Profile for Or else o'erleap.
| 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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| Author | Recent posts |
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| Question: How the heck do you... in Blades of Avernum | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Thursday, April 22 2004 14:37
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No, I don't know how I double-posted four minutes later. —Alorael, who apologizes profusely for his transgression against the laws regulating postification. [ Thursday, April 22, 2004 14:39: Message edited by: Alorael ] Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Question: How the heck do you... in Blades of Avernum | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Thursday, April 22 2004 14:33
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There's no way to walk over the goo. Head around it or find an alternate route. If you mean sparkly barriers that look something like screen static, you need Piercing Crystals. If you mean the green portculli, you need an item called the Opening Stone. —Alorael, who rarely sees questions answered within ten minutes of being posted. Be a little patient. please. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Turns out.... in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, April 21 2004 13:24
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Paradise Lost is the best known book of the New Testament that cannot be found in the New Testament. Honestly, how many people get their Bible knowledge from a book written by a man who just wanted to write some good stuff. It was a close decision between the Bible and Arthurian Legend, interestingly enough. ?Alorael, who also enjoyed the little tidbit that hints that sex before eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was boring, while post-fruit sex was truly mind-blowingly amazing. And the fruit has some hallucinogenic effects. Hmm... Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Turns out.... in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Tuesday, April 20 2004 15:41
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Weiss and Hickman have a tendency to come up with good ideas and then ruin them in execution. Their good Dragonlance books tend to be simply very well written stock fantasy (not that that's bad, but it's not really original either). The Darksword Trilogy went steadily downhill, yet somehow it gained a fourth book about which the less said, the better. The Deathgate Cycle had potential, but lo and behold, the last three books or so managed to be abominations. My advice is to pick up the first book in a W&H series, read it, and stop there. The Thomas Covenant trilogies by Steven R. Donaldson are both great. Definitely not light, either in tone or in size, but great. The protagonist is not heroic and not even particularly nice, but it works nonetheless. Robin Hobb is another great writer, although she has all the problems of Donaldson and then some. Her characters can be downright evil even when they're good guys, not that good and evil are clear very often. Her other pen name has some good works as well, although I can't recall what it is at the moment. Megan something, I believe. ?Alorael, who will now add the obligatory new author to the mix. Read C.S. Friedman's books, especially the Coldfire Trilogy. They're somewhere between fantasy and sci-fi (no, not the lasers and fireballs type), and they're excellent. In Conquest Born deserves recognition for being the book with the highest ration of protagonists to protagonists with whom the reader can empathize. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| What movies made a big impression on you? in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Tuesday, April 20 2004 15:19
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If you mean movies that get a reaction from sheer amount of carnage, the list is almost endless, from the horror movies with gory consumption by monster to war flicks with yards of steaming guts gleefully displayed before the viewer. Apocalypse Now and The Quiet American both have the carnage (the former much more than the latter) with a message attached, somewhat like the news. I recommend the latter and say that you should watch the former. It's not enjoyable, precisely, but it's definitely memorable. ?Alorael, who would finally like to posit that there is nothing as horrifying as the news. Movies are made about the (more or less) real past and fictional versions of any time. The news is the horrible present in all its lack of glory. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| You dont have to read this Because It's just me being an Idiot in Blades of Avernum | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Monday, April 19 2004 16:17
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Yes. O's are okay. The rest are abominations in the eyes of the Illuminati. —Alorael, who is well aware of his rising post count. His demands will be met or there will be consequences. And by conseqences, he means sulking. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Turns out.... in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Monday, April 19 2004 16:16
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Maybe that's part of the reason I liked Tolkien. I enjoy linguistics for linguistics' sake. His writing style definitely isn't my favorite, but it reminds me heavily of epic verse that lost the verse part. I guess his history as an Old English professor and Beowulf commentator came to the fore. ?Alorael, who would like to see Piers Anthony kneel humbly in the dirt and admit that he's like Terry Pratchett, only with the critical flaw of not being funny. His writing is often quite revolting, actually. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| You dont have to read this Because It's just me being an Idiot in Blades of Avernum | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Monday, April 19 2004 11:17
