Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on March 23, 2022, 02:18:53 PM

Quote from: Thorn Drumheller on March 23, 2022, 02:14:48 PM

Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on March 23, 2022, 09:52:01 AM

Quote from: VisionStorm on March 23, 2022, 09:42:16 AM
Like actual fantasy work from those cultures, like Chinese Kung Fu flicks, is an accurate depiction of these cultures, instead of a fantasy version of it.

It's quite interesting from a martial arts perspective. The early shit we see from Chinese cinema etc. was all made up of hyper-realistic garbage. It's about as authentic as a Rolex you'd buy from a street pedlar in a kasbah.

Having trained (and coached) it for years it bears no resemblance to any real combat whatsoever. So they are totally complicit in selling their own B.S. to the world. I do love the irony, however. 

This, exactly this. I mean...It's been years since I did done kempo but the Chinese cinema is completely complicit.

Absolutely man! And they were only too happy to take the cash, and still are to this very day. And keeping that up with that Hollywood myth rakes in the cash.

  Yeah to be fair very few fights scenes are close to reality.  I did enjoy a few of the scenes in Flashpoint though, some of the use of practical dynamic judo was nice to see mixed in with all the spin kicks. 

Quote from: oggsmash on March 23, 2022, 12:27:35 PM
Is the actual book out for people to see what is really in it?  Does it have a gay prom?  I just need to know if there will be a gay prom.

A return of the gnay gnomes from Essentials? 

Quote from: Omega on March 23, 2022, 02:25:54 PM
A return of the gnay gnomes from Essentials? 

wait..wha...i miss something in 4e?

Quote from: Thorn Drumheller on March 23, 2022, 03:11:35 PM

Quote from: Omega on March 23, 2022, 02:25:54 PM
A return of the gnay gnomes from Essentials? 

wait..wha...i miss something in 4e?

It's a reference to the 5E Essentials Kit. In one of the adventures included in the boxed set, there are two male gnome NPCs who are described as partners. There was a discussion thread about it three years ago:

https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/5e-essentials-kit-married-gnome-kings-co-ruling/

Quote from: Omega on March 22, 2022, 05:16:49 PM
If it were not being used as yet another hateful agenda platform. It would be a pretty good setting.

Think about it.

How many cities in and out of D&D are actually safe to just walk around and interact in without some maniac crawling out of the woodwork to kill you? Or rob you? Or trick you? No political intrigue even?

That sounds great and is exactly the sort of place I drop into my own campaigns and is the default setting for an upcoming book. The other default setting being the diametric opposite of peaceful and safe. 

But nooooo. We cant just have a nice setting area. No. They have to turn it into another agenda platform.

It's a hub, it has magic stones that are portals to the other worlds of D&D...

How the actual fuck is it totally free of ANY conflict/bad actor?

Even assuming that HASHTAG Not All (insert your monster here) are evil, there are SOME that are most deffinetelly evil, so...

How is it that not a single bad actor ever goes there? How come that there's not a single thief, conman, etc there?

What you see as a nice and safe environment stinks of fascist government to me.

And it should be obvious to the leftards writting it: You'd need guards in every point of entry on the other worlds, reading the minds, detecting alignment, etc and preventing said bad actors to ever crossing, you would also need to cull anyone born there that doesn't fall in the approved parameters of the government. Before they ever commit any crime, think pre-crime but worst and on a global scale.

Either that or you are exerting mind control over anyone who crosses/is born there.

Like ALL Utopias, once you scratch the surface it reveals itself as a Dystopia.

Quote from: TheShadowSpawn on March 22, 2022, 04:10:41 PM
I ran a B/X game for a group of kids, male and female, ages ranging from 8-16 this last weekend.

They murdered kobolds and stole their loot, and loved it!

Murdering kobolds implies those kobolds were totally innocent butterflies. Stealing their loot implies it's not the spoils of war.

Did you actually created such an scenario for the kids?

Quote from: VisionStorm on March 22, 2022, 08:01:48 PM

Quote from: Shasarak on March 22, 2022, 07:55:33 PM
I think my favourite so far is this little gem:

QuoteSalted Legacy (1st level, Surena Marie). Rival merchant families are at war in the Night Market. Various challenges such as a timed cooking challenge.

Everyone get your pots, pans and freshest cooking ingredients - we are going to WAR!

I never thought I'd live to see the day when D&D turned into such a vacuous undertaking that it would feature cooking challenges as one of the key features in one of its published adventures. In fact the thought that such a thing could happen didn't even enter my mind. Yet here we are, and these people have taken over the game.

They think they can emulate Manga/Anime, because there are bestselling books based on cooking competitions.

{Narrators voice} They couldn't.

Quote from: jhkim on March 23, 2022, 03:29:18 PM

Quote from: Thorn Drumheller on March 23, 2022, 03:11:35 PM

Quote from: Omega on March 23, 2022, 02:25:54 PM
A return of the gnay gnomes from Essentials? 

wait..wha...i miss something in 4e?

