Sorry guys, ended up dealing with family stuff on Saturday and then having to go to IKEA. Then spent literally my whole Sunday putting together IKEA furniture. Going through the gameplay thread now to see where we're at so I can post.
If anyone's interested, the podcast I did yesterday has been posted as well: Professor Jimbles Dice Bag - Party Cohesion discussion It got a bit rambly at times, and we had a guy who hadn't been on before that talked over the top of people a few times, so I'm not sure if it'll be particularly clear at some points. Also, the previous episode I was on (I'm only on it rarely), wherein we discuss characters we've always wanted to play and never got to. Includes discussion of the character I created for a Vampire: The Requiem game that creeped the GM out so badly the game was cancelled (it was actually due to a combination of my character and another one, who is also discussed on the show). Professor Jimbles Dice Bag - White Whale Characters Personally I think the character episode was a better one, just because we all had more time to prepare. Fair warning, there's a fair bit of swearing in most epsodes.
I'll check back in later tonight, I've just made a quick response post at the moment, but Xargin doesn't have a whole lot to say right now. For now, I'm off to see Doctor Strange. You may commence being jealous.
I'll be at work from 7 AM tomorrow, should be home early afternoon and will check in, then I'm at the movies. Thursday I probably can't check in until after my radio show, should be home by 8 PM.What radio show do you host Tinkergoth? Reel Time. It's a movie show on 2XX, a Canberra community station.
Review posted. Full review can be found here: The Grassy Gnoll | Book Review - Pathfinder Tales: Starspawn by Wendy N. Wagner
What was the scene? Please.There was no post credit scene right? I couldn't hang around.There was mid-credit scene, nothing after all the credits. Spoiler: Waller negotiates with Bruce Wayne to use his resources to shield Argus (and the government as a whole I guess) from the backlash from the events of the film, in exchange for handing over information they've gathered on metahumans. She also comments that he should stop working nights in a rather pointed manner, suggesting that she knows about him being Batman.
Savage Worlds. Add Science Fiction Companion. Then, if you want to get fancy, you've got the following options (just use the rules and ignore the setting fluff): - For a grittier, cyberpunky feel, grab the Interface Zero 2.0 rulebook
You can do noir very well with a (New) World of Darkness game. Players as mundane humans who investigate mysteries, you don't need to have anything supernatural behind the scenes if you don't want to. To clarify this, due to name changes this year, if you're looking at this as an option, the book you want is now called Chronicles of Darkness, published by Onyx Path. It's the second edition of the ruleset and has been tweaked to have better playability for metal characters.
The running joke in a WoD game I was in for a while was a character named Snowy. Snowy was a drug dealer who'd been peddling this fantastic new drug some guy had given him... that just happened to be causing people to undergo spontaneous combustion. This was before I joined the game, but the GM was my housemate, so I was listening in. Long story short, the players took a liking to Snowy during the course of their investigation, and started hanging out with him socially. Until one fateful day, he managed to get unbelievably high, took some of the spontaneous combustion drug, and that was the end of Snowy the friendly dealer... Every now and then, a player that was in that group will randomly say "Man, remember Snowy? Such a great guy. How high did he get?", and any others from the new group will respond with "SO HIGH!"... Then they stop for a moment, all look really sad, and yell "SNOOOOOOOOOWY!" Other than that we don't have too many running jokes. Only ones I can think of are from my East Texas University game. I guess that has some. - One of the main NPCs is literally never seen without food in hand, and whenever they call him he's either eating or cooking. - One of the players can be really awkward when it comes to explaining things, and managed to make himself sound like a complete racist when he was trying to talk about racial issues in the legal system... with a black detective. - Another player was trying to describe the effects of a supernatural painting that was causing intense but short lived feelings of love/lust in people who viewed it to campus security... and blurted out that it was emitting some kind of "love field". The other players now regularly remind him to watch out for love fields. - Yet another player has the filthy rich edge, and is on good terms with every single authority figure in the town, because he's figured out the best way to deal with them is to just hand out bottles of scotch. So every time something weird happens and he needs to come up with a way to smooth things over, he stops at the bottleshop first, leading to the recurring question "Is this a one or two bottle situation?" - The group as a whole is also really, REALLY bad at NOT summoning demons. They botched a ritual roll for a simple speak with dead spell incredibly badly, and I had to draw some cards to figure out effect. First pull, Joker. Summon random demon. Draw cards for demon traits. Get an imp sized demon, that's not so bad... draw for abilities, get another Joker, check the rules... Okay, demon has a bunch of subservient demons. Roll dice. Get maximum number of demons. Cue players running screaming from the gymnasium while a horde of imps burst into the night throwing fireballs and cackling... To top it off, the next session they found a book and just read it, resulting in another, rather more handsome, demon being summoned and offering them two wishes in exchange for his freedom. He now hangs around sleeping his way through the entire student body and faculty of the university while waiting for the player to decide if he wants to use the wishes or not, and occasionally just appears at the site of whatever they're investigating with someone new hanging off his arm to see what they're up to.
