Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Still Alive

Still resting (now I'm battling some kind of cold - ugh). Still focused on my blood pressure and health.

Still getting ridiculous comments in the moderation queue. And said comments are still making me feel the net is filled with crackers and honkeys dressed up in nice suits, trying to pretend they're east coast debutantes and ivy league legacies they've actually thought about the meaningful things in life that don't involve licking the insides of their mouths and staring at their own navels.

Of course if the purpose of these comments is to make me think white menfolk can't jumplearn - then mission accomplished.

Also, apparently only Deepa D is authentically brown.

O.o

In other news, while I'm not looking up indie comics I'm attempting to wrap my head around D&D 4th Edition.

I find the Shadar Kai ridiculous, in case you wondered. They're so very...white. Of course someone will tell me it's not just white folk who've created a culture of Urban Tribalism, appropriating the markings (tattoos) of non white peoples, including piercings and hair styles. Personally I'm imagining the Shadar Kai at their own Burning Man celebration. Or would that be Burning Raven?

And oh yeah! Dear outraged white people - yes, I am imagining a world where y'all don't exist - aside from being a group of humans who don't live past 23, who indulge in extreme activities and who live worshiping a 'Dark Queen'.

It amuses me.

Despite being amused and occasionally intrigued by the shared world/ tweak your own concept, however, I still want to shoot stats in the face. And I will likely never play with people who need to roll die every five minutes (and or slash something to bloody bits). Stats look like chains of numbers meant to shackle a bunch of possible players who've no idea how to control themselves.

But other aspects of my geeky self glory - Medusas and Mariliths, and the Astral and Elemental Chaos Planes -- pretty pretty storytelling elements. Oooh.

8 comments:

  1. 4th Edition you say? (Gamer glee).

    They've really changed a lot of the setting stuff too, some of which I'm cool with, some less so. I think it's really interesting that they describe elves as mostly brown but the pictures don't reflect it.

    Oh, yes, fun storytelling bit they included in the PHB2: Sorcerers- some might get their powers from being bathed in dragon's blood as an infant- which immediately spawned an idea of an ancient, and sadly, crippled dragon, bathing humans, etc. in blood to make her own agents to take out those who crippled her. Which would happen to be her 7 children.

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  2. Yeloson:

    That... is pretty damn cool.

    I'm toying around with the planes, because I like the thought of the possibilities that each major action in one, creates an action in the other. It's just not very clear which one. So for example, what happened where when the Tieflings were first created?

    Storytelling. It tickles my brain!


    Re: The Elves - I know. I so so so know. I also rolled my eyes at the 'High Elves' being almost always pale with blonde hair.


    And why are all the brown people in there short? A Halfling and two dwarves in PHB1.

    Meanwhile, I'm kind of 'And now I have to -wait-??!' on the Arcane Powers supplement.

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  3. Also, I'm digging the rules, though I think running 4E, I'd probably do 1-2 combats in a given session, and more scenes utilizing Skill Challenges. (but yeah, if tactical fighting isn't that interesting to you, better to go to another gaming system, like Primetime Adventures, or Inspectres, for example)

    Right now I'm writing up an adventure with the basic premise that the winter monsoon season knocked out the only bridge to the rest of the Empire, and the heroes are basically set with the task to run down to the Dwarven settlement, negotiate the best deal possible to get them to build a new one, and escort them back safely in a month's time.

    Naturally, along the way, people in the villages have problems going on, and the players won't have time to fix them all AND get the bridge up before the "First Trade" of the year, which basically everyone is depending upon economically...

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  4. "Also, apparently only Deepa D is authentically brown. "

    Wasn't she also fictional a while back, created solely to troll the internet for RF09? I really wish folks would make up their minds.

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  5. Yeloson:

    I don't mind the tactical encounters as a storytelling element, but I'm heavily more role-player/world explorer + skill challenges. A straight dungeon set up? Not me.

    Your adventure sounds extremely practical - like even in a fantasy world, there's laundry day! :) And then adventure sneaks in around the edges and through the sides.

    Now I have things to look up re: Pimetime Adventures, and Inspectres.

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  6. Yeah, I find that the key to adventure, for me, is that if PCs develop relationships with NPCs and actually care about them, then "Saving the world" actually has some meaning.

    So it's a lot more neat to start with small stuff ("This guy wants to be a mage, so he's been studying books hoping to learn enough to get into college, but his house is on fire! What do you do?") and then have it come back later ("Suddenly, the mage lifts his hat- 'What, did you think I forgot everything you did for me? Don't worry, I'll hold off the spectres, you go stop the Summoning!'").

    Pretty much, all the cool stuff in fantasy fiction/movies, works mostly on likable and memorable characters.

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  7. Glad to hear you're doing better. One of the things I found out about stuff that made my blood pressure rise was that not looking at it calmed my nerves, hence why I stay away from most message boards.

    But yeah, I hope you continue to get better. W need your vim and vinegar!

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  8. Violet:

    Your comments aren't going to be posted. The first one was caught up in moderation as I tried to decide what to do. And your second post just made it clearer to me.

    A D&D setting wherein a Klan Rally is your monster? Putting that as part of a game? I don't want a link to that in my journal.

    I also don't want to link to putting rumors about homosexuality as something to get down hit points -

    That whole scenario is screwed up. That's some serious ass privilege right there. "We're going to take people's pain and a life full of hate against them, and use it to make our D&D situation unique and interesting"

    That's what I got out of the links.

    And no, setting it in the 60's does not make co-opting the Civil Right's movement in America to a hobby/pasttime any better.

    Finally, in a post where I'm writing about finding ways to keep my blood pressure down and enjoy things again - your comment leads to stuff that I can admit (realize) was just pissing me off.

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