Joel's Scattered Thoughts

Notes on things that interest me

Archive for November, 2005

Election Thoughts

Nov 28

Posted by Joel in General | 1 Comment

We’ll find out tonight whether or not we’ll be having a national election soon.

I don’t like about the current way the government is set up, because I feel that I am without representation.

By the time the polls close in Manitoba, we already know who the Prime Minister will be. Ontario and Quebec have so many more votes than the rest of the country, that what we vote for really doesn’t matter.

The local Member of Parliment, Vic Toews, is a member of the Conservative Party (or whatever they call themselves this week). I read his newsletters on a regular basis and also have a Google News watch for his name in the news. I’m not a politics junkie, but I am at least moderately informed as to what my MP is doing.

From what I can tell, Vic Toews has accomplished nothing in his term as MP. His big accomplishment seems to be whining about the Liberals no matter what they do. Based on his record, it seems to me that his biggest problem with the current leadership is that he’s not getting a big enough cut.

Unfortunately, Vic Toews is pretty much a shoo-in as MP until he retires. So where is my voice in Canada’s government? My MP does not represent me at all – he proudly stated that he’s voted against Bills that have my support and he’s supported Bills that I oppose.

I’ve often wondered it there might be a way to set up government differently. What I’d like to be able to do is partition and withdraw my vote as I choose. For example, let’s say I support the Bloc on labor issues, the Liberals on the budget, and the Conservatives on crime. Why can’t I say that each of those parties gets to use my vote on their side of that issue? Then if the party isn’t voting as I would like, I could switch my vote and say that the Liberals now have my vote for labor issues, the Greens for the budget and the Marijuana Party for crime. Then my vote would actually represent me and it would count for something.

WLD Nov 23, 2005

Nov 24

Posted by Joel in Games, WLD on OpenRPG | No Comments

This week we had two of the regular players:

* Riamara – loresong faen greenbond
* Cinner – dwarven rogue

and two new players:
* Rosco – deep halfling barbarian
* Miru – human fighter

The party started off by fighting Bragdor the ogre. Bragdor got a solid hit on Rosco, but the PCs quickly took the fight out of him. Cinner managed to bond with the ogre and they chatted for a while.

Miru seemed a little confused as to how she ended up here. She and Riamara chatted for a while, establishing some background. Rosco was more concerned with hitting things than chatting. Cinner dashed back across the map to the area that showed some severe earthquake damage and the rest of the party followed him.

The party barricaded themselves in a room and passed a quiet night (apart from a few minor tremors). The next “morning” they found a door that had been nailed shut. They pried it open and ran into a fiendish rat swarm.

The rat swarm didn’t prove to be much of a challenge. However, Rosco got infected with some kind of disease when they swarmed over him. Cinner found another secret door that opened to a room with skeletons chained to the walls.

That’s where the game ended. With the new players introduced and set up, we should be able to get off to a little quicker start. Fog is still not working, which is a real pity as it would be so useful.

Riamara and Cinner have reached level 3, which means no more promotions for them until they get into the next region. I promoted Rosco and Miru so that they wouldn’t be too far behind.

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November 19, 2005 Session

Nov 20

Posted by Joel in AE Campaign 1, Games | No Comments

Since the PCs have been taking their time looting the Chamber of Antiquities beneath House Vladaam, I thought that it would make sense for the Vladaams to send a party after them. I used NPC Designer to come up with a party of 4 half-fiends, each with a CR of 20. This resulted in a detour session of combat.

As they started the evening’s exploration, they found a room with a warning on the door (they left that door alone), a room full of shoes, and a room full of robes.

The human unfettered rolled an impressive listen check, so I let her hear a distant thump as the House Vladaam team broke through the secret door at the top of the stairs. The spryte greenbond snuck up the stairs and spotted them. As she made her way back to the party, they spotted her and began using their Summon Monster IX ability. She blasted them with a fireball and so they missed their concentration checks, interrupting the summonings. [1]

The HV team raced after the greenbond and ran into the warmain and the unfettered. Between the two of them, they slaughtered the rogue/shadowdancer [2]. The giant fighter charged into the room, while the cleric and wizard took up support positions.

The unfettered nailed the HV giant fighter pretty hard, and a series of pitiful rolls left him unable to hurt the PC warmain. The wizard tried for feeblemindedness on the warmain, but he rolled an impressive will save. The cleric did a heal on the giant fighter. Then the PC greenbond blasted the cleric and the wizard with a sorcerous blast, and the warmain took a big chunk out of the giant fighter.

