Wildly Inadvisable: The purpose of skills

Behind on blogging again, but life's twists and turns keep me on my toes lately. I've some extra time tonight, and in order to get to sleep, I think I will muse on Wildly Inadvisable, since I'm back to running it and the skills system has been bothering me quite a bit.

What's the point of a skills system? Well, that is a difficult thing to answer. In broad terms, it is a measure of things your character can do. This can include things such as creating objects, remembering a piece of information, climbing a wall, or casting a spell. In simple terms, this is a pretty easy thing. But taken into gaming terms, it can get pretty complicated, especially since there tend to be two types of skills: Combat skills, and non-combat skills.

In 2nd Edition AD&D, there was a pretty clear divide here. You had a list of Non-Combat abilities, such as Seamanship which got you a host of things like bonuses to swim, and the knowledge of how to work on a boat, but not necessarily run one. It was like how Professions became in d20 Modern - a measure of things your character has done in the past to give them an edge of sorts.

But many systems attempt to lump skills into the same category, and force them to play by the same rules, which can make things quite messy. Therefore, I have come to the realization that my previous dependency on d20-like mechanics is actually hurting the way I have conceived of the skill system for WI. Let's examine this.

How Things Turned Out

The concept behind skills seemed pretty straightforward. You had your attributes, which each had key skills tied to them. From there, these skills had specialties, ranging from resisting a specific type of damage to being able to create a computer virus. In theory, it works great. In practice, it's pretty messy overall, and it is hard to actually find anything in there.

Not to mention the messy amounts of math involved. For every two ranks you place into the basic skill, you can apply a single point to a "specialty", which basically means you gain a higher benefit to a specific instance. For damage resistances or elemental affinities, this is kind of cool. But it makes for a very messy skill sheet, particularly for a game that is supposed to be simplistic.

Fixing The Problem

In order to address this, a few ideas have occurred to me. Instead of an overly-complex system like I have already had set up, one can easily just separate things into combat and non-combat skills. Combat skills are those which do not have a hard 'cap' on them, and are intended to be scaled up as high as possible. Non-combat skills, on the other hand, should have a 'soft cap'. Is it really necessary to have to roll over a 30 to hack a computer database for information that is likely vital to the plot? Not really. So instead, let's have the two follow very different rules, instead of attempting to shoehorn everything into a single category where all the skills play by the same rules.

For lack of a better term, the Non-Combat skills should follow a "pip" system. Let's just say that each of these skills has ten "pips", or ranks that you can put in. Spend a point, get a "pip", similar to how it runs now. However, for every "pip", or maybe every two "pips", you gain an ability tied to that skill. For example, leveling Athletics could grant you a bonus to climbing, or maybe even let you avoid most climbing-based rolls. Or, it could grant you a higher base speed, to reflect your training. Likewise, the computer-based skill can be overhauled as well, so instead of having to roll for the skill, you instead can either perform the requested action if it is well within your ability to do so. Alternatively, treat all non-combat skills as if they had a result of 10. This is important for a second reason, and that is clearing up the combat system, while laying the foundation for the next major thing: Status Effects.

One main issue I have with the system as it is now would be that attempting to add in status effects threatens to slow down game play immensely. Roll Spell Control. Roll Status Defense. Determine whether it beats the target's Defense. Apply Damage and resolve Status Effects. On start of target's turn, roll Status Defense to see if still affected.

This really puts a strain on the combat system, and reminds me of the clunkiness that plagued the d20 system. Instead, I want to apply the above-mentioned "perfect 10" defense, with a bonus caveat: You can have benefits to your status defenses. You can have increased resistances to certain types of Statuses, lessened Status duration, or maybe even mitigate the drawback a Status has on you - perhaps even to the point of an immunity to that particular status. This is a great boon for making good 'villain' or 'monster' templates, which will be very important if the game system is to actually go anywhere. Players will likely not wish to pursue these options, but a monster with nothing to lose might enjoy an immunity to being blinded, poisoned, or even set on fire!

