Summer Blogging Blues

Wow.  It's been like three weeks since I posted.   Life's been happening.


Last week, I went out of town to test my magic machine.  Hey, surprise of surprises - it seems to work!  Now I have to go to Stage 2 - building a real machine to test in a real plant. 


We went to see fireworks on 'Murica Day.  We sat on  bleachers on a soccer field far from anyone else.  It was actually like having our own private display.  Pretty fun.  Of course, it took about 2 hours to get home because there were so many other people trying to get home from their own private displays too.


And I've had two campaigns that I'm in self-destruct.  Which is [sad face].


1) Jared is getting burned out on d20, and is ending Council of Thieves.  There's a general rule that I've found is that when I customize or paint a miniature specifically for a campaign, the campaign dies.  In this case, I found and painted a miniature for my character's new "Life Coach".  I think the death stroke was molding it and casting an invisible version in clear acrylic.




2) Dennis is ending /placing on hiatus his Deadlands:Hell on Earth campaign.  We have about 2 sessions left (provided people show up).  I've really been enjoying this campaign, and it's one of the few I've played in recently where I haven't played some sort of spellcaster.  I've played a sniper with a really big gun. 


I'm not certain why I haven't been posting lately, other than the fact that nothing has stood out as post-worthy in itself. 


Tonight is Character Creation for Jared's new campaign.  He's running something in the Hellfrost campaign for Savage Worlds.  I have no idea what kind of character I will run.  Casters are kind of wierd, in that they continually risk losing their casting ability.  I'll try to post back whatever I decide.

Of Mothers Days and Fathers Days

Mothers Day and Fathers Day are promoted all across this country by businesses.  Restaurants, florists, greeting card manufacturers, and a host of other small and large industries rely on and promote the holiday to drive sales.


And this is not what this post is about.


I think a lot of people have a lot of stress on these two holidays.  Every family has issues, and it seems like no matter what issues you might have, you are expected to set these aside one (or two) days a year and tell your mother and father how great a job they did, and by-the-way, here's some flowers, or a tie, or a lunch.


But there's a lot of people that really would like to skip that holiday altogether.  If you grew up in an abusive home, why would you want to tell the abuser that they are a great parent?  For that matter, it's a reminder of just how crappy you had it growing up.  Let's rub some salt into that wound.


What if you have lost one or both parents.  You get a yearly reminder of that empty spot in your heart, and the phone calls you no longer get to make. 


Even worse.  What if you are a parent, and you don't get that phone call, or card or lunch?  Is it a condemnation of your parenting?  Or is your child simply forgetful, or very busy?  What if you've lost a child?  God, to think that every year, other parents are celebrating a holiday with their kids that you will never ever get to celebrate again.  There's a Lifetime-For-Women movie in there somewhere because it makes me sad just to consider abstractly.


Then there's sibling issues.  What if you have a brother or sister and they celebrate "better" than you do?  Now somehow you have to start competing to show your parent that you love them just as much as your brother who by-the-way also lives in a nicer house and has a wife with a better ass?   As if you didn't have to worry about enough things in your life that you really wanted to add "Do I show my mom I love her enough?"


Or what if your parents are aging, and you start wondering how many holidays they might have left with you.  Do you make them into bigger celebrations in some morbid "prove my love before he/she dies" kind of thing?


Anyway.


All of this seems like a lot of stress. 


I love my parents.  I hope my son loves me.  He texted me "Happy Fathers Day.  Relax and have lemonade!"  Which was nice, but I'm not sure on the whole lemonade thing.  I don't have any strong memories of us ever sitting back and enjoying lemonade together.  And I'm going to puzzle over that one for at least a few days.


Maybe we should get rid of these two holidays, and just tell the people in our lives that we appreciate, that we appreciate them. 

Savage Worlds - Old West

KEJR ran a Savage Worlds one-shot last night at the Gopher.  (Best game store in town.) 

We were a group of old-west outlaws with a price on our heads.  The run started with us encountering a set of slightly less outlaw types who wanted to kill/capture us for the bounty.  We took them down fairly quickly, except that the very first round my character took two wounds, that he had for the remainder of the night.

We met some city-slicker guy named Gabe, who gave us directions to a town - Revelation.  In the town, we met up with various people who had been killed by a corrupt Marshall that we knew from our outlaw days.  Except these people were all undead of one sort or another, and we had to take them down.

Eventually we met up with the marshall himself in th church.  A difficult fight ensued, but we won - only to meet some other guy named Lu who wanted us keep going down the dark side, while Gabe encouraged us to be good guys.   We eventually decided that maybe Gabe was a better friend that that Lu guy, and made the choice to try to be better people.

