From Jonathan Tweet, via G+:

A notorious RPG "pundit" has been saying that my 1992 Over the Edge was not a storygame, that it was not political, and that it was not about the United States.

Not a storygame? You invented traits for your character rather than selecting from a list. You give your character a motivation and invent an important NPC to be part of their backstory.

Not political? A major plot was a bigoted white man using mind control to spread intolerance and take over the world. Hard to be more "SJW" than that.

Not about the US? They speak English, they use the US dollar, and the name of the island, Al Amarja, is a pretty clear derivation of "America".

As much as I'd like to correct this fellow, he blocked me two years ago after Mike Selinker and I arranged a game-desingers' publicity stunt for Hillary Clinton. Anyway, I guess it's good to have the right enemies.

Quote from: Jonathan Tweet, via G+As much as I'd like to correct this fellow, he blocked me two years ago after Mike Selinker and I arranged a game-desingers' publicity stunt for Hillary Clinton.

This actually concerns and surprises me.

Quote from: Anon Adderlan;1051722This actually concerns and surprises me.

Which one, that Pundy blocked somebody on a social media platform, or the publicity stunt thing?

Quote from: ThatChrisGuy;1051725Which one, that Pundy blocked somebody on a social media platform, or the publicity stunt thing?

For me:  Both.

Jonathan Tweet apparently doesn't know what a storygame is. And he's lying; I didn't block him, HE blocked ME.

As for Political, the setting also had space-aliens, and one of the major enemies of the island was a little asian man slowly turning everyone into clones of him.

That last one doesn't sound very "woke" to me...

Quote from: RPGPundit;1052215As for Political, the setting also had space-aliens, and one of the major enemies of the island was a little asian man slowly turning everyone into clones of him.

That last one doesn't sound very "woke" to me...

You will once you realize that Asians are not, typically, one of the protect class.

Quote from: Dan Davenport;1051677Not a storygame? You invented traits for your character rather than selecting from a list. You give your character a motivation and invent an important NPC to be part of their backstory.

None of that is unique to storygames, or even forbidden in traditional games, though the part where you "make an NPC" will require GM approval. And I somehow doubt that the way OTE does it negates that need for approval.

QuoteNot political? A major plot was a bigoted white man using mind control to spread intolerance and take over the world. Hard to be more "SJW" than that.

I agree, but I have a feeling he doesn't realize what he actually said here. Anyway, a game having certain political subplots in the background is a far cry from being a game about politics. This might mean more if he actually said what this "white man mind control" thing was meant to reflect IRL(I took a cursory look at what all was going on between 92 and 97 and didn't really see anything that wouldn't be a huge stretch), but it might not.

QuoteNot about the US? They speak English, they use the US dollar, and the name of the island, Al Amarja, is a pretty clear derivation of "America".

It was also set in the Mediterranean. I have a feeling that most casual readers wouldn't catch all of that, and would assume characters spoke "the local language," that dollars was either non-US(quite a few countries refer to their currencies as a dollars) or used as an easy shorthand given where the game was most likely to be sold, and tbh Al Amarja at first glance just looks like a generic Arabic(or Arabic-derived) name. It's one of those things where once you say it, I'm like "yeah, I can see that," but I wouldn't have thought of it on my own.

QuoteAs much as I'd like to correct this fellow, he blocked me two years ago after Mike Selinker and I arranged a game-desingers' publicity stunt for Hillary Clinton. Anyway, I guess it's good to have the right enemies.[/I]

See above. He can post here just fine.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1052214And he's lying; I didn't block him, HE blocked ME.

That's... pretty fucking egregious.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1052215one of the major enemies of the island was a little asian man slowly turning everyone into clones of him.

Between that, Tweet's quote, and With a Long Spoon, Over The Edge appears to be strangely obsessed with race.

Quote from: Anon Adderlan;1052450Between that, Tweet's quote, and With a Long Spoon, Over The Edge appears to be strangely obsessed with race.

It's not. Over the Edge is an endless cavalcade of all kinds of weirdness and extremism, hitting all the more popular themes multiple times. Race, if anything, is underrepresented. OtE is far more obsessed with drugs or aliens, for instance.

Quote from: Anon Adderlan;1051722This actually concerns and surprises me.

Someday, "What's the best edition of D&D?" will be a presidential debate question.

*One can hope

Quote from: Rhedyn;1052462Someday, "What's the best edition of D&D?" will be a presidential debate question.

*One can hope

OD&D=Left Libertarians and Survivalists
B/X=Libertarians & Centrist Dads
AD&D=Old GOP/One Nation Conservatives
AD&D 2nd ed=Reaganothatcherite Anarcho-Corporatists
3-3.5=The Decline of the Democratic Party/Labour Party>New Labour Experiment
4th=Neo-Liberalism/One World Government Technocrats
5th=The Nu-Maoist Faction of the People's Populist Podcast Party of Pastiche Major

Anyway, I consider the first edition of OtE to be my introduction to the sort of thing that became the storygame. If, back then, future-me had appeared just after my long OtE campaign and said "In the electronic wastelands of the far future, we will fight over whether or not Over the Edge qualifies as a thing we futurians call 'the storygame'", I'd have been all like, "Future apparition-me, you tell them futurian bastards that the term works for what we have just experienced as a gaming collective."

GURPS is not a storygame? You buy EXACTLY the stats you want with points, shaping the character as if you were an author, instead of rolling for them like in a GAME! You also get to create NPC allies, enemies, dependants etc for the story. There are even freeform traits called "perks" that you create yourself! Not to mention the myriad disadvantages that DO NOT give you benefits during play like in a GAME, they create nuance and personality for your character and add complications to the storyline! #GURPS4Her"

Forgot to put this here:

[video=youtube_share;N5DJFtWaqWM]https://youtu.be/N5DJFtWaqWM[/youtube]

Quote from: RF Victor;1052620GURPS is not a storygame? You buy EXACTLY the stats you want with points, shaping the character as if you were an author, instead of rolling for them like in a GAME! You also get to create NPC allies, enemies, dependants etc for the story. There are even freeform traits called "perks" that you create yourself! Not to mention the myriad disadvantages that DO NOT give you benefits during play like in a GAME, they create nuance and personality for your character and add complications to the storyline! #GURPS4Her"

GURPS is a computer RPG that players play manually with paper and pencil. Players view disadvantages as simply points for buying things which are never referred to again during play.