|
Yesterday, I had a good discussion with a collegue about RPG in generall, D&D in special and these boards here.
We talked about a lot of stuff and it has been a really good evening, talking away about our beloved hobby, without actually playing it.
Anyway, at the end he asked me:"Hey, would you leave everything behind if someone would tell you 'You know, Greyhaw (or Eberron, FR) do exist! I can show you the way there, but you have to cut all ties to this world - forever...', would you go?!"
I was a bit afraid, because I found myself thinking about it, not outright saying NO, (which I did in the end)!
What would you say?
With some foreknowledge (like if I could speak "common" and the world/place I would be dropped in) I would be seriously tempted to say yes. I guess I could make a living as a sage or something...
Yes, but only if I had a +1 mace.
Yes, I would go, but only if I could take my family with me and my personal arsenal. I'd trade my AR-15 to the local high priest to cast a "heal" on my son to cure his Pfeiffer syndrome....then I'd go hide on a ridgeline and pop orcs with my Enfield.
I would go, but with my luck the DM (little green man in space or something) would wipe out my Earth-specific knowledge and skills so as not to disrupt GH/FR/Eberron which would leave me...a 1st level commoner. S!~+!
As with F2K, only if I could take my family. I would gladly let a "world-transistion" remove some of the knowledge of what has happened in my life for a chance to start over. Fate's dealt me a pretty good hand, but it has deffinate room for improvement. I would want my mother to be alive again in this new world.
Heck no! I'd be eaten by orcs.
-The Gneech
Maybe yes, and I will create a game about a world with cars, planes, money, tv, no monsters, no magic....such strange place:-))))
Maybe we all come from a land like in Stargate or Star Wars and our memory were erased after we agreed to go in another reality!!!!!
I'm in the "Yes, if I could take my family" camp. I'd pimp my services to the best paying villain in the world, and live a life of relative luxury and fearful servitude until I came across some ancient power that allowed me to overthrow my master and rule the world with an iron fist.
Not a chance. As cool as it would be to have magic, dragons, and the lot, there isn't much call for rock musicians or writers in a medieval world, and most of my personal life would probably get me beheaded within a week. I'll pursue my fantasies right here in 2006, thanks. ; )
Not a chance. As cool as it would be to have magic, dragons, and the lot, there isn't much call for rock musicians or writers in a medieval world, and most of my personal life would probably get me beheaded within a week. I'll pursue my fantasies right here in 2006, thanks. ; )
Not a chance James, being an editor of Dungeon magazine makes you one of the bosses of all dungeon masters....they would all be beholden to you and incorporate that metalcore music you like into all their religious ceremonies, although that manpaste you were talking about a few months ago would probably still get you a date with the guillotine ;)
Not a chance James, being an editor of Dungeon magazine makes you one of the bosses of all dungeon masters....they would all be beholden to you and incorporate that metalcore music you like into all their religious ceremonies, although that manpaste you were talking about a few months ago would probably still get you a date with the guillotine ;)
Manpaste?? *eyes spin as strange images run through her head*
"Yea verily, for we have gathered before before the Great Sutter, so all may thrash to his divine music."
"Ea! Ea! Sutter et fhtagn!"
"Rock on."
The Great Sutter's herald is an advanced Fiendish grey render who feasts on mythical pieces of paper called...submissions...
No! I have worked too hard to get where I am to give it up. ~grins~ Now, if you had said... "Would you go 500 or a 1000 years into the future?", then I would be tempted. Even better, I would gladly accept the kind of immortallity that Milo Morati from the Horseclans had. That would be neat! Then I could just live my life up to that point. ~coughs~ But I am going off on a tangent. My answer to the question would be a No.
Manpaste?? *eyes spin as strange images run through her head*
I think it was some sort of power-lifting food concoction that they gave this nickname to. It was certainly a disturbing enough name for me to remember, especially because we have one of those powerlifter persons in my office too and he eats some very strange things sometimes.
I would want to go to a D&D world only long enough to get my sick family members healed and clear out a low level dungeon in a few minutes with some heavy duty hardware, take the gold back to NOW and sell it at $600 an ounce. 50 coins = 16 ounces = $192 per gold piece....that's some serious cash.
~laughter~ True, Farewell2Kings! I had never quite thought of it that way. I was under the impression that you would be there forever. If you could go back and forth and use all the goodies that the 21st century offers? Well, now. That is a whole other can of worms!
Manpaste?? *eyes spin as strange images run through her head*"Yea verily, for we have gathered before before the Great Sutter, so all may thrash to his divine music."
