Last time we saw Christopher Hitchens debate Al Sharpton. This time Hitchens debates Alister McGrath who is an Oxford theologian. The quality of the discourse from McGrath is a bit more sophisticated than Sharpton’s vainglorious tripe.

Here’s the debate between Christopher Hitchens and Al Sharpton at the New York Public Library that we were talking about last night. It’s long at 1.5 hours, but there are shortcuts to chapters.

Also, here’s Neil DeGrasse Tyson (esp Session 2) and many illuminating others at the Beyond Belief 2006 conference.

And here’s the ABC Masters of Science Fiction.

This guy’s comic series is spot-on in illustrating how a typical RPG plays out. He describes the strip thusly:

Lord of the Rings is more or less the foundation of modern D&D. The latter rose from the former, although the two are now so estranged that to reunite them would be an act of savage madness. Imagine a gaggle of modern hack-n-slash roleplayers who had somehow never been exposed to the original Tolkien mythos, and then imagine taking those players and trying to introduce them to Tolkien via a D&D campaign.

It’s more of a commentary on RPGs than Tolkien. Some of the topics are specific to D&D, like grappling, attacks of opportunity, useless skills, the battle grid; while others are more general, like the role of loot, quest hooks, quoting Python and Princess Bride in-game, drawing maps, paying attention, plot railroading, party personnel changes.

Here’s the first comic strip, and the index so far.

I think it’s Patton Oswalt in this video clip from Reno 911.

23rd Dravago – Sul Day

With the Greater Amulet of Focus, a forbidden Warforged Creation Schema, three mercenaries, including the loyal Vart, lots of loot, and a Spell Powered Airship, the party, with Sebben at the helm, flew to Sharn, arriving after dark. After dealing with a couple of greedy city guards, Sebben noticed that a neighbor, Hank was taking keen interest in their Airship. Sebben agreed to hire Hank to keep the Airship disguised. Elwynn headed off to the Temple of Onatar, and discovered that there seemed to be some kind of zombie plague within the city. She assisted the local clergy with a restoration spell on the worst looking infected gnome. All those who were sick looked like adventurers of some sort.

Meanwhile, back at the Airship, Sebben used silent image to disguise the treasure chest, and Wedge and Tilkha carried the chest into Sebben’s apartment, avoiding a minor disruption by a friendly neighbor, Mrs. McGillicuddy. Sebben decided to rest the night, while Tilkha and Wedge traveled toward the Temple of Onatar to catch up with Elwynn. After revealing what she had learned, Elwynn, Wedge and Tilkha headed off to the graveyard to investigate the recent strange occurrences. They discovered, in a mausoleum, an intelligent seeming swarm of undead rats. Elwynn turned the creatures, but any damage done to them by Wedge or Tilkha seemed to heal after a short while. Wedge jammed the door, and the party returned to the temple. A guard, Gildash, told the group that Palan, the head of the Onatar temples in Sharn, was due back tomorrow. The party recognized the name Palan as the dwarf that Kotrorin and company said was their alternate contact. The party went off to sleep at Sebben’s apartment.

(more…)

Here’s a site with a bunch of fake RPG motivational posters. Some are geared toward MMORPGs (World of Warcraft, et al.), but most speak to RPGs generally.

After being on the road for a span, it’s good to be back home. It’s not often that I get to see Sharn from the sky, and approaching the City of Towers was a memorable sight. I’m often reminded that city life is the life for me. It’s not that I mind the wilderness, in fact, it always proves to be a source of at least mild interest. But only in a city as cosmopolitan as Sharn can one find a gnome mourning the death and subsequent undeath of an ogre. You just never know what to expect.

That can also be a drawback. For someone in my discipline, the unexpected presents a particular challenge. While wizards typically enjoy a broad assortment of spells from which to choose, being well informed is required to ensure the apropriate spells are prepared. Furthermore, the procurement of that information must be timely. I must remember in the future to perform due reconnaissance.

