All day Packing

I have spent from 8AM trying to find and pack everything we need for Origins. Sheeesh, I'm finally nearing the end.

I will be bringing the card cutting equipment with. I have a number of laminated sheets that need finishing. We are also nringing our art printing set up.

All-in-All, this should be both a lot of work and a chance to talk to old friends.

See you at Origins, or AnthroCon the next week.

The Basil and Oregano are Transplanted

I am working on relearning some old farming skills. I have lettuce, spinach, onions, oregano, basil and flowers planted in pots on the porch. The peppers are just poking their noses up through the ground, so I guess I have them too. When we ate dinner Sue used some of the oregano and basil in the omelets. Really good food. I keep thinking I need to learn to grow some food, especially right after a trip to the store.

I am working on getting the new card web pages up for people to read. It is going slow because I am trying to get them printed as I get the description up on the web. I am getting rather creative with the card write ups, it keeps me from getting bored.

I have several projects that I should be getting done, but I have also learned that I need to have a portion of real life and porno time too.

We have continued to play the new rules. We are going to try adding an extra step in the ranged weapons that will be a "to hit" roll. Just like in DS the Ranged Weapons just feel to over powering. The basic idea is a 2d6+COR roll versus 2d6+Evasion. You only get the Evasion part if you actually try to evade, otherwise it is a +0. It needs testing, but we will see.

I also designed a sweet mathematical system for converting role-playing points earned into card points. It works perfectly. Unfortunately it is just too convoluted and people are having trouble following my wonderful method. So, my play testers told me how it should work. *sigh* They are right...

Anyway, we are making good progress, and it is really fun. I just wish we had a lot more time to work on it. We have to get the basics working so we can publish an alpha version to the web for everyone.

The Cons, Origins and AnthroCon are going to cut out about three weeks from our play testing. I dream of having a version for StormCon, but I doubt it. Maybe just enough to get people a taste of the game. One must have dreams.

Raining

That means we soaked here and the print sheets for the cards can't be worked on today. Probably just as well, the printer has started yelling about "order Cartridges". *sigh* normal behavior.

On the positive side I can get to work on more of the card pages for the web.

Sue, Mocha and I are busy as a werewolf at a wakana convention. With the heat rising I have had to abandon my winter room. It is a "hot" room upstairs and I spent most of yesterday cleaning moving and expanding the network to handle the changes. It all went well, so I am pretty much ready to work.

OK, off to order Ink.

I have lost my mind. If you see it, e-mail it back to me.

My biggest problem right now is that my mind spits out more random thoughts than I can type, speak, or even make notes on. It is like an RSS feed where all I get are the titles and snippet of the commentary.

I have solved the education system by integrating it into a localized setting with parental and professional access. It also provides neighborhood emergency employment, local broadband WiMax internet and a community center. Nothing to it, now if I could just find the rest of the article in my brain.

Several commentaries float through my mind on the stupidity of how the corporatist economic system has nearly destroyed capitalism in our country. I am amazed that people can't see the difference between our current socialized corporatism and the free capitalism that build our nation. But then again, I am not inundated with their constant advertising on Fox, CNN, MSNBC, ABC and other so called media news outlets. Let the brainwashing continue.

What ever happened to the idea that some features of society needed to be public and others private? The idea was that a society decided what were essential services, and provided those. Everything else (the luxuries) were left in the hands of the capitalists. We decided that having a Highway system was an essential service and made a great one. Now our government is selling it cheap, secretly and piecemeal. When did we, as a society, discuss that? Ah, forget it, nobody even notices all these changes, I am probably the only one who misses the old USA.

Who says I am paranoid? Who says I am opinionated? Well, OK, you are right. Maybe I am the last true conservative, who knows. Conservative Frauds abound, and people are listening to them all the way to Fascism. Oh, well, I am probably too late, democracy, capitalism, compassion and free thinking are obviously outmoded concepts. Maybe they have just been so corrupted through successful propaganda scams that they are unrecognizable.

Thats it, enough ranting, it is late here.

Cool Sounds of Summer

Sue and I have both bought Swamp Coolers from Air and Water, Inc. and we have had a really good impression of these people. We have a pair of New Air machines that we are using instead of Air Conditioners. They don't give one that dry throat feeling.

Anyway, I got an e-mail from them with the terms of a contest. Usually I just ignore these things, but I really can recommend Air and Water. The last machine we got arrived broken and we had no trouble returning it and getting a good one. Sometimes you get the best view of a company when something goes wrong. They responded quickly and replaced the machine.

Part of the contest was to find three songs with "Air" or "Water" in the title and do a blog posting, so here goes:

Candle on the Water by Helen Reddy
Walk on Water by Neil Diamond
Hold Back the Water by Bachman-Turner Overdrive

I went through the artists that I listen to and finding Air or Water in a title is not as easy as you might think.

