Cha Cha changes

Another big milestone is about to be passed in our lives.  Walker is moving to his biological father's house - full time. No more back and forth. No more of his room being empty half the time. There are a variety of reasons for this decision - the big one he does not want to do chores or pay rent.  I don't think he's ready to be a full time adult yet - so I wish him the best!

I'm of two minds - on the one hand I'm sad that he is moving out.  I've watched him grow from a young child into a young man.  I've watched him mature and learn, and I'm glad to have helped with that.  I've helped shape him into the man he is becoming.  He went to his fathers house for two weeks every summer as a part of the divorce but this will be the first time he'll be gone.

On the other hand I'm glad because we are going to turn his bedroom back into our den. I won't have to be a parent any more!  On the downside I'll be picking up his slack but as Sun pointed out we'd be doing this if he had gone off to college as well.

Right now we're packing up his stuff and getting it ready to move. Some of it is staying. We'll be storing his bed in case this whole thing does not work out.  Some of it will be pitched, some donated, some will go to the garage sale we are planning.

I don't know if I'll have "empty nest syndrome" or something like it. We still have the animals which demand attention and affection. It's also not like we're parting on bad terms. We're not evicting the boy - he chose this.  Granted we didn't fight too hard to stop him.

I guess this chapter of our lives is about to close and the page will turn.  A new chapter is about to begin!

Dropzone Commander

Dropzone Commander is my newest wargamming addiction.  DZC is produced by Hawk Wargames and is a 10mm scale game, meaning that its models are smaller than say those from Warhammer Fantasy or 40K.  It is vastly different than either of those two games and that is one of the reasons I really dig it.

I got seriously into wargames shortly after high school.  I saw Necromunda played and loved the models and the terrain.  That led me to Warhammer 40K.  That in turn led to Mordheim and eventually Warhammer Fantasy.  While I had enjoyed all of those games the fact that Games Workshop completely rewrote the rules every few years and seemed to make (IMO) boneheaded decisions I have since lost interest. That and the cost to get into either game is astronomical any more.

DZC plays differently than many other wargames.  It has an alternating activation sequence - meaning I activate a unit, they do their thing, then you activate a unit, and so on. The turns are very quick and you normally don’t sit around while your opponent moves their entire army.

The rules are tightly written and it’s almost as if they have an actual editor review them for clarity. This is refreshing after having to wade through interpretations in other systems (I’m looking at you GW). There are no spam units - every unit has its purpose and you cannot skimp on one over another.  Most of the missions are objective based - meaning that there is a goal and not just killing as many of your opponents units as you can.   You can destroy many more units than your opponent and still lose if you don’t meet the mission objectives. 

You need infantry to actually capture objectives inside of buildings.   You’ll need transports to move your infantry into position - APC’s and then dropships of some kind to get the APC’s into position.  You will need Anti-Air to shoot down and destroy the dropships.  You then need heavy armor to help destroy the AA.  There is also air support that comes on from one edge of the board, makes its run, and then flies off. The AA is designed for them as well.

If you don’t take enough infantry then you won’t be able to capture objectives.  Take too much infantry and you won’t be able to take as much AA or armor. Too much AA and you can control the skies but you’ll be vulnerable to the main battle tanks. Too much armor and your enemy can fly around you and ignore the deadly firepower.

The models are gorgeous and all to scale. The Condor dropship can be put together in such a way you can show it carrying three tanks or two Bear APC.  The PHR Poseidon can be assembled to show it carrying the walkers into battle.  You can put the Hunter tanks or Invader APC’s onto the Marauder dropship.

The boxed set is a great value as well - for about $75 you get TWO starter armies (UCM and Scourge), the full 1.1 rulebook, not some mini rulebook that has most of it cut. You get cardboard buildings for your battle field, two cityscape maps for the buildings. You get dice, even a tape measure (not some red whippy stick to harass your opponent with).  It’s a great way to get started. The models are plastic and go together easily.

I’ll be providing my views and thoughts on the various factions and units in the future.  Dropzone Commander has reignited my love of wargamming and I’m looking forward to the future with Hawk Wargames!

Updates

I didn't realize just how long it had been since I posted. Over a year. Wow. Real life happened, plus I got lazy.  I'm going to rectify that by a blog post at least once a week. Friday is my scheduled day (I've even set up a reminder in my phone!)

