The club I go to is mostly a wargaming club, with a few roleplaying groups tacked on. Most of the people involved in the roleplaying side of things are thus also wargamers. This means that, for example, in a Gumshoe horror game we were playing yesterday, three people at the table were able to instantly inform the GM that a T-55 we had discovered has a 12.7mm rotating commander's machine gun in the turret plus a 7.62mm co-axial. We were then able to use these weapons to kick serious ass. Having wargamer nerds in a group can be really helpful.

Quote from: jeff37923;397941There is a planetary scientist who wanders in and out of Traveller and other gaming forums who is more than happy to tell you everything that is wrong with your world design and world creation rules.

Does this guy even play Traveller? Or does he just like to pop in around forums and postulate his planetologist grandeur?

If this "scientist" came up with a new and improved d6-based planet generation system for Traveller, based on current planetology theories, then I might respect his opinions. One should put his money where one's mouth is. Don't like something? Is it broken? Then provide a suitable alternative, otherwise sit down and be silent.

The douchebaggy attitude of pointing out that Traveller system generation rules are not perfectly scientific, but failing to come up with a solution for such an horrid breach of scientific gospel, relegates him to the "annoying & patronizing ivory tower intellectual" category.

Ivory tower intellectuals are not someone I tolerate in real life, let alone around my virtual Traveller gaming table.

Quote from: Vargr;397968Does this guy even play Traveller? Or does he just like to pop in around forums and postulate his planetologist grandeur?

If this "scientist" came up with a new and improved d6-based planet generation system for Traveller, based on current planetology theories, then I might respect his opinions. One should put his money where one's mouth is. Don't like something? Is it broken? Then provide a suitable alternative, otherwise sit down and be silent.

The douchebaggy attitude of pointing out that Traveller system generation rules are not perfectly scientific, but failing to come up with a solution for such an horrid breach of scientific gospel, relegates him to the "annoying & patronizing ivory tower intellectual" category.

Ivory tower intellectuals are not someone I tolerate in real life, let alone around my virtual Traveller gaming table.

Chill, guy. You want to deflate a jerk like this? Just remind him that until space telescopes discovered jovian planets orbiting very close to their stars it was assumed it was impossible to have a jovian type world in the inner section of a solar system, I.E. the "biosphere" region.

Now we're flinging multiple "hot jovians", one of which is larger than jupiter and orbits closer than mercury.

So remind him that steller theory is subject to revision.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;397838If we fire up Twilight:2000, though?  Yeah, step the fuck back, I'm about to have a nerdsplosion.

This is the one game where I (briefly) played with an Army National Guard military-nerd GM.  The guy had no time for characterisation, and ran the game essentially as a tactical sim.  Frankly, I think he would have been better served by running Squad Leader against the T2K backdrop.  Really, though, the worst thing about him was the jeering tone with which he'd point out our every tactical mistake, followed by a lecture on the proper hour of the early morning at which to assault an armed emplacement, or the relatively low stopping power of a shotgun firing a slug load against a target with a kevlar lined flak jacket.

The one thing I will say in his favor -- he described the setting well.  No real roleplaying beyond tactical or strategic movement, but you had a feel for where you were.  I wasn't kidding about him being better off running a game of Squad Leader.

!i!

Quote from: Novastar;397598As a Marine Brat, I remember the first Robotech game I played that was filled with non-military personnel: the slap-happy salutes, talking back to a superior officer during the briefing, conduct unbecoming, etc...

And totally in character for Robotech, when you think about it.

QuoteI nearly lost it a dozen times, before realizing I just needed to relax and enjoy the game.

And also in character for Robotech.  Yours would be the uptight flyboy who has to eventually learn to let go before he truly earns his wings.

Good heavens, I love Robotech / Macross.

!i!

Quote from: Cylonophile;397972So remind him that steller theory is subject to revision.

Oh yeah; that too.

One of the best sessions I've ever played, was GURPS: SWAT with a room full of guys who were clearly massive police procedure nerds.  One of the players was the author, who looked like Mike Rowe, in a PD ball-cap, the GM looked like a million future police recruits I've met, hell the only one who looked out of place was one guy who looked a bit more typically fatbeard, more of a government file clerk in a social work office than a cop.  

The sense of immersion you get from sitting down at a table with a bunch of guys who clearly know their stuff inside and out is unbeatable.  I walked in late, and was actually kind of nervous, because I honestly thought all these guys were real cops or something.

Awesome.

They don't bother me, no. I was in the military, so those who really do know their stuff do extremely well in my games with sensible tactics and so on, and those who are just bullshitting are basically shamed into silence, and we can happily go on unrealistically. Either works well.

Quote from: Vargr;397968Does this guy even play Traveller? Or does he just like to pop in around forums and postulate his planetologist grandeur?

I get the feeling that he has just read the rules only and is using this to demonstrate that he has an adequite nerd penis. There are some game rule bits that he completely misses when he goes on a tirade.

Quote from: Vargr;397968If this "scientist" came up with a new and improved d6-based planet generation system for Traveller, based on current planetology theories, then I might respect his opinions. One should put his money where one's mouth is. Don't like something? Is it broken? Then provide a suitable alternative, otherwise sit down and be silent.

The douchebaggy attitude of pointing out that Traveller system generation rules are not perfectly scientific, but failing to come up with a solution for such an horrid breach of scientific gospel, relegates him to the "annoying & patronizing ivory tower intellectual" category.

When told to put up or shut up, his past response has been, "I don't want to show my work because someone will steal it and take the credit."

Pretty damn convenient excuse...

Quote from: Vargr;397968Ivory tower intellectuals are not someone I tolerate in real life, let alone around my virtual Traveller gaming table.

Oh, he's been banned from just about every forum that gamers frequent. Didn't stop him, he just created his own forum.

Quote from: Ian Absentia;397977This is the one game where I (briefly) played with an Army National Guard military-nerd GM.  The guy had no time for characterisation, and ran the game essentially as a tactical sim.  Frankly, I think he would have been better served by running Squad Leader against the T2K backdrop.  Really, though, the worst thing about him was the jeering tone with which he'd point out our every tactical mistake, followed by a lecture on the proper hour of the early morning at which to assault an armed emplacement, or the relatively low stopping power of a shotgun firing a slug load against a target with a kevlar lined flak jacket.

The one thing I will say in his favor -- he described the setting well.  No real roleplaying beyond tactical or strategic movement, but you had a feel for where you were.  I wasn't kidding about him being better off running a game of Squad Leader.

!i!

I'd have told this guy that we're attacking WHEN WE DAMN WELL FEEL LIKE IT and if the guys at the base are supposedly military pros they'd know the best hour for an attack and be expecting it, so we'd catch them by surprise by not attacking at the "doctrinally correct" hour, so there.

Also, I;d have began talking to him in the exact tone he talked to me in.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;397993They don't bother me, no. I was in the military, so those who really do know their stuff do extremely well in my games with sensible tactics and so on, and those who are just bullshitting are basically shamed into silence, and we can happily go on unrealistically. Either works well.

I can understand letting a vet have some leeway in things.

But I don't care if he was a vet or not, if he started dictating to the other players I'd stop him if I had to introduce him to a different kind of military tradition: fragging.

Quote from: jeff37923;398011I get the feeling that he has just read the rules only and is using this to demonstrate that he has an adequite nerd penis. There are some game rule bits that he completely misses when he goes on a tirade.



When told to put up or shut up, his past response has been, "I don't want to show my work because someone will steal it and take the credit."

Pretty damn convenient excuse...




Oh, he's been banned from just about every forum that gamers frequent. Didn't stop him, he just created his own forum.

JOOC, who are you talking about? PM me if you don't want to mention a name publicly. WOuld his initials be EDG?

As I said in the earlier pages of the thread - I've never had a problem with actual vets in a game session.  Its the military-obsessed or military-wannabees that are the problems usually.

Also, most of the folk that I've gamed with who have been in the military are not over-concerned with correcting me or others about terminology, jargon, and slang. Again, its usually the amateur military historians and armchair general types.

Heck, I had one gamer in my circle who would only ask about guns by saying "Well, is it a plinker or a hose?"
A hose meant a submachinegun or machinegun of some kind, a plinker was for picking things with careful aiming. Since I used to go to a shooting range when I was a kid I got the metaphor.


- Ed C.

Quote from: Cylonophile;398013I'd have told this guy that we're attacking WHEN WE DAMN WELL FEEL LIKE IT and if the guys at the base are supposedly military pros they'd know the best hour for an attack and be expecting it, so we'd catch them by surprise by not attacking at the "doctrinally correct" hour, so there.

Yeah, this story almost belongs in the thread about "What does a GM do when the players don't follow the logical course of action?"  We had a plan that involved attacking in the dead of night, and he stopped the game to lecture us about how the best time is closer to 0300-0400 when sentries are at their most exhausted and lowest guard and blah-blah-blah.  We changed our plans to attack between 0300 and 0400 Hrs.  Is this railroading?

QuoteAlso, I;d have began talking to him in the exact tone he talked to me in.

Yeah, but that's just pissing in the pot.  The result of his tone, overweening expertise, and non-character-based GM style was that I never came back to the game.  I'm not sure if anyone else did, either.

!i!

Quote from: J Arcane;397663I also think most games, in their effort to give gamers something to powergame about, rather overstate the differences in caliber and damage.

This is my opinion, as well. The most important factor in a shot should be how good it was, regardless caliber and shit.