Happy New Year's

On the off chance I follow the regular trend and don't post this weekend because of laziness, everyone have a great New Year's and don't get fucked up in an irreversible fashion, ie be safe.

I spent my lunch break writing up a quick "Day in the Life" shot of my Shadowrun character, Aardvark. Unfuckingfortunately, I printed it up, threw it with my character sheet, and then didn't save or cut/paste it over here, which was part of the intent of writing the damn thing. Not that it was canon quality literature, but it could be a mite better than me rambling about nothing. Too bad for you.

My rambling? The "My Interests" section for each blogger here at blogspot, and funny entries for it. Consider this. If someone is interested in girls, and you click on the word "girls", you are given a list of other people THAT LIKE girls. Well, if I wanted to read blogs written by peeps that like chicks (that's a bad joke there), that'd be great. I don't. I'd rather be given a list of blogs written by girls. But then, that wouldn't work if I clicked on a link for someone that likes doomsday devices. While I think that doomsday devices probably live fascinating lives and get to meet all sorts of interesting super heroes and super villains, I doubt they really have much to say on the matter. It's all pretty much old hat for a doomsday device, after all. Besides, every doomsday device I've ever known has just been one big failure, so their blogs are probably pretty depressing. My point? You just read a time wasting paragraph. You do that a lot here. I think I'll rename this blog Slacker Heaven.

100 calories per serving

Here's a format I might take up. Gotta think about it a little bit. Concerning resolutions.

1 resolution
1 solo destination (a place I'll go whether anyone else comes or not)
1 group destination (a place that Wendy and I will go, and bring along anyone that can afford it)

We'll see.

live in '05

We're back from vacation. Christmas eve dinner with the family at mom's, Christmas dinner with extended family (also at mom's), A Very Cactus Christmas at Joe's, and an abyssmally small amount of hanging with great little bros was had. Abundant and awesome gifts were scored. Much food was eaten. Already I miss the fact that I didn't have to THINK about food at all until Tuesday night at dinner with the GPs-in-law. That fact is evident when I say that yesterday Wendy had to remind me to eat breakfast. I got up, started writing, and just forgot my need for food....

So, now is the time for recapping the year. What did I do? Biggest thing is the wedding. Well, biggest as in most fun and most expensive. To some, it's the most important, but neither Wendy nor I have changed much because of it, I wouldn't say we're any more or less happy, sex hasn't gotten any less frequent or fun, and about the only change financially is that we consult about major purchases, which isn't much of a change really, since most of our major purchases before the wedding was shit for the wedding. So wedding. YAY! The best part of it is how many people are STILL telling us it was the best wedding they've been to. Rock. And my boys got some sweet grooms gifts and Christmas presents out of the deal (to blow my own gift giving horn). Regardless, July 16th was still the best damn day of the year, cause we threw one hell of a party. I only wish I liked Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince more.

Next in line, I GOT PUBLISHED! The big charity piece, Suck Da Head, Squeeze Da Tail, came out in November with my first published adventure. On top of that, I scored two D&D publication gigs for early release in '06.

There was a great trip to Voyager National Forest recently, Wizard World Chicago '05, 4th of July in Duluth, and several great parties including Christmas at Nick's and Joe's, Halloween at Nick's, and at least one other event at Nick's, plus the child-packed SuperBowl at Phil's.

Oh, and my sis had a kid. Actually turned out to be a purty cute baby, and she not only likes Wendy's singing, but listens attentively as I babble on about the impossiblities of surpassing the 5 nanometer limit in modern CPU technology and how I think the laws of diminishing returns and accelerated growth might actually keep China from being an unstoppable force in the world economy. I'm not saying they can't surpass the U.S., but I also don't think they'll become untouchable... I digress.

On the downside, there were a couple of family passings this year and several passings in the family of friends field. I'll pour out another 40 for the homeys on that front. Much money was also wasted on car impound fees (which is why we're looking at new apartments). I think Wizard World might be reaching a point where it's not worth my money to go. We'll see about next year. Some questions have also arisen about our financial security in early '06, but that's a post for the New Year, or the end of year '06 review in December. I'm a little disappointed that I had no 10 year reunion this year. Oh well. Gives me more time to build my empire.