So what determines a "Combat" skill and a "Non-Combat" skill? A "Combat" skill is one that is important in combat, and has no real cap to it. This includes skills such as Resist Status, Dodge, so on and so forth, and may require rolls for it. Non-Combat skills, on the other hand, never have to be rolled, and have a soft-cap, after which point putting more ranks into the skill are pretty much pointless.

I suppose that's enough musing for now, and I covered all the important points I wanted to remind myself of, so that's good for now.

As for modeling stuff: Not sure how much time will be available for this in the near future, but we will see. I may have a contracting job coming available, so time will tell how this works out and whether a change in career is just a pipe dream or a distinct possibility.

Tonight's progress cut short

No images, sadly, and very little time allotted to actually updating due to house findings and potential job offerings. All in all, important stuff. Here's what I did manage to touch on though:

- Attached ear to side of the head
- Attached hand to the body
- Mirrored and attached geometry
- Minor tweaks to base mesh


Unfortunately, it seems mirroring the geometry only worked to identify several key problem areas that will need to be addressed. Lots of strange geometry down the center of the model, and there are a lot more points with lots of vertexes meeting, and several Ngons that are aggravating me. Sadly though, I must be up early tomorrow in order to go to work, so that's about as much as I'm getting done tonight.

Also, odds are low of a game occurring this weekend it would seem: Friend Zeth is unfortunately back on the road again, due to Home Stuffs which I gather are greatly important, and sadly one of the group's other mainstays now has a night-time job, which will likely preclude him from any games. In addition, with the loss of Eyolo due to babies, things do not look very good this weekend.

From what I'm seeing, probably the best game prospect at the moment is Wildly Inadvisable, which I suppose isn't a bad thing. It's about time I got back into the swing of things with that anyways, and it will give me a chance to really sit down and take a second look at how status effects and the skills system works.

Anyhow, that's all for tonight. Perhaps tomorrow will see another update, but with the weekend looking to be a bit hectic, I may not manage another entry until late sunday. We'll see.

A note on updatage

An actual update will occur tomorrow. Was planning to do some work once I'd gotten home, but then that got torpedoed by stuff, which is not something I'm liable to go over here.

Mostly because it is boring.

Also, upcoming gaming weekend, hoping to finally get back into the swing of things. Currently on my docket of scheduled games are Roguelife and Wildly Inadvisable. I've been pondering system stuff for the latter, and am considering taking another long look at the core mechanics of spells - namely status effects and such, and really asking myself how one can make interesting spells while at the same time not making something be completely broken beyond belief.

I may also be considering dealing with how skills are laid out, and how one improves upon them. The idea of using the skill system to enhance the defensive characteristics (such as status effects) is interesting, but far too cumbersome. After looking at a few other systems (notably Legend), I may be considering changing the whole thing. The point of the game was to make something lightweight and easy to use, not something that requires advanced algebra every time you want to do something! That is not very fun. Well, okay, maybe it is, but it is just time consuming, which detracts from the real fun!

I may roll some advantages into that instead, and remove the previous 'cap'. For example, perhaps one can take advantages that grant defensive benefits, such as increasing your overall status defense by one, or granting you a +2 defense against a specific type of effect (see how I re-used an idea there?).

On the docket to be played this weekend... unknown, but there could perhaps be some Guildion. For as far as I know, Flotilla is currently on hiatus, due to the GM having a terminal case of the babies, who takes up much of his free time to do much of anything. Like concentrate on a computer screen for more than half an hour. So until that is resolved, odds are pretty good that game will be on indefinite hold until further notice.

Anyhow, real stuff tomorrow - this has already gone on far too long as it is.

Getting on Track

Because I seem to have done too many titles beginning with the word "Let's" lately, I suppose I ought to change up things a bit.

On occasion, my curiosity gets the better part of me, and I look at things, like if places like Bethesda are hiring. Also on occasion, I find out "oh wow, looks like they do have some positions open."

Even better are when they seem to have posted things that I actually mostly qualify for.

How awesome would it be if they hired me? BRB, moving to Maryland would probably be the first words out of my mouth. But it really makes me think about what I am capable of doing, if I apply myself hard enough.

