So. For the first time ever, I decided to create an actual thread over at the Gaming Den.

Luckbringer Druid [D&D 3.5]: http://www.tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=56191&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

I created a Druid variant for D&D 3.5, since that's what my group is currently playing, and since the Denners are devotees of D&D 3.5 on that site....I figured it might be helpful if they gave it a look.

Please take note that this is a class that I've been using in actual play in Paizo's Shackled City Adventure Path. The second version of the class on page 2 of the thread is the current version of the class that's being used in-game right now. My character will be 4th-level by tomorrow night's session. Now....

.....I realize that my class is not perfect. It is flawed; it needs work, and can absolutely be improved upon. But....

....the class has been very effective in actual play.

Furthermore, I made it abundantly clear that I wanted a class that was a Druid variant, yet not only was I continually told to make an entirely different class, but I was also fucking told that I didn't actually want what I said I wanted. :huhsign: And I was also constantly condescended to, because I posted a character class that was mechanically weaker than a core Druid.

Much to my surprise, I was also met with extreme hostility (mostly by Kaelik), and even Frank Trollman felt that it was his sacred duty to help derail the entire thread with his pointless rant about JangK's class Tier system.....even though I barely mentioned the class Tier system in my post at all. So he helped to derail the thread with a venomous rant that wasn't even the fucking point of my thread at all.

I don't visit gaming sites nearly as much as I used to, so I was ill-prepared for the socially retarded horseshit that was thrown my way. There was perhaps only one good post on that festering shit pebble of a thread, and I don't even know if that one good post was worth all that autistically idiotic bullshit.

It took me a while to realize that I was dealing with people who are rabidly and autistically OCD in their fetishization of game balance and "mechanical flair". And if you don't think the way they think in regards to those aspects for RPG's, they lose their shit...and become very, very snarky. And of course they conveniently ignored my posts where explicitly I told them that the class I designed was functioning quite admirably in actual play.

Am I insane for being irritated by their behavior?

I know that I'm tired now, and cranky, and haven't been as mentally coherent lately as I used to be. Mentally, I feel off. But the socially retarded bullshit in that thread was cosmically bad, and I guess I just felt the need to rant about it.

I guess the meaning of 'troll' has changed somewhat.

Whatever... the presence of Mr. Trollman is enough to adversely characterize the situation.

Quote from: Simlasa;851436I guess the meaning of 'troll' has changed somewhat.

Whatever... the presence of Mr. Trollman is enough to adversely characterize the situation.

Did you read the actual thread?

I have never looked at the posts on the Gaming Den, and I see I wasn't missing much.

Dude, it isn't you, it's them. Kaelik is one very fucked up basement dweller.

Quote from: jeff37923;851457I have never looked at the posts on the Gaming Den, and I see I wasn't missing much.

Dude, it isn't you, it's them. Kaelik is one very fucked up basement dweller.

Yeah, man. Kaelik went completely apeshit in that thread. I have no idea what set him off.

What really kills me is that their site is not totally bereft of value. There are real issues in game design to be learned about there, but it's buried in extremely snarky gaming dogma, and this autistically OCD hyper-focus on game mechanic irrelevancies. They're simply out of touch with what other gamers actually want or need.

But it's nice to post here again anyway. I haven't been here in forever.

I admit, I casually read things on the gaming den. It offers its unique flavor or vile fascination and/or RPG-related misery tourism. It's like a protocol of the annual "Virgins talk about their favorite sex positions" talk, but with slightly less sleaze.
But actually engaging with these people? Why would you? What did you expect? Quite a few  of these people do not actually play RPGs with any relevant frequency They talk about them (a lot actually), but it is a completely lifeless, theoretical matter because they have never understood the basic concept that the primary purpose of a game - any game, really, is to be played.
So, with players who barely play, the vivisection of game rules and concepts (and naturally, disliking most of it on purpose, because dismissal is easier and more entertaining to watch than admiration) is pretty much the only way they can get involved with the game without needing to engage with actual other people intead of (imagined or real) claqueurs and straw men.

