TG as an Industry: A pendulum swing against the excesses of Rule 0 culture

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > TG as an Industry: A pendulum swing against the excesses of Rule 0 culture

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Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Loomer posted:

https://tabletopsmissingstairs.blogspot.com/2019/02/zak-s-and-other-horrible-tabletop-people.html

Haven't had a chance to read that through myself yet but Strix is passing it around as a convenient resource for new people on the problem.

I feel sick, but I hope it's just the bad virus I have, and not the sinking feeling that I need to burn all my 5th ed D&D books to wipe my memory of Mike Mearls response. I've been down the rabbit hole reading about both RPGPundit and Zac S (holy poo poo it's been going on since the edition got released?!?!!?!?).

# ¿ Feb 13, 2019 21:40

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 00:49

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Darwinism posted:

Yeah, Mearl's most egregious event comes during 5E's 'playtest' days when it was still Next. It was covered up just by the merit of it being incredibly uninteresting to anyone outside the hobby. What he did with Zak is beyond atrocious, but it happened to a very small subset of a very small hobby, and it happened to groups that the hobby as a whole has been just fine with being lovely to.

I earnestly hope there will be some accounting for it.

What surprised me most was Mearl's complete lack of apology he tweeted yesterday, with a small easily disprovable defence that Zak was just a "playtester". This stench is going to follow him around forever -the only way to make some of it go away is to publicly admit he protected Zak and he was wrong. If he does any public Q&A's again he's going to be asked about it every single time.

Considering how many people did get manipulated, it wouldn't be that much extra shame to admit he got manipulated as well. I can onlypresume that Zak has something else that he can hold over Mearl's and Hasbro HR head, to expose when needed.

Hasbo's going to get nervous about this, once a reporter starts sniffing around, because the amount of evidence that's been left lying around will make it easy to follow the trail right back to them. It's not often that someone does a cover-up and then goes ahead.... and just tweet's it out (which is what Mearl's did when he said he investigated it).

Comstar fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Feb 13, 2019

# ¿ Feb 13, 2019 22:17

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Lumbermouth posted:

People can be mad at Zak and Mearls AND Lindroos and Suleiman AND Holden and Morke. Get this poo poo out in the open. Don't keep kicking it down the line until the wave has passed.

I feel like I need a glossary of who these people are? I now know who Zak S is, but who are all these other cast of characters?

# ¿ Feb 14, 2019 22:03

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Darwinism posted:

In 2014, when he was heavily courting the more regressive parts of the hobby, Mearls got TheRPGPundit and Zak S involved to a basically unknown degree and credited as 'Consultants' so that their bases would be more inclined to buy 5E - at this point they had no idea that the streaming phenomenon would hit D&D hard and make all of that pandering to tiny audiences of lovely people really even more pointless.

I may be misunderstanding this, but hasn't streaming made 5th ed more popular than any previous version before? Or is it that streaming of computer games lowered the popularity of 5th ed?

(If there's a post about how streaming has changed table top role playing and board games, I would be interested to read it).

# ¿ Feb 17, 2019 21:17

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Darwinism posted:

Net, sure, it's nice that there's more players, but it's also sucky that a lot of potential players will be turned off because the books they have do not accurately reflect the things happening in streams and that's more what I meant

How would you change a RPG and/or D&D to make it better for streaming/watching?

# ¿ Feb 17, 2019 23:11

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Monokeros deAstris posted:

Welp I guess The Fantasy Trip was the last SJG product I'll be backing/buying for a while. I mean, loving seriously? Well, it's not like I was a devoted customer of theirs anyway, I just like learning about the history of the hobby.

I'm not in an y way up to date with what's going on. What's wrong with Steve Jackson Games?

# ¿ Apr 17, 2019 12:28

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Halloween Jack posted:

TSR was also slow to realize that there was an audience for the RPG hobby beyond people who quibble over uniforms and rank insignia of the Napoleonic wars.

