Xenovores *Possible Spoilers*

[starblaze]

Re: Xenovores *Possible Spoilers*

 

It means' date=' as a general rule, I'm one of the few people who enjoyed the film "Starship Troopers" and just about everyone else I know hates it. What my friend Jason calls the "Matrix Revolutions Syndrome;" it's proven my tastes don't mesh with most other people's. I liked Starship Troopers. I thought the 3rd Matrix film was genius, and that X3 was crap, and so on. Most flame wars begin because people take matters of opinion as matters of fact. I don't, it's just my opinion, and I present it as such.[/quote']

 

I took the movie Starship Troopers for what it was. A propaganda film done in the style of the old WWII films of the same type. It was very heroic, very violent, and had a very "hollwood war movie" with Caspar Van Dien being very John Wayne.

 

I realize that it wasn't at all like the novel but that doesn't make it bad in of itself.

 

Now as for Starship Troopers 2 that was real crap.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Xenovores *Possible Spoilers*

 

It means' date=' as a general rule, I'm one of the few people who enjoyed the film "Starship Troopers" and just about everyone else I know hates it. What my friend Jason calls the "Matrix Revolutions Syndrome;" it's proven my tastes don't mesh with most other people's. I liked Starship Troopers. I thought the 3rd Matrix film was genius, and that X3 was crap, and so on. Most flame wars begin because people take matters of opinion as matters of fact. I don't, it's just my opinion, and I present it as such.[/quote']

Hmm...my post was meant to mean that I took more offense at your implication that you had caused an offense in the previous post than by the previous post itself. I guess that sort of humor doesn't always come across well, and it's even less humorous when explained.

 

 

 

 

 

 

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Xenovores *Possible Spoilers*

 

It was the string of angry smiley faces that threw me off. Believe it or not, I thought you'd taken offense to me ... liking Starship Troopers, or heaven knows what. So I put on my best game face and said "Well, you can get offended, but really, it's just me liking a movie." No harm, no foul.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Xenovores *Possible Spoilers*

 

[Joining in late - sorry.]

 

My understanding of the origin story was that the creator race had bio-engineered themselves into the Xenovores. In other words, they didn't so much create a separate race as "improve" their own race over generations, even if the final result bore little or no resemblance to the original. I don't have the book handy, tho, so that could be completely out of my imagination.

 

Either way, I always thought it'd be more interesting if the Creator Race was still around and pulling the strings behind the scene. For one thing, the Vores as written don't seem to offer much in the way of roleplaying opportunities - they're pretty much there for the smackdown. But maybe Allen, et. al. felt that concept had been done to death and thought this would be more original. Still, that part is easily remedied as a GM.

 

The real weakness with AW, IMO, is the "breadth over depth" issue nolgroth pointed out. I particularly think giving away the ending was a mistake, `tho I understand why they may have felt they had to do so to preserve the Metaverse history. (Let's face it, in some ways AW is as much a background book for TE as it is a setting in its own right. Which is too bad, really, because I like AW better than TE!)

 

I would've much preferred to see a book built around "The Year is XXXX, the Xeno War has just started, grab your gun..." and go into enough detail about that time period that you can pretty-much run it straight out of the box. (Those of us who *want* to tinker with it, will do so anyway. ) Include detail on both the political and military sides of the story, so there are still many different types of stories you can tell. No answers in the back of the book (or at least very few). If the book sells, then you can put out supplements on the later stages of the war. Get us hooked, then dangle more cool stuff in front of us like the junkies we are.

 

Even without the promise of later books (I know SH has never been one of Hero's best-selling lines), I think one focused Story-In-Progress book would've been more likley to draw in readers in the first place. My thoughts, anyway. As others have said, I love AW so this really does border on nitpicking. But hey, isn't that what the `net is for?

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Xenovores *Possible Spoilers*

 

But that's why I joined this thread - to me it isn't a nitpick, it's a flaw. Nolgroth & I are in accord, and I'm picking up what you're laying down, BDH, since quite honestly, that's a large amount of my surprise. Not only was the war resolved inside of the first ten pages - there was almost no discussion of the war itself. What I wanted is the same thing you did.

 

A war in my freakin' copy of Alien Wars. And there wasn't one. Mind you, I got nervy when they were called Xenovores and I thought "Hmm... well I've already figured out their MO..." and honestly, it succeeds admirably as a setting book for the political background, but poorly (as I said to azato) for maintaining or creating the look & feel of a true 'war story,' and that's my beef with it.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Xenovores *Possible Spoilers*

 

But that's why I joined this thread - to me it isn't a nitpick' date=' it's a flaw.[/quote']

Oh, I agree. I meant nitpick as shorthand for "I love AW, but there are a couple of things that don't work for me." As opposed to "AW sucks!"

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Xenovores *Possible Spoilers*

 

Right, that's a lot of where I'm coming from. It wouldn't be too far off to say, "AW sucked for me & what I do & what I needed it to do." But the book itself is very good. Just not what I signed up for, to quote a separate thread title.