"Ea! Ea! Sutter et fhtagn!"
"Rock on."
The Great Sutter's herald is an advanced Fiendish grey render who feasts on mythical pieces of paper called...submissions...
Oh man... that totally just made my day. Ea! :)
And F2K is right - "manpaste," also known as "man sludge," "man goo," and the unfortunate "man chowder" (thanks, Jacobs), is actually an awesome protein supplement by Biotest Labs, formerly named GROW! (and since renamed "Metabolic Drive," which is both lame and misleading). My roommates began referring to it as manpaste, and it's spread... I drink around a liter of it a day (or, as I prefer to measure it, several chickens' worth) and some of my coworkers still haven't quite gotten used to it. : P
Actually, this delightful comic pretty much sums things up.
Soylent green...is...is...flumph!!!
And here it is...
(Oddly enough, this stuff is really tasty. You just have to get over the color, 'cause it's really really really green.)
Oh man... that totally just made my day. Ea! :)
And F2K is right - "manpaste," also known as "man sludge," "man goo," and the unfortunate "man chowder" (thanks, Jacobs), is actually an awesome protein supplement by Biotest Labs, formerly named GROW! (and since renamed "Metabolic Drive," which is both lame and misleading). My roommates began referring to it as manpaste, and it's spread... I drink around a liter of it a day (or, as I prefer to measure it, several chickens' worth) and some of my coworkers still haven't quite gotten used to it. : P
Actually, this delightful comic pretty much sums things up.
You're welcome! Ea!
Manpaste is a fairly good descriptor for some of those protein drinks. *shudder* Some of them are quite good, though.
Does this mean that feeding manpaste to your herald will let us pass in peace? Or a manpaste-submission sammich?
... I drink around a liter of it a day (or, as I prefer to measure it, several chickens' worth)
James to the throng in the D&D World: "Fall before me, for I am a leader among dungeon masters."
Peasants: "Yes, Lord Sutter" as they all fall to their knees.
James: "Now, here--drink these chickens."
Peasants jump to their feet...."someone get a rope!"
|
|
I've got it!
"Manfred's Marvelous Man-Paste"
For some odd reason, this ligubrious substance smells and tastes like a mixture of brewer's yeast, barley, kelp, and the eggwhite from the egg of a fiendish 1/2 illithid harpy.
Upon imbibing the paste, the character is under the influence of a bull's strength and rage spell as cast by a 12th level wizard/phys. ed. teacher. Additionally, female imbibers must make a dc 25 fortitude save or grow facial hair. 300 g.p. per dose.
Is there a better world than this, I ask yezz?
I would love to have said yes, but I am too attached to all my friends and family in this world, besides if I want to go on an adventure I just drive for about an hour and get to my dad's woodlot and then travel for a while or i will go and just backpack for a few days with a couple of friends. But if I didn't have anyone here I would say yes! As long as i have a lifetime supply of Tegretol as having an epileptic seizure in that kind of society would be both a pain in the ass as they would probably drown me for being possessed or something. But baring all of that sure why not?
Your exact scenario actually occurred to me at the Galleria Mall in White Plains New York back in 1990.
My new friend Dan Frank introduced me to a manager of a Software Etc. named Lorne. I'm 6'2 but I had to look, up, way up, to meet Lorne's rasputin eyes. They flared with icy madness and I couldn't maintain his unblinking gaze for more than a few seconds at a time.
I sat down with them at the food court and they went on about swords they had forged and Lorne mentioned how he wanted to create a Damascus anvil. It went from SCA academic to delusionally bizarre as Lorne swore that he could turn himself into an owl and I was temporarily drowned in images of this enormous man running around a party naked, jumping into the window sill, squawking his last before one fateful unfeathered plummet to the pavement below.
"I'm an owl," he could later be heard to grate to the EMTs as they heaved his 350 pound frame into the meat wagon.
Then the conversation moved to Tolkien and Lorne mentioned something about one of Tolkien's prophecies. Lorne turns to me and asked if knew what would happen when the planets aligned or the moon hit a certain mark in the sky (whatever). Anyway, from my posterior I pulled, "The elves will rise again?"
Sarcasm unappreciated, those blue eyes flared with even greater intensity. "Yes!"
