The usual roundup for a Friday.
- My cousin distracted me with a book series, damn him. The First Law books by Joe Abercrombie. Good stuff. People say I like gritty fantasy books. But it's more that I like fantasy books with adult characters with adult problems and adult responses. No offense to every young kid waiting to be whisked off by a wizard on a mysterious quest to save the world, but I'm not interested. The audience for a lot of those books are young kids, anyway, and I haven't been one for a while. I'd rather have flawed adults to read about. Not as much flawless heroes, or heroes with flaws that somehow always work in their favor. That kind of stuff. But with magic, and occasionally spaceships - although with sci-fi I'm even pickier.
Anyway so I'm reading them quickly so I haven't been doing gaming stuff as much.
- I read this post about XP and Murder Hobos of Athony Huso's with interest. I disagree with a bit, here - and I think the plain language of the DMG quote on treasure agrees with me on why that gem should count for XP - but I do like the thoughtful approach to the game as a whole. I tinkered a lot with my XP rules until we found ones that drive the game the way we want it driven. And which drive the choices I want made.
- A friend of mine is doing some nutrition coaching with me, to accomplish a difficult challenge*, and we got to dicussing the psychology of success and failure. To quote him, "When we discuss a plan, you execute. And I mean flawlessly. No one does that. Why is that?"
Ultimately it comes down to knowing my actual emotional need to succeed at it. I know why the goal is important, rationally. I know why executing the plan is important to me emotionally. But it's not the first that matters. I know why learning to be a good manager or learning to fly a helicopter or jumping on a 40" box again would be important, too, rationally, but emotionally they don't matter to me. I know what matters to me emotionally. I bring this up here because I think that's a hugely important hook to have for a PC or NPC. If you know what really drives that person - he's still trying to show his dad he's a real man, she's insecure about her wizardry, etc. That's a useful hook. It's why "I'll show my former colleagues at the University - they called me mad!" is a cliche but works. You know what someone will sacrifice if you know what their emotional need to succeed is.
Sorry if this seems like a humble brag of some kind. It's not meant to be. I wrote this and almost didn't post it because it can sound like it that way, since there is some praise in that question. But it's just a great way to think about characters and their character. It's why the card-based system of personality for Twilight:2000 was sooooo good. It was just two cards, telling you the two whys that drove that NPC.
- James Mal is doing a whole series on Gamma World. Start here.
I love Gamma World, and you can see by the number of posts using that post label tag.
* Basically to cut body fat while retaining muscle while not sacrificing my endurance and strength on the mat or while striking. I'd tried before but it's tricky to know what to do next once the current plan needs revision. Yes, even though I do it for other people professional. Coaches need coaches.
I'm in a different situation. I just bulked up around 30lbs (165-195lbs) and need to focus on regaining my endurance in striking. I just finished a heavy strength/hypertrophy block, and striking feels so different, haha. I hit some big milestones, though especially a 275lb Overheadpress!
ReplyDeleteThere's definitely a point of diminishing returns with strength to fighting tho lol.
That's impressive. I couldn't even squat 275 at my strongest, not even close. The hardest I was ever kicked was by someone who power cleaned 95 most of the time, and maybe could power clean 135 at the top end. He was just extremely good at generating power. It's so hard to corelate strength to impact of strikes sometimes. So I feel you - you can put in the work and get some benefits, then put in much more work and get very little benefit more, or even none.
DeleteIt pays a bit more in grappling, though. I roll with a 260-odd pound muscled purple belt who just makes a joke of everything I do. He's skilled, and huge, and strong, and my skill is not enough to make up for that.
FWIW I always focus on my endurance first. Better to keep striking and keep rolling than to gas out, that's always true for me.
Hah. I remember grappling with a guy and I had him in what I thought was a good arm-bar position. Clean grip, reasonable isolation of the arm, legs on his neck and torso, blah blah. I tighten it up, and not only does he not tap out, he does a *one armed chest fly* and lifts my entire 170-lb body off the ground into the air.
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