When It Doesn't Matter and Yet Does.

When I first started playing Dungeons & Dragons the only consequence for doing an evil act was the empty threat of an alignment shift that would never come - and on the few occasions that it actually happened there was no meaningful change in the game for me or my character. Non-player characters didn't become more adverse to dealing with me. Magic didn't stop working for me. There was literally no reason, other than my own personal preference, for me to worry about being a terrible bastard in the game world. 

The Death of Sardanapalus by Eugène Delacroix

The alignments that we were playing, and the actions that we performed in the game worlds that impacted those alignments and the game's denizens, held no meaning. We may as well have played without the alignments and just simply gone through the game without them - yet that would have been a mistake because we agonized over what alignment we were going to play. And when the threat of an alignment shift was made it often resulted in a change in the player's behavior to avoid the shift.

Clearly the alignments mattered to us in a meaningful way but it was how they were reflected in the game world that was causing the problem. So how do we fix that? How do we make our actions have a meaningful response in the game that not only rewards the choices of a character in the game but that provides them with consequences that feel appropriate to their actions?

Contemplating Entering the ENnies.

I'm contemplating entering this year's ENnies. The problem is that I have to select a single post to give them for a representative of my blog. One that will make them be all, "OMG I NEEDZ DIS BOGGERS!"

Well, that's probably not what they're going to sound like since they're not from the back woods. Still I need a post to select for them to read. The time period runs from May 1, 2014 to April 30, 2015 and I've got to pick just one. Any suggestions out there? Nobody Makes It Out Alive?

I'm kind of stumped.

Questions about Rary and Robilar

I'm looking into Rary and Robilar for an upcoming post and I'm kind of stumped on resources. Does anyone know of some good resources to use for researching the duo?

Trying to Find the Future by Looking Back at You.

Reliving the previous cycles of edition wars and the associated outrages over race, sex, and all the other moral offenses can allow you to weather the current tempests by providing you with the long view on things. "This too shall pass," is a maxim that will cross your mind time and again as you see the latest controversy flare up and sides are taken; but there's a danger in too frequently living in the past. You become dull and repeat the old standards (Gary said . . .) without consideration for the wider implications. Worse still you stagnate.

I think that most of us would do anything to avoid that stagnation and I think that's why so many of us latch onto the most relevant topics of the day, clinging to them like they were a life raft to relevancy. We want to matter and to have people listen to our words of wisdom. We all want to be the blog that people check first thing in the morning and the last one they check in the evening. We want to be thought of as smart and clever so we use our biggest words when we write and pray that no one realizes that we had to look up their meanings before posting that latest article. 

It's easy to naval gaze once you start seeing success and to constantly remind everyone that you broke this important story or that you've written this article that everyone read on reddit. Doing that though is the first step backwards towards becoming the sort of myopic topic of derision so many people make fun of when it comes to this hobby. So how do you remain relevant when you're holding onto the past?

I don't have all the answers, but sometimes I just want to say these things out loud.

Ptolus, Anyone?

Okay I've often wondered about +Monte Cook's Ptolus book but at $60.00 it's really hard to even consider pulling the trigger. Can anyone tell me anything about this thing? Is it worth buy at the $60 pdf price point? Or even the $110 combo price point?

Is really that good?

It Can't be Just Me? Can It?

A lot of times when you see me posting on here I'm trying to figure out an answer to some question that's been bothering me lately. Tonight the question that keeps bouncing about my head is: Why do some people feel the need to go after "soft" targets rather than directly dealing with the individual who has pissed them off.

Without calling people out (because the conversation is long since done and dead) I watched as a certain blogger, Blogger A, was engaged in a conversation about misogyny when another blogger, Blogger B, came along and started accusing Blogger A of using his female friends for personal gain. The conversation went about how you'd expect at that time, but then Blogger B went out of their way to attack Blogger A's long time girlfriend.

Why? Why go out of your way to attack someone else when your problem is directly with a person you're currently dealing with? 

