The Beatles: Rock Band arrived in the mail yesterday. Very fun, very fun indeed—who DOESN'T like the Beatles? I can't think of anyone. This game is Beautifully crafted. The opening sequence starts with an homage to the opening sequence of A Hard Days Night done in a very stylized 2D cartoon reminiscent of 60's era T.V. animation and then highlights the bands albums in a beautiful blend of 3D renditions of that iconic artwork.
Game play is mostly the same as in previous Rock Band implementations with a few small changes: Overdrive has been thematically changed to "Beatlemania" and there is even an option that can be turned on that scales the Crowd Noise up to more realistic levels when Beatlemania is engaged. During Sustained notes the whammy bar can be used as in previous Rock Band games to collect extra Beatlemania, but unlike previous iterations of the game it does not warp the audio. Similarly when you are doing badly the aural cue of a mis-strummed guitar string has been toned down to almost nothing and booing crowds have been removed altogether.
Because the Beatles stopped being a touring band and moved onto being a studio band in the latter part of the Group's history the nature of the game visuals change at that point. Songs generally start depicting the band in studio and as you play the song the studio fades away into what has been dubbed "Dreamscapes." These dreamscapes are visually stunning "music video" style animations reminiscent of The Beatle's Movies (i.e. Help!, Yellow Submarine, and Magical Mystery Tour). These dreamscapes are crafted with a lot of love for the band and I almost failed out a couple times when playing Yellow Submarine because I was trying to watch the dreamscape and play at the same time.
Having played Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Guitar Hero 5, and now The Beatles: Rock Band—I still feel that Guitar Hero is a better Game. The Guitar Hero Philosophy of Musical Rhythm Game trend toward the elements of Game and each installment of the series has sought to improve the playability and fun factor by adding new elements of game that either add challenge for seasoned players, or make it easier to play the game in a party/group setting—which is the ideal way to pretend you're playing in a band. Rock Band's Philosophy of Musical Rhythm Games trend more toward simulation, attempting to simulate the act of playing a real guitar or drums as closely as possible on Plastic Toy Iterations of said instruments—this sometimes results in repetitious gameplay.
Rock band was created by the creators of Guitar Hero after they lost the developmental rights, and Rock Band out Guitar Heroed Guitar Hero. Then Activision who retained the rights to the Gutar Hero Name enlisted the help of subsidiary Neversoft and Out Rock Banded Rock Band with Guitar Hero III. Rock Band 2 came out and was Rock Band with more songs, and very little in the way of competitive game improvements. Guitar Hero World tour and Guitar Hero 5 have continued to add new elements of gameplay and innovation. While The Beatles Rock Band is Extremely Fun and visually stunning, and a lovingly crafted, masterful, and artistic tribute to the Fab Four—as far as gameplay goes it's Rock Band with a retread—functionally the same.
Actually, I forgot—Three Part Harmony has been added to Rock Band: Beatles, but we haven't tried that out yet.
As a Game—Guitar Hero is Better. The Reason to have Rock Band 2 is the Sheer Amount of Music available in the game and as Download-able Content. The reason to have The Beatles: Rock Band is a no brainer—The Beatles. The Beautiful Visuals and the Awesome Sound of the Fab Four Make up for the fact that they haven't really updated the Gameplay since Rock Band (Three Part Harmony Notwithstanding).
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Your Japanese Lesson for the Day Brought to You By Nostalgia From my Youth
Kaiju: Literal Translation—Strange Beast. Often used to describe a Genre of Film depicting Giant Monsters Typified by Godzilla.
Even when I was a kid I loved Movies. I don't know why, but I found that I had the attention span for them that a lot of my peers did not. One that I was always excited to watch when it was on T.V. (and tried to share with friends on multiple occasions with less than stellar results) was King Kong vs. Godzilla. It is available on DVD today.
I never know if these movies will stand up to the test of time. I always looked forward to the 1976 version of King Kong when it was on as well. When Peter Jackson remade King Kong a few years ago I borrowed the 1976 film from the library and was severely let down—it wasn't as good as I remembered—now that I'm thinking about it, the reason I recall a better movie is possibly because in editing it for T.V. it was improved by getting rid of a lot of unnecessary fluff. I also got the original 1933 version and watched it as well. The 1933 version is spectacular, there's a reason that version is a classic and it's not just because it's the original; it is a genuinely great movie.
Anyway, King Kong vs. Godzilla makes Kong a lot bigger than he ever was in previous incarnations, so as to match the scale of the much larger Godzilla. This also marks the first time either monster was filmed in color.
Even when I was a kid I loved Movies. I don't know why, but I found that I had the attention span for them that a lot of my peers did not. One that I was always excited to watch when it was on T.V. (and tried to share with friends on multiple occasions with less than stellar results) was King Kong vs. Godzilla. It is available on DVD today.
I never know if these movies will stand up to the test of time. I always looked forward to the 1976 version of King Kong when it was on as well. When Peter Jackson remade King Kong a few years ago I borrowed the 1976 film from the library and was severely let down—it wasn't as good as I remembered—now that I'm thinking about it, the reason I recall a better movie is possibly because in editing it for T.V. it was improved by getting rid of a lot of unnecessary fluff. I also got the original 1933 version and watched it as well. The 1933 version is spectacular, there's a reason that version is a classic and it's not just because it's the original; it is a genuinely great movie.
Anyway, King Kong vs. Godzilla makes Kong a lot bigger than he ever was in previous incarnations, so as to match the scale of the much larger Godzilla. This also marks the first time either monster was filmed in color.
More Roleplaying with My Three Year Old
When I put her to bed last night, she was a little disappointed that we had not played Candyland for family night. I told her that we could play tomorrow, and she suggested that we play the story game with the dice again.
This time she told a story with Princess Mommy. I introduced a ghost that made an etherial wooooo sound. She wanted to smash the ghost and I told her that her hand went right through the ghost. She didn't want to accept that outcome. I suggested that we roll the dice to see if she was scared by the ghost (an opposed guts check for the Savage Worlds savvy). She send the plush d6 across the floor for a four. I rolled for the ghost and got a two. I told her that she scared the ghost with all her trying to smash it and he ran away. She said that she smashed the ghost and it's head came off and it went down the stairs and outside to the car and that she took the head to the ghost—she really gets a kick out of making up these outlandish stories.
I'm not sure where she gets these ideas about smashing and decapitation of the incorporeal undead. She almost exclusively watches Disney Princess Movies—some of which are scary I'm aware; she prefers to stick to the non scary ones like Cinderella. I suppose the most violent thing we've exposed her to are stories from the Book of Mormon—and some of those are fairly brutal.
I know I watched a lot of violent cartoons and such as a kid, and I'm a very non-confrontational non-violent person. In fact, I was watching some Tom and Jerry a while ago and was a little shocked—it had been so long since I had seen anything like that—even the "violent" Saturday morning cartoons presently in syndication pale in comparison. It was almost a little unnerving, but then I read some of the Grimm Brothers collected fairy tales and realized that there is a rich history of exposing our children to the cruelties of the world through "entertainment." It's almost better to expose them to such things in a safe environment where you can explain that things aren't always nice, but we should always strive to be civil and Christlike. Seriously, the Scriptures contain some of the most Brutal and twisted "stories" I know—and these are the stories we use to teach our children to differentiate wright and wrong.
To bring things back around to the original topic. Role Playing is an excellent tool for teaching kids, especially when they are young and have no social stigma associated with games of imagination—which kids just take to naturally notwithstanding. They can learn cause and effect in an environment of parental control. They can learn math. They can learn social interaction. They can learn the highly abstract subject of statistics in a practical hands on way and so much more.
More Role Playing With My Three Year Old
This time she told a story with Princess Mommy. I introduced a ghost that made an etherial wooooo sound. She wanted to smash the ghost and I told her that her hand went right through the ghost. She didn't want to accept that outcome. I suggested that we roll the dice to see if she was scared by the ghost (an opposed guts check for the Savage Worlds savvy). She send the plush d6 across the floor for a four. I rolled for the ghost and got a two. I told her that she scared the ghost with all her trying to smash it and he ran away. She said that she smashed the ghost and it's head came off and it went down the stairs and outside to the car and that she took the head to the ghost
I'm not sure where she gets these ideas about smashing and decapitation of the incorporeal undead. She almost exclusively watches Disney Princess Movies—some of which are scary I'm aware; she prefers to stick to the non scary ones like Cinderella. I suppose the most violent thing we've exposed her to are stories from the Book of Mormon—and some of those are fairly brutal.
I know I watched a lot of violent cartoons and such as a kid, and I'm a very non-confrontational non-violent person. In fact, I was watching some Tom and Jerry a while ago and was a little shocked—it had been so long since I had seen anything like that—even the "violent" Saturday morning cartoons presently in syndication pale in comparison. It was almost a little unnerving, but then I read some of the Grimm Brothers collected fairy tales and realized that there is a rich history of exposing our children to the cruelties of the world through "entertainment." It's almost better to expose them to such things in a safe environment where you can explain that things aren't always nice, but we should always strive to be civil and Christlike. Seriously, the Scriptures contain some of the most Brutal and twisted "stories" I know—and these are the stories we use to teach our children to differentiate wright and wrong.
To bring things back around to the original topic. Role Playing is an excellent tool for teaching kids, especially when they are young and have no social stigma associated with games of imagination—which kids just take to naturally notwithstanding. They can learn cause and effect in an environment of parental control. They can learn math. They can learn social interaction. They can learn the highly abstract subject of statistics in a practical hands on way and so much more.
More Role Playing With My Three Year Old
Monday, September 14, 2009
Role Playing With My Three Year Old Daughter
For her first birthday I gave my first daughter her first set of dice.
Big Plush Dice. We were sitting in her room recently and I was helping her clean up her toys. I grabbed a plush d6 off the floor and she told me that she likes dice and that Daddy plays games with them. I asked her if she wanted to play those games and she said yes. I asked her if she knew what kind of games they were and she was not sure.
