The Continuing Story

WOTC: Poor Market Planning

2008-07-03T19:11:42Z

Okay, so 4E D&D decided to make a huge deal, I mean, really big shindig deal about the Dragonborn. "It took us 30 years to have a race with Dragon in the name!" big deal out of it. Wonderful.

So... you're doing all this prep, all this promotion, and you are FREAKING Messing up your product line! You have your mini's line you are promoting, and the first set around you go "Whoops, we forgot to put a Dragonborn in that set." Okay, mistake. You go and try to fix that in your next set, and this time you mess up again!

By placing the Dragonborn in the Rare Slot, you may help the secondary market earn some cash, but it effectively broadcasts to your casual gamers and buyers We don't care about your character. More specifically, it broadcasts that we don't care about what we promote. By making that mistake and not placing one in the Uncommon slot, you encourage people not to bother buying the miniture product, not that they were really going to knock down your doors to do so in the first place, but why give them greater insentive not to buy?

Your customers at this very moment are looking through Reaper Catalogs and are buying Warhammer Lizardmen because they can't get through you the product they need because in all your planning and promoting, none of you stopped to think about AVAILABILITY! Don't promote products that you can't make available to the product.

It is becoming ever increasing clear to the public that your hydra of a company is not able to speak to each other to put forth a unified vision. I understand that you are gamers, but for Pete sakes, Organization should be the one thing RPG'ers should be able to work out.

Just do us a favor, take a few deep breaths, and when you put out that new product line next year for Ebberon, or if it's already too late, that product line afterwards, stop, organize everyone, and PLAN ON PROMOTING YOUR OWN PRODUCT EFFECTIVELY! Really, you need to stop pretending you are working on five different unrelated projects, and start working like you have ONE product that you are trying to promote, that just happens to have several components. It'll make your life easier.

Diablo Inspired monster junk

2008-07-03T00:34:33Z

Goat Demons

Four types for posting

Minion (I charge you with a headbutt, push you back, and whack you with my glaive! However, I am soft and taste great with mint!)

Brute (I got an axe and horns and I'm not afraid to use either of them!)

Attilery (I got icky stuff on my arrows! Neener Neener!)

Controller/Leader (We should all live in glorious sin! Here, let me show you the benifits of living in sin!)

With the Clan Modifiers

Moon - Poof! You mostly can't see me!
Fire - I bring you fire (Dadadadadaaaa!)
Bile - I ate too much *Blarf!*
Pure - Pure EVIL that is...

... and some other junk when I get around to it...

... Man, I just don't want to write up templates today...

Stupid thought process.

2008-07-02T20:46:53Z

You know, maybe coffee won't be all that bad. Maybe I should apply to be a shift lead at Pete's.

Wait... wasn't starbucks just closing 600 stores?

... So, all these coffee people are going to be looking for work... at the same time that Pete's is hiring... so they can scoop up the laid off Starbucks workforce...

...nevermind.

Heh...

2008-07-02T02:30:59Z

You know... the Goof Movie soundtrack is still cool even after all this time. :)

First 4E game for Paka today

2008-06-30T03:26:22Z

Highlights

Lots of investigation and trying to figure out what was stolen and who killed what.

Neat locations (Neater then I typically make I think) with interesting foes.

Bloodrunes. Just ick.

In depth Knowledge of cathedral architecture just after I've been watching all the Diablo III trailers all weekend just made it more awesome for me.

No tieflings or Dragonborn. Ha! Take that, new races. :P

Part of me wants to negotiate with goblins.... and then I forget they hate elves and eldran, and they're thieves... so eh.

He handled initiative with hardly an issue, and managed to keep the kids attention for most of the session, which is de awesome.

4E Character... What to play?

2008-06-29T05:23:34Z

I'm having a hard time trying to decide what I want to play tomorrow.

The suggestion from the Game Master is to run a half-elf warlord. It's not a bad suggestions, and if I don't play a warlord, probably no one will. I liked the Marshal, and even though the Warlord is no Marshal, it has a lot of nifty "Here, you get a free shot" kind of powers that suggest teamwork. I like that.

The thing is I hate half elves, really. Even though the powers are cool, I always felt the half-elf was a lame thing. Not and Elf, not a Human, some kinda love child that is rejected by the elves, and lives to see her parent die before running off to adventure. Half Elves are always just screamed angsty.

Part of me wants to really play an Elrian or a Dwarf. Not that the Elrian is any different from the old Elf (In fact, it is the old high elf in effect), but just I've not really played an elf, and they just kinda fascinate me again. Part of me wants to do a Dwarf cause I don't do dwarves very often, and maybe I could get a kick out of it.

Part of me wants to play a multiclass using the new rules. I really wouldn't mind trying out the Fighter with the wizard training feat, as an Elrian. It has been forever and a day that I could run a D&D Elf class without it feeling fake all over.

On warlord thoughts, part of me wants to run my old Druid as a Warlord. Cortochek would be awesome as the barbaric warlord, in his lizard hide armor and sheild and club. He could work.

At the same time, I've not really looked a the Paragon Paths closely, but they don't thrill me all that much. They're not really options I would take for characters I would build. I need different kinds of Paragon Paths for me to think about. I'll worry about them when the time comes, though. It's like 10 levels away. Gosh.

I think my favorite choices for classes right now are Cleric, Fighter, and Warlock... or fighter multiclassed into anything, really. What I don't have is a good idea for a character, or charactization.. or anything...

Come, Sit and Listen!

2008-06-28T18:02:46Z

The Lord of Terror is coming for you... sometime soon...

Diablo III

Hoot and Hollar, Blizzard gets a ding hour!

Arts! Ooo. Ah...

2008-06-27T00:24:48Z

My Heart Fell Out by ~KensanOni on deviant ART

Yeah!

2008-06-26T21:11:45Z

... I've finished my first painting in 2 months... Post it later when it dries.

Zimbabwe in Crisis

2008-06-26T01:25:30Z

One wonders what it takes to abandon a society, and to move and migrate on. Maybe the world is just too full for that to happen anymore, or maybe the dangers of moving on into knowingly hostile territory is to great.

Zimbabwe is in a crisis at the moment. It's dollar has devalued so much that is takes 2 billion to buy a loaf of bread, if you could even find the bread. If you were lucky enough to have it, you could turn it around and sell if for 15 billion. Forget about putting anything on that bread either. It costs 25 billion to buy butter. That is the amount you can withdraw from your bank in a day.

Oh, and just so you know, that 15 billion is worth about .2 USD.

Part of me looks at this and thinks it makes for a interesting twist on a D&D scenario in a way, where the players run into a town after crossing fallow fields and military encampment, and walk in to the Tavern, and ask for a beer, and they get charged 2 platinum for it. People will want to know where the gold rush is. That will be the only point of reference they will have had in american culture.

I look at the situation, though, and it's not that hard to imagine it happening here in a eventually, if things continue to be mismanaged as they are now. When Asia decides it doesn't want to ship it's goods back east, given the pirates, given the obsidence, given flaring tempers... How prepared is america to live without that outside support? We already are supplementing our food through the trade partners West of us.

It's a scary thought.

Anger and Frustration

2008-06-24T10:00:35Z

YOu know, maybe in some alternative universe, I'm not angry.... maybe in some alternative universe I am angry over big things... but right now, I am angry, and I can't get to sleep.

Part of it is the frustration that the world seems to take my ideas and input as useless, unwanted, and flawed.

Part of me is frustrated that I'm in the wrong part of this bay area to really do what I can do. I'd have to live on the other side of the hill, or the other side of the bay to be in an area where there is enough demand for my skillsets to be working. My skill set just does not match the San Jose area, and conceding to retail will be yet more futile effort given out. I am really tired of only being considered a seasonal worker. There just simply isn't enough seasons for one to live.

I feel constantly alone. Even though that's silly in a way... but litle bro wishes he was the only one with dad, which is understandable, and everyone I really know is in this relationship... and there are days where I seriously doubt I'll ever have anyone in that kind of attachment again... and that brings up other sexuality issues I don't really want to get into.

