Star Wars the old republic review

So Star Wars The old Republic, its an OK game.  I think I have said it feels like a wow clone.  The abilities and combat are basically that sort of click click click bullshit.  To be more direct it sucks compared to my D&D online game.  The missions are lame too.  I am not speaking as a grouper I am soloing the game and don't really care to group up.

Not that I see many people in the higher level zone.  Six people on voss seems to be an average.  I think that includes empire players which I can't really group with.  Though I wish I could I would like to trade for some dark side force crystals they are in short supply for me.

The quests are great for a solo/casual player they are very easy to follow and give you clearly marked entries on your map what you are doing.  It is very easy to go and do them.  The quest themselves are easy enough too, I am almost surprised when I have trouble.  This has happened on my class quests when dealing with a boss fight twice.  I have just continued on leveling and went back.  Once you return to your class quest you advance to the planet you have already mapped out and it is very easy.

Some stupid stuff about the game that I don't like.  I hate hoth and tatooine fast travel being on speeder bikes.  I want to be on the iconic vehicles of the movies. The Tantan or the the land speeder.  I also hate not being able to name my ship The Spatula. Why can't i name it and put a cheesy pin up girl riding a flying spatula as the logo.

I also am not thrilled with the process of gaining favor with my companions. I made a lot of mistakes early on and had to us items at great cost.  Now I have to use Torhead.com to guide me through conversations to get the most Qyzen favor I can.  Its slow flipping between game and browser and it sort of sucks.  But I am trying to finish his quest chain.

Killing Moon

Panic is slowing down into something new, With disquiet acceptance it's set present.  Trilling and worrying the blood a caustic infusion faintly biting. Tomorrow spilling over now in all words seen, no moments only be.  Trial and tremor against your will worn quiet and thin

Sundown

Hail these burning fires that moulder the sky red and blue.  None are left without wonder horizons so beautiful and cruel.  Throw down the plow wake to this dreaming now.  Look up, be still and listen idle for a moment.  If only for the world to inward creep. Bird take to wind to give the sky measure. It looms above infinite and deep. Give me second silence from worries never to sleep.

Recovering the Satellites

Recovering the satellites shows a more mature whining rasp over The counting Crows freshman work.  It is very similar in tone and approach but the songs come from a different angle.  Here the works are not flowing from a desiring need but rather the outcome of attainment. 

Long December is probably the best example of what I am getting at, the song is almost a sequel to the August and Everything after record.  It still folk and country rock infused but seems to have gone to a different place.  August and everything after almost has a sunset feel with anticipation and excitement.  Satellites is almost a depiction of the night at the carnival.

Previous works seemed to take on a Smiths like wonder in the youthful now.  Here is a future that sees outcomes and longs to get back to itself.  Another horsedreamer is perhaps the strongest track and the most delving into the success.  This doesn't really have any dead songs even mercury and walkaways are great.  Some of the later tracks on august have left me flat.

Millers Angels and Children in Bloom get to the sadness of Anna Begins and Perfect blue buildings.  There are actually some up beat rocky tracks too that the Crows set list needed .

to the morning

Night giving way rumage sale deals
day wanders in warm and loud
wild and westward light claws open
skies unmarred new and mint

All abuzz with life and lifeless scurry
obsessive and comatose in hurry.
System and solo souls awake arise
ever old dreams caught hold new

Yet somewhere some set only to sleep
fall from mad insight now humble
lost of passion even eternal hope
deprived in their shattering tumble

Lost to themselves yesterday or tomorrow
There is only joy or sorrow


A poem in the sonnet "Form" if you will.  I am taking and breaking rhyme.  Not sure why i was trying for something western or country and hopeful or happy i guess what is going on clouds.

Grievances

Don't let your books burn long librarian, other echoes are coming but the garden is dead. Its no sacred empty head miracle that we seek. Nor empty heart communal betters or even Abyssal deeps. Close the doors and don the coronal thorns dear friends, cast the interruption into Faraday cages, once again speak amongst the whispered hollow and hallowed

Thoughts on SCRUM team member changes

change is to scrum what salt is to snails.  My team has been more or less consistent for a year now with some changes in QA and copy.  I myself am a QA person and have been there from day one, so we have at least one immutable QA resource. The copy change brought in someone new to the company and directly planted them into our team.  These changes have caused bumps but nothing course changing.

