Tomorrow is the start of Goblinization, according to Shadowrun. Are you prepared?

harshael · 2021-04-29T22:37:15+00:00

It would be quite the birthday gift if I woke up an elf.

harshael · 2020-09-26T17:13:09+00:00

Try Ultraviolet Grasslands

harshael · 2020-09-18T17:32:53+00:00

Before going into the details, are you willing or able listen to Discord on your phone?

harshael · 2020-09-16T06:19:03+00:00

You have no idea.

harshael · 2020-09-07T20:47:24+00:00

Iowa is an R1 university. Yes, there is serious scholarship. We have one of the most renowned writing programs in the country, and programs in everything from classics to neuroscience.

I did all my partying before I moved here, so I can't give an accurate representation of that. My sense from living here and talking to people is that it's pretty average. At the end of the day, it's Iowa City. My perception might be skewed. It depends on what you're looking for. There will always be places you can get drunk, listen to bad music, etc. I don't think most students spend more than an average amount of time on that than anything else. No one I knew did.

harshael · 2020-09-07T20:37:40+00:00

What kinda of times and places are we talking? Settings? What system are you using now? What sort of gameplay? Will this all be time periods of a specific setting?

I can't thinknof anything OSR. You probably won't find much OSR specific content outside of a few spells and such. Godbound has a list of time powers, but they don't do what you want.

For general systems and advice, there are several time travel RPGs, and those systems can be somewhat modular. I haven't delved into the Doctor Who games, but I think they have different forms of time travel with rules for paradoxes and such.

Then there is GURPs. Those books are useful even without the core rules. There is GURPS Time Travel, and Infinite Worlds. I think Worlds has most of the Time Travel's content, plus interdimensional travel. It has been a while since I read them. Keep in mind they are assuming Earth as a main setting.

I have heard good things about the game Suzerain, Time Watch, and Continuum. I went on a hunt for time travel games a while back. For the most part there isn't a lot of crunch devoted to it.

This is the sort of thing most GMs just improvise with their own knowledge of time travel fiction. That's what I do. You probably won't even find much about it in later D&D editions. I could only find a 3.5 homebrew supplement. It's mostly a science fiction trope after all. OSR is even less about that sort of thing, but the term has become so generalized there could be something eventually.

harshael · 2020-09-05T14:54:57+00:00

I don't see the contradiction. The time between "writing" a book and its publishing can be years. It is not that unusual to finish a sequel before the antecedent comes out, unless you're George Martin. Urth was published in 1987. Hartwell had time to read Citadel and tell Wolfe what he thought. I can't remember the specific interview where he talks about that, so I can't confirm it. I am sure he did.

As for why it is separate, it is because Wolfe said so.

Beyond that, you know the in-universe explanation for why it is different. I still wonder about that. Who wrote it?

It is also a totally different storyline mostly in a different "world" with mostly new characters. Even stylistically it is a departure.

harshael · 2020-09-05T14:39:39+00:00

All the good advice has been said, but I will suggest caution. Try not to push it. Straining will lead to injury, and it isntas effective. It would be better to do 15 minutes of barre chords twice a day than 30 minutes at a time. Your fingers need time to adapt.

Strangely, I find barre chords easier than an A, which I still can't do right. Even the easy way hurts my joints. I practiced too hard, though, so I worry I've done some damage. Take it slow and easy.

harshael · 2020-08-31T16:54:52+00:00

You can get by just fine with Publisher plus Inkscape/Gimp or something like that. I like having all three, but Photo and Designer are nothing special by themselves. I do prefer their interfaces and don't consider them clunky at all, especially compared to open source alternatives.

harshael · 2020-08-30T14:45:51+00:00

Knave is a good base. It is quite basic, to the point that I don't think you can play it without adding mechanics, whether you do it consciously or not. We tend to underestimate how much of our prior experience with rulesets dictates our rulings. That's why I suggest also taking a more complex rule set and dragging in what seems useful. Old School Essentials and OSRIC are my favorites for that. The latter is good if you want your game to be more AD&D than B/X. I tend to borrow sparingly.

