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The QueueJul 29, 2020 12:00 pm CT

The Queue: By the time you read this…

Let’s just say I won’t be having a great day.

It’s the Queue. Let’s do the usual.


LOTHARFOX DOESN’T BELIEVE IN UNDEATH AFTER DEATH

I’m really bothered by the idea of undead in the world where the dead go. By the very definition, they shouldn’t exist there. Undead should only exist in a material realm where the physical body dies, the spirit leaves, but the body keeps going. Shadowlands should be the exact opposite, a place of the spirit, but no bodies.

Why do you assume that the spirit leaves an undead’s body? It seems instead to me that the spirit is trapped inside an unliving body. As for why there can be undead in Maldraxxus, which is a land of the dead, I’m fairly certain that the constructs of Maldaxxus are made entirely of soulstuff and anima, much like the creatures of the Maw itself and the strange soul-metal golems we encounter there. The fact that they resemble the undead could be a case of them being the inspiration for said creatures, or it could be that Maldraxxus has been inspired by them. We’ll find out.

It’s interesting to consider that in the Shadowlands it appears that there are aspects of existence that possess a tangible reality of their own. One is reminded of Homer’s Odyssey, where the titular Odysseus travels to the land of the dead and meets the spirits of old friends and comrades, using a trench of blood to give them enough physical existence to speak to him.


JALAMENOS FORGETS THAT I AM ASTONISHINGLY, TERRIFYINGLY OLD

TIL that it’s a common thing in late night and talk shows to have a segment where you bring someone on stage of the younger generation and present them with a bunch of outdated, obsolete objects like a rotary phone or a typewriter and ask the person if they know what it is and ask them to guess how they worked.
And it always get laughs.

I just think they should do it in reverse where you bring an older person on stage and ask them to clone an iPhone or install a Chrome browser, and have a whole audience of people laughing their asses off when they try and fail to do it.
It still wouldn’t be funny (beyond being absolutely ridiculous), but at least it would be fair :P

Dude, it’s not hard to install a Chrome browser, it practically installs itself. We’re old, we’re not simple.

As for the rotary phone/other artifacts of a bygone time, let us fossils feel smug while we can, we’re on our way to death.


SIBYLLE IS ASKING ABOUT STUFF THAT I SHOULD HAVE NOTICED SOONER

QftQ: What small thing did it take you embarrassingly long to notice?

I just realised in the past few weeks that Bondo in Mechagon announces me when I drop by (“We got a visitor! Some troll is poking around the yard”). I like details like this one, can’t believe I never noticed it before.

The Rampage icon is a screaming monster face. You’d think I’d have noticed that sooner, but I didn’t. Also, Illidan’s Warglaives had panda faces on them in the original Warcraft 3. I remember slapping my forehead when I found that out last year.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, us oldsters stop noticing stuff after a while. Who are all of you kids and why are you on my lawn?


ELAINE DE SHALOTT HEARS A NOISE LIKE AN OLD BLIND DUDE RUNNING DOWN A FLIGHT OF STAIRS, AND THEN HALF WAY DOWN, FALLING DOWN A FLIGHT OF STAIRS

I’m not in a WoW mood tonight. What to play….

Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning. Or wait for Re-Reckoning, I suppose.

Look, if you haven’t already played Assassin’s Creed Odyssey nothing I say now is going to reach you.


KALCHEUS ASKS ME A QUESTION I’VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT FOR A WHILE

Q4tQ Which do you like better, Mythic Odysseys of Theros, or Odyssey of the Dragonlords? I didn’t think I’d like Theros as much (especially after my disappointment with Ravnica) but I’m really impressed with it so far.

Both books are extremely good, and slightly different in aim and scope — Mythic Odysseys of Theros is very much a campaign/setting book first and is not really an adventure, while Odyssey of the Dragonlords is a big super-adventure that has campaign elements to allow you as a DM to run the adventure of the book. I think Theros is a better book for a DM who doesn’t want his game to have a pre-ordained end point, whereas OotD is a really fun and inventive adventure that feels very much like it would have worked well as a CRPG ala Dragon Age or Pillars of Eternity.

Now, OotD would absolutely work as a campaign setting, and its cities and ‘gods’ definitely make me think I’d like to put the various islands of Thylea and the Forgotten Sea to the south of Theros, as a sort of expansion of Theros itself. The gods of Theros could even send a group of players to invade Thylea, or the Dragonlords of Thylea could be descendants of Therosian colonists who sought to overthrow the Titans, who could be extremely powerful Archons. I’d really love to try and make this work, it’s just a manner of sitting down and thinking about it all.

I like Theros better as a pure campaign setting, but I like OotD better overall, just because it’s a surprisingly well thought out super adventure. They’re both great.

Okay, and that’s the Queue. Remember to leave some questions for Mitch, and be good to each other while I’m undergoing my semi-monthly re-enactment of A Clockwork Orange with a slightly sharper twist.

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