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− | Part 2 of the FATAL Review Rebuttal. --[[User:Knockwood|Lord Knockwood the Mad]] | + | [http://forever-your.110mb.com/data/midi-napoletani.htm midi napoletani] [http://sneezingpops.110mb.com/je-taime/ je taime moi no plus] [http://blue-olusha.110mb.com/library/paulo-afonso/ paulo afonso cachoeira de] [http://ultra-creator.110mb.com/articles/turtle-blues.htm turtle blues] [http://trouble166.110mb.com/matrox-rt.htm matrox rt x100 xtreme pro collection] [http://dialed.110mb.com/small/ati-radeon/ ati radeon x800 pro 256mb] [http://trene-von-anty.110mb.com/description/sito-inviare.htm sito inviare sms gratuiti] [http://some-omeelse.110mb.com/data/caplio-gx.htm caplio gx ricoh] [http://forever-your.110mb.com/data/la-fica.htm la fica di natalia estrada] [http://book-wench.110mb.com/text/fuchun/ fuchun] [http://dialed.110mb.com/small/nero/ nero 6] [http://olikka.110mb.com/library/buble-bum.htm buble bum] [http://sneezingpops.110mb.com/double-penetrated/ double penetrated double 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Part 2 of the FATAL Review Rebuttal. --[[User:Knockwood|Lord Knockwood the Mad]] |
| ---- | | ---- |
| <blockquote> | | <blockquote> |
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| can speak, or how pretty it looks when you move. </font></p> | | can speak, or how pretty it looks when you move. </font></p> |
| | | |
− | <p>You should have used "that" instead of "which". Enunciation and | + | <p>You should have used |
− | Kinetic Charisma (not beauty -- by now the reader should not expect accuracy from Darren)
| |
− | are important sub-abilities (not sub-stats). For example, if a character is a
| |
− | spell-caster, then Enunciation is important to their spell-casting. Enunciation is also
| |
− | important to bards. Kinetic Charisma is important to a dancer, and probably anyone trying
| |
− | to seduce another character. There are well over 100 occupations, and each uses a
| |
− | different blend of the sub-abilities. Did Darren read the game?</p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: Just to elaborate once again. Imagine a mage getting
| |
− | charged by a hill troll. Before the troll gets there, which is determined by the
| |
− | sub-ability of physical fitness, the mage tries to cast Wooden Carapice, which would give
| |
− | himself an additional 15 to current armor. Enunciation would determine if he could speak
| |
− | the chant fast enough to cast the spell. </font></p>
| |
− | <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:.5in;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:
| |
− | auto;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Sartin: Would this be a bad place to mention that you have to randomly
| |
− | roll all 20 sub-abilities? And the roll is 4d100, halve it, and subtract 1? Then you go
| |
− | back and calculate each primary ability by averaging all four of its sub-abilities. Which
| |
− | is really cool when you consider that primary abilities are rarely if ever used by the
| |
− | rules. </font></p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:.5in;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:
| |
− | auto;margin-left:.5in">4d100 has changed to 10d100. Keep in mind that a character can be created in five minutes or
| |
− | less with the FATAL Character Generator, available free at fatalgames.com. Then again, the
| |
− | complexity of determining sub-abilities ((10d100)/5 - 1), compared to other RPG's,
| |
− | supports my claims that it is the most difficult, detailed, and realistic RPG available. I
| |
− | mentioned realism because the curve produced by 10d100 is superior to anything else
| |
− | I've seen, as well as the fact that the mean is 100, which is easy to interpret.
| |
− | Therefore, the statistical curves produced by rolling for sub-abilities in FATAL are more
| |
− | realistic, and represent real distributions better than other RPG's. Although primary
| |
− | abilities are used less frequently than sub-abilities, I disagree with "rarely".
| |
− | Just the same, the focus is on sub-abilities, not abilities.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: Go ahead and make about 20 characters and see how well
| |
− | they fit into the Bell curve. I’ve tried and it’s much more accurate than
| |
− | anything I’ve seen.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">So, basically, saying
| |
− | that this game should be burned is an insult to fire.</font></p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in">Saying that this game should be burned is an
| |
− | insult to RPG's and gamers worldwide.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p><font color="#009900">The worst part of reviewing this shit is that I actually have to
| |
− | think about it. I actually have to read this shit, then try to explain it to you, then I
| |
− | have to spend half an hour with a pencil up my nose trying to fish out the piece of brain
| |
− | that died the minute that I tried to use it to understand FATAL. And God almighty, that's
| |
− | not a fun job. I'm genuinely worried that this is going to start interfering with my life,
| |
− | so that I start wind up adding on pointless, redundant statistics to everything that I do,
| |
− | like the guy who writes [http://philippe.tromeur.free.fr/hybrid.htm Hybrid]. </font></p>
| |
− | <p>Based on the lack of quality of Darren's comments, I doubt he thought about FATAL or
| |
− | read much at all.</p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: Come on now, giving credit where it’s due he
| |
− | probably read it. Just he couldn’t understand most of it. That’s why he’s
| |
− | thinking so hard and “fishing out his brain."</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p><font color="#009900">Also, for x=(c)(number of words in review)*ycc+kill me you fucks
| |
− | kill me.</font></p>
| |
− | <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:.5in;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:
| |
− | auto;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Sartin: It's hard to believe, but even Hybrid is less of a waste of atoms
| |
− | than FATAL. You can catch my review of it [http://atrocities.primaryerror.net/hybrid.html here].</font></p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#009900">Just for example: Charisma includes Facial Charisma (how good you
| |
− | look), Vocal Charisma (how you sound,) Kinetic Charisma (how pretty you look when you
| |
− | move), and Rhetorical Charisma (how fast you CAN FUCKING SPEAK.) That's right, everybody:
| |
− | You can determine how fast your character can speak, in words per minute. What a
| |
− | statistic.</font></p>
| |
− | <p>While speech rate may seem pointless to a reviewer who doesn't read closely, Rhetorical
| |
− | Charisma is important to some characters, just as with Enunciation and Kinetic Charisma,
| |
− | noted above. Above all, the information is there, if needed. If not needed, it doesn't
| |
− | need to be read.</p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: Just a side note, Facial Charisma is not how good you
| |
− | look. It’s how good your face looks.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:.5in;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:
| |
− | auto;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Sartin: Yeah, where to begin? I mean, I can't count the number of
| |
− | campaigns I've seen where it matters whether your face can be THAT much prettier than your
| |
− | body. But don't worry. Even if you blow that 4d100/2-1 roll for it, you can beat it by
| |
− | wearing a bag over your head, like most FATALites probably do in real life.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p>It would be interesting to have a poll with hundreds of anonymous participants who rate
| |
− | photos of their faces and ours, just to see.</p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: I believe in giving details so here we go again.
