Kinda like Gurps then? :rolleyes:

Quote from: CRKrueger;897987Heh, we've come back now to the Rabid Savage Fan thing.

We heard it from the author: the setting has to change for the Savage Fans.  It's a Twilight Zone episode where the 30's Pulps are a Viral Meme infecting and altering all reality.  Hey, that doesn't sound half bad, Savage Worlds is an SCP affecting all literary settings.

Now we have a Rifts and The Strange crossover in this new Savage Rifts dimension and somehow Delta Green will have to be involved...and yes, that would count as gonzo. :cool:

Honestly, I often just roll my eyes when I hear SPF talk. The guy is as pretentious as you can get. This is the guy who opened one of his Shaintar books with a two-page introduction about how his epic fantasy setting (which is a woman, apparently) was for true heroes, unlike other silly games with their stupid dungeons designed for grave robbers and mercenaries.

Quote from: Spinachcat;897970As I've said on PB's forums, the only reason the Coalition is the default bad guys is because players want PCs with Kewl Powerz and the "No Powerz" Coalition was set up as the easy enemy, then Kevin doubled down with a slathering of Naughty Nazi sauce.

But hey, who doesn't want to mind blast and turbo laser a bunch of skull faced space Nazis?

Yeah. And I find it kind of funny, my first impression about "The Tomorrow Legion" was that I plan on running my first SW:Rifts game as a Coalition campaign. I find playing in these do-gooder organizations (much like the Republic in Star Wars) is always just saccharine hand-wavy shit. There is far more interesting possibilities playing in the gray areas or purely on the ostensible "dark side". When you start in carebear-land I find players become more jaded as the realities of the world set in. When you start on the dark-side, you tend to be incentivised to try and turn the tide before it goes pitch-black. It makes for better gaming at my table, generally (but not always - depends on the genre).

The thing about the Coalition is...they're kinda right.  They may be using Nazi Germany's ideas on psychological control (like our gov't didn't), but they're not exterminating humans of a different race or religion.  They are defending a good percentage of what's left of humanity in North America from invaders from other planets and dimensions.  The Federation of Magic is real.  Atlantis is real.  Entire areas equal to what used to be US States are filled with aliens who see humans as slaves, sex toys, lunch, or all three.  A human who practices magic can unwittingly open a Rift to the xenomorph's home planet, or into Hell itself.  Should the Coalition wait for Saruman the White to become Saruman the Many-Colored before they evacuate his brainpan?  How many people die if they do?  Yeah, they burn books, is the Coalition supposed to risk humanity's future on trusting an infantry grunt to decide whether Harry Potter has any useful spells in it?  Yeah, they deck themselves out to be intimidating and scary - it works.  The one area where the CS truly shows itself to be evil is in the extermination of DBees who are not magical or supernatural, are basically normal people.  However, DBees do exist in CS territory, there aren't any ovens blazing away 24/7, also all the DBees on Rifts Earth came from someplace else, their own planet.  Comparisons to real world Genocide, Pogroms, and Immigration Policies, while standard fare at Purple, are laughably idiotic or painfully simple.  It doesn't help that Siembieda went to 19 with the "Nation of Boris and Natasha" in the early supplements.

I think that's why so many people hated the Tolkeen War books, they proved the Coalition right.  You could argue that Tolkeen only went to desperate measures because of the Coalition, but the Coalition wasn't summoning demons via human sacrifice to bolster their armies.
Power Corrupts.  Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.  Magical Power Corrupts Inevitably.  Tolkeen proved the Coalition right.

Quote from: CRKrueger;898310I think that's why so many people hated the Tolkeen War books, they proved the Coalition right.

Pretty much agree with everything you posted.  However I thought the above was just because it was supposed to be an epic ending to the main storyline and it turned out to be poorly written and generally anticlimactic.  I know that's why I was disappointed.

Quote from: CRKrueger;898310The thing about the Coalition is...they're kinda right.  They may be using Nazi Germany's ideas on psychological control (like our gov't didn't), but they're not exterminating humans of a different race or religion.  They are defending a good percentage of what's left of humanity in North America from invaders from other planets and dimensions.