Oh yeah, and not only did we lose our regular gaming sessions, but the campaign died. Yep, it's dead. You guys can post all you want to the bulletin bored. I'm done, if not with Argren entirely, at least with that story line. Mebbe if I have time, I'll write up a final scene or something.... Maybe not, though, because I know that Nick and Wendy are still a little attached to their characters. It's Nick's fault, really. He cursed us when he said, "I'll buy off this level adjustment, but I'm gonna be so pissed if the campaign ends shortly after that." That's the universe kicking you in the FRUTE BASKET my friend. And that's a real term. It's in a painting on Joe's wall! Just a door and a painting away from Red, White, and Boobs if I remember correctly...

How'd I do on my resolutions from last year? Sucked, that's how. Let's recap. I was gonna send out 30 animation applications, finish my cartoon avatar of myself, and develop a short film worthy of festivals. I actually sent out TWO animation applications, let my need for a PERFECT avatar stop me from animating all together, and actually did develop a short film worthy of festivals. Why isn't the latter out on the market? My damn make-up artist moved to London for a semester of school. She spent a lot of time drunk and making out with boys. She's no good to me now. That, and I've lost interest in that idea for now. Don't really have time to wrap my mind around getting a hospital setting somehow. I did, however, come up with THREE music video ideas, all of which I don't have time for.

So, next year's resolutions? That's for another post. I'm still debating about whether to set some RPG goals or not. My fear there is that the RPG gigs will then go the way of the animation goals and just be passed off to pursue some other hair-brained scheme. The good news is that as I get older, I come closer and closer to actually reaching a half-cocked goal. Consider, in February of this year I decided I could write D&D supplements. It only took me nine months to get paid to do it. Not bad at all.

And that's the short and curlies from the wonderful world of Shafevision, brought to you in HiDef Shafecolor. Get yours today!

Merry Earth Day

Here are some trailers:
Da Vinci Code (I know a lot of my readers hate Tom Hanks, but there are other actors in here that are really good.)
V is for Vendetta
Apocolypto
The Producers (Matthew Broderick, Uma Therman, and broadway. What more do you need?)

There were more, but I closed the window. :(

We're heading out tonight to celebrate Christmas with my family (next year will most likely see us in WI), so I won't be blogging until at least Wednesday. A 50 degree winter might be enough to convince Wendy we're moving down to Illinois, though. :)

Today, I just felt like listing the things I've personally done this year to reduce my carbon footprint and all of that green living crap I always bitch about. I have:

1. Cut down on extraneous driving. A lot. Most of it stems from not gaming, :( but I really try to plan shopping and carpooling around the most fuel efficient use routes and timing.
2. Ridden Wendy like a race horse (mmmmmm) about turning the lights off when we leave the room.
3. Watched as Wendy switched to a pine based, non silicate cat litter.
4. Recycled everything I could.
5. Bitched a lot on my blog.
6. Continued to pay for 200 kwh per month of wind energy over a cheaper alternative.
7. Went into a gay man frenzy over switching to rechargeable batteries in every battery gadget we have.

Here's what I intend to do for next year:

1. Continue the recycling, recharging, and wind energy action.
2. Hopefully buy a gas/electric hybrid, or at least a newer model car that gets 32+mpg.
3. Switch all of our light bulbs to the spirally guys that last 100 years and use 1/billionth the energy.
4. Continue riding Wendy. :)
5. Turn my computer off when I'm not using it, and shut down "back end" programs like MSN and shit when I'm playing BF2 (and upgrade my RAM so the hard drive runs less).

So everyone have some good times this year.

oofta

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-colts-dungysson

This makes me sad.

Geisha Gorgon

What a cleverly insidious little conspiracy you have here! Once it gets fully fleshed out, it could be particularly creepy...or benign, depending on who you talk to!

Hehe. That's the best compliment I've got all day. Second so far was, "You're having a ruggedly handsome sort of day," from one of my old ladies at work. The first one's in relation to part of my secret society in a d20 project I'm working on.

Bummer part is, the project got expanded from 3,000-5,000 words to 30,000 words! Jump in stress level anyone? Oh well, I like this company and they put out good product, so I won't complain too much. And besdies, a ten fold word increase means a 10 fold pay increase.