It's really early to think that though isn't it Set? I personally have more faith in a movie series that has done right by Scarlet Witch and Black Widow at least so far. I'm pretty sure Set is talking about the comics Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, not the upcoming MCU version.
I'd love to see Ravnica, Lorwyn/Shadowmor and Innistrad get this treatment.
Well, I saw this on Sunday and thought it was amazing. Well cast, gorgeous to watch and had plenty of humour, while still being quite intense. Honestly I'd say it's The Jungle Book for older kids. There's no blood but some of the scenes were a bit much for the little kids in the cinema.
Weird West isn't a bad thing for me. I'm on the lookout for a gritty, low-magic (but still with magic) western setting. Fair enough, I just didn't see any mention of whether magic was acceptable or not in your post so figured I should at least mention it. Deadlands is probably your best bet for those requirements then, I don't know that I'd call it low magic between all the different types (even the mad science stuff pretty much only functions due to a rather insidious form of magic, despite what the scientists may think), but it's definitely not Pathfinder/D&D levels of magic.
Just keep in mind with Deadlands that it's Weird West by default, with mad sciences and evil spirits and so on. Not a bad thing, it's actually an amazing game, but if you want to run a straight Western you'll need to remove some elements of it. Other options (I don't know what availability for them is like, I just remember them, and I don't know what gameplay is like for some of them): Aces & Eights - Alternate History western. I know it won the Origins Award for Best RPG of the Year in 2007, and got nominated for 4 ENnies, winning Silver for best game. Dogs in the Vineyard - Based loosely on the Mormon State of Deseret (which was in pre-statehood Utah). Sounds like a weird concept, you play as "God's Watchdogs" who are like a combination of messengers, community support and travelling sheriffs (though your authority is within the church instead of government granted). Won Most Innovative Game and Indie RPG of the Year in the Indie Game Awards in 2004. Werewolf: The Wild West - Old World of Darkness game that moves the setting for Werewolf to the Wild West. Pretty much the Werewolf version of Vampire: Dark Ages.
I have absolutely no issues with this, I feel like all movies that don't have Colin Firth are just wasted opportunities.
An excellent choice! That said, I did really enjoy Gods of Egypt, though I admit that it has some serious issues. I just love over the top trashy fantasy films, as long as they're fun. Same reason I really liked the Underworld movies (though I've only seen the first two) and I, Frankenstein.
Oh, I remember this dude! Was he the guy who ate another Scandinavian black metalhead's heart or was that someone else? Or was it urban legend?
