in the Shadow of Greatness

 
:: Zelazny :: [polish] :: sparks that fly from the ironsmith's hammer ::

::. Saturday, February 15 .::

spoiler warning :: Angel :: Sci Fi Wire
Longtime genre TV staple Gina Torres (Firefly, Alias) will guest star in three upcoming episodes of The WB's Angel, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

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Perverse Access Memory:
WISH 34: Non-Standard Characters
Do you prefer to build a character with a unique concept, or do you prefer a simple or more standard concept to start with? Do you find that your preference correlates with a preference for elaborate initial backgrounds or with background development in play? If you’re a GM, do you find unique-concept characters easy or hard to GM for? What about playing alongside them?
I think, looking back, that I do prefer a standard concept, but I'm not adverse (or would that be perverse) to wrapping the standard around something odd or unique. Blending two or three things together always provides lots of room to explore the character as the game opens. And I think that answers the second part of the question. In play, I'd like to find the common and uncommon points with the other characters.

For example, in Bête Noire, I'm playing a dashing devil of a swordsman. Pretty standard prince of Amber at first glance; except he looks like he's twelve years old. Except he's very physical, very mature, very much more than a few hundred years old. He does wine, women, and song with the best of his family. So there's a basic enigma to his core that even he doesn't look too closely at: where most amberites are physically perfect, he is somehow flawed.
If you’re a GM, do you find unique-concept characters easy or hard to GM for? What about playing alongside them?

If unique means advantage, then I have a skeptical attitude. Many players want advantage by proposing something cool. But usually, you can tell the difference between a player who wants to play a dryad for investigating that character, and one who wants to play it because a dryad only sleeps in winter; and they see that as an advantage over their fellow players.

If someone wants to be the prized student of Dworkin, or Elminster, then I balk and/or warn them off. Rubbing shoulders with the mighty is not a good way to start a game, and too many times, the Player has an idealized advantage imagined into the relationship. If they still want to go with it after we talk about the balance of disadvantage and advantage, then it can be exciting stuff to get a unique character proposal.

Playing alongside these sorts of characters can be fun as hell, or an incredible exercise in patience. If the uniqueness breeds arrogance, it is more often the latter. If the uniqueness creates inventive play, it is usually fun for all. If someone wants to play a baby dragon in a D&D game, then proceeds to often make special demands on everyone in the party. That's a pain.

Rule of thumb: try not to allow one Player's niche to overshadow anyone else's.

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::. Friday, February 14 .::

Dana is still producing wonderful art :: warning :: some nudity
Elfwood: 'Purity of Innocence' by Dana M. Luker

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Bête Noire: The Summary includes all material from pre-game start to letters scratched out before the site glitch in Aug 2002.

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I was introduced to this anime by Sammantha, a daughter of a friend, who occasionally plays a princess of Amber, one Jacynea, daughter of Stargazer. I find the Anime-crossed-with-Art-Nouveau designs and the parallels to Amber and Tarot interesting.
Card Captor Sakura :: all scans
The Shield
The Thunder
The Shadow

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I break one of my rules about politics on this blog for a witty link :: Society for Aesthetic Deletions: These aren't the weapons you're looking for

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Slightly easier to reference Ginger for comments and additions to the cleric concerns started by Dorothea on WISH 33:

And my house rules solved this problem so:

At my D&D campaign, I allowed that specific wounds would start showing up 50% of the way through your “metaphysical” hit points. Fatigue and strain were the first 50%. The GM would describe wounds based on the Player’s moves and “openings” provided to the attackers.

Simple, rules light, and no chart referencing.

I learned through reading comments elsewhere (ampersand, I think) that D&D 3e has tweaked clerics such that they can always get a healing spell in trade for something else they’ve memorized at the same level.

While that’s an improvement on the old system, I still prefer my house rule for this also.

What’s the real difference between wizards and clerics? Well, the cleric has a relationship with his deity. So in my game, I had clerics pray to the powers and get the magic they needed at that moment.

Yes, clerics didn’t memorize anything… they had a certain level of power they could channel per day, and they used it to best effect. This included non-healing prayers as well. I think it made clerics much more as they are in fiction and as they ought to be in social standing and community dynamics.

It never seemed to hurt the game, either; balance be damned.
To this extent, Ginger and Dorothea are correct: the system as presented doesn't support the cleric's role very well. I think my tweaks were satisfying, and produced respect, drama, and good pragmatic results for the clerics in my game.

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::. Thursday, February 13 .::

ACUS 2003
The Wizard in the Attic
Had huge fun with this alternate Amber game when I played. Try a romp with Paul "Jvstin" Weimer!
Nine Princes in Juniper
The brave Jeremy Zimmerman rides out to do storytelling with the "Dawn of Amber".
To Live and Die in Texorami: For a Few Shadows More
This serial kicked ass when I played in it. Go Chris "Doc" Kindred!

