Jarreth Ivarin's page

I happen to be a Greek living in the US for the last 5 years doing my PhD.

The Golden Dawn party is indeed a bunch of neo-Nazi violent lunatics and a rather dangerous one at that.

As others mentioned before, most of the support they have in the wider populace (estimated at around 10% of the popular vote in recent polls) comes from the fact that Greece is suffering through the worst financial and social crisis for the country since WW2 and the civil war.

Before that Golden Dawn was a merely a distasteful joke getting less than 0.1% of the votes in elections. Greeks did not turn into fascists overnight. Most of the people who appear as "supporters" are misguided fools led by fear and despair and the desire to "punish" the traditional political parties seen as responsible for the deplorable state of the country. The instant gratification methods of those violent neo-Nazi goons copied straight from the Nazi handbook take advantage of all that.

The "Xenios Zeus" operation (I still wonder who the heck came up with that particular name) is supposed to help address the huge illegal immigration problem that the country is facing and its correlates. Is it a great idea? No it is not, again for many of the reasons that people have already mentioned (go carefully through the HRW link that GeraintElberion provided).

Is it perhaps the lesser of two evils? Might be... And I explain myself: Unless the scared and angry greek population sees the official state as doing something drastic about the illegal immigration issue there might be a real danger of more and more people flocking to the Golden Dawn (since they will be seen as the only ones doing something). If this keeps up it might not be long before the Golden Dawn has enough support to challenge the traditional political parties for the position of power. That will lead to either of two possibilities. A neo-Nazi government in Greece or another civil war. To both options as a Greek and as a democratic minded fellow, I say thanks but no thanks!!! Seriously. And if people think things are bad for immigrants in Greece now (and they are) wait until one of the two aforementioned possibilities comes to pass...

Additionally, Greece has certain obligations regarding illegal immigration under the Dublin III treaty. Those obligations make things rather hairy for Greece, Italy, Spain, Malta and other countries at EU borders. Until recently (last couple of years) all of those countries received very little EU help to deal with the immigration issues. Now that they do things are slowly getting better (stress on slowly...) but it will be a while before things are truly under control if ever. One can look for the reports of the EU people (FRONTEX force) stationed at the Greek borders and working with Greek forces on addressing the issues. The situation is often truly hopeless and the numbers of illegal immigrants huge. If the US thinks they have an illegal immigration problem they should take a look at southern EU countries.

Now, all of the above said, a significant percentage of the greek police were never particularly known for their professionalism. The fact that the security forces were never thoroughly cleansed of extreme right-wing people after the fall of the military junta in 1974, coupled with the fact that like minded individuals seem to have a tendency to flock to the armed and law enforcement forces (in every part of the world I think) do not make things any better.

I am absolutely certain that many reports of police brutality, unprofessional, racist or fascist behavior are true beyond question. These cases are simply horrible and unacceptable and something needs to be done quickly about that.

With regards to the video games developers arrested for espionage, this is an unfortunate incident, however photographing of military installations is strictly prohibited and does carry that charge (the same in several other countries). The installations in question are on an Aegean island right next to Turkey and you might understand that they are probably considered particularly important. I can only immagine if someone is caught taking detailed photographs of important US military or security facilities. The incident has absolutely nothing to do with racism/fascism or a police state.

With all due respect, the title of the thread is indeed misleading. We can talk about whether illegal immigrant detention camps are OK or necessary. I think they are generally a horrible idea.

But referring to a police operation detaining suspects for prostitution for a few hours (regardless of their gender or sexual orientation) as "Greek fascists put transfolk in concentration camps" is misleading and reduces any attempt to inform and educate people about real problems to tabloid-quality sensationalized fear-mongering.

It is bad enough that racists and fascists continually use misinformation and fear-mongering to further their own ends. If we hope to oppose them we cannot use similar means even unintentionally (I do not believe that there was any intention to misinform, merely indignation and outrage at what might be going on).