(Actually, let me expand upon that. Something inside me hurts now days when I see others in love. It is like they have something that I never am going to get or understand. Maybe the only reason they are together is for the sex, but it's more of an attachment then I have. It's gotten so acute that I am resentful to being touched and hugged, which wasn't normal for me two years ago. This leads to other things which are a huge mess that goes around in circles... and it's not that I don't love people less. It's just harder to be around them. This has shown itself the most in Second Life, where even two people being close to each other virtual makes me want to leave the room to avoid feeling hurt.)

I especially feel angry at the D&D communities right now, all of them, for being bullheaded and stupid, and unwilling to adapt to change. There is no reason in the universe you can't play both (Heck, all seven) games, and have everyone be happy. It's not the game, it's the people you're with. I wish the dolts would move past that and understand that.

... and the stupid business thing from early, too.

There is the frustration that I don't have a dedicated space, and the frustration that I can't focus long enough to create or finish creating things. There is the frustration that I can't get out what I feel in my head out on paper. There is also the frustration that when I do have the quiet, that nothing comes out on the paper.

(And really, this has nothing to do with my skill level or the fear it won't look good. I got this cute stork I drew with a crayon this Sunday, and it's just fine and functional, and I probably could show it off and no one would think negatively of it. It's just that I can't think of anything to express. Nothing seems to matter enough to draw, there is no world that I want to express, no concept that comes out to me. I have to push hard to find anything of my own to create. I don't quite have this problem when someone else wants me to draw something, but it's getting increasingly hard to draw and paint for myself.)

There is the frustration that I hit the wall on writing project at 4000 words, and it's hard to find space past that. It'd frustrating to have three different scenarios half done, to realize that the first one you made is inherently flawed, and the second one is too complex to really be useful the way you want it to be, so you have to scrap the whole thing to get it going... and the other one just is sitting there.

To realize you have 20 different half done game projects of various types, from card games, to board games, to scenarios, and role playing games, and you have only ever finished two, and of those two, the only one you tried to get out into the world was rejected for biased reasons.

There is the overwhelming anger of wanting to tell people to shut up, because you DO know more then they do, weither they realize it or not, because you lived through the bloody processes.

There is the frustration of not knowing what to say around people, that I don't really have anything interesting to say, and that I have hard times interrupting other people.

And I am sure there are much much more, but my body is telling me to lie down again, so I'm going to listen to it.

Continuing Anger Purge

2008-06-24T05:18:03Z

Will someone remind me why I'm suppose to join Guilds again?

I've been in a good one exactly once. People got together. They played together. They joked around. It was fun, it was social. It was what a Guild was suppose to be. Of course, that one broke up due to game driven issues (OMG, Raid! We never Raid! I'm gone)

Now, I'm part of guilds, but they don't play with each other... or more specifically, they play but not with me. They already have as many healers as they need. They don't really need larger teams. They just add more people to their guild just in case, but really, there never is case.

Futhermore, no one really helps each other out. I may complain about WOW, but at least they talk. The EQ2 and COH guilds are completely non functional. They don't gather. They don't play together. They just exist for a name along, as far as I can tell. There really is no reason for them to exist.

Heck, Guilds in POTBS were a design function designed to feed of the weak, and to pool resources to benifit the highest level players. There was never a reason to join a guild there, unless you liked ganking lone boats

I dread WAR, where they want the Guilds to be big and important... and really, it's going to end up more of the same, but worse due to the game design wanting guilds to be powerful.

Guilds are a waste.

sigh

2008-06-24T03:50:05Z

Being dumped here, because I'm frustrated, and I'm tired of talking to stupid people who are wanna be lawyers who obviously don't get it. This probably isn't directed at anyone reading this... I probably should put a OMG 14! sticker on this...

To Whom I Was Talking To;

You are a stupid prick. I don't give a FUCK about your precious OGL. Why? Because you guys are proud of the fact that you STOLE SOMEONE ELSES WORK and are running off to profit from it. We will let Monte off the hook. He wrote the game. He has the perfect right to do whatever he wants with it given reason. THE REST OF YOU, are freaking lucky that they tried the OGL, cause you all would be SO FUCKED!

We point first to Green Ronin. Not only did you steal their game, you changed no less then twice, and then decided to capitalize on the base set by just SELLING IT WHOLESALE, figuring that after True20, Hasbro wasn't going to do anything. Of course, by then, Hasbro didn't care cause they were ready to change the fucking game on you anyway.