Another series of shots from the unfettered left the giant fighter reeling. He did get a chop in at the warmain, but the wizard decided enough was enough and put up an icewall between them. The cleric went for a mass cure, the greenbond shot another sorcerous blast and ducked behind a wall, and the warmain ran around the icewall.

The unfettered continued to blast the giant fighter. He grabbed the shadowdancer/rogue’s corpse and ran. The wizard put up an icewall across the entrance. The cleric started to run, but got nailed by the greenbond’s sorcerous blast [3].

The warmain and greenbond destroyed the icewall and the party set off in hot pursuit. They chased the team most of the way up the stairs. The unfettered’s fancy bow rolled a force effect and nailed the wizard after she had cast wind walk. The greenbond put up a sonic wall and blocked the exit. The giant fighter, as the only one left standing, dragged his comrades back to the Pool of Afterthoughts in the Chamber of Antiquities, both to hide and to get restored. The unfettered remembered the special qualities of the pool – it transfers bathers to the ethereal plane (making them invisible to those on the material plane) and speeds healing. When the warmain stepped in there and found the remnants of the House Vladaam team, it was all over.

The PCs finished the evening by opening a granite door they had found earlier. Inside was a table with some tools on it. The table is surrounded by a wall of force, which is surrounded by an anti-magic field. We stopped there so that they can think about how they’re going to get through this.

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Notes

[1] First big mistake on my part – I forgot to ignore the first 10 points of fire damage. Some of them should have made their concentration checks. They should also have cast some buffing spells. As experienced adventurers in hostile territory, they should have had someone standing guard during the summoning spells to prevent just this kind of interruption.

[2] Second big mistake, the rogue/shadowdancer had a ring of blinking that I forgot about. Had I remembered, she probably would have survived another round and shadow jumped behind the unfettered as I had originally planned. Actually, she should have stopped to get her bearings and shadow jumped into the room rather than coming through the doorway. Too bad my Int isn’t as good as the NPCs’.

[3] Big, big mistake – when the House Vladaam team ran, they should have used wind walk or a plane shift or some such (they had those spells available to them). Instead I had them physically run out, which gave the PCs time to catch up and destroy them.

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November 12, 2005 Session Summary

Nov 18

Posted by Joel in AE Campaign 1, Games | 1 Comment

The party continued to explore the Chamber of Antiquities. They’re trying to puzzle out where the workshops are for each of those who built the place.

I don’t have my notes with me, so here’s a scattered summary.

The PCs found a chamber that would alter characteristics. The greenbond got lucky and had her mental attributes enhanced. The unfettered had her physical attribues penalized. The warmain wasn’t interested in playing Russian roulette.

They fought a skullreaver hordling in what was a surprisingly tough fight due to its spell resistance, damage reduction, and high hitpoints. Unfortunately for it, the warmain blocked the exit so it couldn’t just run.

The greenbond nearly got killed when she touched a ring guarded by five statues. The statues turned to flesh and attacked her. Again, the warmain’s massive armor meant that he just stood there and took the former statues’ blows while beating the crap out of them.

That’s where we ended the session.

The warmain seems to constantly be far ahead of the others in combat. The first levels it was a massive strength-stealing sword. (I eventually took it away because it was taking 5 minutes of math to recalculate his abilities every time he hit something.) Now he has twice the greenbond’s armor class. It’s hard to get something that stands a chance against him that won’t instantly kill the rest of the party. Ah well, they’re at higher levels now so there’s more justification for mighty magic to be used against them.

WLD Nov 16, 2005

Nov 18

Posted by Joel in Games, WLD on OpenRPG | No Comments

My World’s Largest Dungeon via OpenRPG game continues. I had connection problems so the game got started late. We tried shifting servers in the hope fog would work, but no go. This week we had:

* Jamendithas- elven rogue
* Riamara – loresong faen greenbond
* Cinner – dwarven rogue
* Kryst – dwarven cleric

The party checked out a few trashed rooms then found some dire rats gnawing on debris. Cinner charged in, the rats had pitiful attacks, so Cinner and Kryst finished them off in short order. Cinner picked up one of the rats for stew.

In the next room Cinner spotted two darkmantles lurking on the ceiling. He whipped the dead rat at it for max damage and managed to kill it. Jamendithas finished off the other one with his bow. Cinner was very proud of his rat missile.

