Exciting News

That is all for today :D

Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves

So I heard all day, except for going comic book hunting with my friend, about how a school district in New Hampshire has banned the sport of dodgeball due to bullying concerns.  I have heard all sorts of responses to this, mainly that it is woosifying America, making the United States of Woosyrica.  I just took two blinks about it and my main response was, "so what?"  When I went to high school we never played dodgeball, well, not when the gym teachers were looking.  Instead we had Project Adventure!  Instead of dodging rubber balls hitting with the force of a car driving down a town road, we had rope walks and fifty foot climbs, have fun re-enacting the Joker's death from the 1989 Batman!

That's exactly what it looked like to 15 year-old me!

I understand that sports teach us about teamwork and helps build character, but I think what these people are looking for are games that bring out the stronger kids, keeping in place the status quo of power in schools nation wide.  So, I propose that we cut the bullcrap and really bring a physical sport to school-age kids, ancient Greek wrestling!

Oh.... um.... wait, ancient Greek wrestling was done naked, and that's not allowed in schools.  So maybe we need a sport just a gritty and for the strongest of the strong, but nixing the nudity.  Sure, ancient Greek wrestling was metal and to the fucking death, but you have to stick with the laws man.  How about Fencing or Kendo?

Kendo is fun, and I actually (and this is me being honest in what is obviously a facetious post) want to learn Kendo.  Kendo AND Fencing.  However, Kendo is Japanese and not American, and the people need an American sport for an American school, so that we can raise good Americans!  So that removes Kendo and Fencing, since Fencing is Spanish.  Damn, and the fictionalized version of Fencing in Game of Thrones probably had the most epic line in existence.  Oh well, why don't we try the Mesoamerican Ball Game next? I mean, just look at it!

Yes, the Mesoamerican Ball Game.  This game was so epic and character building that if you won, you got to watch the loser get to see his still-beating heart cut out of him as a sacrifice to the Aztec Gods.  How much more character building can you get?  You don't have to be naked like in ancient Greek wrestling, and it's American.  Sure, not USA American, but it came from the Americas, so it should count.  We've got everything you need right there for a good character-building sport: brutality, strength, very obvious winners, clothing.  It's perfect, am I right?

You need a better sport you say?  One that is like dodgeball, ancient Greek wrestling, kendo, fencing, and that ball game all rolled into one.  You say you want a sport so brutal that it makes Tina Turner put on chainmail?

Well then, why didn't you say so, but can't we get beyond Thunderdome?

Yes, you heard me, this whole blog post about me being facetious about a school banning a sport that I particularly didn't care much about and hated more passionately than anything about gym, all was a set up for the most elaborate beyond Thunderdome joke I could ever pull off!  I think I deserve a round of applause.

Okay okay, so you probably want to hear my actual thoughts on this I wager?  Well, to be honest, I never played dodgeball in school, like I stated above, and I turned out fine and in good character.  I guess the point I'm trying to make is that does it REALLY matter?  Besides, I'm a nerd, and if I wanted to be hit by a foam anything, it would be a boffer weapon whilst LARPing.

Especially by the girl wearing the bodice in the back.

And, by the way, I don't hate pain either.  I wouldn't be into wax play if I wanted to completely avoid pain.  Yeah, I would rather the sensuality of hot wax over a rubber dodgeball any day!

To close off this post, I leave you brain bleach, in case you didn't

want to picture me covered in wax ;)

WINDOW WEDNESDAY: Quickly Doing Up Traits

The Window, as I discussed previously, is a role-playing system where the idea of story-trumps-rules is the base of the entire thing.  As such, one creates a character that is based more on description than numbers.  However, this is a system made for RPGs.  Role.  Playing.  Games.  As a role-playing game, there has to be some basis of rules, of control.  It needs to be discussed on what keeps a player from making a super human character where all his traits are d4's?  While its true such a person shouldn't play this more rules-light system, it can also be easy for a veteran to fall into this, or to fudge it a bit.  Or, maybe you are afraid of making an unfairly balanced character.

So I made this list:

FIVE TRAIT SYSTEM
1 Below Average
1 Average
1 Above Average
1 High
1 Very High

SIX TRAIT SYSTEM
1 Below Average
2 Average
1 Above Average
1 High
1 Very High

SEVEN TRAIT SYSTEM
1 Below Average
2 Average
1 Above Average
2 High
1 Very High

EIGHT TRAIT SYSTEM
1 Below Average
2 Average
2 Above Average
2 High
1 Very High

The eight traits I limit this to are: Strength, Agility, Health, Knowledge, Perception, Luck, Magic, and Sanity.  Wealth and Armor feel like equipment based things, but that might also be a departure from how I view role-playing systems and how the creator of The Window views role-playing systems.  The system presented here I feel is fairly balanced trait-wise.  Once could associate skills with these scores.  An effective fencer, for example, who has very good Agility and Perception, but itsn't very smart, would not know how to do differential equations very well.  Maybe he can't tell you the differences between a foil and an epee either?

Another way to balance the traits is to establish a point-buy system.  Under the rules for Experience on the site, rules are given on how many points it takes to increase a skill or trait from.  For example, all their traits start as Poor (d30), and they can spend the points to raise their traits.  It take 27 points to raise a trait from Poor to Incredible.  So, let's give the number of spendable points as 60.  In theory, you can have a character that is pretty damn incredible, if you also want to play a character that is like a savant.  Two Incredible traits costs 54 points, do spend your remaining six wisely.  Also, one can take my preset lists, and downgrade a skill to get experience for the others.

A third way one can do the traits balanced is to have a class and race system.  For example, Human-sized (Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, etc.) races start with all Average traits, all Hobbit-sized (Gnomes, Halflings, Goblins, etc.) start with Below Average Strength and Health, but Above Average Perception and Agility, and Giant-Sized (Trolls, Ogres, Giants) start with Below Average Perception and Agility but Above Average Strength and Health (everyone has Average Knowledge, unless you introduce different epochs of cultures into you setting, like a Medieval Knight encountering a Neolithic tribesman).  From there different character classes say increase different traits, or even change up the trait set  (Thieves and Mages probably wouldn't have much use of Strength, but might have more use of Luck or Magic respective).  Also,

Finally, One can combine all three.  Much like I mentioned with the point buy, maybe the PCs are like the characters on the list, but the regular joe-schmoes are like the Race/Class paragraph.  Or maybe your character starts out with the class/race stats, and have points that they can spend from there (thats how I have it set up)?

Table Plan: I Can Feel The Cosmos

I understand this Table Plan is very, VERY belated!  I'm usually very poignant and punctual with posting these things on Monday.  However, this day has been a bit crazy, so let's discuss something just as crazy, the Planes!

How can one create an effective Planar System and Cosmology that doesn't feel bland or cliched?  This is a toughie for me.  Basically, its because I love the Great Wheel from D&D.  I love Planescape.  In fact, I have reconciled Eberron so it can work with Planescape.  I will admit my bias here.  However, I have created my own cosmology for both my main campaign setting, and one for my Window setting (my main is grand and epic, my Window is is generic, but works).  In my main, to be vague enough so not to reveal too much about it yet, the Planes are based on grades on how distant one gets from physical reality.  Eventually, you get to a place where the plane is a blank canvas and literally every thought that passes through your head, no matter how minor, suddenly manifests.  So, if you imagine a Pit Fiend doing a Rocky Horror Medley in fishnets, sure enough, one appears.

