|
This is draft one of Storm Heart. In standard manuscript format, it stands two and a half inches tall. I don't have page numbers on the manuscript yet, as it's broken into chapters, but it's bigger than a ream of paper (500) by half an inch.
Now the hard work begins. ^_^Dojo Master's Current Mood:  jubilant The Monks Are Currently Chanting: Peace Sells - Megadeth |
|
It's done.
Draft one comes to 106,908 words.
STORM HEART
IS FINALLY FINISHED!!!!!!
I'm definitely going to celebrate in some way, shape or form. Just not now. Now I'm exhausted. :p
Storm Heart FINAL Word Count: 106,908.Dojo Master's Current Mood:  exhausted The Monks Are Currently Chanting: Si Bheag Si Mhor - Traditional Celtic |
|
This is one of the greatest things ever:
^_^Dojo Master's Current Mood:  hungry The Monks Are Currently Chanting: Symphony No. 7 - Beethoven |
|
I don't quite have the time to make it a multi-tiered update, as it's a short week at work and I was out sick yesterday with a stomach bug. So I'll just do it stream'o'consciousness style.
Recovery from gall bladder surgery is going well. I've been able to exercise properly again, and I've been on the exercise bike religiously, doing ten miles every day (except yesterday when I was running a 99.7 fever). I'm down fifteen pounds from two months ago, which puts me back around the weight I was at before the move. I intend to get my weight down even further, maybe someday even to a healthy BMI.
Storm Heart is inching closer and closer to the finish line. Only about 1500-2000 words to go, assuming of course my ending doesn't decide on its own that it wants to be longer. My plan was to finish it over the holiday weekend, but that's starting to look a bit less likely as engagements for the weekend begin to fill up. I might still get it done on Sunday, though. If not then, I should have enough time next week to finish it. If not, I'm going to hide from the gawddamn world in Luling or some place where no one will come look for me and get'r'done.
What I'll probably do is, for those who have asked to be part of the polishing process, I'll send each chapter digitally as each first-revision is made. I've made a commitment to have Storm Heart in the hands of a publisher by my 30th birthday, which is now almost exactly one year away. I'm running out of time to make that happen.
Plus the manuscript is going to end up being something like 500 pages (roughly 110,000 words in manuscript formatting), so it'll save a tree or two. :p
In KoL news, Doublenickel finally finished his hardcore no-clover pastamancer run after 19 days. (By the way kids, make absolutely SURE you have all five sorceress familiars BEFORE attempting your first hardcore run... gawddamned potato...) It's been a learning experience, and my other character, Joringel, is currently six days into a HCNC Disco Bandit run. Thanks to the pastamancer hardcore hell I went through with Doublenickel, I'm having a much better run with Joringel. With no HC permed skills, I beat Baron Von Ratsworth on Day 2, and got the Liver of Steel on day 6 (probably could have had it on day five, but I spent a bit too much time screwing around Cobb's Knob trying to get the Elite Guard Uniform so I could properly farm the bodyguard bats for meat.) I don't expect this HCNC run to take more than about 13 days, and then it's on to Bad Moon for Joringel.
Speaking of Bad Moon, having finished the HCNC run with Doublenickel, I got my first taste of Bad Moon today. I got the cat in exactly 30 adventures, so I was stoked. It was gonna be an awesome first day! So I visit the council for the mosquito larva quest, and... no mosquito larva shows up in the final ten adventures. Gawddamnit. So rather than having some money to spend on Hell Kitchen food, my day ends at forty adventures. x_x
Ah well, tomorrow shall be another day. ^_^
Still formulating my final thoughts on Atlas Shrugged, so you'll have to wait a bit longer for that. But let me tell you, after Atlas Shrugged... Return of the King seems abbreviated. :p I must say, though, that with the exception of Frodo, all the hobbits become considerably more badass in the final book. ^_^Dojo Master's Current Mood:  busy The Monks Are Currently Chanting: Symphony No. 2 in D - Jean Sibelius |
|
I almost can't believe it...
Thanks in no small part to a large amount of time available while recovering from surgery, I have at last this afternoon finished Atlas Shrugged.