| |
− | Imagine, if you will, fighting your way to the top of a tower where a female mage is
| |
− | attempting to cast the spell FATAL upon the world. Now when you get there you have the
| |
− | option of outright killing her. But there are so many options in FATAL one of which is
| |
− | trying to seduce her and make her break her concentration as a by-product. Now being a
| |
− | mage of high enough level to cast FATAL she obviously has high skill points in spell
| |
− | casting, familiarity. So in order to break her concentration you need to seduce her AND
| |
− | roll a high enough sexual adeptness check to be considered exceptional (80 or higher). In
| |
− | order to do this it would help to have high Facial Charisma and Bodily Attractiveness
| |
− | sub-abilities. </font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p><font color="#009900">And while we're on the subject, it's cool that Kinetic Charisma
| |
− | is entirely separate from Hand-Eye Coordination and Agility. That's right! You can be the
| |
− | clumsiest, most spastic sack of shit who ever lived, and yet still inspire boners because
| |
− | the way you pick up that bottle of Jack Daniels to help you get through this game is just
| |
− | so Kinetically Charismatic. Meanwhile, you fans of the controversial pastime of hot,
| |
− | sweaty man-love will enjoy how, with Vocal Charisma, the lowest possible rating will get
| |
− | you a description of "gay".</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p>Finally, Darren provides an argument. Should Kinetic Charisma be correlated with
| |
− | Hand-Eye Coordination and Agility? If there is a correlation, it should be weak. Consider
| |
− | a female in high school or college, who moves attractively. The gestures she makes with
| |
− | her wrist, the way she moves her head, and how she walks -- most consider her to be
| |
− | kinetically charismatic. However, I believe it is reasonable for a female like this to be
| |
− | tested by a Phys. Ed. teacher regarding either Hand-Eye or Agility, and perform poorly.
| |
− | The opposite also seems plausible. Therefore, if a relationship exists, it is weak. As
| |
− | these sub-abilities stand, orthogonal to each other, is reasonable. Just the same, I am
| |
− | interested in exploring this further. I thank Darren for providing one argument not devoid
| |
− | of all reason or support.</p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: Darren claims we are homophobic yet, he uses the term
| |
− | hot, sweaty man love.</font></p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">And Rhetorical
| |
− | Charisma...yeah. I mean, this happens all the time in the dungeon:</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in">The scope of FATAL is much wider than
| |
− | adventuring in a dungeon. In fact, if you consider the majority of occupations, the most
| |
− | general form of role-playing in FATAL should be gaming either as a peasant in a hamlet or
| |
− | a serf in a town.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:1.0in;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
| |
− | mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">Player: Okay, the dark priest HAS to be down to his last few hit points.
| |
− | As I take my next strike, I'm gonna shout "This is for my brother! Eat testicle pubes
| |
− | and die, scrotum breath!" </font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">Gamemaster: Now,
| |
− | hold on! I'm not sure you could get that entire sentence out before you hit. Oh, if only
| |
− | there was SOMETHING we could roll to see!</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: Actually I believe what Sartin is looking for is
| |
− | Enunciation not Rhetorical Charisma. In this case if his Enunciation were not high enough
| |
− | he has the option of waiting to finish the sentence before striking. Though, if he chooses
| |
− | that he runs the risk of the dark priest attacking first. Anyway, Rhetorical Charisma is
| |
− | used more in the case of Haggling for a lower price for buying equipment or a higher price
| |
− | for selling.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in">If Jason read the game, he'd know that
| |
− | should be MaimMaster, not Gamemaster.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p><font color="#009900">I spent some time trying to scream, but nothing came out but
| |
− | blood.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p>Please try again.</p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:.5in;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:
| |
− | auto;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Sartin: Okay, people. Remember that Darren's a professional, and we're
| |
− | reviewing on a closed course. Don't projectile vomit blood at home!</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:.5in;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:
| |
− | auto;margin-left:.5in">Darren's a professional? Professional at what? It's sure not debating or reviewing. I wonder if
| |
− | Darren's capable of an advanced degree? Nevermind, they're easy to get.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: Isn’t it obvious Byron. He’s a professional at
| |
− | projecting vomitous blood, iIn accordance to the wording used by Sartin.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p><font color="#009900">I should also spend some time describing the artwork for this
| |
− | game. Most of it is obviously photographs run through the [http://www.adscape.com/eyedesign/photoshop/four/filters/graphicpen.html Graphic Pen] filter in Adobe Photoshop; and most of the photographs depict two beer-swollen
| |
− | morons pretending to fight about as smoothly and realistically as any fight on Star Trek -
| |
− | which is to say that it's stiff and really, really staged. There's also startling
| |
− | depictions of the ARTWORK HERE monster, and crudely drawn pornographic sketches here and
| |
− | there. As a matter of fact, the ARTWORK HERE monster must be the most common wandering
| |
− | monster in FATAL, given its frequency of appearance.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p>There is only one "crudely drawn pornographic" sketch, and it was drawn by my
| |
− | wife. Actually, it was the fun of the moment, not intended as permanent artwork. She is a
| |
− | capable artist, though someone who sees that sketch should know that it took her less than
| |
− | five seconds to sketch it. As for the altered photos, they are also not intended as
| |
− | permanent artwork. The Artwork Here monste r(which, by the way, is not all caps, just in
| |
− | case Darren's interested in getting it right) is now dying a slow death, since art is
| |
− | being added and is one of the reasons the most recent version has not been made available
| |
− | for some time. A professional artist is now working on FATAL.</p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: To give credit where it’s due, Darren is somewhat
| |
− | right on one point here. Being one of the people in the photographs he’s speaking
| |
− | about, I can say that one other person and I were drunk when taking these pictures. And as
| |
− | Byron stated they were never meant to be in FATAL, even worse permanent artwork. By the
| |
− | way, if you’ve ever played with a bardiche while drinking you would now it’s
| |
− | better to look staged than to chop your buddy’s head off.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:.5in;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:
| |
− | auto;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Sartin: Wait, he was trying to be intimidating? I thought he was going for
| |
− | a "Hi! I'm a silhouette of a bearded jackass who couldn't pass muster in the
| |
− | SCA!" look. Really, take a white marker and scribble on some black construction
| |
− | paper, and you won't be too far off from what little artwork HAS been filled in here. If
| |
− | Hall used Photoshop to create these images, he sucks at it. </font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:.5in;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:
| |
− | auto;margin-left:.5in">Who was trying to be intimidating? The last potential creature Darren mentioned was the
| |
− | Artwork Here monster. Was the Artwork Here monster trying to be intimidating? My question
| |
− | is: can Jason write clearly? Who is bearded? I was definitely no good at PhotoShop when
| |
− | altered pictures of myself and my buddies. In the last few months, I'd say I got pretty
| |
− | decent at PhotoShop. For example, I thoroughly redesigned the Fatal Games Website.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Here, check it out:</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Really. It's from the
| |
− | combat section. Actually, that one isn't so bad...the guy on the right is obviously Hall,
| |
− | and no illustration that depicts Hall in a state of imminent fustigation can be all bad.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p>The image used without permission is on the second page of Chapter 10: Combat.</p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Hmmm...</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Oh, yeah. I'm either
| |
− | drunk or half-blind, or someone needs to try harder.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p>I'm guessing Jason's drunk.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p><font color="#009900">Or check this description of an ability check:</font></p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#009900">For example, a slovenly trollop offers herself to a strapping
| |
− | young adventurer if and only if he can expediently say a tongue-twister of her choice.
