Right now, I'm watching Harry Potter, film 3.
And I've got a question.
In the potter world, every wizard walks around armed. Every wizard over the age of 11 carries a wand - even if they can't use it effectively.
We've seen children inflict injuries and curses on each other, putting each other in the hospital wing. Total paralysis in book one, anyone?
Even teenagers can KILL - see the half-blood prince. Kill with little more then a few words and a gesture.
Consider - this is the most popular childrens work of our age. An essential point in the book is that all wizards are trained to defend themselves against their enemies.
My question is...why in the real world is defense forbidden? The criminal penalties for carrying a weapon are huge, and seem to be getting larger as the years go by.
It is illegal to carry anything with the intent of using it as a weapon to defend yourself. Even a paperclip.
Why?
Monday, August 27, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
4th Edition
As you all should know by now, 4th edition DnD has been revealed.
I say now, I am concerned about this. As I see it, there are two extremes, and a few "grey" options in between.
Option one. Its full of really cool stuff, thats going to be a vast improvement on 3.5 (No, wait, wasn't 3.5 supposed to fix 3?). It'll revolutionise gaming, and it'll be straight forwards to upgrade the existing mountains of books and guides we all have - as easy as all the third ed stuff was to convert to 3.5.
Option two. It's a calculated attempt by Wizards to extract a whole horde of money for its parent company, Hasbro, to sleep on. This horde must be amassed at all costs, by forcing the loyal gamers to replace all their existing literature.
This will be further expanded by charging a monthly amount for use of a large number of online digital *things*, nature unknown. (Anyone else thinking steady profit stream here?)
Anyway, this is just me and my cynical soul's slightly sad summery. Go look it up on the wizards site...
I say now, I am concerned about this. As I see it, there are two extremes, and a few "grey" options in between.
Option one. Its full of really cool stuff, thats going to be a vast improvement on 3.5 (No, wait, wasn't 3.5 supposed to fix 3?). It'll revolutionise gaming, and it'll be straight forwards to upgrade the existing mountains of books and guides we all have - as easy as all the third ed stuff was to convert to 3.5.
Option two. It's a calculated attempt by Wizards to extract a whole horde of money for its parent company, Hasbro, to sleep on. This horde must be amassed at all costs, by forcing the loyal gamers to replace all their existing literature.
This will be further expanded by charging a monthly amount for use of a large number of online digital *things*, nature unknown. (Anyone else thinking steady profit stream here?)
Anyway, this is just me and my cynical soul's slightly sad summery. Go look it up on the wizards site...
Battle report
So, the DnD game. How did it go? Is Ali still speaking to me?
Well...not badly. To begin with, you had the usual paperwork fun - this quibble about points, "But I really want a...". "My concept needs a...".
You know who you are...
Closely followed by the "Is that legal?" - Yes, if you look at chapter xxx...Int of 20 should not be legal at level one...even if it costs that much. And the druid cheese....
Still, finally, we were off! After one of the players delcared he didn't like to be led. Well, ok. There's many ways to lead - and to pull players along. Greed is one of them...
Still, off they go into the wastes - happy in their little, profitable mission to find out what's happening at a local mithril mine. Secure in the knowledge they'll be bringing back pounds of the stuff.....*snigger*
First they run into the remnants of the last shipment from the mine. 200-odd pounds of silver, and 10 of mithril. You could see the dollar signs in their eyes. But how are you going to carry it, asks the DM? "We load it onto the Camel.
Blast. Camels can carry about a tonne, according to game rules. Blast. I think the camel might be the first to die....
Still, we finally end up in the mine, and we reach the First Door. Quite an impressive door, really, and much work had gone into making the appropriate. Definitely the sort of door that a wizard would consider to be protection from those he feared.
And the party walked through it. Literally, through it. It should have been impossible...
Still, the second door. A barrier I would have considered a five minute problem - maybe 10. Everyone in the group is quite smart. Degrees, that sort of thing.
It doesn't help.
Thirty minutes later, of puzzle and toil. Of asking for the Dm for further description
- and being led in the completely wrong direction. Some nice ideas from the players though...
Still, next week - well, saturday. "The black staff" - the point I wanted them to reach last week!
Well...not badly. To begin with, you had the usual paperwork fun - this quibble about points, "But I really want a...". "My concept needs a...".
You know who you are...
Closely followed by the "Is that legal?" - Yes, if you look at chapter xxx...Int of 20 should not be legal at level one...even if it costs that much. And the druid cheese....
