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2017-12-26, 12:48 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
"If it lives it can be killed.
If it is dead it can be eaten."
Ronkong Coma "the way of the bookhunter" III Catacombium
(Walter Moers "Die Stadt der träumenden Bücher")
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2017-12-26, 12:54 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2004
Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
Maintaining an uninvited armed camp around someone's village is a hostile act. When Asterix and Obelix travel in greater Rome, Obelix doesn't attack every Roman he meets. And though there may well be some I'm forgetting, in every case I can think of, "retreat when Obelix approaches with apparent hostile intent" would have saved every Roman he's whomped.
Of course, that would probably have gotten them thrown in the circus for desertion, but that's on the Roman authorities, not Obelix.Orth Plays: Currently Baldur's Gate II
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2017-12-26, 01:11 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2017
Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
Yup. Just about every last one of them would swear they're Lawful or Neutral Good, while anyone they've pushed around (or vice versa) would swear they're Chaotic or Lawful Evil.
That's kind of ironic considering how much the senate kept babbling about their precious "Liberty" during the First Centuries BC-AD. Or the first European civilization to state that everyone, even slaves had souls. Or make anyone born in their territory a citizen automatically.
You are technically correct. While that is the best kind of correct, it is also wrong. They conquered people, sure but they never tried to erase anybody's culture or claimed it was inferior to theirs. Those were not wars of conquest so much as perpetual preventive strikes that resulted in ever more territory that they protected by attacking preventively, rince and repeat.
Like you said, mad dragons await those who try to assign "good, bad, or ugly" to a civilization. I'm absolutely not trying to go there, just to describe historical parallels:
As civilizations go, Rome and the US are practically brothers. It wouldn't have greatly surprised the Founders, believe it or not... they modeled the Constitution in part on Rome's Twelve Tables, hoping to preserve government by the people as long as possible. And it may have worked by comparison to alternatives. But current events have been very reminiscent of Rome during the period where the Republic was approaching its deathbed (but "not quite dead yet", to echo Monty Python (^_~)).
You know one thing I have grown to appreciate in Asterix is that the authors did not go the lazy route of making the romans evil invaders (despite a few Nazi parallel in the first albums) but portrayed them as people and the territory they control just as happy as the Village.
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2017-12-26, 01:21 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2007
Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
No, it is establishing a country's land boundaries. The four camps exist precisely because Rome has given up on conquering that but, and it was standard practice in RL to establish regular guard posts along the borders (such as along the Rhine). Overkill for just one vilalge? If anything, evidence suggests 4 wasn't nearly enough troops.
GWInterested in MitD? Join us in MitD's thread.There is a world of imagination
Deep in the corners of your mind
Where reality is an intruder
And myth and legend thrive
Ceterum autem censeo Hilgya malefica est
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2017-12-26, 01:59 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
From what I can recall there were several times someone (usually Asterix) had to actively hold back Obelix to prevent him from attacking romans.
(Okay, some of those might've been intimidation to get informations about the latest weirdness, but there's a reason it works.)
Also, running away? I think you're underestimating how fast the big guy can be.
And send to the Circus?
Why would they reward people for running away?
To be absolutely fair, short of sending enough troops to leave the remaining Empire severely undermanned I don't think there’s any chance for the Romans not to be outnubered by the village.Last edited by Kantaki; 2017-12-26 at 02:07 PM.
"If it lives it can be killed.
If it is dead it can be eaten."
Ronkong Coma "the way of the bookhunter" III Catacombium
(Walter Moers "Die Stadt der träumenden Bücher")
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2017-12-26, 02:31 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2015
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Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
I'm fine with not judging the past with modern eyes, but there's that and then there's whitewashing the Romans by saying they weren't imperialistic, that they didn't think of themselves as an inherently superior civilization or that they didn't routinely engage in wars of conquest. What sets them apart from most other ancient civilizations is their thoroughly modern view of casi belli and the fake news they'd try to sell to their own Roman Senate and People so that they'd buy into their innocent imperialistic narrative.
As for the Roman military camps around Asterix's village, they're a limes alright, but at no point did the Romans give up on conquering the village (they came up with new schemes to do just that all the time), and there were never any peace treaties. The Gauls in the village and the Romans were formally at war.ungelic is us
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2017-12-27, 05:26 AM (ISO 8601)
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2017-12-27, 07:34 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
I, for one, don't blame him at all...
They managed to destroy the village, once, by means of siege weapons with burning projectiles (they did not kill the inhabitants, though). However, at that time, Asterix had "adopted" Caesar's son and it was an attempt by Marc Anthony or Brutus on the baby's life, which ended up with the Romans themselves rebuilding it and so on.
Which, of course, raises the question of what would happen had it not been for this deus ex machina - and, maybe, what would happen in a darker comic, especially assuming Getafix survived that attack to make some more of his magic potion.
