Planechase Variant 1 - Change to timing and function of planar die

Central Problem:
"Planechase is too random.  The planes become the central factor of the game rather than a strategic addition."

Axioms:

• Randomness is not bad.  This is not chess.  Variance is a design feature and not a bug.  But games should not feel like they are ALWAYS decided by randomness.  
• The more skilled player should win more often than the less skilled player.
• The less skilled player should always have a chance of beating the more skilled player if luck goes their way.

Variant:

Games play as normal, with the following changes to the turn sequence and planar die use:

1. On each players turn, at the beginning of the end step, that player makes a mandatory roll of the planar die.  The player may then pay 1 generic mana to re-roll the die.  When the player stops paying mana, the last roll of the die resolves.  This is the only time at which the planar die can be rolled.

Reasoning:

• The madatory free roll means that sometimes players will planeswalk from planes that they want to stay on which reduces the possibility of abuse.
• The planar effect is guaranteed to only happen at most once per turn.
• Rolling the planar die adds a new strategic question, "Spend mana during the turn to advance your boardstate.  Or save it for a better chance at getting the planar die result you want."

2. The die-roll uses the stack, as does any planar card effect.  The card "Fractured Powerstone" loses the text, "Roll the planar die. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery," and gains the text, "If this is the first time this turn that this effect has resolved, roll the planar die.  Activate this ability only on your turn."  

Resoning:

• Players should be able to respond to planar die effects.
• The planar die should only be rolled by the player whose turn it is.
• If a player gets a die roll they like, other players should not be allowed to force them off it.  It is more likely to get a roll that you don't want than a roll that you do.
• Fractured Powerstone should still have some relevance, but should not remove all randomness from the planar die roll.  The "end step" change to the planar die roll invalidates any use of Fractured Powerstone as written.  Any change that makes Fractured Powerstone infinitely activate-able destroys the randomness in the roll.

3. When players planeswalk to a plane, the "timer die" is reset to 1.  At the beginning of the end step, the timer die increases by 1.  At the end of the end step, if the timer die has hit its maximum value, the current player planeswalks to the next plane.

Reasoning:

• Players are guaranteed to eventually planeswalk from a plane.  If the plane is beneficial, you have a limited time to exploit it.  If the plane is detrimental, you only have to suffer through it for a short time. The timer die needs playtesting, but as a first trial, I suggest 1D4.  This means that after 4 turns, two for you and two for your opponent in a 1v1 game, you are guaranteed a planeswalk to the next plane.
• The separation between increasing the timer die and the forced planeswalk allows for players to have a chance to roll the planar die if they want to try for the chaos effect.  This separation may be unnecessary since players can respond to the planeswalk trigger and the current player gets to stack the "timer increase" and "planar die roll" effects as they want.  More rules savvy players would need to refine this.

4. Following a turn in which a chaos effect triggered or a player planeswalked, play passes to the next player.

Reasoning:

• Taking extra turns is fun.  Taking infinite extra turns is too easy and is not fun for the opponent, especially when coupled with free "spells" from the plane cards.  If the timer die is 1D4, you can take, at most, 4 turns in a row.  In those 4 turns, you can get 1 chaos effect.

Advantages to this variant:

1. Game warping by plane effects is reduced.  Players can't get multiple chaos effects or multiple plane effects during a single turn.
2. Randomness is reduced, but not eliminated.  Players aren't stuck at the mercy of the dice, but some variance is preserved to increase strategic options.
3. Powerful effects can happen, but potential for abuse is reduced.  The rules allow for big, splashy effects of all sorts, but limit effects that tend to be un-fun for opponents such as infinite turns, infinite planeswalking, or infinite activations of the chaos effect of a plane.

Disadvantages of this variant:

1. Some planes lose power.  Because chaos and planeswalk effects trigger during the end of a turn, some plane effects are made of no effect.  "Until end of turn" effects move from affecting the players turn to affecting the opponents turn.  Some of these interactions could be (mostly) corrected if changed to read "until the end of your next turn."  This would increase the power of most of them, especially in multi-player.
• "Izzet Steam Maze" - Cost reduction for sorceries is useless at end-of-turn or during the opponents turn.
• "Kessig" - Giving creature trample during opponents turn is useless.  The chaos effect becomes defensive rather than offensive.
• "Krosa" - Gaining WUBRG during end-of-turn has much less use. (Corrected with "At the start of your next main phase, ..."?)
• "Orochi Colony" - Making a creature unblockable on opponents turn is useless.
• "Otaria" - "take an extra turn after this one" is negated by the Rule 4 above.  (Corrected with "At the end of your next turn, ..."?
• "Quicksilver Sea" - Does the chaos ability from allow sourcery-speed cards to be played during end-of-turn?
• "Selesnya Loft Gardens" - Mana doubling is less useful on your opponents turn.
• "Sokenzan" - Extra combat phase goes to the opponent, if I understand the rules interaction correctly, though you get the untap. (Corrected by ... what?)
• "The Great Forest" - Trample on opponents turn is useless.
• "The Zephyr Maze" - Chaos ability becomes defensive.
• "Velis Vel" - Chaos ability is less useful on opponent's turn
2. Some planes gain power.
• "Stairs to Infinity" - Because the planar die only takes effect once per turn, there "draw a card every time you roll the planar die" ability becomes more powerful as you don't have the chance of planeswalking while drawing cards.
3. Variant is rules fiddly.  This is a major change to how Planeschase works.  It would have to be explained any time a new player tires to play.  While I think most of the rules are simple to understand, there may be unintuitive rules interactions.

