Louis Agresta's page

140) No good deed will go unpunished.

We'd be happy to do some collaboration on adventures sometime. I think a lot of folks would enjoy a TPK + Fire Mountain or Frog God adventure. No... no... it's too perilous!

Sean's so awesome that there's no chin behind his beard. There is only another fist.

And Chuck Norris stole that idea from Sean.

Sean is so awesome, icosahedrons hope to roll a "natural Sean."

Well I'll be damned. Nick Logue is back. All us folks here in Buffalo have missed you quite a bit and I for one am glad to see you back. Man. Seems like you've had it rough. I can understand that. I've been there. I'm glad you got through it OK. I ain't even mad about the money. It's just not a big deal to me. I know I can't come to Piazo Con since I'm an East coaster but I hope I see you at GenCon, maybe even at Iron GM.

You see, I played in this game one time at a little con in Buffalo called UBCon with you and it showed me how I wanted to play games. In fact I was just hanging out with Daina and Kevin Burke today and they even remember me saying I want to run games like Nick Logue. Since then I've been involved in Iron GM and came in second one year, got beat by Steve Helt, got to write a little for WotC, (I know that's a bit sacrilegious round these parts, sorry) have a blog and podcast about gaming, and am one of the partners putting on a gaming convention in Buffalo at the Buffalo Niagara convention center this year. Nick. I never would of done any of this if I hadn't played in that game of yours. I wouldn't of looked around and realized how much more there was to gaming and how rewarding it could be beyond my home game. We have a community of over 300 gamer's spanning all of Western New York and including three colleges that I helped build and it really all started with just that one game. The friendships it created for me and ideas it put into my head inspired me. All this is worth way more than the few dollars I lost at Sinister Adventures. Also, the knowledge that you're actually still alive and kicking makes me feel better too. I hope to game with you sometime this year and maybe you'll let me run a game for you using nothing but a warehouse map, six pregens, and no prep, because that's how you taught me to roll.

Of course, I'm a white guy, so I might just be denying the obvious racism. I don't think so though.

We never do, dude, we never do.

if I'm speaking seriously, I don't think drow are an example of obvious racism. It's splitting hairs, but I think they're an example of racial insensitivity, the difference being that no one stopped to think about how it looked if you weren't white.

It also pays to keep in mind that 1E comes from the same time as Elfquest, when even thinking of elves who weren't white, good or bad, was sort of revolutionary.

The Drow (created by Gygax as I remember, no insult Lazar) do deserve a mention IMO, if only because I could never figure out why the elves who lived above ground would be the pale ones.

Paizo obviously approaches their characters with diversity in mind, and I don't see how that can hurt the industry. Speaking as a straight white male, we do have a blind spot when it comes to race, and I'm glad that there is at least one company whose art reminds me that every character out there doesn't have to look like me.

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.

I look forward to being Scorned!

Nic,

Good call on delegating. That's a stand up move. Also you earn a great deal of respect stand up and owning your mistakes.

Lou,

If you need help, I am here.

Steve Russell.

You might be able to go post on the NBOS boards then, you might be able to find someone on there with the requisite skills. The software is, quite frankly, amazing in how detailed it can get.

The Great City AP has some very good higher level urban adventures. Breaking of Forstor Nagar, Citadel of Pain and Coliseum are all outstanding as well.

Second Sinister Secrets of Silvermote, Slumbering Tsar, Breaking of Forstor Nagar and of course the Coliseum Morpheuon.

I'd also add the stellar Citadel of Pain by Lou Agresta and Rone Barton.

:)

John Benbo wrote:

Does Greg get paid per word or per PC killed? I think per word would be cheaper.

So, so, so excited to see this out in its entirety. When I first met Greg, we played a gag on him. He didn't know I was a newly minted freelancer, just starting my excursion into game design, or that we had many mutual friends.

So when I cornered him on an escalator, it looked like I had just attached myself to his group. "You're Greg Vaughan!" I glowered, waved my hands. "I want to punch you in the #%^@! You're responsible for killing more of my characters than any other writer! You and Istvin! Damn you Greg Vaughan!"

Then I followed him off the escalator.

It took a bit to convince him this was a gag and that I wasn't the worst sort of rabid anti-fan-boi-stalker.

I'm still not convinced.

Does Greg get paid per word or per PC killed? I think per word would be cheaper.

Oh I forgot one! My superawesome wife, who doesn't roleplay outside of crowd controlling and dispensing mind candy on EQ1, has said I may travel to the fabled Emerald City next June to partake in the fun and games of Paizocon.

One thing that drives me nuts: the supposed equivalence of beefcake and cheesecake.

Beefcake is first and foremost a male power fantasy.
Cheesecake is first and foremost a male sexual fantasy.

They are both unrealistic and have their place in fantasy art, but they are not equivalent.

What throws me for a loop is the near-universal implicit assumption that nudity = sex, an assumption that runs pretty strongly though this thread. I really can't get my head around that sometimes. I mean, generally, when I'm in the shower, I'm nude. Sadly, on a day-to-day basis I'm not there for sex -- I'm there to get cleaned up so I can go to work. How these two can be equated is completely beyond me. I understand, intellectually, that for 99% of people, nudity automatically implies sex, but I still often wonder why that is.

Genesis.

DeathQuaker wrote:

For me, as a woman...

You're a woman? That's hot.

Damn right I'm hot, and I'm more woman than you'll ever have.

:)

Shadowrun

Mouse Guard

Call of Cthulhu

My problem with the article is that, if everything is tolerated and love-worthy, it quickly becomes a race to the bottom. Am I supposed to tolerate Jerry Sandusky's "hobby"? Sure, if we could perform neurosurgery on him to shift his sexual interests to something more approprate, and to make him no longer think it's okay to victimize others, he might be a likeable guy... but at what point does that alter him to the point where he's no longer Jerry Sandusky, and we're really saying "love him if he were someone else"? Someone always mouths some platitude like "love the sinner, hate the sin," which is usually merely codespeak for "claim you love them but oppress the hell out of them." And, remember, there's a fine line as to how much of the "sinner" is the "sin."
So "Love everyone" sounds great, but is ultimately meaningless.

More pressing -- should I tolerate the efforts and honor the credo of an organized bloc of people who attempt to strip away the rights of all other groups? "Tolerate everything but a lack of tolerance" is part hypocrisy, part needed defense of a free society.

I don't think these are issues that any cute catch-phrase can solve. And I think it does everyone a disservice to pretend like they are.

This is a sad thread.

There is no time when killing baby of any race in our world would be acceptable. Why make it ok in a game?

Veal?

"Who's an evil baby?"

Who's an evil baby?"

"Peek-a boo I smite you."

That seems like a sort of dead baby joke. You sir, are not taking the discussion of killing of Kobold/Goblin/Orc babies as seriously as you should. I find your post both shallow and tasteless.

Oh, so we can eat peasants when the winter gets rough? :)

or if you just need to make a snazzy new coat. It puts the lotion on it's skin or else it gets the hose again.

AM BABIES EVIL? IF AM SO, SMITE EVIL WITH LOVE AND KINDNESS. IF EVIL AM REMAINING, SMITE EVIL WITH SWORD. IF AM STILL EVIL, USE MORE SWORD.

I'm really happy to see this up on Paizo, and gratified by the warm reception it has gotten already! Lou and Rone really turned it up to "11" for this thing and put my maps to spectacularly good use!