Time Travel for D&D
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Myth, Metatext, Continuity and Cataclysm in Dc Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths
WORLDS WILL LIVE, WORLDS WILL DIE: MYTH, METATEXT, CONTINUITY AND CATACLYSM IN DC COMICS’ CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS Adam C. Murdough A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2006 Committee: Angela Nelson, Advisor Marilyn Motz Jeremy Wallach ii ABSTRACT Angela Nelson, Advisor In 1985-86, DC Comics launched an extensive campaign to revamp and revise its most important superhero characters for a new era. In many cases, this involved streamlining, retouching, or completely overhauling the characters’ fictional back-stories, while similarly renovating the shared fictional context in which their adventures take place, “the DC Universe.” To accomplish this act of revisionist history, DC resorted to a text-based performative gesture, Crisis on Infinite Earths. This thesis analyzes the impact of this singular text and the phenomena it inspired on the comic-book industry and the DC Comics fan community. The first chapter explains the nature and importance of the convention of “continuity” (i.e., intertextual diegetic storytelling, unfolding progressively over time) in superhero comics, identifying superhero fans’ attachment to continuity as a source of reading pleasure and cultural expressivity as the key factor informing the creation of the Crisis on Infinite Earths text. The second chapter consists of an eschatological reading of the text itself, in which it is argued that Crisis on Infinite Earths combines self-reflexive metafiction with the ideologically inflected symbolic language of apocalypse myth to provide DC Comics fans with a textual "rite of transition," to win their acceptance for DC’s mid-1980s project of self- rehistoricization and renewal. -
|||GET||| a Book That Was Lost Thirty-Five Stories 1St Edition
A BOOK THAT WAS LOST THIRTY-FIVE STORIES 1ST EDITION DOWNLOAD FREE Alan Mintz | 9781592642540 | | | | | The First Forty Nine Stories Hemingway Ernest 9780353247529 Adler Transcript of the original source. Nevertheless, the editors steadfastly maintain that average readers are capable of understanding far more than the critics deem possible. See also: Outline of science fiction. Wright, who drove a cab. Retrieved 27 February There was also a tanning bed used in an episode, a product that wasn't introduced to North America until Hollywood, here I come! Understanding Kurt Vonnegut. Conventions in fandom, often shortened as "cons," such as " comic-con " are held in cities around the worldcatering to a local, regional, national, or international membership. Neo-Fan's Guidebook. They also tend to support the space program and the idea of contacting extraterrestrial civilizations. Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 10 April Further information: Skiffy. Mary Shelley wrote a number of science fiction novels including Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheusand is considered a major writer of the Romantic Age. Science fiction at Wikipedia's sister projects. Escapist Magazine. I feel that with being a parent. Atlas Obscura. You want to see some jazz? The character, a peripheral one at first, became central. Views Read Edit View history. Feldman urged him to stay. Joining the Marines gave Driver a sense A Book That Was Lost Thirty-Five Stories 1st edition purpose and some distance from his conservative religious upbringing. Faster-than-light communication Wormholes. Respected authors of mainstream literature have written science fiction. Retrieved 4 March Wolfe, Gary K. Science fiction portal. This was almost certainly a cost-saving measure. -
Planning for Non-Player Characters by Learning from Demonstration
University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2018 Planning For Non-Player Characters By Learning From Demonstration John Drake University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Computer Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Drake, John, "Planning For Non-Player Characters By Learning From Demonstration" (2018). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2756. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2756 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2756 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Planning For Non-Player Characters By Learning From Demonstration Abstract In video games, state of the art non-player character (NPC) behavior generation typically depends on hard-coding NPC actions. In many game situations however, it is hard to foresee how an NPC should behave to appear intelligent or to accommodate human preferences for NPC behavior. We advocate the creation of a more flexible method ot allow players (and developers) to train NPCs to execute novel behaviors which are not hard-coded. In particular, we investigate search-based planning approaches using demonstration to guide the search through high-dimensional spaces that represent the full state of the game. To this end, we developed the Training Graph heuristic, an extension of the Experience Graph heuristic, that guides a search smoothly and effectively even when a demonstration is unreachable in the search space, and ensures that more of the demonstrations are utilized to better train the NPC's behavior. To deal with variance in the initial conditions of such planning problems, we have developed heuristics in the Multi-Heuristic A* framework to adapt demonstration trace data to new problems. -
