Best posts made by Arkandel

@wizz said in The Wheel of Time:

This is super unlikely to be the actual explanation, but my headcanon went instantly to the books, where Logain in fact has a Talent to see ta'veren. The first time he sees Rand in Caemlyn? He's "shining like the sun."

Sure, but Nynaeve would be ta'veren before she started to channel, too. She wouldn't glow more because of it.

We'll see, I guess, once they start establishing what the show-setting's rules regarding the One Power is a bit more.

Oh ALSO whatever happened to the Warders' color-shifting cloaks? I was kinda looking forward to that, especially since that's a relatively cheap special effect to pull off.

Pitch: Although this isn't a World of Darkness MU*, allow/encourage/bribe people to release their favorite former PCs from WoD games as the NPC monsters they could be in a world like yours.

Let them go all comic-book like alternate universe evil versions of their biggest hits and see what kind of havoc they can wreak on their new ones (and everyone around them).

@Wizz It wasn't even that deep. That part makes no sense.

But that's fine, magic. Whatever. But they didn't explain so many things about even the basic parts of their own plot - what the Black Sky is at all, why they wanted to get back to K'un-Lun at all if all they wanted was the dragon bones since it's obviously not the only place they can be found, etc.

They don't need to give us all the answers of course, but they explained almost nothing. For what I can tell there is nothing under the surface.

@Bobotron said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:

@Arkandel
Someone tried a Supernatural game set in the 40's in applachia focused on the Men of Letters. I don't think it ever got above 10 players.

I, too, am shocked that wasn't an instant popular hit.

@misadventure Yeah good catch. I didn't notice the quoted part hadn't been properly spoiler-ized. Edited now.

@mietze said:

Sorry, I don't know who Manu is.

Oh doublepost! It also means Bronn has got to end up north in the next season no matter what since he can't have scenes with Cersei. He needs to be where the rest of the cast is.

Yes, on top of baiting someone into a situation that will get their character killed without warning them about it in the first place, PKing a character right out of CG is one of the lowest things you can do. It works in their favor they had IC motivation but even that's mitigated by the fact this motivation was manufactured OOC. Boo.

@dvoraen said in The Wheel of Time:

This thread makes me want WoT MU*s to be a fad again.

The problem with WoT MU*s is that we as fans disagree on just about everything about how they should be done.

Which Age (or where in the timeline) should they be set at? Playable canonical characters? Allow male channelers? Hell, even allow diverting from the books in any significant way?

You ask ten well-meaning fans, you'll probably get a variety of answers on all of the above and more. And for many of us any way other than what's in our heads is wrong and we won't play it.

@tragedyjones Fuck you! I'm a dragon!

@Faceless Well, the narrative is pretty much leading there. When the plotline is "we need dragonglass weapons to fight the army of snow zombies led by a 12,000 year old lich king" it's just not very useful to be the guy who whispers into the right ears. I get that.

But I can still miss it.

To get back to a D&D-themed game though, is a system that important as long as it's not primarily aimed at going into dungeons to kill things and loot their corpses for gear?

What could get me excited about a MU* on Faerun for example is the chance to play in the setting; as long as the mechanics don't get in the way of doing that, should we not be more concerned about whether the system matches the game's goals rather than what the system is in a vacuum?

@rucket said in The Wheel of Time:

Anyway, I think Sanderson has made a good point elsewhere, that television and movies are a different animal than novels. I agree with this, and having seen adaptation after adaptation shit on source material I've enjoyed in the past...

Of course. Absolutely. There is no way the exposition alone from a series like the Wheel of Time could possibly fit within a TV series, even one with many more than just 8 episodes per season. We can't possible sit through the equivalent of hundreds of pages explaining how the One Power works, for example. That'd be downright impossible.

Nor would it be reasonable for any of us to not lose some favorite secondary book characters or subplots altogether. Even big plots. Merging either (or just plain skipping them) are just about par for the course. Sometimes it's just to save on costs; sets are expensive so if they aren't going to be reused, it makes every sense to cut down.

