Review: Warehouse 13 Season 2

Heavy Spoilers Ahead. You Were Warned.

Warehouse 13 season 2 was awesome, but predictable. The first episode set up an incredible season of television that was sadly just shy of clever enough to really keep me engaged. There were two huge developments in this season that overshadowed the rest by far – HG and the Regents.

The regents are going to be dealt with first, primarily because they're part of something bigger. Warehouse 13 did something this season that it hadn't previously, and that's begin developing a mythos. Warehouse 13 is part of a chain of warehouses. There's a mythical caretaker, and regents, and some guy who's more in charge than any other. There's a history – not just of this specific warehouse, but of the other 12 as well. We delve a little deeper into that this season, finding out about a number of things. We know that most of the former agents have gone insane. More over, we know that the warehouses are partially organic. With every episode, we learn more, but we also get more mysteries. The show seems to be building itself up for the long haul.

On the other hand, we have HG Wells. Sure, he's a she. That's interesting. She's all steampunk, which fits the show aesthetically very nicely. However, we also have the unfortunate fact that her “I'm Evil!” revelation was the single most obvious turn that we've had so far in this show. No, really. One of the first things she does in the show is kill the not-so-bad Bad Guy of last season. Then she's cryptic and hangs around, then she's magically a good guy. Then we find out there's a traitor in the warehouse...

It must be Arty!

No, seriously, that's the implication. That it could be Arty. No one's buying that, least of all me. On the bright side, they at least make HG a fairly fleshed out character if you ignore her last minute “I will kill EVERYTHING!” flip out. (Seriously. That almost made me facepalm.)

Claudia continues to be interesting, and the revelation that she'll be the next caretaker is more than interesting. Sadly, of the main cast, she had the most notable season. We otherwise had Arty in a completely static situation, Pete in a one-season relationship that was interesting, and Mykah...leaving?

Oh come on. Do they seriously expect me to believe that that's going stick? Boo. She'll be back by episode 2 of season 3, at the absolute latest. I was disappointed that they tried to pull this stunt, but I guess ultimately they needed to do something so that the season opener was more interesting than 'just another episode'. Sometimes, the reality of TV publishing makes me frown.

Warehouse 13 has not been renewed for a 3^rd season yet, but given it's ratings and the network it's on, I wouldn't be surprised to find it with a home again soon, and I hope it does come back. Despite the harsh words, I did enjoy the season, and found myself smiling more often than not. I look forward to it's return.

Superhero Movies

I was asked to write this one, so here goes.

Superhero Movies. Sequels, Prequels, and all of the sort. They're everywhere, and frankly, there's scarcely been a time in the last few years when there hasn't been a big blockbuster hit on the horizon from either DC or Marvel. The reasons for it are pretty clear – they make money, and lots of it. Since Spiderman came out and did exceptionally, they've been pumping them out as fast as they can make characters.

Now, personally, I'll come clean. I've always been more DC aligned than Marvel. Sure, I read some Marvel stuff (Civil War comes to mind) but I don't actually own any Marvel comics, while I have an appreciable stack of DC (Pretty much everything from the year of countdown and shortly thereafter.) I know my comic books decently well. I know what I'm talking about, generally.

I think DC's doing a terrible job with their half of this bargain. Sure. We had Batman Begins and Dark Knight, but to be honest, that's about it. There's been Superman movies that were decent but not great. There have been plenty of animated full-length direct-to-dvd outfits, but no real big blockbusters. I don't know about the rest of you, but DC hasn't even touched on most of my favorites. I want to see Flash and Green Lantern. I'd love a Titans movie.

On the other side of the fence, we've got the juggernaut that is Marvel, which seems incapable of consistency. They're split between X-Men 2, and the Hulk. They release Iron Man, and the Fantastic 4 – 2. It just seems like they're unable to be consistent with their product, and I really really want them to be. I want to go to the movies and know that I'm paying 11-12 bucks for something that I won't hate.

Marvel and DC have both been putting out a wave of these movies, but in the end, there's one big difference. Continuity. DC is going along it's seperate way, enjoying telling origin stories and everything else. Marvel seems to be doing much the same, with one difference. They're building a quilt with it. The Marvel Movies universe is becoming something bigger than the indicidual movies – doubtless in anticipation of continuing the line perpetually. Once we know who Tony Stark is, and what Peter Parker acts like, then a movie in which the two hang out doesn't seem so far fetched. We could (eventually) see a Civil War movie. That would be incredible!

DC can't do it. Or at least, not with their current strategy. We'll never have a Crisis on Infinite Screens. (Probably for the best! Can you imagine Superboy Prime punching time in 3D? I might vomit.) Marvel not only can, but most likely will. They've been dropping hints towards it for half a dozen movies now, and personally, I can't wait to see the finished product.

In conclusion, DC's movies are hit or miss. I'm excited, or not, based on each one. Marvel's movies are also hit or miss, but really, I find myself being drawn much more into their world – because there is a world to be drawn into. I'm interested not only in Iron Man, but about the hint they drop about the future Avenger's Movie, or the SHIELD Movie, or whatever their ultimate goal happens to end up looking like.

Consider me waiting in anticipation. I'll get back to you with a final verdict then.

Fighting Writer's Block on a Deadline

It happens to the best of us. If you've ever set your heart on writing something, then you've probably felt the crushing weight of failure looming large when you run headlong into the phenomenon that writers have angrily named after themselves.

Writer's block takes a majority of forms. Some are worse than others. Some can be fixed easily, and others take a little more. What you can't do is just dismiss it as something that's not a concern. Writer's blocks happen, and with NaNoWriMo coming up – the metaphorical definition of a deadline – we should do a little bit of work on some different kinds of Writer's Block and how to beat them.

Motivation Block:

This one is often overlooked, because it doesn't present itself as an actual block, but more a barrier to entry. This is the block that stops you from sitting down and actually doing anything. It's not defeat if you never tried, remember? As long as you always have something else to do – like check facebook again, or make another playlist for that novel, or tell someone about your plot – then you're not really failing to write. After all, all that stuff is leading you TOWARDS writing.

News flash. You're not writing. You're doing it wrong. Do all that other stuff, sure. Make playlists. Storyboard with friends. Do all that. It's great, and it'll make your writing much richer and better, but you can NEVER let it take the place of actually writing. If you're spending more time on the preparations than the actual writing itself, then you're crippling your own ability to produce, and that's worse than any mid-plot snag you hit. (Primarily because a mid-plot snag involves you being in the middle of your plot.)

How do you beat this one? Dedication. Sit down and write. It's as simple as that. It's scary, and you might write something crappy, but hey, who cares. You'll edit it. You'll fix it. You'll make it awesome over time, but always remember that you can't edit something you haven't written yet. Go. Write.

Plot Snag:

And then...you're stuck. Your characters just did something hugely important. They make a major movement forward, defeated the big bad (or at least bloodied their nose) and you have NO idea what comes next in the story. This is the most common of the writer's blocks, if you were to ask me. There's something terrible that happens to writers – we come up with a concept for an awesome story and it'll last 10-15 pages and stop. You'll be stuck, because you never thought of that next step.

There are two big ways to bust one of these blocks. Through planning, and through spontaneity. The planning method is the kind that a few of my friends prefer – especially the ones who already know where the plot is going in an ultimate sense. If you don't know where to go, check out your options. Look at what you've written, and where you're headed. Write down every single scene you could think of between now and then. Not even plausible ones. Just think of anything your characters could do, related to the plot or not. Got em down? There should be TONS. Now? Pick one. Write that scene. And be careful, this one can turn into a motivation block pretty quickly, especially if you decide that you need to over-plan. Keep planning what comes next and next will never get there.

The other way is actually the first piece of NaNo advice that I was ever given. If your plot is stalling, make something explode. Given that my novels are usually Sci-Fi/Fantasy, that's literally an option. However, it works even in more realistic settings. It's less literal, but dropping a metaphorical bombshell on your characters is a great way to make their motivations take off like anything. Destroy a relationship, have someone do something drastic. Introduce a new character you hadn't planned on. Obviously, this method requires your plot to be a little bit more fluid. You can't blow up that really important thing if they need it later. (Well, you can, but it takes more doing.) Ultimately, while this is the most common issue with writing once you've started, it's also easy to stop. Even with a deadlines looming closer and closer, you've got ideas in that writerly head of yours – USE THEM.

