DOCSLIB.ORG

Adobe Photoshop

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Adobe Photoshop I W A N T T O B I E A N A W E A book of Humor, S O Almanackery, M and Memoir E R by Ewen Cluney O B O SampleT file E W E N C L U N E Y I WANT TO BE AN AWESOME ROBOT A Book of Humor/Memoir/Almanackery By Ewen Cluney Sample file 1 ©2014 by Ewen Cluney Edited by Ellen Marlow Cover design by Clay Gardner In case it wasn’t clear, this book is a work of satire. There are true things in it, but it’s mostly lies told for comedy. Image Credits Cover Photo © 2011 by joecicak Kurumi and Maid RPG artwork by Susan Mewhiney Catgirl artwork by Thinh Pham “My Dumb Recipes” and “At the Plant” photos by Ewen Cluney Activity Section Art by Dawn Davis Ewen caricature by C. Ellis Dice photo by James Jones, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License. VCR photo by Akinom, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Bacon pie shell photo by nacho spiterson, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Infinite Loop photo by Michael Fonfara, used under a Creative Commons Attribu- tion License. Quetzalcoatl statue photo by Don DeBold, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Cosplay photo by Joppo Klein, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License. IBM 5150 photo by Boffy b, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Android OS photo by davidsancar, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Vladimir Putting photo by the Russian Presidential Press and Information Office, used under a Creative CommonsSample Attribution fileLicense. Icons are from The Noun Project (www.thenounproject.com) and used under a Creative Commons Attribution License: • Robot by Simon Child from The Noun Project • Table by Stephen JB Thomas from The Noun Project • Dragon by Angela Dinh from The Noun Project • Japan by Ted Grajeda from The Noun Project • Catgirl by Nick Green from The Noun Project • Food by Sebastian Langer from The Noun Project • Rocket by Mister Pixel from The Noun Project • Tic Tac Toe by TNS from The Noun Project • World by Juan Pablo Bravo from The Noun Project • Writing by Hadi Davodpour from The Noun Project All other images used in this book are public domain. 2 Thanks To my friends, C. Ellis, Chris, Michael, Tim, Dave, Aaron, Dave, Grant, Mike, Nick, Steven, Clay, and I’m sure I’m forgetting someone, but you get the idea. Phyllis Cluney (a.k.a. Grandma) for believing in me more than I did. Nick, Mike, Rebecca, Frank, Sofiya, Kendal, Jesse, Andrew, and Tina, the gang from the localization department at work. That era of my life is over, but I’m glad you all were a part of it. Putting up with me reading weird calendar entries every morning didn’t hurt either. Wikipedia, and the many people who help maintain it. I genuinely couldn’t have done it without you. Memory Alpha and Wookiepedia helped too. Sample file 3 Also by Ewen Cluney Maid: The Role-Playing Game (translator) Yaruki Zero: Collected Thoughts on Role-Playing Games Channel A: The Anime Pitch Party Game Golden Sky Stories (translator) i.hate.everyone Not by Ewen Cluney (Partial List) Angry Birds: The Novel Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever Biggles Combs His Hair Cat Planet Cuties Cyborg Commando Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire Gilgamesh The Godfather Part III Grave of the Fireflies Great Expectations Hamlet A Journey to the Center of the Earth My LittleSample Pony: Equestria file Girls Orange: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Conan O’Brien The Shab-al-Hiri Roach Sh*t My Dad Says Sharknado Sharknado vs. Dolphoon Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-Men: Planet X The Tale of Genji Totally Spies! The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 Zoolander 4 Introduction Sample file An attempt at explaining what the hell is going on here. 5 Sample file 6 You might be wondering what exactly this is, and I’m not sure I have a good answer for you. I can start by saying that this is a book. If you are reading these words it is likely that you understand the general concept of a book. If someone is reading them aloud for you, what they are doing is not sorcery, but rather a well-established technique for transforming symbols into patterns of sound from which human Figure 1: Not Witchcraft beings can derive meaning. You are lucky to live in this modern era when books come in convenient sheaves of paper and electronic files, as past stone carvings, clay tablets, tattooed slaves, giant monuments,1 engraved swords, and telepathic crystals all had pitfalls that are largely behind us now. If you would like to know more about books… I guess looking it up on Wikipedia is your best bet. Let’s move on. I wish I could say I was writing this from my palatial estate, or my secret underground bunker, or even just from a room in a reasonably nice hotel. Or rather, I could say those things, but I wish I could say them truthfully. As you’ll see as you continue reading, I’m quite capable of writing things that are not true, especially if I think they’ll be entertaining. 