Planeschase Variant 2 - Drafting Planes

Central Problem:
"Planechase is too random.  The planes become the central factor of the game rather than a strategic addition."

Axioms:

• Randomness is not bad.  This is not chess.  Variance is a design feature and not a bug.  But games should not feel like they are ALWAYS decided by randomness.  
• The more skilled player should win more often than the less skilled player.
• The less skilled player should always have a chance of beating the more skilled player if luck goes their way.

Variant:

1. If Commander (EDH) format, or similar, is played in conjuction with Planeschase, commanders must be revealed before drafting begins.

Reasoning:

• Drafting is made with partial information about potential opponent strategies.

2. All players take turns drafting cards from all available plane/phenomenon cards to make a communal planes deck of 20 cards.  Turns alternate between players selecting or banning certain planes. (Inspiration: Drafting in MOBAs like "Heroes of the Storm" and "League of Legends.")

Example: for 1 vs. 1

After commanders are revealed, 1st player chooses a plane ban. (1 ban)  2nd player chooses a plane to add and one to ban. (1 add, 2 ban) 1st player chooses 2 planes to add. (3 add, 2 ban) 2nd player chooses 2 to add. (5 add, 2 ban) 1st player chooses 1 to add. (6 add, 2 ban) 2nd player chooses 1 to ban. (6 add, 3 ban) 1st player chooses 1 to ban and 2 to add. (8 add, 4 ban) . . . until you have 20 planes added, with an equal number added by each player, and some number of bans decided equally by each players.

Reasoning:

• "Customized Randomness."  Planes can be chosen that favor your decks strategy, but you are not guaranteed that you will get the cards you want.
• Draft begins with ban, so cards that overwhelmingly favor your opponent or cripple your deck can be removed.
• Frequency of bans and selections needs playtesting, but should be established in the formal rules set.

3. Following the draft, the 2nd player shuffles the communal pool of planes and offers the 1st player a chance to cut it.  The planes deck is then set aside in the command zone, as normal.  Game setup continues as normal.  After players have resolved any mulligans, the 1st player turns over the top card of the planes deck.  They may then choose to discard a card and place the top plane card on the bottom of the plane deck.  They may only do this once.

Reasoning:

• Setup should be mostly normal.  One player is assigned to shuffle the plane deck and the other player has the opportunity to cut the deck to discourage cheating with the planes deck.
• Mulligans and setup decisions are made without knowledge of the starting plane so that the first player can't "sculpt" their first turn to produce an overwhelming advantage.
• The starting plane can have a huge impact on the early game.  I wanted a way to give players some control over the starting plane, but that choice should come with a cost.  The rules stated above allow a mulligan of the plane at the cost of a card. Another possible cost could be giving up "the play" so that the opponent plays first, but skips their first draw. Tuning the cost requires playtesting.

Advantages of this variant:

1. Only one set of planes is needed for a play group.  Aftermarket availability of planes cards is low and potential for hoarding and price spikes is high.  Needing one set of planes per group reduces acquisition pressure and discourages market manipulation.
2. Reduced randomness; increased strategic depth.  Drafting becomes part of the overall strategy of the game.  Opponents' strategy can be inferred from planes selected or banned.  Since this happens after revealing commanders (if that is part of the format), choices can be made with partial knowledge that increases as the draft progresses.
3. Can be used alone or in conjunction with other variant rules.

Disadvantages of this variant:

1. Time of setup increases.  Drafting takes time.  Depending on playgroup, the draft aspect could significantly impact setup time.  Drafting sequence needs tuning to reduce number of selection groups (which increase time) while allowing for sufficient response to opponent picks.

Eagles! (LOTR LCG)

This is a deck for Lord of the Rings: the Card Game, by Fantasy Flight Games.  I designed it for my wife to use during our multiplayer games.  While it only does one thing, fighting, it does it very well.  Paired with a good questing deck, has successfully navigated through the Core set and Shadows of Mirkwood cycle of adventures.  I don't claim that it is anything new, being a fairly standard eagles deck, but it is a lot of fun for my wife to play.  I'm rather looking forward to the November Fellowship Event so that I can get her the alternate art Legolas to play.

Hero: (3)
1x Beregond (Heirs of Numenor)
1x Legolas (Core Set)
1x Balin (On the Doorstep)

Ally: (20)
3x Defender of Rammas (Heirs of Numenor)
2x Gandalf (Core Set)
1x Radagast (A Journey to Rhosgobel)
1x Beorn (Core Set)
3x Vassal of the Windlord (The Dead Marshes)
1x Gwaihir (Trouble in Tharbad)
1x Landroval (A Journey to Rhosgobel)
3x Winged Guardian (The Hunt for Gollum)
3x Eagles of the Misty Mountains (Return to Mirkwood)
2x Descendant of Thorondor (The Hills of Emyn Muil)

Attachment: (18)
1x Spear of the Citadel (Heirs of Numenor)
3x The Day’s Rising (The Antlered Crown)
2x Song of Battle (The Dead Marshes)
1x Horn of Gondor (Core Set)
1x Great Yew Bow (On the Doorstep)
3x Support of the Eagles (Return to Mirkwood)
1x Celebrian's Stone (Core Set)
1x Rivendell Blade (Road to Rivendell)
3x Secret Vigil (The Lost Realm)
1x Black Arrow (On the Doorstep)
1x Gondorian Shield (The Steward's Fear)

Event: (11)
2x Feint (Core Set)
3x Campfire Tales (The Hunt for Gollum)
1x Quick Strike (Core Set)
3x The Eagles Are Coming! (The Hunt for Gollum)
2x Sneak Attack (Core Set)

Side Quest: (1)
1x Gather Information (The Lost Realm)

Total Cards: (50)

Deck Created with CardGameDB.com The Lord of the Rings Deckbuilder

Lost Mine of Phandelver, part 3

SPOILER WARNING: I will describe the adventures of my PCs as they sought to discover the mysteries of The Lost Mine of Phandelver. Reading this will give away some of the secrets and surprises found in this module. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

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Some explanation and character creation can be found in my previous post, here.

