bal3000's page

Killing dozens of people quickly and efficiently with no remorse may qualify as Evil to some. (And to them I say "God bless you. May you continue to have as kind of a life where that is the case.") But to me it doesn't.

There are far to many variables. Too much that I don't know to label that as Evil.

I know. I find it SO hard to condemn the Nazis as the scumbags that they were. Oh, hang on...I don't...

Or is anyone else feeling more and more disturbed by the content, that it is going in unnecessary detail on certain aspects? Also I've seen a thread about wanting a "director's cut" version which would be even more graphic.

Simply put, it presents a complete ignorance of violence and it's consequences. "Dark" is "cool" at the moment, but it's the cool of high school shooters and horror movies. Creepy, puerile, immature and gratuitous.

It used to be a little different and these are direct quotes from Dungeon magazine (RIP)with regard to adventure submissions to show my point -

"Here's a good rule of thumb. : if you think you've gone to far, you probably have. This sort of material is just not necessary to make an adventure good." - Dungeon 89

"Make it unique, and make it sing" - Dungeon 125

IMO , If it needs the gore to be good, it probably isn't.

Forget e-zines and new editions....THIS is what causes the game to grow.

Good on you for taking up the challange. Keep it simple, keep it fun and they'll come back and look up the more complicated bits themselves. Hopefully, that'll make your job easier too.

And remember, you're allowed to have fun as well!

Growing up in rural Ireland, you'd think D&D would be pilloried, but not at all.?

Ditto. Not a peep and I went to a Christian Brothers school.

When I hear that the hysteria hasn't died down, my inital response is- don't these zealots have bigger fish to fry? Oh, I don't know, hows about:
Poverty?
Social justice for the poor?
Education?
Stavation?
Healthcare for those who can't afford it?
Gun violence?

Don't you know? if you're poor it means you havn't prayed hard enough! It least that's the general idea I get whenever Beyonce talks about god (hers . Not mine.)

On a related note, I've been in the US for three years now, and am struck by the weird conflict I see here- a nation that espouses the rights of the individual and celebrates the pioneer, yet wants conformity and places a premium on The Team.
Is this a symptom of this?

You get the same s**t in Australia. A smug, sense of National pride but it's got OUR sort of pride-

..sorry...off topic...dammit....:)

As much as I loved Empire..., Return...and Bladerunner, the eighties for me will always be in the company of Alex Murphy and Conor Macleod.

Just MHO, Jim.

GH/FR are middle earth with clerics, except that DL takes them back out.They all have a "gandalf" - Mordenkainen, Elminster, Fizban. DL and FR have orders of powerful fighters/wizards etc (Knights of Solamnia/harpers) sworn to hold back the darkness and councils of powerful magic users who seem split between fighting or joining with the forces of evil.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad thing, but it is Tolkienesqe and not the only fantasy world possible just the most prevelant. It does lend itself to ease of play but it also ignores campaigns influenced by (for example) Westeros, The Young Kingdoms, Barsoom, The Hyborian age or even Athas.

If I could've been in charge of making 4th edition there's a ton I would have done differently.

Setting: I would have handled it like the D20 Future book. I would have had a chapter on Settings. Five pages each covering a number of favorite settings (Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Ravenloft and Dark Sun). Each one would list Gods, Nations, Conflicts & Power Groups.

To my mind, there is so little difference between the first three setting that, for all intents and purposes GH/FR/DL amount to the same medieval/tolkien fantasy standard so i'd pick just one. I'd throw in Spelljammer as a steampunk fantasy, as presented a few years back in Dungeon NOT the original. I'd also throw in a primative world setting, like Hollow world to make up the five.

Game balance wouldn't be nearly so much an issue as trying to loyally represent what each race, class, creature and item should really be like within this fantasy world--and then bend the mechanics to reflect this fluff as closely as possible. Make the crunch serve the fluff!

This is absolulty how it should workchuck out what doesn't fit.

YES!!!YES!!!ME!!ME!!

I love Dragon Warriors and played a campaign in the late '80s, altough I think it had already died a comercial death by then. Bad promotion and distribution apperantly.

It had a combat and magic system that placed it between DnD (as it was in 1986) and Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. It was a system that was simple,flexible and easy to supplement by "ripping off" the above games. But the real jewel was book 6 - The Lands of Legend - perhaps the best (IMO) fantasy/medieval campaign world ever.

The new edition? Bring it on!

The loss of the magazines

I bought maybe one book a year but I bought 20+ issues of both mags.

Editions come and go (take a bow , Games Workshop!) but it's the periodicals (...you too, White dwarf!)keep the game alive esp. when players go thru their "sabbaticals" due to too much real life happening! (Try gaming on any sort of regular basis with a mortgage and bub!)

In no particular order....

George Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD for revealing to me the horrors of unchecked Communism and Capitalism.

Frank Herbert's DUNE. An overwhelming SF book. Years ahead of it's time with it's ecological theme that underlies it's exploration of religion and politics, power and Myth.

Henry Rollins SOLIPSIST. I walked out of a Rollins show once because he was talking S--T but this book is superb prose for anyone who's ever felt anything.

This is a worry.

I don't mind a 4th edition. DnD isn't the first game to upgrade/simplfy/callitwhatchawant with an eye on both improving gameplay and attracting new gamers. GW does this with WH and WH40K every 6 years or so and it's no biggie.

BUT my beef comes from the 3.5 fiasco.

Yes, 3.5 was sorely needed and it tidied up the rules nicely BUT that was after 2 years of feedback from DnD gamers. And what did they get for their troubles? They had to buy the same 3 core books again with about few lines changed when an errata sheet (with an issue of Dungeon/Dragon and a downloadable pdf) would have solved everything.

Bring on 4th edition but have it playtested so we don't have to look at 4.5 in 2010 OR a 5th edition before 2014!

SSSSSSSSSSSSSYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYDDDDDDDDDDDDDD....nee!

Go Swans '08!!!

My daughter has a nice cresent shaped scar on her cheek.
When she was 6 months old , she's 2 now, she stabbed herself in the face with her own thumbnail in her sleep.
There was dried blood all over her face and bedsheet and she didn't even wake up!!

In high school, there were frequently Air Force recruiters in the lunchroom trying to recruit unsuspecting students.

Have you seen the Australian defence force's home-movies from Iraq.

Skulling beer through a length of tube in their Klan costumes. ..."sniff" I'm so proud "sniff".....

Best,

Chairman Mao

:)

Ah...Chairman Mao...glad to hear you're still dead.

These poor oppressed masses in China, with a load of mates overseas to send them banned roleplaying materials. I hope that was a joke.

Sorry. I meant that Kruelaid's mates could send him RPG stuff.

I feel a bit sorry for stirring up the trouble in first place.

Don't feel sorry. Believe or not, this is fun.

Also, I don't know how the term "coloured people" is viewed in Australia, but it kind of has racist overtones in American English. Not trying to make accusations but to give you feedback on how your use of the language is perceived over here.

It probably has the same racist overtones in Australian English. I used it in the same way that Bill Hicks (RIP)used a similar phrase in a routine about the military on his "Rant In E-Minor" CD.

Absolutly no rascist overtone was intended and I apologise if any offence was taken.

BeneathTheEarth wrote:

This will explain everything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdVEM5WMDo0

She's dead. My world is shattered.

Ditto.

Stebehil wrote:

I wish I hadn´t asked in the first place...

Don't you dare.

Damn right- Don't you dare! Don't wimp out on us now! You started it!

:)

Plus, so far your hollow remarks don't merit censorship. Try a little harder.

Then what are you worried about!

True that...

I could think of some much better forums to discuss issues such as these, but you don't really seem to be discussing anything, just venting.

Discussing, venting, arguing - Call it what you want. It's all good - I love it.

