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16. Dexter's Lab, wherein Dexter and friends sit down for some RPG fun. DeeDee ends up as GM; hilarity ensues.
As stated in the article, Amazon is looking into the issue, and I reasonably sure that this will be resolved and that nobody of any real importance at Amazon had any knowledge of the situation prior to these allegations. They certainly wouldn't be the first major corporation to unknowingly end up in bed with distasteful subcontractors. Paizo has their printing done in China...would reports of this nature coming from that nation really surprise you, and would you "boycott" Paizo products forever because of such reports? If you wish to express your concerns to Amazon, by all means do so, but I would be shocked if they have not severed all ties with HESS Security by the end of the week.
These proposed communities have great potential. Imagine the awesomeness of the world if half of the wacko extremists suddenly decided to become hermits, and leave the rest of us alone? Now if we could just get the extremists from the other end of the political spectrum to do the same thing...
I love Feingold. He's the only one I trust to be about what he says he's about. In the Democratic party that is. I dunno, Kucinich is pretty bad ass.
Actually this list of stuff serves to shine a light on why the monk is such a poorly-executed class. 4 attacks per round? By level 10 even most of the 1/2 BAB classes can get access to a spell and be capable of this. Also, most of your list is invalidated by this because it is based on movement, and unlike a couple of other class options, full attacking while using any of those movement benefits cannot be combined for the Monk. Speaking of the running, jumping, and falling abilities...woohoo, you just presented a list of options that can be duplicated or superseded by spells in the 1-3 level range! When your 10th level class abilities are outdone by other classes 4th and 5th level gains, you do not get to boast. Also, most classes that don't cast spells are not worried by falling 50 feet, because unlike the overly-MAD monk, they had enough points to place some into Con for bonus HP. Immunity to disease is meh, at best. Most diseases in PF are not much of a short term threat, and if a class does not have access to the 2nd or 3rd level spell option, there is plenty of time to find someone of 4th or 5th level who does. Evasion is nice, but is not as big a deal at 10th level for those classes that do not have it. Reflex save HP damage is not going to be much of an issue for the other non-MAD guys who again had the points available to place into Con for bonus HP. But yes, in a running, jumping, and falling competition that disallows spells and items, the monk will win quite often. Perhaps we should change the name of the class to "Gymnast"?
If you want to maintain balance between level-appropriate encounters and player characters, you should try to give out level-appropriate rewards. 300,000 GP at level 3 is nothing even vaguely resembling a level-appropriate reward, so you should not be at all surprised when the players attempt to use such grossly inflated resources to attain grossly inflated power for their PCs.
This entire argument only applies if people treat males and females at all differently. Outside of a preference for sleeping with one particular gender or another, what is the benefit of doing this? Bottom line, if you make an honest effort to treat all people as people, regardless of their dress or genitalia, you really cannot go wrong.
For the camera, there is already an item published by Paizo that should fit the bill...
I find that emotional attachments to the color of a fictional man's outside-underwear is a sure sign that something isn't right. On topic, it's been done before, and I am certain it will be done again. Hopefully this time is more interesting than the last.
I am just posting the first 10 that come to mind when I think of the word "Superhero". 1. Superman
Yay for slippery slopes. I am all for doing whatever you want, Aretas, so long as you promise to not cry foul on that day in the future when they decide to start using the same logic to begin labeling "Die-hard conservative RPG messageboard posters" as terrorists as well, because you are inciting unrest and possible violence with your inflammatory words. In the future gang-bangers will swim in piles of dough, own dozens of phat ridez, and have bizznatches galore at their beck and call, having finally realized the American dream by way of one of a very few means their culture deems possible or acceptable. Please tell me exactly where you draw the line, and who gets to draw it? Because whether you like it or not, the situation that I described in which people such as yourself get labeled as domestic terrorists is just as plausible and agreeable as the drivel with which you responded to me, or the situation I outlined above, only in one scenario you get to define things, and in the other scenarios someone else gets to decide. That is to say, all three are laughable, but frighteningly possible. I am very much on topic. Please remove your blinders and realize that there are acceptable and very well-reasoned worldviews other than your own.
Yay for slippery slopes. I am all for doing whatever you want, Aretas, so long as you promise to not cry foul on that day in the future when they decide to start using the same logic to begin labeling "Die-hard conservative RPG messageboard posters" as terrorists as well, because you are inciting unrest and possible violence with your inflammatory words.