Part 1 describes how the PCs discovered there was something sinister going on near Phandalin and what they did about it. In Part 2, they gain an animal companion and have a bath.

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Having discovered the goblin lair, delivered their cart of goods to Barthen, made a wolf friend, and had a bath twice, the party found a goblin living chamber at the top of a steep climb. Unfortunately, there were still goblins in the living chamber and battle immediately commenced.

Olva and Inigo were the only ones at the top of the slope when the battle started. Five goblins rushed the adventurers while another ran over to a figure chained up in a loft-type area. Olva took out one attacker with a well placed arrow shot before they could close with her. Nissa, Keno, and Carlita hurried to climb up the hill and untie the wolf's harness so that they could join the battle. Inigo danced in and put major damage on a couple before everybody piled in to finish them off.

With only two of his underlings left alive, the goblin in the loft dragged the figure over to the edge and threatened to drop him off if the group wouldn't agree to parley. The heroes could see that the figure was actually Sildar Hallwinter, the bodyguard that was captured with Gundren. Everybody, including the goblins, backed off for a bit and began to talk.

The leader goblin, Yeemik, wanted the adventurers to take out his boss, Klarg, so that he could be the boss goblin. Unfortunately, his accent must have been a little too strong as my players decided their characters couldn't understand him because they don't speak goblin except for Carlita. Though Carlita could understand what Yeemik was saying, she decided to cast sacred flame on him, setting him alight and causing him to drop Sildar over the edge. Sildar fell to the floor of the cavern, cracked his head, and began to slowly bleed to death. Meanwhile, Yeemik was flapping about trying to put himself out. Nissa sent Keno to savage him, and after a brief tussle Yeemik fled toward the back of the cave. Inigo, observing Yeemik's flight, pulled out his dagger and tossed it strait into Yeemik's kneck, killing him.

Seeing the rapid fall of their boss, the two underling goblins cringed in a corner, pleading for their lives. Unfortunately, Nissa didn't understand goblin and decided to blast one with a fire bolt. Seeing that no quarter would be given, the remaining goblin took a wild shot at the nearest enemy, Keno, before he, too, was taken out. However, the goblin's desperate shot of desperation found a home and Keno was knocked out before anyone could help. Luckily, Carlita remembered that she could cast spare the dying, and rushed to stabilize Keno and Sildar before they succumbed to their wounds.

Having cleared out the goblin sleeping quarters, the party decided this might be a good place to take a short break before continuing their assault on the goblins in search of Gundren.

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This was probably my favorite scene so far. There everybody is, trying to parley with Yeemik, trying to decide if they should do what he wants, when suddenly Carlita decides she doesn't want to listen anymore and blasts him. Everyone has one of those "What just happened?" moments as they see Yeemik go up in flames and Sildar fall over the edge of the precipice. And then, just when Inigo has got everybody calmed down again, Nissa, not knowing what to do, decides to blast one of the last two remaining goblins, whereupon the final goblin, knowing he is dead meat walking, makes a shot at the wolf and manages to land a killing blow. The final stab by Inigo must have been almost a mercy killing. "You poor schmuck. Let me put you out of your misery before the crazy ones get you." Priceless.

I wasn't sure what the rules were for long and short rests, so this was a good place to stop. The holiday was over and it will be Christmas before we can get back together, but I know that all my players are eager to see what happens next with this crazy group.

Lost Mine of Phandelver, part 2

SPOILER WARNING: I will describe the adventures of my PCs as they sought to discover the mysteries of The Lost Mine of Phandelver. Reading this will give away some of the secrets and surprises found in this module. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

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Some explanation and character creation can be found in my previous post, here.

Part 1 describes how the PCs discovered there was something sinister going on near Phandalin and what they did about it.

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While Olva, Carlita, and Inigo were following the goblin's trail, Nissa was conscientiously watching the cart. After a short time, a rider appeared, introducing himself as Barthen of Barthen's Provisions. He had been worried when Gundren didn't show up as expected and had set out to look for him on the trail to Phandalin. He offered to take the cart and urged Nissa to follow her companions in rescuing Gundren, giving her a map of Phandalin so that she could find her way to Barthen's Provisions afterward. Nissa, however, refused to leave Barthen in the dangerous woods and rode with him all the way to Phandalin before borrowing a horse and setting off after her friends.

Meanwhile, Olva, Carlita, and Inigo had followed the goblin's trail to the mouth of a cave. Olva quietly proceeded to scout out the cave entrance. Inigo stealthily crossed the stream issuing from the cave and began checking out the bushes on the other side. Carlita decided to noisily follow Inigo, completely negating his stealth, and was rewarded with two arrows suddenly flying at her from over the hedge followed shortly by the appearance of two goblins from around the end near the cave mouth. Inigo and Olva, rushing back to the group, made short work of them, and everyone proceeded together into the cave. Carlita cast light on her shield, but then persisted in hanging back, so no one could really use it to see ahead. Olva, with her darkvision though, perceived a chamber leading off to the east in which she found three ravenous wolves barking and howling.

