Tabletop Community Watch

[Corn Flakes]

- Who's that guy at 10/95? I see him in kiwi avatars and keep thinking 'George Takei's dad'.

That's Chairman Yang from Alpha Centauri. Patron saint of pod-living bugmen.

 

[40 Year Old Boomer]

It's called Maccabees and Menorahs and it's a mini RPG from 2016. You use dreidels to decide success obviously.
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Sorry, I'll stick with Phalanxes and Philosophers where we use platonic solids, thank you very much.

 

[Wormy]

This is one of the reasons I love GMing Shadowrun. My players quickly figured out that the amount of inconvenience caused to a Corp is directly correlated to how many resources they will expend hunting you down. Steal an experimental item and research? Not too much is going to be devoted to finding you. This is the cost of doing business in the 6th world. Kill 3/4 of the scientists, and burn down the entire secret lab? You better bet your ass they will be looking for you. And not picky on what happens when they find you.

Similar, albeit for CP 2020. My group, despite some exceptional decisions at times, at least had the sense to know that it was one thing to shred Arasaka ninja teams in pursuit of those shiny new combat chips they were developing (and they even managed to frame a Boostergang as responsible), torching the entire office building is another.

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

Similar, albeit for CP 2020. My group, despite some exceptional decisions at times, at least had the sense to know that it was one thing to shred Arasaka ninja teams in pursuit of those shiny new combat chips they were developing (and they even managed to frame a Boostergang as responsible), torching the entire office building is another.

After CP2077 came out I had a couple people wanting to join my Shadowrun game on roll20, most of them starting their message with "I played CP2077 and thought..."

The problem with that game is, Johnny detonated a FUCKING NUKE.

I delisted my game because I really didn't want people who played CP2077 to think that was how a Shadowrun game pre Halley's Comet was going to be run.

Plus, either people were "Why is there magic in a cyberpunk game" or they have some weird idea of cyberpunk not being miserable, drizzly, acid rain filled, techno metal, terrible dystopia. (It took me a while, but I found out it's called Carepunk or Ecopunk is what these dumb assholes want)

It's really fucking weird sometimes how the dangerhairs will complain about Orcs being a standin for black people, whine about LGBT representation in the game, then turn around and brutally, and I mean brutally, slaughter everyone with a hundred miles if they can even slightly guilty-by-association tar brush their victims to the point where even long time players are all "What the fuck?" It's like they want to be John Wick when you're trying to go in silent with minimal casualties and want to use narcojet rifles when you're facing off against an Aztechnology Blood Mage.

 

[Shaka Brah]

Plus, either people were "Why is there magic in a cyberpunk game" or they have some weird idea of cyberpunk not being miserable, drizzly, acid rain filled, techno metal, terrible dystopia. (It took me a while, but I found out it's called Carepunk or Ecopunk is what these dumb assholes want)

Leftoids almost universally view the dystopic future of cyberpunk/transhumanism as a good thing. Of course they'd not be enthused to play out its true consequences.

 

[Wormy]

After CP2077 came out I had a couple people wanting to join my Shadowrun game on roll20, most of them starting their message with "I played CP2077 and thought..."

The problem with that game is, Johnny detonated a FUCKING NUKE.

And by and large, player, you are NOT Johnny Silverhand nor Morgan Blackhand, nor Nomad Santiago and you sure as shit ain't Ghostlord. Hell, you're lucky if you're Kerry Eurodyne.

Plus, either people were "Why is there magic in a cyberpunk game"

or they have some weird idea of cyberpunk not being miserable, drizzly, acid rain filled, techno metal, terrible dystopia.

I want to meet these people. Really, I do. For scientific reasons. I want to know WHAT they think it is....
For the record, I consider this to be the most cyberpunk thing out there right now..

It's really fucking weird sometimes how the dangerhairs will complain about Orcs being a standin for black people

Slight tangent; why do they focus on the orcs? You'd figure they'd focus on the Easterlings, the Rhun, the men of Umbar ect..which will give a much stronger case about LOTR being racis' (Yellow men BAD!)

, whine about LGBT representation in the game, then turn around and brutally, and I mean brutally, slaughter everyone with a hundred miles if they can even slightly guilty-by-association tar brush their victims to the point where even long time players are all "What the fuck?" It's like they want to be John Wick when you're trying to go in silent with minimal casualties and want to use narcojet rifles when you're facing off against an Aztechnology Blood Mage.

You'll give yourself a headache trying to decode it all, believe me, I've tried and have the holes in my drywall to prove it.

 

[Adamska]

It's literally because Orcs are the bad race in old school DnD IMO.

