Recent content by Paul Farquhar

It means here is a pretty picture, please give me some money in exchange. I know this because I do it myself.

A quote that is itself propaganda. An artist trying to pretend that what they do is more important than it actually is. Art is most often just something to hang over a stain on the wallpaper. It’s sold for money, and there is nothing wrong with that, artists have to eat the same as any job...

I love Star Wars. But it’s just light entertainment, not great art or divine revelation. It’s fundamentally unimportant. It’s nice that a good many people owe their livelihoods to it, but that’s all.

They have a point. Star Trek was a vehicle for humanist values, Dune is about the exploitability of religion, Doctor Who was supposed to be a vehicle for teaching kids about history. The only time Star Wars has been about anything other than $$$ was Andor, long after GL left the building.

Whilst being on TV helps, you can also give a character a personality through writing. But Gygax didn’t write Vecna because he was supposed to be dead with only his hand and eye remaining, and he hasn’t had enough time on screen in adventures, novels or computer games to establish one. Strahd...

Sure, a no-one director used a highly derivative story to help his low budget space opera make a ton of money. He did it for fortune and glory, to quote what he did next.

A good villain can’t be generic, the important thing about personality is they actually have one. Which Skeletor does but Vecna does not.

Star Wars and D&D are good examples of products that where created for the sole purpose of making money for their creators. Not to be "modern myth" or culture. You could possibly come up with a few examples of geek stuff that you could argue were created for purposes other than just making...

The idea that D&D needed a big milestone Avengers Doomsday style adventure to celebrate a minor rules revision at all is a terrible one. As a regular adventure (and sequel to Rime of the Frostmaiden), a Netheril time travel adventure would have been fine. And now they are in the rules...

This is as I heard it too. GL still had a fair bit of control over TCW at that time.

Even if apples exit, no reason to suppose they are being baked into pies. They are a cultural thing, European, and only go back around 500 years.

Steampunk tends to go for monarchy, even if the author doesn't live in one.

The ingredients are very variable, aside from the basic ingredients of bread, cheese and apple. Possibly adding sweet pickle, pickled onions, ham and/or side salad. You may find it on the menu in English cafes, tea shops and pubs.

I had a witch give the party cucumber sandwiches, which they enjoyed. Until she mentioned that they where sentient cucumbers.

I don't work from a master plan - creativity doesn't work that way - and I don't expect it from others. Clearly Perkins started dropping in the obelisks with only a vague idea of doing something with them down the line (and at a time when it was far from certain 5e would be successful). By the...