Sorry for the angry ranting. I'll try to be calmer in the future.

I don't have anything against a writer writing anthologies set within a shared universe, and I don't have any respect for corpos that make everything about "The Message", but I've gotten very frustrated with the actual execution and fandom interactions.

Nobody is Tolkien. Eventually the lore becomes so bloated that it becomes a hindrance and even the writers get bored of it and want to do something new. Old Star Trek and Star Wars had continuity errors and expanded universes that were absolute nightmares. Tolkien knew when to stop, but everyone else is content farming.

Hasbro reboots Transformers all the time and that's not a bad thing. If they didn't have the freedom to experiment with reboots, then the IP wouldn't have what it does now. Much of the IP is composed of elements that were introduced in reboots. It's an example of how reboots can be a good thing. And the reboots canonically share a multiverse too, before Hollywood drove multiverses into the ground.

Anyway, I get bored of the same thing for years and years. I get exasperated with the declining quality caused by this content farming. Maybe I'm just in the mood for something different. Well, there's not much else because these de facto monopolies have killed the competition. In recent decades I've noticed that people in general are stupider, less creative, and lazier with every passing year. It creates this frustrating cycle: indie creators work for years only to fail because fans just jump on the big creator bandwagon, big creators inevitably shit the bed because corpos don't give a shit about art, fans have no options, indie creators scramble to take advantage of the vacuum, fans complain indies don't have decades of lore, all the while the quality overall declines.

The indies would have decades of lore ready and waiting if fans had supported them when they were still publishing decades ago. Now many of those indie creators are too old or dead to make things anymore, and the younger indie creators don't have the upbringing and wealth of experience and learning their predecessors did. The fans have no one to blame but themselves for putting all their eggs in one basket.

That's why I prefer multiverses. Every setting inevitably goes through shit phases due to writer burn out, lack of hindsight, or whatever, but having a bunch of settings gives you options when that happens. That's why fantasy gaming hasn't turned to 100% shit like scifi and scifantasy has: although D&D dominates, there are thousands of published settings that can easily substitute for Faerun or Golarion.

But the scifi and scifantasy genres are not unsalvageable. The fans can still make their own stuff if they have the conviction and work ethic, or support those who do. Most of the indie creations from yesteryear are locked in copyright jail, but you can still take inspiration. But it will be a long and hard road. Rome was not built in a day.

Quote from: GeekyBugle on May 14, 2024, 02:32:03 AM

Quote from: HappyDaze on May 14, 2024, 12:33:50 AM

Quote from: Zelen on May 13, 2024, 09:22:41 PMMy stance is that lore is incredibly important, but anyone who cares about lore at this point should see the writing on the wall for Battletech.

It's a lot less damaging for "the lore" to accept a spin-off with renamed factions + characters that keeps the underlying themes, tone, style, than to continue on supporting a game/IP which is compromised by malicious actors whose expressed goals are to subvert that story/setting.

What part of the Battletech story/setting has been subverted? How has it been subverted, and what do you believe is the "writing on the wall" and anyone should see?

Oh I don't know, maybe go buy the Battletech Pride Anthology 2023? Since you seem determined to play defense for Catalyst and want to give them money.

OK, I'll give you that product. However, I still don't see how the story/setting is subverted by that. It's not as if the three setting pieces done in recent years (Dominions Divided, Empire Alone, and Tamar Rising) show any evidence that they are trying to 'subvert' the setting into anything it hasn't been in it's 40+ years.

If you want to go political, then things like Shattered Fortress show that "utopian socialist societies" like the Republic of the Sphere are full of corruption (dark deeds done in the name of the "greater good" and will self-destruct without constant application of these terrible measures).

Quote from: Crazy_Blue_Haired_Chick on May 12, 2024, 04:58:33 PM

Quote from: Corolinth on May 12, 2024, 04:57:42 PMI tried to watch this, because I understand the appeal of Studio Ghibli, but as soon as the chode started talking about his ADHD and his ass burgers, I'm done.

If that pissed you off, there's more where that came from!

Disinterest is more accurate than anger. It lets me know the vlogger is a useless poon with nothing to say.

Quote from: Crusader X on May 11, 2024, 11:02:07 PMAny word on when this new edition is coming out?

The best I can say is it is expected to be by the end of the year. The publishers are just considering their best options for printing and distribution. 

Quote from: Omega on May 14, 2024, 06:36:04 AM

Quote from: Votan on May 13, 2024, 08:36:17 PMSo clever sculpting but if they wanted to highlight cool female characters, the Red Box has Aleena, who is both memorable and taught players important lessons about the way that the game was meant to be played. Sure, the character has a typical female presentation, but that isn't necessarily a bug in a game about heroic fantasies. Archetypes are good, right? Right? Or am I too old fashioned?

Some years back there was much bitching by the woke about how she was "Sexualized" and "pornographic" even. Because these idiots have no clue what those words even mean.

Aleena? Elmore has done quite a bit of cheesecake art but Aleena wasn't one of them. She was depicted wearing full chainmail. I guess where leftists are concerned, a female drawn with actual female body proportions is pornographic. Remember these are the people who can't even define what a woman is.

