Topic: I'm back.
Subject: He's back!
Welcome back, Cap'n! I applauded you for your return! I also smote Grugg because that's something I enjoy doing.
Posted on 2008-04-25 at 21:59:37.
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Topic: GASP! Is that Eol?
Subject: Gone? Back?
I just dropped in at random, so I had no idea you had even gone anywhere. Your return seems to be appreciated, though: 2 pages of posts in less than a day! Perhaps you are the Chosen One to put an end to all the mischief that Grugg causes in the chat? That reminds, me! Grugg: If you post here, prepare to suffer a smiting!
Anyway, welcome back, Darth Falafel!
Posted on 2008-04-10 at 19:26:11.
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Topic: Oblivion IV: The Elder Scrolls
Subject: Hmm...
Actually, the title is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The previous installment was Morrowind.
I tried Morrowind out a few years back but was royally disappointed. The story, the NPCs, and the dialogue completely lacked any kind of "spark"; the game had nothing to make it interesting. In essence, it felt like an offline MMORPG. Now, I've tried several MMORPGS and they all sucked, so I guess you can deduce how I felt about Morrowind.
Baldur's Gate I and II, however (together with Fallout 1 and 2), were brilliant games—state-of-the-art, if you will. In my opinion, they are the perfect conversion of tabletop RPGs to the digital realm: they retain all the fun of traditional D&D but adapt perfectly to the format to offer a new kind of experience.
For those of you who have played both Morrowind and Oblivion as well as the Baldur's Gate series: Given my opinions above, do you think I would be disappointed with Oblivion, or has it changed enough that I should give it a try?
Posted on 2007-12-04 at 20:24:54.
Edited on 2007-12-04 at 20:27:27 by Scarab
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Topic: The Would You Rather Game
Subject: My turn!
I choose mock exams because they don't sting and because mocka means cow manure in Swedish. 
Eol Fefalas or falafel? 
Posted on 2007-11-19 at 22:24:02.
Edited on 2007-11-19 at 22:24:28 by Scarab
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Topic: What’s Your Favourite Edition?
Subject: 3e
I have no hands-on experience with 2e, but if it's the same as in Baldur's Gate, I'm glad I started out with 3e. I get along just fine without racial restrictions, a half-dozen different saving throws, and negative armor classes, thank you very much. 
Posted on 2007-11-13 at 20:24:20.
Edited on 2007-11-13 at 20:24:52 by Scarab
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Topic: GMs: Tips and Tools of the Trade
Subject: Miniatures
One more thing: I find that miniatures can actually detract from the experience a lot of the time. Unless a battle is especially complicated, I prefer not using them. I feel that it can easily make combat something "mechanical" without contributing very much to the flow of it.
This may, of course, require the players to accept some leeway when it comes to rules accuracy, and it may create confusing situations if there are many combatants involved, but I prefer to leave the miniatures in the box more often than not.
Posted on 2007-11-11 at 23:31:52.
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Topic: GMs: Tips and Tools of the Trade
Subject: Music and improvisation
Music is a brilliant way of setting the mood. I used one track in particular during my first Star Wars campaign a couple of years back, which really added to the feeling of drama and suspense during action scenes—especially chase sequences. Tavern/nightclub/cantina music is also a good source of ambience.
Skari-Dono, I wholeheartedly agree about improvisation. In fact, the first adventure of the aforementioned Star Wars campaign strayed very quickly from the notes I had prepared, so I was forced to improvise pretty much everything. It ended up being the most enjoyable gaming session I've ever played (and the best thing is that the players agree), and it influenced my style of GMing immensely.
Whenever I prepare an adventure, I outline the general idea of the episode but don't write much down and then focus on creating a bunch of places, NPCs, and encounters that can be dropped pretty much everywhere. (Writing down a list of random, generic names is a very good idea, since it takes only a few minutes but helps a lot during play.)
When you're with friends and the mood is set, things will flow without problem. Paradoxically enough, I feel more prepared the less notes I have.
Posted on 2007-11-11 at 23:25:45.
Edited on 2007-11-11 at 23:26:54 by Scarab
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Topic: Worst Gaming Clichés
Subject: Clichés? I've got plenty!
One of my players rolled up a dwarf barbarian with insane physical scores and named him Natas the Meat Machine. 