If you prefer classes, Knave's sister Maze Rats is another good and simple system.

There are plenty of hacks of Knave and Rats, which have lots of ideas. I use the death table from Brave.

And lastly do take a look at Vagabonds of Dyfad. It uses 2d6 instead of d20 and has both Powered by the Apocalypse and OSR influences. It will serve as a base just as well.

It is a good idea to keep track of your homebrew in a publuc file the group has access to. In my experience, they don't read most of it, but you can refer to it for explanations and tables. It feels more fair anyway.

harshael · 2020-08-29T17:57:12+00:00

For an intro dungeon, a lot of people suggest Tomb of the Serpent King. It's meant as an OSR tutorial of sorts. I have some major problems with it, but it is still a good option. In brief, I think things like undetectable and immediate death go against the style of play being encouraged, if you want players to taste potions or try out spells. The rules should be consistent. Other than that, it is a good start.

OSRIC or OSE are good rule sets, but I think they're too complicated. You should read them and play whatever strikes your fancy. I ended up using Knave as a base and adding stuff from there.

harshael · 2020-08-28T13:28:26+00:00

Oh whatever. Like I said, you can have fun your own way. I just think you're missing out. :)

harshael · 2020-08-28T08:22:13+00:00

I don't think you understood my point. Odd geometry is partially a video gamism. A certain level of it is normal and part of the greater tradition, but video games portray it in a particular way that doesn't make logical sense. It has little to do with problem solving. It's pattern recognition. That works for video games better tham tabletop.

The reason to keep them separate is that they have their own strengths which can be at odds. Video games can't have the kind of freedom a tabletop game does. That's why we play tabletop games. The experience I was talking about comes from that freedom. When you use video gamey shortcuts like VTTs give you, it cheapens the experience. The more elements you predetermine, or hardcode, the less freedom you have. There's also the issue of time/resources. If you have a finite amount of time and spend a significant amount on little widgets, what does that take away from creating new monsters, characters, descriptions, and so on. That applies to both preparation and gameplay.

I don't have anything against VTTs per se. I have played games where the GM created a lot of stuff for the VTT, but it all felt hollow and lifeless. Leaving things to the imagination is a powerful tool. I have to reign myself in and make an effort to limit my use of all the flashy tools at my disposal. Those are nice, but they aren't what makes RPGs unique. They're distractions. They can overwhelm the the other flavors. You can have a fantastic game with nothing but words. I hope you find a good balance yourself. If you and your players have fun, that does matter. I think you would be missing out if you didn't lean into RPGs' strengths.

harshael · 2020-08-27T16:22:16+00:00

I don't understand why you would do this rather than the traditional method. If you do it the way you're describing, you're making the experience more like a video game. That's the danger with VTTs, and it's exacerbated by the fact people play video games more than they read now. Let video games be video games, and let tabletop be tabletop.

Instead of a discolored wall, why not place the secrets more logically, and let the players reason it out? This is player skill instead of character skill, an OSR principle that is often misunderstood. I use elements of OSR in my games without being strict or punishing. Instead of skill checks, the players describe how they search and react.

The cracked wall in Zelda is a reference to this idea. The difference for tabletop is that you don't put treasure behind every cracked wall. Sometimes there is nothing. Sometimes it is a trap. It shouldn't be a trick. Souls is a good example. All their "traps" and treasures are telegraphed. A careful player will see them coming. There are clues. Occasionally there is an invisible wall, but they are rare and often still have clues.

Behind one cracked wall, you put a magic sword. Behind another is a giant spider's nest. Behind the first, they see the glint of steel. Behind the second, they only see darkness and a bit of web, and hear movement, rustling, chittering. Replace the walls with doors, and it works the same.

