Recent content by Willie the Duck

This is super subjective, but I feel like there was a shift in either the game culture or in the game presentation that started during 2e and carried on into 3e. AD&D 2e started with a strong aesthetic about making the game be what you wanted it to be. Use any or all of these...

I don't love the long rest changeout (switching as you level, or heck some newly-defined intermediate timeframe, would be better) but I understand the reasoning. Weapon proficiencies and having to wait X levels to be able to use the really cool magic halberd you found because you thought lance...

Is why I asked. For some reason my work internet blocks his blog, so he's often unavailable when I'm thinking of these discussions. Pulling up now on my phone. Hmm. I don't actually like Peterson's logic -- AC is the number you subtract from 20 to get the number-or-higher a first level fighter...

Assuming it is 2-9 to work with a 2D6 system: Without knowing the naval game in question it's conjecture whether the actual system was 2d6, if it's porting a Chainmail mechanic, or it was made up on the fly. Unfortunately, all searches I do for naval games or wargames called Ironclads reference...

If we're registering surprise at the choices, I'm kinda amazed Eat It has this justification, but Fat doesn't make the top 10. Probably just too similar and Eat it is the better Jackson parody.

There are examples all over the place depending on how far we want to stretch the comparison. Alien(/s) and Pitch Black/Riddick are more straight horror --> straight action situations. Rambo and Robocop started out as social commentary but then morphed into straight action. Nightmare on Elm...

I voted mu/Jello. They slow down combat, but so do bonus actions, reactions, reroll effects, and any number of levelled spells -- pretty much all the things people do other than 'roll to attack' which people complained about fighters not doing and everyone else doing. So I can't really lay...

If it is a fun spy action comedy, more power to it. That said, it gives me some serious 'who is this for?'/'who was asking for this?' mental whiplash. I mean, I know it's not like it is unprecedented. The (pre-reboot) Evil Dead and Chucky films pretty much stopped being horror franchises and...

That's a good point. Most movie-goers didn't/don't know an Iron Man other than RDJ's. To the point that he could give him a personality he hadn't previously had. Prior to the MCU, what RDJ did with him was more Hawkeye's personality and Stark was more 'rich, smart, arrogant, and alcoholic,' and...

I agree with Paul that this only occurred because Hank Pym is not necessary for the MCU (there are plenty of other inventor/smart exposition-characters to fill whatever role he might otherwise fill in a movie). Likewise with Aco that it is specific to certain characters, as we see with Rhodes...

I'm honestly not sure what's actually being posited anymore in this microtangent. The existence of hands-free flashlights does not negate that typical flashlight holsters are designed to hold flashlights to you while they are not in use (few have methods of maintaining rotational orientation)...

Verisimilitude I think is pretty easy. Leaving pure historical realism arguments aside, it seems within the realm of plausibility that a convenient handless lamp could exist in a quasi-medieval setting. Discussions about light angle and heat and jostling of the flame and such can be shunted to...

If we're diving headfirst into realism, we could go any number of levels down the rabbit hole. First off deciding 'when' D&D is really in terms of historical reference also where and how cutting edge/obscure (I'm sure that shield lamp above really existed, but was it commonly known of, much less...

You can still provide your own. The "own" just implies ownership, not biological production. Than you'll doubly appreciate your cheaters once the pill bottle text becomes too close and too far away at the same time.

Neckbeards are optional and you are expected to provide your own. Mandatory for your 40s are back pain, squinting at pill bottles, complaining about things being too loud or too quiet, and 6-12 extra-thick hairs growing out of the tragus of each ear.