| |
− | Driven by hormones, the young male agrees, and asks what is the tongue twister. The
| |
− | courtesan challenges "Huge hung hero hunks hastily hump horny heaving hot whores. How
| |
− | 'bout it, huh?"</font></p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#009900">So: Not only do we have a splendid example of the level that
| |
− | FATAL operates at, we also have an example of the game's utter misogyny. You will never,
| |
− | ever find a female character in this game who isn't a prostitute and/or proclaimed slut,
| |
− | because that's the only kind of women that exist in these dipshits' imagination. There's
| |
− | also not-English ("what is the tongue twister" instead of "what the tongue
| |
− | twister is"), and, for the final kick in the balls to my leathery psyche, you have to
| |
− | check against your Enunciation stat in order to say it.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p>I admit to making a mistake. However, Jason's powers of observation seem to leave much
| |
− | to be desired. For example, it should be, "and asks 'What is the
| |
− | tongue-twister?'" Did he expect the reader to overlook his misuse of the colon next
| |
− | to "So:", or simply not notice the dangling preposition "at", which
| |
− | would be better written as "the level at which FATAL operates." For that matter,
| |
− | FATAL does not 'operate' in the sense he meant. His poorly worded attack is actually
| |
− | hypocritical. By the way, Enunciation is better termed a sub-ability than a stat.</p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: Darren states “You will never, ever find a female
| |
− | character in this game who isn't a prostitute and/or proclaimed slut, because that's the
| |
− | only kind of women that exist in these dipshits' imagination.” I take offense to
| |
− | these remarks but will answer in terms of the game itself. With exception of very few,
| |
− | like Hierophant and Druid, a female can choose to be any occupation she so desires and
| |
− | there are even occupations set aside just for females, other than whore. Like baroness,
| |
− | chambermaid, dairymaid, delouser, duchesses, queen, laundress, lacemaker,and ladies,
| |
− | amongst many others. There are also many occupations where both males or females are rare
| |
− | or uncommon but they do exist.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:.5in;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:
| |
− | auto;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Sartin: Appropriately enough, that example ends with the adventurer
| |
− | blowing it and losing the girl. How unintentionally autobiographical! </font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:.5in;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:
| |
− | auto;margin-left:.5in">Is that what Jason needs to believe to feel better? His suppositions sound as unreasonable as
| |
− | grounds for religion.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">But while we're on the
| |
− | subject of whores and sluts, there are also few occupations in this game that get more
| |
− | wordage from Hall than whoring and all things related to it (and even those only exceed
| |
− | the whoring volume through huge charts or long, boring ass skill lists).</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in">Whoring doesn't get much attention at all.
| |
− | Would anyone like to make any comparisons? Jason refuses to support his argument.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: Sure I’ll make a quick comparison. Ok whore as an
| |
− | occupation gets a page and a half with no charts. I’ll check how many have that much
| |
− | or more. Assassin has two pages with one four line chart. Brotheler gets a page and a half
| |
− | no charts. Clerk gets a page and a half no charts. Doctor gets a page and a half no
| |
− | charts. Druid gets three and a half pages including three charts that cover about a full
| |
− | page. Gladiator gets a page and a half no charts. Knight gets a full page no charts. Mage
| |
− | gets three pages about one and a half in charts. Ranger gets a page and a half no charts.
| |
− | Scribe gets a page and half no charts. Sorceror gets two pages about one and three
| |
− | quarters pages in charts. That’s all. I count 11 occupations that get the same or
| |
− | more wording than whore. Seems like more than few to me. There are also a lot that get a
| |
− | whole page to themselves so whore doesn’t get that much more than them.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">And all the whore and
| |
− | whore-related profession descriptions, of course, instantly footnote you to
| |
− | "information on whores has been obtained from Medieval Prostitution, by Jacques
| |
− | Rossiaud". Which, as it turns out, is a book on prostitution...in southern
| |
− | France...in the time period spanning the 1400s. And yet Hall is basing an entire world on
| |
− | it. Yes, people, this is what passes for "research" and "historical
| |
− | accuracy" in FATAL.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p>If Jason read the book, he'd know that in numerous places, information on
| |
− | brothels and whoring is generalized to Europe. The arguments of Jason fail to stand here,
| |
− | as usual. Finally, He has no idea how the world for FATAL (Neveria) will end-up, based on
| |
− | the FATAL system rules alone. The reader should know that this is what he tries to call a
| |
− | review.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Actually, I tell a
| |
− | lie. One aspect of whoring you won't see FATAL spend time on is sexually transmitted
| |
− | disease. Yep, with the loving attention Hall pays to sex, genitalia, whoremongering, and
| |
− | rape, there isn't one damn word in the entire book about STDs.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">So Hall's either
| |
− | careless beyond imagination, or didn't feel "the most difficult, detailed, and
| |
− | realistic game available" needed to present anything that might be a possible
| |
− | consequence to raping and fucking your brains out. Your call!</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p>I searched for information on sexually transmitted diseases in the Middle Ages.
