Hasbro/WoTC, Before and After

Rincewind recently made an amusing comparison to what a Hasbro Shareholders Meeting must have looked like at the peak of the 4e disaster, back when they removed the AD&D PDFs from the market.

Yes, it has to be something along those lines, doesn't it?
But that's something that I find so difficult to understand. I mean, it must actually at this point take almost a conscious effort, it must be HARDER to remain so fucking mindbogglingly ignorant. Maybe not as an individual, but DEFINITELY as a company. The power and effort and money it would take to intentionally not listen to anyone who has the slightest inkling of basic facts about things like THE INTERNET; much less being an RPG company that makes a gargantuan effort to intentionally ignore as corporate knowledge some of the most obvious details of what the RPG hobby is like... it just boggles the mind.  And yet, at one point WoTC clearly was being run (as in, all the decisions were being made) by people who obviously had no idea how the RPG hobby actually worked, or how the internet worked, for that matter. People who thought "if we take away the AD&D PDFs because we don't like Old School games, then we'll somehow be winning!"

Thankfully, today, it seems like things are changing for the better. Even so, there's still some serious issues, I think. Internal conflicts between people who actually have a fucking clue, and others who somehow really want to cling to that Lorrainne Williams mentality of "we should be able to tell the stupid gamers what to like". I may be saying more about this later.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Solitario Rhodesian + C&D's Pirate Kake

RPGPundit Reviews: Stars Without Number

This is a review of a print version of the RPG "Stars Without Number", by Kevin Crawford, the version by Sine Nomine Publishing.  I understand that there's now more than one version of this book, and so I can't take responsibility for any changes there might be from one to the other.

To clarify, this is the one with the cover depicting a vast starfield with some kind of Nebula.  The Wench said to me "The first thing to do in a review is to judge the book by its cover", and I certainly agree.  This cover is evocative and beautiful, and its just the start of a truly fantastic game.

There are a few games or RPG products for review that I feel are really awful, a few that I think are alright or even clever.  Then there are those rare few that the moment I see them I'm convinced I'll be running them sooner or later: Majestic Wilderlands, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Starblazer Adventures, Aces & Eights, Two-Fisted Tales, ICONS, and now certainly I will be adding Stars Without Number to the short list of high honours.  They're not the only reviewed game products I end up using, but they're the ones that even from the first read I have no doubt will end up being used, because every inch of them oozes awesomeness.

SWN is technically an OSR game. Unlike most of these games, it is not a "clone", in the sense of being a recreation of an old RPG from the 70s or early 80s.  Its not a direct copy of D&D, or of Gamma World, or Traveller, or anything else.  Instead, its a game that certainly could have existed back in that time, possibly the game that some could say SHOULD have been the game done by TSR as the sci-fi companion to D&D.  In brief, most of its rules are directly inspired by OD&D, with a strong dose of the mechanical, technological, and setting-design also coming from Traveller.  And yet it doesn't feel any need to limit itself to the strict "OSR" box, its mechanics are extremely well-designed and incorporate some modern concessions, its layout is top-notch, and easy to read and learn.  It is, in other words, a game that an OSR-fanatic would read and think of as a totally OSR-type game (unless he was part of the "OSR Taliban" who only accept games and game material that are actually old, or direct unfaltering clones thereof), while at the same time someone who's a totally modern gamer that has no experience with old school could read, play, and enjoy without ever suspecting the design source of the game.  This is rather a brilliant accomplishment, when you think about it, because it reaches out to the mainstream without alienating the gaming subculture it came from.

The default setting of SWN is  mostly implied rather than explicit, but not entirely.  You are told in the setting material that the setting is a far-future reality where humanity spread out among the stars, with remarkable success, only to have the entire human civilization collapse due to a terrible disaster.  The default starting point is hundreds of years after that fact, when most of the galaxy is still in a dark age but there are areas that have recovered and begun expanding again.
The PCs are assumed to be adventurers, reaching out to the stars to explore vast reaches of space going from planet to planet, searching for treasures among the ruins of ancient colonies, and discovering what has become of worlds with whom contact has been long cut off.
The game is explicitly set up for "Sandbox" play, with the author attempting to lay down guidelines for both Players and GMs about how to handle the "sandbox" style. Players are advised that in a sandbox they are the ones who need to set up goals for their characters and take the lead in terms of what they want to do in this vast emulated world, and warned that unlike other games, the setting is not one that is "scaled to their abilities", unsurmountable odds are entirely possible and players need to proceed with caution. GMs are advised not to try to direct the "plot" of the game, to provide a variety of adventure opportunities but be ready to put them aside when the players choose to do things that are not within the GM's original expectations.   All basically good advice.

