Gromnir

so a guy posts bigoted nonsense over at rpgcodex (color us surprised) and ends up quitting 'cause somebody accurately identifies the author and shares intriguing pith such as, "if they're young and male and a muslim, you don't let them in, period," with the gaming community. am not seeing a story. share your brobdingnagian stoopidity or vile turpitude with the world and the world may decide to return the favor. sure, is america, so the government can't punish you for your opinions, but your friends, neighbors and non-government employers can chastise you for bad behavior. thank god. yup, there will be grey areas where we should ask whether or not an employer is wise to punish employees for opinions which may offend. 60 years ago, an employee voicing an opinion that it were un-american to deny lgbt prospective employees equal consideration woulda' been deemed offensive. heck, 60 years ago, and in much o' the us south, suggesting blacks deserved equality in the workplace woulda' shocked many. am seeing value in questioning unpopular policies. even so, am not recognizing the present speaker as dwelling in such a grey area, but perhaps others disagree. is nothing wrong or un-american in condemning your fellow american's opinions. heck, is precisely 'cause o' the first amendment that Gromnir sees, if not an affirmative duty, then a moral obligation for citizens to respond to the hateful or offensive speech o' their fellow americans. stand by idle and quiet while bigots spew their venom is your right, just as much is it is the right o' any ex-obsidian freelance writer to be a bigot. 'course such silence is, in our mind, near as offensive as is the bigoted speech. we got unique speech rights here in the US, but such rights should carry with 'em a sense o' responsibility. when confronted by small-minded bigots and purveyors o' hate, one should feel compelled to respond. HA! Good Fun!

My job title doesn't describe what I do but I can't do away with it, I guess it helps others know what my function and qualifications are. I can just image the hassle of trying to interview an adventurer who doesn't want to tell you their class. am not thinking it would be difficult at all to interview w/o having a title. have a job opening which asks for a person with scouting and surveillance skills. second story and alarm/lock disabling much preferred. person shows up for interview and you ask what is their job qualifications. grobnar won't tell you his class, bastard. what to do? 'corse w/o mentioning a class, he informs you he is good with a lute, but less so with melee weapons. no wall climbing or lock picking skills does grobnar have, but he is quite adept at identification and appraisal o' phat loots. his musical performances inspire confidence and competence in his allies as well as dread and clumsiness in foes. he's quick with a joke or to light up your smoke, but there's someplace that he'd rather be... wait a sec, that is from piano man. oh well. point is, is gonna take a minute or so, at most, to figure out if the individual applying for the job at least claims to have the skills needed. you have not provided a real need or identified a genuine hurdle. HA! Good Fun!

well, this one is kinda easy. the eastern bathrobe wearing wizard is so similar to the western bathrobe bedecked wizard, there don't need to be an additional class. robe made o' silk instead o' wool? shorter beard? longer finger nails? both east and west wizards cast spells and is enigmatic and is weird. *shrug* alternatively, the "need" for a samurai or ninja class when a game such as post 3e d&d already allows for rogues and fighters or cavaliers to adequate build ninjas or samurai is questionable at best. for some inexplicable reason, eastern variants is somehow kewler and need their own class... and eventual get their own class. is the same eastern is mysterious weirdness which breeds all kinda katana myth and nonsense? dunno. monks on the other hand, is kinda silly as an adventuring class. most monks, eastern or western is gonna be ordinary little guys who meditate (through prayer, toil or whatever) and make whatever is the local equivalents o' beer, wine and cheese, but more important is the fundamental attribute o' being a monk, west or east. the word monk includes the inherent quality o' being monastic, which is kinda the opposite o' the adventurer lifestyle. poe monks is kinda nice as one need not be extreme limited eastern shaolin monk, but monk is terrible naming for a crpg class which focuses 'pon adventuring... and y'know, leaving the abbey/monastery. HA! Good Fun! ps classes suck. instead, aim for an open and flexible classless system which allows the player to build their own ninja, wizard, monk, witch, combat friar or whatever, and such questions become moot.