So, the first thing you need is a concept.  Planescape was based around Idealism, and how different Ideals are represented by the planes.  Real World religious cosmologies are based on concepts of Suffering/Punishment, with the Heavens being realms of rest and relaxation, and Hell being a place where you push boulders up a mountain for the next eon.  Fourth Edition has a dualism of material versus mental/spiritual, with the Astral Sea and the Elemental Chaos.  My setting is based on the separation of Physical Reality and Mental Reality, which leads to that one famous question from that one famous rock song.

Remember, this gives you not your cosmology, but your starting point.  The Mountain of Celestia and the Infinite Layers of the Abyss are not the only places.  If you have an established Bestiary, think about where your Extraplanar beings (angels, demons, etc.) come from, they need homeworlds.  Maybe your world's elves come from a foreign realm to, like the Feywild of Fourth Edition D&D?  If you do not have an established Bestiary, look to religion, mysticism, and such for inspiration and ideas.

Also, keep in mind that this is not a physical world you are making, the planes tend to be crazy and infinite.  Weird Gravity like on the D&D plane of Bytopia, frictionless surfaces, the mind being able to shape and bend matter without effort, all can happen.  While you should restrain yourself while making a World, with the Planes, go buck wild!  Go Mount Meru or Divine Comedy or Lovecraftian!  Nothing is too unbelievable with the planes, everything is permitted!  How awesome is that?

Last but not least, don't let your low number of planes make you think your cosmology is not good, or don't feel compelled to make a very varied cosmology, with billions of demiplanes.  Work to what would be great for you.  If only a few planes is your cup of tea, do that.  Likewise, if you love making varied and crazy worlds, go for a Planescapeish cosmology.  After all, here, finally, only your imagination limits you.

For Those Who Haven't Noticed

I have a few buttons on the side of this blog.

I have a Twitter.  I also have a Tumblr.  For family-fun (PG-13 to be more accurate) and updates on my day, and when I have a new post up; look to my Twitter.  If you want to see a steady stream of Nerdy images, Doctor Who, and BBW porn; look to my Tumblr, which is, of course, NSFW.

Expanding on this, I feel like despite a shit-hole of a day today, a lot of new and exciting things are coming forward in my life.  Tomorrow is the last normal Table Story/Plan for a month, as in April I will be doing an "Origin of My Playing of D&D" month.  This may or may not lead to me doing a Let's Play of some of the games mentioned for my YouTube (which means I will need a YouTube button).  Also, I will be applying for a few jobs, as well as applying for Google AdSense, for a steady flow of income that I so desperately need (I have been hit by a dreaded "phantom parking ticket" from Philadelphia).  Things are looking up I'd reckon.

:)

Why the Hell...

Sometimes, I hate being bored.  Sometimes, I hate Google for somehow having everything you ever wanted to know/see or didn't want to know/see.

Just saying...

PBP #10: Forge Ahead

So I have the regretful news that the Pagan Store/Community Center that I always went to is in Limbo at the moment, and might end up closing.  While I am overjoyed and glad that the current management is moving on to bigger and better things in life, and I hope that the Gods always line her way with joy, I do have to admit a bit of a mope here.  Pagan Stores are different from other Spirituality-type stores.  A Catholic Goods store can close down, but you still have the Church to go to for community and celebration.  Pagans, at the moment, really don't have that.  Sure, we have groups that come together to celebrate major festivals, and a few groups (Aquarian Tabernacle Church, the OTO, etc) have brick-and-mortar temples, but most of us really don't have much to work with.  A Pagan Store goes through trouble, and the community also goes through trouble.  When they close, suddenly the whole Pagan community of the area goes through a period of anomie, and some give up on groups all together.

Originally, this post was going to be about Forgiveness and how such ideas like Confession (or, as it's called now, Reconciliation) can be helpful and cathartic for Pagans.  Maybe I will get to that in a later post.  However, for the moment, I want to focus in impermanence and how we know it all to well.  This is also a call to arms to support our communities, with both time AND money; as well as a sort of spiritual jihad against hubris, which brings down more Pagan communities than it really should.

In May of 2012, Sacred Paths Center closed its doors.  The place was running out of funds fast and no one was committing themselves to work for the place.  When the place closed, its services were scattered to the winds, the shrine and library going to Key of Paradise and the like.  With this scattering many felt the pangs of anomie, and also letting the meme of Pagans being unable to have brick-and-mortar places sneak in.  Anomie does strange things to people.  No matter how anarchic or anti-establishment you are, everyone needs their norms, everyone needs nomos, or law.  Without these customs, we feel adrift in the sea of life itself.

Without delving into sociology or economics and making things messy with things like the Pareto Principle and such, we need to recognize that the only ones we can blame when these things fall apart are ourselves.  The greatest enemies modern Pagans have ever faced are modern Pagans.  If we want a community, we have to pool together resources and volunteers and build it.  This means we have to work on setting aside our own Egos for a moment and get down and dirty with the work.  I'm not saying that you need to be apart of a group or you cannot be solitary, both are very important.  What I am saying, is that a closed fist hits harder and leaves a longer impression than a single finger poking can do.

With the ancient Pagans, everything started at the household cultus (using the Latin instead of the English cult, due to the modern connotations of cult).  First and foremost was the Family, the household Gods, and the Ancestors.  From there they moved out into the community cultus.  From there, they would go to the national cultus, the mysteries, etc.  Now, why was there such a focus on the Family (I need to be smacked for that pun)?  Because, ultimately, the community is like a family of sorts.  Community leaders can take advice from Robb Stark of Game of Thrones when he says that, "being a lord is like being a father, except you have thousands of children."

We need to forge ahead with communities.  We need to forge ahead with connections.  Wicca is about 60 years old, Thelema is over 100 years old, and Neopagan ideas in general are about 300 years old.  It is time we stop thinking of ourselves as musty old lodges full of aging privileged men or flim-flam New Age groups that gather and fall apart a thousand times a minute.  we have a modern system for us that works, the cultus has been built, and we have re-established a sort of household worship.  Now it's time to collect ourselves, gird our loins, and get to building community.  We have the esoteric, we need to strengthen the exoteric.

Forge ahead, your community is counting on you.

An Ostara Walk (A Short-Story of my Day)

He drove his truck up the mountain a ways, the radio playing the classic rock music of yester-year.  He took the time to admire the beauty of the mountain, while at the same time keeping an eye out for dangers on the road that lay before him.However, the mountain was calling, and he knew that it would be difficult to remind himself that, despite the time of day and the usually barren nature of the road, that danger was omnipresent.  Soon, the truck came forth from the forest lined road and into the bright sunlight of the afternoon sun.  Around him, the flora beginning to poke forth from the shade and the snow.  Spring had come.

He turned his wheel and followed the winding road, past farm fields and an old church, and drove through the forest of the mountain again; all to reach his final destination.  Before him was a beautiful lake, the crystalline blue water undisturbed by the usual boat that traveled along its length.  The parking lot was oddly deserted as well, but that did not bother him, the entire nature trail was his, and so would be his special place.  Much like any special place, he did not know who built it.  Like Stonehenge of English myth and history though, it did not matter who built this special place, only that it had a numinous quality.

His ears were greeted with the sound of crashing waves like that of an ocean.  He knew the wind would be more aggressive up here, and he also knew that this would lower the temperature.  Holding his hoodie closer, he stumbled onward, hoping he wouldn't freeze and shiver.  The trail was lined on both sides with snow, leaving trail itself as a bog seeded with the footprints of hikers and thrill-seekers.  The ground squished beneath him, making him only wish he had brought his boots.  However, he had come this far, and the show must go on.  And down the trail he walked.

