Here's my grievance:
Man, aeons are just the worst.
Them's fighting words!
Or are they...?
About half the time, I guess, for inscrutable reasons, them is fighting words. The other half, I don't know, maybe them's loving words? Sure. That sounds plausible.
Aeons rock. If that's what the Monad wants. Otherwise, they don't rock. Don't worry too much about it. It's all under control.
Grievance:
Another thread about an insane character. That's a sensitive theme for me because I've lost some loved ones to mental disease.
I hate when people bring mental disease to a game as if it was a joke: characters who believe to be personalities from other media, multiple personalities, the happy goofy madman who acts like a clown because he is insane...
Most players just want to play a fun concept, but this concepts are not only disruptive in most cases, I find most of them to be offensive.
Mental disease is not funny. People who suffer from it are not living jokes but people who struggle to deal with a disease.
There is still nowadays a lack of understanding and of knowledge. People who creates this characters of course don't mean to offend anyone. But it's a sensitive matter to me.
In this case it wasn't a big deal, just a NPC with multiple persobalities. Nothing bad (actually I have to admit that this one seems interesting and not offensive). But it brought my old grievance to mind.I always liked Malkavians in V:tM but I had to ban them from a lot of games because everybody played them like clowns. When I played the obsessive and controlling type that couldn't let anything scape his surveillance they said that it wasn't a Malkavian just because the character was serious and a bit creepy in his obsession.
I thought people knew better now, but every now and then I have to lecture a player who thinks that an insane character must be a clown.
Yea the way some players use the portrayal of mental illness is rather unfortunate. I have, in my own games, been spare the most egregious examples of playing up mental illness as clownery and buffoonish behaviour mostly because my friends know of my distaste for it. On the other hand, I always try and not beat people over the head with my opinions on the matter, and try to politely steer people clear of the worst stereotypes.
I, myself, have of cause also played characters who have suffered from mental illness, so I haven't been immune to the occasional goofy moment, but it was never their defining feature. They were always, at their core, tragic figures who were struggling against their diseases, habits and environment.
I've played "insane" characters, but I don't like calling it a disease when I do.
They might be melodramatic like The Tick, or touched by faeries, and although, yes, terms like these have been used in the past as signs of/excuses for mental illness, if I'm touched by fairies, then it's because I'm touched by fairies, and not because I'm suffering from mental illness.
Maybe I've been a problem player. I'll have to think about it.
I only have one Malc player and while his portrayal of his "Tea Party" as the character refers to the voices in his head is at times a bit humorous, he doesn't narm it up to the point of satire.
I don't mind if their madness causes an ocasional funny moment. That's OK. We have all been there. The issue is more with characters who are a living joke.
Well, my most famous Malkavian character did ham it up to the point of satire, but he knew it and used it as a cover for his actual debilitating obsession for information. People expect a beautiful clown? He'll give them a clown. Ask for silly stuff and people will laugh as they don't realize what you've got planned.
I don't mind if their madness causes an ocasional funny moment. That's OK. We have all been there. The issue is more with characters who are a living joke.
No this guy is my best roleplayer hands down in 15 years of DMing. I still try to get him to come down or skype into new games at least once so newer people can see more of the roleplay side of the game.
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Oh, acting like a clown just to take advantage of fools who believe in stereotypes is cool. I've never had a Malkavian who did that, but I had some barbarian-type characters who loved to play the illiterate and naive savage while taking advantage of it. That's mostly the same.
They think they are laughing at you. You are laughing at them.
I was thinking more on the type of «I want to play a Jedi in Pathfinder so I say my character is insane and believes to be a Jedi» or «My malkavian thinks he is the president of the US» or «my character has schizophrenia so he thinks he lives in the world of My Little Pony». More extreme types.
