The August Personage of Elminster Chat: $2000 Of Charity Donations + Really Bad Posts

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > The August Personage of Elminster Chat: $2000 Of Charity Donations + Really Bad Posts

What is the best version of El? This poll is closed.
Elminster	20	6.45%
Elmara	20	6.45%
Entwine	13	4.19%
GURPS	99	31.94%
El Kabong	153	49.35%
Elves	5	1.61%
Total:	310 votes

[Edit Poll (moderators only)]

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Bioware presents Vornheim.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2014 06:49

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 17, 2024 07:04

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Slimnoid posted:

Ugh why did you remind me of that poo poo.

Man I love it when he's baldly hypocritical. He's doing exactly what he's decrying all in the same blog post: cherry-picking the poo poo out of stuff and leaning hard on unclear second-hand reporting. Bonus for linking to a subscription-based article that cuts off halfway into a sentence about how, yes, actually there are instances of increased cancer risk in X really broadly applicable group. The full article is amusingly enough available on the Ron Paul forums who have similarly batshit things to say about it.

EDIT: Anyway Jenna is an amazing writer and you should definitely give Chuubo's a try.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2014 21:06

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

I seem to recall Arrows being nice enough in that it really is a rare treat to draw heavy inspiration from non-Eurocentric sources, and he did an okay job at it. It still kind of mediocred game-wise because he didn't really go all that far to change the system to suit the setting, so you've got "racial templates" made out of castes which is honestly kind of hosed up, and jamming a mishmash of the variety of Indian mythic "races" into what appear to be pretty bog-standard D&D analogs. It's also got some eye-glazing Random Tables of Whatever, but that's down to taste so who cares. The bulk of its sins are far from unique in this industry nor are they especially egregious, and it's admirable that it tried to be modestly different.

Of course, he patted himself on the back relentlessly. (I don't think the trans person ever really came up until now, though. Hmm!) Even if he weren't a raging rear end in a top hat, you get to the point where you can barely stop the eye-rolling long enough to congratulate him for what he did right. The F&F here was pretty aggressive and uncharitable at first�surprise rear end in a top hat, people think you're an rear end in a top hat!�but once Pundit sermonized about it to his congregation, the reviewer actually reconsidered and changed his approach. I doubt Pundit cared other than that SA was "attacking" him again, so he probably didn't follow the review to its close, but if he did I never saw any sign that he talked about the change in perspective.

I suppose Lords of Olympus kind of falls into the same boat where it's honestly an okay-ish game and most of the splash it makes is because its author is a gaping anus.

If you want to take Pundit to task for his game design, look at Forward�to Adventure! I think it's his debut work and is pretty "original" to him (even though it carries as much D&D baggage as it can). It is a pile and the art is hilarious.

That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 07:11 on Aug 8, 2014

# ¿ Aug 8, 2014 07:06

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Bigup DJ posted:

Awareness is good, but what comes next? Without a clear idea of what people are supposed to do once they know about all this, you get this incredibly tedious "zak s huh... i told you he was a bad fella." poo poo where everyone pats each other on the back about how zak s is a bad person and not liking bad people makes us good people and "haha, that zak s, right?" If you've (not you personally Reene) got a problem with this zak s, don't just sit around with a bunch of people who already agree with you talking about how right you all are, do something about it and talk to someone who can change it. maybe even zak s himself !!!

Like many similar subjects, "I'm tired of this subject" seems to overtake any cluttering up the actual subject itself does. Also, good job on the "if you're doing X thing I disapprove of you're not doing Y thing that I do approve of." And this is the chat thread. I pretty much just skipped quite a few pages because I give no shits about the Forgotten Realms, and�

quote:

Also I don't trust some of the people on the supposedly right side of the debate. Gau, for instance, is a bit of a shithead. Whoever's right, RPG gossip is an incredibly tedious waste of time for all involved.

Ah ha ha ha gently caress you.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2014 10:03

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Lightning Lord posted:

People powergame the poo poo out of WoD stuff all the time. I'm not as familiar with New WoD, but there's a reason why White Wolf guys used to freak out about trenchcoat sunglasses katana after all. This is kind of the equivalent of "one time, my GM ran a D&D game set in the courts of Greyhawk and we, like totally politicked for hours, we barely touched the dice except to roll Charisma checks." There's nothing really wrong with that and it often works, but it doesn't transmogrify D&D into being a game about politics.