I really want to break into the games industry. Not because I want the money - if I was in Animation for the money, I'd be focusing elsewhere. Games provide an immense challenge, with tremendous personal reward, I think. Yeah, so you can spend days or weeks rendering your beautiful images. So what? I want them rendered in stunning detail sixty times per second. That's a true challenge, in my book, and it is one I know others like myself share.

I want to do this because it is something I love, and something I believe holds great value. I want to be a part of making some of the greatest entertainment on the face of the planet. To be a member of a group whose creation makes it to millions of people, that makes them smile, laugh, cry, or maybe even frustrated in a good way. But this is nothing new.

So a realization dawns on me as I look at the job posting. I could actually *do* this. I am fully capable of doing something relatively amazing. I just need to brush up on skills.

First things first, I need to finish the human model I've been poking at. I've lost a lot of steam on it, but I think I have what it takes to finish her. Will she look good? Probably not. Will she look passable? Most definitely. It will look like a human woman. Probably not attractive, but then again the model itself isn't very attractive. The original goal was to throw her into zBrush and have fun from there, but I think I'm also going to rig and animate her, for shits and giggles.

Of course, if I want the zBrush mesh to work well, then I'm going to have to export the zBrush model back into Maya before I make my changes - that way all I have to do are fix the textures.

But then, that might also mean I will have to have completed the zBrush model of the character *before* I decide to do any mucking about. But that is part of what experiments are for, I suppose.

So, I want to try to set a goal for myself this week, with perhaps a bonus objective. I have thought about perhaps attempting to reward myself for good behavior, as a way to incentivize my actions. Also, I don't care if that's not a word, because it is now.

- Complete basic Andrea model by the end of the week; This includes basic eye and mouth parts
--*Bonus*-- Skin model for texturing
- *Bonus* - Import into zBrush and begin sculpting process to create a new base mesh, to be taken back into Maya
- *Bonus* - Begin work on rigging character by adding a basic skeletal structure and re-learning the process of rigging.

It's work, but then again, that's work for you. These things take forever, but if I don't start working on them bit by bit, then I'll never get anywhere, will I? As of right now, the Andrea model I have still needs to have a foot created and attached, the hand completed and attached, and a breast region defined to look breast-like. In addition, I still need to complete the head by creating and attaching an ear, and also creating an actual mouth plus eyes.

I've also been thinking a lot about how Bethesda approaches their model designs, and I really wish there were better ways. I like how efficient some things are - such as not completely attaching hands to the rest of the body, neck/head regions not attached to the rest of the body... that kind of thing. It is something I think I would like to find a way to do. Perhaps create my own "base mesh" sort of thing that I can then tweak, like a character creation engine - throw in some sliders, that sort of thing. It's a highly-advanced character rig, but I think it would make for an interesting project at some point, personally.

But for right now, I should just stick to basics. Another thing I would like to do would be to use this model to create a high-poly bust model in zBrush. Those seem to be rather popular, and are a decent way to show one's skill with modeling and sculpting.

I'm not even going to worry about texturing, because that's a whole other beast entirely. Although, I suppose that I *do* need to make sure I skin the model before I can animate it. So I'll add that to the list up top. It should be a higher priority than other things, I think. Or I can just let zBrush deal with it. We'll see.

Splitting the model into different sections is another reason I think that it would be more "efficient", at least from a texturing perspective. That way one can focus on having a few high-resolution textures (or even medium-resolution) to comprise a complete model. Of course, a single texture is the most efficient, but one must also balance making something look good as well as making it workable. So if every character model utilizes four or five different texture regions, that would be highly inefficient. Most likely the same thing for complex items as well.

I keep trying to see if I can find a way to import the model information in Skyrim to work in Maya, and I keep finding issues with it. I'd really love to see how everything fits together, and take a peek at how they do their texture maps... but I guess that will just have to wait until I can actually figure out how that is supposed to work.

By this point, I believe I have written more than enough, so with that, I bid you adieu, and with any luck I'll have another post perhaps by the end of the day with any progress I've made. Additionally, I will make efforts to attempt another post by wednesday, in attempting to keep with my 'normal' schedule.

