The Worst-ever TSR D&D setting?

ggroy · March 31, 2012, 01:49:57 PM

Quote from: Machinegun Blue;525045I haven't read them since the fifth grade. I think I'll keep my memories of them rosy and hazy.

More generally, at times I wonder whether it is better to leave the past in the past.

Watching old beloved tv shows, reading old beloved books, etc ... (from one's youth) again as an adult, can completely shatter one's old "rosy" memories of them.

The only reason I recently watched a lot of old tv shows again which I use to like a lot when I was a kid/teenager, was that I found the dvds in the bargain bin for $10-$15 a pop (or less). (ie. Impulse buys). At times I wonder whether I made the right decision, in hindsight.

misterguignol · March 31, 2012, 02:22:59 PM

Quote from: ggroy;525056More generally, at times I wonder whether it is better to leave the past in the past.

Watching old beloved tv shows, reading old beloved books, etc ... (from one's youth) again as an adult, can completely shatter one's old "rosy" memories of them.

The only reason I recently watched a lot of old tv shows again which I use to like a lot when I was a kid/teenager, was that I found the dvds in the bargain bin for $10-$15 a pop (or less). (ie. Impulse buys). At times I wonder whether I made the right decision, in hindsight.

Some things hold up though. A couple years ago I bought the Steve Jackson Sorcery! books I had as a kid and...man, those are still awesome. Lots of stuff in there for me to plunder for my current games and the art is as brilliant as I remember.

TheHistorian · March 31, 2012, 04:24:11 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit;524550I did forget to put Taladas and Maztica, and Red Steel, though.

If you count Maztica, then you have to count The Horde. I don't expect any opinions, because I don't think anyone ever actually played it, but still, it's there. Might win the most forgettable award though.

Quote from: The_Shadow;524473It's not like Harn where magicians are Shek-Pvar or whatever. In Tekumel, there is zero reskinning of ordinary things with exotic names. The non-English names are all proper nouns with no English equivalents.

Nice... defending one setting by slamming another. Harn's specific nomenclature is the same as what you describe for Tekumel - proper names. A peasant is still going to refer to a wizard or magician, not a Shek-Pvar; that's what they and others call themselves.

For any of these settings, a skilled GM would be able to make something good from [your least favorite setting] and a poor one would be able to ruin [your favorite setting]. That has always been true.

Benoist · March 31, 2012, 04:29:42 PM

Quote from: TheHistorian;525076If you count Maztica, then you have to count The Horde. I don't expect any opinions, because I don't think anyone ever actually played it, but still, it's there. Might win the most forgettable award though.

I have not played The Horde but I own it and would use it for a Campaign, or part of a Campaign in any case. It's a good environment. I'd need to bring the "D&D" back into the setting though, much like I'd need to were I to use OA/Kara-Tur as well.

The Butcher · March 31, 2012, 06:17:19 PM

Quote from: ggroy;525022In the case of REH, Lovecraft, Doc Smith, etc ..., how much of the respect for them was due to their stories being the first to become popular, as opposed to anything to do with literary brilliance on their part?

I am loath to call these guys "brilliant". They were definitely gifted creators, though IMHO their actual command of the written word isn't always on par with the vistas they've conjured; they are very evocative at their best, but manage to slip into purple prose very easily.

The truth is, fantasy and SF represent such a very small fraction of all fiction, that we only have very few truly gifted wordsmiths, that I'd call "brilliant" writers. Clark Ashton Smith, Jack Vance and Gene Wolfe are the only ones I'm really familiar with, that I'd use the term.

ggroy · March 31, 2012, 06:27:54 PM

Quote from: The Butcher;525094I am loath to call these guys "brilliant". They were definitely gifted creators, though IMHO their actual command of the written word isn't always on par with the vistas they've conjured; they are very evocative at their best, but manage to slip into purple prose very easily.

The truth is, fantasy and SF represent such a very small fraction of all fiction, that we only have very few truly gifted wordsmiths, that I'd call "brilliant" writers. Clark Ashton Smith, Jack Vance and Gene Wolfe are the only ones I'm really familiar with, that I'd use the term.

Is this a subjective assessment of the writing ability of these authors?

Or are there more precise objective criterion?

The Butcher · March 31, 2012, 06:31:48 PM

Quote from: ggroy;525095Is this a subjective assessment of the writing ability of these authors?

Or are there more precise objective criterion?

100% subjective. I ain't no expert at book learnin' an' sech.

misterguignol · March 31, 2012, 06:49:41 PM

There's actually a program that can supposedly analyze the "literary-ness" of a text by looking at and quantifying word choice, sentence structure, and sentence variation. I'm pretty sure Lovecraft scored pretty high when his work was fed through it.

Of course, it means absolutely nothing in terms of actual literary aesthetics.

ggroy · March 31, 2012, 06:53:25 PM

Quote from: misterguignol;525097There's actually a program that can supposedly analyze the "literary-ness" of a text by looking at and quantifying word choice, sentence structure, and sentence variation. I'm pretty sure Lovecraft scored pretty high when his work was fed through it.

Of course, it means absolutely nothing in terms of actual literary aesthetics.

Wonder if anybody has ever tried writing a text filled with the equivalent of literary "technobabble", which can fool this program into producing a high "score".

misterguignol · March 31, 2012, 06:55:31 PM

Quote from: ggroy;525098Wonder if anybody has ever tried writing a text filled with the equivalent of literary "technobabble", which can fool this program into produced a high "score".

You know about the Sokal hoax, right?

ggroy · March 31, 2012, 06:56:53 PM

Quote from: misterguignol;525099You know about the Sokal hoax, right?

Yes.

There's also the random "postmodernism essay" generator.

http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/

ggroy · March 31, 2012, 07:02:33 PM

Even more hilarious, there's a program which randomly generates titles and abstracts of physics papers with the latest physics "technobabble".

http://snarxiv.org/

misterguignol · March 31, 2012, 07:02:37 PM

Quote from: ggroy;525100Yes.

There's also the random "postmodernism essay" generator.

http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/

I'm pretty sure I've had to grade papers made with that generator.

Bedrockbrendan · March 31, 2012, 07:04:35 PM

Quote from: misterguignol;525099You know about the Sokal hoax, right?

That reminds me of this one: http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/

ggroy · March 31, 2012, 07:33:14 PM

Quote from: misterguignol;525102I'm pretty sure I've had to grade papers made with that generator.

Were they easy to detect?

The biggest displeasure in grading papers that I remember having to do back in the day, was figuring out which students were copying the answers from stolen copies of the instructor solution manuals and/or which students were copying from one another. (This was a common problem in many freshman and sophomore engineering courses).