Quote from: Baulderstone;881977I've known a number of professional game designers over the years, and most of them pointedly avoid being loud, opinionated jackasses. The gaming world is their workplace. It's also a very small place. Anyone that makes a living a game design will likely rely on freelancing at some point as well. Every enemy you make is one person who may think twice about hiring you.

Then there is the PR angle. Designers that like to get into Internet brawls end up with people that won't buy their games simply because they don't like them.

I can see why it looks like most designers have strong opinions. It's because those designers are the ones with a big presence on forums. Other designers are pretty cautious on general forums like this or over at rpg.net. They drop in to promote their games and answer questions, and that is about it. Or, if they do have a solid presence, like Brendan, they are one of the most polite people on the site.

I think another element is that game designers actually design games. Rather than spend hours bitching about a game they hate like I do, they simply spend that time making games that do what they want.



It's telling that both the Best and Worst Adventure blog posts end with an anecdote about Wick acting as a player trying to undermine the GM and teach them a lesson. Many of the worst sessions of my teenage years came from the times I decided I was going to teach the group a lesson. Wick seems to have never grown out of that.

The part where he tries to convince the group to take their gold and live happily also underlines a point. He doesn't make an in-character decision to do that himself. When the rest of group, that came to play D&D, rightly rejects his idea, Wick doesn't have his character do it. It was just an out-of-character angle to ruin the session. If there was any other angle to it, he would have had his character actually do that as opposed to just suggest it.

Of course, as others have mentioned, the 70,000 gold just represents the equipment they have picked up over the years, not a big bag of gold that actually exists.

Thing is, John Wick doesn't have a big forum presence. He doesn't post much on any forum. Also, despite being loud and obnoxious, his Kickstarter is most likely going to crack a million. Sometimes you can be an opinionated asshole and get away with it if your stuff is high quality.

Quote from: jhkim;881909Because there is a graphic, players assume that there is something to figure out here, but there are no clues or warnings.

I would think that the expectation is that seasoned adventurers will be smart enough to first try to (a) detect evil, (b) detect magic, or (and this is the cheapest, easiest, and most likely action)(c) stick one end of a 10' pole or other item into the demon mouth before jumping head first inside. When only 5' of pole comes back out, the seasoned adventurer will then decline to be the first person to jump inside just to see what happens next.

EDIT: And I see now that others also thought testing the mouth with a 10' pole (which is listed on the friggin equipment list for Crom's sake) would be SOP for experienced adventurers.

It's true that the module doesn't come with a big sign saying, "Beware of Spheres of Annihilation." But it is supposed to be a dungeon full of tricky traps.

I wouldn't expect in a WW2 game of Allied Infantry breaching the Siegfried Line, that the German engineers have erected westward facing signs in front of every minefield like this...

Spoiler

Quote from: Ravenswing;881918While I bow down to few with reference to my pedantry over medieval economics, I find it hilarious how many people are debating the accuracy of Wick's economics instead of the idiocy inherent in his assertion.

Not a debate, it was a simple question. I haven't played or read 5E so rather than assume that John Wick was making up a wildly inflated value for a GP I asked.

Given the other things he pulled out of his ass regarding the non-existence of game stores and that Oprah rather than Pat Pullings or Jack Chick was responsible for the wave anti-D&D hysteria, I wasn't surprised that he made up a wildly inflated price to reinforce his story. Actually, I suspect the only truth to the whole post is that 12-year old John Wick was an asshole who alienated his 'friends.'

But reading his silly fantasy saved me $40. So I call us even.

Quote from: Warthur;881940I can totally see why an intelligent, observant group would still end up going into the green devil face. It isn't really a test of intelligent problem-solving so much as it's a guess-what-I'm-thinking thing.

Yes!  God, Yes.  It's like one of those terrible, old computer point and click adventures where you have to check everything, but except only ONE choice won't kill you.

Quote from: Orphan81;881982Thing is, John Wick doesn't have a big forum presence. He doesn't post much on any forum. Also, despite being loud and obnoxious, his Kickstarter is most likely going to crack a million. Sometimes you can be an opinionated asshole and get away with it if your stuff is high quality.

Sure, Wick doesn't post much on forums anymore, but it's mainly because he wore out his welcome on them years ago. As noted, he even had to turn the comments off on his own blog post. He sure as Hell doesn't want to venture into venues he can't control.

I agree that you can still be antagonistic and succeed, but it can make your life a lot harder as well. Look at Skarka. He has done some quality work over the years, but he also developed a terrible reputation over his behavior. When he ran into trouble with his Kickstarter, people were rubbing their hands together with glee. Using your success as insulation against your behavior only works as long as you can keep that string of success going.

Personally, I hope 7th Sea is a big success. He certainly seems to have addressed its biggest flaws, and I would hate to see another disappointing high-profile Kickstarter.

Quote from: Bren;881991Given the other things he pulled out of his ass regarding the non-existence of game stores and that Oprah rather than Pat Pullings or Jack Chick was responsible for the wave anti-D&D hysteria, I wasn't surprised that he made up a wildly inflated price to reinforce his story. Actually, I suspect the only truth to the whole post is that 12-year old John Wick was an asshole who alienated his 'friends.'