Not Good Enough:

How many times did you rewrite that first sentence? I know you did. Don't even TRY to justify it. Don't tell me that it needs to be perfect. It needs to be WRITTEN. This block is the one that makes writers depressed. The stuff that you're writing just plain isn't good enough. You don't know why, you don't know how to fix it, but when you read it back, it's all trash. This is the big one. The one that hits you with crippling doubt because you tried writing, and you personally feel like you failed.

You haven't. Just like someone who only write 5k for the year on a NaNo, you succeeded. You didn't make 50k, true, but you have 5k more written than you otherwise would have. How many people who never got off their asses did you surpass? Writing one sentence, even if it's absolute trash, puts you above millions who never got the motivation to try.

In the end, it's up to you to realize two things. First, your writing will never be good enough. You'll always look at it in hindsight and see improvements. It'll never be your masterwork – at least not until you set it down, call it finished, and decide that it's 'perfect enough'. Second, it's also not nearly as bad as you think it is. All you need to do is keep writing. If it feels like it's crap, keep writing. Switch your music, switch the story you're writing. Move to a different scene. Sidestep it and dodge it and just get OUT from behind this one, but don't give up.

Give up and you failed – it's the only way to do it.

Write, and you'll get better. A million words is the conventional wisdom. You need to write a million words before you'll be any good. If you write a thousand words a day – two pages, give or take – that will take you three years. Those first million words will suck. I promise you, but they will get better. Keep writing, keep going, and you'll find that this is less of an issue than you thought it was.

Writers block is a crippling cause of failures, but writing isn't easy. If you've chosen to write – to really write, because it is important to you – then it is going to be one of the hardest things you've ever done. It's fulfilling and wonderful and will completely change the way that you view your life, but don't for an instant think that it's going to be easy. Work at it, and you'll succeed.

Don't give up. Now go write something. A thousand words. You've got three years to do.

Demographic Babble

So, this blog has been existing fairly consistently for a couple of weeks now. I'm starting to get a general feel for the kind of things that you all like, and seeing what kind of thing are getting views and comments. Moreover, because of Blogger's really cool dashboard thing, I get to have some more information about you all, my viewership.

First off, I can tell that you're all very keen people, because more than 50% of you use Firefox. Chrome comes in second at a solid 20%, and Internet Explorer is the general struggle-bear with 11%, and then a bunch of strange little browsers that range from Safari to OneRiot (which I've never heard of. If you're that one guy using it, what IS OneRiot? Drop me a comment!)

Unsuprisingly, the majority of my viewership is from the USA, but I also have a respectable amount of Canadian viewers, and UK viewers. Other countries in Europe seem to follow along afterwards. Nice to meet you all.

Windows is easily the predominant system (70%) but Mac is putting in a solid show as well (19%). After that, we've got single digits of various smartphones and entertainment devices.

As far as views, we've got one clear outlier. My Dresden Files RPG review got WAY more traffic than the rest of them. It's not even close. It's got more than half the site's traffic for all time. Of that, the majority of that traffic was from StumbleUpon. If you're that fine fellow who stumbled me, I love you. Thumbs up. Stumble more! It's freaking awesome.

After that, we've got a pretty even spread between the various special topics. Mastering the Game seems to be going poorly, so apparantly that's not a crowd favorite. You guys all seem to like TV a decent amount though, and those posts are winning not only on views, but comments as well. I guess I'll keep doing those. Ultimately, what I think I need is a larger sample size, to see what people really like. So, do me a favor. If you're reading this, send a link to a friend. Send them your favorite post from here, and tell them to look around.

Comment here if there's anything you want to read specficially on here. Anything you want to hear my opinion on? Any topic that you'd like to hear about? Just let me know, and I'll add it to the docket.

Review: Warehouse 13 Season 1

Here we go everyone. I am going to fully admit that I made a mistake.

When Warehouse 13 came out for the first time, I watched the first five episodes. I thought that it was a quaint show that ultimately was just going to be “Artifact of the Week” and call it a day. I let it slip off my radar for months, until one day, I caught another episode. I was at my girlfriend-at-the-time's house, watched the first episode of season 2, and was blown away by how serialized the show had become. I assumed, at the time, that they were well into season 3.

This review is going to be as spoiler-free as I can make it, because it is, wholeheartedly, a recommendation. There's only 24 episodes out right now (two seasons of 12) with a third season rumored but not confirmed at the moment. It's not a huge commitment, as far as shows go, and I honestly think that this one is worth the time.

As a show that goes for the more serialized angle, comparisons are going to be drawn to Lost – possibly the most intricately plotted show in ages. Ultimately, what I think made Lost into the show that it was was simply the characters. It's the most common question I hear when people first start talking about Lost - “Who's your favorite?” In the same way, Warehouse 13 isn't really about the Warehouse any more than Lost is really about the island. It's about the people who are involved with it, both past and present, and that's what the majority of this review is about.

Alright, two main characters. Pete and Myka. These two were actually one of the primary reasons that I left the show to begin with. The chemestry was a little rough at the outset. While Pete was a great character, charismatic and hysterical, I couldn't really get the feel for Myka. I hate to pick on physical traits, but her actor has this exceptionally wide-eyed look that just unnerved me a bit. As the series progressed though, I found myself minding less and less, and coming to enjoy the dynamic that was being built there.

Artie was clearly designed as the soul of the series. He's the wizened old mentor who knows more than he lets on, but at his core, he's supposed to be a welcoming presence. As the show evolves, he becomes a core character in the same way that Pete and Myka are. He's a character in the show, not “the guy they work for.”

Leena is the caretaker of the Bed and Breakfast that all the characters live at. Furthermore, she can read auras. Honestly, they haven't done a whole lot with this character except occasionally ask her for advice. She's sorta boring after the first two episodes.

The show really takes off when Claudia shows up about halfway through season 1 (Episode 5). She provides a foil for Artie, not to mention a genuinely interesting character. She knows her way around computers, and she's got a sense of wonder about her that makes her extremely prone to discovering new things – and screwing stuff up. Her addition to the series really rounded out the cast, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with her in Season 2.

The actual plot of the series starts off fairly blandly, but takes off after Claudia's arrival. We quickly get a persistent antagonist who makes the show seem a lot more focused and aimed at something more than a procedural. Season two is almost ready to watch, and I am looking forward to marathon-watching those as soon as I can. (Possibly today, actually)

Warehouse 13 is a short investment of time, and I really thing that, as it continues, we're going to find out a whole bunch of cool stuff about this world, and these characters. I personally plan to be along for the ride.

Angel, A Retrospective.

I finished watching Angel a few days ago. Since then, I've found myself reflecting a little bit on it and deciding what I wanted to say about it. Five seasons, all with exceptional episodes in them. In the end, I think that I've got a solid opinion.

Angel is, perhaps, Joss Wheddon's biggest roller-coaster. I don't think that I can think of another show that was so hit-and-miss. There was a whole bunch of things that seemed very natural in the show, and a whole mess of things that felt very...off. I'm going to explain a whole bunch of them coming up, so again, if you don't like spoilers, GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HERE.

Some of the subplots that I really really enjoyed:

-Faith's return (the first time): When Faith showed up on Angel, fresh off her escape in Season 4 Buffy, I was astonished. I'd always loved Faith's evolution as a character, and I was euphoric to find that her arc continued in her absense from Buffy. The moment when she and Angel fought in the rain, with her screaming “Kill Me, Kill Me!” was perhaps the moment that I was finally sold on this show. The next couple episodes made me positive that I was going to love this show in a long-haul sense.

-Angel and Cordelia: One of the most genuine relationships that I've ever seen develop on television. A big part of that is how long they let it gestate and grow and subtly tell us that it was still there and evolving, until it all of a sudden came to a head and died before it ever really got started. That loss truly felt like a tragedy, made even worse given the rest of the situation. The end of the season was just depressing, and it didn't have to be. Good writing saved it.