I told her that they were storytelling games. I started "Once upon a time there was a princess named...?" She silently mouthed her name.
"This princess was walking through the forest one day when alooong came a spider and sat down beside her...and what did she do?"
—She kind of shrugged. I encouraged her tell me what she would do if there was a spider. She still was being hesitant.
"This spider was a biiiig spider, as big as your house, and it was hairy all over, and has big giant fangs!!"
She still didn't want to give in and tell me what she would do. So I prodded her a little.
"Would you Be Scared?"
—No (with that, 'Dad-you-know-me-better-that-that' tone in her voice).
"Would you fight the spider?"
—No.
"Well what would you do if there was a big giant spider, with eight Giant Eyes and ..."
I was trying to just come up with a situation for rolling the die so she had a basic understanding of why Dad likes dice so much and why he likes to share that obsession with her; and as imaginative as she is she was being a little hesitant. When all of a sudden the light clicked on and she realized that she could say anything.
—I would have a sword! A green one! And the Spider would Eat it!!
"Would it hurt the spider?"
—No, it would throw it up. Then it would go to its mommy and ask for a cloth.
I didn't get that at first, but after a few probing questions found that it was for cleaning up the throw-up.
Then the dog started barking like he does when someone is at the door. There was no one there—he does that a lot too, sometimes I swear he's hearing phantom noises. Unfortunately, that disrupted our little imagination game and we never did end up rolling the die.
More Role Playing With My Three Year Old Daughter
Big Plush Dice. We were sitting in her room recently and I was helping her clean up her toys. I grabbed a plush d6 off the floor and she told me that she likes dice and that Daddy plays games with them. I asked her if she wanted to play those games and she said yes. I asked her if she knew what kind of games they were and she was not sure.
I told her that they were storytelling games. I started "Once upon a time there was a princess named...?" She silently mouthed her name.
"This princess was walking through the forest one day when alooong came a spider and sat down beside her...and what did she do?"
—She kind of shrugged. I encouraged her tell me what she would do if there was a spider. She still was being hesitant.
"This spider was a biiiig spider, as big as your house, and it was hairy all over, and has big giant fangs!!"
She still didn't want to give in and tell me what she would do. So I prodded her a little.
"Would you Be Scared?"
—No (with that, 'Dad-you-know-me-better-that-that' tone in her voice).
"Would you fight the spider?"
—No.
"Well what would you do if there was a big giant spider, with eight Giant Eyes and ..."
I was trying to just come up with a situation for rolling the die so she had a basic understanding of why Dad likes dice so much and why he likes to share that obsession with her; and as imaginative as she is she was being a little hesitant. When all of a sudden the light clicked on and she realized that she could say anything.
—I would have a sword! A green one! And the Spider would Eat it!!
"Would it hurt the spider?"
—No, it would throw it up.
I didn't get that at first, but after a few probing questions found that it was for cleaning up the throw-up.
Then the dog started barking like he does when someone is at the door. There was no one there—he does that a lot too, sometimes I swear he's hearing phantom noises. Unfortunately, that disrupted our little imagination game and we never did end up rolling the die.
More Role Playing With My Three Year Old Daughter
Sunday, September 13, 2009
BattleLore—Not Made for Midnight
A fiend of mine came over Friday Night. We repaired a Guitar Hero Guitar and then proceeded to play Guitar Hero 5 untill we started getting worse every time we played. He turned to me and asked if I wanted to play BattleLore—I foolishly answered in the affirmative.
He started setting it up. To understand what that means, you must understand that BattleLore is a board game with the spirit of a table top miniature war game. Playing tabletop miniature war games generally involves purchasing your army one or a few models at a time, assembling and painting said models, in addition to having a table large enough to do so. BattleLore givees you a Large Board to deploy your units on, and a lot of miniatures with no need to paint.
So he had half the game set up when it donned on me that I really just wanted to go to bed, but you don't just half set up this game and then put it back in the box—it takes almost twice the effort to put it away as it does to set up. BattleLore uses the Command and Colors system, which is a game mechanic used for simplified miniature war gaming that is used in a number of games (Battle Cry, Command and Colors: Ancients, Memoir 44, and BattleLore). What's different is that BattleLore is essentially the Hundred Years Wars re-imagined with Fantasy races and magic.
Which is kind of interesting if you know a little about the history of Role Playing Games. In the 70's Gary Gygax was an avid historical miniature war gamer. He wrote a book that added medieval fantasy elements to tabletop miniature war gaming called Chain Mail—which later evolved into Dungeons and Dragons.
As much as I like BattleLore, I just wanted the game to be over so I could go to bed. The thing about this game is the amount of luck involved in winning. Strategy and tactics help; but the mechanic for fighting involves dice. You could play your cards in such a manner that you have six dice to roll vs your opponent, and have not one of those dice score a hit. You could also be rolling as little as two dice in melee combat and take out three of your opponent's troops.
So we played until two in the morning. The thing was, I was so tired that I kept trying to attack my own units, so I would venture to say BattleLore is not intended to be played by those that are only half conscious.
He started setting it up. To understand what that means, you must understand that BattleLore is a board game with the spirit of a table top miniature war game. Playing tabletop miniature war games generally involves purchasing your army one or a few models at a time, assembling and painting said models, in addition to having a table large enough to do so. BattleLore givees you a Large Board to deploy your units on, and a lot of miniatures with no need to paint.
So he had half the game set up when it donned on me that I really just wanted to go to bed, but you don't just half set up this game and then put it back in the box—it takes almost twice the effort to put it away as it does to set up. BattleLore uses the Command and Colors system, which is a game mechanic used for simplified miniature war gaming that is used in a number of games (Battle Cry, Command and Colors: Ancients, Memoir 44, and BattleLore). What's different is that BattleLore is essentially the Hundred Years Wars re-imagined with Fantasy races and magic.
Which is kind of interesting if you know a little about the history of Role Playing Games. In the 70's Gary Gygax was an avid historical miniature war gamer. He wrote a book that added medieval fantasy elements to tabletop miniature war gaming called Chain Mail—which later evolved into Dungeons and Dragons.
As much as I like BattleLore, I just wanted the game to be over so I could go to bed. The thing about this game is the amount of luck involved in winning. Strategy and tactics help; but the mechanic for fighting involves dice. You could play your cards in such a manner that you have six dice to roll vs your opponent, and have not one of those dice score a hit. You could also be rolling as little as two dice in melee combat and take out three of your opponent's troops.
So we played until two in the morning. The thing was, I was so tired that I kept trying to attack my own units, so I would venture to say BattleLore is not intended to be played by those that are only half conscious.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD!!!
I've had Play the Game by Queen, Contrecoup and one line of With the Dark by They Might Be Giants all mashing themselves together in my head for the past two days and I'm starting to lose my mind. I think Guitar Hero 5 will be in the mail tonight—perhaps that will help.
Games I've Played Recently
I haven't made a post like this for a while.
Stone Age—
Remember when I wrote about Agricola? We've taken to calling Stone Age, Agricola Lite. It has a very similar feeling to it, without the soul crushing difficulty. You have a tribe that has entered the age of agriculture. Each round you take your tribe members and set them to a number of tasks one task at a time (building tools, having children, gathering resources, using said resources to build huts or other advances in civilization) around the table until everyone is out of tribe members (Much like the family members in Agricola). Then each player takes a turn in which they resolve all of those actions in the order they choose, thus resetting the board back to the original state. Everyone then feeds each of their tribe members (Just like in Agricola) Empty Cards and Hut spaces are replaced and then the first player status moves to the next player and you all go at it again. The game ends when there are no more replacement huts available for the next round—at that point you count up victory points and the player with the most wins.
I like stone age, because it feels like Agricola (Which I find that I unwillingly enjoy as it beats me into submission)—but isn't hard like Agricola.
Dominion—
Dominion is a very unique card game. All the cards are divided into piles of identical cards, and the box is designed to keep all the cards in said piles. Then you have a pile of cards that has one of each type of card—you shuffle this deck and then deal ten cards off of it and pull those piles out and set them where every one can reach. There are three piles of treasure cards and three piles of victory point cards. Every one starts with three victory point cards and seven treasure cards.
Each round you deal yourself five cards from your deck and have one action and one buy. The first round you have no action cards so you buy one from one of the ten action card piles (or treasure from the three treasure card piles or victory points from the three victory card piles) based on how much treasure you have. Then you place all those cards in a personal discard pile. The second round you will also not have an action card so you will buy what you can afford with your treasure cards. At that point you've discarded all ten of the original cards you were dealt plus the two cards you purchased, then you shuffle your discard pile and deal again. Action cards allow things like more buys, more actions, bonus treasure etc. As you play your deck gets bigger and bigger. At the beginning of the game the trick is to amass money, and at some point in the game you want to switch to amassing victory points. The game ends when the six point victory point pile is gone, or three other piles are gone. Then you count victory points.
I like Dominion because once you understand the mechanics it is very fast. Each game is different because the available cards are different. There are a lot of different strategies you can try, and those will change from game to game based on the available action cards.
I only had one game of Dominion that I didn't enjoy. It was a two player game and at first I was doing okay. But my opponent found himself in a position where he was finding it difficult to amass treasure, but he had stumbled into an order of play that allowed him to use his entire deck every turn. This particular game had an action card that allowed the distribution of negative victory points (curses) to your opponent which he was doing so at an exponential rate. By the time I started to counter that it was too late. the round ended and though I had easily bested him at amassing victory points, he had decimated me with enough curses to negate almost all said points. The only reason I didn't like that game was that his turns were so long, and by the time I adjusted my tactics to counter his strategy it was too late.
That game just emphasized how different the game plays based on the random ten action card piles you end up using.