It's a reference to the 5E Essentials Kit. In one of the adventures included in the boxed set, there are two male gnome NPCs who are described as partners. There was a discussion thread about it three years ago:

https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/5e-essentials-kit-married-gnome-kings-co-ruling/

Oh yeah, that. Thanks. I remember that now. It's fantasy, Forgotten Realms....all good

Quote from: GeekyBugle on March 23, 2022, 03:31:31 PM
It's a hub, it has magic stones that are portals to the other worlds of D&D...

How the actual fuck is it totally free of ANY conflict/bad actor?

Even assuming that HASHTAG Not All (insert your monster here) are evil, there are SOME that are most deffinetelly evil, so...

How is it that not a single bad actor ever goes there? How come that there's not a single thief, conman, etc there?

What you see as a nice and safe environment stinks of fascist government to me.

And it should be obvious to the leftards writting it: You'd need guards in every point of entry on the other worlds, reading the minds, detecting alignment, etc and preventing said bad actors to ever crossing, you would also need to cull anyone born there that doesn't fall in the approved parameters of the government. Before they ever commit any crime, think pre-crime but worst and on a global scale.

Either that or you are exerting mind control over anyone who crosses/is born there.

Like ALL Utopias, once you scratch the surface it reveals itself as a Dystopia.

Sigh, yep, this. Apparently, the creators of this book have a greater belief in the benevolence of mankin....er race....er species than I do.

Quote from: Omega on March 23, 2022, 12:49:46 AM

Quote from: FingerRod on March 22, 2022, 11:10:46 PM

Quote from: AtomicPope on March 22, 2022, 10:13:21 PM
What drew me to alternative campaign settings like Spelljammer and Planescape is their uniqueness, creativity, thematic elements, and flexibility.  I never once had to wonder whether or not the author had the 7 pieces of flair in their bio because their works were far more important than their virtue signals.  The latest book from WotC "Strixhaven" was extremely lazy, and full of poor game design and weak narrative elements.  There's actually very little worth using, and I don't recommend buying it.  In fact, very few of these newer products can even compare to much of the 1st and 2nd Edition AD&D supplements that I've used and ported over to every edition since.  What really annoys me about this is there are great, imaginative settings and people not getting published because of this garbage.  So instead we get this tokenism version of Planescape. 

When newer DMs ask me how to create a campaign I always tell them, "Get the Silver Edition 'Return to the Keep on the Borderlands' and convert it.  As you do you will have to make choices what to keep and what to change or throw away.  Then it becomes yours."  I won't be tell them to pick up 'Horde of the Dragon Queen' and just run that.  It's garbage, and so is this.  D&D is supposed to be for everyone, and these narcissists are making everything about themselves.

Hard agree with everything except what I put in bold. Ran a campaign well over a year doing to HotDQ exactly what you described with Keep. Made the cultists actually cult-like, cruel, and pure evil. Zoomed way in on the elements. Years later still my most talked about campaign. Out of the box tho...you're absolutely right.

Same. I have spoken before on DMing the two modules and they are actually alot of fun if you ignore certain elements and outright railroading and just let the players go at it however.

Interestingly Hoard is not a WOTC book. It was outsourced to Kobold and some of the problems with it were because the system changed during the creation of the modules.

That is very interesting. I never knew Kobold was behind it.

Quote from: GeekyBugle on March 23, 2022, 03:31:31 PM
It's a hub, it has magic stones that are portals to the other worlds of D&D...

How the actual fuck is it totally free of ANY conflict/bad actor?

Even assuming that HASHTAG Not All (insert your monster here) are evil, there are SOME that are most deffinetelly evil, so...

How is it that not a single bad actor ever goes there? How come that there's not a single thief, conman, etc there?

I am wondering this too.

Does the place just not let in anyone with naughty thoughts? Or is there some magic that makes everyone nice? Some sort of thought police would never work because they cant be everywhwhere.

For a look at doing this differently take a glance at Top Ballista for BECMI way back.
Gnomes and other demi/non-human creatures work together to create a flying nation where creatures can co-exist. This including Korphu and Nagphas to name a few. They overall get along because the alternative is back to groundside. Theres an undercurrent of political jockying. Sometimes aggressively. But overall its Radiant Citadel - in the sky. With biplanes, and gnomes and... and... 

Night Howlers tries this on a smaller scale with werewolves trying to co-exist peacefully. And though I have not read it all Sea People does much the same. Just more fractiously than the other two.

I can just see WOTC trying to write Top Ballista today. With an all midget writing crew. 

Quote from: Omega on March 23, 2022, 04:24:09 PM
For a look at doing this differently take a glance at Top Ballista for BECMI way back.
Gnomes and other demi/non-human creatures work together to create a flying nation where creatures can co-exist. This including Korphu and Nagphas to name a few. They overall get along because the alternative is back to groundside. Theres an undercurrent of political jockying. Sometimes aggressively. But overall its Radiant Citadel - in the sky. With biplanes, and gnomes and... and... 