Just my two cents. Sorry for the long post. :)

I was wondering if anyone who got their hands on the hard copy of the book could comment on the quality of the printing/binding etc. Is the paper matt or glossy? What about acid free or not? I know that the quality of the hard copy is supposed to be quite good but I would be interested in hearing what people have to say. Thanks in advance.

I am not sure that the discussion is even about copyright anymore...

When you purchase a hard copy of a book the copyrights obviously (at least to me) are not transferred. That is fine and reasonable. However you can still sell your hard copy to someone else.

When you purchase a pdf it is not clear if you can do the same. Note here that it is not clear that copyright law is or should be any different depending on the medium (hard copy vs. digital).

The problem lies that in the re-sale of a hard copy you don't create a new unauthorized copy of the work and thus you ar enot violating copyright law.

In the case of the pdf the likelihood that this happens is greater. It is not clear if it is really enforceable to make sure that the seller deletes his copy etc. etc. to make absolutely sure tha this does not happen.

However we are faced with a serious issue: Do we violate certain property rights (resale) to prevent a possible (and perhaps likely) crime (copyright infringement) or not? And how far do we go?

Jarreth Ivarin wrote:

If your reasoning applied then perhaps with a similar pattern of thought money, stocks and everything else stored in electronic format worldwide would be intangible and perhaps considered not personal property, where actual banknotes or stocks in hard format would be?

I can go to my bank and exchange my 1 electronic dollar for 1 physical dollar. However, I can't go to Paizo and exchange my 1 PDF for 1 physical hardcopy.

Additionally, I can't have my electronic dollar stored on my computer harddrive along with the capability of creating as many copies of that electronic dollar that I want.

Jarreth Ivarin wrote:

I think everyone would agree that this would be a bad idea.

No one has suggested that either.

-Skeld

I don't disagree with either of your points. However it becomes obvious (even from your remarks) that the issue is not about the "tangibility" of the item in question but about the ability to create multiple identical copies of it without authorization. This has been mentioned in this thread and I believe is the core of the issue.

The tangible/intangible distinction is tangential really (and potentially misleading) and becomes only somewhat relevant by the fact that people are able to easily create unauthorized copies of some digital formats, but not of hard copies.

EDIT: too many copies of the word "points" :)

Yes, I realize it isn't established (yet). It's my belief that the physical books are personal property because they are tangible, but that PDFs won't be declared personal property because they are intangible. As such, I think the courts will rule that you're simply buying a limited use license of some sort and that you don't actually "own" anything when you make the purchase.

And I'm ok with that.

-Skeld

I would be very hesitant to call data of any sort "intangible" adn thus not personal property. A digital format of storing information (data) like a pdf contains said data as much as a physical hard copy.

If your reasoning applied then perhaps with a similar pattern of thought money, stocks and everything else stored in electronic format worldwide would be intangible and perhaps considered not personal property, where actual banknotes or stocks in hard format would be? I think everyone would agree that this would be a bad idea.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I am not saying that pdfs and money are the same thing here; what i am trying to say is that the tangible/intangible dichotomy as an argument is not likely to go very far.

"sinister" :D

*Raises left hand and waves*

Thanks Kthulhu!

This also points to the direction (as someone else posted before) that publishers were initially working on an unofficial pre-release version of the OGL and the SRD.

Until that was finalized and made official all bets were really off and the only thing that kept things in place was WotC's word basically.

Things are quite different now.

deinol wrote:

Jarreth Ivarin wrote:

hustonj wrote:

kenmckinney wrote:

I was not aware that Mind Flayers were ever open content, nor had I heard that things once made open could be made closed. Are you absolutely certain of this?

Absolutely.

Paradigm Concepts, Inc. had written up a smaller pamphlet product ABOUT the Illithids, paid the author, paid the artists, finished the lay-out and sent it to the printers.

During the period while they were awaiting delivery of the product, WotC removed Mind Flayers from the OGL. They received permission from the WotC lawyers to distribute and sell the product NOW based on closed content PROBABLY (I'm guessing here) because WotC didn't want to be fiscally responsible for the costs of somebody else's product which was created in good faith using property advertised as open content before it was sent to the printer . . ..

