g33k

That line? The one between "genius" and "madness"? You just erased it, my friend. Well done.

q.v. @SDLeary's "independently wealthy" and "Most simply do not have the resources to be able to do that." 😥 If I had to guess, I'd Guess @Mechashef is a gov't employee, or works for an employer who is mostly/entirely a gov't contractor.

Or when you need to discharge your firearm 1-handed ... because your other hand is a chainsaw... 🤡

Behind the times, old man. Get yourself a Taurus Judge or an S&W Governor, and a pouch full of speedloaders.

Alas; you may be right. There is this terrible legislative/bureaucratic overreaction... macho assholes hang Playboy centerfolds on the wall, "accidentally" expose their female coworkers to internet porn... and the reaction ends up with RQG (or other reasonable content) being evaluated/banned as pornography. I'd think some freedom-of-speech advocates (in the States, I'd consider the ACLU/etc; dunno the Aussie flavor of that, if any) might want to look at this, because the "little guy" (as you note) can't afford to. We need to get away from the lowest / most-restrictive / least-tolerant common denominator being able to dictate to everyone (without allowing the macho assholes to harass women). Particularly worrisome (to me) is the OP's report that the PDF was on his OWN computer, and in an out-of-the-way (not obtrusively visible) place... and that didn't matter!?!!? Invasion of privacy?

I don't wish to rock the OP's boat, but frankly some of this "criticism" is far beyond "reasonable." The standards by which these people are judging NEED to be pushed-back-on! 👿

No no, you've misunderstood! The Lunar Coders each have a PC.

Fair enough. Apologies for misunderstanding. I thought it seemed kinda strawman to equate Handmaid's Tale with Orlanth myths; hence the sigh.

No. At least, I hope we aren't! An "impact" on violence forces nobody's hand. Not mine, not yours, not Stephen Paddock's. But your allegation that "telling misogynistic stories teaches us about misogyny" (in response to @Bohemond saying that "telling misogynistic stories encourages misogyny") is so overly-simplified as to be... not wrong, precisely... but surely not right. What -- in your opinion -- is the difference between "facts" and "factoids"? Ya got any credible ones for me? NIH (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2704015/) in 2009 -- APA (http://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2014-41977-001) in 2014 -- And the highest Impact Factor article I found via Google Scholar (http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167213520459) a meta-study from 2014 -- Look... I enjoy a rousing action-adventure story with tons of violence. I've gone to "dark places" in PC's that I have played, games that I have GM'ed. But the facts are clear; and they show that media does impact & influence behavior (in lieu of studies to the contrary, I will presume RPG's count). You're welcome to your own opinion, of course. But the data doesn't seem to support (what seems to be) your opinion.

Some therapists do use roleplaying as a therapeutic technique, I understand. Somehow I doubt it's from a RPG exactly... 😉 *I* sure don't want to "therapize" at MY gaming-table! But I see it reliably reported that PTSD/abuse/survivorship of various traumas/etc CAN and DOES come up (IRL, in the players not the characters) at the gaming-table.

<sigh> Are the protagonists misogynists? Are we "supposed" to like the abusers? Our PC's -- with whom we are "supposed" to identify insofar as we role-play them -- are "supposed" to like Orlanth. FWIW (and admittedly tangential to this point) season 2 is reportedly triggering anxiety attacks in some viewers.

The evidence is actually that antisocial media DOES influence us toward antisocial behavior. Violent media begets violence, misogynistic media begets misogyny. I don't know that anyone has specifically studied written media (or oral storytelling, podcasts, etc... or RPG's?) in this regard. But in the absence of evidence to the contrary, I would presume a similar effect to media that HAS been studied: if the reader/viewer/listener/etc engages their imagination with the material (RPGs anyone?) & sympathizes/empathizes with the (antisocial) protagonist (Orlanth much?), they will be influenced that way. YGMV. But the available facts suggest you are mistaken. We humans are MUCH less rational creatures then we think; we bright ones are particularly unwilling to admit how much of our "thought" processes are outside our control.

Aside from the obvious "not gonna happen" response (because they've already been printed & shipped and go on sale next week)... and that the PDF was out for WEEKS (in search of problems before the order at the printer was finalized)... Can you cite (by page-number, and by position on page if more than one image) a few specific images?

... just like the overall mythography of Orlanth himself ... ?

Leverage & rigidity, dude. You need to loose at least a goodly chunk of your forearm, too. But then I think you're good to go. Remember to gas up... embarrassing to stall the motor with a half-horde of shambling dead still to dismember... But I don't think you're in Collinsport any more, Toto!

Just gotta say: this conversation is reading (to me) as having a LOT of threads that are (as I read the topic) not always clearly delineated. I think people are talking past each other a lot; and/or maybe just replying to different pieces of the topic (as happens on forum-conversations). But much of it LOOKS like it's all the "same" thread/topic. I don't think it really is... There is the IC "how do PC's and NPC's tell (and hear) this myth in all its variations" thread. There is the anthro/scholar "let us look dispassionately and analytically and non-judgementaly at all these myths" thread. There is the "are you sure NONE of your players are abuse-survivors/etc and you won't flashback somebody into a panic attack; or just severely-break the 'MGF' rule zero?" real-life player thread. And maybe more; that's just what comes immediately to mind as I think about it... FWIW and all that.

I omitted many more than I included; I think those specific ones give a closer match to the genre-conventions folks had been discussing, than does any variety of BRP. Snead's AtVW comes closest (that I know of), but isn't as on-target as Unisystem is. Or even -- ghods save us -- Storyteller.

That's a pretty sweeping and stunning indictment. As one of those grognards who began with the classic RQ2 edition (back in 1980/81), I'm not sure I am /capable/ of reading the new rulebook from a "blank slate" POV the way you have come to it, so I won't just flat-out say you're wrong; but my understanding is that Chaosium sought out a pretty diverse set of playtesters, including some equally RQ-inexperienced to you. We have obviously been seeing requests to "clarify" (or correct) various topics here on BRPC, and some on G+, and I presume elsewhere. So it's clear that yours is not an isolated opinion; there ARE problems. Of course, there are always issues with any rule-set. I think it remains to be seen just how severe the issues with this set is ...

TYVM @Sid Vicarious and @MOB ... This is the very question I wanted to ask (and the very answer I wanted to get !!! ) . 😃

I would send e-mail direct to Chaosium for this.

"Coupons" are just discount codes for the books; the physical RQG books aren't shipping yet... As I understand it, the coupons get e-mailed the moment the books are available...

I personally have a pretty good idea of my own group's interests and where they start to be unhappy with theme/tone/content. Running at a 'Con event, I would either avoid pretty much all problematic material, or put up a warning in the 'Con promo / catalogue. Forming a new group, I'd probably have a "pre-session-zero" discussion... including in-game preferences and these OOC "problematic content" issues.

I consider myself a pretty damned geeky person. Dual-booting custom configured OS'es, dynamic networking for high-availabily servers, etc (at work). I have run more non-Microsoft OS'es at home than ones from Microsoft, sometimes 2-3 at a time. That said, I am 100% in agreement with you: the RQG PDF is getting a quick read-thru from me, but I don't plan to "dig in" (or begin using the rules in play) until I have defiled Aldryami-corpses to gloat over...

Paging @Ian Cooper to the purple courtesy telephone ... https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?833931-Moon-Design-s-Heroquest-In-Print

I think the OP's point is that this is a GAME, and mythologizing / accepting "Orlanth the Abuser" is really problematic to the First Principle of MGF. The anthropologist's POV isn't the gamer's POV.