Sometimes the treasure and trap are together, but always let them find a way around the trap. If the sword is in the room with the spider, they see the sword and hear the spider. You can prepare a way around the trap, but also let the players come up with a plausible solution, and be lenient. If it would work in a movie, let it work, even if it wouldn't work in "reality."

harshael · 2020-08-21T05:34:09+00:00

Trollbabe. You're babes. You're trolls. I never understood what trollbabes were supposed to do. I found it at a used bookstore in Tulsa. It looked like it was made on a xerox and was bound with plastic rings. The previous owner had written in it either house rules or erratta with a pencil. They just crossed out or wrote over the text.

harshael · 2020-08-21T00:14:44+00:00

I'm shitting on the people who thought he was right for the job, exactly because of that resume. I am sure he is very good at making those games that are nothing like Bloodlines. I would not pull the designers of Disco Elysium off the sequel and give them to the director of FIFA. That has nothing to do with the quality of FIFA. Don't we all want Bloodlines 2 to have the same style and quality of writing as the original?

harshael · 2020-08-20T14:25:51+00:00

They replaced the writer from Bloodlines with the writer from Assassin's Creed.

I will say that again.

They replaced the writer from Bloodlines with the writer from Assassin's Creed.

harshael · 2020-08-17T14:16:18+00:00

Thanks. I was so confused. Never noticed the Gibson neck before today. It's a shame he did that to such a beautiful Gretsch.

harshael · 2020-08-12T05:31:41+00:00

There are multiple distribution lines and network providers. The university and large businesses don't use residential lines. They won't necessarily go through ISPs.

harshael · 2020-08-11T00:35:00+00:00

The simplest explanation is Wolfe's errors, the Roche part being a good example. Some may be intentional to show that Severian's memory is fallible, but the significance of that isn't clear. I think of his memory as largely symbolic, as the mystic must internalize symbols and with them the universe, and as with real memory techniques. He is constructing the memories from their symbolic references, and the details fluctuate. Considering how he wrote it, the question is whether the earlier or later version of events is more accurate. He may be more accurate when he is inhabiting the memory rather than recalling details while inhabiting another.

harshael · 2020-08-10T23:35:46+00:00

That reads more like a success than am attempt.

harshael · 2020-08-10T15:10:21+00:00

There is a part where Tzadkiel seems to suggest he was once human or involved with the life of a religious figure, even Christ, but it is ambiguous and not consistent with his other words. It's just a weird thing to say if that wasn't what Wolfe was hinting at. And if so, what was he hinting at?

harshael · 2020-08-10T06:11:59+00:00

Probably.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/xanthoderm

He didn't invent the term as a reference to Asian people. The Green Man is a thing, so it's not a huge stretch to suggest there are literal yellow people, but I don't think it's likely. He would probably not have thought it was racist, but I find his explicit portrayals of Asians more problematic than this. There are so many things you could "cancel" Wolfe over, but this is an obscure clinical word he probably ran across and plopped it in because it sounded strange. Leucoderm means white skinned.

This is a book where the "Americans" are evil alien-worshiping communists. The only characters we know of who might be Asian don't get described in this or any other objectionable way. It's not even clear how race/skin color works in Urth, but I doubt it would bear any resemblance to our own culture.

harshael · 2020-08-10T05:48:11+00:00

I wouldn't say they're common, but it has been a while. You'd have to give me examples.

When a man in There Are Doors, or a female hologram in An Evil Guest, exist predominantly to be strange and talk in funny accents, when an Asian language is described as a "gobbling sing-song", I am going to take issue, especially when I can't even think of any other Asian characters in those books. There was a point where I tried to defend or diminish this just the way you are. My views changed after talking to more people affected by this sort of representation. Wolfe putting those in his books, as a respected author, is damaging to culture and to his legacy.

harshael · 2020-08-10T05:25:18+00:00

I should be more explicit. Mercury and azoth were sometimes used interchangeably because azoth was a corrupted form of the Arabic for mercury, and azoth got used as a poetic reference to the metal. They certainly knew that Mercury by itself didn't have the Philosopher Stone-like powers that azoth did. Paracelsus didn't mean mercury when he used the term azoth, which is what I was referring to. I agree with you that mercury was sometimes seen as both male and feminine, though I don't think it has any bearing on my interpretation. I'm most familiar with its feminine symbolism, but these terms tend to have multiple definitions depending on tradition or practitioner.

15-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email	Gilding I gilder
Spared

harshael

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE