The Gaming Den

In a funny coincidence, io9 had an article about Extinction Events just yesterday. Unless that was what sparked this conversation in the first place. Then it's not a coincidence at all, and I'm the funny one for being dense.

See, for me, the sexiest accent in all the world is a Gaelic-derived one (Scottish to some extent, Irish definitely, and Welsh the most of all). What a girl from Cardiff can do with her vowels... ooh, it makes me tingle all over.

There was a scene near the end of that episode, where the Monarch is advancing on Captain Sunshine, dressed as the Boy Wonder, salaciously telling him that he needs to fuck his archenemy dressed as his sidekick to exorcise his personal demons. My girlfriend absolutely refuses to watch that episode e...

And if we don’t do something about it within ten years all of the sun’s solar ice caps will have melted and she will no longer be able to sustain the myriads of plant and animal lives that make the region so vitally important to our fragile cosmic ecosystem. In an informal poll taken around my hous...

That's a fair point, that F-book apps require full access to your profile. But really, it's not as if the information you put up is truly private, no matter what your privacy settings are. Simply, if you don't want your critical information to fall into the wrong hands, then don't put it up on the I...

"Rape tentacles"? Sounds like a bad translation of some Japanese manga title.

I think that Carlin's point was more that anything can be made fun of, and thus found to be funny, when divorced from its proper context and taken to a ludicrous extreme. Actual humans raping other actual humans is certainly not funny; it's horrendous. But the concept of rape, when applied in a prep...

This... isn't funny. I'm not going to comment on the politics of this at all - I'm just curious what gives you the right to decide if something is intrinsically funny or not. Maybe it's not funny to you , but a flat statement like that is a bit presumptuous to make. In situations like this, I alway...

All of the Facebook apps, like Farmville and Fishville and Mafia Wars and all that junk, are at best an amusing diversion, and at worst a waste of time. There's nothing inherently good or bad about them, no more so than Tetris, Solitaire, or Minesweeper, the timewasters of old. If you have a lot of ...

This is a fascinating line of thought, especially as applied to 4E, but isn't blaming it on the conservative "movement" a little, well, short-sighted? People have been doing this for literally thousands of years. And if you want to argue about the scale of it being new, then I direct you t...

Yeah, Dune is great for the socio-geo-political blah blah and all that, but I love it mostly just for the elegance of the writing. Frank Herbert is a master at communicating information, and it's often what is not said that is more significant than what is. There is a scene toward the end of one of ...

But that's a point of contention that you and Tzor are never going to agree on. Yelling your opinion at him certainly isn't going to do jack or shit to change his mind. Shit -- I'm not convinced a fetus that's viable outside the womb doesn't have some basic rights. And to be entirely clear what I m...

Some people keep their cake for years, decades even. Of course they keep only the leftovers. My sister-in-law decided to perform this little ritual, and kept a slice of wedding cake in her freezer for a whole year, then busted it out for their anniversary. My brother and her both agreed that it tas...

Fair enough. Don't get me wrong - I am a firm believer in the food chain. When I said "all life" I figured it would be assumed that I meant "all human life". And I just included the oath to be a little facetious - isn't that thing a hoot? The only part that's actually even vaguel...

Never understood that argument. Life is death. Always has been. Granted. But don't you feel that all life is sacred, and that it is our obligation as a moral society to protect the innocent, i.e. those who cannot protect themselves? Or, to put it another way: "I swear by Apollo the Physician a...

Tzor -- I can totally respect your right to be vehemently opposed to abortion. Hell, my own personal feelings are that it should only be done in cases of rape, incest, or severe risk to the mother's health. But that's my personal viewpoint; politically, I'm pro- choice . As in, I choose not to, but...

See, here's the thing. If I pick up a book and read on the dust jacket that it's about "elves" it really could mean any of a number of things. Are these the elves that are two feet tall, with little blue wings that grant wishes? Are these the elves that steal your babies out of their cribs...

The implications that it is Leiber and not Tolkien that is the source and core of fantasy role playing has a lot of implications that are generally ignored. Yes! Thank you! I have long held the belief that old-school D&D owes a far greater debt to Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser than it does to Fr...

Yeah, I do understand that that's how the rules work, it just seems so... awkward. In fact, it seems like something that a dick DM made up to trick a PC paladin into falling. "It registers on detect evil ? Then I attack!" "Oh, sucks for you, that was one of the good guys! Fallen palad...

How does one handle opposing types? I remember from a while back, the WotC website had an example of a "risen" succubus who took levels as a paladin. Their stance was that her subtype as an evil outsider meant that she continued to radiate an aura of evil, while her paladin status meant th...

I also don't want my son to be baptized into the church when he's eight. I want him to choose if that's his thing when he's older (religious outings for churches of all kinds are de rigueur in my household, just like cultural activities and educational activities). And if he chooses no church, that...

Thanks for the advice, Maj. And thanks for taking the time to make me feel welcome here. I'm totally digging your avatar, by the way. She looks... saucy ... Some games are for testing plotlines for other games with other friends. Some games are just for bedroom entertainment . ...which apparently se...

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure which direction to go in with this. Based on how she plays computer/console games, I think she is going to enjoy acts of ridiculous heroism and combat against overwhelming odds the most. "Cinematic" fights, as vague as that term can be. She likes the idea of...

How-de-doodley-do there Den! Here’s my situation: Haven’t played D&D for years, but I got the itch recently to get back into it, and it must be scratched. The only available player is my wife, who has only played a little, and that years ago. She is very experienced with RPG-type computer/platfo...

I tried out a number of different house-rules and variant rules in my DS campaign a few years back. - Psion was an extra Favored Class for every race. - Total Magic-Psionic Opacity. Which is to say, magic doesn't affect psionics and vice versa. With a few specific exceptions, like having two separat...