Dan left to go to work, and left me with Lorne. Lorne asked me how good I thought I was versus how bad. I said 50/50. Fair enough answer that year as a girlfriend made a dish of food so foul I threw it out a window. That's a chaotic evil act if ever there was and I was haunted by my own potential for dickdom for some time afterward. Lorne disagreed with my assessment and thought I was hard on myself. Lorne must have been right, because according to him, after ingesting deadly nightshade he gained the ability to have prophetic dreams and read minds. He told me that my feint of disinterest during the earlier conversations of anvils and wereowls was actually my strategy to create underestimation. What a genius. Here I thought I was just bored and being held captive amongst a sea of hair-sprayed Mally Malones.
Lorne asked if I had martial experience and I read off the list of my training and my kickboxing record blah blah blah...
He said, "Although the group of knights I'm assembling will train as Kensai, I want you to be our wise man. Are you acquainted with The Chronicles of Amber? Together we will take nightshade and (if we somehow survived?) create a gate to a world of true good and evil. It is there we shall do what we were born to do."
Okay, now I know Lorne just wanted a world with no shades of grey, paladins and damsels and fiends for the clubbing, but he was obviously on course to be some kind of rennie fair Jim Jones. I made no attempt to ever see him again.
I admired his dream. His passion me feel like the psychiatrist in Equus, far more sane but desert dead and godless. I wonder if he ever found his gate. I hope he did.
|
Your exact scenario actually occurred to me at the Galleria Mall in White Plains New York back in 1990.
My new friend Dan Frank introduced me to a manager of a Software Etc. named Lorne. I'm 6'2 but I had to look, up, way up, to meet Lorne's rasputin eyes. They flared with icy madness and I couldn't maintain his unblinking gaze for more than a few seconds at a time.
I sat down with them at the food court and they went on about swords they had forged and Lorne mentioned how he wanted to create a Damascus anvil. It went from SCA academic to delusionally bizarre as Lorne swore that he could turn himself into an owl and I was temporarily drowned in images of this enormous man running around a party naked, jumping into the window sill, squawking his last before one fateful unfeathered plummet to the pavement below.
"I'm an owl," he could later be heard to grate to the EMTs as they heaved his 350 pound frame into the meat wagon.
Then the conversation moved to Tolkien and Lorne mentioned something about one of Tolkien's prophecies. Lorne turns to me and asked if knew what would happen when the planets aligned or the moon hit a certain mark in the sky (whatever). Anyway, from my posterior I pulled, "The elves will rise again?"
Sarcasm unappreciated, those blue eyes flared with even greater intensity. "Yes!"
Dan left to go to work, and left me with Lorne. Lorne asked me how good I thought I was versus how bad. I said 50/50. Fair enough answer that year as a girlfriend made a dish of food so foul I threw it out a window. That's a chaotic evil act if ever there was and I was haunted by my own potential for dickdom for some time afterward. Lorne disagreed with my assessment and thought I was hard on myself. Lorne must have been right, because according to him, after ingesting deadly nightshade he gained the ability to have prophetic dreams and read minds. He told me that my feint of disinterest during the earlier conversations of anvils and wereowls was actually my strategy to create...
THIS is the guy who will be interviewed about the D&D hobby and get a new wave of narrow-minded religious Zealots trying to burning all things D&D because it's "Evil Propaganda". I hate idiots who make us look like lunitics.
FH
I said 50/50. Fair enough answer that year as a girlfriend made a dish of food so foul I threw it out a window. That's a chaotic evil act if ever there was and I was haunted by my own potential for dickdom for some time afterward.
I've been having a rough night, and its so wrong, but just seeing the term "dickdom" just somehow made everything alright . . .
Also, for some reason this story reminds me of the whole blonde joke about the blonde in the rowboat in the middle of the corn field . . .
I guess for me it would depend...mideavil (sp?) worlds were not as tolerant or open or democratic as todays...would i be killed as a foreign devil?? will i be a nobleman or a serf?
Too many things could go wrong...besides my answer would definetly have to be a NO untill dental heigeine and flushing toilets were invented!
Lastly, i think i'd be killed in under a minute as i tried to preach my (what they are sure to name Radical) Canadian Socialist Propaganda! LOL.
Seriously...magic may be cool...but not everyone can use it...and besides i can toss fireballs now...they are called Grenades =pp...well at least when i go back to Lebanon for a visit!
Be safe all.
THIS is the guy who will be interviewed about the D&D hobby and get a new wave of narrow-minded religious Zealots trying to burning all things D&D because it's "Evil Propaganda". I hate idiots who make us look like lunitics.