Let me put this another way. If my wife and her friends got all excited to be involved in a photoshoot that would draw attention not just to my own efforts but theirs as well why act like I'm using them to get the attention? Why then go out of your way to call them names and belittle their choices? 

What the fuck is wrong with some people?

Laser Guns and Pirates for the Win!

Flying through space on a galleon and wondering why your cigar smoke won't escape into the nothingness below you isn't a fun way to do Dungeons and Dragons in space, but it's how many of us have been suffering through the game when we dare to leave the confines of our gaming world. 

Why?

Why do we allow ourselves to be hamstrung by the idea that we must hold to the conventions of a medieval world even when we're bringing in futuristic technology? Why do we roll our eyes and nudge each other at the very idea of playing a game of Dungeons and Dragons IN SPACE? 

I've dealt with it myself (see This Will End Well Part 1: Bad Ideas and Whispered Threats for more) and every time that I run across it I'm a bit mystified as to why the two concepts should be so alien to one and another. Perhaps this is one of those times when I'm out in the weeds but why is it so easy to accept that a man can conjure up a poisonous gas out of thin air, and that he then unleashes that vile miasma on fictional creatures that defy logic and any semblance of evolution, yet the idea of this same person climbing into a rocket and dashing off to Mars is viewed as a fucking joke? 

I would love to know why we can accept the one and not the other.

Calling on the Gaming Brain Trust for Help!

From left to right: Ernie Gygax, Scott Schwartz, Simon Todd, Andy

Last night I was working my way through the blogs for this week's Best Reads of the Week when I came across this picture. +Alexis Smolensk of the Tao of D&D has been involved in an argument with another blogger (see The Real Deal for more) and published this picture with the individuals labeled as Gary Gygax, David Trampier, Aaron Aalston, and Tom Moldvay. I think he got that impression after reading a post by +Jay Murphy from his blog The Vanishing Tower. In the post, The Health of Gaming Today, Jay was talking about the deaths of Gygax, Trampier, Aalston, and Moldvay and posted this picture which could easily lead to the misnomers.

See I know for a fact that the gentleman on the lower left side of the frame is +Ernie Gygax and that this photo was taken at Gary Con this year (Ernie Gygax has also confirmed that it is him in that picture). That means that Tom Moldvay could not be present since he died April 24, 2007. Similarly Aaron Aalston could not have been present for this picture as he passed in February, nearly a full month before this picture was taken. We also know that David Trampier did not attend this year's Gary Con as he died before the convention began. So who's in the picture with Ernie?

[[Edit 6/14/2014]] Thanks to Guy Fullerton and +Michael Curtis we now know that the gentlemen on the right, farthest back is illustrator Simon Todd. Next to him is his friend Andy. That leaves only the gentleman in the upper left next to +Ernie Gygax to discover. 

[[Edit 6/14/2014]] Thanks to the eagle eyed Guy Fullerton we know the identity of the last gentleman. His name is Scott Schwartz! Thank you all for helping me fill in these names and for getting their identities correct! I really appreciate all of your help!

Who Are the Wizards Fifteen?

This morning I wrote a piece, You've Got Them Beat 3 to 1? Are You Sure That's a Good Thing?, discussing the differences between the staff sizes of Wizards of the Coast and Paizo. Since that time I've had a question rolling around in my brain: who are the fifteen people working on D&D for Wizards of the Coast?

Questions like these tend to roll about in my head from time to time and I prefer to know the answers rather than leave them to dig at me. Here's what I've come up with, a list of fifteen names with those I know for sure are included and blanks for the rest. Can you help me fill in the rest?

The Wizards Fifteen

1. Mike Mearls	Senior Manager
2. Rodney Thompson	R&D
3. Jeremy Crawford	Editor & Developer
4. Greg Bilsland	D&D Producer
5. Chris Perkins	D&D Producer
6. Peter Lee	R&D
7. Matt Sernett	R&D
8. Chris Sims	R&D
9. Trevor Kidd	Community Manager
10. Shelly Mezzanoble	Associate Brand Manager
11. Chris Tulach	Program Manager, Organized Play
12. Nathan Stewart	Brand Director & Executive Producer
13. Nina Hess	Editor-in-Chief, D&D Novels

14. Ed Greenwood?
15. ?

Asking for a Little Help

So I'm trying to write an introduction to my blog that's better than the one I've currently got over in the About this Blog link in the upper right of your screen. The current one sucks.

