Chaotek Thoughts

I haven’t been posting too much lately.  I have been having problems getting Google to crawl this site since moving to b2evolution.  I was a little nervous that I’d have to move all content to new blog software, so I was a little de-motivated to write too much.  However it looks like the crawl issues have been resolved, as I figured out that b2evolution doesn’t handle obscured URLs very well (or Google didn’t handle them very well).  Either way, it’s resolved now—so I’ll start posting more often again.

I was thinking about how many groups of things have cool, yet representative, names like a murder of crows, a paddling of ducks, or a pride of lions. So I figured I’d try to coin terms for Democrats and Republicans. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

• A bank of Republicans
• A heartless of Republicans
• An exclusion of Republicans
• A war of Republicans
• A faith of Republicans

• A strife of Democrats
• A spend of Democrats
• A hemp of Democrats
• An illusion of Democrats
• A moaning of Democrats

Let me know which is your favorite, or what you think might be a good term…

Here’s a great email I was sent by someone who had become quite paranoid after reading. After a single read, I was quickly able to determine that this was crap:

GUYS PASS ON TO YOUR GIRLFRIENDS AND LOVED ONES!! WASH BRAS BEFORE USING. Most people do but its just a warning………to those that don’t…..Read the account first, then brace yourselves before looking at the pics………….Oh my god. This is disgusting. Forward to all females!!!! Wash your bra’s before you wear them!!! Please make it a habit from this point forward to wash your just-purchased Undergarments before wearing them. This is sensitive.

After anthropologist Susan McKinley came back home from an expedition in South America , she noticed a very strange rash on her left breast. Nobody knew what it was and she quickly dismissed it believing that the Holes would leave in time. Upon her return she decided to see a doctor after she started developing Intense pains. The doctor, not knowing the exact severity of the disease, gave her Antibiotics and special creams. As time lapsed the pain did not subside and her left breast became more inflamed and started to bleed. She decided to bandage her sores, however as Susan’s pain grew more intense she decided to seek help from a more certified doctor.

Dr. Lynch could not diagnose the infection and told Susan to seek the aid of one of his colleagues who specializes in dermatology. Unfortunately, the doctor was on vacation. She waited for two weeks and finally was able to reach the dermatologist. Sadly, a life changing event was about to unfold during her appointment. To Miss McKinley’s surprise, after she removed the bandages, they found Larvae growing and squirming within the pores and sores of her breast. Sometimes these wicked creatures would all together simultaneously move around into different crevices. What she didn’t know was that the holes were in fact, deeper than she had originally thought, for these larvae were feeding off the fat, tissue, and even milk canals of her breast.

Safe link to included picture (NSFW)

Please share with as many women and men that you know. Our undergarments are made in different countries all over the world. They sit in boxes and go through many hands and exchanges before we purchase them for ourselves. PLEASE WASH ALL NEWLY PURCHASED BRAS AND UNDERWEAR BEFORE WEARING THEM. WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT PARASITES ARE IN OUR CLOTHING WHEN WE BUY THEM.

Sure, it’s a disturbing looking picture at first glance, but the entire story doesn’t even make sense. For one, nowhere in the story did the woman buy a bra, let alone within the United States. If the story wasn’t a total fabrication, then this was caused by a visit to jungles in South America, and has nothing to do with the safety of clothing imported into the US. Customs is very careful about ensuring that foreign creatures do not come to the US. If the worms were tunneling around in her breast, why were the holes on the outside look more like the center of a fruit or flower seeds with a worm head visible in each hole?

Of course, there is a mild amount of truth to this email legend. The story is either based on or been helped by medical journal articles like this one. There are untold numbers of parasites and accidental infestations in humans. It’s also likely a good idea to wash clothing after purchase. Some clothing may have chemicals sprayed on them to reduce mildew, or could have parasites from other people who tried them on before you purchased them.

What is important to think about is that many eLegends are completely fabricated. Even a simple query about such a scare-tactic email in any search engine will likely turn up plenty of proof that it is fake.

Announced today, Remo Williams will return to the screen. I’ve always been a fan of the cult classic, and its great to see that it may get another chance!

After many years of gaming, there is one aspect of traditional D&D which I can’t stand more than anything else—dungeons. It may seem odd, as half of the title of the game I play the most is dungeons, but I just can’t stand them.