Yeah, but where D&D has barely any support for politicking, WoD is filled to the brim with Blade II just all over. That's why so many people see it as a "failure." It really is just awful at doing what it was meant to do. Obviously that didn't matter too much since it became a close #2 in an industry so dominated by D&D. I think WoD's most important legacy is getting people to really go after story-first. It didn't invent the idea and it almost certainly would've happened some other way if not by WoD's grubby hands. But it helped catalyze that sea change by talking so much about themes. I wouldn't even level the charge that its near-total failure to live up to its own hype was that important; just the fact that it helped fire the conversation by being so blustery about it, regardless of its poo poo rules.

And beside all that, it's fun to be Blade anyway. :drac:

Too bad it left us all with brain damage. :smith:

# ¿ Aug 10, 2014 04:19

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Fuego Fish posted:

Nerds are the loving worst.

quote:

it seems to me it's mostly 4E obsolescence backlash

# ¿ Aug 10, 2014 09:26

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Just publicly disagree with Zak, Pundit or GMS somewhere and you will be absorbed.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2014 12:03

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

I'm in for $20 but I'm phone-posting. I'll try to remember to post a screenshot later.

That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 05:31 on Aug 11, 2014

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 05:27

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

I guess now, in this time of Ettinmod, thread titles are as clay.

Anyway:

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 07:38

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Forums Terrorist posted:

What's with the flurry of donations?

Raenir K. Artemi posted:

Zak Smith offered to give to charity for every person that tells him that he actually did nothing wrong and that they are dumb, so instead people are giving money to a charity to spite him.

No no don't to be so unfair. He just wants to reach out, to understand:

quote:

"Here's the game--I ask you a question about things you did or said to create this controversy. You answer the question clearly. Each straight answer you give I donate 10 US dollars to the charity of your choice."

See? He just wants to ask when you stopped beating your wife! So that we can clear up this whole misunderstanding. About your wife-beating.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 07:56

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Cycloneman posted:

As someone who has little idea what's going on, I can't express how little anything I've seen here has done to reassure me that Zak S is a Horrible Evil Bigot Worthy Of Contempt Who Definitely Deserves This or whatever. Could anyone link something he clearly did that was clearly wrong, and not just him being a boring turd who gets into SJ fights?

Here is a pretty long blogpost that isn't just about him. Zak is the Rebellious Artist. He literally created an Enemies List, which led to some pretty predictable harassment. But, you know, he (probably) didn't stalk anyone (off the internet anyway) or creepycall them himself so it's not like he did anything wrong!

Here is Zak exploiting his sick girlfriend to win an internet slapfight.

He is obsessed with Mikan and grogs.txt, thinking that there's some organized conspiracy of prudery against him and that she's in charge of it. (Although lately he's making noise like this is some edition war from vile 4E-lovers. Seems he's been taking lessons from Pundit I guess.) If you tell him that she doesn't like grogs.txt and that she left SA he will straight up call you a liar and put you on his latest list.

EFB like wow

That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 08:45 on Aug 11, 2014

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 08:38

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

I really liked the Forgotten Realms for a while, when I was into D&D3. I bought nearly all the books, including some old box sets. This was one of the steps on my journey to getting really tired of books packed to the brim with minute details about poo poo that probably 99% of gamers never actually use even if they like to read it.

Roland Jones posted:

He did make The Dongion as a way to anonymously (except not really because he made all the same typos of people's names that only he makes) insult and harass people, and as Zeea's post in my link states he's definitely hounded people online after they've "wronged" him, though.

I guess I used poor language there. I didn't mean to imply he wasn't an internet stalker. Lots of people seem to make a big distinction between internet-stalking and hiding in the bushes, and I foolishly fed into that.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 08:51

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

I've never really had a conceptual problem with Drizzt, at least not the one that so many other people seem to have. But years ago I tried reading the books about him, and they ruined him for me. Not because they were super duper awful, but because they were boring. I got within 50 pages of the end of the third book in his origin story trilogy, like right before he gets his second katana or whatever, and I just stopped. I didn't care about any of this poo poo; I couldn't go on. That was the first time I just gave up on a book, too, and I was so close to the end, but god it was impossible. It pretty much soured me on the character.