We'll see if we can get this thing off again properly again, and with any luck I may be able to get some games running off the ground as well once more.

Sometimes, I really hate blogger

So I am reading this article (which is a blog I love dearly, mind you), and decide I want to reply to it. But sadly, it doesn't want me to post, as it seems to have a character limit on replies. Which saddens me, because as I look at it, I seem to have written a lot. Seems I was, oh, a few paragraphs over the limit.

Instead, I'm going to put my analysis of our group here. I guess this will count as my blog update for today? (Yesterday, technically, behind a day again!) I'm fairly sure you should know which category you fit into, if you're in my group.



Geez, how to describe my group. We have had an interesting lot over the years, but I think I'll just stick with the ones who play most often.

First of all is the person I would call the Fluff. I call her this because she is not very into the rules of any given system, despite having had the longest track record of playing with me. Her thing is that she tends to play rather reserved characters who are kinda-average dudes that don't really make a lot of hard decisions, and are by and large good at heart. She, like most of us, craves the experience of just *being* that character and interacting with the world, be it shooting something in the face, or just casually chatting it up with the other characters in the group. Her backstories are usually fairly lightweight and easy to deal with, often times to the point of frustration because she will give so few details that it can be difficult to tell what will engage her as a player.

Next is the Main Character. I call him this because in any given situation, that is how he will act. He sees the game as one would see a typical RPG game, with a singular main character who helps to drive the plot. This is a blessing and a curse, because if you drop a plot line in front of him, he'll snap it up like a fish eating a worm. However, this very same enthusiasm often causes friction with the rest of the group, because he will be trying to force the plot forward while the rest of us are still not ready to move onto the next "plot point", or while we are preparing to do something else. On occasion as a GM, I've been able to harness his impatience and made it work in the narrative - charging ahead in his giant warmachine inside a cave system, he sets off a trap that causes the tunnel to collapse, which actually causes more damage to the cave system overall, because his machine is so large and heavy. But sometimes, this very same impatience has ruined a many good scene, particularly when the 'spotlight' shines on other players, and his role is to not say anything and let the 'leader' do the talking, instead of actively antagonize the people we are dealing with. Success with this character are almost guaranteed - even with dice rollers, his luck is off the charts, and 95% of the time, if he makes a roll, he will succeed it with almost the best results possible. Great for moving the plot forward, but occasionally does not mesh well with the others.

Then there's the Comedian. Another guy I've known for awhile, he hasn't played for as long as some of us, but most of the time his characters are downright hilarious. I consider him to be invaluable to the games, because in a lot of our serious-business plots, he adds that touch of lightheartedness that is needed to help balance things out. I dislike playing games without him, because his sheer comedy value during the game is so necessary a lot of times to keep us engaged.

Then there is someone similar to the Comedian, who I guess I'll call the Teacher. That is kind of his role in life now, but in the games he often plays a similar amusing role as the Comedian, but spends more of his time looking for ways around a given situation that doesn't involve just shooting at its weak spot until it dies. As a GM, he has surprised me several times by looking at things he has created or acquired in the game, and applied them in ways I had not anticipated - but interestingly enough, by applying them in a way that correctly solves a given problem, and also helps to make the narrative that much more interesting.

Next, we have the Drifter. He's a great GM, if you can tie him down long enough to do something. He has a tendency to create something, then grow tired of it in short order as it is not quite what he originally envisioned, or it does not live up to his incredibly high expectations. An intelligent player, a great character creator, and an incredible penchant for backstories make for a guy I'd love to have in every game. But unfortunately, if a game (or his own character!) don't fit his vision perfectly, he is more likely to just give up and want to forget about the whole thing entirely, which is a real shame.

