David Fryer's page

maybe catfolk DNA is more prone to variation, or some have a little rakshasa blood mixed in?

Of course it is. DNA is basically just a bunch of string, and cats love to play with strings.

Love the Steal Breath simply because it has origins in urban legends.

I don't think the art should really matter that much to people. In case anyone has forgotten, this is a fantasy game and you can imagine creatures in it looking like what ever you want. And anyway, it's not bad artwork at all. Sure, it looks a little more cat than folk, but don't crap all over someone else's art just because because it didn't turn out the way you liked. Personally, I prefer Wayne Reynolds to most other artists who illustrates for Paizo, but I still appreciate other people's contributions.

I'm sorry if I seem grumpy. I just get tired of seeing everyone complaining so much every time a new preview comes out.

Gonna vote for catfolk. With fanservice-y picture if you could, please.

Point of fact, Paizo did what they did with the express permission of the owners. That's what the OGL is, permission to use the d20 rules and improve upon them.

Oh by "greatest" you mean "most successful". I guess Justin Bieber is one of the greatest musicians of all time.

Straw is on sale again, I see.

Maybe not Dead but...

The Micronauts
Adam Warlock and the Infinity Watch
The New Warriors

Great Books in the day, would be nice to see relaunched.

I'm really curious for the REAL reason all RPG-games, Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder (and what not?) doesn't use mantis monsters in their games, as there are enough possibilities with them and they aren't gentle at all.

I just told you the real reason. Mantis are not a dangerous kind of insect in North america so we dont tend to think about them in terms of dangerous monsters

Its not some huge conspiracy like you make it out to be

Alain's horse is like Calvin's tiger: it's only real to him.

I have to say I'm finding JLI to be a surprisingly good book so far..having been the joke book first time around it seems to have found it's feet under the new regime.

In the face of some recent complaints:

Y'know, some of us like to have settings where goblins and other such "unusual" races are considered standard player races that aren't bound to a villain stereotype.

Really really hoping this book delivers in that area.

Yes, but they SPARKLE! in the sunlight when they do. (So, so sorry.)

You're off the force McHinkle. Turn over your badge and your d20s.

Along the lines of Wasp let me add Cassie Lang and Yellowjacket (Rita DeMara). (It looks like we have Scott back, so we've traded one Lang for another)

I'm thinking about getting the EMH comic, just because I've grown to love the cartoon Wasp. "I found bigger stingers." Indeed.

I wasn't in comics duing the "new-new X-men" But I always thought Wither got the "Reed Richards is useless" trope in spades. At least in her time with Xavier, Rogue's lack of control made sense.* Just slap a power limiter on that boy.

*Rogue spoilers

My understanding is that he finally felt it was time to abandon the D&D 5e developement when he could not convince the Hasbro corporation office that it was a bad idea to include a "pop-o-matic" with each boxed Dungeons & Dragons adventure.

I would LOVE a d20 pop-o-matic.

Aren't Dodos extinct because they just sat still while cats hunted them? Doesn't really seem like the sort of behaviour that suggests a bonus to initiative to me.

I just hope that the cyber scorpion that is on the mockup cover art gets a write up. I have been a fan of that pic for quite a while.

Let's just say we didn't idly pick that image to serve as the mock-up cover.

Stop, Vic. Just... stop.

I can't take any more of this Pathfinder-y goodness. It just makes the intervening months that much more unbearable.

Yeah, I suppose you're right. That makes it even worse.

....aaaaaaand here we are talking about who would beat who in a fight.

It's like I'm 12 years old again. LOL.

Of course, the problem with analyzing it too deeply is that how entrenched the anti-mutant sentiment is depends on the desire of whoever's writing it at the time. If things get worse, it's not because Xavier's approach doesn't work, it's because the writers want to emphasize that angle again.

What I'd like (bearing in mind this is entirely my opinion and I do not expect folks to agree with me):

Cameos of as many companions as possible from the beginning of the series to the present, and especially Carole Ann Ford and William Russell.

At least a mention of what happened to Susan, Leela, and Romana, with regard to the destruction of Gallifrey/the Time Lords.

Absolutely zero River "Mary Sue" Song (but if she has to be in it, as very little of her as possible).

A resolution of the "Woman in White" -- who is she and what she wants -- from Tennant's last story.

No Daleks. They're boring as hell and tremendously overused.

