Is Mirgalen Just a Troll or Something?

[Legacy_MagicalMaster]

               Seems to be leaving REALLY crazy comments on the IGN vault.

Rated first module in Aielund a 2.50 (here).

Rated first Swordflight module a 4.75 (here).

Left a rather...odd...comments about alignment in Siege of the Heavens as well (here).

I'm sure there's more as well.  Presumably he's different from the "Beer Baron" guy or whatever who keeps spamming the IGN vault  but...what's the deal with this guy?  Is he a regular troll I've been missing?  The thing that prompted this post is the Aielund comment and vote of 2.50...I mean, really?  Something's not right here.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par MagicalMaster, 31 janvier 2014 - 08:11 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_rogueknight333]

                Note: your first link, allegedly to Aielund, does not actually link there.

I have seen a number of rather peculiar votes left by Mirgalen on a variety of modules, but I do not think he is a troll, just somewhat eccentric. One thing to note about him is that he apparently completely ignores voting inflation, so that, for him, a vote of 5 would be appropriate for an average module, and a 7.5 would represent an unusually good module, even though most NWN voters would never give such low votes to anything they did not really hate. If he has any serious issue with a module it will most likely get a vote below 5. If you ignore his numerical ratings completely and focus only on his comments (which, come to think of it, given the inflationary insanity, might be good advice for other voters as well) he appears relatively much more reasonable. In the case of Swordflight, for example, he criticized it for being very hard and stingy about handing out rewards, both claims that, so far as they go, are perfectly true. I consider each of those things a plus rather than a minus, but tastes in such matters differ. In the case of Siege of the Heavens, he said that playing an evil character is not an ideal RP fit for that module, which is also true, if something that should also have been obvious from the documentation before he even started playing. Nor does he downvote everything, see for example (might have to scroll down just a bit to find it) his vote on Madness and Magic (a module I have yet to play, but one where his vote is substantially in agreement with the consensus of those who have), or on The Sunless Citadel (so far as I know his only 10, on a module which personally I found to be thoroughly mediocre, but if others enjoy it more, great). All that said, it is certainly true that his reasons for criticizing modules (or praising them for that matter) are often weirdly idiosyncratic. Among other issues, he seems to find needing to reload very immersion-breaking and thus if a module is hard enough to require frequent (or possibly any) reloads, he tends to be excessively critical of it.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MagicalMaster]

               

rogueknight333 wrote...

 Note: your first link, allegedly to Aielund, does not actually link there.

Whoops, fixed.

rogueknight333 wrote...

One thing to note about him is that he apparently completely ignores voting inflation, so that, for him, a vote of 5 would be appropriate for an average module, and a 7.5 would represent an unusually good module, even though most NWN voters would never give such low votes to anything they did not really hate.

If anything that's voting deflation, though -- if we go by the grading system used in schools then a 7.5 would represent an average module (a "C" grade) while a 5 would be a bad module (an "F").

When people talk about grade inflation in schools it's because they think the average grade is in the 9.0s instead of about 7.5 -- not because the average grade isn't 5.0.

I get your general point, but there's a difference between rating a module you thought was decent but not amazing a 7-8 (as opposed to a 9.25, the horror!) and rating it a 4-5.

rogueknight333 wrote...

If you ignore his numerical ratings completely and focus only on his comments (which, come to think of it, given the inflationary insanity, might be good advice for other voters as well) he appears relatively much more reasonable.

Not if you look at the Aielund page, where he claims you need to be a full plate wearer to survive in a module that gives you two melee henchmen to start out with!  And then calls them useless despite them being vastly superior in AI and available tactics compared to 90% of mods I've seen.

The Swordflight thing seemed odd, the Siege thing was "Well, whatever," but the Aielund thing made me think "WTF, mate?"

Meh.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               Quite frankly he is a bit weird. He apparently has no sense of humour, ignores any other reviews and the stated intent of what the module creator is trying to achieve. As an example have a look at what he wrote about my module "Hrothgar's Resting Place", my rebuttal and the rest of the comments on that page. Oh and once he has commented on a module he apparently does not go back to answer any criticisms of his "reviews" either. SO while I think that troll is too strong a term for him, I also think eccentric is unduly lenient.

TR 
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Tarot Redhand, 31 janvier 2014 - 12:04 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_MagicalMaster]

               Good news, Tarot!  Your score for Hrothgar just jumped up by 0.4!

And yes, he just leaves crazy comments and never answers responses -- nor does he ever consider asking for help if something is too difficult for him (even if something is not all that difficult!), he just downrates it.

I suppose I should be grateful that the alignment "issue" meant he didn't even vote on Siege because he'd probably give it a 1 or something.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               I'm glad I saw this thread - would have missed a good module. I'm playing Tarot's module now.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               Dang I wish he had commented on the new vault - I could have gotten more kama points (). Thanks guys for playing Hrothgar.

<edit>

Could I request you leave an honest comment on the vault when you have played it through as I value all feedback.

TR
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Tarot Redhand, 01 février 2014 - 01:58 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy__Guile]

               

Tarot Redhand wrote...

