The general statement that magic as a system can't be held to any rational expectations "because it's magic" is a fallacy that is on the order of the Stormwind fallacy or the "because... DRAGONS" fallacy.Yeah, saying that 'vancian spells make no sense' is a pretty meaningless statement because they're magic. They work however you want or need it to work.
That said, vancian casting doesn't really resemble magic from any literature or tale, except those written by Vance. So I totally get why some people hate it.
What Bill Dunn said.
Also, psionics is a non-vancian system that doesn't involve any more DM adjudication than vancian spells.
Also, I really want to like more anime though.
Just like any TV, there's a lot of different genres and a lot to hate and a lot to love.
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If they had used some other way to describe Vancian I would have no problems with it. It just that seeing a first level and a 20h level wizard both forgetting their spells is a mood killer for me sometime.s Which is why I stopped playing wizards. At least for now. The most I want to play with casting is a Bard. I have run into a few instances where newer players to the hobby wonder why everyone no matter their level all seem ot have the same disadvantage. But in the end it's here to stay. Even PF rephrased explanation makes no difference. A wizard constantly getting amnesia after casting his spells just imo does not come across as fun. I can live with it I don;t have to like that part of the game.
I don't really care how true to the source a movie/TV show is so long as it is good.
I can't stand about 90% of anime.
I think Whedon is kinda hit or miss (guess this gets me shuned by both sides of the argument) IE angel/buffy=terribad dollhouse=meh firefly=awesome avengers=awesome AoS=one thumb down working on a second.
Cold pizza is terrible...
There is literally nothing here I don't agree with.
Wait...what's AoS?
Also, I really want to like more anime though.
I actually tend to think Firefly was over-rated while Buffy/Angel were awesome. Although I would agree and say "Meh" for dollhouse, although I blame a lot of that on the Eliza Dushku.
Wait...what's AoS?
Agents of SHIELD I believe.
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I love FATAL, it should regarded as the very pinnacle of game design.
I want to play an Awakened Pony Wizard.*proceeds to shun himself*
I know right? Cool kids go with Alicorns.
Alicorns are so overpowered!!!!!
Cold pizza is terrible...
... and the shunning must be epic, nay mythic for this ultimate blasphemy.
I'm not a fan of, but don't hate, most forms of passive entertainment. This includes primarily movies, television.
What I do dislike is the repeated insistence that I "really should" watch a show or a movie. I understand this is often well-intentioned, but...
Over time? It starts to wear a bit, especially given how prevalent things like BSG, GoT and similar are to geek culture. This leads me to my second part.
I suppose what I really do dislike out of all of this is the insistence that movies, shows must be part of geek culture.
I don't mind that they're there. However, I could wish they weren't such a huge part of said culture.
It's one of the reasons I enjoy RPGs so much. But, a BSG watching party? I'll bring a book.
Not to offend anyone. It's just not interesting to me.
I have to say I really enjoyed the BSG reboot at first. But I eventually lost interest and have never seen the last few episodes. I also find "The Walking Dead" to be extremely dull. I tried to watch it, I really did. Same with "Supernatural".
The Walking Dead gets pretty dull during the second season, but it really picks up after that; 3rd season was a blast. I had to force myself to endure the part about the farm, but eventually came to enjoy the series again.
The Walking Dead gets pretty dull during the second season, but it really picks up after that; 3rd season was a blast. I had to force myself to endure the part about the farm, but eventually came to enjoy the series again.
The farm. I hated that farm. Season 2 had some alright parts closer to the end I thought, but around the middle I remember talking to my friends about how the zombies disappeared and whiney housewives showed up. Season 3 was definitely more eventful and felt like I'd miss something if I missed an episode.
Confession: I hate chocolate and cake.
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The Walking Dead gets pretty dull during the second season, but it really picks up after that; 3rd season was a blast. I had to force myself to endure the part about the farm, but eventually came to enjoy the series again.
I'm glad to hear it; I was kinda nonplussed with season 2, particularly the last episode...
But I'm looking forward to season 3 on Netflix!