| |
− | Although I did not search with vigor, the few times that I have searched, I have failed to
| |
− | find any information. Some others have made this same argument. When I asked them to
| |
− | provide a source, so that I can include the information, I never heard from them again. If
| |
− | Jason were credible, he would provide a scholarly source.</p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: From what I have heard, they existed but nobody was able
| |
− | to diagnose STD’s. Not that I see it mattering much. Considering the fact that in
| |
− | FATAL you’d be lucky if a character lived long enough to be effected by the long term
| |
− | effects of STD’s. And in the short term most would be nothing more than minor
| |
− | annoyances. Every 1d4 hours you must scratch your balls due to crabs. Or due to urinary
| |
− | tract infection take 1d2 LP of damage during each urination over the next 1d4 weeks. Only
| |
− | problem is, as stated by Byron, no one has brought a scholarly text to prove they even
| |
− | existed let alone could be diagnosed.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p><font color="#009900">Then there's the charts - pages and pages and pages of charts. I
| |
− | should mention that the Bodily Attractiveness stat affects your breast cup size, although,
| |
− | of course, only for women.</font></p>
| |
− | <p>Does Darren intend to argue that Bodily Attractiveness should affect the cup size of
| |
− | men? I hope that Darren's lack of clarity does not frustrate the reader. By the way,
| |
− | multiple historical texts indicated that large, spherical breasts were desirable. This was
| |
− | noted in the series by Giles, in either _Life in a Medieval Village_, _Life in a Medieval
| |
− | City_, or _Life in a Medieval Castle_. It has been noted in other books as well, but these
| |
− | are sufficient to support my claim for now, especially since Darren's claim is unclear, at
| |
− | best.</p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#009900">Oh, and you can get "retard strength". Check the
| |
− | formula out for determining this:</font></p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#009900">(71 - retard Intelligence) x 3 = (% chance of Retard Strength).</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p><font color="#009900">I hate the author. I really fucking do.</font></p>
| |
− | <p>Is Darren close to retardation, or is he close to those with retardation? There must be
| |
− | a reason he is emotional and takes this so personally. He only notes that Retard Strength
| |
− | exists, and that he hates me for it. By the way, I have neither searched nor found any
| |
− | material supporting Retard Strength. However, it is important to note that it is based on
| |
− | the experiences of some females I knew in college. Their jobs, about which they were
| |
− | obviously never overjoyed, consisted of taking care of retards. They would tell stories of
| |
− | how some of them would flip out, and how it would take multiple male nurses, or whatever
| |
− | they are, to subdue them. At any rate, the girls were impressed with each such occurence,
| |
− | stunned by the surprising strength of retards. In fact, if you observe the features of
| |
− | someone with Down's Syndrome, for instance, you will notice that their metabolism seems
| |
− | not quite right, and that they seem thicker than average. Another thought is that retards
| |
− | may not know the limits of their strength. Sometime I will focus on exploring the validity
| |
− | of Retard Strength, but for now, that is all the information I have on the subject.</p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:.5in;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:
| |
− | auto;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Sartin: As bad as Darren's making this sound, he hasn't been telling you
| |
− | the tenth of it. These abilities - and the charts for them - could deep-throat a sperm
| |
− | whale. </font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Not counting the
| |
− | 4d100/2-1 roll (may it burn in hell), there are three central, massive idiocies at work
| |
− | here. In order:</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: It’s your opinion that the roll should burn in
| |
− | hell. Then show any other RPG that has a roll for abilities that better emulates the Bell
| |
− | Curve.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Lame ass references
| |
− | and quotes</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:1.0in;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
| |
− | mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">I love how when every sub-ability mentions skills or bodily features or
| |
− | combat stats, we get a big "(SEE CHAPTER (insert lame ass chapter number
| |
− | here))", as though we're too stupid to catch the chapter references in any of the
| |
− | other 19 sub-abilities that are right next to it. But then again, FATAL was written for
| |
− | FATALites, not you or me or anyone else whose IQ doesn't begin with a decimal point, so I
| |
− | guess it's necessary.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p>And even though I've gone to great lengths to be clear, such as with the premises of
| |
− | the game, Darren and Jason failed to consider them. Also, one reason for multiple
| |
− | references to other chapters on the same page (but not to the same chapter from the same
| |
− | sub-heading) is because a reader may randomly select a page and a paragraph, and be
| |
− | redirected appropriately. Unlike a conventional book, a gaming book is not often read in a
| |
− | linear, front-to-back, fashion, even if it should be (and these two provide the example).</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">And I have to love
| |
− | that "Brute force bereft of wisdom falls to ruin by its own weight" quote -
| |
− | yeah, it's utterly hypocritical, but it's also half-assedly ironic, given that nearly
| |
− | every FATALite to date has presented themselves as a total death- and rape-monger while
| |
− | having no clue how much their belovedly rape-enabling game sucks.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in">Whether you like or dislike this quote, it
| |
− | is from Roman times, so it supports historical accuracy. Why is it hypocritical? In fact,
| |
− | isn't it hypocritical for Jason to call it hypocritical (see above)? Besides, I've never
| |
− | presented myself as a rape-monger, though FATAL does enable rape. </p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">General
| |
− | idiocy/pointlessness</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">Like Intelligence:
| |
− | Spacial. With a way cool "Unfamiliar Object Assembly (# of pieces)" column. This
| |
− | would be the most complex machine a character can understand or some shit. Those with 100
| |
− | Spacial can only understand machines with 200 parts, but with above-average Spacial, that
| |
− | will quickly grow to thousands of parts. Of course, where you're going to find something
| |
− | with that many parts in the most realistic fantasy setting available is a mystery to us
| |
− | both.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p>By the way, it's not "Spacial," but Spatial Intelligence. Since Jason's
| |
− | imagination seems limited, I will offer instances of objects with numerous parts: A
| |
− | clockmaker qualifies as someone who needs to understand objects with numerous parts. An
| |
− | engineer such as an archtect needs to understand objects with numerous parts. FATAL is
| |
− | possibly the only fantasy medieval game that lets a player role-play diverse and accurate
| |
− | characters such as these.</p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: Actually I find Spatial Intelligence very important in
| |
− | my line of work even though not dealing directly with mechanical parts. Being a Quality
| |
− | Control Supervisor I have to look at blueprints and imagine how the part will look in a
| |
− | three-dimensional space by only seeing one to three views in two-dimensional space. In
| |
− | some instances the part can’t be made from only one piece so I have to figure out
| |
− | what the smallest number of pieces it would take to complete said part. Quite an
| |
− | intriguing concept. </font></p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">Or the Math
| |
− | sub-ability, with a "Highest math possible" column. Huh. I had no idea Geometry
| |
− | is the highest math any character can understand.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p>A premise of the game is historical accuracy. In terms of technology, the year for the
| |
− | game is 1335 A.D. Calculus was not invented prior to this year, so geometry is the highest
| |
− | possible math that a character can understand. Again, Jason offers no support for his
| |
− | argument, which is obviously fallacious.</p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">Or the Common Sense
| |
− | sub-ability, with a "likely to" column to explain what low Common Sense
| |
− | characters are likely to get caught doing. The lowest possible rating is "Get caught
