Lies, Damn Lies

Presentations

2008-07-26T01:46:00.000-07:00

I don't make perfect presentations, but I think I know a few things, especially after spending yesterday watching an endless cycle of presentations.

First of all, while an introduction may help the structure of your talk, do not make the mistake of simply presenting a table of contents. It is not informative, it is not useful, and it is most definitely boring. While in a written report, having a table of contents may not hurt, in a presentation it is utterly pointless to read the titles of the subjects you are just about to cover. I simply do not believe anyone will get anything out of it.

Second of all, avoid writing too much information on your slides. If you end up writing massive amounts, your presentation will consist almost purely of reading the thing, and frankly you could convey the same amount by giving everyone a hand out. To my mind, it's best to summarize what you're saying on the slides, and ideally have graphs/diagrams.

Third of all, practice your talk, and practice it a lot. It's really, really dull to run through a talk multiple times, but if you do not, when you present you will be uncomfortable and stammer.

Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog

2008-07-17T02:43:00.000-07:00

This is only free until the 20th, so I reccomend seeing it now. Very funny stuff.

http://www.drhorrible.com/act_I.html

Update

2008-07-11T11:09:00.000-07:00

So, work continues well, dissertation is well under way, and I am using my mighty mastery of mathematics to vanquish the demons of statistics. Next week I shall be heading to sunny steveanage, which I realise that I apparently cannot spell, where I shall be meeting with Gsk to discuss my PHD, so thats all a bit exciting.

I have also succumbed to the allure of WoW. A lot of my friends, including people somewhat further afield are on, and it's actually a good way to stay in touch. And it's also really fun, damnit! Just one more level indeed.....

Dark Heresy, Lifeblood preserves-Session 3

2008-07-11T01:08:00.000-07:00

Story

With the chaplin stealing their prisoners, the party saw no alternative but to head home, which they did, dodging out of the way of police patrols which had been somewhat increased thanks to the loud firefight they had just caused.

Sleeping in the hotel, the morning revealed that the space marine had headed off into the desert. Checking his room, they discovered a data slate implying that another space marine was calling out the Chaplin for battle, giving the co-ordinates.

Deciding to head after this, the party hired a ramshackle vechile and drove into the desert, where after a day of travel they saw a large black building in the distance with three vechiles in front of it. Closer inspection saw 6 gentlemen there, one of whom was laying a large amount of charges around the building. The party decided to lay in wait and see what they were doing. Sadly, Dmitri's abilities of concealment were rather lacking, and combat broke out.

The party defeated their enemies, with the help of the psyker taking the form of a demon.... Investigating the building revealed Tomias standing over the bodies of several people, who were drained of blood. Tomias managed to get control of himself for long enough to tell the party that Raphael had tricked him, the ghostflower triggered "the rage". He insisted that they needed to contact Mariella, who could explain more. Then he shot himself.

Reflections

I enjoyed running this session, although the combat was a bit silly. I suspect a few extra bits of cover so the party could advance would have been a bit more fun. The fact that the players can only move a maximum of about 12 metres each turn meant that when Nick charged the enemy it was more a charge of the light brigade than an actual attack....

I had trouble working out how this session was going to work. I knew that Raphael was going to trick Tomias into a position where the ghostflower would activate the black rage, but I then needed the party to discover this. Discovering Tomias dead would leave the party relatively clueless, but if he was alive I couldn't work out WHY. After coming up with multiple ways of telling the scene, it finally occured to me that Raphael might want to avoid fighting an insanely strong space marine chaplin, and would instead blow him high sky instead. As Raphael has other business to get sorted, it made sense for him to leave as well, especially as he believed that no-one would be following Tomias.

I think I probably could have put more thought into the anagram for Tomias to make it a proper problem, but never mind- making it purely skill based was a little lame, but eh.

The Gospel According to Larry

2008-07-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

I have become a member of a very small book group of 4. We haven't really had any form or structure so far, and have been just lending each other books. One of the group members, Ben, leant me the book "The gospel according to larry". I have to say, it is one of the worst books I have ever read.

The Gospel according to larry is a book about anti-consumerism. The main character is a loner genius who creates a website ranting against anti-consumerism which becomes a massive hit. I'm going to spoil it heavily when I write this post, but trust me when I say you really do not want to go through the process of reading this book, which does have the one merit of being remarkably short.

The book begins with a rather juvenile framing where the author claims that this is a real story, and that it was written by the gentleman in question, Josh. Reading the book it very obviously that it isn't true, which makes this lie pointless and rather silly. It doesn't add anything to the story, and ties the author to the first person narrative she decides to stick to.

The portrayal of a child genius loner is a rather cynical attempt to appeal to a certain demographic, and as such came across as extremely tiresome. It was hilarious in it's absurdity (claiming that at the age of 2 Josh was solving equations using fridge magnets). Josh is quickly revealed as a rather unpleasent example of his kind- intolerant of others who do not share his proclivites, he considers his stepfather's new girlfriend as pathetic because she is collecting humpty dumpty related paraphenalia.

His unpleasentness is highlighted in an incident where he played a nasty practical joke on a teacher where he conducted an internet romance with her, playing a 40 year old and then leading her on until setting her up for a date for which no-one arrives. He recounts this anecdote with an almost jovial manner, but has the grace to feel sorry for it. There is no real explanation WHY he did in the first place, however.

He also has a relationship with a girl, Beth, who he decides he is in love with, but she does not know. She is dating someone else, a guy who Josh describes as a Jock, and thus despicable. There is no real reason to despise this other person other than Josh says so.

Eventually Josh does come to realise he might have been wrong about these things, but because the book is utterly from his perspective it does feel like it is supporting him. Certainly his rather juvenile rants about consumerism, which are simple minded and poorly written, should not receive the success they do, cumulating in the absurd "larry-fest" hosted by Bono.

The book also sets up a straw man in Josh's dad, Peter, a man in advertising who is pro-consumerism. Peter is unable to present one cogent argument for the advertising industry because the author isn't interested in even the illusion of balance. Peter becomes almost a bogey man at some points, although the tone varies so dramatically that seconds later she is trying to develop sympathy for him.