]Uh, that's 'Eowyn,' and the only thing she one-shotted was the Witch-King's flying mount. The Hobbit with her one-shotted the Witch-King.The hobbit stabs him in the back of the knee, which distracts him long enough for Eowyn to stab him in the face. Technically neither of them one-shorted him. I think perhaps you need to reread the Battle of Gondor section in your book. Eowyn does indeed slay the Witch King after Merry stabs him in the back of the leg.
WoD is WoD, the amount of emo and angst present is dependent upon who is playing. From what I have seen, those who prefer oWoD prefer the richly detailed history and the massive numbers of already fleshed out areas and npcs of the world, whereas those who prefer nWoD prefer the unknown and the mystery that the nWoD presents.
I learned what a dais is. Oh, and a gazebo. Ahahaha, gazebo! I love that story. Similarly, a ziggurat.
Yes! You are right. Babies are EVIL!!! Look more closely next time you interact with one, those of you who refuse to believe. Check out their smug expressions and beady little eyes. Clearly they are plotting your doom.
What's the name for someone that takes things like Craft (basketweaving)What if I actually WANT to take Craft (basketweaving) because it fits my character concept?? I think the people discussing the Craft(Basketweaving) issue would say that there is nothing wrong with that at all, until or unless you begin to act as if doing such a thing makes you superior to the others at the table, or if you begin to whine because your character is not at the same power level as the rest of your group. This entire topic is silly, IMHO, because aside from the Cheater, all of the other titles are purely subjective. What is simple optimization to one group creates a freakishly overpowered munchkin at a different table.
Torture a PC? Start with Dell components. Load Windows ME on it. Turn it on.
I expect this will received in the same manner as DC's New 52. Longtime fans may have a fit, but the infusion of new blood into the customer base will balance it out. This may even be a better move for Marvel at this time than it was for DC last year, while their IP is riding the wave of financial success that their movies have produced.
trying to respond seriously*bang* Anyone who posts that (ancient, for the intardwebz) drivel needs shot as well, so turn the barrel towards yourself, AmiB! That silly thing has been around for ages, but I did read a pretty decent refutation of it once. The following are not my words, so keep the weapon holstered: The Department of Energy has little to nothing to do with the energy used to power your alarm clock - you are probably thinking of your State or Regional Public Utilities Commission, which are by and large very poorly run organizations whose policies are largely bought and sold by those in the energy business, supporting localized monopolies that help keep your energy bills high.
As for the water for your shower, chances are that your municipality built and owns it's own water treatment plant and distribution system, but I can guarantee you that if they haven't already, they are taking a serious look at bringing in a private business to run that plant and system. All over the country this trend of privatization of water maintenance is picking up steam, because by and large the communities that have tried it have found it to be cheaper and more efficient. The FCC has quite a few responsibilities, mostly including management and division of the airwaves, so that multiple signals being broadcast too closely to each other do not cause interference. On the plus side, they do help enforce competition - Ma Bell, we hardly miss ye. On the negative side, censorship is bad, mmkay? The National Weather Service is a division of the NOAA, hooray for news! Government funded scientific research and reporting? Awesome! Can't really complain here. Same goes for NASA, although one could argue that privately-funded satellite programs are more efficient. The USDA and the FDA both have issues far too numerous to get into here, particularly with regards to past instances of discrimination, and limiting competition. Also the FDA is practically owned by big businesses, who can rush almost anything they like through the system with the proper application of the right amount of money. The NIST, again, yay for science! Getting everybody on the same page when it comes to weights and measures is a good thing. The DoT/NHSTA is good for safety and oversight, though one could argue that they could do a much better job of planning. Traffic sucks. Politics has unfortunately seeped into the workings of the DoT to hinder the development of mass transit systems for years, though. Privately owned and maintained toll roads have proven to work far better than public roadways in many areas throughout the country for quite some time. EPA - see my comments on the FDA. Federal Reserve Bank - After the debacles of the past few years, you really want to bring up goverment interference and oversight of our banking systems as an argument of SUPPORT for more government?!? No comment. USPS - lawl, another bankrupt government organization being outperformed by private industry. Let's toss a few government agencies out there that you forgot; you tell me which of these work so well that they should convince me that more government is a good thing: (some of my favorites, taken from http://www.usa.gov/Agencies.shtml ) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (formerly the Health Care Financing Administration) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Citizenship and Immigration Services Bureau (formerly Immigration and Naturalization Service) Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction Commodity Futures Trading Commission My personal favorite dysfunctional government agency - Congress