Yet, even with proper preparation, my spell pool is quite shallower than those of my peers. My experiences in recent weeks have been exhilarating and edifying. However, I am a scholar, and the breadth of my knowledge depends entirely on my ability to resume my academic pursuits. My study is imperative, not only for my own erudition, but for my commitment to my companions to be as useful as possible.

Sleep has been restless. My dreams have been haunted by a foreboding of my own invention. When my companions’ lives depend on my arcane powers, will I have the necessary knowledge at the ready, or will they suffer by my incapacity?

From now through the end of the campaign, you can earn bonus experience points. Between sessions, if you post a session report, or email me privately regarding the “goings on” of your character, you will earn bonus experience points.

For a session report, you will earn 50 XP per your current level. Thus, if you are 5th level, you will earn 250 XP for each session report.

If you happen to email me on what your character is thinking or what your character wants to do, you will earn experience points. The amount of this experience will be directly linked to how much it shapes the adventure. Thus, giving me plot hooks is good. I have not determined a “formula” for this, but it will be comparable to the session reports, perhaps even more lucrative.

DMN

You’ve noticed that Tilkha has been even more restless and touchier than usual of late.  She seems more troubled than usual, and slightly distant most of the time, as if a part of her mind is not fully engaged with the here and now.  As you bedded down in the church that first night you discovered the zombie rats in the cemetery, you hear her talking to herself.  She appears to be asleep:

“Ah, again another hazy vision of my past.  I’d almost rather nothing than these disjointed bits and pieces.  What’s this one, then?  Hmmm…  A koan I seem to recall learning at temple: Nunchuks are diplomacy by an alternate means.

Well, I guess I’m living proof of that one…

This is such a strange existence.  I can recall only shredded bits of my past yet I seem to have almost flawless skill at my chosen profession – one which I know requires intense study and concentration.  I occasionally catch fleeting glimpses of disconnected events which seem to suggest a more tranquil life, if one nonetheless spent in quiet preparation for violence.  Yet, I often experience sudden rages and nearly uncontrollable urges to do harm (thank the gods that I get plenty of opportunity to exorcise those demons.through adventuring!)

And, though I spend a great deal of time with my party of fellow adventurers, they’re virtually complete strangers to me.

Sebben:
Something of a puzzle.  His attitude seems to be improving and he’s certainly contributing more and more to the party’s success.  Sometimes, I even regret smacking the little guy way back when (though I can’t help but wonder if that might not have been.a factor in his turnaround).  But, still, useful or no, he has no honor!  It’s hard to stomach adventuring with a person who’s so afraid of danger and so willing to risk the lives of his fellows while so unwilling to risk his own.

Wedge:
A big, cuddly brute of a guy who can sure pack a whack when he connects but, gods!, who taught him how to fight?!  He’s as likely to whiff as he is to splat.  I call him Old Rolling Rock.  Mr. 3 and 3.  And defense?  He’s like some streetwalker who can’t decide whether to flash one nipple or two.  Today I’ll use my shield.  No I won’t.  Yes I will.  No I won’t.  Do I want my adamantine armor?  Maybe I do.  Maybe I don’t.  It’s nice and shiny but not shiny enough.  And may the gods have mercy on us if we let him talk to any one!  He’s as likely to tell them the color of his codpiece as the time of day.  If I tell him not to let on that we’re on a classified mission for the king, the first thing he’ll do is paint a crown on his shield and tell one and all to make way for the Royal Secret Police!

Elwyn:
She’s a cutie alright and I’ve never been one to turn away any hottie regardless of sex or race.  But you’ve just gotta wonder if she’s really as goody-two-shoes as she tries to come off.  She sure seems to get her rocks off when it comes to dusting undead.  And the way she talks about Pelor and brandishes that big ol’ holy book makes me believe that, when she’s alone and behind closed doors, she’s flipping through the pics of Pelor with one hand while the other is doing some funky “turning” in her nether garments.  Plus, she’s got a touch of Wedge-mouth, too.

