My friends Jaey and Martina got married this past Friday evening. The service was in this tiny church in Akron, known for being pretty gay-friendly. I'm guessing about half of those in attendance, including the minister, were of the LGB persuasion.
The minister did a fantastic job, connecting with everyone in the room. She mentioned the impending return of Jesus a few times, but I was still deeply moved by the ceremony. It was warm and inviting in ways I have never encountered in a church before.
The reception was great! They had sushi! (It looked like it had crab in it so I didn't partake, but still, they had sushi!) Their cake was a big stack of cupcakes of various persuasions.
The shining moment for me, though, was right after Jaey and Marti's first dance. The DJ turned on a spinny disco light, and started playing the dance music. Jacob ran out into the middle of the spinny light, all by himself, and started shaking his groove thang! The crowd loved him! He danced all alone in the spotlight for almost a minute, and then all kinds of ladies came out to join him! He stayed out there dancing for like four songs. Check him out:
Jacob Dancing!
He did get a little upset later when Mel and I were slow dancing. He was sad because Angel had left and "There's no one here my size to dance with!" We got home around 11 pm and he collasped into bed.
Anyways, great times. Grats Jaey and Martina!
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Thoughts on Fourth Edition
In the Babylon 5 universe, the Vorlons asked "Who are you?" while the Shadows asked "What do you want?" Those questions defined who they were.
In a role-playing game, the game master is defined by the question, "What do you do?" That phrase is the trigger for the role-playing experience. In it's purest and more unrefined state, that tells the player it's his or her turn to add to the story. It is the moment of infinite potential, the moment when the escapism can take over. The closer any set of role-playing game rules allows a group to come to this ideal--or, more accurately, the less a set of rules intrudes into this potential--the more engaging the experience becomes.
In previous editions of D&D, it has never been quite that limitless, but the potential for cleverness and creativity was always there. You could always find a new way to use a spell, or a way to turn the environment to your advantage, or choose a moment to backstab your buddies.
Now, I have not had a chance to play 4th Edition D&D yet, but I have the books and I've been studying them for a few weeks now. I think they are a fine evolution of the system, a logical improvement over 3.5, and an elegant way to free D&D from its legacy issues.
My main concern is that, when the DM asks you "What do you do?", your response is, "Well, as an Nth level Defender, my function is to do this, so I pick one of my X number of exploits and do my job." And then, after the encounter, the DM says, "Well, it is my job to give you Y amount of reward." In short, your options in any combat situation seem pretty pre-defined. Given robotic arms to roll dice and move minis, compters could calculate D&D now, with humans becoming superfluous. Non-combat situations are glossed over as just the boring time between encounters. I allow that the game may be different in practice, but the books do a great job of making it seem very pre-determined and limiting.
The other problem I have is that the game isn't done. I can understand the purely mechanical problems now, given that every class description is a book sub-chapter with a 100+ item a la carte menu of class abilities attached. But still, eight classes is thin, and even though those menus seem huge, they are still clearly incomplete. You are given only 2-5 choices to make per level, and often the choices are illusions; for the Warlock, there may be 7-8 spells to pick from at any given level, but only 1 or 2 are for your pact; for the Fighter, you want to pick that exploit that fits your chosen weapon. The book with the Bard, Druid, Barbarian, Monk, and other missing classes is not due for another year, but it really needs to be out this fall.
I love the new system, I love that Warlord, I love the Monster Manual. I love the death of alignments (though its hamstrung remians seem silly). I am happy to be rid of fire-and-forget wizards and the Great Wheel cosmology. This seems like an easier game to play and to run. I just think it has taken a step away from a role-playing game and too far into a chatty board game.
In a role-playing game, the game master is defined by the question, "What do you do?" That phrase is the trigger for the role-playing experience. In it's purest and more unrefined state, that tells the player it's his or her turn to add to the story. It is the moment of infinite potential, the moment when the escapism can take over. The closer any set of role-playing game rules allows a group to come to this ideal--or, more accurately, the less a set of rules intrudes into this potential--the more engaging the experience becomes.
In previous editions of D&D, it has never been quite that limitless, but the potential for cleverness and creativity was always there. You could always find a new way to use a spell, or a way to turn the environment to your advantage, or choose a moment to backstab your buddies.
Now, I have not had a chance to play 4th Edition D&D yet, but I have the books and I've been studying them for a few weeks now. I think they are a fine evolution of the system, a logical improvement over 3.5, and an elegant way to free D&D from its legacy issues.
My main concern is that, when the DM asks you "What do you do?", your response is, "Well, as an Nth level Defender, my function is to do this, so I pick one of my X number of exploits and do my job." And then, after the encounter, the DM says, "Well, it is my job to give you Y amount of reward." In short, your options in any combat situation seem pretty pre-defined. Given robotic arms to roll dice and move minis, compters could calculate D&D now, with humans becoming superfluous. Non-combat situations are glossed over as just the boring time between encounters. I allow that the game may be different in practice, but the books do a great job of making it seem very pre-determined and limiting.
The other problem I have is that the game isn't done. I can understand the purely mechanical problems now, given that every class description is a book sub-chapter with a 100+ item a la carte menu of class abilities attached. But still, eight classes is thin, and even though those menus seem huge, they are still clearly incomplete. You are given only 2-5 choices to make per level, and often the choices are illusions; for the Warlock, there may be 7-8 spells to pick from at any given level, but only 1 or 2 are for your pact; for the Fighter, you want to pick that exploit that fits your chosen weapon. The book with the Bard, Druid, Barbarian, Monk, and other missing classes is not due for another year, but it really needs to be out this fall.
I love the new system, I love that Warlord, I love the Monster Manual. I love the death of alignments (though its hamstrung remians seem silly). I am happy to be rid of fire-and-forget wizards and the Great Wheel cosmology. This seems like an easier game to play and to run. I just think it has taken a step away from a role-playing game and too far into a chatty board game.
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