Ironically, they'd actually have some point in kvetching about Orc = Black people if they actually cracked open Shadowrun, since that was an allegory in that game. But that's way too not-hip and cool mainstream.

 

[Corn Flakes]

It's literally because Orcs are the bad race in old school DnD IMO.

Ironically, they'd actually have some point in kvetching about Orc = Black people if they actually cracked open Shadowrun, since that was an allegory in that game. But that's way too not-hip and cool mainstream.

Bright (I know, not an RPG, but still urban fantasy) tried that. While at the same time still having normal black humans going around. It did not work. At all.

 

[Wallace]

Slight tangent; why do they focus on the orcs? You'd figure they'd focus on the Easterlings, the Rhun, the men of Umbar ect..which will give a much stronger case about LOTR being racis' (Yellow men BAD!)

Dangerhaired hipsters only care about geek hobbies to the extent that they can get social capital from them. Their knowledge of D&D extends to an episode or two of Critical Role. They have no idea what Rhun or Umbar is.

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

It's really fucking weird sometimes how the dangerhairs will complain about Orcs being a standin for black people, whine about LGBT representation in the game, then turn around and brutally, and I mean brutally, slaughter everyone with a hundred miles if they can even slightly guilty-by-association tar brush their victims to the point where even long time players are all "What the fuck?" It's like they want to be John Wick when you're trying to go in silent with minimal casualties and want to use narcojet rifles when you're facing off against an Aztechnology Blood Mage.

So the same people who will pretend to talk about how dangerous right-wing gun nuts are, or how right-wing authoritarians are bullies, will abuse power when it's given to their hands. This isn't really anything strange.

You have to understand that most liberals aren't necessarily soy-lords or peace-loving hippies. Many of them have toxic masculinity and talk like fratboys or sailors when they see a hot girl, or have the same idea of "cleansing the undesirables", despite the fact that they call other people Nazis. Sure, they hide that under a veneer of social justice, but that whole SJW spiel is just that: a spiel. If they took that shit seriously, they'd be working in homeless shelters or with charitable organizations 24/7. It always has been a game of accusing other people of what they are inside. Look at what happened to the Cuomos or to Harvey Weinstein.

It's not that surprising that the danger-hairs who keep talking about how we need to be tolerant to each other become genocidal pricks when they realize there's no consequence to their actions.

Dangerhaired hipsters only care about geek hobbies to the extent that they can get social capital from them. Their knowledge of D&D extends to an episode or two of Critical Role. They have no idea what Rhun or Umbar is.

It's literally because Orcs are the bad race in old school DnD IMO.

Ironically, they'd actually have some point in kvetching about Orc = Black people if they actually cracked open Shadowrun, since that was an allegory in that game. But that's way too not-hip and cool mainstream.

Old-school DnD ironically picked that up from Tolkien, and they wound up missing the point: the Orcs themselves are not a race unto themselves, but just corrupted humans and elves. They're more akin to the Collector race from Mass Effect: the remnants of a once-proud species (the Protheans) twisted and turned into killing machines by the forces of evil. So people who classify the Orcs as a race unto themselves, ironically enough, depart from the original themes of Orcs as a people in Lord of the Rings, where those who weren't just artificially produced via magic are actually former humans and elves that were twisted by dark powers.

Bright (I know, not an RPG, but still urban fantasy) tried that. While at the same time still having normal black humans going around. It did not work. At all.

Elder Scrolls technically has black humans AND Orcs running around as two separate races, but the Orcs there aren't even bad guys, and the black humans as a whole (Redguards) are their own race with their separate culture.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Old-school DnD ironically picked that up from Tolkien, and they wound up missing the point: the Orcs themselves are not a race unto themselves, but just corrupted humans and elves. They're more akin to the Collector race from Mass Effect: the remnants of a once-proud species (the Protheans) twisted and turned into killing machines by the forces of evil. So people who classify the Orcs as a race unto themselves, ironically enough, depart from the original themes of Orcs as a people in Lord of the Rings, where those who weren't just artificially produced via magic are actually former humans and elves that were twisted by dark powers.

The Tolkien origin for orcs is completely irrelevant in current D&D, though.