Has anyone written Arthur Wellesley's exciting adventures in the Penisuala as a RPG or fantasy novel? Swap the black powder for bows and swords and catapults and add some magic and evil clerics to stand in for the French.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2020 13:33

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Xiahou Dun posted:

What's there to change?

Convert the Highlander battalions to Amazons wearing skirts.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2020 13:50

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Serf posted:

https://twitter.com/enworld_rss/status/1255451824737456135?s=20

...shouldn't this be a BIG announcement? The guy in charge of Dungeons & Dragons...and he's been doing it for a year without no one noticing?

I can't find a single list of what he's worked on. Is there a list somewhere?

Any clues on how D&D would/has/will change with him in charge?

Comstar fucked around with this message at 13:58 on Apr 29, 2020

# ¿ Apr 29, 2020 13:55

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Notahippie posted:

The sheer size of it also meant that a lot of them got loving weird, which was great. Spelljammer and Dark Sun were really left-field settings.

To me in the grand scheme of things they look like they made more sense than having 5 different fantasy worlds. D&D in post-apocalypse! D&D IN SPAAAACE.

Rather than D&D in one guys home brewed world (Greyhawk), D&D in another guys home brewed world (Forgotten Realms), D&D in another homebrew (Blackmoor), D&D in a well thought out fantasy world that no one in management cared about but started as disjointed series of adventures (Mystera), D&D in fantasy world that's a long term TV series that's ahead of its time but you will be on rails (Dragonlance). D&D in FantasyCity (Lakahmer). I never understood at the time that D&D Lost Worlds was actually Hollow World.

I can understand trying to do D&D Horror (Ravenloft). Was there a D&D Edgy 90's world to compete with White Wolf? Or was that Ravenloft.

But I do think they were reaching when they made the Complete book of Thri-Kreen(?).

# ¿ May 2, 2020 02:36

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Kwyndig posted:

Planescape was laid out like a White Wolf book, with Factions and politicking and secrets. It wasn't edgy per se, but it borrowed a lot of the style.

Dammit, you're right. It was too edgy for me so I never bought any of the books for it, though I did go 1/3 of the way through Torment. Also I think I was annoyed they sorta/did(?) replace SpellJammer with Planescape to tie all the different worlds together.

I'm catching up on a lot of the stuff TSR made in the 90's I never had the money to buy, and I really do miss it all. I'm never going to have the chance to play all the Dragonlance modules in order or jump between crystal spheres, but I do now have a chance to read them as PDF. It must have been something to try and keep up every month with TSR's production, before it all came crashing down.

# ¿ May 2, 2020 06:18

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

I don't follow the MTG thread on here, but this seems relevant to this thread's interests. Effectively WOTC banned a "reporter (aka a very high rated player) from their game for posting damaging and embarrassing revelations because they refused to give up the source.

WoTC tries to get the source. The poster tells them no:
https://twitter.com/mtghofbot/status/1264205700596666368

Their response:
https://twitter.com/mtghofbot/status/1264804014882992128

Seems a bit harsh, and is going to cause another headache for Hasbro by WotC's inept handling and possible corruption.

Links in the post can be found on the reddit post.

[Magic: the Gathering] Popular streamer blows the whistle on Wizards of the Coast, refuses to give up his source, gets banned

HobbyDrama Reddit posted:

Magic: the Gathering has had a competitive play scene for just about as long as the game has been around (nearly 30 years now). The company behind the game (Wizards of the Coast, plus parent company Hasbro) has invested in the competitive scene significantly over the years, with big prize payouts and other player incentives to compete at a high level. There has been drama in the past regarding treatment of the �pros� and the amount of money available to those willing to pursue the game full-time, but that�s a topic for another day.