The mechanical core of SWN is Old-school D&D.  That is to say, player characters have the standard six D&D attributes, and they have a class, of which there are only three to choose from: Expert, Psychic and Warrior (roughly equivalent to Thief/rogue, Magic-user, and Fighter).  Experts get a reroll on a single check once an hour, psychics get psionic powers, and warriors get to ignore a single hit against them once per fight. Character have D&D style hit points, xp requirements for going up in level, attack bonuses, and saving throws (the saving throws being divided into "physical effect", "mental effect", "evasion", "Tech" and "luck").

One area where you get more sophistication than is typically found in Old-school D&D is with the skill choices. Players each choose, in addition to class, a background package that reflects their origins (packages include things like "astrogator's mate", "engine crew", "priest", "worker", etc), the choice of which will determine certain starting skills.  Then they will additionally choose a "training package" based on class that will grant them additional skills related to the particular type of "Expert", "Psychic" or "warrior" they are.  Sample Expert packages include things "bounty hunter", "pilot" or "xenoarcheologist"; sample psychic packages include things like "academy graduate", "military psychic" or "tribal shaman"; sample warrior packages include things like "assassin", "ground forces" or "Templar".

Skills function in the game in ways somewhat reminiscent of the Traveller RPG, where they are ranked between 0 and 6, each level giving the same bonus to a roll of 2d6, modified by attribute.  These are applied against a difficulty number, usually 8 for moderately difficult tasks, but that can vary from 6-13.  No checks are needed for very simple tasks.  Checks can be modified by circumstances.  If you attempt to check a skill you have no rank at all in (not even 0) you get a -1 to the roll; I personally think this maybe should be higher. Rules are provided for opposed or extended skill checks.

Psionic powers are fairly well designed. They are divided into a series of "disciplines", which each provide progressive levels of power; so a psychic who takes the Telepathy discipline must first purchase "telepathy 1" before he can purchase and use "Telepathy 2". Psychics must usually spend "psi points" to activate a psychic power, the cost of which goes up with the level of each discipline; but they can also choose to permanently reduce their psi point total in order to "master" a power, after which they can use that power without expending psi points.  They can also try to use a power when they have no psi points left to them, but this involves the risk of "torching", where each use carries a serious risk of ability score damage.  Psychic powers include Biopsionics, Metapsionics, Precognition, Telekinesis, Telepathy and Teleportation, each of which has 9 different "Levels", and each level acts as a completely different ability. Psychic characters all have one primary discipline, which goes up every time they go up in level, and they can also additionally raise any other discipline of their choice one rank as they go up in level.   Essentially, the powers are mostly quite similar to a variety of spells from D&D without being just a copy-paste job, and the game does an excellent job of making psychic powers worthwhile without being too complicated or just thinly-veiled magic.

The Equipment section is a marvellous 25-pages in length, full of a spectacular list of low, medium and ultra-high tech weapons, armor, gadgets and vehicles; just about everything you'd ever want for running a sci-fi game. Some of these items, especially the "ancient" tech devices that are no longer within the current civilization's normal level of production are quite inspiring as adventure ideas in and of themselves. Weapons do damage to hit points, most of the time; and armour provides a (descending) Armor Class. Primitive armor has no special protection against modern or high-tech weaponry.  Equipment of all kind is divided by "Tech level", which ranges from 0 to 6, where 0 is stone age, 3 is about our modern tech level, 4 is the standard post-fall level of technology, 5 was the standard before the fall, and 6 is totally out there super-high tech.
Just as exciting as the weapons and armour are the very well-thought-out lists of tools, medicine, exploration gear, personal accessories, and of course cyberware and vehicles.  You also get basic values for lifestyle costs, employees and the cost of contracting various services.  Starships are designed through a series of modular choices: you pick a hull, fitting and drive, choose weaponry and defense, and then add up the costs.  I'm not usually the biggest fan of "starship design" rules, but these seem easy enough to follow, and at the same time varied enough in the options provided to be worth the bother. The game mechanics provide rules for starship travel, maintenance, repair, and combat, of course.  I should mention that a simple and straightforward encumbrance system, based on the PC's STR stat, is provided.