2 I’m actually writing this in my bedroom, which is situated in my parents’ house. This house was originally some kind of ranch house, and the garage we never use appears to have at some point been a stable. It sits withinSample walking distance file of the Wendy’s where in 2005, a woman named Anna Alaya claimed to have found a severed finger in her chili.3 This room was originally a parlor, but someone walled it off from what is now the living room, added two-prong electrical outlets, and placed the heater so that the room gets half of the heat for the entire house. The result is a room that is comfortable despite its modernity feeling like something of a contrivance. I’m surrounded by books, DVDs, figures, posters, plushies, and other artifacts of my strange existence. Some days these things speak to me, remind me of who 1 Before you ask, a special Obelisk Edition of this book will be available as soon as Lulu or CreateSpace add the obelisk format to their offerings. 2 Also, footnotes! 3 She’d actually brought the finger and put it into the chili herself, and went to jail for this attempt at fraud. Somehow this rather important aspect of the incident was largely ignored by the media. For my part I suspected something was wrong, as did the authorities, when I heard that someone had allegedly ordered chili from Wendy’s. 7 I am and where I’ve been. Other days they fade into the background or tumble out to become a nuisance. There are parts of the book that I wrote in other places, but for the most part this book is a product of me toiling away in this room in Microsoft Word. The resulting book is a blend of humor, almanackery,4 and a little bit of memoir. It is a window into a world in my head, a world made of lies and jokes and truths. In writing it I am standing on the shoulders of giants, giants like John Hodgman, Dr. Science, The Onion, the Monty Python comedy troupe, the Bugle podcast, and Patton Oswalt, but I’d like to think I’m also expressing things that are uniquely mine. I certainly don’t know of anyone else who would write a list of 700 catgirl names, and having been through that ordeal I’m kind of scared of the idea. I chose “geeky stuff that I like” as the overall focus of this book, since that seemed the area I would be best equipped to write about and mock shamelessly. John Hodgman was a particularly important inspiration, to the point where it would be pointless for me to deny it.5 One of the inspirations for his amazing trilogy of complete world knowledge came from almanacs. These books started as collections of astronomical and weather information, but they came to include all manner of other things.6 There are massive “fact book” almanacs that endeavor to include a substantial portion of the non-Buffy the Vampire Slayer parts of Wikipedia between two covers, but the almanacs that interest me are the likes of the Old Farmer’s Almanac. In among the factual information on moon phases, tides, weather, and farmers’ ages that is as accurate as weather forecast a year in advance can be, is a window into a charming world of recipes, corny jokes, silly articles, and ads for snake oil, telephone psychics, and weird religious tracts. When I was youngerSample my family filehad a really ridiculous amount of books, and every now and then I would find a book that would open up new worlds to me, whether it was a Douglas Adams novel or an electronics catalog. How many kids were there who, growing up on farms, going to the Future Farmers of America club at school, saw new vistas through the almanac? This book has an element of almanac style to it, being a collection of essays on a variety of topics, sort of like a geek almanac. Except unlike a real almanac (or rather, unlike a real contemporary almanac) most of what’s in here isn’t, strictly speaking, true. It has been said that there are “lies, damn lies, and statistics.” 4 Which is a word I made up, but you can totally use it if you want.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Sample File the Hutchingsonian Presents the Habitition of the Stone Giant Lord and Other Adventures from Our Shared Youth