More importantly, though, the Christmas treasure chest got a little heavier last night! Let's recap. On the list of gifts betwixt Wendy and myself there was a jade/silver dragon pendant to her and OotS plus a new pair of nice gloves for me, all spread around over the last week.

Yesterday we got some heavy scratch from her grandmammy, Wendy scored a Where the Wild Things are beasty from John, I got the third Batman War Games trade and latest Dragon mag from John, and Nick/Luke threw together to score us tickets to the Minnesota Zephy (a swank train ride with dinner).

We gifted Nick with a little something I can't talk about and some porn . John got a subscription to Shonen Jump, a new issue of SDF and a Broken Tea Cup sketch. Luke's gift will be sent to me on Monday or Tuesday, but if it's remotely as cool as I think it is, rock on. I actually verified the size, so it should be. Not like my brother's gift, which I thought was pretty big, but was actually 1.3 inches tall. Oops.

So, actually, weight wise, the CT chest got a little lighter, but it definitely got a WHOLE lot richer in great gifts. This whole sailing the seas of Christmas in a pirate ship of holiday joy is paying off. Damn that's cheesy, but that's what the Christmas tree indicates.

The return of the evilgasm

OK. First off, the new webcomic is up over at TorC Press, AND there's an announcement about Sombrero Friday! Aoysum.

Second, I got me Christmas present from Wendy last night! She gave it to me because it was in the mail, clearly marked Paizo, and I prolly knew what it was. Actually I thought it was the kick ass "Yer a dick" tshirt, but no. Even better! Order of the Stick: On the Origins of PCs!

Here's a review. Awesome! 72 pages of black and white OOTS action. A little background about each character and how they all got together. If you like the webcomic, you'll dig the book, although since this is prequel action, it suffers from the same prequel syndromes you always get. Still a good read, and yet another reason I love me some Wendies.

And just because we all know this blog post is too short, here's a little more Shadowrun. As mentioned below, the character I made for the gaming is a face/hacker, with a little gunning skills, and pumping his abilities with Cerebral Boosters and Tailored Phermones.

Well, last night, I noticed that Kinesics was an Adept power that did about the same thing as the Tailored Phermones, and I thought to myself, "You know, you could make a variant on the original character with that power." Then I thought, "Hell, why not go with Mystical Adept instead of just vanilla Adept." So instead of a gunslinging, influential hacker, I made a spell slinging, influential hacker. Still gotta completely work up his powers, but I'm leaning towards Kinesics @ 2, Voice Control, and Improved Ability:Con@2, with a spellcasting ability at 3. He's got a Raven mentor-spirit, so he's a little more manipulative than the previous guy, but he's allergic to cucumbers, addicted to Psyche, hated by Beast spirits, and incompetant at Unarmed Combat. He loses a few dice in social settings than Aardvark, but makes up for it with Control Emotions and the spell that plants a suggestion in someone's mind forever. Combat wise he's got manaball and Ignite, plus a light pistol. Can't summon worth a shit, but banishes like a mofo. I think he also has armor and heal spells. I know I could just drop the mystical part of the adept and give him crazy Kinesics and Improved Ability powers for hacking and influence (with a Magic of 5 you could grab +4 to social with Kinesics and still have enough for +4 to any 3 non-combat skills, say Con, Hacker, and Negotiations), which would give him WAY more dice on each of those tasks than the other guy, plus better skills in the first place. Hell, I could prolly dump his Magic up to 6, grab Astral Perception and make him the face/spirit hunter. But that's not the way I wanna go.

The trouble is, which guy to play? Aardvark is the easiest to play, hands down. Why? Number one, his personality is most like mine, so no RP stretch there. Number 2, he'll get along with the other characters the most, because that's what he does; he makes people like him. His backstory is solid, and while I've not gone so far as to map out his karma use, I do have a wishlist of gadgets for him (mostly drones). He's not too tactical right now, but his options expand greatly as his gadgets do. The biggest drawback Aardvark has is being limited to one Intiative Pass without drugs. Because of his sensitive neural system, bioware is the only way to update that permanently, and that's pricey pricey.

As for Norman (no real name for the mystic yet), he's a manipulative bastard (which I am too, of course, but not like this guy), so I'll have to be really on my toes to play him, AND with a Willpower check required to NOT take advantage of someone, he's more likely to be at odds with the party members. At least he's got the skills to smooth over any bad party action, but he's still likely to be the one causing it. I've no backstory for him yet, so there's another nail in the coffin, but at the same time, that gives him more room to grow. Maybe he's a former rock star or celebrity that lost it all in some scandal, so he's had cosmetic surgery and hit the shadows. This guy's flat out not worth much in combat though. Well, I mean ignite and mana ball are bad ass, and if buys a sustaining focus he's solid as support. That's probably a good thing, though really. I mean if the character's gonna be a dick, it'll help smooth over PLAYER feelings if somebody else shines when the shit hits the fan. Mystic Man gets the crew in with magic and charm, but once the alarms are tripped, the other peops get us out. This guy's actually got a better commlink than Aardvark, but seriously less overall ability with it.

So, in the end, Aardvark's easier to play and less disruptive, but way more vanilla than Mystic Man. Aardvark's better at computer stuff, a more viable combat option and has easier room for tactical growth, but MM has room for some creative use of his abilities and is a better combat support character, prolly giving him a longer life span than Aardy. Most of all, MM brings the HEALTH spell to the table, which could save lives, but might not be necessary IF any of the two or three characters that I haven't seen show up with that... So, I guess I'll finish him up (mebbe in two variants) and see what the party has in the way of support before deciding whether I play the hacker support or magic support.... Oy. Need more contacts than just Nick in the group....

mas intelleginte

Here are some other points of interest concerning intelligent design:

How intelligent

Here's a link to an article about the judge in Philly striking down the teaching of intelligent design in a school their.

Now, I accept that there are gaps in the theory of evolution. Here, I'd like to point out a few gaps in the theory of intelligent design:














And here's what happens when man plays at intelligent design:

turn it upside down

My eagle eyed readers might have noticed a new link in the side bar to the Dr. Orphyus Project. The Red Brutha From Down Unda (southern Illinois of course being down unda from Minnesota) has posted a couple of mp3's over at MySpace.com from his solo project and one man band. His first album, Opaque Imagery, will be out soon; once the brain stew that is printing in southern Illinois figers out how to operate its equipment and learns a bit about technology. I'm with BC on this one, how do you NOT know how to scale proportionally? Are you using MS Paint to open files?

The Doc is Country's unique styling of jazz and extreme death metal, compiled with his solid focus on techinical ability. I'm not a big fan of the death metal at all, and I still love his shit. "Theme From the Sawmill" kicks my ass into oblivian. I especially recommennd the DOP experience to John H and expect him to DL the mp3s and pass them off to Andy and Kristina at B&N for me.

healthy living stipend

This is a post brought on by Joe's post earlier this morning. The idea is a comment over on his blog about smoking, but I figer if I think it's a good idea (which I do), I might as well post it over here, too. Maybe I can expand on it a bit while I'm on hold.

In Joe's post, he discussed concerns he had about the trend toward banning smoking in restaurants and bars. I'll leave my direct response to that there. As I am wont to do, however, I ran off on a tangent concerning some major employees, the most recent being the World Health Organization, actively screening applicants for non-smokers or those smokers that are willing to quit. That level of discrimination is more concerning to me for a couple of different reasons.

First is the brain drain that such a policy experiences, refusing to hire otherwise qualified applicants because of an unhealthy practice. Smoking is an easy practice to target, but what's next? Overeating? Will I one day be unhirable because of my overactive metabolism. Will Nick be unable to find a new job because he will pursue gaming entertainment rather than sleeping a healthy amount? I understand that unhealthy employees raise the cost of healthcare for everyone, because an employer's insurance premiums are determined as an average of the cost of insuring each employee. I directly benefit from my employer not hiring smokers. My concern is where the line gets drawn.

Second, when a company refuses to hire someone because of an activity that applicant pursues that was socially promoted until the last decade, they lose a customer. On top of that, they potentially lose associates of that applicant as customers. Anyone that's had a basic economics class knows how each customer passing a bad experience onto two+ other customers works. That just cuts into America's economy overall.

