Things that 'important' people say on the internet

[thebitterguy]

I was wandering through ghostwes backlog when I stumbled on this pair of blog postings about the aesthetics of fantasy.

My personal failings prevent me from enjoying it as much as I should (the failings being dat I is dum), but it's neat to read an article about fantasy done by a guy who really doesn't like the genre. The real point being this quote from a comment that Wes pointed out that I also enjoyed:

An interesting tangent to the idea of fantasy being about bling is the fantasy RPG which most definitely IS a crypto-Objectivist bare-knuckle capitalist fantasy in which the peasants spend their lives with their feet in shit while the "elite" go around collecting huge mountains of gold, killing anyone that stands in their way and covering themselves in magical bling.

Hee. I am inspired for my next D&D character. He will be an elf gangsta. What kind of ethnic slur can he be reclaiming? I suggest "woody". Or possibly pointy.

Comments

[rentagurkha.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with "fairy"? Or "faerie" if you prefer.

[pope-j-rod.livejournal.com]

Sylvan

you should be reclaiming "Sylvan."

[thebitterguy]

Hmmm. That sounds good, but might be reserved for characters with the 'Fey' subtype.

Where's Ryan Dancey when you need him?

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

That sounds more like a come-on than an ethnic slur.

"My, you're looking... sylvan tonight."

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, I ran that quote through Babelfish on the academic setting, and this is what came out:

"I have no understanding of the fantasy genre. I think it's all like the Lord of the Rings movies, which I'm pissed about winning Best Picture because of their simplistic moral viewpoint. I also have no sense of humor. So, I will use the education earned from my several degrees to throw a hissy fit in public."

You're not the dumb one here; this guy is just a jackass. Man, he'd better pray Harlan Ellison doesn't read this, otherwise he's in for the most excruciating public humiliation of his life.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha! That's priceless!

Thank-you; that made my afternoon.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[thebitterguy]

You know, I was thinking that Sylvan didn't work, but now that I think about it, it works very well.

[mouseferatu.livejournal.com]

In one of my older campaigns, "pixie" was an insulting epithet humans uses to refer to elves. You could go that route.

[uhlrik.livejournal.com]

Well said. Also, never mind that the guy knows nothing about any other mode of roleplaying than roam around, whack things and take loot.

Roleplaying is (or perhaps should be) so much bigger than KTATTS.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links - In addition to confirming again why I prefer SF to fantasy, it definitely high-lights some of the problems with the genre. Definitely inspirational stuff for an RPG author.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

In his defense, he could have simply been playing Munchkin.

[thebitterguy]

Ohh, that's good. "Wassup, my Pixaay?"

[sixteenbynine.livejournal.com]

The last time I remember Harlan having an opinion about anything, it was even more snide than this, so he's in good company.

[sixteenbynine.livejournal.com]

I read the piece(s) in question, and I had to comment because I'm in the process of finishing up a book that could be loosely defined as fantasy. But it breaks a few rules:

1) It's relatively short -- barely 100,000 words, so it's not a Tome, and that was mainly a design decision on my part. I didn't *want* to write a long book, and I didn't want to have to make the reader go through the equivalent of three books' worth of PLOT to get one book worth of STORY.

2) The mechanics of the world are also kept comparatively brief. I spent more time on the characters and their psychologies (which is really what drives everything, including the way their world works).

Rules aside, I hope I did a decent job and didn't simply write something laughable. That's why reading these two was actually pretty eye-opening: they gave me a sliver of hope that I did do something right. Or, better yet, that I did something interesting.

[thebitterguy]

The last couple times he roused himself from slumber was "Waaahhh, you kids! My heart! Don't you know who I am?" and "Waaaahhh! Groth! I'm gonna get you!"

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

I don't know, Supermidget may be snide but he's also pretty unforgiving of anybody who doesn't know their SF or fantasy and opens their mouth. I don't imagine this guy would last very long before being reduced to tears/suicide.

[ghostwes.livejournal.com]

Harlan Ellison reads everything. And I do mean everything. I have seen him summoned too many times to think otherwise.

In fact, I better go hide now.

[ghostwes.livejournal.com]

I love incorporating ideology into role-playing. I had a thief character (albeit in Vampire: the Masquerade) who justified all his actions out of a wrongheaded interpretation of Das Kapital.

An Objectivist D&D character would be awesome! Perhaps a selfish, uber-capitalist cleric who actually worships Ayn Rand as a goddess. Wait, that's too close to real Objectivism.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Harlan Ellison is everywhere, omnipresent. He could even be one of us. Good thing he's old and I can probably run faster, he knows something like five martial arts and would probably beat the shit out of me for calling him "Supermidget."

[thebitterguy]

God, I wonder what an objectivist cleric's spheres would be. That's too horrifying to consider. Well, about as horrifying as Rand as a deity.

[thebitterguy]

I understand much of his combat prowess can be desribed as 'being scrappy' and 'letting the other guy get drunk first'.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

I was led to believe he knew martial arts from Isaac Asimov's writing on him. But on reflection, he's a good liar and Asimov always like to believe the best of people.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

What would Ayn be the goddess of? Novelists who pad their work? If so, Robert Jordan's been sacrificing the really good shit for a while.

[neosis.livejournal.com]

Most likely, Money. In the Forgotten Realms there's already a God of Money (Waukeen), though.

[thebitterguy]

Yeah, she'd be the NE Demi-Goddess of greed and fucking people over.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

How about Selfishness?

[neosis.livejournal.com]

Only the Dragon pantheon has an explicit god of selfishness: Task, Lesser God of Greed and Selfishness.

Maybe it's time to introduce a new human demi-god, Nyranada, of greed and selfishness? If Nyranda is too subtle, there's always Dnarnya, but that sounds like it has something to do with C.S. Lewis.

Then again, I always run my Waukeenar NPCs as if they were objectivists anyway. They'll do practically anything that won't get them in trouble for money, and always require a guarantee of payment from the players for any service. They make reasonably shrewd bargains. Ironically that often makes them both the most and least liked religion among my players. Some players are just happy that the priests don't impose silly requirements on their "customers" like refusing to resurrection people who follow gods of different alignments or requiring good deeds be performed in recompense for miracles granted. Others are annoyed that they always charge money, for everything, and then there's the "I have to go check with the high priest, she's tough, though and I think she's not going to buy into this, but I'll go to bat for you" routine, that some of them really hate.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

"Dnarnya" sounds more like the goddess of mild curses to me. :-)

Crazy

[neosis.livejournal.com]

So, is Feudalism objectivist?

Because from what I hear, Kings and Queens were all about the Bling long before capitalism had a name, much less objectivism.

Alternatively, you could look at it as kind of parable of middle class life. You start off owning very little, and knowing a little bit. Then you work to learn more and earn your way. If you're good enough at what you, eventually you may become powerful and famous. All along the while you pick up stuff to help you do your job better, or even just stuff to make your home (be it castle, tower, or burrow) a little better.

I think the slang that the character was trying to reclaim is going to have to depend on the setting a bit. Unless, of course, you plan on having the characte be delusional in the persecution. I did a google search to see if I could find any samples but the best one was from Shadowpunk "Keebs" which obviously doesn't make any sense in traditional fantasy. Pointees, sylvs, faes, or tree-huggers might work. If your game has a keltish feels "Sidhes" or "Sids" might word work, in the Forgotten Realms, "Telqs" from the elven name "Tel'Quissar" might work as well. Additionally, a derogatory name for the nation the elves come from might work as well.

Of course, you could always use "elf" as the derogatory term, and try to convince people that they should call you a "Tel'Quissar" (or similar made-up name) instead.