Until Wizards cucks out and changes the orc entry in the next version of the Monster Manual, orcs are adamant that Grummsh created them. To quote:

Orcs worship Gruumsh, the mightiest of the ore deities and their creator. The orcs believe that in ancient days, the gods gathered to divide the world among their followers. When Gruumsh claimed the mountains, he learned they had been taken by the dwarves. He laid claim to the forests, but those had been settled by the elves. Each place that Gruumsh wanted had already been claimed. The other gods laughed at Gruumsh, but he responded with a furious bellow. Grasping his mighty spear, he laid waste to the mountains, set the forests aflame, and carved great furrows in the fields. Such was the role of the orcs, he proclaimed, to take and destroy all that the other races would deny them. To this day, the orcs wage an endless war on humans, elves, dwarves, and other folk.​

That's a fucking metal origin story for a race. Sadly, it's also haram for the woke zealots. Expect it to go away soon.

 

[Wormy]

Dangerhaired hipsters only care about geek hobbies to the extent that they can get social capital from them. Their knowledge of D&D extends to an episode or two of Critical Role. They have no idea what Rhun or Umbar is.

Once again, I give people like this far too much credit and assume they at least study what they scream about...
Also, fuck Critical Role.

and the black humans as a whole (Redguards) are their own race with their separate culture.

Ragada pride, Mundus wide, motherfucka! They know how to deal with genocidal knife ears.

Orcs worship Gruumsh, the mightiest of the ore deities and their creator. The orcs believe that in ancient days, the gods gathered to divide the world among their followers. When Gruumsh claimed the mountains, he learned they had been taken by the dwarves. He laid claim to the forests, but those had been settled by the elves. Each place that Gruumsh wanted had already been claimed. The other gods laughed at Gruumsh, but he responded with a furious bellow. Grasping his mighty spear, he laid waste to the mountains, set the forests aflame, and carved great furrows in the fields. Such was the role of the orcs, he proclaimed, to take and destroy all that the other races would deny them. To this day, the orcs wage an endless war on humans, elves, dwarves, and other folk.

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

The Tolkien origin for orcs is completely irrelevant in current D&D, though.

Until Wizards cucks out and changes the orc entry in the next version of the Monster Manual, orcs are adamant that Grummsh created them. To quote:

Orcs worship Gruumsh, the mightiest of the ore deities and their creator. The orcs believe that in ancient days, the gods gathered to divide the world among their followers. When Gruumsh claimed the mountains, he learned they had been taken by the dwarves. He laid claim to the forests, but those had been settled by the elves. Each place that Gruumsh wanted had already been claimed. The other gods laughed at Gruumsh, but he responded with a furious bellow. Grasping his mighty spear, he laid waste to the mountains, set the forests aflame, and carved great furrows in the fields. Such was the role of the orcs, he proclaimed, to take and destroy all that the other races would deny them. To this day, the orcs wage an endless war on humans, elves, dwarves, and other folk.​

That's a fucking metal origin story for a race. Sadly, it's also haram for the woke zealots. Expect it to go away soon.

Funny thing is, that is NOT a new origin story.

That's from a Dragon Magazine article in the 1980's, when Gruumsh still had one eye.

Why doesn't it surprise me that they snatched that up.

 

[UnsufficentBoobage]

people were "Why is there magic in a cyberpunk game

Boring faggots who started the science fiction vs. fantasy distinction had worsened everyone's life and still continue to.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Boring faggots who started the science fiction vs. fantasy distinction had worsened everyone's life and still continue to.

It gets worse. These same faggots who say they don't want "fantasy" in their science fiction still jack it raw to sci-fi settings with psionics. You know, the store-brand Great Value version of magic for sci-fi settings. A few years ago I witnessed a Mass Effect fanboy having a complete meltdown when confronted with the fact the eponymous "mass effect" is, pure and simply, just Space Magic by any other name.

 

[Easterling]

It's really fucking weird sometimes how the dangerhairs will complain about Orcs being a standin for black people

I've tried to trace the origins of this one, I think it started in one dnd supplement which was set on an island and there were some Intresting african inspired orc models produced by ral partha back in the 90s which you can still get here. Outside of two things i honestly have no clue where its stemed from outside the personal predjudices of virtune signalling interlopers.

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

It gets worse. These same faggots who say they don't want "fantasy" in their science fiction still jack it raw to sci-fi settings with psionics. You know, the store-brand Great Value version of magic for sci-fi settings. A few years ago I witnessed a Mass Effect fanboy having a complete meltdown when confronted with the fact the eponymous "mass effect" is, pure and simply, just Space Magic by any other name.

Mass Effect always had space magic. The advanced tech of the Reapers and biotics just became a license to do whatever they want. I mean, in the first game, the biotics merely control element zero and make things float or disintegrate, but by the third game, my N7 Vanguard is teleporting and vanguard-charging all over the place, while Reaper tech can do anything from turning humans into zombies that explode, to creating a bug-like species from a species that did not look like bugs at all.

