As a kid of the 80s, I can tell you that she would have been welcome at any table I have ever known.  "It's not for girls" was a jock thing, not a nerd thing.

I'm looking forward to the Post-Williams Era, at WOTC.  Ok, who's next?

Go OSR, Go!!!

This Week's Fantasy Grounds
New Releases
April 22-28, 2024




New Release
Savage Rifts(R): Ghost Roads Adventure
Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Begin your journey into the Dark Frontier with this introductory adventure for Novice characters! To secure funds vital to the Tomorrow Legion's continuing operations, the legionnaires begin the road trip from hell to meet a mysterious patron. Can they survive the storms, raiders, and other dangers of the frontier to complete their mission? Or will they join the bleached bones that mark the Ghost Roads?

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.php?id=PEGFGSWRGRA





New Release
Pathfinder RPG - Campaign Setting: Lost Treasures
Paizo Inc.

Lost and Found!
Treasure hunting isn't just a job. For the most passionate adventurers, it's the thrill of finally holding a legendary item in your hand, or the flash of insight when you unravel the function of a mysterious magical object, that justifies risking life and limb. From powerful magical weapons like the Pale Maiden and Traitor's Blade to items like the Beacon of the North and the Witchmarket Coin that carry you vast distances into uncharted realms, the best treasures capture an adventurer's imagination. Now delve into the dragon's hoard and discover for yourself some of the most exotic and sought-after items in the Pathfinder campaign setting.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.php?id=PZOSMWPZO9275FG





New Release
Pathfinder RPG - Campaign Setting: Ships of the Inner Sea
Paizo Inc.

High Seas, High Adventure!
Not all adventures take place on land--the ships that sail the waters of the Inner Sea and surrounding oceans provide countless sources of excitement, plunder, and naval exploits. Whether the adventurers are simple passengers attacked by pirates or intrepid sailors running an enemy blockade, the ships presented in this book give Game Masters the tools they need to run fantastic adventures on the open sea.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.php?id=PZOSMWPZO9274FG





New Release
Grizelda's Cursed Curiosities
Grim Press

Grizelda's Cursed Curiosities is a compendium of 15 ghost-themed adventures for 5E. This tome of adventures builds off of the tools from the Guide to Ghost Hunting . You'll see new monsters, haunts, and an array of exciting and spooky adventures.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.php?id=GPFG5ESGLGCC





🎲On Sale this week
April 22-28, 2024
in the
Fantasy Grounds Store

https://fantasygrounds.com/store/?sort=5#TopSellers




Explore Vault 33's Hidden Wonders with Fantasy Grounds.

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I like Neon Blood and I like the YZE. 

Quote from: Neoplatonist1 on Today at 12:25:19 AM

Quote from: Eirikrautha on April 23, 2024, 03:53:14 PMEhhh, no, that recognition predates Studio C by a long time.  Joseph Campbell was talking about monomyth in the seventies.  It is, in fact, one reason why modern games and media mostly suck.  Because politics comes and goes, but the human condition never changes.  And the "progressives" want to assert that there is no human condition, nor is there anything within us other than the product of culture and politics.  And that is why they fail...

Indeed:

Marx's Theory of Man and the World

QuoteThe world of man — state, society — as Marx had it is the social structure that he creates for himself and that he, indeed, imprisons himself within. Man creates society and embodies that creation in the State, and the society, shaped by the State, in turn creates Man. Marx called the creation of society "praxis" and the creation of Man by society "the inversion of praxis." Praxis is theory-informed activism, so activism or "the work" done in light of Marxist Theory. It is the transforming activity done by Man on the world of man. The inversion of praxis is social conditioning. The society that Man has created for himself socially conditions him almost completely deterministically. Man is limited and thus psychically incarcerated by the limitations of his social conditioning through the inversion of praxis.

And this conversation just disappeared up its own ass.

Sorry, but Karl Marx and his teachings have nothing to do with how Tolkien was a major influence on early D&D. I give benefit of the doubt to young college socialists in the early 70s playing D&D and being horrified by the game's capitalist basis, but Tolkien was the author to read at that moment in time on college campuses if you liked fantasy.

Dragging Marx into this is like dragging Heinlein into this and declaring that Glory Road had less of an influence on early D&D than Stranger in a Strange Land.

Quote from: ForgottenF on April 23, 2024, 11:36:13 PMHistorically, guards were frequently equipped with halberds, bills and partisans (and sometimes very long two-handed swords). I think people underestimate just how difficult it is to get inside the reach of a polearm, especially one with cutting potential. The big advantage of a long weapon in single combat is its ability to change line of attack quickly. A smaller movement of the hands produces a larger movement at the tip of the weapon, so when your swordsman charges, he runs a serious risk of the billman taking a step back and cutting at his legs before his shorter weapon gets into reach. When used in both hands, a shorter polearm can also be choked up on to fight at what is basically sword-distance, and a big heavy weapon like a halberd is not going to be easy to effectively control with a sword blade. Sure, a pike is next to useless without a formation to back it up, but even a short spear (of the 7 to 8 foot length which is typical of one-handed spears across history) is surprisingly nimble in single combat.