There is so little to reccommend about this book. The anti-consumerism message is not utterly awful, but has been made so much more effectively in so many other places. This might appeal to a certain age demographic who have not been exposed to these ideas before, but I am certain there are better ways to portray it.

There is very little to reccommend about this book. It

Bishops

2008-07-01T01:11:00.000-07:00

Some C of E bishops have ganged together to try and stop, or at least reduce the effect of having female bishops. Irritatingly one of them was interviewed on the radio. Rather than asking them about their reasons for wanting to promote sexism, he was asked purely about the tactical considerations. This annoys me. He was allowed to get off by saying it was a matter of conscience.

A matter of conscience? One can explain being sexist as a matter of conscience! What next? Bishops explaining that their need to stone adulterers is a matter of conscience? Sexism is sexism, no matter how you dress it. It is time for the church to move with time or not exist anymore....

Dark Heresy, Lifeblood Preserves-Session 2

2008-06-27T05:44:00.000-07:00

Story

The party were woken up early to be met with Terronius, who informed them that not only had another murder occurred, but the police were claiming they had caught the perpetrator of the crimes.

Setting off to investigate the culprit, the party decided they did not want to reveal that they came from the inquisition. Instead the psyker played with the mind of the guard at the desk, and they pushed past, into the corridors. However, upon reaching the cells they discovered another guard, who pushed the alarm before the party could stop him. At this point Trantor decided that it was time to declare some authority.

The guards were almost instantly cowed by the legendary authority of the Inquisition, and became extremely helpful. The party were led through to the culprit.

Raelis was slumped in the corner, his body showing clear signs of a recent beating. Rousing him he revealed fangs sharpened to a fine point. Raelis was clearly far gone into heresy, and while he stuck to his initial story to begin with, a dose of psykic power quickly dissuaded him from continuing. He told them that on the appropriate night someone would mark the pub that the cult were to get their newest victim from. They would drug said victim, then lead him back to be fed on, and dump him in the chosen location. Raelis had never been back to the base, so had no idea where it was, but told them that the attack would be occurring that night. Dmitri, believing that Raelis had told them all the party needed to know, executed him.

The party then headed off, to look at the body and the place where it was left, which confirmed what they had seen already. They then went about finding the next location. This didn't take too long, St Drusus' Hammer was marked. The party then decided to split up, with most waiting in the pub, and the other two going across the street to watch from above in a sniper post. Quintus, the assassin and Mordecai the tech priest were chosen for this. Qunitus managed to convince the owner of the shop across the street (Carmail's gun shop), to allow them to rent a room, managing to imply along the way that he was intending to have a rather intimate encounter there... which made Carmail somewhat surprised when he saw the other gentleman was a tech priest....

The party set up for the evening. Eventually the cultists turned up, and sizing Trantor up as a target, made their move. After a while, believing Trantor had been thoroughly drugged, the cultists led him out of the pub. Enoch and Dmitri followed, and after a short while Trantor made his move. Both Enoch and Qunitus opened fire, and the cultists went down very quickly, with two managing to be took alive. Deciding to take them to the alms house, the party headed off.

However, before they could reach it, they were confronted with the extremely intimidating sight of a space marine chaplin, a man in black power armour with a skull painted on the helmet, a power field covering him. He demanded the players put down their weapons and hand over the prisoner. At this point a women dressed in black stepped out of the shadows.

"Thank you Mariella, you have been most helpful."
"My pleasure Tomias"

The players handed Tomias their id, but while he accepted that they were from the inquisition, he claimed that "this was a matter purely for the blood angel's chapter to deal with,". However, Tomias said that they could meet with him tomorrow at his room in the Venerate.

Needing only one cultist, Tomias executed the other, and left with the mysterious Mariella, commenting that they could interrogate the prisoner on her ship.

Reflections

It's an interesting experience, giving players more choice, as they can do things you don't expect. For example, the players suggested that they might move the red handkerchief from the Hammer, which would have been an interesting development. I suspect in that instance I might have used Mariella to stop them doing so, as she had been tailing them for the entire day. Indeed, Mariella, who originally was going to play a less active role in the adventure, proved to be very worth involving, as she enabled me to adapt to the players attacking the cultists outside the pub, rather than following them to their destination, as I had expected.

I really enjoyed this session, it was good to see the players basically getting to choose what they do, and how they planned to deal with any particular situation. I managed to adapt to it reasonably well, even when Dmitri randomly killed the prisoner, for which he got a corruption point.

Traps

2008-06-24T06:26:00.000-07:00

The game Baldur's Gate 2 (and probably it's prequel, but I never got that far into it for some reason), loves trapping things. Every time you step into a dungeon, there are millions upon millions of traps, often placed almost directly under the feet of the hordes of minions that inhabit the tomb. I do wonder how exactly all these many minions get any food, as the moment they attempt to leave their lovely dungeon they would get attacked by arrays of spells arrows and quality explosives. I can only assume there is some secret sign that I am unaware of.

This addiction to traps means that sometimes quite lame amounts of treasure will be protected. A chest with a few coins on it will have a disintegrate spell attached to it (which does what it says on the tin), which seems somewhat overkill, and you really would not want to forget that you had left that one set on. There are also the occasional traps which don't even hurt the person who sets them off, but causes them mild inconvinience. For example, in some dungeons there will be spells of hold person, which again do exactly what they say on the tin, but the issue is is that they don't set any kind of alarm off and only last for a limited time. So the sum effect is really negligible. I suppose if one was chasing the intrepid hero it would be useful, but the point of traps is surely that you don't need to be there at the time for them to be effective.

Dark Heresy-Lifeblood preserves session 1

2008-06-20T01:22:00.000-07:00

So it's a new campaign, and all new fun. As always, I'm going to summarize the events of the session and then reflect.

Story

The party were recruited by the rather hideous Globus Vaarak, who sent them to the lovely planet of Iocanthos. There they got to experience imperial bureaucracy at first hand, as they attempted to investigate two bodies who had been found drained of blood. Making contact with the owner of the hotel they were staying at (Venerate the Immortal Emperor, for without him we are lost), they managed to (easily) elicit the knowledge that apparently a space marine was staying in the penthouse, something that the party considered somewhat unlikely.