Then I'll go ahead and point at White Wolf. YOU succeeded in beating WOTC to the punch to get the first monster manual, then you proceeded to use the freaking system in licenses with both Blizzard and Sony, syphoning more money that you had no rights to both ways. THEN you got even the creators of the system to merge their system with yours! What the hell?

Then We can point to the rest of you, who rode the success of general supplements to supplements that stole licensing and applied it to everything.

In fact, the only two companies that did what you were SUPPOSE to do with the product was AEG and Fantasy Flight. Those two are not part of the list. They're free. They get to live. The rest of you, freaking die, you ingrates!

So when WOTC, realizing that they have been being raped by the time they released 3.5, decided that they needed, for survival of their company, change the rules, you all go up in arms? "Oh NOEZ, they is getting rid of the Free RIDE on their new system. What fuckers!". YOU FUCKING HYPOCRITES! You are the ones that should have been bowing down and thanking them for giving you your freaking 8 year rides. They gave you a face on the map. Without them, you wouldn't even be here.

Get some balls, Give up on D&D, and make your own FREAKING GAME! If you don't want to play by the new rules, then go and get your own rules, and stop trying to profiter and steal from someone else's work! You got the Game System License you deserve, and if you can't learn how to play by the new rules, don't try to go freaking around them, with the false belief that the LAW will protect you. You are going to be buried alive.

DAMN IT, grow some freaking balls, make your own game, or admit you can't compete, and fucking AGREE TO THE LICENSE and make products for the game. Otherwise, go away!

FUCK.

Headthud!

2008-06-24T00:25:18Z

I am not a lawyer...

But I am not foolish to believe the idea that I don't have to go into agreement with a company if I want to create something based off their Intellectual Property, either.

That other person should know better. He is suppose to be a lawyer.

From the WOTC Forum

2008-06-22T15:07:22Z

This poor person. Not even the spell checker would have caught Douse as Does... but it provides interesting ideas.

Originally Posted by Hitodama View Post
2) Douse civilized-barbaric races are possible, say a law bounded hobgoblin encampment that is in fact the place with the most developed and fair law system?

Please.... really, I'm not making fun of you... but this is just too fun an idea for me not to comment.

Dousing Civilized Barbarians... Which produces the harder barbarian? You can douse them in Sea Water, or you can douse them into shaved ice, and that can make them hard, but it might also make them brittle. You can douse them into oil, and then set them aflame. That'll make them a little soft and mailable so you can create that razor edge you need your barbarians to be. Perhaps just wet Sand, and add some Grit to your Barbarians.

Just the image of these Barbarians hitting the square of town, dumping kegs of oil over their heads and lighting themselves on fire to go pillage and burn at the same time is just priceless to me.

Bleck!

2008-06-21T06:21:01Z

I should get a fan...

I need to find someplace to curl up and hide tomorrow. It's just too hot to be without air circulation.

AH! Paranoia!!!

2008-06-19T23:09:46Z

.... Still amused by the GSL Nutzos... and the much more cooler responces from the professionals.

Fury and Anger over the GSL... eh?

2008-06-19T01:18:31Z

Sometimes it amazes me what people are thinking.

Okay, so the GSL doesn't let you copy any IP from the 4E rules. Not a Stat Block. Not a line....

Directly that is. You're allowed to change things a bit. You're allowed to expand upon the foundation. However, you can only refer back to the source material, and not quote it.

... Now, mind you, this isn't new. Under the OGL and the DDL, that's all you were suppose to be able to do anyway. Not that everyone understood this or even followed the license, but it was there.

... so now people are up in arms and angry and oh so peeved off... but really, all that is happening is that Wizards tightened their definitions a little, and furthermore included a clause to protect the IP from licensee's as well.

For sure, there will not be things you can do under the license. You won't be making "Wild Elves" Or "Grey Elves" as Elf is a defined term. But you could create, say Primdoran and Sindorial races that are the same thing, effectively. You could even illustrate them as such. Since WOTC started by changing the names of high Elves and Wood Elves anyway, I see this as setting precedence, not restricting creativity.

....