*puts on black metal fanboy hat* Euronymous DID take the photo of Dead after he'd killed himself, and the rumour is that he actually deliberately leaked the photo for use as the cover of that bootleg album, but the brain stew thing has been confirmed as false. What is true is that Euronymous collected bits of Dead's skull, cleaned them up and presented them to musicians he felt were worthy (this was confirmed by other band members as well as people who recieved them). Can't remember if the cannibalism thing was a deliberately started rumour to get publicity or if it was just something fans started saying. *takes off black metal fanboy hat*
Sorry, I really should have stated that I don't think all Pagans are anything like Vikernes. I've got a group of friends who are Pagans and a few Norse pantheon worshipers (including one rather odd guy who doesn't understand why the others find it so strange that he says Loki is his patron god...), easily some of the nicest people I've ever met. Just to clarify as well, Nordicism is not specifically anything to do with worshiping the Norse gods. It's a belief that the Nordic people are the superior race, and have long been the ruling class in societies (inc. ancient Mediterranean societies etc), which only fell once the Nordic elite assimilated and became part of the rest of society. Eugenics comes into it a lot due to proponents of it believing it's necessary to prevent the Nordic people from dying out due to inter-breeding. As for the church burning... Vikernes' motivation was pretty different from the rest, it was pretty much a black metal scene thing, meaning if anything the religious motives would have been closer to the specific version of Satanism that Euronymous (easily one of the most influential people in black metal and a huge factor in how unified they were... after Vikernes murdered him the scene continued but in a much more fractured way and with less focus on Satanism), and by extension Mayhem and other black metal bands professed to believe in... though personally I think it was less religiously motivated and more due to a desire to be a real part of the scene.
Let's not forget the reason behind the arson (from his point of view at least, if I recall correctly the churches he burnt were part of a larger series of church burnings connected to the black metal avenge), revenge on Christianity for perceived offenses against the Nordic people long ago. A quote from one of his books: "For each devastated graveyard, one heathen grave is avenged, for each ten churches burnt to ashes, one heathen hof is avenged, for each ten priests or freemasons assassinated, one heathen is avenged." Or there's this nice little quote: "Christianity was created by some decadent and degenerated Romans as a tool of oppression, in the late Roman era, and it should be treated accordingly. It is like "handcuff's" to the mind and spirit and is nothing but destructive to mankind. In fact I don't really see Christianity as a religion. It is more like a spiritual plague, a mass psychosis, and it should first and foremost be treated as a problem to be solved by the medical science. Christianity is a diagnosis. It's like Islam and the other Asian "religions" a HIV/AIDS of the spirit and mind." He's openly supported Nazi ideology, promotes Nordicism and eugenics, and actually has am entry in the Encyclopedia of White Power. Objectively speaking, there's no doubt the man is a racist and considers all other religious or philosophical views to be inferior. I'd be incredibly surprised if these views didn't crop up all through the game, and reviews seem to back this up. Playing Devil's Advocate for a man like Varg Vikernes is a wasted endeavor, and I say that as someone who freely admits to being a fan of his music (though I've not heard anything released since he got out of prison). The man is a terrible person.
Who in the Nine Hells would by an RPG produced by a white supremacist who was convicted of arson and murder? How did he even get published? Varg's musical project Burzum is part of the early Black Metal scene, and he was also briefly a part of Old Funeral, and later Mayhem (the man he murdered was another member of Mayhem) Could be that there's a bit of a fascination with him and his reputation, maybe that was enough to get him published as a curiosity.
Why not?Why not just use the Battletech system rules?because Battletech and gundam aren't compatible rules-wise. Been a long time since I've looked at Battletech, but from memory my guess would be because Battletech tends towards a pretty gritty, grounded style of mech combat (this is the setting that spawned the Mechwarrior games right?). Gundam is very much anime mecha, flashy and fast and acrobatic with lots of beam swords and stereotypical anime stuff. Kind of a thematic mismatch, and Battletech is likely to get a bit too technical for what the OP seems to be after.
Ah yes, a formative moment in the life of young Tinkergoth. That and Jennifer Connolly riding that rocking horse in Career Opportunities. I'm still crushing hard on both those ladies.
Let's be real here, Ghostbusters was pretty raunchy to begin with. :P I'd say prepare to be disappointed then. Feig's films tend towards the kind of humour you seem to dislike.
St Vincent is the biggest departure from the norm for her. Spy still has similar humour to her other movies, the difference is that she isn't really the butt of the joke for most of it. St Vincent is actually a comedy-drama, and while her role is as a supporting character, she handles the portrayal of a single mother dealing with a rough divorce and trying to balance caring for her son with her work as a medical tech surprisingly well. She's funny when she needs to be, but she's a very sympathetic character.