    Sample file The Hutchingsonian Presents The Habitition of the Stone Giant Lord and other adventures from our shared youth Introduction 1 Jon Peterson Editors Notes 6 Tim Hutchings The Habitition of the Stone Giant Lord 7 Gaius Stern Stone Death 26 Richard C. Benson The Crack at Garn’s Canyon 38 Matt Morrison The Ring of Gaax Sample file 45 Wayne Lacroix The Golden Scepter of the Trollfens 58 Mike Walters The Tomb of Areopagus the Cloaked and Japheth of the Mighty Staff 86 Michael M. Hughes The Lair of Turgon 96 Todd Nilson The Maze of Death 108 Mike Walters All content copyright of the respective creators. Layout ©2013 Timothy Hutchings and The Hutchingsonian Presents. No claim is made on any copyrighted or trademarked material intentionally or accidentally presented herein. The Hutchingsonian Presents Introduction Jon Peterson When Dungeons & Dragons first appeared early in Thus, there was little thought at first that dungeons 1974, it contained an extraordinary invitation: it asked should be made into commercial products. us all to participate in the creation of fantastic worlds. By the middle of 1975, demand for dungeons at No longer would we merely passively read about - conventions began to chip away at this secrecy. When fantasies someone else had conceived, or watch them - Gary Gygax operated a tournament dungeon for the in films—now we would be participants and protago first Origins Game Fair in July, there was sufficient nists, authors and architects of fantasy. This is per demand to play that he scheduled two groups to haps best captured by a line in the final pages of the - explore instances of the dungeon simultaneously: one original rules, which asks, “why have us do any more under Gygax’s own supervision, the other refereed by of your imagining for you?” Everywhere there are op his son, Ernie.
    [Show full text]
  • Dragon Magazine #151
    Issue #151 SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS Vol. XIV, No. 6 Into the Eastern Realms: November 1989 11 Adventure is adventure, no matter which side of the ocean you’re on. Publisher The Ecology of the Kappa David R. Knowles Jim Ward 14 Kappa are strange, but youd be wise not to laugh at them. Editor Soldiers of the Law Dan Salas Roger E. Moore 18 The next ninja you meet might actually work for the police. Fiction editor Earn Those Heirlooms! Jay Ouzts Barbara G. Young 22Only your best behavior will win your family’s prize katana. Assistant editors The Dragons Bestiary Sylvia Li Anne Brown Dale Donovan 28The wang-liang are dying out — and they’d like to take a few humans with them. Art director Paul Hanchette The Ecology of the Yuan-ti David Wellman 32To call them the degenerate Spawn of a mad god may be the only nice Production staff thing to say. Kathleen C. MacDonald Gaye OKeefe Angelika Lukotz OTHER FEATURES Subscriptions The Beastie Knows Best Janet L. Winters — Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser 36 What are the best computer games of 1989? You’ll find them all here. U.S. advertising Role-playing Reviews Sheila Gailloreto Tammy Volp Jim Bambra 38Did you ever think that undead might be . helpful? U.K. correspondent The Role of Books John C. Bunnell and U.K. advertising 46 New twists on an old tale, and other unusual fantasies. Sue Lilley The Role of Computers — Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser 52 Fly a Thunderchief in Vietnam — or a Silpheed in outer space.
    [Show full text]
  • Spring 2008 Issue
    www.diplomacyworld.net Variety Melange Variants: The Spice of Life Notes From the Editor Welcome back to another issue of Diplomacy World. that continues in the coming issues as well! This is now my fifth issue since returning as Lead Editor, and in some ways it was the hardest issue to do. I This issue you’ll also find the results of the latest believe this was simply a case of all the additional time Diplomacy World Writing Contest. While I would have and effort that went into doing Issue #100. It wasn’t until liked to get more entries than I did, at least we received #100 was finished and uploaded to the web site that I enough to actually award the prizes this time! realized how many extra hours I’d been spending each Congratulations to our winners, and keep your eyes week trying to assemble all that material. Sitting back open for future writing contests, or contests of other the next day, I was a bit worried about whether I had run types. If you have suggestions, please let me know. the well (or my personal gas tank) dry. Which leads me into the usual quarterly mantra: this Fortunately, that wasn’t the case. First of all, we had a particular issue, and Diplomacy World as a whole, is few wonderful pieces of material set aside for this issue, only as good as the articles you hobby members submit. starting with Stephen Agar’s variant symphony and I can’t write the whole thing myself, not even with the David McCrumb’s designer notes on 1499: The Italian assistance of the DW Staff…we need your ideas, your Wars.
