TSR Giantlands
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Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
No. Not at all.
And I say that with a great deal of sadness. James (Jim) Ward, who has been a contributor here at enworld, and is a genuine legend of "real" TSR and is one of the limited number of people in the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design, is somehow involved in this.
I wonder if age has done him a disservice?
Entirely unimpressed, yes.
The Landshark is dull as dishwater, changing the names of classes, races, and DMs is just needlessly fussy, making Ley Power the new "Magic that is expressly Not Magic" carries no weight, and a Percentile based system with your percentage to succeed modified by a percentage to failure that you roll under? Boring.
Top it off with static damage values... At least combat will be fairly quick, I guess?
The Landshark is dull as dishwater, changing the names of classes, races, and DMs is just needlessly fussy, making Ley Power the new "Magic that is expressly Not Magic" carries no weight, and a Percentile based system with your percentage to succeed modified by a percentage to failure that you roll under? Boring.
Top it off with static damage values... At least combat will be fairly quick, I guess?
Paul Farquhar
Legend
It does all of us a disservice...
Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
Age does us all a disservice.
I will just say that ... whatever his involvement is, I will remember him for his good works (which were many), and not for whatever is going on with this project.
Lets not forget the claim of first in genre lol.
For every person who complains that a story is taking over all the news cycles, there will always be some who remain completely unaware of it!
Bolares
Hero
And what a wild ride they will have from now on... hahahaFor every person who complains that a story is taking over all the news cycles, there will always be some who remain completely unaware of it!
There are links burred among the TSR3 threads. Unless someone beats me to it I will dig what I can find out when I have some more time later.
I listed pretty much everything known about GiantLands in my post in this thread. Except that it's a postapocalyptic fantasy (They claim the first one) in which players are cleaning up the polluting messes of people from the previous "Age". And it's set in the "5th Age" but they make sure to note it's 1e.
Gosh. I wonder if 5th Age has any entirely hamfisted other meaning...?
Tales and Chronicles
Jewel of the North, formerly know as vincegetorix
The project itself could have been somewhat interesting if:
but as presented? No. Its a sad sad swan song for Drawmij.
- Some years ago: now it just seems like a throwback to the dullest element of old-school games.
- Published by another company: I know this was created on command by the aberrant mind
sorcerersdesigners at TSR3, but in the hands of a sensible partner it could have been a moderate success. - A simple TTRPG: the whole LARPing and Theme park is just...useless.
- Jim Ward was helped by younger content creators: creating a product then going on interview to speak about ''the goo' ol' days'' instead of your product with polemic trolls is not the way to do things.
but as presented? No. Its a sad sad swan song for Drawmij.
Dessert Nomad
Adventurer
The claims he's been making about the game sound overblown to the point of desperation. Saying in 2021 that it's the first post-apocalyptic fantasy RPG ever is just bizarre; there are lots of well-known PA fantasy RPGs from the early 90s (from the other thread Dark Sun, Earthdawn, arguably Rifts) and I'm sure there are more from the 80s. I mean, Vance's Dying Earth series from the 1950s was listed as an inspiration for AD&D. Similarly, talking about a system that uses armor class, to-hit rolls, and an attack bonus that progresses as you level as completely new and fresh because you use percentile dice instead of a D20 just hurts.
Spending a lot of effort making and defending really weak or spurious claims makes the game look much worse to me than if he didn't throw the overblown stuff into the conversation. I wouldn't play 5e if I minded rolling to-hit vs AC, and I don't expect every RPG to create a new genre, so there's no need to try to dress up familiar elements as innovative.
Spending a lot of effort making and defending really weak or spurious claims makes the game look much worse to me than if he didn't throw the overblown stuff into the conversation. I wouldn't play 5e if I minded rolling to-hit vs AC, and I don't expect every RPG to create a new genre, so there's no need to try to dress up familiar elements as innovative.
Dragonsbane
Proud Grognard
You are forgetting the theme park. (check the website) I already pre-orded my tickets on the Giantland rollercoaster. OMG there are people on it already
Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
Given Jim Ward was responsible for, among other things, Metamorphosis Alpha (the first, or arguably the first, sci-fi TTRGP), Gamma World (the most well-known post-apocalyptic TTRPG), D&D 2e, and was the senior figure at TSR during Dark Sun, I don't know if its desperation.
Before people continue to pile on, I will remind them that you never know, and link to these posts from 2010:
Help Jim Ward
During the second era of TSR – the one that started after Gary Gygax had been forced out of the company he’d founded – Jim Ward served as the vice president of the company. He’d been th…
www.forbeck.com
Friends of Starship Warden
Several people have asked me to spread the word about a new website, Friends of Starship Warden , that's been established to accept donation...
grognardia.blogspot.com
Age is never an excuse for bad actions, but getting old does, indeed, suck.
Dessert Nomad
Adventurer
This heightens the appearance of desperation to me, since it makes it clear that he should know better as he's been involved with the overall genre to a large extent. Making a false claim about how innovative the game is, then defending it based on weird semantic arguments (like 'Dark Sun is science fiction, not fantasy') is a good sign to me that the game lacks any real innovation. Similarly, trying to paint a game as 'innovative' when it would better be described as 'familiar' is also a sign that the game doesn't stand on it's own merits and instead needs to be hyped up.
I fail to see how this is relevant to the thread - we're discussing the giantlands game, not Jim Ward's health a decade ago. I don't think 'if someone gets sick, you're not allowed to criticize their game or their statements' is a reasonable position, but that seems to be what you're doing. I'll also note that you're the one making this thread about Jim Ward personally - I commented only on the game and his statements about the game.
Couple things worth noting:
1) Jim Ward claims that Dark Sun is a "Sci Fi" setting rather than Postapocalyptic Fantasy... which is patently ridiculous when GiantLands involves high tech and magic as their claim to the title.
2) Jim Ward having an incurable neurological disease may indicate a cognitive break or decline in which case we're giving a person with a physiological impairment a hard time for being impaired.
Though if that were the issue, the Dark Sun Sci Fi defense makes it ring pretty hollow since he has enough faculties to defend his position on a further spurious claim.
Having grown up with the SNL skits of that name, I thought it was a hoot and a great inclusion... but gosh it would be sad if it was a highlight!
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