Vart:
What a peach!  Don’t it figure that to find a good man you have to pay him!  Still, this one certainly gives you your money’s worth and stays bought.  He’s been more consistently valuable in combat than any of the others, not to mention more reliable.  I know he’s always got my back.  If only I could tell if it was always going to be a purely mercenary relationship…

Ah, this life is so tedious and frustrating.  Will I never know my past?  Will I never know my destiny?!  I must avenge myself on who- or whatever did this to me!”

At that, she muttered a few more unintelligible syllables and then dropped off into a light, restless sleep.

All,

If you hadn’t noticed, I tried a few new things this week.

1. The non-use of a battle map for the first time.

2. Players rolling dice for NPC battles.

For item 1, my reasoning was that I was expecting a couple of battles in different locations due to the PCs being separated, and didn’t want to give anything away. It also, in my opinion, made things easier. I really like tactical combat, and like using miniatures and battlemats, and will continue to use them in the future, but I felt for these encounters it would take up too much space, and too much time. What do you think of this approach?

For item 2, I had started rolling dice for the first round of combat, and actually completed it, before I realized how much time it would take, and that you all would be extremely bored waiting for your PCs to “arrive” to take part. So I turned to die rolling over to you, and I think it worked. There was an “us” against “them” mentality for you guys that seemed right. How’d you all feel about it?

DMN

This post is primarily for Sebben, as I think I ruled something during last session incorrectly, and I would like to correct it going forward.

The ruling was that you could retrieve a spell just cast using an action point. This is correct. However, I adjudicated that Sebben could spend an action point to retrieve his spell rounds later once the ray actually hit. This was wrong.

I should have ruled that, upon casting, he could retrieve the spell using an action point immediately (per the rule), but he just could not spend a second action point that turn to increase his “To Hit” chances (only allowed 1 action point per turn). In subsequent rounds, he then could have then used an action point to increase the “To Hit” chances for the ray’s touch attack.

Comments? Questions?

Secrets revealed.

This would sell.

The theme is Heights…

Slitherin’

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=253565

Wutherin’

http://www.unseelie.org/rpg/wh/index.html

 

Using the recently acquired cipher, I’ve decrypted the message from the rubbing as:

insertfacesayplease

The code in the outpost journal translates to:

placehandutterstash

and

putfootstatehelp

Don’t forget “You monkey bastard!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9_m_m8C-QA

Do these guys remind you of anybody?  (Not us, of course…)

http://www.consimworld.com/archives/000806.html

I spoke with my webhost today and they said that there was a hardware failure on the server that Dire Finch is on. They had to rollback the database to a backup from 2/9. What that means for you is that if you wrote a post, draft, or comment between yesterday and this afternoon, it is lost. There’s no getting it back. You’ll have to write it again. If you didn’t do any of those things in that period of time, you’re safe.

I have been misleading you on this full-round action (Full Attack).  See below for details from the srd (the hyperlinks will take you to the srd):

Full Attack

If you get more than one attack per round because your base attack bonus is high enough, because you fight with two weapons or a double weapon or for some special reason you must use a full-round action to get your additional attacks. You do not need to specify the targets of your attacks ahead of time. You can see how the earlier attacks turn out before assigning the later ones.

The only movement you can take during a full attack is a 5-foot step. You may take the step before, after, or between your attacks.

If you get multiple attacks because your base attack bonus is high enough, you must make the attacks in order from highest bonus to lowest. If you are using two weapons, you can strike with either weapon first. If you are using a double weapon, you can strike with either part of the weapon first.

Deciding between an Attack or a Full Attack

After your first attack, you can decide to take a move action instead of making your remaining attacks, depending on how the first attack turns out. If you’ve already taken a 5-foot step, you can’t use your move action to move any distance, but you could still use a different kind of move action.

Fighting Defensively as a Full-Round Action

You can choose to fight defensively when taking a full attack action. If you do so, you take a -4 penalty on all attacks in a round to gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC for the same round.

Cleave

The extra attack granted by the Cleave feat or Great Cleave feat can be taken whenever they apply. This is an exception to the normal limit to the number of attacks you can take when not using a full attack action.