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Caveat Lector: Reader Beware! :: Dorothea has a great comment on WISH 33 ::
In my games (even in the D&D games with hit-points), I've always described the injuries to the Characters immediately as part of the story. House Rules suggest that the first few descriptions are minor, or stress related, and things progressively fall apart. The Characters are then responsible for tracking their own "status" and points of damage are mentioned in passing.

This helps healers immensely. It also provides for more immersive combat scenes.

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::. Wednesday, February 12 .::

Bayn.org :: Star Wars (As Directed by John Woo & the Wachowski Brothers)

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heh, heh, heh :: creepy graphic sent off the ACUS Graphic Contest.

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Want your mind read? bizarre

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::. Tuesday, February 11 .::

Quick question: Do folks use the sidebar links and info? I've made it as unobtrusive as I can, and try to keep it clean and current. If you print a page, it won't appear.

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Steve Darlington gives perfect score to Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG
update :: repaired link

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via Xkot :: Buffy Animated series which will not see production. Some "model" artwork.

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Go share some beauty-- post comments about life and Knowing When to Growl

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snowflakes

assembled in ethereal hangers
leaping to the zephyr runways
and swirling into the sky

each a masterpiece
whipping through currents
like gleams of fey dust

grounding with a giggle

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::. Monday, February 10 .::

alt.wish.33

Ginger and Michael take a well-deserved rest this week, but in the spirit of community, I present:
alt.wish.33 :: Perfect Element
If you had a genre element of a rpg system that was perfect; for example a mechanic that worked so well that it was transparent to the Players, what would you pick? What would you really, really want that element to be? Why that element? What game comes close? What experience tells you it will never be perfect?
Social wit dynamics. It's an odd idea, but I'd like a game that allowed for social "special manuevers" between folks. Secret moves. Pushing an NPCs buttons. On-the-fly repartee.

I'd like the element to simulate the special knack our fav protagonists have for having "great lines" or even better, for allowing the GM to have the NPCs deliver the "setup lines" that make the heroes look so cool. I don't care so much about the mechanic, it could be inspired by cards, or hints, or just special insights into the villains weaknesses.

But being able to wisecrack like Spiderman would be awesome.

I don't know of a game that does this. They always seem to rely on the Player "sinking or swiming" on their own.
"I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way."
--Jessica Rabbit, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

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Blog, Jvstin Style :: fuligin :: and modern science produces "super black".
There is a primal power in my Amber universe called "the Black" and one of the 'scary' NPCs that my Players have tried to avoid is Lilith of the Black. She is interested in "collecting" amberites the way a dragon might hoard treasure. This article has a few very interesting parallels for the perception-based Primal Energies of "the Black."

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Roll the Bones: Role Call 6: Doin' the nasty.
Which leads us directly into this week's smutty Role Call:
Romance is romance, and that's tough enough to roleplay, but how do you roleplay sex?
:: Mature content expected ::
Isn't it somewhat perverse that our culture refers to physical intercourse as "the nasty"? But then, we deal with the culture we have in all but role playing games, and even then we are limited by our own sense of vulnerability...
We roleplay tyrants and despots.
We roleplay necromancers who raise the dead.
We roleplay the use of nuclear holocaust.
We roleplay politics.
We roleplay religion, and even gods.
We roleplay combat in great detail, including some systems that explain the "critical hits" to life and limb. Or the internal organs of your choice.

But roleplay sex? Are you crazy?
I guess I am.

Seduction, flirtation, charisma, and the glamour or charm of the mythic races are all well-documented in various game systems. They exist in a wide range of tweaked and tailored genre conventions. Whether in the faster-than-light space empires or the alternate worlds of imagination, wherever we find humans, we are going to find sex.

I use the same conservative guidelines they use in the United States film industry, if my players are G, P, or PG, then there is only an undercurrent of flirtation and other gender issues. If the Players are qualified for R, or NC-17 films, then they can determine the sexual content of the roleplay as much as I can.

How do you roleplay sex? A bit like life, you do it carefully, with tact, and only if the other folks are interested.

I don't use dice, generally speaking. Dice tend to make sex ludicrous and mundane.
Highlight above at your own risk.
For further thoughts both humorous and obscure on sex, see Gaming Erotica, Rebma, or a discourse incomplete on the reproduction of Chaos Blood.
I encourage you to "click" responsibly.

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Teacher: Year One (2002) I do not recognize clothing style as an index of intellectual value or social utility. The choice to dress "corporate" is a personal choice which I respect; it does not, however, suggest "professionalism" to me.

Believe it. The "corporate" world is normally bankrupt of personal sincerity. YMMV.

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Bête Noire Toy Box: The Eyeless Crocodile
Hey! Soon to return to a web page near you... that lovely experiment in PBeM :: Bête Noire. In honor of this occasion, let's all sing a few verses of the Eyeless Crocodile. 1... 2... 3...

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