How Not to Evolve
Sep. 29th, 2008 | 11:07 am
When evolution goes wrong, you just kind of know it.
I had tried to see how far being a peaceful herbivore could get me. I'm new to the game, and I'm playing Spore at a very casual pace. Since the kids have been banished from Warhammer Online (the violent theme may create more questions than good answers), I've landed on a gold mine with this game. My twin 3-year-old boys love it. I find it cute and fun enough.
So as we casually explored the life of an evolving herbivore, I found my creature (pick any iteration above) as becoming easy pickin's for all the carnivores out there.
As a result, much tweaking is required to avoid evolving into the classic meat on a hoof, the cow. My fate is clear. Now I must change it.
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Gencon 2008 - What To-Do!
Apr. 21st, 2008 | 02:03 pm
The good news: I got what I wanted.
I'm currently slated to run through the 4 Pathfinder organized play scenarios from Paizo. And I would've joined Wolfgang's Open Design and Paizo's writing seminars if they hadn't overlapped with the organized play offerings.
I wish I could recall the opposite of a "dilemma", but it became the theme of my Gencon registration that I would be forced to choose between such desirable alternatives.
In any case, I'll also be learning to Cthulhu at one of the "You too can Cthulhu" games. The next day, I'll be running a Cthulhoid gauntlet of MU games. I'll also be testing the waters of LARP via a RISING Cthulhu LARP session. That plus my True Dungeon run should scratch that three-dimensional gaming itch I get once a year like a craving for fried chicken. And what is that about?
I've got a couple of "wished I coulda's" like peppering my schedule with miniature painting seminars and writers' workshops. But here's the clincher. I would give a pinky-toe if someone could explain to me how to build a Microsoft Word stylesheet and "translate" it into Adobe Indesign. I strongly suspect that's how Paizo and Wizards do their layouts, and I'd love to use those tools to give my gaming group consistent handouts and maybe even publish (virally) an adventure or two.
There were two seminars I suspect that would cover that very thing, and I must miss them in deference to the WereCabbages and the good that they do. It makes me sad. If any of you can assist, I would be forever grateful and willing to edit your work for free (on your timetable no less).
And though I wonder whether WoTC will eventually submit events to GenCon this year, I have sadly had to leave no room for them because I can always run RPGA games locally. Still, it's a glaring black hole in Sagamore if they're not there.
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4e and Me
Apr. 2nd, 2008 | 09:47 am
location: Work
mood: 
grateful
music: Standardization Conference Call
Here’s a respectable summary of the state of the game. It blurs lines, glosses over distinctions, and sensationalizes some details, but it’ll do for the intended audience. Or maybe not. To the lay (read: non-gaming) audience, it’ll work. To the online community, it might read like a story about Kodak trying to stay relevant in the digital camera evolution. Take it for what it is, and maybe I can give some perspective.
My Gamer Demographic
Age: 36
Profession: White-Collar Corporate Back-Office Job
Discretionary Income: Sufficient. By that, I mean I buy luxury gaming products like Ptolus or Castle Whiterock usually for holidays or birthdays. I can afford to go to Gencon yearly and do as my schedule allows. I’m currently subscribed to all of Paizo’s Pathfinder and GameMastery offerings. I am an Open Design patron, and I’ll continue to fund Nick Logue and Richard Pett’s retirement plans however I can. (This is by no means bragging; rather, it’s one of the perks of middle age and being in the middle of a career. It’s countered by bodily creaks and groans, risk aversion, and increasing loss of free time.)
Free Time: Low. I’ve got twin toddlers that are a blessing and a handful. It just seems infinitely harder to get a weekly game going or start a campaign or adventure path. Such is my dream. In the meantime, I end up playing RPGA games once or twice a month.
Social Network: My online network is huge. My real life gaming network desiccated after college. Our local RPGA group seems to be mostly people my age who prefer to catch games when they can without the stable time commitment of regular games. That’s cool, but it is what it is.
D&D 4e To Me
High money, low time.
Let’s call this my demographic. (If you’re a student or just starting a career, your experience and opinion may differ from mine, and that’s cool.)
The financial implications of 4e, that it will invalidate my 3.5 library and may involve subscription fees, are considerable. Yes, my lack of time means I’d have to convert or approximate the adventure paths I haven’t gotten to yet, the Heroes of Horror and other sourcebooks I wanted to use, etc. I wish had time to do it, but adding conversion to my game prep actually strains my available prep time, pushing me farther away from the target of a weekly gaming group. WoTC couldn’t put out sourcebooks fast enough to make this not an issue. Moreso, I’m told (via the official podcasts) there isn’t really a conversion process; it’s an approximation of 3.5 flava into a 4th edition incarnation. Personally, I don’t trust myself to avoid or even detect balance issues in the approximation; I’m not mearls. In any case, 4th edition better bring some benefits that will validate the costs for yours truly.
The biggest upside is maybe, just maybe, I can get a regular game going online. For me, this would be well worth MMO-price subscription fees. I acknowledge this is a value judgment; more so, I completely understand that this won’t appeal to people who already have regular gaming groups. I wish I was one of you! If the online experience (including microtransactions potentially required to simulate a gaming table with minis, maps, and handouts) starts costing me $20 or so a month, I’m going to start feeling gauged. I’ll then start putting index cards at FLGS’s, calling for players in local forums, etc, but I will resent WoTC for blowing a great idea with poor execution or greed.
Other than that, I can only express concern that I don’t get the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me). This, I’m sorry, is either bad marketing or bad concept on WoTC’s part. It’s bad marketing if the obvious benefits aren’t so obvious, especially if you’re planning to ask us for additional investment and fees. It’s bad concept if 4th edition isn’t evolved enough to actually be more than change for revenue’s sake. I can only defer my opinion until I have the 3 books and online experience in my hands in June. I can’t help but think that if something were going to turn me into a 4e fanboi, it would’ve already.
After all, I subscribed to Paizo’s entire offering set because I believe they get me. Similarly, I get gooey whenever Nick Logue, Richard Pett, and James Jacobs give vent to their dark sides, my wallet follows. I trust them implicitly to write the content I will happily consume. And while I’m sitting here thinking of the WoTC sourcebook content that rocks me, I’m drawing blanks. The WotC books I liked most were written by Erik Mona, Jason Buhlman, Wolfgang Baur, and pretty much either Paizo staff or Werecabbages. The WoTC books I refer to time and again are actually the 3 core books and the compendiums.
The Bottom Line
Hmm, that last realization was an epiphany of sorts. I found myself looking to my WWWD (What Would Werecabbages Do?) reminder bracelet, and I think my path’s become clear. I’ll explore 4th edition as a curiosity. I’ll certainly explore and report on the online functionality here. But I’ll continue to follow the cabbages like a vorpal bunny, consuming them, er their content, in any edition. They, at least for me, seem to be where the action is.
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Who's been reading my diary?
Apr. 1st, 2008 | 03:27 pm
location: Texas
mood: excited
music: Pulp Gamer GAMA seminar podcast
This just in, Nick Logue launched Sinister Adventures. The announcement's made my day, as ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=88.8)
saint_demain's floored me with his creativity, accessibility, and personality. To my mind, he does for adventures what mearlsdoes to crunch; i.e, rocks it until Faberge eggs look like PAAS kits, the Statue of Liberty looks like macaroni art, and the apocalypse comes in a Zoroastrian ball of fire.
His words become my next tattoo. Now that my fanboi hyperboles are out of the way, I'll just say my gaming group is as excited as I am at the thought of swapping between Pathfinder, Open Design, and Sinister Adventures. (Note the common theme?)
Let the good times roll!
saint_demain's floored me with his creativity, accessibility, and personality. To my mind, he does for adventures what mearlsdoes to crunch; i.e, rocks it until Faberge eggs look like PAAS kits, the Statue of Liberty looks like macaroni art, and the apocalypse comes in a Zoroastrian ball of fire.His words become my next tattoo. Now that my fanboi hyperboles are out of the way, I'll just say my gaming group is as excited as I am at the thought of swapping between Pathfinder, Open Design, and Sinister Adventures. (Note the common theme?)
Let the good times roll!
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Gary Gygax, Part 2
Mar. 18th, 2008 | 03:09 pm
My earlier post on Gary's passing didn't really capture the flavor of the man. I'd like to correct that with this excellent link. It's the very least I can do.
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How to Shoo Away Independents
Mar. 17th, 2008 | 11:41 am
Dems, there is no virtue in suffering. No one cares how close you get. Take this from a Buffalo Bills fan.
More than anything, the unleashed Gibbs/Wolfson tag-team of mudslingers is doing more harm to the Democratic Party's chances than hanging chads. These two are systematically destroying any idealism by creating a "more of the same" slugfest that will keep the party fractured and actually improve McCain's chances.
And I really, really wanted to put the GOP into the penalty box for at least 4 years. If you keep acting like children, you only show that you're not ready for adult company. There's still plenty of room at the little table this Thanksgiving.
We honestly need a change in our infrastructure. Sadly, none of the three candidates really seem to believe that as strongly as I do.
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E. Gary Gygax (1938-2008)
Mar. 5th, 2008 | 08:44 am
Gary died, and we RPG geeks are all pretty upset about it. Gary's C.V. and bio can be find at the usual hangout, and I won't recount that here. The stats (or crunch) of a man's life are impressive if impersonal, but they aren't what's got us geeks down.
Gary lived the dream. He did what he loved while at the same time enabling us all to enjoy it. We strove to be better because of him, and both his contributions and his personable approach to them will be dearly missed.
Gary lived the dream. He did what he loved while at the same time enabling us all to enjoy it. We strove to be better because of him, and both his contributions and his personable approach to them will be dearly missed.
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Mandating Failure
Mar. 29th, 2007 | 03:05 pm
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the president respects the role of Congress — and Congress should respect his.
"I think the founders of our nation had great foresight in realizing that it would be better to have one commander in chief managing a war, rather than 535 generals on Capitol Hill trying to do the same thing," she said. "They're mandating failure here."
--Taken from the AP story on Yahoo News.
Mandating failure?
I love press secretaries. It's always a thankless job, but I read it to remind myself that the language politic is very real. Moreso, it is at its best subtle, as if a turn of a phrase could be glib yet somehow shape an opinion 15 minutes later when you're doing something else. It's is insidious when it's at its most wonderful.
While I love the art form, sometimes it's just dark. As a connoisseur of noir (if I may call myself that without being accused of Francophilia), we can smell our own.
The agenda is simple enough. Create a bitter metallic aftertaste in the mouths of any American who opposes the executive office's extensive exploration of the limits of executive discretion and power. Simply put, you "don't have the stomach for victory" (you wuss), if you are against covert taps, waterboarding, stays of habeas corpus, etc. Moreso, you aren't a silent wuss, you are in fact, killing America's sons and daughters by cutting off their funding, making their spirits so low that they cannot hold a gun. Most importantly, you wuss, you are undoing all the hard work that is somehow working if you'd just look at it with a steel resolve from the right distance and perspective.
Wuss.
No, Mr. President. I decline adding your appellation to my e-mail signature. I decline writing you blank checks with which to misappropriate funds. And I decline aspersions of this sort.
And these declines are not manifestations of nay-saying. I approve of democracy, civil liberties, and even the possible errors in judgment that are realized as laws when collective yet uninformed bodies meet. But I affirm the hazards of civil liberty and even public idiocy as long as the playing field is fair.
It's not, and at the bottom of the steep grade, I have had the stomach to swallow my concerns-cum-objections-cum-protests. You would never say it, but your best argument that I was a wuss mandating failure might have been that I voted for your second term.
Fortunately, your term will end. And all the support you can truly call yours will be evident as our tail-wagging Congress tries to align itself with something that specifically won't leave a metallic bitter aftertaste in its constituency's mouth. And fortunately, there will be no part of that next big thing that you'll be able to call yours.
I've written your administration no blank checks, and I'm paying really close attention as to whose signing in my name.
Nerd? Sure. Geek? Absolutely. Wuss? Hardly.
"I think the founders of our nation had great foresight in realizing that it would be better to have one commander in chief managing a war, rather than 535 generals on Capitol Hill trying to do the same thing," she said. "They're mandating failure here."
--Taken from the AP story on Yahoo News.
Mandating failure?
I love press secretaries. It's always a thankless job, but I read it to remind myself that the language politic is very real. Moreso, it is at its best subtle, as if a turn of a phrase could be glib yet somehow shape an opinion 15 minutes later when you're doing something else. It's is insidious when it's at its most wonderful.
While I love the art form, sometimes it's just dark. As a connoisseur of noir (if I may call myself that without being accused of Francophilia), we can smell our own.
The agenda is simple enough. Create a bitter metallic aftertaste in the mouths of any American who opposes the executive office's extensive exploration of the limits of executive discretion and power. Simply put, you "don't have the stomach for victory" (you wuss), if you are against covert taps, waterboarding, stays of habeas corpus, etc. Moreso, you aren't a silent wuss, you are in fact, killing America's sons and daughters by cutting off their funding, making their spirits so low that they cannot hold a gun. Most importantly, you wuss, you are undoing all the hard work that is somehow working if you'd just look at it with a steel resolve from the right distance and perspective.
Wuss.
No, Mr. President. I decline adding your appellation to my e-mail signature. I decline writing you blank checks with which to misappropriate funds. And I decline aspersions of this sort.
And these declines are not manifestations of nay-saying. I approve of democracy, civil liberties, and even the possible errors in judgment that are realized as laws when collective yet uninformed bodies meet. But I affirm the hazards of civil liberty and even public idiocy as long as the playing field is fair.
It's not, and at the bottom of the steep grade, I have had the stomach to swallow my concerns-cum-objections-cum-protests. You would never say it, but your best argument that I was a wuss mandating failure might have been that I voted for your second term.
Fortunately, your term will end. And all the support you can truly call yours will be evident as our tail-wagging Congress tries to align itself with something that specifically won't leave a metallic bitter aftertaste in its constituency's mouth. And fortunately, there will be no part of that next big thing that you'll be able to call yours.
I've written your administration no blank checks, and I'm paying really close attention as to whose signing in my name.
Nerd? Sure. Geek? Absolutely. Wuss? Hardly.
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The Hype of the Moment (Part I)
Mar. 15th, 2007 | 10:59 am
The dollar bill has a soft spot for hype, and the internet is one incredible window into hype. From my vantage point, the internet gives me a vast view of where the hype is. And I'm not saying that a blog post is a lofty perch, but if the shoe fits...
Here's the thing. People appear to be investing with the hearts and not their heads. Over at the Motley Fool, they have a neat experiment called CAPS where users rate stocks to outperform or underperform the stock market.
Reading the raters' rationales (or occasional lacks thereof), I now see that Apple is completely overhyped, and Microsoft is completely lambasted. Emotionally, I understand that Apple makes people feel good and that Microsoft, well, you know, is evil. But my wallet's like Snoop Dogg with his mind on his money and his money on his mind. Microsoft's undervalued and Apple is overvalued.
And there it is, playas.
Here's the thing. People appear to be investing with the hearts and not their heads. Over at the Motley Fool, they have a neat experiment called CAPS where users rate stocks to outperform or underperform the stock market.
Reading the raters' rationales (or occasional lacks thereof), I now see that Apple is completely overhyped, and Microsoft is completely lambasted. Emotionally, I understand that Apple makes people feel good and that Microsoft, well, you know, is evil. But my wallet's like Snoop Dogg with his mind on his money and his money on his mind. Microsoft's undervalued and Apple is overvalued.
And there it is, playas.
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The Marshall Plan Workbook
Mar. 9th, 2007 | 12:17 pm
mood: excited
I'm excited to begin today my prep work for Nanowrimo with my first list of entries into this journal. I'll blog to keep me honest and moving forward, and I'd be thrilled if my dear readers took an interest. To actually get started on my first big writing project, I'm planning to do two things this year.
First, I'm writing a novel in November. See the link above for details. But before I do that, I'm also going to write two smaller works for two great magazines I know, Dungeon and Dragon respectively. The smaller word counts help, and I'm currently plotting the course to getting words on paper. I know full well that there's another challenge in getting the above published, but I'm methodical, patient, and just writing to give something back to the genres that help define me and make sense of the bizarre in the world. :)
Reading, outlining, and writing are the precursors to overcoming my inner critic and evoking a novel. I'd really like to be glib at this point and add that it's not just going to be any novel, but a great novel worthy of reading. But for now, I'm more interested in getting a novel finished. Afterwards, we'll talk about editing and revisions and if it has the legs to get published. But for now, I really want to focus on getting it done. This one definitely doesn't have to be the great American novel. It'll be OK if the literary historians look back at this first work and say, "Well, the collectors and completists among you can read it, but I'm only going to mention it as being his first..."
Fair enough.
In my head at this moment, I'm focused on finishing the novel. Then I'll focus on making it public. Then I'll focus on revising it to learn how to take constructive criticism better. Then I'll focus on learning the literary process (and thanks,open_design, for all the insight your Open Design experience provides)
Ah well, back to work.
First, I'm writing a novel in November. See the link above for details. But before I do that, I'm also going to write two smaller works for two great magazines I know, Dungeon and Dragon respectively. The smaller word counts help, and I'm currently plotting the course to getting words on paper. I know full well that there's another challenge in getting the above published, but I'm methodical, patient, and just writing to give something back to the genres that help define me and make sense of the bizarre in the world. :)
Reading, outlining, and writing are the precursors to overcoming my inner critic and evoking a novel. I'd really like to be glib at this point and add that it's not just going to be any novel, but a great novel worthy of reading. But for now, I'm more interested in getting a novel finished. Afterwards, we'll talk about editing and revisions and if it has the legs to get published. But for now, I really want to focus on getting it done. This one definitely doesn't have to be the great American novel. It'll be OK if the literary historians look back at this first work and say, "Well, the collectors and completists among you can read it, but I'm only going to mention it as being his first..."
Fair enough.
In my head at this moment, I'm focused on finishing the novel. Then I'll focus on making it public. Then I'll focus on revising it to learn how to take constructive criticism better. Then I'll focus on learning the literary process (and thanks,
open_design, for all the insight your Open Design experience provides)Ah well, back to work.
