EVE and Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Ed.

So I have pretty much flaked out on the “read here”s for The Lost Dungeon of Hookers and Ale. I want to get it as drawn out as possible to make drinking and DMing easier. JP suggested that if I get it drawn out enough I can give one of the players the notes and play if I get really drunk. I am actually really excited to run it, I will post everything on IRollTwenties.org so folks can see the D&D Module. It may turn into a Campaign oddly enough.

Barb and I are in a gaming group with some gamers who left D&D, one because she couldn’t stand the overly complex rules, the other because he started dating the one that couldn’t stand the overly complex rules. They both bought copies of a PHB yesterday and are looking forward to the game this weekend. I think Betsy just wants to get drunk but either way.

Speaking of overly complex rules, Barb and I played EVE last night. That game makes me want two monitors really badly. It’s so beautiful, and there are so many panels with so much great info it covers up the game. My laptop monitor is not that small, and it’s pretty hard to get everything on there and still play the game. The reason why I like EVE is its one of those games where I can “mine” and have fun. The reason is I press a button, and my ship starts to orbit and mine.

Job done, hands free. What’s more it mines the asteroid out, unlike in WoW where I may have to click the ore over and over and over again, EVE does it automatically leaving me free to watch TV, talk to folks online, peruse the market place (which is better than the WoW auction IMHO), and look at specs for ships.

So far the biggest problem I have with EVE is there is too much information. It’s impossible to know what exactly is going on. I have been gone from the game for about six months now (and before that two years) and I only remembered the very basics. “How the hell do I put this pirated shield booster into my ship!?” was a question that vexed me for 15 minutes. Granted once I found the answer it was incredibly smooth and intuitive but getting there was difficult.

It was a lot of fun talking with Barb about strategy. We are going to try to start our own Corp with some other gamer friends and we tried to think of a strategy. We decided I am going to be the brains behind the operation (and dashing good looks) and she is going to be the fist. We both rolled members of the Gallente Federation, as Barb described them “The Space French”. Despite our heritage apparently the Gallente are very brave and charismatic.

I took a bunch of stats for business acumen while I think Barb took a bunch for combat. I also figured I would take drones to support her while I GTFO. I can’t wait till we see how our ships build up. I already added a shield booster. I named my ship “The Celerity”, she is a Navitas class Frigate… good times.

After hearing all the sound effects etc I still want a ringtone with the chick saying “You are receiving an incoming transmission”, with the locking on sound in the background. Anyone who can do this will be rewarded with internets, cool points, and dinner.

More of a Personal Post

As someone who owns the collectors set of Indiana Jones, I am a huge fan. They are great stories, I grew up on Westerns when I was a kid. My dad and I used to just watch them together. Shows like “Have Gun Will Travel” where decidedly awesome. Yeah they are hokey but what kids shows aren’t?

Looking back I think I know why those shows were good, the stories were simple. The plot can honestly be summarized with “beginning, confrontation, resolution”. You introduce the main character, oh shit there are bad guys poisoning the water hole, kill/arrest them, end of show. There is a great deal of simple charm to that formula, and when you have a bad guy you don’t like for simple reasons it’s even better.

That’s why Nazis have always worked in Indy flicks. They are the bad guys, why you may ask, because they are Nazis. Things blow up along the way, we may see a few big names, someone’s face melts, and there are some laughs, all around good time, life is good. Kinda like beer and pretzels night with a gaming group. I know the recent OWbN podcast made fun of folks who use this formula for characters in LARP, and I agree, LARP is far too moody and "mature" for that. Nazi killing and evil mustachioed men are at the heart of beer and pretzel gaming though. When I think of beer and pretzel "role playing" I think of those old westerns. Thats the inherent charm in Indi flicks, beer and pretzels, its a beer and pretzels movie trying to capture the charm of beer and pretzel dime novels.

So after seeing these movies for the umpteen times and loving it I am excited for the new one. I am going to Kublacon this weekend and will be seeing it with some gamers there in SF hopefully. To get ready for the movie my girlfriend and I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark with the RiffTrax.com commentary of it. It was totally worth the $3.00. I shared the file with some friends who downloaded it on their machines from the Rifftrax site legally. Just like the one for 300, adding this commentary puts a whole new spin on the movie.

Seriously though, it was a pain in our ass. If you ever try these don't use their player. Its kind of a gimmick and it fucked with the dialog. I think we had an option turned on that if we would have turned off would have been fine, honestly though, just do it the old fashioned way. Its kind of confusing with this movie because they often use the fade of the production trademark as the point of reference and this movie really doesn't have that (think of the MGM Lion's roar with the Dark Side of the Rainbow trick). Once we got it work though, it was worth it.

I am looking forward to the new Indi flick. I am one of those people that like to make fun of the movie as we watch it with my friends. I went to go see Speed Racer and every time Racer X talked we implanted lines from Lost…

Also, happy birthday George Lucas…hopefully this year will make you much much much wiser.

Never Trust a Fan Boy

I am always a fan of communities. Especially communities and how they relate to marketing. South Park did an episode last night about using the internet to make money, this blog was started because I want to see how bloggers make money (see shameless promotions to the right), and really, it never seems to work. It’s the pyramid scheme of the new millennia a lot of times, you really have to have something people want to watch or read. That doesn't mean its not fun, just don't quit your day job.

That’s why the nerd community has picked up on it so well. Dorks across the globe really can’t get information, because there are so few of us in each individual community, but on the internet our name is Legion. Wizards of the Coast doesn’t really need to engage in marketing, they have a diehard community to do it for them. DND4.com is a great example. They have constructed a “Preview PHB”, which my friends and I have started dissecting for the latest clues about how we are going to play the game.

We are going to buy it, this just tipped us over the edge to make sure we place advance orders, advance orders I found out about on DnD4.com. White-Wolf Studios had the same opportunities for their Requiem and New World of Darkness series, but they blew it. They sued their fans instead of embracing them, and that has weakened their ability to market to their consumers. I am continually shocked that they choose to piss off their fan base. I don’t know why they haven’t taken a page from Wizards and chosen to STFU. I understand that each company has their style, Windows encourages third party manufacturers. Apple refuses to budge on opening their platform. Both have the pros and cons, both work. Thats the key though, both work, which is great because now I as a user have a diverse choice of options for my computing needs. Unfortunately White-Wolf has chosen to do things poorly, so I loose out on my options for angsty vampires.

In the end, White-Wolf studios enforcement of what I play has made an otherwise great game suck. Wizards has chosen to embrace the fans and its going to make 4.0 all the sweeter. White-Wolf needs to apologize and start kissing the asses of their community; otherwise they are going to go the way of the FASA-bird.

P.S. speaking of shameless promotion, this article is all about it. Click here to find out why!

For Good Or For Awesome - How To Use Google For Gaming

I like to do what they guys at Mystery Science Theatre 3000 did. When they got canceled because they couldn't afford the rights to make fun of crappy movies no one wanted to watch, they looked for new ways to do what they did better. They took technology that had very little to do with making fun of movies, and used it to make fun of movies. They created RiffTrax.com, and use their powers for good instead of evil. They used MP3s to do the job they were doing and not paying for the rights to use movies. That means they can mock big blockbusters and not have to pay for it.

Today we see gaming trying to do the same thing. There is a lot of hoopla about D&D going online. People are saying that its going to detract from the experience, others are saying it’s the next best thing since sliced bread. I say Wizards of the Coast is behind the times, they need to take a page out of Google’s book. instead of designing a show around making fun of movies, why not just take something and use it to make fun of movies. The same can be said for gaming; instead of designing a program to make it easier for your friends to kill the dragon, use a program for businesses to kill the dragon.

So, as we all know Google.com is going to one day own everything. Honestly I am more than content to go along with the ride. My day job uses Google mail, Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets, Google 3D, hell my iPhone uses Google Maps, and Google wrote a better mail webapp than Apple (and they released the damn phone). But what about those of us who like to use work related things for our definitely not work related shenanigans, say like… sending a party of evil doers into the clutches of a band of waiting PCs? Or managing a weekly LARP with 20 PCs? What about discussing what game the group will be playing this week? Google makes all these things possible…

G-Mail

Never mind that G-Mail is the key to a gateway of free apps, the way big G formats your inbox is clear and concise. Ever want to be able to discuss a topic with several people, and keep things easily formatted, say like on a forum? G-mail does that, it saves e-mails as “Conversations”, letting all parties involved click to go back and review conversations, or skip the whole lot if you don’t care to read it.

As someone who receives over 200 gaming related e-mails a day (I’m on a lot of lists) I can’t thank G-Mail enough for this!

Google Docs

Never has it been easier make sure your party is informed about the world you are playing in. Whenever I DM, I usually have my players play in one world that I have slowly been working on since I started gaming. It’s a low magic feudal world. Needless to say there is a lot of information, and history. Some PC driven, some I created. The best way to get information through? Just make a Google doc and invite your players. You can edit information on the fly and it will refresh for all viewers, there is even a chat panel to discuss on the doc.

Google Spreadsheet

Easy access to forms. Setting up a secure form on a Google spreadsheet is a breeze. E-mail the form out to your players, their input is put into a spreadsheet clearly, and concisely. Most of all the other players can’t see it! Running a vampire LARP? What better way to manage the dealings of the Kindred? If the Prince wants to manipulate the press to cover the latest Masquerade the same live update feature will show you the exact second he does. It will also show you the harpy spending actions to watch the prince.

Google Maps

Track a party’s progress over a map. Just use a real world location people have never been too. Medieval landscape? England. Dessert? Death Valley. Sweltering jungle? New Zealand! You can plot points, mark encounters and land marks as well. I ran a game with one game and two tables. There was one other DM and both parties were on the same island. We would both edit the map with the parties progress and when huge events went off we the other party thought it was NPCs. Boy were they surprised.

Google Calendar

Share your gaming schedule easily. Need to change the date of that shadow run? Waiting for a game to be released? Easy as, one, two, three, go. E-mail notifications are sent out, with RSVPs, forget about Facebook.

Google Sketchup

I stole this one from one of my friends, Heather. Need to show off that dungeon? Got multiple levels? Google Sketchup is the way to go. You can easily draw castles, houses, villages, warrens, dungeons, taverns, inns, corporate buildings. The list goes on and on, all in 3d! This works great for a tactical game. When its important for all sides of a building need to be considered.