HA! Good Fun!

walked the dogs early, and for the first time in a week, we weren't concerned 'bout dogs or Gromnir dropping from heat stroke. has been +105 since last tuesday. our dogs don't like temps 'bove 80 (understatement), and it were hitting +80 by 7:30 am. to make matters worse, predawn in this area, particular this time o' year, is kinda dangerous for rattlesnakes... though am expecting skunks should be a bigger concern... and turkeys. laugh if you will, but male wild turkeys got a viscous spur. in any event, the dogs were happy today, which is what matters. HA! Good Fun!

The most interesting new information there is that Sawyer hasn't read Lord of Light. (And that somebody, having been briefed on the story for Deadfire, immediately recommended it to him.) Josh, you should read that book. It's good. one wonders if eothas is standing in for brahma/kali, nirriti, or perhaps even sam. more than a few parallels 'tween the book and poe lore. considering how involved josh is with the lore o' poe, am actual a bit surprised he hasn't read lord of light. HA! Good Fun! Eothas as Sam would work. Member of the supernaturally 'elect' commits apostasy, is exiled, returns, then wages war to tear down the supposed "godhood" of his former cohorts? That last part could easily be the plot to Deadfire. I guess that would make the PC ... Tak? (Well, someone who can decide to assume that role, among others.) tough to get specific w/o spoilers, but am admitted not yet convinced eothas is eothas. woedica has more than a few parallels with nirriti, and it is doubtful the obsidians is done with her as The Adversary. is infinite ways to go with deadfire, particular as we do not expect obsidian to intentional borrow too much from zelazny's lord of light or simmon's ilium/olympos... and josh apparent ain't aware o' how much poe already took inspiration from the aforementioned. regardless, given how important josh thought a working knowledge o' star wars lore were for kotor2, and aliens/predator lore were for obsidian's cancelled alien game, am a tiny bit curious he ain't bothered to read lord of light. one would expect a cursory reading o' zelazny's novel if only to avoid the appearance o' over reliance on inspirational material. HA! Good Fun!

I think there is no need for an argument for a class based system. Pillars is a class based game just because it is, beause those are the rules of the game. It's like arguing about wether the rules of chess are limiting. Of course they are. That's the point. Well, now he/she can, because of multiclassing. But if you want full specialisation you have to play a mage of course. It is totally possible to create a non-rogue character with sufficient mechanics or stealth skills, so you are not really limited. But if you want to have a specialist, then of course you have to play a rogue. I think it is totally natural that my plumber is better at plumbing than me. So what? That's roleplaing in some sense. I often leave behind characters I don't like without proper replacement, so I have to be creative. reply/quote results in these kinda nonresponsive replies. tell us it ain't worth arguing over class v. classless when Gromnir already made such a point? okie dokie. you still ain't supplied a reason or benefit for having the limit. rationalize the limit is not a reason. 'course you do equivocate by then trying to suggest the limit isn't really a limit, but such is what Gromnir is having to deal with. the foundation question is the one people keep avoiding. in any event, the plumber analogy is what is complete wrong with some folks arguing. the poe rogue is a melee specialist who excels at hurting people who is weakened or vulnerable. is a Combat class. early in poe development, eder were gonna be a rogue. eder in deadfire can be a rogue from level one. as such should be clear there is nothing 'bout the poe rogue which makes mechanics integral to the class other than your expectations from other games and 'cause obsidian added the skills bonuses. is not plumbing for plumbers. the poe rogue is not clear not defined by his mechanics. a poe rogue can go through the entire game w/o ever picking a lock or disarming a trap. would be ridiculous, save for in mario brothers, which is intentional ridiculous, for a plumber character to never do any pipe work. wanna play analogies? better mechanic, the bouncer at a local biker bar, or your plumber? which is gonna be more analogous to a poe rogue? you honest expect the bounder to have some kinda inherent mechanical aptitude? no? then why do you see such for a poe rogue? as to the "so what" bit you end with, such should be obvious. fewer limits makes it possible for a player to build characters more likely to match their rp concept. player should be able to play their own character rather than need play the developer options. this is the reason why the developers has repeated stated they is in favor o' providing greater character customization options. an arbitrary limit on skills is antithetical to such a goal. as josh stated in a recent interview 'bout customization options, "it's up to you to justify it... if it's kewl to you, that is all that matters." your notions o' plumbers and self contradictory limits/non-limits should not be a restraint on Gromnir or anybody else. the obsidian developers see merit in allowing each player to justify, just so long as is mechanical balanced. and still no reason for the existence o' the limit as 'posed to simple trying to rationalize some kinda internal logic. what purpose does the limit serve other than one we has already described multiple times? HA! Good Fun!

