Sebastian's page

Just to point it out again, there are people over there who don't actually believe he got canned, laid-off, or what have you. That said, telling people to not be a dick only works on fairly moderate people who are acting out of their normal bounds, in my opinion. Why, I've even seen dicks say, Don't be a dick.

Don't be a dick, leafy.

Sebastian wrote:

Paizo will be fine. They produce products people want to purchase. ;-)

I love Paizo and Pathfinder, but ignoring the fact that D&D 4E has been the #1 selling RPG every quarter (except one) since it released seems to be a little silly. They are different games for different tastes, but D&D is still a very successful line.

Wizards reshuffles employees every year. This is just business as usual.

Dude! Winky face absolves comment of all malice. Sheesh.

I'm happy in my current relationship. I hope WotC is doing well, and wish them all the best. We had some good times together, but we drifted apart. I'd like to think that, to the extent I have a meaningful relationship with a corporation, the employees of whom I have very rarely interacted with, that relationship is secure and comfortable enough that we can make jokes like this.

And, I'd pour a 40 out for Bill any day. Good man, good gamer, good body of work.

Paizo will be fine. They produce products people want to purchase. ;-)

I can't wait to see how things shake out with Mr. Chicken. I can't imagine a scenario in which both he and Walter survive and, given that Walter is the main character, things don't look so good for him...

Though, then again, this is Breaking Bad, which I find impossible to predict. I can't believe how many times this show has blind-sided me. My favorite was the episode with the cousins showing up at Walter's house just as the bad-ass fixer (his name escapes me, but he was bald and had a passing resemblance to Walt) was there. I ended the episode saying "Holy s%+#, they're going to kill that dude and think he's Walt" and when things went in a completely different direction, I laughed at how well I had been played.

I'm pretty sure he rolled her over, but I could be wrong. I binged on the series at the beginning of the year, from start to finish, so it's still pretty fresh in my mind. Plus, she made a big deal of how she always lies on her side due to the risk of death by vomit.

I give Walt 5 kills, including Jane.

2 from the RV (one died from gas, one died from strangulation)
2 gangers (hit with car, then bullet to the head)
Jane

He didn't kill Jane on his way to do the big meet-up with Mr. Chicken - he came back to Jessie's apartment after giving Jessie the money from Mr. Chicken to talk with him or take his money or someting like that. He rolled Jane from her side to her back, which made it possible for her to choke on her own vomit, and then did nothing when that happened.

That's my personal judgment, and I know it can be argued otherwise. Heck, I've seen people argue that Walt is guilty of killing all the people in the plane crash. I find him to have some level of moral culpability, but nothing rising to a legal level of culpability with regards to that. With regards to Jane, I think he's both morally and legally culpable for her death, but it's, at best, a lesser degree of murder, and even then, subject to debate.

Yup - there was an interview with the creator, and he said that there was no intent for the last shot to be ambiguous. The pan was meant to just move to the character's POV, not imply that Jessie moved the gun away prior to firing.

Can't freaking wait. I dream of someday being as awesome as Saul.

Sebastian wrote:

and Mount Rushmore?

He's not.

You're thinking of the Canadian Mount Rushmore, which has second string American presidents (Adams, Taylor, Grant, and Doc) because Canada itself is a second string America. The real Mount Rushmore, located in East Dakota, has both a young Franklin and the later, burned out rockstar Franklin.

I swear, doesn't anyone know American history and landmarks?

I guess this is as good a time as any to point out that I have coined a new thingie:

Sebastian's Law: Anybody who wants to be a moderator is unfit to wield the banhammer.

Aw, c'mon. That's like saying Thor shouldn't wield Thor's hammer!

Besides, what fun would it be to ban people I'm dressing down? That's not winning, that's cheating.

