MantisDreaming

A veil of darkness descends upon the party. You begin to feel a tingle welling up at the base of your skull. Just as the tingling feels as if it is about to boil over, an all too tangible message, as sharp as a blade, seems to force its way into your stream of consciousness. "WE ARE SUNEGG. SURRENDER YOUR DELICIOUS BRAIN THOUGHTS. BY THE WAY. WE ARE SUNEGG." TPW

Don't be so sure I can't understand why people would ever be against the creation of at least some new monsters! Ones who's stats and weaknesses we can't recite from memory. I'm fine with some common tropes of creaturedom but I know we can count of Obsidian to have a blast crafting this world as well as its unique inhabitants.

There is lots of pigeon-holing decent folks into the "white knight" genre, but I think those doing all this name calling are misunderstood in more ways than one. Namely, since when did "white knights" do anything other than jam swords into 'heretic' faces and spread disease? Those fruitlessly championing the objectification of digital womankind are the true "white knights" here.

I didn't know human skull bone came in the 5 inch thick variety. The only one in this thread that is "off" is you Darth. The solution to your initial puzzlement is clear: Do not let your ingrained personal belief system factor into your suspension of disbelief when it comes to enjoying fantasy realms. If it doesn't make sense to you, that doesn't mean something is wrong with it. No matter how many people bring up this exact notion, it soars miles over your head every time. When people try to inform you politely and delicately tip toe around the elephant in the room, you call them out for being "off"?? Get over yourself. As mentioned before, as long as the lore is consistent within its own internal logic, anything you take issue with is subjective READ: not a universal flaw that everyone should obviously recognize. EDUCATE YOURSELF. Now I know you will most likely perceive this as a personal attack and your defenses will go up and you will read what your ego wants to see and resist any form of help in blind defiance needing to get the last word in on the matter for your pride. Oh well, ya can't win them all. Another example of this kind of display:

Xantomas said: & Yo AGX , I don't think Xantomas is saying that we should do away with graphics. Just that the in-game representation of the character, art-style, "weirdness" if you like, is not enough alone to make a character truly interesting. Imagine if his dialogue writing was phoned-in or flat. He follows you for the entire game and is a floating, wise cracking skull. Honestly, on paper that sounds like it could get annoying. Instead well crafted writing made him interesting, funny and down right endearing at times. And just because he's suppose to be a normal occurrence in Sigil and the planes that doesn't make him any less strange to the player interacting and controlling him.

A leap in thought, at that stage in the rant I was addressing possible definitions (I might concede on) of what people meant when regarding something a weird for sake of weird.

Indulge me. "Weird" and "normal" for that matter are pretty ambiguous words. They both draw on and are limited by your personal frame of reference which is subjective. When someone says: "Don't be weird for the sake of being weird," what does that mean to you? And why is it necessarily a bad thing? It seems that to say something is weird for the sake of being weird implies that you understand the nature (what makes it weird, why it is weird) of the thing you are calling weird which, I think, would make the thing in question not so weird! So if it isn't weird, its "weirdness" ceases to be the issue. It does not compute. Trying too hard to be weird maybe? (zebra in scuba gear) Pretentiously post modern? (Soup can art) Mayhap... mayhap. All that said: I think everyone is weird to a degree, so sure, weird companions GO!

I think PE is poised to offer exactly this to those that seek it. I trust what lies at the heart of this discussion is at least a part of what Obsidian is talking about when it comes to mature themes. Mass media hears "mature themes" and assumes: sex, violence, drugs, racism, etc. Never is it the existential issues such as the nature of the Self, the question of reality, life & death, reincarnation and so on. We already know that the people of PE know full well that there are souls and life after death. Now imagine the existential questions that would arise within a world where these conditions exist! We've got some excellent writers at the helm of this one so make no mistake there will surely be some scholarly material for We, the champions of Wisdom!

What is an item? A tool/object that serves a purpose for those utilizing it. An item that serves its purpose well in a given circumstance might be considered "good." Whether or not the item is magical or not does not keep it from serving its purpose to its greatest extent. These classifications only allow said item to be judged against another item in its class. Should a magical item always be the better choice than its humble counterpart? I don't think so. This has become a negative trope in modern games. If a magical/enchanted item is clearly more powerful, I think that there should be a price for the user. Balance. The trend of seeking greater and greater power without consequence seems unlikely and uninteresting. The fact that within the world of an rpg game system all an item boils down to are its stats and then maybe its lore is an unfortunate side effect of the medium. Would it be terrible if you didn't know the raw mathematics behind each and every item? Imagine if the best understanding you could glean of a given magical item would be from an old chanter who knows the ways and even then its usage is wrapped in analogy, metaphors and poetry. Complete immersion or complete transparency of the system? Tough call for me at this point.

Gates leading to other "places" beyond the fringes of our perceptual limits can always blink into existence before us and threaten to spill out the unknowns within. Back on the topic, yes I like monsters and there should be plenty of monstas and explanations as to why and how said monstas came to be.

So wait, you are DM and also have a PC?? Just curious, how does that work exactly? Seems like it would be pretty difficult not to be a bit bias. You know, knowing all the secrets of what the adventure holds.

Another human-like race you want? With a strict moral code you say?? Meh, I'll take my benevolent Reptile worshipers of Ka the Preserver and go home.

A humble god-like chanter addicted to svef. Hello world.