| |
− | for greater scheme: attempt to kill a god", but "Appear at emergency room after
| |
− | getting dick caught in zipper" and "Write FATAL" are just as likely.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">The Vocal
| |
− | sub-ability has that "gay" note, of course, but if you're around 88-114, your
| |
− | description is "ordinary". Now check out the descriptions above and below it: </font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:1.5in;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
| |
− | mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">84-87: "Always says 'uh' or 'uhm'" <br>
| |
− | 88-114: "Ordinary" <br>
| |
− | 115-120: "Avoids 'uh' or 'uhm'"</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">So where does this
| |
− | leave "ordinary" speakers? Do they avoid "uh" and "uhm" half
| |
− | the time, and always use them the other half? It's a mystery for the ages, or for
| |
− | whoever's got Hall's bong.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in">Yes, the ordinary person uses vocal
| |
− | fillers such as "uh" and "uhm".</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: Let’s just say an ordinary person uses them. But
| |
− | not always. But, also fails to avoid them. So they sometimes use “uh” and
| |
− | “uhm”.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">And it's cool to
| |
− | know that Health will help out with that Urinating skill. And it helps with your hearing,
| |
− | too, for some reason. Also, did you know that only people with below-average Health can
| |
− | have allergies? So if you have even one allergy, congratulations: you're a FATAL weenie
| |
− | and will have a penalty on Urinating. Disgraced, you will be hopeless until you realize
| |
− | that all you have to do is fucking drink a two liter already and wait a day, which will
| |
− | give you a high enough mod to automatically score a "flood" on the chart and (if
| |
− | you're average height) get it as far as 16 feet with total accuracy (naturally, being
| |
− | "the most realistic game available", FATAL makes no distinction between power
| |
− | and accuracy. Or, for that matter, the ever-increasing difficulty in "holding
| |
− | it").</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in">Although I'll refuse to consider why Jason
| |
− | may have difficulty holding it, I'll admit that FATAL could be more realistic here, which
| |
− | is a core goal of the game. It seemed overly complicated to introduce hearing as a
| |
− | sub-ability, so realism was sacrificed in this instance. As nothing's perfect, Jason
| |
− | successfully attacks an element of the game. I can live with it.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">But speaking of
| |
− | realism and Urination, what's really cool is that you can't piss unless you roll over
| |
− | 5...and the roll is d100 + Urination Skill Points + (average of Health and Hand-Eye
| |
− | Coordination skill modifiers) +/- ("Time Since Last Urination vs. Ounces Drunk"
| |
− | modifier).</font></p>
| |
− | <p>That sounds realistic to me. Though a person can usually force a little out, it's
| |
− | possible to truly not have to go. And for what it's worth, Health can certainly relate to
| |
− | a character's bladder.</p>
| |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">Of course, you'll
| |
− | have to drink at least 16 ounces if you want to urinate without a penalty or having to
| |
− | wait more than half an hour, but that isn't very hard. FATAL characters can practically
| |
− | urinate at will! I have this stupid image in my mind of them beating down their opponents,
| |
− | chugging down those drinks, and standing around holding their dicks (and diddling every
| |
− | open hole in sight) for that half an hour just waiting for that Urination roll. Hell, they
| |
− | probably carry huge funnels so they can be extra quick with getting in the 256 ounces (and
| |
− | +80 mod) that will all but guarantee a "flood". Fucking shit, they probably have
| |
− | greasy T-shirts over their armor that say "PENIS! CUNT! ANAL CIRCUMFERENCE! Put a
| |
− | condom on my head, I'm a FATALITE!" God with a flying orgasm, SenZar has never looked
| |
− | so mature and deep as it does this fucking moment.<o:p></font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: I would just like to point out the hypocritical nature
| |
− | of the urination statement made here. While he attacks the skill itself and finds no need
| |
− | he stated earlier (Glad you remembered from page one) that he wanted to “inject
| |
− | kerosene into my bladder, piss on them, and then set them on fire.” So he forces me
| |
− | to ask if he would have a need for a urination skill check instead of injecting kerosene.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">But hey. If you can
| |
− | get that Urination skill up to 100, that will cancel out the worst possible penalty for
| |
− | drinking 0 ounces. Spell your name with the realism!</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in">Of course, what Jason fails to consider is
| |
− | that for a character to acquire a Urination skill with a Skill Modifier of 100, the
| |
− | character must, on average, have achieved 20 levels, which most never will.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">Oh, and about that
| |
− | Retard Strength? It's only +2d10 for humans. And with abilities running from 1-199 (and
| |
− | occasionally beyond), that's not exactly worth bothering with. But that's what makes it so
| |
− | 100% FATALish - it reveals Hall's total wankerness, but adds more or less nothing to the
| |
− | game.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in">It adds realism to the game. A gain of 20
| |
− | Strength sub-ability points can be considerable. For example, if an average male human has
| |
− | 115 Strength and bench presses 150 lbs., then an average male human with a maximized
| |
− | Retard Strength of 135 (115 + 20) could bench press 203 lbs. Therefore, it adds something
| |
− | to the game. More than anything, it (hopefully) discourages players from being so willing
| |
− | to play retards. In DnD, the most popular RPG, abilities are determined with 3d6, offering
| |
− | a range of 3-18. I think most gamers have known fighters who easily accept a character who
| |
− | is retarded, if Intelligence were truly considered as a normal curve.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">The fact that there
| |
− | are fucking *20* increasingly pointless and redundant stats, and the way they interconnect
| |
− | or fail to is stupid</font></p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in">None of the sub-abilities are redundant. As
| |
− | usual, Jason does not support his argument.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: Actually, in contrast all the abilities and
| |
− | sub-abilities are very useful for at least three separate skills. </font></p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:1.0in;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
| |
− | mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">Let's go right to Bodily Attractiveness. Oh, look: "Males with high
| |
− | Bodily Attractiveness tend to have high Physical Fitness, Strength, and Height" -
| |
− | yeah, maybe if all four stats weren't ''totally random''. Sure, high Bodily Attractiveness
| |
− | will boost those a little, but even if yours is the mind-blowingly maximum roll of 199,
| |
− | you'll only get a +18 bonus. You'll forgive me for going "Woooooo!" in the most
| |
− | intensely sarcastic voice I can muster. It's not enough of a "tendency" to
| |
− | matter much of a shit against the random element. <o:p></font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p>Bear in mind that the "random element" creates a distribution that
| |
− | approximates a normal curve. Jason mistakenly implies that players roll a single die that
| |
− | produces a range of 1-199, which is obviously false. For example, if a male has a Bodily
| |
− | Attractiveness sub-ability of 199, then it would increase their Physical Fitness,
| |
− | Strength, and Height by 18. Considering only Strength, a male character that had an
| |
− | average Strength of 115, would apply the + 18 modifier, and have a Strength of 133. This
| |
− | character's bench press would increase from 150 to 190. Of course, the ludicrous portion
| |
− | of this example (the Bodily Attractiveness of 199) is part of Jason's argument. In order
| |
− | to have this sub-ability, a player has to roll '00' (otherwise known as 100), 4 times
| |
− | consecutively. The odds are 1-in-100,000,000 (100 x 100 x 100 x 100). Even in this extreme
| |
− | instance, FATAL seems realistic. Jason made a weak argument, again.</p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">But fuck it. For
| |
− | FATAL guys, pretty = stronger. I'd add some crude speculation here about what team Hall is
| |
− | batting for, but I can't think of one homosexual on this forum who even remotely deserves
| |
− | the degradation of being lumped in with him. (It's just too damn bad my team doesn't want
| |
− | him, either.)</font></p>
