Quote from: Wrath of God on Today at 07:51:03 AM

QuoteWeird since they have de-aging technology to make him look younger.

In Lynch's "Dune" time?

In Hollyweird, are you smoking something?

Quote from: Neoplatonist1 on Today at 12:18:39 AM

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.

OK, but doesn't that go back to before Tolkien? In Beowulf there was Grendel, and even Grendel had a mother. In it's most basic form, that is "anthropological realism" in that it is a copy of western family structure.

Remember that in AD&D a combat round is not measuring a single strike attack. A round represents 'numerous attacks which are unsuccessful, feints, maneuvering, and so forth' (DMG p.61). Speed factor has therefore to be seen in the context of what a combat round is in AD&D. It is also necessary to understand that weapon speed only comes into affect if there is a tied initiative - if a fighter with a two handed sword wins initiative against a thief with a dagger, the fighter gets to hit the thief first regardless of weapon speed. It is only when the initiative is tied that the dagger wielding thief goes first due to weapon speed (and, in fact, gains two 'to hit' rolls), to simulate that that the thief has closed in and is temporally past the danger space of the sword.

As to reach - Gygax makes the ambiguous comment about a pikeman vs a person with a faster weapon - 'an opponent surviving the first attack from the bearer of a pike will likely be able to strike several times' (DMG p.66). He does not spell it out, but that comment gives rise to the not uncommon house rule that a weapon with a longer reach gives an automatic initiative win in the first attack. 

Whether any of it makes sense is another matter - According to Luke Gygax, Gary never played weapon speed in his game and we know he also never played the weapon v armor tables and later regretted allowing them being added to Eldritch Wizardry/1e. In addition, RPGers like to pick and choose their 'real life' examples to justify what they like - for example, knight duel HEMA guys like Dequitem on YouTube seem to bear out AD&D one minute rounds - watching those videos a 'damage' strike seems to occur +/- 45s - 1 minute in, on the other hand I have been in fencing bouts where what would be a fatal strike is scored within a few seconds to a couple of minutes.   

Squad Leader was the best.  And Advanced Squad Leader even more so.  I have all of them.
MBT and IDF from avalon hill were, to me, the best versions of Jim Days designs.

Bolt Action, being 'skirmishy' never appealed to me.

If you like SL/ASL, you will like 'Armored Fist'(ww2) and 'Modern War' by Walter Moore Games.(on wargamevault)
They are minis rulesets that cover a lot of detail, but is still quick and manageable.  and cheap.

Modern War is going to need more polish to add in all the drones and stuff.

Quote from: tenbones on April 01, 2024, 12:55:32 PMLet me throw some out there:

Deathstroke vs. Captain America
man I could do this all day...

Cap never loses. Source: I am a major Cap fanboy.

Quote from: Neoplatonist1 on April 22, 2024, 03:17:00 PMSaving gaming from Woke cultural desertification requires rerouting a veritable Congo river's worth of cultural assumptions, including how we look at gaming itself.

As I am wont to say whenever these sorts of situations manifest, "It's nothing a shotgun wouldn't fix." Kill all the communists and you fix 99% of the problem. Tolkien isn't to blame for anything other than being an excellent writer who just so happened to write a British-inspired myth.

Quote from: pawsplay on Today at 10:40:02 AMAD&D "speed factor," incidentally, doesn't make sense. It says a dagger is faster than a two-handed sword. That's... not true. Setting aside that you have to account for reach first (which AD&D acknowledges, but doesn't give you guidance on), two-handed weapons are generally faster. A two-handed sword attack is fast. What a dagger is fast at is close in work, but you have to get close in, first.

AD&D reach is really only used in charging situations, otherwise it isn't much of a factor. Speed factors are rather funny because they completely ignore strength considerations. GURPS does that fairly well. A reach weapon, such as a long spear or polearm loses a lot of effectiveness when not used in formation. Against a single weapon of that type, a swordsman can deflect and slip past, and unless the reach weapon user can retreat quickly, that swordsman will be inside the weapon's effectiveness forcing the pole weapon wielder to drop it and draw a shorter weapon.

Quote from: ForgottenF on Today at 11:15:50 AM

Quote from: Crazy_Blue_Haired_Chick on Today at 08:21:34 AM

Is Dragonball Biologically Essentialist?

It's been well over a decade since I watched Dragonball, and I only got partway through Z, but I think the answer is "yes and no". Yes, in that Saiyans clearly have innate qualities which are different from humans. No, in that they aren't inherently evil. If memory serves, the reason why any race is put on the good guy or bad guy team is always ascribed to their culture and upbringing, rather than their innate qualities.

If you want to go with a super-left-wing reading, you could point out that the biological females in the series are drastically weaker than the males. IIRC the androids are the only female fighters of any consequence. That would of course be a bad faith reading, but that's the kind of thing lefties do.

If you wanna go full batshit crazy you could say that Zarbon and Frieza are female but being alien, they don't fit into our ideas of femaleness...but that's if you want to go full batshit crazy.

Also the Namekians reproduce asexually so calling Piccolo, Nail, Kami, Dende, or even Lord Slug male is misleading as they don't have sex in the first place.

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on April 22, 2024, 03:35:38 PMFor Battletech, I suggest you add Grummz autopsy of how the woke took over battletech community.  One community manager did Catalyst's Games will to be the fall thing to make battletech extremist left wing.  Very, very good work and read.  It will make you vomit.  Sarna.net appears to be the last main site for battletech they have no control over.

https://twitter.com/Grummz/status/1781382248371278217

Well this explains a lot...I backed the past couple Battletech Kickstarters, but they seemed to be mismanaged for the most part. BT is one of the few games I still actually play, but it looks like Catalyst is more interested in placating some dude who totes a gun everywhere because someone might harass his boyfriend at a convention than actually delivering a good product to people who have been invested in the IP for over 30 years. What the actual fuck...

I really want to thank everyone for all their hard work on the RPG PTA.