Rationale

Tragedy struck in CT today, and innocent children died. My heart goes out to them. But more importantly (not even a little bit), I have a blog and must inflict my opinion on the world.

Mostly, I'm upset about people. They think action is the best policy after a tragedy strikes, but that is not the case. That is how mistakes are made. We cannot right wrongs that have already come to pass through knee-jerk reactions. What we need now is time to mourn the loss and recuperate. We can take action another day.

If you feel the need to act on tragedy, you don't need to send aid to Connecticut. There are plenty of people who are all around you who could use help. That single mom who can't afford her groceries. That hobo with the anything helps sign. The man who looks sad on the stairs outside his office. Help them. The world needs heroes. So go be one.

I was raised to believe in heroes, and I've always wanted to be one. I can only hope I do some good in my life, and that maybe, just maybe, I can be a hero that someone needs.

Living differently.

I've had much on my mind lately, about many things. And the simplest way to sum it all up is this: Stand up, have some respect and dignity, and live in a way that makes others proud to know you. Be a hero.

I feel like we have no value in heroes in the American culture these days. I can't really say much for other cultures, as I'm not part of them. Anyway, no one takes pride in what they do. We focus on the flaws and say that it's what makes thins beautiful. We take wishful thinking, that our imperfections are what make us special, when that isn't always true. We are suffering froma generation of self-entitled spineless men and women who are too lazy to find something to believe in, and when they do, they are easily misguided and led astray.

Do unto others as you would have them do to you.

Temperance, humility, grace, respect, honesty, charity, and patience.

Sharing and waiting your turn.

All things we learned as children but never truly followed. It's amazing how different adults now are compared to the ones I remember as a child. Many of them are still stuck in a high school mentality, and even some of my friends I still see not as adults, but children.

It's quite troubling.

In any case, I plan to be different, and in the same way I usually am. I want to be better. Even better than I am now. And to anyone who reads this self-important waste of a blog, I implore you to do the same.

Stand up, act with dignity and honor, treat others with respect, and be a decent human being. You're not the only one of us after all.

God. Damn.

I can’t keep doing this all the time. I try to understand where my friends are coming from, and try to explain my position to them, but it keeps coming back to the same issue: I have bigger worries than whether or not I can hang out or have people over. I have a house to pay for, pets to manage, bills to pay, and I work 6 days a week. Granted, it’s not a difficult job and I still have lots of spare time during the afternoons, but I simply do not have the time or gas to be able to do some things.
It gets more and more frustrating every time I get into a fight over it too. I can’t explain it to them, it will all sound like excuses because they just haven’t been there. Some of them, I don’t know if they will ever get there. But even if they don’t understand. I wish they’d at least understand I have my reasons.
Fuck I’m tired of being an adult already and I’m not even there yet.

On a personal note

This post is very disjointed and odd. You have been warned.

So, I've decided to take a break from DMing. Too many things to create, and it's frustrating. Especially when I feel like I have no creative control, which is an odd spot for a DM to be in.

Players, be courteous to your DM: stay quiet at the table. We work hard to be ready for you every session, please save your rules arguments and continuity errors for the end of the session. It's hard enough to run 4e quickly.

That's really been my biggest issue at my table. My players.

Kidding, I love them. Most of the time. But it's those times when I don't that I want to rip my hair out and crush their skulls into a paste to make candies with.

A few things that I think players should always do in a gaming group:

1) Make a character that WANTS something. Not someone who won't go with the story. We want heroes, not a stick in the mud.

2) Please let the DM's details slide. So, maybe there shouldn't be a tavern this side of town. And maybe the NPC said something slightly off for their personality. We have a lot to keep track of, please let it go so we can continue without interruption.

3) Don't interrupt unless it's REALLY important. The more you argue with us, the less we want you in the group.

I think that covers my D&D rant for the myself, now onto the rest of my life.

I can't decide who exactly I want to be, if that makes any sense. I can't decode a career. I don't need a lot of money, I just need space near nature. And not even much of that.

I also really want to learn some skills, specifically leatherworking, metalworking, and tailoring. I'd like to start frequenting more renaissance and fantasy fairs, and I've always wanted to get into costuming.

The problem is, I don't know where to start. There's too much information on the Internet; if that's possible. I can't find where I'd start. Maybe with the Seattle Knights? I dunno.

