Confessions of a Game-Mistress

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mi/20070919

Any of you Driz’zt fanboys out there (and you KNOW who you are) ever want to reenact the big battle with Icingdeath? I always did as a GM, cause Icingdeath would totally trash those two.

Anyway, here’s WotC’s preview of their minis set, ‘Legend of Driz’zt’ with Wulfgar, Driz’zt, and the dragon who got shafted.

Dragon*Con 2007 was my third Dragon*Con. In many ways, Dragon*Con is an impressive convention.

“Dragon*Con is America’s largest annual convention for fans of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, Comics and Art, Games and Computers, Animation, Science, Music, Television and Films. It is also one of the 10 largest annual conventions in metropolitan Atlanta.” (press release)

With over 600 hours of panels and workshops alone, there’s no way you can come close to enjoying all Dragon*Con has to offer.

The downside is that with 30K+ in attendees, you can’t GET close to much of what Dragon*Con has to offer…

The Masquerade line alone started forming 4+ hours in advance (according to the people near the front I asked). The lines for panels with the popular media guests were similar. Heaven help the one-day attendee!

There were 428 confirmed guests and bands at the last website update. These range in notoriety and field from webcam ladies, up to some of the biggest names in several fields such as stars from Buffy, Star Trek, Firefly, and other TV shows, renowned SF, fantasy, and horror authors, goth and period bands such as the Cruxshadows, Belle Morte, and the Lost Boys, and comic book artists, Mythbusters, martial artists, and hackers. If a geek likes it, it’s probably here.

Dragon*Con this year has its share of difficulties. The host hotels were undergoing construction, and many events had to be moved around. Be prepared for a Dragon*Con to be a workout - with things spread over three hotels, you’ll do more than your fair share of hiking if you want to see much of the con.

That being said, if you’re focused, everything you need is well-situated. Dragon*Con organizes its events in tracks, and those tracks are usually kept to a single area, so if you’re just there for the science panels, you’re in mostly the same spot, etc.

All in all, Dragon*Con was an enjoyable experience. There just isn’t enough time to take in everything it has to offer, and it’s a darned shame you have to take up so much of that limited time with standing in line.

Obsessions do occasionally lead to success.

I spent a disturbing amount of time prowling the web in search of possible stand-alone USB capable dice programs, and found a few. I’ll be testing them out to be certain that they’re really stand alones, and to provide reviews. Here’s the ones I’ve found so far, and my quick impressions.

1) Dice-Roller - (aka Pixelweaver dice roller) I found a number of dead links to this little applet, which seems to be no longer supported on its home site. The only one that worked was the pcmag site. It’s as simple as it can get, and seems to be functional as a stand alone.

2) RDR3 - This one is also pretty simple, but required an installation. I pulled the exe out and it seems to be functioning separately, but I may have to pull this one.

3) Craig’s Die Roller - This one is also a simple point and click. I was amused by the license. Mast things are ‘creative commons’ or ‘rights reserved’. This is released under the DO WHAT THE F*** YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE. No, I’m not kidding.

4) TiraDadi - This simple roller also supports expressions, and it’s my favorite so far. Not the most complex, but it still has a small footprint, unlike our last contestant…

5) RPG Dice Roller - Created as a compiled runtime Filemaker Pro application, this is easily the most complicated thing I’ve seen that might work as a standalone. It’s HUGE (25 M for a dice program), but it offers preconfigured pages for several RPG systems including d20 and Fudge.

Near-misses - I saw a number of great programs out there that I’ll be saving for a laptop-based version of this article. It’s possible some might work as standalones, but for the purposes of USB implementation I had to require that the programs rely on no runtimes based in the system.

Recently, my friends and I took a trip to the sunny shores of Myrtle Beach, SC. Most everyone was excited about the beach. Not so much, I. It’s my dirty little secret, and I share it with my blog audience.

I feel like a social leper with all my friends who love it, but - I don’t like the beach. Everyone I know loves the place. Me, I’d rather stay in the hotel swimming pool. Why, you ask?

