Rocking the Kasbah

So yeah, I missed a DnD night for the first time in a long time. I just couldn't go. I mean, I found a replacement die roller for my character and she did very well it seems. This is that game I drive an hour to get to usually twice a month, but at least once a month when it runs in Attleboro. I hear we're almost at 11,000 XP too. Hooray almost at 4th level!

I'm finding it harder than I expected. I know no one there thinks I ditched them, and I have a pretty damn good reason being in Morocco and all. But still... the call of rolling dice and sharpening pencils, the sweet smell of victory and mountain dew, and stupid in game jokes. These things I crave.

Okay. Morocco. I'm having a pretty good time here so far. I far preferred Marrakech to the current city of Fes where I'm writing this from. There (Marrakech) the medieval streets and close quarters was fun, the people laid back, and folks generally seemed amiable. Here (Fes) the streets are choke-points for grifters and fake guides who see you as a mark before you even turn the corner. We had people following us for 10 or 15 minutes at a time trying to become our guides or sell us things. Especially the cabbie who brought us out to the 'medina' as it's called. No means no people. No I haven't changed my mind in the last five seconds, and no I don't want something else from you instead, and god damn it if I ever ever did need something from you in the future at this point I'd go without. Language isn't a barrier. Their English would be good enough if that were the case anyways, but my mother and I both speak French. When people tell you to leave them alone in two languages, you should probably take the gorram hint and go elsewhere.

Not so much though in the land of the red tasseled hats (yes, I'm in that city of Fes, also spelled Fez).

Oh! But today my mother did her best to desecrate a graveyard! Just climbed on up citing some local goats as permission to go on ahead. Why? For the view of course! Sigh...

Actually the whole instance is pretty much already documented on facebook as follows;

Elizabeth at 8:12pm March 7
we did not desecrate them! we stepped gingerly around them because it was a much faster way to get up to the top of the hill overlooking the city walls. besides, there was a whole herd of goats climbing in and around and over them and the goatherd didn't seem to worry about it much.

Jason at 8:15pm March 7
Oh yes, if by 'gingerly' you mean 'on' and 'around' you meant 'tripped over' then you're absolutely right!

And as I tried explaining earlier, those goats were Muslim goats clearly and thus not the desecrating blue eyed infidels that we are, so they can do that whole walking thing. Also they were GOATS!

Chip at 8:18pm March 7
The goats probably pooped on them. I don't care what religion the goats were, pooping on the tombs is not cool.

Elizabeth at 8:19pm March 7
Jason, before we get into any more trouble, I think it's time to pay the cybercafe attendant and go to supper...

Really not that big of a deal, but I'm having a whole lot of fun teasing her on this trip. I mean, she had to expect it right? He he he.

So in other somewhat related news; my godmother's in Morocco. Right now. Close even as she's in a town called Meknes which isn't too far from here. This is Denise from Ottawa, not someone I usually bump into a whole lot (anyone who was at Adam's wedding may have met her, or more likely her two kids, Christian and Everett). Thank you facebook status updates I suppose (that's where my mother found out and contacted her). So we're going to get up early again for another train to meet up with her and hang out. We're kind of done with Fes anyways and ready to move on.

What are the freakin' odds of this happening by the way? Someone who can please do the math cause I'd love to know.

King Nothing - Metallica a là WBCN Radio on the Internet (damn licenses taking Pandora down outside the US).
Not exactly local flavor I know... but I needed something after a trying day. When I can get some of our pictures up you'll understand my feeling of being trapped in a rabbit warren surrounded by snakes. Marrakech was just so much more fun from my view. Not all of Fes was bad, but the experience of just running a gauntlet I'm finding hard to shake.

AWESOME!

While typing out the above this happened;

The Distance - Cake

Life's good right now.

Wheaton is a Geek. Respect.

Now, I assume that most of the people I know read Wil Wheaton's blog from time to time. Of course, then I thought about it for a few more seconds and realized that may not be entirely true...