Lol No Child Left Behind - Department of Education (ED) Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Employee Benefits Security Administration (formerly Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration) Executive Office for Immigration Review Federal Election Commission Woohoo Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - Federal Housing Finance Board Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Perhaps the greatest joke on the list - Government Accountability Office (GAO) You can ask any Native American how well this one works - Indian Affairs, Bureau of Interagency Council on Homelessness And let's not forget this one - Social Security Administration (SSA)
You obviously do not buy into it, so why does it bother you so much what their book says about you?Because while I don't buy into it, lots of other people do, and some of them actually act on it. And it isn't the buying into what it says that is the problem, it is the twisting of the message to reinforce their own personal prejudice/agenda that is the real issue. And it isn't exactly a novel idea that groups of people like to band together and choose to dislike other groups of people who are different from themselves. Big freaking deal. Quite the bar you've set for your Bible there. I hope it doesn't disappoint you when it's time for the performance review. High expectations work both ways, you know. I wasn't setting much of a bar at all. You provided a quote, I told you that you were misrepresenting what was meant by the quote. That passage does not call those who do not accept Christ THE antichrist. The funny thing is that if you read into the rest of what is said there are portions of the New Testament that basically say that everything that any person does that is not directly related to glorifying God is in the spirit of the antichrist, including the actions of Christians. You guys are attempting to impeach the unimpeachable, prove the unprovable, and preach to an audience of the blind and deaf. Even if they were able to see and hear your sermon, they would willfully ignore it.
Which is somehow a good thing and totally non-polarizing. Yeah, sure. Tell me another. It's only polarizing if you believe it is true and choose to take offense. It is assuredly not the damning evidence that Christians hate non-Christians with the passion of a thousand suns as you seem so ready to paint them. You obviously do not buy into it, so why does it bother you so much what their book says about you? If you think those Bible passages are a hoot, I would love to hear your interpretations of the Qur'an, specifically the parts where they discuss infidels and how they should be dealt with.
All 5 have agreed that the complexity of the systems are directly related to the number of splatbooks...Heh. Check out Fantasy Wargaming, by Bruce Galloway (a history grad student at Cambridge University). There was just the one rulebook, but every task required a series of tables and long algebraic equations -- different ones for each task, of course -- so that simply attacking someone with a dagger became a master's thesis. Oh yes! I had forgotten about that particular book. It was interesting, but nobody that I know personally has ever actually attempted to play it.
Reliance upon GM fiat is never better than codified rules. It is at best a necessary evil. I am not saying it cannot be fun, but a system can have flexibility and a lower level of complexity without resorting to just not having rules.
Speaking as a Grognard myself, you're looking through the lens of nostalgia for 1st ed. And how many more hours, days, weeks, months, years....decades? more experience do you have playing with that rule set as opposed to the newer editions? Anything is easy once you have learned it inside and out. It becomes even easier once the game stops receiving support and no new rules are produced that need incorporated into play. And as far as taking Pathfinder and reworking to something akin to 1st or 2nd edition, good luck to you, and I hope you enjoy playing with your set of houserules. But the comment that you are doing it "by stripping out all the munchkiny-stuff" is absurd. The older editions were just as susceptible to manipulation and power gaming as the rules systems from recent years, so all you will be doing is stripping out the stuff you perceive to be munchkiny and putting stuff back in that is just as bad.
A better question would be "Why is it that any time something comes along that might make the Rogue useful or fun to play in combat, people freak out and 'need clarification'?" Rogues are not exactly destroying enemies by the dozen and making the Fighter obsolete or green with envy. No need to nitpick something that makes one very particular build work to even the playing field. Perhaps a more zen answer to the original question is needed. Try this one: Every couple of rounds the Sap Master Rogue appears to be doing (nonlethal) damage as if he were a Fighter. Is he actually turning into a Fighter? No, but he is doing comparable (nonlethal) damage just the same, so who cares?
Areas of the country where abstinence is more stressed tend to have lower ages of first marriage and higher divorce rates. Source? I only ask because I know abstinence is heavily stressed pretty much across the board in all states, so unless you have some data that I am not privy to, you'd be hard-pressed to single out specific areas for this. I am assuming you are attempting to toss a veiled insult in the direction of areas that you may not like, such as the Bible belt, Midwest, or Southern states. Of course, if that is what you are assuming, you would be assuming the more "enlightened" regions on the coasts would not have these problems, but I am fairly certain you are forgetting a couple of things that would fly in the face of your claim: The heavily Catholic Hispanic populations on both coasts, and the alarming societal problem of compiling "marriage and divorce" data from poorer urban areas, where the rate at which the two parents of a child get married at all, much less divorced, laughably skews the data on such rates.