 My incorrect interpretation was that you could not take a 5-foot step with the full attack action.  My bad.  Consider this a change to the way we’ve been doing things, and I now allow a 5-foot step using a full attack action. 

In addition, I have ruled that Wedge, with his Great Cleave Feat, can take as many 5-foot steps to continue to drop his enemies using this Feat.  This “House Rule” is still in effect.

I’ve noticed that there is a lot of confusion about these two very different actions, and I would like to explain the differences.  From the srd (the hyperlinks take you to the online srd):

READY ACTION:

The ready action lets you prepare to take an action later, after your turn is over but before your next one has begun. Readying is a standard action. It does not provoke an attack of opportunity (though the action that you ready might do so).

Readying an Action

You can ready a standard action, a move action, or a free action. To do so, specify the action you will take and the conditions under which you will take it. Then, any time before your next action, you may take the readied action in response to that condition. The action occurs just before the action that triggers it. If the triggered action is part of another character’s activities, you interrupt the other character. Assuming he is still capable of doing so, he continues his actions once you complete your readied action. Your initiative result changes. For the rest of the encounter, your initiative result is the count on which you took the readied action, and you act immediately ahead of the character whose action triggered your readied action.

You can take a 5-foot step as part of your readied action, but only if you don’t otherwise move any distance during the round.

Initiative Consequences of Readying

Your initiative result becomes the count on which you took the readied action. If you come to your next action and have not yet performed your readied action, you don’t get to take the readied action (though you can ready the same action again). If you take your readied action in the next round, before your regular turn comes up, your initiative count rises to that new point in the order of battle, and you do not get your regular action that round.

Distracting Spellcasters

You can ready an attack against a spellcaster with the trigger “if she starts casting a spell.” If you damage the spellcaster, she may lose the spell she was trying to cast (as determined by her Concentration check result).

Readying to Counterspell

You may ready a counterspell against a spellcaster (often with the trigger “if she starts casting a spell”). In this case, when the spellcaster starts a spell, you get a chance to identify it with a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell level). If you do, and if you can cast that same spell (are able to cast it and have it prepared, if you prepare spells), you can cast the spell as a counterspell and automatically ruin the other spellcaster’s spell. Counterspelling works even if one spell is divine and the other arcane.

A spellcaster can use dispel magic to counterspell another spellcaster, but it doesn’t always work.

Readying a Weapon against a Charge

You can ready certain piercing weapons, setting them to receive charges. A readied weapon of this type deals double damage if you score a hit with it against a charging character.

DELAY ACTION:

By choosing to delay, you take no action and then act normally on whatever initiative count you decide to act. When you delay, you voluntarily reduce your own initiative result for the rest of the combat. When your new, lower initiative count comes up later in the same round, you can act normally. You can specify this new initiative result or just wait until some time later in the round and act then, thus fixing your new initiative count at that point.

You never get back the time you spend waiting to see what’s going to happen. You can’t, however, interrupt anyone else’s action (as you can with a readied action).

Initiative Consequences of Delaying

Your initiative result becomes the count on which you took the delayed action. If you come to your next action and have not yet performed an action, you don’t get to take a delayed action (though you can delay again).

If you take a delayed action in the next round, before your regular turn comes up, your initiative count rises to that new point in the order of battle, and you do not get your regular action that round.

I hope this helps.  The main difference between the two is that the player is informing the DM about a specific action to be taken under certain conditions (Readied Action) vs delaying their turn in the initiative order completely, without any specific instructions (Delay Action). 

If there is anything that is confusing, or if you have any questions, then let me know via comments.

There’s a review of Monte Cook Presents: Iron Heroes over at Slashdot.

I just found a handy reference for Action Points, check it out.

We’ve violated the part in there about only using 1 action point per round, but for that application (saving throws), I’m ok with it. Plus, there is a penalty associated with it, so it’s balanced. As for multiple “Action Points” use for other types of actions, I’ll take them on a case by case basis. I’ll probably allow it, as I want you to use (up) your action points ;-).

Let me know what you think?