That was pretty much how I felt about her before St Vincent and Spy. I'd recommend both of those. I still don't like her films usually, but I'm beginning to suspect the issue is her being the go to for the "she's fat and stupid so let's all laugh at her" character, and not being given a whole lot to work with. Spy is still very over the top offensive, but it's much more fun watching her actually turn out to be good at what she does despite what the other characters expect from her. The scenes with her and Rose Byrne getting up in each others faces get really intense, which just makes it funnier.
Pretty much my attitude towards it. I mean I'd see it even if I was sure it's going to be rubbish, because I need to review it anyway, but the trailer hasn't got me feeling overly negative or positive. I'm just looking forward to going in, taking it for what it is, and seeing what they do with it.
Other things that might be worth looking into for this... - I never thought I'd be recommending this system, but GURPS. I'm pretty sure there's some mech rules somewhere for it. - CthulhuTech (system is a little janky, but they're working on 2nd edition now, and there's a lot of various mechs available in the system already... just trying to ignore the metaplot books, they head into unbelievable ick territory very fast, even more so than the fluff in the main books did, something else that 2nd edition is apparently working to fix) - Mekton Zeta (it's pretty much Gundam: The RPG anyway) - Silhouette Core (aka SilCore) or it's sister game, Heavy Gear - Mecha vs Kaiju (just use the mecha rules) - Palladium also released a Robotech RPG, though being Palladium it's a little... weird. Addiction rules ahoy!
I was surprised that the trailer didn't seem funnier given that Dan Aykroyd - who co-wrote the first one - also wrote this. I think he's brilliant! Which is why I suspect the fault is with the people who edited the trailer rather than the movie itself, but until more is released, there's no way to know.Dan Aykroyd is the Ghostbuster's IP holder, So NO ONE can make a Ghostbusters movie, unless he OKs it. To be fair, Akroyd is absolutely capable of writing some complete crap. Looking in your direction, Coneheads... Honestly though, as a fan of the original movies (I first saw Ghostbusters when I was around 7, I've had them on tape and DVD, and loved every Ghostbusters cartoon I've seen, including the hilariously "hip and edgy" Extreme Ghostbusters...), I'm still hopeful about this film. Melissa McCarthy is very hit and miss for me, I've generally disliked her in most films where she gets typecast as the "She's fat and loud so she's funny" character, but she put in a solid performance in St Vincent alongside Bill Murray, and the film she did with Paul Feig last year, Spy, was something I expected to be absolutely terrible and yet became one of my favourite films of the year, because the way they played her was that she was clever, and she was damn good at her job, but people underestimated her because of her looks. Kristen Wiig I only really know for her voicework in How to Train Your Dragon and Despicable Me, but I liked what she did there well enough. Leslie Jones I've never encountered before, but I'm willing to give her a try, Kate McKinnon I think is genuinely funny. And while I may not like most of Paul Feig's films, like I said, he surprised me with Spy, so I'm hoping he can do the same here (plus he directed parts of Freaks and Geeks, Arrested Development, Weeds, Parks and Recreation, The Office and Bored to Death, and played Mr Pool the science teacher in Season 1 of Sabrina the Teenage Witch). ... Plus I can't resist the eye candy of Chris Hemsworth in a tight white shirt. Mmmmmm. I'm glad they got him and didn't settle for Liam, or even the least popular Hemsworth, Luke (admittedly, neither of them are bad actors, Liam was great in The Dressmaker, and Luke was pretty good in the surprisingly well made Australian sci-fi film Infini).
Wow I feel like dirt now.You shouldn't. You guys did what he asked and thought it was the best course of action. It's a terribly regrettable thing he passed away, but there is no need for you to feel bad for sharing the story. Cal is absolutely right. You shouldn't feel bad over this, when you did what you'd been instructed was the correct course of action.