Of course, the campaign itself wasn't all that serious in tone, and we all ended up appreciating Natas and his antics, as well as his ability to cleave orcs in half. His character portrait was also pretty much one-of-a-kind, contributed to by everyone else around the table. 
(Read "Natas" backwards for some more insight into the character's mentality.)
Another player rolled up a similar characters a few years earlier: a troll with even higher physical attributes. His line of thought in naming the beast was basically this:- Think up an obscene word.
- Reverse it.
I won't tell you the name here (PM me if you really want to know), but suffice to say that this troll became somewhat of a legend in my gaming group. Some time later, the player actually created another character of the same type and just tacked on a "II" to his name. Of course, like most sequels, he ended up a pale shadow of the original. 
This same player also enjoyed rolling up characters whose only characteristic was that they were greedy and whose only motivation was that they wanted money. It wasn't helped by the fact that, for the first of this line of characters, he'd misinterpreted the rules and ended up with twice the number of skill points to everyone else.
After reading all of this, you might have gotten the impression that my life as a DM must have been hell. To be honest, though, much of this predictability and humor ended up being central parts of the campaigns we played. Despite the occasional silliness, we had a whole lot of fun.
Posted on 2007-11-11 at 12:33:58.
Edited on 2007-11-11 at 15:11:04 by Scarab
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Topic: RDINN Feature Updates/ Suggestions/ Bugs
Subject: Just out of curiosity...
Is the site by any chance built using PHP's object-oriented features?
Posted on 2007-11-09 at 17:44:46.
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Topic: RDINN Feature Updates/ Suggestions/ Bugs
Subject: Wow!
Dang, Olan, you're on a roll!
Now we just need some ketchup. 
Seriously, though: great job on adding all this stuff!
Posted on 2007-11-09 at 15:48:32.
Edited on 2007-11-09 at 15:49:03 by Scarab
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Topic: RDINN Feature Updates/ Suggestions/ Bugs
Subject: The menu
Even if I could help with the menu, I wouldn't. Animation on the web is sooo '90s... 
In other words: Nope, I don't know how to fix that. 
It's also true that smileys don't work in Firefox. A quick glance at the error console tells me that "messagebody is not defined". No idea off-hand how to fix that, though, and debugging JavaScript isn't my idea of a good time, so I'll leave that for Olan to fix if he feels like it. 
Posted on 2007-10-27 at 16:18:30.
Edited on 2007-10-27 at 16:20:04 by Scarab
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Topic: Where are you from?
Subject: Cool
Alabama: t_catt11 (Birmingham)
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California Dragon Mistress, Brianna (mile from Disneyland)
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida - Admiral (Tampa)
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada Reno; Greygrey
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio: Eol Fefalas (New Carlisle)
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas: Tann'Talas (San Antonio, Home of the Alamo)
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Canada
Ontario - Alacrity & Vanadia (Toronto)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overseas
United Kingdom - Ginafae (Edinburgh)
Iceland - Skari-dono
The Netherlands - Fantasy & Almerin (Fanmerin)
Sweden - Scarab (Jönköping)
Posted on 2007-10-27 at 15:24:42.
Edited on 2007-10-27 at 15:25:02 by Scarab
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Topic: RDINN Feature Updates/ Suggestions/ Bugs
Subject: Another tip
If you want to learn yet another thing today, here's another tip: the title attribute isn't limited to images; you can use it on pretty much any element, so an even better solution would be to apply the full topic name and post author to the text link instead of the image (or you could apply it to both).
Posted on 2007-10-26 at 21:34:40.
Edited on 2007-10-26 at 21:35:16 by Scarab
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Topic: RDINN Feature Updates/ Suggestions/ Bugs
Subject: TITLE, not ALT
Actually, ALT is for images that can't be displayed due to user agent limitations. TITLE is for mouseover descriptions of images that are visible. So, even though providing both can be tedious, Firefox is correct, standards-wise, as far as I know.
Posted on 2007-10-26 at 17:48:02.
Edited on 2007-10-26 at 17:50:51 by Scarab
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Topic: RDINN Feature Updates/ Suggestions/ Bugs
Subject: Ye olde
Ah... ye olde "no multiple topics" fix! I actually implemented that over at my own website a while ago. In my opinion, it's definitely the way to go. Good job!
Posted on 2007-10-25 at 12:58:11.