Well you should.

But in case you don't here's three things I've learned from him recently;

Watchmen is fucking awesome and I have no reason to worry about it being a rape of the graphic novel.

Zoe Keating and Yo Yo Ma should be required to breed and produce a beautiful Cellist Lovechild. Because they are both really really good at what they do.

Wil Wheaton is further behind in Battlestar Galactica than I am.

There is actually more that I gather from his site and store away into my brain like a precious gemstone of knowledge, but I said three so you get three. Just go read his blog. And listen to Keating's music. Then figure out how she does it. Then come back so that you can agree with me that she's awesome.

Unrest in the House of Light - The Protomen

WHEEEEEEE!

So I was supposed to write more often here. I haven't been. Gah. This time it wasn't even a Toronto person who point this out to me so I figured I should probably get back on the ball. This of course is what I thought to myself last Monday night as I got back to my place from a wonderful board-game night in Billerica (where the a fore mentioned person reminded me about my promise to write more lives).

Then of course it was vacation week for the kiddos. And I became very stressed out, and very tired for the majority of it. Friday though... Friday kicked my ass the hardest (I can be stressed out working over 40 hours in 4 days, I'm allowed!) which coupled with the fact that I'd left the computron at my folks house for a few of those days meant I didn't even come close to having the energy to do anything but fall over after getting home nights.

But it's the weekend! Hooray! I'm tired again though, just waiting for myself to settle down a bit before I enter into sleepland for a while, and I remembered to update. Today I spent most of my waking time in Providence (Rhode Island) attending an alumni weekend. Saw improv, talked with people I don't know well, ate at a campus meal hall type place, and even got a tour of the campus while hearing anecdotes of former past lives. I had a lot of fun actually, the improv was a lot of fun especially. The people I was with and met all clearly loved going to school there and were pretty eager to show it off a bit for me. It's a small school though by my head's reasoning, and I could never have imagined attending there.

UofT is ginormous. I know this so I tried to put it all into perspective in that regard, but the place didn't sit right with me. And it's with me, not the school where the problem lies. I don't know, maybe it was the giant crosses above all of the residence dorm buildings names. Maybe it was that the school amounted to the east side of the St. George Campus in size. Maybe it was my general aversion to religious schooling in general that put me off (this might be the largest part of it actually, from what I gathered from the ad hock and continuous tour, the first renovation done to the campus during the current wave of stuff was a new church built in the middle of it all. I think this only because a lot of things were talked about having been done immediately after the people I was with had graduated, but the church was built before they had finished). Yes I know St. Mikes and Trin held mass and services respectively, that used to irk me as well a bit but mostly because of the people who actually WENT to those instead of the damn actual church two blocks away. And yes I know that Vic was affiliated with the United Church of Canada through Emmanuel and such... but it was a very different feel that is hard to explain. Or at the very least I'm having a hard time pinning it down. At Vic, Trin, and to a lesser degree St. Mikes the religious affiliation is very much in the background, well at least to me it was. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that the three schools make up part of a greater whole with Innis, Woodsworth, New, and UC along with all the various faculties and whatnot, and have to coexist with one another as well. But I also feel that it is a much, much bigger deal where I was that it was a Catholic College. When I jokingly pointed out how very white the college was compared to the rest of Providence and the Wendy's we stopped at on the way, the answer was in fact something along the lines of; "Well this is a Catholic College, so that's why."

Now the first thing that popped into my head was 'well what the hell does that have to do with anything?' Then she went on to say 'so it's very Irish and Italian Catholic like the rest of the north east' right about the time it dawned on me that it had a hell of a whole fucking lot to do with the demographics attending the school. My retort to that was by the way something like then where is the Brazilian/Mexican/Latin American contingent and something about a shift in demographics in the area that I'd expect' but I digress a bit.

The school is very small and very private and very catholic. Tuition alone would allow for a certain selection I'm sure, as well as the admission process itself. However, I felt I was a little bit of an outsider, and I'm a six foot christian white guy with blue eyes who got along great with everyone I met. So maybe there's something else maintaining the mix as well. The sports teams are the 'Friars', there are crosses and Jesus' life montages, i.e. religious sculptures and art everywhere (did I mention I'm pretty Christian too, my Episcopalian/Anglican upbringing you'd think would have me prepared for this kind of thing or something) and the Friar's Graveyard smack in the middle of the campus dorms was in my eyes... creepy. Real graveyard now, not a campus bar or student center with a kick ass name, cross headstones in rows. It was nice, but in the middle of where people live! Just saying the student body as a whole is pretty screwed if World War Z breaks out is all. Back on topic, had I come to visit this school and looked at it as a potential place to spend time on undergraduate work, I would not have ever chosen it. St. Mikes was Catholic, had nuns, man-hours in the dorms, and a large cathedral on it's grounds. It also saw a self described red-headed American Jew and a Muslim Pakistani Semi-Prince live on the same floor and become the best of friends who invited each other to meet with parents and to visit during school breaks. There it didn't matter to them any more that they were living in a catholic section of the school, actually it was something of a running joke with them (the red head claiming to not even having known St. Mikes was catholic when he applied... which actually sort of makes the point as to how minor religion could and often did factor into life at UofT I think) that people accepted as just the quirk of that section of buildings, than it did that I was Anglican and NOT registered at the Anglican affiliated school that is Trinity. Also, white people are not exactly the dominant majority downtown in the most multicultural city in the world that is Toronto either, and maybe the same could be said for UofT but I honestly didn't pay that much attention while I was there to how people around me looked.

It was just somewhat unsettling and off putting in such a subtle way that I wasn't even sure why I was feeling a tad uncomfortable until this conversation happened and I clued myself in. I will never begrudge the people who went there for having enjoyed themselves, I respect the hell out of people who can show pride in their school and they are as I said proud of it. But dear God I could never have gone there and been happy.

I'm sure somethings in that rambling will have to be explained in further detail later, maybe even to myself, but it's 1:40 in the morning and I should sleep while I can. So if this late night mumbling is incoherent, let me know and I'll do my best to fill in what I'm sure is cracks akin to the San Andreas to my musings.

Can we call you 'Archie?'

An interesting weekend if ever there was one. Managed to, once again get only one day away from work, which I think is made even more impressive for the long weekend!

However, since I've got quite a bit to throw out there into the blogs, and who knows how much time I'm actually going to wind up with to do it I should get to the point and stop rambling. So let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.

Friday night I went out with some of Laura's work friends into Jillian's in Boston for a 'work party'. I found this hilarious for the most part, mostly because my bosses would not ever be downing shooters, drinking beers, buying rounds, betting on bowling, and I believe the most correct term would be carousing with their employees. Actually they (or I with my employees. Yes that's right for those who didn't know, someone saw fit to deliver unto me minions to do my bidding) aren't allowed to do these sorts of things here at the family oriented non-profit organization that we are. This was just exactly what we walked into though friday night and they had a grand ol' time of it. After the bowling subsided we headed downstairs to the bar and dance floor to continue the party and everything was all fun times! Except the DJ was aweful.

I feel like I'm not usually one to be judgemental about club music, since it's not really what I choose to listen to on my own and I realize completely that I'm not always up to speed on the latest music or dance crazes. And I tried to be diplomatic about what I was hearing because of these very reasons. It was bad though. And as soon as some of the other people in the club started looking towards the booth scratching their heads in confusion (literally in some cases) I figure out it wasn't my tastes that were the problem, it was this man's execution of his craft that was leaving a lot to be desired.