My solution focuses more on rewarding good behavior rather than punishing bad behavior. Instead of not hiring smokers or anyone else with an unhealthy practice (high caffeine intake anyone?), my proposal focuses on a "Healthy Living Stipend". Since healthy people cost less to insure, a company that employs healthy people spends less on health insurance premiums. Passing a little bit of that savings onto the employees can encourage healthy living.

The most appropriate adjustment in this case is a non-smoking stipend. If you don't smoke, and unfortunately for those living in a home with a smoker a doctor's nod is necessary, you get extra cash, either a monthly bonus or an extra per hour rate. Take it even further. Maintain attendance in an authorized health club, yoga class, martial arts, or what have you, get a bonus. A truly philanthropic company might go so far as to offer a bonus to employees that ran in any of the "Race for the Cure" type marathons. Meet certain healthy living standards, such as low cholesterol, good blood pressure, etc, get a bonus. The best way to affect employee behavior is through their paychecks. Healthy living from healthcare savings. Good times.

As is always the case on this blog, all ideas presented are open to discussion. Chime in as you feel the need.

Shadows in the Sand

Last night, Nick and I got together and busted out a couple of Shadowrun characters for the 4th edition arc Charley is going to GM for us. This morning, I had a fun idea for an Shadowrun campaign that I doubt I'll pursue, so I'll present it here for anyone else to play with. What do you want first, character or setting? Character, ok.

The character is Andy Tanner, or "Aardvark" on the street. Twenty cool points to anyone that gets the reference, cept for Joe, cause I told him already.

Mr Tanner's most likely the face of the party. With a Charisma of 5 and level 2 Tailored Phermones, he's got the gas to pack it. Agility of 5 and solid Pistol and Dodge skills give the boy a decent chance to live through a shootout. His main mojo, though, is hacking, with almost the best commlink runnin in his brain, modified Logic 5, solid software and above average skills. Very much a utility character. Unfortunately, being new to the sprawl, he's got very weak contacts and a shitty ass apartment.

No matter how hungry you are, it's really difficult to eat dry, dry scalloped potatoes.

Now for the setting. It's all Middle East action. The oil is drying up, but that didn't start til the megacorps had swept in and took over the oil production. Like Columbian drug dealers, they opted not to use their own product, instead turning the ME into a vast array of energy production, including wind, solar, geothermal, and oil production. What's not pumped directly into the grid is shipped off in battery storage of every size for the rest of the world. Unfortunately, that means locals have limited choices of employment. The smart/talented ones work in the energy industry. Grunts work on the oil rigs, but the less fortunate get stuck in the service industry and markets.

Runwise, a lot of the action focuses in major cities like Baghdad and the capitals of Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The most common run is sweeping into a desert stronghold of energy pirates and wiping out that conclave of oil and electricity thieves. A lot of runners make the area home and travel abroad hunting down teams that have rerouted energy shipments for personal gain. There's plenty of megacorp politics involved between the two or three major players in the area, and the locals have managed to keep their society pretty much intact despite all of the changes, so there is plenty of low-key tribal warfare going on as oil and energy barons wheel and deal contracts with the megacorps working their land. Shadier still are the runners that train and organize freedom fighters that fight as mercenaries in many of the world's minor skirmishes and less-than-wars.

I think it could be a fun variant setting for Shadowrun, but I've not got the time to pursue it right now, and with real world events as they are, I don't really think Fanpro is going to put out a supplement dealing with the area any time soon. So, take home and enjoy if you play Shadowrun. And if you do, come back and post a comment about what changes or expansions you made. Hell, make this blog the go to place for Shadowrun in Mesopotamia! I'm down.

Phermones is not a work in the blogger spell check dictionary.

Compensation

Ford Announces Hiring New Engineers and CEO; Looking for Men with Big Cocks!

That's the headline I get from this announcement. You need Real Player to listen, but I'm too lazy to add a link to real.com. I'll summarize instead. Ford is banking on the Expedition, adding a bigger "stretched" variety, because the Expedition with its 8mpg isn't big enough. This'll go over like soggy firewood on a cold day after you fell in the lake....

Game Night

http://jrients.blogspot.com/2005/11/rpg-night-alternative-campaign-format.html#comments

This guy describes a RPG night that is pretty much what John, Nick and I have been kicking around for the past few weeks. Give it a read and let me know what you think.