Look, I understand that complex systems are hard to comprehend and that sometimes those who aren't up to the challenge need to boil it down to a simple series of numbers to create the illusion of system mastery. It's a cute trick, and I'm sure it impresses the middle school girls and my mom (who, to be fair, is easily impressed). This can be particularly true if you've never actually played the game with friends (and this challenge is magnified when a lack of social skills prevents a person from having friends), but the way the game is actually played, by most people who play it, most of the time, it works pretty well and is pretty fun.

And that's all it really needs to be and do. Not be perfect; not have all options be entirely equal; not allow you to wins the internets.

Anyhow, best of luck to you, Tommy. Maybe someday you'll be kind enough to present the pearls of wisdom and god-like skills at game design to us in a new rpg. I for one, eagerly anticipate Enchanter Tommy the RPG, the only 100% balanced RPG that's fun to play and super awesome.

Sebastian wrote:

The problem is that everyone thinks Lincoln is a great president, while completely ignoring the many achievements of Ben Franklin, the nation's greatest president.

Also, Lincoln had a b*~#+in' luxury car. Or so I hear.

Franklin did indeed do many cool things, but he was never President of the United States.

Edit: Just sayin'

Then why is he on the $100 bill and Mount Rushmore?

Sebastian wrote:

Yeah, it strikes me that the change would effectively be all classes get -1 skill points and fighter types (i.e., those with fighting as a class skill) get +3 to attack.

When you put it that way, you almost argue me into doing it. Good going!

Heh. It could be cool.

There was a regular poster here for a while that ran a really unique homebrew. His chief innovation was hp - you got a fixed number based on race and then +1 hp each level thereafter. All weapons and spells had their damage reduced to something like 1 pt/die. My description doesn't do justice to it. At first, I thought it was idiotic, but came to appreciate it's old school charm and leathality as he explained it further.

Yeah, it strikes me that the change would effectively be all classes get -1 skill points and fighter types (i.e., those with fighting as a class skill) get +3 to attack.

Still, there's a certain elegance to it.

V'GER wrote:

V'GER will show you on his processor where the bad carbon unit touched him.

Nobody said anything about carbon. I'll have you know, I'm one of history's greatest evil holograms.

Pfft. You're maybe in history's greatest 100 evil holograms, but you're pretty far down the list. Evil Ben Franklin is way better.

Why am I not playing this game RIGHT NOW?!

Because it's hard to be king?

Is a hiperbole what a hipster eats cereal out of?

sees what you did there...

This man speaks the truth.

Laurefindel wrote:

I play with a system re-write of 3.5 of the same magnitude as Kirth's.

OT - but am I the only ruleswonk around here who GMs pretty much by the RAW with a bunch of plug-in rules?

You're the only one here who actually plays the game at all. The rest of us just b+#!# about gaming on the internet.

weren't there rumors he had an affair with one of his maids in the white house? Not only that but the fact that she was African American and had a kid from it? Or am I just being crazy/mixing up my presidents?

Nope. You're thinking of President Dwayne Alezando Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, again.

Or Franklin.

Or, in a reality-based turn of events, Jefferson.

(not that I don't think there are closet wiener fans in Congress.)

Sees what you did there...

If it had kept the Union together Lincoln would have quite happily put up with the slavery in the South and the segregation in the North (which he never addressed). Problem is, that by itself would not have resolved the economic imbalances that were tearing the country apart. That would have to wait for the further industrialization of the South itself.

Lincoln would later write the Emancipation Proclamation, but despite his personal aversion to slavery, he had to be strong-armed into doing so.

And this is relevant to my snark directed at poor reasoning because...

Oooh, more help from our friend Focus. I had missed the updates on this thread.

Also, henceforth, I shall be known as:

Carrot Blue Reins
Carrot is an eccentric genius with a big imagination.
He is as blue as the sky,
and he casts mischievous spells.

Speaking of wives, I informed Mrs. Sebastian of the pictures, and her reaction was "Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?" She will be comforted by the fact that y'all think I'm number 1.

But those of you who think I'm number 2 are on the list...