It's not that he chose bad songs, it's that he didn't actually play any. What would happen is that he'd start with the introductory beat of a song, typically something well known, and overlay it with a beat ripped from another altogether different song. At first this mashup seems to be going pretty well until the melody arrives and makes people sit up and say WTF, where did that come from? It would be an entirely new song being played over the original baseline tune. The first mashup had somehow metamorphosized (and no, it wasn't a subtle mastery of rhythms and tempos that let him flow pieces into each other. Rather it usually came off as someone putting the round peg through the square hole with a sledgehammer. It didn't so much 'work' as 'happen') into something different and completely alien to what we had been trying to dance to in the first place. Now a shifting beat can sometimes keep you on your toes and make for a more dynamic and exciting experience, but he patently refused to allow any sort of dialogue to establish itself between the music playing and those dancing on the floor. Why didn't that happen you might ask? Simply put; the mashups, and since never ONCE was it ever a single song being played I cannot in good faith call them songs, the mashups changed in this manner about every 30 - 40 seconds. I know this because I began timing the durations it became so painful and infuriating. Painful because the transitions were not handled well, and infuriating because if you start playing a song, people get excited about it, and if you change the song 30 seconds into it, you've denied them the satisfaction and pleasure of the experience of that song, or songs in this case. The mashups were also just... strange. One example springs to mind; start off with the rock classic 'Born to be Wild', let two bars of intro play before laying over it the 'Genie in a Bottle' tune, proceed to switching the beat with Avril Lavigne's 'I don't like you're girlfriend' song, allowing Genie in a Bottle to switch to Michael Jacksons 'Bad' which would then become the beat for 'I kissed a girl'. Again, all of that in about 40 seconds.

Repeat ad naseum never using the same song twice. It was just not well done at all, sometimes making people wince as if in real physical discomfort.

God I wish that story weren't true. Also, the music was too loud for the place. Now, I like it loud when I'm going to a dance, but this was too loud. Too loud to hear your friend scream into your ear (I mean this completely literally), so loud the bartenders sometimes used a pen and napkin rather than bother trying to sort out what you were saying, when there are open areas on the dance floor you notice around where the speakers are hanging (and only a few feet above my head), that means too loud. It was as if this guy had decided to completely disregard what people might want and did what he liked. What happened to just playing a popular song and letting people dance to it?

No, he wasn't taking requests.

We still had fun of course, the DJ became the source of a kind of pained amusement and general comraderie amongst strangers there as we all determined to have a good time in spite of this fellow doing strange, terrible things to the music.

That was Friday night of course.

Saturday saw me hunting for a new wallet as mine had offically died (it was in three peices...), grabbing a bite to eat with some theater aquaintances of ours, and seeing the show Harvey as performed by Theater To Go. Knowing almost the entire production staff, including three family members (Adam, Katie, and Johnny), the director, and one of the actresses dictated that I would probably end up there anyways but I was really looking forward to this production anyways.

Part of the reason of course is that I'd filled in for Adam as Stage Manager on a night he couldn't make it and was therefor privy to one of the more trying members of the casts antics before hand. The majority however was that I like the show and wanted to see how they'd decided to play it off. Mr. Antics didn't dissapoint me either however (do not EVER let audience see you in costume before, during, or after a show. That was the second rule I ever learned in theater, and that was only the capstone to his hilarity) so it all worked out for my amusement!

I never even got to Sunday on this post did I? And here I have to run along now, so I'll have to update on that. The ex-Primate of the Anglican Church in Canada, the Most Reverend Michael Geoffrey Peers, visited my church this past Sunday and I was invited out to have lunch with the Archbishop afterwards, which was pretty sweet. He teaches in Trinity at U of T where our priest attended, so conversation ranged all over many topics, from good korean hot-pot, the best street meat, and the best Kung-Fu film Friday we'd seen, to what the hell did they put on the R.O.M. anyways? As you can guess. it was fantastic!

Nerd ho!

Really quickly since I'm work (though I'm always at work according to some), our maintanence manager just showed me a clip I found amusing. Somewhere on the web is video of David Letterman fucking with people at a Taco Bell drive in. Go find and watch, because it's in a word;

Awesome.

Back to children and their worlds ending problems.

Somehow this is Steve's fault.