Wizards of the Coast (or WotC) has altered the professional scene pretty dramatically over the past two years or so. They got rid of Pro Tours (Promotional/Professional Tours, the highest level of tournament play) and introduced a new tournament system. They also got rid of pro points, which are a bit more complicated to explain, but basically they rewarded players who amassed enough high finishes in a season and reached points thresholds to earn appearance fees and other financial benefits. The extent of these changes could fill an entire post and there has been plenty of drama surrounding them, but the point is things have been in flux for a couple years now.

The most significant change for today�s drama is the introduction of the MPL, or Magic Pro League. Instead of players trying to gather pro points to earn financial benefits, WotC selects 24 top-level players every year and basically makes them salaried employees. They get money, special tournament invites, and streaming deals to grow their follower base. Again, there has been plenty of drama surrounding how one qualifies for the MPL, and pros left out of the league have to work a lot harder to make money at the game. But it has been around for over a year now and is considered the pinnacle of Magic achievement, and a must-have status for anyone trying to play Magic professionally.

Enter COVID-19. Like many other activities, Magic has been negatively affected by the ongoing pandemic and had to alter its play system. While in-person play (paper/tabletop Magic) is the classic way to play, recent investments into digital platforms has allowed the competitive scene to stay alive by moving major tournaments online. Multiple upcoming tournaments were cancelled or postponed in the wake of the pandemic, but we�re just now seeing WotC start to move forward and plan for future events in the summer and beyond.

The controversy began when WotC sent out an exclusive email to members of the MPL outlining changes to the pro scene in the coming weeks/months. This included information about upcoming tournaments and which formats (ie. the cards you are allowed to play with) they will be. This is valuable information to have, because it gives you more time to prepare for the tournament while other players don�t yet know the format or dates. One such announcement involved a tournament shifted up to late June - not a lot of time to prepare, so every extra day of practice would be a huge advantage. There was also info about cuts to prize funding and other unpleasantness that you can read more about in this excellent writeup.

Enter popular streamer Austin Bursavich. Bursavich is not in the MPL, but is a well-known figure in the community and has friends all over the pro scene. Somebody in the MPL leaked the email to him on condition of anonymity, and Bursavich posted the information to Twitter ahead of the official announcement, criticizing WotC for giving MPL players an unfair competitive advantage over everyone else. This understandably ruffled some feathers in the community, with many asking WotC to address the issue.

WotC�s response was to suspend Bursavich�s online account and demand that he turn over the MPL member who leaked the information. It should be noted that MPL members are under a strict NDA (non-disclosure agreement), so if WotC discovered who the leaker is, that person would likely lose their MPL status and all the financial benefits it provides (upwards of $50k). Bursavich basically told them to gently caress off. This resulted in Bursavich receiving a lifetime ban from Magic: the Gathering, including online, tabletop, and tournament play.

This literally just came to light earlier today so who knows how this will all turn out, but so far the community is largely behind Bursavich on the matter and calling the ban an overreaction. Is this an excessive move by WotC, or are they within their rights?

EDIT: I was unaware of this at the time of posting, but Bursavich is actually the top-rated MtG player in the world by ELO. So this is understandably causing huge ripples in the community.

Comstar fucked around with this message at 12:49 on May 25, 2020

# ¿ May 25, 2020 12:27

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Absurd Alhazred posted:

https://twitter.com/WarComTeam/status/1268665798467432449

But female IG are a step we can�t take.

I do notice that Sisters are very much in the adverts now.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2020 10:09

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Nothing stopping Chaos doing Chaos Female Space Marines. Except...reasons.

I can imagine the sheer embarrassment and shame normal Space Marines would face to be beaten by female versions of themselves. Chaos is really shooting themselves in the foot by not taking advantage of it.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2020 12:07

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Robert Facepalmer posted:

And Tony Cottrell has been employed for decades...

Sorry, I've lost track of all these people. Who is he and what did he do?

# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 02:28

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Dawgstar posted:

Tony Cottrell used to run Forge World for Games Workshop and now the Old World stuff. He's always been a bit of a pill but recently a black GW player called him out on being super racist: Goonhammer has the scoop.

