Quote from: Wolf, Richard;563199[...]who have an ideology that pervades all aspects of their lives before everything else[...]

A fanatic is someone who can't change their mind and won't change the subject.

Butcher, so why does that make it "misery tourism"?  I assume the PCs play the Cathars, or are you supposed to feel guilty about playing the Catholics?

Quote from: daniel_ream;563220Butcher, so why does that make it "misery tourism"?  I assume the PCs play the Cathars, or are you supposed to feel guilty about playing the Catholics?

PCs play Cathars who will get slaughtered when (not if) Montségur falls; women, children and all.

And if there is an option to play Catholics, shit, we're veering into Poison'd and/or Hell For Leather territory.

Quote from: The Butcher;562707... a misery-tourism storygame like Grey Ranks or Montségur 1244, ...

I played Montségur 1244 once at a con a few years ago.

Though it wasn't the sort of game I would normally play or would want to play repeatedly, it was reasonably good fun to be fair and I don't remember being struck by any element of "misery tourism".

My recollection is that it's true that in a fairly formulaic way you arrive at the mass-execution of the Cathars at the end, but we didn't dwell on that in any great detail. The game may be sold as "will you burn for your beliefs" but if memory serves only one character can recant and one escape, so if someone else dibsies that first, it may not be up to you whether you burn for your beliefs or not... anyway I don't recall spending a lot of time on the faith or lack of faith of my principal character.

Rather we played the game as if in an oasis of calm in the middle of the siege... characters' personal issues & priorities were explored...

Maybe we played it "wrong"??

The more rabid of the Pundit's flock may however be heartened to know that I did pull out of / ask the group to tone down one scene which for other reasons, unconnected with the source material or mechanics, I found ran beyond the limits of good taste. (And for me those limits are set pretty broad...)

What I found most annoying about the game though was the way that switching characters/roles (from player to "mini-GM" and back) jolted me uncomfortably out of the plentiful immersive moments of the game. From that point of view I can see how it's designed for people who approach the game as a story for the telling, rather than an adventure to be experienced...

I defer to your actual play experience, as I have none. I am only passingly familiar with the game and may have made assumed, incorrectly, that it was fairly misery-touristy, as everyone is pretty much fated to die in a horrible massacre at the end.

It still doesn't sound like a game I'd try, but again, this is just an expression of personal taste. I make no claims to a moral high ground because of my preferences regarding adult-pretend-with-polyhedrons.

Quote from: jeff37923;562727It is a cunt convention, no 'like' about it.

I'm gonna go drink and game some to remind myself that tBP does not fully represent the hobby.

I really shouldn't be, but I still find myself amazed that the site owners over there allow this shit to fly.

Quote from: kythri;563481I really shouldn't be, but I still find myself amazed that the site owners over there allow this shit to fly.

I had some back-and-forth with the site owners (as opposed to the modclique) when I was setting up the ad banner, and the vibe I got is that the owners really couldn't care less about the whole forum.  I suspect rpg.net wouldn't exist at all if the owners didn't also run an online games business and get essentially free hosting for the site.

I can't fault them for that. Money is money.

Quote from: daniel_ream;563485I had some back-and-forth with the site owners (as opposed to the modclique) when I was setting up the ad banner, and the vibe I got is that the owners really couldn't care less about the whole forum.  I suspect rpg.net wouldn't exist at all if the owners didn't also run an online games business and get essentially free hosting for the site.

Funky.

You'd think there'd be more concern, given the recent Mongoose assassination, what with Mongoose being the publisher of Appelcline's book and all.

Any traction on buying the thing?  I'll kick down a few bills towards that...

Quote from: Melan;562839

So that's where The Art of Noise got their own label-name from!