Steven Tindall's page

I've never used it but I love the Titanic template from MM2. A freaking toad big enough to crush a house is just funny.

Actually... any more relevant details of that would be amazing.

It has been a number of years since I read that book but from what I remember Lathander had been duped by a 3rd good from the greyhawk realm into believing that by shoving tymora and besheba into a godly reverse centrifuge he would recreate his old friend Tyche, Goddess of all luck.

He actually managed to get them both in there but one of his own paladins was about to take up arms against him when he remembered himself and let them go. There was a third God or something else that showed him that instead of a centrifuge the device he had trapped the Goddesses in was actually a power stealer that would have given their divine essence to a greyhawk fire god or something like that, not really sure about that part it could have been a plot by ixum ivim but like I said it's been years since I've read the book.

Beshba was really po'd so she gave him a nice long wet kiss thus bestowing ill fortune on the God himself and thereby affecting his entire church.
He asked Tymora for her favor to undo the curse from her twin and as she looked at his paladin she said " I believe I have given you enough favor when this young woman joined your following." and then she disappeared.
Lathander sent the mortals back to the realms with his thanks for their help and that's about all I remember.

I don't think Lathander was too worried about beshba's curse though, he is after all a Greater God and the chances of a intermediate( at best) Goddess being able to affect him are rather slim.
Hope this helps.

I watched "A Serbian Film" before playing "Way of the Wicked" to get inspiration for my character and the DM realized too late he shouldn't have allowed "The Book of Erotic Fantasy".
I broke my DM.

Just a quick update. After reading the posts my DM has decided that it was indeed a poorly worded description and has gone back and allowed my cleric to cast any good descriptor spells which he cares to memorise.
Thanks a bunch to everyone for their comments.

ewan cummins 325 wrote:

In regards to the OP's initial post- you might not like the decision to cancel certain classes, but it is NOT Fascism. Fascism is a specific ideology, created in Italy after the Great War (of course it had its admirers and imitators elsewhere, and the intellectual trends that contributed to its development existed in other parts of Europe as well). It is not a word for 'things progressives have decided they dislike this week.'

We're on page 9, we're well past discussing the title of the thread.

yea but it's not to late to try and steer it back on topic is it?

I think the removal of Mexican American studies was a good thing and the return to a broader U.S. History class will server the students better in the long run.
From other sources I have read the "studies" were dubious at best filled with anti-American sentiment saying that ILLEGAL immigrants had every right to be here because it's really their land to begin with because it was stolen from their ancestors or some such rhetoric.

A broad over view of U.S. History is the best thing for the students rather than narrowly focusing on the accomplishments or the crimes/mistakes of any other group. In other words teach it all good AND bad.

As an aside I had a great game this weekend. If any of you haven't played Shackled City OMG it's awesome.

I think white people should be spanked.

*total thread derailment*

BNW,
as to your first question: Would you care to explain how exactly we purchased land that the native Americans had been living on for 10,000 years, were still living on, and that neither the french nor americans had even SEEN yet from Napoleon Bonaparte?

Because according to the governing bodies of international law the land was NOT theirs due to the fact that they had no standing army, no government, none of the basic qualifications for a government.
I remember it being a big deal that the Indians had a written language AFTER the concept was introduced by the settlers.

your second question: The native americans had 100% of the land east of the mississippi. They now have less than 1%. What were they given for that?
they were overwhelmed by sheer numbers and other atrocities that can't be undone. I agree with your sentiment but I ain't giving my land back and I don't think anyone else is either.
The US set one tribe against another, I will have to disagree with you on that one because they were waring amongst themselves long before settlers came over. The ones that allied themselves with the superior technology are still here.

slaughtered the buffalo to starve them to death,the buffalo were out of control and disrupting commerce. Nonlethal methods were used to try and remove them from the railroad tracks but they had to be culled just like any other over populated animal species.

raped pillaged and raided them onto reservations, and then as soon as we wanted that reservation repeated the process over and over.
their still there aren't they. I recall many times passing through this res or that when I was partying throughout the 4 corners area and elsewhere. One thing noone can seem to explain to me is. If the reservations are so horrible why not leave. Move to a city and get a better job, start a farm do something instead of sitting back and collecting a government check because you belong to a certain ethnic group. I don't recall seeing armed guards stopping the native peoples from leaving the reservations?

thejeff wrote:

Steven Tindall wrote:

Montana MacAilbert wrote:

Steven Tindall wrote:

Montana MacAilbert wrote:

Steven Tindall wrote:

IF the native peoples had the north American continent for as long as they did. Which from my remembrance was estimated at around 10,000 years. They didn't do a whole lot with the place. We as a nation with only 400 years under our belts have touched outer space and have advanced in ways they could never have dreamed.

