Jim Sterling / James "Stephanie" Sterling / James Stanton/Sexton & in memoriam TotalBiscuit (John Bain) - One Gaming Lolcow Thread

[AngryTreeRat]

Swamp hag from Warhammer fantasy

I think he's more like a hill giant from D&D. Am inbred hill giant.

 

[Brother Wind]

Man both my predictions were way off the mark this week, I thought he was going to shit on Ubisoft or Hogwarts Legacy. I'm completely ignorant about D&D and the OGL so I'm not going to comment on it too much but from what it seems WotC wanted to move away from what is at the moment an extremely generous system that has given birth to it's main competitor (Pathfinder) and I couldn't fault them for wanting to wrangle control back and make money from people basing their stuff on the D&D system, its kinda scummy but there is no such thing as a free ride.

So, the big thing is that the first version of this is what put D&D back on the map. I dunno how old you are or your history with nerd shit. but turn of the century 99-02ish. Tabletop games were fucking dying. D&D was really only kept alive by video games. And even then, I think there was a pretty big gap between video games. And they are certainly not the ones anyone talks about. Because you're talking like the gap between Eye of the Beholder 3 or one of those fucking Ravenloft games, and then Baldur's Gate. Point is, D&D was getting to be quite fucking irrelevant. But, this is also roughly the time WotC bought up TSR. And started work on the 3rd edition of D&D. And then, they came up with a masterstroke.

This version of D&D was gonna have this core system anyone could fucking use. Without getting in the weeds, this was called the d20 system. And going back to why I brought up your history, this is why, because "X d20" was fucking everywhere. The most famous is certainly Star Wars d20. Because that got made into actual video games with Knights of the Old Republic. But when I say everything, I mean it. Every license under the sun. I think I own a Star Trek d20, I own a Trigun d20, Lord of the Rings got one. Other TTRPGs got one. Vampire the Masquerade has a d20 version. I think Shadowrun got on too. Or maybe that was Cyberpunk. Possibly both. And I'm still not done with examples. Because me bringing up the death of Tabletop games is relevant too. Because, tabletop gaming's idea was to turn video games into RPGs. I have an Everquest d20 book. I always wanted Diablo 2 d20. But, my Dad said he looked it over and it looked real dumb so he didn't get it. Even World of Warcraft got a d20 system.

And that's all just ignoring the actual creative stuff. One of my favorite systems is Basic Fantasy Roleplaying. Which is like old school D&D using the easy to understand d20 system. So, I can cut the difference and play old D&D with my friends and they don't bitch about THAC0. And then, the real magic of the system and contract was that when D&D left and did 4e, d20 wasn't dead. Even if WotC tried pulling some bullshit about that. The way it was written, they were fucked. d20 was here to stay. Which is where Pathfinder came in and gave everyone more "vanilla" D&D 3e. In fact I'm pretty sure Basic FRP was after 4e.

So, in short. This isn't people being entitled to use someone's IP. In fact, IP is the one thing you can't use in OGL. Part of the OGL states that you can't use D&D brand monsters. And any of the specifically named spells i.e. Melf's Acid Arrow, just become Acid Arrow. This was one of the few generous ideas given out by corporations. The idea that when they got bored with something, the community would always have it. And the ability to iterate on it. Because you can always play old games, but sometimes it's nice to get updates to the thing you like. Or fixes. Or just new stuff. And WotC seemed to understand that with 5e, and them bringing back the OGL. So, now when Tabletop shit is way more popular than it was the first time, them closing it back off feels even stupider, and the attempt to make money off everything *now* is just scummy.

 

[Mikoyan]

So, the big thing is that the first version of this is what put D&D back on the map. I dunno how old you are or your history with nerd shit. but turn of the century 99-02ish. Tabletop games were fucking dying. D&D was really only kept alive by video games. And even then, I think there was a pretty big gap between video games. And they are certainly not the ones anyone talks about. Because you're talking like the gap between Eye of the Beholder 3 or one of those fucking Ravenloft games, and then Baldur's Gate. Point is, D&D was getting to be quite fucking irrelevant. But, this is also roughly the time WotC bought up TSR. And started work on the 3rd edition of D&D. And then, they came up with a masterstroke.

