My attempt at getting a local group completely fell apart last weekend. I live in a small town and the days just after high-school when it was easier to get a group together are long gone.
This weekend I'm going to dig out my old webcam and figure out how Roll20 works. If things go well, I'll be back in the game next weekend.
Friday, November 15, 2013
Saturday, November 9, 2013
A Short Anti-Nerfing Educational Film
Tommorow night is my first time as a DM in a long time and I've decided not to nerf the game, even though this is most of my groups first time out.
Instead, I've found a short educational film which I hope will explain the necessity of having three pre-rolled characters before the adventure begins. :)
Thursday, November 7, 2013
The First Question of Game Balance
So, yeah, this game balance thing. Some of the conversations I've read on forums about it have given me the impression that the people discussing it don't know what they're talking about, if anything at all. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if someone had decided that game balance is a myth and those who talk about it are living in their own little fantasy world.
It's easy to see why some people think this for the simple fact that game balance doesn't have an elegant demo. I'll get back to that in another post.
My view isn't that game balance is a myth, but my view (as I write this) is fairly close. If game balance is a worthwhile game design concept then it's only worthwhile if it helps game designers make better games. Otherwise, it's not a game design concept. I mean, really, if it isn't useful to the actual process of making games, then someone would do just as well talking about cardboard boxes as a game design concept.
It's easy to see why some people think this for the simple fact that game balance doesn't have an elegant demo. I'll get back to that in another post.
My view isn't that game balance is a myth, but my view (as I write this) is fairly close. If game balance is a worthwhile game design concept then it's only worthwhile if it helps game designers make better games. Otherwise, it's not a game design concept. I mean, really, if it isn't useful to the actual process of making games, then someone would do just as well talking about cardboard boxes as a game design concept.
Steal This Idea: The Corrupting Influence
While contemplating the balance between the power of classes and the interdependence of the party, I came up with an idea for a campaign that completely smashes it, all for fun and entertainment, of course.
It also breaks another part of the D&D paradigm, that all NPCs are, well, NPCs. This idea makes a player into an NPC, sort of.
The key idea is that one member of the party discovers an evil magical item during a routine adventure. As the campaign progresses, the magic item continues to make him more powerful as it makes him ever more evil. The campaign ends with the other players attempting to defeat the evil PC.
It also breaks another part of the D&D paradigm, that all NPCs are, well, NPCs. This idea makes a player into an NPC, sort of.
The key idea is that one member of the party discovers an evil magical item during a routine adventure. As the campaign progresses, the magic item continues to make him more powerful as it makes him ever more evil. The campaign ends with the other players attempting to defeat the evil PC.
A look inside RPG mechanics
It's very easy for any programmer to create an RPG game that includes all the mechanics of an RPG. It's quite another thing for a programmer to create NPCs that have the flexiblity and variety of a human DM.
So why is it so easy to perfectly translate one aspect of RPGs to computers while others remain practically impossible? I'm glad I imagined that you asked.
Well...
RPG mechanics are written in form common to almost programming languages, and it's common to programming languages because a program does what RPG mechanics do. All a programmer has to do is look at an RPG rulebook and directly translate the mechanics to the mechanics of a programming language
.
So why is it so easy to perfectly translate one aspect of RPGs to computers while others remain practically impossible? I'm glad I imagined that you asked.
Well...
RPG mechanics are written in form common to almost programming languages, and it's common to programming languages because a program does what RPG mechanics do. All a programmer has to do is look at an RPG rulebook and directly translate the mechanics to the mechanics of a programming language
.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
An Evil Plan and a Banjo Official Soundtrack
The official soundtrack of this blog is "I'm Destroying The World" by Guttermouth, which includes the lyrics I stole for this blog's name "I'm taking up the banjo to execute my evil plan."
It's a statement that asserts the fundamental god-given principle that all bullshit is created equal. In much simpler terms, it simply asserts "PFFFFT!"
It's a statement that asserts the fundamental god-given principle that all bullshit is created equal. In much simpler terms, it simply asserts "PFFFFT!"
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