1) Ocean water tastes nasty. I mean like pickled fish sardine nasty. There is no going in the ocean past your ankles without getting a mouth and nose full of the nasty stuff. Yuck.
2) Sand. Sand is pretty to look at, it makes a great view if you’re watching from a cabana up the beach. Go out barefoot, or heavens help you slip and fall, and you are reminded that it’s the component of sandpaper. Yes, we use it to abrade stuff. On the beach, it’s my feet, my knees, my elbows….. And don’t even get me started about the foolishness of walking around on glass silicates that have been in the sun for hours. Hot doesn’t begin to describe it. Sand is evil. It gets into everything if you go to the beach, every single item you carry is full of abrasives. If you go into the water, the floating sand goes everywhere under your swimsuit. I mean everywhere. I had sand in places I didn’t know I had places. And sand, it must be mentioned, is a lousy condiment. Sand-flavored soda, not the winner in this year’s taste test.
And let’s not forget 3) I don’t tan. I burn to a color red that is usually reserved for fire engines. I itch, I peel, and I’m white again. Lather, rinse, repeat. There is no in-between delectable golden brown, I just burn.

Myrtle Beach was fun anyway, for all the non-beach things. I got introduced to a new way to burn money - it’s called Magiquest. Live action computer assisted gaming. It’s like Everquest that doesn’t leave you a couch potato. http://magiquest.com/ The MagiQuest people obviously have many levels of Bard amongst them. They can entertain you, steal your pouch, empty it, sell it back to you and still leave you wanting more. They separated my friends and me from $120 within 5 minutes of walking in. We went back the next day, too.

MagiQuest is an RFID-Based LARP. Each player has a wand, which is registered to them. That wand contains your ID for MagiQuest. To play, you sign up for quests and missions on an RFID reader terminal, and then you wander around their large facility, which has been bedecked in set pieces and paint to resemble crypts, castles and such. When you reach the spot where you are supposed to do something, you wave your wand at an ID spot on the wall, which recognizes you from the RFID chip, and tags you as having completed that portion of the quest. Some sections have animated video pieces that ‘interact’ with you in reaction to your wand.

It sounds simplistic, but it’s a load of fun, especially for kids. And it kept the adults entertained too, and exercising, as running all over the place to get the components for the quests is solid exercise.

The wands are pretty, they have interchangeable parts, and each part costs money. Only the base wand is needed to play, but who wants an ‘ordinary’ wand? In fact, there’s a secondary hobby, that I leapt into fast and found out many long-term players do as well - repainting the wands. After all, why not be distinctive?

All in all, if you’re going to Myrtle Beach, go look up the MagiQuest website, do the online quest, and treat yourself to a fun hour or two.

To build a good portable gaming USB drive, you first have to decide what you want it to be able to do. With that in mind, let me give you what I consider the first of the ‘core’ applications for the most common gamer tasks.

The Dice Roller - Choices here are fewer than I’d expect. I would’ve thought more stand alone dice rollers would exist.

The easiest - Dungeons & Dragons Dice Roller - straight from WotC, this offline HTML based dice roller will work anywhere html will, making it compatible with just about anything. I used it on my Jornada handheld, and it works here just fine as well. Benefits - simple, always works no matter the environment. Drawbacks - no storage of dice roll configurations.

An Alternative - http://www.path-o-logic.com/misc/random_dice.html - This is an HTML generator still under development, but it shows much promise. You can set result options and save them. It also works from the page, so it can also be saved to your USB drive and run. Benefits - simple, always works no matter the environment. Drawbacks - requires forethought to program, user interface much lacking.

I’m sure there has to be something better out there, but I haven’t found a good stand alone app. Can anyone point me at a better alternative?

Easy reference for a gamemaster is key. You just can’t remember every detail of the rules and try to keep the plots and the NPCs straight - unless you’re a GM god, in which case you should be contributing tips here instead of just reading them!

I find using a laptop at the table greatly helps me in having things near at hand, and one of my most frequently used tools is d20srd.org . It’s the complete SRD, but better organized and easy to use.

