The word "factotum" comes from the 16th century, and refers to an assistant, employee, or official who had a variety of duties and jobs. Today, we just call them 'interns' and don’t give them any money. We might more casually call them a 'gopher,' as in ‘gopher this’ and ‘gopher that.’
There is a 3.5Ed D&D class called the Factotum; it is a jack-of-all-trades, of course. As a quick recap of the basic D&D classes, the fighter takes and deals damage. [Some classes might call them a meat-shield.] Wizards deal useful spells, and can deal damage to groups of enemies. Clerics heal and provide useful boosting spells to the party. The rogue disarms traps, sneaks around, and has a special sneak attack that can deal massive amounts of damage in the right conditions.
Then there’s the bard. The bard does a little of everything with charisma and a dose of magic. The bard can heal, though not as well as a cleric, and has music abilities that increase the fighting capabilities of the group; he even has some arcane magic, though not as much or as powerful as a wizard, nor in as great of a variety. The bard is often considered the most social D&D class. They have some combat training like the wizard, and a lot of skill points.
The factotum does smaller everything with a lot of training and observation skills. The factotum has almost as many skill points as a rogue, and has access to more skills than any other class. All of the skills, actually. They have “inspiration points” which regenerate each combat and allow them to gain intelligence-based bonuses to attacks, damage and skill checks. These points can also be used (as the factotum progresses) to cast spells, power some healing, or gain extra actions. By the time they reach their highest level, they gain a limited amount of ability to mimic other class features.
I’ve played several different factotums. They have each wound up fulfilling a different role in the game. One was both a fighter and the party rogue. I also took a personality quiz from that color code book, and the result was evenly split between all four colors. Not fitting into archetypes happens to me all the time.
I just like being able to adapt; I'm often unable to plan ahead as well as others, and being a factotum in games allows me to adapt to the situation. And when a game doesn't have one, I fiddle with the game until it does have one.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
A Crash Course in Worldbuilding: Planet Design
Note: I got much of the information on moon cycles from http://www.hollyi.com/articlesNart/01sunmoon.htm. If you want more in-depth info about moons, rainbows, and what “west” really means, I highly recommend checking it out. Click on her name at the top for even more world-building goodness.
There are many styles of planet, and while you are welcome to create any planet you desire, residents of most planets have come to expect a few regularities. If you seek to create a believable and recognizable planet, please keep these tips in mind. As the most common reference point, we will use the planet “Earth”.
A) Give your planet a sun.
For example, earth orbits a star named 'Sol'. Because it orbits this star, the star is called a sun. If your planet has the Earth-normal axial tilt of about 23.5 degrees, they will experience summer when their side of the planet is tilted toward the sun, and winter when it is tilted away.
What that means to your planet will vary; it may be in an ice age, for example, and even summer could be unbearably cold. Just remember that there is still a summer. The days are longer and warmer. Life will occur more actively during this time than in the winter months. (Quick thought: What would happen if bears had to hibernate twice as long?)
B) Give your planet a moon.
For example, earth has a moon named 'Luna'. Luna has a number of interesting functions. She's responsible for regulating tides – the ebb and flow of the ocean that affects life and, occasionally, history. Keep in mind that the highest high tides and the lowest low tides occur during the full moon, when Luna is at her roundest, and the New Moon, when shadow covers her. Tides are weakest at the equator. Assuming a planetary tilt of ~23 degrees, tides will be weakest at the equator and strongest right about at 23 degrees north or south of the equator. (As a reference, the north and south equators are at 90 degrees.)
A further note, if you use Luna and Earth as your template: During the equinoxes, a new (dark) moon rises at sunrise. Halfway between the New Moon and Full Moon, heading towards full it will rise at the actual middle of the day; heading towards new, it will rise in the dead center of the night. The moonrise will stay pretty close to that near the equator. Closer to the poles, it will still maintain those times during equinoxes, but the rising times will be a few hours earlier in the middle of summer and a few hours later in the middle of winter.
Of course, if your planet has no moon, there will still be weak tides; about a third of earth normal, assuming a sun like Sol. If your planet has two or more moons, the simplest thing to do is to add the tidal effects together; they each have their separate patterns that combine into one megapattern. As a rough estimate of the amount of effect of the moon: If it looks bigger than Luna does to the inhabitants of Earth, it will have a greater effect on the tides. If it looks smaller than Luna looks on Earth, it will have a smaller effect on the tides. It's not exact, but how exact do you need it?
The tides will affect the life cycles of your planet; sea turtles lay their eggs at high tide, so that the eggs won't get washed out to sea. They hatch just a few weeks later, again at high tide.