The change of Dev people has been something of a hit for us. Our normal high performance goals are being missed at level close to our initial founding of SCRUM.  We seem to be off course and there is a pretty grim outlook setting in. 

Currently individuals are being asked if they wish to remain on scrum or change.  I think we are at a natural duration to look at change as individuals, we have mastered this style of work and can begin taking the benefits outside the time.  We could even just need new challenges.  Our problem as team founders is the desire not to see this ship sink.

The seem to be a set of a few skills that fall outside of our team roles are key to our success.  I think if you watch any strong team you are going to see some skills or knowledge that elevates the team beyond the ordinary.  For our team one of the designers has a great deal of historic information on what has been done and can quickly suggest pages starting points for design and development.  We have another person who seems to have a similar broad scope on what is happening with global pricing changes.  Losing these skills that take at team from functional to highly skilled may cripple or dissolve said group

The lessons to be learned are change of the labor force upsets scrum.  Change of duplicated or subordinate team members is not going to kill a team.  Change of a lead or autonomous team member, resets team integration and team must be reestablished.  Also there are some team members that possess skills beyond their role.  Changing them can destroy the group.

Worlds Apart

Someone in my car asked if this "was the music they play in the background of 80's movies?"  This being Saga's Worlds Apart.  I like it it sounds like prog Lover Boy to my ears.  I wouldn't mind listening to some of there newer works.  I think the songs people know from this record are On the Loose and Wind him up.  If you like those you are going to like the rest of the record it is pretty much in that vein. 

The record isn't the deepest work but what do you expect.  This is early 80's pop prog much like the work that came from Yes and Asia.  Its catchy and keyboardy and a little bit cheesy.  I can forgive it those things.  The 80's were a bombastically hairsprayed time.  The prog bands were the masters of the synth before there was synth pop.  Also they were making a come back after punk main them utterly disdained by all but the geeky of us. 

The guitar is very quick with a lot of Keyboard doubling.  This is something that is not at all metal.  The tones are all very happy and vibrant.  It sort of feels of its age, which is dating, but also comforting.  There was something of the time that seems unconcerned and hopeful of whats ahead.  That is what these record feels for me.




Here is a link for someone who apparently loves Saga and has been through all their records Banophernalia

Pigs on the wing

The darkened hall way echoes with sounds of management.  Words and Idea's not fully formed and difficult in their realization; punctuated with the odd laugh of someone knowing they wouldn't be there for the actual hard work.  Light seemed unable to escape the hall and all who entered returned somehow sad. It filled us with the dread and foreboding of dental work.

we tried to keep our heads down and remain in attentive to the screams but some were not to be ignored.  If passing the halls of management I tried to focus or rather disfocus and move silently.  But the smells were disturbing coppery and hinting of blood.  Who knows what foulness met my co worker at the last management one on one meeting. He had not been seen since the quarterly numbers failed to reach expectation.

poetry expressing my alienation in sorrow

This is poetry or a prose poem trying to get at feelings with my moms sickness



I wish for rain or difference, just not this bewildering same.  Breaking in the windows and strangling the silent I want change.  No long looks that stay quiet but screams that set it all on end.  Let there be fires and burn down the whole town and let loose with joy and woe.  Give me cold that sickens and batters.  Let us all feel frost and bite that devours the pleasant little words you speak at me.  I want you to wriggle and snap gasping or gaping. Then all to pray as one for deliverance to congregate on these pains.  Then in the end we can be friends nursing the same hurts unity becoming singular again

Azathoth

Alligator tears in broken mirror upon a lost land; wrong.  Never together still never apart with some strange rift of self or potential.  Gather up words and wonder of fragile fibs I told myself I could be.  Thus not you nor even me and certainly never we. If to release you from dream to sail your own finer seas.  No more nights nonesuch bright waking to morns' sepulchre skies tall and grim.

Talking to my kid about illness and death part 2

I guess we are going for surgery tomorrow morning. Everything seems to be happening very quickly, I feel like details are slipping past us.  I understand they are doing a biopsy and will validate what it is before proceeding but it just seems to be going hundreds of miles an hour.  I can tell my mom is scared.  I am trying to be there for her and my dad and my daughter.

I don't know what tomorrow is going to be like. It seems like we are getting up to a chancy situation already. Surgery is not without risk any time but there is the potential for loss of speech and comprehension of words just with this one. 