Of course they're right.  Mr. Siembeida has proven, time and time again, that he loves his Neo-Nazi's and always tries to write them in a sympathetic light.  But because of that, he glosses over several things he has written before.  Like how 90% of Dimensional Beings are on Earth by accident.  They don't want to be anywhere near this hellish ball of arcane energy.  The Coalition doesn't care though.  You come through a Rift, zap zap zap, you are dead, dead, dead, even if all you have is pointy ears.

Next, they treat a subsection of humanity itself as slaves, the psychics.  Indoctrinating them to this way of thought because the Coalition are utterly terrified that they would start plotting to take over (And KS conveniently never writes on how dissatisfied that some NPC's would about this.)  Oh, and if you're a friendly psychic but not a Coalition member?  Bang, bang, you're dead, no questions asked.

Then they uplift animals to sentience and use them as fleshy robots to send to die.  They don't care about the rights of these creatures, they just create 'em and send off to die.

Here's something else that get glossed over:  Let's say you have a LRRP, Long-range reconnaissance patrol, team wandering the wilderness, which is a very common thing, they are actually out of the Coalition Borders, and they come across a tiny village of Dee-bees.  Now, this village is made up of purple skinned farmers, who found a small section of this hellworld to live peacefully.  SOP for the Coalition?  Burn it to the ground, kill everything, men, women, children, animals, whatever, it's not one of 'them' it dies.  And when they wipe out this little SDC village, they won't laugh maniacally, they'll pat themelves on the back, and keep going on patrol.  It doesn't matter that this village couldn't fight back, it's "Shoot first, ask no questions".

Also, they have Auschwitz style death camps.  In the Coalition/Tolkien aftermath book KS details a little of it, but glosses it over as usual.

Quote from: CRKrueger;898310I think that's why so many people hated the Tolkeen War books, they proved the Coalition right.  You could argue that Tolkeen only went to desperate measures because of the Coalition, but the Coalition wasn't summoning demons via human sacrifice to bolster their armies.
Power Corrupts.  Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.  Magical Power Corrupts Inevitably.  Tolkeen proved the Coalition right.

No, the main reason a lot of people hate the books is that KS MADE the Coalition right, by writing things about Tolkien that made them scummy and evil, despite years of writing to contrary.  At the beginning of the book series, Tolkien was against the use of Demons in war.  They were adamant to not stoop to that level.  But because Kevin WANTED the Coalition to win this fight, he decided that Tolkien would stoop to that level, to become 'EVIL' so that he could make his Neo-Nazi pet love seem 'heroic'.  He used a metaplot to force his audience into having only one option.  No one likes a railroaded adventure.

The other issue is the system.  It actively resists certain things.  Like summoning a demon, the amount of PPE to actually summon the amount they claimed to have would kill most of Tolkien's standing army.  The fact that every cyber-knight now has anti-tech powers, and yet the Coalition is literally 100 years younger than the order of Knights created by Lord Coake.  I dunno about you, but I would think that Cyber-Knights would have had more anti-magic monster powers than having to deal with a group of human bandits with scrounged guns on a regular basis.  Then the Coalition comes along.

The real reason a lot of people hated The Siege of Tolkien was that KS turned it into a railroad metaplot that made a former, clearly, good guy organization into the greater evil, because REASONS!  It removed player choice, like all good railroads.

Rifts Coalition is overall a reskinning and elabotation on After the Bomb's Empire of Humanity. Just replace  "Mutant Animal" with "DeeBee" and and humanity isnt so desperately on the ropes. Kev does love that theme.

Quote from: The Butcher;897975And Chaos Earth is probably 101 flavors of awesome. I should look into it some day.

Chaos Earth is 101 flavors of POTENTIAL awesome. The actual books have been pretty lacking. I haven't seen the newest Chaos Earth zombie book, but I've heard some positive stuff. It's on my eventual pickup list.

I've combined CE with Systems Failure which FOR ME made things much more interesting.

Quote from: The Butcher;897975"No Powrz" CS lasted what, five years into the franchise's life?

You're right! I totally forgot about the Vanguard. In the current timeline, I understand the Demon War invasion has now vastly expanded the Vanguard and the Coalition is becoming more heroic and less naughty nazi.

Quote from: The Butcher;897975The sort of people who play enthusiastic, faithful agents of the Inquisition in Dark Heresy? :eek:

Truly the best of us!

Quote from: The Butcher;897975Also, CS deserters make great "penitent hero" PCs.