I have a copy of this book in the other room. I know the story because I know the guys who are Paradigm Concepts, Inc, and one of them vented at me about this before WotC gave them permission to sell the product anyway.

This is still weird though... I too was under the impression that mind-flayers were never open content.

I could be wrong but my understanding is that the OGL is not revocable. Once something is made available under the OGL it cannot be retracted. If that was possible then what would stop WotC (or even Paizo) from removing all content that they have made available under the OGL. The OGL would be practically pointless if it was partly or in whole revocable at will...

I believe what actually happened is that at the very early days of 3E, the SRD wasn't finalized yet. But a provisional OGL was available early. So companies could start working on products with the assumption that most of the core books were going to be open content. When the SRD was released and listed specifically what was allowable, some things like mind flayers and beholders weren't there.

I remember this came up

...

I am sorry but in light of what the OGL does with regard to OGC what you say simply cannot be true. As others noted Hasbro could simply shut down Paizo in a moment by removing all OGC content from the 3.5 SRD.

Paizo could do the same to anyone using their Pathifinder GRD.

The way I read it (and I think the way pretty much everyone reads it) once something is declared as OGC thats the end of it. It can never be retracted and made into PI.

Perhaps someone with more experience on these matters would care to shed some light into this?

I do not doubt that what you say happened in some way. But the devil is always in the details, and the actual details of what happened might have been different enough to warrant this weird situation.

In the end what is open content now cannot be closed content ever again.

Jarreth Ivarin wrote:

hustonj wrote:

kenmckinney wrote:

I was not aware that Mind Flayers were ever open content, nor had I heard that things once made open could be made closed. Are you absolutely certain of this?

Absolutely.

Paradigm Concepts, Inc. had written up a smaller pamphlet product ABOUT the Illithids, paid the author, paid the artists, finished the lay-out and sent it to the printers.

During the period while they were awaiting delivery of the product, WotC removed Mind Flayers from the OGL. They received permission from the WotC lawyers to distribute and sell the product NOW based on closed content PROBABLY (I'm guessing here) because WotC didn't want to be fiscally responsible for the costs of somebody else's product which was created in good faith using property advertised as open content before it was sent to the printer . . ..

I have a copy of this book in the other room. I know the story because I know the guys who are Paradigm Concepts, Inc, and one of them vented at me about this before WotC gave them permission to sell the product anyway.

This is still weird though... I too was under the impression that mind-flayers were never open content.

I could be wrong but my understanding is that the OGL is not revocable. Once something is made available under the OGL it cannot be retracted. If that was possible then what would stop WotC (or even Paizo) from removing all content that they have made available under the OGL. The OGL would be practically pointless if it was partly or in whole revocable at will...

I believe what actually happened is that at the very early days of 3E, the SRD wasn't finalized yet. But a provisional OGL was available early. So companies could start working on products with the assumption that most of the core books were going to be open content. When the SRD was released and listed specifically what was allowable, some things like mind flayers and beholders weren't there.

I remember this came up in a discussion of...

That would make a lot more sense. I am pretty sure that what is declared as OGC under the (now finalized) OGL is perpetually OGC and free to use per the OGL terms and cannot be retracted.

kenmckinney wrote:

I was not aware that Mind Flayers were ever open content, nor had I heard that things once made open could be made closed. Are you absolutely certain of this?

Absolutely.

Paradigm Concepts, Inc. had written up a smaller pamphlet product ABOUT the Illithids, paid the author, paid the artists, finished the lay-out and sent it to the printers.

During the period while they were awaiting delivery of the product, WotC removed Mind Flayers from the OGL. They received permission from the WotC lawyers to distribute and sell the product NOW based on closed content PROBABLY (I'm guessing here) because WotC didn't want to be fiscally responsible for the costs of somebody else's product which was created in good faith using property advertised as open content before it was sent to the printer . . ..

I have a copy of this book in the other room. I know the story because I know the guys who are Paradigm Concepts, Inc, and one of them vented at me about this before WotC gave them permission to sell the product anyway.