Lastly, there's the Storyteller. This guy is nothing short of amazing, because of the things his characters will tell you. This man is a social interaction king, and he is quick to pick up rules as well. But interaction is his real game, and the best part about any character he creates. Every character he makes has an immensely interesting backstory that works with the game world, and even better are the stories that his character comes up with, often on the fly, that both entertain and help to expand upon the gameworld itself. A regular fountain of knowledge, he can play dumb, he can play smart, and he can play a dumb smart kind of guy. Having him in the group usually means that when he's around, there will be someone who can engage with the other people in the world, and who will say things nobody would ever expect, and who will do things that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

That's my group in a nutshell. The Drifter is hard to nail down, but I've found the Comedian and the Fluff manage to make a great combination together, and with the Teacher as well, we have a fairly stable group. Throw in the Storyteller, and you have a group of fellas that will entertain you from here and back - even if you never actually manage to leave the tavern floor.

GM Style: Add More Characters

So I was reading a blog post over at my favorite gaming blog, Gnome Stew, that was talking about how long people should wait to introduce new characters. Reading through some of the comments, as I occasionally do, I started seeing some very intriguing possibilities for the major game I run, Roguelife. The idea is that they have a ship full of characters, but I've been saying for some time now that the ship itself is understaffed - it's a pretty large ship, but the group doesn't really have the cash to allow a large number of crew on-board (though with some recent windfalls, I'm sure that could change). But the problem still remains: they're still running on a skeleton crew, and that is going to start biting them pretty soon, once they start to realize *spoilers*.

Anyhow, this got me thinking about how we could add more named NPCs to the roster while maintaining a good connection for the party. I've discussed with my players several times that it doesn't make sense for them to have certain PCs going on the 'away missions' - the talker is not a very good shooter, for one thing, and the mechanic is very good at very nearly getting herself killed at every turn. So I asked a couple of my players a question to get the ball rolling: How would they feel if I randomly handed them character sheets with a paragraph of description at the bottom and said "here, play this character"?

To my surprise, the two I was talking with openly embraced the idea, which gives me hope that the others will see it this way as well - and if they aren't, nothing is stopping their characters from participating. But this method will help to enforce the harsh idea that yes, they *could* die at any given time, and at least this way, if they do bite the big one, it will make it a lot easier for them to pick up another character, since they'll probably have a favorite secondary they could use instead, should, god forbid, their main character die.

This makes things very interesting in another way, though: it also makes it possible for us to start using other scenarios, such as "Dave got critically injured during the last mission, and can no longer participate... you're going to need to take someone else with you this time to fill his place." I think this makes for a very interesting scenario, and gives the players some breathing room - especially in a game where healing is something that only occurs naturally.

So, if you are thinking about trying to shake up your game a little bit, tend to use a mission-based structure for your game, and are in an environment where you are utilizing a large group mechanic (such as on a spaceship of sorts or military organization, etc), or are playing in a high-stakes game, maybe you can consider this approach.

I think I'll refer to this method as the 108 Stars approach, of Suikoden fame. Because really, that was one of the ideas I had in my head when I initially gave my players access to a functional spaceship all those sessions back. Allowing the players to control multiple PCs just makes that 108 stars dream that much easier.

As a tangent, I could force the players to create additional PCs - albeit at a much lower level - and force them to 'level' these side characters. Everyone should still gain some amount of inherent XP gain over time - but participating in the missions grants them a much larger amount of XP.

The other great thing about this method is that I can finally do away with the whole individual rewards system - and instead the entire ship as a whole gains the rewards, to be split not fairly, but to be used purely for the ship itself, and any equipment the group may wish to maintain. This has many benefits associated with it, I believe, such as being able to reward themselves with special equipment upgrades on occasion. After all, right now most of the PCs money tends to just get funneled back into the ship anyways (where it should be, really). It just seems like the next logical step to me.

I like to imagine that, much like some NPCs I had planned, that these additional characters would have price tags associated with them as well, allowing for some great amount of variability. PCs pay themselves a certain amount for participating in the missions - everything else goes towards the ship fund (which is kind of how it works right now already). For lower-risk missions, they could go send out some lower-level NPCs instead of their mains, who are probably busy with doing administrative bullshit, or working on far more important things.

It also makes it very easy to segue into a separate side-game temporarily in case the main group is on a mission that requires a specific player who is currently not present.