Hell yeah! I always thought that was the whole point of CS PCs in the first Rifts main book! The "repentant Nazi" PC has been a mainstay since our earliest games.

Quote from: CRKrueger;897987We heard it from the author: the setting has to change for the Savage Fans.

At least he's being honest.

Lots of players like "mission based" RPG play. Having a "good guy" org as the home base is probably an okay idea.

BTW, I'd actually prefer to run the Tomorrow Legion as an underground rebellion - often INSIDE the Coalition territory.

Obviously some Devil's Advocacy is going to be going on here...

Quote from: Christopher Brady;898340Of course they're right.  Mr. Siembeida has proven, time and time again, that he loves his Neo-Nazi's and always tries to write them in a sympathetic light.  But because of that, he glosses over several things he has written before.  Like how 90% of Dimensional Beings are on Earth by accident.  They don't want to be anywhere near this hellish ball of arcane energy.  The Coalition doesn't care though.  You come through a Rift, zap zap zap, you are dead, dead, dead, even if all you have is pointy ears.

And who is supposed to tell that *all* they have are pointed ears?  The grunts on patrol?  "It's ok Lt. these guys look like some kind of Dbee, thin with pointy ears.  They really like the colors black and purple.  What is Comorragh? AAAAAUGHGHGHGEEEEE!!!!"

Quote from: Christopher Brady;898340Next, they treat a subsection of humanity itself as slaves, the psychics.  Indoctrinating them to this way of thought because the Coalition are utterly terrified that they would start plotting to take over (And KS conveniently never writes on how dissatisfied that some NPC's would about this.)  Oh, and if you're a friendly psychic but not a Coalition member?  Bang, bang, you're dead, no questions asked.

Again, when you have a Mind Melter who can control a whole squad with a thought, or a Burster, who can melt mega-damage vehicles with their mind, you don't get the luxury of hoping that "dude's ok".  You get, if you're lucky, one chance to strike.

You act as if the Coalition were the NYPD who all of a sudden now have immigrants from Hell, but other than that, situation as normal.  It's the year 109 P.A.  How do you think the Coalition survived the last hundred years after being almost decimated twice by the Federation of Magic?  By trusting in the good nature of their fellow man, some of whom have the power to put any woman on their knees or back with the merest thought and vaporize any dissenters?  Or they should trust the Shifters and Ley Line Walkers who are so intune with dimensional magic they can teleport along ley lines at will and summon Rifts to god knows where?

Rifts Earth wasn't populated with fields full of harp seal people playing with pre-water Gremlins and Ewoks before the Coalition decided to wake up out of the blue, step outside their cities and put the spiked curbstompers on.

Rifts Earth from the Coalition perspective is the metaphor of The Infected taken to gonzo extreme.  Virus stories, Vampire stories, Zombie stories - they all have a core exploration - what does it mean to be human, and is survival worth it, if to survive we have to become worse than the monsters we are fighting.  To be a Coalition Soldier on patrol is to cross Iraq and Afghanistan with Vietnam, add in Aliens, Predator, The Strain, Event Horizon, Apocalypse Now, Legend of the Overfiend, and every Mad Max movie with IV drip of 28 Days Later Violence Juice.  The first million or so post-Rift humans died with empathy and compassion - over the next couple hundred years, the survivors adapted.  The humans living in the area stuck in between Devil's Gate, the Federation of Magic and the Xiticix learned that to Shoot First was how humanity lived one more day.

You have to tell the CS soldier Do Not Hesitate.  Do Not Question.  Why?  Because otherwise a CS soldier is going to have pity at the wrong time and get them and their whole squad, platoon or worse killed, or they're going to do their job, then question themselves - and eat the gun.

It's easy for the "good cities" to call the Coalition soldiers monsters - they have that luxury living in a world where the Coalition is the main threat to real monsters everywhere in North America.  Let's see Laszlo, New Laszlo or the Tomorrow Legion face off against Atlantis, the Federation of Magic, the Vampire Kingdoms without the Coalition.  There will be grand, heroic deaths for everyone...and then Night will Fall.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;898340Then they uplift animals to sentience and use them as fleshy robots to send to die.  They don't care about the rights of these creatures, they just create 'em and send off to die.