I'm gonna need a little bit of time for digestion, but an about a week or so, you can bet I'll have stuff to say about it. ^_^Dojo Master's Current Mood:  accomplished The Monks Are Currently Chanting: Symphony No. 6 - Tchaikovsky |
|
Well, I just got done seeing Up. Imagine, if you will, the following emotional equivalent: First, someone stabs you in the gut with a knife. Then, over the course of the next hour and a half, that person alternates between telling you jokes and kicking you repeatedly in the balls. Finally, they withdraw the knife from your aching abdomen.
It's totally worth seeing. Just be forewarned and prepared for the emotional toll this movie will collect from you.Dojo Master's Current Mood:  just got done seeing "Up" The Monks Are Currently Chanting: The Parting Glass - Traditional Celtic |
|
Wow, a lot's happened in the short time since I've posted. So let's make it a multi-tiered update!
---QUOTE OF THE DAY---
"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
- John Galt's Oath
---PRE-SURGERY STRESS---
One week before I was scheduled for surgery I found a series of unauthorized charges on my bank card. I managed to catch it in time and shut off my bank card, so only about $60.00 was fraudulently charged, all of which has been refunded to me. It was the most bizarre thing - the pattern of spending would usually follow someone who found a card and fraudulently used it online, but my card was never lost. Somehow, someone got my name, card number, and billing address (minus the apartment number, uniform on all the claims), and was just using them for a bunch of random shit, like a month's worth of Gamefly, and some strange pharmaceuticals from China.
Fortunately, I got lucky, mostly because I check my account status several times a week and was able to catch it before it got out of hand. I finally got my new check card on Saturday, and let me tell you living without one has sucked. It doesn't seem difficult to imagine the world as it was ten years ago, when people would withdraw cash from the ATM and use that, rather than directly using a debit card for every purchase, but let me tell you - it's a hell of a lot harder than it seems. Particularly when you're trying to fill up your car with gas.
*shrug*
---SURGERY---
I'm back to work today after surgery. I expected to be back to work yesterday, and I probably would have been were there not a drive from San Marcos to Austin and back to consider. Nonetheless, it's good to be productive again.
Everything leading up went fine, though I ended up having to stay the night in the hospital for monitoring. I highly suspect it had to do with my flirting with Stage 2 Hypertension numbers, which I finally crossed in the middle of the night. (And I highly suspect *that* had something to do with the 20 or so saltine crackers I ate right after surgery because, despite being pumped full of allegedly-nauseating anesthetic, I was STARVING.) I have few complaints about the hospital stay, save for one crazy nurse.
It's 3:30 in the morning, and I'm finally comfortable and asleep. Due to the nature of the surgery, the only way I could be comfortable was to lay on the side opposite my now-missing gall bladder, with three pillows carefully positioned to keep weight off my torso. A nurse comes in (one I haven't before seen), wakes me up, and asks me to turn over on my back, so that she can check my bandages for seepage and bleeding. Fair enough. I inform her that I'll need to roll back to my side again once she's done, or I'll be in too much pain to be of use. So I flip over, and she checks my bandages. It's not terribly excruciating for the first thirty seconds, but she wants to fucking TALK to me while I'm on my back. Bullshit like, "So do you know why the doctor biopsied your liver?" Questions that, if she really needed answers for them in the first place, she could have easily asked while I was on my side, and you know, NOT in excruciating pain. After ignoring my request to turn me back onto my side three times, the pain finally gets too much, and I'm unable to speak.
The nurse finally gets the idea and asks, "Are you okay? What can I do for you?" I'm not sure WHAT I said at that point, but I'm positive it wasn't "Please check my blood pressure while I'm wretching in pain." Nonetheless, she did, and figured out that while my Systolic number was approaching 175, some pain killers might actually be a good idea.
My wife, to her immense credit, was pissed at this point. I'm happy that she took action and screamed at the nurse to roll me back onto my side, because I was getting ready, next time she asked "What can I do for you?" to answer "You can lean closer to me so I can wrap my hands around your imbecillic neck and strangle you!"
*shrug*
The pain was pretty excruciating for the first two days, and the painkillers weren't enough to take it down enough for me to lay down and rest. I spent most of my conscious recovery sitting in a chair on Thursday and Friday, and my unconscious time laying on that one side I could rest on (though it was extremely painful to get situated to that point, and equally so getting up once I woke back up again.) Surprisingly, the worst pain wasn't in my torso, it was in my back and shoulder. I suspect that has to do with the muscles getting fatigued and distressed in surgery.
