Search results

Nice post. I did want to comment on your take of Frodo. I think part of Tolkien's point is that literally no one could have truly resisted the One Ring, which is why Gandalf and Galadriel refused it - they knew they'd eventually be corrupted, or at least be "benevolent fascists." Frodo did about...

That would make sense for Harn, as such a detailed and Medieval-realistic setting - so it probably drew a lot of the "world-builders first, gamers second" crowd of which I've always been a part of, even when I was more actively playing.

Not to veer too far from the thread topic, but what came to mind when I read this is that 4E combat was really fun at first, both in terms of when the edition came out and the first third of a given combat. But then it grew tiresome - again, both in terms of a long-term campaign and after the...

Wow, you sort of won the thread, @Retreater . I'd only add: Want to play fantasy RPG with a simple d20-based system and you ate and enjoyed psilocybin at some point and like a psychedelic 70s science fantasy tone, play Talislanta.

Well, I think that's the thing: Fringe is "ongoing/permanent casual" and also involves greater interest in RPGs as a whole, be it academic, aesthetic, or just keeping up with what's going on. It is casual (small-c) relative to diehard, but it involves lasting and more intense interest than my...

Back to the OP, and to address it more directly, as someone more in the 1970s, my interest emerged around the same time. I was interested in fantasy stories and mythology before discovering D&D, which was like a dream come true (you mean I get to play out the stories?!), but I don't know if I...

I agree with you and Pratchett, with a few significant caveats. One, see my Babe Ruth analogy above. No single baseball player changed the game as much as he did, but it was 100 years ago and is mostly felt today through how the game shifted due to his influence, not the "looming presence of...

Over the years I have come to realize that I firmly exist in a kind of nebulous, liminal zone of RPG fandom that could be described as the Fringe. I haven't played in about five years, and really haven't played in a long-term campaign (i.e. a year plus) in decades. My hey-day of RPG interest was...

I say this as a huge Tolkien fan, but I just don't think this question/inquiry is as relevant in 2025 as it was several decades ago. Or rather, its relevance depends upon age: and this inquiry seems mostly focused on those who have been playing D&D for 30+ years. No problem with that, but I...

It sounds like they're splitting up material to optimize chances that people buy both. "Most of X type of material is in this book, but some is in the other." Especially for those who want the setting/fluff stuff OR the splat/crunch stuff, but not both.

If you're into X, then play Dragonbane. If you're into Y, then play Shadowdark. If you're into Z, then play Pathfinder. And so on. "X, Y, Z" can be any specific or gestalt of qualities you feel like assembling, and of course include as many games as you like. I'd even suggest being vague as...

Well it has been awhile--maybe never--that I'd consider not buying a book based on the cover art, but here we are.

There's this common but, in my view, fallacious notion that "big ideas" science fiction must be the sort of hard science fiction that speculative physicists write: basically a story framing of some ideas they're playing around with, and thus is meant to be scientifically plausible. In fact, the...

It is a fair point, though I think the situation is far more complex than simply "asking ourselves why we reacted to a work the way we did." One axis of complexity: There are different ways to interpret our findings that depend upon what "languages" we know - aka, hermeneutic frameworks...

I paused when I read the weird "checking political orientation before taking video maker seriously" aside - as if any take on D&D has to automatically be filtered through cultural or political ideology. But, moving on... My purely speculative take: D&D was already on a bit of a(n inevitable)...

Depends what you mean by old, but I still re-watch Seinfeld and the Office - the two peaks of sitcom comedy, imo. The Twilight Zone is always great. I still love the X-Files, but more the idea and the Scully-Mulder chemistry (best in TV history?), less so the execution.

As I said in the final trailer thread, I really liked it, but not as much as the 1978 film or Man of Steel, but I was overall pleasantly surprised. A few spoiler-y thoughts.... I'm guessing the Engineer shows up in the Supergirl film. She was last seen seemingly dead or passed out, iirc. I kind...

How about Twee Sun - a satire of both Dark Sun's grim and gritty vibe, and the rise of tweeness in D&D. If done correctly, it would make fun of both in a largely loving way. (I don't really want this, but it is a funny thought).

Yes, I think that's right on and you'll really like, even love, this film. In terms of tone, it is closer to what I imagine the FF to be like or in the MCU, more like Spiderman. It feels more drawn from earlier Superman comics than the darker, later stuff. And far closer to 1978 than Man of...

My ranking of all Superman films (I've seen): Superman (1978) - The classic. It is hard to be objective about this, and I still cringe with the "Can you read my mind?" sequence when I re-watch, but as a Gen Xer this was a formative film - up there with Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars...