Umm... hey!Follow

Right now, here's the top ten threads in the Asylum:

1. If Mo says No and Ma Says Yes who wins?
2. What's Really Going on In Iraq
3. You've just been arrested for child molestation. What now?
4. Gbaji, clinnically insane?
5. Step away from all of the politics for a moment...
6. Are the terrorists winning?
7. No Boost
8. Stay scared, kids. It's a scary world...but your safer!!
9. Now Tell me he's a Hero
10. Get a load of this--

So seven of those are about politics/Iraq, one is about child molestation, one about Totem's sick wife getting fired for being sick and one is Smash and Gbaji having a fit over how they debate politics/Iraq. I enjoy a good debate as much as the next guy, but I'm getting tired. And depressed. Someone give me a good non-political topic to chat about for a bit while my brain cools down.

Edited, Wed Aug 4 11:21:38 2004 by Jophiel

LOL.. dork

I actually came across my old Forgotten Realms source hardback for AD&D 2nd ed. the other night spent about a half hour leafing through it.

I found my copy of Bunnies & Burrows while finding the Forgotten Realms book and that game kicked even more ***. So I win

Yup. I read the Icewind Dale trilogy and the.. um.. whatever the trilogy about Drizzt growing up and leaving Mezzo-whatever was called.

Icewind wasn't bad but I wasn't overly impressed with the prequel trilogy. People tend to speak so highly of them that I hesitate to get into my issues with them now, but I think they're rather over-rated.

Never played Neverwinter Nights. I played the old SSI Forgotten Realms gold box games though!

This is probably the only thread Oberion won't post in. :->

Ok. Major ******* about the whole Drizzt thing.

#1: Every character, aside from perhaps Drizzt, is a foil. The large, mighty warrior who is naive in the ways of love. The feisty, beautiful warrior maiden. The trouble making halfling who draws the party into adventure. The gruff dwarf who proves to have a tender heart*. Hell, that was half the party from the Dragonlance saga... and I'm not claiming Weis & Hickman were in any way innovative when they did it either. It's an ensemble cast but the only character whose life story can't be summed up in seven words or less is Drizzt.

#2: You don't care about anyone. This is probably related to #1. Do I care if Bruenor finds his ancient homeland? No, I do not. Why not? Because I don't give a rat's *** about the dwarf. Do I care if Wulfgar and Tika-- I mean Cattie Brie hook up? No, I do not. Why? Because of course they're going to hook up. This leads to some boring *** plotlines when none of the characters are fleshed out and their motives fall flat. Face it, you just read to the end of the Halfling's Gem to see Drizzt and Entriti (or whoever) fight and see if it was going to be a win for Drizzt or if they would tie since Drizzt obviously wasn't going to lose.

#3: Flat villians. 90% of the villians you barely remember are there, such as the evil wizard guy, the evil wizard chick and.. umm.. whoever. Then you have anti-Drizzt Enteiri (again, however its spelled) who is almost a parody of himself as he oh-so-dangerously-and-smoothly kills every minor character in the second two books.

#4: Whatever plot twists there were were quickly mitigated. Bruenor is dead! No he isn't! Cattie Brie is dead! No she isn't! Regis is dead! No he isn't! How many deus ex machina plot resolutions can you fit into a trilogy? I've heard that in the later books, Wulfgar finally bites it. Good for him.

#5: By the time you reach the prequel, even the one character with any depth is about done. He's a dark elf. But he's not evil. He's haunted by how mean his people are. He's the Mack Daddy with the scimitars. Ok, we get it.

#6: This is about the prequel trilogy but... what the hell was with some of those plots? Drizzt fighting Evil Zaknaf-whatnot on a bridge over a lake of acid with "Drizzt.. I am your father!!"?? WTF? Drizzt being trained as the bumbling apprentice to the aged but experienced blind ranger who can still hit a gnat with a thrown dagger at 500 feet? Was this written after viewing a bad kung fu movie? Why did the editor never stop and call Salvatore and say "Umm... R.A... about this scene you lifted from Star Wars..."?

Don't get me wrong. The books are better than most TSR Press pulp fantasy. If you read them as fantasy fluff, they're okay. But the amount of adoration they recieve is bewildering.

*Has there ever been a fantasy novel where the gruff dwarf turns out to just be an as[/i]shole instead of revealing his tender heart of gold? I don't think so

[i]Edited, Wed Aug 4 12:34:24 2004 by Jophiel

Yeah i finally broke down and read the original icewind dale trilogy the other day, it was pretty bad. Not saying its as bad as the prequels for the Dune series that are coming out now but its still pretty bad.

I dunno im playing through Icewind Dale games for PC right now kinda off and on for last couple months, they are okay. Mainly cause i was a fan of Baldurs Gate.

Well i think you pretty much covered it there Joph.

Hey Joph, check out The Coldfire Trilogy. You'd probably like that series based on your evaluation of Salvatore.

My kid loves Salvatore. From all I read, his non TSR stuff is better, but not great Lit.

Now Gold Box Games were great. Anyone else willing to admit to putting up with AoHell, just to play Neverwinter Nights?

You could level your character in just a couple of hours and still would come back night after night to do the same quests over again, with the friends you made ingame. How I miss running through the Lost Hills and getting jump by one of my favorite Evils.

Last time I had any real fun in EQ was when I got together with some old NWN'ers in my guild and we played Drunken Tag on the walls of Freeport.

Darn I miss waiting for my turn in a pvp battle, only to have someone hit me with a hold monster. When watch the rest of the battle as they make sure none of the can monsters finish me off.

It's been a long day and I'm not going back to edit any spelling and grammer errors.

Elne

Me so hungry.

I always loved Dragonlance. I've got quite a few of the series. Most of the ones not written by Weis & Hickman kinda suck, but there's a few good ones in there. The Legend of Huma is one that stands out.



On another totally unrelated note, I had a dream last night that Michael Jackson was president. He moonwalked and did part of the Smooth Criminal video during one of his speaches.

/shrug

Edited, Thu Aug 5 08:00:20 2004 by Nadenu

Well, Joph and others, while I can understand and probably agree with your points about Salvatore, I still really enjoy reading his work. Fantasy fluff? Sure, but enjoyable fluff.

I dunno, I guess the way I feel is this: you can say he sucks all you want, but with the kind of sales he has had, he must be doing something right.....