Posts by Lace Sabatons

DEAD WEST: a fantasy western rpg setting with its own d20 rules that could easily be converted to 5E. Set in Victorika, an end-of-the-line mining town on the far side of a vast unnatural desert but with a much larger world detailed. It’s been two years since a civil war between the victorious “Shacklebane” emancipists and the vanquished “Trammellock” slavers.The nation of Carcassara is slowly rebuilding after the appalling devastation, haunted by the horrors perpetrated in the name of victory.

GOREBALL: Brutal bloodsports boardgame. Love letter to Blood Bowl, but with enough changes to rules and setting to be its own thing. small teams of 6 murderboys try to hurl an acidfilled grenadeball into the mouth of the opponent's monstrous goal. fun. bunch of stuff on my blog about it here:
http://gibletblizzard.blogspot.com.au/search/label/GOREBALL

SWORDS OF NORDHEIM: A 5E setting with strong ties to Norse mythology that I'm currently running and expanding for my kid and cousins' game. Of all the projects this is probably the least detailed but I have a clear vision for it.

TSAR'MERIKA: Originally designed as a WEG D6 rules + setting that could just as easily be 5E, it's a postapoc superpowers/mech/mutants rpg set in a frozen north america ruled by a god-like Tsar.

MUTANTOR: This ol' chestnut... a far future postapoc superpowers/mech/mutants rpg (sensing a theme here) that originally was going to have its own system, but would prolly be 5E now. "Weirdgrim stonepunk" was the tagline, but beyond that I think of all the projects its the one lacking in clearest direction and vision.

The PAL version had something like 9 optional bosses. Evil versions of all of the summoned monsters. It also had the "Expert" sphere grid, which allowed you to level up your characters in totally different ways. I think there were also some rebalancing / bug fixes that made the game work a whole lot better.

I'm sure all that stuff has been included in a re-release at some point. Probably on the PS3 or something. But back in the day it was a huge bummer. Though, granted, I realize that the NTSC game only gets the shaft 1% of the time. The other 99%, it's the PAL version that gets weird downgrades / unnecessary delays.

Malcolm in the Middle isn't that great of a show. Reese is uncomfortably evil, and the mother is literally abusive. She is unequivocally a bad person.

^ Is wrong twice.
< Is neither sleeping, nor feeling sleepy.
V Must post a new thread somewhere on the forum. Something interesting, for us all to enjoy.

I don't know if they have a good reason for it, but it certainly doesn't seem like they do. I imagine it's just they're way of preventing a company in the US from selling games direct to the UK/Australia, and bypassing the official distribution channels. Artificially holding you guys back just so someone whose already rich can get a lot richer.

And it has always annoyed me that the PAL version of FFX had so many features that the North American release didn't have.

Quote from Sardonic Pickle

I don't care either way. Never use the fight forum myself. Don't like fighting makes me cry.

Which is kinda part of the problem for me. Is the forum for the kind of fighting that makes people cry? The whole "Go to hell" "suck my dick" kinda fighting? If so, isn't that the kind of behavior moderators are supposed to shut down entirely? Why would there be a forum for something that is against the rules?

I'm being a little facetious here, but I honestly don't understand what the fight forum is for.

Yeah, the whole area with Lethal Lava Land and Shifting Sand Land, and the bunny that you have to catch. I dunno, I always thought something was gonna come up behind me while I was down there. No idea why.

I actually really like Hazy Maze Cave. It's not my favorite world, but it's pretty enjoyable I think. The worst one for me is probably Jolly Roger Bay. Tiny-Huge Island comes a close second.

Well grumble grumble rabble rabble rhubarb watermelon.

The Raid 1 setup is certainly nice. I would hate to lose any posts. Too many good conversations on here already.

Guys, I just found some fucking GOLD:

A website Aerith_Freak and Sheena made together back in 2000/2001...WHICH IS STILL FUCKING ONLINE:

http://pzrpg2.tripod.com/main.shtml

Quote from The Inhaling One

By reading all of your posts here I can tell that that forum was amazing. I'm kind of jealous now. Too bad I was born in 2000 :T_T:

It was definitely a different era. We were hardly the first kids to use the Internet (I never accessed the old mailing list systems, and I certainly never dialed into a BBS), but we were probably the last generation of kids to really embrace the Internet when embracing the Internet was a weird thing to do. Most of the people I knew in real life, kids my own age, thought that meeting/knowing people over the Internet was weird. They rarely or never used instant messengers or email. That was 'nerd stuff,' kinda.

