Thursday, August 15, 2024

Ramp2024 Doom Map Reviews - Part I

r/DankDoomMemes - Profit time

If you don't know what RAMP 2024 is, go here and download it, then go here and download GZDoom, install Doom somewhere and get to playing. It's great.

Review Rubric


1/2 - 1 star. Bad, a waste of time, offensive in some way. Simply doesn't run at all. I don't expect a community-created pack like Ramp2024 to contain anything in this range.

1.5 - 2.5 stars - Good but with a gamestopping bug or mistake. "Basic" maps with no significant depth. "Decent" maps with a serious flaw. By the time you get to the top of this range you're talking about the "median .WAD I would download from a ftp site in 1997".  

3-4 stars - Solid maps, simple-but-polished maps, a good execution of an idea, feels good to play.  By the time you get to 4 stars you're talking about a really cool idea, a commercial-DooM-level experience, or a highly polished  experience.

4.5 - 5 stars - Superlative, great execution, a great idea that's explored well, great ambition, total conversions that hold up fully.

My own personal preferences only ever amounts to around 0-1 star in either direction, typically if it's too hard, if it's a slaughter map or a map of another "type" that I just don't care for, if there's music I don't like, etc.  I try not to let this affect my score too much but they're my ratings so they do, a bit.

Thursday, January 11, 2024

RPG Criminal Casebook - The "Liar" Definition

 We return now to the annals of the State Commission on Proper GMing, which as you all know interprets, creates and enforces the laws against GMs who commit serious crimes. My last post, which excerpted from the training materials on railroading, provoked quite a bit of good discussion, which is what it was meant to do.  Now, though, we turn to the messy business of caselaw and re-interpretation of a particularized definition of railroading adopted by and then re-interpreted by the State Commission.

Karl Llewelyn could never

Specifically, we now turn to talking about the definition of railroading adopted by the Commission in 20X6...