I'm still in the process of recovery, but I'm able to function once again. Now to get fully healed so I can start losing some weight again, and reverse the tide of fatty tissue surrounding my liver.
---ATLAS SHRUGGED---
One of the few upsides to the surgery was having some time to get further along in Atlas Shrugged than I otherwise would have been at this time. I'm finally through Book II, which I have come to title "I am Hank F'Ing Rearden." ^_^
I have to admit, the book has lost a lot of steam into Book III, but as of chapter 3 has finally started coming back around. The Railroad Unification Plan sounds like it has some serious potential. Then again, I know J.G.'s epic speech of never-ending pontification is coming up before the end, so we'll see. I still have many, many pages to go.
One thing I am realizing, however, is that there is the highest possibility that those I know who claim to have read Atlas Shrugged, who speak about what the book is about have never actually read it. They touch on what the 'effects' of the strike are, but not the causes. And it is the cause which is at the heart of Atlas Shrugged. The Sanction of the Victim. It wouldn't surprise me to know that people of a certain mindset use Atlas Shrugged to their perceived ends, despite not having read it, in the same way that many people twist the Bible to their ends, despite never having read that either.
*shrug*
---KINGDOM OF LOATHING---
My Sauceror-turned-Disco Bandit has beaten the Naughty Sorceress, and is right now farming for clockwork keys and such, waiting for my wife's Turtle-Tamer-turned-Pastamancer to beat the NS so that we can ascend once more.
I'm 50/50 on the NS13 content. I absolutely despise the Macguffin Quest. It is needlessly long, and the only good thing it really does is bring in the very interesting new content of Spookyraven Manor. If you're not a Mysticality class, the Protector Spirits and Protector Spectre are damn near impossible to beat without farming for the materials for six friggin' Scrolls of Ancient Forbidden Unspeakable Evil. The Palindome portion of the quest starts off okay, and then ends up as a series of item-chasing quests, ending in a fight against a pretty hard opponent when you're down two accessories. The Arid, Extra-Dry Desert quest chain might as well be, "click the 'Adventure Here' button forty times and move on with your life." At least the fight against Ed the Undying at the end was pretty hilarious.
The war between the Hippies and the Frats, however, was epic and awesome. Despite some pretty tedious sidequests (the nuns and the band fliers come to mind) I think it was worth it all. I went full-bore, infiltrated both sides, and called in the pirates to destroy them both at the end. It was extremely satisfying, and made the Naughty Sorceress look like a chump afterwards. :p
I'm also Day 2 into my first Hardcore ascension with Doublenickel, my Turtle Tamer. I'm very interested in seeing the Bad Moon run, as it looks to me like a hell of a good time, so I decided to make my first HC ascenion be a cloverless one. To that end, I decided on being a Pastamancer, since of all the classes, the PM has the least use for their epic weapon (I'm aiming for a chefstaff by level 7 or 8).
Well, sure enough I went and bought the gawddamn tenderizing hammer and casino pass before remembering that I wasn't actually doing the epic weapon quest after all. :p So, that'll set my meat-farming needs back a bit working towards the chefstaff, but it's all good. That's how we learn, after all. :pDojo Master's Current Mood:  complacent The Monks Are Currently Chanting: Symphony #25 - Mozart |
|
The nomination of Judge Sotomayor and the ensuing irrelevant commentary in the media has, for various reasons (mostly being her panel's ruling in Didden v. Port Chester, a case I haven't heard mentioned once outside the business news circuit) got me thinking back on Kelo v. New London. For those playing at home who don't remember the specifics of the worst Supreme Court ruling in my thus-far short lifetime, here's the backstory:
Corcoran Jennison is a developer who wanted to build a project with the backing of the Pfizer corporation in a section of New London, Connecticut where a group of homeowners was refusing to sell. Jennison convinced the city government to condemn the area as a blighted section, under the argument that his development would bring greater economic prosperity to the city. One suspects the usual under-the-table considerations were also applied.
The case is named after Susette Kelo, one of the homeowners who filed a class-action lawsuit against the municipality. The state supreme court upheld the municipality's "right" to seize their lands for economic development. Long story short, Kelo v. New London ended up in the Supreme Court, and five of the nine Supreme Court justices sat upon their bench and told the citizens of America that they had zero property rights so long as a well-connected developer wanted their property.
So, I wondered, what ever became of Jennison's development for which families were unjustly forced out of their homes? Information on the development has been extremely difficult to come by, but I've found a few morsels.