This is still weird though... I too was under the impression that mind-flayers were never open content.

I could be wrong but my understanding is that the OGL is not revocable. Once something is made available under the OGL it cannot be retracted. If that was possible then what would stop WotC (or even Paizo) from removing all content that they have made available under the OGL. The OGL would be practically pointless if it was partly or in whole revocable at will...

Coridan wrote:

Stealing requires the person it is stolen from to be deprived of it... If I take a picture of [your car] and produce an exact working duplicate with a 3D printer, I did not steal your car. You still have it.

And if I take a nap on your couch when no one's home, you still own your property. So you have nothing to complain about if a stranger enters your house when no one's around, so long as that stranger doesn't make a mess.

And if I sleep with your wife when you're out of town, you still have a wife to come back to. So you have nothing to complain about if your wife cheats on you, so long as she still loves you when she next sees you.

It's high time our society threw out repressive institutions like property rights and marriage. It's not like property laws and marriage ceremonies stop trespassing and adultery anyway. We should just accept that trespassing and adultery are legitimate, positive forces in society, and allow anyone interested in engaging in either to do so freely and without shame.

Property laws make it illegal to trespass. Marriage ceremonies don't make it illegal to commit adultery. At least in the US I think. :P

Jarreth Ivarin wrote:

DeathQuaker wrote:

Peppers, like most items of produce, are not intellectual property, and thus are not protected by copyright laws. Germinate all you like.

Now, if you take a cutting without permission of a unique patented rose hybrid, you might get in trouble, so I'd just stick to vegetables to be safe. :)

QFT. I remember watching a documentary about how a major chemical company was suing farmers for allegedly collecting part of their crop of it's patented genetically modified corn (that they had lawfully purchased nonetheless) for sowing the following year (I guess there was some kind of contract forbidding that and requiring that they had to purchase seed again from the company).

EDIT: Therefore, being a food and a necessity as James said has nothing to do with it. If it is considered IP of some sort, that's the end of the story.

As Monsanto has patented in the US a strain of corn that has been planted in Italy for centuries and chemical companies have attempted the same trick numerous time around the world I have strong doubts when patents of genetically modified crops are involved, but that is totally different from creative works like books.

I am not familiar with the details or the full history of the Monsanto situation. Needless to say it does make me nervous that companies these days seem to try and patent everything and anything including basic necessities like food.

However what I was trying to show was that a lot of things that one might not consider as candidates for IP protection, might actually be, regardless of generally shared common sense assumptions about what is reasonable and what is not (food vs. books).

EDIT: typos

Jarreth Ivarin wrote:

DeathQuaker wrote:

Peppers, like most items of produce, are not intellectual property, and thus are not protected by copyright laws. Germinate all you like.

Now, if you take a cutting without permission of a unique patented rose hybrid, you might get in trouble, so I'd just stick to vegetables to be safe. :)

QFT. I remember watching a documentary about how a major chemical company was suing farmers for allegedly collecting part of their crop of it's patented genetically modified corn (that they had lawfully purchased nonetheless) for sowing the following year (I guess there was some kind of contract forbidding that and requiring that they had to purchase seed again from the company).

EDIT: Therefore, being a food and a necessity as James said has nothing to do with it. If it is considered IP of some sort, that's the end of the story.

you can patent a DNA structure that doesn't occur naturally in nature. Monstanto patents all of it's seeds. Percy Schmeiser was sued by Monsanto because seeds from a neighboring farm landed in his. The canadian Supreme Court ruled in favor of Monsanto.

So yes, as far as the government is concerned you are a Pepper Felon.

Thanks for clarifying this... I guess I got my facts mixed up. :)

Peppers, like most items of produce, are not intellectual property, and thus are not protected by copyright laws. Germinate all you like.

Now, if you take a cutting without permission of a unique patented rose hybrid, you might get in trouble, so I'd just stick to vegetables to be safe. :)

QFT. I remember watching a documentary about how a major chemical company was suing farmers for allegedly collecting part of their crop of it's patented genetically modified corn (that they had lawfully purchased nonetheless) for sowing the following year (I guess there was some kind of contract forbidding that and requiring that they had to purchase seed again from the company).

