MM4 Table of Contents up

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

And why don't you buy us pizza, anyway?

You going to Gen Con?

(Of course, even if you did, some would complain about the toppings you chose. )

My skin is thick. Hey, people have criticisms. That's fair. I DON'T MIND. But sometimes I have criticisms of criticisms, and to me that's fair too.

(Beef and Black Olive, by the way, though straight pepperoni is good too.)

Owen K.C. Stephens

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

Sorry for not being sure about your identity, Owen. Neither WotC product catalogue nor Amazon list you as an author (in fact, they only list Gwendolyn Kestrel), and I am not familiar with your previous work.

It's okay, I'm not easily offended. Sigh. I gues Mearls is right, after about 10 books you're not going to get more famous.

Allow me to introduce... me. I wrote Starships of the Galaxy (and a bunch of Star Wars), Befallen (and a bunch of EverQuest), Bastards and Bloodlines and the Advanced Gamemaster's Guide (and chunks of Black Company and Thieves' World), d20 Cyberscape (and a bunch of d20 Modern, and I'm the Bullet Points answer-guy for WotC), Battle Armor and Loot 4 Less (and I was art director for the Stand-Ins Printable figures), a slew of Dragon articles, some stuff that takes up too much room to list, and I have a monthly Pyramid column. I was on the rpg Origins Awards jury last year.

Impressed yet? Yeah, me neither. All that and I still wait in line at movie premieres and fast-food joints. But I -did- stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!

Most designers who post on ENworld have full names listed in their sigs.

And now, so do I.

 

[EricNoah]

Oh, and I met him in person at GenCon 2000. Might have been right after the DM's Boot Camp or something. So I can confirm that he's real, and not some AI. Though he could be an android!

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

Oh, and I met him in person at GenCon 2000. Might have been right after the DM's Boot Camp or something. So I can confirm that he's real, and not some AI. Though he could be an android!

OMG, Eric. I can not BELIEVE you remember that. Yeah, on the steps after boot camp and the slide show.

I was so impressed to meet THE Eric Noah. You were the talk of the WotC halls at the time (where I worked full time in 2000).

 

[ColonelHardisson]

But this is going way off topic. This is supposed to be about MM4, not how WotC should be doing things and how they shouldn't be. Nor is it a let's bash Razz's negative comment thread either. I've had too many of those. I am heading off this thread, no need to reply. I've stated my point about MM4 and it's done. If you want, you can start a thread on this or keep in in private messages.

Naw, I think my point was made quite well enough here.

 

[EricNoah]

OMG, Eric. I can not BELIEVE you remember that. Yeah, on the steps after boot camp and the slide show.

I was so impressed to meet THE Eric Noah. You were the talk of the WotC halls at the time (where I worked full time in 2000).

LOL.

The most memorable reaction I got from introducing myself was from Jonathan Tweet. You shoulda seen the look on his face ... "Oh ... THAT guy ..."

 

[Aeolius]

...I wrote...Bastards and Bloodlines...

Given my propensity to crossbreed hags, undersea critters, and other beasties, I did pick that one up.

As for pizza... black olives and mushrooms, please. (that oughta start a flame war)

I'll have to wait until I see some MM4 reviews, as my neck of the woods no longer has gaming stores. I finally got tired of waiting for Barnes & Noble to get a copy of Fiendish Codex and ordered it from amazon.com, once I heard Dagon was in there.

 

[Mercule]

As a DM, I should not have to create new game mechanics and playtest them. That is not what a DM does.

I disagree. One of the best things about being DM is futzing with the mechanics. And it's absolutely the responsibility of the DM to fill in gaps where they exist. An argument could be made otherwise, if you're using a pregen setting. But, if you're rolling your own, you have to make sure it either fits the system or the system fits it.

[/quote]That takes up too much time, causes too much stress, and causes a lot of Player-DM debates. A DM can choose to do that for his games if he'd like, but I don't believe it is a requirement in order to play and enjoy the game.[/QUOTE]

The same argument applies to pregen NPCs.

As much as I don't find use in them, it's perfectly okay for someone else to do so. Absolutely, positively as okay as it is to find value in a stock feat.

 

[boolean]

A Flock of Foes from Genjitsu has creatures from the MM that are either advanced or with templates from that book. It also has 4 templates to replace the basic golems (why should they always be humanoid?).

Tangent:

Aren't golems powered by bound elemental spirits? As elementals are generally humanoid, maybe it's easier to make a golem that is the same general shape.

Which raises the question: Why are elementals humanoid in shape?

 

[Mercule]

Which raises the question: Why are elementals humanoid in shape?

Because the elemental planes are actually partial shadows of the Prime plane?

Because anthropomorphic deities created everything in the universe in their own likeness?

Because elementals only exist because of human(oid) use of magic and are a reflection of their creators' subconscious self-image (this is true, IMC, where I do not have dedicated elemental planes)?