Go us!

I couldn't stop laughing when I read this XKCD comic...

Sadly, I know people who would probably be responsible for something like that actually being true. Especially since my brother used to live in Somerville.

Christmas has come and gone! Hooray Christmas!

And yes, I had a beard. It's gone now though. Facebook has pictures if you're horrified enough by the notion to want to see.

Adam Sessler (of G4TV) had a great Soapbox recently. Not bad for a three minute segment, he talks about the violence and video games matter of factly, and you might want to check it out.

To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful. - Edward R. Murrow

Good god. I ranted. I admit it.

What follows is an email that just left my computer for my gaming group. God help me I ranted didn't I? Did I? Crap. It drives me to it sometimes...



I'm in for a short recon mission like the one you described, and I completely agree that I do NOT wanting you two going places alone without some backup within reasonable reach.

On this treasure business, I'm sort of confused as to why this is such an issue; be warned everyone, it's late and I'm probably going to launch into what may end up sounding like little more than a rant.

(My arguments end up being summarized in the last paragraph of this email, so you can if you'd like skip ahead to it).

I have begun perceiving that what I define as treasure, and what others define as treasure apparently differ quite a bit. This to me is somewhat unexpected actually, as most everyone has some exposure to roleplaying games as I so I thought we were on the same page here. I must not have the same book or something because this argument seemed a strange one to be having. I should start by defining for me what I think is treasure:

Coins, gems, art, jewelry, music, pretty clothes, deeds to buildings, and bright feathers from exotic birds are what I would call 'treasure'. Treasure is wealth. It tends to be shiny in some way, and it's what you retire on.

Weapons, armor, magic items, scrolls, potions, sunrods, fishing lines, wands, lockpicks, tents, and warm weather clothing are not 'treasure' to me. They are what I call 'equipment'. Equipment is what lets you do your job and stay alive to get more wealth.

Cashy money, i.e. gold, silver, artwork, gems and such are treasure. That this should be shared in equal parts is true and good for my mind. So any treasure we find should be split up as evenly as possible amongst the party. That's the best deal for a group with a cooperative spirit who have agreed to travel together, split the profits. 8 gold pieces in a pouch means we all get one gold piece and we've so far been doing that for the most part. We could maybe do better though.

Now I can understand how equipment can be seen as something entirely different as some, but I honestly don't think it should be. As a party it's in everybody's best interest that everyone else in the party is performing at their peak. I can't pick locks anymore than VOID can pick a melee with an orc and be around 2 rounds later to think it was a bad idea. I want the sorceres to be mobile artillery platforms behind me, with as much magical power and utility that we can possibly give them. I want the Rouges to get me through the doors without being hit with every trap in the place, and I want them sneak attacking everything I ever have to go toe to toe with, and I want them to be as loud as a tick fart when they do all this. I want the monk breaking things in half with his bare hands, jacked up with whatever help we can give him in preparation. And as far as myself and Radegunde are concerned, I'll go on a limb saying that everyone else in the party wants us between the enemy and themselves with the highest defenses, best weapons, and most surly attitudes attainable when it heats up.

That being said, equipment is equipment. If I find a scroll of magic missile, it's going to a magic user, and I don't really care which one as long as they'll use it. That should be between the two of them, and is a great way to roleplay and start specializing maybe. That whole teamwork and communication thing. I'm not going to hold onto it because I 'found it first' or I might be able to sell it for a profit. I'm not 4 anymore and my kindergarten teacher taught me to share. It's going to a mage because when shit hits the fan I want whatever is kicking my ribcage out through my back getting blasted in the face from the dude behind me that I'm trying to protect.

That being said, if I have no healing potions, and said mage still has 3, and we started with say an equal amount, I am fully going to expect that he pony up at least one, but probably two. I'd hope he'd offer it even. I mean, I did use up my first three getting my ribcage kicked out through my back protecting his butt, and if he wants me to keep doing that he's going to need me alive at the very least, and happy with him at best.