EDIT: Therefore, being a food and a necessity as James said has nothing to do with it. If it is considered IP of some sort, that's the end of the story.

It's clear that you are focusing on digital content and this is great, but I was wondering whether there are any thoughts about bringing a final fully pathfinderized version (along with an expanded player's guide, etc.) out as a hardbound book (a la Rappan Athuk).

Um, I don't want to sound too negative, but a $10,000 stretch goal for pathfinderizing the early levels and adding a 16-page player's guide seems a bit steep...

It could well be that I am biased though, as this was what I would like to see first (as opposed to artwork) and I was hoping that a more modest strecth goal would be dedicated to that. Oh, well... :)

Edit: Also from what I can see the stretch goals are not linked in any way to specific incentives for people to make a higher pledge than they would otherwise make(ie if we reach X then ppl who pledge Y and higher get Z).

Funded of course (since day 1). Very interested in seeing everything updated to Pathfinder and of course expanded if possible.

Thanks for updating us! I 'm really looking forward to this.

Good question. I have been trying to check the website of Super Genius Games too, but it hasn't been updated since June 14th.

The delay that Owen mentioned does seem to take more than a few days though...

DRD1812 wrote:

It's a few months later. So...soonish?

Goodness I hope soonish.

We've been very careful to not give a specific date for these announcements, because for some reason Dungeonaday.com seems to have a way of throwing up loops we don't expect. I've through we were a week or so away for many weeks now.

There were some similar issues for things done within the dungeon itself, like a side-view map, that simply took much, much, much longer than we ever expected it to. The problems that cause these delays are varied and random, so there's no single procedure we could put in place to fix them. We fix each problem as it pops up, and then a new type of problem comes along.

My best guess is that we'll have an announcement Monday. I see no reason why that would not be the case. But I've been wrong before.

I'll certainly pop into this thread to point to our next step, once it's public!

No news yet I guess... Come on give us something. :)

I would be very very interested in a kickstarter or any other way to access the material as a whole. For various reasons I wasn't able to get on board when you guys originally started the whole thing and I have been regretting it every since I found out that you had to shut the project down (or put it on hold). Do keep us posted!

Hi everyone. My dissertation proposal draft is finally done,and I am done travelling so I have time once again for some RP if you would have me.

I am sorry for not informing people in advance, but things got really really crazy.

I understand that we are missing our DM too?

Yep, RL kept me pretty busy... Sorry everyone. I will read carefully what went on and I will be able to post during the weekend.

Hi everyone, sorry for the absence. We had a real @#$%storm at work these last few days. Happy Thanksgiving and I will be back on board tomorrow morning.

:)

Hey, I am sorry if I added to the confusion. I was away at a conference and I didn't have much time to check or respond to the thread.

Good luck with everything Neil.

I am still up for playing too. This week got ridiculously busy at work, but I plan to make up for lost ground over the weekend.

btw I am up at Obsidian Portal as Jarreth_Ivarine now.

What do you mean?!? That monkey was clearly the spawn of the devil! I am only sorry I didn't get a chance to finish it off myself... Filthy kritter...

:D

Character check Brynmor

* Looks like you haven't been online since the HP update. Please see above.
* list Bravery modifier +1 and Armor Training 1 as they will increase with lvl
* ACP should be -2 (swim and climb will need adjusted)
* Have current weight carried at 82lbs (light) - please list carrying capacity on OP sheet.
* Money treasure says 195gp. Sorry but please take that down to 10gp since you have all the masterwork stuff. Money does you no good on the island anyway. ;)
* Experience: 3,500xp

Hi. I will have time to make the changes later today -thanks! Btw ACP has always been figured in actual Climb checks (no swim checks to date). Additionally the 195 gp listed are what remained of 2nd-lvl wealth after purchases (previous DM's instructions), although it is true that money doesn't do us any good in that place, and I would be more than happy to get rid of that weight (who wants to actually carry all that gold around) :)

I have been following the recruitment thread but I did not have time to contribute much. :)

Brynmor Drakh is definitely in. Thanks for being our DM, and thanks to everyone else for keeping this alive!