 

[Ghostse]

Leftoids almost universally view the dystopic future of cyberpunk/transhumanism as a good thing. Of course they'd not be enthused to play out its true consequences.

They believe they'll be the 0.1% at the top of the tree with flying cars and cool implants that will let them show dad what's what, and not the 99.9% of the serfs who are slowing dying in a tiny pod apartment they share with 5 other people. Flip side of the arachocaptialists.

It gets worse. These same faggots who say they don't want "fantasy" in their science fiction still jack it raw to sci-fi settings with psionics. You know, the store-brand Great Value version of magic for sci-fi settings. A few years ago I witnessed a Mass Effect fanboy having a complete meltdown when confronted with the fact the eponymous "mass effect" is, pure and simply, just Space Magic by any other name.

I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting only things that be explained by current physics (or with explicit carve outs; ftl, artificial gravity, etc) because it raises questions about the effects that you have to autistically address the limits of these new powers, and it raises questions about their origins. But like you said, these faggots then turn right around and coom about psi powers.

I dunno if I'd call the Mass Effect's FTL method magic, but the Biotics are straight up space wizards.

 

[Mola Ram]

It gets worse. These same faggots who say they don't want "fantasy" in their science fiction still jack it raw to sci-fi settings with psionics. You know, the store-brand Great Value version of magic for sci-fi settings. A few years ago I witnessed a Mass Effect fanboy having a complete meltdown when confronted with the fact the eponymous "mass effect" is, pure and simply, just Space Magic by any other name.

Was he also a Dragon Age fan? Because it's always been fairly obvious to me that element zero is pretty damn close to lyrium.

 

[Newman's Lovechild]

I have to admit, I still prefer the Warhammer orc gods.

Spoiler

The Greenskins worship twin brothers, Mork and Gork, who are Orcs writ large. They fight each other, and any other Gods, for dominance, and may even challenge living Orcs who draw their attention. The worship of these deities appears to involve idols formed from excrement, as well as violence and the sacrifice of prisoners, cowards, and rivals who do not get out of the way quickly enough.

There is no shortage of lesser deities or strange cults that catch on amongst the highly superstitious Orcs and Goblins. Far above any mere fetishes or minor idols, however, are the real powerhouses of the greenskin pantheon, the boisterous and belligerent brother-gods known as Gork and Mork. Greenskins do not call upon Gork and Mork for aid when they are in trouble, nor do Orcs and Goblins beseech them for gifts, such as softer or punier races might do. Instead, these war-gods and their infamous deeds serve as inspiration. Gork is brutal but kunnin' and his brother Mork is kunnin' but brutal. Every greenskin has complete and unquestioning faith that if he is brutal and kunnin' enough, he will join the gods after his death and continue the fight.

• Gork - is the primary deity of clobbering, smashing, breaking, killing and pummelling the rest of the world into submission. This is a notion that resonates strongly with the more warlike and highly volatile Orc sub-species, where their single-mindedness for violence and brutality often out-shadows their otherwise low cunning.

• Mork - is the patron deity of cunning and shamans. Whereas Gork is most likely to clobber an enemy god in the face, Mork will happily wait until his enemy's back is turned before raising his club and belting him around the back of the head. It is Mork who is revered by the stranger and arguably more intelligent strains of Greenskins, the most prominent of which are the Goblins and Night Goblins.

Gork and Mork

“Greenskins worship the Blood God. I saw it in their eyes. Delight, that’s what it was. Delight as they spilled the blood of my family. I say kill them all.” —Heimar Orcreaver, Mercenary Captain.[1a] The Greenskins worship twin brothers, Mork and Gork, who are Orcs writ large. They fight each...

warhammerfantasy.fandom.com

And the 40K ork attitude to race:

Oomans are pink and soft, not tough and green like da Boyz. They'z all the same size too, so they'z always arguing about who's in charge, 'cos no way of telling 'cept fer badges an' ooniforms and fings. When one of them wants to lord it over the uvvers, 'e says "I'm very speshul so'z you gotta worship me", or "I know summink wot you lot don't know so yer better lissen good". Da funny fing is, arf of 'em believe it and da over arf don't, so 'e 'as to hit 'em all anyway or run fer it. Wot a lot of mukkin' about if yer asks me. An' while they'z all arguing wiv each other over who's da boss, da Orks can clobber da lot

The only good 'ooman is a dead 'ooman. An' da only fing better than a dead 'ooman'z a dyin' 'ooman who tell you where ter find 'is mates.

Orks instinctively obey those larger than themselves, provided they are a healthy shade of green -- most Orks would rather die than bow to a non-greenskin's will.