I love that you and Stunty feel strongly enough about all this to sit a type out a reply. I love that fact that we CAN when so many in the world can't. I don't like the fact that some of us think that that's OK.

and if Paizo gets firewalled from china (probably followed me getting firewalled from Paizo)get a mate who's not living in china to get your stuff for you.

bal3000 wrote:

Kruelaid wrote:

And by the way, let's keep China criticism off this site, I would be really pissed and Paizo would lose a customer if Chinese security firewalls it.

Is that a threat?

GAAAAHHHHH!

No, he's worried that if you keep yipping on about how bad China is, then the totalitarian government you've been yipping about will block the Paizo site, and he won't be able to order products from Paizo (which is in America) because he won't be able to get on the site.
How hard is that to figure out?

To quote from Kruelaid's own letter. "China has an authoritarian government system. Deal with it."

And by the way, let's keep China criticism off this site, I would be really pissed and Paizo would lose a customer if Chinese security firewalls it.

Is that a threat?

bal3000 wrote:

40c an hour.

Can I have a detailed analysis of the cost of living in China to go along with that lovely "per hour" figure?

My guess is, and I don't have any data to back it up, is that that 40c an hour goes a lot farther than it would in the U.S., or Australia, or Peru.
It's fine to throw out inflamatory factoids like that, but if you take them out of their context, then they lose a lot of their bite.

Mr Chinese print-worker has to work for 49 hours to purchase a copy of Pathfinder from his local game store. I have to work for about 2-1/2 hours (and then I get a paid break). I can join a Union. I get a choice of multiple partys to vote for in regular and fair elections. I have government regulated Safety standards in case I lose a body part at work and a "pension" should that body part loss take me out of the workplace. The city I live and work in doesn't make top-100-polluted- cities-in-the-world list (Chinese cities dominate that list). I can write up a blog entitled "George Bush is a Twink" or "Hilary Clinton is a lesbian" and I'm not going to receive a visit from the police. I'm not to be put in jail for 10 years and have my family black-listed for being a member of "yoga" group. AND because I have access to media thatisn't state controlled , I get to find out about events like the death of around 150 miners last week BEFORE the miner's familys did.

How's that for context.

Now you're just getting nasty. AT NO TIME did I advocate the return of slavery.
I stated the impersonal economics of the situation. I wasn't getting personal.
I...

40c an hour.

Hands up everybody who'll work for 40c an hour? and hands up everyone who doesn't think that's slavery?

For the record I check where everything is made. I'll pay more for something made in Australia but I'll also go for items made in the US or Europe. I contribute to green causes because at the current rate this world will be turned to S--T for "our convenience"! I work in retail. I'm saddened to think that most of what we sell gets wasted and half-used because it's cheap and nobody gives a damn where it's made. I can't imagine ever owning an SUV. My wife calls me the Reccycle Nazi...

Trust me. I've chosen a side.

That's not what he asked.

Specifically:

If you were already going to buy Pathfinder at the current "Printed in China" price, would you instead be willing to buy it for the "Printed in the US" price. Question two, would enough gamers go the same route and choose the "Buy the printed in the Eurocentric country of choice" link instead to be a financially viable alternative?

Havn't a clue what other gamers would or would not pay.

To further clarify my point. I will be paying an extra $8 (25%)above what I normally shell out a month on Paizo material. That used to break down as $16 for 96 pages. Now it's $40 for 96pages. and this is when the printing costs are slashed to (probably) a quarter of what they were for Dragon or Dungeon.

As it stands i WILL buy the first issue of Pathfinder. It may be more than $40 and as high as $50. It may not. THEN and ONLY THEN I will decide if it's worth purchasing on a regular basis.

But you didn't answer the question. Presuming the quality level is there, would you be willing to pay 30% more (maybe $A53 or so???) to purchase this same book, only printed in some other country?

And if so, would enough of your fellow gamers do the same to make Pathfinder a financially viable option for Paizo?