Going to the administration counting house they encountered even more bureaucracy, which led them to a search for their contact taking several hours. Finally finding him, he pointed them in the direction of where the bodies were found, and also where they were now.

The party split in two, half heading to investigate where the bodies were found, and the others headed to the alms house. Observing the bodies discovered they had been bitten and drained of blood, and also a mysterious symbol.....

The other half of the party spent an extremely long time in the Blind Pig, considering that was NOT where the disappearance was, as they attempted to get comms equipment, first from the bartender, and second from a shady gentleman in the corner.

Finally Trantor went to see if the gentleman in the penthouse suite truly was a space marine. Indeed it seemed that he was, and a blood angel at that. What exactly he was doing half a galaxy away from his home world is not clear, of course....

Reflections

An enjoyable enough session, with the players being amusingly diverted by an npc in the blind pig who did not have a massive amount to do with the plot, although Andy's suggestion of killing him for a bionic arm was a little bit disturbing....

The only real mistake I made was a rumour that the players should have heard while gathering them, and I kind of forgot it. It wasn't exactly vital, so meh. Otherwise it is proceeding well, and the pcs have yet to make some of the mistakes I thought they might... indeed they have, other than planning murder against several people, proved to be rather sensible thus far. We shall see if this continues.

dog whistle politics

2008-06-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

There was some talk during the last election about dog whistle politics. The idea was that the conservatives were saying certain things about immigration that your average voter would just ignore, but those who really cared would definitely vote for you. This is something that can be seen in any system like ours, where swaying the minority vote without losing any core vote can win you elections.

The most obvious example of this is Bush, with his pandering to the religious extremes in the US. The figuring was no republican with somewhat liberal values was going to vote against moves against gay marriage, and certainly not against abortion (mainly because most American's assume that no president is really capable of banning abortion, which is certainly true while the supreme court remains in the delecate balance it maintains).

The issue with this is brand awareness. Everyone knows about branding these days- the wonders of Nike excetera trying to provoke one particular image for themselves. This is actually vital for politics to do. Basically, every party is trying, or should be trying to maintain some kind of image. This broadly should be their ideology- so in case of labour equality, and the conservatives freedom (to simplify things to a complete extreme). When you do dog whistle politics, your brand will usually take a knock.

For example, the ten pence tax rate thing has given a big knock to the idea that Labour is the party of helping the unfortunate, even though it is probably still true. While I expect Gordon Brown believed that this might be the best thing to do, I really don't believe it for the upgrading of cannabis and the 42 day detention. There is mixed evidence that it is necessary to have a longer detention, and there are a lot of good reasons not to do it in terms of liberty. I'm fairly certain that Labour would not be doing this if they did not want to appear tough on terror. So it does not come across as a principled stand, it comes across as Labour trying to appeal to a demographic that normally doesn't care. But along the way it damages this idea that Labour is interesting in social liberties. The same with cannabis, only it is much, much worse. There really is no sensible reason to upgrade cannabis other than the absurd idea of wanting to look tough. The fact is a large proportion of the population have smoked or know someone who smokes cannabis, and I suspect the large majority of them wouldn't want to see someone who smokes it get a jail sentence.

I hate this form of politics, and I think ultimately it is damaging to the parties election prospects. An on message policy of an inspiring nature is required to save Labour, and right now I'm not seeing it.

Dark Heresy Write Up

2008-06-17T09:10:00.000-07:00

So, I'm finally back online, and finally writing up this campaign. This is going to be the story, as in the plot as seen by me when designing it, and a brief round up of my thoughts.

Story

Centuries before the Imperium returned to the Calixis sector, a selection of humans decided they wished to live in a paradise of nature. Determined to experience the beauty of nature, but in an utterly controlled environment, a consortium of humans using technology undreamed of in the current imperium constructed a massive hive on the mostly desert planet of Baraspine- a world previously unused. It was designed so that plant life and foliage would grow within the hive itself- an utterly controlled natural paradise, utterly self sufficient. While there was a space port installed, it was not intended to see much use.

This dream was doomed to fail. The first generation were happy to live in their paradise, but many of the next wished for change, for something different than a life of working the earth they lived in. Their minds were ripe for a daemon full of ambition. Skraelig, a daemon of Tzeentch, worked on the minds of the younger generation, convincing them that it could bring change, the social upheaval they desired. All they needed to do was help it in turn....

Skraelig believed it could become nearly fully manifest in the world with enough sacrifice, and be powerful enough to dominate the planet and then the sector. However, some of it's cultists became wary of it's interests, and forged a plan to defeat it. When Skraelig became manifest, it discovered it had been summoned a kilometre under the earth. It's death scream obliterated all life on the planet.

Later, the imperium came to Baraspine. Lord Cafren's ancestor found an empty world which he claimed in the imperium's name.

With the return of life to Baraspine, also came the Imperium's greed, and they began to mine out the rich minerals from the planet, as well as convert a large proportion of the natural wonderland into industrial hives. With mining, they began to encover black stone which throbbed of the warp. For the first time in centuries, Skraelig began to be aware. It saw even more people it could corrupt, if it could only become flesh. A young Marr visited the planet, and it was then that Skraelig discovered someone amiable to his plans.

Marr became convinced that he would be able to summon a daemonhost, a truly unholy creation, a daemon bound to a human body. The ritual went wrong, as it was fated to do, and the daemonhost escaped. Skraelig was free to begin it's corruption of Baraspine.

With the stone already embedded in the earth, it just needed it to be mined out and collected together. Finally, Skraelig needed to be released from it's form, and Marr would be more than willing to do that....

Marr was willing, indeed it became an utter obsession for him. Sadly for Skraelig, he took it so far that he researched ways he might utterly abolish the daemon's presence- a holy relic might just do it. So as well as the ingredients for the ritual, he looked out and found a holy relic- a bone of St Drusus. Skraelig was not prepared for this; indeed, did not believe that such a thing could hurt it. This was to prove to be Skraelig's undoing.

