Fallout 3 EP27: Don’t Fear the Reaver

By Shamus Posted Monday Apr 1, 2013

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 69 comments


Link (YouTube)

We talked about running a tabletop game in this episode, which means I’ve paid the topic my annual lip service and can therefore go on calling this site “Twenty Sided” with a straight face. So that’s our obligation to tabletop coverage for this year. Tune in next year when, in a moment of distraction, I mention that I’m using my D&D 3.5 manual to prop up a crooked table leg.

 


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69 thoughts on “Fallout 3 EP27: Don’t Fear the Reaver

  1. krellen says:

    I whole-heartedly approve of the new background image, Shamus. Starting the month with a fresh look I see. This is now my favourite site on the internet.

    1. Vagrant says:

      Are you Commander Shepard?

    2. 4th Dimension says:

      Probably inspired by Shamus (he is after all most important person on the Internet), today (and I hope only for today) Warthunder (MMO flight sim) introduced, new playable faction. PONIES!
      http://forums.shamusyoung.com/viewtopic.php?p=743#p743

    3. Icec0ld says:

      I spent an hour cleaning my screen. Turns out you can see the images through the youtube embedded video. Weird effect

  2. Tony Kebell says:

    Background is massive improvement, good job!

    1. Tony Kebell says:

      Also, how many people om Twenty Sided are pro/anti/not-giving-a-shit-about: Ponies/Bronies/ETC.

      1. Duhad says:

        Is it hurting anyone? Is it subtly sexist/racist/homophobic? No? Then I am for people finding something that they enjoy and having fun with it.

        Plus its a funny April fools wallpaper.

        … Ah… so this is one of the sites that that picture appears on… um… *cough*… My point still stands.

        1. Is it hurting anyone? Is it subtly sexist/racist/homophobic?

          Thankfully, there’s no racism or sexism. MLP is content to discriminate against the physically handicapped.

          I know this is April Fool’s day and all, and people are just being silly. And I know Shamus’ didn’t have any mean intentions or anything, he didn’t know. Hahaha, good fun and all that.

          But seriously, to hell with My Little Pony.

          1. scowdich says:

            Perhaps it’s time for the MST3K mantra?

          2. Kavonde says:

            The whole Derpy thing was handled poorly, but it was a result of miscommunication, not malice. The VA charged with voicing her was (somehow) under the impression that the character was male, and tried to voice her as such. The result was that she sounded… well, mentally handicapped. Later versions of the episode redubbed Derpy’s voice (and removed mention of her name, since “Derpy” is also associated with mockery of intelligence or mental capabilities outside the fandom) and made it more evident that the character was intended to be innocent, clumsy, and comedic, not handicapped.

            Not everybody is part of the fandom. Adult fans involved in the community have created a personality and history for Derpy that’s heartwarming and funny and shows their genuine love and appreciation for the character, and have developed a whole “Where’s Waldo”-style game of finding her in the background of every episode, but casual viewers don’t know that. They only saw a character that inexplicably seemed to be mocking the mentally disabled. Of COURSE Hasbro changed the episode. What else could they reasonably have been expected to do?

            Removing Derpy from the entirety of Season 3 (until the finale) was probably unnecessary, I admit, but from personal experience I can promise you that angry geeks are significantly less scary than morally outraged parents of handicapped children who think you’re making fun of their kids.

            Besides, compare the whole Derpy debacle to the show’s presentation of Scootaloo. No mention has ever been made that the poor girl can’t fly, and based on peripheral evidence, a pegasus of her age should be able to. However, her apparent physical handicap has never been so much as brought up in the show; it isn’t a source of angst for her or pity from others, it’s just part of her character.

            Anyway. I like the background. I especially like that they included Derpy with the Mane Six. Glad she’s finally back in the show.

            1. I can promise you that angry geeks are significantly less scary than morally outraged parents of handicapped children who think you're making fun of their kids.

              And Hasbro should have been brave enough to say those people were wrong. There was nothing offensive about the character’s portrayal. Being scared of retribution from clueless parents is no excuse, especially since they’re not the dominant source of profit for this show anymore. That’s why I don’t think cowardice was a factor here. And I’ll agree that it probably wasn’t malice, either.

              I think it was apathy. I think the people who work on MLP just don’t care strongly enough about their own legacy to stand up for it. It wasn’t worth the trouble for them. I’ve learned, from both sides of the fence, that not every creator feels as strongly for their work as their fans do.

              Derpy Hooves was an interesting example, of how easy it is for the world to respond warmly to an accident. I just wish the people who made happy accidents saw them as more than meal-tickets. I find myself asking the same question, over and over, about modern shows, movies, books, songs and games: “Why didn’t the people who make this care? And if they don’t care, why should I?”

              If Hasbro doesn’t care about what they’re doing, why should anyone support them?