-Fred/Illiria: When Fred died (I told you there were going to be major spoilers), I had no idea that they weren't going to get to stop the evil plot associated with it. Even more significantly, even though we only got five episodes with her, I came to love her as a deep, vibrant (blue) character.

-Conner: This character was saved. I hated him from...well, about 10 minutes after he showed up (that fight scene was pretty cool) until his end at the beginning of Season 5. I thought he was out of the show, and when they brought him back, I was even more nervous than I was before. This wasn't a grand experiment, this was a character I knew I didn't like, and here he was again. Great. Turns out that I was wrong, and his return really redeemed the earlier bits a good amount.

-Spike: Thumbs up, period. I was sold. Comedic gold for a season that tried to be much more serious, provided a necessary counterpoint.

-Eve: Great until they got rid of her and made her a minor recurring character without a point. This made me very sad, especially since it clearly wasn't motivated by “Actor leaving the show” or anything like that.

Some of the things, however, that didn't jive with me all too well:

-Jasmine: This plot felt hackneyed, like we knew what was coming from the start. No one in their right mind thought that she was sticking around. She was a villain to be beaten, and that was all she ultimately was. Some nice spotlighting for Fred, but other than that, not much.

-Conner: Conner's birth was another really weird plot line that I didn't care for. When he was gone, I cheered. When he was back, I was sad again. When he turned into a psychopathic killing machine, I was completely not surprised. I was happy when he was gone again, until Joss saved it at the last second, like I mentioned earlier.

Overall, I enjoyed the series on a whole, though not quite as much as Buffy or Firefly or even Dollhouse. It was, in my opinion, Joss's weakest show, but still good on the whole. Not a popular opinion, I'm sure, but I'll stand by it.

Picks of the Week: September 20th-24th

Friday night means the week is pretty much done with. Normally, I'd be over at a friend's house, explaining exactly why the player's pitiful character can't use a tranquilizer gun on a demigod – or at the very least, why it wouldn't work if he were to take such an ill-advised action.

Unfortunately for me, and for some of the other players in the session, we had a scheduling conflict this week and couldn't session. Which leaves me without an awful lot to do this evening. The Scars of Mirrodin prerelease is tonight, but I find myself with only barely enough funding for it – and no one to accompany me, which doesn't exactly sound like a phenomenal time, despite the new cards to be had. I'll go for the release next week and be content with that.

This week wasn't entirely a bust though. Notably, there was new television, and none of that reality show junk. This was good old scripted drama. Lets take a look at my week's highlights, in my opinion. Note that there ARE going to be SPOILERS ahead, so if you haven't watched one of these shows and plan on it, you might want to turn back at the heading for that show.

Bones:

We're gonna start off the highlight reel with what's certainly this week's weakest showing. The humor seems like it went out of this show over the hiatus, and the time-jump seems eerie and unnatural. I felt like I was watching a story told by someone who had never seen any of the cliches before. The story seems like it's on wooden rails – veering inevitably towards the conclusion. Booth is going to have an extremely traumatic choice between Bones and this plot-device girl back in Iraq. I don't think that it's going to surprise anyone what he picks. Angela's having a baby! Oh how wonderful. I wonder if she'll go into labor at a predictably high-stress-in-the-plot time? Lance wants to find himself and broke up with his recurring character fiance? Eh, they'll get back together by the end. Cam's angry because Bones went off to pursue her career instead of staying with her! She'll get over it by episode 4 at the latest. It just seems like the show decided that – instead of resetting to the status quo or moving the plot forward in an interesting manner, they threw a bunch of faux drama in that'll all be resolved quickly so we can make room for the real season plot. Thumbs down, Bones.

Castle:

Coming in just above Bones is Castle, which did what it normally did with a little bit less humor than usual. It was a solid episode, but I couldn't help but feel like they were struggling to make ends meet. They had to go to some pretty extreme lengths to make the preview-drama (Did anyone think they were gonna seriously shoot at each other?) come to pass. This one didn't introduce a bunch of pointless dead-end plots like Bones did, which makes me hope we can start to see a season plot start up as soon as this coming Monday. Altogether, not a terrible showing, but far from Castle's best.

Glee:

Yes, my guilty pleasure makes the number 2 spot on my list this week. Glee did a good job of making this a new jumping on point for new viewers, which is what it seemed like this episode was. It was a little heavy handed, but that's part of the show's charm, and so I won't fault them for it. Song choices were hit-or-miss. The snark was spot on though. Some predictable plot developments (Schu and Sue not getting along? Go on.), and some not-so-predictible ones. (Asians? That's racist!). Three new cast members joined. I'm refraining from making a call on two of them – Beiste and Blondie-guy (Though, EJ, I agree, he is pretty.). The third one is a little phillipino girl named Sunshine who has some pretty awesome pipes to her credit. I'm gonna look forward to seeing her do some of the songs this season, and the inevitable conflict between her and Rachel (which please dear god I hope doesn't involve Finn) should be good. My hopes for this season include seeing the new characters get some spotlight, take some of the light off Rachel and Finn, give some to the supporting cast (especially Quinn, who remains my favorite character on the show.) There's also some talk that other-Asian will get a solo sometime during this season, which will be a feat, because that'll be more lines than he's had in the whole show thusfar. Looking forward to seeing how it all turns out, especially the two newbies.

House:

Now here's an episode. Hands down the best of the week. This one managed to avoid the issues of the first two shows by just not skipping any time. This episode starts instants after the last season ended, and it shows. Also, instead of trying to restore the status quo, House seems determined to completely shatter it. New theme song for the first time since the show started? Check. Thirteen going on an indefinite 'leave of absence'? Check. House and Cuddy dating? Check. We got a lot of heavy plot development coming off of last season, and for better or worse, the writers grabbed us right away by keeping the ball rolling. This is not a good season to start watching house, but given that it is the seventh season, I don't think they're really aiming towards the newer viewers.

Thumbs up all the way. If you love House, I can't think of a single reason in this episode that you wouldn't agree. Everything just seemed really crisp and well executed. Go watch this episode, now.

Now, it's also worth mentioning that I did finish Angel, well ahead of schedule too. I plan on doing a write-up of it at some point in the near future, just to give my impressions of a few key points. My next task is going to be Warehouse 13 (which was chosen because of both recommendations and the relatively low commitment. There's only 22 episodes, and I've already seen the first four.) Close runners up included True Blood and Fringe, which might be handled pretty soon anyways.

What did you all think of this week's television? Did anything really "wow" you? Anything disappoint you? It's a new season, and there are hearts to be won and lost! Voice your opinion down below!

Video Games and Art

Some time ago, I read an essay by someone (I can't recall who it was, though I believe it was Tom who linked it to me) about Video Games and Art. Earlier today, I was bored as everliving hell – mostly because I was doing manual labor for money so I can do additional nerdy things (Scars Prerelease? New York Comicon? Yes please.) Nevertheless, a nerd's mind never rests, and so I was also contemplating the conundrum that had been proposed by this debate.

Here's my opinion, framed – like all good arguments – with a distinction.

We should not be arguing if Video Games are Art. We should be arguing about whether Video Games CAN BE Art.

I'll be the first to admit that not all Video Games are art. No. I'm sorry, apologists. Pokemon is not art. Pokemon is a money-making scam of the highest order. It is addictive as hell, and perhaps exceptionally fun to play, but it is not art.

Hey! You! Yes, you in the turtleneck who just walked out of that movie theater. Don't look so smug! I know what you're thinking. You guys aren't immune to this. Movies aren't necessarily art either. Neither are books. Neither is music. Art is not an integral part of those. Perhaps Art is an integral part of GOOD books, and movies, and video games, but they are not inherently part of the thing itself.

Alright, so, let's think for a minute. What's the difference? Why is, say, Pokemon not Art? I would contend that it comes down to a fundamental difference between Art and Entrainment. The two have sadly become conflated in recent years, but ultimately, I think that in order to see this debate through to the end, we need to admit that they aren't necessarily the same.

I'm about to fail to resist the urge to define art. I want to say that Art is something made with the intent to move someone. Good art is something made with that intent that actually does it.