Weapons, same deal. If you find a short sword, I should probably be the one to talk to (thank you by the way everyone, Chip does keep me very well informed when I can't make it). That being said, if I pick up a +5 Vorpal Longsword of Regeneration through some mental lapse of Jim's judgment (not that it would ever, ever happen of course) the very next day it's going to Radegunde. Even if no one else saw me get it, and yes, I could use it to probably good effect, she's the Longsword weilder, and I need her A game when she's fighting next to me. She'd hopefully give me the magical light armor the same I'd giver her the magical suite of plate. If she's kicking arse, I'm staying alive and vice versa, and to me this is a good thing. Great thing even.

Anything more than one person could use (and isn't a clearly class specific item, such as a scroll or wand) should be placed between them. Both parties should put forth a case as to why they'd use it more effectively than the other (something like a belt of giant's strength for example, would have at least three immediate candidates that it would work for, the ranger, fighter, and monk) and then the rest of the party should decide in a civilized and democratic fashion who gets it. It's the rest of the parties butt on the line after all. This should allow both claimers to understand the desire of the other side to own said item and the rest of the party some insight as to who has the need or simply who would probably use it better. We have two rogues and two sorcerers so they're going to have to share items sometimes, and possibly swap tools on a regular basis. (in the case of the belt, all our arguments would probably be based around damage potential. My claim might center around the fact that I have two weapons to potentially add that damage bonus to not just one, and that my strength isn't my highest stat by far so it could use the boost. I'd actually however prefer to defer and give the belt to the monk however for this reason; his damage potential is what defines him. Fighter/Rangers can get magical weapons to improve this, he normally will have very limited options in this regard. Also, I sort of regard him like a cruise missile; a watch as he points himself in a direction and goes off to break things... or people missile. A monk's damage potential is down right silly sometimes, and he's got interesting tricks as well with his ki strikes. He's not supposed to be the one holding the line, and his AC is not the best so that's not a good idea anyways. Besides, that's my job (and Radegunde's). BUT! When we do point and fire said missile I want whatever he runs into to be gone before he himself succumbs. Besides, he's got two weapons as I do, and he hits using strength as well. The monk should get it even though I would dearly, dearly love it on Kalendios. But the monk would be a wrecking ball.)

This is about survival people. If we don't help each other maximize our individual and unique abilities, Jim should kill us off to get it over with.

Now, if it's something like a gnome hooked hammer, and no one can use it, or would for that matter, the finder still should not keep it I say. This equipment should then be classified as treasure and separated out for the common pool. At first opportunity it's sold, the profits split, and voila, cashy money again. If it's someone no one wants, or has no clearly identifiable default owner (healing scrolls go to Kaylear, and Kale will hurt people who say otherwise for being silly) but someone feels they can use it to advantage, and they explain that advantage, then they should get it as equipment. The Mace was a good example of this in action. No one uses a mace in our party, but Caedan (spelling?) thought, hey, that might make me a bit more useful once I run out of spells. He spoke up, the party agreed and poof! He's actually hit something in melee after his spells ran out. Now I'm sure he'd prefer a staff of the magi, and I'd prefer cash to him risking his neck, but hey. We get what we get and we need to work with it. As a party, we should all come to terms with this. If we can, as a group decide that we're going to do our best to make sure that everyone else in the party has the best that we can give them to succeed we're going to be successful. If we start hording, being jealous about things, and distrustful of others it's going to get us killed. If you give up an item now, it means something down the road will be heading your way. If you don't, you might need help in a tight spot and find it not forth coming because you screwed that character out of something useful. Also, this is a roleplaying game. Characters here have their own motives and agendas, and party or not, you keep burning someone they could probably wind up trying to kill you. Or succeeding. Remember, Jim's actually let Radegunde roll dice to try and punch Kale. Now, she missed, but had it connected there would have been an inter- PC fight with a DM presiding that would allow it and has no compunctions about letting characters die (RIP Garrett).