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I played a Malkavian in the only couple of V:tM I ever participated in. He didn't run around like a lunatic, he often sat quietly alone rocking back and forth and mumbling to himself. I based him off a person I'd see walking the streets of the town I was living in at the time. I tried to make his mental illness seem as real as possible, not some cartoon. When he'd feed, he'd often mumble some mangled prayer for the departed, then quietly leave and go back to his spot on the street corner.
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Sounds like a creepy yet realistic way to handle a Malkavian's madness. A Malkavian is not just a vampire, it is an insane vampire, that should be something to be scared of, not something to laugh at.
Sounds like a creepy yet realistic way to handle a Malkavian's madness. A Malkavian is not just a vampire, it is an insane vampire, that should be something to be scared of, not something to laugh at.
I'm pretty good at doing creepy stuff in games.. lol. I was running a online chat game once and a door slammed in the background at the home of one of the players. She shrieked and fell out of her chair after the scene I'd described.
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Dalindra scared the hell away of all the group in The Call of Cthulhu when he had his character posessed.
He played a british lord and he never stopped being polite and calm even in the most awkward situations.
Most. Creepy. Roleplaying. Ever.
I totally shocked every player once in a game of Cthulhu where my character realized he was totally on the road to madness. Without warning he pulled his handgun and shot himself rather than continue down that path. The room sat there in stunned disbelief for nearly a minute before anyone said anything.
Wow. That was harsh. I'd be unable to blink in a few minutes.
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Here's my grievance:
Man, aeons are just the worst.
Them's fighting words!
Or are they...?
About half the time, I guess, for inscrutable reasons, them is fighting words. The other half, I don't know, maybe them's loving words? Sure. That sounds plausible.
Aeons rock. If that's what the Monad wants. Otherwise, they don't rock. Don't worry too much about it. It's all under control.
The woooooorrrst
The woooooorrrstHere's my grievance:
Man, aeons are just the worst.
Them's fighting words!
Or are they...?
About half the time, I guess, for inscrutable reasons, them is fighting words. The other half, I don't know, maybe them's loving words? Sure. That sounds plausible.
Aeons rock. If that's what the Monad wants. Otherwise, they don't rock. Don't worry too much about it. It's all under control.
Oh, quit yer monadin'...
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On that note, Call of Cthulhu has some of the most f*!+ing awkward mental health bullshit I've read in a long time (though, sadly, Pathfinder's Horror Adventures ain't exactly the update of the psychological horror genre like I was hoping it would be). I own the Sixth Edition, so maybe the game's improved since then, but this book is just disgusting. First, you pick up actual mental health disorders when you go "insane" instead of letting it be a much more vague and alien direction. Second:
Hooray for 90s-era attitudes on mental health! Hooray for old white dudes running everything!
Oh, quit yer monadin'...The woooooorrrstHere's my grievance:
Man, aeons are just the worst.
Them's fighting words!
Or are they...?
About half the time, I guess, for inscrutable reasons, them is fighting words. The other half, I don't know, maybe them's loving words? Sure. That sounds plausible.
Aeons rock. If that's what the Monad wants. Otherwise, they don't rock. Don't worry too much about it. It's all under control.
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On that note, Call of Cthulhu has some of the most f$+$ing awkward mental health b~+%#&~# I've read in a long time (though, sadly, Pathfinder's Horror Adventures ain't exactly the update of the psychological horror genre like I was hoping it would be). I own the Sixth Edition, so maybe the game's improved since then, but this book is just disgusting. First, you pick up actual mental health disorders when you go "insane" instead of letting it be a much more vague and alien direction. Second:
** spoiler omitted **
Hooray for 90s-era attitudes on mental health! Hooray for old white dudes running everything!
Well the setting is also 1920's so ive read modules that were far from PC. For some its part of the charm I suppose.
No, it's not a matter of matching the times—they do underline other things the 1920s folks believed that weren't true (like certain medical practices, and homosexuality being a disorder). This isn't a deliberate aspect of the world. There is a pronounced difference between saying, "Many people in the 1920s were hideously bigoted" and designing a game with hideously bigoted sections. Sadly, Call of Cthulhu, 6th Edition, goes the latter route more often than not.