A lot has happened since the last post.  Some good. Some not so good. Shit happens as the saying goes.  Still, I want to get back to writing and trying to get more exposure. Upcoming posts will be about the changes we are going through, projects I am working on, and my new wargame addiction - Dropzone Commander!  I'll be spamming Facebook, G+, and Twitter once new things are up. Feel free to read through and post comments!

Security in an MMO

First off - I'm not talking about the username/password or hacking of an account. I'm talking about the lackeys that the good guys and villains use for their actual security. For example, in World of Warcraft you sneak into a fortress with roaming guards. Unable to sneak by them  you kill them all in a very gruesome manner. It is loud, bloody, and usually over pretty quickly.

Just down the hall there is another group of guards who are so deaf or incompetent that they don't hear or notice that you just murdered their fellow guards. It gets better. The corpses of the guards you just killed are laying out in the open. Another group of guards wanders by and doesn't notice the bodies. Or the bloody footprints that have been tracked away.They don't say "Wow, Jim was alive the last time I saw him," or "I wonder if I should report that Jim and Bob were killed while on patrol." Nope they just keep wandering around and don't sound the alarm.

If you are much higher in level than the guards they will totally ignore you. They'll just wander by probably thinking "If I don't make eye contact maybe they won't kill me like, poor Bob and Jim."

Star Wars the Old Republic is even worse. Here you have some places with advanced communications. Instead of roving patrol number 1 reporting "A Jedi has breached the compound, alert" all the guards do is fight back and usually fall to their grizzly deaths by light saber.

I realize these are games but still!  It's like I've invaded a James Bond Villains underground lair and his henchmen are acting like they are extra's on loan from Dr. Evil. Villains are often some of the most creative characters but in an MMO their Rent-A-Cop security shows why the good guys always seem to win.

No adventure survives contact with the players

If you didn't know I'm a gamer. I've pretty much played it all. Board games. Card games. CCG's. Miniature games. Video games. Computer games. Role Playing Games.  RPG's are amongst my most favorite both playing and running. I've been doing both for the better part of 25 years and I've seen a wide assortment of players.

Some want to just roll dice and kill things. Some want to explore the world. Some want to become their character and immerse themselves.  Some just want to get the hell out of the house and escape their family (I don't judge).  The one thing that they all have in common is the ability to take your well laid adventure and turn it on its head with relative ease.

I enjoy running games. I enjoy the creative process of taking an idea and expanding on it. Map making. NPC creation. I like to think I'm good at it. From the talk of my players they enjoy it, so that's a check in my favor.

My first truly cooked up adventure that I planned for took me about 2 weeks to get together. I don't remember the specifics but it was the first in a multi-year campaign. The adventure  was for West End Games Star Wars.  I had planned the NPC's, their gear, the ships, the over arching goals, and what I thought were the paths the players would take.  I had maps, descriptions, points of interest. I had looked over dozens of pre-generated adventures to get ideas.

I was pumped. Excited. Nervous. It was Game night. I had my GM screen. I had my notes, my maps, my game plan. And within about 30 minutes of the action beginning all my well laid plans went out the airlock. The few subtle hints about where to go went unnoticed (or ignored). I had a player disrupt my bad guy (very cleverly, I might add). What had been planned as a multi-game night story arc was almost neatly wrapped up before midnight. No adventure survives contact with the player.

It was a learning experience to say the least! I learned that copious notes and details are fantastic if you plan to publish your adventure but that in the future I should KISS it. Keep It Simple, Stupid. Oh, I still planned, but most of it was mental. I had an outline of what the goals of the adventure were and some simple notes.  I also learned go off the cuff. To improvise. In some instances to flat out pull it out of my - um, out of thin air.

I also began to ask my players what they wanted. Did they have a particular story arc they wanted their characters to go.  In that I began to tailor my adventures more to the players, trying to avoid the stereotypical tropes that we have all come to know and love. I borrow, emulate, and try to incorporate the best ideas from my fellow GM's.  I do try to plan ahead, knowing what I do about my players, but despite all of that - my adventures still don't survive contact with my players.

The Dresden Files

I've been reading all my life. I've read many different things. Some books I've struggled through, some I've really enjoyed. And then there are some series that I've not been able to put down until I've finished. David Weber's Honor Harrington series was passed around like crack among my friends. We read it and got every new book that came out.  The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher has become my new reading crack.