Reflections

I enjoyed running this campaign. In many ways I was possibly a little too generous with my players, giving them more money and experience than they maybe should have, but this allowed me to have fun with the new system, and throw new and interesting threats at them. The very led structure with each section taking about a session meant I was able to experiment with lot's of different adventure types along the way. For my next mini-campaign I'm going for a much looser structure, but I did enjoy this as it allowed my imagination to create fun little challenges along the way.

Internet is back

2008-06-16T08:32:00.003-07:00

I am so very happy. However, I managed to accidentally delete the settings on my modem that made it work with my router, which depresses me a tiny little bit, but never mind, I am sure I shall fix that soon. I did it once, I can do it again....

More anon

It's just not fair

2008-06-10T04:05:00.001-07:00

I dunno, I turn over a new leaf, and begin to blog frequently again, once again wowing the internet with my amazing talent as a wordsmith, when I decide to move, and am banished from regular access to the internet once again. Still, I should have regular internet back this sunday, fortituously in time for my summer dissertation to begin.

By bye internet

2008-05-16T09:05:00.000-07:00

So hopefully... hopefully.. we will be moving into the flat tomorrow. It's pretty stressful- the forms have yet to come through, so we will be signing the contract on the same day as moving everything over. All the boxes are full and stuff, but meh.... We shall see, we shall see.

Whatever happens, we shall be sans internet and phone for a while, so expect a hiatus on internet communication.

No stress

2008-05-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

So, many stresses today, with the lady who was meant to turn up for our statistical presentation not turning up, meaning it has got rescheduled tomorrow at the user friendly time of 8 am, and the useless southampton post failing to deliver a guarantor form to the flat agency so I had to desperately phone Alice's parents and get them to email me the thing so I could email it half an hour before the closing time so that we can sign the contract!

All good fun, and I feel fully justified in our evening meal of chips and beer. Although I'm thinking of branching out and having an ice lolly in a second....

The tea

2008-05-12T09:49:00.000-07:00

Miss Alice is standing watching the television, while the tea is in the other room. It is sad. The tea wants to be drunk, and yet. Ooh, she is moving over.... she is picking up the shower curtain. She is folding the shower curtain. The shower curtain is folded. She is examining the curtain. She is taking it into the bed room. Who knows when she will come back. When will the tea be ready???!!! Alice is back. The tea! The tea! it is being made!

I have the most exciting of existences.

Packing Up

2008-05-10T10:26:00.000-07:00

Today was spent packing up, readying for the move next weekend. Things are mostly sorted, although thanks to a slight mis communication we will be a week without a phone. The major task for today was taking our bed to pieces. Which was actually relatively easy- we are now sleeping on the floor. Well, on a mattress on the floor, which is probably for the best as that bed was somewhat old and broken.

Many phone calls were made, and many addresses have been changed, readying ourselves for the grand move. Moving van booked, insurance transfered. All should be fine. More to do tomorrow, but meh!

Dark Heresy Session 7

2008-05-09T03:57:00.000-07:00

Story

The party had succesfully obtained an invite to the pit fight, but had no real plan as to what to do next. Deciding to play it by ear, they turned up to an abandoned warehouse on the edge of the city, where the party was searched for weapons. Describing his gun as an "entertainment stick" (that still makes me laugh even now...), Nicodemus managed to give a hefty enough bribe to bring his weapon in- the rest managed to smuggle in a few knives as well.

The fight produced little productive apart from visceral entertainment- while men and wolves fought, there was no sign of the eldar. However, it was mentioned that those with special passes could come talk to the bookie. Bluffing his way through, Nicodemus managed to obtain a special pass, leading to a big exciting fight the next day, on level 5, one of the noble controlled levels.

On leaving, they heard someone being attacked in an alley way. Looking in revealed two guards beating the hell out of a very much down and out of his luck guy. Seeing them approach, an enforcer told them to back off. Nicodemus did not do so, and instead paid off the mans debts. Confused, the enforcers wondered off. Nicodemus then took the suddenly fortunate unfortunate, who was rather grateful, and pumped him for information, revealing that there definitely was an alien fighting, and that there was a fair amount of guards. He also described a sonic effect that the eldar used, and the party decided to guard against it.

Turning up the next day revealed a huge Colosseum, where once again the party were searched for weapons. This time they had bought up a large quantity of grenades, and attempted to conceal them in a bag. Despite a rather poor distraction, the searchers did not notice most of the grenades.

Wondering around the large waiting area, the party discovered some locked rooms, and also Lek stumbled across a loud drunken man at the bar. Further investigation revealed he had something to do with the back room.. a plan was hatched to follow him, and despite three of the party sneaking behind, the bodyguard assigned to the drunk failed to notice them.

Slipping into the bathroom, Barak slipped a hallucinagen grenade into the toilet, and quickly exited. This had the desired effect, and soon they were able to slip in and grab the keys without being noticed. As they made it for the door, however, they heard the guard begin to regain his senses, and swiftly killed him. Standing around discussing this, and intimidating the crap out of the drunk, led to a noble wondering in on the scence, but he was also persuaded to be kept quiet....

Swiftly the party headed down to the staging area, and, after a brief discussion, burst through and attacked, with ear plugs firmly in place. This led to a full up brawl, but while the guards did some damage (and set off an alarm), the party prevailed.

As the alarm had gone off, Lek, who had remained upstairs thanks to a constant tail of enforcers, bore witness to members of the redemption starting a full on war inside the building, causing a mass stampede.

The party then quickly decided to kill the eldar. Killing the stasis field, they opened fire. Not being able to hear it attempt to converse with them, they ignored it and continued shooting. In frustation the eldar desperately found strength enough to cut through the bars in front of it, but it was not enough. The unending fusilade ended it's life, an unglamorous death.

Grabbing the eldar, the party loaded it into the truck, and drove for freedom. They attempted to pick up Lek by bursting through the front door, but utterly failed, and decided to leave him to his fate. Bursting through a gate at high speed, and managing to lose any pursuit, they high tailed it for freedom.

Meanwhile, Lek, surrounded by chaos and death, decided it was best to make a run for it, and leapt out of the window, joining the crowds of fleeing nobles.