The reason I wasn't reading comics was the amount of years of stories that needed to understand the present comics.Eh, I call foul on that. Sometimes, the ONLY way you can get into something is by jumping right into the middle of it. You might think that is true, and for you that may be the case, but there were plenty of potential comic readers out there who felt otherwise. My personal evidence, anecdotal as it may be, is that of the 7 kids in my family (my 2 daughters and 5 nieces and nephews) not one of them felt as though they could "get into" the comics as it was, and now all of them are rabidly consuming as many issues of the New 52 as they can get their grubby little hands on.
All I am hearing is "blah blah blah, you should be grateful to live in a police state" Did you know that living in a police state doesn't mean that a person is more safe, it just means that they have more people to fear, because in addition to being persecuted by criminals they will also likely be persecuted by those with the law on their side? Having the law on one's side doesn't mean that someone is doing the right thing. Also, in reference to your statistics, when they are performing random searches of black males more times than there are black men in NYC something is off, as that would mean that a black man not only statistically guaranteed to have his rights violated, but it is possible for it to happen more than once per year.
Steve Jobs was in many ways a pompous, obsesive jerk. But he's still a hero to me because of the great waves he made in the personal computing paradigm, in manyways redefining the paradigm itself to one of a digital lifestyle. If there's anyone that he can be compared to, it would be Thomas Edison (who had ample levels of Jerkass in his psyche as well) The main difference is that while Edison revolutionised four industries, Jobs did it to five.The problem with Heroes is that when you look close up at them, they turn out to be Human after all.Maybe, but I'd hardly call either one a hero. The only Star Wars movie I like is Empire, and that's the one George had the least to do with, and by the time I knew who Gygax was, D&D was no where near my favorite game. I think it is just more a case of I didn't realize what pompous self-righteous pricks they were before. JMHO and YMMV If you're going to go that far out onto the Steve Jobs Fanboy Limb, then you have to give Edison credit for revolutionizing pretty much every modernized industry in existence. Comparing Jobs to Edison is like comparing a set of high-powered floodlights to the sun.
Nolan? No. Bale? Yes. Makes me forgive casting Morgan Freeman as anything but an untalented corpse.Pfft. I'm going to say the new Batman movie is awesome no matter how much it sucks.Ah, well if your'e a Nolan worshiper, that explains it. "Grumbles and comically forces out some dialogue in a voice so stupidly hoarse as to be unintelligible." Bale is overrated.
This post is a spectacular example of why I have taken a liking to Paizo and have switched to Pathfinder. No, the mechanics and the product are not perfect, but this is a hobby whose participants are above all else passionate, and the fact that the CEO (and from what I have read, pretty much all of the employees) shares this passion for the game is what sets Paizo apart. The shared enthusiasm really shines through in the end product.
Every time I read another of yellowdingo's posts, I come away truly wishing he would share some of whatever he has been smoking with me.
At the core, it is very simple to scrutinize and pass judgement upon every law. They are meant to protect us from one another, and that's pretty much it. Therefore, any law which serves any function at all other than prohibiting people from doing even the slightest bit of harm to other people is a bad law. There is no logical reason at all whatsoever for any other type of law. People have the right to make all of their own decisions which affect only themselves, even if those choices are not good for them in some others' eyes.
There are less game breakers in the Tome of Battle than there are on the Wizard/Sorcerer spell list in the Pathfinder Core Rules, and the ones that are in the ToB are actually easier to deal with than a straight PF Wizard.
Tank, Healer, Damage Dealer...there is nothing inherently wrong with these roles. I think the biggest problem is that these have become the only roles. The Dedicated Buffer, the Debuffer, the Controller, and the Puller (and more that I am surely forgetting) have been forgotten or had their role spread out amongst the Trinity.
Hey Ryan, I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your thoughts with us and keeping a dialogue going with the forumites here. The developer/insider activity and conversation on these boards is quite awesome, and is one of the main reasons I became a Paizo fan. When I first heard of this corner of the internet and checked it out, I was amazed at the level of interaction between the community and the Paizo staff, and am ecstatic to see it carry over to Goblinworks.
Anyone who has ever played any player-competitve online game ever knows exactly what PvP will turn into. It isn't a matter of if the game will turn into a gankfest with griefers it is a matter of when. That's not to say that all it will consist of is ganking and griefing, but it will happen to everybody at some point, and I do not blame anybody who chooses to not deal with it by not participating in the game. As far as details go, nobody has any real details yet, so the glowingly optimistic side of things is just as potentially silly as the people who are saying right now that they will never play it because they have an overly pessimistic viewpoint at this time.
In any video game, even an action, there are all sorts of dice rolls/random numbers generated. The wonderful thing about the video game medium us that it moves the dice rolls and random number generators to a behind the scenes area and reconciles them about a billion times faster than a person sitting at a table, rolling dice, and adding modifiers.
This will be very interesting to watch a new corporation with some solid financial backing and resources build an MMO in this manner. And for all you detractors, not only is this possible, but it is already being done on smaller scales all over the place. The development resources for building a complete online game are available from many avenues, some of which are free to use in exchange for a percentage of any profits the game makes when it begins collecting money. Indie developers all over are using these resources to good effect thus far (I've even seen one pretty fun game that was completely built by one man over the course of a year). Quite a few small development teams have also put stuff out there with fantastic results. I can't wait to see what an organization of professionals does with this approach.
Who are we trying to appeal to Scott?I'm pretty sure we're trying to appeal to people who want their funtime to be fun, not frustrating. Harsh death penalties in a game where death is partly determined by a RNG and by the actions of immature players is frustrating, not fun. This is the best thing I have ever heard from SKR. Almost enough to redeem him in my eyes!
One of the things that DC Universe Online did correctly was gear appearances. Basically any time you equip a piece of gear you also gain that particular gear's appearance and it is saved to your character profile. If in the future you want to use different gear with better stats, but do not like the way it looks, then you simply re-equip the old style for that slot after switching to the new piece of gear.
It wouldn't necessarily have to violate anybody's verisimilitude. I for one am actually open the game continues to expand outwards from the River Kingdoms into the surrounding regions (as it grows and gains the resources to do so of course.) It certainly isn't the norm nowadays, and I highly doubt it is a popular opinion that I hold, but I would love to see a return to meaningful travel. I understand that at the higher levels of the game, travel can be very repetitive and people do not necessarily wish to trudge through scenery for 15 and 20 minute journeys for the hundredth time, but one of the points that stood out to me about Golarion from the beginning was the promise of meaningful travel, and the limitations that the Pathfinder RPG placed upon teleportation and the like were features that I thought were awesome and would love to see in PFO. A sandbox game will need such travel restrictions, imo, because otherwise the sandbox too quickly begins to feel far too small. Also, a huge selling point of sandbox style gaming is that the journey is as important as the destination. This is certainly true of the tabletop games, but it is an idea that has been discarded in today's current MMO market, wherein the journey is just a minor annoyance to be raced through in the haste to get to endgame.
Reputation and rep rewards are an awesome mechanic! I'd love to see an in-depth reputation system in which your rep must be carefully maintained. What I would hate to see is a system in which it is not just possible to reach the highest reputation level available with every faction, but expected, as it is in some other MMOs. Choosing a faction with which to align your character should have rewards and consequences, and very few political/religious/secret society/other institutions where reputation would be an appropriate mechanic would look kindly upon someone trying to get in too awfully deep with another rival faction. I would view reputations as something wherein a Prestige Class system from the PnP game could be implemented, opening up new options for character development. Perhaps splitting the reputation system into different sections is an option? If you choose a religion for your character, perhaps your character can gain max-level reputation gains with that organization, and lower-level reputation with that church's allies, with corresponding inverse reputations with their opposed deities. The same could be done with political institutions and crafting/merchant/business guilds?
Interesting. All this from a mostly toothless audit. I am sure that there is a ton of stuff that is still kept hidden. Federal Reserve Audit Uncovers $16 Trillion in "Off of the books" Bailouts Stuff like this is why I think that OWS is concentrating on only half of the problem. The need to turn their gaze towards occupying East Capitol Street and L Street as well.
Rawr over what? That quote? Both sides will think that quote applies to them, as both sides believe that they are the ones working for a living. It's just that one side thinks that those who don't work for a living want a handout, and the other side thinks that those who don't work for a living want to hoard piles of money and stick it to the little guy.
You have to remember the times in which she was trying to get published. The Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre wasn't just male-dominated in the late '70s/early '80s when she was trying to make her mark, it was downright misogynistic. She used the initials C.J. instead of her name in order to hide the fact that she was female. Having any degree of femininity associated with your work at the time was a death sentence, as far as publishers were concerned. It wasn't just a marketing gimmick, it was self-preservation. |
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