Redwolf's Journal (continued)

Surely inspired by reading Code Geass manga ealier, I have the passing idea of a fantasy game which centers on a group of PCs who are able to rise above humble beginnings because they have entered into a pact (or pacts) with more powerful forces. Demons come for mind, naturally, for a fantasy game, but that's not necessary. It could be celestial powers. Or it might be more interesting to go with a source of power that is of more mysterious origins altogether. Of course, the game would have to explore what it means to have such power and what was lost/gained along with it. While D&D is usually my fantasy game system of choice, this whole game concept feels like something more appropriate for a point-based advancement system rather than a level-based one - a system in which a character can excel in one area without improving across the board. Exalted already fits the overall theme pretty well, but I'd opt for something based less on specifial abilities overall (and probab

Our Exalted game encounters another stumbling block. So entry into Xian's manse was easy. The way to the portal, however, was barred by a few Sidereals. As I recall, Kujath blasted at least one pretty good, and Xian debuffed them. One hit Nightlily pretty good with some Sidereal Martial Arts-induced disease. This rather pissed Alexandra off. She actually cut loose a bit and knocked one of them out of the building the hard way: Alexandra shakes her head. "I have had it with you and your factions," Alexandra declares, turning and striding toward the Sidereal that attacked Nightlily. "Gold, Bronze - you both stand in the way of us taking up our destiny once more, our purpose to protect Creation. You quibble over politics while people suffer and lands are lost to the Wyld and the Underworld. Now, you even have the gall to defy your own Maidens. We may once have strayed from the Unconquered Sun's light before, but your kind have lost your way just as certainly. N

To those of you who roleplay (most everyone who will bother to read this), I ask for some perspective. The topic? What are drawback (the in-the-rules sort) in your games? Many systems have a form of merits (good stuff) and drawbacks (bad stuff) that characters may have or acquire. Usually the drawbacks give points you can spend for merits or attributes, or what have you. But how often are these taken to round out and define a character, versus being taken just for more points? Do people really play them up? Do they play them up too much? While certain drawbacks are straightforward (-1 to X rolls), whose responsibility is it to adjudicate the less clear ones (paranoia, delusions, social biases and such)? Does the player do that, or does the GM? Generally when I see a character who has so many drawbacks that they are borderline (or worse) functional in society, I think the player really desperately wanted those points... I don't do much PVP play. It doesn't hold any gr

I'm not fully sure why, but my mind at the moment as turned to a matter of goals and progress. I think about it more frequently in terms of games, but it applies to real life just as readily. A person with a goal is driven toward completing it. I've seen those who just attended fighter practice out of convenience and camaraderie and those who actually want to be a knight. In the former case, there are vague remarks about completing armor. In the latter case, they simply do it. Game designers have come to understand this process, especially in the MMO years, though there was some move to that beforehand. More powerful abilities and equipment lure players to spend time completing objectives that may have nothing to do with the main story. "Perfect" completion of goals might unlock new costumes or levels. Increasingly, there are "achievements" in games that server little or no mechanical purpose save bragging rights. Designers know that the existence of such

... why Category 5 network cables seem to be so picky in line order? I know the (well, a) right way to make a patch cable. The mantra of color order has been ingrained into my mind after doing it many, many times. Ultimately, though, the same color on one end matches the same color on the other end, and I always wondered if there was a real reason why the blue and green pairs get mixed up in the middle. With some research, I've come to understand that has a little to do with compatibility with phone cables that usually use central pins as a line pair and the outer two (of four) pins for a second line. This makes some sense to me. And yet, someone brought a cable to me today because it wasn't working on his network at home. He had attached the connectors at the end with the pairs simply wired straight through. A tester showed signals getting through on each individual line, so why would it actually matter how the pairs are ordered? Yet when I tried plugging it in, sure eno

So, last night it was officially decided to move The Knight Penumbra guild from Shadowsong to Dawnbringer on WoW. I remain unconvinced that this move will improve anything and I still think there wasn't enough discussion, but the window for free character transfers is limited and I don't see any major negatives either. Evaluation so far? "Whatever," followed by a little downtime while character moves process. I celebrated my last little bit of time on Shadowsong with an active character by mining up saronite. Lots of saronite. There was so much saronite I had periods of being unable to go fifty yards without tripping over another node of the stuff. And yet, the 160 or so piece of ore only ended up seeing me through about 9 points of blacksmithing skill. At least it's better than nothing? Of course, all this is happening while there's a plot ongoing on FurryFaire - one that I feel inspired/compelled to get a character involved in. So... feast or famine of o

Yes, I got my Wrath of the Lich King expansion last week. Yes, I've been playing WoW a lot over the weekend. Thusfar, my alt-main priest is level 73, my main-main paladin is level 71, I have a death knight hanging out at level 58, and my Northrend experience is thusfar limited almost entirely to the Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord "starting" zones. All-in-all, it's been pretty awesome. I won't lie, server population has been a problem - with queue times to log in during peek hours and lots of people fighting over limited resources (which is mitigated a little by the flexible respawn times based on zone/subzone population introduced a while back). I'd hit a few snaps in questing, but only once was I not able to go back over my log and figure out what I was doing wrong. Of course, psychologically there's some strangeness with this expansion for me. When Burning Crusade came out, my character were not at endgame levels. I still had questing to do before r

Okay, but not as enjoyable to me as Casino Royale was. There's continuance to the story and furthering of character development, though the later has little immediate impact. I've seen it said that it's the middle of a planned "trilogy" that will make Craig's James Bond a complete character (who can be used in further stories) and it does has something of that feel - it doesn't stand quite so well on its own. As made clear by the initial car chase, there's some hectic editing going on here. Action sequences use cameras that are close and mobile, giving everything a jerky, chaotic feel. Personally, I like to actually be able to see what's going on sometimes, thanks. There's still no Q and no gadgets (cell phones, fancy displays, and tracking devices aren't so far out there to merit that name), but there are a number of nods to older Bond conventions. Female forms are back in the intro sequence (yet, oddly, the gun barrel view doesn'

I'm so very glad the election season is nearly over. I can say with a high degree of certainty that I've seen more printed material (in mail and dropped at my door) and people coming by to encourage voting. I voted early a couple weeks ago, and I'd just as soon not have to deal with the onslaught anymore. Exalted Slow progress since last post. The group came up with a reasonable plan for their approach to Xian's manse and some distraction to aid in gaining entry and getting back to the portal to Gem. Probably too much planning, though. Players almost always overplan things only for find the situation rapidly falling outside the parameters of the plan and have to improvise. As playing covert op types in GURPS taught: "It's all fun and games until somebody fails a Stealth roll." World of Warcraft : Nearing of the Lich King As the zombie plague reached fever pitch, the Scourge Invasion began (again - as there was a Scourge Invasion in, I believe, 20