              1. Kavonde says:

                I disagree about Derpy’s portrayal not seeming offensive; even as a fan who loves the character, her original voice made me cringe a bit. An average person seeing that bit wouldn’t have assumed Derpy was a gentle, kind-hearted single mother who works at the local post office and loves muffins, they would have–and apparently did–see a slapstick portrayal of mental retardation.

                I also don’t think “changing something that could cause serious PR issues” is quite the same as “not giving a damn about a property.” I can’t speak for Hasbro, but the love the creators have for the show shines through constantly, from the little touches the animators add to each character to the quality of the writing and the voice acting. Getting outraged that the folks involved were cognizant of how their presentatiom of Derpy could look to outsiders seems silly; it’s condemning them for not living up to an unrealistic moral standard.

              2. Duhad says:

                Because what they do makes you happy?

                Sir Alec Guinness apparently did not really care that much about Starwars when he worked on the first film, but he is till one of my Favorite characters.

                The Who did not care much for Pinball Wizard, but that song still rocks.

                Besides, Amy Keating Rogers, who’s son IS handicapped and who wrote the episode, requested it to be changed after she was accused of slandering children like her own son with the character and name of Derpy.

                I don’t know about you, but if the writer of the episode asked me to change her own script for the sake of her mental well being and her disabled son, while I was being bombarded with hate mail from angry parents who threatened not only there MLP bands, but the brand of the Hub and Hasbro as organizations, the LAST thing I would do is tell her that “No, sorry, the internet wants her to stay the way she is.”

                I love Derpy and I am sorry she went out like that, but I can’t blame Hasbro or Rogers for what happened. All we CAN do hold up the torch, weather the storm, keep calm and flutter on.

                Why the **** am I talking about this on Twenty Sided? Man April is a wired month…

                1. Kavonde says:

                  Honestly, given the strictly-moderated tone of civility and intelligence this site’s renown for, I can think of few better places to discuss the perceived social injustices of a show about talking, magical equines.

        2. Jokerman says:

          I think its a good deterrent for any undesirables visiting the site. Its pretty “gaaaay” after all.

          1. Tse says:

            Not only anti-gay, it’s also distinctly western. It may have become common outside the US, but not in my country. I don’t get the fascination with MLP and I don’t think any of the people I personally know would get it either. It just looks girly and childish to me.

            1. Kavonde says:

              Well, it is. It’s also surprisingly well-written, with a strong, well-characterized cast of female protagonists, a unique and interesting fantasy setting, and a level of dedicated quality in the animation and voice acting that you don’t get in most cartoons.

              Plus, there’s at least some level of a counter-cultural “I reject your traditional definitions of manliness, and demonstrate my own by showing my comfort with something that appears, on the surface, to be extremely feminine” thing going on.

              1. krellen says:

                Pretty pink ponies make me smile. That’s all there is to it.

                1. Tony Kebell says:

                  +1 to this.

                  1. Kavonde says:

                    Well, okay, yes. The pretty ponies also make us smile.

                    1. Adam says:

                      I hate pink. Still love ponies!

                      It takes all kinds.

      2. Here’s what I think is the best (or most neutral) thing you can honestly say about the show if you’re not a fan of it but do like decent-to-good cartoon shows: My Little Pony is far better than it needs to be.

        It’s a description I’ve adopted ever since I saw an interview with Stephen Fry where he was asked about his love for the songs of ABBA. He admitted it’s complete bubblegum pop music and is similar to other acts that have come before, but the work that went into the songs made them better than they needed to be if all that was desired was some quick record sales and airplay.

        MLP could have been nothing but a half-hour toy commercial, but I think it’s safe to say that it’s somewhat more substantial than that. Good on those who made it, and I don’t fault anyone for enjoying it.

        On a side note, I wish the old Earthworm Jim cartoon had been given another season or two. You have to at least give an appreciative nod to a cartoon that uses the “I shall not fear, fear is the mind-killer” speech from Dune as a running gag.

        1. Duhad says:

          You have to at least give an appreciative nod to a cartoon that uses the “I shall not fear, fear is the mind-killer” speech from Dune as a running gag.

          Really? That’s amazing! I actually used that litany as a method controlling my phobia of the dark when I was a little kid.

          Yes, I am a total geek.

          1. It also had Dan “Homer Simpson” Castellaneta as Jim. Whoever wrote the scripts was a huge comic books & sci-fi geek with a hint of Monty Python.

          2. IFS says:

            Huh, I used that litany to help with my fear of heights, interesting to see someone else who used it.

        2. False Prophet says:

          Ah, Earthworm Jim. That was definitely a cartoon that was far better than it needed to be. I didn’t even know it was based on a video game until some time after I watched it. They didn’t make the video game connection explicit the way pretty much every other game-based cartoon did, they were content to let it rise or fall based on the characters and story.