unfortunately for you, wikipedia appears to have won this round. HA! Good Fun!

wikipedia is not an ignorant man's friend. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24955730 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01402398208437122?journalCode=fjss20 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00396338108441997?journalCode=tsur20 even so, from the wiki entry for neutron bomb... "A neutron bomb, officially defined as a type of enhanced radiation weapon (ERW), is a low yield thermonuclear weapon designed to maximize lethal neutron radiation in the immediate vicinity of the blast while minimizing the physical power of the blast itself." HA! Good Fun!

well, there is a-bombs and h-bombs and e-bombs. there is also ERW, o' which the neutron bomb is most well known. there is proton bombs, but only in the star wars universe. there is (not) the quark or meson bomb, which were nothing more than the us punking the soviets into wasting considerable effort on a developmental dead end. even so, and no offense to lady crimson, but if somebody could create a bomb which wiped out nothing but korean music and visual media sources in a +5 mile radius, am thinking such a feat would be deserving a nobel prize for physics, and perhaps the peace prize too. HA! Good Fun!

so sorta robert e. lee racism v. nathan bedford forrest racism? HA! Good Fun!

Just how far it'll fall isn't particularily predictable, but what is predictable is that disrupting a region that is one of the worlds biggest economic and trade hubs is going to have a huge affect on the global economy. a globalist appeal is unlikely to have much o' an impact 'pon trump. am not gonna speak for agiel, but when we see trump at rallies and making speeches, he loves to brag 'bout the stock market gains since he took office. sure, most o' those gains have little to do with trump contributions, but regardless, is a frequent opportunity for the President to pat himself on the back. hasn't been many wins, real or imagined for trump since he took office. turn a perceived win into a clear loss might not sit well with him. if trump can be convinced the market will take a serious hit if he continues his sabre rattling, then perhaps he will calm a bit. then again... HA! Good Fun!

truth to tell, am not thinking "i gave up my nobility" means much. gave up the responsibility after getting all the benefits o' having been raised royal? am suspecting there will now be a few noble-only hot springs she cannot visit or some such similar nonsense, but she already got the benefits o' the best medical and educational resources yen could buy. is not as if she is being disowned or reduced to pauper status neither. "i gave up my appendix for you." meh. 'course we may be showing personal bias as we thinks hereditary nobility in a modern nation is as stupid and wasteful as an ejection seat on a helicopter. HA! Good Fun!

by the same token, every time they get in an argument he can point out how she ain't a princess no more, even if she continues to act like one. HA! Good Fun!

The most interesting new information there is that Sawyer hasn't read Lord of Light. (And that somebody, having been briefed on the story for Deadfire, immediately recommended it to him.) Josh, you should read that book. It's good. one wonders if eothas is standing in for brahma/kali, nirriti, or perhaps even sam. more than a few parallels 'tween the book and poe lore. considering how involved josh is with the lore o' poe, am actual a bit surprised he hasn't read lord of light. HA! Good Fun!

If they can get that down to microwave prices, I can see one in every home. and sizes. outside of box is actual a fair bit bigger than microwave size, (six inches in one dimension adds a whole lot o' extra total volume) but is a bit cramped insofar as functional use inside. create enough demand and am having no doubt the tech can be made smaller and cheaper. HA! Good Fun!

to be fair, most o' their abilities not specific tied to sneak attack might as well be magical. am knowing the response is tongue-in-cheek, but is actual a valid argument for classless system. why can't your rogueish character learn a little (or more) magic? 'cause o' arbitrary and limiting class label? even so, poe has classes. poe will have classes for deadfire and future games. nevertheless, is no good reason to expand the class limits. add class limits to skills? why? still ain't never seen any attempt to explain why such a limit is a boon to to poe beyond the one weak explanation we already addressed. does such limits make classes more unique? well, kinda. if you want the best mechanics in the game, you gotta have a rogue. such a limit is a pretty terrible way for developers to try and make the rogue more compelling. is precisely why folks would go to extreme metagame lengths to acquire gloves o' manipulation-- so they wouldn't need a rogue. and now we is full circle. HA! Good Fun!