As it stands i'll be paying an extra 25% per monthon my gaming periodicals from Paizo. I used to pay $32 a month for BOTH Dragon and Dungeon. I'm assuming I'll be paying $40 for a SINGLE issue of Pathfinder. When page counts are taken into consideration, and this is on my assumption that Pathfinder basicly is a 96page Dungeon/Dragon hybrid, it works out as a 160%(give or take)increase.$40 for 96 pages compared to $32 for close on 200pages betwen Dragon and Dungeon.

Bang for my buck?

Here's my take on out-sourced manufacturing. It's pretty much our own fault.

The manufacturing industry in the U.S. is crippled by the fact that American workers expect ever-increasing wages for the same work. No matter how much money you pay someone in the U.S., he/she will almost immediately start whining for more.

Since the cost of feeding my kid and and paying my bills continue to go up I expect more money for the same job because I'm not allowed to elect to NOT pay my bills.

Foreign companies don't seem to have this problem (I haven't worked directly with China, but I've worked with both Korean and Mexican companies). Workers work for considerably less over there. They have no concept of safety, don't get sick leave, and work as long as they need to to get the job done. For many of the plant-level workers I've spoken to, it's a point of pride.

Pardon me for expecting a safe workplace OR getting sick occasionally OR actually expecting a decent wage. Why am I so greedy?

If we cut wages, reduce paid leave and don't fret so much about triple-layer safety, then we can produce for less and perhaps start to be competitive on a global scale.

Why not just reintroduce slavery? Or maybe you can convince everybody that they should become "proud and happy" like all the little coloured nations we use to produce our plastic knic-knacs for 40c and hour! Next stop -"made in North Korea" for 20c an hour!

The real legitamite queire is are you (we?) willing to pay and extra 10+ USD a month for Pathfinder. Are you?

I was willing to and did pay $16 (australian) for Dragon and Dungeon every month since 2002. That price is approx. 3 to 4 times what an average magazine would cost me.

Pathfinder will probably cost me $A40 an issue and I will be most certainly purchasing the first issue to check it out BUT bear in mind it's the SAME company producing ONE magazine/book printed in china replacing TWO magazines printed in the USA, for nearly TWICE the US cover price of ONE of those magazines.

Yes, I paid for quality, twice a month, every month for the EXCELLENT work that went into both Dragon and Dungeon. I ecpect that level of quality to be present in Pathfinder and the price increase didn't bother me UNTIL I heard "printed in China".

If and when printing in the US is a viable option for us, we will strongly consider it. Until then (or until customers are willing to pay $30 or more for something like Pathfinder), we'll continue to look for the best bang for our customers' bucks. Right now that means printing in China.

--Erik

Seriously, how much does a Chinease print worker producing Pathfinder get per hour(the actual guy on the floor)? Can he join a union? Does the printer for Pathfinder have an Occupational Health and Safety standard or Health fund or equivelent?

Since Paizo printed Dragon + Dungeon in the US and Pathfinder is now printed in China, I (we?)as a consientious gamer/customer feel that this is a legitamite querie?

I was reading a "roleplay vs rollplay" thread on another forum when I was struck by a post from a confessed ROLEplayer. This guy didn't bother to pick a class or a race, instead he determined them RANDOMLY from the core choices. He then rolled his abilities (4d6 and drop lowest roll) IN ORDER. He figured it gave him something to work with and this gave me an idea for what I call the "DnD KARMATIC Campaign"

First, roll for your abilities in order. (4d6 and drop lowest for STR, then DEX etc.)

Second,roll 1d8 for your race.
1 - human
2 - elf
3 - dwarf
4 - halfling
5 - gnome
6 - half elf
7 - half orc
8 - roll again

Third, roll 1d12 for your class.
1 - barbarian
2 - bard
3 - cleric
4 - druid
5 - fighter
6 - monk
7 - paladin
8 - ranger
9 - rogue
10 - sorcerer
11 - wizard
12 - roll again.

start at level 1 with max HP and everything is decided by the player (alignment, equipment, spells etc.)

So far, so low fantasy (more Warhammer than Greyhawk)..and probably, PROBABLY, a bit tough..

But what I thought would be a good idea in said circumstances would be KARMA points equal to the character's cumulative level at death. Say the character dies at level 3, the NEXT character rolled up the same way gets 6 KARMA (or KP) points (1 + 2 + 3=6 ).

KP could be added or subtracted to either of the class or race rolls
OR
KP could be used to boost ability values on a cumulative basis (increase a value from 14 to 15 costs 1KP, to 16 costs 3 KP, to 17 costs 6 KP etc)

any thoughts?

Anybody here know of this site?

1km1kt

It's a HUGE collection of free amateur game systems (mainly rpg). It's mostly crunch rather than fluff but there are some great systems to download and mess around with.

One of the current ideas is a game system AND a character sheet all on a single page. and yes it's harder than it sounds to make it work but when it works out it's sweet.

I honestly found 28 days later to be a terribly grim film.

I especially found the underlying subtext disturbing. That people, infected or not (the zombies and soldiers),can turn on you LIKE THAT and in such circumstances it's best to DESTROY them with un-thinking savagery in order to survive.

HOWEVER...my wife took from the movie the complete opposite feeling given how the young surviving Irishman (well,Irish actor Cillian Murphy) refused to act like that and in doing so rose above the situation( BIG car-journey conversation between the 2 of us recently.
We also had differences on the manner of infection. I felt it supported the idea of fearing humanity. She figured it for merely a context to put the characters under stress and push the story along.

I still find the idea of HAVING to kill people utterly repugnent and refuse to consider it a justifiable action. Nobody ever HAS to be killed and no real life scenario would ever require a military attack against unarmed people (unless you already had your speech prepared for the war crimes hearing).

Which is a long way of saying I won't be spending my $$$ to go see the sequel anytime soon.:)

MACHINE HEAD'S "the blackening". It's very "master of puppets" and I havn't decided if this is for the best yet............

I have the strips in Dragon and downloads from Zogonia.com and I am so getting "Slice of death". Seriously I want to be still reading Kev and Geleena in a decades time and I don't want it to be in a "whatever happened to?" coloumn. Vote with your $$$$$$ folks!

Y'know ....my wife actually gave me a hug when I told her that MY magazines were getting canned....she's a sweetie..

Y'know, were the adventure paths really SO popular?

I had more time for the single adventures in Dungeon ( esp over The Age of Worms - "Part ten - the PC's face Knights of Kyuss and Lepers of Kyuss and Snotmonsters of Kyuss"...god I was SICK of the colour green by the end of all that!!!) and of the two magazines I prefered Dragon.

and US$19.95 = AUS$40+....mmmm..."not happy John!"

Tell you what....I'll take a long hard look at Pathfinder but it better WOW me from the word go....

my lady's morning breath...:)

I'm a Virgo / dog ...and as such believe we need a proper POLL here so we can keep track of the numbers...eh?...eh?..

back when I was a teen...we're talking back in the mid 80's, I was about the only one of the group to play a female character, a cleric. I remember being allowed by my DM for her to have little oil lamps on her breast-plate, right about were her nipples would be underneath....amazingly this WASN'T considered a stupid/impractical/immature idea...go figure...

Lemme just say...Paddy's Day went off nicely in Sydney..even with it conflicting with the 75th anniversery of the Sydney arbour bridge....I had a ball...slainte...

Then how can you differentiate humans from other animals, while we might have evolved from them plus the fact that some religions believe in reincarnation as an animal, vermin etc.

since you ask...I usually find that those who consider the human race to be just another animal certainly do not consider themselves to be animals. Some of us do act like animals but that's not the same thing. I usually find that the lack of animal created science, art, logic, religion etc. , allow me quite easily put animals in 1 bracket and humanity in another.

Oh...also, I can guarentee you that I don't believe in reincarnation, either as humans or animals.

I'm down with the theory of evolution. I am there. It makes perfect sense to me. Always has. It has ALSO been abused as an idea, being put forward as justification for the horrible treatment of workers throughout the Industrial revolution or the "proof" that europeans were superior to other races (Kind of hard when there's only one human race).