A patch of woods lead to a place where the snow was still on the trail itself, and the bog frozen to ice.  Taking a deep breath, he trudged forward, making sure not to slip and fall.  Then the wind picked up and a strong gust of wind chilled the air as if it was a tomb.  The eyes of the dead were watching, and they were behind every tree, under every rock.  The cold air gave him pause, and he thought about turning back.  The wind kept whipping at his back, hoping to dominate him.  The air was so frigid, even the animals had stopped silent.  Death itself was on the trail.  However, after warming himself up for a minute, he turned to face Death right in the face, and thinking of others who had faced Death, down the trail he walked.

The ice at this point of the trail, despite still being in the woods, was melted, and the trail was back to a slushy bog.  Keeping his eyes on the prize ahead, he trudged onward, toward his numinous, special spot.  For the first time on the trail, he had heard the birds sing, as if they had just awoken and sung a morning hymn to the risen sun, much like the Pythagoreans of old.  He picked up the pace, feeling the Sun's warmth upon his flesh.  However, he would soon think the warmth was a ruse for the wind to once again bite at him. The wind picked up a second time, but this time his foe was not Death, but Doubt.  It had been a terribly long winter, as just as it felt like warmer weather had come to stay, the snow returned for one last tour, leading to the cold winds and the boggy trail.  Was it worth coming out today?  Maybe I should return and come back on a warmer day?  However, despite the doubts, down the trail he walked.

Finally, he stepped out of the woods and into the bright sunlight.  He stepped onto a side trail down to the shore, and took a quick rest on a fallen tree.  And while the wind did pick up again, this time it brought Determination in its wake.  Determination that took him by the hand and finally lead him to the megalithic structure that was erected by the shore.  This was his special, numinous spot.  Here was his altar, not built by his hands, but open to his heart.  He fixed up and small fallen menhirs and replaced a feather that was dilapidated and falling apart.  He then took a simple shell, filling it with water from the lake, and placed it on a flat stone, and without pomp or circumstance, muttered out to the Numen and to the animals nearby a "happy Ostara."  And turning to the Sun, he closed his eyes and lifted his head.

"Unity uttermost showed!

I adore the might of Thy breath,

Supreme and terrible God,

Who makest the gods and death

To tremble before Thee:-

I, I adore thee!"

The Wind grew silent for the first time in his trip.

"Appear on the throne of Ra!

Open the ways of the Khu!

Lighten the ways of the Ka!

The ways of the Khabs run through

To stir me or still me!

Aum! let it fill me!"

The waves crashed on the shore in time with the poetic hymn.

"The light is mine; its rays consume

Me: I have made a secret door

Into the House of Ra and Tum,

Of Khephra and of Ahathoor.

I am thy Theban, O Mentu,

The prophet Ankh-af-na-khonsu!

By Bes-na-Maut my breast I beat;

By wise Ta-Nech I weave my spell."

And it felt like even the Numen, the Genii Loci, took notice.

"Show thy star-splendour, O Nuit!

Bid me within thine House to dwell,

O winged snake of light, Hadit!

Abide with me, Ra-Hoor-Khuit!"

He turned to the shore and turned his mind to the Genii Loci, to the Gods and to Nature.  He felt the creativity flow through him.  He took the time to read for a few moments, and to enjoy the crisp mountain air.  But the wind once again nipped at his face, and he knew that it was time to leave.  Not even his coat was keeping him warm.  He began his trek back down the trail, this not accosted by the winds.  Death and Doubt left him alone, and Determination walked by his side.  He didn't speak a word, except to a few passersby to wish them a happy Spring.  His mind traveled as he walked, and as he reached his truck, he stopped for a moment to turn and face the lake again.  For a moment, he could swear he saw Venus rising from the foam of the waves.  Feeling refreshed, and with new found determination, the engine turned over and he drove away.

Happy Ostara!

This is a picture of the "special, numinous place."

Table Plan: How to Train Your Rules Lawyer

No term brings more fear to the hearts of a GM or DM, or to the players than Rules Lawyer.  They get in the way of the story, the DM says.  They balance the battle in favor of the monsters, say the players.  They know every obscure rule in the book and tend to pull them out at the most inopprotune times.  Sometimes, they even start to become munchkins.  Where else do you think Pun-Pun the Kobold came from?  Yes, our games would be much better off without Rules Lawyers, right?

NO!  NO!  NO!

One of the greatest things you can have in your group is the Rules Lawyer.  They keep things grounded in reality, well, as real as Fireball spells and Dragons get.  Rules exist for a reason.  They exist to keep things in flow.  And while I am a big proponent of "story trumps rules" and "setting trumps rules", I see the place for the rules in an RPG.  Rules prevent players and the DM/GM from going mad with creative power.  The rules make sure everything moves smoothely.  And with RPG's and with how many rules some of them have, and with only so many hours in the day, not all of us can learn the rules in depth.  So what are we to do?

Thats why Rules Lawyers are necessary.  They dedicated the time to learn the damn rules.  They sacrificed over time pay, some good TV, and possibly great sex to make sure they got it down good and right, and that they remembered it.  These are the kinds of people who can make or break a campaign.  This is why we should not punish our Rules Lawyers, we should, instead, train them.  Of course I am being facetious, but if you can get your Rules Lawyers to do this, then you will have a lower stress environment to enjoy the role-playing and the game itself.

1. Story/Setting Trumps Rules:  This is a major one, and sometimes is a bit hard to get through.  Say you are playing a low-magic D&D setting, suddenly, a monster's Damage Reduction 5/- Magic would have to be changed and edited.  Maybe you are playing another setting where your dwarves have more than one language unlike in the Player's Handbook (my personal setting has two, Deep and Upper Dwarven).  Perhaps the DM/GM could write up a splat-sheet with the changes to the rules to help in this process.

2. Class Now In Session: The Rules Lawyer can be a major source of knowledge.  Instead of groaning at the guy, maybe try learning from them.  When I first played Lazlo, it was my first time playing rogue, and I mixed up the rules for flanking/sneak attack.  The Rules Lawyer of our group corrected me, and I learned from the situation.  Think of it this way, they learned the rules so you don't have to.

3. Fight Fire With Fire: Try learning some of the more in-depth rules yourself, on your own pace.  If you love playing spellcasters, focus on that.  For DM/GM's, take a moment to briefly reaquaint yourself with the traps, monsters, etc.  This is where the test play could come in handy.  This way, when the Rules Lawyer tries to correct a violation, you can immediately say "sit down, I took care of it."

4. When all else fails, try talking to the person.  Tell them to relax a bit about the rules.  No need to be confrontational, just let them, know.  Rules Lawyers are people, not Kolyaruts, they are understanding and flexible.  They are from Earth, not Mechanus (or wherever yout Lawful Neutral beings reside).

With this advice, you will have a properly trained Rules Lawyer.  Remember, they learned the rules for you, use that to your advantage.

Khaleesi

So I'm sure you want to know about my trip to see Destiny?

Game of Thrones, that's what happened.

While there are some details I do not go into for privacy reasons, I can assuredly tell you that there was much Game of Thrones to be had.  She and I got our fill of gold, women, golden women; the works.  With that said, you are probably expecting some sort of review of the series.  Well...

I.  LOVE.  GAME OF THRONES.

And that is the truth, I cannot lie.  It's everything that I love in a fantasy setting, and everything I put into my campaigns.  When I finally get more money I am getting the books, maybe even the table-top game of it to.  The stories set in Westeros are probably some of the better fantasy stories I have seen in a while, in my honest opinion.  Right now I am working my way through season two, and so far I cannot wait until season 3 is released.  The excitement is killing me.