Acquire—
Acquire is a business building/stock buying game. You win by having the most money. You have a grid and tiles that have specific places that they belong on the grid that you draw randomly. Each turn you place one of the tiles in your hand onto the grid. If you place two tiles next to each other then you can start a business and purchase stock in that business (by creating a business you get a bonus stock in it). You have the opportunity to purchase up to three stocks in any active business each round. The business is represented by all the touching tiles. When two businesses come in contact with each other they merge and the smaller of the two is no more. If you have stock in the smaller business you can cash in or trade in your stock at a 2–1 rate.
This is a tricky game, the trick is to be one of the top two stockholders of the smaller businesses when it gets absorbed by a bigger businesses. That way you can get more money to buy more stock with. At the end of the game you cash everything in and the player with the most money wins. The trick is to spend wisely and make good decisions as to whether you want to cash in or not when your smaller businesses are absorbed. Sometimes you want to hold onto that stock when the business is no more, because if you can recreate that business you are ahead of the curve when you do so. Sometimes it's more profitable to cash in, sometimes it is more profitable to trade your stocks. There's math involved—which I'm no good at in my head on the fly, so I just play by instinct (which drives my calculator headed friend a little nuts) and sometimes my gambling pays off and I win—like that last game we played. Yes I also like Acquire.
Is there a game I do not like? Why yes, yes there is.
Stone Age—
Remember when I wrote about Agricola? We've taken to calling Stone Age, Agricola Lite. It has a very similar feeling to it, without the soul crushing difficulty. You have a tribe that has entered the age of agriculture. Each round you take your tribe members and set them to a number of tasks one task at a time (building tools, having children, gathering resources, using said resources to build huts or other advances in civilization) around the table until everyone is out of tribe members (Much like the family members in Agricola). Then each player takes a turn in which they resolve all of those actions in the order they choose, thus resetting the board back to the original state. Everyone then feeds each of their tribe members (Just like in Agricola) Empty Cards and Hut spaces are replaced and then the first player status moves to the next player and you all go at it again. The game ends when there are no more replacement huts available for the next round—at that point you count up victory points and the player with the most wins.
I like stone age, because it feels like Agricola (Which I find that I unwillingly enjoy as it beats me into submission)—but isn't hard like Agricola.
Dominion—
Dominion is a very unique card game. All the cards are divided into piles of identical cards, and the box is designed to keep all the cards in said piles. Then you have a pile of cards that has one of each type of card—you shuffle this deck and then deal ten cards off of it and pull those piles out and set them where every one can reach. There are three piles of treasure cards and three piles of victory point cards. Every one starts with three victory point cards and seven treasure cards.
Each round you deal yourself five cards from your deck and have one action and one buy. The first round you have no action cards so you buy one from one of the ten action card piles (or treasure from the three treasure card piles or victory points from the three victory card piles) based on how much treasure you have. Then you place all those cards in a personal discard pile. The second round you will also not have an action card so you will buy what you can afford with your treasure cards. At that point you've discarded all ten of the original cards you were dealt plus the two cards you purchased, then you shuffle your discard pile and deal again. Action cards allow things like more buys, more actions, bonus treasure etc. As you play your deck gets bigger and bigger. At the beginning of the game the trick is to amass money, and at some point in the game you want to switch to amassing victory points. The game ends when the six point victory point pile is gone, or three other piles are gone. Then you count victory points.
I like Dominion because once you understand the mechanics it is very fast. Each game is different because the available cards are different. There are a lot of different strategies you can try, and those will change from game to game based on the available action cards.
I only had one game of Dominion that I didn't enjoy. It was a two player game and at first I was doing okay. But my opponent found himself in a position where he was finding it difficult to amass treasure, but he had stumbled into an order of play that allowed him to use his entire deck every turn. This particular game had an action card that allowed the distribution of negative victory points (curses) to your opponent which he was doing so at an exponential rate. By the time I started to counter that it was too late. the round ended and though I had easily bested him at amassing victory points, he had decimated me with enough curses to negate almost all said points. The only reason I didn't like that game was that his turns were so long, and by the time I adjusted my tactics to counter his strategy it was too late.
That game just emphasized how different the game plays based on the random ten action card piles you end up using.
Acquire—
Acquire is a business building/stock buying game. You win by having the most money. You have a grid and tiles that have specific places that they belong on the grid that you draw randomly. Each turn you place one of the tiles in your hand onto the grid. If you place two tiles next to each other then you can start a business and purchase stock in that business (by creating a business you get a bonus stock in it). You have the opportunity to purchase up to three stocks in any active business each round. The business is represented by all the touching tiles. When two businesses come in contact with each other they merge and the smaller of the two is no more. If you have stock in the smaller business you can cash in or trade in your stock at a 2–1 rate.
This is a tricky game, the trick is to be one of the top two stockholders of the smaller businesses when it gets absorbed by a bigger businesses. That way you can get more money to buy more stock with. At the end of the game you cash everything in and the player with the most money wins. The trick is to spend wisely and make good decisions as to whether you want to cash in or not when your smaller businesses are absorbed. Sometimes you want to hold onto that stock when the business is no more, because if you can recreate that business you are ahead of the curve when you do so. Sometimes it's more profitable to cash in, sometimes it is more profitable to trade your stocks. There's math involved—which I'm no good at in my head on the fly, so I just play by instinct (which drives my calculator headed friend a little nuts) and sometimes my gambling pays off and I win—like that last game we played. Yes I also like Acquire.
Is there a game I do not like? Why yes, yes there is.
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Wanted: An E-reader
Sure the big dog is the Kindle, but I don't like it.
I dreamed up just such a device back when I was in High School (It was Dual Screen, Color, and Used a Stylus and was approximately 11" x 8.5" when open, and the hinge could open all the way so it could be used a book folded back on itself. One screen could be used as a keyboard.) I have an Obsession for books, especially art reference books. The Kindle is missing certain things that I would like to have and I really hate that keyboard that's tacked onto the bottom.
I've hacked some e-reading capability onto my Zune, it works but isn't the greatest solution.
I was recently "forced" to upgrade my phone and am now using a Sony Ericsson. In the past I've liked my Ericsson phones, but I am an avid hater of the Sony Brand so I'm having a Schizophrenic relationship with this phone.
It took me a month to find a way to put the scriptures on the phone, and in the process of doing so I discovered many a way of putting books onto the phone—none of which were acceptable to me until I found this site presented by a Barnes and Noble affiliate. Each book is a Java application. I installed almost 200 books on my phone the night I found this site.
I was curious as to Kindle alternatives after doing so; I knew that Sony has a reader—I've already mentioned how much I hate Sony. I did however look at the Sony product, and it's not too bad, it has a lot of the features that the Kindle Lacks that I would absolutely "need," such as native PDF support and the lack of an unnecessary keyboard that takes up a considerable portion of the device in favor of touch control. But it's a smaller (6") device and I like the larger size devices because they display PDF files better.
I looked around and didn't find a lot of devices, but I did find one that fits the bill as far as features I like. The iRex Digital Reader 1000S. It's a larger screened device, has Wacom® Penabled® input (meaning you can write on it and use it as a digital sketch pad), supports PDF natively, bluetooth, usb, SDHC memory. Of course that means it has a slightly higher price tag.
Funny thing is, when I originally was researching this I couldn't find much. Then I was looking things up so I could write this I found the Mobile Read Wiki and their excellent E-Book Reader Matrix showing me that there were a lot more choices than I originally found—but cementing that I like the iRex brand. However, I also learned as I was writing this that Asus announced yesterday that they are planning to make a dual screen color e-reader, and that one side of it can be used as a keyboard priced at $165 which is cheaper than any other reader on the market—but still outside the sweet spot discovered by a marketing survey indicating $50–100 would make the market explode. That will be their high end model, they also plan to make a cheaper single screen edition that will be priced at $99 making it the cheapest e-reader on the market. Only issue with that is that they do not appear to be using the easy on the eyes e-ink screen technology (as far as the released photo—chances are that's just mocked up anyway and may not accurately depict the final product, but since we're referring to a comment made to a newspaper combined with prototype photos from a while ago, we'll have to wait for further announcement).
It's still out of my budget for the time being.
I dreamed up just such a device back when I was in High School (It was Dual Screen, Color, and Used a Stylus and was approximately 11" x 8.5" when open, and the hinge could open all the way so it could be used a book folded back on itself. One screen could be used as a keyboard.) I have an Obsession for books, especially art reference books. The Kindle is missing certain things that I would like to have and I really hate that keyboard that's tacked onto the bottom.
I've hacked some e-reading capability onto my Zune, it works but isn't the greatest solution.
I was recently "forced" to upgrade my phone and am now using a Sony Ericsson. In the past I've liked my Ericsson phones, but I am an avid hater of the Sony Brand so I'm having a Schizophrenic relationship with this phone.
It took me a month to find a way to put the scriptures on the phone, and in the process of doing so I discovered many a way of putting books onto the phone—none of which were acceptable to me until I found this site presented by a Barnes and Noble affiliate. Each book is a Java application. I installed almost 200 books on my phone the night I found this site.
I was curious as to Kindle alternatives after doing so; I knew that Sony has a reader—I've already mentioned how much I hate Sony. I did however look at the Sony product, and it's not too bad, it has a lot of the features that the Kindle Lacks that I would absolutely "need," such as native PDF support and the lack of an unnecessary keyboard that takes up a considerable portion of the device in favor of touch control. But it's a smaller (6") device and I like the larger size devices because they display PDF files better.
I looked around and didn't find a lot of devices, but I did find one that fits the bill as far as features I like. The iRex Digital Reader 1000S. It's a larger screened device, has Wacom® Penabled® input (meaning you can write on it and use it as a digital sketch pad), supports PDF natively, bluetooth, usb, SDHC memory. Of course that means it has a slightly higher price tag.