If we're going to use those definitions (and I think that's going to be the primary cause of argument on this post), then yes. Some things in the realm of Video Games are art: notably at the point where the gameplay starts to serve the story, and not the other way around... (RTS games suffer this a lot. “Commander, go do this! THERE WILL BE DIRE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR Nation/Loved Ones/Important Plot Thing IF YOU DO NOT.) The Metal Gear Solid series is a good example of this. You could make a movie out of this series with ease. Arguments about the strength of the plot aside, it was clearly made to tell a story, not just so you could run around and shoot things wantonly. In fact, one of the biggest complaints I've heard about MGS is that it doesn't feel like a video game as much as an interactive movie. (I use complaint here because that's how it was presented. I don't necessarily agree with that assessment.)

Note that so far, I haven't said anything about graphics, and their role. I'm going to admit freely that graphics do play a major role. I'm not likely to think that an 8-bit game is Art. The reason for that has little to do with the strength of the plot itself, and rather, much more to do with the fact that I would engage and sympathize much more with a more visually accurate character.

I don't think that I've come even close to addressing this issue. If I was going to do so, I'd need a much longer amount of time to prepare it, and frankly, today is not that day. However, I've committed to posting something every twenty-four hours, and so, this is all I can muster for today. I'll see you all tomorrow.

There Once Was A Plane Called Argentum...

This was going to be a post about the NaNoWriMo project for the year, weighing all the possible ideas that I had for a novel. However, after I started listening to this one song I found (See yesterday's post! Music really does help people!), I completely got my motivation running at full speed and I've settled on a plot. Hurrah for me.

This does leave me in a bit of a sticky situation regarding today's Blog Post though. I've done some quick thinking, and I've decided to hit another section of Nerddom that I haven't gotten to yet.

Magic: The Gathering.

For those of you who don't play, this post is going to be heavy in the “I don't understand” category. For those that do, this is mostly going to be my ideas about Scars of Mirrodin – which has it's prerelease this weekend. I'm only half excited, because I don't know if my cash situation at the moment is going to permit me to go and participate, but still, it's something.

First off, infect proliferate and metalcraft are the three new keywords for the set. Of the three, I think that metalcraft is poorly budgeted. That is, there seems no reliable way to budget it. Either you're running a deck that's nearly certain to have it active, or it's rarely going to be. So, either you want the cards with it, or you don't, at least in draft (my preferred format). It's the same as the issue with affinity. It just gets better the more of it you have. I feel generally the same way about infect. Every creature with infect you take is a creature that deals NO damage. Every creature without it you take is one creature that deals NO poison. This is gonna be an all-or-nothing choice, and I feel like that's going to make them impossible to splash into a deck.

Proliferate is the only one of those mechanics that I think has something significant to say about itself. First off, I think we can all agree that proliferate is a monstrously powerful ability. Add counters of any type already present – cool – to as many permanants as you want.

What? So, as many or few as you'd like? Really?

That's awesome. Except that it's rare. It's hard to do. Thrummingbird is the only real source of consistent low-mana proliferation. Steady Progress does a decent job, but it's an instant, and proliferate is one of those things you want to keep doing again and again. The contagion spells – clasp and engine – seem to be the go-to for long-lasting proliferate effects, but they're high-costed, and mana syncs at that. I question if the 6 mana artifact is going to see terribly much play. It'll be interesting to see how they synergize.

In a more Limited format, artifact destruction is going to reign supreme. With shatter available at common, as well as Svalok Replica and plenty of other options as well, we can expect the boards to be fairly dynamic. Destruction seems to come cheap, and defenses are fairly rare as well. Plenty of reanimation is in the set, but very little in the way of protection.

Myr are worth a word or two as the easiest infinite combo ever. It wouldn't be a huge stretch to see one, even in draft. The key is going to be finding something to spend that infinite mana on. There's plenty of places you can throw it, but you'll have to pull one, because the set notably lacks much in the way of tutor effects. (A decent amount of card draw though, so perhaps we'll find the niche there.) I want to kill someone with a Myr Battlesphere. I want to do it a lot.

One final note is on the Mirran vs. Phyrexian conflict which is silently progressing in the watermarks of the cards in this set. While I'm personally rooting for the Phyrexians, I think that this is one of the most flavorful additions to the set. I'm hoping that the cards of a given watermark will synergize as well with each other. The phyrexians seem like a solid team. The Mirrans...well, not so much. I'm a little worried about our Mirran buddies. I think that big daddy Yawgmoth is gonna stomp them pretty hard.

But we'll see. I'll tell you that I'll certainly be drafting Phyrexia if I can.

What do you guys think of Scars? Are you thrilled about the return of Phyrexians? Which of the keywords have you weak in the knees? Sad about the loss of Alara from Standard? Big changes in magic, go talk about em down below!

NaNoWriMo: Forty Days and Counting

NaNoWriMo

About five years ago, I was sitting on a bench in front of my college's dining hall. I was sitting there with a friend of mine named Kaly, and she abruptly said that she was really excited for some thing that I couldn't pronounce, much less spell.

That was how I learned about NaNoWriMo – or National Novel Writing Month. It's a month-long sprint to write a novel. Not to come up with an idea for one, or storyboard one. You need to write it. You get the duration of November – regardless of Thanksgiving, or essays, or anything else that could get in your way. I thought she was insane. Up to this point, the longest thing I had ever written was ten pages, half written, back in seventh grade. The idea of writing Fifty-Thousand-Words (for such is NaNo's goal) was completely foreign and alien to me.

That month was absolutely insane. By the end of it, I had new friends, I had a whole lot more information and books on angels and demons than I had previously. I had a sleep deficit of a couple dozen hours. I had seven or eight playlists on iTunes, ordered by character name and section of the plot. Most importantly, I had 50,016 words written about a boy named Cedric and a girl named Britt – who happened to be part-demonic.

I've done NaNoWriMo four times now, with a fifth time coming up in just over a month, which means it's about time to start gearing up for it. I know that it seems early, but this is really when you want to get your creative juices flowing. I normally write something every day, aiming for an hour or so every day. In anticipation of NaNo, I'm going to increase that to an hour of writing, and an hour of thinking about plot ideas before bed. I do that fairly often as is, but I find that I do some of my best thinking when only half-conscious. Furthermore, I'm going to make sure my schedule is as caught-up-on as possible. Given all the prep that's going into NaNoWriMo for me, I figured that it would be a good idea to write a post about how you can prepare yourself for trying to write a novel in a month.

Step 1: Awareness

Seriously. Going into this, you need to know that this is a commitment. 50,000 words in 30 days comes out to 1667 words per day, which, if you're using default margins in Microsoft Word, is about 3 pages. Most people I know can write one, maybe two an hour. Assume that you'll be committing a couple of hours every day to NaNo. Your mileage on these estimates may vary. Tom, for example, can easily write a day's quota in an hour. Then again, he's a writing machine who maintains like a billion projects with the greatest of ease. (Tom, if you're reading this, don't contradict me!) Regardless, you're going to want to be ready going into this. It won't just happen. Writing is easy, but setting time aside for it is hard.

Step 2: Brainstorm

The hardest part of writing a NaNo is coming up with a plot that will last you the full 50,000 words. For clarity's sake, that's probably enough to cover a full length movie. It's easy to come up with the central plot – a guy and a girl meet and fall in love – or whatever, but the hard part is turning that central bit into a bigger story. Making your ideas into more than just a single story that you could tell in a few minutes takes work. Try to write some basic outlines of your characters – write a single scene involving them, just to get a feeling for them. Possibly most importantly...

Step 3: Music

This step helps everyone I know. No one I've ever met writes without some kind of music, and this is no different. Once you start coming up with an idea for a plot, note what you were listening to when you got the idea. Everytime a song inspires something, add it to the NaNo playlist on your iTunes or whatever. Listen to it when you want to write, and I guarantee that the ideas will flow forth like rivers. I couldn't imagine writing anything of significance without having a playlist for it.

