Friday, January 27, 2012

WORD OF THE DAY! 1/27/12



schematics [skeh-mat-ikz]
noun
1. A structural or procedural diagram/design.

EX. The above schematics of a Pokéball explains the technical processes that allow a pokéball to function, as well as the different varieties of pokéballs one may find across the various regions of the Pokémon world, their values, and specialized functions.

The process that allows pokéballs to operate is adequately summarized in the second diagram. Such devices have two functions; the transfer of matter into energy and the management of complex data storage.

Every time you capture a Pokémon or return one to a pokéball, the creature is, in fact, destroyed or deconstructed. Their genetic structure and experiences are turned into energy, the energy is store in complex processors in the poké ball and when you release a Pokémon, the creature is reconstructed by turning energy into matter that is, for all intensive purposes, the same creature that the ball deconstructed.

A similar process is used in the Star Trek transporter system and Willie Wonka's Shrink Machine.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

WEEKLY ROUND-UP! 1/16-1/22 2012

WEEKLY ROUND-UP:
UNICORN BUTCHERY WEEK!

7. WORD OF THE DAY! 1/20/12. Charcutier. Offal.

Speaking of butchery, I've been finding a lot of weird butchery charts for various pop culture creatures from Bowser the Turtle Dragon to Gummy Bears. Yes, as in the candy.


6. WORD OF THE DAY! 1/16/12. HAZMAT, hazmat suit, NBC suit, MOPP

Sometimes you just got get some education into your week and that's why I decided to cover Miyaka-Jima or "Gas Mask Island".


Star Wars? Check. A capella? Check? Duel of Fates? WIN! BERP! BERP BERP! FERP BERP! BERP VERP VERP! BERP DI DER DER DERP! Etc.


I'm singing in the rain
Just singing in the rain
What a glorious feelin'
I'm happy again
I'm laughing at clouds
So dark up above
The sun's in my heart
And I'm ready for love!


3. WORD OF THE DAY! 1/22/12. Implausible. Monologue. Bullet time.

Dedicated to Linkara who taught me that I wasn't wrong for taking issue with the ludicrous art style that turns me into masses of tumorous flesh and women into pipe cleaners with boobs.

2. WORD OF THE DAY! 1/21/12.Sidekick.

Time to kick Keese and eat the hearts of my foes! I have been on a major Legend of Zelda kick since I got a new copy of Twilight Princess, Ocarine of Time 3D and Skyward Sword for Christmas. This word of the day was a fun retrospective of a series I've grown up with.

1. MIXED BAG. TABLETOP TALES. #3 FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC: THE BUDDY COP CAMPAIGN PT. 1

I got to talk about one of my favorite Dungeons and Dragons campaign I'd ever ran and it was a great way to supplement a month where I'm dry on creative juices and time. Thanks to all of you for check out my blog and being such awesome nerds.

WORD OF THE DAY! 1/24/12



escapade [es-kah-peyd]
noun
1. a usually adventurous action that runs counter to approved or conventional conduct.

EX. The escapades of Jake the Dog and Finn the Human, while often silly, are epic.
Age of Escapades: The Chronicles of a Boy and his Magical Dog
Sung to the tune of the Adventure Time Theme

"Age of Escapades
To arms my kinsmen,
To quest far and within. 
With Jake the Hound
And Finn the Friend
Our quest never ends,
Age of Escapades!"

Monday, January 23, 2012

MUSICAL MONDAY! ROLL A D6!

MUSICAL MONDAY PRESENTS
ROLL A D6!

WORD OF THE DAY! 1/23/12

orphan [awr-fuhn]
noun
1. a child who has lost both parents through death, or, less commonly, one parent.
2. a young animal that has been abandoned or lost by its mother.
3. a person or thing that is without protective affiliation or sponsorship.
adjective
4. bereft of parents.
5. of or for orphans.
6. not authorized, supported, or funded; not part of a system; isolated; abandoned.
7. lacking a commercial sponsor, or employer, etc.

EX. Poor little orphan Batty, lost his mom and his daddy!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

MIXED BAG. TABLETOP TALES. #3 FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC: THE BUDDY COP CAMPAIGN PT. 1

TABLETOP TALES PRESENTS
FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC: THE BUDDY COP CAMPAIGN PT. 1 Introduction
I love Dungeons and Dragons. I have been playing, more or less, once a week for over two years and I don't ever plan to stop playing. Most of the times I've played Dungeons and Dragons, I have been the Dungeon Master. For those who don't know, a Dungeon Master is the guy who is in charge of telling the story, determining what monsters and characters the other players come across and, in essence, is the god of the world the players explore. As an author, it gives me a chance to flex my creative muscles.

 Yet, while Dungeons and Dragons can breed a lot of original ideas, it doesn't hurt to fall back on familiar ideas, tropes and characters inspired by works of sci-fi fantasy. I find myself borrowing/parodying from all masters of the imagination; from L. Frank Baum to Walt Disney to Jim Henson and on. Yet, if there is on author that has had an effect on my dungeon mastering, story-telling and humor it is Terry Pratchett.