Funny thing is, when I originally was researching this I couldn't find much. Then I was looking things up so I could write this I found the Mobile Read Wiki and their excellent E-Book Reader Matrix showing me that there were a lot more choices than I originally found—but cementing that I like the iRex brand. However, I also learned as I was writing this that Asus announced yesterday that they are planning to make a dual screen color e-reader, and that one side of it can be used as a keyboard priced at $165 which is cheaper than any other reader on the market—but still outside the sweet spot discovered by a marketing survey indicating $50–100 would make the market explode. That will be their high end model, they also plan to make a cheaper single screen edition that will be priced at $99 making it the cheapest e-reader on the market. Only issue with that is that they do not appear to be using the easy on the eyes e-ink screen technology (as far as the released photo—chances are that's just mocked up anyway and may not accurately depict the final product, but since we're referring to a comment made to a newspaper combined with prototype photos from a while ago, we'll have to wait for further announcement).
It's still out of my budget for the time being.
Monday, September 07, 2009
Savaged Birthday
Had a Savage Worlds session on my birthday this week. Due to the game night corresponding with my birthday we threw a Barbecue beforehand with all manner of friends and family. As a result I had ten people indicate that they were planning on playing. I was nervous about running the game again. I like running the game, but I start to feel overwhelmed when I know the situation is going to be different, and GMing for ten is certainly different than five.
Anyway, we had the "Barbecue" and a good time was had by all in attendance (I think)—then it was game time; at game time I had ten players in the house. Of those that indicated that they planned to be there: P was not feeling well so was unable to make it. My sister's husband wasn't feeling so great and didn't come. My sister came for the "Barbecue" but decided to not stay for the game. Two other players were there but decided they didn't want to play and spent the night serenading us from the adjoining room with the dulcet tones of Guitar Hero World Tour. Two other Players were there that I had not expected to be there, but they didn't stay to play. One more player was there, but had a "date"—I told him girls come before games.
I'm rambling, but I found it somewhat amusing that at game time I had ten players in the house, that did not match the list of ten players that RSVPed and when I did get the game going there were six players in the house and but four actually at the table. Of the four at the table only two had played with us before.
I've never thought of myself as someone that can think quickly on the spot. I adapt to situations quickly, but that skill is not as useful behind the GM screen. Mostly this is due to the fact that players always do something to throw you off the carefully laid railroad tracks that you planned for them. I deal with this different than most GMs. Most of the advice articles/podcasts that talk about GMing will tell you to play it in such a manner that the players don't know that they've thrown you off course. Again, I don't think fast enough for that—I can adjust eventually, but the players know it, and I am most certain that they can literally (and by literally I humorously mean figuratively) see the wheels spinning in my head as I try to come up with what I need to do next.
We did in fact complete all three encounters that I had planned for the evening. Encounter One Ended Backwards. Encounter Two Was not nearly as deadly as I had hoped, and had to be changed ever so slightly for encounter three to work, and could have had a problematic ending. I was saved by a poor dice roll by a player. Encounter Three turned out rather well, and not anywhere close to how I thought it would go.
One of the new players had a great character. He wrote one little detail into his character that happens to correspond with his own way of thinking. If people are taking too long to decide what to do, he's going to just go ahead and do something. It kept things moving along and was quite brilliant.
I know that I need to be more descriptive as GM. I think if I had the rules a little more internally ingrained that it would be easier; as it currently is—every game thus far has required me to know how to resolve a new type of situation. Because I know there are rules for said situations, it slows me down a bit as I try to find it in the book. However, if the rules were a little more ingrained in me—it would be easier to just use or throw mechanics out on the fly. It's the whole Rules/Ruling argument. I like Ruling as long as those making the ruling have an understanding of the rules. More than once during the evening things slowed down a little as I scrambled to find the details of a rule, and more than once during the evening, once I understood the mechanic I threw it out based on the situation.
It was a good session, the action moved along at a good pace, and the planned encounters all took place. I think the character knowledge of those they were fighting was just right.
To catch players up that didn't make it. Crossing the Rockies the group was overtaken by a convoy. They had a shootout and got away. Later they stopped to put chains on the tires of the bus, and encountered a pack of Zombie Wolves. While dealing with the zombie wolves the convoy passed them up and took a pot shot at them. They caught up to the convoy later at a mountain motel and had another shootout.
Comments that I heard after the game.
One person mentioned that they, "wish 'Seasoned GM' would stop trying to commandeer creative control, i.e. describe the action after poor or well rolled dice" —I didn't notice this myself, but the comment was made.
Another comment was, "The only thing that would have made the session better was if P had been able to come."
Anyway, we had the "Barbecue" and a good time was had by all in attendance (I think)—then it was game time; at game time I had ten players in the house. Of those that indicated that they planned to be there: P was not feeling well so was unable to make it. My sister's husband wasn't feeling so great and didn't come. My sister came for the "Barbecue" but decided to not stay for the game. Two other players were there but decided they didn't want to play and spent the night serenading us from the adjoining room with the dulcet tones of Guitar Hero World Tour. Two other Players were there that I had not expected to be there, but they didn't stay to play. One more player was there, but had a "date"—I told him girls come before games.
I'm rambling, but I found it somewhat amusing that at game time I had ten players in the house, that did not match the list of ten players that RSVPed and when I did get the game going there were six players in the house and but four actually at the table. Of the four at the table only two had played with us before.
I've never thought of myself as someone that can think quickly on the spot. I adapt to situations quickly, but that skill is not as useful behind the GM screen. Mostly this is due to the fact that players always do something to throw you off the carefully laid railroad tracks that you planned for them. I deal with this different than most GMs. Most of the advice articles/podcasts that talk about GMing will tell you to play it in such a manner that the players don't know that they've thrown you off course. Again, I don't think fast enough for that—I can adjust eventually, but the players know it, and I am most certain that they can literally (and by literally I humorously mean figuratively) see the wheels spinning in my head as I try to come up with what I need to do next.
We did in fact complete all three encounters that I had planned for the evening. Encounter One Ended Backwards. Encounter Two Was not nearly as deadly as I had hoped, and had to be changed ever so slightly for encounter three to work, and could have had a problematic ending. I was saved by a poor dice roll by a player. Encounter Three turned out rather well, and not anywhere close to how I thought it would go.
One of the new players had a great character. He wrote one little detail into his character that happens to correspond with his own way of thinking. If people are taking too long to decide what to do, he's going to just go ahead and do something. It kept things moving along and was quite brilliant.
I know that I need to be more descriptive as GM. I think if I had the rules a little more internally ingrained that it would be easier; as it currently is—every game thus far has required me to know how to resolve a new type of situation. Because I know there are rules for said situations, it slows me down a bit as I try to find it in the book. However, if the rules were a little more ingrained in me—it would be easier to just use or throw mechanics out on the fly. It's the whole Rules/Ruling argument. I like Ruling as long as those making the ruling have an understanding of the rules. More than once during the evening things slowed down a little as I scrambled to find the details of a rule, and more than once during the evening, once I understood the mechanic I threw it out based on the situation.
It was a good session, the action moved along at a good pace, and the planned encounters all took place. I think the character knowledge of those they were fighting was just right.
To catch players up that didn't make it. Crossing the Rockies the group was overtaken by a convoy. They had a shootout and got away. Later they stopped to put chains on the tires of the bus, and encountered a pack of Zombie Wolves. While dealing with the zombie wolves the convoy passed them up and took a pot shot at them. They caught up to the convoy later at a mountain motel and had another shootout.
Comments that I heard after the game.
One person mentioned that they, "wish 'Seasoned GM' would stop trying to commandeer creative control, i.e. describe the action after poor or well rolled dice" —I didn't notice this myself, but the comment was made.
Another comment was, "The only thing that would have made the session better was if P had been able to come."
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Savage Worlds—Fantasy Companion & the Forgotton D&D Endgame
Recently I read a blog post about the forgotten endgame of Dungeons & Dragons. Something that I never really understood about D&D was the purpose of all the dungeon delving.
When I was a kid, I voraciously watched the cartoon every Saturday morning (much to my Mother's chagrin) the plot was that these kids had been at an amusement park, took a ride on a roller coaster that somehow became a vortex and sucked the kids into a fantastical realm of magic. Their adventures focused on them trying to discover a way back home being guided by the mysterious Dungeon Master and being thwarted time after time by the Evil Venger. The other exposure I had to the game was advertisements in comic books. Smurf comic books.
I remember once that I walked over to my neighbors house, and he and his brother (my sometimes friends) were being mighty secretive about what they were doing. Eventually they said that they were playing Dungeons & Dragons, and having been warned to stay away from that game by my Mother, and being that I was mostly an obedient kid, I left. Thinking back on that (another in a long line of weird memories that stuck with me for no apparent reason) they had no books, they had no dice, they had a single pencil and a single sheet of lined paper. Based on my vague memory I think they were creating a character.
I never really heard of D&D again until Junior High when a teacher I looked up to and had respect for used a d20 and a table to give us Random Objects that we were supposed to work into a story. She briefly mentioned D&D. That was my first exposure to a non six sided die and I thought it was one of the coolest things I had ever seen though I didn't think to ask where one can obtain such a thing—I assumed the only way to get one was via purchasing D&D (which I had seen in Toy Stores, the Famous Red Box version).
Shortly thereafter I purchased Cloak and Dagger at a thrift store, mostly because it had a d12 in it.
I played my first game of D&D on Halloween in 2004 at the home of a member of our Bishopric. I've played quite a bit since. The games that I've been a part of don't line up with the typical Dungeon Delving that is the hallmark of D&D. It seemed a silly occupation to be a motley group that went into Dungeons and came out with treasure. That's generally what we were doing, it was generally masked by an overarching story about some great evil that needed to be overcome. but the party always ends up in these "dungeons," fighting random monsters. Often the party will find themselves at a Tavern, regrouping after the dungeon delve, chatting with the Tavern Owner that was once an adventurer himself and has a secret stash of treasure from the glory days—an interesting retirement plan.