Olva pulled out some rations and tossed them to the wolves (or perhaps big dogs) who gobbled them up and calmed down. Whereupon, she unchained them. They jumped on Olva, knocking her down, and began to tear her pack apart looking for more food. Inigo and Carlita were at a bit of a loss as to how to help. Inigo tried distracting the wolves by throwing some food down the tunnel for them to chase, but forgot to get the wolves attention first, so his action went largely unseen. Luckily, Nissa arrived at this time and, with a bit more skill than the others, was able to calm one of the wolves down enough to lead it away from Olva which allowed her to get up off the floor. With a bit more food, Olva was able to get two of the wolves back onto their chains, while the third wolf had taken a liking to Nissa due to her kindness and chose to calmly follow her further into the caverns.

Choosing not to further investigate the steep fissure at the back of the wolves' chamber, the party went back into the entrance tunnel and continued deeper into the caves. A short distance further, they found a steep slope that Olva tried to climb. However her weight caused part of the slope to collapse and tumbled her back to the bottom. Having learned her lesson, she decided to lasso a stalagmite at the top of the slope and prepared to try the climb again.

In the mean time, Inigo scouted further ahead and spied a bridge 20 ft. up in the air. As he and the others were debating what to do next, a rushing was heard and a wall of water came rushing down the cavern tunnel. Olva and the wolf, now named Keno, quickly scrambled up the incline, but Nissa, Carlita, and Inigo were less fortunate. The water tumbled and battered them along, back to the entrance of the caves. Bruised and battered, but not seriously injured, the three picked themselves up and trudged back to the bottom of the incline where they again began discussing what they should do next. They decided to climb the incline, with a rope harness being made for Keno, and everyone had lined up for the ascent, when another wall of water came rushing down the tunnel. Everyone quickly scrambled up the rope that Olva had prepared, though Carlita waited until the last moment, having gone to see if she could coax another wolf to join them. Though nearly swept away by the flood, Carlita barely managed to hang on to the rope and pull herself to safety.

At the top of the rope, the party discovered a stinking cavern filled with blankets and cooking fires and six startled goblins. Battle immediately commenced.

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This session presented several humorous moments. Among them were Foghorn rolling a 2 on a stealth check when she tried to follow Gamer in investigating the bushes. We could all imagine Carlita happily jingling along behind the slinking rogue, completely frustrating all his efforts to move quietly. Another incident was when Goldfish unexpectedly had her character release the wolves from their chains after calming them down. I didn't want them to outright attack her, but I thought that having them smother her as they tried to get more food would be appropriate. She and the others spent ten minutes trying to get those dogs off of Olva, which gave me plenty of time to get Nissa onto the scene to help. She rolled high on her animal handling check and so was allowed to lead one away and "tame" it, as it were. This gave Reader another player character which I ruled could understand basic commands like "stay," "attack," etc.

It took a lot of shoehorning to get Reader to have her character go back and join the others. She was very determined to make sure that Nissa fulfilled her contract completely before she went to find Gundren. No matter what outs i presented nor how much the NPC plead with her to go rescue Gundren, Nissa was determine to see this cart delivered. I fudged distances and retconned some times so that I could eventually have Nissa join up with her party after a decently short interval. 

There were a lot of unexpected developments, but they were all fun. The ramifications will have to be worked out later. I don't think I want the party to easily tame the other two. I'll have to figure out a good way of avoiding this.

Lost Mine of Phandelver, part 1

SPOILER WARNING: I will describe the adventures of my PCs as they sought to discover the mysteries of The Lost Mine of Phandelver. Reading this will give away some of the secrets and surprises found in this module. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

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Some explanation and character creation can be found in my previous post, here.

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Inigo Tabor (played by Gamer), Nissa Olem (played by Reader), Olva Moonsdotter (played by Goldfish), and Carlita Runeheim (played by Foghorn) were hired by a dwarf named Gundren Rockseeker in the city of Neverwinter to transport some goods to the frontier town of Phandalin, about 75 miles south. Gundren and his bodyguard, a human named Sildar Hallwinter, had set off a couple of days before so that Gundren could take care of some business before his supplies arrived. The party was to deliver the supplies to Barthen's Provisions in Phandelin where the owner would pay them 10 gp  each.

The trip was uneventful until the group was about an hour's ride east from Phandalin. There, in the middle of the trail, they saw some dead horses and a turned over cart. Carlita approached the cart to find out more and recognized that these horses belonged to Gundren and Sildar. At that moment, four goblins ambushed the party from the bushes on either side of the trail. Inigo, Olva, and Nissa (disgused as a soldier) made short work of the goblins, though not without taking some damage. Humorously, Carlita wandered aimlessly off into the trees after first blocking some goblin arrows and healing Inigo.

With the goblin menace dispatched in the immediate area, Olva looked for and found the trail down which the goblins had carried Gundren and Sildar. Olva noted that Gundren and Sildar had clearly been alive when the goblins had dragged them away, and she and Carlita decided to go to rescue them. Nissa conscientiously chose to stay with the cart. After some moments of internal debate, Inigo decided to follow the other two, just in time to prevent Olva from falling into the cleverly disguised pit trap the goblins had left to discourage pursuers. After some time, the three came upon a cavern mouth, clearly the entrance to the goblins hideout.