Reflections

An enjoyable session, certainly. My favourite part was probably when Nick decided to investigate the guy getting beaten up. I had included that purely for flavour, and had not planned an encounter, but managed to deal with it fairly well, and the party got some useful informaton out of it. There was one point where I needed the party to get a special invite, but because they were mostly sticking in the background, assuming that the eldar was going to appear at the first fight, they did not make enough of themselves.

The route chosen for victory was a reasonable one, although they could have been somewhat more subtle, following the guy to the toilet and getting keys was the plan I thought they might follow. If they had failed to come up with any ideas, the redemptionists would have set everything alight, and that would have counted as a distraction. Of course, this would have made things harder for them.

I was amused by the ear plugs shutting out all sound. It meant the party didn't hear the fighting, and also didn't hear the eldar, who would have asked them to kill it, seeing as it's life was hardly worth anything anymore. Sadly the eldar did not get a great deal of dignity in death, but never mind.....

I now have to plan for the conclusion of the campaign. I know pretty much what is going to happen, theres just a couple of events currently muddled in my head I have to sort out....

Defining a Hero

2008-05-08T07:41:00.001-07:00

I think super heroes suffer from a problem that no-one seems to have talked about before. This is very much tied up with the rules of the genre.

The thing is about any super hero/science fiction/fantasy film is that there is a need to establish the rules. You aren't existing in the same universe as yours, and things like, for example, people flying may happen here. The viewer needs to have a good idea of these so they can not feel cheated if a hero does something unexpected- as long as they are following the rules the film has set itself. This is important, and is what many people miss when they laugh at people pointing out odd continuity errors or jumps of logic "it's a world in which people can fly!" Well yes, yes it is, but it doesn't mean they can also inexplicably take a bullet then just get up a minute later and not mention it anymore. This is, by the way, why the excuse "a wizard did it" does not really work....

Now super hero films usually only have a few rules to tell- our characters power and abilities. Normally this is easy to find out. The issue comes in terms of mortality. Spiderman is clearly mortal. He's fast, strong, and tough, but bullets are still going to kill him, so we can guess how much danger he's in. When doctor octopus claw almost rams into his head, we know if they hadn't, he would have died.

But then you go up in the power level- Hulk, Iron Man, Superman. These beings are damn near invunerable. So tension is harder to generate. A plane is about to fly into our hero.... will that even scratch them? We don't know, as often the powers are ill defined, so we can't really feel that worried. Even super man's nemesis, kryptonite, appears to only deeply inconvenience him- he just looks a bit ill when it's about. Some films with big nasty heroes and villians will end with a big old brawl, but it will be meaningless. An excellent example of this is Neo versus Agent Smith in the final matrix film. Ignoring the rest of the nonsense, theres a big fight going on.... but theres no way to tell who is winning! They blast energy at each other, but it really doesn't have a huge amount of effect, and the only way to guess how each one is doing is the expression they are pulling.

Fights always have more tension if we recognise our hero can lose, and are very much aware of the conditions when they are going to lose. If we are told that superman is fighting someone with a kryptonite blade, which, if it cuts him, will kill him, then we can become involved in the fight again, because not only do we know our hero is in genuine danger, we know exactly what that is.

Weekend wonderland

2008-05-07T01:37:00.000-07:00

That title is meaningless, but fun. I have had a fairly busy few days, taking some time off to travel to London so see family, and, more importantly, the Doctor Who exhibition. This was fun, but was spoilt by there being goddamn children everywhere! I wanted to play on the dalek voice changer, but nooooo. Stupid kids. You'd think the exhibit was designed specifically for them.

We also went on monday for a walk in the new forest, and got rather muddy, as while the sun has come out, the ground has not dried completely yet. Or at all in many places. About half way through the walk, already fairly mud covered, the walk guide mentioned the section we were coming to "gets very muddy". This was a cause of worriment....

Also, yesterday I gave my very first statistical consultancy, which written like that sounds like a childrens product. After various training videos where the client was a nervous flower, our client basically spoke at us and we interposed the occasional question. Admittedly we had planned for that to happen, but it sort of occured without any prompting. Still, we got the information we needed, even if I'm not entirely sure how to interpret the data, seeing as I haven't done the relevant module!

Puzzles

2008-05-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

Baldur's Gate 2 is a game based on role playing games, indeed using the same underlying system of dungeon and dragons. Along with it, it inherits inane traps.

Traps are part and parcel of designing a dungeon- ways to stop and kill adventurers wondering about. Sometimes they are packed full of them. These often don't make sense. Some do a pitiful amount of damage and are randomly scattered about- often they are unavoidable unless you disarm them, thus making the dungeon inaccessible to the people who are actually using the bloody thing. Also, when traps just irritate the players, they're really not worth it. They should challenge the players.

I prefer traps as part of a puzzle. They need to make sense in terms of the adventure, and they need to be avoided. In the case of my recent adventure, there was a few traps set up, but these were hastily erected by a party only some time ahead of my characters. They were somewhat ramshackle, and fairly easy detected. The inital trap had nothing to do with a puzzle, but provided a solution to the next one, which I thought rather neat. In this case traps made sense, as the party in advance had no intention of returning the way they came.

It is difficult to come up with puzzles in roleplaying. They need to make sense in terms of the universe they inherit, they need to be solvable by the players within a certain time period, and the penalties for utter failure cannot be to halt the game. A bizzare riddle doesn't make much sense most of the time- a passphrase only friends of the villain knew would make far more sense- why give others the chance to proceed? Also, if the players can't solve a puzzle, then the game stops being fun, so it can't be too hard. Along with this, it would be ideal to have something a bit original- the old spelling a word on the floor puzzle is neat, and often makes sense, but is a little done to death thanks to Indiana Jones.

Dark Heresy-Session 6

2008-05-02T03:35:00.000-07:00

(This brings me up to date, so these posts will become less frequent! They have been somewhat self indulgent admittedly, but what the hell- my blog is surely for self indulgence...)

Story

Having retrieved the chalk, although not being able to find where exactly the rest of it and those who had taken it had gone to. Marr seemed fairly happy, although he was somewhat disappointed to discover that the two men that were killed had apparently been vaporised in the explosion, as no-one had the fore thought to drag them out....

Marr then gave the party their next mission- a wealthy collector named Lord Yarl had a bone of Saint Drusus, and Marr wanted it. Unfortunately, so did a lot of other people, and rather than directly conflict with them, he sent the party and a card with a lot of credit on it with them.