Back to the point, I recently learned about the forgotten endgame of D&D. After amassing riches you would take said riches and establish a Barony, build a castle, become a Lord of Land. I found this concept intriguing. It does make sense when you realize that the roots of D&D are firmly established in Historical War Gaming. Establishing a Castle and Building an Army just brings that full circle.
D&D was a radical departure in tabletop tactical gaming, in that you were controlling one character that was going on adventures rather than maintaining an army. Knowing now that contained within the Original D&D books were rules for settling down and establishing a kingdom, a kingdom that would need an army really brings the game full circle.
Likely if I was to get a character advanced to that point, I most likely wouldn't establish his retirement; I'm more interested in creating a new novice character to go on new adventures. It is a good idea for a story though, and if I was tired of adventuring, I think it would be interesting to run a game in the vein of a Land Owner.
So, I recently got the Fantasy Companion for Savage Worlds—a supplemental book that aids in the running of Fantasy Role Play Games using the Savage Worlds System. Savage Worlds is a Generic System and can be used to play High Fantasy, Science Fiction, Pulp Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, etc. etc. etc. Pinnacle has plans to publish several of these Companion Books to help in the running of particular Genre Games; Fantasy, Superhero, Horror, Etc.
So, I was flipping through the pages of the Fantasy Companion and pages thirteen through nineteen are all about owning land and role playing siege warfare, and Savage Worlds already has Mass Battle Rules, as well as a subset of Rules Dubbed Savage Showdown geared specifically for Tabletop War Gaming. Intriguing indeed. Particularly concerning my newly gained historical perspective on Original D&D.
When I was a kid, I voraciously watched the cartoon every Saturday morning (much to my Mother's chagrin) the plot was that these kids had been at an amusement park, took a ride on a roller coaster that somehow became a vortex and sucked the kids into a fantastical realm of magic. Their adventures focused on them trying to discover a way back home being guided by the mysterious Dungeon Master and being thwarted time after time by the Evil Venger. The other exposure I had to the game was advertisements in comic books. Smurf comic books.
I remember once that I walked over to my neighbors house, and he and his brother (my sometimes friends) were being mighty secretive about what they were doing. Eventually they said that they were playing Dungeons & Dragons, and having been warned to stay away from that game by my Mother, and being that I was mostly an obedient kid, I left. Thinking back on that (another in a long line of weird memories that stuck with me for no apparent reason) they had no books, they had no dice, they had a single pencil and a single sheet of lined paper. Based on my vague memory I think they were creating a character.
I never really heard of D&D again until Junior High when a teacher I looked up to and had respect for used a d20 and a table to give us Random Objects that we were supposed to work into a story. She briefly mentioned D&D. That was my first exposure to a non six sided die and I thought it was one of the coolest things I had ever seen though I didn't think to ask where one can obtain such a thing—I assumed the only way to get one was via purchasing D&D (which I had seen in Toy Stores, the Famous Red Box version).
Shortly thereafter I purchased Cloak and Dagger at a thrift store, mostly because it had a d12 in it.
I played my first game of D&D on Halloween in 2004 at the home of a member of our Bishopric. I've played quite a bit since. The games that I've been a part of don't line up with the typical Dungeon Delving that is the hallmark of D&D. It seemed a silly occupation to be a motley group that went into Dungeons and came out with treasure. That's generally what we were doing, it was generally masked by an overarching story about some great evil that needed to be overcome. but the party always ends up in these "dungeons," fighting random monsters. Often the party will find themselves at a Tavern, regrouping after the dungeon delve, chatting with the Tavern Owner that was once an adventurer himself and has a secret stash of treasure from the glory days—an interesting retirement plan.
Back to the point, I recently learned about the forgotten endgame of D&D. After amassing riches you would take said riches and establish a Barony, build a castle, become a Lord of Land. I found this concept intriguing. It does make sense when you realize that the roots of D&D are firmly established in Historical War Gaming. Establishing a Castle and Building an Army just brings that full circle.
D&D was a radical departure in tabletop tactical gaming, in that you were controlling one character that was going on adventures rather than maintaining an army. Knowing now that contained within the Original D&D books were rules for settling down and establishing a kingdom, a kingdom that would need an army really brings the game full circle.
Likely if I was to get a character advanced to that point, I most likely wouldn't establish his retirement; I'm more interested in creating a new novice character to go on new adventures. It is a good idea for a story though, and if I was tired of adventuring, I think it would be interesting to run a game in the vein of a Land Owner.
So, I recently got the Fantasy Companion for Savage Worlds—a supplemental book that aids in the running of Fantasy Role Play Games using the Savage Worlds System. Savage Worlds is a Generic System and can be used to play High Fantasy, Science Fiction, Pulp Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, etc. etc. etc. Pinnacle has plans to publish several of these Companion Books to help in the running of particular Genre Games; Fantasy, Superhero, Horror, Etc.
So, I was flipping through the pages of the Fantasy Companion and pages thirteen through nineteen are all about owning land and role playing siege warfare, and Savage Worlds already has Mass Battle Rules, as well as a subset of Rules Dubbed Savage Showdown geared specifically for Tabletop War Gaming. Intriguing indeed. Particularly concerning my newly gained historical perspective on Original D&D.
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Fixed the Blue Dice Image
Apparently those of you using Internet Explorer couldn't see the Blue Glow Dice from my previous Post: Guess What?! I've Got a Fever, and the Only Prescription... is More Dice!
I have since fixed the problem—and you should all take a look because they are incredible!
I have since fixed the problem—and you should all take a look because they are incredible!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Shakespeare...With Ninjas...and Sumo
My wife got a DVD at the library recently. As You Like It, written by The Bard Himself—Billy Shakespeare.
This particular adaptation of As You Like It is set in 19th century Japan at a time when many English traders made their homes in Japan.
The Film starts with a Ninja attack to explain the banishment that is a major plot point of the play, also one of the characters has a scene where he fights a wrestler, and since this adaptation takes place in Japan—he fights a Sumo wrestler.
It's one of Shakespeare's comedies and so has a lot of silliness in it. I thought it was good and would reccomend it.
The "All the World's a Stage" speech is from As You Like It as well as the origin of the phrase "too much of a good thing."
This particular adaptation of As You Like It is set in 19th century Japan at a time when many English traders made their homes in Japan.
The Film starts with a Ninja attack to explain the banishment that is a major plot point of the play, also one of the characters has a scene where he fights a wrestler, and since this adaptation takes place in Japan—he fights a Sumo wrestler.
It's one of Shakespeare's comedies and so has a lot of silliness in it. I thought it was good and would reccomend it.
The "All the World's a Stage" speech is from As You Like It as well as the origin of the phrase "too much of a good thing."
Monday, August 24, 2009
Ahhhh—Now That's Much Better
Last Session wasn't so great. This session however was a great session.
Every time I plan a session I send out a formal invitation. The invite has a very brief recap of the previous sessions and then the time, place, etc. Generally the only thing that changes is the date. I invite people to come over at 6:00 and the game is supposed to start at 7:00. This actually worked for a couple sessions, but lately it has not. People are showing up between 6 and 7:30. The game is generally started by 8:30, and honestly it's because my daughters are not as good at going to bed at 7:00 as they once were.
So we did get started a little late. P was not here, but my GM friend was—so I just put my GM friend on the map where P was at the end of the last session...sort of; after about ten minutes or so, we realized that we had backed up the time line ever so slightly. But whatever, we moved on.
For this session I had six players, a seventh had come—but she really didn't want to play, and I'm not going to force anyone to play—so she played Dr. Mario on the Wii in the next room.
Because of the cats I knew it would be a good night. I knew that the character that hates cats, would really have a hard time leaving it alone. He jumped right into character and was about to shoot a firearm at the cats that were practically standing in a spill of diesel fuel.
In an effort to make things not seem too linear, while everyone was still worrying about the cats I had a poor unfortunate soul and his daughter run in and ask the group for assistance. His bed ridden wife was stuck in their house and because of some situation last night, the house was surrounded by the undead.
Most of the party went down the street a couple houses and was picking off zombies from the top of the cinder block wall. They were tossing grenades and molotov cocktails over the wall. I was really hoping for a bad toss that would cause problems—but the dice were really on their side. They were taking out zombies left and right.
Those left behind, were there to protect the still re-fueling bus, and the man's young daughter. My sister got this crazy thought in her head that the cats would be a useful weapon against the zombies and set out to capture one.
Meanwhile the house was on fire, the cinder block wall protecting them had fallen down and half the group at the house had wised up and was circling around to the front of the house while the zombies were distracted.
So at one point, this fly dove into the midst of the group of zombies and just stopped. I've been hunting this thing for a week and haven't been able to kill it. I asked, "Did that fly just dive into the zombies and die?" Those close to it indicated that it had indeed. I just had to get a picture of it, but as I was taking said pictures. I noticed it was moving and urged someone close to kill it. I was trying to get a napkin to grab it with and my sister was trying to move it out of the radius of the zombie horde and the thing just flew off. Grrr.
It's still flying around here taunting me.
The fact of the matter is, things were moving pretty fast, there was lots of action, lots of creativity. I'm relatively sure that most everyone was having fun. I was flexible, not tired, and not hung up on who was there and who was not and what parts of my story weren't working out. I've decided that planning less is better, just as long as I have a sketchy idea—Savage Worlds is an easy enough system to make it work. I only had a very rough idea of what I was going to have them do and I felt it turned out pretty great.
Something that I find amusing for me as Game Master is when I throw large crowds of Zombies at them [60 or so in this instance] and they miss their shooting roll. I'm not strictly following the Innocent Bystander rule, I just have it hit other zombies as I feel appropriate. It's fun to describe the bullet going right through the intended target with no effect, but striking the one behind it. Players like it when they get to roll damage on what they thought was a wasted action.