So today I am doing a blog about Swamp Coolers and I do not feel bad about it at all. I do recommend that you take a good look at the Air and Water people for a Swamp Cooler.

Ongoing work

I have had to spend a few days completing outside work so I have been remiss in posting. Most of the outside work is done on the quiet, therefore no mentioning specifics is allowed.

I have found a typing training program and I am spending a few minutes a day working on it. I guess I'm never too old to learn a few new skills.

I have also added some porch gardening to the schedule. I have Onions, Oregano, Basil, Spinach, Peppers, lettuce and Marigolds going, or in process. Just a single tray or a few pots of each. I have a lot to learn, so I am growing just a little of each. Sue wants Peas and I will plant a tray of them later this week.

Tonight is Playtest time. I am, of course, not ready...

Now I need to cut some cards I have printed and then get the Valarian cards ready to send off a new set of cards to print.

Finally clearing the head here.

I am finally starting to be able to think things through.

Am making an attempt to get everything in hand. I started by listing the Projects I am dealing with on a regular basis. There are 12 easily definable over all projects. I have started breaking out the tasks, or sub projects, within each. Dragon Storm is a single project. So far within it I have found 10 sub-projects, each of which have tasks attached to them. It looks like in DS I have about 40 ongoing tasks to complete.

The only problem with trying to get a handle on what needs to be done is seeing it in real life can be depressing.

Getting a Start

I am just about finished paying the penalty for our road trip. The headache has moved down to just painful, so I have begun working. As soon as the throbbing starts I will quit.

Sue is back in full swing, so I feel like a turd, but what can you do. I did get an interesting photo of Mac and Mocha helping me get better.

Just a quick note

I developed a wonderful headache Sunday afternoon at MarCon and so far it has resisted all attempts to Banish it. I need a bigger card... It is finally starting to subside, so I am hoping to get back to serious work tomorrow.

Thinking too much, or maybe too little.

As we work on the new game system I find myself resenting all the other work I have to get done. *sigh*

We are really developing a series of concepts and designs all at one time. Having started with a set of goals and concepts we are starting to comprehend the job we are doing. It is actually a series of projects that are entwined, many of which will be directly usable in DS and many that need conversion.

The end result is we need to be certain we have them all in a condition to work and be understandable before we release the beta system for everyone to use.


First, we finally have a way to print cards at a reasonable price, making the project possible. So we are on it.

Second, we wanted to attend to a couple of issues that have developed in DS. The Cast Pointing system needs work to make it easier and more clear. Something we can print for everyone to use. The new pointing is working, but it will be sometime before we can be sure.

The capacity system has been doubled to make more room for "stuff".

The combat system is being cleaned up to make the game run smoother and faster. After several weeks of playing our people have come to the conclusion that the Action only and more regulated rounds are better, faster and more fun that DS's wide open way. The tricky part is they had to play for several games to be able to get over the DS way and give the new system a fair chance. I am not sure how to replicate this time in a public beta. Right now I am talking about it and hoping that people will be ready to give it a fair shake.


Third, we are changing the Actions/Independents system. and I covered that in the previous post.


Fourth, We are changing the card usage. I have not mentioned this yet, I don't want too much shock out there at one time. This is another one that is taking time for players to adjust to, but as we progress we are finding people liking it. We have virtually no Anchors in the game. Everything is on Aces, and you can only play one Ace at a time. One Action, One card or activity.

Fifth, moving into new territory and expanding the background. The different worlds are in the same universe as Grandilar. The Pylos are having trouble on many worlds and in the Astral World. It is the fault of the Astral Backlash from Deathday and those damned Blackwind Dragons. You know, the clan that got chased off Grandilar some 2,000 years ago by the other Dragon Clans for experimenting with banned magics. It is also why the Pylos did not follow up on the Deathday victory. It set off serious storm problems in the Astral world and has made everything tougher for them. We have had this built into DS for a long time. We have a whole series of stories, concepts and ideas on this, but we have never assembled them into a complete write up. This turns out to be a big job by itself and has to be complete before the new stuff comes out. Some of this will be revealed first in the podcasts.


Sixth, we have a new system for Dungeon crawls. Mapping, Ambiance, Decor, treasure and creatures. This is designed to accommodate random encounters and set encounters in a more linear way. Working really good for GM's. The system works outdoors, astrally and spirit world as well, but we are focusing on the Dungeon version first, so we have one complete. This is actually a Universal set up and will work for almost any RPG. It will also allow for easier scenario publication, something that is difficult now in DS. This is what is behind the card submission request for Labyrinth Ambiance card ideas. I want as much variety as possible. There will be more requests for ideas like that will be appearing as we go along.


The end result is that the overall system is much better integrated than DS was. At the same time I am terribly excited by the project, but it is going to take a long time to get it all working smoothly, and release it for testing on the web. If we put out an incomplete version too soon, it won't get a fair shake.


For now, I need to get back to the con prep work.