Sue is on her way to Midwest FurFest!

Sue has just hit the road to travel to Midwest Furfest in Riverwoods Illinois. I have turned out most of the house lights, set the coffee maker to just one mug at a time, and I guess I am ready for this. I'll worry about her. I know she is perfectly capable, but the macho in me still worries, I can not help it.

It was interesting getting ready for this one. Sue's mother has needed some TLC and Sue has pitched in, while trying to get everything done for the Con. My mother needed help Tuesday and that took out most of the day for me. Despite all of the extra going's on I think she is ready, but it has been a long week for both of us.

With Sue on the road I am going party by getting caught up on a lot of work that needs to be done.

Now, I am going to get some more coffee, take a deep breath, and plan my days.

Had a rough night, blasted allergies and wet weather.

Woke up at 3 AM with sniffles and by 3:30 I was having a wonderful sneezing fit. I pulled up Quark and worked on the layouts for the new card sets. I have 24 of the cards laid out. 12 more and set one is ready to print. I'll get that done today.

I have a Jason (Mark's Mysteries) podcast that I'm recording that is coming along mighty fine, so I'll be spending most of the day on it. I'm also turning over the next GGP Astral Podcast in my mind forming it for recording. Time to meet an Astralager. She is a space ship pilot. She guides ships through the Astral World from planet to planet... She has an interesting perspective on the Astral World.

Why is there Anti-Intellectualism?

Last night Sue and I were talking about why economists and planners keep using, and endorsing, failed methods. Why would one stick to a policy, or method, that was shown to be a failure? Why would you spend all of your resources in a destructive campaign rather than a constructive discussion? I proposed that the problem was two fold. First, they were not experienced with the real world and simply never received the data (they live in a fantasy land), and second, that they were unable to overcome there irrational faith in the obviously failed policy.

Then Sue found this extremely interesting article you should read:

Why is there Anti-Intellectualism?

While reading this work I began to see where some of the resistance to the open design of Dragon Storm comes from. Sue created a flexible creativity driven RPG system. Some people understood this at a fundamental level and played the game happily. Other people started looking for, and even imposing, strict rules. Those rules generally came directly from earlier rpg systems. They moved to take the creative element out of DS and put it back in the box. That attitude has always confounded and confused me.

That makes me wonder about future game designs. Do we try to restrict them to be more palatable to a larger audience, or do we continue to argue for individual creativity? Not an easy decision. Obviously from a commercial point of view there is just one answer, but what about from a cultural point of view? Which is more important to the society? Which is most important to us?

Now I will get off of my soap box and wait for a response.

Getting Slowly back to work

I have to thank our Patrons for a very successful Pentacon. Now that I am back at home I am continueing to improve in the health area. I just have to be careful not to try to do too much and cause a set back.


I am still putting up Audiobook and Podcast recommendations on the Mark's Mysteries Blog. I am doing that while I try to find the time to get back to the story. I find these a great replacement for TV and other commercial broadcasting stuff.


Right now I have to get the orders out.

More Core Game Stats Talk

Defense is the targets basic ability to deflect damage from physical, mental and magic damage. The character's card Defense is subtracted from all damage that targets Health Points. Additional Defense for specific types of damage, such as physical, spells, warp or od, comes from equipment worn, active spells and the powers and skills of the character. The attacking items, spells etc. may have special rules relating to Defense on them and they would supersede the General Defense rule here.

The maximum Defense that may be applied to any single damage dealing attack is 10. Even if equipment, spells and Powers give a greater number, Defense is capped at 10.

NOTE: This is different than the DS system. First, it is designed to be simpler in that it seperates DEF from outside items and the cards basic DEF. Second, it applies across the board to all damage, simplifying the use. Third, because it is used universally it will be smaller. Natural DEF will rarely go beyond 3. Fourth, DEF is capped at 10. This is essentially a way to keep danger in every encounter, no matter the characters experience and the characters value. It also gives everyone a chance to help, no matter how inexperienced they are.

New Comic

I have posted the Accommodations comic on Sue's website. There is a link on the Master Links page and, of course, It is right here.

This is a new format/layout for a comic we have had up before. Sue is working on comics again and we are working out the format to publish it on line with.

We had a good game sunday night. The characters have discovered an area with "dirty" Valarians. The dirty Valarians are being lead by a Pylos Agent. They now know that the problem goes up the ladder, so no help there. The local Mentor and War Master are with the Pylos/Black Bane team. Their only allies so far are a couple of Valarians who have been waiting for help, marauding orc raiders and the agents of the Necromancer Dyson Brickwall. The local elethay temple is headed by a secret Jikadell Priestess working for Black Bane. One of the acolytes is a Jikadell agent for Dyson Brickwall and is an aide to the characters. All very confusing. If it were not for a heroic blocking move by Iesha, a character would have died. She took the hit that would have finished Tank.

From the outside the characters look like rogue valarians teamed with Dyson Brickwall against the Elethay temple and local Valarians. If they fail to get evidence they will be branded as rogues and booted.

More Stat Talking: Melee

Melee as a Stat. Melee is intended to represent the characters skill bonus in melee combat. It may be strength or natural skill that is used to do damage in melee combat.

Card Value

Ongoing Game notes, look below if this does not make sense by itself.

The Card Value may be in terms of Card Points (CP), Experience (EX), or monetary (GP).

Card points means it can be used by/added to a character or Cast member. When used by a Cast member it is also the EX Value.

Experience value is the points awarded for encountering the card during play. This is usually found on a Cast Member, Location or Trap. We use encountering to express that surviving can teach as much as winning.

GP. Gold is the basic monetary unit in the system, although it could be Credits etc. These are things you buy.

Working with Sue today.