A few years later, I did catch a glimpse of what was apparently a Mayan/Aztec-themed setting/set. Looked neat. Which one was that? Not sure, most likely wasn't when I was playing. Could have been Zendikar maybe, which all about the end of the world caused by big Lovecraftian beasts waking up. Lots of lost cities and and jungle temples in that set.
That's why I stopped playing Warmachine/Hordes. We've got some of the top players in the world here and holy hell does that lead to an ultra competitive meta. They take it way too seriously, building only for optimised lists, which means there's no room for a guy like me building fun experimental shenanigans lists. I stopped playing after I was in a tournament and three opponents in a row looked at my list and asked if I just wanted to forfeit. Then each of them beat me first or second turn from halfway across the board. All of them had lists that were almost identical. Unfortunately they're all getting into a game called Guild Ball that I started playing, and they're already taking it to extreme levels of obsession. Blog posts full of statistical analysis of every team and ability, explanations of how to use binomial calculators to determine odds of success for any given action and so on. So I've already withdrawn from any organised play. Just casual games with me and my mates now.
Not to be that guy, but once I heard MTG was involved I had a feeling I knew where your story was going. Something about that game brings out the worst in people, in my experience. While it's not all players, you definitely have a point. CCGs in gejeral have more than their fair share of bastard players. It's part of why I only play MtG on a casual basis these days. Though interestingly the really nasty CCG community where I am is YuGiOh. I've seen grown men screaming at children, calling them retards for making a rules error... then been told that it's actually their kid. They're a really toxic group. Wargamers are the other group I find gets like this, though it's usually animosity between players of different games rather than within the player base for a single game (certain Games Workshop fan boys tend to get rabid in their hatred for other games by other companies.) Most frustrating situation I've had while wargaming was during the one league I decided to run for a skirmish game called Relic Knights (I was playing, since the whole reason I'd organised it was so I could have regular games, but I'd made it clear I wasn't eligible for prizes even though I paid my entry fee). A new player joined who was really good, learnt his faction really quickly, stomped all his opponents. Was the only undefeated player other than me... then his match against me came up. I'd seen how well he was doing, figured I'd better bring my A game... out of everyone in the league, he had the faction most able to deal with mine, and he completely failed to use any of their abilities to stop or even slow me down. Ended up being an 8-0 loss for him in record time. He seemed fine afterwards, we chatted a bit about what he could have done differently and so on. Next night I'm hanging out with a friend who was also in the league, when I get a message from the guy telling me he's dropping out of the league and wants a refund, because it's not worth his time playing. I asked if it was because of our game, got a rant in response about how it was ridiculous that I was undefeated in my own league, and that I was clearly just doing it to shark people out of their entry fees (remember, I'd already said I wasn't in the prize pool), and that I shouldn't even be playing and if I did have to play I should be restricted to playing gimped army lists. I reminded him about my not getting prizes even if I won, told him to sort out the details of a refund with the owner of the store I was running the league at (I think he got half his money back since he'd played half the rounds) and then blocked him. Really soured me on the idea of ever running any organised events like that again.
Worst Experience: Discovering that the Skulls & Shackles group I'd been GMing was almost entirely comprised of MRAs. Out of the 5 of us (4 players and me as GM) 3 of the players were highly misogynistic, they just hid it during game time, and the only one I associated with outside of the game was the non-MRA. I'd been a bit sick of the group for a while before that, because some of the players had been giving me grief by trying to game the system for everything it was worth (my personal favourite argument one of them tried was 'I don't believe in rules as intended, only rules as written, so you have to let me do this'... Not a great move, because because after gaming and GMing for as long as I have, I can guarantee I can rules lawyer harder than they can). Anyway, I eventually found out about their views, because they completely stopped hiding them the day that I introduced a female friend of mine to the group. She gave better than she got (I love a good argument, and even I'm loathe to start something with her, they had no chance), but I was mortified by the fact that I'd invited a friend into what was meant to be a fun, welcoming environment, only to have three people start making pointed comments about fetching them drinks and food, and how she should learn her place. That was the last session for that group. Worst burnout: GMing Shattered Star. We made it through the first book, and most of the way book 2. Group was going okay, but partway through one of my player's had his boyfriend (who is a friend of mine anyway) join the game. Unfortunately our gaming styles are rather incompatible, at least when it comes to Pathfinder (I can play World of Darkness with him with no issues). He likes to build busted characters and regularly goes with builds that are very hard to GM for, because they tend to just steamroll everything that is level appropriate for the rest of the party, as well as requiring me to be on the ball all the time regarding what he was capable of. In a homebrew game I probably could have rolled with it, but with a set campaign I wasn't really wanting to do the huge amounts of work required to compensate for it (my whole reasoning for doing Shattered Star was to have a nice easy game to run for a while). Add that to the fact that I was in another pathfinder game (Reign of Winter) as a player with the same group, that really wasn't going in a direction I was enjoying (it went incredibly slapstick, with fratboy talking deer, sorority girl talking ravens, innkeepers with golden exclamation marks above their heads and so on... sometimes I could handle it but mostly it just frustrated me, which I understand is more my issue, it's just not what I thought I was signing up for), where I was the only person without a completely busted build and a serious attempt at character development, and I'd started to seriously sour on the whole Pathfinder thing. I ended up calling it quits shortly afterwards, just couldn't handle the stress, between players in Shattered Star telling me I wasn't doing it right and the frustration from the Reign of Winter game. I haven't played Pathfinder since, Savage Worlds is my main game these days, followed by World of Darkness, and a lot of dabbling in other systems when I need a change of pace.
Mine isn't RPG related, I've got too bloody many of those to count. This is from a night where my occasional D&D 2E group had gotten together at my apartment just to play some card games as a change of pace. We're sitting around my kitchen table playing a card game, when we notice one of the players is holding way too many cards, and mention it to him (perfectly politely, we weren't sure if he just didn't know the rules or not). He got up, screamed at us about accusing him of cheating, then got so angry about us "ganging up on him" that he started to cry. Flipped my table, breaking a few bowls snacks that were on it. So I threw him the hell out of my apartment. Haven't really associated with him since. The game we were playing? Munchkin. Actually, for a RPG group story... it's an out of character thing. I was running Skulls & Shackles for a group of guys that I didn't know that well, the owner of the local game store had found them for me. I only had one friend in the group. Group is all guys. One of my friends found out about the game, and she wanted to join in. No problem there, she's one of the best roleplayers I know. So we get her character into the game, introduce her to everyone, and get started... which is when I discovered that three of my four original players are MRAs. They'd kept it quiet until a woman joined the game. Things went downhill fast from there. I'd been having a few other issues with them, so at that point I pretty much just pulled the plug on the group and apologised for about three days straight to my friend, though honestly she got a bit of a laugh out of the whole thing (if you pick a fight with her, you need to be a really fast talker to have a hope of winning).
One of the funniest moments for me was one that seemed to fall flat for a lot of the audience both times I've seen it. Spoiler: When Deadpool cuts his hand off to escape, as he's falling away just after the blood sprays all over Colossus, he says "Are you there God? It's me, Margaret". I'm not sure if the book just wasn't well known amongst the audience, but it was a pretty obvious reference to the novel Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume, a coming of age story that has a major plot point dealing with Margaret's first period. I completely cracked up.
It's so good! Watching it again tomorrow.
I read it as no beards. Flipped a table, then read it properly... flipped another few tables. BARDS FOR LIFE!
It was the least I could do, and I'm glad I was able to share in what was, while an unspeakably sad occasion, very much a celebration of Brad's life and the way he touched the lives of everyone there. The pack you guys put together for him was fantastic, and I was honoured to be able to place the first set of D&D dice I ever owned next to it. While I may have been a stranger when I arrived, by the end of it I felt like one of the guys, and I really wanted to say thanks to you and the others for making me feel so welcome and sharing your stories with me. Also a big thanks to Mothman for lending me a pair of cufflinks... of all the things to forget to pack... On a side note, I've still got Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life stuck in my head. I was singing it all day at my wargaming league, and by the end of it so were half the players. A parting gift, or perhaps practical joke, from Brad. Even from the other side of the veil, he's still handing out earworms.
