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spittingimage said:
My all-time favourite movie.

It has a happy ending.

Really.
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The only films I own on hardcopy are Conan the Barbarian, Blade Runner, and Brazil. I absolutely loved how the same song was used in different ways to convey mood and atmosphere while maintaining a certain continuity that never got tedious. That's one detail of many that make Brazil awesome and I'm sure one of the Pub's film or literature gurus could explain why this film is a masterpiece better than I.
 
Endless Flight said:
I must have typed out and deleted five or six posts to respond to this thread.

I'll just say this. If anybody here needs to talk about anything, my door is open. I might not be able to tell you what you want to hear, I might not be able to tell you everything that's on my mind that you might want to know, but I will lend you my ears. If you need somebody to talk to, send me a PM. I was again reminded recently that just talking to somebody, anybody, when you are stressed out is better than keeping it inside. And sometimes you don't necessarily want to talk to your family about it, for whatever reason. I get it. The door is open if you need it.
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That's an astonishingly generous offer.
 
Giganotosaurus said:
I swear to god everytime I log on to this forum I learn about some new niche roleplaying game that makes me ask "Why did someone make this?"
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Join the Facebook dead games group. I'm a decent collector of old and odd RPGs and I'm amazed at how many I've seen there that I've never heard of before.
 
Séadna said:
I assume you mention such games to contrast them with those filling a universal well recognised need like "A Cozy Den" above.
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I got the pdf of Cozy Den and will start a review thread on it but first I gotta do reviews on the Christian fantasy rpg Dragonraid and Smallville which Dumarest was kind enough to send me.
 
Voros said:
I got the pdf of Cozy Den and will start a review thread on it but first I gotta do reviews on the Christian fantasy rpg Dragonraid and Smallville which Dumarest was kind enough to send me.
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Ah cool! Jokes aside it would be interesting to see such a different type of game analysed, especially the PbtA deconstruction part which I'd be interested to see what they mean. It's POD now I noticed.
 
Brock Savage said:
The only films I own on hardcopy are Conan the Barbarian, Blade Runner, and Brazil.
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I own all the same movies!

...plus a few hundred more. Maybe it's not such a weird co-incidence.

Giganotosaurus said:
I swear to god everytime I log on to this forum I learn about some new niche roleplaying game that makes me ask "Why did someone make this?"
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Curious about how it plays, but the reality could never live up to my expectations. Like FATAL. In my imagination it's an archetypal bad/insane RPG, a pen-and-paper Lament Configuration. In play, it would probably just be boring.
 
Well, this is a sorry state of affairs. Someone makes an unsubstantiated claim instead of reporting a post and pages later the fallout might lead to 2 posters leaving. Woot.
 
spittingimage said:
Curious about how it plays, but the reality could never live up to my expectations. Like FATAL. In my imagination it's an archetypal bad/insane RPG, a pen-and-paper Lament Configuration. In play, it would probably just be boring.
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I've read it all. Don't waste your time - it's the textual equivalent of yelling "CUNT!" in an empty room and preening about how offensive you are.
 
OHT said:
Well, this is a sorry state of affairs. Someone makes an unsubstantiated claim instead of reporting a post and pages later the fallout might lead to 2 posters leaving. Woot.
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The thing we learned out of this is to make/edit all thread titles as innocuous as possible in regards to bundles and to never say we (the mods) will bump it.
 
Ladybird said:
I've read it all. Don't waste your time - it's the textual equivalent of yelling "CUNT!" in an empty room and preening about how offensive you are.
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It's not even that good. It's an adolescent power fantasy filled with boobs, dicks and anal rape.

Behind the system that isn't just complicated, it's really unworkable, and once you get past the nipple size charts and anal circumference rolls, is a fairly intriguing world that looks like Rpme meets Middle Earth.

But the rest of the text comes over as being written by a 14 year old who wonders why nobody likes his work of genius.
 
Stevethulhu said:
It's not even that good. It's an adolescent power fantasy filled with boobs, dicks and anal rape.

Behind the system that isn't just complicated, it's really unworkable, and once you get past the nipple size charts and anal circumference rolls, is a fairly intriguing world that looks like Rpme meets Middle Earth.

But the rest of the text comes over as being written by a 14 year old who wonders why nobody likes his work of genius.
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Yeah, the thing with FATAL is it manages to make being offensive really really boring.

Violence the RPG is pretty good though.
 
