Writers Strike Video

Noticed that the Daily Show is in reruns? Wondering why the writers are striking? In a nutshell:

Who Does She Think She Is?

I think some of the Hillary-hatred arises simply because she's a woman -- and because that vulgar word, the one that rhymes with rich, is always available to describe a woman who gets a little too powerful, or acts like too much of a smarty-pants, or exudes a bit too much authority. That word isn't just a put-down, it's also a pointed question: Just who the hell does she think she is?

Goal For Running Combat

Based on comments on my last post on sequels, I've added another goal to my next campaign.

If it's heavy on the story side, tie the violence into the story. And even if it's not heavy on the story side--if it's more in the vein of those exploration campaigns I've been considering--tie the violence into that.

Not just in the "you must win to advance" sense. Have something story-related, or exploration related, happening during the fight. People switching sides, learning new and exciting things about antagonists, the characters are trying to execute some plan they've made. So there's a tactical level and a roleplaying, what would my character do level going on at the same time.

For exploration campaigns--I've never run anything like this, so my examples can't be pulled from my experience, as those are above. But the things you fight, and where you fight them, would reveal things about the location--you run into an owlbear, and that means there are owlbears in the area. Or you run into an owlbear, and you've never run into an owlbear in the area before, and you have fairly good reason to think that there are no owlbears in the area, that tells you something strange is going on.

More Thoughts on a Sequel

Make it epic. I've never done epic. Post-twenty, or close to it. That's where my thinking is right now. I may change my mind (and probably will) but it would definitely be different. I have never done epic before, or anything remotely close to it. Highest level I have ever run for is 10.

Though there are reasons why I have never run epic, and why it still might be a bad idea. Epic is hard; there's more to keep track of, more powers to take into account, more stats to keep track of. Combats last longer, and are more complicated.

Of course, I don't plan, at this point, to be running a combat heavy game. There will be some combat--this is Dungeons and Dragons we're talking about, but like the first one, I expect that a great deal of what the players accomplish in this campaign will be accomplished without much combat.

Sequel!

I'm thinking about running a sequel campaign. A couple of the players from the Is This Fair? . . . thing . . . want me to, and I think it could be kind of interesting. So I'm currently trying to figure out how to do that, in between the Massive Amounts of Stuff! that I have to do.

I ran another sequel campaign, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. And it was bad. Incredibly, indescribably, horrifyingly bad. But probably for reasons unrelated to its sequel-ness. I hope.

Mostly it was just kind of incoherent. I did a lot of prep for it, but didn't end up actually using any of it in the game. And there were incomprehensible scavenger hunts, revolving around ducks. Bad, bad, bad.

But this sequel, while I'm wary of muddling up the general awesomeness that was the original campaign, I think could work. Maybe, possibly. Currently pondering ways to increase the chances of that happening. The big one so far? Make it distinct. Set it years later, make significant changes to the characters (but keep as many of those old characters as possible) and make the action center on something very different from the original one.

Also: come up with a better name for the dang thing.

Lessons From The Internet

I'd rather be attacked competently than defended badly. There's nothing more painful than someone who agrees with you, but has no idea what they're talking about.

No, not even that.

Probably Not Too Hard

But still awesome.

Not In My Pie

Very little blogging of late. Been busy. NaNoWrimo, etc.

In other news: Some random dead guy just took over my novel.

Huh.