Step 4: Support

Find a support network. In my four years, I succeeded two of them, and failed the other two. I completely credit the peer pressure inherent in this event. The number of times I got to dinner and heard that Tom had already rounded the 10k mark, or the 35k milestone are countless. Hearing that someone else is doing better than you is maddening, and will make you go and try to rectify that immediately. Other people, especially if they're determined enough, will get you to your goal.

That said, sign up on the NaNoWriMo website. There's community there, be it the forums, or the actual region that you're a member of. Especially if you're in a city, going to scheduled kickoff parties and weekly write-ins is a great way to keep your count high, and keep connected to the community. I strongly recommend them.

I'm probably going to write a bunch more on this blog about NaNo, especially as November approaches and I start to actually start figuring out what I'm going to write. I've got a whole mess of possible plot ideas, and I need to start sussing out which one is going to be this year's NaNo prospects. Expect that post within the week.

Do you guys have any NaNo preparation rituals? Trying it for the first time and thought these hints helped? Let me know in the comment box below. 

What Makes An Exceptional RPG? - Review: The Dresden Files RPG

I've come from two worlds.

On the one hand, I've come from the number crunching half of things. I played video games where the immersion was frankly secondary to the system used to hit things harder and harder. Games like that appeal to the logic center of my brain. I like math. On that level, things like tower defenses and Final Fantasy are awesome. So are Chess, or Magic: The Gathering. It's a huge part of why I love World of Warcraft.

On the other hand, though, I am a writer, and I understand that sometimes, the system needs to be put away so that you can tell a story like Ender's Game, or War of the Spider Queen, or Harry Potter. Sometimes, there just can't be rules for a situation because the situation is there to further a story. The creative part of your brain hates constraints, and that is what I bring to the table from my creative half.

So, as a fan of the books, picking up an RPG that claimed to be true to the books, I was skeptical. So much of the world of Dresden was tied up in the characters. I'd come to love Murphy and Michael. I'd felt for Thomas and Lash. All these characters mattered so much more to me than the sum of their combat statistics, that I wasn't sure if the system could effectively recreate that experience without being mind-numbingly complicated.

I didn't follow the beta test much, except to know the general “how far along are we” of it. I did, however, get the books at the first chance, and immediately started learning how to make a character.

Boy. Was that a surprise.

I've built characters in World of Darkness and DnD. I've story-boarded more novels than I can count. I've got enough dice that I'm thinking of investing in a bigger bag for them, and this is by far one of the most robust systems for character creation that I've experienced in ages.

Step1: Character Concept

Unlike most systems, don't roll anything. Your first step, honestly, is to come up with a character concept. I know that they write that down in every manual and you completely ignored it – especially in DnD. “Well, the party needs a healer. So I'll grab all the requisite healing stuff, and then make up a back story about being some kind of traveling priest.” Tell me you've never had a group with that mentality. This is not a game that you can do that with. Character concept is critical, because you really need to have a solid grip on your character to do step 2.

Step 2: High Concept, Trouble, and Aspects

In the same way that ability scores, class, and race (to a lesser degree) are central to DnD, your aspects are the central part of your character. When describing your character to other people, very often, it will be your High Concept that you cite. In some way, it should be a small, one phrase long description of the character. Some examples being “Millionaire Vampire Hunter”, “Teenage Hydromancer,” or even the classic example based on the books' protagonist: “Wizard Private Eye.”

Linked to that is your trouble. This one is a little tougher to pin down. For one, it shoots out of the water every character without flaws ever (Thank God.) Keep in mind that your character should be constrained and limited by their trouble. “Destined for Greatness” sounds like the kind of two-edged thing you would want to choose. “Out of Her Depth” is a personal favorite from my campaign. Regardless of what you pick, it should be something that can often actively provide difficulty for your character. If it's something that'll show up once in a blue moon, probably not Trouble-worthy.

Once you've got those sorted out, you need up to five more aspects. These should be less things that describe your character, and more things that define your character. Sure, your character might work at a Stop 'N Shop, but that's not going to be something that really defines him. “They Killed Everyone I Loved” for example, is much more likely to be a defining trait than “Prefers wheat bread.” The key to making some good aspects is twofold. First, they need to describe your character. Second, they need to be useful to you in some way. By useful, I mean either that you can see it coming into play on your side of things (Who couldn't think of a good use for “I know Kung Fu”?) – or that it could be useful for your friendly neighborhood GM to use against you. (Personal favorites again: “Works Best Alone” and “I can help!”)

Why would you ever want to give the GM something to use against you? We'll get there.

Step 3: The Rest

From here, it's a lot of filling in boxes. Skills, stunts, and powers should all be fairly simple now that you've got your background and all the pertinent information. It's important to note here that the system actively encourages you to talk with your GM and invent new ones. The book is fairly expansive in their choices, but by no means should they be considered exhaustive. The book, unlike a lot of other sourcebooks, gives basic guidelines for how you should build a new stunt or ability. When in doubt, again, ask your GM.

As for the system itself, it works off of a concept called Fate points. To paraphrase someone describing a similar system in DnD: “Action Points? Those are the things that make me awesome, right?” In most systems, action points are reserved for giving you bonuses to dice rolls. Not so in Dresden. While you can use them for a numerical advantage (even after the fact!), this is probably the weakest use of them. You get Fate Points equal to the amount of refresh (basically, the amount of character power) that you don't spend. You get them back when your characters rest for a significant amount of time, or if a GM compels you (using one of your aspects) to do something in accordance with your character, but decidedly not something smart for them to do. Using Fate Points can give you crazy benefits. The most potent of which is the ability to make a Declaration. You say something, and pending GM approval, it happens. You've already been frisked? Burn a fate point and pull out that holdout pistol that you definitely had this whole time. Remember that backup that you'd spoken to a while ago? They show up just in the nick of time.

Declarations are (in my sessions) sorely underused, and extremely powerful. They really set the Dresden Files RPG apart from other similar systems. Giving the players something that allows them to drastically improve their combat skills, then having them forego it for another benefit altogether takes a lot of doing. Players like causing damage to bad guys. The fact that Declaring is even an option that players consider speaks to it's potential power.

Ultimately, the Dresden Files RPG gives me something that's been missing in a lot of my RPG's as of late – a story. Too many of my DnD sessions amount to combat with cut scenes for plot. I like the change of pace in Dresden, making the characters care more about their backstories, making them care about what happens between battles, and basically, making the game more about Role instead of Roll, to use a common phrasing.

Star Wars: What Was Missing

Since I blanked out a little bit on what I should write today (and midnight is rapidly approaching) I took a bit of a survey from twitter and facebook. What should I write about. Between all the info I got, I had 1 vote for “some other form of media” and a monstrous 4 votes for something about Star Wars.

Somehow, I feel like this is roughly representative of the people who should be reading this blog.

I digress. Star Wars it is.

Specifically, the main request came from @ejharris3 on twitter. A friend of mine from college who wants me to tell him something that he doesn't know about the Star wars Expanded Universe. Upon chatting with him a little bit more on AIM, I found a topic.

“Do the actual movie tie-ins expand the movies? Is there something in the canon about the period from the raid on Leia's ship to the great teddy bear victory that I would find cool but wasn't told in the films.”

Well, not to answer that question exactly, but that's definitely the guide for this blog post. I'm actually going to focus more on the prequels, which in my opinion are one of the biggest examples of failed potential that the Star Wars Universe has experienced so far. Now, I know that mocking those movies is a little bit on easy end of popular opinion, but I'm actually going to explain why I feel that way, and what I think could have been done better.

Alright, first off, lets look at the whole point of these movies. I'm sure there's a lot of stuff in these movies that isn't going to directly focus on that, but ultimately, I think that having a central focus like that will really shore up the plot structure of the movies. If I was to write these movies, they would be about Anakin – and his fall to the Dark Side. Sure, there's plenty else to tell, and all of that will happen as well. We need the story of the Republic's fall, and the destruction of the Jedi Order, and the Clone Wars, and all the rest. A lot of that is important, and we'll make sure we get there, but that's not what the story is about.

Good. So, Anakin's fall to the Dark Side. Let's establish what we know in the current version.