Quote from: Sacrificial Lamb;851437Did you read the actual thread?

I skimmed through it... why? I saw you presenting ideas and folks taking shots at your ideas... what am I missing?

Quote from: Sacrificial Lamb;851434autistically idiotic bullshit.

And there you just invalidated your entire complaint.

Bigot gets trolled on the internet: nations yawns.

Quote from: Simlasa;851465I skimmed through it... why? I saw you presenting ideas and folks taking shots at your ideas... what am I missing?

It wasn't them merely taking shots at my ideas, but them constantly pressuring me to create an entirely different class......even though I made it crystal clear that I wanted to create a class variant instead. They knew that was not my goal, but they kept deliberately missing the point of the thread anyway......because my class did not fit in with their game design philosophy of extreme power and "mechanical flair". They were openly contemptuous of the fact that I made a Druid variant that was mechanically weaker than a regular Druid, even though it was effective in actual game play.....and had the theme I was looking for. But then they didn't seem to understand the theme of a Druid for Leprechauns, serving a god of luck, healing, and nature.

And don't get me started on that idiotic thread derail by Frank Trollman in regards to the class Tier system, as well as Kaelik's hyper-aggressive meltdown. It was just a painful clusterfuck of a thread.

Most of the responses on that thread didn't even really evaluate my class anyway. It was just this unneccessarily huge passive-aggressive thread tangent and derailment.

Sounds like a waste of keystrokes all the way around. As far as I can tell, no one gives a shit about those sorts of arguments here.

Quote from: TristramEvans;851467And there you just invalidated your entire complaint.

Bigot gets trolled on the internet: nations yawns.

Now that's a troll!

Quote from: TristramEvans;851467And there you just invalidated your entire complaint.

Bigot gets trolled on the internet: nations yawns.

I will be charitable, and assume that you didn't follow the link and read the thread.

They behaved like socially retarded trolls, when all I wanted was an honest and fair evaluation of a character class I recently wrote up for our D&D 3.5 campaign. Instead I was essentially told this (I'm paraphrasing, because they were often passive-aggressive):

* Go write a different class.
* You don't know what you want....even though you explicitly told us what you want.
* I don't understand your theme.
* JaronK's class Tier system sucks, and you're a fucking idiot for mentioning it.
* You're an idiot for not knowing about the existence of somebody's highly obscure homebrew character class designed on the Gaming Den back in 2004.
* You only briefly mentioned JaronK's class Tier system in an offhand statement, but I'm going to derail your entire fucking thread anyway.
* You're an idiot for creating a weaker variant of the Druid.
* You're a troll for recognizing the fact that I contradicted myself.
* You're stupid.
* Did I fail to mention that you don't want what you actually want?

It was endless verbal diarrhea, so yes.....I got irritated. But whatever. Apparently I'm a "bigot" for using the word "autistic" in a denigrating way towards this particular group of socially impaired, repetitive assholes.

Quote from: Larsdangly;851471Sounds like a waste of keystrokes all the way around. As far as I can tell, no one gives a shit about those sorts of arguments here.

The only good thing that came out of that exchange on the Gaming Den, is that I'm more carefully thinking about how to design this class.....because of one particular non-trolling, on-topic post. But 99% of the horseshit in that thread was just unnecessary.

No matter. Now I know better.

This reminds me sadly of the threads over at BGG for Arkham Horror. Within a few posts in any AH thread you will get one or two "play Eldrich Horror instead." quip. Except in that case its is just a vacuous sound byte rather than some long screed...

So you posted on a forum with a known track record. And the inevitable finally happened. Are you really that surprised?

Back when I was a kid a 'troll' was someone who went into a forum and posted intentionally outrageous nonsense guaranteed to start flame wars... and then disappeared to their easy chair and gleefully watched the fires burn.

It wasn't just 'someone disagreeing with me' or 'someone being mean to me.'
But apparently the meaning has shifted/drifted/disappeared.