Rage Guy

There once was a nice guy from CT. He was slandered, and betrayed twice. Then he drank a cup of rage and felt better.

amen

To Create a World

So I have taken the task upon myself to create a steampunk world for Dungeons and Dragons. Well...sort of. I went to the library and I checked out a couple fantasy novels and I realized that I'd had enough of the high fantasy realm for playing in...been at it since high school. I think we've slaughtered enough orcs to be their equivalent of Hitler.

So I browsed for some other stuff in the fiction area and ran across a series of novels by Jay Lake. His world of the "Clockwork Earth" is a very well illustrated and fleshed out place across the 3 extant novels. "Mainspring", "Escapement" and "Pinion".

I thoroughly enjoyed reading these novels for how they explore the world the characters live in. The characters are like any motley group of people thrown together by destiny that barely hold on to their lives as everything spins out of control...but they are exciting to see how they manage events within the scope of their attitudes.

So I have decided to use this world in some private games to try and do something different. Combat is more lethal and altogether certain, magic barely exists at all and those that have knowledge of any of it guard it more carefully than their own lives. Mechanical means trump everything, gun powder is king and the British Empire rules all in the west.

the world itself is divided at it's center by a great wall in which the clockwork gears track the earth along its great brass orbital ring. The earth is literally clockwork...but was it always so? Well there are a great deal of mysteries to unravel and I have decided to modify the classes one sees as standard in DnD so that they fit better with the world.

Paladins are a prestige class now and most belong to the Church of England and have been or are still cleric/priests in some way. They possess no magic, but are tougher and have a different skill set. They are one of the few classes still likely to have a sword even if it is just a badge of office.

Soldiers now instead of fighters and they now have the ability to choose either officer or enlisted. Officers get more starting gold and enlisted get an additional profession to choose as a bonus.

Rangers are similar to what they were, but they get more bonuses to skill use and to use of firearms such as rifles and dual wielding pistols...to keep some of that flavor.

However unlike most DnD games that use firearms their damage in my games will be far and above melee/bow and arrow or x-bows. There is no armor in 1910 that can protect the person from a well placed bullet, so damage is much higher. For example a 6 shot revolver with a .38 cal would do something like 4d8 damage and critical hit probably x10.

Characters will have to be smarter and not simply reply on hack and slash. As the DM I will have to create scenarios that CAN result in combat but it isn't forced. The players will have a greater chance to use skills and build a world they want to experience.

Will they travel to "The Wall" and meet the monsters said to inhabit The Wall? Who knows. however I have decided to set their starting location as a town we grew up in in New England. A few visits to the town library's archive should get me some copies of photos from that era and I can extrapolate from that what would be different under British rules.

- more posts forthcoming.

Starcraft II Wings of Liberty

Well I've had the game for nearly a year now and I have had great fun playing through the campaign and now in multi-player I avoid the leagues and ladders becuase I have found the ultimate mod... Desert Strike by Squarely.

I have a good team together for it when we go play and we have our strategies down pat so that we nearly never lose in a team match. Even spoiled a person's record of 100 wins and no losses.

The secret to winning as a team is communication and voice comms definitely help with that, and it really doesn't matter if it is skype, teamspeak, ventrilo or really even the in-game voice comms that are provided for a party.

It would be interesting to see one of those companies attempt to take down the big telco's by offering their own phone hardware that can plug into your computer. Your IP then becomes your phone number and its free calling anywhere in the world as your phone will be a mini-server that people simply connect to..and page you for a ring and can wait in your lobby instead of redialing all fuggin day...wait I should develop this...*cough* don't notice what I am saying ATT.COMCAST.CableVision.et.al.

brb...need to write a proposal.

The National Debt Crisis (or lack thereof)

Let me start by displaying the frame of the arguments presented in the wider media.

1) The US will default if it does not continue borrowing on aug 2, 2011
2) If we don't borrow MORE money our credit rating will go down
3) We need to borrow money to pay our creditors
4) People who want to cut spending are radicals/regressives who want to kill old people and the poor

You hear it every time you turn on the news "Will the US default?" "What will happen to YOUR 401K?" and so on and so forth. So here I will give an accurate explanation of two ways this can go.

Scenario 1) We borrow more money:

Upon borrowing more money and INCREASING the deficit and national debt; we have not addressed the fundamental issues but we have camouflaged the sucking wound that is the escalating debt. MAYBE our credit rating has statyed up...but maybe not since we haven't actually addressed the debt. Spending continues and it gorws even more out of control and more intertwined with our system eventually leading to a near collapse only avoided by hugely spiking interest rates and inflating our money until it is valueless as we purchase back the debt with zimbabwe-like currency.

Scenario 2) We cut spending immediately:

The budget automatically balances and we are back to 2002 levels of spending necessarily repealing Obama-care and a lot of budget increases over the years. The recession deepens for a short period, but we continue making payments on the debt even paying some of the principle back so our rating stays high. We slowly bring interest rates up to soak up the extra dollars and strengthen US currency in relation to others abroad.

oil prices begin to drop and the recession lifts as we live within our means with a government that is considerably smaller but no less effective. Many public sector workers are now private sector workers which results in a net gain in treasury receipts without the sucking on the govt teat for paychecks. Businesses cease fearing more govt intervention and begin to invest and innovate. Wages rise and jobs are created.

Then people forget and do more stupid borrowing

I give up and my head asplodes.