Axebeak

MMCJawa's page

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So, here is the question I have been having since the whole OGL 1.1 ruckus has started. My apologies is this has come up and been dealt with in another thread...but there is a lot of conversation out there about this stuff.

I know game mechanics (rules) can't be copyrighted. And it is legally dubious anyway that WotC can actually legal revoke the existing OGL and content published under it. Obviously stuff not in the SRD and WotC property can't be used. Hence no Mind Flayer or Beholder.

And then you have things like Dwarves and Elves. Both derive from folklore and fantasy literature, and the DnD version is generic enough that WotC can't really make a claim to them, and at least in the case of Elves, the Pathfinder version is pretty distinct, what with the whole "aliens from Venus" thing they got going.

Now here is the more complicated situations.

Take Drow. Drow are in the SRD. The name Drow also is from folklore (being an alternative spelling of the more common Trow). However, the description of Drow is basically something that DnD came up with and is fairly unique (even if derived from Black Martians in Burroughs's Mars fiction). That is, Drow being "dark"-skinned, white-haired subterranean elves who are also sadistic chaotic evil and matriarchal, with an association with arthropods. So even if you can't copyright their mechanics, could WotC target Drow for IP/Trademark reasons?

Doubly so with...say...owlbears, or flumphs, or Mimics, which as far as I know are a complete DnD invention. Can WotC claim trademark and IP for them?

If so, does that mean Paizo will have to rework them significantly, or drop them from future products?


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I don't know if anyone here currently remembers me, but I used to post quite often up to the point of the transition to 2E. Sufficient to say I took a step back from Pathfinder, in part because of a new cross country job which took up a lot of my time, and investing in more non-gaming related hobbies.

At any rate, with the ORC news I have been looking at more PF2E stuff, in part because I am hoping the fallout might convince locals to become more interested in the game (my local region appears to be a pathfinder deadzone).

So folks...as someone who happens to know the lore pretty well up to Age of Ashes, what have been folks favorite PF2E original AP's?


2020 Continues to be the worst year ever

‘Black Panther’ star Chadwick Boseman dies of cancer at 43.


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Marvel has there big Phase 4 announcements going on RIGHT NOW.

live blog from hypable

So far a lot confirmations basically of what we either knew or thought, but still a few interesting news here.


Anyone watching this? So far the first two episodes have been pretty good. A good set of actors, a decent amount of horror and occult inspiration, and also kind of fun.

Also it probably has the best depiction of what an Asmodean priest would probably be like.


OMG

If this happens (negotiations are stalled at the moment), that means X-men and F4, and all there associated properties...will now be back at Marvel Studios. Just think of the amazing possibilities!


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Hey folks,

For those who haven't pieced it together, my profession and field of study is vertebrate paleontology. In particular my research focus is on the evolution of marine mammals and how they adapted to a life in water. That latter background also has given me quite a bit of background in living marine mammal biology.

Paleontology is cool and I like to think other people agree with me, or at least us nerdy folks who would spend time on a gaming forum. I also think outreach is important and anything I can do to spread knowledge about extinct critters of all kinds and living marine mammals I think is a good thing.

So feel free to ask my any question you might have on paleontology, dinosaurs, whales, museums, how science works, etc. Or just random silly questions if you want!


Anyone else see this yet? It's an adaptation of a Ted Chiang short story, and a pretty solid, serious science fiction flick that deals with some cool ideas and doesn't rely on blowing up aliens.

One of my favorite films this year. So glad that fall is basically becoming "Serious Science Fiction Movie" season, given the last few years.


Hey folks,

Already sent an email but hadn't heard back yet, and since I am conferencing I figured I should send an additional email.

In the order for this I have two Curse of the Crimson Throne Hardcovers. This was definitely not my intention, and I only originally meant to order 1 copy (I think this happened due to confusion over the preorder being in my shopping cart but not ordered, so I thought I screwed up the thing and reordered). Can I please have one of the copies removed? It's hitting the bank account hard given that I am traveling and also have on the order the next AP volume and Villain's Codex.


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Trailer

on one hand it is definitely fantastic. On the other hand...did we need a "streetsmart" Arthur? Is that the only interpretation Guy Ritchie can provide for characters from literature?

I am incredibly confused why the Camelot mythos is so damn hard to adapt for movies. The characters are well known to audiences, there is an infinite amount of material to work from, it has iconic villains and dramatic twists, and plenty of potential for awesome battles. And it's large enough that you could easily produce multiple trilogies off the material. Yet either people chuck out most of the story to produce a streamline narrative that is name only, or they go a hyper-realistic route and remove all the magic.

On another note, at least Littlefinger plays a character named "Goosefat Bill".


Hugo Award Nominees

It's that time of year again! Here are the current list of nominees. This years voting is a mixture of better than last year and worse.

Vox Day continues to troll and troll hard, and the rabid puppies slates managed to dominate all the fan and short form categories. That is why "Space Raptor Butt Invasion" currently has a Hugo nom. Which is both incredibly hilarious and also sad.

I actually have no complaints at all about Sad Puppies this year, since they switched to recommendations and most of them seem reasonable.

I'll probably buy a membership this year to vote (hey...free reads!). I expect Space Raptor Butt Invasion will give me many many good things to quote in my gchat conversation with my friends.


Hey folks...I was posting yesterday and today in the thread on cultural appropriation, which I think was in the gamer forum. However the thread appears to have vanished off the face of the site. And I don't mean closed (which I could see happening depending on the messages left after I last left), but I can't find it at all. Also none of the posts I made come up in my recent posts on my account.

Any reason why this thread...just ceased to exist?


reading the zombie thread above, it occurred to me we don't have anything like this. Maybe this will just be me talking to myself, but I would think their are enough folks here who watch horror movies that we can actually keep a thread going on the subject

Anyway...as far as movies go, I am a huge horror fan, and I probably on average watch something like a hundred a year. Especially with the wonderful world of Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu at my fingerprints. This past weekend I watched three or four (no spoilers below, but brief descriptions)

Spring
This honestly might be one of my favorite horror movies of the year. A young man deals with the loss of his mother from cancer and an arrest warrant due to a drunken assault by high-tailing it to Italy. While there he ends up falling madly in love with a mysterious and gorgeous genetics graduate student doing research on the local population. Eventually we find out that the woman is way way more mysterious than the guy could imagine.

This movie might be unique in being the only true Horror-Romance. It's basically "Before Sunrise...but with body horror". The cinematography is amazing, and I dare anyone not to want to visit Italy after watching the movie. The two leads have amazing chemistry, and the movie manages to make their relationship authentic, to the point where even someone as curmudgeonly as myself is rooting for them.

Treehouse

I sadly can't recommend this as highly. A couple of teens in missouri break the curfew enacted in a small missouri town due to a series of child abductions. Venturing out into the woods they end up coming across one of the missing teens, terrified and hiding out in a treehouse. A long siege begins between the teens...and something in the woods

The movie started out fairly strong, and takes a lot of setting up creepiness of the antagonists. The movie then seems to take exceptional glee in demolishing every trope related to this genre of movie, resulting in a completely lackluster finish that literally ends without even finishing the final act...

Spoiled filled rant:

As it turns out...the menacing "creatures" end up being a trio of possibly inbred redneck teens, whose mom died and pretty much resulted in them being free to kill and torture for lolz. However they are probably the least imposing redneck/inbred mutants/teen killers ever put on screen. For one...at least two of them are running around in turtlenecks and slacks. Secondly it seems they wanted to make some of them a bit disfigured, but maybe didn't have the money to do so? Also...its pretty clear that (probably "realistically", given the backstory)the murders suffer some degree of mental impairment. Given how easy they also manage to go down...by the end they completely lose any sense of menace or threat. And then the movie ends with a random declaration of love between the two characters, an amazing coincidence that gives them ASSAULT RIFLES, and we cut to black with them going to hunt down the lead killer.