Lots of great ideas from this, and hopefully someone else manages to think of some others. Personally, I am excited by this prospect, and I hope that it will spread to my players as well. I have a lot of awesome things I'd like to do in the next act, so this will just make it even easier for me to make the stakes that much higher while not worrying too much if someone might die.

Of course, I'll also need to make some NPCs of my own, but I'm looking forward to that a little bit. There's something nice to be said about giving yourself strict limitations you cannot work around, or being able to craft character sheets that have a little something unique about them for the players to enjoy as well, on occasion.

Like allowing one of the players to control the military-grade assassination droid that they re-purposed.

It's the little things in life which give me the most joy, I think.

Try Something New

Sorry for the long break. (Who am I saying sorry to? The Internet itself? Myself? The blog? Perhaps all of that.) Being sick took more time to recover mentally than anticipated, but I need to force myself back into the swing of things, so here we go.

Sometimes, you just need to get out and try something new. I've started coming to this realization that my life is getting to be a bit too samey. While samey can be kind of nice, when it starts to fall back on the exact same kind of samey, it gets irritating - understandably so, since it means that you aren't growing.

It can be something as simple as going out someplace public you haven't been to in awhile - for me, it was the flea market I used to go to a few years back. Still pretty nice out there, and man was there all kinds of fantastic junk to be found (the best part of flea markets, really!). It really started to get the gears a little oiled, and kind of helped me shift perspective a little.

The mind is a funny tool, because it can put things together in very odd ways that don't always seem to make sense at first. I guess it's because the brain works on the substitutive property or something like that. Basically, it sees something and analyzes it in many different ways - it's like finding out you've got a round hole, and then taking every single square peg and trying to mash it in there any way it can, until it gets something that kind of works. Eventually, something clicks - maybe because it just happened to be the right sort of peg, or maybe because your brain found a way to actually smash that sonofabitch in there.

Don't mind me, because this is where I probably ramble on a little bit before I get back to my point. Anyways, on occasion your brain will consciously re-analyze these things and ask itself, why does this thing work? Or if you're real fortunate, what else can I apply this particular thought to?

The thought this lead me to was that a lot of people do things like run flea market stalls probably because they love what they do very much. After all, I can't see a lot of those places making a ton of money. One particular place that caught my eye, though, was a fairly large showroom of paintings a man had done himself. He had so many of them that they were also placed out in the hallway itself in a long row outside the shop. I imagine he likely didn't sell very many of those paintings... but why have a shop if you can't sell something?

Probably it's just one of those things where the money doesn't matter - it's the act of doing something you enjoy and then letting other people take it in that matters most. It makes me wonder what *I* enjoy doing that I can share with other people.

Which leads me to the whole point of this post: doing something different can yield some very interesting results. People tend to be noticed if they are doing something that most other people aren't doing - or by doing something particularly well. Even moreso if they are doing both at the same time. So I'm thinking to myself, what is the one thing I love doing at any given time? That leads me back to a thought I had earlier in the week, which is that I seem to feel a lot better if I take some time to just hum to myself. Sing, almost. I get these amazing pieces stuck in my head sometimes, and it just wants to flow out, yet I tend to deny myself these urges because it's... well, weird, to be frank.

But maybe that's just my brain trying to tell me something. Maybe I need to make some music again. There's nothing wrong with making a bit of noise once in awhile - particularly if that noise turns out to be something.

So I'm finding myself going back to try to teach myself some things I tried to learn many years ago, long before college. I've got this whole 3D thing figured out, maybe I ought to take some time to learn this music thing. If the songs in my head are so inspiring to me, then maybe it would do me a world of good to try to digitize them, slap them on repeat, and see what my brain can churn out then.

Sometimes, doing something different can yield some very interesting results. So go out and try something different, and see if something new occurs to you.

As a side note: Sweet Genius is a pretty good show, and has also started to shift my thought process some. Not because I'm a cook mind you (I'm not all that good at it), but it does get the creative gears going, as the main goal of the show is "Take these ingredients, get inspired by this object, and make something amazing."

