Disqus - Latest Comments for Territan

Re: Robin D. Laws: Feel the Horror of the 2013 Gen Con Buzzword

Territan — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 10:54:35 -0000

Event earns nothing? Even when it's obviously verbed?

Re: http://terrible-and-true.tumblr.com/post/23540864056

Territan — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:24:31 -0000

Sooner or later, yes, the training wheels have to come off the bike. But in this case, I think the bicycle metaphor is lacking. Look to literature instead.

The first few times you sit down at a typewriter, you're likely to produce crap (doubly so if your writing desk is in the bathroom). After you've read a few good stories, written a few mediocre stories, and seen what does and doesn't work, you're likely to produce better, more readable works.

Professional writers do a little more than that, though. They list out characters and determine beforehand who fills what roles. They draft treatments of the stories to make sure that they cover every element in the actual writing. They plan their stories.

The LFR adventures occasionally contain head-scratchers, but more often than not they provide all the elements of a good treatment of an adventure, not necessarily the adventure itself. And as a story written by copy-pasting large swaths of the treatment will likely be crap, something run exclusively from the treatment is likely not to be much of an adventure.

Again I stress the preparation—you did that many times with the adventures you ran. It would help other GMs if they had the time, inclination, and know-how to do so too. But when I ran LFR sets, sometimes I didn't have that much time to prepare, I had no idea who or what I was preparing for, and like I said sometimes there are parts of the LFR adventures that make no sense, much like some parts of a treatment should be left in the round-file by the desk.

Re: http://terrible-and-true.tumblr.com/post/23540864056

Territan — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:02:25 -0000

Does the structure they came up with suck? Yes, it does. And yet, there are still some ideas in here that I think have merit, and deserve consideration. The irony is that the structure they came up with for encounters and whatnot can help DMs become better, if only they learned how to, or simply did, prepare.

Re: http://terrible-and-true.tumblr.com/post/19013457516

Territan — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 17:07:07 -0000

Intelligence is knowing that tomato is a fruit.

Wisdom is knowing not to put it into fruit salad.

Chaotic Neutral is putting it in anyway, just to watch the faces of everyone who tastes it.

Seriously, I'd suggest a little tweak to that thinking. A low intelligence would mean an inability to put facts together, remember and collate lots of information, etc. Such a character could be wrong about a lot of little things. But if that character also has a high wisdom, he might be aware of that, and know just enough about the big things to be right where it matters.

Contrast that with a high intelligence, low wisdom character, who could be right about a whole lot of little things, successfully argue the merits of one position and the faults of another, and thereby produce a strong recommendation for a position which, in the long run, would be nothing less than catastrophic.

Of course, your mileage may vary; it all depends on how the game you're playing defines those two attributes. I'm working from a "book-smart vs. world-smart" definition here.

Re: http://terrible-and-true.tumblr.com/post/17210345566

Territan — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:27:41 -0000

You're familiar with the term "parallel reality," obviously.

Now consider "perpendicular reality." There's one particular point where it coincides with what you (or your character) (or your players' characters) recognize as familiar, but it will get stranger and more unrecognizable, and that is a direct function of how far you or they move from that starting point.

Just throwing that out there...

Re: http://terrible-and-true.tumblr.com/post/16920095219

Territan — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:31:57 -0000

I have to confess my skepticism: I'm not sure how 5e could be both D&D and a frustration to the minimaxers. Apart from that, it's good to see I've been kind of right in my analysis elsewhere.

Re: Robin D. Laws: Community, Comedy & DramaSystem

Territan — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:14:24 -0000

It was W.C.Fields that said "comedy is when you expect something to break, and it just bends." I've also heard it said that to create a comedy plot, you start with a serious plot and substitute irrational actions for all the otherwise logical steps the characters might have taken.

Unfortunately, this has me thinking that there's less difference between the drama (normal, sad), the comedy (warped, funny), and the existential indie black-and-white art-house film (warped, sad) than I'm comfortable with.

I'm also put in mind of an RPG called "With Great Power"...

Re: http://terrible-and-true.tumblr.com/post/2391046210

Territan — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 16:42:24 -0000

"Roleplaying" and "game" sometimes sit at opposite ends of the table and stare daggers at each other. There are those that emphasize the "roleplaying" part—they are often the performers, and not necessarily good performers either. But then consider the other extreme: the people who give little thought to characterization or background, and focus their laser-like attention on whatever gives the most plusses and grants the most kickass powers.

There is no sweet spot between the two extremes, except that which the players at the table agree on. I'll say this, though: as "off" as the performance may be, at least the performers are making the attempt.

Re: Videogamey Talk

Territan — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 06:14:37 -0000

(content deleted because it got misplaced)

Re: Videogamey Talk

Territan — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 05:12:05 -0000

Oh yeah, forgot to mention: Currently I'm gnawing on De Blob (Wii). It sounds so radical, the idea of painting an entire landscape the way Bob Ross never could, until you realize that all you have to do is pick up a color and simply touch a building, and the whole thing will turn color (with variations depending on which styles you've picked up). So, less artistry, more contact. There are missions where you have to paint things specific colors (i.e. , or pass a series of checkpoints before time expires, or get a certain amount of paint in a certain color and transform a landmark or two. And the occasional here-are-a-bunch-of-enemies-now-go-squash-them mission.

Controls are workable, though occasionally mildly frustrating at times. Direction is controlled with the nunchuk stick, and jumping is done by shaking the wiimote rather than pushing a button. You can lock onto something with Z and then shake the stick to jump at it. Given that's how you attack, you'll do that a lot and quickly. Camera controls are somewhat flexible, but you'll have to reach up and tweak your view occasionally.

The first few levels were basic, but it's starting to ramp up now with more platforming elements and trickier enemies that require more paint to squash. More on this story as it develops.

Re: Videogamey Talk

Territan — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:18:53 -0000

Egads, this is all very new. Bright. Shiny. I don't even know if the HTML works or not. And it looks like it'll work with my camera, horror of horrors. The trick will be swapping the video feed for a computer-animated dog.

I'm also looking forward to the consequences: Jorge. Video comments. Recipe for disaster.