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Actually, quotation marks around letters for pluralization are incorrect. You can have a's and u's and other lower case letters like that. Capital letters can be B's and P's or Ms and Rs, depending on which you prefer. It seems that originally RPG's would have been the proper plural just as last decade would have been the 1990's. Now the preferred usage omits those apostrophes. In the 2000s, we can just play RPGs! —Alorael, who suspects that anyone who uses the plural possessive of letters is grabbed by men in dark glasses and hauled off to the International Tribunal of Linguistic Crimes for rapid sentencing and execution. Some things should never be done. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| More classical music and such... in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Sunday, April 18 2004 12:46
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Pachelbel's Canon is actually quite beautiful if you don't listen to it over, and over, and over, and over, and... Anyway, it's good. Just try not to overdose, or it's ruined. ?Alorael, who is a fan of the Telemann canons as well. He's always impressed by canon writers. To think of multiple lines of a score in such a way that they work not only with each other but with the bars ahead and behind must be truly brain-busting. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| You dont have to read this Because It's just me being an Idiot in Blades of Avernum | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Sunday, April 18 2004 12:27
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Ah, but to make everything more complicated, plurals for words ending in S have special rules, or rather lack thereof. See, it seems that the erudite just threw up their hands and surrendered. So if the apostrophe belongs to Ross, it can be Ross's apostrophe or Ross', depending on how much you like the letter S. —Alorael, who brings this moment to you in honor of the crazy rules of this language we call English. Zamenhof had the right idea. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| You dont have to read this Because It's just me being an Idiot in Blades of Avernum | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Sunday, April 18 2004 08:22
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I believe the correct plural for a single letter is in fact 's. My dilemma is whether that holds true for acronyms as well. Should it be RPGs or RPG's? —Alorael, who would like to thank this topic for wandering even further afield. At least it provides opportunities for linguistic advancement now. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| windows version question in Blades of Avernum | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Sunday, April 18 2004 08:13
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You can take any party into a BoA scenario, so it's common to use one party through a whole series from level 1 to high levels. If you don't have a high level party handy, you can use the editor to boost one. —Alorael, who doubts that many scenarios will involve premade parties, judging by BoE. A few will use them, but most of the time they're more of an unnecessary restriction than a benefit. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Realism in Blades of Avernum | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, April 17 2004 12:57
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Nethergate's system is identical to BoE's except for word emphasis. That emphasis doesn't always work right, either. If "fort" gets a response, "fortunately" will be blue as well, and it will lead to the same dialogue. I prefer Avernum's conversations. They are clearer and better under almost every circumstance. The exception is when the player behind the characters has to realize or guess something and confront someone about it. Say you find javelins and broken spears at an ambush site. You don't know the sliths did it, but you suspect. In BoE, you could ask "slith." In BoA, you're stuck without it. Still, there are plenty of workarounds, the easiest being inserting conversation scripts that prompt the player to enter text. The benefits of the Avernum dialogue trees outweigh the problems. —Alorael, who thinks the Avernum conversation system is great for giving real sentences, not words, and possibly questions that aren't directly obvious from the dialogue. If the commander grumps at you, it's nice to be able to say, "You're rather grouchy, aren't you, you old coot?" Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Article - Items: Balance and Cool Stuff in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, April 17 2004 09:48
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Keep in mind that powerful and cool are not synonymous. Items with amusing drawbacks are often even better than a bigger cleaver, because they aren't unbalanced and they are noticeable. —Alorael, who also likes items that are good for specific purposes. For example, a knife that regularly drains your spell points and that is based on intelligence for damage would be annoying, but put it in a town where your spell points regenerate and having too many kills you and it becomes an advantage. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Article - Items: Balance and Cool Stuff in Blades of Avernum | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, April 17 2004 09:48
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Keep in mind that powerful and cool are not synonymous. Items with amusing drawbacks are often even better than a bigger cleaver, because they aren't unbalanced and they are noticeable. —Alorael, who also likes items that are good for specific purposes. For example, a knife that regularly drains your spell points and that is based on intelligence for damage would be annoying, but put it in a town where your spell points regenerate and having too many kills you and it becomes an advantage. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| More classical music and such... in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, April 17 2004 09:37
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"There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven." ?Alorael, who is always amazed by how eccentric and arrogant the vast majority of classical composer were. Then he looks at modern songwriters and sees that some things never change. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| You dont have to read this Because It's just me being an Idiot in Blades of Avernum | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, April 17 2004 09:26
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Wait, there are people in Australia? —Alorael, who expects good writing from someone who brags about their writing. Maybe not enough to make the professors happy, but good enough to avoid sending Microsoft Word into a hissy fit of grammar correction. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| help with goblin fort in Nethergate | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, April 16 2004 12:06
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Search the prison area for a few weapons to use until you recover your equipment. You'll eventually find a passage that leads out. It's a fairly straightforward search for the chests that have all your stuff and an exit. —Alorael, who does advise spending some time exploring those caverns. They're fun once you aren't trying to kill spiders and rats with your bear hands. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Turns out.... in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, April 16 2004 11:58
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LotR has unmatched depth of background for the world it is set in. No other author creates languages just for his world! Other than that, it was also a first in fantasy. Yes, now every half-baked bad fantasy author and his brother write books that unabashedly plagiarize from Tolkien's works, but at the time he was writing new stuff. ?Alorael, who would say that if anyone deserves the title of father of modern mass market fantasy (good and bad, lots and lots of bad), it's Tolkien. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Buying Nethergate in Nethergate | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, April 16 2004 11:29
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Spiderweb games are already sold for much less than most computer games. There's no way to get a further discount on the prices no matter how much you beg. The one exception would be the intermittent sadness sales. There's no telling when one may begin, but then you'll have a month to buy Nethergate or any other games at even better prices. —Alorael, who is paid $0.001 per post for these sale advertisements. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Experience in Blades of Avernum | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, April 16 2004 11:21
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Unusually powerful creatures won't do it, because kill experience is split. Most experience rewards that aren't from creatures are from quests or from unlocking doors, both of which are also split rewards. I can't think of any 'normal' way to gain experience that isn't evenly divided. —Alorael, who supposes designers could put one-character experience bonuses into their scenarios of they really wanted to. It's probably never going to be a common practice, though. Love your experience-balanced party! Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| You dont have to read this Because It's just me being an Idiot in Blades of Avernum | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, April 16 2004 11:16
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Have you been talking to Arctic recently, TM? —Alorael, who would like to request that everyone at least attempt to post on the original topic, or what passed for the topic in this thread. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Did Jeff know about this while creating Exile/Avernum series? in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, April 16 2004 11:15
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Really? I think the term 'nephilim' only appears twice in the Bible, and both times with no real explanation. The "half angel" meaning is, as far as I know, a fabricated interpretation. ?Alorael, who would guess that the original meaning was more along the lines of "huge, strong, really impressive guys." Not in those exact words, of course. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| More classical music and such... in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, April 16 2004 11:07
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I've never had any trouble with spiders when I play music. Are you saying I'm awful? That's uncharitable and uncalled for. Hmph! ?Alorael, who would like to see evidence of these musically inclined spiders. He may find a whole new way to start up an exermination service with musical interludes! Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| VoDT: Steal the waveblade? in Blades of Avernum | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, April 16 2004 10:57
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The fire damage really isn't anything impressive, and there are plenty of fire resistant and fire immune critters running around. The fine waveblade doesn't have the literal bang of the flaming sword, but the damage it does is definitely more impressive, even against armor. —Alorael, who would rather have a fine, flaming waveblade. Or a pair of them. Alas, such items seem to have fallen out of favor in Avernum. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |