Year: 2010 (page 11 of 73)

Enough Hours

November 11, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Hourglass

There are twenty-four hours in a day. Let’s be generous and say the average adult sleeps for 7 of those hours. You’re going to need to eat, too, so let’s allot an hour for each meal. That gives us fourteen hours to work with. Fourteen hours seems like a lot of time, doesn’t it? But if you work at an office, you need to get to and from it. There’s a couple hours there. Even if you don’t, there will be tasks necessary to maintain your living space that need doing, taking up another hour or two. The more you think about it, the less available time you have.

There simply aren’t enough hours in the day for us to do what we want on top of what we need.

In the interest of not taking up any more of your time than necessary today, I admonish you to make the most of what time you have. If you want to be a writer, write. Want to be a game designer? Make a game, or at least play something critically. Don’t just lounge on the couch poking the buttons to make the mobs go boom – examine the game and its mechanics, see what works and what doesn’t, find the triggers for the player to become involve and ask yourself why they’re there. Extra Credits has more.

This isn’t to say you need to fill every available hour with work. We as human beings do need our relaxation and decompression time. Not to mention exercise. So go for a walk, play with the kitten, call a friend, watch a movie, masturbate. It’s all about moderation. If you do nothing but write all day, you’ll likely go mad. If you do nothing but whack it all day… well, they say you’ll go blind, but mostly you’ll just have a hard time sitting due to all of the chafing.

It’s a sad state of affairs when we need to do more to pay our bills that takes us away from that which makes us fulfilled. I’m sure some people love flipping burgers or shoveling gravel, but others fill that time mentally being somewhere else, doing something more interesting. Despite the apparent success of some blatantly talentless people, the individual who has the gumption and wherewithal to pursue a passion to the point of profession is rare. Most of us schlubs work a profession to keep ourselves fed and pursue our passion in what spare time we can spare between dodging phone calls and pounding the porpoise.

Enough philosophical wanking, I need to get back to work.

Welcome to Scrivener: Getting Started

November 10, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Scrivener in Action

Since I was asked…

scriv·en·er (skrv-nr, skrvnr)
n.
1. A professional copyist; a scribe: “Gutenberg’s invention of movable type . . . took words out of the sole possession of monastic scriveners and placed them before the wider public” (Irvin Molotsky).
2. A notary.

Last week I gave an introduction to and brief overview of Scrivener. For reasons yet unexplained, I cannot get Scrivener working on my main PC at home. However, a version of the program works rather well on my Xubuntu-powered laptop. So I worked on importing my manuscript of Citizen in the Wilds into the program.

Scrivener can import and manipulate a wide variety of text files. Since the software includes a fully-featured text editor all its own, any formatting in the document will be preserved. It won’t carry over page breaks, and there’s a specific reason for this. Working with your writing in Scrivener has less to do with page length and chapter and really focuses on the organization and manipulation of your ideas.

Importing a file is very straightforward. Under the File menu, pick Import followed by Import Files. Select your text file and presto, it’s in Scrivener.

Once your draft is imported, you can drag it into the “Drafts” folder. From there it’s a matter of slicing it up. To make the ideas, scenes and narratives easier to understand and manipulate, you’ll want to seperate them. Find good places to break in the action, when the scene changes or the characters move on to a new topic, go to the Documents menu, mouse over Split and choose either Split at Selection to create a fresh document or Split With Selection as Title to have that fresh document begin with a particular word or phrase.

The week has been somewhat hectic and this is about as far as I’ve gotten with the manipulation of Citizen in Scrivener. But there will be more to come, specifically how the search option helps me look for repetition, the rearranging and dropping of story points and the power of inclusive editing.

Stay tuned.

Opening the Monster Vault

November 9, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Courtesy Worlds of D&D
Image courtesy Worlds of D&D

The adventures of our intrepid heroes in the Nentir Vale will continue, probably when Melanie Goodmelon’s player returns from vacation in New Orleans. In the meantime, Andrasian’s player and myself happened across a great discovery. Not due out for another week to most retailers, a local store got a copy of Wizards of the Coast’s Monster Vault, part of the Essentials line of Dungeons & Dragons products that also includes the Red Box. Having seen Greg Tito’s excellent unboxing video over on the Escapist, we decided to pick it up.

It’s an unfortunate truth that we, like many gaming groups out there, are on a budget. Big heavy books and supplements add up quickly. And miniatures? Forget about it. Unless you’re heavily invested in playing a miniatures game and have the time and skill to paint the little plastic or pewter bastards properly, it’s a lot more expensive than it’s worth. So the prospect of more counters to depict the monsters our heroes do battle with was very appealing to me. Not to mention the Red Box barely had enough kobolds for the denizens of Kobold Hall. I think I had to swap in a couple lizardmen at one point.

So, opening up the box, here’s what you’ll find.

Cairn of the Winter King. This is a 4th-level adventure, clocking in at 32 pages. It looks to be a good follow-up to Keep on the Shadowfell, which is where my victi- I mean, our heroes are headed next. There’s a good variety of encounters inside. I’m looking forward to guiding the party through it.

Glossy, 2-sided map. Like the map included with the Red Box, this is great for the included adventure but its utility will likely diminish as soon as Lyria stabs the Winter King up a treat.

Monster tokens. Damn. This is a LOT of monsters. There are 10 sheets of die-cut, heavy-grade monster tokens here, each double-sided so you can flip them over when the monster becomes bloodied. There’s also a clever mechanic introduced. Some of the tokens have a black ring around them that is separate from the monster itself, indicating that the monster contained in the ring is Huge instead of Large. This adds a lot of longevity and flexibility to the creatures inside, and allows a DM to get creative with his or her monsters. I mean, how often do you think players see a Huge-sized owlbear? Or gelatinous cube?

Monster Vault book proper. Big ol’ book of monsters. I don’t think there are as many monsters presented here as there are in the proper Monster Manual, but the monsters that are in this book get extensive write-ups. In a well-organized, conversational fashion, each monster is laid out in terms of background, habitat, behavior and motivations. For example, instead of giving a dry description of what a beholder is and does, the book describes the Far Realm from which they hail, what drives them to behave the way they do, the few other creatures they may serve and the ways in which they pursue their aims. It reads a lot more like a novel than a rulebook, and it makes reading up on monsters and thinking of ways to use them in a campaign a lot more enjoyable. I already have quite a few ideas for the players once they outgrow the challenges of the Nentir Vale. Heh heh heh…

All in all, this product is strikes me as a lot more useful than the Red Box. The Box is a great place for new players to start, but the Monster Vault adds a lot more depth and longevity to an investment of time and energy into 4th Edition. It’s also relatively cheap, at $30 US. Instead of buying a single rulebook for that price, you get a rulebook-style resource, a ready-made adventure and more creatures, monsters and NPCs than you can shake a bag of dice at. This one’s well worth the money.

I’m not sure which other, if any, Essentials products I’ll be picking up. Dungeon Tiles, perhaps, as ink is pretty damn expensive. I took a look at the Dungeon Master’s Kit, but my players generously set me up with a DM Screen meaning I’d have two, and I think most of the information in the Kit’s book is already available to me through other means. Then again, I hear the Kit’s included rules are updated and the adventures included are top-notch, so who knows?

The Hunter In Cataclysm: Beast Mastery

November 8, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Courtesy Blizzard

With the Survival and Marksmanship talent builds for the Hunter class in World of Warcraft out of the way, all that remains is Beast Mastery. It’s been a long time since I’ve taken a long, hard look at this tree, since I spent most of my time in the specialization spamming my Steady Shot button and generally being bored. Looking at it now, though, I can see a lot of reasons why players interested in either raiding or PvP will want to explore the tree.

Spoiler

The Beast Mastery Tree

Right from the start, it’s clear that Blizzard has tailored this talent tree to focus just as much on the pet as it does on the Hunter. And this is also the only signature ability of the talents that is not a shot. Intimidation is rather a pet ability with a two-fold purpose. It causes threat, for those pet tanks we use while soloing, and a 3-second stun, which is useful for crowd control and especially in PvP. The more stuff you can throw at someone to lock them down so you can fire off more damage the better. This does have a 1-minute cooldown, so use it wisely. Animal Handler increases you Attack Power, and remember that more Attack Power for you means more for your pet. And for Mastery, we have Master of Beasts, which increases pet damage by a percentage with every point of Mastery.

