Does anyone find it ironic that is was the Left during the late 60s into the 70s that was a champion of Tolkien's works? The "Frodo Lives!" slogan spry-painted on the walls of many college campuses by anti-establishment students is well known.

Today? Quite the opposite.

Now his works are denigrated by left-wing post-modernist pseudo-intellectuals.

Personally, I think it comes down to jealousy.

Those left-wing ass hats wish they had a 10th of the creativity Tolkien, Vance, Heinlein, and others had. Their short cut to creativity is the post-modernist route, which is a lazy man's way. All you're doing is taking all of the age old tropes of story-telling and reversing it all. That's it. Nothing more.

It's not creative. It's a stupid person's way thinking they're clever, which is pathetic.

Because the worst kind of stupid is the guy who thinks he's the smartest guy in the room, and everyone else knows he's as dumb as a sack of hammers.

I like this idea, it's something I've been toying with (again with a VTT system), but as others as posted it is not without it's problems.  Player abuse being one, maybe the most, significant issue.

Part of that can be handled by the GM.  A simple "No, you don't get a skill point for letting the kid hit your armor" would suffice in most circumstances I think.  At worst, a talk with the problem player may be necessary, and perhaps a swift boot off the table.

@yosemitemike

Case in point, my approach to that player would have been.  "Well, now that you've started the fight, your butt is in jail.  Oh, by the way, you can add a skill point to the 'pick up the soap' skill."

Classic Traveller and Megatraveller are the most compatible - as Megatraveller is the updated version of Classic (in a particular direction), rather like 1e and 2e AD&D.

Quote from: Eric Diaz on April 28, 2024, 08:29:00 PMI agree with some of the objections, but they seem easy to address: you skill spend XP as you want, but you can only spend them if you successfully roll over a skill you used.

That still gives players an incentive to find any excuse they can to make to make checks so they can succeed at one and advance that skill.  I had a player who wanted to go to a start a fight at a random bar in every scenario so he could make brawl checks to advance his brawl skill.  I had to say no because otherwise a chunk of every session would have been taken up by a pointless bar brawl.  That's just one example of players using whatever excuse they could come up with to make checks to advance their skills.  If the system gives players an incentive to do something, they are going to do it.

Quote from: Omega on Today at 12:55:02 AMI have not seen the TNG thing yet.

I think what I am trying to mean here is that some HD stuff looks almost too real. Again it is akin to how some movies shot on VHS can feel, or even some really old movies. Just moreso with HD.

For me at least it has nothing to do with the sets themselves.

A part of me keeps wanting to say it has something to do with the lighting. But its more than that.

That's probably what is called the Soap Opera effect.  The removal of motion blur from movies shot in 24 fps makes things look too smooth
https://www.displayninja.com/what-is-the-soap-opera-effect/

Quote from: Omega on Today at 12:45:18 AMCandlekeep is a big one. They dropped a few buzzwords and boom Pundit is all over it. But theres nothing in the book. They KNOW.

Did it work for them though?  Outrage on Youtube doesn't necessarily translate into sales.  Did this book sell?  WotC is hiding the numbers as much as they can but their current financial problems suggest that this book and other recent boo0ks that leaned into the outrage marketing haven't sold well.  RPGPundit has around 7,740 followers on Youtube.  I would argue that a lot of them are probably OSR types who were not going to buy Candlekeep anyway.  Does content on his channel affect sales significantly in either direction?  Does it matter at all?  Most people in the wider 5e players base have probably never heard of Kasimir Urbanski. 

Quote from: Crazy_Blue_Haired_Chick on April 28, 2024, 05:31:24 PMI don't want OWoD to ever take on Japanese or even any East or Southeast Asian mythology in their games. The Filipinos have dealt with enough bullshit already!

They did that ages ago.
https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Year_of_the_Lotus

Quote from: Man at Arms on Today at 01:57:16 AMDon't run games, for people you cannot please. 

This also applies to yourself (not Man at Arms, anyone preparing to run a game). If you find something--either rules or setting--too frustrating, I recommend not starting it and "seeing if it grows on you." Because, IME, it won't.

Quote from: Crazy_Blue_Haired_Chick on April 28, 2024, 05:31:24 PMHehe, you have a point.

I don't want OWoD to ever take on Japanese or even any East or Southeast Asian mythology in their games. The Filipinos have dealt with enough bullshit already!

We've all dealt with enough bullshit and none of us need the White Wolf treatment.  It's been steeped in the hate disguised as inclusion for a long time and being bought out buy other companies isn't going to clean it up now.

In my experience, most people are happy to see others explore their culture in stories and games, even getting it wrong and handling it awkwardly, when it's done with appreciation and love.  I have had a lot of contact with Asians (Filipino, Korean, Chinese in Taiwan, and Japanese) in my life and they've always been happy when I learn about their culture and lives while adopting the things I like or feel work well for me.  Indeed, I have been encouraged in this by the Asians in my life, including my wife.  One of my fun memories of gaming in Japan is when a local brought out a copy of Oriental Adventure and wanted me to run it for the group.

Taking the other perspective, watching how Asians interpret western culture in their media is always fun for me.  It's clear that there is a fascination with the US in particular in Korean and Japanese media.  It's all in good fun and a valid form of story telling. 

An interesting thread.

The question is; which matters more, to your satisfaction?

You're running the game.  Make yourself happy.  Then; do everything possible within that, to give everyone else a chance at having a good game.

Don't run games, for people you cannot please.