EDIT: You also have to remember that guards are not necessarily gearing up for life or death single combat. A polearm could easily be a very useful tool for crowd control. When performing more "law enforcement" type activities like breaking up fights or making arrests, they'd probably expect to outnumber their opposition and for the felons to be more likely to surrender or run away rather than stand and fight. Real people are a lot less likely to fight the local authorities to the death over a minor infraction than RPG players are. Plus, if you want to put someone down without killing them, a spear haft is going to do the job better than a sword. 

Thanks for the videos! I'll check those out. Like you and pawsplay said about choking up, I never knew that was something they did. I always just assumed it would make the weapon too unwieldy to use. I know the Swiss used halberds in loose formations to deal with incoming cavalry by breaking into small groups to hack at horse's legs and pull off the rider, which sometimes meant utilizing the haft.

As for the guards, I just figured stuff like clubs and blunt objects, but using a spear for crowd control makes sense when you put it like that. I learn something new everyday.

Quote from: Eirikrautha on Today at 12:06:37 AM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on April 23, 2024, 04:37:01 PM

Quote from: Eirikrautha on April 23, 2024, 03:53:14 PM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on April 23, 2024, 03:11:48 PMActually, I think Tolkien's influence has trapped the fantasy genre in an uncreative rut where 99% of it is just Tolkien fanfiction with the serial numbers filled off. Dwarves, orcs, and elves inspired by Tolkien are everywhere in fantasy. Dark lords and heroic quests to save the world are a dime a dozen. A pseudo-medieval aesthetic inspired by Tolkien is the default.

As an old Studio C skit hilariously illustrated, the Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Harry Potter are the same story repackaged, despite having completely different aesthetics.

Ehhh, no, that recognition predates Studio C by a long time.  Joseph Campbell was talking about monomyth in the seventies.  It is, in fact, one reason why modern games and media mostly suck.  Because politics comes and goes, but the human condition never changes.  And the "progressives" want to assert that there is no human condition, nor is there anything within us other than the product of culture and politics.  And that is why they fail...

Campbell invented the monomyth structure by examining various myths and stitching together originally unrelated scenes into a vaguely coherent storytelling template, but it's not actually an accurate reflection of universal human psychology or storytelling (read the ATU fairy tale index for comparison). That's not to say that humans don't have universal psychological biases, we obviously do.

My criticism is unrelated to wokeness and is a pure criticism of writers becoming increasingly uncreative and just aping Tolkien. That's been a problem even before wokeness.

First, Campbell may have been the first to codify the concept, there has been a ton more scholarship that analyzes and explores the concept further.  So, despite the evidence-poor assertion of a couple of randos on the Internet (including the page you linked), Campbell's framework has been pretty useful overall.

Secondly, you've changed your argument on Tolkien several times in this thread.  First his tropes have trapped the writers that followed by establishing a pattern to be slavishly followed; then he's inventing evil overlord tropes that clearly predate him (Ming the Merciless?  There are many others...). Lucas was expressly and consciously  copying the serials of the 1930s and 40s, which predate LotR by decades.

Honestly, your whining about the lack of good writing in modern media due to Tolkien seems predicated on a cartoonishly simple generalization.  Somehow others must be copying Tolkien, and not copying who Tolkien copied.  As brilliant as he was, Tolkien was also heavily influenced by ideas that came before him, and those ideas were expressed in a lot of other media.  So perhaps they were all reacting to ideas that were much older?  Nah, they must just be copying him...

You're ascribing a lot more media literacy to modern authors than they actually possess. I don't know exactly when it happened, but the past few generations of writers have become increasingly ignorant of the histories of the genres. They don't read 1930s pulps, they read Tolkien and Lucas.

Quote from: Brad on Today at 11:28:46 AM"My very first experience wanting to play Dungeons & Dragons was back in the '80s," says the 55-year-old Williams, who grew up amid the tobacco fields of North Carolina, "and there were some of my male friends in a basement, and I wanted to play, and they were like: 'No, you can't play. This isn't for girls.' I'm really excited that that is no longer the case."

Why don't I believe a single fucking word of this?

Eh, it could have happened but a bit of plausibility makes for the best lie/propaganda after all.  We're probably talking about 8-12 year olds in the 80s so not the most mature subset of humanity regardless of which of the two genders we're talking about.  Regardless, it never would have happened AFTER the onset of puberty so basically for the vast majority of her 55 year life she would have been perfectly welcome in any group she came across.

Quote from: Corolinth on Today at 11:13:27 AMThe sci fi companion is slated to be larger than the previous companions, and will require commensurately longer development time. I'm highly skeptical that 65 pages represents "half" of the final book.

I still think it looks good so far and I will buy it when its done and ready for sale.

Quote from: Brad on Today at 11:28:46 AM"My very first experience wanting to play Dungeons & Dragons was back in the '80s," says the 55-year-old Williams, who grew up amid the tobacco fields of North Carolina, "and there were some of my male friends in a basement, and I wanted to play, and they were like: 'No, you can't play. This isn't for girls.' I'm really excited that that is no longer the case."

Why don't I believe a single fucking word of this?

I know!

1) Nobody ever said that to a girl who wanted to play, ever, in the entire history of the hobby.
2) D&D was for nerds back then and this woman wanted nothing to do with the game or anybody who played it.