Gerry Verge

@YoDanno The origin of the coeurl, inspiration for D&D's very own Displacer Beast.

“The Voyage of the Space Beagle” sounds like a PBS documentary, until Clyde Caldwell shows up and unleashes the interstellar murder shrimp. 🖼️ Clyde Caldwell - Cover for the Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club hardcover edition of the book, “The Voyage of the Space Beagle”, by A.E. Van Vogt

The Star Wars RPG by West End Games understands the proper atmosphere for Star Wars. Andor does not.

@TheBillAllan I can't ever vote against Dave Trampier.

Which Lizardman is better - AD&D or 5e?

@SandyofCthulhu ...if you dare!

This is the best opening paragraph of any textbook I’ve ever read. As a bonus it makes for a terrific start for a horror plot.

Certainly my philosophy as a DM in D&D. It’s an open world, sometimes their actions will take them places way out of their “level”. Do you agree?

Images like this were pure nightmare fuel for me as a kid. "Hey let's simultaneously trigger people's fear of the dark, drowning, AND being eaten alive..." 😁 (Giant Gar, AD&D Monster Manual, 1977) #FantasyArt

Remember...

@SandyofCthulhu Godzilla Minus One was a better movie than we deserved.

I took my 12yo grandson to see Godzilla Minus One in the theater. He was of course excited, but I was a little concerned because would it be too scary. The WHOLE MOVIE he was sitting forward in his seat, his hands gripping the armrests, staring unblinking, jaw agape. He was picking up on stuff I didn't get. But you need to know my grandson has an eidetic (photographic) memory. So I'm watching it, and there's a report that Godzilla is seen near Giza. Big deal I think, but my grandson gasps and says "Oh no!" Because HE had remembered that the girl got a job in Giza. But I had not. When it ended, I asked my grandson if it was too scary. He said, breathlessly, "No!" Then I asked him what was the best part, and he said, "Every part was the best part." I reluctantly had to say that despite my great love for the original 1954 movie, Godzilla Minus One beats it. Two other facts: 1) The IJN Takao was a real ship which survived the war. It even survived Leyte Gulf! 2) Godzilla Minus One cost less than $15 million. We could have made 25 of them for the cost of Avatar: The Way of Water. Or 15 for the cost of Wakanda Forever. Godzilla Minus One punked the American movie system so hard.

@MattBraynard “Pet Peeve” actually refers to a sub-set of Gasoline Alley comic strips created by Frank King between 1916 to 1920. Since we’re apparently not using evolved or derived meanings of words, and you’re not Frank King, you can’t have a “pet peeve.” Educate yourself.

"races has become a skins for humans and nothing more." this is so true. its why i basically removed all races from my game except the 'dwarf' which i am working on. So for the Dragon's Crucible each race, should i actually end up including any, will by force be different than humans in both class structure and, to drive it home, probably XP acquisition.

Obviously they are tired, because all TTRPG races has become a skins for humans and nothing more.

@Clint_Davey1 I turned my mom into a Sci fi fan by explaining that it's usually just cowboys, pirates, or World War II with spaceships. Once you figure out I t if the blue guys are good or bad, it made sense.

When humanity first began exploring space, science fiction authors began imagining what kind drama and conflict would happen among the stars. And the images that naturally came to mind were those of historical naval warfare. Star Wars is the Pacific Theatre. Even down to the fighters taking off from carriers. Star Trek is basically Master and Commander - highly competent Royal Navy style crew acting as emissaries of a higher civilisation out on the frontier. Rogue Trader and Firefly are pirate stories in space. Smugglers, rogues and criminals on a ship, evading the law, etc. I think it's the whole concept of ships that makes the connection work. The idea of a sealed, self-contained world under the authority of a captain, braving vast and hostile geography and moving from one safe port to another with huge risk of attack on the way. So popular sci-fi is basically a reimagining of naval warfare, from the Age of Sail onwards.

Fun fact: After Melkor destroyed the Two Lamps and ruined much of Middle-earth for the first time, the Valar eventually got fed up and actually imprisoned him, something they could've done right away but didn't want to "make a fuss" at first and thus left him to corrupt and despoil the continent while they retreated to the heavenly realm. Anyway, they got him and after a period of captivity, Nienna, the Vala of sorrow and crying, spoke on Melkor's behalf and argued for his pardon because "he said he was sorry" and "keeping him chained would be very mean and it makes me feel bad". So in essence: the release of the Great Satan, untold misery for countless beings and repeated devastation of the world which resulted its breaking and fading of magic was made possible because a liberal female judge who liked to cry all the time felt bad that the Vala were mean to the Great Satan. Make of that information what you will.

@ResilienceX3 youtu.be/O6yeLNNVa4A?si…

there's only one thing that brought these three people together..

What an odd question. Ladies? Looking for a cool gift for your man? Adult children? Seeking a cool gift for your dad? BUY HIM A SWORD. Guarantee he’ll love it. Best of all, next year you can still buy him a sword. You never have enough swords.

@KevinLamb74 I spent a lot of time and money gathering OSR replacements for D&D. As a part of that process, I have developed my own milieu much the same as Gary did with his Greyhawk. I just don't need any more gaming material, especially for someone else's world.

For those who wouldn't be caught dead owning WOTC's 5.5E core rulebooks, would you still consider purchasing the upcoming Melf's Guide to Greyhawk as a standalone resource if it truly is the new regime's genuine, good faith attempt at course correcting until a new and proper 6E can be released? People like @lukegygax and @LGosumba have given every indication that they'll be doing everything in their power to infuse the book with old school Gygaxian goodness, including legacy honoring lore that can be applied to AD&D campaigns, and the sales of this book might be heavily monitored by WOTC to see if this is a path they should continue on.

The 21st century has more need of black-and-white, good vs. evil thinking than ever before.

@RichardWByers @Nobleshield @mikemearls Thorn & Company needed Bilbo to break the unlucky 13.

Colwyn and Ynyr are joined by the magician Ergo "the Magnificent" and a band of nine thieves and fighters to rescue the princess in Krull. The Fellowship of the Ring had 9 members. The crew in Star Wars (sure not fantasy but it is heroic) had 7. The Goonies even had 7. Think of dungeons more like an archaeological dig. Many early explorations had dozens if not hundreds of porters. Hirelings actually become beloved or hated characters. Played with their own personality; that squire to the fighter who bravely stands over the body of his fallen knight; that mages apprentice who happens to remember a lost bit of lore or boosts the wizard up to the shelf of rock above. If you actually play with them; they just become part of the story and allow you broaden the nature. Hell exploring a sunken city; my crew's porters/hirelings maintained the base camp for their forays.

Part of 5e's superhero feel comes from shift in D&D's adventure design and how it affects the action economy. Take a look at Village of Hommlet. The moathouse is home to a gang of nine brigand, including a 2nd level fighter. They outnumber the typical party by 2:1 or 1.5:1.

Novelist Isaac Young on why the Left is attacking The Lord of the Rings: "It’s not just that the Left prefer a cynical edge to all their storytelling, they are viscerally offended when there’s a mainstream story that tells them there is undeniable good in the world." Is he on to something here?