This is the most hateful, racist thing I have seen all day

It wasn't meant to be.

I was stating what I believe to be facts that are in evidence concerning the use of land and resources based on evidence presented. No racism was meant.

Well, it is racist. There are a lot of ways to say that post colonial life is technologically superior to pre colonial life without saying "Oh, they didn't do a whole lot with the place". It sounds like you think the natives deserved what they got.

Ok point taken.

As far as the natives they really didn't deserve what they got but we can't undo it other than make sure the lesson is learned for all time and never repeated.

But that's the point: If we hide the bad stuff and make sure most people are only taught the sanitized version, how do we learn that lesson?

My point exactly.

I guess the point I am trying to make is educate but do not perpetuate the cycle of hatred. Learning about slavery and it's evils is one thing that everybody should know. Listening to a radical agenda to promote violence as revenge or whatever is not where it needs to be taken.

That's what the school board decided to do, stop it before it became to far afield that it went from education to indoctrination. The kids are still being educated about all the mistakes we as Americans have made but to focus on them to the level is a little extreme and possibly anti-American.

Steven Tindall wrote:

Montana MacAilbert wrote:

Steven Tindall wrote:

IF the native peoples had the north American continent for as long as they did. Which from my remembrance was estimated at around 10,000 years. They didn't do a whole lot with the place. We as a nation with only 400 years under our belts have touched outer space and have advanced in ways they could never have dreamed.

This is the most hateful, racist thing I have seen all day

It wasn't meant to be.

I was stating what I believe to be facts that are in evidence concerning the use of land and resources based on evidence presented. No racism was meant.

Well, it is racist. There are a lot of ways to say that post colonial life is technologically superior to pre colonial life without saying "Oh, they didn't do a whole lot with the place". It sounds like you think the natives deserved what they got.

Ok point taken.

As far as the natives they really didn't deserve what they got but we can't undo it other than make sure the lesson is learned for all time and never repeated.

Steven Tindall wrote:

Benicio Del Espada wrote:

Teaching history =/= teaching hate. Sanitizing history is the hallmark of certain governmental systems I will not name. You shouldn't need to go to college to be taught the facts about Columbus, etc.

The main facts are he was trying to find a better route to india for more wealth. He hit some place that had been forgotten after the vikings had been driven out. He wasn't going back empty handed so he took what he could as proof that he should be given more money. Heck from what the historians are saying now he didn't even hit north America proper he hit Cuba if that's to be believed.

Laying the blame for genocide on him is really rather unfair. He was an explorer in a time when people were desperate to know more about the world around them rather than accepting it was flat. Any other motives ascribed to the man for either good or ill shouldn't be.

You need to go back and relearn your history. Columbus was not looking for India (which was called Hindustan in those days), he was looking for the East Indies, an island chain. He first landed in the Bahamas, then went to Cuba and Hispaniola. Let's not forget that part of what he took back was kidnapped natives, most of whom died during the voyage to Europe. He also recommended using natives as slaves. During his second voyage, he demanded that adult male Tainos bring him gold or cotton. If they didn't, he cut their hands off. Your assertion that blaming him in part for genocide is unfair is completely false. He most certainly does bare blame, seeing as how he was an active participant.

You might be right. I should go back and brush up on the great explorers. I will be the first to admit that last time I thought about Magellan, Ponce DE Leon or Columbus or any of the others was when I was in middle school or earlier well over 30+ years ago.

The funny thing is the history books keep changing as we learn more and more. I was wrong about India I meant the East Indies I just knew that that was how the Indians got their name.

Again slavery was an institution at the time, what else was he going to do with obviously "savage" peoples. he was no better or worse than the other men of his time so for him to be expected to be this great enlightened political correct demi-god of social justice is very unfair.