Two more types of moons I'd like to mention. They are the moons of Earth's brother, Mars. Mars' smaller moon, Phobos, orbits its planet quicker than Mars turns. As a result, it seems speed backwards across the sky. It rises in the west, zips across the sky in four hours, and returns 11 hours later. It cannot be seen further north or south than 70 degrees. It takes just under a third of a day to complete a cycle from one full moon to the next. (For those counting, that means it will complete half its phases while you watch it in the sky.)
Deimos, Mars' smaller moon, is higher in the Martian sky. It can be seen as far north and south as ~83 degrees. It is pale for a moon, though brighter than most stars, and looks to be less than 1/10th earth's Luna. It is in the sky for two and two-thirds days. While it's up, you can see it go through it's phases in a little more than a day and a quarter. (Phobos and Deimos days are measured using Martian days.) (What effect would using one of these moons have on the inhabitants of your world? Consider carefully.)
C) Give your planet plates.
I'm not talking about special holiday plates. (Although it has its eye on that set it saw in the store window. You know which ones I'm talking about.) I'm talking about tectonic plates. Under their surface, planets are roiling masses of molten material. Many planets have epic volcanic activity to release the buildup of heat; this may be a more toxic and dangerous planet than one with tectonic plates, as Earth has.
Earth's surface is split into many different hunks of rock floating on its magma. As they crash into each other, some will be pushed under the earth's surface (cooling the molten bits, like dropping frozen stones into hot tea.). Other plates will get pushed up – creating mountains where they collide with other. And, since the plates are moving mostly on the east-west line because of the spinning earth, the mountains will mostly run north and south. (What if your planet doesn't have tectonics? Would it still have mountains? If yes,how do they form?)
That covers some Crash Course basics about designing planets. I'm hoping that even those not as interested in worldbuilding as I am will have found something interesting in today's topic. If not – tune in Saturday for a story!
There are many styles of planet, and while you are welcome to create any planet you desire, residents of most planets have come to expect a few regularities. If you seek to create a believable and recognizable planet, please keep these tips in mind. As the most common reference point, we will use the planet “Earth”.
A) Give your planet a sun.
For example, earth orbits a star named 'Sol'. Because it orbits this star, the star is called a sun. If your planet has the Earth-normal axial tilt of about 23.5 degrees, they will experience summer when their side of the planet is tilted toward the sun, and winter when it is tilted away.
What that means to your planet will vary; it may be in an ice age, for example, and even summer could be unbearably cold. Just remember that there is still a summer. The days are longer and warmer. Life will occur more actively during this time than in the winter months. (Quick thought: What would happen if bears had to hibernate twice as long?)
B) Give your planet a moon.
For example, earth has a moon named 'Luna'. Luna has a number of interesting functions. She's responsible for regulating tides – the ebb and flow of the ocean that affects life and, occasionally, history. Keep in mind that the highest high tides and the lowest low tides occur during the full moon, when Luna is at her roundest, and the New Moon, when shadow covers her. Tides are weakest at the equator. Assuming a planetary tilt of ~23 degrees, tides will be weakest at the equator and strongest right about at 23 degrees north or south of the equator. (As a reference, the north and south equators are at 90 degrees.)
A further note, if you use Luna and Earth as your template: During the equinoxes, a new (dark) moon rises at sunrise. Halfway between the New Moon and Full Moon, heading towards full it will rise at the actual middle of the day; heading towards new, it will rise in the dead center of the night. The moonrise will stay pretty close to that near the equator. Closer to the poles, it will still maintain those times during equinoxes, but the rising times will be a few hours earlier in the middle of summer and a few hours later in the middle of winter.
Of course, if your planet has no moon, there will still be weak tides; about a third of earth normal, assuming a sun like Sol. If your planet has two or more moons, the simplest thing to do is to add the tidal effects together; they each have their separate patterns that combine into one megapattern. As a rough estimate of the amount of effect of the moon: If it looks bigger than Luna does to the inhabitants of Earth, it will have a greater effect on the tides. If it looks smaller than Luna looks on Earth, it will have a smaller effect on the tides. It's not exact, but how exact do you need it?
The tides will affect the life cycles of your planet; sea turtles lay their eggs at high tide, so that the eggs won't get washed out to sea. They hatch just a few weeks later, again at high tide.
Two more types of moons I'd like to mention. They are the moons of Earth's brother, Mars. Mars' smaller moon, Phobos, orbits its planet quicker than Mars turns. As a result, it seems speed backwards across the sky. It rises in the west, zips across the sky in four hours, and returns 11 hours later. It cannot be seen further north or south than 70 degrees. It takes just under a third of a day to complete a cycle from one full moon to the next. (For those counting, that means it will complete half its phases while you watch it in the sky.)
