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Hmm. You're right, they aren't legumes, are they. Are they gourds, though? Wikipedia says they are gourd-like squashes.

Edit: note the cunning combination of pokemon and legume.

Originally Posted By: A Disquieting Silence Huh. I thought you meant like an in-story canon type of timeline, for the Avernum world. That's something that I've sort of wondered about for a while, without actually doing any real research, of course. (Naturally, this would only apply to the scenarios that are actually meant to take place in that world.) Thoughts? I don't think there are that many scenarios that are actually set in the Exile/Avernum world, and there are very few that have close enough ties (via locations, events, or people) that they could be easily placed on a timeline anyway.

You're all a bunch of... COCONUTS!!!!!!!!!! N.B.: This post works much better if you read it Oprah style. But really, there's nothing low about these vegetables:

Originally Posted By: A Disquieting Silence No. He's going to be mine. You'll wait your turn, Slarty! I was making a joke, you silly eggplant!

Nikki, will you be my valentine?

*whistles to self* ...de...fen...sive... *whistles*

Originally Posted By: Tirien Too bad Alex isnt around anymore. He would quickly have turned this from a great thread to a awesome thread. With comics. Congrats on reaching 7000 and becoming the 8th top poster! Alex hasn't been around for over a year. (Last surviving post is from 2007, but he probably had some after that in General that were purged in October of 2009.) Therefore, you have now revealed yourself as not-a-newbie-after-all. In case it wasn't obvious before. I have a pretty good idea of who you are, but don't worry... mum's the word. You should be more careful, though.

The setting may be similar. Everything else is totally different, though.

http://www.picfury.com/m/palmfacepalmfacepalmface-1.html was the original link. It doesn't seem to work anymore and the Wayback Machine doesn't have it. Maybe spy.there has a copy still?

Alec did. Pseudoscience Postravaganza. Maybe he did a history one too at some point? Probably. Dikiyoba's alliteration made me think of Thurilith's, though.

Re: Thricebornphoenix: Don't combine arguments: I have no problem with games that are modern, or dark, or gritty. My complaint is the replacement of imagination and fantasy with sensualized violence and sex. Or to put it another way: "Fantasy is true, of course. It isn't factual but it is true. Children know that. Adults know it too, and that is precisely why many of them are afraid of fantasy. They know that its truth challenges, even threatens, all that is false, all that is phony, unnecessary, and trivial in the life they have let themselves be forced into living. They are afraid of dragons, because they are afraid of freedom." Ursula K. LeGuin The key element isn't a medieval or a modern world, a bright or a gritty one, a light-hearted or a dark one; the key element is the thread of enchantment, of parallel truth, that underlies the whole setup. Shadowrun was ultramodern, ultragritty and fairly dark, but it had those things too. Are they still around in today's games? If yes, then please correct me: it just doesn't seem like it.

Oh wow, you went there. Traditionally I believe there were 3 palm trees on my head and not 2. Also, that is not me. Is it a grass/psychic pokemon?

On the other hand, Erasmus's avatar needs no citations and is simply full of win.

Actually, PPP isn't down, just the search engine. Since I have that thread on my board history, which I should really get around to publishing one of these years, here you go: MMMMM It was only five-and-a-half years ago!

... *facepalm facepalm facepalm*

The difference between "innovation" and "a breath of fresh air" is that the latter implies things were previously stale and definitely implies that the fresh air is better. Edit: And now I'm really arguing for no reason whatsoever.

Originally Posted By: Sage of Numenor Amuse--Greek. No, the verb really does come from French. The Greek word is not muse, it's mousa; that gives us the nine Muses as well as music, because in Greek it either refers to the Muses specifically, or to music and song. So even if "amuse" came directly from Greek (which it didn't) you couldn't interpret it as "to not think," it would be "non-musical."

Nethergate wasn't "a breath of fresh air from the Exile series." There are some SW veterans who prefer the Nethergate engine to Exile's, but there are others of us who prefer Exile's engine just as strongly.

Amuse and company come from French, and as is typical in French the a- prefix doesn't mean "not", it connotes direction or cause: "to make one muse" -- a distraction or a diversion. In case it wasn't clear, though, I was lamenting the _loss_ of the fantastic in RPGs.

The fact that in older games you need a special recipe, ingredients, a potion, a special spell, and a lot of spell points is one problem. The bigger problem, however, is that your party's experience is now lopsided, which is irritating. Oh, and also there's the whole "all his items are on the floor and I have no room to put them in anyone else's pack" problem. That's a pretty major one.

If you don't own property or a car (and aren't beholden to anyone who does), snow can be a novelty anywhere. I miss those days.

...but that's not it. Really the issue is that RPGs have floated, over several decades, from wargames on the one hand to first-person shooters and Japanese puff-puff-bots on the other. In between these two horns you have a whole realm of stuff that takes fantasy and imagination as a jumping off point rather than the two most base and real concerns of death and sex. You have imaginative game systems and imaginative worlds, pulling from literature and history and everything else, you get D&D and Rogue and Ultima 4 and Nethergate, it goes on... but the landscape became overpopulated, the creative act harder to consummate in a meaningful way, and so we regress. All this technology, now, the capability to make games that deliver the same kind of shining experience as the best films -- and we get Grand Theft Auto. The slaughtering of fantasy, 6:21 through 14:14 here:

'Number-incrementing games' seems apt, but somehow I think the industry would find NIG to be an unbecoming acronym.

In all honesty, N:R is probably a better game. I love the original unlimited-skill point system -- but the N:R system is better balanced and just as interesting, and the XP system in N:R works a lot better for party (non-singleton) play. And I, too, greatly prefer the keyword-style conversation system -- but that is relatively minor. Plus, the bonus content in N:R is very good, comparable maybe the Bahssikava in Avernum 1. There is really just one critical flaw in N:R, which is the horrendous graphics changes for goblins and one or two other enemies (Fomorians, IIRC?). Ewww.