If you like having your tools offline, registration for the site is cheap and gives you access to the downloadable version and other niceties.

Drawspace.com

Ever wanted to generate your own character sketches? I know I’d love to have that skill. My best friend can sit at a game table and whip out a sketch in no time flat. I have bits and pieces of art of hers scattered through my binders. And a friend who’s an amazing artist (Denise, take a bow) made a wonderful piece of art for the members of a long running game. I consider it one of the best Yule presents I’ve ever received.

If you’d like to be the person in your group doing the same, check out drawspace.com. Their extensive selection of tutorials viewable for free online range from the simplest basics all the way up to taking cues from the art of the Masters. I don’t know that I’ll ever be a passable artist, but this site inspires me to try again. Check it out!

The Scott eVest is a remarkably well-designed, stylish, smart piece of clothing.

It was originally designed for the needs of the professional techfiend, as a way to carry and use all the miscellaneous stuff that gets lost in bags and briefcases and make it accessible.

The reason for this review is that it does a bang-up job for gamers as well. I do a lot of gaming, and a lot of traveling. I adore my eVest. It saves me trouble and worry, and here’s why.

An eVest allows me to carry everything I need in a day, and it carries it without looking or feeling bogged down. There are around 30 pockets in this thing. That’s right, 30. Wanna know what I carry in them?

Dice; pens/pencils/Sharpie/eraser; notebook for NPCs and session notes/modules; snack; bottle of water; blood sugar monitor, lancets, and test strips (I’m diabetic); cellphone; Archos DVR/MP3 player; headphones; USB media; Handheld PC; medicines; batteries; Swiss Army Knife; wallet; gaming book or paperback; the latest Dungeon or Dragon magazine; change; CCG deck in case; keys; and more things I’d have to dig thru it to remember.

I am prepared for cons; I can pack easily for a trip. Most of my essentials are there when I need them, wherever I happen to be. It’s comfortable, doesn’t hurt my back, and keeps me warm. It’s sleek, and I don’t look like a bag lady wearing it. Going thru airports is a breeze, I just take off the eVest and put it on the scanner. No worries about what’s in my pants pockets. I can go on a car trip and be able to reach most everything I need without stopping to dig in the back. Everything has its own pocket so I don’t have to dig the way I have to in a purse. And I can reasonably be assured I show up on gaming night with everything I need.

I love you, Scott eVest.

I adore tools that I don’t have to worry about lugging around. I’m an inherently lazy beast. I suppose I was doomed the minute I decided that Mycroft Holmes was a far more interesting character, eh?

That being said, I love online tools. The more I use them, the more I adore them. So when Google gave me the chance to beta test Google Spreadsheets, I gleefully said yes. I was already a beta tester for Writely when Google bought them.

The combined package, now known as Google Docs and Spreadsheets, is now out. It has its advantages, and I use it constantly.

You can either create new docs onsite or upload them from pre-existing docs. When you’re done, you can print them, save them to Google for safekeeping, or export them to your system in a variety of formats. 

If you used Writely, there are a few quirks of Docs and Spreadsheets that you should know. If you’re used to choosing all of your docs and archiving them on your system as a zip, that still works, but only if you’ve not selected any of the spreadsheets. Apparently the system doesn’t know what to do with them and the docs at the same time. If you’re in a spreadsheet you can save it to a number of formats, but it’s nice to save as a chunk.

In general, if you can use Word and Excel, you can use Docs and Spreadsheets. The menus will look familiar to you.

The basic functions of Word and Excel are supported, and supported well. I’ve been using it to write both game plots and the oft-neglected novel. In Excel, I’m using it for some basic sales tracking, and I’ve found that most Excel spreadsheets work just fine uploaded there.

In general, if you need access to documents and spreadsheet info from a variety of places, Google Docs and Spreadsheets is definitely worth looking into.

One nice last-minute bit - Google has been incorporating the tech of Docs and Spreadsheets into their GMail. So now you have the choice if your attachment is a spreadsheet to open it with Docs and Spreadsheets instead of downloading it. Nice touch, Google!