It's D&D!

Gaming flowchart - this seems to apply especially to D&D

http://www.neatorama.com/2007/07/18/the-ultimate-gaming-flowchart/


And since I titled this post "It's D&D!", here is the "It's D&D" song.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YyxnEKTjhj0&search=stephen%20lynch%20dungeons



Enjoy!

a letter to my representative

Mr. Wicker,

I am writing to you today to express my outrage at the lies and corruption of our Vice President, Dick Cheney. Specifically, I believe that he has purposefully misled the American voting public. He has been party to misinformation regarding Iraq, and its role regarding both Weapons of Mass Destruction, as well as its involvement with Al Qaeda prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. His office has links with the outing of CIA Agent Valarie Plame, which I still do not believe has been investigated fully. His claim that his office does not fall under the Executive branch regarding requirements to turn over material, I believe is absolutely wrong, and I think that he needs to answer for this. He has refused to work with investigators or congress on matters such as his meetings with energy executives, including those of Enron. Furthermore, his belligerent stance on Iran is frightening and worrying to me. Finally, I think that he has served no interest but his own, and that of his friends, specifically and especially with regard to finances, ensuring that his corporate buddies get rich, which much of middle class, and especially the poor, suffer. Mr. Cheney is not above the law, but it seems as though he thinks that he is.

As my elected representative, I ask that you look at this matter, not in partisan light. I ask that you look at it in simple terms of right and wrong. Democrat or Republican aside, what Mr. Cheney is doing is consistently wrong. What Mr. Cheney is doing is consistently wrong for America.

I urge you to consider H Res 333, which outlines further the complaints against Mr. Cheney.

I fear that many Republican politicians will brush this aside as being partisan politics, but I beg you to consider what is really at the heart of this issue, and that is whether or not what Mr. Cheney is doing is right or wrong.

Please support H Res 333. I support the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Sincerely,
Jeremy Williams

A website which will remain nameless

Yknow what I want when I go to an organizations web page? Wait - specifically, an organization that sells stuff to consumers. What I want is to be able to find stuff on it.

Here's what I would consider poor design:

I'm looking for some shoes on your website. When I click on "Mens", and "Shoes", the closest option that I see is "Sneakers", so I click it, but I do not see the shoes that I'm looking for. I go back to "Mens" and "Shoes", but that's the closest thing I see. Then I notice that I'm in something called "New Arrivals". Ok, how about All, or something like that? Nope. No such thing on here. Well, what else is on here. "Clearance". Huh. I'm not looking for clearance, at least, I don't think I am, but I'll try it. Nope, this does not have the shoes I'm looking for either. Let's try a search, we'll put in "shoes". What does that get us? Two pair of shoes that are not the ones we are looking for, and two pages of jeans. Wow. I have no idea how my search for shoes turned up almost no shoes, and a ton of jeans.

This website could only have been less helpful if it stole money from me and/or punched me in the face.

Update

Letseee....


New running shoes. Linky here (PDF). Took them out for 3 miles, then 5 miles. I haven't been doing running updates here as frequently, I guess because it feels kinda repetitious, but also, yknow when you do something more frequently, and it becomes routine instead of an exception, its harder to make a big deal out of it and, for example, blog about. But I did 5 on Sunday in 45 minutes, which is fine time for me.

I did not pay for, but I saw the Transformers movie. I will simply say that I did not enjoy it.

I also saw The Good German, which I did very much enjoy. It's black and white, and filmed and edited in a way that makes it actually appear to be a movie from the 50's. It's chock full of intrigue. I also have to comment that in addition to liking George Clooney in general, I enjoy the protagonist characters that he protrays. Unlike some other movies, in which the hero is tortured mercilessly, and responds by laughing, or taunting the torturer, or singing a bawdy song or something, Clooney's character get beat up routinely, and get their fingernails pulled out. But they still sometimes come out arguably on top, in the end, thanks to their resourcefulness and cleverness. And I like that. I don't need my protagonist to actually be superman.

We watched the first four or five episodes of Doctor Who, which we enjoyed very much. I like Christopher Eccleston (and what I've seen of David Tennant, in the one episode that I've seen of season 3). Eccleston always does intense really well, and I love the ridiculous grin and his seeming seat of the pants approach to things. Also, it was fun to see Simon Pegg play a bad guy in an episode. Pegg rocks.

I am no longer simply gainfully employed. I am now double employed. I got a callback from an employer the other day, interviewed, and am going to go in and do two hours of work/training this evening. A little nervous, but just cause its something new.

That's all that I can think of. Oh - I'm super excited about some of the games coming out for Xbox 360. Now if only Microsoft will drop the price by two or three hundred dollars :)

Shadowrun of Yesterday - 2nd session

Originally dated July 10, 2007:

So last night I got Jason and Davery and Christin together. Our fourth player, my dear wife, was sick with a headcold and dosed up on medicine, so she did not join us.

We got together shortly after 6:30, and immediately set about explaining Shadowrun. Davery and Jason are both old shadowrun fans, but Christin had not played any shadowrun before, so we laid out the setting, and touched on theme and tone. Then, we got right down to character creation. Character creation in TSOY is a simple process, especially when compared to D&D and alot of other systems out there. Still, it took us awhile, because we were teaching our new players how the system works. Eventually, we had shared enough info that we were able to get both of our new players setup with characters. Christin decided to play a gun-adept type who was also proficient with demolitions, and Davery went for the mage. As we went, we continued to explain some of the details of Shadowrun and the TSOY system, spending some time on how the system had abstracted many elements. For instance, in Shadowrun, for gun-types, the kind of gun you have is pretty important. Both from a shopping standpoint, browsing through all of the various types of guns available, to mechanically, when it comes down to figuring out how much damage your gun does. We talked about how that didn't really matter, and in Shadowrun of Yesterday, we assumed that gun-folks have a gun. What type of gun? Well, I asked Christin, "So what type of gun?" She seemed surprised for a second, confused for half a second, then grokked to it, and responded "A cool gun." We went into how Secrets could represent more static elements of play. If having a car, or a really big gun was super important to the character, then they could take a secret to represent it. The other question was related to equipment, and I think that's actually what led into the guns discussion. I told them that they had whatever equipment was appropriate. Guns? Sure. Knives? Ok. Explosives? Well, that's what her character does, so it makes sense that she's have, or have access to, moderate amounts of explosives. Need to blow a door? No problem, you've got that covered. Need to blow up the Sears Tower? That's going to take a little more prep.

Davery seemed a little crestfallen when we told him that there was no Smartgun link in Shadowrun of Yesterday. See, players of shadowrun know that 99 out of 100 people who fire guns for a living have a smartgun link. Its just the norm. But so far, I haven't mirrored it in Shadowrun of Yesterday. Why? Because the mechanical benefit that it creates in Shadowrun is handled differently TSOY rules. Can we put it in there? Sure, I suppose. But it'll mimic some other secrets already available.

Anyway, we got to playing, and I ran them through meeting with Mr. Johnson.

Mr. Johnson was the owner of a corporate retreat facility who wanted them to investigate the kidnapping and randsom of an Ares executive from said corporate retreat place. He let them sniff around the place looking for clues, during which time, of course Jason wanted to muck about a little, and so we did a roll to see if he could sneak out from under the nose of Mr. Johnson and cronies, who were less than interested in these contract employees running around the facility, mixing with the corporate execs.

Sadly, I have let enough time escape that I've forgotten some of the details, mostly the good ones, like our stakes negotiation and so forth. I do recall that this adventure seemed to gravitate toward talking stuff out, and so Jason's character got to really shine - unfortunately a bit to the exclusion of Davery and Christin's characters. This wasn't Jason's fault, and I'll have to pay some mind to crafting adventures so that everyone can take nearly equal part. But everyone did get to roll some dice, and everyone did get some XP. They seemed to enjoy themselves, and I'm looking forward to running it again.