FH
LOL. I'm sure christians say the same thing about their own idiots, FH. ;)
No showers, toothbrushes (and toothpaste), toilet paper, gas ovens, refrigerators, or bottled coca cola? Not to mention women wouldnt be shaving their legs or armpits. Movies, decent music....no multivitamins, cereal, OREOS! I would have to make my own milk, too. No health care, either.
As great as it would be to play around as a knight, I would have to say, definitely not.
No showers, toothbrushes (and toothpaste), toilet paper, gas ovens, refrigerators, or bottled coca cola? Not to mention women wouldnt be shaving their legs or armpits. Movies, decent music....no multivitamins, cereal, OREOS! I would have to make my own milk, too. No health care, either.
As great as it would be to play around as a knight, I would have to say, definitely not.
I dunno, with all the hot babes in Ed Greenwood's forgotten realms, I'd have to say I be seriusly tempted. Mind you, the odds of having a seriously painful death seem to be a lot higher so maybe I should justgo to Las Vegas instead.
I'd go, without doubt.
Even as a father of 3, with a wife. However, unlike those waiting till their kids are grown, I'm taking everyone with me...after all, have to have someone to leave my future empire to!
:)
Not a chance. As cool as it would be to have magic, dragons, and the lot, there isn't much call for rock musicians or writers in a medieval world, and most of my personal life would probably get me beheaded within a week. I'll pursue my fantasies right here in 2006, thanks. ; )
Are you kidding, as a rock musician you are guaranteed to be "recruited" by an orc army in a heartbeat to lead their war drum brigade.
If I was stuck there, I'd have to find a way to replicate the modern conveniences that I wouldn't want to live without.
Here's one: Large metal bucket with thin holes at the bottom that can be plugged. Cast create water spell into it and then use "heat metal" to give yourself a daily hot shower of clean water.
I'd have to hire someone to skin my animals for me. One of the reasons I gave up hunting was the skinning--I'm usually not squeamish, but I'd rather have someone else do that.
Nah , I'm one Contatigon away from a shallow grave as it is. That coupled with my inability to keep my mouth shut would guaruntee me a TPK in less then 2 weeks.
Aren't we supposed to be going to a D&D world? Hygene is never an issue there (it's just glossed over typically, and everyone is assumed reasonably clean), and strange people only get cautious glances from peasants! All the women are beautiful, and you're assured to be an adventurer, destined for either greatness or gruesome death (luckily, you're a manifestation of a PC, so the world's DM should actually be on your side). People of strange appearence of ideals aren't beaten; they just get cautious glances from peasants who fear what powers they might have.
Keeping that in mind, does it change your answer?
Oh, and The Jade, I'm sorry to say I've met someone like your Lorne. Yeesh.
I've got it!
"Manfred's Marvelous Man-Paste"
For some odd reason, this ligubrious substance smells and tastes like a mixture of brewer's yeast, barley, kelp, and the eggwhite from the egg of a fiendish 1/2 illithid harpy.
Upon imbibing the paste, the character is under the influence of a bull's strength and rage spell as cast by a 12th level wizard/phys. ed. teacher. Additionally, female imbibers must make a dc 25 fortitude save or grow facial hair. 300 g.p. per dose.
Is there a better world than this, I ask yezz?
Lookout Barry! Someone's gonna break your record real quick with this stuff! And I bet the steroid tests won't pick it up.
Edit--Oh, I guess I was supposed to say . . . What a world without automobiles and TV? I'm there in a heartbeat. I'll miss my family, though, unless I can take them along. Having done field work in a pretty medieval part of China, I've found one does adapt to "bad hygiene conditions," and that people in such places usually aren't as grubby as we make them out to be. I'm convinced that deodorant was invented because we started building 50 story buildings that you can't open the windows of--if you're outside your B.O. dissipates pretty quickly. :<}o (That's a lame attempt to invent a "plugs nose to avoid nasty smell" emoticon, if you didn't get it). Anyhow, if you love all your creature comforts, just study magic--as suggested by F2K above. *ends weird romantic anti-modernist rant*
|
|
I'm going just as soon as I find someone to train me as a kensei. And we need a wiseman. And owls. Must turn into owls. Jade, that's freaking priceless. I ended up working with a very weird individual once. What reminded me of him was the Rasputin-eyes thing. This guy had that going on. The first time I met him, he's standing there, hands at ease (behind the back), and he looked like Hannibal freakin Lector the first time Clarice saw him there in the cell. With this manic grin on his face, and those blue Rasputin eyes. Who the hell needs a psychiatry degree to diagnose insanity?
