Ian Absentia

I feel you. That's how I felt trying to read Tolkien as an adult. !i!

You've read it then? !i!

Hey, as long as we're discussing outrage and blasphemies against the Tolkien estate, how do people feel about The Last Ringbearer? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ringbearer I have to say, now that I'm not 13, it's my favored interpretation of Middle Earth, JRR's history being written by the victors and all. The translation I read was pretty uneven, but it's an awfully amusing (okay, maybe just "entertaining") take on the War of the Rings. !i!

"The Council of Elrond" is also the chapter that stops every reader of The Fellowship of the Rings dead in their tracks for a month until they secretly convince themselves that its okay to just skip it -- maybe skim it -- and move on. And you know what? We don't need to harbor this secret anymore. It really is okay. My name is Ian, and I skipped over "The Council of Elrond" in January 1978. !i!

This video deserves to be trundled out every couple of years on occasions like this. !i!

I'm just saying, I can introduce you to a couple of hotbeds of reactionary conservativism right next door, and we get along just fine. Noticed the same thing when I lived in San Francisco, too. As ever, the common man is divided against our real, mutual enemy. !i!

Dude, you so clearly need to get out more often. @Lloyd Dupont - Congratulations on the new opportunity! !i!

Mm-hm! This is, in fact and deed, not "canonical" Nephilim. Which I find interesting and validating on several levels. !i!

Well, given they have two heads... Seriously, though, the errata in the Ringworld Companion reads: Page 51 confirms 2D6+15. I'd never noticed the discrepancy before. While great in terms of average Puppeteers, 1D6+15 would bring their species maximum in just on par with the City Builders and Healers (both 2D6+9), and I was always of the impression that Puppeteer intelligence outstripped everyone. With the likely exception of the Protectors (INT+5D6!). !i!

Seriously. This reads like a coded personals advertisement. "Sturdy, long-handled auteur seeks willing and capable escape artist for unusual plot twist with AC/DC connection. Professionals only -- no amateurs or tourists. Must know what U want." Please, post video. !i!

"Canon" is consistency, touchpoints that allow a common cause. Lowest common denominators. Foundations, if you will. The higher you build above base elevation, the more variation from canon you encounter. And if at high elevation you need to connect two disparate points, you either tie them back to the original base or establish a new one higher up. Can you tell the sort of trade I work in? Can you tell my love for tortured metaphor? Point being, canon does exist, and it's a building tool for construction and aesthetics. It's also a tool for academics to appreciate construction and design at a conceptual level. But at a daily, functional level, canon is just something the average user "feels" and that gives them the confidence that it won't fall apart under their feet in use. Generally, I really don't give a damn about canon. I appreciate what it does to help hold my games together, but I redecorate often and at will, as long as it can be recognised and appreciated by other players familiar with the source. No painting all the walls, floors, and ceiling black. Finally, I'll give kudos to The Rough Guide as a spiritual call-back to the '70s Californian stoner humor that is at the very roots of, at the very least, RQ1 Glorantha (word up, @ffilz!). Don't be surprised that it stands out to comment. !i!

Hee! If I recall correctly, there was exactly one illustration in the original three LBBs -- the portrait of Jamieson, the Merchant captain. Damns, there weren't even any example deck plans. Yeah, there was plenty of room for the imagination to roam free, and I don't blame anyone for getting lost in the void. !i!

I realise that I'm in an odd minority, but I found that the absence (not lack) of art and description explicitly defining appearance and tone was liberating, and allowed me to apply the rules to a variety of source material. Same goes for the implicit lifepath of character generation, which I feel is applied explicitly and hamfistedly in certain other games, most notably the Mongoose iterations of Traveller, effectively limiting imagination and development of personal backstory. Yes, I realise that many others -- perhaps most, especially those who are new or only visitors to RPGs -- want fashion ready to wear off the rack. But some styles are more versatile by design, while more fashionable pieces are so specialised as to limit how, when, and where you can wear them. How's that for a tortured metaphor? !i!

!i!

There's also the Opposed Roll table that dates back to early RQ. The quality of the player's success or failure is compared against the quality of an opposing force's roll on a matrix. Results like Criticals and Fumbles still count, but a Critical vs Critical isn't such a big deal, while Critical vs Fumble is truly monumental. !i!

What does one do when the 30 years is up? Is it a renewable contract? !i!

Drew returns to The Game That May Never Be in a log of the 1-on-1 game he's been playing. https://andrewloganmontgomery.blogspot.com/2021/04/nephilim-kaliyuga-session-o.html His particular interpretation of the setting fills a number of gaps as presented in the 1994 ed. !i!

It's in the polish. !i!

See Delta Green: Countdown for Pagan Publishing's take on the Tcho-tchos and a problematic take on Southeast Asian-American communities. Actually, it kind of underscores the fundamental problem of viewing the world through the xenophobic lens of H.P. Lovecraft. !i!

You know, "argument" in the Platonic sense. As others have suggested, Superworld worked pretty well for less-super, street-level comic action, like Daredevil or Iron Fist and Power Man. Batman* stretched and broke it, though. !i! [*Batman, like the Green Lantern, is the industry standard stress test for any super hero RPG.]

This, in a nutshell, is the heart of my argument. Quoted for truth. !i!

Weirdly, I think I remember reading that in the letters col, but never circled it back to the original article in the previous issue. The joy of re-reading something 40 years later. !i!

You know what? Over the last couple of hours I've fallen in love with the notion of a 12-year-old Rune priest of Humakt. I'm picturing Hit-Girl from Kick-Ass. I realise I'm not helping. !i!

I guess I never looked at this article more closely. Ken was playing a 12-year-old girl? And a Rune priest twice over at that. Dang, they turn 'em out young in Sartar. !i!

Can we get a ruling on the point during the fall at which Ben Grimm would achieve terminal velocity due to atmospheric drag? Assuming that it occurs somewhere between 0 and 80-N storeys, where N = the number of storeys fallen until terminal velocity is achieved, he'd stop accelerating and accruing additional d6s in damage. See? See? Scale! This is exactly why I didn't play Superworld more and eventually switched to HeroQuest (now QuestWorlds). Sure did love designing characters in Superworld, though. !i!