I generally post in OOC and general threads as Jarreth Ivarine.

I am fine with using OP (it's not blocked were I work) but I wouldn't want it creating issues with other players (Neil and Curn Bounder). What you suggest might work though, so if they are fine with that, I am fine too.

I am on EST too, and I will probably be posting after 5pm every day. (I might be able to check the thread while at work, but it will not always be possible to devote the time needed to post).

First of all, thanks for the game and good luck with everything DM Berwick!

I am definitely in favor of continuing if we can find a new DM. A post/day seems quite reasonable and as others have suggested absentees can get their character DMPC'd so that things don't grind to a halt.

Is everyone going to fail the Perception check? I should lower the DC's from now on... :)

Hi everyone, with Irene approaching DE I might be without power for some time. DM Berwick please feel free to take charge of Brynmor's actions in case I do not post by Monday or Tuesday.

Thanks again everyone, this is really enjoyable!

Stay safe!

I just posted Brynmor's action to help things move along a bit. :)

I will wait for my turn (initiative-wise) to post, although as far as I can tell that's not absolutely necessary if actions from different characters are not likely to interact in some way.

Welcome back DM Berwick! Best of luck with everything.

Can someone who got the reprints comment on their quality please?

Hope you don't mind, but I just nominated you to deliver some information that I have been having a hard time trying to deliver.

I don't mind at all. I will be ready to jump in when I get the info.

Note to self: kill the messenger. Who is next on the list of qualified assassins?

Disclaimer: The messenger does not bear any responsibility whatsoever for the content of the message (usually).

I will start at 2nd level wealth (1000 gp). It is more than enough to get me equipped and ready to go.

As far as the second trait is concerned I would pick "Boarded in the Shackles" for a +1 trait bonus to Will saves if that is OK. I can see the character having spent time as muscle for hire in that area and then boarding a ship to Sargava that crashed and got him stranded where he is now.

I think Brynmor Drakh is good to go. Just let me know when I should jump in.

Thanks!

I think Brynmor likes Greatswords. The usual comments about overcompensating aside, there's something immensely satisfying in wielding 5 feet of cold steely death. I think it also parallels his ideas for combat. Not the easiest weapon to draw (he is not too eager to get into fights) but when drawn, carnage follows (if he enters combat he is ready to kill).

I am going to read that guide though. Sounds quite enjoyable from what you are saying.

Brynmor's character sheet is nearly done! I am going to work a bit more on the background section, but for now this is the general outline.

http://paizo.com/people/BrynmorDrakh

A couple of questions:
a)What about wealth? Me needs go shopping!!!
b)I have chosen a general trait, but I am not clear about the AP one since the circumstances of my character's involvement are not clear yet. (Obviously not originally on board the ship.)

Thanks everyone for you suggestions and comments. I think I have settled on the two-handed weapon, no shield. I understand that a shield would probably come in handy, but I feel I am going to need the extra potential for mayhem. The extra hp/level and the toughness feat (pretty high in my list of to-get feats) should make Brynmor a bit more resilient anyway.

Do people think I should opt for a composite bow with a hefty STR rating instead of the crossbow (provided there is money)?

Comments/suggestions/criticque more than welcome!

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Quick (but crucial) question: Am I going to be introduced at lvl 3 as everyone else is right now, or do I have to start at lvl 2?

Hello everyone, I am very happy to be here and thanks so much for having me!

I am considering a human fighter, a Chelaxian disillusioned ex-soldier turned mercenary, who uses brains as well as brawn to get the job done and is not above fighting dirty to win.

A greatsword and the heaviest armor available would be what I would normally go for, although considering the AP (and taking a look at the players guide for it) I will probably get a breastblate to keep it manageable in the hot and humid climate.