Can someone explain it to me like I�m 5? I don�t get what everyone laughed about. Something about �your just Like the black guy from the end of Avengers!�. And then the whole room of white guys laughed at a racist joke. I don�t get it.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 10:25

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

admanb posted:

I'd watch 2e or B/X. I'd rather watch paint dry than 3e.

Is there any B/X shows worth watching?

# ¿ Jul 13, 2020 06:59

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Would you be satisfied if Mearls was fired?

Does it need a 6th edition?

Or is D&D never to be played again?

(I just want to understand the...level here).

# ¿ Jul 13, 2020 13:20

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

gradenko_2000 posted:

im so tired

I have...so ,any questions.

What is the money? Souls I take it?

What are the streets?

What are the counters representing?

Are there house rules for the Commissar to shoot Guard officers or is it Space Marines only. I can only imagine the rules GW would apply to make the rules all broken, inconsistent and you need top buy a $80 rule book to play each character. Also, you can't play unless you bring a painted figure.

# ¿ Jul 20, 2020 14:44

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Cessna posted:

On the TV show Archer the character Cyril Figgis refers to Warhammer a couple of times.

Now I'm really trying to work out what he said, in what context, and did any of the other characters have any idea what he was talking about.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2020 09:59

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Kurieg posted:

Relevant to this discussion and perhaps the point of contention in the lawsuit. The races in Dragonlance are all universally aligned to the forces of good, evil, or neutrality. Like, as a whole loving race.

It is not often I get to see a often quoted fact on here that is utterly wrong, but that has to be one of them. WTF are you talking about? The GODS are are all universally aligned to the forces of good, evil, or neutrality but AFAIK none of the other races were.

Also, there are evil Kender. They live in Ravenloft and hate it. Every other race had good and bad individuals except I think Gully Dwarves? Was there any evil Tinker Gnomes?

I'm really getting the sense here that Mike Merls and the guys he asked to help on 5th ed are lurking in the background of this lawsuit of why WOTC shut down everything Dragonlance out of nowhere.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2020 08:57

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Kurieg posted:

He got #metoo'd after Beast's 2nd book. But then in the players guide he slammed his entire hand down on the table with a straight flush of "rapist", confused that people weren't happy for him.

Who said WHAT, where, exactly? I feel like I need a wikipedia to keep track of all these people.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2020 06:11

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

What games does IPR distribute?

# ¿ Nov 19, 2020 03:48

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Dave Brookshaw posted:

In other news, Gale Force 9 are suing Wizards of the Coast, for much the same reason the Dragonlance authors are (WotC trying to break a licensing contract by refusing to approve products rather than using the kill conditions).

https://www.geeknative.com/103191/gale-force-nine-files-court-complaint-against-wizards-of-the-coast/

https://www.tenkarstavern.com/2020/11/update-gale-force-9-sues-wotc-in-excess.html

Ok, whose the wise guy at WOTC and Hasbro ordering this stuff to happen?

Sounds like D&D 6th edition movie tie in edition is coming 2022.

Comstar fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Nov 20, 2020

# ¿ Nov 20, 2020 16:23

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Liquid Communism posted:

Whoever in their legal department decided this was preferable to just paying Foster his couple grand has given them a huge PR black eye to deal with. Especially given Disney's whole claim to fame is adaptions of public domain works.

I strongly suspect WOTC's treatment of GF9 and Dragonlance is a much bigger black eye as it's a smaller community. Disney is perfectly able to ignore any PR issues merely as a cost of doing business.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2020 03:26

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

KingKalamari posted:

It's especially frustrating because, in the timespan of WotC announcing they were going to try to tackle the racial essentialism that permeates the game and Tasha's coming out at least three different third party supplements for race mechanics in 5e were released that all had better solutions than what Wizards came up with...

What were the supplements and what was their solutions?

# ¿ Nov 27, 2020 18:51

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Disney, Apple or Amazon could buy WOTC, and not even notice the cost. The ability to buy the IP is worth much more. They need content and there's 50 years of stories and background just waiting for someone to actually use it. Baldur's Gate: The TV series is just like, there. Just like comics, there is mountains of material waiting to be mined, looted and pillaged.

There's the D&D movie coming out in a year or two - better to buy WOTC now, cancel the movie and allow some executive to take over and make their own vision. I have full confidence they wouldn't actually know what to DO with it correctly, but it took 10 years and The Mandalorian for someone working at Disney to figure out Star Wars.

Why one of them haven't bought it to stop one of the others getting it is just a fair question.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2020 23:41

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

theironjef posted:

I have a friend who now runs her own little production company, but used to be a creative director for a Hollywood filmmaker. She used to call me every now and then to ask questions about nerd properties he was looking at scripts for. Once she called and asked me what Baldur's Gate was. I said "Oh, it's these cool videogames that use D&D" and she stopped me right there and said "Oh drat. Nevermind then thanks."

That's how much the D&D movie and those direct to DVD sequels poisoned that well.

OMG. So the reason we don't have a Baldur's Gate movie 300 million budget trilogy is you! It's all your fault!

Also, if we were posting this in 1976 we could be saying the same thing about SF movies or 2000 pre-LOTR Fantasy movies.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2020 02:49

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

The tale of bad dice, Mike Mearls and WotC

quote:

To recap: I ordered the WotC 45th anniversary dice set back in September, got a damaged set in October and returned them and have had the runaround trying to get a replacement set or any information on when they might come since. After my post on r/dndnext blew up, I got a message from Mike Mearls offering to look into the issue and to try to get a replacement set for me.

Unfortunately, after a week+ has now passed with no further word from Mike or WotC support (I did ping him on 12/2 to what he'd heard, but only got a short "nothing yet - hope to hear something soon" in reply), I've thrown in the towel. After an email asking for a refund rather than a replacement went unanswered, I contacted my credit card company for a dispute/chargeback. Hopefully I'll at least have a provisional credit back to me before Christmas so I can spend my money elsewhere.

To be honest, the whole experience has left a bad taste in my mouth regarding WotC. For the amount being charged for these (insane, I know -this was a purchase only on my part due to both a windfall for my wife and I, and this having been a pretty big milestone career anniversary they were purchased for), I would have expected them to come unblemished, and for returns to be more customer friendly (I know there are extenuating circumstances with Covid, but this has dragged on far too long, and the lack of replies to my later emails has been frustrating to say the least). I super appreciate Mike reaching out and making an attempt to make things right, but if even he can't get so much as a reply from the returns people after a week, I'm afraid I have little faith in WotC or it's ability to get this fixed or provide a set worth what was paid for them (ie, undamaged).

Thanks, reddit, for all the feedback, support and advice - I've learned my lesson.

I mean, I can understand a megacorp not caring, but he went out of his way to contact the op, and then didn't actually DO anything about it.

The face of D&D everyone: blemished and incompetence

$300 for that.

Comstar fucked around with this message at 23:16 on Dec 8, 2020

# ¿ Dec 8, 2020 23:13

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

I'm not sure if this belongs in the 40K thread, this thread, or the scam thread.

This escalated quickly: tl;dr: Scammer tries to scam ranking points(!) and maybe prizes from Australia ITC. Yells racism when caught.

quote:

Aushammer - Australian Wargaming

A bit of ugliness has reared its head in the Australian wargaming scene recently, we are putting these here in the hope that this story gains more exposure.
The below information was posted by Joshua Diffey to the Australian 40k ITC page in a effort to clear up some misunderstandings that have been floating around.

"So a weird set of events has taken place in the last 2-3 days, and the only reason I am making it public is because a number of lies were spread to a number of parties, not all of them known.