Deimos, Mars' smaller moon, is higher in the Martian sky. It can be seen as far north and south as ~83 degrees. It is pale for a moon, though brighter than most stars, and looks to be less than 1/10th earth's Luna. It is in the sky for two and two-thirds days. While it's up, you can see it go through it's phases in a little more than a day and a quarter. (Phobos and Deimos days are measured using Martian days.) (What effect would using one of these moons have on the inhabitants of your world? Consider carefully.)
C) Give your planet plates.
I'm not talking about special holiday plates. (Although it has its eye on that set it saw in the store window. You know which ones I'm talking about.) I'm talking about tectonic plates. Under their surface, planets are roiling masses of molten material. Many planets have epic volcanic activity to release the buildup of heat; this may be a more toxic and dangerous planet than one with tectonic plates, as Earth has.
Earth's surface is split into many different hunks of rock floating on its magma. As they crash into each other, some will be pushed under the earth's surface (cooling the molten bits, like dropping frozen stones into hot tea.). Other plates will get pushed up – creating mountains where they collide with other. And, since the plates are moving mostly on the east-west line because of the spinning earth, the mountains will mostly run north and south. (What if your planet doesn't have tectonics? Would it still have mountains? If yes,how do they form?)
That covers some Crash Course basics about designing planets. I'm hoping that even those not as interested in worldbuilding as I am will have found something interesting in today's topic. If not – tune in Saturday for a story!
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Journal from a Generational Ship (Fiction, SciFi)
It’s surprising, looking back at history, how few people actually leave the planet on which they’re born. No more than a few hundred left in the first wave of Martian colonization; a few thousand, once we no longer required artificial structures to breathe the air.
I use many of these terms loosely - “we”, “no longer required”. When I say we, I mean our entire genus, including the species of humanity that can no longer interbreed with each other. These only develop from long-term evolution on a different planet; it took only a few generations, and some creative genetic manipulation, for Martians to develop different mineral and nutritional needs than earth humans. Children of a Sapien and a Martian still produce…people, though they rarely survive without an artificial environment, ironically enough.
I grew up on a generational ship bound for an exoplanet, determined to colonize it. Conditions on the ship are periodically checked and updated to increasingly match what we expect to find when we arrive.
Or that’s what we had planned on. There are people there already. A hundred and twenty years after our ship launched at .9999 some number of nines% the speed of light, we received a message. Let me repeat that - we received a message while travelling the speed of light. Turns out, they invented faster than light travel fifty years (from our viewpoint) after we left the solar system, and have been there and back already. It just took another seventy years to try and communicate with our ancient computer systems. Well, about forty (again, our viewpoint). It took nearly thirty years (Do I really have to say who’s viewpoint again?) for our computer to realize it was being communicated with.
Of course, travelling as fast as we are, we're already more than halfway to our destination; only now, we have to reset our systems so that my grandchildren will be ready for a planet more like Mars than the Dwarf planet we had expected to be exploring. Of course, our crafting engines can’t create the sophisticated and rare-material laden photon-heavy items it would take to modify our engines for faster than light travel, and the attempt would likely kill us all, so there’s no stopping early. Instead, we get to sit back and read about the human empire among the stars.
They finally encountered and confirmed aliens with non-human origins. Several species, in fact. There was a brief galactic war, and tensions remain on a few planets. But there is trade. No cross-species pollination, though. Despite what nearly every story I read about aliens growing up said. There are people who try, apparently, but uh...well, there’s DNA at the center of life, but so much of it is different, on a structural level, that crossbreeds can only come in an artist’s rendering.
The world my grandchildren enter won’t be a world my grandparents imagined; they were hardly capable of imagining such a world. And I am caught in the lonely space between. I know of the change. I have the stories of ancient humans so recently my ancestors, and I see the patterns that will one day shape my grandchildren’s lives. But I cannot touch it, cannot interact with it. We made war and peace with aliens in my lifetime, but I will never meet one.
What other changes will I see? What other changes will I miss? The life I trained for, that I am training my children for...seems to be already outdated.
I use many of these terms loosely - “we”, “no longer required”. When I say we, I mean our entire genus, including the species of humanity that can no longer interbreed with each other. These only develop from long-term evolution on a different planet; it took only a few generations, and some creative genetic manipulation, for Martians to develop different mineral and nutritional needs than earth humans. Children of a Sapien and a Martian still produce…people, though they rarely survive without an artificial environment, ironically enough.
I grew up on a generational ship bound for an exoplanet, determined to colonize it. Conditions on the ship are periodically checked and updated to increasingly match what we expect to find when we arrive.