You've got normal people vs. Brodkil, Thornheads, and Slavers from Atlantis, you're gonna lose a lot - you prefer they use vat-grown people as opposed to uplifted animals?

Quote from: Christopher Brady;898340Here's something else that get glossed over:  Let's say you have a LRRP, Long-range reconnaissance patrol, team wandering the wilderness, which is a very common thing, they are actually out of the Coalition Borders, and they come across a tiny village of Dee-bees.  Now, this village is made up of purple skinned farmers, who found a small section of this hellworld to live peacefully.  SOP for the Coalition?  Burn it to the ground, kill everything, men, women, children, animals, whatever, it's not one of 'them' it dies.  And when they wipe out this little SDC village, they won't laugh maniacally, they'll pat themelves on the back, and keep going on patrol.  It doesn't matter that this village couldn't fight back, it's "Shoot first, ask no questions".

That's because in the villages of the Orange, Green, Puce, Rainbow, and Tapioca people, when there was no Coalition, the soldiers did ask questions...and died screaming.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;898340No, the main reason a lot of people hate the books is that KS MADE the Coalition right, by writing things about Tolkien that made them scummy and evil, despite years of writing to contrary.  At the beginning of the book series, Tolkien was against the use of Demons in war.  They were adamant to not stoop to that level.  But because Kevin WANTED the Coalition to win this fight, he decided that Tolkien would stoop to that level, to become 'EVIL' so that he could make his Neo-Nazi pet love seem 'heroic'.  
He used a metaplot to force his audience into having only one option.  No one likes a railroaded adventure.

There's lots of RPGs that take place during military conflicts.  You play a Vietnam game, you think you're going to stop the Tet Offensive, you and your group?  Of course you aren't.  How the hell is that a railroad?  If you're roleplaying Churchill, Roosevelt, MacArthur, maybe you can change the outcome of the war, but generally speaking in every RPG set in a major scale conflict , the conflict is a backdrop.  You can't stop Tolkeen from falling.  It's a terrible tragedy with horrific things done on both sides.  Firebombing/Nuking cities full of civilians on one side, genocide on the other.  War brings atrocity to all.  Even the Good Guys if they are not careful.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;898340The real reason a lot of people hated The Siege of Tolkien was that KS turned it into a railroad metaplot that made a former, clearly, good guy organization into the greater evil, because REASONS!

Yeah, reasons like Patriotism, Nationalism, Survival, Economic Self Interest, Personal Power, Hatred, Fear, Vengeance - you know - the reasons that even Good Beings can get find themselves trapped into committing Atrocity.  The people of Tolkeen weren't all knowing, all powerful, non-corruptible angels...damn you Siembieda you Neo-Fascist!!! :rolleyes: (Does Purple have a new mod position, I smell an audition)

Quote from: Christopher Brady;898340It removed player choice, like all good railroads.

Were you playing the Lords of Tolkeen?  Then it wasn't a railroad, was it?
Brady not liking the story =/= the story is a "railroad".

Now all that being said, that doesn't mean that the Coalition isn't Evil and that the society of Laszlo and people like Coake, Tarn etc, aren't Good.  History has shown us again and again that the more Authoritarian a society gets, the more Evil it gets.  In fighting monsters, the Coalition hasn't taken care not to become monsters themselves and Tolkeen showed that they are on the path to becoming perhaps a greater threat to humanity then some of the supernatural threats they fight.  However, for the Coalition to become that boot kicking in the face of humanity forever, humanity has to actually survive first.

I will have to thank Pinnacle for getting me to look at Rifts again.  Now that there's going to be a full-blown Dimensional War fought between Demons and Devils with Earth as a battlefield, it's quite possible that the Good Guys and Evil Guys may have to decide that the Really Really Evil Guys are a mutual enemy.

Siembieda is a Mad Genius Idea Machine, who can't really write all that well or coherently.  He needs a Two Rooms style partner.  I don't like Rifts for the plots, or the techporn (ok not ONLY for the techporn), I like Rifts for the canvas, the backdrop with so many brilliant, even if problematic and triggering, ideas to work with. That's why I like Rifts.  Some people say the extreme and violent nature of the setting is there to make Fascist Ideology and Nazi Fetish Wank acceptable.  I disagree.  I think, like lots of good science fiction, it provides great metaphors that can be used to explore and experience humanity: the good, the bad, the tragic, the heroic.  In the setting where literally anything is possible, then you can run any type of game you want.