Visiting Lord Yarl, he made it clear that money was not enough- instead he wanted Lady Tabitha's aspect warrior. Rather mystified by these words, the party headed back and conducted some research, revealing that Lady Tabitha was the head of the gambling rings on level 6, including some not so legal pit fights. An aspect warrior was apparently an Eldar fighter of some kind- a dangerous alien.

Nicodemus (who was played by Mike for this session, Nick being ill), came up with a simple plan of making some rather large bets to attract the attention of the bookies, and thus get themselves an invite to the next pit fight. This plan worked fairly flawlessly, although the psyker and tech priest were treated with some suspicion, they seemed to fall for the act of decedance, and gave an invite to tomorrow's fight. Taking it, the party then headed back to a plush hotel to spend the night.

Reflections

This session went well. I had decided that I wanted to have more roleplaying based sessions, as I find those more fun generally speaking, although variety is of course the spice of life. I was unsure exactly how long this adventure would take, it depending on the party's plans and methods, and this session went somewhat slowly, thanks to waiting for Mike to replace Nick, and then some general disorder that happened for quite a while.

Still, the party latched on to what I feel is a decent plan fairly quickly- there were several other solutions they could have tried, and still could, and I was willing for anything that sounded plausible to be used, roleplayed right. As it was, few missteps were taken, and the party progressed.

I think the next campaign I run may well be more focused on this kind of style, although I don't mind the occasional big brawl of course, but roleplaying shouldn't just be about that. Combat should be the last resort ideally, although it depends on the situation.

I'd managed to put in more planning for this session, so there was little the players wanted to do that threw me, which was good.

Dark Heresy-Session 5

2008-04-30T02:39:00.000-07:00

(Due to some surprisingly cunning timing on my part, the next session is tomorrow!)

Story

The party returned, triumphant over the forces of chaos, to report back to the Interrogator. He received their news with no suspicion at the report of the death of Lazerus (which left out the whole getting shot in the back by his team mate situaton...), and upon hearing of the daemon that had aided their party, received it with some concern.

Karl informed the party that Marr had returned, and would have need of them tomorrow, and would probably have a replacement for them then. Most of the party retired to the medical facilities, as they sorely needed it. Meeting with Marr the next day, he introduced them to their new member, a tech priest by the name of Mallear, one adept with the mysteries of the machine spirit (how stuff works....).

He then gave the party their new assignment. The world of Barraspine (which I think I spell differently every time I write it), has a dark secret. It is rich with minerals, and so there is a large mining operation in place to take advantage of that, but every now and then, they strike more... dangerous materials. Looking like black chalk, the rock is embued with the essence of chaos, and wreaks havoc on those who find it. Not willing to condemn the whole planet, being a natural resource as it is, the habit on Baraspine has been to destroy the rock upon finding it, using a large quantity of explosives, which seems to break up any unnatural taint it has.

Marr, now, intended the party to deal with the next bit of rock, but before doing so, take off a small stick of it, and return it to him. While doing so they would pose as members of the adeptus arbites, the team that normally deal with the rock. The party felt some concern at this mission, but did not express it- they had been taught to trust their inquisitor beyond all, and the citizens of the imperium are nothing if not unquestionably obedient...

Marr gave them pagers, and told them he would contact them the next time the rock was found. This gave the party time to rest up, have their wounds heal, and also to make some purchases to upgrade or replace their weapons and armour.

Finally the call came, and they headed down to the mines. Level 1 is a deeply claustrophobic place, the walls tightly packed together, and the trains that lead to the many sections of mines rickety and shambolic. Still, they made it to the mine in question without too much trouble, but upon presenting their id discovered that someone had got there first. Somewhat shocked, Nicodemus still managed to put on an intimidating enough performance to convince the guard that letting them through would be the easiest thing to do, so they headed forwards.

Stepping into the mines, none noticed the tripwire across the floor, which let a huge bundle of rocks collapse on their heads. They managed to avoid too much injury, however (as, as per usual, I was rolling looooow). Further down the tunnels it forked into two path ways. Taking the left, they came across an odd scene.

Three mutants, dressed in miner's clothes, were attacking another, who was cowering in the corner. Seeing that they were mutants was enough for members of the inquisition, and battle was given. The mutants put up very little fight, only armed with picks and not wearing any armour, the party tore them apart. The remaining mutant thanked them, explaining that he had no idea what was going on. Helpfully, Cain pointed out that he had tentacles sprouting out of his face.

Nicodemus ended his wailing by pointing a gun at his face, and telling him to act as as their guide or face the consequences. The mutant agreed.

He led them back the way they came, taking the other arc until stopping abruptly.... "that wasn't there before".

There was a chamber with the bodies of 6 miners on the floor. Out of their bodies had spilled a sickly black blood, which had filled the chamber ankle deep with it. Stepping cautiously into it, Nicodemus discovered that the blood was highly acidic, and stepped back with alacrity. Instead, they decided to launch a rope onto the ceiling, and try to swing across. Cain and Nicodemus managed their swings fine, but at this point the corpses stood up....

One of them reached for the rope, and the party gave battle. They managed to kill the creatures, but not before the rope was dragged into the blood, and dissolved. Remembering that there had been rope attached to the trap earlier, the party headed back, and then noticed the large rocks that could probably be used as stepping stones. Taking these back, they made their way across.

At this point they rounded the corner to an ambush. A man dressed in the uniform of the adeptus arbites opened up with a heavy stubber. Diving into the room, the party took cover, and attempted to make pot shots. Little was effective, apart from Lek, who reached out into the man's mind, and caused his gun to spasm, flailing across the room, the bullets thudding into someone hidden from sight, who screamed in pain and died.

With the room no longer covered, the party charged forwards. Switching to his knife, the man gave battle against Jericus wielding a power spear, only to have it cleaved in two. In desperation, he grappled Jericus to the ground, but with 5 others outnumbering him, he had no real chance of survival.

Exploration of the room discovered an odd electronic timer. It appeared to be counting down..... It appeared to be a bomb.... Mallear grabbed it and attempted to disable it, but the machine spirit was unforthcoming, and he failed. Nicodemus took it, and with seconds left to spare, managed to halt the timer.