That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 09:08 on Aug 11, 2014

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 09:01

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

ProfessorCirno posted:

There were people in ENWorld who thought 5e having a half-orc paladin picture was WotC going too far and succumbing to POLITICAL CORRECTNESS so like

gently caress 'em.

I'm not making it up that there have been no hard restrictions on the core race-class spread since 2000, right?

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 09:16

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Oh no someone violated his trust by infiltrating his Council of Doom and feeding info to his enemies! What kind of monster would do such a thing? :iiam:

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 23:21

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Clove does pretty boss art, and by all indications is a robot because he'll finish it like you just hit a print button.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 23:25

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Looking forward to Fellowship even more, now.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 23:29

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Hooray! I like "hubris".

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 23:53

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Darwinism posted:

It's hard to even get mad at GMS, he's like that batshit crazy relative that sends you FW:FW:FW:FW:FW:RE OBAMA'S KENYAN BIRTH CERTIFICATE emails still

And with similar follow through, as he's already retreated to the wet fart of "come on guys, let's just leave each other alone."

# ¿ Aug 12, 2014 04:13

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

While you can wall off your garden perhaps more effectively on G+, if that's what you want (e.g., Zak's clubhouse), I've found most people I give any shits about don't really do that. I also just like the interface and control better than Facebook, and there's certainly less obtrusive advertisement. And, as has been mentioned, it's much more conducive to actually getting games going.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2014 04:47

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

At this point apparently the only thing that constitutes proof would be "I am explicitly asking my fans to harass this guy PS This is not satire no matter what I say later." But, no, see, that would be sarcasm anyway.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2014 04:28

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Night10194 posted:

He actually did that already, though?

No see he didn't draft a notarized letter with the exact words "explicitly for harassment purposes" in it so

# ¿ Aug 16, 2014 05:06

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

I think it's pretty :smith:

that my hobby of choice can regularly produce the same kind of scenario I see in comedies where the point is that the characters are evil idiots.

Exhausted sigh, he said.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2014 04:39

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

I'm not familiar at all with Shadowruns 4 or 5, but I seem to recall most elves being like everyone else, and the "smug hippy elf" commune nation being largely disliked in-fiction because they were stupid dicks.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2014 12:54

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

After getting familiar with them, it struck me that Approaches would've made a better base for Fate Core, with Skills being an optional replacement/expansion. The big, fat Skill list seems tonally inconsistent with Aspects and Stunts. But maybe that would've been too blatantly story-gamey, preventing the insidious conspiracy from tricking real roleplayers into liking Fate.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2014 11:13

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

A LICD card game? Fugh.

Anyway I hear the MLP game is really well designed, and gently caress anyone who seriously cares what kind of magical bullshit thing you're pretending to be when slinging cards. I'm sure Aragorn ripoff #3477093 is an objectively richer gaming experience than Pastel Toy Horse.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2014 23:08

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

The hazards of sponsoring Yu-Gi-Oh! tournaments helped sink my friend's game store. Admittedly, young business, lovely town, bad business partner, etc. But it was a huge loss of income when they just could no longer put up with the creeplords and ungovernable children that came with it.

Darwinism posted:

But the art in Numenera is so goddamn pretty and evocative

The art is like the only regularly well-done thing in Numenera. It's really sad because the basic premises setting- and system-wise seem so nice. It's a huge missed opportunity.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2014 04:13

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Seriously how do you go from "You are an [adjective] [noun] who [verbs]" to something as boring as "+1 to Jump checks"? Why would you loving do that?

:argh:

MOON

# ¿ Aug 22, 2014 04:27

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Evil Mastermind posted:

...what?

What, what? My actual complaint or my "I am the Moon" reference?

# ¿ Aug 22, 2014 04:51

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Evil Mastermind posted:

I just have no idea what you're referring to. I mean, I know all about being the moon, I just don't get the context here.