Steven Tindall wrote:

IF the native peoples had the north American continent for as long as they did. Which from my remembrance was estimated at around 10,000 years. They didn't do a whole lot with the place. We as a nation with only 400 years under our belts have touched outer space and have advanced in ways they could never have dreamed.

This is the most hateful, racist thing I have seen all day

It wasn't meant to be.

Ok the book banning is getting everyone hot under the collar and rightly so.
However the whole ethnic studies thing was the problem. From MY understanding of the reading of the articles the ethnic studies program was basically promoting racial hatred towards Caucasians.

The one paragraph in the articles that really struck home for me was the fact that the curriculum was not being approved by the local board or the state for that matter.
It was the STATE of Arizona that stopped the ethnic studies program all the local board was doing was enforcing that decision.

also : The state's top school chief says that makes it in violation of state law because all materials being taught in Arizona classrooms must get the local board's seal of approval. In fact, his office launched an investigation that found that erroneous facts were being taught to the students and the classes promoted "racial resentment."

but yet all anyone else can talk about is the banned books?

The example I would like to use as a point of perspective is from an old after school special I saw as a kid about a well loved history teacher that was very effective at reaching his students. Then one day the mother of one of the students read what was being taught to her son and had a fit because this well loved and respected teacher was promoting a neo-nazi agenda and teaching that the Holocaust was a lie. Naturally in afterschool special fashion the problems were solved in an hour but the point was the teacher was spinning his own agenda by distorting known historical facts and educating his students to hate a different ethnic group.

from what I have read all the state has done is stopped a similar thing from occurring here.

DISCLAIMER* nope I'm not trolling, not trying to flame, I'm not racist or anti-anything. I honestly don't see what the big deal is. If the students want to continue reading the books themselves go to a library or order it.

Steven Tindall wrote:

I blame a certain forgotten realms ranger for this entire mess of bad guys being looked at as something other than cannon fodder or exp givers.

Certain races are evil by their make up and culture other wise where do the HEROES!! come in at. If all the green skins are singing com-by-ya and all the vampires are sparkly when they walk into the sunlight and all the dragons are wise sages of benevolence and salt water taffy where can heroes be heroes?

Oh boy, a Drizzt and Twilight reference.

Instead of assigning motives to other gamers for their preferences, why not simply ask them why they prefer certain things instead of taking potshots at them?

Personally, I've always hated the notion of inherently evil mortal races. It's always made me uncomfortable. I hate genocide. I hate the notion of entire races of sapient beings being tagged as alright to murder. But I sure as hell don't go around insulting gamers that do prefer their monster races as black hats. I just want some support for my game too, like they've gotten for decades.

And heroes can certainly be heroes in a world where you don't have entire races as evil just because they're members of that race. You can even have black-and-white morality in a setting where goblins, orcs, gnolls, medusas, etc. can be of any alignmnet, because such a setting still has ample room for truly evil villains, and Always Evil organizations.

You don't need to have genocide in order for heroes to be heroes.

I didn't mean to insult anyone and I'm sorry if you thought I was. I was trying to be humorous but after rereading my post I can see that it didn't translate as well as it sounded in my head.

To me as a player I have just always played as orcs and other monster races being evil and thus being cannon fodder.
I have no problem with a --->MYTHIC<--- race being the target of genocide. Just like it's part of the mythos that some races are always good or short or have annoying sigals swirling around their heads I just took it as a matter of course that orcs are ALWAYS evil, thus genocide for them is kindda like culling a over population of deer.

There's nothing more beautiful than the sound of orcish babies burned alive after you obliterate their village and chop their parents to pieces. Blowing up drow cities and decimating mind flayer colonies has nothing on that. The sound, the delicious crispy noise of burning flesh, that sweet tingling that your conscience has for 5 seconds before you remind yourself of how might makes right. Delicious.

So you have seen my druid interact with orcs before. Cool.

Kirth Gersen wrote:

Or we could merge South Carolina with North Carolina, because almost everyone not from there thinks they're the same state anyway. Likewise for the Dakotas.

Oh heck no. I refuse to be in the same state as those SC barbarians with their mustard based bbq abomination* and cheap fireworks. ;)

*(because only vinegar based pulled pork bbq is the true type of Carolina bbq)

Very well said. I was going to post the exact same thing.