Step 1: Traumatic Childhood

Step 2: Normal Jedi Adolescence

Step 3: Chatted with Sentor PalpablyEvil

Step 3: Killed Some Sand People to Avenge His Mother

Step 4: More Chats With Palpy

Step 5: Baby Killing Monstrosity

Now, I'd like to expand a few of those points. Traumatic childhood is a decent one. He grew up as a slave, had to leave his mother at a young age, and...

Yea. Nothing else of consequence to Anakin happened in movie 1, did it? I mean, he flew a star fighter around and deus-ex-machina'd the droid army. Whatever. Stupid Tatooine hotshots and all that. We're moving on.

Normal Jedi Adolescence. Yep. Nothing at all of consequence here. We pretty much fast-forward through all of that. It's between episode 1 and 2, and to my knowledge, there's barely anything anywhere that explores this period of his life. That's a good thing, because nothing important happens at all.

From what we can gather from the movies (something that was woefully underdeveloped, in my opinion), Anakin and Palpatine became good friends. They talked often, and Anakin saw Palpatine as a kind of father figure and moral guide.

The first hints we get of Anakin being evil come when he avenges his mother's death by killing a bunch of Sand People. Is this evil? Probably. I mean, murder ranks pretty high on that scale, but we can at least chalk it up partially to ridiculously potent grief. I mean, things like that happen in real life, and it's often a first step on a slippery slope. We could buy that...now we need to see Anakin start slipping.

More conversations, just like the first time. The guy's probably evil, but he's really not saying anything outright bad, except maybe slandering the Jedicial Branch of the Not-Government a little bit. Hey, they do kind of operate outside the normal bounds of authority, and there aren't exactly too many checks on their power...

I AM ANAKIN AND I KILL YOUNGLINGS.

…

Did you see an abrupt jump there? Because the characters in the movie didn't. Mace Windu always had his eye out for Anakin to turn evil. Hell, it seems like everyone was watching for it except for Obi-Wan. Anyone ever wonder why? That's because those characters had a whole mess of additional information that we never got.

It was called the Clone Wars.

Seriously, there's like...something like 15 or 20 books in the middle there, plus two seasons of cartoons (more now, if you count the newer Clone Wars series, but that's a canon argument for another day entirely). I'm almost positive that there's graphic novels as well, but I'm not absolutely certain. (Google seems to think there are a few, now that I do a preliminary search).

What happened during those stories? Mostly, Anakin became more and more reckless, winning battle after battle in the war and gaining great acclaim across the galaxy. He and Obi-Wan became major celebrity figures in the galaxy as more than just great warriors. They were more than just peacekeepers – they were heroes. Saviors.

Matthew Stover explores this a lot in his novelization of Episode 3, but really, it's an underlying theme in all of the novels of the Clone Wars. Anakin isn't really a by-the-book kind of fellow. He's a rogue, and sadly, good enough to get away with it. It's something we don't really get to see all that much in the movies. We see Anakin being the subject of a lot of distrust, but not really the source of the distrust (except perhaps, some vague prophecy that's only half believed.)

So, what should we have done to make this movie series a lot better? Cut episode one. Take the information about Anakin's childhood there and insert it as either flashbacks, or scrollby text at the start, or something else. Then, between the old episodes 2 and 3? Insert another movie called “The Clone Wars.” In it, we experience Anakin's gradual descent to evil, or at least, get him to a point where that last jump is a believable one. We actually develop villains like Dooku and Grevious, instead of having them just be stand-ins with lightsabers to fight against.

And in the end, Episode 3 remains fundamentally the same, because it was actually a pretty solid movie if you watch the extended edition that heavily implies Anakin's suspicions that Padme and Obi-Wan are sleeping together.

Missed that too? Must've been one of those things they cut from the theatrical version. It's in the books, and the deleted scenes. It makes Anakin seem a lot less crazy too. Obi-Wan spends late nights over at Padme's place. They're actually setting up a rebellion against Palpatine. They don't want to let Anakin know because he's all buddy-buddy with the Supreme Overlord Chancellor Palpatine. From Anakin's point of view (especially with him knowing that Padme's lying about it) seems a lot more reasonable now.

So, this whole rant was a slightly roundabout way of answering the question. But ultimately, yes. The EU does add a lot to the Star Wars universe. Some of it is terrible (Do NOT read Children of the Jedi, or Darksaber. Avoid at all costs. Seriously.) Some of it is pretty decent. (I'm looking at you, Republic Commando). Some of it is GREAT. (Thanks Aaron Allston and Matthew Stover.)

Read the right parts, and you'll love the movies, and the universe all the more. Read the wrong bits...and you'll realize why so many people have disdain for it. Want a comprehensive list of what I think you should read? Drop a comment.

What did you guys think of this one? It's a little bit ranty, and it probably could've been structured a little better. Nevertheless, what do you guys think? Favorite part of Star Wars? Something you hated? Think my versions work better? How would you change yours? I'm actually anxious, because I know there's all manner of Star Wars fans in the viewership this time.

Let me know. Comment box down there ---vvv

Mastering The Game: Player vs. Player

A few days ago I did a post about the setting of my current Dresden Files RPG campaign. Specifically, we talked about some of the issues that I had in trying to meld together the Dresden setting and the Sunnydale location, as well as some of the problems that I encountered when it came to first running the campaign for the first day.

Well, last night, we met again. By now, we've been consistantly meeting most Fridays and the campaign has recently been thrown into high-gear. They players have found out that everything is actually connected, despite everything seeming completely unconnected at the start (through good planning or because I only connected them later, we'll never know!). However, over the last two sessions, we've had a bit of an issue crop up, and it's not something that I've ever dealt with in any of the campaigns that I've run before.

That issue, of course, is player vs player combat.

For one of the first times, we've been actively confronting the fact that a lot of these characters are private people who might not necessarily share all that they know. Furthermore, the characters aren't all best friends, or a troupe of adventurers who are used to sharing everything. They barely even know each other outside of the events of the campaign. Having something revealed to one member of the group does not necessarily mean that all of them will eventually know it.

Imperfect knowledge on the parts of the characters means that, because they don't have the entire picture (and are viewing the situation through their character's potentially flawed perception of the situation), that there's a good chance of two characters ending up on different sides of a major conflict. For example, last week, we ended with River defending a friend against her older cousin Drake, who was determined that this friend was withholding knowledge that would be pertinent to his defense of the town.

That conversation ended with a tranquilizer gun being fired, and magic being cast. The party had very nearly come to blows. A few years ago, I'd have flipped out, and tried to get the players focused back on the thing they're supposed to be doing – you know, that plot I have pages and pages of!

This time, I decided to take a step back, let the characters flow as they would, and even subtly influence the path they're taking by clever use of compels. (The Dresden System permits a DM to basically reward players for making their lives difficult, if it would be in accordance with the character's personality.) A week later, we've almost certainly got the party basically split between two allegiances – one side convinced that the Calvieri Institute for the Gifted is attempting to cause an apocalypse of some description, and another side who's at least sympathetic to the fact that they don't appear to be evil.

I don't know how this is going to turn out, but I know that my plans, at least, are going to need to be a little bit more expansive if I need to account for the possibility that either side, with the aid of the players, could prevail. Previously, one of those answers was an almost certain TPK (Total Party Kill, for laymen). Now, I'm not sure. Perhaps the player(s) who ended up on the other side might find their way back to the correct side and try to rectify the damage they've done.

Or maybe not. We'll see how it goes, and I'll keep you all posted.

Talk to you all tomorrow!

New Seasons

This coming week is starting the new television season for most major channels. That means, among other things, that I am no longer going to have any free time whatsoever because I plan on consuming a great host of these shows on a regular basis. I just wanted to talk for a little bit today about the shows I'm currently watching, and which shows I'm most looking forward to, in pseudo-alphabetical order.

Bones:

What can I say? It's just straight up good television. A procedural (which you'll find tend to be the majority of the stuff that I watch.) with engrossing characters, a number of recurring sub-plots, and tons of characters and relationships and interweaving plot threads. This is probably the most serialized show that I watch (with the possible exception of Glee with it's rapid fire twists and turns, which we'll get to later.) The show really hit an emotional height in the last season finale, and I don't think they can really effectively reset the status quo after this one. The writers have really put themselves on shaky ground here, and it's going to take some solid writing to get us to a point where we can keep telling these characters in the normal fashion.