All in all it was a fun one-shot.  KEJR did an awesome job, as always.

Long time, no post...

I've been meaning to post, but I haven't had a reason to write much.

I've been trying to stop bashing Paizo in print (electronic or otherwise), so no matter how high my frustration level is with what's going on with the Paizo messageboards, I haven't commented.  Much.  Lately.  And I can't really go into any details without breaking my own posting fast.  (Though KEJR and I email back and forth a lot.)

My wife and I celebrated our 24th anniversary on Monday.  It was really a weekend of celebration.  We went to Silvercreek restaurant on Friday to see David Howie play.  (Local guitarist/singer/songwriter - he's really talented, and a very nice guy.)  We told him that we were celebrating our anniversary, and he sang "All you need is love" for us.  Very very cool!

On Monday, we went to Boomerangs because my wife wanted to see and possibly play in their open jam.  We had a great time, and she got up on stage to play for the first time in many years.  Awesome fun!

We did Trivia at another bar last night, and teamed with Team Funk.  We won the music round thanks to my wife's awesome song knowledge of 80's music.

But nothing controversial, or particularly interesting.

Tomorrow I have Pathfinder with KEJR's Council of Thieves game.  That should be great fun, and I'll hopefully write up a recap.

Other than that, I'm trying to get a lot of coding and hardware done before the end of the month trip to the Home Office.

Overlooked Sci-Fi Weapon of Coolness

I'm watching old Andromeda reruns, and I'm thinking that if I could only ever have one scifi weapon, this might be the one.

From Wikipedia:

The High Guard Force Lance (from Andromeda)

The Force Lance generally looks like a harmless metal rod approximately 1/3 of a meter in length which fires high energy plasma shots, but can extended to almost 2 meters and be used as a melee weapon. The Lance is keyed to its handlers DNA and can also be reprogrammed, a person will be electrically shocked when trying to use another's programmed Lance. It can also be used as a taser.

The Force Lance can launch a number of self-guided tiny attack drones (called “effectors”) that both target opponents and intercept incoming bullets and missiles.  It has a grappling hook function, it can be placed in a stationary position to be set on auto fire, & finally it can be used as a plasma grenade by setting it to overload.

So let's recap:

• It's a quarterstaff
• It fires plasma bolts
• It's a taser
• It fires self-guided drones that target either people, or incoming bullets and missiles
• It has a grappling hook
• It can work as a sentry gun
• You can use it as a grenade (but then you don't have one anymore)
• And...If anyone but you tries to use it, they automagically get tazed!!

Batman probably wishes he had one of these.

Roads less travelled

Okay, the title is cool, but really is only slightly related to topic.


The wife and I went to trivia last night.  We decided to team up with Breyfunk and his Grife (Girlfriend/Wife - long story).  Usually we prefer to just be by ourselves, as it's kind of a date night.  But we actually did two bar trivia's this week.


The first was a small pub called Bentley's.  Older crowd, and the trivia was incredibly difficult.  Questions like "Who is the composer who finished Mozart's last work?" Or something like that.  We got about half of all the questions right, and that put us way down on the list.


So on Tuesday, we went to our usual spot.  This place has a younger crowd, somewhat rowdier, and sometimes more inebriated.  But the questions are a little more our speed.  Breyfunk and his grife stopped by, and we sort of did the should we sit near each other, or farther away thing, and eventually decided to team up.  Usually my wife and I are Team Blue, and they are Team Funk.  (Actually a lot less imaginative than such team names as "Obama has a Small Stimulus Package" and "My Big Fact Hunt")  But together we went with the name Blue Funk.


We didn't win any rounds, though we got 54 out of 55 points for 80's music.  My wife really knows 80's music.  (Except apparently Violent Femmes.  That was the one point we missed.) We did place second overall, as we consistently got good scores that just weren't quite high enough to win any round. 

Wordcasting Suckage

So, after my last post (probably not related to my last post) KEJR decided to allow Ultimate Magic in the Council of Thieves game.


"Great!", I thought to myself (who else would I think to? anyway...).  Now I can convert my level 8 bard to wordcasting.  The concept held a lot of promise for me, and I was kind of excited to get to use something in this $40 book I have.  Something.  Anything.  


So I asked KEJR, and he okayed a change.  He even gave a thumbs up to retraining Spell Focus (Enchantment) and Greater Spell Focus (Enchantment) (which I've referred to as the bran muffin of a spellcaster.  It's a really good thing to make it harder to save, but it's two whole feats invested.  But at the time, and still, I think/thought that it's a good thing to do.  Bran muffins - not always what you would prefer to eat, but it's better for you.)  