I understand why dungeons are often the core of published adventures; they are easy to write. It can be difficult, if not impossible, to design an adventure for others to use without a dungeon. With a dungeon there is a limitation on possible player choices and solid rewards for accomplishing the dungeon. This is why video games utilize the concept as well. It is a very simple, easy to document, and easy to understand method of covering adventure material.

However I feel like dungeons, and published adventures in general, or not very much fun. I like using a published adventure for inspiration, but every time I use a published adventure the game becomes very stale and boring. Sure, 5 rooms of cutting down enemies might be fun, but any more than that and I think me and my fellow players stop trying to enjoy the story and just ignore everything to just finish the dungeon. Its where dungeon crawling becomes a chore.

I do think there is a way to apply the benefits of dungeons to published adventures which do not include dungeons at all. For an example of this, check of the 3.5 book Heroes of Battle. This book includes a good example of how to design an adventure like a dungeon without including a dungeon. Heroes of Battle uses the example of an overland adventure, where player choices affect the next phase of a battle in the midst of a war. The example provided is a D-Day style invasion, where the party arrives on a beach. After stopping the initial defenses, the heroes can continue down the breach to support another landing party, or move up the cliff-side to take out an enemy fortification, and so on. There is a very good diagram of how this can be defined using a flowchart. Even better, there is a time-based flowchart which defines what the enemy forces will do, and how it could react if the players interfere.

The point here is that I believe that published adventures can be much more interesting and immersive if dungeons became a thing of the past. For those who are designing their own adventures, using these ideas for adventure design can provide a robust pre-planned adventure, without the need for a boring dungeon crawl.

I found a pretty interesting series of videos regarding paintball drills to improve your game. Check it out!

I’ve been reading a lot on TV Tropes, in addition to Wikipedia. It’s a facinating site, defining and providing examples of common media plot devices. Very entertaining. For gamers, you can use the site for inspiration, or to avoid common plot pitfalls.

I’ve had some time to review the Eberron Player’s Guide, and it was a very solid resource book. First off, I’d like to point out that the Eberron setting has been implemented in 4E like Forgotten Realms should have been (a retroactive cannon fix). A common tactic used in television and comic books, you just act like this is how it always was. There’s no wonky time-warping or world changing.

As to the game rules, I found the new player races to be effective and desirable. While the races are not necessarily new, changinglings (as doppelgangers) and warforged were covered in the Monster Manual, I think that they work well and gained a bit by being printed formally as player races. The new class, Artificer, seems to be an effective and unique leader class. I like the alchemy path as an alternative to rituals, and I expect that future books will support this concept. Regarding the Dragonmark feats, I feel up and down. First, I do like that the dragonmarks diverged from the spellscarred system from the Realms, however I was left wanting for more. I don’t like the idea that anyone can get any dragonmark, and I will house-rule this so no problem really. However I hope that future supplements will include the ability to improve the dragonmarks, perhaps with a follow-up feat in the paragon and epic tiers for greater capabilities. Overall, I think the rules match the feel of Eberron and do not up the power curve significantly.

Regarding the setting material, I’m really not a fan of the “Cliff’s Notes” setting material found in the Eberron and Forgotten Realms Player’s Guides. Once the campaign setting book arrives, this material makes me feel like I got ripped off by getting largely reprinted material in two books. I understand that you can argue that players only need to buy the smaller book, but I still feel cheated somehow.

I started my first Eberron game a few weeks back, in anticipation of the 4E books. I’m disappointed that I’ve missed out on Eberron back in 3rd edition, and I really like the flavor of the setting over almost any other officially printed setting of 4E or 3E. I think that this book is a good start to the setting. I’m really hoping that more supplemental material will be printed after the player’s guide and campaign setting are out, however I’m not holding my breath. I am going to hold on to 3rd edition books however as they are a gold mine of valuable material (once again unlike the Realms…).

Overall 4.5 out of 5 Stars.

Last night we started a new campaign, using a new system, and a first-time game master. That’s a lot of new, suggesting the session would turn out to be an all-around train wreck. As it turns out, the session was very smooth, with the issues primarily around learning a new system. Afterwards, we discussed some tips for the first time GM. The primary issue I’ve seen with first time game masters is a strong desire to tell a story-at the cost of the players’ fun. We call this railroading, where the players feel like they have to control or input into the story. The players become glorified dice-rollers at best, bored story listeners, or at worst angry ex-players. So here are some thoughts on how a first-time GM can avoid railroading:

Be a minimalist in describing the situation. I’m not saying that description isn’t important; in fact it is very important for story immersion. What I’m recommending is restricting your description to the minimum required to set the scene. Then allow the players to interact with that environment, thereby allowing for more description. If you completely describe the pub that the players walked in to, down to every detail of the inhabitants, then there is very little for the players delve deeper. By being a little vague about the description, you’ve created an air of mystery that the players will want to solve.