They headed forwards, until they came across a large, ornate door. "Thats curious," said the mutant, "that wasn't there before...."

Cain went forward and pushed it, and managed to keep his balance as his hand went through. There was a small pit on the over side, which the party managed to jump over without trouble. This led to a chamber with the hideous black rock. There was something wrong though- it looked like a lot of it was missing, and there was a collapsed corridor leading out of the room.

Still, there was certainly enough for a small sample. Sadly, being so close to the rock meant that their guide gave into the emenations, and turned on the party. He was easily cut down. They took the sample, set the demolitions, and then left, leaving the rest of the rock to be destroyed.

Reflections

This session was my desire to have a dungeon crawl. I really want all my adventures to make sense, so throwing in standard dungeon puzzles would not work here- they had to make sense in the context of the adventure.

I had two main puzzles. The pool of blood needed crossing, and then the bomb needed defusing. Both had a solution in the previous room- the pool could be crossed using pirates style criss crossing, and the bomb could be thrown into the acid, which would fizzle it. Neither of these solutions were thought of by the party. They decided to swing across, which was fine, although a lot more dangerous for them, as falling in would not be good for their health, or their weapons and armour for that matter.

The bomb puzzle didn't go as I wanted mainly because I got confused by my own notes. I threw the climatic ambush at the party before the minor encounter of the door and the bomb, which led to it being somewhat anti-climactic. As a mini-encounter on the way it makes sense, but as the final barrier, an illusionary door is rubbish!

The bomb was meant to be solved by either dissolving it, disarming it, or throwing it under a mine cart and running for it. With the bomb thrown in with the ambush, it was kind of lame, and also didn't make all that much sense as to why they had the bomb in the same sodding room as them. Never mind.....

The ambush was a little surprising. The heavy stubber's comrade had a flamer, so if the party charged forwards, they were going to get set alight. Instead, thanks to Lek's spell, the flamer carrier got filled full with lead, as I was far more accurate at shooting at my own minions. Also, the spell Lek was casting was incredibly effective, because it meant the heavy stubber carrier didn't have enough time to open fire on his turns, being too busy getting up again. Never mind. Things going the players way is actually more fun anyway, especially in an amusing fashion as this was.

I possibly regret making the mutant turn on the party- it might have been more fun to let them defend him the next session, in a world which is highly suspicious of such creatures. This way removed the dilemma from their hands, which I think was a mistake.

I once again enjoyed having the wider background that the party get to peek at- something has gone on before they got here, but they're not sure who or why it has happened.

Ultimately this session lacked mostly in roleplaying, which is a shame- that was kind of what the mutant guide was there to provide a little bit of, and he could have played a bit of a bigger role. Never mind, I intend the next session or two to be fairly roleplaying intensive, with less combat.

Dark Heresy-Session 4

2008-04-29T06:27:00.000-07:00

Story

The players, having defeated the enemy psyker, searched the room for loot and for clues as to what exactly he had been planning. Looking around they found a book that was clearly an artifact of chaos. One noticed that there was a glint coming from underneath the bed. They pushed it out of the way to reveal a glowing symbol, a disgusting sign of chaos, that threatened to warp their very sanity.

They immediately (well, actually, they had a bit of a discussion first...) attempted to destroy it, but found their weapons were ineffective. They would need to find something to eradicate it. Meanwhile, looking at the book proved difficult, but there was one passage which seemed to relate to the passage they had read, a riddle saying

"One in decay,
One in learning
One in Time
One in death"

Figuring this described the location of other similar symbols, they decided they would see if they could recruit help. The house was now eerily quiet, after the raucous noises that had pervaded it, and seemingly empty. An attempt at opening the door discovered it lock, and attempts to force it failed. Looking out of the window revealed a swirling mess of colour... Lek realised that they were in the warp itself! There would be no outside help.

The party split up to look for help. Exploring the upstairs discovered one in the bathroom, amidst much decay, and a few partygoers who were completely oblivious to the chaos around them.

As their explorations continued, odd events kept happening- small breezes, detached voices, and occasionally Lek felt as if there was an extreme disturbance in the warp around them. Time was definitely of the essence. Splitting up, Barak rounded the corner to encounter a disturbing sight. A heavily modified human being, half machine, waving a force spear, yelling that he wouldn't let them kill him.

Startled, Barak didn't ask questions, and opened fire, but missed in his panic, and was struck heavily by the glowing spear, knocked to the floor unconcious.

Hearing the commotion the others moved to investigate, and the madman burst through the door. Trying to talk this time yielded some information. The man had been called to do some work in the house- he wasn't too forthcoming on what it actually involved. Then the disturbance had happened, and things had got extremely weird. He had run out here after destroying a weird symbol....

At this point the man's eyes grew red, and he yelled and leapt at the party. A bloody combat ensued, as he wielded the deadly weapon against the party. During it, Lazerus, the party's guardsmen, was shot in the back by his own team member, Cain, and fell to the floor. The force spear proved dangerous, splitting two weapons in two, before the madman was finally dispatched.

Jericus picked up the powerful weapon to replace his own, torn in two by it's power field. They went to check Lazerus, who managed to pull himself up. Discussing what to do next, they were somewhat surprised to see Lazerus disappear before their eyes. Worry was replaced with calm as he managed to reappear a few moments later.

So when Lazerus vanished yet again, most of them ignored it. Unfortunately, this time he was not invisible. Lazerus found himself in a dark room with an odd presence....

The others continued onwards, discovering the kitchen, where some delicious cooking was revealed to be the chef, much to the disgust of several of those who had already eaten it. Moving onwards, they discovered the broken symbol. Realising that the spear was the key to destroying these, they endevaoured to find the rest and end them as well.

At this point Lazerus reappeared, but instantly Nicodemus realised there was something wrong. Lazerus was acting oddly, and was unable to understand the acolytes code. Nic decided not to be cautious, and unloaded his shotgun. Lazerus collapsed, the spirit departing, but his body still injured.

