Profile for Or else o'erleap.

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Field	Value
Displayed name	Or else o'erleap.
Member number	335
Title	Law Bringer
Postcount	14579
Homepage	http://www.polarisboard.net
Registered	Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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$$$ problem in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Saturday, April 1 2006 11:20 Profile Homepage #1 There are two sources of income in A4, and the most important one is killing things. Many enemies leave a fair amount of gear behind when they die. Some of it is valuable and should be sold. Some of it isn't very valuable but should still be sold if you're short on money. Also be sure to complete every quest you can find. Even if they don't give gold as a reward they usually give an item that can be sold. —Alorael, who recommends against purchasing equipment. Most of what you can buy is immediately oustripped by what you can find. Why do you think you need better gear for a trip into Rentar's stronghold? Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
There Is/There Are in The Avernum Trilogy
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Saturday, April 1 2006 08:39 Profile Homepage #5 There're isn't a very common contraction. It has the same number of syllables as "there are," which means the usual reason for a contraction is gone. Unless you love schwas, there's simply no incentive to use it. —Alorael, who are in favor of prescriptivisms matter not how many person use unusual structure. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Skill at Gaming in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Saturday, April 1 2006 08:29 Profile Homepage #1 Practice. There's no point at which you can't think everything through, so your successes or failures are based on your thinking only. Play enough RPGs and you're learn how RPGs work. Play enough of a particular game and you'll be able to get through it with a no-magic singleton. —Alorael, who used to be terrible at games of all sorts. Now he's only terrible at most games. Progress can be made! Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Themed Party Contest in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Friday, March 31 2006 20:43 Profile Homepage #4 Why would you make someone go through the effort of scanning a photo ID and replacing the photo? As long as you're not going to get honesty, it might as well be lazy dishonesty. —Alorael, who would like to create a series of parties with Aran. How many bands of intrepid Exiles does it take to give the entire Prologue of Canterbury Tales? Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The most boring spell and monster in The Avernum Trilogy
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Friday, March 31 2006 11:22 Profile Homepage #17 Forcecage is the most boring spell. Its only purpose is to drag out fights even longer! Bolt of Fire is also pretty boring, though. Deal some damage to an enemy. Huzzah! So original! As for boring enemies, well, the Avernum trilogy doesn't have many monsters that are engrossing. My vote goes to any of the hundreds of monsters that exist only to charge you, miss a few times, and then die horribly. —Alorael, who doesn't think Dark Wyrms are boring. Annoying and pesky, yes, but not boring. At least a frontal assault isn't guaranteed to take them down painlessly. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Modern day classics in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Friday, March 31 2006 11:18 Profile Homepage #71 quote: Originally written by Dame Annals: Meaning and aesthetics are pretty much the two things we're after in any arena, no? Not exactly. In many (if not most) arts we're willing to accept aesthetics without meaning. Granted, literature is harder because all of the aesthetics have to come from words, which are conveyors of meaning, but I'm still not wholly convinced that all "classics" must have a moral or deep understanding of the mysteries of time and human existence (5.5 points to anyone who catches the reference). Some writing is just good even if it doesn't mean anything. —Alorael, who is impressed that someone got a custom title suggestion in just eleven posts and the suggestion doesn't end with -anned. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Wealthy Family Near Mertis in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Friday, March 31 2006 11:11 Profile Homepage #1 It's local color and a few quests. —Alorael, who doesn't think rich, odd people need much explanation. Except rich means that they're not odd, they're eccentric. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Modern day classics in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Friday, March 31 2006 07:49 Profile Homepage #62 quote: Originally written by Siegfried der Waelsung: Something may be entertaining but ultimately empty and frivolous -- which is no knock on cheap entertainment from my point of view, but it is a fact. And at the same time, there are works of art that are so deeply inspiring and poignant that it borders on blasphemy to call them "entertainment." I completely disagree. If something isn't enjoyable, it's poorly written or poorly conceived. It may not be easy to read and it may not be all laughter and smiles, but if it doesn't in any way cause enjoyment it's no good. Chaucer's criteria in Canterbury Tales are "sentence and solace," which I've seen translated as "moral guidance and general pleasure." Those seem like decent criteria to me, and you need some of both for a classic. —Alorael, who can accept that pure enjoyment does not a classic make, although he's not really sure why. Is there a reason literature demands meaning as well as aesthetics? Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Classic RPG Heritage Poll in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Thursday, March 30 2006 19:29 Profile Homepage #8 Ultima Online is not an Ultima. Neither, I would have to say, is Ultima 5: Lazarus, although I'm tempted to get Dungeon Siege just to see what a U5 remake can be like. —Alorael, who has played an ecclectic mix of the named games and not played an equally ecclectic mix. He has played them in more or less random order. He has actually completed a game of Angband, and he doubts he will ever do it again. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Infant Daughter v2.0 in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Thursday, March 30 2006 07:19 Profile Homepage #6 Congratulations to Jeff! Will the Vogel daughters one day argue over whether the Story About the Baby means Jeff loves Cordelia more or less? We can only hope so. —Alorael, who is glad to know that the real Spider is still alive too. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
BIG concern, need an answer ASAP in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Wednesday, March 29 2006 11:56 Profile Homepage #9 Nephilim have 5 nipples as well, for much the same reasons. —Alorael, who has reason to believe they are arranged like the pips on a die. No, he will not explain why he has reason to believe it. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Slith Warrior in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Wednesday, March 29 2006 07:50 Profile Homepage #5 quote: Originally written by Derakon: There's also a bug where monsters that are generated while you are in combat do not give experience or credit towards First Aid. So if you were thinking of farming those golems... I doubt this is a bug. It makes much more sense as a precaution against making monsters that summon better instead of worse to fight. If every summoned monster contributed to first aid benefits there would be a strong incentive to keep those summoners alive and churning out hordes. —Alorael, who would also be tempted to raise First Aid to the point where summoning monsters and then immediately killing them would result in a net gain in energy. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Modern day classics in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, March 28 2006 17:29 Profile Homepage #45 Orwell is already very much part of the classics. Along with 1984 and Brave New World I'd say A Canticle for Leibowitz has a place as the story of our grim future. Vonnegut's also already a classic, but like most classics with speculative elements, he's not really considered speculative. Somehow time travel and aliens in Slaughterhouse 5 are acceptable literary devices in limited cases. —Alorael, who doesn't believe in Sturgeon's Law. It's a terrible underestimation of the general crap percentage (GCP). Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Modern day classics in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, March 28 2006 11:20 Profile Homepage #38 "Classic" generally requires at least one of three things: innovation, uniqueness, or standing head and shoulders above competition. It also tends to require non-SF writing, but we can overlook that. Robert Jordan writes well when he doesn't bog down, but he doesn't write so well that he absolutely must be read to see what fantasy can be. He doesn't really do anything new, he just does it well. The same can be said for George R. R. Martin and many, many others. I'd even put Pullman in there. He's a great writer, but he's not immensely greater than anyone else writing like he writes. Card is much closer to the original and unique. I'd put China Miéville in there too, although he has no chance at all at getting widespread recognition. —Alorael, who has never really liked anything C. S. Lewis wrote. He's not a blight on literature by any means, but he also just isn't that good a writer. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
PDN? in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, March 28 2006 07:12 Profile Homepage #47 I hate to make you self-conscious, but I think you mean subconsciously. —Alorael, who wonders if superconsciousness is the result of too much coffee. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Modern day classics in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, March 27 2006 20:11 Profile Homepage #21 Jordan and Martin are both popular, and for good reason. They're masters of their particular subgenres of fantasy. They aren't, however, innovators, and their chosen genre doesn't get classic status very easily. On the other hand, they could still be in print for a long time. Is it better to be a classic or a goldmine? Wodehouse's books are classics whether anyone admits to reading them or not. The Foglios are classic. Just look at First Aid! Or Divinely Touched! —Alorael, who dares to hope that Gene Wolfe will be acknowledged as a master of literature in the finest tradition of pushing the boundaries of plot, language, and sanity. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Modern day classics in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, March 27 2006 16:22 Profile Homepage #15 I think Eco has already hit classic, and I also think that this is not a good day for tags. —Alorael, who wonders how many generations the average classic stays classic. Many of yesterday's great works aren't read at all today. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Modern day classics in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, March 27 2006 14:15 Profile Homepage #12 [Edit: You need to include the [/qb] and [/quote] tags for your quote to come out looking right.] Science fiction/fantasy (SF/F or SFF) is a standard library and bookstore section. Sometimes that gets lumped together under science fiction (SF). Grumbling aficionados decided to fix the abbreviation by making it stand for "speculative fiction," which does cover both types. Several authors have written about the differences between science fiction and fantasy and why the two should never meet. This tends to hold for "hard" science fiction and fantasy, but "soft" science fiction often blurs the lines. As Clarke said, sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. As someone else (David Eddings?) said, science fiction gets hung up on explaining the gadgets and fantasy can legitimately handwave them as magic and get on with the story. Now, back to the subject. Some of Terry Pratchett's books should be considered classics, but they never will be. Jostein Gaarder has a better chance and deserves it, although Sophie's World may be too much of a textbook for classic status as a novel and too much of a novel to be considered a great textbook. [Edit 2: Aye have typoographical problems today.] —Alorael, who is interested in seeing whether the popular Nick Hornby makes it to the classics list or gets consigned to the historical garbage bin of briefly popular but ultimately cosmically insignificant literature. [ Monday, March 27, 2006 14:21: Message edited by: 10E66, give or take a zillion ] Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
old vs new version in Nethergate
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, March 27 2006 14:13 Profile Homepage #3 Satisfying Answer: Nethergate is expensive because much of the Spiderweb community considers it the best of the Spiderweb games (aside from Blades). Unsatisfying Answer: Who knows? Spiderweb's pricing schemes have always been odd. Nethergate is worth its price, and it's even more worth the $15 cost of getting it with another Spiderweb title. —Alorael, who would be apalled if Nethergate were adapted to the Geneforge engine. The first part of the game Jeff thought of was the enormous cliff in the goblin mines near Shadow Valley Fort. Removing cliffs would kill the Nethergateness. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Aranea Stoneseer in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, March 27 2006 11:44 Profile Homepage #1 No. You can kill it if you want, and I believe you get a spell as your reward, but it's not necessary or important to do so. —Alorael, who hopes he's thinking of the same aranea. It's in the tunnels below the southern Great Cave and in a room full of crystals and spiders, right? Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Hardiness and Armor in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, March 27 2006 11:22 Profile Homepage #2 20 Hardiness is expensive. Great armor is free after time spent searching and mutilating. —Alorael, who in a thoroughly qualitative test didn't notice any appreciable difference between having and not having defensive traits when wearing moderately good armor. The defensive bonuses get swallowed. Conclusion: those are two really unhelpful traits. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Unexpectable Unconformities in The Avernum Trilogy
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, March 27 2006 08:21 Profile Homepage #5 More inconsistencies? Bojar/Jordan in A3 is one of the more inexplicable ones. Lost Bahssikava and a few vahnatai insertions in A1 that weren't in E1 are the other major difference between Exile and Avernum. The Tower of Shifting Floors lost its conveyor belts and gained lasers in Avernum. From what I remember, Linda is very much one of the members of the Triad in E1. She's also smug about it. In A3 she's still a powerful mage, although no longer officially in the Triad. On the other hand, she seems stable, and she presumably did good work at some point. And then of course she summons demons, but what can you do? Many plants and animals were brought or adapted by the Triad Mages. The glowing fungus was already present in the caves, I believe, and I think the giant lizards are also native, as are cave fish. The nephilim are no more native to the caves than humans, and they were banished at the same time, so they benefitted from the Triad Mages' work. The slithzerikai are yet another group of exiles living in Exile/Avernum, but according to Avernum they are from lower caves. They probably lived by farming fungus, fishing, and hunting lizards. —Alorael, who knows about fish switching genders but not lizards. On the other hand, whiptail lizards are all female and reproduce only by parthenogenesis. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
PDN? in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, March 26 2006 16:52 Profile Homepage #18 Publically Displayed Name. —Alorael, who thinks of Alorael as his moniker. It is his nom de plume/internet. His PDN is just what his name appears to be at any given moment. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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