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Yes, for better and worse, this what highly adrenalized states are like. Time seems to slow down and become disconnected (this happens because the sensory integration parts of the brain turn off), vision can become black and white, and so on. It also feels quite draining when it ends.

I'm usually good about this as a GM, but I've been in campaigns where the GM wasn't---one in particular seems to fall for this quite often---and it can definitely do some damage by making the other PCs feel irrelevant. In general I think the right method is to prevent it in the first place, but...

Seconded, and they do a really good job of engaging with listener feedback. I go through periodic binges. Besides, Brett and Sean have wicked Wisconsin accents!

At least until Oriental Adventures, anyway. True but I'm guessing those Christian clergy didn't cast Flame Strike or Sticks to Snakes, either. D&D is one giant appropriation of numerous cultural appropriations. Much of this was done in the era when that wasn't considered a thing, which leaves...

The monk class clearly happened because back in the '70s when it was devised everybody was kung fu fighting. Lots of early D&D tropes are best understood as "here's this thing in pop culture taken from Tolkien (rangers, hobbits, etc.), Kung Fu (monks), Leiber (thieves' guilds), Conan...

That's... distasteful. I agree that in general they'd done a good job of not making any one of the cultures clearly "good" or "evil", although the Suel were generally speaking portrayed as villains, at least culturally, having originated in a necromantic magocracy.

The folks who get offended are usually the kind of people experience a good bit of reactance about "woke" culture. They're often the same folks who get ticked at modern movies, comics, etc., having a broader cast of characters.

Certainly. I won't claim things are always clean-cut---Lord knows we can fight about enough already, as many groups do. We have chosen to keep current politics outside the game as much as possible due to the propensity for it to derail the game. (People have whatever discussions they want...

My comment about "no politics" wasn't about the issue of representation per se, although of course that's what started the thread. It was about table norms. You're right, of course, that presentation of the game material can certainly matter to someone from a marginalized group who might be...

Might have been. I don't recall seeing the Gazeteer but I'm sure it wasn't impossible to get. Yeah, that's one I wouldn't want to touch either. However, I do think that was not particularly common in Greyhawk more broadly. Most human cultures weren't statistically differentiated as I recall...

Certainly, but it's also using a game as a break from the relentless drumbeat. It can be a way for a table that has people of divergent views to get along. I play with some folks I consider long term friends who don't all get along politically, for example. One reason that's been able to happen...

Evidently it's not all that young. It existed in the past in various forms but was stamped out in the 19th Century by the Victorians when the English language was regularized. (Similar things were going on in many other countries at the same time.) So in a lot of ways, the language is reverting...

It's supposed to be pulp/noir, so that makes sense.

Some of them were really good. I agree about the druid being one of the best. Yeah, Mr. Over-Buckle!

As I recall none of those were available for the general public, only RPGA members and people doing organized play, but that's just a memory from a long time ago.

I remember a few people noticing that but when it was explained that the pronoun was tied to the iconic character, most complainers just said "Oh... uh, OK, I guess that works" and moved on. They sort of do, although the blonde, blue-eyed Suel are pretty clearly Not Nice Guys(tm) and there are...

It's not just the US. There's a worldwide resurgence of populism/nationalism that's not at all tolerant of other viewpoints. By no means are these viewpoints a majority in many places, but they very much punch above their weight politically. Regardless, I think going further on this topic will...

I was thinking of the venerable Jack Chick, Satanic Panic folks, etc., but you're right, I know some people who identify as conservative Christians of some fashion who're avid players.

It's really one of the classic settings for stories. That's really important. One reason I really like al-Qadim is that the authors were respectful of the source material on the whole. Of course, their society was clearly not Islam at all, so they had a perhaps easier time of it. Sure, but I...

I only played it a bit and can't say I have the same level of fond memories you guys do, but I wasn't really a big supers fan. I do think it emulated a lot of genre tropes well, for instance supers not really improving a lot over time. If someone really wanted to play it as a one shot I think...