          “Far better than it needed to be.” I’ll have to remember that line. Stephen Fry sure has a lot of great observations like that.

      3. HeroOfHyla says:

        I used to watch it, but then about half way through season 3 I started realizing that I just wasn’t interested anymore. Stopped watching completely a couple episodes before the finale.

        I’m not good at getting addicted to things; I just lose interest after a while. Happened with Final Fantasy XI and XIV and Adventure Time too.

        1. HeroOfHyla says:

          Whoops, used the wrong email address on that post so the avatar’s wrong.

      4. Irridium says:

        I’m in the “do not care” camp. Not the “show everyone how little I care by constantly talking about how little I care” faction, but the “don’t talk about it at all really because I really don’t care” faction.

        Like whatever you like, I don’t give a damn.

      5. Fleaman says:

        I’m a brony, everyone get back! Winter Wrap Up! 20% cooler! Warhammer 40k crossovers!

      6. Even says:

        I’m in the “don’t give a damn about show but hate the vocal part of the fandom that seem to think it’s their mission in life to spread the gospel of MLP” camp. They’re some of the worst kinds of fans a series can have.

        I’m also frankly just sick of hearing about the debate. The involved MLP fans should in general just grow a thicker skin and the people who hate the show should just stop caring so much about what others watch.

        1. Duhad says:

          Sounds good to me.

      7. Daemian Lucifer says:

        I dont care about ponies and bronies at all.I do however enjoy a nice joke about it here and there.And the pony background here was pretty.

  3. rrgg says:

    To be fair this last section was quite a bit of fun. About this point I’d decided to go ahead and use every single one of the stealth-boys I’d been hoarding throughout the game and found that there is an absolute ton of crazy shenanigans for you to do here: setting caged deathclaws loose on scientists, (mis)directing enemy artillery, hacking every single robot in the Enclave base into joining your side, etc.

  4. impassiveimperfect says:

    I wonder what portion of the comments this video will receive will be about the background image.

    (But yeah, funny :) )

    It’ll also probably look weird to anyone doing an archive binge, or something, and seeing this normal-looking page with half of its comments being ‘MLP lol’.

    And I meant to say this with the last video, but after about two years of frequenting this site, I only realized just a few days ago what the whole “Four comments. Fantastic.” was a play on.

    1. BeamSplashX says:

      Depending on how popular MLP remains, maybe they’ll think it means Major League Playing-of-games.

      1. “Mechanical Lighthouse Parfaits?

        Mighty Lantern Portraits?

        Wait, I got it! Miscellaneous Lynx P***!”

      2. Kavonde says:

        I dunno, I like to think that, some day, references like “The WORST! POSSIBLE! THING!” and “it needs to be at least 20% cooler” will be at least as universally recognized as “I do not think that means what you think that means.”

        Not likely, but hey.

        1. sofawall says:

          I think way too many people forget that The Princess Bride is not a huge hit. You have seen it. Your friends have seen it. People you talk to online have seen it. It seems popular to you. I can’t help but imagine that there is selection bias, however. If you just walked down the street quoting lines (or even being generous and just asking if people have seen it) I doubt you’d get anywhere close to one percent knowing it.

          I mean, among geek circles it’s well known and maybe you meant to qualify that statement, but I call them like I see them.

          1. Deoxy says:

            I don’t know about that – the Princess Bride was a cult hit, meaning that it’s incredibly well-known for people of a certain demographic and still VERY well known for all people of a certain age.

            The quotes from movies like that tend to be known better than the movies themselves – “Play it again, Sam”, for instance (even though that exact set of words isn’t in the movie, says the king of stupid trivia). I’m sure others can give some great examples of that.

            I’ve grabbed a few movies, now and then, to show my wife, just for the cultural factors, and her reaction to them is usually, “Eh, it was sort of… OK, I guess,” but in many of them, even if she doesn’t like the movie, she’ll have little “Oh, THAT’S where that came from!” moments (which is the whole reason I get them).

            Why yes, I did take Honors Film Appreciation in college, why do you ask? Funny thing is, I thought it was a better and more educational class than some of the required required classes… Yes, sadly, I’m being serious about that.

            1. Chamomile says:

              I haven’t seen the actual Stepford Wives movie or the Invasion of the Pod People, but I know what they’re about because it’s culture. A lot more people know “nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!” than have actually seen that sketch. So, yeah, that’s totally a thing that happens.

  5. Deoxy says:

    Hey, that’s about the level of d20 gaming I’ve done in the last… um, 8 years? Yeah, welcome to children followed by major spouse medical problems. Yay.

    In theory, I should have free time again (more than just “sometimes after the kids go to bed”) sometime about ten years from now. Yay some more.

    Oh, and yes, I must agree that, at least for today, that’s an awesome background. If it’s still there tomorrow……..

