Minor game stuff from around the web for commentary...

codeGlaze · Post by **codeGlaze** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 9:56 pm

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:
codeGlaze wrote:
ACOS wrote:The guy is a first-rate idiot, and deserves to be given zero credibility. Fuck that guy - how is it he still has any traction anywhere with anybody?
Boobs.
I don't think Zak's boobs are nice enough to distract me from his points...

It's the implicit expectation of getting not-his-boobs that is present in his site's name. Pretty sure that boobs-in-the-box image keeps people coming back to turn the crank again, hoping they pop out.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 10:03 pm

Zak S did porn and has friends in the porn industry. Zak S plays D&D. D&D players are usually associated with traits opposite of adult performers, so Zak S having both on his website makes it an interesting one for some number of D&D fans.

It is kind of odd how personally he takes disagreement in online D&D discussions though, but from what I gathered at that reddit thread Zak S also has a reputation for that.

ACOS · Post by **ACOS** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 10:13 pm

OgreBattle wrote:Zak S did porn and has friends in the porn industry. Zak S plays D&D. D&D players are usually associated with traits opposite of adult performers, so Zak S having both on his website makes it "oh wow, that guy is f'n cool; let me live vicariously through him, and hope in my imaginary world that I can be that cool too" for some number of D&D fans.

FTFY

Count Arioch the 28th · Fri Oct 10, 2014 10:34 pm

codeGlaze wrote:
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:
codeGlaze wrote: Boobs.
I don't think Zak's boobs are nice enough to distract me from his points...
It's the implicit expectation of getting not-his-boobs that is present in his site's name. Pretty sure that boobs-in-the-box image keeps people coming back to turn the crank again, hoping they pop out.

In my case, I've spent sizable chunks of my adult life literally swimming in boobs (I think only 1 or 2 of the women I've been with had anything less than a DD, most are in the DDD-M range), so it would take a lot more than that to interest me.

Now, if Zac seemed like a bro that knew lots of hot, slutty chicks that he would totally hook you up with, that would be one thing. I get the idea that he's the kind of guy that would put you down in front of the women he knows in order to make himself look better.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 10:54 pm

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:I get the idea that he's the kind of guy that would put you down in front of the women he knows in order to make himself look better.

That is basically the entire reason his blog is called D&D With Porn Stars, yes. But a fair number of D&D folk don't have the relationship experience to know the difference between a large concentration of attractive and sexually open women and a place where they actually have a good chance to score. I'm guessing that most of his following's primary experience with sex is porn and a small handful of relationships, but not enough to draw conclusions from.

Blicero · Post by **Blicero** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 10:57 pm

Vornheim is a genuinely good D&D book, so Zak S deserves some amount of credit for that. And a lot of the fluff pieces on his site are pretty neat and clever. It's frustrating, though, that he's such a fuckhead as regards everything else.

codeGlaze · Post by **codeGlaze** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 2:03 am

Blicero wrote:[...] a lot of the fluff pieces on his site are pretty neat and clever. It's frustrating, though, that he's such a fuckhead as regards everything else.

True enough. His attitude is unfortunate because now it just sort of colors everything he produces.

Stubbazubba · Post by **Stubbazubba** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 2:25 am

Yeah, I actually like what he's doing with the 5e monster manual. His creativity is not something I criticize. Just, like, everything else.

ACOS · Post by **ACOS** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 2:25 am

Patriotism and leadership are generally seen as good qualities. Hitler and Stalin had strong patriotism and leadership.
Fuck Shitmuffin.

(yes, I went there. tough shit)

TiaC · Post by **TiaC** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 2:42 am

Stubbazubba wrote:Yeah, I actually like what he's doing with the 5e monster manual. His creativity is not something I criticize. Just, like, everything else.

I thought he was only credited on the PHB?

Krusk · Post by **Krusk** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 3:14 am

TiaC wrote:
Stubbazubba wrote:Yeah, I actually like what he's doing with the 5e monster manual. His creativity is not something I criticize. Just, like, everything else.
I thought he was only credited on the PHB?

I dont see any credits to him in my copy

Stubbazubba · Post by **Stubbazubba** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 11:49 am

No, no, on his blog, he's going through the monster manual and editing the monsters. His take on the Aboleth (Edit: no longer a link because no one should be luring him back here) as a lovecraftian intruder from another interpretation of reality is pretty good.

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 12:34 pm

The posts on his site, pretty much everything except where he tries to talk directly to people or about other people, are excellent. For the typical faire of bloggers his work is outstanding.

Just don't try to talk to him about it. Any of it. Good or bad. Certainly don't link to anything you like because he's quite likely to turn up and ruin it for you. But his procedural generation stuff is top notch, the ways that various monsters can be shiny and interesting and still be true to D&D, his appreciation for inventive play. There's so much good there.

But people are going to click on Stubbazubba's link to Aboleth there, and then he's going to see the (ooh, 5 people) traffic and come here because he does that. And then he'll interact and it's just not good. Much worse than me, for instance.

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 4:15 pm

tussock wrote:The posts on his site, pretty much everything except where he tries to talk directly to people or about other people, are excellent. For the typical faire of bloggers his work is outstanding.

Just don't try to talk to him about it. Any of it. Good or bad. Certainly don't link to anything you like because he's quite likely to turn up and ruin it for you. But his procedural generation stuff is top notch, the ways that various monsters can be shiny and interesting and still be true to D&D, his appreciation for inventive play. There's so much good there.