I have been very much mad at Renegade Game Studios since I bought a copy of Altered Carbon RPG.  You can check out my review if you want a deep dive but the short answer is they dumped a shitty system that clearly wasn't play tested on the market and charged a bundle for it.

Never again.  I will never buy another product from them and I will never recommend anything they produce.

Quote from: Darrin Kelley on May 13, 2024, 01:35:44 PMThat's not something I want to play. So for me, the Transformers RPG was a waste of money.

I have been unimpressed with about everything IDW produces. This is just par for the course of agenda laden junk they put out.

Quote from: Abraxus on May 12, 2024, 06:48:05 PMhe mental gymnastics to try and prove the equivalent that 2+2=5 because math can universally interpreted differently. With no such thing as objective truth makes them look mentally ill.

Thats because they are mentally ill.

But this whole minis fiasco is just more proof that someone in marketing thinks outrage marketing will bring in the free advertising. And odds are it is working.

Quote from: Votan on May 13, 2024, 08:36:17 PMSo clever sculpting but if they wanted to highlight cool female characters, the Red Box has Aleena, who is both memorable and taught players important lessons about the way that the game was meant to be played. Sure, the character has a typical female presentation, but that isn't necessarily a bug in a game about heroic fantasies. Archetypes are good, right? Right? Or am I too old fashioned?

Some years back there was much bitching by the woke about how she was "Sexualized" and "pornographic" even. Because these idiots have no clue what those words even mean.

Quote from: RPGPundit on May 13, 2024, 11:39:02 PM

Quote from: BadApple on May 13, 2024, 05:25:03 AM

Quote from: Slipshot762 on May 13, 2024, 02:43:17 AMInteresting to me is the lore surrounding how magic users are regarded. What is that dividing line between "muh court whyzhard" and "burn her before she turns us all into newts!" I've often wondered?

Historically you had magicians like dee and kelly, who worked for the crown as magicians, known to be engaged with divining contact with angels to learn from them the enochian language, the language of creation, in order to work magic...the whole thing appearing to have the approval of both government and heaven, as opposed the hated reviled witch or sorceror in lore.

I suppose it likely has something to do with the nature of the practices in question; if man is given earthly dominion by god then it would be contradictory to serve or deal with as equals any demons, devils, undead, entities, or spirits...yet it would seem there is an implication i am detecting which says that conjuring an old bitch-devil and beating it into submission with your wand in the name of god and making it teach you featherfall is perfectly ok or something.

Never quite nailed this down but thats the best i came up with.

In Christian tradition, any use of magic is considered a contract with the devil.  There were no officially recognized court mages in Christian European nations.  This is also true in Islamic countries.  There was no distinction between witches and great wizards, they were all sinners in need of burning.  Many western magic users practiced in secret, always afraid of getting caught.

That's completely wrong. For most of the middle ages there was no distinction between science and magic, and for that matter some of the humanities and medicine too. And there was no notion whatsoever that high magic was "of the devil". Folk magic was a bit different but for most of the middle ages the main view of both Church and Crown to folk magic was that most of it was just empty powerless superstition.

Only certain very specific forms of magical activities were either illegal or banned by the church or both. Poisoning and enchantment were illegal. Making pacts with demons (summoned by evocation) was banned by the church (note: binding demons was not). Doing divinations about the King without the King's express permission was illegal, as it was seen as somewhere between espionage and treason. The church forbade certain practices of Alchemy which required dead bodies, and these were typically outlawed by the crown too.  Magic that attempted to spontaneously create life (homunculi, for example) was banned by the church. And trying to make gold using alchemy required a costly permit.

There were absolutely court magicians in various Christian nations. Dee was Queen Elizabeth's astrologer (and also one of the first spies in Her Majesty's Secret Service, with the code number "007"); he selected the date for her coronation using astrology, everyone knew it, and thought it was perfectly fine. He was later courted by various monarchs of Europe who wanted him to be THEIR court magician. Likewise Edward Kelley.

Of course, a MUCH bigger patron of magic than the royal crowns was the CHURCH. Countless monasteries engaged in the studies of "natural philosophy", including alchemy and all kinds of conjuring. There were popes who had practiced magic. And great saints; including Thomas Aquinas, who studied under the great and renowned philosopher-friar Albertus Magnus, who as not only a Dominican monk but also the CHAIR OF THEOLOGY at the University of Paris in the 1240s.

So you're just unbelievably, ridiculously, moronically wrong.

I fully acknowledge that my statement was way overly simplified.  The middle ages covers a lot of time, a lot of perspectives, and a lot of cultures.  Doctrinal interpretation was spotty at best and so was what magic was understood to be.

If you mean that magic is an umbrella term for anything that doesn't have an immediate corporal explanation, then you are correct.  However, there is a lot of distinction made between "divine mysteries" and "magic" from a Roman Catholic perspective.  The exploration of the first was encouraged while the second was heresy.  Natural philosophies were largely seen to fall into the divine mysteries camp.

I don't have access to my library right now so I can't give you references and I'm unable to give a counterpoint in the developed and intelligent way I would like to.  What I can say is that the Roman Catholic church has reclassified many fields of study but the principle idea that messing with the supernatural for personal gain is magic and heretical just like it was a thousand years ago.