Don’t over think the adventure. In a given adventure, simplify your story idea into 2-3 plot points with huge gaping holes between them. Don’t spend a lot of time deciding how the players are going to get from one plot point to the next. If you plan too much, you’ll quickly lose your entire plan as the players go a different direction. Allow the players to decide how to get from one plot to the next. For example, if the players need to find out information about a nasty relic they are looking for, don’t plan on how they will learn that information. Allow the players to decide, such as they might consult a library, ask around town, or seek divine inspiration. All you need to do is plan the end result (in this case you might have the location of the relic), and let the players get there by whatever creative means they think of.

Start off small. For your first game, consider not planning a grand campaign plot at first. A first time GM will kill themselves planning an intricate, multi-month plot only to have the players destroy the possibility of that plot in the first session. Instead, focus on a single adventure at a time, and then incorporate reoccurring themes. It will seem like you planned it all out in the end. Long term campaign ideas lead to railroading more often than anything else in my view, because the game master wants to get to the end-plot and is less concerned with the current plot and the chaotic players. Once you get some experience, use the adventure advice above to develop a campaign story arc.

Don’t do anything on the players’ behalf. I heard a great bit of advice on the Fear The Boot podcast, the GM has control over the entire world, whereas the players only have control of a single character–don’t take that away from them. Try to stay away from changing character backgrounds or personalities. Don’t tell the characters as they walk into the pub that they move up to the bar and order a drink–let them say that they are moving up the bar to order a drink. Even if you can accurately predict the players’ actions, let them do it anyways.

Your plot is not set in stone, and that’s a good thing. If your plot revolves around the players getting ambushed on the way to village X but the players decide to go to village Y, who says that the ambushers are not on the road to village Y instead? If the players decided not to leave town, let the ambushers come to them or save that plot point for when they do–next session. If your plot points are vague enough, as suggested above, they can occur almost anywhere and for any reason. The players have no idea what you planned, and will think that their actions (or inaction) let to the plot progression. If the players kill someone you were going to use as a reoccurring villain, then use someone else to fill that role in future plots (it doesn’t mean the entire plot collapses).

Unless you are making up the entire game as you go along, which I don’t recommend for first-time game masters, and then you have developed some sort of plot for your game. The key is to let the players believe that they are in control. In a way this suggests that it’s just an illusion of control, but a most important illusion. Freewill in the real world can be considered an illusion of control. The players feel like they are in complete control, and yet you are doing an awesome job keeping up with them. When in reality, you always knew that a platoon of bad guys was going to find them–no matter what they did.

Sure, you can and should take the player’s actions into account. The most important part of being a game master is to facilitate the player’s fun, so allow them to have fun. Make them feel like their actions and personalities matter. Oh, and never use a published adventure for your first time in the GM chair, as a published adventure will go against every suggestion here.

I found a blog post awhile back called How to Awesome-Up Your Players. Ever since I read the article, from time to time I think about this as a basic theory of gaming. The entire point of roleplaying games, unlike any other type of gaming such as video games, is that the players get to be the hero. Sure, a video game might let them play a hero, but it doesn’t let them be the hero. The theory is almost like the service industry’s motto of “the customer is always right (even when they’re wrong).” If you are a game master, your players are your customers. If they don’t like what you’re selling them, they’ll get a new GM or decide they don’t want to game at all.

Now this doesn’t mean that the rules system goes out the window. Sure, if they want to kill the BBEG or burn down the inn, they still have to accomplish the task within the confines of the rules system. The point it, you are letting them try. I think that the biggest failing of any game masters is when they tell a player no, the player can’t do something. Saying no is very different from saying that something is really hard, but is possible (however remote). At this point even if the player’s action fails it’s a failure of a bad roll, not a mean GM who doesn’t allow players to play the game. The blog post encourages the use of GM caveat in favor of players as well, suggesting that even if the action should be near impossible rules-wise, that the GM should help the action succeed. This is a good idea as well, within limits.

At the end of the day, try to say yes to your players, and avoid saying no at all costs. It’s not about giving the players anything they want, but allowing them to try.