I was continuing to complain about Numenera; sorry for not quoting to make it clearer. The core character mechanic is basically "pick an adjective, noun and verb to describe your character. These will give you your core mechanics." And yeah I guess they do, but it's mostly a prescriptive list of boring +1's to stuff that sounds like a skill list even though there's no skill list, except some of them give you telekinesis or whatever, and your "noun" just dumps a bunch of mostly combat-specific boringness on you that looks remarkably like a level progression from D&D3.x. Unless you choose ~~wizard~~nano, in which case you get the crazy toolbox kind of progression you might expect from LFQW.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2014 05:05

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

The thing that makes it worth :argh:

ing about is that the basic idea sounds like a really fun thing to build on, but all that happened was he bolted as much D&D3 on it as possible.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2014 05:13

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

There is a type of common that's called "rare"? That's loving amazing.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2014 05:21

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Nope. Maybe you're looking at the "Duel Terminal Rare Parallel Rare" designation, because that's what the lonely "Rare" on that image is an abbreviation for, without irony or in-joke.

Because somebody decided that is a thing that exists, that such is the name it has, and other people took it seriously.

I'm just looking at the top cells of the table, where apparently there's a "category" of Common under which you find "Normal Rare" and "Holofoil Rare." Which might have okay explanations I guess if that's really how it works, but at the very least the person who composed that Wikipedia table is being obtuse as gently caress.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2014 05:52

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Cassa posted:

What were they doing? Just trying to hold the box out for as long as they could?

Yeah, it was for the release of Ptolus. You hold the big honking book out in front of you and the person who lasts longest gets a free copy. I was there that year (2005?) and wanted to do it, but as mentioned you had to win a lottery to participate. Likewise, my friends and I didn't get in and so we just left without ever following up. That was also the year Ed Greenwood cut in line in front of me at the D&D booth and I got to meet MC Chris (not at the same time).

Do they still have ~~Dave~~?Frank? or at least someone telling stories and poo poo at the auction? Because that ended up being my favorite part of the whole con, just sitting there seeing all the weird poo poo that comes by and listening to stories.

That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Aug 23, 2014

# ¿ Aug 23, 2014 05:15

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

A Catastrophe posted:

Has he actually released anything? For far west, I mean.

There've been parts of the manuscript sent to backers. I have some nagging feeling that maybe the fiction anthology was successfully completed and released, but I'm not sure. All other elements of his Revolutionary TRANSMEDIA Empire have gone nowhere*. I guess he's waiting on the RPG as a keystone to his media empire because that seems like a good idea? (Serious conjecture: None of the other poo poo went anywhere worth talking about and the RPG is going to limp to the finish line where it will lie forgotten by most until his next Kickstarter.)

* Like, seriously, how many people even remember that Far West RPG was supposed to be a kick-off to some multimedia franchise extravaganza? There was supposed to be a streaming TV series!

# ¿ Aug 27, 2014 06:55

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

MadScientistWorking posted:

Knowing the setting was it racist terrible or was it just poorly drawn terrible.

It just looked like poo poo. Apparently the "self-insert" art you could buy through the Kickstarter ended up being poorly PS-filtered heads pasted onto the bodies of more regular art from the book.

Gravy Train Robber posted:

GMS posted:
Not at all. Although, if you like, I can hold yours back until then...

Now, now, when the backer took exception, Skarka politely told him he meant it jokingly. Of course, he didn't actually apologize. And who would guess he wasn't being sincere after that crazy Iceland legal threat hilarity?

# ¿ Aug 27, 2014 18:06

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Impermanent posted:

It's so nice to hear that those giving money to GMS are getting what they deserve.

I don't think that's fair. Even today, there's no onus on the consumer to go dumpster-diving in forums and G+ to figure out that a perfectly legit looking Kickstarter is secretly a garbage bag full of bowling balls. They should certainly make a cursory check, though. So, of course, now when you can post a simple "Hey what's up with this guy?" on the most prominent RPG forum and get a horror show thread, it's your own drat fault if you forge ahead.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2014 18:25

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 17, 2024 07:04

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Boy they sure fooled us! :v:

# ¿ Aug 28, 2014 02:33

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > The August Personage of Elminster Chat: $2000 Of Charity Donations + Really Bad Posts