    [Show full text]
  • The Beginning
    The premier magazine for students (as far as we know) No. 1 March 2009 issue College survival 101 Know how to survive something worse than highschool page 14 the First game master Gary Gygax: the legend who transformed fantasy to reality page 8 TV / Movie Review: is it a n eclipse or a breaking dawn for the film? THE BEGINNING... THE PREMIERE OF A RADICAL MAGAZINE FOR STUDENTS IS IT A DAWN OF THE END OF THE WORLD? page 16 & 20 JOHN KINGSLEY PANGAN Editor in Chief and President LUDIVINO CLIMA C O JR. Managing Editor Contributors BRU C E GI bb S SIMON ROSSER JUNE WILLIAMS ANDRE W LA W REN C E Photography WAYNE HAMMOND | http://waynehammond.net/ Special Thanks to: THE TE C HNOLOGIAN ST UDEN T PRESS www .AR T I C LE C I T Y .C OM Undergrad Magazine is a Drop Out e-publication. We welcome original and unpublished contribution of different topics. Submissions shall become property of Undergrad Magazine and shall be subject to editorial review. Undergrad Magazine reserves the decision to publish any submitted materials. The contributed articles and images presented in the publication are due credited and are not property of Undergrad magazine or otherwise emphasized. This magazine cost nothing so please don’t sue us. :-) Visit us at undergrad.blog.com and undergradmag.multiply.com. Vol. 1 No. 1 March 2009 issue Features: Cover Story: The First Game Master 8 The A-Z of Global Warming: Deforestation 20 From Tabletop to online RPG games, he molded the very It’s never inconvenient to know the truth.
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Report 2020
    ANNUAL REPORT 2020 The Committee for the Advancement of Role-Playing Games Email: [email protected] Website: car-pga.org 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS To Our Members ________________________________________________ 3 Welcome to Our Report ____________________________________________________ 3 Performance Against Our Goals _____________________________________________ 3 2021 and Beyond _________________________________________________________ 4 Looking Ahead ___________________________________________________________ 5 Tribue to Paul Cardwell ___________________________________________ 6 Digitization of Archives ___________________________________________ 8 Membership Update ____________________________________________ 10 3 TO OUR MEMBERS Welcome to Our Report When I joined the Committee for the Advancement of Role-Playing Games (CAR-PGA) as Committee Chair, I worked with the board to set some basic goals. It’s been two years since we laid out those goals and after discussing with the board, we decided to produce a formal annual report on our progress. Performance Against Our Goals • Broaden Our Mission: It took some effort, but the CAR-PGA's by-laws have been amended to include the importance of diverse players. That's reflected in our Best Practices section on Diversity & Inclusion. • Engage Our Membership: On the one hand, we've added a Gamers in Need page to include a variety of people and organizations who can use our help. On the other, we're just not engaging enough. We have some ideas on how to increase our membership, which we’ll discuss below. • Relaunch the Site: The CAR-PGA site is up and running in no small part thanks to M. Alan Thomas II. Hawke Robinson of RPG Research has taken on the daunting challenge of digitizing the extensive files of Paul Cardwell, Jr., founding member of the CAR-PGA who passed away in March 2020.