I think the biggest difference between then and now is the way social media has become a monolith. Nowadays, the places where we meet and discuss things online are managed by giant corporations. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. Everyone you will ever meet has heard of the place that you hang out, and while you might carve out a niche for yourself by starting a facebook group or a g+ community, you're ultimately an insignificant part of the greater website.

When TSR was in its heyday, there really wasn't anything like that. Myspace and Friendster didn't really exist yet. There were things like Yahoo groups, but for the most part, "Social Media" (a term which didn't exist yet) was focused around small communities. If you engaged with the community, you could become prominent and well known among everyone on the whole site. And even the newest member could send a message to the administrator and expect a response.

I don't want to say that the old ways were better or worse. But they were different, and I do miss them.

BUT: Don't fall into the trap of wishing you were born earlier. I understand the desire. When I was your age* I wished desperately that I had been born 5-10 years earlier, so that I could have really experienced the rise of the internet, and the BBS era. I actually developed a really dishonest habit of finding something I thought was cool, doing a ton of research on its history, and then acting as though I "remembered" it. I sometimes still catch myself doing that without realizing it. Of course, if I actually had been 5-10 years older, then I would have found the hilarious / entertaining antics that were going on at TSR to be childish and annoying, and I never would have hung out there in the first place. =P

It's a fact: experience is sexy. A person who has already done cool things in their life is a cool person. But there are always cool things going on, and cool experiences to have. The trick is to engage with what's happening around you right now. Because in 15 years, the stuff that's happening right now will seem like some kind of badass wild west.

*I am deeply sorry for starting a sentence that way. It applies in this situation, but I know it makes me sound like a jackass.

Who all has played these games, and what did you think?

If they're not both in your top 10 favorite games of all time, you're wrong and you're a bad person.

Granted, it got less neat once I realized that the language kept changing. I thought the whole thing was in Spanish until after I made the gif.

Alright, @Link . I want answers.

Do you have any idea how many times I refreshed the boards, hoping against hope that they were back online? TWO DAYS! What do you have to say for yourself?

It's baffling, right? Like, supposedly they disbanded the Jury because the scientific evidence would bee too sciencey for normal folks. Never acknowledging that the Judge, Lawyers, Defendants, Plaintiffs, and everyone involved was almost certainly not a scientist of any type. What makes them better judges of science based testimony than a jury which could very well include an actual scientist. And for serious, that case went on too fucking long. I know this is England, so the US Constitution is meaningless legally. But the ideal of a speedy trial is an important one. It's completely tyrannical to force those poor people to defend themselves for such a significant portion of their lives.

Quote from Kaynil

So... I Was reading that Mcdonald's is losing the millennials.

:XD:

That doesn't surprise me. I don't know if I'm too old to be considered a millennial or not, but I've eaten at McDonalds maybe a handful of times in the last 5 years. Their food is generally pretty gross. I really only eat there if it's the only thing available, or if I'm going out with a group and everyone else wants to go there.

Also, the phrase "Promiscuous in their brand loyalty" makes me laugh. Fuck that noise. Brand loyalty is a ridiculous notion to begin with, the idea that we should somehow feel a sense of obligation to corporations. And their use of the word "promiscuous" makes it sound like a distinctly bad thing. As if we're somehow sinful for not getting married to a single fast food chain.

I'm really glad someone else enjoyed this as much as I did.

The basement in Mario's castle gave me the creeps as a kid. Not even the part with the Boos in it, just the regular basement.

I kept thinking something was gonna come out from behind me.

Quote from Kaynil

I need a second monitor in my life now...
*takes a glance to the TV*

I've been entertaining dangerous notions of upgrading to three monitors myself. >.>

Quote from Cressel

or you can playlist videos in one instead of being generic and just listening to music like an idiot.

Also a possibility!

Wow! That's a phenomenal screenshot. It's actually got the whole page in there, with a bunch of member interaction. So many memories.

I see a lot of avatars that I recognize, but I don't remember so much about the members attached to them. Still...

Dark the 7th, I always hated his guts. He seemed like such a jerk back then. 15 years later and I've taken on a lot of the qualities that made me hate him so much myself.

Rinny was always a good kid. She and Godzilla (and maybe another member? I don't remember.) always seemed to have a special friendship. They all lived in Scandinavia, and probably met up at least a few times I think. She always refused to post a selfie, except one time when she posted a closeup photo of her eyes. Zilla and I spent the next decade fawning over how pretty her eyes were anytime she was around. (Much to her annoyance.)

Nonix Dark, Kjolen, Tidus, Ska Rue, Lord_Andor...I really don't remember them but I remember their avatars. I feel like I should know them.

Sephiroth...that fuckin' kid. Hawaiian, bros with Kilovh, probably the youngest member of the original TSR gang. He's dropped off the face of the earth in recent years.

@kilovh during his Aragorn phase.

Rikku, I had such a crush on her for ages.

Kaynil with her infamous "Drinking spam" avatar, which she used on every forum everywhere for years. Also, I see that you correctly selected "Ex-SOLDIER" for your class. That's the same class I picked.

(Also, fuckin' Ashleigh's weird forum RPG where everybody picked a class and earned experience points...That was weird, but neat.)

Zickorate, christ on a cracker I'd forgotten about that guy. I think he was also Scandanavian. He and I had a lot in common and we really bonded, but he didn't stick around long. I haven't seen him since like, 2003 or something.

Yuna. Lulz. I didn't have internet for something like 2-3 months at one point. In that time, the forum design completely flipped, "The Sacred Realm" became "Spira Online," and Aerith_Freak became Yuna. I was really bummed, I thought AF had sold the forum to someone else. Being completely honest, I don't think Ashleigh ever really stopped thinking I was an annoying kid ruining her forum with my constant spamming. There were years where we could call ourselves 'friends' to be sure. But I always kinda felt like she only tolerated me because I was so desperate to win her approval. I looked up to her so much, and truth be told I don't think I'd be who I am today without her influence.

Ah, the RackNine advert. Ashleigh always ranted about how shitty their service was.

Damn. Those were good times. I mean, my real life kinda sucked, but TSR really was a refuge for me. The whole community really gave me the tools I needed to succeed in life.

Well lets get some of our active members in here.

@Pekachew , @Sardonic Pickle , @Cressel , @Link , @The Inhaling One , @Edward_Stryfe , @kilovh , @Vengeance

EDIT: While we're on the subject. I wouldn't mind a "Serious Discussion" forum. Somewhere to talk about politics or philosophy or ethics.

Some people get bummed out by those topics, so keeping them separate from the general forum will allow those people to easily avoid topics that will be stressful for them. Plus, a separate forum allows the threads to have a certain gravitas, which helps prevent them from getting derailed.

No, nothing drastic. But business was really really slow. Most days, the business was bringing in less than $30 in sales. We all knew things weren't going well, and personally I didn't think there was much hope for the business model to succeed. It was too rooted in nostalgia and personal feelings for the business to find a relevant niche for itself in the marketplace. But even still, six days is crazy. Most people didn't even know that we existed yet, we hadn't run any tournaments or other events to bring in customers. There was a lot of potential for the business to see some growth.

The fact that it closed six days after it opened says to me that there was some serious financial mismanagement. The owner should have been prepared to operate for at least 3-4 months.

And in point of fact, they didn't warn us. I actually had a meeting with the owner at 3:30 pm on Friday. I gave him a list of cost-saving suggestions, told him we needed a first aide kit, and told him what I'd done to fix the broken phone system in case my repairs caused him any problems. Later that evening when I got home from my shift, I found out that he'd sent the email letting everyone know that the business was closing at 1:00pm.

I'm not angry with him. It's not like he's some bourgeois oppressor who went home to his mansion that night. He and his wife sunk their savings into the business. I imagine that they're in much worse shape than I am right now. I feel for them. And aside from not telling me the business had failed, he treated me very well while I worked for him.

Overall, it's just a really bad situation for all involved. I just hope I can find a new job quickly, yo.