Jennison himself was forced to abandon the project due to financing problems. Though the city has apparently found a single developer has been willing to make use of the 'blighted' land (the Coast Guard, of all entities), according to the same article most of the land siezed now remains barren, three years after the Supreme Court allowed the robbery of these homes as if they had unlocked the doors and restrained the homeowners.
Here is the current Google Maps image of the once-"blighted" area. Switch to satellite view and take a look around, particularly to the north. It's pretty unsettling to know that those families were forcibly uprooted at gunpoint for nothing.
Let this stand as a lesson into the rewards of dealing with the devil.Dojo Master's Current Mood:  disappointed The Monks Are Currently Chanting: Ouverture No.3 - J.S. Bach |
|
I can't quite make it a multi-tiered update, so here's a string of random thoughts and such:
---QUOTE OF THE DAY---
"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
---RANDOM THOUGHTS AND SUCH---
Today is the one-year anniversary of the day I started at the environmental remediation firm for whom I now work. I have to say it's been a pretty damn good year, all things considered. It'd have to be an awesome job to justify the commute back and forth between NW Austin and San Marcos every day. ^_^
I've finally made it into Part II of Atlas Shrugged, and though Hank Rearden's still my favorite character, I have to say that Ellis Wyatt is the f'ing man. I think the novel is getting better as it's going along, since the philosophical stage has been pretty well set, allowing the story of the novel more time to develop. However, something else has developed which has been entirely negative. For whatever reason, Rand has started including minor characters into the story who show up once just to bring the novel to a screeching halt and kick a few puppies in the name of competitive philosophies (particularly those pertaining to altruism and socialism.) I am, however, pretty much committed at this point to finishing the book.
I finally got the password to my old Sauceror in Kingdom of Loathing, and since the game has changed so much since I last played him, I went ahead and just ascended. I'm playing a Disco Bandit now (with Advanced Saucecrafting as a perm skill) and it's been a harsh learning curve. Since I favor the ghoul whelp as a familiar, I'm thinking I should stick with a muscle weapon and spam Moxious Maneuver in combat rather than deal with the pitiful damage of ranged weapons. I've also learned that you should be better prepared before a softcore ascension. Like Untinkering your Meat Car so it doesn't disappear. Blarg. Or bringing some food along that you DON'T have to be level six to eat. :p I'm loving the Gnomish Gnomad's Camp area, however. ^_^ (Now if I could just get a couple friggin' flanges to drop from Thugnderdome!)
My surgery is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, June 4th. I say tentatively, because it's been a royal pain in the ass getting my surgeon's nurse on the phone to confirm that date has been set in stone. They're going to remove my gall bladder (which is full of stones and occasionally causes me great pain) and biopsy my liver at the same time (which sure as hell beats being conscious for a liver biopsy, believe me.) I should be out of commission for about a week.
I've had my first suit of magical plate mail eaten by a rust monster in 4th Edition D&D now, and let me tell you, I still hate those little bastards. :p
Well, I reckon that's all for now.
/outDojo Master's Current Mood: busy The Monks Are Currently Chanting: Horn Concerto #3 in E-Flat Major - Mozart |
|
LMAO
|
May. 19th, 2009 @ 01:17 pm
|
|---|
|
I can't quite put my finger on why, but THIS museum's website is one of the funniest things I have ever read. Two excerpts:
The cannon tower Kiek in de Kök was founded in 1475-1483. The name was first recorded in the description of the second siege of Tallinn in 1577 as Kyck in de Kaeken, later on several forms of the same name were used, such as Kik (Kyk) in de Kok, Kiek in die Küche, Pulffer-Thurm Giecken Köck. In 1696 the present name Kiek in de Kök was also mentioned, meaning "peek into the kitchen" in Low German...
...Compared to the other Tallinn towers Kiek in de Kök was predominant in its fire power, due to its 27 embrasures for cannons and 30 for handguns. The ground floor was a storage floor and here was also the initial entrance. This floor had a narrow light and airshaft and no embrasures. The ammunition was hoisted up through the openings in the domed vaults by the help of a winch. On the upper, defence floors the guns were rigged in embrasures that were provided with niches for the logs that served to stop the backlash. The floors of the embrasures were initially stepped to enable the men handle the guns better...
You know, next time I'm pissed at a dude, I do believe I'm gonna threaten to peek into his kitchen. :p
Anywho... some minor updates...