For your friends to beat you up and then completely cut you out of their lives, you really have to wonder how thin the thread he was hanging by was already.

Then again, given all the factual errors clearly on display, it's possible he made up the part about his friend punching him, then none of his friends talking to him for a year. It could just be an attempt to earn pity.

He says that his parent's approached the parent of the boy that hit him, then they all got together and Wick apologized. I guess that might have happened, but saying it happened a year later? The parents talking to each other seems like something that would have happened at some point over the next week. Why would they not care about it for a full year, then suddenly go into action? It just feels off to me.

Quote from: Baulderstone;882005For your friends to beat you up and then completely cut you out of their lives, you really have to wonder how thin the thread he was hanging by was already.

Then again, given all the factual errors clearly on display, it's possible he made up the part about his friend punching him, then none of his friends talking to him for a year. It could just be an attempt to earn pity.

He says that his parent's approached the parent of the boy that hit him, then they all got together and Wick apologized. I guess that might have happened, but saying it happened a year later? The parents talking to each other seems like something that would have happened at some point over the next week. Why would they not care about it for a full year, then suddenly go into action? It just feels off to me.

I suspect that a lifetime of trying to wring overwrought drama out of imaginary situations may have left Wick in a state where he does so reflexively even in relating personal anecdotes and to an audience who he should know can see through all of his plot holes.

I've seen the type plenty. He doesn't even care if he portrays himself as a socially unaware idiot if it will add more to his story.

Quote from: Baulderstone;882005It just feels off to me.

The cumulative list of things that sounded off in his story makes me doubt the veracity of almost all of it. Though I suspect it is true that 12-year old John Wick was a dick to his friends. And that he got in disagreements with his friends or even lost "friends" because he was a dick. The punching...might be true, though I tend to doubt it. I wouldn't be at all surprised if more than a few of his acquaintances have wanted to punch him in the nose though.

Quote from: Orphan81;881878John Wick, like pretty much every other successful game designer outside of Shane Lacy Hensely, has VERY strong opinions on gaming..

Other completely obvious news at 11.

Is Shane known for being comparatively chill then?

Quote from: Baulderstone;881977It's telling that both the Best and Worst Adventure blog posts end with an anecdote about Wick acting as a player trying to undermine the GM and teach them a lesson. Many of the worst sessions of my teenage years came from the times I decided I was going to teach the group a lesson. Wick seems to have never grown out of that.

It explains a lot about some of Wick's designs if that's how he approaches games and how he expects other people to approach them.

Quote from: Warthur;882030It explains a lot about some of Wick's designs if that's how he approaches games and how he expects other people to approach them.

It's been years since I read it, but I remember the first edition of Legend of the Five Rings spending a lot of time explaining things PCs weren't supposed to do in its setting, but very little time explaining what they were supposed to do.

Quote from: Warthur;882029Is Shane known for being comparatively chill then?

Shane is seriously the nicest guy in the biz. He emailed me personally back when I turned 18 my senior year of Highschool after having emailed him to profess my love of Deadlands..

On Facebook he's one of the classiest guys out there... He's friends with about every other game designer on the planet because nobody can say anything bad about him. He doesn't begrudge other people's success, he doesn't talk down to people who play games differently than he does...

He's extremly humble for all the success he's had in life, and is one of the few people who can completely resist talking about religion and politics...

Wick's always been a piehole, going back to the AEG days when he'd come into All-Star Games in Diamond Bar to get worshipped by the high schoolers working the counter.  If he wasn't giving away 39 PDFs of the original game, the KS wouldn't be a 10th what it is.  Gotta hand it to him to leverage the fuck out of the license though.

Quote from: Warthur;881949A good point, though once such a thing becomes standard operating procedure I suspect you'd start seeing traps designed to fuck you over if you poke it with a pole.

It was already SOP; that's the point, for crying out loud.  The no-brainers get weeded out early.  If you had actually played up to 'name' level, you sure ought to have learned such elementary things.  (If you hadn't, then a simple fight could also wipe you out while you were trying to tell your high-level elbow from your arse.)

Quote from: jhkim;881909Justin claims that the adventure "It tells the DM specifically NOT to give helpful hints or mislead players into taking certain courses of action."

However, I think the ending sentence has a tongue-in-cheek quality to it which encourages precisely the outcome of being destroyed. (Especially given kids playing.) From what I've heard, lots of players have fallen for this. Because there is a graphic, players assume that there is something to figure out here, but there are no clues or warnings.

You see a gigantic demon face and don't "Detect Evil?"

You detect evil and don't toss an iron spike at it and watch it disappear?

You don't "Locate Object" on the iron spike to see where it is?

You're an idiot.

If a 14 year old kid can figure that out first time, anybody can.

Wick reminds me of the dolt from California who played that module at Origins and in his write up said "Well, APPARENTLY Gygax thinks empty rooms are FUN!"

All my ears hear is waah, waah, waah.