I'd actually like a new villain, strangely enough---I realize we expect all the Doctor's foes for an anniversary, but we've been using "all the Doctor's foes" so very much, as recently as a Good Man Goes to War, it doesn't seem special any more to have the old villains back. So I'd like to see a brand new villain, one who could become recurring in future seasons.

If we MUST have recurring villains, though... eh, I don't even know who I'd want. The EyePatch Woman (can't remember her name) was awesome, but I can't remember what happened to her. Cybermen, if they were scary, can be good, but they were used for the 25th anniversary and that didn't go so well. Return of the Rani could be interesting, she actually was an interesting villain. The Clockwork Androids were cool, from the Girl in the Fireplace. Maybe the Rutans. Since they're the historic adversaries of the Sontarans, newer fans would have a reference for their significance, and shapeshifters make for good enemies always.

I don't really care for the idea of a multiple Doctor story--I know it's what everyone wants but they've always been a bit silly. I'd love to see the previous living actors who've played the Doctor certainly get their due and get involved somehow, but I don't know if a multi-Doctor story is the best way (someone mentioned an animated short as one of several tributes, which might be an interesting way of doing it). I wouldn't be upset if they made one, of course, but I don't know if it's the best idea is all.

I'd also like a documentary that covers the history of the series.

And otherwise anything--even the opposite of what I say--as long as it comes out as a hell of a lot of fun and pays proper respect to the series and ALL who contributed to it, from 1963 to the present.

What they'll actually do:
Probably some trite b&%*+%!* with River Song and the Daleks, and completely ignore the classic series and anyone who was part of it. But I hope to be pleasantly surprised.

OK I can no longer tell what you're saying, Steelfire, so I am going to give up. You don't like us telling companies what they should do but you say we should tell them they should do something about... what?

When I say "Paizo should X" I am saying the same thing as if I said "I would like Paizo to X". Unless I'm a paizo board member or stockholder or something, then my opinion has some force behind it. Otherwise, all I'm doing is expressing a preference. No one has suggested making a law for WoTC requiring them to put people of color as character portraits in the next D&D edition. Absent such, any statement that "WoTC should draw more people of color" is pretty much a statement of opinion.

I am looking forward to Paizo doing Arcadia. Compared to Amerindians there is a ton of blacks represented in fantasy.

I think there are some misunderstandings in this thread regarding how illustrations for RPG material get made. We don't contact an artist and say, "draw me some fantasy art—pick whatever races and genders you want—and we'll write some words to match." If we write a character that's black, we ask the artists, regardless of that artist's ethnicity, to draw us a black person. Claiming that a reader who feels underrepresented in our products should "do it his damn self" isn't really the issue. Sure, we'd love to see more writers and artists available to help us put out material, but even then, what race or gender they are doesn't really enter into the equation.

Steelfiredragon wrote:

yes a black person if he she wishes to represent with a black character should learn to draw/write wahtever

... wow.

People tend to tell me that I'm a little sensitive to race issues in general and especially on RPG boards so I tend not to respond to any race related topics on message boards these days.

But I'm glad to know that I wasn't the only one who read that response and was like "...wait.. WHAT?!?"

What?

I'm sure you noticed that I said "almost".

But hey I know you British make a big deal about differentiating between a couple of different kinds of white people...

just kidding or trolling or whatever you want to call it...

as a history teacher I know that the difference between Scott and Welsh and Irish and English is a big deal and that Britain's legacy of Empire means that there are Indians and Asians as well not to mention Muslims...

That is why I said "almost". You will have to forgive me for noticing that most of the world is not only not interested in heterogeneity but is actively opposed to it.

I don't care if you were kidding/trolling your statement was culturally insensitive or ignorant at best or downright racist at worst.

The differences between all of the people's of the British isles are significant, important to you it may be a bunch of white people with funny accents in a very small group of islands. It is because of these differences we have Shakespeare, Wilde, Newton, Burns, Shelly, and so on.

Just as indigenous Americans distinguish between north America native people's and south American native people's, plains, artic, and so on. On a more modern basis the US has multiple self identifying ethnic groups from the large Scandinavian populations in mid north and the French/American people's of the south, Boston Irish, Amish, Italian Americans - all of these white Americans make every effort to differentiate themselves from other Americans.

Ethnic and cultural diversity is a wonderful thing I far prefer it to homogenous monocultures.

The article never mentions the 1E PHB. Did you know that all the humans in it were brown skinned? It's hard to tell with the black and white art work, but it's true.

The real issue regarding fantasy art work is age discrimination, not race. The only people over 30 years old I see in modern fantasy RPG art work are either elves or evil. The only women I see over 25 are either undead or invisible. There are laws against this kind of discrimination you know!

That's my big complaint with Anime. My wife and I are heavy into it, but my running joke at nearly every new series we check out is, "Holy crap! The world needs saving! Quick, call a fourteen-year-old!"

The genre is so youth-obsessed - despite the fact that a huge swath of their viewership is 29 - 45 - it's ridiculous.

Imagine my joy, when I found Moribito, an incredibly well animated series featuring as its heroine a gorgeous 30-year-old female warrior! Then imagine my ire each time a supporting character called her "old girl," or "old lady."

I did my anthropology thesis lo these many moons ago on depictions of race and sex in D&D. I believe there's still a copy in the UCSC library.

There were only two women in the PHB. Dragon had articles with the half-orcs talking in African-American dialect. It was...well, let's just say not a very welcoming time for players who weren't male or white.

I never did get into age discrimination, but I'm pleased to say that Paizo has bought two stories from me thus far that feature women over fifty, and both of them got illustrations too.

And mine aren't the only ones either. If you check out the two latest web fiction stories, you'll note some pretty kick-ass women who are well over 25, and 30 for that matter, and neither undead nor invisible either. And only one is evil.

The article never mentions the 1E PHB. Did you know that all the humans in it were brown skinned? It's hard to tell with the black and white art work, but it's true.

The real issue regarding fantasy art work is age discrimination, not race. The only people over 30 years old I see in modern fantasy RPG art work are either elves or evil. The only women I see over 25 are either undead or invisible. There are laws against this kind of discrimination you know!

2: ALot of people can not tell the difference between ethnicticities anyway. this does include me( cant tell you the difference between a hispanic and a ntice american indian,

I can, having grown up in the southwestern USA.

anmd I could not tell you the difference between a chinese person and a japanese person either)

I can, having grown up in the southwestern USA.

I don’t have a really good idea of exactly what you are saying for half of that Steelfiredragon, or what point you’re trying to make, but part of it seems to be that the ethnicities of Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder are not real world ethnicities so why does it matter what skin colour they are - especially when it comes to rule books as opposed to campaign setting books.

Ok ... but why should the default assumption be that everyone is of Caucasian skin tone, which is what appears to be depicted in the majority of rule book art from D&D editions past. Ok, maybe other ethnicities and skin tones existed in the game worlds, why shouldn’t they get more representation in the rule books?

While the ethnicities and cultures depicted in Pathfinder, and the assumed setting of Golarion are of course not real world, many of them are quite clearly and heavily based on real world examples. Anyone who says that the Linnorm Kingdoms are not heavily based on Scandanavia, that Minkai is not heavily based on Japan, that Qadira is not heavily based on Persia, that Vudra is not heavily based on India is truly kidding themselves. I’m very glad that we see people from all these disparate cultures depicted in the rule book art and that they have obviously different ethnicities and skin tones to match.

Now it really wouldn’t matter to me that much if people from the Linnorm Kingdoms had red skin, people from Minkai had brown skin and people from Vudra had white skin, but it would be disappointing if everyone had only Caucasian skin tone, or if that was only what we ever saw in the art, as it wouldn’t feel like it was depicting a diverse and ‘real’ setting, or presenting an inclusive game.

Shifty wrote:

Anyhow, I have met a lot of GLB gamers, but not yet a T.

It sucks being a rarity.

But I love Rarity! She's my #3 pony!!!

What I learned from this thread:
There are about 30 different types of cateople you can choose, from nature worshippers to city inhabitants, from playfull to sneaky to prideful, from loners to those that live in groups, from humans with cat ears to cat-headed beastmen. So it's not that you dislike catpeople, you just haven't found what kind of catpeople you like.

Hey Sincubus, it's cool that you are crapping over people who like different things, can I start crapping over something that you like?

Personally, I wouldn't have married any woman with so little self-respect that she'd obey my every command like a meek little slave. I want a partner, not a subordinate.

****The Scarred Lands setting!!****

It is out of print and since begining my 'd20 life epic' when I picked up the first edition of D&D (after putting down my Chainmail rules), I have never enjoyed a gameworld so much.

Buy the rights, convert the crunch and spellcheck the fluff....

.... sorry to say it Paizo - but Golarion is unoriginal and flavourless gruel compared to Scarred Lands....

Q: What is the definition of "edition warrior?"
A: "The other guy."

I've visited maternity wards that had less crying in them than this thread does. Let it go, people.