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This first session was good for teaching everyone, including me, the basics of playing D&D. The unexpected decision of Nissa to stay behind left me in a difficult situation as she absolutely refused to abandon the cart to go with the others. I was able to get around this in the next session, but I was definitely not prepared, as a new DM, to run a game that had party members in two different locations at the same time.

Also, Carlita's actions were often a headscratcher that left everybody laughing. And it only got funnier as the game progressed.

Lost Mine of Phandelver, setting up

This past Thanksgiving weekend, I had my first experience with playing Dungeons & Dragons in the classic role of the Dungeon Master. My D&D experience is not much, just a few games with some friend at college during 3rd edition. Recently I became interested in playing as a way of spending time with my kids and encouraging their creativity. I looked into it and heard good things about the new 5th edition that made it sound like a good fit for me, so I picked up the starter set as a good introduction and, importantly, having a prepared module ready to run. Being with family during the holiday got the numbers up to four players plus me as DM so that we could run the adventure without having to modify things. With that we were set for our first adventure.

None of my players really have any previous experience with D&D. One (Gamer) has extensive experience playing digital RPGs and so has the best grasp of how things should generally proceed. Another (Reader) has read a lot of fantasy novels and knows something of how stories go. The last two (Goldfish and Foghorn) are under the age of ten and have only a minimal grasp of the world, so I knew adventuring with them would be unpredictable.

Rather than getting bogged down in character creation, I made out all the character sheets, worrying about the nitty gritty of stat value assignment and spell selection, and let players got to choose the more important role-playing aspects of their characters, like race, class, and background. I was limited to the four classes and races outlined in the free PDF available online, so nothing strange was allowed, but I did make adjustment for Reader who wanted her human wizard to have cat ears and tail, and to wield a sword. She gained keen smell and shortsword proficiency, which I felt wouldn't be too unbalanced.

We ended up with pretty standard archetypes: a human rogue Inigo Tabor (Gamer), a human/cat wizard Nissa Olem (Reader), a wood elf fighter/archer Olva Moonsdotter (Goldfish), and a hill dwarf cleric/healer Carlita Runeheim (Foghorn). There was no real tank character, though Carlita did an OK job in that role. We also had some interesting role-play elements to flesh out the environment. Reader came late to the game and so didn't have her own character setup before the first session, so I gave her a human fighter to play until I could make up her character. It worked out well as it meant her character could "hide her power" until she needed to reveal it later in the game (after we had decided what that power was). Carlita and Olva had known each other for a long time before this adventure and were good friends. Olva worked as an explorer and cartographer and wanted to make a map of her travels round Phandalin, which gave Goldfish a job to do during gameplay and a reason for being on the adventure. Inigo was a smuggler who had seen too much and was on the run from his last employer. I'm looking for ways to work that into future episodes.

As a first-time DM, I played the rules pretty loose and adhered to the first golden rule: "story and fun trump rules as written." This made for some memorable, but unplanned, occurrences that will have unexpected repercussions as the story progresses. With that understood, we began playing . . .

Lessons in Commander Etiquette

After picking back up in Magic the Gathering last fall, I've really enjoyed the Commander format. Unlike some of the other constructed formats, Commander is a casual singleton format so you only need one copy of a given card (instead of 4) and most people are interested in big plays and fun for everyone with less emphasis on outright winning.

This atmosphere is heavily dependent on who you are playing with and in the ~7 games of Commander I've played so far, I've had 4 good games. The 3 not so good games were warped by one player who completely dominated the game at the expense of every other player.  I know which player I want to be, but sometimes it is hard to tell which actions fall in each camp.

Yesterday, I got to play two games, one good, one bad, and I actually won the second game. That is the first time I have ever won a game of Commander that wasn't with one of my family members.  I played Marath, Will of the Wild as my commander and my deck exploded with lots token generation and machine gunning from Marath.  I played against Zedru with lots of thieving and not-so-nice giving; Zenagos, God of Revels with big monsters; and Marchesa, whose counter filled goodness could never be removed from the board. My first game of the night had shown me how quickly Marchesa can build the damage, so when someone played a spell that forced all that lethality to point at me, I took the opportunity to remove Marchesa in the only fashion I could see that would be effective and I tucked her into her players deck.

The problem is that this really crippled the other person's deck and mostly removed them from the game. Not much fun for them.  After the game I realized that I had had a different way of getting Marchesa off the board without ruining the game for that one player, a major component of the strategy of the deck that I had completely forgotten about.  I also realized that majorly problematic spells should be saved for special situations. Some lessons I learned from last night's game:

• Don't use "fun crushing" mechanics like commander tucking, universal permanent bouncing, etc. when you are in a dominant position unless you can win that turn, and within five minutes, by doing so. No one like a sore winner any more than a sore loser.
• Even when you are behind, reserve "fun crushing" mechanics for those players whose violate the casual nature of the game, not simply for those players who are winning.
• Preemptive strikes carry lots of bad political credit and should be kept to a minimum. Wait until the big bad is pointed at you before you make your move, or turn your intervention into a political maneuver that at least one other player will benefit from, and make sure that they know it.
• People don't like theft of their commanders. People don't like tucking their commanders. Use both sparingly.

Last nights second game had a lot of good going. I think the Marchesa player will forgive me and I tried to be kind once I had eliminated the obvious threat. I was the new guy, however, and I hope that my actions didn't come across as the "fun at everyone else's expense" kind of player that I don't like playing with.

Hearthstone

(Note: This entry is about the online CCG "Hearthstone" from Blizzard, and not the city management game "Stonehearth" from Radiant Entertainment.)