Or that’s what we had planned on. There are people there already. A hundred and twenty years after our ship launched at .9999 some number of nines% the speed of light, we received a message. Let me repeat that - we received a message while travelling the speed of light. Turns out, they invented faster than light travel fifty years (from our viewpoint) after we left the solar system, and have been there and back already. It just took another seventy years to try and communicate with our ancient computer systems. Well, about forty (again, our viewpoint). It took nearly thirty years (Do I really have to say who’s viewpoint again?) for our computer to realize it was being communicated with.
Of course, travelling as fast as we are, we're already more than halfway to our destination; only now, we have to reset our systems so that my grandchildren will be ready for a planet more like Mars than the Dwarf planet we had expected to be exploring. Of course, our crafting engines can’t create the sophisticated and rare-material laden photon-heavy items it would take to modify our engines for faster than light travel, and the attempt would likely kill us all, so there’s no stopping early. Instead, we get to sit back and read about the human empire among the stars.
They finally encountered and confirmed aliens with non-human origins. Several species, in fact. There was a brief galactic war, and tensions remain on a few planets. But there is trade. No cross-species pollination, though. Despite what nearly every story I read about aliens growing up said. There are people who try, apparently, but uh...well, there’s DNA at the center of life, but so much of it is different, on a structural level, that crossbreeds can only come in an artist’s rendering.
The world my grandchildren enter won’t be a world my grandparents imagined; they were hardly capable of imagining such a world. And I am caught in the lonely space between. I know of the change. I have the stories of ancient humans so recently my ancestors, and I see the patterns that will one day shape my grandchildren’s lives. But I cannot touch it, cannot interact with it. We made war and peace with aliens in my lifetime, but I will never meet one.
What other changes will I see? What other changes will I miss? The life I trained for, that I am training my children for...seems to be already outdated.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
The Road to Writing
It’s been a long road that led me to being a blogger. I have many different facets, from being a geek and a nerd, to complex philosophies on life, to sometimes contradictory wishes and dreams. Why do I like to write, and what has brought me to this road of being a blogger?
When I was a child, single digits, my mother read me a bedtime story every night. As I grew older, she’d occasionally have me read her to sleep when she needed a nap.
I’ve never been rich, nor was my family, but we were able to get a lot of good books on sale. We’re talking old classics here - Great Expectations, a half dozen Oz books, Robinson Crusoe, Robin Hood, and The Swiss Family Robinson. I loved them all, and I think they influenced my writing style. I still have to watch out for overly long sentences and I use somewhat formal, flowery language peppered with words such as “therefore”.
My grandmother always gives amazing gifts. Even the clothes were awesome - I still wear the Star Wars shirt she gave me in high school. More importantly, she gave us books. Science Fiction and Fantasy were among the most common genres. For some reason, the only author who is coming to mind is L.E. Modesitt Jr, though we’ve been sharing Brandon Sanderson books as well, lately.
In middle school, several key events that happened. First, I began to keep a journal. Though I occasionally missed weeks at a time, I kept a daily hand-written journal by the time I was in high school. I have mostly fallen out of that habit since I graduated. Second, I wrote a notebook full of a truly awful time-travelling story that I still don’t understand. I will probably never revise the story; I keep it more as a memory.
Third, and most importantly, is the moment I call the start of my writing aspirations. I had not been a particularly good student. Not especially bad in the eighth grade, just not particularly strong at anything. There was an awards ceremony, and I was in the back of the auditorium with a friend of mine. Were whispered to each other and made snarky comments. I’d like to repeat - whispered. We weren’t rude, just bitter. After a long list of awards, my teacher announced the “Most Promising Writer” was - me.
In High School, I used to go to school early. I found a little hallway that was almost unused and sat and wrote poetry. Truly awful poems, really. It sort of paid of a few years later, when I hand-assembled a couple of books of the least bad poems I had written and attempted to sell them at an art fair. One person bought the book, and I gave another to a friend. I guess that, by one point of view, makes me a published author? No, no. That doesn’t count. And those poems will never again see the light of day.
And then there’s the jump between high school and now. I work on the Three-Day Novel contest most every year, and always complete it, even if it is a little short. I try to participate in NaNoWriMo, though I still haven’t made 50,000 words in the one month - I seem to always have work that decides “Hey! You need to do more in November!” Or arms that ache.
NaNoWriMo is what got me to start blogging. In the middle of the month, I realized my story wasn’t working, and I got some writer’s block. So I just started writing everything that came to my brain, which eventually turned into kind of a biography. (Don’t worry, this blog will largely be not biography.) It got me to thinking, and planning and...here I am.