    [Show full text]
  • View Book Sample
    DANGEROUS GAMES: HOW TO PLAY (BOOK #1) BY MATT FORBECK ALSO BY MATT FORBECK Hard Times in Dragon City (Shotguns & Sorcery #1) Bad Times in Dragon City (Shotguns & Sorcery #2) End Times in Dragon City (Shotguns & Sorcery #3) Leverage: The Con Job Matt Forbeck’s Brave New World: Revolution Matt Forbeck’s Brave New World: Revelation Matt Forbeck’s Brave New World: Resolution Amortals Vegas Knights Carpathia Magic: The Gathering comics Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon (with Jeff Grubb) Mutant Chronicles Star Wars vs. Star Trek Secret of the Spiritkeeper Prophecy of the Dragons The Dragons Revealed Blood Bowl Blood Bowl: Dead Ball Blood Bowl: Death Match Blood Bowl: Rumble in the Jungle Eberron: Marked for Death Eberron: The Road to Death Eberron: The Queen of Death Full Moon Enterprises Beloit, WI, USA www.forbeck.com Dangerous Games and all prominent fictional characters, locations, and organizations depicted herein are trademarks of Matt Forbeck. The appearance of other trademarks herein is not intended as a challenge to those trademarks. © 2013 by Matt Forbeck. All Rights Reserved. 12 for ’12 logo created by Jim Pinto. Dangerous Games logo created by Matt Forbeck. Cover design by Matt Forbeck. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Dedicated to my wife Ann and our kids Marty, Pat, Nick, Ken, and Helen. They’re always my favorite players. Thanks to Peter Adkison, Adrian Swartout, Owen Seyler, and the rest of the Gen Con staff for being such great sports and even better friends.
    [Show full text]
  • E6: the Game Inside the World's Most Popular Roleplaying Game
    E6 The Game Inside the World’s Most Popular Roleplaying Game v 0.4.1 BY RYAN STOUGHTON E6: The Game Inside the World’s Most Popular Roleplaying Game E6: The Game Inside the World’s Most Popular Roleplaying Game CREDITS WRITING: Ryan Stoughton LAYOUT: J.A. Dettman The original EN World thread from which DESIGNATION OF OPEN CONTENT this document was transcribed is available All text in this document is declared Open at the following URL: Content, as per Section 15 of the Open Gaming License. http://www.enworld.org/ showthread.php?t=200754 2 3 E6: The Game Inside the World’s Most Popular Roleplaying Game E6: The Game Inside the World’s Most Popular Roleplaying Game INTRODUCTION WHAT IS E6? In E6, the stats of an average person are Earlier this year Ryan Dancey suggested the stats of a 1st-level commoner. Like that d20 has four distinct quartiles of play: their medieval counterparts, this person has never travelled more than a mile from Levels 1-5: Gritty fantasy their home. Imagine a 6th-level Wizard Levels 6-10: Heroic fantasy or 6th-level Fighter from the commoner’s Levels 11-15: Wuxia perspective. The wizard could kill Levels 16-20: Superheroes everyone in your village with a few words. The fighter could duel with ten armed There’s been some great discussion about guards in a row and kill every one of them. how to define those quartiles, and how If you spot a manticore, everyone you each different quartile suited some groups know is in terrible, terrible danger.