This version of D&D was gonna have this core system anyone could fucking use. Without getting in the weeds, this was called the d20 system. And going back to why I brought up your history, this is why, because "X d20" was fucking everywhere. The most famous is certainly Star Wars d20. Because that got made into actual video games with Knights of the Old Republic. But when I say everything, I mean it. Every license under the sun. I think I own a Star Trek d20, I own a Trigun d20, Lord of the Rings got one. Other TTRPGs got one. Vampire the Masquerade has a d20 version. I think Shadowrun got on too. Or maybe that was Cyberpunk. Possibly both. And I'm still not done with examples. Because me bringing up the death of Tabletop games is relevant too. Because, tabletop gaming's idea was to turn video games into RPGs. I have an Everquest d20 book. I always wanted Diablo 2 d20. But, my Dad said he looked it over and it looked real dumb so he didn't get it. Even World of Warcraft got a d20 system.

And that's all just ignoring the actual creative stuff. One of my favorite systems is Basic Fantasy Roleplaying. Which is like old school D&D using the easy to understand d20 system. So, I can cut the difference and play old D&D with my friends and they don't bitch about THAC0. And then, the real magic of the system and contract was that when D&D left and did 4e, d20 wasn't dead. Even if WotC tried pulling some bullshit about that. The way it was written, they were fucked. d20 was here to stay. Which is where Pathfinder came in and gave everyone more "vanilla" D&D 3e. In fact I'm pretty sure Basic FRP was after 4e.

So, in short. This isn't people being entitled to use someone's IP. In fact, IP is the one thing you can't use in OGL. Part of the OGL states that you can't use D&D brand monsters. And any of the specifically named spells i.e. Melf's Acid Arrow, just become Acid Arrow. This was one of the few generous ideas given out by corporations. The idea that when they got bored with something, the community would always have it. And the ability to iterate on it. Because you can always play old games, but sometimes it's nice to get updates to the thing you like. Or fixes. Or just new stuff. And WotC seemed to understand that with 5e, and them bringing back the OGL. So, now when Tabletop shit is way more popular than it was the first time, them closing it back off feels even stupider, and the attempt to make money off everything *now* is just scummy.

I really disliked that era because it seemed like all the interesting, quirky, semi-special purpose systems were being totally displaced by d20.

 

[Corn Flakes]

I really disliked that era because it seemed like all the interesting, quirky, semi-special purpose systems were being totally displaced by d20.

And they were, because those interesting, quirky and/or semi-special purpose systems were often clunky as fuck. Not all of them were, but d20 was successful for a reason. It was really easy to understand and run compared to some systems of the time, and people just like levels. Number go up make monkee brain happy.

 

[Muppetstudios]

3k to go, the salt must flow

 

[Brother Wind]

I really disliked that era because it seemed like all the interesting, quirky, semi-special purpose systems were being totally displaced by d20.

If I'm being real. Me too. Although I was like 10 when this was all going down. So, like all these licenses appealed to me and it wasn't until later that I was like "Oh these all suck". Although, I'm not sure we would have been getting more quirky games. Like video games were killing tabletop. So, they may have just never gotten published anyway

 

[AngryTreeRat]

I really disliked that era because it seemed like all the interesting, quirky, semi-special purpose systems were being totally displaced by d20.

If I'm being real. Me too. Although I was like 10 when this was all going down. So, like all these licenses appealed to me and it wasn't until later that I was like "Oh these all suck". Although, I'm not sure we would have been getting more quirky games. Like video games were killing tabletop. So, they may have just never gotten published anyway

I think the big thing to remember, a lot of the shoveled out d20 stuff was just that, shoveled out. They were the shovel ware of tabletop games. Having worked in the video game industry now for a decade, and having connections now with tabletop as a result, looking back, I understand what was going on better now than ever. A d20 system can manifest in many different and interesting ways, there's a lot of flexibility to the system in how it could be expressed and used. How much flexibility? Nearly as much as many video game engines. The issue isn't the d20 system, it was the fact no one cared to be too creative with it, and at the time TTRPGs were viewed as a rapidly passing fad.

A lot of what was killing the tabletop industry before was everyone was in their own bubble with their own systems, and very few people had consistent baselines that a given player could learn then translate to the next game, since, unlike say video game genres which have fairly consistent design and control conventions, TTRPGs didn't. A big part of why right now so many people are hopping from D&D to PF is it is familiar in how a lot of the basic mechanics work, and that baseline matters.

I have never really cared about Star Wars, I'm a fantasy nerd more than a scifi nerd, but I was invited to play SWd20 once, and as I sat down it took me under an hour to skim the rulebook handed to me, to get familiar with before I asked my questions while everyone else set up for me to say "Yeah here's my character, anything wrong? What's that? I did something nearly meta? Well I swear I never played this system again, there's a few things I don't understand related to XYZ, but I'll figure it out in play" and I was able to play the game because I had played D&D3e before. I had similar experiences with other d20 systems like Call of Cthulhu. That is the real value of the d20 system. That said, a system I do like is the d100 system used by Fantasy Flight to make their Warhammer 40k TTRPGs, but it is a lot harder to convince a group of friends to try those out than a d20 system, because there is way more to them to learn from nothing than there is with a d20 system. Familiarity gets you going.

That all said, I still prefer that if someone does make a TTRPG for a certain type of setting, they put in the work to make a system appropriate for their setting rather than just use the d20 SRD in a fairly raw and unmodified form, and I do hope so see competitors pop up with open licenses, and that people give them attention, though such a thing is a nerdy idealist fantasy, but if everyone released their basic dice rolling rules under an open license as well as left a third party market was open it'd be a dream come true so long as people supported them.

For example, imagine if when you went to the hobby shop the TTRPG section was divided by system, and you could decide "I like the way rolling works for World of Darkness, but not their setting or other aspects" and could pick up the Lovecraft TTRPG that used that system, or you could pick up the Powered by the Apocalypse version of a Lovecraft TTRPG. Maybe there could be a Star Trek Story Teller TTRPG and Star Trek By The Apocalypse to go with Star Trek d20.

 

[Bulk Bogan]

-snip-

Urge to shill for GURPS... rising...

I'd disagree that TTRPGs were seen as a passing fad as such, more as a niche market with limited exploitation possibilities. I really don't think anyone who wasn't already homebrewing a Star Wars ruleset got into tabletops because he saw Darth Vader on a rulebook cover... though with KOTOR's existence, maybe SW is a bad example to use to make this point. Otherwise you've finally put into words what I'd been having a hard time articulating to friends, that D20 systems are the shovelware of the ttrpg hobby. It makes so much sense.

 

[Mikoyan]

Urge to shill for GURPS... rising...

I'd disagree that TTRPGs were seen as a passing fad as such, more as a niche market with limited exploitation possibilities. I really don't think anyone who wasn't already homebrewing a Star Wars ruleset got into tabletops because he saw Darth Vader on a rulebook cover... though with KOTOR's existence, maybe SW is a bad example to use to make this point. Otherwise you've finally put into words what I'd been having a hard time articulating to friends, that D20 systems are the shovelware of the ttrpg hobby. It makes so much sense.

I'll admit one reason I didn't like RISE OF D20 was because we were GURPS mains. "Hey wait, we've been trying to do this since way before it was cool".

 

[Spud gun]

I think he's more like a hill giant from D&D. Am inbred hill giant.

I'm going with a great unclean one, one of Nurgles demons from 40K

 

[Hyro]

3k to go, the salt must flow

View attachment 4287591

Do you think he'll acknowledge the 800k mark in his videos? He seems to have been avoiding the topic for a while now.

 

[Oliver Onions]

Do you think he'll acknowledge the 800k mark in his videos? He seems to have been avoiding the topic for a while now.

We'll almost certainly get a passive-aggressive snipe about it (something along the lines of 'another 100k bigots left my channel. Good!') but I doubt we'll see another full video on the topic like when 900k happened.

If nothing else I just don't see how he could stretch the topic out for a full episode without it descending into unambiguous cope, but I will be more than happy to be proven wrong.

 

[Lightly Buttered Crumpet]

Yeah I do think we will eventually hit a bottom and the bleed will stop, so Jim could comfortably keep doing what he's doing forever, but I suspect he might freak out and quit YouTube before that happens.

He seems to be deteriorating rapidly, and with support for gender bullshit appearing to have reached a turning point (though I am under no illusion we're out of the woods) I think Jim is going to find his world rapidly shrinking in a way he won't be willing to deal with, and if he tries to pull out of the alphabet shit he's mired in there's going to be nothing left waiting for him on the other side.

TL;DR Jim isn't going anywhere unless it's by his own hand, and that is not unlikely.

I think, if he's allowed to keep wrestling, that he's just going to have a heart attack. For his sake, I hope he loses some weight and gets fitter if he wants to continue the wrestling as his body is already strained just carrying that fat.

 

[Sister Cassia]

I really disliked that era because it seemed like all the interesting, quirky, semi-special purpose systems were being totally displaced by d20.

I think we are in store for a new renaissance of systems. D&D and the OGL is poison, and thats great. Everyone is doing an emergency rewrite, and tons of people are using this an excuse to finish their homebrew system. 90% will suck, but we will get some gems

 

[Dumpster dived waifu]

I think, if he's allowed to keep wrestling, that he's just going to have a heart attack. For his sake, I hope he loses some weight and gets fitter if he wants to continue the wrestling as his body is already strained just carrying that fat.

Instead he's going to pump himself with hormones, wrecking havoc on himself, in the hopes of waking up with different chromosomes and real tits.

 

[Lightly Buttered Crumpet]

What an incredibly concise explanation for why he is losing subs. Not the trooning, not the (childish) politics - but by him just being an unpleasant, fat wanker.

Exactly. Why do people watch YouTube? For relaxation, information, amusement, excitement, intrigue, etc.
They do not watch YouTube videos for unfunny moaning and being told you're wrong if you don't like what you're watching.

You can rant and be entertaining and informative. Guru Larry or Red Letter Media are the ones that instantly spring to my mind whenever I think of this, simply because I watch both of them quite a lot. Red Letter Media does it in a comedic fashion, explaining what's wrong with films and what they could do better - see their Mr Plinkett series of film reviews which are one constant rant for the entire video BUT massively interesting, informative and comedic.

Guru Larry tells you about controversies that the vast majority of people will be completely unaware of and doesn't fixate on it; he just gives you the information you need and moves on. Will he mention people like Peter Molyneaux in multiple videos? Yes, but it's always a new bit of information that he's giving.

Jim used to have the informative part and there's still a little bit of information there, now and then, but it's a tiny amount padded with yelling. Jim had comedy and I am sure some people think some of the things he does/says are relatively comedic but, for the most part, there's almost no comedy now compared to what he had.

One of my favourite old videos of his is explaining how the Yakuza series of games have the smallest yet biggest open world maps because they are a compact area, yet full of detail and full of variety in side missions. He sounds happy and is gushing about his love of the games, giving information and insight which encouraged me to buy them once they got ported to PC and, when I played them, I had to agree with him and thinking about them through his lens made me enjoy them even more!

 

[Moja Zemlja]

I think, if he's allowed to keep wrestling, that he's just going to have a heart attack. For his sake, I hope he loses some weight and gets fitter if he wants to continue the wrestling as his body is already strained just carrying that fat.

Its not just a heart attack he's at risk of, he supposedly does wrestling training a few days a week but what he does in them is largely a mystery and if he isn't doing basic exercises to increase his level of fitness then soon enough his back isn't going to be the only thing he has problems with.

 

[Burt Offerings]

Exactly. Why do people watch YouTube? For relaxation, information, amusement, excitement, intrigue, etc.
They do not watch YouTube videos for unfunny moaning and being told you're wrong if you don't like what you're watching.

You can rant and be entertaining and informative. Guru Larry or Red Letter Media are the ones that instantly spring to my mind whenever I think of this, simply because I watch both of them quite a lot. Red Letter Media does it in a comedic fashion, explaining what's wrong with films and what they could do better - see their Mr Plinkett series of film reviews which are one constant rant for the entire video BUT massively interesting, informative and comedic.

Guru Larry tells you about controversies that the vast majority of people will be completely unaware of and doesn't fixate on it; he just gives you the information you need and moves on. Will he mention people like Peter Molyneaux in multiple videos? Yes, but it's always a new bit of information that he's giving.

Jim used to have the informative part and there's still a little bit of information there, now and then, but it's a tiny amount padded with yelling. Jim had comedy and I am sure some people think some of the things he does/says are relatively comedic but, for the most part, there's almost no comedy now compared to what he had.

One of my favourite old videos of his is explaining how the Yakuza series of games have the smallest yet biggest open world maps because they are a compact area, yet full of detail and full of variety in side missions. He sounds happy and is gushing about his love of the games, giving information and insight which encouraged me to buy them once they got ported to PC and, when I played them, I had to agree with him and thinking about them through his lens made me enjoy them even more!

An unpleasant, fat wanker with nothing to say.

 

[Brain Problems]

An unpleasant, fat wanker with nothing to say.

Fat, trooned, and boring is no way to go through life.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Fat, trooned, and boring is no way to go through life.

Tell that to the legions of fat, boring troons demanding attention and gibs on Twitter.