tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30284641503029623242023-11-16T05:55:00.463-05:00Dice Head - Gaming with JulioA gamer's blog about life, games, and the things that he lovesAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-83618254278860543702017-07-18T11:49:00.000-05:002017-07-18T11:50:00.538-05:00When the door opens - Storytime Part 3<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">*click*<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Falken smiled, the door opened, and a massive wooden log shaped as a battering ram swung down straight into Falken’chest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The kid flew back and hit the wall with a loud crack and hit the floor with a sickening thud. He felt his ribs shifting in places they shouldn’t, his lungs heaving and hurting with every single breath. The all too familiar taste of copper started sliding through his teeth after a painful cough showed him his own blood, now spattered on the floor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Falken tried to get up, but the pain was too much. Lying face down in a pool of his own blood was not new to him. The streets of Waterdeep were ruthless and unforgiving if you didn’t know how to take care of yourself. Thugs, guards, people bigger and stronger than you in general, always found a way to remind you of your place. More often than not, your place was between the sole of their boot and the ground. He had learned to avoid these situations, to sneak away from people bigger than him, usually taking something of theirs with him as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This time he had messed up. He ran through all the reasons why the trap, the annoyingly simple trap, had sprung; however, as much as he thought about it, he couldn’t change the fact the trap had sprung, and now he was losing blood, fast. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">His arms and legs were responding but the pain in his chest was too much to get up and move, so he started crawling towards the corridor’s wall, scraping across the stone floor. With some effort he sat upright against the wall and looked left and right, trying to weigh his options. His friends were still waiting for him downstairs, he could try and crawl his way down the stairs, it was just 4 stories down until he reached the Rookery. He wasn’t sure he would not kill himself going down those stairs, but it was the best chance at he had.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That’s when he heard footsteps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For a second he thought there was only one set of footsteps, then he heard two, three, a whole group of people were getting up from their barracks and clattering around, probably alerted by the loud sound of the battering ram that had hit him. The trap was probably rigged to sound off some sort of alarm in a separate room in the tower as well. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Falken closed his eyes and held in a painful groan. That was it… the trap was made to seem simple so whoever looked at it would think it was easy enough to disarm, when in fact the trap was a more complex mechanism, made to disable whoever was picking the lock and to alert any nearby guards. Now he could barely move, was bleeding internally and externally, and would be a very easy mark to track down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“If I wasn’t sturdy enough I could be a very nice wall decoration by now” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Falken closed his eyes, let out a small painful chuckle, coughed up some more blood and tilted his head back against the wall. He clutched one of the daggers he was using to pick the lock, held it against his chest and gritted his teeth. If this was it… he might as well go down fighting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The footsteps got closer, Falken tightened his grip on the dagger and his breathing got faster. His eyesight was failing him now, he felt dizzy, and his eyes were getting foggy, everything looked white and just as suddenly as the battering ram hit him, he felt himself slip away into a cold sleep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The fog surrounded Falken’s body and obscured the whole corridor, as Lauren entered and almost tripped over the boy’s body. She had heard the boy’s grunts as she was going up the stairs, but she also caught the sound of footsteps coming from above. Thinking fast she concentrated on the air’s moisture and added some of her own body’s water to it, creating a thick cold fog in the corridor where she presumed Falken would be. If the guards would come in she would at least have a few extra seconds to try and help the kid before they were spotted. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She had to fight her urge to audibly gasp when she finally saw Falken bloodied on the floor. She checked for a pulse and placed her cheek next to his mouth to see if he was breathing. After a second that seemed like an eternity she could feel the warm wisp of his breath on her face. Choking back her tears she placed her hand on his chest and spoke to the water spirits in the fog, and within herself to channel enough energy to bring the boy back from the brink of death. His bones started to realign themselves and the internal wounds slowly began to close. The loud footsteps startled her for a moment and broke her concentration. They were heavy, unusually thick and loud.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Goliath stood behind her squinting through the fog<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Lauren? Is Damian with you?”</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-7680310212498171152017-07-06T11:57:00.000-05:002017-07-06T11:57:47.132-05:00The Feathergale Spire - Stories from the campfire part 2<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As they left Summit Hall on that morning Falken kept
checking that every single one of his possessions was where it was supposed to
be. Last time they had spent a night among unknown armed forces they ended up
flying (or falling) down a deep canyon full of rocks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Hey kid, did you lose something?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Falken turned to Damian and gave him a playful smile.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“No, but I believe you did.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He showed Damian him one of his own daggers. It was actually
the one the Sorcerer kept hidden most of the time. Damian gave a snort and a
laugh while giving the boy an approving look.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Well look at that. Last time someone took this dagger away
from me, the one who did it had to sleep with me the night before and get me
drunk as well… good job kid, keep those eyes sharp.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Falken smiled and tossed the dagger over to Damian. He
remembered that night well. He had lowered his guard just as much as the
tiefling had… and would come to regret it as much as every one of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica neue, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">~ *** ~</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Feathergale Spire was a white tower that went up for
what it seemed to be miles and miles up into the sky, as if signifying the desire
of the cultists that inhabited it to reach the heavens and attain some sort of enlightenment
from a higher power.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To Damian it was just very pretentious architecture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The last time they had been here they came asking for
information on the missing Mirabar caravan, and shared their stories with the
cultists. They took them in, shared bread and salt with them, invited them to
partake in a glorious Manticore hunt where they fought alongside them and
brought down two of the beasts, and then they continued to celebrate their
deeds for the rest of that night. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Then on the morning of the next day, they woke up, their
hands tied, taken hostage by the very people they feasted with, and in Damian’s
case, shared a bed with, the night before. Thulls, the captain of the “Sky
Knights” as these cultists called themselves, informed them that they would be
offered as a tribute to the Spirit of air. Helmdorn challenged Thulls to a
sword fight to the death in exchange for their freedom and their equipment.
Thulls simply laughed, and then had his henchmen throw them off the top of the
Spire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To Helmdorn they were pretentious pricks with no honor
whatsoever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A group of friendly Aaracockras had picked them up as they
fell, bringing them to a safe place. That was when they realized their friend
Draupnir had injured his neck when they caught him mid-air, and was now in a
catatonic state. After much deliberation, the group of adventurers had to take
the decision to… end his life themselves, and give him a proper burial instead
of leaving him out there for the wild beasts to take him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Shieldbuster now saw them as the ones who forced him to kill
his friend. Pretentious murdering pricks who would taste death at the end of
his blade.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A few nights later they had come back to the spire under the
cover of night to recover their equipment and exact vengeance on these fools,
or at least make sure they rued the day their paths crossed. As of now they had
managed to climb up to the level where the cultists kept their flying mounts’ roost.
The air cultists had a great deal of Flying creatures which they had domesticated
in order to serve them as mounts, most of them being griffons, large magical beasts with the head and wings of an eagle and
the body of a lion, and giant vultures
way larger than those you would encounter out in the wild. They managed to get
in and have Lauren befriend one of the giant vultures with her druidic arts.
The easy part was over. From now on, stealth was going to be absolutely
necessary. So Falken was sent ahead to scout the floor where the cultists’ armory
was located. Lauren, Shieldbuster, Helmdorn and Damian stayed behind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As time passed, the minutes turned into hours, and Falken
was still out there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“That’s it, we need to go help him! –Lauren said- What if he
got captured?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Hush!! Lower you voice, I’m trying to think of something
here…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Well Damian you can think all you want… I’m going after him”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The druid got up, left the Vulture’s roost and went down the
stairs to go after the kid. Lauren had taken a liking to this kid, and had become very protective of him ever since they started to travel together, and she was not going to let him die at the hands of some pretentious murdering fools who thought they could command the forces of nature by killing innocents and offering them to some spirit in the sky, or some such nonsense. Nature was all about balance, and this construction... this temple was just another slight against nature that put everything out of balance. She would not stand for it... her very skin crawled every time she saw depictions of the sacrificial rituals on the halls of the Spire, and she shuddered as she thought about what they would do to the boy once... or if they found him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Those two are going to be the death of us…Shieldbuster, I’m
going up to see what I can find, you stay here with Helmdorn and work on an
escape plan”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Helmdorn and Shieldbuster looked back at Damian with a pair of puzzled
looks and said exactly what they were thinking at the same time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Escape Plan?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They were pretty high up and the chances
of navigating through the spire were minimal, so coming up with an escape plan in
these conditions was a daunting task to say the least.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Look, just try to find out a way to get us out of here ok?
I need to go down there and make sure they don’t wake the guards”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And with that, Damian left. Hoping that this visit to the Feathergale
Spire would end up significantly less disastrous than their last.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On a floor right below the vulture’s roost, Falken had
managed to slip past a couple of sleepy guards and into a room that seemed to be
the cultist’s armory. Several suits of armor hung on some wooden busts, and an
array of martial and simple weapons had been collected into a couple of barrels
to the left and right of the room. If his eyes did not deceive him, and they usually didn’t, their equipment should be stashed away from the cultist’s regular
equipment… now there was only one thing keeping him from his goal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A simple lock, with a simple trap.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Back in Waterdeep he used to pick locks like this at least
once a week. He wasn’t trespassing, he just removed obstacles from his way in
order to survive. Survival usually meant “appropriating” food that he could not
afford for himself. Merchants never really appreciated the way he spirited away
their goods so the locks on their warehouses got more and more complex. Other
street kids that did not have his skills were a lot less fortunate than him, so
he always tried to help them out whenever he could, but if he needed it more
than someone else, then it was his for the taking. The kid was talented like
few, had a keen eye for detail, nimble hands and was quick on his feet. However,
picking a lock without sounding off the alarm, moving in, taking the goods,
then exiting and leaving the door with no trace of having picked the lock… THAT, was something you learned. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And His teacher taught him well<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This one was a simple one though, a simple lock with a
simple trap that would activate through a spring mechanism built into the lock.
If you did not have they key and tried to open the lock, the trap would trigger
and bad things would happen. This, of course, meant nothing for someone with
Falken’s skills. He just needed to put in the pin and hook from his tool kit
and twist a bit until the lock opened, all while keeping the spring mechanism
from going off.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That is, if he HAD his tool kit with him. Right now his tool
kit was somewhere behind this very door, and he was using two daggers to open
the lock. A simple lock. With a simple trap.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">*click*</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-47653214984219115142017-07-04T09:15:00.000-05:002017-07-04T12:41:15.064-05:00Music and storytelling - Iron Maiden's Dance of Death<div class="MsoNormal">
As I’ve noted several times before in this blog, I love bards. Mainly because they use music and poetry to produce magical effects. Out of all the forms of magic used in fantasy RPGs, this is the most relatable one to me. Music is a very real thing, it causes people to feel a certain way, and in some cases, it also moves people to do things. It tells the tale of things that were, are and will be, and in the right hands, music can both silence millions and make those same millions erupt into a myriad of emotions.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Now, when it comes to storytelling through music, there are few artists as skilled as the respectable gentlemen from the heavy metal group, Iron Maiden. The storytelling they employ in most of their songs (often inspired by actual literary works) is truly inspiring. So, as promised in the title of this piece, here’s what I find so inspiring about Iron Maiden, and their storytelling through music.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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*insert musical montage, lots of hair, spandex, spikes, and guitars but also bass… lots of bass and Nico on drums*<o:p></o:p><br />
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Iron Maiden is Heavy Metal. No offense to the many other bands that identify themselves with this type of music, but Iron Maiden pretty much defines the genre. Lots of guitar work, amazing vocal range, powerful rhythm sequences which combined produce songs that feel truly epic in their feel and composition. In the 42 years they have been active, they have produced a grand total of 16 (read: SIXTEEN) albums, and are still touring around the world, giving their fans some of the most exciting live concert experiences ever.<o:p></o:p><br />
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Having recorded sixteen albums means there are over a hundred songs to look at, and doing so would probably take years and make me eligible for a Ph.D. So instead of that, I’ll focus on one song that I think will be easy to use in order to get my point across. So I present to you, a step by step analisys of the title track of Iron Maiden's 2003 album, "Dance of Death. Here's the link to the song, so you can listen to it while you read.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SyRHeyFdl0I/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SyRHeyFdl0I?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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Any good story has five parts: a hook, a buildup to a climax, the climax, the falling action, and conclusion. So, in that order...<br />
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"Let me tell you a story to chill the bones, about a thing that I saw...One night wandering in the everglades... I had one drink, but no more..."<br />
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The song starts with a slow, clean guitar riff that gives us the idea that what we're about to hear is both intriguing and mysterious, Bruce (the vocalist) matches this mood by almost whispering the first few lines of the song. You can imagine yourself listening to this nameless narrator, sitting around a campfire, having had more than one drink yourself... 50 seconds into the song and you have successfully been hooked into the story.<br />
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The buildup to the climax, or "rising action" has the narrator tell us how he was assailed by unknown figures in the forest, then led to a place where he was induced into a form of astral projection. His spirit is then lifted into the air, as he watches his own body dance with these figures, he now recognizes as Undead creatures "ascended from Hell". The music throughout this second part contains a steady drum beat, synthesizer generated string choruses that slowly take us away from that initial introductory guitar riff and build towards a halt in the music that leaves us wondering "wait, is that it? what happened then? did he survive?"<br />
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What comes next is an absolute explosion of rhythm and music when the song changes gears and dances (pun intended) wildly off into the climax of the story and song, by employing a melody that evokes images of pagan rituals and bonfires. Our narrator tells us how both he and his spirit were dancing wildly in, around and above a firepit until they were re-joined. He then keeps dancing and is joined by the others until he comes back to his senses, takes advantage of a small skirmish and makes a run for it.<br />
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In the falling action, there is very little to no text, however; it is in this part of the song that one hears Iron Maiden's iconic use of simple riffs that, when played live, results in thousands of fans singing along with the melody of the song. Gers, Smith, and Murray take their turns soloing while Harris lays the foundation of the song, taking us into another shift in rhythm, back to the slow paced crawl at the start of the song.<br />
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"To this day, I guess I'll never know, just why they let me go. But I'll never go dancing no more... 'till I dance with the dead..."<br />
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In the conclusion, our narrator finishes his enthralling story will a foreboding sense of doom for himself. He feels as if they could have kept him there just as easily as they caught him in the first place. And the experience has left him marked for life, so much so, that he knows that on the last day of his life, he will join the dance of death once again.<br />
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This song is an absolute thrill to listen to. It tells you a very exciting story and holds your attention with both sound and text, managing to transport your mind to a place where you've (probably... hopefully) never been. So many emotions are passed through the melody of the song. Fear, excitement, exhilaration, all of these in 8 minutes of a song that doesn't feel as long as that thanks to great storytelling.<br />
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Iron Maiden inspires me to write stories of my own. I hope you enjoyed reading while I gushed about one of my favorite bands of all time. If you feel like this is something you would enjoy listening to, there are sixteen albums to choose from, but my personal favorites are <b>"Seventh Son of a Seventh Son"</b>, <b>"Powerslave"</b>, and <b>"Piece of Mind"</b>. "Seventh Son" is actually a whole album telling one overarching story. It is quite possibly the best Heavy Metal album ever written.<br />
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Thank you for reading, I look forward to telling you a story one of these days.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-42612638440698287222016-06-28T12:07:00.001-05:002016-06-28T12:10:36.594-05:00Pintas y Dados - El podcast<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Una de las
cosas más gratificantes de ser un Dungeon Master es ver como toda la
preparación previa al juego resulta en una historia divertida y asombrosa a la
hora de jugar. El proceso que cada DM sigue para prepararse y escribir la
historia antes de contarla difiere de DM a DM. A algunos nos gusta improvisar,
a otros nos gusta planear todos y cada uno de los puntos de la historia, otros
lo planean pero dejan que la decisión dependa de una tirada de dados… En fin,
todos tenemos nuestro “librito” que seguimos a la hora de correr nuestros
juegos.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Por otro lado, una de las
cosas más gratificantes de ser un jugador de DnD, es que tu Dungeon Master no
te mate.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>HAH!!</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pero no hay
nada mejor que encontrarse con tus amigos luego de un juego y hablar sobre lo
cool que fue el juego, o las diferentes formas en las que podemos correr otro
juego la próxima vez que nos toque ser DM.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Con esto en
mente, dos amigos y yo nos pusimos de acuerdo para crear “Pintas y Dados”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pintas y
dados, el podcast, es básicamente una ventana en la que Fernando, Moisés y yo
les hablaremos sobre varios aspectos de nuestro hobby favorito: Los juegos de
Rol. Hablaremos de Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Fate, Numenera, Legend
of the 5 rings, y muchos otros sistemas de juego, mientras comentamos sobre los
monstruos, las reglas, las historias y las ideas que pasan por nuestras mentes
a la hora de preparar una sesión de juego. Todo esto mientras nos tomamos una
que otra pinta :) .<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Además de
esto, con la ayuda de nuestro grupo de amigos, grabamos varios juegos de rol
que presentaremos como una historia en episodios. Así como cuando nuestros padres
escuchaban radionovelas? bueno, así mismo solo que con nerdos, dados, sin
guiones, y un humor mucho más cuestionable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">El día de
mañana (29 de Junio) presentaremos nuestro primer episodio, gracias a nuestros
amigos de Patacoins, ustedes, mis muy estimados lectores, podrán encontrar el
podcast en el sitio de patacoinstv.com y así también en iTunes y cualquier
aplicación de podcasts en Android (yo uso Podcast Republic, es gratis, soy
pobre)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">También si
tienen alguna pregunta, o algún tema que les gustaría que comentemos en el
podcast nos pueden escribir a <a href="mailto:pintasydados@gmail.com">pintasydados@gmail.com</a>,
o encontrarnos en twitter como <b>@Pintas_y_Dados</b> y en Instagram como <b>pintasydados</b>.
