Nolgroth

I am so riding the wave of creativity on this project. Two days ago I lamented to my wife that I haven't felt a creative urge in months. I am so happy I stumbled upon that map yesterday because I feel like a new man. Here is a draft version of the Cyclopedia. For the moment, it only contains information about the geological and geographical features of Ulum. There are a few rules references, but it is mostly about painting a picture of the setting itself. I am planning on moving on to the geo-political (read City-states, religion, etc.) aspect tonight and tomorrow. Thanks for checking this out. UlumCyclopediaDraft.pdf

Age of Conan OST as I work on game design stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgU5j0bGR8E

Explains why they sleep for long periods. They don't have enough ambient magic to sustain a lot of activity. The hoard keeps them alive during the Winter.

Been too long since I worked on this. I ran across the map today when I was browsing my files and thought that I should really take the time to finish this out. Looking back over the thread, I realize I was making things too complicated and decided to instead gear this towards a new-ish Hero group. Much of the backstory is going to remain, but I have decided to discard the extremely low metal world aspect. Dealing with heavy armor and high temperatures should be enough to deter most people from even attempting to use such a thing. Lore-wise, the technology simply doesn't exist. That will drive the setting more towards a more typical Sword and Sorcery style game, but that's okay. Today, I touched up and finished the map to my satisfaction. I changed the icons for the cities from their coins (see above) to more traditional map markers. I labeled the map as completely as I am going to label it. Finally, I spent a lot of time manually darkening the shadows on the mountain texture to make the ridges, peaks, and valleys a little more identifiable. When working on a map, I always tend to get more story ideas, so I think I have an initial adventure "module" concept in the works. For now, enjoy the map. Please let me know your opinion on the coins vs. markers. The coins provide a bit of color on an otherwise brown map, but I can understand if they are too distracting.

Overall, I like the idea of a magical cycle at play. I even like the idea of some sort of Weird West (a phrase coined for the Deadlands Wild West setting - which can also be used for inspiration) setting. The only thing I am curious about is the frequency of magical shifts. If the shifts are tied to a comet (a nifty idea), then for the most part, the world is going to experience the zenith of magical power for maybe a year or two, with the months (maybe years even) before showing a gradual waxing of power and the months (years) after showing a gradual waning. Using Halley's comet for Earth (it appears every 74-79 years), at what point would magic start being felt? Would it always be there, even at the 37-39 year mark, if only in small, pitiful amounts? Would there be an "average" amount of magic when it is halfway to (or heading away from) Earth? You've stated that the time frame for your comet is in the hundreds of years range, so it seems to me that magic would be the exception rather than the rule. Makes me wonder how anybody could excel at using magic if it is not some sort of instinctive channeling, unless the presence of magic gradually increases during the return journey (at some point). In that case, decades could go by with a gradual increase in ambient magical power, culminating in a few years of just gonzo power levels. As the comet leaves, those ambient power levels would gradually diminish (again decades of useful magic power but waning this time and eventually becoming inert). Between the time when magic fades and before its new resurgence, belief in magic wanes as well and technological advances are made. That's pretty much how I would do it, but I am interested in hearing your thoughts. Great subject by the way. The absence of the comet for hundreds of years also has other possible permutations. Has it affected other planets/species as well? Is there more than one magical fuel comet out there in the vastness of space? Could somebody, hypothetically, harness the magical comet's power and transfer it to themselves or into some container (such as Earth)? Could they create a massive gold battery that could be called up in emergency situations to power up the ol' magic spells or, even more importantly, maintain the magical seal on some sort of ancient evil? All of the answers from these questions can make for an interesting game cosmology.

I use Deduction for memory related checks. For example, something that happened a month ago in game time but nearly six months ago in real time might be something the player forgets but the character would not. The character might have forgotten specifics or even need a quick reminder, but they should have some readily accessed memory. Deduction is then used to remember the specifics, with the only outright failure being a natural 18 roll*. Any roll that would otherwise be considered a failure at least deserves a "The Great Wizard Snarfulgatz mentioned something about the <MacGuffin> when he greeted you at his tower." A successful roll nets an additional fragment of the memory for every 2 the roll was made by, up to the entire memory if the roll is good enough. *Aside from Combat and a few other rolls, I have been leaning away from binary pass/fail skill rolls.

A bunch of documentaries about Old West figures like Wild Bill Hickock, Buffalo Bill Cody, Geronimo, Butch Cassidy and Jedediah Smith. Tomorrow I am going to resume with Women of the Old West. Shame that the documentary producers couldn't do a film dedicated to prominent women like Annie Oakley. That's what I get for doing research on the Lemat Cartridge pistol and carbine.