I have one player that likes to argue about what was said, he claims that originally I called the large burst template the area where the fumes from the diesel fuel spill were volatile, and then changed it to the location of the spilled fuel and that two squares away there is still a chance that the fuel will ignite. Come to think of it,I think he's right—but what is really happening is not me changing the story—it's me correcting the story to what I had originally intended; in an effort to compensate for my poor story telling skills.
I think it's because we're looking to get different things out of the game. He's my munchkin friend, when we play board games, he analyzes everything in seconds and comes up with crazy schemes and tactics that net him the win 95% of the time. Whereas I play those same games for fun and rarely win. When we play role playing games he seems to always want "treasure" and I just want to tell a story.
I felt bad last night because his girlfriend was the one that didn't want to play. He ended up leaving with her early. For a portion of the night he wasn't even in the room. He was just telling us what his dice rolls indicated when his turn came up—I wish I could get him to role play more, instead of roll playing. Three sessions ago when I first ran an interlude session, his portion was great. Though he still can't let go of my Brother's story from that same session because it's unrealistic and that is still bothering him. He's complained about it every session since.
Now that I'm thinking about it. I think part of it is that he is playing his character. He made a thief—I think that perhaps he's trying to play the typical D&D rogue in the wrong setting.
Next session we'll be getting back to the plot points out of the Zombie Run book. I think his specialized skills may be more useful in the next arc of the story.
Things of note in the picture:
Bus on top of a Large Burst Template that represents spilled diesel fuel.
Box of Monster Snaps that Represents a Humvee.
Red Mini Poker Chips in the Background that Represent the location of a fire (This is what happens when you let your players find a convenience store [Bottom Right] that has the lock on the beer locker still intact—can we say Molotov cocktail?)
One more thing I want to talk about here. Back when I got into playing RPGs, I was sitting there playing D&D and having fun, but felt that there had to be more to it—so I picked up someone's Player Handbook and started browsing it in the downtime. My eyes started to open to some of the possibilities, and eventually ended up finding a used copy to purchase.
Even during the time that I didn't own a copy I found it useful to read that spare when it was floating around the table. Sine Savage Worlds is so cheap—I bought another copy to be the floater at our game table. This has led to a wonderful thing. My wife was sitting there feeling that if she read the book, she'd have a better understanding of how the game works and perhaps be able to have more fun with it; then she was thinking to herself when would I have time to read it? Then it donned on her that she had time when it wasn't her turn during combat. This led to her seeing the illustrations of the cowboys in the book, this led to her wanting to play a western but lamenting the lack of magic. Then we told her about Deadlands:Reloaded being a western setting for Savage Worlds and a setting that includes magic.
I was planning on running Necessary Evil when Zombie Run was over, but perhaps that plan has changed.
Every time I plan a session I send out a formal invitation. The invite has a very brief recap of the previous sessions and then the time, place, etc. Generally the only thing that changes is the date. I invite people to come over at 6:00 and the game is supposed to start at 7:00. This actually worked for a couple sessions, but lately it has not. People are showing up between 6 and 7:30. The game is generally started by 8:30, and honestly it's because my daughters are not as good at going to bed at 7:00 as they once were.
So we did get started a little late. P was not here, but my GM friend was—so I just put my GM friend on the map where P was at the end of the last session...sort of; after about ten minutes or so, we realized that we had backed up the time line ever so slightly. But whatever, we moved on.
For this session I had six players, a seventh had come—but she really didn't want to play, and I'm not going to force anyone to play—so she played Dr. Mario on the Wii in the next room.
Because of the cats I knew it would be a good night. I knew that the character that hates cats, would really have a hard time leaving it alone. He jumped right into character and was about to shoot a firearm at the cats that were practically standing in a spill of diesel fuel.
In an effort to make things not seem too linear, while everyone was still worrying about the cats I had a poor unfortunate soul and his daughter run in and ask the group for assistance. His bed ridden wife was stuck in their house and because of some situation last night, the house was surrounded by the undead.
Most of the party went down the street a couple houses and was picking off zombies from the top of the cinder block wall. They were tossing grenades and molotov cocktails over the wall. I was really hoping for a bad toss that would cause problems—but the dice were really on their side. They were taking out zombies left and right.
Those left behind, were there to protect the still re-fueling bus, and the man's young daughter. My sister got this crazy thought in her head that the cats would be a useful weapon against the zombies and set out to capture one.
Meanwhile the house was on fire, the cinder block wall protecting them had fallen down and half the group at the house had wised up and was circling around to the front of the house while the zombies were distracted.
So at one point, this fly dove into the midst of the group of zombies and just stopped. I've been hunting this thing for a week and haven't been able to kill it. I asked, "Did that fly just dive into the zombies and die?" Those close to it indicated that it had indeed. I just had to get a picture of it, but as I was taking said pictures. I noticed it was moving and urged someone close to kill it. I was trying to get a napkin to grab it with and my sister was trying to move it out of the radius of the zombie horde and the thing just flew off. Grrr.
It's still flying around here taunting me.
The fact of the matter is, things were moving pretty fast, there was lots of action, lots of creativity. I'm relatively sure that most everyone was having fun. I was flexible, not tired, and not hung up on who was there and who was not and what parts of my story weren't working out. I've decided that planning less is better, just as long as I have a sketchy idea—Savage Worlds is an easy enough system to make it work. I only had a very rough idea of what I was going to have them do and I felt it turned out pretty great.
Something that I find amusing for me as Game Master is when I throw large crowds of Zombies at them [60 or so in this instance] and they miss their shooting roll. I'm not strictly following the Innocent Bystander rule, I just have it hit other zombies as I feel appropriate. It's fun to describe the bullet going right through the intended target with no effect, but striking the one behind it. Players like it when they get to roll damage on what they thought was a wasted action.
I have one player that likes to argue about what was said, he claims that originally I called the large burst template the area where the fumes from the diesel fuel spill were volatile, and then changed it to the location of the spilled fuel and that two squares away there is still a chance that the fuel will ignite. Come to think of it,I think he's right—but what is really happening is not me changing the story—it's me correcting the story to what I had originally intended; in an effort to compensate for my poor story telling skills.
I think it's because we're looking to get different things out of the game. He's my munchkin friend, when we play board games, he analyzes everything in seconds and comes up with crazy schemes and tactics that net him the win 95% of the time. Whereas I play those same games for fun and rarely win. When we play role playing games he seems to always want "treasure" and I just want to tell a story.
I felt bad last night because his girlfriend was the one that didn't want to play. He ended up leaving with her early. For a portion of the night he wasn't even in the room. He was just telling us what his dice rolls indicated when his turn came up—I wish I could get him to role play more, instead of roll playing. Three sessions ago when I first ran an interlude session, his portion was great. Though he still can't let go of my Brother's story from that same session because it's unrealistic and that is still bothering him. He's complained about it every session since.
Now that I'm thinking about it. I think part of it is that he is playing his character. He made a thief—I think that perhaps he's trying to play the typical D&D rogue in the wrong setting.
Next session we'll be getting back to the plot points out of the Zombie Run book. I think his specialized skills may be more useful in the next arc of the story.
Things of note in the picture:
Bus on top of a Large Burst Template that represents spilled diesel fuel.
Box of Monster Snaps that Represents a Humvee.
Red Mini Poker Chips in the Background that Represent the location of a fire (This is what happens when you let your players find a convenience store [Bottom Right] that has the lock on the beer locker still intact—can we say Molotov cocktail?)
One more thing I want to talk about here. Back when I got into playing RPGs, I was sitting there playing D&D and having fun, but felt that there had to be more to it—so I picked up someone's Player Handbook and started browsing it in the downtime. My eyes started to open to some of the possibilities, and eventually ended up finding a used copy to purchase.
Even during the time that I didn't own a copy I found it useful to read that spare when it was floating around the table. Sine Savage Worlds is so cheap—I bought another copy to be the floater at our game table. This has led to a wonderful thing. My wife was sitting there feeling that if she read the book, she'd have a better understanding of how the game works and perhaps be able to have more fun with it; then she was thinking to herself when would I have time to read it? Then it donned on her that she had time when it wasn't her turn during combat. This led to her seeing the illustrations of the cowboys in the book, this led to her wanting to play a western but lamenting the lack of magic. Then we told her about Deadlands:Reloaded being a western setting for Savage Worlds and a setting that includes magic.
I was planning on running Necessary Evil when Zombie Run was over, but perhaps that plan has changed.
Monday, August 10, 2009
When Google Maps Doesn't Work
I use Google Maps to find places. If I look at it using satellite view on Google Maps, my chances of not getting lost go up exponentially.
So, my sister and her hubby were speaking in church this weekend and we were invited. We thought to ourselves, "Well—we haven't seen their new place of residence yet. Let's go take a gander."
The address of the church was included in the e-mail, but I couldn't get Google Maps to point the way, it kept jumping to Hill Drive in Dover Arkansas. Even though the address was on Dover Hill Dr. After much struggling and then just using the co-ordinate system to locate the street manually, I discovered that Google Maps has the street named Doverhill Dr.—one word.
I was all set to mock my sister about having the street spelled wrong, and then as we arrived, this is the street sign (I Photoshopped out the city name and co-ordinates to protect the innocent) that we were met with. [Click Images for Hi-rez if they're too Small to Read]
So, then I was thinking about how stupid Google maps was for having the street named wrong; then we left the church and were following my sister to her house and saw this.
Apparently it's the city that doesn't know the name of the street.
This is not the first time Google Maps has failed me for this very reason. So today's advice is: If you have a street with more than one word and it's not working for you, combine words; or break compound words into their base parts.
So, my sister and her hubby were speaking in church this weekend and we were invited. We thought to ourselves, "Well—we haven't seen their new place of residence yet. Let's go take a gander."
The address of the church was included in the e-mail, but I couldn't get Google Maps to point the way, it kept jumping to Hill Drive in Dover Arkansas. Even though the address was on Dover Hill Dr. After much struggling and then just using the co-ordinate system to locate the street manually, I discovered that Google Maps has the street named Doverhill Dr.—one word.