En un futuro grabaremos un capítulo con sus preguntas y comentarios, asi que envíennos todas las ideas que quieran escuchar en el podcast!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Estamos muy
entusiasmados con este proyecto y esperamos que les guste lo que tenemos
preparado para ustedes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cheers!</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Julio</span></span></div>
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<span lang="ES-PA"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm-fw2h-x4WwYR-bomsl7TRAvIcAyTMl91JikrOD6csQWKJxybNtYwG0k92C-1PCa_eps8y_wxWX-f8YxOffSyt-9N2gFUpJVNf16ZPXHpcDEbjopgQ03hlg8wygCTuK06FhA7f1X2Tg/s1600/Pintas+y+dados.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm-fw2h-x4WwYR-bomsl7TRAvIcAyTMl91JikrOD6csQWKJxybNtYwG0k92C-1PCa_eps8y_wxWX-f8YxOffSyt-9N2gFUpJVNf16ZPXHpcDEbjopgQ03hlg8wygCTuK06FhA7f1X2Tg/s320/Pintas+y+dados.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-81929251457557599422016-05-17T20:11:00.000-05:002016-05-17T20:11:08.037-05:00G.I.F.T.E.D.<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>It started with an accident, as many of these stories do…</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a rainy night and the bus was full of people. The
driver had taken an extra shift, those new school books weren’t going to pay
for themselves after all, so he needed to put in all the extra hours he could…
He needed to provide, he had to give his son a proper education and make sure
he’d never have to work graveyard shifts like his old man…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The truck hit him out of nowhere… in just a few seconds he
wondered if he had passed a red light, had he fallen asleep on the wheel? or
maybe the other driver had, he wasn’t sure. The horrified screams of his
passengers mingled with his own as he thought about his son and his dog, who
were the only family he had left. The bus bounced on its side and he felt one
of his ribs crack under his own weight on the safety belt of his seat, it
tumbled twice and just as it seemed it would hit the side of a building… it
stopped.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was as if all of the impulse behind the rolling bus had
simply come to a halt, the driver, who was bracing himself for a big impact,
slowly opened his eyes, and to his amazement, the bus seemed to be floating in midair,
suspended by an eerie light that seemed to glow with a violet aura. Not only was
the bus suspended in midair… but also the shattered glass, the passengers’ bags,
and the passengers themselves were suspended as if gravity had sort of
forgotten about them. The driver, now breathing heavily sat still for a moment,
not knowing what to do, until he finally tried looking at his rearview mirror.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Floating amongst the debris and the injured passengers, a
little girl with a bowl cut, a purple flower dress and mismatched sneakers was shaking
and sobbing. Her eyes glowed with a light that matched the color of the energy
that seemed to be holding up the bus and its passengers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"W… wha… what’s happening? I… where’s my momma?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The media were all over the news like rats on peanut butter,
trying to find out who the girl was, where she lived, why her mom had taken her
away from her father’s home that night, and how she had managed to develop what
they were now calling a *gift*. After a few days of open harassment by the
press and the public, the girl and her mom were accepted into a variation of
the “witness protection program”. This government-appointed program was later
dubbed the “Gifted Individuals Protection Service” or GIPS. As if acting on a
chain reaction, many cases of “gifted” people, mostly children, began appearing
in cities all over the country, seemingly without a clear reason and with
abilities that ranged from the seemingly harmless to others that could constitute
a sizable threat to the world’s population if left unchecked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As time passed, these individuals and their families started
asking for a chance to re-insert themselves into normal life.
They weren’t asking for any type of special treatment, just a chance to have a life outside the walls of the pseudo-prison they were living in. After much deliberation the
central government appointed a task force, dubbing it the Gifted Individuals
Federal Training and Education Department, G.I.F.T.E.D. they would oversee the development of a network of facilities around the country, one in each major city, where they would train and supervise gifted people's actions so as to better assess a way in which these individuals could contribute to society's advancement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As time passed the Department served to help these gifted
individuals to find their place in society either by giving them jobs that
suited their special abilities, or by helping law enforcement deal with others
who used their powers to break the law. Not everyone who found themselves
gifted with superhuman abilities accepted to be taken into G.I.F.T.E.D., and
some of those who did not find themselves the recipient of a “gift” took up the
vigilante mantle anyway, each having their own reasons to fight crime in their
own way. Some of these “superior individuals” have been known to work alongside
with the members of G.I.F.T.E.D. Their work, however, is not recognized as
official.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As of today you find yourself assigned to the city of Westfall,
a place where the police finds itself constantly outnumbered by street gangs
and the gifted villains who run them. The city council finally agreed to
approve a sizeable part of its budget in order to bring in some help from G.I.F.T.E.D.
in hopes of lowering the city’s crime rate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You now stand in front of the greatest challenge you've ever had in your entire life...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will you make a name for yourself as one of the greatest
heroes of all time? Or will you fail to leave your mark, like many others
before you?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Roll the dice and see what FATE has in store for you!</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-1695515907070353762015-09-25T15:13:00.004-05:002015-09-26T09:49:58.551-05:00A daughter's duty - Story time<div class="MsoNormal">
Toku Akiko was born in the fall of the third year after the
Naishou dispute that left the Monkey clan and the Crane clan as rulers of the
province. Her birth, just like her older sister’s was met with joyous
celebration as is customary of the Monkey clan. Toku Uryo, Naishou’s daimyo and
Fuzake Nabiki, the spiritual leader of the region had traveled along with their
most trusted Samurai and family members to the nearest temple of Toku, the
fortune of Virtue and founder of their clan. She was presented to their
ancestor in a great celebration so as to show Toku that their clan was still
growing strong.<o:p></o:p></div>
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From a very young age it was very apparent that if Sumiko took
after her mother, Akiko was every bit her father’s daughter. Always running
around the house, always causing trouble. She would constantly ask her father
to teach her how to wield a sword, to which Uryo would only laugh at first.
Though he eventually gave in and let her practice with the same wooden swords
that he once used to spar with her uncle Gorobei. She was a very beautiful girl
with long black hair (which was usually full of twigs and mud) a skin that
resembled more that of her father, slightly darker than her mother’s, and two
big grey eyes that were always full of joy, wonder, and most of all… mischief.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As time passed and the relations with the crane began to
deteriorate, Uryo decided that it was time to have his family make some
connections outside of Naishou. During the Naishou tournament Uryo had competed
against Isawa Daisuke of the Phoenix clan, and though he lost the duel, he
earned his respect. As Akiko reached the age a child would normally be sent to
attend a school within her own clan, he used his friendship with Daisuke, his
own political contacts and Gorobei’s influence in the Imperial court to have
Akiko sent to the Phoenix lands to study in the Shiba Bushi school. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The day before she left, Uryo took her into the inner garden
of Toshi no Naishou and sat with her in the small gazebo in the center of the
garden. He mentioned what little he knew about the Phoenix lands, about the
Isawa Mori, the forest that was veiled in mistery and legend, the Phoenix Mountains
known for the many temples housed within. He told her about Kyuden Isawa the
Palace of the Phoenix clan, and Shiro Shiba, the castle where she would be
spending most of her time. Uryo went through the different ceremonies she would
have to go through once she reached phoenix lands. Akiko did not understand half
of them, and the other half sounded just plain stupid, but she would obey. <o:p></o:p></div>
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After a good hour of going through all of these things Uryo
fell silent. He had never been good at keeping up the face of a Samurai, which
is probably why he kept her uncle Gorobei close at all times when they needed
to handle political matters. His eyes, usually very calm and happy, were now very
sad and his face looked tired, and burdened. <o:p></o:p></div>
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“Akiko, my dear child, I want you to be strong… the coming
years will be hard, I won’t lie to you… everything will seem to be working
against you on every turn… you will be singled out as an outcast and be constantly
reminded of your name and family. But I want you to remember these words and
keep them close to you… “<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Courtesy, Courage<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Honor, compassion<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sincerity, and Duty.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Be Courteous to everyone, no matter who it is. Be courageous…
Our clan was founded by a farmer who took up a sword and fought not because he
wanted glory, but because it was the right thing to do. Honor is part of our
lives and as such you must always be mindful of your actions, since you
represent not only you, or your family, but our whole clan. Be compassionate… Samurai
are of higher stature than the Bonge, but this only means that you are charged
with protecting them, so care for them, and keep them from harm. Be sincere,
both in how you speak and how you act, for this shall reflect on your honor.
Keep your Duty in mind. Our clan is small, but strong, and we uphold the values
of justice and peace in Rokugan. Our duty is to keep the legacy of Toku alive
through our deeds”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Her father spoke with a passion she had never witnessed
before, yet when he came to the end of it, when he talked about Duty, tears
started running down his eyes. His face was shaking and his hands were grasping
the cloth of the kimono around his knees.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Akiko was wide-eyed and gasping for a moment. She then
quickly looked at the ground for a moment as if to give her father a moment to
regain his composure. A long silence was broken by a skittering monkey on one
of the garden trees. Akiko then spoke, her eyes still looking at the ground…<o:p></o:p></div>
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“Father?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A longer silence followed, giving Akiko a very uneasy
feeling.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Dad?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Before she could look up again, Uryo’s arms were already
around her as her father’s embrace took her in. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“You are strong… you mother and I are very proud of you. The
challenges that lie ahead are difficult, but you will prevail… such is the way
of the monkey”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She did not know that at the time, but this was but the
first step in an elaborate plan by her family to close ties with one of Rokugan’s
most powerful families. Her parents had spent a sizeable amount of resources
and political favors to have her become betrothed to a member of the Isawa
family, and to have her enlisted in the Shiba Bushi school.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Akiko said goodbye to her parents the day after that,
receiving a parting gift from each of them. Her mother gave her an Obi with
embroidered cherries, which she would use with her dress kimono, and her father
gave her a small white handkerchief that had a scent very much like the flowers
that grew around the gardens. It had been a gift from an old friend to her
father in his traveling swordsman days. He also gave her a straw hat, way too big for her at her current size. When she asked what it meant, Uryo simply said </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br></div><div class="MsoNormal">"That hat belonged to Doji Hakusho, one of the most skilled Iaijutsu masters I have ever had the Honor of meeting. Our relations with the Crane are very delicate at the moment, and I need you to remember that your father once had a friend amongst the Crane"</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She hated the idea of leaving her home. She hated the idea
of leaving her parents, her friends, her older sister and her little brother
Yoshiro. But she also understood that from now on everything she did would be in
representation of the monkey clan… nay… of the Uryo Family. She was to become a
Samurai like her father and mother before her. She would overcome whatever task
they set before her and fulfill her duty.<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-29496719146022486522015-09-24T16:09:00.001-05:002015-09-24T16:09:24.279-05:00The fine line between challenging and impossible - DM THOUGHTS<div class="MsoNormal">
Ever had a game of DnD where your Dungeon Master seems to be
out to kill you no matter what?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First round: Everyone’s surprised, the enemy spellcaster
casts Hold person on both the fighter and the cleric. Don't question it, he just does. The rogue suddenly
realizes he is in a place with absolutely NO place to hide or run to. The enemy
hard hitter hits the mage for infinity hit points of damage and kills him. Now
it’s the party’s turn, but the rogue now has a mage down, a Cleric and a
Fighter on hold for 7 to 10 business days, and a mage, two Barbarians, and a
pack of wolves on top of him.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdQuPugUJa1hfciVA2ddVbIc7r5fpYGJ4A1PDVTwpwyxw0B2md75IfIzXXrTn4q4Wx0c2kkXvpZ5kkLWr8JQle7JArsB_nRVK3IcKdBM6AwdUtsc8U26nxnXv7LQ9frY35TxuUgwv0Lw/s1600/357bc05b23b0807e60a3bea3cd6f02c2a8d7f7b658678d7a8617be9dd64777a5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdQuPugUJa1hfciVA2ddVbIc7r5fpYGJ4A1PDVTwpwyxw0B2md75IfIzXXrTn4q4Wx0c2kkXvpZ5kkLWr8JQle7JArsB_nRVK3IcKdBM6AwdUtsc8U26nxnXv7LQ9frY35TxuUgwv0Lw/s1600/357bc05b23b0807e60a3bea3cd6f02c2a8d7f7b658678d7a8617be9dd64777a5.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't be this douchebag...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
Another (less extreme) example</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The players prepare for a Dungeon crawl. They enter the Dungeon and immediately spring a trap. One player fails his reflex check and dies. The other three continue and enter a room with a deadly encounter with a vampire. Just as the name of the encounter suggests it, another player dies. The remaining two decide to exit the dungeon for now, and return with a different approach and two other companions. Just as they start to leave, the doors close and water starts to flood the room. 2 rounds later they are drowning, and a few failed Constitution checks later, it's a TPK.</div>
<div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHZc5aHAdjJbCZxP_gBnKB1oZudTaR_BxSe9hiyvhsTlhh66zzXPUsNA4IMzuP_rm4o26A_slQhBr2cW-f98UMYx7VVNKtmIDa3vsuoezVdHweRvbF0ueneGvMuWhU84IzPZMfa7_-8g/s1600/ahole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHZc5aHAdjJbCZxP_gBnKB1oZudTaR_BxSe9hiyvhsTlhh66zzXPUsNA4IMzuP_rm4o26A_slQhBr2cW-f98UMYx7VVNKtmIDa3vsuoezVdHweRvbF0ueneGvMuWhU84IzPZMfa7_-8g/s320/ahole.jpg" width="283" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ugh... why?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
The first thing that comes to mind when a DM sets his players up for failure like this, is "Why would he do that?".</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
- Players were getting cocky, the DM needed to show them that death was very possible.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
- Nobody likes an easy game.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
- Encounters are meant to be challenging<br />
<br />
- I don't want to make it easy on them, my games are always hard.</div>
<br />
These are ALL valid reasons to make a game harder, more difficult, or more challenging. However there is a fine line between making it challenging and making it impossible. Encounters should be challenging to keep your game interesting and your players awake. However, once you start throwing deadly encounter after deadly encounter, eventually one of them will die, and will probably resent the fact that you seemed to be trying to kill them from the beginning.<br />
<br />
As a DM, one should be mindful of this balance, after all the idea behind a roleplaying game is to defeat an objective using everyone's abilities in creative ways. You do this while playing what is essentially a part in a story. you, the DM, are ALSO playing a part in that story. However you get to play everyone else in the world. and here's where you need to make a distinction.<br />
<br />
It's not a game of "the players vs the DM".<br />
<br />
The moment you start seeing the players as your enemies, it will be easier for you to start enjoying it every time you put an impossible obstacle in front of them, because then you "win". And where's the fun in that?<br />
<br />
Yeah, I know... it's pretty sweet...but hear me out<br />
<br />
There's just one DM and at least 3 or 4 players. If in the end you're the only one having fun at the table, then you have failed to make it entertaining for the majority of those at your table. This eventually leads to players asking themselves why they are doing this in the first place... subjecting themselves to hours of frustration just so YOU can have a laugh everytime they fail, and once they realize they don't like it, they leave and stop going to your games.. So how do you avoid this?<br />
<br />
Try this: the players are not your enemies, see them as your allies. Sure, you're the one who places the problems in front of them, and you probably have an idea of how they could overcome that problem. S use that in your advantage. Your attitude should be "Ok guys here's the situation, how are we going to move the story forward?". If they give you ideas that are creative and inventive, then reward them with a positive outcome and move the story forward. It's a lot more fun to do this than just throw in a random no-win scenario and have them all die.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
This does not mean that there should not be any impossible tasks in your world. A level 1 party that stumbles upon a dragon's hoard should be very aware of the fact that they are in for an almost guaranteed death if the dragon finds them. This is common sense. But placing nothing but extremely hard or near-impossible tasks between the players and their ultimate goal will get boring for them really fast.<br />
<br />
So in conclusion, keep your games balanced, give your players the opportunities to shine and solve the problems in front of them. Don't go easy on them. And don't go out of your way to make their lives miserable either. Balance. Balance is everything.<br />
<br />
Thanks for reading!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-39696284673778377432015-09-22T16:00:00.000-05:002015-09-22T16:00:04.876-05:00Edge of The Empire - Dice head Review<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good
blaster at your side kid…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you think “Star Wars” most people think about, Luke
Skywalker, Darth Vader, Yoda, Obi Wan Kenobi… You know, the guys who have lightsabers
and gtheir mastery of the force could, in theory, kill anyone with a mere
thought.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, there’s also Han Solo, Chewie, Lando Calrissian, The
Millenium Falcon, Bobba Fett, the scum of the galaxy, the Hutts, the Black Sun
syndicate, Mos Eisley, Ryloth, the lower levels of Coruscant. The dark gritty
side of the Star Wars Galaxy is just as big as the more flashy force-wielding
side of it, and there are so many ways in which one could run an RPG adventure
in a setting like that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So <span style="color: #0b5394;">a long time ago, in a Galaxy far far away</span> (In the 2000s),
Wizards of the Coast owned the license for all Star Wars Collectible card and
roleplaying games. Their license expired in 2010, and they declined to renew
it. In comes Fantasy Flight games, doing what they do best, and pick up the
Star Wars License from Lucasfilm Ltd. 2 years, a card game and a miniature game
later, Fantasy Flight releases the first Game in the three part series of games
that would comprise the <i>Fantasy Flight Star
Wars roleplaying game, Star Wars: Edge of the Empire.</i> Since then, another
two games have been released, “Age of rebellion”, and “Force and Destiny”, to
complete the “Trilogy” of Star Wars roleplaying games.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These three games, although separate from each other, are
designed to be able to play using the rules from all 3 books. Today, we’ll be
looking at the first and, for now, my favorite one:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhogPwURAGgiOlkoJOK7o1E7_STplAM12s5DQOdYuXb_cWI_VUkgVnPxPl9yd05lsmu1oCwS2lanGyImNXnd5db0rnMIMdMnosobgYZpxKHNA8hJethCrKL_PSRKP0H4k5VLDIYUTglVA/s1600/Title.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhogPwURAGgiOlkoJOK7o1E7_STplAM12s5DQOdYuXb_cWI_VUkgVnPxPl9yd05lsmu1oCwS2lanGyImNXnd5db0rnMIMdMnosobgYZpxKHNA8hJethCrKL_PSRKP0H4k5VLDIYUTglVA/s400/Title.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CONTENTS:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have the Beginners’ game and the Core Rulebook for Edge of
the Empire [EoTE]. The Beginner’s guide includes a set of Roleplaying dice (I’ll
talk more about those later) 4 character folios, a quick introductory
adventure, a summarized rulebook and some adventure supplements like a