For those who are not familiar the Dresden Files follow the adventures of Harry Dresden, a modern day wizard and private investigator. That's right, he's a wizard, even says so on his door.  The writing style of the series is hard boiled, first person noir.  It is a detective series told through Dresden's point of view.  He narrates and weaves a compelling tale. Throw in a damsel in distress and some magical bad-ass villains and you have the series. Kind of like Sam Spade but with wands and vampires. You see the world through Harry's eyes, and it isn't always a very pretty picture.  I had never read any detective stories before but these one grabbed my by the shirt, pulled me in, and made me hold on for the ride.

Dresden is a wizard who has led a hard life. He's tall, rail thin, and sports a duster, jeans, and cowboy boots. His trusty staff and blasting rod (think magic wand) are a part of his arsenal, as is the silver pentacle that he uses to focus his magic. He's a sucker for a woman in distress and a connoisseur  of modern geekism and pop culture references.


You learn that magic and monsters are all real. Most people just don't see them because both are hidden in plain sight and usually dismissed.  But the threats are real.  Each novel introduces a new magical concept, from vampires, werewolves, to necromancers.  In every book Harry gets a job as a PI. The jobs are never easy, never as they seem, and Harry usually ends up on the short end of a beating stick.

Magic in the Dresdenverse does not play well with modern technology. Cell phones, computers, modern cars, even microwaves often go on the fritz or even burn out when magic is used around them. Magic is potent and dangerous.

The monsters and fey are not the sanitized versions you see from Disney.  Think the original Grimm's fairy tales mixed crossed with Hannibal Lector. Many of the myths and legends are brought forward and explained. They can be utterly ruthless caring nothing for the sanctity of life.I find the mythology very well researched and interestingly presented.

I discovered Dresden by accident. It was actually through the short lived Sci-Fi channel series. I remember seeing adds for it but never had a chance to sit down and watch it. Alas, it was cancelled. When Hulu first appeared this was one of the shows and I gave it a chance. I was hooked.  The first hit was free, the rest was - not enough. I blew through the series but wanted more.  On a whim I ordered the first three-pack off of Amazon and then the freebasing began.

If you haven't read any of the books go ahead and start with Storm Front.  You can pick it up from just about any bookstore or Amazon.  I'd also recommend the TV-show. If you have Netflix it is streaming! If you like magic, mystery, a dash of daring-do, and no small mix of humor and sarcasm then I think you'll love the Dresdenverse.

Spoiler Alert?!

Maybe it is a sign of me getting older but I am no longer wanting to know everything about a movie or a show before it comes out. With the advent of the internet, digital photos, and the rest it is now all too easy to sneak pictures or script shots off the set. I enjoy the surprise, the mystery, the secret, the unknown of a new movie or show.

Why will you drop $7 to $15 or more to see a movie that you know all the plot points and probably have seen a good chunk of the footage from a spoiler website? What is left to enjoy?  If you spend the entire time waiting for that one scene that you know is coming how much can you truly enjoy the movie?

I guess I'm tired of avoiding so many articles because of the dreaded "Spoiler Alert" that seems to fill so many articles. At least they are courteous enough to put in there. I know it is big business to leak this to the masses, and if there wasn't a market for it then it wouldn't be so rampant. Hell, I've avoided reading the sample chapters that Martin has posted for the next A Song of Fire and Ice novel.

It is a lot easier since I don't have cable. I am not bombarded with commercials or TMZ style shows that blurt out some breaking news.  I also keep my headphones on at work so I miss a lot of the chatter from my fellow geeks who do keep in the know.

Don't get me wrong, I was ecstatic when I heard there will be new Star Wars movies. I am also thrilled that JJ Abrams is going to be helming at least first one because of his sense of secrecy.  He's kept a lot of the new Trek movie close to his vest. Some stills were released, characters, but even the trailers have left you wondering just what the hell is going on. I have also purposely ignored articles that leak script ideas.  I want to go into this fresh, not knowing much, and with as few preconceived notions as I can.

Some things have been revealed.   A lot of the original cast will be back if the reports are correct.  They are known commodities, Luke, Leah, Han. My hope is that they are now in positions of authority and that they are there to hand the reins to a new group of younger smugglers, Jedi, and heroes. I plan to remain as ignorant as I can about it until I see the Star Wars logo and hopefully John Williams Fanfare blaring.

I have nothing against the masses who do want every spoiler that comes out.  I just ask that you don't blurt them out and if you post about them warn those of us who still want a little magic when we go to the movies.