Quote from: Spinachcat;898396BTW, I'd actually prefer to run the Tomorrow Legion as an underground rebellion - often INSIDE the Coalition territory.

THAT would be awesome, because as a 5th column, insurgency, freedom fighters, terrorists, whatever you want to call them, the Tomorrow Legion would then have to decide if they want to take the path of "By Any Means Necessary".  The true test of the Tomorrow Legion in that case isn't whether they win, it's whether they become as bad as the Coalition itself, thus invalidating everything they believed in.

Every pull of the trigger is a choice that may cost you your humanity if you do, and your world if you don't.  That's about as literally non-railroad as it gets.

Quote from: CRKrueger;898440Obviously some Devil's Advocacy is going to be going on here...

Holy shit. That's the best discussion about the Coalition I've read. Kudos x 1000.

Quote from: Omega;898382Rifts Coalition is overall a reskinning and elabotation on After the Bomb's Empire of Humanity. Just replace  "Mutant Animal" with "DeeBee" and and humanity isnt so desperately on the ropes. Kev does love that theme.

Palladium did publish an RPG set in the Vietnam war.

http://palladium-store.com/1001/product/600-The-Deluxe-Revised-RECON.html

Personally, I couldn't imagine a more depressing setting for a table top RPG, but there it is.

For all the "discussion" about the CS, and whether their tactics and strategy is justified, you all realize that's the point, right?

Quote from: Ratman_tf;898448Palladium did publish an RPG set in the Vietnam war.

http://palladium-store.com/1001/product/600-The-Deluxe-Revised-RECON.html

Personally, I couldn't imagine a more depressing setting for a table top RPG, but there it is.

Democrat: The Sellout

I do not understand the need for a Scooby gang like the Tomorrow Legion while the original Rifts setting has things like the Cyber Knight's legion or Psyscape ... But there is surely an huge shift between the Rifts corebook and the Rifts Ultimate edition, the former seems to assumed that the players would play some sort of vagrants/explorers rediscovering Earth ... Part of me wishes that the Rifts world books were written more like Vampire Kingdoms and less like NGR and the Triax. Note that nothing prevents anybody playing Rifts on this (smaller) scale.

Quote from: CRKrueger;898440Obviously some Devil's Advocacy is going to be going on here...

And who is supposed to tell that *all* they have are pointed ears?  The grunts on patrol?  "It's ok Lt. these guys look like some kind of Dbee, thin with pointy ears.  They really like the colors black and purple.  What is Comorragh? AAAAAUGHGHGHGEEEEE!!!!"

Again, when you have a Mind Melter who can control a whole squad with a thought, or a Burster, who can melt mega-damage vehicles with their mind, you don't get the luxury of hoping that "dude's ok".  You get, if you're lucky, one chance to strike.

You act as if the Coalition were the NYPD who all of a sudden now have immigrants from Hell, but other than that, situation as normal.  It's the year 109 P.A.  How do you think the Coalition survived the last hundred years after being almost decimated twice by the Federation of Magic?  By trusting in the good nature of their fellow man, some of whom have the power to put any woman on their knees or back with the merest thought and vaporize any dissenters?  Or they should trust the Shifters and Ley Line Walkers who are so intune with dimensional magic they can teleport along ley lines at will and summon Rifts to god knows where?

Rifts Earth wasn't populated with fields full of harp seal people playing with pre-water Gremlins and Ewoks before the Coalition decided to wake up out of the blue, step outside their cities and put the spiked curbstompers on.

Rifts Earth from the Coalition perspective is the metaphor of The Infected taken to gonzo extreme.  Virus stories, Vampire stories, Zombie stories - they all have a core exploration - what does it mean to be human, and is survival worth it, if to survive we have to become worse than the monsters we are fighting.  To be a Coalition Soldier on patrol is to cross Iraq and Afghanistan with Vietnam, add in Aliens, Predator, The Strain, Event Horizon, Apocalypse Now, Legend of the Overfiend, and every Mad Max movie with IV drip of 28 Days Later Violence Juice.  The first million or so post-Rift humans died with empathy and compassion - over the next couple hundred years, the survivors adapted.  The humans living in the area stuck in between Devil's Gate, the Federation of Magic and the Xiticix learned that to Shoot First was how humanity lived one more day.