I was all set to mock my sister about having the street spelled wrong, and then as we arrived, this is the street sign (I Photoshopped out the city name and co-ordinates to protect the innocent) that we were met with. [Click Images for Hi-rez if they're too Small to Read]
So, then I was thinking about how stupid Google maps was for having the street named wrong; then we left the church and were following my sister to her house and saw this.
Apparently it's the city that doesn't know the name of the street.
This is not the first time Google Maps has failed me for this very reason. So today's advice is: If you have a street with more than one word and it's not working for you, combine words; or break compound words into their base parts.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Absent Characters and My Inflexibility Lead to a Not So Great Session I'm Afraid
First off I need to apologize to everyone that actually made the game. I was feeling a little down since some of the planning that I had done for the week's adventure was rendered null by the fact that none of the characters that I had specifically planned things for were able to come to the game. I feel that my attitude rubbed off a little on the game and the mood was just not as great as in previous sessions.
The game this weekend was supposed to be great. Because I want everyone to explore their characters a little more, I deviated from the plot point campaign and developed my own encounter to help bolster the role play; I had planned specific things based on the backgrounds of some of the characters and hoped that that would trigger a chain reaction wherein other players could get into the spirit of really roll playing their characters.
I'm not going to get into specifics, because I think I'm going to try and resurrect some of the ideas next session. We ended up starting late, much later that normal late—also my fault, so I really couldn't run the session as deadly as I had planned, there simply wasn't time.
I started things off with an Interlude session that generated bowling for trees, and almost broke the plan for the evening—due to the interlude providing needed items that the planned encounter was supposed to provide. I had to resort to GM fiat, I hate that.
We only ended up using half of the giant map that I made for the encounter (and I forgot to take pictures because I was thrown off by the unexpected variables).
In planning the session, I had even tried to come up with specifics for every character's background, because I know that things never turn out as planned. In fact, I can say that I've learned the only constant in running a Role Playing Session is that nothing works out how you plan it. I didn't manage to figure out things for all eight characters. (Please don't feel left out if I didn't plan something for your character; and know that I tried and that it was on my mind.) I had worked up three really good ones and all three players were unable to come.
This is definitely a failure on my part as GM, unable to be as flexible as needed, and unable to improvise alternates on the spot.
It just wasn't a good week for me. Hopefully I can get back into the groove for next session.
Update: P took a picture and linked to it in his comments. I'm adding it to the post for all to see.
(As always, click for higher rez)
The game this weekend was supposed to be great. Because I want everyone to explore their characters a little more, I deviated from the plot point campaign and developed my own encounter to help bolster the role play; I had planned specific things based on the backgrounds of some of the characters and hoped that that would trigger a chain reaction wherein other players could get into the spirit of really roll playing their characters.
I'm not going to get into specifics, because I think I'm going to try and resurrect some of the ideas next session. We ended up starting late, much later that normal late—also my fault, so I really couldn't run the session as deadly as I had planned, there simply wasn't time.
I started things off with an Interlude session that generated bowling for trees, and almost broke the plan for the evening—due to the interlude providing needed items that the planned encounter was supposed to provide. I had to resort to GM fiat, I hate that.
We only ended up using half of the giant map that I made for the encounter (and I forgot to take pictures because I was thrown off by the unexpected variables).
In planning the session, I had even tried to come up with specifics for every character's background, because I know that things never turn out as planned. In fact, I can say that I've learned the only constant in running a Role Playing Session is that nothing works out how you plan it. I didn't manage to figure out things for all eight characters. (Please don't feel left out if I didn't plan something for your character; and know that I tried and that it was on my mind.) I had worked up three really good ones and all three players were unable to come.
This is definitely a failure on my part as GM, unable to be as flexible as needed, and unable to improvise alternates on the spot.
It just wasn't a good week for me. Hopefully I can get back into the groove for next session.
Update: P took a picture and linked to it in his comments. I'm adding it to the post for all to see.
(As always, click for higher rez)
Friday, August 07, 2009
Guess What?! I've Got a Fever, and the Only Prescription... is More Dice!
Occasionally I take an impromptu trip to local thrift stores. There is an order to what I look for in thrift stores, but I'll leave the full list for another time.
Step one, the Game and Toy aisles. I generally look for games that I'm unfamiliar with and check the box for unique dice. If the die or dice within are unique enough—I'll purchase the game. I like to try and make sure that I have all the game pieces—though this is not always an option.
Recent acquisitions:
Scattergories—For the Gigantic d20 with letters. It's only missing Q, U, V, X, Y, and Z.
Scattergories Jr.—For the Gigantic d20 with letters. It's missing even more letters as some have been replaced with a star.
Advance to Boardwalk for the d6 with colored Squares, F, and M...or is it a W? I don't know, I haven't read the rules yet.
I have one more, but I'm going to save that for the end. In the interim I'm going to mention that the Mini Dice that I used to not really care for have grown on me. I've purchased Four Sets over the past few months.
I somewhat recently picked up this question word die and parts of speech die. What would I use them for? No Idea, but they're fun to have.
Quite a while ago I got my hands on these Pre-shaken Dice.
My Sister got these Mice Dice for me at Disneyland.
When I first started collecting dice there were some types of dice I wanted to get, but kept putting it off. Then recently I finally got around to trying to obtain them and apparently they're not so easy to get anymore. But I found some. First up Fudge Dice.
Fudge is a Role Playing Game System. The name comes from the phrase, "just Fudge it." I've tried reading the rules several times now, but my eyes keep glazing over. The dice are cool though; and it's an interesting mechanic where you roll a dice pool of 1–4 dice yielding a number between -4 and +4.
The other dice that I had trouble finding were these TALI bones.
They were created for a Role Playing Game called FVLMINATA: Armed with Lightning. It too uses a dice pool system (They come in a set of Eight—they are rolled in sets of Four). The Dice are eight sided, but the Roman Numerals do not correspond to 1–8. The faces have two sets of I, III, IV and VI. These Mimic Dice that Romans used. FVULMINATA is an Alternate History game set in the Roman Empire, with the addition of gunpowder (i.e. Guns) and a light sprinkling of magic.
Speaking of Dice Pools—I have a set of Ubiquity dice.
Ubiquity is the Role Playing system that drives the Role Playing Game Hollow Earth Expedition (often referred to as HEX). HEX uses a dice pool system that turns every die into a 2 sider (odds and evens). I heard it explained five times and still didn't understand it until I had read it twice more. Ubiquity dice negate the need for having handfulls of dice to throw. The White ones Represent 1d2 each. The Red ones 2d2 each and the Blue ones 3d2. So with a set of 6 dice you can roll the equivalent of 1–18d2.
I like the World of HEX (It has a hollow Earth, Dinosaurs, and Nazis), but I think the system would confuse me, so I'd rather just Savage it.
I have a weakness for glow in the dark things. This pink die for instance.
No, it sadly doesn't glow pink, it glows green like every other glow in the dark product that you've seen since you were a kid.
I do have a rather rare set of dice that do in fact glow blue.
I purchased them directly from Lou Zocci, he no longer makes them as the cost of the blue glow in the dark powder that gets mixed into the plastic costs far more than the green.
My newest Glow in the Dark Dice are Cthulhu Dice.
Behold the Horror! & Hang on to your Sanity.
Now let us return to my thrift store acquisitions. Escape the Mad Mummy. Gyroscopic d6. Let it sink in.
This thing is insane. In the game they're using it as a d3, it spins on the top of this ziggurat, which sits in the middle of the board. Why the middle of the board? Because when it's done spinning the big hefty die falls onto the board and disrupts pawns and tokens and what not. I haven't played the game or read the rules but it seems like a dumb kids game. But it has a gyroscopic die and cool little figs that I can use for Savage Worlds.
Now....Bring Me More Dice.
Step one, the Game and Toy aisles. I generally look for games that I'm unfamiliar with and check the box for unique dice. If the die or dice within are unique enough—I'll purchase the game. I like to try and make sure that I have all the game pieces—though this is not always an option.
Recent acquisitions:
Scattergories—For the Gigantic d20 with letters. It's only missing Q, U, V, X, Y, and Z.
Scattergories Jr.—For the Gigantic d20 with letters. It's missing even more letters as some have been replaced with a star.
Advance to Boardwalk for the d6 with colored Squares, F, and M...or is it a W? I don't know, I haven't read the rules yet.
I have one more, but I'm going to save that for the end. In the interim I'm going to mention that the Mini Dice that I used to not really care for have grown on me. I've purchased Four Sets over the past few months.
I somewhat recently picked up this question word die and parts of speech die. What would I use them for? No Idea, but they're fun to have.
Quite a while ago I got my hands on these Pre-shaken Dice.
My Sister got these Mice Dice for me at Disneyland.
When I first started collecting dice there were some types of dice I wanted to get, but kept putting it off. Then recently I finally got around to trying to obtain them and apparently they're not so easy to get anymore. But I found some. First up Fudge Dice.
Fudge is a Role Playing Game System. The name comes from the phrase, "just Fudge it." I've tried reading the rules several times now, but my eyes keep glazing over. The dice are cool though; and it's an interesting mechanic where you roll a dice pool of 1–4 dice yielding a number between -4 and +4.
The other dice that I had trouble finding were these TALI bones.
They were created for a Role Playing Game called FVLMINATA: Armed with Lightning. It too uses a dice pool system (They come in a set of Eight—they are rolled in sets of Four). The Dice are eight sided, but the Roman Numerals do not correspond to 1–8. The faces have two sets of I, III, IV and VI. These Mimic Dice that Romans used. FVULMINATA is an Alternate History game set in the Roman Empire, with the addition of gunpowder (i.e. Guns) and a light sprinkling of magic.
Speaking of Dice Pools—I have a set of Ubiquity dice.