Shadowrun of Yesterday - 1st session

So over the weekend I sat Jason and Krissi down to beta-test (and play, duh) Shadowrun of Yesterday, which is my conversion of Shadowrun to Shadow of Yesterday rules. For the novice, with no clue of what I'm talking about, Shadowrun is a cyberpunk-with-magic game that is pretty "crunchy", or rules heavy. Resolving two guys shooting guns at each other takes awhile since everyone has to roll for each shot, and roll to avoid damage and roll to soak damage, and then shoot back, etc etc etc. Shadow of Yesterday is a rules-light and very flexible system that is geared toward fantasy sword-and-sorcery gaming.

So having come up with a conversion that seemed to work on paper and in my head, I figured we'd give it a real try.

Jason created a "Face" type character, and Krissi created a covert-ops/physical adept type of character. On the fly, I planned a pretty simple delivery run, and quickly arranged for them to meet with Mr. Johnson. It felt a little funny when I said "He explains the job, and offers a price, which is a pretty fair price." It felt a little funny because one of the elements of the games of Shadowrun that I was always in, involved haggling over the cost, and trying to get more cash out of the Johnson, since 'Runners are always starved for cash. Delta grade cyberware is expensive. Anyway, after feeling off balance for just a moment, it kinda resolved itself - Jason had "Key of the Face", and we figured we could make a conflict out of it - I think Jason used "Sway", and I used a "Negotiate" ability for the Johnson. We negotiated stakes that if Jason won the conflict, he would net 2XP for hitting his key, but if he lost, he wouldn't take the XP for hitting the key, and he would have to spend a Pool point from Mind. He won the conflict. Note to self - maybe we should not make "not getting XP" part of stakes. Seems as though that might be somewhat against the spirit of the game.

The Johnson wanted them to deliver a small package to a Research and Development facility across town. Expected resistance? Yes, but small time, no details beyond that. So off they went, into their car, and onto the highway. Only a few minutes passed before they saw the blue lights of a local security corp cruiser behind them. They pulled over, and were ordered out of the car, felony style. Realizing that this was not a usual traffic stop, they decided to cut and run, and hopped into the car, narrowly avoiding being tazed. That was a conflict, btw. Just to keep things interesting and continue flexing the system, Krissi wanted her character to hop back into her car, dukes of hazard style. The cops would of course react, so I told her that we'd go to the dice. If she won, she was in the car and accelerating, if she lost, she got hit with a tazer and was on the ground and hurting and that we'd go from there. She was down with this, and she won. Off they went, and the police cruiser behind them. Now we had a car chase. Again, we went to the dice, deciding that if Krissi won, she'd thrown off her pursuit, but if she lost, that she'd found herself stuck in traffic, the cop pulling up right behind her, with few or no options for continuing in her car. My players were spending pool points, and a couple of gift dice, and I was spending some pool points for my NPCs. They tied, and so no one was successful, Krissi's character didn't evade, but she was still on open road. On the chase went, now down on city streets, instead of on the highway. Another security vehicle pulled in for the chase, and I figured we'd go to dice again. If she won, she lost them in the narrow city streets, but if she lost, she was boxed in by four security cars. ouch! She won. The security vehicles sped off, in futile pursuit of a target that they'd lost.

