Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kibo" data-source="post: 426250" data-attributes="member: 5451">No I think we're still dealing with the hypothetical machinations of virtual terrorists that might concievably show up in a role-playing game.I originally wasn't going to respond to M&M (but if I respond to you, I've got to respond to him).  I must say the degree and absolute zeal with which you guys approach your hair splitting in search of anything that might actually approach a topic that's nearly ancillary to a discussion that might have political or religious factors would be almost comical if it wasn't so earnest.  (And that demands a reply.)  It's not even that I think keeping things on track is a bad idea.  But sometimes it certainly appears that people end up acting to justify their function rather than perform it. (Ever hear of an accountant trying to trim fat by eliminating his own job?)Terrorism or fear as a political weapon is the fodder of a lot of movies, and certainly has some relavence in the discussions surrounding role-playing games, esspecially in the general forum.  I myself have run adventures where terrorists were the primary antagonists (primary disaffected ex-military ala The Rock, something not even unknown to Rome).  How out of bounds would an adaptation of True Lies to any d20 system really be?  Is it out of bounds to discuss Star Wars at all?  I mean think of all the bread winners wiped out by the brutal, sensless reble attack on the second death star.  I suspect that more than a few children post-ROTJ will always remember their birthday as the day rebles murdered their fathers.Can I now assume we're done with your hijack? I'd like to return to M&M's hijack and nitpicking.  (In the future I'll kindly ask that you refrain from trolling me.)After all it seems quite obvious to me he was making a reference to Major Walter König(IIRC), Sasha, et al, characters from Enemy At The Gates.Sasha was a cowards target.  Why?  He couldn't face Vassili Zaitsev.  He wasn't strong, fast, or smart enough.  To face his enemy squarly with any shred of dignity, was death, he was the lesser man.  He knew it, and quit.  His actual death was a footnote to his suicide.  Incidently I don't think it really advances the story of the movie.  Does it make Ed Harris seem more villainous?  No, it makes him a smaller, weaker, terrified little villain.  More a cretin than a threat.He couldn't face the man he wished to kill, because he was afraid and weak, so he had to incite that man to come kill him.  Weak villains make for more modest heroes.  At best the murder of little Sasha in story terms can make Vassili a more human hero.  A scared sheperds son, versus the son of germany who's fear was only outmatched by his PR machine.  I suppose that makes for a pretty decent character and story.However, I prefer a little more grandure with my heros, and so I throw a little more into my villains.  A son might die and set a father on the path of retribution, but that son would most likely be an adult, and if not, just part of the high cost of war.  One of many, perhaps thousands or even vastly greater numbers, whos blood indirectly stains the hands of my MacBeth.  All this is doubly true for fantasy.  At least for me.Darkness, the world is filled with small people, and petty, grasping tyrants.  So what.  They don't make good villains either, minor villains at most.  They are weak, and they know it.  A villain that knows he's powerful, knows his opponants are powerful, and stacks the deck wisely doesn't need to resort to pointless acts which would undoubtably undermine his power base.  It's a cheap, emotional ploy that crappy story tellers sometimes use instead of more lasting emotional content.  If you can't evoke any real feeling, just be shocking.  It's the MTV's Jack@** of drama.  I think better of myself.  (It might not always be true, but I DO think it.)  I don't see anything other than cowardice in someone machine gunning a schoolyard waiting for the cops to come and do what that person lacked the conviction to in the first place.  Attacking people who can't fight back because they can't fight back, even if it costs you your life, that's a coward, the smallest, snivelling, grovelling waste of life.  Killing them isn't a triumph, it's pest control.</blockquote>

Verification