Edited on 2007-10-25 at 12:58:44 by Scarab
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Topic: Question and Answers Game
Subject:
What is the reason every other thread in the common room ends with an exclamation mark?
You could do that, but make sure you've got flood insurance first.
Posted on 2007-09-27 at 08:57:53.
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Topic: The Sarcasm Game
Subject: Seriously...
Seriously, guys—I take five minutes out of my extremely busy schedule every week to check out this site and a sarcasm game is the best you can come up with? That's real original... 
Posted on 2007-08-02 at 23:04:15.
Edited on 2007-08-02 at 23:06:26 by Scarab
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Topic: yet another movie thread...
Subject: Children of Men
Just to cut in and talk about something entirely different than Pirates and Spider-Man: Today, I saw Children of Men, which just came out on DVD in Sweden. Awesome!
The ambience to this movie is just amazing! Mood-wise, it's like a mix of War of the Worlds and 28 Days Later, and it has the coolest single-shot sequences ever!
Posted on 2007-05-25 at 23:16:31.
Edited on 2007-05-25 at 23:17:41 by Scarab
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Topic: Getting to know you
Subject:
Seriously, now: Why does everyone seem to think that I look like my avatar?
Valygar is awesome, but like Eol said, neither my skin nor my hair color is the same as his. I'm simply awesome in my own right.  Blue eyes, brown hair, and light skin that never seems to tan and only burns. (Honestly: I got a sunburn while standing in line for Revenge of the Sith, and that was in May, which is early spring in Sweden...)
Posted on 2007-03-29 at 17:13:12.
Edited on 2007-03-29 at 17:14:50 by Scarab
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Topic: Getting to know you
Subject:
I'm Jakob. (Spelled with a K 'cause I'm Swedish.)
I like humans. I used to like elves and gnomes and amoebafolk and whatnot because they're different, but nowadays I feel that pretty much any other fantasy races (or sci-fi species) than humans are bound to steretypes, while humans always represent the entire spectrum of characteristics. (That's ethnocentric game design for you! )
As for class, I haven't really played in enough campaigns to know. (I've mostly just GMed.) Rangers are cool (wink, wink, Eol ), but just like elves they often seem to become associated with one type of character (similar to druids, monks, and paladins). That said, I'd likely go with something more universal like the fighter or the rogue (who, thankfully, is no longer a "thief" since 3rd edition ).
Posted on 2007-03-29 at 15:34:03.
Edited on 2007-03-29 at 17:16:12 by Scarab
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Topic: Favorite Adventure/Setting
Subject: Awesome!
You can only get as many orc points as your wisdom score before turning into an orc for real.
We had so much fun nominating eachother for orc points... That's so awesome, Almerin! Makes me remember why I love playing tabletop RPGs!
(Haven't been able to find a group in a long time, though. Anyone from Jönköping, Sweden around here? )
Posted on 2007-03-08 at 20:25:07.
Edited on 2007-03-08 at 20:25:21 by Scarab
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Topic: This I know...
Subject: Awesome!
What to vegetarian zombies eat? GRAAAAAAAIIINNNSSSS....
– Grugg
That's awesome! Just had to comment!
Posted on 2007-03-06 at 11:06:24.
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Topic: This I know...
Subject: Oops!
Ah... That was supposed to be a PM, actually (hence my reference to which thread she posted in), but it turns out I clicked the Reply link instead... 
Posted on 2007-02-28 at 14:13:54.
Edited on 2007-02-28 at 14:14:46 by Scarab
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Topic: This I know...
Subject: Rob
Just curious regarding what you posted in the "This I know" thread: How long have you known Rob? You don't know him IRL, do you?
Posted on 2007-02-28 at 14:06:24.
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Topic: This I know...
Subject: Interesting...
I've totally missed Eol's flattering description of me up until now. I guess a returned favor is in order! (I'll also include some of the other people I know best around here.)
Eol: A thoughtful guy who wonderfully combines insightful spirituality with light-hearted humor.
Grugg: A countryman-in-spirit (fan of Sweden) who always has a funny comment on the ready—even when he's on painkillers!
Olan (t_catt11): The best webmaster you're ever likely to meet!
Posted on 2007-02-28 at 12:51:03.
Edited on 2007-02-28 at 12:51:37 by Scarab
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