My brother and I loved this movie enough that one of us would feign irritation at something the other said, just so we could run around the house going "Please! Please make peace!"

Oh, and I was wondering when the "Male Witches Are/Aren't Warlocks!" will make a comeback...

They're replacing it. It MUST be a financial failure. Just like 3.5, 3.0, 2E, BECMI, B/X, AD&D, Holmes Basic, and Original D&D were all replaced.

You know what would be awesome? If we split a few more hairs and argue some more about whether 4E was a failure. I'm sure both someone in this thread is just that close to proving forever that his opinion is the correct one...

Then by now there should have been a retraction or a correction. In the absence of such, and the high visibility of the conversation, I'll conclude that Mike Mearls said something that could be reasonably interpreted as them paying little attention to playtest results, and Tito reported it in such a way that Mike Mearls feels no need to clarify his intention, suggesting that it is accurate enough to not require clarification.

That seems by far the most likely scenario.

Mohammed al-Fayed has maintained for 15 years that the British Royal Family murdered his son. They have been silent on the matter.

IT MUST BE TRUE!

Or, maybe, just maybe, they consider that responding to such an egregiously self-confessed self-publicist, liar, and criminal (this is a man who took Members of Parliament to court, because he didn't believe he got his money's worth from the bribes he gave them...0_o?) is beneath them, and would not make one blind bit of difference to the conspiracy theorists out there.

In a similar way, you're not going to get game designers with any class getting into a public brawl on the internet. It's a lose-lose situation for them.

You don't have any authority to play the 'no smoke without fire' card.
This is the equivalent of the National Enquirer or Weekly World News declaring that their headlines must be true, since the celebrities don't sue. The reason they don't, is that it's counter-productive. Only fat, idiot trailer trash believe such 'articles', and by tomorrow, they'll have forgotten what they read, and the paper will be fish and chip wrapping. Slapping a writ on them keeps the lies in the public eye.
Unfortunately there are morons out there, who believe silence = confirmation.

Same with groups like Outrage, labelling everyone in the public eye as a closet homosexual.
Silence? HA! I KNEW IT!
Denial? HA! WE GOT HIM RATTLED!

You've chosen to take hearsay, and declare it to be gospel.
Whatever Mearls says, will only strengthen your preconceived stance.
The least you could do is have the integrity to be ashamed of yourself.

There is no justice in the world if this doesn't end up movie of the year.

I learned that no matter how many hints I give my players, they will still try their very hardest to not notice them.

Mystra Lives!

Wait, wait, me and my six, thirteen year old, 8th grade friends, sitting at my moms dining room table sharing a single copy of the rules, qualified us as PIRATES! Damn were we cool.

Damn those car stealing yetis!!!!

shakes fist

Hey there, folks.

Greg Tito was one of the playtesters for 4th Edition. His group sent in playtest feedback. The feedback wasn't used. Mike Mearls said something, somewhere, either in person or in writing, that got back to Tito and that suggested to Tito that the development team for 4th Edition didn't use any playtest advice.

(Did Mike say it to Greg when Greg was touring Wizards? He doesn't say.)

Greg wrote an article for the Escapist on the new playtesting for the edition under development, and passed along this belief about 4th Edition's playtest.

This wasn't an interview with Mike Mearls. Greg isn't a reporter, bound with journalistic ethics to make sure that his facts are correctly double-sourced. If the Escapist is in any way analogous to a newspaper, Greg's article functions like an editorial.

When Greg reports that his group delivered a 30-page playtest report, that's not hearsay. That's reliable testimony.

But Greg never gives a source where Mike's words might be read, or when Mike explained this in a panel or a private conversation. That's what makes it hearsay. It may be even less than that, just rumor; Greg never asserts that Mike Mearls told him anything first hand.

Peace rest on you all.

Then by now there should have been a retraction or a correction. In the absence of such, and the high visibility of the conversation, I'll conclude that Mike Mearls said something that could be reasonably interpreted as them paying little attention to playtest results, and Tito reported it in such a way that Mike Mearls feels no need to clarify his intention, suggesting that it is accurate enough to not require clarification.

That seems by far the most likely scenario.

I don't believe anyone is going to begrudge you your decision to interpret matters however you prefer. On the other hand, if you expect others to accept that interpretation as empirical evidence (which you seem to), I'd prepare for disappointment.

TLDR: Hearsay is hearsay.

In all seriousness, if I have to pay monthly fee to get decent use out of 5E I won't support the edition.