Did an aeon hurt you?
If they did, I'm sure it balanced out later when another one healed me, because That's How The Neutral Alignment Works, Right???
On that note, Call of Cthulhu has some of the most f~*@ing awkward mental health b!@~~#$@ I've read in a long time (though, sadly, Pathfinder's Horror Adventures ain't exactly the update of the psychological horror genre like I was hoping it would be). I own the Sixth Edition, so maybe the game's improved since then, but this book is just disgusting. First, you pick up actual mental health disorders when you go "insane" instead of letting it be a much more vague and alien direction. Second:
** spoiler omitted **
Hooray for 90s-era attitudes on mental health! Hooray for old white dudes running everything!
Hmmm couldn't really understand this, so I went looking in CoC 6th ed and yup its there.
Then I thought "how on earth could they get that idea?" So I went to the first book every one consults on things like this - the ICD-10 - leafed through it, and sure enough, under V -> F60-69 -> F64 you find Transsexualism.So according to the ICD, transsexualism is still a mental disorder?! I must honestly say, that I thought that it would have been changed by now, but apparently not.
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If they did, I'm sure it balanced out later when another one healed me, because That's How The Neutral Alignment Works, Right???
You or maybe some other kobold. Or maybe they just fixed a squeaky step in an old house. The ways of the Monad are beyond mortal ken, and the cosmic fix-it-things work in the cracks of uncorrelated consciousness.
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I just amended my reservation for Paizocon. I had booked for 12 nights but am now leaving 1 day early, so I just changed the checkout date.
Turns out the rate went up by $40 per night (which I didn't check before clicking "yes I agree" of course :p) So now I'm paying a couple of hundred dollars extra to stay one night less. I should have just left the booking as is and flown out early. :/
The grievance is clearly that I fail to read what I'm accepting before I accept it.
I probably won't be able to sign up for the Paizocon lottery, if I'm able to go at all. I've gone every year for the last, like, 5-6, so this is gonna bum me out pretty bad. :(
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If it helps, I'm rewriting how people think of gnomes.
My character for Ironfang Invasion; Greenjeans Bojangles, Gnome Psychic with the Psychedelia Discipline.
Oh, did I say rewrite. I meant reinforce gnome stereotypes. :-)
If anything, I'll probably single handedly set them back ten years.
I just have to ask myself "what would Tasselhoff do if he found some shrooms?"
(The answer is: slip some in Flint's ale, and probably murder Tanis... Or is that me projecting again...).
Gnomes are basically kender that aren't designed to f@!% up the party. I love them, but as a PC race, they have Problems.
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When I *tried* to read the Dragonlance series back in the 1980s I wanted to hunt down and kill every Kender that ever existed. I found Tasselhoff to be so annoying that he just made what I felt to be mediocre books really bad.
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The dog is staring at me, like a vulture. I know what he wants... now he's waving his tail hopefully, because I made eye contact.
But it's cold and wet outside!
Sigh!
The dog is staring at me, like a vulture. I know what he wants... now he's waving his tail hopefully, because I made eye contact.
But it's cold and wet outside!
Sigh!
If it's raining, and it's been doing that a lot recently, my dogs will not go. They'll hold it and hold it until the rain stops or until they seem to be in pain and absolutely can't last any longer.
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There is only one good kender in all of Dragonlance canon, and that is Koi Fearbreaker. All the others are bad.
When I *tried* to read the Dragonlance series back in the 1980s I wanted to hunt down and kill every Kender that ever existed. I found Tasselhoff to be so annoying that he just made what I felt to be mediocre books really bad.
I liked Tasselhoff quite a bit. Him, Fizban, Sturm, Kitiara (and Soth) were my favorite characters.
Lots of folks really liked them. I just wasn't one of them.
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I liked kender as a kid.
I also liked Scrappy Doo as a kid.
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I liked kender as a kid.
I also liked Scrappy Doo as a kid.
