Huh, well why don't they try taking Black Dog oWoD/cWoD back to a loving, self-sacrificing God like Jeebus?

I keed, I keed. The irony is far too blinding to all concerned.

Anyway, reddit seems to be redditting, so that's enough reddit for me this year.

I watched the last eppy tongight. I was satisfied with how it ended.
I haven't read the novel, but I have seen the original mini-series. That too kinda ended on a flat note. And so did this one. I mean, there's a whole scene that's just Torinaga expositioning about how his plans will play out. And then it ends with Fuji and Blackthorne saying their goodbyes.
Someone expecting a huge-ass battle is gonna be dissapointed.

A part of me wishes they'd drawn this out another few episodes and actually shown the "battle". But then, it would have been a huge let down to have these armies muster only for the whole thing to be called on account of politics. I dunno.

As a whole, the series is well worth the watch. It's really strong in the beginning, and has some really damn great moments.

What's this ? But the opening post of this wonderful thread on reddit, of course.

(quoted for posterity if this thing should disappear)

QuoteOk, I like the Greek Gods, or at least thought I did. But I'm starting to think I need a sanitized version, since they are too problematic in their original form, even for the Black Dog line.

How can I rationalize that they are morally more progressive (in that no means no, among other things) for players at the table. They don't need to be something from a Disney Cartoon, but I want them to feel authentic and believable, while not being HORRIBLE.

Now, on a scale from 0 to brain dead clam, how many neurons did you have to lose to write something like that ? I'm literally speechless.

I reject the premise. Tolkien is just one of many in the field, often from pulp, that elevated the speculative fiction genre with a mash-up of respected classic literary forms. And respected classic literary forms rarely started out so "classic" and were often an experimentation of their own (e.g. "The Tale of Genji" breaks all sorts of classical novel conventions). Thus the development of literature is not a finite, stilted, classified corpus, but a breathing corpus of many inspirations still exploring.

RPGs is just a gaming off-shoot from this bored literati playing with literary entertainment forms old and new. And it too has birthed its own corpus of ideas and molds and breaking of said molds. This latest disestablishmentarianism (triple word score!) is naught but the cycle of disenchanted creativity trying to find breathing room upon the soil by burning the flora atop in a fit of pique. Nothing new, nothing profound, no real revolution.

So who are we rebelling against? And can these new creators create without iconoclastic rebellion? What are they then truly beyond the revolution... nothing? The revolution eats all its children...

Quote from: yosemitemike on April 22, 2024, 03:15:39 AMHaste gets cast quite a bit in my 5e games.  It also gives you +2 ac and advantage on dex saves which can be very useful.  A crafty player can get a lot of use out of a free dash or disengage too.  Being able to move twice and still do your attack action can be a game-changer.

Same, caster using Haste on a Paladin is disgustingly efficient. That Adv on Dex saves and +2 AC also worked well when I was the Cleric also buffing the Paladin with Warding Bond. After that and I use proper distancing, cover, and Dodge and watch the Paladin nova the biggest bad at the table in a round or two. Rest is mop up.

It's the defenses that people overlook that really saved our asses multiple times. The extra Smite just finished off a main course into a mere appetizer. That said a Fighter offers relentless forward pressure, whereas our groups did need rest over time.

(TMI, You technically can cast twice with the Fighter using their Action Surge class fearure (lv 2 & 17), and then their casting archetype. They are pretty much the only ones who can, last I played, due to that specific feature. So yes, you can double tap fireball on a big mob battle then mop up. Makes 5 minute Short Resting with that and Second Wind a bit overwhelming for my tastes, but keeps Fighters a continuous serious long-term threat. I prefer RAW book 1 hour SR, and let players decide, which they rarely take advantage of short-resters serious throughput advantage by party splitting.)

Quote from: ForgottenF on Today at 12:44:45 AMThey're also a biological impossibility. The wingspan is never anywhere near enough to lift the mass, and they couldn't possibly intake enough calories to power their fire-breath, etc.

Biologically impossible, yes, but not spiritually impossible, particularly if you've been listening to Tucker lately.