Blogging feels more personal to me than other forms of writing, even when I’m not talking about me. I feel more connected to people.
So, that’s me as a writer, up to today. I don’t know that anyone is interested, but I wanted to share.
When I was a child, single digits, my mother read me a bedtime story every night. As I grew older, she’d occasionally have me read her to sleep when she needed a nap.
I’ve never been rich, nor was my family, but we were able to get a lot of good books on sale. We’re talking old classics here - Great Expectations, a half dozen Oz books, Robinson Crusoe, Robin Hood, and The Swiss Family Robinson. I loved them all, and I think they influenced my writing style. I still have to watch out for overly long sentences and I use somewhat formal, flowery language peppered with words such as “therefore”.
My grandmother always gives amazing gifts. Even the clothes were awesome - I still wear the Star Wars shirt she gave me in high school. More importantly, she gave us books. Science Fiction and Fantasy were among the most common genres. For some reason, the only author who is coming to mind is L.E. Modesitt Jr, though we’ve been sharing Brandon Sanderson books as well, lately.
In middle school, several key events that happened. First, I began to keep a journal. Though I occasionally missed weeks at a time, I kept a daily hand-written journal by the time I was in high school. I have mostly fallen out of that habit since I graduated. Second, I wrote a notebook full of a truly awful time-travelling story that I still don’t understand. I will probably never revise the story; I keep it more as a memory.
Third, and most importantly, is the moment I call the start of my writing aspirations. I had not been a particularly good student. Not especially bad in the eighth grade, just not particularly strong at anything. There was an awards ceremony, and I was in the back of the auditorium with a friend of mine. Were whispered to each other and made snarky comments. I’d like to repeat - whispered. We weren’t rude, just bitter. After a long list of awards, my teacher announced the “Most Promising Writer” was - me.
In High School, I used to go to school early. I found a little hallway that was almost unused and sat and wrote poetry. Truly awful poems, really. It sort of paid of a few years later, when I hand-assembled a couple of books of the least bad poems I had written and attempted to sell them at an art fair. One person bought the book, and I gave another to a friend. I guess that, by one point of view, makes me a published author? No, no. That doesn’t count. And those poems will never again see the light of day.
And then there’s the jump between high school and now. I work on the Three-Day Novel contest most every year, and always complete it, even if it is a little short. I try to participate in NaNoWriMo, though I still haven’t made 50,000 words in the one month - I seem to always have work that decides “Hey! You need to do more in November!” Or arms that ache.
NaNoWriMo is what got me to start blogging. In the middle of the month, I realized my story wasn’t working, and I got some writer’s block. So I just started writing everything that came to my brain, which eventually turned into kind of a biography. (Don’t worry, this blog will largely be not biography.) It got me to thinking, and planning and...here I am.
Blogging feels more personal to me than other forms of writing, even when I’m not talking about me. I feel more connected to people.
So, that’s me as a writer, up to today. I don’t know that anyone is interested, but I wanted to share.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Alone in the Cemetery (Fiction, Horror)
There are few places which could comfort me as well as a cemetery. It's a haven for trees and grass, like a park for adults. Its much quieter, and has fewer people than a library, unless you count the cemetery's permanent residents. And if someone I know, anyone I know, would get busy dying, I'd have a reason for visiting.
Not that anybody asks. People don't ask why you're in a cemetery; it is the ultimate sacred spot of privacy, however many people happen to be there. This sacredness extends even to when you need to cry or even scream a little, as long as you are facing a tombstone.
I used to go the cemetery with a notebook to do homework. Just a notebook, though. People started looking at me funny when I bought textbooks and set them up on the grass. That wouldn't bother me, but then they started asking me what I'm doing and I have to make up a stupid excuse, such as getting help from my dead father. I don't think I'm very good at lying. I always go red in the face.
Now that I work a night shift, I only come here in the dark. I thought it would be strange the first time, but it brought peace and comfort. Anybody here who would have listened can now listen more perfectly; anybody that would have judged me no longer will. I can see a few stars when the night gets deep, though only a few. I no longer see the vastness I saw when I was very young, and went camping with my dad.
I hate camping. It has none of the charms of a modern life. I get the trees and nature, and yada yada. Just give me nature closer to home. Give me a roof and central heating.
“Deep in your thoughts?” Somebody asked. I looked up but couldn't see anybody around. The only thing I could see was the faint wisp of my own breath in the air.
“Yeah, I guess so,” I responded, “Where are you?”
There was a moment of awkward silence.
“The other side of the door.”
Door? The closest door was the maintenance building, across the graveyard..
“Is 'door' your pet tree, then?”