Today was supposed to be a relaxing day off, but Sue and I started talking and pretty soon we were both back to work.

I added a new blog for covering cons. The idea is that our players can help us, and themselves by digging up con information and passing it on to the community. I took the time to add a long link list on the page to get people to all of our resources. I have to put in a tip of the hat here to pixiejorge for her Pentacon info. Thanks!

The new market is moving along now. I need to make commentary for every frakkin' card as we go along. The work will go faster now because Tonya is helping out. I set up the a page that I could use as a template to make pages. She is doing the detailed work of making the pages work. She has already sent back the first two Universal pages and I uploaded them. My thanks to her as well.

The talks we had here covered a lot of territory. We have decided to move forward with several projects. We will be doing them as a series of interlinked projects. What that means is the we are working on a new game/comic/podcast/set of blogs/demo arrangements etc. all at once. The Prismatic Circle Wizards hint in the Wizard background card on the DS beta page is a hint as to one of the games we are working on.

So, That is it for todays general information.

Many Projects on the Plate

I have a series of projects I need to be working on and I am rather poor at rating them by importance.

Print special order art, update etsy, update e-bay, DS market work, SVC website, DS website, DS podcast, MM podcast, creature book, check my RSS feeds for updates (gotta keep an eye on you...), twitter, ghoul article, vampire article, new game 1, new game 2, set mission 01 for print, get new DS cards to Sue for art, e-mails, blog, get new cards on dsbeta, edit ds beta cards, learn something new, convention updates.

Well, I need to get started. I think I'll start by checking up on DS Flunkie...

Monday

Monday is here far too soon. I have too many projects on my mind.

Since I seem to have acquired a follower on my Twitter account I suppose I should say that I am markellisharmon on Twitter. I am sure that what I need is just one more on-line account. Technology, and its potential, fascinates me.

I just sent Sue a series of cards to do art for. I think Pentacon will have cards that expand DS, but there may not be much really exciting.

New MM Podcast is up!

MM00-10 podcast is up and available. I also have 11 finished. It is in for touch-up work.
We have been playing the Three Worlds game on a regular basis. It is coming along. Something about crossing Blasters, lightning bolts and demons has an appeal. I'm getting the terminology straightened out through working on the training podcasts. It makes me hear the words and consider what to use as names. The names of the categories and cards give atomosphere for the game. The game is slowly taking a good form.
Trouble is 17 this spring and he can feel the good weather approaching. He is bouncing around like a twelve year old dog. Times are good!

Yes, day off is be come

Friday is off, but I'll be spending it ferrying my mom to doctors..... Saturday I should be back to work, but I'm not sure I'll be able to.

I spent most of the day working on GM sheets and new cards for the Three Worlds game. The next play test session is on Easter. While this process is a load of work, it is fun to be doing something new. Working on the cards gave me a series of ideas for instruction podcasts for Three Worlds. I will have to squeeze them in over the next week. No way I'll get 'em done for Sunday's testing.

I also updated the Mark's Mysteries Blog and website today.

I'm looking forward to seeing what people have to say about the Clanborn podcast on the DS Live Journal. I saw Tim's comment. It gave me a smile.

It's midnight 30 and I think I need a break.

Tuesday

Monday I got all of the DS orders pulled, packed and on there way. For some reason everything I did took way too much time to get done. One of those mondays, I guess.

I spent today polishing the Mark's Mysteries podcast #11 and got a chance to here #10 with all the sound in it. I think it really sounds good. Gregg is improving.

Tomarrow I'll be doing web catch up, a short Grandilar Game Podcast and integrating the new Tark/Three Worlds rpg ideas into the Alpha version. We had a good game Sunday. Looks like I can stop remaking the basic deck, at last. I'm actually trying to build an encounter section for the GM. Should save some time. Should be fun.

For now, I wave at all of you as I head over to the DS Beta board for some light reading.

another card set to make

We played three worlds again last night. We had a good time shooting up stuff and enjoyed the demon rain. Afterwards we had a nice long talk and once again there are changes in the alpha version. Means I have to do yet another set of cards with the changes. Once we get this down so the changes aren't weekly I'll start spreading out some test versions. So far it is fun, but different. Sometimes the changes make it hard to cope, we keep slipping into DS think, and it doesn't work in this new world. It is causing us some confusion, but I think we are getting past that one. Well, it is still alpha version, not even ready to go beta. I do like the world we have created, it is a mess.

Enough for now, back to work.

A New Start

After several aborted attempts we have now got a new game idea which we are enjoying playing. We are using the 2d6 system of DS, but we have stripped it down and made some new assumptions. The most difficult task we faced in making something fresh to play was that we had trouble freeing our minds of DS. The new game is going by the name "Three Worlds" at this point. It is a science fiction background and it has some new stats, races, cards and Tech.

If you listened to Mark's Mysteries Episode 7 you got a little look at the new world. The game itself is not compatible with Dragon Storm, even though it shares a common universe. It is a new world. You could do some jury rigging and get the games to mesh, but I think both would loose some of there special flavors, so we won't be doing a crossover from our end.

Considering that it is just Sue and I up here at the Clanhold it means that I will not be able to do as much with DS as I would like. That is part of what is behind my putting up so many DS Beta cards. It will give us a look at which way the Dsr's want Ds to go and gives us a good source of material to publish. We also have several groups working on novel and fun ideas for DS. With five different groups/people working on books and projects for DS I think Sue and I can hang back a bit and let the community guide DS for a time. So we are expecting the submissions to roll in. As for how and who does the publishing, well, we will let the future us deal with those questions.

I'm going to let the current Beta discussions go on for a month to collect opinions and let the community get a chance to play with the cards before moving forward.

So, for today, I'm signing off.