Ubiquity is the Role Playing system that drives the Role Playing Game Hollow Earth Expedition (often referred to as HEX). HEX uses a dice pool system that turns every die into a 2 sider (odds and evens). I heard it explained five times and still didn't understand it until I had read it twice more. Ubiquity dice negate the need for having handfulls of dice to throw. The White ones Represent 1d2 each. The Red ones 2d2 each and the Blue ones 3d2. So with a set of 6 dice you can roll the equivalent of 1–18d2.
I like the World of HEX (It has a hollow Earth, Dinosaurs, and Nazis), but I think the system would confuse me, so I'd rather just Savage it.
I have a weakness for glow in the dark things. This pink die for instance.
No, it sadly doesn't glow pink, it glows green like every other glow in the dark product that you've seen since you were a kid.
I do have a rather rare set of dice that do in fact glow blue.
I purchased them directly from Lou Zocci, he no longer makes them as the cost of the blue glow in the dark powder that gets mixed into the plastic costs far more than the green.
My newest Glow in the Dark Dice are Cthulhu Dice.
Behold the Horror! & Hang on to your Sanity.
Now let us return to my thrift store acquisitions. Escape the Mad Mummy. Gyroscopic d6. Let it sink in.
This thing is insane. In the game they're using it as a d3, it spins on the top of this ziggurat, which sits in the middle of the board. Why the middle of the board? Because when it's done spinning the big hefty die falls onto the board and disrupts pawns and tokens and what not. I haven't played the game or read the rules but it seems like a dumb kids game. But it has a gyroscopic die and cool little figs that I can use for Savage Worlds.
Now....Bring Me More Dice.
Bad News and Bad News
Continued from the preceeding blog.
First the Bad News: Paula may not be entirely out from American Idol (Can we say Publicity Stunt—thank you Twitter)
Next the Bad News: Paula May be in Negotiations to be a Judge on So You Think You Can Dance.
GAH!!!
First the Bad News: Paula may not be entirely out from American Idol (Can we say Publicity Stunt—thank you Twitter
Next the Bad News: Paula May be in Negotiations to be a Judge on So You Think You Can Dance.
GAH!!!
Thursday, August 06, 2009
The Internets......They're Messing With Me Man!
I did a search on Google this morning. I was trying to find out if there was any place (other than the game store I generally frequent) that caries Savage Worlds Books. I used the following search string:
"Savage Worlds" "Salt Lake City"
I clicked on the first hit, not really paying attention to the details other than the fact that it was something at the Pinnacle Entertainment Forums. Pinnacle Entertainment being the publisher of Savage Worlds. Here I must mention that I use Google Toolbar extensively; When searching I use the Word Find functionality.
So I arrived at the page and it just looked like a lot of noise, so I wanted to find out what had brought me to that page. Since Salt Lake City was in quotes it shows up as a single word on my Google Toolbar. I clicked it to Jump to the first instance of Salt Lake City on the page. As I was reading, it donned on me that it was my post on the Pinnacle Forums—then I took a closer look and realized that the page was a list of All my posts on the Pinnacle Forums. —Spooky.
So I had decided to post this blog and I was trying to think up a good title. I had this notion of what I wanted to call it but one of the words just wasn't coming to me. I went to Thesaurus.com and searched coincidence. A little down the page was the Main Entry: circumstance—and the first word on the list was jumping off the page at me: Moira.
I couldn't figure out why Moira was synonomous with circumstance. So I looked it up at Dictionary.com.
1. Classical Mythology.
a. the personification of fate.
b. Moirai, the Fates.
2. (often lowercase) (among ancient Greeks) a person's fate or destiny.
3. a female given name.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
When we were thinking about naming our daughter Moira, I researched the meaning extensively—I wasn't about to name her something that had a bad meaning or origin. Apparently I didn't research extensively enough, because I never came across definition one or two, let alone something that wasn't Celtic.
"Savage Worlds" "Salt Lake City"
I clicked on the first hit, not really paying attention to the details other than the fact that it was something at the Pinnacle Entertainment Forums. Pinnacle Entertainment being the publisher of Savage Worlds. Here I must mention that I use Google Toolbar extensively; When searching I use the Word Find functionality.
So I arrived at the page and it just looked like a lot of noise, so I wanted to find out what had brought me to that page. Since Salt Lake City was in quotes it shows up as a single word on my Google Toolbar. I clicked it to Jump to the first instance of Salt Lake City on the page. As I was reading, it donned on me that it was my post on the Pinnacle Forums—then I took a closer look and realized that the page was a list of All my posts on the Pinnacle Forums. —Spooky.
So I had decided to post this blog and I was trying to think up a good title. I had this notion of what I wanted to call it but one of the words just wasn't coming to me. I went to Thesaurus.com and searched coincidence. A little down the page was the Main Entry: circumstance—and the first word on the list was jumping off the page at me: Moira.
I couldn't figure out why Moira was synonomous with circumstance. So I looked it up at Dictionary.com.
1. Classical Mythology.
a. the personification of fate.
b. Moirai, the Fates.
2. (often lowercase) (among ancient Greeks) a person's fate or destiny.
3. a female given name.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
When we were thinking about naming our daughter Moira, I researched the meaning extensively—I wasn't about to name her something that had a bad meaning or origin. Apparently I didn't research extensively enough, because I never came across definition one or two, let alone something that wasn't Celtic.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Good News and Bad News
I always end up watching American Idol.
I start watching the early shows because of the general insanity and then get sucked into it. Last season was the worst. The Judges were all on something (except Simon) and it took the talent a lot longer than normal to get into the groove of things and stop sucking. Then the only person with any artistic originality didn't win—as usual America votes for some bland artist whose album they probably won't actually buy.
The Bad news? Extraneous Female Judge, Kara DioGuardi will be returning to the show.
The Good news? Paula will not.
I start watching the early shows because of the general insanity and then get sucked into it. Last season was the worst. The Judges were all on something (except Simon) and it took the talent a lot longer than normal to get into the groove of things and stop sucking. Then the only person with any artistic originality didn't win—as usual America votes for some bland artist whose album they probably won't actually buy.
The Bad news? Extraneous Female Judge, Kara DioGuardi will be returning to the show.
The Good news? Paula will not.
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Reconnecting With the World
My favorite talk radio station is moving from AM to FM. This means I can now listen on my Zune.
I've been disconnected from the world events that effect my family because I haven't had the opportunity to listen to news from a source that I trust.
I had disconnected myself from current events because of this. I've been listening to a lot of podcasts about gaming, and while that is an enjoyable pastime; we live in dangerous times and under a government that is blatantly going against the architecture laid down by our founding fathers.
Our country was founded on the rights of the individual—but our government is increasingly trying to look out for the "good of the community," and when government looks out for the good of the community, that always leads to the trampling of the rights of the individual. What they fail to realize, is that if individual freedoms are preserved, the good of the community will take care of itself.
Our government representatives are now (and have been since the new deal) striving to move toward a more socialistic model. Socialism fails every time, the reason governments continually strive toward it is because it equals more power and "prestige" to those in positions of leadership—let's not mince words: it's a pride thing.
More than ever we are busy with our lives. More than ever it is important to be involved in the proceedings of our government. There is a loss of representation in our representative government, as much as we'd like to blame the leaders right out, complacency by the represented is also a part of the mix.
By no means are we past the point of no return. If we are not vigilant, and hold those that we have voted in to positions of power responsible—if we do not make our voices known, then we will not be represented properly and we will pass that point where return is a bloody affair. We must be peaceful and use the infrastructure laid down by our founding fathers to return freedoms to individuals before it grows too late.
Though the mishandling of power has been a constant—from both sides of the aisle—since the days of the new deal, the current administration has escalated things. In a way that's frightening and bad, but at least is has woken people up. They're no longer frogs simmering in a gradually heating pot of water. The temperature change has been a little abrupt and many people that have been content to lose their rights for "the good of the community" or for "safety" are now realizing that those were not rights that should have been so willingly given away. We must strive and work to remain free. Freedom is God's intended way for all men and thus the natural entropy of this world tends to lead away from freedom. A Nanny state is not what I want.
I've been disconnected from the world events that effect my family because I haven't had the opportunity to listen to news from a source that I trust.
I had disconnected myself from current events because of this. I've been listening to a lot of podcasts about gaming, and while that is an enjoyable pastime; we live in dangerous times and under a government that is blatantly going against the architecture laid down by our founding fathers.
Our country was founded on the rights of the individual—but our government is increasingly trying to look out for the "good of the community," and when government looks out for the good of the community, that always leads to the trampling of the rights of the individual. What they fail to realize, is that if individual freedoms are preserved, the good of the community will take care of itself.
Our government representatives are now (and have been since the new deal) striving to move toward a more socialistic model. Socialism fails every time, the reason governments continually strive toward it is because it equals more power and "prestige" to those in positions of leadership—let's not mince words: it's a pride thing.
More than ever we are busy with our lives. More than ever it is important to be involved in the proceedings of our government. There is a loss of representation in our representative government, as much as we'd like to blame the leaders right out, complacency by the represented is also a part of the mix.
By no means are we past the point of no return. If we are not vigilant, and hold those that we have voted in to positions of power responsible—if we do not make our voices known, then we will not be represented properly and we will pass that point where return is a bloody affair. We must be peaceful and use the infrastructure laid down by our founding fathers to return freedoms to individuals before it grows too late.
Though the mishandling of power has been a constant—from both sides of the aisle—since the days of the new deal, the current administration has escalated things. In a way that's frightening and bad, but at least is has woken people up. They're no longer frogs simmering in a gradually heating pot of water. The temperature change has been a little abrupt and many people that have been content to lose their rights for "the good of the community" or for "safety" are now realizing that those were not rights that should have been so willingly given away. We must strive and work to remain free. Freedom is God's intended way for all men and thus the natural entropy of this world tends to lead away from freedom. A Nanny state is not what I want.
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