D&D General Thaco the angry clown... really?

[overgeeked]

Who says people have no sense of humor anymore? They’re clearly wrong. This place is a laugh riot.

 

[Bolares]

It's funny to me how the sports crowd and the nerd crowd are segregated in other countries. I was bullied for being different sure, but sports were never a factor in it. I've always played basketball, and football growing up (to be fair everyone my age played and watched football in Brazil back then) and that never made it easier for my. Later in life I had a chance to play and coach american football and the amount of nerds that made part of that was surprising...

 

[overgeeked]

I think the lesson here is that some people self-identify as game mechanics.

I can see that.

 

[Mort]

I don't have a copy of Witchlight.
If it's not too spoilery, could someone explain/hint at Thaco's role in the adventure, if it's significant? Or is he just one of the "extras"?

He has almost NO bearing on the adventure overall and only appears in the initial carnival portion. I'll use spoilers just in case, but it's not really anything that would spoil the adventure at all:

He's a human Whitchlight Hand (carnival employee) who dresses as a clown (Painted on face etc.) and is the longest (as far as anyone knows) tenured at the carnival. Retired from performing (there was an "incident") he basically helps with the background running of the carnival particularly doing tasks for one of the owners, Mr. Witch. He's surly, doesn't like to talk, hates children, and LOVES his bubble pipe. That's about it.

 

[Malmuria]

The community agrees: Thaco the clown is good, old fashioned, corny fun. On a traditional scale of 1-10, I would give Thaco the Clown a rating of -5. That's a good thing. That translates to a 19 on a modern 1-10 scale.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Going from what, at least two solid pages of tables to Thac0 was definitely a step forward. Could we have gone from Attack Matrices to BAB without Thac0 in-between? Maybe, maybe not. Game design exists on a continuum of evolution.

But you know, if I were to run TWBTW for my one table, I suspect I'd be the only one to get the reference.

In its time, THAC0 was actually a big step forward!

Before that. you had to refer to printed tables to see whether you hit or not - THAC0 simplified it.

Piers Anthony's stuff is so extremely squicky. There's a ton of problematic stuff in addition to the pedophilia, which is a sentence a person really shouldn't have to type out about a fantasy series specifically marketed to kids/young adults. I think he got by for so long, flying under the radar because most of us reading them at that age weren't old enough to articulate what was so dramatically wrong in these stories.

....yeah, Piers Anthony did not age well.

I don't think I could recommend any of his series today.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Piers Anthony's stuff is so extremely squicky. There's a ton of problematic stuff in addition to the pedophilia, which is a sentence a person really shouldn't have to type out about a fantasy series specifically marketed to kids/young adults. I think he got by for so long, flying under the radar because most of us reading them at that age weren't old enough to articulate what was so dramatically wrong in these stories.

In retrospect, and speaking of the non-Xanth works (mostly because I never wanted to read those), I think it was because it seemed like it was more adult than a lot of fantasy (or science fiction), while also ... kinda aimed at the teens.

Which is flattering at the time, and super not-so-fine in retrospect. Kind of like when you're an adult, and you suddenly come across that Benny Mardones video on youtube for Into the Night and you're all like, "Wait a minute ... this was a hit song? What were we thinking?"

 

[Campbell]

I do not see this as aimed at OSR players generally or even THAC0 as a mechanic. More so the type of player who would say things like if you don't get THAC0 you shouldn't play. Those players deserve our disdain.

 

[Mort]

In retrospect, and speaking of the non-Xanth works (mostly because I never wanted to read those), I think it was because it seemed like it was more adult than a lot of fantasy (or science fiction), while also ... kinda aimed at the teens.

Which is flattering at the time, and super not-so-fine in retrospect. Kind of like when you're an adult, and you suddenly come across that Benny Mardones video on youtube for Into the Night and you're all like, "Wait a minute ... this was a hit song? What were we thinking?"

Yeah, I remember reading and liking Bio of a Space Tyrant one of his "hard scifi" series, when I was a kid.

Then one of my friends pointed out to me that the protagonist is involved with several women through out the series and while he (the protagonist) ages (from 15 to way up there) the love interests all stay in the 17ish range. Once it's pointed out, it can't be unseen and it's REALLY creepy.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Yeah, I remember reading and liking Bio of a Space Tyrant one of his "hard scifi" series, when I was a kid.

Then one of my friends pointed out to me that the protagonist is involved with several women through out the series and while he (the protagonist) ages (from 15 to way up there) the love interests all stay in the 17ish range. Once it's pointed out, it can't be unseen and it's REALLY creepy.

Yeah, that.

How about the Apprentice Adept series ... which, you know, has a major plot line about, um, who is allowed to wear clothes?