| |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in">For most females, attractive males =
| |
− | stronger males, within reason. Jason seems adversive to the thought; I wonder why.</p>
| |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: I guess Sartin hasn’t had enough contact with
| |
− | females to realize this yet. But if I remember correctly it was a female who brought this
| |
− | to your attention wasn’t it Byron?</font></p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">Meanwhile, the
| |
− | inverse is also presented - low manly Bodily Attractiveness penalizes your Physical
| |
− | Fitness, Strength, and Height. Guess there aren't historical or realistic
| |
− | "tendencies" towards ugly bruisers.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in">When a male is stronger, he tends to be
| |
− | more athletic. Males who tend to be more athletic also tend to be more physically
| |
− | attractive to females. Nevertheless, Jason oversimplifies his argument. Jason fails to
| |
− | consider two other factors: Physical Fitness and Facial Charisma. He seems to have meant
| |
− | that a character who is strong, has an ugly face, but isn't very fit. This combination is
| |
− | likely. Jason's argument is poorly considered.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: I’m starting to get tired of finding contradiction
| |
− | in the reviewer’s statements. But here we go again, he just said a couple paragraphs
| |
− | ago that it’s not a big enough mod to be effective against the random element. Now he
| |
− | states that because of the inverse, ugly bruisers weren’t the tendency. The fact is
| |
− | according to what I’ve seen during game-testing, both ugly and good-looking bruisers
| |
− | are, about, equally probable.</font></p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">But guess what! All
| |
− | that shit's only for males. Like Darren already mentioned, female Bodily Attractiveness
| |
− | increases your Cup Size. It also decreases your Strength and Weight. Again, total
| |
− | bullshit. But what the hell. It's nice to know the ideal FATAL girl is a death camp
| |
− | survivor with a basketball under each nipple.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">Somehow, I don't
| |
− | think that shit flew during history, either.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in">I always thought that the medieval
| |
− | standard of beauty for a female was that she was fat, because it meant that she was
| |
− | wealthy. This is not true according to the Giles books, cited earlier. They quote another
| |
− | historical source, that claims that the perfect woman has large, round breasts, blond
| |
− | hair, and a waist that a man can fit his hands around. Obviously this is as unrealistic as
| |
− | the measurements of the Barbie doll. Some things never change. Jason thought wrongly, as
| |
− | seems to be the case in this 'review.'</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: This really surprised me as well. I thought the medieval
| |
− | standard of beauty wasn’t fat, but plump. For both the wealth factor and the fact
| |
− | they assumed larger waist meant they could bear more children.</font></p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">Naturally, most
| |
− | games just give you stats and let you picture how they fit together. (It's a fun process I
| |
− | call "getting to visualize the character you actually created".) But then, those
| |
− | games weren't designed by misogynistic human accidents who would lose a battle of wits
| |
− | with an plus-sized assplug dressed up as a crack pipe. FATAL, sadly lacking that
| |
− | distinction, insists on drunkenly interconnecting these stats in ways that have a flung
| |
− | piece of shit's chance in heaven of being "historically/mythically accurate"
| |
− | because, gee, it's not like standards of attractiveness have been TOTALLY DIFFERENT in
| |
− | different eras, places, and myths or anything.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in">TOTALLY different? So, a female that is
| |
− | obese and flat-chested was the greatest natural aphrodisiac in what era, place, or myth?
| |
− | Obviously, Jason doesn't mean what he says. Just the same, I admit that cultural variation
| |
− | exists, but also acknowledge the norm across such variance. Cultural variation is not
| |
− | covered in the core FATAL book, and will be covered in the second and final book,
| |
− | _Neveria_.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#808080">Burnout: Actually I
| |
− | find what is called "getting to visualize the character you actually created,”
| |
− | more like laziness of game creators to make a complete character. Whenever gaming in
| |
− | D&D or any other game, the fact that they didn’t state eye color, hair color, or
| |
− | anything like that, I never cared to know those things. But, now playing FATAL where they
| |
− | are stated for you I find it’s nice to know such things. </font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">But noooooo. In
| |
− | FATAL, sexiness has one standard, everywhere, all the time, all over the world, because
| |
− | Hall apparently forgot the exact meaning of the words "realistic" and
| |
− | "historically" after he hit his head on that toilet I mentioned when I
| |
− | deciphered his research. Oh, well.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">Of course, FATAL
| |
− | hardly gets its head any farther out of its ass with the stats it doesn't stupidly try to
| |
− | interconnect. Can you predict what can happen when character facets like speech or beauty
| |
− | or intelligence are governed by three or four totally random stats each? Just keep
| |
− | reading.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in">If Jason read the game, then he knows that
| |
− | sub-abilities are not totally random. In addition to the sub-abilities representing a
| |
− | normal curve, each may be modified by other factors, such as gender and race. Rants do not
| |
− | even take effort to undermine with reason.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">Facial Charisma at
| |
− | 175+ gives you a description of "causes wetness". And with all the total
| |
− | randomness, it's so cute that you can blow that Bodily Attractiveness roll badly enough to
| |
− | get a head start on being the strongest, fattest woman alive, but still roll enough Facial
| |
− | Charisma to catch boners anyway. Fucking FATAL.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in">See above.</p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: First off, I’d like to see such a variance occur,
| |
− | with the rolls being closely related to a Bell curve I just don’t see it happening.
| |
− | Besides, I have seen females that from the neck up are pretty good looking. It’s just
| |
− | less common than the inverse, which I’ve also seen, it’s so common I actually
| |
− | have a word to describe them “Butterface”. When someone looks good all over
| |
− | “but her face."</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">Wow, look!
| |
− | Enunciation! Naturally, this is a sub-ability of Dexterity. You'd think it would be under
| |
− | Charisma or Intelligence, but I guess you see something stupid every day. Anyfuck, I
| |
− | really like how Enunciation determines your "Maximum Speech Rate", but
| |
− | Rhetorical Charisma determines your "Average Speech Rate". Ugh. NO ONE FUCKING
| |
− | CARES.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in">Cool, so don't use it. However, if Jason
| |
− | played a character who needs Enunciation, then it would be important to him. Jason seems
| |
− | incapable of seeing beyond his nose, since the world is full of people who'll probably
| |
− | play differently than he does. FATAL accommodates more gamers with more occupations,
| |
− | realism, detail, accuracy, etc., than any other game, as far as I know.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: What Sartin also forgets to mention is that with a
| |
− | higher or lower than average Enunciation, spell chanting time is adjusted to make it take
| |
− | less or more time respectively.</font></p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">Of course, since
| |
− | both sub-abilities are (say it with me) totally random, we don't really know what happens
| |
− | when your Maximum Speech Rate ends up being lower than your Average Speech Rate, but it's
| |
− | just on this side of "totally possible".</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in">See the annihilation of his "totally
| |
− | random" argument above.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">Tying into these two
| |
− | nicely, of course, is Language (an Intelligence sub-ability). Especially that
| |
− | "possible # of languages learned" column. Naturally, with FATAL being the
| |
− | "detailed" and "realistic" game that it is, it's possible to get a
| |
− | high Enunciation and Rhetorical Charisma without rolling high enough in Language to
| |
− | actually be able to speak a language.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in">Has anyone ever seen a review of a review?