New BSG is the same way. Great first season or two, then at some point the cylons fade into the background and the show becomes 'Domestic Tensions & Labor Crises.' But then sometime during the last season or two it picks up again, and becomes the best space opera EVAR! I think it was the scific channel's pressure to definitively end the series that made it spectacular again.
A pressure which, incidentally, I think the Supernatural writers could really use. 'Cause otherwise, it's never going to end. Season 72 will feature the heads of Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles in Futurama-style glass head-cases, punching out God with robotic arms for being "Such a dick," as Dean will say.
And then the cybernetically-immortal duo will take on the Great Old Ones in season 73.
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Confession: I hate chocolate and cake.
I'm not even mad, I just can't comprehend how this is possible
I find zombies boring.
I find zombies boring.
I completely agree. I get tired of seeing so many zombie movies and tv shows. I had the unfortunate experience of watching World War Z.
Something that would get me shunned: I actually prefer pedophile sparkly vampires (Twilight) over zombies, and I hated the 2 movies I was forced to watch. But they were still better than all this zombie crap.
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I find zombies boring.
I dislike certain kinds of zombies. You've got those slow walkers that don't do anything. Then you have horrible abominations that look almost eldritch with a lot of new and interesting ways to kill you. I like the latter.
Confession: I hate chocolate and cake.I'm not even mad, I just can't comprehend how this is possible
I think I broke you. I think that means I win.
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The whole zombie thing has been done to death.
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The whole zombie thing has been done to death.
And then brought it back to a shambling semblance of life.
The whole zombie thing has been done to death.And then brought it back to a shambling semblance of life.
Then shot in the head. Repeatedly. There's a horde of them though, so it might be a while before you finally finish them off.
I find zombies boring.
Most horror movies do to, judging by how in most cases they are less a threat than other people, or require complete incompetency on the part of the protagonists.
The Walking Dead gets pretty dull during the second season, but it really picks up after that; 3rd season was a blast. I had to force myself to endure the part about the farm, but eventually came to enjoy the series again.I'm glad to hear it; I was kinda nonplussed with season 2, particularly the last episode...
** spoiler omitted **
But I'm looking forward to season 3 on Netflix!
New BSG is the same way. Great first season or two, then at some point the cylons fade into the background and the show becomes 'Domestic Tensions & Labor Crises.' But then sometime during the last season or two it picks up again, and becomes the best space opera EVAR! I think it was the scific channel's pressure to definitively end the series that made it spectacular again.
I liked the first two seasons of BSG, but after that it was obvious that the writers were pulling stuff out of thin air and really had no idea what was going on. The season finale so ticked me off I ended up selling all the seasons I had bought on DVD to Hastings.
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I liked the first two seasons of BSG, but after that it was obvious that the writers were pulling stuff out of thin air and really had no idea what was going on. The season finale so ticked me off I ended up selling all the seasons I had bought on DVD to Hastings.
I've got to rewatch the series sometime, because the sequence of quality is fuzzy in my head. I do agree that the finale is kinda weird...
But all in all, it tied everything up and was very emotionally satisfying.
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Then shot in the head. Repeatedly. There's a horde of them though, so it might be a while before you finally finish them off.The whole zombie thing has been done to death.And then brought it back to a shambling semblance of life.
I agree. I only own 3 Zombie movies (out of over 1000 movies) - Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland and Warm Bodies.
I liked the first two seasons of BSG, but after that it was obvious that the writers were pulling stuff out of thin air and really had no idea what was going on. The season finale so ticked me off I ended up selling all the seasons I had bought on DVD to Hastings.I've got to rewatch the series sometime, because the sequence of quality is fuzzy in my head. I do agree that the finale is kinda weird...
** spoiler omitted **
But all in all, it tied everything up and was very emotionally satisfying.
I'm an odd man out - I thought each season was better than the one before - with the increasing reliance on gods/mysteries, especially from the cylons and other things that took it beyond straight military SF. Yeah the 'Get the high tech out" on the finale was stupid, but I loved everything else on it.
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I love flumphs, and think they should be a PC race.
