March 4 is “DM’s Day”. Time flies. My wallet, too. Remember 2006-11-09 Nostalgia for Rolplaying Games? “And since none of my former roleplaying friends play anymore, I just sit on my books and dream of days gone by.”
But things have changed!
I blame it all on GreyWulf. 



I’ve decided to see how much money I spent, and vowed to stop purchasing any new stuff. (Not including the stuff that’s in the pipeline, obviously…)
So check it out: RoleplayingBookshelf.
Today I also got two “watermarked” PDF files from Necromancer Games, and had to install Adobe’s Acrobat Reader in order to view them: Apple’s built-in Preview.app was unable to display them correctly. What a shame. I don’t trust Adobe, because their software looks like a dangerous multi-headed hydra with way too many features, probably auto-updating, no uninstall option, and messing with PDF handling all over the system.
Tags: Books RPG publishing
A few days ago we went to see La Môme (2007). It was interesting, and the actress was very impressive, but as entertainment, it was too depressive. When she’s happy, she’s drunk and vulgar, and when she’s not, she’s falling appart due to excessive drinking. When she’s in love, her lover dies in an airplane crash. Ugh.
Tags: Movies 
We saw Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) today. The pictures were often great, but story and character development are a total nil. First they seem to be nice, then they’re evil, then they repent. The main character falls in love, but nobody knows why. I liked the angular faces, ship design, mask design, city design, sub design – I liked many things. But the story is lousy. Just compare it with Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1987).
Watch the Laputa movie instead.
Tags: Movies 
Recently I had occasion to consider the kind of player I am, and the kind of DM I was playing with. I think ordering the following four terms in order of preference will help you figure out what to expect, or where you have to watch out.
My style:
I’m trying to introduce more dice rolling into this, in order to spare players lots of talking if they don’t enjoy it as much as I do. They roll the dice, and if they make their skill checks, I just give them the result of the talk. Somehow using indirect speech seems to work as a compromise.


While browsing the EN World forums, I happened upon a link to a blog post about social contracts for RPG groups. How strange. Then I started reading and realized how I’ve been taking many things for granted. Writing them down might allow me to reappraise them. So here goes – my notes as I read through that blog post.


I think I should at least mention the time-frame to my players. I’ve already asked them whether they’re Ok with trying an Adventure Path or mini campaigns. They are! 
Another thing I should do is let my players know when I’m having tons of fun. I know that I’m always very happy when they let me know they’re having fun.
I like my campaign settings to be fluff-only. In my games, players rarely go off to fight the ones in power directly. That’s why I don’t need their stats. And really, why else would I need these stats? Campaign settings are supposed to inspire me when I work on my homebrew adventures.
So when JVisgaitis asked: Fluff only campaign settings?, I responded that I prefer fluff over crunch. Even though I like the Kitsunemori Campaign Setting, it is still very crunchy.
The Echoes of Heaven campaign material has some very interesting properties:

Check out their Final Redoubt Philosophy page. I like it.
Comments on 2007-03-05 Fluff Only
I’ve never heard of it, which is odd. I have now, so I’m intrigued. Echoes of Heaven is duely added to my witchlist 
Meantime, I’m ploughing through Mythic and giggling uncontrollably. GM-less role-playing/brainstorming at it’s best. Just what my group needs before we start to migrate Ptolus to Warhammer Fantasy Role-play.
– GreyWulf 2007-03-06 01:54 UTC
Hehe. We played without a DM for three times. The first two occasions were wonderful. We basically had a little token to pass between each other. The token holder was basically the narrator. It was great fun, and I wrote it up, too (in German): RollenspieleOhneMeister. That was in spring of 1999.
When we met for the third time, we were all tired and listless. It fizzled. The fourth time we met in a bar and that was the end of it.
It was rule-less, dice-less, and DM-less roleplaying…
You’re actually going ahead and switching over to WFRP. You wrote about WFRP on your blog, so I knew you were interested. But not that interested! I guess now I have to trawl Ebay, too…
Interesting how most players don’t care about rules and settings, where as Dungeon Masters feel a strange obsession with checking out many different systems. I’ll have to look at my copy Mutant Chronicles again one of these days.
– AlexSchroeder 2007-03-06 08:02 UTC
I’ve played DMless a few times and had a blast. It’s the first time we’ve actually thought to use rules to do it though! Heh. Mythic is a great ruleset too, which makes it all the more fun.
We’re going to run a few Ptolus sessions in parallel using D&D and heroic characters doing the saving-the-world stuff, and WFRP for the gritty, street-level aftermath stuff. After all, when the heroes flush out a Vampyr from it’s underground crypt beneath a market, someone has to mop up the mess. Nothing does street-level better than Warhammer. These are the guys who know the victims personally, who bring the problem to the notice of the authorities and do what they can to help where they can. It’s a welcome change of pace to the gung-ho cinematic heroics of D&D, and hopefully will round out the world of Ptolus even more.
That’s the plan, anyhow 
– GreyWulf 2007-03-06 12:57 UTC
Playing without a DM was one of the best RPG experience i ever hade. Alex: i just read RollenspieleOhneMeister: wonderful. Thank you.
– Chris 2007-03-10 20:38 UTC
Something I noticed when printing out PDF files: My printer only prints single sided, so I’d love to print only even pages, reinsert them into the paper tray, and print only odd pages. In theory, it works.
In real life, however, printing the odd pages fails practically always. There will be some irregularity, with half a page being skipped, and the remaining pages being out of sync.
Is is this an electrostatic problem? What can I do to avoid this?
It drives me nuts nuts nuts nuts NUTS!!!

