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November 29th, 2009
05:48 pm
Have been away for the weekend for a wedding in the mountains. Cool ceremony, stayed in a chalet/townhouse, open bar - all good things.
Home is covered in cat hair. These things happen when we're away.
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November 27th, 2009
12:09 pm - Why (and how often) we fight (with kobolds)
So I was reading a 4E D&D adventure this morning (Scepter Tower of Spellgard, for the curious), and like most WOTC adventures it's got an interesting premise and room for further development, but most of it's just a string of fight scenes. And I like fight scenes, but the adventure is still boring, and I'm trying to work out why that's the case, and how to keep action-focused games interesting from a roleplaying as well as a tactical POV.
My current feeling (and this could change) is that what fight scenes really need is a meaningful goal or outcome - something that the players/PCs accomplish over and above kicking their opponents into submission. You rescue the princess, close the portcullis to stop the invaders, disrupt the ritual, unravel the clue or some other outcome that actually matters to the characters. The 4E DMG II talks about this concept, but puts forward 'getting some treasure' and 'getting to the next part of the dungeon/adventure' as meaningful goals, and I'm not sure that's true; too often, those outcomes feel like something PCs need but don't necessarily want. Cool treasure could come attached to any scene, and access to the rest of the adventure should be available without jumping through a combat hoop - and more to the point, those things are rarely personal enough to feel meaningful.
The problem with Spellgard, and with pretty much every WOTC adventure I've seen recently, is that the meaningful fights are few and far between, and phatloot/gatekeeper fights - or just plain, purposeless fillerfights - fill up the rest of the adventure. The action scenes don't connect tightly to the premise of the adventure, or advance the plot other than moving you closer to the actual plot; even if they're tactically interesting, they exist in a vacuum and don't resonate with more character-focused players.
On the other hand, lower-importance action scenes moderate use of PC abilities so that characters don't just fire all their guns at once because they're only in one fight a day. So just scrapping all the minor fights throws out the pacing of the game. And making every minor encounter personally important to one or more PCs would begin to feel very artificial after a while.
How can we retain a rhythm of rising action and importance while still making every encounter interesting and meaningful? Not sure, but I'm interested in suggestions. Particularly as I have another D&D session to run in a few weeks.
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November 26th, 2009
08:05 pm
Holy crap, you could not pay for this kind of comedy.
I eagerly await the formation of the breakaway New Liberals - presumably followed by the formation of The Mighty Liberals, The Dark Liberals, and The Lack of Initiative (National Party).
Next year's election is going to be hilarious.
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November 25th, 2009
01:53 pm - Liberal infighting makes me hard
What facts can we draw from Malcolm Turnbull's 48-to-35 victory in today's leadership stoush?
- A significant number of Liberal parliamentarians are probably in favour of Labor's emissions trading scheme and the concessions they've won, but didn't want to publicly show their support because it would detract from the Opposition's image of being mindless naysayers who are too ironclad in their convictions to ever show signs of intelligence. The secret ballot let them throw their support behind the bill, while still pretending to be hardmen who'd eat glass and shit fine china before agreeing with inconvenient science.
- A significant number of Liberal parliamentarians are probably dumb enough to think climate change is a hoax, but not so dumb that they think Kevin Andrews would be anything but a blood-drenched albatross hanging around the party's genitals on the way to the next election. Putting a famously stupid, pig-headed, bigoted liar in charge of the party in 2010 - the loathed architect of WorkChoices and the man behind the spectacular own goal of the Haneef affair - would be much like building Kevin Rudd a throne out of golden vaginas, and those politicians whose survival instincts outweigh their arrogance presumably decided it was better to eat a shit sandwich today than eat a 12-course shit banquet every day for the next four years.
- 35 Liberal parliamentarians think that racism, homophobia, mealy-mouthed false Christianity and oppressive labour laws were just great back in John Howard's day, and surely the Australian public would jump at the chance to vote for those things again. Those 35 brain donors presumably pay someone to tie their shoelaces for them and wear crash helmets at dinner so they can't hurt themselves. It's a little staggering, and very amusing, to realise that perhaps Alexander Downer isn't the dumbest person in Parliamentary history.
- Kevin Rudd is probably a bit sad that he can't just put his feet up and drink sherry with his underpants on his head for a year before the election, but can take some comfort in knowing that he's going to win anyway.
- Joe Hockey knows this just as much as Kevin Rudd does, which is why he'll be spending the year polishing his public image and avoiding the Liberal leadership like it was radioactive jailbait. He may be a feckless thug, but he's not stupid.
