Man... It's been a while, huh? Let's not cheapen the moment with crappy excuses. I've got a lot of my recent pondering to share. Lets start smallish yet meaninfully (and hopefully not ponderously):
It's Special Character Week on the GW Mothership
Now I know most 'sane' people don't cotton to much of what Jervis has to say about the game he designs (oddly enough*). However, this bit of JJ's brain is actually quite interesting - and causes quite a bit of collateral hilarity with the people who do treat his word as the RAI Gospel of the Church of Fluff.
You see, JJ is frequently invoked by the FAAC crowd as some kind of casual play holy man. Frequently, these people are often of the opinion that the special characters are fer chumps and the kind of sexualy diseased people who make up the 'competative' gamer crowd.
I am, of course, making generalizations here. But if you need some kind of example of this kind of psuedo-holy nonsense, then here's this abortion of a thread.
Anyway, JJ has this.. reputation.. as the voice of the FAAC crowd's collective consciousness. A crowd which all to often thinks that special characters are the devil.
Turns out JJ loves the shit out of special characters. It's almost like he designed them to be used and that GW made special models for them. Cue hilarious music:
I think there's a lesson about objectivity in this too, but I'll be damned if i can pin it down. Now - if we could just get him to opine on the 'counts as' rules that are in every book. Hmmm.... I wonder if the FAAC douches would like that answer anymore than this one?
Hmm, that turned out to be bit ranty. Lets end this post on a high note:
The MALCADOR INFERNUS is haunting my dreams.
Seriously. Its the coolest shit I've seen Forgeworld produce since Tyberos. Its so cool that I can't not capitalize every letter in the its name. That name being MALCADOR INFERNUS.
It's fully full on in my scale model spank bank. Don't laugh... we all have one. I'm not saying I rub one out to pictures of it. Just that I really, really want one. Even though I hardly ever play Apoclypse. Or don't play IG. Or don't play a faction it could concievably ally with.
What's more, is that tax return time is nearing. I've already promised to myself that I have to finish 2009's tax return related weakness before I can get a new insane thing.
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| look... I know it's basically flame throwing penis on treads. |
*I tend to give the man a lot more credit than most for the simple fact that he's been with GW for a loooong time. He may say crazy things, but he's been around the block too many times to be the complete dolt people make him out to be. I think GW may be more like Mom's Freindly Robot Co than we all thought possible.
first time anybody's taken JJ's side in a while. Interesting....
ReplyDeleteJervis isn't a dolt. Honestly and sincerely, I think he's out of touch - he created the tournament monster in the mid-90s with the first GW Grand Tournament, and I think it showed him a kind of gameplay that was not to his liking, which he seems to have been avoiding and damning ever since. As an old-fashioned narrativist, he's fine.
ReplyDeleteIt's worth pointing out, perhaps, that the second or third GT (the first one I was in a position to give a damn about) had comped, uncomped and experimental variants running side by side, in an acknowledgment that there are different ways to play the game. Whose idea? Jerv's.
I think fairly older players still believe that SC are somehow broken. Being used to the powerhouses that they were in 3rd edition, when you still needed your opponent's permission to use them, maybe they are still reluctant to field them on the tabletop. With today's standards though they are an integral part of many armies, so refusing to use them like people said in that thread is at least stupid.
ReplyDeleteSC in 40k = okay. no biggie really.
ReplyDeleteSC in WHFB = WTFBBQOMGKTHXBYE...
Why? Because WHFB is the more fragile system that can be broken easily with "simple things" like Power Scroll, Skaven or a blanket special rule that gives paranormal factions a big advantage (ie. Psychology in 7th Ed).