Borshak's Lair - is this thing supposed to be good?

grodog

Should be playing D&D instead
Maybe that's what I'm missing from Tegel as well; I'm just not seeing it when I read it, but maybe it plays really smoothly?
I wasn’t impressed at all by Tegel Manor either, and that’s still the case :)

Until 2005 when I moved to Wichita, my general opinion of JG was that it was all crap—the quality of the content matching the paper it was printed on. The thing is, my exposure to JG as a kid was to all of the terrible—or, at best, mediocre—stuff like Lara’s Tower, Glory Hole Dwarven Mine, and Shield Maidens of Sea Rune. I had no exposure to CSIO, any of Jaquay’s work, TFB, et al. So my default bias is against JG, which I eventually overcame through playing and reading the good stuff ;)

Allan.
 

DangerousPuhson

My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
I had no exposure to CSIO
On that note, am I the only one who isn't impressed with CSIO? Like, it's written ok, but I've been poring through my copy ever since I was a kid, and I find it all just WAY too dense, with virtually ZERO guidance on how to use it. The layout of the booklet is terrible - two pages of dense history, then BAM right into the keys for Barter Street. And those keys... talk about weird. They have rumors and legends *within* the key, in like a cursive font. I've never seen that before. So many small specific details ("movement through the marketplace causes a delay of 7-42/t [?] and 30% chance of separation", "costume fees are stiff, 10-60gp depending on the part, 20% probability of acceptance", etc.). So many "assumed" plot threads that were never started ("so and so knows details about the witch coven nearby" - what detail? What witch coven? This is the first I'm hearing of it!). Very weird and specific tables (Roll for "Tress Tint of Houri Garb" - nice, I got "light green"! - apply the relevant "Bust Size Bonus" next) Combine with a terrible map(s) and random encounters that strike me as very strange for a city adventure ("a genie is running rampant in the statue park!" what?), and I just don't see any drive to actually pull it off the shelf and run any of it.
 

grodog

Should be playing D&D instead
On that note, am I the only one who isn't impressed with CSIO?
In all fairness, my impression of liking CSIO comes from playing at the table of a JG super-nerd (as I am to Greyhawk, my business partner is to the Wilderlands and JG in general), and we didn’t meet any balrog bartenders during our sessions ;)

I’ve not read CSIO since well-before we began playing together in 2005….

Allan.
 

The Heretic

Should be playing D&D instead
Speaking of other underwhelming classics, I watched the movie Heavy Metal for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It was....not that great. Granted, the animation wasn't helped by better monitors, but the stories were mostly insipid as well.

I remember being fascinated (and a little scared) by the movie when it came out. One of my older sisters saw the movie, and gave me a summary of the plot. I was intrigued. I never got around to watching it myself and now that I've seen it....well....


The Heretic
 

DangerousPuhson

My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
Heavy Metal was very much a product of its time. Very cool when it came out and jived with the "vibes" of the '80s, but nowadays we've seen the sort of imagery that HM inspires done much better and have become jaded to it. Like, compare Heavy Metal to Mad Max Fury Road or Top Gun Maverick, and you'll see what I mean. It's tame by today's standards, much in the same way old movies used to treat "damn" or "ass" as swear words, when you can hear those words in childrens' shows nowadays.

The world was a little more optimistic back then, and HM contrasted nicely with that optimism to derive a bit of "shock value", but that shock value is pretty deadened by modern standards. We see more shocking things in the news. It's also trope-city, which we all know has diminishing returns as more time passes. It was cool as a youth because young folk love violence and boobs - but violence and boobs are everywhere now, so it lost its charm.
 

Beoric

8, 8, I forget what is for
I think a lot of the appeal of Heavy Metal was cartoon nudity. Certainly that had an impact on my early-teen self. But even then I thought the movie itself was a bit weak.

Although IIRC John Candy was hilarious.
 

DangerousPuhson

My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
I think a lot of the appeal of Heavy Metal was cartoon nudity.
A bonus for sure, but my favorite part was the WWII bomber sequence.

Cartoon nudity was well and good in the days of Playboy and Sears Catalogues, but it barely gets a wiggle in these PornHub times. Yet another reason why the film doesn't titilate (pun intended) as it once did.
 

Beoric

8, 8, I forget what is for
Cartoon nudity was well and good in the days of Playboy and Sears Catalogues, but it barely gets a wiggle in these PornHub times. Yet another reason why the film doesn't titilate (pun intended) as it once did.
Not a bad thing. I have more than once sat down with my kids to enjoy a movie from my youth, only to be embarrassed by the presence of entirely unnecessary nudity that I had forgotten about.
 
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