As for Aliens...(smirk)...I'll believe in ET when he lands on the White House lawn. Not saying (and didn't say) we're all alone in the universe. Either way it doesn't change a single thing I said or what I meant in my last post.

bal3000 wrote:

I'll settle for the "Nasty" people banging on about heaven and hell, thanks...

Osama bin Laden is a great bloke, of course. Or Jim Jones. Or David Koresh.

I was being somewhat faecetious when I wrote that last line.

To be more precise in my views i have to admit that I see religion, science, business, politics, art, music, sport etc, as being expressions of humanities desire to know and explore and shape existance. They become our "vehicles" which which give form and permit action in our lives and our world. Their use as such reveals both who we really are and what we capable of. And all of them are open to abuse, to promote power and abition above well being of others.

The examples you listed chose religion as their "vehicle" and used it in calculated, destructive ways. ( Or in bin laden's cause , still does )They presented their religion AS existance and in doing so, they preyed on the hopes and fears of their followers to fulfill their ambitions and delusions.

Religion, to me, is an acknowledgment of the divine, to provide a moral compass in my life and to rise above the mundane. We are all biological creatures but we are not animals. There is purpose to life and we , as a race and individuals, are a work in progress.

This is of course not an original notion - Marx called religion "the opiate of the masses" in the 19th century. But that is the main societal problem with religion - it discourages free-thinking and blind obedience. Most of the time it doesn't matter, as most people are basically nice with or without religion. But in the hands of the unscrupulous (and let's face it, there are lots of nasty people "of faith" out there who use religion as a screen for their own ambition, as well very nice atheists) it is a dangerous...

I would'nt consider Marx to be the best juxtapose to the flaws, faults and crimes of the religious down through the ages.

Lets look at who he influenced with his simple gospel of workers liberation - Lenin, Stalin, Pol pot, Mao etc. - All active advocits of athiesm. All brutally intolerent of religion. All willing to use any means - imprisonment,torture,murder - to promote their beliefs. All cultivated Cults of Personality demanding total subservience to the state and it's leaders.

I'll settle for the "Nasty" people banging on about heaven and hell, thanks...

Just the facts?
Practising Catholic...in fact, I was ALWAYS a Catholic, despite the fact that I THOUGHT I spent my Twenties as a hedonistic athiest. In hindsight, that was me pretending.
For the record though I actually take the absolute lack of evidence of God's existence as proof positive that God exists. After all if you are the omnipresent and omnipident Creator, then you're not going to be leaving clues lying around like some CSI villian, are you?
What's really funny though is how people react when they find out you're religious. I get such a laugh out of people I'd laughed along with a few days before, stop and consider what they want to say because they don't know what to say NOW they know i'm all "holy"...luckily I know some good Jesus and Pope jokes to lighten the mood.

Anybody here got any game related tattoos?
a mate of mine has the Dark Angel Death wing insignia ( GW's WH40K )on his upper right arm. It's a broken sword framed with wings. He had done years ago ( early ninties ) so it's a bit faded and he's getting it "touched up" shortly.
Funnily enough most people assume it's a "biker" tatt - even funnier as my friend has never owned a bike or a license for that matter:)

Plus, one of the shotguns, one of the assault rifles and two of the semi-automatic pistols don't count, because I use them at work.

You're Homer Simpson, right? I thought you lost that job ?

seriously though, that attitude could take my Retail Manager job to a WHOLE new level.... :)

Fewer customer complaints, a compliant staff, a raise every other week....HOT DAMN, I'm buying a gun....:P

This one is really obscure but anybody into Death Metal may know the band.

On Morbid Angel's "Formulas Fatal To The Flesh" thanx page, lead guitarist Try Azagthoth metions "36HD undead beholders" and a name checks what I can only assume is stuff relating a homebrew dugeon campaign including combat modifiers !! also in an interview with UK mag Kerrang mentioned praised DnD as a tool of creativity and imagination. lately though this has given way to a preoccupation with online QUAKE ( and two very underperforming albums ...IMO...)