Even some indulgences are fine. I'm a purist Tolkien fan but I didn't mind (too much ) that Glorfindel was removed and Arwen put in his place, or even when they had that subplot about her fate being 'tied to Middle-Earth'. It's a'ight. Elves at Helms Deep? Okay, I can roll with it. Legolas' acrobatic fights? Okay, that's fine.

But - to use the same examples as above - it's one thing to have Arwen's role upgraded and another to replace Pippin and have her be in the Fellowship. It's okay to merge some Aes Sedai with similar political views, or to make the One Power way simpler without explaining almost any of it directly. They'll get to the same point; Nynaeve is like, very strong and she really is something special as a Healer. We don't need to be told what a Spirit weave is.

If they can pull the Lord of the Rings' equivalent of adopting the material with the Wheel of Time series I'll be more than happy.

They can depart from the original material; they just shouldn't go their separate ways, and I'll have a really good time with it.

@Pyrephox Agreed. And how players (and thus characters) respond to such desperate choices is equally as important.

My ideal Hunter game would offer characters the chance to lay their hands on equalizers - a weapon, a flask with a mysterious potion, something that evens out the odds and temporarily lets them go toe to toe with the monsters... only to find themselves changed in the process, becoming closer to the things they hunt than who they were before.

But to do that takes work and creativity otherwise they'll just be... perks. Rather than "woohoo, I got a magical glowing sword, bitches!" it should be "holySHIT did this damn knife just tell me I need to kill someone every day or it'll take my soul?". And other PCs' reactions should be mistrust, antipathy and GET RID OF THAT FUCKING THING DUDE instead of 'hey, let's bring Bob with his magical glowing sword to our next adventure!'.

You know?

@Kanye-Qwest I read the first four books. There's no denying the guy is talented, that his characters are intriguing and complex or that the overall plot is deep and ambitious.

But it was also a fucking chore to read, and that's coming from someone who loves 'purple' writing... because damn, it was taking me so long to go through these novels. Especially during my commute at 7:30 am the thought of starting the next one was starting to depress me, so I stopped.

It was also a matter of not having any favorite characters though. Just because they're interesting it doesn't mean I root for or care what happens to them.

@faraday said in FS3:

When everyone's on the same side killing Cylons, it really doesn't matter too much if Bob skated through cg with a couple more dots in Gunnery. But if Bob is fighting Harry? Is it really fair to start them off unevenly - especially if Bob knows how to "game" the system more?

It's still important that a system tries to prevent people from screwing themselves over. Not only does that usually happen to newbies which is a bad sign, but it has various effects in cooperative games as well. Having a niche to occupy is pretty important - think "we already have a combat/medic type in the group" - so you want to be on the right side of a skill distribution even if no other PC is gunning for your head.

It's also though about being able to do cool shit. This might be a completely personal nit to pick but for example I've never been into Changeling even though I like the theme in general because no mechanic or power really gets me excited; even if everyone else has access to the same toys I like being able to work towards getting something that's really awesome.

By the way:

This may be off-topic (and I've no idea how much interest the concept itself can get) but can the idea of true metaphysical horror - the really creepy stuff - translate into a game?

For example I ran into this today: http://imgur.com/gallery/7TJO8 . I'd love to instil PrPs with this kind of primal raw WTFNOPENOPE but it's very difficult. Since it'd need to start with normalcy then within an instant turn it into something else.

Ideas?

GoT Season 7 Finale SPOIIIILERS.

... Still here?

Did anyone else get annoyed at the kangaroo court they had for Littlefinger in there? There was no evidence, no chance for the accused to prepare himself or even to know he'd be on trial, just a quick 2-minute recitation of the accusations and then an execution! He didn't get to ask for trial by combat or to negotiate taking the Black.

Worse? No one even passed the sentence, and if Sansa implied it then she certainly didn't swing the sword. Arya just went "eeh, I've heard enough STABSTAB". That's as much a Stark thing as wearing fur!

@ganymede said in FCs on Comic MUs:

I mean, unless you're Alan Tudyk, you get only one Disney animated character. And you get only one Marvel character.

Chris Evans.