I am nearly done building one and I can post the character soon; I am of course open to comments/suggestions and ideas regarding background elements (crunch as well) that would make the character fit in better with the story, the group and what DM Berwick has in mind for the game.

Although I am relatively familiar with the system and I have experience in roleplaying and DnD in particular, I am not as familiar with the setting (I do not currently own the CS hardcover or any AP); so if something I am suggesting doesn't make much sense in Golarion, the AP or the story let me know.

Thanks again!

PS Jarreth Ivarin is not the name of the character. I am working on that. :)

The good think is that we arw not friends (even if we where,after that...)

The bad think mr.fishy is that i'm from greece, otherwise i would like to play with a "7 year old fishy" rather than a 32 year old weirdo

Thanks god in less than a month i'll be in Thessaloniki where my rest friends are.

I guess I should be glad that my groups (in Greece) were always awesome... I guess it helped we were friends for years too... :)

Kalo kouragio!

I'm from the US. Arkansas --> New York --> and now Athens for 2 years, but I'm here indefinitely as I'm getting married and we plan to live here.

You left the US for Greece and I did vice-versa... LOL

Greetings everyone! As F.Castor knows, I am currently in Newark, DE and I am gonna stay here for the next 3 or 4 years. Anyway, keep up the good work in Athens!

My sincere condolences. I know this won't change anything, but I am truly sorry for your loss. I nearly got killed last summer in an accident. This brings back memories. I am so sorry.

Jarreth Ivarin wrote:

As a side note, anyone who reads DnD: 30 years of adventure will find some "interesting" ideas about system change and some big but uncomfortable truths as well. CWM have you read the book?

I have not read it. I think my FLGS still has a copy. I'll check it out.

I am talking especially about the last part, where Ed Stark talks about the change from 2nd E to 3.0 and explains what was happening at the time, what the R&D ppl were thinking, Ryan Dancey's idea about the OGL etc. It is definitely worth reading as it sheds light on several issues that have been discussed in these boards.

Sooner or later the fundamental flaws with 3e/OGL SRD will make staying with that rules set very very difficult for publishers and players ...

I do agree that 3.X has its flaws. But a lot of ppl love the system even with those flaws. Before 4th E was announced and WotC's ridiculous marketing policy of discrediting 3.X began, not many ppl were so adamant about the flaws of the old system. And to be realistic, 4th E is not flawless. Nothing is after all. It will take some time to bring those fundemanetal flaws to surface, but once this happens, why would 4th E be the best alternative (purely at the level of system mechanics)?

As a side note, anyone who reads DnD: 30 years of adventure will find some "interesting" ideas about system change and some big but uncomfortable truths as well. CWM have you read the book?

Finntroll are fantastic! Now if I could understand the lyrics too... :(

Lately I listen mostly to Swedish Death Metal, so fav bands among others: Dark Tranquility, In Flames, Children of Bodom;

Apart form those, ofcourse Black Sabbath, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian, Grave Digger, Moonspell, Therion, Samael, Immortal, Bolt Thrower, Dismember, Haggard, Theatre of Tragedy, Iced Earth, Rammstein, Tool, Death, Sepultura, Soulfly, Bal Sagoth, etc. etc.

Its nice to see metalheads among the community! I don't know about the States, but in Greece most of the ppl who are into RPGs are probably metalheads! :)

I appreciate all the supportive comments, but the guy really wasn't that rude about it. He was nice enough, just airing his concerns to me (though I did not really understand them.) He still vowed to carry Paizo products and said he would even be willing to help organize local Pathfinder society games if people expressed interest.

hogarth wrote:

I can see why a game store owner might be disappointed: now he has to stock a bunch of mutually incompatible products if he wants to serve the entire D&D demographic.

I'm sure my grocery store secretly wishes that they could get away with stocking just one brand of cereal, one brand of canned vegetables, one brand of pizza, etc. Things don't always work out that way, though.

This is probably a pretty good explanation. His shop is about as big as my living room, if that, and my living room is not that big.

That does change things a bit. I perceived your original post as saying that the guy was being annoying and rude. I cannot find any fault with his behaviour now.