They returned to the second room in the dungeon and explored the other doors. Cinner used his rat as a filter for the awful smells. When Cinner set off a trap, Kryst rolled another 20 on his reflex save – a dwarven cleric in full plate backflips out of the way.

The party found some supplies and a hole that was used as a latrine. For some reason, they decided there was treasure in the latrine and proceeded to dredge it out.

After giving up on the latrine, they headed north and spotted a large figure muttering to itself in a room with pillars of water.

**********
We ended here.

Not the most exciting session, but they’ve managed to get some more exploring done.

Hopefully next week my connection cooperates and we can continue.

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WLD Nov 9, 2005

Nov 10

Posted by Joel in Games, WLD on OpenRPG | No Comments

My World’s Largest Dungeon via OpenRPG game continues. Looks as though we’ve got a core group and a couple of more casual players. Treysik’s player is moving so he missed this game. Characters present were:

  • Ater – human Barbarian
  • Riamara – loresong faen greenbond
  • Cinner – dwarven rogue
  • Kryst – dwarven cleric

The party headed back toward the area that the map showed as being controlled by orcs. Cinner got jumped by a darkmantle while scouting. The party had a terrible time getting it off of his head. Almost immediately after that, they ran into a rat swarm. It chased Ater and was handily decimated by the party’s efforts. They found a kobold skeleton that had been devoured by the rats.

The last encounter for the session was with stirges. Cinner managed to be sneaky and the party was well prepared for them. Cinner smashed the first one with his crowbars of doom. Unfortunately the others weren’t so lucky and the stirges latched on to three characters. Getting them off proved difficult. Riamara managed to pull one off of Kryst (guess she was small enough to get a proper grip on the thing). Ater sliced his with his sword. Cinner got some con drain. The stirge that had been on Kryst fled and Cinner managed to smash the stirge that had latched onto him, splattering it and his blood all over the room.

Tonight’s accomplishment – 8 new rooms, and only one near death experience for Cinner.

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Technical Details
We used Inittool2. It seems that if two people have the plugin going, it freaks out. As it was, it worked fine.
Everyone but Kryst used the Game Status Controller plugin. That worked nicely.
For some reason fog wasn’t working for Cinner this time. I’ve almost given up on fog entirely.

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DnD = Neverwinter Nights?

Nov 5

Posted by Joel in Games | No Comments

From an interview referenced in The 20 By 20 Room’s Welcome to Post-Roleplaying post

Here’s the way I see it: I want to play to a game’s strengths. If I wanted to play D&D, for example, it would be a game about killing monsters and taking their stuff, because that’s what D&D does well. Sure, I could play D&D, but why would I, when games like Neverwinter Nights and World of Warcraft take what D&D does well and do it better? I could play an RPG that works a lot like Arkham Horror or Return of the Heroes, but those two board games capture that feel better.

The part that bugs me about this is that I really don’t see Neverwinter as comparable to D&D. Admittedly, I’ve only been GMing for a year or two and I only played Neverwinter for a few weeks at most,but the two experiences are not at all comparable. Even playing D&D via the Internet (OpenRPG) is nothing like Neverwinter.

For me the biggest part of roleplaying is the social experience. In my last session, one rogue kept being knocked unconscious, being healed back to consciousness, then charging back into the fray. It was hilarious, but how funny would this be in Neverwinter?

There’s also the fact that computer games don’t even give you an illusion of freedom. If the story is derailed by a dice roll, load from your last save (or respawn) and get back on track. You follow the plot, or you don’t play.

I’ll admit that my games will never make an epic story like the Odyssey, Lord of the Rings, or even the Shannara schlock. However, what makes them fun is getting together with friends and seeing what happens at the players and their characters interact with the world. A big part of that interaction is killing things and taking their stuff, but it’s a very different experience from playing Neverwinter or Diablo.

Equating D&D with Neverwinter is incorrect because Neverwinter does not give even an illusion of freedom and it is not fundamentally social.

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Fall 2005 TV

Nov 3

Posted by Joel in General | No Comments

TV has never been a big part of my life. When I was in grade seven my brother and I bought a black and white TV for 15 bucks at a garage sale. By fiddling with the antenna for extended periods we could bring in somewhere between 2 and 5 channels. On TV heavy days we might watch two hours of TV (McGygyver and Galaxy Rangers are what come to mind).

