tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post7880475077039735433..comments2024-03-28T22:28:01.028-07:00Comments on B/X BLACKRAZOR: I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing...JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-22611383241906078052018-12-18T17:23:51.394-08:002018-12-18T17:23:51.394-08:00True, though they are clearly derived from them.True, though they are clearly derived from them.faoladhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03691952430041394614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-25834435945072321672018-12-18T12:07:48.366-08:002018-12-18T12:07:48.366-08:00I just finished reading the original DL trilogy fo...I just finished reading the original DL trilogy for the first time. Never had any DL experience prior. I agree with all of you, especially that the Mayfair Role Aids book Dragons is an awesome supplement. Its dragons are not D&D dragons though.Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01248905587983891548noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-56326375451473861822018-12-17T17:24:34.631-08:002018-12-17T17:24:34.631-08:00Hey, man, I get it. I think folks who love Harry P...Hey, man, I get it. I think folks who love Harry Potter are pretty crazy.<br />; )JBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-81091956978392941892018-12-17T16:35:54.194-08:002018-12-17T16:35:54.194-08:00Yeah, I guess I get that. I still feel dubious abo...Yeah, I guess I get that. I still feel dubious about the books, but maybe I was two years too old when they came out.faoladhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03691952430041394614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-58618848146206729332018-12-17T08:25:26.325-08:002018-12-17T08:25:26.325-08:00@ Faol:
I explained in an earlier post a bit of m...@ Faol:<br /><br />I explained in an earlier post a bit of my fondness for the novels: they were published at a formative point in my gaming career and provided a look at the POTENTIAL of how one could use D&D. Consider how many young folks came into D&D with B/X (1981) or BECMI (1983)...boxed games sold in toy stores with an age range of "10 years and up." By 1985 those 12-14 year olds were picking up the DL novels because they had the TSR logo right on the cover. And for an unsophisticated reader of limited literary experience, they aren't half bad...lots of bloodletting and sexual titillation and humor (provided by the kender, gnomes, and gully dwarves), plus badass dragon lords.<br /><br />I'm not familiar with Mayfair's "Dragons," and back in the '80s I wasn't much into Mayfair anyway. TSR was the brand I knew, trusted, and consumed...and it wasn't like there were a bunch of internet bloggers telling me different.JBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-51200728069145293092018-12-16T16:39:42.913-08:002018-12-16T16:39:42.913-08:00The one thing that is interesting in the setting a...The one thing that is interesting in the setting and books—dragon riding warriors and a war of dragons—was done better in fewer pages by Mayfair in their <i>Dragons</i> supplement. Every other element of DL that was designed to make it different from bog-standard D&D is terrible, and in some cases, such as "tinker gnomes", went on to make other things that TSR produced qualitatively worse.<br /><br />Damn, that sounds harsher than I mean to, but I really can't state the case against tinker gnomes* strongly enough, and I struggle to find anything other than the dragon-riders and the wars of dragons that has any value outside of the DL setting to me.<br /><br />And, again, I'm really trying to not be too harsh about DL, but I never could understand what other people saw in it. And that's frustrating. When someone like you comes along and says, "yeah I remember it fondly but there's all this stuff, pretty much the whole setting, that just sucks and I would toss out or change radically", I just get more baffled.<br /><br />*Also kender and gully dwarves, but those, at least, didn't really spread outside of the confines of DL as much as tinker gnomes did. Well, kender almost did, but they didn't make it into BX/BECMI products as far as I know.faoladhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03691952430041394614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-50293386303875310882018-12-16T09:05:40.005-08:002018-12-16T09:05:40.005-08:00@ Scott:
Much of Dungeons & Dragons is pretty...@ Scott:<br /><br />Much of Dungeons & Dragons is pretty darn stupid if you "look too closely." My goal isn't to avert my eyes; rather, I'm trying to analyze what exactly bugs me about this stuff and see if there's any way I can make it LESS "stupid." <br />; )JBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-70095584868728078412018-12-16T09:02:48.779-08:002018-12-16T09:02:48.779-08:00@ Faol:
Oh, the first book is godawful...though, ...@ Faol:<br /><br />Oh, the first book is godawful...though, I didn't realize that till I went back and read it a second time. Much of it reads like an adventure module (not surprising), complete with lists of gear and specific counts of monsters encountered.<br /><br />But for a kid used to reading adventure modules (as I was in those days) it didn't bother me the first time through (though I do remember thinking the Forest Master was weird...kind of the Tom Bombadil of the saga, if you ask me). And the books certainly improved the more they actually wrote. <br /><br />I remember them fondly and am glad I read them...which isn't something I say about all the books I've read over the years!<br />: )JBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-10124563103574495732018-12-16T08:05:35.329-08:002018-12-16T08:05:35.329-08:00Forget it man, it’s Tracy Hickman. Things are just...Forget it man, it’s Tracy Hickman. Things are just gonna be stupid if you look too closely. <br /><br />You can still have fun in the setting. Just don’t ask it to make sense. Scott Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12067161332003628237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-17797930868122371142018-12-15T23:00:22.213-08:002018-12-15T23:00:22.213-08:00I could live with "iron pieces", even if...I could live with "iron pieces", even if I thought they were stupid, but this is one of the main reasons that I just couldn't get into DL. The authors seemed to have no understanding of how human beings work, and it just ruined my ability to buy into the setting.<br /><br />Plus, to me that first book was just badly written. I know a lot of people liked it, but I was already used to good fantasy writers even at that relatively early point in my life.faoladhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03691952430041394614noreply@blogger.com