Speaking of which, combat in the game is handled in a fashion again very similar to D&D, specifically the old-school variety. Combat happens in rounds, and players can move up to 20m and still act in a round (or can move another 20m if they don't do anything else). Initiative is rolled on a D8+dex mod. Attacks are done by rolling a d20, adding the PC's base attack bonus, combat skill bonus, attribute mod, AND the opponent's AC, as well as applying any other situational modifiers; a result of 20 or higher is a hit.  A natural 20 is always a hit, and a natural 1 always misses. 

Page 77 onward in the 200 page book is dedicated to the GM's domain. Considerably more advice is given on sandbox play, which I could have summarized for the author in "don't try to "create story", don't force the players in certain directions, don't try to be balanced, don't be scared of killing off the player characters".  Of more use is the extensive guide to "creating your interstellar sector".  A system is provided wherein a GM can randomly create a sector of space using a hexmap. A world creation system on-par with Traveller's is provided, where the GM can randomly generate or determine the atmosphere, temperature, biosphere, population, and tech level of the world, as well as provide "tags" which are details that make the world notable for adventurers.  Sample tags (of the 60 provided in the book) include such things as "altered humanity", "flying cities", "local specialty", "preceptor archive", "seagoing cities", or "xenophiles".  Each tag is also described in context of what this might imply for potential friends, enemies, complications, things or places that can be found on this world.
You can also choose the local cultural flavour, the basic language (the "common tongue" of the distant future apparently being a "modified English", fairly unrealistically), government, and the spaceport.

There is also a set of mechanics for the GM to create "factions". These are defined as any kind of group that may be used as an important actor in the sector; for example planetary governments, businesses, religions, clubs, etc.
Factions are created as a kind of character of their own, with hit points (reflecting the faction's resistance to outside attack), force (their ability to inflict physical violence), cunning (their skill at espionage and manipulation), wealth (their resources), "FacCreds" (their actual wealth), and experience points, which can grow when the faction completes its current "goal", to allow them to improve ratings.
Factions  can operate based on "faction turns" which take place about once a month or once after each adventure. The factions involved in the region can roll initiative, gain FacCreds based on their wealth, pick goals (among a list of things like "military conquest", "commercial expansion", "expand influence", "peaceable kingdom", "wealth of worlds"), launch attacks, change homeworlds, buy assets, expand their general influence, or other such things. 
Factions can also have a "tag", describing them and giving them a particular set of special effects.  Tags for factions would be things like "eugenics cult", "mercenary group", "pirates", etc.
It is suggested that a high-level (9th and up) player character should be able to create a faction of his own if he wishes to.

Factions are, to be honest, one detail of the game I feel somewhat uncertain about.  I think it might be one step too far into adding mechanical complexity into something that might be best off just being roleplayed, but I'm not sure.  I think it'd have to be tested in play to see how well it works as a system, and whether it would be more worthwhile than just winging it.  I suspect the answer to that will be different for different GMs.  Fortunately, this is an entirely modular set of rules, that is, you can remove it from the game and it has no real effect on the rest of play, if you so desire.

The GM section also provides some guidelines for giving out XP (roughly based on the value of rewards obtained by the PCs), and has a random table with 100 potential adventure seeds.

There's also a set of rules for alien creation. These include a random determination for body type (human-like, reptilian, avian, etc), alien psychology and social structure, though no rules for actually statting up aliens per se. We're provided with a few descriptions of sample aliens: the Orc-like Hochog, another race that take on indescribable shapes, and a third that are metamorphs.
Fortunately, there's also a "xenobestiary" chapter, which is of significantly more value; it provides a baseline for creating alien creatures (ranging in threat level from "nuisance vermin" to "party-butchering hell-beast"), with tables for traits and variations that modify the creature's basic qualities. There's also a monster manual of sorts in the chapter, that provides a dozen sample alien monsters, plus a set of basic NPC stats for things like a combat psychic, gang boss, common or elite guard, primitive guards, low-tech tribesmen, normal humans, pirates, rogue warlords, ultra-high tech soldiers, standard soldiers, primitive soldiers, or a standard specialist.

