Chaos Mage

[Brad R. Torgersen @BradRTorgersen]

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” ― George Orwell, 1984

[Chaos Mage @chaos_mage]

Cautionary optimistic about WoW Forever. Only one red flag so far. Haven’t played the beta though.

[Chaos Mage @chaos_mage]

@ShitpostRock Slaanesh Purple

[Parteyunques @parteyunques]

Han pasado trece años. Aceptemos de una vez que la obra magna de las cinemáticas de Blizzard fueron estos dos minutos de absoluto delirio y fanservice:

[Проф. Преображенский @prof_preobr]

Он был абсолютно невероятный, потрясающий, гениальный.
Евгений Леонов.
Никогда не видел, как он читает фрагмент из "Хоббита".

[Harman Singh Kapoor @kingkapoor72]

Suicide Squad

[el.cine @EHuanglu]

wwow.. AI just turned red alert 2 into 22mins epic film

[The Critical Drinker @TheCriticalDri2]

@DaveCullenShow I hate what this franchise has become.

[Grummz @Grummz]

Holy crap😂

I didn’t give five years of my life to see it end up like that.

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

I know everyone loves my Traps posts. So here goes.

This is my most hated trap for any RPG. The lava stream runs across the hallway. It's only 3-4 feet across - an easy jump for any non-hobbit. So a player jumps the gap, hits the wall, and falls into the lava. In one game, the dwarf had another player toss him across. He bounced into the lava.

Best of all, depending on how you define "invisible", Detect Magic might not even work. Could be a clear crystal wall in a dark hallway.

But Sandy! No saving throws? Just instant death? You monster!

Saving throws are lame. I want my players to use their brains. They could toss something across the lava. They could levitate across instead of jumping. They could use Spot Hidden and notice a reflection in the crystal wall.

Should I give them a hint? Isn't it a big enough hint that I have an easily-jumped river of lava in the hall? Obviously something's not kosher.

[Kevin Lamb @KevinLamb74]

Troy Denning and Gerald Brom recently did a 35th Anniversary Dark Sun Q & A.

Here's some of what they revealed:

Dark Sun was the result of Jim Ward stating that TSR needed a new campaign setting, and the two most important things it needed to have were chainmail bikinis and psionics.

Almost EVERYTHING that followed was a direct result of that mandate.

Not blood, not gore, not nudity (as WOTC randomly seems to believe.)

Bikinis and psionics.

Denning said that he believes bikinis were chosen simply because Ward liked to see them and artists liked to draw them.

So Athas was made a desert planet to explain why everyone wears very little clothing.

Metal was made rare to eliminate the possibility of anyone wearing full plate at night, underground, or for specific battles where the heat might have been otherwise bearable.

That's how important the bikini mandate was; not only was Athas made ridiculously hot but they also made metal almost non-existent just to eliminate those fringe occurrences where someone might be fully clothed.

Denning said his favorite part of the setting was defiler magic.

Athas was closed off from other campaign worlds because TSR didn't want Athasians getting on Spelljammers and suddenly bringing psionics to Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, and Krynn.

Gods were removed to also further facilitate that fact.

Denning was a massive fan of the two Arnold Conan movies and wanted Dark Sun to be a lot like those.

Brom was also a huge fan of Conan but also John Carter and was excited to do Dark Sun because of that, and Brom prefers painting anatomy so he liked the no steel armor mandate (obviously the "chainmail" in chainmail bikini got dropped once they decided that metal was so rare and the climate was so hot.)

Denning toured the artists' studio, looking to see who he might poach to illustrate the world and when he came to Brom's desk he saw the now famous painting of Neeva (then titled "Dominator") that Brom had done for himself and immediately said "That's it! That's Dark Sun!" and then when Brom said yes, Troy immediately wrote Neeva into the story.

Brom said that he only had one Dark Sun painting rejected by TSR, and that was an elf that they said "looked gay." Oh how times have changed. 😂

Because Denning and Brom wanted Athas to be like Conan or Barsoom, they wanted only humans. TSR said no, you must include all the standard races, so Denning begrudgingly made them the exact opposite of their Tolkien counterparts.

He even changed dragons by changing them from creatures that are hatched into things you turn into.

Troy said that he's pretty sure he made halflings cannibals without telling the marketing team (lol) and since nobody either caught it or complained they got to stay in.

Brom said that years later he was notified by some of the designers at Weta that they were huge fans and based some of the orc and goblin armor in the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings films on his Dark Sun designs.

Denning was asked looking back what does he wish he had done differently and what would he change if he were releasing Dark Sun today and he said "not one damn thing." 🤘

[Niles Sankey @NilesSankey]

As someone who'd worked in gamedev a LONG time, let me explain the conversation that the devs (probably) had when writing this character:

"Let's add some character development."

"Cool yea, that's what smart writers do!"

"Yea! Maybe one of the marines you save is an ODST and, check this out, according to ChatGPT they don't like Spartans, so let's have them hate the Master Chief at the start but then the player EARNS their respect!!"

"OMG that's so great!! That's character development. But wait, how do we also add diversity!"

"Ok check this out! Let's make the ODST a woman!"

"OMG that's perfect!"

"But what if the Halo fans don't like this?"

"Who cares, they'll buy whatever slop we sell them."

"Yay! More money for us and our amazing ideas!"

"What a great day of work. Oh no, it's 4:30pm, I need to be at the No Kings protest!"

"Ok have fun! See you tomorrow!"

[Chaos Mage @chaos_mage]

@exQUIZitely not many remember Future Wars. surprised to see it here.

[Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 @JeremiahDJohns]

This post lives deep, deep inside my brain

[Fidias Panayiotou @Fidias0]

You forgot to mention that Turkey also occupies part of an EU country. Just a little detail.

[Deus Ex @DeusEx]

We're at the halfway point between the year Deus Ex released (2000) and the year it takes place (2052)

HB to the OG

[Страдающее Средневековье @souffrantmitte1]

Поддержите льва. Он заебалс.

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

Kids are the greatest.