Even good we are looking at Chemo and radiation which will really weaken her. My mom isn't little or frail so I hope she can  maintain strength but this already seems hard on her.  She is on medication and isn't as sharp as she always has been. 

Again I am not sure what to do with my Daughter she asks if she is going to Grammies everyday. She liked her new daycare but still wants her routine.  My mom is like her second mom.  I don't know how this could effect her, she is at the worst age.  Too young to understand to old to not remember.  Not that I want her to, really i just want her to have more time a few years so she will always remember my mom.

A prose poet about a drive with daughter and dogs

The night was cold coming in, windows down for dogs and a girl that told me her hands wanted to be cold.  I had the heater and too tired to argue.  My little girl even with parents brains shouting roll it up waved her hands happy in the wind.  Winter fur gusted brown and white, two dogs snouts sniffing streets of night. None were ready when my child called to go back home but she froze near to bone.  Windows sealed up tight, heaters and dogs hot searched ourselves home.  At the end even the girl decided it was early to stay home, just a few more hills were wanting.

A quick prose poem in my scarecrow speaks format.  Small Epiphanies found on the road,

Talking to my kid about illness and death

As I have said we are dealing with a bit of a family emergency with my mom.  They found out she has a brain tumor.  Or thing she has one, they say a whole bunch with 90% certainty and then say they will not be certain until they biopsy it.  I am scared and having trouble dealing with this.  This is the woman who gave me life, twice if you count the Kidney.

What is making it harder, is I am trying to be level headed and supportive for my dad and family too.  I don't think I am doing a good job of supporting my mom.  I am sure she is terrified, I am.

I really what more time for my daughter too.  That probably sounds selfish but my Mom watches her every day.  I don't want her to come with grips with death this soon.  I don't want her to loss someone she loves.  Last night she said to me "Daddy sit do, I want to talk." So I do thinking she is stalling going to bed.  The girl is three and a half she shouldn't talk like she does but much of what she says comes from my wife and I or Kipper. 

"Grammie is sick, where is she sick?" My mom doesn't look sick this is just the beginning of this but she understands something is up. I say "She has a soar in her head."  "She is going back to the hospital?" Keri asks, which I can tell she is affair.  My mom just came back from one hospital with seizures being brought on by the tumor, it was how we discovered this thing.  I say yes she is going to be helped by the doctor.  I am almost crying at this.  I tucked her in and left, She called my wife in and asked the same questions. 

What do I do?  I don't know how to tell her Grammie is sick and I am scared.  I don't know how to tell my girl about death.  She understands people go away and she doesn't seem them again, i guess.  My parents had a dog who died recently I don't know if she really gets it.  I don't know what to do.

RPG thoughts on rolls skills and enemies

What I am trying to do with skills is create a system that requires a linear increase on core skills.  Why?  Well i know this is unrealistic as most people don't notice things with a linear increase making this weird.  What I am trying to do is have those unimportant non dramatic moments just disappear over time.  Having automatic successes makes it so the GM can just assume these little moments work out.

I would rather not have randomness defeat my players at unimportant moments of play but rather have that stuff not even interrupt flow.  I want my dice to convey tension every time I roll them.  Be it potential to do something great or something that screws the party.

Over time I want lackeys and goons to not matter to the players.  I want my bosses and sub bosses to always be a threat.  Here you get into something lame where only a few of the enemies really threaten the party,this is not what I want either.

I would like lackeys defending a castle to be easily dealt with but If the game really deals with those people in the castle then I want to have all the forces in the castle be meaningful.  I am not sure if this would be level based or defense vs combat attack successes.

Crescent Star Family Emergency

My mom is in the hospital and is really sick.  It's not something minor and I am trying to be there for Her and my Dad.  Anytime I have lost people or come near it I was young and wasn't trying to be there support for anyone. This is very hard and It's taking all of me to be strong when I am in it too.  I will probably post more later but most of my thoughts are with my Mom right now.

My grandmother and uncle had similar medical problems so this is sort of the killer that is stalking my family.  So I am scared.

RPG thoughts on equipment

The equipment in my little RPG is going to be different that in most.  The material and quality of things is going to be of perhaps more import that the magical qualities of an item.  A item that doesn't break may be of higher value than something at is flaming if you only get a single hit and then that item snaps in two.