I can't really go into some of the weird crap this guy said, for a lot of reasons. It'd really offend a lot of people. Just those Rasputin eyes.
That's funny - my boyfriend once walked into a coffee shop and the person behind the counter opened his arms wide and said "Satan!" My boyfriend is about 5'8", dark hair with a goatee and mustache - he fits the profile pretty good. That, and his nickname's been Lucifer for many years.
What's even funnier is the barista didn't know who he was...it was a priceless moment. :-D
My other half can pull off the "Rasputin eyes" trick as well, though it's more akin to a bird of prey look. It's creepy...!
Hell yes I would go to Eberron. Its not like I got anything going on in this world to stop me.
No showers, toothbrushes (and toothpaste), toilet paper, gas ovens, refrigerators, or bottled coca cola? Not to mention women wouldnt be shaving their legs or armpits. Movies, decent music....no multivitamins, cereal, OREOS! I would have to make my own milk, too. No health care, either.
As great as it would be to play around as a knight, I would have to say, definitely not.
For all those missing the creature comforts of home here are some ideas.
Toothpaste/toothbrush:Yellow birch, break a small branch off and fray the ends, use it and your breath will be very fresh, or at least better than nothing.:)
Toilet paper: Birch or alder leaves are good as they are pretty big and not too rough, just remember leaves of three let them be.
Hot shower: F2k without the magic your idea would work, except place said steel container in a tree or something where it will get alot of sun and place a steel lid on it, in a few hours you will have a hot shower (or at least luke warm) ready to go.
Soap, bath in the above shower with some mud (yes, clay mud mixed with boiled animal fat!) and a very stiff bristled brush and you are set, also you may try deodorizing the water with yellow birch. A pumice stone is also good for such things. as it can help with getting the mud off and stuff. (I think that there is another recipe for soap too but I am not sure, i will have to check)
Milk: Find a cow, you don't actually make it you just have to go and get it.
Refrigerator: Its called an Ice house, they dig a big hole in the ground fairly deep and line it near the end of winter with ice from a pond and cover the ice with dried straw so that it doesn't thaw too quickly, it works pretty well actually, but you will probably more want to dry your meat in a smoke house.
no cooca cola but you will be able to make mead and other types of alcoholic beverages, in PEI they have something called birch beer, it is quite nice actually.
As for the hairy women thing most peasants would be hairy, sorry no answers for that one, but i am sure that most rich ladies and princesses that most heroes would run into would be well perfumed and clean.
I used to know how to distill the essence out of botanical products at one point too and it isn't too difficult just requires a lot of beakers and bunsen burners, I have to check my notes.
Hope this helps those who don't wish to depend on magic.
later
A.
P.S. I took economic botany for a semester it was really quite interesting.
I've been having a rough night, and its so wrong, but just seeing the term "dickdom" just somehow made everything alright . . .
Glad some good came out of it. Some people have kingdoms. I just have...
Hope things improved for you, Knight.
Oh, and The Jade, I'm sorry to say I've met someone like your Lorne. Yeesh.
Any details?
I'm going just as soon as I find someone to train me as a kensei. And we need a wiseman. And owls. Must turn into owls. Jade, that's freaking priceless. I ended up working with a very weird individual once. What reminded me of him was the Rasputin-eyes thing. This guy had that going on. The first time I met him, he's standing there, hands at ease (behind the back), and he looked like Hannibal freakin Lector the first time Clarice saw him there in the cell. With this manic grin on his face, and those blue Rasputin eyes. Who the hell needs a psychiatry degree to diagnose insanity?
I can't really go into some of the weird crap this guy said, for a lot of reasons. It'd really offend a lot of people. Just those Rasputin eyes.
We'll need a new thread eventually. Something like 'Doo-wacka-doos we have known'. ;)
That's funny - my boyfriend once walked into a coffee shop and the person behind the counter opened his arms wide and said "Satan!" My boyfriend is about 5'8", dark hair with a goatee and mustache - he fits the profile pretty good. That, and his nickname's been Lucifer for many years.
What's even funnier is the barista didn't know who he was...it was a priceless moment. :-D
My other half can pull off the "Rasputin eyes" trick as well, though it's more akin to a bird of prey look. It's creepy...!
After seeing V For Vendetta I read up on Guy Fawkes. It seem his attempt to blow up parliament is why the devil is so often depicted as having your boyfriend's facial hair style.
Imagine offending people so grievously that they actually give the devil a makeover to look more like you.