Alternatively, as the show's been building towards it for a while, this could be a huge time of change for the show. We could have the main romantic tension that we've been used to since episode 1 be completely removed and transformed into something completely different. I don't know how the show would develop from there, but there would certainly have to be something to it. I'm excited for either outcome, and of course, to watch Angel as an ex-army sniper.

Castle:

Not surprisingly for someone who's loved Nathan Fillian in Firefly, Dr. Horrible, and Buffy, Castle is near the top of my list. It's not an engrossing show by any means. I don't sit on the edge of my seat waiting for the next plot twist. I'm sitting back and enjoying the ride, which generally tends to be a pretty good one. They've had some good serious episodes before, but on the whole, the show is a comedy dressed like a crime drama, and that's enough to make me watch it.

The opening scenes of this season premiere promise a more explosive season start than we've seen before, but honestly, I'm more than alright with that. The studio wants to make a splash at the start of the season (plus get everything back to par for the course after the end of last season.) More than anything else, Castle relies on that constant status quo. It's not very serialized. You can walk in on most episodes and get the general premise, and it does that very well. The end of last season, while a major turning point for the show, did disrupt that status quo a bit, and now they need to restore it, which I'm sure they'll do by the end of the second week, if not the first. Greatly looking forward to watching this one.

Glee:

I know what you're thinking. Yes. Glee. I love music, I love drama (the more ridiculous, the better.), and I love high school. This show was destined to be a success in my book. Something about it's off-beat humor and it's horribly convoluted story structure really appeal to me on a primal level. The way that it both uses and abused stereotypes brings a smile to my face. Sue makes a great villain too, and I look forward to her horribly offensive quips.

I wouldn't recommend Glee to many other people. I know that Tom (who remains the only comment on this blog. Come on people. I know he's not the only one reading!) doesn't particularity care for it. It's a very niche-audience kind of show, but it's one that I enjoy, and so I'll be waiting for their return next week.

House:

Come on, did you really not see this one coming? It's house. It's wonderful and awesome and has some of the best writing on television. A season or two ago, I was starting to get a little bit sick of it, but really, in the last few months of the last season, every episode has been more and more solid than the one before it. On a whole, the last season of House has been the most solid that the show has ever had – hands down. I'm really thrilled to see if the writers can keep that level of quality up – personally, I doubt it, but as you'll find, I'm an optimist, and hence, am looking forward to it as always.

Now, those are the shows which (to my immediate recollection) are starting up next week that I'm interested in. I'm also in the middle of my first run of Angel. I know I'm quite a bit late to the party on this one, and I've had some major things spoiled to me (Notably the major character death that's coming up. Damn everyone who spoiled that one.) Regardless, I'm halfway through season four and Joss is thrilling me as always. I anticipate finishing the series in a week or two – especially given that the plot is only getting better and better.

Which leaves me in a bit of a predicament with regards to one thing. Sure, I've got a bunch of shows that I'll be watching, but each of then is only like an hour a week, which is much less than the general amount of stuff I watch. With Angel coming to a close, I'm looking for the next thing on the list, and I have some options.

• Warehouse 13 (Watched a few episodes, was passably interested, but got bored. I've been assured that it gets a lot better shortly. A strong contender.)
• Fringe (Got bored after season 1. I'm told that the second season is a lot better though.)
• Some other suggestion from you guys.

So, seriously. I don't know which of those I'm going to go with. I'm kind of ambivalent on the whole thing. What you should do is post a comment and let me know what some of your favorite shows are, so I can watch them and make them some of my favorite shows too. I'm kinda relying on you guys here. Don't let me down. It only takes a minute to type one up, and comments will help me with the writing thing.

Mastering The Game: Building A Setting

I've been playing Pen and Paper RPG's for a long time. I bought the starter pack for DnD Third Edition more than ten years ago. I've been playing at some capacity since then. The vast majority of that time has been spent Dungeon Master-ing (Or Game Mastering, if you prefer less Wizards of the Coast branded settings). Frankly speaking, very few of my friends actually liked DMing, and even fewer had experience doing it. I basically became the default (Notable Exception: EJ is an exceptional DM. Props to him.)

However, it's been a fairly recent development (within the last five years) that I've been trying to actually write my own campaigns with any regularity. Most of those have been either 2-3 session affairs, conducted online with sporadic attendance, or in some way or another been non-standard campaigns. So, when the Dresden Files RPG came out, and knowing that I had a grand total of two friends who enjoyed the Dresden Files, I figured that it would be another lark that I would read in a bookstore, put down, and forget about (much the way that my Exalted and World of Darkness books have fared.)

How wrong I was.

The first thing that struck me was how not-important the actual system was. Literally, the majority of the 'player's guide' is devoted to character creation, not complicated mechanics. (Curse you Polearm Chart! Curse you Grapple Rules!) Even better, the majority of the character creation doesn't come down to number crunching, but instead, building a genuine character with a back story and a personality. I genuinely approved of this from the start, even if the system only required paltry 6-sided dice.

The books also make a big deal about the setting for your campaign, and how much of an effect that it has on the kind of game that you're running. Having come directly off a fresh viewing of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and knowing that my two potential players were huge Buffy players), I decided to set the campaign in good old Sunnydale – a decision that I ended up...not quite regretting, but not entirely agreeing with, in hindsight. I'll explain.

Sunnydale is a town in which crazy things can happen without major note being made of it. The students at their high school openly talk about class mortality rates and things like that. It's literally situated on top of the mouth of hell. It's a place where there's really no need to justify things like 'why is all this stuff happening here?' It seemed like an easy out.

First problem I hit was the obvious one. What about the characters from Buffy? There's a host of very capable defenders in Sunnydale, not the least of which is Buffy herself. There was a simple solution to this as well – Buffy doesn't exist in this universe. This is an alternate universe. The players aren't going to have a huge support network to call on.

The second big issue I had was a case of conflict between the two systems I was trying to use. One of the first lines in the Dresden Files is that 'players have choice, and monsters have nature.' Demons are evil, because they are predisposed towards it, and have no free will to counteract that inclination. Buffy turns that on it's head. We have high-school werewolves, evil Slayers, and most obviously, an angsty en-souled vampire. Angel's own series (set in the Buffyverse) argues the 'good demon' issue probably a half dozen times. These two settings are not very kind towards their monstrous antagonists.

There needed to be a solution to this too. Some kind of common ground. Around this time, my players (now bolstered to three, adding in a friend who had no exposure to either Buffy or Dresden) were starting to make characters. Armed only with Sunnydale as a setting, and Dresden as a setting, I ended up with three characters and a wild card.

1. Aya Brea – A Swat Team member, based on the character from Parasite Eve, with a significant twist: she's been chosen by the Egyptian God Bast, and can grow cat-claws aside from being supernaturally stealthy.
2. River Lethe – After vetoing River Tam, and River Styx, this character was ultimately based on the anime Avatar: The Last Airbender. She's an ex-military specialist with Water/Ice Magic and a rather naïve disposition.
3. Drake Adams – (Pseudonym: Bryan Gates) River's older cousin. Entire family was murdered by vampires in his youth. Now exceptionally rich through banking practices, he's basically Batman for Vampires.

Three characters, all with some kind of in to the supernatural world. Easily workable, at least as plot twists go. Furthermore, as part of her character, Aya's player decided that she had a younger sister with latent psychic powers, named, predictably, Eve. (When this was decided, there was an outside chance of a fourth player joining, so we decided that I would run the character as an NPC until such time as she was needed.)

Having set up the chess pieces on one side of the board, I needed to start writing a plot. It needed to be the kind of plot that would flow well in both the Buffyverse and Dresdenverse, and one option screamed out to me. In both settings, Dark Wizards – regardless of what they're called – are extremely dangerous. The corruption from misuse of magic is heavily explored in both worlds, and it seemed like a great place from which to draw my motivation for the antagonists.