| |
− | Jason's adverb "nicely" is misplaced. Since it relates to the verb, it is better
| |
− | suited next to "Tying," such as "Tying nicely into..." Some animals
| |
− | are capable of enunciating very specific sounds, yet do not speak a language as FATAL uses
| |
− | the term. Perhaps the bellow of one retarded ogre is more charismatic than that of
| |
− | another. After all, the definition of Rhetorical Charisma states that it is to solicit
| |
− | emotions. On that level, one bellow could solicit emotions better than another. I think
| |
− | Jason's point was that if a character plays a retarded ogre who is incapable of language,
| |
− | that it frustrates him that his character could still have a high Rhetorical Charisma,
| |
− | even though it seems useless. From the normal curve of nature, Jason's arguments seem
| |
− | useless, yet he still wrote a review. See a similarity?</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#808080">Burnout: To
| |
− | elaborate, we’ve all probably heard a parrot talk or say a few words. Does that mean
| |
− | it knows a language? Of course not, it can just enunciate those few words well and,
| |
− | probably doesn’t know the meaning of them, except that it means the parrot gets a
| |
− | treat.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in"><font color="#FF00FF">Am I amazed that
| |
− | Hall came up with all those bullshit interconnections for Bodily Attractiveness, but
| |
− | didn't bother to imagine how any of his other attributes might fit together? If FATAL were
| |
− | a movie, it would make Battlefield Earth look like an utterly convincing, well-considered
| |
− | masterpiece.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:1.0in;margin-left:1.0in">At least Jason tried to support this
| |
− | beforehand, even though he failed miserably.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Of course, we can't
| |
− | let all this shit go without looking at the age modifiers.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Infant modifiers are
| |
− | presented, in case you wanted to play Baby Geniuses against a backdrop of anus fisting and
| |
− | 16 foot urination. And it's not as crippling as you'd think, either. The total Strength
| |
− | modifier is -90, so if you were lucky enough to roll 180 Strength or so, your infant
| |
− | adventurer will be about as strong as an average adult human. Bodily Attractiveness is
| |
− | also -90, so again, an excellent roll will still leave you with average adult fuckability
| |
− | and little or no BA penalty to those Seduction and Sexual Adeptness rolls.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in">I am surprised to read a valid argument from
| |
− | Jason. I thank him for thinking, even if it took 300 attempts (eh, rough guess).
| |
− | This is easily fixed. Instead of the modifier being a - 90, it will be a - 90%.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#808080">Burnout: I think
| |
− | without a doubt he hit upon something that needed to be changed, and changing it to a
| |
− | percentage will definitely do the trick. Now we’ve come across, finally, the reason
| |
− | for a review.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">I've flushed RPGs that
| |
− | were better thought out this.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in">It seems Jason meant "thought out THAN
| |
− | this."</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Language is also a
| |
− | blast when you toss it through the age modifier bullshit. With the Child-category penalty,
| |
− | you'll have to roll at least 95 for that, or you won't be capable of learning a language
| |
− | until you hit puberty. (Roll less than 65, and you'll have to wait until adulthood. Below
| |
− | 55, of course, is that magical threshold where you'll either jump off a cliff or face a
| |
− | lifetime of being unable to say "Look, shithead! I can't learn any languages!")
| |
− | Of course, if your race happens to be most varieties of Ogre (-50 to Language) or Troll
| |
− | (-90)...</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in">By changing the modifier to a percentage,
| |
− | this works perfectly.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">I also like how
| |
− | Reflection (which determines your earliest memory) increases at Middle Age and Old Age. I
| |
− | had no idea getting older makes you remember more of your childhood.<o:p></font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p>Of course, when a character is Venerable, they lose 50% of Reflection. However, Jason
| |
− | is right that the Earliest Possible Memory should not increase into Old Age. This may
| |
− | forever be a small limitation of the system, since nothing is perfect. I'm tempted to
| |
− | applaud Jason, but I will not be fooled by a mere moment of coherence out of an hour of
| |
− | diatribe.</p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: I’m starting to see signs of a real review here.
| |
− | I’m getting worried. I’m not sure how to imagine that one working out. But, it
| |
− | will be worth looking in to.</font></p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">After all this crap,
| |
− | though, I have to admit to one bright point. I liked how some of the sub-abilities
| |
− | provided real life-kinda examples or descriptions for each score. Like Strength listing
| |
− | how much you can lift, or the Vocal Charisma and Math columns I mentioned (okay, those
| |
− | ended up being dumb anyway, but the basic idea wasn't so bad). Examples like these can
| |
− | give solid ideas on how good a score really is, something many RPG systems have had
| |
− | trouble with. Of course, this hardly makes up for how the generation rolls are 4d100/2-1,
| |
− | or how my bitching troll berserker probably won't know any languages, or how there are 20
| |
− | attributes for things a sane game could have covered with 8-10, but whatever.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in">A game that Jason considers sane, I consider
| |
− | simple. I need it to be more complicated to keep my interest.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: Could the 20 sub-abilities be done in 8-10? Yes
| |
− | probably. Would it be just as detailed? No chance in hell. That is of course one thing
| |
− | FATAL shoots for, is to be more detailed than other RPG’s. In this aspect, FATAL
| |
− | succeeds.</font></p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Anyway, I hope this
| |
− | entire section was mind-numbing for you. Because you can barely imagine what it's like to
| |
− | read and dissect this shit-hauling train wreck.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">And on that note,
| |
− | let's let Darren have the review back. </font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p><font color="#009900">Or, check this shit out:</font></p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#009900">According to a prominent philosopher, males tend to be more
| |
− | spirited, savage, simple, and less cunning. Females, on the other hand, tend to be more
| |
− | compassionate than males, more easily moved to tears, at the same time are more jealous,
| |
− | more querulous, and are more apt to scold and strike. Females are, furthermore, more false
| |
− | of speech, and more deceptive. Females are also more wakeful, shrinking and difficult to
| |
− | rouse to action.</font></p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#009900">And later:</font></p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#009900">The philosopher's observations presented above are
| |
− | generalizations and do not hold true for all characters. Certainly, it is possible to find
| |
− | a surpassingly shameless male, or a female who is less susceptible to depression than
| |
− | males, but these instances are the exception to the rule, assuming that the above
| |
− | observations are correct.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p><font color="#009900">This is what the authors are talking about when they say that the
| |
− | game is "historically accurate"; they've taken Aristotle's thoughts on gender,
| |
− | then used them to justify their own sexist stupidity.</font></p>
| |
− | <p>Darren fails to represent my work, so here's the actual footnote:<br>
| |
− | "In Book IX of "Historia Animalium," Aristotle refers to gender differences
| |
− | and compares animals as well as humans. His comments are deemed relevant to the setting of
| |
− | F.A.T.A.L., due to the prevalence of his opinion throughout the Middle Ages."</p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#009900">They make assertions, then try to weasel out of them later on in
| |
− | the same paragraph - "This is all true unless what the philosopher says isn't true,
| |
− | in which case it isn't true."</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p>Of course, Darren is only quoting his imagination. Actually, my comments are not in the
| |
− | same paragraph as Aristotle's, but the following paragraph (poor Darren can't seem to get
| |
− | anything right). As a matter of fact, here is the paragraph about which Darren wrote:</p>
| |
− | <p>"The philosopher's observations presented above are generalizations and do not
| |
− | hold true for all characters. Certainly, it is possible to find a surpassingly shameless
| |
− | male or a female who is less susceptible to depression than males, but these instances are
| |
− | the exception to the rule, assuming that the above observations are correct."</p>
| |
− | <p>As the author, I neither agreed nor disagreed with Aristotle's observations in FATAL.