    [Show full text]
  • Monster Manual
    CREDITS MONSTER MANUAL DESIGN MONSTER MANUAL REVISION Skip Williams Rich Baker, Skip Williams MONSTER MANUAL D&D REVISION TEAM D&D DESIGN TEAM Rich Baker, Andy Collins, David Noonan, Monte Cook, Jonathan Tweet, Rich Redman, Skip Williams Skip Williams ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENT ADDITIONAL DESIGN David Eckelberry, Jennifer Clarke Peter Adkison, Richard Baker, Jason Carl, Wilkes, Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, William W. Connors, Sean K Reynolds Bill Slavicsek EDITORS PROOFREADER Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, Jon Pickens Penny Williams EDITORIAL ASSITANCE Julia Martin, Jeff Quick, Rob Heinsoo, MANAGING EDITOR David Noonan, Penny Williams Kim Mohan MANAGING EDITOR D&D CREATIVE DIRECTOR Kim Mohan Ed Stark CORE D&D CREATIVE DIRECTOR DIRECTOR OF RPG R&D Ed Stark Bill Slavicsek DIRECTOR OF RPG R&D ART DIRECTOR Bill Slavicsek Dawn Murin VISUAL CREATIVE DIRECTOR COVER ART Jon Schindehette Henry Higginbotham ART DIRECTOR INTERIOR ARTISTS Dawn Murin Glen Angus, Carlo Arellano, Daren D&D CONCEPTUAL ARTISTS Bader, Tom Baxa, Carl Critchlow, Brian Todd Lockwood, Sam Wood Despain, Tony Diterlizzi, Scott Fischer, Rebecca Guay-Mitchell, Jeremy Jarvis, D&D LOGO DESIGN Paul Jaquays, Michael Kaluta, Dana Matt Adelsperger, Sherry Floyd Knutson, Todd Lockwood, David COVER ART Martin, Raven Mimura, Matthew Henry Higginbotham Mitchell, Monte Moore, Adam Rex, Wayne Reynolds, Richard Sardinha, INTERIOR ARTISTS Brian Snoddy, Mark Tedin, Anthony Glen Angus, Carlo Arellano, Daren Waters, Sam Wood Bader, Tom Baxa, Carl Critchlow, Brian Despain, Tony Diterlizzi, Larry Elmore, GRAPHIC
    [Show full text]
  • Dragon Magazine #136
    Issue #136 Vol. XIII, No. 3 August 1988 SPECIAL ATTRACTION Publisher Mike Cook 7 Urban Adventures: An orc in a dungeon is a foe. An orc in the city could be mayor. Editor 8 Building Blocks, City Style Thomas Kane Roger E. Moore Is there a fishmonger in this town? This city-builder has the answer. Assistant editor Fiction editor 18 The Long Arm of the Law Dan Howard Robin Jenkins Patrick L. Price Crime and punishment in FRPG cities; or, flogging isnt so bad. 22 Taking Care of Business Anthony D. Gleckler Editorial assistants The merchant NPC class: If you like being rich better than anything else. Eileen Lucas Barbara G. Young 28 A Room for the Knight Patrick G. Goshtigian and Nick Kopsinis Art director Rating the inns and taverns of fantasy campaign worlds. Roger Raupp 34 Fifty Ways to Foil Your Players Jape Trostle Mad prophets, con men, and adoring monsters to vex your characters. Production staff Betty Elmore OTHER FEATURES Kim Janke Lori Svikel 40 The Curse of the Magus fiction by Bruce Boston and Robert Frazier Subscriptions U.S. Advertising Even in exile, a wizard is still the most dangerous of opponents. Pat Schulz Sheila Meehan 46 Arcane Lure Dan Snuffin U.K. correspondents Recharge: One simple spell with a lifetime of uses. Graeme Morris Rik Rose 54 The Golems Craft John C. Bunnell To build a golem, you first need a dungeon full of money. U.K. advertising Dawn Carter Kris Starr 58 Through the Looking Glass Robert Bigelow A look at convention fun, deadlines, and a siege-tower giant.
    [Show full text]
  • Finding Aid to the Sid Sackson Collection, 1867-2003
    Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play Sid Sackson Collection Finding Aid to the Sid Sackson Collection, 1867-2003 Summary Information Title: Sid Sackson collection Creator: Sid Sackson (primary) ID: 2016.sackson Date: 1867-2003 (inclusive); 1960-1995 (bulk) Extent: 36 linear feet Language: The materials in this collection are primarily in English. There are some instances of additional languages, including German, French, Dutch, Italian, and Spanish; these are denoted in the Contents List section of this finding aid. Abstract: The Sid Sackson collection is a compilation of diaries, correspondence, notes, game descriptions, and publications created or used by Sid Sackson during his lengthy career in the toy and game industry. The bulk of the materials are from between 1960 and 1995. Repository: Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play at The Strong One Manhattan Square Rochester, New York 14607 585.263.2700 [email protected] Administrative Information Conditions Governing Use: This collection is open to research use by staff of The Strong and by users of its library and archives. Intellectual property rights to the donated materials are held by the Sackson heirs or assignees. Anyone who would like to develop and publish a game using the ideas found in the papers should contact Ms. Dale Friedman (624 Birch Avenue, River Vale, New Jersey, 07675) for permission. Custodial History: The Strong received the Sid Sackson collection in three separate donations: the first (Object ID 106.604) from Dale Friedman, Sid Sackson’s daughter, in May 2006; the second (Object ID 106.1637) from the Association of Game and Puzzle Collectors (AGPC) in August 2006; and the third (Object ID 115.2647) from Phil and Dale Friedman in October 2015.