So much potential (It's a pretty well shot movie), just flushed down the drain.

Creep

Well this movie certainly lived up to its name by being creepy as hell. A photographer is contacted through craiglist by a man dying of cancer who hires him to shoot a video for his unborn son. However the guy become increasingly sketchier over the course of the day, and of course things are not what they appear to be.

This movie just...gets under your skin, as the weird relationship builds between the photographer and his client. Its not a gory movie, but the judicious use of a cheap furry wolf mask more than makes up for that...Definitely one of the most disturbing movies I have seen in awhile, and possibly the cause of my lack of sleep last night.


I think there have been some similar threads before on this topic, but with the announcement of Ultimate Intrigue and Horror Adventures, what niches/tropes/etc are left to explore in the main hardcover line (i.e. campaign neutral books)

Ultimate Intrigue and Horror Adventures were for me were obvious sources of material to explore. And to some extent Occult Adventures...although that went in a direction I didn't expect both in class design as well theme compared to 3.5/Dreamscarred Press's Psionic rules

So...what do you think is missing or needed?, and what books might be on the slate post Horror Adventures.

Bestiaries and NPC codexes are obvious...to quote Kthulhu, you always need MOAR MONSTERS, and we have yet to have a codex that covered "allied races" in detail, nor any classes from APG on. A book focused on environmental hazards (traps, haunts, etc) as well as a book of templates could also be useful.

A GM book along the lines of Ultimate Worldbuilding, Advanced Gamemastery, or something similar could be fun and useful. So would a high level gameplay focused book, with advice for running campaigns. (Or you could probably combine all those ideas into one book).

Others niches left to explore would be an Ultimate Technology...the Tech Guide was popular and a whole hardcover devote to that material I think would sell. Something like Ultimate Wilderness/Ultimate Nature would also probably be useful. Maybe something like Ultimate Evil, a sort of Paizo version of the Book of Vile Darkness, although a bit more PG-13.

In the adventures line, I could also see Space Adventures, Steampunk Adventures, Stone Age Adventures, and similar books. Military Adventures, A War book that saw more development of mass combat rules/related rules, troops, and related stuff would also be cool.

Anyway what niches do you think are out there to support future gamebooks?


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...is Tom Holland

With new director Jon Watts to direct the first MCU Spiderman movie


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Jared Leto as the Joker

...um...okay I know he doesn't have his trademark suit on in this picture, which might help things...

And there is a precedent with the internet freaking out about the joker and then being pleasantly surprised (see: Heath Ledger casting)

But...

This seems more Marilyn Manson and Hot Topic than Joker...


So...last spring I know the forums blew up over the editing and errata issues raised by the Advanced Class Guide, with a lot of people expressing their dissatisfaction/annoyance/etc over issues, from proofreading to exclusion of necessary mechanics to unclear rules language. Concerns that were not only expressed by the more critical members of the board, but also more moderate folks generally not prone to hyperbole.

So...with Unchained being released and making its way to people, Has this book increased your faith in Paizo? As someone who is mostly following the release via the messageboard and hasn't seen the book himself, it seems like opinions so far are pretty positive. I am not seeing really any substantial commentary about editing concerns causing confusion, and even the more critical members of the community seem to find at least a few things to love about the book (UC Rogue seems well loved, people like the VMC rules, and even the "martials can't have nice things" arguments are subdued thanks to the skill upgrades and stamina pools).

So what's the verdict? And are people becoming optimistic about the occult book thanks to Unchained?


First off...I am a bit cautious of posting this thread here, because I feel it touches upon some hot button (but important) issues that have resulted flame wars which in turn has led to locked threads on this forum.

But I think this is an important topic for discussion, and so I want to bring this up. I plead though for people to keep a calm head while posting, and respect the guidelines for posting on Paizo

With those opening statements...

