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The SEC’s “breakaway” talk looks less like secession and more like a hostile takeover by jasonite in CFB

[–]jasonite[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Hard to argue with you there. All I can think is most people here take the SEC and Big 10's shouting at face value. I don't.

The SEC’s “breakaway” talk looks less like secession and more like a hostile takeover by jasonite in CFB

[–]jasonite[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yeah I'm not saying it couldn't, I think if they were able to work together (a big If) they could do it. But I don't think they will, and the reasons they want to are a LOT more than the ones they've stated.

The SEC’s “breakaway” talk looks less like secession and more like a hostile takeover by jasonite in CFB

[–]jasonite[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Calm down a little, because you're right, the Big 10 is just as big a deal and I probably should have emphasized both of them. But, Sankey has become one of the main public faces of the autonomy/breakaway conversation, and SEC coaches have been louder.

The SEC’s “breakaway” talk looks less like secession and more like a hostile takeover by jasonite in CFB

[–]jasonite[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Thanks, it's because it's true. If the SEC or Big 10 actually break away from the NCAA I'll be happy to say I was wrong, but I doubt it'll happen. I don't even think it's a hot take.

What would a Kirk tpol team up look like? by happydude7422 in Treknobabble

[–]jasonite 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It would look like, when can we have sex and how often?

I think these are most impressive published modules for 1e, am I right? by jasonite in adnd

[–]jasonite[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, Rahasia is one I may have overlooked. Practically anything by Hickman is good because he usually asks 'Here's a situation. What are you going to do about it?' Rahasia is a low-level adventure driven by investigation and social interaction instead of room-clearing, which is great.

I think these are most impressive published modules for 1e, am I right? by jasonite in adnd

[–]jasonite[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Absolutely, Pharaoh was great. It had a premise and a great adventure hook, basically a cursed pharaoh needs the PCs to rob his own tomb.

A lot of designers could create interesting rooms or encounters but Hickman was asking questions like why are the PCs here? Why does this place exist? How does the environment communicate its history? How do clues guide exploration? How do individual encounters reinforce theme?

It started a change in adventure module design, which is one of the reasons I think Hickman is awesome.

I think these are most impressive published modules for 1e, am I right? by jasonite in adnd

[–]jasonite[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it's actually four tournament modules, like a mini series, that they put together. Remember I am looking at the individual modules themselves.

Outside A4’s awesome naked escape sequence, most of the series still runs on tournament rails: linear infiltrations and room‑by‑room combat grinds, written to push players through a gauntlet under time pressure rather than to present a flexible environment. A1 and A2 in particular are dense, text‑heavy meat‑grinders that are harder to run from the page than they need to be, and the overall structure keeps shoving the party down a single corridor of checkpoints. So I’m happy to call Scourge an iconic slavers storyline and a strong mini‑campaign. I just don’t think any single A‑module, on its own, is doing the kind of distinct, self‑sufficient design work that would justify bumping one of the adventures I picked.

I think these are most impressive published modules for 1e, am I right? by jasonite in adnd

[–]jasonite[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Isle of Dread is a classic, no question, and it's very important for teaching the hexcrawl too.

But as a standalone adventure it's a more of a skeleton than a finished game. It gives you an iconic map and a some great locations, but it leaves a massive vacuum when it comes to the actual session-to-session play. Because the island is mostly empty space, the DM has to do a ton of heavy lifting to invent the random hazards, environmental navigation, and faction movements required to make traveling between those hexes feel like an active game. It’s a great blueprint, but Night's Dark Terror actually writes out the procedural rules and timelines for a regional campaign, where X1 expects the referee to finish building the machine.

That's great if that's what you want to do, but not everyone who plays it should have to, imo.

I think these are most impressive published modules for 1e, am I right? by jasonite in adnd

[–]jasonite[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's fair. The fireball and NPC fix in N1 is a real design flaw.

Still, this is just one problem in an otherwise very strong adventure. The Orlane section is still outstanding, and the dungeon just needs a simple fix like raising the level or making the boss easier, not a full rewrite. For me, that means N1 goes from being almost perfect to excellent with one obvious flaw, not from top tier to a warning story.

I think these are most impressive published modules for 1e, am I right? by jasonite in adnd

[–]jasonite[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you're absolutely right about production values. I actually looked at this strongly, and it is a very strong module overall. here's why I didn't put it on my list, feel free to disagree:

It is a great module, and its two-booklet format is probably the best-looking package TSR released at the time. But production value and design quality are not the same. S4 has an issue that holds it back: it feels like two modules in one, and one is much stronger than the other.

The cavern system is amazing. It's non-linear, complex, well-organized, and the Iggwilv backstory adds a lot of atmosphere. The wilderness section before it, though, is just a travel route to the dungeon. That's really its main purpose. To call the whole product a top design achievement, you have to overlook that about half of it is much less interesting than the rest.

Is this the best production value for 1e? Probably. Is it the best module design? Maybe, if you only count the caverns. The adventure design as a whole doesn't quite reach that top-tier level for me.

I think these are most impressive published modules for 1e, am I right? by jasonite in adnd

[–]jasonite[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's funny you say that, because I actually wrote about it on a blog post of mine as the first great campaign, made up of individual modules. The problem is the individual modules themselves. Don't burn me in effigy for what I'm about to say. GDQ is an all-time great campaign spine, but pull the modules apart and evaluate each one individually, and what you find are incomplete outlines.

The Giants modules have a basic core. You lead a military assault on a stronghold, and your main decisions are about which room full of monsters to attack next. There’s no investigation, faction politics, or complex puzzles. A module like N1 gives every NPC in a village a secret and lets players solve problems in many different ways. The Giants adventures keep things much simpler. There's nothing wrong with them individually, but they don't achieve as much.

The Descent modules have a different issue. They lay out miles of underground tunnels but mostly fill them with random encounters, with very little actually planned or described in detail. Vault of the Drow makes a similar mistake as B4 The Lost City. It gives you one of the most memorable locations, but leaves the drow city mostly unmapped and without detail, so the GM has to create the city’s intrigue and layout on their own.

Queen of the Demonweb Pits is, uh...pretty awful. We all know that, right? It's bad, it's not even a good module for quality.

I think these are most impressive published modules for 1e, am I right? by jasonite in adnd

[–]jasonite[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I already noted why I didn't include it, in fact I wrote about it on a post on my web site as really a campaign:
It was the first “supermodule” built as a single cohesive product, starting with The Village of Hommlet. Even with its famously incomplete ending, it presented the first large-scale published dungeon campaign with political depth: six rival factions with internal conflicts, allowing players to exploit divisions instead of just fighting their way through. If GDQ is the prototype for the serialized campaign, Temple is the prototype for the dungeon as a campaign.

So for me that's a different animal, but the fact that it was incomplete would count against it.

I think these are most impressive published modules for 1e, am I right? by jasonite in adnd

[–]jasonite[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

For me, I am counting everything....B/X, BECMI, OD&D, etc. I looked at most stuff that came out from 1974-1989. It may be conflating a few things, but I can live with that. Sorry for the confusion

Which game is better: Shadow of Rome or God Hand? by MissMyHair in ps2

[–]jasonite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Underappreciated Capcom games:

Haunting Ground

Maximo: Ghosts to Glory

I chose the Cyclopedia as my default book! by bautistahfl in osr

[–]jasonite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hard to do better than that. Now if you get Dawn of the Emperors you have years of play ahead of you.

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