Comments on 2007-03-07 Double Sided Printing
Put a book on top of the sheets after the first pass through the printer then wait ten minutes before feeding the paper through again. That gives the paper time to cool, settle and flatten out again.
Works for me, anyhow 
– GreyWulf 2007-03-07 23:44 UTC
Thanks, will try that. 
It’s awkward to block the printer in the office for half an hour printing a file called “NecG-TombAbysthor” for everyone to see in the print-queue, hehe.
– AlexSchroeder 2007-03-08 07:57 UTC
I use this method for double-sided printer for almost every document on my inkjet. Most HP LaserJet printers allow you to attach a duplexer which will solve all your troubles as well as save paper in most cases. Makes even more sense if it is an office printer.
– AlokSingh 2007-03-08 09:41 UTC
I’m really looking forward to playing a few Necromancer Games’ adventures and mini-campaigns. Since I’ve played the first one solo with Claudia running the party of six, I think I’ll try to build a Sunday group for these adventures. Next session is March 18. Wish me luck. 
Recruiting players! 
So, what’s the line-up?
I’m not sure in which order we’ll play the latter modules.
Tags: RPG publishing
If you are a regular reader, you will have noted: No more Iraq ranting, no more USA bashing, no more looking at Iran’s fledgling democracy, no more accusing of Israel, no more support for Palestine. It’s over and out. Burnt out. I’m going down the drain like everybody else. A boorish ignoramus, cynical and bitter. It was no use. Think global and act local my ass. I’ve said it before, somewhere. Those who think local and act global have the power to bomb foreign nations they couldn’t even find on a map, and people who read the news are frustrated by the lack of any change. Anger alone will not change the world. But it hurts just the same. So I think I’ll think local and act local. There’s little use in reading the newspapers if all you can do is have it forced down your throat.
I guess I’m glad I don’t have any kids, or I’d feel compelled to fight for a better world for my kids. Since I have none, your kids can have it.
I think I’ve gone full circle: Learning to code, learning about FreeSoftware, engaging in the perpetual struggle for less Copyright and less Patents, for FreeCulture, eventually trying to change things in preparation for the WSIS, slowly realizing how futile it was, how I would have to dedicate a life to it, turning away from active Emacs development, being swamped with Spam, no longer reading the EmacsNewsgroups, no longer reading the EmacsMailingLists, working less on Oddmuse, no more excitement for SocialSoftware, reading more Books and finally starting to play roleplaying games (RPG) again. Back to homo ludens.
Goodbuy cruel world. I’m back to cultiver notre jardin (Candide).
My first issue of Dungeon magazine arrived today! 
Comments on 2007-03-08 Dungeon vs. Iraq
Hmmm. Well.. What can I say. It is a depressing state of affairs.
– NoufalIbrahim 2007-03-09 06:00 UTC
Totally. And there comes a time where even ranting on your blog is no longer good enough. 
– AlexSchroeder 2007-03-09 10:25 UTC
Oh I dunno. There’s always room for a good rant 
I remember what a friend of mine said, a long time ago: “Emotions are tidal”.
It’s impossible to stay angry all the time, to be happy all the time, to care, all the time. We need to step back emotionally and rediscover the things that make us care, happy, angry or whatever. Ain’t nothing wrong with that, my friend.
Beside which, RPGs are good for the soul