    [Show full text]
  • Gary's Clarifications
    Gary’s Clarifications When I saw the Zagyg’s Wisdom super-thread on Dragonsfoot, I thought what a great idea it was to have a section where Gary answered questions about D&D and offered clarifications and interpretations about the game he created. And if he isn’t around to answer more questions, at least we can benefit from what people asked him when they had the chance. Reading through the thread, it occurred to me that all these clarifications could be gathered up into a single document for easier reference, sorted by category. Steve at Dragonsfoot liked the idea, so I got started…and found that sorting them wasn’t as neat and easy as I’d expected. I’ve had to make a lot of judgement calls: for instance, should a question about true neutral clerics go under Classes or Alignment? So I apologize if the organization of this document seems a little haphazard, but I’ve done what I could with it. There are a very few posts from one category that I copied into another, but for the most part I tried to make a single choice and hope it was the right one. I’ve included some categories that aren’t exactly D&D or that wouldn’t be relevant to every campaign (Greyhawk, for example), but they’re in their own sections so they can be ignored by those not interested. These “related” sections are generally unsorted, as they didn't lend themselves as well to discrete categories. In the interest of keeping it short, I generally removed people’s greeting remarks (“Hi Gary,” etc.), though I left in whatever Gary said in case it should be helpful in assessing his “gut feel” reaction to the question.
    [Show full text]
  • Immersive Sims a Game Design Philosophy by Hackers
    Immersive Sims A game design philosophy by hackers and D&D nerds H.A.C.K. online meetup Whoami Game developer ■ Tech Manager at Supermassive Games @Guildford ■ Gamelab: Hungarian Indie ■ Stompy Bot: Canadian Indie Dániel Molnár Hacker -Houruck- ■ id tech lineage presentation @Lakat-LAN ■ Open Source Games & Hacking in video games talks @camp++ ■ “Homo Ludens Ludens” /stf/ Disclaimer ■ I haven’t played most of these games when they came out ⤏ Most of them didn’t click at first ⤏ I was more invested in action titles with twitch gameplay ■ It is my new favourite as a gamer ⤏ I was working on a “boomer shooter” concept ⤏ Picked elements from other titles influenced by immersive sims ⤏ And/Or I had a similar thought process to their designers ⤏ Possibly due to my IT background and interest in hacking ■ I find it intellectually challenging to design What is this talk about? Immersive Sims ■ I think it is not a genre, but rather a design direction ⤏ Form of environmental design ⤏ Common narrative trappings ⤏ Game design philosophy ■ I am currently working on my own definition ■ Guildford Interpretation of Immersive Sims ■ Researching relevant games ■ My findings so far from the lense of connections to the hacker subculture What is even a genre? ■ Movies are a bit more clear-cut ■ Video games have broad genres like action,adventure,etc. ⤏ We tend to focus on mechanics and design ⤏ Like First Person Shooter (states camera, and core mechanic) ⤏ And Real Time Strategy (so not turn based) ⤏ Or compare to other titles (Doom clone, Soulslike) ⤏ It can oversimplify or alienate newcomers (Roguelike, Metroidvania) ■ End of the day it is just a label ⤏ Allowing for marketing and meaningful conversations ⤏ For gamers and developers alike Berlin Interpretation of Roguelikes High value factors Low value factors 1.
    [Show full text]