Needing all the help they could get, the party stimmed Lazerus up, and continued to explore the house. A thorough exploration revealed all the remaining symbols, which they managed to destroy (with some minor upsets along the way, as the house attempted to resist them). With the last one destroyed, the house was free... Except there seemed to a presence still outside.

Heading downstairs, they discovered 5 twisted daemonettes of chaos standing outside, having managed to slip through the rift. They gave battle. Lazerus, stimmed up and not thinking clearly, charged forwards, bearing the full brunt of their attacks. Things looked desperate. Lek fainted at the pure shock of seeing such beings, and the party seemed outclassed.

At this point ANOTHER daemon appeared, this time looking more like a man, but twisted an malformed, with large blue wings carrying it aloft. Thinking they were doomed, the party was very much surprise when the Daemon gave battle against their assailants, destroying them in short order.

"It's been very pleasent working with you gentlemen. I shall see you around, fools of fortune...."

The daemon flew off. The battle was finished, but not without a price. Before the daemonettes could be defeated, Lazerus, already heavily wounded, had been brutally killed.

Reflections

This was a harsh session on the characters. As they had no chance to rest since last session, most of them were already damaged, so all were in danger of death. Of course, they would have suffered no casualties if Steve had not decided to shoot into combat, and Antony to not charge the bloody daemons!

This session wasn't perfect. There was a very long hiatus between this and the previous one, and in between I had little time to see what notes I'd written. On the night itself I had to work with what I'd got. If I'd put more effort in I think I would have planned more carefully. The mechanic for deciding how many daemonettes the party would face at the end was based basically on how long they took to solve the puzzles, and could have used a bit more finesse.

My biggest regret was not allowing Antony to roleplay his character when possessed. Not only would it have been more fun, it might have been a bit more of a surprise when he betrayed them!

Still, this session was intended as a bit of a betrayal tribute, and on that manner I believe it succeeded. A few more events and omens might have been fun though!

At some points I was very glad Nick was paying attention, as I suspect no-one would have realised how to destroy the sodding symbols, but never mind. I actually would have allowed offensive psychic powers to damage the symbols as well, but as Kerrith's psyker doesn't have any, that would have been no good.

The introduction of the daemonhost was fun, with it's ridiculous power level proving quite astonishing. A will power of 95 indeed (out of 100). Nick, I suspect, has some idea of the broad plot of this campaign, which is fine, although I imagine I shall be able to provide a few twists and turns yet.

This section of the campaign was originally not going to be attached to the main plot, one of the main reasons an interrogator rather than the inquistior gave it to them, but I decided it made more sense to tie it in. There are more subtle ties again that the players cannot see but I know, which makes me happy. I like the world to have levels of detail that the players don't even see. This allows things to make sense, and for me to respond to unexpected player moves if they happen to infringe on plot elements.

Overall, while this session was somewhat combat heavy, it was not impossibly hard, and some smarter choices would have left the players more or less unharmed. I suspect that if I was doing it again I would have made the symbols a little harder to find, with more puzzlement attached to them, but never mind.

Dark Heresy- Session 3

2008-04-28T02:53:00.000-07:00

story

Succesfully convincing the administrator that they were actually law abiding citizens rather than cold blooded murderers, the paryt then headed off. They decided they wanted to take their ship and the ship the two cultists had landed in back, but this presented a problem, as only Jericus could fly. Luckily, Inditor Larsen could fly. Unluckily, Larsen was the other member of the drug ring, and tried to fly the plane in the opposite direction. After a rather fraught journey, in which the plane almost went straight into the desert floor, the party managed to subdue Larsen and get back to the planet, where they reported to Interrogator Karl.

Karl was pleased with their progress, and let them take responsbility for further investigation. Interrogation of the prisoners, along with research into the Hardlight corporation, the name printed on the ship they had returned, yielded that the corporation was owned by a Lord Melchit Hawthorne, the ruler of level 35. It also gave the address of the Hardlight warehouse.

Visiting Lord Melchit sadly yielded little of value, as this estate was well guarded, and an attempt to bluff their way in failed. The visit to the warehouse proved somewhat more satisfactory, however, finding an abandoned building with one lonelyl guard, who happily relayed that Melchit's son, Lintel, was in charge of managing the facility, and had run it into the ground, although not before taking most of the ships they used for transport. He also mentioned that Lintel had invited him to a party, and happily gave up his invite.

After a brief discussion, they decided to head for the party, discovering it in full motion, with the guards themselves semi-paralytic. The party was the home of levels of depravity none of them had encountered before, with acts being performed that one would have throught impossible, let alone illegal. They decided to head upstairs, and immediately came across a locked door. Nicodemus managed to pick the lock, and they burst in on Lintel and four bodyguards, with Lintel performing a curious magical ritual.

"You're too late to stop me now, whoever you are!" Lintel yelled, and battle was joined. Despite being elite guard, the bodyguards managed to fail to put up much of a show of resilience, and the party managed to defeat them and Lintel, although not before Lintel had pressed a button on a remote he had been carrying......

Reflections

I enjoyed this session, once again there was more roleplaying. The initial fight for the ship was utterly spontaneous. It had not occured to me that the players would want to take both ships back, and as they had failed to uncover Baltek's co-conspirator, I thought they could face the rather amusing consequences.

My main regret about the interrogation was not providing a few more leads for the party to take, to at least give the illusion of free will- perhaps only two was a bit lame, but never mind. The party's failure to access Hawthorne's estate was not inevitable, however. If they had taken a more honest approach Melchit would have had no reason not to co-operate, and indeed would have provided all the party with invites.

The invite issue was somewhat amusing. Having garnered only one, they assumed that they would only be able to get at most 2 of them inside. Considering the level of the adventure coming, and the fact that they would be sealed inside the house next session, I really did not want this to happen, and luckily they went for a look and discovered that the supposed bouncers were really not doing their jobs.

Once in the house they managed to head directly for the sodding room without even a moment of discussion, which was somewhat disappointing. Seeing as after this room was done the party would be virtually empty, my hard work of writing up scenes for every single room went rather wasted, but never mind....

This session took a little longer than I thought it would, thanks to the inital combat. Also I have a tendency to underestimate how much time combat will take- I should try to avoid throwing too many combats into one session.