- Details
- Written by Brad B
- Category: Brad
- Hits: 1759
We are now three weeks from the start of GenCon, and things are looking pretty awesome. I have put together a nice slew of Tunnels and Trolls, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and 2d20 adventures for players to enjoy, and all the accommodations are ready. I hope GenCon 50 turns out to be as much fun as previous ones were. We shall see how it goes, but people are looking forward to it and that is the important thing. Remember, games are played to have fun, and that is why we do it, right?
- Details
- Written by Brad B
- Category: Brad
- Hits: 1699
There is a lot of soy milk consumed in our household. Enough that it is one of our primary purchases from the wonderful Costco. Recently Costco changed the packaging in a large way. New colors, new box shape, etc.. We also noticed the price changed, in fact, it was lower. Of course, anyone in this country who sees the combination of new packaging and lower price should immediately assume:
- Lower Quality
- Smaller Quantity
However, for once - again probably because this is Costco - the formula stayed the same, the quality and taste is the same (we had some to compare, fortunately) and the quantity stayed the same. In other words, this was one of those "unicorn situations" where a change in packaging was not a way of screwing consumers over! Go Costco!
Contrast this with say, Starkist Tuna Cans, who added phrases like "Dolphin Safe Nets Used" on their cans as a way to disguise a higher price (an extra $0.25/can) and lower quantity (1oz less of tuna meat). This was a few years ago, but since I know the guy who designed that and he was "Marketer of the Year" from several prestigious US-based Marketing publications for doing it, I have been jaded ever since that any change to the product indicates a Marketer somewhere is screwing the American public.
So Costco has made me pleasantly surprised, again.
- Details
- Written by Brad B
- Category: Brad
- Hits: 1776
Specifically, the time of the year where I get asked to run a whole lot of Pathfinder in a hurry so people can get their characters leveled up and ready to play in GenCon exclusive events. It's a bit weird, because:
a) I don't run Pathfinder at GenCon.
b) I actually do not really like Pathfinder.*
c) I am only asked about this time of year, usually with the goal of shoving about 9 game sessions into 4 so paperwork can be filled out and people can go, "Yay! I have an official character for PFS!"
d) I really want to run them in Dungeon Crawl Classics adventures as a member of the Road Crew, then have their characters get consumed by the hilarious grinders that game system is famous for.
Anyway - prep for GenCon time! It is coming!
* = Mostly due to an innate disdain for game systems with alignments or classes. Although, to be honest, I have read some incredibly well thought and well presented explanations of why both are good for gaming. When not written by Pathfinder or D&D Fanboys they can be quite enlightening. An alignment system can be construed as an elegant shorthand for determining who the "good guys" are and what a general character interaction for a specific situation may be. While I completely disagree, it is a good point. I was reminded of the Dragonstar d20 setting, where the Imperial Rulers decreed that the results of a "Detect Alignment" spell were not admissible in court. I thought it was an interesting point of view. Meanwhile, on "Judge Judy in Rassilon" - "Your honor, the defendant is Chaotic Evil!" Judge responds, "Clearly they are guilty, execute them."
And follow on, a class can be handy when someone has a vague idea of what they want to play, and no one wants to spend hours trying to figure out how to achieve that effect. I am still haunted by a GURPS "session" a friend ran a few years ago, which entailed about 5 hours of character creation, and then no one wanted to actually play the adventure. And I do not think we ever did, I think the following week we played Savage Worlds.
- Details
- Written by Brad B
- Category: Brad
- Hits: 3896
A lot of my disparate gaming groups have been migrating to Discord. The combination of persistent chat, admin utilities, voice chat, and general ease of use cross platform has been a huge hit. The low overhead on the client is a bonus. It really is a pretty remarkable system capable of a number of great features right out of the box. I've been so impressed I threw money at them for a Nitro subscription, even though there was almost no need for me personally to have any of the features.
This prompted a slight bit of introspection. A few years ago, before I started doing a lot of computer programming, editing, writing, and paid "creative" work, I was one of those people who was quite adamant that things should be free. I'm a huge fan of open source and spend most of my day working on and with open source software. The big thing I have noticed though, is whether it is open source or not, in the past couple years my purse strings have been a lot looser when it comes to making donations or buying "subscriptions" for things that I might not necessarily need a subscription for. Some of this largesse might be due to increase in pay checks, but I think a greater portion is the realization of how much time and energy goes into creating some of these things that people take for granted.
Really, that open source software you are using might be free and open source, but someone (or group of someones) spends a lot of time and effort to provide you with a remarkably polished product without presuming to ask you to buy it. Next time you think to yourself, "Wow, this really makes my life easier..." turn that thought into, "Wow, I should buy this person a beer (or double latte, whatever takes their fancy)" and click the "Donate" button.
Note, my blog and website are not worth donations, but if you are overwhelmingly interested in throwing money at me, leave a comment and I'm sure we can work something out. ;)
- Details
- Written by Brad B
- Category: Brad
- Hits: 1994
I tested the last of my GenCon events on my favorite guinea pigs (volunteers) using the 2d20 Conan game system. It worked beautifully and well. There are definitely some streamlined features that make it flow a little better than Mutant Chronicles (especially if you forget the rules about Reach, which was an accident). Both settings work out very well for the purposes of playing a fun and fast game that flows well and gives a good sense of heroic action. Obligatory Arnold lines and hacking down of thousands of minions may, or may not, have happened. But a good time was had by all.
Page 7 of 21
