"We don't like playing Bard so we didn't test them" had me like 😮😠

Don't feel bad about the reviews, the Circle of Eight mod makes the game incredibly good.

@CainOnGames

Жыл бұрын

Yes, those mods are very good!

@Arkandos42

8 ай бұрын

Don't forget Temple+, that mod is still developing and adds so many modern features

"Ron Pearlman can read a phonebook and it'll be good" 😂😂😂

Don't be reluctant about posting negative videos, they're all fascinating! It's so frustrating after all that work put in to Temple there wasn't another D&D game made with that engine; it could have been the basis for a bunch of modules using lessons learned previously.

@robertpeyton9535

Жыл бұрын

Agree completely. It's still a beautiful game and the best implementation of 3.5 combat ever made. I would love to see another game made with that engine; Co8's version of Keep on the Borderlands is fine, but clearly a fan-project.

@radiance9657

Жыл бұрын

Faaacts! Temple has the best implementation of D&D on a video game to date!

@helgenlane

Жыл бұрын

@@robertpeyton9535 Pathfinder: Kingmaker is also a very good implementation of 3.5 combat

@perryborn2777

2 ай бұрын

​@@helgenlaneEeeeeeh It's a decent implementation of Pathfinder 1e combat, but there's no cover, no facing, and nearly every battle is a flat plane. I like Kingmaker, it was fun up until the end when it becomes total bullshit, but it has nearly mindless combat that does not reflect a thoughtful tabletop experience

I have never been so enthralled by a kidney stone story.

@zerpblerd5966

Жыл бұрын

where are the inserted pictures?!

@Esquarious

4 ай бұрын

Who says Tim isn't a writer? I feel like with a little work shopping that whole story could turn into an extended metaphor for ToEE. Kidney stone/project as child, birthing pains, the rejection by employees of both bard and stone....

@Cloontange

13 күн бұрын

As someone who also had to suffer from a kidney stone for 4 months I really sympathize with him

I had a kidney stone that passed in a single evening and it was some of the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my life. Four months is absolutely insane.

For what it's worth, Temple of Elemental Evil is my favorite D&D based CRPG of all time. Thank you for the work you did on it.

That kidney stone should have been immortalised in some kind of a CRPG museum.

Don't be too harsh on yourself for Temple. When I played it as a kid I LOVED it. Maybe if I replayed it today, I would see the flaws, but there are none in my memory. So thank you for that. As a bonus note, Temple was my first D&D experience, so when I played normal D&D later in life I was surprised that party alignment is not a default feature. Because it is a brilliant idea.

@robertpeyton9535

Жыл бұрын

You should play it again, but with the Circle of Eight mod/fix. It restores a lot of the content that was cut (including the brothel) and adds a ton of content.

FOUR MONTHS

@CainOnGames

Жыл бұрын

Four VERY LONG months.

@lordsmellvin1151

Жыл бұрын

I literally cannot believe that, I am wincing for you

@cburger4life144

9 ай бұрын

It’s now been FOUR MONTHS since this was posted. That’s a long damn time for a kidney stone.

Been playing and running D&D games since I was a kid in the mid 90's. I first played Fallout when I was 13 and I've played every released game that your name was attached to. I have never met Gygax, but I assure you you've done him proud!!

I love ToEE. I know it's not perfect, but it is a fantastic representation of 3.5. IMO it's still worth playing today.

For what it’s worth quest design for the village of Hommlet was excellent. I really enjoyed how each quest was intertwined and even the simplest tasks expanded upon the lore piece by piece.

Just have to say that I'm playing this now in 2023 with the Co8 mods and absolutely loving it. I'm so thankful that Temple was made. If you hadn't chosen that module then there's a good chance no one would have.

As much as I like your insights about fallout and vtmb, this is hands down the best story you had yet. Please, keep them coming.

You do not give yourself enough credit. TOEE is an all time great game. Played through it several times as have my brother and best friend. We talk about it all the time. I'll still go back to it. Great game. You did a fine job.

FWIW Temple is still hands down my favorite D&D computer game. Whatever its issues, it does something no other game has. It captures the feel of those early Gygax Greyhawk modules that I grew up with. And it meets the only important criteria for any game. It's fun to play.

RPG players will always owe you for Fallout. It was the first real RPG with modern character creation and multiple choice dialogues I played, and one of my best personal experiences in 30+ years of videogames. I also read you had a hand in Vampire Bloodlines, IMHO another RPG legendary masterpiece. It's easy to see you've passion and talent, man. We will never thank you enough for what you have done.

Hi Tim! I met you at Gaymer X in Sydney a few years ago. You played a game I was working on back then, a top down cthulu-inspired twinstick shooter. You had fun and I remember you warned me before you played that you were colorblind and asked if there were any color based gameplay elements. Sadly that game ended up getting cancelled, but it was great meeting you and it’s great hearing all this behind the scenes secrets. All the best!

@CainOnGames

Жыл бұрын

Was that in 2016 in the technology center near Sydney's CBD? I think I remember playing that game!

@kanontakigawa9995

Жыл бұрын

@@CainOnGames It was indeed! I didn’t actually know who you were until you finished playing and I glanced at your name tag haha.

@CainOnGames

Жыл бұрын

That's ok. It took me thirty years to know who I was.

ToEE was the one title from Troika that never clicked with me. I love the game design. I really really tried to like it. However, it wasn't the bugs or the dialogue that keeps me away. I really just hate 3e D&D. "It's not for me." There is just too much in terms of details and modifiers. I don't like the idea of multiclassing and especially not the I'm a Fighter 3/Druid 4/Cleric 6 style of 3e and especially not the "Why would you take more than 4 levels of fighter, LOL" attitude of many people twenty years ago. I really loved the concept of party alignment in that game. I think the aesthetic style is also really appealing, like you said. I really enjoy these videos and, WOW, you put them out really quickly. I've just been watching them non-stop. It's fun.

This was a fascinating talk. But TOEE is one of my favorite game, from one of my most beloved studio.

damn, even back then WotC were crummy... props on being able to deliver as much as you could with all those last minute back and forths! not to mention the kidney stone!

I wish I'd have something profound to say, but I'm temporarily off my ADHD meds to restore my tolerance after giving up smoking, so... I can relate. Being either on or off meds can be difficult to navigate. Don't sweat it. Sometimes we put our blood sweat and tears into something that turns out to be a stinker, but there are people that love this game. And even if it "could be better", I admire people that can get themselves organized enough to ship something. That's already amazing, compared to many other projects that never get off the ground or die on the vine. Be proud of yourself for creating something of value during difficult times. :) Thanks for telling us those stories. They are very inspiring and insightful. Cheers!

I think you are a great writer tbh. Intro to Fallout is iconic for its content, not just Ron's delivery.

@lonneansekishoku8288

10 ай бұрын

Yeah. I think so too. Not every story will be a hit. Fallout was chef's kiss.

I remember ToEE very fondly, and I was impressed at the direct translation of 3.5 into a video game because until then all I knew was the 'real time with pause' of the infinity engine games. These days I look back on ToEE and I'm really quite thankful of the precedent it set because I think the spirit of it went on to inform Owlcat's Pathfinder games.

I got Temple today after learning it was your project from your other videos! 3.5e is my favorite edition of dnd, so learning there was a turn-based crpg using its system was awesome! I haven't gotten to do much with it yet besides make my party and install the unofficial patches, but I am certainly looking forward to it! I did get to Homlett though! I immediately won a drinking contest, then got caught trying to pickpocket the black-out drunk patrons! Great first experience

Hi Tim, loved ToEE. I was so psyched about a Greyhawk module being made into a game. (Although I'd choose my favorite, Lost Caverns of Tsjocanth lol) TOEE was fun, I enjoyed it. I didn't find the dialog distracting or terrible. Side note, I have had kidney stones in the past as well. The last one I was admitted into the hospital on Friday, and had to wait for the only urologist in town to enjoy his weekend so he could play golf. He finally got to me late Monday, they put me on a metal table and blasted them....no matter how much pain medicine they gave me I was still in pain. So much pain, I would throw up at times. Side note: I worked for the railroad, a few years ago, 2017 and they ran over me while I was at work, without warning. I lost my left leg, the incident was the worst pain in my life of course. However when I first got the pain meds on my way being carried to the ambulance, It was 10x better then kidney stone pain lol.

Thank you Tim for talking about TOEE production! The lighting in Temple, from morning to dusk to night, was just gorgeous. Just one element among many that I loved about TOEE. I remember taking many composed screenshots at different hours in the game, and especially at night time by Jaroo Ashstaff's abode.

"I was also pretty zooted on painkillers" is not part of the explanation for ToEE I expected, but it is pretty funny. Glad you survived that ordeal.

Loved this fireside chat. I like all the background stories both good and bad. Really puts things in perspective.

I do really appreciate your insight as a creative mind and the importance of learning from your failures. Thanks for sharing Tim!

The vignette was a good idea and is a great way to set TT style context in crpgs. Dragon Age Orgins also did this well, as well as Larian Origin chars and I expect to see this more and even more differentiated in the design of crpgs in the future to set players in context similar to how dms incorporate player backgrounds in campaigns.

I’m a big fan of TOEE. It is one of the games that I played through several different times and revisited it across decades. I still think many of the design choices were great and you managed to really capture the “fun”. I do use the co8 patches, but the core is what makes it all work. I would have bought and played any other D&D modules built on that engine. Thanks for bringing that to us.

First of all, I´m so happy to see these videos and channel Tim, I really loved your work and past interviews, and for me, Temple of Elemental Evil is still of my favorite rpgs, with lots of things that make it special and different. And please, don´t worry about showing a more negative side of game development or life experiences. Thank you, for real.

I want you to know that when I've played Temple my only experience with D&D in videogame format was Neverwinter Nights. And I loved Temple because its combat felt like D&D combat. And Temple had amazing visuals. However I don't remember even a single NPC character, not a single quest apart from the main one which I think I resolved by stealing some artifact inside of a temaple and sealing the evil for the next X years.

Hi Tim, really cool that you talk so openly about the process and where it went wrong. Respect

I played ToEE a few years after it came out and I loved it. To this day i think it is the game i played that most approached what pen and paper rpg feels like for dnd in a good way. The only thing negative i can say about it is that the adaptation felt a bit too faithful somwtimes, like you had the skill informatjon gatherign, the only game i ever saw it on. But that feels more odd than a flaw. I really loved the game back then and never understood why it was not generally acclaimed. I dont even remember bugs or anything like it. Thanks for your channel Tim. Great stories and insights. Troika was awesome and I love the old Fallout so much, it was such a gem. I never comment but I had to. Kuddos and I wish you the best.

Hi Tim - Great videos! I’ve finally found someone else who understands - I had my first kidney stone at 19 and still get them occasionally over 30 yrs later! We could trade stories, I have a horror experience from ‘98 I won’t share on here!😆😅 Anyway, thank you for sharing your stories of development. I ❤ Temple even more after hearing behind-the-scenes of its development! I wanted to add that I ❤ Arcanum and wish we could’ve seen 2 as it’s one of my favourite games of all time!🥰 (Hope you’ve been managing to keep your stones under control through the years! I know your pain😫!!✌️

Tim, I just want to say, in the hopes that you might read this: I love this game. It might be--just might...be the only truly great classic D&D video game. I realize this is a controversial statement, but a few years ago, when my old group disintegrated and I was looking for a way to scratch that authentic d&d itch, Temple was the only thing that could do it. I tried Neverwinter, Oblivion, everything else that was around, both past and present (circa 2013). And as you know there are like literally at least 800 good computer RPGs that have been made, even then. Temple is the only one that came sufficiently close--for ME--to capturing what real, classical, First edition, Second Edition--ish, D&D truly felt like. Bugs or not. And I mean, Hommlet! Thank you for being you.

It seems like you speak with sadness about Temple. It sounds like a very tough time for you. If it makes you feel any better, I think it really is a beautiful game like you said, and a better game than some of the other tabletop-to-pc RPGs floating around these days. :)

@comfylain

Жыл бұрын

P.S, I live in perpetual fear of kidney stones. So scary!

Been playing your games since Fallout. Love you, man.

These videos have been great!

This videos are straight fire. I could listen to you talk about this stuff all day. In fact... Drawing a red line through my schedule right now...

Absolutely fascinating insight into game dev highs and lows!! Thank you so much for sharing, I hope this was cathartic for you too!

Hah, well, plenty of people seem to like it, despite the flaws you stated. One thing I've noticed about the games in the RPG space, from FO1 to Bethesda's FO and everything in between, and after, the fans end up making mods, unofficial patches, re-balanced for whatever reason, item add-ons/changes/removals. It's a testament to the games actually being _fun_. Not to mention people love the ability to do those sorts of things, and share them. Tell you the truth, watching your video series has inspired me to install the first two FO games. Lo and behold, ok FO1 unofficial patch was a while ago, 2016, but FO2 unofficial patches and mods are from this year or last year, I really hadn't expected that, figured they'd all be much older than 2016. Again, a testament to the games being fundamentally great, and allowing the community to more or less easily modify your game, welp, people love the games, will are still playing your games 20-25 years after they were released. THAT is an accomplishment. I have a stack of 'crack baggies' with kidney stones in them. I'd name the bad ones. Photos, yep. Most people don't want to see them either. Drink lots of water, do not get dehydrated. 4 months, that's an abnormally long time, wow, my longest stretch was a couple weeks, but usually a week or so. I accepted the pain killers when the CT tech said "Good news and bad news, you'll probably pass this 8mm stone, but you have 15 more to go." oof.

I have always love this game because I can see the potential of what you all put a ton of work into accomplishing. My only regret is the mods that "fix it" still have issues. Honestly I dream of a day when this get remade and released as the creators envisioned. But in a world of profit over quality the baldur's gate 3 type games are rare. That. Being said thank you Tim for making my childhood memorable with games like this and fallout.

I loved TOEE. I had multiple playthroughs. I always wanted to try mods but never did. Just hearing you talk about it makes me want to try another run. Thank you for this channel and your insight!

Thanks for the explanation, Tim! Temple is my favorite dnd video game and even though it's far from perfect, I just love the look of it, its ambient feel, and the combat system. ♥

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed it. And the soundtrack was one of the best I've ever heard in a game. You just had to add a bunch of patches, and viola!

Ah, ToEE! This was one of the few games in my life that I bought at launch. I was in two tabletop D&D campaigns at the time, and was loving 3rd Edition (and 3.5 edition even more). I was consuming everything D&D, so ToEE was the perfect product for me, and I was the perfect target audience. I got it home (I still have the box), and even the stuff in the box looked great! I installed it, and... It didn't run. This started my epic quest combing through patches and message boards, patching, re-installing, re-patching, all while the bugs were being smooshed in real time on-line. I can't remember now how many hours or how many days it took, but I never felt more like a genius computer person than I did when I FINALLY got ToEE to run on my PC. I may have even jumped out of my chair and pumped my fist in the air, like I had just won the Super Bowl MVP or something. I enjoyed the game very much, and I would have loved nothing more than to have been in the trenches with you and your crew making this game. Thank you for it, and for this video! (Oh, I hope that you named your kidney stone 'Lil' Gygax')

I got TTOEE right when I started exploring PC video games outside of highly polished normie stuff. That's when I learned that games can be BUGGY for the first time. I still remember being confused by enemies inside walls and being unable to loot corpses. And I had no internet to look up stuff or download any patches. Man, good times. Although, the game definitely looked absolutely magical. Anyway, thanks for the fascinating story!

Anazing game btw and Co8 really helped it shine.

Love the videos you're making, Tim. In keeping with the topic of D&D, I was wondering if you had a hand in the development of Planescape Torment? Is Temple your first foray in making a D&D CRPG?

@CainOnGames

Жыл бұрын

Yes, Temple is my first and only D&D game. When Interplay got the D&D license, I was just starting work on an engine that would become Fallout.

What's weird to me is, I must have been in an information bubble growing up, I loved ToEE almost as much as I loved Arcanum, I had *no idea* the struggles or malarkey your team went through. Damn good lesson, though: Never Split The Party!

Ok, did you really just say, "Pal-addin", Tim?

@CainOnGames

Жыл бұрын

I learned D&D when I was 14. I had no idea of how to say names. I pronounced lich as "lick", and you don't even want to hear me say ixitxachitl.

ToEE was an interesting game i wouldnt call my favorite for a few reasons but the standout thing about it was the music. The synth tunes really gave it that otherworldy quality

I am sorry for the pain you had, and I apologize, but the kidney stone story cracked me up :D!

QA testers: Yah we don't LIKE that part, so we're not gonna TEST it... That is your LITERAL JOB! I do QA, freelance sort of thing via DAQA. I don't get to choose what I test or don't test, I follow the guidelines laid out by whoever is telling us what we need to do.

ToEE is a fantastic game - a truly authentic D&D experience.

I actually really liked the game even before I found mods to fix some of the issues. The music in particular kind of stands out relative to other fantasy RPG music.

As a 3rd Edition fan, I'd rather pass a kidney stone than play Temple again. GREAT VIDEO!

Tim, привет. Главное будь здоров! Игры это замечательно, но здоровье важнее. Может в будущем расскажешь о Nuka Cola и о том как пришла идея создать такой аналог? И о том как пришла идея сделать бутылочные крышки валютой) спасибо.

@CainOnGames

Жыл бұрын

Спасибо. И я внесу эти темы в свой список!

@dmitriysergienko

Жыл бұрын

@@CainOnGames большое спасибо)

I loved the group alignment starts. It was one of the things i loved the most about the game. If they were an hour long or so, it would have been incredible.

Managed to beat the game with the two orcs Pitak and Tuelk in team without them betraying me. And in the big hall near the end (where there were a shit ton of enemies) some enemy mages casted AOE and injured some other enemies and they started to fight each other... It was a fun experience.

@significantone

9 ай бұрын

I associate that part of the game with my favourite bug. At one point in that big hall, a major God joins the battle against you and you need to stay alive for a specific time period, after which your own God should show up and join you against the others. However, in my case, my God joined the other God to attack me. So, that was fun too.

Tim, "war never changes..." was really greatly written. Because it works on every language. So brilliance of voice actor is definately secondary in that case.

I need to play the uncut version with the brothel, expanded town, and vulnerable children. I remember how offended I was when news circulated that children were to be made unkillable in TOEE. Removing them was the right move under the circumstances, and a good way to protest the stupidity. What kind of company takes *away* player choice and agency in an RPG? Way to break immersion! That goes completely against my game design philosophy.

More amazing content. Love it.

I remember playing TOEE. I really wanted to like it but I struggled too much with it. I've wanted to revisit the game now. Anyways, I kept getting my ass kicked in fights. Finally, one time I got into the temple, a character fell down a few levels, stumbled into a room with a chair. I interacted with the chair and the game ended. I had no clue what happened or was happening, but I beat the game.

For what its worth, this is one of my favorite games of all time. In fact, my earliest memory on this planet was playing this game with my dad. He called it "Good Guys and Bad Guys" because I was too little to understand what it was actually called lol.

You made me want to play Temple now (never played it before)!

The Temple of Elemental Evil was the first CRPG I ever played - I was too young at the time to really have a good idea what I was doing or even what flaws there were to spot, having no basis for comparison, but I still have fond memories of it.

TIL I have something in common with Tim Cain, apart from being an RPG fan and game designer: 7mm kidney stones, baby! Your anecdotes are amusingly similar to mine: seemingly all men with kidney stones have met a woman who compares childbirth favorably to stones, and apparently I’m not the only one who had the perverse desire to keep the damn thing after all the suffering it caused. :p

I have 1 very important question. In regards to Arcanum Whose Banana bread recipe was that?

@CainOnGames

Жыл бұрын

That’s my mother’s recipe.

@backlogpanic7967

3 ай бұрын

Oh right, the recepies! I also remember that Fallout 2 had one in the manual for a Oven-Pancake. Was this a regular thing included with the games at Interplay/Troika (or specific person)? Which other games had recepies?

Although I've never played Temple (not really my genre), I watched a Let's Play of it many years ago and I thought it was really fun! Also, FOUR MONTHS, WTF?! I don't know if I would've been able to go through that...

Could you make a video talking about the Tell Me About system in Fallout?

Yeah f*** kidney stones, had it in 2020 and 2021. There were sudden waves (when the stones moved) that were so painful you just wriggle on the floor like a worm in search for a position where it hurts less. There is no position where it hurts less. I shared a room with a soldier at the hospital who got shot twice in his life, he also said the kidney stone was more painful. Like yours, mine took forever to flush out, i pissed for weeks into filters. I remember I really loved the art in TOEE, additional the music in Hommlet complimented that area even more. I think I played it through two or three times and enjoyed TOEE for what it was back in the day.

@8Paul7

Жыл бұрын

Damn, very vivid description of the pain.

Temple remains to date one of the best looking games I have ever played.

@mikedoe525

11 ай бұрын

The game looks great even for nowadays standard. It just breaks my heart that the game is so heavily bugged even with the mods :-(

A few years ago I injured my peroneal retinacular (ankle tendon) and it was 6 months of near constant agony. Any time I over exerted that tendon would spasm for most of the rest of the day. And yeah, the only accident I've ever been in was when I rear ended someone (love tapped, not collided) because I was driving on pain killers and made a judgement error. No injury, minimal cosmetic damage. Worse pain than getting a skin bridge wider than my thumbnail fully circumcized at 14. Worse pain than my car accident. Thank you for telling a very humanizing story. We're all human, and sometimes, pain robs us of our ability to be the best human we can be.

Hey Tim, are there any style of games on your “bucketlist” of games youd like to make or do you feel like you’ve made most of the style of games that interest you. I mean this in the realm of isometric style games/rpg/first person, etc.

@CainOnGames

Жыл бұрын

The shortest answer is that I have made all the games I needed to, in the sense that I had designed features I had to try and stories I had to tell, and now I am left with a long list I want to make, but don't need to.

@calebszyszkiewicz719

Жыл бұрын

@@CainOnGames thanks for the reply :)

I loved TofEE! Was it perfect? Oh no. But it WAS fun and made me want to play anything and everything you had a hand in. Thank you Tim.

I love TToEE!! I play it every few years with a new party setup. Going to have to try all bards next time!

ToEE is an all time favourite game of mine. Super fun.

For the record. I loved your ToEE PC game.

Temple is a great game. Best implementation of D&D on a video game to date! I don't pay attention to Metacritic. I always go by my own personal experiences.

Knew nothing about these games until today.

Bro I would love to see a list of quest ideas you've had for various games. I think I could sit and watch an hour long video while you just talk about stuff you liked but wasn't used.

I can see why Temple was in the state that it was. But I did enjoy it, started my addiction to Iron Man rpgs.

From the first time I played Temple a few years ago I liked it a lot, and I still often think if a troika team had been able make an arcanum sequel with that engine and turn-based system (Somehow without the D&D ruleset obviously), or even a more story rich game within the D&D licence, like a Baldurs Gate, that would be dream territory for me. I'm not in game development or anything, so maybe what I'm saying is literally impossibly or off-base, but I will always be bummed out that I can't play another turn-based CRPG quite like Temple.

Hey, I have a question about Fallout. Will you be appearing in the upcoming fallout TV show?

@CainOnGames

Жыл бұрын

I will not. I am not involved with that show.

I've revisited the game recently. It is beutiful indeed and the music is great. Btw I don't find the writing or quests to be bad. The only issue I had the first time I tried it is the overall complexity. However, once I've learned how to play it was fun indeed.

15:00 Your Kidney stone was like a "baby" to you. XD

I actually liked Temple of Elemental Evil when I played it)

I remember finding Temple at a Big Lots for $4 and being really excited to play it, but when I opened it, it was 2 disc 2s and no disc 1

ToEE is my favorite one of your games (though I know I played with some unofficial patches). Probably it has the best combat I've experienced in a PC/western CRPG, and even though the story and quests are simple, they don't detract from that huge strength at all. I also feel like it would be difficult for anybody to do much more in those areas without substantially deviating from the original module, so I don't think you should blame yourself for that.

Stay healthy!

The potential is still there, maybe maybe maybe...

Thank you for this inside baseball look into game development. You mention that a lot of the problems with Temple was the publisher asked for certain things in the build you weren’t sure your team could deliver. You say that it was ultimately your fault because you agreed to these certain contract stipulations, but did you have the ability to say no to the publisher? Coming from an outside observer of the games industry it seems that the publisher can always outright demand things in the project regardless if the developer thinks it’s a good idea or not. Does the developer have a little more leeway in the contract negotiation phase of the project?

The vignettes for the start of Temple were incredible. I still remember burning that church as a chaotic evil party

Some of these talks about Troika times give me a vibe that you wanted to be destroyed by some competition or something else, as they knew your actual potential given enough time and resources.

I will agree that Ron Pearlman can elevate most anything he recites. The kidney stone story made me glad mine broke up and passed quickly. When you said 7mm, I nearly doubled over in pain. You are an idea man similar to a long time friend of mine. He is amazing at coming up with ideas, but his execution of them as a GM is not good. Ever.