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Old 06-23-2017, 02:30 AM   #11
Phil Masters
 
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Default Re: Pyramid #3/104: Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game

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Originally Posted by Rasputin View Post
The "Heroic Background Generator" isn't bad, again a DF-specific version of another supplement (Central Casting) that I use often, but more and more, I find background is something that we tend to overblow, at least in supplements. If a background leads to interesting play, great; otherwise, it's mental masturbation on a character sheet.
I wouldn't disagree with that, at all, but I'd tend to a middle ground approach. If you want to give a character or setting lots of detailed background, great, if that's what floats your boat - but don't complain if it then just dies on the page. If you don't murder your darlings, be prepared for them to die of starvation, and don't keep trying to save them at the cost of the game.

At a very rough guess, having created a lot of background for many of my characters, about a third of it subsequently has significance in play. The other two-thirds... Well, meh. It gave me some transient satisfaction while I was writing it.
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Old 06-23-2017, 05:08 AM   #12
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Default Re: Pyramid #3/104: Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game

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Let me ask something -- did you catch that it was a reference to the popular meme, "The Cake is a Lie!"?
I've never heard of that meme. I don't get out much. :)
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Old 06-23-2017, 05:43 AM   #13
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Default Re: Pyramid #3/104: Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game

I haven't heard it either, and I get out plenty :-)
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Old 06-23-2017, 06:48 AM   #14
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Default Re: Pyramid #3/104: Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game

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I've never heard of that meme. I don't get out much. :)
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I haven't heard it either, and I get out plenty :-)
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-cake-is-a-lie
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Old 06-23-2017, 06:50 AM   #15
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Default Re: Pyramid #3/104: Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game

Same here -- never heard of it. I looked it up, and it's from "Portal," a video game that I have heard of but have never played.

(Edited to add: D'oh! Ninja'd by JMason.)
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Old 06-23-2017, 07:09 AM   #16
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Default Re: Pyramid #3/104: Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game

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A good rule for writing and editing generally; be extremely careful of "popular" geek catchphrases and memes. (And by "be extremely careful" I may mean "automatically kill them with fire".) They probably work for a smaller proportion of your audience than you think (while looking like dull cliches to some of the readers who do recognise them), may come across as insufferably smug and clique-ish when explained, and have a strange tendency to sound insulting to the uninitiated. And they'll probably date your work horribly in a year or two's time.
Quoted for truth. I'm another person who had no idea about that meme and so the effect fell flat. I didn't personally have the visceral reaction to the title that others did, but I see why that felt that way. And, since I didn't get the meme reference, the cheeky title didn't enhance my experience.
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Old 06-23-2017, 07:53 AM   #17
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Default Re: Pyramid #3/104: Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game

I had heard the term, "The cake is a lie", but only in situations that made me associate it with the Star Wars related: "Join the Dark Side, we have cookies.". And as I read this thread before that article, I can't say how I would have reacted if I'd read it "blind."

I have gone through the solo adventure though, which I enjoyed. Well done. And I'm glad it included a full character sheet instead of only listing the necessary stats in each numbered post. It was the first thing I looked for after reading #1.

I have seen Background generators like this before, but I don't remember where. So having one handy can be useful.

Last edited by Dragondog; 06-23-2017 at 08:30 AM.
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Old 06-23-2017, 08:40 AM   #18
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Default Re: Pyramid #3/104: Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game

All your sandbox are belong to us.
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Old 06-23-2017, 03:46 PM   #19
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Default Re: Pyramid #3/104: Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game

Fwiw, just hearing "The Sandbox Is a Lie" as something in Pyramid has pretty much disuaded me from placing this issue in my wishlist. I don't ascribe to meme culture, and it comes off as telling me that my prefered game style is wrong. My knee-jerk reaction isn't as severe as Rasputin's, but I will use my spending to express my displeasure nonetheless.

All of that said, the descriptions I've read so far seem to indicate that it's just the same subject matter that's presented on at least a dozen blogs from The Angry GM to our own Peter Dell'Orto's Dungeon Fantastic. That just leaves tables for randomly generating quests, which TheCollaborativeGamer is already doing on his blog - not to mention tables dating back to d20SRD and far older still. Basically, I can't see any value or original ideas that could be added by this article, and the suggestion that sandbox gaming is in any way substabdard or wrong just drives me away from Pyramid in general.

Some of the other articles sound ok, but the distaste engendered by It's a Quest is more than ample to leave an overall bad taste in my mouth.
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Old 06-23-2017, 04:58 PM   #20
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Default Re: Pyramid #3/104: Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game

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I've never heard of that meme. I don't get out much. :)
Apparently you aren't playing Portal while you are in either.
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