I recently had the chance to check out the online collectible card game "Hearthstone" being produced by Blizzard. It is in open beta right now (though that term is getting more ambiguous in game development). I set up a free account and spent some illicit hours testing the game when I should have been doing other, more productive activities. Here is a quick summary of my thoughts on the game.

The Positive: Hearthstone has the production quality you would expect form a game from Blizzard, especially as it uses intellectual property from Blizzard's flagship World of Warcraft. The artwork and voice acting (what there is of it) are top notch and the overall feel of the game is coherent and charming. In regards to gameplay, the different characters felt pretty unique with each one having distinct strengths and weaknesses.

The Negative: It is early in Hearthstone's development, so I may have to keep and open mind and check back again later, but at the moment the game lacks strategic depth. Some abilities were extremely powerful (e.g. "charge", "taunt") while others seemed underpowered by comparison (e.g. "divine shield", "stealth"). Perhaps this view comes from only using the starter cards and the balance is more evident on cards you get from packs. Packs, however, were not that simple to obtain short of shelling out several dollars. The game felt like I would have to grind a lot and pour hours into it to obtain cards. Also the different character abilities felt unbalanced with direct damage, protection, and healing being extremely versatile while other abilities were rather lackluster. Gameplay overall was repetitive with really only one best strategy. Again this may be because I only was using starter cards, though this lack of strategic diversity in your entry level product is poor game design and poor business.

Hearthstone seems like a well produced little game that requires too much time investment at the moment to get much diverse gameplay. Since it is early in the life of the game, I will have to try back some other time to see if things improve.

Nekusar: Wheel of Pain

This is another Magic: the Gathering deck I've put together for the Commander/EDH format based around the commander Nekusar, the Mindrazer.  This is the first deck that I've put serious effort into acquiring cards for and the deck I've put together has a decent power level while hopefully not being oppressive to the rest of the table.  Thanks to some playtesting with Ben, I was able to determine some weaknesses in my original build (not enough creatures, not enough discard) and have modified it to include more of the spectre creatures to prevent opponents from getting much benefit out of all the extra cards Nekusar gives.  I can't wait to take it for a spin during the next Commander night at my local game store.

Nekusar: Wheel of Pain

Commander
1	Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Creatures
1	Avatar of Woe
1	Charmbreaker Devils
1	Consuming Aberration
1	Doomsday Specter
1	Duskmantle Guildmage
1	Entropic Specter
1	Fate Unraveler
1	Fiend of the Shadows
1	Hypnotic Specter
1	Jace's Archivist
1	Kederekt Parasite
1	Liliana's Reaver
1	Meletis Charlatan
1	Nightscape Familiar
1	Nightveil Specter
1	Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1	Psychosis Crawler
1	Scythe Specter
1	Shimian Specter
1	Thoughtrender Lamia
1	Viseling
Spells
1	Anger of the Gods
1	Arcane Melee
1	Blue Sun's Zenith
1	Crawlspace
1	Curse of the Swine
1	Darksteel Ingot
1	Decree of Pain
1	Dimir Keyrune
1	Fanning the Flames
1	Fireball
1	Incendiary Command
1	Killing Wave
1	Library of Leng
1	Liliana's Caress
1	Megrim
1	Mizzium Mortars
1	Molten Psyche
1	Obelisk of Grixis
1	Otherworld Atlas
1	Pestilence
1	Price of Knowledge
1	Propaganda
1	Prosperity
1	Red Sun's Zenith
1	Reforge the Soul
1	Skyscribing
1	Sol Ring
1	Spiteful Visions
1	Starstorm
1	Street Spasm
1	Sudden Spoiling
1	Talisman of Dominance
1	Talisman of Indulgence
1	Teferi's Puzzle Box
1	Temple Bell
1	Underworld Dreams
1	Whispering Madness
1	Windfall
1	Words of Waste
Lands
1	Ancient Tomb
1	Barren Moor
1	Bojuka Bog
1	Command Tower
1	Dimir Aqueduct
1	Dread Statuary
1	Evolving Wilds
1	Forgotten Cave
1	Grixis Panorama
6	Island
1	Izzet Boilerworks
1	Lonely Sandbar
6	Mountain
1	Opal Palace
1	Polluted Mire
1	Rakdos Carnarium
1	Remote Isle
1	Smoldering Crater
9	Swamp
1	Temple of the False God
1	Terramorphic Expanse

 Deckstatistik anzeigen

Gabriel Santiago: Double Run

This deck was originally built with Andromeda, but has mostly burst economy and since it uses Doppelgänger to double runs I thought Gabriel might give you more threat options while providing a little extra economy.


Gabriel Santiago: Double Run (45 cards)

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Gabriel Santiago: Consummate Professional

Event (21)

2 Account Siphon
3 Dirty Laundry
3 Emergency Shutdown
3 Forged Activation Orders
3 Inside Job
2 Lawyer Up
2 Special Order
3 Sure Gamble

Hardware (5)

2 Doppelganger
3 Prepaid VoicePAD

Resource (6)

1 Aesop's Pawnshop ••
3 Armitage Codebusting
2 Bank Job

Icebreaker (8)

2 Corroder ••••
2 Faerie
2 Femme Fatale
2 Gordian Blade ••••• •

Program (5)

3 Crescentus
2 Datasucker ••

Mayael: Mistress of Beasts

Here is my first version of making a commander deck using Mayael the Anima.  It is rather pricey, so will probably only ever get played digitally, where I have access to all the cards.  I am working on making a more budget version for my daughter to play.  She build a commander deck using Mayael, but it needs a bit more punch than it currently has.  I hope to give it that before too long.