two-sided map, and some placeholders for your characters and the other NPCs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Core Rulebook has a much more complete and detailed
version of the rules of the game. It gives you a brief overview on what it means to play on the Edge of the Empire, and the tone and feel of the adventures played with this system. It has a very extensive character creation chapter, then a chapter about the equipment, the ships you will be using, and other very important aspects of running the game, such as a description of the most prominent worlds on the outer rim of the Galaxy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In addition to that, there is a whole chapter dedicated to the different factions of the Galaxy, such as the Hutt cartel, the Black Sun Syndicate, and obviously the Empire and the Rebel alliance. Since you're playing people who are the thugs, smugglers, hot-shot pilots and bounty hunters of the galaxy, it's pretty cool to see all of the oportunities you might have by working for or against any of these factions.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last chapters of the book include a chapter on the Force Exile, a class that has a minor connection to the force and somehow survived the great Jedi purge. And a short adventure with everything you need to run it as a GM.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">GAMEPLAY</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Edge of the Empire, just like all of the other Star Wars RPGs by Fantasy Flight, is a heavily narrative game. It uses "Narrative dice" to let you know whether you succeed or not in doing an action, and whether doing said action gave you an advantage or disadvantage in play.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKpwa9I7NUfx8WSrSLFhRFOqNN8ipmd82zFWUKvmDbjbvaMQRh4KwFGhKnBU6iF3_ApskLgH_RkASAwfEpo4Gh-L_sHN6CP0iU_RlTOHyhPSsC6yC8zrasWfzFtgvA6s020AWWvUNTGg/s1600/Dice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKpwa9I7NUfx8WSrSLFhRFOqNN8ipmd82zFWUKvmDbjbvaMQRh4KwFGhKnBU6iF3_ApskLgH_RkASAwfEpo4Gh-L_sHN6CP0iU_RlTOHyhPSsC6yC8zrasWfzFtgvA6s020AWWvUNTGg/s320/Dice.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you decide you want to do an action you start by assembling your dice pool. Let's assume you're making a computers check in order to slice (*Hack* in Star Wars lingo) the security system and open a door. Your character is very Intelligent (her intellect is 3) and has invested some exp in her computers skill. First you take three positive green ability dice to go with her intellect score (3), then you replace two of those with the 2 yellow dice since she has 2 ranks in Computers. These are your positive dice.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now let's say that the security system is average, not too easy, but not too hard to crack. This would be a medium difficulty roll, so we add 2 setback dice (the purple ones). We end up with something like this:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Basically, you roll the dice, and compare how many success and advantage symbols you have, versus how many failure and disadvantage symbols you have, these cancel each other out, and if in the end you have more success symbols left, that means you succeeded!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, the GM could say in this case, that you succeed opening the door, and you did it in such a way that prevents the security system from raising the alarm (that's how you count the advantage symbol). However, it is also possible to succeed with disadvantage though, in which case you would open the door and raise the alarm, giving you less time to move in and do what you need to do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the core mechanic of the game, it makes everything move very smoothly and give the GM a lot of opportunities to add twists and turns to the game's narrative.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Final Thoughts:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I LOVE the Star Wars Universe. Ever since I started playing tabletop RPGs I've wanted to give a Star Wars RPG a try. I was aware of the existence of the Star Wars d20 books, but once I found out they were already out of print, the number of books and supplements was absurdly high, and most important of all, I didn't have a the money to buy all of that :). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fantasy Flight has done a great job translating the feel of a Star Wars story into the basic rules of the game. I feel like the game plays very smoothly, even though learning the rules of the game may take a bit of reading. Also if you've never seen the movies, or are not familiar with the terminology, then it might be a bit difficult to get into the mood of the game. However, if you like Sci-fi settings and Space battles, and laser pistols and big starships, then you will have a good time regardless.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All in all, I think this game is really good. As a Dungeon Master you get TONS of tools to build great stories in the Star Wars Galaxy. You want your characters to go hunting for bounties and compete against the likes of Boba Fett? Make deals with Jabba the Hutt? Explore the lower levels of Coruscant? Steal valuable information from the Empire? mess up the communications array of the Rebel Alliance? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can, and it'll be a blast. But don't take it from me, here's what some friends who got to play with me as a GM have to say about Edge of the Empire.</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #073763;">"Ever wanted to shoot first? this is your game"</span></i><br />
Samuel the Wookie - 2015<br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="color: #073763;">"From the start of the game you immerse yourself in familiar places of the Star Wars Universe, the adventure gets you hooked right from the beginning. The force guides you to complete your objectives and overcome challenges. I recommend it for everyone, even non-star Wars fans"</span></i><br />
Ludwig the smuggler - 2015<br />
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<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #073763;">"The setting is very easy to explain, I liked the starter set with the character folios. It's a very complete game. Although, if you don't know anything about Star Wars you might need a bit of help from your friends who are familiar with the terminologies. But this doesn't stop you from having fun!"</span></i><br />
Krystle, the Medical Droid - 2015<br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And well, this one from my friend Fernando is so well written I'm just going to put it here in Spanish, and hope I don't butcher it when I translate it into English.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>"Muy pocos juegos tratan de enfatizar, realmente, el aspecto de roleplay de los juegos de rol. Ignorando conceptos pre establecidos por juegos como D&D o pathfinder, Edge of the Empire y sus sucesores de enfocan de lleno en los mismos con un juego altamente narrativo, dispuesto para los narradores aventureros que mas que preparar una historia en su mente le permiten a sus jugadores decidir de que manera seguirá la narrativa. Los dados y sus símbolos tomaran un rato en aprenderse, pero una vez todo es explicado se nota una poderosa elegancia y sencillez que deja a muchos otros "juegos de rol" en vergüenza. Con esta generación de juegos de rol con énfasis en narrativas mas aya de donde las espadas golpean las escamas de los enemigos, no esta de mas decir que la fuerza esta al borde del imperio."</i></span></div>
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Now, in english:<br />
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<i><span style="color: #073763;">"Very few games try to really emphasize the roleplaying aspect in a roleplaying game. Ignoring concepts pre-established by games like D&D or Pathfinder, Edge of the Empire and its successors focus fully on roleplaying with a highly narrative-centric game that gives adventurous narrators the opportunity to not just prepare a story in their minds, but also let their players decide how the narrative will progress. The dice and their symbols will take a while to get used to, but once everything has been explained you will see a very powerful elegance and simplicity in the gameplay, which leaves other "Roleplaying" games in shame. With this new generation of roleplaying games, which emphasize narrative beyond swords hitting the scales of our enemies, it's not too much to say that the force, is on the edge of the empire."</span></i><br />
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<a href="http://dulenheim.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Fernando - Bounty Hunter</a><br />
<br /><br />
Beautiful, isn't it?<br />
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<br />
Thanks for reading!<br />
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<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-13017074074459657862015-09-04T17:23:00.000-05:002015-09-04T17:30:17.099-05:00Legend of the 5 Rings - DICE HEAD REVIEW!<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few months ago a friend of mine convinced me to give this
game a try. Basically, as he said, it’s a game where you roleplay as Samurai.
And that was pretty much all I needed to give it a try.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Legend of the Five Rings (often abbreviated L5R) is a
fictional setting created by John Zinser, Dave Seay, Dave Williams, and John
Wick and published by Alderac Entertainment Group in 1995. The setting
primarily involves the fictional empire of Rokugan, though some additional
areas and cultures have been discussed. Rokugan is based roughly on feudal
Japan with influences from other East Asian cultures such as China, Mongolia
and Korea.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZoj18BVMbkSnSmCLMDGLlSpia6TaVeGZSALLjByBwvRJzEITdLueCGi-3gO8sz5nUx0XoCFxB9orjPaPulrSUt5e4EoUQmQRCelfwQ0cIa3i0eDZhXIKBmKuSTogblYsDb-ZEGKNWnA/s1600/l5rlogo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZoj18BVMbkSnSmCLMDGLlSpia6TaVeGZSALLjByBwvRJzEITdLueCGi-3gO8sz5nUx0XoCFxB9orjPaPulrSUt5e4EoUQmQRCelfwQ0cIa3i0eDZhXIKBmKuSTogblYsDb-ZEGKNWnA/s320/l5rlogo.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now that we’ve got the Wikipedia part of the review out of
the way, let’s get into what the game has, how it plays and my general thoughts
about it.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 107%;"><i>"If you see the "half-persons"
-as you call them- like posessions, you should take care of them properly. Will
you leave your wonderful yukata dirty with mud, or would you clean it and make
sure it is anything but perfect?"</i></span><span style="line-height: 107%;"><i><br />
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">-Daidoji
Natsuki</span></i></span></span><b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgavB1MlYIcLMQssfif_iGtg0EoecOhLJywSCdQkV6LIbmiUdRfOVb68p2HXDLD68s2IQIDRxiukvEOedrE99iDMkJ88AvKu8bcCeZ_h9s-FRRz9MnUIM1ZomT5_Uf_NOcINEM1xWubZQ/s1600/Crane.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgavB1MlYIcLMQssfif_iGtg0EoecOhLJywSCdQkV6LIbmiUdRfOVb68p2HXDLD68s2IQIDRxiukvEOedrE99iDMkJ88AvKu8bcCeZ_h9s-FRRz9MnUIM1ZomT5_Uf_NOcINEM1xWubZQ/s400/Crane.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CONTENTS!</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The core rulebook is pretty thick. It has 404 pages and it’s
divided by books titled after the rings referenced in the name of the game.
First there’s an introduction, then there’s the Book of Air, which has about 60
pages full of Lore dealing with How the world was created, how Rokugan (the
name of the setting, like “Greyhawk” or “Faerun”) came to be, the social
classes, everyday rituals, religion, philosophy, Honor, Politics, Economics,
and a very thorough description of the 8 Great Clans of Rokugan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has a METRIC ASS-TON of Lore.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>“<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">I think L5R is a rich role-play game. It is quite
fantastic how simple is to understand it, and though it is fictional, you can make
realistic characters with it.</span>”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>-Elii
Mascarin – Player and Game Master</i></span></span><b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Book of Earth deals with Game mechanics, how to roll
dice, how to read the dice, how combat works, how skill checks are made and how
to deal with certain situations in the game. Even though it’s mostly about
mechanics, this book also has a few lore entries that help the reader to get
immersed into the world of Rokugan. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">“Good game, if you like manners and went to
finishing school! “</span></i><i><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">-Priscilla Shirley - Player</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The book of Fire is all about character creation. In here
you’ll find tools to create your character, like a set of 20 questions to help
you flesh out your character’s background story. Here’s where you choose which
clan your Samurai will belong to, wether he will be a Bushi (warrior) a
Shugenja (Magic user) Courtier (Politician) or a Monk or Ninja. As always, you
should ask your Dungeon Master which one of these fit better in the story. This
chapter goes on to explain how skills work, how spells work, and it gives you
the stats for armor and weapons. It also has lore.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>“Perfect family game, if you want to GET
KILLED FOR DRINKING SAKE, like why, are we kids? And the turning
down gifts three times thing is pretty annoying too. Just give me
my damn gift bruh. The shadowland prowlin' oni slayin' part makes it kind
of worth it, though.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>-Daidouji
Takeru, half-crab half-crane full awesome.</i></span></span><b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Book of Water Talks about advanced mechanics. It has
information on minor clans, Imperial Families, Ronin options, optional systems
like massive battle rules. The Lore in this chapter is also very heavy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then the last
chapter: The book of Void, focuses on tips for Dungeon Masters and gives them a
lot of tools to run a game, like different types of campaigns, how to award
experience points to the players, stats for monsters and nonhuman races. It
also has a complete 30 page adventure that’s ready to run. And of course: LORE LORE LORE LORE LORE LORE!!!</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">“We all want to play as a Samurai in some RPG
in some moment of our lives. It doesnt matter which one we're playing at the
moment there is always that need to wield a Katana. What surprised me about L5R
is that the way the convey the setting to you makes you want to do more than
just become Battousai and slash people. You do cool thinks. </span><span style="font-size: 9.5pt;">For
example, my character, a Crane Clan Courtier by the name of Daidoji Daichi,
would speak in code whenever he wanted...and it was awesome.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Daichi: It would be most imperative to suggest
that the Monkey will soon land upon the branches where the Crane is taking a rest. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Which means, basically, that Monkey
reinforcements are arriving to the Crane clan's camp.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Or something like:<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Daichi: It is known that when choosing between
poisonous enemies, nothing goes past the webs of the Spider...or survive the
venom of the scorpion.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Which can mean multiple things. So, speaking
in code is pretty great. Get this game if you want to go all cryptic on other
players and have them laugh/roll their eyes”<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>-Moises Montero – Player and Dungeon Master</i></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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GAMEPLAY!</h3>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Legend of the 5 rings has very simple gameplay mechanics. If
you want to do something, you determine your level of success by rolling d10s.
You take a bunch of d10s, you throw them, keep the highest number of the roll
and add them up. If your result reaches the Target number (determined by your
DM) you succeed in doing what you want to do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, what determines the amount of d10s you roll? And what
determines the amount of high rolls you get to keep? That’s the not-so-simple
part. Let’s try to give you an example.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rolls are described as <b><i>xky</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>X</b> is the number
of dice you roll, and <b>Y</b> is the
number of dice you keep from that roll. So a roll where you roll 8 and keep 3
would be read as 8k3 or “8 keep 3”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So… You want to hit something with a sword.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The skill required to do so is “Kenjutsu”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You have bought 5 skill points in
Kenjutsu, which is tied to your Agility trait. Until now you’ve spent some
experience points to raise your Agility to 3.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You would add you 5 skill points in
Kenjutsu, to the 3 in Agility, for a total of 8 and you would keep the 3 (from
your Agility) highest dice from your roll.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8k3<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If one or any of your dice land on 0 (meaning you rolled a
10) they “explode”. So you can add 10 to your roll and roll that dice again,
keeping whatever number it lands on. If the dice lands on 0 again, you keep
adding 10 to the roll and rerolling until you stop exploding dice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That is the basic mechanic, but this is pretty much the same
for all types of checks, you take a number of dice, you roll them and keep a
number of dice out of that roll.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Simple right?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eh… no…. I would be lying to you if I said this system felt
simple or in any way intuitive to me. But, as any other game, you learn to roll
your skills a lot faster and more naturally the more you play. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">FINAL THOUGHTS!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Legend of the Five Rings is an RPG setting with a load of
customization options that will make you look at Role Playing Games in a very
different way. As any other setting you can always adapt some of the gameplay
options to fit the type of game you want to run. Do you want a game full of
political intrigue, moral backstabbing (also: literal backstabbing) and sword
duels to the death? L5R has got it. Do you want a game where you slice you
enemies down with your katana, fighting for the honor of your house? L5R has
got that too. Is it the first time you play an RPG, and want to take a swing at
roleplaying with a couple of friends for the first time? Stop right there.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>“SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>-Samuel Gonzalez -
Player</i></span><b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This game might work for you if you have never PLAYED an RPG
before, as long as your Game Master is familiar with the setting. A GM that
knows the intricacies of how the 8 houses interact with each other, and who has
also familiarized him or herself with the oriental cultural aspects that have
been integrated into this setting, is your best bet at running a really awesome
adventure in Rokugan.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you’re a Game Master that has never run a Roleplaying
Game, then you might want to steer away from this one. I would suggest that you
get the Core Rulebook (4<sup>th</sup> Edition) and read it. Then read it again,
and again, and again. Then when you’ve finally learned the details of this game,
read it again. THEN you can run a game in Rokugan. Trust me, it’s in your best interests
to get REALLY immersed in the setting before you run it. It will make it a lot
more fun for you, and most importantly, for your players.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>“If you like Intrigue
and strategy, Legend of the 5 rings will be an enormously satisfying experience
for you.”<br />-Fernando Dolande –
Game Master and player</i></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here’s my absolutely honest opinion, this game is awesome. If
you’re looking for a game that draws inspiration from Oriental culture, and
lets you play as Samurai. Then look no further than Legend of the 5 Rings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-OjUx0ILaxFKx-o-oIBu8iflm6XOw9l6ZdokuIwM5l0uUFHd6DEsxhwtx8UWOSUbj9ztqNUZ9EOIUZghnHHfuM5nXIERtXbv9O9QOnUaaCHM5TGZmOa33hTzj6wNIanM3EO421iSIZQ/s1600/L5R_4Ed_Cover6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-OjUx0ILaxFKx-o-oIBu8iflm6XOw9l6ZdokuIwM5l0uUFHd6DEsxhwtx8UWOSUbj9ztqNUZ9EOIUZghnHHfuM5nXIERtXbv9O9QOnUaaCHM5TGZmOa33hTzj6wNIanM3EO421iSIZQ/s400/L5R_4Ed_Cover6.jpg" width="308" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also did you know they have a Collectible Card game?!?!? Time for a SEQUEL REVIEW!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks for reading</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-77084156496508276732015-09-01T17:37:00.000-05:002015-09-01T17:37:12.728-05:00Fudging Dice - DM Thoughts<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Generally speaking, Roleplaying Games are games where you
don’t necessarily win or lose. You just move the plot further through either
success or failure. There are many plot devices and narrative tools that a DM
can use to move the plot along, some of these can be shared with the players,
others… not so much.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today I’d like to talk to you about “fudging dice rolls”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Example:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Dominic: Ok guys the enemy mage fires a fireball, roll me a
dexterity save.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Patrick: ok… 3<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Vanessa: Ugh… 6<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Jules: I got this… ok, no I don’t…8<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Nataniél: 9… oh wait no… that’s a 6<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><i>Dominic: ok…</i></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At this point Dominic has a choice to make. He can let the
dice fall as they may, and call the full damage of the fireball on his friends.