I am indeed going to have to go in for surgery sometime soon, though it's going to be a fairly routine affair. I can't schedule it yet, because my abdominal specialist wants to rule out a potential complication before going in, or they're going to have to biopsy my liver (which would be most unfortunate and painful.)
Still reading Atlas Shrugged, and it's still having the same problem. It still tries to be a fiction novel and philosophical treatise in one book, and it's just not working. I do still love Hank Rearden, though, and would totally cast Aaron Eckhart in that role for the movie. :p I still have no regrets, and will continue to work my way through the novel at whatever pace I can muster.
Oddly enough, the theme in Atlas Shrugged I'm finding most fascinating is *not* the objectivist view of political virtue and ethical egoism, or anything of literary note. What I'm currently finding most fascinating (to little surprise, actually, given that this philosophical exploration takes place mostly as a function of my favorite character) is the idea of sexuality as the physical expression of intellectual and spiritual virtues. The largest problem in Hank's loveless marriage is that he and his wife simply are not on the same wavelength spiritually or intellectually.
Ironically, you could call Atlas Shrugged thus far a feminist work, in that the main protagonist heroine, Dagny Taggart, is a woman who carves her own path through life, acts like a man in business, but is still a woman who does what she wants with her own body. And yet, there's a very interesting critique on marriage and family life in Atlas Shrugged that flips the traditional "marriage is a prison for women" philosophical feminist view, and inverts it, such that it is Hank, not his wife, who is trapped in his own marriage. The most damning thing of all comes right back around to the problem inherent in altrustic ethics - Hank is miserable because he himself sanctions his own misery, by allowing his own senses of guilt and duty to imprison him.
I could go on, but I want to finish the book first. :p
I've now played DEDEDE-01 twice now at the RPGA table, and it's been a hell of a lot of fun. The character's also been universally loved at both tables. The poor transformer is a mere 40 xp away from second level. :p
Finally, I started up a new Kingdom of Loathing account, mostly to try to figure out what all my friends see in this game. Since Hotmail will not accept e-mails from KOL, and I cannot for the life of me remember the password to my old Sauceror, I've started up a new character. It's a Turtle Tamer, and thus far I haven't really seen any of the new content as of yet. *shrug* We'll see how it goes.Dojo Master's Current Mood:  amused The Monks Are Currently Chanting: Destiny Found (4Ever Friends Mix) - Kaltflut |
|
PSA
|
May. 15th, 2009 @ 06:56 pm
|
|---|
|
When you finish a 94-point city in Carcassonne, you just feel like you can conquer the gawddamn world. ^_^Dojo Master's Current Mood: triumphant The Monks Are Currently Chanting: One and One - Robert Miles |
|
So I'm a little over six chapters into Atlas Shrugged now. I've been wanting to read this gargantuan piece of literature for over ten years now, but have never had the time/discipline to actually wade through it. Six chapters puts me about halfway through Part I of III.
I'll be honest though... I'm not sure I'm going to finish it.
See, thus far Atlas shrugged could have been either a damn good fiction novel, or a very interesting philosophical arguement, but it attempts to be both, and as such each takes away from the value of the other.
For example, I love the character of Hank Rearden. Hank's a self-made man, founded his own steel company and pioneered an amazing new steel alloy. You can draw a line in Hank Rearden's life. At work, he is the pinnacle of what a self-actualized man should be: productive, innovative, and most of all, *happy.* But when he goes home from work, it's as though he leaves the Garden of Eden to a place where somehow his industrial efforts are dirty and sinful. He wants to make his family happy, despite his constant hatred from his live-in mother, his condescending wife, and his useless, ungrateful mooching brother. The most interesting thing about Hank is that he takes it personally that he cannot understand why he cannot make them happy. Why he cannot give just a tiny amount of this bliss he feels while writing out chemical formulas at work to his family at home.
But just as the story starts getting interesting with his character, BAM! We change scenes. Now we're in a bar where the antagonists of the story are talking about altruism and why it's not fair they have to compete with people who are simply more skilled than they are. Well, fine, that's a concept that could use some exploration, but gawddamnit, Hank's story was just getting good! Why on earth are we now talking about philosophy through the perspective of antagonists when the tension building in Hank's story is about to climax?
It's damn frustrating.