Top Ballista is one of my all time favourites.  On the other hand most people think that being able to play monsterous characters that could level up is something that only happened in 3e.

Greetings!

Only cock-sucking Leftist jackasses think that the term *Oriental* is somehow offensive. Oriental is opposite of Occidental. East and West. Geesus, even ASIAN people have referred to themselves as "Being Oriental" or "From the Orient".

Edward Said is a Leftist fuckstick.

Beyond that, so much of the Liberals language and entire ideology is racist.

I had a professor at my university that was a well-known expert and authority on Eastern Cultures, most particularly INDIA.

And he was a WHITE MAN. That didn't stop actual INDIANS from regarding him with utmost respect for his leadership, for his intellectual integrity, and for his authoritative scholarship.

I also had an INDIAN political science professor. And an INDIAN English professor. Should they have been disqualified because they weren't WHITE?

Gee, maybe their positions as professors had something to do with having degrees in Political Science and English, and having many years of work to demonstrate their expertise in such fields. It doesn't have fuck all to do with their skin colour or their goddamn race!

People that cry about "Cultural Appropriation" can go fuck themselves. Everyone borrows--and PROFITS!--from taking and using stuff and ideas and images, whatever--from everyone else. Guess what? Historically, that has ALWAYS been the reality, everywhere!

ORIENTAL ADVENTURES is a great book. And it was a great book when it first came out. It is a fantasy Asian book for the D&D game. All the Daniel Kwans can fucking choke on it.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: GeekyBugle on March 23, 2022, 03:31:31 PM

Quote from: Omega on March 22, 2022, 05:16:49 PM
If it were not being used as yet another hateful agenda platform. It would be a pretty good setting.

Think about it.

How many cities in and out of D&D are actually safe to just walk around and interact in without some maniac crawling out of the woodwork to kill you? Or rob you? Or trick you? No political intrigue even?

That sounds great and is exactly the sort of place I drop into my own campaigns and is the default setting for an upcoming book. The other default setting being the diametric opposite of peaceful and safe. 

But nooooo. We cant just have a nice setting area. No. They have to turn it into another agenda platform.

It's a hub, it has magic stones that are portals to the other worlds of D&D...

How the actual fuck is it totally free of ANY conflict/bad actor?

Even assuming that HASHTAG Not All (insert your monster here) are evil, there are SOME that are most deffinetelly evil, so...

How is it that not a single bad actor ever goes there? How come that there's not a single thief, conman, etc there?

What you see as a nice and safe environment stinks of fascist government to me.

And it should be obvious to the leftards writting it: You'd need guards in every point of entry on the other worlds, reading the minds, detecting alignment, etc and preventing said bad actors to ever crossing, you would also need to cull anyone born there that doesn't fall in the approved parameters of the government. Before they ever commit any crime, think pre-crime but worst and on a global scale.

Either that or you are exerting mind control over anyone who crosses/is born there.

Like ALL Utopias, once you scratch the surface it reveals itself as a Dystopia.

This did briefly cross my mind, and now I feel like an idiot for not pointing it out or going through it further in my head. I guess I just wasn't talking it seriously enough. But I doubt there's anything fascistic or nefarious about it. They're just too stupid to think about it deeply either, and figure that such a place could simply exist on their say so, cuz elf games!

I deeply suspect that once this book comes out if you examine it further with a fine tooth comb, you will find nothing more nefarious in it than a poorly thought-out vacuous landscape of a hub, with no rime or reason behind it beyond, "It's FANTASY! Anything can exist!" And if any of this miraculously gets addressed at all it will come with a heavy dose of magic and scout's honor from anyone who comes in. Cuz why would anyone want to cause trouble in such a nice place?

Quote from: Omega on March 23, 2022, 04:24:09 PM

Quote from: GeekyBugle on March 23, 2022, 03:31:31 PM
It's a hub, it has magic stones that are portals to the other worlds of D&D...

How the actual fuck is it totally free of ANY conflict/bad actor?

Even assuming that HASHTAG Not All (insert your monster here) are evil, there are SOME that are most deffinetelly evil, so...

How is it that not a single bad actor ever goes there? How come that there's not a single thief, conman, etc there?

I am wondering this too.

Does the place just not let in anyone with naughty thoughts? Or is there some magic that makes everyone nice? Some sort of thought police would never work because they cant be everywhwhere.

For a look at doing this differently take a glance at Top Ballista for BECMI way back.
Gnomes and other demi/non-human creatures work together to create a flying nation where creatures can co-exist. This including Korphu and Nagphas to name a few. They overall get along because the alternative is back to groundside. Theres an undercurrent of political jockying. Sometimes aggressively. But overall its Radiant Citadel - in the sky. With biplanes, and gnomes and... and... 

Night Howlers tries this on a smaller scale with werewolves trying to co-exist peacefully. And though I have not read it all Sea People does much the same. Just more fractiously than the other two.

I can just see WOTC trying to write Top Ballista today. With an all midget writing crew. 

The fast way?