He – she? – giggled. I pulled my coat tighter to my body.
“Silly boy. How can trees be pets?”
“Where are you? I don't talk to voices without a body.”
I jumped at the ice that touched my arm. The night air was beginning to curl around me, as though the unseen body of the voice were breathing on me. I backed away from the mist. It followed me slowly. I turned and began to walk more quickly.
“Cough twice if you need the police,” I said over my shoulder, “Otherwise, I'm flat-out leaving.”
Only the giggling. When I glanced over my shoulder, the mist followed me, though it never caught up.
I don't go back to the cemetery anymore.
Not that anybody asks. People don't ask why you're in a cemetery; it is the ultimate sacred spot of privacy, however many people happen to be there. This sacredness extends even to when you need to cry or even scream a little, as long as you are facing a tombstone.
I used to go the cemetery with a notebook to do homework. Just a notebook, though. People started looking at me funny when I bought textbooks and set them up on the grass. That wouldn't bother me, but then they started asking me what I'm doing and I have to make up a stupid excuse, such as getting help from my dead father. I don't think I'm very good at lying. I always go red in the face.
Now that I work a night shift, I only come here in the dark. I thought it would be strange the first time, but it brought peace and comfort. Anybody here who would have listened can now listen more perfectly; anybody that would have judged me no longer will. I can see a few stars when the night gets deep, though only a few. I no longer see the vastness I saw when I was very young, and went camping with my dad.
I hate camping. It has none of the charms of a modern life. I get the trees and nature, and yada yada. Just give me nature closer to home. Give me a roof and central heating.
“Deep in your thoughts?” Somebody asked. I looked up but couldn't see anybody around. The only thing I could see was the faint wisp of my own breath in the air.
“Yeah, I guess so,” I responded, “Where are you?”
There was a moment of awkward silence.
“The other side of the door.”
Door? The closest door was the maintenance building, across the graveyard..
“Is 'door' your pet tree, then?”
He – she? – giggled. I pulled my coat tighter to my body.
“Silly boy. How can trees be pets?”
“Where are you? I don't talk to voices without a body.”
I jumped at the ice that touched my arm. The night air was beginning to curl around me, as though the unseen body of the voice were breathing on me. I backed away from the mist. It followed me slowly. I turned and began to walk more quickly.
“Cough twice if you need the police,” I said over my shoulder, “Otherwise, I'm flat-out leaving.”
Only the giggling. When I glanced over my shoulder, the mist followed me, though it never caught up.
I don't go back to the cemetery anymore.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Three Emotions
One of the things I'm geeky about is the human condition. At the center of the human condition is emotions; without the emotional impact of all the things that define what it means to be human, you just...miss the point.
I once read an article describing three categories of physiological responses to emotions. These categories roughly fall into the three emotions anger, fear, and love. (The fight, flight, or *cough* friend response.) This does not mean that all emotions fall neatly into one of these three categories of emotion, just that the responses of the mind and body to any given emotion tends to fall into one of the categories.
And, even if I read that article wrong or the information has been disproved, I think that anger, fear, and love warrant a little discussion.
Anger is the knowledge that something is not as we believe they should be. Someone has disturbed our sense of the order of the universe and how it is or should be. They have challenged our identity, our property, or our loved ones. We can easily be wrong about the source or nature of the problem, but anger drives us to do something about it. Usually, it motivates us to fight or destroy.
And yet, it can be a tool for social cohesion. It can bind people together into an army, or a revolution. Finding a common source of anger, a common enemy, is recognized even in popular culture as an effective tactic for binding a group together. 1984 details how anger (in this case, usually in the form of hatred) can tie people together. Scrubs had an episode with a character drawing everyone's anger to unite them as a group. It was also done in Avengers and Agents of SHIELD.
But you must not let anger blind you. For anger loves to make a fool of the person it drives. Anger seeks destruction, but wisdom and patience may find a greater good.
Fear is, in many ways, the opposite of anger. Where anger is centered on certainty, fear mucks about with uncertainty. Fear is the sense that something, usually unidentifiable, is not right in the world. People may even fear fear, and induce misdirected anger or hatred.
Make no mistake: fear serves us. Anger seeks to make the world right, but fear seeks to keep us alive, first and foremost. It calls our attention to, and warns us to distance ourselves from, potentially dangerous people and situations. And yes, fear even has a social role; the fear of being seen or discovered encourages people to behave in the expected social manner.
But we must question our fear, for fear inherently overreacts. It must, to ensure safety from danger. But fear is at its best as a warning, or an attention grabber. When you are afraid, pay attention. Is the fear justified? What can you do about the source of the fear, and how can you prepare for its consequences?