I swear I would go into a blind rage when I heard "Puppy power!" coming from the tv. By this time I'd largely outgrown cartoons but my younger sister still watched them. Ugh.
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Scrappy was okay, unless it was the Hanna-Barbarra Olympics. That shit was too important for that little a#$!&#$ to choke.
Ok, my Venn diagram has 2 circles, good optimizers, and good roleplayers. There is a large area of overlap, but its not even nearly total.
I once created a changeling with MPD. He was an effective barbarian, a convincing elvish noble, and a gnoll named jagged jaw or something. It's going to be hard to create such a character again. I'm thinking of creating a feat called method acting to fill the void. Maybe a vigilante believes in his separate personas so totally that they detect as different alignments. For it to be insanity, it would have to be a burden.
If someone thinks Golarion is actually Equestria, they either think everyone is under a massive illusion or an evil curse. If they constantly try to get on all fours, that would make them unplayable. In my experience, the problems are usually more of misinterpreting sensory stimuli, not actually seeing and hearing things.
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It's not so much Kenders I disliked it's that they gave
That and most players played them worst than Paladins imo.
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I once created a changeling with MPD.
Not a real thing.
I once created a changeling with MPD.
I'm a bit confused. That link seems to suggest it is a real thing, it's just that it's been renamed (from Multiple Personality Disorder to Dissociative Identity Disorder). There isn't any suggestion that the phenomenon doesn't actually happen is there?
There is also a kender in the trilogy of Mina that is kinda OK. He's called Nightshade and he's not the average kender.
I don't dislike all kender but I hate how even the authors made all them be the same. They could have developed them a bit not to behave all like Tasselhoff and to be able to fit the game without being a pain in the ass. But they reinforced that until they were barely playable.
I managed to introduce some of them as NPCs in my games and my players actually liked them, but I had to add some changes to make them be less disruptive.
Anyway, I love Dragonlance (I've been GMing in Dragonlance for years and we have shaped the world in a way that it's now our own setting rather than the standard one, so I cannot leave all that behind and move to another setting), but as it is it's a flawed and outdated setting, with a lack of variety in a lot of ways and some unplayable options that need to be fixed (kender and gnomes i.e.) and underdeveloped gods. We've been working hard to change that and have the setting evolve into our times but again, as it is it needs a lot of work. Anyway, I love Dragonlance, specially the Dragonlance version we play at my table xD
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There is also a kender in the trilogy of Mina that is kinda OK. He's called Nightshade and he's not the average kender.
I don't dislike all kender but I hate how even the authors made all them be the same. They could have developed them a bit not to behave all like Tasselhoff and to be able to fit the game without being a pain in the ass. But they reinforced that until they were barely playable.
I managed to introduce some of them as NPCs in my games and my players actually liked them, but I had to add some changes to make them be less disruptive.
Anyway, I love Dragonlance (I've been GMing in Dragonlance for years and we have shaped the world in a way that it's now our own setting rather than the standard one, so I cannot leave all that behind and move to another setting), but as it is it's a flawed and outdated setting, with a lack of variety in a lot of ways and some unplayable options that need to be fixed (kender and gnomes i.e.) and underdeveloped gods. We've been working hard to change that and have the setting evolve into our times but again, as it is it needs a lot of work. Anyway, I love Dragonlance, specially the Dragonlance version we play at my table xD
I'm a bit confused. That link seems to suggest it is a real thing, it's just that it's been renamed (from Multiple Personality Disorder to Dissociative Identity Disorder). There isn't any suggestion that the phenomenon doesn't actually happen is there?Not a real thing.
I once created a changeling with MPD.
No, I'm just saying that "Multiple Personality Disorder" isn't a real term anymore. It's also a highly sensationalized term, so the sooner we leave it behind, the better.
Ah, gotcha. I misunderstood.
Thanks (I agree).
Sorry, I may have been a bit terse. I know someone with dissociation, so it's something I'm aggressive about correcting. :P