I think we could tweak his format and make it Game Night rather than RPG night. Friday night is game night. Whoever wants to play comes. Based on who's there, we play whatever. Everyone has a selection of characters under each GM. If someone doesn't have a character, we hit something like Munchkin or whatever. If, however, a game session ends on a cliffhanger or really needs to be finished, we just let everyone know ahead of time that we're finishing that so those not involved don't come, or have game night somewhere else that night. *shrug* I'm thinking this way Friday is more of a party *with gaming* and less just gaming. *shrug*

gayapolis

Last night on John Stewart, they said that a South African court had ruled allowing gay marriage, many jokes were had about South Africa being more socially advanced than America, and they moved on.

BUT, according to this article over at Gayapolis News (lol), the ruling wasn't quite in favor of gay marriage. It seems to be more of a suggestion on how the law should read and needs to be changed.

Fear not! The liberal slavers have not yet advanced past America's socially advanced culture in which everyone bickers about whose religious beliefs are right and everyone further uses those beliefs as the identifying means of holding back things that are different and viewed as threatening! I think we are tied now, though. :(

battlefield 2 forums

I read a lot of BF2 forums when I'm on hold. Mostly it's a waste of time as everyone throws around insults about how the whiners (commonly spelling whingers) can't play and get pwned cause they're little bitches, or how this guy's an asshat, a jet whore, a dolphin diver, or some other juvenile way of not touching on any of the key points in what could have been a viable forum, but it's not monitored.

Occasionally, a good quote or name comes out of them though. My personal favorites thus far in the realm of name have been ditch pickle (which I knew, but had forgotten about), and fagamuffin.

Today, I found this quote. Random considering the forum content, but laced with idiotic wisdom.

"Feed the birds..scientists have shown they were once the dinosaurs..and if they ever turn back..you don't want them pissed at you."

And gamers wonder at their bad reputation....

Narnia: A Review

Don't you hate it when your hands are full of raw bacon, and your nose starts to itch?

Narnia. More specifically, the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Was a book, now a flick. For those of you not in the know, C.S. Lewis, the author of the Narnian books, was a Christian writer whose books get filed under "Christian inspiration" at the big chain bookstores. He's the Monte Cook of Christian fantasy.

As for the movie, I dug. Very, very pretty movie. Major props go to the CG artist. When Lewis was alive, he was adamant about his books not becoming live action flicks, because at the time, live action talking animals would have been "ridiculous." While I don't expect every beaver I see on the way to work to lead me to a rebellion, the shit was definitely not ridiculous.

Most of the cast was pretty, too. If I were a nymph, I'd be plugging any number of fauns, cause they was pretty. Were I a faun, there's a few girls and maybe a boy or too that'd see me breaking out my magic pipes...

As for the rest of the movie, having not read the book since 3rd grade (and not finishing it then), I can't comment on the translation from book to screenplay. I can say, though, that the only time I really cared much about the children was at the beginning when they were leaving their mom. The rest of the time, they were just annoying kids that didn't really seem to be reacting to the world around them, or rather, the events around them, cause there was plenty of awe at Narnia, just not much fear about fighting in a war and taking on an evil witch, unless the wolf was about to eat their face. I've been assured that's the way the book is, too, though.

Overall, I'd say 'B+'. I definitely enjoyed watching the flick, but it didn't change my life. I don't feel like I wasted Nick's money (whom I never paid for the ticket). We'll probably own it on DVD. Actually, I have to rescend the change my life statement. Watching the credits, I saw that one of the special effects teams was a company does a lot of compositing through a local firm. Said local firm offered me a job just out of school, but pulled the offer because I wasn't completely familiar with the software they used (damn school didn't teach us Apple products, gah). That small brush with opportunity was enough for my subconscious to work up demo reel ideas in my sleep last night. Which is why I'm not working on D&D this morning instead of blogging... mind is too ful of images to form words with many letters.

Anyway, check out the flick. Good time, and if it makes money, they might do the whole series. I doubt it, but Hollywood likes its cash cows....

Unbalanced mini

First, the mini part. Apple Mini to be more specific. Here's a little article giving a sneak peak at some of Apple's plans for making their compy the center piece of your living room's technology.

