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Likewise. The "format" eventually settled down to the point where it could be reproduced more or less by rote. (Late 70s through early 80s) Later, I (we) discovered the Apple //c and a fairly crude word processor... hello, dot matrix printing! Still later, WordStar in MS-DOS on an IBM clone...

Xanxost always reminded me of Zathras. Frogs or no, a largish group of 2E slaad ended up terrifying an old gaming group of mine. Couple of failed saving throws and defeat suddenly looked imminent...

Try asking this one over in the War of the Burning Sky forum; it'll probably get more attention from people who can answer. Good luck! :)

No, I don't. I would argue you therefore don't see my problem. If it's not cheating for the Flash to enter the Olympics and steal the gold medal from the fastest normal human in the world, then I give up.

No, it isn't, and no, I disagree.

Huh? What is more fraudulent and deceptive than taking part in a competition when one is orders of magnitude superior to any of the other competitors? Any illusion of fair play has been shattered, and even the faintest of hopes the other competitors might have of winning have been destroyed. In...

I believe you've misconstrued what I said. I said Dash's goal is to cheat... by using his super speed in foot-races against other elementary school students who have no hope of competing fairly with him. That's pretty much the definition of cheating. Similarly, Bob would be cheating if he used...

I agree that the film issues a warning about suppressing that which is special and settling for the average or (worse) the lowest common denominator. I disagree that it's the film's message, as I've explained. Helen is correct, but her world hasn't really caught on. Dash and Syndrome are not...

One more time: Syndrome's threat and Dash's lament aren't the message the film is trying to get across. Those statements, coming as they do from untrustworthy sources, should be read as the antithesis of the film's actual message: that when you're true to yourself, you become special. Never...

I don't view the game this way, and it's still my contention that (a) pre-4E spellcasters have more cool options on their character sheet than non-spellcasters do, and (b) 4E appears to have "leveled the playing field" in this respect. I hate memes, and I don't care what's in vogue. I'm speaking...

Just to nitpick, I'd say that in this case, the line given to the villain or petulant child is the *antithesis* of the movie's message, so I'm going to assume we actually agree. :) But I do take your point that if the antithesis of the message comes out clearly enough, the actual message is...

I'm not sure this is a tenable position. Surely the writers don't place the movie's message in the mouth of the movie's villain, or of a character who is merely a petulant child at the time the line is delivered. This would cause nearly everyone who sees the movie to miss the message, because...

These players probably prefer an earlier edition to 4E, then. In any event, I was speaking of meaningful choices during combat, not at character creation. When the wizard player hems and haws over his spell list trying to decide which of his 5 encounter-winning options to use (and which to save...

@Celebrim: Well said, and so succinct too! I'm envious. :)

@Remathilis: For the purposes of this discussion, I'm not trying to say anything beyond "this is what I think the 4E designers did." How, why, and whether they should have is a completely separate topic.

@crazy_monkey: I'm on board with that.

I'm inclined to doubt that we are. Dash is lamenting being forbidden from "cutting loose" with his superspeed, winning foot-races, and consequently being recognized as "the best." Dash grows as a character during the course of the movie: he realizes that his goal is really to *cheat* using his...

There's a very strong correlation in my gaming history between "NPCs who were created on the spot from whole cloth" and "the most memorable NPCs of the campaign." There's a second, equally strong correlation in my gaming history between "NPCs who were carefully crafted and fleshed out" and...

Depends on the campaign. If I'm looking at a group of players who are mainly interested in getting to the bad guys and dishing out damage, I find Bottom-Up World Development pretty much ideal. Primarily, it allows me to shunt aside questions with broad scope or that don't immediately apply to...

Agreed: there's a risk that if the loner character suddenly gets slaughtered (fairly!) on a treasure-finding foray, without having heard from the DM and other players that the "loner act" is unacceptable, the player will whine that the DM is being vindictive and meting out unfair punishment...