Unfortunately, I'll admit that I slacked a lot at this point on the campaign writing. Our groups had been really bad about regular meetings in the past, so I figured that I would have way more time than I did before the first session. When I got the text message telling me that we were going to session one evening, I literally had “Dark Magic” written at the top of a page of a moleskine notebook, and that was it.

As any experienced GM can tell you, this is significantly less than ideal. I had less than three hours to plan far enough that the players wouldn't start seeing gaps in the story early on. I relied on my natural ability to bullshit (any good GM's highest ability score!) to put together enough plot hooks that the players wouldn't find out anything significant early on. They'd get hints and morsels but NOTHING concrete.

Here's the plots that I came up with:

1. Aya is called in to investigate a mysterious theft at the local magic shop. A piece of the Temple of Jerusalen has been stolen by an armed gunman. A mysterious man at the scene feigns ignorance of the whole situation.
2. River and Eve both receive letters of acceptance to a school on the outskirts of town – named the Calvieri Institute for the Gifted (Two points to you, Dr. Who fans!) They've been invited to an open house.
3. 
   

You may notice that number 3 is blank. That's because I never came up with a plot for Drake in time. I ended up involving him in the first session by having him attend the open house with River. Aya tagged along too, giving me the chance to get all the characters into a room together, which worked well, except we started running into a problem.

I didn't have this school planned well at ALL. I knew it was important to the plot. In fact, I was fairly certain that it was the plot at this point. Sadly, my players and their keen metagame sense were able to figure that out as soon as they read 'for the Gifted'. Aya's player immediately laughed and went “So, when do we meet Professor X.”

So, it wasn't a well hidden ploy. I'll admit that. I'd like to think I eventually worked past it.

Now, there were two NPC's that were already established this early in the campaign in relation to the school. The first was Mistress Calvieri herself, whom I knew was special in some way, but no idea how. She was very deliberately not at the first play session. My initial idea was that she would be a vampire (hence the name), however, I almost immediately decided against that. It was too obvious to me, and everyone was ready for it, so the big reveal would have no impact. I shelved 'What is Calvieri' to be determined at a later date.

The second NPC was a face. The school needed someone that the players could interact with on a regular basis. It turned out to be a British girl named Victoria who may or may not have been intended to be a lesbian. (She's almost certainly bisexual at this point, but it was an interesting twist I could throw in that my players would WAY over think. It killed almost twenty minutes when I didn't have anything else planned.)

The first session left some questions, none of which were terribly pressing. The investigation into the theft seemed the most important, and it would become so, but I needed some way to get the rest of the plot kickstarted. Where were my evil dark wizards? Where was the actual excitement? Well, in the first session? There wasn't much. In hindsight, I could've had Drake go hunting, or had Aya run into something to fight briefly, but I was still hazy on the combat mechanics (again, I'd procrastinated). In the end, we ended up starting slowly, but next session, things got a whole lot more exciting.

You'll find out about that one next time I write on this topic. Keep your eyes peeled! Another post should be coming tomorrow sometime.

On that note, what do you all want to hear about? One comment from over 100 views? Get talking down there. There's a comment box for a reason!

Impressions of the PTR: Death Knights

As some of you may or may not know, a new patch has recently become active on the Public Test Realms for World of Warcraft. Now, I don't usually participate in the testing, because I like experiencing everything for myself once it shakes out and goes live, but this patch is a little big more special than most. Specifically, it's patch 4.0, which is the large content patch before the next expansion – Cataclysm (Recently unofficially announced for November 2nd!). Notably in this patch is the talent changes for every class and spec.

There's been a lot of buzz in the blogosphere about the new trees and abilities, going through them one by one and giving them each the thumbs up or down. I'm not going to really do that. There are plenty of WoW-devoted sites that are more than covering that angle. (I would specifically recommend elitistjerks.com if you like math, and wow.com if you don't. Both sites do quality work for the kind of player that they're geared towards.) Instead, I'm going to give you general impressions of the trees that I tested, and explaining what I think the major differences were in comparison to live.

I'll admit that most of my playtime was spent on Unholy. I do tank, and I have dpsed as Frost for a while, but I have been Unholy from Ulduar all the way through ICC. I know it the best, and so the majority of my focus was spent on it.

I've been following the development of unholy through the patch notes, and I've generally liked the direction that it's been taking except for one thing – our mastery. Unholy's mastery at the moment is an increase to disease damage. While diseases are clearly the shining gem in Unholy's arsenal, they're not quite what I'd be looking for in a mastery. When I was thinking of a mastery, as they were first announced, I was looking for something interactive. A stat that had more depth than just “you do more damage.” For unholy, any good Death Knight is trying to keep 100% uptime on their diseases, and it's not a terribly hard thing to do. Diseases do a set amount of damage baseline, and scale upwards with attack power and mastery. That makes mastery a very linear increase based solely on your gear, rather than something skill based at all.

Contrast that with something like, say, pet damage. Now, pause. I know what you're thinking. Pets don't really require micromanagement! Well, that's certainly the way we thought of our ghoul in Wrath – especially after some of the increases to pet survivability that they pushed through to make them less of a liability to have around. In Cataclysm, we're getting a slightly different paradigm. Instead of just simply telling the pet to attack the right target, we have some direct control over our pet's damage. There is a new section of talents in the Unholy Tree that allow the Death Knight to apply a buff to their pet with Death Coil, and then empower their pet once there's five stacks. Perfect use of that ability is going to take some practice to get down, and moreover, some skill to execute properly. That means that mastery given to a subpar player is less valuable than mastery given to a skillful player who's able to maximize their pet's output.

That is a good stat. I'd love to see that on my gear, because it encourages me to play better.

That was a little bit of a lengthy rant that might lead someone to think that I didn't like the play experience as unholy, but nothing could be further from the truth. I think that the Unholy dps play experience has been greatly improved by some of the changes that have been made. Basically, the situation that was on live was as follows:

1. Put diseases on target
2. Use scourge strike if you can
3. Use Death Coil if you can
4. Use Blood Strike until one of the others comes up.

If you followed that guideline, you could easily do competitive dps in ICC. To be really top notch, you needed to do a little more involving timing your disease refreshing and all, maximize your use of Gargoyle, and all other stuff like that, but really, it was fairly simply. In the new system, there's a lot more in that latter category. You've gotta take Death Runes into account much more than before, especially with the addition of Scourge Strike as a 1 rune ability instead of two. Runic Empowerment adds in an element of random chance to the whole situation. In addition, maximizing the up time on your ghoul's empowerment and high-stack time will let good DK's eke out a little more damage, or give us some of the much-needed burst that we've wanted so long in both PvE and PvP.

That's one end of the rotation. That's the heavy lifting, damage dealing half. The other half of Unholy, as I said before, is diseases, and that's always been something that felt...lackluster. They were dots, sure, and they provide important debuffs, which is good, but really, it felt more like a warm up to doing your ACTUAL damage. This was compounded by the fact that you needed to refresh them more than you really wanted to under any circumstance. Blizzard has taken two major strides to removing that as a concern. First, they last MUCH longer. That should cut down on the need for it to feel so maintenance-y for any spec. For unholy inparticular, though, they've added in Festering Strike: an attack that immediately refreshes your diseases to their maximum duration and does a hefty amount of damage – for the low, low price of a Blood Rune and a Frost Rune.

The ramifications that this has on the unholy rotation are numerous. Notably, it gives us something else to maximize. Without even getting into anything more complex like disease tick timing (which, I think, was solved with some of the cataclysm dot changes), there's huge differences in having to reapply diseases with our normal applicators and being able to refresh them with a GCD that also does significant damage. The fact that the other two specs don't want to use it (due to rune-combo concerns) only reinforces Unholy as the disease spec. Not only are their diseases more powerful, but they're easier to use, to spread, and (though I disagree with it) to enhance with mastery.

Next time I post about WoW, hopefully I'll have had some experience tanking on the PTR, and I'll let you know how Blood is shaping up. As for tomorrow's post, I'm thinking something more in the lines of my experiences being a DM for the Dresden Files RPG, which I've been enjoying greatly for the last few months on a weekly basis.

See you all tomorrow!