Critical Miss Forums

Jonny Nexus · 13th Level Joined: 07 Feb 2006 Posts: 846 Location: London

This thread is for discussion of the Issue 10 article, "Load Up On Guns, Bring Your Friends". To comment on the article, just hit the "Post Reply" button and type in what you think.
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"...if you like your humour coarse and black, this will probably have you rolling on the floor with laughter."
Simon Collins, ENWorld Staff Reviewer, reviewing my Slayers Guide to Games Masters

bletch · 1st Level Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 1 Location: Oz

Australian Prime Ministers:

John Howard (current)
Paul Keating
Bob Hawke
Malcolm Fraser
(the next PM Gough Whitlam is not used - not a very NY name?)
William McMahon
(then a big jump way back to...)
Arthur Fadden (not Tony!)
...
Edmund Barton (first)

Hasn't been a PM called Cum Sing!

Jody Macgregor · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 4:34 am Post subject: Re: Scenario names

Someone caught me out.

Jonny Nexus · 13th Level Joined: 07 Feb 2006 Posts: 846 Location: London

Cool.

_________________
"...if you like your humour coarse and black, this will probably have you rolling on the floor with laughter."
Simon Collins, ENWorld Staff Reviewer, reviewing my Slayers Guide to Games Masters

Guest · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 1:26 pm Post subject:

I actually had players request "Violence", and we ran it for about three sessions before collective nausea persuaded us to do something different.

Maybe this article will revive their interest.

Thanks a lot. Sad

C17H19NO3 · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 7:56 pm Post subject:

I printed the rulebook, and I think I might run a game of Violence now.

This should be interesting.

Jody Macgregor · Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 12:48 am Post subject:

C17H19NO3 · Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 5:46 am Post subject:

My friends decided to suck, and bail out on me for the time we'd planed. It has been pushed back until after finals.

Fucking college. Always interfering with important things like playing videogames and RPing.

cartoonlad · Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 5:39 pm Post subject:

I've only read reviews and commentary about Violence, but haven't read the game itself. That said, the scenario presented really misses the point -- it's not just about meathooks and chainsaws, it's about meathooks and chainsaws on Joe and Mary Six-Pack. What's presented here is a typical Shadowrun adventure or a modern-day crime adventure with the words "torture" and "beaten" thrown in. Why it doesn't have the intended effect is the scenario has bad people doing bad things to other bad people. Just looking at the adventure, you can just stare down an attack dog, you can fast talk a criminal into helping you, you kidnap and can knockout a violent criminal, you have a wacky car chase, you wait for a junkie to direct you to a violent criminal's house, then turn in your violent criminal to the other one. If you actually do the bad things to the bad people -- beatings, torture, and other such nastiness -- you're still doing it to unsympathetic characters, which won't shock and awe the players the way Violence wants to. (And if you go the bad things route, the first sympathetic character is the owner of the pizza parlor who not only appears comical in the adventure, but comes after the silly Getaway Drivers Union encounter that is more in tune with the Ghostbusters RPG than the Violence RPG. Because the pizza parlor encounter happens after the GDU encounter and the way he is presented, the players would be so removed from the game's consequences, there would be no "Dear Lord, what have I done?" moment.)

cartoonlad · Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 5:46 pm Post subject:

Oh, I also forgot to mention that the adventure seems to throw in drug references to make the adventure seem more edgy than it really is. It reminds me of the d20 "Book of Vile Darkness" including references to rape and drugs so the Marketing Department can use words like "eXtreme" and "edgy", or the way Mountain Dew advertises their sugared water.

Ballscratch · Posted: Wed May 17, 2006 6:08 am Post subject:

I don't suppose that 'Cum Sing' was in any way a reference to Melbourne Lord Mayor John So, was it?
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"I do not have a girl-friend. I just know a girl who would be very upset if she heard me say that."

Jody Macgregor · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 9:59 am Post subject:

Dear cartoonlad,

Thank you for taking my scenario so seriously. I'm afraid you missed the point, however, which was summed up in my opening paragraphs. "Load Up On Guns" is not an attempt to restate what Violence has already said more eloquently than I could--that would be pointless--but is instead an attempt to show what Grand Theft Auto would look like as an RPG.

If you want "meathooks and chainsaws on Joe and Mary Six-Pack" I can't reccomend Violence enough to you. Do go and read it. It's free, and it's a work of genius far more worthy of this kind of analysis.

In parting, if you really do see drug references in a crime game and think "Ooh, look who's trying to be edgy!" I suggest you frequent the RPG.Net forums instead, where they encourage that kind of behaviour.

Yours etc.

Ballscratch · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 10:30 am Post subject:

*Clears throat.*

Ahem.

Burn.

That is all.
_________________
"I do not have a girl-friend. I just know a girl who would be very upset if she heard me say that."

Jody Macgregor · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 9:50 pm Post subject:

Ballscratch · Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 2:01 am Post subject:

Wait...so there actually IS a guy named 'Cum Sing'?

Awesome.
_________________
"I do not have a girl-friend. I just know a girl who would be very upset if she heard me say that."