Gromnir's page

I have another problem. On my subscription page it says:

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Ongoing Subscription

Most recent volume:
Volume #7 shipped 03/11/08 via Pathfinder Standard Shipping (estimated 9 to 36 business days in transit)

Next volume:
Volume #9 is scheduled to ship May 2008
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Where is number 8?

the same thing happened to me... a month ago. i guess that i should not be surprised that history is repeating itself.

Ongoing Subscription

Most recent volume:
Volume #7 shipped 03/17/08 via USPS Package Service (estimated 3 to 10 business days in transit)

Next volume:
Volume #9 is scheduled to ship May 2008

presumably paizo has a glitch in their system that they have not yet managed to identify and address. regardless, i am hopeful that this does not become an endeavour of sisyphean futility and monotony for myself and cosmo.

i have faith that cosmo will fix the current issue with my subscription with the same diligence and alacrity he displayed in march. that being said, it might be more efficient to correct the cause behind the problem as opposed to addressing this annoying effect on a monthly basis, especially as it seems that this is not an issue limited to only a few subscribers.

thank you

dts

"I didn't say logic wasn't important in modules. I said it didn't apply to monsters so much, as being monsters and not human beings, they have an entire different outlook on the world. I referred you to Grendel by John Gardener for example."

the only Monster (a scary being with an incomprehensible motivation) in Grendel was Beowulf. the dragon, grendel's mother, and Grendel himself were all far more human than their original namesakes from the epic poem. John Gardner gave the dragon the capacity to see time differently than humans, but while the dragon's abilities were superhuman, his personality was familiar and comprehensible.

i believe that you managed to get things backwards. in gilgamesh and beowulf and tolkien's works, the Monsters were classical beasties; manifestations of fear and darkness hungering for power, blood, destruction, etc. their motivations were largely incomprehensible because, like Grendel, they were the savage unknown lurking just beyond the safety of the hall door.

the Monsters with incomprehensible motivation have always worked best when they are faceless. why does the boogie man hide in the closet or under the bed? does it matter? sauron and Grendel are successful as monsters because they are left unformed save for in the imaginations of the reader.

*shrug*

"My Advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold ad sit on it."

yeah, taken out of context, such a motivation is incomprehensible. however, unlike the traditional dragon that hoards gold for no fathomable reason save for instinct or whim, we actually get an explanation from Gardner's dragon.

Monsters need not be more than the "brute existent by which they define themselves." however, if you give the brute a face and a personality, then the simple and incomprehensible motivations will fail to satisfy your audience. partial humanization will inevitably lead to a complete failure of the character.

so far i am not too worried about CotCT and its villains and monsters. i am not expecting to forget richard iii or fyodor kharamazov after playing through 7-12, but i doubt that is a goal for paizo. even so, i do believe that it is a mistake for writers of fantasy to assume that a villain need not be plausible or comprehensible. such a belief is tied to a specific variety of faceless Monster, and is, in any event, a bit of an anachronism given the trends in literature in the past century.

Gardner's Grendel is a far different beastie from the one we see in Beowulf. Gardner's Grendel is... human.

"Now I've had the notification that #6 has shipped, my subscription details are showing #8 as the next volume, no sign of #7 anywhere."

my subscription page is indicating the identical peculiarity noted above.

update: i called customer service moments ago. they were able to fix the snafu almost immediately.

thank you.

"Standardization in the presentation of the sent message allows the receivers to step past translation more fully into the world of your ideas. When the presentation gets in the way, I tell my students, it undermines your authority as an author."

as this has nothing to do with the barbarian issue, i will note that a number of noteworthy authors have successfully broken from standardization. James Joyce may be the most critically acclaimed english speaking author post Shakespeare, and he played fast and loose with convention. sometimes, if you force somebody to translate, they actually read your words, rather than simply absorbing them. of course, if you are Joyce, perhaps you simply don't like how quotation marks look on paper. regardless, i doubt that Joyce felt that his authority was being undermined. in any event, i choose to follow the John Gardner school on this one: it is ok to break the rules, but only after you learn them.

...

nevertheless, i see your point. i guess that i will have to endure the blow to my paizo board authority.

"Now I realize not every country uses the American 101 keyboard design and even here in the USA there are variations of it, but why not use the right shift key?"

because it is more than a little awkward, particularly with some letters at the far left of the keyboard. the effort does not seem to match the payoff. sorry, but i will suffer the perceived lack of authority over and beyond the inconvenience to myself any day of the week and twice on sunday. if i require Harvard Bluebook standards, i let my secretary fix it. otherwise...

*sigh*

1) Robert E. Howard wasn't the one who took away Conan's armour and gave him weapons that no human could actually lift.

i am a big fan of Howard and Leiber (much more so than Tolkien) but even if those guys are your inspiration, you wouldn't end up with iconics that look like your barbarian. this is a reverse of the complaint made by a poster earlier in the thread: did you actually read Howard's words? sure, the magazine covers, the comic books and the frank frazetta art may be what you are actually remembering, but Conan wore genuine armour in the Howard stories. go back and read Hour of the Dragon if you don't believe me. a slim waisted woman with a sword as tall as she is with a blade wider than her head is not something i recall showing up in the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories either.

2) again, and for the third time, realism is NOT my complaint.

"oh well, this is fantasy. so many rules of common sense and physics are already violated simply to allow the game to function, so i really should not be surprised by a mangaesque swordmaiden being a pathfinder iconic. reality should never be a genuine concern."

that was my quote, so why do you seem to believe that i am bothered by reality stretching aspects in fantasy or paizo products? as another poster has observed, it is the anime/manga over-the-top silliness that makes me chuckle. your barbarian is not so much a d&d iconic or even a pulp fantasy iconic. she is a manga iconic... complete with an impossible sword (sorry, but while a sword of that length might be possible for a man/woman of herculean proportions to wield, surely you don't think that the Final Fantasy knock-off in question is a plausible weapon,) small frame, and exposed skin. she would be perfectly at home in a manga or anime.

btw, dragons are not real. to make a dragon plausibly spit fire or fly requires only that a person believe in magic. magic breaks all rules. suspension of disbelief is far easier for leprechauns and dragons and fireball casting wizards than for those completely mundane aspects of the game. even so, as i stated earlier, style should win out over substance when it comes to fantasy art... i simply don't like the manga style you have chosen.

3) this is not a big deal.

as i have stated before, this isn't a big deal, but the rationalizations being used don't make much sense to me. dredging up Howard and Leiber as support? suggesting that there is nothing unusual with the barbarian's sword or armour? look, anime and manga are gaining popularity in the US, so i am not surprised that paizo is tapping into that element, but i don't see why you need to cloak yourself in Leiber to rationalize.

if the general consensus is positive, then the "whys" do not matter. if you think that going in the direction of manga and away from Howard is a a good economic move, and if the fans seem to support that notion, then you will continue with this trend, regardless of whether your arguments are grounded in fact or fiction (or fantasy art as the case may be.) my input is clearly part of the minority on this issue, but the need for some folks to rationalize an aesthetic choice baffles me.

as for the complaint about the lack of capitalization in my posts i have 2 responses:

a) would the arguments be any stronger if i used caps appropriately?

b) my left hand is partially paralyzed. caps are difficult for me to manage and so i use them sparingly. however, i do apologize for the minor inconvenience.

i believe that i have pretty much said as much as i can in this thread; once a person gets to the point where they are simply repeating themselves ad nauseum, their continued posting becomes as tedious to read as it is to write. no doubt some people will continue to imagine arguments into or out of my post, but regardless, further posting on this issue would be futile.

Scantily clad.. did you even look at the picture or just read the thread and make assumptions? Aside from her stomaches, she's covering everything. Hell, she's wearing twice as much clothing as Seoni.

it is bad logic to use seoni as a comparison. the fact that seoni is even more tarted out does not diminish the accuracy of my statements concerning the barbarian. furthermore, i was not even really complaining about the scantily-clad aspect other than to note how it parallels one of the the worst manga cliches. my main concern was the ridiculous sword. that being said, yeah, the additional manga nonsense is a bit much.

oh and while i am responding i might as well note that particularly for a character who is supposed to be armoured, the barbarian is indeed scantily clad. how much do you want to bet that she is considered armoured when we finally see her character record sheet? her arms and legs are covered, but she is wearing what amounts to little more than a bikini top and a loincloth... covering her g-string perhaps? i realize that the goal was probably to make her look "hawt & tough," but the result is a little too extreme for me to take seriously. haven't we gotten past the "chicks in chainmail" mentality? no wonder it is so difficult for mainstream academia to take fantasy seriously.

the art looks nice, but this particular iconic is a bit over-the-top. sure, the paladin's armour and weapons are hardly realistic either, but i already conceded that we are dealing with fantasy, and i am quite willing to place style before realism. nevertheless, the barbarian takes the required suspension of reality to a different level; it is a matter of degree.

and just to be fair, i always hated the comic & art versions of Conan where they would show him fighting in the snow wearing nothing but a loincloth and boots. Robert E. Howard would probably be unable to recognize such a frostbite-resistant character being depicted as Conan.

this isn't a big deal. as long as the adventures are well-crafted i will continue to purchase them, but i doubt that the artwork of the barbarian iconic was supposed to elicit marginally disdainful mirth from potential purchasers. as a consumer i am offering some feedback. no doubt i am in the minority. c'est la vie.

and yes, to answer your other query, i have viewed the actual picture of the barbarian iconic. have you?

Ok I love her but hate the sword.

That it might sell Pathfinder to Mangaheads is fine with me though.

that was my impression; the sword is some ridiculous anime/manga inspired monstrosity being wielded by a petite woman with supa powhaz. unless the blade is made from painted balsa wood, i suspect that it would necessarily have to weigh more than she does.

*shrug*

of course to be truly analogous to manga, near the end of each major chapter, when it seems all hope is lost for our intrepid party, the under dressed valkyrie with the impossible sword will tap into her Secret Ability and save the day... leaving us all to wonder why she didn't go and do her Voltron shtick earlier in the story arc.

the art is pretty, but it is also kind of silly too.

oh well, this is fantasy. so many rules of common sense and physics are already violated simply to allow the game to function, so i really should not be surprised by a mangaesque swordmaiden being a pathfinder iconic. reality should never be a genuine concern. that being said, the sword in question, being wielded by the skinny chick who obviously laughs at the elements, inspired some small amount of mirth punctuated by a brief groan... no doubt the result of the bile that seemed to rise in my throat.

the pathfinder adventures have been, to date, excellent fare and while the feats and ability point distributions of some of the RotR pregenerated characters baffles me, i have been nonetheless impressed with the character design overall.

a scantily clad barbarian babe with a big sword? kewl?

keep up the good work, but go easy on the manga nonsense.