Or he can roll the dice and give his friends a chance to regroup and mount a
strategy by calling part of the damage rolled by the dice. You might think “But
why would he do this? Dom needs to put his big DM pants on and roll like he
means it” And in a way you’re absolutely right. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, like I’ve said before, D&D are games that
revolve around telling a story, and sometimes you may need to help the story
along. Or you just simply don’t want the story to stop. A couple of bad rolls
on the player’s side, and a couple of good rolls on the DM’s side could end
very quickly on a Total Party Kill (TPK), meaning your players would all need
to get their act together, create new characters, make new backstories, and you
would have to explain how these new characters are filling in for the dead
ones. Depending on the type of game you’re playing this means you might have to
change the story a bit, a lot, or not at all. You might want to fudge the roll
only to keep the current game going. You might also want to see how far these
characters can defy the odds<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, how do you fudge
dice?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjna_-o9Q2-GA2cu5mP9kGp1km46WiYYvczYf1uLcCB5JrfAVx_KXJiHDYE3rhcZe9riS4avVy_T4p1btFMAQvJXiRvC6e-eZ9gcgfYWmtcVdE1O_GdZVakDbL8jJLvG6lW3X2YwzzTeQ/s1600/Dungeon+Master.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjna_-o9Q2-GA2cu5mP9kGp1km46WiYYvczYf1uLcCB5JrfAVx_KXJiHDYE3rhcZe9riS4avVy_T4p1btFMAQvJXiRvC6e-eZ9gcgfYWmtcVdE1O_GdZVakDbL8jJLvG6lW3X2YwzzTeQ/s400/Dungeon+Master.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Words to live by</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You’re the DM and don’t need to give out explanations for
every roll you make, let’s start with that. Also if you don’t want to use a DM
screen then fudging is out of the question. Let’s see how Dominic handles the
situation:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Dominic: Ok… the mage raises his hand, points a finger at
you, and shoots a small bead of fire towards you. You are all unable to react
in time and the fireball explodes close to where you all are, dealing… (Rolls
3d6 behind the screen, the outcome is 15, which would kill all 4 lvl1
characters) 7 fire damage!<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Patrick: Well I’m almost dead, my character only has 1 hit point!<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Vanessa: My fighter still has a potion and could probably
cover you guys, but I’m going to need some healing… only 3 HP left<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Jules: I’m down to 0 hit points. Shit… do I roll death saves
now or at the end of the round?<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Nataniél: Hey wait… I’m a Tiefling, I have fire resistance. He
only does 3 damage to me! I can heal Vanessa with Cure wounds. Just make sure
you hit that mage with all you’ve got before he fires again!<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><i>Dominic: Well you guys seem to have things under control
*smiles evilly* Roll me a death save Jules…</i></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So Dominic does not kill the party outright, but he does put
them in a challenging situation that might end up either in a TPK or in an
amazing victory, that depends on what the players decide to do next. As you can
see, fudging dice is simply handling the dice results in such a way that keeps
engaging the players to come up with different strategies and ways to beat the
obstacles that you present to them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The alternative? Well you could just kill them and narrate
the dramatic events that follow the heroes’ failure to beat the evil mage. In
the end, the decision to fudge or not to fudge the dice roll depends on the
type of game your players want to play. Maybe they specified that they preferred
a more hardcore experience, where all traps are deadly and every single room has
at least one vampire in it. If this is the case, then by all means, roll every
single dice in front of them and watch them fall like flies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks for reading</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-61713133432445093872015-08-28T13:27:00.001-05:002015-08-28T13:27:53.272-05:00Mighty No. 9 - Dice Head News<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The team at <a href="http://www.inticreates.com/" target="_blank">Inti Creates</a> and <a href="http://comcept.co.jp/en/" target="_blank">Comcept</a> released a statement
today through a kickstarter update, announcing that all of their backers will
receive a 1-month trial version of their upcoming game: <b>Mighty No. 9<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few weeks back the game was delayed until 2016 in order to
work out some of the online issues the game was presenting. Here’s part of the
statement released today:</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">"We know that there are
a lot of our fans and especially backers who were disappointed that the Mighty
No. 9 release has been delayed from the planned September 15th date. However,
we don’t want our backers to be completely empty-handed, and as a result we have
a special announcement!</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; padding: 0in;">We are releasing an exclusive
Trial Ver. for all of our Mighty No. 9 backers!!!</span></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 18pt; margin: 15pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">The team at comcept
and all of our partners are currently working on solving the online issues with
Mighty No. 9, however the single-player content is in a complete state. We
would like our backers to have a chance to play the near-complete game, so we
are releasing this Trial Ver. which has more volume and functionality compared
to the original beta test we conducted. The release of this Trial Ver. is
planned for September 15th, so make sure to clear your schedule! We will start
sending out codes to our backers a few days earlier than the actual release.
This Trial Ver. is planned to run for a full month after release, but will be
taken down after that."</span></i><span style="color: #0f2105;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The trial Version will feature four fully playable stages
from the game including all relevant cutscenes, voice and subtitle options (<b>subs:</b> <span style="background: white; color: #0f2105; line-height: 107%;">English,
French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, Japanese <b>Dubs:</b> English and Japanese</span>) Retro soundtrack, and challenge
mode stages 1 – 6.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On top of that all backers will receive a steam code for the
release of Mighty Gunvolt as a special thanks for supporting Mighty No.9.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I, for one, am really excited for this. I believe that if you're going to make a game, you better do it right the first time. A month of mighty No.9 might be just enough to get a taste of what's coming.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What do you think? did you back this project back when it was just starting? Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see me review this game once it finally comes out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks for reading!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-10681014666255431632015-08-25T16:33:00.002-05:002015-08-25T16:46:13.434-05:00Stories from the Campfire - part 1<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a
true story, much like every other story about something that is perceived in a
moment in time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a
story about how one of my friends died…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">****<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the
water priest and the shape-shifter fled the scene, Damian rushed to the
clearing on the river bank and knelt by the druid’s side… The tiefling was the
first to reach her, while the Goliath and the small boy followed him shortly
after.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She had no
pulse, her breathing had stopped, and her once flowing hair was now slowly
dissolving into the ground beneath her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">****<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“We are in
need of strong arms to plow the fields and water the crops, as I mentioned
before you may stay here in Summit Hall, but only after you’ve paid for your
room and meal with hard work…” – The elderly lady clad in full plate armor
looked sternly at the group of adventurers, making it absolutely clear that she
would not give any of the foul smelling, ill equipped, strange looking adventurers
in front of her one single piece of bread that they did not earn with the sweat
of their brows.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In front of
her stood a very peculiar-looking group of adventurers. At the front stood a
dark blue skinned pale-eyed tiefling, a demon-born as evidenced by the horns
that grew from his forehead towards the back of his head through the bone-white
hair he had inherited from his mother. The tail that he kept wrapped around his
waist was also a dead giveaway for those who had a keen eye for details. Damian
was used to the strange looks of of, well... pretty much everyone else but his
close friends. However, unlike most other tieflings he did not shy away from
the looks of others; in fact, he loved being the center of attention, and
enjoyed wearing very colorful clothes, as was the fashion of the people he grew
up with, the Gur of the sword coast. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To his
right stood Shieldbuster, a Goliath both in race and stature. His body looked
as if it had been carved right out of a mountainside, and wore several markings
of his tribe upon his face and body. Although most of his kind had a cold
demeanor towards pretty much everyone else, this Goliath had somehow managed to
acquire a warm look of amiability after his travels along the sword coast.
Shieldbuster was clad in the armor of the last orc he had slain in combat, a
dark steel breastplate that covered most of his body, yet his pale skin also
showed the scars of previous battles. One would not immediately guess
it, but he was also a merchant, and was used to being among regular folk
most of the time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The knight Helmdorn
stood to the back of the group. He was clad in full plate armor, bearing the markings
of Helm, the God of Guardians, protection and protectors. He was silent, stoic, and ever vigilant. He carried a large sword strapped to his back, which showed signs of use. He had removed his helmet as he entered Summit Hall, revealing a blond head of hair, a sun-baked skin, and the evidence of elven heritage in his factions. Not quite a human and not quite an elf either. He was robust and strong for an elf, but not quite as tall and thick as a human would look. Although at rest, he kept a watchful eye around their group, his grey eyes surveying their surroundings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To Damian's left was Lauren. The druid's glistening turquoise skin always looked like she had just walked out of a lake. She had deep dark blueblack eyes, her </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">hair flowed as if it was</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> perpetually underwater and had a voice that sounded as if she was talking through a seashell. She was a water Genasi, a child born touched by a water spirit. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a completely different group she might have stood out; however, she was traveling with a tiefling, a Goliath, a half elf, and a kid who was too young to know and do the things he did. She had taken a liking to this kid, and treated him as if he was part of her family</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The kid, Falken, looked like just that... a kid. A 14 year-old child that seemed to hang out with a crew of people who took care of him. This, was very far from the actual reality. Falken was a very lively kid, with very dark jet black hair and the bluest eyes you had ever seen in your life. He wore leather armor that was fitted to his small complexion, on top of regular clothes and a red bandana that he kept tied around his neck. After a few moments anyone could see that this kid was up to no good. His eyes never stayed fixed in one place, although contrary to Helmdorn, his eyes were not vigilant, his eyes were <i>eager.</i> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Damian
looked at the old lady, then back at the group, then with a sly smirk he
replied gesturing towards the water genasi “You need someone to water the field
and crops? Say no more, Lauren why don’t you go roll down the hills? You should
be done in mere minutes”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a
short awkward moment of silence, Shieldbuster and Falken started snickering
behind Lauren’s back while she gave the Sorcerer an unamused look. Helmdorn
just kind of stood there, trying to keep his composure in front of lady Oriana.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“You are as
lively as ever Damian… - Lauren said in the most dull tone of voice she could
possibly make, she then turned to the lady captain of the Knights – We will be
more than glad to work for the right to share a roof with the Knights of
Samular ma’am. You need but show us the way.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lady Oriana
gave them a disdainful look, and ordered them to present themselves before the
farmers that were working the land outside of Summit Hall, except for Damian,
who was instructed to go to the Hall’s library and act as a scribe and help the
scholars to transcribe some old texts. The day passed and they all returned to
the mess hall where the knights were to meet for supper. Bowls of hearty soup
were passed around, along with slices of venison and lamb and rustic crusty
bread. It was the best meal they had had in days and their appetites were
quickly satisfied after a few courses of heavy soup. The sounds of loud
chatter, along with the hustle and bustle of the cooks coming and going with
the platters of food made the place look a lot more lively than it actually
felt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They had
arrived at Summit Hall after barely surviving a run in with a pair of Perytons
out in the field. The first thing that came to their attention was that
everyone in Summit Hall was carrying a weapon. Simple or martial, everyone had
a weapon strapped to their belts. as the day went by and they talked to Captain
Oriana, they realized this was because they had been attacked by bandits on
several occasions in the last few weeks. Everyone was weary and on
edge, so as soon as they entered the keep all they got were foul looks and
nasty sounding whispers. As of now, everyone seemed to have gone back to their
daily chores and was minding their own business and the food one their plates.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lauren kept
trying to keep the kid, Falken, from appropriating other people’s belongings,
Shieldbuster started up a conversation with an old Halfling that was sitting on
a table nearby, while Damian and Helmdorn remained at the table. Their group
could be described as a motley band of mismatched members at best. Every one of
them seemed to have their own reasons to be in the company of the others
Shieldbuster’s company after a while, who seemed to be the glue that kept
everyone together somehow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Goliath
had been there when Falken tried to “borrow” some things from his caravan after
offering to guide them around the city of Waterdeep, and also when Damian had
stumbled onto his caravan while running away from the local guards after a
little... misunderstanding with one of the local noblemen's daughters. Helmdorn
had come to him as a hired sword, but seemed to be involved in a greater cause,
and yet he felt like part of the group already.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And Lauren…
Damian remembered that day when Lauren approached their group asking if she
could join their company in order to look for a lost person who seemed to
matter a great deal to her. Damian had tried to woo the druid into his bed, to
no avail, and almost got murdered in the process. He used to laugh whenever he
remembered the story… Now most of their relationship consisted of jokes and gags regarding their particular heritage, yet profound respect from Damian's side, due to the fact that Lauren had healed him back from the brink of death on more than one occasion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They were
currently looking for a lost caravan, carrying a Delegation of Diplomats from
Mirabar who were by now likely dead or missing at least a few limbs. All
investigations regarding the matter had been fruitless up until now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Damian!”
- Shieldbuster’s voice boomed over the noise in the mess hall – “Come
here my friend!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Damian
stood up and walked slowly over to where the Goliath was standing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“What is it
big man?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I found
this little old man, he likes to talk”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shieldbuster
was a merchant, yet he knew that in order to get the most information out of
someone he could always rely on Damian. Who had a way with words and was a lot
more calm than he was.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Damian’s
pale white eyes looked behind Shieldbuster’s enormous figure and found an old
Halfling sitting there, finishing his supper. The grey hairs on his head were a
clear evidence of how many winters he had survived, and also gave a good idea
of how many he had left. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
Halfling kept rambling on and about how difficult life was in the Realms
lately, with bandits raiding every homestead they could find, not to mention
the appearance of so many fanatics around the area.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Hmmm well
you are a rare sight to behold sonny… you one of them Demon spawn?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Tieflings”
Damian said with a courteous smile. The old man wasn’t the first or the last
one to throw racial slurs at him so he paid it no mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Ah yes,
the spawn of Asmodeus… you know the people here aren’t too pleased to see your
kind around, everyone’s an enemy these days… everyone…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Well yes,
old man, but I assure you, my friends and I bear you and your friends no ill.
We are actually on a very important mission regarding a caravan that left from
Mirabar more than 5 tendays ago. It should have passed through Summit hall
before heading for Waterdeep. Have you heard anything regarding any such”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Mirabar?”
– the old man gave him a puzzled look – “We haven’t seen anyone from Mirabar
pass through here since last harvest, and that was quite a long time ago”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another
place where no one had ever seen or heard of the bloody caravan. To say that
Damian was frustrated now would be a huge understatement. So far they had been
attacked by Orcs, attacked by cultists, attacked by Griffons, Perytons, wights,
wild animals and ANOTHER band of orcs that seemed to be led by some kind of
Demon that had been a recurring sight in Damian’s nightmares ever since. But
still no news of the missing caravan. All they had to show after that was a
bunch of scars, traumatizing sights and a dead companion…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Draupnir
was not your regular elf… He had a name that sounded like a Dwarf’s name, he
behaved like a Barbarian from the North, and the last time he tried to guide
them through the wilderness, they reached the place where he would eventually
meet his end. He was part of their company, nevertheless, and his loss had
affected them a lot more than they all let on. None of them had really talked
about it since then, and Damian still had a hard time trying to reconcile the
fact that Draupnir was still alive after the fall… but that was then and this
was now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The old man
seemed to be trying to remember something, then he slapped his knee and touched
his temple with his right index finger “Although I believe I did hear some of
the young ones in the knight’s table talking about those bandits frequenting
the roads to the north of here… And if a caravan did come from Mirabar then I believe
your best shot at finding them is by following the north road out of Summit
Hall.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Damian
smiled, and nodded courteously “Thanks old man, I guess we might as well give
it a shot.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Damian
stood up and motioned for shieldbuster to walk with him. The Goliath left the
Halfling behind and walked along.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I’m not
entirely sure if following the old man’s advice is a good idea but it’s the best clue
we’ve been able to come upon since we started this whole thing… I’ll go to bed,
inform the others that we leave tomorrow and please… tell Falken to put the
Halfling’s purse back where it belongs”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“With or
without the gold?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Damian
looked at his friend and smiled “I’ll leave that up to you, just don’t tell Helmdorn”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-31044939761476572342015-08-24T13:54:00.002-05:002015-08-28T13:26:34.672-05:00Cat Herding - DM thoughts<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We’ve all been there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scenario #1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s the day before the gaming session, your friends have
all been looking forward to this particular session, since every plot line seems
to be heading to their respective ends. Your characters have all gone through
some type of development, and on top of that you are very close to leveling up.
This is it guys, this game is going to change everything. After this session,
our lives will be completely different, for the sole fact that so much awesome
stuff is going to happen in it, that your very way of playing RPGs is going to
be completely redefined.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh.. what’s that? Billy can’t make it because he has a
family party to attend to… Oh well, no problem, it’s a shame Billy won’t be
there to witness the awesome, but oh well… you really can’t expect him to leave
his family hanging right?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh wait… If Billy can’t come, that means his girlfriend
Vanessa, can’t come either. And she’s the fighter, so… oh wel we still have a
reasonably strong party without the mage and the fighter right?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wrong, because now Franck is feeling kinda sick, and he’s
the healer (oh irony, thou art a soulless bitch). Virginia actually feels more like
going to the beach on Saturday, and Patrick hasn’t picked up the phone in FIVE (5)
DAYS! GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER PATRICK!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By now the party feels like they should wait until everyone
is able to play. So you postpone the game until everyone is able to make it to
the game. Then Patrick shows up at your front door, because he didn’t know the
game had been postponed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That’s because you didn’t pick up the phone Patrick. You
didn’t pick up the phone…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjYKwCOK5kkP4akkfclq9YhSXoFdpfTIZfRdIitewjpxBd-vkDGR9qv5MTIUDezA9x_cHhXoJv0tVmUT__h-MUzifql9I_rmsgbiDLqioAoTwVBAndzi5BLCsiUo7eFF5c2sLsOqYysQ/s1600/Patrick.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjYKwCOK5kkP4akkfclq9YhSXoFdpfTIZfRdIitewjpxBd-vkDGR9qv5MTIUDezA9x_cHhXoJv0tVmUT__h-MUzifql9I_rmsgbiDLqioAoTwVBAndzi5BLCsiUo7eFF5c2sLsOqYysQ/s400/Patrick.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Get it? COZ HE LIVES UNDER A ROCK!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scenario #2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You’ve been preparing this game for MONTHS now. About a year
ago you bought the core books for a new tabletop RPG that seemed interesting at
the time, but you never had the chance to actually play it. So at one point you
get your friends together and mention that you have a game that you’d like to
play. You get them hyped explaining the way the system works, and how the
character creation process is the coolest thing since Eskimo pies. You even go
as far as creating a character for each one of your friends, just so you don’t
have to waste a whole night in character creation. You set a date. The weeks go
by… you’re ready for this… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5 days before the
game<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Hey dude, sorry but I TOTALLY forgot I had this thing I
have to go to. I know the game is like a week away, but you guys can play
without me right?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4 days before the
game<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Hey, I’m not sure I can make it to the game on time, there’s
this thing I have with this [girl/boy] and I might be a little late, is that
ok?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 days before the
game<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Yo, can we play on<b>
[xday] </b>instead of<b> [the day we agreed
on 2 months ago]</b>?<b> </b>There’s this
thing I want to go to on that day…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 days before the
game<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Hey guys, good news. I can make it to the game, but only
for like… 2 hours, I need to leave after that because of things and reasons”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 Day before the game<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Hey has anyone seen Patrick?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLMurLged3EBT3ftWF49obvMz3YQMgrEJCcf-jURecpyJxhIJ_KYft3jaDXOPEMw7NYinrySNi-ijKYTxuQo-LpinMN15_b-Yx80T6zebRLE8oHn149zEK2FPDq4-zFSly46KW8-JaLg/s1600/facepalm2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLMurLged3EBT3ftWF49obvMz3YQMgrEJCcf-jURecpyJxhIJ_KYft3jaDXOPEMw7NYinrySNi-ijKYTxuQo-LpinMN15_b-Yx80T6zebRLE8oHn149zEK2FPDq4-zFSly46KW8-JaLg/s400/facepalm2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There is a Patrick in every group... right Patrick?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So you postpone, pick a better date and hope against hope
that everyone will show up this time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This, my friends, is called “Trying to get a group of geeks
together to play a game of ANYTHING”. Also known as “CAT HERDING”. Now, this is
not a post about how to make your friends go to ALL of your games, and get rid
of scheduling problems for the rest of your life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No, my sweet summer children…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a post where I tell you how to deal with this
situation and learn to cope with it. In all my years as a Dungeon Master and
gamer, there has always been one thing that does not vary. And that is: We
geeks have a hard time getting together to play a game. There’s always a thing
that gets in the way, and let’s be honest, the older you get the less free time
you have to play a game. So having a job, being married, having kids, and maybe
another hobby in your life will inevitably take up some, if not all of your
free time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a thing that happens; this is life, and there’s
nothing we can do to change that. What we CAN do is develop some flexibility,
tolerance and understanding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you players can’t get to the game, you can try to
re-schedule to a date that fits everyone in the party. After all it’s no fun to
get to a second session of a campaign and then suddenly you realize that some
really important stuff happened while you were gone and you weren’t there to
witness it. Always try to get everyone to play in your sessions. Work around
your schedule and have everyone agree to a date in your calendar in which you
can all play.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What if it keeps
happening?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If up to 3 of your party members keep having to re-schedule
or simply don’t show up. It may be time to have a serious talk with them and
let them know that their absence is felt at the table. You will probably have
to remove them from your group in the kindest way possible, and open up their
spots to other people who might be able to play on those days. It sucks because
you probably wanted to play with them, but if they can’t, then there’s no way
around it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What if I have too
many games?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maybe you have more than one game that you’re running at the
moment. Sit down and analyze how much time you actually have in a week. Take
away the time you need to spend on your job, then your family life, then the
time you need to spend on house chores, and finally add to that the preparation
time for your games. If you can barely make time to run 3 or 4 games in that
week, then it’s more than likely that your players also don’t have the time to
play them all. Give it some thought, and learn when to drop a campaign. No DM
likes it, but hey, sometimes it’s the smartest thing to do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What about Patrick?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kick Patrick out of the group. He’s a great friend, we all
love him, but if you’re going to be MIA for weeks and then when you do show up
you mess up the gaming schedule, just let him know that once you all finish the
adventure, he may re-join when you play another game as long as he commits to
showing up on time and be involved in the game. But right now he’s just messing
with your schedule.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In conclusion, Cat herding is always going to be present in
our lives, simply because we cannot spend all of our time gaming around a
table. We’re human beings and as such we all have our basic needs and sadly,
tabletop gaming cannot possibly fulfill each and every one of them. As gamers (and
especially if you’re a Dungeon Master) we need to be able to understand that
sometimes, game night is just not going to happen. But there’s always another
day, another weekend, another chance to get together and play. And if your game
is interesting and compelling, your players will go out of their way to make
time to go to your games.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkLZqMKX0Fmp4PYdwyxqxNmpq9QIWXR00QYhZs8cjGufcMDHTCxeGpJpuEuvTPT9hotyT5a5P17MttVLFIUtct5VdLT6-4qixraWYiYyoYelUOKMiC6zFGYfF__HkWNTdlDKMvgdohfA/s1600/cat+herding2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkLZqMKX0Fmp4PYdwyxqxNmpq9QIWXR00QYhZs8cjGufcMDHTCxeGpJpuEuvTPT9hotyT5a5P17MttVLFIUtct5VdLT6-4qixraWYiYyoYelUOKMiC6zFGYfF__HkWNTdlDKMvgdohfA/s400/cat+herding2.jpg" width="382" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks for reading!</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-36089523357597876012015-08-19T13:55:00.002-05:002015-08-20T09:56:58.668-05:00Age of War by Fantasy Flight - DICE HEAD REVIEW<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every now and then you come across a game that is fun, simple and easy to learn. Today we look at Age of War, a fast paced conquest card and dice game released in early 2014 by Fantasy Flight games, designed by Reiner Knizia (Lord of the Rings board game, Samurai, Beowulf: The Legend).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few weeks ago I got together with some friends to play Eldritch Horror (stand by for a review of that one as soon as I get my hands on a copy of the game) and since most of the group still hadn't arrived yet, we decided to play a round of Age of War.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjggJZq9Al2Oe9-BdbXymjOuZvDjSlFF-xefX4BNrM2qyLuWWdAt7hwHKKyLYxjp1bTf8UXaf-2ZMsb9k6kggyQHgoDQXsttrMBzbK2T6hmArVu4rF588bbqIShtFUO3zqqENNzJG3-YA/s1600/KN24-layout.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjggJZq9Al2Oe9-BdbXymjOuZvDjSlFF-xefX4BNrM2qyLuWWdAt7hwHKKyLYxjp1bTf8UXaf-2ZMsb9k6kggyQHgoDQXsttrMBzbK2T6hmArVu4rF588bbqIShtFUO3zqqENNzJG3-YA/s640/KN24-layout.png" width="561" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The game is pretty simple. You are a daimyo (Japanese general) and your goal is to conquer castles and unify the warring clans of feudal Japan. You do this by waging war against other players ( up to 6 others) who wish to do the same. Basically, you are all generals trying to conquer Japan and bring honor to your house, your family, and your cow.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MOST HONORABLE CONTENTS:</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The playing field consists of several playing cards that represent each castle. Each card is color coded and has a clan symbol on the back of it. There are yellow cards (4), red cards (2), purple cards (2), black cards (2), grey cards(3) and one green card. Each clan(color) has a different number of castles(cards) assigned to it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You conquer each castle by rolling seven dice and assembling your army with your results. Results may vary between infantry (swords), archers (bow and arrow), cavalry (horsemen) and daimyo (red mask). Each castle requires a certain number of each of these symbols in order to be claimed by the player.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each castle also has a number that shows how many points this castle is worth, along with the name of the castle inspired by an actual real-world Japanese location.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MOST HONORABLE GAMEPLAY:</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One player is chosen randomly, the game then continues clockwise. Each player throws the dice to try and complete the requirements to conquer a castle. Once a player has a castle there is the option for other players to take that castle away from him or her by rolling the required dice for that castle plus an extra daimyo dice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once a player has all of the castles in a colored set (clan) he flips them over, revealing the total points for that set and claiming that clan as his permanently. This means that the castles in that set can no longer be taken away from that player. This allows for a lof of different strategies in the game, which makes it very fun and entertaining. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once all castles have been claimed, the game ends and the points are recounted. Whoever has the most points, wins. If there is a tie, whoever has conquered the most castles wins. If there is STILL a tie after that, the players share their victory and drink sake for the honor of their respective houses, families, and cows.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I AM MOST PLEASED WITH THIS GAME!</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The game is quite fun, I recommend playing it while listening to some traditional Japanese ambient music. I also encourage whoever is playing against me to use Samurai trash talk.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like so:</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Me: I see you will attack the Kitanosho Castle... A most daring move.</span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Opponent: I shall teach your peasants the meaning of force. Do not worry though... I shall allow your Samurai to commit Seppuku to cleanse their families' of the SHAME AND DISHONOR they have brought upon their house.</span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">*rolls dice*</span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Opponent: GODDAMIT! the archers! EVERY SINGLE TIME!</span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Me: Ho ho ho ho ho *strokes imaginary fu-man-chu beard*... It appears not only have you failed to seize my castle, but also shed the last bit of dignity your samurai had left. YOU HAVE DISGRACED YOUR PEOPLE AND DISHONORED MY LANDS! NOW! WE SHALL ENGAGE IN COMBAT!</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Good times :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All in all, Age of War is a good solid game that will guarantee a few rounds of fun. It's also pretty cheap at around 12-15 USD. On top of that the game comes in a small 7.5" x 5" inch box so it's ultra light and easy to carry around. It will make a nice addition to your tabletop games collection.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks for reading!</span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-64154100832586009672015-08-18T12:00:00.000-05:002015-08-24T21:20:19.781-05:00The Alignments - Final Thoughts<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After 3 weeks, 9 alignments and several hours of writing we've finally come to a close on the alignments series. Now before you go FULL DREDD on your party next time you play D&D, or any other tabletop RPG. Here's some final thoughts on the alignment system and its practicality.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Current state (5th edition Dungeons & Dragons)</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As of last year, Wizards of the Coast released the latest edition of Dungeons and Dragons, and the way alignments work has changed dramatically. Before, your characters alignment was an integral art of how you played him or her. It used to be impossible to make a Paladin that wasn't Lawful Good, or a Sorcerer that wasn't chaotic.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As it stands the current way alignment works is only seen as a vague guideline that doesn't even define your characters. They are now defined by their background and how they act upon their bonds, quirks, personality traits, and flaws. What this means is that if you give your character a well thought out background, then THAT is what will define him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It basically means that Chaotic Good Half-orcs can now be Paladins.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn0XHURs_N15r_YKUcNzVbtNUvFf06cCzOoUiHi9cFomkXqhrMcqnuRQ-kw6_r7lFA7d7ebndNlZuC4OQLgoiurWGpN2Jvqz7uHqfwp7_x7eM8NxHZMf_23TaBgPGvgtKhzgI8-Fit-A/s1600/Half-orc_PHB5e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn0XHURs_N15r_YKUcNzVbtNUvFf06cCzOoUiHi9cFomkXqhrMcqnuRQ-kw6_r7lFA7d7ebndNlZuC4OQLgoiurWGpN2Jvqz7uHqfwp7_x7eM8NxHZMf_23TaBgPGvgtKhzgI8-Fit-A/s400/Half-orc_PHB5e.jpg" width="341" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gul'Thak kill puny man... FOR JUSTICE!!!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Neat huh?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But let's try to look a bit further from what the books say about alignment.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alignment as guidelines for NPCs</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a Dungeon Master, it is my personal opinion that ditching the concept of Alignment in characters is not really necessary. Player characters may not have any real use for this system anymore. But NPCs can be a lot more flat in terms of character development. It helps define the way they will act during the story arc that you are narrating to your friends.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can use the alignment system and the titles we gave them in the last three weeks, to create compelling and well defined archetypes for the NPCs in your campaigns. Do you need a Villain that is pure Evil? Go Neutral Evil (The Villain). Do you need an NPC that will serve as an instigator and a revolutionary leader that will ask for the party's assistance? Chaotic good may be the choice for your dashing Robin Hood-type rogue.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Needless to say, keeping these alignments in mind when narrating or playing out the characters in your story will make it a lot easier for you when faced with the question "How would this character react to what the players are doing?" That is not to say that your NPCs should always be flat characters that never go through any type of character development. Any believable villain or hero has its own motivations and background as well. however when you think about them as characters whose morals are aligned to one of the 9 alignments, then it becomes easier for you to narrate and present them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also, it sort of gives you a tool to avoid voicing all of your characters the same way. When Bob the innkeeper sounds and talks in the exact same way than Robert the fighter, and Robbie Lightfoot the halfling rogue... then you might want to start thinking a bit more about the NPCs you present in your games. The alignment table could help you to think about the different motivations all your NPCs could have before running your game, and thus making it easier to differentiate each character from each other.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alignment as guidelines for Player characters:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Player characters are the main protagonists of your story. As such, their personality (and maybe even their moral code) should go through some kind of development as the story develops. A Lawful Neutral "Judge" may start as a hard ass, black and white judgmental type with a stick up his ass.Then, after going through some dramatic story arcs, he realizes that sometimes the law does not cover every single possibility out there. He finally learns to see the good intentions behind the more chaotic members of his party, and learns to make exceptions to the rule and look the other way when the law just doesn't make much sense.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Instead of seeing the alignments as straight jackets that put your character in a cage, try to see them as starting points. Your background choices, and your personal history as an adventurer made you take some decisions that took you down the path of Chaotic goodness, but maybe through the experiences you go through while adventuring, you end up as Neutral Good, because you realize that Chaos can sometimes hurt more people than it helps.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To this effect I think the background system of 5th Edition D&D is perfectly suited to tell your character's story in a way that is easy to present and easy to understand as well. The backgrounds could be generated randomly by using the tables in the Player's Handbook, but they could also be created on your own. This means that you can ALSO modify your bonds, flaws and personal traits as your story progresses, with your DM's permission of course. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sure, it's fun to play as Bob the fighter and simply hit problem <b>X</b> with your B.A. Sword until <b>X</b> is not a problem anymore, but you're playing a <b>Role Playing Game. </b> This means your role as an adventurer can be SO MUCH MORE than just a "tank" or "Damage dealer". You can be an iconic character within your adventure's setting, setting an example for all adventurers that come after you (they will probably be played by you as well... cool huh?)</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibTn4NK67i1zqpo2V_JVixbvUMilSzJOLy-eo-55YhhM84zqJ2cLUq8NU7gVgF7Gw2YsbXKBHB_ZqKRHLKnxhwzZfq4ZiO-6V46WETX_lCYPI9GoDdZIuRPCeMjnnOeXQZj00fVrZ1Hw/s1600/alignment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibTn4NK67i1zqpo2V_JVixbvUMilSzJOLy-eo-55YhhM84zqJ2cLUq8NU7gVgF7Gw2YsbXKBHB_ZqKRHLKnxhwzZfq4ZiO-6V46WETX_lCYPI9GoDdZIuRPCeMjnnOeXQZj00fVrZ1Hw/s400/alignment.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Batman v Superman Spoilers: They end up as BFFs. FOREVAH</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I'd like to close off the alignment series by asking you: If you're a player, what alignment will YOU be starting off as next time you play an RPG?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And if you're a DM: What type of NPC alignment is easier for you to narrate? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(you can answer both if you want)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks for reading!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-66464419889191087982015-08-13T15:55:00.001-05:002015-08-13T16:05:20.817-05:00The Joker - Chaotic evil<div dir="ltr">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>(As Nightwing pummels him) "Aw... Jeez... I hit Jason a lot harder than that. (Pause) His name was Jason, right?"</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll be really honest with you guys. As cliché and mainstream as it may sound. To me there is only one way to describe a Chaotic Evil character. And that is doing it with the Joker in mind. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now… let's put a smile on that face.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chaotic Evil is the type of dude you never want to give his morning coffee, because once he gets some energy and determination in him he will burn everything. EVERYTHING. Or he might just as well go on with his life and do nothing. These characters are the most unpredictable bad guys ever. If <a href="http://diceheadgaming.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-tyrant-lawful-evil.html" target="_blank">Lawful Evil</a> is scary because of the way they can order regular people to do evil stuff, and <a href="http://diceheadgaming.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-villain-neutral-evil.html" target="_blank">Neutral Evil</a> is scary and dangerous because their one single purpose is doing evil upon others... then Chaotic Evil is Scary and dangerous because you KNOW he wants to kill you, you just don't know how or when he's going to do it. The unpredictability of chaos added to the vile cruelty of Evil make one of the most unique types of villains in roleplaying settings, comics, tv series, movies, literature, you name it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unpredictability is pretty much the defining word here. Just as <a href="http://diceheadgaming.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-free-spirit-chaotic-neutral.html" target="_blank">Chaotic Neutral</a> is all about his own freedom, Chaotic Evil is all about his freedom to do Evil unto others. And forget about laws and morals and personal codes of conduct. These guys have none. Even when they say they have a code or a "way of doing things" they will drop their Modus Operandi in a second if it means doing what they really want to do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Want an example? Here you go:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUDbnsFkPo-vj0SGfHPdwz07hhXnDSYxhV_OWY1xhUFnA-XiDFgj5H6a7D3cZAk5ihZSsYpVxKlnurL4QCJCFTpGVxW2YjEE-WOOKEWFaDrLdP0HAP6ivzDhEbRLyl2PtFGoAF8KkzMQ/s1600/joker+funny.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUDbnsFkPo-vj0SGfHPdwz07hhXnDSYxhV_OWY1xhUFnA-XiDFgj5H6a7D3cZAk5ihZSsYpVxKlnurL4QCJCFTpGVxW2YjEE-WOOKEWFaDrLdP0HAP6ivzDhEbRLyl2PtFGoAF8KkzMQ/s400/joker+funny.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The dude has PRINCIPLES, he ONLY kills when it's funny! The problem with that is that his sense of humor is as sadistic and chaotic as it gets. So that kid has all the right to be scared shitless.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's the textbook definition:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">A chaotic evil character does whatever his greed, hatred, and lust for destruction drive him to do. He is hot-tempered, vicious, arbitrarily violent, and unpredictable. If he is simply out for whatever he can get, he is ruthless and brutal. If he is committed to the spread of evil and chaos, he is even worse. Thankfully, his plans are haphazard, and any groups he joins or forms are poorly organized. Typically, chaotic evil people can be made to work together only by force, and their leader lasts only as long as he can thwart attempts to topple or assassinate him.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Chaotic evil is sometimes called "demonic" because demons are the epitome of chaotic evil.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Chaotic evil beings believe their alignment is the best because it combines self-interest and pure freedom.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Chaotic evil is the most dangerous alignment because it represents the destruction not only of beauty and life but also of the order on which beauty and life depend.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So without any further ado, here's the final piece in the chart. 2 years ago I was absolutely sure the Joker was going to be in here, and none of the other alignment examples were as clear to me as his... ok, maybe Dredd... that's the only other one that had his spot guaranteed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6D5jVlVK2sKcuRXOh1KGKsqJBOGX-KNffB0gpAHKWbTwRKtSlE_tOYFFMqgbSD6HwYnGzOFfcuAbOYZCwIwVBwAurJVsE7UluUWcvVqLZUtrTUxJkpn2jN94A7cg1fwFgWwuX3_ccWg/s1600/Chaotic+Evil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6D5jVlVK2sKcuRXOh1KGKsqJBOGX-KNffB0gpAHKWbTwRKtSlE_tOYFFMqgbSD6HwYnGzOFfcuAbOYZCwIwVBwAurJVsE7UluUWcvVqLZUtrTUxJkpn2jN94A7cg1fwFgWwuX3_ccWg/s400/Chaotic+Evil.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">HAHAHAHAHAhaHAhaHAhaHaHahAHahHaaHhaHahhaHahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHA</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Leto, you better nut up for this role sir... or else no one is ever going to let you hear the end of it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ok, now... since I did just flat out told you who was my choice for Chaotic Evil for this post. Here are some OTHER also chaotic evil characters from film, animation, video games and such.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Majora - The Entity from The legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.</b> This one needs no explanation. Suffice to say that this thing makes Ganondorf look nice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Ramsay Bolton, from Game of thrones</b>. This sick fucker likes flaying people alive, he loves rape, he loves murder, and excels at torturing people. Fucking. Evil</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Lich from Adventure time</b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, whose sole goal is the destruction of ALL LIFE. He is also a Supernatural undead force, created from Nuclear waste. Can it get more Chaotic Evil than that? hmmm well..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"HeeeehehehehehehehHEHEHEHEHEHEHEhehehehhehehehehHEHEHEEHEH"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Kid Buu </b>- Dragonball Z</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And hey... you know the thing about Chaos?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's <b>FAIR</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks for reading</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-66034780045918434002015-08-12T17:58:00.001-05:002015-08-12T18:00:16.875-05:00The Villain - Neutral Evil<span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">"For mine own good, all causes shall give way."</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /><br />Ever met an asshole in your life?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">You probably have.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">Today's alignment post is all about assholes and the way they see the world.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">Neutral Evil is one of the most defined types of evil. I could summarize it by saying that as long as he gets his way, a Neutral Evil character will do anything as long as he can reach his goals. If that means following or breaking the law, then so be it. He will align with anyone, good, bad, tall, short, young, old, anyone who may help him further his own goals; and in the end, he will probably kill everyone who helped him get there if necessary.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">These are not nice people. They don't care about anyone but themselves and they will remind you of that at every turn. As a matter of fact, if you've watched any type of cartoon there's a chance most bad guys were of this alignment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">"Next time Gadget... NEXT TIME!!!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><b>Dr. Claw - Inspector Gadget</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">"</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">Curse you,
He-Man. Some day I'll have the power to destroy you. Some day!</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><b>Skeletor - He-Man and the Masters of the Universe</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif;">Robin:
[wondering what Slade's motives were for helping Trigon take over the world]
So, why did you do it? For money? Status? Those dark powers?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif;">Slade: Not
everything is so... cut-and-dry, Robin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif;">Robin:
Selling out our world for your own personal gain seems pretty cut-and-dry to
me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif;">Slade: With
or without me, there was no stopping this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif;">Robin: But
you played a part; And just like everything else you've ever done, it's made
people suffer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif;">Slade: <i><b>It's
what I do best.</b></i></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif;"><b>Slade - Teen Titans</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">Now, just as with <a href="http://diceheadgaming.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-hero-neutral-good.html" target="_blank">Neutral Good</a>, Neutral Evil is different from Chaotic Evil because they will respect law, order, and morals as long as it doesn't get in their way. Chaotic Evil, on the other hand, will burn everything and everyone including their (own) grandma on a whim. It's all about principles see?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">They are Bad, ok? Evil, pure and simple. Lawful Evil and Chaotic Evil are simply two different interchangeable states of evil. Neutral Evil is PURE UNADULTERATED EVIL.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">Here's the textbook definitions:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">
</div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">Neutral Evil can be the most dangerous alignment because such characters are willing to step on, betray, take advantage of, hurt, and kill other people to reach their goals and get what they want. The Neutral Evil have no difficulty working with others so long as their own needs are met. However, they also have no difficulty betraying former companions if there is some gain in doing so. They are also extremely susceptible to bribes.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">Now, the quote at the beginning was from Macbeth... so here comes the chart:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLlY_WfFNuY_viFVK7PZ5YDGKBS5Buvf9_MRFyBkW4nZ3LG5Iqs1LIBD7vNtV7eEu2jgzNttX5MqxQCa4pe8XDWemHN84UHq45X9RNeSX7eiKaswXd1jJI8RvxHXvgwr_2io_-uLnO_Q/s1600/Neutral+Evil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLlY_WfFNuY_viFVK7PZ5YDGKBS5Buvf9_MRFyBkW4nZ3LG5Iqs1LIBD7vNtV7eEu2jgzNttX5MqxQCa4pe8XDWemHN84UHq45X9RNeSX7eiKaswXd1jJI8RvxHXvgwr_2io_-uLnO_Q/s400/Neutral+Evil.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE ABOUT TO SEE MACBETH BUT INSTEAD IT IS I... DIO!!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /><br /><i>Zeppeli: "How many lives have you sucked in order to heal those wounds?"</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><i>Dio: "Do you remember how many breads you have eaten in your life?"</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">Oh man... THIS FUCKING GUY... if you look up "Unadulterated EVIL" on google, you get this picture in your search results:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3qKUTakR9ywXlYEwjDWiABvH0GGbAGnqZajhKGOk6P0XOftIhancDGRHXKrYr9BW8yC1ZnSPtOkPl1gfo_oQp5ZCpE873zGzqWuiKEGbq2k0Y0P9cTfWGnP4VygfjA3HEN1sow8VfWg/s1600/DIO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3qKUTakR9ywXlYEwjDWiABvH0GGbAGnqZajhKGOk6P0XOftIhancDGRHXKrYr9BW8yC1ZnSPtOkPl1gfo_oQp5ZCpE873zGzqWuiKEGbq2k0Y0P9cTfWGnP4VygfjA3HEN1sow8VfWg/s400/DIO.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Go watch the anime... just... go</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">In the first chapter of JoJo's Bizarre adventure - The Animation. Jojo, the protagonist, meets Dio, </span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">and after a quick exchange of words, Dio meets Danny, Jojo's dog. What does he do? KICKS DANNY IN THE FACE! WHAT THE HECK DIO! then later on he just goes and burns the dog alive. He does this and a whole bunch of other horrible shit just to make sure that Jojo is brought to his knees and taught a lesson about Dio's greatness. And the dude is still like 13 years old. If you still don't get he's the bad guy of the series after the first episode, then you need to go get yourself checked.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">Ugh... he does know how to strike a pose though...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">Thanks for reading</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-2052512017398834862015-08-11T12:00:00.000-05:002015-08-11T12:00:02.376-05:00The Tyrant - Lawful Evil<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;"><b>“Some battles are won with swords and spears, others with quills and ravens.”</b></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">And now, for the more... unsavory... part of the alignment chart. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">Evil...</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Open Sans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">Lawful Evil. The Alignment that makes us all crawl with unease for the fact that it is so easy to be LED by one of these characters. Sometimes you see what they do, and you can't help but sympathize with their ways. They are cruel, tyrannical, Dictatorial, and yet somehow their way works. Because they follow an order, they follow rules and they keep chaos and Anarchy at bay.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Open Sans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Open Sans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">The problem with that, is that they usually end up hurting others to get their way, they tend to have a total disregard for the suffering of others, and will do anything that is necessary, and within their moral code, to achieve success. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Open Sans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Open Sans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">These characters make for some of the best villains in any story. Mainly because they are Evil because they see it as a necessity. It's not unusual to read a book, or watch a tv-series and feel in a way charmed by a character who does HORRIBLE things, but still has a certain charm and well educated demeanor that keeps you wanting to see more of him or her.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Open Sans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Open Sans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">Let's take a look at what most Rulebooks say about Lawful Evil, and their particular way of "Following a code".</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Open Sans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Some lawful evil villains have particular taboos, such as
not killing in cold blood (but having underlings do it) or not letting children
come to harm (if it can be helped). <b>They imagine that these compunctions put
them above unprincipled villains.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Some lawful evil people and creatures commit themselves to
evil with a zeal like that of a crusader committed to good. Beyond being
willing to hurt others for their own ends, they take pleasure in spreading evil
as an end unto itself. They may also see doing evil as part of a duty to an
evil deity or master.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 19.6000003814697px;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Lawful evil creatures consider their alignment to be the best because it combines honor with a dedicated self-interest. </span><span style="background-color: white;">Lawful evil is the most dangerous alignment because it represents methodical, intentional, and frequently successful evil.</span></span><br />
<div style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 16px;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Frequently successful evil... scared yet? no? </span></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 16px;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 16px;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let's look at the chart.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF40-NvSB9bwqhyH2wl-4FDvJLnMowv_UwvQ55l6jcssfpTMH-3njQNwZIhHZLDpUlRPTkOIinLRYpSQjG3ERhEmVLS_ZbGkNbupBcQTmFjfPIcc5VkBxL8kGHOlvRv5c5zu3T4BjmMQ/s1600/Lawful+Evil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF40-NvSB9bwqhyH2wl-4FDvJLnMowv_UwvQ55l6jcssfpTMH-3njQNwZIhHZLDpUlRPTkOIinLRYpSQjG3ERhEmVLS_ZbGkNbupBcQTmFjfPIcc5VkBxL8kGHOlvRv5c5zu3T4BjmMQ/s400/Lawful+Evil.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And so he spoke... and so he spoke...</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;"><i>“Joffrey, when your enemies defy you, you must serve them steel and fire. When they go to their knees, however, you must help them back to their feet. Elsewise no man will ever bend the knee to you. </i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;"><i>Tywinn Lannister - A Storm of Swords</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lord Tywinn Lannister, Hand of the King, Lord of Casterly Rock, Warden of the West, Lord Paramount of the Westerlands, Savior of the City and Protector of the Realm. Tywinn follows a very strict code where he puts his family's name in fron of everything. Lannisters must rule, no matter what. He sticks to protocol whenever it is needed, and was smart enough to manipulate the Freys into killing Robb Stark. He pretty much had Westeros all for himself until Tyrion put a bolt in his gut.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But he was like-able wasn't he?</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll leave you with a final thought.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The real danger in a Lawful Evil character is not how evil they are ... but their ability to have others do evil for him. A study in the 1960s by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram seeked to find exactly how much harm a regular person could inflict upon another one after being ordered to do so by a person in a </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">position of </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">perceived authority. Here's the Crash course psychology video that explains the experiment and the results thereof.</span></div>
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UGxGDdQnC1Y/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UGxGDdQnC1Y?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scared yet?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks for reading...</span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-22444263709353833502015-08-10T15:52:00.000-05:002015-08-17T09:40:31.551-05:00Exploding Kittens - DICE HEAD REVIEW<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you like cats?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How about explosions?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And lasers? Do you like lasers?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How do you feel about goats?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are you curious to know what would happen if a Pterodactyl
and a Bear had a lovechild?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you answer positively to any of those questions then 1)
we should hang out, and 2) We should play exploding kittens while hanging out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTAOiXoqMhXJfUcmpsRQyIjTiAJCvGjXr2JRWaZdPXdq9GPB52SehHYFqPwzP-Xx2eraswc-1HE_ROA59_26lakl0fTnus2r-42oYg9v7JTRB1afQfRP555WchLP47vO642uvjD7NS3Q/s1600/box+art.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTAOiXoqMhXJfUcmpsRQyIjTiAJCvGjXr2JRWaZdPXdq9GPB52SehHYFqPwzP-Xx2eraswc-1HE_ROA59_26lakl0fTnus2r-42oYg9v7JTRB1afQfRP555WchLP47vO642uvjD7NS3Q/s400/box+art.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Exploding Kittens is a card game designed by Elan Lee, Shane
Small and Matthew Inman from the comic “The Oatmeal”. This project is the wet
dream of anyone who has ever wanted to crowdfund a project. The original goal
was to raise 10,000 USD. Within minutes (literally minutes…) they had reached
their 10,000 USD goal. Then after 7 days they passed the 106,000 backer mark,
breaking the record for the most backers in Kickstarter history. By the end of
the Kickstarter campaign they had raised $8,782,571 USD in pledges by 219,382
backers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That’s a lot of money.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So after much designing, playtesting and sending out surveys
to their backers, they finally sent out the first batch of exploding kittens
all over the world. I myself received mine last week and have played several times since. So today I bring you my review of the game, focusing on what it has to offer, the gameplay experience, and the feel of the game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHAT IT HAS:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My version of the game comes with </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1) The rules of the game</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2) A regular exploding kittens deck (2 to 5 players)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3) A box to carry the game</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In addition to this I opted to buy an additional deck called the "NSFW deck" which can be played as a standalone deck, or by adding it to the regular deck to allow for more players (and more 'SPLOSIONS!). As you may imagine the "NSFW deck" has more... "adult" illustrations, but if you've ever read any comic on <a href="http://www.theoatmeal.com/" target="_blank">The Oatmeal</a> site, then you know what to expect.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The NSFW deck contains:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1) The rules of the game (including a guide on how to mix it with the regular deck)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2) An NSFW exploding kittens deck (2 to 5 players)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3) A box to carry the game</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">GAMEPLAY!</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The game describes itself as a "Russian roulette". You draw cards until you draw an exploding kitten, which then causes you to explode, losing the game in the process. You win the game by playing cards to either avoid drawing a card, or avoid death by kitty explosion.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The types of cards:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Exploding kittens</span>: The deck starts with a number of exploding kittens equal to one less than the number of players (4 exploding kittens for 5 players, 3 for 4, etc)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbjVU_MJ9jaTamrCaznHK1s1t65wH65jQH65111zWHLWNodj6JZawORbYuw1nbbjBHvILbWn1WGdOPHSsVuUyMzxXERQBmzu1z2MnADIWqWtgCd_ZmLEqRgf3dYbWkKdBGzdXKJb4tlw/s1600/Exploding+Kittens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbjVU_MJ9jaTamrCaznHK1s1t65wH65jQH65111zWHLWNodj6JZawORbYuw1nbbjBHvILbWn1WGdOPHSsVuUyMzxXERQBmzu1z2MnADIWqWtgCd_ZmLEqRgf3dYbWkKdBGzdXKJb4tlw/s400/Exploding+Kittens.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: lime;">Green cards</span>: These are the defuse cards, you use them to defuse the exploding kittens and avoid death by 'splosion. After successfully playing this card (see the red NOPE card) you may re-insert the exploding kitten ANYWHERE in the deck (which lends itself to some pretty nasty strategies).</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGFXHjMmB45Awj_Aci6EgjICteYMLm8wcQKTG1Fg7qY5wcEmeazypA5SCim8W62s1joQx7_QidlmvSvxr1A6_NVhiDLlvm6BFVIiN-qlcOdYyE2xLMr703Nfh9DKcCrqNUMoXGPt65gg/s1600/Defuse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGFXHjMmB45Awj_Aci6EgjICteYMLm8wcQKTG1Fg7qY5wcEmeazypA5SCim8W62s1joQx7_QidlmvSvxr1A6_NVhiDLlvm6BFVIiN-qlcOdYyE2xLMr703Nfh9DKcCrqNUMoXGPt65gg/s320/Defuse.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Blue Cards</span>: lets you skip a turn.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: magenta;">Pink Cards</span>: See the future by looking at the top 3 cards of the deck and returning them in the same order.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: orange;">Orange</span> cards: Attack cards. Lets you skip a turn and makes the next player take 2 turns.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #7f6000;">Brown cards</span>: These cards let you shuffle the deck before you draw a card.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Black cards: Favor cards let you choose another player and have him choose a card from his hand and give it to you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">Red cards</span>: The Nope card. This card negates any other card except for the exploding kitten </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and defuse cards</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, and may be played at anytime to stop another player from doing anything. MY FAVORITE TYPE OF CARD BY FAR.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRDptzoR0yCPnKA7aRelkje16RnW18IS07_PIApER_pDIFDrQ-SUsl8wxVHAJ_xc2POtFNicXKUVkCpzjWtm2uZJUfEe2WXG4_I6_tqjZwRd7pgGE0EWbDLZc8kl_ILFYsmKuAFmUFpQ/s1600/all+cards.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRDptzoR0yCPnKA7aRelkje16RnW18IS07_PIApER_pDIFDrQ-SUsl8wxVHAJ_xc2POtFNicXKUVkCpzjWtm2uZJUfEe2WXG4_I6_tqjZwRd7pgGE0EWbDLZc8kl_ILFYsmKuAFmUFpQ/s400/all+cards.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, that card does say "Don a portable cheetah butt"</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #674ea7;">Cat cards</span>: There are other cards with kitty-related illustrations. These cards do nothing on their own, but if played together (two of a kind, three of a kind, 5 different cards) they let you execute other advanced plays, like picking a card from your opponent's hand, or picking a card from the discard pile.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Everyone starts the game with 5 cards in their hand: 1 Defuse card, and 4 random cards from the deck. After the cards have been dealt, the remaining defuse cards and the exploding kittens are mixed with the rest of the cards, the deck is placed in the center of the table and the game can begin!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The game starts out at a moderate pace, and since everyone starts with a defuse card, everyone has a fair chance of not getting blow up in the first few rounds. But then as the deck becomes smaller, the impending doom becomes greater and greater. The tension builds up as players start exploding faster and faster, It's tons of fun because even when you blow up and lose you feel like you're having a great time!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>GENERAL OVERVIEW</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This game is fun. I tried it out at home, then with some friends at a party, and we had a blast. You could see the cards as simple colored cards, but it's way more fun to actually read the descriptions and appreciate the bizarre drawings on them. One of my favorite things is watching a person draw a card, and see how their face goes from a confused look to a snort and a laugh in a few seconds.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, about the nope card...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've mentioned before how much I love the nope card, but you have to experience the thrill that comes with playing one of these by yourself. Imagine it's down to just two of you and your friend draws a card. It's an exploding kitten. He plays it and tries to defuse it via a Catnip sandwich card. But then you slap your nope card on the table with a loud "NOPE!". He smiles cockily as the pulls out a SECOND defuse card, this time a "Cat therapy" card. He seems to have saved himself from the impending explosion but "NOPE!"... you had a SECOND nope card in your hand! Now he's done, defeated! BOOM!!! there goes the exploding kitten, and the game is yours!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So good... SO GOOD.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The game is very fast so you could play a good 3 or 4 rounds within an hour once everyone's familiarized with the rules and how to play. And learning the rules is really easy and fast. The game states that you'll spend 2 minutes learning to play, and 15 minutes playing it. I'd say this is pretty accurate.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Illustrations by Matthew Inman are simple yet hilariously comical. One has to wonder how he comes up with stuff like "A Butt tuba spelled backwards is still A butt tuba" and then make an illustration for that. But like I said before, if you are familiar with his comics then this is exactly what you'd expect from him. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As of right now only the backers of the Kickstarter campaign will receive copies of it, however the <a href="http://www.explodingkittens.com/" target="_blank">Exploding Kittens</a> website has put up a mailing list in case you'd like to be notified when new sets of the game are available for purchase.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Considering all of this, I would definitely recommend picking this game up once it's available for purchase. Take it to a party and play it with your friends, have a few drinks and enjoy the sillyness of this very unique game.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let me know what other products you would like to see me review next (If any). I'm working on a "Legend of the 5 rings RPG" review, on top of some other things, but I really welcome your feedback regarding this blog and I look forward to reviewing some other games for you, so if you have any favorites that you'd like to recommend to me, then leave a suggestion in the comment section below</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-40029817060953558752015-08-07T12:00:00.000-05:002015-08-07T13:22:20.932-05:00So you want to play Dungeons and Dragons...<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But Julio! – you say- I’ve never played Dee Enn Dee before! What’s
an Arr Pee Gee? You make it sound so fun and epic and I wish to learn more! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, my friends there’s a many ways I could describe how you
play D&D (or any other type of tabletop RPG). If you
can get together with some friends and play, that’s the best way to learn the
game. You need at least 4 (maybe 3) people to play the game, one of which needs
to act as a <a href="http://diceheadgaming.blogspot.com/2015/07/so-you-want-to-be-dungeon-master.html">Dungeon Master</a>. Groups could be bigger than that, although I would advise you to keep your groups below 6 or 7 players.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Basically, you and a group of friends will get together, and play out a story. One of you will be the "referee" or "judge", and the rest of you will play a part in the story. You will most likely use dice to determine how good your character is at doing the things he or she does, and you will keep your character's skills, strengths and weaknesses on a character sheet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Before you begin:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You should have a character creating session with your group, in which you will decide what type of hero or adventurer you will play. I'm assuming you already have the core book(s) for the game you want to play, these should have enough information for you to make the character you want to play.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After making your characters, you and your friends need to agree on what type of game you
want to play. If you leave this up to your DM, that’s fine, but it always helps
to give him an idea of what type of story you’d like to play. Or what type of
story your characters are going to be involved in for the duration of your
campaign or adventure. Keep in mind that an adventure can take months, and a
full-fledged campaign could take years to complete. So make sure to tell your
DM what makes your character want to be an adventurer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, with that in mind, here’s some tips for when you start
playing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwoslDnj8Nhd6xRAnKyq6ZBA8LmC5xsAwoMfqRGNeJLu38oz0d69C6UTHMeGtjaLCLWUxMuzXhcNsRL-ABDD9a8lcAzjgCRFLeWN5tEcWe3bjergb8M1J3ej7ez2KrtbOCPD2OrEyRfw/s1600/mom-i-told-you-were-playing-dungeons-and-dragons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwoslDnj8Nhd6xRAnKyq6ZBA8LmC5xsAwoMfqRGNeJLu38oz0d69C6UTHMeGtjaLCLWUxMuzXhcNsRL-ABDD9a8lcAzjgCRFLeWN5tEcWe3bjergb8M1J3ej7ez2KrtbOCPD2OrEyRfw/s400/mom-i-told-you-were-playing-dungeons-and-dragons.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fun fact: My mom was actually a pretty badass cleric in one of my sessions</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Be present<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The most important thing to remember when playing a tabletop
RPG, is to pay attention. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pay attention to what your DM is saying. He’s describing the
world around you, the actions of the people around you, and repercussions of
those actions. Failing to pay attention to the DM will cause him or her to have
to keep describing everything over and over again to you. After a while, this
becomes tiresome both for the DM and for the other players, it slows the game
down. And, as you will soon know, slowing the game down is the first of many things
you should avoid around a gaming table.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This should go without saying, but you should also pay attention
to what the other players say. They also play a (major) part in the story, just
like you. So, in the same way that you want people to listen to how great your
character is, you should listen to how awesome their characters are. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Know your character<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Look, everyone gets a free pass for the first few sessions.
But if it’s been 4 months, playing twice per month, and you STILL don’t know what
you should roll to hit with your weapon/spell/skill then your friends are going
to start to hate you, and eventually you might notice that your character will
be the focal point of all the enemies’ attacks (hint hint, your DM hates you too).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How do you avoid being that character? Well, get invested! There
are books that cover game mechanics that could help you get familiarized with
the game, but if you ask your friends and pay attention (See: Be Present) you
will have no problem remembering basic game mechanics after a few sessions. And
if your DM brought paper and pencils, you can also make quick notes on the “Notes”
part of your character sheet. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You could also grab a separate piece of paper and
keep a personal journal for your characters. Your Dungeon Master is (or should
be) absolutely obsessed with office supplies by now. So ask for a few loose pieces
of paper, a pencil and a stapler and boom, you now have a character journal, which
should help you out when trying to keep track of several details within the
game, character traits, equipment, plot points, you name it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And Finally:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Be nice<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No one gives up 4 to 6 hours of their weekend to have a bad
time. Be nice to the other players and your Dungeon Master. This is a group you will be meeting for
several days a month, and you guys should be able to at least get along. I’m
not going to give you a list of things you should or not say around a tabletop
RPG table, because common courtesies and good manners are learned at home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you’re nice, you’ll see how more and more people will
want to have you in their games.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you’re a douchebag, your DM will eventually take you
aside and politely tell you that he and the other players don’t want to play
with you anymore. On account of how much of a douche you are.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That’s it. Everything I just wrote can be summarized in
three simple points: Pay attention, know your character, and be nice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now that I’ve given some basic tips for new GMs and players,
I’ll leave the the next topic open to you guys. Last time I got two awesome and
very creative suggestions for future posts. “cat herding” and “What do I do if
my players want to be murderhobos?”</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think I'll address these suggestions/questions in a post where I'll talk about dealing with certain kinds of players. Until then, I hope you enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons, or any other type of Role Playing Game, and as always...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks for reading</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-31404404358661408002015-08-06T12:00:00.000-05:002015-08-06T12:58:58.629-05:00The lawless benefactor - Chaotic Good<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>- You know something Robin I was just wonderin'... Are we good guys or bad guys? You know... I mean... our robbin' the rich to feed the poor...</i></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- ROB?!? tsk tsk tsk that's a naughty word. We NEVER rob! We just... sort of borrow a bit from those who can afford it!</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Borrow? heh... boy are we in debt</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Chaotic Good</b>. The hero of the people, who opposes the law because laws are meant to be broken, tied to a horse, dragged around the streets naked, and then burnt while the newly freed people celebrate their hero.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chaotic Good is another one of those alignments that come up very often in a Roleplaying game, mostly because it's easier to roleplay someone who does not follow the rules. A true Chaotic Good character is not as simple as that though. From my point of view a Chaotic good character is very likely to turn Chaotic Evil, even more so than a Chaotic Neutral character. Crazy huh? Let me elaborate on that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A chaotic Good character will go out of his way to denounce and fight the inequities imposed by society and its laws. Why should there be kings that live in opulence when their people are starving? Why do people starve when there's more than enough food for everyone? Why am I threatened with jail time when all I've done is denounce the corruption of the state publicly with my opinion? Absolute power corrupts absolutely, so there should be no absolute power! Freedom is the right of all sentient beings! Let's take away from the rich and give to the poor! All these statements resonate very well with the Chaotic Good alignment. And each and everyone of them could lead down a very dangerous path, in which the line between good and evil is no longer clear, and the heroes become the villains by doing what they think is right, but ends up hurting more people than helping them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These characters usually have a hard time dealing with the aftermath of their revolutionary actions. Once the evil tyrant is gone, who's left to lead the people? you? Of course not, you don't believe in order. You believe in freedom and in doing everything you want to do regardless of what the world thinks of you. So why would you replace an Evil Tyrant's government system with another one that limits the freedom of the people you just saved?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">See? not so simple if you think about it!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not everything needs to be 1500 shades of grey though. So let's look at the positive side of this alignment</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chaotic Good characters have good intentions, possibly the best intentions, They are quite possibly the best type of heroes, since they act quickly and are very emphatic with the ones they want to save.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's the textbook definition of Chaotic Good:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A chaotic good character acts as his conscience directs him
with little regard for what others expect of him. He makes his own way, but
he's kind and benevolent. He believes in goodness and right but has little use
for laws and regulations. He hates it when people try to intimidate others and
tell them what to do. He follows his own moral compass, which, although good,
may not agree with that of society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chaotic good is the best alignment you can be because it
combines a good heart with a free spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chaotic good can be a dangerous alignment when it disrupts
the order of society and punishes those who do well for themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So that quote at the beginning should make it pretty obvious who we're going to add to the chart, right?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Drumroll...</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1S_Hvu3foM3EXtXbMDm_fVg6WRwd_a-kdH0mDm2rkHsNa0sLlDzFGwHzhp7W9RCM9dTnJvMX39XLIAutgR_YRmjbM-8xlFctsSQLBVOsT4dbDHqAH3qdO1uuSahoKyFjwJ5urKbCWlA/s1600/Chaotic+Good.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1S_Hvu3foM3EXtXbMDm_fVg6WRwd_a-kdH0mDm2rkHsNa0sLlDzFGwHzhp7W9RCM9dTnJvMX39XLIAutgR_YRmjbM-8xlFctsSQLBVOsT4dbDHqAH3qdO1uuSahoKyFjwJ5urKbCWlA/s400/Chaotic+Good.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PLOOOOT TWIST!!!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PFFFTTT!!! YOU THOUGHT I'D KEEP USING THE SAME TYPE OF TEASER/REVEAL ON EVERY POST!!! HAH!!! CHAOTIC GOODNESS DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR RULES!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ROW ROW, FIGHT THA POWAH!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Simon:</b> Force your way down a path YOU choose to take, and do
it all yourself! That's the way Team Dai-Gurren rolls! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Nia:</b> Even when trapped by karma's cycle... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Yoko:</b> The dreams we left behind will open the door! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Leeron:</b> Even if the universe stands against us... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Viral:</b> Our burning blood will cut through fate! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Simon:</b> We'll break through heavens and the dimensions! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>All:</b> And defy all who would stop us to grab hold of our
path! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Simon:</b> Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>All:</b> <b><span style="color: red;">JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?!</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">— Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8N-ZTIODI_D5IAJ_v3wyivGwxIaAOjga1b4NLUpPXUgWk8lZLgpWLkLkpDqgKuOO2JdOT9cUKNxCc5B31d6tZN1i2ByHaSEmBPgzf-87ViUaur8Dca4wGVwO6wZLMDhAujGWM-Yr_yg/s1600/Gurren-lagann-16-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8N-ZTIODI_D5IAJ_v3wyivGwxIaAOjga1b4NLUpPXUgWk8lZLgpWLkLkpDqgKuOO2JdOT9cUKNxCc5B31d6tZN1i2ByHaSEmBPgzf-87ViUaur8Dca4wGVwO6wZLMDhAujGWM-Yr_yg/s400/Gurren-lagann-16-.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fun fact: Kamina (The dude with the awesome cape) is Chaotic Good BIG TIME.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">TEAM DAI GURREN!!! AAAAAWWWW YYYEEEAAAAAAHHH!!!! ROW ROW FIGHT THA POWAH!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These guys are Chaotic Good to the core. If you haven't seen this anime I highly recommend it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks for reading</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-1077342305455144262015-08-05T12:00:00.000-05:002015-08-05T14:07:03.515-05:00The Hero - Neutral Good<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Hero - Neutral Good</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>*Notes from the Present: After
writing the entry for Lawful Good, I started working on Neutral Good, but then
life happened, and I lost interest in the project. What follows is completely
new material, fresh out the oven. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I
enjoyed writing it and doing research for it.</b></span><span style="color: #181818;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; line-height: 107%;"><b>"What do you mean?"
he said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning
whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a
morning to be good on?"</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Neutral Good, the alignment that most, if not all, of the
heroes we know from comic books, tv-shows and mainstream media tend to fall on.
What is Neutral Good in a nutshell? Well simply put: whoever chooses to do good
deeds, aid those who can’t fend for themselves, and at the same time does not fully
associate himself with the law. He does good because it’s the right thing to
do. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The man who stole the loaf of bread a couple of posts ago
was going through some hard times. A Neutral Good character would have more
than likely gone out of his way to buy a loaf of bread and give it to the man
before he committed the crime. They do not care who needs help, he or she will
help regardless of whether it’s done because it is dictated by society's morals or ethics or even the laws themselves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here’s what most player handbooks say about this alignment:</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;">Neutral
Good can be the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good
without bias for or against order. Neutral Good characters value freedom and
will protect others' freedom as long as it's not used to do harm.</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Understandably, this alignment can be confused a lot with Chaotic
Good, but a good way to set the two of them apart is remembering that Neutral
good is a lot more practical and a lot more moderate than Chaotic Good. Although both are led by a more internal
code of morality, rather than an external code or set of morals, Neutral good tends to stick to the safe and practical side of "doing good deeds". <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Simply put: If the Neutral Good character lives in a society
where the laws allow or help him to do what he believes is good. Then he will
abide by the law. However, if the laws impede them to do what they internally
find to be good, they will find no problem in breaking those laws. Only… you
know… not as extremely as Chaotic Good, who would not only save the children. They
would also go and burn the churches, kill the priests, hack the planet, boom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And here you see one of the problems with Alignments. When you need to define what is good and what is evil. Maybe your morals dictate that something that is good for someone else, is actually very twisted and evil for you. What is good? what is bad? what is love? baby don't hurt me... don't hurt me... no more...</span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SO! Who would be a good example? One who <span style="background: white;">Serves
kings and magistrates but is not beholden to them</span>, right?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;">Dumroll…</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsQSqMR_psJntyB4MrE9ib4-LY1XwHIfKuwjnUZkfySvEC9Ew5Obv2_ZIYGbXylChRHdeNarXdmLrbzV6WNxhR_v6p_0pBNPm4Kdbv-8FFWp4ezNeBV0rNhs4Zoef83l-zi_VoV6wFMg/s1600/Neutral+good.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsQSqMR_psJntyB4MrE9ib4-LY1XwHIfKuwjnUZkfySvEC9Ew5Obv2_ZIYGbXylChRHdeNarXdmLrbzV6WNxhR_v6p_0pBNPm4Kdbv-8FFWp4ezNeBV0rNhs4Zoef83l-zi_VoV6wFMg/s400/Neutral+good.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">He levels up by killing a Balrog in a 1v1 fight... also kind of a dick move since he shared NONE of the xp...</td></tr>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">GANDALF!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He does not stop to think about the laws of men, Hobbits,
Elves or Orcs when doing his duty as one of the Istari. He travels middle earth
doing good, even though his definition of good clashes with others like
Denethor, Théoden or Boromir. Who, let’s face it, were ALL doing what was good
by their own set of morals. Here’s Gandalf at his finest: with the most ominous
quote from the book and the movies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #181818; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Many that live deserve death. And some that
die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out
death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much
hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And
he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some
part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the
pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many - yours not least.”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background: white; color: #181818; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gandalf – The Fellowship of the Ring<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">If you google "Meaning of foreshadowing", you find that quote.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Thanks for reading! What do you think? Did I get it right? Was I HORRIBLY off-point in this one? leave a comment and tell me what you think!</span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-27672407208914499242015-08-04T12:00:00.001-05:002015-08-07T17:03:59.971-05:00The Paladin - Lawful Good<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 31.5pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 15.75pt;">“He could have tried.