While it's bad that this supposed "author" can publish hate like he does it's better than censorship.
I can only imagine what kind of person makes a living off of hacking up literary classics to make them modern or socially relevant.

When the politically correct version of Grimm's fairy tales were published they at least knew it was all tongue in cheek and satirical. I guess this guy didn't get the memo.

For me this one falls under " I may not agree with what you say but will defend unto the death your right to say it"

Steven Tindall wrote:

I can fully sympathise with and appreciate the argument that our current government here in the U.S. is too large

ACTUALLY lets consider that a minute:

As of 2009 there were 307 million people in the USA. The total number of employees in the federal government was 1.9 million of which 1.6 million were military.

That leaves 300,000 for civilian services to service 307 million people. That's .1 percent for all government services that are not directly military (including the VA's office).

So we have .6666% of the population running the federal government -- no company has ever been able to have that low of a management population.

My actual post on the subject

A very interesting read.

I would still like to cut some of the dead wood from the federal government by getting rid of some of the more useless bodies. Top on my list The ATF, The dept of energy, then lets trim some of the programs like the dept of agriculture. Lets allow hemp to be grown in the U.S. again and lift a few regulations that the agricultural dept put in place like crop limits or paying farmers NOT to grow a specific crop.

I agree that the numbers look very slim but the reality in my opinion is that the federal government is still too large. I respect your facts and figures but numbers can be manipulated just like any other data.

WOW. I am amazed at your quick response and really can't thank you enough.
Granted the answer wasn't what I was expecting but "oh well" the loud rooster sound you hear across country will be my DM crowing like a gargantuan rooster about how he was right and I'm a greedy ass (like it's a bad thing?)

As far as the stormblades, don't sweat them, we arn't. I as a humble cleric of Wee Jas am very proficent in my ladies favored weapon of a poison dagger as well as poison crafting after all it's all alchemy and no knowledge is ever wasted.

My group is haveing an amazing time with this AP and can't wait to see what happens next.

Thanks again for the answer.

A pirate idea would be awesome either being pirates or stopping those *channels piffany from Nodwick* icky bad evil doers from hurting cute bunnies and inocent puppies.

My personal prefrence would be to see a "enchanted forest" type of AP.

Think of something like the way the Moonshea isles were originally presented with fairy dragons, unicorns and men all liveing in realative peace. The elves were mysterious and their lands caused time to flow diffrently in and around them much like the legends from the classic fairy tales.
I realise this would be very impracticle but an AP incorporating more of the fairy folk and stuff you just don't see that much of like elemental weirds or Asperi from MM2. When was the last time somebody had to save vs a pixie sleep arrow or a dryads charm? all these are classic elements from previous editions that I haven't seen in awhile.

My 2 c.p.

I just want to rant for a quick moment about how sick I am of Politically correct D&D.
First it was Wizards are over powered and they make the butt hurt fighter class feel bad, then it was the clerics that were overpowered cause they could cast spells in armor(OMG!!) then so as not to leave well enough alone lets make sure the druid is nerfed as well cause they can shape change and they make fighters feel bad too.
Maybe it's just my group but we have players that enjoy playing johnny swing-stick and UGH-smash fighters simply because they do not have to have a complicated character such as a wizard or spell caster.
Now that the new Master craftsman feat has been introd. they are chomping at the bit to play a fighter that can do what brunar battlehammer did and make their own ageis-fang type weapon. I would like to say as a player of spellcasting charecters how nice it is to no longer have to take craft arms and armor to keep the fighter types happy.
The language of the game changing to make female pc's feel more welcome was one thing even though the druid in our party says she cant let her daughters read the books because they teach incorrect English, the male pronoun of he is the correct generalization in literary terms.
I can understand some modernization of the game,gone are the days of the bare breasted succubus in the game books or the fully anatomically correct incubus. I am just sick of the fantasy being co opted by political correctness that says everyone MUST be equal no matter what.
I want items that are class only again, with the right feat my mage is wielding a holy avenger and with the right feat the rouge is using the staff of power or the staff of the archmage.
I guess that I can sum up my rant by siting the old adage "if everybody's special, nobody's special" or something like that.
Anybody else wanna rant and rave about PC D&D go for it.