  6. Lord ZYRK says:

    Just imagine how curious those going through the archives will be about all of the comments about this flipping sweet background that they won’t ever get to see.

  7. Dev Null says:

    I used my dice the other day! (I know; surprised me too.) And in a room full of people mostly younger than the dice are, which made me look like a _laughing_ old guy. And since I read this blog and touched dice, I hereby grant you the seal of Official Roleplay-Geekiness for another year.

    Elegant weapons for a more civilized age, indeed.

    1. Adam says:

      When I, too am old, I want to hand a set of dice down to my children with that exact speech. “Not as clumsy or random as an MMO PUG.”

  8. BeamSplashX says:

    BREAKING TABLETOP NEWS: Shamus probably saw a character sheet or something. Maybe recently. I dunno.

  9. kenup says:

    But Shamus, if they crashed the train it would mean they allowed you to derail from their vision!

    And I’m guessing you guys are going to roll a pony character in the next DnD game?

    1. scowdich says:

      Why a D&D game? There are whole pony systems now. In the same vein, there’s Friendship is Dragons, a DM of the Rimgs-style take on the new My Little Pony TV series. It’s quite well done actually.

  10. GM says:

    the background is better than what was before as i can´t remember what the background was before.

    And Mlp faces look nice.

  11. River Birch says:

    Thank you for making my day Shamus with the wallpaper, all that’d be better is finding the actual link and making that my background for my comp.

    On topic however, I remember Reavers, they were the scariest pieces of insanity I encountered, ever.

    1. SKD says:

      If using Firefox, Right-Click the background and select “View Background Image”
      Or ask Shamus to post a link since it changed between me loading the page and posting a reply to your comment

      http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic/images/33233052/title/mlp-photo

    2. supflidowg says:

      On my second playthrough of point lookout I stumbled into a group of five reavers and was promptly ripped to pieces. In fallout 3 the only thing scarier to me than a group of reavers is a Feral Deathclaw Reaver…with a Giant Radscorpion tail.

  12. Spammy says:

    Can I put on my hipster hat and glasses and say that I remember when this site used to be about D&D jokes and terrain engines and hating on Steam and talking about anime?

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Anime?Whats that?Isnt that the weird japanese porn cartoons?

  13. Van Tuber says:

    Man, this thread is going to make no sense to people from the future.

    1. To be honest, that could be just about any thread on any subject in about a decade.

  14. Paul Spooner says:

    I’m kind of sad no one reacted to Rutskarn’s excellent pair of Firefly references.

    The whole discussion of “life of an engineer” is dangerously close to real life engineering practice. Work on a project for much longer than it is in service, and then get stabbed in the back.

    1. Klay F. says:

      That and also the people doing the stabbing are more often than not other engineers. And if they aren’t stabbing you in the back, they are blowing you up with their own project designed specifically to destroy YOUR project.

      Queue jokes about civil engineers only being good for making targets for other engineers to destroy.

  15. I can’t wait until we get to the Bioshock season. Infinite is new enough that it should be fun to look at the differences.

    Also does anyone else vote for Bioshock Infinite as the next game for spoiler warning.

    1. Gruhunchously says:

      I’m kind of hoping that it’ll be the new Tomb Raider, personally. But Bioshock Infinite is a good choice too, and probably better suited to Spoiler Warning.

      1. I admit, the only reason I’m saying Bioshock Infinite is that I beat the game not that long ago and am still somewhat in love with it. Tomb Raider would be nice though because we know that a good portion of the crew has both played and liked it. Plus they obviously have things to say about it judging by the podcast.

  16. Daemian Lucifer says:

    After 200 years the subway is at 22% energy?Wow,those batteries.I want some for my house.

    1. sofawall says:

      I don’t think it’s batteries they’re talking about. I think it means that 22% of the metro systems are functioning as intended, or that the combined functionality of all systems is at 22% of optimal combined functionality.

      1. Even says:

        It’s still a small miracle anything is running after 200 years without any maintenance. The setting takes a lot for granted.

  17. Daemian Lucifer says:

    So,when will you guys play I wanna be the guy?

  18. ChoppazAndDakka says:

    Some time ago, the Spoony One had a few episodes of “Pathfinder Live”, where he DMed a game and posted it online. Perhaps Spoiler Warning could do something similar sometime. As someone rather new to tabletop gaming I know I would enjoy seeing how you guys run a game, and I am pretty sure viewers would have fun with it. It would also allow you to continue calling the site “Twenty Sided” with a straight face.

    1. anaphysik says:

      Rutskarn actually does way more tabletopping than any of the others. Catch the Auntie Paladin streaming thing that he does every year.

    2. Paul Spooner says:

      Oh man! That would be great. Turn the TwentySided podcast into an RP podcast. Forget computer games!

    3. Rutskarn says:

      I have actually recommended the four of us play FATE Fallout, but I think that’s probably unlikely to happen soon.

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