The last two chapters are the designer notes (where the author gives his reasoning for some of the concepts in the game), and a whole sample sector: the "hydra sector"; it has 26 worlds, and four important factions in the sector.  The chapter also cleverly provides a mirror set of PC-readable notes, the sort of things that they would have as "travel information" or common knowledge.

The appendix of the book is utterly awesome, providing a set of random tables for cultures, with a list of random names and place-names as well as information on culture, clothing and cuisine for "arabic", "chinese", "english", "indian", "japanese", "nigerian", "russian", and "spanish" cultures; a set of random NPC-creation tables, tables of quick NPC statistics for each class by level, a set of random tables for Corporations, for Religions, for Heretical sects, for Political Parties, for Architecture, and for "Quick Room Dressing", as well as templates for starships.
The very back end of the book contains a photocopiable blank sector hex map, planetary directory sheet, planet record sheet, faction file, adventure file, alien record file, starship record file, a planetary hex map for drawing areas of a planet's surface, and of course a detailed character sheet.

So, on the whole, absolutely awesome. I love the sandbox style, I love the old-school feel that isn't entirely bound to old-school thinking, I love the modular options to the rules. I also love that it has just the right balance of default setting; you can certainly get enough information in the book to use the game's setting as it is, while modifying to make it your own; but the game is not so bound to the setting's assumptions that you couldn't also use the system with your own or other settings without major modification being needed.  It would be feasible to use SWN for a game set in an early era of interstellar travel if you so desired, or during the glorious peak of a galactic empire, or to run a setting similar to Dune, or to Fading Suns, or any number of other things.  The last time I was this excited about a sci-fi RPG it was with Starblazer Adventures, and of course SWN has a style of play that makes it very different than that game, less space-opera and more gritty, without ever slipping into the stupidity of "grimdark".  I have no doubt that sometime soon, when an opening appears for me to do so, I'm going to be running this game.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Winslow Crown Canadian + Gawith's Perfection

How Old School is a Glitter Boy?

Over on theRPGsite I've been engaged in a debate, mainly with Akrasia, about the nature of the OSR.  It seems very clear to me that the OSR is an incipient Movement; its still in a kind of secondary larval stage, but there's no question that its there.
And thus, it seems perfectly acceptable to be able to analyze the points of dogma of this movement; and they very much do exist. Only my old colleague in mystara-love, Mr. Akrasia, seems hellbent on insisting that the OSR is "just an illlluuuuussssiiiooon" when it comes to absolutely anything other than producing Fight On! magazine. That somehow, we're allowed to praise how witty and clever the OSR is for making Mutant Future, but we're not allowed to actually make a claim of "the OSR believes this...". According to Akrasia, the OSR is some kind of an amoeba, an Acid Blob that spits out products full formed from inside its gasbag, but its has no collective mind, or opinions or ideas that LEAD to the formation of this stuff.

But hey, don't let me speak for him. Akrasia got so antsy about our little debate, he posted an entry about it in his own blog: and here it is. There, he asks "what is the Old School Renaissance".

In order to make sure that no one thinks I'm misquoting Akrasia, I'm going to quote him in his answer:

"In short, the OSR consists of people who like certain kinds of games (‘old school games’) and sometimes product things (modules, rules books, settings, fanzines, etc.) for those games.

That is it.

Really, that is it."

Uh huh. Only, that's really not it. Because what EXACTLY are Old School Games? Akrasia himself doesn't seem to be too sure, suggesting that they are "typically ‘Original,’ ‘Basic/Expert’ D&D, and pre-3e versions of AD&D, but other games as well".

"Other games"? What does that mean? What qualifies a game to make it or not make it into the Old School List?

He also very much clarifies that this is NOT "it", by adding that as well as Old School games, the OSR is also about "gamers who play (and sometimes produce) the retro-clones of those ‘old school’ RPGs (Swords & Wizardry, Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC, BFRP, and others)" and "gamers who play (and sometimes produce) ‘old school flavoured’ games (e.g., Castles & Crusades, Spellcraft & Swordplay, Mutant Future, Mazes & Minotaurs, etc.; ironically, I would include the RPG Pundit’s game Forward to Adventure! In this category – the Pundit is part of the OSR whether he likes it or not!)".