Terry Pratchett is my favorite author. Out of all the worlds I've visited in my reading, Discworld is the one I want to revisit again and again. Despite the fact that Terry Pratchett is a great satirist, poking fun and adapting everything from Hamlet to Conan the Barbarian, he is also the creator of some of the most endearing characters I've ever read. Somehow he managed to take the best parts of so many iconic characters, inject them with his own personal wit and insights, and create a world of characters that shine.
There are two things I learned from reading his work: anything is possible through the power of imagination (sound cliche, but it takes quite a lot of nonsense to make one believe in what most people consider to be nonsense) and the power of fantasy. He is a defender of fantasy, the oldest genre of fiction, and its power to bend reality around a story. I try to bend my fantasy world, The Wold, around every story I create. Perhaps no campaign has ever been a better example of this concept and a better homage to Pratchett's works than my 2010 campaign that, as of today, will be forever remember as FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC as a reference to the Ankh-Morpork's City Watch's motto (which cannot be translated to "Make my day, punk!" That would just be silly.))

In terms of pure improvisational story-telling and role-playing, few of my campaigns have ever been as successful as the Buddy Cop campaign. I don't remember how it all got started, but it began unlike any other story I've ran. First of all, there were only two player characters and both were originally created as an homage to two of Terry Pratchett's characters, Carrot Ironfounderson and Angua. I made the characters on a lark.

First, up we got Carrot Ironfounderson. Pratchett's Carrot is the perfect model that we would all hope a cop would be; honest, diligent, trustworthy, kind and generous etc. An orphan raised by dwarves, he came to the city to become a watchman after he discovered he was human, and has quickly become one of the most well-known and liked figures in the city of Ankh-Morpork. He is considered the "most linear thinker" in Discworld, and is so naive that he doesn't even realize that he has been living above a brothel for several years, but one must not confuse being "simple" with being "stupid". Carrot is a great detective, a great problem solver, and if someone crosses his honest nature will find themselves in trouble fast. In my campaign, he was played by my friend Chris Baker who, despite never reading a single Pratchett novel, plays Carrot just as Pratchett intended. I handed him the character, which I made a paragon paladin, and he gave one of the most likeable role-playing performances I've seen from a gamer. Chris managed to play a goody-good character that was hardly boring and hardly incapable of solving problems. When it came to making the other character, it easy to say that things got a little bit more complicated.

The other character I made turned out to be a composite of two Terry Pratchett characters. Initially, I made a longtooth shifter dual-blade ranger based on a female character. The character was based on Angua, a werewolf cop who joined the force after escaping the land of Uberwold. Only problem with using her in my campaign? I needed another male character instead of a female. The solution was to combine Angua with the main watchmen character of Ankh-Morpork, Samuel Vimes. The end result was a gruff werewolf cop by the name of Viktor "Vik" Von Uberwold, the old drunkard bad cop to Carrot's goody-two-shoes cop. Vik was played by my friend Nick Mawby. Nick is great at playing characters that are anti-heroes, villains, and cowards. He played Vik as an old beatcop in the body of a young werewolf. His character often acted on instinct and he uses his werewolf powers to take care of business. The end result came out like an insane mix of Wolverine, Dirty Harry, and McGruff the Crime Dog.

How well did these two different characters interact and how did the adventure play out? Well, you'll have to check back later this week with Part 2: UNICORNS & ZOMBIES


To read my other Tabletop Tales, click the links below.

#1 YAMA HACHIYAMA

#2 THE STORY BOOK CAMPAIGN: THE LIZARD OF LOLZ Pt. 1

#2 THE STORY BOOK CAMPAIGN: THE LIZARD OF LOZ Pt. 2

WORD OF THE DAY! 1/22/12

implausible [im-plaw-zuh-buhl]
noun
1. not plausible; lacking having the appearance of truth or plausubility.
2. unrealistic or unfeasible.


monologue [mah-no-lawg]
noun
1. a form of dramatic speech, comedic solo, or the like by a single speaker.
2. a prolonged talk or discourse by a single speaker, especially one dominating or monopolizing conversation.
3. any composition, as a poem, in which a single person speaks alone.
4. a part of drama in which a single person speaks alone; soliloquy.
verb
5. to perform a speech.

bullet time [bool-it-tahym]
noun
1. is a special and visual special effect that refers to a digitally enhanced simulation used to show effects, ex. bullets moving through the air, that could not be performed easily through traditional slow-motion capture techniques.

EX.The above scene is an implausible moment-- from the monologue performed in the space of a snap shot bullet-time moment to the awkward flexing of Psylocke's spine that would normal break her like a twig. In comics, such implausible moments fall into two categories; the first being an injection of implausibility for the sake of having a moment of pure action-packed fantasy moment and the latter being a frustratingly or embarrassingly ludicrous moment.

The above scene appears to be the latter based on a mix of visual cues; from her spine-bending to her silly little speech that would take a few seconds to say to her extremely sexist costume that barely covered the middle third of her butt. Everything her looks incredibly awkward and, assuming the comic is not based on rubbery hose animation mechanics, ex. Felix the Cat, we can conclude this either the result of a combination of translation lost through collaboration between writer and artist and the results of the Über-sexist comic book styles that still dominate.