This fall I haven’t even been able to get back into the shows I watched last year – Lost and Veronica Mars. Lost just seems to have dragged out the mysteries to the point where I don’t care what the answers are anymore. I watched the first three episodes and haven’t been able to bring myself to bother with the rest. Veronica Mars still seems like it should be interesting, but I can’t be bothered. Sad to say, right now what I look forward to most is new episodes of Backyardigans (a show aimed at 4-8 year olds) and have recently started watching and enjoying Dave the Barbarian (a show that looks to be aimed at early teens). I wonder what this says about my mental age?

WLD November 2, 2005

Nov 3

Posted by Joel in Games, WLD on OpenRPG | No Comments

My World’s Largest Dungeon via OpenRPG game continued.

We were down a couple of players. Those present were:

  • Riamara loresong faen greenbond
  • Cinner – dwarven rogue
  • Jamendithas – elven rogue
  • Kryst – dwarven cleric

With the lack of frontline fighters, having two healers came in very handy.

Last week we had left off when the party entered a room full of rubble. Cinner snuck through the room, but didn’t spot anything. They decided to head north down the hallway at the other end of the room. Cinner was sneaky, Jamendithas – not so much.

Cinner spotted some movement in a room to the north and saw a group of kobolds hiding in a room. The party came up and they attacked the kobolds (Riamara wanted to try for diplomacy, but the idea was dismissed).

Cinner charged into the room, got hit by a couple of magic missiles from Boyitk the kobold wizard, and was knocked unconscious (1). Kryst stabilized him, then Riamara healed him up to consciousness again. The kreshnar charged and managed to scare Riamara off. Cinner made a pitiful attack on the kreshnar.

Boyitk then zapped everyone with a sleep spell – Jamendithas shrugged it off due to his elven abilities. The kobolds managed to get one hit on him and then he woke Cinner. Cinner charged in and reduced the kreshnar to fine mist with two mighty blows from his crowbars.

Boyitk threw an acid splash at Jamendithas. “MY FACE MY FACE!!!!!! NOW I LOOK LIKE THE DWARF!!!!” Jamendithas backed out of the room. Cinner tried to use his wand but was unable to focus in the heat of battle (poor Use Magical Device Check).

Boyitk knocked Cinner down again with a couple of vicious magic missiles (2). Jamendithas made an amazing tumble check and landed on Kryst, waking him up. Kryst healed Jamendithas. Kobold sling stones bounced off of Kryst’s armor with a slight “ping” sound.

Boyitk threw a flaming sphere at Kryst, but Kryst was far more agile than he looked in that heavy armor and evaded it easily. Jamendithas woke Riamara, then Kryst healed Cinner back up to consciousness using Cinner’s wand. This time the kobolds’ sling stones made some impression on Kryst. Riamara healed Jamendithas and Cinner charged back into the fray but missed the kobold.

Cinner got burned by Boyitk’s flaming sphere and was down again (3). Jamendithas figured it was time to run. Kryst healed himself, the managed to avoid the kobolds’ sling stones by hiding in the doorway. Riamara brought Cinner back and he charged in again and crushed Boyitk with his crowbars.

With Boyitk gone, the remaining kobolds tried to run but were pulverized in short order. One managed to make it down the hallway but fell to Cinner’s crowbars trying to outrun the party.

****************
Cinner was unconscious three times. However, thanks to his refusal to stay down the party took out a major kobold force. How will this affect their continuing exploration of the World’s Largest Dungeon?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Loot
Boyitk (the kobold wizard) had bracers, a cloak, and a dagger. The kobold warriors were pretty poorly equipped – between them they had 4 spears, 4 slings, and 4 sets of small leather armor.

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Maps for OpenRPG using Gimp

Nov 1

Posted by Joel in Games, WLD on OpenRPG | No Comments

Here’s what I used to make the maps for my World’s Largest Dungeon Campaign via OpenRPG.

  1. Get the maps – I downloaded them from James’ WLD Downloads as PDFs, then selected the image, pasted it into a blank 2000×2000 pixel Gimp image, then autocropped and saved it.
  2. Change canvas size for the resulting image so that you get 4 quadrants (NE, NW, SE, SW) saving each quadrant as a 100% quality JPG file
  3. Open each of the the 4 quadrant files and scale image (3x worked for me for a 30px X 30px OpenRPG map), then save at 75% quality. This gave files around 400k in size.
  4. Upload the files to your image server.

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