My New Sites!

My NEW BLOG and NEW WIKI!

Chemo Announcement

My NEW BLOG and my NEW WIKI

I really feel that Google has become some form of cancer to me! The bad experience I had with my phone was the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back." So I intend to fight it.

I realize I can't go cold turkey, a perfect sign of how diverse and metastasized Google has become for me, but I can start chemo! First, I will be trying out a new way to share my ramblings, in the form of a Wiki. Assuming it will work, and I realize there will be drawbacks, such as not being able to get 'comments' and I probably won't be able to post from work, I have to try.

I do not intend to delete this blog. Though it is not something spectacular in the larger scheme of things, considering the awesomeness of the OCR Blogisphere, there are things here that I really like and have put alot of work into. I do have some things that I want to do:

[X] Start a Wiki and try it out

My Brand New Wiki

Assuming the Wiki is feasible / successful:

[   ] Find a way to allow 'comment' on the newly created Wiki
[   ] Stop using Google Mail
[   ] Stop using Google Search
[   ] Jail Break my phone and remove all Google Apps
[   ] Change or Remove all Google imbeds in other Sites I use
[   ] ...

Suggestions on alternatives? Other Google masses that I missed?

I will continue to update this post with my progress, and assuming I am successful, I will allow this site and my Google accounts to go dormant. A form of remission, if you will?

(OMG, "OMG" is flagged by my spellchecker but not "Google"!)

Viva-La-Revolution!

TB

Non-Gaming Related Rant!

Reposted here to try to alleviate my anger:

Google is trying to indoctrinate, or is impregnate, itself into everything I do... email, google+, google chrome, google voice, google chat, blogger, etc... I am getting pretty damn tired of it. Especially after I realized I can not get it off my phone without 'jail breaking' it! Pissed, doesn't even cover what I am after my 45 minute call to AT&T to get Google Voice messages turned off and the default voice mail reinstated! You pay hundreds of dollars for phones and a 'plan', and I get this shit! I can not curse enough at the moment!

TB

Over Kill?

Okay, I went a little overboard with the encounter areas... Yes, a lot... But I was having fun and ideas were flooding my brain as I divided up the terrain for, what I hope, would make for a plethora of low level adventure hooks. I hope to delve deeper into these 'regions' in later posts. For now, have a map!

Scale: Large Hex = 2.5 miles (1 hour), Small Hex = 2640 feet (12 minutes)

As can be seen, I have chose a large selection of common humanoids to populate the surrounding area of Skelan and Ength. I hope, though breathing some individuality into them, I can put a new spin on them in the process. Yes, they are Goblins, Orcs, and such, but as ideas came to me, something else occurred to me. Motivations... Suffice it to say, more to come as I stop mapping and get to table design!

So, how bad did I mutilate it?

TB

BANG! Hexographer Pro Baby!

With the current sale going on over at Inkwell Ideas, I broke down and bought the Hexographer Pro Software. I am so glad I did! Making 'Child Maps' has become a snap. I couldn't resist zooming in on Skelan and seeing what popped up!

Scale: Each Small Hex = 528 ft (Large Hex = 2640 ft)
EDIT: The Huge Hex is actually 2.5 miles across!

Zooming in was a snap. I just selected the area, told it 5 hexes for each hex selected and it converted it all. I had to do some touch-up around the edges and added a little forest. The majority of the time I spent adding buildings based on Erin Smale's, Population for Low-Fantasy Population generator, from his blog; The Welsh Piper.

From that I gleaned the following about Skelan:
Population: 974
Occupies: 1.22 square miles
Nobles: 28, Officers: 10, Clergy: 8, Freeholders: 66, Citizens (Farmers) 858, Hirelings:4
Ruling House: 6 Relatives, 4 Servants, 3 House Guard, 1 Sergeant
Additional Nobles (2 Houses) w/ 14 people
Reeve: 1, Messor: 1, Woodward 1, Constable: 1, Law Enforcement: 6
Mansions: 3
Churches: 2
Businesses: 79
Municipal: 1
Homes: Alot! 129

It took me longer to type this than to do it. The map isn't great, but it was fun doing!