- And speaking of stupid, I hope Kevin Andrews enjoys his upcoming new role as Shadow Minister for Sewer Inspection and Being Stranded in Unpopular Countries. Possibly he can use his spare time to write a paper on how his failures are the fault of the gay Sudanese terrorists who live in his cupboard and keep giving him bad advice and hairstyling tips.
God, I love politics.
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12:22 pm
There's something a little exciting and empowering about getting a call from the Blood Bank, asking me to come in ASAP for an emergency platelet donation.
It's kind of like my very own Batsignal. Except with a lot more sitting around. And probably a lot more wincing, despite losing the same amount of blood.
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November 24th, 2009
09:45 pm
Today I listened to a My Chemical Romance album and kinda enjoyed it.
Possibly I'm aging in reverse. I think my testicles just undropped.
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November 23rd, 2009
07:27 pm
After last week's Dragon Age marathon, I think I'm all videogamed out for a while. Sitting in one place while polygons murder each other on the TV/monitor doesn't have the appeal it did a week ago, and that's not just because the only thing installed on the PC right now is the staggeringly mediocre D&D Online.
(Rock Band doesn't count as a video game, of course; it's a medium of human interaction, like smoke signals or divorce.)
So what am I going to do with my spare time for the next few months, until I get sucked in by Assassin's Creed II or the new LOTRO expansion? The usual things, I suppose - hanging out with other human beings, spending time with my girlfriend, drinking in pubs and seeing bands (Faith No More in February)... what the hell, maybe even work on my novel. All those cool things you can do while not squatting in a nest of your own filth grinding for power-ups.
'Grinding For Power-Ups' would be a bitchin' band name, though.
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November 22nd, 2009
04:51 pm
For the first time in my life, I now own some Forgotten Realms gaming products.
In my defence, they were really cheap, and I kinda like what I've seen of the 4E version of the setting.
Still, I can't help feeling that I've blotted my gaming copybook and lost geek purity points. Or worse, gained geek purity points.
Current Mood: so very, very dirty
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November 20th, 2009
11:23 pm
Hands healing nicely.
N. back on Sunday.
Dragon Age still unfinished after 65+ hours of nonstop play.
I've had worse holidays, oh my yes.
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November 19th, 2009
10:19 pm
November is, it must be said, a pretty crap time to grow facial hair, what with the 30+ degree heat and all the official meetings I have to. Surely a quieter, cooler month would have made more sense, like Moly or Mogust. Hell, even Moptember.
But one goes to war with the whiskers one has, and in my case those whiskers are shaping up as truly magnificant and/or horrific, depending on how drunk you are. Or, indeed, how drunk I am.
Come, validate my follicular efforts! Sponsor my truculent, perhaps feculent muttonchops, sideburns that confirm to no earthly logic or geometry! Applaud the bustle in my hedgerow! Go to my Movember member page and lay your money down!
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November 18th, 2009
07:17 pm
Spilling boiling noodle water over both hands really brings down the fun level of a holiday.
Makes it hard to type, too.
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November 17th, 2009
10:00 pm - Indie RPG and the Temple of Doom - Cold City
The central premise of Cold City is clear, engaging and has loads of potential for gameplay, and you can get so caught up in it that you miss that the game is really about something else entirely. It's Berlin, 1950, in the early years of the Cold War. The governing powers of Berlin are divided on every front except one - they still cooperate to run the little-known Reserve Police Agency, which seeks out the twisted technology the Nazis used to break the substance of reality. RPA agents hunt zombies, Lovecraftian monsters and forgotten experimental subjects in a secret campaign to rid the world of the lingering terrors of the Axis, in games that can range from grim horror to Hellboyesque pulp.
But what Cold City is actually about is trust, secrets and betrayal, and its rules do a good (although not perfect) job of reinforcing those themes into a game that's got enough of a traditional framework that GMs don't need to learn a whole new skillset. Character creation involves broad stats and freeform traits, but players also define two hidden agendas and their level of trust in the other PCs. Conflicts are resolved through rolling opposing dice pools, which start fairly low, but working towards a secret agenda and trusting in another PC add extra dice - but betraying the other PCs for your agenda could add even more! There's a really clear, simple reinforcement loop there, which allows the theme and the player-generated plot hooks to overtake what would otherwise be a fairly ordinary mission-based game structure. The GM advice is also clear about this, and encourages GMs to run short campaigns that allow PCs to fulfill their agendas and remove themselves from play.