Uh, no. Just because you want to buy into it does not negate my desire or right to express my position. Have a nice day.

I have nothing productive to say here, other than "thank you" for the critiques everybody. There is nothing here I didn't already suspect and nothing that is going to sway me to watch the pilot for a show that is apparently doomed before it starts. Neither am I in anyway going to subscribe to YASS (Yet Another Streaming Service) just to watch that same doomed show limp towards oblivion. Great job CBS. Way to make your mark upon a beloved franchise.

Just finished listening to Angelica Hale's entire America's Got Talent run. Amazing little girl.

I doubt it. The guy is pretty clearly a sociopath. I doubt his empathy is very well developed at all.

Opens CCleaner. Checks version. 5.23.5808 (64-bit). Phew! The article did clue me in that Avast acquired Piriform. Not sure how I feel about that. I am certain that I am going to have to consider upgrading to the latest version very carefully, not only because of the issues with 5.33 but also because Avast AV and I never got along. Anybody know of a good alternative?

Area of comfort or expertise. Slang.

Finally picked up the Guardians of the Galaxy 2 Blu-Ray. Word to the wise, just because your TV can handle UHD, doesn't mean your Blu-Ray player can. Luckily there was a 1080p version in the box and my TV has a pretty good upscale algorithm. I had no problem with the graphical fidelity of the movie. As to the movie itself, I heard a lot of people claim that the humor was forced. The only place I saw this was the Pac Man reference. It sort of made sense within the context of the character but it was cheesy, especially for somebody who styles himself as "Starlord." I do think that the movie focused a little too much on the humor, but what was there was mostly solid. I think my biggest complaint is that the action was mostly reserved for ship-to-ship stuff with the more personal action relegated to a humorous dance routine in the beginning. mook whack-a-mole at the crash site, and a "let's show how bad ass Yondu is" scene that completely failed to be dramatic or show off how bad ass Yondu was. It showed me how incompetent his former goons were. Oh and there was the slow motion stride. The story was okay. The acting okay. I know that there is only so much that can be fit into a two-hour movie, which is why the introduction and culmination of a Celestial-centric plot in one movie was dumb. Kurt Russell deserved so much better material to work with. Honestly, I felt a little cheated. I probably set the bar too high on my expectations, what with the first being a damn fine movie. The focus on humor over drama (the first had both), the inept handling of the Celestial storyline and the damn gold paint people all really detracted from the experience. The actors are what made this movie enjoyable, simply because of the quality of the product they put out. I put it solidly next to Iron Man 3 in quality. That's not a horrible place to be, but it falls way short of any of the Avengers or the Captain America movies.

Since the whole series is a homage to Stephen King, you are really stuck with it. Big Government, Big Corporate, Big Religion, anything Big is BAAADDD.

Caught up on Gotham. Marginally looking forward to next season. I might add that the Fox Online commercial break system is a bunch of hog crap. Caught up on Blacklist. Used to like this show but I'm not so sure about next season. Is there a next season? I need to check on that. I think it all depends on how they handle the accidental death of Resting **tch Face by Agent Ressler. The other "big reveal" wasn't. Oh yes, I watched the preview for Season 5. I suppose, like all the other shows that have stretched my patience, it gets the standard 5 episode chance. I have the feeling that about five weeks into the Fall season, I am going to have loads of free time that I would have otherwise spent watching television programs.

Bravado. Sorry. Meant to include that but got distracted.

Like most GM's I think, my visuals are mostly in my head. Still neat production you made there.

My favorite Rush song and one of my top 10 of all time songs resides on Roll the Bones.

Good thread. I'm not very comfortable with expressions of gratitude, especially as a GM. What motivates me is player interaction with the setting, not just during the scheduled game time, but between games as well. Little bits of color and personality poured into the setting so that we can all enjoy the collective fruits of the group's imagination and labor. Everybody has a different workflow so you tend to get people who drop a lot of information into the setting, some who create art, and some who just want a few more details about the NPCs listed on their character sheets to be "out there" for the benefit of the GM and other players. So in addition to thanking your GM, contribute to the setting and provide ideas for the GM to springboard off of. Pizza is almost never an unwelcome addition either.