Here's the thing, I am really hitting a creative wall here and would like some help. So I'm putting it out there to you guys. How would you describe my blog? What posts do you feel are the best introduction for new readers?

Help a brother out here. 

Gen Con Strangeness

This morning I was looking at the Gen Con website, lamenting the fact that I won't be there yet again, when I noticed that the sponsors for this year's Gen Con are Paizo and Mayfair Games. What I find so odd about that combination is that last year Wizards was one of the sponsors for Gen Con - which is cool and all - but this year, with the launch of the new edition they're not. 

It seems so damned peculiar that this years Gen Con wouldn't be essentially the Wizards and Mayfair show (let's be honest, Mayfair ain't going anywhere). 

Am I wrong here?

Sunday Hopes, Far Flung Plans, and Questions.

Projects, projects, projects.

1. Great Blog Roll Call Redux: This continues along at an incredibly sluggish pace due to my restricted bandwidth and due to the sheer size of the damned thing. Since I published the original version of the GBRC I've read nearly 10,000 blog posts and have written up introductions to more than 300 blogs. I'm hopeful that by the time I post the Redux that I'll have been able to push that number higher, but this project is a killer. 

2.  Preparing for Fifth Edition: I wish that I could say this has been moving along swimmingly but the truth is that my creativity in this avenue has been stymied by my lack of ability to share anything publicly. One of the great things about having a blog like this is that I can put out my ideas on where I want to go with the skills or other abilities and other players will show up and leave me some really great notes on the subject. 

3. February Art Fest: Really has been going well so far. I've seen a noticeable up tick in views on these posts which is really quite cool. Comments have been fun and I love hearing about what pieces people identify with and why. Love this project and I'm so glad that others have been coming along for the ride. 

d6 Random Questions

1. Why is it that some folks seem to feel it necessary to shit on those of us who weren't around for the earlier discussions? No, I wasn't here for the great Alignment debates of '08 or for the Carcosa persecutions. So fuck off and let me talk about them without asking me why we're still talking about these things.

2. Who has the best blog out there in the blogging landscape? I'm genuinely interested in this answer because I want to see who is the considered the best and then figure out what makes them so great. Is it their writing style? The topics they cover? Their longevity? Their posting frequency? 

3. Why is ABBA in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? What about Dancing Queen screems Rock or Roll?

4. Which is the better read, The Man of Gold by M.A.R. Barker or City of Hawks by Gary Gygax? I have both and am trying to decide between the two. 

5. Over the last few years I've completely convinced myself that James M. Ward is a fucking amazing guy. Am I completely off my rocker here or is he actually that cool?

6. Has anyone ever figured out how to keep a 2 year old clean? Cause that shit's eluding me.

RPG News Sites?

I'm looking for a good RPG News site that isn't EN World.

Over the last few weeks I've become dissatisfied with how EN World "reports" and would really like something that is better than an aggregate for press releases. Anybody out there got any suggestions?

I don't know, maybe I'm asking too much but I'd really like to find a site that actually reports on events going on in the hobby in a way that isn't complete crap.

Honest to God Asking for Help Here.

What are Linear Fighters and Quadratic Wizards?

I saw someone bitching about them over on Google+ and I haven't the slightest idea what any of that gobbly gook means in English. Can anyone, please, explain that non-sense up there to me?

Baking Potatoes and Contemplating Being Left Behind

On Saturday I bought a Playstation 3. It's quite an achievement for me as it's the first new system I've bought in fourteen years - my last was the Playstation 2 which I got two weeks after launch. I had been contemplating buying a Playstation 4 but eventually decided against it once I started reading about the blue light of death that seems to be creeping through their systems right now. Sony is being far more receptive to fixing the problem than Microsoft was when the Red Rings started cropping up, but I just don't have the tolerance for dealing with that sort of hardware problem on a six hundred dollar purchase (almost eight hundred when you throw in the second controller and a video game); and while I don't mind dealing with Customer Service the unacceptably long wait times with Sony (according to the Amazon reviews the average wait time with customer service has been around two hours) would only have me working my way up into the company until I hit somebody with some real weight and chewed their ass until I got the damned thing fixed. 