Player-Character Is What You Are in the Dark the Phenomenology of Immersion in Dungeons & Dragons
Player-Character Is What You Are in the Dark The Phenomenology of Immersion in Dungeons & Dragons William J. White The idea of role-playing makes some people nervous – even some people who play role-playing games (RPGs). Yeah, sure, we pretend to be wizards and talk in funny voices, such players often say. So what? It’s just for fun. It’s not like it means anything. These players tend to find talk about role-playing games being “art” to be pretentious nonsense, and the idea that there could be philosophical value in a game like Dungeons & Dragons strikes them as preposterous on its face. “RPGs as instruction on ethics or metaphysics?” writes one such player in an online forum for discussing role-playing games. “Utter intellectualoid [sic] bullshit … [from those] who want to imagine they’re great thinkers thinking great thoughts while they play RPGs because they’d otherwise feel ashamed about pretending to be an elf.”1 By the same token, people who don’t play RPGs are often quite mystified about what could possibly be going on in a game of Dungeons & Dragons: There’s no board? How do you win? No winners? Then why do you play?2 Making sense of D&D as Dungeons & Dragons and Philosophy: Read and Gain Advantage Copyright © 2014. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. & Sons, Incorporated. © 2014. John Wiley Copyright on All Wisdom Checks, First Edition. Edited by Christopher Robichaud. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 82 Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy : Read and Gain Advantage on All Wisdom Checks, edited by Christopher Robichaud, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2014. -
In- and Out-Of-Character
Florida State University Libraries 2016 In- and Out-of-Character: The Digital Literacy Practices and Emergent Information Worlds of Active Role-Players in a New Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game Jonathan Michael Hollister Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION & INFORMATION IN- AND OUT-OF-CHARACTER: THE DIGITAL LITERACY PRACTICES AND EMERGENT INFORMATION WORLDS OF ACTIVE ROLE-PLAYERS IN A NEW MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE ROLE-PLAYING GAME By JONATHAN M. HOLLISTER A Dissertation submitted to the School of Information in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2016 Jonathan M. Hollister defended this dissertation on March 28, 2016. The members of the supervisory committee were: Don Latham Professor Directing Dissertation Vanessa Dennen University Representative Gary Burnett Committee Member Shuyuan Mary Ho Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii For Grandpa Robert and Grandma Aggie. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to my committee, for their infinite wisdom, sense of humor, and patience. Don has my eternal gratitude for being the best dissertation committee chair, mentor, and co- author out there—thank you for being my friend, too. Thanks to Shuyuan and Vanessa for their moral support and encouragement. I could not have asked for a better group of scholars (and people) to be on my committee. Thanks to the other members of 3 J’s and a G, Julia and Gary, for many great discussions about theory over many delectable beers. -
Modelling Player Understanding of Non-Player Character Paths
Proceedings of the Fourteenth Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference (AIIDE 2018) Modelling Player Understanding of Non-Player Character Paths Mengxi Xoey Zhang, Clark Verbrugge McGill University Montreal,´ Canada [email protected], [email protected] Abstract enable an exploration tool to better understand and experi- ment with what information becomes available to a player, Modelling a player’s understanding of NPC movements can given specific NPC routes, level geometry, and incomplete be useful for adapting gameplay to different play styles. For observation. We thus define a baseline system that allows stealth games, what a player knows or suspects of enemy movements is important to how they will navigate towards for exhaustive modelling of possible NPC positions, con- a solution. In this work, we build a uniform abstraction of strained by the gap-time and filtered by knowledge of level potential player path knowledge based on their partial obser- geometry. Players may also attribute movement character- vations. We use this representation to compute different path istics or make assumptions about NPC behaviours as well. estimates according to different player expectations. We aug- Our design naturally incorporates different constraint mod- ment our work with a user study that validates what kinds of els that reduce pathing possibilities to better represent player NPC behaviour a player may expect, and develop a tool that expectation. can build and explore appropriate (expected) paths. We find Algorithmic and representational design is supported by that players prefer short simple paths over long or complex a non-trivial experimentation and visualization tool built paths with looping or backtracking behaviour. -