Ah, I see. So in the first place, the Clones are definitely "OSR" too. Beyond that, you are now not only saying that there is an "Old School" game that is definable, but that there is also a definable "Old School FLAVOUR".
For example you include my own Forward... to Adventure!, which is not a game produced in the olden days (it came out this decade) is not directly derived from any single old version of D&D or any single version of any other ancient game (though it takes a little from various sources), in other words, a game that is not "Old School" in any definable concrete way OTHER than "flavour".

And now, just to put the feather on the cap, and I suspect very much for personal reasons he adds "gamers who contribute to ‘old school’ fanzines like Knockspell, Fight On!, and Footprints, produce ‘old school supplements (like Jeff Rients’s excellent Miscellaneum of Cinder) or who simply put their ‘old school’ ideas up on the internet (typically on blogs) for others to look at and use".

I see... so Ron Edwards, who wrote an article for Fight On!, is now ALSO part of the OSR?!! SERIOUSLY??!

....oh no, wait, you said "gamers who contribute". Never mind.

Anyways, the point is that all this is very much not it, because in your attempt to avoid falling into some kind of rhetorical pitfall, you have avoided a lot of basic questions.

Number ONE: What exactly is Old School?
Number TWO: What, then, is NOT Old School?

Because see, to me, RIFTS is totally an Old School Game. To me Old School is all about aesthetic. But RIFTS was made in 1989. And no doubt that there are many people who would consider themselves part of the OSR, who would fall under your very definition, Akrasia, of what the OSR is, who would say "RIFTS is not an old school game".
Likewise, there are many who would be likely to say that Old School cannot just be limited to some airy-fairy vague undefinable concept like "aesthetic", and that an Old School game has to have certain material criteria, either being produced before a certain year, or derived from a game that was.

And then, you have people who would argue with those people, about just what the Old School aesthetic would be (or NOT be; does Savage Worlds have an "old school aesthetic"? Could it?). Or about just WHICH YEAR the definition should consider the "cut off" year, if we're going to fight for the "concrete" rather than "aesthetic" approach to defining inclusion or exclusion into the "old school". Then you will have some that will argue about just how much you can deviate, in the process of "deriving" from an Old School Game to create a quasi-clone, while still being considered truly Old School.

All of these debates are things I see happening, RIGHT NOW, in the community of Old School Gamers in the forums dedicated to those, and in the blogosphere; in short, in the OSR.

Its something you have to do if you are going to use those words in your description, Akrasia, you have to define what they mean. And that definition is being made by different people in different ways right now; but the group who generally associate themselves with being "Old School Gamers" appear to be coming to certain concensus of exclusion, where my ideas about Old School end up on the wrong side of the borderline.

You see, I am not an enemy of Old School games. Old School gaming is very much in the feeling of everything I consider good and noble about RPGs, and contrary to everything I consider garbage.
But then, I very much fall into the "Aesthetic" side of the Old School debate. I feel that Old School is not found in a system, but in a feeling, an attitude. That's why I feel that RIFTS is old school. That's why I very much DO feel that FtA! is old school. And shit, Gnomemurdered! will be Old School, because I really don't think I could possibly make anything that wasn't.

But FtA! is not OSR, not really. And Gnomemurdered! certainly won't be OSR. Because like it or not, the OSR in its majority seems to have come down on the side of the "Concrete" rather than "Aesthetic" argument for what Old School should be defined as.

Your blog entry, Akrasia, does NOTHING to define Old School, and it only really ends up showing that you have your head in the sand about this issue. You are saying "the OSR are people who are in this fan club". If that's true, then the OSR is a group of people who've gotten together without any uniting concept, no agreement, no exclusionary policies and no real purpose other than to produce a newsletter about how they believe about nothing. And never in human history have people done that.

Well, yes, alright the Unitarians. But aside from that, no one!

It seems pretty obvious from my side that the OSR does very much have a "platform", albeit an unwritten one, it is one that is currently congealing in the form of its membership. The people who are in the OSR, with their little blogposts and little forum threads, and little articles in Knockspell are organically DEFINING certain things, and these definitions creates the Movement.

And yes, inevitably you'll have people who take it upon themselves to become "spokespeople", who will try to "take over the club" or "change the game" as it were. That's what happens in these sort of things.