Listen for that emotional alarm, and look for the trigger. You may save a life, or learn you did not need to fear.
So many plays, movies, books and poems have been written about love that it boggles the mind. It is such a universal force, that most movies and most stories, whatever the genre, seem incomplete if they don't address it on some level, whether it is love spurned, fulfilled, or distorted beyond goodness.
At its core, love is preference. As we describe more complex forms of love, it becomes addictive and powerful. The fear of its loss drives people to terrible ends, but healthy love looks at the well-being of the person or object, as well as a preference for their company.
Love is the most often recognized form of social cohesion. Loving those who raise you, or around whom you are raised, can provide critical emotional support and increase your lifespan. Love of country drives people to work together to create great works or fight for their fellow citizens. Love of humanity generates great deeds of charity, courage, and self-sacrifice.
Love is not all roses. Like fear and anger, it can blind us. Experience the joys of love and giving; but don't let an unhealthy preference destroy the uniqueness you or others bring to the world.
*** ***
A final thought: Love has a genre (romance), fear has a genre (horror), but anger does not have a clear genre. All three emotions can be themes in any genre. Is this because, as a friend recently suggested, that anger cannot exist in isolation? Can we simply love, or simply fear, but not be angry without a cause?
What do you think? Why isn't there an anger genre? Or, if there is one, what is it?
I once read an article describing three categories of physiological responses to emotions. These categories roughly fall into the three emotions anger, fear, and love. (The fight, flight, or *cough* friend response.) This does not mean that all emotions fall neatly into one of these three categories of emotion, just that the responses of the mind and body to any given emotion tends to fall into one of the categories.
And, even if I read that article wrong or the information has been disproved, I think that anger, fear, and love warrant a little discussion.
What is anger?
And yet, it can be a tool for social cohesion. It can bind people together into an army, or a revolution. Finding a common source of anger, a common enemy, is recognized even in popular culture as an effective tactic for binding a group together. 1984 details how anger (in this case, usually in the form of hatred) can tie people together. Scrubs had an episode with a character drawing everyone's anger to unite them as a group. It was also done in Avengers and Agents of SHIELD.
But you must not let anger blind you. For anger loves to make a fool of the person it drives. Anger seeks destruction, but wisdom and patience may find a greater good.
What is fear?
Make no mistake: fear serves us. Anger seeks to make the world right, but fear seeks to keep us alive, first and foremost. It calls our attention to, and warns us to distance ourselves from, potentially dangerous people and situations. And yes, fear even has a social role; the fear of being seen or discovered encourages people to behave in the expected social manner.
But we must question our fear, for fear inherently overreacts. It must, to ensure safety from danger. But fear is at its best as a warning, or an attention grabber. When you are afraid, pay attention. Is the fear justified? What can you do about the source of the fear, and how can you prepare for its consequences?
Listen for that emotional alarm, and look for the trigger. You may save a life, or learn you did not need to fear.
What is love?
At its core, love is preference. As we describe more complex forms of love, it becomes addictive and powerful. The fear of its loss drives people to terrible ends, but healthy love looks at the well-being of the person or object, as well as a preference for their company.
Love is the most often recognized form of social cohesion. Loving those who raise you, or around whom you are raised, can provide critical emotional support and increase your lifespan. Love of country drives people to work together to create great works or fight for their fellow citizens. Love of humanity generates great deeds of charity, courage, and self-sacrifice.
Love is not all roses. Like fear and anger, it can blind us. Experience the joys of love and giving; but don't let an unhealthy preference destroy the uniqueness you or others bring to the world.
*** ***
A final thought: Love has a genre (romance), fear has a genre (horror), but anger does not have a clear genre. All three emotions can be themes in any genre. Is this because, as a friend recently suggested, that anger cannot exist in isolation? Can we simply love, or simply fear, but not be angry without a cause?
What do you think? Why isn't there an anger genre? Or, if there is one, what is it?
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Role Playing Tropes: Rogues, Jack-of-All-Trades
Last time I wrote about classes, I focused on the Fighter, Wizard, and Cleric. Today, I had thought to focus just on the rogue, but in looking back at the history of the rogue (or, in it's early days, the thief) I realized that they are more than just the class of skills and traps: they are the first jack-of-all trades.
In early D&D, the thief was largely inspired, as one might expect, by JRR Tolkien and Jack Vance. Tolkien is an obvious one: the first hobbit which the world came to know and love, Bilbo Baggins, was hired as a burglar. He moved quietly and had a quick wit, a sharp tongue, and a good eye. Jack Vance gave us Cugel the Clever, a man who fancied himself quick-witted, but who was more notable for being a con-man and a cheat.
