Lancer

Hey.. Some of the people at Obsidian were responsible for the I-broke-wind Dale series during the BIS days.. I would think they would be very capable of creating another action RPG.

On a smaller scale, you can also use "time" as an effective device to punish PCs who take too long to complete a adventure.. Face it, if the PCs take TOO long to act, the villain might have a sudden bout of insanity and murder the princess.. Or the princess may decide to take her own life because she has suffered for far too long.. Or that evil commander that was pigeonholed in that stronghold for a long time finally found a way to escape... After all, the villains won't be waiting for the PCs like sitting ducks. The villains have their own agenda and if the PCs are too slow to react, they might be too late. That is tough, but that is reality. This further hits home the point that the world is a dynamic one that is constantly changing on its own regardless of the PCs' actions. Now, I would not recommend timed missions all the time, but sometimes they are a nice little touch.

Building upon this, you can also use a timeline of events for any type of adventure. It need not be only for murder investigations. In fact you can construct a global timeline of events for when key political or earth-shattering events occur in your campaign. I will use the Mystaran calendar as an example.. Perhaps on Nuwmont 15, you know that Nation X will declare war on Nation Y and several months later on Yarthmont 20 , a key battle will sway the war one way or the other. You can have political assasinations occur, or important NPCs kidnapped on certain dates just as in our own real world that things happen oblivious to our own existence.. Now these events may or may not involve the PCs directly but they will undoubtedly affect politics and economics all across the world. For example, perhaps your PCs in Nation Z are allies of Nation Y which means that Nation Z's government might well be sending aid to Nation Y. It is possible that Nation X will retaliate and will attempt to destroy the source of Z's munitions. Here is an example of how the PCs can get involved in something that they were not expecting to get entangled in. Or Perhaps, the PC's nation itself is involved in war and now the PCs have to decide their degree of involvement... And if they are reluctant to get involved, you can have a key ruler of the PCs' nation assassinated on such and such date as a punishment for their apathy.. And yadda, yadda. You get the picture. Although outside events may or may not directly involve the PCs they can be used (if nothing else) as an awesome way to breathe life into a world and make it seem more believable and dynamic. Furthermore, don't forget holidays as well if you are going to have a yearly calendar for your campaign. They add a lot of flavor and in some cases may affect the PCs in a significant way. As another example, in AD&D Mystara, the last day of the year (Day of Dread; Kaldmont 28) marks the day in which magic ceases on Mystara. This will of course affect any PC magic-users directly. It is possible that your PCs may wish to get involved in some of these various global/regional plots as either side quests or as part of your main campaign story arc. Let them.

Please no more I-broke-wind Dales or Diablows!!!!!

*Volo casts Magical Volo's Improved Disbelieve Unpalatable Facts* Components Somatic: Place (at least two different) fingers in both ears Vocal: "Lalalalalalalalalalalalalala-I can't hear you-lalalalalalalalala", followed by: "Hey, look over there, it's Elvis!" Casting time Normal Range Touch, special

I DEFINITELY wouldn't trust the president.

What's funny is that most of my geologist colleagues are predominantly into "classic rock." I feel like the ony rap-loving cityslicker in my department. On every field trip all I hear is stuff like Yes, Santana, and Led Zepellin. And this was true in both geology departments I was a student of.

Anyways, back on topic: What is your favorite music everyone?

Well.. urban areas like Detroit are a different ballgame(like Atlanta).. There are a large number of minorities there that tend to prefer rap music. Musical tastes tend to vary quite a bit across different regions of the country. In the deep south, for instance, country is extremely popular.. Whereas if you go to a place like Orlando or NYC you hear just about everything.. In Miami, you will probably hear merengue, salsa and reggaeton more than anything else...and so forth... People like Pope need to actually visit the United States and stay here for a few months visiting various locales before making broad and unfounded over-generalizations about our musical diversity.

That is not quite true. I don't know where you live, but I can turn on the radio and have access to rap, r&b, rock, classical, country, latin, ...etc nearly at all hours of the day. The average person has access to all sorts of music on the radio. It is just a matter of what he/she grew up with and what his/her preferences are.

It isn't? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> NEWSFLASH!!! No it isn't

I know tons of people who listen to rap too. But those that say it is the dominant scene in America are talking out of their rear. Rock in all its variations, country, electronic, and the growing lating scenes all have huge followings in the US.

Then you are definitely wrong. "Black" music? LOL. There are no whites, hispanics or asians that listen to so-called "black music?" There are no white rap artists (i.e Eminem)? Would anyone feel comfortable calling rock, "white music?" Or country, "redneck" music? These aren't racist comments? LOL Rap/Hip Hop is just a musical style. It has no color.

But I agree with Pope in the sense that I think you should like something because you like it.. Not because it is in vogue or popular with everyone else. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yeah, I'm just saying that you should jump down peoples throats for liking something, with out actually knowing if they truly like it or not. He just depicts most Americans as "following the crowd". <{POST_SNAPBACK}> He also thinks that most Americans listen to only "black music".. lol.. Sounds borderline racist to me and not to mention a gross over-generalization.

But I agree with Pope in the sense that I think you should like something because you like it.. Not because it is in vogue or popular with everyone else.

Then you really don't understand America or as ignorant as those "ignorant Americans" you belittle. There is a *huge* rock and latin scene in America in addition to rap and r&b. I would gander that the rock scene (heavy metal, alternative, grunge..etc), overall, is probably the largest. Country is also somewhat popular as well. If you think that the scene is dominated solely by rap and r&b you don't know much about America then. There are plenty of Americans that just can't stand rap.

Someone here has something personal against Americans...

Road Rash 1-3 were on the Genesis.

I believe that there were three titles in the Road Rash series, IIRC I must say I never played Rally.. Shameful for a SEGA aficionado like myself :"> . Was this on the Genesis?

That's right. R&B is cool too. Rap, merengue, and R&B would wrap up the top three for me.

I agree. I really loved the alternative scene (Smashing Pumpkins, Offspring, Alanis Morrissette..etc) back in the mid-to late '90's but I am indifferent to what is out now.

All this talk about rap not being music, sucking, or some combination thereof has got me wanting to start this thread. I want to see where this goes. Although from a forum of this nature, I am pretty sure that the most common response will be some variation of rock (classic, heavy metal, alternative, grunge..etc) but ..hey.. let's just see what happens. For me my favorite music is obviously "rap" with latin (merengue) being a close second. So what is everyone's favorite music? And I know roshan before you say anything.. You think "rap is crap."

I was wondering that myself

Yes. But if a larger part of the market goes toward PC that will attract people to go there and then you have the same "more money" without the greedy MS/Sony taking a grab of your cash... But as I said, not going to happen, needs too many producers at once to go to the PC and I don't expect them to go plan together such a plan for a better profit in the future if it gives then a small decrease in sales/profit at the moment... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> This actually ties in well with my growing speculation that the PC RPG genre is slowly dying.. But that is equally as difficult to predict since there are so many variables to consider.. Not to mention that talking about that would stir up some hotheads here.

Indeed... but why is that, because alot more games come out for the consoles... I wasn't talking about dev X, but just more all dev/prod. in general. And if more games come for PC, more gamers will go to the PC, giving both the % bonus with the same amount of costumers then... But since the market goes towards consoles these days that is just fiction <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It could also be that so much more money is made on consoles that the percentages for developers and publishers could afford to be lower.