They proceeded across town, reaching the corporate enclave where the R&D facility was. It was gated and guarded, so they pulled into the line of cars waiting at one of the security gates. After thinking about trying to sneak in, they decided to try their luck with the guards, and so Jason's character straightened his hair and easily talked the security guard into letting them into the facility. It was a conflict, with the stakes being either them being allowed in, or turned away and forced to find another means of entry. Inside, they found the facility and pulled into the parking lot. Just on the fly, and since I wanted to throw something more at them, I decided that there were a couple of guys who wanted to get their hands on the package, and that they'd setup an ambush here in the parking lot. Our characters parked and surveyed the scene, expecting a trap (hey - its shadowrun). They decided that Krissi's character would lurk through the parking lot, basically lying in ambush for any ambushers, while Jason's character headed for the front door. Sure enough, from around the corner a small but armed drone came toward them, while from the other direction a minivan pulled toward them. Krissi's character immediately leapt for the drone, getting XP for Seat Of The Pants, and using one of her Secrets that involved her jumping clean over a parked car, while Jason's character sought cover from the minivan. We went to dice for Krissi, and she won, allowing her to bust up the drone's miniguns, and meanwhile a combat mage stepped out of the van, and Jason's character took a shot at him. We went to dice, Jason wanting to take out the mage, and the mage in turn wanting to take out Jason. Jason lost the contest, and so Brought Down the Pain. The mage's intent was to render Jason's character unconscious - he wanted the package. Jason's intent was simply to resist the manabolts that the mage was going to be throwing at him. I paused here, as Jason and I haggled over intentions for a BDtP, and how it felt to me that Jason's intent was too granular, and seemed more like an action to me. Jason's character had a higher Resist attribute than he did Firearms. We worked out that Jason's character was focusing on resisting the stunning effects of the mage's manabolts, hoping that the mage would take more drain than he could handle and be taken out of the fight. This is an unusual use of this ability. Normally, the Resist ability, which is innate, is defensive only, and you cannot cause harm with it. Well, the whole point of BDtP is to cause harm to your opponent and make your intent come to pass. It only took one round for Jason to realize that if he was being Defensive only, that he'd inevitably loose the fight. He wanted to use Resist to cause Harm to the mage. Winging it, I told him sure, and that we'd work out the details afterward, so the mage used his Destruction ability, while Jason used his Resist ability. I wanted this to be Parallel, or that they would both be damaging each other. Jason wanted it to be Perpendicular, where the winner did harm to the loser. We'd rolled, the mage getting one success, and Jason getting four successes. I argued that it would be possible for the mage to do one harm to Jason, while taking four harm himself, from Drain. Jason wanted the mage to take three harm, and none himself. I relented, when it seemed clear that neither of us were going to be completely persuaded to the other perspective. So we went a few more rounds, with Jason consistently rolling better than the mage was, and soon the mage dropped out of the conflict, causing Jason's intent to come to pass. They'd taken out their opposition, and now had an unobstructed path to the door. Still not wanting to "give up", I threw a little more opposition at them, a cybered up street samurai came around from behind the van, a katana raised over his head. Krissi declared that her character would rush to meet him, and wanted a close combat ability check, but wanted to use her Athletics to support it, hoping for some bonus dice. I told her sure, that her successes or failures would give her bonus or penalty dice on the combat roll, and decided that in turn, the street sam would use his Battle ability, looking for an advantage, to mirror Krissi's mechanics. She got like four bonus dice, while the street sam only got two. We rolled the conflict and she won, handily sending the street sam to the pavement. They walked into the facility, made the hand off, and were done.

It seemed to go well to me, and both players seemed to enjoy themselves. Jason is an old school shadowrun fan, who enjoys the game, likes the hard "crunch" of the system, but agrees that its sorta broken and takes a long time and gets bogged down in numbers. So, Shadowrun of Yesterday seemed mostly sweet for him, while still missing a little of the crunchiness of the regular shadowrun system.

We'll be playing again this evening, Krissi and Jason will be reprising their roles, and we'll have Davery and Christin joining us for more playing and testing fun.

So I did the Firecracker 5k again this year. It was hot again. They did not have any hot dogs or anything afterward, again, which I'd forgotten about. And I only gripe because other 5k events have it, and I was sure looking forward to some yummy junk food.

But I was a goodly bit slower this year, 26:52. Disappointing, but I'll live. I'm glad I got out and ran it. Better next year I suppose.

Hrm, what else - Werewolf goes well, Davery has joined us and played a session, and apparently enjoyed himself. We're still every other week, due to people's schedules, and that's okay.

Also, in the interim: Shadowrun of Yesterday!