Mayael: Mistress of Beasts EDH

//Commander
1	Mayael the Anima
//Creatures
1	Archetype of Aggression
1	Archetype of Endurance
1	Avenger of Zendikar
1	Balefire Dragon
1	Blazing Archon
1	Bogardan Hellkite
1	Changeling Berserker
1	Drumhunter
1	Elvish Piper
1	Garruk's Horde
1	Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
1	Godsire
1	Hamletback Goliath
1	Inferno Titan
1	Malignus
1	Molten Primordial
1	Mycoid Shepherd
1	Oracle of Mul Daya
1	Paleoloth
1	Rampaging Baloths
1	Sakura-Tribe Elder
1	Seedborn Muse
1	Solemn Simulacrum
1	Soul of the Harvest
1	Spearbreaker Behemoth
1	Spellbreaker Behemoth
1	Stalking Vengeance
1	Steel Hellkite
1	Sun Titan
1	Utvara Hellkite
1	Vagrant Plowbeasts
1	Vigor
1	Yavimaya Elder
//Spells
1	Asceticism
1	Aura Shards
1	Chromatic Lantern
1	Coalition Relic
1	Condemn
1	Cream of the Crop
1	Crystal Ball
1	Darksteel Ingot
1	Defense of the Heart
1	Eladamri's Call
1	Expedition Map
1	Fires of Yavimaya
1	Hallowed Burial
1	Hammer of Purphoros
1	Land Tax
1	Lurking Predators
1	Mana Reflection
1	Mayael's Aria
1	Mirari's Wake
1	Path to Exile
1	Quicksilver Amulet
1	Return to Dust
1	Rings of Brighthearth
1	Scroll Rack
1	Sol Ring
1	Swords to Plowshares
1	Thousand-Year Elixir
1	Warstorm Surge
1	Where Ancients Tread
1	Worldly Tutor
1	Wrath of God
//Lands
1	Ancient Tomb
1	Clifftop Retreat
1	Command Tower
8	Forest
1	Homeward Path
1	Jungle Shrine
1	Kessig Wolf Run
1	Mosswort Bridge
2	Mountain
1	Naya Panorama
2	Plains
1	Rogue's Passage
1	Rootbound Crag
1	Sacred Foundry
1	Spinerock Knoll
1	Stomping Ground
1	Strip Mine
1	Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
1	Sunpetal Grove
1	Temple Garden
1	Temple of Abandon
1	Temple of Plenty
1	Temple of the False God
1	Temple of Triumph
1	Winding Canyons
1	Yavimaya Hollow

 Deckstatistik anzeigen

Smiling Red

My wife wanted a new thumbnail picture for her Facebook page.  (Our use of Facebook tends to be infrequent and sporadic.)  I took up the challenge as a chance to learn some digital coloring techniques and practice full figure drawing -- as opposed to the busts I normally doodle.  I really learned a lot especially how two colors change their apparent hue when placed together.  I can see all the flaws and I still have a long way to go before I will be happy with anything I draw, but I really like the result of this exercise.  (Note that my feelings are heavily biased because of the subject of the portrait.)

Heart at Disney still

I just saw an animation that made me want to hug my daughter close and tell her that I love her; it made me sad that my wife was not right beside me and yet happy that she will be beside me soon; it made me fall in love with my wife again.  What surprised me was that it came from Disney.

Ever since the insipid "Home on the Range", Disney films have held no appeal for me until the acquisition of John Lasseter as Creative Director at Disney.  During this same period, Disney abandoned 2D animation as a thing of the past and shut down or sold off most of their 2D animation department.  From then on all Disney films were polished CG models with no personality and no heart.  It was a desperate move of desperation when Disney purchased Pixar from Apple as Pixar's distribution contract with Disney near its termination.  Pixar had found, even in their trademark 3D style, the heart and feeling that Disney had lost.

After acquiring Pixar and under the creative direction of John Lasseter, Disney began searching for the emotional connection it once had.  Unfortunately, old habits die hard and we were given two "princess" movies to expand Disney's merchandising.  Don't get me wrong.  I've enjoyed "The Princess and the Frog" and "Tangled" immensely and would consider purchasing them to watch again.  It was certainly more flavorful fare than "Chicken Little" (I've never seen this one.) or "Bolt."  But as I watched those films, I could clearly see the creative team fighting with the business office.

"We want to tell a really good story," says the creative team.

"It has to have a princess,"  says the business office, "to add to our 'pantheon.'  And she has to have a prince to marry so that we can bring in the date night crouds.  And there have to be a few talking animal sidekicks to increase the merchandizing."

"But what about our good story?" wails the creative team.

"Stories aren't as important as selling stuff."

In "Tangled" Disney did a little better than in "The Princess and the Frog."  The sidekick didn't exactly talk and the prince didn't actually start out as a prince.  I haven't seen Disney's latest animated feature, "Wreck-it Ralph" but I have been mildly interested as it also involves the pixel art video game style of my childhood.  Then today I saw the ultimate compelling reason for seeing this film.  It was shown with a short--a unique ocurrence for a modern Disney film in spite of John Lasseter's insistence that animators should continue to produce them.  In those roughly 4 minutes of animation, I saw all the beauty and emotional connection that Disney has lacked for nearly 10 years.

So now I want to have a date with my wife.  And I know what we will watch.

*EDIT: Sorry. Blogger has done it to me again and cropped the video. You can watch the thing properly here.

