DM of the Rings XCIII:
Impervious to Information

By Shamus Posted Friday Apr 27, 2007

Filed under: DM of the Rings 115 comments

Legolas doesn’t pay attention.
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Impervious to Information”

 


 

Working from home

By Shamus Posted Thursday Apr 26, 2007

Filed under: Personal 25 comments

Several people have asked overlapping questions about my unusual employment. I’m not sure what triggered this, but rather than write a bunch of emails I thought I’d write one post.
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Frayed Knights

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Apr 25, 2007

Filed under: Links 7 comments

Jay is onto something great here. He’s working on a comedy RPG. I had to make a WILL saving throw to keep from making a little “squee” sound when I read about it.

(The post mentions a hemp golem for crying out loud. There are about a hundred jokes in that idea alone.)

 


 

DM of the Rings XCII:
Ding!

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Apr 25, 2007

Filed under: DM of the Rings 116 comments

The players finally get some XP. Legolas is pissed.

 


 

GTA: LCS: Grand Theft Railroad

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Apr 24, 2007

Filed under: Game Design 38 comments

One of the things which bugs me about Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (and its many siblings) is the appalling lack of freedom when encountering challenges: There are a dozen apparent ways to attempt to solve a problem. One of them is correct. Retry until you guess right.

Most missions require a certain degree of foreknowledge. Going into a situation, you never know if you will need a fast car, a heavy car, a motorcycle, or if you will be fighting on foot. Will you fight many weak foes (bring a pistol) or a single strong one (bring a shotgun) or will you need to be shooting while driving? (Bring a submachine gun.) You have to try a mission a few times to know what you’re up against and use that knowledge to prepare, but then the game thwarts attempts to otherwise use that knowledge to your advantage. You have to use some foreknowledge, but not too much, and only when the game allows. Case in point:

The Setup:

Salvatore Leone, a Mafia Don, has been kidnapped. His kidnappers have him in the trunk of a car. They plan to take the car to the junkyard and put it into the crusher. Sal is a lying, murderous, drug-selling, wife-beating scumball, and my job is to rescue him.

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Pharmacomedy

By Shamus Posted Monday Apr 23, 2007

Filed under: Links 34 comments

For the last two weeks my sleep has been all messed up. Most nights I get between four and five hours. Once in a while I’ll luck out and get six. The doctor gave me Rozerem samples to see if that would help. Except: Once I had them I didn’t want to use them. I hate sleeping pills. They don’t really solve problems, only delay them. Sure, I can take a pill and it will put me to sleep tonight, but tomorrow if I don’t take the pill it will be even harder to get to sleep than it was in the first place, as my body will be anticipating the drug.

I decided to see if there is some sort of informational webpage that might describe the drug. Oh. My. Goodness.. I was expecting some raw text with technical specifications (or whatever you call them) of the drug. Instead I found this flash-driven comedy show staring an insomniac, a beaver, and Abe Lincoln. The drug doesn’t have it’s own webpage. It has its own website. With message boards. Message boards!

I like that the site lists other ways to help you get to sleep (some of the advice I found to be kind of helpful) without using their drug, although it was hard to find what I was looking for: Side-effects, how long the drug lasts, what the risks are, and how to take it. (With food, or water, or on an empty stomach, etc.) Eventually I found that you can get more info on the drug by (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) clicking on the beaver, and if you hunt around you can find a PDF with boring details like the side effects.

What a strange site. I’m not suggesting that these guys are going to supplant Homestar and Strongbad anytime soon, but still. I wonder how many other drugs have their own sites like this? Maybe judging the hilarity of a proposed drug will become part of the FDA approval process. Which drugs are the funniest, I wonder? If there is a site for Lithium, I think it should look like Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes. That would be awesome.

 


 

DM of the Rings XCI:
The Predictable Surprise

By Shamus Posted Monday Apr 23, 2007

Filed under: DM of the Rings 160 comments

Gandalf arrives to save the day.
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The Predictable Surprise”