[40K] Not A Loss

I didn't play at 40K the last session- a variety of reasons, but I didn't mind.

I let a friend use my Templar as proxies- a different friend than last time around. However, Darius is seriously upset with me as the friend proxied my zealots as 'NIDS. I heard some very unhappy words as I brought my bag back home, and I've tried to placate him with concepts of preaching to the infidels - but it's not an easy task. Something about Xenos scum and so forth.

I was fairly bogged down with the counter for most of the night. I missed watching my best pal playing his Orks with exception of a couple moments. I heard his WAAAAAAAAAAAAGH go off (man, he is loud) and I heard him laughing as he blew something up.

Things started to wrap up, and people started packing up. I overheard my buddy - "now the KP are 3 to 6" (in his opponent's favor) in a fun and lighthearted tone. A moment or two later, I heard a huge whoop and my friend began running around the store like a maniac.

He was shouting and hollering, happy as possible.

"I TIED!!!!! I TIED!!!! I TIED!!!!"

I was laughing, just enjoying the sheer ridiculousness of his antics for a moment or two. As I caught my breath, several people mentioned that they'd never seen anyone so happy about a tie. His response was simple, but enjoyable-

" I didn't lose!"

This was literally his third game, and he was over the moon happy over a tie. He's completely new at everything about playing and forgot a bunch of rules- but it didn't matter.

I love the game for moments like that- the sheer enjoyment of "not a loss" is well worth the headache and aggravation of the rules. I'm glad I got to see it.

[Whimsy] Before the Grammar Gets Me

[Welcome to a bona fide rant. I don't really do it often, but this one's been on my mind for a while.]

Punctuate properly, please! (Among other things.)

For most of my adult life, I've worked with words in some fashion or another. I've held positions that used communication in some form or another throughout my entire career. I've done it all in person conversations, over-the-phone work, written materials, sales, marketing, journalism, proofreading, information management and much more. 

My name might be a clue that I LIKE words. 

I work with them because they are important to me, and so is the functional expression of ideas and concepts. I strongly believe in using language properly when possible.

I've recently begun working on some really fascinating projects with some very smart people. These folks are well-educated and make a killing in their fields. I do understand at some level that their fields aren't language, and perhaps language isn't as precious to them as I hold it; but there's a certain level of disregard that is driving me insane. 

Learning to use a comma and a period are things one does in early elementary school, and are not difficult concepts to master. Others' failure to use these important tools in written correspondence is one of my largest frustrations. They are "serious business" . They tell others to take a small break, or to STOP. They give you power! They let you tell other people what to do. 

I cannot grasp the concept of being a fully functional professional person without the ability to punctuate or properly match tenses. For you math geeks, it's probably a lot like the idea of not being able to add more triple digits without a calculator. I find it infuriating and more than a little insane-making when I read a post or article with awful spelling, no quotation marks, terrible run-ons and no real structure. 

SPELL CHECK. How much work is it to add a period in between thoughts? Why is "start a new paragraph for every new idea" so hard to handle? 

Understandably run-on sentences occur a mite more than ideal; it can be challenging for you to separate ideas when thoughts are coming a mile a minute. I try to forgive those as I've been guilty, too. I'm also very fond of the em dash and I'll give a guy a pass on that one. I cannot for even a moment "get" the total disregard for quotation marks I see nearly everywhere. 

I know.  There are a few tricky situations for those funny "commas in the sky", but for the most part; it is simple. Person A says something. It is then repeated for others to hear. Person A's comments go in quotations. 

Don't even get me started on "you're" and "your". I will go positively mental over this one. I'm honestly willing to forgive most other homonyms, because they really are not always intuitive. But FFS, "you're" makes it OBVIOUS it is a combination of two words! It's a contraction. It means YOU ARE. Saying "your" (a single word, meaning "it belongs to you") when you mean "you're" (two words, "you are") just makes me want to kill babies, or kittens.  

I could get a lot more specific, but I'll leave it at this: If you're not sure or get strange replies regularly; get help.

If you need some help, check out the following: (They are free!)

www.whitesmoke.com 

http://www.cws.illinois.edu/workshop/writers/

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/

http://wmjasco.blogspot.com/

And use a period! 

[RPG] A New Direction?

I’m not a team player- at least, not in an RPG. I tend to play characters that have a “hidden agenda”, who like to work behind the scenes, and who are tight-lipped about their motivations.