If you have any comments on any of these thoughts, please share.

So, I turned my player into a Mind Flayer.

Normally, when someone says, "You should blog about that," I want to hurt them. This was not the case last time, as:
1. My girlfriend was the one saying it to me
b) She was totally right.

Basically, I turned one of my best roleplayer's characters into a horrible monster because I was bored with my own story. Her character wanted to keep trying to go home (for good reason), and I couldn't allow that. No splitting the party. So I turned him into a mind flayer.

That's the short version anyway. Here's the long one.

Leomaris Havelock is a beautiful Trishulain man (burly spaniard sea elf, with gold skin and blue marking things), who was well respected in his community, and whose charisma could charm nearly anyone. I guess I should have said he was perfect.

He was skeptical about this "mission" this crazy short man was telling him about. Alien creatures, a foreign god, his own gods powerless to stop them. He just wanted to go back home to his family and enjoy life, as his goddess instructed.

He finally left, fed up with a week of nonsense and crazy people, hobos and cultists. He took a boat back home, and relaxed as he set sail for home.

Then the ship was assaulted by a mostly grounded Illithid Nautilus, everyone was captured, and Havelock was chosen to be turned into a new Mind Flayer. This is also where I say "I'm the DM, I can do as I please," so don't come crying about how I've ruined Illithid lore, I don't care.

Havelock put up a relentless, if useless, struggle against being transformed. I would imagine most people would fight someone trying to put a cuttlefish in their ear though.

When he came to, the first thoughts to come to mind were: "I need to escape" and "Oh by the gods they turned me ugly". Or something like that.

In any case, I took a character who was beautiful, had everything going for him in life, who was nearly home from this crazy adventure, and plunged him so deep into the depths of his worst fears that he may never recover.

His looks are gone, his family and friends would now fear him instead of love him. He would bring shame to his family's name, and terrify anyone who looked at him.

Best part of all this? The player lives it. She wanted something interesting to happen to make her character believe in everything the crazy old man conspiracy theorist (my NPC) has told her. This was the MOST interesting thing I could think of doing, and it went over pretty well.

In the end, I got to mercilessly destroy a character's entire reality, stripping them of their every hope and dream, and the player loves me for it. Woo! (I think I might have the brain problems)

World building game!

Alright, so, world building may or may not be a big deal to me. (It's a big deal) I've always had some difficulties with it though. Players don't want to read up on it, want their own homebrew, or I can't get enough details in. So, I came up with a solution- make it a game of it's own.

Right now we're still hammering out details, and I could definitely use more help fleshing out the rules. We have the basics down though. I'm not saying much right now, but I'm not looking to sell this. I want this out there as a tool for any GM to use.

In any case, if you would like to help me flesh it out, or try it out and let me know what needs fixing, let me know! Comment below, or email me at Claymancers@gmail.com.

On Writing and Drama

Sometimes, players and Dm's fight.

It happens. How you deal with it, is up to you entirely. As a DM, you're there to help everyone have fun, including yourself. If there's an issue in the group, it usually stems from one of a few places.

1) The Problem player
This solution is a simple one: talk to them about it after a session where there's been an issue. If no solution can be reached, BOOM, they're out. Harsh, I know, but ruining one person's fun is better than slowly destroying your group.

2) Everyone is stressed
This is prone to happen, where everyone is just on edge from life, and and it comes out at the table. The best thing to do is usually go out, grab a drink with whoever the argument was with (whether it's multiple players fighting each other, or just one with you as the DM), figure out what happened to upset them, and just talk it out. Shit happens, taxes suck, and kids will put magnets on dads new 50" TV. Don't let it kill your fun.

3) The Asshole DM
Sometimes there's only one guy who will run the game. Maybe no one else wants to, maybe he won't let anyone else. Usually pretty easy to spot, this DM plays to win, not to have fun. If you can't find a new DM, try running a game yourself, or look online, the Internet is a wonderful resource.
You'll also note that I don't say to try and talk this one out first- there's a reason to that. Telling a DM that they're bad at it is like telling someone that they're ugly. It's hard to do without offending them. I just avoid it, drop group, and find a new one.

Hope that helps for a few people out there.

And for you aspiring Dm's and authors: READ THIS BOOK. On Writing by Stephen King.

Seriously, go. Right now.