I'll be making the trip to Sydney tomorrow for the memorial service to pay my respects. I've got a red-headed dwarf mini and a set of dice for Brad to take with him, and I'll pass on the best wishes and condolences of everyone here. If anyone on reading this is going, could you please PM me and let me know? I've never met Brad's family and friends, and I'd feel far less awkward if I know there is someone there who I've at least interacted with in some capacity.
It's something I've always done in my games. I've got a couple of NPCs who pop up somehow in almost every game regardless of genre. Not always, or even often, in a major role, but they're there. My way of keeping them alive in my memories.
I'm afraid I'm not sure if they've set up anything for that. While Brad used to tell me a lot about his family, I never actually got introduced to them, and I'm loathe to intrude on their privacy right now. I'll keep an eye out though. I was thinking last night that what I'd really love to do is find a way to sneak a tribute to him into a Pathfinder product somewhere. Nothing big, just an NPC somewhere in a sourcebook with his name or something close to it, the eighth son of a dwarf family with red hair and a friendly attitude. Something like that. Not sure how I'd even go about suggesting it though - What's the appropriate avenue for something like that? - or if Paizo would even consider it.
Thought I'd come back and post some songs I know Brad loved, and say how glad I am to see that so many people remember him fondly here. Before I get to the songs though, I wanted to share something I wrote that I hope can give those who didn't know him all that well a bit of an idea of just how great a guy he was. Some of what I wrote here originally is in it, so I apologise if it sounds a bit familiar, but this is what my original post would have been if I had been able to find the words at the time.
And now for the songs. He had a pretty diverse taste in music, so there's a bit of variety here. The Whitlams - Blow Up The Pokies
And let's finish with some Frenzal Rhomb... Frenzal Rhomb - Bucket Bong
I could post so much more, but that's what I've been listening to today.
I'll keep this short, 'cause I'm barely holding it together right now. I know I haven't been active on here for a fair while now, and either has the 8th Dwarf, but I wanted to at least come back and make this post, since I know how much he loved this community, and his lack of time spent here wasn't really his choice. The 8th Dwarf, known to his friends and family as Brad, lost his year long battle with cancer this morning. He was a great friend to me when I needed it the most, even if we never got to meet face to face for drinks like we planned. He was always ready to listen to me vent or give some calm, measured advice, or just cheer me up with some stories about the various shenanigans he'd got up to both in and out of games. Brad, wherever you are, I hope the dice are rolling in your favour. Thanks for everything mate, I'll miss you.
Fair enough, personally I've never been a GW fan but I don't get the massive backlash they've been getting over AoS. The videos of people burning their minis particularly confused me. Yes, that will teach them, burn the stuff you already gave them vast sums of money for!
I've had an insanely complicated, intricately designed homebrew setting in the works for years. It's kind of a mix of Eberron, the setting from Tad William's War of the Flowers, and a few elements from Deadlands, but the one time I managed to get a group together for it, it fell apart shortly afterwards due to some friction between group members. Most of my friends these days aren't into Pathfinder, and those who are are looking for a very different playstyle to what I'm after (they're of the "kill things and take all their stuff" as a primary objective method, with a heavy dose of slapstick and shenanigans. Fine for those who want it, but doesn't appeal to me). One day I'll finish writing it though, and maybe even get to run the damn thing.
Lol! Why on earth would you want to watch slow motion vomiting:-D Hence why I put a warning? I don't particularly want to watch it, it just happens to be part of the music video.