If your mind is open to it, interesting new ideas can pop up many places. So go out and inspire yourself, and see what happens.

I'm going to try to start updating this thing three times a week again. Since I plan on doing some organizational things soon, perhaps a post or two about finding new ways to organize might be in order or something. Who knows, I might just find it useful again someday.

And just because, a quote from a commercial that also seemed to strike a chord with me: "What if someone had told Beethoven 'that symphony should have been done weeks ago?'"

Great things take time, so learn to take your time... and best utilize it, I suppose.

Ugh, Get It Away!

Some observant people may have noticed I haven't posted anything in awhile. Other observant people may have been able to attribute this to my being sickly as of late.

Here's the thing about me getting sick: It doesn't happen very often, and when it does, it tends to hit me pretty hard, but it takes a long time to catch up to me. Which means it drains my energy, and makes it nigh impossible to do anything remotely resembling something creative.

Though in the last few days, I've stumbled across some rather interesting things, so I'll just gush on them real fast.

First of all, witty and vulgar comes the Myths Retold blog. It's pretty rad, and kind of historical. Sort of. Maybe not so much. Through reading some of these entries, it led me to my latest art crush, Gunnerkrigg Court. I have to admit, it's got quite the archive, and at first I wasn't certain I would be a fan of it. A few chapters in, though, and I was hooked. It's a shame I've already made my way through the archives and caught up to current - seems like this story is going to be going on for quite some time.

I've also taken the time to catch up with the good ol' Doctor Who. Completely loving what's been going on, but my favorite episode of the season is still the one Neil Gaiman wrote: The Doctor's Wife. Still, despite that, the season looks like it will be wrapping up nicely with the death of the Doctor... or will it? I've got a lot of ideas as to where they can take this, and after the preview of the next episode, I think I can safely say there is definitely a whole 'nother season coming around soon enough.

That's probably as much as I'm getting out at this point. Sinuses are still being a bother, but maybe once this passes I'll be able to do something resembling creativity - and maybe even update this blog regularly again.

Entertaingineerment: Or how I made up an important-sounding word

Welcome to Entertaingineering. What the heck is this? Well, for one it's an attempt to get myself to put out goals and deadlines for myself, to finally get around to doing all those "fun things" I keep saying I'll get around to. Additionally, it's also a place for me to share all the fun gaming-related stuff I make, such as house rules for various P&P games, or just odd little dissertations on something even tangentially-related to entertainment.

That means I'll occasionally ramble on about some awesome new movie or show I saw. Or horrible movie or show. On occasion, it may even be both.

So what's this guy who types things like? My name is Ed, and currently I am 25 years old, living in Florida. You'd think this was a great thing, but honestly, I can't wait to get out of here - between the job market and the humidity, I'm ready to pack my bags and call this whole thing done.

I came to Florida for one major reason: to go to school to learn Computer Animation. I succeeded, and after four years of study (the last year repeating the same class over and over), I'd like to think I learned something. The initial hope was that I'd go off to do some grand things.

Except I realized that I had no money to move, no jobs in the area, and uh... not enough connections to land a job anywhere else. So far, I've managed to tread water, and things have improved. With any luck, I'll be looking to move out to Texas sometime next year, and we'll see how things develop from there.

Enough of that crap though, that's not why you're here (I hope!). The important thing is fun! Because that's what this blog is all about - attempting to document my chronicle through learning new artistic abilities, and expanding on ideas that have been bounding about the inside of my skull since I was a child, and letting them out to play for a bit.

Ever since I was young, I had a couple of dream jobs. The first one was a rail-road train track switcher. Then I wanted to be a conductor on a train. When I grew up a little and hit maybe four or five, I got it into my head how awesome it would be to become an astronaut. Then I grew a little more and decided I wanted to be a writer.

Well, I think that about settled it, really. I was huge into cartoons growing up, and TV shows were awesome. I used to read quite a bit growing up. I never really lost that writing bug, though after a traumatic childhood event early on nearly stopped me from ever writing again, it did take me eventually. In early High School, I got into drawing a bit, but never really thought a whole lot of it... despite having tried to create webcomics on three different occasions. One of which actually managed to see the light of day at some point.