But people are going to click on Stubbazubba's link to Aboleth there, and then he's going to see the (ooh, 5 people) traffic and come here because he does that. And then he'll interact and it's just not good. Much worse than me, for instance.

Does this help?

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 2:32 am

Stubbazubba wrote:No, no, on his blog, he's going through the monster manual and editing the monsters.

By which you mean he has placed some random incoherent scribblings all over a page in well nigh unreadable hand writing, actively hid any actual changes to the stat block that he ostensibly made (if you could even interpret the scrawl) because you apparently don't need to see that because copyright?

Then posted the image along with a rambling rant that is at best uninteresting over long and entirely useless fluff and at worst complete misuse of the English language during an utterly irrelevant creepy obsessing over murders in True Detective.

What the fuck people think is good about that sort of shit I have no idea.

erik · Post by **erik** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:57 am

That hand-writing is a bit deranged. Like if I wanted to portray the handwriting of a deranged person, that is what I would aim for. c's and r's are oft identical, capital forms used inconsistently including in the middle of words. Graphology being a pseudoscience, I don't think this means muffin's derangement is at all linked to his handwriting, just that if I wanted to graphically try and suggest or convey derangement via handwriting, I'd aim for a style like that.

I'm with PL here. I didn't see much excellence in his writing. Fluff, rules or otherwise. Sure, nobody bats 1.000, but I don't see any reason to be impressed over that content by muffin. The only thing I liked was the cutesy elder sign thingy since it conveys a more confusing geometry that for some reason felt more Lovecraftian than the Derleth pentagram.

I can't even review it properly since most anything of substance is covered by a stupid card. What I can assess is:
• Upsized Aboleth. Fine, made it a bruiser, whatever.
• It turns people into more Aboleths. Not feeling it. Especially with no crunch behind it. Saying a small or medium creature turns into a gargantuan one needs a bit more splaining than "turns grey". Also, there should be tons of them swimming around then. No, the more I get my hands on this idea, the stupider it gets.
• No charming people/no enslavement because it doesn't need slaves... but it has allies. Wat?
• Life cycle. Looks a bit stupid. I'm on board with making more species linked with each other in D&Dverse, but feel something is lost when Grell, Mind Flayers, Aboleths et al are either cousins or just different growth stages.
• List of possible Lairs. Acceptable. Except for no Lair... needs splaining since it is supposed to have a Lair power.
• RNA memory pools. If you cannot write crunch to go with this fluff then my anaconda Aboleth don't want none. Again, how does no Lair go with Genesis Pools?

The true detective sperging could have been left out entirely. That's like over half his text that was a complete waste of everyone's time. All you needed was the line about old ones not caring about people as opposed to other powers that try to trick or tempt them.

His monster write up was basically removing a dominator monster and replacing it with a bruiser... because lord knows we need more bruisers.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:24 am

tussock wrote: ...and then he's going to see the (ooh, 5 people) traffic and come here because he does that.

Stubbazubba wrote:...a lovecraftian intruder from another interpretation of reality

That's a good description of how to summon Zak S, and what happens afterwards.

MGuy · Post by **MGuy** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:35 am

Well this makes me feel pretty bad about my take on aboleths. I once ran a game where aboleths were mindflare bosses and had them go and collect slaves/eat brains so that in their later years they'd have their memories harvested by the aboleth. PCs ran into a mindflare who overcame the mind control and was on the run, 'splained his story and got them to team up and help end the thing's tyranny once and or all! There was gonna be a thing where that led to plans for an oncoming invasion by some unspeakably powerful force but the campaign died before that ever got fleshed out.

Zak S · Post by **Zak S** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 6:02 am

just putting this here so my signature's here.

carry on.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 6:03 am

They just HAD to do it. Welp. START THE CLOCK.

TiaC · Post by **TiaC** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 6:08 am

Because when someone says that they aren't going to post any more they are always telling the truth.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 6:16 am

Well done, guys. You just had to go and summon him, didn't you?

Any casual visitors: please disregard his sig that he posted just to leave there. He is dishonest, intellectually bankrupt, and once he decides someone is for any reason "not on his side", they become "the enemy" and he will fling wild insults and accusations, start insulting them based on aspects of their private life that apparently he doesn't have issue with, and encourages his fans to harass and attack people. For a more interesting and honest discussion, listen to your lavatory flush.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 6:21 am

Also, he has a fucking google alert for his name, but then accuses anyone who ever says anything ever about him of "trolling for his attention" and oh yeah, even the ones who had to invent a fucking codename to talk about him without him showing up to lie over and over and over and over about literally everything in an effort to derail any and every thread.

Because you know, we are trolling for his attention. By deliberately trying to avoid it, despite his pathological need to pursue and run to ground even the slightest attempt to have any conversation ever without him shitting on it.

Stubbazubba · Post by **Stubbazubba** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 6:25 am

Wow. Just wow. Link de-linked. Tussock called it. Learned my lesson.

Dean · Post by **Dean** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 6:44 am

I agree with PL and erik, I read the link in good faith but honestly it's just shit design work. There's nothing in there, it's just vague statements about various shows or fiction he likes. Even if you were actually inspired by his ramblings you'd have to write up the rules for the Aboleth he's describing yourself because he didn't write shit. It's just like before, he doesn't actually write rules or design anything, he thinks about something and rambles on it and if at any point an outsider points out there his actual design work is absent or terrible then he declares that person evil and a non-person instead of improving his shitty writing.

And this is why we call him Shitmuffin.