TheDude noted that I tend to be happiest in games with lots of overlying themes, where I can blend into the background and “do my own thing” without a lot of attention being directed at me or my character. Specific types of games that he mentioned were conspiracy, gritty future, cyber, dark, or some variation of those.

I do enjoy those types of games quite a lot, but I also love the “four color” superhero type of game. My subtle manipulative obscura don’t really fit into the “cape” types well, and as a result, I have struggled while playing in those games.

I knew that playing in the Superhero games I like so much was a struggle, but I hadn’t quite connected why until TheDude helped point out the obvious to me. Superhero games require a lot of openness, sharing of information and implicit trust that are completely contrary to the “under the radar” way I like to operate. 

Some of the most challenging and fun roleplaying I’ve done has been when my character has been trying to keep a separate life, but has been forced into a central role despite all protests and lack of qualifications for the position.

I love these sessions, where I’m forced to work harder to try to cover my tracks, but be part of something bigger as well. I love the duality of “not too much” information, but “not too little”, either.

It was with that thought process that I began to believe that I might be a good GM after all, despite all my trepidations and questions of confidence. The question began to develop in my head –

“How do I transition from a player to a GM?”

I love sharing stories and developing ideas. I love writing and telling stories, and developing great depth. I find bringing compelling characters and rationale for actions to be well worth the effort.

Now, how to bring that out in others?

But it slowly started to roll into my thoughts, in small whispers and snippets of ideas; I already do.

I excel at making others look good. I’m absolutely best when helping others bring out whatever works of art, creations of excellence and genuine inspirations might lie inside them. I’m an excellent muse, the wind that pushes others into greatness.

I’m interested in learning how to “organize people” for some of my professional goals. The ability to get 6-8 people to follow direction, cooperate and perform team activities for 4 hours at a time could be a great asset in some of the fields for which I have interest.

If I could work on those management skills (which need at least some development) while doing some of the things I am really good at, I might have a chance as a GM. Combining my natural talents, best abilities and areas for growth in a hobby oriented situation seems like a great way to achieve the best of both worlds- and maybe have some fun, too.

Uh, did I mention I like to overthink things, as well? 

[40K] A Bad Game and a Good Friend

Last week was the start of league and pretty much everyone got a chance to play-except my buddy FunDave, who volunteered to play one of our regulars who generally arrives late. It turned out that guy didn't show, so I offered to show up at the store early to help him get a make up game.

I was really excited to play this game- I've seen him play, and he is a riot. His ONLY goal is to laugh, and to blow stuff up. I love his attitude and I couldn't wait to face him. We got all set up and got to business. We played our KillTeam game, and despite making a ton of mistakes, I won. Even if I hadn't, I would have had a blast. It was a casual game with a lot of laughing.

Our regular game got underway and we rolled for deployment. It wound up as Dawn Of War- which I've never played and don't really understand. I don't mind too much, as I want to learn as much as possible and get to be a better player. We begin play and I got pretty smoked up right away- FunDave blew up one of my vehicles right away.

I've mentioned it before, but it's still true- I don't understand the rules for damaging vehicles. I didn't DOUBT FunDave in any way whatsoever- I just didn't grasp what he was doing very well. It was ok, though- I was hanging out with my buddy and doing the best I could.

I got to a point where I was trying to blow up his vehicle, and I got confused.

FunDave got me through the tough part, and we kept playing. Other guys started coming into the store, and a large number of them sat down at the table opposite us, and the volume got very loud. A couple guys asked how things were going, but stayed out of it. However, one guy just would not leave us be and was offering commentary very frequently.

We got to another vehicle damage situation,and I was pretty lost. The AP business confuses the crap out of me- it seems counter-intuitive to me and that sort of thing just makes me mental.

The guy tried to butt in, and FunDave shut him down. I appreciated it more than I could possibly express... it meant a lot.

We then got into a very complex and confusing wound wrapping situation. I will not lie- I completely misunderstood the explanation given and got myself absolutely lost. There were more than a couple guys trying to help, and one of them was the fellow from before- and he was very vocal. No matter how many times I asked FunDave to re-explain it, the OTHER guy kept trying to "help".

Honestly, what he did was make me mad.