You Zombies, Click and a Novel, 1632, Both of Which Are Available Online from Links in the Handout
Instructor's notes to F402 Time Travel in Science Fiction Session 1 – Introduction Welcome to F402, Time Travel in Science Fiction. The objective of this course is to help you to read, understand and enjoy stories in the genre. The course is in two parts; the first is Today's lecture and discussion on the genre while the second is class discussions of two stories of opposite types. click The reading assignment consists of a short story, All You Zombies, click and a novel, 1632, both of which are available online from links in the handout. click For the convenience of those who prefer dead trees, I have listed a number of anthologies1 containing All You Zombies. Reading Assignment for Sessions 2-3 click All You Zombies is one of two tour de force stories by Robert A. Heinlein that left their mark on the genre for decades. Please read All You Zombies prior to the next session click and 1632 click click Part One, chapters 1-14 prior to the third session. Esc Session 1 Keep in mind that science fiction is a branch of literature, so the normal criteria of, e.g., characterization, consistency, continuity, plot structure, style, apply; I welcome comments, especially from those who have expertise in those areas. In addition, while a science fiction author must rely on the willing suspension of disbelief, he should do so sparingly. There is a lapse of continuity in 1632 between chapters 8 and 9; see whether you can spot it. I will suggest specific discussion points to start each discussion, but please bring up any other issues that you believe to be important or interesting. -
Bestiary of the Realms: Volume 2
Bestiary of the Realms: Volume 2 by Thomas M. Costa and Eric L. Boyd Art by Noëlle Triaureau Editorial assistance from Joe “Warlockco” Weber A NOTE FROM THE AUTHORS Welcome to volume two of the Bestiary of the Realms. As this is our second volume, you’ll find several score new or converted monsters, as well as a few different interpretations of monsters that have already been converted. A word of caution, just as many official 3E and 3.5E monsters did not slavishly follow earlier write-ups of those monsters, neither do the monsters herein. Instead, we did our best to consider all sources, hopefully make full and creative use of the 3.5E rules (including non-core WotC books), and in many cases add a little bit here and there to many of the monsters, even if it was in only adding or updating their Realms lore. A few have even been renamed. One last note, we’ve done our best to include source references for all things where appropriate, except those found in the three core rulebooks or Expanded Psionics Handbook. Until then, Sword High! – Thomas M. Costa and Eric L. Boyd ABOUT THE AUTHORS Thomas M. Costa is a senior analyst with the Government Accountability Office. He has been a contributor to several Wizards of the Coast products including Demihuman Deities and Races of Faerûn, and is the author of several Dragon Magazine and Wizards of the Coast website articles. He can be reached at [email protected]. Eric L. Boyd is a software designer and freelance game designer. -
Bride of Portable Hole: the Book of Neurotic Fantasy
BrideBride ofof PorPortabletable HoleHole TThhee BBooookk ooff NNeeuurroottiicc FFaannttaassyy ChainmailChainmail Bikinis!Bikinis! PrestigelessPrestigeless Classes!Classes! WeaPuns!WeaPuns! BeaverBeaver hunting!hunting! and the return of the Flumphinomicon,Flumphinomicon, Poodlemancy,Poodlemancy, BEER,BEER, Orcs,Orcs, andand PIE!PIE! this page intentionally left blank TheThe BookBook ofof NeuroticNeurotic FantasyFantasy CREDITS TABLE OF CONTENTS Written by M Jason Parent & Denise Robinson with d200 Result Chad Barr, Arthur Borko, Leonard “Half-Mad” Briden, Cameron “Fitz” Burns, Matt B Carter, Mike Chapin, Michael 00 Cover Dallaire, Mike “Ralts” Downs, Danny S Dyche, Horacio 01 Credits & Table of Contents Gonzales, Gareth Hanrahan, Brannon Hollingsworth, Neal 02-003 Introductions Levin, Peter Lustig, Joe Mucchiello, Shawn “Zanatose” 04-005 Eric and the Dread Gazebo Muder, Ryan Nock, Hong Ooi, M Jason Parent, Darren 06-442 Prestigeless Classes Pearce, Stefan Pietraszak, Charles Plemons III, Johnathan M. 44-552 Feats Richards, Chris Richardson, Chrystine Robinson, Geneviève 54-778 Encounters Robinson, W. Shade, John Henry Stam, Samuel Terry, Beau 54-60 Return to the Orc & the Pastry Yarbrough, Zjelani 61-66 Revenge of the Orc & the Pastry 67-68 Lost Penguin Colony 69-71 Himover, Poodlemancer 72-75 Elemental Plane of Candy Illustrations by 76-77 Deus Ex Machina Tony ìSquidheadî Monorchio 78-1101 Monsters 78-85 Flumphonomicon with 86-94 Monsters of the Metagame Matthew Cuenca, Johnathan Fuller, J.L.Jones, Kayvan Koie, 95-101 Templates Frank -