TristramEvans TristramEvans fumbled the initial handling.
T The Butcher pulled the trigger a little quick on a post.
noman noman got struck a tad too close to home for essentially being right.

There’s no need for anyone to leave over this. Explanations have been given, apologies have been offered. Everyone needs to cool down and chill out.

The Pub is trying to be a No Politics island in a stormy sea where politics, tribalism, and culture war are demanding that everyone take a side, on Everything, and come out swinging, all in the middle of a Global Pandemic, Civil Unrest and Economic Hardship.

We’re going to have these blowouts from time to time, it’s inevitable. The most important takeaway, I think, is what TristramEvans TristramEvans brought up - Benefit of the Doubt.
 
CRKrueger said:
TristramEvans TristramEvans fumbled the initial handling.
T The Butcher pulled the trigger a little quick on a post.
noman noman got struck a tad too close to home for essentially being right.

There’s no need for anyone to leave over this. Explanations have been given, apologies have been offered. Everyone needs to cool down and chill out.

The Pub is trying to be a No Politics island in a stormy sea where politics, tribalism, and culture war are demanding that everyone take a side, on Everything, and come out swinging, all in the middle of a Global Pandemic, Civil Unrest and Economic Hardship.

We’re going to have these blowouts from time to time, it’s inevitable. The most important takeaway, I think, is what TristramEvans TristramEvans brought up - Benefit of the Doubt.
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star-trek-nodding.gif
 
This is a great online community, and people get the tone right 99.999% of the time. There is no need for anyone to take drastic actions.

We are also a small community and speaking personally I value the contribution of all the regular posters, and the place would be less without any of you.
 
spittingimage said:
Curious about how it plays, but the reality could never live up to my expectations.
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If you mean Cozy Den, my pocket review is that it is a surprisingly pretty solidly built PbtA game.

Its premise is obviously bizarre but I think the designer is well aware of that and displays a a sense of humour and irony about it.

The game's focus is in the relationships between the PCs and the protection and maintenance of their den. The game's tone is actually quite gentle and bemused.

The same designer also did a card-based storygame rpg for playing a Twin Peaks-like game that seems similarly well designed to me.

Honestly I don't think Cozy Den is much more bizarre than many of the ideas of Unknown Armies (e.g. a porn actress who transforms into a Goddess mid-sex-scene) or Robin Laws idea to make Over the Edge, a game inspired by the writing of W.S. Burroughs, whose books go to much more bizarre and disturbing places than Cozy Den.
 
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Brock Savage said:
I am a huge Burroughs fan and never heard of this. I need details please.
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Over The Edge first came out in the 90s from Atlas Games, written by Jonathan Tweet and Robin Laws, and features a setting that is essentially Burroughs' Interzone wiith the serial numers filed off - the mysterious Island nation of Al Amarja. The game was notable at the time for it's exceptionally streamlined rules-light system - it's comparable to Risus in that regard. I've only got the first edition, so I don't know what's changed with the more recent third edition.
 
TristramEvans said:
I still haven't been to Victoria. They have a miniatures museum there I'd love to check out.

Vancouver, though I've been here close to a decade, still doesn't feel like home. I've just never been able to integrate into West Coast culture - I have an ingrained longing for brownstones and...distinct seasons...

But it is a beautiful city. I took a photographic log of my walk home from wwork a while back...

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Canadian riot - those naughty people ->
 
Part of the challenge facing the forum is that every aspect of life is currently being re-examined in the culture by every end of the ideological spectrum.

Therefore, things that haven't been political for a long time are now political again, and many innocent people haven't realized that yet. You'd be surprised how many values that you believe are self-evidently agreed on by everyone are actually contested, possibly even in the process of shifting.

Do you still know what the middle ground actually is? Are you sure your most treasured assumptions are unassailable? Have you really checked, or could you not bear to look? Who knows which "enemy camp" you'll suddenly find yourself thrust into by your seemingly reasonable allies if you get it 'wrong' for just a moment.

Anyway, I'd like to take a moment to thank the pub for mostly getting neutrality right. Mostly.

HrcaZmP.jpg
 
Shipyard Locked said:
Part of the challenge facing the forum is that every aspect of life is currently being re-examined in the culture by every end of the ideological spectrum.