so, 3 +30' events in more than 40 years? not quite as some is trying to present. yeah, a few o' the vehicles ain't too expensive to purchase, but one o' the reasons the military gets rid of 'em is 'cause maintenance costs on such vehicles is too great. is same reason police get rid o' their vehicles at public auctions after a few short years. hit X hours of use, and maintenance costs become literal unbearable. am thinking hurl complained once on these boards 'bout new tires for the rv? imagine new tire cost alone for these vehicles. most replacement parts for such vehicles is not gonna be available from pep boys, eh? oh, and your mechanics is gonna need additional training as well... and considerable additional man hours o' maintence for an extreme limited use vehicle. 'course, as we said 'bove, there is also cost for "explaining" the need for such vehicles. after ferguson and other similar events, police forces realized how "serve and protect" is a harder sell when you gotta explain these images to the public so yeah, 20 something flooding event since mid 70s, and only a handful o' which might be requiring military vehicles-- military vehicles which The Military already possesses and maintains. ridiculous excuse for buying such hardware is infrequent cataclysmic flooding. HA! Good Fun!

It's not even a probability, we've had 4-5 floods in the last 40 years with close to 50" inches of rain. Supposedly a 100 year event is 13" of rain over 24 hours, but that's pretty common here, it doesn't even flood except in some low lying areas. The only way I can figure this nomenclature is correct is if they factor out all the hurricanes and tropical storms, since they expect people to evacuate in those anyway. gonna need some support for such claims. has been multiple flooding incidents, but not as you describe. allison, erin and ike brought major flooding, but erin actual only dropped 9 inches. regardless, on average, a couple times a decade, maybe, you get a flood which would have need o' military vehicles... military vehicles which the military already has btw. money spent on such vehicles would be much better spent on mitigation efforts with investment lifetime much longer than a military vehicle. ______ wagons, while perhaps more difficult to get taxpayer support for such investment, makes more sense. HA! Good Fun!

and 'course if the doj had found evidence o' wiretaps, the left-wing conspiracy nutters would point out just how quick the attorney general were to help oust the head of the fbi 'cause comey were angering trump. the ag were not exactly placing himself between the President's wrath and the fbi when it came to ousting comey, so why would he do so to protect obama? surely sessions, with the entire resources o' doj at his disposal, coulda' found a few goons to fabricate or skew evidence to make obama look bad and save trump's reputation. old saw 'bout how conspiracies is like mushrooms, no? sh!t and darkness is what both need to grow. HA! Good Fun!

Thanks for taking the time to explain the system more clearly, you are correct, I don't fully understand the mechanics. But, regardless of it being fit for purpose, it is the "only game in town" and until that is changed, I would suggest that Donald Trump won democratically within that systems rules? but keep in mind, the US judiciary is not appointed democratic save for some oversight by the senate. this does not bother you because your irish high court justices is also appointed as 'posed to elected by the people in a popular vote? your demand for democracy seems a bit selective, no? to avoid hypocrisy, should you not be demanding elections for judges, US and irish? 'course if you see judges as different and not requiring or benefiting from a more pure democratic selection process, then why not consider the possibility the US executive deserves a different approach? HA! Good Fun! Sorry if you considered my post hypocritical, it wasn't my intention to appear that way. I don't have a dog in this fight, I was just mentioning how it appeared to me, looking at it from the outside. I'm not entirely sure why you are bringing up Irish and US judiciary appointments, I was only talking about the college system for presidential elections and how that's currently the only system available in the US, So it's result is person deemed to be democratically elected. Anyway, I guess we'll have to agree to differ, cheers! is not a matter o' differing o' opinions. we agreed with assessment that the selection o' the President o' the US is less democratic than is selection o' Congress or many other chief executives 'round the world... though is more democratic than quite a few, no? regardless, our post filled in seeming gaps in your assessment and knowledge concerning the election o' the President and other fed offices and we questioned why your criticism seemed so selective. we noted reasons for the electoral college origin and continuation and we pointed out how the judiciary in the US is having even a less democratic selection process. if lack o' democracy were the actual concern, then should you not be bothered by Justice selection too? but again, we noted how Irish high court judge selection suffers from a similar lack o' democracy. doesn't make much sense to make a carte blanche condemnation o' lack o' democracy in the process o' chief executives while ignoring similar failings for other offices, does it? oversimplification or misunderstanding to say we disagree. HA! Good Fun!