Unfortunately for FunDave, I became so confused and angry that I shut down. I didn't want to deal with it anymore and forfeited, rather than try to contend with intrusive people and rules I don't understand. I know that's pretty crummy, but it seemed a lot better than losing my temper or throttling a customer.

In a show of compassion and friendship, I received the following email after our game:

Ok. Here ya go. This is the tale of Billy Bob and his magical layz cannon vs. his cousin Jimbo and his Land Raider

1. Declare Fire
    Jimbo, I'm a fixin to shoot you with this here layzer cannon
2. Roll to hit. Same as for firing with a unit. BS + D6 has to equal or be greater than 7.
    Billy Bob is pretty good with his layzer cannon he's BS 4. He rolls and gets a 4 BS+D6 = 8 He hits
3. Determine what you did.
    There are 3 possible options here. Take the weapon strength+D6 compare to the armor value (AV) of the vehicle
    It must equal or be greater than the AV
    1. Weapon strength 9+ 1,2,3,4 = (10, 11, 12, 13) All less than the AV 14 Land Raider (this is why land raiders suck
        Daymeet cousin that thar armured thingy beat my layzer cannon

    2. Weapon strength 9+ 5 = 14 Glancing hit Roll D6-2 (then add anything special like tank hunters or AP 1) and consult the chart.

        Dad gum. I scratched the paint on that sucker!

    3. Weapon strength 9+ 6 = 15 Penatrating (hehehe penatrating) hit. Roll D6 (add in special stuff like tank hunters or AP 1) and consult the chart.

        Yeee Haaw! My layzer cannon put a hole right through that sumabitch watch 'er burn!

Melta has a distinct difference in all of this. At step 3 above for melta you add: 3a. If you are within half the range of the weapon roll weapon strength + the sum of 2D6.

Hey Jimbo eyes gots me a microwavin' gun now. Let's see how ya like this one.

Weapon strength 8 + 2D6 ( let's say a 5 and a 3) = Wpn Str 8 + 8 = 16 penetrating hit. Roll D6 then add one for the shot being AP1 and consult the chart.

Ding! Ha! cusin. Youse a burrita now.

To summarize

1. Pick your target

2. Pick your weapon

3. Roll to hit (BS+D6) must equal 7 or more

4. Figure out what you did (Wpn Str+D6) or for Melta in half range (Wpn Str+2D6) subtract the AV of the vehicle. If you end up with a zero you glance. Roll a D6-2 and add anything special you have. If you end up with a positve number you Pen. Roll a D6 and add anything special you have.

That is a true friend, guys-- and I am glad to have him. He took the time to write up a summary in silly but "plain" language so that maybe I would have a better understanding of something that's been bothering me for a long time. Getting that email was a pretty good start to my day-- and of course I had to let FunDave know I was using it on my blog right away. He didn't seem to mind.

Maybe I can try again later, now that I know how to use a layzergun =)

[40K] Some Real Content!

There was no 40K for the past couple weeks- due to a break between leagues or holidays or whatnot.

Last night kicked things off again, with a new league starting. This one is kind of an interesting twist on Planetary Empires--  there are two required lists. One is 200 point Kill Team list, and the other is 1800 point "main" list. You play a Kill Team game (sort of scouts, if you will) and whoever wins the game gets an advantage in the main game.

I had planend to sit this league out for a variety of reasons, but have since been convinced (read:dared/bullied) into playing, if nothing else, as a backup in case someone bails. Words such as "chicken" and "scaredy cat" were thrown around, and I just can't really have that, now can I? I sat out this week but should catch up next week with a quick early game and then a regular game as per the schedule.

I'll be busting out my Templar again for this league, and maybe I will get some painted colors other than "blue". (Despite advice to the contrary, Necron Abyss is NOT dark enough to be a proxy for black.)

Speaking of my Templar, despite not being fielded by me, they got on the board in a game.

Big Sword is having sharp words with me, as I allowed his faithful brothers to be proxied as Xenos by my best pal, who is new to 40K. He wants to play Orks. He has a friend who will loan him the models, but he forgot to send a list to the guy with the Green Dudes. My pal showed up last night and my Templar were commissioned to stand in as the Spores... with hilarious results.

The "orks" face down a Dreadnaught

My friend (BB) made his list based off of the models I had on hand- I brought my bag to help out a different friend (FunDave) and having the extra models made it possible for BB to play . BB's list was pretty kick butt for something he threw together in a couple minutes, based on what was available from a Space Marine player's bag.