| |
− | Personally, I disagree with Aristotle's opinions on women, and consider Aristotle sexist.
| |
− | This, however, is irrelevant. His opinions existed historically, and were accurate to
| |
− | Ancient Greece, Rome, and the Middle Ages as well. This is why I noted "...assuming
| |
− | that the above observations are correct."</p>
| |
− | <p><font color="#009900">Aristotle may have been a brilliant philosopher, but when it came
| |
− | to women, his head was up his ass; ditto Plato, who thought that human women had fewer
| |
− | teeth because horses were the same way. On top of that, the statements that Aristotle make
| |
− | are internally self-contradictory; women are more wakeful, yet difficult to rouse to
| |
− | action?</font></p>
| |
− | <p>Just think about it for a second, understanding that it is a translation. I'm
| |
− | suggesting that anyone should agree with it.</p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:.5in;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:
| |
− | auto;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Sartin: Of course philosophers are who you turn to when you're creating
| |
− | something with a basis in reality. (And yes, especially when your beliefs are so
| |
− | limp-dicked that you're only "assuming" the philosophers are correct.)</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p>As should be obvious, I do not assume that Aristotle was correct. However, in an
| |
− | accurate gaming world, it is better to assume that Aristotle is correct than to impose
| |
− | modern norms.</p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">That's much better
| |
− | than basing your shit on the findings of, oh, researchers or historians or scientists or
| |
− | anyone else whose ponderings and conclusions actually have to be based in reality.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in">It is hypocritical to argue (earlier) that
| |
− | FATAL should be historically accurate and not impose modern ideas on the fantasy medieval
| |
− | world. Yet, here Jason proposed the opposite: that it is better to use modern ideas than
| |
− | classical ones. Does he understand how inconsistent his arguments are? As the footnote
| |
− | states on the page he probably never read, Aristotle is appropriate to a fantasy medieval
| |
− | gaming world, regarding gender; his thoughts were very influential, perhaps moreso than
| |
− | anyone else.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: Not having read much of Aristotle’s work, I’m
| |
− | gonna stay out of this one.</font></p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Then again, Hall also
| |
− | tries to wank "scholarly literature" by us to justify heavier female attribute
| |
− | penalties. Here's the official rationalization:</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">According to the
| |
− | adjustments above, it may seem as though males are superior, though it is important to
| |
− | understand that there are other instances, such as nurturing, that are not apparent in the
| |
− | adjustments and may become evident and valuable during role-playing. The function of
| |
− | altering gender according to the table above is to shift the averages of the sexes to more
| |
− | closely resemble reality. The shift in range represents masses of characters better than
| |
− | extreme instances. For instance, the highest measured Intelligence is that of a female,
| |
− | though by large numbers females tend to score slightly lower than males in Intelligence.
| |
− | In this case, shifting the range lower for females also prevents the possibility of a
| |
− | female possessing the highest Intelligence. This is an unfortunate limitation.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Fucking god, where to
| |
− | begin?</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in">By understanding that the "shift in
| |
− | range represents masses of characters better than extreme instances." If Jason
| |
− | understand this, then all the rest should fall into place.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">"For instance,
| |
− | the highest measured Intelligence is that of a female, though by large numbers females
| |
− | tend to score slightly lower than males in Intelligence"?</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Yeah, I'm sure that
| |
− | when he wasn't attending to Sexpot Annie, Hall had a lot of fun rounding up women from
| |
− | medieval Europe and testing them. Of course it's perfectly valid and "historically
| |
− | accurate" to assume they would have the same Intelligence-reducing (and Bodily
| |
− | Attractiveness-raising) "nurturing" and "background" as modern day
| |
− | women, right?</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <blockquote>
| |
− | <p><font color="#808080">Burnout: Assuming that historical texts are correct, by and
| |
− | large, most women didn’t have any schooling at all. While some males didn’t
| |
− | either, even less females did. Also, going by in terms of masses the female gender would
| |
− | have slightly less intelligence than male.</font></p>
| |
− | </blockquote>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in">What better information does Jason have?
| |
− | Does Jason offer any support for his criticism? No.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">And on that note, even
| |
− | if Hall were claiming this shit as modern gender modifiers, he only selected the parts of
| |
− | his "scholarly literature" that went along with his retarded views. Even the
| |
− | first work listed, "The Smarter Sex: A Critical Review of Sex Differences in
| |
− | Intelligence" (by D. Halpern and M. LaMay) claims that males more frequently have
| |
− | certain types of mental retardation, but you're sure as fuck not going to find that in
| |
− | these rules.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in">This is because Jason fails to understand
| |
− | distributions of Intelligence when controlling for gender. Males have wider distributions,
| |
− | or distributions with less central tendency, larger standard deviations, etc. Considering
| |
− | Intelligence, female distributions have more central tendency. What this means is that
| |
− | when considering large numbers of females, they tend to be closer to the mean, while males
| |
− | tend to deviate farther from it. Therefore, there are more male retards and geniuses, and
| |
− | females are more average. However, this is irrelevant to the gender modifier. The gender
| |
− | modifier does not affect the central tendency of the distribution, but the mean itself.
| |
− | Jason seems to know nothing of even basic statistics.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in">As a side note, I have considered having
| |
− | separate die-rolling methods for males and females. Male characters roll their
| |
− | sub-abilities with [(8d100)/4 - 1], while females roll [(10d100)/5 - 1]. When both
| |
− | standard deviations are considered, the average is 15! This would be a novel contribution
| |
− | to RPG's.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">"In this case,
| |
− | shifting the range lower for females also prevents the possibility of a female possessing
| |
− | the highest Intelligence. This is an unfortunate limitation"?</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#808080">Burnout: What Sartin
| |
− | forgets to mention is that according to gender modifiers, males can’t acquire the
| |
− | highest bodily attractiveness, language, intuition, or reflection. This is also an
| |
− | unfortunate limitation.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">Translation:
| |
− | "Yeah, this is an unfortunate limitation...which I just admitted creates a result
| |
− | that isn't true in reality (because I forgot I'm designing the most realistic RPG
| |
− | available)...but guess what? I haven't taken it out, because I would rather claim that the
| |
− | female masses are stupider than men than make my rules accept that at least one woman has
| |
− | scored a higher IQ than any man to date!"</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in">Wrong. Even though I include this
| |
− | information, I am fair and not sexist. I understand that these issues are always
| |
− | sensitive. Just the same, it is less biased to consider the mean to be more important than
| |
− | an outlier. Especially when it is now possible (though not in the version currently
| |
− | available -- I'll update it soon) for a female character (and a male as well) to raise
| |
− | their Intelligence. Therefore, a studious female may surpass all males. I am very proud of
| |
− | how closely this models reality, especially considering the simplicity of the model.</p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in"><font color="#FF00FF">It's an ugly game.</font></p>
| |
− | | |
− | <p style="margin-right:.5in;margin-left:.5in">This is an ugly review.</p>
| |
− | ----
| |
− | [[FRRpart3|Go to part 3]]
| |