– GreyWulf 2007-03-09 10:34 UTC
Das klingt ja recht pessimistisch. Das geht sicher wieder vorrueber.
Am Nahen und Mittleren Osten habe ich schon lange das Interesse verloren. Die Fanatiker und Mitschreier dort befinden sich im europaeischen Vergleich in der Zeit des 30 jaehrigen Krieges, und da haben sie noch einen langen Weg zu gehen. Und fuer Argumente sind sie ja nicht zugaenglich, wenn sie die Religion ueber alles stellen.
Wie sieht es mit free software, copyright, Patente etc. aus? Da tritt auch ein groessere Pause ein??? Dann bleiben neben der Arbeit noch die Spiele und da hast du viel Freude, wie ich dem blog entnehme. Nur kann ich da nicht mithalten, weil mich das so gar nicht anspricht.
Wie waer’s mit einem Tapetenwechsel, einen Kurzbesuch in Brasilien? Eine westliche und doch eigene Kultur!!!
– Helmut Schroeder 2007-03-12 01:44 UTC
Don’t feel guilty or anything, this is not a wasted effort, you see, it ain’t a circle, it’s a spiral – you’re becoming better with each cycle.
– TheSheep 2007-03-13 08:43 UTC
Agreed. It’s the Community:InvolvementCycle. 
– LionKimbro 2007-03-13 18:53 UTC
Good point. I’m glad to see that I’m not alone! 
– AlexSchroeder 2007-03-13 20:53 UTC
I was hoping April Fool’s had come early this year.
See EmacsWiki:2005-04-01.
PS. The “Matching Pages” search works great. Self:action=index;near=1;match=2005-04-01
– AaronHawley 2007-03-15 15:13 UTC
Scharfzüngige Liste von Gründen keine Zeitung zu lesen von SuShee.
– AlexSchroeder 2007-03-17 11:07 UTC
I spent the weekend with Claudia in Aminona near Crans-Montana (Valais). March 10 is the anniversary of our relationship. We’ve been together for over 15 years, now.

Tags: Life
Comments on 2007-03-12 Back from Montana
Herzlichen Glueckwunsch zu den 15 Jahren Gemeinsamkeit und alles Gute fuer die noch kommenden Jahre!
– der Vater 2007-03-12 20:59 UTC
three cheers to you!
– V 2007-03-14 18:20 UTC
15 cheers I say! 
– AadityaSood 2007-03-15 06:14 UTC
Thanks! Wishing you two all the best as well. 
– AlexSchroeder 2007-03-15 07:10 UTC
Just noticed this. Belated wishes from the both of us.
– AlokSingh 2007-03-20 06:16 UTC
Some of my sites have been hosted on EggplantFarms, eg. CommunityWiki. Unfortunately, that server has a read-only filesystem for several days, which basically disables all my wikis.
Grrrr. 
Tags: Life
Comments on 2007-03-12 Epfarms Continues Read-Only
Same here. Grrrr indeed. I dropped the admin an email, but I’ve have no reply. The server is completely down right now, hopefully rebooting and disk-checking. Something (possibly the always running rsync process?) is causing corruption, which ain’t good.
/me is considering setting up a temporary wiki at memebot.com, or installing the static-hybrid.pl module (would that help? I doubt it). Or both.
– GreyWulf 2007-03-12 23:17 UTC
Wow, we’re back in business!
– AlexSchroeder 2007-03-13 08:56 UTC
Today I came back from a few days in the mountains and noticed several pieces of comment spam on my site. I just realized that they were all made from IP numbers belonging to an ISP in the Ukraine. I don’t need to add these pages to QuestionsRequired – I just need to add them to BannedHosts.
Spam is such a sad thing.
Over on Treasure Tables I found a link to NearbyGamers in a post called NearbyGamers: Find Players with Google Maps.
At the moment we’re but two in all of Europe, I think. [1]
I also had to experiment with the location field a bit (ended up using “Zurich, Switzerland”). Note that German speaking gamers are probably best found via Spielerzentrale.
Stuff I bought today:
Some days, Comics just beat everything else.
Tags: Comics 
I started running CrucibleOfFreya, as planned!
(2007-03-07 Necromancer Games)
Claudia runs Corian, Galdar, and Phelps, three pregenerated characters (PDF) for the (revised) Wizard’s Amulet available from Necromancer Games’ Free Stuff page. She had run six of them through the Wizard’s Amulet a few weeks ago and liked it. (Personally, I did not like it. The first encounter looks very much like a filler, and the second encounter has a magic user, animated undead, and thugs with ranged weapons. I was afraid to run it on anything but “easy”.)
Her friend runs the two pregenerated characters Belflin and Krel, and a character we created today – the druid Auroleva. Creating the character took quite some time, but I was surprised to find that the two enjoyed character creation very much.