So I sat down to see exactly what I could do with the casting.  And the results were surprising.


As an 8th level human bard, with bard as favored class, I get an extra spell each level (at least one level lower than highest spell I can cast).  So at 8th level, I get:


Spell Level    Spells Known
       0                     9
       1                     8
       2                     6
       3                     3


And I can spend these spells on either effect words or meta words.  So far, so good.  


So I look at what words are available to bards.  


Spell Level    Effect Words   Meta Words
       0                       6                    3    (1 is given free at first level)
       1                      11                   3
       2                      15
       3                      10

Okay, so right off, there's a problem.  I know 9 level-0 words, but there are only 8 available to bards.  Hmm.  Well, there's a wasted bonus.  I guess that would turn into a skill point.  (grumble,grumble).


Then I look at the level 1 meta words.  There's "Careful", "Quiet", and "Simple", which are effectively eschew materials, silent spell, and still spell (not in that order).  But hey, I thought bards couldn't use silent spell?  Look in rules.  Look at Bards.  Hmm.  Nothing in the rules.  I can't believe this isn't an oversight, so I throw that out anyway to limit my own power gaming.  (Yes, it's really me.)


Then I start actually looking at the words.  Okay, what I understood to be the idea behind the wordcaster was that he gave up some power level in exchange for versatility.  For any spell, you specify a target word, one or more effect words, and then one or more meta words.  I can live with that.  I like versatility.


So I'm looking at the target words.  I get things like Selected (one creature), Burst, Line, Cone.  Cool!  But waitasec.  I'm looking at my effect words.  

0-Level Bard Words		Targeting Limitation
Beacon	Divination	Personal
Cramp	Pain	None
Decipher	Language	Personal
Echo	Illusion	Burst
Lift	Gravity	Personal
Sense Magic	Detection	Cone
1st-Level Bard Words
Friendship	Command	Selected
Simple Order	Command	Selected
Fade	Concealing	Selected
Spook	Fear	Selected
Glide	Flight	Selected
Lesser Cure	Healing	Personal, Selected
Radiance	Illumination	Burst(emanation)
Decipher *	Language	Personal
Wrack	Pain	None
Servitor I	Summoning	Selected
Dash	Time	Personal
2nd-Level Bard Words
Paralyze Humanoid	Binding	Selected
Enhance Form	Body	Personal, Selected
Disappear	Concealing	Selected
Sense Hidden	Detection	Cone
Sense Thoughts	Detection	Cone
Suppress	Dispelling	Selected
Float	Flight	Selected
Moderate Cure	Healing	Personal, Selected
Gloom	Illumination	Burst(emanation)
Glimmering	Illusion	Burst(emanation)
Translate	Language	Selected
Discordant Note	Sonic	None
Servitor II	Summoning	Selected
Accelerate	Time	Selected
Decelerate	Time	Selected

  Out of 32 words available to me as an 8th level bard, only six allow any kind of choice in targeting.  And three of those are the choice between Personal and Selected.  Which mean that for just about all of my potential casting, targeting words really do nothing.  Wow.  This is not as good as I thought it might be.  In fact it's less good than I'd probably want to deal with.  


Oh.  But waitasec again!!!  I get Meta words!!  Three times a day, I can apply a meta word to my spells, just as if I had applied a metamagic feat!  That's pretty cool.  So what Metas do I get?


I automatically get Boost.  So I'm looking at my spells, and either the boost is a 1 level bump to the spell level (accounting for the repeats on my available words list, which cut down the actual number of words I get), or they are 3 level bumps to the spell level.  Which put them outside of my ability to cast.  And really just turn "1 Creature" target spells to "1 Creature/Level".  Hmmm.


Okay, so I can sort of see some logic here.  They really didn't want to give wordcasters any brokenness.  They wanted to give them flexibility.  


EXCEPT THEY AREN"T FLEXIBLE!!!!


All the spells I get, are either the same level, or higher level than a straight spellcaster.  All the spells I get (well, basically all) are hardwired as to what I can choose as a target word.  


So what I'm left with is an extremely short spell list, that provides far less power than if I were just a straight caster.


I really really wanted to like this system.  But it's really just 34 pages of unusable dreck.  It's a restatement of basic spells, under the guise of being a new system.  A spontaneous caster should be able to do lots of cool awesome stuff by mixing and matching effects and targets and metas, but really, nothing is mix-and-matchable.


Sigh.


As one of the designers pointed out on the Paizo messageboards, sometimes players make poor choices in building their characters, and Paizo views it as their job to provide those poor choices.  (Or something suspiciously familiar to that.)