What?!?! I'm not dead yet. How can I have a ghost.

Oh, yeah, one more thing...

If it's true and the very first Republican president, and one of the greatest presidents ever, was gay would make almost every moral argument from Republicans even more hypocritical than they already are.

If it can be proven beyond a doubt I wonder how long it would take Lincolns party to have his image removed from the Five dollar bill and the penny?

I sure hope no one finds out that the Democratic party used to be the pro-slavery and segregation party. That sure would make them look like a bunch of hypocrites as well. I bet they'd impeach the president if that came out.

But where would Lincoln Park?

How on earth did you ever fall out of the #1 spot on my enemies list? That post alone inflicted 2d4 points of sanity damage.

No no no, Lincoln could turn INTO a b**%%in' luxury car. He was half-transformer on his mother's side.

Yet again, you're thinking of President Dwayne Alezando Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho. How many times do we have to have this conversation in presidential threads?

The problem is that everyone thinks Lincoln is a great president, while completely ignoring the many achievements of Ben Franklin, the nation's greatest president.

Also, Lincoln had a b#%+%in' luxury car. Or so I hear.

So, I hear that PaizoCon was a total disaster, and that everyone spent the whole weekend moping around missing my awesomeness.

No problem dude, glad we're all straight on what we meant to say. Sorry if I seemed abrupt or rude but I was just trying to keep my language clear. Have a smiley: :)

No worries and thanks for the smiley. You know you've done something wrong when someone responds to your post saying something you believe in opposition to what you posted.

In other words, had someone else posted what I posted, not only would I have had a similar reaction to you, I'd have been far less kind in my response.

Just because I'm a power-gaming min-maxer doesn't mean I can't have fun just like you can. Or roleplay well. You are not doing it wrong, and neither am I. Every way to play is the right/wrong way to play.

(This is known as the stormwind fallacy. I'm not trying to call you out on this, just letting you know it's a bit of an old hat in the gaming community. Powergaming != can't roleplay)

My bad. Wasn't trying to diss on the power gamers among us who can have a conversation about balance/mechanics without turning on the whambulence to cry about the game being "broken" generally. Power-gaming min-maxer was a substitute for a less pleasant, but more accurate, description and did not quite serve the intended purpose. Unfortunately, the word needed to capture the intended purpose would constitute a breach of forum rules.

I agree entirely with your sentiment - there's no right/wrong way to play. There's having fun, and there's not having fun. If you're having fun, you're doing it right. If you're not having fun, go find something fun to do.

Edit: Revised the post in question because it was clearly not what I meant to convey.

Also, didn't the OP already take his ball and go home to play Essentials?

I'm generally of the opinion that the fewer self-proclaimed, all-knowing lords of balance and good game design in the Pathfinder population, the better the gaming experience will be. I'd say I support having Pathfinder be the least balanced, most ridiculous game ever in the history of the hobby if it drives off people like the OP.

Don't get me wrong, I like creating ridiculous scenarios based on reading the core rules as if they were instructions for assembling a nightstand as much as the next guy, but I also like having fun while gaming. Pathfinder is fun to play, and that's really all I care about.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong...

Real men know that "chess" is not a verb.

Oh wait...it's me...

Nevermind.

P.S. I hate you all and hope PaizoCon sucked.

As i see it, roll damage then mulitply with 1.5. SImple as that...if there is a thing that adds damage like warmage's edge, that does not get multiplied because it is not variable...Very simple.

Yup - it's that simple, and always has been. I don't think anyone's debating how it works, just whether or not it is a change from prior editions.

It is not.

Empower has always acted only on the variable component - this is not a change from Pathfinder.

Here's the 3.0 text:

All variable, numeric effects of an empowered spell are increased by one-half.

Here's the 3.5 text:

All variable, numeric effects of an empowered spell are increased by one-half.

Here's the Pathfinder text:

All variable, numeric effects of an empowered spell are increased by half.