You have to tell the CS soldier Do Not Hesitate.  Do Not Question.  Why?  Because otherwise a CS soldier is going to have pity at the wrong time and get them and their whole squad, platoon or worse killed, or they're going to do their job, then question themselves - and eat the gun.

It's easy for the "good cities" to call the Coalition soldiers monsters - they have that luxury living in a world where the Coalition is the main threat to real monsters everywhere in North America.  Let's see Laszlo, New Laszlo or the Tomorrow Legion face off against Atlantis, the Federation of Magic, the Vampire Kingdoms without the Coalition.  There will be grand, heroic deaths for everyone...and then Night will Fall.

You've got normal people vs. Brodkil, Thornheads, and Slavers from Atlantis, you're gonna lose a lot - you prefer they use vat-grown people as opposed to uplifted animals?

That's because in the villages of the Orange, Green, Puce, Rainbow, and Tapioca people, when there was no Coalition, the soldiers did ask questions...and died screaming.

There's lots of RPGs that take place during military conflicts.  You play a Vietnam game, you think you're going to stop the Tet Offensive, you and your group?  Of course you aren't.  How the hell is that a railroad?  If you're roleplaying Churchill, Roosevelt, MacArthur, maybe you can change the outcome of the war, but generally speaking in every RPG set in a major scale conflict , the conflict is a backdrop.  You can't stop Tolkeen from falling.  It's a terrible tragedy with horrific things done on both sides.  Firebombing/Nuking cities full of civilians on one side, genocide on the other.  War brings atrocity to all.  Even the Good Guys if they are not careful.

Yeah, reasons like Patriotism, Nationalism, Survival, Economic Self Interest, Personal Power, Hatred, Fear, Vengeance - you know - the reasons that even Good Beings can get find themselves trapped into committing Atrocity.  The people of Tolkeen weren't all knowing, all powerful, non-corruptible angels...damn you Siembieda you Neo-Fascist!!! :rolleyes: (Does Purple have a new mod position, I smell an audition)

Were you playing the Lords of Tolkeen?  Then it wasn't a railroad, was it?
Brady not liking the story =/= the story is a "railroad".

Now all that being said, that doesn't mean that the Coalition isn't Evil and that the society of Laszlo and people like Coake, Tarn etc, aren't Good.  History has shown us again and again that the more Authoritarian a society gets, the more Evil it gets.  In fighting monsters, the Coalition hasn't taken care not to become monsters themselves and Tolkeen showed that they are on the path to becoming perhaps a greater threat to humanity then some of the supernatural threats they fight.  However, for the Coalition to become that boot kicking in the face of humanity forever, humanity has to actually survive first.

I will have to thank Pinnacle for getting me to look at Rifts again.  Now that there's going to be a full-blown Dimensional War fought between Demons and Devils with Earth as a battlefield, it's quite possible that the Good Guys and Evil Guys may have to decide that the Really Really Evil Guys are a mutual enemy.

Siembieda is a Mad Genius Idea Machine, who can't really write all that well or coherently.  He needs a Two Rooms style partner.  I don't like Rifts for the plots, or the techporn (ok not ONLY for the techporn), I like Rifts for the canvas, the backdrop with so many brilliant, even if problematic and triggering, ideas to work with. That's why I like Rifts.  Some people say the extreme and violent nature of the setting is there to make Fascist Ideology and Nazi Fetish Wank acceptable.  I disagree.  I think, like lots of good science fiction, it provides great metaphors that can be used to explore and experience humanity: the good, the bad, the tragic, the heroic.  In the setting where literally anything is possible, then you can run any type of game you want.

You're making a LOT of assumptions without any data to back it up.  And it sounds very much like you WANT the Neo-Nazi death squads and camps to be considered the default 'good guy' for the game.  Which is you prerogative, I suppose, but are you REALLY going to paint that the world is 90% monster that wants to eat you?  That sounds awfully boring, and video gamey.  But I guess if you want to make the Coalition the good guys by default, that's what you have to do.

Personally, as someone who collected the whole line, Tolkien WAS the supposed good guy faction, so much so that Mr. Siembeida had to muddy them in a series of adventures.  Not in one of the world/source books, but the adventures themselves.  As if he had accidentally painted himself into a corner.