What does that mean for me, as a prospective GSL person? Not much. It further gives me incentive to create my own series of monsters, and use them for my own scenarios. It discourages me from making new classes with common names (But let's be honest, I'm not interested in the Power and Class Market anyway... just Paragon Paths). It means that NPC's will either use unique powers, or will reference the book.

The hordes of paranoid people are not deterring me. The GSL is plain language and clearly defines things. For sure, I can play by these rules. It's really a mystery to me what people thought Game System License meant anyway, cause a lot of the argument seems to be more about warping the IP of the game rather then creating new material for it.

Paranoid loons.

Nuclear Dreams

2008-06-18T14:31:10Z

So last night was the return of the Nuclear dreams.

I really don't know why I keep ending up dreaming about these things. I hate them, and I hate the way the dreams always end up. Last night, of course, there are two.

The first one is typical for the dream. Everything is nice and fine and lots of interesting things and people are being run into, but then the explosion happens and everyone is dead... Well... okay, that is normally how it goes... This time around, my subconcious knowing I don't allow that anymore, snuck in a vial of liquid isotops, and shot it, devistating the city and making a forest grow in it's place... but no other life lived there.

... I was rather upset that this was the way the dream ended. It also kinda coincided with the sun rising... so I went back to sleep.

... second dream is about this man and a vault. He is evil. He has planned everything out. He kills of his henchmen, he seals off from the world in a huge complex. He has his toys, he has his timer. He is waiting for the world to end just to gloat at me that he has ended it. However, I'm ready to have the last laugh. I had put 'something' inside the base and hid it. It's a innocent thing, but it adds to the power of 'doom'... and when he is riding the wave of destrution, it'll magnify the power just enough to take me out with the person. In a kind of death of honor thing.

Maybe it's just revenge for the first dream, i don't know...

... but I hate these dreams. The first one I hate because fear should have no place in really good dreams. The second one I hate because I already have told myself I don't want to dream about the first thing, and here I go again. I don't want to dream about the death of everyone. It's not me.

Legend: King Balor

2008-06-17T02:47:09Z

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balor

Okay, that is awesome, and I should do something with that.

whimper

2008-06-16T23:59:11Z

I just had a angry dream... where I was furstrated, surrounded by strangers that were suppose to be family, and nothing was going right, and I was crying, and I was yelling...

... and I realize that I am frustrated... but I don't much like being the kind of person that was like that I fear sometimes I become inreal life... and I really don't like my dreams being like that...

I'm just very disturbed by it.

Behold the Dangerous Deer Monsters!

2008-06-13T18:17:01Z

Deer Ur-shield
Deer Phlegmbritches
Deer Greensubmariner
Candybolt Deer
Deer Rubberyellowpolkadotbikini
Rapwind Deer
Deer One-evedRaker
Deer Kingboobie
Chickenstripper Deer
Deer Buttersnack

Wow...

2008-06-12T15:43:10Z

One of the things I never realized was that Gershon Kingsley (Of Perrey and Kingsley) was the person who wrote Popcorn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSRCemf2JHc

How awesome is that?

Tips For Preservation

2008-06-10T19:33:19Z

From (User Pitcure) prettyarbitrary

Book preservation tips (finally my obscure position can see some real use!):

If any of them got really wet, pop them in the freezer for a few weeks (not in a plastic bag or anything; just plunk 'em straight in!). The water will freeze and sublimate, doing minimal damage to the paper.

To kill mildew and mold, expose them to sunlight. Set them out on a sun porch or something for an hour or so.

If any of them have glossy pages, try to separate the wet pages--slip paper towels in between them or something. If they dry while in contact, the clay treatment that makes them glossy will turn into glue and stick them together.

These techniques probably can't save a sodden lump of melting wet pulp, but you can recover books that are in the not-quite-catastrophic area of water damage. They won't return to pre-damp perfection, but they'll still be functional, and in some cases it's surprising how well they can turn out.

Blah

2008-06-10T15:55:05Z

Today... it is weird... for every admin assistant job wanted 'runners' effectively...

If I was a driver, and applying for these jobs, I'd start thinking about adding Fuel Compensation to my contract.

... to be honest, it just made this morning depressing for me, though.