Honestly though, I just don't have the willingness to go through all that with a new system anymore. 

So I bought the Playstation 3 and two games (Borderlands 2 and Last of Us) for $250 and I have to tell you that I am completely blown away by the experience with these games. You have to remember that the last system I bought had chunky looking people and functioned on a level that we thought of as revolutionary at the time and now realize was one incredibly bad step above utter crap. The game play is phenomenal and the graphics are so beautiful that there are times when I'm looking at these games and just enjoying their beauty. 

I've never done that with any other game before and I can't wait to buy more games for this system. 

But I'm baking potatoes and a pork loin for lunch with the little boy and I find myself contemplating how far behind the game play mechanics I have become in such a short amount of time. When I was playing my old system I could manipulate the controller with the best of them and even when playing against a semi-pro player I could manage to win a match or two. Yet when I put in Last of Us and started playing on Hard, as was my usual practice back in the day, I found that I just didn't have the wherewithal to pull it off.

Now I'm relearning how to play the modern games while saving up to purchase a Playstation 4 after all of its bugs have been worked out and Destiny has been released, and I find myself wondering if I'm the only one who's been this far behind and decided to catch back up?

In Search of a Villain

Over the years I've played in countless campaigns and I'm always struck at how rarely I've encountered a real villain. Oh sure, there have been caricatures of villains here and there but so often it seems as though the Dungeon Master's I've played under have been afraid to let a villain be truly evil. It's almost as though they're afraid that if they do so that the game will somehow be less entertaining and enjoyable then if they throw out these easily defeated foes. 

So my question for all of you out there is this: have you ever encountered a villain in game that you'd really call evil. What did they do that made them evil? What made them worth your time as a player to put forth the effort to actually go out there and thwart their vile plans?

Edit

I was asked to provide a description of the sort of villain that gets my juices flowing. So here goes. 

I am tired of villains who are shades of gray. We've all seen them and they were novel when they first came out in the thirties and we started identifying with every character in literature but they've come to dominate our imaginations both in the game and in our daily lives. We no longer have a vile, despicable villain to hate. 

I want a villain who compels me to get off my ass and do everything that I can to fight him. I want a villain who walks in the room and we all look over and know that this fucker must die. I want him to commit acts of villainy. I want him to kill villages and kidnap princesses. I want him to be Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot. I want a villain and not some knock off that I'm having to identify with. I'm fine with the rest of the world being shades of gray where I have to understand what they're doing and how their cultures impact the world around them - but let my villain be a stark, blood drenched, black in this world. 

That's what I'm looking for, in a nut shell.

Stumbling On the Amazing Engine

This evening my brother gave me a copy of the Amazing Engine Bughunters book from TSR. Has anyone ever played this thing?

Half a Billion Dollars.

The Mega Millions Lottery is set to draw tonight and the prize for the whole thing is $586 million dollars. So I want to know what the top ten things you would buy if you won (excluding paying off bills). Seriously, we spend all our time playing Dungeons and Dragons I bet that there are a thousand unbelieveably great ideas out there!

So what's yours?

--------------------------------------------- UPDATE --------------------------------------------------

The Mega Millions Lottery was just announced at $636 million. Holy fuck balls that's a lot of money. I hope I win, and if you win I hope you give me some of it! : D

Is Blogger Acting Funny?

Is Blogger acting funny for anyone else or is there something seriously wrong with my browser?

None of the blogs I'm looking at are showing more than their latest post in the view screen and I have to go into the older posts tab to see anything else.

Kits?

Can someone please explain the Kits from Second Edition to me?

From what I've been able to read it looks like they're equivalent to a background system for your character in Second, but I'm sure that there's more to them than that. What am I missing here?