And it works the other way around too. I really enjoy Rand's take on Good's willingness to be victimized by Evil. In the story, it's verbalized by the protagonists who feel that there's just "something wrong with the world," but they can't quite put their finger on it. It sums up succinctly the problems I have with Altruistic Ethics, and as we see the first example of this conunundrum coming to a head, as the hard-working virtuous protagonist character says to himself, "I suppose somebody's got to be sacrificed. If it turned out to be me, I have no right to complain..." we finally start to see the logical machinations of this line of thought come to fruition, when all of a sudden...
...out of nowhere our main heroine remembers her first time with a childhood friend and fellow protagonist of the story. Well, gawddamnit, all right, fine. We'll put that very interesting philosophical argumentation aside and cull this story. After all, I like both these characters, and it could be interesting to see where this is going...
...when once we finally GET to the good steamy part, we're treated to a philosophical exposition of the virtues of sex and the rejection of the altruistic notion that sexuality is a selfish expression of one's basest desires.
*headdeskslam*
I honestly wish I could extract the philsophical exposition from the novel. Then I could read a damn fine novel, and a fascinating series of philosophical arguments. But I'm honestly getting tired trying to do both at the same time.
*shrug* Who is John Galt?Dojo Master's Current Mood: disappointed The Monks Are Currently Chanting: Man on the Run - Dash Berlin feat. Cerf, Mitiska, and Jaren |
|
So guess what I've got ahold of?
I have a .pdf of a fan-translated Fourth Edition version of Gary Gygax's Tomb of Horrors. It's actually very well done, and even incudes an update of the pregen characters. It's an 11th level adventure that stays pretty true to the original Tomb, but has an increased challenge factor in order to challenge the more durable 4th-edition characters.
Sooner or later, I am going to run it. It might be my "welcome to paragon tier" adventure for my home game, or I might just run it as a one-shot at some point. But I'm gonna run it. I've never gotten to run the Tomb of Horrors as a GM, and so I'm gonna do it. ^_^Dojo Master's Current Mood:  excited The Monks Are Currently Chanting: Ethereal - Sunny Lax and Acacia |
|
So, yeah, it's a multitiered update.
---QUOTE OF THE DAY---
"Why don't we just ask the innkeeper for the key?"
- A 12-year-old D&D player at a recent game
---QUOTE OF THE DAY EXPLAINED---
So there we are in Baldur's Gate, paranoid about doing anything wrong that the hammer of the law could come down on us for. We've tracked a trafficker in slaves into the city, and we're able to coax the terrified innkeeper into telling us what room they're staying in. They've got a lookout, so they know we're coming for them, so they lock the door. Our rogue is unable to pick the lock, so the strengthy Half-Orc Tempest Fighter (that's me) and the Goliath Swordmage try to break the sumbitch down. We make enough noise to wake the dead, but can't break the solid wooden door. At this point, I've got my double flail out and I'm ready to destroy this door (on the word that our cleric has the Make Whole ritual to repair the door, so we don't friggin' get jailed for destruction of property), when one of our 12-year-old players comes up with the following idea:
"Hey, why don't we just ask the bartender for the key?"
There is stunned silence at the table, and a slightly disappointed half-orc (I've now raided seven seperate tombs in the Forgotten Realms, and I haven't had the opportunity to break a door yet ^_^). But, thanks to this simple idea, we're able to continue our adventure. :p
---AH! MY GODDESS SEASON 2---
Finally got to watch season two of AMG. I have to say, I've never really cared for Urd, but she is really starting to grow on me. She's moved from this entity of raw sexuality to a more refined entity of mature sensuality. I like the development, and I like where her character is going. I don't much care for Peorth, but the interactions between Peorth and Urd were both entertaining, and great development for Urd.
Keichi continues to be the sympathetic character that we met in Season 1, a far cry from the Keichi we knew from the OAV series. What's awesome about season 2, however, is we finally get some insight into why Belldandy chose to honor Keichi's wish, and why she continues to do so outside of the whole "it is the job of goddesses to grant wishes and make people happy" paradigm. It's kewl.
Season 2 also finally gives some much-needed development to my favorite character, Skuld. I'm fully aware that Skuld is a sympathetic antagonist in the series, but season 1 was really lacking in the "sympathetic" part of that equation. As Skuld starts to "grow up" as a goddess, I end up liking her more and more.