I unfortunately will not be naming the person behind these acts at this time due to legal reasons that I cannot go into at this moment. Those with knowledge of who this is I would appreciate you not naming them directly also.

A fake account by the name of Roger Miller was created or more accurately renamed from another fake account which is how he got caught. This fake account created a number of events in the Northern Territory in a rural Aboriginal community called Mutitjulu. This person impersonated more than 60 additional people, with the idea that it would be impossible to verify, as the community had little to no connectivity (internet or cell towers) and it was not surprising that members of this community would not be on social media.
Multiple members of the community reached out to me as the Australian ITC Representative, asking for me to look into it, providing information such as but not limited to:

- A link to a site which is used for fiction writers containing fictional aboriginal names, and the fakes players were almost if not entirely on this list.
- Providing information such as the population size of this community, and the unlikely event that a population of less than 300 would have a 40k event of 60+ players.

I was able to confer that every single player with the exception of one was whats referred to as an Inactive BCP account within Best Coast Pairings. This means the account was created with an upload or by a TO (both very common), and so the account was there, assigned to an email, but the owner had never logged in.

The one account that was not an inactive account was the player that allegedly won every single one of these events.
With the information provided I rejected the previously approved tokens, and requested more information from Roger Miller. I am providing a screenshot of the email below. In addition I emailed the alleged winner of each of these events informing them the same thing, and appologising in advance if this turned out to be a misunderstanding. Roger Miller and the winner did not reply.

Everything up to this point is actually relatively normal. Some events are hard to verify, then information is provided, and its all corrected. But this is where it went completely off the rails.

Roger then proceeded to contact both Best Coast Pairings, Frontline Gaming and Games Workshop Australia, claiming that I was, BCP were, and FLG/ITC were racist people/organisations for discriminating against an Aboriginal community. As part of that communication he asked for me to be removed as ITC Rep and "punished".

BCP replied to Roger informing him that they simply are the technology behind the ITC, they do not administer it, and to please contact FLG.

FLG requested proof of venue, and proof of identity, and if these were provided then they would look into correcting the issue. No response was provided, but instead the Roger Miller facebook account was deleted.

The venue for which all of these fake events took place was contacted, and they informed us no such events ever took place. And to follow up the most common question I have had about this line of enquiry, there is no other venue it could have been.
How this person got caught is not a very difficult one to explain, they simply got caught up in their own lies. Roger Miller claimed he did not know anyone in the "big states/cities", he did not know me, and that he was new to the ITC. 2 of these were very easy to verify as false, and once they were the 3rd was also obviously a lie.

1. The facebook account he had (he has now deleted it) has posts going back to 2019, posting events, ITC events, in NSW and ACT.
2. A screenshot from a private facebook group was provided, where it showd him posting ITC club rankings. This club had no knowledge of a Roger Miller, and through process of elimination was able to let us know who the actual user behind that renamed facebook account was.

It should go without saying, but I will say it regardless, Best Coast Pairings, Frontline Gaming and myself do not stand for, nor condone any form of racism or discrimination."

# ¿ Jan 26, 2021 13:04

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Wargamer who is about to be deplatformed tells Facebook you didn't ban me, I quit! I watched a few of his video's based on the Black Powder video's he has. Well that was a mistake. Unsubscribed.

I took a bad screenshot of it because I strongly suspect it's going to banned from Youtube very shortly.

I don't know where he bought the symbols from, he surprisingly didn't post a link to the company selling them. I'd like to avoid them too if anyone knows who it is.

It belongs in a Museum, but not in a wargame these days. It's not like there's other symbols you can't use for WW2. I suppose the real news is that Facebook is actually doing something about it now. I'd like to get off Facebook, but nearly every wargaming post news is on there, and FOGN's forum never gets any posts - everyone posts on Facebook.

Also he's a COVID denier around the 9 minute mark. Good riddance.