Now, onto the unbalanced part. Surprisingly, this is a gaming post. Been awhile on one of those I think, because I've been writing a lot rather than gaming. Despite that, I've been spending a lot of time reading other gaming blogs and forums about GMing, game development, and just gaming in general. Most of the time, the info and opinions is solid, but here's a bit of a crutch I'm noticing.

Sometimes, developers and GMs will put a bad rule in place to support some other disparate element of bad design. The most common implementation is in the form of extra feats that support the flavor. Personally, I love feats, but I think forcing players to burn feats for some flavor reason is just bad.

The best example for this is the ill-fated Windriders campaign I ran. The only character recommendation in that campaign was that the characters be capable of joining the Windrider prestige class. That required the Mounted Combat feat. Of the four characters that requirement was applicable to, I think two took the feat. Only one actually took levels in Windrider. One was effective on hippogriff, but didn't take the feat, and one character was flat-out inappropriate for the campaign as described to the players and as implemented when I was DMing. Now, make that, or something similar a REQUIREMENT for playing in a campaign, and you'll get even more resentment, if not outright rebellion from the players.

The only real way to make a feat requirement a viable option for a setting is to make the setting so extreme that natives have developed the feat as an evolutionary means of survival, then provide it as a bonus feat to natives. That gives players the illusion of choice during character development of playing a race/sub-species that has the advantage built in, but isn't quite a distinctively new race, or playing a standard, non-native character that is at a decided disadvantage in the realm of mundane survival, but is more "normal" outside of that setting. Why is it an illusion of choice? Well, it's like being in rural America and being given the choice of getting $5 American or 5 sterling pounds. Outisde of BFE, the pounds are a better way to go because of better exchange rates and accessiblility to the extra money, but in Podunk, IN, you'll be hard pressed to exchange it to US dollars, leaving you at a disadvantage.

Updates and party gifts

Hola mihos!

There's a new webcomic up at TorC Press today! It's a brand new "Liquid Jar" strip, which is one of the weirdest short strips Joe does. "Liquid Jar" first appeared in SDF: Very Odd Jobs and won my heart with it's weirdly hot kimono dragon lady.

And here's a bonus! Until Christmas, Joe (I'm calling him Cactus Claus) is giving away free sketches. How do YOU get one? Well, Joe made a list, checked it blahblahblahblah. Actually, all you have to do is buy a comic and tell him which character you want. If you already own every SDF issue, can't use PayPal, or have every issue but one and the friend that's supposed to be buying you the last one keeps saying he will but still hasn't, just email Joe (find his address on the contact page over there) and he'll still send you a Free Sketch. Hell, just email him because your poor, but like his art, he'll do the same. Cactus Claus!

biodiesel kills the planet

Here's an interesting article about some unforseen side effects of the rise in demand for biodiesel.

And I know what you're thinking after reading that article: What the hell is a proboscis monkey?

Here's a photo. I'd post more, but blogger hates me today.

pirate booty

http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1395012&sdm=web&qtw=480&qth=300

The Pirates 2 teaser. whoot. poot. shoot. someone clean that up.

And here's X3

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/x3/large.html

whee. pee. jee, I think I have a problem.

How low can you go?

Limbo is no mo!

That's right folks, the Pope is bulldozing the home of the billions of souls that died before Jesus saved man. Any children you've had that died in the womb....homeless. Talk about a bad case of emninant domain. Why's this happening? To make way for the more modern church view that children that die do so "in the hope of salvation." Limbo's gone. Or gonna be, so if you own a home there, or plan on heading the way to fight some Slaadi, make plans accordingly....

Read all about it here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1897480,00.html


In lighter news, here's a question. Why is Subway's Italian B.M.T made with Salami, Pepperoni, and Ham? What's the BMT? Does it just stand for "Big Mystery Title" "Better Meat Time" WHAT? baffling.

switch hitter

First, here's an interesting link about a possible new species.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051206/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_new_species

Now onto the meat.

Ever wonder which way your newspaper swings? Liberal or conservative? Here's a decent litmus test. At least, here's my theory of a decent litmus test. Check out the headlines from DeLay's court case earlier this week.

If your newspaper tends to support more liberal concerns, the headline will probably say something like "Judge Upholds Money Laundering Charges Against DeLay". I'm running off the example of the St. Paul Pioneer Press there, and I think I remember them supporting Democrats most often. I've been wrong before, but that's clearly a headline that focuses on the good for the prosecution in the DeLay case.