Noir Sprite

This was my second attempt at creating a sprite.  This time I took a shortcut.  Rather than creating something completely from scratch, I found a drawing that looked like it would make a good sprite, shrunk it, and then corrected the pixels one by one.

Slime Sprite

This is my first attempt at creating a moving sprite.  For anyone who doesn't know what a sprite is (not a drink or magical creature), sprites are often used in video games   Before the age of more advanced graphics processors and the boom of 3D technologies, sprites were all the graphics you saw if you ever played a computer game.

For me, they hold a lot of appeal.  There is the nostalgia factor, as sprites remind me of every great game that entered into my childhood.  There is the fact that they are NOT 3D, which is important as I tend to get motion sick when playing 3D games. (Strange, but true.)  There is the fact that sprites tend to have a smaller processing requirement than newer 3D graphics, so games employing sprites can run on really outdated hardware.

Then there is the fact that sprites represent a real test in minimalist art.  Creating recognizable detail with only a few pixels and a very limited color palette is difficult  while doing it well is even more so.  While working on the little slime guy walking above, I looked at a lot of sprites and there is a lot of lazy sprite art out there.  When you find a well done bit of sprite work, though, it is really amazing to realize the level of detail the artist has packed into just a few square pixels.  (Look up "Secret of Mana" or "Final Fantasy VI" some time to see what I mean.)

If I ever manage to make a video game as I would like to, I am pretty sure I want to use sprites instead of some newer technology.

Why I want a library in my home

Some people I talk to cannot understand why I would want to eventually build a library in my own home.  I own no Victorian estate, after all.  So why would I want to fill a room with a bunch of books, especially fiction novels, that will be read only once.  I have two reasons.

Most people I talk to who can't understand my desire to own a personal library do not reread books.  To them it would be a big room full of useless paper.  I do reread the books that I invest the money in to buy (with one caveat that I will address in a moment).  Until I came to graduate school, there was a set of five or six novels that I read every year, along with the new books I might try out.  Now, when I have no time for reading, I still find myself occasionally stealing time to relax with one of my favorite stories though I know the plot and even some of the text by heart.

I don't read these books to be surprised.  I read these books for the same reason you might call up your mother, sister, or friend even though you spoke with them three days ago and there cannot be that much that has happened in the between time.  You make that call because talking with the person is comforting and you know that the person will understand what you are feeling and feel similarly were they in your situation.  In the same vein, I reread these novels because it is comforting and because the characters in those novels espouse virtues that I want in my own life.  I am reminded that there is honor, and friendship, and justice, and love in this life, even when my own life seems chaotic and unbearable.  I read of men and women overcoming problems of society, environment, or malice to gain peace, love, and success in their lives.  And in a small part I come away feeling that I can overcome my problems as well, especially when they are small compared to some.  (Read "The Count of Monte Cristo" if you want to hear about overcoming some really terrible occurrences in life.)

The second argument I often hear against maintaining a personal library is that the information in books will never change and that if you ever wanted to find the information, or reread the story, you could just find it at your local library or on the internet.  I recognize that the information in the nonfiction or the stories in the novels will never change.  It is, believe it or not, one of the charms of static media like books.  I know that I will always have a good book to read.  I don't have to worry about content creeping in that I don't want to read in a book or the morals of the characters drifting with the society around me.  But more than that is the very real danger that information is being destroyed, quietly and more effectively than any book burning ever managed.  You see, this argument has one major flaw in it and that is the very dynamic nature of both the internet and public libraries.

Most people I talk to have this vague notion that libraries retain their collections indefinitely, but a little thought will tell you that this is not possible.  A library encompasses a finite volume, so if a library wants to make new material available, it has to either build on more library (an expensive and often impossible proposition) or it must get rid of part of its collection.  Usually the oldest and least circulated books go first, which would suggest that the books being discarded contain information that is either of no value or that is better obtained from some other source.  Unfortunately, the most worn books also get discarded, books which are worn because of their popularity.  And since books go out-of-print, this guarantees that a book can be popular and yet become unavailable.  Even when the book remains in print, if it is too old a library might not replace it in favor of newer material.  There are more than a few books that I have looked for in my local library and have been unable to find.

Now there are some books I have spent money on and yet have never read.  And this is because I saw information in those books that would be valuable in the future and yet might be so obscure that it would be unlikely to be reprinted elsewhere or published on some internet site.  The internet, marvelous though it may be for collaboration and up-to-the-minute information, has its own limits on the amount of information it is possible to find there.  There is a hard limit on the hard drive space available on servers and personal computers, and though that limit is increasing so is the amount of information there is to maintain.  Even if there were enough space to contain all the information, there has to be someone to write it into a webpage and it costs money and energy to keep a webpage going. Consequently, the only information that stays published either is of very current interest or belongs to someone's pet project.  I have tried to acquire books that contained the type of interesting and useful information that might still be useful but is too obscure to be widely available in other locations.  Or they are books on subjects that I wouldn't even know how to formulate the queries that would produce the information I found in my books.

I'm not really looking to make converts here.  I'm presenting my reasoning for wanting an extensive personal library in my home.  It took me six years to convince my wife of the potential worth a personal library could have.  I expect there are some people who I will never convince and I can't really worry about them.

Homegrown Studios logo design

Learning about vector graphics and using Inkscape.  It is an idea for a logo.

The Moon

This is the first time I've taken a decent picture of the moon.

For anyone interested in astronomy, the last transit of Venus (where Venus passes in front of the Sun) to happen for the next hundred years or so will happen this June.

A Curious Clock Tower