need a better logo for us to buy their gear. we still use cave dog games stuff 'cause we like their logo. old black isle logo were nice too. HA! Good Fun! ps late edit: cavedog was almost frozen yak entertainment, and their backup logo were still better than obsidian's the gif version were only used for an april fools event... visualize w/o the, well, 'yaking.'

would personal prefer reduction. heck, 0 classes would be ideal. regardless, one o' the biggest poe surprises were obsidian's success in crafting 11 different classes which each played different. sure, am thinking a few o' the classes would benefit from adjustments. am also thinking the developers went a little crazy with the post release and white march "improvements" to classes. and might as well reiterate how we believe both the barbarian and rogue failed to match developer stated goal o' avoiding class defining abilities or powers. even so, we has congratulated obsidian numerous times regarding their overall success with classes. to craft so many classes with genuine unique gameplay were, we believed, improbable. but 11 is more than enough. fix the current classes, 'cause subclasses and multiclassing is gonna result in a whole host o' balancing headaches. not need an additional class, with attendant subclasses, to further complicate the situation. HA! Good Fun!

Three '500-year' floods in three years isn't 'once in a lifetime'. well, yeah, it kinda is. on average, is gonna be less than once in a lifetime, but just as is possible to roll a hard seven five times in a row w/o dice being rigged, a once in a lifetime event doesn't mean is impossible for such an event to occur in back-to-back years. is a tim caine video linked on this board somewhere in which he explains his frustration with explaining basic statistics realities to developers. might be worth a read. 'course there is the possibility o' man-made climate change altering the overall dynamic, but such opens up a whole 'nother can o' worms for wod and we doubt he wants to go to such a place. HA! Good Fun! ps apologies for double post. is gauche, but didn't feel like adding to our immediate preceding post.

Thanks for taking the time to explain the system more clearly, you are correct, I don't fully understand the mechanics. But, regardless of it being fit for purpose, it is the "only game in town" and until that is changed, I would suggest that Donald Trump won democratically within that systems rules? three branches of the US fed: judiciary, legislative and executive. the legislative is elected the most democratically, as were intended. judiciary is least democratic insofar as selection is concerned. the executive is chosen largely democratic, but with a nod to state rights. the US actual started out as a confederation o' sovereign States-- before we had the Constitution, we had the Articles of Confederation. the importance o' State rights is fundamental and inextricable in our current Constitution. the electoral college, which is chosen through a democratic process, is meant to recognize the value o' the individual States. small population states cannot be complete ignored or marginalized during a Presidential election as their electoral votes may be disproportionate significant. but keep in mind, the US judiciary is not appointed democratic save for some oversight by the senate. this does not bother you because your irish high court justices is also appointed as 'posed to elected by the people in a popular vote? your demand for democracy seems a bit selective, no? to avoid hypocrisy, should you not be demanding elections for judges, US and irish? 'course if you see judges as different and not requiring or benefiting from a more pure democratic selection process, then why not consider the possibility the US executive deserves a different approach? the selection o' the US President is less democratic than is selection o' Congress. truth. selection o' the President is more democratic than selection o' US (or irish) high court judges. as noted earlier, our President doesn't do what most people believe he is capable o' doing; is far more limited. additionally, the electoral college were a validation o' the importance o' State rights. is good reasons why the electoral college were (and still is) the means by which the President is elected. as an aside, am personally thinking the electoral college is a bit of an anachronism. we would be happy to see if all states adopted the nebraska and maine approach to assigning electoral votes. however, changes to the process beyond voluntary state action requires either amendment process or a new constitutional convention. the number o' times an elected President has failed to also garner the popular vote is small... and hillary clinton is a terrible example o' a victim o' the process as she seeming could't find michigan, pennsylvania and (in particular) wisconsin on a freaking map. clinton's negligence lost her the election at least as much as did the electoral college. the need for change is not particular great, but the infrequent and dramatic aberrational Presidential results which has happened a couple times in recent memory makes the electoral college seem more broken than it may be. regardless, we personal would like to see maine and nebraska approach become the rule rather than the exception. HA! Good Fun!