Heh, don't be so sure. I remember reading some screed about how C.S. Lewis and all his writings were from the Devil and meant to steer people away from proper faith because Lewis didn't "come to Christ" in the right way. The document wasn't a Chic tract but it was definitely aware of Lewis' Mere Christianity and The…

On the point of media and sensationalism, there is no perhaps. The US has had this problem ever since Nightline stopped covering the hostage crisis in 1980 and had to find more events to stay on the air/"relevant". The advent of cable news networks and their 24 hour broadcasting has only made things worse. Fox and…

Yes, where's my steak tree dammit!

On the one hand, I kinda want my hobby to have a cheering section. On the other, I'm thinking "shut up! I'm trying to hear the gm!" Dark Dungeons was always good for a laugh amongst those playing and a source of tears when some fool took it for reality and started spewing ignorant judgement. So I'm kinda torn on…

This will be one time I don't use my super power (f*ing with people's headcanon), because I agree. The writers totally should have put H.G. and Myka together. I'm not 100% sure about Steve and Pete as Pete seemed pretty much solidly heterosexual.

Wait, slime mold AI run elevators? I thought slime molds taught literature classes at a major online university.

Yeah, I can see that. I had no complaints with 4e's encounter design. 3.x did have its problems there. I once ran into a mod for LG where the night before the writer made a change on the fly (giving a troll some fighter levels) that turned the encounter from a mild annoyance for the playtesters to an impossible…

I get people felt FR was too full of stuff to be enjoyable, but I just didn't see it. My argument back was always "if it's true that all of this info or all of these NPCs means FR is unplayable then that means my table of Living Greyhawk here should be unplayable because we don't know what is happening with the Ratik…

Well, I've always seen this as Leia knowing her birth mother in VI, but then Lucas coming back in III and thinking "hey! Super tragedy! Padme dies of a broken heart from Anakin's super dickishness!!!!" And thus is a plot hole created.

I got off easy. I volunteered for WotC's Living Greyhawk, and later for Living Forgotten Realms. So I was there for the first "We're 4th ed now! And LG is dead!" I got the books for free volunteering for the first LFR stuff and got a decent taste of how it all worked. So I got to try it and was only out a bit of…

I would argue that if your players are smart enough to come up with one clever solution to solve a problem but then get stuck in using that one solution over and over to completely take out any element of danger in every encounter, there is a problem with the players, not the game. No game can have rules that cover…

But, see the first thing you should realize as a GM/DM/Storyteller is your players are not going to think like you do. I played in a Midnight Campaign (3.x setting think the Hobbit/LotR but Sauron won) where our GM had this awesome three session plan where we would witness the fall of one of the last dwarven…

Yeah, I've always heard the refrain "sure 4e has 3 hour combats, but 3e had three hour rule searches". I've seen one or two instances of fumbling with rulebooks in 3.x. More often than not, those were either rules lawyers trying to split hairs in their favor or some guy with a weird character and their not 100% on…

Well, I'm fine with prices going up with inflation over 20 years. Now if only my paycheck went up the same rate. *sigh

Yeah, on average books ran about that. White Wolf's Vampire the Masquerade's first print was about $25, I think. The back cover doesn't list an MSRP. For better comparison Mage the Ascension was $25, while Mage the Awakening is $34.99 (but if you peal back the little sticker you see it was originally $39.99). The…

Yeah for the last 20 years it is closer to $25 to $40. With inflation, I'd argue WotC isn't far off though at $50, depending on what is in the book. Pathfinder's Core is $50, Bestiary is $40, and Gamemastery Guide is also $40. So you pay $20 bucks more for a full set of D&D 5th. Big deal. Especially since most…

Hah, our group keeps Orcus in a gimp suit locked in the closet.

Well to be honest on point 1), most people went to Pathfinder early in 4th edition's lifespan. It's part of the reason why 4th didn't last very long. I've said elsewhere that 4th was WotC's "new coke" foul up. The only difference is Coke was able to course correct quickly with "coke classic" to the point it can be…

Yeah, I'm sticking with Pathfinder also. I like the rules set. I'm enjoy the games I'm in. I've already invested a chunk of change into 3P. I have no real desire to learn a new system and convert my games over.

The only thing that topped Coulson's casually blowing up Garrett-lok? The Return of the Koenig!