Also with several items being living beings unto themselves they may need to be cared for specifically.  I think something like a handle animal skill may be more central to my setting than other fantasy game.

The idea is that certain critters are designed just to die and produce a useful skeleton in some cases.  This comes a bit from the frog gun in the movie existenze.

Also there will be actual living tools that may be symbiotic with the Characters or may be independent autonomous entities. You can see some of the symbiotic type stuff in games like Rifts or Dark Space.  The autonomous tech would be like some of the creatures in West of Eden.  The Star Wars novels have something like this as well.

Detective Short Story inspired by The Dain Curse part 12

Matt lived with grandparents but over the years the house became more his than theirs.  Hull and I found him and Maris on the couch she was balled up with her legs tucked under her body.  She looked bad like she had been crying for days. Matt was trying to be there for her, but this wasn't something she would get over, just less with time.

I mulled around the kitchen making small talk with Matt's grandparents during much of this. I overheard some of it and Hull filled in the rest. Hull was direct "Maris where is Rhino, Kimber's with him it could have been her, it could have been worse." Marisol started bawling with the word worse.  Matt was pissed at the results of Hulls words but comforted her instead of kicking us out.  That was good. "Where does he deal?" "No where, I mean he gets calls usually to meet at a park or something." Marisol replied timid. "Where does he get his stuff?"

Her answer was a house downtown, one of the dying Victorians they rented out to college kids.  We would find it was out between japantown and the park.  We had only description no address.  It was a big wild painted house full of dead heads.

My Roleplaying Game writing project sample rules 13 thoughts on prestige classes

If you looked at the tale of the Gannith you being to get a look at one of my archetypes or prestige classes.  That being the dark circle of the gannith.  These are supposed to be the tenders of the dead of their people.  They are headsmen and necromancers.  The concept is someone who is a circuit executioner and had necromantic magic to raise the corpse to walk back to the funeral lands with them.  No that they would be killing everyone, they would be more often than not just tending to those who have died by nature causes.  I draw some of it from a story by Clarke Ashton Smith there was a story about a headsman beheading and beheading this bandit that slowly turned into a mythos type monstrosity.

If you read the story you will get a feel for the decorating and funeral preparation rites that required decoration of the corpse.  I didn't get specifically into the reanimation of the body to walk with the rider.

This is one of those archetype character roll that sort of give color to my roleplaying game.  I want to create something like a prestige class around it but I am not sure what to do her. 

I am a big fan of the Harp game rules and have thought of just doing it as an encheapened skill set like they do in that game, but something doesn't feel exactly right there.  I have thought yes it should give a block of skills or a cost savings on skills but something else too.  Maybe there could be combat maneuvers or spells that are granted access too or perhaps rather than just allowing for cheaper purchase of skills I cold give out a fully exploded copy of a few skill trees.  Maybe even not conforming to the normal rules so certain abilities are granted that may not normally be given.

With that i could restrain the magic while still giving some high end necromantic abilities.  I don't want these guys being necromancers or shadowlords but I do want them able to raise a walking pile of bones.

Image taken from http://www.blackgate.com/2010/07/21/on-writing-fantasy-a-timeless-style/

Detective Short Story inspired by The Dain Curse part 11

More of the the Detective Short Story i am writing.  I am not sure if it is going to novel length or not.  I am just writing on it for now, with little destination other than some vague mimicry of The Dain Curse .   I hope you like it the other bits were titled N6 Against the cult of Dain.  That is an obtuse reference to the Dungeons and Dragons module N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile god.  I am reading a book that says be less coy about titles to get blog traffic.



Finding Rhino would need Maris, Hull knew this. She had been hold up with Matt since events past, and was saying little.  Hull knew this wasn't to be easy, but what else was there.  Hull had spent a summer swindling kids out of Trading cards and selling double price at gaming conventions.  There was an oily charm about him, but getting Marisol to talk would be a test.

Hull ordered me to pick him up and drive from a pay phone.  No idea where he found one but he seemed to know a secret network or archaic telecommunication reserved for the pagered.  I found his caravan early afternoon and was quickly greeted. Bounding into my car wearing an aging Y&T jersey and jeans once to long but now the excess walk worn to fit.

The ride over he insisted on playing Dio. Almost entranced and enraged by the music Hull grew seemingly stronger with each note, as if going to battle. Imbued almost frantic with energy Hull stormed Matt's house.