Hope you can use it,

TB

Paladins... Perks vs Self-Imposed-Challenge (Ranty)

Okay, I may have mentioned this before on here, but I think I just had an epiphany if you will. Over at The Aspiring Lich, Chris mentioned in his comments,

 Perhaps, but where paladins are allowed, and where someone wants to play one, then they should expect that they'll have to abide by the rules of paladinhood. It irks me that people think they should get all the perks of the class while being able to play it like an amoral fighter.

I meandered about how the Unearthed Arcana book was a key point in my choice to leave D&D, and RPG in general, for so long.

I could not grasp why someone would need a tomb of a book to play a Paladin! It was nothing more than a moral Fighter who lived by a code and was beholden to his deity. While professing this very fact, it dawned on me, the difference, at least for me, of 'old school' and new.

Paladins, and other classes of the AD&D time were 'cool' because of all the 'perks'. Everyone wanted to play one (a Paladin), and the attribute restrictions were discarded rapidly to allow this in my gaming circle of the time. So began what I am now considering the "D&D Entitlement Generation!"

When I played D&D, I had to walk up-hill both-ways with cooked potatoes in my pockets, to keep me warm and to eat as a snack when they cooled, to the house of a friend to play.... No, I will not channel my father! Anyways, my point is, as I recall, playing characters who were challenged; low HPs, "bad attribute" rolls, etc. WAS the fun part. Sure, even a buff Basic D&D character died regularly, but it was fun! And oh the thrill of finally hitting fourth level with Peg-legged Willy! I still smile when I recall an NPC from a module, who's name was something like, 'Lookma Nohands' ~ recall he was a bartender. I wanted to play him as a PC!

I guess the definition of what was/is cool to play has changed. That, for me in a nutshell, is what defines the difference between the old and the new. Perks vs Self-Imposed-Challenge.

Chris started the whole thing off with,

p.s. - And don't get me started on the bitchy paladin who doesn't like the fact that she's really expected to adhere to a lawful moral code. Good grief.

Or the, "I want my Perks, and don't want to pay for it...", D&D Entitlement Personality. I think, from perusing his relatively new blog, Chris has started to feel the pull of the old over the new, and by doing so has assisted me in a new train of thought! Thanks Chris!

Am I out on a limb by myself here? Can it basically be a societal thing?

TB

Moving On A Budget

Over at Untimately, Brendan spoke about Wilderness Movement Costs and how to 'move on a budget'.

I really liked the idea and have decided to convert it to my thoughts of movement by time, where I have decided to think of traveling not as distance, but as time.

So, without further ado, a version of Brendan's tables with time equivalents for a league (2.5 miles) of travel:

Encumbrance	Movement Budget
Unencumbered	10 Hours
Lightly Encumbered	8 Hours
Heavily Encumbered	6 Hours

Unlike Brendan, I chose not to differentiate statistically between forms of locomotion; foot, horse, wagon, etc. For me, as an example, horses and such move at roughly the same walking speed as a person on foot with equivalent loads, or, a horse with a heavy load is going to move about as fast as a human with a heavy load. Granted, the weight of that load is significantly different, but hopefully you get my meaning. It is not until you get into forced marching and running that things change dramatically, but even then, it will all be about time. How long can you do it before giving out? This, at least for me, can be adjudicated on the fly.

Now on to the costs:

Terrain	Examples	Movement Cost	Becoming Lost
Average	Clear, City, Grasslands, Road*, Trail*	1 Hour	1 in 6
Moderate	Forest, Hills, Desert, Badlands	1.5 Hours	2 in 6
Difficult	Mountains, Heavy Forest, Jungle, Swamp	2 Hours	3 in 6

* Moving along Roads, or well marked Trails, does not result in a risk of Becoming Lost.

I would like to thank Brendan for pointing me to this simple and hopefully easy to master system. Thanks!

Best,
TB