As for gaming.... when I was a wee tyke, I was hooked. Five years old, we went to my aunt's to visit our cousins. They had an NES. I remember very distinctly staying up late to play games... I also remember another time that we went to visit, they were renting an SNES, and had such amazing titles as Road Runner's Death Valley Rally. I remember it clearly because I was somehow more awesome at it than my older brother OR our older cousin. I was hooked on those. Next Christmas, our parents got us an NES and an NES Entertainment System to go with it, and a few choice titles.

From then on, we got our games mostly from pawn shops or the like, but I was hooked. Zelda, Double Dragon, Megaman... those were the worlds I longed for, and as a child I would often dream of how awesome it would be if the 'cartoon world' and the 'video game world' and OUR WORLD were combined. Needless to say I was a tremendous fan of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Next to Princess Bride, it's still on my list of top favorites.

Moving along, the other game that help shape my childhood was a little board game called Hero Quest. It was described to me as a lighter version of D&D, which sounded awesome to me growing up. After all, it has Dungeons, and it has Dragons, so how the hell could that be anything *but* awesome? Obviously, despite my parents somehow owning an original Red Box, I was never allowed to play it. Didn't keep me from staring at it for weeks on end, wondering to myself if it was worth climbing the shelf to take it down and take a peek inside.

But Hero Quest put it into my mind how awesome tactical board game combat could be. I was hooked, and I didn't even yet know at the time just how badly addicted I was to this stuff.

My first initiation to D&D was much without my parents blessings. They didn't know for many years that I was gaming with my older brother (who had come back from the military by that time). They never knew their son was going out to gather together with people mostly 8 years his senior (and then some!) to pretend he was some badass from another world, where magic reigned supreme. Within the first year, I wanted to Game Master.

And boy was I terrible at it, but over time I started to get better, and now I think I can safely say I'm at least halfway decent at it.

I love to say that I've played more games than most people have even heard of. From CCGs to Tabletop to freeform-forum-posting. I've played Magic, Lord of the Rings, Deadlands, Star Wars, Star Trek, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Legend of the Five Rings.... and probably some others I've forgotten over time. I've played AD&D, D&D 3.0 and 3.5, Pathfinder, d20 Modern/Future, and recently I've played some 4E as well. I've played GURPS, RIFTS (don't get me started on that), and made a few characters for various iterations of Shadowrun. I've ventured from Rogukan to Eberron to Greyhawk and beyond - I've tasted Spelljammer and been left wanting more.

I think it's fairly safe to say that few people know entertainment quite the way that I do. Because quite frankly, I've made it a tremendous part of my life, because I feel that it too is a medium for artistic creativity to blossom.

As a child, I always wanted to go and make people feel something. As that same child, I was influenced by the books and television shows and movies and games I played, and I always desperately wanted to give something back.

So here we are today: Entertaingineering. Or learning how to create something entertaining.

I hope that you are better understanding the sort of person I am. And if you are thinking that I tend to ramble on an awful lot, you're probably correct. But I only ramble because I feel it's the only way to properly convey all of the information I wish to impart, because for whatever stupid reason, I feel that it's important.

So with all of that said.... here's what I hope to convey on this blog:

- Things related to my gaming group - materials, settings, or other awesome things that occur. This can range from gaming mechanics to just general table play, or plot hooks I think are kind of neat.

- Inspirational images, movies, television shows, books, whatever it is I come across. For some time I was doing movie reviews and such on another blog of mine, so I may continue that trend here on occasion.

- Plans for moving forward with my artistic career - either works that I am currently working on modeling or animating, or talking about webcomics or my plans to create a series I feel has never been matched in the world.

- Stuff relating to the previously-mentioned comicry/entertaining medium. Because I've never decided where I wanted to put that thing.

- And occasionally, things pertaining to writing, because it is an important creative medium nearly as old as painting itself.

So with all of that said, I hope and pray that any other entry I write will never be this long. Unless it is super important. Or super silly.

Hope you stick around for the ride.