I agree. I only own 3 Zombie movies (out of over 1000 movies) - Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland and Warm Bodies.Then shot in the head. Repeatedly. There's a horde of them though, so it might be a while before you finally finish them off.The whole zombie thing has been done to death.And then brought it back to a shambling semblance of life.
I probably have 20 or something zombie movies on DVD...I like a good zombie movie...but at this point the genre is just so stale and rote I have gotten sick of them as monsters.
The whole zombie thing has been done to death.
I used to love zombies. I used to have recurring nightmares about being chased by undead hordes as a kid. But seriously, it's been done to death, no pun intended. So wore out on the genre now.
Zombies need some kind of epic reboot. Need to go back to unexplained phenomena causing them to rise; dark magic, different abilities, etc. The virus/meteor/trying to hard to be realistic" thing is done. They need to be mysterious and scary again.
We've figured out by now that corpses cannot get up and walk around. The harder and harder writers try to explain how zombies happen, the more logic holes we poke in the stories. Need to throw logic out the window and make them paranormal.
The absolute best zombie movie I have seen is Dead Rising on Xbox.
The absolute best zombie movie I have seen is Dead Rising on Xbox.
I had Dead Rising 2, but gave it up after encountering at least 2 loading screens every 30 seconds. I spent more time watching loading screens than actually playing the game, so I deleted it.
Doctor Who (Old and New)
Anything with a Hobbit in it.
Monty Python.
Dub Step.
I can't decide the ranks of "sucks" to apply to each since I find them all so darn rotten.... okay I admit Dub Step is #1 but it gets harder from there.
I am okay with including guns to my fantasy setting.
Considering knights and guns did co-exist in our world for some time.
Then again, said guns were crappy muskets and such, not freaking Desert Eagles.
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I am okay with including guns to my fantasy setting.
Confession: I'm okay with lazers and jumping 300 feet into the air and giant mecha and innate flight and six foot swords and settings with giant skyscrapers and high speed action and martials that break all these things really, really well in my fantasy... but I still want a coherent plot.
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I'm okay with those things, because magic already beats melee by a thousand miles as is.
I enjoy playing martials.
I'm okay with not playing a reality-bending wizard. Totally fine with it.
What then would your wizard bend?
...bacon?
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IIIIIIIIIIIIIIT'S BACON
Find the new Battlestar Galatica to boils down to "space dingos ate my baby" level of drama....constantly.
Been playing D&D/Pathfinder for 30+ years; yet still just can't get through the Hobbit/LOTR - it just doesn't inspire me for gaming.
While I can appreciate Cthulu mythology, I just find Lovecraft's stories to be OK at best and racist at times.
I like John Cena.
OUCH!
I think that Tolkien has no sense of narrative rhythm. The Silmarillion made me want to claw my eyes out.Ursula K. Le Guin wrote an essay (including a close reading of one passage) on Tolkien's rhythms which I read years ago. I find that it is now free online.
I mention it not to argue, but simply because I distinctly enjoyed the essay and your post reminds me of it.
As one who has sought out commentary and analysis of Tolkien's work from critics, writers and lay people, I am surprised that I had not before encountered Le Guin's analysis of the chapter on the Barrow-downs. It is an amazing bit of prose itself, and is clearly an expression of appreciation for a master of the narrative by another master of the same.
I have tried to point this out to people before, that Tolkien's writing is best read as if reading aloud. Pausing to catch one's breath at times. His rhythms are very organic rhythms and Le Guin identifies this as key to the pace of the narrative. When the characters are walking, the narrative walks. When the characters are riding, the narrative rides.
If one tries to read Tolkien in a hurry, or if the expectation is that Tolkien is writing like most of the 20th century fiction authors, in one long breathless climb to ultimate climax, then Tolkien can feel choppy at times, or his long narrative pauses can feel boring and out of place.
But to me that means the reader is missing one of the great literary triumphs of the book, which is that Tolkien is almost literally taking the reader step by step, day by day, breath by breath on an epic journey of ultimate conflict between utter evil and the simplest acts of good which defeat that evil.
An elegant narrative for a more civilized age.
;)
Glad you liked the essay AD.