D&D thieves can work well alone or in large organizations that supersede or lay outside the adventuring group, whether it’s a guild, a ruling body, or a merchant organization. (Sometimes two or three of these.) The rules for how to run an organization, usually a thieves’ guild, are often published in books that focus on thieves and rogues. (The Complete Thief’s Handbook, 2nd Edition; The Quintessential Rogue, 3rd Edition & 4th Edition; The Quintessential Halfling, 3rd Edition) Okay, so halflings aren’t all rogues, but they are often lumped with them, and The Quintessential Halfling does give some alternate ways to run groups.
In terms of adventuring skills, the thief is the master of traps, and the go-to class for athletic and acrobatic skills. A rogue uses Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma to find less traditional ways of accomplishing their goals. They avoid monsters instead of fighting them. Disarm traps, instead of having to heal from them. Poison enemies, instead of confronting them. These things hold true in 3rd and 4th Editions, and looks to remain true in D&D Next.
With all their skills, the rogue is the "Big Four" class that embodies the jack-of-all trades. But it isn't the only class with that versatility. The bard is often considered the true jack of all trades. In first edition, they had to take levels in three other classes, and have four stats of 15 or higher to become one. Come second edition, the versatility began to be built into the class. The bard was given weapon proficiencies, thieving skills, wizard spells, and their own signature musical abilities. Similar features carried through third and fourth edition. In fourth edition, the bard was the only class that was allowed to take an unlimited number of multiclassing feats.
But my favorite jack-of-all trades? The Factotum. I have only seen it once: in the 3rd edition book Dungeonscape. They have plenty of skill points that they can spend freely on any skill. Their hit points, attack bonus, and weapon/armor proficiencies are average. Their key feature, which gives them near supreme versatility, is the inspiration points. Every encounter, a factotum gets a certain number of these points they can use to add to attack, damage, or saves. As they increase level, they can use their points to cast a small number of wizard spells, to heal or turn undead, or to imitate more high level class features of other classes. So far, there’s no official 4th Edition Factotum, but I guess that’s alright; I do have my homebrew version pretty much ready to play.
In early D&D, the thief was largely inspired, as one might expect, by JRR Tolkien and Jack Vance. Tolkien is an obvious one: the first hobbit which the world came to know and love, Bilbo Baggins, was hired as a burglar. He moved quietly and had a quick wit, a sharp tongue, and a good eye. Jack Vance gave us Cugel the Clever, a man who fancied himself quick-witted, but who was more notable for being a con-man and a cheat.
D&D thieves can work well alone or in large organizations that supersede or lay outside the adventuring group, whether it’s a guild, a ruling body, or a merchant organization. (Sometimes two or three of these.) The rules for how to run an organization, usually a thieves’ guild, are often published in books that focus on thieves and rogues. (The Complete Thief’s Handbook, 2nd Edition; The Quintessential Rogue, 3rd Edition & 4th Edition; The Quintessential Halfling, 3rd Edition) Okay, so halflings aren’t all rogues, but they are often lumped with them, and The Quintessential Halfling does give some alternate ways to run groups.
In terms of adventuring skills, the thief is the master of traps, and the go-to class for athletic and acrobatic skills. A rogue uses Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma to find less traditional ways of accomplishing their goals. They avoid monsters instead of fighting them. Disarm traps, instead of having to heal from them. Poison enemies, instead of confronting them. These things hold true in 3rd and 4th Editions, and looks to remain true in D&D Next.
With all their skills, the rogue is the "Big Four" class that embodies the jack-of-all trades. But it isn't the only class with that versatility. The bard is often considered the true jack of all trades. In first edition, they had to take levels in three other classes, and have four stats of 15 or higher to become one. Come second edition, the versatility began to be built into the class. The bard was given weapon proficiencies, thieving skills, wizard spells, and their own signature musical abilities. Similar features carried through third and fourth edition. In fourth edition, the bard was the only class that was allowed to take an unlimited number of multiclassing feats.
But my favorite jack-of-all trades? The Factotum. I have only seen it once: in the 3rd edition book Dungeonscape. They have plenty of skill points that they can spend freely on any skill. Their hit points, attack bonus, and weapon/armor proficiencies are average. Their key feature, which gives them near supreme versatility, is the inspiration points. Every encounter, a factotum gets a certain number of these points they can use to add to attack, damage, or saves. As they increase level, they can use their points to cast a small number of wizard spells, to heal or turn undead, or to imitate more high level class features of other classes. So far, there’s no official 4th Edition Factotum, but I guess that’s alright; I do have my homebrew version pretty much ready to play.
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