To those who know the series will probably why I titled this blog Khaleesi, the term used to describe the wife of the Khal, given to the character Daenerys Targaryen.  Well, there are a few reasons why I could have.  It could be for the fact that Daenerys is my favorite character (and she is, next to Arya and Tyrion, but then again, who can hate Tyrion)?

I know I said that line already in this blog, but it needs to be restated.

No.

That is not the reason.

The real reason is that my trip was epic, I felt like a Khal, and the title seemed fitting.  Plus, the Dothraki have perhaps the most romantic terms for the one(s) you love: moon of my life, directed at females; and my sun and stars, directed at males.  I am a hopeless romantic, nothing describes me better, well, maybe nerd and adventurer, but that's besides the point.  I heard the terms and fell in love with them.  Probably why I love the character Daenerys so much.  Sure, she might not have Arya's spirit, or the rapier wit and snark of Tyrion, but she is awesome in her own right.  Daenerys is a romantic character, romantic in the inspirational sense and not the lovey-dovey sense, and I think Emilia Clarke plays the role well.

We all need inspiration sometimes.  Sometimes we are inspired by the courageous acts of real-life heroes, people who run into burning buildings or bring the sick and injured to the hospital at 3 AM.  Sometimes we inspire ourselves, as role-players (if you are one) especially, since the characters we play are extensions of ourselves.  Sometimes we take inspiration from religious and philosophical figures.  I, for one, am inspired by Aristotle and Crowley and such.  Many would state Jesus in that regard, and he's pretty inspirational.  And then we have fictional characters.  Fictional characters are at their most real when they inspire us, never forget that.  A while back I had a blog post about how magical inspiration really is.  Something I noticed is that we love what inspires us, and we want more of it.  Its how favorite games, movies, books, and the like begin.  They become that because of how they inspire us.

So, here I sit, awaiting the new episodes of Game of Thrones.  Interestingly enough, they start around the same time as the new episodes of Doctor Who.  So I shall nerd out epically.

Also, I'm sure it can be guessed that Destiny and I are very close, and yes, we are.  I usually don't go into my private life all too much, since what you keep private is what you truly own in the world; but she and I are very close.  So guess who I called moon of my life?  Guess her reply?

I apologize if this blog is a little scatter-brained.  I just wanted to type this up while I still felt inspired :).

Spring Break

I am posting this right before I head to sleep.  I'm finding it hard to though, seeing as how I am as excited as a kind on Christmas Eve.  Tomorrow I am going down to see Destiny for three days at her dorm, and hanging out with her for her spring break.  Honestly, I haven't been this excited for anything ever!  This time, I am making sure I take a lot of pictures, hopefully I can get around to uploading one or two up here, and just in general have a good time with this amazing woman.

This also mean that this week:

*There will be no House Rule post on The Window, because the last time I posted from her college, logging on felt like leaping through hoops and barrels... plus...  Blogging while hanging out with Destiny?

*There will also be no Pagan Blog Project post this Friday either.  I will be coming home later Thursday night, I have no topic planned (especially for the letter F), and I'm not going to just up and wing it.  When I'm not talking from experience or musing, I like to have my facts straight.

So let me get my well needed rest for the drive down, so I can wake up, shower, and put a little breakfast in my stomach.  And so, we end this blog post tonight, and blogging for the rest of the week basically, with a fitting song.

Table Stories: Just Don't Barge In

Much like how the Internet is a series of tubes, dungeons are a series of traps, set up just so the DM can kill you in the most brutal and hilarious ways.  Seriously, Tomb of Horrors is just the DM being honest about it.  Dungeons & Dragons is one step away from being Kobolds Ate My Baby, and I'm being completely serious now.

So, for your viewing pleasure, I have two knee-slapping side-splitters for you to read.  One about a great sword wielding fighter, and the other the last hurrah of Lazlo, our beloved "what if 007 was in a fantasy world" rogue.  I post these stories to remind you, the reader, to always be careful of traps.  Seriously, us DMs will sprinkle them everywhere, and sometimes liberally.  I mean, who else wanted to make spinning blades on the floor combined with spears from the ceiling and fire spurts from the walls?  That has to be about 4d4+1d6+12 damage at the most basic (maximum of 34 damage, enough to kill off squishier characters).  Or, better yet, how about the activation of that trap alerts the Hobgoblins in the next room that there are invaders, and now both your rogue and wizard are down?  Yeah, hero-kebabs for dinner for that troupe of Hobgoblins!

We begin with the fighter.  Now, this was on Neverwinter Night's server-based games, and I logged onto a server and explored a bit, after a while, I was invited to tank for a party, and to be close-range DPS, to which I happily obliged.  We went to raid an Orc cave, and those are nasty, dirty, wet holes, filled with ends of worms and that oozy smell that hobbit holes don't have.  So we fight our way down two levels if I remember, and the end of our quest lay before us, however, the chieftan also was before us.  The party bit off more than it could chew, and soon it was just me and the chieftan.  And in that battle of man versus food... I mean... man versus orc, MAN WON!  The rest of the party comes back and of course they claim I can get first pickings, leading me to walk forward towards the chest, and into a trap.  POOF!  Suddenly my fighter turned to stone, and the wonderful adventuring party took the loot and left.  Well, at least the Orcs got some wonderful modern art, Blundering Fighter in Trap.

And I swear I heard this sound in the distance...

BTW, that's an image from the actual story

And now, we come to the second story today:  just what in the Nine Hells of Baator did happen to Lazlo?  Well our adventure brings us back quite a few sessions, back where we had to bring back stolen riches to a Gnomish town, stolen by a woman simply called the Gold Lady.  We ambushed a gang of gnomes stealing from the town (called the Underpants Gnomes by the way), who lead us to the lair.  well we easily find her throne room, and discover that the Gold Lady is a halfling.  Well Ollie, whom you might remember as the Halfling cleric of Olidammara, and was immediately infatuated.  He began walking forward, utilizing his Charisma score in hopes of putting his tithe into her temple, if you catch my drift.  Well, being a rogue, I immediately detected a trap, and ran forward to stop Ollie from blundering into a trap.  Well, Lazlo was right, it was a trap, which also included where he was standing, dropping both the cleric and the rogue into a pool of acid.

Which also included Acid Sharks with the fricken laser beams attached to

their heads.... okay okay, there were no sharks

While Ollie fought and struggled to stay alive, the moment Lazlo touched the acid, well, he was done for the evening.  There was no way he was coming back, as the acid ate away at his equipment, his charmed rapier, and his body.  There was no Lazlo to reclaim and ressurect.  I think I forgot to mention that what happened there was almost a full party wipe.  After a fight with a Delver at the end of a chase sequence (led by the ghosts of Ollie and Lazlo, so we weren't completely out of the picture), the fighter, Krusk, was killed.  Only Boots the monk and Kal the Wizard survived.  However, it was a very fun session, and I got to harm the Delver form the insides.  And then the next iteration of the party had to help the Gold Lady bring her tiefling niece to the Gray Elf City for the fate of the world.

So there are my two barging in stories and about falling into traps.  Just like the title of this post, it's best just to not barge into a dungeon, the traps are more likely to kill you than the monsters.  Play it cool, let the rogue check for traps, but even the, don't barge in.  A good DM knows that, if a rogue succeeds on a search check for traps, and there are no traps in that area, to say "you don't think there are any traps."  So cautiously go forth, best to put the Tank at the front, to soak up any damage, or, better yet, have them poke around just in case the rogue was wrong, and there are traps.  Don't expect to have the monsters trip them, they probably know the traps are there, and won't activate them, or use them to their advantage.

PBP #9: Eclecticism Part 2

NOTE: I have a lead-in post between the previous post and this one, which can be read here

WARNING: Some abrasiveness ahead.

Last week, I touched on the problem of cultural appropriation and how Eclecticism usually becomes/means this.  To lightly touch back on it, appropriation is stealing the non-material culture of another group, done out of ignorance and/or ethnocentrism.  This more often happens within the New Age Tradition, but all too often happens within Neopaganism as well.  Appropriation is like copyright infringement, and more often than not becomes devoid of the spiritual essence the person was looking for due to our modern, consumeristic, "instant gratification" culture .  I also mentioned that there is another way.

(SOURCE)

When the Greeks entered into Egypt, they were both enamored and appalled at their culture.  Egypt was an ancient culture by time the Greeks got there, and was the cradle of philosophy, magic, and mysticism in the Mediterranean, things the Greeks loved.  Yet, their Gods were part human and part animal, and were expressed in a more pantheistic way than the Greek Gods.  However, over time, these two cultures began to meld in places like Alexandria, and began the Greco-Egyptian culture.  In this encounter, Egypt got a little of Greece in it, and Greece got a little of Egypt in it.  From this we got Hermeticism and Neoplatonism, one of the biggest sources of Neopagan religion.  Christianity also found fertile ground here, and so did Hellenistic Judaism, which began the study of the Jewish mystical tradition of the Kabbalah (which was probably inspired by the Pythagorean Tetractys).

Let's look at this from a mathematical/chemical perspective.  Let's call Greece culture A, and Egypt culture B.  If we were to add a bit of B into A, while it would still be predominantly A, it would have some qualities of B.  Likewise, adding A to B makes a predominant B with a little bit of A.  However, these cultures that are a mix of B and A also becomes a culture all its own.  It's like smelting bronze.  Copper and tin come together to make another metal that has properties of copper and tin, but is not those two metals.  Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece are not the same as Greco-Egypt (Ancient Greece is different from the Hellenistic culture that evolved from it to).

A bronze shield, both copper and tin, but also neither copper or tin

(SOURCE)

This is called Syncretism.  It happens when two cultures meet and similar practices and beliefs come together in that meeting.  Buddhism is probably one of the greatest examples.  Buddhist monks entered China, Tibet, Korea, Japan, etc.  However,to put it basically (without discussion on the differences between Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana), in each place the practice was different.  It's not as easy to point out with Christianity, due to the nature of the Orthodoxy and the Catholic Church, as well as other high church traditions which make up the vast majority of Christians worldwide, but it happened there to.  Modern Neopaganism is, in some ways, the syncretism of Masonic ritual with Pagan folklore.  Likewise, many African Diasporic religions are syncretisms of traditional African beliefs and Catholicism (going back to the Christian sentence above).

And what makes syncretism different from cultural appropriation?  Syncretism happens on an equal playing field, and starts as a sharing of ideas.  Syncretism is also a two way street in some regards, unlike the overbearing and ethnocentric nature of cultural appropriation.  Some people come to syncretism upon experiencing and living in two different cultures.  Some people come to syncretism by looking into their ancestry and seeing how it jives with their own experiences.  Syncretism feels natural and organic, and unfortunately for some people in our modern gimme-gimme culture, takes time, a lot of time.  But its the time and care that makes syncretism respectful and honorable, and much more fulfilling than appropriation.

One last thing to note, is that syncretism is ultimately inevitable.  Syncretism between European cultures and Asian cultures and Native American cultures and so on, is going to happen whether the cultures like it or not.  There is no way to stop it, even if you tried.  While I doubt that there ever will be a one-world culture, you can't deny that cultures grow and evolve.  Maybe one day they will still be arguing and debating about cultural appropriation amongst the Venusian Neo-Scientologists of Martian Hippie practices and traditions?  Hopefully though, we can grow up and truely sit equally at the table, one day.

Five For Five

Apparently I have been making blog posts since Sunday, so I'm Five For Fucking Five.  As such, today, I am celebrating this blogchievement by counting down my top five favorite RPGs of all time (I'll specifically say RPGs, even though the #1 is also my all time favorite video game of all time).  Also, trigger warning, THERE'S NO FINAL FANTASY VII...BLASPHEMY!!!!!!

5: Pokemon Gold/Silver

I really didn't get into the Pokemon series until I played Gold Version.  While I had Red and Yellow, I was more interested in the anime (and later, the manga).  However, it all changed with Gold.  Just the scope, fighting a revived Team Rocket, exploring two regions, and the surprise last trainer in the game was just a kind of cementing of just how much more I loved this game over its predecesors.  I haven't played HeartGold or SoulSilver, but I so desperately want to.  I guess the later Pokemon games kind of turned me off of the series, the later games I felt didn't add much to the series besides new Pokemon (even though Absol is my favorite, next to Scyther and Charmander).  However, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Pokemon Gold (and Silver and Crystal to).

Systems: GB, GBC, DS (Remake)

4: Chrono Trigger

I never owned an SNES, I was a Genesis guy, so I missed out on this great title until it was rereleased on the DS.  I spent the next few days afterwards just knuckling myself in the face in regret for not having an SNES. This is like Doctor Who had sex with D&D, and this was the baby.  Plus, Magus' theme, which you can listen to by playing the video, is just epic, and that whole scene was epic.  Probably one of the best aspects of this game was that, once you reached the End of Time, you could beat the game, everything else was basically optional side-quests that you didn't need to do.  Oh my, do I love adventure, and exploring the different time periods on my own pace, and learning the truth about the apocalypse to come to the world that you have to stop, just made this a wonderful experience.
Systems: SNES, DS

3: Golden Sun (three-way tie between Books I-III)

If I was truely honest, the previous two spots would have the other Golden Sun games, but since originally Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age were supposed to be part of the same game until they realized a GBA cart could only hold so much awesome, I lumped them together, and decided to add Dark Dawn because it looked lonely (though honestly, I have my criticisms about Dark Dawn, especially about it being too easy).  What can I say about Golden Sun.  Honestly, it has the best theme song I have ever heard in my life, just from the get go I knew this was going to be awesome, and how!  If it wasn't for nostalgia and such, this game would be on the top of my list.  They world of Weyard felt like an honest-to-the-Gods real place to me, and I love how the first two games basically were from opposing points of view, making one wonder who was the true villain?

Systems: GBA (Books I and II), DS (Book III)

2: Dragon Warrior III

Besides Pokemon Red, which was my first RPG officially, I would say this was my first TRUE introduction to RPGs.  Granted, I played the GBC version, but I loved every moment of the game.  While basic by today's standards, this game has everything you need right in it: a class system, an epic storyline, the NES difficulty that everyone loves to hate (but not Battletoads level of difficulty).  This game serves as the prequel to Dragon Warrior I, thus tying up the loose ends of the Loto/Erdrick Trilogy of the Dragon Warrior/Quest series.  However, I must admit one thing, despite playing this game so many times, the first time I played I actually had to have my friend beat Baramos for me.  However, everything else I did on my own, including the two secret dungeons.  Also, who doesn't love the Dragon Warrior/Quest Overture?

Systems: NES, SNES, GBC

1: Grandia

I LOVE Grandia, LOVE it, so much so I have to put LOVE in capital letters every time I write about this game.  Honestly, I don't know what it is about this game.  The plot is for the most part predictable, I've only beaten it once, so why do I love it so much?  Maybe its the lovable characters, maybe its because of one of the most amazing battle systems for an RPG I've ever experienced, maybe it's because I am like the real-life Justin.  Whatever it is, I LOVE this game, and I'm sure you would do if you gave it a chance
Systems: PS1

Wednesday and talking 'bout "The Window"

Geez, Monday had Table Plan, last night I posted a Pagan Blog Project Related Post, and now it's Wednesday and I have yet another blog post coming up.  Damn, blog posts are just coming day and night.

Maybe one day I to shall become the Governor of California!

Yesterday my DM told a few of us in the D&D group about this role-playing setting called The Window.  It is basically a rules-lite setting that really focuses on the "story trumps rules" idea that sometimes comes into play with table-top role-playing games like D&D and GURPS.  I am a big storyline guy, it's what got me into RPGs in the first place (started when my one cousin introduced me to Zelda).  As such, this idea intrigues me deeply.

The Window is a transparent portal into the imagination, a roleplaying system designed with the simple belief that roleplaying is about story and character and not about dice and dick waving. 

With that one quote, the creator of The Window, Scott Lininger, makes known his philosophy on table-top RPGs, and hold back no punches about it.  Destiny actually had to point that quote out to me, because of just how often dick waving comes up in conversation.  I actually had to look up the term on Urban Dictionary, and I never go on Urban Dictionary, except of course to look up the Cinema Snob's definition for "the squeegee."  But I digress.  Scott Lininger's system focuses a lot on the storytelling and role-playing aspect that sometimes gets left out of RPG sessions.  The other quickly noticeable thing about The Window is how, much like GURPS, the rules can be applied to any sort of setting in mind.  Historical, Modern Day, High Fantasy (LotR, etc.), Low Fantasy (Thieves World, etc.), Lovecraftian Horror, Sci-Fi (Star Trek, etc.), Science Fantasy (Doctor Who, etc.), Cyberpunk, Zombie Apocalypse, you name it!  This, I think adds a certain universal appeal to the system.  It's also free, which is great for a cheapskate like me XD.

The main system has five traits, which are your main stats: Strength, Agility, Health, Knowledge, and Perception.  Optional traits include: Luck, Sanity, Magic, Armor, and Wealth (though, I prefer my Armor and Wealth not as traits, but as separate things).  You also have skills you apply to your character.  For example, if I were a Window character my skills would be like Above Average Driving, Above Average First-Aid, Poor Cooking, etc.

Mademoiselle, your soup is ready.......
(SOURCE)

I use the terms Above Average and Poor to describe how the skills system works, Competency Rungs.  Ranging from d4, which is like nigh superhuman, to d30, which is like me attempting to cook any sort of food unless it involves a microwave (or soup and buffalo wings, Destiny is trying to teach me to cook little by little).  Some people criticise that the jump from Poor and Below Average to Average are so huge, and the next few rungs are only jumps of 2 (d12 to d10 to d8, etc.).  My only criticism of the traits and skills is that, without some sort of restriction, what keeps one from doing what Eric Cartman did in the South park episode Good Times With Weapons?

You expecting more?  Well, there really isn't more.  Most skill and trait checks are done with a respective die roll.  If it is lower than 6, you pass, if not, you fail.  That number can be changed accordingly, with lower numbers for harder tasks.  For things like combat, both roll checks related to what they are doing, whomever has the lower roll wins.  Damage can be done based on Health and Armor checks, which is actually more difficult than just having damage rolls and HP, but then again, this is just a cursory look at The Window.  The site also has other optional rules that one can include, including having temporary slides down the Competency rungs for Health, Magic, Sanity, and the like.  This system is really basic, and ripe for house-ruling.

In fact, let's make a series of it!

Syncretism and Me: A Link between Eclecticism Parts 1 & 2

I am writing this side post to go into a bit of detail about my own syncretism in my practices.  So, in quite a while (since this blog began), I have a spiritual post that is not a part of Pagan Blog Project.  Something of note here is that, due to a sort of inner inventory, my altars have changed up a bit.  Things were moved around and re-arranged.  Mostly out of trying to make things fit nicely in my room, and some of it from a bit of a change in worldview as a Pagan (namely: dude, I just made a Lararium).  This blog will also get slightly biographical, so hold on tight.

I became a Wiccan when I was 17.  Before that I was a Deist, a person who believes in the existance of God, commonly called the Deus, through reason and natural law.  Unlike a lot of Wiccans who go Solitary, I actively sought out a coven or group, but with no car and no money, I had no way to find any.  My sister found Christianity after the death of a close friend of her's.  I think I should also explain that despite having parents who were Christian, they felt it best for both my sister and I to discover religion on our own.  Well, eventually I left Wicca, kind of, and started going to both church and a Buddhist temple.  Going back to church for those two months made me rediscover the reasons I left in the first place, this time, however, leaving on much better terms.

I embraced Buddhism with a bit of a Greco-Roman flavoring.  Not many people realize this, but there is a lot of Greek Philosophy and Myth in Buddhism.  In fact, the bodhisattva Vajrapani is very similar to Herakles, so much so, I believe them to possibly be one and the same.  It was from here that I rediscovered the works of Aleister Crowley, and the Classical poets and philosophers.  From here I became a Greco-Roman Pagan who also was a Buddhist.  Buddhism in some ways made sense to me, but so to did the ancient religious beliefs and traditions of the Western World.  I also saw how some would take Eastern Religions and desperately try to be Eastern, try to be Indian, or Tibetan, or Japanese (by the way, I realy only use East and West as descriptors, ultimately, its all the Human World and Human Religion, that, and you CAN be Western and Buddhist/Hindu/Taoist/etc., much like one can be an Eastern Christian or Wiccan).

So, how does this syncretism work?  Well, first of all, I am immersed into both cultures.  I understand and have lived both Western Pagan and Eastern Buddhist thought and ritual.  I am not going in and just taking Buddhist ideas and saying I'm Buddhist while saying that Shakyamuni Buddha is the fat guy and is a God (first of all, Budai is the fat one; second, a Buddha is not a God).  I also don't sit and lump Ceres/Demeter with popular-goddess-of-today and go "look at me, this is totally how the ancients did it."  I also will make the disclaimer that I do not know everything about either path, I am no master or expert or adept.  I am just a simple layman practitioner of both, and I am bound to get things wrong, understand things differently; but I am so willing to learn from my mistakes, and learn in general.  Also, when both parts of me collide, I fully recognize that this is a new, syncretized practice.

In practice, there are things to.  I keep a separate Pagan and Buddhist altar.  They are both in somewhat traditional locations and I keep my Buddhist stuff near my Buddhist Altar and my Pagan stuff near my Pagan one.  The only thing both altars share is incense and that is because, since both altars are in the same room, I can be very, VERY anal about making the scent of my room the same thing throughout (wherein only my cats can tell the difference).  The only religious artifacts that are not of either tradition are my Horus Shrine (I know that dream was a message of some sort calling me to Horus, but not to Kemetic religion as a whole, and I'm still working out how that is), and a dreamcatcher (a non-traditional style, but used in a very traditional way, and done so out of complete and total respect to the Ojibwa.  I also understand that even in a traditional, respectable use, some will call this appropriation, wherein I find it as modern syncretism).

So there you have it.  There is a look at the syncretism in my personal home practice.  This also works as a good transition because it leaves readers of Part 1 wondering, "well gee, this sure does look like eclecticism, what is the difference?"  Well, that will have to wait for Friday my friends.  After all, patience is a virtue.

And one last thing, about Part 1.  I have no opinion on Randy Savage, beyond that I love the name, and it is fun to talk like you are in fact Randy Savage.  OH YEAH WOO!

Table Plan: Dungeons

First, let's start with a little mood music:

Dungeons are, in a sense, the meat and potatoes of an adventure.  Dungeons range from old abandoned mansions that house the undead, ruins of long forgotten or remembered kingdoms and cultures, caverns that are home to monsters, sewers (but does anyone really love the sewer level of a game?), fortresses that house your enemy, etc.  Basically, in the fantasy game dictionary, a dungeon is any place of danger that houses monsters, traps, and treasure.  Its' usually a culminating point of an adventure, and can be of any size.  Some can be as small as a few rooms, and some, like Undermountain in Forgotten Realms, are so huge not even a boxed set can map it out entirely.  Some house boss monsters, but not all, in fact, in my campaigns, at most 1/3rd of dungeons have a sort of boss monster.

In this post, we shall discuss the making of a dungeon, while once again returning to Wintermoot for an example to follow along with.  Like I said for world-building, this is strictly my own process that you can also follow.  If you have a process that works better for you, by all means, use that!  This is the process I use because it works for me, and I bring it forth so you can also use it, or improve on it, or even to just not use at all.  So, with that being said, let us travel to the frigid land of Wintermoot and explore the Ice Palace, the giant iceberg fortress of the White Dragon only known as either She or the White Bitch (which, by the by, I did not get from Epic Movie, its a White Dragon that brought down the Frost Giant Jarldom, you would call her a White Bitch to if she came and knocked down your house).

The cold frozen entrance to the Ice Palace lies before you, the air

having a sting of frost in it that feels unnatural to the arctic sea...

(SOURCE) 

The first thing is to look at the landscape in which your dungeon is located.  Is it in the mountains, under the earth, in a dark forest, or maybe within the decrepit parts of a city?  This should set the tone, monster selection, local lore, everything.  Location like this is super important.  In fact, I would say that, with location in mind, this blog is done.  However, there is more to it than location, and don't use location to lock yourself into not using certain creatures.  Maybe your abandoned mines on the side of a coastal mountain accidentally opened a shaft to the sea, in which Sahuagin jump out and ambush your party?  Maybe your volcano mysteriously has a portal to an Ice Elemental Plane that is sustained by a cult of mages hoping to use the ice to wreak havoc on a Gold Dragon's lair, and the portal has arctic creatures near it, staying near the gate to survive?  Don't let a set location trample your imagination, yet don't let your imagination destroy the willful suspension of disbelief.

You have a location set, the next step is the pre-dungeon fluff.  Unlike the world, where you would want to think like a God and work your way down, you want your mind to work like an explorer, an archaeologist, and work your way in.  Play through the dungeon in your mind's eye, in fact, it's a good idea to do it a few times, at least thrice.  Why work it like this?  Because unlike the world, which has danger on the side, the danger is up front and in your face in a dungeon, and you want it to be tough, but not the Tomb of Horrors!  Anyway, back to the pre-dungeon fluff.  What do the locals say about the place?  Does it have any urban legends?  What do local tribes of monsters say of it?  Maybe the Goblins know of something in said dungeon that the people in the town do not.  What?  You do use Goblins and other Humanoids besides the Player's Handbook races for purposes other than experience and gold farming fodder right?

The Gates of Hell in New Jersey is a perfect example of urban legend and folklore

about what could be equated to a real-life dungeon (but don't let the police see you

explore it :P)

(SOURCE)

Finally, we get to the dungeon itself!  Now, before we even populate it, we should plan out what it looks like, either by making a quickdraw map to base your battle grid, or by making a map that is like a battle grid already.  Suck at making maps?  Well, then I have three suggestions.  First do a freedrawn map in paint or on paper, don't even worry about grids, you can do that later during the session.  This also works with the "Mind's Eye Theater" style of role-playing, which I enjoy immensely, though there is the difficulty of knowing where everyone is during combat.  Second would be using maps from another game and going from there.  Third, and I have done this to, is to use this amazing site here, which generates a dungeon map for you.

Here is what one of the generated maps look like.  Now all you have to do

is work with it, however, do try to learn how to make your own maps, just for variety

 <--- Here we have a very basic rough draft of the Ice Palace's ground floor (I usually denote F# for above ground floor, and B# for below, with G for ground floor, this being Ice Palace G).  We see that I have a few encounters set up, namely some desperate pirates looking for a way out, and White Dragons feeding on a Frost Worm.  We also have two traps, the niches for which a White Dragon to breathe it's breath weapon down, and a boulder a la Indiana Jones that rolls after you at the entrance to F1.  We have here a populated dungeon floor, a basic one, and will be updated later (I will have a Wintermoot Adventure page up soon).  So how do we place traps and monsters?  How do we do this in the most effective way possible.

Well, As you can see, the first encounter you have there is a very easy encounter with desperate pirates.  Not too hard, and the White Dragons will be weakened fighting the Frost Worm.  You want to lure the party in.  Entrances are usually heavily guarded, and not just with monsters, but also traps  The entrance to the upper (and lower) floors begin on F1, the ground floor is just there for an introduction.  The hallway to the official entrance is guarded with murder holes that a breath weapon can go down, and a rolling boulder trap.  Once in, think about where to best put the monsters and traps strategically, if they have enough intelligence to think strategically that is.  Generally, monsters come in two types, monsters that stay in one place, like in a room or hallway, and monsters that move around.  Granted, all monsters will move around during their day to day lives, so there is some overlap between the two categories, but in general, monsters that stay in one place will stay there unless they must move.  Traveling monsters generally, the way I do it, have a lover overall CR than those that are in a room.  Also, monsters that are intelligent should also use traps to their advantages.  A bugbear, knowing where a pitfall trap is, would try to bull rush its opponents into the pitfall, and archers would take full advantage of archer slots and coverage.

I am very, VERY tempted to buy this shirt!  Plus this pic fits the trap discussion

(SOURCE)

Finally we come to treasure and, of course, the boss monster.  Don't pool all your treasure into one place.  On the Ice Palace G map, you can see a small room with treasure in it.  This treasure probably fell through cracks in the ceiling, which hints to another treasure room above.  Let treasure both act as an incentive to fulfill amazing challenges, and as a trail of bread crumbs, leading the adventurers towards more.  As for boss monsters, like I stated above, NOT EVERY DUNGEON SHOULD HAVE A BOSS MONSTER!  Not every little nook and crevice in the world is home to some Red Dragon or Shoggoth or Pit Fiend.  Maybe its just a home to a Chimera?  Not every hole is a "nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat": it could just be a hobbit-hole (and they mean comfort).

However, in our case with the Ice Palace, there is a boss monster.  You want a boss monster to be either one of three types: A monster a CR level or two above the party that is meant to be fought, a very high CR monster that is meant to be out-witted, or a very high CR monster that is meant to be just plain old run from.  In this case, we have a mix of the latter two.  We have the White Bitch herself, in all her magnificent glory.  Being an Ancient White Dragon, by Pathfinder reckoning, she would have a CR of 15.  The Ice Palace over all is about a CR 9 dungeon.  While a smart party could take her on in combat, it might be more prudent to find some means of escape, and live to fight her another day.

I mean, look at the size of that mini, and that's just an Elder White Dragon!

(SOURCE)

And there we have it, a dungeon making process that not only builds the place from the ground up, but also has you look at the place through both a commoner's eyes and the eyes of your party.  So not only do you build a location, but also you build fluff, and give the characters reason to go.  Now would you rather go to some bland generic Goblin infested cavern, or would you want to go to the Goblin Fortress of Pratzch, built into a cavern, and protected by devious traps?  I think I know your answer ;).

This Video Gave Me Feels

I love Les Miserables, ever since I was a Middle School kid and went to a concert done at my sister's High School and they did a medley of the music.  As such, you would probably assume that I saw the movie when it came out in December, right.... right?

I mean, you say you love Les Mis, you HAD to have seen it in theaters, you just had to...

That's right folks, I actually did not go see Les Mis in theaters.  Same reasons I didn't go see The Hobbit originally... okay, so my truck getting towed wasn't the reason, but the "I feel awkward going to movies alone" irrationality I have did keep me from seeing what I have been told and read was an amazing movie, despite Russell not being able to crow.  My sister said she would go with me, but she and I never did find the time to run out and go.  So this time, I actually DO have to wait for it to come to DVD, unlike The Hobbit, which I saw on my amazing January date with Destiny (the person Destiny, the one I keep talking about, the Goddess of Awesome, and not the metaphysical concept also called destiny, just throwing that out there, since I know "date with destiny" is usually used to describe the metaphysical concept).

SO when I was on YouTube and found this!  Oh my, the feels, all these feels.  And I'm not even on Tumblr and I'm rambling about my feels.

Now if you excuse me, I have to go prepare for D&D tonight.  Oh yeah, tomorrow is Monday, my Gaming Day.  Tomorrow, Table Plan: Dungeons!

PBP #8: Eclecticism Pt.1

SPECIAL NOTICE:  There is a lead-in piece to Part 2 here.

WARNING: Some abrasiveness ahead.

We are all a part of the same universe, subject to the same laws, both physical and metaphysical.  As such, as the ancient civilizations like Greece, Egypt, Persia, India, and the like encountered each other, naturally, they realized that they had similar ideas and practices to one another.  The Interpretatio graeca, which compared the Greek gods to those of others is one version of the idea, whereas the acculturation of Buddhism into the nations it goes to is another.  Any differences were usually respected as a difference (or reviled as barbaric, let's be honest, the ancient world wasn't rainbows and butterflies).  Much like the ancient Axial Age, the modern Information Age is seeing a metting place of different ideas and cultures.  However, something is vastly different.  That difference is cultural imperialism mixed with a spiritual imperialism, with bits of anomie and rejection of Judeo-Christianity.

In my post "Yule and the Apocalypse", I lightly touched on this idea with the 2012 phenomena, and why it was basically New Age bullshit.  I say bullshit because I hate the term woo.  It feels like people who say woo are trying to make fun of it's practitioners, and reminds me too much of Randy Savage, no offence to Randy Savage (And now I must say, BONESAW IS READY).  Calling it bullshit means that one thing is bogus while not tarnishing the tradition, despite me not being a huge fan of New Age stuff.  I lightly covered how, without any training with Mayan elders or background knowledge of Mayan culture, New Agers just up and stole 2012 and combined it with the Judeo-Christian idea of Armageddon (and some mixed in the end of the Kali Yuga as well).  Too often do I find bullshitters out to make a cheap and easy buck off of people who are honestly looking for spirituality in their lives.  But, as P. T. Barnum once said, "this way to the egress."

Egress, for those who don't know, is a fancy word

for exit. (SOURCE)

Sadly, it's not just the charlatans that do this, normal everyday people do it as well.  People in the West  turn and appropriate the worship of Kali without aknowledging the darker aspects of her nature as well aspects of her worship that don't fit in with the "white light" and "fluffy bunny" worldview of the New Age.    Animal sacrifice is practiced en masse during Kali Puja, and Kali spends a lot of time on charnel (read: cremation) grounds, I don't see many New Agers doing that.  Hermeticism and Theosophy are also appropriated from.  For example, take the Archangel Metatron, who seems to be channeled as often as i flip the channel in the morning from FOX to BBCA to catch Doctor Who.  I'm sure these channelers don't realize that, according to Jewish tradition (and I apologize for the caps coming up, I know, bad internet form), Metatron is SECOND ONLY TO GOD HIMSELF!  That's right, a being so powerful that he is called the lesser YHWH supposedly takes time from what I'm sure is a very busy schedule to chat up some cult leader holing people up in a compound on it's way to the next Waco.  I'm sorry for the strong analogies, but come on people!

BRB God, the New Agers need me (SOURCE)

Thankfully, the more this is called out, the more it diminishes, and the more legit syncretism takes place.  The more the charlatans are called out, the less money ends up in the pockets of the likes of Kiesha "Little Grandmother" Crowther, and the more people learn certain practices from the elders and masters that actually know them.

But what makes cultural appropriation, well, cultural appropriation.  Well, first, we need to remove the visceral component to it.  Cultural appropriation is uneducated and commonly ethnocentric eclecticism, no more, no less.  This is eclecticism gone wrong.  Most commonly, in the United States, we hear this when it comes to Native American cultures (yes, there are more than one, to those who didn't know), but it also happens to Celts (see my one previous PBP post on that), Hinduism, African Culture, Buddhism, Theosophy (as stated above), and oddly enough, our own community.  Yes, our own community has been appropriated from.  Granted, some traditions and cultures complain more about this than others, some don't complain at all.  Some only complain if legit syncretism (which I shall discuss in part II) isn't done.

I think I would like to put it this way.  I want the readers of this post to click on my two Table Plan posts discussing world building for fantasy games.  I then want you to report back here after aquainting yourself with Wintermoot.  Now, say that, with my DM, that becomes a more fleshed out place and is added to his world.  Say now that you are me, and your best friend is the DM, and you both were in the exact same situation as I in this thought experiment.  Now, say someone comes along the proper channels and asks to use Wintermoot, they took the time to respectfully learn about it to use it.  Now, suppose someone comes along, takes Wintermoot, claims that they were involved in its creation, and suddenly makes unauthorized changes and claims it to be the original.  Copyright aside, we must look back and think for a moment.  We are adults.  We can look at these things and laugh.  Cultural appropriation is like Laura l'immortelle or Sonichu.  Neither is original or official Highlander or Sonic the Hedgehog material (and with Laura l'immortelle, it was plagiarism of a fanfic, wrap your mind around that).  There is nothing wrong with both of them as fanfics, as long as they honor the source material, and yet they are pushed as something original.

How does this all relate to Eclecticism?  Modern Eclecticism tends to become this all to easily.  The Eclectic that becomes an appropriator  cherry picks from a whole bunch of traditions without understanding.  Buddhist meditation has underpinnings that, in reality, aren't THAT hard to learn about, yet meditation becomes a chic and "in" thing empty of true spirituality, much like yoga or those Teen Witch kits from a certain Wiccan author everyone has a love-hate relationship with.  The next thing you know, your house smells of cheap dollar store incense with names like Wild Passion, and you have more New Age knick-knacks and statues of Hindu and Buddhist Deities than you know what to do with.

There is nothing inherently wrong with Eclecticism.  I personally am not Eclectic, but there is absolutely, positively nothing wrong with you if you are.  I think I'm trying to show people that Eclecticism isn't really wrong, and there is nothing wrong if you are Eclectic, but there are ways of going about it that are wrong, disrespectful, and ethnocentric; and ways of going about it that are respectful, beautiful, and open-minded.  But how do we get to this state?  How do we stop appropriating?  Well, look out for Part 2 next week as I discuss Syncretism, how when cultures A and B meet that A becomes a bit B'ified and B becomes a bit A'ified, and how Truth being one, is called by many names (from the Rig Veda nonetheless).