I've yet to get my hands on the adventures for Achtung! Cthulhu, pre or post kickstarter. At the moment I'm finishing off my collection of the actual setting books, and running some intro games while figuring out if I want to go pre-written or write my own. I'll definitely be checking them out at some point. Which ones were the pre-kickstarter adventures? Is that just the original versions of Heroes of the Sea and Three Kings? I know both of those have revised editions that are now considered part of the Zero Point campaign that's being released. Definitely agree though that setting books are a far better place for it in general, and that it works for CoC due to the existing support for at least two very different styles (which extends even to the Mythos novels. Look at Lumley compared to Lovecraft. Titus Crow is almost like the Mythos version of Doctor Who, fighting the minions of Cthulhu and the other Old Ones throughout time and space... compared to the majority of Lovecraft's protagonists, who are driven mad just by confronting the horrors of their reality). Pathfinder/13th Age/etc are definitely very different beasts in this regard, and my lack of familiarity with Parsantium in general makes it hard for me to really get a feel for how it would work. I also misread the initial title and post (gonna blame that one on the lack of sleep) and was thinking we were talking about settings rather than adventures, so chalk that one up to some misunderstanding.
I normally agree with Endzeitgeist's thoughts on products. In this case I'd have to disagree, but with a caveat. First of all, the caveat. Yup, I've yet to see this done well for Pathfinder/D&D Whatever Edition/Insert Other Traditional Fantasy Game Here. Just doesn't seem to work well for them. That said, I've seen it done VERY well for some other games. Best example for me is Achtung! Cthulhu by Modiphius Entertainment. WWII meets the Cthulhu Mythos, and in both setting and tone it's about halfway between Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green (WWII instead of the 1920s style of Call, or the modern black ops of Delta Green; and characters are more bad-ass than the investigators in Call, but not as ubercompetent as the Delta Green teams... though they're all just as doomed as each other). The setting is designed to run on either Call of Cthulhu or Savage Worlds The way it deals with it is by presenting the setting, then providing a chapter for each system on how to run it to suit the system (as well as an additional section for Savage Worlds to cover things that aren't part of the core rules for it. For example, magic is different, Sanity and Mythos knowledge isn't a thing in Savage Worlds, and so on). As well as that, they also provide the separate stat blocks, though they also understand that making someone pay for lots of unnecessary content for a system they won't use is uncool, so where they don't need to provide setting specific information, they'll point you to the appropriate book for whichever system you're using that contains what you're after (so instead of getting stats for the more common Mythos monsters, they point you towards the Malleus Monstrorum for Call of Cthulhu, or Realms of Cthulhu for Savage Worlds). The reason this works so well for Achtung! Cthulhu is that they understand that the systems are going to play differently. Call of Cthulhu is a straight up horror investigative game, while Savage Worlds tends more towards action packed cinematic games. So while they do modify how each one plays, with Call of Cthulhu characters being a bit less likely to die horribly and a little more gung-ho, and the Savage Worlds characters having to deal with Sanity loss and horror rules, they still provided info on how to play to the strengths of whatever system you chose. Savage Worlds magic rules tend to be a little simpler, though possibly a little harsher because of it, and you're more likely to survive a knock down fight, though it's still risky. So I'd say it can work, but you really have to understand your systems, and try to only include the really important setting specific stuff. If there's creatures that are common across bestiaries for various systems, don't stat them all again, point people towards the books for their chosen system.
Yeah, for something like that they're perfect. I'll sometimes use them for an actual countdown in a game as well, like if my players have a certain number of actions before something triggers, I'll use it as a reminder.
Oh yeah, it's a terrible title, but they're basically a novelty band :P Just got amazingly popular somehow. The way women go crazy for them at their shows defies belief... I was at the front of a few shows they did here, and each time I nearly got crushed beneath a horde of screaming women attempting to rush the stage. Stood my ground so that when Johann came down to the edge of the pit I could get him to grizzle me with his beard. The film clip is worth a watch too. Actually any of their film clips are. If Your Dad Doesn't Have A Beard You've Got Two Mums
And a couple of live songs: Shaved Off His Beard
Man, this got off topic fast... sorry bout that.
BEARDS FOR LIFE! Mine has the perfect feel for stroking while I contemplate answers to questions the service desk ask me at work. Also, you should listen to The Beards. Start with If Your Dad Doesn't Have A Beard, You've Got Two Mums. Best beard themed band ever. 4 albums and going strong. Yeah, I know what you mean about liking to suggest impractical things though. My standard response to a request for a solution is "How about... a... Swarm of bees?"
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