I, as someone who defines Old School as an aesthetic and not a mechanic, already feel like I ended up in the wrong side of the fence, when it comes to the organic process of early dogma-building for the OSR. Here's hoping that you don't end up on the wrong side of the fence when the New Thing Guy shows up and the "organic group" becomes a structure Movement in the same sense that the Forge  is a movement.
But hey, I'm sure you'll do fine. No doubt the OSR-verion of Ron Edwards will need someone who's good at giving evasive non-answers.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Solitario Egg + Esoterica's Penzance

(Originally posted November 28, 2009)

Golden Age Campaign Update

So yesterday, the campaign setting heard of one new hero, the PCs didn't personally meet him but he was making a bit of a buzz when his home city of San Francisco declared him a public menace:




Its "The Flame"; who is said to have a gun that throws flames, and to have some kind of resistance to fire. There's no apparently ability, however, to control fire or to put it out.  Understandably, the Fireman, one of our PCs, immediately assumed this guy shouldn't so much be a hero as his own personal arch-enemy.  He even briefly considered taking a train to San Francisco to hunt him down.

They ended up facing off with the Ultra-humanite again, who had faked his death but had become really paralyzed from his last encounter with the heroes.  This time, he unleashed a dreaded "purple plague" over Metropolis.



This time, they were assisted by the Hourman, and had their first encounter with the Green Lantern.  Hourman's first encounter too, which obviously involved the two of them having a misunderstanding and going at it in a fight.



Slam Bradley and the Newsboy Legion both appeared again too; he taught the kids how to smoke and bet on horses.  Great detective, not so great adult-mentor.

It was a very good session.

Oh yes, and the group is now officially a team, using the team rules from ICONS; they're "mystery men inc.".

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Dunhill Amber Root Bulldog + Rattray's Old Gowrie

The Pundit: Neither anti-intellectual Nor Anti-Artist;
RPGs: Still Neither Intellectual Nor Art

You know, I've heard those accusations slung around quite often about me. If I had a dollar for every time someone on an RPG website tried to describe me as "anti-intellectual"... well, I'd probably have several hundred dollars.

Only by now, anyone who reads this blog should know that I'm not anti-intellectual. Likewise, I'm not "Anti-art". I had one of the Swine say this a while back too, claiming that I "hate art". No, I adore art. I listen to classical music almost daily (and other great music; Jazz and Folk and Rock are as much "art" as Classical), being to the Louvre and the British Museum are two of my fondest memories, in short, my "art appreciation" is quite high.

The mistake the Swine make is in thinking that if I'm not allowing them to say RPGs are "intellectual" or "art" then it must be that I hate these things. Far from it. Its because I value these things, the REAL version of these things, that I don't allow people to mangle them up with nonsense.

I LOVE art, and intellect, and RPGs. What I hate is Pseudo-artists, Pseudo-intellectuals, and Pseudo-RPGs.


READ MY LIPS, FUCKFACE: it doesn't matter HOW MUCH, or HOW LONG you think about RPGs, it still doesn't make them, OR YOU, "intellectual". After all, one can know a fuckload of a lot about Toy Trains, and it doesn't make you an intellectual, it just makes you the fucking Rain Man.
At best, it makes you a "trivialist".

And as for art, sitting around talking about your suffering while pretending to be a vampire is not "art". And don't give me this bullshit about "anything is art", because if anything is art, then NOTHING is. So either yes, everything is art and now, Congratulations Asswipe, art means NOTHING anymore, or "art" DOES mean something, and that's why you're trying to CO-OPT it to give yourself airs of importance far beyond what your capacity or value as an organism actually merits.
WHICH IS IT; BUCKY?

I'm not the one who hates Intellect or Art; obviously, it is these Swine who hate intellect and art, they are the ones who are trying to destroy the term. They hate both Intellect and Art because they know, deep down inside, that they are worthless lazy parasites without so much as an intellectual or artistic bone in their bodies, and that as long as these words actually MEAN something, they will always be judged, and found wanting. But if they can get these words to become meaningless, then whoever is the best Do-Nothing Poseur gets to win, and guess what is the one thing the Swine are actually good at being?

So no, I will preserve those terms, because I love them. And I'll continue to bitchslap those of you who seek to subvert these terms, because you hate them.
And I love RPGs too, which is why I won't let you use those wonderful GAMES, any more than I will let you use language, as a reckless means to attempt to give yourselves unmerited importance at the cost of destroying things of real value.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Mario Grandi Oom Paul + Esoterica's Penzance

(Originally posted November 27, 2009)