Unfortunately, there are a couple of muddy or underdeveloped parts of the game that let Cold City down. The main issue I have is the all-or-nothing nature of the resolution system, which is conflict/scene based; win the dice roll and you win your stakes, lose and you lose them, nothing in the middle. There's a system of mechanical consequences, but it's similarly all-or-nothing, and it never really joins up properly with the stakes system. This is particularly problematic in action scenes, where players will either win unscathed or lose big. I also wish there was more material about the surface horror elements of the game to help GMs work towards an effective tone; there's a sample scenario, which is interestingly post-Lovecraftian, but the game scratches the surface and then pushes all the work onto the GM. If/when I run the game, I'd have to do a little mechanical tinkering to alleviate the all-or-nothing problem, and some brainstorming to make it something other than Call of Cthulhu with more trenchcoats.
But in the end, these are solvable issues, and they don't detract from the solid core of the game and the depth of its PC/PC interactions. Definitely one I want to try out.
Current Music: DR. OCTAGON - I'm Destructive
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November 16th, 2009
07:24 am
At the tender age of 38, I seem to have developed hay fever for the first time in my life.
In my case, this is less about explosive sneezing - which I've always done - and more about sore eyes and nosebleeds.
Not impressed. Human biology really needs a significant patch.
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November 15th, 2009
10:57 pm
Yes, Dragon Age has this aesthetic where enemies explode into gory fountains like balloons stuffed with claret, and at the end of every fight scene your characters are drenched in enough blood to make a basket of black puddings. But this is absolutely necessary to the game, because it conveys the sense of a grim low-magic world where there is no fun and everyone's a prick and THIS IS SERIOUS FANTASY.
It's also, of course, a setting where people leave their valuables in barrels outside their houses, wild animals wander around with useful items stuffed up their butts ready for looting, traders never run out of money to buy said wildcat-intestine-scented items and all the bloodstains wash off as soon as you go past the laundering powers of a loading screen. But that's not the point, damnit.
...the game is also really goddamn good, and I spent something like 12 hours glued to it today. But that doesn't make the silly bits any less silly.
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November 14th, 2009
10:45 pm
I hate to be the guy who complains about the science in a science-fiction movie, but I really think Moon would have been more powerful and effective if the makers had paid attention to minor things like the silence of vacuum or the lower gravity of the moon.
But even without those things, it's a damn cool film, and Sam Rockwell is incredibly good as the deteriorating workman alone on the far side of the Moon, nearing the end of his three-year contract. He has to carry the entire film pretty much on his own, and he does so with aplomb.
The comparisons to 2001 are obvious, but really only surface aesthetics, and Moon really finds its own space and story, which I can't talk about due to spoilers. I'd just recommend you see it. It's worth it.
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November 13th, 2009
03:55 pm
Regular paycheque + freelance paycheque + week's holiday + Dragon Age + airconditioning = happy Patrick.
I'm a man of simple pleasures, I am. Simple pleasures and fat bank.
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November 12th, 2009
07:11 am
Books decision a windfall for Amazon, says Fels
THE Federal Government's decision to keep import restrictions on books will ''kill bookshops'' as online retailers such as Amazon gain the upper hand, the former chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Allan Fels, has warned.The Competition Minister, Craig Emerson, announced yesterday the Government had rejected changes that would have scrapped the so-called ''30-day rule'' that shields local publishers from imported copies if they publish titles within a month. The cabinet decision on Tuesday night is a humiliating defeat for Dr Emerson, who with other economic ministers had led the campaign for relaxing import rules. The Arts Minister, Peter Garrett, and Industry Minister, Kim Carr, had opposed change.
Fels, in this instance, is full of shit.
The fact that the government rejected this change is terrific news for local authors and publishers, who now can continue to have an industry rather than dying overnight as American publishers completely take over the market.
It's also good news for booksellers that sell local product, and particularly those who promote local product and care about their customers. These are the booksellers still operating in the Amazon age because they sell both Australian books and a level of service, two things it's hard to get online.
Yes, this may kick big chain bookstores in the arse, particularly those who focus on mass market and import titles. Personally, I don't care so much about them.
This is great news. Rejoice, writers. Rejoice, publishers. Rejoice, non-shit bookshops.
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November 11th, 2009
07:41 pm
I'm apparently going to see Tori Amos tomorrow night.
This comes as something of a surprise.
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November 10th, 2009
10:56 pm
If it's going to stay this hot at night all week, maybe I should just sleep in the loungeroom under the airconditioner. And go to work in boxer shorts.
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November 9th, 2009
09:49 pm
Well, bugger; my less-than-a-year-old computer still isn't good enough to run Dragon Age. That's annoying; I'd wanted to try the PC version, as that's how CRPGs are meant to be played.
On the other hand, given that I'm on holiday next week, that means I can spend the entire time sitting on the couch under the airconditioner, drinking beer in boxer shorts and playing it on the 360.
Swings and roundabouts, as they say.
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