Mecheon
Sacabambaspis
There was also the System Mastery two-parter review (Technically three parter as they did a review of the newer edition as well). Its a rite of passage for RPG reviewers. Always has to be the Synnibarr review
It's amusing that the very first bit of that review talks about how the author appears to have written the game straight through, without ever pausing to consider what they have written. Given McCracken's own claim that each of the 1400 powers were written perfectly on the first go, it seems the reviewers were more right than they might have thought.There was also the System Mastery two-parter review (Technically three parter as they did a review of the newer edition as well). Its a rite of passage for RPG reviewers. Always has to be the Synnibarr review
He doesn't make that claim at all. He in fact says that doing so is impossible.Given McCracken's own claim that each of the 1400 powers were written perfectly on the first go
It's amusing that the very first bit of that review talks about how the author appears to have written the game straight through, without ever pausing to consider what they have written. Given McCracken's own claim that each of the 1400 powers were written perfectly on the first go, it seems the reviewers were more right than they might have thought.
Oh my…I just read his comment about how he spent 6 years (later claiming 10) living on only 450 calories of Ensure a day. And how it takes a writer an hour to write one spell. So I guess he’s one of those guys who has to exaggerate and lie without needing to as well. SMH. I had a roommate like that once. Even for things no one cares about, they still felt the need to lie and embellish it to ridiculous levels.
Which is blatantly untrue. He'd have lasting damage after a month, and dead shortly after, let alone 6-10 years. For reference, the average person will lose 20 pounds at 500 calories a day after a month. And that's on a supervised diet to get minerals. Heck, two years ago I had to go on a liquid diet for medical reasons for a month, and that was 1400 calories a day. And I had to take supplements. And I still lost 20 lbs that month and felt like crap. Irritable and couldn't concentrate.In my earlier post he claims the first version of Synnibarr (pre-printed version, I guess) dates back to ~1980. So there were about 10 years of edits to get to the form that is well known.
For reference, this is from his personal FB:
View attachment 261222
Yeah, I played Synnibarr with Raven as well, as a teenager. Met him at DragonFlight convention atOh, boy do I have Raven stories... as in I used to play both D&D and Synnibar with him and even more.
Finding out that he's gone all conspiracy isn't a surprise
His claim to the invention of the game is that he and Gary were talking at a convention. Raven suggested getting rid of the boring levels of D&D, like the first ten or so. Characters would only be superpowered and iconic. And then other oddities just kept popping in and basically every comicbook he'd ever encountered was incorporated.
also, he may still have an incomplete roleplaying game I was co-authoring and he was the producer for back 92-94.
I mean, it's hard to say what counts as the "first cross-genre game". IIRC Jon Peterson's work documents that 1977's Superhero: 2044 was the first superhero RPG, and that digging into the history, it actually started as the author's D&D campaign which transitioned to a modern/superheroes setting by the PCs passing through a gate, before becoming an actual "full" superhero RPG.Some of his players from back when have shown up in the thread and I’m beginning to think they may have a point about it being the first cross genre game. I dint count the claim that he was distributing it locally for several years and chaosium beats them for a generic system regardless.
However it does appear it may be the first of its kind, sort of. Not that it makes his behavior any better or lend me to believe much of anything he says.
Raven was, again, this was 30 years ago now, a marijuana hippie. The look on his face when I told him I'd joined the Army was one of shock and disappointment.
Their only common trait is arrogance, but McCracken has a book that once sold well and for a period of time in the early 90s was an invited guest to conventions rather than banned
No, you've misread him. He's making a ballpark estimate of how long it would take to write all that IF one were to do it in one pass, to support his claim that he'd been working on it for many years prior to the publication of the 1991 edition, since the rules do indeed seem to have gone through several iterations prior to that.It's amusing that the very first bit of that review talks about how the author appears to have written the game straight through, without ever pausing to consider what they have written. Given McCracken's own claim that each of the 1400 powers were written perfectly on the first go, it seems the reviewers were more right than they might have thought.
Yup.In my earlier post he claims the first version of Synnibarr (pre-printed version, I guess) dates back to ~1980. So there were about 10 years of edits to get to the form that is well known.
For reference, this is from his personal FB:
I had a lot of fun with it, back in the day. Though GODS is it cumbersome.I can't read the title of the game without thinking of Cinnabon and then I get sad because nothing about the game is even remotely as awesome as even walking past a Cinnabon at the mall (that smell!), never mind actually consuming a delicious pastry.
I spent a few hours talking with Raven at a Con in 1992. He was pretty convinced Syynibarr was a revolutionary game. I read through it, and it was akin to seeing a tractor trailer turned upside down next to the highway: It's interesting, and you wonder just how it happened, but it's still a total wreck.
Tom Moldvay's Lords of Creation came out in 1983.
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And with that I have now made a (somewhat) serious post in a thread about Synnibar. The unimaginable just keeps happening. I guess sort of like Synnibar.
Which is blatantly untrue. He'd have lasting damage after a month, and dead shortly after, let alone 6-10 years. For reference, the average person will lose 20 pounds at 500 calories a day after a month. And that's on a supervised diet to get minerals. Heck, two years ago I had to go on a liquid diet for medical reasons for a month, and that was 1400 calories a day. And I had to take supplements. And I still lost 20 lbs that month and felt like crap. Irritable and couldn't concentrate.
500 calories a day for 6-10 years is simply impossible, and it's not close.
At least it wasn't the "Injun" or the "Red Indian" or something. Using "Native American" in the 80s was pretty progressive.A “Native American” class. Ugh.
Ok it’s from the 80s, which isn’t an excuse, but that’s not great.
Yeah, I'm not gonna bust on him for something he wrote in the 80s. I go back and look at some of the stuff I wrote and said back then? Cringe...At least it wasn't the "Injun" or the "Red Indian" or something. Using "Native American" in the 80s was pretty progressive.
Yes I get that. The thing is does the newer version retain that?Yeah, I'm not gonna bust on him for something he wrote in the 80s. I go back and look at some of the stuff I wrote and said back then? Cringe...
Like how in his bio in the SA article says how he really wants to meet the Donald. (Trump). That was 10ish or so years ago. I bet he doesn't still want to meet him![]()
Shamans are a special type of spell user and warrior....
As a race, the Shamans are North American Indians, although not all tribal Shamans are Indians...
Hey, the whole Far West fiasco has been comedy gold for a decade, it might have been great.I'll just add, if it took him 10 years to write it to a point where it could be published, thank God that happened before the Kickstarter days....