I’ve added a feature to the site so that you can preview your comments as you type them. It’s not a rich text editor, but if you want to style your text, you can mark it up with the appropriate HTML and it will display appropriately immediately. Feel free to try it out by commenting on this post.

I’ve upgraded the site from WordPress 1.5.8 to 2.0. The external view of the site should not change at all. In the admin side, there are some nice changes. The presentation is cleaner and more Web 2.0-like. Much of it takes advantage of JavaScript (AJAX, more specifically), so make sure you have JavaScript enabled in your browser options to see it shine. The one place that improvements will be most visible and relevant to the rest of you is the “Write Post” screen. There’s a rich text editor that you use like MS Word, so you won’t have to deal with the code anymore.

For a more detailed explanation of the changes, refer to this article.

Check out the Files Page for the Risild’r Outpost documents. You might just need a decoder…

Feel free to comment under this Post on any ideas.

DMN

The second day with my new companions has proven to be most arduous indeed. We have come upon an encampment of mercenaries who have been stranded within the ruins of an ancient city. It seems these mercenaries know something of my companions – they were on the lookout for them and this is something I find disturbing. We captured two of of the mercenaries during their normal patrol and we questioned them thorougly, but the questions I heard answered did not fully make sense since the mission of my companions remained unknown to me. I attempted to ask the Gnome, Sebben, to fill me in on some details of the party’s business and was able to gain some understanding as to why they have come to this place. But there are still more questions that need answering. None of the group seems particularly trustworthy and of the three with whom I’ve taken up with, the only one I trust is the Gnome and only because the others are even more elusive. The one man – Wedge they called him – seems to have a strange affection for trees. I assumed he was an arborist but I think that may be a bit off the mark. He doesn’t speak much and when he does it seems mostly battle-hardened advice. But he is a sturdy fellow and likely the strongest of the group and so he serves as protector when things turn bad. He is not one that I would want to anger with a direct line of questions about their mission. I simply do not trust Tilkha. It’s more than the orc blood in her that bothers me. Although years of pointless border skirmishes with the orcs west of Pelos has left me feeling little pity for these miserable creatures, it goes well beyond this. She seems to harbor a bitterness that defies reason and her anger has recently turned to blood. I understand the world – especially this world, is dangerous and does not allow the forgiveness of all trespassers. But defenseless creatures who have given up the fight deserve more than the quick stroke of the blade. I’ve begun to wonder if the rescue from the Gnolls has put me in an even more dire predicament. But I have no choice… I cannot find my way to the City of Towers safely by myself. I must trust these companions as much as I dare. Further we will delve into the ruins – I pray that Pelor will see us safely to the end of this journey.

Thanks to a generous donation by Kostas (um… I mean a traveler from a distant land), I was given some recent issue Dragon Magazines to read. One of the more interesting articles was about verbal spell components (most spells have a verbal component). Most of us don’t bother to roleplay the verbal component (which is never really fully specified). It could be a trigger word or phrase but mostly we ignore it (or say something generic like “may the power of Pelor heal these wounds”). The article talked about using fantasy language generators to add a little flair to your spell casting. For example, the fictional language Quenya (invented by J.R.R. Tolkien and used heavily in the Lord of the Rings) has the following dictionary entries:

FIRE nár
BALL coron

So a fireball could be cast by the fictional keyword Coronnár! One nice bonus of choosing and sticking with a fantasy language is that spells with common words would have similar sounding fantasy words. For example, ‘Wall of Fire’ would be Rambanár (literally, Wall-Fire). It wouldn’t take players long to know that when they hear Coronnár they should duck.

For anyone interested in putting a bit more flair into their verbal spell components, you can browse a huge list of invented languages here (some have word translators, some have wordlists and dictionaries):

http://www.langmaker.com/db/mdl_a2z_index.htm

Someone made a fantasy board game made with Legos.

When I was about 12, my friends and I wrote game rules for a bunch of movies we liked and used Legos for the settings and characters. We must have created ten games based on movies. The ones I remember best were The Untouchables, Ran, A View to a Kill, Star Wars, and Blue Thunder.