If you find a wand, and your character sheet is blank in the spells section, you do not have rights to it. You do not get to keep it for any reason. Either for profit, spite, jealousy, or to hold out to trade up for a different item. It's going to a sorcerer. If you find masterwork lockpicks, it's going to Kara and Yiqinne. <-- that's a period, the sentence ended. If I find boots of dwarvenkind and I'm not an dwarf, guess who shouldn't keep them? That's right, me. Unless the dwarf says nah, take 'em, and the rest of the group is cool with that, it's going to the dwarf. Same for any racial specific item in my book. Magical items, weapons, armor, and tools should not be considered wealth to be bargained with or personal property. This is stuff we're going to need to get out of this place alive. Never, EVER, under ANY circumstances forget that access to this stuff was placed here by the very mind that put the bad guys in the same place. If it's here, it's probably NOT so much a coincidence.

Finders keepers is silly, no one wants that it sounds like anyways, plus the rouges are going to spot everything first for the most part. It is after all their job to do just that, and they are fairly good at their jobs. This method would mean anyone guarding the rear, or even in the middle of our marching order would pretty much get the scraps, and be screwed. Again, I get the sense that you know that already so moving on. Rolling for 'treasure initiative' seems to be a step in the right direction but doesn't work as an idea for me either however for a few immediate reasons. One, I can't roll (neither can Kara so she might back me there in the long run, even though Ryan proposed it). Two, Kale will end up killing someone if people keep taking the most expensive items first to try and make profits instead of taking useful things or leaving useful things for others. Three, I can't see a fair way at all to do this that isn't going to make someone feel cheated in some way right now. Do we add our initiative modifiers to this roll (the first row folks and the rouges have the edge again...)? Are we really going to place the tools of survival in this world into a system that amounts to what looks like a draft pick and hope to get lucky? In modern war, if someone's going to assault a room, you give him your weapon if his is broken, your grenades if he's running low, and you made sure before you got there that he/she had the best armor/protection you could find. Why aren't we doing the same thing as a matter of course? We're for all intents and purposes a combined arms combat unit, and should work to act like it. Caedan giving Kale mage armor got Kale and the rest of the six that went into that Orc fight through it alive. There were a LOT of 18, 19, 20, and 21to hit rolls that missed me and didn't do damage that would have without it. Kale's hard to hit, but that's it. He's not a tank like Radegunde, and he'll go down a lot faster than she will, and would have if not for the +4 the spell gave to my armor class. The trade off was autodamage from a magic missile, but I did a lot more by staying alive than 1d4+1 damage would have. That's a small thing but it works. This discussion of pooling resources has been awesome to read, because it's what I think we're going to have to do on a larger scale still.

Ryan was correct in the putting the needs of the group above the individual as the imperative. I just don't agree with his assertion that monetary compensation be made for items that trade hands as a matter of usefulness to the receiver. This smacks of finders keepers to me. The compensation should be the warm spot in your heart and the knowledge that your buddy has another tool they need to succeed and keep you alive. Okay so that's corny, but it's the way I'm seeing this. I guess my basic point is, and if I had my way in this world it would be as follows; If you can't use the equipment, or if you're not going to use the equipment, cough it up to the group to decide what to do with it. Sorry for the rant, I just think the discussion about treasure is approaching the path of the complicated, circular, and unnecessary. Again though, I think I define treasure a bit differently and if someone has a good idea that everyone can agree is fair, I'll be for it.

Red Feathery Pens

I am so tired. So why can't I get to sleep!

The Crucible. Good show. But dear sweet Jesus what did Arthur Miller have against Actors! The man HATES THEM!? The scenes are long. Very long. He just refused to put curtains into the show. So what does this mean for me?

I get to stand carrying an awkward box and pretend to write with a red feather pen for a very long time. It wears. The only real consolation?

Its a bitchin' pen.

Why oh why didn't I bring one of these things with me to write a test when I was in high school!