One final note: I'm loving Marller. She is comic gold. ^_^
---A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS---
I'm not going to get into the reasons why I started reading A Series of Unfortunate Events, but I have now consumed all thirteen books of it. It's not at all what I expected, though mostly good.
( Spoilers Behind The Cut! If you don't want spoilers, perhaps you should read 'The Littlest Elf' instead... )
---4E MONK PLAYTEST---
The 4th Edition Monk playtest has been released, and he's a striker. A very interesting one too. At first glance, he doesn't appear to do quite the levels of damage that his striker predecessors have done (then again, that could simply be a function of erring on the side of caution to begin the playtest, and working damage up from there, rather than down). However, he has some CRAZY mobility.
Each one of the monk's at-wills and encounter powers is essentially a "mini-stance." You get to choose one such power per round, but each power has BOTH a Standard (Attack) action, and a move action attached to it. Once you select your "Full Discipline" for the round, you can use both those actions that round. This gives the Monk a great deal of options as to how he moves around the battlefield. It would seem to be a necessity given that the monk appears to be designed to do multiple-adjacent-target damage, so he needs to get himself surrounded, then get out of danger for maximum effectiveness.
I'm not sure if I'm too interested in playing the class myself at this time, but it becomes RPGA-legal on June 1st (after its first round of playtesting changes). So I reckon I'll see one at the table before too long.
---FINAL ITEMS---
I don't want to go into details at this time, but I may have to go in for some surgery soon. Nothing too serious (yet), but I'm meeting with a surgeon for a consult next Monday.
Work's been interesting the last week. I've been learning about all the different types of equipment used in environmental remediation, in order to help facilitate and expedite worksite orders for equipment parts and rental invoices. So, I've gotta learn about everything from Articulated Trucks to Vibratory Rollers. ^_^
Order of the Stick is getting crazy. This is going to be EPIC.
I'm burrowed deep into the final chapter of Storm Heart. I've been fighting for writing time the last couple weeks due to work, health, and general life concerns, but I am so close to finishing this novel that I'm starting to become disenchanted that it's not done already. ^_^ Unless something major happens before now and then, it's looking to end Draft One at just over 100,000 words.
/outDojo Master's Current Mood: busy The Monks Are Currently Chanting: Obscure Rays (Alex Ozen Remix) - Existone |
|
So Today's issue of Order of the Stick goes a long way to bostering a theory I've had about the Monster in the Darkness.
( Theory behind the cut... )Dojo Master's Current Mood:  pleased The Monks Are Currently Chanting: Back to You - DJ Shah feat. Adrina Thorpe |
|
So I've been tooling around with a couple minor characters, trying to find a good character to supplement my main RPGA character. (Grunlog, my half-orc tempest fighter.) I've wanted a humorous character to reinforce my deep character, for those more light-hearted games.
I have come up with a character so hilariously awesome, I don't think I can *not* play it. ^_^
Name: DEDEDE-01
(Dwarven-Engineered Dual Eudyptula Death Engine)
Race: Warforged
Class: Druid
(He's not just a Warforged, He's a Transformer!) ^_^
STR 13
CON 18
DEX 13
INT 10
WIS 16
CHA 8
DEDEDE-01 is the prototype of a failed experiment by Dwarven engineer-clerics to infuse the divine power of the god of death into a warforged body. The magic used to power the death engine was unstable, and eventually began to decay to the point that DEDEDE was frequently surrounded by an aura of draining necrotic energy.
DEDEDE-01 has now been reactivated for reasons unknown, as its activation subsequently killed the group of kobolds that were tinkering around with it. Its original programming is intact, and the magic that bound it has grown primal and has begun to decay.
DEDEDE-01 is functional as a druid with a Dire Penguin Beast Form. In its warforged form, it has available to it (at level 1) a Bubble Jet (Grasping Tide at-will), Frost Flash (Encounter), and Optic Blast Searchlight (Faerie Fire Daily).
When it transforms to its Dire Penguin form, DEDEDE-01 is a charging specalist, taking 2 squares movement to get a running start before sliding on its belly the rest of the way to its target. Its primary attack is a Dual Flipper Slap (Savage Rend), and also has a Grasping Beak Attack (Grasping Claws) available to it.
As DEDEDE-01 increases in level, the magic holding it together continues to decay, until DEDEDE-01 will eventually reach its state as a Death Penguin Entity. (Paragon Path = Blightbeast.) ^_^Dojo Master's Current Mood:  energetic The Monks Are Currently Chanting: Forgotten Days - DJ Amo pres. Amir Atme |
|
So... Death Note. Yeah.