April 30
On their way to Fairhill, Phelps managed to spot the three orcs hiding behind a rock on the hillside to their left and the party hid just in time. They waited behind trees and rocks for several rounds, and the orcs kept shooting and shouting insults such as “Cabbage heads! Pumpkin seeds!” Then the players decide to shoot back. Auroleva uses her short bow, and Corian sends two magic missiles, doing max damage in both rounds and slaying two of the orcs.
The third orc turns to run with Belflin and Krel hot in pursuit. Belflin knows how to track the orc and Krel speaks orcish. They see the orc disappear in the forest, follow him to a little stream, and see him taking cover. Belflin tries to sneak up on him, but at the last moment he steps on some dried leaves. The orc whips around, raises his axe and snarls: “Prepare to die, dirty elf!” But Belflin just ducks, moves in, and smacks him with the flat side of his longsword across the head. Yay for non-lethal damage! The orc collapses.
As Krel interrogates the orc, the players learn the location of the keep, they learn that Tavik is looking for something in the ruined keep, and that Kren and his orcs are planning to attack Fairhill soon. During the interrogation, the captured orc tried to convince Krel to join their cause and get rid of the rotten elf, begged for mercy, and offered to join them.
Next session, we’ll see what to do with the prisoner.
Notes:

Tags: CrucibleOfFreya RPG SundayGroup
Clicking on the images will take you to the corresponding Flickr page. I added comments to the Flickr pages trying to explain what I liked about these pictures. I’m not sure it’s worth discussing it: If it doesn’t work for a visitor, what’s the point in explaining an obviously failing idea? Note that I rarely think of these things as I take a picture. Perhaps reflecting on the process of choosing pictures I like, I can improve my composition skill, aiming for the effects I appreciate the most.
Tags: Life 
Ptolus: City By The Spire by Monte Cook arrived today. Imp’s Shop has done an outstanding job in getting the books to me with free shipping & handling. It’s not yet available on amazon.de; there’s a 2nd hand copy available from Amazon Marketplace @ €183,52 (instead of the €120,00 I paid). And guess what. The book’s from the UK. Amazing. Perhaps I should get into the resale market. 
The book looks impressive, and it’s heavy. They should classify it as a weapon.
You can also buy it as a 800 page PDF. Deadly!
I also bought a printed copy of the Player’s Guide, because I prefer reading stuff on paper, and because printing things myself results in bad production values (black and white, no glossy paper, time wasted printing, time wasted trying to print two-sided, and so on).
I also received The Vault of Larin Karr by W.D.B. Kenower from Necromancer Games. Cool. This product might actually see some use before we’re getting to Ptolus, as I have in mind to connect it with my current CrucibleOfFreya campaign, including the Tomb of Abysthor by Clark Peterson and Bill Webb. We’ll see.
Perhaps I should move my Sunday group to Ptolus, and let my Wednesday group play the dungeon crawls? They like combat. (Remember my simple RPG classification scheme: Rank combat, riddles, and interaction according to preference.) And I found a page on the web describing Tomb of Abysthor as follows:
Hehehehe. 
Tags: RPG Books publishing
Vor ein paar Tagen habe ich mir wieder ein paar Comics im Analph geholt. Courtney Crumrin und die Gilde der Geheimnisse von Ted Naifeh (auf Deutsch bei Eidolon), ist wie gewohnt interessant gezeichnet und einzelne Elemente der Geschichte auch wirklich klasse: Tommy aus der Mergelgrube, die Frösche aus Hermia’s Mund, und so weiter. Ab und zu hat es Momente, wo ich den Verdacht habe, dass sie nur für Jugendliche eingefügt wurden: “Dann merkt ihr ganz genau, was eine Crumrin kann.”
Es ist auf alle Fälle immer wieder ein seltsames Gefühl, Comics, die ursprünglich auf Englisch erschienen sind, auf Deutsch zu lesen.