The Hero system is the most non-universal, universal system I've encountered. Seriously. A D&D module written for 4-6 characters of level 4-7 is more universal than Hero. Anybody can pick one up and, with very minor modifications, run it for their group. You start five groups off at 125/75 point fantasy heroes and come back to them in six months, you are probably going to come back to vastly different power levels and expectations between the groups. That feature can also be a bug. Or a bugaboo. Hero has so much going for it, but intergame compatibility is not one of them. Heck, just ask people to stat out a Bag of Holding and you end up with some heated discussion about how this or that aspect are bad or not well-defined or any number of other flaws. In the end, a dozen GM's will write up 13 different Bags of Holding. On one hand, that the system can support such diversity is amazing. On the other hand, it is frustrating that there is such a lack of consistency.

Ideally, there is enough trust between the GM and Players that going unarmored to social affairs and even walking down the street is something that is not viewed with suspicion. Sadly, despite an almost limitless number of examples where the protagonists are attacked but manage to survive, rpg players tend to get all bent out of shape when a GM does that to them. Part of the problem is that the fantasy genre is generally viewed as lethal, so instead of the bad guys coming in with attacks meant to subdue, detain or delay, they come in fully armed with swords, axes, knives, and the occasional fully automatic Wand of Infernal Missiles. As a GM, I'd like to see the verisimilitude of the PCs wearing setting appropriate attire. As a practical GM, I too often see players that have been burned by over-zealous GMs in the past. The consensus being that the GM WILL take advantage of that situation to inflict harm upon the characters. Sad part is that they probably have a right to the paranoia because all too often, the module text indicates that there will be an attack at Lord Faulkroy's estate, rather than the drama coming from having to deal with a hated enemy without getting to smack him or a tense trade negotiation or distracting people of importance while the thief steals the sensitive <insert McGuffin> from the <restricted location>. Gygax, for all the good he did in helping to found an industry, also did a lot of harm by focusing on the dice rolls and stats. It is a legacy that pervades the industry expectations to this day. So to answer the question, my characters (rare that I was a PC instead of a GM) would wear appropriate attire and equip themselves the same depending on the situation. I know that in some games, that placed an expiration date on them, but I just couldn't justify plate armor at the Royal Ball (unless that was a condition of the invitation).

So, despite my previously stated misgivings, I watched it based on the reviews above. While I didn't hate it, I think that the Orville needs to find its intended ground before I will be certain as to whether I will continue watching. Some of the silliness was over the top and it didn't need it. The story was actually quite good as a light-hearted adventure. The silliness actually detracted a bit. Tonally, I got homage (with a twist) more than parody. I think that there is definite affection for the Star Trek franchise coming from the creative staff. I like the space station at the beginning and the overall aesthetic was pretty cool. It invoked more of Andromeda, I think, that Star Trek. If played straight, the aliens can be a fun addition to the story. The gelatinous alien at the beginning was just silly. There was a bit of that in all of the aliens, but again, if played straight could lead to some interesting character dynamics. The good news. It went from a "Not interested at all" to a five episode trial. So it must have done something right. Edit: Added some thoughts and opinions.

The character sheet is the opening bid that is negotiated before and during play. The things that fit the GM's campaign stay, the other stuff is retconned out and replaced by more game-appropriate content. No GM can foresee where their campaign is going to end up and can similarly make no promise that things on the character sheet will get any "screen" time. As an example, I had a player in one campaign that had a Han Solo concept clone, complete with Organized Crime Hunted. Due to the nature and course of the campaign, it never had the opportunity to come up. It was retconned into more of a general "The People of the Galaxy are Hostile, Don't Like You and Want You Dead" sort of Hunted. I wanted to utilize that Hunted, but the characters were literally on the far edge of civilization and then only from time to time. Certainly not long enough for word to get back to the OCF and then have the appropriate thugs, bounty hunters and assassins sent after them. I supposed the actual contract comes into the spirit and intent of the character and how the GM presents the setting to the players. A departure from that agreed upon tone, setting and such is a violation of the contract.

On a lark, I decided to move my 56" 4k Television over to my desk and try it out as a monitor. Fallout 4 has never looked so glorious. I have not noticed any real screen lag. I was worried that the response time would cause tearing or such. The only difference, mechanics wise, is that my video card runs about 7-10 degrees warmer than it used to. It is still far below the manufacturers warning though. Just as an example, I'm uploading a photo of my latest character. Scratch that. The forum keeps resizing it down which sort of defeats the purpose. Here is a link to the screenshot posted on my One Drive: https://1drv.ms/i/s!ArYRi_6-m_1vxGQ3z9rxjFo01RDo