Thursday, June 2, 2016

A Quick Update

    I've been making some significant changes to my life recently, which has ended up with me being off-line more than usual - but I haven't forgotten about the blog, and I appreciate everyone who has been visiting it.  I do have some more posts I'm working on, but likely it will be at least a few weeks before I can get them done and published.  As a quick review though:
    I saw Captain America: Civil War, love it, it was everything I was hoping Batman v Superman would be (not a big fan of BvS overall, though it did have a few great moments).
    Watching The Mentalist again after getting my girlfriend hooked on it, still one of my favorite TV shows (along with Leverage, Castle, White Collar - to stick with the crime genera).
    Been running and doing Pilates (my girlfriend is a Pilates instructor) and trying to lose weight.  Bad about tracking it, but dropped at least 10 pounds, and 4" waist size, so while I really don't like working out I do like the results.
    Still reading blogs, and loving stuff by the Angry GM.
    And a lot of personal stuff, some of which I may talk about down the road.  Hope you all are doing well, and I will post something more meaningful as soon as I can :)

Friday, March 18, 2016

Escalation Die and Recharge Time

  I have crazy ideas all the time, here's another one inspired by 13th Age. In that game you use an Escalation Die, a d6 that does not start in play, but at the beginning of each subsequent turn increases by 1. The value of the die is added to the players' to-hit rolls.
  I like this mechanic a lot. It speeds up combat, something any d20 based system could use, and it tracks the length of the fight (to a point) and you can play off it in all sorts of ways.
  Something I hate in 13th Age is recharging effects. All abilities are either at-will, require a recharge roll after the battle (so maybe your ring feels like protecting you again, maybe not), can be used once every battle or used once every day. It is a wonky system that has no basis in "fictional reality" just a timing mechanic inherited from D&D 4th edition.
  But what if there were two dice? The Escalation Die goes up every turn, but the second Recharge Die goes down every turn? The catch, recharging magic items (and maybe some spells and abilities) spends recharge points after the fight?
  Now we have a nicely conflicted resource. High escalation die helps you take on the bigger monsters - but you have no recharge points to re-power your magic items and abilities. Quicker fights usually mean taking more risks though. And if you could always use recharge points- say, no recoveries, instead reach recharge point can heal 1d4 HP (you catch your breath and treat your wounds)- now everybody can benefit from having them. A short rest could be something like 10 recharge points. A low powered magic effect might need 2-3 recharge, bigger ones 4-5.
  This could even be associated - say that magic items store magic energy and discharge it to produce the item's effect. So you have to rest and meditate to channel energy back into the item (being inanimate it can't recharge itself)?
  I could kind of see this in non-combat too. The faster you persuade the guard or travel the more time you have to look around or the fewer enemies to face. Resource points could also be a counter for the pacing of the story - reinforcing how important time is (and it should be).
  Not sure about the nuts and bolts to implement this, but it sounds like a neat idea to me.

Monday, March 14, 2016

The Homeless Nerd reviews - Zootopia

What is it? Animated movie about anthropomorphic animals, aimed at kids but can work for adults

    If there is one type of story I love most it is the funny story with a serious core. This is why I love Terry Pratchett novels so much, he would write a series of comedic events, but they would have a very serious and deep meaning. Like his book Small Gods that examines the difference between religion and spirituality by the adventures of a god that becomes a turtle. This is different from funny stories that have serious moments, or serious stories that have funny moments. It's subtle, and not something that can be defined so much as experienced.
  Zootopia is one of these kinds of stories. The alternate Earth with no humans, just evolved animals is a great comedic setting - but under that is a great thread about racism, fear and prejudice. It should appeal to the kids who watch it, and the adults who think about it.
  Technically, the voice acting is great, the pacing is spot in, it never feels slow or boring. The CGI is sharp and creates a great sense of place. All around it is a great movie.

My recommendation: worth paying full price for, it's that good.

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Stuff You Might Have Missed: Archetypology

    I have not totally fallen off the earth :-) Life has been pretty crazy for the last few months, so blogging has fallen by the wayside. But something recently reminded me of an interesting series I thought I'd give some publicity. On RPG.net there was a series titled ARCHETYPOLOGY 101: FACT, FICTION, & FALLACIES. The author talked about the fantasy origins or archetypes of some fantasy RPG classes and races. It was a very cool series and I wish it had been longer. I'm going to post the links to it below in case you, gentle reader, find it as fascinating as I did:

#1: Who Are You?
#2: Episode 1 - Holy Rollers
#3: Episode 2 - Elves Have Left The Building
#4: Episode 3 - Thick as Thieves
#5: Episode 4 - In a Hole in the Ground...
#6: Episode 5 - Rebel Without a CAWS
#7: Episode 6 - Kings Under the Mountain
#8: Episode 7 - Roll Up for the Magical Mystery Tour
#9: Episode 8 - To Be Orc Not To Be
#10: Episode 9 - Death Before Dishonor
#11: Episode 10 - Human, All Too Human