Improved Kill Command
Kill Command is likely to be one of your biggest sources of damage as a Beast Master. This talent increases the chance the pet’s attack will crit, which works well with both the reduced Focus cost that comes from the glyph and talents further down the tree. Considering that Kill Command is still active during Deterrence, this talent is one you’ll want to pick up for both PvE and PvP builds.

One With Nature
This is a decent talent for any build, even if your taste is more towards the other trees. You get more attack power out of Aspect of the Hawk and more focus back from Aspect of the Fox. In situations where your pet is going to be marginalized, such as PvP, this may be a secondary concern for “floater” points in a Marksmanship or Survival build. Beast Masters should definitely be picking this up.

Bestial Discipline
This is another talent that has appeal for multiple builds. Since our pet is a good portion of our DPS, getting them to do damage more often boost our overall output. This talent, coupled with Go For The Throat, increases the Focus regeneration of your pet by quite a bit. Once you get the pattern & rhythm of your own Focus regeneration down, you can pick this up along with Go For The Throat to maximize your pet’s DPS in a raid. PvP builds in other trees may want to go for One With Nature instead.

Pathfinding
More speed from your Aspects of the Daze and when mounted. I guess this would make corpse runs go more quickly. Other than that, I don’t see much value in spending talent points here.

Spirit Bond
Pretty much a must-have for raiding Beast Masters, this talent makes both you and your pet easier to heal. Not only do you and your pet regenerate health, healing done to both of you is boosted significantly. This means healers spend less time and mana healing you, which they’ll surely appreciate.

Frenzy
This talent is an interesting beast. Every time your pet makes a basic attack, it boosts its attack speed. This effect stacks up to 5 times. Your pet may be attacking up to 30% faster after just a few bites and swipes, which not only benefits your output but also ties into a talent on the next tier that I feel no Beast Master should be without. It goes without saying that you should pick this up.

Improved Mend Pet
This is one of those talents that is probably more useful to a soloing Hunter than one in a group be it a raid or a battleground. If you’re in a raid and you need to hit Mend Pet to cleanse or heal your pet, your healer needs to pay more attention. Time you spend mending your pet is time you’re NOT doing damage to the enemy. Anyway, unless you’re soloing, skip this talent.

Cobra Strikes
Another talent that increases the output of your pet, Cobra Strikes grants crits to your pet’s attacks when you hit with Arcane Shot. Since Arcane’s a high-damage shot to begin with, following it with a pair of crits from the pet yeilds much higher numbers. Worth 3 points easily.

Fervor
This is a decent “panic” button for situations where you need more Focus than standing still and casting Steady or Cobra Shot will yeild you. In addition to that it opens up some of the biggest features of the Beast Mastery tree. Even if you never use Fervor to restore 50 Focus to you and your pet, you’ll want to snag this talent.

Focus Fire
When your pet hits 5 Frenzy, you can hit Focus Fire and, in essence, transfer its haste to you. Your pet gets Focus back, you get a boost to your ranged haste (meaning faster Steady & Cobra Shots!) and your pet begins building up its Frenzy again. At one point, you can’t ask for bigger bang for your buck.

Longevity
You Intimidation cooldown is now 30 seconds instead of a minute. Beastial Wrath is ready to use after one minute instead of two. And your pet’s special abilities? Those will happen more often, too. There’s no reason not to drop 3 points in here as soon as its available.

Killing Streak
You’re going to be using Kill Command a lot as a Beast Master. Statistically this means you’ll also have an increased chance of seeing it crit, especially with Improved Kill Command. Killing Streak makes the third Kill Command after back-to-back crits hit harder and cost less. This talent strikes me as another no-brainer for Beast Masters.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimera
This is Beast Mastery’s big PvP talent. It reduces the cooldowns of the skills we need to survive in PvP, namely Disengage and Deterrence, every time we’re hit. If we have a healer, this means we’ll be jumping away and immune to damage more often. Remember how Kill Command is still active during Deterrence? Be prepared for a lot of people raging at you and pick this up for your battlegrounds and arenas.

Bestial Wrath
The big, red kitty remains the lynchpin talent of the tree. For 10 seconds, your pet does more damage and becomes immune to crowd control. Need I say more?

Ferocious Inspiration
At the time of this writing, the Ferocious Inspiration buff isn’t overwritten by anything from other classes. It’s a straight damage increase for all party & raid members. It used to, but now it stands alone. Plus it leads us into another very useful talent. Drop a point here.

Kindred Spirits
This is just about the only means a Hunter has to increase both his own Focus and that of his pet. I know I’m started to sound like a broken record, but more focus means more damage. Absolutely worth its 2 points.

The Beast Within
Big red kitty now triggers a big red YOU. More damage, reduced focus cost AND Terminator-style implacability? Grab it.

Invigoration
Whenever your pet gets a crit, you automatically get some Focus back. Considering how often Beast Masters will want enough Focus to hit Kill Command, it goes without saying that this talent is worthwhile. Everything ties together at this point in the tree, and Invigoration just makes all the other talents and abilities synergize even more coherently.

Beast Mastery
Exotic pets and more skill points. Why would you go Beast Mastery and NOT tame a miniature T-Rex or a ghost kitty or a chimera? Especially now that we have so many stable slots.

While this brings us to an end of the talents for Hunters, there’s one more ability coming our way in Cataclysm.

Camouflage

Here’s what we know so far…

You camouflage, blending into into your surroundings, causing you and your pet to be untargetable by ranged attacks, reduces the range at which enemy creatures can detect you, and providing stealth while stationary.

You can lay traps while camouflaged, but any damage done by you or your pet will cancel the effect. Cannot be cast while in combat. Lasts for 1 min.

I am of the opinion that people’s opinions on Hunters in PvP, that they are “useless” or “pointless”, may change when they start using Camouflage. Ambushes and surprise attacks are unfortunately rare in PvP. With Camouflage, Hunters can now join Rogues, feral Druids in cat form and certain Warlock pets in laying vicious traps for incoming opponents. A well-coordinated group of stealthed gladiators can make things very difficult for the other team. I’m not entirely sure how the mechanics of this ability will work quite yet, but I’m excited to find out.

This wraps up the Hunter in Cataclysm series. I may carve out some time to get a video up with all this information before the expansion hits. Not everybody reads my blog, after all.

Even if they should.

Take Time To Think

November 7, 2010 / / 0 Comments

The Thinker

Human beings in the modern age love getting things as soon as possible. They seek out the latest gadgets, latch on to concepts that are easy to digest, choose a Big Mac over a slow-roasted side of beef cooked over a fire at home. Be it a burger, a toy or an idea, the less effort you take in its creation and the less responsibility you take for it, the larger a mess you create upon use or consumption.

Rather than go into some of the more provocative areas in which we can see evidence of this, let’s keep the blog focused on gaming and writing. Working with a published adventure is fine. Especially if you’re doing a one-shot adventure at a convention, you don’t need a great deal of backstory to set interested players on their way. I learned that one the hard way. However, if you’re going to present a group of players with a consistent experience on a semi-regular basis, the adventures cannot exist in a vacuum. Backstory, motivations, rewards and penalties all take on more and deeper meaning if there’s something both before and after the dungeon crawl.

It also helps if the elements outside of the in-the-moment experience make sense. You can’t hide a crucial item from the party in an impenetrable room with no visible or hidden entry way, then punish them for not acquiring the item. If you give no evidence of the item’s existence, save for perhaps a mention in local folklore, punishing them for failing to acquire it means you set them up to fail from the very beginning. I hazard to say the DM that does this to their party is a rather poor one.

It’s true for writing, as well. I’ve seen good concepts and interesting setups let down utterly by contrivance, bad characterization and deus ex machina. When you write something and it becomes published or even popularized, to completely ignore it in subsequent works in the same universe is inexcusable. The universe created by the writer, like the adventure presented at the gaming table, does not and should not exist in a vacuum.

That said, I’m not suggesting that every story regardless of length needs a weighty amount of support. A short story works fine on its own if there’s a coherent narrative through-line and the end doesn’t contradict the beginning without good reason. A solid foundation, though, is key when crafting a longer narrative like a novel or a feature film. Especially if there may be more to come in that universe with those characters, the more time you spend getting things right behind the scenes, the better the experience will be for the reader.

In short, it behooves the creative mind to take time to think. Make sure things in the tale make sense. Poke weak points to see where they fail. Smooth over the rough spots as much as possible. Writing, be it a novel or a gaming campaign, isn’t instant gratification. It’s slow, methodical, intellectually challenging work. If you want it done right, that is.

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