I see Death Note in the same light I see Full Metal Jacket. The first half of Full Metal Jacket is an awesome movie, and the second half is bleh. Well, the first half of Death Note (up until the death of a critical character) is completely awesome, and could easily be considered one of my Top 5 favorite anime series ever. The second half is the worst brand of suck I have seen in some time. The ending to Death Note is one of the worst I have ever seen. It's worse than "From Dusk 'til Dawn." It's worse than Megaman Soccer, and that game did not even HAVE an ending!
Anywho...
( Death Note Spoilers Follow... )Dojo Master's Current Mood:  unsatisfied The Monks Are Currently Chanting: No Love (Original Mix |
|
Ouch.
|
Apr. 22nd, 2009 @ 07:32 am
|
|---|
|
The ninth panel of the latest issue of Order of the Stick is a kick to the jimmy. ;_;
See you in the next life, Therkla...
/cryDojo Master's Current Mood: sad The Monks Are Currently Chanting: Unforgivable (First State Smooth Mix) - Armin Van Buuren feat. Jaren |
|
The 4th edition Dungeon Master's Guide, I feel, has done a pretty good job of archetyping RPG players into eight different types. The archetypes essentially explain the motivations of each player at the table, why they're there, and when they're having fun in the game. The DMG goes on further to describe how best to bring these players into the game, and how not to let this particular archetype dominate the game at the expense of the other players.
These 8 archetypes are:
Actor: Players who come to the table to have fun by developing and acting out a fictional character.
Explorer: Players who come to the table to have fun by immersing in a large and detailed fictional world.
Instigator: Players who come to the table to have fun by being the catalyst that makes things happen, sometimes even illogical or not in-character.
Power Gamer: Players who come to the table to have fun by optimizing a powerful character and watching its power grow.
Slayer: Players who come to the table to have fun in combat encounters.
Storyteller: Players who come to the table to have fun by being a part of a continuous and engaging, possibly even epic story.
Thinker: Players who come to the table to have fun by solving challenges through strategy and tactics.
Watcher: Players who aren't highly invested in the game itself but come to the table to have fun hanging out with friends.
Every gamer I have ever known I can place into one-to-three of these categories. I myself am an Instigator/Storyteller when I come to the table. I love action and intrigue, want to be a part of it, and if need be I'll get the party started. ^_^ (Hence my propensity toward chaotically-bent characters and gnomes.)
This of course isn't the whole story. I'm a Power Gamer when I'm away from the table, because I love theoretical optimization. But just because I can build a sexy shoeless god of war doesn't mean I particularly enjoy playing them. Likewise, I used to be more of an Actor/Thinker back in my earlier gaming days (and as such those who played with me in college probably would not recognize my style now.)
I'm curious to find out how the players I know think of themselves, and those who have GMed (or wish to) what their optimal party of five player archetypes would be. Honestly, all eight archetypes are welcome at my table when I'm GMing, even the Watcher (it's very handy sometimes to have someone who's not quite as invested in the game itself as the other players for those "What the hell, hero?!?" moments.)
I believe my current home game table to be the following (and those who I might be referencing, please feel free to chime in and correct me ^_^): One Thinker, One Instigator/Slayer, One Actor/Storyteller, and One Watcher.
I think our current group is damn near perfect at the moment for the kind of game I'm wanting to run. If I were to add a fifth player, I reckon I'd probably prefer a Powergamer/Slayer to speed up combat a bit.
So, to my fellow gamers: What are your thoughts? Do you fit into an archetype or combination thereof? What kinds of archetypes do you enjoy playing with most? To my fellow GMs, what's your optimal group of five players consist of?Dojo Master's Current Mood:  curious The Monks Are Currently Chanting: Shivver - Agnelli & Nelson (feat The Burn) |
|
I have FINALLY finished writing the penultimate chapter of Storm Heart. Just one more chapter to go, and draft one is complete. ^_^
I know I've said it before... But this novel is going to be DAMN good.
The end is near. I can almost see it...
Current Storm Heart Word Count: 96,383.Dojo Master's Current Mood:  anxious The Monks Are Currently Chanting: She Moved Thru' the Fair - Celtic Woman |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
snaketao's journal