So wie die Elfenwelt Comics (Elfquest) beim Carlsen Verlag. Ich habe mal angefangen, die deutschen Comics zu kaufen, weil der Seitenpreis sehr ähnlich ist wie der Seitenpreis der englischen Sammelbänder: Elfquest Archives Volume 1 (DC Archive Editions) (Gebundene Ausgabe) kostet €49.99 für 216 Seiten, und der dritte Comic Band auf Deutsch kostet €10 für 66 Seiten (und 10 / 66 × 216 = €33). Dann kaufe ich die Comics Claudia zuliebe auf Deutsch. 
Die Elfen sehen immer wieder wie aus einer Hippie Phantasie entsprungen aus.
Nur leider sind von den ersten 10 Bändern Band 2 und 4 schon nicht mehr lieferbar. Wie ärgerlich. Ich glaube ich habe mich hier auf ein Himmelfahrtskommando eingelassen. Auch die Wikipedia Seite konnte mir nicht klar machen, was ich denn nun genau kaufen muss, damit ich alle Geschichten in der richtigen Reihenfolge lesen kann.$
Soll ich schon auf Sammelbänder ausweichen?
Tags: Comics
We saw Sinbad (2003) on DVD, and liked it. Better story than Atlantis (2001). I’m not sure I really like the obvious computer animations such as the fly-throughs, the water-effects on the sirens, and so on. Similar to many other movies, the bad guys are the most formidable. Eris FTW.
Recommended if you like animations.
Tags: Movies 
I rarely write about Emacs. Hello Planet Emacs! 
So, is there anything new in my .emacs?
psvn is subtly different from pcvs for CVS. I can’t be bothered to investigate, though.That’s it. Not much happening in terms of Emacs. It just is…
Tags: Emacs
I found that my Gaim on Windows crashes, when I try to add another account. I’m stuck with GTalk. I’m using 2.0.0beta6. Maybe I should downgrade to 1.5.0. 
[time passes]
Now that I’ve downgraded, I was able to get GTalk, AIM, and ICQ up. When I try to connect with the MSN account however, Gaim crashes.
Tags: Software
Comments on 2007-03-29 Gaim Crashes
There is a text version gaim-text from gaim 2.0 which is supposed to be quite good and potientially someone might build a Emacs package for it.
– Leo 2007-03-29 14:22 UTC
I’ve started reading The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. I should learn a bit more about Heian Japan…
I very much like the sexual subtext that is hidden behind layers of time and cultural barriers, poems, and allusions. It is almost unfortunate that I ended up with the abridged Edward Seidensticker version. Via the Wikipedia The Tale of Genji page, I found a complete copy of the Seidensticker translation online. Oh well. I prefer paper to monitors, so I’ll stick to the abridged version for now.
Maybe I should check out the illustrated travel-guide to the book before going to Japan coming autumn. (No, we have not made any preparations at all, yet.)
Update: I just ordered the unabridged translation by Royall Tyler, together with some more Elfquest comics. 
Die deutsche Version, die ich gelesen habe, ist keine Übersetzung direkt aus dem Japansichen (obwohl das Original zu Rate gezogen wurde), sie basiert auf die erste, englische Übersetzung von Waley. Scheinbar gibt es noch eine andere (direkte) Übersetzung: ich habe was von Oskar Benl gefunden, ist aber sehr teuer, und obwohl ich Benl von Übersetzungen von Inoue recht gut kenne und schätze, kann ich mich noch nicht dazu durchringen, sein Genji zu kaufen und lesen.
– Chris 2007-04-12 20:03 UTC
I’m listening to two Podcasts:
Comments on 2007-03-30 My Podcasts
Ich habe die zeit als audio und podcast abonniert, sonst höre ich auch bücherwelt (deutsche welle) und französische sendungen von france inter. Gut finde ich allô la planète… Lade ich dann alle auf mein ipod-mini
bussi
– mum 2007-04-02 10:02 UTC
Ok, I admit it. I’ve been reading The Order of the Stick over the course of several days now. A comic about a D&D party with knowledge of the rules and mixing adventure and meta all the time.
I’ve reached episode 179 and I still like it. Scary how often I recognize our own gaming group in it. 
Define external redirect: QuestionsRequired
I don’t mind Watermarked PDFs at all, though I agree about the dislike for Adobe Acrobat. It’s just too memory leaky for my tastes. Given a choice between watermarks or DRM though, I’ll take the watermarked product every time. It’s as good a compromise as any, I guess. Easy to crack though, so pointless in the end.
I’m rambling now. I’ll shut up
– GreyWulf 2007-03-05 10:33 UTC
But you’re so right when you ramble.

– AlexSchroeder 2007-03-05 10:44 UTC
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