The Philosophy and Physics of Time Travel: the Possibility of Time Travel
University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well Honors Capstone Projects Student Scholarship 2017 The Philosophy and Physics of Time Travel: The Possibility of Time Travel Ramitha Rupasinghe University of Minnesota, Morris, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/honors Part of the Philosophy Commons, and the Physics Commons Recommended Citation Rupasinghe, Ramitha, "The Philosophy and Physics of Time Travel: The Possibility of Time Travel" (2017). Honors Capstone Projects. 1. https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/honors/1 This Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Capstone Projects by an authorized administrator of University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Philosophy and Physics of Time Travel: The possibility of time travel Ramitha Rupasinghe IS 4994H - Honors Capstone Project Defense Panel – Pieranna Garavaso, Michael Korth, James Togeas University of Minnesota, Morris Spring 2017 1. Introduction Time is mysterious. Philosophers and scientists have pondered the question of what time might be for centuries and yet till this day, we don’t know what it is. Everyone talks about time, in fact, it’s the most common noun per the Oxford Dictionary. It’s in everything from history to music to culture. Despite time’s mysterious nature there are a lot of things that we can discuss in a logical manner. Time travel on the other hand is even more mysterious. -
Time in Aug and Sta for 09152K
Time in Augustine and Aquinas: What Time Was It When Adam Was Created? Forthcoming in Aquinas and His Sources: The Notre Dame Symposium, ed. Timothy L. Smith, South Bend, St. Augustine Press Robert A. Gahl, Jr. Pontifical University of the Holy Cross Draft: September 15, 2000 In his 1996 Aquinas Lecture, Paradoxes of Time in Saint Augustine, Roland J. Teske, S.J. proposed three paradoxes, whose apparent contradictions he then set out to resolve. 1 In the third and culminating paradox, Teske argues that the only coherent way of reading Augustine's view of time is one that includes a Plotinian world-soul. Teske tentatively claims that Augustine "must have held a doctrine of a universal soul of which individual human souls are in some sense parts."(49) Teske proceeds to conclude that the mind considered in the last chapter of Book 11 of the Confessions "can only be the universal soul with which each individual soul is somehow one." And that Augustine resolved the "third paradox in this very Plotinian fashion so that time is not the distention merely of individual souls, but of the universal soul of which individual souls are in some sense parts."(55) Teske anticipates and rejects the conciliatory response that, for Augustine, this "world-soul" is one with God. Teske explicitly claims that to identify this world-soul with God would be to misread Augustine. In this short paper, I first propose a sketch for an alternative—perhaps more Christian —solution to Teske's third temporal paradox by showing that the Confessions do not require positing the existence of a world-soul as intermediary between God and material creation for the sake of measuring time throughout all the ages and then I will propose that, although such a non-Plotinian solution to the paradox is only implicitly present in the works of Augustine, St. -
Dragon Magazine
DRAGON 1 Publisher: Mike Cook Editor-in-Chief: Kim Mohan Shorter and stronger Editorial staff: Marilyn Favaro Roger Raupp If this isnt one of the first places you Patrick L. Price turn to when a new issue comes out, you Mary Kirchoff may have already noticed that TSR, Inc. Roger Moore Vol. VIII, No. 2 August 1983 Business manager: Mary Parkinson has a new name shorter and more Office staff: Sharon Walton accurate, since TSR is more than a SPECIAL ATTRACTION Mary Cossman hobby-gaming company. The name Layout designer: Kristine L. Bartyzel change is the most immediately visible The DRAGON® magazine index . 45 Contributing editor: Ed Greenwood effect of several changes the company has Covering more than seven years National advertising representative: undergone lately. in the space of six pages Robert Dewey To the limit of this space, heres some 1409 Pebblecreek Glenview IL 60025 information about the changes, mostly Phone (312)998-6237 expressed in terms of how I think they OTHER FEATURES will affect the audience we reach. For a This issues contributing artists: specific answer to that, see the notice Clyde Caldwell Phil Foglio across the bottom of page 4: Ares maga- The ecology of the beholder . 6 Roger Raupp Mary Hanson- Jeff Easley Roberts zine and DRAGON® magazine are going The Nine Hells, Part II . 22 Dave Trampier Edward B. Wagner to stay out of each others turf from now From Malbolge through Nessus Larry Elmore on, giving the readers of each magazine more of what they read it for. Saved by the cavalry! . 56 DRAGON Magazine (ISSN 0279-6848) is pub- I mention that change here as an lished monthly for a subscription price of $24 per example of what has happened, some- Army in BOOT HILL® game terms year by Dragon Publishing, a division of TSR, Inc.