, 2007 02:26
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Ferrinus posted:"My character is actually, honestly committed to saving the lives of good people but is extremely hot-tempered and doesn't often stop to think before drawing a weapon". If a character ostensibly works towards upholding the law and protecting innocents from harm at a personal cost, they are Good, even if greivous psychological flaws stand in the way of their accomplishing this! The campaign setting of Ravenloft disagrees with you. quote:She executed him because she thought that simply jailing him would be pointless since the entire legal system was obviously corrupt to start with, and she's definitely gotten away with overly-zealous and not-carefully-judged executions before. Then at the very least she's not Lawful Good.
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Jun 6, 2007 10:59
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Heeey, the site's down and everyone besides me is a dick!
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Jun 7, 2007 06:24
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The Werle posted:Thank you, you beautiful little man. That's the second time a BSSer has complimented me in as many days, I'm starting to get paranoid. 
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Jun 7, 2007 08:09
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farraday posted:Ferrinus, I don't even play D&D and I know DM's can force alignment changes. DMs can do anything they want, that's rule no. 1 of DnD. The question is whether it's explicitly in the rules or not.
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Jun 8, 2007 08:28
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Cowcaster posted:So just as an extension of this conversation: During the crusades, were the knights attacking Jerusalem "Lawful Good" or "Chaotic Evil"? The ideal ones upon whom the DnD Paladins are based are LG, the common ones were CE. edit: or at the very least Evil, not necessarily Chaotic bgaesop fucked around with this message at 08:52 on Jun 8, 2007 |
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Jun 8, 2007 08:50
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While I agree on almost everything, there are two points I must contest:Robot Bastard posted:he might want to restore the benefits of civilisation to a region taken over by barbarians, a Neutral motive quote:Chaotic Evil would rather be the manipulator of the whole deal, That's Lawful Evil.
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Jun 8, 2007 08:54
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Ferrinus posted:I'm pretty sure you are making fun of me by the way but I am answering seriously because I like talking about the rules of roleplaying games. He is making fun of you because the people he's talking about were the original Paladins.
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Jun 8, 2007 09:12
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Ferrinus posted:You deny what I'm saying but then you support it in the same breath. Obviously the guy who killed his friend in a fit of rage and isn't willing to mentally confront himself about it is "struggling", and of course he's LG with a big fat spotlight issue looming in his dark and retarded past. But he's not not-Good until he actually decides that killing people for some reason other than self-defense/defense of innocents is okay. Yes, and he decided that when he killed his friend.
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Jun 8, 2007 22:55
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MikeJF posted:The explosion might not hurt her, but how about the disintegration of the building she's currently in? Even if we ignore debris, she's in for a bit of a fall. Monks have Slow Fall.
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Jun 9, 2007 18:07
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Wow, I did not see that coming. I like it better than anything anyone predicted here.
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Jun 12, 2007 05:50
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NutShellBill posted:You should read Goblins, it's easy to catch up, he updates about twice per month. Mr Burlew's pretty good at meeting his target deadlines, I think. Rich Burlew writes Order of the Stick, Goblins is by Tarol Hunt.
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Jun 16, 2007 07:05
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