Quote from: Omega;758976Well good to see a few clarifications at last.

This bit though was a bit of a quirk. Story BIBLE? Minor quirk. But why give the fruitcakes ammo to shoot at you with? Didn't learn anything did ya Mikey?

Dude, that's been standard TV/comic/gaming parlance for a couple of decades now. It's pretty thoroughly uncontroversial.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_(writing)

Quote from: Spinachcat;759003Story Bible is a Hollywood term. Every series has one. It basically breaks down the characters, motivations, backgrounds and the big Dos and Do Nots for the show. It is given to all the staff writers and agents who have freelancer writers who may work for the show.

I've had several story bibles over the years. For example, the Star Trek Next Generation bible had as Do Not stuff like not have the Enterprise break down and IIRC something about no xenophobia and no technophobia by the leads.

Type Star Trek Story Bible into eBay and you'll see a few for sale.

I am aware.
It was just openly calling it that with a D&D product that raises ye eyebrow.

Quote from: Omega;759284I am aware.
It was just openly calling it that with a D&D product that raises ye eyebrow.

But that's the term for what it is. Calling it something else just because it's for D&D would be stupid.

If anything Mearls should be begging for the fruitcakes to make a fuss. You can't buy that sort of publicity.

But they probably won't, because most of the hardline fundamentalist traditionalists (I won't grace them with the term "Christian" because I'm fairly sure Jesus wouldn't recognise them as having anything to do with his teaching) are focusing their attention on trying to turn back the clock on gay rights these days. Even those who like to wig out about media have plenty of videogames, movies and musical acts to point at before they even get to tabletop games, and understanding of how D&D actually works is too widespread these days for the same sort of panic to propagate as it did back in the 1980s, when for all most people knew your average D&D session wasn't complete without a black mass and a goetic summoning.

And even if they did protest, they wouldn't research the subject deeply enough to see "story bible" anyway.

Quote from: Warthur;759296If anything Mearls should be begging for the fruitcakes to make a fuss. You can't buy that sort of publicity.

I think the fruitcake references were more about people who flip out at the first sign of anyone mentioning the S-word in relation to roleplaying.

Quote from: Ladybird;759294But that's the term for what it is. Calling it something else just because it's for D&D would be stupid.

No. Thats being aware of your potential problem spots and heading it off.

As said though. Just a minor quirk moment. Mearls loves his little buzzwords so it wasnt a surprise really.

Will be interesting though to see how they implement it though in practice. Could be usefull for gaining better cohesion. They should really apply that idea when they are doing the book tie-ins sometimes.

Quote from: Ladybird;759302I think the fruitcake references were more about people who flip out at the first sign of anyone mentioning the S-word in relation to roleplaying.

Do you mean Satan?!?

VS

Quote from: Warthur;759296If anything Mearls should be begging for the fruitcakes to make a fuss. You can't buy that sort of publicity.

Yeah, D&D isn't even on the radar of parent-aged hand-wringers these days. It has about 2 per cent the profile of videogames that feature far more violent and 'occult' material.

Quote from: Warthur;759296... back in the 1980s, when for all most people knew your average D&D session wasn't complete without a black mass and a goetic summoning.

Which would be worse though, the idea of their being Satanists or closeted Nazi's? Because there were a whole lot more of one than the other, even Marc Miller, designer of Traveller, talked about it around 1980 or so in an interview in a gaming magazine. I've seen it here on this site where, American soldiers are cast as cowardly losers, and their victory over the Germans was some sort of fluke.

Quote from: dragoner;759384Which would be worse though, the idea of their being Satanists or closeted Nazi's? Because there were a whole lot more of one than the other, even Marc Miller, designer of Traveller, talked about it around 1980 or so in an interview in a gaming magazine. I've seen it here on this site where, American soldiers are cast as cowardly losers, and their victory over the Germans was some sort of fluke.

When was this again?

Quote from: dragoner;759384Which would be worse though, the idea of their being Satanists or closeted Nazi's? Because there were a whole lot more of one than the other, even Marc Miller, designer of Traveller, talked about it around 1980 or so in an interview in a gaming magazine. I've seen it here on this site where, American soldiers are cast as cowardly losers, and their victory over the Germans was some sort of fluke.

I wonder if this is a legacy of RPG's wargaming roots. In my experience, a sizable fraction of military history buffs tends towards a weirdly uncritical Germanophilia. Their version of WWII seems to have the Nazis kicking everyone's asses all the time.

One occasionally has to remind them "Umm...you do realize that they lost, right?"

Quote from: Dimitrios;759397I wonder if this is a legacy of RPG's wargaming roots. In my experience, a sizable fraction of military history buffs tends towards a weirdly uncritical Germanophilia. Their version of WWII seems to have the Nazis kicking everyone's asses all the time.

One occasionally has to remind them "Umm...you do realize that they lost, right?"

Yes, I remember it being addressed in Avalon Hill's gaming magazine The General, or maybe in the designer notes of Panzer Blitz where when talking about tactics and before sneering too loudly about the Soviet military's deficiencies that there were plenty of Slavic Sampson's to upend the German military's dependency on artillery.

Quote from: Warthur;759393When was this again?

When was what?

Quote from: dragoner;759401When was what?

This:

Quote from: dragoner;759384I've seen it here on this site where, American soldiers are cast as cowardly losers, and their victory over the Germans was some sort of fluke.

Quote from: Ladybird;759479This:

In a discussion about Shermans.