Dang I wish he had commented on the new vault - I could have gotten more kama points (). Thanks guys for playing Hrothgar.

<edit>

Could I request you leave an honest comment on the vault when you have played it through as I value all feedback.

TR

Heh, at least you even get feedback, whooosh...  (Don't make me go there)
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Mirgalen]

               I am not going to answer that but I think rogueknight333 already did that for me.

Am I a troll? In a way yes. A long time ago I played a very weak old pyromancer who despite his powers could possibly die from a simple cold. He was an AD&D character wandering somewhere between White Plum Mountain and the lairs of giants with a band of merry folks. At the time, the only way he managed to keep up with the others he capture a troll and used a spell called magic jar to borrow his body. The rest is history...

Why am I telling this? Simply to show that I am an old school hardcore roleplayer. I did not play with Gygax but at least one of my friend did. I was a DM before being a player because where I was located, nobody had a clue what a RPG/DnD was. I am/was also a chess champion and a wargamer. Some of you may not know it but Tactical Studies Rules TSR sounds more like a wargame company name than a RPG company name. Chainmail, the ancestor of DnD was in fact a wargame where single element called hero could join the battle. It should be clear why early modules were nothing but H&S. But then came other authors like Tracy & Laura Hickman who gave us more. We soon discovered that a module could have no combat, it could be an investigation, defeating some political plot...
DnD/AD&D were far from perfect, but in that specific genre sometimes called heroic fantasy they were the best. They were lessons to be learned from the game and applied in real life like I did, things like life is unfair deal with it, patience is a virtue, be bold and live your dreams, one should learn to take calculated risks...
When asked what the game was about and how to win my answer was and is still:
1. Your first objective is to stay alive (but in some rare case you may have to die to save others)
2. Roleplay your character, you can be anyone, hero or villain, it's free, it's a fun experience
3. Grow old/rich/powerful but only the best will make a name for themselves (e.g. I played Mirgalen for a decade in various AD&D campaign. He made it to ranger lvl 14 and died once killed by a spectre to allow his friends to escape). Most characters never made it to level 3, in fact most never survived their first dungeon.
One thing I would add to that because it has been removed form the game is that power must be earned not given or purchased. It means no free xp/lvl, no magic items purchase (as specified in the DMG). Would you be happy to find a ring +1 on a dead bandit when you just purchased a ring +3 at a nearby store? Now what if you just found the only ring of invisibility available within miles?
Note: Death is permanent obviously but raise dead and other means of revival may apply.  

As a DM, I often created challenging encounters but always ensured that they were balanced (meaning doable without have to use raise dead except for boss fights) or ensure that there was a way to avoid the encounter and/or retreat.

Last but not least, because I play the way I play, I look for modules that would fit my current character (e.g. class, alignment, settings, geography...) almost never the way around except when I play a weekly campaign (MP). I tend to play (in no order) Bards, Druids, Shifters, Monks, Paladins and Fighter/Rogues.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               

Mirgalen, after reading your brief bio above, I couldn't help but feel you'd just described half the people that have played D&D from the beginning. I've been playing for nearly 35 years, having started out with the original books from 1974, which my mother bought at a yard sale thinking they were novels. I quickly moved on to the Basic Set (Red Box) and then into AD&D. I've had my fare share of adventures and characters too, my personal favorite being my dwarf fighter that whenever things were at their most dire would roll a "1" without fail. It didn't matter if it was a hit roll, saving throw, or some other roll, that "1" always came up. I'll never forget when the party, having been granted one wish by a djinni asked the DM if it was possible for them to wish that poor Korrum (my dwarf) could forever more roll 2d10 instead of 1d20. The DM laughed so hard he blew Mountain Dew out of his nose.

 

Thanks for reminding me of simpler times.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Elhanan]

               

@ Pstmarie - Awesome PnP story! Thanks for the morning smiles!

 

I am also an Ancient D&D fan, and have been playing since '75. I have a set of those original books, and remained active as a Player and DM until aging and 4E spoiled it for me. And the ongoing NWN campaign that I was allowed to play for 5 years in this century are among the best memories of my gaming life.

 

Back to the subject at hand; have no idea what could have been considered so critical to rate Aielund so low. But I am fairly certain that I did not, so perhaps those low scores will be brushed aside Olympic style to allow for more mainstream reviews.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_T0r0]

               

Same here. I vaguely remember having to fill in the imprints on the plastic dice themselves with crayon.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Elhanan]

               

heh! When I started, there were only d6's accumulated from various other games. One of my brainier Players crafted a probability chart for me that I believe is still around somewhere.

 

Telling folks that I started before polyhedral die is now somewhat a badge of honor!

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_T0r0]

               

ahhh  the infamous crit and fumble chart,,  Now that brings back memories.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Elhanan]

               

Not exactly. He crafted a chart that allowed me as DM to choose how many d6's to roll to cover a desired range of probabilities. I still used 5% low and high for Fumbles and Crits, but this made living in a time without polyhedral die a little more manageable.

 

And when AD&D and real die arrived on the scene, my DM chose black die with blood red pips as his Official die for Death ST's. Great games!