That's basically the route I took with my dragons as well, they're spirits who have chosen to take on the form of dragons because it fits their natures. They can fly and breathe fire because, to a spiritual entity, gravity and thermodynamics are more like suggestions than hard rules (the same with the square cube law).

Take it a step further and it is the virtues of the hero that can slay it; the virtuous knight or brave peasant boy can slay what even an army could not.

Quote from: Eric Diaz on April 22, 2024, 12:02:01 PMGURPS was good at this, but too complex to the point of becoming unrealistic: a 10-second fight between two people has 20 or more sword blows, most being parried.

There's nothing unrealistic in this, ten seconds are an eternity in a close combat fight. Same goes for the parries, the absolute majority of fighting styles emphasize defense for a reason; what's totally unrealistic, instead, is being hit (good hit, not a glancing blow) more than once or twice by a sword and not dying.

Quote from: Neoplatonist1 on Today at 12:23:34 AM

Quote from: yosemitemike on April 22, 2024, 09:54:41 PM

Quote from: Neoplatonist1 on April 22, 2024, 03:17:00 PMThe biological essentialism that informs fairy tales of evil dragons and goblins,

The thing that people who compare the idea of evil orcs to biological essentialism can't grasp is that fantasy worlds do not necessarily follow biological or evolutionary principles.  Things can be as they are for other reasons.  The supernatural is real and evident.  Races can be created by gods or other supernatural beings, not evolved.  Dragons didn't evolve in LotR.  They aren't biological organisms.  They were magical creatures created by Morgoth to be weapons.  Orcs weren't naturally occurring organisms.  They were twisted things made to be foot soldiers.  Biology was not a factor.     

It's a good point--dragons in fairy tales have hearts, blood, and bones, but no cells or DNA, because no one in fairy tales has cells or DNA.

They're also a biological impossibility. The wingspan is never anywhere near enough to lift the mass, and they couldn't possibly intake enough calories to power their fire-breath, etc.

There's a bit in Three Hearts and Three Lions where the hero blows up a dragon by causing a backdraft with its fire breath. I want to say he throws water in its mouth to produce a a steam backup or something, but it's been a while. That's what I meant by approaching fantasy creatures with science fiction logic. There's another bit where the book explains away a giant's treasure being cursed by radiation released due to the process of the giant turning to stone when it dies. That sort of thing would never fly in a pure fairy tale.

Quote from: yosemitemike on April 22, 2024, 09:54:41 PM

Quote from: Neoplatonist1 on April 22, 2024, 03:17:00 PMThe biological essentialism that informs fairy tales of evil dragons and goblins,

The thing that people who compare the idea of evil orcs to biological essentialism can't grasp is that fantasy worlds do not necessarily follow biological or evolutionary principles.  Things can be as they are for other reasons.  The supernatural is real and evident.  Races can be created by gods or other supernatural beings, not evolved.  Dragons didn't evolve in LotR.  They aren't biological organisms.  They were magical creatures created by Morgoth to be weapons.  Orcs weren't naturally occurring organisms.  They were twisted things made to be foot soldiers.  Biology was not a factor.     

It's a good point--dragons in fairy tales have hearts, blood, and bones, but no cells or DNA, because no one in fairy tales has cells or DNA.

Quote from: jeff37923 on April 22, 2024, 11:46:37 PM

Quote from: Neoplatonist1 on April 22, 2024, 03:17:00 PMIt occurred to me that the main thing holding back the Wokification of all media products is what we might call anthropological realism...

Before I touch this subject, I'd like you to define "anthropological realism" because I have not been able to find a definition online.

As ForgottenF put it above, (1) writing fantasy as if it were history, to which I'd add (2) employing races, sexes, cultures, and religions logically as derived from the inspiring mythos or cultures from which the given fantasy comes.

It doesn't make sense to have Africans in Rohan, for example. In fact it defeats the whole purpose. LotR is a European fantasy, the Rohan are an Anglo-Saxon horse culture; the other races of man are geographically and culturally peripheral.