No change in any edition.

What a weiner.

Down by the baaaaaaay
Where the watermellons grown
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do, my mother will say
"Did you ever see a whale
with a polka-dot tail?"
Down by the baaaaay

Dot-dot-dot

Dash-dash-dash

dot-dot-dot

They are okay on toast.

I think those games are still going strong as product lines, but instead of selling a large number of cards to a large casual audience, they sell a large number of cards to a smaller, hardcore audience.

Or, at least that seems to be the case for magic. I'm less sure about pokemon.

Important safety tip: The Jade does not make idle threats.

Also, I apologize to everyone, but I'm going to have to destroy the internet as a result. After posting this, I'm going to put it in my trashcan and delete it. It's for the good of mankind.

I'm probably going to get lynched for saying this, but I would love to see (and would happily buy) a Pathfinder 2E sooner rather than later, especially if it really cleaned things up and shaved a few hundred pages off the core book. Something like Star Wars Saga would be ideal.

But yeah...way in the minority here. ;-)

I like new editions! Though, generally speaking, I'm pretty happy with the PFRPG rules, so to the extent I would want a new edition (which is probably 4-6 years off for me), it would mostly be a consolidation/polishing edition rather than any substantial change to the game system.

New question, entirely unrelated to any prior question or answer provided thereto.

Anyone know of a good burn cream for one's man parts?

Does anyone know how to burn a facebook account to the ground?

You can't copyright 'Roll a d20 and add modifier'. However, Armor Class can be copyrighted. How you determine Armor Class can be copyrighted. Fighter has 1d10 hit dice per level can be copyrighted. Fireball does fire damage to area and does 1d6 per caster level can be copyrighted. Reflex save, Fortitude save, Will Save, can all be copyrighted.

Everything I know about copyright comes from law school, and that's a long time past, but my general understanding is that you can't copyright game mechanics. The HD for a fighter, the determination of AC, etc., are, to my understanding, mechanics. You can't describe them using the exact words as WotC products, but you can provide a series of mathmatical formulas for deriving stats and rules for how those stats interact which exactly mimic 3.5.

Of course, any good lawyer knows that being in the right is worth as much in legal fees as you're willing to spend to prove it. WotC has the legal resources to shut down smaller companies, particularly one that is launching a new generic brand version of D&D, even if the party is not infringing WotC's copyrights in any way, shape, or form. Copyright law is too murky to be resolved by summary judgment (usually), so a fledgling company would be forced into court and would spend considerable attorney's fees and time proving they were right. By the time the dust settled, they'd likely be out of business even if they were completely within their rights.

People tend to confuse the actual rules of copyright law (which are murky) with the practical application of copyright law (which favors the party with deeper pockets due to said murkiness).

BTW, who wants a free jadepeg?

Pass.

If 4E was OGL, there would definitely be more 3PP support. I myself look at the 4E Rules Compendium and think, wow, this is a tight rules core. If only I could publish house rules for it to tweak it more to my liking. But I can't. I can't redefine character creation by the terms of the GSL. I can't redefine classes by the terms of the GSL. I can't use anything from Gamma World by the terms of the GSL. There's so much potential that I can't touch because 4E isn't OGL.

Wizards created a monster and released it to the wild. The monster is still very successful, too bad they let it go.

Which is particularly ironic* given that 3pps are already hampered by the reliance of 4e upon the online tools. WotC could likely throw caution to the wind, put out a 4e OGL, and yet still not have to worry about 3pp competition due to the gated nature of those tools. Even if one of those 3pp put together a new system based on the 4e OGL (ala, Mutants & Masterminds), I'd wager they'd be less successful than in the 3.5 days because those who play 4e are spoiled by having access to the online databases/tools.

*Maybe. I'm not sure if it's ironic, I need to consult my Alanis Morrisette handbook to confirm.

It will take me a little time to favorite 8,704 posts, so hang on, OK?

...why do I say things like this?