Or, put another way, what happens when some 100-200 people (at the very least they are fairly numerous) that just lost everything BUT their main weapon (as in, the magic potion and, with it, super-strength not unlike, say, The Thing's, plus some very good running speed), people, in short, that are angry, numerous enough, powerful and with nothing to lose, decided to set their eyes on the people responsible for it...
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2017-12-28, 10:00 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2017
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- Illinois, United States
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Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
Had to join the forum to post this, but has anyone else noticed that Hilgya's holy symbol isn't shown after her reappearance, but her "Turn Undead" still comes from neck height, where Kudzu is? Is it possible for Kudzu to BE her holy symbol (not terribly familiar with the rules on that)? If not, could the sling be her holy symbol? Either of those would be reasons why she would HAVE to bring Kudzu into combat with her (though what she might have been thinking when making that decision is beyond me).
Otherwise, we end up discussing what happens when you hit babies with high level "Turn Undead" spells, and that's a traumatic road to go down. It makes me wonder about Kudzu saying "Tun un deh!" as if he were the conduit for the spell.
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2017-12-28, 10:36 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2006
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- Mangholi Dask
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2017-12-28, 11:12 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2013
Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
Order of the Stick forum: the place where you find out that Panoramix's name in english is actually Getafix.
(I'm brazilian)
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2017-12-28, 11:48 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2004
Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
Turn Undead is not a spell. The answer to the question "What happens when you hit living babies with the Turn Undead ability?" is, "Nothing, of course, since they're not undead."
Last edited by Kish; 2017-12-28 at 11:48 AM.
Orth Plays: Currently Baldur's Gate II
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2017-12-28, 03:06 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2017
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Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
Alright, looked more into this, and I don't see any rules that say that a living being cannot be a holy symbol.
"To grant its benefit to a divine character, a holy symbol must represent the character's patron deity or one of a group of deities the character serves.”
"To use the symbol in this way, the caster must hold it in hand, wear it visibly, or bear it on a shield."
I could absolutely make an argument for Loki being represented as "The God of One Night Stands That Turn Out Badly." Kudzu was certainly being worn visibly. Another holy symbol was not visible.
Want to really kick a Thor worshiper where it hurts? Turn their child into a living conduit for the magic of Loki.
Thoughts from anyone who knows the rules better than I?
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2017-12-28, 03:11 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2006
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Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
Okay, fair enough, calling it a desu ex machina was unwarranted. Still it raises the qiestion of what would happen had Caesar not offered it or, in short, had the Romans actually succeeded in destroying the village in an unrelated incident (as they clearly had the tech to) without, for that end, killing its inhabitants...
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2017-12-28, 03:58 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
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2017-12-28, 04:09 PM (ISO 8601)
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2017-12-28, 05:44 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2009
Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
Actually they get blinded and probably find it very unpleasant on their poor baby eyes. :p
"Besides, you know the saying: Kill one, and you are a murderer. Kill millions, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god." -- Fishman
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2017-12-28, 08:59 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
Avatar by linklele. How Teleport Worksa. Malifice (paraphrased):
Rulings are not 'House Rules.' Rulings are a DM doing what DMs are supposed to do.
b. greenstone (paraphrased):
Agency means that they {players} control their character's actions; you control the world's reactions to the character's actions.
Second known member of the Greyview Appreciation Society
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2017-12-28, 09:07 PM (ISO 8601)
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2017-12-28, 10:03 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2011
Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
Elan's default expression is a smile. V's is a frown. I don't think Belkar has a default expression unless it's boredom.
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2017-12-29, 04:40 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2017
Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
https://youtu.be/60mLvBWOMb4?t=11s
(I really should have hunted down some anime girl named Makina for the best possible example, but ah well.)
(Had to drop the embed, but now it jumps to a good start point)Last edited by arimareiji; 2017-12-29 at 04:47 AM.
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2017-12-29, 12:10 PM (ISO 8601)
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2017-12-29, 12:33 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2017
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2019-09-12, 03:41 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2009
Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
Adding to the old thread during a re-read... it's possible that "Kudzu" is a traditional Dwarvish name, perhaps a diminutive of something like "Kudzû-baruk". "What about it? It was my grandfather's name... the only guy in my family who understood me."
Though of course if it was traditional, Hilgya might be inclined to avoid it.
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2019-09-12, 03:43 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2018
Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
I think she went the plant route to rebel against tradition.
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2019-09-12, 04:10 PM (ISO 8601)
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2019-09-12, 04:12 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: OOTS #1107 - The Discussion Thread
Metamagic Mod: a reminder to everyone that the correct response to Thread Necromancy (or any violation of the forum rules, really) is to report the post, not respond to it.
(Avatar by Cuthalion, who is great.)