On the flip side of the coin, if your paper is a bit more conservative, the headline probably reads something like "Judge Throws Out Conspiracy Charges Against DeLay".

Actually, it's probably more likely to be that way for radio stations. I looked at a few papers online. Pioneer Press, "upheld"; Washington Post, "upheld"; Chicago Tribune, "dropped"; USA Today, can't find article; Star Tribune, can't find article. *shrug* Bad scientific experiment. Oh well, good theory anyway. Most likely it just shows how the guy writing the headlines swings. Too bad for me.

link kill

I had some wacky links heading to reports about the guy that owns the Washington Post. I believe his name is Reverend Sun Myoong Moon. Turns out he's the messiah and all religions will unite under him. He had a coronation in one of our federal government buildings, with many a senator and Bush administration official present. Weird stuff. Weirder still is his church's requirements for sex. I believe it's the Unification Church. Unfortunately, Explorer crapped out and I lost the links. I have a good memory, though.

Now, as a member of the Unification Church, there are strict sexual practices. No sex before marriage, of course. When having sex, you must have a photo of the reverend himself next to you, so that the communion can be done correctly under his watchful eye. To maintain balance, the woman is to be on top two nights in a row. After that, the man must "reestablish dominance over Eve" by continuing in the missionary position a certain number of nights. After sex, each member must clean their sexual organs with the "Holy Handkerchief" provided by the church. The HH MUST STAY INDIVIDUALLY LABELED AND CAN NOT BE LAUNDERED TOGETHER OR WITH OTHER LAUNDRY!!!!

Seriously, I'm not making that shit up! And this fucker gets FEDERAL MONEY for his church!

OK, Here are some links.

Erik Mona's blog links to a crapload of articles about this guy here.
And the moon man has a new project in the form of an underwater tunnel from Alaska to Russia that he's pushing here.

See, he gives a shitload of money to conservative politicians, so whether they agree with him or not, the idiots go to his events and generally suck his cock. Stupid stuff. Do we really need to pursue legal moves against the corrup Repubs? I think we just need to point out what officials are "supporting" this guy because he gives them lots of money and that'll take care of it....

Correction and promotion

In yesterday's post I said each of those books is over 200 pages, but I think one of them is 144. Sorry if that misled anyone into purchasing them. I'd hate to get sued for selling Xboxes only in package deals when I advertised Xboxes with no frills for cheaper. That's bait and switch. That's illegal.

Here's how I'll make up for it. Joe is running a Christmas special! I'll link to it! So get a free sketch!

Need help?

I'm sure all my readers know this already, but just in case I have voyeurs I'm not personally involved with (hands out of my pockets, Nick, I'm typing), I'm working on two published D&D products. Due to NDA's, all I can say is one is a monster manual and the other is an extraplanar campaign setting/enhancement. Why is this important?

Once you start to "meet" (because it's all done online now) other writers and publishers, you start to get free shit. Whoot. And that's what this post is about.

I was just gifted with a copy of Expeditious Retreat's monster building guide A Magical Society: Beast Builder. I totally recommend it. In fact, I've got the free samples for A Magical Society: Western Europee and A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture. These links are to the hard copy books, but you can purchase/download the pdfs (and free samples) at RPGnow.com or DriveThruRPG.com.

Now, if you're like me, you probably think you know a fair amount about culture, ecology, world building, and possibly balanced monster design. You're probably right. I was. I was actually surprised at how much of what I thought was right, was correct in these books. Years of gaming pay off.

However, that doesn't mean the books aren't handy. I LOVE them. First of all, each one is over 200 pages, and I guarantee there will be shit in there you didn't think about. On top of that, even if you did think about it, sometimes reading about it sparks an idea about a way to twist something that you might not have thought of on your own. So, besides being good solid resources for free-forming your own campaign, world, etc, the books are great as a means of inspiration.

So go ahead and check them out. I recommend hitting the online links, downloading the free samples and seeing if you like them first. You will. If you're cheap like me and don't mind hours in front of a computer screen, the pdfs are fine, but I think I might add these links to my Christmas list. Hard copy is good.