So what's Rumble, the social media site? Never heard of it.

Comstar fucked around with this message at 04:44 on Feb 6, 2021

# ¿ Feb 6, 2021 04:28

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

The Chairman posted:

it was originally a video hosting site whose big innovation is that if your videos get popular you get tickets to enter drawings for free stuff, and conservatives ended up on it after getting mad at Google

One of the highlights I didn't mention is "some of my best friends in high school were black!".

So yes, that's the 28mm hill he's chosen to die on.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2021 06:02

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Liquid Communism posted:

In the case of Dragonlance wasn't it that they burned bridges with Weis and Hickman after 3e, and only got them back to write more DL novels by rolling up a truckload of cash? Then nearly hosed that up by some Super Genius deciding that they could get out of their contract by just refusing to approve any drafts?

Ah, yeah, sued WOTC for ~$30m in damages last year.

Everyone kissed and made up a month or two ago and the books are coming out.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2021 11:20

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Splicer posted:

It's a set piece that's missing half the pieces. To quote some good posts from the 5e thread (yeah you heard me)

But apart from all that Ms Lincoln, how was the play?

Is the adventure any good? Which one is it?

# ¿ Mar 23, 2021 11:00

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Hostile V posted:

Yes. Back in the day you would have a player whose job was to draw the map based on the DM's descriptions because the DM was supposed to have the map already made but not show it to the players. You also had a player whose job it was to collect the actions of other players and the order of their actions and then relay it to the DM as a shot caller.

And it still infuriates me when [ Block Text ] does NOT describe the room size, scale and exits FIRST before telling me what's in the room.

As a DM, the players would typically make such a a hash of trying to draw the map from my description, I'd end up just drawing for them.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2021 05:58

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Kurieg posted:

My favorite bit of ed greenwood lore is the implication that Elminster hosed a bear.

Elminster is practically a god, or close to being an avatar of the goddess of magic (and considering the amount of times she's been killed, I think acted as her host at one point?), so this wouldn't be out of the ordinary for a god.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2021 03:47

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

TheDiceMustRoll posted:

So yes, Zak has a dossier, and each and every thing you say about him is almost certainly screenshotted and backed up, based on this assertion. lol

Sounds like the worlds worst Monster Manual.

# ¿ May 24, 2021 11:02

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Sodomy Hussein posted:

Attempting to revive TSR is essentially the most grognard move humanly possible, relying on a wholly-imagined better past that people with actual knowledge of events and things could shoot down in a paragraph.

The Age of Chivalry was always in the past for those writing about it.

TSR was insane. Who in their right mind would try to develop 10 different worlds, most of them simultaneously! Have 10 worldbooks on nearly every nation of Mystera? Have both D&D and AD&D running at the same time? These make no business sense and it's amazing they managed to do it for so long. The insanity ran both ways, but now everyone is just fond of the good memories.

I just hope Hasbro is ok with getting the new Players Guide to Mystera be published.

# ¿ Jul 4, 2021 05:15

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

The Fighting Fantasy (and other gamebooks) facebook group just said

quote:

"ADMIN POST: I feel it necessary to say something on this subject. As many of you will no doubt by now be aware, our little community has been rocked by the news of the reprehensible behaviour of a prominent one of our number. I have removed the individual in question from every gamebook group that I am an Admin for to prevent any issues before they happen. No-one can condone the person's actions, but we all just need to disassociate ourselves and walk away from this immediately. No comments invited please. Thank you."

Err...who was that? I'd ask as a comment but apparently they aren't needed.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2021 12:28

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 00:49

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

alg posted:

is it Sandy Peterson?

https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2021/07/rpg-call-of-cthulhu-creator-faces-backlash-after-transphobic-statements.html

I presume it was, unless there were TWO people in the industry or famous to do something like that today.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2021 13:34

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > TG as an Industry: A pendulum swing against the excesses of Rule 0 culture

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