The Hugo awards nominees were just announced, and the results were rather surprising for many people.

The Hugo Award Controversy

To give some background, the Hugos are decided by voting...anyone can vote, they just need to register for Worldcon or pay the fee for a nonvisiting member. Over the last couple of years, Larry Correia and Brad Torgerson have launched a campaign called the Sad Puppy Campaign, to addresses "imbalances" in the Hugo Awards. These imbalances have been stated to be a result of literary nominees winning over "popular" writers. There has also been an acusation that people getting nominated are doing so because either they belong to a minority group (Woman/LGBTQ/Person of Color) or because their writing "focuses" on those elements. There is very much also a strong political bend here, with conservative writers complaining about liberal winners

Torgerson elaborates on it here:
unraveling of a unreliable field

To "combat" these trends, they have for the last 3 years created a roster of nominees and have encouraged their fans/supporters to vote for these people. Another person started a similar roster (which was even more successful)

Sad Puppies Roster

Rabid Puppies Roster

My understanding was the first year they were not that successful, probably because it was done fairly informally. Year two was more successful, getting several candidates onto the roster but no winners.

Well..as you can see from the above links...This year they scored big, and completely swept all the nominees for almost all of the written categories except graphic novel and novel (and even then they dominate the novel category)

Now there are multiple layers of concern here. First...there is the whole "rigging the vote" issue. Many people are angry that a small but vocal minority may have damaged the voting process. It's not just one or two nominees getting in, its the fact that you have people like John C. Wright, who have SIX nominations over 4 categories, something that is completely unprecedented in the History of the Hugos (I think there has only ever been one author since 1990 who has had 3 nominations). Combine that with the fact that a lot of these nominees are from small e-presses and even self-published...it makes you wonder if these nominees really deserve the praise. It also makes it difficult for those who did win...did they win because they deserved it, or because a bunch of people were convinced to vote form them.

Secondly, there is the whole gate-keeping argument of the Sad Puppies, which seems to try to state that their views represent the consensus of fandom, which I personally disagree with. This is not dissimilar to some recent controversies in video games and comics.

What makes the above worse...is that the blogs of many of the nominees...do not make really want to read them. Just look up John C. Wright and his statement about the Kora-Asami relationship...and try not to be sick that this guy has 6 nominations.

Anyway I am curious about what people feel about the above controversy, and what sort of impact they feel this will have for Worldcon and for the Hugos in general.


Anyone else here watching it?

I had really absolutely 0 expectations of this being good, since the original movie didn't seem like it would lend itself well to being a multi-episode show, and just seemed like a cash grab on adapting a known property.

Plus you know...Syfy

But I have been pretty startled at how good it's been, especially since time travel is a hard subject to deal with. Great characters, a plotline that moves at a brisk pace and manages to answer questions while posing new ones, and genuinely creepy bad guys.

Anyone else watching this?


Fantastic Four reinventing Doctor Doom in the worse way possible

Soooo...Doom is now a computer hacker...who posts under the user name Doom. Presumably the whole despotic dictator angle has been shuttered...for a 4chan origin.

actual quote:
"Yeah, it was cool man. Josh [Trank], the whole deal, the lo-fi way he did it, the ultra-real. It was just nice to do that. It was nice to be feeling like we had to come to terms with what was given by this incident."

Because when I think "Fantasic Four" I think "ultra real"...


Hey folks,

I know a lot of us like worldbuilding, and occasionally we stumble across some random bit of history, mythology, folklore, science, or anthropology that inspires cool ideas.

I figured we should have a thread to where people can post cool stuff they find inspirational for there own setting and gaming, and ideas they provide. My apologies if this already exists somewhere on site

Anyway, I thought of the idea of this thread by coming across this site this afternoon:

Potraits of Vanishing tribes

Some interesting pictures here that would be good inspiration for those who like to dabble in inventing non-European societies, and want some inspiration for attire.


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"Insert joke about the right to bear arms"