The night was a blast- it's always great to get back to the guys, the fun, the camaraderie, and the games.

I'm afraid that I well and truly stink, though. My pal BB picked up the Ork codex and blasted out a list that had a veteran player on his toes all night- in less than 15 minutes. I've been trying to get better for a while now, and I still lose all the time. I read tactics, articles, strategy, net lists, advice and ask my friends for help- and still get smoked every time. I think it's a fact that I'm an easy win, and I just gotta deal with it.

Or maybe getting better will take more time for me, and I just have to keep at it. I'm hoping I'm a slow learner.

[RPG] Character Ideas I Can't Use #3- Chad Black

I've talked about Chad before- at least once. He was a character I "played" in a PBEM Wrestling Federation. His moniker was The Exemplar; literally an example for those around him.

At first shine, Chad came off as arrogant and haughty- pretentious and prideful. After some careful examination, he displays a serious desire (almost a need) for approval, for a place to belong.

The base idea for Chad was pretty simple. He was a failed priest novitiate, wanting redemption and a place to release his aggression. He was a good, honest and generally decent man- but with an abundance of fury. He held  very little dear, but was fiercely protective and loyal to the things he did value.

I've toyed with the idea of Chad in many guises, in many game systems. I've envisioned Chad as a priest to the outcasts and homeless- as a vampire and as a Changeling. I've seen Chad as a superhero- a strong man, a judicar or a very misguided  vigilante. I've seen him as a government agent for any number of conspiracy type games, and I've seen him as a street dude, for the Shadowrun style games.

The problem is that he's so versatile, and so personal. I got to write for him for over a year, and he feels so ingrained to me it's hard to share him with anyone- to let anyone else in on the process. Someday I'll find a home for him... I hope.

[RPG] Character Ideas I Can't Use #2- MIA

Sorry for the very long absence from the blogsphere, folks. I spent the past week dealing with some weird personal stuff, and reading. I've found that reading gets my creative juices going again and I needed some juice pretty seriously.

The next character idea that I can't use is also for Champions/Hero System. This idea is a little less fleshed out as my previous idea- but it's also much newer and in many ways, much more personal.

The idea, in its base form, is taking a personal trait of mine (which I and many others see as a weakness) and turn it into a power. One of my more famous tendencies is the ability to get lost literally anywhere. I have quite honestly gotten lost inside a pretty small mall (shaped like a big X), parking lots and most famously, my own walk-in closet. (I got turned around and couldn't find the door. Gimme a break.)

Rather than having this ability be a failing, what if I could turn this into a positive? This was the line of thinking that helped bring about MIA.

MIA is a mentalists with a weird twist. Her background is that of the "spotter" for a sniper/swat team in crisis situations- the eyes in the sky, so to speak. Her training and specialty lay in seeing the enemy, and conveying to the team the enemy's locations.

She was really good at it, with a flair for almost implanting a "picture" of the enemy into her team's heads- and the brass noticed. They hooked her into a program intended to expand her abilities further, with the ability to convey images mentally the ideal end result.

The training was rigorous and somehow went awry- she developed abilities, but almost exactly opposite of what was wanted. Instead of being able to show pictures of where enemies were to her team, MIA was only able to convey a sense of being "lost in the fog of war".

Further exploration discovered that this ability was not limited to a single target- it affected just about anyone around her when she tried to project images. This lead more than a few people being missing in action (hence the name), while both the team and the individual being targeted fumbled to get their bearings.

The idea is very cool, in my opinion. The problem comes in the execution- the power level of the ability is ridiculous- clocking in at 97 points MINIMUM, for the true effect I want. That's one single power. No skills, defenses, modifiers, movement- nothing else is included in this. With 400 points the maximum for starting heroes, and most GMs capping powers at 60-70 active points, a power with nearly 100 active points just isn't going to fly.

Additionally, while the concept is sound, the actual results of taking even a single villain team out this way is pretty staggering. An example?  Dr Doom and the Doom Patrol are fighting the Brotherhood of Evil  when suddenly, the BOH has no idea where they are and Monsier Mallah is attacking the Brain by mistake because he thinks the Brain is somewhere else...

I'm still looking to start the Home for Unwanted Heroes.... I think it might be filled with all the "D" List guys... but who knows what might happen. I COULD find a home for these guys, eventually....