He could have died. Old or young, a true knight is sworn to protect those who
are weaker than himself, or die in the attempt.”</b></h3>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Again… remember that
quote for me ok? ;)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 15.75pt;"> Lawful good… I
took my sweet time to write this because of several reasons. One: I wasn’t sure
which side of the chart I was going to cover after “Neutral”. Two: I don’t like
to play LG. Three: since I don’t like to play it… research was needed for this
one. Four: I wanted a true example of LG to fill the chart, but I also wanted
to have a woman as the example. Let’s face it, out of the whole hero
population; Lawful good female heroes are about 15% of it. But I found her, and
it’s funny because she was right under my nose. And thanks to that we don’t
have a sausage-fest in the chart anymore (I know… Treebeard is a tree, but his
voice is manly, so there) <b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">(Notes from the future: A wood joke... there was a wood joke here, and I missed it... </span></b></span><span style="line-height: 21px;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">DAMN</span></b></span><span style="line-height: 15.75pt;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> IT me from the past... DAMN IT)</span></b><span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A Lawful good
character lives by a code, a strong set of rules that define his actions. He or
she also believes that these rules exist to help those in need. To protect the
weak and uphold justice, honor and morality, while also being humane and kind
to those who need it, and ruthless to those who would violate the law and do
evil upon his fellow man/woman.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Now, how do we
avoid becoming “that paladin” who instead of Lawful Good just seems to be
“Lawful Stupid”?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The one that will
throw the party’s rogue into the hands of the authorities because he picked
some noble’s pocket to get the key they needed to save the slaves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The one that will
throw a sermon every single time anyone breaks the law, ANY LAW, at anytime,
anywhere, and even go as far to act as Judge, Jury, and Executioner on the spot
(Sound familiar? This is how Lawful Neutral USED to be played in the old days…
thankfully it’s been rewritten)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The one that decides he
needs to convince every single NPC of how good his deity is, to the point where
it’s impossible to start an adventure without some kind of conflict of ideas
between him and the quest giver.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ugh… yeah… that one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Basically we need to
keep this in mind: Characters of this alignment believe that an orderly, strong
society with a well-organized government can work to make life better for the
majority of the people. To ensure the quality of life, laws must be created and
obeyed. When people respect the laws and try to help one another, society as a
whole prospers. These characters strive for those things that will bring the
greatest benefit to the most people and cause the least harm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Keywords for
Lawful Good: Honor, Tradition, Justice, Fairness, and the needs of the
many outweighing the needs of the few.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 11.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> So… who’s going
up on the Lawful Good bracket on our chart? The same person who said those
words at the beginning of this post…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 11.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> *Drumroll*<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheQyEhZdZnsbezJx8Bzw7H5NMFd9N8ZxUkn9lxQiNGn61DW4jVSqqAD5KTef-R_H4rN8srAWXa8CDEXPoqbs0DlOKheJ8dY2y6ysvssuwclsQ-D4mg7zkYzzTTV23w0YrRYlGqgbDW2w/s1600/Lawful+good.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheQyEhZdZnsbezJx8Bzw7H5NMFd9N8ZxUkn9lxQiNGn61DW4jVSqqAD5KTef-R_H4rN8srAWXa8CDEXPoqbs0DlOKheJ8dY2y6ysvssuwclsQ-D4mg7zkYzzTTV23w0YrRYlGqgbDW2w/s400/Lawful+good.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coming very soon to a theater near you wearing Chrome Plated armor and an assault rifle...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 11.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Brienne
of Tarth!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin: 11.25pt 0in; outline: none 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Simply put: Brienne is a Knight in Shining Armor who is
willing to risk life and limb to fulfill an oath she has taken or to protect
innocent people, despite the fact that she lives in a Crapsack World dominated
by dishonorable or even outright evil men and gets little respect or glory for
it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin: 11.25pt 0in; outline: none 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Remember that scene in the Game of Thrones tv-series where she
faces a road bandit who has just threatened to rape her just as he did rape a
woman he left hanging from a noose on a tree… and after beating him in a sword
fight she shoves her sword straight up his rectum?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin: 11.25pt 0in; outline: none 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That… my friends… means Lawful good does not necessarily mean
“Lawful Nice”.<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin: 11.25pt 0in 0.0001pt; outline: none 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">*shudder*<span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin: 11.25pt 0in 0.0001pt; outline: none 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 15.75pt;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.75pt;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">*Notes from the future: </span></b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.75pt;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I mentioned before, this article is a bit dated, since Lawful goodness is no longer directly related to Paladinhood. Personally I like it a lot more the way it is now. An alignment should not be a straightjacket for character development. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!</span></b></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-49523332843076541222015-07-31T13:24:00.001-05:002015-07-31T13:25:26.024-05:00So you want to be a Dungeon Master<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You’ve played D&D. You have battled dragons, foiled
ambushes, stared down Demons and dueled several denizens of the Underdark and
lived to tell the tale. But there’s something different now. You like to play a
part in the story, but now only playing a part in it is not enough for you. You
want to be the judge, the moderator, the storyteller, the world builder. You
have seen your DM’s eyes as he lurks behind the screen, rolling dice, smirking
as you step on a trap, laughing as your face shows your disbelief when that NPC
turns out to be a vile traitor. It seems like he is constantly pulling the strings behind his screen… and that
appeals to you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You want to be the Dungeon Master.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ6yX5771g9sIaicuWLG81QK411elcDgLyecFFrKge2IvvZoRstNsiUohZC5yXeKT3wxXJo4DPwIQ0m54ZLTA4qdlSUjD_S-JEKZbWem59ctfuFQaxzRb0UpZLFyne7729y_fvyjJ_8A/s1600/Better+RPG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ6yX5771g9sIaicuWLG81QK411elcDgLyecFFrKge2IvvZoRstNsiUohZC5yXeKT3wxXJo4DPwIQ0m54ZLTA4qdlSUjD_S-JEKZbWem59ctfuFQaxzRb0UpZLFyne7729y_fvyjJ_8A/s640/Better+RPG.jpg" width="476" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Now witness the power of this fully operational MAGIC USER!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But what if you don’t remember all the rules? What if you’re
too hard on your players? What if you’re too soft? What if you mess everything
up and end up making the whole experience yet another one of those stories you
recount on game night, about that one DM who just couldn’t keep it together?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Allright, first of all… chill<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Being a Dungeon Master means, simply put, that you’ll come
up with a story that you and your friends around the table will play out. They
are the main characters in the story, and you get to narrate it with their
help. You will use some rules (depending on the type of game you’re playing)
and some narrative elements to convey the story to the best of your abilities. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You
will also do well to remember the following tips:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You’re a storyteller,
so tell a story about your players.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Among many other things (judge, babysitter, cat-herder) a
Dungeon Master is a storyteller. You tell a story, in which your players take
center stage. Their actions dictate what happens next at every turn. Taking
this into consideration it is in your best interest to make sure that the story
has some elements that relate to your friend’s characters. Things that make
them want to keep playing the game and make them become invested in their
characters. Before starting to create your story ask them questions about their
characters, what they want, where they come from, who their family was, how they
ended up adventuring, etc. This will help you make the story relate to your
players, and it will keep them coming back to your games for more adventuring
goodness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Make your stories about your players. If you don’t, they
might end up not wanting to play with you, and what is a Dungeon Master without
players?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Prep work, prep work,
prep work.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I cannot stress this enough. PREP WORK IS IMPORTANT. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a game where the Dungeon Master needs to feed off the
actions of the players, some improvisation will have to take place. However,
proper preparation before every game session is going to help you with the
pacing of your game, and slow pacing can kill a game. This is ESPECIALLY true
if it’s your first time DMing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Look at how many encounters you could be having within a
session. Write down a few notes including the AC, HP, and attacks of the
creatures in those encounters. You could also roll their initiatives before the
session, and keep those in your notebook. Make a quick sketch of the main areas
you will be visiting during your session. Keep those maps in your notebook as
well (your notebook is love, your notebook is life). If you’re going to use
traps, these are encounters too, so write down how much damage a character
would receive from these traps and their corresponding DC or Target Number.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After you run your first session, you’ll notice something
was missing. There’s always something that you forget to write down, and stops
the flow of play. Take note of that, and remember to write that down for your
next session.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gaming Supplies:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Make sure you have: Spare paper, enough pencils for
everyone, a pencil sharpener, some erasers, a personal notebook (this notebook
is your life, try not to lose it) and dice, TONS and TONS of dice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now that you have raided the local [YOUR OFFICE SUPPLIES
STORE’S NAME COULD BE HERE! GIVE ME YOUR MONEY!] you are now ready to create a
world with a compelling story, or a Dungeon filled with traps and treasure, or
an Epic encounter with an Evil Dragon riding Overlord.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But wait… what about…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvpAO63R5BMj5YKakAxMWaWR-c71SEG6oLTQ8xRuDFQNQEXkiyqQlgewMryawrC9h5JGKKwdR8E9LodpHT1ZS91pEZmVQxKEaZ6nl541Oxw_wH8B-mPlZOljAM-qaRQvsWSi2Ja15Xlg/s1600/Da-yellow-rules.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvpAO63R5BMj5YKakAxMWaWR-c71SEG6oLTQ8xRuDFQNQEXkiyqQlgewMryawrC9h5JGKKwdR8E9LodpHT1ZS91pEZmVQxKEaZ6nl541Oxw_wH8B-mPlZOljAM-qaRQvsWSi2Ja15Xlg/s320/Da-yellow-rules.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DA RULES!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> WHAT ABOUT THE RULES?</b></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Up until now this small article might have sounded very
generic to most DnD players, but here’s where my personal take on Game
Mastering comes in. By now I’m assuming you’ve played your game of choice at
least a few times. So you understand at least the basics of the game. Here’s
the rules that you, as a DM, REALLY need to know:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Combat Rules<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Skill checks<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that’s it. Once you have a strong grip on those, you’re
good to go. Yes, seriously, that’s it. You don’t need to know each and every
single rule of the book, just the general ones. Want to know why? Because your
players will learn and use every single specific rule that pertains to their
characters, and they will constantly remind you of them, to the point where you
will end up memorizing their spells, keeping count of how many more times they
can use a certain attack maneuver, or even what the skill modifier for their
most used skill is. This is a thing that happens around every table, and it
will make your job a lot easier. And if by chance, one of your players wants to
do something absolutely ridiculous that sounds awesome and fun, but that is
somehow not covered in the rules, just say “Yeah, sure”. Assign a skill check
to what he wants to do and narrate what happens accordingly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And those are the basics. With a few games under your belt
you’ll start developing your own way of running a game. And in time, you could
become one of those DMs that everyone talks about, because of how great games
are around their table.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Next week (Possibly
every Friday from now on) I’ll be going into more specific situations that may
arise around an RPG table. Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to know
about DMing (or playing) an RPG and I’ll work on an article about it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks for reading</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07322914551574432072noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028464150302962324.post-52264855802760171192015-07-30T12:00:00.000-05:002015-07-30T12:00:01.080-05:00The free spirit - Chaotic Neutral<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 31.5pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 27pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #674ea7;">The free spirit -
Chaotic Neutral</span><span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“Me? I’m dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to
be dishonest. Honestly. ”</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 11.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Remember that
quote ;)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ah… Chaotic
Neutral. Have you ever had a party in which EVERYONE started out with Chaotic
Neutral characters? Yes? I don’t think anyone who’s played 3rd Edition DnD
could say No to that question.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;">Chaotic Neutral
means you’re absolutely free from the dictates of Law and tradition, while also
never defining yourself as good or evil. </span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 15.75pt;">This alignment
looks very attractive to any new players who are unsure what to choose for
their alignment. And honestly, who can blame them? This is what the Player’s
Handbook says: </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“Chaotic neutral is the best alignment you can be because it represents true
freedom from both society’s restrictions and a do-gooder’s zeal.”</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who wouldn’t
want that??<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And I won’t
blame you for wanting to play this alignment after you finish Reading this
post. The real problem with playing a TRULY Chaotic Neutral character in an
adventuring party is that CN characters are not the best team players. They
follow their whims. They are individualists first and last. Their freedom
(THEIR freedom) is the most important thing and will always be their
driving force. I have ONE player in my party who is chaotic neutral and plays
it PERFECTLY (Kike, if you’re reading this, I’m just gonna say this: either
you’re gonna get us all killed, or you’re going to make US kill you. Keep it up
buddy :D) </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>(Notes from the future: Surprise surprise, he didn't kill us, but we were very close to killing him, several times XD)</b></span><span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ae4W30tolFM4cW5EqO5c-1MKfATW_T9P9CaQvOCqslU80D9Haif-xB17uy2bX1i8wtwaC5x3jqjeRZy_gDXlDIb4AoPa3rOkYZF5WUSFEat1FoKz9gaEVgamTdZypk0R57DKPBAnxA/s1600/Chaotic+Neutral.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;">Disorder,
chaos, anarchy, freedom. Those are the key words behind a Chaotic Neutral
character.<br />
<br />
Now for the chart! Remember the quote at the beginning? if you recognized who
says that then you already know The poster-boy for Chaotic Neutral is…<br />
<br />
Drumroll…</span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 15.75pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEIPjh9mDxDvEk0afyRXrfhuNFzirew1vefYVqSgECyNyTPk6unGKmyvwyA2gbpTRv9FjndntG83ckwmZDz3G_OzDcTVuhPmDWzUYAO6SD6UaGtoJPtSpEWwlp9pOTY77VRwRrx7lyXw/s1600/Chaotic+Neutral.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEIPjh9mDxDvEk0afyRXrfhuNFzirew1vefYVqSgECyNyTPk6unGKmyvwyA2gbpTRv9FjndntG83ckwmZDz3G_OzDcTVuhPmDWzUYAO6SD6UaGtoJPtSpEWwlp9pOTY77VRwRrx7lyXw/s400/Chaotic+Neutral.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Take all you can, give nothin' back</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 15.75pt;">Captain Jack
Sparrow!</span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 15.75pt;">Seriously, I
could have titled this post: Captain Jack Sparrow - Chaotic Neutral, and then
write a bunch of Pirates of the Caribbean quotes…</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt; padding: 0in;"><i>Like this one</i><b>: </b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #444444; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><b>Elizabeth</b></span>:
Whose side is Jack on?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #444444; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><b>Will Turner</b></span>:
At the moment?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt; padding: 0in;"><i>Or this one</i><b>:</b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #444444; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><b>Jack Sparrow</b></span>:
[Wakes up and sees Elizabeth burning the rum] No! Not good! Stop! Not good!
What are you doing? You burned all the food, the shade… the rum.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #444444; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><b>Elizabeth</b></span>:
Yes, the rum is gone.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #444444; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><b>Jack Sparrow</b></span>:
Why is the rum gone?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #444444; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><b>Elizabeth</b></span>:
One: because it is a vile drink that turns even the most respectable men into
complete scoundrels. Two: that signal is over a thousand feet high. The entire
Royal Navy is out looking for me. Do you really think there is even the
slightest chance they won’t see it?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #444444; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><b>Jack Sparrow</b></span>:
But why is the rum gone?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt; padding: 0in;"><i>And most importantly… this one</i><b>:</b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #444444; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><b>Jack Sparrow</b></span>:
I love this song. Really bad eggs. Ooh.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[falls]<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #444444; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><b>Jack Sparrow</b></span>:
When I get the Pearl back, I’m gonna teach it to the whole crew, and we’ll sing
it all the time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #444444; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><b>Elizabeth</b></span>: And
you’ll be positively the most fearsome pirates in the Spanish Main.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #444444; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><b>Jack Sparrow</b></span>:
Not just the Spanish Main, love. The entire ocean. The entire wo'ld. Wherever
we want to go, we’ll go. That’s what a ship is, you know. It’s not just a keel
and a hull and a deck and sails, that’s what a ship needs but what a ship is…
what the Black Pearl really is… is freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br />
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<b><span lang="ES-PA" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #444444; font-size: 10.5pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Sea
Turtles mates… Sea Turtles.</i></span></span></b><span lang="ES-PA" style="color: #444444; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-PA; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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