Therefore, things that haven't been political for a long time are now political again, and many innocent people haven't realized that yet. You'd be surprised how many values that you believe are self-evidently agreed on by everyone are actually contested, possibly even in the process of shifting.
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I think that comes close to mistaking the US for the rest of the world.

Too often on forums politics in the US dominate discussions in a way all out of proportion to lived reality.

Some seem unaware how tiresome their insistence in dragging their domestic politics into hobby forums is to those with some outside perspective. There is always political unrest, even political violence and wars going on but somehow we're all supposed to pay 100% attention to every detail, shift and diruption in US domestic politics. When I was younger I bought the 'well it has an effect on other countries' argument but after decades I realize that is much less true than some insist.
 
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Voros said:
I think that comes close to mistaking the US for the rest of the world.

Too often on forums politics in the US dominate discussions in a way all out of proportion to lived reality.

Some seem unaware how tiresome their insistence in dragging their domestic politics into hobby forums is to those with some outside perspective. There is always political unrest, even political violence and wars going on but somehow we're all supposed to pay 100% attention to every detail, shift and diruption in US domestic politics. When I was younger I bought the 'well it has an effect on other countries' argument but after decades I realize that is much less true than some insist.
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What is this greater world you speak of? There is only Zul.
 
Voros said:
I think that comes close to mistaking the US for the rest of the world.

Too often on forums politics in the US dominate discussions in a way all out of proportion to lived reality.

Some seem unaware how tiresome their insistence in dragging their domestic politics into hobby forums is to those with some outside perspective. There is always political unrest, even political violence and wars going on but somehow we're all supposed to pay 100% attention to every detail, shift and diruption in US domestic politics. When I was younger I bought the 'well it has an effect on other countries' argument but after decades I realize that is much less true than some insist.
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These are good observations, but I happen to know very similar processes are underway in the UK, France, and Germany to name a few. The specifics may be different, but the feeling of shock at how quickly the middle ground has been shifting (or badly misunderstood in the first place) is pretty universal.

I'll attribute this simultaneity to the effects of the internet.
 
Shipyard Locked said:
These are good observations, but I happen to know very similar processes are underway in the UK, France, and Germany to name a few. The specifics may be different, but the feeling of shock at how quickly the middle ground has been shifting (or badly misunderstood in the first place) is pretty universal.

I'll attribute this simultaneity to the effects of the internet.
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I think for me to comment further about how those 'processes' are different than the US would trip too far into politics but I'd say at the least that the differences are as significant as the similarities.
 
Voros said:
I think that comes close to mistaking the US for the rest of the world.

Too often on forums politics in the US dominate discussions in a way all out of proportion to lived reality.

Some seem unaware how tiresome their insistence in dragging their domestic politics into hobby forums is to those with some outside perspective. There is always political unrest, even political violence and wars going on but somehow we're all supposed to pay 100% attention to every detail, shift and diruption in US domestic politics. When I was younger I bought the 'well it has an effect on other countries' argument but after decades I realize that is much less true than some insist.
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I don't know about that, I've seen my fair share of UK politics shared and even a little Aussie politics. Granted not much Canukian politics but that is probably because literally no one cares. :tongue:


Realistically divided into the world population of primarily English speakers, I'd guess the political blathering is proportioned fairly equally. (USA 340 million, UK 67 million, Canada 37 million, Australia 25 million, New Zealand 5 million, Ireland 5 million, Jamaica 3 million and throw in another what 10-20? million for second language speakers who participate in English language forums? Simply there are a lot more Americans and we like to yammer.
 
Putting it simply, the Pub would close before political discussion is allowed here. I’m not going back on my word after all these years. We will always try our best to keep it at bay and keep this place our little Shangri-La.
 
"Be Mates, Not Idiots To Each Other"

(Yeah of course the world is more complex than that, but bringing it down to that simple trueism works just as good, if not better, than endless debates about ideologies)

Oh yeah, just letting the cat out of the bag now - Australia actually doesn't exist. It's the biggest ruse that New Zealand has ever pulled off, tricking everyone into thinking there is a huge continent behind them with another 25 million people.

I'm actually from Florida, and currently typing this in Key West
:grin:
 
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Endless Flight said:
Putting it simply, the Pub would close before political discussion is allowed here. I’m not going back on my word after all these years. We will always try our best to keep it at bay and keep this place our little Shangri-La.
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I should have rephrased my post from politics to XYZ-centric views as obviously politics is a taboo subject at the pub.
 
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