Still, finally, we were off! After one of the players delcared he didn't like to be led. Well, ok. There's many ways to lead - and to pull players along. Greed is one of them...
Still, off they go into the wastes - happy in their little, profitable mission to find out what's happening at a local mithril mine. Secure in the knowledge they'll be bringing back pounds of the stuff.....*snigger*
First they run into the remnants of the last shipment from the mine. 200-odd pounds of silver, and 10 of mithril. You could see the dollar signs in their eyes. But how are you going to carry it, asks the DM? "We load it onto the Camel.
Blast. Camels can carry about a tonne, according to game rules. Blast. I think the camel might be the first to die....
Still, we finally end up in the mine, and we reach the First Door. Quite an impressive door, really, and much work had gone into making the appropriate. Definitely the sort of door that a wizard would consider to be protection from those he feared.
And the party walked through it. Literally, through it. It should have been impossible...
Still, the second door. A barrier I would have considered a five minute problem - maybe 10. Everyone in the group is quite smart. Degrees, that sort of thing.
It doesn't help.
Thirty minutes later, of puzzle and toil. Of asking for the Dm for further description
- and being led in the completely wrong direction. Some nice ideas from the players though...
Still, next week - well, saturday. "The black staff" - the point I wanted them to reach last week!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
And now for a word
And for those interested, I'm running a DnD game on saturday, with Ali in it, even though ALL my books are....um....4400 miles away.
This could be interesting...
This could be interesting...
Passing through....excel...
Evening all
Just a quick word, for your amusement.
Ali and I are quite bright, as people go. We've both got multiple degrees - no really, we have! Both of us are quite at home with technical things, rules and complexity.
So, the other day, we were having a quiet evening in. And....we ended up doing things. In Excel.
What the problem we worked on was, isn't really important. But we came up with a solution, with many laughs on route. But I want you to imagine, if you will, a guy and a girl not watching a film. Or reading, or talking, like normal people....but spreadsheeting.
Even then, we couldn't agree. We came up with two solutions - mine and hers. Hers was simple, and read something like "If x > 8, then the answer is x-8. Otherwise it's 0". Mine was a little more complicated. y= 0.5 (x-8) + 0.5 ( Square root of ((x-8)(x-8))).
My point?
I'm not sure. But we found it hilarious.
Just a quick word, for your amusement.
Ali and I are quite bright, as people go. We've both got multiple degrees - no really, we have! Both of us are quite at home with technical things, rules and complexity.
So, the other day, we were having a quiet evening in. And....we ended up doing things. In Excel.
What the problem we worked on was, isn't really important. But we came up with a solution, with many laughs on route. But I want you to imagine, if you will, a guy and a girl not watching a film. Or reading, or talking, like normal people....but spreadsheeting.
Even then, we couldn't agree. We came up with two solutions - mine and hers. Hers was simple, and read something like "If x > 8, then the answer is x-8. Otherwise it's 0". Mine was a little more complicated. y= 0.5 (x-8) + 0.5 ( Square root of ((x-8)(x-8))).
My point?
I'm not sure. But we found it hilarious.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
What do you mean, sleep to much?
I've not been asleep this entire time - but I have been a little busy. There's lots of news, even if your not getting it all tonight.
Its nearly midnight already...
Ok, well...this post....this post is about a cat. No, not about a boy - that's a film. This is about a cat. This cat...
This cat is called Jinks.We aquired her from a friend of Ali's - someone she knew from her previous stay in Canada. Something of a cat person, the couple aquired Jinks as a stray, attempting to save her from...a life on the streets. In thirty degree sunshine, glorious weather.
To save her, and keep her in a house, without mice to chase, sun to lounge in....
Anyway, she was rescued. However, no good deed goes unpunished - and so, Jinks did not get on with the couple's current...guests. Their current cats took something of a dislike to Jinks, who was apparently teratorial and slightly nasty.
So, one day, Ali drops by while I'm working to tell me we have a cat. Wh00t.
However, our ownership started with a crisis. The name, Jinks. It was our firm, considered opinion was that calling an animal "Jinks" is much like calling it lucky. Such a name calls out to the furies, Erinyes, to come forth and Slay the aforementioned beast.
This follows that same priniciple - if you build a ship, declare it unsinkable and call it Titanic IT WILL SINK. Call an animal Lucky, or Jinks....
No, really.
Still, after weeks of searching, we agreed on...
...well....
...nothing.
So Jinks she remains.
Now, we wait.
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